Herbalife - A Summary

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by Steven Charles

Herbalife Company history

In February 1980, Mark Hughes began selling the original Herbalife weight loss product from the trunk of his car. By 1982, Herbalife had reached $2,000,000 in sales and opened a distributorship in Canada, its first outside of the United States. In 1986 Herbalife became a publicly traded company via NASDAQ. Independent distributors' personal vehicles could be seen on the street, decorated by decals bearing the mysterious slogan "Lose weight now, ask me how!". In 1994 Mark Hughes started the Herbalife Family Foundation, a charity dedicated to helping children. The organization receives donations from Herbalife itself as well as individuals within and outside the company. The Herbalife Family Foundation has donated more than $6.5 million to children's causes worldwide. In 1996 Herbalife reached $1,000,000,000 in annual sales.

In 2000, Hughes died at the age of 44 from an accidental overdose of alcohol and doxepin, a sleeping tablet. The company has continued to grow after his death.

In 2003, Michael O. Johnson joined Herbalife as CEO following a 17-year career with The Walt Disney Company, most recently as president of Walt Disney International. On December 16 2004 the company had an initial public offering on the NYSE of 14,500,000 common shares at $14/share. 2004 net sales were reported as $1.3 billion. In April 2005, the company celebrated its 25th anniversary with a four-day event attended by 35,000 Herbalife Independent Distributors from around the world. In August 2005, Dr. Steve Henig joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer, responsible for product research and development.

The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and employs 3500 worldwide. Products are distributed in 65 countries through a network that Herbalife claims contains 1.5 million independent distributors. Revenue has exceeded over 2 Billion US dollars world wide.

Herbalife's Products

Herbalife's product offering includes weight-management products such as Formula 1 Nutritional Shake Mix, a meal-replacement shake and one of the first products introduced by the company. Other nutritional products offered by Herbalife range from dietary supplements made from vitamins, minerals and herbs to personal care products emphasizing nutritional and herbal ingredients, such as aloe vera and vitamin C.

The Herbalife strategy is aligned with health industry recommendations for safe weight control, eating a balanced diet, low-energy food with regular exercises, and that their nutritional and weight management line of products facilitate this through macronutrient and micronutrient food formulas.

Herbalife provides testimonials from health professionals as part of their marketing campaign. Some of the products are vegetarian, some are even kosha or helal, being certified by independent assessors. The products neither conform the fairtrade guidelines, nor does the company guarantee that the products were manufactured without animal testing.

Some of the original Herbalife weight loss products contained the active ingredient Ma Huang or Sida cordifolia, two herbs containing ephedrine alkaloids. Adverse reactions involving the company's Thermojetics original green tablets were recorded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Herbalife subsequently stopped using ephedrine in its products in the face of rising insurance premiums. The U.S. FDA banned supplements containing ephedra in 2004.

In its annual report Herbalife declares that all of its products are manufactured by outside companies, except for a small amount of products manufactured in its own manufacturing facility in China. The major suppliers include Nature's Bounty, Fine Foods (Italy), PharmaChem Labs and JB Labs which together account for more than 40 of distributors were still active after twelve months, up from 39.7 over the previous year; over 80% of these distributors were outside North America. The company reports the difference between the listed retail price and the actual amount distributors pay the company as "distributor allowances"; in the third calendar quarter of 2006, these allowances totaled $368 million. Assuming distributors always sold their product at listed prices, this amount spread over the qualified distributors would amount to an average "allowance" of about $500 per distributor per month. The company also paid out $109 million that quarter in "royalty overrides" – basically commissions and bonuses – to qualifying distributors.

Herbalife's Scientific Advisory Board is chaired by David Heber, M.D. Ph.D, F.A.C.P., F.A.C.N., who is professor of medicine and public health and the founding director of the Center for Human Nutrition in the Department of Medicine at UCLA.

Louis J. Ignarro, Ph.D., a Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine, is also a member of Herbalife's Scientific Advisory Board. Ignarro worked with Herbalife to develop Niteworks, a dietary supplement designed to boost the body's own production of nitric oxide, and later became a member of the company's Scientific Advisory Board.

Steven Charles has been a Herbalife Distributor for 5 years. He has numerous Herbalife clients.

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Secrets Of Karaoke DVD

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by Roberto Sedycias

The word `karaoke` has a Japanese origin from the words `kara` meaning empty or void and okesutora, meaning orchestra. It is a kind of entertainment in which singers sing with music pre-recorded played on a music system. The song used is usually a popular song, but the original recorded voice is removed or the volume is reduced low enough so that it does not interfere with the current singer.

Karaoke DVDs are discs that are specially formatted to have only music of songs and their lyrics displayed when the song is played from the DVD. The earlier formats used for Karaoke were VCD and CD+G. Another format which is used for karaoke discs is laser discs.

The CD+G discs were mainly normal audio CDs but also having lyrics data written on them. The discs can be played on a general CD player but the images for lyrics are of low quality. On the other hand VCD used for karaoke can store high quality MPEG videos for lyrics display.

In the karaoke DVD format, video is supported. Hence, the songs on the DVD can be accompanied by high quality video clips which are specially made for karaoke.

The karaoke discs (karaoke DVDs) are available in two formats - multiplex and non-multiplex.

The multiplex format contains vocal demos for the songs on the DVD which gives the user an option to listen to the song with vocals also. This is present to help the user to practice and compare his/her song with the original song. The vocals can be eliminated from the song by using the vocal remove button or the multiplex function present on the player used to play the DVD.

The non-multiplex format comes without vocals and is more appropriate for experienced users.

An important thing to note is that the tracks on karaoke DVD are not made from the original songs. Rather, the music is recreated. The karaoke songs are recorded again separately and care is taken that the music sounds very similar to the track which was recorded originally. In the multiplex DVD formats, it may be possible that the original artist (singer) is not the one singing the song.

Most karaoke players use a technology that changes the pitch of the song electronically to suit the singer`s voice and at the same time maintaining the tempo of the original song.

Also, the karaoke discs come with the background singer, normally the chorus and it is not possible to remove these background singers.

A very popular form of karaoke venue is a Karaoke Box. It is a medium sized room which contains the equipments required for karaoke. This helps the singer to avail a more private and intimate atmosphere to sing for fun or practice for some performance. The room can be rented for as long as the user wants. Some karaoke bars also charge on a per song basis, typically $1 or S2 for a song.

Another option is to buy a karaoke DVD player which can be used at home. The player generally costs less than 100 dollars and the karaoke DVDs will cost around 15 dollars a piece.

A popular game known as `Karaoke Roulette` or `Kamikaze Karaoke` is played in karaoke bars. In this game, random songs are played on the karaoke player and the participants have to identify and sing along.

A large number of software applications are also available now which makes it possible to host karaoke shows on the computer. Various websites dedicated to karaoke makes it possible even for amateur singers to share and participate in a global karaoke community.

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the Article section of page: www.polomercantil.com.br/karaoke.php
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br

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Book Review: The 4-Hour Work Week

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by Danny C.

Title: The 4 - Hour Work Week
Author: Timothy Ferriss
Category: Business and Investing

I was strolling through the bookstore as I do every week, when I stumbled into the "business" section (not a part of the bookstore I am very familiar with). I was 270 degrees into my turning around when I stopped myself. "I'm almost done with college. I might want to start a business one day," I thought to myself, so I started to scan the shelves. MANAGEMENT. No thanks. INVESTING. Eh, too much work, and I have no money to invest. BUSINESS LIFE. What the heck is "business life"? Does that even make any sense? I was curious.

I crooked my neck in the most painful 40 degree angle to read the titles of the books, when suddenly I saw Mr. Ferriss' book. "THE 4-HOUR WORK WEEK." Hmmm. Being a specimen of the "millennial generation" (the most doted upon generation in American history and children of the richest generation in American history, the Baby Boomers), the idea of working a maximum of four hours a week not only sounds intriguing but plausible, even deserved! I pulled the book out, which imediately caused all the other books to fall over (I had no idea it was the keystone support of shelf D of the Business Life section!).

As is my custom, I immediately opened to the inside flap of the backcover. This is where you get to read a little bit about who's paycheck you are about to help pay. "TIMOTHY FERRIS, a serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond, has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, Maxim, and other media." Sounds legit. "He speaks six languages..." Cool. "Runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide..." Impressive. "...and has been a worldrecord holder in tango..." Awesome. "a national champion in Chinese kickboxing..." Super cool. "and an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong." Uber-cool. "He is thirty years old." That's it, I'm buying this book.

I'm not going to lie, I was so excited to get home and get started on my second million (I gave up on the first). The first part of the book establishes his credibility. Mr. Ferriss is a maverick, genius, rebel, self-starter, and straight shooter. His writing exudes both cockiness and charm which struck me as both reassuring and unnerving. It's obvious that his "no-nonsense", "get-to-the-point-or-get-out" attitude is a key to his success, but one cannot help but wonder if he's applying these Jedi mindtricks on the reader. Does Mr. Ferriss really want to share his secrets with the world and help me live a life of suckin' down Mojitos on a beach in Puerto Rico, or was shmoozing me into forking over the bucks to buy this book an exercise of the very tactics he's teaching and his greatest moneymaking scheme yet? After finishing the book and applying some of it's advice, I'd have to say the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I think Mr. Ferriss will make truckloads of cash on dopes like me, but in the process, inspire a few us to get up and actually start building our dreams.

The meat of the book is explaining the acronym "D.E.A.L.", which stands for Definition, Elimination, Automation, and Liberation; all keys to becoming one of the NR (the "new rich"). Every chapter ends with a review and a real-world exercise. Some of the exercises strike me as silly, but others are really neat confidence builders. The book feels more like a self-help book than a business & investing guide, which many stores classsify it as. Ferriss has a frank and simple writing style which makes the reading quite satisfying; you never feel like you're reading filler.

Mr. Ferriss and I share a similar world view that he drills in almost every chapter: It's not about having a ton of money. It's about having the freedom to do what you want and the time/resources to be who you want to be. This point alone really hooked me. It seems like everywhere you look, the media, the education system, the entertainment industry, friends, and even family try to make you think that money is the ultimate answer for any problem. I simply don't agree. Money is nice. I like it. I wish I had more of it, but it's only because what money allows you to do. I don't want "things." I want to be places, with amazing people, and do fun activities. Mr. Ferriss really opens your eyes to that fact, and gives clear suggestions on how you can get what makes you happy in life, not necessarily a mound of cash. By applying all the principles in this book, you more than likely WILL get a mound of cash, but thats not the goal.

Reviews of this book are overwhelmingly positive, or at least they are on Amazon.com, but the few bad reviews are really without merit in my opinion. The most common complaints were that the ideas Mr. Ferriss suggests have already been done, or that he's already out of those markets, or that making money off of silly products and outsourced services is not honorable, etc. Well, those are all stupid points to me. The book is not meant to be a collection of business ideas to try. Sure, it will make you aware of options you might not have been familiar with before, but it's up to you to come up with your own ideas. Mr. Ferriss is giving you the tools, it's now up to you to use them.

I feel that the benefits of the book are two-fold. First of all, it will educate you on the advantages of our new global marketplace and how to use these to achieve your goals. Secondly, and most importantly, it will give you reassurance that if you have a good idea, a good plan, and a good schedule, you can achieve your dreams. Everyone has great ideas, but because of fear of failure or laziness, 99% of people will never try to execute them. Merely trying already puts you ahead of everyone else. The greatest benefit of books like these are that they peel off some of the jaded layers that adulthood and the "real world" put on us, and restore some of the optimism and hope that is intrinsic to youth. As Mr. Ferriss brings out in one chapter, "we tell children to dream big, but tell adults to be realistic." What happens between childhood and adulthood that causes us to lose hope? Whatever it is, it's ugly, and I don't like it one bit. True, we live in an uncertain world, but dreams can come true. If you're going to buy this book for any reason, buy it for the comfort it gives. With global warming, terrorism, unstable economic markets, and natural disasters to worry about, who couldn't use a little comfort?

Grade: B+

*In one part of the book, Mr. Ferriss explains how he used to spend hours in the office of any teacher who wouldn't give him an A. Well, Mr. Ferriss, if you're reading this, you know where to find me. I'd love to talk :)

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PoV: Resident Evil: Extinction

by myi4u

I had watched Resident Evil: Extinction on Saturday. Having seen it, I have the urged to watch the first two episodes as well. I always get mix up with the storylines for those movies which have few parts of series such as Final Destination, The Lord of the Rings, Die Hard and etc. Thus, each time when I watch one of the series, I will be like; ‘I must watch the other series as well.'



I am quite surprised when I see Ali Larter (Claire Redfield) stars in the movie, just as surprise when I see her in Heroes. I never have the habit of reading reviews or knowing the people who starred in which movies and so. I will normally depend on the advertisements but if I never see any, I will not search for the information deliberately unless I am very interested in it.



Well, from my point of view, there is less excitement in this edition of Resident Evil: Extinction. The first part is very similar to Resident Evil: Apocalypse. And not much of actions displayed until the survival crews lead by Claire Redfield go to Las Vegas in search for fuel for their trip to Alaska. They are ambushed by a group of undead setup by the evil doctor who works in Umbrella Corporation. In the end, the doctor is bitten by one of the undead and he injects himself with a ‘cure' he creates from project Alice. Thus, he mutates into a much intelligent undead. Eventually, Claire and her remaining crews manage to get on a helicopter and head toward Alaska while Alice ventures into Umbrella Corp with the help of artificial intelligence bot and kills the doctor.



There is also a part where Alice answers a fake distress call made through radio broadcasting. She ends up fighting off a few undead dogs.



The ending will be the lead to the 4th part of Resident Evil when Alice discovers that she is cloned by the doctor and there are many of them. Overall, as I have mentioned, I will have expected more fast-pace actions as compared to its previous editions. Nothing much is new, just a continuation of the second edition's story but I will love to wait for Resident Evil 4.



3/5 Stars


Please visit My Ideas 4 You for more articles. Original article - PoV: Resident Evil: Extinction

iContentRobot Review- Artificial Intelligence System For Content Generation

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by Christopher Stevens

iContentRobot Review

Does your web site need more traffic? Especially free traffic. What a crazy question, all of us clamor for any way to drive more customers to our site. More customers equals more sales equals more profit. Is there a better way than using a machine to generate readable content just for you.


Newest Technology

iContentRobot is the newest technology in content creation. It can be called Artificial Intelligence (www.wikipedia.com defines it as a system that perceives its environment and takes actions which maximize its chance of success.). I maximize my chance of success by using my computer and iContent's Robot to do the hard work for me. I use iContentRobot and I am amazed at how fast it will generate high quality original content, with no duplication. Content that is unique, readable and informative. I now have my own personal copywriter working for me 7 days a week.


Three Seconds

All I have to do is type in a keyword, click, and I receive a unique content article in three seconds. I can use the article right away in any type of marketing (E-zines, blogs, authority sites, adsense sites, etc.). As you can see this content can be used anywhere and anytime. If I hit the regenerate button, I get another new unique high quality article. Again I find this artificial intelligence so amazing that it makes me laugh knowing the power I have to crush my unsuspecting competition.


Copy and Paste

Are you "experienced" at copying and pasting? This is all you have to do with the articles generated by iContentRobot. I copy my new article in the text or html format, then paste it to my website, blog, article directory, social site, etc. The great thing is all of the hard work has been done for me. I didn't have to do the research, find the profitable keyword, search for ideas, write a draft, redo the draft, create the final version, check the density or check the number of times I inserted the keyword. iContent Robot did all of this for me in less time than it took to write this sentence.


Unique Content

Each click of my mouse gives me a unique professionally written article, never used before. I can "write" as many articles as I care to click with my mouse. These articles are quality, relevant content, just what google wants. The nice thing is I don't have to do any article writing manually.


Time

Using iContent Robot gives me my time back. You know what I mean. I used to have too much to do and not enough time to do it. I love what this new A.I. content generation tool does for me. The hard part is choosing how many articles I want and what niche markets I want to go after and dominate. It is that easy.

I can not tell you enough how much I like iContentRobot. It is very easy to use and understand. I think it will revolutionize article writing and help you generate more free traffic. This is very powerful technology. The new traffic and backlinks it has helped me develop are going to push my site to the stratosphere. I know you will be as excited as I am after you start using iContentRobot. Give iContent-Robot a try and I know you will be impressed.

Article writing finally made easy. Create tons of quality, original, relevant content. This is serious Artificial Intelligence Technology. Website articles, Blogs, Adsense Sites, Forums, Niche Marketing Sites, Portal Sites, etc., are a few examples of what you can post to. Also, this is Not PLR, just a revolutionary new system to automate the Article Writing process. Learn more about this new technology at www.iContent-Robot-Review.com

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The Inside And Out Of A Home Theater

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by Roberto Sedycias

Home theater is a home cinema system that tries to reproduce video and audio in home that is of cinema quality and gives a real `cinema experience`. A basic system could comprise of an arrangement of a DVD and CD player, a television and a set of speakers. According to the people in the consumer electronics industry, a home theater is primarily an integration of high quality video and surround sound.

A home theater design generally comprises of input devices, processing devices, audio output, video output, and proper ambience and atmosphere.

Home theater input devices are sources of audio and video. There can be a single or multiple input devices for the same system. HD-DVD (High Density DVD) and blue-ray are one of the most preferred high quality formats that are being used. Often, VHS (Video Home System) and Video game systems are also included. They are available now, also have a home theater PC that acts as a library for video and audio content.

The processing of the input devices is carried out by either an AV amplifier or a Preamplifier and sound processor. These are used for complex surround sound formats. Before forwarding it to the output devices, the user should first select the input device.

The audio output system consists a minimum of 2 speakers. The number of speakers can be as high as 11, in addition to the sub-woofer. Sub-woofer is important as it reproduces the bass audio frequencies. Regular floorstanding or bookshelf speakers cannot do this work.

A large HDTV (High Definition Television) forms the video output system. LCD TVs (Liquid Crystal Display Television), Video projectors, plasma TVs, rear-projection TVs, or a traditional CRT TVs are other available options.

Comfortable seats and proper arrangement of all the devices with respect to the seats is also important for that great `cinema experience`. Sound insulation for preventing sound from escaping the room and specialized walls for sound balancing within the room are a part of the higher end systems.

There exist two options for purchasing a home theater system. One can either, purchase and assemble various components, or purchase a home theater box kit. Assembled systems provide the best combination of components for the consumer`s budget. System in box kits includes a set of speakers, an amplifier or tuner for volume adjustment and video source selection, and at times a DVD player.

Few enthusiastic of the lot of home theater lovers take an extra step and build a room in the house, that functions as a home theater. To create a perfect listening environment, sophisticated acoustic design elements, like `room-in-a-room` construction, can be added to the system. Recreation of an ideal cinema experience does not stop here. A projector enclosed in a projection booth, specialized furniture, curtains in front of the projection screen, movie posters, etc make the experience much more real.

It is possible to set up systems in backyards too, provided proper outdoor atmosphere exists. Considering the availability of space, either a temporary or a permanent system could be installed. A temporary system could be a basic arrangement of foldable screen, a projector and a few speakers. On the other hand, an outdoor version could be elaborate with permanent fixtures, large video display components and dedicated audio output components. These backyard home theaters are one of the favorites with outdoor parties.

The rapid development in audio and video technologies has brought down the prices of home theaters. This in turn has enabled a do-it-your-self enthusiast to experience a true digital home theater at his doorsteps.

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the Article section of page www.polomercantil.com.br/home-theater.php
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br

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Living Beyond Belief: How to Ditch the Life Your Mind Created

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by write 2 right

Living Beyond Belief: How to Ditch the Life Your Mind Created & Start Living the One Your Soul Intended, is a self-help motivational nonfiction novel, that may be seen by some as fitting in nicely with the New Age genre. This book reaches 265 pages in length, with 11 chapters discussing innocence, death, purpose, cleansing consciousness, looking at things realistically rather than emotionally, acting rather than reacting and much more. Bridgeway Books, a well-known publisher in the industry, just recently published living beyond Belief in early 2008.

Author Jaia Lee shares her personal experiences of discovering her unhappiness and the steps she took to change courses with the dark, bumpy road she was traveling to a smooth, scenic and comfortable one. Through sharing this tale so honestly, Jaia is sure to inspire her readers to create positive responses in their thinking process. I absolutely loved her humorous analogy of how each individual forms their own box – in fact, readers will find that Jaia's light wit is scattered throughout the book, helping us see the absurdity of our actions. Interesting scientific fact is used to make the author's point occasionally. I found it particularly interesting that there is no such thing as the "typical" human brain, because each brain is individual.

Jaia holds a master's degree in spiritual psychology and has a career as a life coach practicing in Texas (USA) as well as a certified nutritional educator, chef and the co-founder of the Healthy and Whole Living Foods Community. She is also a singer and has released an album entitled Pandora's Box. At this time, she is involved in several books and producing a meditation CD.

Sadly, I could find no information on ecological alternative printing choices such as recycled content and it was equally unfortunate to discover that this book was printed and bound in China – which means a large ecological footprint from transport alone. Still, I could not find it within my heart to dock this book more than a star for this one aspect. Overall, I enjoyed the issues and solutions the author shares throughout the book.

Rating 3.5 out of 5 stars.
978-1-933538-59-4

~ Lillian Brummet: co-author of the books Trash Talk and Purple Snowflake Marketing, author of Towards Understanding; host of the Conscious Discussions radio show (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

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