Strauss-Kahn: Carpet Removed From Room May Show That Maid Spit After Alleged Forced Oral Sex

sofitel

We'd heard earlier that the police had removed a portion of carpet from the Sofitel room, where IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn allegedly attempted to rape a made.

A report from CBS New York explains why:

The officials say the carpet was cut from a place where the maid says she spit after being forced to have oral sex with Strauss-Kahn.

Investigators believe the carpet may contain the financial leader’s semen, which would be crucial forensic evidence that would back up the charges.

Meanwhile, the report also quotes her attorney, who's denying the talk about the maid having HIV or AIDS, due to the fact that she lives in a building for people with AIDS. Infact, she only sublets a room there.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/3iXXWs857UY/strauss-kahn-carpet-removed-from-room-may-show-that-maid-spit-after-alleged-forced-oral-sex-2011-5

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Sorry, LinkedIn?s IPO Is NOT Proof Of A New Tech Bubble

The IPO of social-network LinkedIn will be priced Thursday. And when the shares start trading, a chorus of pundits will point to the stock price and howl that it is proof that we're in the middle of a new tech bubble.

Please.

LinkedIn's stock may well trade at a high multiple, and, like other high-multiple stocks, it will certainly carry a lot of risk. But there's a big difference between a high-multiple growth stock with downside risk and a "bubble."

LinkedIn is an established company. It generated nearly $250 million of revenue last year, and it should do more than $400 million this year. It has three strong revenue streams: consumer premium subscriptions, corporate recruiting subscriptions, and advertising. It earns money. And it has a huge growth opportunity. These reasons and others are why many institutional investors are lining up to buy the stock.

If LinkedIn's stock is priced in the current projected range--$42-$45 a share--the company will have a valuation of just north of $4 billion. That's about 10-times this year's projected revenue.

Is 10-times revenue a high multiple? Sure it's a high multiple. But it's also a multiple that, depending on LinkedIn's growth over the next couple of years, could be well-deserved.

Obviously conservative investors shouldn't buy LinkedIn's stock, just as they shouldn't buy any high-risk stocks. But screaming "bubble!" just because the Internet boom has produced another company that is worth a lot is ludicrous. It will be a "bubble" again when dozens of crappy companies with no businesses are going public at monstrous valuations --the way they did back at the end of the 1990s.

This post originally appeared at The Daily Ticker.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/05Eua5n3_mE/sorry-linkedins-ipo-is-not-proof-of-a-new-tech-bubble-2011-5

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Ministering to the World?Unhindered

Aaron and Jennifer Smith got married in 2007 and headed straight to Africa to serve in missions. Their ministry took them from there to Florida and then Canada, where they heard about Dave Ramsey from a friend who was working to get out of debt.

They never got sucked into credit card debt or car payments, but they did have Aaron?s student debt looming?a tough thing to face while living on a few hundred dollars a month from supporters. They had deferred payments for a year, but when they came back it was $200 a month they could barely afford.

?We felt a huge call from God for us to head back home to California and become debt-free and get out of that bondage so that we could move anywhere as missionaries and survive.?

So, they left the mission field?knowing it would only be a matter of time until they could re-enter it without the burden of debt. They rented cheap, got full-time jobs, and even started a photography business together?and in two years, they paid off the full $19,000! Check out their time-lapse debt-free video on YouTube!

Now, they?re active leaders in their church and free to do ministry in a whole new way. They lead couples in marriage ministry, facilitate a small group in their home, and serve on the missionary team at their church that most recently traveled to Nicaragua.

This is a couple who was doing Kingdom work together from the start of their relationship. Find out from them why being out of debt really is a big deal:

Why do you think being debt-free really matters?

We believe being debt-free is so important for following Christ, because we have the freedom to serve others around the world without limits?without the burden or worry of being slave to a lender. Our motivating force for being debt-free was commanded in Romans 13:8! Being debt-free will allow us to travel and do missionary work wherever God calls us, living at minimal costs, without the burden of sending our paychecks to a lender.

What would you tell someone who?s in debt who wants to do more ministry?

We would encourage others that God calls his people to be debt-free. We always promote Dave Ramsey and Financial Peace University because it's a realistic and applicable strategy to eradicate debt. Testimonies are a huge persuader, so we will always share our story of what little we did under the bondage of debt compared to the great things we are doing free of debt.

What does ?Lead Without Limits? mean to you?

My wife and I are mission-minded ambassadors of the gospel. Leading without limits means that we can lead the gospel into every nation in the world, across any border, and within any class of society. We will not be hindered or slowed down by the slavery of debt and the weight of its burden. Leading without limits to us means traveling the world "unhinged," yielding to the Holy Spirit?s direction. If God calls us somewhere, we are ready.

What could the people of God do for the Kingdom of God if they were debt-free?

We can envision a body of believers with selfless attitudes looking out for each other as a family and ready at every opportunity to further the kingdom of God. If a congregation were debt-free, they would have fully funded missions spreading the gospel, local needy families having needs met, and cities being rocked by an outpouring of love from the church. The Bible says not to conform to this world, so when the world is full of debt, shouldn't Christians be not of this world by being debt-free?

Biblical stewardship is seriously lacking in many churches. It?s a subject most have tried to avoid at all costs! Dave Ramsey has created a program called Momentum to help bring people back to God?s view of money management. Learn more now.

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/ministering-to-the-worldunhindered/lifeandmoney_church

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Smart Startups Think Global But Act Hyperlocal

Even though the world is getting smaller, due to easy global connectivity, people still feel alone if not well-connected locally. There is also more going on in every location, so this personal need and super sensitivity to the local community has spawned a new breed of Internet startups, called ?hyperlocal.? The term first appeared five years ago, but the model is now very common.

At first this was limited to news sites that concentrated on a segment of a community, like West Seattle, but the concept is now being applied to advertising and promotion sites, blogging sites, and even legal services sites. These hyperlocal sites don?t have to compete with global sites, and always have unique content, community advertising, and local issues.

Foursquare is good example of a modern hyperlocal site, which describes itself as ?50% friend-finder, 30% social city guide, 20% nightlife game.? It also shows how such a website can scale by adding new cities. When you enter one of these cities, you simply check-in to tell the service where you are, and you begin to earn points and unlock badges for discovering new things.

Much of this is still evolving, but I think it has great potential. Here are some of the dimensions of hyperlocal, summarized by Alex Gamela in an interview with Adrian Holovaty of EveryBlock:

  • Geographic granularity. Give people a way to follow news around a particular block. This is the main focus of EveryBlock, where they give each city block its own Web page, its own RSS feed and its own e-mail alerts.
  • Geographic customization. Give people a way to draw custom geographic boundaries to specify their area of interest. Their ?custom locations? feature lets you draw an arbitrary area in your neighborhood that selects the streets you?re interested in following.
  • Geographic messaging. Give people a way to post news to specific geographic areas. Their ?Notify your neighbors? feature lets people post messages (news reports, classifieds, etc.) to their blocks, with a sophisticated level of targeting.
  • Subject matter granularity. Give people information that?s ?too small? or otherwise not important enough for mainstream news sites, such as restaurant inspections, building permits, and fire department dispatches.
  • Topic customization. Give people ways to control which types of information they get and how often they get it. For example, EveryBlock lets you choose which types of information you want to get daily, weekly or ?as it happens?.

When you extend this to include social media marketing, you can imagine that startups and small businesses are in fact at an advantage over their less flexible big brothers. They can offer real-time feedback and immediate rewards for hyperlocal activity, by members of that community, for members of the community.

Hyperlocal blogs like My Ballard can find unique content that doesn?t compete with major players and newspapers for attention. They are free to write about neighborhood events, charities, schools, and local causes. The big news outlets don?t have the staff or resources to chase these types of stories.

I predict that hyperlocal services sites will continue to emerge and flourish. Many years ago, a community law firm could have a rewarding law practice, financially and personally fulfilling, by becoming a part of the community. In the new digital age, it?s possible again, even easier and faster.

With the advent of the iPhone and Blackberry, location-based apps are becoming commonplace. Especially in local communities, people want to know where the sales are, and who is hanging out where. This is not just a fad.

Hyperlocal can be the ?beginning? for your startup, allowing you to test your business model and your marketing plan before you scale. Or it can be the final destination, if you are looking for a fun family business in the new world. Just like Mister Rogers neighborhood, I recommend it as a familiar place for your startup to ?learn the ropes? before you take on the whole world.

Marty Zwilling

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Kui2hhvdMtY/smart-startups-think-global-but-act-hyperlocal-2011-5

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Should Netflix Be Afraid of YouTube?

NetflixGoogle's (GOOG) video-sharing site, YouTube, is giving Netflix (NFLX) investors a scare with its recent announcement that it has doubled the number of movie titles in its rental library to 6,000, on top of an already large number of free and paid titles. This raises the question: Will its strategy be successful enough that it can directly compete with Netflix?

Netflix is already attempting to fend off competitive threats from Apple's (AAPL) iTunes, Hulu and video-on-demand services from pay-TV providers like Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC).

YouTube Has a Wider Reach

Compared to Netflix's approximate 23.6 million subscribers, YouTube's user count of close to 500 million points to a vast market opportunity. With its global reach, YouTube has an already established user base to which it can market its offerings.


... But Netflix's Business Model and Content Are Better

Netflix's content offerings trump YouTube currently: It entered the market earlier and offers both a higher quantity of offerings and a wider mix of titles. This is a key competitive advantage for now. In addition to streaming movies, the company offers streaming TV shows, and its allows its subscribers to rent DVDs for new movie titles. Netflix's video quality is also better than YouTube's.

We also believe that Netflix's fee-based model is better than the rent-per-use approach that YouTube is promoting. The pay-per-use system is similar to Apple's iTunes business, and we have seen Netflix's business grow at a much faster rate using its fee-based model. This seems to be a more attractive value proposition for users who plan to view multiple movies a month.

As such, we believe that YouTube's move adds greater pressure on Netflix for sure but is unlikely to impact Netflix's subscriber growth meaningfully in the near term. While we like Netflix's business model, we feel that from a valuation perspective its stock price is a little heady, and we maintain a $153 price estimate for Netflix, which is around 35% below the market price.

See our full analysis for Netflix's stock here.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/05/16/should-netflix-be-afraid-of-youtube/

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