Can Kettle Chips Bridge the Gap Between Foodie Fave and Super Bowl Snack?

www.kettlebrand.com/Aesthetes may argue that less is sometimes more, but when it comes to Super Bowl snacking, the opposite is usually true. More is most definitely more: more spice, more fat, more food, more flavor. Go big or go home.

Kettle Chips seems to have almost the exact opposite attitude. The Oregon-based snack food manufacturer proudly proclaims its healthy (well, healthier) bona fides. It eschews artificial colors and flavors, as well as MSG, trans fats, and genetically modified ingredients. Not surprisingly, Kettle's marketing tends to be a bit wonky -- forget Chester Cheetah and Sara Lee, Kettle proudly proclaims itself "the first potato chip to be verified by the Non-GMO Project."

Kettle's different style extends to its flavors: Rather than the standard chip choices of cool ranch, barbecue, nacho, and "let's pretend we're super spicy," Kettle's goes a bit off the beaten path with offerings such as Buffalo Bleu, Fully Loaded Baked Potato, Spicy Thai and Honey Dijon. The company is experimenting with flavors like sriracha, kimchi, wasabi and lavender.

If Kettle's flavors are a little odd compared to the rest of the snack pack, the recipes its suggests using its chips as key ingredients are completely off the spectrum. While Doritos offers options like Full Press Fundido and Howl at the Moon Nachos, Kettle has recipes for "BBQ Cedar Planked Salmon" and "Rock Cod with Crushed Potato Chips and Lemon Relish."

All of this might seem to put Kettle far outside the mainstream of Super Bowl snacking, but the company is making a genuine play for a spot on the game day coffee table. For those who like their chips with beer, Kettle now offers a beer pairing guide. Notably, Budweiser does not make the cut: The guide suggests that Spicy Thai chips, for example, are best when paired with a farmhouse ale, while Fully Loaded Baked Potato chips favor a smoked porter.

Behind the scenes, Kettle is even more aggressively courting Super Bowl consumers. In the weeks leading up to the big day, the company sent out "Game Day Snack Packs" to food writers across the country, and hosted a "Game Day Snack Pack giveaway" that was aimed at building up its fan base.

("Game Day," by the way, is the phrase that companies use when they don't want to pay royalties to the NFL to use the words "Super Bowl" in their advertising.)

At the same time, Kettle sponsored the "Game Day Eats" promotion on the BlogHer network -- a seemingly counterintuitive Super Bowl move until you consider that women are one of the fastest-growing segments of football fans.

It remains to be seen if Kettle can halve the difference between foodies and snack food junkies. In the meantime, anyone up for a White Chocolate and Potato Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich?




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Source: http://dailyfinance.com/2013/02/02/super-bowl-food-kettle-chips/

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Some Male Soldiers Are Growing A Left Breast

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Like armies everywhere, the German military is filled with macho, chest-thumping rituals.

But one battalion has found there's a downside to all that chest-thumping: The male soldiers are growing breasts — and only on their left sides.

The Wachbataillon unit performs precision military drills at official ceremonial functions, the German Herald reports.

Many of their drills involve smacking their rifles against the left side of the soldiers' chests. And all that pounding on the same spot has stimulated the production of hormones that cause man boobs to grow.

"There is a very significant link between the activity in the … battalion and the development of the breast on the left side," Dr. Bjorn Krapohl, director of plastic surgery at the military's main hospital in Berlin, told the Herald. "They need to change the way they drill."

The growth of male breasts isn't altogether uncommon: The condition is known as gynecomastia, and it's caused by an imbalance in testosterone and estrogen levels.

There have been cases where chest injury has caused gynecomastia, though it's rare. Plastic surgeons report that teenage boys — who are particularly prone to the condition — often have breast tissue removed when gynecomastia becomes a big psychosocial problem.

In a study of the German soldiers, published in January 2012, Krapohl and colleagues found significant differences between the guards with gynecomastia and a control group of healthy males without signs of gynecomastia. Those in the Guard Battalion in Berlin had lower testosterone levels and higher body mass indexes (BMI), or a measure of body fatness. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

While the researchers hypothesize the mechanical stress from daily drills may be the underlying cause, they are not sure exactly how the "chest thumping" causes the breast growth. "There are no experimental studies identifying possible mechanisms at the cellular level that might induce gynecomastia mechanically," they write in the journal article, adding that these findings may provide new impetus for such studies.

The research is detailed in the journal GMS Interdisciplinary Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery DGPW.

Other research has shown that while gynecomastia tends to be symmetric, it can also be asymmetric; the lopsided type tends to be more common on the left side, according to a review in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine.

Over 70 percent of the German battalion's soldiers have been diagnosed with significant gynecomastia. Military officials have promised to keep an eye on the men's breasts.

"The affected soldiers are being medically supervised and treated individually," an army spokesman told the Herald.

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Govt. To Publish Data On What Drug & Device Makers Pay To Individual Doctors & Hospitals

Want to know if your doctor is receiving free lunches and other perks from Pfizer, GSK or some other huge player in the pharmaceuticals or medical device business? Starting in Sept. 2014, that information will be made available to consumers courtesy of the federal government.

Following numerous lawsuits (and billions of dollars in settlements) about payola to physicians, several of … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/02/01/govt-to-publish-data-on-what-drug-device-makers-pay-to-individual-doctors-hospitals/

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Govt. To Publish Data On What Drug & Device Makers Pay To Individual Doctors & Hospitals

Want to know if your doctor is receiving free lunches and other perks from Pfizer, GSK or some other huge player in the pharmaceuticals or medical device business? Starting in Sept. 2014, that information will be made available to consumers courtesy of the federal government.

Following numerous lawsuits (and billions of dollars in settlements) about payola to physicians, several of … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/02/01/govt-to-publish-data-on-what-drug-device-makers-pay-to-individual-doctors-hospitals/

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Dr. Kevorkian's Plan To Get In Front Of The Supreme Court Totally Backfired

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If you want to get your case in front of the Supreme Court, don't represent yourself at trial or become a public spectacle.

Otherwise, you really hurt your chances of arguing before the justices, according to experienced Supreme Court lawyer Carter Phillips.

Last weekend, we watched "Kevorkian," HBO's documentary about the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who helped nearly 140 terminally ill patients kill themselves.

Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 after he admitted to personally lethally injecting one patient, the British Medical Journal reported at the time.

He was tried four other times for helping patients give themselves lethal injections, but he was never convicted in those cases.

In the second-degree murder case, Kevorkian may have sabotaged himself.

According to the documentary, and subsequent interviews, Kevorkian said he represented himself at trial and widely announced he wanted to be convicted so that he could petition the Supreme Court to hear his case.

Ultimately, Kevorkian wanted the nation's highest court to rule that the Constitution allows physician-assisted suicide.

Kevorkian's strategy, which Phillips told Business Insider was a "pretty strange one," backfired. The high court never took up his case.

"He's not going to get any points for arguing it himself," Carter said, adding that Kevorkian actually seriously hurt his case with his misguided strategy.

Only a skilled lawyer would be able to effectively steer a case through the various appeals courts and then effectively argue it before the supremes.

But Kevorkian's own personality may have hurt his strategy more than anything else.

In his quest to publicize his cause, Kevorkian went on "60 Minutes" in 1998 and released a video of himself personally injecting a patient with euthanasia drugs.

That kind of showboat behavior is a surefire way to hurt your chances of making your case before the Supreme Court.

"By nature he was provocative," Phillips said of Kevorkian. "But that's not typically the best way to capture the Supreme Court's attention and affections."

The Supreme Court has considered right-to-die issues in the past.

The high court upheld in 2006 an Oregon law that let doctors prescribe fatal doses of medicines to terminally ill patients, PBS Newshour reported at the time.

But in that case, the doctors weren't going on national television and showing themselves helping a patient die, like Kevorkian did.

DON'T MISS: Innocent Man Spent 37 Years In Jail Due To A Galling Technicality >

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21 Ads That Were Banned From Past Super Bowls

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Just because an advertiser wants to shell out $4 million for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial doesn't mean they'll get to play in the big game.

From sexy Go Daddy ads and video game spots that tell people to "Go to Hell," to Bud Light spots that make a lot of fart jokes, networks have turned down a lot of major advertisers' content. In fact, Go Daddy got 13 ads rejected in 2006 alone.

But a "banned ad" that doesn't get past a netwrok's Standards & Practices Department sometimes does wonders for a company's buzz.

"I remember one year when the networks wouldn't allow one of the Bud Light spots in the game, so Bud actually released it online as, 'the Super Bowl ad the networks wouldn't let you see,'" Tanin Blumberg, an account director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Budweiser Super Bowl ad veteran, told BI. "It was pretty smart … got about 1 million views on YouTube in just a few days."

So, given that networks often won't publicly comment on whether an ad is rejected and why, advertisers with no intention of actually releasing a Super Bowl ad just send out press releases saying that their ads were rejected, for publicity.

For example, gay dating site Man Crunch said its ad was rejected in 2010 because it dealt with homo and not heterosexual dating, when it really didn't even make it past CBS' credit check.

We've collected the biggest "banned" ads from the last 10 Super Bowls.

2013: SodaStream's first-ever Super Bowl ad got rejected by CBS for attacking two other huge game sponsors: Coke and Pepsi. SodaStream edited a new cut that will run.

2013: Although it's highly suspect that PornHub ever intended to buy a Super Bowl spot, the company said CBS rejected this spot because it related to porn. (Even though the ad itself is PG.)

2012: According to "the Big and the Beautiful" dating site, NBC rejected this ad because it featured bigger rather than skinny women in sexual situations. Really, it was sexually explicit, and it's questionable if the site would even pass the network's credit check.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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What Lies Ahead For Chesapeake As McClendon Exits?

We believe that McClendon's departure will help alleviate concerns of the firm?s corporate governance practices and will help turn the focus on improving the firm?s balance sheet and performance.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2013/01/31/what-lies-ahead-for-chesapeake-as-mcclendon-exits/

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Excellent Growth and Shareholder Friendly Management

Editor's Choice

Matthew is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

The world?s largest payments network, Visa

has done exceptionally well for its shareholders since its highly-publicized IPO in 2008, which at the time was the largest in history.  From the IPO price of $44 per share, the stock has risen pretty steadily to its current level around $160, a gain of almost 300% in just over 4 years.  I bought into the IPO and sold around $70 thinking I had made a brilliant move!  Oh well, live and learn.

Visa has proven itself to be a extremely shareholder-friendly company, with an excellent buyback program and a small, but consistently growing dividend yield.  However, after the remarkable run, investors have a tough decision: sell or hold?  With the company set to report earnings next Wednesday the 6th, investors want to know if the company has more growth or if it is slowing down.

Profile

Visa primarily earns its money from card service fees and other various processing fees.  In fiscal year 2012, the company processed 66 billion transactions worth a staggering $3.9 trillion; a growth of 7% from the year before.  In fact, over the past decade, Visa has grown its revenues tremendously (almost linearly), from less than $2 billion in 2003 to over $10 billion now.

Visa has stated that they intend to grow their payment network even further, particularly by increasing the number of services offered in international markets.  The company also plans to extend the reach of its value-added services, such as risk management, loyalty services, dispute management, and others.

Legal Issues

While I believe Visa?s legal issues are a thing of the past now, they are still worth mentioning since the outcomes of their lawsuits have affected the way they can do business.  During 2007 and 2008, Visa settled antitrust lawsuits with rivals American Express

(NYSE: AXP)
and Discover Financial for a total of approximately $3 billion.

As a result of the financial crisis, new regulations were signed into law governing debit card fees.  Merchants are now allowed to offer discounts to consumers who pay with cash and set credit card minimum purchase amounts.  It doesn?t appear that this has affected Visa?s bottom line in any measurable way, but it is still worth keeping an eye on. 

Finally, just this past July, Visa, along with MasterCard (NYSE: MA)

settled a lingering 2005 lawsuit related to processing fees.  As a result of this settlement, Visa agreed to pay $4.4 billion and to allow retailers to impose a surcharge on credit card transactions.  The surcharge issue is worth keeping an eye on, and I would like to hear the company comment on this during the earnings call.

Valuation

Given how quickly it is growing, Visa is one of the more attractive companies that I know of.  Currently trading at 22 times current year earnings, Visa is expected to earn $7.27, $8.41, and $9.84 per share for the next three fiscal years, for an average annual earnings growth rate of 16.7%.  Additionally, Visa has approximately $3 billion in cash and virtually no debt, also a strong positive. 

If Visa sounds expensive, consider that MasterCard trades at 30 times earnings, with almost the exact same earnings growth rate expected.  American Express trades at just 15 times earnings, however, analysts predict they will have challenges growing earnings ahead, only projecting 7.9% growth.  Don?t get me wrong, I love American Express as a long-term investment.  It trades at a cheap valuation and is a remarkably stable company.  Visa, however, is more of a play on growth at this point.

Conclusion

Visa is the best company in its sector, and should continue to grow nicely for years to come.  As long as there are no major surprises during the earnings call, such as slower than expected growth, I would consider Visa a definite buy.  Since going public, Visa averages an earnings multiple of right around 22, where it is currently.  Using the estimates above, this gives me price targets for the next three years of $160, $185, and $216. 

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Source: http://beta.fool.com/kwmatt82/2013/02/02/visa-excellent-growth-and-shareholder-friendly/23180/

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Barron's May Have Totally Jinxed The Stock Market

This week's cover of Barron's is what all the contrarians will be talking about on Monday.

"STOCK ALERT! GET READY FOR A RECORD ON THE DOW"

Despite having a limited amount of statististically sound proof, the contrarians have been arguing that a bullish magazine cover is a sign of the top. 

However, there have been plenty of bullish magazine covers during the last four years and stocks have only gone up.  On Friday, the Dow closed above 14,000 for the first time.  And it's only around 165 points from its all-time high.

Barron's Andrew Bary toots Barron's horn to remind everyone that it's been bullish for a while:

BARRON'S HAS BEEN BULLISH ON STOCKS, including a cover story a year ago ("Enter the Bull," Feb. 13, 2012) in which we wrote that the Dow could hit 15,000 by the end of this year -- a target that looks increasingly achievable. Barron's was similarly upbeat in a cover story in the fall ("Almost There," Oct. 15, 2012).

Bary re-presents the argument for Dow 15,000.

Hubris?  History will tell.  For now, everyone will be downloading this image so they can be the first to write about it if the market makes a turn for the worse.

SEE ALSO: The Best Charts Of The Week >
Barron's Bearish Cover

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The Cost Of Debt Consolidation

Best Credit Card Consolidation Companies Opting for a debt consolidation can be a great solution if you are looking for a way to settle your debts, get lower monthly payments or maybe low interest rates. Don’t just sign any documents without reading and understanding the terms. Be sure you have read every clause and you [...]

The post The Cost Of Debt Consolidation appeared first on legal debt help online.

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/30/the-cost-of-debt-consolidation/

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