Olympics opening ceremony to celebrate sport, Chinese culture

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese couple in an eastern Chinese county woke up early on Friday morning to witness probably the most exciting day for millions in the country.
The husband Lu Jie was invited to attend a young colleague's wedding. Sticking to the popular belief, the young man arranged his wedding day on the most auspicious day according to Chinese numerology: Aug. 8, 2008.
His wife stayed at home, watching snippets of the Olympics opening ceremony rehearsal, and she couldn't wait to see a complete show.
"Seven years of preparation will boil down to this single big show, and every one is waiting," said Lu, 50.
The Olympic opening ceremony, which is scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, is set to become another pinnacle of five thousand years of host China's journey from an ancient country to the biggest and fastest developing countries in the world.
From the host city Beijing to the remotest town in China, like Lu, millions are waiting for the moment of jubilee in the iconic Bird's Nest stadium.
"There is so much expectation weighing down, but inevitably it'll be a fluent and spectacular show of the Olympic spirit and the culture of the host country," said Wang Ning, an official with the opening ceremony planners.
Although further details are yet to be out in just hours, the ceremony will begin with a 40-minute show, featuring 15,000 performers depicting 5,000 years of Chinese history.
Highlights include the terra cotta warriors, martial arts performers, Peking Opera and dazzling fireworks shows. The climax will include Chinese singer Liu Huan singing a theme song with Sarah Brightman and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron.
"The opening ceremony will tell a Chinese story with a globally-understood language, but it will not be a simple exhibition nor history lesson," director Zhang Yimou said this week.
"The Athens Games opening ceremony was an aesthetic feat, and was a very cool show," he said, "but the Beijing show will be another kind of cool."
"We have to use four grams to move a thousand kilos," he said, referring to the shadow-boxing technique of using minimal efforts to achieve maximum effects.
The ceremony will be witnessed by over 80 heads of state and international dignitaries, along with 91,000 spectators and billions of audience around the world.

http://104Olympic.com/

http://blogs.ebay.com/buy*discounts/home/

A Man Boarded a Plane With 6 Kids

Quick Thinking



A man boarded a plane with 6 kids. After they got settled in theirseats a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over and asked,

"Are all of those kids yours?

"He replied, "No.


I work for a condom company. These are customercomplaints."
http://104jokes.com/?p=1
http://blogs.ebay.com/buy*discounts

Aid Struggling Homeowners, Stabilize Markets

The housing rescue bill signed into law last week presents Bank of America with opportunities to expand its efforts to keep struggling borrowers in their homes and to increase the bank’s production of various mortgage products.
Key features of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 include a new Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program to help distressed homeowners obtain more affordable loans, enhancements to traditional FHA loan programs and other provisions to address America’s troubled housing market. The resulting increase in FHA loan production should create new growth opportunities for Bank of America, already the nation’s leading provider of FHA financing.

Even before the housing bill was passed, Bank of America had announced plans to modify or work out at least $40 billion in troubled mortgage loans over the next two years. The goal is to help an estimated 265,000 borrowers stay in their homes instead of lose them to foreclosure.
Overall, the new legislation is aimed at strengthening nationwide efforts to help struggling homeowners and restore confidence in America’s home financing system.
The law will modernize the FHA by increasing its maximum mortgage amount to $625,500 in high-cost areas, up from $417,000, thus offering more refinancing and purchase loan opportunities. Other features of the law include enhanced oversight and new regulatory guidelines for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Bank of America was a longtime supporter of FHA modernization and efforts to create a new regulatory regime for the GSEs. Bank of America also worked closely with legislators to ensure that the new FHA refinance program was voluntary, targeted and commercially viable.
To qualify for a loan under this program, at-risk borrowers must meet at least three key criteria; they must:
Currently be living in their home
Have obtained their mortgage between January 2005 and June 2007
Be spending at least 31% of their gross monthly income on mortgage debt on their primary residence

Such loans will be pegged to the market value of a borrower’s home at the time the loan is refinanced.
The new legislation also includes a tax credit for first-time buyers and a new standard deduction up to $1,000 for joint filers ($500 for individuals) who are unable to itemize deductions.
In addition, the law will create opportunities for Bank of America to expand its leadership position in reverse mortgage production. As the Department of Housing and Urban Development refines guidelines that will raise the loan limits on FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, the product becomes a viable solution for more customers.

http://www.articlesbase.com/mortgage-articles/landmark-law-aims-to-aid-struggling-homeowners-stabilize-markets-513615.html

$104 a gallon oil madness?

I don’t know about you guys but I’m getting very sick and tired of having to spend an unreasonable percentage of my monthly income just to drive around. Living in California certainly does not help the situation, either! Some people commute over 90 miles (each way) just to get to work. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones, since I only commute 25 miles to get to work. While I’m sitting there in the usual L.A. traffic, cooking in my car from the scorching summer heat, thinking about how I have another 22 miles to go, looking at my gas gauge and seeing it near empty, remembering that I have to pay $4.50 per gallon for gas in an hour (or more) doesn’t help my mood very much.

Okay, so maybe my opinion and whining doesn’t matter to anyone. But I have heard and read some information that the so-called experts have written and I thought it would be nice of me to share. The price of oil has increased by 100% in the last year. Prices have had this extended run due to a supply shortage from oil producing countries such as Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela. These shortages have been caused by poor oil field maintenance and political problems, which also include attacks by rebels on oil fields (in Nigeria). Demand is, and has been, rising at a fast pace in the Far East (mainly China), India, and the Middle Eastern petro states. Demand in the United States, however, has been falling. Saudi Arabia has increased its output within the last few weeks. In the last few months, there has been a huge rise in purchases by speculators of oil contracts for future delivery.
There is a great deal of information like this that one can take into account (these were just a few examples) and try to find out what’s going on. Is it just these speculators that are driving this price up or is there some justification? Do the oil companies have a hand in this and are raising prices for profits? How much more is oil going to go up? There are just so many questions but so few answers.

I can tell you this: Make it simple with 104Inc. I stumbled upon104inc.com and found that they know how to make things simple and easy. The technology they have implemented is extremely advanced, yet they make it so easy for a user to get what they want. As a business, you can join the 104Inc. community and start saving yourself money. I for one, who is just way too tired of spending money on gas and everything else that has risen in prices due to this oil “problem”, am starting to increase my demand for simplicity and ease. Like these speculators, I start investing my time on 104Inc. as I get more familiar with it and understand what kind of business it is. They have over 2000 websites, such as 104Oil.com, 104Invest.com, or 104finance.com. On any of their websites, I can find a business for services I may need, or just browse through countless articles that may be of interest to me. So go ahead and check it out for yourself. Take a break from all of this oil madness and get into the 104Inc. craze…it’s going to be big!

http://www.articlesbase.com/economics-articles/oil-when-will-the-madness-end-511846.html