In massive Tahitian waves

Kelly Slater this week won a major surf competition in large waves at a notoriously treacherous venue in Tahiti. But the buzz around the Billabong Pro still is mostly about what transpired during an off day in the middle of the event, when more than a dozen tow surfers took over in gargantuan surf and participated in what some observers described as the most incredible and intense big-wave session ever recorded.

Waves at Teahupoo, which break over an extremely shallow reef, were peaking at 25-plus feet. The ASP World Tour had declared a "code red" situation because the swells were too large and breaking too swiftly too be safely caught by paddle power. Slater mentioned how they're more like tsunamis because of the force with which the fast-moving swells shove against the reef. "They reach a point where they don't get any taller. They just get thicker," he said.

Tow surfers enjoy the benefit of skiing onto building waves behind personal watercraft, then letting go of the rope and surfing on customized boards. Many expert tow surfers, who had arrived in anticipation of the giant swell, eagerly took to the lineup, although this was no carefree day of surfing.

As viewers can tell by the footage, some of the barrels are cavernous enough to harbor a schoolbus. Just observing from nearby in the channel, a rollicking adventure in itself, is an unforgettable experience.

Among the men and women who conquered the thunderous breakers, including a handful of World Tour surfers and some who endured monumental wipeouts and can offer bruises and scrapes as proof, were Dylan Longbottom, Dean Morrison, Julian Wilson, Bruce Irons, Nathan Fletcher, Maya Gabeira, Keala Kennelly and Danilo Costa.

There were others but nobody kept a roster. It was not a tour-sanctioned event or a competition, just a very heavy day of surfing that, to this day, might be unrivaled.

As for the ASP World Tour, it now travels to New York, which is reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, for the Quiksilver Pro in Long Beach.

Phone Maker HTC Buys 51% Stake in Beats By Dre for $300 million


Dr Dre finds his pockets a little more heavily lined, as this week it was announced that Taiwanese phone maker HTC has acquired 51% of Dre’s Beats Electronics For $300 Million

“When Jimmy and Dre started this, they had a very specific vision of what Beats would be,” said Beats Electronics president Luke Williams. “It wasn’t about headphones, it was about fixing the degradation of sound.”

HTC Chief Executive Peter Chou said, “This will give us opportunity to innovate, they really would like to deliver studio-like sound quality.”

Caton

CATÓN
Me propongo demandar a la revista "Fortune", pues me hizo víctima de una omisión inexplicable. Resulta que publicó la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta, y en esta
lista no aparezco yo. Aparecen, sí, el sultán de Brunei, aparecen también los herederos de Sam Walton y Takichiro Mori.
Figuran ahí también personalidades como la Reina Isabel de Inglaterra, Stavros Niarkos. y los mexicanos Carlos Slim y Emilio Azcárraga.
Sin embargo a mí no me menciona la revista.
Y yo soy un hombre rico, inmensamente rico.
Y si no, vean ustedes:
“Tengo vida, que recibí no sé por qué, y salud, que conservo no sé cómo.

Tengo una familia: esposa adorable que al entregarme su vida me dio lo mejor de la mía; hijos maravillosos de quienes no he recibido sino felicidad; nietos con los cuales ejerzo una nueva y gozosa paternidad.

Tengo hermanos que son como mis amigos, y amigos que son como mis hermanos.

Tengo gente que me ama con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos, y a la que yo amo con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos.

Tengo cuatro lectores a los que cada día les doy gracias porque leen bien lo que yo escribo mal.

Tengo una casa, y en ella muchos libros (mi esposa diría que tengo muchos libros, y entre ellos una casa).

Poseo un pedacito del mundo en la forma de un huerto que cada año me da manzanas que habrían acortado aún más la presencia de Adán y Eva en el Paraíso.

Tengo un perro que no se va a dormir hasta que llego, y que me recibe como si fuera yo el dueño de los cielos y la tierra.

Tengo ojos que ven y oídos que oyen,¨jejeje....:=la mitad por uno') pies que caminan y manos que acarician; cerebro que piensa cosas que a otros se les habían ocurrido ya, pero que a mí no se me habían
ocurrido nunca.

Soy dueño de la común herencia de los hombres: alegrías para disfrutarlas y penas para hermanarme a los que sufren.

Y tengo fe en Dios que guarda para mí su infinito amor.

¿Puede haber mayores riquezas que las mías?”

¿Por qué, entonces, no me puso la revista "Fortune" en la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta?"

HAY GENTE POBRE, PERO TAN POBRE, QUE LO ÚNICO QUE TIENEN ES...DINERO.

Apple has more cash than the federal government


Who's ready for iAmerica?
As the BBC has reported, the software company Apple has more cash on hand than the United States federal government, according to the company's financial records.
Apple's quarterly financial report shows that the company responsible for the iPad, iPod and the iPhone now has $76.4 billion in reserve cash, while the Treasury Department is sitting on just $73.7 billion.
The feds could probably learn a thing or two from Apple's success. Congress remains embroiled in a debate over spending and whether the federal government, which currently owes trillions in debt, should be allowed to borrow even more. International credit rating agencies have threatened to downgrade the national debt for the first time in the nation's history if Washington doesn't come up with a solution to lift the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling while implementing a concrete plan to get the nation's financial house in order.
Meanwhile, Apple's financial report shows that the company's profits, even through the last recession, are booming.

By Chris Moody | The Ticket – Fri, Jul 29, 2011