Now it is possible to play online games absolutely for free right in your browser. I’ve found several wonderful resources that offer free puzzle games, fun and action games absolutely for free. Loading was really fast too, so I had some really excellent time while playing. As far as I understand it, all games are sponsored by some advertising companies and advertisement isn’t annoying at all. Besides it is possible to compete with your co workers or family. Some card games are almost as interesting as live card playing. Personally I play casino and shooting games each minute I am not busy, even at work. Some of them are really hard to tear away from, so be careful.

Another super popular reality show appeared in 2002 and was called “Survivor”. A group of people had to survive on a deserted island. The prize was a fantastic one million dollar sum. The first “Survivor” reality TV show has started the whole series of “Survivors”. Casting agencies still continue to arrange survivor auditions.

Today we experience a reality TV show boom. Almost every big channel has its reality primetime show. But modern shows are a bit different from their forerunners. You can’t even call them reality (real-life) shows, as people act there as if they were common people but they are just actors. Everything is done to get popularity, money and rating. You won’t ever get to a reality show nowadays unless you contact a casting agency. You also need to possess definite moral and physical characteristics in order to get in. Reality show competition is so high that no one can afford to film common people. It is a straight road to bankruptcy.

When the three remaining members — Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones — reunited with drummer Jason Bonham, son of the late John, for a concert last December in London to honor the late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, Ron Laffitte considered not attending, even though he obtained a ticket more precious than Willy Wonka’s gold ducats.

“I’ve been a fan since I was 11,” said Laffitte, a managing partner at Red Light Management, which handles acts like Alanis Morissette, The Decemberists and Band of Horses. “I bought ‘Physical Graffiti’ in 1976. I didn’t get to see them when they toured in ’77, when I was 12.

“I almost didn’t go to the show (in December) because I thought, ‘What if I fly all the way to London and they suck?’ All of my life, this band meant so much to me. If they suck, it will destroy the illusion.”

But naturally, he went.
Love or money?

Plant is 59, Page is 64 and Jones is 62. When they were about 27, 31 and 29, respectively, I saw them at Madison Square Garden, in 1975. (The exact ages are unclear because research reveals they played the Garden at three different times of that year on their North American tour, and I can’t find my ticket stub). It was about as spiritual an experience as a high school-aged kid could have while breathing hemp fumes from the blue seats and grooving to “Dazed and Confused” while being wonderfully dazed and confused. I’m not a religious man, but this scripture I could dig.

Roughly 32 years later, the band returned, with Jason being embraced by band members and fans alike for having his dad’s genes and his own wicked beat. The show at London’s O2 arena was a smash hit, fueling speculation that Led Zeppelin might just turn the one-night stand into a thing.

Just why has Led Zeppelin resisted the lure to tour all these years when many of their rock and roll brethren — the Rolling Stones, Eagles, Police, to name a few — have ignored their “been there, done that” instincts to perform for thousands and rake in millions? Why are Plant, Page and Jones the last holdouts?

Obviously, when John Bonham died, something within the other three went with him. Yet with Jason such an accomplished and honorable replacement, there isn’t that obstacle anymore.

I understand the Led Zeppelin fan’s catch-22 as well as anyone: I want them to tour, but I want to remember them as they were. That’s what Laffitte experienced going in.

“It completely lived up to the hype,” he said. “The feeling in the room was incredible. The anticipation was incredible.”

‘Serve the fans, serve the music’

Cameron Crowe understands this better than most. He went looking for that confounded bridge like the rest of us, only he got there. Now an acclaimed writer-director, his experiences as the youngest-ever contributing journalist for Rolling Stone were chronicled in his film, “Almost Famous,” for which he won an Oscar for best original screenplay. Led Zeppelin was one of the famous groups he made even more famous in the ’70s.

Source: msnbc

The last time that I used a hotel-room phone, about a dozen years ago, I got dinged for $11 for a two-minute call from Phoenix to New York. This was during the phone wars, a nasty era for business travelers that lasted for years after the government broke up the old AT&T monopoly in 1984.

During that time, hoteliers would mark up domestic calls by 500 to 600 percent, and three-digit prices for short calls from overseas hotels were standard. Business travelers essentially opened their economic veins whenever they plugged their phone modems into a hotel system and downloaded their email at the then-blazing speeds of 14.4 or 28.8 kilobytes.

Pay phones were even more ridiculous. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, telecommunications companies would put goofy proprietary pay phones in airport concourses. One I remember particularly well had a pullout keyboard, acoustic couplers for the handset, and a miniscule monitor. For two or three bucks a minute, you could laboriously dial into AOL or Compuserve—and be disconnected before you retrieved a single message.

Back then, I carried a separate little travel wallet stuffed with calling cards, all claiming to shield me from the telephonic havoc. During those years, I had three flavors of AT&T cards; a call-back card that routed all my calls through some Caribbean country; and even a phone card from American Express—which saved me a lot of money, assuming that I was willing to dial 32 digits to phone home.

Fortunately, mobile phones made the phone wars irrelevant. In the years since their widespread adoption, some telecom experts say that hotels have lost as much as 80 percent of their calling volume and revenue from in-room phones. Pay phones have all but disappeared from airports and city sidewalks. And do you know any business traveler who still uses a calling card?

It’s easy to pinpoint the moment when mobile phones changed the game for business travelers: In 1998, one of the many mobile companies that have been called AT&T introduced the Digital One Rate plan. Customers paid just 11 cents per minute for a mobile call from anywhere in the nation—no roaming charges, no surcharges, and no other tricky fees. With mobile service truly national and predictably priced, business travelers converted in droves.

It’s taken a decade, but the mobile-phone industry has finally developed a worthy successor to Digital One Rate. Late last month, Verizon Wireless ushered in the era of “all-you-can-eat” pricing. For a $99.99 monthly fee, customers can make unlimited domestic mobile calls. The basic plan includes voice calls. Another $20 a month gets you unlimited monthly text messaging too.

Verizon’s major competitors reacted in a flash: Within hours, AT&T essentially matched the Verizon deal (but pointedly excluded the Apple iPhone from the offer). T-Mobile, generally the cheapest of the major firms, went even further—its $99.99 monthly plan includes unlimited calling and unlimited text messaging. T-Mobile’s catch? You must extend your existing contract to qualify. Verizon and AT&T allow existing customers to switch to all-you-can-eat pricing without adding time to their current contracts. Sprint Nextel finally joined the fray last week, unveiling its own $99.99 endless-talk plan.

Market analysts are skeptical about the flat-rate pricing, of course. They worry that the plans will erode the profit that mobile companies wring out of heavy users like business travelers. They also insist that flat-rate prices will further commoditize the mobile-telecom industry.

There’s no such carping from business travelers. In fact, a predictable monthly price for mobile calls and messaging is the next-to-last front. “A hundred bucks a month for my mobile?” one frequent business traveler emailed me last week. “I’ve spent more than that on one phone call from my hotel room back in the bad old days.”

Now that we’ve got a path to taming our domestic calling costs on the road, all that’s left to conquer is international mobile calling prices. An overseas cell-phone call can cost as much as five dollars a minute, and the calling protocols and roaming regimens remain daunting.

“I wouldn’t hold your breath on the international front,” one mobile-phone executive told me the other day. “We have a hard time figuring out what we pay to provide international service, so I don’t think we’ll be in a rush to cut fees there too quickly.”

The event, to be held March 10, is set to be broadcast live on the social networking site MySpace.com.

“It’s truly an honor to perform for the troops,” Simpson said in a statement. “Through Operation MySpace, I get to serve my country by doing what I love to do in front of thousands of brave men in uniform. It’s every girl’s dream!”

Other acts are expected to be added to the bill, which also includes Filter and DJ Z-Trip.

“For years troops stationed all over the world have utilized MySpace as a lifeline to communicate with their loved ones back home,” said MySpace’s co-founder, Tom Anderson. “Many of them have been generous enough to share their unique experiences with me through messages on MySpace. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to thank them in person and bring along the entire MySpace community.”

An abbreviated version of the concert is set to air April 12 on the cable network FX.

When Calum Clark, vice president of events for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, selects locations for Olympic-caliber competitions, he might consider Tamarack, Idaho, where he says a 22-foot half-pipe allows snowboarders to go “higher, bigger and more aggressive.”

Or he might think of Beaver Creek, Colo., where elite racing hill Birds of Prey is a favorite of competitive skiers.

“Part of [our] strategy is to go to the places with the very best terrain for the competition,” says Clark. He also looks for passionate resort staff and advanced snow-making technology. “That converts into a great skiing or snowboarding experience … which carries from the competitive to the recreational skier.”

Good news for avid winter athletes: These areas are open to the public and frequently offer more than just skiing and snowboarding; snowshoeing, hiking, tubing and even dog-sledding are all alternatives to spending a day on the slopes. Top spots include Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, Holmenkollen in Norway and Petite-Riviere-Saint-Francois in Quebec, Canada. With this winter’s U.S. snowfall already much better than 2007’s, and European slopes seeing snow in January, now is the best time to venture into the white.

By the numbers

Vacations or day trips to snowy areas can range from moderately priced to quite expensive. A two-hour drive to a nearby national or state park for tubing or hiking might involve only the cost of gas, an entrance fee and meals, whereas a weekend trip to a ski resort can quickly add up from ski rental to lift tickets to hotels to airfare. Two adults, for example, can expect to pay between $894 and $1,719 for a weekend stay at the Tamarack Resort, not including airfare and other expenses.

Still, the costliness of such resorts failed to deter the 55.1 million people who visited U.S. ski areas during the 2006-2007 season. Though there were fewer visits than in previous years, improved snow conditions in the U.S. this season may reverse that trend. The national daily average snow depth over a four-week period between January and February in 2007 was 3.8 inches; so far this year it’s been 6.3 inches, according to data from the National Weather Service.

To prepare for all that powder, travelers are stocking up on gear, says Alicia Allen, a spokeswoman for SnowSports Industries America, a trade association, including snowshoes and twin-tip skis, which allow a greater range of movement. Since 2006, specialty store sales of each increased by 21 percent and 32 percent, respectively, and may reflect a growing trend toward diversifying snow sports largely dominated by alpine skiing and snowboarding.

“People feel trapped [indoors], especially if they’re not a skier or snowboarder,” says Bobbi Sankey, marketing and outreach coordinator for the American Hiking Society. “But winter activities like hikes, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing can be just as enjoyable as fall activities.”

Winter hiking does not require a lot of gear — just sweat-wicking, non-cotton clothes, which keep a hiker warm and dry, and proper footwear to provide traction. Hikers should also pack high-quality snacks and water.

Top trails

A few of Sankey’s favorite winter hikes are on trails in Hollowell Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park and in the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City. These areas are also home to premier slopes like Park City in Utah and Beaver Creek, where resorts offer an array of sporting activities like ice skating, bobsledding and snowmobiling.

The international traveler is not without options, either. Tourists can experience a piece of ski history in Holmenkollen, Norway, where the world’s oldest ski museum is located alongside a famous 330-foot jump. Kitzbühel, Austria tempts countless skiers with hills that feature 85-degree angles in some places and opportunities for adventure hiking.

Those who prefer to keep it simple should try tubing. According to the National Ski Areas Association, 51 percent of 175 American ski areas surveyed last year offered visitors the chance to hurtle down a snowy embankment on an inner tube.

“Tubing is very easy,” says Troy Hawks, a spokesman for the NSAA. “A lot of resorts consider that a gateway sport to the outdoors.”

Information is taken from: Forbes

1. What should be my first cruise?

There are two ways to go here. Most first-time cruisers choose a short cruise with lots of port calls; they do this because they’re afraid they’ll go crazy if they’re stuck aboard ship. While this is a good strategy if you just want to get your feet wet, I recommend looking for a longer itinerary with some “sea days.” That way you can relax and enjoy the ship’s facilities. It’s really the only way to find out what “cruising” is all about. So, look for a cruise with some balance between sea days and port days.

2. What about seasickness?

It may have all the amenities of a shoreside resort, but a cruise ship does travel on open water. Your body will register that motion no matter how big the ship is or how well it is stabilized. Therefore, if you experience severe motion sickness on land or on airplanes then cruising may not be for you.

Ordinary motion sickness can be relieved by remedies like Dramamine and acupressure bands. (If you forget to pack them, don’t worry; they are always available in the ship’s store.) If you’re susceptible to motion sickness, book a cabin on a lower deck in the middle of the ship where motion is minimized. Even better is a balcony cabin in the middle of the ship; fresh air really does help with motion sickness. If the going gets rough, you can get a motion sickness shot in the ship’s medical center, but understand you’ll be charged a fee ($75 on up).

3. Do I have to get dressed up every night?

If you love dressing up, then by all means do so. But cruising has become less formal in recent years, so fancy dress is optional. In fact, many new ships offer several informal dining venues (e.g., sushi bars, pizzerias, buffets and snack bars) where you needn’t dress up at all. Still, most ships continue to offer two formal nights in the main dining rooms: the Captain’s Welcome and the Farewell Dinner. Formal-night attire ranges from tuxedos to dark suits for men; for women, formal dress ranges from long gowns to dressy pantsuits. More casual dress is appropriate in the dining rooms on other occasions, but most ships do not allow jeans, shorts or sleeveless men’s tops in any dining venue.

4. Do I have to sit with strangers at dinner?

One of the best parts of cruising is getting to meet people from all walks of life. But if you are uncomfortable sitting with people you don’t know, you can arrange a table change with the maitre d’ - but you must do so as soon as you get on board. If you wait too long, the staff may not be able to accommodate you. Understand that tables for two are scarce aboard ship except on luxury cruise lines like Silversea.

5. What about tipping?

Except on a few luxury cruise ships that have “no tipping required” policies, passengers are expected to tip their cabin steward, dining room waiter and assistant waiter. Many lines recommend that each passenger tip about $10 per day, as follows: cabin steward, $3.50; dining room waiter and assistant waiter, $5.50 (shared); and bistro service waiter and cooks, $1. Bar bills are automatically charged a 15 percent gratuity for the bartender. Special service personnel such as the maitre d’, deck stewards and bellmen should be tipped as service is rendered.

Some cruise lines offer to add the suggested gratuities to your shipboard account; the accounting office then distributes the tips at the end of the cruise. On other ships, you leave cash in an envelope on the last evening of your cruise. Understand that ships’ crews work very hard to make your cruise top-notch. Unless the service has actually been poor, tip the recommended amount. For outstanding service, add a little more. To get an idea of how much to tip, visit Cruise Tip Calculator, a nifty Web site that lists tipping amounts for each crew member on most cruise lines.

Here’s a tip from me to you: Get your cash tips in order before your cruise and have them organized in separate envelopes for each crew member. Believe me, there’s nothing worse than waiting in a long line at the cruise desk on the last night of the cruise to get all your cash tips in order.

6. Will I gain weight?

Cruising is the ultimate “see food” diet — you see food, you eat it. Yes, most passengers end up with more to love after a cruise. But you don’t have to become a sloth in a deck chair; there are plenty of active pursuits to enjoy aboard ship. Most ships have exercise rooms, pools, jogging tracks and fitness classes covering everything from aerobics to yoga. Newer cruise ships like Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas offer boxing, rock climbing and surfing classes, while traditional ships like the Queen Mary 2 offer walk-a-mile deck-lapping sessions and aerobics.

7. Can I do my laundry on board?

Most ships have self-service laundry rooms with ironing boards. On most mainstream and premium cruise lines, you’ll have to pay to use the washers and dryers. On luxury lines like Crystal, Regent, Seabourn, Silversea and Regent, the self-serve laundry is complimentary. Don’t want to waste valuable vacation time doing laundry? Then send your clothes to the ship’s laundry or dry cleaner; there will be a per-item charge. During the cruise, many ships offer a “laundry bag special”: For a set fee (usually $10-$20), laundry crew will wash everything you can cram into the laundry bag.

Cruising is a vacation like no other. It offers vast open seas, and the scenery changes every day. The food and service are better than in a resort hotel, all food and entertainment is included in the price, and you have to unpack only once. Believe me, once you try cruising, you will be hooked for life.

The quest to determine the world’s best scuba sites is practically its own cottage industry. Considering that only about a third of this planet exists above sea level, there’s a surfeit of good options just below the surface. Ours is not a competing line-up of the top diving spots around the world; rather, it’s a look at the best winter diving escapes. When it’s cold outside and the sky is gray, these places beckon with not only world-class diving, but sunny shores, remarkable vistas and luxurious accommodations.

To make this list, each of these diving destinations offers premium underwater visibility and, of course, a high probability of seeing magnificent sea life and vibrant reefs. But that’s not all. They must also feature plush accommodations, exotic locales or unparalleled above-water scenery. And while it would be easy to populate this list by focusing solely on the Caribbean, we’ve instead assembled a global panel of experts to assess the best winter scuba escapes —from Costa Rica to Queensland. Think of these places as rehab for the winter doldrums.

There’s quite a range to these sites. Cocos Island off of Costa Rica requires divers to pony up for live-aboard ships; and the Lakshadweep Islands, offshore from India, have few established accommodations. The Maldives, on the other hand, are stacked with all-inclusive luxury resorts. But that doesn’t mean the first two destinations are anything less than spectacular; most visitors will spend part of their vacation on the mainland Pacific Coast of Costa Rica or tropical Kerala in South India, respectively — the diving is just part of the overall trip.

For North Americans, Central America is a surprisingly quick three- to four-hour flight from the southern states. An emerging winter scuba escape is Panama’s Coiba Island, the largest island in Central America. A penal colony for most of the 20th century, it remains underdeveloped and is one of the last places in Central America where the scarlet macaw still thrives in the wild. Matthew Firestone, who has covered Panama and Costa Rica for Lonely Planet Guidebooks, explains, “Fed by the warm Indo-Pacific current through the Gulf of Chiriqui, Coiba is home to a unique underwater ecosystem atypical of this region, and attracts large populations of pelagics including sharks, whales, dolphins and manta rays as well as enormous schools of fish.”

Brazil is represented twice on this list. The Fernando de Noronha archipelago off the northeastern coast is generally recognized as one of the best places to dive in South America. The islands also present a cornucopia of other water sports, on-land adventures and idyllic beaches. Adriana Schmidt, owner of the innovative Noronha-based travel agency Your Way, lives on the archipelago and is a certified PADI Dive Master. When not enjoying Noronha’s ideal diving conditions, she likes to travel south to Abrolhos Marine National Park in the state of Bahia. Just 45 miles off shore, the group of five volcanic islands claims some 80 million square feet of coral reefs. The area is known for its unique coral pinnacles called chapeirão, which look like enormous mushrooms topped with domes of brain coral and fans of colorful fire coral. Back on land, it’s a short trip to blissed-out beach towns such as Trancoso and Morro de São Paulo, or up the coast to the animated state capital, Salvador.

Sri Lanka-based Gaya Sriskanthan, senior program officer for Marine and Coastal Ecosystems for IUCN (The World Conservation Union), suggests that the Lakshadweep Islands off of India “have the lovely, off-the-beaten track dive sites … while the best commercial sites are bound to be in the Maldives.” Adrift in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives are more than 1,000 coral islands grouped into 26 atolls. (The English word “atoll” actually comes from the local term “atholhu”). Here, you will find some of the planet’s best underwater visibility and access to large open water marine species. Luxury and seclusion are not hard to come by either — more than 80 of the islands have resorts. Many are single resort islands, so it’s more difficult to find crowds than it is to discover your own private stretch of sand.

When it comes to reef diving, it doesn’t get any more tremendous than Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The world’s largest single structure made by living organisms lies off the coast of Queensland, Australia’s “Sunshine State.” The state capital, Brisbane, is worth its own trip. Between the street festivals, the Queensland Ballet and the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) — the largest modern art gallery in Australia — there’s plenty to help you decompress from winter gloom.

Information is taken from: Forbes Traveler

Eminem is working on a book that’s “every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” according to his publisher.

Dutton Books, an imprint of The Penguin Group, announced Wednesday that it would be publishing the best-selling rapper’s “The Way I Am” this fall.

“It will be illustrated with never-before-seen photographs of Eminem’s home and life along with original drawings,” Dutton said in a statement.

The rapper’s spokesman, Dennis Dennehy, said the memoir “is still in the process of being written and edited.”

The book was described as an intimate look inside the life of Eminem, who has sold tens of millions of records since he made his provocative debut in 1999.

“Offering a window on the star’s private thoughts on everything from his music and the trials of fame to his love for his daughter, Hailie, this title is every bit as raw and uncensored as the man himself,” Dutton said.

The Grammy and Academy Award-winning rapper has published one other book, “Angry Blonde.” The 2002 work detailed his lyrics.

Eminem has not released a new album since 2004’s “Encore,” and his representative said there’s no CD scheduled to be released from the rapper at this time.

Source: The Associated Press

Madonna has dubbed her final album of new material for her longtime Warner Bros. label “Hard Candy,” and will release it on April 29, her publicist confirmed on Tuesday.

The album, which features such songs as “Candy Store” and the first single “Four Minutes,” is the follow-up to ”Confessions on a Dance Floor,” which debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. pop chart in November 2005.

The title and release date were first reported by Entertainment Weekly’s Web site, and the details were confirmed by Madonna’s spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg. Entertainment Weekly quoted Rosenberg as saying the 49-year-old singer “loves candy.”

“Hard Candy” will be Madonna’s last studio release for Warner Bros. before she begins a wide-ranging 10-year recording, touring and merchandising deal with Artist Nation, a new initiative launched by concert promoter Live Nation. Warner Bros., a unit of Warner Music Group Corp will also release a hits collection.