First and Only Springsteen's Full Performance of The River Album

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played The River in its wholeness for the first time ever on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Full album performances aren't new to the Boss and his band in their current look-like-a-farewell-tour. They have played The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle, Born to Run a couple of times, Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born in the USA, but The River, Springsteen's 1980 20 song-83 minute-double album, didn't seem to fit in this full album performances thing. Actually the Boss said just right before starting The River segment: 'Just this one time! Too long to do it again!'. So lucky all of us that where at MSG on Sunday night. We will never forget it.

Set List, November 8, 2009, New York, Madison Square Garden

China, Most Successful Development Story in World History

On Wednesday it was known that the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission has finally allowed Shanghai, China's biggest city, and Disney to work on the construction of the amusement park that will be located in Pundong, the city's eastern district. The building of the park park, that is expected to be much larger than the one in Hong Kong, will imply one of the largest-ever foreign investments in China, near $4 billion.

The very same day, the World Bank raised its forecast for growth in China. The institution expects the Chinese economy to grow 8.4 percent this year, according to its latest quarterly review of the country, up from the 7.2 percent it forecast in June, and predicts growth of 8.7 percent next year.

Good excuses to take a look at some facts that make China the giant, colossus, titan and behemoth of the present and the future. You may know most of them, but others might surprise you.

China is the most populous country in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population. It is also the country with more land borders, 14, of the world: Afghanistan, Buthan, Burma, India, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam.

The tallest building in the world is in Taipei, world's largest traded corporation is Chinese and world's largest Ferris wheel is in Singapure. Number one casino in the world is in Macao, which has also overtaken Las Vegas in annual gambling revenues. Even world's biggest mall is in Beijing.

China has grown over 9% a year for almost 30 years, the fastest rate for a major economy in recorded history. During the same period, it has moved around 400 million people out of poverty, the largest reduction that has taken place anywhere, anytime. Two examples: while in 1978, the country made 200 air conditioners, in 2005, it made 48 million; China exports today in a single day more than it exported in all of 1978. Last data: China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. public debt.*

As Jeffrey Sachs says 'China is the most successful development story in the world history'.

*Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World

End of Beckham Law, End of Top Stars in La Liga?

Six out of the ten highest-paid football players this season, in terms of net salary per year, shine in the Spanish League:

Ronaldo - Real Madrid, 13 million euros
Messi - Barcelona, 11 million euros
Kaká - Real Madrid, 9,5 million euros
Ibrahímovic - Barcelona, 9,5 million euros
Robinho - Manchester City, 9,4 million euros
Tévez - Manchester City, 8,8 million euros
Adebayor - Manchester City, 8,8 million euros
Benzemá - Real Madrid, 8,5 million euros
Henry - Barcelona, 7,5 million euros
John Terry - Chelsea, 7,5 million euros

The main reason for this is the Beckham law. Back in 2003, coinciding with the signing of David Beckham for Real Madrid, Spanish government decided to lower to 24% the taxes for foreign jobholders earning over 600,000 euros-a-year, in order to attrack high qualified workers such as top scientists and investigators. This measure has had the greatest impact not in labs but in fields: Beckham law has encourage to arrive to la Liga the best football international players that in other European leagues would have to pay higher taxes: 50% in the Premier League (since April), 45% in the Bundesliga, 43% in the Serie A, 40% in the French Ligue and 30% in the Dutch Eredivisie 40%.

But this Beckham law seems to have an expiration date. From next year on, higher salarys will have to pay higher taxes. Fortunately for Ronaldo, Messi, Kaká, Ibrahímovic and their clubs it won't be applied retrospectively.

Yankees Top the World Series with 27 Wins

The New York Yankees have won tonight, their 27 World Series championship in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Phillies. The teams split the two games at Yankee Stadium before the series shifted to Philadelphia, where the Yankees won Game 3 and Game 4 before the Phillies took Game 5 on Monday night.

The Yankees hold the best and the worst of the Fall Classic: they have played in 40 of the 104 World Series and have won 27 Series, the most of any Major League franchise, but because of this frequent appearances, they have also lost 13 championships, more than any other club. With most World Series appearances, wins and losses, aren't the Yanks worldest?

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=27158131-ace5-4ae7-a2b0-5a0d24070457&from=IV2_en-us_foxsports_videocentral" target="_new" title="Highlights: World Series Game 6">Video: Highlights: World Series Game 6</a>

Baseball World Series Winners:

Year	National League	American League
1903	Pittsburgh Pirates	Boston Pilgrims
1904	n/a	n/a
1905	New York Giants	Philadelphia Athletics
1906	Chicago Cubs	Chicago White Sox
1907	Chicago Cubs	Detroit Tigers
1908	Chicago Cubs	Detroit Tigers
1909	Pittsburgh Pirates	Detroit Tigers
1910	Chicago Cubs	Philadelphia Athletics
1911	New York Giant	Philadelphia Athletics
1912	New York Giant	Boston Red Sox
1913	New York Giants	Philadelphia Athletic
1914	Boston Braves	Philadelphia Athletics
1915	Philadelphia Phillies	Boston Red Sox
1916	Brooklyn Robins	Boston Red Sox
1917	New York Giants	Chicago White Sox
1918	Chicago Cubs	Boston Red Sox
1919	Cincinnati Reds	Chicago White Sox
1920	Brooklyn Robins	Cleveland Indians
1921	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1922	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1923	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1924	New York Giants	Washington Senators
1925	Pittsburgh Pirates	Washington Senators
1926	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
1927	Pittsburgh Pirates	New York Yankees
1928	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
1929	Chicago Cubs	Philadelphia Athletics
1930	St. Louis Cardinals	Philadelphia Athletics
1931	St. Louis Cardinals	Philadelphia Athletics
1932	Chicago Cubs	New York Yankees
1933	New York Giants	Washington Senators
1934	St. Louis Cardinals	Detroit Tigers
1935	Chicago Cubs	Detroit Tigers
1936	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1937	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1938	Chicago Cubs	New York Yankees
1939	Cincinnati Reds	New York Yankees
1940	Cincinnati Reds	Detroit Tigers
1941	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1942	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
1943	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
1944	St. Louis Cardinals	St. Louis Browns
1945	Chicago Cubs	Detroit Tigers
1946	St. Louis Cardinals	Boston Red Sox
1947	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1948	Boston Braves	Cleveland Indians
1949	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1950	Philadelphia Phillies	New York Yankees
1951	New York Giants	New York Yankees
1952	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1953	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1954	New York Giants	Cleveland Indians
1955	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1956	Brooklyn Dodgers	New York Yankees
1957	Milwaukee Braves	New York Yankees
1958	Milwaukee Braves	New York Yankees
1959	Los Angeles Dodgers	Chicago White Sox
1960	Pittsburgh Pirates	New York Yankees
1961	Cincinnati Reds	New York Yankees
1962	San Francisco Giants	New York Yankees
1963	Los Angeles Dodgers	New York Yankees
1964	St. Louis Cardinals	New York Yankees
1965	Los Angeles Dodgers	Minnesota Twins
1966	Los Angeles Dodgers	Baltimore Orioles
1967	St. Louis Cardinals	Boston Red Sox
1968	St. Louis Cardinals	Detroit Tigers
1969	New York Mets	Baltimore Orioles
1970	Cincinnati Reds	Baltimore Orioles
1971	Pittsburgh Pirates	Baltimore Orioles
1972	Cincinnati Reds	Oakland Athletics
1973	New York Mets	Oakland Athletics
1974	Los Angeles Dodgers	Oakland Athletics
1975	Cincinnati Reds	Boston Red Sox
1976	Cincinnati Reds	New York Yankees
1977	Los Angeles Dodgers	New York Yankees
1978	Los Angeles Dodger	New York Yankees
1979	Pittsburgh Pirates	Baltimore Orioles
1980	Philadelphia Phillies	Kansas City Royals
1981	Los Angeles Dodgers	New York Yankees
1982	St. Louis Cardinals	Milwaukee Brewers
1983	Philadelphia Phillies	Baltimore Orioles
1984	San Diego Padres	Detroit Tigers
1985	St. Louis Cardinals	Kansas City Royals
1986	New York Mets	Boston Red Sox
1987	St. Louis Cardinals	Minnesota Twins
1988	Los Angeles Dodgers	Oakland Athletics
1989	San Francisco Giants	Oakland Athletics
1990	Cincinnati Reds	Oakland Athletics
1991	Atlanta Braves	Minnesota Twins
1992	Atlanta Braves	Toronto Blue Jays
1993	Philadelphia Phillies	Toronto Blue Jays
1994	n/a	n/a
1995	Atlanta Braves	Cleveland Indians
1996	Atlanta Braves	New York Yankees
1997	Florida Marlins	Cleveland Indians
1998	San Diego Padres	New York Yankees
1999	Atlanta Braves	New York Yankees
2000	New York Mets	New York Yankees
2001	Arizona Diamondbacks	New York Yankees
2002	San Francisco Giants	Anaheim Angels
2003	Florida Marlins	New York Yankees
2004	St. Louis Cardinals	Boston Red Sox
2005	Houston Astros	Chicago White Sox
2006	St. Louis Cardinals	Detroit Tigers
2007	Colorado Rockies	Boston Red Sox
2008	Philadelphia Phillies	Tampa Bay Rays
2009	Philadelphia Phillies	New York Yankees

Michael Jackson's This Is It Sets Record for a Concert Movie

Michael Jackson's This Is It has earned $101 million in its first five days at the worldwide box office, according to Sony Pictures, what sets a global record for a concert movie. Maybe this figure wasn't the expected by Sony, but it's not so bad, bearing in mind that on Saturday Americans had other things to do, such as dressing up, parading and partying, rather than going to the cinema. The King of Pop, from his eternal rest, strikes again, and continues breaking records and making money.

In order to be the first, there have to be other concert films. TIME listed the top ten show movies before This Is It:

• Stop Making Sense (1984) - Talking Heads
• The Last Waltz (1978) - Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Van Morrison, amongst others
• Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars: The Motion Picture (1973) - David Bowie
• Sign o' the Times (1987) - Prince
• Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) - Neil Young
• Gimme Shelter (1970) - The Rolling Stones
• Awesome; I F___in' Shot That! (2006) - Beastie Boys
• A Hard Day's Night (1964) - The Beatles
• Woodstock (1970) - Jimi Hendrix and others
• Fade to Black (2004) - Jay-Z

Derartu Tulu, First Ethiopian Woman To Win NYC Marathon

Derartu Tulu, 37-year-old runner, has become today the first woman from Ethiopia to capture the New York City Marathon in its 40 years of history, in 2:28:52. This is not the first time Tulu achieves a 'worldest' as in 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games she became the first black African woman to win a gold medal in the Olympics in the 10,000 meters, a capture she repeated eight years later in Sidney.



NYC's is considered to be the world's largest and most popular marathon. Just take a look at the numbers of this year's race: 44,000 runners from all over the world, 315 million spectators on TV and another 2 million on the streets of the city, encouraging the marathoners to get to the finishing line.

Tasmania Berlin, Worst Soccer Team Ever

Every time a team goes through a bad patch, fans ask themselves how long is it going to last and they wonder if there is any team in history that has done so bad. That's what River Plate supporters may have been thinking for the last eight months, when the most leagues winer team in Argentina hasn't been able to win a single match as a visitor. Well, there is one, and this one is going to be hard to oust. So soccer's fans can feel relieved. In Bundesliga season 1965-1966 took place the legendary campaign of the Tasmania Berlin, a team that the Germanic fans describe as 'the club of the records impossible to break'. Maybe there are other soccer teams in other major leagues that share one, two or even three of the following facts with Tasmania Berlin, but there is just one in the whole world that can be 'proud' of holding them all:

• 50th out of 50 in all-time Bundesliga standings
• fewest points collected in a season: 8 points under the old scoring method of two points for a win
• fewest wins in a season: 2
• most defeats in a season: 28
• only Bundesliga team without an away win
• longest winless streak: 31 games (August 14, 1965-May 21, 1966)
• most home defeats in a season: 12
• most consecutive home losses: 8 games (August 28, 1965-December 8, 1965)
• most consecutive homes matches without a win: 15 matches (August 24, 1965-May 21, 1966)
• most consecutive losses: 10 matches
• worst ever goals for-and-against: 15:108
• fewest ever goals for a team's leading scorer: 4 by Wulf-Ingo Usbeck
• biggest losing margin at home: 0:9 to Meidericher SV (March 26, 1966)
• smallest ever crowd at a Bundesliga game: 827 (January 15, 1966 against Borussia Mönchengladbach) after crowds of 81,500 at their first home game and 70,000 at their second

Yves Saint Laurent, Richest Dead Celebrity

2009 richest dead celebrity is Yves Saint Laurent, according to Forbes magazine. The French fashion designer, who died of brain cancer in June 2008, earned $350 million in the past year, when most of his estate was auctioned off at Christie's. For the second time in the last decade Elvis Presley is not the top-earning dead celebrity (Kurt Cobain "achieved" to beat Elvis in 2006).

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein are second with combined earnings of $235 million, followed by Michael Jackson with $90 million, King Elvis Presley with $55 million and J.R.R. Tolkien with $50 million. Charles M. Schulz, John Lennon, Theodor Geisel, Albert Einstein and Michael Crichton close the top 10 list.

After Michael Jackson's This is it opening night this week, the King of Pop is going to be the King of Graveyard in the coming years. You can bet your bottom dollar on it.

Ice Age Scrat, Guinness World Record Tallest Ice Sculpture

An ice sculpture inspired by Scrat, character of the saga of films Ice Age, has broken the Guinness World Record for Tallest Ice Sculpture. The ice tower measures 48,8 feet and has beaten by nearly 8 feet the ice statue built in Dubai in 2006 that was, until now, in possession of the record.

Scrat ice sculpture was unveiled yesterday at ICE at Santa Monica, Downtown Santa Monica's outdoor ice skating rink. The Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertaintment project started months ago and has needed over 133,000 pounds of ice, gathered across four states, and the work of 14 sculptors for 4 full days.

The presentation of the sculpture, timed with the Blu-ray and DVD release of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, was supervised by security forces because of of the strong wind and the high temperature.

World's Larget Rocket Launched Successfully

After yesterday's failed attemp, NASA has launched today at 11.30 a.m. the world's largest rocket, Ares I-X, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Ares I-X is part of the Constellation Program, that has been developing new vehicles that would replace space shuttles, which will be phased out in 2010. The rocket has cost $445 million dollars and has taken about 2 minutes in taking off.



For the first time in more than a quarter of century, this launch means a flight test for NASA's next-generation spacecraft and launch vehicle system, and it should provide the agency with an opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I. In other words, the Constellation Program develops a spaceship for the American manned space flight after the retirement of the space shuttle and the flight test is part of NASA's mission to someday return astronauts to the moon and later travel to Mars.

If the Constellation Program moves forward, US would be able to take astronauts into space in five years. Currently, Russia has the monopoly of puting humans in orbit. The last person to be fired into space was the world's richest clown, canadian Guy Laliberté, founder of the Cirque du Soleil, who a month ago, on board a Soyuz rocket, headed for the International Space Station, becaming Russia's seventh "space tourist", with a 12-day trip thar costed him $35 million. Not a cheap vacation at all! Lalibeté took off from Kazakhstan with the US astronaut Jeffrey Williams and the Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev.



While in the International Space Station, Laliberté had the time to be the gest of U2 show in Tampa.



Fortunately, the 12th tourist space adventure had a happy ending.

Amelia Earhart, Largest Rescue Attempt Ever

World's best-known aviatrix Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were on their second attempt to fly around the world when they disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island, on July 2, 1937.


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Sixty-six planes and 4,ooo people on nine ships covered about 250,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean to find the them, but after 16 days and $4 million, on July 19, naval authorities decided to end it. The search for Amelia's airplane has been the largests rescue attempt ever made for a single lost plane, and, also, the most costly and intensive search by the Navy and Coast Guard in US history up to that time.



Amelia and Fred Noonan had departed from Miami two months earlier and before getting lost, about 22,000 miles of the journey had been completed, through South America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The remaining 7,000 miles would all be over the Pacific. Although Amelia's family went on searching for years, neither the bodies no the plane were found, and Fred Noonan was declared legally dead on June 26, 1938, while Amelia was on January 5, 1939. But not everybody was satisfied with this end of the story, and many theories emerged after the disappearance of Amelia and Noonan.



Amelia was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences, and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. You can see her story opening today at theaters.

Windows 7, Microsoft Newest Operating System

Microsoft begins to sell today Windows 7, the new operating system called to replace the unlucky Vista and the still today successful XP, living a second youth since Vista was acknowledged to be its unworthy heir.

Windows 7 keeps what’s good about Windows Vista, like security, stability and image, and reconducts most of those aspects people disliked. However, it's seen by everybody, even by Microsoft, XP successor. These are the words used by Microsoft to announce Windows 7 on its website:

"Hanging onto Windows XP? See what you're missing:

1. Use Snap to compare two files side by side with a quick drag to the edge of the screen.
2. Cruise through all your open windows with Live Taskbar Previews.
3. HomeGroup takes the headache out of sharing files, devices, and printers on a home network.
4. Keep your favorite files and programs handy: Pin them to the Taskbar.
5. Quickly find virtually anything on your PC with Windows Search".

Not only users but also Microsoft want to forget three years of Vista unpleasant experience. The time has come.

1933 Double Eagle, World Most Valuable Coin

A 1933 Double Eagle has the record for highest price paid at auction for a single coin. On July 30, 2002, at Sotheby’s in New York, it was sold to an anonymous bidder, in less than nine minutes, for a final price of $7,590,020.00, almost twice the previous record for a coin ($4,14 million for the 1804 Silver Dollar). The mysterious owner loaned it to the American Numismatic Society and currently the most valuable coin is displayed at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Unbelievable, isn’t it? Even more since it's not the only 1933 Double Eagle existing. It's its odd story what has made this small piece of stamped gold the most valuable coin in the world.

Back in 1849, and because of the California Gold Rush, the United States Mint decided to issue $20 gold coins instead of the traditional $10 pieces, known as eagles (that's why $20 coins are called double eagles). In 1933, it last year of production, 445,500 specimens of double eagle were minted, but they never oficially circulated: trying to end the 30s general crisis, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an Executive Order by which gold coins were declared no longer legal, so people had to turn in their gold coins and have them changed for other forms of currency (there was an exemption for collector coins, that could keep their 'small treasures'). All 1933 gold coins were melted down except two of the $20 Double Eagles, that were presented to the American Numismatic Society Collection.

These two coins should have been the only 1933 Double Eagle coins in existence, but a number of them, possibly nine, were stolen before being melted down, possibly by an US Mint cashier, and circulated amongst collectors until the US Secret Service began an official investigation and  recovered for the US Government eight of the coins during the period 1944-1952. So that leaves us with one coin missing, the one that was acquired by King Farouk of Egypt, who had a collection of coins of over 8,500. In 1944 King Farouk bought a 1933 Double Eagle, and after a chain of mistakes of the US Treasure Department, he got an export license for the coin. In 1952 King Farouk was deposed in a coup d'etat, and many of his possessions went for public auction at Sotheby's, but the Double Eagle coin wasn't found among them.

Forty years later the US Secret Service arrested British coin dealer Stephen Fenton in New York when he was trying to sell a Double Eagle coin in New York. At first he said that he had bought the coin at his shop, and later swore that the Double Eagle came from the collection of King Farouk, though this could not be ascertained. In July 2001, the case ended with the agreement that the ownership of the gold coin would return to the US Government, and then it could be legally sold at auction (as you may have guessed, this is the $7,59 million Double Eagle). Believe it or not, until this agreement, the Double Eagle was kept in a place that was believed to be safe: the Treasury vaults of the World Trade Center. Only three months before it was destroyed, the coin was transferred to Fort Knox.

In August 2005, the US Secret Service announced the recovery of ten additional stolen 1933 Double Eagle gold coins. But no worries for the owner of the only Double Eagle auctioned, his is the only in existence that is legal to own. The rest belong to the US Government and are held at Fort Knox.