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Argentina’s Lionel Messi has won the FIFA best player of the year 2011 award for the straight third time thereby registering his name as the only player in the history of FIFA to get three back to back awards.

Messi won the award beating his club teammate Xavi Hernandez and Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid to the game’s most prestigious individual honor.

Messi known for his heroics in the field said, “It’s a huge pleasure for me”, after accepting the trophy from another three-time winner, former Brazil forward Ronaldo. “It’s the third time I get this award, and it’s a huge honor.”

Messi received 47.88 percent of the points in votes cast by national team coaches and captains plus invited journalists. They chose from an original shortlist of 23 players.

Cristiano Ronaldo finished second with 21.6 percent and Xavi got 9.23 percent to finish third for the third straight year.

“This one is very special because I want to share this with my friend and teammate Xavi . He deserves it,” Messi said.

The only other three-time winners are Ronaldo (1996-97 and 2002) and Zinedine Zidane (1998, 2000 and 2003)

Is walmart open this Christmas eve? What stores are open this Christmas? Is this your question. Then you have a reply here. Majority of stores are closed this Christmas 2011 as the Christmas eve falls Saturday followed by Christmas this Sunday.

It’s one of the few days every year in which nearly all businesses are closed across the country.

However, Kmart and Toys R Us are staying open until 10 p.m., while some Walgreens and CVS don’t plan to close.

Dispatch.com reports, Hours will not be extended at major shopping venues such as the Mall at Tuttle Crossing, Easton Town Center and Polaris Fashion Place, which will all close at 6 p.m.

Seems like Shop keepers and retailers are anticipating a high crowd last minute shopping because many people have not yet shopped according to a Poll conducted by Consumer reports.

Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, a Washington-based industry association, expects the retailers to be opened for last minute shopping.

Shops Staying Up Last Minute Shopping

Meijer planning to stay open until 7 p.m., Kmart is staying open until 10 p.m. in “response to consumer demand,” said a spokeswoman who declined to provide her name.

All Walgreen and CVS stores that typically stay open 24 hours won’t close for the holidays, the stores said. And those stores that aren’t typically open 24 hours will close at 10 p.m., they said.

Toys R Us anticipates plenty of last-minute shoppers, spokeswoman Adrienne O’Hara said.

So, if any of the above, is near your area, you will have a nice time finding shops.

The Only things that is definitely closed this Christmas are Schools, Banks, Post Offices and ofcourse Libraries. And as far Shopping malls and gift shops, they are staying late.

You readers, can also opt for Online shopping.

Have a good time Shopping and yeah dont forget to watch over your Kids while shopping as huge crowds are expected everywhere.

Stay safe.

“The Protester” has been named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2011.

Announcing the choice on NBC’s “Today Show,” Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel said that the nameless, female protester dressed in a traditional head scarf is intended to represent both the men and women around the world — and particularly in the Middle East — who risked their lives to bring about transformational change.

“They are changing history already and they will change history in the future,” he said, adding that the current wave of global protests can be traced back to protests in Iran two years ago.

“Iran prefigured what was going to happen in the Arab world. And then what happened in the Arab world did influence Occupy Wall Street, and Occupy Oakland, and the protests in Greece and Madrid,” Stengel told hosts Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

The magazine cited dissent across the Middle East that has spread to Europe and the United States, and says these protesters are reshaping global politics.

Last year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg got the honor.

Time’s “Person of the Year” is the person or thing that has most influenced the culture and the news during the past year for good or for ill. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke received the honor in 2009. The 2008 winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama. Other previous winners have included Bono, President George W. Bush, and Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

Time said it is recognizing protesters because they are “redefining people power” around the world.

Buckle Up! The 2011 Geminid meteor shower starts on the night of Dec. 13-14, and despite the glare of a nearly-full Moon, it will be party time for sky watchers.

“Observers with clear skies could see as many as 40 Geminids per hour,” predicts Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office.  “Our all-sky network of meteor cameras has captured several early Geminid fireballs.  They were so bright, we could see them despite the moonlight.”

The best time to look is between 10 pm local time on Tuesday, Dec. 13, and sunrise on Wednesday, Dec. 14th. Geminids, which spray out of the constellation Gemini, can appear anywhere in the sky. “Dress warmly and look up,” says Cooke.  “It’s that simple.”

The source of the Geminids is near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Most meteor showers come from comets, so having an asteroid as a parent makes the Geminids a bit of an oddball.

“This is the thing I love most about Geminids,” says Cooke.  “They’re so strange.”

Every year in mid-December, Earth runs through a trail of dusty debris that litters the orbit of 3200 Phaethon. Comets vaporizing in hot sunlight naturally produce such debris trails, but rocky asteroids like 3200 Phaethon do not. At least they’re not supposed to. The incongruity has baffled researchers since 1983 when 3200 Phaethon was discovered by NASA’s IRAS satellite.

One clue: 3200 Phaethon travels unusually close to the sun. The asteroid’s eccentric orbit brings it well inside the orbit of Mercury every 1.4 years. The rocky body thus receives a regular blast of solar heating that might somehow boil jets of dust into the Geminid debris stream.

In 2009, NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft saw this process at work.  Coronagraphs onboard the solar observatory watched 3200 Phaethon as it was swinging by the sun.  Sure enough, the asteroid doubled in brightness, probably because it was spewing jets of dust.

“The most likely explanation is that Phaethon ejected dust, perhaps in response to a break-down of surface rocks (through thermal fracture and decomposition cracking of hydrated minerals) in the intense heat of the Sun,” wrote UCLA planetary scientists David Jewitt and Jing Li, who analyzed the data.

Jewett and Li’s “rock comet” hypothesis is compelling, but they point out a problem: The amount of dust 3200 Phaethon ejected during its 2009 sun-encounter added a mere 0.01% to the mass of the Geminid debris stream–not nearly enough to keep the stream replenished over time. Perhaps the rock comet was more active in the past …?

“We just don’t know,” says Cooke. “Every new thing we learn about the Geminids seems to deepen the mystery.”

Cyber Monday deals, always bring good business to the shoppers. The Cyber Monday practice that got famous among shoppers in the year 2005 has been a success ever since and i believe Cyber Monday deal 2011 will be of no exception.

For readers who do not know what Cyber Monday deals is all about, its nothing but a day of Shopping .

The Cyber Monday deal was proposed by Shop.org on 2005 to promote the sales following thanksgiving and black friday. The term Cyber deal was well received by the online and offline shoppers who were going on a spree to buy all the items.

Seeing the success in Business, the shopkeepers started announcing offers and gift coupons for people to create a win-win situation for both consumers and sellers.

This igniting factor, that is to say discounts and gift coupons, encouraged the general users to shop the immediate Monday after thanksgiving.

Thus was created a tradition of shopping the next Monday after thanksgiving, Its been a success for 6 years. So what does the Cyber Monday Deals 2011 promise for the shoppers?

Well, as always, free gift coupons and discounts are waiting for the consumers this Monday with companies such as Best Buy and Amazon trying to rope the shoppers to its premises.

Amazon website has interesting offers with following message,

Black Friday may be over, but we’ve still got the party going. Cyber Monday Deals Week starts today, and we’re putting our best deals right here. Some Cyber Monday deals are in limited supply, and all will go quickly–but don’t worry if you miss one, because we’ll keep adding new ones throughout the day, all week long. Plus don’t forget to subscribe to our deals e-mails to get daily updates.

If you visit the official Amazon website, you can see a option highlighting Cyber Monday deals.  Amazon has listed all exciting items for you folks. So people interested for electronic gadgets this is your day

Some of the items that will be available from this midnight include,

• Sony Cybershot DSC-HX5V 10.2 MP Digital Camera: $199 (save $150)
• Pentax K-5 Digital SLR (Body Only): $999 (save $200)
• Microsoft Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Bundle (includes Fable III and Halo Reach): $199 (save $100)
• Nokia N8 (Unlocked): $299.99 (save $249)
• Monster Diddybeats Headphones: $59.99 (save $89)
• Up to 50 percent off select VTech electronic toys

PCworld says, “Best Buy also is promoting its online Cyber Sale, which it says is Sunday and Monday, as opposed to Amazon’s weeklong event. Its carrot for shoppers is also different — if you spend $100 or more and use in-store pickup Best Buy will email you a $10 electronic gift card you can use online or in stores. Best Buy also doesn’t show you how much of a discount you’re getting when you put an item in your shopping cart, so it will help if you know the normal selling price of any items you might want to buy.”

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Salary : Rs.525000/-

Event Date : 18th November 2011

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Note: Candidates who are willing to join immediately (strictly within 30 days of offer release) need to apply.

When to change the clock backwards for Day light saving time 2011? For our viewers who are hitting the search button with the question, the Day Light Saving Time is all set to end this Sunday, November 6,2011 at 2.00 am.  The clock will go back  1 hour at that time.That is, at 2.00 am this Sunday, the clock will go back to its Original time and will be changed to 1.oo am.

People who work for late hours will probably be waiting for this Sunday to get that extra bit of  sleep We get 1 hour extra to sleep.yeppie!

The Daylight saving time which goes forward every 2nd Sunday of March by 1 hour  will return back to its original time by the first Sunday in November.

So when did they actually starting observing the Daylight saving time?  That is a  bit of History we need to learn first.

History of Daylight Saving Time

As per about.com, Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. During World War II the federal government again required the states to observe the time change. Between the wars and after World War II, states and communities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time.

Daylight Saving Time is four weeks longer since 2007 due to the passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005. The Act extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, with the hope that it would save 10,000 barrels of oil each day through reduced use of power by businesses during daylight hours. Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult to determine energy savings from Daylight Saving Time and based on a variety of factors, it is possible that little or no energy is saved by Daylight Saving Time.

Arizona (except some Indian Reservations), Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa have chosen not to observe Daylight Saving Time. This choice does make sense for the areas closer to the equator because the days are more consistent in length throughout the year.

If you are still unclear on  the change in time, i have uploaded a image below that might assist you in knowing the change