We enjoy the competition and get a thrill from impressive plays, but what sticks in our minds long after the lights go dark, are the athletes. The names we’ll remember years later may not be the greatest of all time, but they are the most entertaining. Here is a list of six such athletes who entertain us the most.

Hulk Hogan

Whether you love him or hate him, you will remember him. WWF has gotten a reputation for being a joke, but it cannot hide the personality of Hulk Hogan. It’s obvious that his fans can’t get enough of him from his television and movie appearances, not to mention his reality show.

Muhammad Ali

Ali took boxing to a new level and brought in new fans to the sport. His personality was even greater than the sport he played. His rhymes and trash talk became as anticipated as the event itself. Ali was named the “Sportsman of the Century” by Sports Illustrated, and “The Sports Personality of the Century” by the BBC.

For the 1 million homeowners who lost their homes due to foreclosures, the announcement of a $25 billion landmark settlement felt like winning the jackpot. Five U.S. banks were accused of mortgage abuse and settled to pay up. The new foreclosure agreement, though not a cure for the current abysmal housing market, can buffer the efforts to help borrowers who lost their homes after the housing bubble burst. 

The crimes

The federal-state settlement originates in the abuse that occurred after 2008. An ongoing federal investigation found that mortgage service companies failed to document foreclosures properly. They used controversial practices, such as robo-signing and mortgage abuse. In these practices, lenders fraudulently dressed up loan modifications. Investigators also found that banks failed to offer borrowers viable alternatives to foreclosure, and illegally filed documents in bankruptcy courts.

Outline of the deal

The five major U.S. banks involved in the foreclosure settlement include Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Ally Financial. The bank responsible for the largest amount owed to borrowers is Bank of America, at $11.8 billion. Wells Fargo and JP Morgan follow, each with $5.3 billion owed. 

The job market has been on everyone’s mind since 2008 when the U.S. economy tanked and the global economy nosedived. With painstaking progress, the economy is showing signs of success. Employment opportunities, while certainly not abundant, are on the rise in particular geographic regions and industries.

Locations with Job Opportunities

According to a survey by the ManpowerGroup, the cities with the most job opportunities are Cape Coral and Lakeland, both located in Florida. Both these cities have net hiring outlooks of around 17 percent. The other top 5 locations where you are likely to find a job include Houston, Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Phoenix, Arizona, Honolulu, Hawaii, and Atlanta, Georgia. 

In Canada, the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island saw the biggest increase in jobs. The industries which gained jobs were in natural resources, including forestry, fishing, quarrying, mining, gas, and oil.

You may remember the old spy movies where people talked to their watches or pulled daggers out of their coat sleeves. While some of that was pure drama, today’s technology has advanced into clothing. Fashion designers and cyber techies are combining to create clothing with a double use.

Practical Hoodie

Imagine always having headphones with you when you go for a jog. The hoodie has headphones woven into the material, with a jack in the pocket. The drawstrings have the earplugs that you can easily put into your ears; no more tangled up wires.

Oakley Sunglasses

A lot of companies have made their sunglasses with a built in music player. Not all of them look as cool or work as well as the Oakley sunglasses. With these sunglasses, you don’t have to carry an mp3 player.

James Bond Style Watches

Imagine being in a tight situation and you talk into your watch to your partner for them to rescue you. Now you can do that with cell phone watches. With Bluetooth technology, you can wear an earpiece that is connected to your wristwatch - aka cell phone. Don’t expect them to have all of the features of a Smartphone, but you can make and receive calls.  

Some people seem to gravitate to the same kind of person in a relationship and don’t understand why.  They are actually drawn to a type of person even though it is a negative relationship that can be painful or even harmful.  How can you know if you are addicted to bad relationships?  There are a few indicators to prove whether you just had a bad experience or continually choose the wrong partners.

Same Story New Name

Does all of your past relationships sound the same with a different person involved?  People often repeat the same destructive behaviors.  If you have the same kinds of problems with each person you date or they end the same way, you may be addicted to that type of relationship.

People who are abused either verbally or physically often have the same abuse with a new partner.  They do not consciously seek such a person, but gravitate towards the same personality traits in someone.

President Obama announced last week that he was asking the Justice Department to create a task force to investigate lenders who gave loans to new homeowners prior to the debt crisis. The task force is supposed to find out if there were abusive or illegal lending practices. Those found guilty would be required to compensate the victims by contributing to the housing relief program.

Those Who Agree

There are many who are in support of this task force. Predatory lending practices provided loans to people who could not afford them, and are seen as the primary cause for the housing crisis. The term “predatory lending” refers to the unscrupulous and illegal practices used by many lenders while creating a loan.  

There are many behaviors that are categorized as predatory, and resulting in borrowers signing a loan they cannot afford. Some of these include:

-Failing to tell the borrower that the price of the home is negotiable

-Failing to clearly disclose the terms of the loan

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival took place in Park City, Utah, from January 19th to 29th. The festival selects and showcases the best short films. Submissions come from all over the world, and this year there were over 7,000 submissions. Each year the festival highlights the best new voices in independent film. 

Drama

Dramatic, documentary, and international films are the three genres featured at the Sundance Film Festival. The dramatic films that received the most praise this year all had dark themes of disaster, violence, and illness in common. Beasts of the Southern Wild, a lyrical film that followed the narrative of a defiant family after a devastating flood, was amongst the most loved films of the festival. It received the award for Dramatic Cinematography as well as the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Competition. Another crowd pleaser, The Surrogate, starred John Hawkes as a polio victim who hires a sex surrogate to take his virginity. This film won the audience’s choice award and the prize for ensemble acting. The award for dramatic director went to Ava DuVernay for her film Middle of Nowhere, which follows the personal crisis of an African American woman and her marriage to an incarcerated man. 

The internet is a valuable resource for entrepreneurs and small business owners. There is plenty of information on accounting, marketing, business strategy, and any other topic you may need to know about. However, most business owners don’t have the time to browse the web to find these resources. Here is a list of 10 websites that will be beneficial to almost every new entrepreneur and small business owner.

Business Owner’s Tool Kit

From cost-cutting tips and checklists to case studies and startup advice, this site is loaded with information. The best part is that it is free, which means you don’t have to add another cost to your already strapped budget.

Startup Nation

This website has useful information for anyone who is just starting their business. There are forums where you can learn from others with similar goals. You will find articles filled with information that pertains to you, as well as advice from experts and those “who have been there.”

If you have ever taken a look inside a pair of speakers, you have probably seen a mass or wires and cables that may connect to make an incredible sound that audiophiles love. Unfortunately, these wires are not just relegated to the inside of the speakers. Wires and cables can spill out the back of speakers and stretch to the device it is connected to at the moment. This can create an unpleasant look in a home that may otherwise have an interior design that is perfect. Finding speakers that both sound great and do not interfere with the design of a room can be a tough bill to fill. The clear speakers by People People fill this void. The clear speakers do not show a mass of wires and can easily fit in with any style of room since they do not have a specific color or look. They only look chic. 

The new clear speakers are already getting some special attention. At the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show, People People showcased a prototype. Wired Magazine also chose the speakers as one of the products to be featured at their 15 favorite products show during the CES. The speaker is still under development and not yet available for purchase, but once it does hit the marketplace, it is sure to fly off shelves because of the special features. 

Audiophiles will rejoice with these new clear People People speakers. These are speakers that can be shown off because they are both high tech, make music sound great, and also look great in any room because they are transparent. The speakers are big enough to boom with sound, but the box is transparent so it doesn’t take up a lot of visible space.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that there was a surge of mortgage loan applications of 23% in the week ending January 13. This was up 23.1% from the previous week. Refinancing activity was up to 26.4% during the week ending January 13, which was the highest level since early August and comprised 82.2% of all mortgage activity. New mortgage applications climbed 10.3% week-over-week.

This surge is primarily due to new record low interest rates. The rates for 30-year and 15-year fixed loans fell to 3.89% and 3.16% in the week ending January 13. The vice president of research and economics at the Mortgage Bankers Association reported, “Interest rates dropped last week due to continuing anxieties regarding the fragile economic situation in Europe.” The interest rates for most loans fell, but the interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with jumbo balances rose from 4.36% to 4.40%.

Most people were taking advantage of the new lower interest rates to refinance their existing home loans instead of purchasing new homes. The chief economist for Fannie Mae, Doug Duncan, said, “[Home] sales are a lot less interest-rate sensitive than people think.” There are often many other factors that go into choosing a new home (including newly built homes and previously owned homes) than just lower interest rates, while people who are refinancing are happy in their homes and have already made a lot of those tough choices.

According to Kiplinger.com and the AARP, there are great places to live outside of the U.S. once you have made it to retirement.  There are two major considerations in choosing your ideal place to live: cost of living and health care.  These are primary concerns for people who are not earning a living anymore and may be in declining health.  Here are 5 of the best places to live that have the best of both.

Italy

This country is not just for American tourists; it is also a great place to live.  Besides the culture and food, you will appreciate the temperate climate and beautiful scenery.  The summers are warm and dry while winters are comfortable with some rain.

Italy ranked 2^nd on the Global Retirement Index for health care.  It provides all residents with a health plan or you can use your own insurance for private hospitals.

The country also ended up 11^th for cost of living, and a retired couple could live on less than $3,000 a month if their home is paid.  Italy also has a Social Security agreement with the U.S. that would benefit someone who has had employment in both countries.

Fortune has produced a list of top 25 companies that create strong leadership. Other businesses can take tips from these companies and develop a strong leadership base in their own company.

IBM

IBM sends teams to their local offices to train staff. This way, everyone is on the same page. They know what is expected of them, and they have the tools to achieve the company’s goals. Often, businesses start a new office and then forget about it. When it doesn’t achieve its goals, the managers wonder why. Taking time to train the local staff will help ensure success.

Work Your Way Up

At General Mills, over ninety percent of management promotions come from within the company. They promote employees to management positions by training them to advance. Proctor and Gamble follows the same idea. All their CEOs started out in entry level positions. This not only shows outsiders that you value your employees, but it encourages new recruits to work hard and believe that their dedication will be rewarded.

It can be really tough to pay for a movie and sit through it for a couple of hours, only to realize that it is horrible. You can avoid such experiences by looking at reviews ahead of time. Explore all the different sites, so you know which ones you agree with the most. You will get a sense of which reviews and reviewers to trust. Websites that encourage reviewers to explain why they gave a movie a particular rating are beneficial. A movie may get a bad score, but when you find out why, it could be for the exact reason that you actually enjoy a movie. Here are the best websites for film reviews.

Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes

Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes are both run by the same people. They provide 2 billion movie ratings and have the leading movie applications on iPhone, Google TV, Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry. You may have seen their small little icons that indicate if a movie is good or not (as reviewed by others). A green, squishy, rotten tomato shows that reviewers thought the movie was not worth watching, while a ripe looking red tomato shows that the movie was great. You can also connect with Facebook so you can see what movies your friends enjoy.