Personal Finance: An Introduction to Loan Recasting : Bryan Ellis ...

Recasting is a potential option for many more homes than are presently eligible for refinancing.

Thanks to still-stringent requirements for financing and the vast number of homes out there that are presently underwater, mortgage brokers and lenders are looking for other ways to help homeowners pull cash out of equity-poor or equity-empty homes. The process is called ?loan recasting,? and it can help you shrink your monthly mortgage payment without having to refinance. Here?s how it works:

When you recast your loan, you literally put that loan in a new perspective by applying a large, lump sum directly to your mortgage principal and then adjusting the entire loan to reflect the new balance. Once you have the new balance in place, mortgage interest is recalculated, along with any other fees like insurance, and a new payment is calculated. That payment will be lower than your previous payment even if you do not adjust the terms of your loan because you will have taken out a large chunk of principal in the previous step. Even better, instead of thousands in lending fees, you could pay as little as $150.

Of course, there are some potential problems with what may seem, at first, to be an ideal solution to an inability to refinance. For starters, FHA and VA loans cannot be recast, and some lenders prohibit recasting on adjustable rate mortgages and jumbo loans. In addition, you need at least $5,000 to make a serious impact on a recast loan, and some lenders require more. A recast also will not shorten your loan term or change your interest rate.

On the upside, if you have a fixed-rate, conventional loan, you almost certainly can recast it if you have the funds. Furthermore, you only need to have those funds once, making recasting a great solution if you are presently in possession of a one-time cash infusion ? for example, from an inheritance ? that could make a difference for your monthly payments but will not, ultimately, affect your regular monthly financial situation. Some underwater homeowners who are determined to keep up their mortgage payments find recasting to be a good alternative to the constant fear of foreclosure since a recast will permanently lower your monthly payments even though it does not ultimately diminish the term of the loan or the amount of principal owed.

Would you consider recasting your loan? Have you done it?

Thank you for reading the Bryan Ellis Investing Letter!

Your comments and questions are welcomed below.

Category: Personal Finance, Real Estate

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Once banned, college coaches now can call, text recruits all they want

By Matt Norlander | Senior College Basketball Blogger June 14, 2012 8:08 PM ET

At midnight Thursday, as the calendar turns to Friday the 15th, college basketball coaches across this nation will simultaneously hit send from their smartphones. It will be the culmination of a battle won for them and for common sense to coaching in the contemporary recruiting era.

Also, it will be a little creepy. A smattering of the texts sent and will look something like this: "Just wanted to make sure you know we're sending a message to you FIRST, because you're our most coveted prospect. If you wanna chat, hit me back whenever. I'll be up all night."

Some might look like this: "Isn't this great, that we can talk like this all the time now? Just wanted to let you know you're still on our list. We'd love to have you on campus as soon as possible."

Unfortunately: Got the new Jay-Z and Kanye CD. Love it. What's your favorite track? I love number 4. That s*** kray."

I fear a few of these could be sent by the time the sun rises Friday: "If there's anything we can do to sway your decision, don't hesitate to ask. And if you'd like to call one of my other guys who's close with the program and would love to help you out, here's his number."

Others I imagine go like this: "If you've received a text message from coach K or Roy Williams, it's a fake. They're too old to text."

While you can't tell me this won't happen: "I love Duke. And we'd love to have you be part of the Great Tradition at Duke. -- Mike Krzyzewski, Gold Medal Winner, USA Basketball Coach, Four-Time NCAA Champion. American Express cardholder."

Jokes aside, the almost-universal action will be an acknowledgment of past recruiting practicalities and a thrust into the unbeatable technological, communicative future. The NCAA's revised rule on text messaging and phone calls will officially go into effect, meaning any recruit who is finishing up or has already completed his sophomore year of high school is eligible to be raided by text messages and phone calls the way so many of us pathetic guys have been overbearing before with girlfriends or wished-they-were-our-girlfriends in the past.

Yes, I want you to imagine the memorable, pathetic Favreau scene from Swingers, then picture some college coaches channeling that desperation over the course of this summer and years down the road. It's not only unlimited texting to graduating sophomores and juniors (seniors, of course, already having chosen their college of choice by the time they get their high school diploma). There will not be a limit on phone calls anymore. For the past few years? Only one call per month, with strict limits on text messages and private messages on social media services. It unquestionably stagnated the process, and simple things like missed phone calls would incite coaches to regrettably break minor rules in order to ensure they somehow talked or texted a recruit.

Or, even worse, things like this would happen:

"There's been several times this spring where I've called a recruit, he won't take it, and texts back, 'Who is this?' And you can't text him back. So I have to find his high school coach later and tell the kid who it is," new Southern Miss coach Donnie Tyndall said.

Instead of a give-and-take and natural feel-it-out process, for many months of the year, recruiting was a cat-and-mouse chase. From there, the reality of a prospect's prospects and a program's pool of players isn't on the same wavelength. Recruits want attention, but they want it only from the schools and coaches they admire and seek to play for. The courting can be more direct now, and coaches can get an idea of who to hone in on. Less manpower will be used on irrational targets.

"The rule needed to be changed back," Dayton's Archie Miller said. "Even from five years ago, when you could text, it's so much more elevated now."

So, is this a good thing overall? Even if the rule had to be changed -- and it did, no doubt; the limits on text messages and phone calls in general redefined the word "archaic" when it came to recruiting -- what sort of culture are we entering into now? The intent of the rule is not only tech- and common sense-minded, but it also aims to take out third-party go-betweeners, which many coaches used anyway in recent years, as their phones needed virtual padlocks depending on the time of year and age of recruit.

This slims down the phonebook-thick NCAA rule book just a bit, and will prevent any more coaches (think: Kelvin Sampson) from being fired over text messages and phone calls. On the flip side, discretion is modus operandi some will struggle with. Oh, things are going to get awkward, for sure.

"Number one, you have to have a plan of attack going in," Miller said. "When you talk to a kid and his family, I've had parents say don't text my kid, just text me. It's always been my impression you want to talk to them as much as you can, and if they don't hit you back, then you understand."

Miller's now 15 months into the job, knows it more, and has his philosophies aligned. Last year it was "scramble and gamble," and now the rule particularly allows him to line up and chase down his recruits. For every open scholarship he has, Miller said he'll go after four kids, hoping to land one of them. Yes: batting .250 is success for many schools.

"I'm not 35 years into this deal. I have to really earn it," Miller said. "As a head coach, if I'm involved early, I'm going to work my own way, with my own tactics. That doesn't mean I'll be texting 36 guys, but there will be ones I will now go after."

Before, he couldn't do that with direct communication. Now he's free to even privately message players on Twitter. I do wonder what a lot of coaches have planned for a few hours from now, because make no mistake, June 15 means the start of a new war. Tonight is one big reconnaissance mission. It will honestly feel like the closest thing to Christmas for many coaches whose jobs rely on reeling in the right guys in order to win long term.

If you're skeeved out by the process, know that not every coach out there will be clock-watching.

"Well, I'm not going to throw a midnight text party," Robert Morris' Andy Toole said. "If a kid doesn't come to Robert Morris because we didn't text him at midnight, he's probably not the right kid anyway."

Good perspective. Other coaches won't follow that philosophy.

"I guarantee at bigger schools there are texts ready to go out to two or three hundred kids at midnight," Cornell's Bill Courtney said. He should know -- he has worked with BCS programs before.

"I think eventually it will calm down, but in the beginning, you'll have young, aggressive assistants wanting to prove themselves as recruiters. They're already foaming at the mouth."

And that's where the head coaches and the assistants who are, I don't know, around 40 years old or younger are best suited. They've adapted to cellphones and smartphones more than guys like Jim Boeheim, Tom Izzo, Jim Calhoun, etc. Courtney said he has talked to older guys in the establishment recently, and they've said there's no way they're getting into the text wars at this point in their lives/career. That's fine, but Tyndall's right when he says this:

"There's no way it can't be an advantage. The younger staffs and tech-savvy staffs will have better ways to build a relationship."

Like Miller (33), Toole is one of the youngest coaches in the game (31). For guys like him, at programs like RMU, the new rule also levels the playing field to an extent. Here's how: Before, with recruits able to receive only one call per month from RMU, or Temple, or Duquesne, or Pitt, the real desire or intensity of the recruiting couldn't be measured. The actions couldn't support the words. Now the smaller teams can chase after recruits that sometimes -- and yes, this goes both ways -- wildly overestimate how much a bigger school is interested. The big boys, they tick off recruits like extra items on a shopping list just because they can.

Now? When Robert Morris really wants a player, that player will know. And after, say, the tether to Temple's line goes silent, it adds perspective so the recruit really knows who's most interested.

"I think, now, if we really feel a kid's a priority, and we want to go overboard with text and phone calls, 'Hey, these guys are calling me four times a week, or every other day, or texting me every day and are showing me I'm a priority,' " Toole said, adding that such a philosophy isn't as smothering as you might think because "kids are really good at avoiding you. If they don't have interest in you, you'll find out real quick."

As it goes with anything, the nature and volume of the conversation/texts will depend on the kid. Still, though it's a two-way street, the coaches are the ones controlling the traffic. For example, some players will want the attention. They'll crave it. It has become that way more and more, and that could speak to some level at why college basketball is a different, and worse, game than it was 20 years ago. But others don't want or need to be coddled and cooed at.

Truth is, in the big picture, the rule's just going to prevent a lot of coaches from getting in trouble, and in turn give the NCAA less work in tracking down tedious secondary violations. On the whole, the same level of player is going to go to the same level of school he was always going to go to. The actual school might change, because solid relationships will be fostered, but this rule doesn't mean Michigan State loses its stature amid the horde just because Tom Izzo doesn't know how to text. Younger staffs will have advantages, but few things sway recruits like big-time school logos and precedents of putting players into the pros.

Assistants have been doing the bulk of the recruiting for decades now, and it will stay that way. The big benefit is the head coach can make the crucial call whenever he wants now. And when is more communication a bad thing? You know, except for when the girl won't call you back.

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Cold war defense treaty under fire in Latin America

The treaty says an attack against any country in the hemisphere will be treated as an attack against all. The withdrawal of four countries is symbolic of regional power shifts, writes a blogger.

By James Bosworth,?Guest blogger / June 8, 2012

? A version of this post ran on the author's blog, bloggingsbyboz.com. The views expressed are the author's own.

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Four ALBA countries, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela announced they are formally pulling out of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR or Rio Pact). The treaty, signed in 1947, is a cold war relic. It says an attack against any country in the hemisphere will be treated as an attack against all. Similar to NATO's Article 5, it's a collective defense mechanism meant to deter a Soviet invasion.
?
Of course, the Soviet Union is long gone. Today, there is little threat of a military attack from a country outside this hemisphere against one inside this hemisphere. My first reaction to the TIAR announcement was to joke about it. The Russians aren't going to invade Nicaragua and the North Koreans aren't going to launch a ballistic missile at Bolivia because the deterrent threat of TIAR is being removed. Mexico pulled out of TIAR in 2002 due to its dispute with the US over the Iraq war and the lack of a collective defense treaty appears the least of Mexico's military and security concerns today.
?
The withdrawal from the treaty by the ALBA countries is symbolic. The Rio Pact is one of the founding documents of the modern inter-American system, coming from a time period in which the US was far more dominant over the region than it is now. The countries withdrawing are looking to rewrite inter-American relations as well as weaken or destroy the institutions of the current regional system that do not benefit their current leadership.

Even if you disagree with the motives of Bolivian President Morales and his allies, it's not wrong to think that TIAR is an anachronism. Collective defense in the 21st century must mean something very different than what it meant as World War II ended and the cold war began. TIAR may be symbolically important to the history of inter-American relations, but it's questionable whether it's relevant to the threats that are faced today.
?
If Brazil is hit by a Chinese cyber attack, do other countries in the hemisphere respond? If the US is bombed by Iranian-backed terrorists, what does Latin America do? The honest answer is that if some unlikely military threat scenario were to occur in this hemisphere, the regional response would be based on modern political will and diplomacy, not the language of a treaty that's 65 years old and gathering dust.
?
So is TIAR worth keeping around? Sure. The concept of collective defense is a good one to have in this hemisphere. TIAR has symbolic value that the hemisphere is united against common threats, even if the specifics of the treaty haven't been used much. But it wouldn't be the end of the world if TIAR fell apart or other countries withdrew. Every country in the hemisphere should work with their neighbors to prepare for modern threats whether or not an old-fashion treaty is in place.

? James Bosworth is a freelance writer and consultant who runs Bloggings by Boz.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of Latin America bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.

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'Fear Factor' Donkey Semen Stunt Airs On Danish Television (VIDEO)

It was deemed un-airable for American audiences, but the "Fear Factor" segment that featured contestants challenged to drink a glass of donkey semen and a glass of donkey urine recently aired on Danish television, reports TMZ.

The episode, "Hee Haw! Hee Haw!," was initially scheduled to air on Jan. 30, before NBC executives decided to pull it at the last moment.

It was a decision that likely didn't shock the show's host Joe Rogan, who hinted at the stunt, and the possibility that it may be too gross to air, in an interview with The Huffington Post in December 2011.

"The biggest example, I can't tell you unfortunately because they haven't even decided whether or not they're gonna air it. It's really that crazy," Rogan explained.

"I got there and they told me what we were gonna do, and I just started laughing like, 'There's no way. That's not really gonna happen. Wait, is that really gonna happen?' [Laughs] I wish I could tell you. NBC's still looking at the footage going, 'Uhhhh, can we do that?' There's gonna be a lot of people that are going to be upset -- it really is ridiculous."

The stunt, which involves a woman drinking a 24-ounce glass of donkey semen while her twin sister downs a glass of donkey urine, was somehow cool with Danish television execs, who chose to air the episode this week.

Watch at your own risk.

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'iPhone 5' Video: Allegedly Leaked Component Gives Clues To Apple's Next Handset?

Apple's iPhone 5 may be two-toned after all. A new video from mobile parts seller ETrade Supply made waves Thursday for featuring the same alleged iPhone 5 frame 9to5Mac got its hands on recently.

The video comparison of the new iPhone part with an iPhone 4S advances the series of next-gen rumors that have spread like wildfire as the countdown for Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference on June 11 continues.

(See the alleged iPhone 5 part in the video above.)

Providing a more advanced, 360-degree view of the alleged iPhone 5 part, the handler in the video shows off the placement of the model's relocated earbud jack and tiny charging port. Most apparent though, is the iPhone part's length since it is much longer, and slightly thinner, than the iPhone 4S. This size could potentially provide the space for a larger, 4-inch screen.

What's also interesting, as the handler points out, is that the new iPhone part appears to combine both the metal frame and back pane of the iPhone. In earlier generations, these parts were separate.

It's not likely Apple will unveil the iPhone 5 until the fall -- fingers crossed for September -- so until then, iPhone fanatics will have to make due iPhone 5 mock-ups and leaks.

(h/t Slate)

Check out the gallery below to see this past weekend's roundup of Apple rumors.

  • This Could Be The Design Of The iPhone 5

    Maybe it's because we're so close to an Apple event -- the Worldwide Developers Conference starts June 11th -- but the Apple rumors have been flying faster than a hummingbird on a caffeine kick, I tell ya what. <br> <br> For example: We have a boat-load of iPhone 5 rumors this week. And not a small boat, either: A really big boat! Loaded up with iPhone 5 rumors.<br> <br> First off the boat is this rumor from 9to5Mac. The Apple-focused site claims to have images of the back shell of the upcoming iPhone, one of which you can admire at left. As you can see, it's got a bit of a two-tone look -- the white one, particularly, looks like a bowling shoe.<br> <br> Aesthetic concerns aside, you might also notice that the dock connector is much smaller than on previous versions (start saving for a new car charger now...) and that the headphone jack has mysteriously moved to the bottom of the device. Hey, Little Buddy! How'd you get down there?<br> <br> For more photos of what could be the next iPhone, and a bunch of thoughts about what these leaks mean, head over to 9to5Mac.<br> <br> Like we said, though, this isn't the only iPhone 5 photo to slip onto the Internet this week. Oh no. Here's another one, coming at you in FIVE, FOUR, THREE....

  • This Could ALSO Be The Design Of The iPhone 5?

    In addition to 9to5Mac's leaked iPhone 5 photos, a website called uBreakiFix.com -- which, I am told, fixes things that you break -- unveiled a mysterious iPhone 5 picture of its own.<br> <br> It's a similar, lower-quality version of the one posted on 9to5Mac, which makes me think the two might have the same leaker (You guys should all have lunch together or something!). Like the snapshots from 9to5Mac, this model iPhone (via our buddies at Engadget) also shows the transported headphone jack and smaller dock connector. Also, the two-tone-bowling-shoes color scheme. This isn't Nam, Smokey. There are rules, etc., etc. <br> <br> Bowling jokes aside, the new design sure is striking, huh? (So sorry). But what's that? You're still thirsty for more looks at the new iPhone? Well then DRINK THIS MILKSHAKE ---

  • Schematic Shows 4-Inch Display For iPhone 5

    This blueprint, supposedly of the next iPhone, comes to us via Cydiablog.com. Cydiablog -- which I have on good authority is a blog covering Cydia -- received the blueprint in their mailbox and trusted the sender enough to publish the dang thing. As you can see, the display is the same width as the one on the iPhone 4S; this one, however, is a bit taller, hypothetically giving the iPhone 5 afour inch diagonal. <br> <br> As a hero of my childhood once said: "Hey, it could happen!" (And it probably will happen, if the clusters of reports from the likes of the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, <em>Reuters</em>, and <em>Bloomberg</em> over the past weeks are accurate).<br> <br> So when will this bad boy come out? When do we have to stop speculating about whether this leak is real, or that photo is authentic, or whether I'm calling my mother enough? One analyst thinks he has an answer...

  • New iPhone Will Be Released in September Or October Says Analyst

    RBC Capital Markets Analyst and amateur dubstep DJ* Amit Daryanani says that a new line of MacBooks should be ready for June release and that the new iPhone will be out this fall with 4G LTE. That's in line with the thinking of -- well -- just about everyone. <br> <br> New MacBooks in June. New iPhone in September or October (probably October). Write it in Sharpie on your wife's forehead: That's the schedule. <br> <br> Speaking of new MacBooks...<br> <br> *not really though

  • SECRET ACTIVITY Happening At Apple Stores Around The World

    AppleInsider reports that some SECRET STUFF has been going down at several Apple stores, with CLANDESTINE executive visits and all-hands meetings SHROUDED IN SECRECY. The Apple site doesn't think these SECRET MEETINGS are concerned with new hardware (though MacBook Pros are totally coming in June); rather, NO ONE KNOWS why these SECRET MEETINGS are taking place.<br> <br> As if this couldn't get any better, there's this, an actual sentence from the AppleInsider report:<br> <em>Separate and perhaps even more mysterious claims were also shared this week with AppleInsider, alleging that network engineers from Apple's retail headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., showed up at several retail stores unannounced, wielding a mysterious "black box." Those who arrived reportedly had back-of-house access codes and keys, along with passwords for local servers in the retail stores. </em> <br> A MYSTERIOUS BLACK BOX. PASSWORDS. CODES. KEYS. <br> <br> Let's move on -- SOMEONE COULD BE LISTENING.

  • Also Debuting At WWDC: New Maps (Pictured?), New Apple TV Interface, iTV?

    So, WWDC -- Apple's conference for developers around the wide world -- takes place in June, and now that it's getting closer, the rumors around what Apple will unveil are flying. Here they are, in bullet points, for your convenience:<br> <br> - Apple will probably show off iOS 6 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, featuring a new 3D version of the Maps app. Boy Genius Report has what it says are pictures; 9to5Mac has all the details here. <br> - Apple might also show off a new interface for its Apple TV set-top box, says BGR. The well-connected Jon Gruber surmises that this may be true, especially if Apple opens up the OS to third-party applications. That would mean Apple would get to pitch the developers in the audience on Apple TV and inspire them to code for it.<br> - Apple could, JUST MAYBE, show off a prototype of its "iTV" television set -- again, to inspire developers to write apps for it. <br> <br> The first two seem likely; the third one is more of a longshot, though a possibility, I suppose. After all the television talk and innuendo from the company's CEO at the All Things D, who knows what Apple is Cook-ing up?<br> <br> I'm sorry for that pun. I am so, so sorry for that pun.<br> <br> That's all for This Week In Apple Rumors. Check back next week for more, and if you can't wait that long, you can get up-to-the-minute Apple rumors by following me on Twitter right here.

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UK's Cameron to face media ethics inquiry

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Sector Snap: Analyst raises cruise cos. estimates

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juelz santana

Brian Halligan of Hubspot: Thoughts on the ... - Small Business Trends

Ever have a great idea that turned into something big? So big that a component of it broke The Guinness Book of World Records? ?Brian Halligan and the folks at HubSpot did. ?And they broke the world record for the largest amount of registrants and attendees at an online webinar ? 33,000 to be exact. ?So what does a company like this think about the new and old players in the world of social media? ?Tune in as Brian shares his thoughts and insights on the matter with Brent Leary.

* * * * *

Small Business Trends: Could you have imagined, six years ago when you started, that you would have 6,000 customers, 300+ employees, multiple acqusitions and investors like Google and Salesforce?

Brian Halligan: Even the blind squirrel finds a nut. ?We found one and we had a very good idea as it turns out. We saw a big shift in the way humans were living, buying and shopping. ?The basic idea was that marketing needed to change to adjust to that, so it worked out great. ?It feels like we are in the second inning of the game with a lot more work to do.

Small Business Trends: Do you guys get 45,000 leads each month?

Brian Halligan: That is true. ?And 99% of them are inbound leads. We create lots of content and each piece is like a magnet that pulls in leads. ?It is still going incredibly well. ?The stuff we produced four or five years ago is still pulling in leads today. ?We turned our website into a hub on the internet essentially.

Small Business Trends: Which webinar has driven the most registrations?

Brian Halligan: We broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest webinar ever. ?I do not have the exact numbers, but I think we had 30K+ registrants and 20K+ attendees. ?I think the title was ?The Science of Social Media.?

Small Business Trends: When you think about where we are today, how companies are leveraging social media, is it where you thought we?d be?

Brian Halligan: It is. When we first started HubSpot social media was starting to go. ?But it was more like Digg and Reddit and sites like that. ?Now it has evolved to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and Pinterest. ?A whole new of cast of characters. But it is the way we thought.

We saw this shift in behavior from all the leverage being in the vendor?s hands, to the shift into the customer?s hands and potential customer?s hands. The customers were talking to each other and that is one thing that we did see. We certainly did not predict Twitter, we didn?t predict Pinterest. ?But we predicted this wave of change in behavior and it happened sooner than we thought.

Small Business Trends: How is Pinterest changing things? ?Is it along the same lines as what Facebook was like two or three years ago? ?Or is it a flash in the pan?

Brian Halligan: The truth is, I don?t have any idea. I thought I could predict this stuff. ?But you know, the thing that is fascinating about these social media sites is you study in business school about network effects. ?You would assume that a business like Facebook, where they get all of these users and the value of the system increases with the number of users. ?They have all of that locked in, there is no way that thing falls, but it could fall. I mean, Friendster fell, Myspace fell. Twitter came out of nowhere, and Pinterest came out of nowhere.

The barriers to entry on these things are lower than we think. ?I have been shocked. The thing that does not shock me is the Facebook rise. The thing that shocked me was the rise of Twitter and Pinterest. ?Because I thought people were just doing it in Facebook. ?But it turns out, there is room for lots of other social networks in people?s lives. It is absolutely fascinating what is going on.

Small Business Trends: What do you think about Google+?

Brian Halligan: My take is, I don?t think Google Plus is going to make it over the long haul. ?What is interesting about these social networks is sometimes they cross the chasm, entering into mainstream users lives. Digg and Reddit didn?t go mainstream. Facebook did. ?Twitter is really starting to. I just don?t think Google+ is going to make that leap. It is too similar to Facebook. ?Whereas Twitter and Pinterest are quite different.

The fascinating thing about Google+ is how Google search results are starting to really use Google+ data. ?Then you look at Bing search results, using Facebook and Twitter data. If Microsoft plays it?s cards right, that is going to really enhance the search results of Bing. It will be interesting to see how that develops over time.

Small Business Trends: What do you think about Microsoft?s role in the future of social?

Brian Halligan: I am not super bullish. It does not feel they have the momentum or the talent to really put a dent in the universe. It feels like a very mature business, like GE, that kicks up a lot of cash, kicks up dividends. ?But I am just not that bullish on them doing something really cool.

Small Business Trends: What about Amazon?

Brian Halligan: They just have really big, big ambitions. They are super patient and they make huge bets and they execute them so well. I think they are very, very interesting. ?I would not count Bezos out of any game he is so, so smart. It is a fascinating company.

Small Business Trends: Recently, you held your first analyst day. Why is it time to start embracing the analyst/thought leaders/influencer community in a more formalized process?

Brian Halligan: When we started HubSpot, it was about helping businesses get leads. ?It worked. Then our customers started saying they needed help in converting leads into customers. ?How do you do segmentation? ?Nurturing? ?How do you get smarter about that stuff? So we bought a company that did that really well and we just announced it a couple of weeks ago.

It turns out that lead management functionality is very valuable to mid-size and larger companies. ?It turns out that those companies listen to analysts like you Brent. So we said, let?s invite Brent and his pals from Forrester and all of the different analyst firms out to tell them about it.

This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.

Whether you?re growing your business or starting a new venture, BlackBerry solutions provide you with the freedom you want and the control you need. [Series sponsor]

?

About the Author

Brent Leary Brent Leary is a Partner at CRM Essentials and organizer of the upcoming Social Business Atlanta conference taking place on February 3rd, 2012. Brent serves on the advisory board of The University of Toronto CRM Center of Excellence, writes the Social CRM column for Inc.com's technology site, and blogs at BrentLeary.com.

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How a shrimp's 200-lb. punch could lead to better football helmets

Scientists have marveled at how the mantis shrimp breaks open its prey, but only now are engineers learning how the shrimp's club is built ? and how that could help humans.?

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / June 8, 2012

Study of how the mantis shrimp attacks its prey could lead to human applications.

Carlos Puma

Enlarge

A shrimp? A shrimp? You talkin' to me?

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Tread lightly around the mantis peacock shrimp. Up to 7 inches long, this crustacean sports gregarious colors ? and an extraordinarily powerful, resilient club for whacking its prey.

Now, a team of scientists has uncovered the secrets of the club's construction, unrolling a blueprint that holds the promise of a new generation of lightweight, impact- and shock-resistant materials for products ranging from body armor and electric cars to football helmets that better shield players from head injuries.

Indeed, the researchers already have designed composite materials based on the club's natural design that have successfully withstood several types of high-velocity munitions, says David Kisailus, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of California at Riverside, who along with colleagues from six other institutions conducted the study.

The peacock mantis shrimp feeds on some of the hardest nuts to crack in the ocean ? snails, other crustaceans, as well as other forms of shellfish.?It does so by unleashing its club repeatedly at unusually high speeds until the shells of its prey crack open enough to expose the shrimp's meal.

How it does this is crucial to understanding the enormous stresses it is able sustain.

Like a praying mantis, the shrimp have a folded appendage near their heads. The appendage resembles a football punter's tightly draw leg just before he unleashes the kick. The appendage has a latch that locks the joint until a muscle in the upper portion of the appendage has fully contracted. When the shrimp releases the latch, it unleashes the pent-up energy in the muscle, flinging the appendage outward, explains Shelia Patek, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who?uncovered a spring-like material at the joint that further energizes the strike.

Dr. Patek and fellow researchers have clocked the shrimp's punt at more than 45 miles an hour ? underwater. That makes it the new world champ for so-called feeding strikes ? the movement animals make to nail their prey. It's nearly twice as fast as a punch a boxer typically throws in open air and delivers a force of more than 200 pounds, with the club accelerating with a force of some 10,000 Gs ? 500 times more acceleration force than humans can endure.

And that isn't all. Patek's team also found that the strike imparted a second rattling impulse to a creature's shell that came quickly on the heels of the first strike. When the researchers examined high-speed video, they saw a brief flash of light at the point of contact ? the telltale signs of cavitation.

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