Is being happy simply a matter of habit?

Gertrude Stein had a routine of driving into the French countryside with her beloved partner to view cows. The American writer, poet and art collector needed to gaze upon one – the right kind of one, reportedly – in order to feel calm and happy. She would get out of the car, set up a camp stool, paper and pencil in hand, hoping for inspiration to write, while Alice Toklas took a switch to a cow to coax her into the author’s line of vision. If the cow didn’t suit Ms. Stein’s mood, off they would go in search of one that did. (Apparently, she had a thing about looking at rocks, too.)

Writers are often ritualistic. They need their routines, perhaps because a fervid imagination needs a little structure to keep it running along nicely: to start it up; give it rest; enhance its endurance. It’s a bit like breaking in a wild horse. Stephen King insists on going to sleep with the open end of his pillowcase pointed toward the other side of the bed. John Grisham has to have written his first word of the day by 5:30 a.m. Once, I interviewed John Waters, the Prince of Puke, as the American writer and maker of cult films (Hairspray, Pink Flamingos) is popularly known. He told me he sets his alarm for 6:10 every morning and has to get out of bed by 6:14 if he wants his day to go right.

But apart from the legendary (and often superstitious) eccentricity of writers and their habits, rituals and routines play an important role in creating a sense of well-being for many people, happiness studies show.

Children like routines because of the security such predictability creates. And feeling secure makes them happy. But is comfort and predictability what we still need as adults? In that regard, we never really grow up, psychologists say. The world’s capacity to overwhelm its inhabitants never diminishes, after all. Habits tamp down anxiety over the uncertainty about what will happen – or not. No matter what, there will always be a bath before dinner with a bar of delicately scented Roger & Gallet soap.

Anthropologists will point out that routines and rituals are the stuff of human civilization. But routines also tell us who we are.

Sure, they’re a mild form of subjugation – a control of self, subconscious or not – but I also think of them as powerful markers of identification. Even bad ones, such as addictions, tell us how we think and feel. But when we develop good ones, they can be celebrations of self, a way of honouring who we know ourselves to be. I like the way Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen described her habits. She called them “tender ties.” They’re what tether us to our specific being.

A friend of mine, who lives alone, has a habit of starting her day with a beautiful breakfast that she cooks carefully for herself. She sets the table. She puts on classical music. She sits amidst a collection of flowering plants, the perfection of their blossoms a source of joy and quiet contemplation, she says. It’s about setting up her day with calmness; holding the world at bay until she’s ready to enter it.

Robin Sharma, the motivational speaker and leadership coach whose latest book is The Secret Letters of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, is devoted to his routines, which he calls “my personal institutions.” For more than 12 years, he has indulged in “Holy Hour,” which begins at 5 a.m., when he rises each day. He exercises to jump-start his metabolism and promote happy-making endorphins. He drinks water; listens to books on his iPod; drinks coffee; writes in his journal and reads.

“The world can take you off course. And rather than being reactive under other people’s priorities, it’s important to be leading proactive lives, advancing our own priorities,” explains the former litigation lawyer whose first book, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari – self-published in 1996 and edited by his mother – went on to sell two million copies worldwide. Far from being restrictions, his routines “create freedom,” he says.

His habit of scheduling his upcoming week on a Sunday is his way of “connecting with what I stand for,” he says. He writes in his weekly massage, his family nights with his children, his meetings, his workouts. “Just doing these things keeps me feeling at my best. I think of them in the context of the professional athlete. The best tennis players don’t just show up on the court and play brilliantly. They have engaged in rituals off the court which have allowed them to get themselves into the best state of mind and body.”

Mr. Sharma’s routines tell him that he’s a performance-driven individual, who still has a lawyerly “billable hours” mentality about effectively parcelling up his day to maximize productivity.

And then there are the famous routines of Winston Churchill. He woke at 7:30 every morning and remained in bed to eat breakfast and read his mail and the newspapers, according to the website dailyroutines.com. He even gave dictation to his secretary from bed. He got up at 11, bathed, went for a walk, and took a weak soda and whiskey to his study. A three-course lunch was served at 1 p.m., including champers and a cigar. At 5 p.m., he had another weak whiskey and soda. Then he napped for an hour and a half. He bathed again at 6:30 p.m., dressed for dinner at 8 p.m., and worked into the wee hours when everyone else went to sleep.

What does that say about him? Well, he knew what gave him pleasure, and he was unapologetic about it. So, go ahead, say you’re Churchillian in your habits. It sounds very grand, and you can do what makes you happy.

The Globe and Mail

Hip Cities That Think About How They Work

The story of young people, full of ambition, energy, skill and talent, moving to enticing cities that call to them like a siren’s song is as old as modern civilization. And in a world where national borders are easier to traverse, where more countries are joining the prosperous global middle class and where the cost of a one-way plane ticket is more affordable, young professionals probably have more cities to choose from than ever before.

The Vilnius Cathedral and square in Lithuania.

This survey is not based solely on quality of life, number of trees or the cost of a month’s rent. Instead, we examine some cities that aim to be both smart and well managed, yet have an undeniably hip vibe. Our pick of cities that are, in a phrase, both great and good:
 
Auckland
With its beaches, inlets and lush coastal climate, the Kiwi metropolis has always had great natural beauty going for it (and, now, for the first time in 24 years, it is the home to the World Cup Rugby Champions). But we digress. Currently counting 1.5 million residents , the government is projecting the city to hit the two million-mark in just 30 years. The city has recently voted to create a new central core that mixes sustainable housing and mixed-use development.

The public transportation system, which includes subways, trams, busses and ferries, is constantly being expanded. Measures to increase the density of the urban landscape, meant to ultimately prevent encroachment on surrounding lands, as well as planting “green carpets” along urban roads demonstrate a keen eye toward creating a greener future. Plus, the city is expanding its free Wi-Fi coverage, according to a city official. Auckland is doing its best to “up their game with urban design,” said Angela Jones, a spokesperson for the city, turning a beautiful but provincial capital into a smart city.
 
Berlin
 
This culture capital combines low rents, a white-hot arts scene, good public transportation and myriad creative types — from media to design to technology — from all over the world. Known as Europe’s largest construction zone for at least 10 of the past 20 years, 4.4-million-strong Berlin has probably changed more in that time than any other large European city. And while the restaurants have become more expensive, the clothes are now more stylish and the D.J.’s have added more attitude, there is still plenty of real city left to be discovered by the thousands of artists and young professionals who move here every year to make this the pulsing center of Germany, the powerhouse of Europe.

Besides radical renovations to the government center, main train station and the old Potsdamer Platz, the city recently turned a historic airport in its heart into a vast urban park. A short-term bike-rental system is in place and the old subway system, reunited after the fall of the wall, like the city itself, is as efficient as ever. Besides artists and bohemians looking for the vibe, the city — home to several prestigious universities, research institutes and many a company headquarter — is brimming with smart scientists and savvy businessmen.
 
Barcelona 
 
Anyone who has walked down Las Ramblas on a summer evening or has stared at the Sagrada Familia for long enough understands why this city attracts planeloads of tourists. Music, good food, great weather and strong technology and service sectors compete to make this city of 1.6 million a home for all those who want to stay beyond summer break.

If all the traditional charms of Barcelona were not enough, an active city government is trying to keep this city smart, too. Under its auspices, photovoltaic solar cells have been installed on many public and private rooftops.

Charging stations for electrical cars and scooters have recently been set up around the city, in preparation for the day when residents will be tooling around in their electric vehicles. A biomass processing plant is being built that will use the detritus from city parks to generate heat and electricity, and free Wi-Fi is available at hotspots around the city.
 
Cape Town 
 
Wedged between sea and mountain, Cape Town’s natural setting is stunning. Nor does the city — with its colorful neighborhoods, historic sites, and easy charm — disappoint. And while its one of Africa’s top tourist destinations, it also attracts many new residents from around the globe. The local government is trying to lead the growing city of 3.5 million with a more inclusive government and development structure, to overcome the gross inequities of South Africa’s past.

Four major universities and many research institutes make Cape Town one of the continent’s bustling research centers. Named the 2014 World Design Capital last month, the city government is encouraging a cluster of design and creative firms in a neighborhood called the Fringe. The 2010 World Cup of soccer was a boon for infrastructure, especially public transportation. A new bus system, with dedicated lanes, has been rolled out in recent years to keep the many suburbs connected and alleviate crushing traffic.

Under a program called Smart Cape, libraries and civic centers have computer terminals with free Internet access. Poverty and crime are still issues in Cape Town, but overall quality of life indicators rank the city as one of the best in Africa.
 
Copenhagen 
 
Progressive, cozy and very beautiful, the young and the elegant flock to this northern light. Rents might not be as low as in other hip cities, but the social infrastructure in this metropolitan area of 1.9 million cannot be beat. Offering a prosperous blend of art, culture and scene, this highly tolerant city is attracting young professionals lucky enough to work in the center of Danish industry and commerce.

A mix of stately old European buildings and modern, green-oriented architecture speaks of a city that treasures the old but loves experimenting with the new.
Despite its cool Scandinavian climate, the Danish capital might just be the most bicycle-friendly city in the world. Bike superhighways crisscross the city, and statistics show that more than a third of the city’s inhabitants commute to work or school on their trusty two-wheelers.
A metro system was inaugurated in the last decade for those who choose to go without. With sunlight-flooded underground stations and clean, driverless subway cars, the system looks more like a people-mover at an international airport than an urban transport system.

Having committed itself to reducing carbon levels by 20 percent before 2015, some of the city’s power is generated by wind. The city has been so successful in cleaning up its once-industrial harbor that it has been able to open three public baths in a harbor waterway.
 
Curitiba, Brazil 
 
One of the smartest cities in Latin America, Brazil’s wealthy regional capital attracts many new inhabitants with jobs in service and production sectors, and with the promise a functioning city. The 1.7 million residents have access to a bus-based rapid transport system so good that more than 700,000 commuters use it daily. Buses run on designated lanes that, because of a unique and modern urban design, have right-of-way and preferred access to the city center.

A beautiful botanical garden and other city parks, along with other strong environmental measures, keep the air largely clear of pollution, despite Curitiba’s land-locked location.

The city strives to be sustainable in other ways, too. According to reports, it recently invested $106 million, or 5 percent, of its budget into its department of environment. The city government makes itself integral in the lives of Curitibans, not just seeking comment and feedback on policies, but also organizing a host of events. “Bike Night” is the latest craze in the active city. Each Tuesday, residents take to their bikes and peddle through the night, accompanied by municipal staff members.
 
Montreal
With its hearty French and North American mix, this city of 3.6 million has a real soul thanks to low living costs and long winter evenings. And it is no slouch when it comes to good food, hip culture, well-appointed museums and efficient transportation.

With four major universities and plenty of bars, the nightlife in this bilingual city has a well-deserved reputation. Because the winters tend to be long and cold, the city possesses an extensive underground network connecting several downtown malls and a subterranean arts quarter.

When spring finally does arrive, and snow is cleared from the many bike paths, the city puts out its 3,000 short-term-rental bicycles, known as Bixi. City-sponsored community gardens are sprouting around town, giving urbanites a chance to flex their green thumb. Montreal is an incredibly active town where festivals celebrating everything from jazz to Formula One dominate the city’s calendar during the summer.

Thanks to Mount Royal, a large central park and cemetery that serves as cross-country, snowshoe and ice-skating terrain in the winter and becomes a verdant picnic ground and gathering spot in the summer, Montrealers never have to leave city limits.
 
Santiago
A vibrant mix of Latin American culture and European sensibility, this Chilean city is modern, safe and smart. The rapidly growing city of 6.7 million — , which, perhaps surprisingly, was first subject to urban planning mandates in the mid-20th century — is still ahead of others in South America when it comes to urban governance. A law curtailing urban sprawl and protecting the few natural spaces close to the city is exemplary.

Beautiful old cultural jewels like the library and fine art museum are dwarfed by serious commercial skyscrapers. The smell of local food, good and inexpensive, brings life even to the streets of its financial district.

One of the most extensive public transport systems on the continent whisks more than 2.3 million commuters to and from work or school every day. Because of its high altitude, pollution is a problem — one that the national government is trying to curb with various green initiatives. Short-term bike rentals exist in one of the more active parts of town, and significant city funds have been used to construct bicycle lanes.

For a city this modern, however, Santiago has few parks. But the ocean is just a short drive to west and the mountains to the east.
 
Shanghai
China’s commercial heart has grown tremendously in the past couple of decades. Attracting young professionals with its jobs and opportunities rather than with museums and hip nightlife, this megacity of 23 million is surprisingly smart. Its top-down urban planning approach is efficient in a city made up of separate 16 districts and one county. City coffers are put to use building enormously ambitious infrastructure, like a deepwater port, tunnels, bridges and roadways.

A good indicator for the rapid and deliberate growth of the city is the metro system. First opened in 1995, it is now the world’s longest subway network, according to city officials. Adding a futuristic aspect to the utilitarian system is a Maglev (magnetic levitation) line that connects the airport to the city, and on which the train travels at speeds of up to 431 kilometers, or 268 miles, per hour.

But Shanghai’s urban development is also green. The city claims that it put the equivalent of $8 billion into environmental improvement and cleanup, which include sewage treatment systems but also an impressive number of city parks.
In addition, Shanghai has made its city government more accessible by running a Web site were residents can find municipal information, and read a blog entitled “mayor’s window.”
 
Vilnius, Lithuania
One of the greenest of the former Eastern bloc capitals, Vilnius has a forward-thinking city government. In a recent Internet video that spread virally, the mayor, Arturas Zuokas, is seen crushing a Mercedes parked on a bike path with a tank. Beyond the obvious political theater of the stunt, the city, whose metropolitan area population is 850,000 takes providing good public transportation seriously. A recent study suggested that some 70 percent of the capital’s citizens either walk, bike or take the bus.

Vilnius, a verdant city that despite some communist architectural clunkers is charmingly medieval and surprisingly well maintained, boasts an old town that is a Unesco world heritage site. After the fall of the old regime, the city took great pains to retool its waste disposal systems, building a modern landfill in 2005. The capital attracts young professionals, and not just from Eastern Europe, who see in Vilnius a rising star in business and appreciate all that the extensive cultural scene in the little capital has to offer.

by CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE. A version of this special report appeared in The New York Times  on November 18, 2011

Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters

HOW do people acquire high levels of skill in science, business, music, the arts and sports? This has long been a topic of intense debate in psychology.

Research in recent decades has shown that a big part of the answer is simply practice — and a lot of it. In a pioneering study, the Florida State University psychologist K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues asked violin students at a music academy to estimate the amount of time they had devoted to practice since they started playing. By age 20, the students whom the faculty nominated as the “best” players had accumulated an average of over 10,000 hours, compared with just under 8,000 hours for the “good” players and not even 5,000 hours for the least skilled. 

Those findings have been enthusiastically championed, perhaps because of their meritocratic appeal: what seems to separate the great from the merely good is hard work, not intellectual ability. Summing up Mr. Ericsson’s research in his book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell observes that practice isn’t “the thing you do once you’re good” but “the thing you do that makes you good.” He adds that intellectual ability — the trait that an I.Q. score reflects — turns out not to be that important. “Once someone has reached an I.Q. of somewhere around 120,” he writes, “having additional I.Q. points doesn’t seem to translate into any measureable real-world advantage.” 

David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, restates this idea in his book “The Social Animal,” while Geoff Colvin, in his book “Talent Is Overrated,” adds that “I.Q. is a decent predictor of performance on an unfamiliar task, but once a person has been at a job for a few years, I.Q. predicts little or nothing about performance.”

But this isn’t quite the story that science tells. Research has shown that intellectual ability matters for success in many fields — and not just up to a point. 

Exhibit A is a landmark study of intellectually precocious youths directed by the Vanderbilt University researchers David Lubinski and Camilla Benbow. They and their colleagues tracked the educational and occupational accomplishments of more than 2,000 people who as part of a youth talent search scored in the top 1 percent on the SAT by the age of 13. (Scores on the SAT correlate so highly with I.Q. that the psychologist Howard Gardner described it as a “thinly disguised” intelligence test.) The remarkable finding of their study is that, compared with the participants who were “only” in the 99.1 percentile for intellectual ability at age 12, those who were in the 99.9 percentile — the profoundly gifted — were between three and five times more likely to go on to earn a doctorate, secure a patent, publish an article in a scientific journal or publish a literary work. A high level of intellectual ability gives you an enormous real-world advantage. 

In our own recent research, we have discovered that “working memory capacity,” a core component of intellectual ability, predicts success in a wide variety of complex activities. In one study, we assessed the practice habits of pianists and then gauged their working memory capacity, which is measured by having a person try to remember information (like a list of random digits) while performing another task. We then had the pianists sight read pieces of music without preparation. 

Not surprisingly, there was a strong positive correlation between practice habits and sight-reading performance. In fact, the total amount of practice the pianists had accumulated in their piano careers accounted for nearly half of the performance differences across participants. But working memory capacity made a statistically significant contribution as well (about 7 percent, a medium-size effect). In other words, if you took two pianists with the same amount of practice, but different levels of working memory capacity, it’s likely that the one higher in working memory capacity would have performed considerably better on the sight-reading task.

It would be nice if intellectual ability and the capacities that underlie it were important for success only up to a point. In fact, it would be nice if they weren’t important at all, because research shows that those factors are highly stable across an individual’s life span. But wishing doesn’t make it so. 

None of this is to deny the power of practice. Nor is it to say that it’s impossible for a person with an average I.Q. to, say, earn a Ph.D. in physics. It’s just unlikely, relatively speaking. Sometimes the story that science tells us isn’t the story we want to hear.

A version of this op-ed appeared the New York Times.
by David Z. Hambrick and Elizabeth J. Meinz

House of Horrors, part 2

The bursting of the global housing bubble is only halfway through 

Nov 26th 2011 | The Economist.com

MANY of the world’s financial and economic woes since 2008 began with the bursting of the biggest bubble in history. Never before had house prices risen so fast, for so long, in so many countries. Yet the bust has been much less widespread than the boom. Home prices tumbled by 34% in America from 2006 to their low point earlier this year; in Ireland they plunged by an even more painful 45% from their peak in 2007; and prices have fallen by around 15% in Spain and Denmark. But in most other countries they have dipped by less than 10%, as in Britain and Italy. In some countries, such as Australia, Canada and Sweden, prices wobbled but then surged to new highs. As a result, many property markets are still looking uncomfortably overvalued.

The latest update of The Economist’s global house-price indicators shows that prices are now falling in eight of the 16 countries in the table, compared with five in late 2010. (For house prices from more countries see our website). 

To assess the risks of a further slump, we track two measures of valuation. The first is the price-to-income ratio, a gauge of affordability. The second is the price-to-rent ratio, which is a bit like the price-to-earnings ratio used to value companies. Just as the value of a share should reflect future profits that a company is expected to earn, house prices should reflect the expected benefits from home ownership: namely the rents earned by property investors (or those saved by owner-occupiers). 

If both of these measures are well above their long-term average, which we have calculated since 1975 for most countries, this could signal that property is overvalued.

Based on the average of the two measures, home prices are overvalued by about 25% or more in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, New Zealand, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden (see table). Indeed, in the first four of those countries housing looks more overvalued than it was in America at the peak of its bubble. Despite their collapse, Irish home prices are still slightly above “fair” value—partly because they were incredibly overvalued at their peak, and partly because incomes and rents have fallen sharply. In contrast, homes in America, Japan and Germany are all significantly undervalued. In the late 1990s the average house price in Germany was twice that in France; now it is 20% cheaper.

This raises two questions. First, since American homes now look cheap, are prices set to rebound? Average house prices are 8% undervalued relative to rents, and 22% undervalued relative to income (see chart). Prices may have reached a floor, but this is no guarantee of an imminent bounce. In Britain and Sweden in the mid-1990s, prices undershot fair value by around 35%. Prices in Britain did not really start to rise for almost four years after they bottomed. Some 4m foreclosed homes could come onto America’s market, which may hold down prices.

The second question is whether home prices in markets that are still overvalued are likely to fall. Some economists reject our measures of overvaluation, arguing that lower interest rates justify higher prices because buyers can take out bigger mortgages. There is some truth in this, but interest rates will not always be so low. The recent jump in bond yields in some euro-area countries has raised mortgage rates for new borrowers.

And low rates need to be balanced against the fact that tighter credit conditions make it harder for homebuyers to get mortgages. The average deposit needed by a British first-time buyer is now equivalent to 90% of average annual earnings, according to Capital Economics, a consultancy. It was less than 20% in the late 1990s. 

Another popular argument used to justify sky-high prices in countries such as Australia and Canada is that a rising population pushes up demand. But this should raise both prices and rents, leaving their ratios unchanged.

Prices do not necessarily need to drop sharply to return to fair value. Adjustment could come through higher rents and wages. With low inflation, however, it could take a decade or more before price ratios return to their long-run average in some countries.

Jingle mail

American prices fell sharply, even though homes were less overvalued than they were in many other countries, because high-risk mortgages and a surge in unemployment caused distressed sales. In most other countries, lenders avoided the worst excesses of subprime lending, and unemployment rose by less, so there were fewer forced sales dragging prices down. America is also unusual in having non-recourse mortgages that let borrowers walk away with no liability.

An optimist could therefore argue that our gauges overstate the extent to which house prices are overvalued, and that if markets are only a bit too expensive they can adjust gradually without a sharp fall. It is important to remember, however, that lower interest rates and rising populations were used to justify higher prices in America and Ireland before their bubbles burst so spectacularly.

Another concern is that Australia, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and Sweden all have even higher household-debt burdens in relation to income than America did at the peak of its bubble. Overvalued prices and large debts leave households vulnerable to a rise in unemployment or higher mortgage rates. A credit crunch or recession could cause house prices to tumble in many more countries.

Is Gomer a Gonner....

Gomez's contract will be an ongoing problem for the Canadiens as they will have to sign star goalie Carey price to a contract before July 1st 2012. At $7.3 million per season through 2013-2014 there really isn't a whole lot the Montreal Canadiens can do to shed that enormous contract. There is no - nor will there be - a trade unless Bob Gainey gets hired by another team.

Paying Gomez $ 1 million per goal as the Canadiens did last season is not an option with the emergence of young players like Max Paciotery and PK Subban needing to be locked up.  Montreal could waive him and assign him to Hamilton, hence removing his cap hit, but with term remaining on his contract, this is a very expensive option.

A buy out is possible, but months away from being determined and also an admission of a costly mistake.  According to CapGeek.com, the buyout cost for Gomez as of June 15, 2012 at 2/3 is $6,666,667...spread over four years.

Scott Gomez buyout from CapGeek.com:

2012-13: $3,523,810
2013-14: $4,523,810
2014-15: $1,666,667
2015-16: $1,666,667
ouch......

The Canadiens do not have the luxury of wasting the precious cap room until 2014.

Defying Belief, Defying Gravity

(CBS News) If scaling a 1,600-foot rock face seems terrifying, imagine scaling it without ropes or a harness. That's what Alex Honnold recently attempted in Yosemite National Park, using nothing more than his hands and feet. "60 Minutes" cameras were strategically placed along the climb, capturing every harrowing move. Correspondent Lara Logan interviews the man now being hailed as the best climber alive.

The ascent of Alex Honnold - 60 Minutes - CBS News

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7383158n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

Many Hedge Funds Will Not Survive 2011

October 07, 2011  

Where’s the hedging? You can’t blame disenchanted investors who drank the hedge fund Kool-Aid asking this question after seeing their funds down by double-digit rates through September, especially those who suffered through similar setbacks in 2008.

With data flowing in now, it is apparent that a large number of hedge funds are in the red this year and several dozen are down by double-digit rates. They include many well-known names that run billions of dollars.
Experts say many of these funds could face sizable redemptions. After all, in the next 30 to 60 days, these requests must be submitted to most hedge funds for year-end.

Investors also think this woeful performance will lead to a shakeout just as many experts have been proclaiming the resurgence in the asset class. A number of funds will no doubt choose to shut down altogether by year-end, figuring they don’t want to work for free for a year or two before they get back to the high water mark.
In fact, Ken Griffin’s decision not to shut down Kensington and Wellington after they lost more than 50 percent in 2008 surprised many people in the hedge fund business.

So, who are the biggest losers so far this year?

Of course, the most visible big loser this year is John Paulson. For example, through September 27, Paulson Advantage Fund was down 6 percent for the month and more than 28 percent for the year, while Paulson Advantage Plus, which takes on additional leverage, is presumably down even more.

Paulson International Fund was down 5.38 percent for the month, although it was “only” off 9.47 percent for the year.

Through September 28, Templeton Emerging Market Fund, headed by legendary emerging markets manager Mark Mobius lost about 20 percent for the month, and after just three trading days in October was down 22.70 percent for the full year.

Meanwhile, Lee Ainslie’s Maverick fund lost nearly 8 percent in September alone, and is down nearly 17 percent for the year through September 30. “I don’t understand this,” says a hedge fund investor who does not have money with Maverick but has looked at it in the past. “Ainslie runs a tight ship. He has a lot of portfolio managers.” Ainslie is one among dozens of Tiger Cubs, former employees of Tiger Management founder Julian Robertson.

Paul Ruddock’s Lansdowne Capital is also struggling. Through September 30 his $8 billion Lansdowne UK Equity fund is down more than 15 percent while Lansdowne Global Financials Fund is off 19.13 percent. Ruddock co-founded London-based Lansdowne Partners in 1998. He worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1980 to 1984 and at Schroder & Co. from 1984 to 1998.
Leon Cooperman’s Omega Fund also took a big beating in September, dropping 7.58 percent for the month alone and 12.36 percent for the year.

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square dropped 5.70 percent in September and is off nearly 16 percent for the year.
Among lesser known funds, The Altis Fund was down more than 10 percent for the month and nearly 30 percent for the year. The firm, which had $1.48 billion under management at the end of May, was founded in 2001 with just $1.2 million in assets by Alex Brunwin, Natasha Reeve-Gray, Stephen Hedgecock and Zbigniew Hermaszewski.

The MLM Macro Peak Partners fund was down 6.68 percent in September, bringing its full-year loss to more than 30 percent. The $1.2 billion fund is managed by Mount Lucas Management, which at the beginning of the year ran $ 1.9 billion for institutions and high net worth individuals. The macro fund combines quantitative and discretionary trading techniques.
CRM Windridge fund, managed by Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, was off 5.68 percent through September 27 and more than 28 percent for the year. It was also down 17.43 percent in 2010. Ouch!
The Lyxor/Island Drive Offshore Fund is down 10.16 percent this year after losing 25.65 percent and 29.32 percent in 2010 and 2009, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that currency specialist Covepoint Capital Advisors, headed by Melissa Ko, lost an astounding 38 percent in September in its Covepoint Emerging Markets Macro fund, pushing it down roughly 25 percent for the year. The fund reportedly bet 84 percent of its assets in currencies, one-fifth of which was invested in Mexico.

With Time Running Short, Jobs Managed His Farewell

Over the last few months, a steady stream of visitors to Palo Alto, Calif., called an old friend’s home number and asked if he was well enough to entertain visitors, perhaps for the last time.

In February, Steven P. Jobs had learned that, after years of fighting cancer, his time was becoming shorter. He quietly told a few acquaintances, and they, in turn, whispered to others. And so a pilgrimage began.

The calls trickled in at first. Just a few, then dozens, and in recent weeks, a nearly endless stream of people who wanted a few moments to say goodbye, according to people close to Mr. Jobs. Most were intercepted by his wife, Laurene. She would apologetically explain that he was too tired to receive many visitors. In his final weeks, he became so weak that it was hard for him to walk up the stairs of his own home anymore, she confided to one caller.

Some asked if they might try again tomorrow.

Sorry, she replied. He had only so much energy for farewells. The man who valued his privacy almost as much as his ability to leave his mark on the world had decided whom he most needed to see before he left.

Mr. Jobs spent his final weeks — as he had spent most of his life — in tight control of his choices. He invited a close friend, the physician Dean Ornish, a preventive health advocate, to join him for sushi at one of his favorite restaurants, Jin Sho in Palo Alto. He said goodbye to longtime colleagues including the venture capitalist John Doerr, the Apple board member Bill Campbell and the Disney chief executive Robert A. Iger. He offered Apple’s executives advice on unveiling the iPhone 4S, which occurred on Tuesday. He spoke to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. He started a new drug regime, and told some friends that there was reason for hope.

But, mostly, he spent time with his wife and children — who will now oversee a fortune of at least $6.5 billion, and, in addition to their grief, take on responsibility for tending to the legacy of someone who was as much a symbol as a man.

“Steve made choices,” Dr. Ornish said. “I once asked him if he was glad that he had kids, and he said, ‘It’s 10,000 times better than anything I’ve ever done.’ ”

“But for Steve, it was all about living life on his own terms and not wasting a moment with things he didn’t think were important. He was aware that his time on earth was limited. He wanted control of what he did with the choices that were left.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs’s home — a large and comfortable but relatively modest brick house in a residential neighborhood — was surrounded by security guards. His driveway’s gate was flanked by two black S.U.V.’s.

On Thursday, as online eulogies multiplied and the walls of Apple stores in Taiwan, New York, Shanghai and Frankfurt were papered with hand-drawn cards, the S.U.V.’s were removed and the sidewalk at his home became a garland of bouquets, candles and a pile of apples, each with one bite carefully removed.

“Everyone always wanted a piece of Steve,” said one acquaintance who, in Mr. Jobs’s final weeks, was rebuffed when he sought an opportunity to say goodbye. “He created all these layers to protect himself from the fan boys and other peoples’ expectations and the distractions that have destroyed so many other companies.

“But once you’re gone, you belong to the world.”

Mr. Jobs’s biographer, Mr. Isaacson, whose book will be published in two weeks, asked him why so private a man had consented to the questions of someone writing a book. “I wanted my kids to know me,” Mr. Jobs replied, Mr. Isaacson wrote Thursday in an essay on Time.com. “I wasn’t always there for them, and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did.”

Because of that privacy, little is known yet of what Mr. Jobs’s heirs will do with his wealth. Unlike many prominent business people, he has never disclosed plans to give large amounts to charity. His shares in Disney, which Mr. Jobs acquired when the entertainment company purchased his animated film company, Pixar, are worth about $4.4 billion. That is double the $2.1 billion value of his shares in Apple, perhaps surprising given that he is best known for the computer company he founded.

Mr. Jobs’s emphasis on secrecy, say acquaintances, led him to shy away from large public donations. At one point, Mr. Jobs was asked by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates to give a majority of his wealth to philanthropy alongside a number of prominent executives like Mr. Gates and Warren E. Buffett. But Mr. Jobs declined, according to a person with direct knowledge of Mr. Jobs’s decision.

Now that Mr. Jobs is gone, many people expect that attention will focus on his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has largely avoided the spotlight, but is expected to oversee Mr. Jobs’s fortune. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Mrs. Powell Jobs worked in investment banking before founding a natural foods company. She then founded College Track, a program that pairs disadvantaged students with mentors who help them earn college degrees. That has led to some speculation in the philanthropic community that any large charitable contributions might go to education, though no one outside Mr. Jobs’s inner circle is thought to know of the plans.

Mr. Jobs himself never got a college degree. Despite leaving Reed College after six months, he was asked to give the 2005 commencement speech at Stanford.

In that address, delivered after Mr. Jobs was told he had cancer but before it was clear that it would ultimately claim his life, Mr. Jobs told his audience that “death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent.”

The benefit of death, he said, is you know not to waste life living someone else’s choices.

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

In his final months, Mr. Jobs became even more dedicated to such sentiments. “Steve’s concerns these last few weeks were for people who depended on him: the people who worked for him at Apple and his four children and his wife,” said Mona Simpson, Mr. Jobs’s sister. “His tone was tenderly apologetic at the end. He felt terrible that he would have to leave us.”

As news of the seriousness of his illness became more widely known, Mr. Jobs was asked to attend farewell dinners and to accept various awards.

He turned down the offers. On the days that he was well enough to go to Apple’s offices, all he wanted afterward was to return home and have dinner with his family. When one acquaintance became too insistent on trying to send a gift to thank Mr. Jobs for his friendship, he was asked to stop calling. Mr. Jobs had other things to do before time ran out.

“He was very human,” Dr. Ornish said. “He was so much more of a real person than most people know. That’s what made him so great.”

Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman, Quentin Hardy, Claire Cain Miller and Evelyn M. Rusli.

Jean-Paul Riopelle works on show starting October 13 at the Quartier des Spectacles

INFO from the press release:

"The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and the Galerie Lounge TD of the Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan are proud to present D’aile en ailes l’élan vital, an extraordinary exhibition of fifty works, many previously unseen, by internationally renowned Québécois painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, from October 13 to December 24, 2011.
An extraordinary man, a unique exhibition: more than fifty works, including twenty previously unseen!

This unique exhibition will assemble more than fifty works by Jean-Paul Riopelle: 27 prints, 3 sculptures in bronze, photos of the artist, a number of articles and objects from his daily painting routine and, above all, more than twenty previously unseen works on paper which Huguette Vachon, his companion, has painstakingly selected in order to share their beauty with all of us.
Jean‑Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)

Jean-Paul Riopelle is one of the few Canadian painters, sculptors and engravers to have carved out an enviable place on the international scene. A passionate man, intensely in love with freedom, he scoffed at conventions and taboos throughout his career. Fiercely independent, he preceded currents and trends, ceaselessly exploring new techniques and new materials, constantly seeking to renew his creative approach, allowing his pictorial language to evolve towards an utterly original aesthetic. Riopelle found his principal source of inspiration in nature, and it would remain his preferred subject throughout his career. For Riopelle, the important thing was never the subject itself, but the mystery it revealed, through which the artist could express himself. He had an inimitable vision of things, and his representation of the real remains remarkable and novel.

“There is no such thing as abstraction, nor representation.
There is only expression, and self-expression means placing yourself in front of things.”

- Jean‑Paul Riopelle

Born in Montreal in 1923, Riopelle studied at the École du meuble, with PaulÉmile Borduas as a teacher. A signatory and advocate of the Refus global manifesto, he settled in France in 1948, where he was privileged to be at the heart of the artistic and intellectual life of the avant-garde. In the ’50s, he and his work soared to triumph in Paris as well as in America. During his time in Paris and New York, Riopelle rubbed elbows with the greatest jazz legends of the era, including Bud Powell. This interest in the music led him to permit the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal to reproduce silkscreens of his piece, Jazz, in 1997. Then, during the 25th anniversary of the Festival, the late painter’s estate granted exclusive permission to reproduce 75 copies of the previously unreleased 1990 work Big Bang, Big Band, which Alain Simard had personally acquired in 1997, during a visit to the artist’s home on L’Isle-aux-Grues.

Today, the works of Jean-Paul Riopelle are included in major museum, private and public collections and showcased in the most important galleries the world over. His is an immense and diversified oeuvre that opened new artistic horizons, leaving its mark on the history of world art."

Opening hours:

Monday: closed

Tuesday: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Wednesday to Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday: 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Hours extended until 9 p.m. during concert evenings in L’Astral

Jean-Paul Riopelle

D’aile en ailes l’élan vital

(On the Wings of the Life-force)

From October 13 to December 24, 2011

Galerie Lounge TD

Maison du Festival Rio Tinto Alcan

305 Ste. Catherine Street West, 2nd Floor - 514 288-8882
galerieloungetd.montrealjazzfest.com

Report: 'Secret Sins' of Koch Industries

Charles and David Koch, the secretive billionaire brothers behind the Koch Industries, are a huge financial force in the conservative political movement. According to one estimate, they've contributed more than $100 million to conservative political causes, and a foundation that they back has trained thousands of Tea Party activists.

But now reporters for Bloomberg Markets magazine have published an article about what the magazine calls Koch Industries "secret sins" -- including business deals with Iran -- that the reporters claim reflect the same hostility to regulation that powers the Koch brothers' politics.


David H. Koch, 71, and Charles Koch, 75, together own Koch Industries, a Wichita, Kansas-based company started by their father Fred. The privately-held, $100 billion-dollar-a-year company owns such subsidiaries as Georgia Pacific and the maker of Lycra and Stainmaster carpets, but is best-known for its oil and energy business. Koch owns thousands of miles of pipelines and refineries in several states.

In a recent documentary, David Koch can be seen addressing Tea Party leaders and espousing American values, saying, "The American dream of free enterprise, capitalism is alive and well."
But now questions are being raised about the American values of the source of the Koch brothers' wealth.

 

This week's edition of Bloomberg Markets reveals that one Koch Industries subsidiary was trading with Iran and that another subsidiary in France was paying bribes to get business in six different countries.

In one previously undisclosed document from a French labor court case, Koch Industries admits the payments are "violations of criminal law." A company spokesperson told ABC News that the letter relates only to the conduct of the employee fired in the bribery case and "does not discuss or concern United States law or the company's potential liability."

"It's a document right there in the court record, out of the lips of Koch Industries," said David Evans, one of the co-authors of the Bloomberg Markets article.

David Koch declined to speak when ABC News caught up with him outside his Park Avenue apartment in New York City and asked him to respond to the magazine's allegations.
In a statement posted online, Koch Industries accused Bloomberg Markets magazine of "substandard reporting" and said the company obeys the law.

"Koch Industries and its affiliated companies are committed to compliance," said the statement, "and Koch companies strive to live by their Guiding Principles, including most importantly Principles 1 and 2, which require that all business dealings are conducted lawfully, with integrity, and in compliance with all laws."


Koch Industries says it fired those responsible when it learned of the bribes in 2008, but as a private company it was able to keep all of that secret until this week's article.
"I think there are enough of these payments that I think any prosecutor would want to look further," said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia University Law School and director of the school's Center on Corporate Governance. "The only issue that I think Koch has by way of defense is showing that these payments were never authorized, encouraged or ratified by the parent company, but were only done by the foreign subsidiary."

The trading with Iran involved Koch subsidiaries in Germany and Italy providing key components for a huge state-owned petro-chemical plant, despite a U.S. ban on trade with Iran since 1995.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/koch-industries-report-reveals-secret-sins/story?id=14676652
One order was placed on January 29, 2003, the day after President Bush told Congress in his State of the Union message that Iran continued to be an enemy of the U.S. that "represses its people, pursues weapons of mass destruction and supports terror."

Koch Industries says the trade was legal because it was done through a foreign subsidiary and no Americans were involved.

Said Asjylyn Loder, a co-author of the Bloomberg Markets article, "You're still dealing with a state that is considered by the U.S. State Department to be a sponsor of terrorism." Koch Industries says it finally stopped trading with Iran in 2006.

Pickens Losing to Koch in Billionaires’ Natural-Gas Feud

July 12 (Bloomberg) -- BP Capital LLC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer T. Boone Pickens talks about the prospects of Congress passing a Pickens-backed bill to subsidize natural-gas vehicles, opposition to the bill from fellow billionaire Charles Koch and the outlook for oil prices. He speaks on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)

Charles Koch, left, opposes a bill proposed by T. Boone Pickens, right, that would provide tax breaks to purchase natural-gas fueled trucks. Sources: Koch Industries and Clean Energy Fuels

The Pickens bill would provide tax credits of as much as $64,000 for the purchase of natural gas long-haul trucks, and lesser amounts for lighter vehicles. A natural gas long-haul truck refuels at the Port of Long Beach. Source: NGVAmerica

T. Boone Pickens, who’s been saying for more than a year that Congress was poised to pass his plan to subsidize natural-gas vehicles, may not have been expecting opposition led by fellow billionaire Charles Koch.
Pickens, 83, the chairman and chief executive officer of BP Capital LLC., a Dallas-based energy investment fund, has spent $82 million since July 2008 promoting the use of domestically produced natural gas to power cars and trucks, according to Jay Rosser, his spokesman.
Koch Industries Inc., Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) and the American Conservative Union all have weighed in since May against a Pickens-backed bill that would provide tax breaks to purchase natural-gas fueled trucks. The critics say it would provide unwarranted subsidies to companies such as Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE), a Seal Beach, California, maker of natural-gas fueling stations in which Pickens is the biggest shareholder.
“We do not believe government should be picking ‘winners and losers’ in the marketplace,” Phillip Ellender, president and chief operating officer for government and public affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector LLC, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, wrote in a June 23 letter to Congress.
Charles Koch, 75, is chairman and chief executive officer of Wichita, Kansas-based Koch Industries, which calls itself one of the world’s largest closely held companies. He is also a co- founder of Americans for Prosperity, a group that says it advocates limited government and opposes the natural-gas legislation.

‘Working for America’

“So here you are: Charles Koch working for Koch, Boone Pickens is working for America,” Pickens said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan.”
Koch’s company imports crude oil, gains from ethanol subsidies and is in the fertilizer business, which benefits when natural gas is inexpensive, Pickens said.
“We oppose all government mandates and subsidies because they artificially skew economic signals about price and demand, thereby creating inefficiencies that divert resources from productive activities to politically favored ones,” Ellender said in an e-mailed response to Pickens. “To add a new subsidy in these times of increasing unemployment and economic hardship for so many Americans is irresponsible and bad public policy.”

$64,000 Credit

The Pickens bill, dubbed the Nat Gas Act, would provide tax credits of as much as $64,000 for the purchase of natural gas long-haul trucks, and lesser amounts for lighter vehicles.
On Nov. 17, Pickens told Bloomberg News the bill had “more than a 50-50 chance” of passing in the lame-duck session of Congress after that month’s midterm elections. In April, he told CNBC the bill had overwhelming support on Capitol Hill.
“Boone has an uncanny ability to predict the energy markets,” spokesman Rosser said. “Clearly, predicting what Washington will and won’t do is another matter. Boone is an eternal optimist and remains convinced that Washington will act soon and deliver the solution to four decades of failed promises to address the OPEC oil crisis.”
Since the lobbying campaign against Pickens began, 14 House Republicans have withdrawn support for the legislation. Representative Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican, grew “increasingly uncomfortable with the level in which the U.S. government would be dictating winners and losers in energy development,” spokesman Steve Taylor said in an interview.

Bipartisan Support

The measure is still backed by 108 Democrats and 75 Republicans. That’s more bipartisan support than for a proposal to expand offshore drilling that passed the House and failed in the Senate.
“I’m actually beating him,” Pickens said of Koch today in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “Koch knocked out 14, and we recovered about that.”
The fight over the Pickens plan underscores the obstacles energy measures involving subsidies or tax breaks face as Washington’s political debate centers on how to reduce the federal deficit.

Companies Split

It also shows a split among companies over what to do with the increasing U.S. natural-gas supply. Natural gas has sold at an average of $4.288 per million British thermal units this year, down from a high of $13.577 in 2008.
The U.S. has 2,543 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural-gas resources, according to the 2011 energy outlook by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s about 1,000 trillion cubic feet more than its estimate in 2000. Most of the increase comes from projected supplies in shale formations, where the industry is injecting water, chemicals and sand under high pressure to release the gas from the rock.
AGL Resources Inc. (AGL) of Atlanta and San Diego-based Sempra Energy (SRE), which distribute natural gas, support the Pickens bill, which would give them new customers.
Dow of Midland, Michigan; Eastman Chemical Co. (EMN) of Kingsport, Tennessee; and the American Forest and Paper Association, a trade group in Washington, were among 61 chemical and agricultural companies and trade groups signing a May letter that said “the speed of our increasing dependency upon natural gas” may raise costs and force “good U.S. manufacturing jobs to overseas competitors.”
Representative John Sullivan, an Oklahoma Republican and a sponsor of the Pickens measure, said subsidies are justified given concern over oil imports and the 500,000 jobs the bill may create.
“I’m not a tax-and-spend liberal,” Sullivan said in an interview. “This is something we must do.”

$195,000 Truck

A long-haul truck that runs on natural gas can cost $195,000 to buy, about $100,000 more than the same vehicle powered by diesel fuel, according to Vaughn Jennings, a spokesman for Sullivan. The 8 million heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. consume about 2 million barrels of oil a day, about 10 percent of the nation’s daily appetite for oil, he said.
About 112,000 natural-gas vehicles are on the road in the U.S., according to Natural Gas Vehicles for America. The bill will “jump-start the market,” Richard Kolodziej, president of the Washington-based group, said in an interview.

‘Billionaire Boondoggle’

The U.S. can’t afford breaks for particular energy industries during a “debt crisis of massive proportions,” said Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the American Conservative Union, which advocates lower government spending, in an e-mail.
The Alexandria, Virginia-based organization called the bill a “T. Boone Pickens billionaire boondoggle” in a statement last month, and said any Republican senators who support the legislation risk getting a lower score on the group’s ratings of conservatives.
Sullivan, who got a 100 percent rating from the group last year, said the conservative group backed a broader energy bill Republicans released in 2009 that included tax breaks for natural-gas vehicles, in addition to expanding oil production in places such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The legislation is “the only energy bill out there” that can pass Congress, Sullivan said in an interview.
As evidence of its broad appeal, backers point to support from both President Barack Obama and Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican and Tea Party favorite.
“These credits reduce taxes for the production or purchase of vehicles that run on American-made natural gas,” Paul said in a statement released June 27. “These credits are not subsidies.”
Obama called similar legislation to provide incentives for the purchase of natural gas vehicles “a big deal” in a March 30 speech at Georgetown University.
“Congress cannot manage but one bill at a time,” Pickens said on Bloomberg TV, predicting anew that the Nat Gas Act will pass this year. “So you’re either hung up on health care or you’re hung up on the debt or you’re hung up on the budget.”
The bill is H.R. 1380.

WHY WE GET FAT

The LPL (an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase ) on fat cells is regulated by the presence of insulin. The more insulin our body secrets, the more active the LPL becomes on the fat cells, and the more fat that, rather than being consumed as fuel by the muscle cells, gets stored in fat cells. As if designed to ensure we get fatter, insulin also reduces the LPL expressed by the muscle cells (to ensure there is lots of fat floating around for the fat cells). That is, it tells the muscle cells not to burn fat as a fuel.

Insulin also influences an enzyme called hormone-sensitive lipase, or HSL. And this, says Taubes, "may be even mroe critical to how insulin regulates the amount of fat we store. Just as LPL works to make fat cells (and us) fatter, HSL works to make at cells (and us) leaner. It does so by working inside the fat cells to break down triglycerides into their component fatty acids, so that those fatty acids can then escape into the circulation.

The more active this HSL, the more fat we liberate and can burn from fuel and the less, obviously, we store. Insulin also surpresses this enzyme HSL and so it prevents triglycerides from being broken down inside the fat cells to a minimum." This also helps explain why diabetics often get fatter when they take insulin therapy.

Carbohydrates primarily determine the insulin level in the blood. Here quantity and quality are important. Carbs ultimately determine how fat we get. But most people eat carbs so why are some fatter than others? We all naturally secrete a different level of insulin -- given the same food people will secrete different levels of insulin. Another factor is how sensitive your cells are to insulin and how quickly they become insensitive.

The more insulin you secrete—naturally or with carbohydrate rich foods—the more likely it is that your body becomes insulin resistant. The result is a vicious circle.

Not all foods containing carbs are equally fattening. The most fattening foods are those that have the greatest impact on our insulin and blood sugar levels. These are the easily digestible carbs. Anything made of refined flour (bread, cereals, and pasta), starches (potatoes, rice, and corn), and liquids (beer, pop, fruit juice). "These foods," says Taubes, "flood the bloodstream quickly with glucose. Blood sugar shoots up; insulin shoots up; We get fatter."

Where are the world's 50 best restaurants?

For a second year, Noma takes the title of the best restaurant in the world. The famed Copenhagen restaurant headed by chef René Redzepi held onto its top position on the prestigious S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list, presented on Monday. 

“It’s the entire package, from its ingredient ingenuity to flawless execution, that makes it a beacon of excellence and which leads to an emotive, intense, liberating way of eating, unlike any other,” the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list said on its web site. “Many have copied chef René Redzepi's approach, most have failed.

The annual list is chosen by an academy of more than 830 international restaurant industry leaders based on their best dining experiences over the past 18 months. Notably absent? Any Canadians. Rouge and Langdon Hall, which ranked No. 60 and No. 77 respectively last year, were not included on this year’s extended list of The World’s 100 Best Restaurants. 

“We did it again, together,” Mr. Redzepi told his crew on stage at the awards ceremony at The Guildhall in London, addressing an audience of the world’s most recognized chefs. “We hope you’re going to do it one more year again.” 

Among the crowd were culinary heavyweights David Chang, Eric Ripert, Fergus Henderson, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, and Grant Achatz. 

Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca jumped from No. 4, replacing the now-closed El Bulli at No. 2. Mugaritz, also of Spain, rose two spots to No. 3, edging out British chef Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck. Les Créations de Narisawa of Japan, by chef-owner Yoshihiro Narisawa, was dubbed the best Asian restaurant for the third year in a row, while Tokyo’s Nihonryori RyuGin was this year’s highest climber, jumping to No. 20 from 48.

Mr. Achatz’s Alinea of Chicago rose one spot to No. 6, taking home the award for The Best Restaurant in North America for a second year. Brazilian chef Alex Atala’s D.O.M. was named The Best Restaurant in South America for the third year in a row, rising to No. 7 from 18 last year. 

Among the new notable entrants on the list were Britain’s The Ledbury, Astrid Y Gaston of Peru, Varvary of Russia and Pujol of Mexico. 

The academy also presented its “One to Watch” award to Stockholm’s Frantzen/Lindeberg for the restaurant that shows the most promise of joining the top 50 list next year. 

1. Noma, Denmark www.noma.dk

2. El Celler de Can Roca, Spain (up from 4) www.cellercanroca.com

3. Mugaritz, Spain (up from 5) www.mugaritz.com

4. Osteria Francescana, Italy (up from 6) www.osteriafrancescana.it

5. The Fat Duck, UK (down from 3) www.thefatduck.co.uk

6. Alinea, U.S. (up from 7) www.alinea-restaurant.com

7. D.O.M., Brazil (up from 18) www.domrestaurante.com.br

8. Arzak, Spain (up from 9) www.arzak.es

9. Le Chateaubriand, France (up from 11)

10. Per Se, U.S. (unchanged) www.perseny.com

11. Daniel, U.S. (down from 8)

12. Les Créations de Narisawa, Japan www.narisawa-yoshihiro.com

13. L’Astrance, France (up from 16)

14. L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, France www.joel-robuchon.net

15. Hof van Cleve, Belgium (up from 17) www.hofvancleve.com

16. Pierre Gagnaire, France (down from 13) www.pierre-gagnaire.com

17. Oud Sluis, Netherlands (up from 19)

18. Le Bernardin, U.S. (down from 15) www.le-bernardin.com

19. L’Arpege, France www.alain-passard.com

20. Nihonryori RyuGin, Japan (highest climber, up from 48) www.nihonryori-ryugin.com

21. Vendome, Germany (up from 22) www.schlossbensberg.com

22. Steirereck, Austria (up from 21) steirereck.at/wien/restaurant/pr

23. Schloss Schauenstein, Switzerland (up from 30) www.schauenstein.ch

24. Eleven Madison Park, U.S. (2nd highest climber on this year’s list, up from 50) www.elevenmadisonpark.com

25. Aqua, Germany (up from 34) www.restaurant-aqua.com

26. Quay, Australia (up from 27) www.quay.com.au

27. Iggy’s, Singapore (up from 28) www.iggys.com.sg

28. Combal Zero, Italy (up from 35) combal.org

29. Martin Berasategui, Spain (up from 33) www.martinberasategui.com

30. Bras, France www.bras.fr

31. Biko, Mexico (up from 46) www.biko.com.mx

32. Le Calandre, Italy (down from 20) www.calandre.com

33. Cracco, Italy www.ristorantecracco.it

34. The Ledbury, UK (highest new entry) www.theledbury.com

35. Chez Dominique, Finland (down from 23) chezdominique.fi

36. La Quartier Francais, South Africa (down from 31) www.lequartier.co.za

37. Amber, China (new entry) www.amberhongkong.com

38. Dal Pescatore, Italy (down from 36) www.dalpescatore.com

39. Il Canto, Italy (up from 40) www.certosadimaggiano.com

40. Momofuku Ssam bar, U.S. (down from 26) www.momofuku.com

41. St. John, UK, (up from 43) www.stjohnrestaurant.com

42. Astrid Y Gaston, Peru (new entry) www.astridygaston.com

43. Hibiscus, UK (up from 49) www.hibiscusrestaurant.co.uk

44. Maison Troisgros, France (unchanged) www.troisgros.fr

45. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, France (down from 41) www.plaza-athenee-paris.com

46. Da Librije, Netherlands (down from 37) www.librije.com

47. Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville (down from 14) www.philippe-rochat.ch

48. Varvary, Russia (new entry) anatolykomm.ru

49. Pujol, Mexico (new entry) www.pujol.com.mx

50. Asador Etxebarri, Spain www.asadoretxebarri.com

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

by Heidi Grant Halvorson 

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.

1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. "Lose 5 pounds" is a better goal than "lose some weight," because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals. Given how busy most of us are, and how many goals we are juggling at once, it's not surprising that we routinely miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice them. Did you really have no time to work out today? No chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of these opportunities before they slip through your fingers.

To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take, in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., "If it's Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'll work out for 30 minutes before work.") Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your chances of success by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go. Achieving any goal also requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress — if not by others, then by you yourself. If you don't know how well you are doing, you can't adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently — weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist. When you are setting a goal, by all means engage in lots of positive thinking about how likely you are to achieve it. Believing in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don't underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal. Most goals worth achieving require time, planning, effort, and persistence. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you ill-prepared for the journey ahead, and significantly increases the odds of failure.

5. Focus on getting better, rather than being good. Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.

Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong — abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your fullest potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

6. Have grit. Grit is a willingness to commit to long-term goals, and to persist in the face of difficulty. Studies show that gritty people obtain more education in their lifetime, and earn higher college GPAs. Grit predicts which cadets will stick out their first grueling year at West Point. In fact, grit even predicts which round contestants will make it to at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The good news is, if you aren't particularly gritty now, there is something you can do about it. People who lack grit more often than not believe that they just don't have the innate abilities successful people have. If that describes your own thinking .... well, there's no way to put this nicely: you are wrong. As I mentioned earlier, effort, planning, persistence, and good strategies are what it really takes to succeed. Embracing this knowledge will not only help you see yourself and your goals more accurately, but also do wonders for your grit.

7. Build your willpower muscle. Your self-control "muscle" is just like the other muscles in your body — when it doesn't get much exercise, it becomes weaker over time. But when you give it regular workouts by putting it to good use, it will grow stronger and stronger, and better able to help you successfully reach your goals.

To build willpower, take on a challenge that requires you to do something you'd honestly rather not do. Give up high-fat snacks, do 100 sit-ups a day, stand up straight when you catch yourself slouching, try to learn a new skill. When you find yourself wanting to give in, give up, or just not bother — don't. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they occur ("If I have a craving for a snack, I will eat one piece of fresh or three pieces of dried fruit.") It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier, and that's the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on more challenges and step-up your self-control workout.

8. Don't tempt fate. No matter how strong your willpower muscle becomes, it's important to always respect the fact that it is limited, and if you overtax it you will temporarily run out of steam. Don't try to take on two challenging tasks at once, if you can help it (like quitting smoking and dieting at the same time). And don't put yourself in harm's way — many people are overly-confident in their ability to resist temptation, and as a result they put themselves in situations where temptations abound. Successful people know not to make reaching a goal harder than it already is.

9. Focus on what you will do, not what you won't do. Do you want to successfully lose weight, quit smoking, or put a lid on your bad temper? Then plan how you will replace bad habits with good ones, rather than focusing only on the bad habits themselves. Research on thought suppression (e.g., "Don't think about white bears!") has shown that trying to avoid a thought makes it even more active in your mind. The same holds true when it comes to behavior — by trying not to engage in a bad habit, our habits get strengthened rather than broken.
If you want change your ways, ask yourself, What will I do instead? For example, if you are trying to gain control of your temper and stop flying off the handle, you might make a plan like "If I am starting to feel angry, then I will take three deep breaths to calm down." By using deep breathing as a replacement for giving in to your anger, your bad habit will get worn away over time until it disappears completely.

It is my hope that, after reading about the nine things successful people do differently, you have gained some insight into all the things you have been doing right all along. Even more important, I hope are able to identify the mistakes that have derailed you, and use that knowledge to your advantage from now on. Remember, you don't need to become a different person to become a more successful one. It's never what you are, but what you do.

Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D. is a motivational psychologist, and author of the new book Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals (Hudson Street Press, 2011). She is also an expert blogger on motivation and leadership for Fast Company and Psychology Today.