Biggest Businesses Run by College Dropouts

Ever wonder where the chief executives of some of the world's most successful companies went to college? Well, don't tell your kids, but some CEOs never graduated college—and some never even bothered to apply.

From computers to cruise lines, these 10 CEOs made it to the top without a college degree and defied the idea that to be successful you have to have a diploma.

Ralph Lauren

Photo: Emmanuel Dunand | AFP | Getty Images

Position: CEO, Polo Ralph Lauren
Market Cap: $11.9 billion

Ralph Lauren, the chief executive of Polo Ralph Lauren , established his company in 1967 as a line of men's ties and developed the company into a global fashion empire. Lauren's successful clothing line came from his unique, classic style that went against conventional fashion of the time.

According to the Ralph Lauren website, Lauren said, "I never went to fashion school—I was a young guy who had some style. I never imagined Polo would become what it is. I just followed my instincts."

With only a high school diploma in hand, Lauren followed his instincts. His decision to ditch college and focus on running his business lead to a series of breakthroughs in the fashion world, including the first shop-within-a-shop designer boutique for men in Bloomingdale's department store in 1969. Lauren continued to build his empire, expanding it to include women and children's fashion, fragrances, and home furnishings.

Today, Polo Ralph Lauren is one of the most successful fashion companies in the world.

Richard Branson

Photo: Karim Jaafar | AFP | Getty Images

Position: CEO, Virgin Group
Company Worth: $18 billion
Virgin Media Market Cap: $8.1 billion

Forget graduating from college, this chief executive didn't even finish high school. Richard Branson, the current CEO of Virgin Group , dropped out of high school at age 16 to start Student Magazine . Four years later, Branson founded Virgin Group as a mail-order retailer. He opened his first record shop in London and two years later built Virgin's first recording studio. In 1977, Branson signed his first big name group, the Sex Pistols, and continued to sign popular artists such as the Rolling Stones and Culture Club.

In 1984, Branson developed Virgin Atlantic and the brand began to grow. Today, Virgin Group provides mobile, broadband, TV, radio, finance, health, tourism, leisure, and travel services.

Michael Dell

Photo: Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Position: Founder/CEO, Dell
Market Cap: $30 billion

Most 19 year olds would spend a thousand dollars on a spring break weekend, or a put it toward buying a new car, but Michael Dell spent his $1,000 founding Dell .

The founder and CEO of Dell expanded his company with the idea that "technology is about enabling human potential." In 1992, he became the youngest chief executive to earn a ranking on Fortune magazine's "Fortune 500" list. His staff also grew from a one-man operation to 100,000 employees in just eight years.

Today, the company provides information-technology services for global corporations, governments, health care providers, small and medium businesses, education institutions, and home computing users.

Dell is not the only company this CEO has had a hand in creating. Dell founded MSD Capital in 1998 and a year later launched the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, a philanthropic organization for global issues.

Bill Gates

Photo: Sean Gallup | Getty Images

Position: Co-Founder/Chairman, Microsoft
Market Cap: $226.2 billion

College dropouts such as Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz are not the only successful business founders who attended, and then left, Harvard University.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft , enrolled at Harvard as a freshman in 1973. Gates, who lived down the hall from Microsoft's current chief executive, Steve Ballmer, created BASIC, a programming language for the first microcomputer, during his first year of college.

Gates dropped out of Harvard in his junior year to concentrate all his efforts on a company he called Micro-soft with his childhood friend Paul Allen.

As if founding Microsoft wasn't enough, Gates went on to found Corbis , one of the world largest resources of visual information. He also earned a seat on the board of directors for Berkshire Hathaway , an investment company engaged in diverse business activity.

Steve Jobs

Photo: David Paul Morris | Getty Images

Position: Founder/CEO, Apple
Market Cap: $362.4 billion

As a young boy, this college dropout showed an early interest in computers.

When he was 12, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple , called Bill Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett Packard , after finding his number in the phonebook. When Hewlett answered, Jobs said, "Hi I'm Steve Jobs. I'm twelve years old and I'm a student in high school. I want to make a frequency counter. I was wondering if you had any spare parts I can have?"

Hewlett gave Jobs the spare parts and hired him that summer to work on the assembly line at his company. During this time, Jobs formed a friendship with Stephen Wozniak, a soon-to-be dropout from the University of California at Berkley.

Jobs enrolled at Reed College after high school, but he later dropped out. He connected once again with Wozniak and the pair quit their jobs to start production on a computer in Jobs' garage.

There are different versions of how the pair came up with the name for Apple. The best-known story comes from Jobs summer spent working on an apple orchard and his love for the fruit. The bite in the side of the apple is said to be a play on the computer term "byte."

In a biography, Jobs said he was worth more than $1 million when he was 23, $10 million when he was 24, and $100 million when he was 25.

Apple went from a garage-based operation to a multibillion-dollar, worldwide corporation, and it all started with two college dropouts tinkering in a garage.

Today, Gates serves as Microsoft's chairman and as an advisor on key development projects.

Wealthy duchess gives fortune away to marry

Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva (yes, that's one name) is one of the wealthiest women in all of Spain. She is worth somewhere between $850 million and $5 billion--but not for long. The Duchess of Alba, 85, is giving it all away so she can marry the man she loves.

This sounds like a plot to the latest Nicholas Sparks novel, but we assure you, this is nonfiction to the core. So, why is she giving her vast fortune away? The duchess's six children were dubious about their mother's plans to marry Alfonso Diez, a civil servant who is 24 years younger.

To help assuage their fears that the love may not be genuine, the duchess is going to give her fortune to her children. According to an article from the BBC, the duchess's six children had been against the wedding. Earlier this year, the duchess remarked, "Alfonso doesn't want anything. All he wants is me."

Click image to see more photos. (Photo by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

Not surprisingly, news of the impending wedding sparked a flurry of web searches. Online lookups for "duchess marries" and "spain duchess fortune" were both incredibly popular, as computer users have sought the scoop on the unlikely love story.

The duchess's children were all from her first marriage to Pedro Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artazcoz, son of the Duke of Sotomayor. He died in 1972. The duchess remarried in 1978 to a onetime Jesuit priest named Jesus Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate. He passed away in 2001. The duchess has been friends with Diez for several years. In fact, there were rumors of a wedding in 2008, but nothing occurred after the children "vetoed" the idea of marriage.

No word on whether the duchess's children and grandchildren intend to be on hand for the ceremony. She likes to point out that each of her kids is divorced, even though she has never split up with any of her husbands. According to the UK Guardian, the duchess has given her children and eight grandchildren "a palace each." That ought to keep them quiet.

The freefall continues: Tiger Woods drops out of the world top 20

We all knew this day was coming, we just didn't think it was coming so soon. Tiger Woods has dropped out of the world top 20, a moment which we've all anticipated in the last few months, but one which retains major historical significance.

You know the story. Woods hasn't been close to a world-beating golfer since his scandal broke in November 2009. This season, he's played exactly nine holes of competitive golf since Augusta, an ill-fated excursion to The Players Championship in May. And now, he's only ranked No. 21 in the world.

Indeed, perhaps the only surprise surrounding Woods' place in the rankings was the fact that he remained in the top 10 for so long. But the Official World Golf Rankings tally scores based on a rolling two-year average, and since Woods had a successful 2009 -- before Thanksgiving, at least -- he was cruising on past successes.

Which is why he'll be hitting terminal velocity in the rankings before long. We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of a remarkable run in which he posted two wins and a second-place finish in three straight tournaments -- the Buick Classic, the Bridgestone and the PGA Championship -- and once those no longer count in his favor, he'll have only the September 2009 BMW Championship and the November 2009 Australian Masters counting in his favor.

The top of the rankings remain familiar: Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Rory McIlroy and Steve Stricker. Phil Mickelson comes in at No. 6, and British Open winner Darren Clarke is No. 31. (Auburn also received votes, which seems a little strange.)

We don't need any more reminders of how far Woods has fallen. And although winning will solve many of his on-course ills, those days seem further away than ever before.

Private eye tells homeless man of inheritance

SALT LAKE CITY – A private investigator says he has tracked down a homeless Utah man and delivered some good news: He's inherited a lot of money.

David Lundberg said he found Max Melitzer pushing a shopping cart filled with personal possessions in a Salt Lake City park Saturday afternoon.

Lundberg declined to disclose how much money Melitzer will be receiving, but said the man's brother who died of cancer last year left him a "significant" amount in his will.

"He'll no longer be living on the street or in abandoned storage sheds," he told The Associated Press. "He'll be able to have a normal life, and be able to have a home, provide for himself, and purchase clothing, food and health care."

The story about Lundberg's two-month search for Lundberg has been reported by the Deseret News and KSL of Salt Lake City.

Lundberg said he was hired by the family's New York law firm to locate Melitzer, and some family members plan to meet Melitzer next week in Salt Lake City. He declined to identify them.

Melitzer's family wishes to remain private, and lawyers are deferring questions to Lundberg.

The investigator said he broke the news to Melitzer while they were sitting on a bench at Pioneer Park. While Lundberg said he didn't tell Melitzer how much money he was inheriting, the man was excited.

"He's still in shock. This came out of nowhere," Lundberg said. "He's a really mellow guy in his 60s, very sweet and more articulate than I thought for a man in his position."

Melitzer has been homeless for years and last had mail correspondence with his family in September. But when family members gave him a number to phone, he never called.

Don Hill, house manager at the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake, told Lundberg on Friday that he had seen Melitzer near the facility two days earlier.

Hill said he has known the homeless man for four years, and Melitzer stayed at places like the Rescue Mission when he's not roaming between Salt Lake City and Ogden.

"During the summer, I'd imagine, once in a while he'll stay out nights — outside," Hill told the Deseret News.

Earlier this month, a police officer found Melitzer sleeping in a car in an Ogden salvage yard.

Lundberg said Melitzer was taken Saturday to an undisclosed location in Salt Lake City and doesn't want to talk to the media right now. But Lundberg said he would talk to family members about possibly holding a news conference next week.

The investigator said he found Melitzer with the help of a tip. He received about 60 or 70 such calls after news about his search went out Friday.

"Someone called today (Saturday) and said they saw him at Pioneer Park. I thought it was another crazy tip, but sure enough, there he was," Lundberg said.

Gaga Goes Bald & Beautiful For "Hair" Performance

Lady Gaga is known for her colorful collection of wild wigs, but for a recent performance on Britain's "The Paul O'Grady Show"--ironically of her Born This Way track "Hair"--she went hairless, startling fans by sporting a boldly bald new look. Perhaps after rocking every outrageous hair style and color imaginable since her hair-raising rise to fame in 2008, Gaga felt there was nothing left to do that could shock her fanbase except wearing no hair
at all.

And the stunt worked. The spectacle of seeing a glam icon so associated with crazy hairdos belting out "I'm as free as my hair" while appearing totally hair-free was a shocker, and it wasn't long before "Bald Gaga" was a top trending topic on Twitter.

Well, Gaga wasn't entirely hair-free for her pre-taped "O'Grady" performance: Her piano was blanketed in synthetic hair, and from the neck down she was swathed in a dress that appeared to be fashioned out of turquoise Muppet follicles. And about halfway through her song, she reached for a matching blue pageboy wig, which was sitting atop her piano, and positioned it on her bare head.

While concerned fans feared that Gaga had pulled a Britney and shaved her scalp on a whim, a closer look at her "O'Grady" footage indicates she just wore a bald skullcap on the show. (Calls to Gaga's record label were not returned at press time.) But only her hairdresser knows for sure.

What do you think of Lady Gaga's bare new look?

Eat Your Vegetables, and Don't Forget to Tweet

As a teenager, Jessica Wilson rebelled against her parents. She refused to tweet.

Parents are always looking for ways to position their children for success, from piano lessons to Mandarin immersion. In the Wilson household, that means encouraging the kids to express themselves on the Internet. Unlike parents who struggle to limit kids' computer use, Fred and Joanne Wilson want their kids to be comfortable with the latest in technology.

Courtesy of Wilson family

The parents and kids publish a combined nine blogs. They bring a duffle bag on family trips just to carry all the cords, adapters and batteries for their electronic devices. Mr. and Ms. Wilson, both 49, write almost every day on their blogs, which cover everything from financing start-ups and music (his) to entrepreneurs, family and the key to cooking a prime rib (hers).

Jessica, 20, and Emily, 18, have two blogs each; Joshua, 15, has one, plus two Xboxes. When Josh expressed an interest in building websites, his mom hired a graduate student to tutor him in coding.

Ms. Wilson, an avid cook, photographs most family meals for her "Gotham Gal" blog. "If you try to take a bite of your appetizer before she's taken a picture, you hear her say, 'Wait wait wait wait,' and she'll make you put it back," Josh says.

At times, the kids have resisted the push online. Mr. Wilson, a New York City venture capitalist whose company invested in Twitter, wanted Jessica to be a nimble tweeter. "I would tell her that it was going to be the next big thing," says Mr. Wilson.

Jessica refused to take part. "It was a rebellious thing," she says.

But now, as an aspiring photographer, Jessica sees a benefit to having her dad promote her work to his 173,000 followers.

The Wilsons are an extreme case of connectedness, but maybe not for long. Americans' media consumption keeps increasing, with smartphone ownership and social-network use growing fast. According to a study being released Thursday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 47% of American adults say they use at least one social-networking site.

The Wilson parents blog the old-fashioned way -- with words -- while the kids fill sites like Tumblr with photos. Stitch it all together, and you get a new-media portrait of a close-knit and connected family.

Courtesy of Wilson family

Fred, 49

Mr. Wilson is a managing partner at Union Square Ventures, a venture-capital firm that has invested in companies such as Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga and Etsy. He is on the board of directors at Twitter and Etsy.

His best-known blog is avc.com, which attracts about 250,000 unique visitors a month. While his focus is the technology industry, he sometimes mentions his kids: "For years I tried to get my girls to shop on Etsy. They just didn't get it. Then last spring my daughter came home from college and told me that she was 'addicted to Etsy.' ... Yesss."

In 2005, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson started a family podcast called "Positively Tenth Street." Sunday nights, the clan sat at the kitchen counter taking turns talking about their week and selecting songs. (In one episode, the family discussed power-cord compatibility and played "Waiting for the World to Change" by John Mayer.) Episodes were posted to a website the Wilsons set up, and some aired on a radio station in San Francisco.

"After a year and a half, my sisters said, 'We're done,' " Josh remembers.

"It's actually embarrassing," Emily says.

These days, Mr. Wilson occasionally posts links to his daughters' photograph blogs. He points out that in a Google search on "Jessica Wilson," -- a fairly common name -- his daughter's website is the top link. "Having her online portfolio first on Google could be very valuable to her," he says.

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Mr. Wilson is glad she has come around to Twitter. "In social media there is a tension between a desire for privacy and a desire for attention," her father says.

Jessica sometimes asks her dad to "reblog" photos she is particularly proud of.

"I use the same rule with my kids and entrepreneurs: If I think the thing they want me to [post] is consistent with the online brand I've developed and the audience I've cultivated, then I'll do it," he says.

Courtesy of Wilson family/Emily Wilson

Joanne, 49

Ms. Wilson started blogging in 2003, wanting to preserve a professional identity after she stopped working. She invests for the family in online properties and promotes women entrepreneurs, both on her blog and as co-chair of New York University's Women's Entrepreneur Festival.

"Gotham Gal" is a window on New York's tech scene, complete with downtown restaurants and adventurous travels abroad. But it's also very domestic. Last week, she wrote about a meal the family had to celebrate Emily's high school graduation.

"If she blogs a picture of me I don't like, I get very mad," says Jessica.

Ms. Wilson says she cares very much about her family's privacy. "I know fundamentally where you draw the line," she says. "There are plenty of things that happen that you just don't go there."

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Ms. Wilson says she has regretted only one post: She criticized another school mom for being overbearing. Ms. Wilson never identified the other woman, but when Ms. Wilson ran into her while getting her hair cut, the woman said she knew it was her. "Lesson learned," Ms. Wilson says.

People who hang out with the Wilsons a lot find their way onto Gotham Gal. When Emily's friend, Lizzie Noonan, joined the family on a trip, she was featured on the blog. "One of Josh's friends was like, 'I'm on it more times than you,' " Lizzie says. She replied, "'I'm just getting started!"

Jessica, 20

Jessica wants to be a photographer. She refers to one of her websites as her "portfolio," where she posts a few select images and her contact information. She blogs other photos she has taken, as well as images she has seen online, on Tumblr. She posts snapshots -- a lot of them -- on Facebook.

She knows her parents look at all of her sites and social-media pages. "I'm so active on Facebook, I don't think they can keep up with it," she says.

Jessica, a junior at Wesleyan University who will spend the next semester studying in Cape Town, South Africa, says she doesn't like her parents to write about her.

But she knows the value of having them promote her work. Her father reblogged her first-ever Tumblr post and within a few hours, 14,000 other people had reblogged it from his page, and 2,100 people had opted to follow Jessica's Tumblr blog.

She says she finally joined Twitter after a family dinner in which her mom cited a funny tweet sent out by one of Jessica's college friends. "I was like, 'Hey, he is my friend!' "

Emily, 18

Emily, who will be a freshman at Wesleyan this fall, also loves photography. She maintains two blogs on Tumblr. One is for photographs she has taken of friends, family or street scenes -- images she showcases as her work.

On the other, she posts photos, videos or songs that she thinks are cool, like a photo she reblogged from another person's Tumblr page of a yellow car surrounded by the purple petals shed from a flowering tree. On Facebook, she posts personal snapshots.

Recently, Ms. Wilson posted on "Gotham Gal" about her daughter. "Emily is baking up a storm," Ms. Wilson wrote, sharing with readers the recipe for banana coconut cookies her daughter had prepared.

This upset Emily. "I want to be able to do the things I do in my life, then if I want to share it, I can, it's my choice," she says.

Josh, 15

Josh is more a gamer than a social networker (his 1,000 Facebook friends notwithstanding). He used to play a lot of Zynga games on Facebook but has refocused on Xbox.

His dad often seeks his son's opinion on new websites and apps. "If I'm not busy, I try to do it within a day or two," he says. In the fall, he will enter his sophomore year of high school. He is an editor and reporter for the school newspaper.

Josh follows his favorite pro sports players on Twitter. On the rare occasions when Josh tweets, he tries to rib his parents. Last fall, he wrote, "With @fredwilson and @thegothamgal look for a man in a white and black striped collared shirt @fredwilson, find him you get a hug."

"My parents love it when I do stuff like that," he says.

For years, Josh has been asking his parents to buy a television for his room. But Mr. and Ms. Wilson have one limit on technology: no TVs in the bedrooms. "They don't want us in our rooms glued to the TV," Josh says. Of course, Josh notes that he can download programs to his laptop.

He says he ignores his mom's blog. "I try to refrain from reading her blog because then we don't have anything to talk about," he says.

World's Most Expensive Cities 2011

Americans might complain about the high cost of living, but overseas the U.S. dollar is even weaker. Find out where it buys the least.

Australia, former penal colony, home to the Great Barrier Reef, and producer of world-class shiraz, has never exactly been synonymous with a high cost of living. Yet because of a strong economy and proximity to the booming Asia Pacific region, many overseas visitors might find it more expensive to slip an extra shrimp -- or just about anything else for that matter -- on the barbie here than in most other countries around the world. In fact, in a recent survey, six Australian cities placed among the top 30 most expensive in the world, according to global human resources firm ECA International. Just two years ago, not a single Australian city ranked in the top 100.

Australia is not alone in becoming more expensive. Singapore, for example, rose to No. 36 in ECA's ranking, from No. 68 last year, on the strength of the Singapore dollar. Caracas, Venezuela, rose from No. 91 to No. 15, a result of rampant inflation.

The city that earns the dubious honor of being the most expensive for holders of U.S. dollars is Tokyo, a rank it also enjoyed last year. How expensive is it? How about $24 for a movie ticket and nearly $11 for a beer. Japan dominated the ranking with four of the 10 most expensive -- in addition to Tokyo, Nagoya (No. 3), Yokohama (No. 5), and Kobe (No. 9) also made the list.

Due to the weakened U.S. dollar, no U.S. city ranked in the top 30 this year. The country's most expensive city, Manhattan, N.Y., fell to No. 44, from No. 28 in 2010, making it cheaper than Canada's Toronto (No. 37) and Vancouver (No. 42). The U.S.'s second most expensive city, Honolulu, fell to No. 62 from No. 40. (And while they haven't yet, it could be only a matter of time before Beijing (No. 46) and Shanghai (No. 47) crack the top 30.)

Of course, a weak dollar is not necessarily a bad thing. "If the U.S. continues to be relatively cost-effective in an international context, we will see companies pay more attention to whether they are saving money by expanding operations in places like Asia if the cost of living in these places is increasing," says Lee Quane, ECA International's regional director for Asia.

Aussie Dollar Strengthens

ECA International's ranking is based on a survey carried out in more than 400 cities worldwide in March. It compares the costs of living for expatriates maintaining a standard of living on a par with developed countries to guide employers' salary and benefits offers. Items such as food and beverage, basic goods and services, and some entertainment are included, but the survey excludes housing, utilities, car purchases, and school fees, which can vary widely and typically are counted separately in expatriate compensation packages.

A combination of inflation, availability of goods, and exchange rates affect costs. "The strong Australian dollar, which hit parity with the U.S. dollar last November and has strengthened further since, has been a significant factor behind the continued rise of Australian locations up the global ranking," Anna Michielsen, general manager for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific for ECA International, said in a release.

The Australian dollar has strengthened by nearly 30 percent against the U.S. dollar since last June. That means a $100 meal would have cost about $83 last June and now costs about $106. The country is also becoming more expensive than other locations in Asia: ECA points out that goods and services in Sydney were only 3 percent more expensive than in Hong Kong last year and are now 17 percent more costly.

Rising prices, particularly of food and energy, also play a role: Fruit prices in Australia were up 24.9 percent year-on-year in the first quarter and vegetable prices 18.7 percent (due in part to floods); electricity rose 11.7 percent and gasoline 9.3 percent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Overall consumer prices in the quarter were 3.3 percent above their level a year ago. The bureau forecast in January that weekly living costs for families could increase by as much as A$100 per week this year.

Deteriorating Competitiveness

The cost of a quick lunch in a Sydney restaurant is now $27.10, compared with $20.57 in Manhattan; a dozen eggs is $5.60, against $3.65 in Manhattan; and a tube of toothpaste is $5 vs. $3.72 in Manhattan, according to ECA International.

Since 2004, Australia has seen a deterioration in its relative competitiveness doing business globally, says Glenn Mair, director of MMK Consulting in Vancouver and a leader of KPMG's Competitive Alternatives study, which analyzes the costs of doing business in cities around the world.

In 2004, the cost of doing business in Australia was about 8.5 percent lower than in the U.S., according to KPMG's report. By 2010, the gap had shrunk to 2.2 percent, due to Australia's strong dollar and stable economy during the global economic crisis.

"I anticipate some improvement for U.S. [competitiveness] if currency trends stay the same," Mair says. He adds, however, that volatile exchange rates can make this hard to predict.

It is too early for companies to change their strategy based on recent cost changes, and many other considerations are involved, says ECA's Quane. Still, signs are that U.S. cities may be becoming more cost competitive for businesses.

World's Most Expensive Cities 2011

No. 1: Tokyo

Quick lunch: $20.80
Beer at a bar: $10.56
Kilogram of rice: $9.80
Dozen eggs: $4.50
Movie theater ticket: $23.80

Although the consumer price index in the Tokyo area has been falling since 2009, according to data from Japan's statistics bureau, the city remains the world's most expensive. While housing costs are not included in this survey, ECA International estimates that the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Tokyo stood at $4,352 in September.

No. 2: Oslo

Quick lunch: $45.20
Beer at a bar: $13.18
Kilogram of rice: $6.10
Dozen eggs: $8.50
Movie theater ticket: $18.80

Norway's capital is a major hub for trade, shipping, and finance and is home to the Oslo Stock Exchange. Oslo has ranked among the world's most expensive cities for years, which is not surprising when a quick lunch costs about $45 and a dozen eggs, $8.50.

No. 3: Nagoya, Japan

Quick lunch: $19
Beer at a bar: $11.37
Kilogram of rice: $8.50
Dozen eggs: $3.60
Movie theater ticket: $21.80

Nagoya is one of Japan's premier industrial and technological centers and is well known for its high quality of life and competitive business costs, according to the U.S. Commercial Service. Unlike Japan's other major cities, Nagoya was not significantly harmed by the global economic downturn and has maintained its growth.

No. 4: Stavanger, Norway

Quick lunch: $32.30
Beer at a bar: $12.83
Kilogram of rice: $5.70
Dozen eggs: $6.80
Movie theater ticket: $17.30

Stavanger was mainly a fishing community until oil was found in the North Sea in the 1960s, transforming it into a major Norwegian city. Today, Norway is a leading oil exporter, with Statoil as the largest oil company in the Stavanger region. The industry has become central to the local economy and has attracted many residents from other countries.

No. 5: Yokohama, Japan

Quick lunch: $16.90
Beer at a bar: $6.59
Kilogram of rice: $4.20
Dozen eggs: $2.50
Movie theater ticket: $21.70

Japan's second-largest city after Tokyo, Yokohama is easily reached from Tokyo by train. The port city is home to over 300 IT firms and has a growing biotechnology base, according to the city. Yokohama has nine main business districts and exports many cars and auto parts.

No. 6: Zurich

Quick lunch: $32.90
Beer at a bar: $10.54
Kilogram of rice: $3.70
Dozen eggs: $7.90
Movie theater ticket: $19.60

The financial sector is an important part of Zurich's economy and the city is home to the Swiss Stock Exchange and companies such as Credit Suisse and Swiss Re. Zurich is also a major transportation hub. Mercer ranked the city second in the world for quality of life in 2010, but such a high standard of living does not come cheap: Zurich jumped to No. 6, from being the 10th most expensive city last year.

No. 7: Luanda, Angola

Quick lunch: $52.40
Beer at a bar: $6.62
Kilogram of rice: $4.60
Dozen eggs: $5.20
Movie theater ticket: $13.90

Luanda was the most expensive city in the world in ECA International's 2009 ranking. Last year it slipped to third place, due to the depreciation of the kwanza, and this year it fell again, to No. 7. While the city has a high poverty rate, it remains one of the most expensive places for expatriates to maintain standards of living comparable to those in their home countries.

No. 8: Geneva

Quick lunch: $33.70
Beer at a bar: $9.12
Kilogram of rice: $4.70
Dozen eggs: $8.60
Movie theater ticket: $19.20

Truly a global city, Geneva is home to such international organizations as the United Nations (which has an office in the city) and the International Committee of the Red Cross. An important center for banking, government, and technology, Geneva attracts many professional visitors, as well as tourists. It ranked as the third-best city in the world for quality of life in Mercer's 2010 report.

No. 9: Kobe, Japan

Quick lunch: $15.60
Beer at a bar: $8.69
Kilogram of rice: $9.30
Dozen eggs: $3.10
Movie theater ticket: $20.80

Kobe is one of Japan's busiest ports and a manufacturing center for appliances, food, and transportation equipment. The city offers many types of cuisine, though it's known best for high grade and pricey Kobe beef.

No. 10: Bern, Switzerland

Quick lunch: $28.80
Beer at a bar: $7.46
Kilogram of rice: $4.70
Dozen eggs: $8.40
Movie theater ticket: $19.10

Switzerland's capital, Bern is the center of Swiss government, the engineering industry, and the precision industry, as well as a manufacturing center for watches and other technology used in the medical, IT, and automotive sectors, according to the Bern Economic Development Agency. Branded watches such as Rolex, Longines, Swatch, and Rado are manufactured in the Canton of Bern.

What you’re doing wrong at the gym

If you've been going to the gym regularly and not seeing great results, it may be because you're unknowingly mangling your moves (no offense). The truth is, most people make tiny but key errors in their techniques, and these mistakes prevent them from building muscle and burning more calories. We selected four basic moves that have a tendency to trip women up, and asked top trainers for form fixes. Apply their tips to upgrade your routine and your body.

LUNGES: WHAT YOU DO WRONG
You lean forward, causing your front heel to rise.

LUNGES: FIX YOUR FORM
1. "Narrow your starting stance," says Gray Cook, author of Athletic Body in Balance. The closer your feet are, the harder your core has to work to stabilize your body.

2. "As you do the lunge, focus on moving your torso only up and down, not pushing it forward," says Craig Rasmussen, a fitness coach at Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, California. This keeps your weight balanced evenly through your front foot, allowing you to press into the floor with your heel, which tones more lower-body muscle.

Quick Tip, Lunges: Drop your back knee straight down to the floor.

Banish Bumps and More: How to Get Summer-Ready Legs

SQUATS: WHAT YOU DO WRONG
You start the movement by bending your knees.

SQUATS: HOW TO FIX YOUR FORM
1. As you squat, imagine you're sitting down into a chair, rather than forward on top of your knees. Push your hips back first instead of beginning by bending your knees, which puts more stress on your joints, says Dan John, a strength coach in Burlingame, California.

2. Women tend to lean forward on their toes, but they should sit back into their heels. Try this fix: Pretend that you're standing on a paper towel, says Charlie Weingroff, lead physical therapist for the U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. "Then imagine trying to rip the towel apart by pressing your feet onto the floor and outward." This activates your glutes, which helps you use heavier weights and break through plateaus.

Quick Tip, Squats: As you stand, think about pushing the floor away from your body, rather than lifting your body.

Sculpt a Tight Butt and Legs with Plyometrics

STRAIGHT-LEG DEADLIFTS: WHAT YOU DO WRONG
You round your lower back as you bend over.

STRAIGHT-LEG DEADLIFTS: HOW TO FIX YOUR FORM
1. "When bending down, act as if you are holding a tray of drinks and need to close the door behind you with your backside," says Alwyn Cosgrove, co-owner of Results Fitness. This helps you push your hips back instead of rounding your lower back--a form blunder that puts you at risk for back problems.

2. It's easy to put too much space between the weight and your body as you move up and down. Pretend you're shaving your legs with the bar or dumbbells, suggests Kaitlyn Weiss, a certified strength and conditioning specialist in Southern California. The farther the weights are from your body, the more strain on your back, which limits the work of your hamstrings and glutes.

Quick Tip, Straight-Leg Deadlifts: As you return to standing, squeeze your glutes. You'll engage your butt rather than strain your lower back.

Greatest Fitness Foods for Women

ROWS AND PULLUPS: WHAT YOU DO WRONG
You ignore the muscles that draw back your shoulder blades.

ROWS AND PULLUPS: HOW TO FIX YOUR FORM
1. "Before you start the exercise, create as much space as you can between your ears and shoulders," says Rasmussen. Pull your shoulder blades down and back, which will ensure you work the intended middle- and upper-back muscles.

2. "As you row the weights, stick out your chest," says Mike Boyle, owner of Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Woburn, Massachusetts. This allows you to better retract your shoulder blades, which will lead to better results.

3. "Imagine an orange between your shoulder blades," says Nick Grantham, owner of Smart Fitness in the U.K. "As you pull the weights or your body up, 'squeeze the juice out of it' by bringing your shoulder blades together."

Quick Tip, Rows and Pullups: Using an overhand grip forces your rhomboids (upper-back muscles) to work harder.

NY-born twin friars die on same day at age 92

AP – This May 2003 photo provided by St. Bonaventure University shows Adrian, left, and Julian Riester, identical …

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Identical twins Julian and Adrian Riester were born seconds apart 92 years ago. They died hours apart this week. The Buffalo-born brothers were also brothers in the Roman Catholic Order of Friars Minor. Professed friars for 65 years, they spent much of that time working together at St. Bonaventure University, doing carpentry work, gardening and driving visitors to and from the airport and around town.

"It was fun to see them, just quiet, gentle souls," Yvonne Peace, who worked at the St. Bonaventure Friary for nearly 21 years, said Friday.

They died Wednesday at St. Anthony Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla., Brother Julian in the morning and Brother Adrian in the evening.

Both died of heart failure, said Father James Toal, guardian of St. Anthony Friary in St. Petersburg, where the inseparable twins lived since moving from western New York in 2008.

"It really is almost a poetic ending to the remarkable story of their lives," St. Bonaventure spokesman Tom Missel said. "Stunning when you hear it, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together."

Julian and Adrian Riester were born Jerome and Irving on March 27, 1919, to a couple who already had five daughters. They took the names of saints upon their ordination in the Catholic church.

"Dad was a doctor and he said a prayer for a boy," Adrian once said, according to St. Bonaventure. "The Lord fooled him and sent two."

After attending St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute, the brothers were turned away by the military because of their eyesight, the university said. One had a bad left eye, the other a bad right eye.

Eventually they joined the friars of Holy Name Province in New York City. They received separate assignments before reuniting at the seminary at St. Bonaventure from 1951 to 1956. After serving parishes in Buffalo for 17 years, they returned to St. Bonaventure in 1973 and spent the next 35 years there.

They had separate rooms in the friary but one telephone extension that rang into both, Peace recalled. It was usually the more talkative Adrian who answered, though Julian possessed a quiet authority. They never said who was born first.

"Brother Julian was like the big brother. Brother Adrian would defer to him," Peace said. "They picked up one of our friars at the airport one time and the friar said, `Can I take you to dinner?'

"Brother Adrian looked at Brother Julian and said, `We aren't going to dinner?' `No, we'll go home,'" Peace said. "So that was it. No discussion, no contradicting. `No, we aren't going today.'"

Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at St. Mary Our Lady of Grace Church in St. Petersburg. Afterward, the brothers' bodies will be flown to Buffalo and buried Wednesday at St. Bonaventure Cemetery, across the street from the university.

Messi punched outside restaurant in his hometown

According to reports from Argentina and Spain, Lionel Messi was punched by a teenager as he signed autographs outside a restaurant in his hometown of Rosario. Messi was eating with two friends and no security. After they finished, he signed autographs and took pictures outside with the mob of fans that had spotted him, at which point a kid shouted, "I'm a Central supporter, you're from Newell's" and punched him. He then ran away, chased by a pack of Messi fans (which I imagine was quite funny looking) as Messi himself just left without reacting.

Messi began his youth career with Newell's Old Boys, Rosario Central's fiercest local rivals, which explains why the kid felt the need to declare his support (I guess he didn't want anyone thinking he was a Real Madrid fan).

Given all the witnesses to the incident, I'm sure there will be more on this to come.

UPDATE: Messi told Ole, "I felt nothing and I only learned of it after the hype. Nothing happened." So was he actually hit or is he just impervious to mere mortals' attempts to hurt him?

UPDATE II: OK, so he might not have felt the punch, but he had to feel the lady in the picture squeezing his cheeks. Pretty sure that counts as assault too.

UPDATE III: Here's an eyewitness account from the AP:

"There was a crush of people waiting outside," Pablo Moyano, who was working in the restaurant, told Argentine TV. "There were kids, reporters, photographers waiting … and one of the kids tried to punch him. I don't know if he pulled it off. He went running afterward."

Witnesses said the suspect was dressed in the uniform of a school a few streets away.

Now we are left to wonder how Cristiano Ronaldo got a hold of a local school uniform.

UPDATE IV: Here's video of the incident...

Unfortunately, it looks like the kid wasn't really chased. It also appears he is at least four times larger than Messi, which makes it that much worse.

Photo: AP

Schwarzenegger reveals he had child with staffer

AP – Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks at the Israel 63rd Independence Day Celebration hosted by the Consulate

LOS ANGELES – Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has acknowledged that he fathered a child with a member of his household staff, a revelation that apparently prompted wife Maria Shriver to leave the couple's home before they announced their separation last week.

Schwarzenegger and Shriver jointly announced May 9 that they were splitting up after 25 years of marriage. Yet, Shriver moved out of the family's Brentwood mansion earlier in the year after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the child is his, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

"After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago," Schwarzenegger told the Times in a statement that also was sent to The Associated Press early Tuesday. "I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. There are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologized to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry.

"I ask that the media respect my wife and children through this extremely difficult time," the statement concluded. "While I deserve your attention and criticism, my family does not."

Schwarzenegger's representatives did not comment further. A spokesman for the former first lady told the Times she had no comment.

The Times did not publish the former staffer's name nor that of her child but said the woman worked for the family for 20 years and retired in January.

In an interview Monday before Schwarzenegger issued his statement, the former staffer said another man — her husband at the time — was the child's father. When the Times later informed the woman of the governor's statement, she declined to comment further.

The child was born before Schwarzenegger began his seven-year stint in public office.

Shriver stood by her husband during his 2003 gubernatorial campaign after the Los Angeles Times reported accusations that he had a history of groping women. Schwarzenegger later said he "behaved badly sometimes."

In his first public comments since the couple announced their breakup, Schwarzenegger said last week that he and Shriver "both love each other very much."

"We are very fortunate that we have four extraordinary children and we're taking one day at a time," he said at a Los Angeles event marking Israeli independence. Their children range in age from 13 to 21.

Since his term as California governor ended in early January, Schwarzenegger, 63, has hopscotched around the world, his wife nowhere in sight. While the "Terminator" star appeared confident about the future since exiting politics, cutting movie deals and fashioning himself as a global spokesman for green energy, Shriver, known for her confidence, seemed unsettled.

Shriver, 55, maintained her own identity when her husband entered politics, though she gave up her job at NBC. Their union was often tested in Sacramento, where the former action star contended with a rough seven years of legislative gridlock, a budget crisis and lingering questions about his fidelity.

The Name Change Dilemma

More women are taking their new husbands' names after marriage, research shows. But the decision continues to spark debate and confusion.

The trend toward women keeping their maiden names after marriage peaked in the 1990s, when about 23% of women did so, then eased gradually to about 18% in the 2000s, says a 35-year-study published in 2009 in the journal Social Behavior and Personality. And increasingly, studies show women's decisions on the issue are guided by factors other than political or religious ideas about women's rights or marital roles, as often believed.

Well-educated women in high-earning occupations are significantly more likely to keep their maiden names, the study shows. Brides in professional fields such as medicine, the arts or entertainment are the most likely of all to do so. Age makes a big difference too, according to a 2010 study in a scholarly journal entitled "Names: A Journal of Onomastics." Women who married when they were 35 to 39 years old were 6.4 times more likely to keep their names than women who married between the ages of 20 and 24.

©AP

In fact, the idea that women who keep their maiden names are better breadwinners is becoming a stereotype that some people use as a basis for judging women's ability. In a Dutch study published last year in the journal Basic and Applied Social Psychology, researchers had 90 students compare hypothetical women they had met at a party based on whether they took their husband's names. Those who did were judged as more caring, dependent and emotional, while those who kept their names were seen as smarter and more ambitious.

Researchers also asked 50 students to screen e-mails containing hypothetical job applications from women. The candidates who had kept their maiden names were more likely to be hired and were offered salaries averaging 40% higher than their name-changing peers. (Among limitations of the study, the sample was made up of students who probably lacked much job experience or other criteria upon which to base their judgments.)

Either way, picking a last name can be fraught with complications. Some women lie awake nights before their weddings trying to decide what to do. For women who change their minds later, some vendors even offer "name change kits." Still, changing your name mid-career, as some of my colleagues have done, can lead to confusion among co-workers, clients or in my profession, readers and sources.

Splitting the difference by keeping both names, as many women do, "is a recipe for confusion," one woman writes in an email. She kept her maiden name professionally but uses her married name sometimes outside work. Now, "I never know how to introduce myself," she says. Her driver's license bears one name and her voter registration the other, and she receives summonses for jury duty in both names.

My Juggle colleague Rachel also uses two different names -- her maiden name professionally and her married name personally and officially -- which can lead to lots of mixups, she says. "Readers and colleagues know me by one name and the HR department, friends and the IRS know me by another," she tells me. "I didn't want to give up my byline, which I've had for many years. But changing my name was important to my husband for a lot of reasons, and ultimately we wanted our family members to all have the same name."

Readers, how have you handled this decision in your marriage? What kind of reactions to your decision have you received from other people? Has keeping your maiden name or changing your name been a hassle for you? Have any of you changed your names mid-career?

How To Craft A Successful Career Plan

Career experts share winning strategies that many workers overlook.

By Chris Kyle

Want to get ahead in your career?

Tired of treading water at work?

Looking for professional success?

To help you find your stride at work, we asked career experts to share their best tips on getting to the top.

Keep reading to learn more about successful strategies that many workers overlook...

Career Tip #1 - Slow Down

Instant messenger, iPhone, Twitter. These are tools to help us get what we want, whenever we want it.

As much as we'd like to tell you otherwise, a successful career plan isn't a quick click, tweet, or phone call away. It takes time and patience to develop the proper blueprint.

Deborah Brown-Volkman, a certified career coach in Long Island, New York, says that most people are speeding up in today's fast-paced world when they should be slowing down.

"Many people feel like they want something new and they want it now," Brown-Volkman says. "They hop. They go to a new job and it's no good so when a recruiter calls, they go to another new job."

Brown-Volkman tells clients that they need to take a step back and figure out their long-term vision.

In other words, slow down and take a deep breath. That's our first tip and it's also the first step to putting together a successful career strategy.

Career Tip #2 - Unmask Yourself

Curt Rosengren, a Seattle-based career coach and author of "101 Ways to Get Wild About Work," says that any successful strategy starts from within.

"If you look at the percentage of people who are truly engaged and happy with their work, the statistics are pretty meager," Rosengren says. "For too many people, getting up and going to work is putting on a mask. It's putting on a costume."

Rosengren tells his clients that their long-term success is tied to finding and pursuing their true talent.

"When you are trying to do something that isn't what you're naturally built to do, you may be able to do it well but you're not going to be able to sustain it for nearly as long," Rosengren says. "The quality of your experience is going to be significantly less than something that is in line with who you really are."

"Bottom line: you can never be anyone else half as well as you can be you," Rosengren says.

Career Tip #3 - Focus

In archery there's no way you can hit your target without focusing on it first.

Every other pursuit in life is the same, whether it's archery, accounting, or web design.

This is the stage where you need to focus, says Brown-Volkman. "You need to get clear on what you want."

"It involves some work and perspective and it's not always comfortable to look at yourself, but without having a destination or asking yourself what you want, your plan is not going to be effective."

Brown-Volkman says the number one mistake people make is skipping this step.

When identifying your goals, don't be afraid to get greedy. Think of it as a career wish list.

Already know what you want? Good. You're ready to move on to our next career tip...

Career Tip #4 - Start Planning

Once you understand where it is that you want to go, it's time to plan how to get there.

Rosengren says this may involve taking a class, reading a book, or asking friends and co-workers for advice.

For people experiencing financial hardship, Rosengren recommends pursuing a parallel track.

"I'm not a fan of saying that everything is daisies and tulips and sunshine when things are hard," Rosengren says. "But I'm also not a fan of saying that things are tough now so I have to focus 100 percent of my attention on how to get through this."

Rosengren tells clients to strike the right balance for their plan. "Maybe the vast majority of your time should be focused on getting that next paycheck and there is a percentage of time - maybe it's just 10 percent - that can you use to start moving in the direction that you want to go. That's okay."

Going back to school, whether it's part-time, at night or online, may be a good option for people who want to pursue a new career or promotion without giving up their day job.

Finding the right school or degree program involves the same tips we've talked about. Figure out what you want and then plan how to get there.

Career #5 - Go For It

Congratulations are in order! Yes, yes. We know. You're not at the finish line quite yet, but you've come a long way and there is reason to celebrate getting this far.

You figured out what you want and you put together a plan. Now you need to go for it.

"Here you need to talk to people and network," Brown-Volkman says. "Even if your goal is a promotion, you need to talk to your boss and your co-workers. Ask them how you are coming across. Find out what you need to differently."

If you're introverted or afraid, this step requires a leap of faith.

"Many people have a perception of what other people are going to say," she says. "That holds them back. Most people are their own worst critics."

Just keep in mind that the most important part of this last step is your commitment to seeing it through.

"Don't stop and don't give up," Brown-Volkman says. "Most people don't get what they want because they stop and a lot of times what stops them are their thoughts. But if you have a clear vision and a clear plan and you are implementing your plan on a regular basis, you will be successful and you will get what you want."

Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairy story

By Liz Goodwin

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.

Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:

I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.

Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.

But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion "because it works."

"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going," he writes.

Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.

So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?

"We should seek the greatest value of our action," Hawking told the paper.

(Hawking in China in 2006: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)

Social Networks Offer a Way to Narrow the Field of Friends

There are times when you just have to tell your friends about something -- but not necessarily your Facebook friends.

Just ask Becca Akroyd. When Ms. Akroyd, a 29-year-old lawyer in Sacramento, Calif., wanted to share a picture of her new vegetable garden, she didn't turn to Facebook. Instead she posted it on Path, a service that lets people share pictures, videos and messages with a small group.

"The people I have on my Path are the people who are going to care about the day-to-day random events in my life, or if my dog does something funny," Ms. Akroyd said. "On Facebook, I have colleagues or family members who wouldn't necessarily be interested in those things -- and also that I wouldn't necessarily want to have view those things."

Path, which limits friend groups to 50, is among a new crop of Web services that allow people to connect with a handful of friends in a private group. Users get the benefits of sharing without the strangeness that can result when social worlds collide on Facebook. Other start-ups in this anti-oversharing crowd include GroupMe, Frenzy, Rally Up, Shizzlr, Huddl and Bubbla.

Even Facebook recognizes that people don't want to share everything with every "friend." It has privacy settings that control who can see what, but many people find these challenging to set up. So last fall, Facebook introduced Groups, for sharing with subsets of Facebook friends. And in March, it acquired Beluga, a start-up that allows sharing photos and messages with small groups privately.

Last month, Facebook said its users had created 50 million groups with a median of just eight members. It also introduced the Send button, which websites can use to let people share things with Facebook groups.

"We realized there wasn't a way to share with these groups of people that were already established in your real life -- family, book club members, a sports team," said Peter Deng, director of product for Facebook Groups. "It's one of the fastest-growing products within Facebook. Usage has been pretty phenomenal."

Google is also working on tools for sharing with limited groups of people, according to a person briefed on the company's plans who was not authorized to speak publicly. Slide, a maker of social networking apps that was bought by Google, recently released an iPhone app called Disco, for texting with small groups.

©Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

Dave Morin founded Path, a network that limits users to a small number of contacts.

Google may discuss its plans in this area at a conference for developers this week. A spokeswoman, Katie Watson, declined to comment.

No one expects the start-ups in this field -- most of which are new and have relatively few users -- to replace Facebook or Twitter. Instead, their creators say that they do a better job of mimicking offline social relationships, and that they represent a new wave of social networking that revolves around specific tasks, like sharing photos or coordinating plans for the evening.

Shizzlr, for example, was created by two graduate business students at the University of Connecticut after they realized it was impossible to organize plans on Facebook.

"You put out a status about weekend plans and, all of a sudden, you get your uncle commenting that he wants to go hiking with you and your friends," said Nick Jaensch, who created Shizzlr with Keith Bessette.

After users invite a few friends into a group on Shizzlr, the service grabs a list of coming events from Yelp, Google and Facebook and lets members discuss their options. The groups reach capacity at 20 people.

In the last three months, about 3,600 people have downloaded the application -- a tiny number compared with Facebook's 600 million members. But Mr. Jaensch says he is not interested in competing with Facebook.

"The people that you've called in the past two to three weeks are the people you actually do stuff with," he said.

Shizzlr is just getting off the ground, but some of the other services in this field have attracted the attention of prominent investors. Path has raised $11 million from venture capitalists, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Index Ventures. GroupMe, which says it is handling 100 million messages a month, raised $10.6 million from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst and First Sound, and others. AOL acquired Rally Up late last summer.

[Scams Common on Social Networks?]

Dave Morin, Path's founder, was an early Facebook employee, but thought the social network had grown too large and impersonal for sharing certain things. Hundreds of thousands of users have agreed and signed up for Path, sharing more than five million photos and videos so far, Mr. Morin said. Most of their groups include far fewer than the 50 friends they are allowed, he said.

"People pull out their phone and show their photos and start telling a story about their life -- 'Last week I was on vacation,' or 'here's my cat,' or 'here's what I ate for dinner last night' -- but when we ask if they put those photos anywhere, people would say, 'Oh, no, no, no, it's way too personal,'" Mr. Morin said.

Those photos might also be too boring for the full lineup of one's Facebook friends. And, of course there are other photos that your cubicle neighbors and former flames might find to be ... too interesting.

"The larger social networks have certainly become more loose-tie networks of acquaintances," said Mo Koyfman, an investor at Spark Capital who follows social media trends. "But the way we communicate with acquaintances is very different from how we communicate with friends."

Spark recently invested in Kik, a mobile group messaging app.

Mr. Koyfman said most of these start-up applications centered on cellphones because they were inherently more personal than websites used at a computer.

Mr. Deng at Facebook said that his company was working on more tools for small-group sharing. But some Internet users and entrepreneurs maintain that the big social networks will always be too big for people to share comfortably.

John Winter, a developer in New Zealand, cobbled together Frenzy, an application that lets friends share links, photos, songs and other items in an invitation-only folder on the Web storage service Dropbox, effectively turning it into a private social feed.

"Twitter is public and Facebook is basically public," he said. "What else are you going to use?"

Not-So-Humble Athlete Abodes

Athletes are bigger, better, faster and/or stronger than the rest of us, and some of them almost achieve the superpower of flying. The pros perform on a larger-than-life scale, and many live that way as well. In the interest of gawking at eye candy, we've gathered more than a dozen of those athlete mansions and houses, including more than a few in the Miami area. These homes' square footage ranges from a relatively modest 6,000 to a positively palatial 28,000.

That 28,000 square foot complex belongs to Michael Jordan. Costing between $12 million and $20 million to build, the Jupiter, Fla., it's located in the 55-estate luxury community developed by eminent golfer Jack Nicklaus, the Bears Club. The community is already very private, but Jordan's grounds have a two-story guardhouse. Naturally, the sprawling estate also features an athletic wing with a basketball court and gym, a guest house, and a pool house.

Slideshow: Coolest athlete homes

Boston Celtics guard Ray Allen has a 10,630 square foot mansion in the Blakely Woods neighborhood of Carnation, Wash. Allen once upon a time played for the now-decamped and renamed Seattle SuperSonics. Located on nearly 4.5 acres, the estate features a grand vaulted entryway, six fireplaces, three family rooms, two laundry rooms, wood-paneled office and gourmet kitchen, a full-size basketball and tennis court, pool with kitchen cabana including all stainless steel appliances, a putting green, Jacuzzi and a children's play house.

Former L.A. Dodgers and current Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre put his dazzling Bradbury, Calif., Mediterranean-style mansion (16,600 square feet) on 4.16 acres on the market last year. The entryway has a 35-foot custom-painted ceiling, inlaid marble floors, a crystal chandelier and dual staircases. As for sporting features, there's a rec room with batting cage, an infinity pool, golf greens, and tennis and basketball courts.

Peek Inside Jen Aniston's Stunning NYC Penthouse

Jennifer Aniston and her new digs William Waldron/Elle Decor; Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images From one hair icon to another!

Jennifer Aniston recently dropped major bucks on a one-bedroom penthouse apartment in NYC's West Village; the amazing pad's previous owner was star hairstylist Sally Hershberger.

Before the sale, Hershberger opened up to Elle Decor about the stunning pad, which she had renovated by architect Brad Floyd and decorated by designer Joe D'Urzo.

PHOTOS: More celebrity dream homes

According to multiple reports (including the New York Daily News), Aniston spent a reported $8 million to purchase both Hershberger's 18th floor apartment and an additional 17th floor one-bedroom in the stone Art Deco building, constructed in 1931. The Just Go With It star, 42, plans to combine both units for a mega-duplex with 2,700 square feet of interior space and 900 square feet of outdoor space.

"I love being downtown, in this neighborhood, because it's very cool and mellow," Hershberger (a fellow Californian, like Aniston) tells Elle Decor.

PHOTOS: Jen Aniston's hair history

The interior William Waldron/Elle Decor '"But I love this building because it’s so handsome and has a doorman. It’s uptown without being uptown. I don't like to rough it."

Hershberger's design taste? "I wanted it to be comfortable yet modern, with a smidge of color."

PHOTOS: Who's the biggger style icon -- Jen or Angelina Jolie?

Her favorite feature, which Aniston is sure to love: The incredible wraparound terrace with 360, panoramic views. "For me, this apartment is about the views," she says. "I really like the feeling of privacy I get from a terrace, where the view is kind of graduated. I don't ever want to feel overly exposed."

PHOTOS: Jen's sexy bikini bod through the years

"The minute I come home, the clothes come off and I end up on the bed or sofa, doing everything from there-making phone calls, answering e-mails. I like feeling tucked in a bit and still having the illusion of expansiveness."

Check out more pix of Aniston's new home at ElleDecor.com.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver split: Were politics to blame?

Former California Goveror Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, in Los Angeles on February 18, 2011. The couple just announced that they are separating after 25 years of marriage. (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

When Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger announced today that they were separating after 25 years of marriage, some wondered if politics had anything to do with it—not just because the two are firmly planted on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but because of the complications that come with being the wife of a famous politician.

Michelle Obama put her legal career on hold to support her husband in his efforts, and has been candid about the compromises she made in her personal and family life in order to be first lady. Hillary Rodham Clinton put her own political aspirations on hold—some might say unsuccessfully—while her husband rose through the political ranks. The stresses of political life led Betty Ford and Kitty Dukakis down the road to addiction. Would it be a surprise if politics were the home wrecker here?

Shriver is no stranger to life in the political limelight: Her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics and was the sister of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy and senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy; her father, Sargent Shriver, founded the Peace Corps and was a former vice presidential candidate.

She married Schwarzenegger in 1986, nine years after her family invited the Austrian-born body builder and movie star to play in a celebrity tennis tournament. But a political career for the actor was not an obvious path for his future at the time. Seventeen years later, Shriver made no secret of the fact that she was upset with Schwarzenegger's plan to run for governor of California in 2003.

"My experience with politics was one of loss," Shriver told Oprah Winfrey in an interview in 2008. "I'd learned early on that political life was about constant travel and being surrounded by 50 people in the house, and either you lose or you get assassinated. So I wanted nothing to do with that."

Arnold Schwarzenegger poses with his bride, Maria Kennedy Shriver, after their wedding on April 25, 1986. (AP file photo)

But instead of preventing her husband from running, she told him to do what he wanted to do. And in August 2003 when he announced his candidacy on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," he said that Shriver stood by his decision.

But, as Shriver bluntly admitted, she was not very happy about it.

"I was surprised by the fact that he was even running," Shriver said in her interview with Oprah. "I was surprised that I was suddenly the first lady of California. I was surprised that I lost my job. This all happened in 60 days."

After more than 20 years as a broadcast journalist, NBC news became reluctant to put her on the air because of her husband's political career; if she reported on a story, it could be seen as the news network's endorsement of her husband. In 2004, Shriver gave up her job with NBC News, saying that she could not juggle a journalism job with her new political duties.

"It has become clear to me that as I try to move forward and balance my career as a news journalist with my new role as first lady of California, my journalistic integrity and that of NBC News will be constantly scrutinized," Shriver said in a statement at the time. She was 48 years old, the mother of four children, a Democratic first lady in a Republican administration. Once again, her life was in transition.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver celebrate victory in the recall election (Photo: Chris Weeks/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

In 2006, she thought she had a plan. "I said to myself, I'll work hard to get Arnold re-elected, I'd help him stage an impressive inauguration launching his second term. And then I would finally, finally, get back to the business of being a globetrotting, money-earning, hard-driving network journalist named Maria Shriver," she said at a conference in 2007. "Remember her, remember her? Well, I barely could. I had dumped her by the wayside four years ago when Arnold became Governor and I knew I needed to go back and reclaim her. Why? Because I was lost."

Instead, she decided not to return to journalism, and made the most out of her role as the reluctant first lady of California by spearheading initiatives for women around the world. She led the California Governor and First Lady Conference on Women (also called The Women's Conference) for seven years, created Architects of Change to inspire women, launched the Minerva Awards to honor women in California, and started the WE Connect program to help working families—and those are just a few of her pet projects.

As Shriver once told Oprah, "Politics is about competition, policy, and inspiration, but it's also about appearances." That could explain why the couple waited to announce their separation until after Schwarzenegger's last term as governor was over, in spite of gossip reports that she's been wanting to leave him since 2009 and after years of rumors of his infidelity.

Schwarzenegger's term ended in January. In February, he announced that he is ready to return to the silver screen. Shriver, on the other hand, recently told Katie Couric that she doesn't know what her next step will be.

When asked if she was looking forward to leaving the governor's mansion, Shriver replied: "I'm sad that it's ending. I'm scared to death, actually, because I don't know what I'm going to do. That's the first time since college that I haven't had a job, so it's the beginning of a whole new journey for me, and I don't know where it's going."

"I'm going to rock what I've got and hope someone will give me a job!" she added.

On March 28, Shriver uploaded a YouTube video asking her fans for advice. "I'd like to hear from other people who are in transition," she says. "How did you get through it?"



"As long as I was trying to anticipate what people wanted from me, as long as I was trying to fulfill other people’s expectations, I was in a losing game," Shriver said in 2007, during her speech at the annual Women's Conference. "You can spend the rest of your life trying to measure up, trying to figure out what other people expect from you and trying to fulfill their expectations of you. Or, right now, you can make a decision to let all that go."