3 Stocks That Warren Buffett Would Buy Today

1)JOHNSON & JOHNSON (JNJ)

Strategy: Warren Buffett’s Long-Term Value (The Patient Investor)

Johnson & Johnson is engaged in the research and development, manufacture and sale of a range of products in the healthcare field. Johnson & Johnson has more than 250 operating companies. The Company operates in three segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Devices and Diagnostics. Sales of the Company's two largest products, RISPERDAL/RISPERDAL CONSTA and PROCRIT/EPREX, accounted for approximately 8% and 6% of Johnson &Johnson’s total revenues, respectively, during the year ended December 31, 2006.

In May 2006, ETHICON, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, acquired Vascular Control Systems, Inc., which is focused on developing medical devices to treat fibroids and to control bleeding in obstetric and gynecologic applications. On December 20, 2006, the Company completed the acquisition of the Consumer Healthcare business of Pfizer Inc. In February 2007, the Company completed the acquisition of Conor Medsystems, Inc.

Detailed Analysis

This stock passes Validea’s Patient Investor strategy based on our interpretation of the published criteria of Warren Buffett with a score of 93%. The strategy looks for stocks with consistent long-term track records of earnings growth that also trade at reasonable valuations based on their future growth prospects.

STAGE 1: “Is this a Buffett-type company?”

A bedrock principle for Buffett is that his type of company has a “durable competitive advantage” as compared to being a “price competitive” or “commodity” type of business. Companies with a “durable competitive advantage” are more likely to be found in these sub-industries: Brand Name Fast Food Restaurants, Brand Name Beverages, Brand Name Foods, Brand Name Toiletries and Household Products, Brand Name Clothing, Brand Name Prescription Drugs, Advertising, Advertising Agencies, TV, Newspapers, Magazines, Direct Mail, Repetitive Services for Businesses, Low Cost Producers of Insurance, furniture, or Low Cost Retailers.

While you should be easily able to explain where the company's pricing power comes from (i.e. a strong regional brand image, a business tollgate, its main products are #1 or # 2 in its field and has been on the market for years and hasn’t changed at all, a consumer or business ends up buying the same product many times in a year, etc. or having the lowest production cost among its competition), there are certain figures that one can look at that can qualify the company as having a durable competitive advantage.

LOOK FOR EARNINGS PREDICTABILITY:

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes companies to have solid, stable earnings that are continually expanding. This allows him to accurately predict future earnings. Annual earnings per share from earliest to most recent were 1.02, 1.02, 1.39, 1.61, 1.84, 2.16, 2.40, 2.74, 3.35, 3.73. Buffett would consider JNJ’s earnings predictable. In fact EPS have increased every year. JNJ’s long term historical EPS growth rate is 14.3%, based on the 10 year average EPS growth rate, and it is expected to grow earnings 9.0% per year in the future, based on the analysts’ consensus estimated long term growth rate. For the purposes of our analysis, we will use the more conservative of the two EPS growth numbers.

LOOK AT THE ABILITY TO PAY OFF DEBT

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes companies that are conservatively financed. Nonetheless, he has invested in companies with large financing divisions and in firms with rather high levels of debt. JNJ has a debt of 2,012.0 million and earnings of 10,175.5 million, which could be used to pay off the debt in less than two years, which is considered exceptional.

LOOK FOR CONSISTENTLY HIGHER THAN AVERAGE RETURN ON EQUITY:

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes companies with above average return on equity of at least 15% or better, as this is an indicator that the company has a durable competitive advantage. US corporations have, on average, returned about 12% on equity over the last 30 years. The average ROE for JNJ, over the last ten years, is 24.9%, which is high enough to pass. It is not enough that the average be at least 15%. For each of the last 10 years, with the possible exception of the last fiscal year, the ROE must be at least 10% for Buffett to feel comfortable that the ROE is consistent. In addition, the average ROE over the last 3 years must also exceed 15%. The ROE for the last 10 years, from earliest to latest, is 23.1%, 20.8%, 24.6%, 23.8%, 23.1%, 28.3%, 26.5%, 25.6%, 25.8%, 27.5%, and the average ROE over the last 3 years is 26.3%, thus passing this criterion.

LOOK FOR CONSISTENTLY HIGHER THAN AVERAGE RETURN ON TOTAL CAPITAL:

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Because some companies can be financed with debt that is many times their equity, they can show a consistently high ROE, yet still be in unattractive price competitive businesses. To screen this out, for non-financial companies Buffett also requires that the average Return On Total Capital (ROTC) be at least 12% and consistent. In addition, the average ROTC over the last 3 years must also exceed 12%. Return On Total Capital is defined as the net earnings of the business divided by the total capital in the business, both equity and debt. The average ROTC for JNJ, over the last ten years, is 22.4% and the average ROTC over the past 3 years is 24.8%, which is high enough to pass. It is not enough that the average be at least 12%. For each of the last 10 years, with the possible exception of the last fiscal year, the ROTC must be at least 9% for Buffett to feel comfortable that the ROTC is consistent. The ROTC for the last 10 years, from earliest to latest, is 19.9%, 17.6%, 20.5%, 20.6%, 21.2%, 26.0%, 23.9%, 23.7%, 24.5%, 26.1%, thus passing this criterion.

LOOK AT CAPITAL EXPENDITURES:

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes companies that do not have major capital expenditures. That is, he looks for companies that do not need to spend a ton of money on major upgrades of plant and equipment or on research and development to stay competitive. JNJ’s free cash flow per share of $2.47 is positive, indicating that the company is generating more cash that it is consuming. This is a favorable sign, and so the company passes this criterion.

LOOK AT MANAGEMENT'S USE OF RETAINED EARNINGS:

[PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes to see if management has spent retained earnings in a way that benefits shareholders. To figure this out, Buffett takes the total amount of retained earnings over the previous ten years of $13.06 and compares it to the gain in EPS over the same period of $2.71. JNJ’s management has proven it can earn shareholders a 20.8% return on the earnings they kept. This return is more than acceptable to Buffett. Essentially, management is doing a great job putting the retained earnings to work.

HAS THE COMPANY BEEN BUYING BACK SHARES:

[BONUS PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]Buffett likes to see falling shares outstanding, which indicates that the company has been repurchasing shares. This indicates that management has been using excess capital to increase shareholder value. JNJ’s shares outstanding have fallen over the past five years from 2,968,300,049 to 2,924,000,000, thus passing this criterion. This is a bonus criterion and will not adversely affect the ability of a stock to pass the strategy as a whole if it is failed.

The preceding concludes Buffett’s qualitative analysis. If and when he gets positive responses to all the above criteria, he would then proceed with a price analysis. The price analysis will determine whether or not the stock should be bought. The following is how he would evaluate JNJ quantitatively.

STAGE 2: “ Should I buy at this price?

“ Although a firm may be a Buffett-type company, he won’t invest in it unless he can get a favorable price that allows him a great long term return.

CALCULATE THE INITIAL RATE OF RETURN: [No Pass/Fail]

Buffett compares his type of stocks to bonds, and likes to see what a company’s initial rate of return is. To calculate the initial rate of return, take the trailing 12-month EPS of $3.48 and divide it by the current market price of $63.36. An investor, purchasing JNJ, could expect to receive a 5.49% initial rate of return. Furthermore, he could expect the rate to increase 9.0% per year, based on the analysts’ consensus estimated long term growth rate, as this is how fast earnings are growing.

COMPARE THE INITIAL RATE OF RETURN WITH THE LONG-TERM TREASURY YIELD: [PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]

Buffett favors companies in which the initial rate of return is around the long-term treasury yield. Nonetheless, he has invested in companies with low initial rates of return, as long as the yield is expected to expand rapidly. Currently, the long-term treasury yield is about 5.16%. Compare this with JNJ’s initial yield of 5.49%, which will expand at an annual rate of 9.0%, based on the analysts’ consensus estimated long term growth rate. The company is the better choice, as the initial rate of return is close to or above the long term bond yield and is expanding.

CALCULATE THE FUTURE EPS: [No Pass/Fail]

JNJ currently has a book value of $14.14. It is safe to say that if JNJ can preserve its average rate of return on equity of 24.9% and continues to retain 61.14% of its earnings, it will be able to sustain an earnings growth rate of 15.2% and it will have a book value of $58.33 in ten years. If it can still earn 24.9% on equity in ten years, then expected EPS will be $14.52.

CALCULATE THE FUTURE STOCK PRICE BASED ON THE AVERAGE ROE METHOD: [No Pass/Fail]

Now take the expected future EPS of $14.52 and multiply them by the lower of the 5 year average P/E ratio (20.4) or current P/E ratio (current P/E in this case), which is 18.2 and you get JNJ’s projected future stock price of $264.02.

CALCULATE THE EXPECTED RATE OF RETURN BASED ON THE AVERAGE ROE METHOD: [No Pass/Fail]

Now add in the total expected dividend pool to be paid over the next ten years, which is $22.41. This gives you a total dollar amount of $286.42. These numbers indicate that one could expect to make a 16.3% average annual return on JNJ’s stock at the present time. Buffett would consider this a great return.

CALCULATE THE EXPECTED FUTURE STOCK PRICE BASED ON AVERAGE EPS GROWTH: [No Pass/Fail]

If you take the EPS growth of 9.0%, based on the analysts’ consensus estimated long term growth rate, you can project EPS in ten years to be $8.25. Now multiply EPS in 10 years by the lower of the 5 year average P/E ratio (20.4) or current P/E ratio (current P/E in this case), which is 18.2. This equals the future stock price of $149.91. Add in the total expected dividend pool of $22.41 to get a total dollar amount of $172.32.

CALCULATE THE EXPECTED RETURN USING THE AVERAGE EPS GROWTH METHOD: [No Pass/Fail]

Now you can figure out your expected return based on a current price of $63.36 and the future expected stock price, including the dividend pool, of $172.32. If you were to invest in JNJ at this time, you could expect a 10.5% average annual return on your money. Buffett likes to see a 15% return, and would even go down to 12%.

LOOK AT THE RANGE OF EXPECTED RATE OF RETURN: [PASSES WARREN BUFFETT’S TEST]

Based on the two different methods, you could expect an annual compounding rate of return somewhere between 10.5% and 16.3%. To pinpoint the average return a little better, we have taken an average of the two different methods. Investors could expect an average return of 13.4% on JNJ stock for the next ten years, based on the current fundamentals. Buffett likes to see a 15% return, but nonetheless would accept this return, thus passing the criterion.

2) PEPSICO, INC. (PEP)

Strategy: Warren Buffett’s Long-Term Value (The Patient Investor)

PepsiCo, Inc. (PepsiCo) is a global snack and beverage company. PepsiCo manufactures, markets and sells a variety of salty, sweet and grain-based snacks, carbonated and non-carbonated beverages and foods. The Company is organized into four divisions: Frito-Lay North America, PepsiCo Beverages North America, PepsiCo International and Quaker Foods North America. The Company's North American divisions operate in the United States and Canada. PepsiCo’s international division operates in approximately 200 countries, with its largest operations in Mexico and the United Kingdom.

In September 2006, PepsiCo, Inc. acquired IZZE Beverage Company, a maker of all-natural fruit juices. During the fiscal year ended December 30, 2006 (fiscal 2006), the Company also acquired Stacy’s bagel and pita chips, Duyvis nuts in the Netherlands and Star Foods snacks in Poland. On January 2, 2007, it acquired Naked Juice fruit beverages, and in 2007, completed the acquisition of Bluebird snacks in New Zealand.

Detailed Analysis

This stock passes Validea’s Patient Investor strategy based on our interpretation of the published criteria of Warren Buffett with a score of 93%. The strategy looks for stocks with consistent long-term track records of earnings growth that also trade at reasonable valuations based on their future growth prospects.

3) WALGREEN COMPANY (WAG)
Strategy: Warren Buffett’s Long-Term Value (The Patient Investor)

Walgreen Company (Walgreen) operates retail drugstore chains that are engaged in the retail sale of prescription and non-prescription drugs, and general merchandise. General merchandise includes, among other things, beauty care, personal care, household items, candy, photofinishing, greeting cards, seasonal items and convenience foods. Customers can have prescriptions filled at the drugstore counter, as well as through the mail, by telephone and on the Internet. During the fiscal year ended August 31, 2006 (fiscal 2006), the Company opened or acquired 570 stores after relocations and closings. The total number of stores at August 31, 2006 was 5,461 located in 47 states and Puerto Rico.

The Company made three acquisitions in fiscal 2006, which include Schraft's A Specialty Pharmacy, Medmark Inc. and SeniorMed LLC. In fiscal 2006, Walgreens merged with 76 Happy Harry's stores, primarily in Delaware. In May 2007, the Company acquired Take Care Health Systems.

Detailed Analysis
This stock passes Validea’s Patient Investor strategy based on our interpretation of the published criteria of Warren Buffett with a score of 93%. The strategy looks for stocks with consistent long-term track records of earnings growth that also trade at reasonable valuations based on their future growth prospects.

Health - Important Tips

1) Answer the phone by LEFT ear.
2) Do not drink coffee TWICE a day.
3) Do not take pills with COOL water.
4) Do not have HUGE meals after 5pm.
5) Reduce the amount of OILY food you consume.
6) Drink more WATER in the morning, less at night.
7) Keep your distance from hand phone CHARGERS.
8) Do not use headphones/earphone for LONG period of time.
9) Best sleeping time is from 10pm at night to 6am in the morning.
10) Do not lie down immediately after taking medicine before sleeping.
11) When battery is down to the LAST grid/bar, do not answer the phone as the radiation is 1000 times.

Why Drink Coconut Water

CocoWater is naturally:
> Low in Carbs
> 99% Fat Free
> Low in sugars

Coconut Water contains organic compounds possessing healthy growth promoting properties that have been known to help:

Keep the body cool and at the proper temperature
Orally re-hydrate your body, it is an all natural isotonic beverage
Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells
Naturally replenish your body's fluids after exercising
Raise your metabolism
Promote weight loss
Boost your immune system
Detoxify and fight viruses
Cleanse your digestive tract
Control diabetes
Aid your body in fighting viruses that cause the flu, herpes, and AIDS
Balance your PH and reduce risk of cancer
Treat kidney and urethral stones
Boost poor circulation

Cholesterol contents in food

These are the commons food that contain high cholesterol

Lead and Lead-Free

Lead
with the symbol Pb (Latin: plumbum) and atomic number 82. A soft, heavy, toxic and malleable poor metal, lead is bluish white when freshly cut, but tarnishes to dull gray when exposed to air. Lead is used in building construction, lead-acid batteries, bullets and shot, weights, and is part of solder, pewter, and fusible alloys. Lead has the highest atomic number of all stable elements, although the next element, bismuth, has a half-life so long (longer than the estimated age of the universe) it can be considered stable. Like mercury, another heavy metal, lead is a potent neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bone over time.

Lead is a poisonous metal that can damage nervous connections (especially in young children) and cause blood and brain disorders. Long term exposure to lead or its salts (especially soluble salts or the strong oxidant PbO₂) can cause nephropathy, and colic-like abdominal pains. The concern about lead's role in cognitive deficits in children has brought about widespread reduction in its use (lead exposure has been linked to schizophrenia). Most cases of adult elevated blood lead levels are workplace-related.^[13] High blood levels are associated with delayed puberty in girls.^[14]

Older houses may still contain substantial amounts of lead paint. White lead paint has been withdrawn from sale in industrialized countries, but the yellow lead chromate is still in use; for example, Holland Colours Holcolan Yellow. Old paint should not be stripped by sanding, as this produces inhalable dust.

Lead salts used in pottery glazes have on occasion caused poisoning, when acid drinks, such as fruit juices, have leached lead ions out of the glaze.^{[citation needed]} It has been suggested that what was known as "Devon colic" arose from the use of lead-lined presses to extract apple juice in the manufacture of cider. Lead is considered to be particularly harmful for women's ability to reproduce. For that reason, many universities do not hand out lead-containing samples to women for instructional laboratory analyses.^{[citation needed]} Lead acetate (also known as sugar of lead) was used by the Roman Empire as a sweetener for wine, and some consider this to be the cause of the dementia that affected many of the Roman Emperors.^[15]

Lead as a soil contaminant is a widespread issue, since lead is present in natural deposits and may also enter soil through (leaded) gasoline leaks from underground storage tanks or through a wastestream of lead paint or lead grindings from certain industrial operations.

Biochemistry of lead poisoning

In medicine, lead inhibits α-aminolevulinate (ALA) dehydratase and ferrochelatase, preventing both porphobilinogen formation and the incorporation of iron into protoporphyrin IX, the final step in heme synthesis. This causes ineffective heme synthesis and subsequent microcytic anemia.

Gold Price Tumble

Main Reasons:

1) Commodity drops after the Federal Reserve lowered benchmark interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point

2) Demand is less, correction coming

3) Money has been used for more wisely investment. Example: Property

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold dropped more than 2 percent to its lowest level in a month on Thursday amid a broad-based sell off in commodities and as funds cashed in after pushing the metal to a record above $1,000 an ounce this week.

Platinum, palladium and silver also fell. New York's COMEX gold futures fell over 3 percent to hit their lowest in more than four weeks, while Shanghai futures sank by their 5 percent limit.
Gold tumbled to as low as $920.30 an ounce, down from $944.20/945.00 late in New York on Wednesday and off Monday's record high of $1,030.80 an ounce.

"We have to see whether the funds will continue selling. If they do, of course there is a possibility that it will go down and test $900," said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.

A smaller-than-expected U.S. interest rate cut was an excuse for the funds to exit gold and the absence of Japanese speculators also exaggerated movements, said Leung.
Gold tumbled 6 percent on Wednesday, its biggest one-day percentage drop in nearly two years as funds exited commodities, leading to declines in oil, base metals and agricultural products. Trading was thin on Thursday as the Tokyo Commodity Exchange was closed for a national holiday.

"The upshot is we hold our current view that gold prices will fall over the next six months as the U.S. dollar firms and oil prices fall," ANZ senior commodities analyst Mark Pervan said.
"We forecast spot gold to fall to $850 an ounce by the end of September before firming back towards $900 an ounce by end of the year as oil prices bottom."

Gold futures for April delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell $8.2 an ounce to $937.1 an ounce, after hitting a low of $915. The contract struck a record of $1,033.90 on Monday.

"It is most probably liquidation on margin calls. It looks like players are exiting the market after gold hit the $1,030 level and there's no reason for physical buyers to buy at high levels," said a dealer in Singapore.

"Retailers are also starting to cash in. That's why I think the market will still fall for another day. It's hard to say where the support level is, but I think it's going to fall below $900 today," he said.

The dollar firmed against the euro and came near 1-month highs versus the Australian dollar on Thursday, underpinned by sliding gold and oil prices, falling stocks and in spite of investor anxiety over troubled credit markets.

Spot platinum fell to $1,885/1,890 an ounce from $1,900/1,910 -- off a record high of $2,290 hit on March 4.

Silver dropped to $18.12/18.17 an ounce from $18.38/18.43 an ounce. Spot palladium fell to $447/454 an ounce from $455/460 an ounce.

The most active June contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell by 5 percent to 214.55 yuan a kilogram, tracking declines in cash gold.

The World's Most Innovative Companies

By Mark Borden, Bill Breen, Jeff Chu, Josh Dean, Rebecca Fannin, Amy Feldman, Charles Fishman, Paul Hochman, David Kushner, Mark Lacter, Robert Levine ,David Lidsky, Ellen McGirt, Danielle Sacks, Chuck Salter, Elizabeth Svoboda, Linda Tischler

#1 GOOGLE
The faces and voices of the world's most innovative company.

#2 APPLE
Careful readers of this magazine may be scratching their heads right now, in light of our recent cover story laying out the many challenges facing Apple. But the company has had, indisputably, one hell of a run. In the past year alone, three major new products -- iPhone, iPod Touch, and Leopard OS -- fueled triple-digit revenue growth. So while analysts forecast a more earthbound Apple in 2008, it deserves praise. And extra points for style.

#3 FACEBOOK
In 2007, the social-networking juggernaut had variously impressed with its ability to reinvent the wheel (opening its platform to outside developers) and drawn cyberpickets with its boneheaded missteps (trying to sell advertising by telegraphing its users' every move). But after a year lived dangerously, Facebook is officially A-list, with a $15 billion valuation to boot, thanks to Microsoft's $240 million investment. That's nothing to throw a sheep at.

#4 GE
GE makes our list not on reputation but on the strength of its breakthrough products. Among them: an HD CT scanner that reduces radiation exposure by half, a reengineering of the best-selling CF34 jet engine for the booming Chinese aviation market, and a hybrid locomotive that cuts emissions by 50% -- evidence that Ecomagination is more than just marketing babble. Coming up, commercially viable OLED lighting by 2010.

#5 IDEO
Nobody can accuse the Palo Alto -- based design firm of taking on easy clients in 2007. The CDC asked Ideo to help tackle childhood obesity; the Acumen Fund enlisted the shop to collaborate on delivering clean water in the developing world; and the Red Cross hired it to help encourage blood donations. "As social issues increasingly become business issues," says Ideo CEO Tim Brown, "this will be a critical new direction for design." Of course, there were awards too. The company's designs for the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet cabin and cockpit instrument panel won IDEA Gold medals, as did its LCD monitor for Samsung. But it was Ideo's "Keep the Change" campaign for Bank of America that had perhaps the most impact. Based on research showing that boomer women with kids tend to round up their financial transactions, Ideo developed a service that rounds up debit card purchases to the nearest dollar, then transfers the monetary difference from the customer's checking account to her savings. In its first year, 2.5 million customers signed up.

#6 NIKE
You expect fancy footwear from Nike. But its latest masterstroke is social networking, online and off. From events to the Web to unique retail hubs, Nike is blurring the line between brand and experience.Mark Borden

#7 NOKIA
Once a maker of wood products and tires, the Finnish firm has thrived in the wireless world. Today, Nokia has a 37% (and growing) share of the global cell-phone market, more than twice that of its closest competitor, Motorola. How? A two-tiered design process that identifies the "remarkable similarities in what global consumers want and need in their mobile devices," says senior design manager Rhys Newman, then adds local insight. Bright colors are key to success in India, China, and the Middle East, "where a phone can show status," he says. Markets with low literacy rates get phones without written menus. The company's next challenge is to gain momentum in the U.S., where it has less than 10% of the market. It's betting big on the feature-rich N95 smartphone -- and a strategy of welcoming third-party apps.

#8 ALIBABA
When Alibaba went public last November and raised a stunning $1.5 billion -- the biggest Internet IPO since Google's -- it also raised eyebrows around the world. But probably not those of founder Jack Ma, who back in 1999 recognized that China's 42 million small and medium-size companies (the vast majority of businesses in the country) just might create some opportunities for e-commerce. Alibaba provides a point-and-click system for suppliers to get online and connect with distributors and consumers all over the world. The Chinese site today boasts 16 million users, and the English iteration has 9 million. Watch out, eBay.

#9 AMAZON
Without much fanfare, Amazon has more than tripled its revenues since 2002, to $13 billion. The key: giving customers choices, not just among products, but also between buying from Amazon directly or from outside vendors on the site. Amazon's new digital offerings -- in e-books, videos, and music -- present a fresh menu of options. The company's digital music store, launched in May, already comprises 3 million songs, all compatible with any device and any music software. Similarly, Unbox allows Amazon customers to rent or buy films and TV shows, and watch them on a variety of players. In an era of fighting formats and fears of piracy, that's uncommonly ecumenical.

#10 NINTENDO
By now you know the story: After Sony and Microsoft kicked the Mario out of Nintendo's GameCube in the Video Game War of 2001, the cutest and smallest of the three platform makers needed a new plan. "Nintendo took a step back from the technology arms race and chose to focus on the fun of playing, rather than cold tech specs," says Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America. The resulting Wii system, with its intuitive motion-sensitive controller and interactive games, appealed not only to teen boys but also to their sisters, moms, and dads. In 2007, Wii outsold both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But get this: Unlike its competitors--which lose money on each console and earn it back on software -- Nintendo turns a profit on its consoles, makes more selling games, then takes in still more in licensing fees. "Not to sound too obvious," Fils-Aime says, "but it makes good business sense to make a profit on the products you sell." Wall Street thinks so too. The company's stock has more than doubled over the past year. Nintendo's upset is doing more than attracting new gamers and bruising Sony and Microsoft. Says Sega of America president Simon Jeffery: "It has opened doors of creativity throughout the video-game business."

#11 PROCTER & GAMBLE
When Procter & Gamble's stock tanked by more than half in 2000, CEO A.G. Lafley knew he was facing the dilemma of giant companies everywhere: Despite pouring money into R&D, P&G couldn't create new products fast enough to keep growing. The only way out, Lafley realized, was to innovate innovation. So he launched the Connect + Develop program, which allows outside developers to get their concepts and designs into P&G's product pipeline. An applicator developed by Cardinal Health (now Catalent), for example, helped P&G launch Olay Regenerist Eye Derma-Pods, now its top-selling skin-care item. Today, 42% of P&G products have an externally sourced component. And this giant is growing: Revenues rose 8%, to $78 billion, last fiscal year, while profits climbed 14%, to $11 billion.

#12 NEWS CORP.
As if buying MySpace didn't cement News Corp. as a maverick, Murdoch & Co. last year pledged to go carbon neutral by 2010, launched the Fox Business Network, and, oh yeah, snapped up Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal.

#13 AFFYMETRIX
Imagine going for a half-hour doctor's visit and coming out with a treatment plan tailored to your unique genetic blueprint. That's the vision at Santa Clara, California-based Affymetrix, which makes lab tests that scan tissue samples for variations in thousands of genes. The company banked an estimated $405 million in revenue last year, a payday spurred by the Amplichip test -- developed in partnership with Roche Diagnostics -- which identifies people who metabolize drugs slowly and therefore are especially vulnerable to side effects. Now the race is on to develop advanced tests for genetic predisposition to heart disease and the most common types of cancer.
Photograph: Chris Greenberg/The New York Times/Redux

#14 DISNEY
Two years into the job, CEO Bob Iger continues to mold Disney into the digital-media innovator to watch. ABC was the first network to sell TV episodes on iTunes and to stream them for free on its Web site. Pirates of the Caribbean and High School Musical showed multiplatform agility. And Pixar's latest hit, Ratatouille, was a masterful blend of technical brilliance, artistry, and narrative that evoked Walt's original magic. Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull, now president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, is encouraging the Big Mouse to rediscover and build on its rich tradition.

FC: How are you reviving hand-drawn animation?Ed Catmull: People focus on the art of the old Disney films, not the interplay between art and technology. Disney did the first blue-screen matting, the first multiplane camera. We brought back that interplay. The art and technology inspire each other. One of our experiments is going paperless. Changes are easier on a digital tablet.

What worked at Pixar that is now helping Disney?Catmull: We've made two short films at Disney like we do at Pixar. A small team does everything--the story, the technology--and it allows them to stretch. "Glago's Guest" is more somber and realistic than the usual Disney look.
How do you encourage innovation?Catmull: In a hierarchy, everyone is working for the person making the film, but we push control far down into the organization. Does everyone own the project? Are we taking an honest-to-goodness risk? If we're not scared, really scared, we're not doing a good project.

#15 SAMSUNG
The first bendable OLED screen. An ultrathin double-sided LCD. A solid-state drive to replace the hard disk in your laptop. And soon, in a collaboration with game company Reactrix: a TV that lets viewers move what's on the screen with the wave of a hand. Just a taste of the impact of the world's fastest-growing consumer-electronics company.

#39 TOYOTA
The year 2007 will go down as a historic one for Toyota, its 50th in the United States. The company won 16% of the American market -- more than double its share 10 years ago -- and passed Ford to take the number-two spot in U.S. car sales, despite an uncharacteristic slip in quality ratings. The company unveiled its next-gen Prius (due in 2010), a plug-in with a carbon-fiber body, but ironically, its most successful rollout was the redesigned Tundra pickup. Toyota sold 3,800 of the jumbo 18-mpg trucks per week this year -- 300 more than Prius.

#40 REAL D
When Beowulf hit theaters in November, it marked the dawn of the next -- some say ultimate -- wave of 3-D movies. Making the display possible was a California outfit called Real D, whose technology uses circularly polarized light from digital projectors, avoiding the eye fatigue of the old 3-D. Theaters are banking that the technology will stop the box-office slide, and Hollywood's biggest players have projects in the pipeline. That's not enough for Real D: "Our view is that 3-D images change the business on all visual displays," says CEO Michael Lewis, who envisions Real D at home and even on mobile screens. The company is already experimenting with alternative content, from multiplayer in-theater video games to an NBA game converted into 3-D in real-time. A U2 3-D concert film (above) is out now.

#41 MICROSOFT
Critics like to crow about Redmond's stumbles. The struggling Zune. The Xbox 360's "red ring of death." And as for Vista, well, cue the clearing of throats. Then again, ever hear of a little game called Halo 3? And maybe you missed the biggest surpise to emerge out of the PR squall this year, the tabletop computer Surface, a foray into multitouch technology that rivals the iPhone in coolness. Windows and Office continue their dominance, of course, and Microsoft's stock was up about 20% in 2007.

#42 PAYLESS
Last September, when actresses Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill) and Brittany Snow (Hairspray) landed backstage in Lela Rose's showroom at New York Fashion Week, they swooned over the designer's new shoe collection that was about to debut on the runway. Rose, best known for $1,500 frocks, happily handed pairs of navy peep-toe pumps and polka-dot round-toe pumps over to the young celebs, who would soon be flaunting them on the sidelines of the catwalk. "Did they know they were Payless shoes?" says Rose, who's now designing her fifth exclusive line for the discounter. "Absolutely. They didn't care. They looked cute to them and that's all that mattered."

Payless? Since when did the dusty dungeon of cheap footwear have anything to do with the front lines of fashion? Since 2005, when Matt Rubel, who previously turned around Cole Haan, took the helm of the now $3.5 billion company and decided it needed a design intervention. While the 4,500-store chain had thrived for years on the low-price, self-service model it pioneered in the 1950s, the last decade saw the company losing the discount wars to beasts such as Wal-Mart. If thrift was no longer its competitive edge, reasoned Rubel, then Payless would have to design shoes that Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw would drool over at prices Roseanne could afford.
To do that, Rubel has injected a fashion sensibility into every arm of the Topeka, Kansas-based company. Last year, he built its first design studio in Manhattan and recruited Robert Mingione, Kenneth Cole's head of footwear, and Bernard Figueroa, top footwear designer for Michael Kors, to run it. Taking a cue from fashion democratizers like Target and H&M, he has lured up-and-comers such as Rose, Laura Poretzky, and Alice + Olivia's Stacey Bendet -- even Sex and the City's very own Patricia Field -- to design exclusive shoe and handbag lines that sell at higher prices and employ sophisticated materials such as silk crepe, snake skin, and perforated kidskin. At the retail level, Rubel has given a 21st-century facelift to the chain's 1970s-hued stores with two new formats. He has opened 22 "fashion labs" -- more-upscale hubs, with modern decor bathed in pristine white, that offer the pricier fashion-forward lines -- and retooled nearly 400 existing locations with an airier design that puts trendy collections in the spotlight. "More and more women who never would have shopped at Payless are becoming Payless customers," says Lori Holliday Banks, a senior analyst at fashion consultancy the Tobe Report. "Rubel's reinventing the whole self-service business."

Rubel, crowned Footwear News's Person of the Year for 2007, isn't stopping the extreme makeover there. In 2006, Payless nearly doubled its earnings. Then last spring, the CEO shook up the industry with two major acquisitions: $91 million for Collective Licensing International, a brand-management company that owns names such as Airwalk and American Eagle, and $800 million for Stride Rite Corp., whose brands include Keds and Saucony. Collective Brands Inc. (the parent company's new name) is now the largest non-athletic-shoe company in the western hemisphere, giving Rubel a triple threat of retail, wholesale, and licensing leverage. Says Rubel, who has become a regular at Fashion Week: "Initially it was pretty difficult getting designers on board to sell cheap shoes. Now we're getting phone calls from designers who want to work with us." -- Danielle Sacks

#43 AIRASIA
Seven years ago, former music exec Tony Fernandes paid 25 cents for an ailing carrier with two creaky planes and $12 million in debt. Today, AirAsia's bottom-of-the-pyramid strategy has created one of the world's fastest-growing, most-profitable carriers, with the lowest operating costs in the industry and fares as cheap as $3. "It's like our bus," says Yap Choo Ying, who runs a market stall in eastern Malaysia and now regularly jets to Kuala Lumpur to see her grandkids. In November, the Malaysian company made a risky bet by going long-haul, adding flights to Australia; this year, it will add flights to China and India, where billions of people have yet to take to the skies.

#44 CURRENT TV
"We wanted to democratize television," Al Gore told us last summer, of his quest to create a cable network that piped content pitched to -- and created by -- young people. But if the initial idea was Gore's, credit for Current TV's subsequent traction goes to CEO Joel Hyatt. Launched in August 2005, Current became profitable in 18 months. "I knew nothing, and I mean nothing, about the cable industry," Hyatt says. But that ignorance freed his team to dream big, and by the end of 2007, more than a third of Current programming was being created by viewers and delivered to Current via the Web. Hyatt reinvented the ad model as well, inviting the likes of Sony and Toyota to tap his audience's creativity; to date, 39 viewer-generated ads have aired.

#45 SUN MICROSYSTEMS
Data centers account for some 3% of world energy use, and Sun has taken that as a dare. Last year, its mad-scientist approach to energy efficiency -- and $2 billion R&D budget--caused ripples across the industry as the company released the UltraSPARC T2, the world's most efficient processor; Project Blackbox, the first modular data center; and a new Silicon Valley data center that increases computer power by 456% while cutting energy costs by more than 60%. With four straight profitable quarters for the first time since 2001 and 6% revenue growth, the forecast is sunny.

#46 BMW
The opening of the new $275 million BMW Welt (BMW World) in Munich was a high-water mark for the automaker's marketing department. Some 1 million pilgrims a year are expected to push their noses to the glass; 45,000 customers will pick up their cars here. But there's a better reason BMW remains the world's number-one premium marque. After overhauling its much-criticized onboard computer, the company has refocused on what's important: the badass automobile. Look for the $30,000 rear-wheel-drive 1-Series coupe (debuting in the United States this year), the 2008 Mini Clubman (a supersize version of the Cooper), and, most impressive, the prototype Hydrogen 7. Yes, Honda has a hydrogen car too -- but if you're going to be stranded by the roadside for lack of H, wouldn't you rather it be in a BMW?

#47 TATA GROUP
Within the first 10 days of 2008, Ratan Tata, the magnate behind India's $72.8 billion Tata Group, made a reported $2 billion bid for Ford's Jaguar and Land Rover brands and unveiled its long anticipated $2,500 "People's Car" (called Nano) at a New Delhi auto show. Think about it: In the same week, India's largest conglomerate shook up both the high-end and the rock-bottom car markets, and made a clear statement that Indian business is not just a tech and outsourcing ghetto.

In truth, it wasn't the first time that Tata himself, the fifth generation in his family to run the company, had demonstrated his global savvy. In the 1990s, when he first took the helm of Tata, its trucking unit was posting the biggest losses in India's history. Since then, through a series of international acquisitions (Tetley Teas, steelmaker Corus), the 70-year-old has transformed the company into a mosaic of 100 diverse businesses. Clearly, Tata knows what India's 300-million-strong emerging middle class is hungry for. Apparently he knows the rest of us, too: This year, more than half of the company's revenue is expected to come from non-Indian operations.

#48 AKQA
Most interactive-ad shops master either the creative or the technical; AKQA is expert at both. Whether building a Pixar-quality interactive online universe for Coke's breathtaking "Happiness Factory" campaign (below), or masterminding a multimedia "alternate reality game" for Microsoft's Halo 3, the digital powerhouse doesn't just dream up mind-bending ideas, it actually writes the code that brings them to life. Which is why, after five consecutive years of profitability, AKQA is one of the most dangerous global forces in the ad industry. While ad holding companies and tech firms spent billions in 2007 to snap up digital shops, AKQA fended them off, opting instead for a $250 million investment from private-equity firm General Atlantic. In the meantime, the 700-person agency boosted revenues 39% to $100 million and added new clients such as Unilever, DoubleClick, and Cadbury Schweppes -- on top of existing accounts with Nike and McDonald's.

#49 PROSPER
"What we're really trying to do is to create an eBay for money and credit," says Chris Larsen, CEO of two-year-old Prosper (and founder of E-Loan, which he sold in 2005). The company melds the debt market with online social networking, allowing people to borrow money from one another without any banks in the middle. So far, Prosper has facilitated the transfer of more than $100 million, and delinquency rates have been low. Borrowers include stretched homeowners, college-goers, credit-card junkies, and entrepreneurs; lenders are average folks, including Larsen himself (who has funded more than 450 loans).

#50 BAIDU
We started this list with Google; we end it with a startup that has dared to go up against Google -- and has won the first round. Baidu, the king of Chinese search (60% market share in 2007), performs better in Mandarin and has more features customized for locals. Cofounder Robin Li is convinced that Baidu will "become bigger than Google," and he is in a hurry to get there: He recently launched a Japanese search engine, introduced search for ad-supported streaming music, and was first to offer mobile search in China.
Corrections: In the original version of this article the name of Sega of America president Simon Jeffery was misspelled. Also, the original version neglected to cite Roche Diagnostics as a partner with Affymetrix in developing the Amplichip test.

Health Hazard

Wondering do anyone of us notice how to pickup your mobile phone and put on the correct side of your ear.

The answer is to your LEFT ear from Scientists discovery.
Microwave from your mobile phone will trigger changes to protein structure in endothelial cells that allow toxins to enter your brain.

This is the right way of answering calls.

Childhood Greatest Love Song by 許茹芸

Still remember before Jolin Tsai, SHE was popular, the earlier popular single from Taiwan, Valen Hse. Not sure anyone know or remember her? She was popular in the 90's with her favourite Love songs. Some even gave her the nickname of "The Queen of Love Songs" with her sad ballads in Mandarin Chinese and some in Cantonese.

Today just coincidentally hear the song from FM and only until 2 minutes the song play, i only manage to identify is her, Valen Hsu!

Let's see..From the 1st album, 討好 release in Y1995 until today for the album 北緯六十六度, this single already recorded a record of 13 yrs in music career. From the latest album duel with

阿穆隆, her vocal was just exactly as 10 yrs before.

許茹芸 & 阿穆隆 - 男人女人 MTV