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British high-end chocolate maker and retailer  Hotel Chocolat , which currently operates over 40 stores in the UK, the Middle East and the US, wants to expand even further. But rather than turning to banks or big investors for money, they're inviting customer to buy bonds. Bonds that will pay chocolate returns. Two values of Chocolate Bond will be issued: both with the return paid in monthly Tasting Boxes. Holders of a GBP 2,000 Chocolate Bond will receive six free tasting boxes a year worth GBP 107.70 per year, and those holding a GBP 4,000 bond will receive thirteen boxes, worth GBP 233.35 per year. Which comes down to a 5.38% return. After an initial term of three years, and on every anniversary thereafter, bond holders can redeem their bond for a full return of their investment. If they decide to continue to hold the bond, the monthly boxes will keep on coming. The company doesn't have to worry about the logistics of interest payment in kind; it already operates a tasting...

Dad says smoking toddler is ‘addicted’ 2-year-old throws tantrums when he can't light up msnbc.com news services updated  1:51 p.m. PT,   Wed., May 26, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdWpLEapfV8 JAKARTA, Indonesia - A video of smoking toddler is sparking outrage on the web. When the clip of 2-year-old Sumatran Ardi Rizal puffing away surfaced on YouTube Wednesday, it spread to online social media like, well, fire. Popular blog Gawker linked to the smoking baby video, calling him " totally cooler than you ." But user Faldo777's response was the more typical response: "His parents should be jailed ..." In fact, his parents say Rizal throws a tantrum when they refuse to give him a cigarette. His father gave him his first smoke when he was just 18 months old. The smoking toddler was witnessed by a reporter who recently visited his home in the fishing village of Musi Banyuasin, in Indonesia's South Sumatra province. "I'm not worried about his...

Interview with Dina Kaplan Blip.tv is an online television network focused on featuring, promoting and monetizing the best original shows on the Web.  According to Dina Kaplan, who is a co-founder and COO of blip.tv, the conditions to becoming a successful career woman are threefold: 1) great communications skills, 2) diverse experience and 3) aggressiveness. Dina Kaplan oversees the operations for the company, including media partnerships, advertising and sponsorship deals, public relations and marketing.  She is one of the most influential women in the Internet and is one of a handful of female founders of a successful Internet company.  We met her in New York City to get her views on the conditions to becoming a successful career woman. Dina majored in College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University.  College of Social Studies is a very rigorous interdisciplinary major that focuses on history, economics, philosophy and government and emphasizes the impor...

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Some of the recent financial crisis was blamed on the reckless culture of gambling on Wall Street . The LA Times  reports today  that they are now literally hiring people with few qualifications beyond a love of poker. From the article: The 30-year-old never went to business school or even took a finance class. But he knew poker. He had made a living playing the game online for six years from his Manhattan apartment, betting on up to eight hands at a time. Within a few days, Fargis - with no Wall Street experience - was offered a position trading stock options, a job that entails making multimillion-dollar gambles. His poker skills sealed the deal. It's cheaper than business school. http://gawker.com/5540041/wall-street-ignores-irony-literally-hires-gamblers

Ready for action Director Tim Burton, jury president of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, holds a film clapper in Cannes, France, on Tuesday, May 11. The festival, the world's biggest, runs from May 12 to 23.

CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 14: A dog wearing a red top hat rides a scooter during the 63rd Annual  Cannes Film Festival  on May 13, 2010 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images) http://www.festival-cannes.com/