our generation

Nowadays teens like to stock up on snacks and drinks, and lock themselves up in their rooms for hours. What are these people doing? Spending time on the computer, tv, and other media/ mobile devices, seemingly careless about what is going on out there. All they care about is their video games, their social networking, and entertainment. Why is it in this period of time that these kids have nothing better to do, or so they think? Teens  and young adults of our generation tend to devalue the importance of education. They see education as a waste of time, and they never look forward to it: counting the minutes until the class ends or texting their friends during a lecture.

This could be explained by two words: reality and acceptance. People are unwilling to accept reality, therefore try to escape from it. How they do so can vary, this includes the use of drugs and alcohol, and other substances that give them a sense of excitement and gratification. People in this generation prefer instantaneous gratification rather than deterred gratification. It is almost as if people do not believe in themselves enough to invest in their futures.

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Much of what is known about his life comes from a circle of fellow Holocaust survivors who met in displaced persons camps after the war.They said that when war broke out, Mr. Blum was in Poland and, fearing capture, ran alone across the border to Russia, where he was briefly detained and placed in prison. The Russians soon released him along with thousands of other prisoners to fight the Nazis. The fate of his wife and child, if they existed, is unclear.In the months after the war, Mr. Blum met a family of survivors with two daughters. One of them, Eva, had been in the Auschwitz concentration camp.He married her, although by all accounts it was not a love match. “It was immediately after the war — he thought she was the last Jewish woman alive, and she thought there were no more men,” said a friend and fellow Holocaust survivor who met Mr. Blum around that time. The friend would speak only anonymously, for fear that he would seem to be trying to make a claim on the Blum estate.In 1946, Mr. and Mrs. Blum made their way to Zeilsheim, a displaced persons camp on the outskirts of Frankfurt. In the chaos of postwar Germany, Mr. Blum became a smuggler, as many Jews did, Mr. Skurka said: He pirated cigarettes into Belgium while biding his time waiting for a visa to the United States. During that period, Eva remained in Zeilsheim and Mr. Blum preferred the livelier Berlin.

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“I spoke to Roman many times before he passed away, and he knew what to do, how to name beneficiaries,” said Mason D. Corn, his accountant and friend for 30 years. “Two weeks before he died, I had finally gotten him to sit down. He saw the end was coming. He was becoming mentally feeble. We agreed. I had to go away, and so he told me, ‘O.K., when you come back I will do it.’ But by then it was too late. We came this close, but we missed the boat.”Roman Blum was, by all accounts, an emotional man with a large personality. Six feet tall and handsome, he was a ladies’ man, a gambler and a drinker. He was also enterprising and tough in business.

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That is no small matter, as his is the largest unclaimed estate in New York State history, according to the state comptroller’s office.“He was a very smart man but he died like an idiot,” said Paul Skurka, a fellow Holocaust survivor who befriended Mr. Blum after doing carpentry work for him in the 1970s.Gary D. Gotlin, the public administrator handling the case, sold Mr. Blum’s home on Staten Island, auctioned off his jewelry and his furniture and is putting other properties that he owned on the market. Mr. Gotlin’s office, which is overseen by Surrogate’s Court in Richmond County, is also using Mr. Blum’s estate to pay his taxes, conduct an in-depth search for a will and hire a genealogist to search for relatives. If none are identified, the money will pass into the state’s coffers. That, Mr. Blum’s friends said, would be a tragedy, compounding the one that befell him as a young man in Eastern Europe

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Much about Mr. Blum’s life was shrouded in mystery: He always claimed he was from Warsaw, although many who knew him said he actually came from Chelm, in southeast Poland. Several people close to Mr. Blum said that before World War II, in Poland, he had a wife and child who perished in the Holocaust, though Mr. Blum seems never to have talked of them, and the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, has no record of them in its database. Even his birth date is in question. Records here give it as Sept. 16, 1914; identity cards from a German displaced persons camp have it as Sept. 15.

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When Roman Blum died last year at age 97, his body lingered in the Staten Island University Hospital morgue for four days, until a rabbi at the hospital was able to track down his lawyer. Mr. Blum, a Holocaust survivor and real estate developer, left behind no heirs and no surviving family members — his former wife died in 1992 and the couple was childless. His funeral, held graveside at the New Montefiore Jewish Cemetery in West Babylon, N.Y., was attended by a small number of mourners, most of them elderly fellow survivors or children of survivors.

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Jordan is notorious for his temper but he's also known having a soft spot. He's a guy who, according to ESPN, tears up after meeting Make-A-Wish Foundation kids and sends Mother's Day roses to all his staffers who are moms. Anyone who stands six-foot-six and weighs 250 pounds must have a big heart, and Yvette Prieto has won a huge piece of it.

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Although Prieto is described by the press as a "former model" and is certainly stunning, she also studied business and worked in real estate and in a hospital. Her former boyfriend, Julio Iglesias, Jr., described her as "a fantastic girl…Aside from her beauty, which is obvious, she is loving, simple and a very good person." After they ended their relationship, Prieto reportedly met Jordan at a dance club in 2008. Ironically, Prieto has never seen her super star husband play professional basketball. "She never saw me at 218 " Jordan told ESPN. Maybe that's one more reason she remains so level headed about him

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Prieto has also shared her love of the sea with her new husband—despite the fact that he "hates the water." They have taken a number of sailing trips together and he's learned to love fishing for yellow fin tuna, and making fresh sushi with his catch. On their first voyage, he "went stir crazy" but on "the most recent trip, he felt his rage dissolve." Jordan who is usually glued to sports tapes for hours on end didn't even watch basketball. Instead, he's taken to playing old home videos of his three college-aged kids from his first marriage to Juanita Vanoy which ended in divorce in 2006. Vanoy reportedly received $168 million in the settlement, but there's plenty leftover: Forbes puts Jordan's net worth at about $650 million

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t's possible they moved to Florida to be closer to Prieto's family. She grew up in a close-knit Cuban-American family in Miami. "It was down in Florida," reports ESPN, "where he was spending time with Yvette's Cuban family, that he got a taste of the life he'd traded for the jet-set circus of modern celebrity. They weren't fawning—her grandparents, who speak little English, aren't basketball fans—and he sat at a dinner table, with people laughing and eating home-cooked food." It brought him back to his own childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. A couple of years ago, Prieto convinced Jordan to take a seven-hour drive around North Carolina to visit his family who live all over the state. More accustomed to a private jet than road tripping, he joked, "It's amazing what women can talk you into doing."

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According to an interview with ESPN, Prieto is helping Jordan—as famous for his ego as he is for his air—come down to earth as well. In February, the couple moved from Chicago to a condominium in the Bear's Club community in Jupiter, Florida developed by legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus. His friends joke that it's his "retirement home" but the sprawling, 11-bedroom residence seems more like a domestic oasis. There is a giant kitchen where Jordan and Prieto like to entertain close friends around an island with wine from his cellar, takeout steaks, and homemade salads.

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Yvette Prieto, 35, who wed Michael Jordan, 50, on Saturday, stayed remarkably under the radar during the couple's five-year courtship (the two were engaged in 2011). Maybe that's because she appears to be a woman with her two feet planted firmly on the ground.

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Methodology: In a blind taste test, five judges compared the flavor, consistency, and appearance of 16 boxes of packaged mac 'n' cheese (tubes, shells, or rotini). All options were prepared according to the stovetop directions on the packaging, using 1% milk and unsalted butter. (In several cases butter was not required and therefore not added.) We ranked them according to the Epicurious four-fork rating system (four being best). One winner within each category had us wishing every night was mac 'n' cheese night.

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The 16 varieties of mac 'n' cheese we tasted are available nationwide and included the following, listed from highest to lowest score in our taste test: 365 Organic Shells & White Cheddar Cheese, Kraft Whole Grain Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, Kraft Premium White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese, Annie's Creamy Deluxe Whole Wheat Shells & Extra Cheesy Cheddar Sauce, Velveeta Rotini and Cheese Whole Grain, 365 Organic Macaroni & Cheese, Annie's Homegrown Shells & White Cheddar,* Hodgson Mills Whole Wheat Macaroni & Cheese Dinner,* Simply Organic Macaroni & Cheese Dinner,* Annie's Homegrown Macaroni & Cheese,* Velveeta Original Shells and Cheese, Back to Nature Macaroni & Cheese Dinner, Pasta Roni Cheddar Macaroni,* Harvest Wheat Macaroni & Cheese Dinner,* Pasta Roni Shells & White Cheddar. (The brands marked with * received the same score.)

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These days, packaged mac 'n' cheeses vary in many ways: They can be made on the stovetop, baked in an oven, or cooked in the microwave. Some are made with three or more cheeses, others even use soy. But we felt that this dish is loved by many because of its simplicity. For that reason, we narrowed our taste test selections into three categories: traditional, whole wheat, and white Cheddar, all packaged in boxed macaroni form and prepared on the stovetop. (We did not test any single-serving, frozen, or microwave-only options.)The ultimate stovetop mac 'n' cheese should have pasta that is not mushy and does not swim in a pool of watery sauce, but is instead generously coated with Cheddar-cheesy, buttery goodness. The cheese should taste like cheese and shouldn't have overly sharp, sweet, or artificial flavors.

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The saying "Cheddar makes everything better!" is indeed correct. Adding it as a garnish to a veggie or a hot bowl of chili can be dish-changing; adding it to pasta makes the perfect meal: macaroni and cheese. While it's hard to beat homemade macaroni and cheese, on a hard day's night, a box of store-bought mac 'n' cheese can be a real time-saver and family-pleaser. 

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Jackie Hesley, a certified Hoopnotica instructor who learned her moves at the Hoopnotica studio in Venice, Calif., has also lost about 50 pounds in six months."It is cardio and strength training because you're using all of your core muscles," Hesley told ABC NEWS. "You tighten up the sides of your body and you tighten up your center or your hips or your legs."Gabriella Redding started Hoopnotica because hooping seemed fun and healthy to her. After originally weighing 182 pounds, she's lost 50 pounds in a year thanks to exercise."You can burn up to 600 calories in an hour, moving your arms in and out and coming up," Redding said.And Osbourne isn't the only celebrity hooper. Michelle Obama, Catherine Zeta Jones, Jason Mraz and Beyonce also reportedly enjoy the exercise.Hooping burns an average of 420 calories per hour, which is the equivalent of a cardio-kickbox class.

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A favorite with style-watcher Kelly Osbourne, Hoopnotica uses a device like a hula hoop to tone your core, abs, legs, arms, back and butt by re-introducing a playful element into physical fitness. Osbourne did Hoopnotica to get ready for Oscar night, telling "Self" magazine that hooping was one of her secrets to keeping off the 70 pounds she's lost since 2009."I have a Hoopnotica hula hoop," she told the magazine. "I use it every day, and it's made my back and arms stronger, and my waist has gone down 2 inches! On Saturday nights my friends and I put on ridiculous outfits and hula-hoop and dance when everyone else is at 'da club.' We call it #HipHopAnonymous. Adam Lambert is in it. We live in the same building, and random people show up. The next morning you're like, 'Oh, my God, I'm so sore,' but you had the best night ever."

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Killian became involved during a parent-teacher conference with Nicole's mother. The teacher asked for the criteria needed to be a donor and found she met them. She said she was inspired to be a donor because her son needed and received a blood platelet transfusion a few years ago.Killian's husband, Stu, supported her decision, which she talked through with him."I thought it was a great thing to do," he said. "God puts you in certain situations for a reason."of Ohio reports that someone in Ohio dies every 48 hours while waiting for a transplant; more than 2,000 have died in that situation in the past decade.The transplant happened April 23 at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland.Nicoles mother Letitia said receiving a new kidney from someone she knew was helpful."She's been excited about the thought of getting a new kidney," she said. "The thought of being in the same room with Wendy was really comforting to her."

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An Ohio girl is recovering after getting a critical kidney transplant — with the organ donated by her former kindergarten teacher.Nicole Miller, an 8-year-old first-grader at Mansfield Christian School, got the kidney last week from Wendy Killian, who was her kindergarten teacher last year."See you soon, sweet girl," Killian told Nicole just before they both taken into the pre-operation area last week, The Mansfield News Journal reported.Nicole suffered from a genetic disorder that caused kidney malformation and other problems. Kidney problems left her frequently tired, and caused her to miss school often."For her to be able to feel good and not live in a fog because her body's not able to dispose of waste properly ... seeing what she's going to be like is the exciting part for me as a parent," said Brian Miller, her father."The next six months will be the most difficult," he said. "After six months, things can settle in, and hopefully we can really see what her life is going to be like."

Response to the Boston Marathon Explosion

In all honesty , I think that was wrong. Killing innocent people are just morally wrong. Everybody has their time when you have to leave this earth but the way they left was so horrific. The fact that children are dead and more then 90 people are injured really has me upset. In my opinion , I don't think that a terrorist did this bombing , I think a american did this. People at the finish line are waiting to see their loved ones cross the line then something like this happens. Makes you think that your not safe anywhere you go but everybody that is dealing with death right now , I'm praying for you. #PrayForBoston.

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Fall and winter have come and gone. We’ve all been waiting for this very day. No, not the first day of summer. It’s the return of Love and Hip Hop Atlanta season two. And from the looks of the supertrailer it’s going to be wilder, juicier, sexier, more dramatic than we could’ve dreamed. Are you ready?
There’s a calm before every storm. Everyone looks so in love and happy. Joseline is still on Stevie J’s bus with Mimi out of the way catering to her new man. Erica and Scrappy are still engaged and in bliss. Rasheeda and Kirk have put aside their business relationship problems long enough to be expecting another child. All seems well, but everything that glitters ain’t gold.
Stevie J’s still juggling many women which causes problems for Joseline. Joseline’s slick mouth hasn’t changed and we love it. Kirk questions the paternity of the child Rasheeda’s pregnant with. Shay’s still in Scrappy’s life and has a lot to get off her chest. Rasheeda and K.Michelle have unresolved beef, and Mimi and K.Michelle’s friendship has taken an ugly turn. The new cast members are bringing their own drama, too. And on Monday, April 22nd at 8PM ET it’s all yours for the taking.

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In the decade since it was established, the Global Fund has received generous contributions from governments and other supporters around the world. My foundation has invested nearly $1.5 billion and I see the payoff in lives saved. So do developing countries, as more and more of them increase their own domestic spending on AIDS, TB and malaria. These investments deserve to continue.

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The Fund is poised to have an even greater impact in the future. Knowledge of how to effectively control HIV, TB and malaria is rapidly expanding. Promising tools, such as better medicines and vaccines, are in development. But it's the funding decisions made today that will determine our ability to capitalize on these opportunities for years to come.

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One of Global Fund's many strengths is its commitment to getting the most out of every dollar. For example, the Fund helps countries choose cost-effective medicines and other tools, and has helped significantly reduce their prices. Today, a bed net to protect a child from malaria costs just $10. The Fund is also serious about measurement. It sets clear goals and publishes performance metrics. (If you've read my Annual Letter, you know how critical this is.)

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I've said before that the Global Fund is one of the kindest things people have ever done for each other. It's also one of the most valuable investments a donor can make. To date, the Fund has saved an estimated nine million lives treating HIV (four million people treated), preventing malaria (310 million bed nets delivered) and testing for infectious TB (10 million cases diagnosed). Because of its scale, the Global Fund has started to change the trajectory of epidemics. As a result, we have made real progress toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health.

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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it will need $15 billion to continue its life-saving work. If the world comes together to meet this replenishment goal, it will build on one of its greatest achievements of the past decade by saving millions more lives. HIV, TB and malaria are three of the world's biggest killers, but thanks to the Global Fund we are starting to make significant progress in controlling them. Now is the time for governments and other donors to make new pledges to the Fund (you can help by getting involved with groups such as the ONE Campaign.)
The Global Fund is a central player in the progress being achieved on HIV, TB and malaria. It channels resources to help countries fight these diseases. I believe in its impact because I have seen it firsthand. Last summer while I was in Zambia I met Florence Daka, an HIV-positive mother of four. Florence is living proof of the tremendous progress we've made in HIV - she not only leads a healthy life, but her young son Stephen was born HIV free thanks to the antiretroviral treatment.

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In 1994 I read Annette Funicello's autobiography that she wrote with Patricia Romanowski. It told the story of the little girl from Utica, New York, whose mother saw a singing and dancing talent and convinced her husband to take a chance and move to Hollywood to give her little Annette a shot at fame. After being discovered by Walt Disney for his new Mouseketeer Show -- Annette went on to a singing, dancing and acting career, before retiring to raise her children and then to battle Multiple Sclerosis.

Many had pitched her story when the book was reviewed in People magazine -- and all three of the broadcast networks had passed on the idea of producing it as a movie. Having been a very little boy with a very real crush on Annette when I was young, I was determined to try and option the book and sell it. I went to meet with Annette's ex-husband, legendary agent Jack Gilardi. He heard my pitch, saw my passion and agreed to set up a meeting for me to meet with Annette at her home in Encino. I was quite nervous, but excited to meet one of my childhood heroes.

Annette was everything you would hope she would be -- sweet, sincere, positive and caring. Even battling this insidious disease, which at that point had taken away her ability to walk -- or even hold a pen to sign autographs -- her smile never dimmed and her memory was razor sharp. She heard my pitch for how to adapt her book to film -- which would involve Annette appearing in the film herself -- telling her life story to a group of kids on the day of her daughter's wedding.
The darling Miss Funicello agreed to let me option her book.

CBS

CBS's scripted programming was being run by former fellow movies-for-television producer Larry Sanitsky. I knew Larry grew up watching The Mickey Mouse Club and I took a chance that he might have a crush on Annette too. Working on that hunch, I had Annette call Larry's office and invite him up to her house for a cup of coffee. How could he resist America's sweetheart? Sure enough, Larry was a fan and agreed to the meeting.

I had a pair of Mouseketeer ears made for Mr. Sanitsky, with the name "Larry" stitched in yellow thread on to the front. Annette handed Larry his "ears" as soon as he arrived. He melted -- and we knew we had sold the movie to CBS.
Six months later we had a wonderful screenplay adaptation of the book from John McGreevey and Peter Torokvei. The CBS executive from the movies-for-television department, Michael Healy, was able to get his network to order the film into production. Off we went to Vancouver to make a movie.

Actress Eva LaRue (known now for her work on CSI: MIAMI) was cast to play Annette as an adult and young singing and dancing star Andrea Nemeth was cast to play Annette before and during her Mouseketeer years.

The film opens and closes with Annette sitting on a lounge in a living room on the day that her daughter Gina is to be married. A small group of nieces, nephews and friends sit around her as she begins to tell them the story of her life. From that point she narrates portions of the film, so we can jump forward in time, and, occasionally we return to her in the salon. The film ends with Gina's wedding ceremony. Eva LaRue is in a wheelchair and as she's wheeled past camera she becomes the real Annette -- so do all the other family members in the chapel. The actors are magically replaced by the real family. We had flown up Annette's mom and dad, Virginia and Joe, her brother Joey and her children, Jack Jr., Gina and Jason. Jack Gilardi -- also portrayed in the film -- stayed very close to us during the production and was instrumental in getting the whole family to appear in the final scenes.

Drama

Last season on “Love & Hip Hop Atlanta,” K. Michelle and Rasheeda fell out badly over K.’s accusations that Rasheeda’s friend’s husband Memphitz physically abused her. Now, Rasheeda’s husband Kirk has taken to social media to fire off verbal abuse at the embattled and struggling R&B singer.It all started with an Instagram message from Kirk for #tbt (throwback Thursday) that unnecessarily stirred the pot.

Love and Hip - Hop

It all began in New York, but there's no denying that VH1's "Love & Hip Hop Atlanta"  has blown the recent season of "Love & Hip Hop 3" out of the water. The cast up north just couldn't hold a candle to the drama that characters like "Stebie" and Joseline brought. And now, we're inching closer to the return of their second season, which debuts on April 22. Get a preview of what goes down in the super trailer above.From the looks of it, the drama between Stevie J, Joseline and Mimi Faust hasn't calmed down much (can you tell by "Stebie" getting drinks tossed in his face early?), while K. Michelle seems to be beefing with everyone from Rasheeda and her husband to Mimi. Lil Scrappy and Erica sort of seem to be back together, but then a confrontation with his "close friend" Shay seem to suggest that things aren't all sunny in paradise. Scrappy's mom also makes a strong showing, and the new castmates DJ Traci Steele and Baby Drew have some issues of their own.