The only thing left to do is keep an eye on the hottest destinations on the Web touting Black Friday deals. Here's a list of Web sites you'll want to keep an eye on, so sync them across your computers with Chrome bookmarks, save them to delicious or just store them in your favorite browser. Whatever you do, don't miss out on these sites to help you find great bargains.
Amazon
The online retailer's Black Friday deals page is up and running. Not only can you get some great bargains on electronics, video games and DVDs, but every day Amazon is also offering some great limited time sales. Lightning deals that you've already missed include 101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition) for $9.99 (67 percent off) and an eight-function bicycle computer for $24.99 (29 percent off), and a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 12.1MP Digital Camera for $621.99 (21 percent off).
Best Buy
You may waste hours lined up at the Geek Squad counter, but I can guarantee you these deals from Best Buy won't last. If Best Buy is on your hit list for Friday then check out Best Buy's Doorbusters. The in-store deals start at 5 a.m. local time, but the retailer is also handing out tickets for select items as early as 3 a.m. Best Buy will also be offering some, but not all, of its Black Friday deals through its Web site starting on Thanksgiving Day, while supplies last of course.
Hot deals include a Palm Pre for $79.99 plus a two-year contract, Samsung 46-inch LCE HDTV for $999.99 and a Hewlett-Packard 15.6-inch laptop with an Intel Celeron processor for $197 (in store only).
Apple
No one has any idea what Apple has planned for Black Friday 2009, and historically the company has never had much in the way of super deals. But just in case this is the year for low prices, you'll want to keep Apple's Black Friday page bookmarked.
Two rumors have already surfaced about Apple's Black Friday plans, and both rumors came with supposed Apple advertisements boasting of the deals. One rumor says prices for Mac computers will be cut up to 25 percent, while a later one said the discount would only be 8 percent. Only a few days until we know for sure.
Dell
Dude, are you getting a Dell this year? You might, if you like what you see from Dell's Black Friday deals. You can get a Linux-based Dell Vostro 8.9-inch netbook with an 8GB solid-state drive for $184 or a Dell Vostro desktop with Windows 7 (32-bit), an 18.5-inch screen, 4GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, and a 15-month subscription to Norton Internet Security 2009 for $429.
Twitter
There are tons of Twitter accounts sending out Black Friday deals in real time, but the easiest one to find and follow is @BlackFriday. Even if you don't use Twitter, you can still take advantage of this microblogger by bookmarking the account page. You won't get the real-time functionality without a Twitter account, so you'll have to refresh your browser every few minutes to see what's new.
BlackFriday.FM
This is an easy-to-use site that has great Black Friday information. Here you can sign up for e-mail updates, check out the sales for your favorite stores and keep up on the latest Black Friday news. The site even features two links at the top right to Black Friday favorites Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
Follow this site on Twitter and Facebook.
tgiBlackFriday.com
The makers of the 2009 Black Friday
Follow tgibf on Twitter and Facebook.
BlackFriday2009
Unlike many of its competitors, this site is easy to view and navigate. Black Friday 2009 has the latest news about Black Friday right up front, as well as links to popular stores and a rotating selection of some of the site's favorite deals.
They've also got a Facebook page and a Twitter feed.
Black Friday@GottaDeal
It's not the prettiest site to look at, but you'll definitely find some deals. The best part about this site is its two online trackers: one shows you the items you can order online right now, and the other shows dates, times and discounts for the online sales from major retailers. No Twitter or Facebook here, but you can sign up for the site's email alerts.
BFads
This popular Black Friday site not only features deals listings, but you can also join the BFads community to swap tips with other savvy shoppers. If you want it, there is yet another Twitter stream for this site, as well as a Facebook page to keep you informed about Black Friday.
So there you have it. Ten sites you'll want to keep your eye on as we approach Friday, Nov. 27.
WASHINGTON – After 10 months in office, President Barack Obama granted his first pardon Wednesday to "Courage," a 45-pound turkey spared from the Thanksgiving table.
Accompanied by daughters Sasha and Malia, Obama stood under the North Portico of the White House to honor a holiday tradition that dates to 1947 — receiving a bird from the National Turkey Federation.
"I'm told Presidents Eisenhower and Johnson actually ate their turkeys," Obama said. "You can't fault them for that; that's a good-looking bird."
President George H.W. Bush was the first to officially pardon a turkey.
Obama joked about wanting to forgo the tradition and eat "Courage."
"Thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha — because I was planning to eat this sucker — 'Courage' will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate," he said.
Obama said he wished all American service members at home and abroad a happy Thanksgiving, saying it is a "tremendous honor it is to serve as commander in chief of the finest military in the world."
He also spoke about the first family's plans for the holiday dinner.
"Just like millions of other families across America, we'll take time to give our thanks for many blessings," Obama said. "We'll also remember this is a time when so many members of our American family are hurting."
Obama noted that President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a holiday in the midst of the Civil War, "when the future of our very union was most in doubt."
"This is an era of new perils and new hardships," he added. "So on this quintessentially American holiday, as we give thanks for what we've got, let's also give back to those who are less fortunate."
After his remarks, the turkey was lifted to a table and Obama raised his hand over its head to deliver a mock-serious pardon.
"You are hereby pardoned," he said.
Obama said "Courage" will get to spend the rest of his life in "peace and tranquility" at Disneyland.
A piece of good news to go with Manny Pacquiao’s victory was a report that Filipino Z Gorrez had shown signs of improvement at a hospital where he was brought to after his bout with Columbia’s Luis Melendez also in Las Vegas.
His manager, Mike Aldeguer, was reported being told by doctors that Gorres is showing positive signs.
It was learned that the Filipino southpaw “was trying to remove the tube on his mouth himself, a sign which doctors said Gorres “is not brain dead.”
Gorres did win the fight by dropping Melendez in the third round of their scheduled 10-round bantamweight fight, scoring his 30th win (with two setbacks and two draws).
Melendez was reported to have scored a hard hit on Gorres’ head late before the end of the third round. The punch proved fatal as the Filipino felt dizzy and was immediately brought to a hospital for treatment of nausea.
While he was able to beat the mandatory count, he was said to have a hard time going upright. He was nevertheless declared winner by virtue of the judges’ scores of 98-90, 98-90 and 97-91.
At a hospital, part of his skull had been removed to drain the fluid in his brain.
Considering the gravity of what he took, Gorres may no longer continue with his career.
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No matter how much they deny it, many people still believe that there is truth to the Manny Pacquiao-Krista Ranillo rumored romance. Both Manny and Krista camps have denied the rumor (also that one saying Krista is pregnant) but more people tend to believe that the two are indeed "lovers," ever since they started filming "Wapacman," an entry to the forthcoming Metro Manila Film Festival.Description of this Promotion
During the Promotion Period (as defined below), download the PayPal WishList application on Facebook (“PayPal WishList”), create your own PayPal WishList, and we will pay $1 USD into your PayPal account. In order for us to pay you the amount you earned pursuant to this Promotion, you will need to provide us with your PayPal email address via the PayPal WishList. To submit the PayPal email address you would like linked to your PayPal WishList, go to the home page of the PayPal WishList at www.paypalwishlist.com and click the link below to the 'submit your email address' in the upper left side of the page.
In addition, share the PayPal WishList with your friends via Facebook, and for each friend who downloads and creates his or her own PayPal WishList from your invitation, we will pay you an additional $1 USD (up to the maximum total sum of $100 USD per PayPal account).
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NEW YORK – Chaz Bono says beginning the sex-change process to turn him from a woman to a man is "the best decision I've ever made."
The 40-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star, who was born a girl to Sonny Bono and Cher, says he's eight months into the years-long transformation and says he feels great.
Formerly called Chastity, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday: "Life is short and life is precious. This is who I am. I need to finally be who I am."
Bono says he always felt like a boy growing up and came out as a lesbian 11 years ago. Now he's undergone gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.
He tells ABC: "To me, gender is between your ears, not between your legs. I've felt male as far back as I can remember."
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Shoppers swamped Wal-Mart in Sacramento, Calif. to take advantage of Black Friday specials in 2008. This year, the release of Wal-Mart's Black Friday sales for 2009 was an attempt by the retail giant to walk a fine line between harnessing the power of the Internet and being stung by it. (Newscom) Where just this past weekend Wal-Mart was brandishing its brace of lawyers at the leak of several movie and videogame prices, Wednesday it OK’d the release of its entire clutch of Black Friday secrets ahead of its own Nov. 23 release date.
Why the change of heart? The move speaks volumes about a company trying to harness the Internet’s viral power while not tipping its hand too soon.
Over the weekend of Nov. 15, a user on a forum hosted by the website DVDTalk.com posted Black Friday prices for several DVDs, Blu-Rays, and videogames.
Since Wal-Mart had already sent letters this summer warning websites like DVDTalk and others not to publish its Black Friday deals early, what happened next came as no surprise. The company’s lawyers quickly contacted the site’s owners, Internet Brands Inc., and demanded that the post be removed. DVDTalk took the item down.
“We try to be good corporate citizens. While we didn’t editorially post it, we respect everyone in the retail space,” says DVDTalk director Brent Conver.
Then on Tuesday, Wal-Mart confirmed the price of six Black Friday items to CNN. After a user e-mailed him a high-quality copy of Wal-Mart’s Black Friday circular, BlackFriday.info founder Jon Vincent called the company to negotiate its wider release and was allowed to publish the entire flyer Wednesday.
“I was saying, listen, this thing is all over the place, it’s kind of stupid to not let us post it. They gave us permission,” Mr. Vincent says. “They realized they can’t stop the Internet.”
In an e-mail message, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl wrote that Wal-Mart has “not confirmed the accuracy of any leaks or circulars currently posted, nor have we given the day after Thanksgiving circular to any site or media outlet.”
But why admonish DVDTalk and then give BlackFriday the juice? Several reasons, Black Friday analysts say. First, because many Black Friday sites are tiny operations with a small crew or single proprietor, a Wal-Mart lawsuit threat carries a lot of weight. When CNN came calling, the threat of litigation was diminished.
“The difference is Wal-Mart knows they can’t litigate CNN out of existence,” says Michael Brim, founder of BFAds.net.
Further, the many sites pursuing and posting the latest Black Friday deals don’t want to spoil relations with their golden goose, an issue not faced by CNN. BFAds makes a small commission from Wal-Mart for each shopper that passes through its portal en route to a purchase on Wal-Mart’s website.
What could be seen as a corporate giant bowing to the pressure of the savvy Web sleuths might, in fact, be an integral part of Wal-Mart’s marketing strategy. In terms of timing, Vincent says it may have been almost perfectly placed.
“We’re only about a week away from Black Friday so it’s not too far away. People are going to be taking the next week off probably so now is kind of a good time to reach them before they check out,” Vincent says.
Noting that his site’s Black Friday post was Alexa.com’s 7th most popular on the Internet Wednesday afternoon, Wal-Mart’s release certainly generated interest.
“Tons of people are visiting our site and they’re getting tons of exposure,” he says.
By working diligently to keep their ad off the Internet before the right moment, Wal-Mart may have safeguarded its best Black Friday secret: Its deals really might be the best.
“Their ad this year is great. I think it beats all the other Black Friday ads,” Vincent says. “They want all the other ads to leak out and then their ad goes out and they one-up everybody.”
By battling when they need to and then carefully allowing their promotions to slip, Wal-Mart walks a fine line in the holiday market: whetting consumers appetites without sacrificing too much commercial edge.
“They basically want the best of both worlds,” Brim says.
And for now, they’re getting it.
Pacquiao used his blazing speed and power from both hands to win his seventh title in seven weight classes and cement his stature as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Cotto took such a beating that his face was a river of red from the fury of Pacquiao's punches.
Pacquiao dropped Cotto with a right hand early in the third round, but he wasn't badly hurt and came back to finish the round strong. But after Pacquiao put Cotto on the canvas with a big left hand as Cotto was advancing forward late in the fourth round, Cotto was never the same again.
Cotto fought gamely but in the later rounds he was just trying to survive as blood flowed down his face and Pacquiao kept coming after him relentlessly.
Michael Aldeger, Gorres's manager told ABS-CBN News that the Filipino boxer had to undergo surgery due to a blood clot on the left side of his brain.
Aldeger said that as of 1:57 p.m. (Manila time), Gorres remains unconscious and doctors at the University Medical Center have advised them the boxer is in critical condition.
The boxer was rushed to hospital after going down in the last round of his fight against Melendez.
Despite going down badly, Gorres was able to get up 30 seconds before the final bell rang and was declared winner via unanimous decision.
The fight started out slow for the both fighters, but the action picked up when Z Gorres knocked down Melendez with a one-two combination at the 3rd round.
The fight's pace went up further after the Filipino boxer landed another combination with his left and straight punches against the Columbian fighter.
Melendez got up, but was overwhelmed by the Filipino throughout the fight. The Columbian fighter, however, came back strong and held his own in the 10th round.
Melendez toppled Z Gorres with his own version of a one-two combination.
The Filipino was able to recover from the knockdown, but after being declared winner in the bantam weight division fight, he collapsed again to the ground.
Z Gorres stayed on the floor for about 5 minutes before he was brought out of the Mandalay Bay on a stretcher and brought to hospital. -- Report from Dyan Castillejo, ABS-CBN News
