Informational Blog

one tree hill

2008-03-28T16:03:00.001-07:00

One Tree Hill is a teen television drama created by Mark Schwahn that premiered on September 23, 2003 on The WB Television Network. The show continued to air on The WB until May 3, 2006 as it was announced that the network would merge with UPN to form The CW Television Network. The fourth season began airing on The CW on September 27, 2006 and continues to air on Tuesdays at 9/8C, currently in its fifth season. On March 3, 2008, The CW announced that One Tree Hill had been renewed for a sixth season.
Conception
As stated on Disc Three of the first season DVD set, Mark Schwahn originally planned for One Tree Hill to be a feature length film, under the name of Ravens. He pitched the idea around town but under the advice of a WB front man, he revised the movie into an hour long teen drama series. Tree Hill is a fictional town, named from the song "One Tree Hill" by U2. Schwahn had named the town "Tree Hill" because while he was writing the idea for the show he had been listening to the album The Joshua Tree by U2. The show was to be called Ravens until the network asked Schwahn to change it. Ravens made the show seem more sports-centred and seeing as their lead-in was Gilmore Girls and TV is watched predominantly by females, it would be better to change the name to appeal to a larger audience.[citation needed] So Schwahn renamed the show One Tree Hill, appropriately so. At the start of the show, fans often asked Schwahn why the show was named One Tree Hill when the town was just called Tree Hill. The question is ostensibly answered when Karen tells Lucas in Episode 1.21 that "There is only one Tree Hill - and it's your home." One Tree Hill is also the school address.
[edit] Episode format
Episodes follow a regular structure. An episode usually begins with a recap of events relevant to the upcoming narrative; however this is sometimes dropped due to time constraints. During the first four seasons, the theme tune would be played either immediately after the recap, or after the first few scenes. Whenever an episode features sensitive or violent subjects, or when an episode's running length is close to the total allotted time, there are no opening credits but only One Tree Hill written on a black background. Since the beginning of Season Five, the theme tune was abandoned, and it continues with the intertitle on a black background.
One Tree Hill is known for its numerous voiceovers featuring either literary quotes or characters reflecting on events of the episode. Most of them are made by Chad Michael Murray's character Lucas Scott, however there have been several occurrences were other characters have done so. James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Bethany Joy Galeotti and Sophia Bush have narrated various episodes in their starring roles as Nathan Scott, Peyton Sawyer, Haley James Scott and Brooke Davis. Guest stars Bryan Greenberg and Sheryl Lee have both given their voice to an episode each, playing the roles of Jake Jagielski and Ellie Harp. There have also been two episodes that feature multiple narrators. Cast members Lee Norris, Antwon Tanner and Danneel Harris voiced their characters Mouth, Skills and Rachel. Characters who interact with the main cast in high school such as Bevin, Chase, Shelly and Glenda helped to narrate the joint episodes being portrayed by Bevin Prince, Stephen Colletti, Elizabeth Harnois and Amber Wallace.[1]
[edit] Music
Music plays a small role in both the plot and the movement of the scenes throughout an episode. Several scenes are tied together seamlessly at the end of each show and the song, which is usually played in its entirety, helps create a singular mood from seemingly unconnected events.
The show has a long list of artists that have participated in the show; Gavin DeGraw, Sheryl Crow, Michelle Branch, The Wreckers, Jimmy Eat World, La Rocca, Fall Out Boy, Nada Surf, Jack's Mannequin, Michelle Featherstone, Lupe Fiasco and Within Reason. Bethany Joy Lenz who plays Haley James Scott, Bryan Greenberg who plays Jake Jagielski and Tyler Hilton who plays Chris Keller have also performed on the show. Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz appeared in an episode after the band's performance as himself, in a storyline where he became a love-interest for Peyton. Other well-known bands whose songs have featured on the show include: Angels & Airwaves, Mclusky, Snow Patrol, Keane, Starsailor, Travis, Led Zeppelin, The Cure and Switchfoot.
The show has released three soundtrack albums: One Tree Hill - Music From The WB Television Series, Vol. 1, Friends with Benefit: Music from the Television Series One Tree Hill, Volume 2 and The Road Mix: Music from the Television Series One Tree Hill, Volume 3. Proceeds of the second soundtrack go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation to tie in with a storyline on the show involving breast cancer. Mark Schwahn has revealed that he names each episode after a particular song that has something in common with the theme of the episode. For example, episode 1.01 ("The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most") is named after a Dashboard Confessional song of the same name. In this episode, Lucas realizes that basketball, which had once been his safe place, is now the place that he has come to fear the most after joining the Ravens. Season Five has featured new artist Kate Voegele who plays Mia, Peyton's record label discovery. A site is dedicated to the music that has been on One Tree Hill.[2]
[edit] Syndication
On February 7, 2007, SOAPnet announced that it would be picking up reruns of The O.C. and One Tree Hill. The deal made with the show's production company, Warner Brothers, states that SOAPnet holds on to the option of picking up the fifth season for syndication. The show airs at 1:00 p.m. and again at 2:00 p.m. followed by two hours of The O.C. and Beverly Hills, 90210 [3] One Tree Hill is now shown at 1pm with back to back episodes.
[edit] Characters
Main article: Characters of One Tree Hill
Lucas Scott (played by Chad Michael Murray) (S1 - present): Lucas is the son that Dan never claimed, although Keith more than made up for the lack of a father figure in his life. He and Nathan start out as enemies but bond as friends and as brothers as the show progresses. Lucas' best friend is Haley and he has been a romantic interest for both Peyton and Brooke. Lucas has a serious heart condition, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) which he concealed for a long time. Aside from basketball, his greatest passion is literature and quotes from the books he reads are used on the show. In Season Five, he is a successful writer and head coach of the Ravens basketball team. He is in a relationship with his editor, Lindsey Strauss but is conflicted by his feelings for former love Peyton.
Nathan Scott (played by James Lafferty) (S1 - present): Nathan is the son that Dan did claim, although his relationships with both his parents are strained at the best of times. Nathan marries Haley in Season One and again in Season Three, and later becomes a father to James Lucas "Jamie" Scott in Season Four. He and Lucas start out as enemies but bond as friends and as brothers as the show progresses. Nathan is the star player of the Ravens and is named "Most Valuable Player" in Season Four. Basketball has always been his greatest passion and he sees it as his "way out", but in Season Five, a fight leaves Nathan near-paralyzed and his dreams shattered, though he later regains the use of his legs. Also, in Season 5 a nanny working for the Scott family believes Nathan loves her and she threatens the "Naley" relationship.
Peyton Sawyer (played by Hilarie Burton) (S1 - present): Peyton's two greatest passions in life are music and art; she is an expert in the punk rock genre and uses her art to express the issues that play out in her life. In Season Two, she discovers that she is actually adopted. She has never met her biological father although she has met his son, her half-brother, Derek. After getting to know her birth mother, Ellie, she loses her to breast cancer. In Season Four, Peyton decides to act on her feelings for Lucas and they begin a relationship. This relationship has ended between seasons Four and Five and in Season Five, a lonely Peyton is working for a record company in LA before she and Brooke return to Tree Hill, where she starts her own record label and battles her feelings for Lucas again.
Haley James Scott (played by Bethany Joy Galeotti) (S1 - present): Haley is Lucas' best friend, Nathan's wife and Jamie's mother. She is an extremely intelligent woman with high morals. In Season Two, she leaves Nathan and Tree Hill to pursue her dream of becoming a musician but returns when she realizes that her marriage is worth more than her dream. In Season Five, she is a teacher at Tree Hill High as well as balancing roles as a wife and mother. Haley, with Nathan had a handsome son named James or Jamie.

Part of the cast during Season Four: (L-R) Nathan, Haley, Peyton, Lucas, Brooke, Mouth, Skills
Brooke Davis (played by Sophia Bush) (S1 - present): Throughout High School Brooke was the captain of the cheerleading squad. Feisty and flirtatious, she dated Lucas twice, but both times, their relationship didn't work out. She creates a clothing line, "Clothes Over Bro's" in Season Three - it is accepted by "Rogue Vogue" and later by Victoria's Secret. In Season Five, Brooke has made Clothes Over Bro's a household name, but despite her success, she is unhappy in her personal life so she and Peyton return to Tree Hill where Brooke turns a now-closed Karen's Café into a Clothes Over Bro's store. Brooke is now in love with a Tric bartender named Owen.
Dan Scott (played by Paul Johansson) (S1 - present): A once great basketball player, Dan is father to both Nathan and Lucas, although he never wanted anything to do with the latter. After his marriage to Deb crumbles and she and Nathan try to rid themselves of him, Dan's evil comes to the forefront. After Dan finds Deb sleeping with his brother, Keith, a war begins between the two brothers, culminating with Dan fatally shooting his brother in Season Three, believing that Keith had set his car dealership alight. After discovering that Deb was actually behind the fire, Dan tried to make amends by supporting Karen through her pregnancy and started to turn over a new leaf. However, after Lucas discovers he is Keith's murderer, he is placed in jail. Four years later, he is granted parole and tries to redeem himself to his family.
Deb Scott (played by Barbara Alyn Woods) (S2 - S4, recurring S1,S5): Deb is Dan's neurotic ex-wife and Nathan's mother. Married to Dan for seventeen years, she eventually divorces him in Season Three, her hatred of him driving her to attempt to kill him at one point. Deb battles a pill addiction in Season Two and again in Season Four, but overcomes it for good the second time. Deb does not appear in Season Five and her absence is yet to be explained but it has been aunnounced that she will return in 5x04 that makes Whitey the only one left to return
Marvin "Mouth" McFadden (played by Lee Norris) (S3 - present, recurring S1 - S2): Mouth is one of Lucas' oldest friends, originating from the River Court. He is somewhat unlucky in love, being the victim of Brooke's unrequited love in Season Two, being dumped by Erica when she becomes popular and falling for Rachel, only to get sidelined for the older Cooper. GiGi, his co-sports announcer, has also broken up with him after only seeing him for a few weeks and Shelly Simon runs out on him after he loses his virginity to her. Mouth becomes a sports commentator in Season Five, having commentated at the Ravens' games throughout High School. He sponteanously begins a fling with his cold-hearted boss Alice, which may lead to a jumpstart in his career. Brooke set up a date for Mouth and her assistant Millicent. The two are now lovebirds.
Antwon "Skills" Taylor (played by Antwon Tanner) (S4 - present, recurring S1 - S3): Skills is one of Lucas' oldest friends, originating from the River Court. He takes on a more prominent role in Season Four when he fills Lucas' vacancy on the Ravens. In Season Five, he becomes the assistant Head Coach of The Ravens basketball team and lives with Mouth, Junk and Fergie. He and his High School girlfriend Bevin Mirskey are no longer together in Season Five.
Rachel Gatina (played by Danneel Harris) (S4, recurring S3 and S5): Rachel moves to Tree Hill in Season Three. After joining the cheerleading squad, she instantly clashes with Brooke as she pursues Lucas, although Brooke and Rachel later become friends. Rachel gets close to Mouth but sidelines him for Cooper, who dumps Rachel when he finds out she lied about her true age. After Nathan and Haley's wedding, Cooper and Rachel have an altercation in the limo which causes it to veer off the Molina Bridge and into the water. Nathan rescues Rachel and she develops a crush on him but backs off when she discovers that Haley is pregnant. Rachel takes the fall for a calculus exam she stole with Brooke and, to protect her new friend, is expelled from Tree Hill High. In Season Five, Rachel is a former employee of Brooke's and a heroin addict who takes an overdoase after being fired by her friend. Brooke brings Rachel back to Tree Hill to help get her life back on track but Rachel leaves again after an encounter with Victoria, seemingly taking Brooke's money with her.
James "Jamie" Scott (played by Jackson Brundage) (S5 - present): Jamie is Nathan and Haley's precocious son, born at the end of Season Four. In the fifth season, he is four years old and the centre of attention with his parents, godparents Lucas and Brooke, and the rest of his parents' friends. Jamie becomes very close to his nanny Carrie ad is mad and sad when she is fired.
Coach Brian "Whitey" Durham (played by Barry Corbin) (S1 - S4, recurring S5): Whitey was the Ravens coach for thirty-five years, retiring in Season Four. He and Dan never saw eye-to-eye and often bickered over their differing opinions on the team. Whitey often laments the death of his wife, Camilla, and the fact that he didn't spend more time with her while she was alive. He retires after the Ravens finally win him his much-coveted State Championship title in Season Four but later takes a coaching position in a college three hours away from Tree Hill, so that Nathan has the chance to play college basketball.
Keith Scott (played by Craig Sheffer) (S1 - S3, recurring S4): Keith was Dan's older, kinder, under-achieving brother. After Dan chose Deb over Karen, Keith helped Karen to raise Lucas (acting as a surrogate father to him) and fell in love with her but they only got together in Season Three. He had a recurring drink problem and an ongoing rivalry with his brother which involved him sleeping with Deb and Dan paying Jules to seduce Keith and then dump him to get back at Keith for this. When Dan mistook him for the one who tried to kill him in the dealership fire, he shot him after the siege at Tree Hill High, killing him instantly. Since his death, Karen has given birth to Keith's daughter, Lily. Keith has been haunting Dan as a teen and as an adult ghost, but later forgives him for what he has done. He has guided his nephews as a sort of Guardian angel (spirit) throughout Season Four.
Karen Roe (played by Moira Kelly) (S1 - S4, recurring S5): Karen is Lucas' mother. Dan abandoned her after she became pregnant in High School and with a lot of help from Dan's brother (and in later years, Karen's lover and father of her second child) Keith, Karen raised Lucas alone. Karen is devastated by Keith's death in Season Three. In Season Four, she gets close to Dan again before learning that he was the one who killed Keith and has given birth to Keith's daughter, whom she names Lily Roe Scott. In Season Five, Karen is travelling the world with Lily and when she returns for Lucas' wedding, she is accompanied by her Season Two love interest, Andy Hargrove, whom she is seeing again.
[edit] Plot
Main article: List of One Tree Hill episodes
There were 22 episodes in Season One, 23 episodes in Season Two, 22 episodes in Season Three and 21 episodes in Season Four. For Season Five, The CW has ordered 22 episodes, of which 18 will air.[4] Since February 15, 2007, One Tree Hill episodes have been available for download at iTunes.
[edit] Sponsored plot elements
Being a sponsor of the show (as shown by the fact that most of the characters have Cingular phones), AT&T has given fans the chance to make several choices about the show which included:
Whether or not Nathan and Taylor would sleep together when they met at the 'Swinging Donkey' bar in Season Two; the fans chose for them not to. [5]
What Nathan and Haley's second wedding song would be in the finale of Season Three; the fans chose "More Than Anyone" by Gavin DeGraw.
Which band would perform at the senior prom in Season Four; the fans chose Within Reason, a band from Birmingham, Alabama. [6]
Sunkist is another sponsor which can be spotted at concerts in episodes such as "When it Isn't Like it Should Be" and "Just Watch the Fireworks", in the characters' fridges, and on the school's vending machines. It held a contest to choose which town the characters would visit in "It Gets the Worst at Night", and Honey Grove, Texas won.
In Episode 4.04: "Can't Stop This Thing We Started", Rachel took part in a Maxim photoshoot which mirrored a real life photoshoot for Danneel Harris, Hilarie Burton and Sophia Bush, in stores on October 14, 2006, where Danneel wore the same outfit as her character.
In Episode 4.07: "All These Things That I've Done", America's Next Top Model winner of a challenge, CariDee English got to play a small role as a model named Tia in a fashion show.
Macy's is currently running a competition to win a walk-on role on the show. The winner will get to spend time with the cast, see the show in production, attend a charity event and appear in one episode.[7]
[edit] Black credits
Whenever an episode features sensitive or violent subjects, or when an episode's running length is close to the total allotted time, there are no opening credits but only One Tree Hill written on a black background. Since the beginning of Season Five, it continues with this intertitle on a black background.
[edit] Season One
Main article: One Tree Hill (season 1)
See also: List of One Tree Hill episodes#Season 1: 2003-2004
The pilot episode of One Tree Hill aired on September 23, 2003. This season consisted of 22 episodes, with the season finale airing on May 11, 2004.

Half-brothers Lucas and Nathan face off in a one-on-one game.
Tree Hill is a small town in North Carolina, home to the famous High School basketball team "The Tree Hill Ravens" and two half-brothers Lucas Scott (played by Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (played by James Lafferty). The two brothers have grown up in the same town, but have had little or no contact with each other due to the influence of their mutual father, Dan Scott (Paul Johansson).
Dan dated Lucas' mother Karen Roe (Moira Kelly) in High School but left her and his unborn child (Lucas) behind to go to college and pursue a basketball scholarship. In college, he met Nathan's mother Deb (Barbara Alyn Woods) who also became pregnant. Dan married Deb and provided her and Nathan with a stable home and rich lifestyle. In stark contrast, he never once tried to become a part of Lucas' life. Lucas was raised single-handedly by Karen, with help from his paternal uncle Keith (Craig Sheffer), the father figure in his life.
Nathan plays for the Ravens, just as Dan did in his High School days but Lucas is forced to confine his talent to the River Court, until an opening in the lineup gives Keith an idea; he recommends Lucas to the Ravens' Coach, Whitey Durham (Barry Corbin) who asks Lucas to play. This adds to the tension between Lucas and Nathan. Nathan, encouraged by Dan, tries to make life on the team difficult for Lucas, especially since Lucas has his eye on Nathan's girlfriend Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton). Peyton dumps Nathan when she tires of his attitude towards her, towards Lucas and towards the fact that Nathan is using Lucas’ best friend Haley James (Bethany Joy Lenz) to get at Lucas. To Nathan's surprise, he falls in love with Haley and she with him, although their relationship puts a strain on Lucas and Haley's friendship.

Lucas and Peyton are unfaithful to Brooke.
Lucas starts dating Peyton's best friend Brooke Davis (Sophia Bush) but his feelings for Peyton resurface and they end up being unfaithful to Brooke, who wants nothing more to do with either of them once she finds out. Brooke has a pregnancy scare later in the season, putting Lucas in Dan's position; Lucas understands for the first time why Dan did what he did and decides that he doesn't want to do the same thing so he offers to be there for Brooke and the baby, leading a guilty Brooke to confess that she lied about being pregnant to punish Lucas for cheating on her with Peyton. Peyton gets close to single father Jake Jagielski (guest star, Bryan Greenberg) and his baby, Jenny, but the return of Jenny's mother Nicki (guest star, Emmanuelle Vaugier) and her decision to battle Jake for sole custody of Jenny drives Jake out of Tree Hill and leaves Peyton on her own.

Nathan strips at the Boy Toy auction.
Karen heads to Italy for a few weeks and leaves Lucas in Keith's care. Lucas almost dies in a car accident caused by Keith's drinking. He also sustains a very serious shoulder injury and Karen's potential romance with Keith is destroyed as a result. Deb tires of the pressure Dan puts on Nathan and seeks a divorce from Dan, but things turn nasty and Nathan is caught in the middle of his warring parents. After learning that Deb once had an affair, Nathan emancipates himself and moves into his own apartment. Karen and Deb become friends and go into partnership together at Karen's café while Keith is forced to sell his Auto-Shop to Dan to pay Lucas' medical bills. Keith proposes to Karen but she turns him down so he decides to leave Tree Hill and move to Charleston.
In the season finale, the Playoffs have arrived and with Whitey in hospital having eye surgery, Dan is now coaching the team. Lucas and Nathan form a united front against their father but end up losing the Playoffs and their season is over. Lucas decides to move to Charleston with Keith and he and Nathan part on good terms. Haley decides that she wants to sleep with Nathan and is ready to lose her virginity to him. They make plans to do it after the game. Dan walks in on Keith and Deb sleeping together and then suffers a massive heart attack the next morning as a result. Brooke and Peyton reunite and concoct a plan to get rid of Nicki; Brooke tells Nicki that Jake took Jenny to Seattle (he actually took her to Savannah) and Nicki sets off, leaving Brooke and Peyton delighted. They vow never to let another guy come between them again. Karen gives her consent for Lucas to leave with Keith, but reminds him; "There is only one Tree Hill - and it's your home". Lucas comes to Nathan's apartment to say goodbye to Haley and it seems obvious to him that they slept together, which surprises him as she had said that she would not sleep with anyone until she was married. He confronts Haley about it and is astounded when she announces that she and Nathan got married the night before. Following this groundbreaking revelation, Lucas and Keith leave Tree Hill.
[edit] Season Two
Main article: One Tree Hill (season 2)
See also: List of One Tree Hill episodes#Season 2: 2004-2005
The second season consisted of 23 episodes and ran from September 21, 2004 to May 24, 2005.
After Lucas and Keith learn of Dan's heart attack, they return to Tree Hill and Dan decides he wants to get to know Lucas. Lucas cautiously enters into a relationship with his father and after Dan learns that Lucas has contracted Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the genetic defect which caused Dan's own heart attack, he convinces Lucas to move in with him and pays for his medication, keeping his condition a secret. Dan also agrees to stay away from Keith and his girlfriend Jules (guest star, Maria Menounos) as Lucas discovers that Dan hired Jules to make Keith fall in love with her and then break his heart to get back at Keith for sleeping with Deb. Jules leaves Keith at the altar and he leaves Tree Hill with a broken heart.
Nathan and Haley receive a visit from Haley's wild older sister, Taylor James (guest star, Lindsey McKeon) who is revealed to have been the first girl Nathan ever slept with, long before he met Haley. To make things worse, the marriage is tested even further with the arrival of Chris Keller (guest star, Tyler Hilton), a musician who convinces Haley to leave Nathan and Tree Hill to come on tour with him. In despair, Nathan attempts to kill himself by crashing a race-car but a dream makes him realize that he has to get on with life without Haley and so he allows papers to be drawn up to annul their marriage.
Peyton starts an all-ages club named TRIC but at the same time, finds herself tempted to take drugs and enters a dark place in her life, which Jake helps her out of when he returns. Jake and Peyton fall in love and begin a relationship, but Jake is forced to leave Peyton and Tree Hill once again when Nicki kidnaps Jenny and disappears with her. Brooke begins the season by forming a "Friends With Benefits" arrangement with her new neighbour, Felix Taggarro (guest star, Michael Copon), but after her parents lose all their money, Brooke discovers an inner strength she never knew she had. She runs for Student Council President and is elected over her bitter opponent, Erica Marsh (guest star, Katherine Bailess). She dumps Felix after discovering he vandalized Peyton's locker and Felix is sent to Military School by his parents. Brooke gets close to Lucas and moves into his old bedroom after her parents move to California.
Lucas dates Felix's sister Anna (guest star, Daniella Alonso) but ends things with her after realizing that he still holds a torch for Brooke. Anna's break-up with Lucas leaves her confused about her sexuality. After kissing Peyton in a misunderstanding, Anna starts coming to terms with the fact that she is bisexual. After coming out to her parents, Anna returns to her old Boarding School to be with her girlfriend.
Dan and Deb reconcile, united in their disapproval of Nathan's marriage. Lucas finds out Deb has developed an addiction to painkillers and after Nathan's car accident, she tries to overcome it by going to rehab, blaming her unhappy marriage to Dan for her addiction. Karen dates her Business Professor, the much younger Andy Hargrove (guest star, Kieren Hutchison), who makes an enemy out of Dan.
In the season finale, Andy is forced to return to New Zealand and look after his ill mother. Karen decides to go after him but is concerned that he hasn't checked into his hotel. Before Karen leaves Tree Hill, she thinks she sees Keith on the street opposite the café. Deb is discharged from rehab and learns that Dan tried to make Nathan feel guilty for her addiction. Deb tells Nathan that she wants them to make a fresh start away from Tree Hill and Lucas gives her the ledger of Dan's illegal business activities, which Andy uncovered. Dan blackmails Deb into giving the ledger back to him and disowns Lucas for betraying him. Nathan also disowns Lucas because he is angry with him for interfering in his family. Dan learns that Whitey has been telling Deb and Nathan a few home truths about him and threatens to have him fired. Lucas finally tells Brooke how he feels about her but she leaves for a summer in California without telling him how she herself feels. Peyton receives chilling instant-messages from someone named "WATCHMEWATCHU" and believes that it is the mysterious reporter, Ellie Harp (guest star, Sheryl Lee). Ellie comes to Peyton's house and shocks Peyton by telling her that she is her mother. Dan finds a white substance on the rim of a bottle left for him anonymously at the dealership and discovers he has been poisoned. Before Dan falls unconscious, a black-clad figure enters his office and sets it alight. Nathan moves back in with Deb but gets a surprise when he arrives home to find Haley on his doorstep. Lucas and Peyton find themselves alone on the beach together and realize that it's just the two of them this summer...
[edit] Season Three
Main article: One Tree Hill (season 3)
See also: List of One Tree Hill episodes#Season 3: 2005-2006
The third season consisted of 22 episodes and aired between October 5, 2005 and May 3, 2006.
Three months later, things pick up where they left off at the beginning of the summer. Lucas and Peyton spent their summer together and are hiding a secret from Brooke when she returns from California and proposes a non-exclusive relationship with Lucas. Brooke takes pity on a homeless Haley and takes her on as her roommate. Haley tries to win back Nathan, who has spent the summer at "High Flyers", a basketball camp, however Nathan isn't ready to trust Haley again. He pays Chris to come back to Tree Hill and help Haley with her music. Chris causes even more trouble this time round when he sleeps with Brooke, almost destroying her relationship with Lucas. Nathan and Haley get back together as do Lucas and Brooke and Chris leaves Tree Hill for good. Peyton tries to come to terms with the fact that Ellie is her birth mother and the fact that Ellie has breast cancer. They make a benefit album together in aid of breast cancer research but Ellie dies before the album is finished.
Everyone returns to Tree Hill High to begin their Senior Year and basketball practice starts up again. Whitey reveals to the Ravens that win or lose, this is his last season as coach while Lucas tries to conceal his HCM from Karen and Whitey, despite the serious impact it is having on his performance.
Dan survives the fire at the dealership and it is revealed that Lucas rescued him. Dan decides to run for Mayor but gets a nasty shock when Karen announces that she is running against him. However, Dan wins the election and Deb flees Tree Hill when Lucas tells her that he knows she tried to kill Dan in the fire. Keith returns and he and Karen start seeing each other, even getting engaged. Dan is convinced that Keith tried to kill him and sets about plotting his revenge.
Newcomer Rachel Gatina (Danneel Harris) tries to come between Lucas and Brooke before setting her sights on Mouth Mc Fadden (Lee Norris). Mouth falls for Rachel only to discover that she is seeing Nathan's uncle, Cooper Lee (guest star, Michael Trucco) who is oblivious to Rachel's true age, 17. Rachel also opens the Time Capsule recorded in Season Two and exposes it to the whole school in an attempt to cause trouble, but neither Rachel nor anyone else is prepared for the damage it does cause; Lucas and Mouth's former friend, Jimmy Edwards (guest star, Colin Fickes), bullied and tormented for voicing his contempt towards other students on the Time Capsule, takes the school hostage with a gun. Peyton gets shot in the leg and kisses Lucas when he looks after her in the library, the kiss taking on a greater significance than either of them will admit. Dan allows Keith into the school, Keith convinced he can get through to Edwards, however Edwards ends up taking his own life and when Dan finds Keith kneeling over Edwards' body, Dan picks up the gun and fatally shoots his brother.
Keith's death makes everyone re-evaluate their lives: Nathan and Haley get engaged and move back in together. Brooke moves in with Peyton who has a brief relationship with Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy before going to find Jake and Jenny in Savannah. Lucas tells Karen and Whitey about his HCM results, then quits the Ravens. And Dan is haunted by visions of Keith as a child. Peyton asks Jake to marry her, but Jake realizes that Peyton is in love with Lucas and sends her back to Tree Hill to deal with her feelings for him. Peyton confesses to a shocked Brooke that she still loves Lucas.

Nathan and Haley renew their vows.
In the season finale, Nathan and Haley renew their vows in a beautiful ceremony. Deb has returned to Tree Hill and when she discovers that Dan thinks Keith was responsible for the dealership fire, she sets the record straight and tells him that she tried to kill him. Dan realises that he killed his brother for no reason and breaks down at Keith's grave. Later, Karen tells Dan that she is having Keith's baby and Dan promises Karen that he will be there for her this time. Brooke is not speaking to Peyton and when Lucas lets slip that he and Peyton kissed on the day of the school shooting, she is devastated and tells Peyton that as far as she is concerned, their friendship is over. Rachel is bitter over Cooper's rejection and drunkenly tells everyone at Nathan and Haley's wedding reception that Cooper slept with her even though he knew that she was only seventeen. Rachel takes off in the wedding limo with Cooper and his attempts to talk her round eventually work. As Lucas and Karen leave the reception, he finds a pregnancy test in someone's purse. Lucas asks his mother if she is pregnant and she tells him that she is - but that's not her purse. Rachel asks Cooper if there is anything that she can say to keep him. He solemnly tells her that there isn't, prompting Rachel to reveal something that causes a ferocious argument between them when Cooper refuses to believe her. Rachel grabs control of the wheel and after a near-collision with Nathan and Haley (en route to London for their honeymoon), the limo veers off the bridge and into the water. Against Haley's wishes, Nathan dives in to save them but ends up becoming trapped and stuck for air himself. And when Dan gets home he finds "MURDERER" smeared on his wall - someone knows what he did.
[edit] Season Four
Main article: One Tree Hill (season 4)
See also: List of One Tree Hill episodes#Season 4: 2006-2007
The fourth season consisted of 21 episodes and ran from September 27, 2006 to June 13, 2007.
As the end of High School approaches, everyone finds themselves at a crossroads in their lives. Nathan survives the accident and after some initial confusion, Haley is revealed to be pregnant while Rachel turns her attentions to Nathan after Cooper leaves town, using Nathan's theory that it was really Keith who saved him from the accident to get Nathan's attention. Rachel backs off when she learns that Haley is pregnant and Nathan later learns that he had a vision of Keith and it was this vision that gave him the strength to get out of the water.

Haley confronts Rachel.
Shortly after finishing her friendship with Peyton, Brooke also breaks up with Lucas and then moves in with Rachel. Rachel sets Brooke up on a date with an older guy, Nick Chavez (guest star, Reynaldo Valentin), who turns out to be Brooke's new teacher. After Brooke dumps Nick for cheating on her, Rachel informs Brooke that she is failing calculus and together, the two girls steal the calculus test from school but to cover their tracks, they are forced to join the "Clean Teens: Virgins for Life". Newcomer Chase Adams (guest star, Stephen Colletti) also joins the Clean Teens and he and Brooke begin dating while Rachel is expelled for taking the fall for the stolen calculus test and later leaves Tree Hill with Mouth, who returns alone after she goes AWOL.

Lucas and Peyton kiss as the Ravens win the State Championship.
Skills Taylor (Antwon Tanner) becomes a Raven and Lucas is granted permission from Whitey to rejoin the team (as long as he keeps taking his heart medication and doesn't play for more than fifteen minutes per game). In the run-up to the State Championship, Nathan borrows money from a loan shark, Daunte Jones (guest star, Rick Fox), who tells Nathan that the only way he can repay his debt is by shaving points in the semi-final and then by losing the State Championship. When the Ravens actually end up winning, Daunte attempts to kill Nathan but instead hits Haley with his car and she is rushed to hospital along with Lucas, who had a heart attack because he didn't take his medication before the game. While Lucas is unconscious, he has a vision of Keith, who shows Lucas how he has changed so many lives for the better and also tries to help Lucas remember what he saw on the day of the school shooting. Lucas wakes up with serious doubts about who killed Keith. Meanwhile, Dan is in jail, covering for Nathan who beat Daunte to death in a rage for running Haley down. Daunte's autopsy results, however, show that he was killed in the car accident he had after hitting Haley, and not by the beating he was given so Dan is released and Nathan is overjoyed to learn that both Haley and the baby are going to be fine.

Brooke and Peyton are held hostage.
When Karen discovers that Dan was protecting Nathan all along, she starts to let Dan back in, realizing that he wants to be there for her and the baby. Deb, however, alienates everyone, including Karen, when her pill addiction resurfaces and she ends up overdosing. To keep Deb on the straight and narrow, Nathan and Haley move in with her and throw a party on the night before prom where Mouth loses his virginity to Clean Teen Shelly Simon (guest star, Elisabeth Harnois), who runs out on him afterwards, and a tape from Nathan's past shows him having sex with Brooke after him and Peyton had called their relationship to an end. Chase breaks up with Brooke because of this and Brooke's hopes of rekindling her friendship with Peyton are diminished. When Brooke learns that Peyton isn't coming to prom, she goes looking for her and finds her tied up in the basement by her stalker, Ian Banks (guest star, Matt Barr), who terrorized her earlier in the season by posing as the half-brother she never knew she had, Derek Sommers (guest star, Ernest Waddell) and by sending her instant-messages under the username of "WATCHMEWATCHU". The two girls defeat Ian together and restore their friendship in the process, moving into Nathan and Haley's old apartment together.
At prom, Lucas realizes that a student named Abby Brown (guest star, Allison Scagliotti) witnessed Keith's murder and he confronts her about it - she tells him that Dan was the one who killed Keith, however Karen (having kissed Dan) refuses to believe Lucas. Lucas steals Deb's gun and is about to shoot Dan when Karen collapses and is rushed to hospital with eclampsia. After an emergency C-section, Karen gives birth to a baby girl, Lily, though her own life hangs in the balance. Dan, meanwhile, turns himself in to the police.

The gang attend their second prom in Honey Grove, Texas.
Having finally gotten together, things are going well between Lucas and Peyton until she is offered an internship in Los Angeles. Chase and Brooke get back together and Brooke owns up to stealing the calculus test, though is still allowed to graduate while Nathan also owns up to his point-shaving; Duke retract their scholarship offer but Whitey is offered a coaching job at a nearby college and convinces Nathan to come with him as his star player. At graduation, Haley goes into labor during her valedictory speech.
In the season finale, Nathan and Haley become the proud parents of a baby boy named James Lucas Scott, choosing Lucas and Brooke as godparents, while Deb, in her role as grandmother, seems to have finally found happiness. Chase and Brooke consummate their relationship while Rachel returns to Tree Hill and throws a party for everyone. Mouth does something he's always wanted to do and kisses Brooke, while also making his peace with Shelly. Karen has a dream in which she introduces Lily to Keith and Dan's attempts to hang himself in prison fail. Karen visits Dan (only to tell him that one day she'll have to explain to Lily that her father was killed by the brother he loved so much) but Lucas and Nathan both agree that they never want to see Dan again. Lucas reveals that he will be Whitey's Assistant Coach at college and supports Peyton as she and Brooke prepare to go to LA together. In the closing scene of the season, everyone heads to the River Court for a game of basketball; boys against the girls, followed by a one-on-one game between Lucas and Nathan, taking them back to the night Lucas became a Raven.
[edit] Season Five
Main article: One Tree Hill (season 5)
See also: List of One Tree Hill episodes #Season 5: 2008
Season Five began airing on January 8, 2008 and will conclude on May 19, 2008.

Lindsey meets Peyton at TRIC.
Four and a half years have passed since High School graduation. Lucas is now coaching the Ravens with the assistance of Skills and is in a relationship with his book editor, Lindsey Strauss (guest star, Michaela Mc Manus), who urges him to write a second novel that will match the success of his first. Nathan and Haley are raising their son Jamie (Jackson Brundage) in Tree Hill, where an accident four months previously left Nathan near-paralysed and his basketball dreams diminished. As a result, he has become depressed and an alcoholic, putting immense strain on his marriage and his relationship with his son. Haley is a teacher at Tree Hill High while Mouth is an unemployed sportscaster looking for work. Brooke is undoubtedly the most successful of the group, having turned Clothes Over Bro's into a multi-million dollar company, which she is running from New York. Peyton is in Los Angeles working as "the assistant's assistant" at a record company. Feeling undervalued and disrespected, she quits and after talking on the phone, she and Brooke realise that they will never be as happy as they were in Tree Hill so they return home together.
The return of Brooke and Peyton comes as a shock to Lucas and Lindsey. While Brooke and Lindsey become friends, the unresolved feelings between Lucas and Peyton cause tension between Lindsey and Peyton. Lucas and Peyton are revealed to have broken up three years earlier when he proposed to her. Although Peyton didn't reject his proposal, her reluctance to accept it was enough of an answer for Lucas and their relationship didn't survive. After working on publishing Lucas' novel for the year which followed, Lindsey fell for him and they began seeing each other. While Peyton starts her own record label at TRIC, it becomes apparent, even to Lindsey, that she and Lucas still care about each other and they eventually kiss, though later that night, Lucas and Lindsey get engaged, leaving Peyton heartbroken. Peyton signs up a band with a lead singer named Jason (guest star, Kevin Federline) whose arrogance causes Haley to fire him and she and Peyton help to make the band's keyboard player, Mia Catallano (guest star, Kate Voegele) a star. Brooke, meanwhile, turns Karen's Café into a Clothes Over Bro's store, the café having closed down after Karen and Lily left Tree Hill to travel the world. She buys a house for herself and Peyton but the arrival of her CEO Victoria (guest star, Daphne Zuniga) soon throws a spanner in the works as Victoria is not only the executive of Clothes Over Bro's but also Brooke's cold-hearted mother, who disapproves of her intentions to remain in Tree Hill. Victoria soon sets about belitlling and undermining her daughter as well as giving her friends, most notably Peyton, a tongue-lashing.
Brooke begins seeing TRIC bartender Owen (guest star, Joe Manganiello) and when she brings him on a trip to New York, they are horrified to find Rachel in Brooke's apartment, having taken a heroin overdose. Rachel is revealed to have worked for Brooke as a model until Victoria forced Brooke to fire her. As a result of being fired by her only friend, Rachel turned to drugs though Owen manages to revive her after her overdose. Brooke brings Rachel back to Tree Hill to help get her life back on track but an encounter with Victoria causes Rachel to leave town - with Brooke's money. After learning that Victoria drove Rachel away, Brooke fires her. Meanwhile, Mouth's new boss Alice (guest star, Kelly Collins Lintz) makes no effort to hide her contempt for him, until they unexpectedly begin sleeping together, though Mouth feels guilty that his promotion at work is down to his fling with Alice. Mouth loses his job when he begins dating Brooke's assistant, Millicent (guest star, Lisa Goldstein). Tim (Brett Claywell) and Bevin (Bevin Prince) are revealed to have gotten married and have had a son, Nathan.
Unable to cope with Nathan's drinking and the way it has affected their family, Haley gives him an ultimatum. Nathan finally starts to get his life back on track, repairing his relationships with Haley and Jamie as well as regaining the full use of his legs and helping troubled Raven Quentin Fields (guest star, Robbie Jones). Jamie's nanny Carrie (guest star, Torrey DeVitto) soon sets about trying to seduce Nathan and climbs into the shower with him. Thinking Carrie is Haley, Nathan does nothing to stop her and when Haley walks in on them together, Carrie alledges that she and Nathan are in love and have been having an affair. Haley fires Carrie and tells Nathan she wants a divorce. Lucas and Lindsey combine their bachelor and bachelorette parties in an attempt to get Nathan and Haley to reconcile. Owen and Brooke set Peyton up on a blind date with a friend of Owen's who turns out to be Chase. Chase and Peyton kiss in an attempt to make Brooke and Lucas jealous though nothing comes of their date. Peyton's return has given Lucas the inspiration he needs for his second novel but when Haley reads it on the eve of the wedding, she realises that Lucas can't marry Lindsey and tells him so. Dan, after only serving four years in jail, is granted parole and is free to walk the streets again.

fresh news

2008-03-27T16:20:00.001-07:00

CanSecWest more than three months after the researchers documented serious vulnerabilities in the content Fast leaving tens of thousands of sites wide open to attack, few have bothered webmasters remove files barouche, an expert from the safety of Google said .

That means that an unprecedented number of sites - many of them used to deposit, ecommerce and other sensitive transactions - remains vulnerable to attacks that steal the personal details of their clients, said the Cans Rich, an engineer for the security of information Google and one of a handful of researchers who were the public with the vulnerability in late December. A few weeks later, he appealed for security professionals to audit all appletes Rapids stored on their sites and replace those that contained vulnerabilities, but so far, few appear to have made if his advice.

"I doubt that many apps has been cleaned at all," Cans told the audience at the conference in Vancouver CanSecWest. "It's a pain in the ass to fix them." There are 10,000 or more sites that receive content barouche, he estimated.

Indeed, Google still has not been time to audit the entire SWF ubiquitous that it serves, although engineers have mitigated the risk to receive pages in numerical IP addresses that are balcanizadas of Google.com, and another domain called Gmail.com uses . That prevents atacadores exploit animations barouche to inject malicious code when people get access to e-mail, calendars and other Google services.

"Many other companies feel the kind of pain that we feel," said Cans. "I had a few major banks send me e-mail and say, 'Oh my God. This is a really big problem'."

One reason for the difficulty is that many of the appletes were created by third parties happy creators months or years ago. When webmasters call creators and ask files improved, third parties often say they no longer have copies of the old happy, Cans said. That means that the only way to remove the vulnerabilities is to regenerate the content from scratch, at considerable cost to the site.

The bugs reside in the safety SWF files created by the most common programs to engender appletes Rapids, which Encourage sites across the Web. The content opens vulnerable websites to cross-site writes (XSS) exploits, which allows atacadores to inject code into the web pages to be read by end users. Criminals could use the attack to ratear details of a user account or make withdrawals on behalf of a client.

Adobe, Autodemo, TechSmith and InfoSoft and most other software manufacturers reported the contents Fast has updated its products so they no longer files barouche product SWF. But so far few users of these products have used the updates to regenerate vulnerable happy, Cans said.

In December, Google searching revealed more than 500,000 appletes of barouche, but researchers, which also included members of the penetration test firm iSEC Partners, said the true number was probably much higher. Since then Google has pinched its search engine, so the same questions again only about 80,000 to 90,000 results.

But Cans remain convinced that the number of files barouche have barely moved, in large part because of the amount of effort required to remove and individuals.

Among the sites that end up in the search results are those belonging to a host of universities, government agencies and businesses, including a bank greater. During an interview, Cans showed us how to manipulate the uniform resource locator of a handful of these sites to force its own window to tap up the habit when he clicked on the link. He read "evil: -)"

While the pages that showed he was only homepages and publicity machine were harmless, he said he would not take much effort to find the content that vulnerable tied to reflect post pages or other sensitive sections of a site. "That's how I run javascript arbitrary," he said with a shy face. "I have essentially full control of that user."

MASTERING THE ART OF REAL ESTATE

2008-03-01T11:40:00.000-08:00

Sotheby's International Realty Canada just celebrated its first anniversary in Toronto and the relative newcomer had a lot to celebrate - with a downtown penthouse for $2.6-million, a development site for $2.8-million, a single residence in the west end for $1.7-million, and other properties totalling more than $100-million in listings on the real-estate books.

As well, the company has 187 units, totalling $600-million, in the soon-to-be-built Four Seasons Private Residences; 872 units, totalling $300-million, in the upcoming Residences of Maple Leaf Square; and 450 units, totalling $150-million, in the Pantages Tower.

Among those who have used Sotheby's International to sell their luxurious abodes are comedian Ellen DeGeneres - a four-acre California property for $155-million (U.S.) - and Conrad and Barbara Amiel Black.

The couple were back in the news recently for refusing to pay Sotheby's the $557,500 (U.S.) commission owed on the sale of their New York apartment for $10.5-million.

But that, says Mark McLean, one of only 15 agents working in the brokerage's Annex location, is another story.

Sotheby's, known as a fine-art auction house, founded its real-estate division in 1976. A marketing and referral program, it gives independent brokerages access to a portfolio of high-end properties from around the world. The brokers share a clientele list that reads like a veritable who's who of Arab princes and Russian oligarchs, as well as the run-of-the-mill filthy rich.

Right now, Mr. McLean's main focus, as a partner in the Ontario office, is pushing the brand's prestige.

"We definitely break the mould of the traditional real-estate office," said Mr. McLean, a former sailboat builder. "We are not everything to everybody. ... Our model is that of private banking."

Sotheby's is planning to expand into markets with high-value properties outside Toronto, opening offices over the next five years, first in Oakville, Muskoka and Lake of Bays, then Port Hope and Niagara.

To commemorate its first anniversary, the Sotheby's Ontario office will sponsor the opening reception, in May, of Sotheby's Canadian art auction, and is looking to sponsor art projects around the city. Sotheby's will also market several "properties of distinction" in the catalogue.

"As the auction house is known to sell only the very best in art around the world, the realty arm wishes to do the same but with property," Mr. McLean said.

If it's a mansion for sale, think of it as going, going, gone.

H&R Real Estate boosts net income, cash from operations in fourth quarter

2008-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

TORONTO — H&R Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: HR.UN) says a larger portfolio of properties and rent increases for its tenants boosted the company's fortunes in the fourth quarter.

The trust, which focuses on commercial properties, announced Friday that its net income for the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $48.7 million in the fourth quarter, up from $20.6 million a year earlier, mostly due to a tax benefit.

Total distributions paid increased to $46.3 million, or 34.3 cents per share, for the quarter. That's up from $40.8 million or 33.4 cents per share in the last three months of 2006.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, net earnings increased by $20.5 million due to a reversal of future income taxes.

Cash from operations rose to $63.4 million, up from $48.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2006 and distributable income was $54.1 million, up from $46.0 million.

Rentals from properties rose to $149.5 million from $142.9 million.

H&R trust units traded at $20.61, down 20 cents, at the Toronto Stock Exchange

Are you a sucker to invest in a 401(k)?

2008-02-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

One theory making the rounds these days holds that 401(k)s are tax traps. Here's why that's wrong.

Money Magazine) -- As a Money reader, you're likely well aware of the wonders of a 401(k). You don't pay up-front taxes on the money you contribute, and you don't owe taxes on your investment earnings until you withdraw the cash in retirement.

But some financial advisers (and a couple of books) have begun to voice a dissenting view: If you invest in your 401(k), they say, you'll end up paying more in taxes than you have to.

On the face of it, this argument looks plausible. If you buy stocks or stock mutual funds in a regular brokerage account, you will pay a 15% long-term capital-gains rate when you eventually sell. But you'll have to pay ordinary income tax rates of 28% or even 35% on your 401(k) withdrawals. Could the 401(k) skeptics be right?

Strictly by the numbers
Let's say you put $10,000 in your 401(k) and invest in a stock-index fund that earns an average of 8% a year. After 20 years it will be worth $46,610. Withdraw the money all at once and you'll pay $13,051 in taxes, assuming you're in the 28% bracket, leaving you $33,559 to spend.

But what if instead you had bought that tax-efficient stock fund outside your plan? Wouldn't your tax bill be lower?

Yes, but that's the wrong way to look at it.

If you skip your 401(k) in favor of a taxable account, you must first shell out taxes on that $10,000, which leaves you with just $7,200 to invest (assuming the same 28% bracket).

Plus, over the next 20 years, you'll have taxes on any dividends and gains the fund pays out. Even though you will get a lower 15% rate on your gains when you sell, you end up with $28,950, or about $4,600 less than with the 401(k).

A tinier final tax bill can't make up for having to pay taxes all along.

But wait...
What if you find yourself in a higher tax bracket later on? Well, in this example, you'd have to be in a 38% tax bracket 20 years from now to have made the wrong decision.

While Congress may (okay, will) have raised taxes by then, your bracket might not increase if your income drops in retirement. And the longer you wait to take the money, the more you stand to gain by keeping the money in your 401(k).

Plus, comparing a 401(k) with a stock-index fund is the toughest test, since index funds generate little in the way of tax bills before you sell. If you buy a bond fund, where income is taxed at your ordinary rate, or an actively managed stock fund that distributes more gains than an index fund and triggers a far bigger tax bill for you every year, the difference in favor of the 401(k) account will be even greater.

...and furthermore
This math ignores an employer match in your 401(k), which you are likely to get on at least part of your contribution. Add that in and the 401(k) looks better still.

You do the math
With the 401(k) savings calculator at dinkytown.net, you can compare investing in and out of a 401(k), including the effect of having an employer match in your plan.

The bottom line
Rest assured that deferred investing yields more after-tax dollars.

Yahoo Launches 'oneConnect' For Mobile

2008-02-12T23:13:00.000-08:00

The communications service is scheduled to be rolled out as part of Yahoo Go 3.0 and Yahoo's new mobile home page in the second quarter of this year.
By Elena Malykhina
InformationWeek
February 12, 2008 05:00 PM

Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) on Tuesday introduced a new service called oneConnect, which will combine e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and social networking in one mobile platform.
The company plans to roll out oneConnect as part of Yahoo Go 3.0 -- an all-in-one mobile offering -- and Yahoo's new mobile home page in the second quarter of this year. In the meantime, Yahoo is showcasing oneConnect at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona this week.

One of the more impressive features of oneConnect is a socially-connected address book, which will allow users to transfer activities from social networks, professional networks, and communities to their address book. For example, users will be able to stay on top of when a contact updates their status or uploads a photo to their profile.

Yahoo will also offer integrated mobile messaging. That means any messaging service provider will be able to use Yahoo's application program interfaces to integrate with oneConnect's messaging feature, according to the company. Yahoo said it will use an open communications platform to give users the freedom to send e-mail, instant messages, text messages, and access social networks through a single application.

Users may potentially be able to access both their personal and work messaging services. Yahoo also said it's in discussions with DataViz, which specializes in mobile access to Microsoft Exchange e-mail accounts and Microsoft Office documents. The two would team up to develop widget versions of DataViz's RoadSynch and Documents To Go applications.

Other features in oneConnect include the ability to set up messaging shortcuts to get in touch with people more quickly; a social contact card for collecting relevant information about contacts; and a location-sensing capability for locating, chatting, and exchanging information with nearby oneConnect users.

Yahoo expects oneConnect to support hundreds of mobile devices and mobile browsers worldwide.

Smoking and Diseases: What you need to know

2008-02-12T23:09:00.001-08:00

SUNDAY FEB 10, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- The World Health Organization issued a report on Feb 7 saying smoking tobacco could kill 1 billion people in the 21st century urging the nations to take measures to stop the ever-increasing smoking trends worldwide.

The WHO said no country has done enough to curb tobacco use, which is expected to kill 500 million people worldwide who live today.

The WHO proposed six measures for countries to adopt to fight tobacco smoking including monitoring tobacco use and prevention; protecting people from tobacco smoke; offering help to quit tobacco use, warning people about the dangers of tobacco; enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raising taxes on tobacco.

It seems the report does not explain much of the danger associated with tobacco use. To help readers understand how dangerous tobacco use is, we publish a summary about the associations between smoking tobacco and various diseases. We hope this could help a few more people quit smoking tobacco.

Smoking and diseases: What you need to know?

Smoking tobacco has been linked to more than two dozen disease and conditions although it is unethical to conduct trials to prove any possible cause-and-effect association. Studies suggest that tobacco use affects every organ of the body and reduce overall health. It is believed that tobacco use is the leading cause of the preventable death and has negative impacts on people of all ages including unborn babies, infants, children, adolescent, adults and seniors.

Smoking tobacco and lung cancer

The most serous adverse effects of smoking tobacco include cancer in the lungs and other organs or parts of the body.

Lung cancer forms in the lung tissue, usually in the cells lining air passages. There are mainly two forms, non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. The cancer, one of the leading cancers in the United States, was diagnosed in 213,380 Americans and it killed 160,390 in 2007. Smoking tobacco causes genetic changes in the cells of the lungs that lead to the development of lung cancer.

Smoking tobacco and other cancers

Research has showed that smoking tobacco can also lead to respiratory and upper digestive tract cancer, particularly cancer of the mouth, throat (pharynx), voice box (larynx) and esophagus. In addition, smoking tobacco is a contributing cause of leukemia and cancers in the bladder, stomach, kidney and pancreas. Female smokers are at higher risk for developing cervical cancer.

Smoking tobacco and other lung diseases

Affected by using tobacco are also other respiratory diseases collectively called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD including emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthmatic bronchitis. Smoking tobacco has been linked to an increased risk of respiratory symptoms including coughing, phlegm, wheezing and difficult or labored breathing (dyspnea).

Tobacco smoke contains many toxic chemicals, which directly damage lung tissue and particles that affect the lungs' natural filtering/cleaning system and irritate the bronchial tubes in the lungs which in turns triggers the production of more mucus. Long term tobacco smoking destroys the structure of the lungs reducing their capability to absorb oxygen. Excess mucus in the lungs and problems in adsorbing oxygen are two characteristics of chronic bronchitis.

Long term tobacco use also leads to emphysema of called lung rot, which is a degenerative disease. The most obvious symptom is the difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Nothing can be done to correct the lung damage. Nearly all cases of emphysema result from long term tobacco smoking. Stopping tobacco use will help curb the progression of the disease.

Smoking tobacco and cardiovascular diseases

Smoking tobacco not only affects the lungs, but cardiovascular health as well. It increases risk for heart attacks and angina (coronary heart diseases), blockages in the legs (peripheral vascular disease), and strokes (cerebrovascular diseases). Cardiovascular diseases are diseases of the heart, the blood vessels of the heart and of the systems of blood vessels (veins and arteries) throughout the body and brain.

Smoke or even second hand smoke can affect the heart by reducing the oxygen carried in the blood due to presence of carbon monoxide and other gases; increasing the heart rate due to the decreased oxygen concentration in the blood; and reducing the size of blood vessels due to fat deposits linked to nicotine and due to presence of carbon monoxide which makes blood vessels and arteries smaller limiting the blood supply to the heart.

Smoking tobacco and strokes

Smoking tobacco can both increase blood pressure and fat deposits on the inner walls of blood veins and vessels. Both effects increase risk of stokes including transient ischemic attacks, hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke. In the case of hemorrhagic strokes, a blood vessel bursts inside the brain increasing the pressure in the brain causing injuries to the brain cells. An ischemic stroke, the most serious type, permanently damages brain cells by starving the cells of oxygen and nutrients.

Smokers are 50 percent more likely than non-smokers to have stroke. The more tobacco a person uses, the higher risk he has for a stroke. Those who smoke 25 cigarettes a day have the highest risk of a stroke.

Stopping tobacco use reduces the risk of stroke by 50 percent within a year and to normal levels within five years, according to a study by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Smoking tobacco and impotence

Smokers including second hand smokers are as much as twice as likely to suffer impotence as non-smokers. Impotence is the constant inability of a man to maintain an erection for sexual activity and affects an estimated 30 million men in the United States. A study conducted in the US showed that healthy men using tobacco developed impotence during a period of eight years even if they did not show any symptoms of heart disease or diabetes. It is possible to fully or at least partially recover erection function by quitting smoking, studies showed.

Smoking tobacco and mouth diseases

Smoking tobacco including cigarettes, cigars or pipes increases the risk of cancer on the lips, in the mouth and in the throat. Cigarette smokers are six times more likely to die from cancers in the mouth. Cigar smokers are twice as likely to die as non-smokers from mouth related disease.

The most dangerous type of smoke around you is passive smoke. You cannot quit smoking if you are addicted except from our best selling pills available at all pharmacies. Lung diseases always start with the major effects of smoking. A most commonly used new stop smoking pill has helped people to stop smoking. Doctors are now providing brochures regarding health consequences of smoking to their patients. These patients are usually also addicted to drugs.

Prepare For Retirement

2008-02-12T23:08:00.002-08:00

Here is an article I found on CNNMoney.com tonight. I think it is very imporant to start investing as soon as possible in order to secure a safe and comfortable retirement. You don't have to be making $100,000 a year to save enough in 20 or 30 years. All you have to do is put away as much as possible aside every month and pretend like it doesn't exist. Here is a calculator which I personally love - http://personal.fidelity.com/toolbox/growth/growth.shtml

Question: I’ve been out of college two years and contribute enough to my 401(k) to get the full employer match. Currently, I’ve got 50% of my 401(k) money in large-cap funds, 20% in small- and mid-caps and 30% in international funds. I’m also planning to start saving an additional $200 a month in a Roth IRA. I’m considering going with a target-date fund but I’m leery of taking a cookie-cutter approach. What do you suggest? —A. B., Pennsylvania

Answer: First, let me congratulate you for getting off to such a great start with your retirement planning. By starting to save so early in your career, you’re dramatically increasing the odds that you’ll have a nest egg large enough to support you in comfort when you’re ready to call it a career.

But don’t just take my word for it. Go to our What You Need To Save calculator, plug in your age, salary and the amount you’ve already set aside for retirement, and you’ll get an estimate of what percentage of your salary you should be saving to be able to retire at 65. You can then compare that figure to what you’re actually doing to see if you’re on track.

You also appear to be doing a good job on the investment front. You’ve spread your money among foreign, large- and small-cap stock funds, which shows that, if nothing else, you’re avoiding the three costly investment errors I’ve written about previously that can undermine the growth of your 401(k).

That said, I notice that you don’t have any money in bond funds. You can certainly argue that an all-equity 401(k) is just fine for someone your age. After all, your retirement stash is going to be invested for decades. So why concern yourself with market drops that may seem scary now but will appear like tiny dips in retrospect? You might as well go for all the gusto you can, right?

Well, at the risk of sounding overly cautious, I think even youngsters like yourself should hedge your bets a bit by holding some bond funds. Although I expect stocks to deliver far higher returns than bonds over the next 40 or so years, there’s always the chance they won’t. And having even a small cushion in bonds may provide enough emotional comfort to prevent you from bailing out of stocks if the market takes a nosedive.

So I’d recommend you consider shaving a bit off your holdings in international, small- and mid-cap funds and building a stake of 10% to 15% of your assets in bonds.

Now, about that Roth IRA.

I could see you going either way with that account. You could create something very similar to your 401(k) portfolio in your Roth by investing in individual funds. Of course, you would have to do a bit of research into the funds before buying them, although you can make that task a lot easier by using our Money 70 list of recommended funds as a starting point. And you would also have to rebalance your portfolio each year so that the varying returns different funds earn don’t push your overall asset mix too far out of whack.

On the other hand, if you don’t feel like evaluating specific funds and doing the annual maintenance in your Roth, you could make things easy on yourself and just buy a target-retirement fund. You would get a ready-made mix of stocks and bonds appropriate for your age, and that mix would morph a bit more toward bonds as you near retirement. In short, you wouldn’t have to do any rebalancing with the Roth; the fund would do it for you. I’m sure you could do just fine with any number of the different target funds out there, but I’m partial to the very reasonably priced ones that made our Money 70 roster.

As for your concern about target funds being a cookie-cutter solution, well, they are in the sense that you’re not getting a blend of stocks and bonds tailored to your specific financial circumstances. Everyone in the fund gets the same asset mix.

But I don’t see that as a major shortcoming. For one thing, left to their own devices many people won’t come close to an appropriate asset allocation on their own. So if a target fund gets you a decent asset mix and a coherent long-term investment strategy, that’s for the good.

You may be able to get a better portfolio by going to an adviser, but on the other hand you may not - and either way you’ll pay an extra expense that many people, especially those just starting out, can’t afford.

Finally, I think going with a target fund can protect us from our worse impulses - namely, the urge to dart in and out of different sectors of the market, move from stocks into cash or bonds, buy into the hot fund du jour, etc. By putting your portfolio strategy on autopilot, I think you’re less likely to engage in self-defeating behavior.

Bottom line: if the ease of putting your Roth IRA money into a target fund appeals to you, I wouldn’t let the cookie-cutter criticism stop you. If you don’t think you’ll rebalance your 401(k) portfolio every year (and most people don’t), you might want to consider a target fund there too, if your plan offers one.

Target funds aren’t perfect. But for people who aren’t likely to do better on their own or don’t want to put in the effort, and people who can’t afford to pay an adviser or just don’t want to, target funds can be an excellent choice.

Prepare for retirement with ease with reverse mortgage. Reverse mortgage is like debt consolidation. For people over 60, this debt management will give you easier mortgage payment plans. You can find best mortgage plans through your mortgage broker. He or she will give you all the details of motgage regulations. The mortgage lenders will help you refinance your mortgage or provide you with a new plan.

Shaquille O'Neal Trade

2008-02-12T23:08:00.001-08:00

Shaq trade was the 2nd blockbuster trade last week. Right after the Gasol trade the Suns and the Heat made a spectacular deal. In this deal the Suns got aging O'Neal and the Heat got explosive Marion. So who will benefit from this deal the most? This is an easy question at least for me though; The Suns will benefit the most.

The Heat will definitely benefit from this trade as well but Shaq is a real difference maker. I think that he still has enough juice in his engine to get another championship or maybe even two. The Suns were a very good team even before he arrived but now they are the real deal. They have become the no. 1 contender for the championship next to the almighty Spurs. With the Gasol and Shaq trade the NBA instantly became more exciting. Can't wait for the playoffs!

Excellent value, low charges and life insurance from bank of scotland is available for its valuable customers like shaquille oneal. The bank structure of our bank is divided into consumer and corporate banking. Many people who show bankruptcy take interest in getting a bad credit loan. And banks do not need any personal guarantees for those purposes. The only bank which supports bad credit loan is citibank. You can get more details about your credit from online banking information sites.

Pau Gasol Trade

2008-02-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

Pau Gasol trade to Los Angeles was an amazing move for the Lakers since now they have a player that can dominate power forward and center positions. Also what is quite amazing is that Gasol picked up on the famous Phil Jackson triangle offense immediately. The Lakers' starting five is standing tall with three 7footers. Well Radmanovic and Odom aren't exactly 7 feet but 6'10'' is still respectable. Derek Fisher is running the point guard position and Kobe Bryant is their superstar at the shooting guard position. This starting 5 gives them million options on offense, the only concern might be defense but I am sure Phil Jackson will do some magic with that as well.

Their bench is solid too, especially once Andrew Bynum comes back, which might take some time though.

Bottom line, the Lakers have a legitimate chance of going all the way once again.

All sorts of people need personal loans for their needs either for as a means of buying a house or for car finance. Even pau-gasol has enough credit cards for spending. With credit cards you can get cash advance opportunities. Since companies may charge high rates, instant loans are the best solution for quick cash. Though the Europe bank loan market is stuck with 80 billion unsold loans, fast equity loans are being sold in increasing numbers.

Bumper Sticker Mania!

2008-02-12T23:06:00.002-08:00

The internet is a breeding ground for new trends, everyone knows that. Social networking sites like Myspace.com and facebook.com have gotten their starts thanks to us- the internet community. The speed that these sites have grown is utterly amazing. Facebook is loaded with at least 16,000 applications that users can add to spice up their pages. They range in category from Chat to Fashion and Politics to Gaming. What is one of the most popular you ask? Bumper Stickers, of course! I have decided to let you in on some of the top stickers that are being sent from friend to friend...

Ever thought of getting bumper sticker mania on the net through online file sharing? You can use these stickers with a skype download through chatting. These internet phones are extremely useful for those who work at home. If you work at home and you have problems with backup, get a data recovery program. A data recovery software can solve all your problems and reduce all your stress. Get backup hosting for your online data.

Ximmy - Extra Cash

2008-02-12T23:06:00.001-08:00

I came across a website which pays you to use their website. Ximmy is absolutely free, well it takes only your time. I instantly fell in love with Ximmy since they pay me for something I already did every day anyway - post comments, vote, post your own videos, news, etc. Also you can earn money by referring other people. I am not saying that you will get rich with Ximmy but you can earn some decent money every month.

You earn 1 point for every comment or every post and the points accumulate very fast. Another way to earn points is if your story, news or a video is very popular. This way you get extra points. Also if you get your friends to sign up you will get 15 points for each person that signs up under you. Then there is a referral program they have for which you need to have your own website and that way you will get $5.00 for every person that signs up under you.

Once you hit a points bracket, you can redeem the points for cash at any time. Payments are made via PayPal. Here is the points bracket.

Rewards
1,000
$10

1,800
$20

3,200
$40

6,000
$80

12,000
$160

20,000
$300

Bonus: Once you hit any of the points bracket, you'll receive an extra $20 bonus during your first payment payout.(Expires 6/01/08)

Well this is it for now, I would highly recommend all of you to sign up since is absolutely free and you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Again don't expect to earn thousands of dollars a month with Ximmy but you could earn some extra bucks this way. Bottom line have fun and enjoy yourself while making a couple of bucks easy way ;-) Click on the banner below if you are interested.

There is always debt help when you have to pay your long outstanding credit. With the help of credit counseling centers available on the internet, we have seen a high decrease in bad debts. A debt collection guide is also helpful for beneficial tips. You can also pay debt amounts by doing work from home with the help of bad credit loans. If you have extra cash and you are working from home, the bankruptcy law states that people who are working from their homes cannot lie into it.

Key West or Bust!

2008-02-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

So, I have decided to embark on this blog. At first I wasn't sure what I could possibly contribute to this blog. Then I realized that I try to upload some of my best pictures in addition to whatever I want to write about. For my first post, I wanted to share this picture that I took in Key West. I went for the first time my junior year and I went back another time after that. My friends parents have a little house off on Summerland Key. (TRAVEL TIP: If traveling with children, I recommend lodging off Key West. It does have the possibility of getting rowdy. So, if you do not want to expose your kids to the loud scene, I think staying at Summerland Key is for you. Its only a 20 minute drive from the last Key and it has more of). There are so many things to do in Key West. Walking down Duval Street is a day in itself. Then there are countless historical things to see. The Southern Most Point is also really cool! Although there is always a ton of people there. The strip of beach is lined with vendors if you get hungry and there is also a sign up for or other fun water activities. Be sure to catch a sunset in Mallory Square, its something you don't want to miss!!!! Happy traveling...

The best key west vacation packages include luxurious resorts. The most luxury resort at key west will have rooms with a breathtaking view. Catch palm trees, colourful sunsets and a breezy ocean view at any cancun resort. There isn't one nudist resort in cancun so enjoy your trip with the whole family. Plan a vacation with amazing vacation packages offered from your travel agent. For a winter trip, the most popular ski resorts are in North America. For those with a business point of view on resorts, you can find resort management education online.

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Hello World

2008-02-12T23:02:00.000-08:00

Hello!

On this blog you will find all kinds of information about everything and anything. We will write about travel, business, food, health, fitness, finance, technology, entertainment, and many other things. Stay with us and you might even learn some valuable info. Have a nice day!