Despite some skepticism about America’s appetite for purchasing digital virtual goods in games and on the internet, the “virtual goods” market is growing at a healthy clip, according to an industry report issued Tuesday.

The research group Inside Network says the U.S. virtual goods market will hit $2.1 billion in 2011, up from $1.6 billion this year.

The group, which also owns a blog about Facebook, attributes much of the growth in that market to social online games like “FarmVille.”

“One of the biggest trends we see in the technology industry in general right now is the growth of social gaming, and how it already has become nearly a billion-dollar market itself just in the past couple of years, primarily on the Facebook platform,” said Justin Smith, founder of Inside Network.

Inside Network released a summary of its report to CNN in advance of its release on Tuesday but would not make the full text of its report public.

Nick Thomas, an analyst at Forrester Research, said the size of the virtual goods market is difficult to define and that, in general, purchase of online and digital goods is still outside the mainstream.

“There are a few companies doing this very well and executing this very well, so by the time you factor in ‘World of Warcraft’ and one or two others, then you’ve probably got a fair chunk of the market,” he said. “There are not hundreds and hundreds of companies doing this well.”

One problem for the industry, Thomas said, is that only 1 to 2 percent of people who play social games actually purchase goods to keep playing.

Generally, players can opt to buy digital goods and equipment that will help them play a game more successfully, or they could log more hours in the game to earn those bonuses and power-ups. The term virtual goods refers to digital items that are purchased for use online, in games and on mobile phones.

Online news stories could be considered virtual goods in the loosest sense, Thomas said, since some people will pay for an article that does not exist — or at least is not tangible — in the real world.

Inside Network, which based its analysis on dozens of interviews with companies and investors involved in the virutal goods market, says it includes the following areas in its analysis: social games, online free-to-play games, virtual worlds, mobile games, and purchases made through console gaming systems.

Mainstream media companies would be smart to watch the development of the virtual goods market, Thomas said.

“The big media companies are rightly trying to keep on top of emerging trends,” he said. “Whatever’s hot for consumers, they should be on top of and try to understand.”

“All of our men jackets and trousers are sold separately, even if they match,” points out Clive Derby, owner of new menswear brand, RAKE. In these few words Derby is summing up not just his brand’s ethos but also the direction of men’s tailoring today. Suits are being split up and mixed with casual gear in new and unlikely ways. A formal jacket worn with jeans, T-shirt and white Converse trainers no longer garners comment.

Take RAKE’s high-twist wool and cashmere Prince of Wales check jacket. It can of course be bought with matching trousers to make a suit. Or, it would just as smartly sit a-top straight-legged darkest denims, grey flat-front trousers, even white jeans; for each of these combinations creates: a dressed down weekending banker, a casual Friday lawyer and even an Ibiza-bound party animal. Mixing tailoring with sports and casual-wear offers up a range of possibilities for the wardrobe, turning it into a running buffet rather than a set menu.

“When I was thinking about the collection I had Serge Gainsbourg in mind,” says Darby, referencing the crumpled elegance of the Gallic crooner, lothario, and yes… rake. Darby, with a background in buying and retail development with smartest labels Browns, Richard James and Kilgour understands men’s classic clothing consumption, with a depth of experience gained from over 20 years in the business.

He also seems to be designing for himself, looking low-key smart and relaxed wearing a navy cashmere sweatshirt and fine jersey flat-front trousers from the brand’s next collection. He looks like a sophisticated design tutor as he talks me through the range.

There’s a particularly fine dark-navy ‘one show one’ double-breasted jacket that, indeed, could be a Serge Gainsbourg cast off. It’s only missing the whiff of stale Galloises. Importantly for this first collection, the suit block is slim without being skinny. The RAKE customer is in his 30s or 40s, and is not trying to look like a youngster in body-hugging clothing.

There’s subtle branding too. “It’s the RAKE ‘halo’,” says Darby, pointing out the fine hand-stitched buttonhole found on the back of shirt collars and jacket lapels. “And look at our labels too,” he enthuses, “RAKE is about subtle difference in fabric texture and the label is formed by three built-up fabric layers. It’s that attention to detail we know our customer appreciates.”

With a collection this considered, it’s no surprise that even seemingly simple accessories like silk neckerchiefs are cleverly designed so the merest tug while tying it under the chin makes it look rakishly right. A feat even Hermès versions struggle to emulate. Or a simple waistcoat that is reversible, flipping between navy and grey.

Gainsbourg of course would be wearing his stained with Claret and cigarette ash, but then again so might you.  Rake is such a brand, and tailors high quality and beautiful men jacket, suits, and blazers for gentlemen!

Rake’s website:  http://www.rakestyle.com

Migraine sufferers were offered new hope today after researchers identified a faulty gene responsible for the debilitating headaches.  The finding could lead to better treatment and improve the quality of life for the one in five people who have the neurological disorder.

Scientists at the University of Oxford along with colleagues in Canada took DNA samples from migraines sufferers and their families.

They found that if a gene called Tresk is defective it can trigger pain nerves in the brain and cause a severe headache.

The discovery explains why people in the same family often suffer from the condition and could lead to new drugs that can switch off the pain.

Dr Zameel Cader, from the Medical Research Council’s Functional Genomics Unit at the University of Oxford, said: “We have now made a major step forward in our understanding of why people suffer with migraine and how in certain cases, your family can literally give you a headache.

“Previous studies have identified parts of our DNA that increase the risk in the general population but have not found genes which can be directly responsible for common migraine.

“What we’ve found is that migraines seem to depend on how sensitive our nerves are in the pain centres of the brain.

“This finding should help lead to the key player which controls this excitability and will give us a real opportunity to find a new way to fight migraines and improve the quality of life for those suffering.”

A migraine is a severe, long-lasting headache usually felt as a throbbing pain at the front or on one side of the head.

Some people can have a warning visual disturbance – for example, seeing zigzag lines or flashing lights – before the start of the headache which is called an aura.

Many people also have symptoms, such as nausea and sensitivity to light, during the headache itself.

Until now, the genes responsible were unknown.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) rates migraine as a leading cause of disability worldwide and it is estimated to be the most costly neurological disorder in Europe.

The study about  migraine, published in Nature Medicine, was funded by the Medical Research Council, Genome Canada, Genome Quebec, Emerillon Therapeutics, the Wellcome Trust and Pfizer.

Human growth hormone is produced in the pituitary gland in the brain and is essential for childhood growth and the development of muscle, bone and cartilage.

But the older we get the less we produce, which is why it has been called the “youth” hormone. Until the 1990s, the only source was pituitary glands from cadavers but it has since become available in synthetic form, as a drug for injection.

It is prescribed to children who have stopped growing too early because they are deficient in the hormone to boost their adult height. Some Harley Street doctors also prescribe it to patients whom they deem to be deficient in the hormone.

Anecdotal reports suggest its popularity is growing among sportsmen as a substitute for anabolic steroids which are perceived to have more serious side effects. But human growth hormone has them too. It can lead to swelling of the body’s soft tissues, abnormal growth of the hands, feet and face, high blood pressure, blood clots, diabetes, increased sweating, and excessive hair growth. Organs including the heart, liver and kidneys, may also grow excessively, leading to potentially life-threatening problems such as cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. Researchers have also linked HGH to an increased risks of cancer and overloading of the adrenal glands, which can result in infection and illness.

Facebook is working with mobile phone maker INQ Mobile Ltd to create two smartphone devices that may have a network tie up with AT&T, Bloomberg said, citing three people familiar with the matter.

The smartphones would carry the popular social networking website’s services and were set to be unveiled in Europe in the first half of 2011 and the United States in the second half of the year, the report said.

Privately held Facebook said previously that it was not building its own mobile phone. Jaime Schopflin, a spokesman for Facebook, said the company’s current projects included “deeper integrations with some manufacturers.”

AT&T, the No. 2 US mobile provider, is still thinking about whether it should be the network carrier for the Facebook smartphones and has not yet made a deal, Bloomberg said.

None of the companies could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular US business hours.

Facebook declined to comment to Bloomberg on plans for specific phones. The company, however, told the agency that it continues to work with INQ Mobile, which has previously sold phones with Facebook features, along with other companies.

INQ Mobile, which is based in London and is backed by Hong Kong telecom firm Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, declined to comment to Bloomberg.

The combination of depression and heart disease is more deadly than either factor alone, researchers say.

  It is already known that either influence can increase the risk of dying from a heart attack or stroke, but there has been little research on both factors combined. Now, experts writing in the journal Heart have concluded the risks are higher if a person is both depressed and suffers from heart disease.

 Almost 6,000 middle-aged British men and women were followed for nearly six years for the research, led by teams from University College London and the University of Versailles in France.

 Around one in five of those taking part had both heart disease and depression. Overall, 170 people died during the study period, including 47 from cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks or strokes.

 The results showed that people with heart disease alone had a 67 per cent higher chance of dying from any cause than those without either heart disease or depression.

 Meanwhile, people with depressive symptoms only were more than twice as likely to die as those with neither heart disease nor depression.

 When researchers looked at those people with both depression and heart disease, and adjusted the results to take account of factors such as age and sex, they found the combination tripled the risk of death from any cause and quadrupled the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. The researchers called for doctors to pay more attention to depression in their cardiac patients.

More than 190 million visitors per month isn’t bad for a web phenomenon that is widely criticised for being inconsequential, ephemeral and narcissistic. But despite the huge popularity of Twitter, which scores 370,000 new users every day, making money out of its customers has proved more of a challenge – until yesterday, when the social network unveiled a new look that will have advertisers salivating. 

 The changes, which will hit all users’ screens over the next few weeks, see a two-pane layout replacing the straightforward list of tweets; the second pane can perform a number of functions, but the most significant is displaying media content relating to that tweet without the user having to visit another website.

 Yesterday’s launch was, according to Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, “not for the sake of advertisers”. But the redesign will excite marketeers traditionally inhibited by the site’s stripped-back look. Twitter may finally be on the brink of demonstrating why $160m [£103m] of venture capital has been ploughed into the company so far.

Twitter’s popularity – much like Google’s – has been built on its simplicity. You post a message, or a link to a website, and anyone bothering to pay attention will see it. If they want to, they can reply. Easy. But as Twitter has grown and new uses have been found for it by individuals and organisations, there has been a heavy reliance on third-party services that help to organise and display Twitter-related data in more user-friendly ways.

 Applications such as TweetDeck or Seesmic help fit more information on one screen; it could be an image-hosting service like yFrog or Twitpic; or devices that shortened web addresses such as is.gd that help squeeze long URLs into Twitter’s 140-character limit. In effect, a whole industry has grown up around enhancing Twitter and addressing its shortcomings. Williams himself admitted to shortcomings at yesterday’s launch, and this revamp is a bold attempt to persuade the estimated 22 per cent of users who tweet without visiting the site itself that it is time to come back.

 No wonder advertisers are eager; thus far, marketing messages on the service have been restricted to “promoted tweets” (the opportunity for a company’s tweet to appear at the top of Twitter search results) and “sponsored trends” (corporate branding of a topic that’s getting a lot of attention). Even these have been shown to be powerful; Coca-Cola’s recent foray into sponsored trends saw them achieve 86 million page impressions in 24 hours.

 Twitter users are regarded as less passive than the average web user, and with more screen “real estate” now available to advertisers, their engagement is predicted to become more intense.

 As the new-look Twitter gains traffic and collects more data about our clicking habits and interests, it will become even more valuable in the corporate world as advertisements can be targeted at users more specifically. The only danger Twitter faces is the risk of upsetting a significant proportion of its users who aren’t concerned about commercial pressures on the company, and would rather have an ad-free experience.

 Facebook’s past blunders in particular have shown that our tolerance of prominent marketing messages can be low. Twitter has always prided itself on a gently-gently approach; the new-look site will be introduced slowly, with the opportunity to switch to the old interface if we wish. But a Twitter service that’s so light on advertising can’t last for ever; after all, a business without an income isn’t a business at all.

Liverpool have rejected a proposed refinancing strategy from co-owner Tom Hicks that could have given the American increased control at Anfield.

Hicks personally delivered his proposal direct to the Liverpool board in a showdown meeting ahead of the club’s Europa League tie, and was told that his plans were not acceptable.

In fact, Hicks was left in no doubt of the board’s resolve to find new owners and end his turbulent reign – alongside fellow American George Gillett – at the Premier League giants.

Hicks wants to buy out the £237 million Royal Bank of Scotland debt which is threatening to end his joint ownership of the club when the facility expires on deadline of October 6. He is hoping to raise funds from US banks to raise the funds to buy out RBS, possibly using the players and stadium as collateral.

Hicks has moved to thwart the possibility of RBS temporarily taking control of Liverpool and selling it off at a rock bottom price, far less than Hicks and Gillett believed it to be worth when they originally put the club up for sale at £800 million a year ago.

The price has since plummeted and might now be worth as little as £150 million. With no creditable buyer yet in public sight, Hicks is trying desperately to retain control, if not total control, and hold out in the hope of finding someone who will pay more later.

With Gillett’s finances in a parlous state, and with the possibility that he might default on other loans and ultimately lose his 50% stake in Liverpool, his partner Hicks is attempting to refinance alone and gain total control.

The Liverpool board are having none of that, believing an extension of the Hicks and Gillett ownership, even if it reverts to Hicks, would only prolong the financial misery.

Meanwhile, to ESPNsoccernet, Liverpool have refuted claims that they have sought advance funding from the Premier League from TV revenues and sponsorship payments as their financial situation is starting to alarm fiscal experts.

A fire sale of players in the January transfer window cannot be ruled out, according to ESPNsoccernet sources, but that would be one of the last resorts to shore up the ailing finances.

Under the circumstances Liverpool have already given assurances to the Premier League that they can fulfil all their fixtures for this season. A similar undertaking has been given to UEFA about the club’s participation in the Europa League.

ESPNsoccernet approached Liverpool to ask: “Can the club still afford the players’ huge monthly wage bill, considering the club are now in the red?”

A club spokesman said: “Liverpool FC has prudent working capital facilities that allow the Club to make proper provision for outgoings as and when they arise. These working capital facilities are totally satisfactory to both the Premier League and UEFA.”

Suit fabric really does make the suit literally and figuratively. Linen, polyester, wool, cotton, tweed, herringbone, flannel, silk, poplin, seersucker, and cashmere, are the materials that usually make up a men suit.

A mens linen suit will not feel the same as a polyester suit, and a polyester suit will not feel the same as a wool suit…etc. Also a suits price will vary greatly depending on what kind of material it is made up of.

Below you will find a brief overview of the different types of suit material you may find while searching for your ideal suit. Click through each to get a quick rundown on the advantages and disadvantages of each suit fabric.

Cashmere suits are highly coveted for their soft feel and quality of fiber. The quality of this material is well renowned throughout the minds of consumers everywhere.

Below you’ll find some of the advantages and disadvantages of owning one.

Advantages

This material is great to have on you when you live in an area with rapid climate changes. The reason for this is because it tends to insulate you depending on the moisture levels of the air.

Another great benefit is that it is softer than even linen or cotton making it feel great on the skin.

Also if you’ve ever watched Seinfeld you know that beautiful women will walk up to you and feel your material before asking “is this cashmere”.

Disadvantages

You will probably pay an exorbitant amount of money to wear this material. This type of suit may be hard to find in 2008. Many companies are moving towards more synthetic materials for all types of suits.

The cotton suit isn’t the most popular suit on the market, but cotton is the most popular fabric for clothing. In my humble opinion this is because cotton is cheap, wrinkles easy and is not meant for all types of suits. However, as always there are advantages and disadvantages to wearing one.

Advantages

This material is nice and breathable and makes for a nice comfortable fit. Also the material is inexpensive and therefore these garments are usually much less expensive than their counterparts.

Disadvantages

Wrinkles are much more prevalent with this material. This material is apt to shrink, which means extra care will be needed when dealing with it.
The flannel suit is made from thick worsted wool or a wool/cotton mix. It is similar to tweed and herringbone suits but much softer in feel.

Advantages

This material is heavy enough to make a great winter suit but not quite heavy enough as to be useless in spring and fall temperatures. The versatility of the fabric gives it the ability to provide both plain and textured patterns. Also, its soft feel makes it more luxurious than most winter suits.

Disadvantages

Suits made from this material are more rare than standard worsted wools and can cost more. Although this suit will be lighter than most winter suits, it is still a winter suit and can be uncomfortable to wear in the hot summer months.

Mens linen suit is gonna be one of your more comfortable options when choosing a suit material. Linen is one of the oldest materials in the world and has many advantages as well as disadvantages.

Advantages

These suits are are light and resist moisture which makes them great for summer or heavy sweaters. They are also machine washable meaning you won’t have to read my page on finding a good dry cleaner after all.

Disadvantages

A linen suit will wrinkle very easily and although durable, they will crease easily at heavily folded areas. Creases can eventually lead to damaged fabric; at this point a tailor or trashcan will be needed. Fading under direct sunlight occurs quite easily which is bad for a suit designed for summer wear.

Polyester suits are not quite as common as they were in the 1970′s. However you can find many fiber blends these days. If your looking for one that is 100% you should look into a vintage suit. Read through some of the advantages and disadvantages below.

Advantages

This material is hard to wrinkle or shrink and less expensive than any other type in its class. A great suit for somebody that is prone to getting caught in the rain because of its low water absorption levels.

Disadvantages

These suits do not have a natural feel to them. Also, this suit is usually easy to spot because it is much cheaper. Trapped body heat is also an issue which can lead to discomfort after prolonged wear.

Seersucker suits are a type of cotton suit specifically made for warm weather. These garments are great for keeping cool in late spring through summer.

Materials are woven differently from the traditional cotton clothing. Strands of fabric are bunched together in some areas of the design to help keep the jackets and pants away from your skin.

Colors are usually white with blue stripes, but you can find just about any color imaginable.

Advantage

The superior design helps keep the wearer nice and cool and eliminates any need for ironing. A side benefit is the ability to machine wash this garment – be careful not to shrink it in the dryer.

Disadvantages

This material is noticeably different than your average fabric and may not be appropriate for your line of work. Also these suits are generally made in festive pinstripes with bright summer colors making it completely inappropriate for somber occasions.

Silk suits originate from the same insects that ruin suits…moths. Ironically they are also some of the most comfortable garments out on the market.

Advantages

- Extremely smooth and cool to the touch.

- Shimmering material – looks great under club lighting.

- Hard to Wrinkle.

Disadvantages

- Hot and sticky in warm conditions.

- Needs to be dry cleaned often.

- Lacks warmth in cold weather conditions.

Tweed suits are a heavy form of wool suit. They are made from a coarse woolen material created by combining three different color yarns. The yarns are twilled, leaving a distinctive pattern not found on other types of suits. Some of its more popular forms are Harris, Lovat, and Donegal.

Advantages

This material makes a great winter suit. It is thick, warm, and resistant to water. Many people love this material for its high durability.

Disadvantages

Warm weather makes this suit useless for the owner until it gets cold again. Also the coarse feel can be a turn off for people that prefer more comfort.

Wool suits are currently the most popular suits on the market. There are also many different types of wool to look. For instance mens suits can be made from virgin wool and worsted and can even be spun at different speeds to provide different comfort levels.

This material can be spun at super 90′s all the way up to super 200′s. The higher the number the higher the quality. Look to buy something that starts at super 100′s and above.

Advantages

These suits are the most durable on the market. They can also be effective against the fight on wrinkles. The versatility of this material has led to it being used for both summer and winter suits.

Disadvantages

Dry cleaning is a prerequisite for cleaning these suits. Cleaning costs can become quite expensive if you wear suits everyday.

Poplin suit is made of a combination of lightweight fabrics to include: silk, cotton, worsted wool, and even polyester. This silky smooth material is found mostly in high end models.

Advantages

This material is lightweight and makes a great summer suit. Also the silky smooth feel to the fabric makes it a great luxury suit. You can’t go wrong wearing using this material for your luxury summer suits.

Disadvantages

The major disadvantage to this fabric is its poor versatility. Do not wear this suit in late fall, winter, or early spring – it is much too light. Durability can also be an issue for the more aggressive suit wearer.

Google this week released its Instant Search feature, which displays live search results as soon as you begin typing.  By providing results before a query is complete and removing the need to hit the “enter” key, Google claims users will save two to five seconds per search.

Are we too impatient to wait a matter of seconds for our search results? What’s feeding our new-found need for speed? And why does Google feel the need to answer our questions before we’ve even asked them?

Faster connections

The flow of information around the Web has accelerated rapidly over recent years. The most obvious cause is that our Web connections have become significantly faster over time.

This isn’t merely a result of greater broadband penetration, but also the near-ubiquity of 3G networks. Not only have we become accustomed to fast connections in our homes, but we’ve become conditioned to a similar experience on the go.

The real-time Web

To Web users, however, this trend has been most evident in the “real-time Web” movement. Services like Twitter and Facebook now deliver messages from our friends in seconds.

And while most breaking news stories were previously sourced from mainstream media outlets — taking hours to propagate via blog posts and emailed links — significant news events can now spread through Twitter in a matter of minutes.

Often, stories also enter the news cycle via on-the-ground reports posted to social networks. This significantly accelerates the news-gathering process and the speed at which important information reaches consumers.

In short, these quick status updates between friends have conditioned us to expect immediate access to information — whether that’s breaking news or simply knowing what our friends are up to. Why should we expect anything less from search engines?

Enabling discovery

Social networking services have fostered another change in consumer behavior; one that puts Google at a real disadvantage. As a greater volume of timely, relevant information is delivered to us via status updates from friends, we spend less time searching.

What’s more, many social sites now use our social connections to recommend content to us without the need to seek it out.

This so-called “discovery” trend, of which iTunes Ping is the most recent example, threatens to usurp the search box. If relevant information is delivered to us without extra effort, why type words into a box?

Google Instant Search is tackling the discovery problem, too: With every letter you type, Google serves up suggestions of what you may be looking for. Search for “tech company,” and Google provides suggestions for “tech company news,” “tech company valuation,” and “tech company names.”

What’s more, this feature enables truly personalized discovery by taking into account your search history, location and other factors — Google is essentially emulating social networks by trying to predict what we’re looking for without the need to submit a fully-formed search.

Next up: Google Predictive Search?

Google is unlikely to rest on its laurels now that Instant Search has been released. The only way the company can truly compete with social discovery is by going one step further.

What if instead of guessing your intent while you search, Google could predict your needs before you search? That’s likely the next evolution of Google search, according to statements from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

“The next step of search is doing this automatically. When I walk down the street, I want my smartphone to be doing searches constantly: ‘Did you know … ?’ ‘Did you know … ?’ ‘Did you know … ?’ ‘Did you know … ?’ ” Schmidt said at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin, Germany, this week.

“This notion of autonomous search — to tell me things I didn’t know but am probably interested in — is the next great stage, in my view, of search.”