MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, Feb 20, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Based on its recent analysis of the unified communications (UC)
technologies healthcare market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Siemens
Enterprise Communications with the 2011 Global Frost & Sullivan Award
for Product Line Strategy. Siemens Enterprise Communications offers
healthcare organizations an unmatched set of communications
solutions. This includes one of the strongest and most comprehensive
UC and collaboration (UC&C) portfolios, a strong suite of
implementation and management services, and a broad range of
communications solutions tailored specifically to the healthcare
industry.

Siemens Enterprise Communications has leveraged its experience as an
early innovator in UC to offer the OpenScape UC Suite, which is
considered one of the most open and mature solutions in the market.
The OpenScape Fusion Developer Program provides an open
services-oriented architecture and different software development
kits to enable healthcare partners to create and develop
vertical-specific applications that add value to healthcare
workflows.

“The OpenScape UC Suite offers a wide variety of features and
capabilities such as voice over IP; instant messaging; unified
messaging; mobile UC; and audio, Web and desktop video conferencing,”
said Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst and ICT Team Leader
Alaa Saayed. “The vendor’s significant strides in cloud
communications and data center architectures, virtualization, social
media integration, and application enablement further enhance the
company’s overall positioning as an end-to-end provider of advanced
communications technologies.”

Siemens Enterprise Communications also provides a broad range of
professional and managed services through its OpenScale Services
portfolio. While OpenScale professional services support sales and
deployments with custom system integration and professional services,
OpenScale managed services offer various degrees and levels of system
and network maintenance, proactive support, and active monitoring
through several service packages.

The company’s Enterasys brand delivers a full suite of data
networking products that offers top-rated, integrated wired and
wireless networking solutions from the edge to the data center. The
advanced wireless solutions establish a sound foundation for mobile
communications deployments for healthcare workers and patients alike.

“In developing a series of solutions specifically tailored to the
healthcare industry, the company leverages a unique depth of vertical
expertise through significant allocation of R&D resources,” said
Saayed. “It also makes the most of its partnerships with Siemens AG
divisions such as Siemens Healthcare and Siemens Building
Technologies.”

The company’s healthcare-specific solutions include the OpenScape
Health Station, an integrated point-of-care terminal solution that
streamlines clinical access and offers maximum information and
satisfaction levels to patients; and the OpenScape Alarm Response
(OScAR), which reliably and automatically distributes alerts and
alarms.

Another solution is the OpenScape Xpert for HealthCare, a real-time
dispatch and call handling solution for emergency response units that
can integrate and manage inbound and multiline outbound patient
transport. This product can also connect multiple radio and telephone
calls on a single device or hardware-independent soft client.

With dedicated resources in R&D, marketing, consulting, design,
sales, and services, along with a strong channel of knowledgeable
partners, the company aggressively competes in acute care markets and
other healthcare provider organizations. It is well poised to make
the most of the demand from hospitals that seek a UC&C vendor that
has already assisted multiple acute care institutions through its
migration to advanced communication solutions.

When Siemens Enterprise Communications works with a customer to
deploy UC solutions for healthcare, it aims to enhance patient care
and lower costs for the hospital through four key objectives:
increased patient satisfaction, improved patient safety, better
utilization of healthcare dollars, and a higher revenue generation
opportunity for the customer.

“Siemens strives to deliver greater value to its healthcare customers
through a unique pricing approach that seeks to balance the
mission-critical nature of the communications infrastructure in
hospitals with the budget constraints of not-for-profit
organizations,” said Alaa Saayed. “Overall, it focuses on delivering
a compelling price and value proposition that helps customers gain
the benefits of advanced communications at reasonable costs.”

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that
demonstrates the most insight into the needs and product demands of
its customers. The recipient company optimizes its product line by
leveraging products with the various price, performance and feature
points required by one or more market segments.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a
variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding
achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership,
technological innovation, customer service and strategic product
development. Industry analysts compare market participants and
measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and
extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the
industry.

About Siemens Enterprise Communications

Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end
enterprise communications, including voice, video, mobile,
collaboration, social, network infrastructure and security solutions
that use open, standards-based unified communications and business
applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This
award-winning “Open Communications” approach enables organizations to
improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy
solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering
operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company’s
OpenPath(R) commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and
cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The
Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications
includes Cycos and Enterasys Networks. For more information about
Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit

www.siemens-enterprise.com or
www.enterasys.com .

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to
accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth,
innovation and leadership. The company’s Growth Partnership Service
provides the CEO and the CEO’s Growth Team with disciplined research
and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and
implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan
leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000
companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more
than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership,
please visit
http://www.frost.com .

Contact:

Mireya Espinoza
P: 210.247.3870
F: 210.348.1003
E: mireya.espinoza@frost.com

SOURCE: Frost & Sullivan

mailto:mireya.espinoza@frost.com

Copyright 2012 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

On a typical holiday weekend, the busiest traffic periods seem to fall between 10 am and 4 pm CBP wants to remind the traveling public that there are a number of steps that can be taken to facilitate their arrival into the United States.

Travelers can obtain local border traffic conditions by visiting the CBP website at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/wait_times/.

Travelers should have their approved travel documents available for inspection and be prepared to declare all items acquired outside of the United States.

All travelers, including US and Canadian citizens, need to present an approved travel document to enter the US by land and sea. These documents include a valid passport, US Passport Card, Trusted Traveler card (NEXUS, SENTRI or FAST) or an Enhanced Driver’s License. Children under the age of 16 can present an original or copy of their birth certificate. Visit the WHTI website for additional information (getyouhome.gov).

CBP also reminds US lawful permanent residents that the I-551 form (green card) is acceptable for land and sea travel into the United States.

Frequent cross-border travelers are encouraged to participate in the NEXUS program, which allows pre-screened, low-risk travelers to proceed with little or no delay into the United States and Canada. Application forms are available on the Canada Border Services Agency website at www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca and travelers can apply online at www.cbp.gov.

NEXUS information is available toll-free at 1-866-NEXUS 26 (1-866-639-8726).

This time of year, people often focus on loved ones rather than focusing on heart-disease prevention, which could prolong their love affairs. February is American Heart Health month. Coloradans are considered among the healthiest people in the US, but cardiovascular disease still claims about 26 percent of deaths annually, according to the American Heart Association Colorado chapter. Plus, heart disease saps Medicaid?s wallet to the tune of about $40.9 million each year, based on 2007 calculations from the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.

Know the risk factors

Key factors that increase the risk of heart disease include diabetes, hypertension and high blood pressure, being overweight, family history of heart disease and high cholesterol, said Brenda Hinze, physician?s assistant and supervisor at Banner Health Cardiovascular Institute.

Blood pressure measures the blood?s force against artery walls. When it?s too high, the heart works much harder. For medical professionals, like Hinze, blood pressure gives a snapshot of a person?s cardiovascular health and habits.

Hinze said increased salt intake puts you at risk for high blood pressure and that exercise and weight loss can drive blood pressure down.

Next time a blood pressure cuff is strapped to your arm, if it reads 120mm (systolic) over 80mm (diastolic) or less, consider that good, according to AHA guidelines. When numbers creep up, pre-hypertension or high blood pressure become risk factors.

?If you?re slightly over 120 over 80, American Heart Association asks you to monitor your numbers and keep track of your health,?? said Sara Tobin, AHA spokesperson for Colorado.

Systolic numbers at or above 140mm increases a person?s risk of heart attack, angina, stroke, kidney failure and peripheral artery disease, according to AHA.

Women who smoke might want to rethink their tobacco habits since it increases risk for stroke and heart attack. But if you can?t quit for health reasons, consider other motivators. Smoking restricts blood flow, which can have negative consequences on your sex life. Smoking also contributes to pre-mature aging by breaking down collagen, a necessary component for youthful skin.

The Logicalis Enterprise Cloud is an enterprise-class public
cloud offering capable of running business critical applications
and supporting leading healthcare applications. It offers
TeraMedica customers one of the most flexible cloud archive
solutions and adheres to the highest industry standards for data
centers.

“Our cloud solution for TeraMedica customers is built from a
flexible computing architecture that provides the computing power,
memory, storage and bandwidth for an off-site archiving of medical
images,” says Mike Martin, Logicalis’ vice president of cloud
solutions. “In addition, Logicalis provides cloud infrastructure,
managed services and HIPAA compliant data handling. We view
healthcare independent software vendors (ISVs) as a growth market
for Logicalis because we understand the industry, provide
appropriate data center and security standards and can tailor cloud
solutions to meet their needs.”

The TeraMedica Evercore® Clinical Enterprise Suite now features
expanded flexibility in intelligent clinical image lifecycle
management, further ease of data storage, and a greater reduction
of operating costs through its new cloud storage solution. In
addition, Evercore® now provides more storage options through
Logicalis’ off-site cloud archiving.

“Our patented Evercore Clinical Enterprise Suite highlights our
commitment to offering choices in improving patient care, reducing
cost of healthcare and enhancing physician acceptance in the new
patient-centered electronic medical domain,” says Jim Prekop,
TeraMedica’s president and CEO. “Our patented platform was the
first to truly offer clinical image lifecycle management, and it’s
a natural fit that TeraMedica would also provide the most
comprehensive cloud offering in the market.”

“From our work in the industry, we know that medical images
often aren’t accessed or needed more than once. So it only makes
sense to farm that data off to the cloud,” says Ed Brown,
TeraMedica’s vice president of business development. “Utilizing our
intelligent clinical image cloud management services, Evercore
Smartstore(TM) automatically and efficiently moves the data that
healthcare providers don’t need to access on an everyday basis,
thus significantly saving on storage costs.”

Evercore’s flexible and scalable architecture integrates and
manages patient-centric clinical content in the clinical and
research settings across wide geographies, including standard DICOM
objects. Evercore natively manages and distributes data beyond
DICOM using global standards such as MPG, JPG, PDF and many other
critical clinical content such as treatment plans for cancer care
or vital reports in unstructured data formats.

TeraMedica’s patented Smartstore module intelligently manages
the total image lifecycle of DICOM and beyond. Smartstore provides
shared enterprise infrastructure for managing clinical content
based on business policies, specifically tailored to meet the needs
of individual hospitals and/or departments. Evercore’s Univision(TM)
module features a multi-layer, zero-download image viewer, with
seamless integration to any EMR/EHR/PHR/RHIO. TeraMedicas
vendor-independent platform connects multiple PACS to any storage
system, thus ending cumbersome data migration.

About TeraMedica® Inc.

TeraMedica is a healthcare informatics company based in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. TeraMedica’s software manages the storage and
distribution of digital medical images as well as other clinical
content across healthcare and hospital systems, gathering images
from imaging devices or PACS, storing them, and distributing them
to the point of patient care. TeraMedica’s technology gives
physicians virtual access to image data. TeraMedica software uses
an advanced enterprise-scale database and “intelligent”, or
rules-based, business logic to deliver fast, efficient image
management. For more information visit: http://www.teramedica.com.

About Logicalis

Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services
provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in
communications and collaboration; data center and cloud services;
and managed services.

Logicalis Group employs over 2,500 people worldwide, including
highly trained service specialists who design, specify, deploy and
manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 6,000
corporate and public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis
maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as
Cisco, HP, IBM and Microsoft.

The Logicalis Group has annualized revenues of over $1 billion,
from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South America and Asia
Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of the leading IT
and Communications solution integrators, specializing in the areas
of advanced technologies and services.

The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on
the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of
approximately $5 billion.

For more information, visit http://www.us.logicalis.com.

Business and technology working as one

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Logicalis?v=wall

Twitter: http://twitter.com/logicalis

RSS: http://www.us.logicalis.com/feeds/rss.aspx

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LogicalisIT

Blog: http://www.hypeorripe.com/

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/2/prweb9203850.htm

Copyright 2012 Midland Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

They harbor love and affection for Top-10 fluff, sentimental treacle and mainstream new country. And Saturday at Sam Bond’s Garage, they came clean with those surprising affinities as 27 singers participated in the second annual Guilty Pleasures concert.

“It’s the song you will sing in the shower,” emcee Ty Connor said during the introduction. The song “you fantasized about doing in front of a crowd. That’s what the guilty pleasures are all about.”

Each singer had the chance to rehearse with the backing band called, what else, the Guilty Pleasures, with James West on drums, Ryan Tocchini on keyboards and guitar, Jake Pavlak on guitar and Dave Snider on bass. All but West also sang a song.

The band did the heavy lifting to pull off this show, learning songs it probably would play only once to entertain a packed house and provide a bit of hammy catharsis for fellow musicians.

Snider coordinated everything, quite an undertaking considering the stereotype about musicians — something about herding cats.

“I never imagined this idea blossoming into the monstrosity it has become,” Snider said in an e-mail before the show. “What is most fascinating to me is how deeply passionate people can be regarding their choice of song and the rationale behind their decisions.

“A couple of folks ended up picking songs that they’ve always wanted to sing, but then they retract after realizing there’s no guilt in it,” Snider said.

Nonetheless, the show was like the best night of karaoke you could hope for.

“Still the One”

Dan Jones was first up, and as the melody of his selection carried over the audience, recognition started to set in and people applauded wildly before Jones sang the first note.

As lead man and songwriter for Dan Jones and the Squids, and more recently the Golden Motors, Jones is known for clever wordplay and putting on a pretty hard-driving rock show.

Jones looked a little naked without his electric guitar. He wore a Mission of Burma band T-shirt, perhaps to remind people of his “real” taste in music, then launched into Shania Twain’s first song to make the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“You’re still the one I run to,” Jones sang, “The one that I belong to/ You’re still the one I want for life.”

In his own songs, Jones is commanding, in control, light on his feet. Here he sounded vulnerable, awkward and sincere, yet his voice fit surprisingly well into this song, which was designed for the natural register of a woman.

Dressed in a short schoolgirl skirt, Teri Jacobs from the Americana band Crooked River did a saucy version of Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop.” And her band mate and husband, Rob Jacobs, closed the first set with Loverboy’s “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.”

Jacobs’ bandmate in Long, Tall and Ugly, Joe Pettit Jr., did a nice version of Barry Manilow’s “Mandy,” which someone had to do.

Terrianne O’Rourke, who was in Alpha Dahlia with Pettit and whose band Hot Drama plays her goodbye show Feb. 12 at Luckey’s, sang a song that didn’t seem so much a guilty pleasure considering how well it suited her. O’Rourke, as Connor pointed out, “channeled” Courtney Love when she performed one of the greatest angry break-up songs ever to hit the airwaves: Hole’s “Violet.”

“Go on, take everything!” O’Rourke screamed repeatedly.

Songs that were hits before the 1980s and that have not stayed in heavy radio rotation on oldies stations got the more tepid receptions, no matter how spirited the performance, but the night had far fewer lulls than highs. Every chair was taken two hours before the show in anticipation of the big night.

Guilty Pleasures, it seemed, was a night about recognition: knowing the song and knowing the singer. As all the band connections in the first set indicated, the people knew each other and were cheering on their friends.

Many dignitaries crucial to shaping the current Whiteaker neighborhood culture were present in the audience or performing, including members of the Emerald City Roller Girls — some of whom still had numbers written on their arms from Saturday’s season-opening roller derby competition — and a few local fashion designers.

BoozeWeek editor Elliot Martinez got jazzy doing Johnny Mathis. And while he didn’t always sing on key during “It’s Not for Me to Say,” he had an easy stage presence and was fun to watch in his stylish suit, swaying with drink in hand and never spilling a drop.

A few songs inspired the crowd to sing along, including Ken Howe doing Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” and Ed Cole’s version of Eddie Money’s “Two Tickets to Paradise,” with a percussion assist from Tony Figoli.

Show stopper

The show stopper of the second set was guitarist Pavlak, best known for his band Yeltsin, which is on hiatus. As Guilty Pleasures’ guitarist, Pavlak barely moved from his position on the side of the stage as he sang “The Rose” by Bette Midler — with no hint of irony.

“Give me a lot of reverb please,” he said before starting to sing.

The wire-thin, bearded redhead delivered the tender ballad to an admiring crowd. People whipped out their lighters, waved their hands in the air and one woman formed a heart shape with her hands and held it toward Pavlak as he sang.

By the end, many people in the crowd sang along. While humorous, it was a genuinely touching moment as well.

“It’s Bette Midler,” Connor said motioning to Pavlak, “with the longest beard in the world.”

By the third set the indoor crowd began to thin, some filtering out to the smoking area and some no doubt tired of standing for so long. But the big guns were yet to come.

Dustin Lanker and Dan Schmid — two Cherry Poppin’ Daddies who have worked together in many other projects, including the Visible Men — each showed what a couple of decades on the stage can do in terms of performance skills.

Schmid, the less flamboyant of the two, sang “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. The Guilty Pleasures nailed many details from the original version, including those spaced-out keyboard effects.

(Bruce Springsteen wrote that song. Who says Saturday nights out aren’t educational?)

Lanker and his customary wide-eyed and bared-tooth singing style were present as he performed the Doors’ “Touch Me,” mysteriously adding a kazoo part at the end.

When asked later why that was a guilty pleasure, he said: “Because I hate the Doors, but I love that song.”

Sara Scofield, who hosts karaoke at Oak Street Speakeasy and sings in the Whopner County Country All-Stars, gave one of the knockout performances of the night with her take on the Carpenters’ “Superstar.” It came complete with dramatic pauses and appropriate, longing facial expressions.

“I’ve been waiting for a long time for Ty Connor to introduce me,” she said. She might have been the only person who thanked the band as part of her performance.

The final performer pulled out all the stops.

Mo Talaba, an independent engineer at Gung Ho Studio, slowly walked onto the stage wearing a faux animal skin jacket, acid washed jeans, cowboy boots and a blond, crimped wig with scarves around his head. He stood looking into the distance, nodding his head as the crowd took in his look.

By the time he got on stage, the show had been going for more than four hours, and yet the venue still was full. Jones sat in on acoustic guitar.

With no small amount of dramatic build up, Talaba sang Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive.”

The crowd went nuts — all pleasure, no guilt.

Call Serena Markstrom at 541-338-2371 or you can e-mail her at serena.markstrom@registerguard.com.

Last week, Sonys Welsh-born boss, Sir Howard Stringer, the first foreigner to hold the top job, paid the price for his failure to turn the company around. Company veteran Kazuo Hirai, who has a record as a hard-nosed cost-cutter, will take over from him in April – but with a near £2bn annual loss on the horizon there will be no cheerleading from the new leader: he said he felt an acute sense of crisis and identified a need to push through urgent change.

The heavy losses at Sony were mirrored at Panasonic and Sharp, and the bleak scene was completed when Japan itself reported its first annual trade deficit since 1980, blamed on the impact of the tsunami and the strong yen.

Within the business community there are whispers of a sense of paralysis or hopelessness, and the fear that if decisive action is not taken, some of the companies that were the engine for Japans postwar growth could fall into irreversible decline.

Japanese companies cannot keep doing what they have been doing, says Hiroshi Mikitani, the founder of e-commerce giant Rakuten. His company, which is worth more than £7.6bn, is not a household name in the UK yet, although many Britons are now indirect customers of Mikitanis following Rakutens acquisition of UK e-retailer Play.com for £25m last year and Kobo, the Canadian ebook maker, for £200m.

At home it is best known for Rakuten Ichiba, the countrys biggest online marketplace – ahead of Amazon – with more than 37,000 merchants selling almost everything from noodles and sushi to Japanese ceremonial armour. With annual sales of £2.6bn in 2010, its operations also span banking, travel ticketing and even a mediocre professional baseball team – the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, which finished fifth in a league of six teams last season.

Mikitani is confident Rakuten can take on Amazon around the world. Its Ichiba website has been likened to a blog with a shopping cart attached: merchants are encouraged to talk to customers and give internet shopping a human face – unlike Amazon, which, he says, is just a gigantic vending machine. Rakutens strategy is to build alliances and it hopes the Kobo will be a more open source option than Amazons Kindle for retailers and publishers. There are lots of companies that dont like Amazon because they want to control and dominate everything, says Mikitani. We are more alliance-oriented … We want to establish relationships with retailers.

The self-made billionaire, whose early career was in banking, claims Japanese executives lack a global perspective – a syndrome that has been called Galapagos-isation, referring to the tendency among Japanese companies to focus on the tastes and demands of an isolated and shrinking home market rather than take risks abroad.

The countrys electronics sector has been hit by the success of South Koreas Samsung and LG, which assemble products in lower-cost countries such as China, Indonesia and Thailand. There have also been spectacular own goals: Japan had web-surfing handsets nearly a decade before the iPhone, yet local producers failed to tap overseas markets.

Management writer Simon Caulkin says there is still much to admire about Japanese manufacturers, not least their miraculous recovery after the Fukushima disaster, and the Toyota production system, which is still is one of the wonders of the industrial world. One criticism, says Caulkin, is that in areas such as consumer electronics and cameras, Japanese companies are so focused on competing with their immediate peers that they miss the big picture.

The classic case is Sony, ironically the most western-facing of the big Japanese firms, which had all the ingredients to create an iTunes-style online music store but was completely outflanked by Apple. Even when Sony knew what Jobs was up to, it couldnt get it together because it was undermined by squabbling divisions, each struggling to protect its empire, explains Caulkin. Apple, on the other hand, had a completely integrated view. It [was] one company, no divisions, one profit and loss account, under an utterly focused Steve Jobs.

Stringers turnaround was said to be hampered by a resistance to change, and he recently quipped to one interviewer: Love affairs with the status quo continue even after the quo has lost its status. One western executive based in Tokyo says that decision-making in a typical Japanese company is by consensus: It can take six months and nothing will happen. They tried to build a consensus on everything. But once the strategy is decided everybody goes for it – for better or worse.

Last year, in an unusual step even for large Japanese multinationals such as Sony or Toyota, Mikitani switched Rakutens official language to English. We need to change the mindset of every single Japanese person, says Mikitani, who is likened to some of the countrys other successful entrepreneurs such as Tadashi Yanai, founder of the clothier Uniqlo, and Masayoshi Son, chief executive of mobile phone network Softbank. We dont push out a Japanese model to our subsidiaries. The lack of global vision is partly coming from the language [barrier]. To highlight Rakutens swift decision-making process, he adds: We did the Kobo deal in a week.

Rakuten occupies a former Sony building in Shinagawa: the stunning panorama from the top floor belies a dingy interior, as strict energy controls in the wake of Fukushima see lights dimmed and heating switched off in some areas. With a nod to Wal-Mart, Mikitani preaches the Rakuten shugi or way, starting the day with the asakai morning meeting in a cavernous auditorium where the latest sales figures are discussed. The Monday meeting has been switched to Tuesday so that managers from other countries can be patched in.

Rakutens egalitarian code is spelt out in a handbook, telling staff that they must all clean their offices together (including desks, whiteboards and even chair legs); that their work ID badge should be pinned with pride on the left side of your chest; and that they should greet each other enthusiastically.

Whether Rakutens model will be embraced by its peers remains to be seen but Mikitani is undaunted: We are going to be very aggressive. You need to be agile and have vision. Other Japanese companies are closely watching its progress in the west. If we succeed, he adds cautiously, then they will follow us.

And will they succeed? He points to Carlos Ghosns success in reviving Nissan: I think the Sony brand can be revived. I think [electronics companies] will come back. They will wake up.

My girlfriends and I didn’t go to praise Jesus. We went for fun. (I didn’t know about the boyfriend yet.) My two friends, both 20-something journalists like me, were visiting me in Houston, and we considered Lakewood Church the largest house of worship in the country and home to controversial superstar pastor Joel Osteen a tourist attraction.

We parked in a crowded underground garage and followed a trail of people into a stadium built for the city’s basketball team. I’d rarely set foot in a church since growing up catholic in upstate New York, and yet I knew this religious gathering would be nothing like the one I’d attended at home. Everybody in Houston knew about Lakewood. You either went there every weekend or rolled your eyes at people who did.

An usher guided us to seats up in the stadium’s second tier, practically the nosebleed section. Loud, upbeat music throbbed through the stadium. A woman not far from us clapped to the beat, tears streaming down her face. I stared at her like a child who’d seen the Amish for the first time. Was she really that moved by this song? I wondered whether her sister was sick with cancer or her husband had lost his job. Or maybe she simply felt alone.

When the throbbing music ended – a good half an hour into the service – Osteen didn’t read out of the gospel. Instead, he looked out over the packed stadium and told us, with a fist in the air, that we could accomplish anything we set our minds to. The future was full of hope, he said. “The best things in life are out in front of us!”

To my left, my girlfriends threw their hands in the air with everyone else. “C’mon!” they urged. But I felt awkward and out of place, worried the crowd would pin me for an imposter in this deep sea of believers. Wouldn’t they know I didn’t belong?

Two weeks later, my boyfriend dumped me. The woman he’d connected with the weekend my friends were in town understood him in a way I didn’t, he said. That night I heaved over the toilet, mad at myself for not seeing it coming.

The next Sunday, instead of spending the morning in my now ex-boyfriend’s bed, I went back to Lakewood. I wasn’t exactly sure why I went. I usually dealt with my emotions by running or lifting weights or throwing myself into work, not by praying to someone I wasn’t sure existed. But I felt pulled back toward that uplifting music, and I was too emotionally exhausted to resist.

As I stepped onto the escalator, a greeter handed me a pamphlet, the kind of literature my brother and I would’ve mocked as Jesus paraphernalia. “We’re happy you’re with us today,” she said, looking at me as though she really meant it. I faked a smile.

I could hear the music even before entering the stadium, just like during my first visit with my girlfriends. But this time I was the one alone – and on the verge of tears. Even more than being mad at my ex, I was mad at myself for wallowing over a man when life had something exciting in store for me: I was about to leave my job to go backpacking through Africa, a trip I’d dreamed about for years. Three more months and I’d be on the plane, out in the world, free. Why couldn’t I focus on that?

At the church I’d grown up in, crying would have caused a scene. I remembered kneeling next to my dad at Sunday Mass, just a few days after my grandfather’s funeral, and watching him lean back in his pew to wipe tears from his eyes, then kneel back in position. Catholics were stoic. We repeated the same words every Mass, pausing when we were supposed to pause, sparing our prayers the wrath of inflection, showing neither happiness nor sadness. We showed nothing.

But at Lakewood, emotion pulsed through the crowd. People sang loudly, with both hands outstretched, palms toward their God as if to receive whatever he offered. I put my hands out too, feeling sheepish, glancing around to see if anyone could tell I was a newbie. Soon the whole place was jumping up and down and belting the lyrics, “I’m Still Standing.” (Think worship lyrics; not the Elton John song.) As they waved their arms in the air, I hoped their strength would rub off on me.

Surrounded by people so full of faith and hope, I sensed an escape route for my ache. If I could just let that heaviness out of my chest, believers around me would absorb it, eat it up and digest even the tough parts.

So I let go. With my arms above my head, I let the tears stream down my cheeks just like the woman near me had done during my first trip to the stadium. It was freeing, crying in that crowd, anonymous yet part of something bigger than myself. I was among strangers, yet I felt less broken and alone than when I’d walked in.

I was used to leaving church feeling guilty for my sins from the previous week, for letting my mind wander to sex while Latin words rolled off an old priest’s tongue. But after Lakewood, I felt lighter, like I had handed some of my burden over to … God? Did that mean I believed in Him? Had the energy of this place pulled me here, or was it something bigger?

Maybe this was what it felt like to find God, I thought. In my heartbreak, had I discovered a different kind of love?

I went back to Lakewood the next week. And the next. But I didn’t tell anyone. My friends were still laughing over how a candidate for district attorney had struck a man from a jury pool because he went to the megachurch. “People who go to Lakewood are screwballs and nuts,” she’d told the judge.

Which meant Houston had an awful lot of screwballs and nuts. I was fascinated by the engine that was Lakewood, how the church organized parking for thousands of people, distributed the holy bread to every mouth in the stadium, and manned a bookstore that probably brought in more money on Sunday than most do in a month.

Yet Lakewood felt more motivational than religious – or maybe that was simply what I wanted it to be. Ironically, the secular spirit that drew me there was exactly why some religious folk criticized Osteen: They complained he wasn’t religious enough.

When Osteen did invoke religious images or drift into Jesus talk, I’d tweak his words so they worked for me. He said things were in God’s hands; I heard it as fate’s hands. He said God would send luck my way; I told myself to make my own luck. By performing this sort of calculus, I managed to convince myself that I wasn’t becoming one of those religious nuts.

Until, that is, Osteen mentioned something rather startling. “If you come to Lakewood three times,” he told the audience, pausing to flash his famous supersmile, “we consider you a member.”

My insides tense, I counted the number of times I’d attended. Was it four? Five? Definitely more than three. Oh my God, I muttered. Had I become one of them?

But my discovery was short-lived. Soon I would leave Houston for good, following through on my travel plans. On my last Sunday in the city, I took a break from packing to attend the church a final time. After the usual mix of uplifting songs, the pastor encouraged us to get out of our seats and join one of the prayer partners who were scattered around the stadium. For weeks I’d avoided this part of the service, remaining seated while people around me shuffled through the aisles to share their own personal pleas to God; a friend who’d attended Lakewood told me a prayer partner once spoke to her in tongues. But this was my last chance, and curiosity was on Lakewood’s side. Breathing deeply to shake my nerves, I got in line.

My prayer partner had middle-aged pudge around her middle and warm brown eyes. When it was my turn, she took my hands in hers and said, in perfectly comprehensible English, “What are we praying for today?”

My chin trembled as I contemplated asking her to help my heart heal or give me the strength say goodbye to Houston. But I wanted to look forward, not back. “I’m going on a long trip,” I told her, feeling comforted by her eyes. “A journey by myself. To Africa.”

She squeezed my hands, shut her eyes and prayed aloud to her God – my God? – to keep me safe during my travels. Around us, hundreds of people prayed aloud with their own partner, their words blanketing the stadium with murmurs, a presence that was palpable.

Keep her safe and healthy and happy,” my partner finished, letting go of my sweaty palms.

As I walked back to my seat, I added my own little prayer, asking Whoever Was Up There to forgive me, knowing my fling with the megachurch, like all good love affairs, would be fleeting. And when the music began again, I lifted my palms to the sky.

BMW has revealed an update to its X6 Sports Activity Coupe for 2013 featuring some styling changes, adaptive LED headlights, new paint colors, wheels and interior choices, plus a new M Performance Package.

The 2013 BMW X6 will be offered in two models in the US, the X6 xDrive50i and the X6 xDrive35i. The xDrive50i will be powered by a 4.4L TwinPower Turbo V8 engine with 400-hp while the xDrive35i features the ever-popular 300-hp, TwinPower Turbo inline-six. Both engines will be mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The New M Performance Package is worth getting excited about which offers a 15-hp and 30 lb-ft of torque increase to the xDrive35i while the xDrive50i benefits with an increase of 40-hp and 30 lb-ft of torque. The package also comes with 20-inch wheels, black chrome exhaust tips, stainless steel pedals, M foot rest and door sills, shadowline exterior trim, anthracite headliner and optional Carbon Black metallic paint.

But those wanting the true M performance can opt for the X6M which still features the V8 engine with 555-hp with a six-speed M Sport automatic transmission.

Worth mentioning is that BMW announced more than 150,000 X6s have been sold globally in the last three years with over 20,000 of them sold in America. The 2013 BMW X6 is expected to hit North American dealerships in the spring of 2012. No pricing was announced.

GALLERY: 2013 BMW X6