WSJbeerbaron says: @ NickHeynen Re Ohio statehouse bar , commence the drunk Wis. pol blasts. Who’s 1st? Wood? Seratti? Lautenschlager? http://t.co/6HzXuH8
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FTSE, Dow Jones, Dax and Cac all fall as investors flee to gilts and gold Global stock markets have resumed their recent slide, weighed down by fears that the world is sliding into a double-dip recession. Concerned that the eurozone debt crisis could be spreading to the US banking sector, regulators in New York have stepped up their scrutiny of the US arms of Europe’s largest banks. Further pressure came from worse-than-expected new jobless claims in the US last week, while inflation was faster than anticipated in July. The FTSE index in London dropped more than 200 points to 5123 at one stage in the early afternoon, a decline of 3.9%, with all 100 stocks on the index down – banking and mining stocks among the biggest fallers, led by Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones plunged more than 330 points in early trading to 11076, a 2.9% drop. Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac lost 4.7% and 3.9% respectively. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down 1.25% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.2% and the Shanghai Composite ended the day 1.6% lower. The yield on UK 10-year government bonds , known as gilts, tumbled to 2.34% – the lowest since 1897 – and gold hit a fresh record high of $1,820.89 an ounce as investors fought shy of equities. Expectations that the world economy will need less oil pushed Brent crude below $109 a barrel, after reaching a two-week high on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Swiss franc tumbled against the euro and the dollar amid talk that the Swiss National Bank was injecting liquidity to put an end to the currency’s recent surge to record highs. Morgan Stanley warned that the global economy was teetering on the brink of a recession, and slashed its growth forecasts. Citing “recent policy errors” and the prospect of further austerity measures in 2012, it said the US and the eurozone were “hovering dangerously close to a recession over the next six to 12 months”. “While we had been calling for a ‘BBB’ recovery in developed markets all along, the path now looks even more Bumpy, Below-par and Brittle than previously thought,” analysts Joachim Fels and Manoj Pradhan said in a note, adding that emerging markets were not immune either. The US investment bank cut its global growth forecast to 3.9% from 4.2% this year, and to 3.8% from 4.5% next year. Growth in developed market economies is now seen averaging at just 1.5% this year and next (down from previous estimates of 1.9% and 2.4%). A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of economic contraction. “Still, recession is not our base case because the corporate sector looks healthy; household real incomes will be supported by lower headline inflation; and we expect more action from the Fed and the ECB, including rate cuts and more non-standard easing,” the Morgan Stanley analysts said. Fears that the UK economy could slide back into recession intensified after news that retail sales grew by just 0.2% last month, and by 0.1% in the last three months. The latest UK labour market data also painted a worsening picture , with unemployment rising sharply, especially among women and young people. The grim global outlook and turmoil in financial markets prompted the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee to discuss a fresh round of quantitative easing at its meeting a fortnight ago, and its two most hawkish members abandoned their calls for higher interest rates to curb inflation. At Franco-German crisis talks in Paris on Tuesday, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy urged closer economic co-ordination and called for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions to prevent the disintegration of the single currency. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: “The European sovereign debt crisis is likely to remain a feature of markets for some time, but if we see a sharp slowdown in economic activity it could threaten fiscal consolidation in core countries such as France and exacerbate the crisis.” Jenkins noted that one bank borrowed $500m (£300m) for a week from the European Central Bank on Wednesday. “It is the first time a euro area bank has borrowed dollars from the ECB since February. While one shouldn’t read too much into one transaction it could be another indication of tension in money markets.” Recession Global economy US economic growth and recession Global recession Economics Economic growth (GDP) Economic policy Green shoots Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Holy Mallomars. Rush Limbaugh has topped even himself on the outrageousness meter. In a slur against the president, Limbaugh referred to a new Triple Double Oreo that Kraft is selling as a “biracial” cookie with both vanilla and chocolate cream that he quipped will be known at the “Or-Bam-eo—the…
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VIDEO : Amber Tamblyn & David Cross Engaged!! this_wheel says: WHAT?! Amber Tamblyn and Tobias get it on?! http://t.co/5F8DHLC #AD &MDcollide #doeshetakeoffhisshorts
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UN report details abuses that could amount to crimes against humanity as Barack Obama prepares to call on Assad to resign UN human rights investigators have listed the names of 50 regime figures who could be prosecuted by the international criminal court (ICC) for crimes committed against civilians during the violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. The list is believed to contain officials inside president Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle and security agencies. It marks the first time that government insiders have faced the spectre of criminal charges since the five-month uprising began. A decision on whether to refer the names to the ICC is likely to be made on Thursday. Diplomatic pressure on the Syrian government will increase further if, as expected, the US president, Barack Obama, calls for Assad to leave office. US officials said that Obama will release a written statement, with his first explicit call for the Syrian leader to stand down. Washington is also expected to put further sanctions on Syria. The US has calibrated its response to the violence in Syria, wary of Damascus’s role as a strategic key to the Arab world and the risk that crisis could be exported beyond its borders. The US has also been cautious about putting its authority on the line, fearing damage to its standing if Assad were to defy its calls for him to go. The UN report accuses officials of torture, summary executions and abuse of children – allegations that could amount to crimes against humanity. It says security forces have indiscriminately fired at demonstrators, sometimes from helicopters. It also says injured protesters have been killed inside hospitals, sometimes being locked alive in mortuary freezers. It says Syrian officials confirmed that around 1,900 demonstrators had been killed by mid-July. Hundreds more have been killed since then. “Children have not only been targeted by security forces, but they have been repeatedly subject to the same human rights and criminal violations as adults, including torture,” the report said. The report’s authors were denied access to Syria and spent four months interviewing defectors and demonstrators who had fled the country. Dozens of former members of the security forces have made their way to Amman, and Istanbul, where they have detailed orders given to them by senior officers to attack demonstrators who have demanded Assad leave office. Activists and defectors have also compiled details of alleged atrocities committed by troops whose commanders insist are targeting terrorists holding their local communities to ransom. The communities themselves have regularly painted a diametrically opposed version of events, claiming that the armed men terrorising them are government-backed militias, known as al-shabiha or ghosts, who work with security forces. One defector, a conscript who was deployed to the southern city of Deraa in April, told the Guardian that his unit’s first order was not to shoot at armed men. “The officer said they were with us,” the soldier said. ” They said we were only to shoot at the demonstrators .” In a telephone conversation on Wednesday night with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Assad said the operations in the restive Syrian cities of Latakia and Homms had finished. However, activists on the ground reported on Wednesday that security forces were still active in both places. In Latakia, a Mediterranean port city that has been the subject of a four-day military assault, security centres were overflowing with detainees, and hundreds of prisoners were being held in the city’s main football stadium and a cinema. The push into Latakia ordered by commanders this week came under strident criticism from other nations in the region, with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Tunisia and Qatar withdrawing their ambassadors and Turkey warning Damascus it had uttered its “last words” on the crackdown. Syria Middle East Bashar Al-Assad Arab and Middle East unrest United Nations US foreign policy United States Human rights Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk
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When most people hear pole dancing, their minds immediately jump to images of a seedy underworld complete with stripper heels, drunk old men and “downtrodden” young women. So when myself and HuffPost reporter Laura Stampler decided to try out a pole dancing workout class for HuffPost Healthy Living’s “We Tried It” series, you can imagine some of the reactions we received from those around us — as well as our own slight discomfort. “I wonder if the instructor will be a former stripper …” “Did they make you wear high heels?” “Were you totally embarrassed?” “I bet some of the girls only do this for their boyfriends.” “Was there house music playing in the background the whole time?” The blogosphere is full of pole dancing detractors, especially since a recent LivingSocial survey revealed that consumers were more likely to purchase a discounted pole dancing class than a discounted gym membership. A post on The Stir, entitled “You Shouldn’t Quit the Gym for This Dirty Little Fantasy,” epitomizes these sentiments: ” … I would choose [the gym] over gyrating my hips and slithering up and down a nasty stripper’s pole any day of the week,” writes the author. Even Ryan Gosling’s character in “Crazy, Stupid, Love” weighs in on the subject. “The war between the sexes is over. We won the second women started doing pole dancing for exercise,” he declares. To be honest, we too were fully prepared to feel uncomfortable. But to our surprise and delight, the Absolute Beginner Pole Class at SHOCKra Studio absolutely defied our preconceived notions. First of all, SHOCKra Studio is the least intimidating place I’ve ever been. The studio itself has a very laid back vibe and feels immediately inclusive (with a tagline of “anyone can dance!” it seems only appropriate). We walked into a small studio that included eight poles, clad, not in stilettos and bustiers, but loose-fitting workout clothes and $2 Duane Reade headbands. Even though we rushed into the class a few minutes late (damn you, 6 train!) our instructor Keisha (pictured below) was all smiles — and ready to get down to business. When we asked her about the kind of clientele she saw in her classes, Keisha replied that it was quite diverse. She spoke animatedly about the 65-year-old woman in one of her six-week workshops who “does her thing.” Keisha herself has been dancing since she was 8 years old, although she only took up the pole about six years ago. The Workout To begin with, it was a killer workout. Two days later every muscle in my body was still sore — and it felt kind of great. For someone like myself who danced for over ten years but has been out of practice since the end of high school, Pole was actually a really fun way to combine my dancer sensibilities with some new skills. The class began with some hip, shoulder and chest isolations as well as 15 solid minutes of core exercises. After the warm-up I was already grinning from ear to ear. After we were good and warmed up, Keisha began teaching us some simple choreography. We learned how to walk in proper form around the pole, do some well-timed body rolls and even a few spins. Every move had a fantastically silly name, from the quintessential “fireman” spin to the one-leg-out “martini” spin (any move named after a cocktail sounded good to us). Since the class only consisted of Keisha, myself, Laura and one other woman, there was no need to feel self-conscious or competitive. (Besides, we were all too busy worrying about the placement of our hands and feet to even look at how the other two were performing.) The choreography was fairly low-impact but each part of it still managed to work our legs, abs and arms. As I was dancing my pants off — and I don’t mean that literally — I was having a lot of fun and even felt at times (dare I say it?) sexy. Laura and I spent the class making eye contact every few minutes, mouthing “I love this!” to each other in surprise. After we had the routine down and Keisha had kindly reassured us that we were by far not her worst beginner group, it was time to attempt the seemingly impossible … climb the pole. After a moment of panic in which I had a flashback to my disastrous attempts at climbing the rope in elementary school gym class, I followed Keisha’s instructions and voilá! — I actually got up there with ease! Both Laura and I even managed to do the slightly more complicated “champagne” spin dismount. Honestly, the only negative we could pick out about this workout was what Keisha termed “pole burn” — and it is no joke. Luckily I made it out with only minimal bruising and some very sore muscles. (Laura fared slightly worse.) Though Keisha assured us that over time your skin adjusts to the pole, this may be important to consider if you decide to do this as a bachelorette party activity — which the studio advertises on their class material. While we love this idea for a bachelorette party event, the bride-to-be might not want to sport bruised thighs in all of her honeymoon photos. The Takeaway Even with our bruises and tender muscles, we had a blast. After the class we wondered aloud where we would practice our newfound skills. “Maybe on the subway?” we quipped. Although it’s unlikely that you’ll see us spinning around an NYC subway car anytime soon (at least during peak hours), we — and our muscles — will always take pride in being able to do “the champagne.” Below are some photographs of more advanced pole dancing classes at SHOCKra Studio: If you too want to learn the art of the martini, fireman and champagne, there are a number of studios that offer Pole workout classes. We went to SHOCKra Studio in New York City’s Gramercy neighborhood. Some other big names in the Pole Dancing world include The S Factor, New York Pole Dancing and Body & Pole. A simple Google search should turn up studios in your area. Laura Stampler contributed to this blog.
Continue reading …Failed Tea Party Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell fled an interview on Piers Morgan Tonight after the host pressed her for her views on gay marriage. O’Donnell said she only wanted to talk about the policies outlined in her new book Troublemaker , and Morgan responded that the book discusses sexual ethics….
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It has been a wild night at CNN. First, Christine O’Donnell walked out on Piers Morgan in the middle of an interview. Then fellow anchor Anderson Cooper channeled his inner toddler when he giggled for about a minute over a poo-poo joke. The instigator was a RidicuList item about French actor Gerard Depardieu’s alleged public urination on the floor of a plane as it was getting ready for takeoff. Cooper… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Deadline | Hollywood Discovery Date : 18/08/2011 08:54 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …Looks like Standard & Poor’s could be in for a downgrade of its own—from the Justice Department. Federal investigators are probing possible wrongdoing at the credit ratings agency in the years leading up to the financial crisis, sources tell the New York Times . The probe, expected to lead to…
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Hackers seized and posted personal information of Bay Area Rapid Transit police online _ carrying out another website attack against a California agency that turned off some cell phone service to thwart a potential protest. (Aug. 18)
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