I continue to struggle

A favorite blogger of mine has been writing posts recently that I could have written myself during the past few weeks. It's odd because over the past four years of blogging, <a href="http://www.escapefromobesity.net/" target="_blank">Lyn </a>and I are often on the same phase of weight loss or weight gain at the same time, weighing the same weight.<br /><br />I sure don't have any solutions for our situation. I just know that losing weight is hard. Keeping the weight off is harder. <br /><br />My weight last Friday was 196. I have no idea what I weigh right now because I didn't step on the scale over the weekend or today. I just can't bear to see it. <br /><br />Life is a struggle for me lately, in all areas.<br /><br />Work - I'm on a project with a tight deadline. I had to move out of my cubicle into an area where the team can work together, along with the project manager making sure we're staying on track. I've never worked on such an intense project. A lot of it is new for me, with a huge learning curve. It means long hours and short lunches. It's a lot of pressure.<br /><br />My sister - I don't really need to say a whole lot here because I've said it all before. Being a guardian is a lot of work, and it's job that never stops. My sister had a complicated life. Now it's my complicated life.<br /><br />My marriage - continues to be hard work. I often wonder, is every marriage this much work? Is it worth it? I've been married 24 years and this isn't the first time I've had this thought.<br /><br />Then there's the diet and exercise plan that have literally been placed on the back burner of my life. Now I understand when people say they are too busy to count calories or go to the gym or track their food. I feel like I'm on the run all the time. It's a constant barrage of things that need to be done.<br /><br />I am last on my list, but really, it can't be any other way right now.<br /><br />Well, this is one depressing post, isn't it? I know lots of people have stress-filled, difficult and complicated lives. I'm just not use to it, and I'm not handling it well.<br /><br />I had big plans to take a yin yoga/meditation class last week, but I didn't have time. Seems to be my theme lately, I just don't have time.<br /><br />I'm really tired right now, so I probably shouldn't even post this tonight. I just re-read it and it sounds horrible. A real woe-is-me post, but if I wait until I'm in a happier, better frame of mind before I post, I may just never post again.<br /><br />

I continue to struggle

A favorite blogger of mine has been writing posts recently that I could have written myself during the past few weeks. It's odd because ...

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How to shorten those long web addresses using bit.ly

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;">There are many url shortening online programmes around, and I could never quite understand the need for them until I started sharing and networking! For example when using Twitter a long web address will use nearly all your 140 characters! The application I have tended to use is Bit.ly.com, so I thought I would do a quick share on how it all works. Below is a screenshot of the Bit.ly interface.   </span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpY6MwHdtphrLVgsdpnZJjUSNccBEPB402ySPycZbiiUB8nxJoVIlPTNMhJ95GaUVNfJ6Qv3bR6yPBEj8mYHNmqUrM6RaKMzKCEW1kTJTyEmDlC1i2Lyda0nx2cjKjjZ_-qVopZF6461U/s1600-h/image%25255B9%25255D.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="image" border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWskXbOSuVS5CGCs-BeRkT-tyhhR1nN6_9FEFrwBDTDDWVCFam9EdCGY7qpVGR2KuSkXRpQ34lZfzXq2xDtxG88QaUQuFFco9VhjZ3jewVtj5_jQICV2lRHlgiOYbbc6wj9BOCnB8QqUk/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="image" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Whenever I start communicating with my PLN using Twitter, the first thing I do is open <a href="https://bitly.com/">Bit.ly</a>  So let me explain how it all works. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Open <a href="https://bitly.com/">https://bitly.com/</a></span><span style="font-size: small;"> and join as a member. </span><span style="font-size: small;">You don’t have to join, but if you do you’ll find a record of everything you have shortened! </span><span style="font-size: small;">When Bit.ly starts you’ll get this empty blue box at the top. That s where you will paste your web addresses. </span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVRrE0uiz_pe6zBdb-HCvefvRCklimRYrfLpbJ15a5tq2Z04vsnTbwd6vRgn7cku7R57pI1ifkuQKijQe56pD878ZRC77tLLCIRwHBBBZX9XrW1nuXLx0vyngwLvmFut7SuJuu6OkAOJ8/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B4%25255D.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="clip_image002" border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic9JaHEIjlwJN-r0OkAsybhueWQytlO6Z4456ANE8jQvl5g-s3Sl8gcptkhtFlpVHuw5-cvleNv2raq9d7RhzXKmvrSVZkGmu3idWW11nOOeTGXkftIjRUiFDwu5IzJ8t3d2LhRigMq0M/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image002" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. Copy the web address you wish to shorten and paste the long address into the blue piece. It will immediately shorten it to a new short address. From this...</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWfegk8aIb8YuyY3VVr65eewY0km9Q62n6BodCZCWkJdApaNSmlU5e1yKa8Szzlx1WywUJnrT4OZLU-ituOGLlT2yZbHxOrOkr2OjKxoUGzNAxKQraut06wlTKMhNzeFjIcHhnL-FF4c/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B4%25255D.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="clip_image004" border="0" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiHZUDlWTRR-NY69Lnu5SnA_EGdMjJcAlwcl17jdgNYwFLaxuaFUVnqoZ3mKXZYMih4RdlfKd43loh20fWFLsVWvCDOldFrDtfgPMp1OyOlWEpP3xeaE_WVK_V6JJPLUu4jnYqNsSRvhI/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image004" width="400" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg36LQgdD7nKBt1JpqAkBTV3TfEMzY4XjPRi4L0qrqk-xhgixha6-9zwUCSw5pBbKsJvjNAvLKnJoHL9dXAlwmhKbsudxlqauvCCj18u0P5ofv-keO8yviFlG60pYiFEvx3o1AbKywhY_I/s1600-h/clip_image004%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span> <br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3. ...to this! The new shortened address happens almost immediately! All you do now is copy it and use it!</span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBV6CSPmVmkj5o8TBNr2AGx8SZCvnwEiCp_LbBwDjmqTsTn7Gm0CPkg1wGatFvAIFRvcIFwkkDq6Pv9-O6ZAAYD1QAiKorI5BtII7-rJvsNdotGVAbWYXgplNaOMoH-SpLEDeQgtDVpEg/s1600-h/clip_image006%25255B4%25255D.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="clip_image006" border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaaXlZArQcc9vsr5phjwIVKDLKpgkIWRpQrCi74lwEnBdYKsDDeSWqFtzLW6LHwvPWDCkWf6b3mJ5rWOCNq8qskFaN6Y9dSo6VlDqopws8d1fCHbnC_OM2DTla3iRtDqSkHjn2Cm1H1QQ/?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="clip_image006" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So, to summarise. Join Bit.ly and it will keep a record of your shortened addresses for you. The shortened address is easier for people to click on and it works especially well with Twitter and Facebook where you have a restricted number of characters.</span></div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> </div><div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Why not give it a go!</span> </div></div>

Tutorials Twitter Web tools How to shorten those long web addresses using bit.ly

There are many url shortening online programmes around, and I could never quite understand the need for them until I started sharing and net...

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Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction - Milford Public Schools

<strong>Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Milford Public Schools</strong></span>. This newly developed, key position will provide leadership, direction, evaluation, program development and supervision in the areas of MEDIA SERVICES and TECHNOLOGY within the district. The individual in this position will promote and advocate for the learning of their disciplines, strengthen the instructional core by assisting with alignment of teacher, student and curricular needs and lead teachers in the development of effective teaching practices. Examples of Performance Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following: Co-develop, coordinate and evaluate K-12 programs in terms of curriculum and instruction; Conduct analyses of instructional programs and materials; Assist teachers with understanding and delivery of school curriculum and support new teachers; Provide modeling, coaching and support to teachers in the use of successful, research-based instructional strategies; Chair curriculum committees, conduct departmental meetings and staff development programs; Promote articulation of curriculum between grade levels; Collaborate with classroom teachers through co-planning, co-teaching and coaching; Assist building principals with supervision and evaluation of teachers; Assist with the recruitment, hiring and placement of instructional personnel within the specified subject areas. This individual will spend approximately 75% of his/her time in the classroom and/or directly with teachers and will uphold/implement all Board of Education policies, rules, goals and objectives. This position requires an individual with a valid 092 CT Certification, 5+ years teaching experience and excellent communication skills. Preference will be given to those candidates also possessing a certification in MEDIA SERVICES or TECHNOLOGY related endorsements. This position is a 12-month position reporting to the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning and is part of the Administration union (MASA). Salary and benefits per contract. Minimum salary is $120,213 for the 2012-2013 year. **Interested applicants must apply online in order to be considered.** Visit <a href="http://www.schoolspring.com/jobs/job.cfm?jid=67187" target="_blank">www.schoolspring.com/jobs/job.cfm?jid=67187</a> for information and online application. **No phone calls please.**

Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction - Milford Public Schools

Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction - Milford Public Schools . This newly developed, key position will provide leadership, direction,...

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Library/Media Specialist - Nathan Hale-Ray High School, East Haddam

<strong>Library/Media Specialist</strong> - <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Nathan Hale-Ray High School</strong></span>. AVAILABLE: 2012-13 School Year. SALARY: Per EHEA Contract. CLOSING DATE: Open Until Filled. The East Haddam School District is seeking a 21st century high school Library/Media Specialist, preferably with experience in Video Production. This is a 1.0 FTE position. REQUIREMENTS: Completed Teacher Application, Letter of Interest, Resume, Copies of Undergraduate and Graduate Transcripts, Copy of Connecticut Certification #062, Three Current Letters of Recommendation. Interested candidates should submit the required documents to: Mrs. Joyce Medling, East Haddam Board of Education, P.O. Box 401, Moodus, CT 06469. EOE/AA.

Library/Media Specialist - Nathan Hale-Ray High School, East Haddam

Library/Media Specialist - Nathan Hale-Ray High School . AVAILABLE: 2012-13 School Year. SALARY: Per EHEA Contract. CLOSING DATE: Open Un...

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Children's LIbrarian - Town of Granby

<strong>Children's LIbrarian</strong> - The <span style="color: #48286d;"><strong>Town of Granby</strong></span> seeks a dynamic individual for the position of Children's Librarian. The successful candidate will have overall responsibility for the management and administration of the collections, programming and services for the Children's Department of the Main Library. Must demonstrate knowledge of the mission of the public library in the 21st century, have knowledge of children's literature and storytelling experience, and the ability to create community linkages. An MLS degree and 3 years of library experience in children's services or equivalent combination of education and work experience is preferred. The salary range is $54,747-$66,608, dependent upon qualifications and experience, with an excellent benefits package. Applications and position descriptions may be obtained at <a href="http://www.granby-ct.gov/" target="_blank">www.granby-ct.gov</a> or from the Office of the Town Manager, Monday-Wednesday, 8am-4pm, Thursday, 8am-6:30pm and Friday, 8am-12:30pm. Send cover letter, application and resume by 12:30pm, <span style="color: red;">March 30, 2012</span>, to Town of Granby, Town Manager's Office, 15 North Granby Road, Granby, CT 06035. For more information, contact Ms. KerryAnn Kielbasa, Director of Human Services at <a href="mailto:kkielbasa@granby-ct.gov">kkielbasa@granby-ct.gov</a> or 860.844.5351. The Town of Granby is an EOE/AA/Equal Access Employer.

Children's LIbrarian - Town of Granby

Children's LIbrarian - The Town of Granby seeks a dynamic individual for the position of Children's Librarian. The successful ca...

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Take a look at our weekly Diigo bookmarks

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every week our bookmarks from Diigo arrive on the SchoolNet blog as a draft, posted by Diigo; and I normally just leave them there. But today I thought I would start to publish them weekly.<br /></span><br /><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Podcasting </span></strong><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://podcasting-in-education.wikispaces.com/" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">podcasting-in-education – home</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: a lovely wiki full of ideas about podcasting</span></li><li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.emergingedtech.com/2009/03/checking-out-podcasting-in-education">Checking out Podcasting in Education | Emerging Education Technology</a>: A blogpost about the uses of podcasting. </span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Social Sciences</strong></span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.enigeo.org/en">enigeo</a>: Enigeo is a great way to learn countries, capitals and flags around the world in a fun way.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Twitter</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.ereleases.com/prfuel/whats-a-tweetchat-doing-it">What’s a “TweetChat” and Why Should You Be Doing It?:</a> Tweetchats are a very popular development in Twitter</span></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/03/is-twitter-the-driving-force-behind-upcoming-educational-change">Is Twitter the Driving Force Behind Upcoming Educational Change? | Online Universities</a>: The power of Twitter</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Virtual tours</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/interactive-tour">White House Interactive Tour | The White House</a>: Visit the whitehouse without paying a cent</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Presentations and brochures</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.labnol.org/software/embed-web-videos-in-powerpoint/11119">Embed Web Videos in PowerPoint Presentations</a>: This is a way to show your videos straight from Powerpoint</span></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://simplebooklet.com/index-sb.php">simplebooklet.com</a>: a delightful way to make brochures online </span></li><li> <a href="http://www.emergingedtech.com/2012/01/teachers-recommendations-for-academic-uses-of-5-fun-free-presentation-tools"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teacher’s recommendations for academic uses of 5 fun free presentation tools | Emerging Education Technology</span></a></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Videos</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDEducation">TED Education's Channel – YouTube</a>: This is useful for educators – everything in one place</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Web 2.0 technologies</span></strong> </span><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> <a href="http://21stcenturylearningwithedmodo.wikispaces.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">21stcenturylearningwithedmodo - home</span></a></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/09/10-internet-technologies-educators-should-be-informed-about-2011-update">10 Internet Technologies Educators Should Be Informed About – 2011 Update | Emerging Education Technology</a> </span></li><li><a href="http://www.atrixware.com/blog/wp/4-useful-free-e-learning-tools-to-try-this-year" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Atrixware E-Learning Solutions » Blog Archive » 4 Useful Free E-Learning Tools to Try This Year</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li><li><a href="http://phslib2point0.pbworks.com/w/page/31281003/FrontPage?utm_source=Technology+Tidbits+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c3f1e6744c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PHSlib 2.0 / FrontPage</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> : </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a lovely wiki called tools2create4schools. it takes 10 Web 2.0 tools and gives tutorials on how to teach them.</span> </li></ul><div style="text-align: left;"></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Science</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/prism.php?id=20"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">History of Newton's Papers (1727-1872) | Newton Project</span></a></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Project-based learning</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://catlintucker.com/2011/12/5-student-driven-projects-that-engage-higher-level-thinking-skills/">5 Student-Driven Projects That Engage Higher-Level Thinking Skills | Catlin Tucker, Honors English Teacher</a></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Writing</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://catlintucker.com/2012/01/8-web-tools-that-make-writing-fun"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8 Web Tools That Make Writing Fun! | Catlin Tucker, Honors English Teacher</span></a></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Cell phones</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://englishvirtualcommunity.blogspot.com/2012/02/students-using-their-cellphones-to.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">English Virtual Community: Students using their cellphones to learn</span></a></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Curating the web</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&EntryId=3933"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Top 10 Sites for Curating the Web</span></a></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://e-blogschool.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-not-become-curator-with-scoopit-and.html">Why not become a curator with Scoop.it:</a> A tutorial on how to become a curator of the web using Scoop.it</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Blogs as educational tools</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://blog.simplek12.com/education/15-awesome-ways-to-use-blogs-in-your-classrooms">15 Awesome Ways To Use Blogs in Your Classrooms – SimpleK12</a></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Sites for Foundation Phase teacher</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/TaxonomySearchResults.aspx?parametrics=40002,40003,40006&event=23&mode=browse"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Early Years Foundation Stage: Communication, Language and Literacy: Games teaching resources - TES</span></a></li><li> <a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Spelling-Handbook-6039545/s_cid/regcamp_ID=2025038"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spelling Handbook - Resources - TES</span></a></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://ncara.edublogs.org/2012/03/15/leadership-communication-tools">Leadership Communication Tools | Techconnects</a> </span></li><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Really-FANTASTIC-teaching-websites-6032054/event/22">Really FANTASTIC teaching websites. - Resources – TES<span style="color: #4d4d4d;">:</span></a> These are sites for Foundation Phase teachers</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">QR Codes</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <a href="http://knolannotummigration.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/what-are-qr-codes"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>What are</strong> QR-Codes? –</span></a></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Free audio books</span></strong> </span><br /><ul><li> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://missnoor.visibli.com/share/L2fFo6">http://missnoor.visibli.com/share/L2fFo6</a>: This is a marvelous collection of free audio books</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Posted from <a href="http://www.diigo.com/">Diigo</a>. The rest of <strong>SchoolNetSA</strong> <a href="http://groups.diigo.com/group/school_net_sa">group favourite links</a> are here.</span></div>

Diigo bookmarks Take a look at our weekly Diigo bookmarks

Every week our bookmarks from Diigo arrive on the SchoolNet blog as a draft, posted by Diigo; and I normally just leave them there. But toda...

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grass cloth without the grass cloth

As you all know I've been dragging my flip flops about a paint color for our bedroom for several weeks. And I know what you are thinking - OMG girl, its paint. What's the hold up? Just pick a color already.<br /><br />Well, one of the reasons it took me so long to pick a color is that I haven't really wanted paint at all. My first choice would be grass cloth. Not only do I love it's texture and color(s)<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBw4b4ipDcWkiA9VbsNRlHNbDvBFe9aXvQIoBzdC6GHmIkcpKYQytjRGQUcWkI0iYCRXYfiJDlkjN3gdVoccGfRSgEhb31hNmfc7XXAaNvSIcHpltcDZBNQQmv9f566x31EEtnAmASTh4j/s1600/tommy-smythe-bedroom.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBw4b4ipDcWkiA9VbsNRlHNbDvBFe9aXvQIoBzdC6GHmIkcpKYQytjRGQUcWkI0iYCRXYfiJDlkjN3gdVoccGfRSgEhb31hNmfc7XXAaNvSIcHpltcDZBNQQmv9f566x31EEtnAmASTh4j/s640/tommy-smythe-bedroom.jpeg" width="530" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://www.styleathome.com/homes/interiors/interior-tommy-smythe-s-stylish-suite/a/34419/2" target="_blank">Style at Home</a> (hand over your heart for Tommy Smythe's bedroom)</td></tr></tbody></table>but I love the warmth it gives. And a bedroom, I think, deserves an extra layer of warmth. There is no room that should give you a bigger hug than your bedroom.<br /><br />My husband/wallpaper hanging partner however, was not hip to the idea. In fact, there was a lot of "no way in hell dude." (dude is a term of endearment. yes it is.)<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4J7z95vxCqOKp-jN-dPd9-40zqAc7IQW0POTuNrJdyH_z3mXYQKK5KB6pFUIRCOmdp_xTJejp7Succ8mZ-pPgvAIYn8V0ZEctWlgJugESlv3PZY2FwDmWi64kiVQ1uEuv_P8v1pggaTK/s1600/grasscloth+everywhere~.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4J7z95vxCqOKp-jN-dPd9-40zqAc7IQW0POTuNrJdyH_z3mXYQKK5KB6pFUIRCOmdp_xTJejp7Succ8mZ-pPgvAIYn8V0ZEctWlgJugESlv3PZY2FwDmWi64kiVQ1uEuv_P8v1pggaTK/s640/grasscloth+everywhere~.jpeg" width="492" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via <a href="http://www.lesueurinteriorsblog.com/" target="_blank">LeSueur Interiors</a></td></tr></tbody></table>My budget was also saying, "no way in hell dude".<br /><br />I know when to take a hint, so I took my lemons and made some lemonade. Or my grass and made some...lol. I'll stop there.<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbJKCFTNsmZ2RNgQv4vVa1XVZyp7Dn-CaQTa2rBDk1DQJWizGiwhUDVxV1f_xBdqaA5MGmC1sCiK1J_o8QcGud5MNen8pWf8igyNU-O6eaFndZ1_Vls1FVvECxfifNavYRdSKNAseuYnp/s1600/194867-8-05Thomas.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbJKCFTNsmZ2RNgQv4vVa1XVZyp7Dn-CaQTa2rBDk1DQJWizGiwhUDVxV1f_xBdqaA5MGmC1sCiK1J_o8QcGud5MNen8pWf8igyNU-O6eaFndZ1_Vls1FVvECxfifNavYRdSKNAseuYnp/s640/194867-8-05Thomas.jpeg" width="508" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">via Lonny Magazine</td></tr></tbody></table>So paint it is. I pulled as many paint chips as I could and laid them out to start narrowing them down. I was starting to go cross-eyed when I (luckily) remembered a <a href="http://blog.effortless-style.com/2011/11/baby-talk-paint-picks/" target="_blank">post Camila had written</a> about a similar situation several months back. She landed on the color Desert Tan, by Benjamin Moore. I went thru my Benjamin Moore stack and there she was - my little <a href="http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/for-your-home/color-gallery?cd=2153-50&col=CP" target="_blank">Desert Tan</a>.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9uLpHAWa8l9GDAKlzn-Tnbj34J5LuHes5udQCCi2164CyaYN90DXQxaBXyX7PAZ6n32j5D97kia-dXRr0nCk_4L1waxA7YtNbCXQRMJBP2BqO11CqR-cOdOm4hyphenhyphentdfd2yEcE1s2Rfywz/s1600/Screen-shot-2011-11-09-at-9.29.10-PM-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip9uLpHAWa8l9GDAKlzn-Tnbj34J5LuHes5udQCCi2164CyaYN90DXQxaBXyX7PAZ6n32j5D97kia-dXRr0nCk_4L1waxA7YtNbCXQRMJBP2BqO11CqR-cOdOm4hyphenhyphentdfd2yEcE1s2Rfywz/s1600/Screen-shot-2011-11-09-at-9.29.10-PM-3.png" /></a></div><br />Just the right kind of hug. A 'its great to see you old friend' kind of hug. Not a 'lingering, weird guy in a bar' hug. And I've got lots of blue, Morning Star by <a href="http://www.prattandlambert.com/" target="_blank">Pratt & Lambert</a> left over from painting the ceiling in the girls room. So I'll use the rest of that on our ceiling as well.<br /><br />Picked. Decided. Ready for action. I've already started patching the holes. I can now cross 'make progress on bedroom' off my list. What? Like you don't write evasive things on your list so you can have something to cross off?<br /><br />The girls are lucky. If they were a few years older this would be a "let's help mom paint her bedroom" spring break. How early can you start child labor? I'll try to get a first coat on in between trips to the zoo, planting gardens and general merriment.<br /><br />What do you have planned this week? Any big projects? Small projects? Fake projects that you put on the list just so you have something to cross off?

grass cloth without the grass cloth

As you all know I've been dragging my flip flops about a paint color for our bedroom for several weeks. And I know what you are thinking...

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Next Stop: Spain

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-a6ohPVE0-lYquk7l9SehlWyr-jM1ZA1aHp8vIJJx0uxnUxwMsRuaSMwWmPhFGoY6opyvyg2zxSpWfsHWxlsEe7u3X-9blWh0pLDE3IvQiBiyi9z0pX-7yXcVOG7BO8w82WC9upO-xkZM/s1600/4989793513_8c9e35dcbe_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-a6ohPVE0-lYquk7l9SehlWyr-jM1ZA1aHp8vIJJx0uxnUxwMsRuaSMwWmPhFGoY6opyvyg2zxSpWfsHWxlsEe7u3X-9blWh0pLDE3IvQiBiyi9z0pX-7yXcVOG7BO8w82WC9upO-xkZM/s400/4989793513_8c9e35dcbe_z.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPAIN'S ECONOMY IS LARGER AND MORE INTEGRATED WITH THE REST OF EUROPE THAN GREECE'S ECONOMY AND THUS CAUSES GREATER CONCERN FOR THE EU </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Via Stratfor Global Intelligence </span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPAIN'S economic and political situation is fragile. The country faces continued economic downturn, high deficits, rising debt and increasing social tensions. Consequently, the newly elected government of SPANISH Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has seen its standing diminish since it took office in December 2011, a trend likely to continue as economic and social conditions worsen in 2012. The deteriorating economic and political situation in SPAIN is of great concern to the rest of EUROPE. SPAIN'S economy is larger and more integrated with the rest of EUROPE than GREECE'S economy, meaning trouble in SPAIN more readily causes trouble elsewhere on the Continent.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPANISH ECONOMY WILL CONTRACT 1.7 PERCENT THIS YEAR</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Forecasts indicate that the SPANISH economy will contract 1.7 percent in 2012 after growing 0.7 percent during 2011. MADRID'S public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is relatively low compared to its fellow EUROPEAN economies at risk -- GREECE, IRELAND, ITALY and PORTUGAL -- but has skyrocketed since the beginning of the crisis, currently standing at 66 percent, up from 40 percent before the crisis of 2008. The real problem for Spain is private sector debt, which is equivalent to 227 percent of GDP. Of that, household debt is equivalent to 82 percent of GDP while corporate debt is equivalent to 145 percent of GDP. Having most of its debt in the private sector places SPAIN in a different category from ITALY or GREECE, where public debt is the major issue.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In normal times, private debt is a necessary instrument of growth for an economy. Steadily decreasing credit ratings and increasing bond yields, however, have led to damagingly low credit availability. Lending volumes have remained at the recessionary low of 2009 for corporations and households, marring domestic consumption and overall economic growth.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">With the bursting of the SPANISH real estate bubble, households saw their net wealth deteriorate. This made borrowing more difficult, leading to even lower consumption as households tried to repay their debt but could not take on new loans. SPAIN currently has the lowest ratio of household savings in relation to government and corporate debt, nearly half that of second-place Italy.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span><b style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">AUSTERITY MEASURES AND HARSH BUDGET BALANCING REQUIRED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION WILL DEEPEN THE CREDIT CRUNCH AND LIMITING GROWTH.</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: yellow; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Austerity measures and harsh budget balancing required by the EUROPEAN UNION do little to address private debt problems and could prove less effective as private lending is further restricted, deepening the recession. This partially explains Rajoy's refusal to abide by the EU budget deficit goals, which are perceived in SPAIN as deepening the credit crunch and limiting growth.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While the situation in Spain has not reached the levels of Ireland, there is no question that the Spanish banking sector is faltering. The global financial downturn and the bursting of the construction sector boom exposed gaping deficits in the complex and bloated SPANISH banking system. Today, just four banks in SPAIN (SANTANDER, BBVA, CAIXABANK AND BASQUE COUNTRY SAVINGS BANK KUTX) can operate independently and cover capital shortages with their own revenue. All others steadily are transferring private debt to SPAIN'S central bank (or to the EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK) through various government help packages. Only 10 lenders are slated to remain in the SPANISH market in 2012, down from 40 before the crisis, following continued emergency mergers and consolidation efforts.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPAIN'S BIGGEST BANKS SURVIVED THE CRISIS BECAUSE PROFITS IN LATIN AMERICA HAVE OFFSET POOR PERFORMANCE IN SPAIN. </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">To some extent, SPAIN'S biggest banks, SANTANDER and BBVA, have survived the crisis because profits in LATIN AMERICA have offset their poor performance in SPAIN. Half of SANTANDER'S profits come from its LATIN AMERICAN operations, compared to one-third for BBVA. By contrast, smaller regional saving banks, known as "cajas," are in a very precarious financial situation. This largely stems from their high nonperforming loan ratio and from local governments' tendency to use them as financing mechanisms.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPAIN'S banks have undergone a period of widespread upheaval since the beginning of the crisis, as a binge of lending into an overheated real estate market left many nonperforming loans and repossessed property and land considered by many analysts to be worth far less than the purchase price. According to the Bank of SPAIN, construction companies' debt to banks stands at about 300 billion EUROS ($390 billion).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to a December 2011 report by the EUROPEAN BANKING AUTHORITY, SPANISH banks will need 26.17 billion EUROS in recapitalization before July 2012, the deadline established by the banking authority.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In February 2011, Madrid ushered in a new round of banking sector reforms, including an additional 50 billion EUROS in provisions against soured property loans. As a result, a fresh wave of consolidation is expected now that banks have received an incentive to swallow up smaller rivals. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Meanwhile, according to the WORLD BANK, SPANISH exports account for 26 percent of SPANISH GDP. SPAIN'S main export destinations are FRANCE, GERMANY and PORTUGAL. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Spain's exports grew 9.9 percent in 2011. Until 2009, SPAIN was the world's No. 2 importer of capital, second only to the UNITED STATES.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: yellow;">UNEMPLOYMENT IS GROWING QUICKLY, AND SOCIAL UNREST WITH IT</span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Rajoy's Popular Party (PP) swept November 2011 regional elections, winning 186 parliamentary seats in the 350-seat Congress of Deputies in the biggest win for the center-right party since the democratic transition. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) suffered the worst defeat in the party's history, losing 59 seats.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The size of the PP parliamentary majority allows the government to pass laws without opposition cooperation. Meanwhile, the PSOE remains in disarray well after former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called for early elections and former Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba led the party to a historic defeat.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But the new government's political capital is eroding rapidly, both domestically and internationally. Three main factors are weakening Rajoy.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">First, unemployment is growing quickly, and social unrest with it. Between 2008 and 2011, the SPANISH economic crisis did not spark major protests or violence. This changed rapidly in early 2012, leading to expectations of a traumatic year ahead. Several factors explain this. For one thing, SPAIN is suffering the consequences of a lingering crisis with no foreseeable solution. Moreover, recent deficit data shows that PSOE did not apply as much austerity as expected. The possibility of "real" austerity has frightened many. And finally, the conservative party seems less willing to talk with unions and with students.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">MADRID HAS ONLY LIMITED CONTROL OVER THE AUTONOMOUS REGIONS' BUDGETS</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Second, Madrid has only limited control over the autonomous regions' budgets. This is a major factor behind the Spanish economy's instability. The regions account for debt equivalent to 12 percent of Spanish GDP. Regional governments are increasingly unwilling to heed Madrid and tighten their finances. <b>The central government has recently presented a law that would give Madrid oversight of the autonomous regions' budgets and the power to penalize those that miss budget targets.</b> <span style="color: yellow;">(</span><i style="color: #666666;">A move that bears the footprint of the IMF and has not proven successful, when applied</i><span style="color: yellow;">) </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This back-and-forth between the central government and the region poses an existential question for post-FRANCO SPAIN, where the balance between the central government and the regions is delicate. If Madrid hopes to meet budget balancing goals, it increasingly will have to amend the budgetary autonomy policy toward the autonomous regions in place since the return of the democracy in the early 1980s.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Third, Rajoy's relationship with Brussels has deteriorated in recent weeks. In mid-February, Madrid announced that its budget deficit in 2011 had been higher than originally announced. Rajoy blamed the socialist government for this situation and asked for softer 2012 deficit goals, but the European Union at first refused. Brussels suspects Rajoy of manipulating economic numbers for domestic political reasons. While SPAIN and the EUROPEAN UNION finally reached an agreement in March to soften SPAIN'S 2012 budget deficit goal, this situation forced Brussels to choose between punishing a weak economy or losing political credibility.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="color: yellow;">SOCIAL SITUATION IN SPAIN IS DETERIORATING RAPIDLY</span></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The social situation in Spain is deteriorating rapidly. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe at 23 percent. The situation is particularly difficult for young people -- 45 percent of those under 25 are unemployed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While protests in 2011 were mostly peaceful, in early 2012 demonstrations began to become violent. In February, police clashed numerous times with students protesting against cuts in education. According to SPANISH police, radical elements among the protesters caused the violence. The uptick in unrest is likely to continue, as demonstrators come to feel that peaceful measures have failed and as the deepening recession swells the ranks of the youthful unemployed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So far, unions mostly have been passive and disengaged from protests, but this is expected to change. SPAIN'S biggest trade unions are the Comisiones Obreras and the Union General de Trabajadores. Though technically independent, these unions traditionally have been close to the PSOE. Consequently, they were ill disposed toward the PP government from the outset. The unions have now announced a general strike for March 29 in response to the government's pushing through of labor reform.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), <b>half a million people leave Spain each year because of the lack of job prospects</b>. Around 10 percent of people leaving are Spanish. According to official statistics, this mass emigration began in 2008. As a result, 2011 was the first year in more than a decade that emigration outpaced immigration. Before the crisis, SPAIN tried to reverse its demographic problem by incorporating foreigners, preferably LATIN AMERICANS. A decade later, those immigrants are returning to their home countries due to the crisis.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">DEMOGRAPHIC REVERSAL COULD PLACE AN ADDITIONAL STRAIN ON THE ALREADY STRAINED PUBLIC FINANCES AS SPAIN'S POPULATION CONTINUES TO AGE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This demographic reversal could place an additional strain on the already strained public finances as SPAIN'S population continues to age. According to the INE, the SPANISH population will fall to 45.6 million by 2021 from 46.3 million in 2010. Births will decrease by 18.1 percent and deaths will increase by 9.7 percent compared to 2010. There will also be a negative net migration beginning in 2011, since the 450,000 new immigrants will be offset by the departure of 580,850 people.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">A problem, most European countries are facing but which politicians fear to tackle. See: <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/looming-generation-conflict-old-versus.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/looming-generation-conflict-old-versus.html</a>and <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/good-by-old-continent-part-2.html">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/07/good-by-old-continent-part-2.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">COMPARISON WITH GREECE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">THE SIZE OF THE SPANISH ECONOMY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ITS FINANCIAL SECTOR FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION GIVE MADRID MORE LEVERAGE THAN ATHENS.</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SPAIN is the EUROPEAN economy at risk that most resembles GREECE in terms of potential social unrest. While SPAIN has not reached GREECE'S levels of violence and unrest, the social situation is deteriorating at a fast pace. The recent student protests suppressed by police show growing resentment that young people feel about the lack of jobs and cuts in education. The youth unemployment rate is not sustainable in the long term and is highly likely to generate more violence in 2012.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The political situation, however, seems more stable in SPAIN than in GREECE. The SPANISH had the opportunity to vote in November 2011, and the current conservative government has a comfortable majority. Ongoing spending cuts will continue to weaken the government in the coming months, however.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On the international front, EU-SPANISH relations have become strained. The size of the SPANISH economy and the importance of its financial sector for the EUROPEAN UNION give Madrid more leverage than Athens. Even if Brussels doubts the credibility of the Rajoy government, it is highly unlikely to punish Spain for its excessive deficit because this could damage the union even further.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">LOOKING AHEAD</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">2012 will be a crucial year for the SPANISH government to show if it has real control of the country. Although PP controls the parliament, it is losing control elsewhere as unions, students and even regional governments increasingly defy Madrid.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Unemployment, social unrest and tension with the regions swiftly have eroded the young government's standing. Combined with Madrid's need to implement more spending cuts in the short term, this means social and political tensions will grow in the coming months. While Rajoy is likely to stay in power, his authority increasingly will be challenged in the following months.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It is unlikely SPAIN'S deficit problem will be solved in the short term. The government is not likely to even meet the softened deficit goal agreed with the EUROPEAN UNION this year. Surging borrowing costs and a regression into recession threaten serious damage to SPAIN'S debt dynamics, pushing public debt up even further.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The deteriorating economic outlook has led the Bank of Spain to forecast a 1.5 percent GDP contraction in 2012 and a recovery of just 0.2 percent in 2013. An added wave of mergers in the Spanish financial sector is likely to result in a restriction of credit available from Spanish banks.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div>

Next Stop: Spain

SPAIN'S ECONOMY IS LARGER AND MORE INTEGRATED WITH THE REST OF EUROPE THAN GREECE'S ECONOMY AND THUS CAUSES GREATER CONCERN FOR THE ...

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Mad Men Style

<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>by guest contributor Christian Esquevin</i></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigc7TFEvUKdxfEp4ssieooaBSy4L-cGVk2o2DCokEZvxsDvywGrzRjpupU5QbUGAE4Iuizxy3Zuz1ZMTgHJ6uthAyj10JqeuE0SCrgLOYpRlokChmyHtd5Qwy6_TZvLHBo-Jvk-cNipGBW/s1600/Christian+falling+man.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigc7TFEvUKdxfEp4ssieooaBSy4L-cGVk2o2DCokEZvxsDvywGrzRjpupU5QbUGAE4Iuizxy3Zuz1ZMTgHJ6uthAyj10JqeuE0SCrgLOYpRlokChmyHtd5Qwy6_TZvLHBo-Jvk-cNipGBW/s1600/Christian+falling+man.png" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The thing that makes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men </i>such a perfect television series is its “all-of-a-piece” quality. It has all of its elements operating at a high level and fully integrated into a drama geared towards adults. This goes well beyond high production values, or even great writing – it is a seamless creation mixing fascinating characters, interesting plots, evocative sets and costumes, a down-to earth reality needing no gratuitous violence. It is a perfectly pegged recreation of the Zeitgeist - not just of the world of advertising - but of urban America at the turn of the 1960s. Despite its very real display of sexism in society and in the workplace, including the very negative consequences of that mindset, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men </i>is mainly the story of one man and his perilous perch high atop the hierarchy of a corporate ad agency. The series title is a play on “ad men” and Madison Avenue, where the big ad agencies were located.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /><a name='more'></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-re1Rco3m_9wtgdqfrFqQoRG6bQ6JEnCweFAy0e3QWuj-p5hyIT2x8HPVGF9yEwXvHBkBuIUhxLZfX1BflIu-g5AkSE0rA0-97b-w5L8rsYDiJaPtSNNr_z0WabrHN0KBPiDhJK_Qipa/s1600/Christian+group+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA-re1Rco3m_9wtgdqfrFqQoRG6bQ6JEnCweFAy0e3QWuj-p5hyIT2x8HPVGF9yEwXvHBkBuIUhxLZfX1BflIu-g5AkSE0rA0-97b-w5L8rsYDiJaPtSNNr_z0WabrHN0KBPiDhJK_Qipa/s1600/Christian+group+shot.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The opening title graphic and much of the show’s advertising uses the art and theme of a man falling from of a skyscraper. The new 5^th season advertising art of the falling man in New York was printed on reflective plastic so it would show the surrounding skyscrapers as backdrop – causing a bit of a controversy by recalling bad memories of scenes from the Twin Towers. Regardless, it is no accident that the show’s creator Matthew Weiner was influenced by the aesthetics of Alfred Hitchcock. The character Don Draper is very much living a dilemma like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vertigo’s </i>Scottie Ferguson, not because of a fear of heights like Jimmy Stewart, but rather of crumbling along with his stolen identity and the edifice he has constructed of his life. “Who is Don Draper” a reporter asked him in Season 4. Very few people know, and those characters have been mostly dying off, including the real Don Draper himself. In a rare display of self-analysis, Don took up a diary in a 4^th season episode titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Summer Man</i>: “When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. If you listen, he'll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he'll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he'll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn't perfect. We're flawed, because we want so much more. We're ruined, because we get these things, and wish for what we had.”</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkP0_qtOV3nDhQ9fSTzfprLoTR9TCFbELj2iRm-mluav8Dqll2RbsjA-2luTuj4Mfztvi4ZDt4Riwb1EsWgt2YMy1No2w6UxwIjqhRfjJqsFkwI21NijAAECCIVOgl3DLp8LsNuyyuO0T/s1600/Christian+group+at+bar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIkP0_qtOV3nDhQ9fSTzfprLoTR9TCFbELj2iRm-mluav8Dqll2RbsjA-2luTuj4Mfztvi4ZDt4Riwb1EsWgt2YMy1No2w6UxwIjqhRfjJqsFkwI21NijAAECCIVOgl3DLp8LsNuyyuO0T/s1600/Christian+group+at+bar.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men</i> is full of metaphors that enhance the theme of the show and add layers of meaning, but we are still trapped like voyeurs watching unfold a real life drama. One of those subtle metaphors is that Don seems to be the only person that carries keys. He can use them boldly when entering his domain, clumsily when he’s drunk, or nervously shaking them in his apartment door lock when he thinks the FBI is tailing him. At his low point, he forgets them completely and relies on his secretary to deliver them to his apartment, where she finds him asleep in the hallway. The show is all-of-a-piece because, in a story about how advertising creates images for products, the show creates images for the characters in the plot, and the characters are involved in creating their own images of themselves. As Don Draper says, “You are the product.” </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ZMrZXzHlYbgDcKuc50GbLJE94rS6ck2GgqsUAnbEBofpfBdbb1h8fXuOJtlBMFS3XLwb7sFxKCwjRve3Rrs1qb8BqwSkwvZgqX6oUzRpqtWCKtqCrZNBu2wK-jpiY07myEigABuUy5Vo/s1600/Christian+don+at+desk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ZMrZXzHlYbgDcKuc50GbLJE94rS6ck2GgqsUAnbEBofpfBdbb1h8fXuOJtlBMFS3XLwb7sFxKCwjRve3Rrs1qb8BqwSkwvZgqX6oUzRpqtWCKtqCrZNBu2wK-jpiY07myEigABuUy5Vo/s1600/Christian+don+at+desk.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Man with the voice - Jon Hamm as Don Draper</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The show’s hallmark is its obsessive attention to visual detail. This provides the audience with a rich experience through the recreation of the early 1960s: the clothes people wore; the interior architecture of their offices and homes; and the sparkle of those material things that they crave. That re-creation of the era was taken so far by Matthew Weiner that he cast actors based on whether they had that late 1950s-early 1960s look. For example, Jom Hamm as Don Draper could not be a muscled actor, a rare trait in the early 1960s. Similarly, <span style="color: black;">Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris needed to have a full-figured, hour-glass silhouette (though helped by padding). But Jon Hamm as Don Draper was the perfect choice, not only does he have the looks that slays the ladies, but he has the voice – that smooth deep soothing voice that could sell snowballs in Alaska.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCokdLHej4czBBdA2w-lltFbvtZRERxILNcWtyNxwI-c8dDFzP-74f4n7QhLc2qxDOl29yOXscptU696aCiEcotr_gsBxBACNMi9zpr2WVjtIoyhD0Jy-5dz5SYoV-KgFBzbYHDQD2i3la/s1600/Christian+sec+pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCokdLHej4czBBdA2w-lltFbvtZRERxILNcWtyNxwI-c8dDFzP-74f4n7QhLc2qxDOl29yOXscptU696aCiEcotr_gsBxBACNMi9zpr2WVjtIoyhD0Jy-5dz5SYoV-KgFBzbYHDQD2i3la/s1600/Christian+sec+pool.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The secretarial pool at Sterling Cooper</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">The set design recreates the world of the early 1960s when America had the world by its tail. The interior office architecture was planned not just for efficiency, but to show the benefits of modernity and the use of the same kinds of products the ad agency helps sell. The buildings were in the “International Style’ of modern architecture. The offices had wood paneling and Danish influenced furniture. The chairs and couches were streamlined and low to the ground. Windows had Venetian blinds with curtains, executive desks had pen sets, and whisky was in the drawer. The secretarial pool was in an open layout, and a plethora of IBM Selectric typewriters denoted a modern business. Abstract art hung on the walls. The firm may have re-organized in lesser quarters later in the series, but the mid-century style remained the same. Roger Sterling’s new office was designed by a “decorator” in various monochromatic shades of gray, leading him to quip that with his gray suits and gray hair he just disappeared in his surroundings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7alppTnB9plUZhyphenhyphenHnxEbK4B9Bc_SZymm2EAXC1LaZo0trEsKP3vq5BVrEObdSAp0E46cISVEOS6K3k-M3TeQ_78A1nzOtbESJxFdrEmAyuJHl0TqAziveNxslfcxBmZ0qAtbdJBCzYxy/s1600/Christian+dons+office.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo7alppTnB9plUZhyphenhyphenHnxEbK4B9Bc_SZymm2EAXC1LaZo0trEsKP3vq5BVrEObdSAp0E46cISVEOS6K3k-M3TeQ_78A1nzOtbESJxFdrEmAyuJHl0TqAziveNxslfcxBmZ0qAtbdJBCzYxy/s1600/Christian+dons+office.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don's first office at Sterling Cooper: manly but modern</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">As for the ladies of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men, </i>they provide the sizzle that makes the show such fun to watch.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Although it’s also a guilty pleasure to see how much bad behavior they think they can get away with, or how long it is before one of them screws up. The show is anchored by January Jones as Betty Draper (later Betty Francis), shown below, Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris, and Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson. Betty is always the classy, if somewhat immature, woman – and a not very good mother. Her wardrobe is always stylish; she’s a Grace Kelly in the suburbs. She wears bouffant skirts in single piece dresses, all in cheerful colors and floral prints. She is always, “put together” wearing jewelry, matching purses and shoes (as was de rigueur in the day), gloves, and red lipstick. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4guL_KkHnaaAilLFndmmKe6HWLIzXHgCaQKpXrG3ITgAngd9_BWVJyuNh4cIkHlNhtqEFB75v3FxpXIRzfQnisNX7MPvoFxCJR6SA_purwYleG_3jVzuqZpnzSJmu9U83XdSpqtrFywYL/s1600/Christian+Betty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4guL_KkHnaaAilLFndmmKe6HWLIzXHgCaQKpXrG3ITgAngd9_BWVJyuNh4cIkHlNhtqEFB75v3FxpXIRzfQnisNX7MPvoFxCJR6SA_purwYleG_3jVzuqZpnzSJmu9U83XdSpqtrFywYL/s1600/Christian+Betty.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January Jones as Betty Draper </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Joan Harris is the red-headed and curvaceous bombshell. She wears tightly-fitted dresses in bright jewel colors. Her costumes are made with fitted foundation undergarments, which was how they were made for the Hollywood movies at the time, though ladies of the day achieved the same effect with girdle/bra combinations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTDZb3G4sp5aGSBzVvR0E5FlUh5qPHGHaulpgV01vC8Gem0G2K51jXnqD4gb2ju0LrIAmLFybBYLcVt7b7e6kNa18292OQIa6qDeDMzmQaojarmN044zhCqOYiXUwwxAbJTfdnqXLARBC/s1600/Christian+Joan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMTDZb3G4sp5aGSBzVvR0E5FlUh5qPHGHaulpgV01vC8Gem0G2K51jXnqD4gb2ju0LrIAmLFybBYLcVt7b7e6kNa18292OQIa6qDeDMzmQaojarmN044zhCqOYiXUwwxAbJTfdnqXLARBC/s1600/Christian+Joan.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBQwBNV6E8cs3uwVgusu44vfOiNXdXEstuKm23JHIf7oqy16g5Yzy7yAX96Qw3BLWeHNSMIMavpFvS-Tlkp3Q_FOwJ3go_RLQL1D9yaYMJvYGMuvww9Xw9vRnGMYJ7W8XaF1ika2cArTP/s1600/Christian+mad+men+cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLBQwBNV6E8cs3uwVgusu44vfOiNXdXEstuKm23JHIf7oqy16g5Yzy7yAX96Qw3BLWeHNSMIMavpFvS-Tlkp3Q_FOwJ3go_RLQL1D9yaYMJvYGMuvww9Xw9vRnGMYJ7W8XaF1ika2cArTP/s1600/Christian+mad+men+cast.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Mad Men </i>cast</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">During most of the series Peggy Olson’s wardrobe was still influenced by her former Catholic School uniforms.  She dresses very plainly and unattractively, and she is often dressed in plaids and stripes. As she advances in her career and matures, her clothes become more sophisticated and becoming. In the photo below she is wearing a dress seemingly inspired by vintage Metlox California ceramic dinnerware.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeRGS6RUXzwgS2lRZDd5grd6YGRDMs7RPduBiwC2Js48psF-XSc-XpykyOPBDQH69iOS09xTT5jgYzim2BYSpeKPf7dhgrF7j8UNloX3nxfVY2W17NjL2aEebfpMBM00RXMU2EYAvNNgO/s1600/Christian+Peggy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeRGS6RUXzwgS2lRZDd5grd6YGRDMs7RPduBiwC2Js48psF-XSc-XpykyOPBDQH69iOS09xTT5jgYzim2BYSpeKPf7dhgrF7j8UNloX3nxfVY2W17NjL2aEebfpMBM00RXMU2EYAvNNgO/s1600/Christian+Peggy.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Janie Bryant is the show’s excellent costume designer. She designs many of the items for the show’s large wardrobe, although vintage clothing and accessories are also used. Like other costume designers, she must design the costumes to define character. Subtle changes have marked the advancing years of the early 60s. As we make our way into the mod-influenced and youth movement fashions of the later 60s, significant changes will be shown in the women’s wardrobes. Skirts will go up, and clothes will increasingly define personality in a more forceful and even rebellious manner.    </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.7pt;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.7pt;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">As for the men, the business suit is the most prevailing costume, which is making a comeback thanks to the show. In the case of Don, it’s his armor, and he seems vulnerable during the times he dresses casually. Gray flannel suits were the preferred dress for business men of the era. For <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men, </i>Janie Bryant had to find distinguishing features for the various mad men and others. Don always wears a white dress shirt with French cuffs, with slim ties then fashionable. The suits were slim with narrow profiles Don’s accessories are the tie clip and the white pocket square worn flush. He keeps his bills neat in a money clip. Roger tends to wear three-piece suits with vests, often in light gray to complement his hair. Pete wears darker suit colors. When tough times rock the firm and Don in particular, his suits also become darker. Lane Pryce is English. He is usually dressed in a suit with an unmatched vest. To be more accurate, his suit jackets should feature side vents rather than a center vent, as was preferred in England, but we won’t quibble.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -2.7pt;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYfNY_yXDVnilGzL0A3DBpNiSqA4m92erhyphenhyphendpv0GCTG_WIwd3Wl44RBDoxdoOV1drhPldu0fi91PZkz6YPDJqX00aWnwhoQTvlxD5znPJV2oePCOQYiOITLxGKfrLL0UYnBFlvCpHEu1W/s1600/Christian+Roger+and+Don.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqYfNY_yXDVnilGzL0A3DBpNiSqA4m92erhyphenhyphendpv0GCTG_WIwd3Wl44RBDoxdoOV1drhPldu0fi91PZkz6YPDJqX00aWnwhoQTvlxD5znPJV2oePCOQYiOITLxGKfrLL0UYnBFlvCpHEu1W/s1600/Christian+Roger+and+Don.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Slattery as Roger Sterling and Jon Hamm as Don Draper</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">The men’s fashions in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men </i>have also influenced current trends. As mentioned, the suit is back. Skinny pants have been common for a number of years, but the skinny ties and tie clip are one influence of the show. It is hoped that that the current style of wearing dress pants 3 or 4 inches too long will disappear as a result, and maybe even the single jacket button fastened high above the waist.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHN5kBivBIfoohk66ojXzJjfC-kV1s37PJfp7V2rZquY-nQnYtA5XN-q_QL643LRpq4Ou9EBKN1xY5_Oqfz6wz126S8sljj08xNFA_SjYTnYYDIbgQObQZCjbBrXCz21PPA65z51YujHJI/s1600/Christian+Betty+and+Don.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHN5kBivBIfoohk66ojXzJjfC-kV1s37PJfp7V2rZquY-nQnYtA5XN-q_QL643LRpq4Ou9EBKN1xY5_Oqfz6wz126S8sljj08xNFA_SjYTnYYDIbgQObQZCjbBrXCz21PPA65z51YujHJI/s1600/Christian+Betty+and+Don.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">January Jones and Jon Hamm as Betty and Don </td></tr></tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Don and Betty are now divorced, and at the end of last season Don fell in love with his new secretary Megan and they became engaged. It remains to be seen in the new season what their fates will be. Jessica Pare plays Megan. She’s beautiful and ambitious, but also caring and nurturing. She’s perfect for Don – perhaps too perfect. She doesn’t know much about him, but who does? Whatever happens to the couple, we will be smack in the middle of the turbulent years of the 60s. Everyone is sure to get buffeted. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Another reason the show is all-of–piece is the embedded themes and currents that influenced the era of the early 60s. These include such iconic books as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sex and the Single Girl </i>by Helen Gurley Brown from 1962, <span style="color: black;">David Ogilvy’s 1963 tell-all, <i>Confessions of an Advertising Man</i>, and the earlier </span><i>The Hidden Persuaders</i>, written by Vance Packard and first published in 1957. The latter explained the new techniques of using psychological research and subliminal messages in advertising. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mad Men </i>is also amazing because it can deliver nostalgia while simultaneously setting the show during the most tumultuous period in modern American history, when the influence of the past was questioned and the present was crumbling. Now that’s what makes a great show. We’ll see if Don’s motto of “live in the present,” while escaping from his past and adjusting to his surroundings like a chameleon will serve him well.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~</div><div style="text-align: left;">Christian Esquevin's blog is <a href="http://www.silverscreenmodiste.com/"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Silver Screen Modiste</span></a> and he's the author of <i>Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label</i>. </div></div></div>

Christian Esquevin Mad Men Mad Men Style

by guest contributor Christian Esquevin The thing that makes Mad Men such a perfect television series is its “all-of-a-piece” quality. It ha...

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A CURE FOR GREECE?

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7H_3UpQfKNKidpDfpIFQhbRxpraQKsoLUomm_huLG9qH8AQiHIG2ncgCJTUI-UUaBeld1IQRXl2Ps-n5scHO7a9cc9gWlfynoXEcf45UWyjmsrVeGn1NQZbjG_TRyGWyndSWmxqQ-uVKV/s1600/images+%282%29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7H_3UpQfKNKidpDfpIFQhbRxpraQKsoLUomm_huLG9qH8AQiHIG2ncgCJTUI-UUaBeld1IQRXl2Ps-n5scHO7a9cc9gWlfynoXEcf45UWyjmsrVeGn1NQZbjG_TRyGWyndSWmxqQ-uVKV/s320/images+%282%29.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: yellow; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: blue; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GREECE: DEFAULT, DEMOCRACY, EXIT FROM THE EURO</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: yellow; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The only solution for GREECE remains a debtor-led default and exit from the euro-zone under the leadership of a democratic elected political movement. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">When EUROPE’S finance ministers agreed last month to the second GREEK bailout of 130 billion EUROS, they knew very well what to expect. They prolonged the country’s creditor-led default by re-capitalising the banks, while pushing for PSI (private sector involvement) in GREECE’S debt restructuring. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GREECE’S PROFOUND FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL DEPENDENCY ON BERLIN AND THE ECB</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The deal confirmed GREECE’S profound financial and political dependency on BERLIN and the ECB, which ensures that even if the current discredited cabinet, or a similar successor, achieves a primary budget surplus, it may not be able to declare bankruptcy because the new bonds will be subject to <b>English jurisdiction</b>. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">HOW THE ECB AND BONDHOLDERS SOCIALIZED THEIR DEBT </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #444444; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9nIIwn4u3Eal54_MQmc0oDDS6R-fIKwr7OvO5QYROVN15AJ1W7YhY0EYYCXz19VXAUdXx4F15CEre4FFbZH1m4bH8u4xPipu0cy2CJ9Sjf4fn8HmurnA-65yrgq1JoS2f6DSWTdU-cSt/s1600/pigs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji9nIIwn4u3Eal54_MQmc0oDDS6R-fIKwr7OvO5QYROVN15AJ1W7YhY0EYYCXz19VXAUdXx4F15CEre4FFbZH1m4bH8u4xPipu0cy2CJ9Sjf4fn8HmurnA-65yrgq1JoS2f6DSWTdU-cSt/s400/pigs.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The deal with the PSI was only procured by the 130 billion EUROS promised by the official sector – basically the so-called ‘troika’: the EU, the ECB and the IMF. Some 30 billion EUROS went directly into the pockets of the bondholders as a ‘sweetener’ to convert their old paper into new bonds, swapping them with new GREEK futures and paper, while generating some further action from CDS (credit default swaps – insurance taken out by the bondholders for protection against default). The rest of the money, linked to mathematical estimates and prognoses of how much debt the GREEK economy can sustain by 2020 without collapsing, went directly into re-capitalising banks. Precisely through this re-capitalisation, the famous ‘haircut’ the PSI took is transferred onto the official lenders/sector. In this way, the debt held by the PSI has been socialised almost in its entirety. It will be the GREEK and the EUROPEAN taxpayer paying for it. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As a result of this boost to the banks, the above estimates and prognoses bring the debt/GDP ratio of GREECE to 120% by 2020. Note that this may still be unsustainable. Note also, that there has been no suggestion that a single penny in all this paper will go into investment, boosting real economic growth. In other words, all these efforts are pointless exercises designed to benefit the bond-dealers. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TOTAL LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Have growth prospects for GREECE improved? At present GREECE’S GDP is undergoing a contraction of more than 6% and, due to its deteriorating competitiveness, this contraction is likely to continue. Youth unemployment has surpassed 50% and overall official unemployment is now well over 20%. The country, moreover, borrows at 4.5%-6%, something that renders rather surreal the aforementioned estimate of a 120% debt/GDP ratio by 2020. The disintegration of the productive base of the country over the last two decades due to the competition it faced from the countries of the EUROPEAN core and, above all, GERMANY, make any futurologist betting on a substantial GREEK recovery within the euro-zone sound ridiculous.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Some argue that the austerity measures that have led one-third of GREECE’S society into pauperization may yet bring forth some fruits for the political class currently in power. By the end of the next budgetary year, the discredited party system of the post-1974 era may be in a position to enjoy a primary surplus, thus increasing its degree of independence vis-à-vis the ‘troika’. At that point, the argument goes, GREECE could declare a partial default on its debt obligations, refusing to pay part of its debt. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">This might have been a valid argument if the current GREEK negotiators had either wanted or known how to make capital out of their problem. But they did not. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">EUROPEAN ‘COMMISSION OF EXPERTS’ WILL BE PERMANENTLY SETTLED IN ATHENS OVERSEEING GREEK FINANCES AND BUDGETARY DISCIPLINE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The degree of economic and, even more so, political dependency of the GREEK vassal state on external imperial agencies and structures runs so deep that the current political oligarchy negotiating the second bailout failed to achieve even this prospect of budgetary independence. A <b>EUROPEAN ‘commission of experts’ will be permanently settled in ATHENS overseeing GREEK finances and budgetary discipline</b>. More to the point, the law governing the <b>new bonds issued will not be subject to GREEK law but to ENGLISH law</b>. This means, for instance, that the GREEK parliament can neither review the legal terms of the deal nor sue in an ENGLISH court, as this is both complicated and expensive. More to the point, and this is the crux of the matter, at least in theory it has been made impossible for GREECE, under some future hypothetical radical democratic government, to leave the euro-zone, refusing to pay its debt obligations, or even re-denominating its debt into new drachma. No legislation could be passed by them, because this deal makes the role of the GREEK parliament, that is, the role of formal liberal democracy in one country, redundant. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">MORE THAN 3.5 MILLION GREEK PEOPLE NOW LIVE AT RISK OF POVERTY OR SOCIAL EXCLUSION</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #444444; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7flIV_jfvC0Br2pAaFcbszYNwT5L6yJY4S4pq20i8vFD5D31Ef9436P-BB7y5Cie3Uh9TVy1Jfe3CCV-rCeVHmvSShyphenhyphenz1PyoDWFTeE9WQa0ZQS3mYiOFGIdIaDpmTAYkuFVkFrQ-H8SH8/s1600/ancient-greek-money-greek-coinage-3-300x297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7flIV_jfvC0Br2pAaFcbszYNwT5L6yJY4S4pq20i8vFD5D31Ef9436P-BB7y5Cie3Uh9TVy1Jfe3CCV-rCeVHmvSShyphenhyphenz1PyoDWFTeE9WQa0ZQS3mYiOFGIdIaDpmTAYkuFVkFrQ-H8SH8/s320/ancient-greek-money-greek-coinage-3-300x297.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Those discredited parties and leaders currently in power in GREECE herald the events of the last month or so as a triumph. Nothing can be more misleading. Once the deal with the PSI was close to completion on Friday evening, 9 March 2012, the euro slipped 1.3% against the dollar, whereas BRITISH sterling gained 0.4% against the euro. This is an indicator ‘from above’, so to speak. </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The indicators ‘from below’ are, nevertheless, those that count most. More than 3.5 million GREEK people now live at risk of poverty or social exclusion (data from Eurostat). There are hundreds of soup kitchens operating across the country; barter is widespread; and street clinics are visible in ATHENS and other urban centres, as hospitals cannot cope with emergencies. Mass lay-offs and wage and pension cuts continue and will continue with no end in sight as long as growth is elusive. If you visit the country you feel that ‘nothing is moving’. Suicide rates have increased dramatically. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">There is a sharp devaluation of assets (property, land, etc.), yet price inflation remains as high as 3%. GREECE is still an expensive country for the average tourist. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Having said this, the truth of the matter is quite the opposite of what has been envisaged by the bankers and their political representatives in GREECE and EUROPE: by 2020 the private bondholder and the banks will be richer, whereas the GREEK and, for that matter, the average EUROPEAN taxpayer will be poorer. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div>

A CURE FOR GREECE?

  GREECE: DEFAULT, DEMOCRACY, EXIT FROM THE EURO The only solution for GREECE remains a debtor-led default and exit from the euro-zone under...

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HOSTILE TAKEOVER

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #45818e; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">LOOMING ENERGY TSUNAMI IN EURASIA?</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTmR4TD_RJFcauAJwpjNFBXyLcr2yJ204T6QJXCqUVqMFvun-YKMk0QxeE66iC2rz3FjAAOyomctAy2uVkgB3E9Tzw38C5zQg4ky-o9KLJGA7x4z3eFD5UM2KJHg2uQ4916NUUfEPep7Ls/s1600/RUSSIA+EXPORT+BLEND+CRUDE+OIL_0_detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTmR4TD_RJFcauAJwpjNFBXyLcr2yJ204T6QJXCqUVqMFvun-YKMk0QxeE66iC2rz3FjAAOyomctAy2uVkgB3E9Tzw38C5zQg4ky-o9KLJGA7x4z3eFD5UM2KJHg2uQ4916NUUfEPep7Ls/s320/RUSSIA+EXPORT+BLEND+CRUDE+OIL_0_detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #45818e; line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">RECENT AEGEAN OIL AND GAS FINDINGS COULD BLOT OUT GREECE’S ENTIRE DEPT </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Since the beginning of the financial crisis in GREECE the country has faced some rather unorthodox political developments. One of them, shaking the “cradle of democracy” rather fiercely when a technocrat and footman of International Financial Institutions in particular Goldman Sachs, </span><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">LUCAS PAPADEMOS</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> seized control over the country with the pretence of new democratic election calls in 2013. Then, midst fierce financial rescue negotiations with the EU, GREECE apparently hit the “jackpot” when recent EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN oil and gas findings stretched further into the AEGEAN SEAS, revealing that </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">the entire eastern MEDITERRANEAN is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. According to recent researches, the new-found reserves could potentially blot out GREECE’S entire debt, and possibly have even averted it.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">EU</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">’S<b> RACE FOR NATURAL RESOURCES</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #444444; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajihSvnymi0X05Jl4S7S_Px0ydiQUr_CSSwBDQ4DYlCZiDcnyq4MMRhIKQLmpZDcLappgMv6wTWRT-qxCUAhhunnZiQNGrDK85RJs-wSYP6MLDSXUqXhwJ2wAaZnaoQCBkflkdXu4TtwD/s1600/1-s2.0-S0264817200000210-gr24.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjajihSvnymi0X05Jl4S7S_Px0ydiQUr_CSSwBDQ4DYlCZiDcnyq4MMRhIKQLmpZDcLappgMv6wTWRT-qxCUAhhunnZiQNGrDK85RJs-wSYP6MLDSXUqXhwJ2wAaZnaoQCBkflkdXu4TtwD/s400/1-s2.0-S0264817200000210-gr24.gif" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The minute the potential gas and oil findings in the AEGEAN SEA were confirmed, GERMANY, EUROPE’S key player, in particular changed its political rhetoric’s towards GREECE, demanding that a <b>EUROPEAN ‘commission of experts’ should permanently settled in ATHENS in order to overseeing GREEK finances and budgetary discipline and that the EU should be</b></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <b>given veto power over tax and spend plans'</b>, a move that basically would undermine GREECE’S sovereignty.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In view of these facts it seems that </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">EU’S</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> key players are ready to push GREECE into the abbeys in exchange for total control of its natural resources. When looking at the numbers of recent oil gas findings one will understand why suddenly large “storm clouds” are looming over GREECE and the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">OIL: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Preliminary estimates now are that total offshore oil in GREEK waters exceeds 22 billion barrels in the IONIAN SEA off WESTERN GREECE and some 4 billion barrels in the NORTHERN AEGEAN SEA. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">GAS: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Recent natural gas surveys conducted in the area will generate an estimate of some <b>nine trillion dollars</b> in revenues, which would transform the finances of GREECE and the entire region.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Oil traders and experts estimate that GREECE could potentially solve its entire public debt crisis through development of its new-found gas and oil. Conservative estimates indicate that exploitation of the reserves already discovered could bring the country more than €302 billion over 25 years.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">THE AUSTERITY PLOT </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">The GREEK government instead has just been forced to agree to huge government layoffs, wage cuts and pension cuts to get access to EU and IMF loans that will only drive the country deeper into an economic decline.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">IMF AND GERMANY DEMAND SELL-OFF OF GREECE’S STATE OIL COMPANIES!!! </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The IMF and EU governments, in particularly GERMANY, demand that GREECE sell off its valuable ports and public companies, among them of course, GREEK STATE OIL companies, to reduce state debt. Under the best of conditions the asset selloffs would bring the country perhaps €50 billion. Furthermore plans call for the GREEK state-owned natural gas company, DEPA, to privatize 65% of its shares to reduce debt.  Buyers would likely come from outside the country, as few GREEK companies are in a position in the crisis to take it. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In principal this reflects common IMF strategy; used in ARGENTINA and resulted in the countries default. ARGENTINES state assets were privatized and bought by US and European corporations with close ties to the IMF. </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(See Argentine Water </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_Argentina"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatization_in_Argentina</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> )</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">WHO WILL CONTROL AND ULTIMATELY BENEFIT FROM THE HUGE RESOURCE DISCOVERIES?</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">One significant problem, aside from the fact the IMF demands GREECE selloff its public oil interests, is the fact that GREECE has not declared a deeper exclusive economic zone like most other countries which drill for oil. There was seen little need until now. An EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE (EEZ) gives states special mineral rights in its declared waters under the THIRD UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which came into force in November 1994. (See </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> EEZ </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_14.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_14.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"> )</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #444444; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxYkxGqWM6zNuP_wqJrPTGrf2Bc2kdl-aRNX-V914ugjQMfBU5aOSDmWvtEFSz29o0UxTfSO8qGJSn9roChbxpyPgGJ7fB3eF0a-0dHEjpwdvy8k2X_dGZYTynE2gKxW3PyKnxCbLK0B-2/s1600/loop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxYkxGqWM6zNuP_wqJrPTGrf2Bc2kdl-aRNX-V914ugjQMfBU5aOSDmWvtEFSz29o0UxTfSO8qGJSn9roChbxpyPgGJ7fB3eF0a-0dHEjpwdvy8k2X_dGZYTynE2gKxW3PyKnxCbLK0B-2/s400/loop.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">Greece’s EEZ issue thus could trigger a new conflict with TURKEY which already is at odds with almost every country bordering the MEDITERRANEAN SEA for it fears of losing the prospect of becoming a major regional energy hub which would increase its geo – political influence in the region and make it a key player in future energy deals, thus eliminating certain “dependence” on EUROPE and last but not least abolish EU membership talks and at the same time pursue its NEO –OTTOMAN EMPIRE ambitions.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">(See: </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/does-turkey-really-need-eu.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/06/does-turkey-really-need-eu.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">(See </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/energy-games-in-eastern-mediterranean.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/energy-games-in-eastern-mediterranean.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TURKEY reiterated that it would consider it an act of war if GREECE drilled further into the AEGEAN. Until now that did not seem to have serious economic consequences, as no oil or gas reserves were known. With these findings however the situation changed significantly. GREECE could cover “50% of its needs with the oil to be found in offshore fields in the AEGEAN SEA. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">POISONOUS COCKTAIL </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;">To add another ingredient to the already poisoned cocktail is that the US also wants a share of the cake and thus is becoming increasingly nervous and manipulative when it comes to natural resources dealings in the region, which the USA considers its turf in the first place.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Thus it</span><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> comes as no surprise that in</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> July 2011 WASHINGTON seriously stepped in to join the GREEK energy game. Secretary of State HILLARY CLINTON flew to ATHENS with energy on her mind. That was clear by the fact she brought with her her Special Envoy for EURASIAN ENERGY, Richard Morningstar. MORNINGSTAR was husband BILL CLINTON’S SPECIAL ADVISOR to the President on CASPIAN BASIN ENERGY DIPLOMACY. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Allegedly MORNINGSTAR has been the key WASHINGTON architects of WASHINGTON’S geopolitically-motivated oil and gas pipeline projects that would isolate RUSSIA and its GAZPROM gas resources from the EU. MORNINGSTAR and his aid are open opponents of RUSSIAN GAZPROM’S SOUTH STREAM gas pipeline that would transit the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN states. It seems that the current Administration is not at all neutral about the New Greek oil and gas discoveries, for three days after Hillary left ATHENS the GREEK government proposed the creation of a new government agency to run tenders for oil and gas surveys and ultimate drilling bids. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">US OUTWITS THE EU </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Allegedly Morningstar was instrumental in backing the controversial B-T-C oil pipeline from BAKU through TBILISI in GEORGIA across to the TURKISH MEDITERRANEAN port of CEYHAN, a costly enterprise designed solely to bypass RUSSIAN oil pipeline transit. He has openly proposed that <b>GREECE and TURKEY drop all historic differences over CYPRUS, over numerous other historic issues and agree to jointly pool all their oil and gas reserves in the AEGEAN SEA</b>. He also has told the GREEK government it should forget cooperation with MOSCOW on the SOUTH STREAM and BOURGAS-ALEXANDROUPOLIS gas pipeline projects. (See </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/middle-east-energy-wars.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/09/middle-east-energy-wars.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and </span><a href="http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/russia-seeks-to-play-a-leading-role-in-eastern-mediterranean-gas-development-5216"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/russia-seeks-to-play-a-leading-role-in-eastern-mediterranean-gas-development-5216</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> ) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgas%E2%80%93Alexandroupoli_pipeline">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgas%E2%80%93Alexandroupoli_pipeline</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">  </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Such proposal clearly shows that he lacks profound knowledge of the regional conflict between CYPRUS and TURKEY as well as GREECE’S stance on TURKEY and last but not least RUSSIA’S and CYPRUS’S relations and mentality of these cultures.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to a report from GREEK political analyst Aristotle Vassilakis published in July 2011, WASHINGTON’S motive for pushing GREECE to join forces with TURKEY on oil and gas is to force a formula to divide resulting oil and gas revenues. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According to his report, WASHINGTON proposes that GREECE get 20% of revenues, TURKEY another 20% and the US-backed <b>NOBLE ENERGY Company of HOUSTON TEXAS, the company successfully drilling in the ISRAELI and GREEK offshore waters, would get the lion’s share of 60%</b>. Among other issues it seems obvious that the EU, with all means, wants to achieve a “hostile takeover” of GREECE in order to stop US advances in the region. Worthwhile to mention is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s husband, Bill, is a Washington lobbyist for NOBLE ENERGY. Thus the circle starts to close.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CYPRUS, TURKEY, ISRAEL, LEBANON, SYRIA AND NOW ROMANIA</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">As if these geopolitical complications were not enough, NOBLE ENERGY has also discovered huge volumes of gas off the waters of the REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS. In December 2011 NOBLE announced a successful well offshore CYPRUS in a field estimated to hold at least 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. According to NOBLE ENERGY the latest discovery in CYPRUS further highlight the quality and significance of this world-class basin.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CYPRUS is a complicated piece of real estate. In the 1970’s as declassified US Government documents recently revealed, then-US Secretary of State HENRY KISSINGER actively encouraged and facilitated arms to the TURKISH regime of KISSINGER’S former Harvard student and then- Prime Minister BULENT ECEVIT, to stage a military invasion of CYPRUS in 1974, in effect partitioning the island between an ethnically TURKISH north and an ethnically GREEK REPUBLIC of CYPRUS in the south, a division which remains. The KISSINGER strategy, backed by the BRITISH was believed intended to create a pretext for a permanent US and BRITISH military listening post in the EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN during the Cold War. (See </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> )</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Today the ethnically GREEK south, where NOBLE has discovered large gas deposits, is a member of the EU. Its President, DEMETRIS CHRISTOFIAS, is the only national leader in the EUROPEAN UNION who is a communist. He is also a close friend of ISRAEL, and of RUSSIA. In addition, he is a major critic of AMERICAN foreign policy, as well as of TURKEY. Thus CYPRUS is financially heavily supported by RUSSIA for RUSSIA holds a large amount of off shore accounts on the islands banks and provided CYPRUS a “bailout” credit to avoid default. See: </span><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/655a3fd2-de31-11e0-9fb7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pOl6qaog"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/655a3fd2-de31-11e0-9fb7-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pOl6qaog</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> and </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2012/02/eastern-mediterranean-sea.html</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Now ISRAEL is planning to build an underwater gas pipeline from the ISRAELI LEVANTINE fields across CYPRUS waters onto the GREEK mainland where it would be sold on the EU market. The CYPRUS and ISRAEL governments have mutually agreed on delimitation of their respective ECONOMIC ZONES, leaving TURKEY in the cold. TURKEY openly threatened CYPRUS for signing the agreement with NOBLE ENERGY. That led to a RUSSIAN statement that it would not tolerate TURKISH threats against CYPRUS, further complicating TURKISH-RUSSIAN relations. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TURKISH-ISRAELI relations, once quite friendly, have become increasingly strained in recent years under ERDOGAN foreign policies. ANKARA has expressed concern about ISRAEL’S recent ties with its historic antagonists, GREECE and the GREEK side of CYPRUS. TURKEY’S ally the “TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS” (not a internationally recognized entity), fears it could miss out on its fair share of the gas after ISRAEL and NICOSIA signed an agreement to divide the 250 kilometers of sea that separate them.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">It becomes evident, especially when we glance at a map of the eastern Mediterranean, that the oil and gas prospective bonanza there is a rapidly unfolding conflict zone of tectonic magnitude involving strategic US, RUSSIAN, EU, ISRAELI and TURKISH, SYRIAN and LEBANESE interests. (See TAPA pipeline </span><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">http://news-these-days.blogspot.com.ar/2011/12/syria-cause-and-effect.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> )</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Parts of above article incorporate </span></i><i><span lang="FR" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL article : </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Rising energy tensions in the Aegean—Greece, Turkey, Cyprus</span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ROMANIA, THE LATEST TO JOIN THE RECENT ENERGY HYPE   </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">By <b><i>Dr</i></b><i><b>Robert M Cutler</b></i> (<a href="http://www.robertcutler.org/">http://www.robertcutler.org</a>),</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">With all its complexity mentioned above, ROMANIA joining the energy hype in the region and one can assume that the latest BLACK SEA offshore sector gas findings will have potential ramifications for the entire EURO-CASPIAN energy complex from CENTRAL ASIA to CENTRAL EUROPE. This find will re-jig calculations around the EUROPEAN UNION'S SOUTHERN GAS CORRIDOR while providing potential new sources of energy for EAST CENTRAL and especially SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE. <br /><br />In that context, the potential for ROMANIA to become a natural gas exporter to SOUTHEASTERN and even EAST CENTRAL EUROPE comes into focus. The significance of the ROMANIAN strike concerns the eventual choice by the consortium developing AZERBAIJAN'S offshore SHAH DENIZ natural gas deposit, between the "western" (through GREECE to ITALY) route for its 10 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) gas and the "northern" (through BULGARIA to SOUTHEASTERN Europe) route. Interesting to note in this context is the fact that ISRAEL and AZERBAIJAN hold strong economic ties with emphasis on energy related projects as well as defense.See <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan%E2%80%93Israel_relations">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan%E2%80%93Israel_relations</a>and <a href="http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/32445-israel-inks-arms-deal-azerbejain-azerbaijan-iran-relations-detoriate.html">http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/32445-israel-inks-arms-deal-azerbejain-azerbaijan-iran-relations-detoriate.html</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span lang="DE-AT" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">THE PLAYERS: US EXXON, AUSTRIA’S OMV ( PETROM), BULGARIA’S BULGARTRANSGAZ</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">ROMANIAN President TRAIAN BASESCU announced last week that a consortium comprising the US major EXXON MOBIL and the ROMANIAN company PETROM (a subsidiary of the AUSTRIAN OMV) has struck over 100 bcm of gas in ROMANIA'S first deep-water offshore exploration. He said this figure was subject to revision upwards, since there were five other geological formations in the area with characteristics similar to the successful find. If they all proved out the same way, the result would give ROMANIA over a half a trillion cubic meters of offshore natural gas - equivalent to 25-30 years of total ROMANIAN gas consumption at the present rate, or 75-90 years worth of its gas imports. <br /><br />Separately in BULGARIA a week ago it was announced that, in conformance with a February 2011 decision by the EU's EUROPEAN COUNCIL that every EU member state should have at least two sources of natural gas and electricity, the BULGARIAN company BULGARTRANSGAZ will cooperate to build the transborder Interconnector BULGARIA-ROMANIA (IBR). BULGARIA imports most of its gas from RUSSIA, which cut off supplies for three weeks in January 2009 and is thought to be maneuvering within the BULGARIAN political environment to maintain its hegemonic position in the BULGARIAN gas market. <br /><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">CHEVRON AND NOVINITE</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />Thus while according to the BULGARIAN press agency NOVINITE the US company CHEVRON will soon start drilling for shale gas in the northeastern ROMANIA around BARLAD, the BULGARIAN cabinet recently made it impossible for CHEVRON to develop shale gas in BULGARIA by revoking an earlier awarded permit for hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). BULGARIAN environmental activists are now seeking legislation to make that ban permanent. <br /><br />In response, an organization called Movement for Energy Independence (DEN) has formed in BULGARIA calling for the fracking moratorium to be cancelled and for the until now dilatory work on all interconnectors to be accelerated, including the ITB, the IBR, and also the INTERCONNECTOR GREECE-BULGARIA (IGB). <br /><br />DEN also criticizes the current government for enforcing BULGARIA'S gas dependence upon RUSSIA by favoring the MOSCOW-based SOUTH STREAM GAS PIPELINE PROJECT (MOSCOW to BULGARIA under the BLACK SEA) and seeking to help exempt GAZPROM from oncoming EU antitrust rules by accelerating the pipeline's timetable. <br /><br />The IBR, on the other hand, if constructed to be bi directionally reversible, would make it possible not only for BULGARIA to import ROMANIAN gas directly from ROMANIA, but also to transit to ROMANIA the gas that BULGARIA might receive from AZERBAIJAN'S offshore SHAH DENIZ deposit via GEORGIA, TURKEY, and the Interconnector TURKEY-BULGARIA (ITB) still under construction. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /><b>COMPLEX ENERGY PUZZLE IN AN EVEN MORE COMPLEX REGION</b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #444444; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><b> </b> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">An Interconnector TURKEY-GREECE (ITG) is already operating, but the SHAH DENIZ consortium has ruled out its extension into the Interconnector TURKEY-GREECE-ITALY (ITGI) to SOUTHERN EUROPE via the Interconnector GREECE-ITALY (IGI) across GREECE and under the IONIAN SEA to ITALY'S geographical boot. (The undersea segment by itself is called the Poseidon pipeline.) <br /><br />However, this does not mean that the SHAH DENIZ consortium has ruled out either the ITG or the separate Interconnector TURKEY-BULGARIA (ITB), should it choose a northern rather than a western route for its gas. Given the newly announced interconnector between BULGARIA and ROMANIA, either the ITG-IGB duo or the ITB by itself would be able to hook up into ROMANIAN national pipeline system via the IBR. </span><span style="color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />The SHAH DENIZ consortium has yet to choose between the BP-proposed South East European Pipeline (SEEP) or a reconfiguration of the NABUCCO pipeline project for the possible northern route. After choosing one of those, it will then choose between it and the designated western-route pipeline, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is set to cross GREECE, ALBANIA, and go underneath the ADRIATIC SEA to ITALY'S boot. </span><span style="color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br /><br />Indeed, earlier this week, the BULGARIAN cabinet approved the agreement between the BULGARIAN company NABUCCO Gas Pipeline BULGARIA and the international consortium NABUCCO Gas Pipeline International, signed in June 2011. The next step is for the BULGARIAN Parliament to ratify the contract, following which the stages for implementation of the NABUCCO project in BULGARIA may be further specified. </span><span style="color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />However, none of this means that the ITGI or the IGI is dead. As a consequence of the debt crisis in GREECE, the GREEK principal in the IGI consortium, the public gas company DEPA, is a candidate for privatization; and RUSSIA'S GAZPROM has shown an interest. </span><span style="color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br />The possibility of the IGI segment transiting gas later in the decade from MOSCOW'S SOUTH STREAM natural gas pipeline has been discussed in the GREEK press now for some time. Sourcing problems, however, continue to plague the SOUTH STREAM project; RUSSIA has never said where any of its gas will come from. </span><span style="color: #444444;"></span><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div>

HOSTILE TAKEOVER

LOOMING ENERGY TSUNAMI IN EURASIA? RECENT AEGEAN OIL AND GAS FINDINGS COULD BLOT OUT GREECE’S ENTIRE DEPT  Since the beginning of the financ...

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