Urban streets named after MLK struggle to inspire (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUYfR1pBGVMUBEl-uKY8GkyVOwcp52IQTP18taqjZeFjDVfae1PGTmbRHAcHM0VC7XZOWGeW_M3v-aIVJQYYez6uCF8fOljcrGAEuJKKINgrG6D6JHiglXY2hhichGleVVNHUMGHfbHM4/s1600/3c2d991bafc55d02490f6a706700dd32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUYfR1pBGVMUBEl-uKY8GkyVOwcp52IQTP18taqjZeFjDVfae1PGTmbRHAcHM0VC7XZOWGeW_M3v-aIVJQYYez6uCF8fOljcrGAEuJKKINgrG6D6JHiglXY2hhichGleVVNHUMGHfbHM4/s1600/3c2d991bafc55d02490f6a706700dd32.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_8565" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">ST. LOUIS (AP) — A walk down the 6-mile city street named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. yields plenty of images that would surely unsettle the civil rights leader: shuttered storefronts, open-air drug markets and a glut of pawn shops, quickie check-cashing providers and liquor stores.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_8575" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's a national problem," said Melvin White, a 46-year-old postal worker in St. Louis and founder of a 3-year-old nonprofit group that is trying to restore King's legacy on asphalt. "Dr. King would be turning over in his grave."The urban decay along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in St. Louis can be found in other major American cities, from Houston and Milwaukee to the nation's capital.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_8593" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Nearly three decades into the observance of Monday's federal holiday, the continuing decline of the most visible symbols of King's work has White and others calling for a renewed commitment to the more than 900 streets nationwide named in the Atlanta native's honor. The effort centers in St. Louis, where the small nonprofit is working to reclaim MLK roadways as a source of pride and inspiration, not disappointment over a dream derailed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">White's goals are ambitious, his resources admittedly modest. A neighborhood park is planned across the street from the group's headquarters. An urban agriculture project to encourage residents to eat healthy and grow their own food has preliminary support from nearby Washington University, one of the country's wealthiest private colleges. Above all, Beloved Streets of America wants to build community from the ashes of what was once a thriving retail corridor when White was a child.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The template can be found just a mile away. Delmar Boulevard, which saw a similar decline, is now a vibrant retail corridor packed with restaurants, nightclubs, a renovated movie theater and a boutique hotel. The renaissance earned Delmar recognition in 2007 as one of "10 Great Streets in America" by the American Planning Association.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-video go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="b2e15a09-c150-3f05-ba1b-72b77e50e4f4" href="http://news.yahoo.com/video/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-210454866.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream, 50 years&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 169px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;">Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream, 50 yea …</span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">Play video</span><span class="icon-play icon-white-play-xsmall" style="background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream, 50 years&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="169" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/7q5iPNRlOXesajjMHv8c.Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE2OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.pd2upload.com/video.weeklyflickr.com@b2e15a09-c150-3f05-ba1b-72b77e50e4f4_FULL.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Journalist Jonathan Tilove, who wrote a 2003 book based on visits to 650 King streets nationwide, called the King byways "black America's Main Street."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Map them and you map a nation within a nation, a place where white America seldom goes and black America can be itself," he wrote. "It is a parallel universe with a different center of gravity and distinctive sensibilities. ... There is no other street like it."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But while streets named for King undoubtedly resonate widely in the black community, a University of Tennessee geography professor whose research explores the cultural and political significance of such streets said the compromised condition of streets named for King in St. Louis and other cities deserves broader attention.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"In some ways we racially profile these streets," said Derek Alderman, author of a 2007 study that found a smaller disparity among MLK-named streets and other "main streets" than is popularly portrayed. "We need to move beyond those images and see what concrete lives and realities are living on those streets."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em>The Weekly Flickr: <a data-mce-href="http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/08/23/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-s-dream-50-years-later/" data-rapid_p="9" href="http://blog.flickr.net/en/2013/08/23/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-s-dream-50-years-later/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">How murals pay tribute to Dr. King</a></em></div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="10" data-uuid="77370b0c-6d53-3e10-bd8d-d39da77f55cb" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/thursday-jan-16-2014-photo-melvin-white-founder-photo-155129952.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White,&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 199px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White,&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="199" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/E23EgoS.s0wg.PXsudA4AQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE5OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/6d1c7f13afc35d02490f6a706700dbfb.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White, founder of Beloved Streets of America, speaks a …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">More than 50 years after King led his march on Washington, communities large and small still debate whether to rename local streets in his honor. In Harrisonburg, Va., city leaders recently agreed to rename a street for King over protests by some residents. A similar debate continues in High Point, N.C., where a King street proposal first suggested two decades ago remains up in the air.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Other cities have had more success in balancing the desire to commemorate King without superseding local tradition. Alderman singled out Chapel Hill, N.C., which in 2005 renamed a major thoroughfare that abuts the University of North Carolina campus. Street signs that identify Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard also include the name "Historic Airport Road."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Chicago's Martin Luther King Drive, a major thoroughfare spanning roughly a dozen miles south of downtown, is anchored by important hubs of black life in the city. The street features grassy boulevards with stately greystones, while other segments touch rougher patches that have fallen into disrepair, including a dilapidated motel that drew community protests over crime. Gentrification is taking hold along some parts.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The major landmarks include Bronzeville, the neighborhood where numerous black activists lived or worked and tourism officials have marked with plaques. There's also Chicago State University, where Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks taught.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Miami, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard stretches from the predominantly Cuban town of Hialeah through largely black Liberty City and into Little Haiti — a reflection of both the city's diverse demographics as well as its lingering segregation.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="11" data-uuid="af478dd9-72e1-37ed-a88b-04557deb3719" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/thursday-jan-16-2014-photo-melvin-white-founder-photo-155129100.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White,&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 200px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White,&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="200" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/kplQXdsRMj6SBLAeTXJXEw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/cd15f294afc55d02490f6a7067001922.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">In this Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014 photo, Melvin White, founder of the Beloved Streets of America proje …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Along MLK Boulevard in Hialeah, where U.S. flags fly alongside Cuban ones, MLK Boulevard isn't known as the street named after a civil rights leader. Rather, it's simply referred to by its number: "La Nueve Street," or 9th Street.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The sights and sounds of MLK Boulevard change in Liberty City, where many buildings are shuttered and storefront churches can be found on almost every block. In the decades after the civil rights movement, Liberty City has seen two race riots and struggled to escape a cycle of violence and poverty.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At Miami Edison High School on the border of Liberty City and Little Haiti, 17-year-old Judith Etienne said King would be disappointed in his unfulfilled dream.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I'm sure Martin Luther King didn't have this in his dream," she said. "There's a lot of kids dying of gang violence in this community."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For Alderman, the King street scholar, the struggle to reclaim MLK Jr. Drive in St. Louis offers a realistic portrayal of the battles King waged a half-century ago — and where such efforts need to reach into the 21st Century.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Those street names are really powerful social indicators of how far we've come in really fulfilling the dream, and giving us an indication of where we need to do more work," he said. "As much as it may sadden us, it demarcates and defines boundaries for civil rights activism for the future. You've got something that remembers the past that actually works, in its own tragic irony, to symbolize where the struggle still is."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">___</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">___</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_8618" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Follow Alan Scher Zagier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/azagier</div></div>

Urban streets named after MLK struggle to inspire (BLOG)

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A walk down the 6-mile city street named for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. yields plenty of images that would surely unse...

Read more »

The COMEX experts on SILVER and GOLD

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Another commodities expert explains the COMEX</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Q-xJQE0do0Q?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jim Comiskey explains the COMEX</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Most people that trade on the exchanges do not take delivery or make delivery...</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Learn what "THE BIG BANG" is...</b><br /><br /><b>Jim you're no expert.  You need some lessons from guys like jsnip4. :-) </b></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/O-CXOxl7gVw?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Yes the contracts are deliverable but most people don't take delivery...</b></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6i5S0RlkJrE?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><b>...developing...</b></div>

The COMEX experts on SILVER and GOLD

Another commodities expert explains the COMEX Jim Comiskey explains the COMEX Most people that trade on the exchanges do not take delivery o...

Read more »

Ex-DEA agent jumps jobs to join marijuana investment firm (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOeZoD3EZerjGctiWXzTeZjhDcLhbA4YZ-iQs_eKYWv6PiFV83lGuOgibNfib1XBhBUUEtrLZXegEHfoIZxd_t1JdWzGDVWBeJ-BVBwqkragEN8a0wDfvSfLfQBGpJ83ByqoYDuSC5eSA/s1600/2014-01-20T134058Z_1861467408_GM1EA1K1O4001_RTRMADP_3_USA-DEA-MARIJUANA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOeZoD3EZerjGctiWXzTeZjhDcLhbA4YZ-iQs_eKYWv6PiFV83lGuOgibNfib1XBhBUUEtrLZXegEHfoIZxd_t1JdWzGDVWBeJ-BVBwqkragEN8a0wDfvSfLfQBGpJ83ByqoYDuSC5eSA/s1600/2014-01-20T134058Z_1861467408_GM1EA1K1O4001_RTRMADP_3_USA-DEA-MARIJUANA.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5080" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Jonathan Kaminsky</div><div class="body-slot-mod" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.307695388793945px; margin: 0px 0px 1.1em 10px; max-width: 300px;"><div class="yom-remote"><div class="" id="mediacontentrelatedstory_container"></div></div></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5057" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">SEATTLE (Reuters) - In a decade with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Patrick Moen rose to supervise a team of agents busting methamphetamine and heroin rings in Oregon - before giving it all up to join the nascent legal marijuana industry in nearby Washington state.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5091" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In November, the former federal drug agent quit his post to work for a marijuana industry investment firm, and says he relishes getting in on the ground floor of a burgeoning industry he was once sworn to annihilate.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5101" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">As managing director of compliance and senior counsel for Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, Moen has added his name to a small but growing list of individuals with unlikely backgrounds who have joined or thrown their support behind state-sanctioned marijuana enterprises.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5111" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Oregon, another former Portland-based DEA agent, Paul Schmidt, who retired from the agency in 2010, recently set up shop as a consultant to medical cannabis businesses after working as a state inspector of medical pot dispensaries in Colorado.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5121" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Last year, former Mexican president Vicente Fox visited Seattle to trumpet support for a pot firm fronted by former Microsoft executive Jamen Shively. The Seattle police department is weighing whether to allow officers to moonlight as security guards at pot shops slated to open later this year.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-image go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize get-lbdata-from-dom" data-rapid_p="8" data-uuid="d9736e09-7372-374f-b1c7-d1c24f9fb526" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/former-dea-agent-moen-now-managing-director-compliance-photo-134202912.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Former DEA agent Moen, now managing director of compliance&nbsp;&hellip;"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 206px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Former DEA agent Moen, now managing director of compliance&nbsp;&hellip;" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="206" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/4KSkbXhyQ9N4m8.IP1StJw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwNjtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-20T134202Z_1260932944_GM1EA1K1O7M01_RTRMADP_3_USA-DEA-MARIJUANA.JPG" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">Former DEA agent Patrick Moen, now managing director of compliance and senior counsel for Privateer  …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Moen, whose jump has been criticized by his former boss at the DEA, said that even as his profile within the agency rose, he nursed a growing sense that the marijuana cases he worked, and the laws underpinning them, were wrongheaded.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Moen says he is working to foster a reputable pot industry that will hasten an end to the drug's prohibition and allow the DEA to sharpen its focus on drugs that are truly harmful.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I saw this as an amazing opportunity to be a part of the team that's helping to create this industry, " Moen, 36, told Reuters. "I don't really feel like it's the other side."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, some 20 states and Washington, D.C., allow for its medical use. In 2012, voters in Washington state and Colorado became the first to legalize adult recreational use of the drug.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Colorado and Washington state have fed the momentum for pot liberalization efforts elsewhere, with a legalization measure likely to go before Alaska voters in August and activists in Oregon collecting signatures to get a similar initiative on that state's November ballot.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-slideshow go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize " data-list-id="82a5f9a0-7173-11e3-96ec-1ad57c8c3f36" data-rapid_p="9" data-type="slideshow" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/legalization-of-marijuana-slideshow/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Legalization of marijuana"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 202px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Legalization of marijuana" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="202" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GjowykutElpp2W_FV6y2SA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIwMjtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2014-01-01/7281f8a8-30ea-46a2-810e-9455d96a3dd7_AP224708641700_1.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">An employee weighs portions of retail marijuana to be packaged and sold at 3D Cannabis Center in Den …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The U.S. Department of Justice announced in August it wouldn't interfere with state efforts to regulate and tax marijuana provided they're able to meet a set of requirements that include keeping it away from children and restricting its flow into other states.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">EVOLVING VIEWS</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Over the summer, Moen arranged to meet Privateer Chief Executive Officer Brendan Kennedy in a Portland coffee shop, where he gave Kennedy his DEA business card before passing him an envelope. Kennedy feared it contained a subpoena but was relieved to instead find enclosed a copy of Moen's resume, the CEO said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Colorado this month allowed stores to begin selling weed, a step that is months away in Washington state. These developments, coupled with Moen's own evolving views, made a once unfathomable career shift a possibility, he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Among his current assignments, Moen is helping Privateer avoid legal pitfalls as it pushes into the cultivation of medical weed in Canada - a significant leap for a firm that has until recently invested solely in enterprises on the fringes of the marijuana trade.</div><div class="body-related" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative;"><a class="body-related-link body-related-slideshow go-to-slideshow-lightbox rapid-noclick-resp landscape onesize " data-list-id="909ba0f9-65da-3dcf-8fe1-a19991472184" data-rapid_p="10" data-type="slideshow" href="http://news.yahoo.com/photos/prospectors-seek-fortune-in-legal-pot-slideshow/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 300px; position: relative; text-decoration: none;" title="Prospectors seek fortune in legal pot"><div class="img-wrap" style="position: relative;"><div class="cta-overlay" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 210px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 300px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 270px; zoom: 1;"></span><span class="cta-text xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; bottom: 5px; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-left: 42px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View gallery</span><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow-xsmall" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-right-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; bottom: 5px; cursor: pointer; height: 23px; left: 5px; line-height: 0; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 32px; z-index: 1;"></span></div><img alt="Prospectors seek fortune in legal pot" class="body-related-thumb" data-src-2x="" height="210" src="http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/PEXDSIi1U_WD6.HzGqk9HA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTIxMDtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/85eb96bfde9d6d26430f6a7067008f16.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: block; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: baseline; visibility: visible !important;" width="300" /></div></a><div class="body-related-title photo-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: grey; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16.5px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px 5px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 300px;">This combination of November 2013 photos in Washington state shows, top row from left, pastry chef M …</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The pay and benefits of his new job are "close to a wash" with his previous position, Moen says, but include stock options in a company aiming to become an industry cornerstone.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Moen's value to Privateer likely will come in guiding the company on how to steer clear of activities that raise red flags with federal authorities, said Hilary Bricken, a Seattle-based marijuana business lawyer.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's extremely ironic," she said. "You go from cracking skulls to supporting the very effort that you once vowed to entirely destroy."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Seattle-based DEA Special Agent in Charge Matthew G. Barnes, the top-ranking DEA official in the Pacific Northwest, called Moen's career change an act of abandonment.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It is disappointing when law enforcement officers, sworn to uphold the laws of the United States with honor, courage and integrity, abandon their commitment to work in an industry involved in trafficking marijuana," Barnes told Reuters in a statement.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Underscoring the divide between the DEA and an emerging pot industry sanctioned by states, the agency's chief of operations, James Capra, on Wednesday denounced the movement toward ending pot prohibition at a U.S. Senate hearing as "reckless and irresponsible."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But Moen said not all his former colleagues have reacted negatively to his move.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I've gotten a lot of support from former colleagues," Moen said. "I wasn't sure how guys were going to react and it's been really great."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1390232626529_5149" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis, Cynthia Johnston and Ken Wills)</div></div>

Ex-DEA agent jumps jobs to join marijuana investment firm (BLOG)

By Jonathan Kaminsky SEATTLE (Reuters) - In a decade with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Patrick Moen rose to supervise a team of agen...

Read more »

Bitcoin Trading Thrives at London’s First Satoshi Square Event

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="single-title"><div class="single-info"><span class="single-author"><a href="http://www.coindesk.com/author/kadhim-shubber/" rel="author" title="Posts by Kadhim Shubber">Kadhim Shubber</a> (<a class="authortwitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/kadhimshubber" target="_newwindow">@kadhimshubber)</a> | </span> <span class="single-date">Published on January 20, 2014 at 11:35 GMT | </span> <span class="single-category"><b><i><a href="http://www.coindesk.com/events/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in Events">Events</a>, <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/news/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in News">News</a></i></b></span></div></div><span class="wpsr_floatbts_anchor" data-offset="31"></span>London held its <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/london-first-satoshi-square-bitcoin-marketplace/">first Satoshi Square event</a> on Saturday 18^th January – a bitcoin meetup combined with live face-to-face trading of the sort popularly imagined to dominate Wall Street.<br />Part networking event, part trading floor and part public outreach, the event attracted everyone from bitcoin entrepreneurs to curious members of the public.<br /><a href="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi1.jpg"><img alt="Satoshi Square London" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-37828" height="300" src="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi1.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />“We want to increase awareness of bitcoin among the general public. Bitcoin is a concept that’s quite difficult to get your head around, so we want to bring the public together with people who are experts in digital currency,” said Tom Robinson, co-founder of <a href="https://www.elliptic.co/" target="_blank">Elliptic</a>, a <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/worlds-first-insured-bitcoin-storage-service-launches-uk/">bitcoin insurance startup in the UK</a>, and organiser of the Satoshi Square event.<br />One of those experts was Hugh Halford-Thompson, co-founder of <a href="https://quickbitcoin.co.uk/" target="_blank">quickbitcoin.co.uk</a>, a UK-based bitcoin marketplace.<br />“London’s bitcoin community is good, just look around,” he said, gesturing to the crowd of roughly 100 people who had congregated at Spitalfields Market for the event. “But the biggest thing we all want to do is kick off the [bitcoin] economy.”<br />Halford-Thompson was doing his best to grow the community on Saturday, helping people set up wallets and educating them about bitcoin. As we talked a women approached us to talk about bitcoin and he leapt into action,  “Have you got an iPhone or Android, we can get you set up!”<br /><a href="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi.jpg"><img alt="Satoshi Square London" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-37829" height="300" src="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />But the bitcoin economy is a bigger challenge, he said:<br /><blockquote>“It’s moving in the right direction, but I think a bigger problem than regulation is the banking issue. Irrelevant of the regulation, they don’t want bitcoin companies or bitcoin services. My view on that is they probably don’t want bitcoin to work.”</blockquote>Although there are a few bitcoin businesses in London, like <a href="https://twitter.com/PemburyTavern">The Pembury Tavern</a> in Hackney, the city still lacks a natural home for bitcoin in the same way that Berlin has the Kreuzberg area.<br />“What I’d really like to do is get a group of businesses in a similar area, introduce them to bitcoin, get them set up and get an economy together,” says Halford-Thompson.<br />Other bitcoiners at the event were mainly happy to be among like-minded people. As you would expect for a community built around a digital currency – and for any community in 2013 – much of the interaction happens online.<br />“It’s nice to meet with people in real time. Using bitcoin in the real world, it’s rare,” said Mark, 59. Like many in the community, the former soldier’s main interest in digital currencies was anonymity.<br />“Anonymity is the most important thing to me … the products I buy fall into an area that bitcoin doesn’t want to be associated with.”<br />He declined to provide more details, but noted the impressive speed with which the “criminal fraternity” had adapted to bitcoin.<br /><a href="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi3.jpg"><img alt="Satoshi Square London" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-37826" height="300" src="http://media.coindesk.com/2014/01/Satoshi3.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />Of course most of the people there didn’t fit this stereotype, borne out of bitcoin’s previous association with the <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/us-government-announces-sell-25m-worth-silk-road-bitcoins/">Silk Road</a>. <a href="http://www.coindesk.com/silk-road-allegedly-shut-owner-ross-william-ulbricht-arrested/">The site’s demise</a>, thought to be bitcoin’s death knell, arguably freed bitcoin to enter the mainstream untainted by a high-profile connection to drugs and illegality. Some residue still remains, however.<br />“Even techies are suspicious of it, they think it’s a bubble or it’s a scam,” said Scott, 43, a mobile developer and creator of <a href="https://twitter.com/bitty_bot" target="_blank">Bitty Bot</a>, which trawls bitcoin marketplaces every five minutes and tweets the best prices.<br />Events like Satoshi Square, held out in the open (and unfortunately the cold), are an important tool in dispelling these myths and stereotypes. The answer to the question “What’s bitcoin?” was on fine display on Saturday. Simply, it’s the ordinary people who use it because they believe we can build a better foundation for finance in the 21^st century.<br /><i>Video by Roop Gill</i></div>

Bitcoin Trading Thrives at London’s First Satoshi Square Event

Kadhim Shubber ( @kadhimshubber) | Published on January 20, 2014 at 11:35 GMT | Events , News London held its first Satoshi Square event...

Read more »

GOLD and SILVER at a CROSSROADS

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>KITCO's IN-DEPTH Chart Analysis </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/RnR9BVL4VYg?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe></div>

GOLD and SILVER at a CROSSROADS

KITCO's IN-DEPTH Chart Analysis

Read more »

Christie speaks, and looks for lessons (BLOG)

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwz1SZxQPkoARvOMbZmbuS_fDww6VzwYnuDZFWuTKIAzf7xiuJM2Kz4C9nrJoI_XnGtXWHIbGDkIo-soJtepME2Y0X9BoQwu2t4JUQmKqnXnSimUt1TLfUi6U_lVoCxp-DmxEWRo-axSU/s1600/2014-01-16T174939Z_2126315208_GM1EA1H04V601_RTRMADP_3_USA.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwz1SZxQPkoARvOMbZmbuS_fDww6VzwYnuDZFWuTKIAzf7xiuJM2Kz4C9nrJoI_XnGtXWHIbGDkIo-soJtepME2Y0X9BoQwu2t4JUQmKqnXnSimUt1TLfUi6U_lVoCxp-DmxEWRo-axSU/s1600/2014-01-16T174939Z_2126315208_GM1EA1H04V601_RTRMADP_3_USA.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">“I will learn things from this,” Chris Christie told me last Friday, a little more than a week after he gave the News Conference to End All News Conferences, and a few days after the cable channels covered his annual address to the legislature in Trenton as if it were Nixon waving from the helicopter. “I know I will. I don’t know exactly what it is yet that I’ll learn from it. But when I get the whole story and really try to understand what’s going on here, I know I’m going to learn things.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">We were sitting in a conference room at a training center for high-tech jobs in Camden, down the street from where Christie had just sworn in a Supreme Court justice. This was his first interview since he had publicly declared himself “embarrassed and humiliated” by the disclosure that his aides had conspired to snarl traffic on the George Washington Bridge, and Christie, who fiddled with a half-eaten pack of vending-machine muffins, seemed more subdued than usual. He described his state of mind, after hearing about the incriminating e-mails from one of his closest aides, as “completely disorienting, like I got hit across the forehead with a 2x4.” </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">He said he hadn’t watched the song parody that his hero Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon threw together (singing “Governor Chris Christie Fort Lee, New Jersey traffic jam” in the place of “tramps like us, baby we were born to run”). But he’d gotten a direct message on Twitter from Fallon assuring him it was all in good fun, and his oldest son told him, “It’s actually kind of cool to have Bruce saying your name.” Christie said he wasn’t angry about it.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">In fact, Christie went out of his way several times to assure me he was </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">not</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;"> angry and was not an angry person, even though I hadn’t suggested he was. “It doesn’t mean I don’t get angry – everybody gets angry,” he said. “But they confuse sometimes, if you’re blunt and you’re direct and you just say things the way you see them, that that’s anger. More times than not it’s not anger with me. It’s just my personality.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">“So I’m going to learn from this,” he went on. “I can’t tell you yet what it is I’m going to learn. But I am intent on learning from this.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Christie’s gleeful critics – they are legion, and they are fierce – would suggest that the only lesson in all of this for Christie is that he is a bad governor (and probably a bad person, too), and that that the full truth of his involvement is yet to be known. His backers would tell you (as they told </span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">The New York Times</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;"> Sunday) that Christie just has to be less loyal to longtime aides who do shady business in his name. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">But if we’re going to be more thoughtful about it, this question of what exactly Christie should take away from this scandal – assuming, for the moment, that he’s being truthful when he says he knew nothing about it – is a little more complex.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">The revelations about traffic inconveniences came at a particularly inconvenient time for Christie. This month, he took over as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, making him the face of what has traditionally been an influential leadership bloc in the party. Christie had planned to use his State of the State address last week, and the inaugural speech he will give Tuesday, to preview the message that he thinks could make him a top-tier contender for the Republican nomination in 2016.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">That message is all about finding bipartisan solutions, in contrast to the intransigence in Washington. “We cannot fall victim to the attitude of Washington, D.C, the attitude that says I am always right and you are always wrong,” Christie plans to tell his inaugural audience. “The attitude that puts everyone into a box they are not permitted to leave. The attitude that puts political wins ahead of policy agreements. The belief that compromise is a dirty word.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Christie, who talked about fostering an “attitude of choice” in his State of the State Address last week, told me he had the same message for his fellow Republicans nationally. “You can make a choice to be just rhetorical, to say this is my position and this is my line in the sand and all the rest of that stuff, and be damned to whether that gets governance done or not,” he said. “Or you can say all that stuff, but also say in the back of my mind there’s going to be a place where I can reach accommodation. I’m asking them to choose to govern.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Christie’s detractors see this version of bipartisanship as a sham, perpetrated by a handful of Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated. But the record in New Jersey, which has long been one of the most recklessly governed states in the country, would indicate there’s more to it than that. During Christie’s first term, he and New Jersey’s mostly Democratic legislature managed to reform the system for financing public pensions, cap growth in property taxes and extend in-state college tuition to the children of undocumented immigrants, even as they worked together – mostly, anyway – to blunt the effects of a killer hurricane. There aren’t many governors in America who wouldn’t trade for those talking points.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Christie’s strategy has been remarkably consistent, and more sophisticated than it might seem to the casual observer. He is a public bully and a private dealmaker, a guy who bludgeons his opponents into as weak a bargaining position as he can before staking out his own compromise behind closed doors. It’s good theater, followed often, though not always, by good policy.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Someone should probably write a book about Christie’s tumultuous, almost sibling-like relationship with the powerful president of the New Jersey Senate, Stephen Sweeney, a labor Democrat who has called the governor a “punk” and threatened to hit him – and that was just in one week. In the end, the two men, similar in temperament, have repeatedly returned to Christie’s conference table and forged one of the more functional political partnerships anywhere. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">“Part of politics is trying to have sharp elbows publicly in order to make a deal privately,” Christie told me. “And if you don’t have the willingness and ability to do that, then the opportunity to make deals privately that benefit the public become much more difficult in my view, and in my experience.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Here’s the problem, though: even if Christie is as shocked by the revelations as he says, what Fort Lee made clear is that, after four years of this, all those public “sharp elbows” have begun to overtake the private pragmatism. After the viral videos of Christie dressing down constituents and the insults casually tossed around like Frisbees on the shore, it’s apparently gotten hard for Christie’s own aides and allies (some of whom, it seems, aren’t quite as bright as the governor to begin with) to discern where the theatrics leave off and the governance begins.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">The bridge fiasco, featuring that horrendous e-mail in which a Christie ally mocked the bus-riding children of Democratic voters, is an extreme case. But now you have the Democratic mayor of Hoboken saying Christie’s lieutenant governor threatened to pull back hurricane relief to force her hand on a real estate development. And you can bet there will be more stories like this in the weeks ahead, stories of aides who thought they were channeling the boss, because their concept of the boss, more and more, resembles Tony Soprano.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">In politics, as in life, your greatest strengths almost always become, eventually, your most glaring weaknesses. Think of Christie’s pal Rudy Giuliani, who managed to clean up the streets of New York by leaning on his cops, and then leaned so hard and so long that eventually a lot of non-white New Yorkers were afraid of their own police force. Or Barack Obama, who’s cool, “no-drama” demeanor was considered a major asset until congressmen started complaining he wasn’t passionate or needy enough. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">“I think I’m a fairly good politician,” Christie told me, in defense of his rhetorical style. But the best at his craft learn, sooner or later, to rein in and recalibrate the things that work for them, especially if they entertain thoughts of the White House. “I think it is most likely that the next Republican nominee for president will be a governor,” Christie told me. I reminded him that in 2011 he had told me he didn’t feel ready to be president, and asked about now. “Yeah. I’m readi</span><em style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">er</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">, if that’s a word,” Christie said. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">It is. And the experience of the past few weeks may help to make him readier still, but only if the worst revelations are now behind him, and only if he takes the deeper lesson from them. Only if he figures out some way to preserve the blunt persona that got him here, without letting that persona overwhelm the political philosophy that underlies his accomplishments.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">On Friday, Christie didn’t sound like a guy who intended to revisit his style. “I’m not growing a new personality at 51,” he said. I reminded him that politicians do it all the time. “Not me, man,” he laughed. “This is it. I like who I am.”</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">But Christie admitted the public pummeling had seared him. “I don’t think anybody knows what it feels like to have the kind of attention that I’ve had in the last nine days until you go through it,” he said near the end of our interview, sounding spent. “It’s awful. Listen, it’s awful. I can explain to you as vividly as you like, but you won’t get it.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">“I’m trying to get my arms around an awful situation,” he sighed, “and understand it, and then address it, and then resolve it.” </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Chris Christie vows he’ll learn something. And then the rest of us will learn something about whether he’s a great politician, or just a fairly good one.</span></div>

Christie speaks, and looks for lessons (BLOG)

“I will learn things from this,” Chris Christie told me last Friday, a little more than a week after he gave the News Conference to End All ...

Read more »

Declared a fundraiser for treatment Zhanna Friske

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHyoO5NPyG-OeK5ukmkQPH4XJ0IqlTSaUkskEi1bQ8Ggs4fqdAMrRoTvO6lsgVgb2qSczIt3BtyozVZUjB7oCs5PnrJ3Dl_etqBmTy5nIKnVMlmKn38tVZ15Q9x817iKZW6yG5dXF/s1600/Declared+a+fundraiser+for+treatment+Janna+Friske.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Zhanna Friske" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOHyoO5NPyG-OeK5ukmkQPH4XJ0IqlTSaUkskEi1bQ8Ggs4fqdAMrRoTvO6lsgVgb2qSczIt3BtyozVZUjB7oCs5PnrJ3Dl_etqBmTy5nIKnVMlmKn38tVZ15Q9x817iKZW6yG5dXF/s1600/Declared+a+fundraiser+for+treatment+Janna+Friske.jpg" title="Zhanna Friske" /></a></div><br />Today, January 20, 2014 was officially confirmed information that <b><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2014/01/zhanna-friske-has-cancer.html" target="_blank">Zhanna Friske has cancer</a></b>, reported her boyfriend, TV presenter Dmitry Shepelyov by posting a message on the <a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2014/01/pr-director-zhanna-friske-denies-rumors.html" target="_blank">official website of the singer</a>. <br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br />After just a few hours with the support of the First Channel Rusfonda announced fundraising, which will focus on the treatment of Zhanna Friske. <br /><br />If the amount of funds raised exceed the amount required for medical care of the singer, the remainder will be directed to the provision of medical care for children Rusfonda. <br /><br />Recall that now Zhanna Friske hospitalized in one of the cancer clinics in Germany. She was diagnosed with cancer (glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor, stage IV.<br /><br /><center><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* video */ google_ad_slot = "9278264705"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script></center><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/AVvXsEiZD3xQrmePbv9nqsuRMjcY-yYNxeVLeEW7t21nMZ1GIBrO1mJMmYwmLWvR_3CZvAhLF3N9qn-tfOeZsTxbWYErDwp2dZWvNamkO008NFch-cXr_396aeLI2NsCmvbSWLobMwbkkCMY/s1600/Dmitry+Shepelyov+and+Zhanna+Friske+fully.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Dmitry Shepelyov and Zhanna Friske" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZD3xQrmePbv9nqsuRMjcY-yYNxeVLeEW7t21nMZ1GIBrO1mJMmYwmLWvR_3CZvAhLF3N9qn-tfOeZsTxbWYErDwp2dZWvNamkO008NFch-cXr_396aeLI2NsCmvbSWLobMwbkkCMY/s1600/Dmitry+Shepelyov+and+Zhanna+Friske+fully.jpg" title="Dmitry Shepelyov and Zhanna Friske " /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dmitry Shepelyov and Zhanna Friske fully </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- boton --><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:90px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-8441125172513237" data-ad-slot="4392536701"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>

Declared a fundraiser for treatment Zhanna Friske

Today, January 20, 2014 was officially confirmed information that Zhanna Friske has cancer , reported her boyfriend, TV presenter Dmitry Sh...

Read more »

Oscar Pistorius Paralympic pay compensation to the parents of the dead girl

<script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* bleu 280 */ google_ad_slot = "8164661108"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheRLaUKqxg1THNpc3BNTVZ3yUK2hSntHEDkggw2docXyHHO1TMzVIBtWEuiNPyn3RXG-gQEkjrLmptL046jqFh_fVQujaoAV0na_5uXnIG_yYqR9HTlhmOID5AtrFa06jgfll8SZl/s1600/Oscar+Pistorius+Paralympic+pay+compensation+to+the+parents+of+the+dead+girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhheRLaUKqxg1THNpc3BNTVZ3yUK2hSntHEDkggw2docXyHHO1TMzVIBtWEuiNPyn3RXG-gQEkjrLmptL046jqFh_fVQujaoAV0na_5uXnIG_yYqR9HTlhmOID5AtrFa06jgfll8SZl/s1600/Oscar+Pistorius+Paralympic+pay+compensation+to+the+parents+of+the+dead+girl.jpg" /></a></div><br />South African Oscar Pistorius Paralympic accused of murdering his girlfriend Riva Stinkamp going to resolve the conflict with the girl's parents extrajudicial that require a runner from two to three million rand (200-300 thousand dollars). <br /> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br /> Riva Parents argue that their daughter supported their finances, and her death has left them without a livelihood. The Sunday Times newspaper quoted by ITAR-TASS: <br /> <br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"> Lawyers negotiate with parents and Paralympic prepared to pay the amount of about two million rand. </blockquote><br /> Recall that in the Paralympic Valentine's Day last year, shot his girlfriend in the toilet. The investigation and trial athlete claimed that mistook her for a burglar and committed manslaughter. <br /> <br /> Athlete was released on bail, his trial will be held on 3-20 March 2014.<br /><br /><script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><!-- boton --><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:90px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-8441125172513237" data-ad-slot="4392536701"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script>

Oscar Pistorius Paralympic pay compensation to the parents of the dead girl

South African Oscar Pistorius Paralympic accused of murdering his girlfriend Riva Stinkamp going to resolve the conflict with the girl'...

Read more »

Kanye West on the pages of the latest issue Interview

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVaZK6O6FezJJieAHJSJ8fYVtmcZZrv_pVWmYiq_Q8siRL8qKUCx2wHjLL_bdC1SK_SLd47v3BkkdNALENE1cN_yjgmVxzofsQhas3mPhFYpqI-MK3XsaapQdhEKWa_p-kRNvLbrX/s1600/Kanye+West+on+the+pages+of+the+latest+issue+Interview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVaZK6O6FezJJieAHJSJ8fYVtmcZZrv_pVWmYiq_Q8siRL8qKUCx2wHjLL_bdC1SK_SLd47v3BkkdNALENE1cN_yjgmVxzofsQhas3mPhFYpqI-MK3XsaapQdhEKWa_p-kRNvLbrX/s1600/Kanye+West+on+the+pages+of+the+latest+issue+Interview.jpg" /></a></div><br />Last year <b>Kanye West</b> name does not disappear from the headlines of the tabloids - the rapper is on the list the most talked about people from the world of show business, so it is no surprise that the cover of the latest issue of Interview magazine appeared just this musician. <br /> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br /> West participated in stylish and even a bit frightening series authored by acclaimed fashion photographer Steven Klein. Besides Kanye gave popular edition frank interview. <br /> <br /> In conversation with director Steve McQueen, who made the interviewer in this conversation, the rapper spoke about fatherhood, creativity and much more.<br /><br /><b>About Creativity: </b><br /> <br /> I like to be an inventor. I am a person who is working on the concept, inventing new ideas and brings new ideas into the universe. <br /> <br /><b> About work: </b><br /> <br /> I trained to become a good actor: attended art school for five years. I was as a child prodigy from Chicago. <br /> <br /><b> About deeds: </b><br /> <br /> may happen only one of two things: either I will do the right thing, or will make mistakes. But if you turn around and remember the last ten years, you will see that I was right. <br /> <br /><b> On fatherhood: </b><br /> <br /> This is something new for me to feel that you're the father .... There are things that I understand, others vice versa. But when we talk about love, I have no answer. All I can say - I am happy that I have it all.<br /><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* bleu 280 */ google_ad_slot = "8164661108"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-V-X7vzxeVmZjjUBqNsBjEx7HOe8KsAgeewHECXrt7aCORBIBFRa_A35VdnM8GkMa1Tb78-mYmQZtzCnVInFRa4y18PRWLVMjfmeVkzAj_49v3gZUhjpC93v3MvweXrNFaVmHrvc/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ-V-X7vzxeVmZjjUBqNsBjEx7HOe8KsAgeewHECXrt7aCORBIBFRa_A35VdnM8GkMa1Tb78-mYmQZtzCnVInFRa4y18PRWLVMjfmeVkzAj_49v3gZUhjpC93v3MvweXrNFaVmHrvc/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+1.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OFfD5-5IeTijFVad8zBhwqsQ5DWxQgC3cpi2b1wMok_LvfB1vvv-t5qh2fUnNVfJztBeETKCIkRab8FweZE6vG14962-klvJMWJvj0IyciaQvrneI4qI5MhQpcLYXoNMqpgnLqTz/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5OFfD5-5IeTijFVad8zBhwqsQ5DWxQgC3cpi2b1wMok_LvfB1vvv-t5qh2fUnNVfJztBeETKCIkRab8FweZE6vG14962-klvJMWJvj0IyciaQvrneI4qI5MhQpcLYXoNMqpgnLqTz/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+2.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCTNKRdQr0acyx0Z7ExvRMXKk0OVGeTvxxh6K6NKsOPx91zlhyphenhyphenMqYFcyrMxqiNOecPDflL27pqMj5AjTRik_73GfBvJL3FyTaIyIGKS91TbMG0gM5yCNxm9de-wT6loDaHqMKtjqmX/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCTNKRdQr0acyx0Z7ExvRMXKk0OVGeTvxxh6K6NKsOPx91zlhyphenhyphenMqYFcyrMxqiNOecPDflL27pqMj5AjTRik_73GfBvJL3FyTaIyIGKS91TbMG0gM5yCNxm9de-wT6loDaHqMKtjqmX/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+3.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2phDmjDY9p317q71Ja_XIrJohc-8HufGDGynZtEjQjodGbAOBHtNwmRCR9eDaUnJGcp1K6d3rskoKDFpmlYv-EbHjDekSexoKMdtCt9o1RkokXVFRuhLEZFZqqOnktseu9XPa7m2/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm2phDmjDY9p317q71Ja_XIrJohc-8HufGDGynZtEjQjodGbAOBHtNwmRCR9eDaUnJGcp1K6d3rskoKDFpmlYv-EbHjDekSexoKMdtCt9o1RkokXVFRuhLEZFZqqOnktseu9XPa7m2/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+4.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDivGl5foxuzDZy9jtDy4p-kf3cUTZe2XKhKCKWBu1aXGI0drj2EMbsziWxQKX1RIeHHc4zXvSy_GqlRyTODgR56LG1vxUSw_1xKNSFo1QFA5iXl8_x8lOlWgXbTK5UndGJHj64zOo/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDivGl5foxuzDZy9jtDy4p-kf3cUTZe2XKhKCKWBu1aXGI0drj2EMbsziWxQKX1RIeHHc4zXvSy_GqlRyTODgR56LG1vxUSw_1xKNSFo1QFA5iXl8_x8lOlWgXbTK5UndGJHj64zOo/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+5.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NasxXY0epxIvLOVe1c5GlEFqJGywaTVCrWT8wlN2IyZFuYMphcqcUlqfoQPXVbV3-Ndr92Gm8r3cxaHorDibr7tLOMdge0JMsgE9fT8mLiOELjuYPQdEz4irEIABUlRF6_N4wPMR/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4NasxXY0epxIvLOVe1c5GlEFqJGywaTVCrWT8wlN2IyZFuYMphcqcUlqfoQPXVbV3-Ndr92Gm8r3cxaHorDibr7tLOMdge0JMsgE9fT8mLiOELjuYPQdEz4irEIABUlRF6_N4wPMR/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+6.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmxLlVwVWGy7Dcu4G0nzv1U_P4XUV2SCEVx9lXPGcOVqGazqIoAC-4ATNbWEMmXcXo1ScWHYQb5-BhXKjxICwZCo8z1u5FJMoV_V9OThdikpgOKSj4U6ULu3LFc98HMVFd3x8LTvP/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzmxLlVwVWGy7Dcu4G0nzv1U_P4XUV2SCEVx9lXPGcOVqGazqIoAC-4ATNbWEMmXcXo1ScWHYQb5-BhXKjxICwZCo8z1u5FJMoV_V9OThdikpgOKSj4U6ULu3LFc98HMVFd3x8LTvP/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+7.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMYS-FaYgwu2Qfi4RDgCbhh_SBqn0jR7vB_KWthv43X8qvo7nujXahIUGE_EGqX62KxBuHIldwb3O0wV2ZfinOaKd9xXqwLFMFM-pVO3u6nelvZPK1kCSqEd9e3ybNyEOm6A1jde9/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiMYS-FaYgwu2Qfi4RDgCbhh_SBqn0jR7vB_KWthv43X8qvo7nujXahIUGE_EGqX62KxBuHIldwb3O0wV2ZfinOaKd9xXqwLFMFM-pVO3u6nelvZPK1kCSqEd9e3ybNyEOm6A1jde9/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+9.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyLdUxiLVxI8EaXJZb3VI0RLiMnxHOjHuCF7XWThPbKEdzm_RRnnbnilETHPStW1wSQXCbcbKjyvS9_LoEAXXw1nPyY5xY0kYfqPOHslO9czuMNKw7BHwFo_Xf-XhE4QoRqkFWg5x/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyLdUxiLVxI8EaXJZb3VI0RLiMnxHOjHuCF7XWThPbKEdzm_RRnnbnilETHPStW1wSQXCbcbKjyvS9_LoEAXXw1nPyY5xY0kYfqPOHslO9czuMNKw7BHwFo_Xf-XhE4QoRqkFWg5x/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+10.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhqGrpZBkjaqZXu_sCTg2kXfTBPYeNwIa-8sN_l6ZZSIQ456469SRM33relIX7n5uxrIVTq3d7AhHsv-0qYkzWLS3_WqwUz61zSzvAbbXXKKC5WQXisfF41heTVwSV4U1ywb7_8DN/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyhqGrpZBkjaqZXu_sCTg2kXfTBPYeNwIa-8sN_l6ZZSIQ456469SRM33relIX7n5uxrIVTq3d7AhHsv-0qYkzWLS3_WqwUz61zSzvAbbXXKKC5WQXisfF41heTVwSV4U1ywb7_8DN/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+11.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ8B8xNycDNkK9gbHBcm9HjhVcWuE0S7STHDHkAg5aAaD-mqrKu3fX89hPZBaDl6DSu-wCnneCZjtYqzDc6Sq2GbkfnOoG-OuKkbZdGQtaa3Jgo2l3w_VwgjY385qor84qtpR0PvsG/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kanye West in new photoshoot" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ8B8xNycDNkK9gbHBcm9HjhVcWuE0S7STHDHkAg5aAaD-mqrKu3fX89hPZBaDl6DSu-wCnneCZjtYqzDc6Sq2GbkfnOoG-OuKkbZdGQtaa3Jgo2l3w_VwgjY385qor84qtpR0PvsG/s1600/Kanye+West+in+new+photoshoot+13.jpg" title="Kanye West in new photoshoot" /></a></div><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* boton */ google_ad_slot = "4392536701"; google_ad_width = 200; google_ad_height = 90; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>

Kanye West on the pages of the latest issue Interview

Last year Kanye West name does not disappear from the headlines of the tabloids - the rapper is on the list the most talked about people f...

Read more »

The Good Fed/Bad Fed Routine

The following chart shows the real home equity loans at all commercial banks per civilian employed (December 2013 dollars).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPnr3X010yiND76Oo8e6LGtilA2kdOhu86-xcWGU1Czm4n2Ek5gKp9ZSSFTNXDaNeBvImBftRUTJtdMAMrw155xzi_ncOfhqxawrZVP5xThWquzJ-H9kIoA-94Wf3911XJuWrYNwrCrs/s1600/Real+Home+Equity+Loans+per+Civilian+Employed.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPnr3X010yiND76Oo8e6LGtilA2kdOhu86-xcWGU1Czm4n2Ek5gKp9ZSSFTNXDaNeBvImBftRUTJtdMAMrw155xzi_ncOfhqxawrZVP5xThWquzJ-H9kIoA-94Wf3911XJuWrYNwrCrs/s320/Real+Home+Equity+Loans+per+Civilian+Employed.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />A linear trend failure *and* an exponential trend failure? All in the same chart? I think I just died and went to trend failure heaven!<br /><br /><b>October 27, 2005</b><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/26/AR2005102602255.html">Bernanke: There's No Housing Bubble to Go Bust</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>U.S. house prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years, noted Bernanke, currently chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, in testimony to Congress's Joint Economic Committee. But these increases, he said, "largely reflect strong economic fundamentals," such as strong growth in jobs, incomes and the number of new households.</i></div><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_cop/bad_cop">Wikipedia: Good cop/bad cop</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>The good cop/bad cop routine is a common dramatic technique in cinema and television, where the bad cop often goes beyond the boundary of legal behavior. A common variant to subvert expectations is to seemingly introduce the 'bad cop' first, only to reveal that he's actually the 'good cop' despite his harshness and that the real 'bad cop' is even worse.</i></div><br />If <a href="http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20090414a.htm">credit is the lifeblood</a> of this economy, then we just need to work through this "soft patch" and all will be well again. Right?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/softpatch.asp">Investopedia: Soft Patch</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i><span style="color: red;">This term gained popularity when former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan used it</span> in his review of the overall U.S. economy. <span style="color: red;">Central banks often cut interest rates in an attempt to spur the economy through the soft patch.</span></i></div><br />Two quick questions and I'll let you go.<br /><br />1. Where the @#$% is the good Fed?<br />2. Is it normal for a soft patch to <a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=ra4">last more than 5 years</a>?<br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=ra2">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

The Good Fed/Bad Fed Routine

The following chart shows the real home equity loans at all commercial banks per civilian employed (December 2013 dollars). Click to enlarge...

Read more »

Producers Guild Of America Awards-2014: the winners

<script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* bleu 280 */ google_ad_slot = "8164661108"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br />That ended with an awards ceremony Producers Guild Of America Awards-2014, in which the 25th time the U.S. Producers Guild presented their awards. <br /> <br /> As you already know, the guests of the ceremony were the brightest celebrities including Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Helen Mirren, Jared Leto and others. <br /> <br /> also include celebrities, appeared on the red carpet, and was spotted by a rising star in Hollywood - Lupita Nyong'o, which has already become the darling of the fashion critics. <br /> < br> As for the winners, below is the complete list of winners.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghfdyea_5qe0YPVxAd3lKHcNb2mlF0z-Bx7ZKAM9lMQxZXn09MdModEogRGrxHGBmx2-bIvpVQCnQS-JNungFdlm6iWuimwiSl-VG0dQYS-NK_asx2XdKu1qViK0-LIJHKsWnoVAw1/s1600/Producers+Guild+Of+America+Awards-2014+the+winners.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghfdyea_5qe0YPVxAd3lKHcNb2mlF0z-Bx7ZKAM9lMQxZXn09MdModEogRGrxHGBmx2-bIvpVQCnQS-JNungFdlm6iWuimwiSl-VG0dQYS-NK_asx2XdKu1qViK0-LIJHKsWnoVAw1/s1600/Producers+Guild+Of+America+Awards-2014+the+winners.jpg" /></a></div><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><b>Award Darryl F. Zanuck named Best Producer of the film</b> - "Gravity" and "12 years of slavery" <br /> <br /><b> named Danny Thomas Award Best Producer of the comedy television series</b> - "Modern Family" <br /> <br /><b> the Norman Felton Award Best Producer of the dramatic television series</b> - "Breaking Bad" <br /> <br /><b> Award David L Volpera Best Producer hour television series </b>- "For candelabra" <br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of the animated film</b> - "Cold Heart" <br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of the show with a live broadcast or a TV show</b> - "The Colbert Report" <br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of the documentary</b> - "We steal secrets History WikiLeaks" <br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of reality TV or competitive show </b>- "Voice of America" ​​<br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of the documentary program</b> - "Anthony Bourdain: No pre-orders" <br /> <br /><b> Best Producer of children's TV program</b> - "Sesame Street" <br /> <br /> Recall that in 71 percent of cases, the film won the prize of the Producers Guild, then won the "Oscar". <br /> <br /> But interestingly - among this year's nominees was not tape Coen Brothers' Inside Lewin Davis ", which was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as other important film awards.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* boton */ google_ad_slot = "4392536701"; google_ad_width = 200; google_ad_height = 90; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>

Producers Guild Of America Awards-2014: the winners

That ended with an awards ceremony Producers Guild Of America Awards-2014, in which the 25th time the U.S. Producers Guild presented their...

Read more »

Margot Robbie replace Amanda Seyfried on the set of new movie

<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT3n-V88yudfASXMJZbMTB7iImUUr4B8-RfFApHJJ0C6hsObeiOpUP28U4RqYN_2oQcYUFyRg8pLofKPweve_pFpfACwTxixSNYTTObefFBvSFdZFzgxArVltTlGr3wF0zNY966mW/s1600/Margot+Robbie+replace+Amanda+Seyfried+on+the+set+of+new+movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT3n-V88yudfASXMJZbMTB7iImUUr4B8-RfFApHJJ0C6hsObeiOpUP28U4RqYN_2oQcYUFyRg8pLofKPweve_pFpfACwTxixSNYTTObefFBvSFdZFzgxArVltTlGr3wF0zNY966mW/s1600/Margot+Robbie+replace+Amanda+Seyfried+on+the+set+of+new+movie.jpg" /></a></div><br />Certainly, the world fame came to 23-year-old <b><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2013/11/will-smith-and-margot-robbie-at.html" target="_blank">Margot Robbie</a></b> after filming the Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." After participating in this project, the actress did not exactly have any problems with the work. So, just yesterday it was announced that Robbie replace <b><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/search/label/Amanda%20Seyfried" target="_blank">Amanda Seyfried</a></b> in the new movie "Z - Zechariah means" (Z for Zachariah). <br /> <br /><center><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* video */ google_ad_slot = "9278264705"; google_ad_width = 300; google_ad_height = 250; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script></center><br /><br /> Reported that in a fantastic picture as leading roles went to Chris Pine and Hollywood starlets Chiwetel Ejiofor, nominated for "Oscar" in the category "Best Actor" for his work on tape "12 years of slavery". <br /> <br /> "Z - Zechariah means" - an adaptation of the novel by Robert C. O'Brien 1974. It is worth noting that in 2009 the script for this tape was in Hollywood "blacklist". <br /> <br /> The plot story of a teenage girl who survived after nuclear war and attacks nerve gas. A year after the tragedy, she lives in a closed valley and considers himself the only person in the world. But one day everything changed - there are other survivors who are sent to her ... <br /> <br /> In the picture, you will be directing the film industry newcomer Craig Zobel, no cost and without romantic scenes, even a love triangle there.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><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/AVvXsEgLqmSq5O_upa3llkUXlZV9EYKbl23Gz6HsgnDIsD3Nw5xG-2pkKCLj5-u1199As8iTcsb-AJUvF8Wf7S7OqqlNE1yjMmAIIbHYtg4roxIdmFpPbKoAQIiUzLHqy6QNX9hh25YwEsvc/s1600/Margot+Robbie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Margot Robbie" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLqmSq5O_upa3llkUXlZV9EYKbl23Gz6HsgnDIsD3Nw5xG-2pkKCLj5-u1199As8iTcsb-AJUvF8Wf7S7OqqlNE1yjMmAIIbHYtg4roxIdmFpPbKoAQIiUzLHqy6QNX9hh25YwEsvc/s1600/Margot+Robbie.jpg" title="Margot Robbie" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Margot Robbie</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><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/AVvXsEhuPldUeflQbr9AF07DVZe_VN4e7-nadtF81jX0dTIn8RSM8kM7qQ_iRXEEObQVAlFKzdEIlJHs8u4_4_i0MuY7Y1a4yku0KKuGR5XbVxdx1Sru8vODsOV3jXKxMOCsLQafXnfqmfp8/s1600/Amanda+Seyfried.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Amanda Seyfried" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPldUeflQbr9AF07DVZe_VN4e7-nadtF81jX0dTIn8RSM8kM7qQ_iRXEEObQVAlFKzdEIlJHs8u4_4_i0MuY7Y1a4yku0KKuGR5XbVxdx1Sru8vODsOV3jXKxMOCsLQafXnfqmfp8/s1600/Amanda+Seyfried.jpg" title="Amanda Seyfried" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Amanda Seyfried</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* boton */ google_ad_slot = "4392536701"; google_ad_width = 200; google_ad_height = 90; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>

Margot Robbie replace Amanda Seyfried on the set of new movie

Certainly, the world fame came to 23-year-old Margot Robbie after filming the Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." Af...

Read more »

Justin Bieber takes a dangerous drug

<br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* bleu 280 */ google_ad_slot = "8164661108"; google_ad_width = 336; google_ad_height = 280; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br />It was learned that the young singer <b><a href="http://news-these-days.blogspot.com/2014/01/justin-bieber-advised-to-go-to-rehab.html">Justin Bieber</a></b> also has a serious addiction to drugs, and not just his friend rapper, who was recently arrested by the police in the house of the singer with cocaine. <br /> <br /> Reported that Bieber takes drugs with dangerous regularity that makes it very confused. Close because people are calling him to turn to a rehabilitation center. <br /> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* biner3 */ google_ad_slot = "7346003106"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><br /><br /> This is the increasingly popular drink called sizzurp. It is a mixture of the drug promethazine with codeine based on a carbonated beverage, usually Sprite. Sometimes this stuff doing in the form of jelly sweets. All served in a seemingly harmless way, but experienced addicts simply take the same codeine tablets, so the difference is not great. Especially because the drug can cause seizures and even more.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5wAkNQSQdX72Ln2qu1HB7yuKS6QjZIDWrQmeP1ogzH3XRrB_oX2-tquvu7urnaptgY4AS0D6UDhTJv3F6G8_lu3nWd2huGolotz2_FyjOj1ncjQfktpNRLF1CFwVFZIoQdAECXG97/s1600/drug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="drug" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5wAkNQSQdX72Ln2qu1HB7yuKS6QjZIDWrQmeP1ogzH3XRrB_oX2-tquvu7urnaptgY4AS0D6UDhTJv3F6G8_lu3nWd2huGolotz2_FyjOj1ncjQfktpNRLF1CFwVFZIoQdAECXG97/s1600/drug.jpg" title="drug" /></a>While Bieber also takes a lot of drugs together with alcohol and marijuana. <br /> <br /> Although relatives and friends of Justin hasten his address to experts, the guy is in no hurry to do so. And this despite the fact that he recently reteamed with Selena Gomez, who is very strictly relates to this. <br /> <br /> Recall that last week in the house was searched Bieber at the request of his neighbor, who accused the singer of throwing of eggs. As a result, police arrested Justin VISITING rapper, who found cocaine.<br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "ca-pub-8441125172513237"; /* boton */ google_ad_slot = "4392536701"; google_ad_width = 200; google_ad_height = 90; //--></script><script type="text/javascript" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script>

Justin Bieber takes a dangerous drug

It was learned that the young singer Justin Bieber also has a serious addiction to drugs, and not just his friend rapper, who was recently...

Read more »