Most Expensive Cities

World's Most Expensive Cities
by Zack O'Malley Greenburg

Prices show no sign of dropping in Moscow, this year's most expensive place to live.
In 1998, Moscow was in crisis. More than 100,000 Russians took to the streets as a slew of banks--and the life savings of millions of citizens--went bust.
But just a decade later, the global commodities boom has made Russia flush with cash, and Moscow has become a pricey place to live.

That's the finding in Mercer's 2008 Worldwide Cost of Living Survey. Moscow tops the list with a score of 142.4, up 6% from last year--and 42% higher than New York, the most expensive city in the U.S. The Russian capital is followed by Tokyo; London; Oslo, Norway; and Seoul, South Korea.

Full story at:http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/105443/World

Ditos que marcam

"Há dois José Sócrates: o que fecha serviços e o que os abre." - Gonçalo Pereira, in 24 horas

"A maioria do PS em relação à corrupção tem mostrado uma inépcia altamente suspeita." - Saldanha Sanches, in Correio da Manhã

"O discurso do Partido Socialista sobre a corrupção, mais do que incompetente é suspeito". Eduardo Dâmaso, Idem

"[O PS] está barricado em argumentos que só favorecem a impunidade. Para quem fala assim, só falta mesmo um rastilho de um ou dois casos mal explicados para perder eleições." - Idem, Idem

Karadzic

"Qu'il soit jugé, mais aussi son projet", demandent ses victimes
LE MONDE

SARAJEVO, CORRESPONDANCE

L'arrestation de Radovan Karadzic a donné de nouveaux espoirs aux associations de défenseurs des victimes de la guerre en Bosnie-Herzégovine. Certains, comme Alisa Muratcaus, directrice de l'Association pour les survivants des camps (canton de Sarajevo), parle de "moment historique" et d'autres, comme Bakira Hasetic, présidente de l'Association des femmes victimes, de la "fin d'un monstre".

Voir: http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2008/07/23/qu-il-soit-juge-mais-aussi-son-projet-demandent-ses-victimes_1076255_3214.html#ens_id=1075781&xtor=RSS-3208

Nelson Mandela

Ícone da luta contra o apartheid, Mandela comemora 90 anos


"Nelson Mandela, ícone do movimento contra o apartheid e primeiro presidente negro da África do Sul (1994-1999), denunciou a pobreza no país ao celebrar nesta sexta-feira com a família seu aniversário de 90 anos. Ele também se disse comovido pelas mensagens de felicitações chegadas do mundo inteiro.

"Há muitas pessoas na África do Sul que são ricas e que podem compartilhar essas riquezas com aqueles que não são tão afortunados e que não conseguiram vencer a pobreza", disse aos jornalistas quando perguntaram se ele tinha uma mensagem para o mundo no dia do aniversário. "Nosso povo é vítima da pobreza. Se você é pobre, é possível que não viva muito tempo", acrescentou."

da Folha Online.com.br

Ditos que marcam

"Não há inocentes; só aqueles que ainda não nasceram ou os que já estão mortos podem aspirar à inocência." - Stig Dagerman, escritor sueco (1923-1954)

"Em Portugal, dizer mal é o que está a dar(...) O director de um orgão de comunicação social que queira manter ou subir nas audiências tem de ter alguém que diga mal, mesmo muito mal e com estridência." - Alberto Castro, in Jornal de Notícias

"O debate sobre o racismo em Portugal está confinado ao preto e branco. Mas em tempo de convivência & guerrilha multicultural convinha que alargássemos o espectro - o racisno é uma doença perigosa que não é exclusiva dos brancos." - Francisco José Viegas, in Correio da Manhã

"Há uma realidade incontornável: os programas governamentais que alegadamente desenvolvem políticas de inclusão não funcionam. (...) Vivem dissociados da realidade dos bairros e são meras agências de emprego político." - Eduardo Dâmaso, Idem

Lou Pearlman

Boy band promoter ordered to repay victims $300M

By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. - Lou Pearlman and federal authorities have finally agreed on how much the former boy band promoter swindled from banks and investors in a decades-long scam: a staggering $300 million.

That's how much creator of the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync will have to repay, at a minimum, for restitution on the fraud conviction for which he's serving a 25-year prison sentence.
U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharpe on Wednesday asked prosecutors and defense attorneys to amend court documents with the agreed amount.

It will be difficult for Pearlman to repay all the money while he is behind bars. Pearlman made millions in the record industry in the 1990s, but investigators have found that money and more seemingly gone with the collapse of his Ponzi scheme.

He's been allowed to manage — at arm's length — the few remaining music acts he still has. He could also offer wages from whatever job he gets in federal prison, ranging from 12 cents an hour to $1.15 an hour for top-scale factory work.
Full story at:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080716/ap_on_bi_ge/people_lou_pearlman

Polemical Cartoon

This is the cartoon published recently in the THE NEW YORKER showing the Obama couple in the Oval Room at the White House, Washington.

There is a lot of simbology in this drawing and certainly it was done with some intention of calling the attention regarding the values regarding the candidate for the next run.

But there is one fundamental question, wich solution will be only known after next October. Is the american people prepared to accept one afro-american as president of this multi-cultural contry?

Louis Le Nain

Louis Le Nain

"There are indications that sometime between 1626 and 1630 Louis must have gone to Rome, for the influence of the Netherlandish artists painting in Rome at the time, the Bamboccianti, or painters of small low-life scenes, particularly that of Pieter van Laer, is strong, as is that of Orazio Gentileschi.

A Roman sojourn is implied also by the reflections in subject matter, composition, and mood in Louis's Peasant Family (ca. 1645-1648) and the Procession of the Ram of The Drunkards by the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, who was in Rome in 1629-1630. Louis Le Nain's expressive content differs, however, from the vulgar bravado and hilarity of contemporary Dutch painters of the peasantry.

Such a work as his Peasants in the Country dignifies and memorializes into frozen, immutable silence his subjects, calmly posed like monoliths among the carefully selected paraphernalia of the barnyard. These immortal peasants sit among the tokens of an earthly pilgrimage with the hushed deference which bespeaks an awareness of their being the guests of God. Their environment is lonely, the landscape airless, anticipating the aridity of some surrealistic paintings."

Louis Le Nain

Louis Le Nain

"There are indications that sometime between 1626 and 1630 Louis must have gone to Rome, for the influence of the Netherlandish artists painting in Rome at the time, the Bamboccianti, or painters of small low-life scenes, particularly that of Pieter van Laer, is strong, as is that of Orazio Gentileschi.

A Roman sojourn is implied also by the reflections in subject matter, composition, and mood in Louis's Peasant Family (ca. 1645-1648) and the Procession of the Ram of The Drunkards by the Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, who was in Rome in 1629-1630. Louis Le Nain's expressive content differs, however, from the vulgar bravado and hilarity of contemporary Dutch painters of the peasantry.

Such a work as his Peasants in the Country dignifies and memorializes into frozen, immutable silence his subjects, calmly posed like monoliths among the carefully selected paraphernalia of the barnyard. These immortal peasants sit among the tokens of an earthly pilgrimage with the hushed deference which bespeaks an awareness of their being the guests of God. Their environment is lonely, the landscape airless, anticipating the aridity of some surrealistic paintings."

Power jobs

The New Power Jobs

by Heather Boerner, for Yahoo! HotJobs

"These aren't just hot jobs, they're sizzling jobs," said Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association. Wind energy grew by 45 percent last year. "We need every type of job candidate."

Indeed, with oil topping $100 per barrel, expect power industry jobs to explode in the next 10 years -- and not just in petroleum or the electric company. Want to repair wind turbines, manage a nuclear reactor or install solar panels? The jobs await.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and energy leaders reveal what fields are expected to grow, and they are listed below with projected growth levels through 2016, salary data, and what you need to get a related job.


http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-the_new_power_jobs-449

San Fermin Festival

Revelers are chased by Dolores Aguirre's ranch fighting bulls on the six day of the running of the bulls during the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, Saturday, July 12, 2008. The fiestas 'Los San Fermines' held since 1591, attracts tens of thousands of foreign visitors each year for nine days of revelry, morning bull-runs and afternoon bullfights.
(AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Picture cames tru

Italian crime drama unmasks alleged gangster

"Gomorra," the organized-crime tale that won rave reviews at Cannes in May, is helping the Italian police track down real criminals.

According to the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera, the film was screened at a Naples prison where inmates in jail for activities related to the Gomorra -- Naples' version of the Mafia -- recognized one of their own among the film's cast.

The actor, credited in the film as Giovanno Venosa, who is reported to be a wanted organized crime figure with a passion for acting, ended up as part of the no-name cast that director Matteo Garrone selected for the film. He tried out in an open audition and won a role.

Police said they easily tracked him down and that he was placed in prison in the northern Italian city of Modena, near Bologna.

"We would have never known Venosa was who we were looking for if he had not been recognized by the inmates who saw the film," a spokesman for the Carabinieri in Naples said in a telephone interview.

In the film, the character played by Venosa killed two teenagers. Police did not say which crime he has been accused of in real life.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/va/20080707/121542264200.html

Cartoons

Ditos

"Vão surgir novas formas de protesto social deconhecidas no século XX. A vulnerabilidade do Estado será visível em muitas delas." - Boaventura de Sousa Santos , in Visão

"Não falta em Portugal quem entenda que o País devia ser apenas o Estado protector que a todos daria cama, mesa e roupa lavada, sem saber explicar de onde choveriam as notas para essa farra." - Alexandre Pais, in Record

"Criou-se um clima de maledicência geral que afunda o estado real do país e o clima social da sua população. Quanto mais se fizer passar a ideia de que o pais está no charco, melhor." - Paquete de Oliveira, in Jornal de Notícias

"As crises fazem pelas sociedades aquilo que nem as melhores teorias económicas (ou de gestão) conseguem fazer: obrigam à mudança." - Camilo Lourenço, in Jornal de Negócios

"Em Portugal as "elites" rarmente fala,m de livros, e não sabem sequer pronunciar o nome dos autores da moda. O 'star system' português é muito pouco alfabetizado, de facto." - Francisco José Viegas, in Correio da Manhã

Máxima

"O mal não deve ser imputado apenas àqueles que o praticam, mas também àqueles que poderiam tê-lo evitado e que não o fizeram." - Tucídedes, historiador grego (460a.C. - 396 a.C.)

O que vimos e ouvimos...

- A libertação de Ingrid Betancourt e mais 14 reféns
- As escolhas de Marcelo - Jaime Silva (Ministro de Agricultura), a pessoa mais incompetente do mundo
-Alberto João Jardim - Nosso PM é o Mugabe da Europa
Petróleo - bate novo record de 146,34 dólares (92,18 euros) o barril, em Londres
- Robert Mogabe - reeleito chefe de Estado do Zimbabwe
- Polónia recusa assinar o Tratado de Lisboa