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admin on May 29, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Entertainment, Environment, Family, General, Lifestyle, Money & Finance, Pets, Real Estate, Technology, Travel & Holidays, World News | Leave a Comment
And celebrate The Constitution.
Bloomsbury, the publisher of the hugely successful Harry Potter novels, has paid £9.96 million for Tottel Publishing, the Haywards Heath-based professional and academic specialist. Bloomsbury says it now has a “solid platform” in the professional and academic sector and will continue to expand.
Founded in 2004, Tottel has not captured the hearts of the reading public in the manner in which its founders must have hoped. Its
historical name sounded to many modern ears like a cross between “totter” and “bottle”, and many authors of law works published under the illustrious Butterworths imprint were dismayed to find that their works had been apparently sold
en masse when LexisNexis Butterworths looked as though it were conducting a fire-sale. Readers found the original version of Tottel’s website quite unnavigable. The company has recently improved its list of law titles but continues to sell some shockers, together with some very out-of-date titles that do not come with a health warning. Some legal authors have also felt that the company has been less than successful in promoting their titles — though that is a complaint which, rightly or wrongly, is aimed at pretty well all publishers at one time or another.
Presumably Bloomsbury has done its due diligence and knows exactly what it’s getting. If it can calm the nerves of the authors whose period with Tottel has been unsettling and keep them within its stable, £9.96 million may be a fair price — but traditional books aren’t selling like hot cakes any more in an electronic environment and Tottel’s list of titles doesn’t seem to be available for e-book readers.
For further information see reports in the
FT and
Telegraph
If you are not reading Daily Yonder, this is a good time to begin.
A Minnesota Republican today said something to the effect that Norm Coleman should not run for governor of Minnesota, because he could not even beat Al Franken–i.e., a comedian.
Some of the smartest and wisest people in history, though, have also been very funny. Shakespeare was funny. Benjamin Franklin was funny. Mark Twain was funny. Will Rogers was funny. Jon Stewart is funny. My wife is funny. And I would take any one of them over the vast majority of current Senators. Of the Senate’s many problems, one near the top of the list is how seriously Senators take themselves; how utterly bereft of humor they are (and this is a bipartisan affliction). I hope very much that Franken takes his job seriously, and I think he will. But I also hope he stays funny.
Today, the Department of Labor released their latest read of Joblessness showing seasonally adjusted “initial” unemployment claims declined 16,000 to 614,000 from last week’s upwardly revised 630,000 claims while “continued” claims decreased 53,000 resulting in an “insured” unemployment rate of 5.0%.
It’s important to note that the two most significant periods for job cuts on a non-seasonally adjusted basis is January 15 and July 15 so as July and clearer visibility on H2 quickly approaches it will be interesting to see how initial jobless claims fares.
Also, the continuing claims series is presenting the clearest picture of what is likely to be one of the most problematic aspects of this period of economic crisis namely how to make an immense and growing number of highly specialized (college educated) service/professional service workers productive again.
It’s obvious now that we have reached the first real test of our majority services-based economy.
Unlike the “tech-wreck” of 2000-2002, our current downturn is very broad, leaving no sector and virtually no corner of the country untouched.
With millions of college educated workers now on the market incomes will clearly suffer but moreover, it will be soon all too clear that our prior bubble economy significantly overproduced service workers (particularly professional service workers) for which current employment opportunities will be scant resulting in continued and fundamental vicious-cycle effects.
The following chart shows the recent trend in initial non-seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims with the year-over-year percent change acting as a rough equivalent of a seasonally adjustment.
Historically, unemployment claims both “initial” and “continued” (ongoing claims) are a good leading indicator of the unemployment rate and inevitably the overall state of the economy.
I have added a chart to the lineup which shows “population adjusted” continued claims (ratio of unemployment claims to the non-institutional population) and the unemployment rate since 1967.
Adjusting for the general increase in population tames the continued claims spike down a bit but as you can see, the pattern is still indicating that recession has arrived.
The following chart (click for larger version) shows “initial” and “continued” claims, averaged monthly, overlaid with U.S. recessions since 1967 and from 2000.
NOTE: The charts below plot a “monthly” average NOT a 4 week moving average so the latest monthly results should be considered preliminary until the complete monthly results are settled by the fourth week of each following month.
As you can see, acceleration to claims generally precedes recessions.
Also, acceleration and deceleration of unemployment claims has generally preceded comparable movements to the unemployment rate by 3 – 8 months (click for larger version).
In the above charts you can see, especially for the last three post-recession periods, that there has generally been a steep decline in unemployment claims and the unemployment rate followed by a “flattening” period of employment and subsequently followed by even further declines to unemployment as growth accelerated.
This flattening period demarks the “mid-cycle slowdown” where for various reasons growth has generally slowed but then resumed with even stronger growth.
Until late 2007, one could make the case (as Fed chief Ben Bernanke surly did) that we were again experiencing simply a mid-cycle slowdown but now those hopes are long gone.
Adding a little more data shows that in the early 2000s we experienced a period of economic growth unlike the past several post-recession periods.
Look at the following chart (click for larger version) showing “initial” and “continued” unemployment claims, the ratio of non-farm payrolls to non-institutional population and single family building permits since 1967.
The most notable feature of the post-“dot com” recession era that is, unlike other recent post-recession eras, job growth has been very weak, not succeeding to reach trend growth as had minimally accomplished in the past.
Another feature is that housing was apparently buffeted by the response to the last recession, preventing it from fully correcting thus postponing the full and far more severe downturn to today.
It is now completely clear that the potential “mid-cycle” slowdown that appeared to be shaping up in late 2007, had been traded for a less severe downturn in the aftermath of the “dot-com” recession, and now has we have fully entered, instead, a mid-cycle meltdown.
Flippish.com is finally launched and the party started at Fiamma bar in Jupiter St. Makati. The crew and people of Flippish.com (tagged as the VIPs) were there and introduced to the public the various shows of Flippish.com and also upcoming series. Bands and rappers performed during intermission break. Event was hosted by Roxanne Barcelo.
Me and blogger friends were there to support Kring’s online tv network. Looks like that TV will be dead for good and online entertainment will be the new past times of internet geeks.
visit www.flippish.com for fresh flip show
more photos at Flippish.com launching party @ Fiamma
(I got nearly drunk haahaha, thanks to that The Bar vodka)
AP
3 July 2009
The International Criminal Court says Kenya will ask it to investigate violence that followed disputed 2007 elections if the country’s Parliament cannot agree on how to prosecute perpetrators.
The world’s first permanent war crimes court also says Kenya will turn over details of its investigation to prosecutors in The Hague to allow them to begin “preliminary examinations”.
The statement was issued after Kenya’s Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo met the court’s prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, on Friday.
Riots and politically-motivated ethnic fighting killed more than 1,000 people after Kenya’s disputed presidential election.
A government commission recommended establishing a special tribunal, but Parliament rejected the proposal in February.
Mail & Guardian
3 July 2009
by STEFAANS BRüMMER
South African mercenaries have been recruited to reinstate deposed Malagasy president Marc Ravalomanana, security-sector sources have told the Mail & Guardian.
Ravalomanana has been based at a luxury Sandton hotel since fleeing Madagascar in March.
Central to the efforts allegedly are two security operatives who participated in the failed Equatorial Guinea coup attempt five years ago.
Regional bodies have condemned Ravalomanana’s unconstitutional ouster and considered military action, but deferred to the Southern African Development Community.
The latter, chaired by President Jacob Zuma, said two weeks ago that it favoured negotiations and called on all parties to “desist from any violent solutions”.
Three sources connected to the local security sector, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the M&G of the alleged mercenary effort. The M&G also obtained a weapons procurement list allegedly circulated on behalf of the Ravalomanana camp.
Information about the alleged recruitment echoes charges by the new Malagasy regime, headed by former disc jockey and Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina.
Last week Rajoelina was quoted as saying: “There are people who are thirsty for power; there are people who are even willing to come back to power with mercenaries. Everyone is talking about it. And that is what Mr Ravalomanana is busy doing.”
Already before Rajoelina’s accession to power, his camp made accusations about South African mercenary support for Ravalomanana. The M&G has confirmed the presence of three South African “instructors” in Madagascar at the time.
On April 1, days after Ravalomanana’s departure, police reportedly searched the compound of QMM, a Rio Tinto-Malagasy joint venture that mines mineral sands, for mercenaries and weapons caches from South Africa. There were no reports of an actual find.
The pro-Rajoelina press last month made detailed allegations about a mercenary force, supposedly numbering several hundred, being recruited under contract to Ravalomanana by a United States-based private military company and involving South Africans.
Malagasy security forces went on high alert before the country’s Independence Day celebrations last Friday, when a mercenary strike was feared.
The claims include:
Two of the M&G’s sources named two private security operatives — arrested in Zimbabwe en route to the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup attempt — as central to the Malagasy recruitment effort. We have not published their names, as the claims are uncorroborated. One source claimed both had participated in a planning meeting at a lodge outside Pretoria some weeks ago. The other said he had information about both having been to see Ravalomanana at his Sandton hotel the week before last.
A third source spoke of people “trying to book an airlift for a collection of bouncers and thugs to recapture Antananarivo”. He named a person with alleged knowledge of the operation. The M&G spoke to this person, who is politically well connected but whose name is withheld because the allegations are uncorroborated. He confirmed having introduced Ravalomanana to South African politicians but said he had no knowledge of recruitment other than that of personnel to protect Ravalomanana in South Africa.
A report by a private intelligence operative last month stated: “Rumours of possible military action are doing the rounds in South Africa … According to these reports Ravalomanana has, with some South African former military elements, been involved in planning a possible retake of the island using South Africa as a staging point.”
A “weapons request” obtained by the M&G lists a requirement for hundreds of Raptor assault rifles, Truvelo sniper rifles, thousands of grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition. The list allegedly originated in Swaziland, where Ravalomanana met King Mswati III days after he was ousted. Raptor and Truvelo rifles are locally made.
The marked men
When the Malagasy media outed a group of South African “mercenaries” serving then-president Ravalomanana, they were marked men.
On March 12, with Ravalomanana’s grip on power slipping, newspaper La Verité proclaimed: “The presence of foreign mercenaries on Malagasy soil is no longer false rumours circulated by the local press. They were at the Place du 13 Mai last Wednesday, March 4, giving orders to Malagasy officers.”
The newspaper named five South Africans who had entered Madagascar as guests of Ravalomanana’s presidency. The newspaper speculated that this constituted “high treason” on the president’s part.
The South African embassy wrote to La Verité in response, defending two of the men, “diplomat” Mmatlou Moja and helicopter pilot Mathew Beresford-Carter, pointing out that the former was part of an official South African fact-finding mission and the latter was employed by a private company on long-term contract to the Malagasy government. It said it had no knowledge of the remaining three men. The M&G has established that Moja, the “diplomat”, is in fact employed by the South African Secret Service, which would have had reason to participate in a fact-finding mission. Beresford-Carter told the M&G this week: “I was there purely to be a pilot for the president to fly him around … As far as I’m concerned I was never a mercenary.”
He said that his helicopter was shot at when he was asked to fly an Israeli and a Russian who inspected incidents of unrest. After he was named in the media, he had to go into hiding in the South African embassy. He was “smuggled out” three weeks later, after Ravalomanana was toppled.
The M&G tracked down two of the other men named. Charles Skog, who recruits security operatives and other professionals to work internationally, confirmed taking a team of two to Madagascar, on what would have been a “big contract” to help in riot control and instruct the local military in handling such situations.
He left for South Africa after a week, after which things went “haywire” and he had to get his colleagues out. He denied he was a mercenary. “I have absolutely no interest in red zones.”
Skog’s colleague, Gerhard de Klerk, told the M&G that after being “branded” a mercenary, he and his remaining colleague, Werner Erasmus, were advised by Ravalomanana’s government to “get out as a faction of the military was after us”.
De Klerk described attempting to reinforce protection at Ravalomanana’s palace in Antananarivo and private estate south of the capital and to instruct an “unreceptive” military in riot techniques.
So here’s the full music video for Eminem’s latest single “Beautiful” off his album Relapse in stores now. Check it out!
