The Canadian Press - PARIS - France's government says unemployment fell slightly in the second quarter to 9.7 per cent, the first drop in two years.

French unemployment was supposed to keep rising... but it actually dropped in the second quarter, for the first time since the crisis, surprising analysts:

Bloomberg:

The jobless rate dropped to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in the three months through March, Paris-based statistics office Insee said today. Economists forecast an increase to 10 percent, based on the median of seven estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

France’s economic expansion accelerated to 0.6 percent in the second quarter from 0.2 percent. With growth picking up, companies such as BNP Paribas SA, cosmetics maker L’Oreal SA and computer consultant Cap Gemini have said they are taking on workers. That helped jobless claims decline in both June and July after reaching a five-year high of 2.7 million.

“The job market is stabilizing and we hope that will continue,” Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said today on LCI television. “This is really good news for the economy.”

Read more here >

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Today we were dealt surprise news that French unemployment is falling for the first time since the crisis. A day ago Markit's manufacturing index for the Eurozone beat expectations (despite falling to a year-to-date low).

In addition, according to a Reuters poll, economists expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to hike its GDP growth forecasts today. Thing is, even some better news on the economic front is unlikely to spur higher interest rates from Europe until the end of 2011, based on consensus:

Reuters:

All 78 economists in a Reuters poll predicted the ECB would leave rates at a record low 1 percent for the 16th month in a row in September and the median expectation is for no change until the fourth quarter of 2011.

The ECB's 22-member Governing Council is likely to decide to keep lending banks unlimited funds until early next year at the meeting which began as scheduled at 0700 GMT (3 a.m. EDT), maintaining the lifeline relied on by banks in countries like Spain, Ireland and Greece.

...

Most economists in the Reuters poll expect growth for 2010 to be revised up from June's mid-point of 1 percent but for the outlook for 2011 to remain around 1.2 percent.

The message is clear in both the U.S. and Europe -- monetary policy will remain ultra-loose even if the economy is growing moderately. Central banks are at pains to err on the side of caution, which is good news for whatever benefits from low rates.

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ASIA: Surged after yesterday's U.S. melt-up. Japan took the lead. Gartner increased its 2010 semiconductor sales forecasts to +31.5% growth vs. 2009, from 27.1% previously, helping chip makers in Asia. The Royal Bank of Australia's commodity index shot back up to its old highs. Chinese auto sales in August rose a whopping 55.7% year over year.

Apparently the yen doesn't matter anymore, for today at least, as the yen is strengthening, and pretty close to taking out the 84 per dollar level.

Weakness continued however for Chinese property developers. Note that yesterday mainland stocks were ship-sawed by fresh words of caution from China's banking regulator about the property market. Poly Real Estate hit a 2-week low, yet China's property company Vanke continues to defy the odds and rose again today.

EUROPE: Fighting for direction. French stocks are struggling to go positive despite the fact that French unemployment unexpectedly fell for the first time since the crisis, to 9.7% vs. 9.9%. Unemployment was actually expected to rise to 10%.

The European Central Bank is expected to hike its GDP forecasts today, but most economists don't expect a rate hike according to a Reuters poll, and actually the consensus view is that we won't see a rate hike until the end of 2011. The euro is above $1.28, but has been choppy.

The Greek ten-year bond yield is rising. UPDATE: Eurozone GDP grew 1% in the second quarter, according to Eurostat.

MACRO: Gold is moving up again, after losing some ground yesterday. The Baltic Dry Index is stable. The Euro is above $1.28 again.

U.S. FUTURES: Are taking a breather after yesterday's rampage. Watch for initial jobless claims and productivity at 8:30 AM ET, and factory orders and pending home sales at 10:00 AM.

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This cross is made of cypress. It is about 2 1/2 inches thick, 9 feet tall, and 6 feet wide. It is made from 8 quarter boards ripped on the band saw about 3 inches wide. Every other is flipped and glued back together to prevent warping. On top it has book matched 4 quarter cypress gouged to create a rough surface.

My friend Jim on the left and I did this during the hottest part of the summer a couple of years ago. We had to do much of the work outside because it would not fit in my modest shop.

It is dyed with Behlen Fruitwood dye, then one coat of shellac, General Finishes Candlelight, then several coats of polyurethane.

It is mounted with French cleats on 6 inch spacers from the wall.

It is more impressive than these small pictures convey.

John

FREEDOM ALWAYS WINS.

View full size photo »

Are the terrorists going to win? Did the Holocaust really happen? Who's the best pilot, Mav? Do you support the troops? Do these colors run? How do you spell "Ahmadinejad"?

All questions that figure to be answered this afternoon in Turkey. And I'll tell you what, my red-blooded American friend, we're going to go out there and kick some Iranian ass, and then celebrate the only way we know how. By getting drunk on some domestic beer, getting in our car, and taking a goddamn victory lap.

It's a beautiful day in America, I have unlimited access to YouTube and ESPN and Diet Coke and all the other freedoms that make this country great, and that means I'm keeping a running diary of Team USA's matchup with Iran this afternoon. Why? Because we can't fight the oil spill, so this'll have to do. LET'S GET IT ON.

(All times Eastern Standard Time)

12:03 — And we're under way live from Turkey, where... Apparently the fans didn't share my enthusiasm for this particular freedom fight. We begin the game with an Iranian turnover, and then a Derrick Rose to Kevin Durant alley-oop to set the tone Kevin Durant passing the ball to the scorers table, 45 feet away from the hoop.

"If they lose this game," Fran Fraschilla tells us, "It's the biggest upset in international play in a long, long time." It'd also be a bittersweet victory for fascism and insanely hypocritical regimes. 

• Sweet, because, "Hey! Iran pulled off the third-world version of the Miracle on Ice."
• Bitter because, if that happened, Coach K's reputation would take a serious hit.
  

12:05 — Durant gets caught clearly mouthing the words "F--K!" after a missed three, reaffirming my faith in his ability to lead this country. That's not me being snarky, either; Kevin Durant seems like the nicest, most humble dude in the world off the court, but when the games begin, he turns into a straight up killer. When things don't go LeBron's way, he pouts. When things don't go Durant's way, he curses loudly at himself. That's more important than you'd think.

12:06 — Fraschilla: "It's going to be a long day for Iran, because..." 

And really, there are a lot of different directions he could have taken this one.

"...because their best player is the worst player on the Memphis Grizzlies."

"...because even FIBA refs can't close a 30 point gap."

"...because it turns out, Team USA got to the arena safely, after all."

"...because Kevin Love thinks they're playing Iraq."

What he said, "...because they just don't have the athleticism."

Or, my personal favorite, "...because freedom always wins."

12:07 — Fraschilla: "You get everybody's best shot when you're coached by Coach K." Right. That's definitely why we're getting everyone's best shot.

12:08 — GAHHHH! Iran takes a 5-3 lead on a wide-open three. How did Lamar Odom miss that rotation? Oh God, it's because we didn't sing the anthem... We forgot about the anthem!

There. Much better. Jimi shreds, and KD hits a three. God Bless the USA.

12:09 — Hamed Haddadi, the Iranian's lone NBA player and the first-ever to make that jump, is called a "quiet trailblazer" by the announcing team.

12:11 — Chauncey opts against a lay-up and throws away a transition alley-oop to KD. This is a good place to talk about Team USA's biggest problem in International Hoops: We don't give a shit. We say the right things, we've gotten better at picking the right players, and everybody sincerely wants to win Gold.

But that's only half the battle. The problem we have is that in the end, this means nothing to someone like Derrick Rose or Kevin Durant. It's not politically correct to say this now, because USA Basketball has made a concerted effort to get better, and make winning these competitions a high priority for everyone involved. And again, everyone's saying the right things, dedicating their summer to the cause, and representing Team USA with as much class as possible.

It's all well and good, and hopefully the Americans can pull it out. But compare these games to an NBA playoff game. Would Chauncey have gone for the alley-oop if this was the Western Conference Finals?

The problem relates the American sub-conscious. For American kids, an NBA championship is the crowning achievement, and playing for USA Basketball is "just something great players do sometimes." Because of that, even with this roster—America's "C" team, realistically—everyone's so talented, it's hard for anyone to expect them to take these games as seriously as they take a game against the Lakers.

Want to know why USA Basketball doesn't always blow people out in international basketball? Because to Americans, this will always be an exhibition. Even if they say otherwise. Unlike their opponents, it hasn't been conditioned in them from day one to care about this stuff. And then that gets borne out in sloppy play, stupid alley-oops, and lazy defense. It just does.

This isn't groundbreaking analysis, but there's some rhetoric out there that would have you believe the U.S. suddenly doesn't have this problem anymore. That's not true, and you can see it in every game.

Plus, you know, everybody always gives Coach K's team their best shot.

12:12 — Fraschilla: "I think they need to practice some halfcourt offense."

12:16 — I got it! Hamed Haddadi looks like the guy from You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

12:17 — Fraschilla shouts out the The Painted Area, pretty much the best resource on the entire internet for international hoops analysis. Fran mentioned this post, specifically:

Brazil spread the floor well, a Magnano trademark, and would often start its sets up very high. The pick/roll coverage wasn't superb but I don't think Team USA had major breakdowns there. Team USA actually got hurt on off-ball curls nearly as much as pick/rolls.

This is not a surprise as NBA players don't see that type of off-ball movement in the U.S.--lots more moving parts to deal with in FIBA ball. Brazil ran a lot of continuity sets, like the ones Magnano's Argentina teams used to perplex Team USA with. It's not just pick/roll that befuddles Team USA, it's the off-ball action and screens coming from all angles. You will see a lot of variations on Princeton sets or flex sets in this tourney. Constant offensive motion is a staple of int'l basketball. Offenses with reads, counterplays, and counterplays to the counterplays.

If we were preparing Team USA for what to expect in this tourney, we'd tell them that it's like playing the Jazz many times. And if you ask NBA players about defending the Jazz offense, we're sure most would say it's not fun.

12:18 — A Hamed Hadaddi three, leaning into a defender, barely draws iron. Apparently, Hamed decided to deviate from the Jazz offense on that one.

It's followed by Russell Westbrook careening into the lane and missing a lay-up off the glass, before Tyson Chandler thundering home a putback dunk. This sequence epitomizes...

A) This entire game.

B) USA Basketball's inherent weakness (out of control athleticism) and inherent stengths (out of control athleticism).

C) The United States approach to military operations, whereby we attempt to settle things on the ground, but if things get out of hand, rest assured someone will come flying in from out of nowhere to shake your entire world to the core.

12:22 — "International coaches don't think tactically," explains Fraschilla. "They think strategically."

12:23 — Final U.S. possession of the quarter: "That was no passing, not a lot of movement, no recognition of the shot clock." Can the U.S. coaches begin to think like the European coaches?

12:27 — Have you ever seen "the white guy move"? You definitely have. It's the up-and-under, where you pump fake and then lean under the more athletic defender. Look:

Say this much for 'em: the Iranian team sure does a lot of white guy moves.

12:28 — Steph Curry throws an around-the-back pass to the basketball stanchion. America!

12:30 — According to Fanhouse's Tom Ziller, Team USA will likely face the winner of Angola-Germany once the elimination round begins next week. If Germany wins... You bet your ass we're running with the World War II motif. Because while Iran would like to pretend otherwise, World War II happened, and WE WON.

12:31 — Fraschilla explains that "Little nitpicky dribble penetration has been trouble for U.S.A. so far." So there's that.

12:32 — There's also this: Kevin Love is probably the most valuable player on this entire team, and definitely the best big man. He was averaging 28 rebounds per 40 minutes coming into today's matchup. Which is exactly why we're starting Lamar Odom?

12:35 — "He's not the most mobile guy in the world," explains one of the announcers. Reminds me of Eddie Murphy in Delirious: "Michael Jackson can sing, and is a good looking guy. But he ain't the most masculine fellow..."

12:39 — "If you had a draft of every player in the world... Kevin Durant would either be the number one or number two pick." Had never thought about it that way, but Fran Fraschilla's probably right. What a brilliant ambassador for the future of basketball.

...And a constant reminder of how badly Seattle got screwed by the NBA.

12:41 — Iran has a 3-on-1 against Chauncey Billups and pulls back. COWARDS.

12:41 — Iran gets an open layup for two.

12:50 — Halftime. United States leading 42-28 at halftime. Should probably be tied, but Iran has missed several wide-open threes, and looks determined to get blown out. I'd complain about the U.S. showing, but Spain is .500 in pool play, and in danger of elimination.

5.7 PPG

37.5 FG%

"There's no leadership on this team," a commentator says of the Spanish squad.

The numbers above? That's Ricky Rubio's output thus far in the FIBA Championships. Is he the next Pete Maravich, or a poor facsimile of Jose Calderon? Depends who you ask.

12:52 — Russia beats China 89-80. "Watch out for Russia" warns the announcing team.

Don't have to tell me twice, guys.

12:55 — ***Different Sport*** ESPN's Joe Schad reports that Missouri RB Derrick Washington has been "permanantly suspended" from the program.

Permanent suspension, huh? "Suspended until further notice, of which there will be none." This reminds me of Rajon Rondo leaving Team USA for "family reasons."

1:01 — Don't know if these ads were nationally televised or it was just a D.C. thing, but judging by the dancing here, Value City couches and beds are filled with PCP.

1:03 — The United States comes out of the gate with an extra dose of KICK ASS and a hint of F—K YEAH, scoring six unanswered points. Then Iran takes a timeout and we cut to a Jim Nantz commercial, just to remind everyone why this country sucks sometimes.

1:05 — "Iran does a nice job of running their offense" says Fraschilla. But this isn't true at all. There's a defense between "running a nice offense" and "waiting for the United States to get lazy." The Iranians are good at the second one, but I'm not ready to concede the first point. In related news, the U.S. lead is now 20, and we're officially in blowout territory.

1:06 — Derrick Rose blows by the entire Iran defense. Seems like a good time for this:

1:07 — The U.S. turnovers will be a huge achilles heel. That's like saying the Middle East has issues with stability. It's a lot more complicated than that, and it may never be fixed. ... What, bad example?

1:10 — Andre Iguodala has a clean block on an Iranian streaking to the hoop, and Fraschilla explains, "You have to adjust." FIBA refs are spineless, incompetent, and they tend to have a strong bias against Americans. You have to adjust, and treat them like the French.

1:12 — Fraschilla just compared Iran to a scout team. Probably time to start wrapping this up.

1:17 — Steph Curry uses a textbook white guy move to nail an open 20-footer, followed by Fraschilla calling him a "fundamentally sound player."

(Note: at 12:28 EST: "Steph Curry throws an around-the-back pass to the basketball stanchion.")

1:18 — At the same time, my colleague Mike Prada tweeted the following:

We could, Mike. We could. But then how would describe "white-looking" plays?

1:19 — "There was a time when LeBron, Kobe, Carmelo... They wouldn't be allowed to play in the 2012 Olympic Games if they didn't play in the Fiba Championships. But they relaxed those rules a little bit." 

1:22 — 34 turnovers in this game so far.

1:22 — Err... 35, now. The rest of this diary, we'll dedicate to Hamed Haddadi.

1:26 — "I'm tellin ya," Fraschilla says, "There's worse backup centers in the NBA."

WATCH HADDADI FLY.

1:29 — Haddadi has been launching threes for the entire day. He's like Omar Samahn, except two inches taller, and not as funny. Or, as our announcers tell us, "He's not quite the Shaq of Iran, but he did have a cameo in a TV Drama."

HADDADI DOES HIS OWN STUNTS.

1:34 — "You can just see the joy in his face."

...Fraschilla may try to adopt Haddadi before we're done here.

1:36 — Kevin Love knocks down an 18-foot jump shot to put the U.S. up 30. Also, Hamed "The Quiet Trailblazer" Haddadi just attempted a turnaround, fall-away baseline jumper. Just like Jordan, if Chris Kaman ever tried to imitate Michael Jordan. 

1:39 — Danny Granger knocks down a three, and suddenly, the United States is up 37. That's where we stop. 88-51 is your final score, and while it wasn't as disastrous for the Iranians as one might have hoped, I think it's clear who won the battle between Freedom and Fascism this afternoon. It wasn't the Quiet Trailblazer, folks.

On a serious note, the U.S. didn't look great, and against a better team, they'll have real trouble if they play like this again. But what do you expect? How seriously can anyone "gamplan" for someone like Hamed Haddadi? And while the halfcourt execution needs work, even I can't pin that completely on Coach K. The players have to focus on not making ridiculous passes, moving the ball, and playing within themselves for 40 minutes. When they do that, this USA team is unbeatable... But can they do that?

Today certainly didn't answer any questions on that front. But it did tell us that freedom isn't free, and these colors don't run. Or something. If you'll excuse me, I have to go get drunk, find a stock car, and do a victory lap waving an American Flag, then go meet John Daly for a quick 18 before Hooters Happy Hour. LET FREEDOM RING ALL THROUGHOUT THE FAIRWAYS OF THE WORLD.

The Obama administration is considering including infrastructure improvements and additional tax cuts in its next piece of jobs legislation. Meanwhile, an SEC decision expanding shareholder power over corporate boards has led unions to consider installing their supporters on target companies' boards. And new regulations aim to eliminate the revolving door between oil regulators and industry.

Welcome to Wonkbook.

Top Stories

The administration is considering new tax cuts and a nationwide infrastructure improvement program as part of a new jobs bill, report Deborah Solomon and Jonathan Weisman: "On the list of possible actions: additional tax cuts for small businesses beyond those included in a $30 billion small-business lending bill before the Senate. It's not clear what those tax breaks would target or how much they might cost in lost revenue to the government. Also in the mix: a possible payroll tax cut for businesses and individuals, as well as other business tax breaks, according to people familiar with the discussions."

Unions may try to install members onto corporate boards following a recent SEC decision, writes Joel Schectman: "The Change to Win Investment Group, which helps mobilize union pension funds around accountability issues, told NEWSWEEK it sees Massey Energy as 'a possible candidate' for a boardroom putsch...Unions had complained for years about safety issues at the company, and the Change to Win Investment Group had launched a campaign against the reelection of some board members last March, even before the accident. But back then, the only thing groups like Change to Win could do was lobby against management’s choices. Now they can offer the threat of their own candidates."

Head oil industry regulator Michael Bromwich has released rules meant to prevent regulator conflicts of interest, reports Stephen Power: "The Obama administration on Tuesday ordered federal offshore-oil regulators to recuse themselves from official actions involving companies that employ their family members or close friends, and placed new restrictions on regulators' oversight of companies they once worked for...Rig workers and agency employees in the Gulf Coast 'have often known one another since childhood,' according to a report published earlier this year by the Interior Department's inspector general."

French pop interlude: Phoenix plays "Napoleon Says" live.

Still to come: The Fed does not fear deflation; Harry Reid is considering using the lame duck session of Congress to pass a renewable energy standard; Minnesota may become the first state to turn down health care reform funds; and Lady Gaga as played from a belltower.

Economy/FinReg

Despite disagreements on what action to take, Federal Reserve policymakers agree on the state of the economy, reports Neil Irwin: "Most meeting participants, who included the five then-serving Fed governors and 12 presidents of Fed regional banks, 'saw the incoming data as indicating that the economy was operating farther below its potential than they had thought'...Fed officials did not see much risk of deflation, a dangerous cycle of falling prices. 'No member saw an appreciable risk of deflation,' the minutes said, though some saw a risk that inflation would continue to decline."

Banks posted their biggest profits in almost three years last quarter: http://bit.ly/bpz7t1

The SEC has opted to not pursue a fraud case against Moody's despite evidence the firm misled investors, reports Zachary Goldfarb: "Several months later, a Moody's analyst found a mistake in the computer model that Moody's used to grade the security, according to the SEC. The mistake made the security seem less risky than it was. Moody's executives subsequently held meetings to discuss whether to disclose that the ratings had been in error. They decided not to make such an announcement, according to the SEC."

The Commerce Department refused to intervene in a dispute over Chinese currency devaluation: http://bit.ly/cF3qqY

David Leonhardt explains why not all tax cuts are created equal: "Consumers and executives didn’t rush out to spend more money in part because they understood their tax rate would still be lower months or years later. That the Reagan and Bush tax cuts went disproportionately to high-income households, which save more of their income, did not help, either. In fact, simply sending rebate checks to most households seems to have more punch. If you look at this chart, you can see that consumer spending bounced back in both the second quarter of 2008 (temporarily) and the third quarter of 2009. Those happen to be the quarters when the Treasury Department finished sending the one-time cuts from Bush and Obama."

Robert Rubin and Julian Robertson argue for the immediate return of the estate tax: http://bit.ly/ctidet

Daniel Gross thinks corporate CEOs have little reason to complain: "To review: Corporate profits have largely recovered to pre-crisis levels. A disproportionate share of economic growth is finding its way into the coffers of corporate America. CEOs are in an extremely strong negotiating position vis-à-vis their employees. And yet America's bosses think they are members of an oppressed minority."

Home prices rose in June but are poised to fall in the future: http://bit.ly/9PCagD

Campus-wide pop interlude: Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" played on a bell tower.

Energy

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate may be able to pass a renewable energy standard, reports Ben Geman: "Before the August recess, Reid said he doubted an RES -- which would require utilities to provide escalating amounts of power from sources like wind and solar energy -- could win 60 votes...But Reid told reporters on a conference call Tuesday the energy bill is still a work in progress and cited two Republicans who have expressed interest in an RES. He did not name them. One could be Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who has called for including an RES in energy legislation. Reid said he planned to speak with the two Republicans soon."

A new poll suggests widespread public support for EPA climate regulations: http://bit.ly/afvHxb

Both Congressional and EPA efforts to restrict mountaintop removal coal mining face resistance, reports Tom Zeller: "At least one piece of federal legislation has been floated that would curtail mountaintop removal, but it has languished in committee for over a year. For their part, the coal companies aren’t taking all this sitting down. The industry filed a lawsuit last month seeking to challenge the E.P.A.’s most recent attempts to limit so-called valley fills -- a tack that, if it sticks, would make most mountaintop removal difficult, if not impossible. After all, what to do with all the debris?"

Fannie and Freddie are refusing to support a program funding home efficiency improvements: http://bit.ly/b5UZpK

Some climate advocates are considering focusing their appeal to Republican legislators, writes Daniel Stone: "'Maybe the science and environmental community needs to appeal directly to the GOP,' says Paul Bledsoe, a strategist for the National Commission on Energy Policy, an arm of the Bipartisan Policy Center. That sounds like a nonstarter to Republicans burned by the sometimes vicious advocacy of environmental demonstrators. One frequent target was Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who was often called a 'shill for big oil.' At one point Greenpeace protesters unfurled a banner in the Hart Senate Office Building, accusing Murkowski of being in bed with oil companies."

Edward Glaeser argues for immigration as a climate adaptation strategy: "Professor Kahn emphasizes that 'migration is crucial for reducing the costs we incur from a given shock,' that moving from places that have become less unbearably hot to places that have become more pleasant -- 'the ability to ‘vote with your feet’ and migrate to other cities' -- acts as an insurance policy. If hot places become unbearable, then once unfashionably icy places will boom. That seems reasonable to me, although there will be plenty of social loss if we abandon cities where we have invested billions in infrastructure."

Fun with farm equipment interlude: A man runs himself through a hay bailer.

Domestic Policy

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty made his the first state to reject health care reform funds, report Janet Adamy and Amy Merrick: "The order isn't likely to significantly affect how the law is applied in Minnesota. It says the state can't seek further discretionary money for demonstration projects and grant funding unless the governor approves it. In some cases, Minnesota's legislature has already put in place plans to seek federal money under those programs...Minnesota won't be restricted from participating in the biggest pieces of the overhaul, including the expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor and new tax credits to offset the cost of insurance for lower earners. Those steps take effect in 2014."

The Department of Justice is seeking a stay on a federal judge's decision blocking stem cell funding: http://bit.ly/aH4XAp

Consumers are beginning to fight false patent labeling by corporations, reports Dionne Searcey: "Lawyers for product manufacturers now fear clients are liable for up to $500 for every tube of mascara or box of garbage bags marked with an expired patent--an error that turns out to be quite common. In recent months, would-be plaintiffs have been fanning out across retail stores and the Internet searching for expired patent numbers on everything from toothpaste to toilet plungers."

Marek Brabec and John Komlos argue the American obesity epidemic, far from appearing suddenly, is almost one hundred years in the making: http://bit.ly/dBKqV2

Nathan Hegedus sings the praises of the Swedish paternity leave system: "Over the past 15 years, the streets of Stockholm have filled up with men pushing strollers. In 1995, dads took only 6 percent of Sweden's allotted 480 days of parental leave per child. Then the Swedish government set aside 30 leave days for fathers only. In 2002 the state doubled the 'daddy only' days to 60 and later added an 'equality bonus' for couples that split their leave. Now more than 80 percent of fathers take some leave, adding up to almost a quarter of all leave days."

Katrina vanden Heuvel bemoans the declining power of American labor unions: http://bit.ly/aTrVoo

Closing credits: Wonkbook is compiled with the help of Dylan Matthews and Mike Shepard. Photo credit: Ian Waldie/Bloomberg.

The Canadian Press - PARIS - French media company Vivendi says net profit fell 3.5 per cent in the second quarter amid falling revenues and fewer releases in its music business that features artists like Eminem and Lady Gaga.

French conglomerate, Vivendi has reported a 6.2% rise in its second quarter revenues to US$8.96 billion, while net profits dropped by 3.4% to US$1 billion. Click here for more.

Rentabiliweb: Record Growth in Sales and Income in H1

PR Newswire — August 31, 2010

BRUSSELS, August 31, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — – Extremely High Organic Growth: Sales up 39% – Excellent Rise in Operating Performance: EBITDA and COI up 52% – Forecasted 30% Increase in Annual Growth in Sales for 2010

In the second quarter of 2010, the Rentabiliweb Group confirmed the strong business growth seen at the beginning of the year, with an increase in sales of 39.2% over the first six months of the year, reaching EUR 41.1 million, compared to EUR 29.5 million in the first six months of 2009. Sales have risen in all of the Group’s activities, with nearly even growth in both of its main businesses. The B-to-B (monetization services) business is up 37.0% to EUR 16.9 million, while the B-to-C (publishing) activity has grown 40.7%, reaching EUR 24.2.

During this period, Rentabiliweb capitalized on somewhat more favorable e-commerce and e-marketing sectors. Nonetheless, this increased growth stems above all from its carefully-tailored strategic positioning, which combines one-stop monetization solutions with a loyalty-generating, profitable digital entertainment package. The synergy between the businesses – enrichment of the audience from one site to another, targeting and use of the databases, self-promotion, cross sales and other achievements – has strongly boosted the Group’s various activities.

Thanks to this growth and to economies of scale on expenses – the fruit of careful, thorough financial management – the Group’s EBITDA has risen 51.6% to EUR 8.2 million, and its current operating income is up 51.7% to EUR 7.9 million.

Net profits were impacted by exceptional expenses of EUR 1.7 million, yet nonetheless climbed 18.9%, to EUR 4.1 million.

At the end of June, cash flow stood at nearly EUR 28 million, which helped to absorb the acquisition of Edencast, completed in August, and has left a significant amount of leeway for any potential transactions in the future.

“The results for the first half of 2010 illustrate the virtue of our business model,” stated Jean-Baptiste Descroix-Vernier, Chairman of the Rentabiliweb Group. “The synergies we are building between our different business units, both in terms of cross-sales and resource optimization, have helped to boost our sales and profitability. This strategy, combined with targeted, high value-added external growth – such as the recent acquisition of Edencast – is going to quickly help us break EUR 100 million in sales with maximum profitability.”

In thousands of EUR 30.06.2010 30.06.2009 Variation

Sales 41,080 29,521 +39.2% Gross profits 20,276 15,491 +30.9% as % of sales 49.4% 52.5% — EBITDA 8,226 5,425 +51.6% As % of sales 20.0% 18.4% — Current operating income 7,879 5,195 +51.7% As % of sales 19.2% 17.6% — Operating income 6,033 5,127 +17.7% Tax on profits (1,906) (1,668) +14.3% Net profits 4,097 3,447 +18.9% As % of sales 10.0% 11.7% —

Growth for all of the Group’s activities

After several years of strong growth in the Group’s B-to-C activities, both sectors now have comparable growth rates, and the balance of activities has evened out, at around 41% for B-to-B (nearly EUR 17 million) and 59% for B-to-C (EUR 24 million). While the Group is active on buoyant segments in both of these sectors, this success also stems from the synergies between its various activities. Indeed, Rentabiliweb’s B-to-B expertise enables it to develop and target its own audience. At the same time, growth in the B-to-C sector is helping to enrich the databases and available inventory, thus boosting sales in the B-to-B sector.

The Publishing business

The rise in B-to-C sales (up 40.7% for the first half of the year) stems both from the growth in the audience and from the increase in average order value.

This expanding audience comes primarily from the Group’s successful sales policy, namely from affiliate networks, from the growing success of cross-sales between the Group’s various sites, and from its constant innovation in terms of content and technical features (including the video chat feature progressively being added to the Group’s various

dating sites and the inclusion of its range of games on social networking platforms).

The increase in income per customer stems from these new features as well as from a more active up-selling strategy.

Gross profits for the publishing business increased 28% to EUR 14.6. This figure reflects a slight drop in the gross profit rate stemming from the large share of payouts for affiliation. Nonetheless, thanks to tightly-controlled overheads and salary expenses, as well as minimized technical expenses, the EBITDA for the B-to-C sector was up strongly, rising 61.7% to EUR 7.1 million, fully benefitting from the economies of scale resulting from growth of the business.

The Monetization Services business

For the B-to-B sector, the strong growth in sales (+37.0%) is in part related to an improved economic climate for advertisers, and especially to the growing attractiveness of the solutions offered by the Group, thanks to the excellent results it has obtained. Its positioning as a one-stop monetization solutions provider has helped to develop cross sales between various solutions, as the contract with the Lagardère Group illustrates. Signed in September 2009 in the field of Interactive Voice Services (IVS) for radio station Europe 1, it has today been extended to the Group’s various micropayment and direct marketing solutions, for several of its brands (Hachette, Lagardère Jeunesse and others).

The development of its performance marketing solutions, namely the e-mail and SMS loyalty programs and cashback solutions such as http://www.mailorama.fr, is continuing with growth rates of around 100%. Mailorama is France’s leader in cashback solutions, with a critical mass that enables it to bring online shops a significant level of sales, and provides Internet users with the widest possible range of products and services.

For micropayment, new significant contracts were signed during the first half of the year, namely with France Television, Concoursmania, Plus Belle la Vie and Libération. These examples illustrate the attractiveness of the Rentabiliweb Group’s micropayment solutions for top-name companies.

The B-to-B business accounted for EUR 5.7 million of the gross profits (+39%) and EUR 1.1 million of the EBITDA (+9.5%). The slower growth of the EBITDA can be explained by continued investment, mainly designed to increase technical capacity.

Continued strong growth in profitability

Without sacrificing its investments in audiences and technical capacities, the Group has now reached a critical size enabling it to benefit from large economies of scale. The success of its cross-selling strategy, for example, has helped to substantially reduce marketing and management expenses.

The EBITDA stands at EUR 8.2 million, up 1.6 points compared to the first half of 2009.

Operating income for the period increased in the same proportion, to EUR 7.9 million.

Operating income was impacted by exceptional costs of slightly less than EUR 1.7 million, due to the stock market transfer, to a dispute with a foreign financial partner and to separation from one part of Montorgueil’s founders. It stands at EUR 6.0 million, an increase of 17.7%. After tax expenses of EUR 1.9 million, up 14%, net profits reached EUR 4.1 million, an 18.9% increase.

At the end of June, cash flow stood at EUR 28 million, an increase of EUR 13 million compared to the end of 2009, thanks to the capital increase of EUR 9.8 million carried out during the transfer onto the NYSE Euronext market. This solid balance sheet should enable the Group to continue its targeted organic and external growth strategy.

One of the largest French-language opt-in databases

Today, after the acquisitions of Edencast in August and Clic Bien Etre in late June, and thanks to the fast, continuing growth of Mailorama, Rentabiliweb can offer direct marketing services built upon a targeted database of more than 7 million opt-in members. This database is composed of 100% online buyers, 90% of whom are between 18 and 54 years of age, 90% of whom are in medium and high income groups, and 50% of whom are women. This database gives the Rentabiliweb Group unparalleled power in direct marketing, and the quality of its services is demonstrated by a high conversion rate at the end of each campaign. This is an excellent illustration of the virtue of Rentabiliweb’s development model, with tools that become increasingly powerful the more they are used. The high performance of Rentabiliweb’s Direct Marketing solutions is recognized by major French companies such as the Orange Group, PMU, Fnac, Française des Jeux, Bouygues Telecom, M6 Group, SFR Group, la Redoute and others.

Favorable prospects for growth boosted by the Group’s new stature During the coming months, the Group will base its growth on:

- continued use of its databases – development of new tools, namely in the dating, social networks and games markets – continuing the cross-selling strategy – beginning to market B-to-B solutions abroad, in Belgium, Switzerland and Spain – the new synergies created by the recent acquisition of Edencast.

Given the fact that the second half of 2009 was particularly buoyant, Rentabiliweb is making a prudent forecast for growth in sales of around 30% for the year.

The Group will be on hand at the 2010 E-Commerce Exhibition, to be held at the Paris Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center from 21 to 23 September 2010. Rentabiliweb will be presenting its full range of monetization solutions at stand E36.

Find this press release at: http://www.rentabiliweb.org/actualites/?p=2111

About Rentabiliweb

Founded in 2002, the Rentabiliweb Group offers Internet professionals and webmasters the largest platform of website traffic monetization services, namely payment and micropayment solutions. It also runs affiliate programs, offers online advertising space brokerage and interactive voice services for offline media and provides renowned expertise in loyalty programs and Direct Marketing.

Rentabiliweb is also one of the premier French-language publishers, with a package of services spanning the full range of mass-market entertainment, from community services, family games and services for the general public to recommendations for Internet users, personal ads, dating services and more.

Listed on Compartment C of the Euronext Brussels and Paris stock markets, the Group today has 13 subsidiaries in Europe, Canada and Asia, employing 150 staff members around the world. In 2009, Rentabiliweb’s sales topped EUR 65 million, with net profits of EUR 7.5 million.

Rentabiliweb is also a socially responsible company in its sectors of activity, and rigorously applies the ten principles laid out by the UN Global Compact.

For more information, visit: http://www.rentabiliweb.org

Corporate Communications IMAGE SEPT Anne Auchatraire Grégoire Lucas +33-1-53-70-74-70 aauchatraire@image7.fr glucas@image7.fr

Financial – Investor Communications CALYPTUS Mathieu Calleux +33-1-53-65-37-91 mathieu.calleux@calyptus.net

SOURCE Rentabiliweb

Subject Codes: PC/t.100831024453939, PT/lang.en, PC/ticker, IN/CPR, IN/NET, IN/HRD, IN/STW, IN/ITE, IN/MLM, SU/ERP, SU/SLS, RE/Belgium, PC/priority.r, PC/category.f, PC/WAVO_….7., PC/APT_….7, PC/trade_7, PC/wavo5_7, PC/Billing_TNW, PC/Billing_USD, PC/Billing_RWB, PC/Billing_FC1, PC/1stAcc_916650, PC/port_26, PC/port_01, PC/port_19, PC/port_91, PC/port_32, PC/port_30, PC/port_33, PC/port_31, PC/prnpriority_P2, PC/contact, PC/id_UKM690

Company Codes: ALBIL, BIL, BILB

[New Orleans, August 29. Revelers dance along Royal Street in the French Quarter durning a funeral procession commemorating the 5th Annivesary of Hurricane Katrina. Image via Getty]

AXA, the French company that owns the world's largest stake in oft-vilified Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, has slashed its stake in the company by more than half.

 During the second quarter, AXA dumped 16 million shares in Goldman, reducing its stake in the company to 2.1 percent from 5 percent, the Financial Times reports, citing Bloomberg data.

The major AXA pullout points up what a difficult spring Goldman has had, what with the falling revenue and...

Each weekday morning, BDL serves up a handful of NBA-related stories to digest with your butcher's skillet.

Pete Thamel, New York Times: Mike Krzyzewski joked on Sunday that as a younger coach he might have thrown a chair in the locker room at halftime of the United States' game against Slovenia. The Americans bumbled through nearly seven minutes of the second quarter without a field goal, giving the heavily pro-Slovenia crowd - like a chanting, green version of the one at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium - a dollop of hope. In the end, the United States pulled away and won its second game of pool play easily, 99-77, behind 22 points by Kevin Durant. There were no chairs thrown at the Abdi Ipekçi Arena, but Krzyzewski asked a Turkish reporter, "Do you know my reputation?" Much like those seven listless minutes, t two strong games for the United States cannot be seen as a sign of things to come. Especially with four knockout games looming in its attempt to win a world championship gold for the first time since 1994. "You can't go too crazy about anything," Krzyzewski said. "You have to keep calm in these situations, as it's just one game and you're out."

Michael Lee, Washington Post: Wizards first-round pick Kevin Seraphin probably would've liked to have been on the floor when France upset heavy favorite Spain to open the world championships, but he wasn't complaining too much. Seraphin's agent, Bouna Ndiaye, said his client has received his work visa and arrived in Washington on Saturday. Seraphin was cut from the French team after he was unable to recover from his minor knee injury suffered during the European championships. Ndiaye said that Seraphin would begin rehabbing with the Wizards' training staff on Sunday. Seraphin, who reached a buyout agreement with his French team, Cholet, last month, was unable to participate in the rookie training program because he had not obtained his work visa. When asked if Seraphin was pleased to finally have his paperwork completed to come to the United States, Ndiaye said, "Of course." The Wizards have 12 players under contract heading into training camp, and that likely will not change much over the next few weeks. They have extended training camp invites to Lester Hudson and Cartier Martin, but the team has not decided whether it will enter the year with 13, 14 or 15 players. The Wizards are unlikely to sign second-round pick Hamady Ndiaye for the upcoming season, according to a league source. They still retain his rights, but the source said that Hamady Ndiaye is also looking into playing overseas next season. The 6-foot-11 center whom Coach Flip Saunders affectionately likes to call, "H," had an uninspiring showing in summer league, as he averaged just 3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1 blocked shot in limited minutes. He had nine points, seven rebounds and four blocks in the finale against New York, but the Wizards are not pressed to put him in uniform just yet.

Sean Deveny, The Sporting News: Bucks point guard Brandon Jennings is coming off a strong rookie season, but he still has been hard at work over the summer - and with good reason, according to Milwaukee general manager John Hammond. As good as Jennings was last year, there is much left to improve. "Right now, Brandon is working on everything," Hammond told Sporting News. "Obviously, as a young player, you can't come in and think you have nothing to get better at. Every year, you have to come back a better player. Brandon is working on cleaning up his shooting form, making his technique more consistent. He is working on his right hand (Jennings is a lefty). He is working on his defense. He played well last year, but I don't think he is completely satisfied."

Mary Schmitt Boyer, Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cavaliers guard Daniel "Boobie" Gibson and new coach Byron Scott already have at least one thing in common: They're ready for training camp to start. "I'm ready to go," Gibson said by telephone from Los Angeles. "I wish we were starting tomorrow so we could get it on," Scott said last week in an interview at Cleveland Clinic Courts. With less than a month before the Sept. 28 start of training camp, Gibson is looking forward to erasing the memory of last season and making his mark in Scott's up-tempo offense. Although he usually responded when called upon, he couldn't seem to find a regular spot in Mike Brown's rotation last year. "I definitely feel like I didn't get a fair chance," Gibson said of last season. "But as a person and a player I continue to work and have faith in God and the system we've put in that it will turn. That's what I tried to do -- continue to stay positive. I'm still continuing to work and hoping this year things will be different. I'm ready to play and ready to help." Gibson said he has altered his workouts to prepare for the new system. "That's one of the things I've been doing all summer -- getting my body in good shape, knowing that we're going to be an up and down team," Gibson said. "I think this summer I did a lot more cardio. Normally I don't do cardio because I'm already frail as it is. I try to stay away from a whole lot of running because I lose a lot of weight. But this summer I did both. I did a lot of strength training, so I'm very strong right now. I combined it with a lot of calestenics, running hills, running on the beach, different things to build endurance."

Jorge Sierra, HoopsHype: Free agent big man Etan Thomas is close to signing a one-year deal with the Atlanta Hawks, one source told HoopsHype.com. The outspoken nine-year veteran averaged 3.3 ppg and 2.8 rpg in limited playing time with the Oklahoma City Thunder last season.

Marc Berman, New York Post: The Knicks invited Patrick Ewing Jr. to another training camp, signing him to a non-guaranteed deal. He is hardly a lock to make the team, but showed flashes during the Las Vegas summer league as he bounces back from knee surgery. Ewing was cut after training camp in 2008. The Knicks have one open roster spot and plan to sign at least two more candidates, possibly including guard Maurice Ager.

Michael Cunningham, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: It's still possible forward Pape Sy will join the Hawks for 2010-11. Sy is set to report to camp for French club Le Havre but the Hawks and Sy's representative are still talking to Le Havre about a buyout of the final year of Sy's contract. Atlanta selected Sy in the second round of the draft in June.

Gery Woelfel, Racine Journal Times: The Bucks have yet to sign either of their second-round draft picks: guard Darington Hobson and power forward Keith "Tiny" Gallon. It is believed the Bucks are on the brink of reaching an agreement with Hobson, the 37th overall pick from New Mexico. Once Hobson signs, the Bucks would have 15 players - the maximum allotment - under contract for next season. As such, Gallon's chances of making the Bucks‘ roster are iffy, at best. His agent, Mark Cornstein, acknowledged he is "exploring all options" for his client, including the possibility of playing overseas.

Ron Green, Jr., Charlotte Observer: Michael Jordan and the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats will announce a $250,000 donation Monday to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system to help fund middle-school athletics programs this academic year. Jordan, an NBA legend who made a fortune with his basketball skills and marketing savvy, bought the Charlotte Bobcats this spring. At the time, he talked of the importance of making the franchise an active contributor within the Charlotte community. Budget cuts, including the school system's elimination of $1.25 million - the entire budget - for middle school athletics, brought an opportunity to do just that, Jordan told the Observer. "We investigated the situation. We looked for ways to help middle schools and this was one of the options presented to us. We took it because of the impact on middle schools and giving them the opportunity to play sports and as motivation for education as well," Jordan said.

So the bottom line is that the of the 1.5% increase in q-o-q GDP, nearly half (0.7% points) was accounted for by a growth in inventories, while 0.4% was accounted for by a growth in construction which was in part the result of better weather in January and February and scheduled work being advanced (although you can't simply add these numbers since some of the construction work may well have accumulated in inventories), while the net impact of external trade slowed, and household consumption only accounted for 0.2% points. So basically it would be far from in order to announce this result as strong evidence for anything about the Germany economy at this point, other than that the economy resisted a strong slowdown in Q1. The data from Q2 should make all of this much clearer, I think, we will see what gets to happen to the inventories, and we will see what happens to construction.

"Germany’s sudden rediscovery of its old role as Europe’s growth locomotive brings the continent back to the future. The 2.2 per cent growth spurt is unified Germany’s best-ever performance. It was not entirely unexpected: trade figures early in the week led economists to predict good news from Berlin. But the outcome was almost a full percentage point above estimates, and helped lift the euro-wide rate".

"Germany’s feat is a one-off: sustained 9 per cent yearly growth rates are unheard of in rich countries. Slowdowns in China or the US may well throw cold water on exporters. Europe’s industrial production is already flatlining. And we must not forget how bad things still are: although the second quarter put German output 4.2 per cent above its low point in the crisis, it is still lower than in 2007".

"Germany has outperformed the US, the world’s largest economy, in terms of growth in recent months and the trend is set to be confirmed this week. The German purchasing managers’ indices are expected by HSBC to remain at relatively high levels, while US economic growth is likely to be revised downwards".

"Economists say that the slowdown in the recovery in Asia and in the US, and the difficulties in other parts of Europe, could soon have an impact on German growth, which is largely export-driven. However, signs of improving domestic consumer confidence in Germany, and in Europe generally, portray a stable overall scenario".

Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, on Sunday hit back at critics of the government’s plans to meet its deficit targets, accusing markets of failing to give Paris credit for two years of reform. Speaking to the Financial Times after the government last week reduced its forecasts for growth next year from 2.5 per cent to 2 per cent, Ms Lagarde denied the new estimate remained overly optimistic.

“It is realistic and prudent,” she said, adding that even if the market consensus of 1.5 per cent growth was revised upwards, it would “not grant much credit to the reforms we have implemented and to the added flexibility in the economy”. France had been criticised by the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission for basing its pledge to cut the deficit from 8 per cent to 6 per cent of gross domestic product next year on unrealistic growth forecasts of 2.5 per cent.

"The bailout of Germany’s banking sector may swell the country’s public debt rate to 90% of gross domestic product, Die Zeit weekly newspaper reported on Wednesday. The weekly based this estimate on a recent decision by Eurostat requiring Germany to include the balance sheets of public-owned bad banks — set up to help financial institutions offload toxic and non-strategic assets — into its overall debt ratio".

French drug maker Servier's heart rate-lowering agent Procoralan cuts the risk of death and hospitalisation for heart failure patients by more than a quarter when added to standard therapy, according to research results announced Sunday.

Hurricane Katrina comes ashore on Monday, August 29, 2010

If there is anything certain about the effects of the Hurricane Katrina diaspora five years later, it's that nothing is certain. Most estimates are that around one million Gulf Coast residents were displaced by the storm, scattered to all corners of the country, in cities in all 50 states in the country. Of course, most stuck close to home. According to one estimate, over 90 percent stayed in the southeast region of the country with almost 60 percent staying in the region that suffered damage from the hurricane. But a good number made their way as far north as Chicago. A Red Cross of Chicago report less than two weeks after the storm claimed that over 6,000 displaced Katrinaees had met with the Red Cross in the Chicago metro area. Media estimates put the total evacuees in the city at 8,000, an influx that reminded some of The Great Migration. But keeping track of everyone who was displaced was impossible. Many numbers come from those who registered with shelters while scores more never did so, choosing instead to just shack up with friends and family.

Five years later and we're still no closer to knowing how many people were displaced by the storm other than that it was huge. And we know that not all of them have gone back. Today, New Orleans still remains below its pre-Katrina population. Houston and Baton Rouge all swelled as evacuees arrived and never left. Even today, Baton Rouge is still estimated to have a population at least 50,000 people above where it stood before the storm.

One would hope that in 21st Century America, it would be easy to track down those that were scattered by the storm. But you'd be wrong. Many have moved back or gotten as close to moving back as they could. But many can't afford it and have put down new roots where they ended up. The suburbs around New Orleans, for instance, have experienced both a boom in population and economy since the storm. The city's racial make-up has also shifted in the storm's wake as the white population has decreased while the Hispanic population has increased. But a sizable chunk of the population remains far away from the city and there's no real way of tracking them. The databases are gone, ghosts in the Internet ether. Community groups and churches who played such a vital role in sheltering those displaced residents have long since lost touch with them. It may be many more years to come, if even then, before we get a full sense of the diaspora that took place, and that's not counting those that returned and even after giving the post-Katrina Gulf Coast another go, left, giving up the post-apocalypse for more sane terrain.

There are a million Katrina stories. I have mine and through friends and colleagues, I managed to track down a few others who shared a similar story, former residents of New Orleans who, for one reason or another, found Chicago their new home after the storm. A few took the time to talk with me and these are their stories.

Jennifer Corbridge was a well-settled transplant from California when Katrina struck. She had moved to New Orleans in 1999 and enrolled in Tulane University's part-time education program. Aside from a job as an office manager, she was also Hip Hop Director and a DJ for WTUL, Tulane's college radio station, and founded Dragon's Breath Records, which produced local indie hip hop artist Truth Universal. When the storm approached, Jennifer, like so many others, headed north, away from the shore. "We stayed in a hotel in Little Rock for a couple of nights, you know, watching what was unfolding on the news. And then the levees broke and we thought, 'We’re probably not going to go back to New Orleans for a while.'" She bounced around, first with a friend to Corpus Christi, Texas and then back out to California.

With the timetable for a return to New Orleans uncertain in the weeks after the storm, Jennifer made the decision to relocate to Chicago, a city she decided to turn to because of music. She had made connections online through message boards on the website for label Galapagos4. "I’d met a lot of people that lived up here, so I felt like I was a little more in touch with the scene up here, which was why I decided to move to Chicago. I felt like I had this built in community here, even though I was new here." But she kept eyes on New Orleans, putting together a benefit compilation, The Restless Natives: A Tribute to the Victims of Hurricane Katrina.

She also sees differences in her life since the storm, since moving to Chicago: "I feel like in Chicago I’m really focused on my age and where I am, you know, I should be doing better than this. In New Orleans, I’d be like, 'Where’s the big party?' Even as she admits she misses New Orleans - "A majority of my friends went back and I miss them a lot. I want to feel that sense of community that they all have." - she's happy with her decision to relocate to the storm even as she continues with ongoing changes in her life."Even if I’m not content with where I am in my life right now, I always appreciate new experiences and I feel like Chicago has offered me a lot and I’ve learned a lot from Chicago. Even though Chicago is technically a 'big city,' I still feel like there are small little communities and little scenes, everyone knows each other." Jennifer still thinks of sometime moving back; it's about "financial stability," about hopes of one day maybe something like owning a condo in the French Quarter for part-time residency: "I just love everything about New Orleans."

Shoshanah McDonald also sees differences between the two cities: "We’re so much more normal in Chicago. There’s something about New Orleans that kind of fosters eccentricity and people love that. And then people come to visit and they don’t get that. They don’t relate to that and they’ll never be New Orleans people.That’s fine. And visiting New Orleans and living there are way different experiences. But here it just ... things are just a bit more, well it doesn’t have that weirdness here. I like that weirdness." McDonald didn't move right away, returning to New Orleans after the storm and staying for almost a year.

McDonald lived in the Marigny, a neighborhood east of the French Quarter that escaped much of the flooding even though it sustained damage from wind and rain. She returned to New Orleans a few months after the storm - around Halloween - and tried to piece her life together, returning to her position as manager of the popular restaurant Bayona. "I think we opened on the 19th or the 20th, the week before Thanksgiving. And I’m so happy that I went back to do that. I think I would have regretted that the rest of my life if I hadn’t gone back and done that, although, it worked all through the winter, it was a struggle." The struggle wasn't just with work, but, like all of those affected by the storm, coming to terms emotionally with what had happened. "I was trying to recover from this in my head and in my heart. I was angry all the time and I was certainly not alone in that. I didn’t have any issues with trying to rebuild my house or deal with insurance or anything. But at the same time, I was still struggling. Everyone was getting worn out, we were emotionally kaput with everything. I was still happy being there. So I didn't want to leave, but I also didn't want to deal with it anymore."

As with others who left, Shoshanah was wracked with guilt by her decision to leave. "I felt guilty that I didn’t more volunteering and going out and cleaning up houses and all that stuff. I was focusing all of my energy on surviving. I was emotionally spent, I was drowning. I’ve had people say that have said, 'The people that were meant to stay stayed there. Those that needed to go, went.' You can’t make a judgment. It’s a personal thing and I understand that. But at the same time, I remember driving out of New Orleans and regretting it." The guilt was further amplified by this spring's oil spill, an incident that derailed her preliminary plans to explore moving back.

But a year after the storm, it was family that pulled Shoshanah to the Midwest. Originally from Michigan, she was familiar with Chicago having visited numerous times in the past. Her feelings on the differences between the two cities aside, she has long enjoyed Chicago. "I’ve always loved Chicago. My dad used to bring me here when I was a teenager and it always felt like good energy here. It’s more manageable than I ever thought New York would be or Detroit." Being closer to her parents was a big factor in her decision to live here. "I missed my family and I realized pretty quickly that those relationships meant more to me than I had known before that. I wanted to know my parents before they get too old and pass away."

Coming to terms with her move, she says, was hard, but she's managed to understand why it was for the best. "I might have been lost. And not been able to recover parts of myself if I hadn’t left. How do you second guess that? It was what it was. It was what I needed at the time. I miss New Orleans everyday and I’ve wanted to move back several times and I’ve started planning. And I know that, in a sense, you can’t go back. Especially in a situation like this. I’m never going to have the life I had before the hurricane. It doesn’t exist. It’s gone. You can’t get it back."

She's enjoyed Chicago and find similarities between the two. "I see a lot of parallels between the musical cultures between here and there. And I definitely feel like there’s this line extending north and south between New Orleans and Chicago. It felt like I knew several people who came here after the storm even if they moved back." But she still thinks of going back: "It’s never going to be off the board. I’m still thinking about it. I don’t know if I could ever let go of that. It scares me a bit, having that duality in my head. I love New Orleans, I’m still in love with it I will always be in love with it. I fell in love there and I fell in love with that city."

Like Shoshanah, it was family that eventually brought Anthony Jones to Chicago after Katrina. His mother’s family was originally from Jackson, Mississippi, but she had moved to Gary, Indiana where Anthony lived until he moved himself to New Orleans in 1991. For 14 years, he worked, danced ballet with a few companies, and just lived the life of New Orleans. A resident of Treme and a student at Dillard University at the time of the storm, Anthony said, “I felt a little complacent but I felt like I was in a pretty good place.”

“Before Katrina, in the 14 years I lived there, I had never evacuated for a storm.” But it was a friend that got Anthony thinking about leaving ahead of the storm. The Saturday before Katrina struck, hanging out in a bar watching the track of a storm, the friend declared his intentions of leaving. “He was older than us, kind of the statesman of our little group, so we thought, ‘Well, if he’s leaving, maybe we out to think about leaving, too.’”

Another friend had family in Hattiesburg, Mississippi where a group evacuated to for the storm. “I was in a four bedroom house for a week with no electricity, no plumbing, no gas, with eight gay men, one straight guy, three straight women, two dogs, a cat, a ferret, and a drag queen.” The next day, they finally heard word that the levees had broken. “We realized, this is no temporary thing, this is something we have to sit and think about: what are we going to do, where are we going to do, and what is the state of the life we left behind. It was traumatic.”

After a week, after waiting through a miles-long line for gas at the only Hattiesburg gas station with fuel, Anthony headed north to his mother and step-father’s house in Gary. His step-father was beginning to suffer from late-stage Parkinson’s disease and his mother needed assistance. “I was feeling a little complacent in New Orleans and I had no idea when I would be able to go back. I wanted to but I didn’t know when. But the idea of just sitting around my mother’s house was frustrating.” So Anthony took advantage of a program offering free tuition to students displaced by the storm, enrolling at Colombia College’s radio production and broadcast program (he graduated in May 2010). But helping his mother care for his step-father and other support for his family led Anthony to stay close, to move to Chicago instead of ultimately moving back to New Orleans. “It was difficult despite the familial obligations. I grew up [in New Orleans]. I found friends, I found a niche, and it was not some place I wanted to leave, certainly under those circumstances.”

His step-father passed away last year and Anthony graduated in May of this year so now thoughts sometimes turn back to New Orleans. “I miss New Orleans, I consider it home, and I would love to move back but I have to do so on far different terms than how I left.” Now a resident of Edgewater, Anthony says he’s “trying to plot the next course.” While he’s loved his time in Chicago, he still thinks back on his departure. “My biggest regret is that there was no closure, it was not my decision to make. It was forced on me, I made the best of it, and it’s been good. I’ve learned a great deal living up here because it’s more structured and that’s never been my strong suit, so it forced me to focus. For that I will always appreciate my time here. But my home is in New Orleans. It’s not something I pine away for and I’m not going to move simply to move back but I want to move back so I can do something, so I can contribute.”

To share my story at this point feels, as Editor of this site, self-indulgent. I share most of the same feelings as Jennifer, Soshanah, and Anthony. My final night in New Orleans was September 25, 2006 and spent at the Superdome, the scene of what had been, a year before, a site of much sorrow and pain. But that night, I watched with 75,000 fellow New Orleanians as the Saints defeated the Falcons in their first game back in the dome since the storm, a moment of catharsis that would only be matched three and a half years later when the Saints won the Super Bowl. My decision to leave New Orleans was not reached lightly and remains the hardest decision I've had to make in my 31+ years of life. But the anxiety wore me down as it did everyone else that remained immediately after the storm. I had tried for a year after the storm, to fight through the difficulties to remain in the city I thought I would live in for the rest of my life.

But the feeling of being untethered was unnerving as was the growing dependence on alcohol and a certain claustrophobic feeling that it seems only living in the post-apocalypse can carry. Unlike my three fellow ex-pats, though, I had no real network, no connection to the city of Chicago other than a knowledge of its history, its current publishing landscape, and a place where the career that eluded me in New Orleans might be achievable. It was - here I am - and Chicago has embraced me (well, mostly). It's a city that understands what it is to rebuild from a disaster, to be decimated and to become great again. Chicagoans are also a resilient people. How else would they survive winter after winter? The city is by no means perfect, as we write about day after day here on this very site. But what place is? The fact is, Chicago remains a beautiful, world class city in spite of its drawbacks, much like New Orleans.

But how is the city of New Orleans now, five years later? I reached out to a few residents that lived there before, during, and after the storm. Jarret Lofstead, instructor at Loyola University New Orleans and Senior Editor at NOLAFugees Press told me:

If you're asking how the New Orleans of 2010 meets the expectations of the immediate post-K era, that's a funny question. Despite all the well-documented tales of community, heroics and resiliency, the anxiety of 2005-06 was centered on whether or not the city would continue to exist, and in what shape: what neighborhoods and institutions would remain. We all rallied around the fleur-de-lis, a banner representing those cultural elements that make the city unique. None of that has changed.

On the other hand, what has changed is the skin that's been laid over the daily life of the city. For the past four years, we've been told about all the wonderful innovations, new businesses, ideas, housing and institutions that will ensure New Orleans achieves its potential in the 21st century. Some oft-touted examples include "more restaurants than before the storm," "more young professionals moving to the city," the Recovery School District/Charter School System, Brad Pitt's Make It Right houses in the Lower 9. But scratch the skin and more restaurants with fewer people means less revenue. More young professionals, but check the job postings in the Times-Picayune or Craigslist; are there more middle-class jobs? Ask the workers at Avondale, which is about to close.

Lofstead points to a new wind turbine company setting up shop in Michoud that's providing 600 new jobs. But that replaces NASA's assembly plant that produced external fuel tanks for the space shuttle program and had provided as many as 5,000 jobs at one point in the 1980s, but fell to 2,600 in 2009 and down to around 1,000 this year. A recent report said that 93,000 jobs have been added in New Orleans since the storm as the population has increased to 86 percent of what it was before the storm. While the city's new charter schools have seem some limited success (Chicagoans will recognize Paul Vallas, New Orleans Recovery School District superintendent as the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools), the city's public schools continue to struggle, many still in the state's failing category on test scores. And, as Lofstead points out, "We're getting better, but we're still the murder capital."

Gary Gautier, a long-time resident of Mid-City who's house took on eight feet of water during the flood, echoed concerns over crime: "It really does seem worse than ever. In my neighborhood alone, we had one armed robbery that I know of in the 5 years before Katrina; now we have several a year plus a couple of carjackings. And although it is true that murder victims are usually (but not always) targets known by the killer, this is not true of armed robberies and carjackings, which overwhelmingly affect innocent bystanders. And you hear of the same thing more commonly now in Lakeview or out around UNO." Gautier also notes the increase in young adults in the city, a youth movement local leaders will help reverse what's been called the city's "brain drain": "There is some trickle of young, energetic professionals into the city post-Katrina. I don't know if it's enough to have a truly salutary effect, but it is a positive sign."

So there are reasons for optimism even though, beneath the surface, as Lofstead notes, things are still very much as they were before the storm: "There are surface changes, but New Orleans is fundamentally the same. The levees may have been improved, but they are still woefully inadequate. If you want to buy a house, you have to buy it on the floodplain because you can't afford to buy where it's dry."

Still, there's no place quite like New Orleans which is why, for all of us, leaving was so hard. But there's still hesitation to returning if we ever decide to do so. At least for me, there's a concern over the perception of how those of us who left would be looked upon for returning five, ten, fifteen years later. Even though many tried to stick it out, helped with the rebuilding and made a go at it, we still couldn't hang on and made the choice to leave. Some, like novelist Poppy Z Brite, have been vocal about their perspective on such temporary escapists:

I'll be honest -- I can understand people leaving, but I have a HUGE problem with people who say as they leave, "Well, I might come back in a couple of years." Yeah, after WE'VE done all the damn work to make things better. Regardless of my resentment, though, the city will still be here and will be better in a couple of years, should you leave but find that you cannot stay away.

Others are more nuanced in their take. Gautier, still an entrenched resident of the Mid-City neighborhood, "It's never crossed my mind to resent people who left, or left and came back and such resentment would seem only to follow from a very curious logic. I've vaguely heard of this phenomenon, but I believe it to be some kind of hype by writers and such who stand to make money via tales of conflict and overwrought emotion." Lofsted told me, "When you're back, you're back, participating in the grind. We're a port city; transience is in our nature. We're just here, waiting for Hurricane Earl."

And so New Orleans continues to push into the next five years as the recovery from the storm - and now the BP oil spill - continues, its residents pushing headlong into a fight that can, at times, seem unwinnable. At least for us on the outside, looking in on a place we once called home and may one day return to. Part of that yearning is a nostalgia, a remembrance of the way things were before August 29, 2005. But I'd be lying if I said part of why I miss the city is the that I'm missing out on something. It's more than just Mardi Gras Day and the idea that everywhere else in the world that day is "just another Tuesday." It's about being part of something, part of a city that's like no other. It's something that hits hardest watching the community as it continues to fight on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, a series of obstacles that seem straight from the Book of Job, with a determination and stubbornness that's at once both terrifying and admirable.

The rebuilding of New Orleans continues and here I am - here we are - 1,000 mile away, with feelings of guilt, sadness, and as if our existence and affair with the city has been scrubbed away like so many of the flood's waterlines. It's a feeling Lofstead summed up perfectly when I asked if thought is ever given to those that have left the city: "We don't think about you anymore. But that's always the way it is in New Orleans; you either live here or you don't." Indeed, we don't. And that's something we can't forget.

Suggested reading: The Great Deluge by Douglas Brinkley, Breach of Faith by Jed Horne, A.D.: New Orleans After The Deluge by Josh Neufeld, Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, The Least Resistance by Sarah Inman and other works from NOLAFugees Press, Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden

Suggested viewing: When The Levees Broke by Spike Lee, Trouble The Water,

HI! I am new to this forum and I have the same brick problem.

I think I can solve that now that I know I should be adding more water and less flour, but I am so confused by so many other things with sourdough.

I got my starter about a year ago and as far as I know, it's activated or active or whatever. It does not have any commercial yeast in it nor was it started with any rye flour, just regular tap water and King Arthur bread flour. All I know is I feed it and it gets lots of bubbles in it. I've heard people say it's supposed to rise and double though, and I've never seen that. So....it's in the fridge now and here are some of the problems and questions I have:

Feeding: I'm not sure about feeding it when I take the starter out. Do I feed it as soon as I take it out of the fridge or do I feed it after it comes to room temp? When it goes back in the fridge, do I put it back right after I feed it or do I feed it and let it become active and then put it back? If I want to use a part of it, does it even have to come to room temp or could I just take a part out and stick the rest back in the fridge - and does it have to be fed at that point?

 I'm not sure I understand the hydration thing. I'm putting equal parts of water and flour into the starter to feed it now after tossing half . My starter is already thick and goopy. Right now I'm trying to add more water - if I have to cut some water and add more flour, this stuff is gonna get up on its own and walk. So what am I doing wrong here?

 Rising: I have yet to really see this stuff rise. Everybody talks about leaving things out overnight. The last time I left my starter out all night, it almost died. So I did the starter during the day and made the dough at night and left the bread out all night to rise. I have no idea if it rose or not, because it was still sitting there like a lump on a log the next morning.

So the next time, I did the starter in the morning and the dough at night, then put the dough in the fridge all night and left the dough to rise all day the next day where I could watch it (my fridge is too cold for anything to rise). It rose maybe a quarter of an inch? Then after 12 hours (well, I heard some sourdoughs take 12 to 18 hours to rise), when it was starting to dry out, I punched it down, kneaded it a little and gave it a second rise, which was sort of nonexsistent as well.

Kneading: I've heard 15 minutes, I've heard to just fold it over. I've heard give it a second kneading, I've heard not to give it a second kneading. I've heard to give the dough a rest (if I got that many rests I'd be fired), but no one seems to agree on when and for how long.

Baking: Here comes my next problem. If I try to bake it free form as a rounded loaf, I get pizza dough (good pizza dough though). So I put it in a bread pan. Now it's about an inch or so below the top of the bread pan and it didn't rise as it baked. The first loaf never got brown on the top. This last loaf, I let bake in the bread pan until it had a form, then I dumped it out and left it bake on the racks of the oven so it might get a little brown. I did have a small pan of water on the lower rack and I've had people tell me to just throw ice cubes on the bottom of the oven and that's supposed to work. Anyway, this last loaf had good French bread flavor, awful texture, and could serve as a deadly weapon should the need arise. I will solve that with more water the next time I bake, but if I want a round loaf, I need to add more flour if I don't want bread pancakes, don't I?

 By the way, I am in the Pacific Northwest where we have humidity and temperature swings. We just finished having days of over 90° which would have killed the starter. Three days later we are having days of 60° and the starter could go into hibernation. And add to that, it is getting cooler here, especially at night now, and in winter, I don't have the temp in my trailer over 65° and I never have the temp on at night, winter or summer. I don't have a stove where I can turn on the oven light, but I do have a warm setting. I bring my oven up to warm before turning it off for regular bread and that rises fine, but I'm thinking the warm setting is too warm for sourdough, so I just put it on warm for about 30 seconds and then turn it off again.

 So with my starter in the fridge as I type, how do I begin again the correct way if I want to make a loaf of sourdough by Monday morning? Thanks for any hlep you guys can give!

 Call me Confuzzled

Get ready for another Rihanna promo push. Universal just told media outlets that Red Rih Rih is dropping a new album in the 4th quarter.  We've got the details, and her first Tweet she actually sent herself when you read on...

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According to the french music site Musique Evous, Rihanna is dropping a brand new album on November 2nd.  Either she's been recordng in between tour stops, or she's going to pull an Usher and roll her leftover songs from her most recent album, Rated R, into a new album.

Barclay Label, Universal's division that Rihanna is a part of, says that the yet-to-be-titled album is indeed dropping this November.  And it's been less than a year since her Rated R release.

And just in time to gear up for her promo run, Rih sent out her first Tweet today:

Here we go....

When it comes to learning languages in the UK, we are notoriously apathetic – but it is never too late to start. As Jeremy Hazlehurst says, it could be a great way to boost your career

Arsenal, Lyon, Milan and Celtic played at the Emirates Cup football tournament in London this month. After the games, as always, the players milled about in the corridors, mingling with the journalists. It can be a bit of a scrum. Andy Brassell, though, was in his element, interviewing one player in French, another in Spanish and a Brazilian international in Portuguese. "It really helps to speak the languages," he says. "The players tend to open up a bit more, just talk more freely, and you get better stories."

Although he speaks three foreign languages, Brassell only learned French and German at school until he was 15. He discovered his talent for languages in his mid-20s when he and some friends were planning a trip to South America and hired a Spanish teacher. "It turned out I picked it up with reasonable speed, then I started to remember my school French," he says. From there, he went on to take A-level French and Portuguese at night school, and GCSE Spanish.

He is now a well-travelled European football journalist, and when he followed Portugal at the European Championships in 2008 he ended up befriending megastar Cristiano Ronaldo. "He was taking the mickey out of my accent by the end," chuckles Brassell.

His story shows that languages can really boost your career, but as a nation we are notoriously rubbish at them. They become non-compulsory at GCSE in 2004, and the number of children taking a language GCSE dropped from 78% in 2001 to 44% in 2009. Last year, just 26% took French and 11% took German – the numbers for both have halved since 2001 – while 8% took Spanish and 4% another language. The GCSE results published this week showed the numbers studying French down a further 5.9% and German down 4.5%, with French dropping out of the top 10 GCSEs for the first time.

In this year's A-level results, Spanish was up 4%, but the numbers taking French and German were down 3.8% and 3.4%, while other languages decreased an alarming 7.1% year on year. In 1996 18% of A-Levels were in languages, while now the figure is about 10%.

In general, we are pretty relaxed about this. There's a feeling everybody else speaks English anyway, a theory apparently based on the fact waiters everywhere can say: "Do you want ice in your Coke?" It has become fashionable to talk about "globish", a pared-down version of English that is becoming the global lingua franca of business. But even if the global business elite can speak English, it doesn't follow that everyone else does.

Irene Missen of language specialist recruitment agency Euro London says that ordinary Josés are not multilingual, and although today's bright young things often have great English, few people in their 40s to 60s do.

In jobs such as sales, marketing or technical support, languages can open doors for you, and Missen estimates a language can add between 10% and 15% to your wage. For those looking to stand out in a tough jobs market, or for graduates wanting to add oomph to their CV, learning a language could be just the thing.

Alex Bertolotti learned French and German at school, but later learned Russian in nightclasses while working for PricewaterhouseCoopers and now heads the company's Russian desk. Although he always conducts meetings through a translator, knowing Russian is very useful.

"You know when you are being mistranslated, which is helpful, and sometimes when people don't know that you speak Russian you can pick up on things they think you don't understand." He says that if you work for a big international firm, speaking a language immediately puts you in line for interesting work that otherwise wouldn't come your way. Anything that involves Kazakhstan or Ukraine, for example, will call for Russian speakers. It is certainly not the case that everybody in up-and-coming countries like those speaks English.

It's not just the City where languages matter. Sheffield-based Ancon manufactures and supplies stainless steel fixing systems for the construction industry, and languages are essential for its work: a quarter of its business is done with continental Europe, and it exports to the Middle East and Russia.

"It means our customers can send documents to us in their language without having to translate these into English first, which saves a considerable amount of time as we are often dealing with relatively urgent requests," says the firm's Hervé Poveda.

In fact, Ancon's dedication to languages is so strong that it goes into local schools and teaches children about the advantages of learning, something which has seen it become one of the "language champions" of the National Centre for Languages.

Interestingly, Poveda says Ancon's staff don't have to speak perfectly to reap the benefits: "We would not claim to have any linguistics experts. We do not always speak fluently and will obviously make some mistakes, but this is fit for purpose for daily communication with customers." Although most customers speak English, he says they will always prefer to use their native language if they have the choice.

As this suggests, the courtesy factor is key. Unless you are a native-level speaker you won't be negotiating contracts, but a lower – and far more achievable – level is enough for the vital "soft skills" so beloved of recruiters: meeting and greeting, or having a drink in the bar with clients.

"It is so important for client retention," says Missen. She says many people will conduct meetings with foreign clients in English, but "if you can speak to people in their language during breaks, then they will see you in a very different light. I think they appreciate it if somebody has bothered to learn the language and come off their high horse of thinking that English is the best language; it helps with building relationships."

Learning a language is not just about grammar and vocabulary, either: there's cultural understanding too. Missen points out that even in Germany, a country we tend to think is similar to the UK, business is more formal. A handshake means that a deal is done, and missing a deadline is unthinkable. The further afield you go, the bigger the differences. Even if your Japanese is dodgy, knowing how things are done means that you are less likely to cause accidental offence.

So what languages would be most useful to your career? Surely Mandarin? Apparently not. Paul Lawton, a director at language recruiter Merrow, says: "The market for Mandarin speakers is not that big at the moment – talk to me in 20 years' time." We just don't do the sorts of things with China where second language-speakers are used, such as customer support or sales. Plus there are enough bilingual Mandarin-English speakers to fulfil businesses' needs. The language is so difficult that it's just not worth it – you are better off learning a European language that is closer to English, or your school French.

Jane Weightman, director of Commercial Language Training, a firm that teaches more than 20 languages to businesspeople, says that Spanish has overtaken German as the most important business language. With so much Spanish presence here – Santander taking over Abbey, Telefonica buying O2, and Iberia merging with BA – there are "lots of opportunities in the British subsidiaries". French, German, Italian and Dutch are useful, and Nordic languages are in demand, especially in the technology, IT and telecoms sectors.

All very well, but for most British people the idea of language learning is tied up with the dreaded phrase "écoutez et répétez", or frowning over tables of German "cases". These days, though, language learning is based on communication and students are encouraged to mingle with native speakers as much as possible. The idea is to talk, and not be too concerned about your mistakes – after all, we can usually understand foreigners' bad English pretty well.

Mathew Rayment of language school International House, in London, says: "The beauty of big British cities is that you have foreign nationals who are happy to speak to you in their language. We are based in Covent Garden and there are Spanish and Japanese restaurants all over the place where you can easily find somebody to practise on."

All the big language schools have branches all over the world, and will arrange for you to stay in a country where your language is spoken, and get some real immersion in the culture. There are firms that will arrange holidays where you mix classroom time and activities – visiting galleries in Florence, opera in Germany, cycling in Holland, flamenco or golfing in Spain. One even offers tours of Munich's beer gardens while you learn – perhaps not the best tactic for remembering those compound nouns.

A cheaper alternative is "language exchange", where two native speakers of different languages speak in one language, then switch to the other – one-to-one tuition with a native speaker for the price of a coffee. Gumtree, Craigslist and Facebook are awash with people looking to swap their Slovakian, Farsi, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Korean and Mandarin for English.

It's also brilliant for the cultural exchange element. One keen language-exchanger recently told me that a Chinese friend had asked her what cheese is used for – not the sort of thing you learn in a textbook.

Bodies such as Instituto Cervantes, Institut Français, Goethe-Institut and Japan Foundation hold regular book launches, debates, exhibitions and film screenings, and have large lending libraries. As Brassell says, though, the best resource is the internet, which means that you can read the newspapers every day for just the price of your broadband subscription.

For him, it was perfect for picking up football slang, and is just the place to familiarise yourself with any other niche. The only bad news is that now there really is no excuse.

Five useful languages to learn

If you add France and Belgium together, they are our second-biggest trading partner. What not to say: "Les Anglais sont arrivés!" It means that you have your period.

Spanish

A number of British firms are now Spanish-owned and speaking the language will open doors. Plus, Latin America is booming. What not to say: Mixing up the two forms of "to be" is easy but deadly. "El es buenisimo" means that you admire somebody, "el esta buenisimo" means that you really fancy him.

Swedish

The biggest Nordic economy, there are always opportunities in IT, gaming and telecoms. What not to say: That you find the word "fart" funny. It means speed, hence the signs saying "fartskontroll" on the motorways.

German

After the US, we do more business with Germany than any other country. What not to say: Taking a contact to one side and asking: "Where can I buy a gift for my wife?" has tripped up many English-speakers – in German the word "gift" means poison, not present.

Russian

The next frontier for many British exporters, it is also spoken in former Soviet countries. What not to say: "Pisat" means to write, but also "urinate". Take care when telling an oligarch that you will drop him a line.

Note from Greg Palast: Matt Pascarella and I encountered Patricia Thomas while she was breaking into a home at the Lafitte Housing Project in New Orleans. It was her own home. Nevertheless, if caught, she’d end up in the slammer. So would we. Matt was my producer for the film, Big Easy to Big Empty, and he encouraged my worst habits. I’d worked for the New Orleans Housing Authority years back and knew they wanted the poor black folk out of these pretty townhouses near the French Quarter. Katrina was an excuse for ethnic cleansing, American style. Matt and I skipped cuffs on this shoot, but were charged later by Homeland Security (see below). While I recorded the story of hidden evils on film, Matt gathered a story which no camera can capture.

read more

I walked along the mud-caked fringe of farmland and tried in vain to make out the profiles of a quarter of a million baby tomato plants. It was hard to believe that in just a few months this perfect rectangle of endless muck would burst into three million pounds of ripe red fruit, and even stranger to think that this vast monoculture just might be leading the world toward agricultural sustainability -- particularly considering that not one of the plants before me was organic, heirloom, or pesticide free.

"When I see my fields, I see a canvas," said Frank Muller, the sunburned avatar of agri-technology who sold 60,000 tons of last year's tomato harvest to transnational food giant Unilever, which subsequently processed the lot into bottles of Cheesy, Chunky, and Robusto-style Ragú spaghetti sauce.

Muller and his two brothers farm 219 mammoth tracts of land in the Sacramento Valley. They are the sons of Swiss immigrants who settled in California less than half a century ago, and while the brothers do cultivate a few organic fruits and vegetables here and there, when it comes to the health and well-being of their cash crop, the Mullers rely on conventional farming methods.

Recent estimates blame agriculture for as much as 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and nitrogen fertilizers account for more miasma than all those methane-belching cows and sheep combined. But even as the power of the American food movement waxes, organic farms still make up less than 1 percent of this country's cropland. The unignorable presence of that other 99 percent has forced many environmentalists to a singularly pragmatic conclusion: If there is going to be a significant attempt to slash the use of water, fossil fuels, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides -- the resource-sucking carbon and chemical footprint that has come to define the modern agro-industrial complex -- the bulk of that effort will have to emerge from the operations of large-scale, conventional farms. The assault on business as usual will come from the everyday operations of Frank Muller's farm.

"If you're not organic, it doesn't mean you're bad," Muller says. Still, the notion of the world's megafarms leading the way to global sustainability may chill the hearts of Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, and Alice Waters, not to mention their legions of followers. The very idea opposes the philosophy and politics of the Slow Food movement, the grass-fed movement, the organic movement, and the local food movement.

But in the past few years, some of the world's mightiest and most profitable tomato syndicates -- including Del Monte, Heinz, and Unilever -- have allied themselves with a small, relatively unknown, and extraordinarily ambitious consortium called the Stewardship Index for Specialty Crops. In 2008 the Stewardship Index began the business of gathering together many of those who share a stake in industrial agriculture, be they farmers, transnational packagers and retailers, or environmentalists. The goal is to get them to agree on what, exactly, one ought to measure to understand and gauge the environmental impact of the seed-to-shelf life cycle of any produce-based product, from frozen french fries to canned almonds to bottled pasta sauce. Working committees include representatives from Bayer CropScience, General Mills, PepsiCo, and Walmart; trade groups such as the Western Growers Association and the National Potato Council; and nongovernmental organizations such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Organic Center, and the World Wildlife Fund. And then there are the academics -- from Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, and the University of Arkansas' Sam M. Walton College of Business -- all of whom have taken an interest in how sustainability can permeate megafarm and megastore alike.

The Stewardship Index calls its proposed yardsticks "sustainability metrics," and the hope is that once everyone in the industry can quantify environmental sustainability, they will be able to compare and contrast their levels with those of their industry peers and eliminate their own excesses. The logic is fairly straightforward: sustainability aligns with efficiency, and the elimination of any size, shape, or form of wasted resource will save the world's largest companies untold dollars, euros, and yuan. Thus will stewardship of the earth come to align with the profit motive, and sustainability metrics will become the lingua franca of staunch capitalist, radical environmentalist, and everyone in between. At least that's the idea.

Here on the Mullers' fields in Yolo County, the translation of agricultural custom into sustainability metric had already begun. I had come to California to see tomatoes and found a revolution in measurement, so I followed the fruit from family farm to the world's largest retailer in order to catch a glimpse of the future of food.

Continued...

***

Editor's note: This is an online preview of a story appearing in the Natural Resource Defense Council's Fall 2010 issue of OnEarth Magazine.

Tottenham are alone among the four Premier League clubs in having a Champions League group they can really savour

The leading English clubs would be aghast at any suggestion of adventure in the group phase of the Champions League. With Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal among the top seeds, none of their managers was ever likely to be stifling a gasp of anxiety at the draw.

Tottenham Hotspur, who last savoured the competition 48 years ago in its European Cup incarnation, would have been alone in feeling the pulse quicken though it accelerated further when they were pitted against the holders, Internazionale. The Serie A side also landed a domestic Double.

They were so effective under José Mourinho, before he left for Real Madrid, that there seldom seemed to be a instant when one trophy or another was not being cradled. The sort of acceleration that sweeps Tottenham towards such an encounter is hair-raising but also welcome since nobody can be jaded at the thought of Inter, now managed by Rafael Benítez, coming to White Hart Lane.

Their squad is so remarkable that it is virtually a caricature of excellence. At the draw in Monaco, the club continued to gorge itself on honours, with the prizes for goalkeeper, defender, midfielder and forward of the year going, respectively, to Júlio César, Maicon, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito. Benítez has a little less scope to introduce new blood since Mario Balotelli, who did not get off the bench in the 2010 final, has gone to Manchester City.

The greater comfort for Tottenham lies in the fact any club might be compelled to proclaim the excitement of such fixtures while shrugging ruefully in private. When Harry Redknapp does tear his gaze from Inter, he will not be especially pleased to see one of the other adversaries in the group. Werder Bremen eliminated Sampdoria in the qualifiers.

Twente Enschede, however, may have peaked by taking their first Eredivisie title and with Steve McClaren having then moved on to Wolfsburg, the side is now under the command of Michel Preud'homme. It is at least feasible that Tottenham can go through to the last 16 as runners-up in their group.

Once thoughts have been wrenched away from Inter, the mood may be sunnier at White Hart Lane since the remainder of the fixtures are less daunting. An even more marked contentment will have been felt elsewhere, with Manchester United seeing Group C as a routine assignment.

There would be normally be wincing at the prospect of La Liga foes, but Valencia have transferred both David Villa and David Silva. Ferguson might have to endure nothing more exacting than demands that he recall his time at Rangers once more. The people of Manchester could be anxious since few will forget rioting in the city at the time of the Scottish club's Uefa Cup final there with Zenit St Petersburg in 2008.

Rangers have had severe financial worries since then but they have eased enough for transfer fees to be paid this summer and Walter Smith's side has been resilient enough to take the last two League titles in Scotland. That success, all the same, will not concern Ferguson and nor should meetings with the Turkish club Bursaspor.

Chelsea's group has a ring to it since they are pitted against former winners of the tournament in Marseille. The French club seized the Champions League in 1993 but there had been no subsequent trophies of note until the team managed by Didier Deschamps completed a domestic Double last season.

That in itself will give Carlo Ancelotti pause for thought at Stamford Bridge and Spartak Moscow can also present problems. Group G is completed by the Slovak club MSK Zilina. Arsenal, too, will head east, but the trips to take on Shakhtar Donetsk and Partizan Belgrade will be regarded automatically as awkward engagements.

Currently, though, it is Braga who are really to be feared. The Portuguese club's elimination of Celtic was not particularly surprising but in the next qualifier they did disrupt the natural order. Braga defeated Sevilla 1-0 at home and 4-3 in Spain. There is a capacity, as Celtic also saw, for both obduracy and goal scoring.

For the moment, the glamour of the Champions League is felt only weakly by the British clubs. It exists forcefully elsewhere, in Group C's combination of Milan, José Mourinho's Real Madrid and those other former winners, Martin Jol's Ajax. Auxerre will do well not to be awestruck.

While England is the sole country to have four representatives, it should be borne in mind that no Premier League team made it beyond the quarter- finals last season.

Despite the apparent standing, these are clubs that must prove their worth all over again.

Al Bello - Getty Images

about 20 hours ago: NEW YORK - AUGUST 25: Roger Federe and Rafael Nadal appear at a press conference following The Nike Primetime Knockout Tennis Event at Pier 54 on August 25 2010 in New York New York. Photo By Al Bello/Getty Images for Nike.

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It used to be a given that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer would be on opposite ends of the draw. But in the brave new tennis world that saw Federer -- albeit briefly -- slip to third in the world, it was no longer guaranteed. However, with Federer fresh off consecutive finals, including a win at Cincinnati, Nadal and Federer are set up to potentially meet in another Slam final at the 2010 U.S. Open, per the recently released draw.

Top-seeded Rafael Nadal is undoubtedly the biggest winner, with few real threats in his quarter of the draw. Fellow countrymen Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer (who did end Nadal's run at the 2007 U.S. Open) and Feliciano Lopez are the three highest seeds in the bracket, giving Nadal a good chance to at least equal his best result at Flushing Meadows and make the semifinals.

No. 2 Federer should have an equally open path, at least to the quarterfinals. If the seeds hold true, Federer could have a rematch with No. 5 Robin Soderling, who broke Federer's DiMaggio-esque streak of making 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals in the quarters of the French Open this year.

No. 3 Novak Djokovic, No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 9 Andy Roddick figure to fight it out in a crowded bracket, while No. 4 Andy Murray will have hard-hitting Czech Tomas Berdych to worry about in his quarter of the bracket.

For the full bracket, go here.

For more on the upcoming U.S. Open, check out The Daily Forehand.

Filed under: U.S. Open, ATP

Asil Nadir's rag trade firm diversified to become global giant, before collapsing with £1.3bn debts

Asil Nadir's return to Britain contrasted somewhat with his flight from the UK at dead of night in May 1993, when he took off in a small charter aircraft from an airfield in Dorset, landed in Beauvais, northern France, and then headed in an executive jet back to his villa in northern Cyprus.

It was an ignominious denouement to a decade in which the Turkish Cypriot-born business tycoon had become seen as first the darling and then the villain of the City of London as shares in his Polly Peck empire dived and soared, surrounded by rumours and innuendo about Nadir and his financial practices.

He was alternately feted for his success and the amazing, exponential growth of Polly Peck and sneered at for his Turkish roots and the way he did business. The protracted Serious Fraud Office investigation after the collapse of the company only fed the gossip.

Polly Peck's collapse with the then colossal debts of £1.3bn came at the height of an era of spectacular City booms and scandals. It was a period when the Thatcher government was selling off public utilities and urging the public to buy shares, when – in the words of Gordon Gecko, the character in the Hollywood blockbuster Wall Street – greed was good, and when young men in red braces in deregulated City offices flaunted their wealth and supposed acumen.

Business bubbles rose out of nowhere and some of them collapsed just as rapidly, taking small shareholders and their money with them, and shady businessmen sometimes came to grief: Peter Clowes spending £100m of his clients' money on yachts and fast cars instead of investing in government stock, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International which specialised in labyrinthine ways of avoiding regulation, Barings' venerable bank, brought down when its junior trader Nick Leeson contrived to lose £827m in unsupervised dealing.

Asil Nadir, born in Farmagusta, northern Cyprus, had a reputation in the late 80s as a ruthless businessman, feared rather than liked, it was said, a workaholic with no time for a social life, who yet charmed women and had mistresses. His business career had started when he sold newspapers in the street at the age of six. Later he studied economics at Istanbul University, before moving to Britain with his parents and sister in 1960.

Invasion

In the East End of London he bought a small clothing business. His break came following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 when the government in northern Cyprus invited him to launch a processing and packaging business, collecting the citrus fruits from the orchards left by the previous Greek residents when they fled.

Within 10 years Polly Peck had diversified, making colour televisions in Turkey, computers and electrical components, but also buying up the US fruit exporter Del Monte in an audacious coup when its parent company, Nabisco, was broken up. Nadir also bought newspapers in Turkey, supportive of the government there, and hotels and a bank in northern Cyprus.

By the late 1980s not only was Polly Peck the only European company to be listed on the Tokyo stock exchange – thanks to its stake in Sansui electronics – but Vestel, its Turkish television manufacturing arm, was the largest company on the Istanbul exchange and its fruit distribution business was the third largest in the world. In 1989 the company was worth £1.6bn and had been catapulted into the FTSE 100.

Nadir was by then said to be worth £200m and was listed as the 36th richest person in Britain in the Sunday Times's annual rich list. He had an office in Berkeley Square, furnished with Turkish and French antiques, owned a string of racehorses and gave generously to the Spastics Society. Media profiles were generally adulatory.

But the City remained suspicious of Polly Peck's exponential growth and wary of its reliance on uncertain Middle Eastern and specifically Turkish markets. The growth was certainly phenomenal: in early 1990 it was said that anyone who had invested £1,000 in the company in 1980 would by then be holding shares worth £1.3m.

Rumours circulated of opaque accounting methods and boardroom rows, of a company too dependent on its jumped-up parvenu Levantine boss. Fluctuations in the company's value were certainly destabilising: when the Financial Times criticised Polly Peck in 1983 it lost a quarter of its share value in 20 minutes; in 1985 when its profit forecast was too high £100m was wiped off its market value.

Then in 1990 with the SFO inquiry and the collapse of the company, Nadir was changed from City hero to villain, sued by the company's administrators for £378m, facing 13 charges of theft and false accounting and granted £1.5m bail against the advice of the SFO, which pointed out Britain had no extradition agreement with northern Cyprus, a country it did not recognise. When Nadir absconded two days before an Old Bailey hearing and four months before his trial, Sir David Hopkin, the magistrate who had granted bail, remarked urbanely: "He has been here for two years … which doesn't exactly show he had an immediate intention to bugger off, does it?"

Laughter

Nadir's reappearance in northern Cyprus, giving defiant and unrepentant interviews to the sceptical British media, not only aggravated the SFO and harmed his image back in Britain, but also revealed the powerlessness of the British authorities.

Representations by the Foreign Office were met with a shrug by Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader: "How can we deliver Mr Nadir to the British unless we organise a kidnapping? Legally, we can't do it because he is protected under our constitution. He has committed no crime in Cyprus."

British journalists found Nadir happy to talk. "I am sure the British public which is renowned for fair play and protecting the innocent will judge me more accurately now the truth is not suppressed," he told the Daily Mail, which noted that the limp and walking stick Nadir had used in London because of a bad back had been replaced by laughter and a grin in the Cypriot sunshine.

Nadir argued that he could not receive a fair trial in Britain, because the SFO had confiscated all his papers. The SFO responded that he had had copies. The trustee in bankruptcy declared his allegations of unfairness offensive and insulting. And then, extraordinarily, came the intervention of Tory minister Michael Mates, an upright former soldier who was revealed to have written letters about Nadir's plight to the attorney general and to have given him a £50 watch inscribed "Don't let the buggers get you down".

With that, the Nadir saga seemed closed and forgotten. The SFO's case was dormant, but finally the 80s tycoon has found northern Cyprus too constraining and now feels prepared to take his chance with British justice.

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MimeType/@FormalName Males Driving Europe's Summer of Mobile Love - Mobile Dating Sites on the Rise, Males 25-34 Represent Nearly a Quarter of Users - Italians Lead European Countries in Seeking 'Amore' on their Mobiles LONDON, August 26, 2010

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 Dating Site Access via Mobile Phone by European Country 3 Month Avg. Ending June 2010 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Unique Visitors (000)        Reach (%) EU5                          10,968                  4.8% Italy                      3,347                  7.1% Spain                      2,124                  6.1% Germany                    2,093                  3.9% France                     1,693                  3.6% United Kingdom             1,711                  3.5% 

 Dating Sites by Access Method 3 Month Avg. Ending June 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending June 2009 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Mobile Subscribers Who Accessed Dating Sites on Mobile Phone (000) Jun-2009   Jun-2010   % Change Accessed Dating Service Ever in Month       7,201     10,968         52% Accessed Dating Service via SMS             3,724      5,614         51% Accessed Dating Service via Browser         3,660      5,375         47% Accessed Dating Service via App             1,078      1,846         71%

 Mobile Benchmark Data for the European Market 3 Month Average Ending June 2010 Total EU5 (UK, DE, FR, ES and IT), Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens

Reach (%) of Mobile Subscribers EU5      UK      France   Germany   Italy    Spain Sent Text Message to Another Phone   82.9%    90.6%     80.5%    81.3%    79.6%    82.3% Used Application (Including Native Games)      35.8%    41.5%     26.0%    34.9%    39.2%    37.7% Used Browser        25.9%    36.7%     24.3%    20.4%    23.7%    24.1% Listened to Music on Mobile Phone    24.5%    23.1%     21.3%    26.3%    22.5%    31.1% Accessed Social Networking Site or Blog            14.9%    23.8%     13.3%     8.9%    15.1%    13.4% Accessed News       29.7%    36.5%     27.3%    23.0%    33.8%    28.3% Smartphone          25.7%    28.0%     17.9%    19.5%    33.6%    31.6% 3G Subscribers      44.8%    44.5%     39.6%    41.5%    45.7%    56.1% 

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According to data gathered by market research firm SNL Kagan, cable companies saw a noticeable drop in the total number of subscribers during the second quarter of 2010, a first for an industry that has thus far seen nothing but growth.

The number of cable subscribers dropped by 711,000, according to SNL Kagan, with six out of eight cable providers reporting their worst quarterly subscriber losses to date. Other parts of the industry were able to add just enough subscribers to make the net loss more like 216,000. Cable's share of the pay-TV market dropped slightly too, from 63.6 percent to just 61 percent during the quarter.

Commercial real estate agent Joe Belinske never thought retail life could be like it is today on Monroe Street near Westfield Franklin Park mall. "Monroe Street used to rent itself. People never put out 'For Lease' sign. You didn't have to market it," said Mr. Belinske of CB Richard Ellis/Reichle Klein, a Toledo commercial real estate firm.

But these days all along the Monroe Street-Talmadge Avenue corridor - the Toledo area's crown jewel of commercial real estate - times are tough. "For Lease" signs have proliferated on Monroe from Sylvania Avenue past Talmadge to the Target shopping plaza. Some of the signs feature a shocking indicator of hard times: "Free rent."

Area rents have fallen significantly, and what was the price for hidden space in strip malls that looked away from the road, is the going price for better sites that look straight out onto Monroe.

Several large signature properties - the closed Circuit City store and former Lone Star Steakhouse on Monroe, and the Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill on Talmadge - have remained closed for more than 18 months.

Also worrisome, commercial real estate experts say, is it seems like more small retailers have left the retail corridor than have arrived in the last few years.

Both Saks (SKS) and Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) said they were closing stores in several parts of the country. Meanwhile, other stores like the struggling Blockbuster video rental chain, continue to slash stores by the dozens. American Apparel (APP), which is close to defaulting on its loans, just may be next.

Consumers just aren't shopping the way they used to. Even Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), which typically fares well during tough economic times, is worried. "The slow economic recovery will continue to affect our customers, and we expect they will remain cautious about spending," said president and CEO Mike Duke in a statement that was released during the company's second quarter earnings report.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock is a registered investment advisor representative for SitkaPacific Capital Management. Sitka Pacific is an asset management firm whose goal is strong performance and low volatility, regardless of market direction. Visit http://www.sitkapacific.com/account_management.html to learn more about wealth management and capital preservation strategies of Sitka Pacific.

$50 of $100 raised.

Started raising funds on Jun 27, 2010

Madame Binta Babou lives in Whakhinane, Guediawaye. She has been a member of the Baye Laye credit association since September 2008. She sells various products such as palm oil, peanut paste and breakfast, through mobile sales in her quarter. She began in this business in order to develop socially, and is seeking a 50 000 FRS loan to boost her business proposition. She aims to generate more consistent profits in order to better satisfy her family's needs.

Translated from French by Danielle Treharne, Kiva Volunteer