Prince Harry, strip billiards and privacy in Vegas
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The IPKat does some field research into the royal and ancient game of billiards In the past 24 hours it has been difficult to escape the hype involving an expensive hotel suite in Las Vegas, pretty girls on a bachelorette party, a game of strip...
The Closer
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ROUND UP Stocks closed down today as investors debated whether more central bank stimulus was in the works. The S&P 500 closed down 0.81 per cent. Yields on “haven”...
Minutes minutiae and open(-ended) questions
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There was a seemingly minor item in the FOMC minutes released yesterday that didn’t get much attention but that, naturally, interested us quite a bit.The participants noted...
Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker
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Another constant companion on my American trip was Olaf Stapeldon’s 1937 ‘science fiction classic’, Star Maker which I have, at long last, finished reading. I mentioned it in passing here. The narrator, who has rowed with his wife,...
Beschneidung in Deutschland: Die religiös motivierte Beschneidung minderjähriger Jungen
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Wohltuend sachlich und sensibel hat der Deutsche Ethikrat heute über die religiös motivierte Beschneidung minderjähriger Jungen debattiert. Trotz aller Differenzen einigten sich die Juristen, Theologen und Mediziner auf eine Empfehlung, die praxis...
Top 20 — iMFdirect’s Top 20 list
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The IMF blog has helped stimulate considerable debate about economic policy in the current crisis, on events in Europe and around the world, on fiscal adjustment, on regulating the financial sector, and the future of macroeconomics, as economists lea...
Young people in Europe: from “lost generation” to “sacrificed generation”?
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A hundred years later, we are far away from the romantic, Hemingwayan myth of “all of you young people who served in the war”. Yet Hemingway's “lost generation” still found in themselves the pride and the courage to shine through the arts, gi...
Thoughts on Syria: From anti-regime to religious strife
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Turmoil and violence in Syria are getting transformed into an extinction run. The forces of President Assad and the opposite units are still fighting in every street of Syria giving the field for other radical and fundamentalist militia groups to get...
The great Sino-American divorce
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Since the global financial crisis in 2008, we have been living through the slow and painful end of Chimerica -- the period when the American and Chinese economies acted as one.
Russia: Drug Drugu, Wish Fulfillment via Social Networks
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Drug Drugu ("To One Another") is a service that works with the wishes of users. Community members can not only request some kind of help, but also offer their own. The resource's operating principle is very simple: a user leaves a message in the appr...
Russia: Taxi Drivers Versus Dagestanis in Ryazan
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A possible fight between Russians and Dagestani migrants perhaps led to dozens, possibly hundreds, of taxi drivers organizing a pogrom-like attack. Events like this raise questions about Russia's capacity to effectively cope with its multiculturalism...
Baltic and German foreign ministers warn about threat of north-south division in Europe
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Foreign ministers of the Baltic states and Germany warned on Thursday about a growing threat of Europe being divided into the north and the south and called for further integration, including closer cooperation on economic and fiscal policy. REA...
Shorts in the rally
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A couple weeks ago, FT Alphaville asked who’s “buying” the rally in US equities. We also noted that volumes are low not only because its August, but also due...
Call #1: Traineeships in the European Parliament
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The European Parliament offers several options for traineeships within its Secretariat, to provide opportunities for vocational training and for learning more about what the European Parliament is and does. The traineeships may be paid or unpaid and...
Visions of Europe - Part 7 - A Europe with internal borders?
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One of the pillars of the EU for more 25 years has been the Schengen Agreement, signed in 1985 with the aim of abolishing border controls between EU Member States and thus giving practical effect to the free movement of people, one of the fundamental...
Jeanette Winterson at Edinburgh book festival: rehearsing the apocalypse
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Jeanette Winterson enters the book festival tent at a run, bounding onto the stage. Introduced by journalist Kirsty Wark with f-words – feisty, fun and feminist – the post-modernist author is at the Edinburgh book festival to read from her recent...
Mitt Romney and Man U
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It’s an indirect path from one to the other.Gawker on Thursday unloaded some 950 pages of filings from Bain Capital-affiliated offshore funds in which Mitt Romney has...
How do you say l'arroseur arrosé in German?
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It seems that Germany, having imposed austerity on the rest of Europe, is now slipping into recession at an accelerating rate. Perhaps this will concentrate minds in Berlin.
Jeremy Grantham: ‘Welcome to Dystopia’: We Are ‘Entering A Long-Term And Politically Dangerous Food Crisis’
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"We are five years into a severe global food crisis that is very unlikely to go away. It will threaten poor countries with increased malnutrition and starvation and even collapse. Resource squabbles and waves of food-induced migration will threat...
Building Resilience in a Changing Climate
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"In many respects a resilient society defies the imperative of economic efficiency. Resilience needs dispersed inventories and redundancy, while economic efficiency—in its ruthless pursuit of competitive advantage—eliminates inventories and r...
Putin and the “Other Russia”
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How do rural working class Russians really feel about Vladimir Putin?
Women Against Rape Seem To Have Forgotten We Are Supposed To Be Fighting The Patriarchy
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Twitter Feminists are doing a very good job of dismantling the anti-woman rhetoric written by Women Against Rape in the Guardian today. The article is a pile of victim-blaming, rape excusing twaddle from two women who should know better: Katrin Axel...
Women Against Rape Seem To Have Forgotten We Are Supposed To Be Fighting The Patriarchy
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Twitter Feminists are doing a very good job of dismantling the anti-woman rhetoric written by Women Against Rape in the Guardian today. The article is a pile of victim-blaming, rape excusing twaddle from two women who should know better: Katrin Axel...
Investor Pessimism
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Lately, I have been reading a lot about investors, banks and nations preparing for the worst case scenario. It seems that the definition for "worst case scenario" differs from time to time: a Greek exit, a Euro collapse, a banking collapse, a Eurozon...
Investor Pessimism
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Lately, I have been reading a lot about investors, banks and nations preparing for the worst case scenario. It seems that the definition for "worst case scenario" differs from time to time: a Greek exit, a Euro collapse, a banking collapse, a Eurozon...
Where Exactly To Get HCG Drops: The Solution To My Dieting Dilemma
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Dieting is one of the most common goals of most of our fellowmen. I have checked the statistics and found out that more than half of the population of the people worldwide is over-sized. This may sound funny for some but if we think deeper, we will r...
Once upon another time
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Times are changing, also in the digital world. An infograph, made by Best Education Sites, gives a nice overview of the development of the Internet over the past 10 years. Click here for the full graph. For a collection of informative pictures...
Merkel meets Hollande, then she meets Samaras, then Hollande meets Samaras
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It seems we can not expect any solutions from these meetings, but what kind of message these three politicians in your opinion try to present to their counterparts and to public? Miguel Otero-Iglesias, Assistant Professor in International Political...
Merkel meets Hollande, then she meets Samaras, then Hollande meets Samaras
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It seems we can not expect any solutions from these meetings, but what kind of message these three politicians in your opinion try to present to their counterparts and to public? Miguel Otero-Iglesias, Assistant Professor in International Political...
