Happy New Year 2010

To all my faithful readers and subscribers, to all Lance Armstrong admirers and haters, to all medical doctors of the world who have given their life to science and saved thousands of lives, to all medical administrators and medical personal (nurses, medical techs, etc) who help patients to recovery and given them hope, to all honest economists and entrepreneurs of the world, to all people on the globe who are really true to themselves, to Mr. Gerald Celente, Trends Research Institute who is a real gentleman and has proven to be not only an extremely smart and intelligent man but also very accurate in his financial predictions in the last 20 years. And specially, to my long time partner (you know who you are), I wish the year 2010 brings to you all more wisdom than the one you all already have, more physical and mental energy, more love, more prosperity, elegance, friends and over all, health, health  from head to toe, from inside and out.

Blessings to all of us next year, I hope from the bottom of my heart that we can become better human beings through out the financial, social and political turmoil that is, most probably. to hit the fan in 2010.

In the meantime, I will keep riding my bicycle and keeping myself in shape and well fit!

NOTE: To Misty (RIP), Bitsy, Dolly, Tony, Tiger, Smokey, Coco...HAPPY NEW YEAR, KITTIES, I promise I will keep on feeding you salmon and tuna next year!

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Cyclists have Fun in Marietta Ohio

Defying freezing temperatures these 50 courageous bicyclists decide to go out on their bikes to celebrate the holidays. They are all fantastic and responsible bikers. They all wore proper clothing, helmets and lights. Kudos to all of you guys, keep on the tradition next year!

Marietta Holiday Lights Bicycle Tour

"This weather is perfect," said ride coordinator and founder Roger Kalter. "About 40 degrees and clear, we couldn't have asked for better."
Kalter, who is also the youth program director for the Marietta Family YMCA, said the ride has taken place in similar "perfect" weather, rain and 20 degrees and snow.

"After yesterday's rain, I was a little worried," he said.
Kevin Laughery of Marietta decided to introduce his two children, Clare, 12, and Nick, 8, to nighttime cycling by having them participate in their first holiday bicycle tour.

"I have done this many times and they like to ride, so I thought that while they were with me, this would be something fun to do," he said.
Nick Laughery said he was excited for the ride.

"I like biking and I think it will be good," he said.

Merry Christmas? Not for many in the US

December 2009 California Homeless

The truth can hide for a little while, but eventually all comes out to light. The mainstream media loves to tell us how good the economy is, "recovery is underway", "recession is over", lies, all lies paid for by the US government, Goldman "Sucks", JP Morgan, Bernanke, Geithner, and the rest of Obama crew.

Thousands of Homeless Youth receive new clothes for holidays

Jobless rates up in all Kentucky counties

Crime is brutal in Winsconsin in 2009

California is Bleeding

"El Centro, a town near the Mexican border, enjoys the dubious reputation of having the highest unemployment rate in the nation: just over 25 per cent.
In November students staged rowdy sit-ins at campuses of the state-funded University of California after the university administration announced plans to raise fees by 32 per cent, or $US2500 ($2840), over two years, to meet budget shortfalls.
Mr Schwarzenegger is still devising a plan that will probably involve a smaller number of non-violent criminals being set free.
The recession has hit California doubly hard. It was one of the states with the biggest bubble in house prices so there has been the inevitable bust. One in every 180 homes received a foreclosure notice in November."

"The future looks no brighter. A report last month by the legislature's non-partisan budget analyst, Mac Taylor, said California faced another $US14.4 billion budget shortfall in 2010-11 on top of this year's deficit, expected to be $US6 billion."

America sees rise in families left out in the cold

“Now we’re seeing people who are not the traditional look of homelessness, these are families who really just can’t make ends meet. It helps if they don’t have to buy food everyday … they’ve been sleeping on family couches for the last month just trying to save up enough to get an apartment,” said Alicia Horton, the executive director of Thrive DC.

“These are hard-working, generally healthy – emotionally and mentally – people who just have fallen on bad times,” she said.

Underemployed: for some US workers any job will do

“Some days I feel embarrassed to think that this is the best that I can do,” says Ms. Klinger of Zanesville, Ohio. “Then I talk with people like my brother who have not worked in over a year. I remind myself that I am doing something.”

Top 10 Similarities Between Obama and Bush

Nothing really has change with the new President of United States. Same ol' same ol'. Obama continues the same policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush. But don't take me wrong, policies of control, manipulation of data and corruption at grand scale really started to worsen with President Clinton.

These are my ten top ten similarities between the Bush and Obama administration, just to mention some.

1. War in Iraq
2. War in Afghanistan
3. Wall Street and corporate bailouts.
4. Support for the USA Patriot Act (Established by Bush and continued by Obama)
5. International US-Mexico and US-Canad Borders fill with US police and military abuse towards LEGAL immigrants, tourists and even their own US citizens.
6. Both support One World Government
7. Both support and are puppets of Goldman Sachs, banksters and all financial and most influential elite.
8. Obama continues appointing czar positions.

Obama is not the only one with czar positions in his administration. Bush had them, too.

Bush's Czars:

* Cyber Security Czar
* Regulatory Czar
* AIDS Czar
* Bird Flu Czar
* Intelligence Czar
* Health IT Czar
* Katrina Czar
* Manufacturing Czar
* Drug Czar
* Domestic Policy Czar
* War Czar
* Copy-wright Czar
* Abstinence Czar
* Mine Safety Czar
* Latin American Czar
* WTO Health Czar
* Corruption Czar
* Privacy Czar
* Health Czar

Obama:

1. Herb Allison-TARP Czar
2. Alan Bersin-Border Czar
3. Dennis Blair-Intelligence Czar
4. John Brennan-Terrorism Czar
5. Carol Browner-Energy Czar
6. Adolfo Carrion, Jr-Urban Affairs Czar
7. Ashton Carter-Weapons Czar
8. Aneesh Chopra-Technology Czar
9. Jeffrey Crowley-AIDS Czar
10. Cameron Davis-Great Lakes Czar
11. Nancy-Ann DeParle-Health Czar
12. Earl Devaney-Stimulus Accountability Czar
13. Joshua DuBois-Faith-based Czar
14. Kenneth Feinberg-Pay Czar
15. Danny Fried-Guantanamo Closure Czar
16. J. Scott Gration-Sudan Czar
17. Richard Holbrooke-Afghanistan Czar
18. John Holdren-Science Czar
19. Van Jones Green-Jobs Czar
20. Gil Kerlikowske-Drug Czar
21. Vivek Kundra-Information Czar
22. George Mitchell-Mideast Peace Czar
23. Ed Montgomery-Car Czar
24. Dennis Ross-Mideast Policy Czar
25. Gary Samore-WMD Czar
26. Todd Stern-Climate Czar
27. Cass Sunstein-Regulatory Czar
28. Paul Volcker-Economic Czar
... 20 more czars have been added to this date Reuters Source

9. Lobbyist Appointees
10 Obama continues to diminish the importance that the Mexican economy has in the world and continues to denigrate the dignity of Mexico with the so called "War on drugs", instead of starting to educate THEIR own citizens to say NO to drugs.

Yahoo! Cycling Team 2010

Oh my God, Yahoo! is launching a cycling team next year and Kevin Klein, a former pro-cyclist has been hired to manage it.

"The whole idea behind the Yahoo! Cycling Team is the recruitment of high tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and to provide a platform for partners to achieve more involvement at the community level. If you do it right, everyone should win and grow their business."--Kevin Klein said.

Kevin Klein has already put together a roster of 15 cyclists. Some of them are veterans, professionals and others are quite young but with lots of experience in internacional racing. The names of the racers are not being released yet, at least not until the Yahoo! Cycling Team website is launched.

The riders will be using  Fuji bikes and will be mainly based out of California for the 2010 racing season.

If you are excited about this news you can follow Yahoo Cycling Team in Twitter, I already did. Love the idea of new competitive cycling riders.

Cardiac Arrest Kills Brittany Murphy at 32

Actress Brittany Murphy dies at 32, rest in peace. That is all I want to say. We don't know the reasons, we just don't know what some people have to go through in life.
All I want to say is that she was an excellent actress and was too young to die.

One thing for sure is that she knew What It Feels Like For A Girl

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Physical Disabilities will Benefit from HAL

My dear blogger friend Mish, who owns the Sci Fi Musings, just posted about this very interesting Japanese invention that promises to help people with weak limbs, (like pathelar instability -very frequent in cyclists-, peripheral neuropathy in diabetics, miastemia gravis, amongst others), and also patients with "limited physical range to walk and move like an able-bodied person" (like post-surgical knee complications not related to constrictions of the veins or arteries, like stiffness of the knee joint or RST -Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, stroke, spinal cord injuries, amongst many more)
The only problem right now is the price of it. Up to now, patients can rent the robot suit named HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) for the amount of  £1,370 or its equivalent in USD, $2,212.00, per month or, you can rent just parts of if, like robotic legs, robotic arms for a cheaper of course.
It is pricey now because its innovation, but with time and as it becomes more popular, useful for patients and with successful marketing through out the world, I am sure the price will drop and it will be more affordable to patients.
However, I doubt this kind of medical wonder will ever be provided under the Obamacare idiotic health plan.

"This is a truly cool invention, it could really help physically disabled people suffering from hip, knee, or foot problems to name just a very few. From the article:

"HAL, which weighs 23kg, is comprised of robotic 'limbs', and a backpack containing the suit's battery and computer system. It is strapped to the body and controlled by thought. When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles, and very weak traces of these signals can be detected on the surface of the skin. The HAL suit identifies these signals using a sensor attached the skin of the wearer, and a signal is sent to the suit's power unit telling the suit to move in unison with the wearer's own limbs."

It seems a little heavy but with a battery and computer system that lasts for 5 hours, a person will be capable of much more activity and much more strength. It could aid a person in lifting heavy objects, getting out of a wheel chair, and many other tasks. Plus I am sure there will be many refinements to this suit as time goes by.
The exo-skeleton is named Hal and I cannot help but feel very excited about this creation. Getting older can be a bitch, a car accident can bring life altering injuries and now there is going to be a solution to those physical problems. It really feels like science fiction is merging with real life. Sometimes it feels like we are going backwards when I see so many wars, cruelties to plants, animals, and humans, and then I read a story like this and get excited that we are moving ahead and trying to make life better for everyone!
Here is a LINK to the story and enjoy your weekend."~ Reports Mish's Sci Fi Musing blog

Ben Bernanke IS God

Oh gee, I really want the 2010 cycling season to start as soon as possible so I can stop blogging so much about the idiots that have put us all through this financial mess.It is unlikely that I will stop completely though, since everyday there's something new to discuss in the bloggosphere that the main stream media doesn't care to report nor to talk about. You know, keeping secrets, manipulation and corruption of the government and the main stream media is something that needs to be addressed.

Before you watch the video, let me tell you something: "Ben Bernanke IS God", for now, to the banksters and Wall Street, and he will be their God until he cannot continue to perform 'financial miracles'.

But blogging about Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador feud hopefully will take my mind -for few moments- away from God Bernanke and the Messiah.

Watching The Exorcist Movie to Unwind

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Kind of lazy today about blogging. It has been a very busy day. Lots of surgeries and medical consultations. I'm beat.
To relax and unwind I'm watching one of my favorite horror movies, "The Exorcist". HA! Michael Myers, Jason and Chucky movies are quite "relaxing" too, but Linda Blair's acting is just superb in this movie.
Another thing that I absolutely like about it it's the song theme. I like it so much I have it in my MP3 and listen to it on my bike rides. I find it to be quite original. Also, what I love about Linda Blair in real life, is her unconditional love for all kinds of animals. But this topic is for another post. In the meantime, good night fellas!

The Exorcist Theme Song

Is Alzheimer Related to Obesity?

Auguste Deter. Alois Alzheimer's
patient in November 1901,
first described patient w/ Alzheimer's

Okay, you know -my dear readers, that I don't like to write boring articles with complicated scientific facts and data, but sometimes the scientist in me cannot avoid to just forget about Obama, his stupid Obamacare health plan and his greedy hypocrite bosses, Bernanke and Geithner. Sometimes I just cannot avoid to just put aside the absolute love I have for cycling and concentrate solely on SCIENCE! Yes, medical science, what makes my world go around.

So, this is it. Forgive me if I bore you to death today, but this topic is one -amongst thousands- of my main passions in medicine.

The JAMA (Journal American Medical Association) just released a very interesting study that some medical scientists conducted for the last 12 years. It is about Alzheimer disease and leptin.

They found that there is an important relation between the levels of the hormone leptin and the risk of developing Alzheimer.
Leptin is a protein hormone produced by fat cells, ovaries, placenta, bone marrow, mammary glands, skeletal muscle, liver, pituitary gland and stomach. Leptin controls and regulates appetite and the exertion of energy (metabolism). In general and applying simply chemistry logic, we can say that higher levels of leptin mean less appetite, lower levels mean more appetite. Would this mean that leptin is directly related to obesity? Some scientists say yes, some others say no, and I am amongst the ladder ones.

See, most obese patients have developed resistance to the effects of leptin due to the constant intake of fructose, that is why the hypothalamus in these patients do not receive the signal of satiety and they keep on eating extra portions of food, causing themselves an accumulation of fat storage in their bodies (obesity). That is why obese patients do not present any weight loss when they have been given high dosages of leptin. This tells us that there still so much we don't know about the physiological behavior of this particular hormone, which is localized in a part of the chromosome 7 in humans.

The new study reports that the higher levels of leptin diminish the risk of developing dementia and AD -Alzheimer Disease-, and the lower levels increases the risk of developing such pathologies. Therefore higher leptin levels were associated with a lower incidence of dementia and AD -Alzheimer Disease. The incidence of dementia decreased when levels of leptin were gradually increased...but obesity DID NOT, I repeat, did not show any improvement at all.

So, my message to health practitioners and other people who are interested in learning about these new medical discoveries, this is my conclusion: Alzheimer disease is not related to obesity.

"The null outcome for the leading ϒ-secretase modulator [tarenflurbil] in a phase 3 trial and the surprisingly strong association between plasma leptin and incident Alzheimer disease underscore the need to broaden the current view of potential therapeutic approaches to cognitive impairment and dementia in older individuals. Research must seek a fuller understanding of the complex convergence of Alzheimer disease with vascular disease and Lewy body disease [a type of dementia], the application of biomarkers and other surrogates to clinical trials to quantify specific pharmacologic effects, and a multimodal approach to prevention and treatment. Doing so could have profound effects on the increasing numbers of older persons and on the societies confronting the global challenge of late-life dementias in decades to come." --Dr. Thomas J. Montine, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Washington, and Eric B. Larson, M.D., M.P.H., of the Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, comments on these findings in this week's JAMA regarding dementia and Alzheimer disease.

JAMA Vol. 302, No. 23
Quick Time Video

The Fat Cats Are Getting Fatter

This is so funny (NOT). The "fat cats" are getting fatter, thanks to the Obama administration who keeps feeding them with delicious green pieces of pastry, billions of them!

Watch out, Mr. President & Co, don't you feed them the cats so much, they could burst.

U.S. gave up billions in tax money in deal for Citigroup's bailout repayment

The federal government quietly agreed to forgo billions of dollars in potential tax payments from Citigroup as part of the deal announced this week to wean the company from the massive taxpayer bailout that helped it survive the financial crisis.

The Internal Revenue Service on Friday issued an exception to long-standing tax rules for the benefit of Citigroup and a few other companies partially owned by the government. As a result, Citigroup will be allowed to retain billions of dollars worth of tax breaks that otherwise would decline in value when the government sells its stake to private investors.

"The government is consciously forfeiting future tax revenues. It's another form of assistance, maybe not as obvious as direct assistance but certainly another form," said Robert Willens, an expert on tax accounting who runs a firm of the same name. "I've been doing taxes for almost 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this, where the IRS and Treasury acted unilaterally on so many fronts."

Source

What is Your Favorite Cycling Movie?

Your favorite cycling movie could be only about cycling or it could be a drama, horror, science fiction, comedy, love, suspense or fantasy movie that includes a cycling event of some sort, a cyclist character, or anything about cycling that you liked a lot for whatever reason.

In my case, all cycling movies are especial, even if cycling is not the main theme of the story, I just love any movie that includes cycling or cyclists.
But tonight I have to vote for "Ladri Di Biciclette", one of the best cycling movies ever made, in my own personal opinion.

PART 1

"The film tells the story of Antonio Ricci, an unemployed man in the depressed post-World War II economy of Italy. With no money and a wife and two children to support, he is desperate for work. He is delighted to at last get a good job hanging up posters, but on the sole condition that he has a bicycle which must be used for work. He is told unequivocally: "No bicycle, no job." His wife Maria pawns their bedsheets in order to get money to redeem his bicycle from the pawnbroker.

Early on in the film, Ricci's coveted bicycle is stolen by a bold young thief who snatches it when he is hanging up a poster.

Antonio thinks that the police will take the theft very seriously, but they are not really interested in the petty theft of a bike. The only option is for Antonio and his friends to walk the streets of Rome themselves, looking for the bicycle. After trying for hours with no luck, they finally give up and leave."

PLOT

PART 9

Is This a Chick Flick?

Economy talk can be boring for some but if you listen to Max Keiser, I promise you, you won't be bored at all. I guarantee you that you will learn about economy, finances and at the same time, you will have a great time listening to his very intelligent and hilarious way he has to explain how the Theoclassical Economics  ( A religious system that worships greed) works now days, in other words, Market Fundamentalism where people are willing to die for it.
Typical examples of the current Theoclassical Economics, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, Geithner, Obama, Goldman Sachs, more "banksters" and many more in Wall Street.

Dr Peter Watts Canadian Science Fiction writer Beaten Arrested at US Border

My deepest and most heartfelt sympathies go to Dr. Peter Watts, a Canadian science fiction writer who was horribly beaten at the US border last Tuesday, December 1st.

Maybe a lot of American citizens who don't travel across the US borders don't know how serious the situation is, and dangerous too. Under the pretext of Homeland Security, any military, police or US border personal can detain you, throw you in jail without reading you the Miranda rights nor giving you the right to access to any legal representation. In other words, when you cross the US Border, you are completely defenseless and have no rights whatsoever. 

"Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is in serious legal trouble after he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and imprisoned by American border guards at a Canada U.S. border crossing December 8. This is a call to friends, fans and colleagues to help.

Peter, a Canadian citizen, was on his way back to Canada after helping a friend move house to Nebraska over the weekend. He was stopped at the border crossing at Port Huron, Michigan by U.S. border police for a search of his rental vehicle. When Peter got out of the car and questioned the nature of the search, the gang of border guards subjected him to a beating, restrained him and pepper sprayed him. At the end of it, local police laid a felony charge of assault against a federal officer against Peter. On Wednesday, he posted bond and walked was taken across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves (he was released by Port Huron officials with his car and possessions locked in impound, into a winter storm that evening). He's home safe. For now. But he has to go back to Michigan to face the charge brought against him.

The charge is spurious. But it's also very serious. It could mean two years in prison in the United States, and a ban on travel in that country for the rest of Peter's life. Peter is mounting a vigorous defense, but it's going to be expensive - he's effectively going up against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and he needs the best legal help that he can get."~Says science fiction writer, David Nickle.

You can read the updates by Dr. Peter Watts.

Health Care and Housing a Human Right?

Barack Obama and Pelosi better hurry up Congress to pass Obamacare (better known as "Health Care for all") otherwise they are going to be extremely busy next year trying to reform not only the "failed" American health care system but also the failed American housing system.

Some Americans are now starting to claim that not only access to health care is a basic human right, but also access to decent housing.

I wonder, isn't access to food and water MORE of a basic human right than health care and housing? If we don't eat and drink water we get sick and die!. I would tell Obama and Co. to pass first and foremost access to food and water (free diet coke would be nice too, thanks!)

This video is appalling!

Fat Acceptance is Plain Wrong

The fat seat. The BLUE SEAT
is twice as wide as the normal.
It is at the Brazil's train station.Having a happy life is not only about laughter and having the right financial position to buy things of luxury. I find that being happy starts when we care enough about the well being of our physical bodies, like eating healthy, drinking healthy and exercising.

Certainly, to be able to do that we also have to find healthy ways of thinking.
I really don't care what obese people say about fat acceptance. It's impossible to be happy, healthy and live a long life when you are carrying 100, 200 or more pounds of extra fat in your body and when you can hardly move or walk or bend to tie your shoes.

Carrying so much extra body fat is extremely bad for the spine, knees, joints in general, all internal organs (it's called visceral fat), especially the heart, lungs, liver and pancreas are surrounded by fat tissue and this impedes the correct functioning of those mentioned organs, making the patient susceptible to many diseases that could be fatal.

We all know what those diseases could be. I don't want to bore you listing morbidity and mortality issues. The point of my post is to let obese people know that they can reach a healthy, happy and long life just by wanting to drop those extra pounds and finding a new way of eating, drinking and living.

Fat acceptance is plain wrong. It would be like trying to push for smoking addiction, alcoholism, heroine, cocaine and every other addiction there is acceptance. Excessive food intake is an addiction and it has to be seen as one. That doesn't mean that obese people have no rights or have to be mistreated or put down in anyway, but morbidly obese people have to be educated and treated so they can accept that they have a problem controlling the quality and quantity of food they eat every day.

Remember, it is not about being thin, it is about being healthy and happy.

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The Decline US Recession Geography Video

Here it is, something to think about:

"According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. "The Decline: The Geography of a Recession," as created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe, serves as a vivid representation of just how much. Watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007 -- approximately one year before the start of the recession -- to the most recent unemployment data available today."

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Love Cycling but Hate Time Trials

I don't have to say it again, I know I have said it a million times, I LOVE CYCLING WITH ALL MY LIFE, but I hate time trials...there I said it. Don't get me wrong though. I do love to watch the pros do the time trials, go fast like the wind from the start to the end, fast cadence -Lance Armstrong style- or slower but hard cadence -Jan Ulrich style-. They look so good on their outfits and the position on the bike. But I don't find this cycling category very exciting for me, maybe because I am just not that good at it.

I am what you would call an endurance cyclist and a climber, and I am good at it, oh yes. Love the long kilometers and the pain I have to endure to get to the finish. And climbing to me, represents the suffering my muscles have to go through to get to the top, but when there, the joy is simply overpowering.

Reason why I hate time trials (for me)

1. Most of the time the distance is really short (unless you are competing in the Tour de France where the TTs can be 40 to 60 kms)
2. Most of the distance to ride is flat. No excitement there.
3. The time trial bike is kind of uncomfortable for a shorty like me.

Watching the pro-cyclists ride though, it's a flabbergasting experience for my eyes.

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Banks Lose Money and Foreclosures Soar

Did you know that now banks are taking losses on 'short selling' as foreclosures soar?

This kind of data rarely or never makes it to main stream media. It explains beautifully whats going on between the US home selling and foreclosures. Worth reading.

Obama pressures:

"Banks are increasing such sales under pressure from the Obama administration and lawmakers who criticized them for favoring foreclosures and delaying short sales, Green said. Lenders and loan servicers also stand to receive up to $2,000 in incentives to close short sales under a Treasury Department plan unveiled Nov. 30."

By John Gittelsohn and Margaret Collins

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Drew Schlosser tried for two years to sell his three-bedroom Punta Gorda, Florida, waterfront condominium for less than he owed on its two mortgages. The deal only went through last month when Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to take a $165,000 loss on the loans.

Even after he had an offer of $155,000 for the property, it took five months for the San Francisco-based lender to approve the purchase, a so-called short sale, in which the bank accepts less than the balance owed on a property. Schlosser said earlier offers had fallen through as bidders lost faith the bank would take less than the $320,000 in two mortgages.

“It was just kind of a mess,” said Schlosser, 31, a market research company director living in Estero, Florida. “You really have to get buyers who are patient.”

Banks are beginning to go along with short sales in increasing numbers, three years into a U.S. housing slump that pushed the economy into a recession and cut resale values by 30 percent from the peak in July 2006. Short sales almost tripled to 40,000 in the first six months of 2009 from the same period a year earlier. Yet for each short sale, there were 25 foreclosures started or completed in the first half of this year, according to data from the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

“It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale,” said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I think banks were in denial.”

Read entire article on Bloomberg

But foreclosures soaring are not an exclusive problem of the US, the United Kingdom is battling the same pain.
House sales dip to a 30 year low

Obama War Breaking Promises Economy Worsen

Almost one year since President Barack Obama came into power and so far, nothing has changed, at least, not for the better. And even though the main stream media of all over the world tries to hide the truth, it is practically impossible to continue this charade of lies, especially when there are so many people eager to tell the whole world about the reality of the economic disaster that STILL is going on.


Nothing has changed with President Obama. More troopers will be sent to Afghanistan, more civilians will be killed, more children and elderly people will die, he is just continuing the bloody wars that keep hurting the economy and the spirit of the humans involved in it. Unemployment keeps rising and poverty increasing, retail stores keep closing their doors and the GDP is deteriorating.

What has changed? ..... nothing has.

Economic Recession VS Economic Recovery

Reading Mish Sci Fi Musings blog this morning made me feel sane again. Sometimes when I read headlines like these ones, I feel like I am going totally crazy!
"yay, 'green shoots' are seeing in our economy",
or "job loses were not that bad in November",
or like this one: "we came out of the greatest recession ever since the Great Depression in 1929",
or "President Obama is doing a great job",
this one is hilarious: "Ben Bernanke has saved the world"
That is why I am happy to know that I am not the only one who thinks that we are in fact still going down on this path of economic disaster and have not gotten back on the path of economic recovery, not yet, unfortunately.

Click to enlarge image

"I have blogged on this topic in the past and will include those thoughts here once again in this post. I talk to a lot of different people because I live in a border town so I hear points of view from people who live in many states of the United States and various states in Mexico. Some people tell me they expect the worst next year in terms of job loss, standard of living, more store closures, etc. Others tell me California has a lot of jobs and money and people are just lazy and do not want to work and this whole crisis is a lie ( I am not making this up, someone told me this earlier in the week), and someone else told me yesterday they just lost their house in Las Vegas. The news paints a rosy picture and acts like the recession is over, well as I said before, it feels like science fiction. It reminds me of my favorite episode of Stargate Atlantis in which Dr. Weir is in a psychiatric hospital being told she is basically crazy and convince her to take her meds and move on with her life until the medical team on Atlantis is able to immobilize the nanites infecting her brain and thus influencing her thoughts. When she is revived, she cannot believe she is back in Atlantis and not on Earth and her entire view of what is real vs what is not is put into question. Do we all have our own unique points of view about the world, yes, but are they realistic?
Here is my previous post on this topic:
There are days when I feel as if I am living in a science fiction novel. I do not mean that people have been "body snatched" or I see flying saucers landing on my roof, although, one day a neighbor told me a UFO had landed on his roof and the last I had heard of him was that he is in a mental institution, but I digress.
What I see are distinct groups of people who appear to be living in alternate realities. In my line of work, I have the opportunity to talk with all kinds of people and the current economic crisis has amplified the differences in the way people see the world.
There is one group of people who say the economic crisis is fake because they are doing just fine in their lives and they don't know what all the negative news is about. It is as if they have closed their eyes to what is going on around them.
The other group of people I have encountered have lost everything: jobs, houses, cars, etc. For them, the crisis is very real.
The other group of people I talk with own their homes, have jobs and cars but know this crisis is not a fantasy because they are willing to see that stores have closed, "For Rent" signs are everywhere, empty houses and tent cities are real.
It is interesting to me to see how some people distort reality for whatever personal reason they may have. They seem unaware or unwilling to accept certain situations and to be truthful with themselves.
I think it is best to be as aware as possible of all situations in life and especially these troubled times and even though I love to escape for a while into my science fiction world, I also know when I need to be aware of reality."

SOURCE: Do You Live in the Real World Part Two

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US Real Unemployment Numbers

Unemployment in the United States has reached levels that are approaching us more to those of the  Great Depression (1929-32), and these numbers are the official ones of the BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics.  We can only imagine how high the REAL numbers are.

Take a look ate the California U6 unemployment measure, it's 19.5%, Oregon 20.1, Michigan 20.9, Rhode Island 18.3, South Carolina 18.4.

The last U3 unemployment rate publicly reported on main stream media was 10.2%, but the U6 (not reported by the MSM) is 17.5%, which is about 70% higher than the U3 rate. But the U6 also fails to provide the actual percentage of people who are, or may be considered unemployed.

The six state measures are based on the same definitions as those published for the U.S.:

• U-1, persons unemployed 15 weeks or longer, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
• U-2, job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs, as a percent of the civilian labor force;
• U-3, total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (this is the definition used for the official unemployment rate);
• U-4, total unemployed plus discouraged workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus discouraged workers;
• U-5, total unemployed, plus discouraged workers, plus all other marginally attached workers, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers; and
• U-6, total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.

CLICK TO ENLARGE IMAGE

SOURCE: Bureau of the Labor Statistics

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Obama vs Osama vs Aspiring TV Stars

Click to enlarge image

OK, this is hilarious, ridiculous and pathetic.

The Government of President Obama is ready to send 30,000 more TROOPERS (troopers is the correct word, Mr. President Obama, NO TROOPS, gee, did you really graduate from Harvard?) to Afghanistan because "...there is no doubt that the United States and Pakistan share a common enemy " -referring to the Afghan extremists.

Well, isn't the United States the most powerful country in the world military speaking?! How is it that the BIG US hasn't been capable of "winning" the war against the Afghan terror, the Iraq terror, the "everything" terror and "enemies" that according to them and only them, they have?!! Give me a BREAK!

If the US really had wanted to demolish the Afghanistan and Iraqi problems they say they have, they would already have done it long long time ago. The US has the most potent military armament, war weapons and smartest military agents of the world! How is it that they haven't finished those wars, how is it that they haven't found Osama Bin Laden, a cave man?
Answer. They don't want to. As simple as that. It is profitable to keep fighting stupid wars, it makes the ones in charge richer and more powerful.

Ah, and Osama Bin Laden...another fiasco. Allow me to laugh. The FBI, the CIA, the Interpol and all the US spies and political powers around the world that are allies of the US haven't been able to find an allegedly decrepit sick man who supposedly lives in the caverns of the outskirts of Pakistan and whose name is now famous for plotting attacks against the land of the free?

PLEASE! The US VS Osama Bin Laden?! hahaha, US, a giant, big as an elephant, powerful as an enraged lion and fast as a cheetah. Osama Bin Laden is the complete oposite to the US. It is incredible that Obama and Co. have the nerve to tell the American people lie after lie, just like George W. Bush did. Change? What change!

Oh well, maybe Mr. President Obama is right, maybe he is right after all. Maybe he is surrounded by inept security people and that is why:
1. They cannot win any war (being sarcastic on this one)
2. They cannot find Osama Bin Laden
3. Aspiring reality TV stars get into the White House without being invited. Uh-oh, somebody is going to get fired.

Pet Food Recall For Cats

Tony and Bitsy

It is absolutely nerve wracking that companies who elaborate pet food are being so careless in the manufacturing of food for our pets. I love animals, all kinds. I have cats that I have rescued and I adore them all. I want the best for them, the best health care available, the best medicine, the best food...and now I am afraid to feed them because there have been so many cat food recalls I can't keep track of them anymore...since 2005 until today!

Now I wonder if I lost my Misty 13 1/2 year old female cat due to the garbage I was feeding her with thinking that I was giving her the best kind of food.
Now, I don't trust any brand anymore. I am changing their diet and will ONLY feed them chicken and fish cooked by me and only me!

Geez, how pathetic, that we are losing our cats and dogs due to the irresponsibility, stupidity and greed (cheaper-bad quality ingredients to save money) of pet food manufacturers.

Scroll down on the Associated Press article below to read the report. I have copyright permit to publish it.

NOTE: When the Associated Press copyright permit expires (30 days from now) you can go to this link to read the story.