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Credit Crunch Finance Money News

Icesave is saved: British investors getting money back! I’m saved!

I heard on the grapevine that an ex-senior employee of the FSAcommented at a gathering last week that investors with money in Icesave would not be seeing their cash until February. I, having moved all my ISAs (i.e. my life savings) to the fab guaranteed interest rate ISAs offered by Icesave, in the last week of May 2008 was not impressed. What luck! Moneysavingexpert.com’s Martin had been singing the praises of Icesave and telling “moneysavers” (as he calls the readers) what the (low) risks were for months. I had done his money makeover: got the Halifax 0% interest credit card for a year, fixed my electricity rate, lowered my phone bill, switched my current account to Alliance & Leicester (now owned by Santander, one of the biggest banks in the world as they keep telling us in bold red writing for the last week – do they think that means anything after the carnage we’ve seen in the last month?… in fact doesn’t that just make them seem riskier?!) and. Where was I? Oh yes, I had moved three years worth of ISAs to Icesave. Only the sheer convenience of having my regular savings at hand in a Plussaver account attached to my Premier Direct Alliance and Leicester current account had stopped me from handing my life’s sweat and blood over to Icesave. Who’d have thought that the economy of Icelandic bank Icesave, infact Iceland as a whole, was not as solid as ice?

Thankfully I was in the U.S watching the Dow Jones nose dive when the collapse of Icesave was announced. And, having had enough of hearing about the beginning of the end of the world as we know it, I tuned out of the news for a few days on my return. So I didn’t find out about what had happened to Icesave until the British Government announced that it would be backing all British savers’ investments in the collapsed Icelandic bank and moving things forward to retrieve the funds as soon as possible. Of course, no doubt, this was helped heavily by the fact that a number of local councils had their cash stashed with Icesave, as did many charities. Which reminds me, can anyone tell me why a cat charity should have £50 million in savings? How many old cat loving spinsters did they have to knock off to build that stash?!

Anyway, harmony has been restored to my world (or savings at least) by the announcement on Friday 24th October that Icesave, the Icelandic Government (of bankrupt Iceland, which has been lent $2.5 billion by the IMF) and the British Government had reached agreement on the return of our dosh, and had promised to guarantee return upto £50,000. By 3 November investors will be hearing from the FSA (Financial Services Authority) or was it the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) regarding return of retail depositors money. Hopefully it’ll be a quick process involving online application for the return of your savings. For those of you who are thinking “what happens if one doesn’t have internet access?”, well (1) you wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t and as you are, really, stop worrying about everyone else and (2) Icesave was mainly dealing with internet applications from retail savers so everyone affectedprobably has access. Speedy payout is promised, but what that means is your guess as much as mine. Hopefully with the FSA and FSCS involved it means payout before February, but that rumour I heard is still bothering me. I’m losing tax free interest on my savings as you read this! Good news is that (somehow) it will be ensured that the ISA status of ISAs with Icesave is retained. Sounds like an administrative nightmare to me.

Totally unfair on me and many other ex-Iceland fans that ING purchased Landesbanki and no one wanted Icesave. That’s the last time I’ll be putting my money in a country that melts away at the sign of financial trouble, let alone global warming! I mean, imagine, we could have woken up one day to news that Iceland had melted. What was I thinking back in May 2008, whistling away in the financial bubble?!

For further information go to: icesave.co.uk and http://www.fscs.org.uk/

<special thanks to guest writer CityWannabe on CafeArjun.com>

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inspiration Internet News personal reviews sexy

Ten years of Sex and the City: girlfriends like these

Sex and the City has been a phenomena for the last ten years. Has it really been that long? Yes it has. August 1998 was the airing of the first episode of this cult show, recently followed, in 2008, by a movie by the same name.

Carrie Bradshaw has changed every woman’s notion of fashion and given every girl dreams of what clothes are all about. One could go as far as to say that the show made Manolo Blahnik’s and Jimmy Choo’s iconic brands. But the one service (or dis-service as some critical religious groups may say) that Sex and the City has done for woman (and maybe, secretly, man) kind is all to do with (of course) sex. Sex and the City was undoubtedly the first mainstream show to openly discuss explicit sexual subjects. The discussions between the girlfriends, the Samantha Jones, Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York and Miranda Hobbes had women worldwide hooked and wishing they had friends like those. Those weekend brunch and after-work drinks conversations brought up every sex-related topic that females everywhere had been afraid to discuss and, quite frankly, many that the viewers had probably previously never thought about. Everything from STDs to girl on girl action.

The four friends had very different personality and in the real world it’s difficult to see how they could have come together as close as they were. Samantha Jones, try anything once, sex missionary (but in every position but missionary), self-confessed BJ-addict, different man every night but still made it look somehow classy. Almost all the porn and great sex advice in the show came from her scenes. Charlotte York: prom Queen, straight As, conservative, sexual prude even, looking for the perfect man, always offended at Samantha’s use of sexual language and, almost ironically, marries a man who has emotionally-rooted impotence and then discovers her own infertility. Carrie Bradshaw: made it all look so easy, always on top, that washboard stomach, rippling stomach muscles as she rode her man using those powerful thighs (and always seemed to make love with her bra on?), and of course the most emotionally attached to her sexual experiences. And finally utterly cynical Miranda Hobbes: who taught the masses about phone sex in season three, has predictable sex honed down to the last move with her partner;. The character that softens as she becomes a mother and later marries.

And let’s not forget the “fifth girlfriend” as, Stanford Blatch, gay best friend of Carrie Bradshaw and with almost as good taste in fashion (and men). Stanford is distinctly stereotypically gay but in a completely non-Will and Grace, “oh so hot, what a shame he’s gay, looking” way – all short, balding and teddy bear cute. And, accordingly, has dilemmas of his own with men and looks.

So, are we gonna miss these girlfriends, now that the show is finished and the movies been released? No. I’ve already started again at season one. And anyway, there is always Lipstick Jungle…

Categories
Internet News sexy

Sexiest babe Sandra Taylor in a wet t-shirt on Howard Stern show! Pics

I’ve always loved the Howard Stern show, to the extend that everytime I log on to DailyMotion, that is my first search. The guy’s a lucky basta**!! Look at the girls he’s got on to his show and what he has made them do..

Well, I guess all previous records are now broken. My fav Sandra Taylor (Sandi Taylor or Sandy Taylor or Sandi Korn with love) was on his show and this is what she got up to – Getting all soaked in a wet T shirt with her friend Alana (not sure is its the right spelling). I guess she wanted to promote something and Howard Stern make it sound like she was one of the usual guests. Sandra, as usual was very sporty and down to earth. Will post the video as soon as I get my hands on it!

There are 100s of blogs out there with photos of Sandra Taylor, but I guess few have the ones from Howard Stern this morning:

Here are some exclusives that I almost died searching:

Categories
News US Elections us presidential elections

Still hate Sarah Palin? More Anti Sarah Palin T Shirts. Please choose yours!

On the 13th of October, while going through cafepress, I was so delighted seeing those anti Sarah Palin merchandise, that I decided to write a post.

Orignial post: Anti Sarah Palin T shirts

After that, Sarah Palin tried to improve her image – you know, the $150,000 makeover and appearance on Saturday Night Live? That did it for some and they started loving her very much, just like those idiotic racists in the wild west. Somehow it didn’t crack it for me and a few of my readers, so I went out hunting again.. and this time I found some more anti Sarah Palin t shirts, bermudas, shorts, CDs and other merchandise. Not everything satiated my hatred for her, so here’s a selection of stuff I recommend for you.

Go on, take you pick!

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Uncategorized

After banks and Iceland, Ukraine goes bankrupt! Hungary, Pakistan and Belarus next.

The International Monetary Fund – IMF has agreed to lend $16.5 billion (in loan) to Ukraine to help it sustain its economy and financial stability, after the international credit crunch rendered the country’s currency and stock markets plunging.

“The authorities’ program is intended to support Ukraine’s return to economic and financial stability, by addressing financial sector liquidity and solvency problems, by smoothing the adjustment to large external shocks and by reducing inflation,” Dominique Strauss Kahn, the Managing Director of IMF said. “At the same time, it will guard against a deep output decline by insulating household and corporations to the extent possible.”

In recent times, Ukraine’s capital city Kiev had seen an expansion boom thanks to availability of loans or mortgages for properties. It was coming up as one of the best markets for international investment. Now, because of credit crunch that originated in the United States, very less or no banks are willing to lend money, resulting in decline of property prices.

Ukraine’s currency Hryvnia has taken a massive dip in the last 2 weeks and because of the country’s reliance on steel and price reductions, Ukraine is now in desperate need of of the 16 and a half billion dollars.

World economy lowdown – Help IMF!

After the recent USA government’s intervention of 700 Billion US dollars to help the American economy led by Neel Kashkari, followed by a 2.1 billion dollars’ loan to Iceland by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) –  Pakistan, Hungary and Belarus are on the verge of major economic collapses. All three countries are at advanced stages of talks with the IMF.

Countries least affected are those with least economic interactions with the United States. Except for India and China, there aren’t many.

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Uncategorized

What’s the time change? daylight saving times 2008 – country wise

Worldwide schedule for DST (Daylight saving time)

The clocks went back 1 hour in the UK today (midnight, 26th of October 2008).

In the US, day light saving time (or time change) ends this fall, on the 2nd of November this year (2008). Day light saving time changes every year and depends mostly on earth’s rotation.

If you have questions regarding your local time, just do the following:
Go to Google.com and search for “Time YourCity”. For example, to check out the present time in London, click here.

What is daylight saving time?

In layman’s words, because winters have shorter days and longer nights (especially in Europe and America), in order to have maximum day light when you’re awake, the clocks are moved back an hour. Because of this time change, you start work at 8, when normally you’d have started at 9, and finisish at 5 when normally you’d finish by 6. This lets you spend more time awake when the sun’s out. Daylight savings time was created to let afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less daylight.  In the start of spring, clocks are adjusted 1 hour ahead (obviously because the summer has longer days) and adjusted 1 hour back just after autumn. Intelligent time change!

Which countries use DST? (daylight saving time)

DST was proposed by William Willett, an english architect/builder to make best use of sunshine. Many countries have tried using the DST (daylight saving time) but at present most countries, except ones in the American continents and Europe, don’t use day light savings.

The world over, countries that do use DST move their clocks by a maximum of 1 hour forward or backward. List of countries that use the Daylight Saving time:

1. All countries in Europe except Iceland. Iceland has moved its clock backward 1 hour permanently, so you can say that the country is in permanent DST (and I guess it has to, considering it is one of the coldest countries with very scarce sunshine.

2. USA (United States of America) – This year in fall, 2008, the daylight saving time begins on the 2nd of November 2008 when all states move their clocks back an hour. Well, if you use Windows XP, Vista, IPhone or any other new phone, you phone or computer or laptop should do that for you automatically. If you do, however rely on a wrist watch, better tune into the radio once a day 😉 For exact details for each state and city in the United States, please go to: Wikipedia

3. Australia – Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia will observe it on the last Sunday of October 2008, whereas Tasmania has started on the first Sunday of October 2008.

4. New Zealand – Last Sunday of September each year, daylight saving time begins in New Zealand and end on April’s first Sunday.

5. Canada – Most Canadian states conform to the US DST rules. (pretty obvious to me)

6. Greenland

7. Mexico

Categories
Internet News

Chicago News: Jennifer Hudson’s mom, brother killed. William Balfour in police custody, nephew’s body found!

Jennifer’s mother Darnell Donnerson, 57 years old and her brother Jason Hudson, who was just 29 were killed in the shootout and her 7 year old nephew Julian King was reported missing.

Jennifer Hudson was supposedly in Los Angeles and immediately flew to Chicago as she heard the news of a shooting where her mother and brother were killed. The police have released a warrant against a guy named William Balfour and are considering him as the primary suspect. This is the worst nightmare for anyone and my heart goes out for Hudson and I wish God gives her strength to deal with this loss!

The shooting took place just about 5 miles from Barack Obama’s place (he just creeps into the news somehow everytime). Jennifer Hudson is an Obama supporter and made this public in Denver, when she sang the National anthem for the Democratic convention in august.

The police have called this a “domestic incident”.

Hudson’s 7 year old nephew is missing after the shooting. His name according to some news web sites is Julian King. Lets all pray for his safety, I hope the innocent kid is safe.

“A missing child was possibly abducted from the scene and may be in the company of William Balfour, a suspect in [this] double homicide investigation,” the Chicago police said in a statement, adding that the suspect was “armed and dangerous”.

Crime rate in Chicago has never been out of news and with this incident at a celebrity’s place and close to where Obama lives will definitely spark the safety debate again.

Jennifer Hudson had tried moving her family out of South Side in Chicago, which is home to the largest black population in the US but her mother, brother and other family members refused.

Obama lives in Hyde Park, Chicago which is probably one of the posher areas of Chicago, whereas Hudson’s mother Darnell Donnerson and brother Jason Hudson lived in a grittier district called Englewood.

Jennifer Hudson’s mother’s and brother’s bodies were found next to each other at South Yale Avenue where a large crowd had gathered last night.

Jennifer Hudson, after being rejected from American Idol, went on to win an Oscar award for her performance in the Dreamgirls (musical, released 2006) and was a celebrity and role model for millions of Americans and an embodiment of the American Dream.

Last year, at an interview with Vogue magazine, Jennifer Hudson that her mother Darnell Donnerson was responsible to encourage her to participate in the TV show American Idol. On other occassions, Hudson had said that she was very close to her family.

“My faith in God and my family, they’re very realistic and very normal, they’re not into the whole limelight kind of thing.”

My deepest condolences for Jennifer. This is a tragic loss for her and I hope God gives her strength to deal with this, and I hope the culprit, whether it is William Balfour or anyone else, is brought to justice.

News UPDATE

William Balfour has been arrested by the police but not yet charged. He is the step father of Jennifer Hudson’s nephew Julian King (the abducted 7 year old boy) and fell apart from the Hudsons when he was asked to leave the family home last year. He has been convicted in the past for attempted murder and carjacking!

The police have found that Jennifer’s brother Mr Jason Hudson was shot when the shooter fired through the door. The shooter killed her mother Mrs Donerson after entering the house when Mrs Donerson entered the room where the attacker was.

New UPDATE 2

Friends of the family have claimed that William Balfour had threatened to take Julian King (the boy) away if Jennifer Hudson’s sister Julia Hudson didn’t stop “playing him”.  The couple is said to be in a dispute over the ownership of Julia’s car.

Julia Hudson - Wife of William Balfour (the suspect) and sister of Jennifer Hudson.
Julia Hudson - Wife of William Balfour (the suspect) and sister of Jennifer Hudson.
William Balfour - The suspect and step father of Julian King and husband of Julia Gudson
William Balfour - The suspect and step father of Julian King and husband of Julia Gudson

NEWS UPDATE 3 – Jennifer Hudson Nephew Found – DEAD?

The police, in what is being widely believed, found the body of Julian King, Jennifer Hudson’s nephew in the same SUV that was on alert. The SUV belonged to her brother Jason Hudson. Jennifer Hudson had announced a prize money of 1 hundred thousand dollars for anyone who gave a tip about her nephew’s whereabouts.

This is very sad. Although the authorities haven’t ascertained that it is Julian King’s body, it is being widely believed that it is him. The hunt for the young boy has been stopped by Chicago police.

Categories
Internet News US Elections us presidential elections

Pittsburgh news: Mccain volunteer Ashley Todd mutilated after attack! Shame!

Ashley Todd - Mccain supporter - Assaulted
Ashley Todd – Mccain supporter – Assaulted

Ashley Todd, 20 was attacked at Bloomfield, Pittsburgh. This happened when she was getting some cash from an ATM, the police said. A mirror image of the alphabet “B” was carved into her face in a ruthless way. Ashley Todd, who’s a republican supporter, volunteering for John Mccain in this 2008 election was robbed and mutilated.

Channel 4 reported in the Action news program that Todd was robbed near Liberty Avenue (pearl street) just before 9pm after being threatened to be stabbed by a person carrying a knife. Diane Richard, reporting for Channel 4 confirmed that she was robbed of 60 dollars.

The robber, it’s claimed, saw the Mccain supporting label on Ashley Todd’s car and used a tool to write B (mirror image) on her face. The “B”, as is obvious is being widely believed by a Barack Obama supporter. Ashley Todd was also punched and kicked (the image makes the dark circles around her eyes very clear).

Surprisingly, Ashley Todd refused to be treated for her wounds when asked by the police. Hopefully, the entire incident has been record on CCTV cameras and the guilty will be punished. The culprit, reported a male, was a black man, very tall (about 6 feet 4 inches) weighing about 100 kgs and with brown eyes. He was wearing a black undershirt, shoes and perhaps a dark colored jeans.

Update:

Ashley made this story up – Read comments for more.

Categories
Internet News US Elections us presidential elections

$150k on clothes, makeup, hair – That’s Sarah “hockey mom” Palin for you!

You’re a Hockey Mom if: “Your life is about Hockey, and also about being a Mom, partner, and woman.” Yes, that’s what Sarah Palin was before this election campaign.

Ever after being chosen as John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin has experienced the following changes in her life:

1. A taste of limelight – Sarah Palin has literally become an overnight celebrity (I personally think that’s all credit to her extremely intelligent (pun intended) ideas and point of views)

2. The campaign jet!

3. A safe future – She won’t really have to worry about finding another job once Obama is elected. There will be many TV channels willing to use her as THE judge with stupid comments (out of many) on a TV show. Just like you have Simon Cowell being mean to to contestants on X factor for example.

and…

3. A $90,000 wardrobe including a $2500 Valentino outfit, $3000 Louis Vuitton hand bag and $3000 for hair styles and makeup.

A dream for most hockey moms, Sarah Palin’s red jackets don’t come from her home in Alaska, plush hair dos and fancy makeup doesn’t come from her pocket. It’s all coming from the Republican National Committee – The account you republican supporters fill up! Add to this Sarah Palin’s recent shopping sprees at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue worth US Dollars 75 thousand and 50 thousand respectively. Whoooho!! Who remembers the embarrassment John Edwards faced after his 250 dollar haircut? Sorry John, we were wrong, we didn’t know Sarah Palin then!

Guess how much Ms Sarah Palin is provided per week to spend on her wardrobe, makeup and hair dos?

A whopping 37 thousand 5 hundred dollars per week.

Yes, Mr McCain, that’s more than an average plumber’s yearly salary!

If you’re as annoyed as me on this utterly useless spending, then there’s some relief – John Mccain’s spokesperson Tracey Schmitt said:

With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it is remarkable that we are spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses. It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.

Hope that makes all of us feel better.

And if you thought that’s all, here’s some rule breaking. Sarah Palin has been exposed on various occasions spending campaign money on her son Trig’s baby ware. This amount totals many thousand pounds.

Campaign rules #1 – Use of campaign funds NOT ALLOWED for personal use!

Are we just going to stand here and do nothing about it? Are we still going to vote Mccain despite all this law breaking and utter waste of our money? (haha).. well, who cares.. When it’s Sarah Palin in question, there’s bound to be stupidity!

Categories
health Internet News sports

Winslow, 5 others at Browns suffered Staph Infection. What is Staph infection?

Winslow is angry! And so he should be!

I’ve been reading about Winslow ranting about the facilities at Browns, and he’s damn right..

In an ESPN article by one of my fav writers James Walker, Browns pro bowl tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. has revealed that he has been hospitalized because of staph infection (pronounced “Staff”) for the last 2 two weeks.  No one in the Browns team knew about this as the management decided to keep it a secret. Winslow was quoted saying:

“Nobody knew that I had staph on the team because the Browns didn’t want it to get out,” Winslow said. “But it’s my teammates’ right to know what’s going on at the facility to protect them. Their safety is at risk, too, and I didn’t agree with the Cleveland Browns, because they are protecting the organization and not the players.”

Winslow says that this is the 6th case of staph infection at Browns in the last 2 years! Well, either it’s the sport or it is the facilities at Browns. Now since I had never heard of Staph disease (sorry, infection) befoew and considering that this is the 6th case, I wouldn’t play for Browns if I were one of the healthier team members.. 😉

Here’s the original article at ESPN

Whats Staph infection? (Biological term: Staphylococcus)

Staph (again, pronounced “staff”) infection is caused by staphylococcus aureus bacteria. staphylococcus comes from a greek word meaning grapes… and thats what the bacteria look like when seen from a microscope.

How does staph infection happen?

The bacterium (staphylococcus) is so common that 25% people almost always carry the bacterium in their mouth, nose, genitals etc. Problem arises if it enters your blood stream through a cut.

What happens if you have Staph infection?

Generally Staph infections produce pus in the body.  Some examples of Staph infection are:

Folliculitis – Often when you clothes rub against skin, hair follicles get filled with white puss (sounds disgusting)

Boils – On the face, chest, neck or anywhere else, when you have puss filled rounded, heightened skin (c’mon you know what a boil is)

Styes -Have you seen anyone with a swollen upper of lower lid of the eye? I’ve seen some people – again happens because of the hair follicles of eye lashes getting infected.

Impetigo – When kids get red scabby skin or blisters around their mouths or noses?

Abscesses – Pus or normal swelling on the skin or anywhere else in the body.

Food poisoning – Mostly even food poisoning is caused by the staph infection or staphylococcus bacterium.

Other life threatening health problems – In worst cases, it can also cause pneumonia, endocarditis (heart infection), bacteremia (blood infection), toxic shock syndrome and others!! Jesus Christ!

There’s much more info available if you search for staph infection on Google.