What's the best month of the year?

(I won't vote for this one...)

FT.com / World - Eurozone economy contracts for the first time

The eurozone economy has contracted for the first time since the launch of the euro a decade ago, with France hit unexpectedly-badly by high oil prices and deteriorating global conditions.

Gross domestic product in the 15-country region fell by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, reported Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office. That marked a sharp turnaround from the first three months of the year, when GDP expanded by 0.7 per cent.

After escaping the worst effects of the global fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, the main eurozone economies have instead suffered from the impact of surging energy costs on consumer spending, tumbling business confidence and slower growth elsewhere in the world. Even during the slugging growth period at the start of the decade, quarterly growth figures had remained positive.

Fears of a technical recession - two consecutive quarters of negative growth - are widespread across the eurozone. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, warned earlier this month that the second and third quarters would be "particularly weak".

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

FT.com / World - UK forecast punishes sterling

Sterling plunged against the euro and the dollar on Wednesday as the Bank of England gave its bleakest economic assessment for more than a decade and financial markets priced in a series of interest rate cuts.

The latest downward lurch for the pound came as advanced economies worldwide received a wake-up call that none were immune to effects of the credit crisis stalking financial sectors on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the UK, Mervyn King, the Bank of England governor, said the British economy required a "painful" adjustment to higher energy and food prices, forecasting it would grind to a halt for a year before recovering, probably to a slower growth path. There was "bound to be a quarter or two" of economic contraction.

Inflation would peak at least at 5 per cent, he added, restricting the room for easier monetary policy, but markets immediately interpreted the strong likelihood of recession and a forecast of a rapid decline in inflation next year as a strong signal of lower interest rates to come.

Sterling fell more than 1 per cent against the dollar, the euro and on a trade-weighted basis. At times it lost more than three cents against the dollar and finished the day in London at $1.8712. The euro gained ground short of 80 pence at £0.7969.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

I've managed to get out into the garden for the first time in ages to cut the grass and survey the damage. We've had lots of rain here - we got more than our normal August allowance in one day and it hasn't stopped raining since - and no sun so everything has grown and been eaten by slugs. Including the bloody sweetcorn. Nothing has ripened, even in the greenhouse and I've neglected it so it's grown wild. Meh.

On the other hand, the apples are doing well.

There are so many Russia-Georgia diaries, I don't know where to put this, but want to share it:

"U.S. Really Surprised by Georgia-Russia Conflict?"

http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=27675

This is a superb sort of "US-Russia relations in the last 8 years 101".  Probably you already know this stuff, but if you are sick of exlplaining why Russia's doing what it's doing to your friends and family and hordes of kossacks (ironic name, no?), here's a handly link for you!  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.

The Poles and the Americans have reached an agreement on the missile shield, contrary to my expectations. Oh well. Apparently the Poles softened their demands after Georgia and accepted the terms that had been on the table as of the beginning of July.

Because the world sucks, I bring funny pictures.

I saw this and it made me laugh.

A police dog carries a cat when ordered to, in a display of skill, during a show at the Russian OMON riot special police training base outside Moscow, May 10, 2007.

Of course the media show their anti-Russian sentiment by leaving out the pictures showing what the cat was doing before than got him in trouble.

Really, what do you expect in a country that pays its teachers in vodka?

I love this photo so much I'm posting it again.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

My gums are sore after being manhandled by a dental hygienist this morning. She is from Ukraine, but with my mouth full of blood, metal picks, and hypersonic water jets, there was no chance for a discussion of Russian foreign policy.

I am starting to stress about my trip. Only 10 weeks away.

you are the media you consume.

Sorry I haven't had time to read the posts at Eurotrib, so forgive me if this has been covered (I am feverishly trying to prepare my evening class...).

I had to interrupt my work to read this rant.  All I can say is wow:

The US is not a superpower.  It is a bankrupt farce run by imbeciles who were installed by stolen elections arranged by Karl Rove and Diebold.  It is a laughing stock, that ignorantly affronts and attempts to bully an enormous country equipped with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons.

A-Men!

(...and I'm not even religious!)

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

We've discovered that (strangely for a Mac) my system is corrupted.  It has something to do with the way Firefox (now 2.0.14) caches net data, and it spread  somehow through Tiger.  (May have been combined with some unknown actions i took trying to retrieve my system, changing settings and nuking stuff right and left.)

Rather than spend more time trying to figure out what's up and why it spread to Safari, eventually preventing access to my WLAN router, it's been decided for me that i need a grown-up Mac system.  Today we move to Leopard.

If you see me later today, it means the transition went as planned.  If not, it means the damn Rooskies are more nefarious than we thought, able to infect clean cupertino code.  

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin