Tour de Langkawi Serpa wins Lapthorne swoops Zabriskie folds

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Having said yesterday that he believed he would get through today’s fifth stage of the Tour de Langkawi in yellow, overnight race leader Dave Zabriskie instead cracked on the 190 kilometre route between Ayer Keroh and Pandan Indah, losing 19 minutes and 35 seconds.

The unexpected weakening saw him finish second-last on the stage, with Drapac Cycling Darren Lapthorne taking over the race lead.

Lapthorne had started the day third overall but moved up due to Zabriskie’s weakness and the withdrawal from the race of the rider sitting in second place overall, Adam Phelan (Drapac Cycling).

Lapthorne’s team-mate had crashed earlier this week.

Today’s stage victory went down to a two-up scrap between the Australian and the former race winner Jose Serpa (Androni Giocattoli – Venezuala), after the latter caught the former inside the final two kilometres.

Serpa led out the gallop from a long way out and while Lapthorne tried to come around him, he didn’t have the strength to do so.

Still, he ended up on the podium wearing a new yellow jersey; it’s a significant moment in his career, and he said that it is one he wasn’t expecting.

“I’m surprised as I didn’t think Zabriskie would fall back today,” said Lapthorne at a press conference held immediately after the prize presentation. “I thought he had such a good lead, and also my team-mate Adam Phelan – who was coming second overall – pulled out earlier in the stage.

“When I heard that during the race that my team-mate and Zabriskie were off the back, it gave me extra motivation, I thought there was chance that maybe I would become race leader tonight.”

From: http://ping.fm/X8fTw

Voeckler Nine Out Of Ten Riders Don’t Like Me

Thomas Voecker going paranoid or somethin’?!
Nah, just over-sensitive, I hope.

“For the last few years, I’ve been the most popular French rider, sort of the darling, and at the same time, nine riders out of ten in the peloton don’t like me,” Voeckler told L’Équipe. “I understood that very early on, from 2005. The previous year, I had worn the yellow jersey for ten days on the Tour de France, but they felt that from a sporting point of view, I didn’t merit all that interest.”

In the years immediately after that initial breakthrough, Voeckler found that his aggressive brand of riding had put a number of noses out of joint in the peloton.

“One day on the 2006 Tour, Tom Boonen, who was reigning world champion, was near the front, slowing things a little,” Voeckler said. “At the moment I launched my attack, he hit me hard on the back. I stopped, he yelled at me and I said to him: ‘You can shout if you like, but don’t touch me.’ I was the small French guy he could hit because I’m thirty centimetres smaller than him.

“Whatever your palmares, nobody has the right to do that to a guy who wants to attack. I can’t forget it. Others, like Andrey Mizurov, threatened to throw their bidons at me if I attacked.”

Voeckler subsequently realised that his high media profile had also fanned some jealousy within the French peloton, although he admitted that the situation has changed slightly since his illustrious 2011 season. “But that doesn’t mean they have more time for me,” he pointed out. “My results have just changed the deal. In cycling, you need to have a palmares to have the right to talk, to be respected. I find that a bit useless.”

To illustrate his point, Voeckler recalled one of the first times he encountered the peloton’s internal hierarchy, during his grand tour debut.

“At the start of every stage of the Giro d’Italia, Mario Cipollini took out the road book to show riders where they had the right to attack! That was when I was starting out, in 2001, it was another era. And guys went along with it!”

Dealing with suspicion

That Voeckler has now earned the respect, if not the affection of his peers, is based largely on his performance at the 2011 Tour de France. In a remarkable display, he repeated his 2004 feat of wearing the yellow jersey for ten days, and also went on to finish fourth overall in Paris.

Given that he had finished 76th overall the previous year, eyebrows were raised at the marked nature of Voeckler’s transformation in the mountains. He took such suspicions on the chin, and admitted that he was himself struggling to explain the late blossoming of hitherto unknown stage racing prowess.

“I understand [the suspicions] all the more given that I’m the first to make that proposal about certain guys… I can’t blame people when you see all the affairs there have been these past few years,” Voeckler said. “On the Tour this year, I was surprised to be there. In 2009 also, when I won the Tour de Haut Var, and in 2010, with the great season that I did.

“I’m at a level that I would never have expected. I don’t really know how to explain it. I’ve discovered aptitudes in the high mountains while I’ve always maintained that as soon as the gradient went above 6%, it climbed too much for me.”

Voeckler also addressed rumours that he had trained under the supervision of an Italian doctor, and dismissed the suggestion that he had once been a client of the Bernard Sainz, the so-called ‘Dr. Mabuse.’

“I heard it said that I was seeing Docteur Mabuse. There’s even a guy who saw me coming out of his house!” Voeckler said. “To come back to the Italian doctor, at one stage, I had a doctor called Flavio Bartolucci, who was also with Française des Jeux. In 2007, he gave me some training plans.”

From: Ping.fm

Massachusetts 50,000 Layoffs in a Decade

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A new study says federal budget cuts could cost Massachusetts more than 50,000 jobs in the next decade, many in key sectors including defense, technology and health care. The study by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts says the losses would “strike at the very heart” of the state’s innovation economy.

Automatic across-the-board cuts are scheduled to start in 2013 unless Congress agrees to a better deal to lower the national debt. The cuts would reduce federal spending by $1.2 trillion over 10 years by slashing the defense budget and support for programs, including Medicare.

From: http://ping.fm/IyaGL

Ireland Mentions Recession EUR Plunges

Lisbon Treaty Campaign Poster – Dublin Docklands (Photo credit: infomatique)

Just as we scripted, the temptation to migrate from the status quo in Europe was just too high for the other peripherals and Ireland just gained first/next mover advantage after Greece by daring top mention the “R” word. As Bloomberg notes:

IRELAND TO HOLD VOTE ON EU FISCAL COMPACT, KENNY SAYS
We would imagine that Barroso and his pals are scrambling now that another ‘Referendum’ is on the cards (and we are checking what ‘referendum’ is in Portuguese) and while fascism in perpetuity has been priced into Euro, the possibility that democracy rears its ugly head has just sent the EURUSD tumbling.
As a reminder, “Irish voters have twice rejected European referendums before eventually passing them once concessions were offered, most recently in 2010 when in return for passing the Lisbon Treaty Dublin got assurances on its military neutrality and its ability to decide its own tax rates.” A little birdie tells us the “concession” this time will be that Irish debt gets the same treatment as Greek. Or else the people will actually really say what is on their minds.

From: http://ping.fm/SKu9N

55 Interesting Facts About The U.S. Economy In 2012

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

How is the U.S. economy doing in 2012? Unfortunately, it is not doing nearly as well as the mainstream media would have you believe. Yes, things have stabilized for the moment but this bubble of false hope will not last for long. The long-term trends that are ripping our economy and our financial system to shreds continue unabated. When you step back and look at the broader picture, it is hard to deny that we are in really bad shape and that things are rapidly getting worse. Later on in this article you will find a list of interesting facts that show the true state of the U.S. economy. Hopefully many of you will find this list to be a useful tool that you can share with your family and friends.
Each day the foundations of our economy crumble a little bit more, and we need to wake up as many Americans as we can to what is really going on while there is still time. We have accumulated way too much debt, we consume far more wealth than we produce, millions of our jobs are being shipped overseas, our big cities are decaying, family budgets are being squeezed more than ever, poverty is rampant and we have raised several generations of Americans that expect the government to fix all of their problems. The U.S. economy is at a crossroads, and the decisions that the American people make in 2012 are going to be incredibly important.

The statistics listed below are presented without much commentary. They pretty much speak for themselves.

After reading this list, it will be hard for anyone to argue that we are on the right track.

The following are 55 interesting facts about the U.S. economy in 2012….

#1 As you read this, there are more than 6 million mortgages in the United States that are overdue.

#2 In January, U.S. home prices were the lowest that they have been in more than a decade.

#3 In Florida right now, some drivers are paying nearly 6 dollars for a gallon of gas.

#4 On average, you could buy about 10 gallons of gas for an hour of work back in the mid-90s. Today, the average hour of work will get you less than 6 gallons of gas.

#5 Sadly, 43 percent of all American families spend more than they earn each year.

#6 According to Gallup, the unemployment rate was at 8.3% in mid-January but rose to 9.0% in mid-February.

#7 The percentage of working age Americans that have jobs is not increasing. The employment to population ratio has stayed very steady (hovering between 58% and 59%) since the beginning of 2010.

#8 If you gathered together all of the workers that are “officially” unemployed in the United States into one nation, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the entire world.

#9 When Barack Obama first took office, the number of “long-term unemployed workers” in the United States was approximately 2.6 million. Today, that number is sitting at 5.6 million.

#10 The average duration of unemployment in the United States is hovering close to an all-time record high.

#11 According to Reuters, approximately 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.

#12 There are about 88 million working age Americans that are not employed and that are not looking for employment. That is an all-time record high.

#13 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.

#14 Back in the year 2000, about 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs. Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs.

#15 The United States has lost an average of approximately 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

#16 Amazingly, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the United States have been shut down since 2001.

#17 According to author Paul Osterman, about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

#18 During the Obama administration, worker health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent.

#19 An all-time record 49.9 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all at this point, and the percentage of Americans covered by employer-based health plans has fallen for 11 years in a row.

#20 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in “the fretful zone just above it”.

#21 In the United States today, corporate profits are at an all-time high. The percentage of Americans that are living in “extreme poverty” is also at an all-time high according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

#22 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#23 The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.

#24 The number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent since 2007.

#25 According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4% of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1% of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6% of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6% of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty.

#26 Since Barack Obama entered the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased from 32 million to 46 million.

#27 As the economy has slowed down, so has the number of marriages. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, only 51 percent of all Americans that are at least 18 years old are currently married. Back in 1960, 72 percent of all U.S. adults were married.

#28 In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.

#29 If you can believe it, 37 percent of all U.S. households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.

#30 After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.

#31 According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point in 2012. If you went out right now and starting spending one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend one trillion dollars.

#32 Today, 46% of all Americans carry a credit card balance from month to month.

#33 Incredibly, one out of every seven Americans has at least 10 credit cards.

#34 The average interest rate on a credit card that is carrying a balance is now up to 13.10 percent.

#35 Of the U.S. households that do have credit card debt, the average amount of credit card debt is an astounding $15,799.

#36 Overall, Americans are carrying a grand total of $798 billion in credit card debt. If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent a million dollars every single day since then, you still would not have spent $798 billion by now.

#37 It may be hard to believe, but the truth is that consumer debt in America has increased by a whopping 1700% since 1971.

#38 At this point, about 70 percent of all auto purchases in the United States involve an auto loan.

#39 In the United States today, 45 percent of all auto loans are made to subprime borrowers.

#40 Mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP has more than tripled since 1955.

#41 According to a recent study conducted by the BlackRock Investment Institute, the ratio of household debt to personal income in the United States is now 154 percent.

#42 To get the same purchasing power that you got out of $20.00 back in 1970 you would have to have more than $116 today.

#43 When Barack Obama first took office, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today an ounce of gold costs more than $1700 an ounce.

#44 The number of Americans that are not paying federal incomes taxes is at an all-time high.

#45 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.

#46 The amount of money that the federal government gives directly to Americans has increased by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House.

#47 During 2012, the U.S. government must roll over nearly 3 trillion dollars of old debt.

#48 The U.S. debt to GDP ratio has now reached 101 percent.

#49 At the moment, the U.S. national debt is sitting at a grand total of $15,419,800,222,325.15.

#50 The U.S. national debt is now more than 22 times larger than it was when Jimmy Carter became president.

#51 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.

#52 If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

#53 If Bill Gates gave every single penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for about 15 days.

#54 Right now, the U.S. national debt is increasing by about 150 million dollars every single hour.

#55 Spending by the federal government accounted for about 2 percent of GDP back in 1800. It accounted for 23.8 percent in 2011, and according to former U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker, it will account for 36.8 percent of GDP by 2040.

Bad news, eh?

But it isn’t just our economy that is decaying.

We are witnessing a tremendous amount of social decay as well. As I wrote about the other day, America is rapidly decomposing right in front of our eyes.

When the water level of a river drops far enough, it will reveal rocks that have been hidden from view for a very long time. Well, a similar thing is happening in America right now. For decades, our debt-fueled prosperity has masked a lot of the social decay that has been going on.

But now that our prosperity is evaporating, a lot of frightening stuff is being revealed.

Unfortunately, another major financial crisis is rapidly approaching and economic conditions in the United States are going to get a lot worse.

So what is our country going to look like when that happens?

That is a very good question.

From: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/55-interesting-facts-about-the-u-s-economy-in-2012

Thousands of IBM Layoffs

The number of job cuts underway at IBM (NYSE: IBM) continues to grow, workers and the union seeking to represent Big Blue workers are saying.

By 6 a.m. Tuesday, internal documents provided by affected employs across 12 work groups totaled 870.

Based on the amount of information being sent directly to union officials, the union local estimated that “at least seven to eight business units” are being “hit” and that the job cuts could “build up into the thousands.”

A corporate spokesperson for IBM confirmed that a “rebalancing” was underway but declined to provide specific numbers.

“IBM is constantly rebalancing its workforce,” he said in response to a query from WRAL.

“That means reducing in some areas and hiring in others – based on shifts in technology and client demand. This flexibility allows IBM to remain competitive and relevant in an industry that is constantly changing. And given the competitive nature of our business, we do not publicly discuss the details of our staffing plans.”

Where the layoffs are occurring geographically wasn’t specified.

IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.

Employees in 12 IBM work groups have provided reports detailing job cuts at:

GTS Public Sector Delivery/IBM Global Account: 59
GTS Delivery Application Hosting: 183
Corporate Marketing and Communications: 18
STG Systems Agenda Delivery: 106
GTS finance: 23
GTS Delivery Security Risk Management: 39
BT/IT Global Workforce Web Processes: 22
Software Group East Region Sales: 40
GTS MTS Delivery solutions/support: 23
GTS Delivery SSO: 57
GTS ITS: 128
GTS Delivery Distributed Server Mgmt.: 179
Tips about the “resource actions,” which is IBM terminology for layoffs, started appearing Monday morning. IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina. The company will not disclose specific numbers about how many workers are employed where.

From: http://ping.fm/ouBSm

Medical group cuts 15 jobs

Oregon Medical Group, one of the largest physician groups in the Eugene-Springfield area, has cut 15 positions, CEO Cris Noah said.

Most of the reductions were related to changes in work flow as the organization transitioned from paper to electronic medical records, she said. But projected reductions in state Medicaid reimbursements, which are prompting layoffs at other health care organizations in the state, “made us expedite those changes,” Noah said. “So, definitely, the reduction in Medicaid reimbursements has a big impact on our organization.

“The reductions from the Medicaid reimbursements are impacting everyone throughout the state, (including) Legacy, Providence and PeaceHealth,” she said. “This touches health care and has a ripple effect through all our vendors. Besides the staffing issues, we’ve looked at our expenses in every area to see where we can make adjustments to offset the reductions in reimbursements.”

The layoffs took effect, without prior notice, on Feb. 15, Noah said. “We did reduce 15 positions, and two of those staff members found other jobs,” she said.

Fifteen positions out of more than 600 employees — 725 when physicians and mid-level providers are included — “is a relatively small amount,” Noah said. “But for those employees it was a big deal.”As for the possibility of future cuts, Noah said, “we don’t have any additional identified positions at this time, but we are looking at our processes to make sure that we are efficient. Some of it depends on what happens in the future with government reimbursements, as well as changes with health care reform.”

From: http://ping.fm/uIfPl