Matt Costa - "Cold December" (lyrics)

Nice video and song from this American singer-songwriter.
Cold weather is all I want...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnQAXlSokYw

Lyrics

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I've been waiting, pacing along the halls ever since you left here

I've been cleaning, scrubbing the plates and weeding out the garden dear

I can't fall asleep to your mystery slowly blowing from the shore

I have not failed to be what you'd expect of me

Swallowing glass just to stay pure

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All the birds are heading down south but you're staying up north you say

I've got jackets blankets and sheets, it's going to be a cold December

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It could be warm you see, a statue next to me

Swimming away from the ice and snow

Could I have failed to see the signs in front of me

Warning and flashing symbols, subtle and simple I couldn't see

I couldn't see

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If only time could slow down, maybe I could come up

It's such a cold December

It's such a cold December

It's so cold

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I cant fall asleep to your mystery slowly blowing from the shore

I have not failed to be what you'd expect of me

Swallowing glass just to stay pure

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Summers come and summer has gone

Your Christmas cards can't comfort me

You've found new friends and tied all the ends

It's freezing in the loneliest winter

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It could be warm you see, a statue next to me

Swimming away from the ice and snow

Could I have failed to see the signs in front of me

Warning and flashing symbols, subtle and simple I couldn't see

I couldn't see

.

If only time could slow down, then maybe I could come up

It's such a cold December

It's such a cold December

It's so cold

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My immigration process to Canada - It's over!

I'm here to declare that I've finally got my immigration passport to Québec, Canada!!!

Four years have passed since the beginning, many things have changed in my life and today I'm still in the process of deciding whether I should stay or I should go...

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Brain teaser 23 (solution)

Simultaneously light both ends of one rope and one end of the other; when the first rope burns out (after half a minute), light the other end of the second. When it finishes, 45 seconds have passed.

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All Saints - Black Coffee (lyrics)

I'm just recollecting those golden years in Netherlands circa 2000/2002 and would suggest this lovely British pop band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCc4eLOZCw4

Lyrics

Night Swimming

Beach walking

Always silent

Never talking

Then you call my name

And I know inside I love you

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Sail away

I miss you more

Until you see the shore

There I will be waiting

Anticipating

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Each moment is new

And breeds a moment

Each moment is cool

And breeds a moment

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I wouldn't wanna be

Anywhere else but... here

I wouldn't wanna change

Anything at all

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I wouldn't wanna take

Everything out on... you

Though I know I do

Everytime I fall

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Day dreaming

Chain smoking

Always laughin

Always jokin

I remain the same

Did I tell you that I love you

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Brush your teeth

And pour a cup of black coffee out

I love to watch you do that every day

The little things that you do

.

Each moment is new

And breeds a moment

Each moment is cool

And breeds a moment

.

I wouldn't wanna be

Anywhere else but... here

I wouldn't wanna change

Anything at all

.

I wouldn't wanna take

Everything out on... you

Though I know I do

Everytime I fall

.

Each moment is cool

And breeds a moment

.

I wouldn't wanna be

Anywhere else but... here

I wouldn't wanna change

Anything at all

.

I wouldn't wanna take

Everything out on... you

Though I know I do

Everytime I fall

.

I wouldn't wanna be

Anywhere else but... here

I wouldn't wanna change

Anything at all

.

I wouldn't wanna take

Everything out on... you

Though I know I do

Everytime I fall

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Nice women

Beach walking

Always silent

Never talking

Then you call my name

And I know inside I love you

.

Sail away

I miss you more

Until you see the shore

There I will be waiting

Anticipating

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Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar

If you feel like party, this sound/video is the one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODd6OGDNWSU
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Pizzicato Five - Magic Carpet Ride (lyrics)

The best song from this fantastique Japanese pop band.

Listen to the English version first then go to the Japanese live version.

Simply merveilleux!!!

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English version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qaAGz2INEI
Japanese version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc4jaIh9GtE

Lyrics

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Kimi to boku wa

Fushigi dakedo

Mukashi kara

Tomodachi

Da yo ne

.

Ni sen konen wo

Ai shiatteru

Sonna fu ni

Kanjitari

Shinai?

.

Soshite futari

Itsu no ma ni ka

Toshi wo totte

Shimau kedo

.

Itsu made mo

Futari

Asonde

Kuraseru nara ne

.

Magic carpet ride

.

Mahou mitai

Me ga sameru to

Kimi ga iru

Hana no yo na

Kaori

.

Ni sen konen wo

Persia jutan de

Mo ichido

Hitottobi shimasho

.

Soshite futari

Itsu no ma ni ka

Toshi wo totte

Shimau kedo

.

Itsu made mo

Futari

Asonde

Kuraseru nara ne

.

Magic carpet ride

.

Soshite itsuka

Bokutachi ni mo

Kodomo ga

Umareru daro

.

Demo

Itsumade mo futari

Asonde kuraseru nara

.

Onaji bed de

Dakiatte

Shineru nara ne

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Magic carpet ride

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Stereogram 2

What is the image you can see above?
Please refer to Stereogram 1 to recall what a stereogram is.

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Tim Maia - Eu amo você (lyrics)

For those who are in love, this is one of the best Brazilian love songs from the old seventies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScAVG139z8w&feature=related

Lyrics

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Toda vez que eu olho...

Toda vez que eu chamo...

Toda vez que eu penso...

Em lhe dar o meu amor...

Meu coração... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De lhe encontrar... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De lhe amar... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De conquistá-la...

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Eu amo você, menina...

Eu amo você...

Eu amo você, menina...

Eu amo você...

.

Toda vez que eu olho...

Toda vez que eu chamo...

Toda vez que eu penso...

Em lhe dar o meu amor...

Meu coração... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De lhe encontrar... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De lhe amar... (pensa que não vai ser possível)

De conquistá-la...

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Eu amo você, menina..

Eu amo você... (juro)

Eu amo você, menina...(uuuhuuuu)

Eu amo você...

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(juro que amo, eu te amo baby, eu te amo)

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Brain teaser 22 (solution)

Go to the attic, turn on Switches 1 and 2, wait a few minutes, then turn off Switch 2 before ascending to the attic.

If the bulb is on, you conclude that Switch 1 is the winner.

If the bulb is off, but warm, you conclude that Switch 2 is the winner.

If the bulb is off, but not warm, you conclude that Switch 3 is the winner.

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Brain teaser 23

You are presented with two ropes, each of which will burn for exactly 1 minute, but not uniformly along its length. How can you use them to measure 45 seconds?

Explain your strategy.

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Marisa Monte - Lenda das sereias (lyrics)

My favourite song from one of my favourite Brazilian singers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rJTzwH65E&feature=related

Lyrics

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Oguntê, Marabô

Caiala e Sobá

Oloxum, Ynaê

Janaína e Yemanjá

São rainhas do mar

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Mar, misterioso mar

Que vem do horizonte

É o berço das sereias

Lendário e fascinante

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Olha o canto da sereia

Ialaó, oquê, ialoá

Em noite de lua cheia

Ouço a sereia cantar

.

E o luar sorrindo

Então se encanta

Com as doces melodias

Os madrigais vão despertar

.

Ela mora no mar

Ela brinca na areia

No balanço das ondas

A paz, ela semeia

Ela mora no mar

Ela brinca na areia

No balanço das ondas

A paz, ela semeia

A paz, ela semeia

A paz, ela semeia

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Oguntê, Marabô

Caiala e Sobá

Oloxum, Ynaê

Janaína e Yemanjá

.

São rainhas do mar

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Brain teaser 22

A downstairs panel contains 3 on-off switches, one of which controls the lamp in the attic - but which one? Your mission is to do something with the switches, then determine after only one trip to the attic which switch is connected to the attic lamp.

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Strange death in Montréal, Canada

Falling concrete kills woman at Peel St. sushi bar

Victim was celebrating birthday with her husband

MONTRÉAL, July 17, 2009 - One minute Thursday night, a couple was quietly celebrating a birthday inside the Mikasa Sushi Bar on Peel St.; the next minute, a concrete slab crashed through the glass skylight above them, killing the 33-year-old woman instantly.
Her husband of two years, also 33, lay next to her lifeless body screaming, “Ma femme! Ma femme! Stay with me!”
He pleaded for help, but other diners and staff were paralyzed with shock. Minutes later, sobbing and screaming, the man was loaded into an ambulance, his right hand wrapped in a blood-soaked napkin, two single tracks of blood running down his cheek.
An emergency-room nurse at the Montreal General Hospital said the man was brought into the hospital covered in his wife’s blood. “It was everywhere.”
She said the man, who sustained serious injuries to his right hand, was in a secluded room in the ER surrounded by family.
“Her birthday was Monday, that’s what they were celebrating,” said the nurse, who spoke on condition that her name not be published. The concrete panel from the 18th floor of the Marriott Residence Inn crashed through the sloping glass ceiling of the restaurant, which lies directly below at street level, and hit the woman “directly” – while she was seated at her table, said Montreal police Constable Olivier Lapointe.
Urgences Santé ambulance technicians determined that the woman could not be saved, Lapointe said.
Her body was left at the table where she died until a little after 9 p.m., when the coroner arrived. Lapointe wouldn’t disclose the couple’s name, nor would the nurse who spoke to The Gazette. Stunned bystanders milled beyond the police tape that blocked off the sidewalk and street in front of the building. Glass and other debris, including what appeared to the the base of a dining table, were on the sidewalk. Police had converged on the scene in patrol cars and on bicycles and Segways.
“At first view,” police are considering the death accidental, Lapointe said after investigators emerged from the hotel.
From the gap left on the building’s facade, the slab appeared to have been about one metre wide and two metres long.
Firefighters were examining the building’s facade to determine whether it was safe, Lapointe said. Municipal inspectors will take a closer look at the building, he said.
The restaurant’s manager, Truc Luong, said his employees were shaken by what they witnessed and weren’t in “good shape” Thursday night.
He said one waiter was at the couple’s table when the concrete slab crashed through the glass ceiling. Luong, who arrived at the restaurant about half an hour after the accident, spent the evening making sure his employees all got a lift home.
Lindsay Leblanc lives in the hotel above the sushi restaurant. She and three friends were smoking on the hotel’s roof when the concrete broke loose. “We heard the bang. We thought it was thunder,” Leblanc said. “Or a car accident.”
When she and her friends arrived at street level, they could hear people crying.
Justine Lafond climbed out of a cab in front of Mikasa moments after the concrete struck. “I saw this woman lying on her side,” she said. “There was blood all around. I saw a piece of bone coming through her body.
“There was someone touching her to see if she was alive."
Lafond said she spoke to the waiter who had served the couple. “He said they were very much in love,” and that the woman was kind and friendly, Lafond said. “I saw lots of people running out of the restaurant, screaming and crying,” said Lafond’s companion, Marie Fidèle.
Clearly shaken, she said she arrived by taxi “almost right after it happened.”
“I couldn’t bring myself to go look. We were all asking each other what happened.”
Dana Citron was on Sherbrooke St. when the slab fell. After her mother heard a “crashing sound,” the two rounded the corner onto Peel to see what happened. Citron said she saw a man lying down, yelling and gesturing desperately near a woman who was not moving.
“They pulled the husband onto his side,” she said. “He was bleeding.”
Another man, who works at a building next door, arrived at the same time. He heard yelling and saw people standing around in shock. “In a state of panic like that, I think no one knows what to do,” he said.
The area in front of the building will remain closed to passersby until it is deemed safe, Lapointe said.
Bev Harding of Guelph, Ont., shepherding a group of more than a dozen teenage swimmers back to the hotel from a competition, was barred from the front entrance. “I guess we’ll try to go around back,” she said. The hotel did not need to be evacuated, Lapointe said.
(By Max Harrold, Jan Ravensbergen, Drew Halfnight and Philip Authier, The Gazette)

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My immigration process to Canada

One step ahead: I've just received the medical exam requirement!
I hope my health is not a danger to public health in Canada...
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Helena Elis - "Lugares Proibidos" (lyrics)

Brazilian singer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiJ7dnFokdo&feature=related
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Lyrics

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Eu gosto do claro quando é claro que você me ama

Eu gosto do escuro no escuro com você na cama

Eu gosto do não se você diz não viver sem mim

Eu gosto de tudo, tudo o que traz você aqui

Eu gosto do nada, nada que te leve para longe

Eu amo a demora sempre que o nosso beijo é longo

Adoro a pressa quando sinto

Sua pressa em vir me amar

Venero a saudade quando ela está pra terminar

Baby, com você já, já

.

Mande um buquê de rosas, rosa ou salmão

Versos e beijos e o seu nome no cartão

Me leve café na cama amanhã

Eu finjo que eu não esperava

Gosto de fazer amor fora de hora

Lugares proibidos com você na estrada

Adoro surpresas sem datas

Chega mais cedo amor

Eu finjo que eu não esperava

.

Eu gosto da falta quando falta mais juízo em nós

E de telefone, se do outro lado é a sua voz

Adoro a pressa quando sinto

Sua pressa em vir me amar

Venero a saudade quando ela está pra terminar

Baby com você chegando já

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Stereogram 1

A stereogram is an optical illusion of depth created from flat, two-dimensional image or images.

In order to see it, follow the tip:

Get very close to the stereogram above, and very, very slowly pull it away (or move away from it). At first you won't even be able to focus on the image... However, keep moving the image in and out, relaxing, and it will appear! Which image can you see?

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Copacabana Club - "Just do it" (lyrics)

When I first saw the video I truly believed it was a British band but it wasn't!
It's just a Brazilian band that it happened to sound like an indie group... Check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94aqtlvRWM
Try the studio version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLUO32YvH6o

Lyrics:

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just do it

just do it

just do it

.

just do it do it do it cause you want it

just do it do it do it cause you like it

do it do it do it cause you feel it

not because you saw it

.

you can do a song

cook your food

clean your house

you can use a thong

be so rude

kiss my mouth

.

you can pierce your nose

sew your clothes

dance alone

you can make some friends

form a band

or sing along

.

just do it cause you want it

not because you saw it

just do it cause you want it

not because you saw it, not because you saw it, yeah!

.

just change it change it change it cause you want it

just change it change it change it cause you like it

change it change it change it cause you feel it

not because you saw it

.

you can change your hair

change your house

change your life

you can change your sex

change your friends

change your wife

.

you can change your shoes

change your pants

change your style

you can change your face

change your boobs

change your smile

.

just change it cause you want it

not because you saw it

just change it cause you want it

not because you saw it, not because you saw it, yeah!

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China - "Canção que não morre no ar" (lyrics)

I just like the song and the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM7lErbM1lY

Lyrics:

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Sintonize o seu rádio,

procure em alguma estação,

se eu entrar nos seus ouvidos,

acelera o seu coração... coração, ah coração

Mas não esqueça de mim,

agora corro com o vento

você não pode me ver,

me guarde no pensamento...

Minha voz vai se espalhar no ar,

cada verso que eu cantar

os falantes te lembrarão

minha voz é canção que não morre no ar

.

Nunca mais vou te deixar

pois agora sou uma canção...

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Brain teaser 21 (solution)

Downtown trains run past Kevin's stop at, for example, 3:00, 3:10, 3:20, ..., etc., and uptown trains at 3:01, 3:11, 3:21, ...

To go uptown Kevin must arrive in the 1-minute interval between a downtown and an uptown train.

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Beth Gibbons - "Mysteries" (lyrics)

This song shows a bit of myself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJrRVl7goLE&feature=PlayList&p=2BFFC81FE78BCF5F&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=10 Try also this lovely live version at the TV program "Later":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh6KiuCMmzE&feature=PlayList&p=2BFFC81FE78BCF5F&index=11

Lyrics

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God knows how I adore life

When the wind turns on the shores lies another day

I cannot ask for more

When the time bell blows my heart

And I have scored a better day

Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy

A place of love and mystery

I'll be there anytime

Oh mysteries of love

Where war is no more

I'll be there anytime

When the time bell blows my heart

And I have scored a better day

Well nobody made this war of mine

And the moments that I enjoy

A place of love and mystery

I'll be there anytime

Mysteries of love

Where war is no more

I'll be there anytime
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Brazilian Girls - "Good time" (lyrics)

This is not a Brazilian band but it's sexy anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQM5TZqoaUE

Lyrics

All the time

.

Some people just want lie on the beaches in the Caribbean

Some people want to do crazy things to green amphibians

Some people want some people to do as they please

We just want to have a good time

.

All the time

All the time

All the time

All the time

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Some people go ooh quoi quoi they go qui

Some people have nothing and want nothing and are free

Some people want to burn the world with their greed

We just want to have a good time

.

Just want good time We just want good time

Just want good time We just want good time

I just want good time We just want good time

I just want good time

.

All the time

.

We just want to have a good time tonight

We just want to have a good time all the time

We just want to have a good time tonight

We just want to have a good time all the time

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Some people want pussy pussy pussy all the while

Some people want nothing only staying home with mama

Some people want nothing and need nothing and are free

We just want to have a good time

.

I just want good time We just want good time

Just want good time We just want good time

Just want good time Just want good time

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All the time

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Australia reduces immigration

País culpa crise e limita entrada de estrangeiros; Espanha cria incentivo à repatriação

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Pesquisa do "Financial Times" revela que maioria dos europeus apoia medidas para mandar de volta imigrantes desempregados

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O governo da Austrália anunciou ontem que reduzirá em 14% a quantidade de imigrantes que receberão autorização para trabalhar no país a partir de junho.

O país estabelece, a cada ano, cotas de profissionais qualificados que podem imigrar. Nos últimos dez anos, o número total de autorizações vinha crescendo, sob impulso do crescimento econômico.

Agora, com a crise econômica mundial e um índice de desemprego que aumentou de 4,8%, em janeiro, para 5,2%, em fevereiro, o governo de centro-esquerda decidiu cortar a cota de trabalhadores imigrantes de 133.500, válida até junho deste ano, para 115.000 no período até meados de 2010. Segundo estimativas do Itamaraty, há cerca de 12 mil brasileiros vivendo na Austrália atualmente.

"A conjuntura econômica na Austrália mudou", disse o ministro da Imigração, Chris Evans, para justificar o corte. Ele no entanto declarou que a redução da cota será temporária e que voltará a crescer quando "as condições melhorarem".

A medida também impedirá a entrada no país de alguns profissionais menos qualificados, como pedreiros, encanadores, carpinteiros e eletricistas. A demanda principal por trabalho "estrangeiro" estará em áreas de maior especialização, como médicos, engenheiros e profissionais de informática.

"A Austrália precisa manter um programa de imigração, mas um que seja mais direcionado", afirmou o ministro da Imigração.

Um especialista em imigração e mercado de trabalho no país, Robert Kinnaird, disse à agência de notícias Reuters que o crescente desemprego tem aumentado o ressentimento de algumas categorias de trabalhadores locais em relação aos estrangeiros.

Também na Europa há sinais de rejeição crescente aos imigrantes. Uma pesquisa divulgada pelo jornal "Financial Times" revela que 79% dos italianos, 78% dos britânicos, 71% dos espanhóis, 67% dos alemães e 51% dos franceses apoiariam medidas de seus governos para mandar de volta para casa imigrantes desempregados. O diário econômico afirma que a pesquisa "demonstra o risco de tensões sociais em relação à imigração e ao uso de trabalho estrangeiro" na Europa.

Na Espanha já existe, desde o ano passado, um programa que oferece benefícios sociais em dinheiro a imigrantes desempregados em troca da garantia de que sairão do país e não regressarão à Espanha durante, no mínimo, três anos.

O programa oferece 40% do benefício total do seguro-desemprego antes da partida, e 60% a serem recebidos quando o trabalhador já estiver em seu país de origem.

(Folha de São Paulo - 17/03/2009)
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Canadian banks not that bad...

Banks are usually not on the agenda when US presidents visit Canada. But before setting off on his first foreign trip as president, Barack Obama said the performance of Canadian banks - alone among those of the Group of Seven nations in not receiving a government bail-out - was "striking".
"Canada has shown itself to be a pretty good manager of the financial system in ways that we haven't always been here in the United States," Mr Obama told a Canadian broadcaster.
The president spent yesterday in Ottawa meeting Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, to discuss the economy, trade and the environment, in addition to any talk surrounding the strength of Canada's banks.
In large part because of stricter regulation and their conservative culture, one that depends heavily on a vast and stable retail branch network, and a clubby working relationship, Canada's banks have remained the strongest in the G7 and, according to an October report by the World Economic Forum, the soundest in the world.
"In Canada they do it the old-fashioned way, where when you need money you go to the bank and they review your file and they will lend you no more than 75 per cent of the value of your house," said Laurence Booth, a finance professor at the University of Toronto. "Canada is a more conservative place and, as much as it limits growth in good times, that approach pays off when others begin a race to the bottom."
In Canada, five banks - the Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and the Bank of Montreal - largely control the market through thousands of branches across the country, forcing geographic diversification and efficiencies of scale generally not found in the US.
Canadian investment banks, as part of commercial banks, are more tightly regulated and kept in check by the main institutions, which would pay a price for unwise investing. Canada's independent stockbrokers were bought by the big banks in the late 1980s, thus putting investment banking under the same regulatory umbrella as commercial banking.
In the US recently, investment banking companies such as Merrill Lynch have been brought under the wing of commercial banks. With moves such as this, the US is moving towards a Canadian model.
Meanwhile, the government re-regulates its banks every eight to 12 years, compared with the US system of decentralised regulation.
Canadian banks have not been immune from the turmoil, but their value has fallen less than that of their US counterparts. The banks have all taken hefty writedowns on their exposure to toxic securities and analysts expect the slowing Canadian economy to push up loan losses. But among North American banks, all five big Canadian banks rank in the top 15 in market value. One, Toronto-Dominion, has risen from 30th two years ago to sixth today.
Toronto-Dominion and RBC are among only seven banks worldwide that still carry a Moody's triple-A credit rating. Since October, Canada's five biggest banks have bolstered their balance sheets by raising C$9bn (US$7.2bn, €5.7bn, £5bn) in common equity and preferred shares. These distinctions have placed growing attention on Canada's system, especially from the US.
Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman and a close adviser to Mr Obama, is pushing for a regulatory regime similar to Canada's model. "It's interesting that what I'm arguing for looks more like the Canadian system than the American system," Mr Volcker said last week.
Canada's banks have not escaped the downturn entirely. A debate has erupted on whether the banks might be forced to cut dividends - something not done since the 1930s.
Their dividend yields are currently about 7 per cent, their highest level in 24 years, suggesting that investors are braced for dividend cuts. The banks paid out 76 per cent of their earnings in dividends last year, compared with an average of 42 per cent over the previous decade. The picture may become clearer next week when the banks begin reporting earnings for the quarter ended January 31.
Peter Rozenberg, an analyst at UBS in Toronto, said last week the risk was "not zero". "An extended period of very low earnings and/or unexpected government intrusion could negatively impact dividends."
Government support has so far consisted mainly of providing liquidity through regular auctions for high-quality mortgages held by the banks and other mortgage lenders. The authorities have also raised the limit for preferred shares qualifying as tier one capital.
But the government is amending banking legislation to allow it to inject capital into troubled institutions, if necessary. The banks have so far resisted help.

By Christopher Mason in Ottawa and Bernard Simon in,Toronto (Financial Times)

Modjo - "Lady" (lyrics)

A lovely French duo (vidéoclip tourné au Québec):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzpCcNdhy5w&feature=related
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Lyrics

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Lady

Hear me tonight

'Cause my feeling

Is just so right

As we dance

By the moonlight

Can't you see

You're my delight

Lady

I just feel like

I won't get you

Out of my mind

I feel loved

For the first time

And I know that it's true

I can tell by the look in your eyes

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Illusions 22

Can you find the 9 hidden people in this picture?

If you find 6, you have ordinary powers of observation.

Find 7, you have above average powers of observation.

Find 8, you are very observant. Congratulate yourself!

Find 9, you are extremely observant, very intuitive, and creative. You can rival the observant powers of Sherlock Holmes!

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The Beautiful South - "Song for whoever" (lyrics)

Just to remember this brilliant British pop band:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysM9cSR6YqM
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Lyrics

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I love you from the bottom, of my pencil case
I love you in the songs, I write and sing
Love you because, you put me in my rightful place
And I love the PRS cheques, that you bring

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Cheap, never cheap
I'll sing you songs till you're asleep
When you've gone upstairs I'II creep
And write it all down

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Oh Shirley, Oh Deborah, Oh Julie, Oh Jane
I wrote so many songs about you
I forget your name (I forget your name)

Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I forget your name

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I love your from the bottom of my pencil case
I love the way you never ask me why
I love to write about each wrinkle on your face
And I love you till my fountain pen runs dry

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Deep so deep, the number one I hope to reap
Depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, lovey cry, cry, cry, cry
Oh Cathy, Oh Alison, Oh Phillipa, Oh Sue
You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you

Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I wrote this song for you

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So let me talk about Mary, a sad story
Turned her grief into glory
Late at night, by the typewriter light,
She ripped his ribbon to shreds
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Brain teaser 21

Kevin gets off work at random times between 3 and 5 p.m. His mother lives uptown, his girlfriend downtown. He takes the first subway that comes in either direction and eats dinner wih the one he is first delivered to. His mother complains that he never comes to see her, but he says she has a 50-50 chance. He has had dinner with her twice in the last 20 working days.

How is this possible???

Explain!

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Gorillaz - "Hong Kong" (lyrics)

Wonderful song, nice video, cool...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isp5c7h-p6Y&feature=related
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Lyrics

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Lord, hear me now

Junk boats and English boys

Crashing out into the noise

Electric fences and guns

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You swallow me

I'm a pill on your tongue

Up here on the nineteenth floor

The neon lights make me numb

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And late in a star's life

It begins to explode

And all the people in a dream

Wait for the machine

Pick the shit up keep things clean

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Kid hang over here

What you learning in school?

Is the rise of an eastern sun

Gonna be alright for everyone?

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The radio station disappeared

Music turned into thin air

The DJ was the last to leave

She had well conditioned hair

Was beautiful but nothing really was there

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Illusions 21

Can you find the hidden baby?!
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Lobão - "Vou te levar" (lyrics)

Listen to this acoustic song from a very famous and polemical Brazilian singer/songwriter:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MoLbYR57DA

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Lyrics

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Pensar em tudo que se passou,
que se pôde sonhar e não realizou
a vida tentando escapar
mas não por agora

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Ao mesmo tempo tanta coisa se amou,
se refez, se perdeu, se conquistou
retratos estampados do nosso amor
em preto e branco pregados na parede
revelando pra sempre a gente,
nosso orgulho um do outro, olhando pra lente,
como quem dissesse: não queremos mais nada nesse mundo

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E que me lembrasse, a cada instante
que valeu a pena cada lance
e que valerá tenha certeza, pra toda vida...

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Vou levar, vou te levar
pra onde eu for, vou te levar
vou levar, vou te levar
pra onde eu for, vou te levar

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kd lang - "The consequences of falling" (lyrics)

I love this Canadian singer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-13LXpyRlo&feature=related

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Lyrics

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Are you breathing

What I'm breathing

Are your wishes

The same as mine

Fire you needing

What I'm needing

I'm waiting for a sign

My hands tremble

My heart aches

Is it you calling

If I'm alone in this

I don't think I can face

The consequences of falling

Are you thinking

What I'm thinking

Does your pulse

Quicken like mine

Are you dreaming

What I'm dreaming

I can't read your mind

One step towards you

Two steps back

Feels like I'm crawling

If I'm alone in this

I don't think I can face

The consequences of falling

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Brain teaser 20 (solution)

There are an infinite number of places where this could occur. The most obvious of these is the South Pole, but he could also be at any place which is 1 mile south of a point where the cross-section of the Earth is a circle of circumference 1 mile.

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Brain teaser 19 (solution)

81
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Netherlands - First muslim mayor of Rotterdam

Ahmed Aboutaleb (47), a prominent Labour politician who was born in Morocco, is the new mayor of Rotterdam.

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Before becoming a deputy minister in February 2007, Aboutaleb made a name for himself in Amsterdam, where he was the city council's executive for social affairs.
Aboutaleb is the first mayor of Moroccan descent to be appointed in the Netherlands. Rotterdam is the country's second biggest city (population 584,000) and has substantial social and poverty issues.
It is also the city where populist politician Pim Fortuyn started his short-lived political career. Fortuyn was murdered by an environmental activist in 2002, just a few days prior to the national elections.
His 'heirs' still make up the largest opposition party in Rotterdam and have voiced strong criticism of Aboutaleb, not so much for his background in rival city Amsterdam, but for his roots in Morocco.
"Aboutaleb is a Muslim and he has two passports. Should he, of all people, be in charge of a city where the majority of the immigrant population refuses to integrate?" city councillor Dries Mosch said.

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Poet, journalist, politician

Ahmed Aboutaleb, now 47, was born as the son of a Muslim cleric in the town of Beni Sidel in the Rif mountains of Morocco. At the age of 15 he emigrated to the Netherlands with his family. His childhood ambition was to be a poet but he later exchanged this dream for a career in journalism, working for the commercial station RTL4 and public broadcaster NOS Radio. He then moved into the world of politics, becoming an alderman on Amsterdam City Council.

The city was shaken to its core in 2004 when film maker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a militant Muslim. Ahmed Aboutaleb's resolute stance in the wake of the killing earned him the praise of many Amsterdammers, both inside and outside of the Moroccan community. Perhaps his most famous hour was the speech he gave at an Amsterdam mosque, in which he told residents who have trouble accepting Dutch values to pack their bags and board the next plane out. His performance brought him to prominence but also resulted in death threats. Since that time he has been unable to leave home without bodyguards. Yet he has steadfastly refused to tone down his approach, and shows no signs of changing his ways.

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"I'll treat young Moroccans in Rotterdam the same way as I treat all young people. If you do the right thing, you can count on my support, my hand on your shoulder. But if you are out to disrupt society, to deliberately pull a fast one, if you don't want to work - I will show you no mercy."

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(Radio Netherlands Worldwide/NRC Handelsblad)

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Brain teaser 20

A man leaves his house and walks one mile due north. He then walks one mile due east, followed by one mile due south, when he arrives back at his starting point. How is this possible???

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Illusions 20

This optical illusion was first created in 1861. Look at the two thick vertical lines. Do they look straight or curved? Hold a ruler up to the screen and you will see that they are indeed straight!

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Brain teaser 19

A two-digit number, read from left to right, is 4.5 times as large as the same number read from right to left. What is the number?

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Vampire Weekend - "Oxford Comma" (lyrics)

One of the best albums of 2008 comes from US but I'd swear the band was from UK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g
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Lyrics

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Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?

I've seen those English dramas too

They're cruel

So if there's any other way

To spell the word

It's fine with me, with me

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Why would you speak to me that way

Especially when I always said that I

Haven't got the words for you

All your diction dripping with disdain

Through the pain

I always tell the truth

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Who gives a fuck about an Oxford climber?

I climbed to Dharamsala too

I did

I met the highest lama

His accent sounded fine

To me, to me

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Check your handbook

It's no trick

Take the chapstick

Put it on your lips

Crack a smile

Adjust my tie

Know your boyfriend, unlike other guys

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Why would you lie about how much coal you have?

Why would you lie about something dumb like that?

Why would you lie about anything at all?

First the window, then it's to the wall

Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth

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Check your passport

It's no trick

Take the chapstick

Put it on your lips

Crack a smile

Adjust my tie

Know your butler, unlike other guys

Why would you lie about how much coal you have?

Why would you lie about something dumb like that?

Why would you lie about anything at all?

First the window, then it's through the wall

Why would you tape my conversations?

Show your paintings

At the United Nations

Lil' Jon, he always tells the truth

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