Add a hint of fragrance to your home with our Salt & Sea Air Room Spray. Infused with subtle citrus notes, this clean blend will transport you to windswept Cornish shores. A lovely little gift or a treat for your home.
very delicious, fresh scent with none of the horrible artificial chemical smells in some sprays. Perfect for bathrooms and bedrooms too.
I really like the smell of this room spray and would definitely recommend it to friends.


text:
Fashion forward for Bollywood with 'Aisha'
Jul 15, 2010 Shilpa Raina
New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Remember the Hollywood movies where you drool as much over the clothes and styling as over the plot? Now comes an Indian movie that promises to give glimpses of high street fashion in India and set a benchmark for Bollywood.
The film "Aisha" will see actress Sonam Kapoor embrace dresses that are soft and flowery, including a nude tulle flowery one with a bow and small pearls.
The woman behind this pretty wardrobe is Dubai-based designer Ayesha Depala.
"(In the film) Aisha Kapoor is a girl from Delhi. She loves her clothes and animals. She is very feminine and fashion forward. I could very much relate to her in the movie because she is quintessentially like my brand in many ways," Depala told IANS in an e-mail interview.
"My clothes are subtle and reflect the wearer's personal sense of style. Even a fully beaded couture piece will never be extremely embellished nor extremely revealing.
"A woman's sex appeal lies in her confidence and the clout she has from wearing her outfit as opposed to baring all."
Promos of "Aisha", produced by Anil Kapoor's daughter Rhea, are looking very stylish. All the female leads are looking chic and sophisticated. The effort that has gone into the clothes may remind the audiences of glamorous-looking movies like "Devil Wears Prada", "Priceless" and "Sex and the City".
If you log on to the official website of "Aisha", you will see Sonam sitting comfortably on a red couch wearing a nude tulle ruffled gown by Depala. She has also created little dresses that are soft and flowery. One of these is a nude lace shift with a racer back design and another nude tulle flowery dress with a bow and small pearls.
Though the entire look of "Aisha" has been designed by stylist Pernia Qureshi, who with the help of other designers has successfully given a feel of freshness to the movie, Depala was in charge of Sonam's wardrobe.
Depala met Sonam during the Dubai International Film Festival and they clicked on a personal level.
"Sonam and I clicked instantaneously. She liked my work and we talked about dressing her for the red carpet appearances. We chatted for a long time, which helped me a lot to know her personally," said Depala.
"It was long before 'Aisha' happened. One day I got a call from her sister Rhea and she asked me if I would be interested to design for her. So that's how I got this project," she added.
So how did she manage to sketch out dresses from such a distance?
"Rhea sent me the script and this helped me know Aisha better. We sent them a few ready-to-wear looks, which they selected and also, I did design a few dresses especially for her with Pernia's guidance," she added.
This is not the first time Depala is dressing a Bollywood celebrity; her dresses have been worn by Lara Dutta and Shilpa Shetty as well.
Her career began in 2002, when she launched her signature line - Ayesha Depala - under which she presents both ready-to-wear and couture.
The designer, who holds a degree in interior designing from Delhi, shifted to Dubai after marriage. After gaining a foothold in the Middle East, Depala is now aiming for the Indian market as well.
Apart from designing for "Aisha", she will take part in the HDIL-India Couture Week in Mumbai later this year for more visibility.
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Farhan Akhtar reveals new look from 'Toofan'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


with the answers to the following questions.
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text:
namespace nova
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        delete m_context;
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    bool GameApp::createWindow(int width, int height, const std::string &title)
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        m_window = new RenderWindow();

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            return false;

        attachSceneManagerToGameApp(this,&m_context->getSceneManager());

        return true;
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    void GameApp::terminate()
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    void GameApp::attachListener(GameAppListener *listener)
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    void GameApp::removeListener(GameAppListener *listener)
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        m_listeners.erase(std::find(m_listeners.begin(),m_listeners.end(),listener));
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    void GameApp::updateWindowSize(int width, int height)
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}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
San Jose and San Francisco lead the pack in share of tech jobs. Gabrielle Lurie/Reuters
America's Tech Hubs Still Dominate, But Some Smaller Cities Are Rising
Despite established urban tech hubs, some smaller cities are attracting high-tech jobs with lower living costs, unique talent pools, and geographic diversity.
Is high-tech America reaching an inflection point?
The nation's leading tech hubs in the Bay Area, Seattle, and across the Boston-New York-D.C. corridor have become increasingly expensive, unaffordable, and embroiled in a deepening backlash against big tech. This has led to growing speculation—and increasing action by some tech leaders—around the "Rise of the Rest," an effort to invest in and bolster the tech ecosystems of up-and-coming hubs like Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Miami, to name just a few.
New research by Jed Kolko, chief economist of job listings website Indeed.com, finds that America's established tech hubs continue to dominate high-tech employment. His study examines tech jobs in the country's 51 largest metros (those with more than one million people), based on 2018 data from job postings to Indeed.com, and census employment data from 2015 to 2017.
San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley, has the largest concentration of high-tech jobs, which made up nearly of a quarter of all its job postings in 2018. The Washington, D.C., metro was next with 15 percent, then Seattle, San Francisco, Baltimore, Raleigh (in the Research Triangle), Austin, and Boston.
New York's share of tech job postings ranks 10th, but New York has a diverse economy. "Tech doesn't stand out in New York as it does in those other hubs where tech is a higher share of the local job market," Kolko told me via email. "The geography of tech employment could differ from the geography of venture funding—with venture funding skewed more toward places like New York that already have a massive financial sector."
These leading hubs also saw strong growth in tech jobs. The proportion of high-tech jobs grew 10 percent in San Jose, 9 percent in Austin, and 6 percent in Boston. Raleigh and San Francisco had slightly smaller increases, and Seattle saw no change. Washington, D.C., and Baltimore faced declines, though the cities still rank in the top eight of tech job share. Plus, D.C. may rebound as the "winner" of Amazon's HQ2 sweepstakes.
(Jed Kolko)
America's eight leading tech hubs account for about a third of all high-tech job postings, a share that increased slightly between 2018 and 2017. In large metros, tech accounts for 6.6 percent of all job postings, double the 3.3 percent share in mid-size metros with between 250,000 and a million people. This, Kolko notes, is a reversal of the previous trend where tech jobs were spreading to other parts of the country.
Despite countless attempts to create the "next Silicon Valley,"America's leading tech hubs have different specializations and jobs structures. As Kolko notes, "[i]n San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, and Seattle, more than half of local tech jobs were at technology businesses rather than at workplaces like banks, manufacturing companies, or government agencies." The Bay Area also has an outsized concentration of jobs in fields like artificial intelligence and deep-learning. These jobs were ten times more prevalent in San Jose than nationally, Kolko reports. And while private-sector tech firms dominate the Bay Area, government-related tech jobs accounted for a much greater share of tech jobs in Baltimore and D.C.
Washington, D.C.—Amazon's choice for HQ2—is the polar opposite of Seattle in terms of types of tech jobs. In fact, as Kolko points out, the two are the most dissimilar tech hubs. "If Amazon had wanted a metro like Seattle for its major expansion, the Bay Area would have come closest," Kolko writes. "And several metros outside the eight hubs, like Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, looked more like Seattle in tech mix than Washington did."
The top eight tech hubs also lead in their concentration of the most cutting-edge jobs or what Kolko dubs "hot tech"—jobs with high salaries and rapid growth, like data scientist or cloud engineer. San Francisco had the largest concentration of these hot-tech job postings, making up nearly a fifth of all tech job postings, followed closely by nearby San Jose. Boston, Austin, and Seattle, also had large concentrations of hot tech jobs. But Raleigh, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore were either at or below the national average for these hot tech jobs. Hot-tech jobs were also concentrated in large metros, making up 12 percent of tech job postings there, compared to 6 percent in mid-sized metros.
Where the rest is rising
So what about the "Rise of the Rest?" Kolko finds that there are, in fact, smaller tech hubs growing outside of the dominant cities, to take advantage of lower costs of living, different talent pools, and geographic diversity.
To capitalize on that talent market, startups increasingly locate in college towns like Boulder, Colorado; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina (the other pillar of the Research Triangle); and Trenton, New Jersey (which includes Princeton). Other metros tend to offer other unique industries: Huntsville, Alabama, and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida, are both military or aerospace hubs. And Fayetteville, Arkansas is home to Walmart and the University of Arkansas.
"The big takeaway is that the established hubs are maintaining their lead. Plus: fast-growing, high-paying tech jobs are especially concentrated in the top hubs," Kolko notes. "Other metros really haven't broken into their ranks," he said. "Still, there are plenty of opportunities in tech outside these hubs, including in smaller, more affordable metros across the country."
HQ2 Is Only Part of the Story of Big-Tech Expansion
Big Tech and the City
Big Tech Ought to Step Up for Cities
While the data do not show it yet, high-tech America may be approaching that inflection point. As the late great political economist Mancur Olson liked to remind us, industry leaders—like Pittsburgh in steel or Detroit in automobiles—ultimately sow the seeds of their own demise. They falter and lose their edge largely as a result of their own self-inflicted wounds, what he called "institutional sclerosis." Today's emerging hubs provide substantial cost advantages over these established places and appear far more willing to capitalize on opportunities that come their way. Only time will tell.
CityLab editorial fellow Claire Tran contributed research and editorial assistance to this article.


Virtual Iron has announced the latest version of its eponymous software product.
Version 4 is aimed at mainstream virtualization requirements including server consolidation, dev/test automation, high availability, disaster recovery, dynamic capacity management and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), said the company.
• Integration of the SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 kernel and drivers from Novell.
• The most current version of the Xen open source 3.1 hypervisor. This also helps with Windows SMP up to eight CPUs, reckoned VI. Each VM can use from one-tenth of a CPU to all eight CPUs. It also brings ACPI support which adds dynamic hot plugging of CPU, network and storage running into virtual machines, allowing users to support a larger number of virtual machines per host.
• New physical-to-virtual (P2V) and virtual-to-virtual (V2V) migration powered by PlateSpin. This allows users to migrate workloads (data, applications, and operating systems) across physical, virtual, blade and image-based infrastructures in any direction.
• A new graphical virtualization management interface for creating new virtual machines and managing their entire lifecycle. "We've added report generators with graphical capabilities," said marketing manager Mike Grandinetti. The console also includes new graphing and reporting tools for measuring resource utilization and performance including CPU, memory, disk and network I/O. These capabilities simplify management of the entire virtual environment.
• Expanded 32 and 64 bit OS support to include Win2k and Vista and RHEL3.
• LiveMigrate: The ability to move virtual servers between physical servers with no downtime.
• LiveProvisioning: An automated deployment capability that eliminates the need for physical installation or management of virtualization software on virtualized physical servers. The company's product development strategy entails integrating components from a number of sources, such as XenSource, Platespin and Novell, and reselling the resulting package at a price far below that of market leader VMware's equivalent product.
The benefits of this approach, according to Grandinetti, are that you get class-leading products. For example, he said: "We have a relationship with Novell that allows us to use SUSE Linux Enterprise, so we've have integrated it and the drivers. It's good for customers because OS vendors have tested their software against loads of hardware which means peace of mind. In contrast, XenSource uses an unsupported Debian distribution.
"Small and medium-sized organizations looking at virtualization should not feel that they have to sacrifice advanced features for the sake of cost," said Chris Wolf, senior analyst at the Burton Group.
"With Version 4, Virtual Iron continues to add important new capabilities for advanced virtual infrastructure management and distance its solution from other Xen-based solutions," said Phillip Huber, COO for U.K.-based XCalibre Communications, a hosted solutions provider. "We have evaluated the different offerings on the market very closely and Virtual Iron is the only server virtualization platform that could turn our vision for a flexible and dynamic IT infrastructure into reality.
The packaging has changed, with the addition of the Extended Enterprise Edition. Virtual Iron v4 Single Server Edition is free and offers up to 12 virtual servers on one physical server; SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 from Novell, kernel and drivers; local disk storage. The Enterprise Edition costs US$499 per socket and supports unlimited virtual servers, adding Local, iSCSI, Fibre Channel storage, virtual SMP, VLANs, LiveMigration, LiveMaintenance. The Extended Enterprise Edition costs $799 per socket and adds LiveRecovery.


text:
Next The 1975's coming to the Xcel with Phoebe Bridgers in May
I Met Prince (and Judith Hill) at Paisley Park
Monday, March 23, 2015 by Reed Fischer in Music
This man welcomed me into his Chanhassen palace.
Is my time as valuable as Prince's? Certainly not, said a journalist to himself as he drove 35 miles an hour on an ice-and-slush mixture that had already claimed several victims along Highway 212. Any of the ditch-nestled cars could've been heading to Paisley Park too.
In all seriousness, a semi-exclusive invitation to Prince's Chanhassen lair was a bit of a purple prize. Cloaked in just enough vagueness, the invite arrived early on Sunday, and instructions trickled in throughout the day. Was this a rehearsal session for his pop-up tour, or a definitive unveiling of the storied vault? Or a wild, suburban gray duck chase? And yet another writer succumbed to a self-referential story about entering this pop star's inner sanctum.
The snow collected on a medium-sized grouping of cars inside the Paisley lot, which sits next to the massive compound bathed in orchid light. "Wait in your cars," they said. "We're just about ready."
Once the Paisley folks were indeed ready, a collection of a half dozen Twin Cities music critics and another 50 or so fans trickled into the entry, past the Purple Rain motorcycle, and into the smaller performance space. Prince hits mixed with Kendrick Lamar and old funky soul played through the speakers, the stage had instruments on the stands, and multiple large screens showed James Franco grinning madly through Oz the Great and Powerful. No sign of the Purple Wizard just yet, though.
After a couple of hours, an exuberant member of Prince's team named Trevor corralled the music press corps and walked them down a hallway away from the low-key dancing and standing around. Along the way, we passed a large room with two men inside who might've been off-duty cops staring at computer screens. The hall was bathed in memorabilia from the Prince experience.
We reached a studio, and found the members of 3rdEyeGirl -- Donna Grantis, Hannah Welton, and Ida Kristine Nielsen -- waiting to greet us with warmth. Hannah's husband, Joshua Welton, who has worked in the Paisley Park studios of late, was behind the massive mixing board. Light conversation followed, and I eyed wall speakers that were as big as my Toyota's snow-covered tires. The male/female logo was everywhere.
Judith Hill
Suddenly, the door opened.
"This is Judith Hill," a familiar voice said. She walked in wearing a colorful kimono-like gown and ornate wedges enhancing her height by a half foot or so. Her curls were styled up in a massive pomp-afro above her head. Then the man said, "I'm Prince."
The usual comments about him smelling nice were on point.
Prince strolled into the room wearing a long-sleeved shirt with his face on it and sat down. We soon learned that Prince produced Hill's latest album during a two- to three-week period at Paisley Park. The 31-year-old L.A. vocalist with Alabama roots was a contender on The Voice in 2013, and held the poise of an industry vet.
Story continues on the next page.
We sat for almost an hour listening to selections from her possibly imminent album, Back in Time, at high volume. Hill's chops ranged from vintage soul a la the belting of Etta James to a smoother but still-powerful delivery like that of Alicia Keys. She nodded and monitored the room as they responded to the razor-sharp horn lines, piano flourishes, and an accompaniment that sounded far less analog (how Prince described her voice) than the rest.
Still, the room belonged to Prince. He directed the conversation and peppered it with his thoughts about how the music business has evolved. He mentioned meeting with Apple to discuss iTunes about a decade ago, and being unimpressed with how few albums they sold at that time. When Spotify was mentioned, he asked for an explanation of what it was. Also, he talked about the speed at which material is put out. After referring to Aretha Franklin's prolific creative period in the '60s, he joked that Lil Wayne might have as many albums out as he does.
He urged the room to ask questions of Hill and give feedback. We obliged, gradually. He wanted to know how to get Hill's album out to the world. After heeding a few suggestions, it seemed that he was already doing some of the work by getting City Pages, the Current, Star Tribune, and Fox 9 all in the room to listen.
Eventually Hill showed us the album cover for Back in Time. It's a photo of her as a child taken by her mother. She sits behind a toy piano, and her confident eyes already seem to have her trajectory as a musician figured out.
More proof came after we exited the studio and returned to the crowd. Her album cover was projected on the walls, and her band eventually cut into a lengthy groove with a bassline that refused to roll over. "Cry Cry Cry" -- not the Johnny Cash song -- was the set's centerpiece.
A fearless singer, she bruised her notes one moment and scalded them the next. The moment felt personal, and it almost proved engrossing enough to keep the crowd from rubbernecking while 3rdEyeGirl and Prince shuffled around near the back of the room.
Further advice for Judith Hill: Even if our host did pull together some incredible arrangements and light an artistic fire under you, make sure that Prince doesn't bogart the whole story. It just happened on Sunday. That's a pretty big purple gorilla in every room, and it has left a lot of his past proteges with short, unremarkable careers.
Hill is no longer a backup singer for Michael Jackson, a TV contestant, or an opener for Josh Groban. But it's still up to her to decide what she is. If she does that convincingly, her time might be just as valuable as Prince's someday.
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text:
ALTERNATIVE MARKETS UPDATE - ALTERNATIVE MARKETS OUTLOOK 2023
Inflation was a core issue in 2022 and remains to be one in 2023. In the US, inflation started to decline in the summer of 2022 and remains currently at a level of 7.1%. Contrarily, in Europe and the UK, inflation remains a huge issue and has barely declined from its peak in 2022. It remains at 11.1% for the EU and at 10.7% for the UK. The difference between the inflation can largely be attributed to two factors. Firstly, the Fed hikes interest rates more aggressively than its European counterparts. This led to a quicker response to inflation. Secondly, Europe is more directly affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine and is largely dependent on Russian oil and gas, which soared in price following the war. Contrarily to other European countries, Switzerland managed to keep inflation relatively low with a peak in late summer 2022 at 3.5% and 3% currently. Switzerland managed to avoid high inflation due to its strong currency and relatively low demand for fossil fuels, as most of its electricity stems from hydropower and nuclear power. In Asia, both Japan and China also experience limited inflation issues. Japan achieved this through its central bank which continuously intervenes with large-scale monetary easing. Despite the low inflation, Japan is still suffering, as wages remain stagnant unlike in other major economies where it helps offset the higher inflation to some degree. China does not face an inflation problem, due to their different handling of the Covid crisis. Unlike most economies, they did not provide large stimuli to the economy. Additionally, their zero-Covid policy substantially reduced household demands. Figure 1 shows a summary of the inflation rates across the highlighted economies during 2022. Regarding 2023, it is widely expected that inflation, especially in high-inflation countries, will come down. For instance, in the US, it is expected that inflation will be around 4% on average, and close to the 2% Fed target by the end of the year. Inflation forecasts in the EU and the UK are more difficult to estimate, due to their dependency on the war and its outcome. Additionally, unlike in the US, inflation has not really started to decrease. Assuming further strong interventions by the European central banks, it is expected that inflation will drop substantially. The ECB expects the average inflation to be around 5%-6% during 2023 with inflation slightly below 4% by the end of 2023. In the short term, Europe will be under pressure and the measures take time to become effective, as shown in the example of the US. Despite a similar outlook to the US, albeit with a delay of around half a year, it is less promising. One important wildcard is energy prices, which are strongly linked to the war. While the EU managed to get its oil largely from other sources than Russia, it still needs Russia, and gas is not as easily substitutable. With the prospect of Russia's supply cut and China reopening, prices of energy sources are likely to increase. Depending on the scale, if it occurs, the anticipated target may not be reached and inflation will remain higher than the target. In Switzerland, inflation is expected to remain around the 3% mark for 2023. Given the strong involvement of the BoJ, Japan's inflation is expected to end the year 2023 below the 2% inflation mark. It is additionally expected that wages will rise for the first time in three decades. Inflation in China is expected to rise to around 2% in 2023. This is a combination of the reopening of the economy and the end of the zero-Covid policy. This will lead to an increase in economic activity and the necessity for further energy. Additionally, the price pressure across will also be felt in China, once demand picks up again. The interest rate hikes by most countries have been another crucial topic during 2022. So far, the hikes have shown limited effectiveness in dealing with soaring inflation. In high-inflation countries, it was effective for the US and had little impact on the European countries. However, this discrepancy is likely due to the steeper hikes in the US and less dependency on the war by the US. The US employed the strongest measures, as it hiked from 0% at the beginning of 2022 to 4.25% at the end of 2022. In contrast, the ECB just started hiking in June 2022 at -0.5%, which increased to 2% by the end of 2022. The BoE employed a mixture of the two. The UK started hiking at the end of 2021 but hiked in smaller steps than the US. Towards the end of 2022, it increased the step size and is currently at 3.5%. Switzerland started hiking earlier than the ECB, despite substantially lower inflation. Switzerland's prime rate became positive for the first time in years in September 2022. Currently, the prime rate is sitting at 1%. Japan was one of the exceptions, as the BoJ did not hike at all. Its prime rate remains at -0.1%. However, the central bank still strongly intervened in the market as elaborated previously. The People's Bank of China even lowered its prime lending rate over 2022, albeit to a minimal degree. Currently, the rate is at 3.65%. There is a strong consensus for the year 2023 in the US and Japanese markets. Most market participants expect the Fed to keep raising interest rates to around 5%-5.25%. The Fed is likely to do this in smaller steps than previously. Nonetheless, this level should be reached by the end of Q1 2023. Afterward, a majority of institutions do not expect further hikes or cuts in 2023. The remainder anticipates potential interest rate cuts in Q4 2023. The exact outcome of potentially further hikes or cuts largely depends on the state of the US economy in the latter part of 2023. While the measures seem to be effective and inflation is going down considerably, the risk of a recession is considerable. This largely stems from substantially higher financing costs for businesses, and lower demand from consumers as Covid reserves are exhausted and households feel the pressure from the inflation over the past year. Given that the BoJ has not intervened by raising interest rates, it is not expected that it will in 2023. It is more likely that it will continue its qualitative and quantitative easing philosophy employed so far. In particular, as Japan does not face an imminent inflation problem. With expected wages adjusted, the pressure of inflation should also be eased without a strong necessity to make policy adjustments. For the EU, it is expected that rates will be hiked further to combat the prevalent inflation. Market participants expect interest rates of around 3%, which should be reached during Q2 2023. For the UK, additional hikes of 1% are expected, resulting in interest rates of around 4.5% for 2023. For both economies, no rate cuts are expected in the latter half of 2023. In Switzerland, the SNB is anticipated to hike another 0.5% in 2023 with no rate cuts as well.
ALTERNATIVE MARKETS UPDATE - MID DECEMBER 2022
With the final interest rate decisions of most central banks this year, it concludes a year of strong intervention to combat soaring inflation caused by the aftermath of Covid-19, and the ongoing war as well as general political instability. The Fed, the BoE, the ECB, and the SNB all increase their respective target rates by 50 basis points. The US interest rate is now at 4.25% - 4.5% with the British interest rate slightly lower at 3.5%. The European Union's interest rate ends the year at a 2% target with the Swiss interest rate even lower at 1%. Figure 1 summarizes the interest rate hikes of these central banks during 2022. The UK and the US moved relatively quickly in increasing interest rates compared to the ECB and the Swiss National Bank. The impact of these measures is mixed at best. While inflation has been rampant throughout the year, only the Fed's measures seem to have calmed inflation to a degree. The US inflation peaked in June at 9.1% and fell to 7.1% as of November 2022. Although they managed to control it, the degree to which inflation is reduced is far lower than the interest rate impact. Despite a similarly strong stance by the BoE, inflation is going up and down with a tendency to go up. The UK inflation remains at 10.7%. Compared to the US, the UK is dealing with several other issues not prominent in the US. Not only is the UK still somewhat in a transition phase with the EU, but it is also more directly impacted by the ongoing war and experienced a few chaotic months with the election, the resignation of ex-PM Truss, and her historical tax cut when the economy was already strongly under pressure. Inflation in the European Union is also unlikely to slow down fast given the close involvement in the war and the slow reaction to the rising inflation. As of October 2022, the EU's inflation is the highest of the four economies at 11.5%. Lastly, Switzerland reacted slightly faster than the EU but hikes less aggressively. However, compared to the other economies, Switzerland does not face such an imminent problem with inflation, as the current inflation rate is only 3% with its previous peak being in August 2022 at only 3.5%. Figure 2 summarizes the development of inflation across the four discussed economies during 2022. Despite the general tone of central banks that they plan to decrease their balance sheet and keep raising interest rates well into 2023, market participants see fewer interest rate hikes ahead with a potential reversal earlier than expected. Going forward, interest rates will rise further with likely declining inflation, as the measures should work in the longer term. When inflation is showing signs of a continued slowdown and comes back to reasonable levels, interest rates are likely to decline gradually. This transition period will be especially intriguing to fixed income hedge funds and instruments, as high interest rates and low inflation offers stable and low-risk returns. This is especially true, as this economic ecosystem has not been present in the past decade. Equities did well in the latter half of 2022, despite the unfavorable ecosystem with rising interest rates and a harsh economy. If the situation should normalize sooner than expected, equities are well positioned to regain some of their incurred losses in the first half of 2022. Macro strategies have had an exceptional year in 2022 with plenty of opportunities. Most macro hedge funds could use these opportunities to generate strong returns.
Central Bank Interventions of the Fed, ECB, BoE, SNB Inflation in the US, the EU, the UK, and Switzerland
ALTERNATIVE MARKET UPDATE - END NOVEMBER 2022
Voices of a recession in the coming year are getting louder. With the currently high inflation across the world, increasing interest rates, and drained reserves from the Covid-19 pandemic, companies are facing a bumpy road ahead. While inflation is declining to some degree, the crisis is far from over. In the US, inflation declined to 7.7%. This is likely a consequence of the continued and steep interest rate hikes from the Fed throughout the year that start paying off. With the most recent inflation data, the Fed hinted at lower hikes in the short term. In Europe, inflation is still higher, with 10% for the European Union and 9.6% for the UK. Nonetheless, it decreased in both instances compared to the previous month. Another interesting development is the price cap by the EU on Russian oil. It should mitigate Russia's capabilities to finance the war with oil sales. Russia already stated that it will not oblige to the price cap. Over the past six months, oil substantially lost value. While it was trading well above $120 per barrel during the year, over the past six months it dropped. WTI crude oil is currently trading at $73 per barrel and has lost almost $10 per barrel since the official launch of the price cap on Russian oil. Figure 1 shows this development over the past six months. It will be interesting to monitor this development in terms of oil prices in general and whether the cap has the desired impact to stop Russian war financing. Since the end of Q3 2022, equities managed to rebound quite strongly and offset a proportion of the losses of the first three quarters this year. In contrast to the poor Q1-Q3 2022, the private equity industry was relatively stable over this time period, albeit with some losses and less activity. Nonetheless, the industry's number of deals and deal value is still exceeding pre-pandemic levels, which is remarkable. Figure 2 provides further insights into global buyout deals, which make up most of the capital in the industry. Cryptocurrencies have not recovered from the shocking collapse of FTX. Since the collapse, Bitcoin is steadily moving between the $16k and $18k mark. Ethereum similarly moves between a range of $1.1k and $1.3k. Market participants are divided on their current opinions on the cryptocurrency market. With a looming recession ahead, cryptocurrencies are likely to face further drawdowns as highly risk-on assets. However, most people and institutions likely sold their over-allocation during the drawdown of 2022, and it remains to be seen how much more will be sold. Given the continued drawdown, most current holders are less likely to sell their positions due to being convicted of the underlying advances the technology will bring. Additionally, cryptocurrencies have done well in crises. Institutional investors also view the space with significantly different opinions. For example, Goldman Sachs plans to buy crypto on a large scale, while BlackRock is hesitant and expects many more collapses ahead.
ALTERNATIVE MARKETS UPDATE - MID NOVEMBER 2022
Although there is a recession looming, markets started well in the fourth quarter. In particular, equities were able to recover some of their losses during the year. This development largely stems from the better-than-expected inflation report in the US. The inflation dropped to 7.75% compared to more than 8% for the past couple of months. The strong stance on interest rate hikes by the Fed seems to show an impact finally. However, this development needs to continue until inflation is back under control. While this development is a good indicator, the threat of a recession is far from over. For example, the yield curve does not look healthy at all, which has been the case for a while now. Figure 1 shows the current yield curve inversion in percentage relative to the inflationary bust in 1973/74. It suggests a strong possibility of a recession, as there always was a recession if the current threshold was surpassed. Nonetheless, with the inflation "cooling", there might be a chance to avoid such a recession. The largest shock occurred in the cryptocurrency market. With the bankruptcy of FTX, one of the largest centralized exchanges, the industry took a huge hit. Just a few months ago, the company was in talks of raising another $1bn at a valuation of $32bn. The company collapsed after a liquidity shock. Documents in the bankruptcy filing reveal that the company had less than $1bn in assets compared to more than $9bn in liabilities. Initially, it seemed as if Binance, the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange, might buy FTX. However, Binance decided against this endeavor. Following these events, the cryptocurrency market took a substantial hit. Bitcoin dropped to below $16k, and Ethereum fell lower than $1.2k. Since then, the market has remained relatively stable close to its lows. Figure 2 shows the price development of Bitcoin over the past three months. Nonetheless, the crypto market remains of interest. There is substantial interest from institutional investors, and the new lows offer good entry points for VCs, especially as they are under pressure to deploy capital. In the recent past, VCs have committed substantial amounts to crypto startups and emerging companies. Among these emerging technologies, the metaverse has the potential to become a significant industry. McKinsey estimated that the metaverse could be valued at up to $5tn by 2030, as shown in Figure 3. They see high potential in e-commerce, banking, telecom, and retail, among other industries.
ALTERNATIVE MARKET UPDATE - MID SEPTEMBER 2022
Macro news still continues to drive markets. Europe is at the center in early September. At the end of August, Europe's inflation soared to another record this year at 9.1%. This increase is largely due to ever-soaring energy and food prices. A week after the release of inflation data, the ECB raised interest rates by 75bps which raises its base interest rate to 1.25%, still far off from other countries, such as the US or the UK. A recession in Europe is getting more and more likely with such announcements. This threat is especially high for the UK, as Goldman Sachs expects the recession to start in the UK in the fourth quarter. The UK faces the same issues as Europe does, but at an elevated pace. UK's inflation is higher than 10% while the BoE has raised interest rates significantly more this year already. While the current base rate is only marginally higher at 1.75%, another decision in early September was delayed following the passing of the Queen last week. The weak currencies are another issue. Both, the Euro and the British Pound, are exceptionally weak compared to the US Dollar historically. In the US, the situation seems a bit more stable. Last month, the US managed to re-employ all people fired during Covid-19, and the country continues to employ more people, leading to a record low unemployment rate. However, markets are still heavily pressured by the hawkish Fed. The board emphasized that they are strongly committed to bringing inflation down soon rather than later. Markets widely expect at least another 50bps if not a 75bps hike in the next meeting. Another major development takes place in the cryptocurrency market. "The merge" of Ethereum (ETH) will be executed around the 15th September 2022. Essentially, the merge refers to the combination of the ETH main-chain and its side-chain, known as Beacon chain (launched in December 2020). The main-chain is based on the PoW (Proof-of-Work) consensus algorithm, whereas the Beacon chain uses PoS (Proof-of-Stake). The difference between the two validation algorithms is the resulting energy cost. PoW uses computational power to validate the network. In this approach, all computers try to validate a transaction, in which the fastest is rewarded. Unsurprisingly, this leads to a lot of unnecessary energy consumption. PoS also uses computational power to validate transactions but it bundles the computers together and everyone gets a fraction of the reward. This prevents energy consumption for nothing and leads to an energy consumption decrease of more than 99.9%. Figure 3 summarizes the timeline of the merge. While it is unlikely that there will be a large move in ETH immediately after it takes place (assuming it works well), such events have historically been followed by strong performances of the underlying chains. One example is the introduction of the Beacon chain in December 2020, after which ETH rose from $400 to almost $4,000 in less than six months. Cryptocurrencies were relatively stable and gained slightly over the past weeks. Bitcoin is currently trading at $22k and ETH is valued at $1,750.
ALTERNATIVE MARKETS UPDATE - H1 2022 SUMMARY
Alternative Markets Summary H1 2022
Ever since Covid-19 has subsided from the daily news, inflation has taken over. Inflation is still a major concern in the current economy. This is further exacerbated by central bank interventions that have not been fruitful yet. An additional major contributor is the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. As of June 2022, inflation in the US is at 9.1%, the highest it has been in the past 40 years. In the Eurozone, inflation is slightly lower at 8.6%. The UK's inflation is even higher at 9.4%. Asian countries, such as Japan and China, managed to keep their inflation relatively low at 2.4% and 2.5%. The development of inflation over the past year is summarized in Figure 1. For Western countries, inflation has more or less continuously risen. The US started the year with inflation close to over 5%, while European countries were close to 2%. Nonetheless, Europe has caught up to the US since April, when the UK's inflation even got higher than the US's. A potential reason for the higher inflation in the US at the beginning of the year and back until the latter half of 2021 is the rapid and steep unconventional measures taken by the Fed. This faster intervention led to more money being in the economy earlier, which theoretically should lead to higher inflation earlier. Figure 2 shows the growth in the balance sheet indexed to January 2019. Once Covid-19 hit the economy, the US reacted a lot faster and in higher magnitudes than Europe did. Within the first months, the Fed's balance sheet grew by almost 70%, while the ECB's only grew by 25% in the same time frame. Since then, the two central banks acted equivalently in terms of balance sheet growth. Very recently, the central banks started to shrink their balance sheets. These measures were announced during Q2 2022 and are slowly implemented. Going forward, this balance sheet shrinking will be strengthened, which is confirmed by an announcement from the ECB recently. Nonetheless, as the graph shows, these measures barely affect the original measures taken to combat the economic consequences of Covid-19. The low inflation in China largely stems from the consequences of their zero-Covid policy. In recent months, many places have been shut down to control the spread of Covid. This led to low production levels and low demand which is reflected in the low inflation levels of the country. In the case of Japan, inflation of above 2% is significant, as the average inflation during the past three decades was only 0.3%. Its inflation largely stems from the consequences of the war and the impact it has on food and energy.
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Aiden's Ticket to Hell
May 17, 2009 12:00 am rocknmetalwriter Leave a Comment
"Did somebody loose a book?" shouts WiL front man of goth punk rock 'n' roll sensation Aiden, the audience replied "No" along with cheers and shouts then WiL remarks "Oh well it?s about God, too bad there is no such thing." as he tosses the book over his shoulder and the band breaks into the remainder of their set. Coming out of Seattle who knew that these intense and aggressive four young talents had what it takes to create such angry music. That is what Will has been asked repeatedly in his current interview mayhem but his response "I'm not angry, I'm afraid."
Who wouldn't be afraid especially how the current economy is affecting us both health wise and moneywise we will all fall straight to the depths of hell. Never having the chance to witness "The Last Sunrise," was the introduction tune that got the entire Knitting Factory in Hollywood flowing with complete energy, sweat, and tears. As the band broke into a short but simple 45 minute set list that consists of the old, new, and newest mixture of tunes, "The Last Sunrise," "Die Romantic," "Teenage Queen," We Sleep Forever," newest single off their fourth accomplishment "Knives," entitled "Scavenger of the Damned," along with "Killing Machine," that kept the energy impacted and flowing. When their set hit mid-way point the crowd chanted ?Aiden, Aiden, Aiden,? as the band freshened up briefly and ran back onto the stage to conclude their set for the night with not one, but two tracks in store.
The audience accepted the band?s departure and continued to rant and rave through the first of the two songs remaining and then hell itself opened up from underneath us as WiL wraps up the night ?We are Aiden and we will see you on this summer?s Van?s Warped Tour 2009!? ?Now everyone knows what this is right?? as the entire floor split into two half?s everyone awaiting the fun and excitement that awaited the conclusion of the night. As the song broke into ?I Set My Friends On Fire,? the two half?s came together smashing against one another some going up into the air while others scrambled to get up off the ground as the band continued to rock 'n' roll their way until the very end. WiL hopping onto the floor while others hopped into the stage singing, dancing and expressing themselves in every way possible Aiden in the end drawing in the intensity that will blaze on until their light is burnt out under the worse circumstances.
Filed Under: LIVE EVENTS
About rocknmetalwriter
Natalie Perez of Natalie's World is currently a Freelance Writer and Photographer contributing her time and efforts to not just her site but for various other music publications across the web. She has since gotten involved with the industry in 2008 conducted over 250+ interviews with such bands as Anthrax, Black Veil Brides, Cannibal Corpse, Megadeth, Papa Roach, and Slayer. If interested in working with her you can contact her via email at natalieperez9387@gmail.com. You can connect with her throughFacebook, Twitter, and subscribe to her channel on YouTube.


Lou Kamer, the Pacific Palisades Community Council's at-large representative, took a generator and a weed whacker to the median between the Palisades High School baseball field and Temescal Gateway Park. That median at Sunset and Temescal is a big improvement, thanks to Lou.
Sadly, there were six or seven paparazzi hanging around the Methodist Church parking lot, waiting for one of the parishioners to come out. I would think that since it's a private parking lot, the church security company could ask the photographers to leave.
Pride President Bruce Schwartz not only planted petunias in the medians at Sunset and Chautauqua, but over Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, he put flags in the flower beds. I love a person who doesn't wait for the city to do something but takes matters into their own hands.
One of the best-known faces in the village is gone. Roman, the parking attendant at the S.M. Land and Water (TOPA) building, is no longer here due to a change in the parking company.
This would have been the 20th anniversary of the Village Books store on Swarthmore. It opened 1997 on July 4. I wish it were still here. I like that the Palisades Library has a little bookstore, but there is nothing like a cozy place where authors would come to speak and one could have a glass of wine and listen.
There were so many drones flying around and through the fireworks, I couldn't help but wish they would crash into each other—or maybe just get hit by fireworks and fall from the sky.
We already have a great ice cream shop in Pacific Palisades with Sweet Rose, and the owners opened here when we didn't have anyone, so I feel some loyalty. I think it's okay that Caruso is bringing a second ice cream shop here, because of capitalism and competition, but the town could really use a cupcake shop.


Extracted from the dry leaves of Insulin plant leaves under UV stabilized Solar tunnel dryer (See solar image below). It is ready to use for diabetes which helps to control sugar level as Natural herbal sugar controller.
User has to prepare it like black tea by adding 2gm apprx in 150 ml water and boil it for 5 minutes. Then filter and drink the decoction at your comfortable heat.
User should take two times a day in the morning at empty stomach and evening once before dinner, for 45 days and thereafter once in the morning is enough.
Type 1 (Insulin injection dependant). diabetes will get control over sugar level in 90 days.
User should take sugar test (without taking any tablets/injection – prior 24 hours) before starting this supplementary product, to compare the result after 45/90 days for Type 2 & Type 1 respectively.
User can reduce their other medicine step by step between 30 to 90 days in 2 to 4 installments and stop in toto based on sugar test report, body comfort level and as well as individual judgment or on consultation with your physician.
This products is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure diabetic but provides palliative care to control sugar level & as well as comfort level being herbal food supplementary to diabetics. It helps to control the blood sugar and ideal to those in preliminary level/type 2. It helps to Type 1 diabetic also after continuous use of tea for 4 months and above @ 2 times a day. It can be consumed as a preventive measure for those who have diabetics running in their family. The results may vary from one individual to another, depending on age/food habits/chronic disease/time factor..