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Because of all the bad news, more and more economists foresee the country falling into a recession, according to the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics.

The group said in a report being released Monday that 45 percent of the economists on its forecasting panel expect a recession this year. In September, only one in four economists was pessimistic enough to put the chance of a recession at 35 percent or higher.

The drumbeat of bad news since last fall has caused many analysts to consider a recession more likely now, said Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, chief economist at Ford Motor Co. and NABE’s current president.

The survey shows that 55 percent still believe the country will be able to skate by without falling into an actual downturn, typically defined as two consecutive quarters of declines in the gross domestic output, the broadest measure of economic health. All the analysts, however, expect growth to slow considerably this year.

The forecasters believe GDP will expand by 1.8 percent this year, which would be the weakest growth in five years. That compares with an estimate of 2.5 percent growth for 2008 made in the previous survey, in November.

Source: MSNBC.

This from the NY Post:

It looks like rehab didn’t have much effect on Amy Winehouse, who is once again spiraling out of control. The British pop sensation spent the hours before the Brit Awards in London the other day trashing her room at the Riverbank Plaza Hotel, causing thousands of dollars worth of damage, according to The Sun. Management found spilled liquor, cigarette butts, empty Champagne bottles and underwear strewn on the floor. “The bed hadn’t been changed since she arrived, and most of the room had been used as an ashtray. There was dirty underwear everywhere, and the place smelt incredibly stale. She’d also taken down all the pictures,” a source told the paper. Winehouse’s manager could not be reached for comment.

Any stint in drug rehabs doesn’t really seem to have done much for this Brit pop idol, does it?

She’s also going to be revisiting some of her drug-addled past, real soon – she is expected to be in a Norwegian courtroom this coming week to contest her drug arrest last year in Norway on marijuana charges.

New experimental drug, currently named MK-0974, could be making it’s way to the pharmacy near you as soon as 2009. It still needs an approval from FDA but the noises coming from medical and scientific crowds are promising.

Those studies conducted showed no serious side effects but some of the minor ones might include drowsiness, nausea and dizziness. Interestingly, they didn’t compound in severity as the dosage increased. Advantageously, the migraine blocking effect of this new wonder drug MK-0974 lasts for approximately 24 hours, much longer than with most triptans – a great piece of news for migraine sufferers.

Scientifically speaking, “MK-0974 is an antagonist of the receptor for CGRP”. In contrast, triptans are serotonin antagonists, so they act in different ways but both relieve the pain of migraines.

The government has said it will review the future of broadband internet in the UK amid calls that it should help firms pay for installing new infrastructure.

The world is advancing quickly to the next generation of broadband internet networks, super-fast internet highways that will power the business world of the future. The UK does not want to be left behind, to linger in the low-speed world of 2Mb ADSL lines.

The review has been ordered by Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform – and according to the industry, the current infrastructure is sadly lacking and cannot accommodate the increase in demand that the future holds – such as demand for services for downloading and streaming.

The UK is falling behind France and Germany who are already trialling broadband with much faster download speeds than anything offered in the UK.

French vineyard owners are returning to a slower pace of life by starting to export their wine by sailing boat – a method last used in the 1800s – to reduce their carbon footprint.

Later this month 60,000 bottles from Languedoc will be shipped to Ireland in a 19th-century barque, saving 18,375lb of carbon. Further voyages to Bristol, Manchester and even Canada are planned soon afterwards.

The three-mast barque Belem, which was launched in 1896, the last French merchant sailing vessel to be built, will sail into Dublin following a voyage from Bordeaux that should last about four days. The wines will be delivered to Bordeaux by barge using the Canal du Midi and Canal du Garonne, which run across southern France from Sète in the east, via Béziers in Languedoc. Each bottle will be labelled: ‘Carried by sailing ship, a better deal for the planet.’ Although the whole process will end up taking up to a week longer than a flight, it is estimated it will save 4.9oz of carbon per bottle.

Frederic Albert, founder of the shipping company Compagnie de Transport Maritime à la Voile (CTMV), said:

‘My idea was to do something for the planet and something for the wines of Languedoc. One of my grandfathers was a wine-maker and one was a sailor.’

With French wine exports booming following a number of difficult years, Albert said some 250 producers in Languedoc alone were keen to use his ships.

The 170ft Belem, which was first used to transport chocolate from South America and is named after a Brazilian port, is the first of seven planned to be working by 2013. Seven private investors have contributed 70 per cent of the business’s start-up costs of £40m. Bank loans have provided the rest.

‘There is a lot of interest in green investments in France,’ said Albert. Ships will return to France with an equivalent tonnage of crushed glass for recycling into wine bottles at factories in Bordeaux and Béziers. Despite the time involved in transporting it, the wine should also remain relatively cheap, at between €7 and €20 a bottle.

Albert said he would make sure that only the greenest wines would travel by sea. ‘We chose the best wine in the area, but it must also be made in a sustainable way, using as many natural products as possible,’ he said, adding that delivery times to Ireland and Britain had been calculated using historic charts. ‘We had someone who studied a century of weather conditions to work them out,’ he said.

Fidel Castro‘s nearly five decades of rule ended Sunday when Cuba‘s National Assembly chose his younger brother Raul to be the country’s new president.

The lawmakers’ selection, which had been widely expected, came five days after Fidel Castro, 81, announced his resignation in a letter published in the state-run newspaper Granma.

In his address to the National Assembly, the 76-year-old Raul Castro proposed that “we consult Fidel” on important decisions. The 614 members of the legislative body passed that motion unanimously.

The lawmakers also announced that Jose Ramon Machado, a man of Raul Castro‘s generation, had been elected first vice president of the Council of State, despite the expectation of some that the post would go to someone younger.

The Council of State acts on behalf of the Assembly — which meets only twice a year — when it is not in session.

Author’s note: nothing like choosing the “younger” brother …

Source: CNN.

The consumer advocate made the announcement Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He says most Americans are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties, and that none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labor rights.

Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida.

Source: MSNBC.

Dominic Monaghan has reportedly popped the question to girlfriend and Lost co-star Evangeline Lilly.

The actor presented Evangeline, better known as Kate in the US drama, with a ring in Hawaii last week, and was delighted to receive the reply “Yes, yes, yes!”

A source told the Sunday Mirror, “They want to spend the rest of their lives together.”

Monaghan, who plays Charlie Pace, is apparently planning to return home to Heaton Moor in Stockport with his new fiancée so that they can celebrate the news with his family.

Source: We Love Celebs.

Mobile phone use is not linked to an increased risk of brain tumours according to the latest research.

But researchers have said that, as mobile phones had only been in widespread use for about 10 years, the long-term effects are still unknown. They also found no link between the risk of the tumour and the length of time since someone first started using a mobile or the number or length of calls that were made.

Read more at Channel4 News »