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Germany sees upswing amid eurozone turmoil
FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2012 file photo cranes are silhouetted against the sky while clouds of steam rise from the steel producing company in background in Orsoy, Germany. Germany's ZEW survey of investor optimism released Tuesday, April 17, 2012, unexpectedly rose in April for a fifth straight month in another upbeat sign for Europe's biggest economy despite recurring turmoil from the debt crisis hitting the 17 countries that use the euro. The survey's index rose to 23.4 from 22.3 in March, after some analysts anticipated a dip to 19.0, with some predicting a figure as low as 15.0. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FRANKFURT - A key index of business optimism on Friday reinforced what an increasing number of economists are saying: Germany is beginning to see an upswing — even as the rest of the 17-country eurozone struggles with economic and financial turmoil over too much debt.
The Ifo institute survey of business executives published Friday edged up to 109.9 points from 109.8 the month before, beating market expectations of a slight decline. That follows an unexpected fifth straight monthly rise Wednesday in the ZEW index, which measures the outlook among investment professionals.
Both are leading indicators, suggesting where the economy might be headed in the next six months. Economists say these and other data mean Germany may now have avoided a recession and this year will easily outpacing the eurozone as a whole, which is expected to shrink 0.3 per cent this year.
Leading economic institutes this week raised their forecast for 2012 to 0.9 per cent from a 0.8 per cent prediction last fall, and predicted 2 per cent growth next year. Some economists now think the economy grew in the first quarter as well, avoiding a second straight quarter of contraction after a slight 0.2 dip in the fourth quarter of last year. Two quarters of falling output is a technical definition of recession.
Both parts of the Ifo index — estimates of current conditions and expectations for the next six months — were up. Sentiment rose among both industrial firms, which are often oriented toward exports in Germany, and retailers, which depend on domestic demand. Economists say Germany's low unemployment rate of 5.7 per cent is giving workers the confidence they need to spend money in stores.
"The German economy is showing itself to be resilient," said Ifo institute head Hans-Werner Sinn.
Germany is motoring ahead even as fears worsen about the eurozone debt crisis. Spain and Italy are seeing higher costs to borrow money on bond markets and roll over their debt loads, while their economic growth is sagging. Their troubles — which could mean big losses for shaky banks if governments can't pay — hold out a threat to the European and global economies.
High borrowing costs and fears of default have already pushed Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailout loans from other eurozone countries. Greece additionally had to ask creditors to write down €107 billion in debt that it could not pay.
Germany is reaping the benefits of efforts begun in the early 2000s to cut labour costs for businesses — a reform effort that has now been taken up by Spain and Italy but which may need years to bring them higher growth. It is benefiting from its traditional strengths as an exporter of cars and machinery, and growth has been boosted by the recovery in the United States and strong growth in emerging markets such as China.
Ironically, in some ways the debt crisis has given Germany some help.
Because of the country's reputation for stability, investors are willing to buy its bonds as safe places to put their money. That means rock-bottom borrowing costs for the government, in contrast to the heavy risk premiums paid by Italy and Spain to borrow — costs that threaten to undermine their budgets and create a self-fulfilling default spiral.
A two-year bond sold Wednesday cost the German treasury only 0.14 per cent interest yield, and a 10-year bond issue from April 11 yielded only 1.77 per cent. With inflation at 2.3 per cent, Germany's creditors are accepting no return on their lending or even paying for the privilege of lending it money. Rates are also low because the European Central Bank has reduced its benchmark to a lowest-ever 1 per cent.
German economists say those rock-bottom rates are helping lower borrowing costs for companies as well, spurring business investment that is helping fuel the recovery.
Additionally, the crisis has kept the euro's exchange rate weaker than it otherwise would be, boosting exports. The eight economic institutes who produce a twice-yearly forecast for the government says that means German goods are cheaper in foreign markets than they have been for 30 years.
The institutes warned however against complacency. They say their economy remains threatened by any wider disaster in the eurozone because 43 per cent of its exports go to other eurozone countries — and 20 per cent to the five crisis-hit countries, Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
That means a substantial 12.3 per cent of Germany's economy is based on trade with the eurozone — suggesting that a financial disaster among neighbours could easily spoil Germany's improving mood.
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She died Oct. 26 in Velas on the Azorean island of São Jorge following a long illness involving Alzheimer's disease.
Mrs. Oliveira was born Sept. 17, 1925, in Urzelina, São Jorge, Azores, and immigrated to the United States from the Azores in 1969 with her husband and two of her three sons.
She lived in 41 years in Tracy, where she was an active parishioner of St. Bernard's Catholic Church and a member of Our Lady of Fatima Society and the IPFES, a Portuguese fraternal society.
Mrs. Oliveira was retired from Owens-Illinois Glass Co.
Survivors include her husband of 64 years, Manuel F. Oliveira of Tracy; three sons, Carlos Oliveira, and his wife, Leonor Gasper, of Byron, Joe Oliveira, and his wife, Noemia, of Tracy and Lino Oliveira, and his wife, Leonor, of Terceira, Azores; and seven grandchildren.
Also surviving are a brother, Lino Chaves of São Jorge, Azores; four sisters, Maria Lemos and Olympia Melo, both of São Jorge, Maria Auxliadora Soares of Tracy and Gertrude Bettencourt of San Jose; and many nieces and nephews.
Her parents, Albano and Isabella Chaves, preceded her in death.
Thursday's Mass was celebrated at St. Bernard's, 163 W. Eaton Ave. A Mass and burial service were also conducted Oct. 27 in Urzelina.
Contributions in Mrs. Oliveira's name may be sent to Our Lady of Fatima Society, St. Bernard's Catholic Church, 163 W. Eaton Ave., Tracy, CA 95376.

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It is important to remember that all aspects of training are as important as the other, as each area compliments the others. I am continually telling clients at boot camp that you need to work on the areas that you find more difficult. It is human nature to do the things we are good at; this raises the problem that the body adapts to the repetition of training the same way. The best way I can explain it is if you regularly attend a Body Pump class you may find that the first time you find it difficult to lift a relatively easy weight and within several sessions the weight on your bar has doubled. Several months or years down the road however you are still lifting the same weights and no longer seem to be improving your performance. Remember variety is not only the spice of life but also the key to improving performance.
We are going to look at fartlek training; this is a Swedish word meaning speed play. It involves training at a high intensity for short periods of time that require the body to work the muscles in an anaerobic (without oxygen) capacity. When we work at these high intensities our muscles produce several metabolic by-products, one of these by-products is lactic acid. Years ago believed that lactic acid was detrimental to training as it causes our muscles to fatigue early and our performance to decrease. It is now widely acknowledged that lactic acid plays several important roles within the body.
Firstly, it acts as a safety mechanism that prevents us from pushing our bodies beyond their limits. When our muscles produce lactic acid it causes a burning sensation in the muscles that can become very unpleasant and makes us reduce our training intensity. If we continue to work at these increased intensities the lactic acid can build up so much that it enters the stomach and causes us to vomit.
Secondly, it plays an important role in developing our bodies' training systems and improving our overall performance. Lactic acid in the presence of oxygen will turn into a substance called pyruvic acid which will turn into energy. As energy is the currency the body requires to perform movement and exercises it is paramount to performance that we develop our lactate system.
So how can we carry out a boot camp style fartlek training session? Let's begin by looking at how the professionals develop their training. For this we will look at Paula Radcliffe; as a long distance runner she will carry out sprint sessions on a track that will involve a 400m track. After a warm-up and stretch she will carry out various sprints over differing distances with relevant recoveries in between each sprint. A typical sprint session on a track would involve 2 x 400m sprints with 400m recoveries, 4 x 200m sprints with 200m recoveries in between and 8 x 100m sprints with 100m recoveries in between. During the sprints her muscles produce lactic acid and when she enters a recovery period her breathing rate and depth increases to feed the muscles with fresh oxygenated blood. She continues to repeat this process throughout the session enabling her body to become more efficient at dealing with the lactic acid and turning it into energy. Paula Radcliffe is so accustomed to this type of training that when she competes it seems like she is sprinting a marathon. Her body is continually producing lactic acid and rapidly turning it into energy to produce more lactic acid and so on.
I am not suggesting that you all need to go to a running track tomorrow unless you are training for a 5km race or further distance. Most classes that you attend at your gym involve this type of training. You just need to make sure that the classes you do attend adjust the type of exercises, intensities and time durations you train for, week in week out. Whether you attend a spin, circuit, step, boxing, pump or aerobics class it needs to be varied to avoid the body becoming stale.


text: Not only did the Obama aide say on "This Week" that "the law is irrelevant" where the IRS actions with Tea Party groups is concerned, he says where President Obama was during the Benghazi attack is also irrelevant. Watch all three and a half minutes. Chris Wallace does a helluva job here of trying to nail Jello to a tree.


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Oregon picked to win new Pac-12 in media poll (AP)
Source: Yahoo! NCAAF - Jul 26, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Oregon is favored to win the Pac-12 football title in the annual media poll. The Ducks are picked to win the North Division and the inaugural Pac-12 title game by 28 of the 42 voters in the poll released Tuesday before the league's media day. Southern California is favored to win the South Division, edging Arizona State.


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What's the Best Part of October? [POLL]
October has arrived, and I'm OK with it. I can deal with October for a few reasons. It's a pretty time of year with the fall foliage and mums and all. And thankfully it's not parka weather yet. If I do have to wear a parka in October, I may consider moving south.


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A classic item for big and small: Our favourite piece of clothing - also for kids and teens. An all-time favourite with everyone! Absolutely essential for the playground, school and sport.
still to fill


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