Worst Of Financial Crisis Yet To Come: IMF

The IMF's chief economist has warned that the global financial crisis is set to worsen and that the situation will not improve until 2010.Olivier Blanchard also warned that the institution does not have the funds to solve every economic problem."The worst is yet to come," Blanchard said in an interview with the Finanz und Wirtschaft newspaper yesterday, adding that "a lot of time is needed before the situation becomes normal."

He said economic growth would not kick in until 2010 and it will take another year before the global financial situation became normal again.The International Monetary Fund on Friday promised to help Latvia deal with its economic crisis after it assisted Iceland, Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia and Pakistan.But Blanchard said the IMF was not able to solve all financial issues, in particular problems of liquidity.

Withdrawals of capital leading to problems of liquidity "can be so significant that the IMF alone cannot counter them," he said, adding that massive withdrawals of investments from emerging countries could represent "hundreds of billions of dollars."We do not have this money. We never had it," he said. The IMF had spent a fifth of its 250 billion dollar fund in the last two weeks, Blanchard added.

He also urged central banks around the world to cut interest rates, after the Swiss National Bank made a surprise one percentage point rate cut Thursday.The central banks "should lower interest rates to as close to zero as possible," he said.

Rainbow Falls

A rainbow produced by mist from this 80-foot high waterfall is visible on sunny afternoons. During extended winter cold spells, an impressive ice formation builds around the falls.Between trailhead and falls, Rainbow Falls Trail gains about 1,500' in elevation. The 5.4 mile roundtrip hike is considered moderate in difficulty. The Rainbow Falls Trail continues for approximately 4 miles beyond the falls to the summit of Mt. Le Conte.

Access Trail: Rainbow Falls Trail (Tennessee)
Trailhead: From the parkway in Gatlinburg, turn at traffic light #8 and follow Historic Nature Trail into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Continue past the Noah “Bud” Ogle homesite to the clearly signed Rainbow Falls parking area.

Peripheral Arterial Disease

Also called: PAD
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) happens when there is a narrowing of the blood vessels outside of your heart. A substance made up of fat and cholesterol, called plaque, builds up on the walls of the arteries that supply blood to the arms and legs. The plaque causes the arteries to narrow or become blocked. This can reduce or stop blood flow, usually to the legs, causing them to hurt or feel numb. If severe enough, blocked blood flow can cause tissue death. If this condition is left untreated, the foot or leg may need to be amputated.

A person with PAD also has an increased risk of heart attack, stroke and transient ischemic attack. You can often stop or reverse the buildup of plaque in the arteries with dietary changes, exercise, and efforts to lower high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.

Raspberry

Raspberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world. Many of the most important modern commercial red raspberry cultivars derive from hybrids between R. idaeus and R. strigosus. Some botanists consider the Eurasian and American red raspberries to all belong to a single, circumboreal species, Rubus idaeus, with the European plants then classified as either R. idaeus subsp. idaeus or R. idaeus var. idaeus, and the native North American red raspberries classified as either R. idaeus subsp. strigosus, or R. idaeus var. strigosus.

The black raspberry, Rubus occidentalis, is also occasionally cultivated in the United States, providing both fresh and frozen fruit as well as jams, preserves, and other products, all with that species' distinctive, richer flavor.

Purple-fruited raspberries have been produced by horticultural hybridization of red and black raspberries, and have also been found in the wild in a few places (for example, in Vermont) where the American red and the black raspberries both grow naturally. The unofficial name Rubus × neglectus has been applied to these native American plants for which commercial production is rare.

Red and black raspberry species have albino-like pale-yellow variants resulting from expression of recessive genes for anthocyanin pigments. Variously called golden raspberries, yellow or (rarely) orange raspberries retain the distinctive flavor of their respective species. In the eastern United States, most commercially sold pale-fruited raspberries are derivatives of red raspberries. Yellow-fruited variants of the black raspberry occur occasionally in the wild or are grown in home gardens.

Hamilton 'feels Senna connection'

Lewis Hamilton believes he is similar to Ayrton Senna and has revealed that he has based his approach to his career on the Brazilian three-time champion.

Hamilton, who can win the title at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix, says he has admired Senna since childhood."I've always felt I had a connection with him, that we're somehow similar," he told Motor Sport magazine."I do crazy things that others wouldn't do and I feel like I have an edge, too. I feel I share something with him." The 23-year-old, who is seven points clear of Ferrari's Felipe Massa heading into the race at Interlagos, wears a yellow helmet because of his admiration for Senna, who was killed in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

But he said he felt his links with Senna - who was born in Sao Paulo, the city that hosts this weekend's race - go far deeper than that."I seem to be able to draw a lot from how he came across, in interviews and so on."He was such a fighter, that was the thing - I don't think he was ever one to drive half-heartedly."He was always looking for perfection and, yeah, he was a warrior - and that was what I loved about him."In the interview, Hamilton talks at length about how closely he has modelled his career on Senna.Hamilton, now 23, was nine when Senna was killed.

"The year before, I'd won the British [karting] championship, and got the chance to meet him. I'll never forget that," he said.

"As a kid, I was drawn to Senna because, for one thing, his driving style seemed to be different from anyone else's."And he seemed to be a daredevil - well, not a daredevil exactly, but he always went out of his way to… make sure he was at the front."Compared with all the others, he appeared never to be afraid - he seemed to me to have that little bit of an edge."Hamilton has recently come in for some criticism for driving over-aggressively - just as Senna did in his career.

But he insists that he does not believe in intimidating his rivals."You do get quite a lot of people who do that, you know - drivers who try to intimidate other drivers," Hamilton said."I could do it, too, but I just don't see the sense in it, personally."When people try and intimidate me, I laugh."The way I look at it, if they're doing that, it means they're worried - they feel they have to do something to distract me, or put me off, or try and knock my confidence.

"Personally I think that's a sign of weakness - weakness in the mind - and if you let it upset you, they're going to get the upper hand on you. I don't do that sort of thing, because I don't feel I have that weakness."The thing is, I think there's a subtle way you can do it. You can do it stupidly, and then there's a 50:50 chance of both of you crashing."But there's a subtler way of doing these things - I mean, when I got here, I wanted to assert myself in certain ways: one, to prove you can overtake in F1, and two, to show that I don't care who you are - whether you're Kimi Raikkonen or whomever - I'll go up the inside of you."It was important to get across that in a situation where most people would back out of it, I won't. And I showed that in my first year."

Despite his reverence for Senna, though, Hamilton recoiled from equating his ability with the Brazilian's."By no means have I ever suggested that I'm better than Ayrton - for me he's the king, and always will be," Hamilton said."If I could ever get to a point of being anywhere near as good as he was, I'd feel great."

Milwaukee

Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin and 22nd largest (by population) in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. As of a revised 2006 U.S. Census estimate, Milwaukee had a population of 602,782. Milwaukee is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee–Racine–Waukesha Metropolitan Area with a population of 1,964,744

The first Europeans to pass through the area were French missionaries and fur traders. In 1818, the French-Canadian explorer Solomon Juneau settled in the area, and in 1846 Juneau's town combined with two neighboring towns to incorporate as the City of Milwaukee. Large numbers of German and other immigrants helped increase the city's population during the 1840s and the following decades.

Once known almost exclusively as a brewing and manufacturing powerhouse, Milwaukee has taken steps in recent years to reshape its image. In the past decade, major new additions to the city have included the Milwaukee Riverwalk, the Midwest Airlines Center, Miller Park, an internationally renowned addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum, and Pier Wisconsin, as well as major renovations to the Milwaukee Auditorium. In addition, many new skyscrapers, condos, lofts, and apartments have been constructed in neighborhoods on and near the lakefront and riverbanks.