Just wanted to welcome you all to the new course we're starting this afternoon, September 16th.
I hope this year will be as productive and fulfilling as last year, and hope we all can achieve the goals to be set out this afternoon in our first meeting session.
Just like last course, this blog alongside the school's website should work as a means of communication among students and the teacher, as well as a place to find useful information which you can use further on in the classroom.
Some assignments will also be set out so as to be fulfilled here. It is advisable to visit this blog once a week at least for that matter, especially if you won't be attending the classes for some time.
Looking forward to meeting you in class in a few hours! Until then, maybe you can start listening to some spoken English in this hilarious episode from Monty Python's Flying Circus
The big freeze set to stay for inauguration day by Matt Taylor
The recent arctic freeze in the northeast USA shows no signs of abating this week. Inauguration day on Tuesday is forecast to be particularly cold.
Last week, some very cold air pushed south from Canada, bringing bitterly cold temperatures to many parts of the Midwest and Northeast. Sub-zero temperatures combined with a fresh breeze led to wind chill temperatures as low as -45C (-49F) in parts of Minnesota.
The cold air is still affecting Washington D.C and a storm system pushing in from the mid-Atlantic on Monday is forecast to bring up to an inch of snow. This will be followed by dry and cold weather through inauguration day on Tuesday.
In stark contrast to the cold weather gripping central and eastern parts of the USA, a number of western states are experiencing unusually warm conditions. Temperatures in Los Angeles last week reached 27C (81F), 10 degrees above average for the time of year.
Spanish industrial output plunges
Employment in Spain's construction industry has been hard hit
Spanish industrial output fell by 15.1% in November, compared with the same month one year ago, the biggest fall on record and a sign of a deep recession.
Analysts had expected output in factories and mines to drop by 11%.
On Thursday, figures revealed that the country's unemployment rate hit a 12-year high in 2008 of 3 million.
Retail sales across the 15 nations that share the euro rose unexpectedly in November, defying the gloom that pervades the eurozone economy.
Manufacturing blow
Spain has been particularly hard hit by the slowdown, partly because of the slump in the construction sector.
The figures indicate that the problem is not just in the construction sector, but also in manufacturing.
The outlook is bleak for both the production and household sides in Europe
Matthew Sharatt, Bank of America
The biggest fall in output was in durable goods like household appliances, which tumbled 23.9%. Consumer goods fell 9.4%.
This latest data reinforces expectations of an early cut in eurozone interest rates.
The European Central Bank is to meet next week to decide on the future level of rates and will be faced with a barrage of data indicating a worsening slowdown in the eurozone.
"The fourth quarter does look very, very bad. There has been a substantial contraction in all activity, not just in industry, but what we've seen this morning is this is not just a Spanish, but a pan-European story," said Juergen Michels of Citigroup.
"The difference for Spain is that the problem is exacerbated by its own internal problems of its housing market and a lack of competitiveness," he added.
Retail sales
Retail sales across the eurozone in November rose 0.6% from October and fell 1.5% from a year earlier. Both figures were better than expected.
Europe's biggest economies did better than the average.
Retail sales in France, the eurozone's second-biggest economy, were up 1.8% month on month and 1.6% on the year.
Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, registered rises of 0.7% and 0.3% respectively.
Food and drink sales rose 0.5% on the month and fell 1.3% on the year.
But analysts said the outlook remained bleak.
"Monthly data can be volatile. It's way too early to talk about signs of a turnaround with unemployment only recently surging higher. The outlook is both bleak for production and household sides in Europe once unemployment continues to rise much higher and we have only just seen that starting in Germany," said Matthew Sharratt of Bank of America.
"It makes no overall change to the outlook. It will probably lead to a 50 basis point cut by the ECB next week but signs on the retail side that it's not all one way count against the hope they could do more than 50 basis points," he added.
The 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded last night at the 18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony. Click here to see a list of the winners. Recorded video is (or soon will be) posted for your viewing pleasure, displeasure or indifference.
Related event: The new winners will try to explain what they did and why they did it on Saturday, October 4, at the Ig Informal Lectures at MIT. It starts at 1:0 pm. You are invited (and it’s free—but seating is limited, so get there early).
In the photo here, Nobel Laureate William Lipscomb (left) and Benoit Mandelbrot, the inventor of the mathematical concept of fractals, drink Coca-Cola to toast the winners of the Ig Nobel Chemistry Prize. The prize was awarded to two teams of doctors—one team discovered that Coke is an effective spermacide; the other team discovered that it is not.
Photo: Kees Moeliker / Annals of Improbable Research.
