There was a time when a Nokia phone was all I wanted. Those days are gone. This haunting piano composition, based on their hallmark ringtone, written by classicalist Marc-André Hamelin, reminds me of times when Nokia was state-of-the-art.
Marc will be speaking at The EG, which I’m super excited to go to. [Youtube via The-EG]
Bet LA Lakers +3
Current Line at Bodog Sportsbook
Courtesy of Tonys Picks
Cadillac kicked of the second press preview days at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show with a bang by introducing their press conference with this video – a promo of the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe. Needless to say, we were blown away and pretty deaf after the video was over.
Check out our post on the 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe’s appearance at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.
Refresher: The 2011 BMW Cadillac CTS-V Coupe is powered by a Supercharged 6.2L V8 making 556-hp with a peak torque of 551 lb-ft. Mated to a 6-speed manual dual-disc clutch, 6-speed automatic (with paddle shifters), 0-60 mph comes in just 3.9 seconds.
2010 Detroit: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe:
2010 Detroit: 2011 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe:
– By: Omar Rana
José Zapatero is pursuing an ambitious economic agenda, despite being by far the weakest EU president ever.
The Spanish PM is the first to share the EU’s six-month rotating presidency with a permanent president in Brussels.
At the same time, his country is suffering its worst economic crisis in 60 years, jibing with Iceland and Greece for the biggest disaster story in Europe.
Zapatero’s big plan, called the 2020 Economic Strategy, calls for a binding system of economic cooperation. Although the details are unclear, it sounds like a system that would greatly benefit sovereign default risks like Spain.
Not surprisingly, Zapatero and his plan have been met with skepticism and mockery, according to World Politics Review.
WPR: Zapatero’s calls for aggressive economic action have provoked widespread skepticism at home and abroad, not least because the Spanish economy is still in contraction and Spanish unemployment is expected to reach 20 percent in 2010 (or double the EU average). Across Spain, even newspapers normally friendly to the Zapatero government have asked how a country facing its worst economic crisis in 60 years can be trusted to manage the economic recovery of the 27-member EU.
In London, the Economist magazine published a scathing column that declared, “Spain now leads the European Union, but not by example. . . . If you want your advice to be heeded, you need something credible to say.”
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Mayor Richard M. Daley, Chicago Transit Board Chairman Terry Peterson and Chicago Transit Authority President Richard L. Rodriguez joined federal, state and city officials today at the Fullerton rail station for a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of 18 station renovations as part of the CTA’s $530 million Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project.
Belmont and Fullerton – the final two stations to complete construction – were rebuilt in the same locations and now include elevators for customers with disabilities making 91 of the CTA’s 144 rail stations now accessible.
CTA preserved the two historic stationhouses at each station and relocated them across the street to serve as secondary entrances.
“The completion of these two stations and this entire program represents a great enhancement of our transportation system and moves us closer to our goal of bringing accessible, reliable service to riders of the Brown Line and to riders of the CTA system across Chicago,” said Mayor Daley.
“This project is a good example of how essential capital investment projects are to the economic growth and development of our region. I am also happy to report – especially in these difficult economic times – that this project was completed on time and on budget.”
The Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project was designed to relieve congestion, provide for future growth by increasing capacity, and improve service delivery, safety and customer comfort.
The project also made the Brown Line accessible to all CTA customers, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines.
“I am pleased be here today to witness the culmination of this vital improvement project and I want to thank our customers and neighborhood residents for their patience throughout,” said CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez.
“By expanding capacity and making all of the stations along the Brown Line accessible, the CTA has reached two important milestones that allow us to meet the growing demand for service on this line as more and more people opt to use public transportation as a way to save money and the environment.”
The Brown Line is the third busiest line in the CTA rail system – behind the Red and Blue lines. Between 1979 and 2008, annual ridership on the Brown Line increased by 103.5 percent from 7,431,066 to 15,122,363.
Prior to the construction project, most Brown Line stations were not able to accommodate eight-car trains like other CTA rail lines.
It was not unusual for commuters to encounter several full trains before being able to board a train during the morning rush.
As part of the expansion project, platforms at 16 stations were extended to provide space for eight-car trains resulting in a one-third increase in capacity over the six-car configuration. Eight-car train operation began on March 30, 2008.
In addition to station renovations, the Brown Line Capacity Expansion Project included building a new substation and rehabilitating an existing substation to supply the additional power needed to power eight-car trains; installation of a new signal system at Clark Junction – the location where Brown, Red and Purple Express trains merge just north of the Belmont station; and the rehabilitation of the Clark Tower facility at the junction.
Along with the two new elevators and the auxiliary entrances and exits at Belmont and Fullerton, other renovations include: accessible turnstiles; escalators to each platform; brighter lighting; new signs including Braille, and bike racks.
Original artwork was also part of the overall station renovations as the result of the partnership between CTA and the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
Derick Malkemus created the art sculpture in front of the historic station at Fullerton entitled ‘Landslide’ and artist Michael Dinges’ mosaic, ‘Doors Open Everywhere at Fullerton’ appears inside the new station on the rear wall.
At Belmont, David Lee Csicsko’s mosaics appear throughout the station – ‘We All Ride the Train Together’ is featured on the rear wall of the new stationhouse; while Jerald Jacquard created the sculpture ‘Space Junction of Energy’ on the outdoor plaza of the historic station.
Funding for the Brown Line capacity expansion project was made possible through a combination of federal and non-federal funds. In 2004, the CTA was the recipient of a federal Full Funding Agreement Grant totaling $245.52 million.
“CTA is very appreciative of the support the agency receives from Mayor Daley, the City Council and all the other elected officials who represent the city and state in Illinois and in Washington,” added Rodriguez.
“I also would like to thank the Federal Transit Administration. The federal funding provided allows agencies like CTA to make the critical infrastructure improvements needed to continue to provide service for the people who rely on public transit.”
Belmont and Fullerton join Kimball, Kedzie, Rockwell, Francisco, Western, Sedgwick, Montrose, Addison, Southport, Armitage, Diversey, Chicago, Damen, Irving Park, Paulina and Wellington where renovation work has been completed.
Current ridership on the Brown Line averages more than 90,000 on a normal weekday.
All critics are equal, but some are more equal than others. Or at least more powerful. Then again, the powerful aren’t always the best critics. Too used to getting their own way, or prone to tantrums when they don’t.
With apologies to the good pigs of Animal Farm, I bring this up because of this morning’s news — the latest bit in a decades-long accumulation, really — that former President Richard Nixon truly hated modern art, in whatever form he encountered it. How frustrating it must have been for him that he couldn’t stem its tide.
This morning’s report by Calvin Woodward of the Associated Press on the latest release of papers from the presidential files (280,000 pages from the Nixon Library, which is run by the National Archives) has plenty to say about politics and spying and matters of intense national import such as keeping tabs on Ted Kennedy’s love life.
It also reveals, once again, Nixon’s detestation for the modern art — “those little uglies” — that John Kennedy had embraced and helped make fashionable. Woodward reports:
Nixon despised the cultural influences of the Kennedys and their liberal circles.
He called the Lincoln Center in New York a “horrible monstrosity” that shows “how decadent the modern art and architecture have become,” and declared modern art in embassies “incredibly atrocious.”
“This is what the Kennedy-Shriver crowd believed in and they had every right to encourage this kind of stuff when they were in,” he wrote. “But I have no intention whatever of continuing to encourage it now. If this forces a show-down and even some resignations it’s all right with me.”
Nixon further calculated, Woodward reports, that stiffing the modern art crowd would be no big political problem: “(T)hose who are on the modern art and music kick are 95 percent against us anyway.”
Maybe so, although a lot of captains of industry — people who presumably would have had a good deal at stake in the decisions of the Nixon administration — have been ardent collectors and promoters of modern art and music. Certainly Nixon was entitled to his own views on art. and he was undoubtedly right that figures such as “that son of a bitch” Leonard Bernstein held him in at least equal contempt. (See this intriguing report from Caffeinated Politics about how Nixon ducked out of a performance of Bernstein’s Mass at the Kennedy Center, and, incidentally, knocked Stravinky’s Rite of Spring.)
It’s also true that modernism has often been targeted as an enemy by totalitarian regimes. Stalin had his campaign against “degenerate” art. Hitler, too. And the rise of statist xenophobia in contemporary Europe is often accompanied by support for nostalgic, kitschy art from the good old days of national purity. Modernism kicks the supports out from under the status quo, and no totalitarian regime can put up with that sort of thing.
In a way it’s no surprise that powerful people’s taste in art skews toward the conservative. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. When conservative taste is paired with a dedication to maintaining an understanding of history and cultural tradition it can be laudatory. (Isn’t that what museums do?) At times it can be even Quixotic. In England, Prince Charles’ campaign against modernism in architecture and in favor of maintaining traditional forms is routinely and witheringly castigated. He’s made out to be a blundering fool, and for all I know, he is. But I can’t help admiring his unwavering dedication to his cause.
Still, Nixon missed out on some good art and music that conceivably could have encouraged a creative agility that might have kept him out of some of the mess he landed in. And if he didn’t actively promote art, he didn’t turn his distaste for modernism and modernists into a political campaign, either. (In fact, when he believed that being seen with a particular artist might be to his political advantage, he didn’t hesitate to pose.) It took another political generation for the “culture wars” to kick in and for art to be demonized as a tool of the effete disbelievers.
We’re still living with the effects of that cynicism, and maybe Nixon pointed the way for the apparatchiks of the culture-war crowd. But whatever his failures as a critic, Nixon kept his dislikes mostly private. This is one war that ain’t Nixon’s fault.
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PHOTOS, from top:
Stocks were down modestly today, ostensibly on news that the Chinese government was taking real action to limit leverage.
It’s hard to say if that’s really the culprit, or if it was something else, but actually that doesn’t matter. It sure feels that way.
We can’t be sure what the culprit is, but we now know that the central banker everyone looks to is PBOC chief Zhou Xiouchuan.
It’s possible Ben Bernanke still has this much sway, but since he’s pinned to the mat regarding rates, it’ll be a longtime before he does anything world-moving.
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It’s not the Beyoncé-Fit game (qjnet/wii/beyonce-loves-wii-fit-so-much-shell-make-her-own-workout-video-game.html) that she’d like to work on, but as she said before, Miss Knowles is certainly getting more involved with video games. She has just renewed her partnership with Nintendo of America,
Here is the renders:
Pre Top out:
Post Top out:
Skyline shots:
Official thread: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth…713278&page=15
:cheers:
When players return to Rapture in BioShock 2, the environment and characters won’t be the only things that have changed. In the ten-year period between the original and the sequel, plasmids have also evolved. Hit the jump
Sharing the sentiment of his company that rival auto boss Ed Whitacre holds of his own, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said that the government should expect its investment in the company back. And quite possibly, along with a profit. This comes a day after Whitacre said the same about GM to a show-attending Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
Also, like GM, Chrysler would have to become a publicly traded company in order for the government to turn a profit, and Marchionne has indicated that such is a possibility for 2011. Motown rival General Motors said that it will be ready for an IPO in the second half of ‘10.
Marchionne was not as adamant in his claim as Whitacre was, and warned that the opportunity for profit available at Chrysler is a lot less than at GM, but he did put particular emphasis on Chrysler’s pledge to pay back its $7 billion Treasury loan; interest included. In order of the government to turn a profit on the Chrysler investment, the company’s value would have to rise to about $60 billion.
– By: Stephen Calogera
Source: CNNMoney
Option Strategy: Long Gamma, Short Vega – Volatility is an asset class that trades under different regimes. During very calm periods with more economic certainty and stability, volatility trades at very low levels. When corporate earnings become uncertain, GDP growth is unknown, and jobless rates are high, volatility tends to shift and trade at higher levels. This might seem like an overly simple concept, but it is important to keep in mind at all times when trading options. The question becomes: are we in a high volatility regime, a medium volatility regime or a low volatility regime? – Surly Trader
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52 Interviews At Goldman Sachs – One Job Offer – We’ve all heard those stories about the number of interviews it takes to get on the payroll over at Goldman Sachs, but many of those stories are received second or third hand, and lots of us wonder whether most are apocryphal. It’s interesting, then, when a former Goldman Sacher comes out of the woodwork and lifts the lid on the firm a little bit. … Sarkis, 38, claims that he had to attend 52 interviews before landing a job at Goldman in 1992, and kept hearing the same words throughout the recruitment process – ‘team player’, ‘dedication’ and ‘client focus’. He also says that, during his fifth round of interviews, a trader suffered a heart attack on a trading floor, slap-bang in front of a number of interviewees. … – Here Is The City
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How Quant Traders Use American Holidays To Make Millions Trading The S&P500 – Vincent Fernando – has 2 examples – Money Game at Business Insider
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One Low Cost Of Capital To Rule Them All – Submitted by Tyler Durden – The only chart that matters for the past 3 decades, courtesy of Morgan Stanley. – Zero Hedge
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Determining Gold’s Fair Value – Today’s gold price in US dollars may be at fair market value. In other words, future gold price appreciation will be caused by increases in money supply and/or speculation. – Plan B Economics
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has lists – BlackRock’s Crystal Ball into 2010 and the Next Decade – By Dian L. Chu –
BlackRock, Inc. (BLK) Vice Chairman Bob Doll has been putting out annual predictions for 15 years. Doll, who helps oversee about $3.2 trillion at BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, just released his ten predictions for 2010 and for the next ten year. Eleven of the twelve predictions he made for 2009 were right. Below are Highlights of his latest market forecasts. – Economic Forecasts & Opinions
Article Tags: Audio, Met Office, Piers Corbyn, UK Winter Forecast 2009/10
Piers Corbyn gives his winter 2009/10 outlook to SUN TALK radio, the interviewer made a point of holding the conversation in storage so he can play it back again to see how close Piers is with his prediction. Piers mentions “ClimateGate” and the lack of any funding for the people who do NOT support the MMCC theory.
Click to listen to SUN TALK with Piers Corbyn of WeatherAction.com FF to 1:04
Source: thesun.co.uk
Geithner’s New York Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure – By Hugh Son – hattip John Cervarich – Bloomberg
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(Federal Stimulus) Phantom zip codes also found in Virginia – By: BARBARA HOLLINGSWORTH – As much as $9.5 million in federal stimulus dollars went to 14 zip codes in Virginia that don’t exist or are in other states, Old Dominion Watchdog (http://virginia.watchdog.org) reports. The fake zip codes were listed on Recovery.gov, the federal Web site that is supposed to track how the stimulus money is being used. – Washington Examiner
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FDIC Issues Interest Rate Risk Advisory – … The financial regulators recognize that some IRR is inherent in the business of banking. At the same time, institutions are expected to have sound risk-management practices to measure, monitor, and control IRR exposures. The financial regulators expect each depository institution to manage its IRR exposures using processes and systems commensurate with its complexity, business model, risk profile, and scope of operations. … – FDIC Press Release 11 page advisory here
and
Here It Comes (You Were Just Warned Folks) – Posted by Karl Denninger – 6 points on FDIC rate advisory, rates rising, and the coming stock selloff – good read. – Market-Ticker
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China Begins Liquidity Tightening, As Bubble Threat Looms – Submitted by Tyler Durden – …. The People’s Bank of China yesterday sold three-month bills at a higher interest rate for the first time in 19 weeks.” … – Zero Hedge
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Fed bought $12 bln net in agency MBS in latest week – … The amount was up from the previous week’s net purchases of $9.3 billion. … – Reuters
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Tim Geithner Will Be Fired After The November Elections – John Carney – Clusterstock at Business Insider
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Who Burst Our Beautiful Bubble? – Tim Cavanaugh – … here’s some detail from Edward Pinto. Pinto, president of Smartlender, the Independent Community Bankers of America’s settlement service provider, explains that default risk on an original loan increases geometrically the closer you get to no money down. A default propensity of 1 on a property bought with 80 percent financing increases to 2 at 90 percent financing, 4 at 95 percent, and 8 at 100 percent. … – Reason – Hit and Run
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THE ONION: Labor Dept: Available Labor Rate Increases To 10.2% – In what is being touted by the Labor Department as extremely positive news, the nation’s available labor rate has reached double digits for the first time in 26 years, bringing the total number of potentially employable Americans to an impressive 15.7 million. – hattip John Cervarich – The Onion
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The end of free money – Paul Vieira – Removing central bank life support will be the big hurdle for markets in 2010 – Financial Post
For example: I just pulled a can of Campbells’ tomato soup from the shelf and the Carbohydrate section reads:
Total Carbs = 17g
Fiber = 1g
Sugars = 10g
So where’s the missing 6g coming from?
Dubrovnik volgens Lord Byron "de parel van de Adriatische Zee" George Bernard Shaw noemde het "een paradijs op aarde" en onder Napoleon gold het als een "oase van beschaving".
Alle foto’s 25-07-2009.
1. Wederom lekker wakker worden als je dit soort uitzichten ziet
2. De stad Dubrovnik ligt aan de voet van de berg Srdj en na een vlotte grenspassage en een korte bustransfer vanuit de cruiseterminal kwamen we aan bij de oude ommuurde stad.
3. De ligging van de stad is waanzinnig. Uit de parelblauwe Adriatische Zee rijzen rotsen op en je ziet prachtige groen begroeide eilanden voor de kust liggen.
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5. We gaan de stadspoort uit 1537 door, Sint Blasius is de beschermheilige van de stad, zijn feestdag is 3 februari
6. Geen mooie foto, maar je kunt wel mooi zien hoe dik de stadsmuur is
7. Na de tweede poort uit 1460 sta je aan het begin van de Placa, een unieke straat
8. De Onofrio fontein uit 1438 voorzag de stad van drinkwater vanuit een 12 km verderop gelegen bron. Toen in 1991 de stad werd belegerd door Servië en de drinkwatervoorziening onklaar werd gemaakt, werd de fontein gebruikt om aan drinkwater te komen.
9. Een aardbeving in 1667 richte veel schade aan, maar de 16 maskers bleven gespaard. Overigens staat deze fontein bij de ingang zodat bezoekers zich kunnen wassen alvorens zij de stad verder in gaan.
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11. Wij waren gelukkig heel vroeg al op de Placa (ook wel Stradun genoemd) zodat je ook nog wat van de straat kan zien. In de 11de eeuw werd een kanaal gedempd wat het eiland scheidde van het vaste land. In de 15de eeuw werd de stenen bestrating aangebracht. In 1667 werd veel verwoest door een aardbeving. De straat werd herbouwd in Barokke stijl waarbij de gevels dezelfde hoogte kregen en een duidelijke plintvulling, in elk pand kwam een winkel of café op de begane grond. Zo ontstond een levendige straat. In 1901 werd de Placa opnieuw bestraat. De gaten die in 1991 in de straat werden geschoten zijn gedicht met witte stenen van de omringende eilanden.
12.
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15. Nauwe zijstraatjes leiden je naar de middeleeuwse binnenstad
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21.
22.
23. De klokkentoren
24. De Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Hemelvaart Kathedraal
25. Het Sponza paleis uit 1516 heeft de aarbeving overleefd
26. Het paleis van de Rector ontworpen in 1435
27. Nog een keer de kathedraal
28. Vanuit de oude haven gaan we met de glasbodemboot een rondje rond de stad varen en kijken naar vissen
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35.
36. Eilandje
37. Mijn jacht
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39. Terug in de stad gaan we het oude gedeelte verkennen
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44.
45. Gezellige pleintje :nuts:
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53.
54. En dan blijkt de massa inmiddels ook wakker
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57. Het mag dan dik 40 graden zijn, speciaal voor jullie klim ik nog even omhoog
58.
59.
60.
61. Voor dit uitzicht
62. terug naar de cruiseterminal
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We verlaten Dubrovnik en Kroatië, de boot zet koers naar Venetië. Maar alvorens we daar ontschepen zal ik jullie in de komende serie rondleiden aan boord van deze varende stad.
Zomer 2009: 1. vliegreis; 2. Rome; 3. Vaticaanstad; 4. Venetië: eerste indruk; 5. Venetië: Canal Grande; 6. Venetië: Basilica di San Marco & Palazzo Ducale; 7. Venetië: een wandeling door steegjes en over bruggen en pleinen; 8. Mestre; 9. Venezia Porto Marghera; 10. Bari; 11. Corfu; 12. Santorini; 13. Mykonos; 14. Piraeus; 15. Athene; 16. Olympia
Snooki’s headed back to the beach — Virginia Beach that is. The star of MTV’s Jersey Shore star is being paid two thousand smacks to help a Valentine’s Day bash inspired by her television trainwreck at Peabody’s Virginia Beach Feb. 12.
Local party promoters Justin Ballard and George Fox are fronting the four-figure appearance fee, plus the cost of hotel accommodations and travel expenses, to bring Snooks to the Southern resort city.
“We wanted to do a Jersey Shore party. We had the idea that we needed to get some sort of celebrity to bring more folks in. We found out you can rent Snooki,” Ballard told Life & Style Tuesday. “She’s pretty high maintenance,” the promoter added. “She wanted to fly first class.”
It sure sounds like a lot of folks are “Snookin’ For Love.” Within 24 hours of posting the invite on Facebook, Ballard and Fox already have over 200 confirmed guests. The pro cheerleader and aspiring vet tech’s duties will include mingling and taking photos with fans. The party is open to the public. The price of admission is $10 and drink specials will run all night.
Last weekend, Snooki was paid $10,000 to host a “Fist-Pumping Contest” at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is Seminole, Florida.
The BGR has been tipped of to T-Mobile USA’s HTC line up for 2010, and apparently 8 different SKU’s will be coming to the US carrier, half of them Windows Mobile.
We have seen some of the European T-Mobile line-up, and its likely the same handsets will be coming to the US branch also. This should be good news for US readers lusting after an HTC Trophy for example.
Read more at BGR here.
В качестве основного счётчика предлагаю голосование, заодно узнаем географию. 🙂
Знаю, что многие читают этот форум, но не регистрируются. Поэтому, воспользовавшись моментом, призову людей региться! Ведь каждый может что-то писать или даже выкладывать фотографии объектов возле себя.
