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Sex and the New York City Ladies Embrace the “Wet Workout”

via NYPOST.com

It’s 7:15 on Wednesday night in the Flatiron District, and Tracey McQuade is dressed in a leotard and sneakers while clutching a glass of red wine. Having just finished a grueling workout of squats, lunges and push-ups, the 31-year-old is now ready to retox.

“It’s awesome because of the whole saint-and-sinner thing — you work hard, you play hard,” says the Chelsea-based yoga instructor and writer, with sleek brown hair pulled back to reveal diamond earrings. “It’s really important to have balance.”

Welcome to the “wet workout” — a new concept started by the three female co-owners of Uplift, a fitness studio that officially opened Sunday. After nearly a year of hosting pop-up fitness classes all over the city that were followed by trips to nearby cocktail lounges, the women have launched this, the first workout space in NYC with its own bar.

ASTRID STAWIARZ
Cheers! Tracey McQuade toasts the end of a calorie-killing workout at Uplift, a Flatiron District gym that mixes cardio power with happy hour.
“Guys can go shoot hoops and have a few beers after,” says Uplift co-founder Leanne Shear, a journalist turned personal trainer. “Until now, women didn’t have an outlet for that.”

Every Wednesday, women can sweat it out in a $40 cardio and strength-training class — all set to the pulsating rhythms of pop stars like Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga — then indulge in all-you-can-drink red and white wine or, on some nights, whiskey. Healthy snacks of nuts, berries and raw veggies with dip are also provided. There are plenty of sober sessions, too, including 30-minute midday “express” classes with names like “Gams and Guns” and “Whittle Your Middle.”

The sunny second-floor mini-mecca, equipped with free WiFi, treadmills and weight benches, is decidedly female-friendly: No men are allowed. The shower area, lined with metal lockers, even has a primping station with essentials like dry shampoo and curling irons.

“Working out and socializing are two of the main ways women improve their lives,” says co-founder Helena Wolin, a perky redhead who ditched her job as a corporate lawyer to start Uplift. “People have never really put those two things together in the way we’re doing.”

But experts argue that post-workout tippling could negate all that hard work.

“Wine is certainly better for women than beer,” says nutritionist Esther Blum, author of the forthcoming “Eat, Drink, and Be Gorgeous Project,” “but the problem is that when you drink alcohol, your body is going to put all metabolic processes on hold until it metabolizes all the alcohol.”

But Wolin, Shear and co-founder Katie Currie, an ex-corporate events planner, shrug off medical criticism and point to other benefits.

The wet-workout idea came to them last year, when a downpour broke up their yoga class in Central Park. “Instead of everyone running in their own direction, we said, ‘Come on, guys,’ and went to the first bar we could find outside Central Park and said, ‘The first round’s on us,’ ” says Wolin. “We said, ‘Oh well, we tried to be healthy — now we’re going to socialize.’ And we wound up staying for hours.”

Soon, their “Raise the Bar” pop-up series — outdoor classes offering bevvies right after your barbells — was born.

It proved so popular, the trio opened Uplift on 23rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, where fitness fanatics should find it easy to make friends.

“If I were to go to a bar, go up to another girl and say, ‘Hey, how are you, be my friend,’ you’d look at me like I’m crazy,” says Internet marketer Emi Melker after last week’s session. “It’s especially good for younger women who are new to the city.”

But do women want to booze after busting their behinds? “Some people won’t understand and say it’s counterintuitive,” Wolin concedes. “But really, you’re probably going to have that drink anyway.”
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/gym_tonic_CJyHHCT4k72jjeBG4FLkGP#ixzz1r03o2cB5

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Whole Foods to Stop Sale of Unsustainable Seafood

“ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Whole Foods Market said Friday that it will stop selling fish caught from depleted waters or through ecologically damaging methods, a move that comes as supermarkets nationwide try to make their seafood selections more sustainable.

Starting Earth Day, April 22, the natural and organic supermarket chain will no longer carry wild-caught seafood that is “red-rated,” a color code that indicates it is either overfished or caught in a way that harms other species. The ratings are determined by the Blue Ocean Institute, an advocacy group, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California.

Among the seafood disappearing from Whole Foods shelves will be octopus, gray sole, skate, Atlantic halibut and Atlantic cod caught by trawls, which can destroy habitats. The company will stock sustainable replacements like cod caught on lines and halibut from the Pacific….”

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BRICS Markets to Start Trading Futures as Wealthier Investors Need More Product

“Exchanges in the biggest emerging economies will begin trading futures based on each other’s benchmark stock indexes today as rising wealth spurs demand for new investment products.

The five members of the BRICS Exchanges Alliance will cross-list futures on Brazil’s Bovespa Index (IBOV), Russia’s Micex Index (INDEXCF), the BSE India Sensitive Index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index (HSCEI) and South Africa’s JSE Top40 Index. Traders engaged in arbitrage will be able to buy and sell futures based on the same index on multiple venues, boosting liquidity, according to Mumbai-based BSE Ltd….”

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18 Year-Old Rescued after Month Adrift at Sea

By , New York

9:32PM BST 28 Mar 2012

The 10-foot boat containing Adrian Vasquez had travelled more than 600 miles in 28 days when it was found off Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands by a commercial fishing vessel.

His two friends had died more than a week earlier, and Mr Vasquez survived by eating raw fish. He told his rescuers that a sudden rainstorm towards the end of his ordeal saved his life after he ran out of water.

Dozens of people turned out to welcome the noticeably-thin teenager home when he arrived back in Panama to be reunited with his relieved parents. He wept as he embraced his relatives but did not speak to journalists.

Captain Hugo Espinosa of the Ecuador coastguard, whose patrol boat picked Mr Vasquez up from the commercial fishing ship, said he was suffering from malnutrition and severe dehydration when he was found.

The captain said: “He didn’t know what was happening. He was quiet, looking lost. Little by little he began to react. But the subject of his dead friends made him stay silent and lower his gaze. It cost him a lot to discuss the matter.”

Read the rest here.

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The Senate Passes the Insider Trading Bill

Source

“The Senate on Thursday passed legislation barring lawmakers from using insider information for personal profit, sending the bill to the White House.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act already approved by the House passed the upper chamber easily by a vote of 96 to 3.”

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The Internet Becomes the World’s Fifth Largest Economy

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“If the Internet were a country, by 2016 it would rank behind the US, China, Japan, and India in the size of its GDP — $4.2 trillion. That’s bigger even than Germany. Considering that the Internet economy has only been with us for about 20 years, that’s a phenomenal number.

In a new report on what the Internet economy means to the G-20 group of developed nations, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) observes:

[The economic impact of the Internet] demonstrates that no one—individual, business, or government—can afford to ignore the ability of the Internet to deliver more value and wealth to more consumers and citizens more broadly than any economic development since the Industrial Revolution.

The report notes that over the next five years, the annual growth rate of the G-20 Internet economy will be 8%, a higher rate than nearly any traditional sector. The Internet economy will contribute 5.7% of the European Union’s GDP by 2016, and 5.3% of the GDP for the full G-20. In developing markets, BCG estimates that the Internet economy will grow at an average annual rate of 18% (from a much smaller base).

The BCG report is available here. “

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Sex-Deprived Male Fruit Flies Turn to Alcohol, Research Shows

By Elizabeth Lopatto – Mar 15, 2012 2:00 PM ET

Male fruit flies become barflies when rejected by females, choosing alcohol-spiked food more often than their successful brothers in a study that suggests it may be due to a brain chemical also found in humans.

The spurned flies had lower levels of a molecule in their brains called neuropeptide F than the males who were allowed to mate, according to findings published today in the journal Science. Neuropeptide Y, the version found in humans, has been tied to addiction and mental illness, said Ulrike Heberlein, one of the researchers.

The molecule may begin to explain how experience and environment shape human addictions, said Heberlein. About half of a person’s risk of addiction is genetic, and environment is known to play a role. The experiment may help explain the biological triggers that affect certain behavior or cravings and could help research into treatments for addiction.

“We wanted to really find a molecular mechanism that links experiences to drug-related behavior,” said Heberlein, who is a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, in a telephone interview. “We are really hoping that this will encourage those working with mice and rats and humans to look at what happens to this neuropeptide in psychiatric conditions.”

Male flies that mated were less likely to drink the alcohol solution than either virgin or rebuffed ones, and had higher levels of neuropeptide F in their brains, the research showed.

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How Lenny Dykstra Got Nailed

Anyone remember when Dykstra used to be Jim Cramer’s go-to option trading guy?

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The former Mets and Phillies hero turned out to be the centerfielder who couldn’t shoot straight

DAVID EPSTEIN

On Feb. 11, 2011, Wilberto Hernandez called in a report of identity theft to the Los Angeles Police Department. Hernandez, then 37, worked as a personal credit repair consultant in L.A., and he kept a close watch on his own credit score. He became alarmed when he received a notice from a credit agency that his Social Security number had been presented for credit checks at two car dealerships, one in La Crescenta and another in Pasadena.

When Hernandez said he had reason to believe that Lenny Dykstra was involved, the call was routed to detective Juan Contreras, a decorated 24-year LAPD veteran. Contreras was familiar with the hard-nosed former Mets and Phillies star, and not just because he was a baseball fan. Four months earlier Contreras had taken a call from a Los Angeles limo driver who claimed that Dykstra borrowed the driver’s credit card and, after promising to pay him back for the charges, failed to reimburse him. Contreras had searched police records and found an earlier report, this one from a former personal assistant to Dykstra, naming the ex-player as a suspect in an identity theft case. Like the limo driver, the assistant said that Dykstra had used her credit cards and never paid her back.

Neither of those reports had led to charges, but Contreras began asking questions. By Christmas 2010, he had spoken with 17 people—personal assistants, drivers, private jet pilots and housekeepers—who claimed that Dykstra did not pay them for services, used their credit cards or got hold of their Social Security numbers and opened credit cards in their names. One of the pilots Contreras interviewed claimed that Dykstra had asked to use the pilot’s credit card to gas up a private plane on a stopover in Europe. “In October, I was thinking, Hey, this is Lenny Dykstra, I grew up with this guy, I want to meet him,” Contreras says. “By November, I wanted to put the guy in jail.”

Read the rest here.

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U.S. Futures Pare Minor Losses Upon Greece Passing the Bond Swap; Jobs Report Up Next

“Greece has pushed through the bond swap offer which is key to its 130 billion ($172 billion) bailout deal with bondholders representing 83.5 percent of the value of its bonds taking part.

The country will now activate Collective Action Clauses on those who held out, raising participation to 95.7 percent. The activation of CACs was agreed during a conference call with the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers Friday.

“The Eurogroup was informed that Greece will activate the collective action clauses applicable to bonds governed by Greek law,” Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement.

He added that Greece had met the conditions for the next step of its second bailout deal

The troubled country has been surrounded by speculation this week that it might not be able to get enough bondholders signed up to the deal – the largest debt restructuring in history – to get it through. It has to use bailout money from the troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission to avoid defaulting on its next debt repayment, due March 20.

Holders of around 5 percent of the bonds rejected the deal….”

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Virginia Legislature Votes Against Indefinite Detention of Americans

“Lawmakers in Virginia have put aside their partisan differences about health care, contraception and other issues to officially oppose a controversial law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama that allows the federal government to detain Americans without trial for alleged terrorism-related activities.

By votes of 39-1 in the state Senate and 96-4 in the House of Delegates, the legislature approved a bill “to nullify” provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012.
The Virginia legislation is largely symbolic, as it does not prevent federal agents from arresting terrorism suspects. But the legislative action is part “of a larger NDAA nullification campaign around the country.”
Seven other legislatures are also considering anti-NDAA bills. In addition, several local governments have passed resolutions that either denouncement the federal act or require noncompliance with it.
As previously reported by AllGov:
Obama’s supporters, including Republicans who normally oppose almost everything he does, have tried to defend the bill by saying that it doesn’t really go as far as its critics claim. However, the wording of the act, although carefully phrased, is nonetheless clear….”

Full article

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Hurrah: Fed’s Fisher: Top 5 U.S. Banks Should Be Broken Up

Source

“The biggest five banks in the United States are too powerful and should be broken up, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said on Wednesday.

The financial crisis has left the five biggest banks even more powerful than before, he told an event in Mexico City.

“After the crisis, the five largest banks had a higher concentration of deposits than they did before the crisis,” he said. “I am of the belief personally that the power of the five largest banks is too concentrated.”

The U.S. Dodd-Frank reform and consumer protection act includes mechanisms for regulators to break up large financial companies, but imposes high hurdles for such action.

“The purpose of Dodd-Frank was to reduce the concentration of power and we have a term called ‘too big to fail’ … perversely, these banks are now even bigger, they are too ‘bigger’ to fail than before.”

Last month a group of consumer advocates, academics and economists said they wanted to end “too-big-to-fail” banks, starting with Bank of America Corp.”

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