Day: January 14, 2013

Artists on The Verge, Music

Grammy Award® and Emmy Award®-winning artist, Justin Timberlake, today released his long-awaited new single, “Suit & Tie featuring JAY Z.”

New York, NY – Grammy Award® and Emmy Award®-winning artist, Justin Timberlake, today released his long-awaited new single, “Suit & Tie featuring JAY Z.”  For the next 24 hours, fans can either exclusively purchase the song at the iTunes Store or stream the song at the new Myspace at new.myspace.com.  At 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time tonight, radio stations worldwide will receive the song simultaneously as one of today’s most iconic entertainers officially marks his return to music.“Suit & Tie featuring JAY Z” was written by Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Shawn Carter, Jerome “J-ROC” Harmon and James Flauntleroy and produced by Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Jerome “J-ROC” Harmon.  The song is the first release off Timberlake’s forthcoming album, The 20/20 Experience, due out this year on RCA Records.

Click the image below or visit www.justintimberlake.com to hear “Suit & Tie featuring JAY Z” and to read a letter from Justin about his return to music.

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Fashion, Lifestyle

The Fresh Prints

russell-westbrook-gq-1The Oklahoma City Thunder’s young gun Russell Westbrook is a beast on the court—but he’s at least as famous for the outrageous print shirts he wears. Here, the NBA’s most fearless dresser shows you how to pull off spring’s most head-turning shirts in his favorite Oklahoma City haunts

Body Building

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Blame steroids. Or cut-off tees. Or The Situation. Whatever, or whoever, the culprit is, the weight room has fallen out of vogue, replaced by supposedly more sophisticated body-sculpting methods. And while spinning classes, boot camps, and yoga deserve to be front and center in the minds of educated fitness buffs, if you want to get in the best shape of your life, experts say, you can’t ignore the basics. You need to add six classic total-body exercises to your weekly regimen—the pull-up, bench press, squat, farmer’s walk, military press, and deadlift. “These six are beneficial because they involve functional movements you use in everyday life and they work multiple muscles at once,” says Melanie Piccolo, a private trainer at Reebok Sports Club/NY. But just because you know the moves doesn’t mean you know how to get the most out of them. “You can’t just saunter into the gym, pick up a few weights, and expect to morph into Ryan Gosling,” says Jason Ferruggia, a strength coach and the author of Muscle Gaining Secrets, who designed this plan. But do them right and there’s a big payoff. “When you perform these moves with a heavy weight, you gain strength and add muscle everywhere,” Ferruggia says. That new muscle, in turn, increases your resting metabolism rate, the key to getting rid of stubborn fat and revealing muscle tone—just promise to keep your shirt on in the bar.

Entertainment, Music

Aupheus Mixes Classic Boom-Bap and Ambient-Electronic on ‘Strictly Scientific’

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Strange Famous Records DJ and beat chopper Aupheus is the anointed king of “doom-bap.” The term, coined by SFR affiliate Buddy Peace, describes his style of combining other-wordly synth-scapes with heavy break beat snares. On his latest mix, titled Strictly Scientific, Aupheus layers sparse late ‘80s hip-hop gems with lush ambient instrumentals. “It’s all hip-hop from between ’85 and ’88. Sparse, stripped-back stuff that’s basically just drums and rap, layered up with electronica and movie soundtracks,” the producer tells Hive. “For example the Kool G. Rap song is layered with something from The Running Man.” Other hip-hop picks include Run-D.M.C.’s “Perfection” and LL Cool J’s “The Breakthrough,” plus lesser-known gems like “I Got an Attitude” by Herby’s Machine. As a whole, the combination of nostalgia-inducing hip-hop and mysterious soundscapes is greater than the sum of its parts. “It’s somewhat of an experiment,” he adds, “strictly scientific of course.”

>>>CHECK OUT THE MIXES

Money Troubles, Politics

Hitting the debt limit: What bills would be paid?

departures-200-netbank-cs2007WASHINGTON — In the summer of 2011, when a debt crisis like the current one loomed, President Barack Obama warned Republicans that older Americans might not get their Social Security checks unless there was a deal to raise the nation’s borrowing limit. After weeks of brinkmanship, Republicans consented and Obama agreed to a deficit-reduction plan the GOP wanted. Crisis averted, for a time. Now that there’s a fresh showdown, the possibility of Social Security cuts _and more — is back on the table.

The government could run out of cash to pay all its bills in full as early as Feb. 15, according to one authoritative estimate, and congressional Republicans want significant spending cuts in exchange for raising the borrowing limit. Obama, forced to negotiate an increase in 2011, has pledged not to negotiate again.Without an agreement, every option facing his administration would be unprecedented. It would require a degree of financial creativity that could test the law, perhaps even the Constitution.

It could shortchange Social Security recipients and other people, including veteran and the poor, who rely on government programs. It could force the Treasury to contemplate selling government assets, a step considered but rejected in 2011. In short, the Treasury would have to create its own form of triage, creating a priority list of its most crucial obligations, from interest payments to debtors to benefits to vulnerable Americans. “It may be that somewhere down the line someone will challenge what the administration did in that moment, but in the moment, who’s going to stop them?” asked Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “I pray we never have to find out how imaginative they are.”

In such a debt crisis, the president would have to decide what laws he wants to break. Does he breach the borrowing limit without a congressional OK? Does he ignore spending commitments required by law? In a letter to Obama on Friday, Senate Democratic leaders urged him to consider taking any “lawful steps that ensure that America does not break its promises and trigger a global economic crisis — without congressional approval, if necessary.” The White House has resisted that path. It has rejected recommendations that it invoke a provision in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.” “There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or they can fail to act and put the nation into default,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. “Congress needs to do its job.”

So what’s left if Congress does not act in time? Technically, the government hit the debt ceiling at the end of December. Since then, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has halted full payments into the retirement and disability fund for government workers and to the health benefits fund of Postal Service retirees. The Treasury can stop payments to a special fund that purchases or sells foreign currencies to stabilize world financial markets. >>>CONTINUE READING