[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO4etpYGn7E 450 300]
Link for iPhone users: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO4etpYGn7E
Comments »Postal Service to Curtail Saturday Mail to Save $2 Billion
“WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service will stop delivering mail on Saturdays but continue to deliver packages six days a week under a plan aimed at saving about $2 billion annually, the financially struggling agency says.
In an announcement scheduled for later Wednesday, the service is expected to say the Saturday mail cutback would begin in August.
The move accentuates one of the agency’s strong points — package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet services.
Under the new plan, mail would be delivered to homes and businesses only from Monday through Friday, but would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays….”
Comments »Smoking Trees While Doing Bath Salts & PCP: North Korea Releases Video of Missile Attacks on America
“The bizarre footage, uploaded on the secretive state’s official webpage, comes as Kim Jong-un prepares for an “imminent” nuclear weapon test.
The propaganda movie depicts a smiling lad dreaming of a regime rocket being launched into the air and travelling to America.
The three-and-a-half minute vid then shows a mystery city full of skyscrapers being attacked with multiple explosions, while the Stars and Stripes flag flutters in the background.
Captions on the screen written in Korean say: “Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing…”
Comments »ZNGA Discusses The Company’s Plans For Online Gambling
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — David Ko, chief operating officer of Zynga Inc., talks about the company’s fourth-quarter profit, growth strategy, and some of its best performing online social games. Ko, speaking with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West,” also discusses the company’s plans for online gambling (Online gambling mention @ 6:30).
Comments »After Tuesday How Does the Calendar Go ?
Aaron Swartz’s Girlfriend Speaks Out, Does Not Believe Depression Was the Cause
“A few weeks ago, Internet activist and Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz committed suicide.
He left no note in his New York apartment explaining his death. Many assumed the 26-year-old was depressed based on an earlier blog post Swartz had written.
Swartz was facing potential jail time for hacking into MIT’s computer network and stealing copies of 4.8 million academic papers.
But Swartz’s live-in girlfriend, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, doesn’t think depression killed Aaron.
She, like Swartz’s father, believes the government indirectly killed Swartz. And her words are damning.
“I believe that Aaron’s death was not caused by depression…I say this because, since his suicide, as I’ve tried to grapple with what happened, I’ve been learning. I’ve researched clinical depression and associated disorders. I’ve read their symptoms, and at least until the last 24 hours of his life, Aaron didn’t fit them.
…I believe Aaron’s death was caused by exhaustion, by fear, and by uncertainty. I believe that Aaron’s death was caused by a persecution and a prosecution that had already wound on for 2 years…”
Comments »$GS’s O’Neill to Retire
“(Reuters) – Jim O’Neill, the chairman of Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s asset management division who coined the popular term “BRIC” to refer to four fast-growing emerging markets, will retire later this year, according to an internal memo sent out on Tuesday.
O’Neill is an economist by training who joined the firm in 1995 as a partner, said the memo, which was signed by Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein.
He is perhaps best known for coming up with the BRIC acronym in 2001, which identified Brazil, Russia, India and China as top emerging markets where investors could put their money for high returns. He proclaimed that those emerging economies, China’s in particular, would help drive markets and world economic growth for the next decade.
O’Neill, once described as the world’s first rock star economist for his talent on predicting movements in the $1 trillion-a-day foreign exchange markets, continues to be bullish on China…”
Comments »Platinum Supply Falls to 13-Year Low as Mines Close
“Platinum supplies are falling to a 13-year low as mines in South Africa, the world’s biggest producer, close and automobile sales reach new highs.
Production will drop 2.7 percent to 5.68 million ounces, the least since 2000, according to Barclays Plc, which raised its 2013 shortage estimate sixfold last month after Johannesburg-based Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS) said it plans to idle shafts. At the same time, demand from carmakers, the biggest consumer of the metal, will increase 0.5 percent in 2013, Barclays says. Investors are buying platinum at the fastest pace in three years.
Prices already rose about 10 percent this year, following the same advance for all of 2012, and will average $1,770 an ounce in the fourth quarter, the highest since 2011, according to the median of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Costs for carmakers will increase because about 53 percent of all metal mined ends up in catalytic converters.
“Supplies are very tight and it’s a serious situation,” said Mihir Worah, who manages $110 billion in real return strategy funds at Pacific Investment Management Co., in Newport Beach,California. “Not only are there issues on the supply side, we could see surprises on the demand side as well.”
Platinum Price
Platinum climbed to $1,699.68 an ounce in London this year. The metal would still have to gain another 35 percent to match the March 2008 record of $2,300. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities added 4.8 percent since the beginning of January and the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities rose 4 percent. Treasuries gained 0.1 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index (MXWD) shows….”
Comments »FLASH: Judge Davis Orders Cisco, Mitel and VirnetX to Attend Special Conference–in Light of Upcoming Trial
Robots and the Burger Flipping Economy
Deep Forest
Congress Should Consider a Ban on MDs
The Super Bowl of Super Bowl Prop Bets
“That’s how much money gamblers wagered at legal sports books in Nevada on last year’s Super Bowl between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, according to USA Today. When the wagers placed with offshore, online sports books and corner store, back-room bookies are factored in, then the number must truly be staggering. At least some of that whopping total amount was wagered on the multitude of “prop bets.”
While a bettor can still wager on the actual outcome of the game, there are also plenty of specific “proposition bets” that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the final result. Will the coin toss land on “heads” or “tails” or will a player other than the starting quarterbacks attempt a pass? How many rushing yards will the fullback rack up? These bets can bring drama to almost every single aspect of the game — and even the broadcast.
Will Alicia Keys pull a Christina Aguilera and screw up the National Anthem? What will be the color of the Gatorade that gets dumped on the winning coach? How long will the postgame hug between the Harbaugh brothers last?
If you have an insatiable urge to make virtually every play or occurrence a win-loss situation, then here are some of the prop bets for Super Bowl XLVII.”
Comments »Be a Good Consumer: Read An Ad for Super Bowl Ads
State of the Union: Bifurcation Will Not Succeed
Yesterday we got news that personal income was up 2.6%. Then I read a story about about a study finding that nearly half of all Americans on the edge of financial brink.
How long can bifurcation last ?
Comments »Mine is Bigger Than Yours
When it comes to televisions the bigger the better. Get ready to shell out $500k….yeah that’s right a half mil for a 155 inch t.v.
I’m wondering if it comes with a few hookers and a mountain of cocaine.
Comments »Will Last Week’s Twitter Hoax Become the New Face of Stock Fraud ?
“From the boiler room-basement brokerages of southern New Jersey to the opulent office suites of midtown Manhattan hedge funds, the U.S. financial police is supposed to track down stock market fraud wherever it takes place. For what appears to be the first time, a tip-off is leading them into the world of Twitter.
U.S. market regulators are trying to determine if a message posted on a hoax Twitter account this week was used as part of a securities fraud scheme, The Huffington Post has learned. The inquiry will be looking at tweets, sent Tuesday from an account thinly disguised as that of a well-known equity research group, that contained false information regarding Silicon Valley company Audience Inc. The tweets caused a violent sell-off in the stock of that company Tuesday afternoon, which some market participants noted was likely intensified by high-frequency trading robots.
Diane Vanasse, a spokesperson for Audience, Inc. said the “company was certainly aware of the hoax tweets” and said that “Nasdaq is investigating” the matter. Joe Christianet, a spokesperson for exchange operator Nasdaq OMX, said the electronic trading board “did refer the matter to FINRA.”
Nancy Condon, a spokesperson for private market regulator FINRA, could not confirm or deny an inquiry was taking place, but noted that market activity of this kind is usually investigated by either FINRA or the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment, and representatives for Twitter did not respond to repeated requests for comment….”
Comments »Fun Times: Vacationing in a War Zone
“A Russian judge who decided to spend his vacation moonlighting as a war correspondent in Syria survived being shot in the face and arm this week, Robert Mackey and Ellen Barry of The New York Times report.
Sergey Aleksandrovich Berezhnoy, 57, was hit while accompanying the crew of the Abkhazian Network News Agency (ANNA) as it reported on a unit of the Syrian Army fighting rebel forces in the Damascus suburb of Darayya.
A video recorded by the ANNA crew shows Berezhnoy—a former military intelligence officer and prize-winning writer—taking pictures before the incident and includes footage the emergency surgery he underwent in a Syrian military hospital….”
Comments »Dumb Ass Consumers: Flying Across Country to Save a Few Bucks
It pains me to here about people who wait on line for a couple of days to save $1,$2, perhaps $300 on some sort of consumer electronic good that is more than likely not needed. I wonder how little could you be paid in order to lose a few days of work in exchange for the discount.
Here is another dumb ass consumer story where people are flying across country to buy some $LULU Lemon stretch pants.
How much could one save after a flight, time with DHS, food, lodging, and other transportation? How addicted and mind controlled does one have to be ?
Seriously, you people need a mental health physician.
Comments »250k Twitter Accounts Hacked, Java Related Issue at the Heart of the Breach
“Earlier this week, hackers gained access to Twitter’s internal systems and stole information, compromising 250,000 accounts before the breach was stopped.
Bob Lord, the company’s manager of network security, reported the incident on Twitter’s official blog Friday.
Twitter is resetting passwords for the affected users.
Twitter’s Lord did not specify the method by which hackers penetrated its system. However, he mentioned vulnerabilities related to Java in Apple’s Safari Web browser and Mozilla’s Firefox browser, and noted an advisory from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that users disable Java on their computers.
There are also suggestions in Lord’s post that the hacking attempt was organized, and possibly linked to recent cyberattacks on other media institutions like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Lord wrote…”
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