Archive for October, 2011
Qantas Airways Grounds Entire Global Fleet Due To Strikes
October 30th, 2011Via: AP: Australia’s government ordered an emergency arbitration hearing on Sunday after Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet amid a bitter dispute with striking workers, stranding passengers around the world. Government leaders, who expressed frustration over the airline’s actions, were expected to argue at the hearing that Qantas should be forced to fly in Australia’s […]
Syria Using U.S. Made Web Surveillance and Censorship Systems
October 29th, 2011These boxes are probably rooted by NSA. The Syrians are clueless enough to have allowed them to phone home, so, my guess is that Uncle is on board too. Via: Cnet: Blue Coat Systems has confirmed that its devices were being used by Syria to censor the Web and said it is investigating how they […]
Snake Oil Economic Models
October 29th, 2011Remember, this isn’t physics. —Gold Eyes Biggest 3-Day Fall In 28 Years This is hilarious. It reminds me of my experiences in trying to develop black box trading systems. It’s relatively easy, for example, to program an autotrading system for EURUSD that does extremely well on some finite chuck of historical data. Initially, I thought […]
NYPD Monitors Everyone in City Who Changes Their Name
October 29th, 2011Via: AP: For generations, immigrants have shed their ancestral identities and taken new, Americanized names as they found their place in the melting pot. For Muslims in New York, that rite of assimilation is now seen by police as a possible red flag in the hunt for terrorists. The New York Police Department monitors everyone […]
Britain: Undercover Police Officers Allowed to Give False Evidence in Court
October 28th, 2011Via: Telegraph: Senior police chiefs authorised undercover police officers to give false evidence in court to protect their cover as environmental protesters, it was claimed last night. The claims led to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary delaying a report into undercover police tactics at the last minute. It had been due to be published today […]
Billionaire French Hotelier Shot Dead in Professional Hit
October 28th, 2011Via: Telegraph: A billionaire French hotelier has been shot dead in a wealthy Paris suburb in what police believe was a professional hit. The lifeless body of Claude Dray, 76, was found with three bullet holes in the neck in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the Paris suburb where President Nicolas Sarkozy built his career and still owns property. […]
Iraq War Will Cost More than World War II
October 28th, 2011See this post for what winding down the war means: There will also be 4,000 to 5,000 private State Department security contractors, as well as a significant C.I.A. presence. In Afghanistan, about 95,000 American troops remain. Via: Christian Science Monitor: Iraq war, now winding down with US troop exit by December, has cost more than […]
EU: 50% Writedown on Greek Bonds
October 27th, 2011Update: Why The Latest Eurozone Bail-Out Is Destined To Fail Within Weeks —End Update— Hooray! Can kicked down the road another five feet. Via: Washington Post: European leaders moved early Thursday to stem the debt crisis gripping the continent by agreeing to a plan that imposes steep losses on investors holding troubled Greek bonds and […]
Oakland: Former U.S. Marine and Protestor in Critical Condition After Being Shot in the Head by ‘Police Projectile’
October 27th, 2011Via: AFP: An Iraq war veteran was critically injured after riot police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters near San Francisco, supporters said Wednesday. Officers also fired bean bags but denied using rubber bullets to quell protest on Tuesday in Oakland, California, where unrest erupted after a protest camp was broken […]
And Now: The Rogue Websites Bill Introduced in U.S. House
October 27th, 2011The “Stop Online Piracy Act” would target foreign websites for take down. I wondered what this actually meant, from a technical perspective, so I gave the proposed legislation a very quick look. It turns out that the government wants to force U.S. Internet service providers to block access to the sites. There would be a […]
