Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
UBS Systems Detected £1.3bn Rogue Trader; Warnings Were Ignored
October 6th, 2011Via: ComputerWorldUK: UBS has insisted its IT systems did detect unusual and unauthorised trading activity, before rogue trader Kweku Adoboli ran up a $2 billion (£1.3 billion) loss on the bank’s derivatives desk. Interim chief executive Sergio Ermotti, who is running the company following Oswald Grubel’s resignation last month, sent a memo to employees saying […]
Utility Paid $200K for Positive Web Stories on Fake News Site
September 14th, 2011Via: CBS News: A Southern California water utility paid nearly $200,000 in taxpayer dollars for glowing coverage from a website that boosted its profile on Google, according to a newspaper report. The Los Angeles Times reports that officials from the Central Basin Municipal Water District used public funds to have a consultant produce promotional stories […]
New American Ally in Somalia: ‘The Butcher’
September 9th, 2011Via: Wired: If you thought it was bad that Washington is paying a shady French mercenary to do its dirty work in Somalia, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait to you see our latest ally: an admirer of Osama bin Laden with a gory past. Richard Rouget, a notorious gun-for-hire who uses American funds […]
Mall of America: Identifying “The Terrorists”
September 8th, 2011Via: NPR: The report tells how the Bloomington police officers took Van Asten to a police substation in the basement in the Mall of America after mall security questioned him. They frisked him. They seized his camera. They detained him in that room for one more hour. The police called the Joint Terrorism Task Force. […]
Bancroft Global Development
August 23rd, 2011Via: AP / Huffington Post: On the front lines of Mogadishu’s streets, Islamist militants battle African Union troops. Standing alongside the peacekeepers are members of an American-run team of advisers, former military men who play a little-known but key role in the war against al-Shabab. Aside from covert raids by special operations forces, the U.S. […]
TEPCO Lost Contact with 143 Nuclear Plant Workers; Kept No Records of Their Addresses or Exposure to Radiation
August 11th, 2011Many of these workers are homeless. See: Nuclear Ginza. Via: Japan Today: Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Thursday that it has not been able to locate 143 individuals working to restore the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since May. The utility said it has no idea if the 143 have been exposed to radiation […]
Blackwater’s New Director: Bill Clinton’s Lawyer
July 11th, 2011Via: Wired: Blackwater’s rebranding continues at a torrid pace. Danger Room has learned the latest Washington greybeard hired to spruce up the image of the world’s most infamous private security firm is Jack Quinn, a top Washington lobbyist and former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. Now renamed Xe and owned by an investor […]
America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?
July 7th, 2011In general, big is bad. Centralized is bad. Whether it’s public or private doesn’t matter. Now, when it comes to something like a municipal sewer system, or other infrastructure assets where competition isn’t possible, handing those assets over to private corporations should be considered treason, and the politicians responsible should be arrested. (Don’t hold your […]
Visions of Teen Angst, Then and Now
June 29th, 2011When I was a kid, films like Better Off Dead, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and many others, told stories about the seemingly infinite number of ways that being a teenager could suck.. I know these types of films are still made, and while I have no idea what the modern versions are […]
U.S. Government Launching Antitrust Investigation of Google
June 24th, 2011Oh sure. I bet Google is quivering with fear. Via: Wall Street Journal: Federal regulators are poised to hit Google Inc. with subpoenas, launching a broad, formal investigation into whether the Internet giant has abused its dominance in Web-search advertising, people familiar with the matter said. The civil probe, which has the potential to reshape […]
