Archive for the 'Economy' Category
China Wants Operational Control Over Nuclear Power Plants It Finances in Britain
September 2nd, 2013Via: Power Engineering International: China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) is looking for increased influence over EDF nuclear power facilities in the UK in return for investment in the sector. The state-owned group is currently in negotiations with EDF over potential investment in the Hinkley Point project in England. The FT reports that CGN wants […]
Worse Off Than a Medieval Peasant?
September 2nd, 2013Via: Reuters: Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations. Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking […]
Arbitrage on Equities in Millisecond Time Frames
August 30th, 2013The “national best bid and offer” prices—Aren’t. Via: Fortune: Here’s how Hendershott’s latency-arbitrage strategy worked: Redline allowed him to use its “direct market access” — cables that run directly from exchange servers to its own. Redline’s server was co-located with that of BATS Exchange so that the “latency” on information and orders coming from BATS […]
How Poverty Taxes the Brain
August 30th, 2013Via: The Atlantic Cities: Human mental bandwidth is finite. You’ve probably experienced this before (though maybe not in those terms): When you’re lost in concentration trying to solve a problem like a broken computer, you’re more likely to neglect other tasks, things like remembering to take the dog for a walk, or picking your kid […]
Black Budget: $52.6 Billion
August 30th, 2013Via: Washington Post: The $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013, obtained by The Washington Post from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny. Although the government has annually released its overall level of intelligence spending since 2007, it has not divulged how […]
Shocker: Israel One of the Top Spying Threats Facing U.S. Intelligence Services
August 30th, 2013The U.S. will probably punish Israel by giving it another $115 billion. Via: The Hill: The Obama administration views Israel as one of the top spying threats facing its intelligence services, leaked documents reveal. A secret budget request obtained by The Washington Post from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lumps Israel alongside U.S. foes Iran […]
People Leaving Ireland at Fastest Rate Since 1980s
August 30th, 2013Via: Financial Times: Ireland’s rate of emigration is continuing to increase and at one stage one person was leaving the country to live abroad every six minutes – the highest number since modern records began in the late 1980s. New figures published on Thursday show 397,500 people have emigrated since Ireland’s financial crisis began in […]
Prescription Sleeping Pill Use in America
August 29th, 2013Via: NBC: Desperate for rest in a frenzied world, at least 8.6 million Americans take prescription sleeping pills to catch some Zzzs, according to the first federal health study to focus on actual use. Between 2005 and 2010, about 4 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 and older popped popular prescription drugs such as Lunesta […]
Nissan: Multiple Autonomous Drive Vehicle Models Available by 2020
August 28th, 2013Via: Nissan: Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that the company will be ready with multiple, commercially-viable Autonomous Drive vehicles by 2020. Nissan announced that the company’s engineers have been carrying out intensive research on the technology for years, alongside teams from the world’s top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University […]
Facebook Friends Could Change Your Credit Score
August 26th, 2013Via: CNN: Choose your Facebook friends wisely; they could help you get approved — or rejected — for a loan. A handful of tech startups are using social data to determine the risk of lending to people who have a difficult time accessing credit. Traditional lenders rely heavily on credit scores like FICO, which look […]
