Archive for February, 2008
BBS: The Documentary
February 23rd, 2008“When I was a boy, we dialed into bulletin board systems,” I can imagine myself telling my son someday… And we did! Monochrome green (or amber) text, slowly running across the screen, was pretty much it in those days. But, wow, there was an endless, mysterious world out there; in the machine. I don’t know […]
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions
February 23rd, 2008AH $20 MS $20 JW $100 Thank you.
New World Record for Solar-to-Grid Conversion Efficiency
February 23rd, 2008Vis: PhysOrg: On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 […]
Most Upside Down Home Owners Since Great Depression
February 23rd, 2008Via: ABC News: It’s a real estate reality facing millions of Americans. Their homes are now worth less than what they owe on them. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Economy.com, said, “The last time we saw so many homeowners with so many home values that were worth less than the amount of mortgage they […]
Wall Street Bank Run
February 23rd, 2008Via: Washington Post: It doesn’t look like an old-fashioned bank run because it involves the biggest financial institutions trading paper assets so complicated that even top executives don’t fully understand the transactions. But that’s what it is — a spreading fear among financial institutions that their brethren can’t be trusted to honor their obligations. Frightened […]
Cartoon: The Subprime Primer
February 22nd, 2008The firm externalized the financial risks of being in this business by selling all of the paper they generated into the secondary mortgage market at the end of every month. This is an institutional marketplace that trades in commoditized mortgages, “debt paper.” In other words, at the end of each month, the firm had none […]
Turkey Launches Ground Operation in Iraq
February 22nd, 2008Via: AP: Turkish troops launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, the military said Friday — a move that dramatically escalates Turkey’s conflict with the militants. It is the first confirmed ground operation by the Turkish military into Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. […]
U.S. Secret Service Told Dallas Police to Stop Screening for Weapons at Obama Campaign Rally
February 22nd, 2008Via: Star Telegram: Security details at Barack Obama’s rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena. The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several […]
Arizona: 280-MW Solar Plant to Use Molten Salt for Energy Storage
February 22nd, 2008Via: PESN: Abengoa’s plant in Arizona will cover a surface of around 1,900 acres — nearly three square miles — and will run two 140-megawatt steam generators for a total capacity of 280 MW. … The Solana generating station will use Abengoa Solar’s concentrating solar power (CSP) trough technology, which entails long rows of mirrors […]
German State-Owned Banks on Verge of Collapse
February 22nd, 2008Via: Spiegel: The German government has had to bail out state-owned banks with taxpayers’ money after their managements recklessly gambled away billions on subprime investments. But if a state-owned bank were to go under, the consequences could be disastrous for the whole economy. … The situation for Germany’s public banks has become so dramatic that […]
