Archive for April, 2011
MIT: GM Virus Produces Structures That Will Improve Solar-Cell Efficiency by Nearly One-Third
April 28th, 2011Via: MIT News: Researchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level. In a solar cell, sunlight hits a light-harvesting material, causing it to release electrons that can be harnessed […]
Federal Reserve Will Stop Buying Treasury Bonds; Keep Interest Rates Near Zero
April 27th, 2011Warning: this is not a recommendation to buy, sell of hold any financial instrument. In other news, gold hit a fresh record high as the dollar tanked. Spot gold touched $1523.69. Via: Washington Post: The Federal Reserve will end its program of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy in June but will […]
No Prosecution Seen for Official in NSA Leak
April 27th, 2011It’s better if as little attention as possible is directed at the NSA’s mass communications intercept program targeting Americans. Via: New York Times: A former Justice Department official who told Newsweek that he was one of the sources for a 2005 article in The New York Times about the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping […]
Microsoft Collects Locations of Windows Phone Users
April 27th, 2011Via: Cnet: Like Apple and Google, Microsoft collects records of the physical locations of customers who use its mobile operating system. Windows Phone 7, supported by manufacturers including Dell, HTC, LG, Nokia, and Samsung, transmits to Microsoft a miniature data dump including a unique device ID, details about nearby Wi-Fi networks, and the phone’s GPS-derived […]
Save $12 On a Year of Web Hosting with BlueHost
April 27th, 2011BlueHost is having one of their rare sales. I’ve only noticed them do this one other time, and it lasted for about two days.
‘A Vast, Global Online Network of Homeless People’
April 27th, 2011Remember Hiro Protagonist’s living arrangement in Snowcrash? He lived in a shipping container, but he also had a fiber optic connection to the Metaverse. Homeless people with broadband: It’s not Sci-FI, it’s the new normal. Via: Parent Dish: Brianna Karp thought she had it all together. At 23, the Orange County, Calif., executive assistant was […]
Soaring Costs Force Some Renters To Choose Between Shelter And Food
April 27th, 2011Via: Huffington Post: Around 10 million American households — or one in every four families that rent their homes — could have to choose between paying rent, buying groceries or keeping current with bills, according to a report released Tuesday. The number of households spending more than 50 percent of their income on rent and […]
High Level Member of Sinaloa Cartel Claims Multi-Ton Cocaine Trafficking Activities Were Sanctioned by DOJ, DEA and DHS/ICE
April 26th, 2011Via: Narco Sphere: A high-level player with one of the most notorious narco-trafficking organizations in Mexico, the Sinaloa “cartel,” claims that he has been working with the U.S. government for years, according to pleadings filed recently in federal court in Chicago. That player, Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, is the son of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada […]
The End of QEII: It’s Time to Make the Donuts
April 26th, 2011Via: PIMCO: Just as Charles Ponzi needed donuts to turn back a suspicious crowd of investors, the Fed needs “donuts” in order to fill the bellies of the literally millions of investors worldwide who worry about the alarmingly large U.S. budget deficit and the impact that the U.S. debt dilemma could have on their Treasury […]
Al-Qaida Bomber Worked for MI6
April 26th, 2011Via: Guardian: An al-Qaida operative accused of bombing two Christian churches and a luxury hotel in Pakistan in 2002 was at the same time working for British intelligence, according to secret files on detainees who were shipped to the US military’s Guantánamo Bay prison camp. Adil Hadi al Jazairi Bin Hamlili, an Algerian citizen described […]
