Archive for January, 2015
Leaked Palantir Doc Reveals Uses, Specific Functions and Key Clients
January 12th, 2015Via: TechCrunch: Palantir’s data analysis solution targets three industries: government, the finance sector and legal research. Each of these industries must wrestle with massive sets of data. To do this, Palantir’s toolsets are aimed at massive data caches, allowing litigators and the police to make connections otherwise invisible. For example, a firm hired by the […]
Judge Orders NYPD to Release Records on X-ray Vans
January 11th, 2015Via: ProPublica: The NYPD has a secretive program that uses unmarked vans with X-ray machines designed to detect bombs. ProPublica tried to find out more about it, but the NYPD refused to answer for three years.
Oil Drillers Pull Most U.S. Rigs in More Than Two Decades
January 9th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long USO/oil. Via: Bloomberg: In what is the strongest sign yet of the damage that plunging crude prices are doing to the U.S. oil industry, drillers idled more rigs last week than they have at any point since 1991. Oil rigs fell by 61 to 1,421, Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) said on its […]
Venezuela: Military Supervises Food Distribution
January 9th, 2015The stores are full, comrades. Just form orderly lines and do what the soldiers say. Via: Bloomberg: Shoppers thronged grocery stores across Caracas today as deepening shortages led the government to put Venezuela’s food distribution under military protection. Long lines, some stretching for blocks, formed outside grocery stores in the South American country’s capital as […]
France: Second Hostage Crisis Erupts as Police Surround Charlie Hebdo Suspects
January 9th, 2015Update: French Terror Suspects Dead at Both Locations, 3 Hostages Dead — Via: France24: Police have surrounded two suspects in this week’s Charlie Hebdo attack northeast of the capital and are now dealing with a developing situation in eastern Paris, where a gunman has taken hostages at a supermarket.
How OPEC Weaponized the Price of Oil Against U.S. Drillers
January 9th, 2015Disclosure: I’m long USO/oil. Via: Bloomberg: If there ever was doubt about the strategy of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, its wealthiest members are putting that issue to rest. Representatives of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait stressed a dozen times in the past six weeks that the group won’t curb output […]
Fast Food on Display in Chiropractor’s Office
January 9th, 2015Via: Business Insider: A Michigan chiropractor has been saving a Taco bell chicken taco and McDonald’s cheeseburger with fries for years, and none of the items have appeared to rot. Dr. Jaqueline Vaughn purchased the meals two years ago and put them on display in her office, Vaughn Chiropractic, in Waterford, Michigan. The meals have […]
China’s Elaborate and Absurd Internet Propaganda Machine
January 8th, 2015Seems like their learned their tricks from watching White House press conferences. Via: Quartz: “NOTICE: We request every internet commenter carry out the following task today,” begins an email from the supervisor. It’s just another day in the propaganda department of Zhanggong, a district in southeast China’s modestly sized city of Ganzhou. Employees and freelancers […]
Aquion Energy Enters 1 MWh Battery Supply Deal in Hawaii
January 8th, 2015Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. Via: PV Magazine: U.S. aqueous hybrid ion battery developer and supplier Aquion Energy has entered into a supply deal with the residential community Bakken Hale, to supply a 1 MWh battery system. The battery installation will be coupled with a PV array to supply the community […]
Afghan Money Pit & The Pacification of Rio
January 8th, 2015Via: Vice:
