Cellphones to Get Government Chips for Disaster Alerts
May 10th, 2011You won’t be able to opt out of receiving messages from Dear Leader…
Some days, as I sift through all of this madness, I really miss George Carlin. I bet he’d just love this one.
Via: Boston Globe:
After more than five years of planning, a national emergency alert system that will send messages to cellphones during disasters is set to be launched in New York City and Washington by the end of year.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said the Commercial Mobile Alert System will direct messages to cellphones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or other serious emergency. The plan was approved by Congress in 2006.
Genachowski and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s administrator, Craig Fugate, said the new system will be selective. “These are really focused on the highest levels of alerts, and those that require urgent action,’’ he said.
There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts.
A special chip is required to allow a phone to receive the messages, and soon all new phones will have the technology. Some smartphones already have the chip, and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year, Genachowski said.
Fugate said cellphones turned on in the vicinity of a disaster — an evacuation zone, for instance — would receive a message warning them of the impending danger. The alert would show up on the phone’s front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and probably a vibration.
Silver: Immediate Term Ascending Triangle
May 10th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update: Yee Haa!
$38.18.
—End Update—
A bullish symmetrical triangle has formed inside a larger quasi ascending triangle. A lot of pressure is building underneath resistance at $37.96. It definitely sees the lines on the symmetrical triangle, so we’re within minutes to hours of a breakdown of that triangle or a third try to break out of $37.96. If it clears $37.96, the next resistance is $39.44, which the 38.2% fib retracement of the recent route from the high around $50. I’ll sell half my calls on SLV into that 38.2% fib level.
Spot Silver, 15 Minute Interval
HKMex Begins Trading 1KG Gold Futures on May 18; Physical Delivery in Hong Kong
May 10th, 2011Via: Commodity Online:
The Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange (HKMEx) has received authorisation from the Securities and Futures Commission and will make its trading debut on May 18, 2011 with the 1-kilo gold futures contract offered in US dollars with physical delivery in Hong Kong.
The ATS authorisation grants HKMEx the right to offer market participants, through its member firms, the use of its state-of-the-art electronic platform to trade commodities. The Exchange will begin trading with at least 16 members including some of the world’s largest financial institutions as well as several well-established brokerages in Hong Kong.
“We are very excited about this historic day. It allows us to establish a liquid and vibrant international commodities exchange based in Hong Kong, linking China with the rest of Asia and the world,” said Barry Cheung, chairman of HKMEx. “Global demand for core commodities has in recent years been driven by Asia, especially China and India. However, market participants in the region have had to rely on Western exchanges for price discovery, bearing the basis risk exposure in the process. Our new platform will offer Asia a bigger say in setting global commodity prices. It will also enable market participants to more actively manage their risk exposures, using products tailored to Asian market needs.”
Gunter Sachs: German Billionaire Kills Himself
May 9th, 2011Via: BBC:
Gunter Sachs – the German-born billionaire, art collector and former husband of Brigitte Bardot – has killed himself at the age of 78.
Sachs’s family said he shot himself at his chalet in the Swiss resort of Gstaad on Saturday.
A grandson of car manufacturer Adam Opel, Sachs’s wealth helped him to become him a prominent member of the glamorous 1960s “jet set”.
Sachs was married three times and had three children.
Schumer Calls for ‘Do Not Ride’ List for Trains
May 9th, 2011Via: CBS:
Sen. Charles Schumer is calling for better rail security now that the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound has turned up plans to attack trains in the U.S.
“Anyone, even a member of al-Qaida could purchase a train ticket and board an Amtrak train without so much as a question asked,” Schumer said. “So that’s why I’m calling for the creation of an Amtrak no ride list. That would take the secure flight program and apply it to Amtrak trains.”
Home Values Fall At Fastest Rate Since 2008
May 9th, 2011Via: CNBC/Reuters:
U.S. home values fell in the first quarter at the fastest rate since late 2008, real estate data firm Zillow said on Monday, suggesting that a bottom will not be seen until 2012 at the earliest.
Zillow said its home value index fell 3 percent in the first three months of the year from the previous quarter, and was down 8.2 percent year-over-year.
The number of homeowners under water—or, those who owe more on the mortgage than their house is currently worth—amounted to 28.4 percent of single-family homeowners, representing a peak since Zillow began calculating the data in 2009.
That was up from 27 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
Foreclosures also rose, following the moratoriums that had been in place in late 2010. In March, one out of every 1,000 homes was in foreclosure.
Homes Abandoned as Mississippi River Keeps Rising
May 9th, 2011Via: AJC:
Getting the word out through TV and online isn’t enough for Memphis officials who were going door-to-door warning a couple hundred people that they should abandon their homes before they are swamped by waters from the rising Mississippi River.
Meat Glue
May 9th, 2011Via: Yahoo Shine:
It has recently come to my attention that a substance called transglutaminase (i.e. meat glue) has been used in the food industry for many years in order to trick us into thinking the food we eat is of a better quality.
…
Meat glue is banned in the EU, but in the US, the FDA classifies it under GRAS (generally recognized as safe). Transglutaminase is not required to be posted on the ingredients list.
Possible Head and Shoulders Short Term Bottom on Silver
May 9th, 2011WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
$36.42 is the immediate term resistance. If it takes out $36.42, the Fibonacci retracements are shown on the four hour chart.
Spot Silver, 30 Minute Interval
Spot Silver, 4 Hour Interval
Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant: “Unknown Amount” of Tritium Released Into Mississippi River
May 8th, 2011I guess the intertubes are so clogged with fake Bin Laden nonsense that this one wasn’t important enough to mention. There are only two references to this story on Google News at the moment and 60,900 for Bin Laden.
Via: Natchez Democrat:
An unknown amount of radioactive water was released accidentally into the Mississippi River late last week at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the incident, but suggests the release poses no public health hazard.
Entergy Nuclear, which operates Grand Gulf, filed a report with the NRC explaining that crews located standing water at the plant last week after the area experienced heavy rains.
Water was found Thursday at the Unit 2 turbine building — which is an abandoned, partially constructed building — and began pumping the water into the river.
An alarm apparently alerted workers to the presence of tritium, a byproduct of the nuclear reactor processes. The pumps were turned off stopping the flow. Investigators are not certain why tritium was in the storm water or how it got there.
“Although the concentrations of tritium exceeded EPA drinking water limits, the release should not represent a hazard to public health because of its dilution in the river,” said Lara Uselding, public affairs officer with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Region IV.
