Your Location ‘Extremely Valuable’ to Google
May 2nd, 2011Via: International Business Times:
Then, just weeks ago Los Angeles-based researcher Samy Kamkar illustrated that Google Android based smartphones were sending precise GPS location and other data back to Google “several times an hour.”
“I cannot stress enough how important Google’s wifi location database is to our Android and mobile product strategy,” Google location manager Steve Lee told founder Page in the memo. “We absolutely do care about this because we need wifi data collection in order to maintain and improve our wifi location service.”
Related: Google Faces $50 Million Lawsuit Over Android Location Tracking
Japan: Radiation Leaks from Fuel Rods Suspected at Tsuruga Plant
May 2nd, 2011Via: Kyodo:
Leaks of radioactive substances from fuel rods are suspected to have occurred at a nuclear power plant in Tsuruga, the Fukui prefectural government said Monday, citing a rise in the level of radioactive substances in coolant water.
The operator, Japan Atomic Power Co., will manually shut down the No. 2 reactor of the plant on the Sea of Japan coast and examine the primary cooling system for it. The local government denied that the levels of radioactive substances could threaten the nearby environment.
The Bin Laden Corpse Trick Isn’t Working on the Dollar
May 2nd, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update: Breach Intraday
72.825. Those idiots outside the White House better wave the flags harder.
—End Update—
The early move higher has completely crapped out and we’re looking at another make or break level on the USDX this morning. The support is 72.834 and the index is currently at 72.866.
Britain: Pre-Cime Arrests
May 2nd, 2011Via: Guardian:
Activists have condemned a series of “pre-crime” arrests carried out by the Metropolitan police on the eve of the royal wedding as disturbing, Orwellian and of doubtful legality.
Republican activists planning events almost a mile away from Westminster Abbey were held for up to 24 hours in police cells around the capital on Friday as tens of thousands turned out to watch the celebrations.
Those arrested include 30-year-old stunt film-maker Charlie Veitch, who is part of the group Love Police.
He was arrested at his home in Cambridge at 5pm on Thursday on the charge of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” and on suspicion of involvement in last month’s UK Uncut protest inside luxury retailer Fortnum and Mason.
Chris Knight, a 68-year-old retired anthropology professor, his partner, Camilla Power and 45-year-old friend Patrick Macroidan were arrested on the eve of the wedding near their home in Brockley, south-east London, on the same charge.
It is understood that Knight’s group, the Government of the Dead, was planning to behead an effigy of Prince Andrew with a theatrical guillotine in an act of street theatre on Soho Square in London. Plain clothes officers carried out “snatch and grab” arrests of activists on the square on Friday morning.
A total of 55 people were arrested on Friday, not all in relation to republican activity. Nearly two dozen people were arrested on Thursday before most protests had taken place.
And Now… Bin Laden Is Dead
May 2nd, 2011No, Really: Bin Laden Buried at Sea
Via: AP:
A U.S. official says Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea.
After bin Laden was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in Pakistan, senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for the body to be buried within 24 hours, the official said. Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult, the official said. So the U.S. decided to bury him at sea.
The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, did not immediately say where that occurred.
—End Update—
I’m away from home, so, I’ll just quickly open this thread in case anyone wants to unburden themselves.
I don’t have a lot to say on this, other than:
‘Use it if you got it, boys, this is it.’
and…
and…
Osama bin Laden: A dead nemesis perpetuated by the US government
Ok, one more:
Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Surrender Bin Laden
Now, enjoy the Two Minutes Hate!
Silver Gaps Down
May 2nd, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update
Out the calls now. No SLV position. *wipe brow*
—End Update—
Update
Sold to close May SLV puts. *cha ching* Reversed it long with May SLV calls on gap close. Intraday only.
Now, daddy needs to get taken out on these calls (SLV May 50.00 Call @ .20), so sing it with me:
—End Update—
Local low on spot silver: $42.14. It retraced almost exactly to the 38.2% fib. drawn between Friday’s close and the lows of this morning’s gap and is drifting back down now.
It’s a low volume day, perfect for an options racket.
Via: Reuters:
Silver prices tumbled by 10 percent early on Monday, with spot prices sliding to as low as $42.58 an ounce and futures dipping to $42.20 in volatile, holiday-thinned trade.
By 0009 GMT, spot silver stood at $43.32 an ounce, down 9.4 percent on the day, while COMEX silver for July delivery SIcv1 traded at $44.075 an ounce versus $48.599 on Friday.
“The reduction in COMEX length before the weekend, margin increase and holidays in large parts of Asia and Europe set the stage for a move like this,” said Natalie Robertson, analyst at ANZ in Melbourne.
Speculators scaled back their bullish bets in COMEX silver futures and options to the lowest level since early February, regulator data showed on Friday.
Related: I bought a couple of May puts on SLV.
Workers Assembling Apple Products Urged to Sign Anti Suicide Pledge
May 1st, 2011So Foxconn’s suicide prevention nets are still up?
Via: Guardian:
An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.
The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an “anti-suicide” pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.
The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers “inhumanely, like machines”.
Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs – the Centre for Research on Multinational Companies and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) – are claims that:
* Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.
* Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.
* In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.
* Crowded workers’ dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a “confession letter” after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: “It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again.”
* In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to “treasure their lives”.
Power Outage and Storm
May 1st, 2011The power is out in the Far North of New Zealand due to scheduled transmission lines maintenance. While they say that electricity should be turned back on in a few hours, a huge and powerful storm is about to pass over us. Storms like this usually result in blackouts. In other words, enjoy the rest of your weekend without fresh Cryptogon updates.
CIPAV: FBI Spyware
May 1st, 2011Via: Electronic Frontier Foundation:
What is CIPAV and How Does It Work?
The documents discuss technology that, when installed on a target’s computer, allows the FBI to collect the following information:
IP Address
Media Access Control (MAC) address
“Browser environment variables”
Open communication ports
List of the programs running
Operating system type, version, and serial number
Browser type and version
Language encoding
The URL that the target computer was previously connected to
Registered computer name
Registered company name
Currently logged in user name
Other information that would assist with “identifying computer users, computer software installed, [and] computer hardware installed”3
It’s not clear from the documents how the FBI deploys the spyware, though Wired has reported that, in the Washington state case, the FBI may have sent a URL via MySpace’s internal messaging, pointing to code that would install the spyware by exploiting a vulnerability in the user’s browser. Although the documents discuss some problems with installing the tool in some cases, other documents note that the agency’s Crypto Unit only needs 24-48 hours to prepare deployment.4 And once the tool is deployed, “it stay[s] persistent on the compromised computer and . . . every time the computer connects to the Internet, [FBI] will capture the information associated with the PRTT [Pen Register/Trap & Trace Order].5
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Moves 265 Tons of Explosives Into Position to Breach Birds Point Levee
May 1st, 2011U.S. Government Printing Office Needs 350,934 National Detainee Handbooks Printed by 29 April 2011
Via: South Missourian:
Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh has given the order to move barges carrying 265 tons of explosives upriver in Kentucky from Hickman to Wickliffe, putting them in position to blow the Birds Point levee in Mississippi County, Mo. But corps officials said the general has yet to decide whether he will blow the levee and will re-evaluate the situation Sunday.
“We are moving the barges to Wickliffe, Ky., and they are going to hold there,” spokesman Jim Pogue said. “We’re essentially at 24 hours out of operating the floodway, but essentially in a holding plan.”
Walsh, a top commander at the Corps, has decided to move to the next step in the process, but Pogue said it was not indicative of whether Walsh was leaning toward fully activating the plan, which would divert floodwaters through approximately 130,000 acres of spillway mostly in Mississippi County.
