PacWest Bancorp Shares Crash
May 4th, 2023Via: AFP:
Shares of PacWest Bancorp were in free fall Thursday after the bank’s attempt to reassure investors fell flat amid another pummeling of US regional bank stocks.
Near 1600 GMT, shares of PacWest were down more than 50 percent.
Other leading banks were also on the back foot, including Western Alliance (-43 percent), Zions (-8.4 percent) and Comerica (-12 percent).
Large banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America had lost about three percent.
The rout comes after Monday’s sale of the embattled First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase under a process orchestrated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
There had been hopes that the transaction would mark an end to the panic, but that did not materialize.
Joe Biden ‘Engaged In A Bribery Scheme With A Foreign National’: FBI Internal Document Alleges
May 3rd, 2023Via: ZeroHedge:
President Joe Biden allegedly participated in “a criminal scheme” to exchange money for policy decisions, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY), citing an internal FBI document they say contains evidence of the alleged bribery which took place when Biden was Vice President.
“We have received legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures, ” reads a Wednesday letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray. “It has come to our attention that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions. It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.”
Organoid Intelligence
May 3rd, 2023Via: Forbes:
While the world has been captivated by recent advances in artificial intelligence, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have identified a new form of intelligence: organoid intelligence. A future where computers are powered by lab-grown brain cells may be closer than we could ever have imagined.
What is an organoid? Organoids are three-dimensional tissue cultures commonly derived from human pluripotent stem cells. What looks like a clump of cells can be engineered to function like a human organ, mirroring its key structural and biological characteristics. Under the right laboratory conditions, genetic instructions from donated stem cells allow organoids to self-organize and grow into any type of organ tissue, including the human brain.
Although this may sound like science-fiction, brain organoids have been used to model and study neurodegenerative diseases for nearly a decade. Emerging studies now reveal that these lab grown brain cells may be capable of learning.
Research Credit: DF
Russia Claims Drone Attack on Kremlin
May 3rd, 2023I don’t know. That looks like pyrotechnics, not high explosives, to me.
#BREAKING Clear footage of drone attack on Russia’s Kremlin overnight. pic.twitter.com/WYUqaGAq19
— Clash Report (@clashreport) May 3, 2023
What do you think?
Via: The War Zone:
Video has emerged showing what appears to be a drone striking at the dome of the Senatsky Dvorets in the Kremlin in Moscow. Russian officials claim that the building came under attack by Ukraine and have vowed to retaliate, while a high-ranking Ukrainian official denies Kyiv’s involvement in the incident.
Video shows what appears to be a drone approaching the dome and then exploding in a ball of fire that lit up the sky. It seems that this drone did not impact the dome itself, but detonated very close to it, sending flaming debris falling. Two drones are suspected to have attacked the dome in succession.
Portland, Oregon: What Happened To This Place?
May 3rd, 2023Via: Hood Time:
Federal Reserve Pushes Interest Rates Above 5%, First Time Since 2007
May 3rd, 2023Via: Yahoo Finance:
The Federal Reserve raised the target range for its benchmark interest rate by 0.25% on Wednesday while left its options open on future rate hikes.
Bank Failures Visualized
May 3rd, 2023Via: Mike Bostock:
Related: The Banking Collapse Of 2023 Is Now Officially Bigger Than The Banking Collapse Of 2008
Nordstrom Shutting Down Stores in Crime-Ridden San Francisco
May 3rd, 2023Changed dynamics…
Via: Daily Mail:
Nordstrom announced it as closing all of its San Francisco stores, blaming the ‘changed dynamics’ of the city which has seen numerous major chains turn-tail in the face soaring crime.
The retailer told employees it would not be renewing its leases at the Westfield Mall or at the Nordstrom Rack across the street. The mall location will shutter at the end of August, and the Rack store will remain open until July 1, according to the Washington Post.
Nordstrom chief stores officer Jamie Nordstrom said the blamed state of San Francisco in recent years for reducing foot traffic ‘and our ability to operate successfully.’
IBM Outsourcing Thousands of Jobs to AI
May 2nd, 2023Via: Bloomberg:
International Business Machines Corp. Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said the company expects to pause hiring for roles it thinks could be replaced with artificial intelligence in the coming years.
Hiring in back-office functions — such as human resources — will be suspended or slowed, Krishna said in an interview. These non-customer-facing roles amount to roughly 26,000 workers, Krishna said. “I could easily see 30% of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period.”
That would mean roughly 7,800 jobs lost. Part of any reduction would include not replacing roles vacated by attrition, an IBM spokesperson said.
Could ChatGPT Create a New Religion?
May 2nd, 2023Flashback 2017: Inside the First Church of Artificial Intelligence
Via: Daily Mail:
The world is on the verge of a new religion created by artificial intelligence, the historian Yuval Noah Harari has claimed.
The academic – known for his bestselling book Sapiens – said software such as ChatGPT could attract worshippers by writing its own sacred texts.
Speaking at a science conference, he said AI had crossed a new frontier by ‘gaining mastery’ of our language and was now capable of using it to shape human culture.
Dr Harari used the event to add his voice to growing calls for urgent regulation over the sector, which experts have warned is amid a ‘dangerous’ arms race.
He said: ‘In the future we might see the first cults and religions in history whose revered texts were written by a non-human intelligence.
