Central Banks Bailed Out Markets To Avoid Trillions In Pension Losses
June 14th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge:
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently published a report showing how pension funds in OECD countries recorded a massive loss of approximately $2.5 trillion during the stock market meltdown in February through late March. Shortly, after that, central banks intervened with monetary cannons to rescue stock markets and other financial assets to avoid pension returns from going negative.
Hawaii: Great Depression-Level Unemployment as Tourism Plummets
June 13th, 2020Via: ABC:
Roughly 25% of the jobs in Hawaii are connected to tourism, which has almost entirely vanished, according to Bonham.
“Because we rely completely on air travel, when you shut down tourism with a 14-day quarantine and you go from 30,000 airline passengers per day to a few hundred, that’s a very different situation from a place that may still be getting some visitors by car,” he said.
Homelessness Jumps 13% in Los Angeles County
June 12th, 2020Via: AP:
The number of homeless people counted across Los Angeles County jumped 12.7% over the past year to more than 66,400 and authorities fear that figure will spike again once the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic is felt, officials said Friday.
The majority of those experiencing homelessness were found within the city of Los Angeles, which had a 14.2% increase to 41,290, according to Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority data.
USC Professor Joel Hay Thinks Covid19 Antibodies Present in Blood Drawn Back in September 2019
June 12th, 2020Via: The Highwire:
Rivian Will Build Fixed Energy Storage Systems Out of Used Vehicle Batteries
June 12th, 2020Via: Rivian:
Failed State Walking
June 11th, 2020Via: Econimica:
To gauge the quantity of federal taxes collected from the economy, it’s pretty easy to divide annual federal tax receipts vs. the marketable debt (red shaded area below). If the tax receipts or coverage is declining versus the debt…we have a problem (BTW- we have a very big problem). But then you have to add in the Federal Reserve’s role in (mis)managing rates (since 1981) and actively buying Treasuries (since 2008) to distort rates and asset prices. This has encouraged Congress to spend what it isn’t willing to collect from the people…thanks to the Federal Reserve giving Congress the idea that the money is “free”. It is not.
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So, although I graduated with a history/political science degree long ago…the primary thing I learned is that both parties are crooked and untrustworthy…and easily purchased by the highest bidders. So, when I show the chart below of soaring federal debt and Federal Reserve balance sheet during the last eight presidential terms…and decidedly not soaring GDP, please understand it is not to lift one party over the other. It is to show they are both unworthy of a single additional vote. They are there in DC for the few at the expense of the many.
Quantum ‘Fifth State of Matter’ Observed in Space for First Time
June 11th, 2020Via: AFP:
Scientists have observed the fifth state of matter in space for the first time, offering unprecedented insight that could help solve some of the quantum universe’s most intractable conundrums, research showed Thursday.
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) — the existence of which was predicted by Albert Einstein and Indian mathematician Satyendra Nath Bose almost a century ago — are formed when atoms of certain elements are cooled to near absolute zero (0 Kelvin, minus 273.15 Celsius).
At this point, the atoms become a single entity with quantum properties, wherein each particle also functions as a wave of matter.
BECs straddle the line between the macroscopic world governed by forces such as gravity and the microscopic plane, ruled by quantum mechanics.
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Research team leader David Aveline told AFP that studying BECs in microgravity opened up a host of research opportunities.
“Applications range from tests of general relativity and searches for dark energy and gravitational waves to spacecraft navigation and prospecting for subsurface minerals on the moon and other planetary bodies,” he said.
U.S. Army Flickr Page Inadvertently Reveals New Hypersonic Weapon Concept
June 11th, 2020Via: AviationWeek:
A new hypersonic weapon concept has emerged inadvertently on a social media page managed by U.S. Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy that describes a Mach 5-plus projectile with the ability to penetrate into defended airspace and dispense a multi-role loitering air system over a target area.
Charles Lieber and China: Federal Grand Jury Indicts Harvard Scientist
June 11th, 2020Via: Boston Globe:
A federal grand jury in Boston on Tuesday indicted a world-renowned Harvard nanoscientist on charges of lying about his ties to a university in China, prosecutors said.
The indictment was handed up against Charles Lieber, 61, on two counts of making false statements to investigators, according to legal filings and US Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s office.
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The professor, whom Harvard placed on paid administrative leave after his arrest, allegedly concealed his participation in China’s Thousand Talents program, which aims to recruit the world’s top scientists and academics and help that country make significant leaps in technology and innovation.
The US government has warned that the recruitment program is an effort by China to steal American proprietary information. Federal agencies are aggressively probing financial ties that American-funded scientists may have to foreign governments, especially China, and whether they and their institutions are appropriately disclosing those connections.
According the federal investigators, a professor at a Chinese university approached Lieber, who is a prolific inventor, in 2011. A few days later, Lieber traveled to China’s Wuhan University of Technology to sign a long-term agreement. When the terms were finalized, he would be paid $50,000 a month, $158,000 in living expenses, and $1.5 million to establish a research lab at the Chinese university.
But Lieber kept that secret from Harvard, according to federal prosecutors, and when questioned by Department of Defense investigators in 2018, denied he had ever participated in the Thousand Talents program.
Federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, require researchers who received grant funding to disclose significant financial conflicts of interest and foreign funding.
Lieber has led the Lieber Research Group at Harvard since 2008 and has collected more than $15 million in federal funding from the NIH and Defense Department, prosecutors said.
A Look Inside Seattle’s ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’
June 11th, 2020I know it’s Seattle, but my guess is that the people involved with Portlandia have just pissed themselves laughing.
Via: New York Post:
“The homeles [sic] people we invited took away all the food at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” the person tweeted. “We need more food to keep the area operational. please if possible bring vegan meat substitutes, fruits, oats, soy products, etc. – anything to help us eat.”
