Disclosure: Long DBA
May 9th, 2012WARNING: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Update 23 May: Out DBA
I have no position in DBA.
—End Update—
I took PowerShares DB Agriculture (symbol: DBA) long just now.
Gareth Williams: Voluntary DNA Screening of MI6 Personnel to Find Killer?
May 9th, 2012Voluntary? What’s the point of making the screening voluntary? Maybe the killer will have a few too many pints and think, “I better go get my DNA screening so they can figure out it’s me.”
Also, wouldn’t the SIS have DNA records of all personnel? In a DNA database crazed nuthouse like Britain, it seems like a safe assumption. Maybe not.
Via: Telegraph:
MI6 agents could be asked to volunteer DNA as part of a renewed bid to discover how Gareth Williams died, the head of the Metropolitan Police confirmed yesterday.
Met Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said the force was considering a mass screening programme among the spy’s colleagues at the Secret Intelligence Service.
But he stressed that without an official suspect in the case, they could not compel anyone to take part in a DNA screening programme.
Last week the coroner at Mr Williams’ inquest said the 31-year-old, whose naked, decomposing remains were found in a locked sports holdall, had probably been killed unlawfully by a mystery third party.
Dr Fiona Wilcox also raised the prospect that another spy may have been involved in his death, remarking that it was a “legitimate line of inquiry” for police.
Asked if he expected MI6 personnel to co-operate in the investigation, Mr Hogan-Howe said: “It’s called the law.”
Federal Inmate Keith Judd Receiving Sizable Percent of Vote in West Virginia Democratic Primary
May 9th, 2012Via: ABC News:
Barack Obama was not the only Democrat on the ballot on Tuesday in West Virginia’s Democratic Presidential Primary. Keith Judd — also known as Inmate No. 11593-051 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas — was running against him.
Judd, who is serving out a 17.5 year sentence for extortion, currently has received 40 percent of the vote, with 83 percent of precincts reporting, according to The Associated Press. Obama currently has received 60 percent of the vote.
Lehman E-Mails
May 9th, 2012Via: Bloomberg:
If one wants to understand the full complicity of Wall Street in the Great Recession, look no further than the voluminous package of pre-collapse Lehman Brothers documents that have been made available by the law firm Jenner & Block LLP, which has acted as the coroner in the Lehman post-mortem.
Most important, the cache dispels the myth that Dick Fuld, chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., and his close associates were unaware of the risks their business faced in 2007 and 2008. That would be bad enough, but the more devastating reality is that Fuld and his sycophants were warned repeatedly but were blinded by their hubris.
The records confirm, yet again, that the “forces-out-of- our-control” argument we hear from Wall Street leaders is bunk. It is the ill-advised behavior of one banker after another, day in and day out, that leads to the sort of devastating financial crisis we are only now emerging from.
For instance, at a Lehman board meeting in September 2007, according to a copy of the presentation in the data cache, Lehman executives presented a clear summary of the brewing crisis. “The initial tremors were felt at the end of 2006,” the board was told, “when the poor loan performance of sub- prime borrowers began to be a cause for concern in the marketplace. This was evidenced by a gradual spread widening in the asset backed index.” The presentation continued: “The market continued to widen as it became apparent that the performance problems in mortgage loans was not going to abate and was no longer limited to the sub-prime market but also affecting the Alt-A product.”
Google’s Self-Driving Car Licensed to Hit Nevada Streets
May 9th, 2012Via: PC World:
Google’s self-driving car is growing up right in front of our eyes: The fledgling autonomous vehicle program recently passed its driver’s license test in Nevada, the first license of its kind in the United States. Obtaining Nevada’s self-driving car license clears the way for Google to test its technology on public roads in the state.
Google’s modified Toyota Prius was given the thumbs up after successful test drives in Carson City and on the Las Vegas strip. Alongside the special license, Nevada also issued the car a unique set of red license plates that include the infinity symbol and the words “autonomous car.” With any luck, those plates should differentiate all the other vehicles on the road from Google’s car, which has cameras and radar equipment strapped to the roof.
‘CIA Unraveled Bomb Plot from Within’
May 9th, 2012Mmm hmm.
Via: Washington Post:
The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including a double agent — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.
The Saudi intelligence service played a particularly important role in penetrating al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen and recovering the explosive device, according to officials, who described an elaborate espionage operation in which the CIA tracked the bomb’s movements for weeks and then killed suspected plotters in a drone strike after the device was seized.
Senior U.S. officials continued to withhold certain details, including the location and status of the individual — described by officials as a Saudi informant — who penetrated the terrorist group posing as a willing suicide bomber and then turned over the device to authorities after leaving Yemen.
But comments by White House counterterrorism adviser John O. Brennan and others made it clear that the involvement of the CIA and its partners went well beyond simply watching the plot unfold.
“We’re confident that neither the device nor the intended user of this device posed a threat to us,” Brennan said in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program. “We had the device in our control, and we were confident that it was not going to pose a threat to the American public.”
The bomb arrived at an FBI laboratory in Quantico about a week ago and is being examined by explosives technicians, law enforcement officials said. One said the explosive was made from a chemical compound that was “built to get around U.S. security and had the potential to do that.”
Japan Shuts Down Last Nuclear Reactor for ‘Regular Maintenance’
May 9th, 2012Does anyone know how long this “regular maintenance” period is supposed to last?
Via: CNN:
As Japan began its workweek Monday morning, the trains ran exactly on time, the elevators in thousands of Tokyo high-rises efficiently moved between floors, and the lights turned on across cities with nary a glitch.
What makes this Monday so remarkable is that for the first time in four decades, none of the energy is derived from a nuclear reactor.
Over the weekend, Japan’s last remaining nuclear reactor shut down for regular maintenance. In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, reactors have not been allowed back on. Japan is now the first major economy to see the modern era without nuclear power.
Tomari Nuclear Power Plant’s reactor 3 in Hokkaido shut down Saturday evening in a much-watched move by government, industry and environmentalists, who are waged in a public battle over the future of Japan’s energy policy.
Related: Coal and Gas Assets ‘At Top of Japan’s Shopping List’
Southern California Edison Hopes to Restart Damaged San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant Next Month
May 9th, 2012Via: AP:
More than 1,300 tubes that carry radioactive water inside the San Onofre nuclear plant in Southern California are so damaged that they will be taken out of service, the utility that runs the plant said Tuesday.
The figures released by Southern California Edison are the latest disclosure in a probe of equipment problems that have kept the coastal plant sidelined for more than three months.
At issue has been the integrity of tubing that snakes through the plant’s four steam generators, which were installed in a multimillion-dollar makeover in 2009 and 2010.
A company statement said that as of Monday, 510 tubes had been plugged, or retired from use, in the Unit 2 reactor, and 807 tubes in its sister, Unit 3. Each of the generators has nearly 10,000 tubes, and the number retired is well within the limit allowed to continue operation.
The statement comes just days after an Edison executive said the company hopes to restart at least one of the twin reactors next month. The company is drafting a plan under which the reactors would run at reduced power, at least for several months, because engineers believe that will solve a problem with vibration that the company believes has been causing unusual wear in the alloy tubing.
Colleges Hold Transcripts Hostage for Graduates Behind on Their Student Loans
May 8th, 2012Via: Oregon Live:
Students traditionally have a soft spot for their alma maters. But as growing numbers of students run up debt in the high five and even six figures to pay for college, that may change. Especially when they discover their old school is actively blocking them from getting a job or going on to a higher degree.
That’s what increasing numbers of students are finding when they try to obtain an official transcript to send to potential employers or graduate admissions offices.
It turns out many colleges and universities refuse to issue these critical documents if students are in default on student loans, or in many cases, even if they just fall one or two months behind.
This is happening at a time when recent grads are finding it particularly hard to find work, not just in their chosen fields, but anywhere. About half of recent college degree-holders were unemployed or underemployed last year, according to a recent Associated Press study. And the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimates student loan debt has passed $1 trillion, an amount greater than all outstanding credit card debt. The Department of Education put the default rate at 8.8 percent of student borrowers as of September 2010.
Research Credit: ottilie
Las Cruces Threatens to Cut Off Utilities for Residents with Unpaid Red-Light Camera Tickets
May 8th, 2012How long until this is linked to other databases? Unpaid property taxes, unlicensed pets, overdue library books, or who knows what else???
—Britain: CCTV at Petrol Stations Will Prevent Uninsured Cars from Being Fueled
Via: ABC News:
Residents of Las Cruces, New Mexico with outstanding red-light-camera traffic tickets are in danger of having their utilities shut off.
The program, placing cameras at intersections, is just over three years old, and in that time violators have run up $2 million in unpaid fines.
“Over time we were looking at various options, various ways to recoup that money,” Udell Vigil, the communications director for the City of Las Cruces, told ABC News.com.
The fines are broken up between the city, the state of New Mexico and the camera company. The city is owed $600 thousand in unpaid tickets.
“We can’t go through the courts; it’s not that type of citation,” said Vigil. “We don’t have legal enforcement authority.”
When the city explored options, officials came across Section 28-10 of the Las Cruces Municipal Code, which says, “The city may decline, fail or cease to furnish utility service to any person who may be in debt to the city for any reason, except ad valorem taxes and special assessments,” according to the city website.
Letters are being sent out to violators. Once the resident receives the letter, there is a deadline for the ticket to be paid in full, or for reasonable payment arrangements to be made. If a resident refuses to pay, the city could shut off their water, sewage and gas. Electricity is not provided by the city.
Research Credit: anchoviesmegma
