Oakland: Former U.S. Marine and Protestor in Critical Condition After Being Shot in the Head by ‘Police Projectile’
October 27th, 2011Via: AFP:
An Iraq war veteran was critically injured after riot police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters near San Francisco, supporters said Wednesday.
Officers also fired bean bags but denied using rubber bullets to quell protest on Tuesday in Oakland, California, where unrest erupted after a protest camp was broken up and 97 people arrested.
On Wednesday, demonstrators were vowing to take to the streets again with a march scheduled for 6:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday). Police have said protesters will not be allowed in the city plaza beyond 10:00 pm.
Police initially said they had no reports of injuries, but Highland General Hospital spokesman Curt Olsen confirmed that Marine veteran Scott Olsen had been admitted and was in critical condition.
The spokesman, who is not related to the veteran, said he was unable to release further details about the man’s injuries without the family’s consent.
A statement by the group Iraq Veterans Against the War said Olsen was suffering from a skull fracture after being hit by a “police projectile.”
Keith Shannon, a friend and fellow veteran, said that Olsen had joined the Oakland protest because “he felt corporations and banks had too much control over our government.”
Police could not immediately be reached for comment.
And Now: The Rogue Websites Bill Introduced in U.S. House
October 27th, 2011The “Stop Online Piracy Act” would target foreign websites for take down. I wondered what this actually meant, from a technical perspective, so I gave the proposed legislation a very quick look.
It turns out that the government wants to force U.S. Internet service providers to block access to the sites. There would be a ban list that the ISPs would have to enforce. The ISPs would also have to modify their DNS records to prevent the foreign sites from resolving:
A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order, including measures designed to prevent the domain name of the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) from resolving to that domain name’s Internet Protocol address. Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within 5 days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.
This is, in effect, what China, Iran, North Korea, etc. do with their national firewalls. The difference with the U.S. version is that they would force individual ISPs to carry out the bans, rather than implementing them in a centralized way.
If you think that this is just about fake Gucci purses, just wait…
Via: AFP:
US lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give US authorities more tools to crack down on websites accused of piracy of movies, television shows and music and the sale of counterfeit goods.
The Stop Online Piracy Act has received bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and is the House version of a bill introduced in the Senate in May known as the Theft of Intellectual Property Act or Protect IP Act.
The legislation has received the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, the Business Software Alliance, the National Association of Manufacturers, the US Chamber of Commerce and other groups.
But it has come under fire from digital rights and free speech organizations for allegedly paving the way for US law enforcement to unilaterally shut down websites, including foreign sites, without due process.
Fukushima’s Cesium-137 Fallout Double What Government Claims
October 26th, 2011Via: Slashdot:
“A new study posted for open peer-review suggests that the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi released far more radiation than the Japanese government initially estimated. The study [PDF] uses global radioisotope and meteorological data to calculate the size of the release from the plant. Nature News reports that, contrary to official claims, the model shows that fuel being stored in a pool at unit 4 released a significant amount of cesium-137, a long-lived contaminant that has spread across the countryside. It also says that some Xenon-133 may have been released early on in the accident, suggesting that the plant was already damaged before it was hit by a tsunami. Overall, it estimates that Fukushima released about twice as much cesium-137 as the government claims and half as much as Chernobyl.”
Canadian Billionaire Arrested for Corruption in UK
October 26th, 2011Via: The Canadian Press:
A Canadian billionaire with ties to powerful business and world leaders, including Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, has been arrested in Britain and is facing corruption charges.
Victor Dahdaleh, 68, former president of the Canada-U.K. Chamber of Commerce and a McGill University benefactor, is alleged to have paid bribes to officials of an aluminium company in Bahrain between 2001 and 2005.
Police allege that the payments were in connection with contracts with U.S. aluminum maker Alcoa Inc., for supplies of alumina shipped to Aluminium Bahrain, a smelting company with a majority state ownership.
Dahdaleh, who was born in Jordan and holds dual Canadian and British citizenships, has denied any wrongdoing.
“Mr. Dahdaleh believes the investigation into his affairs was flawed and that he has done absolutely nothing wrong,” his lawyers said in a statement Tuesday.
“He will be vigorously contesting these charges at every stage, confident in clearing his good name.”
The U.K. Serious Fraud Office, a British government department responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious and complex fraud, filed the charges against Dahdaleh on Monday.
They include corruption, conspiracy to corrupt and acquiring and transferring criminal property.
Former Goldman Sachs Director Charged with Insider Trading
October 26th, 2011I’m shocked. Are you shocked? *sigh*
Via: New York Times:
Rajat K. Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs director and McKinsey & Company chief executive, surrendered to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday morning to face charges of insider trading, the latest development in the government’s multiyear crackdown on illegal activity on Wall Street.
In charging Mr. Gupta, the government will tie up one of the biggest loose ends resulting from the investigation into the Galleon Group, which began nearly five years ago at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Since then, more than two dozen people have pleaded guilty or been convicted of swapping illegal tips around company earnings and other major corporate events. Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon co-founder, was sentenced to 11 years in prison this month for making tens of millions of dollars by trading on confidential tips.
Authorities have broadly pursued insider trading on Wall Street, exacting guilty pleas from a chemist at the Federal Drug Administration, among others, as recently as this month. While the majority of those charged have been traders and analysts on Wall Street, Mr. Gupta, 62, is the first to be implicated from the upper echelons of corporate America.
The charges are a stunning reversal of fortunes for Mr. Gupta. A native of India, he graduated from Harvard Business School and had a global profile as an adviser to some of the nation’s most iconic companies. He served as a director at Goldman, Procter & Gamble and the parent company of American Airlines. In addition to his professional pedigree, Mr. Gupta was a noted philanthropist, serving in coveted posts with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mr. Gupta’s case has been a tricky one for the government. Though his name came up repeatedly at Mr. Rajaratnam’s trial, both in testimony and in secretly recorded phone conversations, the Justice Department never filed charges against him. The S.E.C. filed an administrative action against Mr. Gupta, and he countersued. The agency later dropped the civil proceedings, but reserved the right to refile the case.
On Wednesday, the S.E.C. refiled their civil action against Mr. Gupta.
The strength of the government’s case is unclear, but details that emerged during Mr. Rajaratnam’s trial were explosive. In their original action, the S.E.C. accused Mr. Gupta of passing confidential information about Goldman and Procter to Mr. Rajaratnam, who then traded on the news. The agency also claimed that Mr. Gupta gave Mr. Rajaratnam advance word of Warren E. Buffett’s $5 billion investment in Goldman during the darkest days of the financial crisis, in addition to other confidential information.
Nuclear and Military Data Stolen in Mitsubishi Network Attack
October 26th, 2011Via: Asahi:
Sensitive information concerning vital defense equipment, such as fighter jets, as well as nuclear power plant design and safety plans, apparently was stolen from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. computers during a cyber-attack in August, sources said.
An internal investigation found signs that the information had been transmitted outside the company’s computer network, with the strong possibility that an outsider was involved.
This is the first time that sources have acknowledged that defense and nuclear plant information may have leaked from Mitsubishi Heavy’s computers due to a computer virus, despite the company saying it had taken appropriate safeguard measures.
The computers were found to have been hacked in August, and 83 computers were found to have been infected with a virus. Those computers were spread out over 11 locations, including the Kobe and Nagasaki shipyards that construct submarines and destroyers as well as the Nagoya facility that is in charge of manufacturing a guided missile system.
At that time, Mitsubishi Heavy officials said no confirmation had been made that information related to products or clients had leaked.
According to sources, a further investigation into dozens of computers at other locations found evidence that information about defense equipment and nuclear power plants had been transmitted from those computers to outside the company.
The defense information is related to the fighter jets and helicopters that Mitsubushi Heavy manufactures for the Defense Ministry. Officials said they were uncertain if any confidential defense information was included in the leaked data.
Sources said the nuclear plant information included data on nuclear plant design and nuclear equipment, as well as anti-quake measures.
Possibly Related: Duqu: Son of Stuxnet Hits European Computer Networks
Race Against the Machine
October 26th, 2011A few weeks ago, a reader sent me a gift, an ebook from Amazon. I don’t have a physical Kindle reader, so I downloaded the Kindle application for Windows and, in a few seconds, I was able to read the book.
I went to look at the Amazon page for the book, A Zombie Prescription by Jose Santos, and noticed that it cost $1.99.
A buck ninety nine!? Really?
I wondered if it was common for authors to publish their books on Amazon for such low prices. Yes, it’s very common! Next, out of curiosity, I wondered if anyone ever became wealthy by selling Kindle books for a buck or two or three, totally bypassing the traditional, bloodsucking publishing industrial complex.
Be sitting down for this one…
Amanda Hocking has made two million dollars by selling her young-adult fiction stories though Amazon’s Kindle store. The ebooks cost between $1 and $3. See The Very Rich Indie Writer, if you’d like to read more about what Amanda Hocking has done.
Ok, what’s the point?
The point is that a twenty six year old woman, who was an assisted living worker until 2010 (that’s hard, low wage work, in case you don’t know), became wealthy by combining her skill as an author with the digital marketplace that Amazon provides.
In other words, the ascendency of the machine definitely cuts a couple of ways.
As grim as it is, for most, there are opportunities for individuals to attain results (asymmetric results) that are far beyond what was possible before.
I’m not saying to peg your hopes on becoming a millionaire ebook author, but rather to be open to work opportunities that do not lend themselves to automation, and/or where the market is too small for large organizations to care. Get the machine on your side, instead of the other way around.
You might be able to outsource yourself to a place with a drastically lower cost of living. That’s what Becky and I did. I earn a bit of money from Cryptogon, do some trading, and Becky runs her small business. All of this is done completely over the Internet. You don’t have to be a computer person. Becky doesn’t even go on her computer everyday. If it wasn’t for having to see how many orders she had received every two or three days, I doubt that she would spend much time online at all.
These are just a couple of examples of how people are using the machine to escape the traditional grind. Maybe some of you would like to share your experiences with using technology to find opportunities for work that might not have existed before.
Via: MIT Technology Review:
Recent advances in information technologies may be driving people out of work and enriching the already rich, a new book argues. The book challenges the long-held view that new technology displaces workers in the short term but always creates more jobs in the long term.
Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the Center for Digital Business at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at the center, cowrote the new e-book, Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution Is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy, which is released today.
Brynjolfsson and McAfee argue that technology seems to be doing three things simultaneously: enabling CEOs and other leaders in some fields to earn outsize incomes; replacing people with software in certain kinds of service jobs; and—as factories automate at a faster pace—benefiting owners at the expense of workers.
Some 60 percent of the wealth created in the United States between 2002 and 2007 went to the top 1 percent of Americans. This is not merely the result of financial deregulation or favorable Bush-era tax breaks; information technology has enabled the far-broader sale of digital goods and expansion of software-aided management, the pair argues.
Related: I don’t like recommending The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, because Ferriss is a shallow megalomaniac, but the book is worth reading.
Related: Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal
Related: More Jobs Predicted for Machines, Not People
Obama to Leno: Libya ‘A Recipe for Success’
October 26th, 2011A recipe for success?
The grinning, shill, international terrorist President of the United States talks up the regime’s atrocities on a late night comedy show, with the host, audience and millions of people out in TV land going along with it…
Holy shit.
To me, Obama’s “recipe for success” looks and sounds like a child with the lower half of his face blown off. The child’s horrifying screams emerge through a pulpy, gaping cavity where his mouth and jaw used to be. You shouldn’t watch that video, if you know what’s good for you, but it reminds me of the words of Harold Pinter:
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
This is why that sack of shit president can sit there and talk about saving civilians as their shredded bodies gurgle and shriek in terror.
Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening.
Via: AP / NPR:
President Obama defended the U.S. role in bringing down Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, rejecting assessments that the international coalition he helped assemble amounted to “leading from behind.” “We lead from the front,” he told late-night television host Jay Leno on Tuesday.
Laying out an argument for his emerging foreign policy doctrine, Obama distinguished the U.S. steps in Libya from the invasion and nine-year war in Iraq. He argued that by building a broad international alliance of European and Arab nations against Gadhafi, the United States saved American lives and money and achieved its goal.
“Not a single U.S. troop was on the ground,” he said. “Not a single U.S. troop was killed or injured, and that, I think, is a recipe for success in the future.”
Research Credit: CB
Gold: Quasi Inverse Top Hat
October 26th, 2011Warning: This is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any financial instrument.
Squinting hard, I see a bullish inverse top hat (gap close) shaping up, target $1920.
Spot gold, daily interval
Canadian Dairy Farmer Willing to Die for Food Rights
October 26th, 2011Via: Mother Nature Network:
The right to decide what one can eat and drink seems a very basic human right. Yet, even that simple freedom can be trampled upon. Take Michael Schmidt for example. He is a biodynamic farmer with a masters degree in agriculture and has been an instrumental voice for both the rights of farmers and consumers.
Over the last 17 years Schmidt has tried to work with authorities to find solutions for providing raw milk legally to people in Canada. He feels that informed consumers should have the right to drink clean raw milk. The Canadian government disagrees. So his farm was raided as if he had contraband and his farm family terrorized. This happened despite the fact that nobody has ever gotten sick from drinking his milk. Similar situations have happened in the U.S. as well. I wonder if they sent SWAT teams to the farm that produced the cantaloupes that have made so many ill?
He was acquitted of all charges at first, but the Province of Ontario decided to appeal the acquittal and Schmidt was then found guilty of 15 of the 19 charges. I find it ironic that in a world full of evil and injustice so much attention is directed at consumers’ food choices. Michael has since gone on a hunger fast only asking that a constructive dialogue happen. He is now on his fourth week, and I want to see this man eating soon.
