Congress May Allow Oversight of Investment Advisers by FINRA, a Financial Industry Corporation
June 29th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Congress may hand oversight of almost 12,000 investment advisers to Wall Street’s self-funded regulator as a cost-saving measure. The price could be paid by investors.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, deputized by the government to oversee brokers, is lobbying to replace the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a regulator of registered investment advisers who manage about $40 trillion. Congress is considering the move as a cheaper alternative to increasing resources for the SEC, since Finra’s $877 million budget is paid by the brokers it regulates.
“It’s a very bad idea to expand the notion of self- regulation,” said Denise Voigt Crawford, former commissioner of the Texas State Securities Board. “They’re supposed to oversee the activity of the industry, but they are industry.”
Japan’s Newest Popstar Outed as CGI Creation
June 29th, 2011Via: Vigilant Citizen:
Aimi Eguchi, the latest star of the popular girl band AKB 48, told fans on her website that she was a normal 16-year-old from Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo who enjoyed track and field sports. Her cute features made her a fan favorite and quickly created a buzz.
…
Miss Eguchi blogged that her goal is “to become a new idol like never before by taking the best parts of my AKB big sisters”. This was true, but in a creepy-Frankenstein kind of way.
Turns out that Aimi Eguchi is in fact a composite CGI creation using the body parts of the other 7 band members.
The First Advertising Campaign for Non-Human Primates
June 28th, 2011Via: New Scientist:
Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner had an epiphany last year. At a TED talk, the two New York advertising executives learned that captive monkeys understand money, and that when faced with economic games they will behave in similar ways to humans. So if they can cope with money, how would they respond to advertising?
Laurie Santos, the Yale University primatologist who gave the TED talk, studies monkeys as a way of exploring the evolution of the human mind. A partnership was soon born between Santos, and Olwell and Kiehner’s company Proton. The resulting monkey ad campaign was unveiled on Saturday at the Cannes Lions Festival, the creative festival for the advertising industry.
The “E-Uterus”
June 28th, 2011I’ll be looking for a Sinister Sites update on this.
Via: Telegraph:
While Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, has described his “Europa building” as a “jewel box”, David Cameron has been less enthusiastic dubbing it a “gilded cage”.
But perhaps even more unfortunate is the moniker the edifice, which will house Mr Van Rompuy’s presidential office and be home to future Brussels summits from 2014, has earned from EU officials.
Built as a state of the art glass and wood wing to an existing Art Deco building, the complex will be focused around a womblike central structure providing a home for summits and meetings of Brussels officials or diplomats.
And it this organic looking “urn” shape has already been nicknamed the “E-Uterus” by Council of the EU officials who will be working in the new building.
“It looks like a womb and, I am sure, many grand visions of Europe will be birthed from there,” quipped one official.
Britain: Police Break Into Homes; Lecture People About Burglary Risks
June 28th, 2011I didn’t believe that this was real. I thought that some hoax had been picked up by a tabloid newspaper and that it was off to the races from there.
Nope. It’s real. This is the ‘Operation Poppins’ page on the London Metropolitan Police website.
Via: The Sun:
COPS are breaking into homes in a dramatic bid to highlight the risk of being a victim of burglars.
Police from Fortune Greens Safer Neighbourhood Team in West Hampstead, north London, are climbing through windows left open to alert residents to the sinister threat.
Officers are carrying out the mock raids in a high-profile initiative to slash the number of burglaries.
They are committing break-ins across their patch, locking up the property and leaving a calling card to notify the stunned owner that they were there.
A young woman on her own was startled when a uniformed cop strolled into her living room after clambering in through an open bedroom window.
Police said that after her initial shock she was grateful when they gave her crime prevention advice and tips on making her home safer.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Intentionally Flooded Farmland, Now Offering to Buy It
June 28th, 2011Via: KMBC:
Some river bottom property owners say they received a letter from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City district office asking them if they want to sell their land.
KMBC’s Micheal Mahoney reported that the letter is angering some of the people who received it because some of them are fighting for their land from a flood they believe the Corps caused.
…
Kneuvean said this may be a case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing. But Mahoney reported that some people believe the Corps deliberately released massive amounts of water in hopes of driving down the sales price on flooded ground.
“We’d never tie the two together. This has nothing to do with the Missouri River ecosystem,” Kneuvean said.
Greece: Possibility of a Military Coup?
June 28th, 2011Via: CityWire:
While the IMF stalls on its rescue package for Greece, many in the market are beginning to question whether the country would not in fact be better off out of the euro altogether.
But for Steven Cordell, manager of Cazenove’s Pan Europe fund, that is a scenario that should be avoided at all costs.
‘Unless the Greeks are turkeys voting for Christmas then I don’t see an exit for them out of the Euro.’
‘The Greek state employs something like two thirds of the population so the number of losers would be massive.’
He says the reaction of the military is also a significant factor to consider when discussing any potential break away from the Euro for Greece.
‘Spending on the Greek army is amongst the highest per capita in the whole of the EU, so if a plan didn’t materialise you could see a military coup. We’re talking controlled order here and it has happened before in ‘74.’
Cordell says at the moment much of the diplomacy is currently focusing on huge austerity plans, this he thinks is missing a key point. ‘All the talk is about cut, cuts, cuts, “do as you’re told you naughty boy” type thing, but there has been no incentive for the Greeks to create a better future for themselves.’
Wildfire Spreads to Within One Mile of Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab
June 28th, 2011Update: 30,000 55-gallon Drums of Plutonium-Contaminated Waste, Stored in Fabric Tents Above Ground [???]
Via: AP:
The anti-nuclear watchdog group Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, however, said the fire appeared to be about 3 1/2 miles from a dumpsite where as many as 30,000 55-gallon drums of plutonium-contaminated waste were stored in fabric tents above ground. The group said the drums were awaiting transport to a low-level radiation dump site in southern New Mexico.
Lab spokesman Steve Sandoval declined to confirm that there were any such drums currently on the property. He acknowledged that low-level waste is at times put in drums and regularly taken from the lab to the Waste Isolation Pilot Project site in Carlsbad.
Sandoval said the fire was “quite a bit away” from that storage area. But he could not say what would happen if drums containing such waste were to burn.
—End Update—
Via: Reuters:
A raging wildfire has spread to within one mile of the nation’s preeminent nuclear weapons facility, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, authorities said on Monday.
The blaze has grown to 43,597 acres and caused the evacuation of hundreds of people, with thousands encouraged to evacuate voluntarily.
Researchers Discover New Alloy That Converts Heat Directly Into Electricity
June 28th, 2011Still waiting… (Not holding breath.)
MIT: Turning Heat to Electricity
University of Utah: A Sound Way to Turn Heat Into Electricity
Via: PhysOrg:
University of Minnesota engineering researchers in the College of Science and Engineering have recently discovered a new alloy material that converts heat directly into electricity. This revolutionary energy conversion method is in the early stages of development, but it could have wide-sweeping impact on creating environmentally friendly electricity from waste heat sources.
Researchers say the material could potentially be used to capture waste heat from a car’s exhaust that would heat the material and produce electricity for charging the battery in a hybrid car. Other possible future uses include capturing rejected heat from industrial and power plants or temperature differences in the ocean to create electricity. The research team is looking into possible commercialization of the technology.
“This research is very promising because it presents an entirely new method for energy conversion that’s never been done before,” said University of Minnesota aerospace engineering and mechanics professor Richard James, who led the research team.
Research Credit: neverwas
FOIA’d Documents Raise New Questions About Airport Body Scanner Radiation Risks
June 27th, 2011Cancer clusters…
Via: Electronic Privacy Information Center:
In a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, EPIC has just obtained documents concerning the radiation risks of TSA’s airport body scanner program. The documents include agency emails, radiation studies, memoranda of agreement concerning radiation testing programs, and results of some radiation tests. One document set reveals that even after TSA employees identified cancer clusters possibly linked to radiation exposure, the agency failed to issue employees dosimeters – safety devices that could assess the level of radiation exposure. Another document indicates that the DHS mischaracterized the findings of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, stating that NIST “affirmed the safety” of full body scanners. The documents obtained by EPIC reveal that NIST disputed that characterization and stated that the Institute did not, in fact, test the devices. Also, a Johns Hopkins University study revealed that radiation zones around body scanners could exceed the “General Public Dose Limit.” For more information, see EPIC: EPIC v. Department of Homeland Security – Full Body Scanner Radiation Risks and EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of Body Scanner Program).
Research Credit: EO
