‘A Trader, an F.B.I. Witness, and Then a Suicide’
June 3rd, 2011Suuuuure.
Via: New York Times:
In a Manhattan courtroom last week, federal prosecutors played for a jury a secretly recorded telephone conversation between two Wall Street traders exchanging stock tips.
Two days later, one of those traders, Ephraim G. Karpel, hanged himself in his Fifth Avenue office, according to a law enforcement official.
Mr. Karpel was never charged with any wrongdoing, and until last week his name had not emerged in connection with the government’s vast investigation of insider trading.
Yet while working for a New York commodities firm, he had agreed in 2008 to cooperate with federal authorities, and for about a year he taped conversations with fellow traders, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss it.
Sony Hacked Again, One Million Accounts Compromised
June 3rd, 2011Via: Reuters:
A hacker group has engineered yet another attack on the computer networks of Sony Corp, a setback to the Japanese company’s efforts to move past a security crisis that erupted in April.
The group, which calls itself LulzSec, said on Thursday that it broke into servers that run Sony Pictures Entertainment websites, and then compromised the personal information of more than 1 million Sony customers.
Sony officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
It posted some of the data it accessed on the Web — including the names, home and email addresses, and passwords of some customers. But said it did not have the resources to extract and publish all of what it collected.
“From a single injection, we accessed EVERYTHING,” the hacking group said in the statement. “Why do you put such faith in a company that allows itself to become open to these simple attacks?”
Dozens of Child Sex Victims of Belgian Catholic Church Are Launching Legal Action Against Holy See
June 2nd, 2011Via: AFP:
DOZENS of victims of a child-sex scandal in the Belgian Catholic Church are launching legal action against the Holy See, the first such suit in Europe.
Lawyers and victims said on Wednesday at a news conference that a summons was on its way to Rome, as well as to Belgian bishops, to appear before a civil court for failing to stop sexual abuse by priests and church workers. Lawyers said the group of some 80 plaintiffs was growing by the day.
”The Pope is the head of the Holy See,” said lawyer Walter Van Steenbrugge.
”He neglected to intervene himself and to give instructions, which meant that abuse was liable to continue and the damage was able to increase.”
Flashback 1969: GE Walking Truck
June 2nd, 2011Look familiar?
Injections Can Sterilize Men for Ten Years
June 2nd, 2011You can almost tell who’s name is going to come up in a story like this.
Via: Wired:
Ever since the birth control pill was approved by the FDA in 1960, scientists in the West have been looking for a male equivalent. It’s been a rocky road, in part for biological reasons: Hormonally, it’s much easier to control a single monthly event like ovulation than to try to stop the endless onslaught of sperm.
An equivalent “pill” for men would somehow have to stop sperm production without neutralizing their libido or erectile function. Pharmaceutical companies and government agencies have sunk millions into hormone-based contraceptive research that has yielded few viable products.
And then there’s RISUG. Rather than shutting down sperm production, with the potential side effects that entails, it acts more like a tollbooth on the sperm superhighway. As the negatively charged sperm pass by, they are essentially zapped by the positive charge of the SMA polymer. So a RISUG-injected man will still ejaculate millions of sperm, but most will be dead: tails snapped off, cell membranes ruptured.
As a contraceptive, RISUG faces a far more difficult road to approval and commercial acceptance than, say, a new antidepressant medication. While an antidepressant would be considered a success if it worked in 75 percent of patients, a contraceptive like RISUG will be compared to a conventional vasectomy, which works more than 99 percent of the time. Furthermore, it has to be free from the serious side effects that were common with early experimental hormone-based male contraceptives. And it cannot cause birth defects down the line—ever. “Nobody wants another thalidomide,” says Ron Weiss, the Canadian vasectomy doctor.
…
“If it’s no longer a crazy Indian idea and it’s something that’s working in India and in rabbits in Ohio and in the first 20 men in the US,” Lissner says, “then there’s got to be a point where there’s just no excuse for a Gates or a Buffett not to get on board.”
Just this past year, in fact, Guha received a $100,000 Gates Foundation grant to pursue a variation of RISUG in the fallopian tubes as a female contraceptive.
‘Homeland-Security Business Still Booming Ten Years Later’
June 2nd, 2011Via: CNBC:
A decade after the 9/11 terror attacks, homeland security is still a growth business.
The niche—that includes James Bond-like tools such as infrared cameras, explosive detectors and body scanners—is expected to grow 12 percent annually through 2013, according to Morgan Keegan.
“Homeland security is reactive,” says Tim Quillen, a senior equity analyst at investment banking firm Stephens Inc. “The stocks are hedges against bad things happening.”
One example: the underwear bomber, who was thwarted in late 2009. After that a bell weather homeland security stock OSI Systems rocketed 30 percent within a month. “The stock went on a tear,” says Brian Ruttenbur, a research analyst at Morgan Keegan. Why? OSI makes X-ray and metal detectors used to scan people, baggage and cargo that it sells worldwide. During the past 12 months ending yesterday, the stock has popped from $25 to $40, driven by border and port growth.
Related: They Made a Killing: The Use of Knowledge of Covert Operations in the Stock Market
Nigel Farage: Trapped Inside an Economic Prison
June 2nd, 2011Fukushima Residents Will Be Checked For Internal Radiation Exposure
June 2nd, 2011Via: NHK:
Fukushima Prefecture has decided to check the internal radiation exposure of residents near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and adjacent areas with high radiation levels.
…
A device called a “whole-body counter” will be used to precisely measure radiation.
But the prefecture currently has only one device and can screen just 10 people per day. It is urging research institutes and others with the device outside the prefecture to help them.
Fukushima is also studying whether it can fetch 2 devices from Okuma Town, which lies inside the no-go zone.
E. Coli in European Outbreak Never Seen Before
June 2nd, 2011Via: USA Today:
The E. coli bacteria responsible for a deadly outbreak that has left 18 dead and sickened hundreds in Europe is a new strain that has never been seen before, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
Preliminary genetic sequencing suggests the strain is a mutant form of two different E. coli bacteria, with aggressive genes that could explain why the Europe-wide outbreak appears to be so massive and dangerous, the agency said.
Hilde Kruse, a food safety expert at the WHO, told the Associated Press that “this is a unique strain that has never been isolated from patients before.”
European health officials tracking the outbreak, one of the worst on record, might never know where it came from. It’s a sad fact of life in food poisoning cases: There often is no smoking gun.
The germ has sickened more than 1,500 people, mostly in Germany. Most patients who have been interviewed said they ate lettuce, tomatoes or cucumbers, but officials testing produce across the continent have yet to find any vegetables with the particular strain involved.
Moody’s May Cut BofA, Citi, Wells Ratings
June 2nd, 2011Via: Reuters:
Moody’s Investors Service said it may downgrade the debt ratings of Bank of America Corp (BAC.N), Citigroup Inc (C.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), citing concerns about the regulatory environment facing the largest U.S. banks.
The ratings agency said on Thursday it placed the deposit, senior debt, and senior subordinated debt ratings of the three banks on review for possible downgrades.
