IMF Calls for Dollar Alternative
February 11th, 2011Mix the big confetti currencies together and what do you get? Confetti.
Via: CNN:
The International Monetary Fund issued a report Thursday on a possible replacement for the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The IMF said Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, could help stabilize the global financial system.
SDRs represent potential claims on the currencies of IMF members. They were created by the IMF in 1969 and can be converted into whatever currency a borrower requires at exchange rates based on a weighted basket of international currencies. The IMF typically lends countries funds denominated in SDRs
While they are not a tangible currency, some economists argue that SDRs could be used as a less volatile alternative to the U.S. dollar.
Solo 457 Garden Sprayer – Made in Germany
February 11th, 2011Just a quick FYI: If you happen to be fed up with Made in China junk garden sprayers, check out Solo sprayers. They’re made in Germany and built to last. I bought the Solo 457 and I’ve been using it this year in the garden to apply neem oil solution. It works great. The pressure lasts a long time.
Google Offers Two-Factor Authentication
February 10th, 2011I see this development as a sort of confidence trick, where Google is trying to get people to put more of their eggs into fewer baskets (that Google controls, of course).
Two-factor authentication schemes offer strong security against unauthorized account access by miscreants, no doubt about it, but never forget that Google is God on Google. It sees all. It knows all. Many people will make the mistake of thinking that the enhanced security protects their data from everyone, including the government. That’s not true at all. This does nothing to protect your information from Google itself and the national security interests it willingly serves.
So, if you use Google services, I would say to use this, but just keep in mind that Google has access to everything that you do on there, and that, if they turn over your data to any outside organization, there would be no indication of it, two factor login or not.
Via: Wired:
The net is getting a little safer for Google users Thursday, as the company unveils an option to lock down their accounts with more than just a password.
Starting Thursday all Google users can choose to turn on a so-called “two-factor authentication” feature, which will require them to type in a special, short-lived second password in addition to their normal password to get into their account. Users will be able to get the codes by text or a phone call, or use smart phone apps for Android, iPhone and Blackberry to generate the codes.
The idea isn’t new, even though this is the first time such a security option has been offered for free by a major online e-mail service.
Another Confidence Trick: SSL
Egypt: Mubarak May Step Down Today
February 10th, 2011Update: Mubarak Refuses to Step Down
—End Update—
Update: Military Coup
Via: CNN:
President Hosni Mubarak is expected to announce Thursday night that he is yielding power to the nation’s military, a senior Egyptian government official told CNN.
He said the process — which included dialogue between the government and opposition representatives — for implementing reforms and political transition lacked support and the government was forced to step outside the realm of “constitutional authority.”
“This is not a coup in the traditional sense,” the official said. “But this is a transfer of the system of government from the civilian to military. The military is stepping up, recognizing its responsibility to the Egyptian people.”
“These were all definite and conclusive steps toward a political process under the constitution,” the official said, referring to the effort to implement reforms. “But this political process never received enough support, either from the crowd of the international community. Now we have to go outside the constitutional frame.”
Mubarak met with Vice President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq in closed-door talks Thursday night, state television said.
—End Update—
Reuters is constantly updating this feed: Unrest in Egypt.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is expected to announce he will step aside Thursday evening, the head of the country’s ruling party said, conceding the main demand of protesters that are gathering to cheer in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Mercenary Deaths Surpass U.S. Military Losses in Both Iraq and Afghanistan
February 10th, 2011Via: Foreign Policy:
…more than 2,000 contractors have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Contractor deaths now represent over 25 percent of all U.S. fatalities” in those conflicts, write Steven Schooner and Collin Swan of the George Washington University Law School.
Research Credit: Matt
Deutsche Boerse-NYSE Euronext Merger
February 10th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Deutsche Boerse is in advanced talks to buy NYSE Euronext in a deal that would create the world’s largest trading powerhouse and put a bastion of American capitalism into foreign hands.
The discussions, announced on Wednesday, came only hours after the London Stock Exchange said it had agreed to buy Canadian market operator TMX, marking a shake-up for an industry under intense cost pressure from upstart electronic rivals, but one that offers new opportunities after the financial crisis in off-exchange derivatives trading.
News of the Deutsche Boerse talks sent NYSE Euronext shares soaring 14 percent to a two-year high and sharply boosted other exchanges on speculation that further match-ups would follow.
When Wal-Mart Metastasizes, Neighborhoods Get Poorer
February 10th, 2011Old news, but worth repeating.
Via: Reuters:
Wal-Mart’s lengthy struggle to open in New York City has hit fresh problems — a controversial report that said America’s biggest discounter does not just sell cheap, it makes neighborhoods poorer.
The report concludes that Wal-Mart, the biggest U.S. private employer, kills jobs rather than creates them, drives down wages and is a tax burden because it does not give health and other benefits to many part-time employees, leaving a burden on Medicaid and other public programs.
The New York City Council will hold a public hearing on Thursday on the impact a Wal-Mart would have but the retailer has declined to attend.
Wal-Mart dismisses the critical report — released in January by City University of New York’s Hunter College Center for Community Planning — as “randomly selected statements from … flawed studies.”
The report is based on 50 studies of Wal-Mart openings and comes as the company tries to gain a foothold in some of New York’s poorest neighborhoods.
“The overwhelming weight of the independent research on the impact of Wal-Mart stores … shows that Wal-Mart depresses area wages and labor benefits … pushes out more retail jobs than it creates, and results in more retail vacancies,” the report concluded.
Robotic Lettuce Production
February 10th, 2011Via: Singularity Hub:
The steady march of industrial automation continues to envelop the world. Many of us have a quaint early 20th century vision of agriculture, but the truth is that the farmer of the 21st century is a machine. Case in point: lettuce. With new hydroponic techniques, companies are able to grow lettuce in large indoor fields where crops are sorted, planted, and grown automatically. Robots are instrumental to all steps of the process.
White House to Cut Energy Assistance for the Poor
February 10th, 2011In other news: U.S. Spends $20 Billion Per Year for Air Conditioning in Tents in Afghanistan.
Oh sure, Obama is serious about budget discipline.
Via: National Journal:
President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget will cut several billion dollars from the government’s energy assistance fund for poor people, officials briefed on the subject told National Journal.
It’s the biggest domestic spending cut disclosed so far, and one that will likely generate the most heat from the president’s traditional political allies. Such complaints might satisfy the White House, which has a vested interest in convincing Americans that it is serious about budget discipline.
The Octopus Conspiracy: One Woman’s Search for Her Father’s Killer
February 9th, 2011Via: Wired:
On the morning of July 1, 1981, three bodies were discovered behind a shabby, concrete ranch house on Bob Hope Drive, a main drag in a sand-swept stretch of California’s scorching Coachella Valley. The corpses were sprawled in a semicircle, on chairs and beds that had been dragged into the backyard. Each of the victims—the house’s owner, Fred Alvarez, his girlfriend, Patricia Castro, and a guest named Ralph Boger—had been killed by a single .38-caliber gunshot to the head. Police surmised that Alvarez and his friends had been planning to sleep outdoors to escape the heat of the house, which had no air-conditioning, and were surprised in the dark by one or more assailants. There were few clues and no witnesses left at the scene; the crime had all the hallmarks of a professional hit.
