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LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company’s ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He’s been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times, according to the Phoenix New Times.

That’s 12 more times than has previously been known.

…

The Markit iTraxx Crossover index of swaps on 50 European companies surged 50 basis points to 582, according to Markit Group Ltd. The jump in the index signals a deterioration in investor perceptions of credit quality.

Merkel’s coalition stopped traders buying default protection on government bonds they don’t own, so-called naked swaps, as German lawmakers debate a bill authorizing their contribution to a $1 trillion bailout to support the euro. The unexpected ban, done independently of the European Union, came after the rescue package failed to stop the 16-nation common currency from weakening to a four-year low and as banks became increasingly reluctant to lend to one another.

“The market sees an inadequate policy such as this as an act of desperation and a refusal to address the fundamental problems at hand,” said Brian Yelvington, head of fixed-income strategy at Knight Libertas LLC in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Prohibiting speculation in the contracts may cause trading in swaps tied to Europe government bonds to freeze up, said Tim Backshall, the chief strategist at Credit Derivatives Research LLC in Walnut Creek, California. Trading limits may increase borrowing costs or limit the flow of capital, he said.

The stock exchange building was on fire, the exchange’s president told Reuters, while witnesses said major tourist hotels had lost power as black smoke billowed around buildings in the Thai capital.

The stock market had closed early due to the violence.

Ultra-creepy mind-control experiments now go mainstream.  The video of this experiment looks like a scene from the Manchurian Candidate.  I’m sure the souped up version of this “experiment” with the “volunteer” on psychosis-inducing pharmaceuticals is much more effective. Notice how the video involves all the classic elements of mind control: loss of identity, infantile regression, caressing to nurture feelings of security, and pay special attention to the VIOLENT SLAPPING part at the end of the video.

Also, after looking into one of the main authors of the paper, Olaf Blanke, I looked up one of his previous papers.  In the acknowlegements section it states “O.B. is supported by the Sandoz Family Foundation.”  Yes, THAT Sandoz; the same company that Albert Hoffman worked at in Switzerland when he discovered LSD; and, the same company that manufactured LSD for the CIA’s MKUltra experiments in the 50’s and early 60’s.  Of course, this is all purely coincidental.

Meet the Anybots QB, a telepresence robot that can represent you in the office by sitting in conference rooms, going to meetings and rolling about through the cubicle farm. The whole time it does so, it displays a live webcam video of your face, while transmitting to you a live video and audio stream of whatever it’s looking at.

“The QB is an extension of you,” Bob Christopher, chief operating officer of Anybots told Wired.com. “It removes the barriers between people and work so people can teleport themselves to the office space.”

Christopher was formerly the chief executive officer of Ugobe, which made the ill-fated Pleo robotic dinosaur toys. Ugobe closed its doors last year, having failed to make a commercial success of its eerily lifelike toys.

QB won’t replace video conferencing, says Christopher, but it’s a way to look over the shoulder of your colleagues and employees without actually getting into the office. The robot can be manipulated by a user at home or any other location using just a web browser, and can transmit its master’s voice and video.

Think of it as a self-propelled Skype-cam on a stick.

A device with Segway-like balancing properties, the QB has two eyes shaped like a bug’s that give it an aesthetic similar to Pixar’s Wall-E. The cameras (and screen) are mounted atop an adjustable pole, putting them at approximately eye level with your coworkers. QB has eight hours of battery life, supports 802.11g Wi-Fi, comes with a 5-megapixel video camera and a top speed of 3.5 miles per hour. A 320 x 240 LCD screen on QB offers videos and photos, and acts as a control panel.

An investigation by security researchers found the systems to be “fragile” and easily subverted.

The call came less than two hours before bids were due for contracts to manage $90 million raised with the sale of West Virginia bonds. On one end of the line was Steven Goldberg, a trader with Financial Security Assurance Holdings Ltd. On the other was Zevi Wolmark, of advisory firm CDR Financial Products Inc. Goldberg arranged to pay a kickback to CDR to land the deal, according to government records filed in connection with a U.S. Justice Department indictment of CDR and Wolmark.

West Virginia was just one stop in a nationwide conspiracy in which financial advisers to municipalities colluded with Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Wachovia Corp. and 11 other banks.

They rigged bids on auctions for so-called guaranteed investment contracts, known as GICs, according to a Justice Department list that was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on March 24 and then put under seal. Those contracts hold tens of billions of taxpayer money.

California to Pennsylvania

The workings of the conspiracy — which stretched from California to Pennsylvania and included more than 200 deals involving about 160 state agencies, local governments and non- profits — can be pieced together from the Justice Department’s indictment of CDR, civil lawsuits by governments around the country, e-mails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with current and former bankers and public officials.

“The whole investment process was rigged across the board,” said Charlie Anderson, who retired in 2007 as head of field operations for the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-exempt bond division. “It was so commonplace that people talked about it on the phones of their employers and ignored the fact that they were being recorded.”

Anderson said he referred scores of cases to the Justice Department when he was with the IRS. He estimates that bid rigging cost taxpayers billions of dollars. Anderson said prosecutors are lining up conspirators to plead guilty and name names.

Leroy Ray allegedly went into the disabled woman’s bag as it passed through the X-ray machine.