It Takes 3 Weeks to Escape Illinois
July 12th, 2020Via: The Street:
Why 3 weeks? That’s how long it takes to reserve a one-way U-Haul outbound.
“Everyone is leaving. No one is coming,” a U-Haul agent told us a few weeks ago.
Where Did It All Go Wrong For Intel?
July 12th, 2020Via: Financial Times:
There are two factors behind this massive shift in relative value. The most significant has been Intel’s failure to maintain its flawless execution. Its move to the latest generation of chips — with features that are only 10 nanometres wide — has been plagued with manufacturing problems. For the first time, TSMC has leapt ahead.
Their different business models mean the two are not direct competitors. But TSMC has served as a manufacturing platform for a new raft of new competitors, opening the way to fabless chipmakers that do not own their own plants, including Nvidia and AMD.
The other factor in Intel’s recent eclipse has been the data explosion and rise of machine learning. The most valuable part of the market, for training machine learning algorithms, is one where Nvidia is well ahead.
4 Mysterious Objects Spotted in Deep Space Are Unlike Anything Ever Seen
July 12th, 2020Via: LiveScience:
There’s something unusual lurking out in the depths of space: Astronomers have discovered four faint objects that at radio wavelengths are highly circular and brighter along their edges. And they’re unlike any class of astronomical object ever seen before.
The objects, which look like distant ring-shaped islands, have been dubbed odd radio circles, or ORCs, for their shape and overall peculiarity. Astronomers don’t yet know exactly how far away these ORCs are, but they could be linked to distant galaxies.
Only Half of America’s Population Would Get Covid-19 Vaccine
July 11th, 2020Via: Forbes:
As polling suggests that only half of America’s population would be willing to get the Covid-19 vaccine if it were available, a panel of scientific and academic experts on Thursdays released a set of recommendations for how to boost confidence in vaccines, including appointing community spokespeople and making the vaccine free to all and available at familiar places like centers for worship.
Kevin Spacey and Ghislaine Maxwell Sat in Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s Thrones
July 9th, 2020Via: People:
Prince Andrew’s connection to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein has been called into question again, as a photo of Epstein’s alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sitting alongside Kevin Spacey on thrones at Buckingham Palace emerged.
British newspaper The Telegraph released the shot on July 4, two days after Maxwell was arrested “for her role in the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein.”
The image from 2002 shows Maxwell and Spacey, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple people — he pleaded not guilty and the criminal case against him was ultimately dropped — laughing as they sit on the thrones of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip during a tour of Buckingham Palace. The tour of the palace is believed to have been arranged by Prince Andrew, the monarch’s son, though it’s unclear who took the image or if Andrew was in the Throne Room at the time.
The American Economy In Four Words: Neofeudal Extortion, Decline, & Collapse
July 9th, 2020Via: Of Two Minds:
In sector after sector, the quality of the goods and services has declined while costs have soared. This is the acme of neofeudalism: insiders and the New Nobility are skimming fortunes as prices skyrocket and the quality of the goods and services provided plummet.
Novartis: Cash Bribes Paid to Doctors to Prescribe Drugs
July 9th, 2020Via: Daily Mail:
A whistleblower who wore a wire to record evidence of doctors taking cash bribes from a Swiss pharmaceutical giant to prescribe their drugs could now be rewarded with $75 million, following the conclusion of a $628 million settlement.
Oswald Bilotta told NBC News how he thought he’d landed his dream job when he was employed as a sales representative for Novatis Pharmaceuticals in 1999, but quickly the proverbial rose-tinted lenses lost their gleam.
Just over a decade later, Bilotta would play a central role in a huge federal investigation into kickbacks at Novatis, wearing a wire for prosecutors to prove doctors were accepting cash bribes from the firm.
His years-long effort to lift the lid on the kickback scheme finally paid off on July 1.
The Justice Department announced a $678 million settlement with the pharmaceutical company over improper inducements it made to doctors to prescribe 10 of the company’s drugs, including the anti-hypertension drug Lotrel.
Deutsche Bank Fined $150 Million for Enabling Jeffrey Epstein; Where’s the Fine Against JPMorgan Chase?
July 9th, 2020Via: Wall Street on Parade:
During this 14-year span of incompetence and cronyism on the part of the U.S. Justice Department, no federal criminal charges have been brought against any financial institution for looking the other way as Epstein withdrew vast sums of cash to pay off his underage victims and their recruiters.
JPMorgan Chase held a bank account for Epstein for 15 years until 2013. That’s five additional years after it was publicly known in 2008 that Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting sex with a minor, became a registered sex offender, and had spent time in jail. (Banks are required under law to “know your customer (KYC),” prevent illicit money dealings, and report suspicions of money laundering to FinCen, a unit of the U.S. Treasury.)
The Justice Department has not brought charges against JPMorgan Chase over its involvement with Epstein despite the bank’s past sordid history in facilitating the laundering of money by Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff for decades. JPMorgan Chase pleaded guilty to two felony counts in that matter in 2014.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Wall Street’s Secrets and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
July 9th, 2020Via: Wall Street on Parade:
We immediately noticed a peculiarity about the indictment document provided by Strauss. It covered only a brief 4-year period, running from 1994 through 1997. One of the main accusers of Maxwell, Virginia (Roberts) Giuffre, has credibly indicated in previous court filings that Epstein and Maxwell sexually abused her “between 1999 and 2002.” That should lengthen the scope of the indictment by five additional years.
The Southern District of New York, home to some of the biggest and most powerful Wall Street banks and their attorneys, who cycle in and out of jobs in that office, might have a strong reason to want to keep Giuffre’s claims out of this case. Giuffre has stated the following in a previous court filing against Epstein:
“In addition to being continually exploited to satisfy Defendant’s every sexual whim, Plaintiff was also required to be sexually exploited by Defendant’s adult male peers, including royalty, politicians, academicians, businessmen, and/or other professional and personal acquaintances…most of these acts of abuse occurred during a time when Defendant knew that Plaintiff was approximately 15, 16 and 17 years old…”
…
There is an abundance of evidence to be suspicious of how the U.S. Attorney’s office is handling this case. It is 14 years that the Justice Department has been sitting on the case against Maxwell.
Related: Ghislaine Maxwell: Dead Woman’s Switch?
Max Igan, The Crowhouse, Removed from YouTube
July 9th, 2020As far as I can tell, this was his last video before he was banned from YouTube.
Via: TheCrowhouse:
More: The Crowhouse
