Hedge Fund Manager Charged With Insider Trading Is Found Dead
June 24th, 2016Via: New York Times:
A high-flying hedge fund manager at Visium Asset Management, who was charged last week with insider trading, has died, apparently the victim of a suicide.
The manager, Sanjay Valvani, was discovered on Monday by his wife in their brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, a New York police official said. Mr. Valvani was found face down on the bedroom floor with a cut to his neck, the official said. He left a note, and a knife was found near his body. He was 44.
The death brought the government’s case against Mr. Valvani to a shocking end. Last week, he was accused of using confidential information from a former Food and Drug Administration official to reap $32 million in illegal gains.
Days after the charges, Visium’s founder, Jacob Gottlieb, announced that he was shuttering the multibillion-dollar hedge fund and selling one of its funds to AllianceBernstein.
The New Censorship
June 24th, 2016“How did Google become the internet’s censor and master manipulator, blocking access to millions of websites?”
Via: U.S. News & World Report:
Google, Inc., isn’t just the world’s biggest purveyor of information; it is also the world’s biggest censor.
The company maintains at least nine different blacklists that impact our lives, generally without input or authority from any outside advisory group, industry association or government agency. Google is not the only company suppressing content on the internet. Reddit has frequently been accused of banning postings on specific topics, and a recent report suggests that Facebook has been deleting conservative news stories from its newsfeed, a practice that might have a significant effect on public opinion – even on voting. Google, though, is currently the biggest bully on the block.
Related: How the CIA Made Google
The Fourth Amendment Does Not Apply to Your Home Computer
June 24th, 2016Via: EFF:
In a dangerously flawed decision unsealed today, a federal district court in Virginia ruled that a criminal defendant has no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in his personal computer, located inside his home. According to the court, the federal government does not need a warrant to hack into an individual’s computer.
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The implications for the decision, if upheld, are staggering: law enforcement would be free to remotely search and seize information from your computer, without a warrant, without probable cause, or without any suspicion at all.
Inside Silicon Valley’s Robot Pizzeria
June 24th, 2016Via: Bloomberg:
In the back kitchen of Mountain View’s newest pizzeria, Marta works tirelessly, spreading marinara sauce on uncooked pies. She doesn’t complain, takes no breaks, and has never needed a sick day. She works for free.
Marta is one of two robots working at Zume Pizza, a secretive food delivery startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through machines. It’s also created special delivery trucks that will finish cooking pizzas during the journey to hungry customers if approved by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Right now Zume is only feeding people in Mountain View, California, but it has ambitions to dominate the $9.7 billion pizza delivery industry.
Britain Has Voted to Leave the European Union
June 23rd, 2016Update: Nikkei 225 Down 7.92%
Via: TheStreet:
As the yen surged, the Japanese stock markets tumbled. The Nikkei 225 plunged 7.92% to close at 14,952.02–the lowest level in 20 months and the largest decline since April 17, 2000.
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Update: Gold: Two Year High
Via: Reuters:
Gold soared as much as 8 percent to its highest in more than two years on Friday after Britain delivered a shock vote to leave the European Union, leaving investors to seek protection in the precious metal.
Gold delivered double-digit percentage gains in sterling terms, topping 1,000 pounds an ounce for the first time in more than three years, while gold priced in euros rallied as much as 13 percent.
The metal pulled back from early highs however as the dollar, in which it is priced, headed for its biggest daily gain since 1978 against a currency basket, but remained elevated.
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Update: Nicola Sturgeon Prepares for Second Scottish Independence Referendum
Via: Guardian:
Nicola Sturgeon says she believes a second referendum on Scottish independence is “highly likely” after the UK overall voted to leave the EU.
The first minister said her government had already started the process of preparing legislation at Holyrood to pave the way for a second vote before the UK formally quits the EU in about two years’ time.
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Update: Plunge Protection Teams Activated
Via: Bloomberg:
Central banks across the world offered the financial system fresh funds and intervened in currency markets, in an effort to reassure investors sent into panic by the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
After a majority of Britons voted to end their 43-year membership of the EU in a referendum, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan issued statements stressing the availability of liquidity to keep the banking system running. The BOJ led the Swiss National Bank and the Danish central bank in displaying readiness to sell their local currencies to cap gains caused by investors seeking haven from the turmoil.
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Update: Cameron Quits
Via: Reuters:
Britain has voted to leave the European Union, forcing the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron and dealing the biggest blow to the European project of greater unity since World War Two.
Global financial markets plunged on Friday as results from a referendum showed a near 52-48 percent split for leaving a bloc that Britain joined more than 40 years ago.
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Update: GBP/USD Next Leg Down
New session low: 1.3219
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Update: Nigel Farage: “Our Independence Day”
Via: BBC:
Nigel Farage has claimed victory in the EU referendum for the Leave campaign, saying 23 June would “go down in our history as our independence day”.
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Update: CIRCUIT BREAKER KICKS IN FOR NIKKEI FUTURES, TRADING HALTED FOR 10 MINS FOR JAPAN STOCK FUTURES
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Update: “Sky News is projecting the UK has voted to leave the European Union”
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Update: GBP/USD Next Leg Down
Little base around 1.344 taken out. New Low 1.3288.
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Update: BBC Ticker: “UK votes to LEAVE the EU”
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Update: Pound 1985 Low
Via: CNBC:
The pound plunged to a more-than-30-year low against the dollar on Friday and the safe-haven yen surged as early results of the referendum on whether to stay in the European Union (EU) showed the leave camp in the lead.
Both currencies gyrated with each updated count. The pound was fetching as little as $1.3459 as results showed the totals swaying in favor of leaving the trade bloc.
This was the British currency’s lowest level against the greenback since September 19, 1985, and came just hours after the pound tapped a year-to-date high of $1.5018, in what may be the currency’s most volatile session since at least 1986. At 11:05 a.m. SIN/HK, the pound was fetching $1.3570.
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Update: Pound Down 11% vs. USD – Leave Slightly Ahead
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Introducing SpotMini
June 23rd, 2016Via: Boston Dynamics/Google:
Doctors Issue Warning About LED Streetlights
June 22nd, 2016Why not just use warmer LEDs? I don’t know about higher output units, but I’ve replaced all of my bulbs with 10 watt LEDs that are 2700k and they’re great. They cost only NZ$9.99 each. Are high output/warm LED units more expensive than cool ones?
I’ve seen some of these cool spectrum LED street lamps in NZ and they look like hell.
Via: CNN:
The American Medical Association (AMA) has just adopted an official policy statement about street lighting: cool it and dim it.
The statement, adopted unanimously at the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago on June 14, comes in response to the rise of new LED street lighting sweeping the country. An AMA committee issued guidelines on how communities can choose LED streetlights to “minimize potential harmful human health and environmental effects.”
Municipalities are replacing existing streetlights with efficient and long-lasting LEDs to save money on energy and maintenance. Although the streetlights are delivering these benefits, the AMA’s stance reflects how important proper design of new technologies is and the close connection between light and human health.
The AMA’s statement recommends that outdoor lighting at night, particularly street lighting, should have a color temperature of no greater than 3000 Kelvin (K). Color temperature (CT) is a measure of the spectral content of light from a source; how much blue, green, yellow and red there is in it. A higher CT rating generally means greater blue content, and the whiter the light appears.
Europe’s Robots Would Become ‘Electronic Persons’ Under Draft Plan
June 22nd, 2016Good luck with that. What about the rest of the world, where automation is rolling out without restriction? Chinese corporations will shit themselves laughing at this one as tens of thousands of human workers are being replaced by robots.
My guess is that the controllers have two options as we head into the automated machine age:
1) Some sort of basic income. Here’s my take on this from 2014:
Something like a basic income could emerge, but it will probably only be enough to survive in a setting akin to a favela. The purpose of the basic income will be to prevent a disorderly societal collapse as machine labor really takes off. Even if a basic income does come into play, I think that large swaths of society will increasingly struggle to get by.
The tech elite know what’s coming and they’re trying to figure out how to remain in their high castles without fear of the peasants causing any problems. A basic income is an easy way to go.
2) Kill off. Vaccines. GMO. Corporate food.
Maybe some of it works like binary chemical weapons:
Binary chemical weapons or munitions are chemical weapons wherein the toxic agent in its active state is not contained within the weapon. Rather, the toxin is in the form of two chemical precursors, physically separated within the weapon. The precursors are designed to be significantly less toxic than the agent they make when mixed, and this allows the weapon to be transported and stored more safely than otherwise…
The chemical reaction takes place when the weapon is deployed. Firing the munition or other deployment action removes the barrier between the two precursors, so they can react with one another.
Maybe Industrial Shit Snack A is relatively benign on its own. But when combined with Industrial Shit Snack B…
I know of no evidence that such a thing is happening, but it would be a very subtle way of thinning the population. Additionally, if any of the combinations were discovered, the companies involved could just shrug their shoulders, admit no wrongdoing, and apologize for the unfortunate coincidence.
And nobody would care: 80% of Pre-Packaged Foods in America Are Banned in Other Countries.
Anyway, back to the silly notion of taxing machine labor… haha
Via: Reuters:
Europe’s growing army of robot workers could be classed as “electronic persons” and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution.
Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation.
Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests.
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The report added that robotics and artificial intelligence may result in a large part of the work now done by humans being taken over by robots, raising concerns about the future of employment and the viability of social security systems.
The draft motion, drawn up by the European parliament’s committee on legal affairs also said organizations should have to declare savings they made in social security contributions by using robotics instead of people, for tax purposes.
Advanced GPS Tracking Possible for Auckland Tolling
June 22nd, 2016The system would track positions of all cars, and could enforce traffic laws.
Have a nice day.
Via: New Zealand Herald:
The Government says GPS tracking may be used to charge drivers for using Auckland’s roads – a move which experts say is the most advanced in the world but also raises concerns about “Big Brother” behaviour.
Road tolls are likely to be implemented in the next 10 years in the city and transport officials say the most effective system would cover all roads and charge motorists different rates depending on when and where they drive.
Transport Minister Simon Bridges said this could be done by GPS satellite, as opposed to toll gantries or cameras.
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“The biggest [concern] is about ‘Big Brother’ – the Government knows where everyone is at all times.”
GPS tracking could also raise questions about whether it could be used to enforce other laws. A recent paper by the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) said proposed changes to the Singaporean system had “caused some anxiety” because transport authorities said it could catch catch speeding cars, red light-runners or illegally parked vehicles.
Tesla Offers $2.8 Billion for SolarCity
June 22nd, 2016Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in NZ.
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Via: Reuters:
Elon Musk on Tuesday sought to build a clean energy powerhouse as his electric car maker, Tesla Motors Inc, made an offer to buy his solar installation firm SolarCity Corp in a stock deal worth as much as $2.8 billion.
Tesla shares plunged more than 13 percent to $189.99 in extended trading – amounting to a loss in value of about $4.3 billion, or more than the value of the offer for the other company. Shares of SolarCity rose about 18 percent to $25.02.
Musk, who is the chairman of SolarCity, CEO of Tesla and the largest shareholder of both companies, described the deal as a “no brainer” in a call with reporters. The company could sell customers an electric car, a home battery and a solar system all at once, he said.
“Instead of making three trips to a house to put in a car charger and solar panels and battery pack, you can integrate that into a single visit,” Musk told reporters. “It’s an obvious thing to do.”
