07 Aug 2010
Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders

Fascinating stuff - be sure to read the comments, they're almost better than the article itself. I'm pretty convinced that all high frequency trading is a scam, but I can't puzzle out what these bots are up to...

Mysterious and possibly nefarious trading algorithms are operating every minute of every day in the nation's stock exchanges.

(link) [The Atlantic]

22:38 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

05 Aug 2010
Commodity ETFs: Toxic, deadly, evil

The next meltdown is already on the way ...

The warning screams at you: "Do Not Buy Commodity ETFs!" Yes, this Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover reads like National Enquirer or a flashing neon sign on the Vegas Strip.

(link) [Marketwatch]

20:32 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images

Void Where Prohibited by Law"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Hrumpf. Guess that pesky Fourth Amendment is just one more bit that's void where prohibited by law...

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded."

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

(link) [CNET]

20:23 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

04 Aug 2010
The Corporate Alarm Clock

Backwards ClockThis isn't my normal style - normally I post some (hopefully) pithy comment on a news article, and a brief snip of the piece, followed by a link. This time, however, I'm posting the entire article by Kevin Carson, sans comment, pithy or otherwise. Because this little rant so succinctly sums up our conundrum that anything I added would be a waste of bits. So without further ado:

The Corporate Alarm Clock

This morning Joe was awakened by his alarm clock. Thanks to patents, which remove incentives to interoperability and modular design, the clock was designed to be thrown away rather than repaired. Thanks to “intellectual property” law, as well, the company was able to outsource actual production and then charge Joe a 1000% brand-name markup while paying the people who made it pennies. The clock was powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy — a regulated monopoly operating on the same cost-plus markup accounting system as most other public utilities, including the military contractors who gave us the $600 toilet seat. Joe then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility; Joe’s water bill reflects a rate structure which provides below-cost water for large-scale industrial use and agribusiness. Joe watched the news on the kind legacy broadcast media described by Edward Herman, which thanks to the FCC licensing monopolies is controlled by a handful of corporate gatekeepers.

He watched it while eating his breakfast of General Mills cereal, which thanks to government subsidies was produced at some giant mill in Minneapolis, despite the fact that cereal grains are most economically milled on a small scale near the point of consumption. Joe has no idea what’s in his bacon, because the FDA (at Monsanto’s behest) prohibits labeling food as GMO-free. Most of what he eats is loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, and what little “fresh” produce he eats is shipped from a giant plantation thousands of miles away, thanks to USDA subsidies

Joe took pills which were declared safe under an inspection regime originally created at the behest of the drug cartel itself, the inflated costs of which serve as a useful entry barrier and thereby benefit incumbent producers. He paid a 2000% markup on the pills thanks to government-granted patent monopolies. Joe’s medical plan stopped paying for prescription drugs because his weak union has been making more concessions at every contract renewal. The Wagner Act criminalized most of the really effective techniques, so unions like Joe’s are forced to fight by the bosses’ rules.

Joe drives to work on a government-subsidized highway system, built under the supervision of former auto exec Charlie “What’s Good for GM” Wilson. Joe’s commute takes almost an hour. Thanks to subsidized freeways and subsidized utilities to outlying developments, it’s artificially cheap to build monoculture bedroom communities far removed from where people work and shop. And thanks to zoning laws and other regulations against mixed use development, it’s extremely costly to live near your employer or be able to walk to a neighborhood grocer.

Joe begins his workday. He’s doing the work of a downsized person in addition to his own, the work environment is becoming increasingly hostile and authoritarian, and the micromanagement increasingly demeaning. He finds his face sore from the fake smile he constantly displays to reassure the bosses he’s got his mind right. He got no COLA raise last time around, and his insurance copay and deductible are higher. (It all gets back to the union thing above). The bosses sometimes drop hints about closing the plant down and moving to China, which is a whole lot more profitable thanks to World Bank subsidies to the road and utility infrastructure the offshore factories need, and thanks to WTO enforcement of “intellectual property” law that corporate headquarters use to maintain control of outsourced production overseas.

Joe pays his bills with legal tender created by banks, under the state-granted power to loan the medium of exchange into existence out of thin air and then charge interest on it.

After work Joe finds his kids back home from the public schools, where they’re being processed into human resources who will cheerfully take direction from some authority figure behind a desk for the rest of their lives — just like Joe does. While they were there, the kids were taught about the wonders of Our Free Enterprise System (suitably adjusted, of course, by government action to protect us from corporate power run amok).

When Joe goes to sleep, if he’s a conservative, he will thank the beneficent Free Market for all the good things he enjoys. If he’s a liberal, he’ll give thanks for the interventionist state as a bulwark against unbridled corporate tyranny. And he’ll get a night’s rest, preparing for another day of serving the unholy corporate-state alliance that rules his life from cradle to grave.

(link) [Center for a Stateless Society]

21:17 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Amazon e-book tipping point

The digital dark age comes one step closer.

On the strength of the popular Kindle, Amazon says it now sells more e-books than hardcovers. What's being lost is the messy tactile narrative of how books are made manifest and cling to our lives, as "The Hobbit" did to mine.

(link) [Christian Science Monitor]

19:41 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

03 Aug 2010
Comfy Kitty

Moonbeam

 

18:47 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

02 Aug 2010
Senate Aims To Pass Energy Bill Before Recess

Rarely are the machinations of the Corporate State laid so bare as here:

Apparently, it's OK by Republicans - as well as some Democrats - for the little people who took on too much risk (often in the form of subprime loans) in the financial markets to have their liability unlimited, and take it on the chin when things go bad. But it's not OK for a small or medium-sized oil company to face unlimited liability when they take risks that go bad. Then it's OK for the government to bail them out for a potentially unlimited amount. That's called "socialism", isn't it? Or is it only socialist if Obama proposed it?

How many small and medium-sized oil companies are there that could face liability for a spill? Does it matter - isn't that what insurance is for? If I can't get insurance for my car because of my driving record, why should the government for me to effectively insure Big Problems Oil for an unlimited amount over $75 million dollars? Without them even so much as paying a premium?

Fact is, all legal liability limits are direct attacks on the free market - they effectively force risky products and behaviors in the marketplace when they couldn't survive the risk on their own. Nuclear power plants have government imposed liability limits, otherwise there'd be no nuclear power plants. So called "tort reform" is a thinly disguised liability limit. All backed primarily by the Party of Small Government and Freedom™.

It just flabbergasts me still, even though I should know better by now, to see "staunch defenders of the free market" stand up and so blatantly try to squash any free market that dare rear it's ugly head. They're no better than the socialists across the aisle.

Republicans — as well as some Democrats — say it's a bad idea to have unlimited liability for oil disasters. They say only the biggest oil companies have the assets to take on such risk, while small and medium-sized firms would be shut out.

(link) [NPR]

22:25 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Jul 2010
How grep got it's name

I didn't know that!

It all starts back with 'ed', the original unix editor. ed was a command-line editor that worked identically to the colon-commands in vi and vim - in fact, you can press Q to get into ed mode (then type vi to get back into vim).

(link) [Giant Robots]

17:22 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

An American Stasi?

Not only are these things obnoxious violations of our rights, they're positively cheap on the employees, too.

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported on July 25 that “there are 72 fusion centers around the nation, analyzing and disseminating data and information of all kinds. That is one for every state and others for large urban cities.” What is a fusion center?

(link) [The Freeman]

17:19 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

26 Jul 2010
Raw food raid raises questions

Yes.

Do you have the right to eat anything you want?

(link) [Los Angles Times]

22:44 /Agriculture | 2 comments | permanent link

25 Jul 2010
America's god is dying

Very thought provoking article, covering much more than simple religious predilections.

America is the first great experiment in Protestant social formation. Protestantism in Europe always assumed and depended on the cultural habits that had been created by Catholic Christianity. America is the first place Protestantism did not have to define itself over against a previous Catholic culture. So America is the exemplification of constructive Protestant social thought.

(link) [Australian Broadcasting Corporation]

11:39 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

24 Jul 2010
The Revamped Hen House

New Henhouse Roof
A new roof and a new coat of paint, too!

16:19 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

22 Jul 2010
New Hen House Roof

Took a vacation day today and installed a new hen house roof. The existing roof was over 50 years old as far as we could tell, and was starting to seep pretty badly. It needed done.

I used Ondura panels - and am very pleased with the result. They went right on over the old roof, even though it was slightly out of square and badly worn. And it only took me about 8 hours and less than $200 for materials - no tools needed other than a circular saw, chalk line, tape, knife and hammer. Easy as could be.

20:55 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

20 Jul 2010
US Senate clears hurdle to extend jobless help

Let's see if I understand this - the Democrats want to pass out money they don't have to the unemployed, saying it'll help keep'em on their feet and make them want to work. The Republicans say that if we keep giving them (the unemployed) any money, they won't want to work at all.

Until we talk about tax cuts - giving money they don't have to the wealthy among us will make them (the wealthy) want to work even harder. And the Democrats are saying that we should tax the shit out of the well-to-do because then they'll want to work harder to make up the difference.

What am I missing here?

The US Senate voted Tuesday to advance legislation restoring unemployment benefits to help some 2.5 million Americans ahead of November mid-term elections shaped by deep voter anger at high joblessness.

(link) [AFP]

20:26 /Politics | 4 comments | permanent link

18 Jul 2010
Insurers Push Plans That Limit Choice of Doctor

And I'm sure the Republicans will paint this as Obama's "fault", while simultaneously praising the "free market" for bringing more "choice" in health plans ...

I guess Ralph Waldo Emerson was right, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

As the Obama administration begins to enact the new national health care law, the country’s biggest insurers are promoting affordable plans with reduced premiums that require participants to use a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

(link) [New York Times]

21:43 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

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