XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

UPDATE: Chevy Volt Makes NO Money, Costs Taxpayers Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Per Car... -

The Jurassic Press is missing much in their reporting on the $50 billion bailout of General Motors (GM). The Press is open channeling for President Barack Obama - allowing him to frame the bailout exactly as he wishes in the 2012 Presidential election.

The President is running in large part on the bailout’s $30+ billion loss, uber-failed “success.” And the Press is acting as his stenographers. An epitome of this bailout nightmare mess is the electric absurdity that is the Chevrolet Volt. The Press is at every turn covering up - rather than covering - the serial failures of President Obama’s signature vehicle.

The Press has failed to mention at least five Volt fires, myopically focusing on the one the Obama Administration hand-selected for attention.

The Press has failed to mention that the Volt fire problem remains unsolved. Is it the battery? Is it the charging station? Is it the charging cable? All of the above?

GM and the Administration don’t know. And the Press ain’t breaking their necks trying to find out.

In more recent news, the Press has almost as one hailed the June Volt sales increase.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2012/07/17/media-fail-chevy-volt-makes-gm-no-money-costs-taxpayers-hundreds-thous

Colorado man's 6-foot pet lizard on the loose - answers to Dino... -

Emergency notification calls have gone out to residents in three Colorado subdivisions to be wary of a missing 6-foot-long lizard.
The owner of the escaped Nile monitor lizard named Dino says his pet got loose Monday and he hopes no one will hurt it.
According to KRDO-TV, the unidentified owner says his 25-pound lizard broke through its mesh leash. He says the lizard won't eat any animal bigger than a prairie dog.
Emergency notification calls were made to residents in surrounding subdivisions in Teller County west of Colorado Springs.
Teller County Sheriff Mike Ensinger says residents need to be careful because the animal can be aggressive

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/17/emergency-notification-calls-made-to-colorado-residents-after-6-foot-lizard/?test=latestnews

Record breaking wind-powered car is faster than the wind - heading directly upwind at 2.01 times wind speed -

This car is literally faster than the wind…in both directions.
Looking more like a windmill on wheels than an automobile, the Blackbird has set a record by a wind-powered car heading directly upwind at 2.01 times wind speed.
The mark, set earlier this month at the New Jerusalem airstrip in Tracy, Calif., was certified by the North American Land Sailing Association on Monday, and put the vehicle in the record books for the second time.
Two years ago the Blackbird blew the minds of skeptics when it drove directly downwind at nearly three times the speed of the wind, a feat once considered by many to be impossible. It was designed to be pushed by the wind as its wheels, through a transmission, spun a giant propeller which then drove the car even faster with its prop thrust. How it exactly works remains a physics brainteaser and the source of much debate in the scientific community.
To achieve the upwind run, which isn’t as difficult to understand, the system was effectively reversed. The propeller blades were replaced with slightly smaller turbine blades that are spun by the oncoming wind and turn the wheels to drive the lightweight car through gears that increase the turbine to wheel speed ratio. Frictional losses in the design ultimately determine the maximum speed. An annual event called Racing Aeolis is held in the Netherlands each year pitting similarly designed, but slower vehicles in a head-to-head upwind race.
The head of the Blackbird team, Rick Cavallaro, is a professional computer scientist and amateur aerodynamicist and hang and paragliding enthusiast who undertook the challenge as an academic exercise, and any practical applications for the technology have yet to be determined.
As for the Blackbird, Cavallaro says its record breaking days are likely over. He’s in talks with having this very unique car displayed at an aviation museum.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/17/record-breaking-wind-powered-car-is-faster-than-wind/?intcmp=trending

Traffic signs in New Zealand destroyed by pole-dancing prostitutes... - "the prostitutes are big, strong people." -

More than 40 poles have been bent, buckled or broken in the past 18 months in one area of south Auckland, New Zealand, it is claimed.
The signs, bearing legally required notices such as parking restrictions, are thought to have cost ratepayers thousands of dollars to replace.
"Prostitutes use these street sign poles as dancing poles," said Donna Lee, an elected member of the city council's Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board.
"The poles are part of their soliciting equipment and they often snap them.
"Some of the prostitutes are big, strong people."
The revelation emerged as the community board published a tell-all booklet detailing frustrations of residents and businesses struggling to cope with the rampant sex trade on their doorstep.

Part of the area Ms Lee represents is Hunter's Corner, which has become notorious as a meeting place for prostitutes and their customers.
Bernie Taylor, a local resident, said: "We had a parcel delivered to us recently and the address was 'Hooker's Corner' and it found its way to us with no problems whatsoever."
Locals turned out with placards to welcome publication of the community board's report, which calls on parliament in Wellington to give Auckland Council powers to ban sex workers from certain areas of the city.
The report outlines other street incidents, including an angry clash in which it says a transvestite rammed a supermarket trolley into a woman's car before lying across the bonnet, and a school-bus full of children observing a transvestite changing her dress.
John McCracken, the board's chairman, said: "We are beyond moral outrage.
"We just ask for some reasonable control of this industry."
But the Prostitutes Collective warned that outlawing popular streets would encourage sex workers to stop carrying condoms in case they are questioned by police.
Co-ordinator Annah Pickering told Television New Zealand: "They'll be expected to pay a fine, which they can't pay.
"They'll go to court, then they have to come back on to the streets and work to pay them off."
New Zealand has some of the most liberal prostitution laws in the world after the sex trade was decriminalised by the previous Labour government in 2003.

Read more -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/newzealand/9404669/Traffic-signs-in-New-Zealand-destroyed-by-prostitutes-performing-stunts.html

Cyber-Screening, Social Media, and Fair Credit Reporting - potential employers are trawling the Internet -

As American employees, we are increasingly becoming aware that our current and potential employers are trawling the Internet to look for our social-media activity as a way of judging whether we should be hired or retained. Is that practice legal? As a baseline rule, it is, as long as the current or potential employer does not discriminate on protected grounds, such as race, religion, or gender.

Many companies are turning to private data-collection firms as a way of getting around possible discrimination claims or problems. To do so, they are hiring data brokers or aggregation firms that can collect data and “scrub” it (for example, by removing someone’s race). These companies—much like Experian, Transunion, or Equifax, which prepare traditional credit reports—are subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)—a federal law that was designed to ensure that the information provided by third parties to employers or creditors is accurate, and that consumers are informed of any adverse decisions that are made about them, based on such information.

Are companies that compile social-media data subject to the FCRA? Until recently, the answer was unclear, but the FTC has now made it clearer. Indeed, the FTC recently imposed a $800,000 fine against one of these social-media-data companies, Spokeo, for its failure to adhere to the FCRA when collecting social-media data and passing it on to prospective employers.

In this column, I will discuss the implications of the FTC’s Spokeo enforcement action, and why it is important. I will also discuss why the collection and use of social-media data is inherently different from the collection of the kind of data that has traditionally been gathered for credit-reporting purposes. This contrast means that policymakers now need to look afresh at the FCRA to see how it does, or does not, adequately address the ways in which social-media data is used to assess consumer and employee behavior.

The FTC Action against Spokeo: A First Look at the FCRA and Social Media

The FCRA was enacted in 1970 to promote accuracy, fairness, and the privacy of personal information assembled by Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs).

CRAs assemble reports on individuals for businesses that make decisions based on our financial history, including lenders, employers, landlords, and others. The FCRA provides important consumer protections for credit reports, consumer investigatory reports, and employment background checks. The FCRA’s primary protection requires that CRAs follow “reasonable procedures” to protect the confidentiality, accuracy, and relevance of credit information. To ensure that they do so, the FCRA establishes a set of Fair Information Practices for personal information that include a consumer’s rights to data accuracy, limited use of data, and a requirement of notice when data is used to make adverse decisions.

There are three major national CRAs in the United States: Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. There are also smaller credit-reporting agencies that often provide regional services. And, as we have recently learned, social-media-data-collection companies (also referred to as data brokers) may also qualify as CRAs.

Typically, consumer credit reports contain information on financial accounts, and include credit card balances and mortgage information. In addition to compiling traditional consumer credit reports, new companies are now also creating social-media reports or profiles, which are supplied to employers as part of employment screenings.

The Spokeo FTC Action

On June 12 of this year, the FTC issued a press release announcing that online data broker Spokeo, Inc. would pay $800,000 to settle FTC claims that it had violated the FCRA when it sold personal data about potential employees to prospective employers in order to assist those employers in screening job applicants. This FTC enforcement action is the first to apply the FCRA in a social-media context.

The FTC alleges that from 2008 until 2010, Spokeo marketed employee and potential employee profiles on a subscription basis to human-resources officers, and job recruiters as an employment-screening tool. Spokeo collected information about individuals from the Internet and public records in order to create profiles that included contact information, marital status, and age, and, in some cases, more detailed information about hobbies, ethnicity, religion, participation on social networking sites, and photos.

Spokeo offered these composite profiles as a file or dossier that could serve as a factor in a company’s deciding whether to interview or hire a job candidate. Spokeo encouraged recruiters and employers to “Explore Beyond the Resume.”

Consumer reports are broadly defined in the FCRA as information “bearing on a consumer’s credit worthiness, credit standing, credit capacity, character, general reputation, personal characteristics, or mode of living which is used or expected to be used or collected in whole or in part for the purpose of serving as a factor in establishing the consumer’s eligibility for credit or insurance; employment purposes; or any other purpose authorized under [15 U.S.C. § 1681b].” The FTC thus treated Spokeo’s reports as consumer reports.

Accordingly, the FTC found that Spokeo had acted as a CRA, and it alleged that Spokeo violated the FCRA by (a) failing to ensure that the consumer reports that it sold were used for legally-permissible purposes; (b) failing to ensure that the information it sold was accurate; and (c) failing to inform users of Spokeo’s consumer reports pursuant to its obligations under the FCRA.

The FTC’s complaint also alleged that Spokeo violated Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive” trade practices, by requesting that its employees post “deceptive” endorsements of its consumer reports. The employees posed as Spokeo customers when they posted the endorsements. The FTC’s order now requires that Spokeo remove (or request the removal of) these false endorsements, whether they appear on its own website or on third-party websites.

This is the FTC’s first enforcement action focused on the sale of information culled from social media for use in the employment-screening context. Not only is the FTC watching what social-media companies are doing with users’ information, but it is also paying attention to how data brokers are using information that has been collected through social-media sites.

In addition to imposing the $800,000 fine on Spokeo, the FTC’s settlement order also prohibits Spokeo from committing any future FCRA violations, and requires that the company refrain from making future misrepresentations about its endorsements.

Going Beyond the Spokeo Example: Why Social-Media Reports Are Still Problematic

The Spokeo case makes it clear that social-media profiling, when done by CRAs for the purpose of employment screening, is covered by the FCRA. Thus, companies that comply with the statute can legally use social-media profiling. One example of a company that is FCRA-compliant in the social-media area is SocialIntelligence (often referred to as SocialIntel). The FTC previously looked into SocialIntel’s practices and deemed them FCRA-compliant. Thus, according to the FTC, SocialIntel may continue to search for Tweets, Facebook photos and profile information, provided that it continues to comply with the FCRA.

The FTC’s letter to SocialIntel emphasized that when reports include information derived from social media, the same rules apply. For example, companies selling social-media background reports must take reasonable steps to maximize the accuracy of what’s reported from social networks and ensure that the information relates to the correct person. Such companies must comply with other FCRA sections, too—by providing copies of reports to people who request them, and by having a process in place if people dispute what has been said about them in a report.

At present, SocialIntel assembles a dossier that features both positive information—such as professional awards and charitable or volunteer work, and negative information that meets delineated criteria: online evidence of racist remarks; references to drugs; sexually-explicit photos, text messages, or videos; or displays of guns or bombs, for example. Negative social-media profiles may lead to job offers being withdrawn or not made in the first place. A SocialIntel spokesperson noted that one prospective employee was found using Craigslist to search for OxyContin, and was not hired as a result. Moreover, a woman who posted nude photos of herself on a photo-sharing site didn’t get a job she had applied for at a hospital.

Read more -
http://verdict.justia.com/2012/07/17/cyber-screening-social-media-and-fair-credit-reporting

Monday, 16 July 2012

Email shows ICE delayed deporting Obama’s illegal immigrant uncle -

Emails exchanged by top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials confirm that ICE delayed the deportation of President Obama’s uncle, an illegal immigrant, and that they had a close eye on Mitt Romney’s view of the issue.

“Mr. Onyango is subject to a final order of deportation. ICE had granted him a stay of deportation effective until June 5, 2012,” Brian Hale, director of ICE’s public affairs, explained in an April 1, 2012 email to ICE Director John Morton that was obtained by Judicial Watch. “The stay was granted to allow him to attend pending criminal proceedings and to seek reopening of his deportation proceedings, which concluded before the Board of Immigration Appeals on January 29, 1992.”

The emails also show that Hale kept Morton apprised of how Onyango Obama’s case was playing in the media. When Mitt Romney said in December 2011 that he would deport Onyango Obama following his arrest for drunk driving, Hale sent the news report to Morton and other members of ICE leadership.

“It certainly appears that Obama’s uncle is receiving favorable treatment from the Obama administration, which explains that we had to sue in federal court to obtain this material,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “ICE should have deported Onyango immediately, especially after his DUI. We now know that the Obama administration decided not to deport Obama’s uncle despite his being a criminal and being on the lam for at least 20 years.”

Read more -
http://washingtonexaminer.com/email-shows-ice-delayed-deporting-obamas-illegal-immigrant-uncle/article/2502268

Fiat putting espresso makers in cars - but you can't brew up a cup unless your car is stopped -

Fiat putting espresso makers in cars - but you can't brew up a cup unless your car is stopped -

Drivers love fancy technology extras packed in their car and Fiat is hoping their latest innovation may be the best yet - one that can save you a trip to your favorite coffee store.

But the car designers new innovative addition to their latest line, due out in Italy in October, is landing them in some hot water with some consumers concerned about it adding to a mounting list of things that distract drivers. However, the car maker says, don't rush to judgement, you can't brew up a cup unless your car is stopped.

Their new crossover model the Fiat 500L boasts a whole range of accessories, but the one drawing the most attention and perhaps concerns, is their built-in espresso machine. That's right. Forget your Starbucks runs, or trying to rush out the door to work with your homemade brew. Instead, inside your console you'll find a "new coffee machine created in collaboration with Lavazza," considered to be the Starbucks of Italy.

"The 500L is the first standard-production car in the world to offer a true espresso coffee machine that utilises the technology of the 'A Modo Mio' pods," the company said in a press release. "It is perfectly integrated in the car with a deck designed expressly by Fiat."

A video put out by the automaker shows a cartoon character couple debating the choice of having to make a coffee run. But no longer!

"Do you want to take a break while flavouring the best Italian espresso coffee without stepping out of the car? With 500L even this will be possible!" the company touts on its Italian site.

Passengers can brew on the road, filling the car with the sweet aroma of drink of the tired.

Read more -
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/16/debate-brews-around-espresso-machines-in-new-fiat/?hpt=hp_t2

The U.S. Navy's new gender-neutral carriers won't have urinals -

The U.S. Navy's new class of carriers will be the first to go without urinals, a decision made in part to give the service flexibility in accommodating female sailors, the Navy says.

The change heralded by the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers – starting with the namesake carrier due in late 2015 – is one of a number of new features meant to improve sailors' quality of life and reduce maintenance costs, Capt. Chris Meyer said Wednesday.

Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any restroom – or head, in naval parlance – from male to female, or vice versa, helping the ship adapt to changing crew compositions over time, Meyer said.

The Navy could designate a urinal-fitted area to women, of course, but the urinals would be a waste of space. Making the areas more gender-neutral is a relatively new consideration for the service, with most of its current carriers commissioned before it began deploying women on combat ships in 1994.

But it wasn't the only reason for the move.

Urinal drain pipes clog more than toilets and therefore can be smellier and costlier to maintain, Meyer said.

"There's a lot more at play in the design objectives than (making the toilet areas) gender-neutral. We're saving money in maintenance costs, and we’re improving quality of life," said Meyer, manager of the Future Aircraft Carriers Program for the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Other quality-of-life updates, according to Meyer:

– Sleeping areas, or berthings, generally will be smaller, designed for fewer people per room. On current carriers, some berthings have more than 100 sailors each. On the Ford carriers, the number will be closer to 30 to 50 each.

– Heads will be attached to berthing compartments. Currently, many sailors have to traverse a passageway between a berthing and a head, meaning sailors who’ve just woken up have to dress up more for a trip to the head than they would if it were adjacent.

Read more -
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/11/navys-new-gender-neutral-carriers-wont-have-urinals/

Sunday, 15 July 2012

The Real Libor Scandal -

According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing at these low rates. Whereas this is true, it also strikes us as simplistic and as a diversion from the deeper, darker scandal.

Banks are not the only beneficiaries of lower Libor rates. Debtors (and investors) whose floating or variable rate loans are pegged in some way to Libor also benefit. One could argue that by fixing the rate low, the banks were cheating themselves out of interest income, because the effect of the low Libor rate is to lower the interest rate on customer loans, such as variable rate mortgages that banks possess in their portfolios. But the banks did not fix the Libor rate with their customers in mind. Instead, the fixed Libor rate enabled them to improve their balance sheets, as well as help to perpetuate the regime of low interest rates. The last thing the banks want is a rise in interest rates that would drive down the values of their holdings and reveal large losses masked by rigged interest rates.

Indicative of greater deceit and a larger scandal than simply borrowing from one another at lower rates, banks gained far more from the rise in the prices, or higher evaluations of floating rate financial instruments (such as CDOs), that resulted from lower Libor rates. As prices of debt instruments all tend to move in the same direction, and in the opposite direction from interest rates (low interest rates mean high bond prices, and vice versa), the effect of lower Libor rates is to prop up the prices of bonds, asset-backed financial instruments, and other “securities.” The end result is that the banks’ balance sheets look healthier than they really are.

On the losing side of the scandal are purchasers of interest rate swaps, savers who receive less interest on their accounts, and ultimately all bond holders when the bond bubble pops and prices collapse.

We think we can conclude that Libor rates were manipulated lower as a means to bolster the prices of bonds and asset-backed securities. In the UK, as in the US, the interest rate on government bonds is less than the rate of inflation. The UK inflation rate is about 2.8%, and the interest rate on 20-year government bonds is 2.5%. Also, in the UK, as in the US, the government debt to GDP ratio is rising. Currently the ratio in the UK is about double its average during the 1980-2011 period.

The question is, why do investors purchase long term bonds, which pay less than the rate of inflation, from governments whose debt is rising as a share of GDP? One might think that investors would understand that they are losing money and sell the bonds, thus lowering their price and raising the interest rate.

Why isn’t this happening?

PCR’s June 5 column, “Collapse at Hand,” explained that despite the negative interest rate, investors were making capital gains from their Treasury bond holdings, because the prices were rising as interest rates were pushed lower.

What was pushing the interest rates lower?

The answer is even clearer now. First, as PCR noted, Wall Street has been selling huge amounts of interest rate swaps, essentially a way of shorting interest rates and driving them down. Thus, causing bond prices to rise.

Secondly, fixing Libor at lower rates has the same effect. Lower UK interest rates on government bonds drive up their prices.

In other words, we would argue that the bailed-out banks in the US and UK are returning the favor that they received from the bailouts and from the Fed and Bank of England’s low rate policy by rigging government bond prices, thus propping up a government bond market that would otherwise, one would think, be driven down by the abundance of new debt and monetization of this debt, or some part of it.

How long can the government bond bubble be sustained? How negative can interest rates be driven?

Can a declining economy offset the impact on inflation of debt creation and its monetization, with the result that inflation falls to zero, thus making the low interest rates on government bonds positive?

According to his public statements, zero inflation is not the goal of the Federal Reserve chairman. He believes that some inflation is a spur to economic growth, and he has said that his target is 2% inflation. At current bond prices, that means a continuation of negative interest rates.

The latest news completes the picture of banks and central banks manipulating interest rates in order to prop up the prices of bonds and other debt instruments. We have learned that the Fed has been aware of Libor manipulation (and thus apparently supportive of it) since 2008. Thus, the circle of complicity is closed. The motives of the Fed, Bank of England, US and UK banks are aligned, their policies mutually reinforcing and beneficial. The Libor fixing is another indication of this collusion.

Unless bond prices can continue to rise as new debt is issued, the era of rigged bond prices might be drawing to an end. It would seem to be only a matter of time before the bond bubble bursts.

Read more -
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/07/14/the-real-libor-scandal/

$158,000 dog wedding sets record -

Two dogs got married Thursday night at an extravaganza to benefit the Humane Society of New York in what is being billed as the most expensive pet wedding ever.

Bride Baby Hope Diamond, a white Coton de Tulear with black-gray markings, was led down the aisle, resplendent in her canine couture gown.

Her poodle groom, a dapper dude named Chilly Pasternak from Richmond, Va., didn't seem too excited about the whole affair but, nevertheless, went along with the ceremony. Seven-year itch, anyone?

After they got hitched, the cuddly couple were presented with a Guinness World Record in the category of most expensive pet wedding at $158,187.26. The luxury goods and services that went into the wedding were all donated. Guests bought tickets for the Manhattan fundraiser.

Baby Hope was adopted by animal welfare activist Wendy Diamond after her beloved Maltese died of cancer last month. Lucky Diamond, a longtime champion of the underdog, was originally cast as the bride. The wedding instead served as a celebration of the life of the little Maltese.

Lucky herself held a Guinness Record: The animal most photographed with famous people. She posed with more than 300 celebrities, from Twilight actress Kristen Stewart to hip-hop star Snoop Dogg.

No expense was spared for the black-tie gala, held at the Jumeirah Essex House Hotel at Central Park. The "dream team" included a celebrity wedding planner, a "lighting guru" with experience at major museums, and highly touted chefs for the reception, to name just a few.

Since the guests came from more than one species, a company co-owned by Ellen DeGeneres provided a pet food buffet.

"I am not the mother of the bride, since Baby Hope is 56 years old in dog years," Diamond said on her website. "Just call me the Maid of Honor!"

The wedding wasn't 100 per cent highbrow. It was officiated by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

Read more -
http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2012/07/13/dog-wedding-record.html