XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

TomTom user data sold to Dutch police, used to determine ideal locations for speed traps -

We like it when the accumulated speed data from GPS devices helps us avoid traffic incidents and school zones. As it turns out, though, there are some other uses for the same stats. Dutch news outlet AD is reporting that such data captured by TomTom navigation devices has been purchased by the country's police force and is being used to determine where speed traps and cameras should be placed. TomTom was reportedly unaware its data was being used in such a way, but if the police would only agree to sell the data on the location of its speed cameras and traps back to TomTom, why, this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Update: TomTom has issued a statement, which we have embedded after the break. To be totally clear all this data is being collected anonymously and the police have no idea exactly who is speeding, just that speeding has taken place.

Update 2: We have an English-language video from TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn embedded after the break. In it he says that the company will "prevent that type of usage" of the navigation data going forward. So, no need to turn off the 'ol GPS when you're late for work tomorrow morning.

Read m0re - http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/27/tomtom-user-data-sold-to-danish-police-used-to-determine-ideal/

99-Year-Old Nascar Fan Drives Pace Car At NH Speedway - went up to 53 or 54 - had left turn signal on the whole time -

A die-hard Nascar fan got to live out her fantasy at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Tuesday.

Rachel Gilbert, who is approaching her 100th birthday, got to take a few laps around the track.

Gilbert, a Nascar fan since she and her husband went to The Daytona 500 50 years ago, sounded a little bit overwhelmed. She was aiming to hit 100 miles per hour.

“I wish I could have (reached 100 mph), you know, but I went up to 53 or 54,” said Gilbert.

Regardless, she got a crew jersey from her favorite driver, Carl Edwards, who she’ll meet in July when Edwards comes to the track in Loudon, New Hampshire.

“I’m anxious to be here in July now. This is gonna be a thrill for me,” said Gilbert.

Kristen Costa, who coordinated the event, said Gilbert had a lot of fun.

“She hasn’t actually driven in about four or five years” said Costa, who added that Gilbert didn’t even want to get out of the car after she was done.

Should You Buy A Home In 2011? Check Out These 29 Absolutely Crazy Statistics About The Housing Crisis -

Has the U.S. housing market reached a “bottom” yet? Are home prices going to start recovering? Is the housing crisis going to end at some point? Today there are millions of American families that would like to buy homes but they are not sure what to do. After all, nobody wants to end up like all the suckers that bought at the top of the market and now owe far more on their mortgages then their homes are worth. A lot of people are really afraid to take out home loans right now. So should you buy a home in 2011? That is a very good question. The reality is that there are a lot of reasons why home prices could continue to fall. Unemployment is still rampant, and American families simply cannot afford to buy homes without good jobs. Also, lending institutions have really, really tightened lending standards. That is really restricting the number of buyers in the marketplace. The number of foreclosures set another record high last year so there are a ton of homes that need to be sold and not a lot of demand for them. So with all of these factors working against the real estate market, are there any reasons why anyone would actually want to buy a home in 2011?
Well, yes there are. The truth is that all of the reckless money printing that the Federal Reserve has been doing and all of the insane borrowing that the U.S. government has been doing have flooded our financial system with new dollars. At some point all of these new dollars are going to cause a tremendous amount of inflation.
Right now we are seeing the price of gas go up and the price of food go up, but eventually the price of everything (including housing) will go up.
When the U.S. economy totally collapses, you are going to want to have your housing expenses locked in. In a highly inflationary environment you may find that your wages do not keep up with inflation and at some point you may be unable to afford to buy any kind of a decent house at all. If you are renting, you may have to deal with rent increase after rent increase.
The best way to avoid housing inflation when it comes will be to own your own home and have a mortgage with a fixed interest rate. But the timing is key. You don’t want to buy that home too early and you don’t want to buy that home too late.
So when will the exact “right” time be?
That is very hard to say.
However, to give us all some numbers to think about, the following are 29 absolutely crazy statistics about the housing crisis that show just how nightmarish the U.S. housing market is right now….
#1 During the first three months of this year, less new homes were sold in the U.S. than in any three month period ever recorded.
#2 Home prices just keep falling month after month. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index has fallen for seven months in a row.
#3 U.S. home prices have now declined 32% from the peak of the housing bubble.
#4 In Phoenix, Arizona home prices are now down 56% from the peak of the housing bubble.
#5 Home prices in Las Vegas, Nevada are now down 58% from the peak of the housing bubble.
#6 Nearly 70 percent of all Las Vegas mortgages are now underwater.
#7 Due to the housing crisis, there are now more than 167,000 vacant homes in the state of Nevada.

#8 It is estimated that 25% of all mortgages in Miami-Dade County are “in serious distress and headed for either foreclosure or short sale“.

#9 According to a recent census report, 13% of all homes in the United Statesare sitting empty.
#10 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18 percent of all homes in the state of Florida are sitting vacant. That number is 63 percent larger than it was just ten years ago.
#11 In the city of Detroit alone, there are more than 33,000 abandoned homes.
#12 The average home in the city of Merced, California has declined in value by 63 percentover the past four years.
#13 U.S. home values have fallen an astounding 6.3 trillion dollars since the housing crisis first began.
#14 California had more foreclosure filings that any other U.S. state during 2010. The 546,669 total foreclosure filings during the year means that over 4 percent of all the housing units in the state of California received a foreclosure filing at some point during 2010.
#15 Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago.
#16 Approximately 26 percent of all renters in the United States spend more than half their pre-tax income on rent.
#17 It is estimated that 49 percent of all American renters are paying out more in rent than they can afford.
#18 In 1996, 89 percent of Americans believed that it was better to own a home than to rent one. Today that number has fallen to 63 percent.
#19 72 percent of the major metropolitan areas in the United States had more foreclosures in 2010 than they did in 2009.
#20 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.
#21 In September 2008, 33 percent of Americans knew someone who had been foreclosed upon or who was facing the threat of foreclosure. Today that number has risen to 48 percent.
#22 During the month of January, it was estimated that there were 1.8 million distressed homes in the United States that had yet to be listed for sale. Many analysts believe that this “shadow inventory” will extend the housing crisis for several more years.
#23 In February, U.S. housing starts experienced their largest decline in 27 years.
#24 Now home sales in the United States are now down 80% from the peak in July 2005.
#25 Bank repossessions and short sales now make up approximately 30 percent of all home sales in the United States.
#26 As of the end of 2010, new home sales in the United States had declinedfor five straight years, and they are expected to be lower once again in 2011.
#27 31 percent of the homeowners that responded to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey indicated that they are “underwater” on their mortgages.
#28 Deutsche Bank is projecting that 48 percent of all U.S. mortgages could have negative equity by the end of 2011.
#29 According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are currently at least one month behind on their mortgage payments.

Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve will hold the first quarterly press conference - 20 Questions For Ben Bernanke -

1. The rescue packages in 2008-2009 were all aimed at restoring CONFIDENCE to the financial system. Yet from 2001 to 2011 the DXY is down 41.5 and gold is up 473%. Does this not equate to a loss of confidence in the US monetary system? If not how would you explain this phenomena?

2. In March of 2009 you said the ONLY reason you care about Wall Street is because of the affect it has on Main Street. You wanted to become Fed Chairmen to make things better "for the average person". You have been Chairmen since 2006, do you believe you have accomplished your goal? And if so how?

3. In March of 2009 you stated that "many mistakes were made leading up to the crisis of 2008", chief amongst them was "enormous amounts of savings has flowed into the United States, and some other industrial countries. That savings has come from China and East Asia. It's come from oil producers. And it has-- and hundreds of billions of dollars, it has come into our financial system. And, you know, that would be great if we took that money and invested it wisely, and got a high return. But instead, our financial system-- didn't-- didn't do a good job" What has changed since you made that statement? Is money being invested wisely.....getting a high return?

4. You believe that confidence in the financial system, is one of the most if not the most important aspect in creating a lasting recovery. Yet 2 years after the recession ended and the banks have been stabilized, the recovery remains tenuous at best. Could this be because "average people" do not trust a regulatory system that did NOT hold banks and the people therein accountable for their bad/fraudulent behavior leading up to the financial crisis of 2008?

5. What do you consider to be the mandates of the Federal Reserve? Is the "wealth effect" not the 3rd mandate of the federal reserve?

6. You have stated that you believe high food and fuel prices to be transitory. Can you define transitory? And define what you believe to be a return to normalcy for food and fuel prices.

7. In March of 2009 you stated that for QE1 the Fed was printing money. However, you have stated that QE2 is not printing money. Can you define the difference?

8. The recession has been over for 2 years. Yet job gains have been anemic. Why do you think this is? And how long until Americans will see a more normalized unemployment rate?

9. The disclosed portfolio of Maiden Lane I assets includes various eurodollar and interest rate swaps indicative of hedging. Does the Federal Reserve hedge its broader $2.7 trillion SOMA Balance Sheet? And if so how? If not, why not?

10. Has the Federal Reserve ever invested in domestic or international equity markets? If so, which Wall Street broker does the Fed use to conduct equity market interventions?

11. In the June 2003 FOMC Transcript Vince Reinhart disclosed that the Fed had sold derivatives on instruments held by the Fed's balance sheet: "the Desk sold options on RPs for the weeks around the century date change that totaled nearly $0.5 trillion of notional value." Has the Fed since then engaged in selling of derivatives on RPs or any other Fed assets? If so, which Wall Street institution does the Fed use as a broker to transact through?

12. The president recently announced that he will pursue oil "speculators" blaming them for the nearly 50% jump in Crude. Yet a simple correlation shows that broad commodity indices correlate nearly 100% with the size of the Fed's assets. In light of this do you side with the president and blame speculators for the surge in energy prices, or believe this is some collusive cabal acting independent of the surge in free liquidity?

13. A quick look at your most recent balance sheet indicates that "Other Federal Reserve Assets" hit an all time high of $125.6 billion in the week ended April 20. Can you provide a break down of what these "assets" consist of?

14. A prevailing theme of over 80% of recent Permanent Open Market Operations has been the prompt refunding of Primary Dealer "On The Run" (just auctioned off) Treasurys back to the New York Fed, with the Fed purchasing up to over the old SOMA limit of any given CUSIP within a month of auction. Can you explain how this is substantially different from outright monetization of up to a third of any given issue? Can you also explain and quantify what the economic benefits to the Primary Dealers are from participating in such a process? Does the Fed keep track of how much in Mark To Market gains and losses are incurred by taxpayers as a result of the POMO reverse dutch auction? How much money have Primary Dealers made by "flipping" bonds from the Treasury back to the Fed?

15. At the time QE2 is over, the Fed's balance sheet will be just over $2.8 trillion. The DV01 on that amount of holdings will be about $1.5 billion, or in other words a 1% rise in interest rates will be three times greater than the Fed's total capital of $52.6 billion as of April 20. Does the Fed only have a capital buffer for a 33 bps rise in rates? What happens if rates increase by more? What is the basis by which the Fed's total capital account is calculated?

16. As a result of rising interest rates, the principal repayments of agency MBS and agency debt (the mandate of QE "Lite") have ground to a halt. In fact, in the most recent POMO schedule, the QE Lite component was a QE2 low $17 billion. If rates continue to rise (an indication of QE2's failure according to some) the QE Lite mandate will be rendered irrelevant. Does the Fed model for what interest level will end the process of principal repayments on its agency portfolio?

17. The Fed is expected to continue the QE2 Lite mandate of keeping the size of its balance sheet constant, which means rolling maturing Treasurys. As of April 20, the Fed held $119 billion in Treasurys maturing in under a year. Assuming the full amount is "rolled" this is roughly one fifth of the full amount of of Treasurys to be purchased under QE2. If so, will replacement Treasurys be purchased in the open market and what maturities will the Fed be focusing on?

18. Recently the San Francisco Fed compared QE 2 to 1961's Operation Twist whose purpose was to halt the exodus of gold as an interest rate arbitrage vehicle from the US to Europe. Is the Fed conserned that gold is once again being transferred offshore? Does the Fed have a "fair value" estimate for what the price of gold should be under the Fed's current view of the economy?

19. The Fed focuses on CPI to inform its decision about the prevailing rate of inflation in the US. In the US, food and energy components of CPI are deminimis, accounting for under 20% of the overall inflation gauge. Other countries, particularly China whose currency is pegged to the dollar, and whose monetary policy has a major impact on the US as well, have a CPI where food and energy account for nearly half the overall inflation metric. Is it this discrepancy that the Fed will attribute the paradox of China tightening rates (and having done so for nearly half a year now) while the US continues to rely on a ZIRP policy and is still loosening via daily POMO operations? At what point will the Fed consider this parallel tightening and loosening for the world's two largest economies, whose currencies are pegged, problematic?

20. In prior FOMC transcripts, Alan Greenspan indicated that gold had historically been used by the FOMC to gauge inflation expectations. Is it still used in that capacity, and if so what does it tell the Fed about where the market believes inflation is headed?

21. Bonus question: Per Frank-Dodd, the Fed is now regulator of all banks. Yet banks are still allowed to circumvent Mark To Market accounting. How comfortable is the Fed that the financial information provided it by the MTM-exempt institutions is credible, the institutions are actually risk-free, and that the Fed is conducting prudent monetary policy in the absence of real time financial data?

22. Bonus Bonus question: the Fed's primary market-valued liability: the USD has plunged to multi year lows. Yet the Fed's primary market-valued asset: Treasury bills continue to trade in a range and as recently as some months back traded at all multi year highs. To what do you attribute this fundamental mispricing?

Iran tries to make it illegal to own a dog -

If you’re a poodle, get out of Iran.

Actually, if you fit the description of any four-legged tail wagger with a propensity for chasing Peugeots, you are not welcome in that country.

Lawmakers in the nation’s capital have proposed a bill that would make owning a dog illegal.

What do Iranian politicians have against pet pooches?

They’re un-Islamic, disease-ridden and short-legged.

“I would like to thank the honourable police and judges and all those who worked to arrest dog lovers and to confiscate short-legged dogs in this city,” cleric Gholamreza Hassani declared in the city of Urumiyeh.

“Happy are those who became martyrs and did not witness the playing with dogs! Now in our society, women wear hats and men hold dogs!” he added.

Following the advice of the clergy, who consider pet dogs best avoided, few Iranians traditionally kept the animals in their homes, but over the last 15 years there has been an influx of small-dog clutchers and puppy walkers in the country’s cities as the middle class mimics the Western culture seen in movies and on satellite TV.

“Global norms and values capture the heart of people all around the world, and Iran is no exception,” Omid Memarian, a prominent Iranian journalist told Time magazine. “This is very frightening for Iranian officials, who find themselves in a cultural war with the West and see what they’re offering as an ‘Islamic lifestyle’ failing measurably.”

And while lawmakers have largely held off punishing dog lovers for the last decade, the rising number of toy Russian terriers and well-fed dachshunds finally got to be too much.

The bill states dog ownership “poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the West.”

The proposed legislation outlines specific punishments for “the walking and keeping” of “impure and dangerous animals” for the first time, including confiscation of offending animal and fines of $100 to $500.

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Florida Woman Finds 6-foot Alligator in Bedroom - entered the house by crawling through the house's doggie door -

A Florida homeowner received quite a shock when she returned home on Saturday to find a 6-foot alligator in one of her bedrooms, according to reports from Bay News 9.
"I look to the right, and there's an alligator in my guest bedroom," homeowner Alexis Dunbar said.
The alligator is believed to have entered the house after crawling from a pond in the property's back yard, entering through the house's doggie door.
The gator left a trail of blood that led Dunbar to believe her cats had been devoured.
"My cats are like my daughters," she said. "So I thought my cat was eaten. There was blood everywhere."
The cats were fortunately safely recovered, and it was the determined the blood was seeping from the alligator.
Wildlife crews later trapped the animal in a bathroom and released it back into the wild.
"I'm gonna be scared to sleep here tonight [Saturday]," Dunbar said. "[I'm] definitely gonna go look under my bed again before I go back inside."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/24/florida-woman-finds-6-foot-alligator-bedroom/#ixzz1KU08o1oO

Thursday, 21 April 2011

"Weird Al" Yankovic new album: a parody of “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga called “Perform This Way.” - LOL! -

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

US pledged €86m to seal Chernobyl under new ‘shell' - a 20,000-tonne steel shield - to prevent radiation from escaping -

The ruined nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is to be sealed within a 20,000-tonne steel shield designed to prevent any further radiation from escaping for 100 years. It would be large enough to enclose St Paul's Cathedral in London, or the Statue of Liberty.

Governments from around the world have pledged $785m (£480m) at a conference in Kiev, a week before the 25th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Ukraine – on 26 April 1986 the reactor suffered explosions and caught fire. This brings the total raised for the Chernobyl safety works to $1.8bn.

Twenty-eight governments have so far offered money. The European commission was the biggest contributor with $143m at the Kiev Nuclear Safety Summit. The US pledged $123m and Britain, which still has more than 300 hill farms in Wales under radiation restrictions following the fallout from Chernobyl, will contribute $50m. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an extra $172m. Japan, Italy and Canada are considering whether to contribute.

The planned arch-shaped structure will be 190 metres (623ft) wide and more than 100 metres tall, taking five years to build. It will replace the concrete sarcophagus erected around the reactor in the months following the accident. This shield now has cracks, raising fears that 95% of the original nuclear material remaining inside the reactor could escape.

Radiation levels directly over the sarcophagus are too high for the arch to be built over it, so the structure will be constructed in two pieces, then moved over the site on rails. It is designed so that the authorities could start dismantling the reactor from inside in 100 years.

The shield is intended to stay in place until either the radiation threat decreases or the Ukrainian government finds a permanent storage facility for the 200 tonnes of uranium and 1 tonne of plutonium within the ruins.

World governments, which had already raised more than $1.6bn in international funding for the shelter, as well as for a permanent nuclear fuel store for other reactors on the Chernobyl site, said that the currentcrisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan had persuaded them to respond to the appeal by Ukraine, which estimates that Chernobyl has cost the nation more than $12bn.

"Recent events in Fukushima have reminded us of the danger this issue may represent," said the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso.

The French prime minister, François Fillon, said Fukushima evoked memories of Chernobyl: "More than ever, our responsibility is to join together our efforts to limit the consequences of such disasters and to prepare for the future."

Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union at the time of the Chernobyl disaster and now head of the environment group Green Cross International, used the occasion of the 25th anniversary to say nuclear power was not the answer to the world's energy problems or to climate change.

In a statement he said: "Nuclear power has been presented as a financially sound, economically efficient, clean and safe solution that will bring about energy security and drive economic growth. Recently, the so-called 'nuclear renaissance' has hitched a free ride on the back of the need to find low-carbon solutions to the climate crisis.

"The bottom line on the economics of nuclear power is that it simply does not add up. That is why private investment is wisely focusing on better alternatives.

"It is necessary to realise that nuclear power is not a panacea, as some observers allege, for energy sufficiency or climate change. Its cost effectiveness is also exaggerated, as its real cost does not account for hidden expenses.

"In the United States, for example, direct subsidies to nuclear energy amounted to $115bn between 1947 and 1999, with an additional $145bn in indirect subsidies. In contrast, subsidies to wind and solar energy, combined over this same period, totalled only $5.5bn."

But Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "Today, nuclear power is the only real alternative to fossil fuel as a source of a reliable supply."

He acknowledged that confidence in atomic energy had taken a severe blow after the tsunami-triggered disaster at Fukushima. "Fukushima represents a potentially significant setback for nuclear power," he told participants at the forum, although he stressed that confidence would be "re-established in due course", then added: "Chernobyl and Fukushima should be shown to be aberrations."

New British Beer Is Laced With Viagra - called Royal Virility Performance - created to mark the upcoming Royal Wedding -

Forget the little blue pill. A British company has brewed the first beer laced with Viagra.
The new brew is called Royal Virility Performance, and has been specially created to mark the upcoming Royal Wedding.
Downing just three bottles is equivalent to taking one pill of Viagra, which enhances men's sexual performance.

The 7.5 percent alcohol India Pale Ale also contains extra aphrodisiacs including horny goat weed and even chocolate.

The makers of the beer, BrewDog, have even sent several bottles to Prince William for his wedding night.
Just 40 bottles of the beer will be produced initially, and will go on sale the day of the Royal Wedding, April 29, at BrewDog.com. All the proceeds go to the charity Centrepoint, which Prince William supports. But buyers will be limited to one bottle each due to the powerful effects.
If the new beer is a success, the company plans to continue production.
A string of British brewers have already created special edition royal wedding beers, including Adnams Royal Wedding Ale and Castle Rock Brewery's “Kiss Me Kate.”
Last month, Pfizer started selling a chewable version of Viagra in Mexico to cater to the more than 6 million Mexican men who suffer from impotence.
The U.S. pharmaceutical company said the chewable form of the 13-year-old blue pill, known as Viagra Jet, was developed in response to studies of the Mexican market, which is Viagra's biggest in Latin America after Brazil.
"It's a new alternative for patients and doctors," said Beatriz Romero, Pfizer's marketing manager in Mexico. "The chewable format could appeal to patients, particularly those who can't swallow the tablets."
Viagra Jet is only available in Mexico, but the company may introduce it to other Latin American countries, depending upon local regulatory approval, Pfizer spokeswoman Karla Fuentes said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/19/new-british-beer-laced-viagra/#ixzz1K3d7dBci

Michigan Police Download Cell Phone Data During Routine Motorist Stops - grabs all photos and video off of a phone -

Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops
ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

"Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide," ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. "No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure."

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

"With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity," Fancher wrote. "A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched."

The national ACLU is currently suing the Department of Homeland Security for its policy of warrantless electronic searches of laptops and cell phones belonging to people entering the country who are not suspected of committing any crime.

Read more - http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp