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United States

Submission + - FBI busts South-Asian gang in securities fraud. (wsj.com)

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: Have you ever wondered why the stock price of certain companies rise (or fall) just before they announce a surprising profit (or loss)? We — who are politically powerless — know that small gangs of criminals are trading on inside information, but we did not have extensive evidence of such criminal behavior before 2009. In 2009, the FBI discovered the most extensive and profitable conspiracy in securities fraud in the United States.

The "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ) has published another report about this conspiracy. Its alleged mastermind is Raj Rajaratnam. He is a South Asian and actively cultivated a network of South-Asian contacts in Silicon Valley; they allegedly include Roomy Khan, Deep Shah, Shammara Hussain, Rajiv Goel, Ali Far, etc. Most notorious were the Indian accomplices. They profited from trading on inside information shared mostly among other Indians, we — who lack such inside information — lost money on the stock market.

The conspiracy allegedly committed by Rajaratnam and his Indian buddies was so egregious that the FBI wiretapped his phone. This incidence is the 1st financial conspiracy in which the FBI used a wiretap.

The FBI busted this South-Asian gang, but if the past is any guide, a conviction for securities fraud does not mean that any criminal will be forced to forfeit all his ill-gotten gains. He will pay a token fine and will spend the next 10 years in one of several country-club prisons. Upon release, he will resume his luxurious lifestyle, which is funded by the ill-gotten profits safely stored in his Swiss bank account.

Did I mention that we — who are politically powerless — are suffering 10% unemployment and cannot afford to buy medical insurance?
United States

Submission + - Xmas-Day terrorist used PETN to destroy airplane. (wsj.com)

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: A report just issued by the "Wall Street Journal" provides new information about the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, an African terrorist, to destroy an in-flight passenger jet. The most disturbing detail is that the explosive device was not a firecracker (which several news organizations erroneously reported). The explosive device is PETN. It is an extremely powerful explosive; according to an investigative report by guardian.co.uk, "[a] little more than 100g of PETN could destroy a car. The device allegedly used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab involved a syringe and a soft plastic container filled, reportedly, with 80g of PETN. The remnants of the bomb are being analysed in an FBI laboratory."

The implication is profound. If Abdulmutallab had succeeded in detonating the explosive at high altitude and, hence, creating a hole in the fuselage of the aircraft, "the decompression would tear the aircraft apart", and all 300 passengers on that jet would have died.
United States

Submission + - Routine Turned to Mayhem on Terror Flight (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to an alarming report just issued by the "Wall Street Journal", a Nigerian man had successfully boarded an American airplane and had taken the initial steps toward detonating some explosives. An American noticed the act of terrorism and tackled the African thug to the floor. The hero dragged the thug to the front of plane and saved all the passengers from a horrific fate.

Comment Lessons for Human Evolution (Score 1) 347

by reporter (#30555500) Attached to: 50 Years of Domesticating Foxes For Science
In this fox experiment, genes determined both behavior and physical appearance. Intelligence is clearly an element of behavior. We should not shy away from the obvious implications for human evolution.

Humankind would necessarily undergo the same sort of evolutionary changes. We can expect differences in behavior among the different races and ethnic groups. Evolution changed both the color of the skin and the type of behavior. Intelligence is one form of behavior.

The belief that all races and all ethnic groups have identical intelligence and identical levels of violent behavior or passive behavior is simply an assumption -- without proof.
United States

Submission + - Extinction awaits last 8 northern white rhinos. (scientificamerican.com)

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: The destructive force of human civilization is about to claim another victim. According to a report just issued by ScientificAmerican.com, "Only eight northern white rhinos exist in the world, all in captivity until recently. Two live in the U.S. at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Six more resided at Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic; four of those animals were crated up on Sunday and flown to Kenya, where it is hoped that living in their natural environment will inspire them to breed." If this breeding attempt fails, then our generation of human morons will witness the extinction of the northern white rhino.

Its population was "destroyed by rampant poaching for their horns, which are valued in traditional Asian medicine and as ornamental dagger sheaths in the Middle East. The northern white also lived in an area plagued by attacks by Sudan's Janjaweed militia, which made protecting that last wild population almost impossible."

How many more species will become extinct before we morons take a definitive stand to protect the earth from our own stupidity? Buddha damn the human race.

Comment Humankind Cares (Score 4, Interesting) 241

by reporter (#30508456) Attached to: Grigory Perelman and the Poincare Conjecture
Eccentric people are people who think in ways that are not constrained by societal norms. Such people are the source of geniuses who, unconstrained by conventional thinking, discover breakthrough technology or scientific principles that ultimately improve the human condition.

Albert Einstein is the most well-known example of an eccentric genius. Grigory Perelman is another example. So is Claude Shannon, the "father" of communications theory.

Yet another example will likely be Burkhard Heim. He formulated the mathematics for warp-drive, and the Department of Defense is actively studying his work in an attempt to build a prototype of a warp-drive engine.

Comment Near-Death Experience of Saab (Score 5, Insightful) 438

by reporter (#30503680) Attached to: A Requiem For Saab
In the middle of this decade, General Motors (GM) owned part of both Saab and Subaru and attempted to save some money by re-badging a Subaru as a Saab and calling the finished product "Saab 9-2X". This single act signaled the end of Saab. Though Subaru has acceptable quality, the re-badging destroys the Saab mystique. You would encounter the same problem if Ford had re-badged the Mazda RX-8 as a "Mustang".

Nonetheless, you need not cry for Saab. It will live again. According to a news report just issued by the "Wall Street Journal", Spyker has made another offer to buy Saab. This time, we have the real deal.
Medicine

Submission + - Father sticks 40 sewing needles into infant son. (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to a report just issued by the BBC, "A Brazilian toddler found with 42 sewing needles inside him has been airlifted for emergency surgery. Doctors have rushed him to a specialist cardiac unit in Salvador after discovering two needles in the left ventricle of his heart. Police earlier said his stepfather had confessed to sticking the needles into the two-year-old boy. Roberto Carlos Magalhaes told them his mistress had told him to ritually kill the child to take revenge on his wife."

Should Magalhaes be subjected to the death penalty even if he is judged to be criminally insane?
The Military

Submission + - $26 of software defeats American military. (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to a report just published by the "Wall Street Journal", SkyGrabber — a computer program that can be easily purchased for $25.95 off the Internet — can read and store the data transmitted on an unsecure channel by an unmanned drone. Drones are crucial to American military operations, for these aerial vehicles enable Washington to conduct war with a reduced number of soldiers.

The Iranians have taught Islamic thugs in Iraq how to read the intercepted data. " ... the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance. ... Some of the most detailed evidence of intercepted feeds has been discovered in Iraq, but adversaries have also intercepted drone video feeds in Afghanistan, according to people briefed on the matter. These intercept techniques could be employed in other locations where the U.S. is using pilotless planes, such as Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, they said."
News

Submission + - French Superpower Challenges American Titan (nytimes.com)

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to a report just published by the "New York Times", President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has issued a direct challenge to the American corporate titan, Google. "[The president] pledged on Monday nearly $1.1 billion toward the computer scanning of French literary works, audio-visual archives and historical documents, an announcement that underscored his government’s desire to maintain control over France’s cultural heritage in an era of digitization.

The French National Library announced in August that it was engaged in discussions with Google over the digitization of its collections, part of a global effort by Google to digitize the world’s great literary works. This provoked an uproar among French officials and the publishing community here, and the discussions were suspended.

'We won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage to the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is,' Mr. Sarkozy said last week, in an apparent reference to Google."

Vive la France!

Comment Capability is only 50% of the sale. (Score 4, Insightful) 53

by reporter (#30362948) Attached to: Building the Dream Google Smartbook
Instead of focusing only on capability, Google's management should also consider the style (of the netbook): the user interface and the aesthetics.

We can easily find a generic x86 notebook that has more capability than a MacBook Pro, but the profit margin of the latter is much higher than the profit margin of the former. The reason is that the MacBook Pro has appealing style. The user interface is comfortable, and the MacBook's case and keyboard are attractive.

A brand-new MacBook Pro does not sell for less than (approximately) $900.

The MacBook Pro is one of those uncommon products which is extremely successful because its touchy-feely features are more compelling than its techy features. The MacBook Pro is a triumph of the business major over the engineering major. Would Apple, in its early days, have been successful if Steve Wozniak (techy guy who designed the product) and Steve Jobs (touchy-feely guy who set design goals on how the product should appeal to consumers) had switched roles?

If Google's management expects to succeed in the market for netbooks, then the management should consider style in addition to capability.
News

Submission + - Russian Judges Resign After Condemning the Kremlin (wsj.com) 1

Submitted by reporter
reporter writes: According to a report just published by the "Wall Street Journal" (WSJ), two senior judges on the Constitutional Court of Russia have harshly condemned the Kremlin for its "undermining the democratic institutions and judicial independence".

"The tensions appear to have started with an interview published in August in Spain's El País newspaper with Vladimir Yaroslavtsev, a 15-year veteran of the court appointed by then-President Boris Yeltsin. In it, Mr. Yaroslavtsev is quoted as saying 'the strengthening of authoritarianism is leading to greater judicial dependence,' referring to the presidencies of Vladimir Putin and his handpicked successor, Mr. Medvedev.

'The security services can do what they want and all judges can do is ratify their decisions,' he was quoted as saying.

In late October, Anatoly Kononov, who has been a justice since the court was formed in 1991 and was also appointed by Mr. Yeltsin, said in an interview with a Russian weekly Sobesednik that he supported 'the greater part' of what Mr. Yaroslavtsev had said to El País."

Under pressure from the Kremlin, "Mr. Kononov, 62 years old, had resigned from his seat on the court effective Jan. 1 'for health reasons.' Mr. Yaroslavtsev, 57, gave up his post as the court's representative at Russia's Council of Judges, an organization with wide powers in judiciary appointments, but will remain a justice ..."

Comment 48 is sufficient for most Ph.D. dissertations. (Score 5, Interesting) 366

by reporter (#30303436) Attached to: Intel Shows 48-Core x86 Processor
A big market for this chip is the computer-science department of 2nd-tier universities like the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB).

Unlike Stanford University, UCSB lacks the money to build a full-blown multiprocessor system. If UCSB had such a system back in the 1990s, then UCSB would likely have produced as much multiprocessor research as Stanford University.

This 48-core processor chip, due to the fact that it will eventually be a commercial product mass-produced by the millions of units, will be economically cheap. This chip will enable UCSB to build or buy a cheap multiprocessor system.

A bunch of graduate students is already salivating at the prospect. They are drooling.

Comment Defective Solution in Search of a Problem (Score 0, Offtopic) 770

by reporter (#30266654) Attached to: Air Cannon Ties Pirates In Knots
If I commandeered a shipping vessel and if I had a choice between (1) some flying rope that can be shot out of an air cannon and (2) on-board artillery like a machine gun (or something that can blast a hole in an on-coming vessel), I would rather choose the artillery. The problem with this flying rope is that it might enrage the pirate, and he might aim his artillery at you and also signal for assistance. If his comrades arrive at the scene, then your flying rope will not stop the thugs from putting a bullet in your head.

Also, this flying rope reminds me of the spider wires that the air force dropped onto the electrical-power plants of Serbia during the NATO action against that country in 1999. The spider wires short-circuited the power plants and cut off power to the parts of the city for hours. The aim was to avoid hurting the civilians (because NATO wants their support) and, specifically, to avoid damaging the civilian infrastructure.

Sometimes, being nice works (e. g., in the case of the NATO action against Serbia), but sometimes being nice does not work. The pirates are not innocent civilians but are hardened criminals. Pirates should be killed , not protected from a military assault by the French Navy.

Not surprisingly, this flying rope appears to be the product of British engineering. The French military, under President Nicolas Sarkozy, is not likely to develop such a "nice", "let-us-be-friends" weapon: Sarkozy is the toughest, most pro-Western leader to appear in Old Europe in the last 50 years.

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