Category Archives: Technology

International, Technology, U.S.

Media Incompetence: Some media calling new flu outbreak H1N1 Swine Flu, FAIL! The new flu is an old version of H3N2

Recently several media outlets have reported that people in the midwestern U.S. have been infected with H1N1 swine flu.  They’ve even reported that instead of spreading from pigs to humans, it’s spreading human to human.

Well that’s because it isn’t H1N1!  According to the United Nations World Health Organization, and the U.S. Center for Disease Control, it’s an influenza A virus of the H3N2 subtype, a type of flu virus that circulates between humans.

Since July 2011, 10 people in the United States have been infected with it.  Why are some media outlets reporting it as H1N1?  If you read the USA Today, and ABC News articles, you’ll notice that H3N2 is only briefly mentioned.  For some reason the articles focus on the 2009 scare caused by H1N1.  More text is dedicated to talking about H1N1 than to this latest form of H3N2.  Call it a case of fear mongering by the U.S. media.

The problem is some international media outlets have picked up the story as an new outbreak of H1N1!

Business/Economics, International, Opinion, Technology

Government Incompetence: More than 80% of Japan’s nuclear reactors to be shut down, get ready for petroleum & coal prices to spike

Combine natural disasters, corporate and government incompetence, and regular inspections, and you end up with more than 80% of Japan’s nuclear power turned off.  That’s disastrous when you realize that Japan’s industries rely on nuclear power!  Can you say poor planning?

On November 25, another nuke plant will be shut down for regular inspection.  But that’s not all.  The remaining operating nuclear power plants will also be shut down going into spring 2012, because of the timing of scheduled inspections.  That means all 54 Japanese nuke plants will be off line!

This means there will be a huge demand coming from Japan for petroleum (oil, gasoline, diesel), natural gas and coal to run traditional electrical generators.  Now imagine what will happen to the price such commodities when an entire country suddenly starts sucking up millions of barrels of fuel per day!

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Global Economic War: Apple now takes the Chinese Yuan, over the U.S. Dollar. Chinese buyers dominate the internet!

“The service has been there since last Friday. It’s really good news for our customers and local application developers.”-Apple China statement

California based Apple Incorporated decided to accept the Chinese yuan (aka Renminbi, or RMB) in an unannounced move last week. One reason is that China is now the world’s biggest internet market!!!

The App Store will now accept yuan credit and debit cards issued by more than 20 Chinese banks.  Another reason for the move is that many Chinese customers using credit and debit cards issued from outside China, were getting their info ripped off.

Apple’s fiscal 4th quarter revenues from China hit $4.5 billion. Their U.S. operations had more revenue, but revenue from China is growing so fast it will soon pass up the revenues made in the U.S.

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Netflix says 2012 will be so bad they will not make any profits. Looking to investors to float them. Blame competition & inflation

Netflix announced on November 21, that they do not expect to make a profit in 2012.  The on demand movie service went from having $366 million in cash, to almost nothing predicted for 2012.

Netflix officials blame it on several things; a huge subscriber loss, increased competition and a huge jump in licensing fees (inflation).

Like most of Corporate America, Netflix thought it could trick its customers into paying more for less. It backfired, company officials now estimate they will lose one million subscribers as a result.

Netflix says it’s seeing a jump in competition, not just from Hulu and Redbox, but from Amazon and Google.

Now comes the licensing fees.  In 2010 Netflix paid $180 million, now that’s jumped to $2 billion for 2012!!!  Company officials say they can not pay the fee upfront and will have to spread payments out over several years.

Under text book economic rules Netflix should pass on the increased licensing fees to its customers, but they already tried that and lost a huge amount of customers.  Netflix will try to ride out 2012 by issuing a crap load of stocks and bonds.  They hope they can get investors to buy at least $400 million worth of stocks and bonds, even though they admit they’re not going to make any profit for 2012.

 

Business/Economics, Technology, U.S.

It’s official, the people of the United States are Crazy! 1 in 5 on mental health drugs!!!

Medco Health Solutions Inc., says the use of drugs, in the U.S., for psychiatric and behavioral disorders rose 22% from 2001 to 2010!

But that’s an overall percentage, the numbers get worse, and more revealing, when you look at specific drugs, conditions, gender and age groups.

1 out of 4 U.S. women are using mental health drugs, the majority are women older than 45.  But there is a alarming trend of increased use among men and and young adults.

More than 20% of U.S. adults used drugs for conditions like anxiety and depression, in 2010.  The study saw a big increase in the use of drugs to control ADHD, especially in adults!

There was a 150% increase in the use of ADHD drugs among people aged 20 to 44 between 2001 and 2010, and a doubling among women in the 45-to-65 group!  I wounder if this has anything to do with the fact that many ADHD drugs are related to ‘speed’?

ADHD drug use in the over 65 age group increased about 30% for men and women between 2001 and 2010!  Are ADHD meds being used to treat memory problems typically associated with old people?  Can you say incompetent doctors grasping at straws?

The Medco study was based on the number of prescriptions issued between 2001 and 2010.





Technology

Cancer cells highly efficient at recycling

A report published by the Science Translational Medicine says at least 30 types of cancer cells are highly efficient protein recyclers.

The reason why cancerous tumors actually grow fast (contrary to outdated medical theories) is that they have an accelerated rate of recycling, also known as chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA).

Scientists hope to develop an anticancer drug by finding a chemical that would interfere with the recycling process.

 

International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: IAEA approves resolution against Iran, Russia & China resist the resoluton

“But this is the magic of diplomacy. If you want to get everyone on board you have to sacrifice something. I hope it will lay the ground for future (UN Security Council) resolutions … I really hope so.”-Ehud Azoulay, Israeli envoy

November 18, the International Atomic Energy Agency has passed a resolution against Iran.  However, no details were included in the resolution, as to exactly what action is to be taken, this was the only way the IAEA could get Russia and China to vote for it.

Out of the 35 countries voting on the resolution, 32 voted for it. Cuba and Ecuador voted against.  Indonesia abstained.

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence: Olympus scandal deepens as company officials destroy documents, investigators say lost money went to organized crime, U.S. investor sues

“Olympus was exploited over its cover up totaling losses of 50 billion yen, and since 2000, over 200 billion yen has disappeared into the underground economy.”-leaked Japanese government memo

The New York Times claims to have seen an official memo, from Japanese investigators, which says it is highly likely that the fraudulent investment schemes that Olympus optical company was part of, were done for organized crime.

Investigators say U.S.$4.9 billion of the money Olympus invested, are unaccounted for! This is far more than initially reported.

This info comes as NHK reported that Olympus officials held a press conference in which they swore they were reforming their policies, and that they really are going to make money this year.

But that doesn’t help the fact that a new unnamed source says what we’re hearing is just the tip of the iceberg, because for years Olympus officials destroyed data, to cover up losses involving foreign investments.

Here in the United States a major holder of Olympus securities is so fed up that he’s filed a lawsuit.  Lloyd Graham says Olympus violated the U.S. securities and exchange laws.  Graham holds Olympus securities specifically issued to the U.S. market, called American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of Olympus.

Graham says Olympus officials intentionally hid investment losses, and released false reports on the firm’s finances and earnings for at least five years.

 

International, Technology, U.S.

World War 3: Pentagon to kill computer hackers, pushing for cyber weapons

A 12 page U.S. Department of Defense report, given to Congress, says all options are on the table for dealing with computer hackers: “When warranted, we will respond to hostile attacks in cyberspace as we would to any other threat to our country. We reserve the right to use all necessary means; diplomatic, informational, military and economic, to defend our nation, our allies, our partners and our interests.”

The President of the United States would make the ultimate call. But analysts say the policy could open a can of worms, after all, if China was able to trace a hack back to the U.S. who’s to say they wouldn’t be legally justified in attacking the U.S. hacker?

Back at the beginning of November, Pentagon officials revealed they are pushing for offensive cyber weapon systems: “We are shifting our investments to activities that promise more convergence with the threat and that recognize the needs of the Department of Defense. Malicious cyber attacks are not merely an existential threat to our bits and bytes. They are a real threat to our physical systems, including our military systems.”-Regina Dugan, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

The irony is that most of the destructive computer hacks, and/or virus attacks, seem to be coming from the United States!  Does that mean our own military is going to start bombing our own computer geeks?

 

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

End of Lawsuit may re-invigorate Idaho’s Micron, gets big boost from George Soros, rumors of insider trading

Finally, after more than a year (the last 8 weeks in deliberations), a California jury has decided in Micron’s favor, ending the possibility of Micron having to pay $11.9 billion in restitution.

A California company was suing Idaho’s Micron, along with a South Korean company, claiming they worked together (colluded) to fix computer chip prices, and to interfere with the California company’s ties with Intel.

Since 2009 Micron has fallen from being Idaho’s top employer, after laying off thousands of employees. If they had lost the lawsuit it would have been their death blow.

Even before the verdict the value of Micron stock started going up (possibly due to George Soros).  Bloomberg News reported that Micron stocks are making “unusual moves” upward.

A big reason Micron stock is going up is that billionaire investor, George Soros, recently bought up 484.5 million senior convertible Micron Technology securities, valued at $$477.6 million!  Maybe a positive turnaround for Idaho’s Micron is finally in the works?

Here’s the problem: George Soros started buying up Micron stock days before the California jury made their decision.  This is now starting rumors of insider trading.  But it’ll be tough to prove, after all, how could anyone know what a jury is going to decide, right?  Oh well, it’s happened before.