Well, the wizards at CITI have found a way to stick a finger in the eye of the taxpayer. Today, CITI announced that it will convert 12.5 billion $ of securities into common shares. What does this mean? It means that with the huge number of new shares, the stake held by current common shareholders (The US Govt, for example) will be diluted by 75%.
The next step, will be an as yet unspecified Reverse Split. This is slick. This is so sad it’s funny.
The U.S. Navy has published an interesting report on the risks inherent in creating increasingly complex, deadly, autonomous killing machines. Apparently, those of us who have been warning of the dangers are not crazy after all.
Some highlights? Oh this is GREAT stuff.
Emergent Behaviors: “…increasing complexity may lead to Emergent behaviors, i.e., behaviors not programmed but arising out of sheer complexity”..
There’s a breakdown of unclassified robotic technology currently in use. This is good stuff for technophiles.
There’s a lengthy discussion of the laws of robotics, including the ethical dilemnas of enforcing the Rules of Engagement associated with the laws of armed conflict.
I highly suggest those with an interest add this to their library on the subject.
Even before the official announcement, the new bailout plan is crushing the markets. More debt upon more debt and no real solutions in sight.
The only investment plan that seems good now? Canned Food and Shotguns.
At the rate with which the U.S. Government is spending Kotlikoff tells us the unraveling will be quick and we can all learn Mandarin.
Layoffs abound. The credit crisis deepens as the housing market continues to tank, or drift along like a patient in a vegetative state. Americans are hurting. There is a real and deepening sense of unease throughout the land.
There is an election and Americans in their great wisdom and eternal optimism vote for a man who says that he will bring change to the government. For a moment, the people celebrate.
How sad, then, that the first act of this new government is to relapse into the same old habits that made the nation sick in the first place. A great crisis has not brought forth from our leaders a great response, but the use of a crisis to pay-off the political base and grab more power.
America needs new policies and legislation that will spur businesses to expand and retain jobs. It needs simple spending plans on infrastructure that will spur local governments to let contracts that put people to work. Instead, Congress has given the people a mish-mash of pet projects, “get-even” legistlation, and policy decisions that have nothing to do with putting people to work. The Wall Street Journal reports that only 12 cents on the dollar is evenly remotely for something that could stimulate the economy and less than half of hte $355B slated for infrastructure will be spent before 2010.
Quite simply, when faced with a crisis and chance to do something good for America the Congress and President balked. They couldn’t pitch one over the plate. Americans are beginning to realize the truth of the matter, that they are on their own. The American people will have to buckle-down, trim the fat, and work their way through this crisis and the coming hard times without any expectation of real help from their elected leaders. Americans are strong, and not prone to sniveling, a fortunate thing for a people with hard times ahead.
Scottish scientist move a step closer to creating our cyborg masters.
Actually, this is exciting technology, the thought that artificial limbs could one day seamlessly integrate with our own nervous systems is mind blowing…
DARPA (the kind, gentle Defense Agency that gave us the interwebs) is funding a project to develop a “robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance military missions without the need for …refueling. The system is designed to obtain its energy by foraging…”
What this means, folks, is that this system will be programmed to self-sustain by “harvesting energy”. It can “find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass” as well as other conventional fuels.
Isn’t it comforting to know that we are creating one of the chief components of our future robot masters? Namely, the programmed desire and functional ability to self-sustain by feeding from their environment. Nothing is more comforting than the thought of an autonomous sociopathic eating machine.
Warehouses being increasingly (and efficiently) run by robot retrieval systems. Self organizing and efficient…you can even name them and call them pets. This is how our future robot overlords will manage to feed us and clean our cages.
Also, note that once the bots start organizing the goods in a warehouse, they become more and more efficient at it.
BBC NewsBeat is running a story about Scottish police “patrolling” the internet for knife wielding gangs members. At least that’s what you’d think from the headline “Scottish police tackle internet knife gangs.” However, the two fresh faced coppers in the article are not, it seems, tackling gangs. They’re identifying FaceBook users who are posing with weapons in photos. If those users are posing in public with weapons, then they are brought in for criminal behavior. If not, the police still pay a visit.
As law enforcement issues go, I don’t see how the police will ever clear the streets of knives and baseball bats. I don’t really care. The one unspoken truth of this article is more troubling. Apparently, law enforcement are being granted super-user status by the social networking sites in order to surf the users. All users should be aware of this before setting up accounts. If these police are looking at these users on Facebook, for example, then they are seeing profiles without being “friended”. This may mean that they are also able to view “private” messages as well as other communications.
Just a further warning to the individual that nothing online is private. Nothing.
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