Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Monday 05.07.2012
Security Bank fails, Banesco snaps it up
by Brian Bandell - South Florida Business Journal
North Lauderdale-based Security Bank N.A. failed on Friday and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. awarded its assets and branches to Coral Gables-based Banesco USA.
The seizure of the bank by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was not a surprise, as Security Bank was in "critically undercapitalized" status on March 31 after suffering repeated losses. The bank received a prompt corrective action order from the OCC in March that warned it to raise capital soon – something the bank could not accomplish.
Shattering the American dream:
The US government's Ponzi scheme
By Richard Evans, Laurence J. Kotlikoff,
and
Kerk L. Phillips - VoxEU.org
The sustainability of government finances is very much the topic of the day. But the issue poses serious questions for the future, particularly how well off today's younger generations will be compared with their parents. This column argues that the Ponzi scheme being played by the US government amounts to "fiscal child abuse" and is close to game over. For today's children the American dream will be just that – a dream.
Fiscal sustainability and generational equity are two of the most pressing policy issues of our times. Yet these two highly related concerns are difficult to clearly define, let alone measure.
The standard metric of long-term fiscal imbalance is official government debt (Reinhart and Rogoff 2009). But, as shown in Green and Kotlikoff (2009), official debt, like time and distance in physics, is not a well-defined economic concept.
Ron Paul taking end-Fed bill before panel Panel to consider bill that would remove five members from FOMC
By Ronald D. Orol, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A House panel led by longtime Federal Reserve critic Rep. Ron Paul will take direct aim at the central bank next week when it considers a bill to abolish the powerful institution.
The legislation will be among a handful of bills that will be looked at on Tuesday by the congressional committee that could all spell significant change to — if not outright elimination of — the Federal Reserve.
China Buys Gold…No Matter Who's Selling
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
05/04/12 Laguna Beach, California – Someone is selling in size…Someone is buying in size. That's what makes markets, as the saying goes. But that's also what makes market manipulations, according to the bloggers at Zero Hedge.
The seller in this case is very large and very sloppy, perhaps intentionally so. The buyer is also very large, but very patient and methodical. Trapped between these two powerful opposing market participants we find a "range-bound" gold market. Let's take a closer peek at the curious goings-on…
Gold to touch $2100/oz in Q4 2012: Deutsche Bank
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Gold prices to touch $2,100/ounce in the fourth quarter of this year, said Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, in a weekly commodities report.
The German bank also added that Gold prices to reach $1,600 an ounce in the second quarter and $1,800 in third.
According to the bank, Central banks are proving to be a powerful source of gold demand, significantly outstripping purchases in previous years.
"We are therefore maintaining are bullish view to the yellow metal," the German bank added.
$10,000 Gold: Nick Barisheff can't hide love for safe haven
TORONTO(Commodity Online): 'The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today', says a Chinese proverb, and it is the advice Nick Barisheff, the leading precious metal expert, would give to investors who feel that it is too late to buy gold.
Gold is the most stable form of wealth preservation for over three thousand years, and it still does today, which out performed all other asset classes since 2002, said Nick Barisheff at an event in Toronto earlier this year. Based on official estimates, America's debt is projected to reach $23 trillion in 2015 and, if the correlation remains the same, the indicated gold price would be $2,600 per ounce. However the gold price will be much higher, taking account of the history.
'Civilized People Don't Buy Gold': Berkshire's Munger
By: Margo D. Beller - CNBC.com
Warren Buffett's right-hand man doesn't like gold any more than his boss does, Charles Munger told CNBC Friday on the eve of Berkshire Hathway'sannual meeting.
"Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you're a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939," the Berkshire vice chairman said, "but I think civilized people don't buy gold, they invest in productive businesses."
Keiser Report: Mafia vs OWS (ft. Geralde Celente) (E283)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss Treasury Secretary Secretary Timothy Geithner is like a monkey who sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil while Wall Street 'elks' are protected by the police from protestor 'wolves.' In the second half of the show Max talks to trends forecaster, Gerald Celente, about economic problems and years of heated geopolitical disputes to come.
Silver: The nature of supply and demand
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com
Many observers of the silver market have wondered why futures prices for silver seem so low when demand for the physical metal continues to increase in the face of an ever dwindling supply of the precious and industrial metallic commodity.
In essence, the economic model of price determination by supply and demand factors would seem to indicate a considerably higher equilibrium price for silver than what is currently prevailing.
U.S. presses China over currency during economic talks
By Christopher Bodeen - AP -WashingtonTimes.com
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Treasury SecretaryTimothy F. Geithner urged Beijing to let its tightly controlled currency strengthen and open its markets wider amid trade strains at a high-level economic dialogue Thursday.
Chinese officials denied the yuan is undervalued and pressed Washington to ease controls on exports of high-tech goods.
Hedge Funds Betting Against the Eurozone:
Why You Should Worry
By John Grgurich, The Motley Fool - DailyFinance.com
Some of the world's most prominent hedge fund managers are betting against the eurozone -- and not just the peripheral countries everyone knows are in trouble. They're taking positions against the core countries, economies that -- until now -- everyone has assumed were rock-solid.
Here's a primer on the world of hedge funds and why the latest developments in the recently resurgent eurozone crisis are yet another warning shot across America's economic bow.
Greek elections to usher in anti-bail-out parties
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Greece's two main parties are set for heavy losses in Sunday's (6 May) elections, with anti-bail-out groups on the extreme left and right to enter parliament for the first time, raising again the prospect of an exit from the eurozone.
Public anger at the austerity measures linked to the second, €130 billion strong bail-out package could translate into a new Parliament unable to form a ruling coalition and a new round of elections being called in the next months.
Draghi: euro countries to lose even more sovereignty
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi has urged eurozone leaders to come up with a 10-year target for the common currency, saying they should accept more transfer of powers if they truly want a fiscal union.
Held exceptionally in Barcelona instead of the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, the monthly meeting of eurozone's central bank governing council on Thursday (3 May) was an opportunity for Draghi to explain what he meant last week when he said a "growth compact" is needed along with the deficit-cutting measures taken by most governments.
France Goes With the Socialist
Truthdig.com
The austerity regime in Europe took a big hit Sunday, with French voterselecting Socialist Francois Hollande, while the Greeks, also voting Sunday, handed out pink slips to the ruling centrist coalition that has slashed government spending on EU orders.
Hollande will be the first left-leaning leader of France in 17 years, an awful long drought considering the country's reputation as a social democracy.
Votes are still being counted as of this posting, but President Nicolas Sarkozy has already conceded.
Hollande ousts Sarkozy in French vote Muddled Greek parliamentary vote may steal spotlight
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
FRANKFURT (MarketWatch)—French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday became the latest in a long line of European leaders to lose his job in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis, conceding defeat to Socialist challenger François Hollande after polls closed in the final round of France's presidential election.
Hollande, 57, said the vote marked a turn against a focus on austerity in response to Europe's long-running sovereign debt crisis.
"Austerity is not an inevitability," Hollande told supporters in Tulle in central France, saying the election marks a "new start" for Europe.
Au Revoir Sarkozy: Hollande wins French presidency
Francois Hollande has ousted Nicolas Sarkozy from the French presidency - to become the country's first Socialist president in 17 years. It was a close call - winning 51 per cent of votes to his rival's 49. Our correspondent Tesa Arcilla has been witnessing the wild celebrations at Socialist Party headquarters in Paris.
Radical left and neo-Nazis score well in Greek elections
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Greek voters on Sunday (6 May) punished the two ruling parties responsible for the last EU bail-out and its austerity measures by giving the radical left the second highest number of votes and allowing a neo-Nazi party into the legislature for the first time.
Early official results after 10 percent of the votes were count show that the centre-right New Democracy party has gained the most votes (19.2%) but it is not enough to re-make the current ruling coalition with the Social Democrats (Pasok).
Rising euro risks could put Gold
in euro terms back into focus: UBS
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold in euro terms could be back into focus in the coming weeks due to rising euro risks, said Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) in a commodity briefing.
In particular, the Swiss bank points to Greek elections Sunday. Whereas the base scenario is for the two main Greek parties to form a coalition government, alternatives are possible as smaller parties, which have rejected a memorandum of understanding with official-sector lenders, are gaining support in opinion polls.
Silver: The nature of supply and demand
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com
Many observers of the silver market have wondered why futures prices for silver seem so low when demand for the physical metal continues to increase in the face of an ever dwindling supply of the precious and industrial metallic commodity.
In essence, the economic model of price determination by supply and demand factors would seem to indicate a considerably higher equilibrium price for silver than what is currently prevailing.
Currency Debasement and Social Collapse
Mises Daily: by Ludwig von Mises
Knowledge of the effects of government interference with market prices makes us comprehend the economic causes of a momentous historical event, the decline of ancient civilization.
It may be left undecided whether or not it is correct to call the economic organization of the Roman Empire capitalism. At any rate it is certain that the Roman Empire in the 2nd century, the age of the Antonines, the "good" emperors, had reached a high stage of the social division of labor and of interregional commerce. Several metropolitan centers, a considerable number of middle-sized towns, and many small towns were the seats of a refined civilization.
Inflation or Hyperinflation?
FOFOA.Blogspot.com
Remember my post around this same time last year titled Deflation or Hyperinflation? At that time, the debate between deflation and hyperinflation was all the rage, and so I wrote a post to a prominent and long-time deflationist named Rick Ackerman, who later stopped by in the comments. In fact, most of my hyperinflation posts have been written in the context of the deflationists' arguments.
I can't say that the debate has shifted from deflation to inflation over the last year, but it sure seems that the arguments coming across my desk these days are for rising inflation with the exclusion of hyperinflation. My position hasn't changed. But this does give me the opportunity to present my position against a different premise, that of inflation without currency collapse. I would guess that some of you will have a completely different view of hyperinflation by the time you finish this post. If so, please let me know in the comments.
The Inflation Threat Is a Bogeyman Here's the one number that proves
that inflation isn't "really" 10 percent.
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
British celebrity historian and Harvard professor Niall Ferguson thinks inflation is "really" much higher than its official number. So does celebrity politician and self-styled Austrian economist Ron Paul. And then there's John Williams of Shadow Stats. He too warns of double-digit inflation -- but curiously takes payments for his newsletter in dollars. Even more curiously, he hasn't increased its price in years.
There's just one problem with the inflation monster. It's not real.
The U.S. economy has added 1.9 million jobs over the past 12 months. That number is the best indicator that inflation isn't 10 percent. Here's why.
The Value of Worthless Money An exhibit considers the politics and art of inflation.
By Raquel Laneri - TheDailyBeast.com
The worse a nation's economy, the more inflated its currency.
That's one of the takeaways from Signs of Inflation, a new exhibition at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The show, presented by the American Numismatic Society, looks at the history of inflation through the 7th century B.C. to present day. (Yes, even Ancient Rome experienced inflation—it needed to finance those wars.) Signs of Inflation includes almost 200 monetary objects, ranging from engraved gold coins and cowrie shells to twisted iron rods and handwritten IOUs. But it also demonstrates the myriad, complex ways a bank note—or coin, shell, or what have you—reveals a society's political and economic health. And it does so through treating money as partly an objet d'art.
The Recession's Invisible Victim Is Trust
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
Part of growing up is having the scales fall from your eyes. My parents raised me to be honest, and I think they did a pretty good job of it. Somehow I got the idea that almost everyone else was the same way. A few bad apples, sure. But a whole bunch?
Eventually I learned that quite a lot of people lie, hold back key truths, and steal. Just one story: At the information desk at the Louvre, the polyglot receptionist told me, "Actually, about half of all lost cameras are returned!" She saw that as a good sign. I took it as evidence that Lex Luthor had it right: "People are no damn good."
Loophole in US Sanctions Allows China
to Trade Gold for Iranian Oil
By James Burgess - OilPrice.com
As we all know by now, at the end of 2011 President Obama signed an act to impose trade sanctions on Iran in an effort to force economic pressure on the Persian nation with the hope that they will halt their nuclear enrichment program. The sanctions will punish any foreign financial institution which conducts transactions with Iran for its crude oil by cutting off that institution from the US financial system. The sanctions officially take effect on the 28th of June this year.
China is Tehran's largest customer, investor, and trading partner, and will find it impossible to significantly reduce that position enough to earn a waiver from the US sanctions. Geopolitically it backs Iran, but its economy is also heavily reliant upon the US economy; it cannot afford to halt all trade with Iran, nor be banned from the US financial system.
How economists have misunderstood inequality:
An interview with James Galbraith
by Brad Plumer - WashingtonPost.com
Before 1980, few academics in the United States gave much thought to the idea of economic inequality. It just wasn't a glaring concern. But in the last 30 years, the incomes of the nation's wealthiest 1 percenthave surged, and more and more economists have been paying attention.
Yet there's still plenty about economic inequality that's not well understood. What's actually driving the gap between the richest and poorest? Does it hurt economic growth, or is it largely benign? Should it be reversed? Can it be reversed? Surprisingly, there's little consensus on how to answer these questions — in part because good data on the topic is hard to come by.
New American Dream is Renting;
Reflections on Renting Houses, Cars, Books, Clothes;
Will Rentership Fuel the Next Boom?
What About Home Prices?
By Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysis.Blogspot.com
Housing has now gone full circle. President Bush's "Ownership Society" has morphed into the "Rentership Society". The attitude applies to more than houses as noted in the Wall Street Journal article Renting Prosperity by Daniel Gross.
Americans are getting used to the idea of renting the good life, from cars to couture to homes. Daniel Gross explores our shift from a nation of owners to an economy permanently on the move—and how it will lead to the next boom.
Keiser Report: Bribe Masters on Shopping Spree (E284)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert discuss how a good morning for Vietnam turned out to be a bad day for America as more families moving into self-storage units while Chinese are spending big money on European shopping sprees. In the second half of the show Max talks to Reggie Middleton of BoomBustBlog about the tech sector and austerity versus stimulus.
Jobs Engine Sputters Again in April Weak Employment Data
Put Pressure on Obama's Pitch of Economic Rebound
By CONOR DOUGHERTY , BEN CASSELMAN
and LAURA MECKLER - WSJ.com
U.S. job growth slowed in April, spooking markets and giving President Barack Obama a tougher sell as he tries to convince voters that the economy is on the mend.
The disappointing jobs report raised concerns that the economy, which appeared to be accelerating late last year and early this year, is bogging down again. The labor force shrank again last month, indicating more workers are throwing in the towel.
Fewer jobs means more spending on U.S. Medicaid
(Reuters) - Millions of people turned to the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor during the 2007-2009 recession as families coped with job losses and drastic drops in income, pushing Medicaid spending up by an average of 6.6 percent per year, according to a study released on Friday.
The study by the nonprofit Kaiser Foundation found that state and federal spending on the program, which states administer with partial reimbursements from the U.S. government, grew to $400 billion in 2010 from $330 billion in 2007.
With Jobs Few, Internships Lure More Graduates to Unpaid Work
By: Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times - CNBC.com
Confronting the worst job market in decades, many college graduates who expected to land paid jobs are turning to unpaid internships to try to get a foot in an employer's door.
While unpaid postcollege internships have long existed in the film and nonprofit worlds, they have recently spread to fashion houses, book and magazine publishers, marketing companies, public relations firms, art galleries, talent agencies — even to some law firms.
Unsheltered homelessness soars in Denver
Denver Business Journal
An annual survey shows an increase of the Denver area's homeless population from a year earlier, with the number of homeless people sleeping without shelter more than doubling.
The annual "Homeless Point-In-Time Study" has been produced by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative since 1998. The study is compiled on a single night -- in this case, Jan. 23, 2012 -- by staffers from various agencies and volunteers who fan our around the area, counting and interviewing homeless people.
Hiring slows, spells trouble for economy, Obama
By Jason Lange
(Reuters) - Employers cut back on hiring in April and more people stopped looking for work, troubling signs for President Barack Obama whose re-election prospects could hinge on his handling of the economy.
Employers added 115,000 workers to payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. It was the third straight month in which hiring had slowed, intensifying fears the U.S. recovery is losing momentum.
Postal Service: House must act to stem mail losses
By Hope Yen - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
WASHINGTON — With financial losses mounting, the nearly bankrupt U.S. Postal Service is urging the House to quickly pass legislation that would give it wide authority to close thousands of low-revenue post offices, reduce labor costs and end Saturday delivery.
At its meeting Friday, the Postal Service's board of governors said that a bill passed by the Senatelast week doesn't go far enough to give the agency the latitude it needs. That bill would provide the Postal Service with an $11 billion cash infusion to help pay down ballooning debt but halt the immediate closing of up to 252 mail-processing centers and 3,700 post offices.
Adobe patches new Flash zero-day bug with emergency update In-the-wild attacks target Windows' Internet Explorer,
says company
By Gregg Keizer - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - Adobe today warned that hackers are exploiting a critical vulnerability in its popular Flash Player program, and issued an emergency update to patch the bug.
"There are reports that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious file delivered in an email message," the Friday advisory said.
Although all editions of Flash Player contain the vulnerability and should be patched, the active exploit is targeting only users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).
EU seeks US help to fight cyber criminals
BY NIKOLAJ NIELSEN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - The EU wants to work closer with the United States' department of Homeland Security and the FBI to help plug gaps on protection against cyber crime - a sector worth €388 billion a year in illegal revenue worldwide.
"To overcome this growing global threat, EU-US cooperation is not a choice, but a necessity," EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told US officials and policy experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Wednesday (2 May).
Space weather expert has ominous forecast Mike Hapgood, who studies solar events, says the world isn't prepared for a truly damaging storm. And one could happen soon.
By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Time
A stream of highly charged particles from the sun is headed straight toward Earth, threatening to plunge cities around the world into darkness and bring the global economy screeching to a halt.
This isn't the premise of the latest doomsday thriller. Massivesolar storms have happened before — and another one is likely to occur soon, according to Mike Hapgood, a space weather scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, England.
"We are Preparing for Massive Civil War," Says DHS Informant
by Dominique de Kevelioc de Bailleul - BeaconEquity.com
In a riveting interview on TruNews Radio, Wednesday, private investigator Doug Hagmann said high-level, reliable sources told him the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is preparing for "massive civil war" in America.
"Folks, we're getting ready for one massive economic collapse," Hagmann told TruNews host Rick Wiles. Sign-up for my 100% FREE Alerts
"We have problems . . . The federal government is preparing for civil uprising," he added, "so every time you hear about troop movements, every time you hear about movements of military equipment, the militarization of the police, the buying of the ammunition, all of this is . . . they (DHS) are preparing for a massive uprising."
Ron Paul Could Still Win Enough Delegates
To Deny Mitt Romney The Republican Nomination
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, Mitt Romney does not have the Republican nomination locked up. In fact, he is rapidly losing delegates that almost everyone assumed that he already had in the bag. To understand why this is happening, you have to understand the delegate selection process. Each state has different rules for selecting delegates to the Republican national convention, and in many states the "voting" done by the public does not determine the allocation of delegates to particular candidates at all. And the truth is that delegates are the only thing that really matters in this race. In state after state, the Ron Paul campaign is focusing on the delegate selection process with laser-like precision, and it is paying off big time. At this point, there is still a legitimate chance that Ron Paul will be able to win enough delegates to deny Mitt Romney the nomination on the first ballot at the Republican national convention in Tampa. If Romney does not have the 1,144 delegates that he needs on the first ballot, then it becomes a brokered convention and anything becomes possible at that point.
Romney and the White Horse Prophecy A close look at the roots of Romney's --
and the Mormon church's -- political ambitions
BY SALLY DENTON - Salon.com
When Mitt Romney received his patriarchal blessing as a Michigan teenager, he was told that the Lord expected great things from him. All young Mormon men — the "worthy males" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it is officially known — receive such a blessing as they embark on their requisite journeys as religious missionaries. But at 19 years of age, the youngest son of the most prominent Mormon in American politics — a seventh-generation direct descendant of one of the faith's founding 12 apostles—Mitt Romney had been singled out as a destined leader.
The Book of Mitt Pundits still haven't figured out how to talk about Romney's Mormon religion. Here's everything you need to know
BY ALEX PAREENE - Salon.com
"The precipitous mountain pass that led the [Mormon] pioneers down into the Salt Lake Valley and still is the route of access from the east on Interstate 80, was first explored by my great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt," Mitt Romney cheerfully writes in "Turnaround," the airport bookstore leadership manual he wrote in 2004 while governor of Massachusetts.
"He had worked a road up along 'Big Canyon Creek' as an act of speculation when his crop failed in the summer of 1849. He charged tolls to prospectors making their way to California at the height of the Gold Rush and even had a Pony Express station commissioned along his pass."
Surveillance State democracy As the FBI seeks full access to all forms of Interent communication, it is not voters who need to be convinced
BY GLENN GREENWALD - Salon.com
CNET's excellent technology reporter, Declan McCullagh, reports on ongoing efforts by the Obama administration to force the Internet industry to provide the U.S. Government with "backdoor" access to all forms of Internet communication:
The FBI is asking Internet companies not to oppose a controversial proposal that would require firms, including Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google, to build in backdoors for government surveillance. . . . That included a scheduled trip this month to the West Coast — which was subsequently postponed — to meet with Internet companies' CEOs and top lawyers. . . .
What the FDA Promises to Do About Obesity
Over the Next 5 Years Marion Nestle takes a close look at the FDA's goals around giving consumers more information about the food that they are eating.
By Marion Nestle - TheAtlantic.com
Ordinarily I find government plans of this type to be soporific but this one is especially well written and well thought out (with some caveats).
The report is a statement of FDA commitment to what it is going to do in the next four years in food areas that affect people and animals. It includes many promises, among them this one of particular interest:
Program Goal 4: Provide accurate and useful information so consumers can choose a healthier diet and reduce the risk of chronic disease and obesity.
The Campus Tsunami
By DAVID BROOKS - NYTimes.com
Online education is not new. The University of Phoenix started its online degree program in 1989. Four million college students took at least one online class during the fall of 2007.
But, over the past few months, something has changed. The elite, pace-setting universities have embraced the Internet. Not long ago, online courses were interesting experiments. Now online activity is at the core of how these schools envision their futures.
This week, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology committed $60 million to offer free online courses from both universities. Two Stanford professors, Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, have formed a company,Coursera, which offers interactive courses in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics and engineering. Their partners include Stanford, Michigan, Penn and Princeton. Many other elite universities, including Yale and Carnegie Mellon, are moving aggressively online. President John Hennessy of Stanford summed up the emerging view in an article by Ken Auletta in The New Yorker, "There's a tsunami coming."
get an education without student loans... Harvard and M.I.T. Take Their Classes Online
By AZADEH ENSHA - NYTimes.com
Digital classrooms are a growing field, thanks in no small part to success stories like the Khan Academy, so it's no surprise that traditional brick-and-mortar universities are increasingly looking to add an online element to their learning platforms.
This week Harvard and M.I.T. joined the fray with a $60 million online-classroom venture named edX. The nonprofit enterprise will offer a variety of free courses across disciplines for anyone with an Internet connection.
Adobe patches new Flash zero-day bug
with emergency update In-the-wild attacks target Windows' Internet Explorer
By Gregg Keizer - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - Adobe today warned that hackers are exploiting a critical vulnerability in its popular Flash Player program, and issued an emergency update to patch the bug.
"There are reports that the vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in active targeted attacks designed to trick the user into clicking on a malicious file delivered in an email message," the Friday advisory said.
Although all editions of Flash Player contain the vulnerability and should be patched, the active exploit is targeting only users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE).
Is Facebook use in the enterprise too risky to allow? With an outright ban on social sites nearly impossible, companies need a strong security regime and staff training, say experts
By Taylor Armerding - CSOnline.com
May 04, 2012 — CSO — It is not news that Facebook, the behemoth of social networking, is less than aggressive about protecting the personal privacy of its 900 million users. But even relatively savvy users may not be aware of how much of their information is collected, how it is used and how little control they may have over it.
And with millions of workers now using social networking in their professional as well as personal lives, those privacy risks extend in a very big way to the enterprise.
Consumer Reports, which released its annual report on Internet privacy and security last week, devotes an entire section to "Facebook and your privacy." Its findings may not surprise most CISOs, but will likely be unsettling all the same...
"Facebook gets a report every time you visit a site with a Facebook 'Like' button, even if you never click the button, are not a Facebook user, or are not logged in."
"Even if you have restricted your information to be seen by friends only, a friend who is using a Facebook app could allow your data to be transferred to a third party without your knowledge," ...
Researchers use diamonds to boost computer memory
Pressure from diamonds used to reduce the electrical resistivity of the computer memory
By Lucas Mearian
Computerworld - Johns Hopkins University engineers are using diamonds to change the properties of an alloy used in phase-change memory, a change that could lead to the development higher capacity storage systems that retain data more quickly and last longer than current media.
The process, explained this month in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), focused on changes to the inexpensive GST phase-change memory alloy that's composed of germanium, antimony and tellurium.
"This phase-change memory is more stable than the material used in current flash drives. It works 100 times faster and is rewritable millions of times," said the study's lead author, Ming Xu, a doctoral student at the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Android malware used to mask online fraud, says expert 'NotCompatible' downloads automatically as soon as an Android user browses to a compromised website, says Lookout
By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld - Android malware being automatically distributed from hacked websites looks like it's being used to mask online purchases, and could be part of a fraud gang's new push into mobile, researchers said today.
"The malware essentially turns your Android phone into a tunnel that can bounce network traffic off your phone," said Kevin Mahaffrey, co-founder and CTO of Lookout Security, a San Francisco-based firm that focuses on Android.
Lookout first published information about the new malware, dubbed "NotCompatible," on Wednesday. Further analysis, however, has revealed the most likely reason why cyber criminals are spreading the malware.
Yahoo informs Facebook of more potential patent infringements Yahoo is already suing Facebook
for alleged infringement of 12 of its patents
By John Ribeiro
IDG News Service - Yahoo is said to have written to Facebook indicating that it believes that 16 patents it claims to hold "may be relevant" to open source technology allegedly being used in the data centers and servers of the social networking company, according to a regulatory filing by Facebook on Thursday.
The Internet company has not threatened or initiated litigation in connection with the matters referred to in the letter of April 23, "but it may do so in the future," Facebook said in the filing.
The Fastest Growing Religion In America Is Islam
By Michael Snyder - EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Do you know what the fastest growing religion in America is? It isn't Christianity. According to the latest U.S. Religion Census that was just released on May 1, 2012, the fastest growing religion in America is Islam. The data for the census was compiled by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, and the results were released by the Association of Religion Data Archives. From the year 2000 to the year 2010, the census found that the number of Muslims living inside the United States increased by about 1 million to 2.6 million - a stunning increase of 66.7 percent. That is an astounding rate of growth. Meanwhile, most Christian denominations had rates of growth that were far below the overall rate of population growth in the United States, and some Christian denominations actually lost members. Sadly, when Barack Obama once said that "we are no longer a Christian nation" he wasn't too far off the mark. Christianity is rapidly losing influence and other religions such as Islam are rapidly gaining members and building new places of worship. As other major religions such as Islam continue to grow in the United States, it is inevitable that this will reshape America in many different ways in the years ahead.
Al Qaeda Magazine Calls for Firebomb Campaign in US
By RANDY KREIDER - ABCNews.com
The men who launched al Qaeda's English-language magazine may have died in a U.S. missile strike last fall, but "Inspire" magazine lives on without them -- and continues to promote jihadi attacks on Western targets, offering detailed advice on how to start huge forest fires in America with timed explosives and how to build remote-controlled bombs.
Two new issues of "Inspire" magazine have surfaced on jihadi forums, the first since radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and chief Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula propagandist Samir Khan were killed by missiles from a U.S. drone over Yemen on September 30, 2011. The magazines eulogize Awlaki and Khan as the "spirit" and the "tongue" of "Inspire" respectively, but deny that their deaths will stop the magazine or jihad
Taliban stronger than before U.S. troop surge: lawmakers
(Reuters) - The Taliban is stronger now than before President Barack Obama ordered a surge of troops to Afghanistan, two senior U.S. lawmakers said on Sunday, contradicting the administration's assessment of the insurgency.
"I think we both say that what we found is the Taliban is stronger," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein told "Fox News Sunday" in an interview that included House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, who agreed with her statement. The two lawmakers returned last week from a trip to Afghanistan..
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