As dealers have slid down the ratings spectrum in recent years, options the industry gave away for free when in better health have become painfully relevant, forcing banks to confront the latest in a long line of post-crisis pricing challenges – the replacement valuation adjustment (RVA). It may be a challenge too far.
“They’re horrible,” says the head of rates trading at one large European bank. “We have no idea how to price them or manage the risk associated with them. All I know is that if we get downgraded to a certain point and our counterparties choose to exercise the option, we are going to lose a lot of money.”
The question is how much. The options, known as downgrade triggers, allow a client to terminate a trade when a counterparty hits a certain rating level and also force that party to pay for a replacement – but banks have no way of knowing how much a new dealer might charge to enter into the trade. As a rule of thumb, one trader that has replaced other banks says a downgraded dealer might be gouged for up to 10% of a trade’s net present value.
This, of course, is the law of the jungle – and traders generally do not cry about that. What makes downgrade triggers different is the systemic risk they could present in markets where they are common, and where trading is concentrated in the hands of a small number of rtls – parts of the inflation swap market, for example. Dealers and clients alike worry the downgrade of a large player in this space, and subsequent mass termination of contracts, could overwhelm the market’s ability to replace the risk.
In this scenario, traders warn the 10% rule of thumb goes out of the window – losses could be many times larger than expected. Sweeping downgrades for dealers as a whole could have a similar effect – forcing affected banks to pay their stronger peers to take on trades at a time when nobody wants to trade at all.
As a result, dealers are doing two things they would normally walk over hot coals to avoid – some are turning away business, and others are calling on regulators for help.
“If regulators are serious about systemic risk, then they should seriously look at not allowing these triggers to exist,” says one head of interest rate structuring at a European bank in London. “Calculating an RVA number will be meaningless as any number computed will be too low and wrong. There is not a lot you can do about it, especially in one-way or closed markets. It is much better to just forbid portfolio rating triggers in derivatives contracts – especially in dynamic portfolios – as they are a blunt source of systemic risk.”
Tim Blake, head of fixed-income department portfolio management at Credit Suisse in New York, says the bank no longer writes new business containing downgrade triggers. “We made the decision that we wanted to stay away from that kind of business. The risks can be unacceptable,” he says. And Credit Suisse is not alone. One other, smaller European dealer says it has the same policy, while at least three other banks claim to have imposed strict limits on the number of swaps they will accept with downgrade triggers.
The second issue is that most dealers believe there is a strong correlation between the risk of a bank’s own downgrade and the downgrade of the rest of the Street. A counterparty may be less likely to exercise the trigger if dealer ratings are all slipping, but if it does so the bank will be paying for a replacement trade in stressed conditions, which is likely to significantly inflate the bid-offer spread.
On uncollateralised trades, dealers fear the replacement cost would be even bigger. The pool of willing counterparties for these swaps has shrunk since the crisis, because of the higher funding and capital charges involved, and this could be exacerbated in the event of widespread downgrades. For collateralised trades, modelling is harder still because each bank quoting will do so on the basis of its own credit support annex – the industry standard document governing bilateral collateral posting, which determines what discount rate should be used.
Finally, RVA should take into account the possibility that the new trade will also incorporate a downgrade trigger and that quoting banks may want to insulate themselves by charging an RVA premium, and that this premium needs to reflect the same fact, and so on, in a dizzying, never-ending cascade of downgrades and replacement charges, each of which would be determined by the same incalculable risks that are contained in the first.
The bottom line is that termination costs can be high, but there is no way of confidently putting a number on them – RVA resides in the land of informed guesses, ballpark figures and back-of-the-envelope calculations. It’s not the kind of thing a dealer is generally happy to quote to a client or explain to a risk manager.
“On a trade with a mark-to-market value of, say, $100 million, a general rule is that firms will take you for $5 million–10 million, just because they can. And we’ve seen this done. We have replaced people, it’s an opportunity to profit,” says one derivatives trader at a European bank.
It can be more painful than that, too. Peter Shapiro, managing director at independent swap adviser Swap Financial, which advises governments, government agencies and non-profit organisations, says he has advised on close-outs in which local US government entities were holding heavily out-of-the-money swaps and the banks were paying to step in as replacements often quoted at steep discounts.
All these issues are magnified in illiquid, concentrated markets – and a number of traders point to the long-dated, LDI-driven inflation swap market in the UK as a prime example. The market is dominated by five or six players, they say, and triggers are a common feature of these trades – so, if one of the bigger houses is downgraded, all hell could break loose.
“Rating triggers are, by their nature, wrong-way risk and are hard to quantify. But even more problematic is when these triggers are being used in a space where the underlying product flow is systemic. All banks will be same way round and a trigger will then catapult the bid-offer to unknown but most likely extreme levels – even more so when liquidity and capacity is also a constraint. Inflation and exotics markets are exposed to this kind of risk. We think this is a source of systemic risk. It is being used and pushed by pension funds and we are trying to dissuade the community from relying on these triggers,” says Guido Hebert, global head of rates structuring at HSBC in London.
The UK inflation swap market is intensely competitive, with bid-offer spreads typically between 2 and 4 basis points, traders say. But in stressed market conditions, the spreads can get as wide as 10bp, according to a trader at a large LDI manager. For a ￡10 billion inflation swap portfolio with an average maturity of 20 years and a ￡20 million sensitivity to a 1bp change in inflation – known as IE01 – this means paying the full bid-offer spread (5bp from mid-market) would result in a cost of ￡100 million.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/!
Showing posts with label associated companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label associated companies. Show all posts
Monday, September 2, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Obama declares a “right” to health insurance
Facing criticism and bad poll numbers over the 2010 healthcare law, known to most as “ObamaCare,” President Barack Obama extolled the perceived benefits of its provisions in his weekly address to the nation and proclaimed that Americans have a “right” to health insurance coverage.“Right now, we’re well on our way to fully implementing the Affordable Care Act. And in the next few months, we’ll reach a couple milestones with real meaning for millions of Americans,” said President Obama, in reference to the state health insurance exchanges that will open on October 1st.
The reality here is that the implementation of ObamaCare isn’t going all that smoothly. Many states are experiencing problems implementing the exchanges, the most recent of which is Oregon. The government is three months behind on data security testing, which opens up concerns about identity theft. The Obama Administration has also delayed two major provisions of the law, the employer mandate and consumer-cost caps.
That doesn’t leave much confidence that ObamaCare is being implemented when the administration has tacitly admitted that the law has very real, very concerning problems. And we have even mentioned the most serious adverse effect of the law yet, which is rising insurance premiums.
“If you’re one of the 85% of Americans who already have insurance, you’ve already got new benefits and protections under this law that you didn’t before,” President Obama told Americans. ”Free checkups, mammograms, and contraceptive care. Discounted prescription medicine on Medicare. The fact you can stay on your real time Location system’ plan until you turn 26. And much, much more.”As Milton Friedman once said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” These services aren’t “free” at all. The costs for these services will be borne through higher health insurance premiums.
“If you don’t have insurance, beginning on October 1st, private plans will actually compete for your business,” continued President Obama. “You can comparison shop in an online marketplace, just like you would for cell phone plans or plane tickets.”Actually, several insurers have left the exchanges, including California, Connecticut, and Georgia, which only diminishes competition, resulting in higher premiums for those who participate in the exchanges.
After taking some shots at conservative Republicans who are making a push in Congress to defund the law, President Obama finally declared that Americans have a “right” to health insurance.
“I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make sure this law works as it’s supposed to,” added President Obama in closing. “Because in the United States of America, health insurance isn’t a privilege – it is your right. And we’re going to keep it that way.”Sigh. This is a familiar collectivist notion. Though usually reserved for countries with strictly government-run healthcare, it has been repackaged for ObamaCare, which is ostensibly a government takeover of the insurance industry through a more corporatist means.
No one has a right to any to goods or services provided by another, whether it’s an insurance company or any other business. Health insurance, a service provided by a company assuming the risk covering someone, is not a right.And even if one does accept President Obama’s notion that health insurance is a “right,” why does ObamaCare ravage consumer-driven health insurance plans, such as HSAs, that hold down healthcare costs? These plans are not only cheaper form of health insurance, they put crucial healthcare decisions in the hands of patients, giving them protect in the form of catastrophic coverage in instances of serious need.
Yes, Americans need greater access to affordable health insurance coverage, no one, including Republicans, disagrees with that. But ObamaCare doesn’t make health insurance more affordable. It increases the overall cost of healthcare through a mix regulation, Indoor Positioning System, and cost-controls. The result, as noted above, is already rising health insurance premiums for both group and individual insurance plans in almost every state because of this ill advise law.
Academic integrity has to be retained if football and basketball teams are to continue to represent institutions of higher learning. How exactly we define “academic integrity” is another debate, for another column. But an athlete accepting payment for signing his or her name is in no way compromising a university’s mission. Nor is it taking advantage of other student-athletes. This is an elementary economics lesson: value of a cheeseburger, a car, or an autograph is determined by the demand of a free market. If someone will fork over $100 for Johnny Manziel to sign his name, Johnny Football should be allowed to pocket that cash. The autograph will almost certainly be sold for triple that amount. Hop on eBay and scan the Manziel-signed items going for more than $1,000.
Two important details on this business opportunity for college athletes. First, it should be open to every athlete. If a backup tailback for the Memphis Tigers wants to make an autograph appearance at Wolfchase Galleria, he should be allowed to do so. How much can he charge? How many fans will get in line? Up to the free market, folks.
And secondly, when a student-athlete signs for pay, the college he represents should get a percentage. If Johnny Manziel performed his heroics for Sewanee or Rhodes College, he wouldn’t be able to charge what he can as The Man at Texas A & M. Yes, the name on the front of the jersey still counts for something in measuring star power . . . and the value of an autograph.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
The reality here is that the implementation of ObamaCare isn’t going all that smoothly. Many states are experiencing problems implementing the exchanges, the most recent of which is Oregon. The government is three months behind on data security testing, which opens up concerns about identity theft. The Obama Administration has also delayed two major provisions of the law, the employer mandate and consumer-cost caps.
That doesn’t leave much confidence that ObamaCare is being implemented when the administration has tacitly admitted that the law has very real, very concerning problems. And we have even mentioned the most serious adverse effect of the law yet, which is rising insurance premiums.
“If you’re one of the 85% of Americans who already have insurance, you’ve already got new benefits and protections under this law that you didn’t before,” President Obama told Americans. ”Free checkups, mammograms, and contraceptive care. Discounted prescription medicine on Medicare. The fact you can stay on your real time Location system’ plan until you turn 26. And much, much more.”As Milton Friedman once said, “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” These services aren’t “free” at all. The costs for these services will be borne through higher health insurance premiums.
“If you don’t have insurance, beginning on October 1st, private plans will actually compete for your business,” continued President Obama. “You can comparison shop in an online marketplace, just like you would for cell phone plans or plane tickets.”Actually, several insurers have left the exchanges, including California, Connecticut, and Georgia, which only diminishes competition, resulting in higher premiums for those who participate in the exchanges.
After taking some shots at conservative Republicans who are making a push in Congress to defund the law, President Obama finally declared that Americans have a “right” to health insurance.
“I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to make sure this law works as it’s supposed to,” added President Obama in closing. “Because in the United States of America, health insurance isn’t a privilege – it is your right. And we’re going to keep it that way.”Sigh. This is a familiar collectivist notion. Though usually reserved for countries with strictly government-run healthcare, it has been repackaged for ObamaCare, which is ostensibly a government takeover of the insurance industry through a more corporatist means.
No one has a right to any to goods or services provided by another, whether it’s an insurance company or any other business. Health insurance, a service provided by a company assuming the risk covering someone, is not a right.And even if one does accept President Obama’s notion that health insurance is a “right,” why does ObamaCare ravage consumer-driven health insurance plans, such as HSAs, that hold down healthcare costs? These plans are not only cheaper form of health insurance, they put crucial healthcare decisions in the hands of patients, giving them protect in the form of catastrophic coverage in instances of serious need.
Yes, Americans need greater access to affordable health insurance coverage, no one, including Republicans, disagrees with that. But ObamaCare doesn’t make health insurance more affordable. It increases the overall cost of healthcare through a mix regulation, Indoor Positioning System, and cost-controls. The result, as noted above, is already rising health insurance premiums for both group and individual insurance plans in almost every state because of this ill advise law.
Academic integrity has to be retained if football and basketball teams are to continue to represent institutions of higher learning. How exactly we define “academic integrity” is another debate, for another column. But an athlete accepting payment for signing his or her name is in no way compromising a university’s mission. Nor is it taking advantage of other student-athletes. This is an elementary economics lesson: value of a cheeseburger, a car, or an autograph is determined by the demand of a free market. If someone will fork over $100 for Johnny Manziel to sign his name, Johnny Football should be allowed to pocket that cash. The autograph will almost certainly be sold for triple that amount. Hop on eBay and scan the Manziel-signed items going for more than $1,000.
Two important details on this business opportunity for college athletes. First, it should be open to every athlete. If a backup tailback for the Memphis Tigers wants to make an autograph appearance at Wolfchase Galleria, he should be allowed to do so. How much can he charge? How many fans will get in line? Up to the free market, folks.
And secondly, when a student-athlete signs for pay, the college he represents should get a percentage. If Johnny Manziel performed his heroics for Sewanee or Rhodes College, he wouldn’t be able to charge what he can as The Man at Texas A & M. Yes, the name on the front of the jersey still counts for something in measuring star power . . . and the value of an autograph.
Read the full products at www.ecived.com/en/!
Monday, July 29, 2013
The Surveillance-Free Day
At 6 a.m. on Friday, I wake up, fumble for my alarm, and roll out of bed. As I walk to the kitchen to brew coffee, I think to myself: I am a cipher. I exist nowhere. My enemies could not find me, even if they tried. These thoughts come to me not because I fell asleep watching The Bourne Identity or took too much NyQuil before bed, but because I’m psyching myself up for a very difficult assignment.
For the next 24 hours, I’m going to try to live completely surveillance-free. I will foil Chinese hackers and the NSA with encrypted texts and VPN tunnels. I will find ways to buy things online without giving away any personal information and communicate via smartphone without producing metadata. Also, I will wear a funny-looking hat with small lightbulbs in it that will protect me from being caught on camera. With expert help and a spy’s toolkit, I will attempt to stick to my normal routine for an entire day, but without leaving behind a trail of data for the government – or anyone else – to collect.
I got this idea a few weeks ago, when some friends and I were talking about what Edward Snowden’s leaks concerning the NSA’s PRISM program meant for the future of privacy. Now that we know that the government can access our phone records and snoop on our e-mails, our Facebook messages, and our Google searches, will any digital interactions ever feel private again? Is it even worth thinking about life outside the Hands free access?
Years ago, people who asked these questions might have been written off as tinfoil-hat nutters. But now, even normal people have reasons to be paranoid. If you're an investigative journalist, a corporate executive working on a sensitive deal, a member of a targeted ethnicity, religious group, or political faction, or merely a citizen who puts a high value on privacy, you're probably already worried about the extent to which you're being snooped on. In a recent poll, roughly half of Americans said that the NSA’s data-collection efforts violated their rights. And as technologies like Google Glass become widespread, the pool of interactions that aren't captured and catalogued — by private companies, the government, or both — will shrink even more.
Last week, after a proposal to defund the PRISM program narrowly failed in the House of Representatives, I decided to test the borders of the surveillance state, by trying to leave it for a day. Several friends pointed out that I could simply go camping in the woods without my gadgets, or become Amish. But my goal is to make my surveillance-free day a relatively normal one. I don't want to wear disguises, change my name, and live on the lam, as Evan Ratliff did for his 2009 Wired story. I want to get online, check e-mail and Twitter, use a smartphone, eat meals at restaurants, buy things at stores, and take public transportation, just like I would on any other day. I want to see if it’s possible to maintain some semblance of personal privacy without time-warping to 1950 (or 1650).
I begin my project by shutting off all the technology in my house that automatically collects or sends out data about me. It’s a horrifyingly long list. I can’t use my Jawbone Up band, which wakes me up, tracks my sleep, and counts the number of steps I take every day. I have to switch my iPhone to airplane mode, turn my iPad and my Kindle off completely, and unplug my Xbox, since it's connected to my home wi-fi network. Just to be safe, I also cover the cameras on my laptop, desktop, and cell phone with snippets of electrical tape, since savvy hackers can gain control of them remotely.
So, after my morning coffee, I start surveillance-proofing my biggest problem spots: my laptop and cell phone. Every day, these two devices transmit millions of data points about me — where I am, who I’m talking to, what I’m shopping for, which animated gifs I’m looking at — to an armada of private-sector companies and third-party marketers. Usually, I accept these leaks as the cost of living a digital life. But today, I’m going to try to tighten the information spigot.
Hundreds of programs and apps have sprung up in the last few years to help people keep their data out of unwanted hands, and when I was planning my surveillance-free day, I enlisted the help of two cyber-security experts to help me sort through them all: Jon Callas and Gary Miliefsky. Jon is a professional cryptographer and the co-founder of a company called Silent Circle, which makes a suite of software that allows you to send and receive encrypted calls and texts. Gary is the executive producer of Cyber Defense Magazine, and the founder of a company called SnoopWall, which makes a suite of apps that prevent cyber-spying and eavesdropping.
The first thing both Jon and Gary told me is that if my goal was complete anonymity and totally untraceable communication, I was certain to fail. They suggested I set my sights lower — shrinking my surveillance footprint, instead of eliminating it.“Are you going to be completely invisible from the U.S. government?” Gary said. “Never. But you can make it painful for them to find you.”
On their advice, I download Wickr, an app that allows you to send and receive encrypted texts and photos that self-destruct after minutes or hours of viewing. (It’s basically Snapchat on steroids.) I also sign up for a site called HideMyAss. It’s a private VPN service that is popular with the anti-surveillance crowd, since it allows you to camouflage your web activity by sending it through a network of thousands of proxy servers scattered around the world. I'm in the Bay Area, but with HideMyAss, I can make it look like I’m logging on from Brazil or Bangladesh.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
For the next 24 hours, I’m going to try to live completely surveillance-free. I will foil Chinese hackers and the NSA with encrypted texts and VPN tunnels. I will find ways to buy things online without giving away any personal information and communicate via smartphone without producing metadata. Also, I will wear a funny-looking hat with small lightbulbs in it that will protect me from being caught on camera. With expert help and a spy’s toolkit, I will attempt to stick to my normal routine for an entire day, but without leaving behind a trail of data for the government – or anyone else – to collect.
I got this idea a few weeks ago, when some friends and I were talking about what Edward Snowden’s leaks concerning the NSA’s PRISM program meant for the future of privacy. Now that we know that the government can access our phone records and snoop on our e-mails, our Facebook messages, and our Google searches, will any digital interactions ever feel private again? Is it even worth thinking about life outside the Hands free access?
Years ago, people who asked these questions might have been written off as tinfoil-hat nutters. But now, even normal people have reasons to be paranoid. If you're an investigative journalist, a corporate executive working on a sensitive deal, a member of a targeted ethnicity, religious group, or political faction, or merely a citizen who puts a high value on privacy, you're probably already worried about the extent to which you're being snooped on. In a recent poll, roughly half of Americans said that the NSA’s data-collection efforts violated their rights. And as technologies like Google Glass become widespread, the pool of interactions that aren't captured and catalogued — by private companies, the government, or both — will shrink even more.
Last week, after a proposal to defund the PRISM program narrowly failed in the House of Representatives, I decided to test the borders of the surveillance state, by trying to leave it for a day. Several friends pointed out that I could simply go camping in the woods without my gadgets, or become Amish. But my goal is to make my surveillance-free day a relatively normal one. I don't want to wear disguises, change my name, and live on the lam, as Evan Ratliff did for his 2009 Wired story. I want to get online, check e-mail and Twitter, use a smartphone, eat meals at restaurants, buy things at stores, and take public transportation, just like I would on any other day. I want to see if it’s possible to maintain some semblance of personal privacy without time-warping to 1950 (or 1650).
I begin my project by shutting off all the technology in my house that automatically collects or sends out data about me. It’s a horrifyingly long list. I can’t use my Jawbone Up band, which wakes me up, tracks my sleep, and counts the number of steps I take every day. I have to switch my iPhone to airplane mode, turn my iPad and my Kindle off completely, and unplug my Xbox, since it's connected to my home wi-fi network. Just to be safe, I also cover the cameras on my laptop, desktop, and cell phone with snippets of electrical tape, since savvy hackers can gain control of them remotely.
So, after my morning coffee, I start surveillance-proofing my biggest problem spots: my laptop and cell phone. Every day, these two devices transmit millions of data points about me — where I am, who I’m talking to, what I’m shopping for, which animated gifs I’m looking at — to an armada of private-sector companies and third-party marketers. Usually, I accept these leaks as the cost of living a digital life. But today, I’m going to try to tighten the information spigot.
Hundreds of programs and apps have sprung up in the last few years to help people keep their data out of unwanted hands, and when I was planning my surveillance-free day, I enlisted the help of two cyber-security experts to help me sort through them all: Jon Callas and Gary Miliefsky. Jon is a professional cryptographer and the co-founder of a company called Silent Circle, which makes a suite of software that allows you to send and receive encrypted calls and texts. Gary is the executive producer of Cyber Defense Magazine, and the founder of a company called SnoopWall, which makes a suite of apps that prevent cyber-spying and eavesdropping.
The first thing both Jon and Gary told me is that if my goal was complete anonymity and totally untraceable communication, I was certain to fail. They suggested I set my sights lower — shrinking my surveillance footprint, instead of eliminating it.“Are you going to be completely invisible from the U.S. government?” Gary said. “Never. But you can make it painful for them to find you.”
On their advice, I download Wickr, an app that allows you to send and receive encrypted texts and photos that self-destruct after minutes or hours of viewing. (It’s basically Snapchat on steroids.) I also sign up for a site called HideMyAss. It’s a private VPN service that is popular with the anti-surveillance crowd, since it allows you to camouflage your web activity by sending it through a network of thousands of proxy servers scattered around the world. I'm in the Bay Area, but with HideMyAss, I can make it look like I’m logging on from Brazil or Bangladesh.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Growth based on cheap money
The chancellor will claim he's pulling off the well-known royal baby effect if, as expected, growth figures improve on Thursday. Prince Charles's birth in 1948 came as Britain entered a quarter-century of recovery, Prince William's heralded green shoots in 1982. Can Prince No-Name-Yet do it again?
The short answer is no. To hit what George Osborne originally promised his austerity would achieve, GDP has to rise by an impossible 5.3% in each of the next two years. Whose growth is it anyway? The great majority will see no improvement in living standards, with wages still falling behind inflation, year after year. And what kind of growth? Instead of his promised rebalancing, the bartender in the Treasury brings the down-and-out alcoholic a bottle of the rot-gut feelgood that put us all in the gutter in the first place. No productivity, no manufacturing, no exports, no investment but instead cheap money, zombie banks primed with quantitative easing who still won't lend, unsustainably low interest rates – and now Help to Buy to pump up house prices.
Homeowners may feel better by the election, able to remortgage and spend again – and what else matters? But we are back on the bottle big-time. Savings are falling, investment is down by a quarter since the crash and 158 countries invest more than Britain. Foreign investment into Britain has been good – but that's put at risk by Conservative euro-madness: as the Engineering Employers Federation said, it relies on access to EU markets.
So is this the time to spend ￡12bn on urging people to buy with a 5% deposit, not even restricted to first-time buyers, on properties up to ￡600,000? True, neither prices nor quantity of sales have reached pre-crash levels – but that's a dangerous benchmark. It's rare to see such a phalanx of loyal Tory-supporters, such as the Institute of Directors, throwing their hands in the air in horror as happened after Osborne's Help to Buy launch on Tuesday. By 2017 the scheme is supposed to end – but as with the Lawson-induced house-price bubble, how do you take the bottle away without another collapse, his critics asked?
Although home owning is falling, down to 64% of the population in 2011, property prices remain our national addiction: just count the number of stories a week gleefully predicting rises. Osborne is betting that homeowners will bring home the electoral bacon. But people now know apparent growth based on cheap money and artificial mortgages is fool's gold. Here is Labour's chance to be the wiser party, ready to sober up the real time Location system.
House prices are highly sensitive to government words and actions. Labour should say loudly and firmly that it will do everything in its power to freeze prices. Language and firm intent can chill expectations. Lay out a policy whose stated aim is to house people well and restore homes as a commodity like any other, not a one-way bet to wealth. Plan to build at least a million homes, instruct and enable local authorities and housing associations to build and force developers to use their hoarded land or sell it on. Freeze rents so they rise by no more than annual inflation to stop property being used as investment, redirecting that money productively. Warn that if prices still rise, from now on capital gains tax may be imposed on homes to chill the market. Do whatever it takes, and say so loudly.
Labour will borrow to invest outside the current spending straitjacket it has accepted for year one, that investment sum to be announced nearer the election. Why not describe that as the national mortgage, the nation borrowing to build massively to invest in the future generation, just as households do? A national mortgage to build would contrast well with Help to Buy inflating existing stock into new bubble prices.
The federal government may be one step closer to keeping tabs on consumers’ health care information with a new data hub compiling personal information from a host of government agencies and newly collected health status information.Some experts warn it could get even more invasive over time.The Data Services Hub will be the primary computer program to verify eligibility for Obamacare exchanges. But the program will collect and compile such massive amounts of information that lawmakers and experts are increasingly fearful of privacy infringement.
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Pat Meehan warned The Daily Caller News Foundation that the program is a “massive data grab” and will put citizens’ private information at risk.But the program, which has been receiving heat over the large amount of personal data it will connect from various government sources, will also add health status to the mix — an addition Meehan finds distrubing
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Marilyn Tavenner, whose department will oversee the Hub, told lawmakers last week that the limited health information required will be relevant to the type of coverage they receive under Obamacare exchanges.
The government’s problem lies in an Obamacare requirement for a certain level of coverage for a certain price, creating “huge incentives for insurers to avoid the sick,” Cannon explained. “Insurers have to provide coverage to customers for $10,000 when the person uses $100,000 in medical care.”One attempt to alleviate price fixing problems is CMS’s Risk Adjustment Program, which would give subsidies to insurance companies with the sickest patients. But Cannon argues that this system will inherently lead to more government snooping.
“Well, how do they know which insurance companies have the sickest patients? The only way they can do that and keep costs under control is to delve into the illnesses that people have and the treatments they’re receiving to verify if these people are actually sick,” Cannon told TheDCNF. The adjustment will require more federal intrusion in the health of the masses.
And the Data Services Hub could be the means to that end. The hub is already set to collect what it calls “limited” personal health information, pertaining only to pregnancy status, blindness, and disability status.On top of these disclosures, Meehan warned that more and more information could be wrangled out of consumers. “When CMS articulates what they’re asking for now, they say ‘including but not limited to’ in all the descriptions,” the congressman told TheDCNF, leaving a window open to adding more federal agencies to the sharing program or increasing the amount of health information to be included in the Hub.
Cannon warns, “There’s a built-in need in Obamacare for the federal government to have more and more access to people’s medical information.” With such pressures on federal regulators it seems unlikely that the data sharing program, which two experts alleged in USA Today will be the “largest consolidation of personal information in the history of the republic,” will be limited to just three categories of health information.
Along with the federal government’s collection of ever-increasing amounts of personal health data comes increased security risks. Meehan told TheDCNF he is unsatisfied with CMS’s cyber security protocols, after his questioning during a House hearing last week forced Tavenner to admit she’d never attended an FBI or Department of Homeland Security briefing on preventing cyber attacks against the data hub.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
The short answer is no. To hit what George Osborne originally promised his austerity would achieve, GDP has to rise by an impossible 5.3% in each of the next two years. Whose growth is it anyway? The great majority will see no improvement in living standards, with wages still falling behind inflation, year after year. And what kind of growth? Instead of his promised rebalancing, the bartender in the Treasury brings the down-and-out alcoholic a bottle of the rot-gut feelgood that put us all in the gutter in the first place. No productivity, no manufacturing, no exports, no investment but instead cheap money, zombie banks primed with quantitative easing who still won't lend, unsustainably low interest rates – and now Help to Buy to pump up house prices.
Homeowners may feel better by the election, able to remortgage and spend again – and what else matters? But we are back on the bottle big-time. Savings are falling, investment is down by a quarter since the crash and 158 countries invest more than Britain. Foreign investment into Britain has been good – but that's put at risk by Conservative euro-madness: as the Engineering Employers Federation said, it relies on access to EU markets.
So is this the time to spend ￡12bn on urging people to buy with a 5% deposit, not even restricted to first-time buyers, on properties up to ￡600,000? True, neither prices nor quantity of sales have reached pre-crash levels – but that's a dangerous benchmark. It's rare to see such a phalanx of loyal Tory-supporters, such as the Institute of Directors, throwing their hands in the air in horror as happened after Osborne's Help to Buy launch on Tuesday. By 2017 the scheme is supposed to end – but as with the Lawson-induced house-price bubble, how do you take the bottle away without another collapse, his critics asked?
Although home owning is falling, down to 64% of the population in 2011, property prices remain our national addiction: just count the number of stories a week gleefully predicting rises. Osborne is betting that homeowners will bring home the electoral bacon. But people now know apparent growth based on cheap money and artificial mortgages is fool's gold. Here is Labour's chance to be the wiser party, ready to sober up the real time Location system.
House prices are highly sensitive to government words and actions. Labour should say loudly and firmly that it will do everything in its power to freeze prices. Language and firm intent can chill expectations. Lay out a policy whose stated aim is to house people well and restore homes as a commodity like any other, not a one-way bet to wealth. Plan to build at least a million homes, instruct and enable local authorities and housing associations to build and force developers to use their hoarded land or sell it on. Freeze rents so they rise by no more than annual inflation to stop property being used as investment, redirecting that money productively. Warn that if prices still rise, from now on capital gains tax may be imposed on homes to chill the market. Do whatever it takes, and say so loudly.
Labour will borrow to invest outside the current spending straitjacket it has accepted for year one, that investment sum to be announced nearer the election. Why not describe that as the national mortgage, the nation borrowing to build massively to invest in the future generation, just as households do? A national mortgage to build would contrast well with Help to Buy inflating existing stock into new bubble prices.
The federal government may be one step closer to keeping tabs on consumers’ health care information with a new data hub compiling personal information from a host of government agencies and newly collected health status information.Some experts warn it could get even more invasive over time.The Data Services Hub will be the primary computer program to verify eligibility for Obamacare exchanges. But the program will collect and compile such massive amounts of information that lawmakers and experts are increasingly fearful of privacy infringement.
Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Pat Meehan warned The Daily Caller News Foundation that the program is a “massive data grab” and will put citizens’ private information at risk.But the program, which has been receiving heat over the large amount of personal data it will connect from various government sources, will also add health status to the mix — an addition Meehan finds distrubing
Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Marilyn Tavenner, whose department will oversee the Hub, told lawmakers last week that the limited health information required will be relevant to the type of coverage they receive under Obamacare exchanges.
The government’s problem lies in an Obamacare requirement for a certain level of coverage for a certain price, creating “huge incentives for insurers to avoid the sick,” Cannon explained. “Insurers have to provide coverage to customers for $10,000 when the person uses $100,000 in medical care.”One attempt to alleviate price fixing problems is CMS’s Risk Adjustment Program, which would give subsidies to insurance companies with the sickest patients. But Cannon argues that this system will inherently lead to more government snooping.
“Well, how do they know which insurance companies have the sickest patients? The only way they can do that and keep costs under control is to delve into the illnesses that people have and the treatments they’re receiving to verify if these people are actually sick,” Cannon told TheDCNF. The adjustment will require more federal intrusion in the health of the masses.
And the Data Services Hub could be the means to that end. The hub is already set to collect what it calls “limited” personal health information, pertaining only to pregnancy status, blindness, and disability status.On top of these disclosures, Meehan warned that more and more information could be wrangled out of consumers. “When CMS articulates what they’re asking for now, they say ‘including but not limited to’ in all the descriptions,” the congressman told TheDCNF, leaving a window open to adding more federal agencies to the sharing program or increasing the amount of health information to be included in the Hub.
Cannon warns, “There’s a built-in need in Obamacare for the federal government to have more and more access to people’s medical information.” With such pressures on federal regulators it seems unlikely that the data sharing program, which two experts alleged in USA Today will be the “largest consolidation of personal information in the history of the republic,” will be limited to just three categories of health information.
Along with the federal government’s collection of ever-increasing amounts of personal health data comes increased security risks. Meehan told TheDCNF he is unsatisfied with CMS’s cyber security protocols, after his questioning during a House hearing last week forced Tavenner to admit she’d never attended an FBI or Department of Homeland Security briefing on preventing cyber attacks against the data hub.
Read the full products at http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Thank You For Using The Internet
Between 1999 and 2001, the Napster peer-to-peer file sharing program was indispensable for millions. At its peak, the service drew 26.4 million monthly unique users, who spent a collective 6.3 billion minutes a month pilfering shared hard drives for free music. In just over two years, Napster managed to cripple and nearly destroy the music industry. At the same time, it conditioned a generation to see the internet as a place where almost anything can, and therefore should, be free.
Since its beginning, the internet and a broad, loose conception of “freedom” have been inextricably linked. The “first web page”, authored by Tim Berners Lee, described the web as a “wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents”. The notion of a “free and open internet” has animated some of the web’s biggest movements, from open source software to Wikipedia to, in some cases, outright theft. Broadband connections grew popular, leaving users continuously logged on. Regular internet users soon came to expect that almost every type of media they once paid for — music, movies, news — would be available for free, legally or rtls.
That era — let’s call it the internet’s free trial period — is coming to an end. In the 12 years since courts shut down Napster, the internet has taken its hatchet to every other branch of the media industry, deftly pruning ad dollars, jobs, and shaving away bottom lines. Now the reaction, opposite but never quite equal, and always late, is starting to take effect. The untamed and lawless expanses of web content are quickly being replaced by paywalls and monthly fees. And, surprisingly, we don’t really seem to mind all that much. Most of us don’t even seem to notice.
Before sites like Amazon and eBay legitimized the process, paying for anything online — either physical or digital — was widely perceived as a risky proposition. A 2001 New York Times article captures this consumer trepidation with e-commerce, quoting a survey in which over 20 percent of respondents were identified as either “fearful browsers” or “suspicious learners”.
In 2003 that all changed, with the launch of the iTunes music store. With the backing of all five major record labels, Apple and Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its head, introducing the first efficient, truly appealing system for buying a digital product online. Set at 99 cents a song, the low price point helped Apple sell a million songs in its first month of operation (over 50 million in its first year). But more importantly, it was a crucial first step in conditioning normal internet users to pay for media online.
“99 cents felt like the price point that would be just enticing enough,” Paul Vidich, a former executive vice president of Warner Music Group, and the first to suggest the 99 cent price point to Jobs, told BuzzFeed. “It was low enough that in that moment, when you’re doing that value equation in your head, it’s something you don’t have to think twice about before buying.” Vidich also credits iTunes’ simple interface and one-click purchasing, which made buying a painless, easily repeatable experience — even psychologically satisfying. “We made it very easy to have honest people act honestly, Vidich said. “Most people don’t desire to steal this stuff. There’ll always be the hacker vanity of getting it for free but the majority of people aren’t in that category. If you give people the right things in the right window in the right time, they’ll pay.”
The growth of iTunes and the music store was the beginning for paid media online. “I was confident and so was Steve that we’d have some success, but we did not anticipate it would be as big as it was,” Vidich confessed. At the time, Apple had no way of knowing it, but 99 cent songs were indeed the turning point, priming users for Apple’s next coup. When iTunes’ App Store caught fire, online digital purchases graduated from a regular semi-habit to a weekly, or even daily, part of life. Even free apps had to be “purchased” through the same system and with the same password, ingraining the behavior deeper and deeper with every mouse click and finger swipe. It’d be fair to assume that most regular iOS users don’t remember when they first added a credit card to their iTunes accounts.
Ten years later, iTunes has sold over 25 billion songs. It recently celebrated its 50 billionth app download. Other companies, like Amazon, which was armed with millions of credit-card linked profiles from selling physical goods, followed suit, building out their own vast digital libraries. Meanwhile, services like Netflix transformed from a DVD mailing service into a mammoth on-demand streaming video network with over 30 million paid subscribers. Platforms like Steam, once seen as a nuisance by the gaming community, quickly became the most trusted destination for game purchases, digital or otherwise, with over 54 million active user accounts.
The rise of paid sites like Netflix coupled with wildly effective crackdowns on online piracy and the shutdown of massive file sharing sites like Megaupload mean that it’s now often easier for the average internet user to pay a nominal monthly fee for a Netflix account than navigate the murky waters of illegal streaming and hands free access.
There’s a shift in reader sentiment as well. In 2010, Pew’s State of the Media report revealed that 82 percent of its 11,000 respondents would abandon their favorite news site if it introduced a paywall. In 2012, a study by DigiCareers posed the same question. This time, only 52 percent indicated they’d be willing to abandon their favorite site if it erected a paywall. Similarly, a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted “a significant shift in public attitudes towards digital news, with more than twice as many people paying for digital news content than a year ago.”
As far as trends move, paid news’ is creaking along glacially. The percentage of enthusiastic paywall subscribers is still below 20 percent, but it’s growing — an encouraging sign for a business model that was widely predicted to fail at the outset. “Today’s paywalls are by no means perfect, [and] have a lot of big holes in them,” Magid Advisors’ president Mike Vorhaus told BuzzFeed. “But we’re all going to pay for more and pay for stuff we’re not used to paying for. And as a result, publishers of all kinds will continue do a better job figuring out what we value and packaging our content better and more efficiently.”
While we’re nowhere near the end of the “free” internet, the web’s untamed corners undoubtedly feel smaller; increasingly, they’re hardly “untamed” at all, subject to various levels of co-opting by the companies they appear to undercut. A recent Variety article on password sharing revealed that while 40 percent of Netflix and 36 percent of HBO Go subscribers share their login credentials, the streaming companies don’t seem all that worried. “Enabling freeloading could be a counterintuitively savvy promotional tool for getting potential customers hooked on a product they wouldn’t otherwise sample,” the article speculates. Adding credence to the theory, the study also notes that “forty-one percent of HBO non-subs said they were willing to fork over fees within the next six months, while 33% of Netflix non-subs said they were ready to pay, as well.”
Since its beginning, the internet and a broad, loose conception of “freedom” have been inextricably linked. The “first web page”, authored by Tim Berners Lee, described the web as a “wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents”. The notion of a “free and open internet” has animated some of the web’s biggest movements, from open source software to Wikipedia to, in some cases, outright theft. Broadband connections grew popular, leaving users continuously logged on. Regular internet users soon came to expect that almost every type of media they once paid for — music, movies, news — would be available for free, legally or rtls.
That era — let’s call it the internet’s free trial period — is coming to an end. In the 12 years since courts shut down Napster, the internet has taken its hatchet to every other branch of the media industry, deftly pruning ad dollars, jobs, and shaving away bottom lines. Now the reaction, opposite but never quite equal, and always late, is starting to take effect. The untamed and lawless expanses of web content are quickly being replaced by paywalls and monthly fees. And, surprisingly, we don’t really seem to mind all that much. Most of us don’t even seem to notice.
Before sites like Amazon and eBay legitimized the process, paying for anything online — either physical or digital — was widely perceived as a risky proposition. A 2001 New York Times article captures this consumer trepidation with e-commerce, quoting a survey in which over 20 percent of respondents were identified as either “fearful browsers” or “suspicious learners”.
In 2003 that all changed, with the launch of the iTunes music store. With the backing of all five major record labels, Apple and Steve Jobs turned the music industry on its head, introducing the first efficient, truly appealing system for buying a digital product online. Set at 99 cents a song, the low price point helped Apple sell a million songs in its first month of operation (over 50 million in its first year). But more importantly, it was a crucial first step in conditioning normal internet users to pay for media online.
“99 cents felt like the price point that would be just enticing enough,” Paul Vidich, a former executive vice president of Warner Music Group, and the first to suggest the 99 cent price point to Jobs, told BuzzFeed. “It was low enough that in that moment, when you’re doing that value equation in your head, it’s something you don’t have to think twice about before buying.” Vidich also credits iTunes’ simple interface and one-click purchasing, which made buying a painless, easily repeatable experience — even psychologically satisfying. “We made it very easy to have honest people act honestly, Vidich said. “Most people don’t desire to steal this stuff. There’ll always be the hacker vanity of getting it for free but the majority of people aren’t in that category. If you give people the right things in the right window in the right time, they’ll pay.”
The growth of iTunes and the music store was the beginning for paid media online. “I was confident and so was Steve that we’d have some success, but we did not anticipate it would be as big as it was,” Vidich confessed. At the time, Apple had no way of knowing it, but 99 cent songs were indeed the turning point, priming users for Apple’s next coup. When iTunes’ App Store caught fire, online digital purchases graduated from a regular semi-habit to a weekly, or even daily, part of life. Even free apps had to be “purchased” through the same system and with the same password, ingraining the behavior deeper and deeper with every mouse click and finger swipe. It’d be fair to assume that most regular iOS users don’t remember when they first added a credit card to their iTunes accounts.
Ten years later, iTunes has sold over 25 billion songs. It recently celebrated its 50 billionth app download. Other companies, like Amazon, which was armed with millions of credit-card linked profiles from selling physical goods, followed suit, building out their own vast digital libraries. Meanwhile, services like Netflix transformed from a DVD mailing service into a mammoth on-demand streaming video network with over 30 million paid subscribers. Platforms like Steam, once seen as a nuisance by the gaming community, quickly became the most trusted destination for game purchases, digital or otherwise, with over 54 million active user accounts.
The rise of paid sites like Netflix coupled with wildly effective crackdowns on online piracy and the shutdown of massive file sharing sites like Megaupload mean that it’s now often easier for the average internet user to pay a nominal monthly fee for a Netflix account than navigate the murky waters of illegal streaming and hands free access.
There’s a shift in reader sentiment as well. In 2010, Pew’s State of the Media report revealed that 82 percent of its 11,000 respondents would abandon their favorite news site if it introduced a paywall. In 2012, a study by DigiCareers posed the same question. This time, only 52 percent indicated they’d be willing to abandon their favorite site if it erected a paywall. Similarly, a report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted “a significant shift in public attitudes towards digital news, with more than twice as many people paying for digital news content than a year ago.”
As far as trends move, paid news’ is creaking along glacially. The percentage of enthusiastic paywall subscribers is still below 20 percent, but it’s growing — an encouraging sign for a business model that was widely predicted to fail at the outset. “Today’s paywalls are by no means perfect, [and] have a lot of big holes in them,” Magid Advisors’ president Mike Vorhaus told BuzzFeed. “But we’re all going to pay for more and pay for stuff we’re not used to paying for. And as a result, publishers of all kinds will continue do a better job figuring out what we value and packaging our content better and more efficiently.”
While we’re nowhere near the end of the “free” internet, the web’s untamed corners undoubtedly feel smaller; increasingly, they’re hardly “untamed” at all, subject to various levels of co-opting by the companies they appear to undercut. A recent Variety article on password sharing revealed that while 40 percent of Netflix and 36 percent of HBO Go subscribers share their login credentials, the streaming companies don’t seem all that worried. “Enabling freeloading could be a counterintuitively savvy promotional tool for getting potential customers hooked on a product they wouldn’t otherwise sample,” the article speculates. Adding credence to the theory, the study also notes that “forty-one percent of HBO non-subs said they were willing to fork over fees within the next six months, while 33% of Netflix non-subs said they were ready to pay, as well.”
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Shells smash into Aleppo prison as rebels, regime clash
Shells smashed into a central prison in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo, killing some prisoners, a rights group said Sunday, part of a long battle for control of the ancient city.The explosions killed six prisoners, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which communicates with a network of activists on the ground. The explosives hit on Friday night, the Observatory said. It was not clear who fired the shells.
With government forces stepping up offensives, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood called on the U.S. and Europe to send arms."Providing the Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary rebels with appropriate arms is more urgent now than at any time in the past," the movement wrote on social media sites. "We feel cheated and disappointed because the U.S. and Europe have backed out from arming the FSA," it said.
Last month the U.S. decided in principle to provide some weapons to rebel forces, though Western countries are concerned they might land in the hands of extremist Sunni Muslims fighting with the rebels.The forces include an al-Qaida-linked group which has been fighting for weeks to seize control of the prison in Aleppo, besieging it. The Observatory estimated some 120 prisoners have died in the jail since April from fighting, illness and rtls.
Syria's state run news agency SANA said "a number" of rebels were killed in the shelling but did not give an exact number.Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is near the border with Turkey. Many of its ancient monuments and its marketplace, once a magnet for tourists, have been destroyed in fighting.Rebels and government forces also clashed near the Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo province, the Observatory and pro-rebel activists reported. The towns have been besieged since at least May by hard-line Sunni rebels seeking to dislodge their enemies.
The Observatory said fighting killed three regime troops, including one foreigner, code for a fighter from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah.Rebels claim that Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters are in the two towns. A hard-line Sunni brigade warned last week it would punish Shiites for harbouring the forces, suggesting the towns' populations of some 40,000 Shiites could be targeted.
The fighting underscores the growing sectarian nature of the two-year uprising against Assad's regime. It began as peaceful protests but turned into an armed rebellion after a brutal government crackdown. It has since taken on regional dimensions, with Hezbollah fighters joining Assad's forces. Foreign Sunni fighters have joined predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels who are formed in bands ranging from secular to hard-line Islamists.
At home, Assad draws support largely from Syria's minorities, including fellow Alawites -- followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam -- as well as Christians, Shiites and Sunnis who fear the hard-line rebels.In recent weeks, Assad's forces, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters, have pushed back to seize rebel-held areas in several parts of Syria.
In the central Syrian city of Homs, Assad's forces fired mortar shells from a stronghold of buildings on the edge of the rebel-held area of Khaldiyeh, trying to flush out fighters, said two activists.Explosions could be heard as they spoke via Skype.The shells were exploding in the densely-built area surrounding the 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, said a Homs-based activist identified as Nedal. He said parts of the wall surrounding the historic complex were blown away. Other parts were damaged in previous rounds of fighting.Khaldiyeh-based activist Abu Bilal said fighters were low on weapons. He said the international community, despite promises to arm rebels, had left them hanging in Homs.
"They have sold Homs to the enemy," he complained.The U.N. warns the some 4,500 residents in besieged, rebel-held areas of Homs face a humanitarian catastrophe. On Friday, the divided U.N. Security Council failed to approve a statement calling on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to trapped civilians there. Russia, Syria's closest ally, demanded that the statement should also call for immediate access to the towns of Nubul and Zahra.
Private ownership of firearms, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, creates an interesting dichotomy for American citizens and the recent blitzkrieg of anti-gun legislation has only served to heighten the resolve of the two diametrically opposed camps.
I don’t mean to oversimplify a complex issue, but here is how it generally breaks down: gun advocates proclaim that in the hands of responsible, law-abiding citizens, firearms are used every day for recreation, competition, to protect lives, homes, and personal property, as well as secure and safeguard personal liberties.
Individuals opposed to firearms, I believe, envision and portray guns primarily as agents of death and destruction, and as such, the number and types of firearms, ammunition, and magazines possessed by individual citizens should be strictly controlled and monitored by the federal government.
At present, U.S stock trading data offered by China's portals and vertical financial websites are usually delayed by 15 minutes or are operated with BATS (Better Alternative Trading System), a small-sized e-trading platform based in the U.S. that only offers real-time data for a limited number of stocks sold on US exchanges. The lack of real-time data has put Chinese investors at a disadvantage when trading on the primary exchanges in the U.S. At a time when traders buy and sell stocks very quickly based on the latest news, delayed information could no longer satisfy Chinese investors' demands.
Currently, investment in U.S stocks is heating up, but none of the financial institutions in China have been able to provide free real-time U.S exchange quotes to Chinese investors. "We are elated to place real-time market data in the hands of tens of millions of investors in China," said Brian Hyndman, Senior Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Data Products, "With NASDAQ Last Sale, Tencent subscribers have instant access to the best-priced stock quotes and last sale data in all U.S.-listed securities, enabling them to be better informed when making trading decisions."
Tencent Portfolio, as the only authorized mobile application approved by NASDAQ, can now provide free access to real-time updates of U.S stock-trading information on both the iPhone and Android platforms. Tencent is a fast-moving company and today's announcement is expected to ignite a reshuffling of the industry. Tencent Portfolio will not only stand out from competing stock applications, but will also stimulate the industry to pay close attention to offering real-time equity data services.
The Vice President of Tencent Mobile Media Product Huang Hai said, "The real-time quote service offered by Tencent Portfolio will cover all stocks listed in the U.S. exchanges. Following the rollout of free real-time data for the Hong Kong exchanges, we are now doing the same for the U.S. Tencent Portfolio aims to provide a free service to investors that includes the latest and most precise stock quotes so they can accurately grasp the investment opportunity."
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
With government forces stepping up offensives, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood called on the U.S. and Europe to send arms."Providing the Free Syrian Army and the revolutionary rebels with appropriate arms is more urgent now than at any time in the past," the movement wrote on social media sites. "We feel cheated and disappointed because the U.S. and Europe have backed out from arming the FSA," it said.
Last month the U.S. decided in principle to provide some weapons to rebel forces, though Western countries are concerned they might land in the hands of extremist Sunni Muslims fighting with the rebels.The forces include an al-Qaida-linked group which has been fighting for weeks to seize control of the prison in Aleppo, besieging it. The Observatory estimated some 120 prisoners have died in the jail since April from fighting, illness and rtls.
Syria's state run news agency SANA said "a number" of rebels were killed in the shelling but did not give an exact number.Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is near the border with Turkey. Many of its ancient monuments and its marketplace, once a magnet for tourists, have been destroyed in fighting.Rebels and government forces also clashed near the Shiite towns of Nubul and Zahra in Aleppo province, the Observatory and pro-rebel activists reported. The towns have been besieged since at least May by hard-line Sunni rebels seeking to dislodge their enemies.
The Observatory said fighting killed three regime troops, including one foreigner, code for a fighter from the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah.Rebels claim that Assad's forces and Hezbollah fighters are in the two towns. A hard-line Sunni brigade warned last week it would punish Shiites for harbouring the forces, suggesting the towns' populations of some 40,000 Shiites could be targeted.
The fighting underscores the growing sectarian nature of the two-year uprising against Assad's regime. It began as peaceful protests but turned into an armed rebellion after a brutal government crackdown. It has since taken on regional dimensions, with Hezbollah fighters joining Assad's forces. Foreign Sunni fighters have joined predominantly Sunni Syrian rebels who are formed in bands ranging from secular to hard-line Islamists.
At home, Assad draws support largely from Syria's minorities, including fellow Alawites -- followers of an offshoot of Shiite Islam -- as well as Christians, Shiites and Sunnis who fear the hard-line rebels.In recent weeks, Assad's forces, bolstered by Hezbollah fighters, have pushed back to seize rebel-held areas in several parts of Syria.
In the central Syrian city of Homs, Assad's forces fired mortar shells from a stronghold of buildings on the edge of the rebel-held area of Khaldiyeh, trying to flush out fighters, said two activists.Explosions could be heard as they spoke via Skype.The shells were exploding in the densely-built area surrounding the 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets, said a Homs-based activist identified as Nedal. He said parts of the wall surrounding the historic complex were blown away. Other parts were damaged in previous rounds of fighting.Khaldiyeh-based activist Abu Bilal said fighters were low on weapons. He said the international community, despite promises to arm rebels, had left them hanging in Homs.
"They have sold Homs to the enemy," he complained.The U.N. warns the some 4,500 residents in besieged, rebel-held areas of Homs face a humanitarian catastrophe. On Friday, the divided U.N. Security Council failed to approve a statement calling on the Syrian government to allow immediate access to trapped civilians there. Russia, Syria's closest ally, demanded that the statement should also call for immediate access to the towns of Nubul and Zahra.
Private ownership of firearms, as guaranteed by the Second Amendment, creates an interesting dichotomy for American citizens and the recent blitzkrieg of anti-gun legislation has only served to heighten the resolve of the two diametrically opposed camps.
I don’t mean to oversimplify a complex issue, but here is how it generally breaks down: gun advocates proclaim that in the hands of responsible, law-abiding citizens, firearms are used every day for recreation, competition, to protect lives, homes, and personal property, as well as secure and safeguard personal liberties.
Individuals opposed to firearms, I believe, envision and portray guns primarily as agents of death and destruction, and as such, the number and types of firearms, ammunition, and magazines possessed by individual citizens should be strictly controlled and monitored by the federal government.
At present, U.S stock trading data offered by China's portals and vertical financial websites are usually delayed by 15 minutes or are operated with BATS (Better Alternative Trading System), a small-sized e-trading platform based in the U.S. that only offers real-time data for a limited number of stocks sold on US exchanges. The lack of real-time data has put Chinese investors at a disadvantage when trading on the primary exchanges in the U.S. At a time when traders buy and sell stocks very quickly based on the latest news, delayed information could no longer satisfy Chinese investors' demands.
Currently, investment in U.S stocks is heating up, but none of the financial institutions in China have been able to provide free real-time U.S exchange quotes to Chinese investors. "We are elated to place real-time market data in the hands of tens of millions of investors in China," said Brian Hyndman, Senior Vice President, NASDAQ OMX Global Data Products, "With NASDAQ Last Sale, Tencent subscribers have instant access to the best-priced stock quotes and last sale data in all U.S.-listed securities, enabling them to be better informed when making trading decisions."
Tencent Portfolio, as the only authorized mobile application approved by NASDAQ, can now provide free access to real-time updates of U.S stock-trading information on both the iPhone and Android platforms. Tencent is a fast-moving company and today's announcement is expected to ignite a reshuffling of the industry. Tencent Portfolio will not only stand out from competing stock applications, but will also stimulate the industry to pay close attention to offering real-time equity data services.
The Vice President of Tencent Mobile Media Product Huang Hai said, "The real-time quote service offered by Tencent Portfolio will cover all stocks listed in the U.S. exchanges. Following the rollout of free real-time data for the Hong Kong exchanges, we are now doing the same for the U.S. Tencent Portfolio aims to provide a free service to investors that includes the latest and most precise stock quotes so they can accurately grasp the investment opportunity."
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Video shows suspect stealing Riverdale police car
Police have released the dash-cam footage of the man who wriggled out of his cuffs in the back seat of a police cruiser, maneuvered into the front seat, stole the car and led officers on a two-county chase.
Riverdale police were called the morning of June 15 to Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store, 4978 S. 1050 West, on reports of a male and female who were possibly intoxicated. When they arrived and found the pair stumbling around, appearing to be high on drugs, they handcuffed Gordon Graham, 35, and placed him in the back of a police cruiser while they searched his vehicle.
After Graham complained of heat, an officer opened the sliding window separating the back and front seats.That’s when Graham seized his opportunity. As the dash-cam footage shows, Graham gets his hands in front of him by working his hands underneath his body and sliding his legs through his arms. Pausing every so often to check that the coast is clear, he then somehow works his hands free from the cuffs.
Near the end of the video, Graham dives head first through the sliding window. Within 30 seconds, he drives away, just as officers saw that he had slipped into the driver’s seat.
As Graham drives off, another angle in the rtls, he narrowly misses hitting an officer, who lunges out of the way of the vehicle at the last moment. The video ends as Graham takes the car over a steep berm and onto the road.Graham lost the police, who had to scramble to get into another police car, but was later spotted in the Clinton-Roy area, where he’d abandoned the police cruiser. After a roughly two-hour search, police finally caught and arrested him.
“I thought I would have to sell a kidney.” That’s how Dean Hawkins describes the sense of trepidation he had when he approached his bank, NatWest, for ￡120,000 to purchase new premises for his CCTV business, Vistec Systems. He was shocked when the application went through “without a hitch”. “It was quite easy – a couple of phone calls, some forms and a meeting.”
He believes Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest, when it says it has ￡20bn ready to lend to small firms, but can’t find the demand. “There is an assumption among business owners that you won’t get bank funding, but my attitude is, don’t ask, don’t get. I think the media have blown up the 'banks aren’t lending’ thing.”
He admits that his long track record with the bank – he’s been with them for 20 years – helped, and younger businesses might have a harder time securing credit. The key, he says, is “transparency” and keeping the lines of communication open with the bank even when “you don’t need anything”. “I’ve told others about my experience so hopefully more people will try making applications.”
Many business owners will recognise Tim Ewington’s experience of talking to the bank about a new facility. “We did look at securing [a conventional loan] but we quickly ended up where we are – invoice discounting,” says Ewington, who is co-founder of Shortlist Media, which publishes and distributes free weekly lifestyle magazines.
This form of finance, which sees cash advanced against unpaid invoices, is becoming increasingly popular among banks as an alternative to the humble overdraft. It provides banks with security against companies’ debtor books, so the loans don’t have a negative impact on a lender’s capital position, unlike an overdraft, which is unsecured.
For those with slow-paying customers, it can be a useful way of quickly getting your hands on your cash. Ewington is happy with the facility, but he says he’s sceptical about the ability of companies like his to access more significant chunks of bank
debt to finance ambitious expansion plans. “A lot of my friends run small businesses, too, and banks are not being generous to say the least. They’re very careful – which is why they prefer to offer invoice discounting, because it’s safe for them.” When Rupert Lee-Browne, chief executive of Caxton FX, wanted to raise money to hire staff and upgrade IT at his foreign exchange firm, he was offered bank funding. But it fell woefully short of what he felt his business needed.
He politely declined the offer and instead turned to an unusual source for the funds: his own customers. At the end of 2011, he secured ￡3.9m by offering a retail bond which pays an interest rate of 7.25pc. He saw it as a “great way to sidestep the banks”.
“Banks are lending money, but not enough, particularly to fast-growing businesses,” he said at the time. Has his view changed? “Banks will only lend a certain amount to certain customers – they are very restricted because of regulatory pressures.
“They want to lend money that is risk-free, so they don’t have to use their own capital to back the loan.” That means security demands on entrepreneurs. “I’m not prepared to give a personal guarantee to the bank. The bond was an effective way of raising money without any one organisation having a lien over the future of the company.”
Click on their website http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Riverdale police were called the morning of June 15 to Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store, 4978 S. 1050 West, on reports of a male and female who were possibly intoxicated. When they arrived and found the pair stumbling around, appearing to be high on drugs, they handcuffed Gordon Graham, 35, and placed him in the back of a police cruiser while they searched his vehicle.
After Graham complained of heat, an officer opened the sliding window separating the back and front seats.That’s when Graham seized his opportunity. As the dash-cam footage shows, Graham gets his hands in front of him by working his hands underneath his body and sliding his legs through his arms. Pausing every so often to check that the coast is clear, he then somehow works his hands free from the cuffs.
Near the end of the video, Graham dives head first through the sliding window. Within 30 seconds, he drives away, just as officers saw that he had slipped into the driver’s seat.
As Graham drives off, another angle in the rtls, he narrowly misses hitting an officer, who lunges out of the way of the vehicle at the last moment. The video ends as Graham takes the car over a steep berm and onto the road.Graham lost the police, who had to scramble to get into another police car, but was later spotted in the Clinton-Roy area, where he’d abandoned the police cruiser. After a roughly two-hour search, police finally caught and arrested him.
“I thought I would have to sell a kidney.” That’s how Dean Hawkins describes the sense of trepidation he had when he approached his bank, NatWest, for ￡120,000 to purchase new premises for his CCTV business, Vistec Systems. He was shocked when the application went through “without a hitch”. “It was quite easy – a couple of phone calls, some forms and a meeting.”
He believes Royal Bank of Scotland, which owns NatWest, when it says it has ￡20bn ready to lend to small firms, but can’t find the demand. “There is an assumption among business owners that you won’t get bank funding, but my attitude is, don’t ask, don’t get. I think the media have blown up the 'banks aren’t lending’ thing.”
He admits that his long track record with the bank – he’s been with them for 20 years – helped, and younger businesses might have a harder time securing credit. The key, he says, is “transparency” and keeping the lines of communication open with the bank even when “you don’t need anything”. “I’ve told others about my experience so hopefully more people will try making applications.”
Many business owners will recognise Tim Ewington’s experience of talking to the bank about a new facility. “We did look at securing [a conventional loan] but we quickly ended up where we are – invoice discounting,” says Ewington, who is co-founder of Shortlist Media, which publishes and distributes free weekly lifestyle magazines.
This form of finance, which sees cash advanced against unpaid invoices, is becoming increasingly popular among banks as an alternative to the humble overdraft. It provides banks with security against companies’ debtor books, so the loans don’t have a negative impact on a lender’s capital position, unlike an overdraft, which is unsecured.
For those with slow-paying customers, it can be a useful way of quickly getting your hands on your cash. Ewington is happy with the facility, but he says he’s sceptical about the ability of companies like his to access more significant chunks of bank
debt to finance ambitious expansion plans. “A lot of my friends run small businesses, too, and banks are not being generous to say the least. They’re very careful – which is why they prefer to offer invoice discounting, because it’s safe for them.” When Rupert Lee-Browne, chief executive of Caxton FX, wanted to raise money to hire staff and upgrade IT at his foreign exchange firm, he was offered bank funding. But it fell woefully short of what he felt his business needed.
He politely declined the offer and instead turned to an unusual source for the funds: his own customers. At the end of 2011, he secured ￡3.9m by offering a retail bond which pays an interest rate of 7.25pc. He saw it as a “great way to sidestep the banks”.
“Banks are lending money, but not enough, particularly to fast-growing businesses,” he said at the time. Has his view changed? “Banks will only lend a certain amount to certain customers – they are very restricted because of regulatory pressures.
“They want to lend money that is risk-free, so they don’t have to use their own capital to back the loan.” That means security demands on entrepreneurs. “I’m not prepared to give a personal guarantee to the bank. The bond was an effective way of raising money without any one organisation having a lien over the future of the company.”
Click on their website http://www.ecived.com/en/.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Price-cut Battle Means an End to Shaw's Rewards Card
As of Friday, June 28, you need one less card on your keychain.The company that owns Shaw’s and Star Market got rid of its Reward Card program citing the desire to maintain lower prices for all customers rather than only those who show their cards at the register. The change seems to be a trend in the supermarket business, where several growing chains, such as Roche Bros. and Market Basket do not offer the cards.The change is sparking some criticism from customers, who are concerned that the change will mean higher prices on grocery store staples.
Patch readers offered a range of opinions on the subject:Karen Anderson Coates said she likes the change, "My key ring is so full!"But Ted Monaghan said he thinks the change is just a bait and switch. "I think my grocery bill will rise."
Shari Thelen Marquis said she was always concerned about the data collected each time she used the card. "I always felt that they were tracking what I buy with the cards so they can sell the data to marketers."Others said the change won't affect their shopping habits. "Smart," Julie Gilman said. "But I'll still be shopping at Market Basket!"
"I like not having cards all the time but I don't think the prices will drop enough if at all. I've been waiting for gas prices to drop for years,"Lori Wiggy Dorley Jones said.
Perhaps ironically, when the reward program was rolled out in 2000 consumer advocates criticized the company for tracking purchases by customers’ names. Customers have gotten used to the cards however, as more retailers from pharmacies to auto parts stores began issuing the cards.
The company says it will also lower prices on thousands of items in all of its 169 locations.“All of our customers deserve to get the lowest price on their groceries without needing to carry a Rewards Card with Indoor Positioning System,” Shane Sampson, president of Shaw’s and Star Market said in a press release. “Our goal is to provide our customers with an experience that is simple, easy and focused directly on them. Every customer who walks through our door deserves our best – from service to foods to pricing—and these lower prices are what our customers can expect from us every time they visit one of our stores.”
The company is calling the move “Card Free Savings,” which is part of a new marketing campaign to reinvigorate the brand, and includes redesigning the circular and in-store signage. “Our new marketing campaign highlights that there is a renewed commitment to quality and service at Shaw’s and Star Market.
Company spokesman Steve Sylven said eliminating the cards is “in our customers’ best interest” while offering “the same, best prices to everyone.”Tracking individual shopping habits is no longer as critical as it once was, Sylven said. What’s important is neighborhood trends, what items sell in what areas. He added that the chain is not changing suppliers and the quality of products will still be the same.
“These lower prices are not a short-term promotion, or a sales price that will change with the next circular release,” Sylven said. “These are lower prices that customers can expect from us every time they visit. I should also point out that we will still be offering great promotions and sales items each week on top of the lower prices.”The switch isn’t necessarily in response to particular grocery retailers; rather it’s a response to competition from all grocery retailers.
“Competition helps us stay sharp and, ultimately, is good for customers. We are committed to running great stores and providing an exceptional shopping experience by focusing our efforts on what customers want – impeccable customer service, shelves full of a variety of fresh products and competitive prices,” Sylven said.
With prospects of comprehensive immigration reform dependent on the House of Representatives moving a bill, advocates of reform have scattered across the country to put pressure on lawmakers. The results have been mixed, local news reports suggests.
Organizing for Action, the nonprofit policy advocacy arm formed to push President Barack Obama's agenda, gathered only eight people to rally outside of the Merillville office of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) on Monday to push the congressman to support reform. The congressman was not actually in his office at the time.
Visclosky has opposed a pathway to citizenship in the past and voted against the DREAM Act in 2010, according to Project Vote Smart, making him a prime Democratic target for OFA. Visclosky's office could not be reached for comment about the representative's current stance on immigration reform.
OFA started its immigration campaign a few months ago with the promise that it could place substantial grassroots pressure behind reform. The nonprofit group has an estimated 13 million-member email list — including scores of potential on-the-ground volunteers.
After the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill on June 27 by a margin of 68-32, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated that the House would apply some breaks to process. Rather than up the Senate bill, Boehner pledged to pass a House measure. Boehner also said that he will invoke the Hastert Rule, which requires the majority of the majority to support a bill before it comes up for a vote in the House.
And so, the challenge now facing reform advocates is getting Republican-run House to act. And the tactic most often used is to put enough pressure on lawmakers back home.
Other groups also took Monday to hold rallies and protests surrounding immigration reform while members returned to their districts for the weeklong July recess. Two progressive groups in Colorado rallied at the office of Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) to show their support for a pathway to citizenship.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
Patch readers offered a range of opinions on the subject:Karen Anderson Coates said she likes the change, "My key ring is so full!"But Ted Monaghan said he thinks the change is just a bait and switch. "I think my grocery bill will rise."
Shari Thelen Marquis said she was always concerned about the data collected each time she used the card. "I always felt that they were tracking what I buy with the cards so they can sell the data to marketers."Others said the change won't affect their shopping habits. "Smart," Julie Gilman said. "But I'll still be shopping at Market Basket!"
"I like not having cards all the time but I don't think the prices will drop enough if at all. I've been waiting for gas prices to drop for years,"Lori Wiggy Dorley Jones said.
Perhaps ironically, when the reward program was rolled out in 2000 consumer advocates criticized the company for tracking purchases by customers’ names. Customers have gotten used to the cards however, as more retailers from pharmacies to auto parts stores began issuing the cards.
The company says it will also lower prices on thousands of items in all of its 169 locations.“All of our customers deserve to get the lowest price on their groceries without needing to carry a Rewards Card with Indoor Positioning System,” Shane Sampson, president of Shaw’s and Star Market said in a press release. “Our goal is to provide our customers with an experience that is simple, easy and focused directly on them. Every customer who walks through our door deserves our best – from service to foods to pricing—and these lower prices are what our customers can expect from us every time they visit one of our stores.”
The company is calling the move “Card Free Savings,” which is part of a new marketing campaign to reinvigorate the brand, and includes redesigning the circular and in-store signage. “Our new marketing campaign highlights that there is a renewed commitment to quality and service at Shaw’s and Star Market.
Company spokesman Steve Sylven said eliminating the cards is “in our customers’ best interest” while offering “the same, best prices to everyone.”Tracking individual shopping habits is no longer as critical as it once was, Sylven said. What’s important is neighborhood trends, what items sell in what areas. He added that the chain is not changing suppliers and the quality of products will still be the same.
“These lower prices are not a short-term promotion, or a sales price that will change with the next circular release,” Sylven said. “These are lower prices that customers can expect from us every time they visit. I should also point out that we will still be offering great promotions and sales items each week on top of the lower prices.”The switch isn’t necessarily in response to particular grocery retailers; rather it’s a response to competition from all grocery retailers.
“Competition helps us stay sharp and, ultimately, is good for customers. We are committed to running great stores and providing an exceptional shopping experience by focusing our efforts on what customers want – impeccable customer service, shelves full of a variety of fresh products and competitive prices,” Sylven said.
With prospects of comprehensive immigration reform dependent on the House of Representatives moving a bill, advocates of reform have scattered across the country to put pressure on lawmakers. The results have been mixed, local news reports suggests.
Organizing for Action, the nonprofit policy advocacy arm formed to push President Barack Obama's agenda, gathered only eight people to rally outside of the Merillville office of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) on Monday to push the congressman to support reform. The congressman was not actually in his office at the time.
Visclosky has opposed a pathway to citizenship in the past and voted against the DREAM Act in 2010, according to Project Vote Smart, making him a prime Democratic target for OFA. Visclosky's office could not be reached for comment about the representative's current stance on immigration reform.
OFA started its immigration campaign a few months ago with the promise that it could place substantial grassroots pressure behind reform. The nonprofit group has an estimated 13 million-member email list — including scores of potential on-the-ground volunteers.
After the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill on June 27 by a margin of 68-32, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated that the House would apply some breaks to process. Rather than up the Senate bill, Boehner pledged to pass a House measure. Boehner also said that he will invoke the Hastert Rule, which requires the majority of the majority to support a bill before it comes up for a vote in the House.
And so, the challenge now facing reform advocates is getting Republican-run House to act. And the tactic most often used is to put enough pressure on lawmakers back home.
Other groups also took Monday to hold rallies and protests surrounding immigration reform while members returned to their districts for the weeklong July recess. Two progressive groups in Colorado rallied at the office of Rep. Scott Tipton (R-Colo.) to show their support for a pathway to citizenship.
Read the full story at www.ecived.com/en/!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Android SDK from SecuGen
SecuGen Corporation is pleased to announce the release of the FDx SDK Pro for the Android Operating System. This new Software Developer Kit (SDK) enables software developers to add fingerprint authentication to their Android based software running on ARM tablets and smart phones. This Android SDK incorporates SecuGen’s MINEX certified, FIPS 201/PIV compliant template extraction and matching algorithms.SecuGen makes its 1:1 SDKs, such as the new Android SDK, available for free via download from the SecuGen website.
Mobile computing is a rapidly growing platform for delivering a wide variety of applications including applications that demand high levels of security such as, finance, health care and medical records, as well as government services. SecuGen’s Hamster IV and Hamster Plus fingerprint readers, along with the iD-USB SC and iD-USB SC/PIV dual mode fingerprint and smartcard readers are sold through reseller partners worldwide. SecuGen’s products are widely recognized for being rugged, accurate and affordable.
Dan Riley, Vice President of Engineering for SecuGen said, “We are very excited to be able to offer Android compatibility for our fingerprint readers. Our partners have been asking for this and our role, as always, is to provide them with the tools that they need. The Android SDK is one of several exciting new products that we will be bringing to market in 2013.”
Won Lee, CEO of SecuGen added, “We are very pleased to offer our partners the new Android SDK. We work tirelessly to provide the tools that our partners need to succeed. Today mobile computing has become a ubiquitous platform for a broad range of rtls. We are proud to be able to deliver to our partners the ability to leverage that platform.”
If so, you ought to be very worried about a pair of developments in the last week that offer a theoretical framework to end shareholder class actions. If, on the other hand, you're of the view that shareholder litigation is merely a transfer of wealth from corporations to plaintiffs' lawyers, with little actual return to investors, you might want to start thinking about how to use the new rulings to stop that from happening.
Let's look first at the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-3 decision last week in American Express v. Italian Colors. That case, as you know, was brought by small businesses that believed American Express was abusing its monopoly in the charge card market by requiring them also to accept Amex credit cards carrying higher fees than competing credit cards. The Supreme Court said that even though the merchants had statutory antitrust rights under the Sherman Act, they had given up their right to sue Amex as a class when they signed arbitration agreements barring such suits. It was of no matter, the majority said, that the cost of arbitrating an individual antitrust claim would dwarf the recovery of any single small business: The merchants signed contracts that included arbitration clauses and those contracts bound them. (Or, as Justice Elena Kagan put it in a memorable dissent: "Here is the nutshell version of today's opinion, admirably flaunted rather than camouflaged: Too darn bad.")
The Amex ruling immediately drew the ire of consumer and employment rights advocates, who argued that it gives corporations the power effectively to insulate themselves against all sorts of legitimate claims by cutting off escape routes from class action waivers in mandatory arbitration clauses. But what about shareholders? In a very smart column on Monday, Kevin LaCroix of D&O Diary raised the question of Amex's potential impact on securities fraud and shareholder derivative class actions. Does the court's ruling, he asked, mean that "the broad enforceability of arbitration agreements reaches far enough to include the enforceability of arbitration agreements and class action waivers in corporate articles of incorporation or by-laws?"
Why shouldn't it, after all? Shareholders sue corporations and corporate boards under a pair of laws passed in the 1930s, meaning that their federal statutory rights are no more powerful than those of the merchants who tried to sue Amex under the Sherman Act. So why can't corporations, as LaCroix suggests, impose mandatory arbitration and class action waivers on shareholders?
They may well be able to under this Supreme Court, Duke law professor James Cox told me Tuesday. Cox said he believes that sooner than later, some private start-up or company engaged in an initial public offering will include a mandatory arbitration provision in its corporate charter. The company will have to be able to show that shareholders consented to the provision, just as the merchants in the Amex case agreed to mandatory arbitration, Cox said, "but I could easily imagine this court fantasizing that when you buy shares of the company, you consent."
What about the Securities and Exchange Commission? When the private equity fund Carlyle floated the idea of shareholder arbitration in an IPO in 2012, the SEC quietly objected and Carlyle ended up dropping the proposal. Though the SEC has never permitted the IPO of a company with a mandatory arbitration clause, Cox told me he believes the SEC "has limited power" to block such provisions if a corporation really wants to litigate the issue up to the Supreme Court.
Doomsday has not yet arrived for shareholder litigation, and perhaps it never will. Another Harvard law professor, Jesse Fried, cautioned in an email that forum selection by-laws are "very different animals from arbitration provisions, especially when the shareholders can change the by-laws if they are really unhappy about them." Strine's ruling Tuesday included a caveat noting that forum selection by-laws regulate just where suits are brought, not what suits shareholders may bring (nor, by extension, whether they can bring suits at all). Fried and Coates both told me that Delaware courts will question whether mandatory shareholder arbitration clauses are consistent with a board's fiduciary duties to shareholders. Fried added that corporate defense lawyers may also be philosophically (and financially) opposed to moving shareholder claims to arbitration; Coates posited that corporations may prefer to resolve shareholder claims through class actions rather than through endless individual arbitrations. (I have my doubts on that score.)
Opponents of mandatory shareholder arbitration can also point to specific laws as evidence that Congress intended shareholder claims to be litigated on a classwide basis, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, both of which assume that shareholders will litigate as a class. The Supreme Court, moreover, has not (to my knowledge) suggested diverting shareholder claims to arbitration, even though it has spent a lot of time in the last couple of years tinkering with the mechanics of securities class actions. For that matter, the court's securities rulings haven't been nearly as hard on plaintiffs as some of the court's other class action decisions.
Mobile computing is a rapidly growing platform for delivering a wide variety of applications including applications that demand high levels of security such as, finance, health care and medical records, as well as government services. SecuGen’s Hamster IV and Hamster Plus fingerprint readers, along with the iD-USB SC and iD-USB SC/PIV dual mode fingerprint and smartcard readers are sold through reseller partners worldwide. SecuGen’s products are widely recognized for being rugged, accurate and affordable.
Dan Riley, Vice President of Engineering for SecuGen said, “We are very excited to be able to offer Android compatibility for our fingerprint readers. Our partners have been asking for this and our role, as always, is to provide them with the tools that they need. The Android SDK is one of several exciting new products that we will be bringing to market in 2013.”
Won Lee, CEO of SecuGen added, “We are very pleased to offer our partners the new Android SDK. We work tirelessly to provide the tools that our partners need to succeed. Today mobile computing has become a ubiquitous platform for a broad range of rtls. We are proud to be able to deliver to our partners the ability to leverage that platform.”
If so, you ought to be very worried about a pair of developments in the last week that offer a theoretical framework to end shareholder class actions. If, on the other hand, you're of the view that shareholder litigation is merely a transfer of wealth from corporations to plaintiffs' lawyers, with little actual return to investors, you might want to start thinking about how to use the new rulings to stop that from happening.
Let's look first at the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-3 decision last week in American Express v. Italian Colors. That case, as you know, was brought by small businesses that believed American Express was abusing its monopoly in the charge card market by requiring them also to accept Amex credit cards carrying higher fees than competing credit cards. The Supreme Court said that even though the merchants had statutory antitrust rights under the Sherman Act, they had given up their right to sue Amex as a class when they signed arbitration agreements barring such suits. It was of no matter, the majority said, that the cost of arbitrating an individual antitrust claim would dwarf the recovery of any single small business: The merchants signed contracts that included arbitration clauses and those contracts bound them. (Or, as Justice Elena Kagan put it in a memorable dissent: "Here is the nutshell version of today's opinion, admirably flaunted rather than camouflaged: Too darn bad.")
The Amex ruling immediately drew the ire of consumer and employment rights advocates, who argued that it gives corporations the power effectively to insulate themselves against all sorts of legitimate claims by cutting off escape routes from class action waivers in mandatory arbitration clauses. But what about shareholders? In a very smart column on Monday, Kevin LaCroix of D&O Diary raised the question of Amex's potential impact on securities fraud and shareholder derivative class actions. Does the court's ruling, he asked, mean that "the broad enforceability of arbitration agreements reaches far enough to include the enforceability of arbitration agreements and class action waivers in corporate articles of incorporation or by-laws?"
Why shouldn't it, after all? Shareholders sue corporations and corporate boards under a pair of laws passed in the 1930s, meaning that their federal statutory rights are no more powerful than those of the merchants who tried to sue Amex under the Sherman Act. So why can't corporations, as LaCroix suggests, impose mandatory arbitration and class action waivers on shareholders?
They may well be able to under this Supreme Court, Duke law professor James Cox told me Tuesday. Cox said he believes that sooner than later, some private start-up or company engaged in an initial public offering will include a mandatory arbitration provision in its corporate charter. The company will have to be able to show that shareholders consented to the provision, just as the merchants in the Amex case agreed to mandatory arbitration, Cox said, "but I could easily imagine this court fantasizing that when you buy shares of the company, you consent."
What about the Securities and Exchange Commission? When the private equity fund Carlyle floated the idea of shareholder arbitration in an IPO in 2012, the SEC quietly objected and Carlyle ended up dropping the proposal. Though the SEC has never permitted the IPO of a company with a mandatory arbitration clause, Cox told me he believes the SEC "has limited power" to block such provisions if a corporation really wants to litigate the issue up to the Supreme Court.
Doomsday has not yet arrived for shareholder litigation, and perhaps it never will. Another Harvard law professor, Jesse Fried, cautioned in an email that forum selection by-laws are "very different animals from arbitration provisions, especially when the shareholders can change the by-laws if they are really unhappy about them." Strine's ruling Tuesday included a caveat noting that forum selection by-laws regulate just where suits are brought, not what suits shareholders may bring (nor, by extension, whether they can bring suits at all). Fried and Coates both told me that Delaware courts will question whether mandatory shareholder arbitration clauses are consistent with a board's fiduciary duties to shareholders. Fried added that corporate defense lawyers may also be philosophically (and financially) opposed to moving shareholder claims to arbitration; Coates posited that corporations may prefer to resolve shareholder claims through class actions rather than through endless individual arbitrations. (I have my doubts on that score.)
Opponents of mandatory shareholder arbitration can also point to specific laws as evidence that Congress intended shareholder claims to be litigated on a classwide basis, including the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, both of which assume that shareholders will litigate as a class. The Supreme Court, moreover, has not (to my knowledge) suggested diverting shareholder claims to arbitration, even though it has spent a lot of time in the last couple of years tinkering with the mechanics of securities class actions. For that matter, the court's securities rulings haven't been nearly as hard on plaintiffs as some of the court's other class action decisions.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Are Higher Speed Trains Between Chicago & Detroit Economically Feasible?
A common refrain heard among people in Michigan is that trains are uneconomic and a sinkhole of costs and no profit. The facts are more nuanced. Some commuter trains firms are profitable and some are loss making. In many countries, railroads are a "for profit" activity. People forget that all railroads in the U.S. were built with private risk capital. The Japanese high speed rail system (they started building it in 1962 when "Made In Japan" was a byword for cheap plastic crap) was privatized and that company was sold for $90 billion to private investors.
What most people don't realize is that the Detroit to Chicago "higher speed" rail line, now fully funded, once in service in 2015 or 2016 will be a very profitable business earning tens of millions of dollars a year in profit based on the most recent (very reasonable) feasibility study available. Delta and Southwest earn substantial profits on their Detroit to Chicago air shuttle service and this will be a cheaper and faster way to get to Chicago.
The higher-speed train plan calls for frequency of the trains to triple from 3 to 9 trains per day with 3.75 hours transit time from Detroit to Chicago and 3.25 hours from Ann Arbor to Chicago. The assumption is costs would rise to $95 million from $37.2 million and revenue would rise to $113 million from $20.2 million. I find this very realistic. Some of the costs are fixed and not truly variable. Three times the costs would be $111.6 million, but they wouldn't be that high as all costs don't triple if you triple the number of daily trains.
The revenue improvement is also realistic because higher speed trains will shift business travelers like me from planes to trains. By the time I drive to the airport and park, go through security and wait, I've blown 90 minutes and on the other end 30-90 minutes depending upon which airport, where I am actually going and if it is rush hour or not. The elapsed time taxiing and flying is about 60 minutes, so 3 hours to 4 hours. Including the parking fees ($10 or $20 a day, but add 15 minutes to the trip if you use the $10 lot), car mileage ($25), taxi ($30) or mass transit costs ($3) on the other end and the plane ticket itself ($265 to $800 depending upon how far in advance you buy your ticket and which airline you use), air travel costs ($303 to $875) a lot more than the projected round-trip price of $90-$120. What's the advantage in air travel then?
The key is that the higher speed rail has to be reliable and on-time +90% of the time, like the best airlines are. Then passengers would migrate en mass and adding more train cars to an already moving train is cheap, so the extra marginal revenue from those passengers will be very, very profitable.
If it was a stock, I'd be buying it. However due to a federal law called PRIIA, the current $17 million annual loss on the line for the next two years until the higher speed trains run and the service turns profitable must be borne by the state of Michigan and the state legislature is balking at funding it. Maybe the governor should do an initial public offering to raise the money?! If he raised $50 mm privatizing the ownership of the operating route in Michigan in an IPO and in 2015 it earned $18 mm, it would be a great investment! In other words an entity that owns the land hires Amtrak to operate the higher speed rail line and pays any deficits and gets to keep any operating profit. It would still be branded Amtrak.
It's not possible without legislation at the state and federal level, but my reason for raising it is as a thought exercise to show that it is a profitable business and a wise investment for the state to make. This profitable rail business could then fund the start-up costs of commuter shuttle trains.
If the Canadians build out a similar service to Toronto from Detroit, as Governor Snyder is currently trying to do, the economics get better again. This would further improve ridership and the profitability of the "higher speed" rail line. Over time, we can funnel the profits from running this 110 mile per hour service into true high speed rail with speeds of 250 m.p.h. Then you would be able to go from downtown Ann Arbor to Chicago or Toronto in one hour and fifteen minutes or to downtown Detroit in under 15 minutes.
Maybe it’s the distinct shade of green that’s so interesting in that it offsets the site so perfectly in home colors. Proximity is also a decided asset in that every field is closely aligned with the next.
Then there’s the good people who make it go, coaches and players and community who care so completely about youth and prep programs that they’re willing to do what has to be done to keep the venue pristine.
In recent weeks the Brookwood Athletic Complex has been undergoing vast cosmetic changes though as it’s effectively jumping into the 21st century via a project called Brookwood 2.0.
This project started in December with a total of $300 and has since then took off, gaining steam and monetary contributions at a phenomenal pace through private donations and not a single dime from taxpayer funds. When it is completed the new Brookwood Complex with have a new football field fitted with synthetic turf, thus putting an end to the expensive and never-ending process of keeping the field in shape. Seating will be revamped to accommodate 4,000 and four new soccer fields will be added making Clare a premier tournament destination for soccer. At the end of the 2014 school year the track will also be resurfaced.
The American Medical Association has voted to consider obesity a disease in the hopes that this will spur more direct communication between doctors and patients. Plus, it might increase the pressure on insurance companies to pay doctors for having these discussions.
It seems some physicians aren’t comfortable telling patients how to live, but if the discussion is about treating a disease, they’ll be more likely to weigh in. I got an email last week from a reader who wondered why doctors aren’t more aggressive in pointing out patients’ poor health habits. I’ve wondered the same, noting that I get more directives from dental hygienists and plumbers than any doctor I’ve ever had.
Most of us can identify our lousy health habits, but knowing the doctor will follow up on our progress – or lack thereof – at the next appointment can be a motivator. However, our health care system doesn’t always encourage this.
A couple of years ago, I made an “appointment” with my children’s pediatrician with no intention of bringing a kid along. I just wanted to talk with him privately about some concerns, but the nurse’s exasperation made it clear that I had breached a protocol. In the end, I was granted the chat, and it was cordial and productive. Whether it was deemed “billable,” I don’t know, but it could explain the frustration.
Doctors should get paid for taking the time to discuss health issues. It’s vital to preventing disease or managing conditions. It’s a key to cutting health care costs. But fee schedules favor tests and procedures. It wasn’t until 2011 that Medicare began paying doctors for broaching end-of-life planning with patients and their families. Before that, long-shot procedures would be covered, but not a discussion that could head off unwanted heroism. But the change had to be ushered in quietly – via presidential directive – to avoid more tantrums about “death panels.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
What most people don't realize is that the Detroit to Chicago "higher speed" rail line, now fully funded, once in service in 2015 or 2016 will be a very profitable business earning tens of millions of dollars a year in profit based on the most recent (very reasonable) feasibility study available. Delta and Southwest earn substantial profits on their Detroit to Chicago air shuttle service and this will be a cheaper and faster way to get to Chicago.
The higher-speed train plan calls for frequency of the trains to triple from 3 to 9 trains per day with 3.75 hours transit time from Detroit to Chicago and 3.25 hours from Ann Arbor to Chicago. The assumption is costs would rise to $95 million from $37.2 million and revenue would rise to $113 million from $20.2 million. I find this very realistic. Some of the costs are fixed and not truly variable. Three times the costs would be $111.6 million, but they wouldn't be that high as all costs don't triple if you triple the number of daily trains.
The revenue improvement is also realistic because higher speed trains will shift business travelers like me from planes to trains. By the time I drive to the airport and park, go through security and wait, I've blown 90 minutes and on the other end 30-90 minutes depending upon which airport, where I am actually going and if it is rush hour or not. The elapsed time taxiing and flying is about 60 minutes, so 3 hours to 4 hours. Including the parking fees ($10 or $20 a day, but add 15 minutes to the trip if you use the $10 lot), car mileage ($25), taxi ($30) or mass transit costs ($3) on the other end and the plane ticket itself ($265 to $800 depending upon how far in advance you buy your ticket and which airline you use), air travel costs ($303 to $875) a lot more than the projected round-trip price of $90-$120. What's the advantage in air travel then?
The key is that the higher speed rail has to be reliable and on-time +90% of the time, like the best airlines are. Then passengers would migrate en mass and adding more train cars to an already moving train is cheap, so the extra marginal revenue from those passengers will be very, very profitable.
If it was a stock, I'd be buying it. However due to a federal law called PRIIA, the current $17 million annual loss on the line for the next two years until the higher speed trains run and the service turns profitable must be borne by the state of Michigan and the state legislature is balking at funding it. Maybe the governor should do an initial public offering to raise the money?! If he raised $50 mm privatizing the ownership of the operating route in Michigan in an IPO and in 2015 it earned $18 mm, it would be a great investment! In other words an entity that owns the land hires Amtrak to operate the higher speed rail line and pays any deficits and gets to keep any operating profit. It would still be branded Amtrak.
It's not possible without legislation at the state and federal level, but my reason for raising it is as a thought exercise to show that it is a profitable business and a wise investment for the state to make. This profitable rail business could then fund the start-up costs of commuter shuttle trains.
If the Canadians build out a similar service to Toronto from Detroit, as Governor Snyder is currently trying to do, the economics get better again. This would further improve ridership and the profitability of the "higher speed" rail line. Over time, we can funnel the profits from running this 110 mile per hour service into true high speed rail with speeds of 250 m.p.h. Then you would be able to go from downtown Ann Arbor to Chicago or Toronto in one hour and fifteen minutes or to downtown Detroit in under 15 minutes.
Maybe it’s the distinct shade of green that’s so interesting in that it offsets the site so perfectly in home colors. Proximity is also a decided asset in that every field is closely aligned with the next.
Then there’s the good people who make it go, coaches and players and community who care so completely about youth and prep programs that they’re willing to do what has to be done to keep the venue pristine.
In recent weeks the Brookwood Athletic Complex has been undergoing vast cosmetic changes though as it’s effectively jumping into the 21st century via a project called Brookwood 2.0.
This project started in December with a total of $300 and has since then took off, gaining steam and monetary contributions at a phenomenal pace through private donations and not a single dime from taxpayer funds. When it is completed the new Brookwood Complex with have a new football field fitted with synthetic turf, thus putting an end to the expensive and never-ending process of keeping the field in shape. Seating will be revamped to accommodate 4,000 and four new soccer fields will be added making Clare a premier tournament destination for soccer. At the end of the 2014 school year the track will also be resurfaced.
The American Medical Association has voted to consider obesity a disease in the hopes that this will spur more direct communication between doctors and patients. Plus, it might increase the pressure on insurance companies to pay doctors for having these discussions.
It seems some physicians aren’t comfortable telling patients how to live, but if the discussion is about treating a disease, they’ll be more likely to weigh in. I got an email last week from a reader who wondered why doctors aren’t more aggressive in pointing out patients’ poor health habits. I’ve wondered the same, noting that I get more directives from dental hygienists and plumbers than any doctor I’ve ever had.
Most of us can identify our lousy health habits, but knowing the doctor will follow up on our progress – or lack thereof – at the next appointment can be a motivator. However, our health care system doesn’t always encourage this.
A couple of years ago, I made an “appointment” with my children’s pediatrician with no intention of bringing a kid along. I just wanted to talk with him privately about some concerns, but the nurse’s exasperation made it clear that I had breached a protocol. In the end, I was granted the chat, and it was cordial and productive. Whether it was deemed “billable,” I don’t know, but it could explain the frustration.
Doctors should get paid for taking the time to discuss health issues. It’s vital to preventing disease or managing conditions. It’s a key to cutting health care costs. But fee schedules favor tests and procedures. It wasn’t until 2011 that Medicare began paying doctors for broaching end-of-life planning with patients and their families. Before that, long-shot procedures would be covered, but not a discussion that could head off unwanted heroism. But the change had to be ushered in quietly – via presidential directive – to avoid more tantrums about “death panels.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Tackling the identity crisis
The financial challenge facing police authorities in the UK is all too apparent. Soon after coming to power, the coalition government announced plans to cut central grants to the police by 20% over the four years to 2015. And with the task of reducing the national deficit proving harder than anticipated, it is quite possible that even deeper cuts lie ahead. In terms of ‘boots on the ground’, this equates to at least 15,000 fewer officers, and a total reduction in headcount of over 32,000. Furthermore, financial retrenchment is going hand in hand with demands to maintain or even enhance frontline policing. To try and square this particular circle, police authorities are pursuing a number of strategies. One option is to make more effective use of mobile computing. However, whilst there are undoubtedly opportunities to cut costs and boost productivity this way, concerns over the potential vulnerability of IT networks must also be taken into account.
Of course, the trend towards mobile technology predates the age of austerity. Police vehicles have increasingly resembled remote offices on wheels in recent years and a report by the UK National Audit Office in 2012 noted that trials of mobile technology showed a positive impact on the speed and efficiency with which routine administrative tasks were completed. With the right tools at their fingertips, officers are able to spend more time within the communities they serve.
But such efficiency gains cannot be made at the expense of protecting the sensitive data which officers handle on a daily basis. Reports of advanced cyber threats, including hacking, spyware, ID theft and viruses are increasingly commonplace, and police forces are clearly high profile targets for malicious attacks. In terms of addressing these risks, robust user authentication is one of the cornerstones of an effective security infrastructure. Currently, the most common technique is the classic username and ‘memorable’ password combination. Unfortunately, numerous security breaches have demonstrated the inherent weaknesses of this approach. This is certainly recognized in the US, where plans are now in place to ensure that access to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), the national database which contains information such as fingerprints and criminal records, must only be via a secure user authentication method.
In practice, secure user authentication means moving beyond traditional username/password techniques. And whilst the methodologies may vary, the basic principle is straightforward. Secure user authentication for log-in requires at least two form factors. For example: something the user knows (such as a name and password) plus something the user has. This might be a smartcard that holds a securely encrypted ID, or a ‘token’ that can generate a single-use password or PIN that is entered into a computer or device during log-in.
For police forces struggling with unprecedented budget reductions, the good news is that the enhanced security delivered by strong user authentication can also reduce overheads and improve productivity. The reason for this lies in the plethora of different credentials currently carried by both officers and administrative staff. Studies suggest that the typical officer has up to five, including not just the obvious warrant card, but also those used for physical access to buildings, rooms and lockers, and logical access to computers and networks. However, by making use of a secure user authentication solution such as Gemalto’s Protiva Defender Suite, it is possible to combine multiple access functions on a single credential such as a smartcard, cutting costs and increasing the speed with which officers can complete everyday tasks. Furthermore, because it is designed specifically for military and emergency service applications, Protiva Defender Suite utilizes the high level encryption and security technology necessary to resist sophisticated cyber-attacks.
In common with many other frontline public services, the police are wrestling with the challenge of making fewer resources go further than ever. Modern IT is one of the most valuable tools at the disposal of those charged with rising to the challenge. And although the issue of streamlining and strengthening user authentication is clearly part of a much bigger picture, it is at least one area in which there is demonstrable evidence of the ability to squeeze improved performance from a shrinking budget.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, help organizations protect and manage their logical, physical, and cloud-based data assets. Our Protiva strong multi-factor authentication solutions provide the highest level of protection.
Gemalto develops secure embedded software and secure products which we design and personalize. Our platforms and services manage these products, the confidential data they contain and the trusted end-user services made possible.
The smartphone application, called ‘myEcoCost’, has been developed as part of a ￡2.6 million study by Nottingham Trent University, coordinated by Bavarian-based company TriaGnoSys, into whether consumers make more sustainable choices when information on products, such as ecological footprint, is made available to them.
Developed by ‘experts’, the electronic system will enable shoppers with smart phones to scan a product’s barcode and receive a rating of how ‘sustainable’ it is. The aim is for consumers to identify which products have the smallest carbon footprint, which use the least resources and which are the healthiest for them to consume.
Shoppers will be able to view the cumulative ecological cost of the products or services they have purchased online using a system similar to reward or loyalty card schemes.
Professor Daizhong Su, Head of the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The aim is for consumers to make a more environmentally conscious decision about what they buy. For example, shoppers may choose a ‘greener’ product over another item that is the same price if they know that it has less of an impact on the environment.
“The desired knock-on effect of this would be that manufacturers would refocus their priorities and make their products and processes more sustainable, with luxury packaging, for instance, becoming a thing of the past and being deemed distasteful by society.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Of course, the trend towards mobile technology predates the age of austerity. Police vehicles have increasingly resembled remote offices on wheels in recent years and a report by the UK National Audit Office in 2012 noted that trials of mobile technology showed a positive impact on the speed and efficiency with which routine administrative tasks were completed. With the right tools at their fingertips, officers are able to spend more time within the communities they serve.
But such efficiency gains cannot be made at the expense of protecting the sensitive data which officers handle on a daily basis. Reports of advanced cyber threats, including hacking, spyware, ID theft and viruses are increasingly commonplace, and police forces are clearly high profile targets for malicious attacks. In terms of addressing these risks, robust user authentication is one of the cornerstones of an effective security infrastructure. Currently, the most common technique is the classic username and ‘memorable’ password combination. Unfortunately, numerous security breaches have demonstrated the inherent weaknesses of this approach. This is certainly recognized in the US, where plans are now in place to ensure that access to the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), the national database which contains information such as fingerprints and criminal records, must only be via a secure user authentication method.
In practice, secure user authentication means moving beyond traditional username/password techniques. And whilst the methodologies may vary, the basic principle is straightforward. Secure user authentication for log-in requires at least two form factors. For example: something the user knows (such as a name and password) plus something the user has. This might be a smartcard that holds a securely encrypted ID, or a ‘token’ that can generate a single-use password or PIN that is entered into a computer or device during log-in.
For police forces struggling with unprecedented budget reductions, the good news is that the enhanced security delivered by strong user authentication can also reduce overheads and improve productivity. The reason for this lies in the plethora of different credentials currently carried by both officers and administrative staff. Studies suggest that the typical officer has up to five, including not just the obvious warrant card, but also those used for physical access to buildings, rooms and lockers, and logical access to computers and networks. However, by making use of a secure user authentication solution such as Gemalto’s Protiva Defender Suite, it is possible to combine multiple access functions on a single credential such as a smartcard, cutting costs and increasing the speed with which officers can complete everyday tasks. Furthermore, because it is designed specifically for military and emergency service applications, Protiva Defender Suite utilizes the high level encryption and security technology necessary to resist sophisticated cyber-attacks.
In common with many other frontline public services, the police are wrestling with the challenge of making fewer resources go further than ever. Modern IT is one of the most valuable tools at the disposal of those charged with rising to the challenge. And although the issue of streamlining and strengthening user authentication is clearly part of a much bigger picture, it is at least one area in which there is demonstrable evidence of the ability to squeeze improved performance from a shrinking budget.
Gemalto, a world leader in digital security, help organizations protect and manage their logical, physical, and cloud-based data assets. Our Protiva strong multi-factor authentication solutions provide the highest level of protection.
Gemalto develops secure embedded software and secure products which we design and personalize. Our platforms and services manage these products, the confidential data they contain and the trusted end-user services made possible.
The smartphone application, called ‘myEcoCost’, has been developed as part of a ￡2.6 million study by Nottingham Trent University, coordinated by Bavarian-based company TriaGnoSys, into whether consumers make more sustainable choices when information on products, such as ecological footprint, is made available to them.
Developed by ‘experts’, the electronic system will enable shoppers with smart phones to scan a product’s barcode and receive a rating of how ‘sustainable’ it is. The aim is for consumers to identify which products have the smallest carbon footprint, which use the least resources and which are the healthiest for them to consume.
Shoppers will be able to view the cumulative ecological cost of the products or services they have purchased online using a system similar to reward or loyalty card schemes.
Professor Daizhong Su, Head of the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The aim is for consumers to make a more environmentally conscious decision about what they buy. For example, shoppers may choose a ‘greener’ product over another item that is the same price if they know that it has less of an impact on the environment.
“The desired knock-on effect of this would be that manufacturers would refocus their priorities and make their products and processes more sustainable, with luxury packaging, for instance, becoming a thing of the past and being deemed distasteful by society.”
Click on their website www.ecived.com/en/ for more information.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Tiny backpacks for dragonflies track their brains in flight
The brain of a dragonfly has to do some serious calculations -- and fast -- if it hopes to nab a mosquito or midge in midair. It has to predict the trajectory of its prey, plot a course to intersect it, then make adjustments on the fly to counteract any evasive manoeuvres. Neuroscientist Anthony Leonardo created the tiny dragonfly backpack above to study how circuits of neurons do these computations.
The backpack weighs 40 milligrams, about as much as a couple grains of sand, equal to just 10 percent of the dragonfly's weight. Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly's body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer.
One of the trickiest design challenges was how to power the chip without adding so much mass that the insects couldn't get off the ground, says Leonardo, who's based at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
He and collaborators at Duke University and Intan Technologies came up with a clever solution based on the same technology found in the RFID key card access system used in many office buildings. There, a reader, usually a small pad next to a door, emits radio waves to create a magnetic field. When a key card gets close enough to the reader, the magnetic field induces a current that powers a chip inside the card, enabling it to transmit a code to unlock the door.
The two long antennae on the dragonfly backpack harvest radio waves and power the chip in a similar way. Eliminating the need for a battery on the backpack was the key to keeping the weight down.
Getting dragonflies to hunt inside the lab turned out to be a little tricky too, Leonardo says. In a plain white room, the insects exhaust themselves trying to escape. So the team installed turf on the floor, installed a small pond, and covered the walls with a scene that evokes a springtime meadow.
In their experiments, the researchers release fruit flies and watch the dragonflies take off from a perch and catch them. Eighteen high-speed infrared video cameras positioned around the room capture every move as a dragonfly closes in on its prey and launches its body upwards, curling its hairy legs inward to form a sort of basket trap (see video below).
As the dragonfly hunts, the backpack captures the firing of neurons Leonardo thinks play a crucial role in guiding it towards its prey. "We know a lot about their anatomy," he said. "They gather input from visual parts of the brain and send axons down to the motor neurons that move the rtls."
The question that fascinates Leonardo is how those neurons and others transform information about the visual scene into a plan of action, and how they continuously update the plan as the dragonfly and its prey move through space. All animals do this type of transformation, from a centre fielder running down a fly ball to a lion running down a gazelle. But a neuroscientist can't exactly study those situations in the lab.
Earlier this year, I wrote about my wish for a digital insurance card that could be displayed on my smart phone, similar to the electronic boarding passes now available with airline apps.
I rarely seem able to remember to transfer the latest paper cards from the envelope mailed to me by my insurer to my glove compartment, and my wallet. So the card I have with me is often dog-eared and out of date, even though I have paid my premiums and my coverage is current.
When I first wrote about digital insurance cards, just seven states permitted them (Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana and Minnesota.)
But after a busy legislative season, 25 states now permit drivers to show “e-cards” at traffic stops, according to a map prepared by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group that supports use of the digital cards.
The 18 states that approved electronic proof-of-coverage laws this year (including Arkansas, the state where I live) are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The association’s director of personal lines policy, Alex Hageli, has said the use of electronic identification cards is more convenient for consumers, and can help reduce time spent by courts addressing tickets issued simply because (like me) drivers forgot to put the card in their wallets.
“It makes good sense to allow consumers and insurers to use increasingly ubiquitous technology to comply with the law,” Mr. Hageli said in a prepared statement.
The association supports “flexible” rules allowing use of the digital cards as an option for insurers and consumers–meaning that those who prefer paper cards can still use them.
The backpack weighs 40 milligrams, about as much as a couple grains of sand, equal to just 10 percent of the dragonfly's weight. Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly's body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer.
One of the trickiest design challenges was how to power the chip without adding so much mass that the insects couldn't get off the ground, says Leonardo, who's based at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia.
He and collaborators at Duke University and Intan Technologies came up with a clever solution based on the same technology found in the RFID key card access system used in many office buildings. There, a reader, usually a small pad next to a door, emits radio waves to create a magnetic field. When a key card gets close enough to the reader, the magnetic field induces a current that powers a chip inside the card, enabling it to transmit a code to unlock the door.
The two long antennae on the dragonfly backpack harvest radio waves and power the chip in a similar way. Eliminating the need for a battery on the backpack was the key to keeping the weight down.
Getting dragonflies to hunt inside the lab turned out to be a little tricky too, Leonardo says. In a plain white room, the insects exhaust themselves trying to escape. So the team installed turf on the floor, installed a small pond, and covered the walls with a scene that evokes a springtime meadow.
In their experiments, the researchers release fruit flies and watch the dragonflies take off from a perch and catch them. Eighteen high-speed infrared video cameras positioned around the room capture every move as a dragonfly closes in on its prey and launches its body upwards, curling its hairy legs inward to form a sort of basket trap (see video below).
As the dragonfly hunts, the backpack captures the firing of neurons Leonardo thinks play a crucial role in guiding it towards its prey. "We know a lot about their anatomy," he said. "They gather input from visual parts of the brain and send axons down to the motor neurons that move the rtls."
The question that fascinates Leonardo is how those neurons and others transform information about the visual scene into a plan of action, and how they continuously update the plan as the dragonfly and its prey move through space. All animals do this type of transformation, from a centre fielder running down a fly ball to a lion running down a gazelle. But a neuroscientist can't exactly study those situations in the lab.
Earlier this year, I wrote about my wish for a digital insurance card that could be displayed on my smart phone, similar to the electronic boarding passes now available with airline apps.
I rarely seem able to remember to transfer the latest paper cards from the envelope mailed to me by my insurer to my glove compartment, and my wallet. So the card I have with me is often dog-eared and out of date, even though I have paid my premiums and my coverage is current.
When I first wrote about digital insurance cards, just seven states permitted them (Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana and Minnesota.)
But after a busy legislative season, 25 states now permit drivers to show “e-cards” at traffic stops, according to a map prepared by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, a trade group that supports use of the digital cards.
The 18 states that approved electronic proof-of-coverage laws this year (including Arkansas, the state where I live) are: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The association’s director of personal lines policy, Alex Hageli, has said the use of electronic identification cards is more convenient for consumers, and can help reduce time spent by courts addressing tickets issued simply because (like me) drivers forgot to put the card in their wallets.
“It makes good sense to allow consumers and insurers to use increasingly ubiquitous technology to comply with the law,” Mr. Hageli said in a prepared statement.
The association supports “flexible” rules allowing use of the digital cards as an option for insurers and consumers–meaning that those who prefer paper cards can still use them.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
The new film about WikiLeaks infuriates WikiLeaks
Every documentary filmmaker begins with deciding on the story to be told, and, then, on how to sustain audience interest.
If your goal is to inform the public or take a stand on an important issue by explaining its origins and exposing wrongdoers, then, you go one way. If your goal is to entertain and shroud your motives by exploring murky personality contradictions, you go another.
We Steal Secrets, veteran filmmaker Alex Gibney's latest documentary (or is it a docudrama?), was skillfully made with the backing of a major media company. It tries to do both.
Ironically, that company, Comcast-Universal, owners of NBC, is at the same time having a major success with another movie, Fast and Furious 6, glamorising a criminal gang that relies on speedy cars.
You could say that WikiLeaks, the subject of We Steal Secrets, also began with a fury - a fury against war and secrecy, and was moving as fast as it could using speedy online postings to challenge media complacency in the digital realm.
The docu-tract uses slick graphics to creatively report on the origins and impact of WikiLeaks, the online whistleblower collective, but then, for "balance" and perhaps to pre-empt any criticisms of any bias, especially too much ideological sympathy, opened the tap on endless criticisms by Wiki-dissidents who have turned on founder Julian Assange, as well as the pathetic patriot hacker-turned-informant who ratted out Manning.
The movie revels in all the negatives that surround him, and his chief and gutsy leaker, Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is now being tried tried in a case that could land him behind bars for life under the 1917 Espionage Act.
On June 1, more than one thousand Manning supporters rallied at the Virginia base at which he is being held. His trial, which began June 3, featured testimony from military prosecutor Captain Joe Morrow of the Army, who charged Manning with a dangerous rtls.
"This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents and dumped them onto the internet, into the hands of the enemy - material he knew, based on his training, would put the lives of fellow soldiers at risk," he said.
His defence lawyer David Combs challenged the government, contending, "He was selective. He had access to literally hundreds of millions of documents as an all-source analyst, and these were the documents that he released. And he released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place."
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights that also defends Manning explained: "The Manning trial is occurring in the context of perhaps the most repressive atmosphere for free press in recent memory. It was bad enough that the Obama administration prosecuted twice the number of whistleblowers than all prior administrations combined. Then it went after logs and records of journalists and publishers."
It is surprising that the film's very title, "We Steal Secrets" - what many might take as a Wiki-boast - was taken from an interview in the film itself; it was an admission by former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden about what the US government, not Wikileaks, is all about. Balancing his espionage boosterism in the movie is a former Republican Justice Department hack.
It is very rare for an indy filmmaker to land interviews with top intelligence honchos. It is unclear who had had the juice to get this "get", as major TV interviews are called in the news world. CIA directors don't tend to make themselves available to films they don't control or have a reason to believe they would be treated respectfully.
The film has had a big promotional push and is already playing in three theatres in New York, a success that masks some of its editorial failings, including its in-your-face attempt at "fairness and balance", the pretext the one-siders at Fox routinely use as their claim to credibility.
The promotional hype for the film initially made it seem like an endorsement of Assange until you read it closely: "Filmed with the startling immediacy of unfolding history, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in US history. Hailed by some as a free-speech hero and others as a traitor and terrorist..."
So, there you are - the movie's real question: is Assange a good guy or not? And what about Manning? Why did he do what he did? So, at the outset, Gibney leaves the political plane for a psychological, or even, a psychiatric one. He is out to personalise, and in the process de-politicise a very political issue, for what's known in the news-biz as "character-based story telling".
If your goal is to inform the public or take a stand on an important issue by explaining its origins and exposing wrongdoers, then, you go one way. If your goal is to entertain and shroud your motives by exploring murky personality contradictions, you go another.
We Steal Secrets, veteran filmmaker Alex Gibney's latest documentary (or is it a docudrama?), was skillfully made with the backing of a major media company. It tries to do both.
Ironically, that company, Comcast-Universal, owners of NBC, is at the same time having a major success with another movie, Fast and Furious 6, glamorising a criminal gang that relies on speedy cars.
You could say that WikiLeaks, the subject of We Steal Secrets, also began with a fury - a fury against war and secrecy, and was moving as fast as it could using speedy online postings to challenge media complacency in the digital realm.
The docu-tract uses slick graphics to creatively report on the origins and impact of WikiLeaks, the online whistleblower collective, but then, for "balance" and perhaps to pre-empt any criticisms of any bias, especially too much ideological sympathy, opened the tap on endless criticisms by Wiki-dissidents who have turned on founder Julian Assange, as well as the pathetic patriot hacker-turned-informant who ratted out Manning.
The movie revels in all the negatives that surround him, and his chief and gutsy leaker, Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is now being tried tried in a case that could land him behind bars for life under the 1917 Espionage Act.
On June 1, more than one thousand Manning supporters rallied at the Virginia base at which he is being held. His trial, which began June 3, featured testimony from military prosecutor Captain Joe Morrow of the Army, who charged Manning with a dangerous rtls.
"This is a case about a soldier who systematically harvested hundreds of thousands of classified documents and dumped them onto the internet, into the hands of the enemy - material he knew, based on his training, would put the lives of fellow soldiers at risk," he said.
His defence lawyer David Combs challenged the government, contending, "He was selective. He had access to literally hundreds of millions of documents as an all-source analyst, and these were the documents that he released. And he released these documents because he was hoping to make the world a better place."
Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights that also defends Manning explained: "The Manning trial is occurring in the context of perhaps the most repressive atmosphere for free press in recent memory. It was bad enough that the Obama administration prosecuted twice the number of whistleblowers than all prior administrations combined. Then it went after logs and records of journalists and publishers."
It is surprising that the film's very title, "We Steal Secrets" - what many might take as a Wiki-boast - was taken from an interview in the film itself; it was an admission by former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden about what the US government, not Wikileaks, is all about. Balancing his espionage boosterism in the movie is a former Republican Justice Department hack.
It is very rare for an indy filmmaker to land interviews with top intelligence honchos. It is unclear who had had the juice to get this "get", as major TV interviews are called in the news world. CIA directors don't tend to make themselves available to films they don't control or have a reason to believe they would be treated respectfully.
The film has had a big promotional push and is already playing in three theatres in New York, a success that masks some of its editorial failings, including its in-your-face attempt at "fairness and balance", the pretext the one-siders at Fox routinely use as their claim to credibility.
The promotional hype for the film initially made it seem like an endorsement of Assange until you read it closely: "Filmed with the startling immediacy of unfolding history, Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks details the creation of Julian Assange's controversial website, which facilitated the largest security breach in US history. Hailed by some as a free-speech hero and others as a traitor and terrorist..."
So, there you are - the movie's real question: is Assange a good guy or not? And what about Manning? Why did he do what he did? So, at the outset, Gibney leaves the political plane for a psychological, or even, a psychiatric one. He is out to personalise, and in the process de-politicise a very political issue, for what's known in the news-biz as "character-based story telling".
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
What's been improved
In all the fuss about the Start screen, it's easy to miss that Windows 8 had major improvements to security; that was the culmination of ten years of work on defending the operating system, senior product manager Chris Hallum told us.
"Windows 7 is six times more likely to get infected than Windows 8 and Windows XP is 21 times more likely to be exploited."
But that was still all defensive reactions; for Windows 8.1, he said, Microsoft is going on the offensive with better malware protection, new ways of checking the security certificates web sites rely on - and with a plan to add encryption and biometric security to every PC.
The built-in anti-malware tool Defender will protect against more threats in the browser, including from plugins and ActiveX controls. "In Windows 8.1 we will scan those payloads before they're executed," Hallum told us.
Microsoft will also be more active about protecting the browser against stolen certificates; because the browser trusts those certificates to identify popular web sites that you log into, hackers have started targeting them (and the authorities who issue them) as a way to break into your rtls.
"Public certificates have already been hacked," Hallum points out; in a number of cases certificates for well-known companies like Yahoo and Google have been compromised and used on fake web sites to steal credentials."
For Windows 8.1, Microsoft will operate a service tracking certificates for the top million web sites. "If we see a certificate being used fraudulently or showing up on a server where it shouldn't be, we will work with the certificate authorities," Hallum said, noting that this will protect other versions of Windows and indeed other platforms too.
With Windows 8.1, encryption isn't just for business users any more, although Microsoft is improving BitLocker performance for business systems (up to 30 times faster than in Windows 8, Hallum claims). "We need it not just to protect your data but also the system itself; we don't want people to be able to tamper with Windows system files," he explained.
That's why all versions of Windows will now include encryption; BitLocker in the business editions and the same device encryption that's already in Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 in the home editions. "We expect encryption to be pervasive," he predicted.
There are some hardware restrictions on this; you need a PC that is capable of Connected Standby with Windows 8 or 8.1. That means the PC has a UEFI BIOS and either a separate Trusted Platform Module (TPM), ARM's Trusted Zone or Intel's Platform Trust Technology for storing information securely.
It also means there is are no Direct Memory Access connections, which includes both FireWire and the Thunderbolt technology Intel developed with Apple; Hallum says Microsoft is talking to Intel about ways of making Thunderbolt more secure but DMA connections can transfer code directly into memory, bypassing system security.
Microsoft will also use the information about the PC stored in the TPM to 'harden' Windows with a cloud service that's provisionally called Provable PC Health (expect the name to change, Hallow says). This will use the record of secure boot stored in the TPM to verify that your PC isn't infected. "We can remotely analyse the security state of the device and the integrity of the device." Hallum says, claiming that this will detect even sophisticated malware like Flame.
"We will inform the user if there is a problem and if there is an infection Windows can put them back in a safe state. If there is an infection that can steal their credentials we will inform them, and we will help them remediate their Microsoft account."
Once you can store information securely and prove that your PC doesn't have a rootkit or a virus that could compromise that, you can use your PC as a way to authenticate that's more secure than a password.
"Passwords are increasingly problematic," Hallum points out; "people can have them phished or they can be guessed." Windows 8 can already use the TPM as a virtual smartcard but that's not truly two-factor authentication. You need something else to prove your identity and that will be your fingerprint.
Today's fingerprint sensors are big, clumsy (you have to swipe your finger across them carefully) and easy to fool with a fake finger. More powerful sensors can tell the difference between a real finger and a fake – they can tell if your finger has a pulse – and they can detect prints from four fingers at once, but those sensors currently cost $100 or more.
"Windows 7 is six times more likely to get infected than Windows 8 and Windows XP is 21 times more likely to be exploited."
But that was still all defensive reactions; for Windows 8.1, he said, Microsoft is going on the offensive with better malware protection, new ways of checking the security certificates web sites rely on - and with a plan to add encryption and biometric security to every PC.
The built-in anti-malware tool Defender will protect against more threats in the browser, including from plugins and ActiveX controls. "In Windows 8.1 we will scan those payloads before they're executed," Hallum told us.
Microsoft will also be more active about protecting the browser against stolen certificates; because the browser trusts those certificates to identify popular web sites that you log into, hackers have started targeting them (and the authorities who issue them) as a way to break into your rtls.
"Public certificates have already been hacked," Hallum points out; in a number of cases certificates for well-known companies like Yahoo and Google have been compromised and used on fake web sites to steal credentials."
For Windows 8.1, Microsoft will operate a service tracking certificates for the top million web sites. "If we see a certificate being used fraudulently or showing up on a server where it shouldn't be, we will work with the certificate authorities," Hallum said, noting that this will protect other versions of Windows and indeed other platforms too.
With Windows 8.1, encryption isn't just for business users any more, although Microsoft is improving BitLocker performance for business systems (up to 30 times faster than in Windows 8, Hallum claims). "We need it not just to protect your data but also the system itself; we don't want people to be able to tamper with Windows system files," he explained.
That's why all versions of Windows will now include encryption; BitLocker in the business editions and the same device encryption that's already in Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 in the home editions. "We expect encryption to be pervasive," he predicted.
There are some hardware restrictions on this; you need a PC that is capable of Connected Standby with Windows 8 or 8.1. That means the PC has a UEFI BIOS and either a separate Trusted Platform Module (TPM), ARM's Trusted Zone or Intel's Platform Trust Technology for storing information securely.
It also means there is are no Direct Memory Access connections, which includes both FireWire and the Thunderbolt technology Intel developed with Apple; Hallum says Microsoft is talking to Intel about ways of making Thunderbolt more secure but DMA connections can transfer code directly into memory, bypassing system security.
Microsoft will also use the information about the PC stored in the TPM to 'harden' Windows with a cloud service that's provisionally called Provable PC Health (expect the name to change, Hallow says). This will use the record of secure boot stored in the TPM to verify that your PC isn't infected. "We can remotely analyse the security state of the device and the integrity of the device." Hallum says, claiming that this will detect even sophisticated malware like Flame.
"We will inform the user if there is a problem and if there is an infection Windows can put them back in a safe state. If there is an infection that can steal their credentials we will inform them, and we will help them remediate their Microsoft account."
Once you can store information securely and prove that your PC doesn't have a rootkit or a virus that could compromise that, you can use your PC as a way to authenticate that's more secure than a password.
"Passwords are increasingly problematic," Hallum points out; "people can have them phished or they can be guessed." Windows 8 can already use the TPM as a virtual smartcard but that's not truly two-factor authentication. You need something else to prove your identity and that will be your fingerprint.
Today's fingerprint sensors are big, clumsy (you have to swipe your finger across them carefully) and easy to fool with a fake finger. More powerful sensors can tell the difference between a real finger and a fake – they can tell if your finger has a pulse – and they can detect prints from four fingers at once, but those sensors currently cost $100 or more.
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Texas poker players hope for a winning hand
Hayden Sneed travels more than 120 miles round trip from Plano to play the game he loves. Sneed, 23, said it is a hassle to make the trek across the Red River just for a game of poker. But there may be some good news on the horizon for poker lovers like Sneed.
With the help of State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and the Poker Gaming Act of 2013, poker players in Texas might finally find Texas Hold ‘Em and other forms of poker legal inside Texas borders. If the legislation passes before the end of regular session on May 27, poker would be legal to play online, in bingo halls or inside of special clubs.
“It would be ultimately convenient because I’m already expending gas and time for a game,” Sneed said. “Over half of the parking lot [at Winstar Casino] in Oklahoma is full of Texas license plates.”
The poker gaming act and online poker acts of 2013 would legalize and regulate poker within certain areas of Texas, while also boosting Texas’ economy by providing upwards of $10 million dollars in extra revenue, according to Nate Walker, Rodriguez’s chief of rtls.
Sneed said that he wouldn’t mind playing in bingo halls around Dallas, even though there would probably be fewer players at the table than in the much larger poker rooms in the casinos in Oklahoma. He said he would still be more apt to attend a game a few miles away versus the 60 it takes to get to a legal table now.
“Even at a $60 buy-in, it’s still much more appealing,” Sneed said. “Around here, I think there’s no way it couldn’t be popular.”
Currently in Texas, games at personal residences are legal, but only if the winnings are distributed among the players, and the house does not take a cut.
This bill would help to regulate illegal games now being played throughout the state, including in homes and warehouses that illegally take a cut. Instead, games would be played in establishments that would be regulated and taxed by the state.
“In Dallas there are warehouses where you need to know a secret knock or password just to get in,” Walker said. “We’ve seen articles in newspapers about robberies and gunfights at these types of meetings.”
Rob Kohler, representative of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is against the legislation. He does not believe Texas should rely on legal gambling to increase its tax revenues.
“The most important thing that people on both sides of the argument agree on is that someone is going to get hurt,” Kohler said. “It’s just a matter of how many that’s disputed.”
Saket Soni, executive director of the New Orleans-based National Guestworker Alliance, points out that existing guest-worker programs tie the foreigners to their employer. “If they complain about working conditions or organize, there is a readymade retaliation button,” Soni said. “Employers can simply terminate a worker and deport their problem because, once they’re fired, those workers are deportable.”
The groups behind the W Visa say the program would be different. They point to a “portability” provision that would allow the foreigners to switch employers. “Portability is, really, the foundation of all labor rights,” said Tamar Jacoby, president and CEO of a pro-business group called ImmigrationWorks USA. “If you want to ask for better wages or better conditions or better anything, your leverage comes from being able to say, ‘I’m leaving.’ ”
But there’s some fine print. The Senate bill, as it stands, would require unemployed W Visa holders to find a job within 60 days. And they could not apply just anywhere. They would have to work for another employer registered in the program.
The search for such an employer could be daunting. Few of the workers would speak English well and know their way around. “Sixty days to find a job these days is pretty challenging,” Soni said, even for workers born and raised in the United States.
For portability to be most meaningful, jobless W Visa holders would have protections against blacklisting, and the registered employers would have incentives to hire unemployed W Visa holders instead of bringing in new foreigners for openings, Soni said. Jobless W Visa holders could also benefit from coordination and support programs.
Supporters of a proposed visa for low-skilled, nonseasonal laborers say it would break the mold for U.S. guest-worker programs. They point out that the visa, part of a sweeping immigration bill that a Senate committee took up Thursday, would allow foreigners to switch employers and would provide a path to citizenship.
But a WBEZ examination of the legislation suggests that the W Visa could, in practice, tether the foreigners to potentially abusive bosses and would not provide any guarantee of a future in the country.
The program, developed in talks between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, would set up a legal mechanism for bringing in as many as 200,000 foreigners a year to worksites ranging from meatpacking plants to nursing homes. Business groups behind the plan say it would help address a “future flow” of workers into positions that Americans don’t want.
With the help of State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and the Poker Gaming Act of 2013, poker players in Texas might finally find Texas Hold ‘Em and other forms of poker legal inside Texas borders. If the legislation passes before the end of regular session on May 27, poker would be legal to play online, in bingo halls or inside of special clubs.
“It would be ultimately convenient because I’m already expending gas and time for a game,” Sneed said. “Over half of the parking lot [at Winstar Casino] in Oklahoma is full of Texas license plates.”
The poker gaming act and online poker acts of 2013 would legalize and regulate poker within certain areas of Texas, while also boosting Texas’ economy by providing upwards of $10 million dollars in extra revenue, according to Nate Walker, Rodriguez’s chief of rtls.
Sneed said that he wouldn’t mind playing in bingo halls around Dallas, even though there would probably be fewer players at the table than in the much larger poker rooms in the casinos in Oklahoma. He said he would still be more apt to attend a game a few miles away versus the 60 it takes to get to a legal table now.
“Even at a $60 buy-in, it’s still much more appealing,” Sneed said. “Around here, I think there’s no way it couldn’t be popular.”
Currently in Texas, games at personal residences are legal, but only if the winnings are distributed among the players, and the house does not take a cut.
This bill would help to regulate illegal games now being played throughout the state, including in homes and warehouses that illegally take a cut. Instead, games would be played in establishments that would be regulated and taxed by the state.
“In Dallas there are warehouses where you need to know a secret knock or password just to get in,” Walker said. “We’ve seen articles in newspapers about robberies and gunfights at these types of meetings.”
Rob Kohler, representative of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is against the legislation. He does not believe Texas should rely on legal gambling to increase its tax revenues.
“The most important thing that people on both sides of the argument agree on is that someone is going to get hurt,” Kohler said. “It’s just a matter of how many that’s disputed.”
Saket Soni, executive director of the New Orleans-based National Guestworker Alliance, points out that existing guest-worker programs tie the foreigners to their employer. “If they complain about working conditions or organize, there is a readymade retaliation button,” Soni said. “Employers can simply terminate a worker and deport their problem because, once they’re fired, those workers are deportable.”
The groups behind the W Visa say the program would be different. They point to a “portability” provision that would allow the foreigners to switch employers. “Portability is, really, the foundation of all labor rights,” said Tamar Jacoby, president and CEO of a pro-business group called ImmigrationWorks USA. “If you want to ask for better wages or better conditions or better anything, your leverage comes from being able to say, ‘I’m leaving.’ ”
But there’s some fine print. The Senate bill, as it stands, would require unemployed W Visa holders to find a job within 60 days. And they could not apply just anywhere. They would have to work for another employer registered in the program.
The search for such an employer could be daunting. Few of the workers would speak English well and know their way around. “Sixty days to find a job these days is pretty challenging,” Soni said, even for workers born and raised in the United States.
For portability to be most meaningful, jobless W Visa holders would have protections against blacklisting, and the registered employers would have incentives to hire unemployed W Visa holders instead of bringing in new foreigners for openings, Soni said. Jobless W Visa holders could also benefit from coordination and support programs.
Supporters of a proposed visa for low-skilled, nonseasonal laborers say it would break the mold for U.S. guest-worker programs. They point out that the visa, part of a sweeping immigration bill that a Senate committee took up Thursday, would allow foreigners to switch employers and would provide a path to citizenship.
But a WBEZ examination of the legislation suggests that the W Visa could, in practice, tether the foreigners to potentially abusive bosses and would not provide any guarantee of a future in the country.
The program, developed in talks between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, would set up a legal mechanism for bringing in as many as 200,000 foreigners a year to worksites ranging from meatpacking plants to nursing homes. Business groups behind the plan say it would help address a “future flow” of workers into positions that Americans don’t want.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
ISU's Bowman looks back on tenure
As Al Bowman nears the end of his 10 years as president of Illinois State University, he sat down for an interview with The Pantagraph about his years of service and what’s ahead for him, the university and higher education in general.
The ISU Board of Trustees discussed the final four presidential candidates during a closed session on Saturday. The board could name Bowman’s successor at its regular quarterly meeting on Friday, although a definite timeline has not been announced.
“It’s been an interesting run because in many ways the deck was stacked against us. When I took office, the state had budget problems and public higher education was being cut. Of course, the demographic changes. So there’s been lots of financial challenges. But I think the key to the success of this institution is that we developed a plan that was right for Illinois State and that made sense in the marketplace.
“You know, like any business you try to find a niche that allows you to exploit your strengths. And in the case of Illinois State, when we were having a debate in the mid-1990s about what direction the institution should go, we coalesced behind a plan that made undergraduate education the center of everything we do. And so we invested in the undergraduate experience. And I think we incorporated a number of key elements that one sees in private universities into our undergraduate experience. And in doing that it brought us more capable students. It certainly excited donors who were interested in getting involved in the campus. Faculty have been very happy with the quality of students we’ve been enrolling over the last 10 years.
“I also think that we’ve hired very, very capable people around campus. Senior leadership is very good at what they do. Our middle managers are deeply committed to the institution and doing a good job. And then when you get down to the department level, the department chairs, which is where I came from, department chairs are passionate about the academic experience and building our indoor Tracking.
“So, at the end of the day what you’ve seen over the last 15 years of so is an institution that I think got almost everything right. … Almost. You’re never perfect. But we developed a plan that I think resonated with the public and, consequently, people were willing to send their children here. The institutional progress, of course, I think is the best evidence that the plan worked. Because when you look at the last 10 years and the change in our institutional ranking, it’s clear that the prominence of Illinois State has really risen.
“This is the first time in our history where for the last 2 years we’ve been in the top 100 among public universities in US News & World Report. And now we have a number of programs across campus that have national rankings and that allows us to attract good solid faculty. Those good faculty are very competitive in the grants arena. More evidence that we’ve gotten hiring right is seeing the amount of grants and the number of grants and sponsored programs that have been funded. In the last 10 years, faculty and staff have been awarded a quarter-billion dollars in grants and contracts. And now we have over 100 faculty members who have accumulated more than a million dollars in individual awards.”
“There are some facility goals that I thought I could get accomplished but the severe recession made it difficult for the state to fund the academic projects that were on the table. I’m very happy that the governor has approved the fine arts project. But I thought I could get the library project done before I retired. We’ve outgrown the library. It really needs to be doubled in space. I know it will happen eventually. But that was a project that was near and dear to my heart.
“There are some academic buildings that need attention. DeGarmo. Williams Hall, we’d like to remodel. That building has lots of potential. Metcalf lab school — I’d like nothing more than to snap my fingers and build a new building for Metcalf out on the Gregory Street property. And I think that will happen eventually as well.”
“So, at the end of the day what you’ve seen over the last 15 years of so is an institution that I think got almost everything right. … Almost. You’re never perfect. But we developed a plan that I think resonated with the public and, consequently, people were willing to send their children here. The institutional progress, of course, I think is the best evidence that the plan worked. Because when you look at the last 10 years and the change in our institutional ranking, it’s clear that the prominence of Illinois State has really risen.
“This is the first time in our history where for the last 2 years we’ve been in the top 100 among public universities in US News & World Report. And now we have a number of programs across campus that have national rankings and that allows us to attract good solid faculty. Those good faculty are very competitive in the grants arena. More evidence that we’ve gotten hiring right is seeing the amount of grants and the number of grants and sponsored programs that have been funded. In the last 10 years, faculty and staff have been awarded a quarter-billion dollars in grants and contracts. And now we have over 100 faculty members who have accumulated more than a million dollars in individual awards.”
“My happiest memory is learning that the state was releasing the capital dollars for the Schroeder Hall project. In part that one was personal because I was a new president and that was my first major building project.
“It was also important because the campus desperately needed that project to get done. The building was in terrible shape and lots and lots of complaints from faculty and staff. We had constant problems with the roof leaking; heating and cooling was a challenge. And so it brought be a great deal of personal satisfaction. And then, professionally, it was important because it showed the campus that Illinois State could get big things done even in a challenging financial environment.
“The biggest disappointment is the accumulated erosion of state support for public higher education. Public universities educate the majority of students in this country. Illinois has had a pretty good reputation of supporting public higher education. But it’s clear that those priorities have shifted. Now in part the priorities have shifted because there are greater demands on the state budget. But it’s also very disappointing that at a time in our country’s history when educating citizens with advanced training is important to our economic development we’re pulling our investment away from public higher education and I think we’ll pay a price for that down the road, if we haven’t already.”
The ISU Board of Trustees discussed the final four presidential candidates during a closed session on Saturday. The board could name Bowman’s successor at its regular quarterly meeting on Friday, although a definite timeline has not been announced.
“It’s been an interesting run because in many ways the deck was stacked against us. When I took office, the state had budget problems and public higher education was being cut. Of course, the demographic changes. So there’s been lots of financial challenges. But I think the key to the success of this institution is that we developed a plan that was right for Illinois State and that made sense in the marketplace.
“You know, like any business you try to find a niche that allows you to exploit your strengths. And in the case of Illinois State, when we were having a debate in the mid-1990s about what direction the institution should go, we coalesced behind a plan that made undergraduate education the center of everything we do. And so we invested in the undergraduate experience. And I think we incorporated a number of key elements that one sees in private universities into our undergraduate experience. And in doing that it brought us more capable students. It certainly excited donors who were interested in getting involved in the campus. Faculty have been very happy with the quality of students we’ve been enrolling over the last 10 years.
“I also think that we’ve hired very, very capable people around campus. Senior leadership is very good at what they do. Our middle managers are deeply committed to the institution and doing a good job. And then when you get down to the department level, the department chairs, which is where I came from, department chairs are passionate about the academic experience and building our indoor Tracking.
“So, at the end of the day what you’ve seen over the last 15 years of so is an institution that I think got almost everything right. … Almost. You’re never perfect. But we developed a plan that I think resonated with the public and, consequently, people were willing to send their children here. The institutional progress, of course, I think is the best evidence that the plan worked. Because when you look at the last 10 years and the change in our institutional ranking, it’s clear that the prominence of Illinois State has really risen.
“This is the first time in our history where for the last 2 years we’ve been in the top 100 among public universities in US News & World Report. And now we have a number of programs across campus that have national rankings and that allows us to attract good solid faculty. Those good faculty are very competitive in the grants arena. More evidence that we’ve gotten hiring right is seeing the amount of grants and the number of grants and sponsored programs that have been funded. In the last 10 years, faculty and staff have been awarded a quarter-billion dollars in grants and contracts. And now we have over 100 faculty members who have accumulated more than a million dollars in individual awards.”
“There are some facility goals that I thought I could get accomplished but the severe recession made it difficult for the state to fund the academic projects that were on the table. I’m very happy that the governor has approved the fine arts project. But I thought I could get the library project done before I retired. We’ve outgrown the library. It really needs to be doubled in space. I know it will happen eventually. But that was a project that was near and dear to my heart.
“There are some academic buildings that need attention. DeGarmo. Williams Hall, we’d like to remodel. That building has lots of potential. Metcalf lab school — I’d like nothing more than to snap my fingers and build a new building for Metcalf out on the Gregory Street property. And I think that will happen eventually as well.”
“So, at the end of the day what you’ve seen over the last 15 years of so is an institution that I think got almost everything right. … Almost. You’re never perfect. But we developed a plan that I think resonated with the public and, consequently, people were willing to send their children here. The institutional progress, of course, I think is the best evidence that the plan worked. Because when you look at the last 10 years and the change in our institutional ranking, it’s clear that the prominence of Illinois State has really risen.
“This is the first time in our history where for the last 2 years we’ve been in the top 100 among public universities in US News & World Report. And now we have a number of programs across campus that have national rankings and that allows us to attract good solid faculty. Those good faculty are very competitive in the grants arena. More evidence that we’ve gotten hiring right is seeing the amount of grants and the number of grants and sponsored programs that have been funded. In the last 10 years, faculty and staff have been awarded a quarter-billion dollars in grants and contracts. And now we have over 100 faculty members who have accumulated more than a million dollars in individual awards.”
“My happiest memory is learning that the state was releasing the capital dollars for the Schroeder Hall project. In part that one was personal because I was a new president and that was my first major building project.
“It was also important because the campus desperately needed that project to get done. The building was in terrible shape and lots and lots of complaints from faculty and staff. We had constant problems with the roof leaking; heating and cooling was a challenge. And so it brought be a great deal of personal satisfaction. And then, professionally, it was important because it showed the campus that Illinois State could get big things done even in a challenging financial environment.
“The biggest disappointment is the accumulated erosion of state support for public higher education. Public universities educate the majority of students in this country. Illinois has had a pretty good reputation of supporting public higher education. But it’s clear that those priorities have shifted. Now in part the priorities have shifted because there are greater demands on the state budget. But it’s also very disappointing that at a time in our country’s history when educating citizens with advanced training is important to our economic development we’re pulling our investment away from public higher education and I think we’ll pay a price for that down the road, if we haven’t already.”
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