Categories 12
- May, 2021
- 15-05-2021
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- May, 2021
- 14-05-2021
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- May, 2021
- 13-05-2021
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- May, 2021
- 12-05-2021
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Most disruptive infrastructure attack ever on U.S. soilApparently. Colonial Pipeline hack. This pipeline sends a lot of the oil from Texas to New Jersey, from where it's distributed to other places. Hackers gained control of Colonial's system and are doing a ransomware action. Colonial took their all their operations offline because they didn't want the hackers to gain access to the IT that controls the pipes. They're currently handling some segments of the pipelines manually.We don't know too many details because Colonial hasn't given them to the DHS, reportedly.Some gas stations have run dry. Price of gas has already gone up 7 cents in the week, following the regular demand-supply equation. There's been panic buying and long queues, and the airline industry has been affected. Flights have been stopped and they've additional stops in order for planes to fuel up.The pipelines serve 90 U.S. military installations and 26 oil refineries, so the ripple effects are still to be seen.FBI is saying the hacker is Darkside from Russia, who usually works on big money ransom projects. They have a published list of things they won't hack, and don't seem to want to hurt normal people, although in this case gas prices effects everyone.A massive effort is expected to get things running again about a week after the problem started, involving the FBI and other government agencies and a task force assembled by the White House. But it depends whether they can resolve the ransomware situation.In recent years, the U.S. has scaled up its oil production and became a net exporter, but is now looking at returning to being an importer of oil.
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- May, 2021
- 11-05-2021
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test no buttons
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- May, 2021
- 08-05-2021
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Corn, soy, wheat prices upThe reasons include China buying more because the country is rebuilding its hog herd after major losses in 2019 and last winter (African Swine Fever); draught in Brazil and ongoing dry conditions in the U.S (two major suppliers); and traders trying to hedge inflationary risks.The robust Chinese demand is expected to continue for 2-4 years. Additionally, rising incomes in developing countries could keep food prices moving upward.There isn't much alternative (such as rice and wheat) to feeding livestock good grains (corn and soy beans) when a livestock economy is focused on maximizing gains and quality, as China's is.Offsetting factors to inflation in food prices have started to be seen in more elastic demand factors, such as Chinese animal protein demand, where indications are consumers are starting to pull back due to prices. Also, the supply side, if robust enough, could put downward pressure on prices. We'll see how robust U.S. production turns out to be this year in the June Acerage Report, as the U.S. is still planting this years crops.Rice prices aren't up in the same way because stocks have been built up over the past few years.#Food #CommoditiesUSDA Acreage Reports
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- May, 2021
- 06-05-2021
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test text May 5
- May, 2021
- 03-05-2021
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- May, 2021
- 01-05-2021
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Convicts in private prisons serve 90 days longer than public prisonsThis is about 5% longer.In private prisons, the company's contract has it that they are payed a per diem for each occupied bed."The delayed release erodes half of the cost savings offered by private contracting and is linked to the greater likelihood of conduct violations in private prisons. The additional days served do not lead to apparent changes in inmate recidivism," according to the author.*Mukherjee, Anita. "Impacts of Private Prison Contracting on Inmate Time Served and Recidivism."
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How much is a dollar difference?A lot more than a dollar, according to research that concluded that Americans pay an average $33 more on auto loans, after analyzing a data set of 35m such loans. People perceive the difference between prices that end in 9 and one number higher that ends in 0 as being more different that just one dollar. This is especially true with numbers ending in 99 and 00. *An Empirical Bargaining Model with Left-Digit Bias: A Study on Auto Loan Monthly Payments. Zhenling Jiang#Marketing #Psychology
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Conversations don't end when we want them toIn fact, on average they last twice as long as desired, according to some new research at Harvard, which concluded that the reason for this is a 'coordination problem': conversants have no idea when their partner wants to end and think their partner wants to keep going. The reason for this 'unsolvable' problem is that conversants require information they usually keep from each other to know when to end a discussion.We usually end conversations through highly routine practices, they noted, such as re-stating the reason they started the conversation ("Well, I just wanted to see you you were doing") or making arrangements ("So let's sort out what time on Monday").*Do conversations end when people want them to? Adam M. Mastroianni et al. #communication
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Wasp benefitsUC London and U East Anglia have been studying wasps lately, and have found that while people generally hate them, that hate is in large part due to ignorance about the benefits they bring.Their recent study points out that wasps are effective pest controllers. There are 33,000 wasp species. Some are specialized in what aphids, caterpillars or other insects they hunt as food, and can be used as pest control for crops that have to deal with those specific insects. Other wasps hunt insects more generally and can be used for multi-crop farms.They're also important pollinators, and some plant species are completely dependent on wasps for reproduction. There is also some evidence, although not much as yet, about various values of wasps for making medicine and as a food source. *Ryan E. Brock, Alessandro Cini, Seirian Sumner. Ecosystem services provided by aculeate wasps. #animalscience
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- May, 2021
- 01-05-2021
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More mysterious 'Havana Syndrome' attacksMore of these strange attacks have been reported, this time not in Cuba but near the White House.When they were first reported in 2017, the U.S. government referred to them as 'targeted attacks' but later started calling them 'health incidents.'
But recently, two U.S. senators said they were definitely attacks. Canadian diplomats accused the Canadian government of withholding information about three new cases of brain injury among Canadian diplomats who served in Cuba, too.The U.S. puts Russia as the most likely perpetrator.Last year the National Academy of Science found the weapon to be one that uses 'pulsed microwave energy' to cause brain damage.The reported symptoms are vague, including memory loss, nausea, headaches, and loss of balance. The U.S. diplomats reported hearing a strange noise, which was recorded and is publicly available to listen to, in the embassy before the symptoms started.
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- May, 2021
- 01-05-2021
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Pakistani Camel LibraryA former wood-hauler camel is now employed traveling around some villages of Balochistan province with books strapped to its sides sides. Children run to the camel and clamor for books when the camel arrives.Balochistan has only 40% literacy, the lowest in Pakistan.Raheema Jalal is the woman behind the project, working with NGOs. The Camel Library Project is looking for further support in order to expand to other villages.#link #link #hello
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- Apr, 2021
- 30-04-2021
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When people tried to post such posts, they received a message: "Keeping our community safe ... Posts with #ResignModi are temporarily hidden here. Some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards."Over 12,000 posts calling for the Indian PM's resignation were later reinstated, and Facebook said it was an error.Twitter also recently deleted some posts critical of the Indian government after that government issued them a legal request.#another link
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- May, 2021
- 01-05-2021
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400 people moving to Dallas every dayOther hot real estate markets right now include Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. Line up to buy and buy as soon you can, with prices for new homes less than for old homes for the first time in 15 years due to inflated building costs (lumber notably up 400% this year), although different from 15 years ago buyers are actually qualified to buy.
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EU Parliament threatens Russian oil sectorThe EP, responding to Russian military buildups on the Ukraine border, passed a resolution that "demands that Russia immediately end the practice of unjustified military build-ups targeted at threatening its neighbors."The EU stated that other countries should supply more arms to Ukraine, and threatened that if Russia invaded Ukraine the EU "imports of oil and gas from Russia to the EU be immediately stopped, while Russia should be excluded from the SWIFT payment system, and all assets in the EU of oligarchs close to the Russian authorities and their families in the EU need to be frozen and their visas cancelled."Russia responded by saying it was ready to be shut off from Swift.SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a transaction network that connect thousands of banks in over 200 countries. Russia's central bank has its own transaction network, SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) but outside of Russia only 8 banks use it."demands that Russia immediately end the practice of unjustified military build-ups targeted at threatening its neighbours."
Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/world/russian-aggression-ep-resolution-proposes-switching-off-swift-for-russia-if-kremling-invades-ukraine-11406190.htmlIt also "demands that Russia immediately end the practice of unjustified military build-ups targeted at threatening its neighbours."
Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/world/russian-aggression-ep-resolution-proposes-switching-off-swift-for-russia-if-kremling-invades-ukraine-11406190.htmlIt also "demands that Russia immediately end the practice of unjustified military build-ups targeted at threatening its neighbours."
Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/world/russian-aggression-ep-resolution-proposes-switching-off-swift-for-russia-if-kremling-invades-ukraine-11406190.html - Apr, 2021
- 30-04-2021
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Burkina Faso's electric power grid
Citizens there increasingly have access to electricity, up from 18% to 45% in the past 5 years, and power outages have been reduced from regular multi-hour outages to ones lasting about an hour.The country gets 65% of it's power from Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana, but it is moving towards energy independence with large fields of solar panels in the desert. It expects the investments it is making now in solar will cause it to become 'completely powered' by solar in the coming years.
#BurkinaFaso #Energy
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China's population to declineFor the first time since Mao's Cultural Revolution 50 years ago, China's 1.4b people may decline, according to some calculations. China denies it. [FT]The 'One Child Policy' was in effect for 35 years until it was ended in 2015. Some think the government will now incentivize or pressure citizens to have more children.
India is a close second for the largest population, with 1.38b, but their population is expected to continue increasing.
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- Apr, 2021
- 30-04-2021
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Haiti, kidnapped priests, nuns and othersAll nine people have all been released - including the two Frenchmen. No word made public if the $1m ransom was paid. The local religious society of the kidnapped Haitians thanked the French and American ambassadors for their 'discreet and effective diplomatic support.' [RFI]
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