Dvorak News Blog

Goldman Sachs Dumped Nearly Half of Their BP Holding Two Days Before Disaster

By McCullough Wednesday June 9, 2010

Firm’s stock sale nearly twice as large as any other institution; Represented 44 percent of total BP investment

The brokerage firm that’s faced the most scrutiny from regulators in the past year over the shorting of mortgage related securities seems to have had good timing when it came to something else: the stock of British oil giant BP.

According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com has found that Goldman Sachs sold 4,680,822 shares of BP in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman’s sales were the largest of any firm during that time. Goldman would have pocketed slightly more than $266 million if their holdings were sold at the average price of BP’s stock during the quarter.

If Goldman had sold these shares today, their investment would have lost 36 percent its value, or $96 million. The share sales represented 44 percent of Goldman’s holdings — meaning that Goldman’s remaining holdings have still lost tens of millions in value.

Goldman is also a frequent target of liberals and journalists, including Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, who famously dubbed the firm a “vampire squid.”

In a related story, BP CEO dumped a third of his holding two weeks before the gusher. Since we don’t believe in conspiracies, we’ll just call this a happy coincidence.

Here’s One Way To End The Traffic Cam Scam

By Uncle Dave Wednesday June 9, 2010

15 Comments

These things are about generating money for the cities that use them, not about safety, so way to go!

It goes without saying, but we’re gonna go ahead and say it anyway: Nobody likes getting a speeding ticket. And that’s especially true when said ticket isn’t issued by a human officer, but from a machine set up to catch unwary motorists off guard. If only there was some way to get back that lost sense of justice…

One man from Bluff City, Tennessee came up with a rather inventive way of sticking it back to The Man. It seems that the officer in charge of the Bluff City Police Department’s website had gone on sick leave, and nobody noticed when the time came to renew the PD’s URL. Whoops.

Computer network designer Brian McCrary, who received a $90 ticket from a speed camera earlier in the year, saw a unique opportunity and seized it, picking up the domain rights from Go Daddy. Want to know what the Bluff City Police Department’s old website looks like now? Of course you do.

DH Unplugged #68
Birds Cooked by Hot Gulf Oil?

By John C Dvorak Tuesday June 8, 2010

2 Comments

Here is the latest conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. This week the market does a zig zag (again)and the Euro falls (again). Why??

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Apple WWDC Still Hogging the Spotlight

By John C Dvorak Tuesday June 8, 2010

7 Comments

Safari 5 kicks butt they say.
China going overboard with censorship.
MSFT Windows Phone 7 does biz apps. So what?
NYT has head up its own butt.
Bing turns one year old. Read my column.
Ford to use Google maps.
iPhone can run Android 2.2.
Microsoft has a debt? What?
Weird news from down under.

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Surra de Bunda. The Dance of Modern Love. Wha?

By John C Dvorak Tuesday June 8, 2010

33 Comments

A new dance from Brazil? OUCH…This is a craze? Bullcrap! These women are going to kill some guy.

World’s Biggest Burger comes from Oz!

By Eideard Tuesday June 8, 2010

21 Comments

A Sydney cafe is flipping out after cooking a hamburger believed to be the world’s biggest.

The Ambrosia on the Spot cafe in Randwick began creating the giant patty at 9.45pm Saturday. Four men were needed to flip the bulging burger, which at 90 kilograms, weighed in at more than the average human.

Cafe owners Joe and Iman El-Ajouz said the burger was finally placed in a bun around 11.45 Sunday morning, eclipsing the previous record of 84 kg, set in Michigan in the United States.

“Just flipping the patty was the main challenge for us, but it all went well,” Iman El-Ajouz said…

The giant burger contained the giant beef patty, 120 eggs, 150 slices of cheese, 1.5 kg of beetroot, 2.5 kg of tomatoes and almost 2 kg of lettuce all topped off with a special sauce on a giant sesame seed bun. It was eaten by employees at the cafe, along with supporters such as a bread supplier and a butcher.

More than $2500 was raised for the Sydney Children’s Hospital in the world record attempt. The cafe owners are now awaiting official confirmation from Guinness World Records.

Yum!

The Dance Of The Mayfly Can Be Seen On Radar

By Uncle Dave Tuesday June 8, 2010

6 Comments

It may have been well over 100 here in Vegas this past week, but at least we have very few insects [ahem] bugging us.

That most romantic of insects, the ephemeral mayfly – which survives for just one day as an adult – has made an impact in an unlikely setting: the radar images produced by US National Weather Service.

If you only lived for a day, you’d want to make sure you quickly found a partner. To ensure that this happens, mayflies synchronise their emergence from their aquatic, larval stage. In La Crosse, Wisconsin, so many of the flies emerged at once from the Mississippi that they showed up on the weather service’s Doppler radar as bright pink, purple and white patches.

The patches persisted for 10 to 20 minutes as the mayflies were borne away south-southeast on the wind.

The ‘War’ In Afghanistan Where The Taliban Are Bribed To Attack. Or Not.

By Uncle Dave Tuesday June 8, 2010

38 Comments

“Can I get my bribe now?”

This is one of those you can’t make this crap up stories unless you’re writing an over the top, satiric Hollywood movie script.

For months, reports have abounded here that the Afghan mercenaries who escort American and other NATO convoys through the badlands have been bribing Taliban insurgents to let them pass. Then came a series of events last month that suggested all-out collusion with the insurgents.
[…]
Although the investigation is not complete, the officials suspect that at least some of these security companies — many of which have ties to top Afghan officials — are using American money to bribe the Taliban. The officials suspect that the security companies may also engage in fake fighting to increase the sense of risk on the roads, and that they may sometimes stage attacks against competitors.

The suspicions raise fundamental questions about the conduct of operations here, since the convoys, and the supplies they deliver, are the lifeblood of the war effort.

“We’re funding both sides of the war,” a NATO official in Kabul said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was incomplete, said he believed millions of dollars were making their way to the Taliban.
[…]
The principal goal of the American-led campaign here is to prepare an Afghan state and army to fight the Taliban themselves. The possibility of collusion between the Taliban and Afghan officials suggests that, rather than fighting each another, the two Afghan sides may often cooperate under the noses of their wealthy benefactors.

There’s a 1984 undercurrent to this that’s finally reaching the surface. We’re paying both sides to stage a war so that the war keeps going. War without end, amen.

By the way, this war is now the longest war in our history.

Apple WWDC Hogging the Spotlight

By John C Dvorak Monday June 7, 2010

7 Comments

Most News is about Apple. The iPhone 4 is released.
AT&T crashes.
Sprint sets record with EVO sales. Where are the numbers?
Why are Facebook and Yahoo in the news so much?
HP scheme to network printers is underway.
The Safari browser is gooder.
Apple drops Cashback and I write about it.
Does the Internet make you smarter? Does the Internet make you dumber?
Kindle versus iPad showdowns.
Multi-touch pad leaked.
Sculley thinks he sucked at Apple. What?

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Pic of the Day Dept. — Irony

By hhopper Monday June 7, 2010

18 Comments

Helen Thomas — Has an Opinion About Israel. Done!

By Marc Perkel Monday June 7, 2010

246 Comments

Feel free to add your comments and opinions. Here’s mine.

Software Makers Worried ISP Data Caps Will Limit Innovation, Scare Users Away

By Uncle Dave Monday June 7, 2010

33 Comments

They’re putting a cap on Data?

For the last two years, unlimited data plans have given app-hungry smartphone users an all-you-can-eat buffet. But will customers react to AT&T’s new, limited menu by simply eating less?

Some software developers fear they will, and if that happens, the caps on data use that AT&T has imposed could also make consumers lose their appetite for the latest innovations. Some developers worry that customers will be reluctant to download and use the most bandwidth-intensive apps and that developers will cut back on innovative new features that would push customers over the new limits.

“What created this lively app world we are in was the iPhone on one hand, and unlimited data plans on the other,” said Noam Bardin, chief executive of Waze, which offers turn-by-turn driving directions. “If people start thinking about how big a file is, or how fast an application is refreshing, that will be a huge inhibitor.”
[…]
AT&T and some developers say that the new data plans could have the opposite effect and increase data usage by making it more affordable for most people.
[…]
Applications that stream high-bandwidth video and route phone calls and face-to-face video chats over the Internet could be seriously affected. Applications that constantly send a phone owner’s location — continually uploading and downloading data from the network — could also face challenges.

Who Needs A Casket When You’ve Got A Kick-Ass Motorcycle?

By Uncle Dave Monday June 7, 2010

22 Comments

Click pic to read all about it

David Morales Colon, 22, was embalmed and mounted on his Honda CBR600F4i racing motorbike in April by Marin Funeral Home in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for Colon’s three-day wake.

No Agenda Show #206
Cameras as Weapons

By John C Dvorak Sunday June 6, 2010

8 Comments

Series Producer: Andrew McKinnon
This Episode’s Executive Producers: Howard Johnson, Jason Chomel
Associate Executive Producer: Deborah Hutchinson
Art Director: Paul Couture

Listen to show by clicking ►

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Show notes here.
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More Cops Are Arresting People Photographing Them Doing Illegal Or Embarrassing Things

By Uncle Dave Sunday June 6, 2010

40 Comments

Question: If the parties being recorded have to consent, does that mean if I don’t consent to being photographed or videoed by the ubiquitous street cameras operated by the city that I can sue and/or have the operators and city officials who had them installed arrested?

In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer. Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

The legal justification for arresting the “shooter” rests on existing wiretapping or eavesdropping laws, with statutes against obstructing law enforcement sometimes cited. Illinois, Massachusetts, and Maryland are among the 12 states in which all parties must consent for a recording to be legal unless, as with TV news crews, it is obvious to all that recording is underway. Since the police do not consent, the camera-wielder can be arrested. Most all-party-consent states also include an exception for recording in public places where “no expectation of privacy exists” (Illinois does not) but in practice this exception is not being recognized.
[…]
Almost without exception, police officials have staunchly supported the arresting officers. This argues strongly against the idea that some rogue officers are overreacting or that a few cops have something to hide. “Arrest those who record the police” appears to be official policy, and it’s backed by the courts.
[…]
When the police act as though cameras were the equivalent of guns pointed at them, there is a sense in which they are correct. Cameras have become the most effective weapon that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse. And the police want it to stop.

Found by Brother Uncle Don