Symantec Axes Top Guy: Is that a Good Idea after the Hack of the Decade?

With the most massive hack in US history just a few months ago I'm not sure if it is a good time to fire your CEO.

"It's a jaw-dropping move, especially because Bennett was key to the company's turnaround. I view this as a major step back ...," FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives said.

Forrester Research analyst Rick Holland said Symantec had been losing market share to nimbler network security software makers such as FireEye Inc, Palo Alto Networks Inc and Checkpoint Systems Inc.

Symantec said it was committed to its target of more than 5 percent organic growth and higher than 30 percent adjusted operating margin by fiscal 2017.

However, BMO Capital analyst Joel Fishbein said it would be difficult for Symantec to achieve 5 percent revenue growth without mergers and acquisitions or divestiture due to a continuing fall in its main PC security and storage businesses.

Part of the problem is that Norton Anti-Virus is a primarily a consumer PC based program and that platform is slowly dying. You don't hear much about tablets or smart phones being hacked as much as PCs are so there really isn't a need for their main product. 

Most corporations would use a different kind of anti-virus product or just go to FireEye for an end-to-end product. I think Symantec really needs to buy out a new era network security firm like FireEye in order for them to stay relevant. 

Also with a look at their site it seems that there are like a 100 different products jumbled together in a mess. Let's say I'm a small business looking to beef up my security after hearing about Target getting hacked. I have no idea where to start or what product I should be looking for. Do I need Risk Automation Suite or NetBackup Appliance 5000 series or what. They seriously need to break these into different groups to make it easier to look at. 

Why do the GOP Not Believe in Climate Change? Yeah it is The Big Government Angle

I have to agree with this assertion of why the GOP does not believe in climate change in such big numbers.

A third interpretation is that political preferences have leaked into the perception of fact. Republicans may conflate the existence of climate change with the need for more government -- more federal research, more federal programs, more intervention in the economy, and more taxes to pay for all of it. Rather than relax their objection to government, maybe it's easier to look for reasons to think that climate change isn't happening, or isn't serious.

Yeah climate change might be happening but all the lies told about it have already clouded the perception of the whole debate. We were told that all of the arctic sea ice would be gone by 2014 and it's still there. We were told about mega-storms and earth-wide calamity if things aren't done right now. Then you have scientists hiding the decline and cooking the books on their own research and the whole thing has been tainted.

You add this to people who are already skeptical of the government doing anything of substance other than shoveling your tax money down a hole. It is any wonder why many Republicans are skeptical about climate change and see it as yet another government hole to pour money down. I mean the Post Office is bankrupt, they can't get a healthcare website to work so why do you think the government can change the climate of the entire earth to make it not be so warm in a 100 years?

It also sounds like another way for the government to control you even more than they already do. It just seems like an inflated issue to try to squeeze more money out of you so Al Gore and his ilk can become rich. If the climate scientists used practical arguments at the beginning instead of scare tactics and calling everyone that disagrees with them anti-science maybe they would have had a chance to convince people. Instead you are dubbed a denier that wants to destroy the earth.

They could have made the argument that renewables and nuclear energy helps ween ourselves off of foreign oil and helps save  middle class Americans money. Now with fracking even that argument seems pointless.

Also the recession did not help matters when we have poor countries begging for billions that the rich countries would have to go deeper into debt to pay. People have just washed their hands of the whole thing and figured paying more tax money to stop what might be bad in the future just doesn't fit into their budget anymore.

New York Attorney General Goes After High Frequency Traders

I guess the era of millisecond trading might be severely curtailed if the New York Attorney General gets his way.


"Rather than curbing the worst threats posed by high-frequency traders, our markets, as structured today, are increasingly too focused on catering to them," he said on Tuesday in a speech at New York Law School.

Schneiderman has begun meetings with the exchanges and alternative trading venues to discuss reforms, according to a person familiar with the situation.

He also looks like he will be going after so-called "dark pools" where big investors have to go in order to buy large amounts of stock to avoid tipping off high frequency traders that inflate prices on them. It would be interesting to see if he can get this done in order to avoid another "flash crash" or other nonsense caused by these traders.

The NSA Listens to Every Phone Call in an Unnamed Foregin Country (cough, Iran, cough, cough)

I wonder if this counts as violating this countries sovereignty or not?

This NSA program dates to 2009 and is called MYSTIC, according to documents obtained by the Post. It is used to intercept conversations in one specific country, but documents show the NSA intends to use it in other countries, the Post said.

It records all conversations across the unidentified foreign country and stores billions of them for 30 days. The program wasn't fully operational until 2011. One of the program's senior managers told the Post that MYSTIC is comparable to a time machine, meaning voices from any call can be replayed without requiring the NSA to identify a person before the conversations are collected.

Hmm, it might be Afghanistan but I have a hard time thinking they make billions of calls every 30 days. In any case people wonder why the US is so hated in the rest of the world. I mean Ahmed's call to his grandmother about buying onions has been intercepted by NSA snoops and pored over for hidden meanings.

Movie Review: Need for Speed: Get it On Redbox

Well I saw this little gem last week and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was kind of a throwback to a fun 80s style movie that made fun of itself. It was actually one of the better video game franchise movies that I have seen in a long time. It wasn't as good as the Resident Evil movies but it was far better then the usual video game movie drek out there.

The movie is pretty much about Jesse from Breaking Bad (Aaron Paul) and a British gal with a weird name (Imogen Poots) going cross country being chased by cops and other fun shenanigans. Poots was super good looking throughout the movie and I hope she becomes something in the US. I mean Imogen Poots can go head to head with Benedict Cumberbatch as the strangest named British imports.

The movie boils down to a small town guy that wants to become big time is visited by an evil guy that ends up killing off his friend and sending him to jail. Then Jesse needs to get revenge and proves his innocence by racing in some big race organized by Monarch played by Michael Keaton. Keaton chews scenery and acts like a madman so well I kind of wanted to see more of him. He mostly does his part as a podcaster that runs the race and doesn't come face to face with any of the characters.

I kind of wanted Jesse to be more animated and fun but he mostly has a blank look in much of the movie and barely speaks. I guess his character is the strong silent type but Aaron Paul is a great actor and I would have loved to see him do more actual emoting. They did give him a little red meat to chew when his friend was killed by the evil bad guy but I would have liked to see more.

However, he did have decent chemistry with Poots and they made a very good road trip couple. However there was a scene where Paul was weaving backwards through traffic that would have been interesting if Poots was checking her phone and not at all freaked out by Paul's driving. It would have showed that ice water was in the veins of the female lead and been pretty funny as well. Instead she freaked out in typical Hollywood fashion. Although there was a nice scene where she was super excited by a Dukes of Hazard style jump over an expressway.

Also one of the main characters of a movie like this was the cars. Lots of $250K Koenigseggs and Lamborghini Huracáns flying around at top speeds. You also get to see them crash and get totaled as well. That should make any car nut cringe in horror. Also much of the film the main characters drive in a stock-looking Mustang that was supposed to be specially made and cost $2 million. I am not a car guy but it just looked kind of generic to me. I wanted them to tool around in a Corvette or a muscle car from the 60s. Instead it was a generic looking Mustang that looked like it needed an alignment adjustment that was the star of the show. It was like watching a Call of Duty: Ghosts movie and seeing the main character using an M1 Garand to fight the bad guys.

In any case if you want to see a fun movie that moves at top speed and don't need all that much acting chops then this is one to Redbox when it comes out. There really isn't much reason to watch it at the theater but it is a fun movie to watch with your buddies with a case of beer.

Is it Time to Switch to T-Mobile? If Softbank Buys Them Out a "Price War" Will Be Launched

I like the idea of a billionaire with a huge Japanese company buying a US company and then fighting for my business.

SoftBank Corp. President Masayoshi Son will start a "massive price war" if U.S. regulators allow his company to purchase T-Mobile US Inc., he said in an interview with PBS's Charlie Rose. 

The billionaire, who bought control of Sprint Corp. last year, said combining the third- and fourth-largest U.S. mobile-phone carriers would give him enough scale to compete against larger operators AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Communications Inc. 

Sounds like the kind of changes that will benefit consumers in the short term. They are already buying out contracts so switching to them will hopefully be pain-free.

Um, Yeah I think There is Another Tech Bubble

This article makes quite a bit of sense.

In reality, Facebook can afford to spend 11% of its already sky-high $180 billion market cap in the hope of capturing nearly a billion eyeballs, so the valuation doesn’t have to make sense to the social network. Zuckerberg is just playing with funny money.

The comparison of Verizon’s nearly 100 million subscribers that spend about $70 a month to unmonetized users of a messaging app makes little sense. And Verizon is an established market leader with essentially two competitors while WhatsApp competes with dozens of other messaging apps. The competitive barriers are in now way comparable. 

Yes Facebook paid $19 billion for a messaging app when there are perhaps 5 that I have heard of people using. All of them are very similar and are really not worth $19 billion to tell the truth. I mean I cannot tell much of a difference between Snapchat, Whatsapp, Kik or any of the others. They do different things and have different amounts of installed base but $19 billion worth?

I'm not even sure how Facebook will make that money back because I have serious problems with the advertising model when it comes to free apps. The only time I have ever clicked through a mobile ad was in error. The top of the ad would sometimes stick up onto the regular part of an app that I was using. I ended up uninstalling the app and getting something that was similar.

In any case I think the bubble is in place and something will come along and pop it in the next few years. I thought it would be something like Facebook and Twitter new users finally slowing down but it seems to be inflating right along. But I think sooner rather than later we will have our Pets.com at the Super Bowl moment. Could $19 billion for Whatsapp be it?

Paul Ryan: Please Lay off the Free School Lunches; Almost no one is Against a Free Meal for a Child

From the "own-goal department" of the GOP we have Paul Ryan trying to take food out of the mouth of babes. (The easy liberal counterattack if I have ever seen one)

“The left is making a big mistake here. What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. The American people want more than that. This reminds me of a story I heard from Eloise Anderson. She serves in the cabinet of my buddy, Governor Scott Walker. She once met a young boy from a very poor family, and every day at school, he would get a free lunch from a government program. He told Eloise he didn’t want a free lunch. He wanted his own lunch, one in a brown-paper bag just like the other kids. He wanted one, he said, because he knew a kid with a brown-paper bag had someone who cared for him. This is what the left does not understand.”

So taking away that government program will suddenly get this poor kid a sack lunch? There might be a decent chance he will not get to eat and be hungry throughout the day. It just seems heartless to try to deny this kid some sustenance that the parents obviously cannot afford. Plus hungry kids test poorly and don't learn well so that puts this kid even further behind.

Instead of offering someone a full soul but an empty stomach why don't you offer his parents a job instead. This is exactly why I don't understand why the GOP is dead-set against a minimum wage hike. If you pay people $3 more per hour we might have more sack lunches and less free school lunches. McDonalds and Walmart might lose money but I'm sure they have smart managers that can make up the difference.

This rush to cut food stamps and free school lunches just makes the GOP look mean-spirited. The least thing this mighty and rich country can do is to make sure that there are no hungry people within its borders. It is very Christian to feed the hungry and clothe the destitute. But when the government takes on this task all the GOP wants to do is cut these programs. The "full soul, empty stomach" principal is just not something most people will get behind.

Finally, what is the savings that can come from these cuts? How could that money be better spent? I would be willing to bet it just a few billion that can be cut out of some other program. Or it can just be gleaned from reducing fraud, waste, and abuse. Shouldn't feeding people be a good use of ones tax money?

Dems Pull Stunt to Combat Climate Change: Is Hot Air a Greenhouse Gas?

It seems that the Dems are trying to pull a publicity stunt for Climate Change awareness.

"Despite overwhelming scientific evidence and overwhelming public opinion, climate change deniers still exist," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said. "They exist in this country and in this Congress."

The Nevada Democrat made the comments in kicking off the marathon gabfest at 6:27 p.m. on Monday. The final address is expected to end about 15 hours later, at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Thirty of the Senate's 53 Democrats, plus the two independents who caucus with them, have signed up to participate. The White House said it would post live tweets during the overnight session under the hashtag #up4climate.

I don't deny that climate change might exist. I mean if the scientists didn't cook the books I would be more apt to believe them. Also it seems their models can't explain why the earth is no longer warming for the past decade. It still might be happening but everything has been obscured.

I just don't want us to give $30 billion in graft money to "combat climate change" so that 3rd world dictators can buy attack helicopters. Any UN "climate change fund" will be riddled with corruption and be like a huge gift to diplomats with their hands out. Also I want the Red Chinese to give more because they are polluting far faster than we are.

Sony Video Game Chief Jack Tretton Resigns; I Wonder Why?

The Playstation 4 looks like it is winning the console wars for this cycle and they get rid of the guy that has been there since 1995?

Under his leadership, Sony's latest videogame console that launched in November, the PlayStation 4, was the top-selling console in the United States in January, according to market research form NPD. Sony said on Tuesday that it has sold more than 6 million PlayStation 4 units worldwide as of March 2.

Um, that seems pretty impressive and is beating the crap out of the PS3 at this time from what I can gather. Sony, seems really good at screwing up just when things are going good. They will probably bring in some dolt that will make some mistake to put the XBone back into parity with the PS4.

Harry Reid Calls His Own Democrats Racist

Talk about friendly fire when you are playing the tired old GOP is racist card.

Adegbile had been rejected, the majority leader explained, because "he stood for civil rights," and "Republicans have done everything they can, for a number of years now, to stop people from voting ... "

So welcome to the club, Sens. Chris Coons, Heidi Heitkamp, Joe Manchin, Robert Casey, John Walsh, Joe Donnelly and Mark Pryor. By disagreeing with Reid, you're all honorary racists, which is the same thing as being a Republican, according to the Democratic defamation machine.

Yup racism charges are so ingrained into the Dem attack that it falls on deaf ears for the most part. 

Tea Party Gets Asses Whipped in Texas

Well it seems that the Eyes of Texas are no longer on some Tea Party challengers.

The show-stealer with national implications was the impressive victory of John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, over conservative Rep. Steve Stockman and six other Republican challengers. Cornyn, the one-time head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, drew the challenge despite his solid conservative voting record and credentials. He rolled to victory with 61 percent of the overall vote – exceeding a high bar of performance set by many political experts.

At the same time, nine-term Republican Rep. Pete Sessions easily defeated his GOP primary challenger, Katrina Pierson, who was backed by FreedomWorks, a national Tea Party group.

So the Washington insiders beat the crazy Tea Partiers by a pretty wide margin as I expected. I hope Ted Cruz isn't getting too comfortable in his Washington perch right now. It looks more and more like the shutting down the government and threatening a destroying the world economy is turning out to be the Tea Parties Waterloo.

Target Finds a Person to Fall on Her Sword: That Person is Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob

In the words of Metallica: Do my dirty work, scapegoat. Do, do my deeds, for you're the one who's shamed.

Target said Jacob's resignation was her decision. But analysts say Jacob, who brought a series of technology initiatives to Target's stores and its website, was a scapegoat.

"Target has been obviously impacted. People are questioning Target's security. And she was the fall guy," said Walter Loeb, a New York-based independent retail consultant.

It doesn't matter to me if Tony Stark is their computer security person I will not buy anything from Target for any reason. You can't give up 40 million credit and debit card numbers when you pretty much sell the same thing I can buy from Walmart for cheaper.

Radio Shack Circles the Drain: Doesn't Matter to Me

It seems Radio Shack is going the way of Blockbuster as technology makes the store obsolete.

Much of what RadioShack used to stand for, the little esoteric electronics stuff you couldn't get anywhere else, can be (and should be) bought online. The economics of that stuff, as Radio Shack's increasingly death-spiral performance shows, simply doesn't pay. And they don't carry the stuff many of us want. And the sales help -- and this is a big generalization and no disrespect to the many hard working Radio Shack employees -- is hit-and-miss, at best.


I remember Radio Shack was the big bully in the 80s and now they are slowly dying. When Greenberg talks about the Radio Shack employees being poor I would have to agree with him. I remember back in the day when I was a little kid their employees shooing me away from their computers. I wasn't going to hammer the keys or have sticky fingers touching the mouse. I just wanted to interact with the technology that their were selling. The whole ordeal ended up making me against Radio Shack

In fact the only thing I had bought since then was a car charger for my phone when it was nearly dead. I probably could have bought it from Amazon but I needed it that day and Radio Shack was closer than Best Buy. I have never went back since and this was the early 2000s.

It just boils down to tech can be bought cheaper and more conveniently from Amazon. Best Buy is used as Amazon's showroom for tech and can be kept afloat by selling appliances. You still can't drop ship a refrigerator for anything close to a cheap price. But Radio Shack is just an anachronism from an earlier time and needs to go the way of Blockbuster.

Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev Would "Crash" the US Economy if Sanctions are Brought Against Russia

Tough talk Glazyev but our economy is much stronger than you think.

He told the RIA Novosti news agency Russia could stop using dollars for international transactions and create its own payment system using its "wonderful trade and economic relations with our partners in the East and South."

Wait does he mean the Chinese? The Yuan is pegged to the dollar and they have trillions in bonds. If the Russians "crashed" the US financial system it would damage the Red Chinese as well. Also how would this payment system work? You won't be able to convert dollars into rubles? It's not like the rest of the world would stop using dollars because the Russians stop. It would effectively isolate their economy.

Russian firms and banks would also not return loans from American financial institutions, he said.

"An attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of the domination of the United States in the global financial system," he added.

Um, can you say capital flight? The Americans would not be the only ones to pull their money out of Russia. Who knows if the loans of the Red Chinese or the Australians will be the next to be defaulted on. There will be a run on Russian banks that you have never seen before. This would probably collapse these Russian banks and firms as foreign capital will run for the door. I hope the Russians are good at bailing out their banks.

He said that economic sanctions imposed by the European Union would be a "catastrophe" for Europe, saying that Russia could halt gas supplies "which would be beneficial for the Americans" and give the Russian economy a useful "impulse".

This doesn't make sense. It would probably get Europe to increase their buildup of LNG terminals and the natural gas boom in the US will be huge. This would be a great boon for the US economy. Um, thanks Russia you just made one of our big exports even more expensive. Some European nations like Poland will hurt but it won't be a catastrophe for anyone but the Russians. 

Putin Blinks: Rattles the Sabres but the Russian Market Crash May Have Been Too Much

I'm sure Putin is motivated by all sorts of delusions of grandeur but maybe his portfolio (or the portfolios of his ex-KGB cronies) got him to stand down.

Although Putin doesn’t really have much to fear in terms of retribution for making mistakes within his own country, the markets were giving him a different story, as Russia’s MICEX (MICEXINDEXCF.ME) index tumbled a whopping 10.8% yesterday. Recovery in markets abroad, and here in the states (^GSPC, ^DJI), have essentially brought us back to the status quo, something which Zachary Karabell of Envestnet felt was the most likely scenario.

Or conversely maybe he had a massive short trade on and made a quick 10.8% on his billions by essentially using his military to scare the markets. I have a feeling that the MICEX version of the SEC is not as powerful in Putin's Russia so that kind of chicanery might be possible. He probably has money in the US Stock market as well and had a chance to catch the downward move and the recovery as well.

Putin also had a chance to take the temperature of the world while playing the "Great Game" to rebuild a Russian Empire. He pretty much invaded his neighbor using Hitler's Austrian Gambit (I'm protecting ethnic Germans I mean Russians) and all the world did was condemn it in the strongest possible terms.

There were no economic sanctions or aircraft carrier movements by the US. The EU just stamped their feet and did not come to the financial or military aid of the Ukranians. The UN didn't censure him or do much of anything substantial. Putin could have ordered his troops to seize the country and annex it and there would have been no real consequences by the rest of the world.

Now if he is as devious as I think he is, Putin's next plan would be to partition the country using the UN as a tool. His excuse will be "protecting the interests of the Russian minority." Then he creates a satellite of the eastern half of the country with a puppet strongman in place. After all, getting half of a country for free is better than a war of aggression for the whole thing. All the satellite countries but none of that worthless rebuilding that the US has to do all the time.

Russia has loved a buffer zone of countries between it and Europe going back to Peter the Great. So Putin the Great (or Putin the Terrible?) is forming his own in 2014. It is sad that Putin is playing chess in the "Great Game" and the rest of the world is playing Chutes and Ladders.

Dems Might Lose the Senate According to This Poll

It seems that Obama might be a lame duck with two years to go on his second term.

Republicans have a large, 8-point advantage among voters in states with Senate races, according to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday.

Democrats hold a slight edge in the overall generic congressional ballot. But in the key battle for the Senate, Republicans lead the generic ballot by a 50-42 margin in states with a 2014 Senate race.

Republicans need to pick up six seats in November to retake control of the Senate, something that could instantly make President Barack Obama a lame duck president of sorts in his last two years.

Well Obama can still be weak and ineffectual in foreign policy. I wonder if the Dems will be sad that the only real thing to come out of the Obama years is a flawed health insurance law that almost everyone hates.

Movie Review: Pompeii: Avoid It

Well I saw another bad movie this past week. I was actually excited to see this one because I have studied Pompeii since I was a kid and read this extremely good book The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. I was strait-up disappointed and I think this movie might kill Roman movies for a while. Hopefully, sword and sandal (which is one of my favorite genres) will be kept going if 300: Rise of an Empire kills it this coming weekend. 

So I was really all set to be taken back to AD 79 through the power of movie magic and CGI. Unfortunately I got a lot of Jon Snow from Game of Thrones (Kit Harington) and a very weird looking woman (Emily Browning) and their various travails. We also have Kiefer Sutherland hamming it up as a Roman General turned Senator who wears his armor everywhere for some reason. He also does this hopeless, affected British accent. It goes to show you that Brits can do American accents but almost never the other way around.

The movie for the most part establishes that Jon Snow is the Celt who is the last of some unnamed horse tribe killed off by Kiefer Sutherland and a sinister looking guy that slightly resembles Anthony Weiner. John Snow is the lone survivor and he becomes a gladiator. Hmm I think there was a movie with a better actor in it called the Gladiator that had a similar plot. In fact we even have a scene where he moves up because he is a badass but goes to Pompeii to fight instead of Rome. Oliver Reed's ghost did not appear.

Well Jon Snow eventually gets to Pompeii but on the road he meets up with Browning when her horse breaks his leg. Well Snow is a bad-assed horseman and euthanized the horse making Browning all sympathetic to him. The two actors did not have very much chemistry so it pretty much amounted to there was writing some where in the script that said "John Snow falls in love with Browning, hijinks ensue"

There is some fighting and a black gladiator is introduced played by Adabisi from Oz (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) who meets up with Russell Crowe I mean John Snow. They become friends while boasting how they will kill each other in the ring. I am just so tired of how gladiators in Hollywood are portrayed in such an a-historical manner. They rarely slaughtered one another and were highly trained warriors that cost big money to maintain. They were, in many ways, like MMA fighters (but even more popular) that used deadly weapons. If you owned a Gladiator school you rarely wanted your trained fighters to die in the ring if you could help it. That was the job of criminals and Christians and such not someone that could potentially make you rich. There is no way that a resort city like Pompeii would have had a bunch of fights to the death in their Arena.

In any case the Gladiators are brought to the house of Browning's parents where they are on display for a roman dinner. Of course it wasn't a true Roman dinner which would have been cool to see on the big screen. Instead it was just some background for the two wooden leads to "fall in love" in front of. Also they establish that Sutherland and Browning were an item (kind of) when she was visiting Rome for some reason or another. Jon Snow steals a horse and other nonsense and he is caught and has to fight in some rigged match instead of Sutherland just killing him.

So the next day instead of Jon Snow fighting Adabisi for "hiiis Freeeedom!" they have to fight a bunch of gladiators dressed as Roman soliders in front of a paper-mache menhir with a spiked collar surrounding its top. I swear it got nabbed from a Warhammer Fantasy Khorne diorama. They even had a True Detective-istic swirl on it to make the derivative-ness complete. The whole set just looked awful and stupid and the entire battle scene just looking like it was taken off the cutting room floor of Gladiator. I especially liked the super dull blades that popped up throughout the movie.

Right after the fight is when Vesuvius blows its top and we go from Gladiator to Volcano without Tommy Lee Jones in 5 seconds. The mountain exploding and the disaster scenes were quite good so I can't fault it here. Lots of fleeing Romans and pyroclasts and the little known part where there was a tsunami that was caused when the mountain blew. In this part people run around, Adabisi saves some kid, and there is a hackneyed chariot chase between Sutherland and Jon Snow. We even have a slow motion death of the slave friend of Browning played by Brit actress Jessica Lucas. Um, quick someone tell the director that there weren't only black slaves in Rome. In fact, they were kind of a rare sight because they would have to have come from thousands of miles away.

In any case the acting was wooden and Kit Harington pretty much has only one expression through the whole movie. Browning was a non-factor and I liked her much better in Sucker Punch. In fact she actually looked like a different person in that movie. Someone had to point out it was the same actress. I was like "wait the beautiful girl from Sucker Punch is this emaciated waif?" I immediately thought "I hope it is just Hollywoods "thin-mania" and not heroin or something sinister like that. Well bottom line is if you want Pompeii read that book I sited above and skip this Gladiator retread full of terrible acting and stupid looking fighting.

  


 

Ellen's Oscar Selfie is Priceless

Well it seems this picture broke Twitter for a little while.

The best part is Kevin Spacey making a funny turtle face in the background. Also it seems that half of Jared Leto's face is cut off as well. It is an interesting and candid moment from the Oscars that seemed to go nearly an hour overtime. I think Ellen did a great job as Oscar host.

Also bring back the olden day Oscar setup where the stars sit at tables and can eat and drink. Having them sit in a big auditorium just looks weird and I bet everyone is starving by the time they get to the various parties. I think the Golden Globes have it right. The stars are more relaxed and can have more fun and can get liquored up if they want. For the Oscars you have to have manufactured fun from Ellen to break the tension in the room.

Warming Slowdown Temporary Say Scientists

It seems that it is the pause that is refreshing.

Since an exceptionally warm 1998, there has been "a short-term slowdown in the warming of Earth's surface," Britain's Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said in a report.

But, they said, that "does not invalidate our understanding of long-term changes in global temperature arising from human-induced changes in greenhouse gases."

Instead of trying to use scare tactics to keep developing countries from achieving first world status why don't these scientists study why there was a short-term slowdown. Maybe that slowdown can be repeated or it could be sustainable. Instead we just have assurances that warming will continue some time in the future maybe. That is a flimsy basis to give billions of dollars to despots seeking an end to climate change.

Now the NSA is Stealing your Yahoo Web Chat Photos and Giving Them to the Brits?

I'm sure they have endless terabytes of naked selfies to comb through looking for terrorists.

How invasive was this program? According to leaked documents obtained by The Guardian, “in one six-month period in 2008 alone, the agency collected webcam imagery — including substantial quantities of sexually explicit communications — from more than 1.8 million Yahoo user accounts globally.” The documents show that GCHQ began bulk data collection from Yahoo online video chats because “Yahoo webcam is known to be used by GCHQ targets.”

I'm sure Mary Anne and her BF web chatting while he is away on a band field trip to the Idaho Famous Potato Bowl in Boise is a matter of national security. Maybe she is secretly an Al-Quida sympathizer. So NSA Chief Clapper needs to make sure what color her bra is and how many New Edition posters she has on her wall. 

I love that half-assed "I no longer care" reasoning the GCHQ had as well. Al-Quida is known to use Yahoo video chats so we need to record every single one just in case. It is like saying "Al-Quida uses hard drives so we need to download every kilobyte of data generated in the world" just in case. Maybe this will finally get some people to raise up when they realize that there is some NSA database somewhere that has their naked selfies all ready for some NSA spook to ogle.

The Last Time the Cubs Won the World Series The Ottoman Empire Still Existed

These 8 historical facts are just so funny.

The Chicago Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908. This was back when there were still teams such as the Brooklyn Superbas and the Boston Doves. The Ottoman Empire, which was founded in the 13th century, also existed back then. Mehmed VI was the last sultan of the empire and his reign ended in 1922 when the sultanate was abolished and the Turkish government took governing control over the new republic -- 14 years after the Cubs last won the World Series.

So the Cubs won and 14 years later the Ottoman Empire fell? Coincidence? I think not.

Even the Uninsured Are Against Obamacare

It sucks when the people that the law is supposed to help ie the 30 million uninsured are against Obamacare for the most part.

Fifty-six percent of those who identified as uninsured in a new poll conducted in February by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a research institution, had an unfavorable view of the health care reform law, compared to just 22 percent who said they view it favorably. The uninsured now see Obamacare less favorably than they did when the enrollment period began in October. As recently as September, more uninsured approved of the law than disapproved. 

What do you expect when these people are supposed to buy insurance at $2000 a year or get fined and the subsidies are given to them on their tax returns. The revenues and the expenditures do not match up and that is a problem.

Google Fiber to Expand to 34 Cities

It seems that Google is going all in on its coming battle with the Telcos.

Google has avoided FiOS markets altogether (not to mention colder-weather climes that would make fiber construction more costly), instead picking areas that fall within AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable footprints. If Google does pull the trigger, the expansion won’t be cheap: Deploying fiber in all 34 cities would cost between $2.2 billion and $3 billion, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Carlos Kirjner estimated.

Kirjner believes Google Fiber is what Google says it is: a major opportunity. Within six years, Google Fiber could reach 40 million homes and serve 20 million broadband customers — and yield $20 billion in annual revenue, by his math. The capital-intensive characteristics of Google Fiber are divergent from the parent company’s high-margin, cash-cow search-advertising biz, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work.

I think it might be a good idea to spin-off Google Fiber because the capex on telcom is always insane and it would bring margins down for the parent. In any case when Google Fiber eventually comes to Hawaii I will be signing up because the speed is insane and they will probably price very low in order to battle the Telcos.

Mt. Gox Disappears Overnight: Glad I have Stocks and Bonds and Not Bitcoin in My Portfolio

This is kind of like the New York Stock Exchange or ICE disappearing overnight.

The website of Mt. Gox suddenly went dark on Tuesday with no explanation, and the only activity at the company's Tokyo office was outside, where a handful of protesters said they had lost money investing in the virtual currency.

Hours later, Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles told Reuters in an email: "We should have an official announcement ready soon-ish. We are currently at a turning point for the business. I can't tell much more for now as this also involves other parties."

He did not give any other details.

The Tokyo-based Mt. Gox had halted withdrawals earlier this month after detecting "unusual activity," and on Sunday Karpeles resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, the digital currency's trade group.

Yup the NASDAQ closed all trading today and shut down their website and their CEO said "stocks are at a turning point; we'll have an announcement soonish." I am so glad I dodged this scam in the making. I guess this is the reason why stocks are backed by corporations and treasuries are backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. We might be trillions in debt but the bond market won't shut down with a "we'll have more information soonish" tacked on the door. 

An Actual Compassionate Conservative? Arthur Brooks of the AIE Welcomes the Dalai Lama

It seems that the Dalai Lama actually had a chance to sit down with conservatives and have a debate about capitalism. Maybe the idea that conservatives actually want to help poor people might come around at last.

Brooks was solicitous of his holy guest. “Free enterprise truly can be and should be a blessing in the life of all people, especially the poor,” he assured the Dalai Lama, but “it will not be if it’s not executed and practiced on the basis of brotherhood and compassion.” 

A conservative calling for compassionate capitalism! This was encouraging. 

I guess all that talk of makers vs takers and the 47% that are addicted to the government is starting to wear off. Capitalism has the potential to help quite a few people come out of poverty than any other economic setup.

The Red Chinese is case-in-point. Communism was a dismal failure that killed off tens of millions of people. Capitalism is is helping quite a few people go from nearly subsistence farming to a comfortable middle class. It is command capitalism but it is far better than anything Mao tried to do.

There are people left behind by capitalism and I think its the job of the government working with civic and religious groups to help them out. So job training at the local church, or free suits donated by Jos. E. Banks for perspective job applicants, and resume help from the Chamber of Commerce. That way a person can find a job and contribute to the economy rather than relying on welfare etc.

I Agree with Ashley Wagner: Figure Skating is Rigged

I thought falling down was bad and eliminated you from the podium but I guess not.

Wagner's total of 193.20 was 7.37 points behind that of Lipnitskaia, the Russian sweetheart who won the hearts of the host nation with a pair of performances that helped win gold in the team competition. That was despite Lipnitskaia's falling heavily on both nights and being visibly dismayed at her performance once she left the rink after her free skate.

So the Russian won even after falling twice? She should have not even been close to the podium especially after Wagner didn't fall even once. I'm sure Putin had the families of the judges in the Russian sphere of influence put up in a special villa full of luxuries. If the judges scored it the "wrong way" they would have been cleaning blood off of the marble floors. According to this some of the judges were crooked as well.

Two of their replacements were Ukrainian Yuri Balkov, who was kicked out of judging for a year after being tape-recorded by a Canadian judge trying to fix the Nagano ice dancing competition, and Alla Shekhovtseva, a Russian judge who is married to Russian federation general director Valentin Pissev. The two other new long program judges were from Estonia and France, which was the country that conspired with Russia to try to fix the pairs and ice dancing competition at the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Why doesn't a judge that tried to fix the Nagano ice dancing still able to judge in the Olympics? Also one of them is married to the head of Russian skating? That is such a rig job it isn't even funny. Forget this crooked-assed Olympics.

Google Fiber a Game Changer? Welcome to the Googleverse

I was reading this article about Google Fiber and would love to have it in Hawaii ASAP.

Google (GOOG), which has market capitalization of about $405 billion (plus $60 billion in cash, plus a derelict blimp hangar), just announced it’s expanding its fiber network rollout, which Netflix consistently clocks as the speediest in the sector. Google Fiber claims to be 100 times faster than the typical household broadband connection—good enough to download an entire HD flick in half a minute.

First of all this will shatter Gamestop because the only thing slowing down digital downloads of entire games is how long it takes to download them. If that barrier is taken away (or the game streams somehow) then the physical game on DVD goes the way of the game cartridge. I agree with this assessment as well:

Some on Wall Street seem to think so. “Google Fiber is an attempt by Google to build a profitable, stand-alone business,” Carlos Kirjner of Bernstein Research wrote in a Wednesday research report. “It may not make a huge difference for Google or for the incumbents in the next one, two or three years, but Google is taking the long view and we think in five or more years, it could turn out to be a significant, profitable business for Google and headwind for incumbents.”

They want to have your entire digital life be dependent on Google which is a pretty good business model. They want every search to be from Google, every song played off of Google Play Music, every Office Document to be made with Google Docs, all of the your files stored on Google Drive, and have your connection to the Internet be through Google Fiber.

I have a feeling too that once Google Fiber is rolled out they will start a wireless service as well. If you think about it Google could cut out the telecom industry altogether. You could use Skype (or a Google version of it) for calls, Snapchat or Google Messenger for texts, and Google Wireless to access the Internet. That pretty much cuts out the telecoms for anything other than subsidizing the cost of phones. Why would you sign up with AT&T or Verizon for 2 years when you can connect your smart phone to the Internet at much faster speeds?

It seems that Google wants to have end to end control of your entire digital life. They just bought out Nest so that they can have your house plugged into Google as well. Your refrigerator will connect to Google Fiber to tell your Android phone that uses Google Wireless that you need to throw out that bad milk. Welcome to the Googleverse.

Liberal Snobs Through History

This article articulates why I dislike the so-called "liberal elite" that seems to always know how to spend my money better than I do.

The novels of Sinclair Lewis, the journalism of H.L. Mencken and the literary criticism of Van Wyck Brooks heaped scorn on the vast and supposedly mindless Americans who worked hard at their jobs and joined civic groups -- Mencken's "booboisie."

These 1920s liberals idealized the "noble aspiration" and "fine aristocratic pride" in an imaginary Europe, and considered Americans, in the words of a Lewis character, "a savorless people, gulping tasteless food," and "listening to mechanical music, saying mechanical things about the excellence of Ford automobiles and viewing themselves as the greatest race in the world."

Liberals are always looking to Europe as a bastion of enlightened thinking but seem to ignore the fact that Americans do not want to be taxed at 70% - 90% so that some other person can get freebies. We are a lot more German in our attitude that we don't want to work our asses off so some Greek guy can sleep in the sun. Liberals of course also ignore the racism and rampant classism in parts of the continent.

 

Also Lewis' ideas about Americans seem to be the seedling for the idea of "flyover states." Like the vast majority of Americans are simply filling the space between the enlightened bastions of liberalism like Seattle, Berkley, San Francisco, New York etc. Most middle class Americans are "savorless people" clinging to our guns and God and need to be led by the hand by an intelligent liberal technocracy that knows what is best for them. How do you expect to lead people you have such contempt for?

This is also why liberals have a hard time with the idea of American exceptionalism. Deep down they think America is a hateful, racist place where the rich and corporations smash the common man. They see us as warmongers that slime the world with our pop culture. Everything that some other country has is great even though they ignore the deep problems in those countries. Liberals deep down don't like Americans as they are now and want to change them into something they will never willingly become.

It Seems Americans Do Not Care About Immigration Reform

I think pocketbook issues are much more important to most Americans.

This year, Americans didn’t put immigration as high on their list of importance as some in Washington have, at least according to a Gallup poll released on January 16. Given 19 issues rated as extremely important, very important, moderately important, or not important at all, Gallup found that those who viewed immigration as extremely or very important for Congress and the president in 2014 was near the bottom of the list, at 50 percent.

It fell below everything from the economy to education and health care. It was below crime, taxes, “the distribution of income and wealth,” and gun policy in terms of importance. The only things that those polled found less important for the coming year were government surveillance, abortion, race relations, and LGBT policies.

What is bad though is government surveillance is so low on the list. I guess if the government avoids the issue long enough Americans will forget and the police state will be firmly in place.

Dems Can't Figure Out Why People Like Their Issues But Don't Like Them: It's the Aspiration Stupid

Well it seems that the Dems just can't understand why most of their issues have broad support but it doesn't translate into liking the party.

Democrats disagree on how to discuss the growing divide between high-income earners and middle-class workers whose wages have largely stayed flat for many years. One top Democratic lawmaker, who would discuss the sensitive issue only on condition of anonymity, said he is incensed when his party's candidates denounce "income equality," because many voters see it as contrary to the American dream of advancing and benefiting from hard work.

Yet Biden jumped right in Friday. "They talk about the fact that we shouldn't be talking about income inequality," he told House Democrats. "I think it would be a sin if we didn't talk about income inequality."

When he was elected to the Senate in 1972, Biden said, "a CEO made about 25 times more than the lowest-paid employee." Now, he said, it's 240 times greater.

This is exactly why the Dems argument falls flat on a majority of Americans. No one cares if the CEO makes 240 times more than the lowest-paid employee because the majority of Americans will not tolerate being the lowest-paid employee for very long. They want to rise up the ladder and maybe if they work hard enough become the CEO themselves. It is rare but several corporations sport CEOs who used to have entry level jobs at the company.

So whenever the Dems talk about income inequality they go after something that many Americans aspire to become. One reason a person I know didn't join the Occupy Movement even though he was of the right demographic and is a liberal is because he wanted to eventually be one of the 1%. Why would you march against something you aspire to become?

So when the Dems talk about getting back at the rich or giving freebies to the poor it short circuits the idea that if you work hard you will get ahead. I mean most Americans don't want or need handouts or want any hostility from Dems once they actually attain some sort of wealth. They want a safety net in place but hope to never have to use it.

So whenever Biden talks out of his ass about CEO pay people tune him out. Americans probably won't make 240 times more than the lowest paid person at their company but there is a decent chance they will be able to make 20 or a 30 times it instead. They see Biden and the Dems standing in their way of achieving just that.

Ted Cruz the Idiot does it Again: Stabs GOP In the Back and Attempted to Roil Financial Markets

I think it is high time for the GOP to censure this ignoramus.

Cruz's insistence on getting 60 votes prevented the bill from being passed with a simple majority in the 100-member Senate. Had he not objected, the 53 Democrats and two independents who align themselves with Democrats could have done it by themselves without forcing any Republicans — particularly those up for re-election this year — to cast politically painful votes.

But now the filibuster vote was on. And the only way to know where the tally stood was to sit in the Senate chamber and track the vote of every senator, typically made with just a hand gesture.

It's a challenging task for even the most accomplished Senate watcher to perfect.

Nervous Wall Street traders and other interested observers were out of luck as the voted dragged on for more than an hour.

Financial markets floated softly southward as suspense built.

Yes, Ted Cruz pretty much hung his fellow Republicans out to dry so they had to vote with the Democrats to break his stupid filibuster. If this vote collapsed we might have seen a default and an 800 point down day. I'm glad McConnell and 6 other Republicans actually stood up to Cruz the bully and put their political futures at risk for the sake of the market and the country. 

I think I might give money to McConnell's campaign so he can smash the face of whatever stupid Tea Party boot-licker he is running against. In any case I am now officially anti-Tea Party. Cruz the Idiot has actually changed me from pro-Tea Party (who attended the first Hawaii Tea Party group) to thinking that the Tea Party is a menace and needs to be censured and driven out of office. 

I would sign any petition to recall Ted Cruz and any fellow Tea Partier and replace them with Republicans that will actually watch out for my 401K. This is one of the few times I had Koch Brothers billions so I can funnel money into pro-business candidates that will drive these fools out of office and into the dust bin of history.

Economists Make the Case for Minimum Wage Hike Very Convincing

It seems that Obama's $10.10 minimum wage for contractors might be the right amount the economists agree on raising it to.

So where to set the wage floor? Whether he arrived there by logic, intuition, or dumb luck, there’s a defensible case that the sweet spot is in the neighborhood of Obama’s suggested $10.10 an hour. The Initiative on Global Markets at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business found in a survey last year of leading economists that 47 percent felt the good effects of a $9 minimum wage—the figure on the table at the time—would outweigh any bad ones. Only 11 percent disagreed. Last month seven Nobel prize-winning economists and four former presidents of the American Economic Association, along with more than 600 other economists, signed a letter to Congress urging passage of the $10.10 floor. “At a time when persistent high unemployment is putting enormous downward pressure on wages,” the letter said, “such a minimum-wage increase would provide a much-needed boost to the earnings of low-wage workers.”

I feel that giving millions of people a $3 extra per hour raise will help GDP growth. That equates to $120 a week extra in peoples pay packets and that means a car payment, more restaurant meals, or simply more money in the bank.

The gains come out of Wal-mart and McDonalds bottom lines but I'm sure people at those companies can cut costs or raise prices to offset this amount. I mean if Wal-mart hikes prices to offset wage increases I'm sure Amazon will be happy to pick up the market share that is left behind. I mean with $120 extra a month more people can afford Amazon Prime.

Some retailers will be hurt by wage hikes but more people with more money in their pockets is normally a good thing. It will reduce the need for government hand-outs and might just empower more people to contribute to economic growth. I always think people are better able to figure out what to do with their cash than the government or any corporation usually does.

House Financial Services Committee Member Admits She Doesn't Understand what FED Chairmen were talking about?

I guess you don't need any actual financial services experience in order to get this job.

The Fed chair drew praise for her direct responses. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said she'd been able to understand more of Yellen's answers than she had the responses of Bernanke or Greenspan.

At times, Yellen was blunt. Asked what impact a failure to raise the federal debt limit would have, she said, "Frankly, it would be catastrophic to not raise the debt limit."

Oh wow, Shelly Moore Capito needs to be put into a different committee ASAP. She admits that she didn't understand the responses that Greenspan and Bernanke gave her? But she is ruling on things important to the entire world economy and doesn't understand what the FED chair is saying/

In fact she seems she is more trained for the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee according to her bio.

Capito graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science in zoology and holds a Master of Education from the University of Virginia.

I'm sure she was a great teacher/zoologist but I figure she needs at least a little financial experience to be part of the Financial Services Committee. Hopefully, she took a few economic courses between zoology classes. 

Also whoever asked Yellen that idiotic question about the debt limit needs to lose their Committee membership as well. That is just asinine and is so very Ted Cruz-ish and that person should be ostracized.

New York State Clamps Down on Bitcoin: Are the Good Times Over?

Well whenever regulators get their hands on something you can pretty much back up the truck because they will regulate it to death.

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services, expects to adopt consumer disclosure rules, capital requirements and a framework for permissible investments with consumer money.

"Our objective is to provide appropriate guard rails to protect consumers and root out money laundering without stifling beneficial innovation," Lawsky said in a speech at the New America Foundation in Washington.

Lawsky said last month that his agency plans to issue rules for businesses handling virtual currencies, including a "BitLicense", which could make New York the first U.S. state to regulate virtual currencies such as bitcoins.

In other words Wall Street types want to get in on Bitcoin trading but they cannot when Mt. Gox and Slovenia-based Bitstamp (now that sounds shady if I ever heard of it) are controlling trade in it. This would be interesting to see how the value changes after this. My guess is it will drop as fees and automated trading take a bite out of actual supply and demand metrics. Oh well it was an interesting experiment.

The Era of Debt Ceiling Brinksmanship is Over: The GOP Offer Condition-Free Bill

I guess holding the world economy hostage every few months is no longer a tactic of the GOP.

House Speaker John Boehner said he will now seek to pass a clean debt ceiling hike with help from most Democrats in the chamber, admitting it was "disappointing" that the party leadership did not have the votes to pass the measure with an attached provision reworking military pension benefits.

I hope this is the start of the understanding that Congress needs to work together in order to get anything done. They can't continually govern by brinksmanship and threats. Now Boehner work on tax reform and cut capital gains taxes for people making under $250k a year.

Daenerys Targaryen AKA Emilia Clarke voted Most Desirable

I have to agree but I wonder if she threatened to sic her dragons on the Askmen.com staffers if they didn't vote her into the top spot.

Clarke, 26, has clearly captured the hearts of viewers with her ethereal beauty and outstanding performance as Daenerys Targaryen. The "Mother of Dragons" has evolved from a shrinking violet into a fierce leader, a champion of the weak and a warrior, and the strength of her character is inspiring. The actress is also a charmer who knows how to work her assets, not least of which are her, um, eyebrows? Two other "Game of Thrones" actresses, Oona Chaplin and Rose Leslie, also made the list this year. The promos for the fourth season have been giving us chills, so we understand why folks have these beguiling ladies on the brain.

She is such a natural beauty as well.

Movie Review: Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit: Avoid It

Well I recently saw this movie and I was kind of wishing it was as good a reboot as The Bourne Legacy was for that franchise. This movie was very forgettable but had some decent action scenes but is not even close to the 90s Jack Ryan movies. The plot was ludicrous to the point of laughablity and the acting was subpar for the most part. I kind of wished I saw something else or even saw Lone Survivor again.

The movie starts off as Jack Ryan is studying economics at the London School of Economics. He sees a news program about 9/11 and off he goes into the Marines. He gets shot down in a pretty exciting scene and we are told that he saves the people on his doomed helicopter. It would have nice to see the actual heroics but I guess it would have been too Lone Survivor-ish.

He then goes to Walter Reed Hospital to mend his broken back. While there he meets Keira Knightley who plays a nursing student at the hospital. He shows how much he likes her but the two actors don't have boffo chemistry like other movie parings like Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. It isn't the worst I have seen (Attack of the Clones ugh) but the romance brought nothing to the movie.

We then go on to meet Kevin Costner who is a pale shadow of the character that James Earl Jones played in the other Jack Ryan movies of the 90s. I think it is all the smirking and dead-pan voice but I guess I am just not a Costner fan. I think the only movies I have seen him (that I remember) were JFK and Man of Steel. He was okay in them but he didn't bring anything special to those roles or this one either. He just seems like a mirth-less asshole in any movie he is in.

One thing I was thinking was I wonder if people will get confused between this movie and Three Days to Kill. It is Kevin Costner playing a spy and things blow up. This one is about the same sort of idea but Chris Pine is the guy that makes things blow up. I was thinking Three Days to Kill is the Liam Neeson movie that might make Costner into the 50-something bad-ass that kills a bunch of people and saves his daughter/wife/family pet. However, Neeson is likeable and you want him to rescue his daughter. If Costner is shot in the first 3 minutes of the movie I wouldn't have minded.

In any case Ryan is sent to Russia and matches wits with Kenneth Branagh who plays a Russian oligarch/gangster. He pretty much hams it up with a terrible Russian accent and does things like shoots his own lackeys when they talk trash to him. There are about a 100 different bad-guys that would have been more intimidating than Branagh was in this role. I think we are spoiled with villains like Moriarty (Andrew Scott) from Sherlock or Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance) from Game of Thrones. Those villains would eat Viktor Cherevin (I didn't even remember his name and had to look it up on IMDB) as an appetizer.

In any case Branagh has some cock-a-Mame plan to "crash the worlds debt markets" using a terrorist attack on Wall Street. So we have to go through a tiresome procedural to catch the villain.  In the course of it we have a Mission Impossible-style break in that was so tech-poor I laughed out-loud. Jack Ryan hacks Branagh's laptop and we have this scene of Ryan trying to download a bunch of files to a thumbdrive that he waits to insert until the last possible moment. Um, if you are going to be downloading a bunch of files from the office of the scary Russian mobster maybe you should connect your USB device first?

In any case the plan to "crash the US treasury market" was so stupid that I had to laugh again. Even if Wall Street was leveled using some strange explosive underground, or something, the markets would be immediately closed. Selling billions of dollars of treasuries all at once (the Russian badguys plans) would trigger curbs immediately. Even if those trades were triggered the SEC would probably notice that some Russian company was dumping treasuries to profit from a terrorist attack and reverse those trades. The whole exercise would have caused a plunge but it would not have "crashed the US markets" for longer than a few months.

In any case I have said too much about this poor movie then needed to be said. It was lame-brained and the plot was a mess from the scene where the villains son waits until the last moment to steal and paint a truck (he couldn't have just bought the thing months ago?) to the villains finding the CIA safe house in record time. However, it was interesting to find out that the KGB used to break a light bulb in a persons mouth as a torture technique. I'm sure Vladimir Putin approves of such measures and smiled as if recalling good times.

Flappy Bird is taken offline: Could Nintendo Leaning on the Developer Been the True Reason?

I didn't play Flappy Bird but I did see a few screen shots and the pipes looked very Mario-esque.

In the days leading up to the takedown, Dong seemed to blame his increasing stress level largely on the press and a constant stream of media requests, tweeting to a Newsweek reporter:

“Hi Joe, I think press should give my game some peace. Its success is really overrate! I’m sorry, I refuse to answer questions.”


However, two of Dong’s friends told Reuters that he had received a warning letter from Nintendo — the ubiquitous pipes in Flappy Bird and other art appears to be lifted without any modification from the company’s Super Mario games.  Nintendo refused to confirm or comment on the letter to Reuters.

Too bad the creator Dong Nguyen didn't use different types of pipes or wooden blocks or something else as obstacles for the bird to fly through. The game seems super addicting and this guy could have made millions. However, Nintendo had to flex its mighty arms and squash him before the big money started to flow.

Maybe Dong will create a different version of the game with different obstacles. Maybe trees or roots or something. They could even change the obstacles as you get further into the game. It will give the game some variety and keep Nintendo off his back. Call if Flappy Bird 2: Escape from Nintendo's Legal Department.

Bitcoin Drops Dramatically After Mt. Gox Stops Trading

I hope you aren't holding all your assets in Bitcoin because you would be hurting about now.

On the Mt. Gox platform the currency plunged to as low as $500 early on Monday, down more than 27 percent from Friday's final price of $692, according to the Mt. Gox website. It last traded at $595.74, off nearly 14 percent from Friday.

"This technical issue is of a much larger intensity than we've seen in the past," said Sebastien Galy, currency strategist at Societe Generale in New York. "The market may be realizing that there are issues which are specific to these forms of currencies."

One of the "issues" is that Bitcoin isn't as liquid as nearly any other kind of currency. I guess this would be akin to a 27% drop caused by the London Metals Exchange suddenly stopped trading in bullion or something "indefinitely." I'm sure other exchanges would pick up the slack but liquidity will leave the market.

I think the key to Bitcoin's future is that it needs to trade on an actual FOREX exchange so that something called Mt. Gox (sounds like an anime location) doesn't crash the currency when they shut down their servers.

Is the Bloom Off of the Social Networking Rose?

It seems that way as Twitter disclosed how growth is slowing.

But Twitter's slowing growth has obviously spooked investors. The company said its active user base reached 241 million at the end of the fourth quarter, up only 4% from the previous quarter. That’s the slowest quarterly rate of increase Twitter has disclosed and less than half the rate of a year ago. Just in the United States, active users increased less than 2% to 54 million, one-third the growth rate of a year ago.

Facebook has also seen its quarterly growth in usership tail off.  Overall monthly active users increased just 3% in the fourth quarter from three months earlier and U.S. usership grew only 1%. A recent Pew Research report also found that only 10% of Facebook users update their status daily.

I think they are pretty close to critical mass as this article points out that 73% of adults are using some form of social networking. I think that is pretty close to saturation. You add to the fact that people seem to be leaving social networks slowly but surely and those companies need to reinvent themselves to keep up their valuations.

Chicago Officials Put an Anti-Gun Sign on Buildings: It Shows Spree Killers Where No One Will Shoot Back

Well it seems Chicago officials are up in arms out over signs depicting a "no guns allowed" sign.

Some school officials aren’t happy about the stickers because they contain a very basic image of a gun.

“It is bothersome to have to post a sticker of a gun that says, ‘Hey, folks, leave your guns at home,’” Theresa Nolan, principal of Tinley Park High School, told the SouthtownStar.

Nolan stressed that she is very concerned with “safety and security” and concerned that, somehow, someone could wrongly interpret an image of a gun emblazoned with the universal sign for prohibiting something.

“I think the general public will be alarmed by it and wonder if people have been allowed to bring guns to school in the past,” Nolan also fretted.

She said she would prefer “something more subtle.”

“You can’t look at this (sticker) and not think about Sandy Hook,” the principal added.

Well the next Adam Lanza can now look for the no guns allowed sign and know that security guards or teachers with concealed carry will not shoot back.

Yet Another Problem with Sochi: Hackers They Be Hacking Everything in Sight

Well, I hope our Olympic Team and spectators don't have anything interesting on their smart phone, laptop or tablet because it seems they will lose it within minutes of logging into any free Internet.

To illustrate his point, Mr. Engel brought two new laptops to Sochi. With the help of an American security expert, he uploaded a fake identity and fake contact list onto the computers—both were hacked within the day. "It had taken hackers less than one minute to pounce," he said, "Within 24 hours, they'd broken into both computers and started helping themselves to my data."

Mr. Engel also conducted an experiment wherein he took a new smartphone to a restaurant, and started browsing the Internet for Olympics news. "Malicious software hijacked our phone before we even finished our coffee, stealing my information, and giving hackers the option to tap and record my phone calls." he said.

Wow now that must be a record for someone to steal your data. I love this "way to protect yourself" as well.

Mr. Engel concludes by describing the cybersecurity environment as a "minefield," and suggests that the best way to protect your data is to leave your devices at home.

In other words unplug from the digital world for a few weeks just so you can watch Shawn White to a 720 mctwist or whatever. Um sorry the Putin Games will be a big fat disaster and depending on what those hackers do it might be much worse.

It Seems the Hotels Are Not Ready in Sochi

I guess if you like yellow water and wi-fi routers dangling from the ceiling then Sochi is the kind of place for you. I guess $51 billion doesn't buy you what it used to:

Sochi officials say that the city's hotels are 97% complete on the eve of the Olympics.

But given the nightmare travel stories rolling in from reporters in Sochi, that 3% difference goes a long, long way.

There are reports of rooms without light bulbs or doorknobs. There are stories about unfinished hotels without lobbies or working elevators or running water. There are anecdotes from people who've checked into their rooms, only to find them occupied by stray dogs or construction workers napping in between shifts.

The venues and Olympic Village all look perfectly fine, and we haven't seen any complaints from athletes. But the hotels, specifically media hotels, aren't finished yet and it's a total mess.

The worst part is that these media dorks have access to Twitter and are going to slag the crap out of the Olympics and Russia whenever they get a chance. They have long days ahead and if they come home to a room full of stray dogs or have to use yellow water to shower with then it will be a long Olympics indeed.

Sony to Sell the Viao Line in Japan and Potentially Shutter the Brand the US

Well, it seems that the Viao PC is yet another casualty of the long slow Death of the PC.

Sony Corp is in talks with investment fund Japan Industrial Partners to sell its loss-making Vaio personal computer division, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A new company would be set up by Japan Industrial Partners to take over the Vaio brand's operations in Japan, according to the plan under consideration, the source said. Financial details and stakeholdings in the new entity were still being discussed.

Sony is also considering a withdrawal from overseas PC markets, the source added.

No sense chasing after the shrinking market share of slowly dying dinosaurs like Dell and HP.  I'm not sure about the Japanese PC market but you figure an investment fund can keep them in offices for some time. I think the Japanese salaryman would rather do his daily work on a PC rather than a smartphone or tablet for the time being.

Now Dems Joining the Fight To Approve Keystone XL

I guess the coalition of the obstructionist environmentalists are starting to fray at the seams.

Five Democrats joined Republicans at a Capitol news conference to urge President Barack Obama to approve the pipeline following a State Department report last week that raised no major environmental objections. The $7 billion pipeline would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. The project has lingered for more than five years and has become a symbol of the political debate over climate change.

What is hilarious about the Hollywood types against the pipeline is this fact.

Foes say the pipeline would carry "dirty oil" that contributes to global warming. The State Department report says oil derived from tar sands in Alberta generates about 17 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than traditional crude. But the report makes clear that other methods of transporting the oil — including rail, trucks and barges — would release more greenhouse gases than the pipeline.

Those methods are also more likely to cause spills than an pipeline. There have been several rail disasters already in Canada trying to ship that oil out to the coast. I mean Canada is not going to stop drilling for this "dirty oil" anytime soon and will find a way to get it to a refinery.