Behavioral economics tells us that emotions can profoundly affect individual behavior and decision-making. Does this also apply to societies at large, i.e., can societies experience mood states that affect their collective decision making? By extension is the public mood correlated or even predictive of economic indicators? Here we investigate whether measurements of collective mood states Read more about Twitter mood predicts the stock market[…]
The Norwegian traders, Svend Egil Larsen and Peder Veiby, were handed suspended prison sentences and fines for market manipulation after outsmarting the trading system of Timber Hill, which is a unit of US-based Interactive Brokers. The two men managed to work out how the computerised system would react to certain trading patterns. This allowed them Read more about Norwegian traders convicted for outsmarting US stock broker algorithm[…]
Dear website owner, congratulations on your excellent site, which includes features covered by our registered patent, #5,251,294. As the description indicates, many of the components on your pages, particularly your menus, rollover images, and shortcuts, are detailed in our claim. We would be delighted to lease these to you at a reasonable royalty rate of Read more about Why patents suck: Rollover image on your website? That will be $80,000 (please)[…]
New Zealand has had a look at how the US software patents work and the mess they’ve made of things, so they’ve written up a bill stating that software is unpatentable. NZCS News – – NZ Computer Society.
This shows how from every $1000,- of revenue, the average music artist makes around $23,- out of which the record company then recoups ‘expenses’. ” In a traditional loan, you invest the money and pay back out of your proceeds. But a record label deal is nothing like that at all. They make you a Read more about How companies “protect” artists[…]
Star Wars creator George Lucas is trying to stop a company from making a high-powered laser that bloggers around the world have dubbed “a real-life lightsaber”. The laser is cool, but isn’t called a lightsaber by the producer. It’s bloggers that made teh comparison. This goes to show how outdated copyright law is: the original Read more about George Lucas, Star Wars creator, tries to block ‘lightsaber’[…]
The Dutch government has released the current text of ACTA and invites comments on it. Overheid.nl | Consultatie ACTA. I’ve run through the text and this is my take: 2.3.2. Each Party shall further provide that its judicial authorities shall have the authority to order that materials and implements the predominant use of which has Read more about ACTA consultation[…]
Measuring the role of online in the consumer journey from research to purchase The CCB is a free online research tool providing consumer insights across 27 countries and 36 product categories. Using the tool, you can understand and interrogate how consumers across markets use the internet to buy and research different products Consumer Commerce Barometer.
The Combined Online Information System COINS is a database of UK Government expenditure provided by government departments. The data is used to produce reports for Parliament and the public including: expenditure data in the Budget and Pre-Budget reports; Supply Estimates; Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses PESA; the monthly Public Sector Finance Releases. It is also used Read more about UK Public spending data released[…]
England, the home of tidal energy generator projects, has a new one: a Swedish startup has models of a turbine attached to a kite wing and rudder tethered to the ocean floor. ‘Underwater kite’ aims to turn energy tide – CNN.com.
So these guys who were busted by the bankers in the credit crunch have found a way to fight back: sue the credit collection agencies on technicalities. They win a lot of settlements, get out of their debts and make some money! Dallas News – Better Off Deadbeat: Craig Cunningham Has a Simple Solution for Read more about Become a credit terrorist[…]
SCIENTISTS have grown meat in the laboratory for the first time. Experts in Holland used cells from a live pig to replicate growth in a petri dish. The advent of so-called “in-vitro” or cultured meat could reduce the billions of tons of greenhouse gases emitted each year by farm animals — if people are willing Read more about The Future is Here! Vat-grown meat![…]
All your banking details will be given to the Americans, who can then also pass it on to third parties as they so wish. The EU will not be able to sift through US banking data. Why the EU gave away our private data is a totaly mystery. Privacy rights? Whatever. EU to approve more Read more about US gets EU Swift data[…]
Some background on the cost/value of gold and fiat currencies. In a world with multiple fiat moneys, the zero value of money equilibrium lurks for each of the fiat currencies, including gold. Admittedly, as regards gold, so far so good. Gold has positive value. It has had positive value for nigh-on 6000 years. That must Read more about Gold, a 6000-year old bubble[…]
Which goes to show – it’s the Ipod / Iphone which is floating the Apple. Nope, Macs just suck and their fanboy users are a teeny tiny minority. And the rest of the I-Have-A-Mac smug bastards are hypocrites. You wouldn’t need a PC if your Mac was so perfect, now would you, mister I’m a Read more about 85% of Mac users own a PC[…]
St. Anthony’s Central hospital charged a man $730,- for a couple of tablets he takes regularly at home. The cost for him at home? Around $30,-. After a complaint he got a 40% discount. Still ridiculous. Patient Disputes Mark Up In Medication – cbs4denver.com.
What if we could turn all the plastic waste we create on a daily basis into fuel to power our cars? A Washington, DC-based company called Envion claims it can do just that with a process that turns plastic into an oil-like fuel for just $10 per barrel. According to Envion, the resulting fuel can Read more about Inhabitat » New Envion Facility Turns Plastic Waste into $10/Barrel Fuel[…]
Massachusets, USA, is doing something that should have been done a long time ago: Car manufacturers are computerising their cars to a greater and greater degree. This is great – more power, more control, more safety, more fun. Unfortunately, the software and interfaces for these computers are closed – repairmen are not given access to Read more about Right-to-repair bill[…]
The Germans want to create a swarm power plant by putting gas fired fridge sized units in people’s basements. They should release less CO2 than other power methods and they want to roll out 100,000 in the coming year, which will create the same amount of power as 2 nuclear plants. They’re calling it SchwarmStrom Read more about German power plant swarm[…]
Hot on the now allready very old news about the Apple vs Microsoft TV ads (where Apple has just released it’s answer to Laptop Hunters) and the Apple vs Palm Pre Itunes Sync and the Apple vs Palm “let’s make an illegal agreement not to poach each others’ employees any more” comes the latest installment: Read more about Apple makes big fight with everyone![…]
Super Repo men get back your 747, learjet, whatever. They’ll reposess from men with guns, whole helicopter fleets, whatever. They make low to middle 7 figures every year. James Bond, eat your heart out..
Apple has decreed that any user may buy an application and have it refunded within 90 days – but that Apple will keep the protection money – euhm commission. So who pays the commission? The developer!
All those greedy content producers trying to hang on to their old delivery and economic models by their fingernails must be crying about this: Monty Python decided to put all their content onto YouTube for free and in high quality with links to their stuff. This raised their sales by 23000%. So it’s not about Read more about It’s all about content quality![…]
The size of the bailout plan is truly staggering. Not just a little bit huge but immensely massive. Did you know it was larger than the following combined: • Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion • Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion • Race to the Moon: Read more about The size of the Bailout package[…]
In the US wind farm power is so subsidised, that in Texas power prices around 33% of the year were negative, ie. the more power a consumer user, the more they got paid to use it!