Author: Serkadis

We’ve had numerous stories concerning some rather concerning trends in law enforcement, including the use of things like redlight cameras to increase revenue, not make things safer, as well as the fact that more data can often make it harder for law enforcement to keep people safe. Finally, we’ve had a bunch of posts on the fact that government databases will almost always be abused.

It looks like all of this is coming together in the UK (way ahead of the US), and the end result is something of a disaster. In the past, we’d already seen widespread expansion of UK camera-surveillance programs, even as there was evidence they weren’t working. Add to that, the facts show that the increase in data was causing police to miss important clues, while other police were clearly abusing the system — and you create quite a volatile situation.

It seems that whistleblowers are beginning to speak up about the end result of all of this in the UK, and it’s not pretty at all. Basically, police are regularly abusing database systems to find questionable reasons to arrest people, just to boost either revenue or their own “stats” on arrests:

So fixated had officers become on their pursuit of arrests and ticket quotas that, until recently, the most successful vied for a prize known as the Bang It Out Cup. The officer with fewest results received the booby prize of an Underperforming Pig.

This target culture has allegedly led to unethical practices during roadside stops, according to concerned police sources. Some officers, they say, trawl through drivers’ personal data on police databases to find any reason to arrest. Alternatively, they “wind up” motorists who, in their frustration, become abusive and are then arrested for a public-order offence.

“In short, officers do not have a complete understanding of the law, use flawed databases to justify immediate seizures, fail to adequately research and evidence the basis of their belief and almost certainly knowingly seize vehicles just to satisfy service and personal performance targets,” one said.

These are the sorts of unintended consequences that people need to be aware of as this sort of surveillance society becomes prevalent elsewhere. Meanwhile, the stories of police trolling through the big database to find reasons to arrest people should (hopefully) quiet those who claim “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” If only that were true.

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Here’s more buying power coming out of the economy.

Outstanding debts held by consumers fell for the 11th month in a row by a seasonally adjusted $1.73 billion, or an annualized rate of 0.8% in December.

For what it’s worth this is way better than the 10.7% drop in November

The official release can be found at the Federal Reserve.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• October Retail Sales Beat Expectations, But All Growth Was Just Autos
• Newsflash: Nobody Cares About The Consumer Confidence Index
• BJ’s Comparable Sales Fall, But They Aren’t Bothered At All

In his Western Civilization: Emergence of the Modern World course, professor Alex d’Erizans’ students not only study European history, but also learn how Western literature influences the modern world.

“This is not an art history or a literature class, but literature is a way to get at history. For example, I’ll show students modernist paintings,” says d’Erizans. “Art and literature help elucidate the history they’re learning.”

Published in 1818, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s world-famous novel about Dr. Victor Frankenstein and his nameless lab-created monster (called a “hideous phantasm of a man”), is not only one of d’Erizans’ favorite stories, but required reading for students in his Western Civilization class.

Because the story of Frankenstein deals with a lot of the issues that we grapple with today, d’Erizans says the novel energizes students in a way that nothing else does. “Frankenstein grapples with the idea of loneliness; the idea of alienation. We see this time and again in our society. We see it on the subway, for example: One is close to other people, but there’s not necessarily any interaction between the people,” says d’Erizans, who points out that ideals touched on in Frankenstein—such as loss, abandonment, fear, and appearance—still resonate in today’s world.

The tragedies of Frankenstein
In the novel, Dr. Victor Frankenstein runs away from his creature after creating it, which some of d’Erizan’s students find tragic. “This reflects the diverse nature of the student body here at BMCC,” says d’Erizans, who came to teach at BMCC from the University of Illinois at Urbana, a school that’s very different from BMCC.

“Many mothers in the class are appalled that Victor, the father to his creature, abandoned the creature, as if a mother would abandon their child. The story resonates and disturbs them in a particular way because of their own particular situations,” he says. “And that’s unique to BMCC in a way I did not see at the University of Illinois.”

Classroom diversity enhances discussions
BMCC prides itself on its very diverse student body, so it comes as no surprise that d’Erizans’ students engage in vibrant classroom discussions. For example, when discussing communism in Western Civilization class, according to d’Erizans, there are students whose families have experienced communism—which then segues into a classroom discussion about nationalism.

“Topics will come up such as, ‘in order to be a nation, do you need a state? Well, Palestinians in the class oftentimes say, ‘No, we are a nation, yet we don’t have a state as such called Palestine’,” says d’Erizans. “And it gets especially interesting then, when you have Israelis in the same class. With certain issues, the discussions become energized because of the varied life experiences of the students.”

Class discussions also revolve around the idea that individuals can impact the world, even by marching and petitioning. “But in order to understand where this concept comes from, it’s important to look at European history,” d’Erizans says.

The French Revolution laid a basis for politics
d’Erizans’ favorite era is the French Revolution because of the impact it has had on the modern world. “The French Revolution laid the basis for politics. Following the French Revolution, no matter who you were: a democrat, conservative, dictator, anarchist, the way in which you gained political power was by appealing to the people,” he says. “This very language, this very source of political power, derives from the French Revolution.”

Many times, d’Erizans’ students are surprised to learn that the notions of “left” and “right” in politics have a distinct historical source. “[Political ‘wings’] derived from the way the seats were arranged at the National Convention, one of the meeting bodies during the French Revolution,” he says. “That’s an example of how our very language is impacted by history.”

d’Erizans says even the simple notion of ‘time’ derives from European history. “The regimentation of society came about through industrialization, where it seems like we have more and more to do in less and less time.”

History ‘lives and breathes’
d’Erizans describes history as a “living, breathing entity—one that requires constant scrutiny.”

“The main lesson I want to impart on students is the notion that they should be energized by history and what it can do for them,” says d’Erizans, who wrote a history book titled The Strangeness of Home: German Loss and Catastrophe in Hanover 1943-1948. “I want my students to take the lessons from history and use them as they progress in their own lives.”

1958-2009
It was the late 1970s when Ernesto Malave, lacking a high school diploma but harboring a laser mind and great determination, stepped through the doors of Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), then located on West 51st Street on the edge of the theater district. Long-haired, with a South Bronx pedigree and a taste for hard rock, he enrolled in an innovative program that gave students a second chance at a high school degree and credits towards college.

At BMCC, Ernesto quickly made himself known. He declared his candidacy for Student Senate. With his remarkable focus and skills of persuasion, he won. A new student, he was now an advocate for students. It was a commitment he would forever keep.

The seeds of Ernesto’s professional future—and his personal future as well, since he met his wife, Miriam, at BMCC—were planted in those early years. The roots took hold quickly. The City University of New York was the institution that would nurture him, the place where he could grow. For three decades, so much of Ernesto Malave’s life—the flourishing of his professional identity and his rise to positions of increasing responsibility, influence, and leadership—was intertwined with its people, and with honoring and preserving its critical role in this great city and state.

As a student leader at BMCC, he served as a member of the University Student Senate from 1979 to 1981 and as student representative to the CUNY Board of Trustees Committee on Faculty, Staff and Administration in 1979-1980. He was treasurer of BMCC’s Student Government, and from 1980 to 1981 served as its president. In 1984, when he earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of New Rochelle, he had already been on the staff of CUNY for a year, as an admissions advisor in the Office of Admissions Services.

Two years later, there was a change in direction, a broadening of scope: Ernesto was appointed the University’s assistant director of governmental relations, responsible for representing CUNY’s interests at City Hall and in Albany. Four years later, in 1989, he joined the University budget office as a budget analyst and assistant to the budget director. Later, he was promoted to executive assistant to the vice chancellor for budget, finance and computing.

He had found his métier. In January 1996 Ernesto Malave became CUNY’s acting budget director, a post he fully assumed in 1998. Chancellor Matthew Goldstein named him interim vice chancellor for budget and finance in 2002 and vice chancellor in 2003.

Managing the University’s finances and advocating for CUNY’s financial survival while staying true to its fundamental mission of offering affordable, accessible, quality higher education to New Yorkers of all circumstances presents demanding, ever-shifting challenges. With his remarkable talents, Ernesto met those challenges head-on. He knew CUNY and the political landscape in which it exists inside and out.

Ernesto could argue his points with relentless focus—and translate the numbers into plain English. He was as comfortable explaining the complexities of CUNY’s multibillion-dollar budgets to legislators as to the University Faculty Senate, student government, and other student groups. He took the time to bring his “budget school” to officials and students at leadership retreats, decoding the University’s finances so that tough choices could be understood and shared.

He was also creative. Navigating the University through increasingly choppy financial straits, Ernesto helped devise a brilliant public-private financing mechanism—the CUNY Compact, now the New York Compact for Public Higher Education—that would help keep the University moving forward on an even financial keel.

Above all, he was passionate about protecting the students who would be most affected by the vagaries of the economy, preserving counseling, advisement and other services critical to student retention and success. Even as funding for the University constricted, he found ways to bring more full-time faculty into the classroom.

Ernesto lived and breathed CUNY. He was also Miriam’s husband, Ernesto and Erik’s father, a son, a brother, a mentor, beloved colleague, and friend to many. He played a scrappy game of pickup basketball and listened to soothing Spanish ballads and other oldies at his desk.

Ernesto managed a vast financial universe, but he was no ordinary chief financial officer. His bottom line was keeping CUNY’s riches affordable for the most economically vulnerable of students—whether hailing from his old South Bronx neighborhood, Flatbush, East Elmhurst, or the Lower East Side—who surge through the University’s golden doors each year. That he kept that promise will always be remembered.

The Dow was in the 9800s earlier today as all the major indices and commodities plummeted amid sovereign debt concerns, similar to yesterday.

But unlike yesterday, a late afternoon reversal rallied the market and we’re back to 10,000. The Dow gained 11 points to close at 10,012, the NASDAQ gained 16 points to close at 2141, and the S&P 500 gained 3 points to close at 1066.

Commodities staged a comeback as well, though not as well as equities. Soybeans, copper, and energy did well while soft goods remained down several percentage points in various markets (coffee, OJ, cocoa, etc.).

Oil closed at $71.91 a barrel, down $1.23.

Gold, in a stunning comeback, managed to squeeze out a gain of $4.40, rallying to $1067.40 an ounce. Silver is down $0.29 to $15.07 an ounce.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Mid-day: Markets Still Up, Oil Still On Fire
• Jobs Data Saves The Day As Stocks Start Mixed
• BAD TIMING: John Paulson’s Gold Fund Tumbled 14% In January

They always say this, and they’re kind of a broken record, but if you’re interested, here’s why TrimTabs thinks the jobs data was MUCH worse than what the numbers suggested this morning

—-

TrimTabs employment analysis, which uses real-time daily income tax deposits from all U.S. taxpayers to compute employment growth, estimated that the U.S. economy shed 104,000 jobs in January.  Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported the U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs.  We believe the BLS has underestimated January’s results due to problems inherent in their survey techniques.

In addition to their regular report, the BLS published benchmark revisions to their employment estimates derived from an actual payroll count for March 2009.  As a result, job losses from April 2008 through March 2009 were revised up a whopping 930,000, or 23% from their earlier revisions.  In addition, the BLS revised their job loss estimates for 2009 up 617,000, or 14.8%.

While the BLS originally reported job losses of 4.2 million in 2009, TrimTabs reported 5.3 million, a difference of more than a million lost jobs.  We consistently reported that based on real-time tax data, job losses were much higher than the BLS was reporting.  This past January, the BLS revised their job loss estimate to 4.8 million, an increase of almost 600,000 lost jobs.  The new total brought the BLS’ revised estimates much closer to TrimTabs’ original estimate based on real-time tax data. 

Since July 2009, TrimTabs estimates and the BLS estimates have diverged again.  While the tax data points to a weak job market, the BLS estimates point to a steadily improving job market.  We believe the job market is much worse than the BLS is reporting and that in January 2011, when the BLS revises their estimates for 2010, their April 2009 through December 2009 results will move much closer to TrimTabs’ results.

The BLS has seriously underreported job losses for the past two years due to their flawed methodology.  TrimTabs has identified the following four problems:

1.      The BLS employment estimate is based on a survey, and not on an actual count of employees.  While the BLS survey is large and supposedly designed to capture the complex nature of the employment market, it is still a survey and therefore subject to error.  TrimTabs believes that rapid changes in an employment cycle cannot be captured by surveys.

2.      Several times a year, the BLS applies enormous seasonal adjustments to their survey results to account for seasonal fluctuations in the job market.  For example, this January, the BLS added 1.92 million jobs to their survey results to report a job loss of 20,000 to account for the layoff of retail holiday workers.  In our opinion, the sheer magnitude of the seasonal adjustment which dwarfs the monthly result renders this month’s job loss estimate meaningless.

3.      At the time of the first release, only 40% to 60% of the BLS survey is complete and is subject to large revisions over the next two months.

4.      The BLS applies a mysterious “birth/death” adjustment to their survey results to account for business openings and closings.  While the payroll data was adjusted substantially, the “birth/death” adjustments were left unchanged.  In 2008 and 2009, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 904,000 and 882,000 jobs, respectively, for a total of 1.79 million.  By way of comparison, in 2006 and 2007, the BLS’ “birth/death” adjustment added 964,000 and 1.13 million jobs, respectively.   We find it highly unlikely that in 2008 and 2009, during the worst recession since the 1930’s, more businesses opened than closed netting 1.79 million jobs.

In our opinion, flawed BLS survey results, month-after-month, do the public a huge disservice.  While its results point to a slowly recovering economy, TrimTabs’ results point to a dangerously weak economy.

A comparison of TrimTabs’ employment results versus the BLS’ results from January 2008 through January 2010 is summarized below.

Source: TrimTabs Investment Research – www.trimtabs.com and Bureau of Labor Statistics – www.bls.com

 Several other employment related statistics support Trimtabs’ conclusion that the labor market is weaker than what the BLS is reporting:

·        Real-Time tax withholding data shows that wages and salaries declined an adjusted 1.0% y-o-y.  In January 2009, wages and salaries declined 5.0%.  If the labor market were improving, we would expect a positive year-over-year growth rate. The fact that tax withholding data is still declining year-over-year suggests that the labor market is still contracting.     

·        The Monster Employment Index declined further in January, falling 0.9%.

·        The TrimTabs Online Jobs Index reported slightly higher job availability in January but remains at a low level.

·        Advanced Data Processing reported a job loss of 22,000.

·        Weekly unemployment claims edged up in the past month, rising 10.2% since the beginning of January. 

·        In January, a whopping 11.5 million people were collecting some form of unemployment insurance, up 27.8%, from 9.0 million in November.

For a complete analysis of the current employment situation and economic conditions, refer to TrimTabs Weekly Macro Analysis published this coming Tuesday, February 9, 2010.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Here’s Why The Unemployment Rate Dropped Even Though We Lost Jobs

HTC’s engineers have been called hinge nerds, and have brought many iconic designs to market, including the Tilt of the Tilt and the amazing hinge of the HTC Universal.

Now they have patent a new hinge design that will make opening your clamshell smartphone a snap. 

Read more after the break.

The design features a torsion hinge that is held closed by magnets (212 and 232). The whole of the top of the device can be pushed forward (214 on the figure).

 Pushing the top of the device forward disengages the magnets which hold the torsion hinge closed.

The device now opens up, and the spring at 240 brings the top back to the rest position.

Now the self-opening clam shell is always pretty cool, but the best thing about the patent is that it looks like HTC is planning to make another large clam shell once again.  Maybe this means the HTC Omni will actually be revived. Once can but dream …

See the patent here.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last time Stephanie Clack saw older sister Paula Beverly Davis they were sharing a pizza at a Kansas City-area restaurant and talking about getting tickets to a Bon Jovi concert.

Later that night, she heard from a friend that Davis had gone missing.

That was 22 years ago.

Now, thanks to a television show, a Web site, and two little tattoos — one of a unicorn and another of a rose — Clack knows more: Her sister was strangled and her body dumped in Ohio.

And the cast and crew of the “The Forgotten” — a TV show about amateur detectives who investigate the deaths of John and Jane Doe victims — have agreed to help pay to have her remains brought back to Missouri.

It’s not the happy ending Clack once hoped for. But it’s much more than she has had for the last two decades.

“My mother had a nervous breakdown after Paula went missing,” Clack said Thursday.

“We just never knew.”

The story of what happened to 21-year-old Davis began unfolding for Clack in October when a relative called her after watching an episode of “The Forgotten” and seeing a public service announcement for the Web site NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

The Department of Justice recently launched the Web site that’s a repository for unidentified remains and missing persons.

Clack, 36, punched in some of her sister’s information and came up with about 10 possible matches.

“I was looking for characteristics she had that nobody else would know,” she said.

“Then I saw the one with the rose and the unicorn, and I knew we had found her.”

“I was shaking and crying.”

From there, Clack contacted authorities in Montgomery County in southwest Ohio. Davis’ body had been found on an Interstate 70 entrance ramp on Aug. 10, 1987, two days after she and Clack, then 14, had shared that pizza. Davis had been strangled.

A homicide investigation was opened then, but remains unsolved.

Davis’ unidentified remains were buried in Montgomery County, in a grave with no name, no headstone. DNA testing has confirmed that the Jane Doe in Ohio was Paula Beverly Davis.

Clack and her sister Alice Beverly, 39, had searched other Web sites for clues about what happened to their sister and come up empty-handed.

Kevin Lothridge, CEO of the National Forensic Science Technology Center, which runs NamUs, said the information on Davis had been at the Montgomery County, Ohio, offices, but “nobody would have known to search there” because Davis went missing in Missouri.

“NamUs pulls all that together,” he said.

After finding Davis, her family faced another task: bringing her remains back to Kansas City.

Her relatives didn’t know how they would afford an expected $5,000 to have the body exhumed, cremated, sent to Kansas City and buried.

Clack, who lives in Lone Jack outside Kansas City, was recently laid off from a toy store and her husband is also unemployed.

Then she got a call from NamUs, saying that the cast and crew of “The Forgotten,” including actor Christian Slater and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, had offered to help.

The family hopes to have Paula’s remains buried in the Kansas City area this spring, near the graves of their mother and grandmother.

“She was taken from us, you know, and my mom went to her grave not knowing what happened to her daughter,” Clack said. “Our biggest goal was to get her home, back with her family where she belongs.”

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

A witness in a pretrial hearing for Drew Peterson has suggested that money was a big part of why the former Bolingbrook police sergeant may have wanted his ex-wife dead.

On the witness stand Friday, Mary Parks said Kathleen Savio told her Peterson didn’t want her to get any money, any share of businesses the two owned or child support. Parks studied nursing with Savio.

Peterson has pleaded not guilty in Savio’s 2004 death. The hearing is to determine whether hearsay evidence will be allowed at his trial.

Parks also testified that she, like two of Savio’s other friends, contacted authorities after Savio’s death to express concerns about Peterson. But Parks says prosecutors told her there was no investigation into Savio’s death.

Parks also is the latest witness to testify that Savio feared Peterson would kill her.

Read the original article on DailyHerald.com.

Apple’s sweeping “Device to Device Location Awareness” patent covers a lot of ground, not the least of which are a hint at iPhone video conferencing and the ability to locate whoever’s on the receiving end of your call.

According to the technology proposed in the patent, a caller’s phone would ping the mobile device it’s communicating with to request location details. The second device determines its location and sends the information back to the originating cellphone, where it’s automatically displayed on the screen. It appears to be an opt-in service, so all you Sneaky Petes won’t have to share your location if you don’t want to.

One intriguing section of the patent also suggests a video conferencing future for the iPhone:

“Note that the reference to ‘voice call’ here is not limited to a conventional, sound-only conversation. It may also include video of the two users, synchronized with their audio.”

It may indeed! And while the patent was only made public today, it was originally filed way back in the fall of 2008.

A full breakdown of the dirty details can be found at Patently Apple. In the meantime, all you video call-loving stalkers should be salivating right now. [USPTO via Patently Apple]

Ugh. So, we recently wrote about Matthew Yglesias’ quite accurate economic explanation for why the price of music was going to get pushed to zero, no matter what the industry said or what happened with copyright law. Andrew Sullivan spotted it, and also a response from a guy named Sonny Bunch who apparently has decided to totally reinterpret the history of copyright law in a post he entitled Piracy. Is. Stealing.:

No! False! The purpose of intellectual property law has very little to do with Matt Yglesias being able to enjoy a wide variety of new music. The purpose of intellectual property law is to protect the intellectual property created by artists so they are rewarded for their efforts. The purpose of intellectual property law is to punish people who steal that which isn’t theirs.

Yes, copyright was created in part because there were concerns that authors wouldn’t bother creating new work if they were consistently stolen from, leading to Yglesias’s oddly solipsistic reading of intellectual property law. But, more importantly, copyright law evolved because we think that artists, writers, musicians, and others have a right to profit from their labors. It’s a crazy idea, I know.

Also, Yglesias’s cute little bit about the marginal distribution cost being zero ignores the fact that the production cost of music is far from zero — leaving aside the artists (who Yglesias clearly doesn’t care about being paid for their work), there are studio technicians who mix the music, producers who craft the songs, and all sorts of other people involved with the creation of music. I suppose they shouldn’t be paid either? That we should just rob them of their labor too?

First, on the title, let’s get serious. Every time someone claims “piracy is stealing” it suddenly becomes that much more difficult to take them seriously, because it shows they’ve put no thought into their argument and are parroting specious arguments that have nothing to do with reality. Stealing means taking something away. Making a copy of something means there’s two such things, not one, and nothing is missing. It’s not stealing, and even the Supreme Court knows this:

Since the statutorily defined property rights of a copyright holder have a character distinct from the possessory interest of the owner of simple “goods, wares, [or] merchandise,” interference with copyright does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud. The infringer of a copyright does not assume physical control over the copyright nor wholly deprive its owner of its use. Infringement implicates a more complex set of property interests than does run-of-the-mill theft, conversion, or fraud.

But that’s old hat. What’s really problematic is the claim that copyright law was designed to “protect” the creator. False. Copyright law has one purpose and one purpose only: and it’s to promote the progress of science and the useful arts. Yes, the method for doing that included some limited protection but only for the sake of promoting the progress. If it is not promoting the progress, then the protection should not be allowed.

But Bunch goes on and makes a “sweat of the brow” argument or the “labor theory” of copyright that has been rejected over and over and over again. Not only has it been rejected, but it has been soundly rejected in clear language — again, by the Supreme Court:

It may seem unfair that much of the fruit of the compiler’s labor may be used by others without compensation. As Justice Brennan has correctly observed, however, this is not “some unforeseen byproduct of a statutory scheme.”… It is, rather, “the essence of copyright,” … and a constitutional requirement. The primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”

And if the Supreme Court isn’t enough for Bunch, how’s about Congress:

“The enactment of copyright legislation by Congress under the terms of the Constitution is not based on any natural right that the author has in his writings… but on the grounds that the welfare of the public will be served and progress of science and useful arts will be promoted…. Not primarily for the benefit of the author, but primarily for the benefit of the public such rights are given.”

Everyone is allowed to have their own opinion on copyright law. But not their own facts.

The next paragraph by Bunch is also wrong and misleading. In talking about basic economics, no one is saying that they don’t want people to get paid. If you explained why telephone switching technology was going to make the everyday phone operator obsolete did that mean you didn’t want operators to get paid? Of course not. You’re just explaining the basic functioning of the market, and what it means. It’s got nothing to do with what anyone wants. It’s about what’s happening.

Furthermore, the claim that any of this means people don’t get paid is also pure folly. As we’ve described in great detail, plenty of business models that don’t require copyright are working quite well in the industry.

I’m always quite amazed at people who clearly have no experience with copyright law or the history of copyright law insisting they know all about what it’s about.

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Big Think Interview With Jason Fried

Was filmed using Errol Morris’ Interrotron (or a similar device). That’s how you get the direct eye contact. Jason’s take: “Was weird for 5 seconds then it was totally natural.”

The story of the Interrotron is also a neat example of scratching your own itch. Morris explains:

Q: Is it true that you interview people using a machine?

A: Yes, the (patent pending) Interrotron. It’s a machine that uses existing technology in a new and novel way. When I made my first film, Gates of Heaven, I interviewed people by putting my head right up against the lens of the camera. It seemed as though they were looking directly into the lens of the camera, but not really. Almost, but not quite. Of course, they were looking a little bit off to the side.

Q: What’s wrong with that? What were you trying to achieve?

A: The first person. When someone watches my films, it is as though the characters are talking to directly to them… There is no third party. On television we’re used to seeing people interviewed sixty-minutes-style. There is Mike Wallace or Larry King, and the camera is off to the side. Hence, we, the audience, are also off to the side. We’re the fly-on-the-wall, so to speak, watching two people talking. But we’ve lost something.

Q: What?

A: Direct eye contact.

Q: Eye contact?

A: Yup. We all know when someone makes eye contact with us. It is a moment of drama. Perhaps it’s a serial killer telling us that he’s about to kill us; or a loved one acknowledging a moment of affection. Regardless, it’s a moment with dramatic value. We know when people make eye contact with us, look away and then make eye contact again. It’s an essential part of communication. And yet, it is lost in standard interviews on film. That is, until the Interrotron.

Here’s a diagram of how it works and a photo of the device.

We just reported that John Paulson’s gold hedge fund isn’t doing so well in its first month.

But remember that Paulson devoted an entire fund to betting against housing (Credit Opportunities Fund), just like he now has a fund focused entirely on going long on gold.

And – it took almost a year for his strategy in the CDS market to seriously pay off.

Paulson started investing in CDS bonds in the summer of 2006.

The Credit Opportunities Fund was up that year, but only 19%.

Then it was up 66 percent in February of 2007. His investors were so surprised, they called thinking the report of the gains was a misprint.

His biggest gains actually weren’t until later that winter and in spring of 2007. In the first nine months of 2007, Paulson’s Credit Opportunities Fund rose an average of 340 percent.

He made $15 billion that year and $5 billion more in 2008.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• BAD TIMING: John Paulson’s Gold Fund Tumbled 14% In January
• John Paulson’s 8 Secrets To Investing Success
• Paulson Starts A New Gold Fund

Yahoo! News

Egypt’s antiquities chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration of the world’s oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.

The announcement at the 1,600-year-old St. Anthony’s Monastery came a month after Egypt’s worst incident of sectarian violence in over a decade, when a shooting on a church on Orthodox Christmas Eve killed seven people.

The attack raised heavy criticism of the Egyptian government abroad and at home, by critics who say it has not done enough to address tensions between the country’s Muslim majority and its Christian population, estimated at 10 percent of the 79 million population.

The government insists the shooting was a purely criminal act with no sectarian motives, and officials persistently deny the existence of significant Muslim-Christian frictions.

Top archaeologist Zahi Hawass took the opportunity to reiterate that stance as he showed journalists the work at St. Anthony’s, an ancient compound at the foot of the desert mountains near Egypt’s Red Sea coast.

African Press Agency

The Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawas revealed on Thursday the discovery of the oldest Coptic antique under St. Anthony’s Church, ( a cell for monks ) dating back to 400 AD with paintings in the ancient Coptic language, at the oldest monastery in the world.

The discovery was made at the completion of a comprehensive restoration and rehabilitation of St. Anthony’s Monastery, situated in Zafarana, about 100 kilometres south-east of Cairo, near Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The renovation lasted nine years and cost 80 million Egyptian pounds ($14.5 million).

Experts say the restoration and discovery of the cells for the monks sheds important light on the early years of monasticism and bolsters the country’s long monastic tradition.

They added that it unveils a missing part of the history of Christianity in Egypt since there is nothing written about the beginning of the monastery.

Egyptology News Blog, Andie Byrnes

Protoscar has unveiled its new LAMPO2 electric sports car ahead of its debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. Besides being one awkward looking an electric sports car, the LAMPO2 features “quick-charging” technology, which allows 62 miles of range on a 10 minute charge.

Based on GM’s Kappa platform (which underpinned the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Aolstice, power for the LAMPO2 comes from two-electric motors, allowing it to operate as a four-wheel-drive car with variable torque between front and rear axle for optimal handling. The two motors produce a total of 350-hp with a peak torque of 443 lb-ft. That allows the LAMPO2 to go from 0-62 mph in 5 seconds with a top speed of 124 mph.

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Make the jump for the high-res image gallery and the press release.

Protoscar LAMPO2:

Press Release:

Protoscar unveils its electric sports car prototype LAMPO2 at the Geneva Motor Show 2010

LAMPO2 is an electric demonstration sports car conceived by Protoscar, a Swiss company which has been developing CleanCar projects for 23 years including consulting of OEMs, power utilities and governments. The LAMPO2 boasts “quick-charging” capability (up to 100 km range extension in just 10 minutes charging time) and will be presented at the Geneva Motor Show (2nd March 2010) on the e’mobile stand Nr. 5141.

LAMPO2 is an even more energy efficient successor to the LAMPO demonstration vehicle presented in 2009. Weight, aerodynamics and the efficiency of individual components of the BRUSA drive train have been further optimized in order to reach a world-class energy consumption of less than 100Wh/km-ton under real conditions. LAMPO2 is equipped with 4 different charging modes:

• standard single-phase with up to 3,3kW on board charger for typical overnight home-charge,
• “control-pilot” equipped and (EDF provided) PLC single-phase with 6,6kW on board charger typical for public charging,
• standard three-phase 9,9kW on board charger typical for charging at industrial plugs (fleet-owners) and
• an interface for DC fast charging (able to transmit a max. power of 80kW), where up to 100km of additional range can be charged within just 10 minutes, by an off-board system, so that the different solutions can be compared in terms of usability and efficiency by being demonstrated in real conditions.

LAMPO2 will be shown together with different charging infrastructure solutions: a smart home charge device (developed with ALPIQ), the public charging station E-TOTEM and the quick-charging station (developed with ABB and Brusa).

LAMPO2 impressively demonstrates that electric drive-trains are mature and perform sufficiently well to be a solution for all types of vehicles, not just city cars. This includes premium cars, the segment through which most new technologies have successfully been introduced into the market.

Together with the first LAMPO (which has already been driven over 10′000 km on race tracks and public roads across Europe), LAMPO2 will be used for practical demonstrations and testing. Protoscar has repeatedly been encouraged to develop an advanced electric cabriolet for small-scale production and plans to use the LAMPO2 to evaluate this possibility. The evaluation will include discussions with potential industrial and financial partners, and an assessment of the preferences and desires of potential clients. Lampo crossing the Gotthard pass in May 2009.

In addition to BRUSA, which supplies the components of the whole drive train, the main partners and sponsors of the LAMPO2 project are ALPIQ (the leading Swiss company in power generation and distribution, which is actively promoting the goal of 15% of electric vehicles in Switzerland by 2020), the German Fraunhofer Institute IAO (EV-specific features and MMI, as well as optimization of the ergonomics), ABB (DC fast-charging technology) and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

Technical details LAMPO2 has two electric motors (allowing it to operate as a four-wheel drive with variable torque between front and rear axle for optimal handling, safety and efficiency) with a total output of 260 kW (equivalent to 350 HP), 600 Nm (50% more than its predecessor!) and over 30 kWh of Lithium-Ion battery capacity. LAMPO2 features real sports-car performances: 5 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h, 200 km/h of max. speed and a range of over 200 km. More than enough energy for driving is produced by a remote solar plant which is installed on the roof of a farm in Tuscany, allowing a real zero-emission drive on a “Well-to-Wheel” basis.

– By: Kap Shah