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High Frequency Trading Firms Attack Chinese Markets Amid Turmoil

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High Frequency Trading Firms Attack Chinese Markets Amid Turmoil

China’s stock markets are being hit once again by traders from foreign hedge funds. Despite efforts to calm Chinese markets, foreign investors are reported to have found loopholes that allow hedge funds and proprietary traders to be heavily active in Chinese stocks without going through the proper formalities.

“With current market volatility and weak retail investor sentiment, these hedge fund strategies would naturally lead them to sell the market … which is against the government’s intention of propping up the market,” China market analyst, Oliver Barron, said in Beijing.

Both the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets have dropped roughly 30 percent since reaching their peak in June. This decline has triggered close eyes to be held on known “malicious” selling tactics and a crackdown on trading practices reportedly used by outsider hedge funds like high frequency trading firm Citadel, which was recently banned from trading in the country.

Any healthy stock market is formed partly by hedge funds as well as proprietary traders. But because China lacks the ability to stabilize their ‘buy-and-hold’ investors,  analysts are reporting the negative impact of hedge funds on formal, tightly controlled channels put in place to structuralize the system.

Chief executive Eric Neo, of Neo & Partners Global, is a helping hand in getting firms set up in China and other global markets. In his eyes, firms are simply registered commodity trading or consulting firms using profits to play the game. Commodities, like metals, are the most common way for trading firms to play the Chinese markets without registration.

The conception of foreign hedge fund investment is complicating regulative efforts to trace the sale of a securites not owned by the seller, commonly known as short-selling.

“With these structures, once you’ve generated your profits you can do what you like with them,” said an executive who aided the setup of a U.S. trading firm in China. “There are more than a 120 million trading accounts in Shanghai alone. No one can regulate that many accounts and know what’s going on.”

Without alleging any illegality, nearly 40 trading accounts have been frozen by China’s markets ‘watchdog’ for “trading irregularities” since the markets started to fall.

With a honest ear, Citadel Securities, a section of the U.S. group that owns hedge fund Citadel LLC, reported itself this week as being connected to one of the accounts frozen. Despite getting caught in the crackdown, Citadel claimed it met all rules and regulations of the local law though the company has a history of using technological wizardry to conduct highly questionable trading strategies – some of which effectively front run legitimate investors all while being technically in compliance with regulations.

With domestic account holders being the only names released, The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) chose not to comment as they are being watched closely by concerned foreign hedge funds who fear new investment rules may make it harder for their firms to operate.

As the chinese market remains to be highly unpredictably, many Chinese investors are reported to be supporting the hedge funds by investing their cash with foreign firms instead of nationally, as a faster way to make money.

Electronic trading firm Virtu Financial Inc., which has posted suspiciously perfect trading records, recently announced a partnership with an anonymous chinese brokerage in hopes to expand into stocks in the region. According to sources, other companies including various high-speed big names like IMC, Optiver, and U.S. founded hedge funds like Pine River, and Och-Ziff are also in China, bulldozing the market regulations.

Despite no accusations of wrongdoing, neither D.E. Shaw or Eclipse could be reached for comment when asked about their international ‘investments’. In short, it appears that the inreasingly watchful eye of U.S. regulators and market participants is leading shady electronic trading firms to the less regulated yet equally large markets of Asia.

New Pac Man-Like Enzyme May Lead To Powerful Class Of Anti Smoking Drugs

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New Pac Man-Like Enzyme May Lead To Powerful Class Of Anti Smoking Drugs

A new scientific advancement may help people quit smoking in the near future. Research published earlier this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society indicates that a bacterium found in nature may hold the key to a new, successful method to cease smoking. Presently, people trying to quit the nasty habit fail 80-90% of the time. The new research hopes to greatly improve these odds.

An enzyme found in the Pseudomonas putida bacterium consumes nicotine as its sole source of nitrogen and carbon. Interestingly, the bacterium was originally isolated from the soil found in tobacco fields. The idea behind an enzyme therapy is that it would find and destroy nicotine molecules before it reaches the brain- thus depriving smokers of the nicotine buzz felt when smoking. Kim Janda, a professor of chemistry and member of the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at TSRI stated that, “The bacterium is like a little Pac-Man. It goes along and eats nicotine.”

The authors of the study, from the nonprofit Scripps Research Institute (“TSRI”), have been able to recreate the NicA2 enzyme in the lab while retaining its strength. This property allows the enzyme to become a potential candidate for human drug development. Janda stated that “Our research is in the early phase of the drug development process, but the study tells us the enzyme has the right properties to eventually become a successful therapeutic.”

Early tests of the enzyme therapy have been encouraging to researchers. In their study, the scientists combined mice serum with a dose of nicotine equivalent to that found in one cigarette. When they added the enzyme, the life of the nicotine dropped from two to three hours down to 9-15 minutes. Modifying the enzyme further could potentially reduce the half-life of nicotine even more and prevent it from ever reaching the brain.

The stability of the enzyme in addition to the fact that no toxic residue was produced when the enzyme “ate” the nicotine is “pretty remarkable.” The results illustrate that the enzyme’s properties are “important for a therapeutic candidate.”

Pentagon Staff Email System Hacked By Russian Spies

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Pentagon Staff Email System Hacked By Russian Spies

As the Russian government considers new measures to prevent its vulnerability to cyberattack, the Pentagon is starting to recover from just such an attack by its Cold War opponent. Although it has not been confirmed to have been ordered by the upper levels of the Russian government, the attack on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff unclassified email system resulted in a two week shutdown. No classified information was compromised in the attack, but sources say that the scale and sophistication of the attack point to the work of a “state actor.”

The seriousness of the attack does not match that of a prior attack this year, which succeeded in compromising sensitive details about President Obama’s schedule. Such information is non-public and the breach was investigated by the FBI, Secret Service, and other intelligence agencies.

As cyberattacks become more prevalent, it may help to keep in the public consciousness the poor security practices of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, during her time as Secretary of State. She is now facing an FBI investigation into her use of a private email server to conduct State Department business.

The ongoing attacks by Russia led Director of National Intelligence Jake Clapper to state in Febuary that, “the Russian cyberthreat is more dangerous than we have previously believed.” Such Russian-led attacks on the U.S. add one more item to the list of disagreements between the two countries, from weapons for Syria, to annexation and invasion of Ukraine territory.

As world tensions continue to rise, the potential for armed conflict between nations rises as well. Whether or not more nations will get into shooting wars is uncertain, but cyberwarfare at present remains a constant, in part due to the difficulty of proving that an attack was the action of an outside government. With the potential for cyberattack to damage critical infrastructure a real possibility, it seems to be only a matter of time before such attacks lead to armed conflicts.

Star Oil Trader Loses Hundreds Of Million On Low Oil Prices

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The hedge fund run by oil trading god Andy Hall has gotten hammered by the recent crash in oil prices. Hall’s Astenbeck Capital Management lost a stunning 17% in July. The enormous dive is the second-largest loss the fund has ever experienced since its inception, and the decline cut total assets under management to about $2.8 billion, down approximately $500 million since June. As oil prices collapsed amidst a larger commodity crash , it affected commodity investors everywhere.

Hall, who launched the Astenbeck hedge fund in 2008 while still employed by Citigroup Inc., is best known for being an oil bull. In the past, he has placed huge wagers on rising prices for oil to be delivered well into the future. The risky strategy paid off and earned him enormous returns and paydays, particularly during the commodity boom of the 2000s. When Hall ran Citigroup Inc.’s Phibro LLC commodity trading division, he generated hundreds of millions in profits for the company – and for himself. He negotiated pay packages for himself worth $100 million annually.

In an investor letter dated August 3rd, Hall stated that July was a “brutal” month for commodities. He expressed his confidence in oil over the long term, and said that the dire outlook on oil was not justified. Hall stated that part of the reason commodities have hit such a slump is due to strife in the Middle East. “Saudi Arabia is fighting a proxy war with Iran in neighboring Yemen. It is also facing an existential threat from ISIS which is endeavouring to stir up sectarian unrest in the oil producing east of the country . . . It’s not unreasonable to say that the geopolitical risks in the major oil exporting region have seldom been higher. Yet oil prices currently have little or no risk premium and are – furthermore – below the longer run marginal cost of production. Because of this and given that the underlying fundamentals continue to improve, price risks are skewed to the upside in our view.”

The loss suffered by Astenbeck was not the only loss realized in the industry. Longtime energy investor Daniel Rice III, owner of Rice Energy Inc., suffered a loss of more than 35% last month. The fund is down 41% this year through the end of July, subsequent to a 55% loss in 2014. The 63-year old Rice stated that, “This is exactly what you see at every bottom. It’s a temporary phenomenon. Now whether it’s temporary for three months, six months or a year, [he doesn’t] know.”

China’s Free Falling Markets Cause Retail Investors To Stampede For The Door

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China’s Free Falling Markets Cause Retail Investors To Stampede For The Door

The Chinese stock market is hemorrhaging nonstop, sending indigenous investors into a selling frenzy at record low prices. Millions of one-time day traders are opting out of the market as the government injects more and more capital to boost the stock trade that has erased the wealth of millions of people.

China’s stock market, experiencing its worst decline since it started trading in 1990, has seen over $3.4 trillion in value of listed companies disappear in recent weeks. So severe is the decline that almost half of the companies in the exchange have suspended trading. Another 800 had their stocks automatically halted after their values exceeded their allowed daily drop limits. Only a handful of companies, approximately 22 per cent of the listed firms, remained active.

The drop has been the most catastrophic occurrence for China’s economy and, as is most often the case, it is everyday folk that have lost the most.

Unlike in the U.S., where institutions are the highest investors in stock, retail investors are king in China, owning more than 80 per cent of the market, according to China’s markets regulator the CICC.

In a bid to stem the loss of their savings, retail investors began selling their shares on a large scale, sending the already falling prices into a nose dive. By the close of business in July, only 51 million small investors were holding accounts in stocks, down from 75 million the month before, signaling a loss of more than 20 million investors in a month.

The plunge in market prices caught many Chinese by surprise. “Now I realize I can lose a lot of money very quickly,” quipped one trader.

China’s market had been on a seven year upward before the start of the decline. The attractive price increases had grown by so much they exceeded bank interest rates, leading many to take loans to purchase stocks. When the market finally plunged, many were left with nowhere to go but downhill.

Chinese regulators and the government have announced a host of measures to try and prop up the failing market. The country’s exchange regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said it would increase share purchases for small and medium companies after being criticized for only purchasing the bigger caps.

The measures are, however, unlikely to stem the bleeding.

China’s market drop has reached unprecedented and increasingly uncontrollable depths. Only time will tell whether the market can rally past the dip and what the long term implications for the economy will be.

Russia Banning Foreign Electronic Devices Amid Spying Fears

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Russia Banning Foreign Electronic Devices Amid Spying Fears

The Russian government is considering new measures to prevent the usage of imported software and electronics, in order to prevent the risk of personal data theft. Mirroring similar initiatives in the United States and China, orders are being placed with Russian software and electronics companies that may replace the need for foreign products. As Russia is not well-known for its robust technology manufacturing sector, it may have to endure some growing pains as part of this new strategy. The move also raises fresh questions about paranoia induced protectionism as increasingly wired products are distrusted by trading partners.

The Russian economy is already suffering from from the low price of oil and will therefore likely not see a sweeping embargo on western goods. Such a move would also lead to fines from the World Trade Organization (WTO) yet the the Russian government will likely require that state employees, privy to sensitive information, refrain from using foreign made devices.

Russian Parliament member Ruslan Gattarov has advocated for the ban saying, “There are allegations by various experts that information contained on some Western smartphones could be available to their manufacturers, who can then transmit this information to intelligence agencies in their home countries. In addition, this information can be stolen by foreign commercial companies for illegal gain.”

Critics of the idea state that a ban would prevent usage of iOS devices, considered one of the safest by leading Russian IT security analysts. An additional problem stems from the fact that most Russian electronics are 90 percent reliant on foreign parts.

The dilemma echoes the U.S. vulnerability to Chinese-made hardware with built-in “backdoors,” which allow outside tampering. Such components are present in military applications, nuclear power plants, and public transport and could be abused to result in a Stuxnet-like attack.
Aside from the Stuxnet attack on Iran, high-profile cyberattacks such as the recent one on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management seem to be the new normal.

Russia was implicated in a recent cyberattack on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff email system, which followed a previous Pentagon attack this year into an unclassified defense computer network. The United States considers such attacks as a legitimate reason to start a war, but any retaliation for such behavior by China and Russia has been restricted to electronic counter-attacks, the precise type that the Russian technology ban would seek to address.

Wearables: The Next Big Employee Tracking Device

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Wearables: The Next Big Employee Tracking Device

Wearables, which are currently dominating the fitness and lifestyle industry also have another huge fan: Employers. Companies are increasingly using the 24×7 monitoring capabilities of wearables to ensure workers are compliant and at their productive best, even going so far as to implant chips in their workforce. These devices are becoming a source of worry for thousands of workers who are concerned that the constant monitoring amounts to a blatant breach of their privacy rights.

At Epicentre, a company based in Sweden, close to 20 per cent of staff have been implanted with a tiny chip that lets them access offices in the company premises without having to use electronic entry cards or key fobs. The chip, a near-field communication (NFC) device, allows other functions that include setting of the alarm, accessing the company gym and garnering loyalty points in nearby retail stores.

According to Hannes Sjoblad, Chief Disruption Officer at Epicenter, ever since launching the system, “security companies, office operators, real estate companies and even military organizations want to see how this technology works.”

Wearable devices are now part of a growing trend of employee surveillance systems. Companies are increasingly opting for wearable devices such as wristbands, smart glasses, badges and smart watches to monitor employee activity both in and out of the work place.

According to Chris Bauer, innovations director at Goldsmiths University in London, “It started with big data discussions around gathering business insights and not having the human accounted for in that data puzzle. Wearable technology can help make the workforce visible in that.”

According to Gartner, in 2013, 2,000 companies offered their staff fitness trackers to wear while at work. In 2014, the number grew to 10,000. Analysts have predicted that by 2016, almost all companies with more than 500 workers will require their staff to wear fitness trackers.

The revolution has already begun, to the detriment of employees and their right to privacy.

In 2015, BP distributed over 24,500 fitness trackers to their staff in North America. The program was meant to track employee fitness and use them to negotiate lower health insurance rates. They also store data on employee fitness.

In risky industries such as mining and oil, wearables are being distributed to workers as safety features. Mining companies are increasingly turning to devices such as the “SmartCap” which have sensors to detect alertness and movement.

Retailer Tesco hands its workers in Ireland wearable armbands to track goods being transported and inevitably track employee movement all day.

Amazon warehouses staff wear GPS tags and use hand scanners that signal efficient routes to take in collecting items.

These technological devices operate from data, data drawn from employees. Through collecting information on employee movements, alertness and fitness, they are able to send feedback to company management on sensitive information such as how often employees rest, their concentration span, who they talk to, whether they are ill, how often they visit restrooms, whether they are menstruating or even pregnant. Simply put, privacy in the workplace has been thrown out the window.

Employees across North America have expressed legitimate concern that the information collected would be used to build profiles on them, without their knowledge. The data could also could be breached as has been the trend recently with technology system hacks, letting sensitive information openly accessible to the world. These systems definitely do not serve the employee’s best interests and should be regulated if not outrightly prohibited.

Apple Music Faces Uphill Battle As Bugs and Competition Hinder Growth

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Apple’s problems continue to grow as users of its Apple Music service have yet to be impressed. Investors seem pessimistic about the future success of Apple Music as it appears that people generally are not using the product. Where Apple thought there would be easy pickings from the likes of Spotify and Pandora, it appears the incumbents have a firm grip on their users and the streaming music industry in general. Troubles with Apple Music, decreased iPhone sales in China and overall slow revenue and profit growth, have compounded investors’ worries.

Subscribers of the recently released Apple Music service have two months left to decide whether to cancel their free subscriptions or start paying $9.99 per month for the service. Although the verdict is not yet in regarding how many of the 11 million users will actually sign up, early predictions are not favorable to Apple. Factors such as a confusing interface as well as competition from well-established programs such as Spotify do not necessarily bode well for the company that revolutionized the music industry with the creation of the iPod.

The 11 million subscriber number was released by Apple Senior Vice-President Eddy Cue in an interview with USA Today earlier this week. Although Cue stated he was thrilled with the number, the announcement did not help Apple’s share price, which has fallen about 6% in the last five days.

Apple recently acquired Beats Music, a 24/7 streaming Internet radio service, to the tune of $3 billion. That appears to be the number one draw for subscribers to the Apple Music service. However, the confusion regarding the program may be just too much when considering spending money for the service. Jim Dalrymple, an influential Apple enthusiast who writes for the blog, The Loop, is extremely disappointed in the service and has voiced his feelings. “I had high hopes for Apple Music. I really wanted it to work and become my default music streaming service, but after the problems I’ve experienced over the last couple of weeks, I’m disabling it altogether.”

Specifically, the biggest problem with the service appears to be the “unintuitive interface.” Regardless of whether a user has accessed Apple Music through and Apple operating system (“iOS”) app, or iTunes via a computer, navigating the options is confusing. Certain features of the system appear to disappear, which make creating playlists difficult. The “add” music option is sometimes nowhere to be found.

Moreover, every time a user wishes to launch Apple Music on a new device, he/she has to go through the whole setup process again, thereby duplicating playlists and individual songs in a user’s music library.

In addition to the user problems with Apple Music, there is also the issue of competition from music streaming juggernaut Spotify. According to Spotify, it boasts 75 million users for its free service and 20 million users of its $9.99 per month premium service. Pandora also reports 79.4 million users. Essentially, Apple and Spotify are offering the exact same products, thereby raising the issue of whether users are likely to jump to Apple Music. Given the ease of using Spotify and the problems with Apple Music, people simply may stay with Spotify.

Once the three-month free subscription of Apple Music ends, we will see how competitive Apple Music actually is.

3D Printing Industry Cools As Buyers Demand More For Less

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3D Printing Industry Cools As Buyers Demand More For Less

The once burgeoning industry of 3D printers is currently in a slump as many prospective buyers are holding off buying the machines to see what models will be released next. Like with all technology, many purchasers are taking a wait-and-see approach to see if better, more advanced, less expensive models are available in the future.

Both Stratasys and 3D Systems, companies which together account for more than one-third of 3D printer sales in 2014, have suffered steep declines in their stock prices. The market value of the leading stocks in the once booming 3D printing arena have fallen by nearly $14 billion since early 2014 to about $2.8 billion at the present time. Reasons for the slump: reliability and quality problems with the printers; a slow period of sales after the initial onslaught of sales when the 3D printers were first released; and tighter budgets of businesses across the globe.

Additionally, the household market for printers has yet to take off, despite the availability of such machines at retailers across the country for a price less than $5,000. Only a small percentage of 3D companies’ sales come from household consumers. Terry Wohlers, a 3D printer market consultant, stated that “[Analysts] felt all along there isn’t much of a consumer market for these machines. They’re not easy to use. A lot of them in homes are sitting there collecting dust.”

With respect to the period of stagnant sales, Brian Drab, an analyst for William Blair & Co. put it best when he stated that “[The industry has] gone through an early adopter phase where [companies] bought printers to convey innovation. [The industry is] going into more mainstream adoption where [one is] going to look silly if [he] make[s] a capital investment in a printer that runs at 5% of the speed that’s coming onto the market. Why not wait?” Of particular interest is that Hewlett-Packard Co. and other leading manufacturers in the traditional printing industry plan to enter into the 3D printer market in the near future with fresh, more reliable and faster printers.

As 3D printing is likely to become commonplace in the future, right now it is essentially on hold. Until ease of use increases, quality and speed improve and lower prices arrive, both businesses and household consumers alike will simply wait to make their purchases.

Researchers Find Robot Factory Workers Could Destroy Their Employers

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At the Black Hat security conference held in Las Vegas this week, one of the hot topics was cyber-vulnerabilities of manufacturing and processing plants across the country. As more and more companies increasingly automate their plants and factories, the possibility of cyber attacks increases exponentially which could lead to who factories of automated workers turning on their employers.

The rise of automation and use of robots in industries across the board is public knowledge. Boston Consulting Group has predicted that in the next ten years, greater than 1.2 million industrial robots will occupy factories everywhere, and that number is in addition to the robots used in factories already. Some analysts predict that automation in the pharmaceutical and chemical industry could increase the amount of materials that goes through processing by 20% annually and reduce energy consumption by about 8%.

At the security conference, Ken Westin, a senior security analyst at Tripwire, expressed his concerns regarding this trend. “A lot of businesses see value in automating a lot more of the processes when it comes to manufacturing. They’ll actually let a lot of these people go, like engineers. And they’ll focus on the automation. What they fail to do is look at the increased risk that that poses to the organization.”

For example, Westin pointed out that very old automated systems connected to an Internet network could spell disaster. They simply are not designed to withstand cyber attacks. “These systems were designed decades ago. They’re using protocols that are pretty ancient. They were designed for reliability and efficiency. Security was not a part of that. The security occurred on the physical end, protecting people who came in and out of these physical systems. Once you connect that to a corporate network? What happens is the corporate network now gets connected to the manufacturing plant, which was never designed to be connected to the Internet at all. When you have that connection, that increases risk to the organization. That’s something that’s not assessed in their analysis of risk.”

Because companies are increasing automation in their factories and are laying off workers such as engineers and maintenance crews, there may not be help to arrive when a malfunction occurs and robots go haywire. Westin refers to this combination as “a perfect storm in a lot of ways.” The compromise that companies are putting themselves into could result in injuring or killing its workers. Westin points out that “It will be something where se a loss of life. That’s going to change everything.”

Thailand Announces Sweeping Ban On Surrogacy Tourism

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Thailand, previously one of the go-to places for surrogacy in the world, has banned commercial surrogacy by foreigners. The country joins a growing list of Asian countries that have banned the practice.

Thailand was a widely preferred destination for surrogacy owing to its record low surrogacy prices. In the U.S., finding a mother to carry a couple’s embryo would cost $150,000 while in Thailand, the cost falls to $50000. This was, however, when the act was still legal.

The law against foreign commercial surrogacy took effect on July 30. The law completely prohibits foreigners from seeking surrogates in Thailand, imposing fines of up to $6200 for breach.

Surrogacy involves implanting an embryo into the mother and letting her carry the fetus. The donating couple would then have the baby after birth.

The current law came to be after a string of scandals that painted foreigners seeking surrogates in bad light. In one incident, an Australian couple left behind a surrogate boy after they discovered he had Down Syndrome and took away his healthy sister. The incident caused uproar from the country’s citizens, leading to the ban.

In another incident, the son of a Japanese billionaire sought to have children with over 12 Thai women, in a self indulgent bid to create replicas of himself.

The new law only allows surrogacy for native heterosexual Thai couples who have been married for more than three years. In addition, the surrogate mother is required to be a sibling of the couple, but not the parent of the couple’s other children. She must also have her husband’s consent and her own children.

The new law also grants intended parents full rights over the child. In the previous law, the surrogate mother had full rights over the child despite having no genetic relation to the child.
According to Stephen Page, a surrogacy lawyer from Brisbane Australia, “What’s significant about it is that Thailand is not going to have international surrogacy anymore.”

However, analysts have expressed pessimism that the practice would die down. Page said, “When surrogacy is banned in one country, it invariably means the practice will flourish in other places. Other countries in Asia such as India and Nepal are also popular destinations for international surrogacy, and more people will now seek surrogates there.”

Having banned surrogacy, Thailand now joins the list of progressive nations that do not allow the practice. Though a handful of countries in the peninsula including India still practice it, it will only be a matter of time before they fall in line.

North Korea Decides To Make Life Even More Difficult By Switching To Its Own Time Zone

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North Korea has announced that it will switch to a new time zone to mark 70 years of liberation from the “imperialist” Japan. Though the time change has been welcomed by the country’s erratic leadership, it will present dire complications for the country’s foreign relations.

North Korea currently shares a time zone with Japan and South Korea. The time zone which is nine hours ahead of GMT, was imposed on the country by the Japanese colonialists in 1912.

The new time, Pyongyang Time, will see the Asian country move its clocks 30 minutes back and will commence on August 15. The date was chosen to commemorate 70 years of independence from Japanese rule.

The proposal to change to Pyongyang Time was debated and approved in Parliament on Wednesday and announced on Friday.

State controlled news agency KCNA said, “The wicked Japanese imperialists committed such unpardonable crimes as depriving Korea of even its standard time while mercilessly trampling down its land.”

The state agency reported the change showed “the unshakable faith and will of the service personnel and people on the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.”

The change to Pyongyang Time will present logistical problems for the country, as reported by the country’s Unification ministry, which is in charge of regional matters. Ministry spokesperson Jeong Joon-Hee said its ”Immediate effect would be that [the decision] would cause a bit of inconvenience when it comes to inter-Korean exchange such as entry/exit in and out of [the inter-Korean joined] Keasong Industrial Complex [on the northern side of the border]. In the long-term it would cause inconvenience for inter-Korean integration, unifying standards, and restoring homogeneity between North Korea and South Korea.”

Observers have said the time shift was geared towards painting the North as an “authentic” and pure nation while painting the South as populated by foreign domination.

South Korea changed its time from Japanese standard time in 1954 but reverted later in 1961 when Park Chung Hee came to power through a military coup. The reversion by Park was fueled by the need to facilitate easier operational planning between the country and the U.S., one of its strong allies.

The move to change their time zone to Pyongyang time feeds into the North’s narrative of appearing authentic while the South is labelled a puppet state. The move, though welcome by the country’s leadership will present plenty of logistical challenges and make life even more challenging for the hermit kingdom.

Study Finds Legalized Prostitution Key To Curbing Sex Crimes

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Recent surveys show an aggressively growing gap between male and female sexual desires that could spell increased sexual violence absent outside factors. In the research, heterosexual males’ sexual desire is manifested twice as often as female sexual desire is, meaning men desire sexual intimacy twice as much as women do. With these large gaps, a balance has been found in one of the most unlikely places.

A report published in The Times and The Independent by Doctor Catherine Hakim shows that the gap between male and female sexual desire is growing yearly. Men’s desire for sex is much stronger than women’s, and that desire is being reflected in the increasing demand for commercial sex businesses.

Men have for long been the primary clientele for commercial sex services including prostitution, pornography and exotic dancing. In the 21st century, that focus on men will only go up, fuelled by men’s increasing sexual desire that’s even threatening to outstrip the available female commercial sex supply.

According to researchers, global growth in technology, including growing internet access and social media marketing, has made commercial sex work accessible to a far greater audience than before. Though this may be viewed by feminists as feeding a patriarchal system favoring men, in real sense, researchers have found that this increased availability will in the long run lead to decreased sexual crime.

Women’s sexual cravings remain on the decline. Increased male-female equality, and the economic independence of women, has seen women move away from sexual markets and relationships that offer unfair bargains. In addition, global changes in sex ratios, leaning toward more men than women, have allowed women to change the rules to their advantage and inevitably, the disadvantage of men. The sex industry offers the equalizing factor for these glaring sexual desire gaps.

It has been argued that commercial sex endangers women by promoting rape and other sexually violent crimes. However, few studies have drawn a link to commercial sex’s prevalence and sexual violence. In fact, all evidence shows commercial sex has no noxious social and psychological effects, and that they do decrease sexual crime rates.

In the wake of these findings, more countries are legalizing prostitution. Countries such as Senegal, Netherlands, Germany and the Australian states of Victoria and Queensland have legalized prostitution while New Zealand decriminalized it.

Though commercial sex has been criticized for promoting negative social values, the inherent advantages far outweigh its disadvantages. And in the long run, though it may not end sexual crime, it will do a lot in keeping its statistics low.

Hillary Clinton Now Under Criminal Investigation For Mishandling State Secrets

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The investigation into Hillary Clinton’s misuse of official email is turning into a full criminal probe,severely complicating her White House bid ahead of what is set to be one of the toughest U.S. presidential elections in years.

The FBI, just like mainstream media, will not let Clinton see the last of her email scandal. The New York Post revealed two weeks ago that four of Clinton’s emails during her time at the U.S State Department were sent through her personal account, and that as a result, the FBI had gotten involved. The revelation led those sympathetic to the democratic frontrunner to doubt the credibility of the information while others welcomed the news.

Previously, when the news first broke, both the FBI and the DOJ had steered clear of the matter, even though evidence against Clinton was in abundance. Not even a fact finding mission was launched causing many analysts to wonder if the establishment was protecting the former first lady and inevitably, the Democratic Party’s biggest hope of another presidency.

However on Wednesday a post by The Washington Post revealed that the FBI had actually began looking into the security of Clinton’s email setup. The post further stated that the authorities were contacting a Denver based tech firm that was linked to the management of the private email in assessing whether a security breach had occurred.

The report further added that the intelligence community was very interested in the matter, being that some of the missing emails contained information whose loss could severely compromise U.S. national security.

In the past, prominent state figures such as former CIA director David Patraeus have been charged for mishandling classified state information. When Clinton chose to send State Department emails through her personal account, similar to what Patraeus was charged with, a crime was committed. In light of these facts an FBI investigation appears long overdue.

Sources have intimated that since the actions amounted to a breach of the federal security statute, the probe is “criminal” in nature. Former federal prosecutor Bradley Simon said “They didn’t hesitate to charge Gen. Petraeus with doing the same thing, downloading documents that are classified. The threshold under the statute is not high — they only need to prove there was an unauthorized removal and retention.”

Clinton’s campaign team has, however, downplayed the investigation as a civil fact finding mission. Clinton herself has said she is “confident” she never knowingly sent any official information through her email, yet knowingly or not could be a moot point. Information merely has to be mishandled to qualify as an offense.

Interestingly, and perhaps betraying her guilt, Clinton has gone on to hire David Kendall, the prominent Williams S. Connolly advocate who coincidentally defended Patraeus over the breach of the same statute.

Clinton’s continued downplaying of her email investigation may just leave her with egg on her face, especially since authorities are growing more involved in the now criminal probe. Senior Democrat party officials are no doubt watching the investigation closely as they decide who should be their official challenger in the 2016 elections.

Jon Stewart Leaves A Legacy Little Different Than Those He Mocked

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Jon Stewart Leaves A Legacy Little Different Than Those He Mocked

Jon Stewart is finally wrapping up his 16-year-long hit late night program The Daily Show. Yet despite the fanfare Stewart leaves behind a legacy little different than those he mocked: a shameless partisan mouthpiece. Stewart’s exit on Thursday will mark an end to the openly democratic comic’s bashing of conservative values and downright hostility to the right wing.

Stewart’s The Daily Show became a popular feature in many U.S. citizens’ prime time viewership. So much so that a 2014 Brookings Institution study showed more people trusted the show than they did the news on MSNBC.

Despite this huge confidence Americans placed in the comic, Stewart bypassed credible non partisan infotainment for playing lap dog to the Democratic establishment. His endless ranting and bashing of conservatives include famously asking MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “The left always says, ‘We’re not black and white. I didn’t like Bush because he was so black and white and there’s not a nuance.’ Do you think the left ever suffers from that same myopia?” On criticizing George. W. Bush, “I would suggest that it wasn’t necessarily just, ‘This is wrong for the country,’ but that ‘you’re a bad man.’”

Stewart perfected the art of one way mockery. His script was as simple as they could ever get: the right wing deserves bashing, the left wing friendly questioning. His largely liberal following loved it, especially in the Bush-Cheney era of Republican control of the House and Senate.

In 2013, when Stewart mocked Obamacare too much, he got called out by his fans, compelling him to respond by saying it was equal–opportunity joking.

Could Stewart’s script have been part of a larger picture to sell the leftist establishment’s controversial policies? A recent report by the Politico indicates just that.

According to the report, Stewart met with President Barrack Obama before the big stories hit. And just to ensure the establishment’s narrative was properly set out, Obama’s personal aides worked with the show’s writers to ensure their stories were well represented.

“That work-the-umps strategy also involved the president, who used his two Oval Office meetings with Stewart as a chance to sell the administration’s ideas. At the 2011 sit-down, [Obama aide] Goolsbee said, the president wanted to counter his critics on the left and lay the groundwork for his 2012 reelection campaign,” stated Austan Golsbee, Obama’s senior economic advisor, in the report.

So devoted was Stewart to the liberals’ cause that the New York Posts’ Kyle Smith said of his style, “Remember when, under a Republican president, it was the duty of all comedians to be the loyal opposition, to speak truth to power? Stewart does the opposite.”

Stewart himself admitted his partisan comedic bashing on the famous hour-long MSNBC interview with Maddow when he said, “We have a tendency to grant amnesty to people that we agree with and to overly demonize people we don’t. I do the same thing. I think everybody does.”

For conservatives across the U.S., news of Stewart’s departure is a godsend and though likely will not mark a return back to the age of neutral comedy. Comedy Central, the TV network which ran the Daily Show, knows this audience well and has already taken steps to ensure they stay tuned-in through the post-Stewart era.

Line, A Quirky Japanese Messaging App, Is Poised To Take Over Asia

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Line, A Quirky Japanese Messaging App, Is Poised To Take Over Asia

It is no surprise that Asia, one of the world’s largest continents with roughly 4.427 billion people, has it’s own array of emerging messaging apps that are fostering communication across borders. In addition to Facebook and Whatsapp (also owned by Facebook) the area’s burgeoning population has an array of choices almost as diverse as its unique tastes and preferences. This is leading to fierce competition and it isn’t American tech companies that are dominating.

Mainland Chinese unanimously favour WeChat, Tencent’s social messaging masterpiece, it still sees some competition from WhatsApp, a global chatting device owned by Facebook and used by over 600 million users. WeChat allows posts to be seen among a social circle that include commerce and online transactions for virtual shops users can create. Despite it’s wide array of services, in comparison to competitor WhatsApp, the app battles growing data-privacy worries amongst it’s users.

Japan-born Line is nudging its nose into the social scene in Thailand and Indonesia. Introduced to Japan in 2011, it has thrived nationally spearheading “stickers” comparable to emojis, but has yet to land globally as a top messaging application.

Line offers services ranging from entertainment to various social platforms including taxi-hailing, shopping, streaming, and even the ability to make mobile payments. Grabbing onto growth of global connectivity, Line is experimenting in software to broaden its users and social productivity.

With hopes to use cultural differences in Asia as a source of cross border growth, Line has now opened coffee and gift shops in Shanghai and Hong Kong, distancing itself from rivals WeChat and Whatsapp.

The continent’s growing interest in social media is changing the digital market. While other apps like WeChat begin redirecting their focus from expansion to on online/offline services, Line plans to take advantage of rapid smartphone adoption in Asia, and abroad.

Line’s chief executive Takeshi Idezawa spoke of Asia’s expected growth to nearly 1.8 billion people within the next four years at a tech startup conference in Hong Kong, and Line plans to aggressively tap the positive demographics.

Appealing to cultural characteristics, Line’s famous “stickers” launched a series of animated characters to commemorate the celebration of Ramadan in Muslim countries, particularly Indonesia.

Stronger advertising efforts and even contests were rolled out to gain users by NHN, Line’s web supporter in the country. Images of cuddly animals participating in the fast were available during the holy month, which allowed users feel a personal connection to the stickers.

It’s safe to say the culturally conscious advertising efforts worked. Line tripled its users in Indonesia, gaining 20 million in just six months in 2014.

Line originated from a collaborative effort between South Korean and Japanese engineers which was supported by NHN, an internet portal operator based in South Korea and has since attempted partnerships with pop stars like Ariana Grande, granting its users access to her exclusive album My Everything.

Despite efforts towards global growth, Line has seemingly flopped across the Pacific. In the U.S. it has yet to gain the popularity of social applications like Facebook Messenger ranked No. 2, on analytics site Appannie.com, and Snapchat, ranking No.6.

Idezawa said that Line will continue to release more services that connect with appliances in people’s homes further enhancing user reliance. Soon enough, applications like Line will be able to tell users when they’re running low on toothpaste, and calculate how many sodas are left in the fridge.

Seaworld Plans To Open More Parks With More Captive Animals To Fight Steep Revenue Decline

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Seaworld Plans To Open More Parks With More Captive Animals To Fight Steep Revenue Decline

Controversial entertainment company SeaWorld, suffering declines in both attendance at its parks and its share price, plans to double down on its current strategy and open more exhibits with more captive animals. Using more creatures in captivity to entertain patrons of its parks seems to contradict the message of animal protection and conservation that the company touts, raising a fresh round of questions for the often-protested company.

SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. received bad news this week when its stock price dropped more than 5% in premarket trading this morning. The decline follows SeaWorld’s reporting that its earnings fell 84% in the second quarter, typically one of the company’s best quarters year to year. SeaWorld officials state that heavy rains in Texas, an earlier Easter holiday and “brand images” have resulted in less attendance at its parks and therefore the drop in share price.

Despite the issuance of steep discounts, marketing campaigns and various promotions, attendance at SeaWorld parks around the country fell 2% compared to the same period last year. The brand images the company suffers is due largely to the release of the 2013 documentary Blackfish. The documentary, produced by animal rights activists, alleges cruelty by holding Orcas in activity. The film also alleges that the treatment of orcas in captivity provokes violent behavior. Park attendance fell shortly after the documentary was released to the public.

In light of the negative press, SeaWorld has spent millions trying to rebuild its image. SeaWorld chief executive Joel Manby stated that, “Early feedback on [the company’s] campaign has been positive, however [it] recognize[s] that fully resolving [the] brand challenges in California will require sustained focus and commitment to correct misinformation.” The marketing campaign stresses that SeaWorld’s animals are very well-treated and that orcas live as well and as long as those in the wild.

Despite the decrease in numbers across the board, SeaWorld indicated that most of the increased expense in marketing spending is now over and that it still expects to meet its financial goals for 2015. Manby told shareholders that a new shark-themed exhibit will open soon in the Orlando park and that the “biggest, tallest, longest, fastest coaster” is set to open in 2016. Moreover, SeaWorld will also open an exhibit at its San Antonio, Texas park that will allow park goers the opportunity to swim with dolphins in a “naturalistic” setting. Manby is confident these additions, in conjunction with its marketing campaign will boost attendance at its parks and increase its growth and revenue.

Russia Proposes 12 Year Prison Term For Those Caught Smuggling Food

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In what appears to be Russia’s latest move to stem the illegal importing of goods, one of the country’s lawmakers has proposed a 12-year prison sentence for those caught smuggling food from Western countries across its borders. The proposal, drafted by State Duma deputy Yevgeny Fyodorov, imposes the criminal penalty on those violating the current ban on the importation of Western foods which was instituted after the West imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its interference in Ukraine. Russia slapped the embargo on Western food over a year ago.

Presently, food is confiscated from those caught illegally importing Western foods into Russia, but there is no criminal sanction. The head of Moscow’s Bar Association Andrei Knyazev was quoted in Izvestia, a Russian daily newspaper, that, “The current articles of the Criminal Code regulate responsibility for smuggling narcotics, poisons and so on, but they do not cover consumer goods, including food.” Fyodorov stated that, “It would be perfectly fair to expand the punishment envisaged for smuggling cigarettes and alcohol to include people who ignore the authorities’ decisions about the food embargo.”

It is important to note that food confiscated from smugglers is set to be destroyed according to President Vladimir Putin. Authorities are set to begin incinerating the food today. This outrages many Russians who are extremely poor and need the food. A petition with more than 208,000 signatures was delivered to Moscow, questioning, “Why should we destroy food that could feed veterans, pensioners, the disabled, those with large families or those who have suffered from natural disasters?”

Even politicians and public figures who normally support the Kremlin have questioned the decision to destroy perfectly good food. Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov called the move an “extreme measure,” and stated that, “[he] would give this food to Orthodox Christian communities, to children’s and orphans’ homes . . . and to our friends in the Donetsk and Lugansk republics.” Television host Vladimir Solovyov wrote on his Twitter account that, “[he doesn’t] understand how a country that lived through the horrible hunger of the war and terrible years after the Revolution can destroy food.”

The proposed law to impose the 12-year prison term on smugglers of illegal foods is set to be voted on during the upcoming fall legislative session.

Chinese Giant WeChat Will Allow Its 650 Million Users To Trade Stocks Via Chat App

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Chinese Giant WeChat Will Allow Its 650 Million Users To Trade Stocks Via Chat App

Popular Chinese internet service provider Tencent, owner of dominant chat app WeChat, is set to launch the first ever online trading portal to run through a mobile chat application. The company’s online trading system, if successful, will revolutionize the way investors across the world choose to invest.

Tencent’s online trading system is in the final stages of testing and will be rolled out soon. The platform will feature a facial recognition feature that verifies user identities before allowing them to access their stocks. The facial recognition features through smart phones are a first of its kind anywhere in the world.

According to Tencent, its 650 million users will purchase stocks through mobile chat service WeChat’s e-wallet function. Already, the e-wallet function facilitates money transfers, cinema tickets purchasing, transport tickets, financial products investment and other related functions.

These features are a cut above the rest of the world’s mobile messaging platforms. Facebook’s very own, Watsapp, far behind Tencent with 500 million users, does not feature any of these functions, having only allowed mobile video chat in foreign countries recently.

According to Tencent, users will be able to access these services by first registering directly on their service and uploading a number of documents to authenticate their identities. The users will then scan their faces as a final security check before accessing the online trading services.

The system has caused a stir among global trading enthusiasts for its relieving convenience. Previously, investors had to go to their brokerage firms in person to place an order or video chat with the firms to confirm their identities.

Now all they will have to do is open an account with Tencent, or with rival online firm Alibaba.
Alibaba, China’s giant online selling company, through its payment platform Alipay, is introducing a similar online stock buying feature. The company announced the new feature last month but is yet to activate it. Currently, the feature can only be used to track indexes.

These recent service launches are just a drop in the bucket of how far Chinese tech innovation and appetite has grown in recent years. Beijing based Lenovo bought out IBM’s PC business in 2005 on its way to becoming the largest PC maker, beating the previous record holder, U.S. based HP, by number of units sold. Lenovo also bought out Google’s loss making Motorola unit, becoming the third largest smartphone maker by market share, only behind Apple and Samsung.

Another Chinese firm making big plays is Huawei. Already the second largest telecoms network provider in the world, it recently launched its P8 smart phone that’s set to compete with Apple for a piece of the premium smartphone market.

Chinese tech companies are growing fast and aggressively, eclipsing U.S. companies across mobile and PC innovation. So get ready – it’s only a matter of time before China’s tech companies become a common feature in every American home.

Cybercrime Kingpin Also Shown To Be Russian Spy

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At the Black Hat Security Conference held in Las Vegas this month, a security firm has released new details on the illegal hacking activities of cybercrime kingpin Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, better known as Slavik. Dutch firm Fox IT presented new insight into the workings the leader of one of the world’s most notorious and successful online criminal gangs. Specifically, in addition to bilking banks out of over $100 million, it appears that Bogachev also conducted espionage. Analysts suspect that his foray into spying was backed by the Russin government. To date, despite the $1 million bounty placed on Bogachev by the FBI, he has evaded capture.

Bogachev is widely believed to be leader of the uber-secretive criminal ring known as the Business Club. Members of the Club used the malware program Zeus to steal from banks from 2011-2014. Specifically, Bogachev ran the Gameover Zeus operation which infected up to 1 million machines connected over peer-to-peer networks. The malware stole bank logins and the Club’s operations resulted in the theft of over $100 million from banks all over the world. The hackers were also responsible for developing and implementing the Cryptolocker ransomware that infected and locked down more than 234,000 personal computers. The operation acquired more than $27 million in ransom payments. Both the Gameover Zeus operation and the Cryptolocker operation were shut down last spring after Bogachev was indicted.

Following that major law enforcement operation which required the collaboration of Fox IT, Dell SecureWorks and the FBI, analysts began sifting through what they had collected. They were extremely impressed by the evolution of the illegal operations. Andy Chandler, vice president of Fox IT, stated that “The maturity of how they evolved could have been an example out of a Harvard business book . . .The Business Club . . . used their criminal talents to expand from retail banking to commercial banking and branch off to new areas like espionage and ransomware.” Research reveals that the Business Club is the first entity to beat a two-pronged authentication system with “hybrid token-grabber attacks,” known in the business as The World Bank Center.

The details surrounding Bogachev’s espionage are what lead analysts to believe he may be avoiding capture because he has the protection of the Russian government. Specifically, analysis has indicated that Bogachev or one of his clients sought out data regarding foreign governments that would have significant interest to Putin. Michael Sandee, principal security expert at Fox IT discovered commands that sought files related to foreign intelligence officials in Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia. Russia’s interest in these countries is likely due to Putin’s recent military activity in the regions.

Analysts also believe that Bogachev conducted this espionage without working with his fellow Business Club members. Sandee believes the separation between Bogachev and the other members had to do with the fact that Bogachev was spying on countries that these members were from, including Ukraine. Moreover, Bogachev was the only one who managed the back ends of the botnets responsible for gathering the sought-after information.

These factors have led to speculation that Bogachev is somehow protected by Russia as long as he does not turn against the country. In its whitepaper released at the Black Hat conference, Fox IT stated that it “could speculate that due to this part of his work he had obtained a level of protection, and was able to get away with certain crimes as long as they were not committed against Russia. This of course remains speculation, but perhaps it is one of the reasons why he has as yet not been apprehended.”

Struggling Apple Pay Now Has Fewer Subscribers Than When It Launched

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Struggling Apple Pay Now Has Fewer Subscribers Than When It Launched

Apple’s recent creation of Apple Pay, which allows consumers to purchase items from merchants using their iPhone 6, has not been the big success the company had hoped for. In fact the numbers are awful: usage has declined from when the program was launched last year according to well connected sources. Analysts across the board are not surprised by the statistics, as several conditions have to be met by the consumer and the merchant before Apple Pay will work.

There are several reasons why Wall Street analysts believe that Apple Pay has not caught on. Lack of awareness of the program is a major factor. People simply do not know that their iPhone 6 (which is the only phone that can support Apple Pay) is capable of the service. Moreover, many people just plain forget to use the application when at the store checkout counter. Typically, people have to have their phones in their hand and remember to use Apple Pay while waiting in line. With so many other things on people’s minds, using Apple Pay is likely not high on the list. Consumers who choose not to use Apple Pay also have fears about the security of their personal information. Another major reason people are not using Apple Pay is due to the fact that they are simply unaware of how the application works.

In addition to all of those factors, there is still another fundamental reason why Apple Pay has not caught on: in order to use the application, people have to have an iPhone 6 and merchants have to have an NFC terminal in order to accept payment. As merchants are anxious to purchase technology that will keep up with evolving payment methods, they are reluctant to do so until a frontrunner really takes off. That has yet to happen, with rivals including Google and PayPal having similar competing services.

Analysts also surmise that Apple Pay was created to fix a problem that does not really exist.

While people often dislike the hassle of going to a store and looking for their desired merchandise, once they find what they are looking for and make their way to the register, they simply do not mind paying with their credit/debit cards. Jared Schrieber, CEO of InfoScout, explained that, “People don’t understand why it is they would go about using Apple Pay, they are fine with what they have. And they are not familiar with how they would use Apple Pay if they wanted to.”

Karen Webster, CEO of PYMNTS.com, may have summed up the lack of success with Apple Pay in the best terms: “ . . . if all [consumers] get to do at checkout at a few of the stores they shop is use a phone instead of a card that works everywhere, what’s the point? That’s what consumers are telling us based on these results.”

Netflix Is Beginning To Kill Big Media And Its Now Showing Up In Stock Prices

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Networks across the board have suffered sharp stock drops as television viewers appear more than ready to cut the cord on traditional cable and satellite services. It appears that the dominance of Netflix and other video streaming services is truly, as measured in financial statements and viewership numbers, changing the way people watch their favorite programs. As a result of the very fast and evolving developments in media technology continue, traditional television as we know it may soon disappear.

Presently, both subscriber and distribution profits have declined for all major television networks as more and more viewers choose not to pay for the increasing costs of traditional cable and satellite services. Not only are new viewers choosing not to purchase these services, existing viewers are cancelling their subscriptions. Moreover, networks are losing millions in ad revenue as television ratings continue to decline. The reason is simple: more viewers choose to watch their favorite programs on video streaming services, with Netflix in the lead and other outlets like Amazon Prime and Hulu slowly catching up.

Additionally, Facebook is consuming time of users everywhere, which also cuts into traditional television viewing. Anthony DiClemente, a media analyst at Nomura Securities stated that Netflix and facebook “are at a scale that we really haven’t seen historically in media in terms of the number of subscribers and the number of users.” Charles W. Ergen, chairman of the Dish Network echoed this statement stating that, “[Viewership] has totally, totally shifted to Netflix. Netflix is the most powerful content aggregator in the world today, and there’s nobody that’s even close.”

The stocks of Disney, Comcast, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox, CBS, Viacom, AMC Networks and Discovery Communications all dropped in value Wednesday. Many analysts commented that if Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company can be dinged, many smaller companies might not stand a chance.

Despite the sharp stock declines, Disney fiercely defends its television programming, which include its sports juggernaut channel, ESPN. Robert A. Iger, chief executive of Walt Disney Company told CNBC on Wednesday that the company and ESPN were doing just fine. “We are very bullish about our cable business, and we are very bullish about ESPN. The [cable package bundle that includes ESPN] is not going away. Not only is it not going away, it is going to continue to grow.”

Officials from other networks had similar statements regarding their programming. Despite their positive outlook, they cannot deny the ever-increasing dominance of Netflix and online video streaming.

Researcher Shows How Millions Of GM Vehicles Can Be Completely Taken Over By Hackers

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Researcher Shows How Millions Of GM Vehicles Can Be Completely Taken Over By Hackers

A security researcher has followed up on a promise made days ago by posting a video demonstrating how he can locate, unlock and start any GM vehicle through his phone. The video, posted on YouTube, is the latest security breach publicly showcased that involves millions of vehicles being driven on America’s roads. Rival Detroit carmaker Chrysler is now facing a class action lawsuit over a similar vulnerability disclosed two weeks ago.

Samy Kamkar, a self proclaimed hacker and whistleblower, posted a video on YouTube on Wednesday that shows him hacking into a GM vehicle using a unique device he calls Ownstar.

According to Kamkar, his device intercepts wireless communications between the Onstar cloud service and GM’s OnStar RemoteLink mobile application. Through intercepting these signals, Kamkar states that he was able to remotely track the GM vehicle, unlock it and start it.

OnStar is a subscription based, vehicle service that conveniently provides vehicle security, turn-by-turn navigation, hands free calling and remote diagnostics.

RemoteLink on the other hand, forms part of OnStar’s mobile application that allows GM vehicle users to unlock and start their cars from anywhere. The application can also turn the vehicle’s lights on, blow the horn and manage the vehicle’s WiFi hotspot.

However, as Kamkar has proven, the system has glaring security gaps. Kamkar’s video revelation is just the latest in what has been a persistent round of vehicle systems hacking by cyber security researchers. Hackers recently hacked into a Fiat Chrysler’s internal operating system due to a hole in its UConnect Infotainment system. Through the UConnect gap, the hackers were able to control vehicle functions that included acceleration, braking and igniting.

Fiat Chrysler has since recalled 1.4 million vehicles after the malignant system failure and found itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit just this morning.

The good news is that GM’s OnStar is only susceptible to hacking at close range, unlike Fiat Chrysler’s which could be done remotely. Kamkar said that should a user turn on his Onstar RemoteLink next to him, he would launch his OwnStar device and intercept the signals, allowing him to take control of the vehicle.

Kamkar added, “Fortunately, the issue lies in the mobile software and is not a problem with the vehicles themselves. GM and OnStar have so far been receptive to me and are already working quickly on a resolution to protect consumers.”

In a statement, GM said it was looking into the matter and that it takes issues of user safety “very seriously.”

Kamkar said he was in talks with GM to improve the vehicles’ security and that he would be revealing further details on the OwnStar device at the oncoming Def Con Hacking conference.

Vehicle security has come under close scrutiny lately after consistent hacks have been performed on vehicles. With the growing technological advances, further care is needed to safeguard vehicle users in the U.S. and raises important safety questions as millions of household devices become connected to the broader internet.

Pennsylvania Will Sentence People Based On Crimes They Have Yet To Commit

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Pennsylvania is on the precipice of becoming one of the first states to base criminal sentences not only on the crimes people have been convicted (at the present and in the past), but also on the likelihood that they may commit additional crimes in the future. As soon as 2016, Pennsylvania judges could receive risk assessments on a particular convicted criminal to help the court decide how long of a prison term- if any- should be ordered.

Risk assessments try to predict if a criminal will repeat offend or break the rules of parole or probation by using statistical probabilities based on factors such as sex, age, prior criminal record and employment history. Such assessments are now used at some point in the criminal justice process in almost every state. Up until now, however, assessments have never been used in the sentencing itself. Pennsylvania aims to do just that.

Obviously, very basic philosophical questions are raised when considering whether to sentence someone based on a crime he/she has not yet committed. However, Pennsylvania has managed to largely sidestep the issue. Mark Bergstrom, the executive director of Pennsylvania’s Sentencing Commission, says it is not up to him whether the state should use a risk assessment analysis when sentencing criminals, since the legislature has already voted to do so. Bergstrom’s job, he says, is to figure out what the assessment will look like and how it will be implemented.

Pennsylvania’s Sentencing Commission is trying to stave off inevitable lawsuits filed by defense attorneys by designing its risk assessment tool to use only information that comes from databases, as opposed to interviews. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers alike can see all of the information that goes into the assessment’s scoring system and will have an opportunity to verify its accuracy and to request changes if something is incorrect.

Even many supporters of risk assessment tools believe they can be problematic in practice. Official records can contain mistakes and many tools include subjective questions that require the person filling out the questionnaire to characterize the offender’s attitudes and feelings. Such a process can introduce error.

The central debate surrounding the use of risk assessment tools in the sentencing phase is what the goal of criminal justice reform actually is. Some supporters see reducing jail time as the primary goal; others want to focus on reducing repeat offenses; and others want to reduce and eliminate racial disparities. In theory, risk assessments can accomplish these goals. However, once they are used in the real world, it is unknown how well they will actually work.

Bergstrom knows he is walking a delicate line. The commission’s research has found that prior arrests are actually a better predictor of repeat offenses rather than prior convictions. However, using arrests would almost certainly draw constitutional challenges. Public defenders will likely point to the racial disparities in arrest rates and claim that it is illegal to presume someone is guilty just because of a prior arrest.

As of now, Bergstrom says that he is leaning towards using a risk assessment tool to identify criminals on the extreme ends of the spectrum: sentence no prison for low-risk individuals and flag high-risk individuals for extra treatment or prison time. While it would be a limited approach to utilizing the assessment tool, it still would not avoid the question of whether criminals should spend a longer time in jail simply because a statistical tool says they will behave a certain way in the future.

The Real Reason The DHS Opposes CISA Snooping Bill Has Nothing To Do With Your Privacy

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has joined the fray in publicly opposing a bill that will sweep away privacy in America’s online communities. But why would an agency widely considered to be leading the pack in the breach of America’s privacy rights oppose a bill that actually fosters federal agency intrusion? The devil is in the details.

In a seven page letter to the Senate through outspoken privacy Senator Al Franken, Homeland Security expressed its utter condemnation of the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) for its privacy violations. DHS said the bill would “sweep away important privacy protections.”

The stand by DHS has led to widespread surprise among many people who are questioning the agency’s legitimacy in questioning a bill that offers immunity to private companies sharing Americans’ data with federal agencies. According to analysts, DHS is not at all concerned with Americans’ privacy rights but rather bureaucratic turf.

Initially, the DHS had sole authorization to access Americans’ online data for cyber security reasons. This included the right to hoard access to this information against other federal agencies and also the right to call dibs on the budgetary cyber security allocations.

With CISA, these rights have been taken away from the agency and handed over, on a silver platter, to other federal agencies including the NSA, an agency that has been clamoring for the devolvement of online information access rights to other security agencies.

CISA’s provisions will severely weaken DHS in addition to giving away a critical blank check on budgetary cyber security allocations.

In their seven page letter to the Senate, Homeland Security said, “The Administration has consistently maintained that a civilian entity, rather than a military or intelligence agency, should lead the sharing of cyber threat indicators and defensive measures with the private sector.”

The letter went on to conveniently state, “DHS recommends limiting the provision in the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act regarding authorization to share information, notwithstanding any other provision of law, to sharing through the DHS.”

Though DHS consistently states their opposition of the bill is all because of its privacy violations potential, they have failed to distance themselves from accusations that they are only interested in calling the shots when it comes to America’s online information.

Google Is Now Officially A Car Company

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In transition from its role as a tester of autonomous vehicles, Google’s subsidiary company Google Auto has announced that it will be building 100 prototype self-driving cars. In the past Google Auto has retrofitted Audi, Toyota, and Lexus vehicles for the testing of its autonomous driving technology, but the new prototypes be built from the ground up. They will each have VIN numbers and will be registered as lightweight low-speed vehicles capable of up to 25 mph.

The new vehicles look like a cross between a Smart car and a VW Beetle and will contain up to a 40 horsepower electric motor. What they will not contain are brakes, steering wheels, or accelerator pedals.

Google’s current fleet of autonomous vehicles has logged over 1 million miles of driving while being accompanied by a human operator. Currently, driverless cars must be accompanied by a human driver and are legal for testing in California, Nevada, Michigan, and Florida.

It is uncertain whether the decision to create the Google Auto subsidiary was for the purpose of selling vehicles to the public in the future, or to protect its parent company in the event of lawsuits caused by accidents involving its autonomous vehicles. Google’s fleet of 23 self-driving cars have been involved in 14 minor traffic accidents in recent years, though the company claims that the vehicles were either being manually operated, or the fault was with other drivers. Those who have observed the vehicles in operation notice that they are quite cautious compared to the average driver.

Plans for the release of a self-driving car to the public are estimated to fall on 2017 and beyond, but other automakers have taken notice. Mercedes, Audi, and BMW each recently purchased Nokia’s digital mapping technology “HERE,” the transactions totaling to $3.1 billion. If competing car makers want to have a chance, they have to be able to contend with Google’s more than 10 year experience in digital mapping.

Apple’s Stock Dip Just Erased $113 Billion Of Wealth

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Following the closing bell on Tuesday, Apple shares have continued their downward trend for the year, falling 3.2% to $114.64. With an enormous amount of outstanding shares, this fall represents a loss of $113 billion, or more than the total value of other corporate giants such as Boeing, at $98 billion, and drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, at $106 billion. Facing a saturated smartphone market in the U.S. and a difficult road ahead in the Chinese market, Apple may see a prolonged period of tepid performance.

With China accounting for one quarter of Apple’s revenue, and 60% of that revenue coming from iPhone sales, threats to this part of the business can have a drastic effect. As the Chinese economy is showing increasing signs of strain, consumers may be forced to opt for less expensive imitations of the popular brand. Reception for the new Apple Watch has also not been great indicating that prospects for future growth may be limited.

Downward pricing pressure on the company’s $600 phones comes from the fact that computing is increasingly done in the cloud, rather than on the device’s hardware, lessening the desire to pay for next-generation improvements in that area.

Sales for the company’s new iPhone 6 may get a boost in the future, considering that only 20% of Apple customers who own one of its older phones have chosen to upgrade to the 6 as of yet. This is coupled with the fact that usage of the company’s iOS operating system is growing in Europe. This may be a break even point for the company since Android use grew in the U.S over the same period.

One positive development for the company is found in its recent collaboration with IBM in app-development, as well as the news that IBM plans on switching the majority of its workforce over to Apple devices.

Perhaps the company’s recent interest in car making may turn things around. BMW has already been in talks with Apple about a possible collaboration, but nothing has been official. The software giant has also consulted with experts from Ford, GM, and Tesla. The stock has fallen 7% in the past month and remains below its high for the year of $134.54.

Even China Wants The Shadowy Trans Pacific Partnership To Be More Open

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Even China Wants The Shadowy Trans Pacific Partnership To Be More Open

China has expressed strong interest in ensuring the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be transparent and open, raising interesting questions about the Obama administration’s insistence on unprecedented secrecy. Although it has insisted that it will not be part of the partnership, the conservative country, only learning to open itself up to regional integration, now hopes the partnership will truly foster free trade and investment.

China’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, Shen Dangyan, recently stated that the Asian nation was closely looking at the TPP negotiations and analyzing the progress made.

China’s comments are in light of recent setbacks in finalizing a deal by the TPP member states. The member states on Friday failed to reach a final deal after four days of negotiations held in the U.S.

Danyang said China stated that it had noticed the failure and hopes the partnership remains open and transparent.

There are 12 Pacific Rim countries involved in the negotiations including: Brunei, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Mexico, Singapore, Peru, Australia, Chile, The United States and Vietnam.

China initially expressed objection to the partnership that will see these 12 Pacific Rim countries integrate their trade systems to provide a free trading block. So opposed was China to the U.S. led partnership that it fronted a different partnership, the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) as a counter measure.

The bone of contention for the country was the TPP’s strict regulations and high standards, which were seen as surpassing the development stage of some of the developing countries in the member states. Through its alternative program, it said it would promote regional integration at terms more favourable to the region’s developing countries. Their attempts were not successful.

China would soon soften its stand on the partnership, though choosing to stay on the sidelines as an observer state. Director of Department of International Economic Cooperation, Zhang Jianping, said, “We are very happy to see that those TPP members can reach a consensus – because we think the TPP will be a possible approach for promoting Asia-Pacific economic integration.”

The TPP has been acknowledged by economic analysts as one of the most important trade agreements in the region. Through its successful signing, the partnership would enhance regional trade integration, spelling numerous benefits for industries operating in the member states. It would also have permanent spill over effects in world trade and investment.

Think They’re Different? Bush And Clinton Receive Significant Backing From Same Sources

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America’s mega rich are funding both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush despite the glaring contrasts between the two and the now polarizing race they’re in. Statistics from the Federal Election Commission have found that of the 60 mega rich Americans, as many as 17 have donated to both Clinton and Bush.

The first major financial firm to lead the double donation pack was Wall Street’s own Goldman Sachs. The company, as early as March, contributed to both candidates’ presidential campaign kitties, something analysts claimed was typical of the financial advisory firm.

Wall Street historian Charles Geisst said, “Goldman likes to play both sides of the fence and that’s especially true of a race like this where either of these two candidates — Bush and Clinton — could ultimately be helpful to them.”

Analysts have pegged Goldman’s double donation on dwindling fortunes in light of the recent economic depression. The company hopes that a Bush or Clinton presidency would turn things around for the company through proper economic policy.

Goldman has the company of a wide pool of fence sitters. A significant fraction of influential and wealthy Americans are also ambi-supporters. The group that includes racetrack owners, media barons, chicken magnates, bankers and hedge fund owners has opted to bank on the two leading presidential contenders. “Why support just Hillary Clinton or just Jeb Bush when you can hedge your bets and donate to both?” is a common refrain.

Senior counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, Larry Noble, said the practice was good business positioning. According to Larry , “Some of them will say they believe in the process, but the truth is you usually see them giving to people who will be most helpful to them if [the politician] gets into office. They are not necessarily Republicans or Democrats they are business people first.”

An individual example of a bet hedger is David Stephens, the CEO of Mortgage Bankers Association. The chief executive donated $2700 to Clinton and another $2250 to Bush. Stephens, an avid housing economist, has said his chief priority is the housing industry in the U.S., which has taken a beating in the wake of the recession.

Stephens said, “I want to focus on candidates who best represent issues of housing.”

Another notable double funder is former Citigroup chairman Richard Parsons, who has contributed $2700 to both Clinton’s and Bush’s campaigns. Parsons is currently the senior advisor at Providence Equity partners Inc.

Another curious supporter of both candidates is the Head of Barclays business in Russia, Robert Foresman. Foresman has been tied to a Russian state owned oil company that supplies gas to over a dozen European countries. Foresman has contributed $2700 to both Clinton and Bush.

Other ambi-supporters include: Susan Evans, James Borynack, Stacey Lane, Jeffrey Levine, Thomas Flexner, Sara Morgan, James Richman, Leon Wagner and Shawn Seipler.

The act of double funding has been in existence for years. This recent data only reveals just how prevalent the habit is and just how cautious the mega rich are in protecting their business investments.

Airbus Patent Reveals Plans For Next Generation Supersonic Plane

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Airbus Patent Reveals Plans For Next Generation Supersonic Plane

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) has granted a patent to planemaker Airbus, also known as the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, for an “ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method for aerial locomotion” that is designed to fly over four times the speed of sound and approximately 12 ½ miles higher than conventional aircraft. The proposed speed of Mach 4.5, or 3,418 miles per hour, would be reached in a way that eliminates the problem of the sonic boom which gave the Concorde so much trouble. The “ultra-rapid” plane could complete a journey from New York to London in one hour, a flight that normally lasts seven to eight hours.

The proposed plane would reach its extreme speed by utilizing a combination of three sets of engines: turbojets for taxiing, takeoff and landing; a single rocket motor for its rapid acceleration; and ramjets for the plane’s high-altitude cruising. The rocket motor and turbojets are designed to fold into the body of the plane when not being used. When the rocket motor fires, it sends the aircraft almost vertical in order to accelerate to supersonic speeds. The plane also has flexible fins to allow for a greater aerodynamic design and it would run on hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

The problem of the sonic boom, restrictive Federal Aviation Administration regulations and the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s made the high speed Concorde program unfeasible. It ended up as a very small fleet that only flew with British Airways and Air France before finally shutting down in 2003. The new patent granted to Airbus states that the “noise has been the main limit, if not the only one, preventing the opening of lines other than transatlantic ones for the Concorde aircraft.”

Now, Airbus claims that the sonic boom problem is all but eliminated to a new design. Because the plane flies near vertically, like a rocket, while accelerating to supersonic speed, the only noise would be directly below the plane. The sound energy would dissipate in a circle around the plane, parallel to the ground, and therefore the shockwave would not hit the ground. The patent states that the noise “is confined to the vicinity of the airport and lasts for roughly less than one minute.”

Airbus files for hundreds of patents of year, many based on research and development concepts and ideas that are in the very beginning of conceptualization. Many of the patents do not develop into fully developed technology. This is likely the case of the ultra-rapid plane, and we may never see the Airbus supersonic take flight.

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