WALL STREET NEEDS A GROSS OVERHAUL

The Us is proposing a ban on 'flash' trading. A few at Wall Street are using a technique that gives a some traders an edge over everyone else — and the Securities and Exchange Commission wants to stamp it out.

Quoting from the NY Times, by Jenny Anderson,: "The S.E.C. on Thursday proposed banning what are known as flash orders, which use powerful computers to glimpse at investors’ orders. The practice is often associated with a controversial corner of finance called high-frequency trading, which has grown, largely hidden from view, into a potent force in the markets.

The proposed ban was announced on the same day that the S.E.C. put forward new rules for credit ratings agencies, which were widely criticized for their role in the financial crisis. Together, the moves telegraphed a tougher line from the commission after a series of prominent missteps, including its failure to spot the Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Bernard L. Madoff."

Any system of trading which favors some investors over others should be seen as a totally unfair and unbalanced. Quoting again from the times: "Critics say flash orders favor sophisticated, fast-moving traders at the expense of slower market participants. Using lightning-quick computers, high-frequency traders often issue and then cancel orders almost simultaneously and get an early peek at how others are trading."

Mary L. Schapiro, the chairwoman of the S.E.C., said on Thursday that in proposing the ban, the commission was trying to balance the often competing interests of long-term investors and short-term traders. The proposal requires a second vote by the commission to become binding. For the complete article, click here. Hopefully, some of the disgraceful practices government overseer agencies have ignored for several years until now, needs to be brought back into the American way of protecting ALL its people...otr is that too much for which to hope.

VACATION ON HATTERAS ISLAND

For the first time in 10 years, I'm on vacation for more than three days. The drive to final destination let me use my new GPS. A passenger in my car knew the routes with the fewest light and the shortest times, etc...having taken them for many years, so my Garmin lady dis a lot of talking but much of it just said, "Recalculating"

After gingerly feeling around what was available (I don't play golf) I discovered the ecstasy of what is called a Hot Tub here. It had been known around our parts as a whirlpool, but whatever you call it, it is like the old motel 'magic fingers' you put a quarter in and got a few minutes of wonderful vibration to warm you, massage you...or assist your partner with mutual massage. :P

Water in this hot tub is limited to a high of 104 degrees. There are six jets and a bench to sit on (which if you are as short as I am) puts the water level at your neck bottom. It is effortless, soothing, relaxing, and beats many nice activities I have known for matching the peaces of my body to the peace of my mind.

Two days ago we were told that the sea was the calmest seen in 35 years by them. Today, driving south along the east coast, there were flags waving every few yards saying 'no swimming'. Apparently the waves were so high, some of them at least six feet making the water look white instead of its usual deep blue. If you were caught swimming (and alive, you were rewarded with a $250 fine, if caught!). I guess the undertow is not where you want to get caught!

We saw Roanoke Island where Sir Walter Raleigh landed and the whole community was lost. It is where the first English child was born in America, 1587, a girl named Virginia Dare. Who would have guessed Virginia was real and not a wine!

GENE CURE FOUND TO COLOR BLINDNESS

"A US team were able to restore full colour vision to adult monkeys born without the ability to distinguish between the colours red and green. Until now scientists had not thought it was possible to manipulate the adult brain in this way.

It was considered that adding new sensory information, such as the visual receptors necessary for perfect colour vision, could only be done in the earliest years of life when the brain is at its most malleable or "plastic".

But Professor Jay Neitz and his team were able to introduce therapeutic genes into the light-sensing cells at the back of the eye of adult male squirrel monkeys." For the full story from BBC, click here.

Our President seems to be color blind, impervious to the racial slurs the rest of us are seeing and hearing towards him, though our 39th President Carter sees the blindness in those who see only color. We do not have a black President. We have a racially mixed man who happens to be the US President. Apparently some Whites see only the Black and some Blacks see only the White. Since gene therapy is not the solution for this problem, do we really have to have violence before we wake up as a country of Americans and not a country of ignorant, rigid, sore losers?

DON'T LET A HIGH WALL STOP YOU

Paul Rincon, Science and environment reporter, BBC News writes about a military robot that jumps over walls. It shoots itself way up, lands in any position but can right itself and then begin to travel. BBC provides a video demonstration which is rather impressive. It cam leap over obstructions 25 feet high.

Rincon goes on to say: "The semi-autonomous, GPS-guided gadget could be used for surveillance in urban environments. Its developers say this could potentially reduce troop casualties. Testing and delivery of the Precision Urban Hopper is planned for late 2010."

After this, I suppose they will have to start building moats again and them robots to swim then climb walls!

YOU HAVE TO STAND OUTSIDE TO SEE AMERICA

While the USA is busy sweeping all its sins of torturer, the past few years at Guantanamo under a rug, a Spanish judge is not allowing the hypocrisy to continue.
A Spanish newspaper reports that Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against attorneys who implemented torture at Guantanamo.

The Spanish newspaper Público reported exclusively on Saturday that Judge Baltasar Garzón is pressing ahead with a case against six senior Bush administration. For more on this story, click here.

Others address some of the many other issues the world has with us.Writing for AlterNet: Benjamin Dangl, Posted September 13, 2009 "Throwing Bullets at Failed Policies: U.S. Plans for New Bases in Colombia" The question for all the Presidents in the area is whether the US will continue its disastrous policies in the war on drugs? ..."What many of the region’s presidents already know is that increased U.S. militarization is unlikely to curb violence in Colombia, because the biggest perpetrators of violence in the country are already allies of the U.S., largely through the multibillion dollar Plan Colombia."

Wars have changed with the ability to gather troops so quickly from great distances. Dangl writes on: "Yet what many of the region’s presidents already know is that increased U.S. militarization is unlikely to curb violence in Colombia, because the biggest perpetrators of violence in the country are already allies of the U.S., largely through the multibillion dollar Plan Colombia." To read more. click here.

Respect is earned. not gained through demands. We will be working hard for a long time to make some of us heard above those who want us to fail; our own citizen terrorists given voice by the media. We especially need to put a lid on the unhappiness brought to so many by these self-serving people, media and politicians who stir innocents up with their lies.

FIJI PETRELS RETURN

Have you ever gone to a doctor, knowing there is something wrong and you are in acute pain, only to have the doctor say, "I can't find anything; there is nothing wrong with you." The absence of recognized proof does not disqualify the possibility that there is a problem that is just not manifest. Similarly, just because man does not see something does not, happily, mean that the something is extinct.

From Wikipedia: "The Fiji Petrel (Pseudobulweria macgillivrayi), also known as MacGillivray's Petrel, is a small, dark gadfly petrel.

The Fiji Petrel was originally known from one immature specimen found in 1855 on Gau Island, Fiji by naturalist John MacGillivray on board 'HMS Herald' who took the carcass to the British Museum in London. It was rediscovered in 1983, since when there have been a further seven records, which included the capture and photographing of one adult in April 1984. This species is classified as critically endangered as it is inferred from the number of records that there is a tiny population confined to a small breeding area.

This bird is described as being 30cm tall dark with chocolate-coloured feathers, a dark eye and bill and pale blue foot patches. It may be seen in waters around Gau Island but is believed to disperse to pelagic waters far from the island.

The rarity and significance of this species is known to local residents of Gau and it is featured on a Fijian bank note. It is protected under Fijian law. In 1989, research on the ridge around possible nesting areas was terminated since it was felt that such activities, without complementary conservation action, could encourage cats to follow paths into the area.

In August 2007, a recent skin of an injured Fiji Petrel, that subsequently died was made available for study in Fiji.

In May 2009, the first photographs of the bird at sea were taken approximately 25 nautical miles south of Gau Island."

Matt Walker writes about the Fiji Kestrel which 'went missing' for 130 years and has been seen again. It is amazing that it has taken the use of night vision glasses to see. "The use of night vision equipment has enabled Will to make some very interesting observations of skuas hunting in the petrel colonies in the middle of the night." "The use of night vision equipment has enabled Will to make some very interesting observations of skuas hunting in the petrel colonies in the middle of the night." Click here for Matt Walker's article in Earth News.

IS THERE NO END TO GREED

Since sub-prime mortgage may not be currently fashionable, our fearless investment bankers are working on a new way to make the public pay them so that they can continue their wasteful life style and their arrogance. The N Y Times wrote about Wall Street bankers pursuing profits in bundles of life insurance...after all, old people will die predictably sooner, won't they? Jenny Anderson wrote on 9/5/09. To read the article, click here.

Apparently there are lots of ways to gamble...especially fulfilling and fun when the money is not your own. Anderson states: "The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money."