Great links. Thanx for that.
Flex is dope. They be giants!
Nice to see them throw in like that.
NIII
Great links. Thanx for that.
Flex is dope. They be giants!
Nice to see them throw in like that.
NIII
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...96O00Z20130725DOJ starts probe into Wall St. metals warehousing
By Josephine Mason
NEW YORK | Wed Jul 24, 2013 9:03pm EDT
(Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice has started a preliminary probe into the metals warehousing industry following complaints that storage firms owned by Wall Street banks and major traders have inflated prices, sources familiar with the matter said.
The DOJ has sent letters to at least two companies that own warehouses seeking more information about practices that industrial users allege have led to supply shortages and billions of dollars in extra costs, two sources familiar with the letter said on Wednesday.
A third source said the DOJ had informed at least one metal consumer of the probe.
The move is a further sign that U.S. regulators are increasing their scrutiny of the controversial and lucrative industry after years of complaints from aluminum users such as Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) and its sheet supplier Novelis Inc. Goldman Sachs (GS.N) this week said its warehousing subsidiary was not driving up prices or violating any laws.
The industry is also facing a possible investigation by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which last week told warehousing firms not to destroy any documents related to their business.
"The DOJ has opened a line of questioning to assess whether it needs to take further action," one of the sources said.
The exact nature of the letters was not immediately clear and there has been no public allegation of any illegal activity. It is not clear how advanced or broad the DOJ probe is, nor any certainty that it will result in formal charges.
The DOJ declined to comment on the preliminary investigation and letter.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Glencore Xstrata Plc (GLEN.L) and Trafigura AG TRAFGF.UL - all of whom have purchased major metals warehouses in the past three years - also declined to comment.
Anti-trust lawyers said the department would only launch an official investigation into the lucrative and controversial industry if it found evidence that warehousing firms had broken anti-trust laws. There has been no such indication.
"I would further expect that it would be a two-pronged inquiry aimed at determining whether there has been collusion and whether there has been monopolistic behavior in geographic markets," said U.S. anti-trust lawyer Robert Bernstein, a partner at New York-based Eaton & Van Winkle LLP, who works on behalf of U.S. copper fabricators.
The initial investigation comes as banks' multibillion-dollar commodity trading operations have come under the political spotlight.
The powerful U.S. Senate banking committee held its first hearing on the issue on Tuesday, when aluminum users represented by MillerCoors LLC said high physical prices have cost the consumers an extra $3 billion a year in expenses.
The Beer Institute, which represents the $250 billion beer industry and over 2,800 breweries, has met with the DOJ and urged them to take action, said a source familiar with the meeting.
On Tuesday, Goldman Sachs rebutted allegations that its warehousing company Metro Trade International has violated laws by shunting metal from warehouse to warehouse.
The warehouses and the London Metal Exchange, which oversees the storage outlets in its network, say the big stockpiles and high physical prices are the result of low interest rates and a market structure known as contango that make it profitable to sell metal forward and store it for months or years at a time.
It is also the byproduct of LME rules which mean warehousing companies only have to deliver out a small tonnages of metal each day. According to current rules, facilities with 900,000 metric tons or more metal have to load out 3,500 metric tons
Under fire from irate users, the LME has proposed a massive overhaul of its warehousing policy that would come into effect next April.
(Reporting by Josephine Mason; Additional reporting by Diane Bartz and David Ingram in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Leff and Ryan Woo)
The trading angle is particularly loathsome. Oligopolies suck!
Goldman Sachs believes that speculation accounts for 1/3 of the price for a barrel of oil.
NIII
Balanced Hemispheres
The organism, a social amoeba called Dictyostelium discoideum, picks up edible bacteria, carries them to new locations and harvests them like crops. Thats not all, it also caries another type of bacteria which has an antibiotic and antifungal chemical which does not effect the edible bacteria. It does however protect the edible bacteria by killing and preventing other organisms from competing with it on the same farm land.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0729161759.htm
http://phys.org/news/2013-07-social-...mplicated.html
NIII
That's pretty cool. Biology isn't my thing, maybe somebody in that field(ahem, soco) can step in and provide a lil context. I love the field, but I'm neck deep and chem and physics. Ahh, if only we could live two lifetimes... Unfortunately I am not one of those savantes that have like 4 PhD's before they are 20. Must be cause I'm a non believer. Jesus is punishing me.Originally Posted by GoldenBrain
NIII
6 days till 1 Year On Mars. NASA 's Curiosity Mars rover has fired her laser for science more than 75,000 times at more than 2,000 locations on the Red Planet.
NIII
What Magic is this? Not Magic. Science.
Popularly called the Kopp-Etchell Effect, and a few physicists have been known to regard it as the Piezoelectric Effect, but the actual physics behind it are still inconclusive. The one thing we do know, is that the blades from the Helicopters and the location of Afghanistan are part of the equation. There's always a scientific reason behind such beauty... :-)
Photo Credit: Sgt. Mike MacLeod/U.S. Army
Location: Afghanistan
See... learning can be fun!!!
NIII
http://io9.com/scientists-grow-teeth...-the-963290464
Think about that next time you take a leak!Scientists grow teeth from human urine because why the hell not
A new study shows that stem cells extracted from urine can be turned into rudimentary tooth-like structures. Oh, and the researchers did so by growing the teeth inside the kidneys of mice.
To make the teeth, Duanqing Pei, who works at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, mixed the stem cells with the connective tissue cells of mice. This concoction was grown for two days prior to being implanted under the outer layer of a mouse's kidney. Once there, the cells were coaxed into becoming dental epithelial tissue, and eventually enamel.
It's worth noting that the teeth were softer than normal teeth (probably because they were not being used as they grew), and they were a bit misshapen. The researchers don't know how to grow them such that they have the exact shape and size of specific teeth (like molars or incisors).
But eventually, the researchers hope to overcome these problems and see their technique used in clinical settings.
"Teeth are vital not only for a good smile, but also good health," write the authors in the study. "Yet, we lose teeth regularly due to accidents or diseases. An ideal solution to this problem is to regenerate teeth with patients’ own cells."
As for using human urine as the source for the cells, Pei said it was because it's "the most convenient source."
But Chris Mason, a stem cell biologists at University College London, told the BBC that urine is a poor starting point:
"It is probably one of the worst sources, there are very few cells in the first place and the efficiency of turning them into stem cells is very low.
"You just wouldn't do it in this way."
He also warned that the risk of contamination, such as through bacteria, was much higher than with other sources of cells.
Prof Mason added: "The big challenge here is the teeth have got a pulp with nerve and blood vessels which have to make sure they integrate to get permanent teeth."
Read the entire study at Cell Regeneration Journal.
Image: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
NIII
Sorry for the enormous pic. Oversized pics that resize the browser totally annoy me. So my apologies for that! But I'm still too lazy to fix it!!!
Fuck it, it's my thread anyways
NIII
Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygree...e-wheel-video/
Not a good look.
NIII
Dunno if people even read the crap I post here, but I thought this was pretty cool. So... yeah. Enjoy.
1 year of Curiosity!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Alq08Poqb0
Balanced Hemispheres
I think it's a great thread, so keep posting homie!
NIII
Thanx. Here's some bullshit!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8aTi5fM0ro
Yeah... that just happened!!!
凸 囧 凸
http://www.core77.com/blog/materials...back_25361.aspFrom the Holy Cow Department: Disney Uses Bursts of Air to Create Virtual Haptic Feedback
From Canon's Mixed Reality System to Microsoft's see-through 3D display to Google Glass, the world's biggest technology companies are getting good at tricking our eyes into seeing things that aren't really there. But the missing piece in the feedback puzzle has always been the sense of touch. Videogame controllers can vibrate to simulate gunfire and racing car engines, but they require you to be physically grasping the devices.
Now, however, the folks Disney Research have created a way for those tingly little nerve endings on your skin to receive feedback. And they've done it by sculpting air.
This new haptic technology is called Aireal, and through it the gamers that it's initially aimed at can feel virtual objects, experience the sensation of touching various textures, or get kinetic feedback. All without any need to wear gloves, vests or suits. Puffs of air can be controlled in terms of varying strength and speed. So it will be capable of creating a sensation as gentle as a butterfly's wings or as strong as a baseball caught in a glove.
周洪龍 金山鴻勝武舘 - 鴻勝佛家正宗
Hung Sing Boyz, we gottit on lock down
when he's around quick to ground and pound a clown
Bruh we thought you knew better
when it comes to head huntin, ain't no one can do it better
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