Party Time For BitCoin

Even as investors celebrate a banner year for stocks, the [Bitcoin] party next door is so wild there's no longer any way of ignoring it" ... This from Axios.com     Barron's cover story by Avi Salzman:

• "The crypto-rocket shot past $11,000 [this] week just hours after eclipsing $10,000, which itself was mere days after pushing past $9,000. It then slid sharply before surging yet again."
• "Now Wall Street is about to join in the fun. On Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission green-lighted plans by the CME and the Chicago Board Options Exchange to introduce Bitcoin futures ... Nasdaq is planning to offer its own futures next year, while Cantor Fitzgerald will introduce a Bitcoin options product."
• Why it matters: "[G]etting listed on some of the largest exchanges in the country is a tectonic shift for Bitcoin, which has been associated with drug dealing and called a 'fraud' by the chief executive of the nation's largest bank."
• But, but, but ... "Because the futures are cash-settled — traders will receive dollars on the settlement date instead of Bitcoin — the Street technically won't be getting its hands dirty by buying the stuff directly."
• "[T]here is a flip side ... extreme volatility, operational risk, security challenges."

Re/View Who Wants Yesterday's News > Thanks recode!

If you have comments or concerns, feel free to let us know what we could be doing more of or less of by pinging us at dailynews@recode.net. Thanks for reading!
— Joe Brown and Peter Kafka
U.S. diplomats have dropped plans for President Donald Trump to conduct a visit to Britain in January. Trump had been penciled in for a “working visit” in the first month of 2018 to formally open America’s new London embassy. Relations between Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May recently deteriorated in a public spat after Trump retweeted anti-Muslim videos from a far-right British group. Meanwhile, the Senate delayed a vote on its proposed tax bill until today. And the White House plans to force out Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, and replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Economic advisor Gary Cohn and other White House staff may be headed out as well.
[The Telegraph]
Early Uber investor Shervin Pishevar has been accused by several women of making unwanted sexual advances. The co-founder of Sherpa Capital, Pishevar was arrested in London in late May after a woman accused him of raping her; he was “released under investigation” and never charged. And Russell Simmons, founder of hip-hop music label Def Jam Recordings and CEO of Rush Communications, is stepping down from his companies in the wake of an accusation of harassment and sexual assault. [Emily Chang / Bloomberg]
Pinterest’s president and top business executive, Tim Kendall, is leaving the company to build his own health-care startup, which will focus on fighting device addictions, like an obsession with a phone or laptop. It’s a big loss for Pinterest — Kendall oversees Pinterest’s entire business operation, and the company had been expected to begin the IPO process sometime in 2018.
[Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Meal-kit company Blue Apron, which went public in late June, has replaced its co-founder and CEO, Matt Salzberg. Stepping in is the company’s CFO, Brad Dickerson, who joined Blue Apron in February of 2016 after 11 years at Under Armour, where he was CFO and COO. The company’s stock performance has been the worst of any major company that has gone public this year — its $10 a share opening price has dropped to around $3.
[Jason Del Rey / Recode]

Cruise, the self-driving division of General Motors, has hired a former Uber engineer as its first CTO as it prepares to deploy a network of self-driving cars without safety drivers starting in 2019. AG Gangadhar previously headed the Uber unit that Susan Fowler used as an example in her damning essay about toxic workplaces; Fowler has criticized the appointment.
[Johana Bhuiyan / Recode]

Spotify and Tencent are planning to swap equity stakes ahead of planned IPOs next year.
[The Wall Street Journal]

Uber’s new chief legal officer tells staff: If you are surveilling people for competitive intelligence, stop it now. Here’s the memo.

BuzzFeed is losing website traffic as readers head for more traditional news sites. Changes with Facebook’s algorithms could be hurting it, too.

Ginkgo Bioworks, "the organism company," is now worth more than $1 billion. It’s the latest unicorn incubated by Y Combinator.

Trump’s tech foes won big in Virginia’s election. Now they’re focusing their cash and attention on 2018. Reid Hoffman spent $3 million, Ron Conway is newly investing and tech engineers are emboldened to fight.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be evil. We just have to teach it to be good. There’s a pressing need to find a moral compass to direct the intelligent machines we’re increasingly sharing our lives with.

Do teens care about “fake news”? Kara Swisher’s son Louie returns to the Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast: “My English paper is more important than collusion.”

Twitchy without your smartphone? The Substitute Phone was designed to help you with your cravings for swiping and scrolling.

Who's Ready To Listen? Income Inequality: Is It Fair or Unfair?

 The most political touchstone of our times: What is a 'fair distribution' of wealth ????????????????????

Published on Dec 1, 2017

The Yale Federalist Society presents a conversation and Q&A on income inequality. Is it fair or unfair? We hear that the gap between the poor and the rich has widened. Many decry the injustice of income and wealth inequality. But is it actually a problem and are the proposed remedies truly just? What is a fair “distribution” of income and wealth?

Professor Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at the Yale Law School, and Yaron Brook, executive chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute, debate these and related issues. Markovits argues in favor of finding state and societal solutions to reduce this income gap and Brook argues that a genuinely laissez-faire capitalist society is the only system of fairness.

Featuring:

Dr. Yaron Brook
Executive Chairman
Ayn Rand Institute
Author, "Equal Is Unfair"

Prof. Daniel Markovits
Guido Calabresi Professor of Law
Yale Law School
Author, "Snowball Inequality"

TIMECODES:

Introductions 0:00:14

Dr. Yaron Brook
Opening Remarks 0:02:54
1st Response 0:33:05
Final Remarks 1:21:09

Prof. Daniel Markovits
Opening Remarks 0:18:14
1st Response 0:41:22
Final Remarks 1:24:26

Transition to Q&A 0:46:20

First Question 0:46:33
TWO OR THREE POLICY SUGGESTIONS

Second Question 0:54:24
WHAT ABOUT SOCIO-ECONOMIC GROUPS?

Third Question 1:00:50
ARE IP RIGHTS COLLECTIVIST RIGHTS?

Fourth Question 1:06:27
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMBITION/DRIVE & HUMAN FLOURISHING

Fifth Question 1:12:46
ECONOMIC MOBILITY

23,000,000 Americans Don't Have Fast or High-Speed Internet > BroadBand

Equal Internet for All Americans is worth it >

Published on Sep 26, 2017

Views: 847,088

Sources:
FCC 2015 Notice of Inquiry: https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/att...
FCC 2016 Broadband Progress Report: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/...
FCC Broadband Deployment Map: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/...
FCC 4G Data: https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/...
Community and Regional Development Research Study on Economic Health in non-metro counties: https://cardi.cals.cornell.edu/sites/...
Akamai State of the Internet Report, 2017: https://www.akamai.com/us/en/about/ou...
FCC 2017 Notice of Inquiry: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Relea...

> High-speed internet service is lacking in much of rural America. The causes are complicated, but non-competitive cable markets, misguided government funding, and infrastructural obstacles have limited expansion up until now. Despite the troubles, some rural Americans are receiving internet via both wireless and wireline systems, but the internet service many receive falls short of the 25mbps up/3mbps down set by the Federal Communications Commission in 2015 during the Obama Administration. Receiving that level of service typically requires a wireline connection provided by fiber optic cable, which many rural residents don't have because the remote territories that would be served are hard to reach and require massive investments that private cable companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast aren't willing to make. If service is available, it is often much more expensive than similar service in urban markets. An idea for solving the problem might be to adopt the funding model similar to the one that helped expand rural electrification during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. At that time, the government paid local electric cooperatives willing to do the work to provide electricity in their communities. Unlike electrification, there are many models for broadband deployment, including cooperatives, but also municipal broadband, private companies and other public-private partnerships. If Trump's government plans to spend more money on rural broadband, then following the model of electrification might help correct some of the funding troubles that have plagued broadband expansion up to this point.
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Raising A Lotta Dust Breaking Ground for A New Household Hazardous Waste Facility

From the Newsroom for The City of Mesa  30 Nov 2017 at 11:07 am

Headline: Mesa breaks ground for new household hazardous waste facility

Image: Looks like the guys are raising more than a little dust as they shovel the dirt at the Ground-Breaking yesterday and that's a NO-NO

. . . and here's the official story from a "communication specialist" who works for the city.

 

"The City of Mesa officially broke ground today on the construction of its new Household Hazardous Waste Facility. Once completed in Fall 2018, Mesa solid waste residential customers will have year-round access to dispose of their household hazardous waste material such as paint, automotive fluids, propane tanks and other hazardous chemicals. The 7,000-sq. ft. facility, to be constructed at 2412 N. Center St., will represent and reflect several of the City's sustainability goals.

Protect the community
Encourage proper disposal of harmful household materials by providing convenient weekly drop-off hours
Provide a Swap Shop where residents can pick up household materials that were dropped off but are still usable such as cleansers, propane and paint
Offer education about alternative household materials that are better for the environment
Use building features to help preserve natural resources
EPA's ENERGY STAR(R) best practices will be incorporated into the building design, including use of natural light, daylight sensors and high-performance HVAC equipment
Renewable energy from solar panels will be used to offset energy use
EPA's WaterSense(R) fixtures will be used throughout the facility to reduce water consumption
Utilize practices to provide environmental benefits
Feature native and desert-adapted plants that will attract wildlife, reduce the urban heat island effect and beautify a former landfill
Use low impact development strategies that will collect rainwater to supplement landscape irrigation and improve water quality
Work with local companies to bulk materials, like oil, that can be recycled and reused
"We are very excited to begin construction of this new permanent facility which will further strengthen Mesa's commitment to be a good steward of the environment. The facility will offer a much more convenient option for Mesa residential customers to dispose of items which should not be placed in their trash or recycle containers. This project could not be possible without the support of our residents and the continued support of our City Council," stated Environmental Management & Sustainability Director Scott Bouchie.
Currently, the City of Mesa hosts four household hazardous waste collection events per year, and in 2016, collected more than 62,500 gallons of household hazardous waste material. The next drop-off event will take place from 8 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Dec. 9 at the Center Street Facility, 2412 N. Center St.
Construction costs for the $3.9 million project will be funded by the Environmental Compliance Fund and the Solid Waste Bond Fund."

For more information about the City of Mesa's household hazardous waste collection program, visit mesarecycles.org.

Contact: Mariano Reyes
Marketing/Communications Specialist II 480.644.5005 Telmariano.reyes@mesaaz.gov

Loaded with Koch-Ties: The Trump Deck-of-Cards: Compromised + Infiltrated

Mebbe it is another chapter in the surprise unexpected stories inside The White House both before and after the current tenant moved in. Time will tell, but let's keep a diligent eye on the list of Koch-tied officials

Starting right after the election, political operatives and policy experts who have worked at numerous Koch-funded organizations have fanned out through the Trump Administration. They are influencing policies involving taxes, the environment, energy, education and health care — all in service of a far-right anti-government agenda.
A Public Citizen review of the Koch brothers’ connections to the Trump administration and policy agenda in Washington, D.C. finds:

• 44 Trump administration officials have close ties to the Koch brothers and their network of political groups, particularly Vice President Mike Pence, White House Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House budget director Mick Mulvaney.
• The bulk of Koch allies are in the White House, with 21 officials working there or nominated for White House jobs.
• Koch allies are also staffing jobs at the Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department, Energy Department and the Treasury Department — reflecting the Kochs’ economic interest in reducing the size of government, lowering corporate taxes, loosening environmental regulations and opening up public land to oil and gas extraction.
• The Kochs have already achieved the majority of goals contained in “Roadmap to Repeal” — a policy document published in January 2017 by Freedom Partners, a Koch group.

The list of Koch-tied officials can be viewed here in this link: http://corporatepresidency.org/Koch/

Enough is Enough > Deal Trump Out!

Muslim-hate videos raise Pie's tackles real good . . . mebbe he'll get a chance to interview Prez The Donald soon

Published on Nov 30, 2017

Views: Going on 92,500+

Pie has, quite frankly, had enough of Donald Trump