Dakryn's Batshit Theory of the Week

[cookiecutter]

Canada rated world's soundest bank system: survey
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

But Britain, which once ranked in the top five, has slipped to 44th place behind El Salvador and Peru, after a 50 billion pound ($86.5 billion) pledge this week by the government to bolster bank balance sheets.

The United States, where some of Wall Street's biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa.

The United States was on Thursday considering buying a slice of debt-laden banks to inject trust back into lending between financial institutions now too wary of one another to lend.

The World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report based its findings on opinions of executives, and handed banks a score between 1.0 (insolvent and possibly requiring a government bailout) and 7.0 (healthy, with sound balance sheets).

Canadian banks received 6.8, just ahead of Sweden (6.7), Luxembourg (6.7), Australia (6.7) and Denmark (6.7).

UK banks collectively scored 6.0, narrowly behind the United States, Germany and Botswana, all with 6.1. France, in 19th place, scored 6.5 for soundness, while Switzerland's banking system scored the same in 16th place, as did Singapore (13th).

The ranking index was released as central banks in Europe, the United States, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland slashed interest rates in a bid to end to panic selling on markets and restore trust in the shaken banking system.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4981X220081009

 

[Ben_t]

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2008/10/21/7155946.html

Virtual thieves get real sentence

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch court has convicted two youths of theft for stealing virtual items in a computer game and sentenced them to community service.

Only a handful of such cases have been heard in the world, and they have reached varying conclusions about the legal status of “virtual goods.”

The Leeuwarden District Court says the culprits, 15 and 14 years old, coerced a 13-year-old boy into transferring a “virtual amulet and a virtual mask” from the online adventure game RuneScape to their game accounts.

“These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft,” the court said in a summary of its ruling.

Identities of the minors were not released.

The 15-year-old was sentenced to 200 hours service, and the 14-year-old to 160 hours.

 

[Dak]

I'd like to know what was considered coercion? Theft would be hacking the account and taking the equipment. Maybe the 13 year old was just dumb.

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I'm really happy that this guy is doing this. The last thing I want in my neighborhood is empty boarded up homes. What good does it to anybody for the bank to reclaim a home and put it on a market where no one can get the credit to buy? The harm to society that is evicting people is quite apparent.

Hmm... complicated issue. I think as far as individual homes where the owner is the inhabitant, there's nothing wrong with kicking them out if they fail to make their mortgage payment. That's bad planning on the part of the homeowner, and it's not fair for them to occupy a home they're not paying for when someone else who can afford it might need a home. If nothing else, the real estate company would presumably lower the price on the house if there were no takers at a given time.

With apartments, though, the tenant is more or less innocent, so perhaps the burden lies on the government to have stricter credit demands on landlords.

Alternatively, you could just have ownership of the building divvied out among the tenants if the landlord can't afford it, and have each tenant pay a share of the mortgage instead of the landlord. Not sure if that's the greatest idea ever, but it would be interesting to see.

http://www.ottawasun.com/News/National/2008/10/21/7155946.html

Computer games: serious business.

Really, wtf is that. That makes no sense at all.

 

[Vimana]

There was one like that before. Some guys phished (is that how you say it?) accounts in a virtual hotel decorating game and just transferred stuff to their accounts.

 

[genocide roach]

america, fuck yeah!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_re_us/obama_racial

a list of hate crimes linked to obama's election:

_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."
~gR~

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

 

[cookiecutter]

You're awful

 

[zabu of nΩd]

It's amazing how much racism there still is out there. Hopefully the next four years will knock some sense into the people who still think having a black President is going to bring about the end of the world.

 

[genocide roach]

It's amazing how much racism there still is out there. Hopefully the next four years will knock some sense into the people who still think having a black President is going to bring about the end of the world.

dont get your hopes up
~gR~

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Why not? I'm not saying his Presidency is going to convert the hardcore racists, but you know there are tons of people who were more or less on the fence, but didn't vote for him simply because they don't trust a black person. Once he's been in office for a while, those people will have no reason to be suspicious anymore.

 

[Burning In Hell]

Why not? I'm not saying his Presidency is going to convert the hardcore racists, but you know there are tons of people who were more or less on the fence, but didn't vote for him simply because they don't trust a black person. Once he's been in office for a while, those people will have no reason to be suspicious anymore.

The sad part is the fucking white trash white supremacists that are probably trying to plot his assasination.

 

[The Ozzman]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/27719011

Given the speed at which the federal government is throwing money at the financial crisis, the average taxpayer, never mind member of Congress, might not be faulted for losing track.

CNBC, however, has been paying very close attention and keeping a running tally of actual spending as well as the commitments involved.

Try $4.28 trillion dollars. That's $4,284,500,000,000 and more than what was spent on WW II, if adjusted for inflation, based on our computations from a variety of estimates and sources*.

Not only is it a astronomical amount of money, its' a complicated cocktail of budgeted dollars, actual spending, guarantees, loans, swaps and other market mechanisms by the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and other offices of government taken over roughly the last year, based on government data and news releases. Strictly speaking, not every cent is a direct result of what's called the financial crisis, but it is arguably related to it.

Some 68-percent of the sum falls under the Federal Reserve's umbrella, while another 16 percent is the under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, as defined under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, signed into law in early October. (The TARP alone is bigger than virtually any other US government endeavor dating back to the Louisiana Purchase. See slideshow.)

*References includ US National Archive, US Dept of Defense, US Bureau of Reclamation, Library of Congress, NASA, Panama Canal Authority, FDIC, Brittanica, WSJ, Time, CNN.com, and a number of other websites.

 

[Burning In Hell]

Yeah right. Umbrella.

 

[skeptik]

Ozz, I'm surprised you didn't post a similar article a week ago. There's a new one of them every day it seems.

 

[Belligerent]

"Calagio" from the movie A Bronx Tale and was in The Sopranos faces real life murder charges for NYPD cop slaying.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuvNZZl0RrDTdPaLOFESzKTv5BkAD94G7K1G0

Actor Lillo Brancato, Jr. is shown in this Feb. 2005, file photo in New York. The former "Sopranos" actor faces a real-life murder charges in a New York where his trail in connection with the death of Officer Daniel Enchautegui begins Monday, Nov. 17, 2008, with jury selection. Brancato has been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

 

[Burning In Hell]

"Calagio" from the movie A Bronx Tale and was in The Sopranos faces real life murder charges for NYPD cop slaying.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuvNZZl0RrDTdPaLOFESzKTv5BkAD94G7K1G0

Actor Lillo Brancato, Jr. is shown in this Feb. 2005, file photo in New York. The former "Sopranos" actor faces a real-life murder charges in a New York where his trail in connection with the death of Officer Daniel Enchautegui begins Monday, Nov. 17, 2008, with jury selection. Brancato has been charged with second-degree murder and other crimes.

Wow, I didn't even know he was in any type of trouble. No wonder he disappeared of the radar screen after that movie.

 

[Belligerent]

Thats one hell of a way to live like a real life mobster plus becoming a drug addict etc. It's hard to believe there are mob guys out there that actually live like Tony Soprano in the New York/Jersey area.

 

[The Ozzman]

Ozz, I'm surprised you didn't post a similar article a week ago. There's a new one of them every day it seems.

Well, I didn't see one last week regarding what it's actually costing us.

 

[The Ozzman]

http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/elections/presheadlines/34587804.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif.- A former opponent of Barack Obama's has come back to haunt him over questions regarding Obama's citizenship.


According to a press release from the American Independent Party, former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and other members of the party have filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento to stop the state from giving its electoral votes to President-elect Barack Obama until documentary evidence is provided to prove Obama is indeed a natural born citizen of the United States. A copy of the writ can be found here.

Keyes also ran against Obama as a Republican for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois in 2004. Obama won that election to serve his first and only term in the U.S. Senate.

The Obama campaign countered similar accusations early in 2008 by posting Obama's certification of live birth, and saying: "Barack Obama was born in the state of Hawaii in 1961, a native citizen of the United States of America."

I actually expected this to just die once that Phily lawyer's case was done regarding this