Poor getting poorer and rich getting richer

A Kakapo parrot sits on its eggs in this undated handout image, in New Zealand in this undated handout image. Jake Osborne – Department of Conservation/Handout via REUTERS WELLINGTON — The population of New Zealand’s kakapo, an endangered flightless parrot, has increased 25% in the last year to 252 birds following a good breeding season and success with artificial insemination, the conservation department said Tuesday. The kakapo have been nearly wiped out by introduced predators such as stoats as the birds cannot fly. The problem has been exacerbated by inbreeding, very low fertility – only 50% of eggs are fertilized – and as they only breed every two or three years when native rimu trees fruit. The population of the kakapo, which is the world’s heaviest parrot, is now at its highest number since the 1970s. “There were just 86 kakapo when I first started working as a kakapo ranger in 2002. That number was scary. Having a breeding season with 55 chicks feels like a very … [Read more...] about New Zealand’s endangered kakapo parrot gets a big population boost

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer predicted in 2017 that the intelligence community would have “six ways” to get back at former President Donald Trump after Trump pushed back against allegations of Russian interference in the election. Trump had tweeted that an intelligence briefing over Russia’s alleged interference into the 2016 election had been delayed because the agency needed more time “to build a case,” according to The Hill. The tweet came after authorities said Russia tried to interfere in the election. “You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you, so even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this,” Schumer said to Rachel Maddow while speaking on MSNBC. “What do you think the intelligence community would do if they were motivated to?” Maddow asked. “I don’t know,” Schumer said. “But from what I am told, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked … [Read more...] about FLASHBACK: Schumer Warned In 2017 The FBI Would Have ‘Six Ways’ Of Getting Back At Trump

- A + A (Aug 9): Apple Inc is back in a familiar role as market leader after a painful first half of the year that saw hundreds of billions of dollars in market value disappear, and individual investors are a big reason for the rally. Since bottoming in mid-June, the iPhone maker’s shares have surged 27%, outpacing the S&P 500 Index and the Nasdaq 100 Index. That’s put Apple back on top as the world’s most valuable company and within sight of turning positive for the year. Apple is now down just 7.4% in 2022, compared with a drop of 20% for the Nasdaq 100. Apple shares benefited from a relief rally after its quarterly earnings were better than feared, and its ongoing buoyancy reflects Wall Street’s confidence in its ability to continue churning out big profits. Individual investors, who recently helped ignite rallies in speculative corners of the market, have flocked to the stock. “Retail investors have been strong buyers of Apple over the past couple of … [Read more...] about Apple’s chart-topping run gets a boost from retail investors

MANILA, Philippines — The low pressure area (LPA) detected near Mindanao has dissipated, but overcast skies and rains are still expected over parts of the country on Wednesday due to southwest monsoon, or habagat, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said in its Tuesday’s weather advisory. The LPA was last spotted 280 kilometers east of Davao City. Expected to have cloudy skies, isolated rain showers, and thunderstorms are the Ilocos Region, Abra, Benguet, Zambales, Bataan, Occidental Mindoro, Northern Palawan, and Kalayaan Islands. Metro Manila and the rest of the country are expected to have fair weather with partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers and thunderstorms. Meanwhile, Pagasa raised a gale warning on the seaboards of Ilocos Sur, Pangasinan, the western coast of Ilocos Norte, Bataan, Lubang Island, and the western coast of Palawan including Kalayaan Islands. Those areas will have gale … [Read more...] about LPA dissipates, but parts of Luzon expected to get some rain

Question : How can I focus on investing when I am busy with my 8 am to 5 pm job? I have a co-worker who manages the funds of our other co-workers on the side. But he is always being caught by his boss doing things other than his job. Answer: Mark my words, investing in registered financial securities is not just some hobby that you can perform in your spare time. That is why billion-dollar industries have sprouted to facilitate such investing. You need to be all S.E.T. to invest directly in registered financial securities all by yourself. “S” stands for sizable funds. Sure, you can buy financial securities with a small amount of money. But like in many things, it is so easy to buy. What is more challenging is making money. And to make money on financial securities, you will need to have access to in-depth information. You will also need to have “E,” which stands for both expertise and experience. You may be given investing information by your broker. But if you are not the … [Read more...] about On your mark, get S.E.T., go!

In her article "The Real Danger of Going on 'Shark Tank': Copycats" for the Wall Street Journal last weekend, writer Ruth Simon documents the consequences of going public with your product idea. If it's promising, it will be imitated quickly... and even if it isn't, others may accuse you of being a thief. As an example, Simon relays the ordeal of Lori Cheek, an entrepreneur who appeared on the show in 2014. Her dating business still doesn't have any revenue. "But it has accumulated more than $60,000 in legal bills, after a viewer of the show accused Ms. Cheek of stealing his idea." Ouch. Here's the reality: If you have a great new product, it will get copied. Even if you have a patent, trademark, and/or copyright protection. In my opinion, it's literally impossible to protect anything these days. Reverse engineering is as doable as ever. If counterfeiters don't steal from you outright, a close alternative may pop up on the market. And make no mistake. It's not just … [Read more...] about So, You’ve Been Knocked Off. Congratulations!

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin One of the ways that the Biden Administration and the Democratic Congress has tried to deflect the opprobrium for the inflation spike of the last year or so has been to blame the middlemen—those entities that facilitate transactions between buyers and sellers—for contributing to high prices without providing anything of value for what it receives. In the last few months it has investigated the prescription drug market , online platforms operated by big tech companies, oil and gas producers , and food delivery apps , to name but a few. Last week Senator Durbin signaled he is considering adding only Mastercard and Visa to this list by introducing legislation that would mandate that credit cards be enabled with at least two unaffiliated networks, which would require the replacement of every credit card currently in circulation with a new, more expensive card for consumers. The legislation mirrors the so-called … [Read more...] about A Durbin Amendment For Credit Cards Will Reduce Their Ubiquity And Do Nothing To Reduce Inflation

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The Panama Canal is a conduit for 6% of the global maritime traffic. But climate change is disrupting that trade. While high temperatures and little rain are the primary causes, four hurricanes over seven years have been equally devastating. The Panama Canal is in the midst of Panama’s rainforests, which cover 68% of its land or nearly 12.7 million acres. Both depend on precipitation for survival. If the rainforests do not get ample rainfall, it trickles down to the canal. The bad news is that the canal’s authorities say that 2019 was the fifth most arid in 70 years, with rainfall 20% less than the average, all compounded by depleted reservoirs. Indeed, water levels fell in 2015 and 2016 , and shippers had to reduce the amount of cargo on their vessels — money down the drain. “The Panama Canal is the only interoceanic commerce route whose operation depends on the availability of freshwater, making it the most … [Read more...] about Climate Change Threatens Panama Canal And Global Maritime Trade

A crowd at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh. (Image Source: AP/File photo) The prime minister has set the cat among the pigeons, with his fusillade against election freebies while inaugurating the Bundelkhand expressway. He said the culture of garnering votes by promising freebies harms the country’s economic development and warned the youth, ‘Your present will be lost and your future pushed into darkness.’ Those who believe in distributing freebies, he said, would never build infrastructure, sorely needed for securing the country’s future. That little speech succinctly lays out the rationale against populism---it promises instant gratification, at the cost of future penury. Predictably, the speech drew the ire of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who defended his trademark policy of giving away free power. His promise of giving 300 units of free power to each household if his party wins the Gujarat elections is estimated to cost the state Rs 8700 crore a year. It is policies such as … [Read more...] about The hidden cost of free lunches

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin We humans have a long held fascination for the most extreme things – the biggest, the fastest, the oldest, the rarest and of course, from mountain to building to tree, the tallest. Which is why Hyperion is such a special draw, tempting those who like to experience such extremes to beat a path to its 380 feet (115 meters) of towering trunk, branch and leaf. But Hyperion’s scale and notoriety have brought problems to its surroundings, deep in the forests of Northern California. A coastal redwood located in a remote part of Redwoods National and State Park far from the well-worn trails, Hyperion was first first found by two amateur naturalists in 2006, park manager for natural resources Leonel Arguello told the Associated Press . But by 2010, its location had been shared online creating an influx of enthusiasts trampling their way through areas not intended for park visitors. In 2019, Guinness World Records certified it … [Read more...] about Visiting The World’s Tallest Tree Could Now Land You In Jail