54 replies to this topic

[stocks]

Silicon Valley’s Sex Workers Are Being Priced Out of the City By Their Own Clients

The disposable income that tech executives spend on sex work comes from the same corporations that are driving San Francisco’s record levels of income disparity.

The tech industry may have brought plenty of overworked men with disposable income to the Bay Area, but not only is that new wealth failing to trickle down, it’s also putting tremendous pressure on the working class—sex workers included—to either take on more work or move out.

As the anonymous former escort told me: “It feels like an exclusive society filled with spoiled children who up our rents.”


http://www.thedailyb...ia=twitter_page

[stocks]

The Sickeningly Low Vaccination Rates at Silicon Valley Day Cares

Only six of twelve day care facilities have a level of measles vaccination that provides the “herd immunity” critical to the spread of the disease.

http://www.wired.com...s-and-vaccines/

[stocks]

Why This Tech Bubble is Worse Than the Tech Bubble of 2000 - Mark Cuban

Back then the companies the general public was investing in were public companies. They may have been horrible companies, but being public meant that investors had liquidity to sell their stocks.

The bubble today comes from private investors who are investing in apps and small tech companies.

People we used to call individual or small investors, are now called Angels. Angels. Why do they call them Angels ? Maybe because they grant wishes ?

According to some data I found, there are 225k Angels in the US. Like the crazy days of the internet boom, I wonder how many realize what they have gotten into ?

But they are not alone.

For those who can’t figure out how to be Angels. You can sign up to be part of the new excitement called Equity Crowd Funding. Equity Crowd Funding allows you to join the masses to chase investments with as little as 5k dollars. Oh the possibilities !!

I have absolutely not doubt in my mind that most of these individual Angels and crowd funders are currently under water in their investments. Absolutely none. I say most. The percentage could be higher

Why ?

Because there is ZERO liquidity for any of those investments. None. Zero. Zip.


http://blogmaverick....bubble-of-2000/

[stocks]

One could argue that social networking sites are just places for people to express their narcissism cheaply.

Trial By Internet

Twitter: modern venue for public shaming

Convicted in the fickle public forum without the benefit of trial, the targets' punishments don't always fit the perceived crime. In a country once known for freedom of speech, it appears that the thought police have seriously curtailed anything other than politically correct prattle. The internet is not, apparently, a place for open discussion and the exchange of different ideas. The author portrays it as the home of the mean, where the unwitting post at their peril. Obviously disagreeing with the content of speech but defending the person's right to speak freely is outdated.

Jon Ronson looks at some people who've been publicly shamed online, what sparked the attacks, the repercussions, how they dealt with it. He also puts the phenomenon in historical context, reviewing the shaming of society's transgressors in Colonial times and comparing it with modern shaming.

Several of the victims of online public shaming that Ronson profiles here were guilty only of making a stupid comment or posting a silly photo online. The responses were immediate and merciless. Like crazed anonymous mobs, people attacked the unsuspecting victims with outraged and often vile comments. It was brutal and usually led to the victims being fired from their jobs.



http://www.amazon.co...nDateDescending

[stocks]

The push by Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to expand the number of visas for high-tech foreign workers is an attempt to dilute a lucrative job market with cheap, indentured labor.

H1-B Visas: Clever Trick for Cheap Tech Talent

The Chamber of Commerce, Silicon Valley, and the WSJ crowd do not claim America is experiencing labor shortages, given that we are suffering with the largest number of non-working adults in recent history.

Business people most certainly do not want illegal aliens joining unions and organizing for higher wages once they become legal residents.

And they do not want their own children in “diverse” schools where large numbers of impoverished, non-English-speaking immigrants might “enrich” the educational landscape.

They want illegal aliens working in their factories, hotels, restaurants, and fields, but not living next door.

Senator Sessions blasts Mark Zuckerberg on the senate floor.

Today, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) blasted pro-amnesty billionaires whose fondness for open borders ends at the doors of their "gated compounds and fenced-off communities," noting how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought other four houses surrounding his own just because he wanted "a little privacy."

Sessions began by rebuking Zuckerberg - one of the billionaire elites he has dubbed "Masters of the Universe" - for going to Mexico City and giving a speech claiming that America's immigration policy is "strange" and "unfit for today's world."

"Well, the 'masters of the universe' are very fond of open borders as long as these open borders don't extend to their gated compounds and fenced-off estates," Sessions said.


http://nation.foxnew...gated-compounds

Zuckerberg Lawsuit Documents Show Animosity With Would-Be Neighbor

Mark Zuckerberg likes his privacy, but he’s in an increasingly public battle with a would-be neighbor in Palo Alto, Calif., that threatens to expose details of his personal life and conduct.

New court documents were filed on Wednesday in a continuing lawsuit against Mr. Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder and chief executive, revealing a dispute that touches on various hot buttons of boom-time Silicon Valley: privacy, networking, precious real estate, and the pairing of youth and affluence.

In one sworn document, a real estate broker for the man suing Mr. Zuckerberg testified that Mr. Zuckerberg’s own real estate broker referred to him as “just a kid.”

It appears to be the kind of gloves-off tenor characterizing the dispute. One of the documents filed today asks the court for permission to get details about Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal finances and net worth, creating yet another potential opening in the walls Mr. Zuckerberg has sought to build around his private life.


http://bits.blogs.ny...-neighbor/?_r=0

Edited by stocks, 12 March 2015 - 11:45 AM.

[stocks]

The Sociopaths of Silicon Valley

Columnist Milo Yiannopoulos’ forthcoming book The Sociopaths of Silicon Valley explores whether the executives running social media sites, online gaming platforms and other digital businesses have their users’ best interests in mind or are ignoring consumers’ rights and privacy laws to exploit personal data for their own financial gain.

Yiannopoulos’ findings—based in part on dozens of interviews with Silicon Valley movers and shakers—align with other studies indicating that entrepreneurs rank high for sociopathic behaviors, alongside power-broker professionals like doctors, attorneys and bankers.

Here's how to buy a $40 item.

1960:

Go to the store and buy it.

2015:

1. Ensure your anti-virus and identity protection are up to date.

2. Open the website of a globalist multi-national corporation. Ensure your password is hard to remember.

3. Search and find the product, probably not made in the US.

4. Credit card required for purchase so the banks can get their cut and so that govt and global corporations can track your every purchase.

5. Your purchase will be shipped and delivered by robots and drones with minimal human input required.

6. Any problem? Contact a call center in India and speak with someone with a heavy accent.

[stocks]

Ask.com can hijack your computer using Java updates

If you've avoided this especially pernicious program, count yourself lucky. The Ask.com toolbar typically skulks into people's systems on the coattails of some more desirable software. Often, it's included with updates to the Java programming language.

And then it doesn't go away. Ever.

I contacted an Oracle spokeswoman to ask why the company was party to Ask.com's stealth tactics. She said she'd put me in touch with the appropriate person.

A minute later, she emailed back to say that Oracle would have no comment.

An Ask.com spokeswoman, requesting anonymity, said that the Ask toolbar is "distributed through partnerships with software companies like Oracle who provide free software to consumers."

She declined to answer further questions.

http://www.latimes.c...417-column.html

[stocks]

Why This Tech Bubble is Worse Than the Tech Bubble of 2000 - Mark Cuban

Back then the companies the general public was investing in were public companies. They may have been horrible companies, but being public meant that investors had liquidity to sell their stocks.

The bubble today comes from private investors who are investing in apps and small tech companies.

People we used to call individual or small investors, are now called Angels. Angels. Why do they call them Angels ? Maybe because they grant wishes ?

According to some data I found, there are 225k Angels in the US. Like the crazy days of the internet boom, I wonder how many realize what they have gotten into ?

But they are not alone.

For those who can’t figure out how to be Angels. You can sign up to be part of the new excitement called Equity Crowd Funding. Equity Crowd Funding allows you to join the masses to chase investments with as little as 5k dollars. Oh the possibilities !!

I have absolutely not doubt in my mind that most of these individual Angels and crowd funders are currently under water in their investments. Absolutely none. I say most. The percentage could be higher

Why ?

Because there is ZERO liquidity for any of those investments. None. Zero. Zip.

When (not if) this tech bubble pops, it will burst unicorns-first

At some point the Unicorns need to go public to provide their investors with a return on their investment. Some could be sold but at a certain valuation this becomes difficult. The Unicorns are growing their top lines very aggressively which is a positive. They are raising and burning a lot of money to do this. They ultimately will need to show a path to baseline profitability with attractive margins to justify their valuation. I’m skeptical that a lot will be able to do this.

The bubble will burst when some Unicorns are rebuffed by the public market or go public at valuations that are lower than their last round of private valuation. Unlike the internet bubble, I think that most of the carnage may be felt in the private markets as valuations are adjusted downward.

http://qz.com/414709...unicorns-first/

[stocks]

The Mirage of the 'New Economy'

Youth addiction to online gaming has seriously damaged the physical fitness and academic achievement of a whole generation. It is amazing that government is not regulating it like other harmful and addictive yet entertaining products like cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, etc. This is really due to the aura that anything online has in today's world. One day, governments and consumers will realize that the Internet world is just like the physical world, where some products are useful, some frivolous and some so harmful they need to regulated.

In the last four months, Australia outlawed over four times as many PC games as it did from 1994 to 2014.

“Does the game contain any bodily functions such as belching, flatulence, or vomiting when used for humorous purposes?” and whether the game includes naked breasts on fictional beasts like harpies.

Professor Catharine Lumby, one of the authors of Google’s report on the progression of media governance in Australia, stated that “in this era, any parent who thinks that government alone will protect their children from inappropriate content is dreaming.”


http://www.breitbart...ew-regulations/

[stocks]

2011 Solyndra - 2015 Apple, Google, Facebook

If pouring billions of dollars into outrageous “look at me” buildings isn’t tempting the gods, what is it?

2011

Solyndra had spa-like showers, robots that whistled Disney tunes and glass-walled conference rooms.
"The new building is like the Taj Mahal," John Pierce, a facilities manager at Solyndra, told the paper.
The factory is now closed.

2015

Ponder the glamorous new headquarters Facebook just completed and Apple’s “spaceship” campus that is under construction. Google’s plans for an ultra-modernist headquarters were recently tabled by the city of Mountain View, but the grandiose plans themselves may count as hubris to the stock market gods.

Here is an interior view of Facebook’s new digs: note that it’s literally dripping with arty decor:


http://www.nbcbayare...-130777973.html

http://davidstockman...ental-new-digs/