An unidentified man took two women back to his Broward County townhouse after meeting them while at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
The women proceeded to rob the man of his watch, sneakers and gun
Police released tapes captured by the man's security system of the women, hoping to identify them, as a series of crimes like this one unfold in Florida
#10
"I plucked 'em -- une poire en peignoir
And a bona fide Florida star!"
["guitar" shaped cas1no...
a boob playing keno...
one very dark half-guitar bar]
[BBC] In our series of letters from African writers, novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani speaks to someone who wants Nigerians to be as well known for playing polo as football.
A childhood accident on horseback had left Nigerian Baba Ige terrified of horses.
Not exactly the best start for an aspiring polo player - a sport which involves charging around on a horse while hitting a ball with a large mallet.
But his father's love of the sport finally drew the 20-year-old student in.
Ige got over his phobia and is now the only black player on the polo team at the UK's University of Kent.
He also recently won the coveted most valuable player (MVP) award at a prestigious polo tournament in his home city of Ibadan, south-west Nigeria....
Looks like this chap's helmet fits just fine, unlike here.
[Reuters] Startup-focused lender SVB Financial Group (SIVB.O) became the largest bank failure since the financial crisis on Friday, in a sudden collapse that roiled global markets and stranded billions of dollars belonging to companies and investors.
California banking regulators closed the bank, which did business as Silicon Valley Bank, on Friday and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver for later disposition of its assets.
The main office and all branches of Silicon Valley Bank will reopen on March 13 and all insured depositors will have full access to their insured deposits no later than Monday morning, the FDIC said.
Coming out of an intermediate level depression cycle.
* US economy grows quickly.
* US ends a Major War.
* Pandemic hits the World.
* US/World economy starts to see issues.
* Jobless and Inflation numbers grow.
* Bank Runs are driven by media & hearsay are caused.
Sure, sounds more and more like a 1900's - 1929 or Obama Part 2 redo with some minor variations.
#5
Tech went Woke. Financial institutions successfully funding them for years are now suddenly going Broke. Dump techs third/fourth gen Harvard indoctrinated dipshit CEOs asap.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/11/2023 8:55 Comments ||
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#9
I wouldn't be surprised if more financial institutions get hit hard or even fail.
I can go buy a short-term T-bill online directly from the US Treasury and make 4.5-5%, or I can have my money languish pitifully at a bank and "earn" 0.05% interest (and it's possible some of those same banks charge an APR of up to 30% on their credit cards). So, pulling money out of a do-nothing "interest-bearing" account makes sense (I am not a certified financial advisor).
#12
But...but...Biden assures us that the economy is on the right track.
Posted by: Butch Lover of the Algonquins1594 ||
03/11/2023 9:37 Comments ||
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#13
@#10 - Nor have I ever seen a bank[st]er ever go to jail. Ever. Did any exec from Wachovia/Wells Fargo go to jail for laundering Mexican drug cartel money over a decade ago? Nah, just a slap on the wrist and a "just part of doing business" fine (a la Pfizer).
Ever wonder why the metaphorical "war on drugs" is all lip service?
#15
There's less here than meets the eye. SVB got themselves caught in a liquidity trap, because their depositors are highly concentrated in tech, and were drawing down their balances because new funding rounds (and even more, IPOs) are not to be found right now. They failed not because of dodgy loans, but because they couldn't find enough decent loans to do, and instead some genius put the funds into long bonds, which depreciated as interest rates went up. When they were forced to cash out to repay depositors, they had to realize the loss and it wiped out most of their equity. Once news of that hit the street, there was a bank run that accelerated the crash.
Likely outcome: SVIB shareholders are wiped out, most if not all of the uninsured depositors get repaid, but not as fast as they would like, causing some marginal startups to fail.
Bottom line: The circumstances that caused the particular bank run were somewhat unique, the thing to watch out for is other banks that bet on the Fed gravy train to continuing forever.
Source: I spent 30 years in Silicon Valley, part of it in finance, and was a long term SVB client.
#16
Isn't pretty much the entire idea of a "bank" is that it will be safe?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/11/2023 10:39 Comments ||
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#17
Fed bonds are supposed to be 'safe'. If the regulators had examined SVB's portfolio, it would have passed with flying colors. If they'd been able to hold it to maturity, everything would have worked out.
The failure is due to putting too much of the deposits into long term assets that they couldn't sell in the short term without a loss. That's a gross management failure, since they should know their clientele and the local business scene. I know there's been a lot of turnover there since earlier days, so that's where I'd dig for the root cause.
#18
I would allow a bail out only on the condition that it was funded 100% by all the cash allocated towards funding woke staff and school programs nationwide. Give anything extra to buy that Broward County guy a new watch and sneaker set.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/11/2023 11:07 Comments ||
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#19
Isn't pretty much the entire idea of a "bank" is that it will be safe?
Bank runs have happened pretty regularly in this country and throughout the world — the musical “Mary Poppins” features one at the father’s bank because of something little Michael was overheard saying, Deposits are safe only up to the limit of federal depositors’ insurance, some several thousand dollars per account. Beyond that it depends on the benevolence of the politicians at the moment. That’s why things like American Express Bank pay higher interest — as I recall those deposits are not at all insured.
#21
Only 2.7% of SVB deposits fall within FDIC protection.
*sigh* M, you really must start using /sarc or a winky to cue me in, instead of letting me hang in the wind as I try to teach my grandmother to suck eggs. $250,000 insured per account is much better than several thousand.
I am shocked that 93% of SVB depositors had more than the insured limit in each account at what must have been minimal interest. What were their accountants thinking?!
I'd just add a few things: Apparently they disclosed that in 2022 the "duration" of their portfolio increased--which means that they bought bonds and other financial assets with a longer maturity date. When rates rise, these bonds decline in value--and the longer-term bonds usually decline more than the short-term ones.
If you don't have to sell them but can hang on to maturity, it doesn't matter, because the bonds will pay you the face value at maturity. But if you have to sell them during a time of rising rates, you only get the market value, which is less than the face value. THAT is when you know what hits the fan.
The other thing I'd add is the difference between insolvency and illiquidity. Insolvency means that your liabilities are higher than your assets--so that you can't pay out your bills, and you are technically bankrupt. Illiquidity means that you are solvent but just don't have enough liquid assets like cash to pay all of your depositors.
If a bank is just illiquid, it can get emergency loans from the Fed through Reg A. We don't know if SVB asked the Fed for loans here or not and what the Fed said if they did. But if a bank is insolvent, then the FDIC will take it over. Which does make me think that SVB was in fact insolvent (bankrupt), since the FDIC took it over.
Finally (I know this is a long comment), the whole business of borrowing short (deposits, checking accounts) and lending long is what banks do. We can criticize them for borrowing short; but we all withdraw money from checking and savings accounts al the time and expect the bank to have money to pay us. It is part of the banking business; which is why the Treasury function of a bank, trying to match the length of assets and liabilities, is so devilishly difficult.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/11/2023 12:43 Comments ||
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#23
Bankers are supposed to be conservative, but decade(s) of easy Fed Window money and easy IPO's lulled a younger generation with no memory of Volker and the rates of the 80's into the FTX/OPM mindset.
Reality bites hard sometimes, and old wisdom isn't always wrong.
#29
Doodah: Bend over Barney Frank is on the SBNY BOD. He was at the forefront of the 2008 bank collapsed. Hold onto your ankles and think of the Dem Party.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
03/11/2023 19:15 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Remittances sent by overseas Paks fell by almost 11 per cent during the first eight months of the current fiscal year.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the inflow depicted a month-on-month increase of 5pc in February after the government and the State Bank of Pakistain (SBP) uncapped the dollar exchange rate to its real market price to the current Rs280 from Rs230 in the last week of January.
The central bank on Friday reported that the remittances totalled $17.994 billion during July-February 2022-23 compared to $20.183bn in the same period of last year, recording a decline of 10.8pc.
The data revealed that the inflows rose 4.9pc to $1.988bn in February from $1.894bn in January. The improvement was a healthy sign but remittances dropped 9.4pc when compared with $2.196bn in the same month last year.
However, we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by... the increase in remittances in February was expected by the market due to very high dollar prices. The uncapping of the exchange rate produced the expected result in the form of a sharp depreciation of the rupee but it changed the trend of inflows.
The remittances were being sent through illegal channels due to lower dollar prices in interbank and open markets whereas the illegal grey market was offering Rs30 to Rs40 per dollar higher rates. In this background, the International Monetary Fund had asked the government to bring the exchange rate on a par with the one prevailing at the Pak-Afghan border.
The uncapping of the exchange rate has not only reduced the smuggling of dollars to Kabul but improved dollar supplies in the open market making it easier for importers to procure greenbacks on their own.
With the advent of Ramazan in the last week of this month, the currency market and banks expect higher inflows as overseas Paks usually send 15 to 20pchigher remittances on account of charities, zakat and higher spending in the holy month.
The SBP data further revealed that inflows from almost all important destinations fell during 8MFY23 compared to the same period of last year, except the United States.
The highest inflow of remittances was from Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... with $4.346bn but it showed a decline of 15.5pc compared to the same period last year.
The second highest inflows were from the United Arab Emirates with $3.197bn but it also noted a decline of 15.3pc compared to the last year.
The only increase of 3pc was noted from the US as it reached $1.972bn during 8MFY23 compared to the corresponding period last year.
Inflows from the UK dipped 5.7pc to $2.631bn, GCC countries 8.9pc to $2.119bn and EU countries 8.6pc to $2.035bn in 8MFY23.
[Dawn] Weekly inflation clocked in at 42.27 per cent year-on-year owing to the rising prices of edible oil, pulses and vegetables, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.
Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), is expected to intensify further as the full impact of depreciation, hike in general sales tax rate and higher energy prices has yet to reflect in official data.
Week-on-week inflation remained 1.37pc for the seven-day period ending on March 9, with bananas, chicken, sugar, cooking oil, gas and cigarettes becoming costlier.
The weekly inflation number is the highest since the week ending on Sept 8, 2022, when SPI was 42.7pc. It stayed above 40pc for the first time since Sept 15 last year when the reading was 40.58pc.
Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 29 items increased while those of eight items decreased. Rates of 14 items remained stable.
During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were onions (305.23pc), cigarettes (165.66pc), gas charges for the first quintile (108.38pc), diesel (93.82pc), eggs (78.63pc), rice Irri 6/9 (78.14pc), petrol (77.89pc), rice basmati broken (77.27pc), bananas (74.01pc), pulse moong (72.54pc), tea Lipton (66.31pc), pulse mash (56.02pc), pulse gram (55.97pc) and bread (55.36pc).
In contrast, the highest year-on-year fall was recorded in the prices of tomatoes (41.79pc) and chilli powdered (7.42pc).
On a week-on-week basis, the biggest change was noted in the prices of tomatoes (12.43pc), potatoes (11.37pc), onions (9.26pc), sugar (5.48pc), bananas (5.31pc), cooking oil-five litres (4.27pc), wheat flour (4.06pc), vegetable ghee-2.5kg (4.01pc), curd (1.89pc), milk fresh (1.82pc), tea Lipton (1.79pc), rice basmati broken (1.24pc), salt powdered (1.21pc), lawn printed (2pc) and shirting (1.45pc).
Products whose prices saw the highest decline over the previous week were chicken (6.73pc), garlic (2.07pc), pulse moong (0.83pc), eggs (0.77pc), pulse masoor (0.50pc), LPG (0.26pc), firewood (0.12pc) and pulse gram (0.05pc).
The government has been taking strict measures under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, which is likely to slow down economic growth and stoke inflation.
The increase in the policy rate to 20pc, general sales tax rate from 17pc to 18pc on most items and to 25pc on more than 800 imported food and non-food items will further increase retail prices of consumer goods.
The government has already taken a string of measures, including adopting a market-based exchange rate, hikes in fuel and power tariffs, withdrawal of subsidies and higher taxation, to generate revenue for bridging the fiscal deficit.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/11/2023 00:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Maybe the slaughter pen of Ukrainian is draining funds from subsistence level terror economies like Pakistan. I guess the Afghan colonies are working out as well as the Americas did for George III.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/11/2023 11:32 Comments ||
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From two weeks ago. I thought this interesting in that it the range of the Black Hebrew Israelite mentality — from a vicious and violent cult to a cult that works to be good citizens in the land they adopted as their own. And a very intersting topic for those who insist Israel is an apartheid state.
[IsraelTimes] Judge says while no formal agreement was reached, community members were repeatedly led to believe by the state that they would be given citizenship
An appeals court in Beersheba has told the government to reconsider its order to deport dozens of members of the Hebrew Israelites Community of Dimona.
In the decision given Thursday and reported by the Haaretz daily on Friday, the judge wrote to acting Interior Minister Michael Malkieli saying that the state had repeatedly given members of the community assurances that their requests for citizenship would be treated favorably.
"Even if I assume that the members of the community were never given a governmental promise that the status of all its members would be settled, the many meetings recorded in the transcripts, as well as many statements over the years by those in authority, that the case of the Hebrew community would be examined in a sympathetic manner, could surely cause expectation on behalf of someone from the community that this will be done," wrote Judge Michael Zilberschmidt.
Zilberschmidt also said that the current minister was not bound by the deportation decision of his predecessor, Ayelet Shaked, who had ordered the deportations.
After the ruling representatives of the community told Haaretz that they were disappointed that the judge had returned the issue to the Interior Ministry and had not simply canceled the deportation order.
Around 50 members of the Hebrew Israelites Community of Dimona, some 3,000 strong, in southern Israel were told in 2021 that they must leave the country for lack of legal status in Israel, or risk forcible deportation by the immigration police.
In response to appeals asking to be allowed to stay, the Interior Ministry’s Population and Immigration Authority wrote to each family that neither residency in Israel for a long period nor work in the country were sufficient grounds for a change of status.
Many of those slated to be deported were born in Israel or have children who have served in the IDF.
The community, which believes it is descended from an ancient Israelite tribe, began arriving in Israel in 1969, following the late Ben Carter, a reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... steelworker who renamed himself Ben Ammi Ben Israel and claimed to be God’s representative on earth.
According to its website, the community, which permits polygamy, does not subscribe to any religion "because religions have only divided men." It does, however, observe the Sabbath and Jewish holidays mentioned in the Torah, circumcises its male children eight days after birth, and requires women to observe the biblical laws of purification.
It is not recognized as Jewish by Israel’s religious authorities.
Many community members were granted permanent residency in 2003. From 2004, its youth have been serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Those who complete military service are eligible to apply for citizenship, and most requests are approved.
In 2014, then-interior minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that permanent residents could acquire citizenship if they relinquished their American nationality. (Those who had performed military service were eligible to apply for citizenship without giving up US passports if they had them.)
[standard.co.uk] As we know, it has shuffled off its mortal coil and joined the choir invisible. Its metabolic processes are history. It is demised.
But while the parrot in the celebrated Monty Python sketch is well and truly dead, those hilarious exchanges between John Cleese and Michael Palin have winged their way into comedy immortality.
Cleese complained that the Norwegian Blue sold to him by pet shop owner Palin was lifeless - and kept upright by being nailed to its perch.
The dead parrot sketch in Monty Python first aired in 1969
Adding to the absurdity was the fact that parrots - being tropical birds - don't come from Scandinavia.
Or do they? For now, in a development putting the sketch in a completely different light, it turns out that the Norwegian Blue did exist.
Dr David Waterhouse, a fossil expert and Python fan, has found that parrots not only lived in Scandinavia 55million years ago, but probably evolved there before spreading into the southern hemisphere.
His discovery was based on a preserved wing bone of a previously unknown species, given the scientific name Mopsitta Tanta - and now nicknamed the Norwegian Blue.
The dead parrot script, voted Britain's favourite alternative comedy sketch by Radio Times readers in 2004, was written by Cleese and Graham Chapman and first broadcast in 1969.
As he returns the ex-parrot to Palin's pet shop, Cleese is assured it is just resting or stunned, being "tired following a prolonged squawk" and "pining for the fjords".
Cleese bangs it on the counter, trying to wake it up, screaming: "Hello, Mister Polly Parrot! I've got a lovely fresh cuttlefish for you!" But it is definitely expired.
A fossil expert has discovered that parrots not only lived in the region 55million years ago but probably evolved there before spreading to the Southern Hemisphere
Dr Waterhouse, 29, said of Mopsitta Tanta: "Obviously, we were dealing with a bird that is bereft of life, but the tricky bit was establishing it was a parrot."
He was studying for a PhD at the University of Dublin in 2005 when he visited a museum in Jutland and spotted a fossilised 2in-long humerus - appropriately enough, the funny bone - among bird remains which had been found near an open-cast mine.
Research has now confirmed the bone was part of an upper wing from a bird in the parrot family. Although the mine was in Denmark, the birds would also have lived in what is now Norway.
Dr Waterhouse, now assistant curator of natural history at the Norfolk Museums Service, said: "All that remained was a single upper wing bone, but it contained characteristic features that showed it was clearly from a member of the parrot family, about the size of a yellow-crested cockatoo.
"It isn't as unbelievable as you might think that a parrot was found so far north.
"When Mopsitta was alive, most of northern Europe was experiencing a warm period, with a large shallow tropical lagoon covering much of Germany, South-East England and Denmark.
"This was only ten million years after the dinosaurs were wiped out and some strange things were happening with animal life all over the planet.
"After the dinosaurs, lots of niches needed filling. No southern hemisphere fossil parrot has been found older than about 15million years, so this new evidence suggests parrots evolved here in the northern hemisphere before diversifying further south in the tropics later on."
Details of the Norwegian Blue have been published in the latest issue of Paleontology journal, under the distinctly Pythonesque title Two New Fossil Parrots (Psittaciformes) from the Lower Eocene Fur Formation.
However, the Pythons were wrong about one thing...the Blue could hardly have pined for the fjords.
"This parrot shuffled off its mortal coil around 55million years ago, but the fjords in Norway were formed during the last Ice Age and are less than a million years old," said Dr Waterhouse.
Told yesterday about the Blue's discovery, Michael Palin chuckled, saying: "It just shows that nothing is original."
#1
Nice. One of life's many joys here in me somewhat likelier clime is listening through open windies to the raucous squawking of various species of parrot. And then of course there are the birds.
Posted by: Too Old To Work ||
03/11/2023 8:22 Comments ||
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#3
What with the researchers quoting Monty Python, it's hard to tell if this is parody or not.
The main point I get that they all are in fact dead, by a long shot. So if you buy one, expect it to be deceased.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/11/2023 9:28 Comments ||
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#4
They’re resting.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/11/2023 11:15 Comments ||
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#5
My take-away is that Baby Boomers are the prevailing cohort for naming scientific stuff.
[YouTube] Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II, also commonly known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is about to undergo a largely classified facelift that promises to turn the technologically advanced aircraft into a far more capable fighter.
New upgrades include 17 new weapon systems, powerful new radar, expanded electronic warfare capabilities, powerful propulsion upgrades, and more — much of which remains tucked nearly behind the veil of mountains of classified funding.
#2
/\ Our crafty Klingon business developers will be working hand in hand with their MIC colleagues to find innovative new regime change and foreign internal defense
opportunities.
War, pestilence, and social anarchy is our business, and as always, business is good.
#4
Once drone jamming comes up to speed (not far off) planes with pilots will have a role to play.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/11/2023 6:52 Comments ||
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#5
Jamming A Drone Signal: Is It Legal And How To Do It: https://spycamerasreviewed.com/drones/jamming …WebMar 19, 2021 · A drone jammer blocks or jams the frequency that a drone uses to communicate with its ground station. This frequency is either 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz. When you jam a drone, you can force it to land…
#8
There's required perodic upgrades in order to meet the original promised specs. Sounds like the Microsoft business model.
(Are we about to be contacted about the extended warranty?)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/11/2023 9:32 Comments ||
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#13
@#9: Au Contraire. The submitted at Command level PowerPoint RFQ's included a requirement that at least 2 balloons could be targeted independently, simultaneously and "110%" stealthy using a yet-to-be-deployed and almost ("83%") ready for Beta-Testing "Universal Positioning System" specifically engineered and designed for this purpose.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BBC] In our series of letters from African writers, novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani speaks to someone who wants Nigerians to be as well known for playing polo as football.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century...
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel...
[YouTube] Lockheed Martin’s 
