Is An X-Class Solar Flare Responsible For Nationwide Cell Outage?

Posted By on February 22, 2024

In theory, a solar flare makes sense.

 

TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, FEB 22, 2024 – 10:05 AM
 

Update (1305ET):

AT&T and other major mobile network operators are making progress in restoring service to customers after a nationwide outage began in the early morning hours.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers,” AT&T said in a statement to NBC News. 

Although AT&T took steps to resolve network issues, the company did not disclose the cause of the outage.

According to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, there were no indications of a cyberattack.

“CISA is aware of the reports and we are working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand ready to offer any assistance needed,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in an emailed statement.

One theory suggests that space weather could be responsible for the nationwide cell outage.

Around the time of the outage, two X-solar solar flares were reported by NASA.

Solar flares can disrupt ground-based and or satellite-based communication networks.

Meanwhile, ignore the X-solar solar flares. The FBI & DHS are on it!

  • FBI, DHS PROBES IF AT&T ISSUE AN ATTACK OR TECH MALFUNCTION:ABC
  • AT&T DISRUPTION PROMPTS AGENCIES TO PROBE IF CYBER ATTACK: ABC

There’s still no official word on what caused the outages.

*   *   *

The website Downdetector has detected a surge in outage reports from users of AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Consumer Cellular, Boost Mobile, US Cellular, and Straight Talk.

Outage reports for the carriers began around 0345 ET. Geographically, the outages have been reported across some major US cities.

Users of Downdetector began reporting AT&T outages around 0345ET.

Downdetector users say AT&T outages are widespread across the southern part of the country.

Users of Downdetector began reporting Verizon outages around 0400 ET.

Verizon outages are concentrated in major Northeast metro areas.

Users of Downdetector began reporting T-Mobile outages around 0350 ET.

A cluster of Downdetector users report outages in New York City.

*The situation is developing, and there are no concrete reports on what has triggered widespread cell outages. 

Used Tesla Cars – The Kiss of Financial Death

Posted By on January 24, 2024

Hmm…. This is the reason Hertz has liquidated all electric cars.

 

Which Cars Depreciate The Fastest Over A 5 Year Period?

Posted By on December 18, 2023

Generally speaking, luxery cars seem to do the poorest at holding value.

 .

MONDAY, DEC 18, 2023 – 05:20 PM …

It’s a fact of life that vehicles depreciate – some say by almost 50% as soon they’re driven out of the lot. Some depreciate lessbut which cars depreciate the fastest?

In the graphic below, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu and Pallavi Rao show the top 10 vehicles with the highest depreciation rates over five years, based on data from iSeeCars.

They analyzed over 1.1 million used cars from model year 2018, sold between November 2022 to October 2023. Models no longer in production as of the 2022 model year were excluded.

Luxury Cars Struggle to Hold Their Value

At the top of the list, the Maserati Quattroporte loses nearly two-thirds of its value after five years. First introduced in 1963, the car is Maserati’s flagship, and is on its sixth iteration as a four-door luxury sedan, with a high performance Ferrari–made V6 or V8 engine.

The 2018 version of the car retailed anywhere between $109,000–$140,000, depending on the model.

Here’s a look at the full list of fastest depreciating cars in the U.S.

Rank Model Average 5-Yr
Depreciation
Average Difference
from MSRP
1 Maserati Quattroporte 65% $90,588
2 BMW 7 Series 62% $72,444
3 Maserati Ghibli 61% $58,623
4 BMW 5 Series
(Hybrid)
59% $37,975
5 Cadillac Escalade ESV 59% $63,885
6 BMW X5 58% $44,828
7 INFINITI QX80 58% $47,399
8 Maserati Levante 58% $55,858
9 Jaguar XF 58% $39,720
10 Audi A7 57% $48,917
11 Audi Q7 57% $41,731
12 Cadillac Escalade 57% $59,093
13 Audi A6 56% $38,252
14 Volvo S90 56% $35,365
15 Nissan Armada 56% $36,875
16 Mercedes-Benz
S-Class
56% $70,563
17 Lincoln Navigator L 56% $57,224
18 Mercedes-Benz
GLS
56% $54,523
19 Tesla Model S 56% $60,145
20 BMW 5 Series 55% $39,856
21 BMW X5 55% $39,992
22 Lincoln Navigator 55% $53,582
23 BMW X5 M 54% $66,277
24 Land Rover
Range Rover
54% $68,874
25 Cadillac XT5 54% $31,737
N/A Overall 39% $17,221

Note: MSRP stands for Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price, the price recommended by a product’s producer to retailers. Furthermore, MSRPs from 2018 were inflation-adjusted to 2023 dollars.

BMW’s 7-series and 5-series also lose value quickly (nearly 60% of their retail price), ranking second and fourth respectively.

Another Maserati car, the Ghibli comes in third (-61%), and the Cadillac Escalade ESV (-59%) rounds out the top five fastest depreciating vehicles.

From a quick glance through the ranks, the cars that depreciate the fastest are luxury vehicles, specifically luxury sedans. These types of cars are often leased, and supply increases dramatically once the lease period expires. Meanwhile, most owners who can afford a luxury car would prefer to buy a new model, while used-car owners would prefer not to pay a high premium on an already outdated model.

However, there’s another segment of the market that also drops in value quickly—electric vehicles. Analysis found that EVs lose roughly 49% of their value on the resale market, the worst amongst the categories specified.

Rank Segment Average 5-Yr
Depreciation (%)
1 EVs 49%
2 SUVs 41%
3 Hybrids 37%
4 Trucks 35%
N/A Overall 39%

A lack of larger demand appetite, as well as a plethora of government incentives pushing people to buying new electric vehicles could explain their faster than average depreciation rate. Trucks on the other hand are the slowest depreciating segment of all vehicles in the U.S.

Source: TYLER DURDEN

Is Your Money Safe? Within A Year, Millions May Lose Their Savings Due To AI Threat, Warns Cybercrime Expert!

Posted By on November 30, 2023

An interesting take on AI and cyber crime.

_

THURSDAY, NOV 30, 2023 – 03:30 AM

Authored by John Cody via ReMix News,

Artificial intelligence is advancing at lightning speed, and these advances are not only set to reshape our very reality, they could leave many losing all of their savings, according to cybercrime expert Marc Maisch, who also works as a lawyer helping victims reclaim their lost savings after they fall victim on the web.

He warned in an interview with Germany’s Die Welt newspaper that authorities will be powerless to stop this new coming crime wave, which will see criminals use AI tools to fleece potentially millions out of their money.

“AI is a great tool, but of course cybercriminals also use it to create phishing emails in order to have ChatGPT write malicious code that can be used immediately. And we haven’t yet talked about deepfakes and voice phishing, i.e., faces and voices are recreated. We are currently seeing the start of a revolutionary development in cybercrime. Next year, the year after that, this will have reached a whole new level,” said Maisch.

With AI tools, cybercriminals may be able to deploy novel, machine-written code to steal personal information or hack accounts en masse. The advent of AI voice mimicry tools could also allow hackers to bypass voice authentication systems or trick family members into sending money.

Cybercrime has exploded in the last decade, and Europeans are increasingly the target of thieves.

Already in 2021, Germany’s Federal Office of Information Security (BSI) reported that cybercrime was higher in Germany than ever before.

Maisch says that cybercrime gangs are actually recruiting new employees openly on public websites, and in “Southeast Asia, there are human trafficking gangs that take people’s passports and force them to commit criminal acts.”

For example, they may tell them that “you first have to earn 100,000 euros and then you’ll get your passport back.”

Maisch says that even love scams can now become automated and target thousands of people at a time using AI chatbots, adding that “this is more profitable because the love scammer no longer has to devote himself entirely to one person and get them to pay, but he can scale and automate his scam and do it dozens of times at the same time.”

The cybercrime expert warned that one of the main issues is the global nature of cybercrime. One of Maisch’s clients was recently robbed of €800,000, and the police essentially discontinued the investigation.

“In the file, there is a discontinuance order which essentially states that experience shows that the perpetrators live abroad and are therefore difficult to catch, and there is not much that can be done. I wrote to the public prosecutor that it couldn’t be the case that the damage amount, which was almost a million euros, wasn’t being investigated at all. Then you could immediately say: The Criminal Code no longer applies on the internet. Cases like this really make me angry,” he told Welt.

In many cases, the police simply do not have the expertise or know-how to properly investigate cybercrime.

“I have the feeling that our police are underfunded and far too little is being done to strengthen international cooperation between law enforcement authorities.

 

US Crude Production Breaks Records As Shale Drives All Growth In Global Oil Supply Over Past Decade

Posted By on October 31, 2023

Looks like the oil industry isn’t dead yet. 

TYLER DURDEN 
 .
TUESDAY, OCT 31, 2023 – 04:25 PM

With core OPEC+ cartel members Russia and Saudi Arabia doing everything in their power to throttle oil output and push the price of oil higher, the US is again emerging as not only a thorn in OPEC’s side but as the marginal producer of world oil. According to EIA data, US crude oil production hit an all-time high in August, as production surpassed pre-covid levels.

US field production of crude oil reached 404.6 million barrels during the month of August, new EIA data showed, for an average of 13.05 million barrels per day, breaking the previous record US drillers set in July of 401.73 million barrels. Compared to this time last year, U.S. production is up by a total of 33 million barrels for the month. Remarkably production hit all time highs even as the number of rotary US oil rigs has slumped in the past year. How is this possible? We answer that question below.

Increases in production were seen in PADDs 1, 2, 3, and 4, with the largest percentage increase in production seen in PADD 4, which comprises Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. The largest actual increase was seen in PADD 2, which includes North Dakota, Illinois, and Kentucky, among other states.

Crude production in Texas in August – home to a large portion of the Permian Basin and where Exxon will soon be undisputed energy king after its merger with Pioneer closes –  rose from 173.775 million barrels to 174.562 million barrels.

Despite the record-breaking production levels seen in August, inventories of crude oil in the United States are estimated to be within 3 million barrels of where it began the year.

The new record in crude production in the United States comes shortly after U.S. supermajor ExxonMobil spent $60B on purchasing another Permian player, Pioneer Natural Resources, although most oil companies in the United States have chosen fiscal restraint resulting in a slow and steady increase in output versus the no holds barred investment strategies during previous boom cycles.

What is perhaps more remarkable is that in a recent report (available to pro subscribers) from Goldman commodity analyst Daan Dtruyven, the bank found that “the US has driven all the growth in global oil supply over the past decade and the past year, and the Permian basin has driven all growth in US crude supply since early 2020.”

US supply has also grown faster than expected. According to Goldman, US liquids supply is on track to exceed IEA expectations for the 13th consecutive year, except for 2016 and 2020. That said, the 2022 and 2023 forecast errors will likely be smaller than before the pandemic, and US total liquids supply has been roughly flat since June.

Furthermore, the US remains the key short-term marginal oil producer, where flexible short-cycle private producers sit high on the global cost curve.

So is the US falling in the overproduction trap that marked much of the 2010s and which led to the defaulting of dozens of junk debt-funded US energy producers, and sharply oil prices?

According to Goldman, the answer is no as crude output growth in the Permian has slowed from 1mb/d in 2019 to 0.5mb/d year-over-year in September given the drop in the rig count, and the stabilizing well productivity trend.

However, Permian output is still edging up because of rises in the number of drilled wells per rig and well length. In other words, the Permian new well output per rig is still trending higher because of:

  1. A rise in the number of drilled wells per rig given progress in multi-well pad technology
  2. A structural rise in the average lateral well length to 10,000 feet(Exhibit 9)
  3. A boost to output per rig through a composition effect arising from the larger drop in less productive private rigs (“high grading”). The output per rig in 2022 was nearly 2.5 times greater for public rigs than for private rigs since public firms account for over 60% of production, but under 40% of rigs (Exhibit 10).

This is important because the lack of well productivity growth (which reflects an offset between deteriorating rock quality and improving technology) suggest that Permian output growth will slow further. In fact, the emergence of the Permian as the world’s key oil market variable may explain why Exxon recently purchased Pioneer: the new supergiant will have every opportunity to turn oil output in the US on (or off) as only it sees fit.

Finally, a question that Wall Street would love answered: are US producers still capital disciplined?

Goldman’s answer, “yes, three pieces of evidence show that the US upstream sector remains capital disciplined.”

  • First, US public independent firms are sticking to the moderate single digit growth targets they announced in 2020-2021. As Exhibit 11 shows, we expect crude production growth by the independent US E&Ps under GS coverage to slow from around 235kb/d (or 7%) in 2023 to 135kb/d (4%) in 2024, and just around 90kb/d (2.5%) in 2025. That companies continue to guide to slower growth despite the 2022H1 and the summer 2023 upswing in prices is the essence of capital discipline, and the main driver of the reduction in supply elasticity. These lower growth targets reflect investors’ scarring 2014-2020 experience when excessive growth depressed returns, and growing concerns about inventory quality.

  • Second, reinvestment rates—capex as a share of operating cash flow—of public producers remain in a 40-60% range, well below the historical average (Exhibit 12, left panel). The 2022-2023 pickup in capex reflects that the 2020-2021 levels were likely unsustainably low, and the boost to nominal capex measures from rapid cost inflation (Exhibit 12, right panel).
  • Third, broader capital allocation strategies of public E&Ps remain focused on limiting leverage and returning cash to shareholders (see Appendix Exhibit 18). To illustrate further, equity (rather than debt) is now typically used to fund acquisitions (as for ExxonMobil-Pioneer).

Much more in the full Goldman report.

The Last 79 Colleges Still Mandating COVID Vaccines

Posted By on September 28, 2023

Here Are The Last 79 Colleges Still Mandating COVID Vaccines 

 

THURSDAY, SEP 28, 2023 – 03:55 AM

No College Mandates, an advocacy group that argues against the Covid-19 vaccine for higher education, counts 79 colleges and universities that require their students to be vaccinated this fall semester.

“There are 79 colleges in the US still mandating COVID vaccines when there should be zero just like the rest of the world. Do Not Comply!” No College Mandates posted on X.

The advocacy group said “COVID injections for one of the lowest risk populations” is “insanity.” They added higher education has “zero efficacy and safety data for the the newly approved COVID injections. It is incomprehensible that this remains a reality.”

Many of these schools mandating Covid vaccines are situated in or around Democratic-controlled metro areas (map courtesy of X user Broken Truth).

No College Mandates states on their website:

“It is the fundamental right of each individual to freely choose which medical interventions to receive based on informed consent. Neither sufficient clinical trail data for young adults nor long-term safety data exist for these recently developed and novel vaccines. Because the coercive nature of college vaccine mandates completely disregards students’ individual freedom and right to bodily autonomy, we strongly believe that these mandates are unconstitutional, unethical, unscientific and undoubtedly contributing to the psychological distress and the staggering rise in mental health issues among young adults. Institutions of higher learning which impose vaccine mandates do not uphold the very civil rights and liberties they teach and purport to vehemently defend.”

If you are curious about which colleges have lifted mandates, the group has published a spreadsheet listing those institutions (read: here).

ZeroHedge.com

Toyota Factories In Japan Paralyzed Due To ‘Glitch’

Posted By on August 29, 2023

BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, AUG 29, 2023

The world’s biggest-selling automaker has frozen output at all factories across Japan “due to a system malfunction,” according to Bloomberg.

A Toyota spokesperson said a ‘glitch’ in ordering parts forced the company to shutter operations at all 14 assembly plants. This is a big problem for the company because it utilizes a just-in-time inventory strategy, which keeps only a limited amount of parts on hand to minimize costs — might lead to supply chain snarls if downtime is long enough.

Bloomberg said, “28 assembly lines churning out everything from the top-selling Corolla and Camry to Prius hybrids” have been affected. The spokesperson said it’s unclear when operations will restart, nor does the company suspect a cyberattack.

Toyota shares were muted in Asia and have yet to react to the disruption because it’s still unclear how much output would be lost. Reuters calculations showed the 14 plants accounted for a third of the automaker’s global production.

Even though Toyota does suspect a cyberattack, Japan’s biggest port in Nagoya was paralyzed in July due to a Russian ransomware attack. Last year, the carmaker was hit with a one-day production halt after a major supplier was hit with a cyberattack. The cause of the malfunction that has made it impossible to order parts is still unknown.

The good news is public broadcaster NHK said the Miyata plant in the southern prefecture of Fukuoka would restart on Wednesday.

 

These Are The World’s Top 40 Largest Military Budgets

Posted By on July 14, 2023

Wow…The U S is far and away the largest military budget in the world. We are about 3 times larger then the second place Chinesse, and 10 times larger then Russa. 

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, JUL 13, 2023 – 05:00 PM

In the final year of World War II, the U.S. spent about 38% of its GDP on its military.

When adjusted for inflation, the military budget over those four years of war came to a staggering $4.1 trillion in 2020 dollars.

And as Visual Capitalist’s Pallave Rao and Joyce Ma detail below, almost 80 years later, modern day military spending isn’t much of a far cry from World War II budgets.

The top spenders have continued to increase their military capabilities, while war in Ukraine has caused countries in the region to re-evaluate their budgets as well.

In 2022, global military budgets hit an all-time high of $2.2 trillion, according to data released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the eighth consecutive year of increase. This post looks at the top 40 largest military budgets in the world.

The Largest Military Budgets in 2022

The United States accounts for almost 40% of global military expenditures, with its 2022 spend coming to $877 billion.

Here are the top 40 largest military budgets in the world for 2022 in U.S. dollars:

Rank Country Military Budget (Billions) % of World
Military Spend
1 🇺🇸 U.S. $876.9 39.0%
2 🇨🇳 China $292.0 13.0%
3 🇷🇺 Russia $86.4 3.9%
4 🇮🇳 India $81.4 3.6%
5 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia $75.0 3.3%
6 🇬🇧 UK $68.5 3.1%
7 🇩🇪 Germany $55.8 2.5%
8 🇫🇷 France $53.6 2.4%
9 🇰🇷 South Korea $46.4 2.1%
10 🇯🇵 Japan $46.0 2.1%
11 🇺🇦 Ukraine $44.0 2.0%
12 🇮🇹 Italy $33.5 1.5%
13 🇦🇺 Australia $32.3 1.4%
14 🇨🇦 Canada $26.9 1.2%
15 🇮🇱 Israel $23.4 1.0%
16 🇪🇸 Spain $20.3 0.9%
17 🇧🇷 Brazil $20.2 0.9%
18 🇵🇱 Poland $16.6 0.7%
19 🇳🇱 Netherlands $15.6 0.7%
20 🇶🇦 Qatar $15.4 0.7%
21 🇹🇼 Taiwan $12.5 0.6%
22 🇸🇬 Singapore $11.7 0.5%
23 🇹🇷 Türkiye $10.6 0.5%
24 🇵🇰 Pakistan $10.3 0.5%
25 🇨🇴 Colombia $9.9 0.4%
26 🇩🇿 Algeria $9.1 0.4%
27 🇮🇩 Indonesia $9.0 0.4%
28 🇲🇽 Mexico $8.5 0.4%
29 🇳🇴 Norway $8.4 0.4%
30 🇰🇼 Kuwait $8.2 0.4%
31 🇬🇷 Greece $8.1 0.4%
32 🇸🇪 Sweden $7.7 0.3%
33 🇧🇪 Belgium $6.9 0.3%
34 🇮🇷 Iran $6.8 0.3%
35 🇨🇭 Switzerland $6.1 0.3%
36 🇴🇲 Oman $5.8 0.3%
37 🇹🇭 Thailand $5.7 0.3%
38 🇨🇱 Chile $5.6 0.2%
39 🇩🇰 Denmark $5.5 0.2%
40 🇷🇴 Romania $5.2 0.2%

China, ranked second in absolute terms, accounts for another 13% of world military expenditure at $292 billion.

Russia, India and Saudi Arabia round out the top five biggest military budgets in 2022. Add in the UK to the mix (#6 rank), and these countries all had military expenditures that made up at least 3% of global spend.

Comparatively, the lowest budgets on the top 40 ranged include Romania at $5.2 billion, Denmark at $5.5 billion, and Chile at $5.6 billion. They each account for just 0.2% of the world’s military budgets in 2022, and of course there are many countries with even smaller spends.

Largest Military Budget Increases in 2022

Russia’s position as the third-largest military spender is a recent development, as the country’s military spend had a 9% increase between 2021 and 2022, according to SIPRI estimates.

On the other side of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine was the top 40 military budget with the largest annual increase in 2022, surging nearly six and a half times above its 2021 expenditures.

Country % Change
(2021-2022)
Rank Change
(2021-2022)
🇺🇦 Ukraine 640% +25
🇶🇦 Qatar 27% +2
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia 16% +3
🇧🇪 Belgium 13% 0
🇳🇱 Netherlands 12% 0
🇸🇪 Sweden 12% -1
🇵🇱 Poland 11% 0
🇷🇺 Russia 9.2% +2
🇩🇰 Denmark 8.8% +3
🇪🇸 Spain 7.3% -1
🇳🇴 Norway 6.2% 0
🇮🇳 India 6.0% -1
🇯🇵 Japan 5.9% -1
🇮🇷 Iran 4.6% +5
🇨🇳 China 4.2% 0
🇬🇧 UK 3.7% -2
🇨🇦 Canada 3.0% -1
🇸🇬 Singapore 2.8% +1
🇩🇪 Germany 2.3% 0
🇮🇩 Indonesia 1.3% 0
🇨🇴 Colombia 1.1% -1
🇺🇸 U.S. 0.7% 0
🇫🇷 France 0.6% -2
🇬🇷 Greece 0.6% -1
🇨🇭 Switzerland 0.4% -1
🇹🇼 Taiwan 0.4% -1
🇦🇺 Australia 0.3% -1
🇵🇰 Pakistan -2.0% -3
🇰🇷 South Korea -2.5% +1
🇷🇴 Romania -2.6% +1
🇴🇲 Oman -3.0% +1
🇩🇿 Algeria -3.7% -1
🇮🇱 Israel -4.2% -1
🇮🇹 Italy -4.5% -1
🇨🇱 Chile -6.2% -3
🇧🇷 Brazil -7.9% -1
🇲🇽 Mexico -9.7% 0
🇰🇼 Kuwait -11% -4
🇹🇭 Thailand -11% -5
🇹🇷 Türkiye -26% -6

Ukraine’s dramatic increase represents the highest single-year jump ever recorded by SIPRI, painting a vivid before-and-after picture of a nation engaged in conflict.

Although no other country comes close in matching Ukraine’s surge in defense spending, Qatar saw a substantial increase of 27% over the last year, marking a continuing trend over the last decade of significantly bolstering its military.

Additionally, Saudi Arabia, along with four European nations (Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland), have registered year-over-year changes of over 10%.

On the flipside, 13 of the nations with the largest military budgets decreased spend from 2021, including top 15 spenders such as South Korea, Italy, and Israel.

The largest drop was seen by Türkiye, with an estimated 26% reduction in military budget. This drop may be linked to Türkiye’s inflation problem, which saw prices rise 72.3% in 2022—effectively decreasing the purchasing power of their currency in relative terms to other nations.

The Specter of War in Europe

With an ongoing conflict in the region and large financial powerhouses, its no surprise that eight of the top 10 countries with the most significant increases in military spending are located in Europe.

Consequently, European military budgets have reached levels not witnessed since the end of the Cold War.

And amid escalating geopolitical concerns, countries in Asia such as IndiaJapan, and China have also ramped up their defense spending. This is an indication of simmering global flashpoints such as India and China’s border skirmishes, the longstanding South China Sea territorial conflict, and concerns surrounding Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Visualizing ‘Real’ US Home Price Growth Over The Last 50 Years

Posted By on July 2, 2023

Interesting explanation of inflation-adjusted terms in U.S. home prices, and it shows the slowest real growth in a decade.

SUNDAY, JUL 02, 2023 – 07:00 PM

U.S. home prices grew significantly in 2022, even as interest rates climbed higher.

Yet, as Visual Capitalist’s Dorotrhy Neufeld details belowin inflation-adjusted terms, this growth rate was far lower. By Q4 2022, it fell to being flat year-on-year, making it the slowest real growth seen in a decade.

The graphic below compares nominal and real residential property price growth over 50 years based on the latest data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

Nominal vs. Real Home Price Growth

In 2022, opposing forces of rising mortgage rates and a narrow supply of housing produced a moderate nominal growth rate of just over 7% as of Q4 2022. That said, real price growth dropped to 0% over the period.

Here’s how that looks in context of the recent highs and lows of housing price growth:

Recent Highs: During the pandemic, growth hit almost a 20% year-over-year rate by Q1 2022, which was record home price growth at the time. It was driven by ultra-low interest rates and remote work leading people to seek out more space.

Recent Lows: In both real and nominal terms, home price growth sank to their lowest levels in 2008. The property market crashed after a wave of easing lending requirements. This flooded the market with an oversupply of houses as subprime homeowners couldn’t afford to make payments, leading prices to plummet.

Factors Influencing Home Price Growth

Today, a mix of factors are supporting nominal house prices.

First, the housing supply remains low.

Total existing inventory stood at 1 million in April, under half the four-decade average. As interest rates have increased, homeowners have been hesitant to sell and the number of mortgage applications has fallen. In turn, this is pushing prices higher.

In fact, the majority of primary mortgages have interest rates locked in under 4%. As of July 1, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate stood much higher, at 7.02%.

Along with this, new home sales are falling.

After hitting a 15-year peak in 2021, sales sank almost 27% year-over-year in April. New home sales are often considered a leading indicator for the residential market.

Wider Implications

The U.S. residential market is valued at about $45 trillion, and has historically been highly sensitive to interest rates.

While the rapid increase in interest rates haven’t yet had a major impact on housing prices, some cracks are beginning to show.

On the other hand, if prices remain stubborn, it may contribute to inflationary pressures, leading the Federal Reserve to continue with rate increases, given the market’s sheer size and influence on the overall U.S. economy.

Source: Visual Capitalist’s Dorotrhy Neufeld

Fathers’ Day Versus Mothers’ Day

Posted By on June 18, 2023

Father’s Day will be celebrated in the U.S. today, and the National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates spending on dads around the country to hit a new record of $196.23 per person, totaling $22.9 billion.

As Statista’s Martin Armstrong reports, the largest share of this money, according to NRF survey data, is expected to go on special outings such as dinner or brunch, followed by clothing and the fail-safe gift card.

Great, dad will surely be happy with that. That is, only if he doesn’t start to tally up what mom got last month when the kids put together a gift for Mother’s Day.

As Statista’s infographic shows, spending on the May tradition is consistently and considerably higher than the version for the fathers.

Infographic: Fathers' Day vs. Mothers' Day | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

This year, total spending on Mother’s Day came to an impressive $35.7 billion, making for an average of $274.02 spent per person.

The Countries With The Most Satellites In Space

Posted By on May 7, 2023

The United States leads the way … not surprising to us!

SATURDAY, MAY 06, 2023 – 08:00 PM

The race for space has started anew as a flurry of private and government projects are once again reaching for humanity’s last frontier. In April, Gen. Chance Saltzman of the U.S. Space Force said that the new level of activity seen in space exploration was also increasing the level of threat the United States faces in Earth’s orbit and beyond, as reported by CNBC.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notesSaltzman’s remarks – and as some may argue, the existence of the U.S. Space Force itself – stands in contrast to the notion of space as a place beyond national interests that has thrived on collaboration rather than confrontation.

When the branch of the U.S. military was founded under President Donald Trump in 2019, one of the first organizations to speak out against it was the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy nonprofit founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Infographic: The Countries with the Most Satellites in Space | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

The organization urged the U.S. government to reconsider and to warm up to the idea of space as a place where different nations coexist peacefully instead of a place where war takes place. The group with an extensive satellite database pointed out that military activity was only a minor part of all things happening in space. The data backs up this claim. Out of the roughly 5,500 satellites listed as active, only 424 have military uses. While the U.S. is the country with most satellites in space (3,415), multinational cooperations come in fourth place.

Source: Statista

Which Countries Were Granted The Most New Patents? Hint…It’s Not USA

Posted By on April 24, 2023

The leader of new patents awards goes to China…Hmm

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, APR 24, 2023 – 05:00 PM

Every year, the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) tracks hundreds of thousands of patents across industries.

These patents grant their inventors exclusive intellectual property rights over their creations. They encourage new ideas, spur scientific development, and lead to new technologies and entire sectors being born.

However, the number of patents granted varies greatly across nations. When viewing the origin of each patent’s applicant, we see a handful of countries dominating certain industries.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Jacqueline Ann DeStefano-Tangorra uses 2021 WIPO data to showcase which countries were granted the most new patents, along with their sector categorizations.

Countries with the Most New Patents

In 2021, out of 1,608,375 patents across multiple fields, 87% were granted to innovators from just six countries.

Applicants by Country Granted Patents (2021) % of Total
🇨🇳 China 607,758 37.8%
🇺🇸 United States 286,205 17.8%
🇯🇵 Japan 256,890 16.0%
🇰🇷 South Korea 156,972 9.8%
🇩🇪 Germany 69,672 4.3%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 20,009 1.2%
❓ Unknown 24,677 1.5%
🌎 Other Countries 186,192 11.6%
World Total 1,608,375 100.0%

After rapidly increasing its patent output in recent years, China topped the chart in 29 out of 36 total fields including computer technology, electrical machinery, and digital communication. The Chinese government’s focus on innovation led to the nation’s applicants receiving 38% of the 1.6 million patents granted in 2021.

The United States—home to the world’s largest tech companies—came in second with 286,205 granted patents by origin. The U.S. also topped four fields of its own: medical technology, engines and turbines, basic communication processes, and unknown (for inventions that can’t be assigned to a specific field).

Not far behind is Japan with 256,890 granted patents. It dominated the other nations in the fields of semiconductors, optics, and furniture and games, cementing its well-earned reputation of technological innovation.

“Unknown” origin applicants, for which the nationality or country of residence couldn’t be determined for the inventor(s), accounted for 24,677 of granted patents.

The Origin of New Patents by Field

When assessing which technological fields inventors are pursuing in 2021, it’s not unexpected that digital and electrical technologies are in the lead:

Rank Main Field of Technology % of Granted Patents
1 Computer technology 10.3%
2 Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy 6.6%
3 Digital communication 6.5%
4 Measurement 5.9%
5 Medical technology 4.8%
6 Transport 4.5%
7 Civil engineering 3.7%
8 Other special machines 3.6%
9 Audio visual technology 3.3%
10 Semiconductors 3.3%
11 Machine tools 2.9%
12 Chemical engineering 2.8%
13 Handling 2.7%
14 Optics 2.6%
15 Pharmaceuticals 2.4%
16 Materials, metallurgy 2.4%
17 Control 2.4%
18 Mechanical elements 2.3%
19 Telecommunications 2.3%
20 Furniture & games 2.3%
21 Basic materials chemistry 2.3%
22 Engines, pumps, turbines 2.2%
23 Biotechnology 2.1%
24 Organic fine chemistry 2.0%
25 IT methods for management 1.9%
26 Macromolecular chemistry, polymers 1.7%
27 Other consumer goods 1.7%
28 Environmental technology 1.6%
29 Thermal Processes and apparatus 1.6%
30 Surface technology, coating 1.5%
31 Textile & paper machines 1.5%
32 Food chemistry 0.9%
33 Basic communication processes 0.6%
34 Analysis of biological material 0.6%
35 Micro structural & nano technology 0.2%
36 Unknown 0.003%

There are also many patents granted mainly in infrastructure-related fields, which have become all the more important following the COVID-19 pandemic and an increasing focus on trade.

These include medical technology, transport, civil engineering, and semiconductors.

A Tech-Savvy Future

The number of patents granted in 2021 is a testament to the growing importance of innovation around the world.

While a select few nations have dominated the patent landscape so far, there are many others making significant contributions to innovation and intellectual property.

As technology continues to advance and the global economy becomes more interconnected, the importance of intellectual property rights will only continue to grow.

Earth Hit By “Strongest Geomagnetic Storm In Six Years”

Posted By on March 24, 2023

Geomagnetic storm news blog Space Weather said the severe G4 storm was the “most intense in nearly six years.” 

This solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, has already been active, exceeding the past cycle. 

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023 – 03:00 PM

According to the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center, the CME pounded Earth’s atmosphere last night with solar plasma in a G4 (Severe) geomagnetic storm. A G3 Warning was in effect until early Friday morning.

“A severe disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field,” an SWPC warned, calling the solar storm “severe.” This caused stunning auroras in the US as far south as the Midwest.

Geomagnetic storm news blog Space Weather said the severe G4 storm was the “most intense in nearly six years.”

This solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, has already been active, exceeding the past cycle.

Even though auroras look stunning, these CMEs have a tremendous impact on modern society.

Recall the federal government started to prepare the nation for a space weather disaster in 2016 with the executive order signed by the Obama administration titled Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events.”  

Source: ZeroHedge

EARTHQUAKES – Earths Moving Plates

Posted By on February 13, 2023

Interesting update concerning the worlds earthquake risks.

Earth’s Moving Plates

On February 6 and 7, the Southeast of Turkey and the Northwest of Syria have been hit by devastating earthquakes. In addition to the main tremor that reached a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, more than 20 aftershocks with magnitudes between 5.0 and 7.5 were registered in the earthquake-ravaged region around Gaziantep. Since Monday, the death toll of the disaster has climbed to 17,000 in Turkey and neighboring Syria, according to CNN.

The cause of the Turkey-Syria earthquake – and all other earthquakes – lies in the phenomenon of plate tectonics, i.e. the continental drift of the plates which make up the Earth’s mantle. As our graphic shows, several such plates meet in Turkey, which significantly increases the risk of serious earthquakes. Even more importantly, some plates in Turkey move convergently, i.e. they are approaching each other, which also makes major earthquakes more likely than in places where plates move apart. More specifically, the East Anatolian fault – along which this week’s earthquake occurred – is characterized by a convergent boundary with the African plate to the south and a transform boundary of horizontal movement with the Eurasian plate to the north. This further exemplifies how much seismic activity is present in the region that has now been turned into a disaster zone.

Turkey lies on the Anatolian Plate, which is on the line of tension between the Arabian and Eurasian Plates. The African Plate, which contributed to the formation of the Alps 60 million years ago by drifting north, also borders the Anatolian Plate. Along the edges of the Pacific Plate runs the so-called Ring of Fire responsible for much of the world’s volcanic activity – another place where convergent plate boundaries exist. Other plates are the Australian, North American and South American plates. The strongest earthquakes in recent history all took place along the Ring of Fire, which also includes the well-known Mariana Trench, around the Pacific Plate. An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.5 was measured in Valdiva, Chile, in 1960. In 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra reached a magnitude of 9.1 to 9.3 and in 2011 in the Japanese region of Tōhoku, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 and the ensuing tsunami caused widespread devastation and numerous deaths.

Infographic: Earth's Moving Plates | Statista

Breakthrough In Blood Revitalization Could ‘Delay Aging’ According To Columbia University Researchers

Posted By on February 10, 2023

By blocking the deterioration of blood stem cells within bone marrow with an anti-inflammatory drug, researchers “remarkably returned the blood stem cells to a younger, healthier state” in experimental mice, according to a press release.

BY TYLER DURDEN
THURSDAY, FEB 09, 2023 – 11:45 PM

Researchers at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center revealed a potentially game-changing finding when it comes to aging.

By blocking the deterioration of blood stem cells within bone marrow with an anti-inflammatory drug, researchers “remarkably returned the blood stem cells to a younger, healthier state” in experimental mice, according to a press release.

According to the research team, which operated under Emmanuelle Passegué, the director of the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative, “rejuvenating an older person’s blood may now be within reach.

The researchers said that “blood stem cells live in a niche,” and that “detailed investigation of the bone marrow milieu” revealed that when they age, they are subject to deterioration and are “overwhelmed with inflammation.”

“An aging blood system, because it’s a vector for a lot of proteins, cytokines, and cells, has a lot of bad consequences for the organism,” reads the release. “A 70-year-old with a 40-year-old blood system could have a longer healthspan, if not a longer lifespan.

“We know that bone tissue begins to degrade when people are in their 50s. What happens in middle age? Why does the niche fail first?” Passegué wrote in the press release.

“Only by having a deep molecular understanding will it be possible to identify approaches that can truly delay aging.”

According to graduate student Carl Mitchell, who discovered that the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra (Kineret) – used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, reverses some of the effects of aging on the hematopoietic system.

“These results indicate that such strategies hold promise for maintaining healthier blood production in the elderly,” said Mitchell.

The team found this drug after examining the stem cells which are responsible for creating all the blood in a person’s body. They also analyzed the niches where these special cells reside within bone marrow — the center of a person’s bones.

As a person ages, the hematopoietic stem cells start to change as well. They start producing fewer and fewer red blood cells and immune cells. This can lead to blood conditions like anemia as well as a weakening immune system. These aging blood cells also have more trouble maintaining their genetic structure, which can result in the onset of blood cancer.

Previous attempts at rejuvenating the blood system — through exercise, diet, and even young blood transfusions — all failed in experiments with mice. That’s when Passegué’s team started looking at the bone marrow itself. –StudyFinds

And once again, inflammation is the enemy.

These Are The Most Valuable NFL Football Teams

Posted By on December 22, 2022

No comments needed!

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, DEC 21, 2022 – 08:20 PM

The world’s most valuable sports teams include internationally beloved soccer clubs, massive NBA franchises, and renowned MLB teams. But, it’s the National Football League (NFL) that arguably tops them all.

In June 2022, the Denver Broncos sold for $4.65 billion, a record for the most expensive team purchase. But if other teams were to sell, they’d potentially command an even greater price tag.

Which teams, and conferences, reign supreme in value? This graphic by Truman Du uses data from Forbes last calculated in August 2022 to show the most valuable NFL teams.

NFL Teams by Value

To calculate team values, Forbes used enterprise values (total team equity plus net debt) and factored in each team’s stadium-related revenue. This includes non-NFL revenue that accrues to each team’s owner, but doesn’t account for the stadium’s real estate value.

The findings? NFL teams continue to become more valuable, rising in 2022 to an average of $4.47 billion, an increase of 28% year-over-year.

At the top of the rankings, the Dallas Cowboys sit at an estimated valuation of $8 billion, making them the most valuable sports team in the world.

They were the first team to generate over $1 billion in annual revenue thanks to massive sponsorship deals, including an estimated $220 million in stadium advertising and sponsorship revenue.

This is especially impressive, since NFL teams actually share just over 70% of football-related revenue. As Forbes points out, the Cowboys have been the most successful at capitalizing on stadium and branding in order to boost external revenues.

Most Valuable NFL Teams by Conference

Truman also broke down NFL team valuations by conference, highlighting the extra monetary weight one has over the other.

The National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC) were formed in 1970 after the NFL merged with the rival American Football League. Over time and as the league has expanded, the conferences have shifted and realigned to end up at 4 divisions of 4 teams for 16 teams each as of 2022.

Impressively, NFC teams had an average valuation about $500 million higher than the AFC. It also had five of the six most valuable teams, with just the #2 New England Patriots representing the AFC at the top.

But with the most recent record sale taking place in the AFC (Denver Broncos), and more potential high-profile relocations and sales in the wings, the landscape of NFL team values might shift yet again in the near future.

“Net Energy Gain” – US Scientists Make Breakthrough In Nuclear Fusion

Posted By on December 12, 2022

The US department of energy has said energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby will announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Tuesday.

“If this is confirmed, we are witnessing a moment of history,” said Dr Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist whose book The Star Builders charts the effort to achieve fusion power.

“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal.”

BY TYLER DURDEN
MONDAY, DEC 12, 2022 – 02:45 AM

As the world moves towards net-zero emissions, sustainable and affordable power sources are urgently needed by humanity.

As Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti details below, one of the most promising technologies, fusion, has attracted the attention of governments and private companies like Chevron and Google.

In fact, Bloomberg Intelligence has estimated that the fusion market may eventually be valued at $40 trillion.

Producing energy through nuclear fusion has been a long-held ambition for scientists and energy experts, and has prominently featured in science fiction novels and movies.

The process involves fusing nuclei together, which throws off energy – which could then provide theoretically abundant energy on earth.

Scientists have for decades tried to use nuclear fusion to produce electricity at a usable scale, however replicating the reaction on Earth is highly challenging, requiring vast amounts of heat and pressure.

So far, they have not yet managed to produce more energy from the reaction than it takes to trigger the reaction.

But now, The FT reports, according to three people with knowledge of preliminary results from a recent experiment, US government scientists have made a breakthrough in the pursuit of limitless, zero-carbon power by achieving a net energy gain in a fusion reaction for the first time.

The federal Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, which uses a process called inertial confinement fusion that involves bombarding a tiny pellet of hydrogen plasma with the world’s biggest laser, had achieved net energy gain in a fusion experiment in the past two weeks, the people said.

Although many scientists believe fusion power stations are still decades away, the technology’s potential is hard to ignore.

Fusion reactions emit no carbon, produce no long-lived radioactive waste and a small cup of the hydrogen fuel could theoretically power a house for hundreds of years.

The fusion reaction at the US government facility produced about 2.5 megajoules of energy, which was about 120 per cent of the 2.1 megajoules of energy in the lasers, the people with knowledge of the results said, adding that the data was still being analyzed.

The US department of energy has said energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby will announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Tuesday.

“If this is confirmed, we are witnessing a moment of history,” said Dr Arthur Turrell, a plasma physicist whose book The Star Builders charts the effort to achieve fusion power.

“Scientists have struggled to show that fusion can release more energy than is put in since the 1950s, and the researchers at Lawrence Livermore seem to have finally and absolutely smashed this decades-old goal.”

Of course the big question is – will Greta be pleased?

With global energy demand expected to increase by 47% in the next 30 years, and renewables like wind and solar are intermittent and need a baseload source of clean energy to supplement them; fusion, when (not if) commercially implemented, could deliver clean, abundant, reliable, and cost-competitive energy.

Sources: ZeroHedge.com

The Post-Midterms State Of Marijuana Legalization In The US

Posted By on November 10, 2022

It looks like the as we know it, is changing on this issue.

BY TYLER DURDEN
WEDNESDAY, NOV 09, 2022 – 07:00 PM

In the 2022 midterm election, Maryland and Missouri have legalized recreational marijuana via the ballot box.

However, as Katharina Buchholz notes,three similar referendums have been voted down in Arkansas, North Dakota and South DakotaCNN projects.

South Dakota had actually given the recreational and medical use of cannabis the green light in the 2020 elections, but the state’s Supreme Court ruled the ballot measure on recreational weed invalid for technical reasons after a complaint funded by Governor Kristi Noem. The second time around, the referendum is expected to be narrowly defeated.

As of now, this means that recreational marijuana will be legal in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

Infographic: The State of Marijuana Legalization in the U.S. | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

After successful ballot measures in the 2020 election, weed became legal in Arizona, New Jersey and Montana. During 2021 and 2022, state legislatures in New York, Virginia, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Connecticut passed bills to legalize marijuana. These recent development have brought recreational cannabis to more East Coast states after the American West had long been the hotbed of legalization efforts. Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize the drug in 2012.

While official sales of marijuana can take a while to start as setting up a licensing system for dispensaries usually takes time, possession and consumption are expected to become legal more quickly in the states in question. There are currently 37 states that have medical marijuana laws, including all that allow recreational use.

Source: ZeroHedge

Lithium Prices Hit New Record As EV Affordability Concerns Rocket Higher

Posted By on September 16, 2022

Buyers beware…The expectation that EVs would become affordable for the masses is a distant pipedream because of the high costs associated with battery production. 

At least half of an EV battery includes lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, four metals that have surged this past year. Also, let’s not forget China controls the world’s rare earth mineral trade… 

BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, SEP 16, 2022 – 10:44 AM

While California banned the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, and the Biden administration unveiled $900 million in new funding to build electric vehicle charging stations, rising lithium prices could derail the EV revolution.

The progressive view is that EVs will save the planet from catching on fire because green vehicles would eliminate the harmful carbon emissions of fossil fuel vehicles. Though a widespread rollout of EVs depends on affordability, and EVs are way more expensive than gas-powered.

Bloomberg reported lithium carbonate, a key metal in EV batteries, hit a new record high in China this week. Per ton, prices jumped to 500,500 yuan ($71,315), more than triple the price versus last year.

The global surge in lithium prices has increased the cost of EV batteries. Tesla hiked vehicle prices several times this summer (see: here) because of rising battery costs.

A steady increase in demand for global EVs combined with a recent power crunch in Sichuan province, a region that produces 20% of China’s lithium production, resulted in the disruption of output and tighter supplies, hampering an already-squeezed global market.

Research firm Rystad Energy said a second energy crisis could materialize in China this winter when heating demand soars:

“This could lead to new power shortages and hit lithium operations,” it noted, expecting lithium prices to stay elevated for the rest of the year.  

Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, warned investors Thursday of a “very tight market” in the years ahead and sees higher prices.

The expectation that EVs would become affordable for the masses is a distant pipedream because of the high costs associated with battery production.

At least half of an EV battery includes lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt, four metals that have surged this past year. Also, let’s not forget China controls the world’s rare earth mineral trade…

The surge in lithium prices and other critical metals for EV batteries is a significant concern that could derail the EV revolution due to affordability concerns.

Americans Love The NFL, But …

Posted By on September 11, 2022

Nothing lasts forever, not even Football!

While Baseball is often referred to as “America’s favorite pastime”, the NFL has long surpassed the MLB as the nation’s favorite professional sports league.

As Statista’s Felix Richter notes, for several reasons, including first and foremost its better suitability for television, football flew by baseball as Americans’ favorite sport to watch in the 1960s and hasn’t looked back since. In recent years, baseball has even been surpassed by basketball, as younger audiences prefer the action-packed, star-studded NBA over what many young viewers consider the dragging affair of a three-hour baseball game.

Infographic: Americans Love the NFL, But Change Is Looming | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

According to findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, the NFL remains the number 1 among major professional sports leagues in the U.S., at least for now. While 52 percent of self-declared sports fans follow the National Football League, compared to 42 percent for the NBA and 31 percent who follow the MLB, looking at the youngest group of respondents reveals a worrying trend for NFL executives.

Among 16- to 25-year-olds, the NFL only plays second fiddle to the NBA, with just 33 percent of young sports fans following the league. The NBA reaches 40 percent of Gen X fans, who are overall less likely to follow any professional sports leagues than their older compatriots.

Sources: ZeroHedge

Queen Elizabeth II Dead At 96

Posted By on September 8, 2022

The Royal Family issued a statement that Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, died at 96. 

“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow,” The Royal Family said. 

Numerous heads of state have sent condolences, praising Her Majesty’s “steadfastness”, proclaiming her a ‘stateswoman of unmatched dignity and constancy’

Amid the public mourning, the national grief and the lowering of flags will come a transition of power and national memorializing, known as Operation London Bridge, that will overtake the country’s agenda for days and play out potentially for months before the coronation of a new monarch.

Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on the cover of TIME in April 1929.

Image

By the time the world knew about the queen’s death, her son Charles had already become king. Under common law, the moment of the sovereign’s death marks the moment the heir becomes the monarch.

King Charles III – as he will be officially known – will be the oldest person, at 73, to become King in British history. His wife Camilla, will become Queen Consort.

What happens next?

The country now enters an official period of mourning that continues until after the queen’s funeral, which is expected to take place 10 days after her death and be a public holiday.

According to protocol, as NYTimes reportsat 11 a.m. on the day after the queen’s death, a proclamation will be read that officially declares the reign of the new king, which is then passed across the country, first by heralds who will arrive on horseback wearing official uniforms that have roots in the clothing from the Middle Ages to read the news in Trafalgar Square and then the Royal Exchange in London.

Flags across the country are to be lowered to half-staff and stay that way until the morning after the queen’s funeral, with one exception. On Proclamation Day, flags will be raised until the next afternoon, and then revert to half-staff.

After the proclamation of the new king, attention will once again turn to the funeral of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

The queen’s coffin is expected to rest in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace for four days after her death, before being moved in a formal parade to Westminster Hall, where it will lie in state until the funeral. The coffin will be placed on a raised platform draped in regal purple, and tradition dictates that each corner of the platform be guarded around the clock.

Members of the public will most likely be allowed to file past and pay their respects, and international dignitaries are expected to descend on London in the coming days.

The queen’s funeral will be held at Westminster Abbey.

On the morning of Elizabeth’s funeral, as her coffin pauses at the entrance to the church at 11 a.m. after a short procession, protocol calls for the nation to fall silent in a moment of reflection. After the funeral ceremony, the queen’s coffin is expected to be placed on the same green gun carriage that carried her forefathers’ coffins, in a final procession down the Mall, which runs between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square.

It will then be driven to Windsor Castle, about 23 miles away, to the resting place of nearly all British sovereigns since George III.

Elizabeth will be buried alongside her royal predecessors at St. George’s Chapel, including her husband, Prince Philip, was buried there in April 2021

While the deaths of Princess Diana, Princess Margaret, and the Queen Mother are all sealed in the nation’s collective memory, the death of Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip, in 2021, was the most recent to stir patriotic emotion (albeit amid a muted ceremony due to COVID restrictions). However, perhaps it was the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill and the nation’s patriotic union that we will see again when Elizabeth is laid to rest for the final time…

Sources: ZeroHedge

“Unprecedented” Flash Flooding Traps 1,000 People In Death Valley, Closing All Roads And Swallowing Cars

Posted By on August 6, 2022

Unbelievable events happening out west…Last week it was Las Vegas, now it’s Death Valley.

Authored by Katie Hutton via TheMindUnleashed.com,

Due to catastrophic rainfall and record flash flooding on Friday (August 5), Death Valley National Park was forced to shut down entirely, trapping roughly 1,000 individuals (500 visitors and 500 staff members) inside.

The park experienced “unprecedented amounts of rainfall” of 1.46 inches, which caused substantial flooding that swept away cars, leaving at least 60 vehicles buried in mud and debris.

That amount of rainfall represents nearly 75% of a year’s worth of total rain for the area, which sees an average precipitation of 2 inches per year.

“Entire trees and boulders were washing down,” said John Sirlin, a photographer.

Sirlin shared videos and pictures on social media that showed swiftly moving water, uprooted palm trees, and cars wedged in a pile of debris.

It was more extreme than anything I’ve seen there,” said Sirlin.

“I’ve never seen it to the point where entire trees and boulders were washing down. The noise from some of the rocks coming down the mountain was just incredible,” he said during a phone interview.

“There were at least two dozen cars that got smashed and stuck in there,” Sirlin explained.

During the storm, the “flood waters pushed dumpster containers into parked cars, which caused cars to collide into one another. Additionally, many facilities are flooded including hotel rooms and business offices,” according to the park statement.

Park officials said that most of the cars damaged were in a parking lot.

It marks the second major flash flood event to hit Death Valley National Park this week.

Luckily, there have been no reports of injuries.

The flooding on Friday at Death Valley National Park came a week after monsoonal downpours flooded the Las Vegas Strip, a typically dry area, submerging casino floors and uprooting countless trees.

*  *  *

 

New Survey From Pew Research

Posted By on July 18, 2022

Among journalists who say their outlet’s audience leans left, just 30% embrace a steady devotion to equal coverage — compared to 57% of those whose audiences lean to the right. 

Pew Research

A majority of U.S. journalists say every side doesn’t always deserve equal coverage in news reporting, according to a new survey from Pew Research.

That troubling attitude is openly embraced by 55% of all journalists. However, since people are prone to giving poll responses that are deemed more socially acceptable, it’s likely an even higher percentage are actually dismissive of the notion of balanced reporting.

That puts them sharply at odds with the average U.S. adult — 76% of whom agree that “journalists should always strive to give every side equal coverage.”

Things get more interesting when you look at responses across various cross-sections of journalists. For example, there’s a huge difference in attitude depending on the political leaning of the platform a journalist works for.

Among journalists who say their outlet’s audience leans left, just 30% embrace a steady devotion to equal coverage — compared to 57% of those whose audiences lean to the right. 

Pew also broke down responses by the type of news organization journalists work for. In what may come as a surprise, TV journalists put the most value on equal coverage (55%), followed by radio/podcast (49%), print (43%) and online (37%).

There’s every reason to think things are going to get worse in the coming years: Pew found younger journalists place far less importance on equal coverage than older journalists do. Just 37% of all journalists up to 29 years old think equal coverage is something they should always aim for.

That’s no surprise, given cancel culture’s growing grip on college campuses — campuses led by faculty and administrators who not only tolerate speakers being shouted down by mobs but actually punish people who express ideas that counter leftist orthodoxy.

Hostility to those ideas is deemed virtuous by those who think those views cause “harm.” Journalists infected that warped mindset would think it’s a disservice to give all sides equal coverage.   

Reflecting that dynamic just last week, CNN’s Don Lemon, in an interview in which he mocked the idea that “we want to hear” what Republican arguments are, said:

“We sit around and we talk about these things and we want to give this false equivalence to Democrats and Republicans. That is not where we are right now. Republicans are doing something that is very dangerous to our society and we have to acknowledge that…We must acknowledge that as journalists because if we don’t, we are not doing our jobs.”

Sources: Pew Research

“Record Flooding” Forces Closure Of Yellowstone National Park

Posted By on June 14, 2022

Unbelievable events are shaking areas we never thought possible.

TUESDAY, JUN 14, 2022 – 09:24 AM

Yellowstone National Park closed all entrances to visitors due to widespread dangerous flooding, forcing park evacuations, and has left some trapped inside as roads and bridges were swept away.

“Due to record flooding events in the park and more precipitation in the forecast, we have made the decision to close Yellowstone to all inbound visitation.

We will not know the timing of the park’s reopening until flood waters subside and we’re able to assess the damage throughout the park. It is likely that the northern loop will be closed for a substantial amount of time,” Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly said in a statement.

Yellowstone is a 3,500-sq.-mile national park nestled in Wyoming and parts of Montana and Idaho. The damage is unknown as the flooding only began over the weekend, and the park closed on Monday.

“Our first priority has been to evacuate the northern section of the park where we have multiple road and bridge failures, mudslides, and other issues,” Sholly said.

Footage of the flooding, rockslides, and other hazardous weather conditions were shared on social media.

East Idaho News shared photos and videos of the wild weather:

Home swept away 

Bridge collapse 

Homes battered by flooding 

Town flooded 

Infrastructure damaged

Another home swept away

More views of the disaster from above 

People attempting to flee Yellowstone

“The Yellowstone area is experiencing major flooding. Bridges are being washed away, roads are collapsing, and access in and out of the northern range has been blocked,” one Twitter user said.

Another town flooded

Sources: ZeroHedge.com

America’s Electric Grid Has A $2 Trillion Problem

Posted By on May 17, 2022

Electric grid upgrades dead on arrival, and will never on its best day meet objectives of a carbon free grid by 2035, “We really don’t have anyone in charge,” Rob Gramlich, president of Washington D.C.-based energy consulting firm, Grid Strategies LLC, told Reuters for a special report on the hurdles the U.S. grid faces.

The regulatory ‘nightmare’ makes investments in the grid more complicated, which could delay much-needed transmission infrastructure updates and thus, push further the timeline of the clean energy goals, analysts say.

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com

  • The U.S. power grid is strained as-is, with disruption and outages becoming more frequent in many regions.
  • Regulatory ‘nightmare’ makes investments in the grid more complicated.
  • Grid upgrades may cost up to $2 trillion through 2050.

Getting America to reach the goals of zero-carbon electricity generation by 2035 and net-zero economy by 2050 with a surge in electric vehicle transportation and renewable power installations will require massive investments in outdated power transmission lines and building thousands of miles of new lines. The undertaking is huge, and it’s so huge not only because the price tag for making the U.S. grid capable of handling a net-zero economy is estimated at a couple of trillion dollars.    Permitting, regulation and uncertainty over who is and should be in charge of the massive transformation of the power grid are also major hurdles to booming renewable power generation and massive adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). 

The U.S. power grid is strained as-is, with disruption and outages becoming more frequent in many regions where local grid operators struggle to keep the lights on in case of extreme winter weather or heat. Those events would only become more frequent with climate change, such as the current early heat wave in Texas, which is testing ERCOT’s ability to withstand a surge in power demand.

In recent days, grid operators from a growing number of states started warning about electricity shortages as grids cannot cope with the imbalance between demand and supply heading into summer. California warned last week that it would need to produce more electricity than it is currently producing to avoid blackouts. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the nonprofit charged with operating the power grid in 15 U.S. states and Manitoba, issued a warning about outages during the summer.

If grids are warning they may not be able to cope with a surge in power demand now, what would they do if renewables were to become the dominant source of electricity generation (provided that the Biden Administration’s goals of a carbon-free grid by 2035 and 50 percent of all new vehicles sold in the United States in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles are met)?

For sure, the grid needs huge amounts of investments, researchers and analysts say.

For example, in a “high electrification” or E+ scenario, with aggressively electrifying buildings and transportation so that 100 percent of cars are electric by 2050, America would need $360 billion invested in transmission through 2030 and $2.4 trillion by 2050, the Princeton University said in a report at the end of 2020. 

Yet, it’s not only a matter of money, but many analysts and industry consultants also say. That’s because the U.S. currently lacks a national strategy that clearly defines the roles of policymakers, states, federal agencies, grid operators, and utilities in preparing the transmission system on a national level to handle a surge in renewable power generation, demand from EV charging, and the “electrify everything” drive at home.

“We really don’t have anyone in charge,” Rob Gramlich, president of Washington D.C.-based energy consulting firm, Grid Strategies LLC, told Reuters for a special report on the hurdles the U.S. grid faces.

“The politics are a freakin’ nightmare,” Alison Silverstein, an independent industry consultant and former senior adviser to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), told Reuters’ Tim McLaughlin.

The regulatory ‘nightmare’ makes investments in the grid more complicated, which could delay much-needed transmission infrastructure updates and thus, push further the timeline of the clean energy goals, analysts say.

“The majority of the nation’s grid is aging, with some components over a century old — far past their 50-year life expectancy — and others, including 70% of T&D lines, are well into the second half of their lifespans,” the American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report last year.

Expanding the grid capacity by 2-5 times from current levels and transmission investments totaling up to $2.4 trillion presents “multiple technical, economic, and public policy challenges,” Jonathan M. Moch, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and Henry Lee, Director, Environment and Natural Resources Program at The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs of Harvard Kennedy School, wrote in a policy brief in February 2022.

“First, there is a lack of coordination between regional and national transmission planning. The organizations responsible for regional transmission planning are often legally constrained from prioritizing the reduction of carbon emissions. Furthermore, construction of new transmission requires an extensive siting and permitting process that can stretch for over a decade and may put the goal of a carbon-free electric grid by 2035 out of reach,” Moch and Lee wrote.

According to consultants Brattle Group, interregional planning processes are ineffective. In a presentation prepared for the ‘Building a Better Grid Initiative’ of the Department of Energy’s Office of Electricity, Brattle said in March that “essentially no major interregional transmission projects have been planned and built in the last decade.”

U.S. climate envoy John Kerry also admitted as much at the CERAWeek conference in Houston in March:

“We can send a rover to Mars, but we can’t send an electron to California from New York.”  

Sources: Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

Pentagon Report Claims UFOs Left “Radiation Burns” & “Unaccounted-For Pregnancies” After Encounters

Posted By on April 8, 2022

Very interesting stuff here!

Authored by Elijah Cohen via TheMindUnleashed.com,

According to a huge database of U.S. government records recently made public as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, encounters with UFOs have allegedly left Americans suffering from radiation burns, brain and nervous system damage, and even “unaccounted for pregnancy.”

There are more than 1,500 pages of UFO-related information in the collection of records, which comes from the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), a clandestine United States Department of Defense program that operated from 2007 to 2012.

The information was never classified as secret or top secret per say, but became more widely known about in 2017 after former program director Luis Elizondo resigned from the Pentagon and revealed to the world multiple now-infamous films of an unidentified aircraft moving in apparently inconceivable ways.

Soon after it was disclosed that the AATIP was in existence, the American edition of the British tabloid The Sun filed a Freedom of Information Act inquiry for any and all records pertaining to the program.

Four years later, on April 5, 2022, the United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) complied with the request by providing The Sun with an additional 1,574 pages of information.

Reports on UFO encounters and human biology are among the papers found in the trove, according to The Sun. Studies on advanced technology like invisibility cloaks are also among the records along with plans for deep space exploration and colonization. The AATIP informed The Sun that certain papers were “withheld in part” to protect privacy.

Anomalous Acute and Subacute Field Effects on Human and Biological Tissues is one of the collection’s highlights. Anomalous sophisticated aerospace systems have allegedly injured “human observers,” posing a “threat to US interests,” the report claims.

42 incidents from medical records and 300 “unpublished” cases in which people were injured following purported contacts with “anomalous vehicles,” which include UFOs, are described in the document.

The research indicated some persons had burns or other illness caused by electromagnetic radiation, perhaps caused by “energy related propulsion systems.” 

Unusual car incidents have been linked to brain and nerve damage.

Between 1873 and 1994, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a civilian non-profit entity that examines reported UFO sightings, collected a list of suspected biological impacts of UFO sightings on human observers.

UFO sightings have been linked to “unaccounted pregnancy,” “apparent abduction,” paralysis, experiences of telepathy, teleportation, and levitation.

More information may be found in The Sun’s original story on their Freedom of Information Act request.

Sources: ZeroHedge

VPN Use Surges In Ukraine And Russia

Posted By on March 12, 2022

Virtual private networks – or VPNs – enable web users to disguise their location and thereby circumvent the blocking of web services by location.

Restrictions to internet access in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have seen demand for VPNs surge in both countries, highlighting, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, a war fought not only on land and sea, but also in cyberspace.

Infographic: VPN Use Surges in Ukraine and Russia | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

In Ukraine, the search volume for VPNs increased by around 600 percent between February 27 and March 2, compared with the 30 days prior. According to Top 10 VPN, which publishes this data, the number is indicative of Russian cyber attacks on the country’s online infrastructure. One such event took place on Feb 24, the first day of the Russian invasion, for example. Other cyberattacks targeted Ukrainian government websites, according to the BBC, but like disruptions to the Ukrainian internet caused by the destruction of physical infrastructure by Russian forces, they cannot be remedied by VPNs.

In Russia, restrictions placed on social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as foreign media sites led to increased VPN use. Between February 27 and March 3, demand surged by 668 percent.

By far the biggest search interest in VPN was generated in the current year by a coordinated internet shutdown in Kazakhstan on January 5. The government pulled the internet plug as protests erupted over rising natural gas prices after a price cap ended. VPN searches increased by around 3,400 percent as a result.

In Asia, moderate increases in VPN searches were seen in early 2020, as Myanmar proposed severe penalties on VPN use as part of new legislation and Cambodia mulled a national internet gateway. Similar to the internet controls implemented in China, all web traffic in the country would pass through a single government-controlled entry point if the plan was enacted.

Source: ZeroHedge, Statista

Americans Love The NFL, But Change Is Looming

Posted By on February 13, 2022

According to recent findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, the NFL remains the number 1 among major professional sports leagues in the U.S., at least for now.

Infographic: Americans Love the NFL, But Change Is Looming | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

While 52 percent of self-declared sports fans follow the National Football League, compared to 42 percent for the NBA and 31 percent who follow the MLB, looking at the youngest group of respondents reveals a worrying trend for NFL executives.

Among 16- to 25-year-olds, the NFL only plays second fiddle to the NBA, with just 33 percent of young sports fans following the league. The NBA reaches 40 percent of Gen X fans, who are overall less likely to follow any professional sports leagues than their older compatriots.

Sources: Stagista, ZeroHedge

A New Gene Discovered In Georgia Sewer System Is Resistant To The World’s Most Important Antibiotics

Posted By on January 15, 2022

This is scary stuff…

“MCR can be spread through global travel and the import of foods from other countries. Results of the CFS study prove that the U.S. is no less susceptible to the threat than other nations around the world,” the researchers said.

“If we don’t tackle it right now, we are jeopardizing human and animal medicine as we know it and that can have huge repercussions on health and the economy.

“It’s a dangerous problem that requires attention from multiple sectors for us to be able to tackle it properly,” they said. 

The World Health Organization has warned that antimicrobial resistance is “one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.”

Researchers from the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety (CFS) have discovered a gene that causes antimicrobial resistance to one of the world’s most import antibiotics.

CFS researchers found the presence of the MCR-9 gene in the sewage water in a metro area in Georgia. The gene is resistant to colistin, also known as polymyxin E, an antibiotic used as a last-resort treatment for infections.

Colistin is prohibited in the U.S. for livestock, a move by regulators to help slow the spread of antimicrobial resistance to the antibiotic. But the finding suggests the spread could already be widespread than initially thought.

“MCR can be spread through global travel and the import of foods from other countries. Results of the CFS study prove that the U.S. is no less susceptible to the threat than other nations around the world,” the researchers said.

“If we don’t tackle it right now, we are jeopardizing human and animal medicine as we know it and that can have huge repercussions on health and the economy.

“It’s a dangerous problem that requires attention from multiple sectors for us to be able to tackle it properly,” they said. 

The World Health Organization has warned that antimicrobial resistance is “one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.”

A silent spread of colistin-resistant bacteria is happening in Georgia sewers. If people or animals contract it, there are potentially no medications that can treat their infection, leading to possible death.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better on the global health landscape, along comes the drug-resistant MCR-9 gene.

Sources: ZeroHedge

Have The “Pandemics Of 2022” Already Started?

Posted By on December 30, 2021

It sounds like we will have to learn to live with pandemics going forward! The real question is are these man made pandemics, or caused by nature. I think we all know the answer to that.

Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog

Wouldn’t it be great if we could have a year without any major pestilences?  2019 seems like it was so long ago, and we may never see another year like it.  All of the measures that global authorities have imposed to try to end the COVID pandemic have failed, and now we are being told that we are just going to have to live with COVID on a permanent basis.  And Omicron has shown us that a new variant can sweep across the entire globe in just a matter of weeks.  Meanwhile, there are several new “outbreaks” that are unrelated to COVID that I am going to be keeping a very close eye on as we enter 2022.  For example, we are being told that there is a “massive bird flu outbreak” in Israel right now.  The following comes from a Daily Beast article entitled “Massive New Bird Flu Outbreak Could Be 2022’s Deadly Pandemic”

Israel’s National Security Council has assumed control of a massive bird flu outbreak in the Galilee, which scientists warn could become a “mass disaster” for humans.

Over half a billion migrating birds pass through the area every year, heading for warm African winters or balmy European summers, making this a catastrophic location for a major bird flu outbreak—right at the nexus of global avian travel.

If you do a Google search for “H5N1”, you will find that bird flu outbreaks have literally been reported all over the planet this month.

So this isn’t just happening in Israel.

But the reason why what is taking place in Israel is so alarming is because birds are dropping dead in such large numbers

Of the 30,000 Eurasian cranes passing this winter at the Hula Nature Reserve, 17 percent are dead, and scientists fear the worst for their surviving brethren, at least 10,000 of which appear to be ailing. The infection of the cranes is the same strain of avian flu which infected chicken coops throughout northern Israel, and led to the cull in recent days of nearly 1 million birds.

The good news is that so far there are no confirmed human cases of H5N1 in Israel.

Of course that could change at any time, and once H5N1 starts spreading among humans it has a very high death rate

The virus can be deadly if it infects people. The World Health Organization says more than half of the confirmed 863 human cases it has tracked since 2003 proved fatal.

Here in the United States, officials are deeply concerned about a widespread outbreak of an “undiagnosed respiratory illness” in northern Ohio…

Public health exclusively tells Dayton 24/7 Now undiagnosed respiratory illnesses are popping up in the Miami Valley, Cleveland area, and across the northern tier of Ohio.

Health experts say symptoms are similar to the flu, but patients aren’t testing positive for influenza or COVID-19.

Charles Patterson, Clark County Combined Health District’s Health commissioner, explains there’s no way to know how many confirmed cases of this illness are in the state since there’s no case definition for it yet.

Hopefully they will find out what this mystery disease is soon, because it doesn’t sound good.

On the other side of the globe, a different mystery disease has killed close to 100 people in South Sudan

The illness has so far claimed the lives of 97 people in Fangak, Jonglei State, in the northern part of South Sudan. On Thursday, Fangak County Commissioner Biel Boutros Biel said an elderly woman’s death came as a result of an unidentified illness. South Sudan’s Ministry of Health has said that the disease has mainly affected the elderly and children under 14. It is also said that the symptoms of the mysterious illness include cough, diarrhoea, fever, headaches, joint pain, loss of appetite, body weakness, and chest pain.

WHO officials were deployed to the region to investigate the illness, but they reportedly left the area without revealing their findings to local officials.

Initially, health officials thought that this might be a cholera outbreak, but testing has ruled out that possibility.

Last but certainly not least, the Omicron variant is causing widespread panic all over the world.

In New York, the number of confirmed cases set another brand new record high on December 24th

The number of positive COVID-19 cases in New York continues to set records, as the state confirmed that 49,708 positive cases were reported on December 24 alone.

That number marks the highest single-day total in the state since the pandemic began.

Fortunately, some experts are telling us that even though Omicron spreads very easily it may be less deadly than the Delta variant.

Of course Omicron and Delta are not the only variants that are floating around out there.

Over the past couple of months, there have been reports that certain COVID variants seem to be causing very ugly skin sores.  The following comes from a report in a British news source

The doctor explained: “I was treating patients in August 2020 last year and I had three patients who had COVID-19 and they had a rash.

“It’s purpuric, almost like a hive-like rash, [it] can be prickly heat rash as well.”

Dr Nighat’s patients weren’t the only ones who suffered from rash linked to Covid, as the COVID ZOE app received thousands of self-reports of this symptom.

If you have developed skin sores or a “rash” after catching COVID, I would like to hear from you.

Because this appears to be something that is happening on a large scale, but the mainstream media in the United States is not really talking about it.

I don’t know which of the news items that I have shared in this article are the most important, but I will be monitoring them all as we enter 2022.

The COVID pandemic has clearly demonstrated how vulnerable we are, and scientists assure us that it is just a matter of time before we are hit by even more pestilences.

I know that most of you are very eager for life to “return to normal”, and I feel the same way.

Unfortunately, our entire planet is now being ravaged by sickness and disease, and a “return to normal” is simply not in the cards.

*  *  *

Sources: Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog

How Safe Is Your Password?

Posted By on December 6, 2021

The single most important thing you can do is build a safe password.

Password, 123456, qwerty… While passwords which appear on the list of the most common passwords should definitely be retired from use, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below that even a more unique password can be easy to crack if a computer program is tasked with systematically breaking it.

As seen in data by website Security.orgadding even one upper case letter to a password can already dramatically alter its potential. In the case of an eight-character password, it can now be broken in 22 minutes instead of instantaneously in one second – an increase of more than 1000 percent.

The Blockchain Ecosystem

Posted By on November 21, 2021

In this day and age of digital technology, it behoves everyone to better understand how blockchain works.

BY TYLER DURDEN
SUNDAY, NOV 21, 2021 – 07:35 AM

Many technologies are coined as “disruptive”, but only a select few can be considered transformational.

One such technology is blockchain, because it has the potential to permanently change our economic, legal, and political systems.

In this infographic from Global XVisual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu provides an overview of the entire blockchain ecosystem, and look at some different ways investors can gain access to it.

Blockchain: A Decentralized Network

In its most basic sense, a blockchain is a type of database with several unique properties.

One of these is decentralization, which means no single party has control over the data. To see why this matters, consider a traditional database where users store their data on a central server. The server is ultimately controlled by a single entity with the authority to modify or delete data.

In the event that this authority is compromised, users of the database can be left at great risk. A blockchain, on the other hand, is distributed across many participants in a peer-to-peer network. This means that all users play a role in verifying the integrity of the database, as well as verifying new additions.

Furthermore, blockchains are designed with an append-only structure. This means that users can only A) search and retrieve data from the blockchain; and B) add more data onto the blockchain.

Blockchain Structure

A blockchain is made up of “blocks” which contain three items.

First, there’s the data itself. In the case of Bitcoin, this includes all of the relevant information for a given transaction such as date and quantity. Second is the block’s hash, a unique value that identifies the block and its contents.

For Bitcoin, a hash takes the form of a 64-digit hexadecimal number, though this can be different for other blockchains. The following table provides a simple example of how hashes are generated.

On any given blockchain, the hash values will share the same format. Modifying a block’s data will also result in an entirely different hash.

The third and final item is the hash of the previous block, and is what contributes to the “chain” part of blockchain. This feature makes it nearly impossible for someone to tamper with the blockchain’s data, because their copy of the chain would then conflict with all other users.

The Blockchain Ecosystem

Holding cryptocurrency is one way to gain exposure to blockchain, but as companies continue to study it, new use cases are emerging. Here’s an explanation of the four segments of the blockchain ecosystem.

1. Digital Asset Mining

Digital asset mining consists of companies that process transactions on blockchain ledgers, including Bitcoin. Processing transactions is known as “mining” because participants can receive cryptocurrency as compensation.

From an operations perspective, cryptominers are relatively simple when compared to other businesses. The following table lists the components a cryptominer needs.

Digital asset mining requires a significant amount of electricity and has sparked debate in recent years over its environmental impact.

2. Blockchain Hardware

Blockchain hardware consists of companies that produce blockchain-related equipment.

This includes graphic processing units (GPUs), which are used in computing applications such as rendering and animation. GPUs were not originally intended for blockchain use (and have been around for much longer), but their high processing speeds makes them suitable for mining.

Today, cryptominers are transitioning to application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips that are solely designed for cryptomining. Using these chips is critical for maximizing hash rate and profitability.

3. Blockchain Transactions

The blockchain transactions category includes companies that operate digital asset trading platforms. The segment is quickly evolving as new and existing businesses enter the space.

4. Blockchain Applications & Integration

This segment is the broadest of the four, and includes any software or service that uses blockchain.

In many cases, blockchain can be used to improve our existing industries. Consider IBM Food Trust, a blockchain designed to create a more efficient and sustainable food supply chain.

Blockchain can also be used for more ambitious projects, such as creating a metaverse. While still largely conceptual, a metaverse is a digital world which would be accessed via virtual reality. In it, people would be able to work, play, socialize, and consume media.

These virtual worlds would also need their own economies—something blockchain could play a big role in. It’s reported that several companies, including the recently-named Meta, are investing billions each year in metaverse development.

Introducing: The Global X Blockchain ETF

The Global X Blockchain ETF (Ticker: BKCH) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Solactive Blockchain Index.

Figures rounded. Source: Solactive AG, as of September 30th, 2021.

Investors can use this passively managed solution to gain diversified exposure to the blockchain ecosystem.

Source: ZeroHedge.com

The 5 Most Valuable — and 5 Least Valuable — College Majors

Posted By on October 4, 2021

If you are looking to get the best return on your investment in a college degree, you may want to consider a major in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

 

Top 5

STEM degrees dominated the top of the rankings. It’s an area of study that’s already been gaining popularity. In fact, the growth in STEM degree recipients has outpaced that for all degrees, according to Pew Research.

1. Architectural Engineering

Median annual income: $90,000; unemployment rate: 1.3%

2. Construction Services

Median annual income: $80,000; unemployment rate: 1%

3. Computer Engineering

Median annual income: $101,000; unemployment rate: 2.3%

4. Aerospace Engineering

Median annual income: $100,000 ; unemployment rate: 1.9%

5. Transportation Sciences and Technologies

Median annual income: $86,000; unemployment rate: 1.8%

 

Bottom 5

155. Clinical Psychology

Median annual income: $49,000; unemployment rate: 3.8%

156. Composition and Speech

Median annual income:$42,000; unemployment rate: 4.9%

157. Drama and Theater Arts

Median annual income: $41,000; unemployment rate: 4.5%

158. Miscellaneous Fine Arts

Median annual income: $38,000; unemployment rate: 5.6%

159. Visual and Performing Arts

Median annual income: $35,500; unemployment rate: 3.6%

Source: MFOXCNBC

The World Behind Bars

Posted By on August 30, 2021

The big question is how do you fix this?

The US leads the world when it comes to prison population per 100,000 residents as Statista’s Florian Zandt shows in the chart below.

Infographic: The World Behind Bars | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

An approximate ratio of 639 of 100,000 US residents are currently spending time behind bars according to data provided by Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research at the University of London. With El Salvador and Panama, two other countries of the American continent make the top ten at places two and nine respectively.

The UK’s overseas territories are also represented with two entries, the Virgin Islands and Grenada.

The latter rounds off the list of the ten countries with the highest prison population rates with a value of 413 inmates per 100,000 residents.

Source: Zero Hedge

Updated Census Data Shows Areas of Fastest Growth, 3 States Stand Out

Posted By on July 17, 2021

The U.S, fastest growing states are Idaho, Nevada an Arizona. The worst 5 states are include New York, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody.

Idaho is America’s fastest-growing state, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Its population increased by 2.1 percent to almost 1.8 million from July 2018 to June 2019. Nevada is the second fastest growing statefollowed by Arizona.

As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, new residents moving in from other parts of the U.S. have for some years been responsible for the population increase in the U.S.’ three fastest-growing states in the Mountain West and Southwest of the country. The fourth fastest-growing state, Utah, is growing because of an excess of births over deaths.

Infographic: Mountain West Attracts New Residents | Statista

There are 33 Millennial Billionaires in the United States, and a Total of 100 Millennial Billionaires Globally

Posted By on June 2, 2021

A lot of money equates to a lot of power. These 33 millennial billionaires will likely represent the future of the United States. We wouldn’t be surprised if they at some point even splinter off into a new political party. Why not? Wake up Democrats and Republicans. Let’s call them the Millennial party, or the Green party, sounds about right, don’t you think?

There are 2,755 billionaires globally – and combined, they are worth over $13 trillion.

Of these ultra wealthy individuals, Visual Capitalist’s Avery Koop notes that just over 100 are millennials, born between the years 1981 and 1996. This young generation represents around 3.8% of all billionaires on a global basis with a combined net worth of $573.1 billion.

This visualization, using data from Forbes, ranks the richest 25 millennial billionaires and details their source of wealth, total net worth, nationality, and age.

The U.S. is home to the most millennial billionaires at 33 total, with China coming in second at 23—most other countries fall far behind.

In the U.S., millennial billionaires are often associated with notable tech companies like Snapchat, Airbnb, and Facebook. Others are heirs of massive family fortunes like Lukas Walton—grandson of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart and the original head of America’s richest family.

When looking at the average American millennial’s wealth, the Generational Power Index has determined that this young generation only holds 9.6% of economic power in the U.S. Here’s a quick look at millennial wealth metrics in the U.S.:

  • Millennials only make up 7% of American business leaders
  • They own $73 billion in equities and mutual fund shares
  • They represent 13% of small business leaders
  • They make up 7% of American billionaire wealth

In China, some millennial billionaires really stand out, like Relx founder, Kate Wang. The 39-year-old started her e-cigarette and vape company only three years ago, at age 36, and is expected to soon be vying for the title of richest woman in China.

Sources: TYLER DURDEN

 

Looking Back in History

Posted By on May 16, 2021

The world as we remember it…

Using insights from our Generational Power Index 2021 report, along with survey data from Pew Research in 2016, Visual Capitalist’s Iman Ghosh identified some key milestones for each cohort, to understand how these events helped shape each generation’s unique perspectives.

Download the Generational Power Report (.pdf)

A Polarized United States

Posted By on April 19, 2021

This type of thing will happen more and more as a politically polarized country.

 

Submitted by Sovereign Man Blueprint

Idaho legislature considers absorbing part of Oregon

What happened:

A group of Oregon residents want their rural counties to be absorbed by Idaho, to throw off the control Portland exerts on a very different area of the state. Two counties have already voiced majority support for the idea in ballot initiatives.

The latest step for the organizations Move Oregon’s Border and Citizens for a Greater Idaho, was to present the idea to House and Senate committees in the Idaho legislature.The former house speaker of Oregon, who lives in one of the counties that want out, joined the movement’s leader to help pitch the plan.

In order to move the border, both Oregon and Idaho legislatures would have to approve the plan, as would the US Congress. Even the groups’ leaders admit that’s a long shot, but said, “When the 13 colonies got together, it was a long shot.”

And that spirit of freedom is what the movement wants to capture— escaping what they see as a tyrannical state government which does not represent the interests of the rural sections of the state.

What this means:

Don’t count on this movement becoming a reality. But what’s interesting is that the reorganization of political jurisdictions is being taken more seriously. The Idaho legislature’s willingness to consider it certainly lends the movement some credibility.

Plenty of groups around the world are fighting for more political autonomy and independence from centralized governments that do not represent them.

If just one of these long shot groups has its way, the precedent could lead to a domino effect.

What you can do about it:

Here are a few independence movements happening around the world, and where they stand.

Texas

Seeing as Texas was in fact an independent country from 1836-1845, it has perhaps the best case of any US state for becoming a sovereign nation once again. An independent Texas would have the 10th largest economy of any country, rank 40th worldwide by land area, and 50th by population.

bill introduced this year in the Texas house of representatives would create a non-binding referendum to be held this November where voters could vote yes or no on the question:

“Should the legislature of the State of Texas submit a plan for leaving the United States of America and establishing an independent republic?”

If “yes” prevails, then the legislature would be required to put together a plan to exit by 2026— although the plan, again, would not be binding.

The plan would have to address a number of questions like how much of the US debt Texas would take on— over $2.5 trillion if total US debt was apportioned based on population. Based on the language of the bill, Texas expects the US government to agree to the secession, and enter negotiations for “free trade,” “common travel,” and “collective defense” agreements, plus allow Texans to keep certain government pensions and benefits.

Would DC agree to let Texas go? It seems unlikely, but then again, it would give the Bolsheviks a larger political majority to control the Senate, House, and Electoral College.

Some call the renewed movement to secede from the USA “Texit” referencing Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union.

But while EU membership is voluntary, the Civil War set the precedent that state membership in the US is not. (Opposing this view is the compact theory of the states, which asserts that US states entered a compact to form the federal government, and this fact gives states the ability to exit the union.)

Still, it’s impossible to know how such a Texit would go, given the rapidly changing political environment, full of unprecedented events.

Catalonia

Catalonia has somewhat of a complicated history of independence from the surrounding countries of Spain and France. It was occupied by Spain in 1714, and in 1833 Spain broke the Principality of Catalonia into four provinces. More recently, Catalonia was allowed some small degree of regional self governance, while remaining strictly under the jurisdiction and control of Spain.

The Catalan language is unique from Spanish, and generally not considered simply a Spanish dialect. Catalonia is also bordered by the tiny independent country of Andorra to the north, whose official language is Catalan.

The population of Catalonia is around 7.5 million, and the region is wealthier than the rest of Spain. That means it is a net contributor to the Spanish government, giving more than it takes back in government benefits and expenditures. That might be why Spain has not taken kindly to a recent Catalan Independence Movement.

It culminated in Spain declaring a 2017 independence referendum illegal and police attacking polling stations. The prosecution of Catalan Independence leaders for sedition and misuse of public funds followed. Some are still in prison, and others who fled the country are now facing possible extradition to Spain after the European Parliament recently waived their immunity.

The future of the movement is uncertain, but pro-independence parties took more than 50% of the vote in regional elections held in February.

Scotland

If the UK can pull out of the European Union, why can’t Scotland pull out of the UK?

Although in a 2014 referendum the majority of Scottish voters chose to stay in the UK, polls show that opinions may have shifted since then. The pro-independence Scottish National Party, which has led Scotland’s government for 14 years, has been gaining ground.

Scottish parliamentary elections in May will show whether that ground will be lost due to recent scandals involving party leadership.

The Scottish parliament did originally vote to join Great Britain in 1707. And it would be hypocritical for the UK to argue against political self determination given Brexit.

Western Cape

A movement among South Africans seeks to separate the Western Cape, which includes Cape Town, from the rest of the country. The Cape Independence Advocacy Group distills its argument into seven words, “We are better off on our own.” The Western Cape region is a net payer of taxes, and is not politically aligned with the national government’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC).

About 47% of Western Cape voters currently support holding a referendum on secession from the rest of South Africa.

The movement appears to stand on firm legal ground, given section 235 of the Constitution which states that “The right of the South African people as a whole to self determination, as manifested in this Constitution, does not preclude, within the framework of this right, recognition of the notion of the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage; within a territorial entity in the Republic or in any other way, determined by national legislation.”

And given the ANC’s support for self determination, and its recent support for the secession of South Sudan, it would be contradictory to oppose independence if the majority of Western Cape voters wanted it.

Considering all these secessionist movements (and more, like the State of Jefferson in northern California/southern Oregon and the State of Liberty in central and eastern Washington).

Sources:  Sovereign Man

Where COVID Cases Are Growing The Fastest in the World

Posted By on April 19, 2021

It looks like successful vaccination campaigns don’t stop the spread of COVID-19. Although these vaccine programs do help, we all need to be on guard for what is still lurking out there!

 

BY TYLER DURDEN

COVID-19 cases are growing in many countries around the world, but, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, some are hit harder than others. Numbers by Johns Hopkins University published on Our World in Data show that among the highly affected countries with rising case numbers are several with successful vaccination campaigns, highlighting the need to not rely on vaccination alone to combat the coronavirus.

Infographic: Where Coronavirus Cases Are Growing Fast | Statista

You will find more infographics at Statista

Chile still recorded an average of 377 new infections per one million of population on Thursday despite having given out 67 vaccine doses per 100 people – the equivalent of 40 percent of the population having received at least one vaccine dose and 27 percent having been fully vaccinated.

The same phenomenon is happening in Bahrain (60 doses per 100 people as of April 15) and Qatar (41 doses).

Sources: ZeroHedge.com, Statista.com

Who Are They Kidding?

Posted By on February 25, 2021

Congressional approval hits 35% and everyone celebrates. They got to be kidding!

 

Infographic: Congressional Approval Hits Yearly High | Statista

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