Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Konakaga

This really is odd...

Man In Cow Suit Steals 26 Gallons Of Milk From Walmart



Seriously just a really bizarre crime here .

Why doesn't he steal antiques instead? It would scare the owner out and he could take whatever he wanted.

[ganbaru]

Sorry the link is in french and I didn't find a link to the new in english:
Portal 2 fait polémique ( Portal 2 make controversy)
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2011/0...-polemique.htm
Now it's someone somplaining about the adoption/abandon comment, will the next one be about the weight ones ?

[SaintessHeart]

This is gold (pun unintended).....

SEC’s Schapiro eyes high frequency traders

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The activity of high frequency traders and the algorithms they used one year ago today when a ‘flash crash’ rattled the markets worldwide should cause the Securities and Exchange Commission to “thoroughly” examine their role, said agency chief Mary Schapiro on Friday.

“In 2010, the high frequency traders who are today’s liquidity providers represented well more than 50% of market volume and were net aggressive sellers during the broad index price decline," Schapiro told a gathering of mutual fund managers.

Preventing future flash crashes
MarketWatch columnist Mark Hulbert says research suggests massive stock slumps such as the "flash crash" can't be prevented.

“High frequency traders turned what was a very down day for many investors into a very profitable one for themselves by taking liquidity rather than providing it. I think their activity that day should cause us to thoroughly examine their current role.”

Schapiro spoke about the traders on the one-year anniversary of the ‘flash crash” where the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s suddenly dropped nearly 1,000 points on May 6, 2010. At one point that afternoon, the Dow dropped 481 points in six minutes and then recovered 502 points just 10 minutes later.

In her comments, Schapiro said the markets that day dropped with “almost unprecedented speed.” She acknowledged that the significance of the flash crash went well beyond the investor harm it cased that day because it dealt a “significant blow” to investor confidence.

One of the issues the agency is grappling with in response to the flash crash is whether it should require high frequency traders -- which can represent more than 50% of daily trading volume -- to have the same responsibilities as traditional market makers. Currently the SEC requires market makers -- typically specialists at the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq -- to have both a bid and an offer when they want to publish a quote.

In response to a question from reporters about whether these high frequency traders should have market maker responsibilities, Schapiro said “everything is on the table” adding that the entire regulatory structure surrounding these trading firms need to be assessed.

Limit up limit down proposal
Schapiro also discussed another proposal the agency is considering in the wake of the flash crash dubbed a “limit up limit down” mechanism. This proposal, which is not expected to be approved until June at the earliest, would require that trades in all listed stocks be executed within a range tied to the recent prices for that security. It would impose a five-minute pause if trading is unable to occur within the price band for more than 15 seconds.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro

Schapiro told reporters that the proposal, if approved, would limit the kind of volatile massive, mathematical algorithm trade that, according to an October SEC report, helped drive the liquidity crisis and set the ‘flash-crash’ in motion.

“The limit up limit down measure serves to prevent the entry of an order that is outside the price band and so that when it comes to an algorithm that might price outside that band the order won’t be entered into the market; so it has that limitation,” Schapiro said.

The October report points to a large fundamental trader that executed a large sell order using an automated execution algorithm at a time in the afternoon while the markets were already very stressed.

“Are their algorithms programmed to operate properly in stressed market conditions?” Shapiro asked.

If approved, the limit regulation would replace and expand upon a circuit-breaker program the agency adopted in May and widened in September to halt or slow down trades of a particular stock in the Russell 1000 index if the price moves 10% or more in a five-minute period.

More proposed action
Schapiro also discussed another SEC proposed rule that would create a so-called consolidated audit trail, a trade tagging and data collection system that would help the agency track information about trading orders so it can better understand the fast-paced markets. She said “hopefully” in the next couple months the agency will be in a position to vote on final adoption of the regulation. Read about how the SEC still lacks the tools to prevent a future flash crash .

Separately, Schapiro said a proposal the SEC introduced in November seeking to implement a portion of the Dodd-Frank act that would allow the agency to expanded rewards for whistleblowers would be ready for a final vote on adoption “in the next few weeks.”

The proposal seeks to reward whistleblowers with between 10% and 30% of the sanctions collected if the information leads to a successful enforcement case

So in the future, we can't short sell companies that generate hype and hot air? Like those tech stocks in the late 1990s? Like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers? And probably Facebook and Linkedin and Rivio in the future?

Speculation by the market is due to the companies overextending themselves and engage in high-risk zero-thought practices, and that ugly secret suddenly becoming public, as well as most of them are run by autopilot trading software running on limited technical analysis instead of the much stronger fundamental analysis and critical thinking on the human's part. Maybe it is time to start regulating the advertisements of autopilot trading software, because most of them don't actually work at all?

Limiting the trade proposals is as good as giving the market-making brokerage and trading software firms free reign of the market through stop-hunting, as well as limiting the liquidity of the local market overall. When the money flows of FDI and Domestic Private Investments go to the top and US becomes a hardcore plutocracy overnight, the SEC will wish that they never elected a hockey mum as their chairperson.

[Autumn Demon]

Insurance company hires prostitutes and throws an orgy for best employees

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Autumn Demon

Insurance company hires prostitutes and throws an orgy for best employees

The board must be trying to sell a new health insurance plan to their own employees - one that which covers STDs.

[ganbaru]

Ontario man charged after allegedly concocting Oprah ticket theft story
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2027850/

[MrTerrorist]

'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction
US atheists are to hold parties in response to an evangelical broadcaster's prediction that Saturday will be "judgement day".

Nope. It's already May 21st right now where i'm at and i have not seen any cases of people disappearing into thin air.

Hopefully those who were expecting it weren't disappointed and take it with good stride.

[mysterious]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction
US atheists are to hold parties in response to an evangelical broadcaster's prediction that Saturday will be "judgement day".

Nope. It's already May 21st right now where i'm at and i have not seen any cases of people disappearing into thin air.

Hopefully those who were expecting it weren't disappointed and take it with good stride.

From the article: "They would be disappointed twice, he told the Wall Street Journal. "Once because they weren't raptured and again because I don't do refunds."
This makes my day
And my original country, Vietnam just had to get in the spot light for case like this. If only that guy said you have to kill yourself to get in heaven on that day, we would have solved the over population on this earth. People and their delusions

[ganbaru]

Mandatory life-jackets would save lives, experts say
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2030755/
Did they really have to say it again ? I thought than it was obvious.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

'Rapture' apocalypse prediction sparks atheist reaction
US atheists are to hold parties in response to an evangelical broadcaster's prediction that Saturday will be "judgement day".

Nope. It's already May 21st right now where i'm at and i have not seen any cases of people disappearing into thin air.

The end of the world looks pretty boring at the moment. Had my customary long weekend nap, made all the more cosy thanks to rain in the morning. Got back from a briefing on my upcoming Kilimanjaro trip. Browsed a bit at the local Kinokuniya bookstore.

How does apocalypse look on the other side of the world? Hope it's more exciting over there, like maybe a zombie or two to spice things up a bit.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

How does apocalypse look on the other side of the world? Hope it's more exciting over there, like maybe a zombie or two to spice things up a bit.

Not much, I will have to be at work early to make the preparation for a group of more or less 90 otherwise it won't be much tonight.

[Kotohono]

Kuroko Promotes a legal lesbian brothel.

Kuroko has been spotted advertising, of all things, a lesbian brothel.

“Garden of Lily” (“yuri” actually means “lily”), a lesbian prostitution service for women, offers the manga on its site as a way of reassuring patrons. With the “Lovers Course” starting at 15,000 for 60 minutes, prices are much on par with heterosexual services. Paid dates are also offered for women incapable of seducing other females on their own.

There is also the added (some would say discriminatory) bonus that as no penetrative sex is involved, the services can go all the way in a way which heterosexual services cannot dare to, as in true warped Japanese legal style paid penetrative sex is illegal whilst other forms of prostitution are openly offered with police blessing.

Oh Japan's odd way of defining their laws makes for some amusing loopholes to appear at times like this .

[Dist]

Man had sex with over 1000 cars

....

I can only wonder how do you have sex with cars .. but perhaps it's for the best that the information was not included in the article.

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Dist

Man had sex with over 1000 cars

....

I can only wonder how do you have sex with cars .. but perhaps it's for the best that the information was not included in the article.

Just think of a cylinder hole/pipe soooooomewhere around the back of the car, just an idea.
Also it vibrates when you press the accelerator and rev the engine softly or hard...

*stops herself before all the car related innuendos start creeping out of her*
Well, at least it's no harm to humans, he's fine as he is if he's happy and content to be with metal over flesh

[HasuMasu]

Just think of a cylinder hole/pipe soooooomewhere around the back of the car, just an idea.
Also it vibrates when you press the accelerator and rev the engine softly or hard...

aw no, just...no that's, aw hell

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Da_Box

aw no, just...no that's, aw hell

But ooooh yes.
If it's a philia, someone, somewhere on this planet will be sexually attracted/or acutually engage with it, usually beyond what our minds can conceive or even dare to think.
The internet taught me that

Mechaphilia [1] or Mechanophilia is a paraphilia describing a sexual attraction to machines such as bicycles, [2] motor vehicles, [3] helicopters, [4] and aeroplanes. [5] It is treated as a crime in some nations with perpetrators being placed on a sex offenders’ register after prosecution.[6] Motorcycles are often portrayed as sexualized fetish objects to those that desire them. [7] Pleasures derived from the physio-pleasures involved, e.g. tactile sensations of using the controls, the colors, the smells etc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanophilia
Makes me think of all the gundam fans now, but I suspect most men have a little bit of this philia within them xD
(See Top Gear)

[Kotohono]

People like the one in that article are why this trope exists

[Ithekro]

Are their cars that are traps...because if there are, anime would be all over it.

[ganbaru]

Iran slams Cannes for von Trier Nazi ban
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-24-12-02-43
I can't imagine a serious movie director to appreciate to be supported by Iran, given what they do to their own .

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/...id=89656&tsp=1

The parents, Kathy Witterick, 38 and David Stocker, 39, hope to raise their child in a world that's "unconstrained by social norms about males and females," according to the Toronto Star. They want their child to freely grow into his (or her) own person and to find his (or her) true self unhindered by gender stereotypes.

imo making you kid into some sort of social experiment should count as child abuse.