Saturday, April 30, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

TomTom sorry for giving customer driving data to cops

Posted: 29 Apr 2011 08:27 AM PDT

By Dan Goodin, The Register

Navigation device maker TomTom has apologized for supplying driving data collected from customers to police to use in catching speeding motorists.

The data, including historical speed, has been sold to local and regional governments in the Netherlands to help police set speed traps, Dutch newspaper AD reported here, with a Google translation here. As more smartphones offer GPS navigation service, TomTom has been forced to compensate for declining profit by increasing sales in other areas, including the selling of traffic data.

On Wednesday, Europe’s biggest satnav device maker apologized, saying it sold the data believing it would improve traffic safety and reduce bottlenecks, The Associated Press reported.

"We never foresaw this kind of use and many of our clients are not happy about it," Chief Executive Harold Goddijn wrote in an email sent to customers. He went on to say that licensing agreements in the future would "prevent this type of use in the future."

With the revelation, TomTom becomes the latest company to raise privacy concerns about location data it holds on its customers. Over the past week, questions have been raised about Apple, Google, and Microsoft and the location data stored or tracked by the iPhone, and Android and Windows Phone 7 devices, respectively.

To read more, visit:  http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/27/tomtom_customer_data_flap/

Conservative Congressman’s Star Power Extends Beyond Florida District

Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:49 AM PDT

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, The New York Times

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Often, the most interesting thing about a person is the characteristic that lies beneath, that hidden thing that bobs up along the waves of time.

But the most compelling part of Representative Allen B. West of Florida is his own biography, there for all to see: an African-American Tea Party activist Republican congressman and ally of hard-right Israelis who, after his beloved career in the Army ended under a cloud, defeated the sitting Democrat in a largely white, politically polarized district here and quickly became one of the right's most visible spokesmen.

Mr. West's fans in his district, which stretches over two counties along the east coast of Florida, are both numerous and loud; hundreds fill his town hall-style meetings, many of them favoring T-shirts bearing his image. At a recent Tea Party rally in Washington, supporters flocked to him like sea gulls to a crust of baguette. Among the 87 House Republican freshmen, he ranks third in the latest fund-raising period for his re-election campaign; his $433,551 haul came largely through individual donations.

Mr. West's popularity among conservatives goes far beyond South Florida. He was chosen to give the keynote speech in February at the Conservative Political Action Conference, and is frequently featured on the Fox News Channel and in other conservative settings where he enjoys explaining, reiterating or unleashing any number of incendiary remarks concerning what he often calls "the other side."

To read more, visit:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/politics/29west.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Silver and gold near lifetime highs

Posted: 29 Apr 2011 07:45 AM PDT

By Lewa Pardomuan, Reuters

SINGAPORE – Silver and gold were within sight of historic highs on Friday and could resume an uptrend as the U.S. dollar held near three-year lows against a basket of currencies on hopes U.S. monetary policy would stay ultra loose, keeping inflationary price pressures high.

A fresh batch of U.S. economic data in the form of rising claims for jobless benefits failed to rescue the dollar, which had dropped to its weakest level since July 2008 against other currencies before recovering slightly.

Silver barely moved, standing at 48.32 an ounce by 0234 GMT (10:34 p.m. ET on Thursday), having rallied to a record at $49.51 an ounce on Thursday. Gold lost $1.10 to $1,533.85 an ounce after hitting a lifetime high around $1,538 an ounce in the previous session.

“If the dollar continues to weaken, then it’s only likely to boost gold as well as silver as the inverse relationship between the two assets persists. I would say that for gold I am still looking for it to hit $1,600 this year,” said Ong Yi Ling, investment analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

“In the long term, I think if we see silver prices at such a high level, then it could hurt the industrial demand.”

But dealers said strong investment demand for silver would keep the metal at record levels, while a lack of scrap sales in the physical market suggested that investors expected more gains. Year to date, silver was up almost 60 percent, sharply above gold’s 8 percent gain.

A bullish target at $1,549 per ounce is still intact for spot gold, based on its wave pattern and a Fibonacci projection analysis, according to Wan Tao, who is a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

To read more, visit:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Silver-hits-record-near-50-rb-497117277.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)