Galina Korzhova was arrested, said Anton Kornoukhov, a spokesman for police in the southern city of Volgograd, on suspicion of hypnotising a bank teller in the nearby town of Volzhky into giving her more than $80,000. She is suspected of having robbed up to 30 additional banks in what Russian media have called a “grand tour” around the country.
Author: CBPS
Peter Mehit is co-founder and Managing Partner of Custom Business Planning and Solutions, a business consulting firm that provides problem solving, planning and process help. He has worked from private equity to the Fortune 100 at all stages.
He can be reached at pmehit@wbpllc.com or at 800-741-8444.
User Backlash Forces Facebook Privacy Tweaks, Again | Technomix | Fast Company
Facebook’s privacy policy and their sharp treatment of it’s nearly half billion users is creating a huge backlash as the company attempts to push more and more private data into the public eye. I know I’m getting tired of dealing the daily interface changes, how about you?
Read the article about the partial security roll back and how Mark Zuckerberg’s personal information got out into the open here.
Bernie Madoff – King of Thugs | WSJ.com
Fee Protests at SFSU Net Special Arrestee – My Daughter | Peter Mehit
When my daughter started getting involved with the student protest movement around the war and most recently, the insane fee hikes at San Fransisco State, I fretted quietly to myself, this is a phase. She’s away from home, she’s pushing boundaries, she’s learning about herself and the world. This was a girl who got nearly straight ‘A’s, helped out in the office and was involved in dance nearly every day of the week during her high school years.
Continue reading “Fee Protests at SFSU Net Special Arrestee – My Daughter | Peter Mehit”
Badvertising: Stop the 5 Biggest Threats to Online Privacy | Fast Company
Submitted by: Snidley
Not only a discussion of the threats, but some good solutions for them. I added ‘Better Privacy’ to Firefox and was amazed at how many flash cookies I had on my computer.
Short Memory
Bin Laden is more than a punchline in a turban or a insane terrorist who produced the biggest horrorshow in history. He has goals.
Our failure to understand the lessons learned by the Soviets in Afghanistan may doom us to repeat them. The complexity of the situation, along with our missteps, mean we need to take a broader appraisal of the region and our alliances. – by Peter Mehit
Continue reading “Short Memory”
Somali sea gangs lure investors at pirate lair | Reuters
THE INVISIBL
E HAND OF THE MARKET MOVES UPON THE WATERS…
This is a classic example of why capitalism will never go away. It’s efficient and it rewards initiative. A pirate leader, what you might call a ‘vulture capitalist’, describes the market:
“The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.”
And just like any capital market, shareholders wait breathlessly for returns:
Piracy investor Sahra Ibrahim, a 22-year-old divorcee, was lined up with others waiting for her cut of a ransom pay-out after one of the gangs freed a Spanish tuna fishing vessel.
“I am waiting for my share after I contributed a rocket-propelled grenade for the operation,” she said, adding that she got the weapon from her ex-husband in alimony.
“I am really happy and lucky. I have made $75,000 in only 38 days since I joined the ‘company’.”
Two questions: I wonder what Adam Smith would think? And, when is Merrill Lynch going to start offering pirate funds?
Design Crisis » The Lichtenstein Look
Warning: Some may require Dramamine before reading this article. This is a cafeteria, by the way. Imagine keeping your food down in this environment.
You have got to see these photos. NOTICE: May cause vertigo..
Bunning Statement on Bernanke: ‘You Are the Definition of a Moral Hazard’ | Real Time Economics – WSJ
Senator Jim Bunning smokes Ben Bernanke:
Instead of taking that money and lending to consumers and cleaning up their balance sheets, the banks started to pocket record profits and pay out billions of dollars in bonuses. Because you bowed to pressure from the banks and refused to resolve them or force them to clean up their balance sheets and clean out the management, you have created zombie banks that are only enriching their traders and executives.
…you put the printing presses into overdrive to fund the government’s spending and hand out cheap money to your masters on Wall Street, which they use to rake in record profits while ordinary Americans and small businesses can’t even get loans for their everyday needs.
A more complete, yet less satisfying description of the hearing can be read here.
To Sell or Not to Sell: Silicon Valley Acquisitions Market Heats Up | Fast Company
Yet the history of small Internet companies being snapped up by large ones isn’t pretty. Just in the past few months, eBay has had to unload both StumbleUpon (the Web recommendations engine it bought in 2007 for $75 million) as well as the Internet-phone service Skype (purchased in 2005 for $3.1 billion), each for a loss. Yahoo is looking to rid itself of several properties, including Zimbra, the email company it snapped up in 2007 for $350 million. FeedBurner, Jaiku, and Dodgeball are only a few of the startups languishing in obscurity under the Googleplex.
Dispatches From The Front 