"In the good old days, the traders were human beings. Now they are
computers programmed to trade in a millisecond not only on news but also on how the other computers are going to react to the news. The result is market movements that contain absolutely no information, except that computers have been programmed. In this situation, any normal human being just gets out of the game and waits a week or so to let the computers destroy each other."

http://www.battleofthequants.com/Research/GKDailyReport120809.pdf (via new-aesthetic)

newyorker:

Sasha Frere-Jones weighs in on Baauer and the “Harlem Shake” phenomenon sweeping the web: It “is not a dance craze but, rather, an Internet-language craze, a replication based on imitating the syntax of a particular video. With other dance crazes, you could use whatever music you liked and twerk or do the dougie, but you did have to get those dances roughly right to be part of the phenomenon.” Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/VVaRwp

(Source: newyorker.com)

"

STAFF at a Tesco warehouse have to wear digital arm-band devices that constantly monitor their performance.

Workers at the distribution centre in Donabate in Dublin claim they got lower scores on the rating system if they keyed in that they went to the toilet or took a break.

Tesco said there was a ‘break’ function on the devices that was used to log stoppages, but denied it had any impact on productivity scores.

They are not used by managers, administrative workers or security staff.

"

Tesco staff forced to wear arm monitors that track work rate - Independent.ie (via new-aesthetic)

thenewinquiry:

One bank is already lending on the basis of borrowers being able to get Facebook friends to serve as human collateral.

Perhaps no company has gone as far as Lenddo, a Hong Kong start-up that owns online lenders in Colombia and the Philippines. Loan-seekers ask Facebook friends to vouch for them. To determine if those who say “yes” are real friends rather than mere Facebook contacts, Lenddo’s software checks messages for shared slang or wording that suggests affinity. What’s more, the credit scores of those who have vouched for a borrower are damaged if he or she fails to repay. Put the word out about this “social-enforcement mechanism” and “boom, the money shows up,” says Jeff Stewart, Lenddo’s boss.

Nothing like having your digital kneecaps broken because some deadbeat friend of yours couldn’t make a payment. Better purge all those high school friends from your Facebook who aren’t likely to be successful; get rid of all those college friends who seem weird or who update about unsavory low-class, low-status things. Reify your habitus! And do it fast, before it costs you. Never mind that your habitus is precisely what you take for granted about how you see the world: subject yourself to rigorous observation and then make yourself conform to the signifiers of status! You wouldn’t want your friends to get hurt, would you? You wouldn’t want them to drop you, right?

-Rob Horning, “Social-Media Redlining and ‘Social Enforcement’ “

upnorthtrips:

The Bizarre 20-Year Ride Of Two Pharcydes (via @nprmusic)

Two decades and two months ago, an unruly, exuberant quartet of rappers from South Central Los Angeles called The Pharcyde loosed their debut album upon the world. [Read More…]

Words by @DanCharnas

Too Fast to Fail

Wow. Quite the piece from Mother Jones on Algorithmic trading. 

johnhowrey:

ISM Wishes Window Installation by Skeptic

pow

slavin:

“On January 31, 2013, approximately 400 milliseconds before the official release of the EIA Natural Gas Report, trading activity exploded in Natural Gas Futures and ETFs such as UGZ, UNG and BOIL. Now that the Feds have stated that they don’t think there is merit in prosecuting people who get news information earlier than others by milliseconds, is it any wonder?”

(via Nanex ~ 31-Jan-2013 ~ Natural Gas News Leak)

"I’m looking at legislation right now – in fact, I just instructed my staff yesterday to go ahead and develop legislation – which would change the basic formula in how education money is given out to our universities and our community colleges. It’s not based on butts in seats but on how many of those butts can get jobs."

North Carolina Governor Patrick McCrory explains to radio host Bill Bennett his war on the liberal arts. (via bostonreview)

adamsenatori:

“U.S. Route 12”  Madison, Wisc. USA

YAY MADISON! EVEN OUR HIGHWAYS ARE BEAUTIFUL.