Catalan separatists seek to elect exiled Puigdemont as leader - Financial Times

10/1/2018

Catalan separatists seek to elect exiled Puigdemont as leader

People close to his party say he could preside over the region via Skype

Mas steps down from pro-independence Catalan party

© Reuters

Michael Stothard in Madrid

Catalan separatists have agreed to try to re-elect Carles Puigdemont as regional leader later this month, in a move that is set to re-ignite tensions between Madrid and Barcelona.

At a dinner on Tuesday in Brussels, Marta Rovira, the number two in the separatist Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party, agreed to support Mr Puigdemont, the head of Junts per Catalunya, the largest pro independence party in the region.

Mr Puigdemont, who is in exile in Brussels to avoid charges of rebellion and sedition in Spain, is planning to preside over the region via Skype, according to several people close to the party.

The decision is an upset for some of the moderates in the pro-independence camp, who were hoping a less controversial leader would be chosen to head the region after the failed independence push in October last year.

Oriol Junqueras, the head of the ERC party and another possible candidate for president, was seen as someone who would take a more moderate line, looking to push for independence over the long term.

The decision to try to re-appoint Mr Puigdemont will open up a new legal battle, because it is far from clear if the former regional leader will be allowed to take up his formal duties from Brussels.

The rules of the chamber say the leader of the region has to present the government programme “in front of the house”, which means, most legal experts argue, that this person has to be physically present.

The rules, however, were written before the era of videoconferencing, and physical presence is not explicitly stated. People close to Junts per Catalunya say there is no reason why Mr Puigdemont cannot conduct official business via Skype. They also say that a fellow party member could read the mandatory speech that a candidate to the regional leadership needs to deliver before voting.

The decision over what is technically allowed will be made by the “board” of the Catalan parliament, which is set to be appointed on January 17. This board is likely to have a majority of pro-independence members.

Any decision to allow an investiture via Skype would then likely be challenged in the Spanish courts. This could well mean Mr Puigdemont would ultimately be unable to take up the role.

If his investiture is blocked by the courts, it could be used as another weapon by the separatists to try to show that Spain mistreats the region and tramples its democratic rights — and therefore independence is the only option.

In December, the three separatist parties together won 70 seats in the 135-seat assembly, less than they collectively won in the last election in 2015, but crucially just ahead of the 68-seat threshold required to form a government.

The pro-independence parties won 48 per cent of the popular vote.

Eastman Kodak unveils cryptocurrency, stock doubles - Reuters

JANUARY 10, 2018 / 5:44 AM / UPDATED 7 HOURS AGO

Eastman Kodak unveils cryptocurrency, stock doubles

Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of Eastman Kodak Co (KODK.N) more than doubled on Tuesday after the one-time leader in photography became the latest company to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon.

The storied Rochester, New York-based company said in a statement it is launching a cryptocurrency called “KODAKCoin” for photographers, part of “KODAKOne,” an image rights management platform in a licensing partnership with WENN Digital.

The platform uses blockchain technology, the backbone of bitcoin and other digital currencies that have surged in recent months and raised fears of a price bubble.

The stock was last up 92 percent at $5.95 in midafternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, off an earlier high at $6.65.

The film pioneer founded over a century ago has struggled to transform itself into an imaging software and technology company. Kodak was a Dow Jones Industrials .DJI component until April 2004, and its stock has slumped 90 percent since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2013.

The Kodak logo is shown on a booth during the 2017 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., January 6, 2017. REUTERS/Steve Marcus

Several other companies in recent weeks have been rewarded with sharp rises in share price after announcing their transformation into cryptocurrency businesses.

“This is getting ridiculous,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. “From a fundamental point of view, none of this makes sense.”

Eastman Kodak Co

6.8

KODK.NNEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE

+3.70(+119.36%)

KODK.N

KODK.N.DJIRIOT.OLBCC.OINPX.O

Riot Blockchain (RIOT.O) shares have tripled since October when the former biotechnology firm changed its name and said it was revising its business focus to bitcoins.

Soft drinks maker Long Island Iced Tea has more than doubled since it said it was shifting its focus to blockchain technology and changing its name to Long Blockchain Corp (LBCC.O).

Also on Tuesday, Inpixon (INPX.O) surged 9 cents or 40 percent to 31 cents per share after the data analytics company announced it would adopt blockchain technology.

WENN Digital belongs to WENN Media, which provides photos to websites and media.

Reporting by Noel Randewich, Editing by G Crosse and Matthew Lewis

This is what life would be like if the world was actually flat - Independent

This is what life would be like if the world was actually flat

Posted 7/1/2018 by Louis Doré in news

UPVOTE

The notion that the earth is flat is one of the most easily disproved and farcical theories to keep kicking about.

Professor Brian Cox recently attempted to educate the public in a Facebook Q&A session:

There is absolutely no basis at all for thinking the world is flat.

Nobody in human history, as far as I know, has thought the world was flat.

The Greeks measured the radius of the Earth. I cannot conceive of a reason why anybody would think the world is flat.

There are interesting bits of physics that tell you you live on a spinning planet and one of them is called the Coriolis force, which is the force that's responsible for causing storm systems to rotate on the planet.

So when you see those beautiful pictures of storms spinning around and rotating, the reason for that is that we live on a spinning planet.

It's probably the most nonsensical suggestion that a thinking human being could possibly make. It is drivel.

Yet still, there are people out there who believe.

@FlatEarthOrg

It's more likely than you think! https://twitter.com/meints208/status/940985923516461058 …

4:02 AM - Dec 14, 2017

Worryingly, their numbers are, growing:

@TheEconomist

America’s flat-earth movement appears to be growing http://econ.st/2pL1FQ0

11:05 AM - Dec 29, 2017

America’s flat-Earth movement appears to be growing

Is NASA covering up the truth? No

economist.com

There are a few problems with this theory.

First off, compasses wouldn't work properly without the mantle and core of the planet, as Dr Tobias Dürig, a volcanologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Otago, told IFL Science:

[It] would also be bad news for any organism, since the geomagnetic field basically works as a starship deflector shield against solar radiation.

Living on flat Earth’s surface would be as pleasant and healthy as sitting inside a 24/7 microwave oven! Solariums would have a hard time – however, the market of sun creams and tinfoil hats would boom.

In addition, say goodbye to wines:

Agriculture would miss the fertile volcanic soils rich of nitrogen and phosphorus – soils which bear some of the best red wines on our planet.

There would also be no tectonic plate movements, and our gravitational field would all but disappear, due to the lack of an earth's core. We'd jump and float off into space - which would also happen to our atmosphere. There's basically little chance the planet would hold its shape.

But don't just take it from us and the good Dr Dürig, take it from Neil deGrasse Tyson as well:

HT IFL Science

China's Central Bank Is Rethinking Relations With Markets - Bloomberg

China's Central Bank Is Rethinking Relations With Markets

Bloomberg News

January 10, 2018, 12:07 AM GMT+11 Updated on January 10, 2018, 12:28 PM GMT+11

Removal of fixing curb on currency helps yuan liberalization

PBOC will have to walk a difficult tightrope in 2018: analyst

China Changes Way it Manages Yuan After Currency's Jump

Bloomberg’s Emma O’Brien reports on China’s decision to make a change to the regime used to manage the yuan.

As the end of People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s term approaches, a firmer yuan and calm markets are providing a window to get some of his long-term reforms back on track.

The latest news in the two-steps forward, one-step back move to a more freely traded currency came Tuesday, as Bloomberg reported the central bank has tweaked its management of the daily currency fixing, removing a hurdle to the influence of market forces. PBOC adviser Huang Yiping says that shows authorities’ desire to further liberalize the exchange rate.

The PBOC is adding transparency to its daily interactions with the money market, aiding Zhou’s long quest to move to a price-based monetary framework. The central bank is also developing tools to rein in risks in banking and property markets after vocal warnings from Zhou on the risks of inaction on these fronts.

Yet 20 years after the PBOC stopped the practice of credit quotas -- commanding who gets to borrow money in the economy -- the central bank still hasn’t completed its shift to a market-based system taken for granted in developed markets. While Zhou has pushed his institution far along that road, hints he’ll retire "soon" mean his successor will need to complete the task.

Click here for the names in contention to lead China’s central bank

“The Chinese economy has entered 2018 in a Goldilocks state – ‘not too hot and not too cold’. This has created a good opportunity for the PBOC to press ahead with important reforms," said Rajiv Biswas, APAC Chief Economist, at IHS Markit Ltd in Singapore. “However the PBOC will have to walk a difficult tightrope during 2018, to provide sufficient liquidity and credit growth to allow the Chinese economy to grow at a pace of around 6.5 percent."

Here are the areas in which the PBOC is advancing its reform effort:

Yuan Policy

The yuan bucked analysts’ predictions to surge 6.8 percent last year in its best performance since 2008. The advance -- a result of tighter capital controls and a weakening dollar -- has damped bearish bets, creating an opportunity for policy makers to move back toward currency liberalization.

To See Where the Yuan Blows, Sift the Data: QuickTake Scorecard

By relaxing constraints on the market pricing of the yuan introduced last year, policy makers are encouraging a freer currency. China introduced the so-called counter-cyclical factor in a bid to reduce volatility in the yuan, which had weakened for three straight years, triggering the introduction of capital controls.

What’s further in store may include a widening of the yuan’s trading band, which is currently 2 percent on either side of the PBOC’s daily reference rate, and relaxation of capital curbs that were put in place since a shock devaluation in 2015. Still, with the searing experience of that 2015 event still fresh in policy makers’ minds, moves may be incremental for fear sudden steps would renew pressure on capital outflows.

Rates Policy

The PBOC has invented a wide spectrum of monetary tools and conducts a complex array of operations to maintain its desired level of liquidity in the inter-bank market. It’s with these open market operations that the PBOC has responded to rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve while keeping the broader benchmark rates stable since late 2015.

The central bank resumed OMOs on Wednesday after a 12-day pause.

With financial institutions relying more on the central bank’s open-market injection as the source of funding, the PBOC has the chance to construct a curve anchored on the cost of these operations. But the task is incomplete, since the central bank still needs to use quantitative measures to make sure the supply of funds to the real economy is stable.

A trusted and effective yield curve would help investors understand the price of assets in China and attract more foreign capital into the nation.

Two Pillars

The PBOC is moving to a "two-pillar" framework that pairs rates policy with a "Macro-Prudential Assessment," or tools geared to regulate prices of financial assets. Doing so can help the central bank better predict systemic risks and prevent them from materializing.

The Biggest Tests Facing China’s Next Central Bank Chief

Yet the construction of the framework is still at initial stage. While it has said that the MPA’s two essential indicators are broad credit and real estate prices, there aren’t ready-to-use methods to calibrate them, and financial innovations leave traditional statistics behind. The PBOC said it intends to cover a wider variety of financial activities in the MPA, according to the third-quarter monetary policy report released in November, but it still hasn’t elaborated what it covers already or their weighting.

— With assistance by Yinan Zhao, Tian Chen, Ran Li, Qizi Sun, Justina Lee, and Ye Xie

Stephen Hawking has perfect advice for people with depression - Independent

Stephen Hawking has perfect advice for people with depression

Posted 9/1/2018 by Louis Doré in people

UPVOTE

On Monday, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking celebrated his 76th birthday.

The day before, he spoke at the Reith Lecture at the Royal Institute in London about depression.

The scientist drew a poetic parallel between black holes and depression, with a message of hope to those suffering from mental health difficulties.

Hawking said:

The message of this lecture is that black holes ain't as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought.

Things can get out of a black hole both on the outside and possibly to another universe. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up – there's a way out.

He also spoke to the 400-strong crowd about appreciating his achievements and what he had attained in his lifetime, particularly living which motor neuron disease since his diagnosis in 1963:

Although it was unfortunate to get motor neurone disease, I have been very fortunate in almost everything else.

I have been lucky to work in theoretical physics at a fascinating time and it' s one of the few areas in which my disability was not a serious handicap.

It's also important not to become angry, no matter how difficult life may seem because you can lose all hope if you can't laugh at yourself and life in general.

The full lecture will be available on BBC Radio 4 in two separate broadcasts, on 26 January and 2 February.

HT IFL Science

Malaysia signs $50-million deal with U.S. firm to find missing MH370 - Reuters

JANUARY 10, 2018 / 7:08 PM / UPDATED AN HOUR AGO

Malaysia signs $50-million deal with U.S. firm to find missing MH370

Reuters Staff

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia signed a deal on Wednesday to pay a U.S. seabed exploration firm up to $50 million if it finds the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft MH370 in a new search area in the Southern Indian ocean.

The disappearance of the aircraft en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014 with 239 people aboard ranks among the world’s greatest aviation mysteries.

Australia, China and Malaysia ended a fruitless A$200-million ($157 million) search of an area of 120,000 sq. km in January last year, despite investigators urging the search be extended to a 25,000-square-km area further to the north.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said a Houston-based private firm, Ocean Infinity, would search for MH370 in that 25,000-sq-km priority area on a “no-cure, no-fee” basis, meaning it will only get paid if it finds the plane.

The search is expected to be completed within 90 days, he told a news conference.

“As we speak, the vessel, Seabed Constructor, is on her way to the search area, taking advantage of favorable weather conditions in the South Indian ocean,” Liow said in a statement.

The vessel will have 65 crew, including two government representatives drawn from the Malaysian navy.

The search operation will begin on Jan. 17, said Ocean Infinity Chief Executive Oliver Plunkett, who attended the signing event.

Ocean Infinity will be paid $20 million if the plane is found within 5,000 sq km, $30 million if it is found within 10,000 square km and $50 million if it is found within an area of 25,000 square km. Beyond that area, Ocean Infinity will receive $70 million, Liow said.

Ocean Infinity’s priority is to locate the wreckage or the black box recorders - flight and cockpit recorders - or both, and present credible evidence to confirm their location, Liow added.

Last week, Ocean Infinity said it had moved the vessel closer to a possible search area. The vessel left Durban, South Africa, on Jan. 2 and was headed to Perth, Australia, Reuters shipping data showed.

The MH370 debris could furnish clues to events on board before the aircraft crashed. There have been competing theories that it suffered mechanical failure or was intentionally flown off course.

Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off the plane’s transponder before diverting it thousands of miles out over the Indian Ocean.

At least three pieces of aircraft debris collected from sites on Indian Ocean islands and along Africa’s east coast have been confirmed as being from the missing plane.

A Trump-Mueller sitdown: Could the endless Russia probe soon be over? - Fox News

9/1/2018

A Trump-Mueller sitdown: Could the endless Russia probe soon be over?

Howard Kurtz By Howard Kurtz | Fox New

Kurtz: The inevitable talk between prosecutor and president

'MediaBuzz' host Howard Kurtz weighs in on the possible outcomes for President Trump meeting with Robert Mueller.

The media reports that Bob Mueller wants to question Donald Trump hardly sound like great news for the White House—but there could be a silver lining.

At the very least, the stories suggest that the special counsel is approaching the final stages of his Russia investigation. Prosecutors virtually never interview their highest-ranking potential target until they've compiled most of the evidence, because you want the most ammunition for that high-stakes encounter.

That would mean the prospect of the Mueller investigation dragging on for another year or two, casting a dark shadow over the White House, would be greatly diminished.

The news, first reported by NBC, was quickly confirmed elsewhere. The New York Times says that "Robert S. Mueller III told President Trump’s lawyers last month that he will probably seek to interview the president, setting off discussions among Mr. Trump's lawyers about the perils of such a move"—this according to "two people familiar with the discussion."

The Washington Post says Mueller has indicated his office "is likely to seek an interview with the president, triggering a discussion among his attorneys about how to avoid a sit-down encounter or set limits on such a session"—also according to two unnamed sources.

It was probably inevitable that Mueller wouldn't wrap things up without attempting to sit down with the president. Ken Starr took Bill Clinton's famous "the meaning of is" testimony in front of a grand jury, although this took place at the White House.

The Post says the "the president’s attorneys are reluctant to let him sit for open-ended, face-to-face questioning without clear parameters, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Since the December meeting, they have discussed whether the president could provide written answers to some of the questions from Mueller’s investigators, as President Ronald Reagan did during the Iran-contra investigation. They have also discussed the obligation of Mueller’s team to demonstrate that it could not obtain the information it seeks without interviewing the president."

This suggests that some delicate negotiations may soon be under way.

The Times quoted an unnamed source as saying that Mueller "appeared most interested in asking questions about the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, and the firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey — not the broader question of possible collusion with Russia. Those topics signal an interest in whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice."

If that's accurate, it means the Russian collusion question—which the president has repeatedly attacked as fake and which is why the probe was launched in the first place—is fizzling. And that would represent a measure of vindication for the White House.

Obstruction, of course, is serious business; it was one of the charges in the House Judiciary Committee’s vote to impeach Richard Nixon. But this scenario would leave Mueller in the strange position of arguing that Trump or his associates were trying to cover up something that he can’t prove was a crime.

Paul Manafort's indictment mainly has to do with Ukraine. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, but he also lied to the White House. The only plea that seems more directly connected to a collusion narrative is that of George Papadopoulos, but he was a low-level adviser.

It could be tricky for Trump to explain why he fired Comey, and respond to Comey's testimony that the president asked him to go easy on Flynn. But a president does have the legal authority to dismiss his FBI chief.

White House lawyers have been cooperating with the special counsel, and the president has dismissed media speculation that he might fire Mueller.

"We have been very open," Trump told reporters at Camp David. "We could have done it two ways. We could have been very closed, and it would have taken years. But you know, sort of like when you've done nothing wrong, let’s be open and get it over with."

If an interview with the president signals the final phase of this investigation, the strategy of cooperation could look smart in the end.

That is, unless Mueller is sitting on something explosive that miraculously has failed to leak.

Trump says he could beat Oprah Winfrey in a presidential race - Reuters

JANUARY 10, 2018 / 4:48 AM / UPDATED 15 HOURS AGO

Trump says he could beat Oprah Winfrey in a presidential race

Reuters Staff

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he could beat media mogul Oprah Winfrey in a presidential contest but said he did not think the actress and talk show host would run.

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD), holds a bipartisan meeting with legislators on immigration reform at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Trump, speaking to reporters during a meeting with lawmakers at the White House, said he liked Winfrey, whose rousing speech at the Golden Globe awards show on Sunday night sparked speculation that she would run for president as a Democrat in 2020.