Google's New Search Tool to Use CIA and World Bank as Sources for 'Facts'

Google is making a big change to how it displays results in its dominant search engine. It is rolling out a new feature called the Knowledge Graph which breaks from the traditional practice of matching keywords with webpages.

According to an article on Blog Tips about Google's Knowledge Graph, immediate answers or "facts" from pre-selected sources like the CIA Factbook, Wikipedia, and the World Bank will be provided in search results along side the organic results:

Instead of using the typical search strength of a particular answer, this new feature will draw 'facts' from places like Wikipedia for historical information, CIA World Factbook for geopolitical answers, the World Bank for economic facts, Freebase for information about people and other predetermined sources.

This move by Google seems eerily similar to Orwell's Ministry of Truth in that search results, or "answers and facts", will no longer be gathered based on the algorithmic popularity of content, but rather selected by Google.

Sure, most would argue that Wikipedia does a pretty good job through its open-source format to nail down basic facts. However, the CIA and the World Bank are organizations with agendas sometimes counter to the truth, and making them the authority on facts gives them tremendous power to shape public knowledge.

Google also explains how it will collect data on you using the Knowledge Graph:

Google-owned Freebase will also be used in the Google Knowledge Graph. Freebase is a massive database, which according to Singularity Hub already "has data on over 24 million people, places, and things."

Google then combines its Freebase with Metaweb algorithms to connect everything and everyone. For the purposes of improving searches, this may be wonderful, but it's the exact type of software that can easily build and organize a profile on all Internet users.

Watch how they're already connecting your data points below:

So besides relying on the CIA and the World Bank to force feed Internet users "facts", they will also construct and display how each person appears in these new searches.

Source: Activist Post

HFT Manipulation? EURO Soars As Bank Run Spreads From Spain To The UK

As the run on the banks spread in Europe, with 30% of customers pulling cash out of UK branches of Spain’s Santander bank, the Euro spikes on absolutely no news.

While we saw Wall Street banks admitting they jumped in to prop up Facebook’s opening day IPO crash today, there is no such admission or explanation when it comes to the Euro’s massive spike.

That spike of course which defies not only technical and fundamental data but conventional wisdom as well as Greece continues down the path of exiting the Euro while the mass withdrawal of consumer deposits has spread from Greece, into Spain and today into the UK.

This of course raises the specter that some high frequency trading algorithm was unleashed to manipulate the price.

With 18,250 cases of HFT market manipulation documented over the last 5 years, including the now infamous silver manipulation scandal and the 54 second grand rehearsal for a market crash the possibility of such manipulation is not far-fetched.

In any case there is explanation for the move in Euro as of right now so we will just have to see how this plays out.

Zero Hedge reports:

Nothing could be more appropriate than topping a week of surreal newsflow than what just happened with the EURUSD, which soared by 80 pips on absolutely non news, in what can be attributed to either some algo going apeshit and lifting every offer, a fat finger, or just the tried and true Bank of International Settlement stop hunt seeking to send correlated risk assets higher courtesy of a spark in upward momentum. Sadly today not even this glaring attempt to jump broad risk into the stratosphere is working. And ahead of a weekend where it is rumored Europe may reopen on Monday, we can’t wait for the inevitable snapback.

What we do know for certain is that what is not driving the EUR higher, is news of another semi-bank run in post bank-downgrade Spain, only this time not at nationalized Bankia, but at Banco Santander. From the WSJ:

Banco Santander SA’s SAN.MC +2.97% U.K. unit lost about £200 million of deposits on Friday as jittery customers worried about the lender’s financial health, according to a senior executive.

The deposit outflows on Friday, amounting to about $316 million, represented roughly 0.2% of Santander UK PLC’s total customer deposits, said Steve Pateman, Santander’s head of U.K. banking. Those deposits stood at £120.1 billion at the end of last year.

“We had a modestly negative day,” Mr. Pateman said.

Santander UK has spent the day scrambling to soothe anxious depositors. Customers apparently are nervous about the British bank’s vulnerability to Spain and its fragile banking system, and were further rattled by news coverage of a downgrade of the bank’s credit rating late Thursday by Moody’s Investors Service.

Customers have been visiting Santander branches and calling customer-service agents to discuss the bank’s financial situation, Mr. Pateman said. Branch managers are explaining to them that Santander UK is fully independent of its Spanish parent and that the U.K. bank benefits from strong supervision by the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority, he said.

Mr. Pateman said about 70% of customers who visited Santander UK branches on Friday to discuss their concerns left without withdrawing their funds. The other 30% couldn’t be convinced, he said.

“They say, ‘I got caught by Northern Rock and I don’t want to get caught again’,” Mr. Pateman said. Northern Rock is a British bank that collapsed in 2007.

Source:Zero Hedge

Source: Alexander Higgins Blog

Artificial Sweeteners Linked with Preterm Delivery

Sugar sweetened beverages such as sodas have received a wide-scale bad reputation for their negative impact on health. All the while, diet sodas are falsely promoted as a healthier alternative. But artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, used in diet soda, have also been tied to numerous health complications, with one study linking artificial sweeteners to premature delivery.

Although some attest to the safety of artificial sweeteners like aspartame, these sweeteners have actually been shown to cause considerable harm.

The study looking at the relationship between soft drink consumption and pregnancy outcome found that preterm delivery risk rises 38 percent for pregnant women having 1 or more servings of artificially sweetened drinks per day. What’s more, consuming 4 or more servings daily was associated with an increased risk of 78 percent.

“There was an association between intake of artificially sweetened carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks and an increased risk of preterm delivery…A stronger increase in risk was observed for early preterm and moderately preterm delivery than with late-preterm delivery. No association was observed for sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks (P for trend: 0.29) or for sugar-sweetened noncarbonated soft drinks (P for trend: 0.93),” the study states.

While the study pinpoints artificially sweetened beverages for increasing preterm delivery risk, there is other research that suggests sugar-sweetened drinks also play a role. Other studies have found that both drink types increase risk for hypertension – a known risk factor for preterm delivery. In addition, there is evidence suggesting that both drink types could affect the length of gestation since high blood glucose concentrations and low-dose methanol exposure both cause shorter gestation duration.

The leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, preterm delivery is actually among the major pregnancy complications which could occur. It was also found that preterm infants suffer from impairment in the long-term, and experience inequality in adult life. These reasons alone make it extremely important for mothers to avoid substances that may trigger premature delivery.

More research was also conducted with a focus on methanol, the primary alcoholic component used in the production of aspartame, to examine potential negative health effects. A retired food scientist and Professor Emeritus of Food Science and Nutrition at the Arizona State University Dr. Woodrow Monte describes how the toxic chemical methanol and its use in the production of aspartame and other chemicals could be a main factor in causing spina bifida, preterm delivery, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and more recently, autism in young children. It is also the primary factor in other developing chronic diseases and health conditions.

Needless to say, artificial sweeteners have been shown to be far from safe, and should be avoided if you’re aiming for optimal health.

Source: Activist Post