Social Media: Facebook tricked you once again on security matters

Facebook Tricked You Into Thinking 2-Factor Authentication With A Phone Number Was For Security Reasons Only

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USA: America's Gun Business, By the Numbers - by Ben Popkin

Before a gun can be used to hunt, for protection, or in a mass school shooting like Thursday's tragic killing at Umpqua Community College that left 10 dead, it must be bought. That one sale is a single dot in a multibillion-dollar industry, one that is coming under new scrutiny during the post-massacre gun control debate. Here's a by the numbers breakdown.

$13.5 billion

Annual revenue of gun and ammunition manufacturing industry, with a $1.5 billion profit. (IBIS World)

$3.1 billion

Annual revenue of gun and ammunition stores, with a $478.4 million profit. (IBIS World)

10,847,792

The number of pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and miscellaneous firearms manufactured in the U.S. in 2013, the latest full year available. That's 4,441,726 pistols, 725,282 revolvers, 3,979,570 rifles, 1,203,072 shotguns, and 495,142 miscellaneous firearms. (ATF)

4%

Percentage of the above guns which were exported. Of those 10.84 million guns, 10,413,880 stay in America. (ATF)

270-310 million

Estimated of number of guns in the U.S. (Pew Research Center)

263,223

Number of full-time jobs related to the firearm industry, up from 209,750 in 2012. (NSSF)

$42.9 billion

Estimated overall economic impact of the firearms and ammo industry in the U.S. (NSSF)

20,968,273

Number of firearm background checks initiated in 2014. Because a background check is required before a gun is bought, this numbers gives insight into gun sale trends. However, just because a background check was initiated doesn't mean a gun was purchased. (FBI)

9,138,123

Number of firearm background checks in 1999. (FBI)

5

Average number of firearms owned by a gun owner once you toss out the top 3% of gun owners who own more than 25 guns. (Journal of Injury Prevention)

31%

Percentage of American households with guns. (NORC)

29%, 43.7%, 55.9%

Adults living in a household with firearms: percentage by suburbs, other urban areas, and rural counties, respectively. (NORC)

60%

Percentage of Americans who say personal safety/protection is the reason they own a gun. (Gallup)

$229 billion

The cost of fatal and non-fatal gun violence to the U.S. in 2012, representing 1.4% of total gross domestic product.(Mother Jones)

Read more: America's Gun Business, By the Numbers - NBC News

The Economics of War: The Terrifying Reason Nations Keep Waging War - by Paul Krugman

One of the more enduring myths about waging war is that it helps the economy. Not so, this cold inhumane calculation, Paul Krugman writes today.

Alarmed by the escalation of rhetoric and events in the Ukraine, Krugman casts his shrewd eye on warfare since the start of World War I a century ago, and concludes that we haven't learned much since. "The war to end all wars" just didn't. Why, given the overwhelming amount of evidence that war is ruinous in every way, including economically, would that be so?

First, the columnist takes a quick detour into history:

Once upon a time wars were fought for fun and profit; when Rome overran Asia Minor or Spain conquered Peru, it was all about the gold and silver. And that kind of thing still happens. In influential research sponsored by the World Bank, the Oxford economist Paul Collier has shown that the best predictor of civil war, [4] which is all too common in poor countries, is the availability of lootable resources like diamonds. Whatever other reasons rebels cite for their actions seem to be mainly after-the-fact rationalizations. War in the preindustrial world was and still is more like a contest among crime families over who gets to control the rackets than a fight over principles.

But times have changed, Krugman points out. "If you’re a modern, wealthy nation, however, war — even easy, victorious war — doesn’t pay," he writes. "And this has been true for a long time."

Read more: Krugman on the Terrifying Reason Nations Keep Waging War | Alternet

Global Airport Outlet Retail And Shopping Malls a Profitable Business Model - by Chris LeTourneur

Creating Outlet Shopping Centres is potentially one of the most commercially successful ways of leveraging an airport location.

In the shadow of the global economic crisis, Destination Outlet Shopping Centres are the fastest growing retail concept across the Americas, throughout Europe and in Asia.

The potent combination of premium brand merchandise offered at value prices has attracted local population bases and the travelling public alike to enjoy ‘affordable luxury’.

Given this unique crossover between locals and tourists, Outlet Shopping Centre developers are strategically locating new retail projects at and around international airports to access this broad and appealing customer base.

They are also becoming a vessel for introducing international retail brands into evolving retail markets in countries ranging from Canada and Australia, to the emerging mega-markets of China, Brazil and South Korea.

Destination Factory Outlet Shopping Centres are proving to be one of the more lucrative land uses for airports as they leverage their landside properties to generate non-aeronautical revenue, stimulate regional economic diversification and become more active participants in property development. 

Read more: Outlet retail

Greece's biggest bank turns a Q4 profit

Greece's biggest bank, National Bank of Greece, has reported a sharply narrower loss for 2012 and even says it made a profit in the final three months of the year.

It says it lost 2.14 billion euros ($2.73 billion) as the country continued to struggle in the face of its acute debt crisis. Still that was a big improvement on the previous year when it lost 12.3 billion euros ($15.7 billion).

However, NBG also says Wednesday it made a 315 million euros ($402 million) profit in the last quarter of 2012, and hopes to remain profitable in the first three months of 2013.

CEO Alexandros Tourkolias says these are signs that conditions are getting more normal, and notes that some deposits are returning.

NBG is merging with domestic rival Eurobank.

Read more: Greece's biggest bank turns a Q4 profit - US News and World Report

Seattle Times: Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

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Oil giants try to polish image before latest fat profit gusher - by Elizabeth Douglass

The world's best-known oil companies are pouring on the charm as they get ready to parade another round of fat profits before a public that feels suddenly poorer. The spotlight will shine on Exxon today and Chevron on Friday. Royal Dutch Shell already reported a 71 per cent rise in profits to euro 8.5 billion ($10.9 billion/£6.54 billion) and still counting. The world's second largest oil company's steep rise in profits follows a 148 per cent increase reported by its rival, BP, earlier this week due to record oil prices over the summer.

In 1993, the five biggest publicly traded oil companies — Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips — spent 39 percent of their operating cash flow on development projects, 14 percent on exploration and only 1 percent on buying back their own stock. In 2007, they spent 34 percent on development, 6 percent on exploration and 34 percent on stock buybacks, according to a study co-written by Jaffe. Bottom line: when oil companies spend their money, it's less about you and me than about their shareholders. In many respects, industry experts note, what's good for Big Oil's bottom line isn't necessarily good for Joe Q. Jetta.

Shell's 'obscene euro 17.80 billion profit is biggest ever by British company -

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Shell's 'obscene euro 17.80 billion profit is biggest ever by British company

Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of euro 17.80 billion ($27.5billion, and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax. Shell's profit surge - it is now making a staggering euro 48.65($75million)a day - on the back of a booming oil price that touched euro 64.87 ($100) a barrel this winter, was labeled as "obscene" by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK's largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs. "Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling," said Woodley.

The Washington Post reporting about the obscene profits made by the oil industry noted: By most familiar comparisons, the euro 6.43 billion ($9.92) billion profit earned by Exxon Mobil Corp. in just three months is almost unimaginable. It would cover all Social Security benefit payments for three months. It would pay for an Ivy League education for about 60,000 kids. It would pay the average list price for more than 160 Boeing 737s. It would fund the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for more than two months. Yet oil industry representatives and Exxon Mobil made a game effort to cast the record profit, earned during a quarter in which the Gulf Coast was shattered by hurricanes and gas prices rose well above $3 a gallon, as middling at best.

However the oil industry is not the only one making large profits. Most financial institutions, such as commercial banks, are routinely more profitable than Exxon Mobil was in its third quarter. For example, Exxon Mobil's gross margin of 9.8 cents of profit for every dollar of revenue pales in comparison to Citigroup Inc.'s 15.7 cents in 2004. By percentage of total revenue, banking is consistently the most profitable industry in America, followed closely by the drug industry.It might be all relative but its large in actual numbers.

globeandmail.com: How to kick oil dependency - Shawn McCarthy

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How to kick oil dependency - Shawn McCarthy

Mr. Zubrin offers up a simple answer that he says would dramatically reduce the U.S. dependence on imported oil: The U.S. Congress should mandate that all new cars sold be “flex-fuel vehicles,” or capable of running on either gasoline or biofuels.

The slight, intense aerospace engineer spoke in Ottawa and Toronto at the invitation of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association to promote his book, Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. He says ”OPEC is led by Saudi Arabia, which is becoming ever more obscenely wealthy by controlling energy prices, and which uses its petro-wealth to finance the spread of the extreme branch of Islam that is responsible for much terrorism. The United States is jeopardizing its national security, its economy and the global environment by remaining addicted to high-priced OPEC oil. Even harder hit by the run-up in prices are poor Third World countries."

EU-Digest: : Europeans Offered Bargain Priced Homes And Estates In Scenic And Unspoiled Maine, USA

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Europeans Offered Bargain Priced Homes And Estates In Scenic And Unspoiled Maine, USA

The low dollar rate versus the euro and the depressed Real Estate Market has provided Europeans great Real Estate investment opportunities in the US. Europeans are snapping up homes, apartments and estates in the US like "hot cakes". Buying similar properties in Europe, which they can now buy in the US, would cost them at least three times as much.

Recent US Real Estate sales figures show most of the European purchases so far included vacation homes in Florida, the Carolinas and California, where Real Estate prices are still relatively high. The more serious investors are now also looking at Maine and other "off the beaten track" areas to buy property. For instance, a 14 acres, 5 bedroom ocean side fully equipped property, with its own private beach and unspoiled Pine forest near the picturesque lobster village of Cutler, Maine is selling for $700,000. This is a "steal" for Europeans at approximately 475.000 euro's.

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