Baltic Dry Index. 952 +30 Brent Crude
54.42
...for,
as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions
remain under EUSSR rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours
that we are fighting, but for freedom – for that alone, which no honest man
gives up but with life itself.
Declaration
of Westminster June 24th 2016, with apologies to the Declaration of
Arbroath April 6th 1320.
We open for the
last full day pre-Trump, with Europe’s growing unsolvable, Brexit problem.
Below reason to think trying to negotiate anything with a committee of 27 plus
the Walloonatics of Belgium, is another definition of insanity. The EUSSR may
not much miss John Bull, but it certainly will miss John Bull’s, Sterling cash.
Malta’s P.M. threatens the other 26. In India, UK Foreign Minister Johnson
denies that Britain is to become a “flying bucket.” China hopes just for the
best. Mrs. Maybe meets the banksters in Davos.
Below, while the
lamest of lame duck Presidents wraps up his final full day, the EUSSR rues the day
that they contemptuously sent Dodgy Dave
Cameron back from his grovelling EU “reform” tour, with an empty envelope to sell
to Britain’s voters. Tomorrow, President Trump.
Dodgy Dave Cameron: My duty is clear.
Juncker: Only the EU authorities can decide when
your duty is clear. Wild guesses by persons like yourself can only cause
confusion.
With apologies to Joe
Orton and Loot.
EU, UK need widest possible free trade deal, Hungary says
Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday the
European Union and Britain should strive for the widest, most comprehensive
possible free trade deal in the wake of Britain's impending exit from the bloc,
or Europe risks economic harm.
He added that even though Brexit was "bad news for Europe as well
as Hungary" the European Union must not penalize London in any way for the
decision, and urged close cooperation between Europe and Britain in the areas
of security and labor.
Szijjarto warned that the UK is likely to make quick trade deals with
other nations, posing a risk to Europe if it proves less competitive.
EU's Juncker says wants 'balanced solution' in Brexit negotiations
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday he would
seek a balanced deal for Britain and the European Union during London's exit
negotiations.
"I will do everything so that this negotiation ends with a balanced
solution while fully respecting our rules," Juncker told the European
Parliament in Strasbourg.
Brexit deal must be inferior to EU membership: Maltese PM
A deal between the European Union and Britain after the country has left
the bloc must be inferior to full membership, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph
Muscat said on Wednesday.
"We want a fair deal for the United Kingdom, but that deal
necessarily needs to be inferior to membership," Muscat, whose country
holds the rotating presidency of the European Council in the first half of
2017, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
"Thinking it can be otherwise would indicate a detachment from
reality," he added.
Brexit will deal a 'shock' to the EU's budget, Brussels think-tank warns as it says there is 'no easy way' to replace Britain's £8.5bn a year contributions
Without the UK, EU budget would face a 'permanent funding gap,' report warns
Member states will either have to increase their share of budget contributions or the EU will have to cut spending
'Brexit gap' could pit rich and poor nations against each other in a budget war
|
The EU must
brace itself for a 'shock' when it comes to filling the hole in its budget left
by Britain's €10billion (£8.5bn) a year contributions, a Brussels think-tank
has warned.
The remaining 27 member states will have to decide
whether to increase their share of budget contributions, cut spending or a
combination of the two, the report said.
But the research by the Jacques Delors Institute
warned there is 'no easy way to fill the "Brexit
gap" of around €10billion per year'.
It will pit rich and poor member states against
each other in what could become a hostile budget war in the upcoming
negotiations on the bloc's income, set for next year, the report
said.
This prospect 'spells trouble' for the budget
negotiations. Net-contributors such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have
complained in the past at having to pay extra payments to subsidise nations
such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
The policy paper, titled 'Brexit and the EU Budget:
Threat or Opportunity,' warns: 'It is clear that Brexit will deal a shock to
the EU budget.'
It adds: 'Overall, we find that Brexit could
have a quite significant, although not devastating, impact on the EU budget and
would likely deepen the existing cleavage between ‘net contributors’ and ‘net
recipients’.
More
EU shouldn't mete out trade punishment over Brexit: Johnson
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Wednesday compared any attempt to
punish Britain for leaving the European Union to a World War Two escape movie,
saying both sides would do better to strike a mutually beneficial trade deal.
Speaking in New Delhi a day after Prime Minister Theresa May laid out
the case for a "hard Brexit", in which Britain leaves the European
single market, Johnson said attempts to curb free trade cut both ways.
He was answering a question on comments made earlier by an aide to
French President Francois Hollande who said Britain should not expect a better
trading relationship with Europe once it was outside the common market of 500
million people.
"If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings that anyone
chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I
don't think that's the way forward," Johnson answered.
"It's not in the interests of our friends or our partners."
Johnson's comments to the Raisina Dialogue, a geopolitical conference
hosted by the Indian foreign ministry and the Observer Research Foundation,
will be scrutinized back home to see whether he is straying from May's message,
delivered in a landmark speech in London on Tuesday.
In his prepared remarks Johnson - a leading face of the successful
campaign to vote "leave" in a referendum last June - said Britain
should embrace free trade not only with Europe but with the wider world.
"We want to be outside the cathedral but support it like a flying
buttress," Johnson said, adding in an aside that he had been mistranslated
when he had made the same remark in an earlier speech to say Britain wanted to
be a "flying bucket".
More
China says hopes for 'win-win' deal between Britain, EU
China's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday it hoped Britain and the
European Union could reach a "win-win" agreement on Britain's
departure from the bloc, after Prime Minister Theresa May said it would quit
the EU single market when it left.
May promised to seek the greatest possible access to European markets
but said Britain would aim to establish its own free trade deals with countries
far beyond Europe, and rein in immigration from the continent.
Prior to last year's Brexit vote, China had not directly stated an
opinion, viewing it as an internal matter and saying only that it wanted to see
a strong and stable Europe.
Diplomatic sources, however, said that was coded support for the
defeated "remain" camp, as the bloc, now China's largest trading
partner, will lose around a sixth of its economic output and an important
supporter of free trade in the EU.
China, like everyone else, is paying close attention to future
negotiations on Britain leaving the EU, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua
Chunying said.
"We hope that Britain and the EU can reach a win-win agreement via
negotiations," she told a daily news briefing.
Hua reiterated that China has consistently supported the European
integration process, and believes a prosperous, stable and open EU is in
everyone's interests.
"At the same time, we also attach great importance to relations
with Britain, we set store on Britain's position and role, and are willing to
continue strengthening mutually beneficial, win-win cooperation in all areas
with Britain."
In August, the Commerce Ministry said China had an open attitude towards
a free trade deal with Britain once it left the EU and was willing to study it,
though Hua made no mention of this.
More
May Meets Wall Streeters in Davos as Banks Plan Brexit Exodus
by Stephen Morris, Michael J Moore, and Simon Kennedy
19 January 2017, 05:00 GMT
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May will meet the leaders of the global finance
industry on Thursday as both she and they push ahead with their own plans for
Brexit.Two days after delivering her vision for pulling Britain out of the European Union’s single market, May will address the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and also attend a private session with Wall Street executives.
May will reiterate a theme of her Tuesday speech by saying Britain is aiming to boost global trade and remains open for business, a person familiar with the matter said. She will also again argue it’s important to ensure more people feel the benefits of globalization.
The talks will take place as bankers start revealing more about how they will shift jobs to preserve their ability to service the EU market if May’s plan makes London operations unworkable. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said on Wednesday that “it looks like there will be more job movement than we hoped for,” while HSBC Holdings Plc CEO Stuart Gulliver said staff generating about 20 percent of London revenue may move to Paris.
Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s largest mortgage lender, is set to pick Frankfurt as its base for guaranteeing ties to the EU following Brexit, according to a person familiar with the matter.
More
“We’re
going, we’re going,” keep saying London’s rent-seeking, gambling gangster
banksters, but not a single crooked, subsidised, UK based bankster has yet left
London Town. If they want to live in high tax, unsafe Paris, or incredibly dull
Frankfurt, so be it, but they’ll be last in the line when the next crisis hits
and they need another bailout from the central bank. Next crisis in Frankfurt
at the ECB, saving Deutsche Bank or Lloyds Banking Group Plc? Hmm, tricky.
The
EUSSR: The gods too are fond of a joke.
With
apologies to Aristotle
At the Comex silver depositories
Wednesday final figures were: Registered 28.58 Moz, Eligible 153.02 Moz,
Total 181.60 Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
Today the increasingly dodgy world of art collecting. Old
Masters ain’t what they used to be, thanks to “the
modern synthetic pigment phthalocyanine green." Probably best
not to lick the brush, or was that only with water colours?
Another Old Master Fake Nailed as Sotheby’s Wants Its Money Back
by Katya Kazakina
17 January 2017, 21:49 GMT
Five years after a painting attributed to the circle of Old Master Girolamo
Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, fetched $842,500 at Sotheby’s
Inc., the auction house declared the painting a forgery, made nearly four
centuries after the Italian artist died in 1540.Sotheby’s is seeking to be reimbursed by the seller of “Saint Jerome,” according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. The seller, Luxembourg resident Lionel de Saint Donat-Pourrieres, received $672,000 from Sotheby’s (net of the buyer’s premium), but “refused to return the proceeds of the sale,” the company said in court papers. The auction house said it is giving the buyer a full refund.
The case is the latest fake to be discovered in the Old Master trade. Last year, Sotheby’s returned $10 million to the buyer of a painting attributed to Frans Hals after it determined the work was a forgery. As with Parmigianino, Hals’s authenticity issue was determined by Orion Analytical LLC, whose founder James Martin is considered a leading forensic scientist and expert in art authentication.
In December, Sotheby’s acquired Orion Analytical and started a special department for scientific research headed by Martin.
Like
the Hals, Saint Jerome was linked to Giuliano Ruffini, who, "according to
media reports, is under investigation for selling a considerable number of Old
Master Paintings that are considered to be modern forgeries,” Sotheby’s said in
the complaint. A 16th century painting of Venus, attributed to German master
Lucas Cranach the Elder, was seized by French authorities in March on suspicion
that it was fake. It had been sold for 7 million euros ($6.5 million) to the
Prince of Liechtenstein in 2013, according to the Art Newspaper.
Sotheby’s contract with the seller says that the company can rescind the sale if the painting turns out to be a counterfeit, according to the court papers. Martin examined pigment samples from 21 different areas of the painting. Each contained “the modern synthetic pigment phthalocyanine green," which was first used in paints in the twentieth century, Sotheby’s said.
De Saint Donat-Pourrieres couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
More
Solar & Related Update.
With events
happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap
AC or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards? DC?
A quantum computer next?
Eight Crossings and 192 Atoms Long: the Tightest Knot Ever Tied
By JAN.
16, 2017
British scientists have tied the tightest knot ever
tied and, as unlikely as it may seem, this is important.
Knots are useful in everyday life and specific kinds
of knots are suitable for specific tasks — bowlines, cleats, hitches and nooses
all hold things together in different ways. The same is true on the molecular
level, where braided or knotted strings of atoms and molecules can be put
together in different patterns with varying characteristics.
Until now, scientists have been able to create only
simple molecular knots with three or five crossings of strands. Now
researchers, in a study published in Science, have
described a way to tie a much more complicated, and therefore much stronger,
knot.
Everyone knows, for example, that Kevlar is very
strong — impenetrable even to a bullet. But why? Its molecules connect to form
long chains that run parallel to each other. Together these molecules form an
extremely strong yet flexible material.
But the structure of Kevlar is relatively simple:
identical molecules packed tightly next to each other like pencils in a pencil
box. Knotted or woven strands of molecules, on the other hand, can potentially
create an even more flexible, lighter and stronger material — a tightly knit
sweater on the molecular level.
To create their stronger knot, a team of researchers
mixed oxygen, nitrogen and carbon in a solution with metal ions. The organic
molecules wrap themselves around sticky iron ions and chloride ions, crossing
in just the right ways and at just the right points. The loose ends were then
sealed together chemically, forming a completely tied knot with eight
crossings. The number of crossings made the knot much tighter than anything
that had ever been achieved before at the molecular level. The entire loop is
tiny, the length of 192 atoms.
David A. Leigh, a chemistry professor at the
University of Manchester and a co-author of the study, said that while the
technique was still some time away from any practical application, the
potential is clear.
“Knotting and weaving have led to breakthrough
technologies since prehistoric times, when men first learned to make fishing
nets or weave fabrics to keep warm,” he said. “Knots are just as important at
the molecular level, but we can’t exploit them until we learn how to make
them.”
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished December
DJIA: 19763
+74 Up NASDAQ: 5383 +70 Up. SP500: 2239 +75 Up
No comments:
Post a Comment