Signal or noise on Wall Street?

January 21, 2016 - Daily News Briefing

A turbulent stock market might be hinting at problems in the overall economy. More likely, there's no connection.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

Oregon locals impacted by the armed standoff at a national wildlife refuge on Tuesday told organizer Ammon Bundy that he had made his point and needs to end the protest. Many locals have been supportive of the issues and concerns surrounding federal land ownership raised by the occupiers, but the residents of nearby Burns, Ore., are saying with increasing vehemence that they are more afraid of possible results of the standoff. Many locals have become frustrated by the standoff at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which has turned their rural community of fewer than 3,000 into a conflict zone, albeit a non-violent one.

The FBI is currently investigating a Kent State University professor with possible ties to Islamic terrorists. History professor Julio “Assad” Pino, known for his anti-Israel rhetoric, has been under federal investigation for the past year and half, an anonymous source with the Federal Bureau of Investigation told the Kent University news service. For his part, Dr. Pino says he does not have any type of connection with the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. Pino was born in Cuba and later converted to Islam. Authorities say recovered Facebook posts suggest that he’s sympathetic to terrorist causes.

Once again, Islamic militants stormed a school in northeastern Pakistan in a deadly attack that lasted for hours. And once again, the blood of students and teachers stained classrooms and hallways, raising questions about whether security forces are able to protect the country's educational institutions from extremists. At least 20 people were killed and 23 were wounded Wednesday in the assault at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda before the four gunmen were slain and the military declared an end to the siege.

In a comprehensive study of all the world’s fisheries, including small-scale or illegal ones, a team of researchers found that catches have been declining three times faster than the United Nations had projected. Since the peak of marine fishery production in 1996, at 130 million metric tons, catches have declined every year by more than one million metric tons. The study authors suggest that this is because of overexploitation and hope the results will help inform countries' fisheries management practices.

Last year was the planet's hottest on average since record-keeping began, and the reports released Wednesday have the scientists who predicted it thumping backs. NASA, the British Met Office, and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agreed that warming due to greenhouse-gas build-up and an active Pacific El Niño combined to make 2015 a record year. The global average temperature for 2015 was 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.13 Celsius higher than 2014, which held the previous record, according to NASA.

We put a man on the moon, but "password" is still the second-most common password on the Internet. The annual list of America's "worst passwords" reveals the 25 most-popular – and therefore most easily guessed by hackers – passwords, according to SplashData. The most-used password is the immortal "123456" followed by "password." About 3 percent of Americans risk their Internet security by using one of the top 25 passwords, although the number of people using popular passwords has gone down since 2011, according to TeamsID.

Forget coloring alone. Adult coloring-book fans can now meet one another at social events in libraries and Internet meet-up groups. The American Library Association, for instance, is now offering adult coloring programs to meet the growing interest. Events will be held in cities including New York City, Denver, and Milwaukee. The adult coloring phenomenon emerged a few years ago, when artists began to publish intricate coloring books that feature outlined illustrations of just about everything, including flowers, abstract renderings, and even Bill Murray. Now, bookstores are filled with these niche products.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error