Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

[xyzzy099]

Civil servants do not get a cut of the money from the auction; that money goes to the Treasury (or to some general fund for the public good).  They are motivated by gold stars in their resumé, that eventually lead to promotions.  Catching and convicting criminals yields gold stars for all involved.  Carrying out a smooth auction of a weird item, with no complaints of bad press,  also yields gold stars.  They do not care if the auction messes the market or gets a lousy price, but they worry about doing something stupid that could stain their resumés -- such as auctioning a bunch of seized game tickets after the game, or auctioning so much stuff at one time that they cannot get enough bidders for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/police-use-department-wish-list-when-deciding-which-assets-to-seize.html?_r=0

The seminars offered police officers some useful tips on seizing property from suspected criminals. Don’t bother with jewelry (too hard to dispose of) and computers (“everybody’s got one already”), the experts counseled. Do go after flat screen TVs, cash and cars. Especially nice cars.

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In the sessions, officials share tips on maximizing profits, defeating the objections of so-called “innocent owners” who were not present when the suspected offense occurred, and keeping the proceeds in the hands of law enforcement and out of general fund budgets. The Times reviewed three sessions, one in Santa Fe, N.M., that took place in September, one in New Jersey that was undated, and one in Georgia in September that was not videotaped.

Officials offered advice on dealing with skeptical judges, mocked Hispanics whose cars were seized, and made comments that, the Institute for Justice said, gave weight to the argument that civil forfeiture encourages decisions based on the value of the assets to be seized rather than public safety. In the Georgia session, the prosecutor leading the talk boasted that he had helped roll back a Republican-led effort to reform civil forfeiture in Georgia, where seized money has been used by the authorities, according to news reports, to pay for sports tickets, office parties, a home security system and a $90,000 sports car.

[jonoiv]

It doesn't matter if you use moving averages or not, we have not had a double bottom because the second dip had far less volume and it should have had more.  $300 is likely to be retested and it may not hold.

I don't personally care either way because I have a pile of coins to sell if it goes up and a pile of cash to trade if it goes down. What I am most afraid of is a slow grind down and a slog through resistance on low volume. If that happens, then the next stop down is ~270.

The old "i don't care" clause...  

[lyth0s]

Someone that lives in Japan should start a bitcoin marketing campaign. Whether it be with flyers, youtube videos, getting shops to accept bitcoin or Japan's own version of BitPagos etc.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/17/us-japan-economy-idUSKCN0J00X820141117

There is a lot of opportunity coming up for people to get worried about their domestic fiat problems and switch to sound money

[Walsoraj]

http://www.ripplecharts.com/

XRP is approaching $0.006. It was floating near $0.0045 when I recommended full-bull late August. Dollar parity/moon imminent!  

*edit*

Jorge, plz confirm. 

[ChartBuddy]

Explanation

[jonoiv]

http://www.ripplecharts.com/

XRP is approaching $0.006. It was floating near $0.0045 when I recommended full-bull late August. Dollar parity/moon imminent!  

*edit*

Jorge, plz confirm. 

Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

please go to the Ripple forum.  

[JorgeStolfi]

Jorge, plz confirm. 

Sorry, confirmation would require proof of work, and there is a difficulty there ...   

[Walsoraj]

http://www.ripplecharts.com/

XRP is approaching $0.006. It was floating near $0.0045 when I recommended full-bull late August. Dollar parity/moon imminent!  

*edit*

Jorge, plz confirm.  

Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

please go to the Ripple forum.  

Ripple is relevant because it's Bitcoin's No. 1 competitor.

*edit*

Alternatively, I've contributed so much to this thread that I've earned the right to post an occasional irrelevant comment.

[Templer]

http://www.ripplecharts.com/

XRP is approaching $0.006. It was floating near $0.0045 when I recommended full-bull late August. Dollar parity/moon imminent!  

*edit*

Jorge, plz confirm.  

Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

please go to the Ripple forum.  

Ripple is relevant because it's Bitcoin's No. 1 competitor.

Please man....do your own thread or stop posting here the ripple things.

[hmmkay]

http://www.ripplecharts.com/

XRP is approaching $0.006. It was floating near $0.0045 when I recommended full-bull late August. Dollar parity/moon imminent!  

*edit*

Jorge, plz confirm.  

Re: Wall Observer BTC/USD - Bitcoin price movement tracking & discussion

please go to the Ripple forum.  

Ripple is relevant because it's Bitcoin's No. 1 competitor.

*edit*

Alternatively, I've contributed so much to this thread that I've earned the right to post an occasional irrelevant comment.

Derp dee derp.

[hmmmstrange]

Are you suggesting that the total value of seized assets they process has no effect on the number of gold stars on their resume?
Civil asset forfeiture does not need to go directly into the pockets of civil servants to create financial incentives.

Indeed it has little effect.  Seizing a large amount of money or drugs gives media exposure, and that is good for people's career; but it does not make much difference whether it was 10 million dollars or 30 million, 300 pounds of cocaine or 900 pounds.  The gold stars in the SR case rained mainly from the message "FBI sank the flagship of the Dark Web".

Consider that the prestige of a politician or general does not depend on how much money he wastes or brings to the economy.  

It all comes from the fact that those we public servants are managing other people's property (for seized assets are property of the people of the US), and the owners of that property don't know what is going on, and have very little control over it.

Why are you referencing "public servants" in the third person?

[ShroomsKit]

Why do you people keep quoting that idiot Stolfi? Why? Don't you still not get it. If you say white he says black, when you say right he says left. He only does this because of his sick need for attention. The subject is irrelevant. He will always say the opposite just so you reply to him.
Stop doing it. Don't give that retard what he wants.

[Walsoraj]

Why do you people keep quoting that idiot Stolfi? Why? Don't you still not get it. If you say white he says black, when you say right he says yes. He only does this because of his sick need for attention. The subject is irrelevant. He will always say the opposite just so you reply to him.
Stop doing it. Don't give that retard what he wants.

So he will turn bull if we start agreeing with him?

[JorgeStolfi]

Civil servants do not get a cut of the money from the auction; that money goes to the Treasury (or to some general fund for the public good).  They are motivated by gold stars in their resumé, that eventually lead to promotions.  Catching and convicting criminals yields gold stars for all involved.  Carrying out a smooth auction of a weird item, with no complaints of bad press,  also yields gold stars.  They do not care if the auction messes the market or gets a lousy price, but they worry about doing something stupid that could stain their resumés -- such as auctioning a bunch of seized game tickets after the game, or auctioning so much stuff at one time that they cannot get enough bidders for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/police-use-department-wish-list-when-deciding-which-assets-to-seize.html?_r=0

The seminars offered police officers some useful tips on seizing property from suspected criminals. Don’t bother with jewelry (too hard to dispose of) and computers (“everybody’s got one already”), the experts counseled. Do go after flat screen TVs, cash and cars. Especially nice cars.

In the sessions, officials share tips on maximizing profits, defeating the objections of so-called “innocent owners” who were not present when the suspected offense occurred, and keeping the proceeds in the hands of law enforcement and out of general fund budgets. The Times reviewed three sessions, one in Santa Fe, N.M., that took place in September, one in New Jersey that was undated, and one in Georgia in September that was not videotaped.

Officials offered advice on dealing with skeptical judges, mocked Hispanics whose cars were seized, and made comments that, the Institute for Justice said, gave weight to the argument that civil forfeiture encourages decisions based on the value of the assets to be seized rather than public safety. In the Georgia session, the prosecutor leading the talk boasted that he had helped roll back a Republican-led effort to reform civil forfeiture in Georgia, where seized money has been used by the authorities, according to news reports, to pay for sports tickets, office parties, a home security system and a $90,000 sports car.

Yeah, if you assume corruption, all bets are off.  Perhaps someone is afraid that his 75'000 BTC bribe may lose value by the time the defendant is acquitted on some technicality, and thought it better to cash it now.

Not particularly relevant, but a few years ago the Campinas police seized 130 kg of cocaine, the largest loot ever in the city.  They didn't have a lare enough safe, so they put it in an empty room in the Coroner's Office.  Unlocked. Unguarded.  Need I say that by the next day it was gone? And that, to this day, the police has no clue as to what happened?

[NotLambchop]

...
Why are you referencing "public servants" in the third person?

He's one of them fancy pants academics, a teacher.  Though I suppose you're right, teachers are public servants too, and just as likely to be corrupt as some backwater sheriff.
Who knows what sort of dark shit he's indoctrinating our impressionable children into--socialist homosexuality, I recon

[Walsoraj]

...

Not particularly relevant, but a few years ago the Campinas police seized 130 kg of cocaine, the largest loot ever in the city.  They didn't have a lare enough safe, so they put it in an empty room in the Coroner's Office.  Unlocked. Unguarded.  Need I say that by the next day it was gone? And that, to this day, the police has no clue as to what happened?

Ideas & Trends; Help Wanted Invoking the Not-Too-High-IQ Test
By MIKE ALLEN
Published: September 19, 1999

WANTED: a few not-so-bright cops.

That is the official hiring policy in this former whaling village, where Police Department officials refused to grant Robert J. Jordan a job interview because they considered him to be too smart, then waged a three-year court fight to protect their right to favor mediocre applicants.

And won.

The City of New London contends that applicants who score too high on a pre-employment test are likely to become bored in patrol jobs, and leave the force soon after the city has paid to train them. Similar cutoffs, it turns out, are frequently used by employers when they are looking for workers who must follow rigid procedures, including bank tellers, customer service representatives and security guards.
In 1996 Mr. Jordan scored 33 out of 50 on the exam, which is used by 40,000 employers across the country, including National Football League teams for potential draft choices. That was 6 points too high to qualify for an interview with the New London police.

When Mr. Jordan heard about other people being hired even though he hadn't been called, he went to the Police Department to protest that he felt sure he must have passed. He says he was curtly informed that he did not ''fit the profile,'' which litigation revealed was a score of 20 to 27.

''Bob Jordan is exactly the type of guy we would want to screen out,'' said William C. Gavitt, the deputy police chief, who interviews candidates. ''Police work is kind of mundane. We don't deal in gunfights every night. There's a personality that can take that.''

This month, a Federal judge in New Haven has ruled that the practice was constitutional since the city treats all smart would-be officers the same, and thus did not discriminate against Mr. Jordan. ''Plaintiff may have been disqualified unwisely but he was not denied equal protection,'' Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court wrote.

Mr. Jordan, 48, is a life-insurance salesman who had dreamed of a second career protecting and serving, with an eye on the pension. He said he was astounded that he could be shut out on the basis of brain power, but not gender, sexual orientation or race.

''Being reasonably intelligent does not make you part of a protected class,'' he said, chuckling at his new command of legalese. For a certified wise man, Mr. Jordan is remarkably modest about his academic achievements, volunteering that it took him 26 years to get a bachelor's degree in literature from Charter Oak State College in New Britain, Conn. ''I'm eminently trainable,'' he said. ''I'm not up there with Mozart.''

At first the decision was greeted as a great punch line in New London, a city of 27,000. But as the news sunk in, many people said the rule was insulting to their police force, and nonsensical at a time when law-enforcement officers must deal with complicated social problems.

''Your average dunderhead is not the person you want to try to solve a fight between a man and his wife at 2 A.M.,'' said Nick Checker, 35, a local playwright. ''I'd rather have them hire the right man or woman for the job and keep replacing them than have the same moron for 20 years.'' Millie McLaughlin, 82, the lunch lady at Harbor Elementary School, worries that pupils will think that ''if they study too hard, they won't get a job.''

And Gilbert G. Gallegos, the national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said that besides reinforcing keystone Kop stereotypes, the city's stance was self-defeating. ''The better the caliber of the police officer, the fewer problems you have in the community.''

Mr. Jordan had run afoul of turnover rates, which have been the subject of decades of study by management theorists. The publisher of the test, Wonderlic Inc. of Libertyville, Ill., has a section in its ''User's Manual'' warning clients about the cost of replacing workers who quit because they become dissatisfied with repetitive work. ''Simply hiring the highest scoring employee can be self-defeating,'' the manual says.

Wonderlic's president, Charles F. Wonderlic Jr., said variations of the 12-minute test used in New London have been given to 125 million people since his grandfather founded the company in 1937. Mr. Wonderlic said hundreds of employers have used his suggested maximum scores to exclude overly qualified applicants for positions where creativity could be a detriment. ''You can't decide not to read someone their Miranda rights because you felt it would be more efficient, or you thought they knew them already,'' Mr. Wonderlic said.

On the other hand, an expert witness for Mr. Jordan was paid $350 an hour for his conclusion that patrol work is ''cognitively complex and intellectually demanding.'' The expert, Frank J. Landy, a psychologist in Walnut Creek, Calif., pointed to the demands of such modern practices as community-oriented policing as an indication of ''the range and challenge of tasks performed by a typical patrol officer.''

MR. Jordan said he would appeal the ruling if his lawyers are willing to continue the case now that he has used up his savings. In the meantime, he is supplementing his insurance business by working for $26,000 a year -- $15,000 less than he would make as a New London patrolman -- as a state prison guard. ''In those dormitories, there's 110 inmates and one of you,'' he said. ''Your mouth better be connected to your brain.''

While those with badges and guns are called New York's finest, they will continue to be New London's fair to middling: New London officials say they plan to keep using the test to fend off smarty-pants.

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/19/weekinreview/ideas-trends-help-wanted-invoking-the-not-too-high-iq-test.html

Court OKs Barring High IQs for Cops
N E W   L O N D O N,  Conn., Sept. 8, 2000

A man whose bid to become a police officer was rejected after he scored too high on an intelligence test has lost an appeal in his federal lawsuit against the city.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that the city did not discriminate against Robert Jordan because the same standards were applied to everyone who took the test.

“This kind of puts an official face on discrimination in America against people of a certain class,” Jordan said today from his Waterford home. “I maintain you have no more control over your basic intelligence than your eye color or your gender or anything else.”

He said he does not plan to take any further legal action.

Jordan, a 49-year-old college graduate, took the exam in 1996 and scored 33 points, the equivalent of an IQ of 125. But New London police interviewed only candidates who scored 20 to 27, on the theory that those who scored too high could get bored with police work and leave soon after undergoing costly training.

Most Cops Just Above Normal The average score nationally for police officers is 21 to 22, the equivalent of an IQ of 104, or just a little above average.

Jordan alleged his rejection from the police force was discrimination. He sued the city, saying his civil rights were violated because he was denied equal protection under the law.

But the U.S. District Court found that New London had “shown a rational basis for the policy.” In a ruling dated Aug. 23, the 2nd Circuit agreed. The court said the policy might be unwise but was a rational way to reduce job turnover.

Jordan has worked as a prison guard since he took the test.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836

[ChartBuddy]

Explanation

[JorgeStolfi]

Why are you referencing "public servants" in the third person?

No particular reason.  Don't traders often refer to traders (bitcoiners to bitcoiners, males to males, ...) in the third person too?

[JorgeStolfi]

Why do you people keep quoting that idiot Stolfi? Why? Don't you still not get it. If you say white he says black, when you say right he says yes. He only does this because of his sick need for attention. The subject is irrelevant. He will always say the opposite just so you reply to him.
Stop doing it. Don't give that retard what he wants.

Thanks for giving me what I want. 

[mah87]

Ripple on its way to 1$