MONK / Monarchy Resources — pump and dump spam

Stay away from shares advertised in spam. Whoever is paying the spammer is trying to unload shares onto unsuspecting buyers, who stand to lose most or all of their money if they buy.

Sales Triple

Huge EXTREMELY important update! Get Ready for another New
Trade Idea Tomorrow.

Name: Monarchy Resources
Tick: MO_NK
Trade Date: Aug, 23
Long Term Target: .55
Last Trade: $.2

This Stock is our new baby!!! This Stock could have huge
potential!

BUY Alert

This Company is Getting Wild! Ready for the next level up!

Trade: M O NK
Priced at: $0.20
Company Name: MONARCHY RESOURCES
Trading Date: Aug, 23
Long Term Target: 0.60

This news is going to send it off the charts! It Is Still The Best
Play!

This Company could be the next 10x winner!

Potential Breakout Alert For Tomorrow! Upside Enormous!

Trading Date: Aug 22nd
Sym: MO N K
Short Term Target: .60
Name: Monarchy Resources
Per share price: 0.19

On Immediate Breakout Alert! NEW PICK TOMORROW!

There are dozens more of these spam messages. Buyer beware!

Tepco drowning in radioactive water

A recent leak of 300 tons of highly radioactive water at Fukushima No. 1 has highlighted the long term problems that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) is facing in its struggle to manage the crisis at the wrecked nuclear power station (see Japan Times, 2013-08-21). One massive steel tank had been leaking as much as 10 tons of water a day for a month before the leak was noticed. The water level in the tank dropped by 3 m before anyone noticed. It is not clear yet how the water is escaping.

The water in the tank has been used for cooling the melted reactor cores. Consequently it is highly radioactive from strontium, cesium and tritium. At a distance of 50 cm, as much as 100 millisieverts per hour (mSv/h) were measured. That means a nuclear worker there would absorb as much radiation in one hour as is legally permitted over a total of 5 years.

You might think that with a witches’ brew like that on its hands, Tepco would take every possible precaution to prevent leaks and to monitor fluid levels. Tepco uses both welded steel tanks and temporary tanks for storing contaminated water at Fukushima No. 1. Welded tanks are supposed to be stronger and more leak proof, whereas temporary tanks can be bolted together quickly from sheet metal and plastic. About one third of the over 1000 tanks at Fukushima No. 1 are temporary tanks, including the one that recently leaked. Tanks of this type have been used at the site since December 2011 and they are supposed to last five years before needing repair or replacement. So far 4 of these tanks have leaked, yet Tepco is planning to install even more temporary tanks for storing water. I guess they must be cheaper.

I am curious why the leaks were not detected sooner. Are there no monitoring devices installed that can automatically report water levels?

Tepco is planning to treat the water in the tanks with its ALPS filtering system, which can remove radioactive cesium and strontium from the water, but not tritium. It was meant to start operating this month, but after problems it is now expected to not resume operation until December.

Even after treatment, Tepco will have a water problem. Any water pumped from the turbine halls that has been in contact with the reactor basements has elevated levels of radioactive tritium. No chemical removal system exists for tritium, as it’s an isotope of hydrogen, one of the two elements that make up water. Tepco can not simply evaporate water from those tanks to reduce volume and concentrate contaminants into a smaller volume, as the tritium would be released with water vapour and come down as rain again elsewhere. So what is it going to do? Release it into the atmosphere slowly? Dilute it with sea water? Or store hundreds of thousands of tons of water for hundreds of years? Neither alternative seems very appealing.

Google does an “Apple Maps” to its own Maps

Last night Google proved to me that you don’t have to be Apple to shoot yourself in the foot with a major Maps application release.

Naturally, online maps are a big feature on mobile devices, which is why it’s important to get them right.

Not too long ago Apple ended up with egg on their faces when they introduced their own Maps application to replace Google Maps. Google has just done the same. They rolled out a completely new Maps app starting from the middle of July and yesterday it landed on my Android phone. I was just preparing for a 280 km bicycle trip and had mapped out the route to follow, which I usually use Google Maps for. Imagine my surprise when I found that following an externally mapped route file was no longer supported on the latest Google Maps app: It doesn’t support the “My Maps” feature any more. With “My Maps” you can map a route using a number of third party products and highlight key locations, such as restaurants or shops on the map and assign a name to this. Google Maps then marks these points of interest with asterisks and highlights the route with a coloured line that you can follow easily. Simple but powerful. Well, that’s how it used to be before the “upgrade”.

This is what they say on their official blog:

Finally, My Maps functionality is not supported in this release but will return to future versions of the app.

Sounds to me like they were keen to release a new version of the product, even thought it wasn’t ready yet — just like Apple. Interestingly enough, the iOS version of Google Maps didn’t have the “My Maps” feature either. So what Google has done is to dumb down its flagship product to the level of the inferior version it ships on its competitor’s operating system!

Another annoying omission was the ability to display a scale bar (ruler) illustrating distances on the map, at whatever zoom level. This option has gone. It was quite useful to be able to estimate distances on the map. Without it, I simply don’t have a clue about distances unless I’m totally familiar with the area, in which case I presumably wouldn’t be using Google Maps in the first place.

My temporary fix was to uninstall Google Maps, reverting back to the factory installed version of Google Maps. This gets Google Maps working again, but it’s not sticky. After uninstalling it, the “upgrade” (i.e. downgrade) was back again the following day. Therefore it is important to disable automatic updates in the Google Play settings. Once you do that you will have to manually confirm all updates for apps other than Maps (and you need to avoid confirming Maps updates, which will still be offered).

Other problems that caused user complaints:

  • No more offline maps – the new version only supports map viewing with a mobile data or WiFi connection
  • Removal of +/- (zoom buttons) – zooming in and out now takes two fingers
  • Fewer and less relevant local search results
  • No more green/red/yellow lines along roads to indicate congestion levels
  • Removal of Google Latitude (which I never used)

UPDATE (2013-08-16): Version 7.1.0 appears to have brought back the scale bar. However, I won’t be installing it until My Maps also comes back.

Pump and Dump spam: Building Turbines Inc, Imogo Technologies Inc

Here are recent examples of “pump and dump” stock spams.

Avoid stocks advertised via spam at all costs. Whoever is behind the spam campaign is trying to offload stocks they already own onto unsuspecting buyers. Once the spam campaign stops, prices of and demand for these stocks will collapse and whoever bought them will have to pretty much write off any money they spent on these stocks.

Imogo Technologies, Inc. (IMTC):

Imogo Technologies, Inc. (IM_TC) .14 Cent market value could make you a
millionaire. This hidden cloud computing business Might Be The Largest
Worry To Microsoft’s Windows Platform. The profits you can make is most
certainly astonishing!!! Act on this unique ticker in advance of when Wall
Street Pushes the ticker price significantly higher!

Building Turbines Inc.(BLDW):

US Company Signs Deal to Make Roof Wind Turbines for 90K Sq-Ft
Depot. BUILDING TURBINES INC (PINKSHEETS: B L_D_W) Focuses on
the Design and Manufacture of Patented Roof Top Wind Turbines.

Long Term Target: 0.95
Per share price: $.038
Trade Date: Mon, August 5th, 2013
Tick: B L_D_W
Company: Building Turbines Corp.

Environment Friendly Energy Business Set To Lift Off Next Week.

American Corporation Agrees Agreement to Construct Rooftop Wind Turbines for
90,000 Square Foot Stockroom. Building Turbines, Corp (PINKS: B_LDW) Works on
the Study and Manufacture of Patented Rooftop Wind Turbines.

Trading Date: Aug, 5th
5-Day Target: .60
Company Name: Building Turbines Corp.
Closed yesterday: 0.038
Sym: B_LDW

Renewable Power Business Equipped To Rise When Market Opens!!!

Texas Corporation Cuts Agreement to Construct Rooftop Wind
Turbines for 90 Thousand Sq-Ft Warehouse. BUILDING TURBINES CORP
(PINKS: B L D W) Focuses on the Design and Manufacture of
Copyrighted Rooftop Wind Turbines.

Target Price: 0.20
It is now: .038
Trade Date: Aug 5th
Ticker: B L D W
Company Name: BUILDING TURBINES INC.

Environment Friendly Power Company Equipped To Jump When Market
Opens!!!

2013-08-20 – Monarchy resources (MONK) Pump & Dump spam:

Important Info: The MON K is on the fire. MON K is on a 1st day of
promo and its showing a largest volume on today! Brokers named it a
choice of the summer. And you need to learn why… MONARCHY RESOURCES
is a latest star in financing in mining. The strategy is big. This may
honestly be a $1.15 stock super quick. The promo will follow for three
months and the stock price will explode monthly. Begin profiting
dollars with MON K. Get your $29’000 shares on Aug 20th below 0.43!

and

Earn fast $25’000 immediately! Hello, ready to earn $25’000 by next Friday?
You can make even more if you buy this premium stock on Monday. The stock
symbol is: M_O_N K. Its Monarchy Resources. It sells below 37 cents,
but it could settle $1’80 promptly! Purchase shares of M_O_N K on Aug, 19th
under 37 cents and double your investment! It would be dope to profit
$25’000 by Friday. And its very easy to get. On August 19th order 4’000
shares of M_O_N K and pocket over $25’000 by Friday.