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cyberbarf VOLUME 19 No 8 EXAMINE THE NET WAY OF LIFE FEBRUARY, 2021
GAMING THE SYSTEM iTOONS FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET AN OLD FRIEND RETURNS WHETHER REPORT
©2021 Ski Words, Cartoons & Illustrations All Rights Reserved Worldwide Distributed by pindermedia.com, inc
cyberculture, commentary, cartoons, essays
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The New Year may begin with major disappointments but Stay Safe, Be Positive.
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cyberbarf GAMING THE SYSTEM ARTICLE The difference between the rich and poor is that the rich have their money working for them while the poor have to work for money. Investing is the true way for long term wealth creation. The status quo was upset in January, 2021 when a band of reddit small investors decided to create a short squeeze panic against hedge funds who had bet 100 percent of GameStop stock would go bust as the next Blockbuster. The small raiders began buying the Gamester stock. It started at $18/share. Within weeks, the stock surged to $347/share. Market manipulation is a major concern for stock exchanges and companies since the markets are the source of business capital and borrowing. The integrity of the system and its checks and balances was under attack by a small group of investors using retail stock apps like Robinhood and WallSt web threads. It has drawn the ire of exchanges, clearing houses and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC handles criminal investigations into insider trading and market manipulation schemes. It has opened an investigation into the Gamester case. But it has not stopped reddit investors looking to continue to pile on and find new stocks to exploit. Andrew Left, founder and CEO of Citron, announced that after 20 years his firm will stop publishing research on companies that it believes are overvalued. It will instead focus on more positive reports. The move comes one week after Left posted a letter to his website saying he contacted the FBI after being harassed and traders who were incensed by a Citron report recommending that investors bet on GamesterŐs decline. Left, 50, has indeed tangled with famous hedgies in the past. “I'm Dr. Frankenstein,” an exhausted Left told the New York Post as the so-called Reddit Rally hit its manic. He helped create whole short research thing years ago but “I never thought my monster would turn on me like this.” Keith Gill, 34, is the Redditor who led an army of average, small retail traders to drive up the cost of Gamester Gill, who until recently had a day job for a life insurance company, is the force that fueled the Gamester roller coaster that funds billions of dollars into the red and bloated a flailing video game company, well beyond its real value. Gill has caught the attention of Congress, the Federal Reserve and likely even the Securities Commission, has long been a proponent of unloved stocks. He first invested $53,000 into Gamester in June 2019, when around $5 a share - - - a move that people at the time called crazy as the video game company grappled with its financial problems and a changing gaming model. But he held firm, and others got on board, driving the stock higher and higher and setting off one of the most dramatic short recent history- - - one that which actually worked. It was reported that he may have allegedly made $20 million in this frenzy. Wall Street's broiled market did not stop as the renegade traders took new short targets under their wing, including American Airlines and AMC, two companies bettered by the pandemic shutdown. Then, during the second wave, online trading platform Robinhood froze some transactions as short-sellers reported billion in losses so far this year. The traders and grass roots advocates deplored the stoppage of small investor trades. But Robinhood CEO told Yahoo Finance that the reason was its clearing house could not handle the risk of all these trades. For each share transaction, it must go through a third party which actually completes the trade between buyer and seller. It usually takes three days to complete. But during that intervening time, wide fluctuations in share prices puts the clearing house at risk since it is essentially guaranteeing the buyer will get his shares at the agreed price. The shutdown quickly provoked the ire of the amateur investors, and a class-action lawsuit was brought against Robinhood. The reddit users implored each other to hold firm and not to sell their shares in the rising tide. This would create a smaller market of available shares for short traders to cover their positions, thereby increasing the cost of replacement shares. A short seller borrows shares from a holder with the promise to return it after a certain number of days. The short seller is betting that the share price for the stock is going to drop, so he can buy the replacement level cheaper than profit the difference. Despite the protests, the move succeeded in edging the market back towards the status quo, as prices of shares started to back down toward earth. However, the chaos still put a sizable dent into large traders' short-selling numbers. Such traders are staring down the barrel of estimated losses of $70.87 billion on their short positions in companies so far this year, according to data analytics firm Ortex. There are inherit risks in trading stocks. Unseen forces can change the sentiment of a stock or sector. But this rocket launch created by a band of outsider investors has shaken Wall Street insiders who no longer can anticipate market trends and volatility. There is a new force in the market which large firms used to prey upon, the small investor. With the help of the internet and simple trading platforms, the little guy beat the big hedge funds at their own game.
iToons
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cyberbarf FOUND BUT NOT LOST ON THE INTERNET
K-netizens were surprised to see a photograph of actress-singer Yoona playing a mobile version of League of Legends, a very popular combat game. It should come as no surprise to those who know actors have very long shooting days. They often get up at 5 a.m. to get to a set and may not leave until midnight. But during the day, there is a lot of down time between shoots. It is not unusual to kill time by playing a game or surfing the net. Source: Allkpop
The pandemic has not muted the creativity of people. With the winter pounds adding up from food deliveries, a clever Japanese company, Fellisimo, has come up with the chicken pillow. Each pillow comes with a smart phone pouch. People are encouraged to play ASMR sounds of chickening frying as you fall asleep. Source: Neatorama
Creativity is not just in product development. We are constantly amazed by the human ability to create new art and art forms. Artist Kotetsu very cleverly uses cut-out cardboard overlaid over photographs to create a visually pleasing new art piece. Source: Neatorama
AN OLD FRIEND RETURNS CYBERSAFARI IRONY Around Thanksgiving, there was a YouTube video that caught our attention. Just like the rare Eric Clapton song, Hello, Old Friend, there it was . . . a reunion of the cast of the old G4 Network. The premise was set in a fan's basement. The few X-Play and Attack of the Show's personalities were present to talk about their shows. It seemed like one long G4 skit, but it seemed a little too dated. The interaction between Kevin and Olivia seemed forced. The highlight was them showing highlights from the original shows. There was a lot of fly-by-night creative fun on those shows, especially AotS which aired live. This special was a precursor of the announcement that G4 was going to return in early 2021. Variety reported “After nearly six years sitting in mothballs, the G4 video-game TV network is coming back - - - with some kind of relaunch next year by Comcast.(T)he Twitter accounts of G4TV and G4's Attack of the Show! and X-Play, two popular shows on the network, both posted the same cryptic teaser video, captioned with “We never stopped playing.” The video culminates with the numerals “2021.” IGN, the game and entertainment publication owned by Ziff Davis, also posted a version of the video (two minutes before the G4 account did). The teasers were timed for Comic-Con@Home, the first virtual streaming edition of the annual fan convention. It is ironic that Comcast, the network that killed the show in the first place, is now bringing it back (in a new form). The new G4 will be a new hybrid creator-content model, producing videos for various platforms like Twitch, YouTube, etc. There was a call out to viewers to comment about what shows they wanted back on the air. Of course, X-Play, which savagely reviewed new games like a badger on a honeycomb, and Attack of the Show, which had a good following.
Screencap from G4/YouTube Cyberbarf fans may find the above picture familiar. Actually, it is a little ironic that G4 is coming back after a long hiatus. We enjoyed Attack of the Show. When we came home from work, it was on LIVE. It could be informative and entertaining . . . at the same time. It had that free form college radio vibe. But when it was going off the air, we knew it was going to be sorely missed. In order to keep that spirit alive,in 2013 Ski created Show Hack!, a monthly comic which is a satire of a parody of a cable cyberculture show. The Real News Komix is set on a Deep Cable channel, pretty much out-of-sight, out-of-mind for management. It dealt with various issues from current events (The Real News), technology (TechPorn) and good, bad and ugly of broadcast television. Just like the real shows, the comic's cast of characters has changed, developed and grown. We wish everyone involved in the re-booted G4 good luck and best wishes. |
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cyberbarf THE WHETHER REPORT |
cyberbarf STATUS |
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Question: Whether United Kingdom's Brexit exit that did not allow for one visa for entertainment performers kill touring bands in 2021? |
* Educated Guess * Possible * Probable * Beyond a Reasonable Doubt * Doubtful * Vapor Dream |
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Question: Whether the social, political and economic scars of the 2020 pandemic be permanent? |
* Educated Guess * Possible * Probable * Beyond a Reasonable Doubt * Doubtful * Vapor Dream |
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Question: Whether consumer consumption of food, entertainment and information during the lock down become the new normal for a large segment of the population? |
* Educated Guess * Possible * Probable * Beyond a Reasonable Doubt * Doubtful * Vapor Dream |
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