Source: https://www.domainmondo.com/2016/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 18:26:17+00:00

Document:
Afterwards, Microsoft accidentally re-released Tay, the AI chatbot, on Twitter on March 30, 2016: Microsoft's Tay chatbot returns briefly and brags about smoking weed | mashable.com.
Tay was built to speak like a teen girl and released as an experiment to improve Microsoft’s automated customer service. Instead, “she” turned into a complete PR disaster - within hours of being unleashed on Twitter, the “innocent teen” bot was transformed into a fascist, misogynistic, racist, pornographic entity. Her tweets, including phrases like “Heil Hitler”, were disseminated widely as an example of why Twitter reflects the worst of humanity ... This is an example of artificial intelligence at its very worst - and it’s only the beginning.
Read more about Tay on Wikipedia.org. See also: How will bots make money? Here are 7 business models | VentureBeat.com and The 200 billion dollar chatbot disruption | VentureBeat.com and, of course, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned’ | The WashingtonPost.com January 29, 2015.
"The problem with this story is that, like the Iraq-WMD mess, it takes place in the middle of a highly politicized environment during which the motives of all the relevant actors are suspect. Nothing quite adds up. If the American security agencies had smoking-gun evidence that the Russians had an organized campaign to derail the U.S. presidential election and deliver the White House to Trump, then expelling a few dozen diplomats after the election seems like an oddly weak and ill-timed response. Voices in both parties are saying this now."
See also: Creator of NSA's Global Surveillance System Calls B.S. On Russian Hacking Report | WashingtonsBlog.com.
• Alibaba's Magical Numbers: Population in the United States is a factor .24 of that of China (324 million people in the US vs. China 1.37 billion). Offsetting that however is that consumer spending is much higher in America than China. The United States has a GDP of $18 trillion of which $12.3 trillion (~68%) is driven by consumer spending. China GDP is estimated at $11 trillion of which approximately 37% is estimated to be driven by consumer spending. Taking 68 over 37 implies that Americans outspend the Chinese by a factor 1.8 on consumer spending.
Uber's Loss Exceeds $800 Million in Third Quarter on $1.7 Billion in Net Revenue | Bloomberg.com: "Ride-hailing company's annual loss may hit $3 billion by year's end."
T-Mobile is the first major US carrier to roll out update to remaining Samsung Galaxy Note 7s that prevents battery from charging--androidauthority.com.
Fraud in Silicon Valley: Startups Show Their Unethical Underside | fortune.com: "As the list of startup scandals grows, it’s time to ask whether entrepreneurs are taking “fake it till you make it” too far."
Future Hearings: 01/23/2017 at 08:30 am in department 53 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Conference-Case Management (to set Trial date).
2. New gTLD .WEB--Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN--Final Judgment (pdf) 28 November 2016, all of the claims asserted by plaintiff Ruby Glen, LLC (an affiliate of Donuts Inc.) dismissed with prejudice.
3. ccTLDs .IR (IRAN), .SY (Syria), .KP (North Korea)--Ben Haim v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Calderon-Cardona v. Democratic People's Republic of Korea; Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Stern v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Weinstein v. Islamic Republic of Iran; Wyatt v. Syrian Arab Republic --Motions for rehearing and hearing en banc denied 19 Sep 2016. Formal Mandate of U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. (pdf) 27 September 2016.
CEP & IRP Status Update (pdf) as of 22 December 2016 embed below (highlighting added).
There is now no question that ICANN, post-IANA transition, is a domain name industry-captured organization and does not operate in the global public interest, but completely disregards the interests of domain name registrants. Ted Cruz may have been right, the IANA transition may have been a terrible mistake, premature at best. Maybe Trump can do something.
"Comments on the proposed amendments. A number of comments relate to the proposed amendments to Sections 2.9 and 2.10. The proposed amendment removes the requirement that a Registry Operator notify ICANN (in addition to its contracted ICANN accredited registrar partners) of increases in the price charged by a Registry Operator to register a domain name in the TLD. ICANN and the Working Group agreed to this modification for several reasons. First, it should be noted that a Registry Operator is not required to provide ICANN with the registration pricing initially charged to ICANN accredited registrars to register names in a TLD. Second, the price charged by Registry Operators is viewed as the “wholesale” price for registering a domain name in a TLD and is not necessarily the price ultimately charged to registrants by ICANN accredited registrars. As such, Registry Operator’s pricing is only one data point that leads to the price charged to registrants, and the disclosure and analysis of this data may be misleading to registrants. Third, it is not necessary for ICANN to be notified of price increases in order to ensure Registry Operator’s compliance with the substantive requirements of Section 2.10 as ICANN’s compliance department is entitled to request this information as part of its normal compliance process. Fourth, ICANN is concerned that collecting, retaining and analyzing this information could be seen as ICANN playing a role in the pricing policies and decision-making of Registry Operators, which historically ICANN has not done."--Updated ICANN Staff Report on Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement (pdf) at page 9 (emphasis added).
A 'free market' in healthcare is doomed | LATimes.com: Unleashing the power of choice and competition is the best way to lower healthcare costs and improve quality,” declares House Speaker Paul Ryan in his conservative manifesto “A Better Way.” The problem with that, however, is that the healthcare industry — hospitals, drug companies, insurers — have worked tirelessly to prevent the medical marketplace from functioning with sufficient transparency and efficiency to allow consumers to benefit from classic supply-and-demand economics. Instead, the opaque and frequently unfathomable healthcare market promotes runaway corporate greed that often can be countered only by shaming businesses into behaving fairly and responsibly.
Fourth, ICANN is concerned that [merely] collecting, retaining and analyzing this information could be seen as ICANN playing a role in the pricing policies and decision-making of Registry Operators, which historically ICANN has not done."
"ICANN is concerned"? Really? How so? Sounds like ICANN can not handle the responsibility of being a responsible steward acting in the global public interest--pricing information should be transparent to everyone in a free competitive market--but ICANN shirks its responsibilities to the global internet community, which includes domain name registrants!
ICANN obviously never really wanted "competition" in the domain name marketplace, instead ICANN prefers crony capitalism and monopolistic franchises exploiting domain name registrants, enabling opaque pricing that encourages the 'runaway greed' of ICANN's "partners," the gTLD domain name registry operators. Likewise the ICANN fee waivers enabled by the amendments will encourage gTLD registry operators' dependency upon ICANN for favoritism, and will ultimately lead to corruption between ICANN management/staff and the gTLD registry operators.
News Review: ICANN Secretly Colludes With New gTLD Registry Operators | DomainMondo.com 17 July 2016.
Comments to ICANN Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD RA | DomainMondo.com 23 July 2016: "After ICANN colluded in secret for 18 months with new gTLD registry operators, ICANN published for public comment Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement. Among other things, ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD), headed by former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade's crony Akram Atallah, proposed eliminating price increase transparency for new gTLD domain names, and allowing ICANN to grant discretionary fee waivers to new gTLD registry operators. Comments closed 20 Jul 2016 23:59 UTC ..."
Updated Next Steps according to ICANN: "According to Section 7.7(c) of the Registry Agreement, the Proposed Revisions shall be submitted for Registry Operator Approval (as defined in Section 7.6) and approval by the ICANN Board of Directors. If such approvals are obtained, the Proposed Revisions shall be deemed an Approved Amendment (as defined in Section 7.6) by the Applicable Registry Operators and ICANN, and shall be effected and deemed an amendment to this Agreement upon sixty (60) calendar days notice from ICANN to Registry Operator."
"Having already made the worst mistake in its organizational history in the way it implemented the new gTLDs program, ICANN appears content to continue in its misguided ways until it wrecks the internet and/or domain name system, global public resources over which ICANN is not, and never has been, a good steward."--Comment to ICANN's CDAR study (see below) (links and emphasis added).
The Continuous Data-Driven Analysis of Root (CDAR) Server System Stability Draft Report comment period has been extended to 15 Jan 2017 23:59 UTC.
"The study’s primary research question is: Did the delegation of new gTLDs degrade the stability or security of the root DNS system? And based on the analysis carried out for this research question, our second research question is: Can we expect that the delegation of more new gTLDs will degrade the stability or security of the root DNS system in the future?" ("Draft Report" 27 Oct 2016, p.2).
"our conclusion is limited to the results of the analyses that we designed and executed and is confined by the imperfections of the available measurement data."
"ICANN has a long history of being foolish, careless, incompetent, and grossly negligent, when it comes to coordination and management of the internet, including root zone, in adding new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs)--see e.g., News Review: ICANN Used 'Junk Science' Firm to Justify New gTLDs.
"Having already made the worst mistake in its organizational history in the way it implemented the new gTLDs program, ICANN appears content to continue in its misguided ways until it wrecks the internet and/or domain name system, global public resources over which ICANN is not, and never has been, a good steward."
Video above published Dec 19, 2016: Roger McNamee, Elevation Partners co-founder, gives his take on Apple's response to the EU's tax ruling, Ireland and the EU, and the future of globalization.
Americans Are Paying Apple Millions to Shelter Overseas Profits | Bloomberg.com: "Over the years, Apple Inc. has become the poster child for U.S. multinationals accused of sheltering overseas profits to avoid the IRS. What’s gone largely unnoticed is that it’s been paid more than half a billion dollars by the U.S. government to do just that. Taking advantage of an exemption tucked into America’s Byzantine tax code, Apple stashed much of its foreign earnings—tax-free—right here in the U.S., in part by purchasing government bonds, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. In return, the Treasury Department paid Apple at least $600 million and possibly much more over the past five years in the form of interest, a Bloomberg review of its regulatory filings shows ..."
Do Stocks Have A Big China Problem?
Video above published Dec 19, 2016: Chinese bonds and equities have been sinking recently. Are American markets next? Max Wolff of 55 Capital and Eddy Elfenbein of the Crossing Wall Street blog discuss with Eric Chemi.
"Senate Democrats are about to get rolled on Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks. They [Democrats] could spend years in the minority ... instead of the GOP collapse that many expected on Nov. 8, it’s now Democrats [who are] soul-searching about what went wrong."--POLITICO.com.
Background: In November 2013, Democrats controlled the U.S. Senate and used the so-called nuclear option to eliminate filibusters on executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments other than those to the Supreme Court. As a result, in 2017, Trump's Cabinet picks will only need a simple majority of 51 votes for Senate confirmation (Republicans will have a 52-seat majority in the 100-seat U.S. Senate in 2017).
Not mentioned above, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who some expect to be very influential within the Trump administration, just as he was in the Trump campaign. It is also clear that Silicon Valley's Peter Thiel will have substantial influence in the new administration. See also on Domain Mondo: Home Depot Co-Founder Ken Langone: 'I’m excited about Trump’s Cabinet' (video).
Video above published Dec 23, 2016: FT.com editor Lionel Barber speaks to Martin Wolf about the biggest risks and bright spots in the 2017 global economy, major events of 2016, and Trumponomics.
• Companies Face Delays Getting Cash Out of China | WSJ.com: "French construction-materials company Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA, is finding it harder to take its money out of China. The conglomerate—like all multinationals operating there—faces new delays in recent weeks as Chinese regulators impose tougher restrictions on the movement of capital out of the country to slow the yuan’s decline ..."
• Venture capital is harder to come by, interest rates are low, and founders prefer no dilution--voilà venture debt-- U.S. Startups Are Piling on Debt | Bloomberg.com: "With fewer companies getting funded these days, many startups are opting to borrow money instead. Some have already been forced to shutter after missing payments."
• Italy Banking Crisis is Also a Huge Crime Scene | WolfStreet.com: "Toxic loans as a result of corruption, political kickbacks, fraud, and abuse."
• Much ado about nothing--Data Shows Fake News Sites Have Tiny Audience | DailyCaller.com--anyone surprised? (other than the 'sore losers' of the Clinton campaign, the anti-free speech liberal-left Dems, and MSM).
• The Hacking Evidence Against Russia Is [Still] Extremely Weak | WashingtonsBlog.com: "I don’t know what the DNC paid “Crowdstrike” for their narrative but they got a very poor return for their effort indeed. That the New York Times promotes it as any kind of evidence is a truly damning indictment of the mainstream media."
• One More Thing: In Aleppo's historic St. Elias Cathedral, priests prayed for peace at the first Christmas Eve Mass in five years, attended by dozens of worshippers and some Russian officers. Many among the 400,000 Syrian Christians who comprise 10% of Syria's population, support Assad's Syrian government forces, not the Sunni Muslim rebel fighters supported by the Obama administration--sources. See also Journalist Eva Bartlett Destroys Mainstream News Journalists' Credibility Over Syria, Aleppo | washingtonsblog.com.
and a peaceful and prosperous New Year!
Next posting on DomainMondo.com: December 26, 2016, 00:00 UTC.
Video above published Dec 19, 2016: Home Depot Co-Founder Ken Langone on why he is excited about Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.
“Being chosen to serve in the President-elect’s administration is a great honor,” said Gary Cohn. “I share President-elect Trump’s vision of making sure every American worker has a secure place in a thriving economy, and we will be completely committed to building a nation of strength, growth and prosperity.”--source: GreatAgain.gov.
The NEC is comprised of numerous department and agency heads within the administration, whose policy jurisdictions impact the nation's economy. The NEC Director works in conjunction with these officials to coordinate and implement the President's economic policy objectives. The Director is supported by a staff of policy specialists in various fields including: agriculture, commerce, energy, financial markets, fiscal policy, healthcare, labor, and Social Security.--source: WhiteHouse.gov.
Note: The NYSE and NASDAQ markets are always closed on Christmas Day, December 25th, which this year falls on Sunday, therefore the Christmas closing will extend through Monday, December 26, 2016. The markets will reopen after Christmas on Tuesday, December 27, 2016.
Video above published Dec 14, 2016: Prime Minister David Cameron's former senior advisor Steve Hilton, Patriach Equity Chairman Eric Schiffer and Dynalink Communications CEO Larry Fishelson discuss Donald Trump's roundtable meeting with Tech leaders.
See on Domain Mondo: TechReview: Silicon Valley's Pilgrimage to Trump Tower to Meet Trump on Wednesday, December 14, 2016.
See also: Readout of President-Elect Trump’s Meeting with Tech Leaders | GreatAgain.gov.
The chart above shows the market capitalization of the companies represented by tech leaders who met with Trump on December 14, 2016.
Video above published Dec 20, 2016: Jennifer Fonstad, Aspect Ventures, discusses whether startups may get a major boost from the incoming Trump administration's infrastructure plans.
Loser: Hotels, as Airbnb takes an increasing share of their guests - despite the company's claims that its service is "complementary" to the hospitality industry.
Winner: Best Buy, which bested Amazon in search visibility for Black Friday.
Loser: Brands that depend too much on celebrities. When Kendall Jenner took a break from Instagram, Estée Lauder lost a huge chunk of engagement.
Loser: Second-tier pro athletes, whose low wages are yet another illustration of what the winner-take-all economy has become.
What is a requirement or a competence of growing market cap billions of dollars a year?
Airbnb has been lying to the hotel industry and us, saying they are "complementary," not a threat to the hospitality industry.
"I think for us to win, nobody in hospitality necessarily has to lose."
However, half of Airbnb demand comes from customers who would otherwise stay in traditional hotels, up from 41% last year.
At the same time, the number of nights that U.S. hotels approach full occupancy has plunged 20%.
as demand flattens and hotels lose out to Airbnb.
A big winner on Black Friday, who was written off for dead at the hands of Amazon?
One way to compete with the Seattle giant? Win at search.
Best Buy registered the greatest share of first-page results for Black Friday-related searches, besting Amazon.
Talk about kicking a horse while it's down.
as the site crashed under the weight of site traffic.
A loser: brands subject to the whims of their celebrity endorsers.
but Kendall Jenner and her decision to take a week off from posting on Instagram.
"It's so crazy to me that it even became huge news like that."
Jenner's decision has had a significant impact on Estée Lauder.
7% of all posts on Lauder's Instagram page feature Kendall Jenner.
Only 3% of Jenner's posts feature the beauty brand, but those posts by Jenner account for 63% of Estée Lauder's total Instagram engagement.
So Jenner's decision to take a break from the platform has resulted in Estée Lauder losing two-thirds of its engagement on the platform.
A loser: second-tier pro athletes.
being big league doesn't necessarily mean you're big league.
Single A minor league baseball salaries start at $1150 a month.
Pro soccer players in Europe average less than $1,000 a month - a fraction of the average salary of the top teams' players.
cementing their near-impoverished status and preserving America's greatest pastime: exploiting workers.
Domain Mondo's weekly review of macro economic and investing news: 1. OECD & Trump; 2. Confidence higher since Trump election; 3. FOMC rate increase; 4. Dollar strengthens, gold falls; 5. Trump talked, Fed listened; 6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach; 7. Trump Summit with Tech Leaders; 8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? 9. Student loans, which lie did they believe? 10. Good investing is boring.
Video above published Dec. 15, 2016: JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon discussed Detroit’s economic recovery and whether the techniques they are using could be replicated elsewhere with Bloomberg’s Megan Murphy.
"Among the major advanced economies, activity is expected to accelerate in the United States, due to an assumed easing of fiscal policy, with the economy projected to grow by 2.3% in 2017 and 3% in 2018. The euro area will grow at a 1.6% rate in 2017 and by 1.7% in 2018. In Japan, growth is projected at 1% in 2017 and 0.8% in 2018. The 35-country OECD area is projected to grow by 2% in 2017 and 2.3% in 2018, according to the Outlook.
"With rebalancing continuing in China, growth is expected to continue drifting lower, to 6.4% in 2017 and 6.1% in 2018. India’s growth rates are expected to hover above 7.5% over the 2017-18 period, but many emerging market economies will continue to grow at a more sluggish pace. The deep recession in Brazil is expected to end in 2017, after which the economy will grow at a 1.2% rate in 2018.
"The Outlook draws attention to conditions that create a “window of opportunity” for new fiscal initiatives, as extraordinarily accommodative monetary policy has led to very low interest rates and created fiscal space. A targeted annual increase in public spending of ½ percent of GDP could be financed for several years in most countries without increasing the debt-to-GDP ratio in the medium term. Combining this initiative with structural reforms, and acting collectively across countries, would boost the impact, according to the Outlook.
"“This is not a blank cheque for governments,” Mr Gurría said. “The OECD is calling for fiscal policy to be used more wisely, with spending targeted at areas that boost growth, like high-quality infrastructure investment, innovation, education and skills, which also make growth more inclusive.” Read the full speech.
3. U.S. Federal Reserve FOMC Press Conference LIVE Video Replay 12/14/16. The end of a flatline monetary policy?
4. Dollar Climbs to Strongest Since 2003 on Fed Path; Bonds Drop | Bloomberg.com Dec 15, 2016: "The dollar climbed to the highest level since 2003 against the euro and gold plunged as the prospect of a steeper path for U.S. interest rates filtered through markets."
6. Caveat from Jeff Gundlach, December 13, 2016, webcast: "... stocks typically rise in the days after an election, just as they have. But they drop after the president is sworn in, as investors realize that he does not have a magic wand to implement everything they are hopeful for ..."
7. Trump Summit with Tech Leaders: TechReview: Silicon Valley's Pilgrimage to Trump Tower to Meet Trump.
8. Did Russia Hack the DNC and Clinton campaign? Who cares? If so, was it a good thing Wikileaks.org exposed Clinton & DNC corruption and collusion, including collusion with so-called mainstream media (MSM), the "rigged" Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders, all the conflicts of interest and "pay-to-play" schemes, and foreign government funding of the Clinton Foundation while Hillary was Secretary of State, $200-800,000 per speech fees, and all the other things the Clintons, the Clinton campaign, the Washington establishment, and mainstream media did not want us to know? I think you know the answer.
"It’s very hard to buy the argument that the Democrats were hacked by one of the most sophisticated, diabolical foreign intelligence services in history, and that we know this because they screwed up over and over again."
On the other hand, if you truly want to understand how and why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, read How Clinton lost Michigan — and blew the election | POLITICO.com.
"If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring."--George Soros.

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