Here's what's happening…
ECB: Banks can't use Greek debt as collateral (CNBC)
The European Central Bank has revoked a waiver that allowed banks to use Greek government debt as collateral for loans. The ECB, in a statement late Wednesday, said it was no longer able to assume there would be a successful conclusion to the Greek government's bailout talks with its lenders. The Dow (Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI), which had been up 100 points just before the ECB release, quickly turned negative following the news.
It so happens, Josh Brown produced the chart although he makes fun of trying to trade the news, Or maybe just stop entirely:
An iPhone isn't just a small electronic device for making phone calls, it's a relationship. Apple doubters need a do over (Yahoo!).
Apple’s (AAPL) stunning fourth quarter, $18 billion in profits and $74.6 billion in revenue, was the best in the company’s history. In fact, it was the best quarter any company has ever reported. Yet, the analyst community was caught off-guard. “It was pretty clear to anybody doing channel checks, or looking at the stores, they were selling a ton of this and Wall Street completely misses it,” complained Barry Ritholtz, chief investment officer, at Ritholtz Wealth Management.In his opinion, the reason is pretty simple. “I don’t think they [analysts] understand the relationship people have with their iPhones, iPads, Macs,” he declared to Yahoo Finance. He elaborates further in this piece for Bloomberg View.
Amazon in Talks to Buy Some of RadioShack's Stores (Bloomberg).
Amazon.com Inc., aiming to bolster its brick-and-mortar operations, has discussed acquiring some RadioShack Corp. locations after the electronics chain files for bankruptcy, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
Amazon has considered using the RadioShack stores as showcases for the Seattle-based company’s hardware, as well as potential pickup and drop-off centers for online customers, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the deliberations are private.
Amazon might crawl into RadioShack’s bankrupt shell to expand its physical presence (Pando Daily).
Companies will be rushing to purchase RadioShack’s stores when the moribund retailer files for bankruptcy. Sprint is said to be planning to acquire half of the retail locations, and now Bloomberg reports Amazon has considered buying some of the brick-and-mortar stores, too.
Wired says goodbye to Radio Shack: Dear RadioShack, This Is Why We Adored You. Love, WIRED
The time is near to bid farewell to that old security blanket, RadioShack. When the remote control broke, it was there. When we needed a cable or 20, it was there. But soon, it won’t be.
The company is about to file for bankruptcy. Shares of its stock have been suspended from trading. We are forced to acknowledge that the era of personal electronics championed by the franchise stores that sold soldering gear and robots and had a Battery of the Month Club is really and truly over. Of course, we already knew that. When you can have exactly the thing you need over-night delivered to your door, there’s no reason to endure the actual social contact required of going into a store.
Why testosterone is the drug of the future (Fusion, H/tip Josh Brown).
"Testosterone is ridiculously powerful,” Campion says. “I can tell you from experience, the feeling of well-being, of focus, and of masculine energy are massively increased. It’s like you’re back to being 35.”
That power—along with a heavy dose of pharma company marketing—is why millions of American men are obtaining testosterone from doctors in various forms. According to a study by University of Texas epidemiologist Jacques Baillargeon, nearly four percent of men in their 60s are taking testosterone. The number of men between 40 and 64 went up 77 percent from 2010 to 2013 to 1.5 million men. Abbvie, maker of a popular testosterone gel, makes more than a billion dollars a year from the sale of AndroGel. In 2013, 14,000 kilograms of testosterone were sold in the United States. That might not sound like much, but a typical adult male has just 0.000000035 kilograms of testosterone floating around in his bloodstream. There is a lot of extra T in the hormonal composition of the country—and it only accounts for the legal sales.
How genetics is reshaping the marijuana industry (Fusion).
This is the beginning of the Green Rush. Genetics is poised to help entrepreneurs create better, more powerful, and sometimes personalized strains, which can be classified into a Yelp-like rating system that’s actually rooted in science. But which entrepreneurs? There’s a battle brewing between open-source stoners and Big Weed, and who wins might determine if the pot industry is led by a company like Monsanto or one like Tesla.
A pack of condoms costs $755 in Venezuela (QZ.com). And other types of entertainment are even more outrageously priced.
That’s the price of a 36-pack of Trojans on an online auction website. The collapse in oil prices exacerbated the problems of a country where inflation is soaring and people spend hours in line at the supermarket. The country already has high rates of teen pregnancy and HIV infection.
The Upside of Artificial Intelligence Development (Wired).
In “Practical Artificial Intelligence Is Already Changing the World,” I promised to write a follow-on article that discussed why Kevin Kelly (@kevin2kelly), the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and Irving Wladawsky-Berger, a former IBM employee and strategic advisor to Citigroup, are optimistic about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). In that article I noted that some pundits believe that AI poses a grave threat to humanity while other pundits believe that AI systems are going to be tools that humans can use to improve conditions around them. I also wrote that it would be foolish to predict which school of thought is correct this early in the game.
Pictures via Pixabay: Smartphone and Mr. Fitness. Last picture by Jeffedoe/Flickr.
