Authorities say $1 million worth of aquarium rocks are missing after an underwater heist in the Florida Keys.
Miami boat captain Neal Novak told investigators that sometime in the past 18 months someone stole about 300,000 pounds of decorative live rock he had planned to harvest at his aqua farm in the waters three miles of Islamorada.
The rock is used in salt-water aquariums and reef tanks. Novak says it took him more than two years to place the rock on the ocean floor, where it became home to coral and plant life.
The theft was discovered May 13.
The Monroe County sheriff and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are investigating. The theft is considered grand larceny of farm animal aquaculture species, a third-degree felony.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Every so often, art breaks out of its confines to become an event. People who would never normally go to a gallery do so; they feel part of it when they would otherwise feel excluded. The last time this happened was when Olafur Eliasson put a giant sun and a mirrored ceiling in Tate Modern and teenagers rolled around on the ground making shapes they could see reflected in the roof.
And it’s happening now at Banksy versus Bristol Museum, the exhibition the elusive graffiti artist suddenly unveiled last week, in which he has his “remixed” the museum’s own collection by putting more than 100 of his own artworks among it – by far the largest Banksy show to date, of work mostly never shown in the UK before.
On Saturday, the first day the show was open to the public, the queue snaked down the street and the waiting time was more than an hour. In it were children, grannies, trendy types. Everyone was taking pictures with their mobile phones (Banksy doesn’t believe in copyright). The museum’s guards were proudly pointing out the new additions to their displays. People were inspecting the fossils to find the teeny-weeny woman pushing a pram hidden among them; they were on their hands and knees to look at the mouse with a back-pack who had clambered into a natural history case.
The visitors’ main focus was a large room lined with Banksy images. Here one can assess the work en masse. Lots of the art here is silly, lots of it obvious. The massive picture of a House of Commons populated by apes, for instance, is crass, schoolboy stuff.
Banksy Versus Bristol Museum
But the work here is also humorous and inventive. There’s a devastating picture of starving African children, one of whom has a T-shirt saying: “I hate Mondays”. There’s a hilarious image of two shoddily drawn stick men, prettily mounted, with one of them asking, “Does anyone actually take this art seriously?” The other replies, “Never underestimate the power of a big gold frame.”
Banksy is the master of the surprising juxtaposition. In another room, full of his animated sculptures, there’s what looks like a living, breathing cheetah, but when you see it from the back, you notice, with a chill, that it’s been made into a fur coat.
In the best piece of the exhibition, in among the stuffed animals, there is a lamb that has been muzzled. What does it mean? A lamb conjures innocence, the Lamb of God. Is this a piece about censorship, the distortion of the spiritual, the end of innocence? It’s very moving, reminiscent of Damien Hirst’s toying with religious iconography but, pleasingly, so much simpler. When Banksy has the nerve not to be didactic and leave his pieces open to interpretation, he becomes sophisticated.
It is to be hoped that the artist will move further in this direction. But in the meantime, Banksy Versus Bristol Museum succeeds triumphantly in its aim: it’s a museum show that is as cheeky and renegade – and communicates as directly with its viewers – as a piece of illegal graffiti.
I’ve attended some odd parties over the years – there was the one for Stannah Stairlifts, the Innocent Smoothies bash where I got driven around a Shepherd’s Bush car park in a giant banana, and the Walker’s Crisps event where everyone on the electoral roll named either Cheese or Onion was invited. But I’ve rarely been to one where neither the guests nor the hosts knew what they were doing there. “What is this all about?” I asked Ivan Massow on Monday night, at the launch of his new film spoof, Banksy’s Coming for Dinner. “No idea,” he shrugged wearily.
What is clear is that Banksy – the pseudo-anonymous graffiti artist – still provokes the same snorts of delight he drew at university, when the boys would huddle around his prints and marvel at the irreverence of it all. As party talk turned to the artist’s exhibition at the Bristol City Art Gallery, one guest described him as “a true genius”, another as “one of our greatest living artists”.
But it’s all old hat. Banksy’s poke-fun-at-museums impudence was done 100 years ago by Marcel Duchamp. His stencil technique (always good for easy effects, as every child knows) was perfected in 1968 by Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Blek le Rat, and his political opinions are plonkingly conventional. A House of Commons populated by apes? Sharp stuff.
To his credit, Banksy had excelled at keeping his origins a secret. The exposé last year that suggested he wasn’t the son of a painter and decorator, but educated at the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School, could have damaged the brand. As it was, being outed as an old friend of Samantha Cameron’s must have undone a decade of careful pixellation.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
The Mexican army is claiming success in the struggle to combat rising drug violence and corruption with the arrests in separate operations of a drug cartel leader in Cancun on the Caribbean coast and 25 suspected drug traffickers dressed as soldiers in the north of the country.
Authorities say that cartel head Juan Manuel Jurado Zarzoza, known as El R and the Puma, was arrested with three other suspected traffickers in possession of drugs and weapons. He was among those listed as Mexico’s most wanted for being behind the torture-murder of a retired army general in February as well as for extensive drug-running and extortion operations.
Jurado’s arrest has been seen as a blow to the operations of his Cardenas Guillen cartel in Cancun City, an international tourist resort and key base for cocaine trafficking from South America to the United States via the Gulf of Mexico.
Federal Defense Ministry officials said Jurado controlled all drug sales, kidnappings and extortion in the Yucatan peninsula and organized protection-money collection from the local tourist businesses.
In February retired Brig. Gen. Mauro Enrique Tello Quinones was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Cancun only 24 hours after arriving to clean up the city’s corrupt police force.
In another operation last weekend Mexican troops responded to a tip by raiding a ranch close to the U.S.-Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez. There they arrested 25 men dressed as soldiers and confiscated a large arsenal of weapons and narcotics.
The Defense Ministry said the haul consisted of 29 large-caliber firearms, three small-caliber guns, more than 5,000 rounds of ammunition, four vehicles, 95 pounds of marijuana, 35 pounds of cocaine and 2,500 doses of crack cocaine.
An army spokesman in Chihuahua state said the men, posing in soldiers’ uniforms, had been burning businesses and homes in Nicolas Bravo city.
But in a setback for authorities last weekend, 53 inmates — including a dozen members of a powerful drug cartel — escaped from a jail in central Mexico. Dozens of guards were detained Monday for questioning over the escape.
The Saturday morning jailbreak in Zacatecas state in central Mexico was caught on CCTV showing guards standing by as the inmates were led out by an armed gang. They then got into a convoy of some 15 vehicles and left.
An extensive army and federal police manhunt is under way for the escapees. Eleven of the men are very dangerous, prison officials said. Some of them are believed to belong to the Gulf Cartel drug-smuggling gang.
Meanwhile, the prison governor has been detained for questioning along with 40 guards and two police commanders.
Nearly 11,000 people have died since 2006 in territorial fights by drug gangs and government crackdowns after President Felipe Calderon launched his anti-drug campaign by sending 45,000 troops to hot-spot drug areas.
The U.S. Department of Defense has warned that Mexico is close to becoming a failed state because of drug lawlessness.
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Michael Porfirio Mason
AKA The Peoples Champ
AKA GFK, Jr.
AKA The Sly, Slick and the Wicked
AKA The Voodoo Child
The Guide to Getting More out of Life
http://www.thegmanifesto.com
Weekly Commentary
For June 15th– June 19th 2009
By: Matthew Bradbard
Barron’s roundtable did not disappoint as some of the most influential financial minds were interviewed on what has happened and what is to come, oddly enough we agree with most of what was said. The general themes were: gold should be in your portfolio, a correction in equities is coming, the paltry returns in Treasuries do not justify an allocation, at some point the Fed will be forced to raise interest rates, and finally, the actions by the government should cause inflation if not hyperinflation. Sounds to me like a recipe for a continuing bull market in commodities.
To find out exactly how we are positioning our clients in commodity futures and options, Contact us today at 1-888-920-9997. Don’t forget to tell them The G Manifesto sent you.
Energies
The DOE said crude oil supplies were down 4.4 million barrels, supplies of gasoline were down 1.6 million barrels and heating oil supplies were down 800,000 barrels. August crude oil closed up $3.95 to trade to the highest level in seven months. Prices have traded higher now 7 out of the last 8 weeks, talk about a trend. Last week’s high at 73.90 should serve as resistance, followed by 75.00 with support at the 9 day moving average of 70.40. This level has acted as support since prices closed above the 9 day moving average on 5/18. August heating oil traded higher by 7.90 cents last week. Resistance is seen between 1.90/1.92 with support at the 9 day moving average at 1.8325 followed by 1.76. August RBOB gained just under 9 cents to close above $2 for the first time since mid-October. After reaching that landmark we would expect some profit taking. Support comes in at 1.88/1.90.
The DOE said underground supplies of natural gas were up 106 billion cubic feet last week. August natural gas closed up 1 penny on the week. A triple bottom at 3.85 should act as solid support with resistance coming in first at 4.40 followed by 4.70. Prices were higher by 25 cents last Thursday on very good volume; almost 3 times the average volume of late. We advised clients to cover at least a portion of the recent fence position at a $1600 profit being we could get some spillover weakness from Crude. Our recommended trade currently is to buy the September $4.50/5.50 call spread near $2,200.
Livestock
August live cattle were higher by 65 ticks last week as movement of late has been like watching paint dry. This scenario has played out well for one of the livestock CTA’s that we work with as they typically write “out of the money” options. Support is seen at 80.50 with resistance at the 20 day moving average at 82.35. Trade idea: buy August live cattle/ sell October live cattle at -550.The widest this spread has been is -650, our target is to pick up 200-300 points. August feeder cattle were higher by 1.225 ticks closing 320 ticks off their lows. Support is seen at 96.90 followed by 96.00 with resistance at the 20 day moving average at 99.00.
Demand for pork continues to suffer, hurt by the world’s reaction to the H1N1 virus. Last week the World Health Organization declared a flu pandemic due to the spread of the H1N1 virus. In spite of assurances from numerous health organizations that eating properly cooked pork is safe, the hog industry continues to suffer. August lean hogs closed down .325 ticks having closed lower now for the last 4 weeks. Last week’s low at 57.785 should support while we see resistance at 61.50.
Financials
Stocks: Not only are we seeing less upside but the volumes have shrunk considerably, both signs of an interim top. The S&P added just 6 points last week registering its 12th positive week in the last 14 to close slightly below 950. The Dow ended the week up 36 points to 8799 finally making its way in the black for the year. The NASDAQ rose for the 13th time in 14 weeks adding only 9 points to 1859. We don’t suggest celebrating the 40% rebound for too long as a correction should be just around the bend. As investors recognize the quick recovery and increased growth that has been priced in will not be realized, expect profit taking. Moreover a sell-off is forthcoming being the fundamentals don’t match Wall Street’s perception. Friday we were buyers of July 875 ES puts for clients for $575.
To view our full commentary which includes the sectors of energies, livestock, currencies, financials, grains, softs, and metals, subscribe to our 4 week free trial by visiting this link: http://mbwealth.com/subscribe.html.
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Risk Disclosure: The risk of loss in trading commodity futures and options can be substantial. Before trading MB Wealth recommends that you should carefully consider your financial position to determine if commodity trading is appropriate for you. All funds committed should be purely risk capital. Past performance is no guarantee of future trading results. There are no guarantees of market outcome stated, everything stated above are our opinions.
