Hi Bill:
just got this reply, Ed

I am loosely affiliated with Zero Hedge, but I conduct independent research with a team of computer programmers affiliated with the Washington DC IT industry. My background is in computation. I have worked in numerous positions involving the construction of mathematics and data mining computer software. Myself and my affiliates are based out of DC, as we know each other from professional contacts in the local IT industry here, while Zero Hedge is based out of New York City.

'Project Mayhem' is a name taken from the movie Fight Club -- as are the names of major contributors to zerohedge.com (Tyler Durden, Marla Singer, Cornholio, etc).

I do not list my own name because I prefer to remain anonymous. If a name is required the psuedonym Robert Paulson would be preferred. I have already been fired from my job due to my activities in exposing government corruption, and would prefer not to attract further retribution beyond what I have already gone through.

I will be happy to answer any technical or other questions GATA may have, they can feel free to contact me at this address. Future research I plan on conducting include a similar analysis on the Gold ETFs as well as on the German silver ETFs of which I was informed yesterday.

Sincerely,
Robert Paulson / 'Project Mayhem' / contributor to zerohedge.com