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And this article following the Panama Papers leak on how Mossack Fonseca assisted it's wealthier customers in hiding and laundering money through Art purchases. Wondering why that Picasso is breaking all records? It might not be as straightforward as you think...
Link: Panama Papers on How and why the very rich buy art, Nazi Looted Modigliani
Previously: Art as Commerce
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Bricking. From the Wikipedia:
"The word "brick", when used in reference to consumer electronics, describes an electronic device such as smartphone, game console, router, or tablet computer that, due to a serious misconfiguration, corrupted firmware, or a hardware problem, can no longer function, hence, is as technologically useful as a brick."
Bricking can also be used to intentionally disable computers or hardware that have been modified to play "Unauthorized" content or run unauthorized apps. Consider Apple's "Error 53" - which ruins all iPhones repaired by unauthorized dealers. I'm not making this up. They are, apparently, well within their legal rights to do so. Do you own the phone?
And an interesting article on Google's acquisition of a tech company, and product, and then subsequent announcement that upon the end of the warranty on the product it would "Brick" it. Meaning Kill it. Read the full article here: https://medium.com/@arlogilbert/the-time-that-tony-fadell-sold-me-a-container-of-hummus-cb0941c762c1#.1lfxbvyf5.
This type of corporate ethos makes me increasingly uncomfortable, and raises some interesting questions regarding ownership. Do you really every own the product if the company that sold it to you (or it's subsequent acquiring company) can destroy it at will and without repercussion? What does ownership now mean? Do you own things, or are you owned by the companies that sold them to you? Consider Keurig, the idiots choice for mediocre coffee. Or GM's claim to own the software inside your car, or John Deere's ownership of your tractor. Or Monsanto's ownership of your farm, crops and grain. Three links here: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130513/12113523062/monsanto-wins-case-seed-patents-planting-your-own-legally-purchased-grown-seeds-can-be-infringing.shtml && https://thegranddisillusion.wordpress.com/monsanto-vs-farmer/ && http://www.cnbc.com/id/100464458. In fact the evils of Monsanto are far too long to be listed here, and would require months of your own research and hair pulling. It's good to be aware, but be warned you're treading now the thin line between awareness and insanity...
The intrusion of technology into our lives, increasingly, daily, has raised some complex moral and ethical dilemmas that are consistently being resolved in favor of the companies selling us these products. We own less, and in a way, after the companies fashion, rent more of our lives. For the company, this is great, we are now the lifetime consumer. But for us, maybe, not so good...
Think about it. Do you want to own your life, or merely rent it from a company?
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And there's the "Drone Prix" in Dubai, I had no idea there was such a thing. Probably there wasn't, but now there is, and that's the new way of the world and if you didn't know you're an idiot...
I say that in Irony. If you knew I'd tell you you need a life...and that, sincerely...
And Drones, they're cool and all, and drone racing, well, I appreciate it, but imagine...
What if we gave out prizes for self-driving car competitions, and AI competitions, evolving AI, or genetic engineering, green energy, or other cutting edge technologies, where would we be? These are the things that deserve our attention...
Not drones, superficially cool, but autonomous drones that can interact with their surroundings, with convincing AI - Human interfaces, so many deserving endeavors and the basest of them get their own grande-prix...bloody hell...
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Because I'm pretty sure you didn't read through the last article to the "See Also", I've abbreviated a couple of my findings here:
"Ultracrepidarianism is the habit of giving opinions and advice on matters outside of one's knowledge."
And this...
"Hanlon's razor is an aphorism expressed in various ways including "never assume bad intentions when assuming stupidity is enough", "never assume malice when stupidity will suffice", and "never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity""
You're welcome.
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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" - Charles Darwin
Yep, we all know that person, in my case that crowd...I need to go back and add that tag to a hundred articles...
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is.
Hmmm. I'd completely forgotten about this. The problem is that we all have our blindspots, and I sure as hell have mine...but, as the effect notes, I'm probably not able to see it...
Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their own ineptitude and evaluate their own ability accurately.
But my favorite has to be:
...The study was inspired by the case of McArthur Wheeler, a man who robbed two banks after covering his face with lemon juice in the mistaken belief that, because lemon juice is usable as invisible ink, it would prevent his face from being recorded on surveillance cameras....
Read more at the Wiki, and the next time you're speaking with that co-worker you might want to work in the term...
Note: In the event that you've seen me work a magic trick or a hot woman at a bar, I'm aware, I'm aware...It's only 9 parts incompetence, the other 1 part is entirely Irony...
Read through to the "See Also". Oh, yeah...