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Nazi Loot in the Catskills
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Lost
- Hits: 2284
From Atlas Obscura, in WW2 a couple of Nazi Saboteurs were thwarted in NY and their cash purportedly hidden in the Catskills.
Read the full story here: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/buried-somewhere-in-the-catskills-is-a-stash-of-nazi-loot
Acquired Savant Syndrome
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 2057
Yep, it happens. Like that time the radioactive spider bit me in the lab...
Link: http://nautil.us/blog/what-its-like-being-a-sudden-savant
The Act of Killing
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2470
Unbelievable.
I haven't seen the documentary that won the Oscar for 2012, but I have a hard time believing it in any way beat this...
Produced by Erroll Morris and Werner Herzog, Director Joshua Oppenheimer gives opportunity to some of Indonesia's more celebrated executioners, murderers, rapists and gangsta's to reenact their war crimes and tell their story.
This is dark, but brilliant fare. Now in their 70's, Indonesia's murdering class still in power, they want their story told, and are happy to reenact their executions, murders, and rapes for the the camera. Without justification (but with substantial Western Encouragement), "The Act of Killing" retells Indonesia's Genocide not so much as a rabbit hole as a moral and ethical abyss, as the characters both freely acknowledge their roles and duties yet without in any way accepting moral culpability...
The murderers watch it and shower it with approval. They go on collections, where they terrorize Chinese immigrants for protection money, freely given on the basis of their reputations alone. There's the epiphany where the lead executioner, in his role of the victim, realizes what he thinks his own victims felt, until the director is compelled to interrupt and advise him "...but you knew you were acting, in a film, whereas your victims knew they would die...", or words to that effect...
And yet somehow, each of them, the inane lifestyles, the unthought values and unconsidered consequences, the idolizing and worshiping of the most despicable of human traits, somehow you get the feeling that perhaps they realize, that despite their place in a society that not only accepts but celebrates their "accomplishments", that somehow they know that what they did was wrong...
It's a Russian doll, infinitely nesting, tangled and tangling web of the darkest of human fears and realizations. It's shame on META META META levels. It's the firsthand portrayal and reenactment of heinous and amoral things, and as painful as it is to watch it's complicity to ignore. And if you think it's irrelevant, read this:
This is ongoing and worldwide, Mexico, Rwanda, Syria, Croatia, again and again, but few countries have had the audacity to celebrate and promote their war criminals like Indonesia has.
Reviews: http://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/feature-programs/the_act_of_killing/
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/05/act-of-killing-screening-in-indonesia
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_act_of_killing/
Bricking
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 2828
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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