Saturday, August 26, 2017

Boiling Frogs


Sweet Benjamin's, the most popular bill in the US save for the dollar, may be going away if government, the banks and CC companies have their way, something along the lines of boiling frogs regarding our privacy if we passively let this happen as it has in parts of Europe and in India. 


This frog parable is but a myth but it still applies to the dangers of the possible elimination of cash, the last bastion of anonymity us poor rubes have in the 24/7 surveillance world of 2017. To whit.




Disquieting is it not? Think about it, I know I have.

"Network" - Alive and Well in 2017


Network, the great 1976 satire on the devolution of the news, is alive and well in 2017 as it's all about the money Trump makes for mainline nooze by being blindingly incompetent, quoteworthy and outrageous, characteristics conducive to generating stratospheric ratings and advertising revenues that have reached all time highs to the news outlets in question while the country sinks into irrelevance and despair thanks to one who has a tin ear to the max regarding on how to govern a country as large and diverse as this one happens to be.

The craziest part of Donald Trump's 77-minute loon-a-thon in Phoenix earlier this week came when he rehashed his shtick about the networks turning off live coverage of his speech. Trump seemed to really believe they were shutting the cameras off because "the very dishonest media" was so terrified of his powerful words.

"They're turning those lights off so fast!" he said. "CNN doesn't want its failing viewership to see this!"

No news director would turn off the feed in the middle of a Trump-meltdown. This presidency has become the ultimate ratings bonanza. Trump couldn't do better numbers if he jumped off Mount Kilimanjaro carrying a Kardashian.

This was confirmed this week by yet another shruggingly honest TV executive – in this case Tony Maddox, head of CNN International. Maddox said CNN is doing business at "record levels." He hinted also that the monster ratings they're getting have taken the sting out of being accused of promoting fake news.



Prescient to a fault and ...
Remember: It's all about the money.


Thursday, August 24, 2017

The change in the force ...

Charles Hugh Smith is a long term economist who is respected as one who does serious research regarding all things related to finance and the economy and arrives at conclusions both disturbing and insightful as this nation continues to print money, backed by nothing and created from nothing.





It gets better.
We have no money ...


Why yours truly feels Smith is right.





Read the entire post as things are changing, and not for the better.

Free Speech/More relevant than ever...


More relevant than ever.

Friday, August 18, 2017

Exquisite Control



How to fly a drone with exquisite control. Simply amazing. Enjoy.

FUBARS "R" Us


BRT has long talked about the disastrous 60+ year US foreign policy debacle with the start point of same beginning with the CIA assassination of Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 in favor of the Shah. Since then, it's been downhill ever since with fubars too numerous to count in this particular blurb but not in BRT when you click here to see why this is so.



Factoid...


What's wrong with this picture besides the complete lack of a strategic vision in any way, shape or fashion.

Nature never disappoints/Rev IV


A Little Touch of Yellow


A Tiny Blur


Blue Madness


Sturgeon Moon


An Inconvenient Truth or Trump, the hollow man


An Inconvenient Truth or Trump, the hollow man, as POTUS, has been a disaster and the people who voted for him now realize their mistake based on so many issues that truly boggle the mind. 

With that being said, like all Americans I had hopes that maybe he could act upon issues I did agree with but nada, he could not deliver as he lacks the inner discipline and competence, along with a true core of self worth, to make a difference in terms of affecting policy change this country so desperately needs as we move further into the 21st century. 


'Nuff said, for now.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Behind door No. 1


This Karl Popper inspired graphic neatly ties in with not only the double edged sword of the 1st Amendment where the proper application of free speech should always insure the fact that "No one has the right to not be offended" but also with how history itself should be recorded, i.e.
  1. Does one face the unpleasant history of racism (Lost Cause Confederate installs etc, etc.)  or 
  2. Does one consign said parts of this history to the memory hole
As for yours truly, I opt for No. 1.



Moving to Europe ... for science


Now that our "wonderful" president has bowed out of the Paris Accords  by continuing to pollute the planet unabated using dirty tech like coal to make America "great" again, France, and other countries have invited climatologists to move to Europe to continue research to see how man can mitigate the impact of a slow motion catastrophe of our own making.

After France made its offer, others have followed: Germany plans to launch its own website as a partner to the initiative. The U.K. also launched a new fund–though not specifically focused on climate–designed to attract international researchers. Canada is similarly investing in a new program to attract international researchers.

France’s program, like the others, is open worldwide, but Americans make up many of the applicants, likely both because of the strength of American academia and business and the current political climate. “I think everybody is definitely more concerned than usual about what might happen over the next three or four years,” says Rothenberg. “In terms of climate science, it doesn’t seem like stuff has been targeted too much yet, but you couldn’t pay me to go work at the EPA right now. That seems like a bad idea.” Trump wants to cut thousands of jobs at the EPA, and the administration offers little support for its work. Scientists who recently prepared a detailed report on the effects of climate change in the U.S. are afraid that the Trump administration will dismiss it.

The French government is hoping that more researchers will want to collaborate with their French counterparts. For anyone who applies, from clean tech startups to nonprofits, Macron’s clear support for climate action should be a draw. The country itself–and its wine and cheese–is part of the package.

“Should you move to France, you would see that the level of education is good, the level of healthcare is good . . . all of these are part of the picture,” says the Elysée source. “Obviously, you don’t move for that, but it’s part of the equation in the end.”

C'est bon sans question. :)

Tuesday, August 08, 2017

On the Beach



BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — President Trump threatened on Tuesday to unleash “fire and fury” against North Korea if it endangers the United States as tensions with the isolated nuclear-armed state grow into perhaps the most serious foreign policy challenge yet in his young administration.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state and as I said they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Reading this reminds yours truly of On the Beach, Nevil Shute's elegiac novella describing the end of the world, a work that gives one pause on how seemingly minor miscalculations among nuclear armed nations can have catastrophic consequences of truly horrific proportions.


In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river . . .
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
T. S. Eliot

Read the novel, it will stay with you forever.

Infrastructure 101


Infrastructure 101, invest money to insure said country to operate as a viable entity vis a vis roads, buildings, mass transit etc, etc, etc, or perish, something not being done by the Trump Administration in any way, shape or fashion.





When the infrastructure of a country collapses, the country collapses. Ask the Romans about this or the Egyptians or the Greeks. History shows this to be true without question.

Last but not least, ask New Yorkers about their subway system circa 2017.

Any questions?

Heineken nails it.



Never have posted an ad until now. Heineken nails it and yes, it's good beer without question. :)

Monday, August 07, 2017

Like a finely tuned watch ...

No words needed.


Lord of the Flies


The Gordian Knot.


Bad hair day.


Working hard or hardly working.

Sunday, August 06, 2017

Open Ended ...


BRT has talked often about AI as this is the one tech that's open ended with the real possibility of it getting out of control given just how powerful hardware has become along with the rise of the net, a potential feast for the asking for any enterprising AI that may be built by us unsuspecting rubes. With that being said, some rather disquieting events regarding said tech has come to pass as we speak.





Example 1



Example 2







A graphic primer on AI


Something to think about don't you think?

Friday, August 04, 2017

Peregrinations



Insects, in particular, are always on a journey to survive, whether it be to find food, to mate or find shelter, something this video shows in some detail. Enjoy.

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Tuesday, August 01, 2017