MONDAY #2129

NEWSY BITS...


Got this email. You can make of it as you wish:
As you know, I am heavily involved with banking in both the US and Canada.  What you read below is my opinion based on observation and inside knowledge.  I'm not just involved in transaction processing, but how those transactions can be integrated into consumer tracking.  I'm also involved in security, and the typical lack thereof scares me.
Our family has cancelled all but one credit card, cancelled all debit (check cards), destroyed all checks, and have gone to a pure cash basis where possible (even at the gas pump).  That should give you a big hint to the impending doom of consumer privacy that is coming.
If you care about your spending/personal privacy, stay away from any electronic transaction you can.  Even checks are turned into electronic transactions now.  I'm actually on the committee that writes the standards for turning checks into electronic debits (X9.org - but you won't be able to access that site for any real meat).
The banks are starting to integrate their CRM systems with 3rd party (retailers) CRM systems and social media.  CRM is the acronym for "Customer Relationship Management".  Once they are integrated, your privacy is completely gone, and your future spending will be nearly 100% predictable.  The outcome will not be pretty for the consumer in the near years to come.
CRM integration is HUGE right now.  The engines are phenomenal.  It's all about information, and once you give that to them your personal life is gone forever.  In fact, they will have a better idea of what you will do tomorrow than you will.
Go dark.  We have.
(And I trust that man with my life)

Still interested? Try this...
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=103784

Dear feminists, I am proud to be the creator of some damn fine sandwiches.

Earning a day's wages...

“We forgot about time and had the time of our lives.” What an interesting sentence.

About 3.3% of pregnancies are twins, compared to 2% a hundred years ago. This increase may be due to the use of in-vitro fertilization and women becoming pregnant at older ages.

What say you, Irish?

This guy in Russia bought his own Armored Personnel Carrier, but that's not why I'm showing it to you...

A guy in Russia is wearing a GAP hoodie with those socks and rubber slip-on shoes???

Two of my favorite people...

 Bakari is the manager of one of my wife's stores. Max is the son of the manager of another store. They get along very well, thank you very much.

Getting a permit to take pictures in National Parks?

The new, stupid ban on "professional" photography violates the First Amendment, the Service admits that there's no actual need for it, and it will undermine the visibility of the national forests at a time when they are under unprecedented threat from developers, the energy sector, and mining. Under a two-year-old rule that is about to pass into law, the Forestry Service will require "members of the press" to pay for a permit before making any recordings or still images in the 193 million acres of US national forests. Though the rule has been in place for two years, it seems that no one has actually ever applied it -- but once it's a law, the Forestry Service has vowed to start.

This Is What Isolated Showers Looks Like...

Folio Olio....site of only high quality visual humor...

Brunch without booze is just a sad, late breakfast.

What evils have we wrought?

That is a wonderfully provocative photo.

See anything odd about this?

Look again.

What kind of alchemy devil work is this?

You think this is silly?

 Try inviting a girl out on a date and insisting she pay for everything. She will call a cab by 9pm.

Contrary to popular belief, the Nuclear Football does not actually contain a big red button for launching a nuclear war. Its primary purpose is to confirm the president’s identity, and it allows him to communicate with the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon, which monitors worldwide nuclear threats and can order an instant response. The Football also provides the commander in chief with a simplified menu of nuclear strike options—allowing him to decide, for example, whether to destroy all of America’s enemies in one fell swoop or to limit himself to obliterating only Moscow or Pyongyang or Beijing.

Haitian Amish....

But why do you think they are going so fast?

 This is what real war looks like...

We lost 3,000 people on 9/11 and went nuts. London lost 3000 people a week and just crawled over the rubble to deliver the fucking milk on time. 

Wouldn't you love to know what happened next?

From a history of variolation (smallpox inoculation): "In China, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy."

What a wonderful observation...

Fucking with the po-lice....

....or 00OO0O0 or II11I1I1

Ain't technology great!

Squint your eyes.

I find that extraordinary.

This provocative installation is made out of...

 ...dog tags of dead soldiers...

I feel compelled to tell you (again) that in the line for religion on my dog tags, I had them punch in HEDONISM...and that is true.

To date, there is no evidence that plate size influences the amount of food people eat.

Please. Do. But it's up to you.

One Of My Very Own...

Ya gotta love rednecks.
When my daughter reached the age to attend daycare, it was in a rural area. Once I heard her wave her hand and tell her sister, "Moan, Leah."
I was horrified. I said, "It's not "Moan", it's "Ca-moan!"
Then I screamed...."No, no, no....IT'S COME ON!"

The armadillo is an amazing animal...

Sure hope I haven't wasted my life being loyal to the wrong brand of toothpaste.

Right when we need independent thinkers, we are still churning out clones of the ideal producer...

 All of the art lessons I taught my students were open-ended. I, say, wanted to teach them one-point perspective, but once learned, where they went with it was totally up to them. I take great pride in that.

"Once a corn field is planted and herbicide applied, many farmers don’t return to a given field until harvest time. The biotechnological and labor-saving innovations that have reduced costs for corn farmers mean that literally no one walks into the average corn field during the growing season. Which presents a major opportunity for marijuana growers."

I had, of course, seen nooses in movies and such...

...but no one taught me to make one. I taught myself and am rather proud of that. Never actually lynched anyone, but I knew how, if the opportunity ever presented itself.

When I used to write books, I would print out a picture like this...

Then when my characters walked in the room I could see what they saw and describe it. It worked rather well.

Photography...

 It's called Atmospheric Perspective and it's a good thing.

Got this email:

"When you ride in your little" golf-cartette" do you putana de seatbeltz and stop at the golf bar?"

Anybody?.........anybody?

I went to a wedding once...

The father of the bride owned a hotel in Luxembourg. He put away a whole lot of wine the year his daughter was born to serve at her wedding. It was an experience I will never forget. Each diner had three bottles of wine in front of them; a red, rose' and white. Later that night I ended up naked with the Italian Consul's daughter....which is difficult to forget.

I know a lot of cops...

The burnout rate is large. Every day they have to deal with the lowest of the low in our society and as more than one has told me, it just gets to you.
None of the cops I know wants to prove anything, except maybe they want to put their life on the line for people who can't protect themselves.

More photography...

I tend to agree with this...

Phoenix, Arizona, USA....

You know what's sad? I have no idea if that is Phoenix or not....I just took someone's word for it.

Forming a ball of clay into something eloquent is almost a sexual experience...

I have the greatest respect for potters....and so should you.

Speaking of sexual experiences...

Xylophonist can be pronounced either xyLOPHonist or XYLOphonist.

Is this true?

"I'm an artist, you know?"

"What kind of art do you do?"

"I spray paint my name in big puffy letters on trains and buildings and stuff like that."

 "Oh."

Tipping...

My servers have told me that some customers never tip, saying that they don't like the system. Well, friends, that young person making sure you have a pleasant meal has nothing to do with the system. Please, don't take your displeasure out on a young person just trying to eke by.
Two of my servers came to work one day looking like they had been in a train wreck. One's arm had a huge bruise that went from her wrist to halfway up her bicep. The other had eight stitches in her eyebrow.....HER EYEBROW! 
They play female rugby. Come to find out the rules state that you play with 16 players, but you can play with as few as 13. Well, their team was down to 13, so if one of them went out of the game, then they would have to forfeit. The girl with the stitches played that way (with blood streaming) for a quarter. The girl with the bruise played the last couple of possessions with projectile vomiting.
So when you hear people talk about the lack of grit in the present generation, remember those to wonderful young women.
But what I found astounding was that they LIKED their wounds because (they said) people tip much better if their server is injured.....think about that a minute.
So, here's the deal. If you are one of those assholes who don't like the whole tipping thing and take it out on your server, here's my email address. Send me a copy of your receipt and your email and I will mail you the money to go back and tip them.....of course, I will also post your name and how big of a cold hearted cheap ass motherfucker you are.
(ralph.henry.at.folio.olio@gmail.com)
I dare you.....I fucking dare you.

You might want to read all of this...

How much is too much, folks? How much more being fucked with will it take for you to stand up and demand reform? Do you think that I and the rest of the concerned citizens are some fringe-group of nuts who overreact? 
So again I ask, how much is too much. Take the time to think about it and set your limit. At least that way when they set a camera up on every telephone pole in your neighborhood, maybe you can say..."Okay, I've had enough."
But, more amusingly, what if my blog just stopped and you found out that I had been arrested for.....reasons? Do you think that would jar you out of your 'go along to get along' lifestyle?