OMFG
Dear Moneymakers, (an open letter)
And by this, I mean all corporate “persons”, executives, super-rich and basically, everyone who is making their money by just having money.
You’re doing it wrong.
A joke for the 99%
The government today announced that it is changing its national symbol to a condom because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance. A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re actualy being screwed.
A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945 - by Isao Hashimoto (by aConcernedHuman)
Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).
Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto, who began the project in 2003, says that he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.
http://www.ctbto.org/specials/1945-1998-by-isao-hashimoto/
Multimedia artwork
“2053” - This is the number of nuclear explosions conducted in various parts of the globe.*
Profile of the artist: Isao HASHIMOTO
Born in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan in 1959.
Worked for 17 years in financial industry as a foreign exchange dealer. Studied at Department of Arts, Policy and Management of Musashino Art University, Tokyo.
Currently working for Lalique Museum, Hakone, Japan as a curator.
Created artwork series expressing, in the artist’s view, “the fear and the folly of nuclear weapons”:
“1945-1998” © 2003
“Overkilled”
“The Names of Experiments”
About “1945-1998” ©2003
“This piece of work is a bird’s eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world.”
Contact the artist:
Should you have any query regarding this artwork, please contact e-mail address below:
hashi123@amy.hi-ho.ne.jp
* The number excludes both tests by North Korea (October 2006 and May 2009).
What I find really scary is the length of time the Americans spend setting off nukes on their own soil. And then they wonder why so many Americans have so many medical problems, these days. Yikes.
Also scary for me is the number of nukes good ole “mother England” set off in the useless allied territory of Australia. /snark
(Source: youtube.com, via dialectics8)
One important lesson on economics from someone who’s picked up on a few things…
Put basically: If they’re offering it to plebes like you, the bubble is about to burst.
There are numerous economic bubbles in past and present. The stock bubble. The internet bubble. The housing bubble. The quantum chocolate bubble. Okay, I just wish there was a quantum chocolate bubble…
The point is, bubbles are just like pyramid schemes. Sooner or later, they’re going to run out of people to sell it to and the whole shebang is going to fall on top of whoever’s stuck on the bottom.
That usually means the “sucker” portion of the common throng. The people who believe they’re going to get rich by investing everything they own on a shanty-house in BF-nowhere that the bank says is worth tons and that said people can’t possibly repay inside of ten lifetimes.
The people who genuinely believe that sending a letter to five friends will result in a vast fortune arriving to them by mail.
The people who really think that some wealthy person in Nigeria [or wherever] is going to launder their millions through a plebe’s bank account.
And the people who think pyramid schemes really, really work.
Let me run through some math. Person A decides to start a little scheme selling otherwise worthless pieces of paper as part of a pyramid scheme. He sells to ten people and gives instructions to each to sell to ten more. They remove their names once they’re at the top of a list of ten people.
On the first iteration [the first sale] there are 11 people in the loop.
Second iteration, 111 have bought in
Third, 1111.
Fourth, 11111. Fifth 111111. By the sixth iteration, you’ve reached over a million people. By the ninth, one billion.
There are about sixty billion people on this earth, the last time I checked. At that rate, you’re going to run out of suckers. And the last people to buy in are always the first to cop the consequences of falling for it.
Same principle with [Mad-Lib here] bubbles. The richest people get hold of said maguffin first, and sell it at inflated prices to those lower in the economic scale as an investment opportunity. Increased demand equals increased value, and a few of the lower echelon sell it down, again at an increased price, to those slightly beneath them.
Lather, rinse and repeat for a few iterations and Joe Schlubb and his neighbours are all desperately trying to sign you on to Maguffin Inc.
Only the skeptics can survive bubbles with their fundings intact. Them, or the people who started it in the first place.
If you’re at a sales pitch and they mention the wealthy’s secrets to getting rich, leave. That’s a sure sign you’re about to be bubbled.
I'm assuming Anonymous already has plans...
There’s an instruction manual containing words that can get anyone who uses them on a terrorist watch list just for using them online.
Lots of them can be used in completely innocent ways. For instance: telling all the folks in InternetLand all the words that you’re not allowed to use any more.
How long, folks, before there’s an online competition to use as many of these words as humanly possible in a completely innocent post?
And since this is also publicly available, now the terrorists have the list too. And they can come up with innocuous substitute code words or phrases and thus avoid detection.
Way to go. Is there any worse way to screw this up?
What’s happening, OWS?
I do not believe for one second that OWS has fizzled out. Especially overnight.
Given all the laws and whatnot flying around, and the protests and outrage concerning them, I can only guess what’s happened in the space of twenty-four hours
1) They arrested absolutely everybody and haven’t told anyone.
2) They’re censoring everything OWS.
3) Corporate America suddenly realised there’s bugger all elsewhere to go once they’ve finished raping America and have had a sudden influx of human fellow-feeling. As a result, they’ve spontaneously decided to quit being evil.
4) Nobody’s had time to say anything ‘cause they’re all too busy watching the pigs fly by.
I bet you can guess I think the first couple aree more likely.
Can someone pease fill us in about what’s going on?
Behind-closed-doors anti piracy move threatens to enact SOPA/PIPA/ACTA without Govt approval
Something needs to be done about this ASAP. If not earlier.
Bank of America Gets Foreclosed
Bank of America has little patience for homeowners who have fallen on hard times and behind on their mortgages. The lending giant is in the midst of foreclosure battles in every state as well as defending against allegations that they engaged in fraud and misrepresentation during the foreclosure process.
Given all the increased scrutiny you would think the bank would be extra diligent before pursuing homeowners in court. Think again.
First the mega-bank wrongfully foreclosed on a couple who had paid cash for their house (and thus not only did not have a mortgage with Bank of America but owned title to their property free and clear). Then, when the couple fought the mistaken foreclosure, Bank of America refused to back down, insisting they owned the home.
When Bank of America lost the foreclosure action they were ordered to pay the couple’s attorney and court fees, since it was Bank of America’s error that brought the action in the first place.
Instead of paying those fees promptly, Bank of America let the bill sit for over five months. Tired of banks getting away with actions that can throw an average citizen in jail these days, the couple and their attorney had a stroke of genius. They foreclosed upon the bank.
The action got the attention of the bank. After an hour of being locked out by bailiffs while their furniture, computers, and cash in the till was seized, the branch manager was able to get the couple and their attorney a check for the fees owed.
The actions of Bank of America says everything about the attitude permeating lending institutions in this country. They abuse customers and non-customers without so much as a second thought and ignore the rule of law at will. And while the “little guy” turned the tables here, you have to wonder just how many more stories like this are out there, only the homeowners were too scared, confused or just plain beat down to fight back.
Senior Citizens Occupy, Shut Down Bank Of America
A dozen senior citizens calling themselves “the wild old women” succeeded in closing a Bank of America branch in Bernal Heights on Thursday.
Toting walkers and wheelchairs, the “wild old women” certainly weren’t the most rambunctious group to fight for the interests of the 99%, but they did cause the branch to close and lock its doors, much to the protesters’ surprise.
“We’re upset about what the banks are doing, particularly in our neighborhood and neighboring areas, in evicting people and foreclosing on their homes,” protester Tita Caldwell, 80, told KCBS. “We’re upset because the banks are raising their rates because it really affects seniors who are on a fixed income.”
Bank Transfer Day saw a billion dollars moved out of large commerical banks. In one of the most visible actions against Bank of America, a San Jose church divested $3 million, closed its accounts, and moved to a local credit union.
Class Action Filed Against Bank of America For Foreclosure Fraud.
The suit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, accuses Bank of America and two subsidiaries of a “pervasive and willful” disregard of the facts and the law in their “undisciplined rush to seize homes.”The complaint also blasts the judicial system for an inexcusable deference to Bank of America at the expense of homeowners. When called by judges to case management conferences, lawyers representing the bank often fail to show up. When Bank of America refuses to negotiate in good faith judges do nothing about it, leaving homeowners to battle foreclosures after Bank of America has negotiated a modified mortgage and then later refused to honor the terms.So far Bank of America has no response to the lawsuit.
BankafuckamericansHale-bloody-luja. More power to them.
OWS idea: shit-stirring kickstarter
So I just had one of those brain farts that can only cause trouble and decided to share. I’m that special ;)
Start a kickstarter project in the US to buy the next president.
Obviously, it has to be long term. Like 2016 type long term. Y'know, since this year is leaving it a little too late to fund a president.
The whole goal is to bring back a government by the people, for the people and of the people by using the current corrupt system against itself. You can extrapolate a goal figure from what past presidents have cost corporations and then doubling it so the other bastards have to scramble a bit.
If you start now, not only can you rub the whole corruption issue in everyone’s faces, but maybe make it unnecessary to even have the kickstarter going in the first place.
What do the rest of you think? Good stunt? Bad stunt? GTFO?