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Comment sanctions (Score 1) 179

ensuring they can't be traced or confiscated due to sanctions

This got me interested. What exactly is he saying there? Does it mean what I think it means - that they immediately shift that money around, possibly through some mixers, to muddle the origin? And, of course, make it better suited to pay their proxies now that Qatar isn't sending suitcases of cash to them anymore?

Comment Re:Pyrrhic Victory (Score 1) 179

It's designed to keep people off balance, uncertain, distracted and misinformed

Thank you for writing that. I was starting to think I'm going crazy and I can't possibly be the only one who sees through that.

If you ignore the messaging, and pay attention to what's actually happening

And if you realize that Trump is just the clown at the helm. There's literally an entire bureaucracy underneath him doing most of the planning, deciding and executing.

Douglas Adams was right. The role of the president is not to excert power, but to distract from it. President of the Galaxy, president of the USA, no difference.

Comment Re:on the one hand (Score 1) 70

This.

You don't need billions to be care-free. Even double-digit millions in some nice safe assets already give you enough fuck-you-money to be good. And while everyone looks at the super-super-rich and they're in various public lists and tracked by not just the tax authorities, barely anyone knows the multi-millionaires. I know three or so that I'm sure nobody on here has ever heard anything about. They stay quiet, comfortable, private.

Comment Re:I was there (Score 1) 94

I think it was brought up because a youtuber brought it up recently in one of their videos and it probably went viral.

He mentioned how it was billed as supposedly a relaxing spa type retreat that wasn't, and what was a disaster for some, others found fun and team building.

It wasn't captured as anything other than "CEO misreads room for team building event". All I know is such activities aren't for me so I don't know if those who weren't equipped to do that sort of thing had an alternative thing or they were forced to participate.

Comment Re:14 years? (Score 1) 48

This depends considerably on the paper. Acidic paper, widely used because it's cheap, oxidizes in a few decades and degrades as you have seen. Because of this, acid-free paper has become increasingly popular. Your newer books are in fact likely to last much better than the ones dating from the 20th century.

Comment Re:Electric Company (Score 1) 27

The Courts need to recognize that Internet has become a necessary utility and that the music companies need to deal with the individual directly through the Courts, not in a lazy clandestine way.

The record labels were originally suing individual users back in the Napster days and it was causing a bit bad PR for them.

I also can't help but think that going after ISPs is something of a cash grab, since I really don't know anyone who even bothers trying to pirate music anymore. It's no longer worth the effort with how cheap music streaming services are.

What really scared them was other countries not tolerating that bullshit and in most other countries if you lose a lawsuit like this the other party can come after you for damages. They don't care about negative PR, but a case where they are forced to pay out for having their spurious claims disproved scares the living shit out of them because it sets a precedent.

Comment Running out of ideas to steal. (Score 1) 35

Yeah... Android manufacturers need to pull their finger out and give Apple some better ideas.

Multiple manufacturers have tried the folding phone several times with little to no success. I can't see Apple succeeding (they'll pretend they are though).

What I can see is Apple presenting their most rigid phone ever as "the iFold 1billion and 2 PRO" with someone standing on stage showing us that it flexes slightly if measured with laboratory equipment... and when people break it in real life telling us "you're folding it wrong".

Comment Re:Navy SEAL drills work best for Navy SEALs (Score 2) 94

I read Richard Marcinko's leadership book (Marcinko was the SEAL who founded DEVGRU, the SEAL's most elite unit, aka Team Six). From it, I concluded this: Applying Navy SEAL principles to lead people works best when the people are physically and mentally built like Navy SEALs. Most people are not, not even elite company CEO's and their staff.

It becomes a game of square peg / round hole.

Special Operator type training is far too advanced for a corporate retreat, what they really need is basic. Learning how to march as a unit, work as a unit, understand and follow orders, et al. Shit that a soldier is expected to have down pat long before they ever get advanced training. Training that might actually be useful in helping people work together or improving discipline... However the ego of your average corporate dick will never allow that, they think they're special so they want the special training.

But in reality they aren't getting anything special, just paying to be shouted at by someone who claims they were a SEAL, SAS, et al. but in all likelihood never were.

Comment Re:Built from leftover parts (Score 1) 133

Totally different business but exactly the same problem. Nordstrom generally has the latest trend clothes in fashion and pretty good quality; it's known for it. But when it had leftover inventory it knew there were people a step down from their target demographic that would love Nordstrom's quality products even if they're a season or two out of fashion for cheaper, so they opened Nordstrom's Rack to sell off the excess inventory.

Nordstrom's Rack got so popular they couldn't keep it stocked, and eventually started developing their own dedicated Nordstrom Rack brands, which sort of defeated the purpose of Nordstrom's Rack as it's entire value was Nordstrom's quality, late season, at a discount, but now it's discount quality with the Nordstrom's name on it.

Law of unintended consequences I guess.

Not really an unknown consequence.

Popular brands know never, ever release your cheap products under your brand. Airlines are famous for this, when QANTAS wanted to release cheap, no frills flights under a LCC model, they didn't brand it as QANTAS CHEAP because that would cheapen the brand QANTAS, they created a new airline called JetStar and even though they are wholly owned subsidiaries. It's not unusual for a budget airline to operate under the parent airlines AOC (Air Operator Certificate... the bit of paper that says you're allowed to carry passengers), LEVEL (Spanish low cost carrier) operated under another AOC until it got it's own (Iberia's I think). The point is, they didn't want to associate the parent brands just in case they got successful.

But this isn't exactly off brand for Apple, they're charging $700 for a $300 laptop and $300 is being generous as we know it's really a $200 phone.

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