Bienvenidos lectores españoles!

Hoy, tengo significativamente más lectores de España que de cualquier otro país, incluido Estados Unidos. ¡Bienvenida a mis amigos españoles!

Today's Link Sink

Opt out of everything on the internet: Your handy and very comprehensive page where you can opt out of almost any privacy-related matter on the web. Truly invaluable.  Click here.

But Bernie is wrong about everything else, so why not this? WSJ: Why Bernie Sanders Is Wrong About Sweden. My first reaction was, Why should Sweden be the exception? But in fact, Sweden is not socialist at all.

The ‘Nordic model’ of socialism, which he and other leftists tout, is more like ‘ruthless capitalism,’ says [Swedish historian] Johan Norberg.

He idealized the simple life of his ancestors in the 19th century. 

“I had this romanticized idea about them, and I looked at pictures of them: Look at that rural lifestyle, happy farmers.” Eventually he realized 19th-century life wasn’t all he cracked it up to be. “I thought it would come with penicillin, and sort of modern surgery, and instant access to all of the calories I needed to survive another day, and so. And I think history really saved me there, because then when I read up on my ancestors in northern Sweden, I realized that they didn’t live ‘ecologically.’ They died ecologically, at a very young age.” ...

A couple of days after our interview, Mr. Norberg emailed a warning for Americans: “The most dangerous place to be is top of the world, think you have it all made and can afford to experiment with socialism or protectionism, because you have plenty of room for mistakes before you hurt yourself,” he wrote. “That’s where Sweden was in 1970. It almost destroyed us, and it took some heroic efforts to get back on track.”

BTW, that's this Norberg:

Not the Police Squad character:

(Whose name was spelled Nordberg, anyway. But what the heck. Go with it.)

David Goldman: The Chinese will hand Trump his head on a platter. Goldman supports Trump and will vote for him next year, but says there are certain realities that Trump is not integrating. Read it and weep.

Speaking of the Chinese  - Africans to Chinese: Get out! Why? Because the Chinese build them nothing without strings (Strings? Heck, chains!) attached and the Chinese con has worn too thin to live with. Besides, I know very well a retired Marine officer who did years of State Dept. assignments in Africa after the Corps, He saw first hand many, many places where the Chinese had done infrastructure work - roads, pipelines, building projects. He told me that without exception they were of very poor quality and would not last. There was no doubt in his mind that the Chinese did not do the work to advance the African's interests, but their own, and saw the contracts as foothold for a permanent presence there.

Which helps explains why Trump wanted to buy Greenland. Because Greenland's government (it self governs although the island is still a Danish colony) asked the Chinese in 2017 whether they would build infrastructure that the Danish government declined to fund.

According to the South China Morning Post, Greenland had been seriously courted by China due to its strategic location and its mineral resources.

BTW, Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland, too, and even offered to swap part of Alaska for it.

Forbes: Trump Might Want to Buy Greenland But His Nemesis, China, Is There Before Him

CNBC: Here’s why Trump wants to buy Greenland

The Smithsonian Institution is not exactly run by the Vast Right-Wing, White-Supremacy Conspiracy, but it sure knocks the New York Times' "1619 project" into the can. The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History

The year the first enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts history

But to the NYT, that's a feature, not a bug.

The "lungs of the earth" are still breathing. Reason: Don't Panic: Amazon Burning Is Mostly Farms, Not Forests. As Brazilians attained a higher per-capita standard of living over the years, they decreased clearing Amazon basin jungle. What made the difference? Capitalism, of course.

A 2012 study found, after parsing data from 52 developing countries between 1972 and 2003, that deforestation increases until average income levels reach about $3,100 per capita. As it happens, Brazilian per capita incomes reached $3,600 per capita in 2004,which is when deforestation rates began trending decisively downward.

What instead of Google?

An excellent guide:

The complete list of alternatives to all Google products

Welcome, neutrino oberservers!

Very interesting this morning to see that some of the referring URLs to this site belong to the Ice Cube South Pole Neutrino Observatory!

Welcome!

Ah, memes!

Cable TV competitors and Theodore Levitt

This feels a little like déjà vu. The country’s top cable and satellite TV providers just wrapped up another quarter of record subscriber declines as customers flee traditional pay-television distributors in favor of streaming and on-demand services, according to a research note from MoffettNathanson. Combined declines for the second quarter of 2017 came close to a million subscribers, the firm estimates, with Dish Network, DirectTV, and AT&T hit especially hard. As bad as it was, the customer exodus was not as bad as some analysts had predicted, prompting analyst Craig Moffett to ask the question, “Is ‘not as worse’ even a thing?”

“[Y]es, things are getting worse,” Moffett wrote. “But at least in Q2 they got worse more slowly. Less worse. Or, not as worse. Or, well, you get the idea.”

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because three months ago, the industry had just logged its worst quarter in history, losing an estimated 762,000 pay-TV subscribers. This time around, that number has jumped to 941,000 subscribers. Even Comcast, which had been bucking the trend over the last few quarters, ended Q2 with a net loss of 34,000 pay-TV customers. [Link]

The pace will continue downward because cable companies are not keeping up with their competitors, except for maybe DirectTV, which a few months ago launched a streaming-only service called DirectTV Now, which streams live shows. 

My wife and I moved to a new-construction house two months ago. It took forever for our address to validate and propagate through databases, especially Comcast's. They connected us only two weeks ago, insisting until then that our house didn't exist. We had been using DirectTV Now to fill the gap, watching it on TV using an Amazon Fire stick with our smart phones' wifi hotspot turned on. (Thank goodness for unlimited data plans.) When I was finally able to get Comcast to agree I existed, I became so disgusted at the continual TV upselling the customer agent was doing, and the endless fees and additions, that finally I said bluntly, I want internet only and if I can't get that then AT&T will take my call, too. Of course, AT&T does the same thing. DirectTV Now and Hulu Live are two of the main competitors to connected cable service. Of course, DirectTV is itself a connected cable satellite service, but the Now service is internet only. Hulu has been around a long time and has just this year got into the act of offering live TV.

Both DTVN and Hulu Live stream a number of live channels but none are local stations. The services' channel selections are mostly redundant. I tried both of them and finally decided to keep Hulu, but that decision was based more on Hulu's promises to expand than its present offerings. Neither of them require any of their own hardware, just a Roku or Fire Stick or the like - see their sites for details.
DirectTV Now's main advantage is that it works on more devices (Hulu does not yet offer a Roku app) and you can watch it on the web, which you cannot do with Hulu Live. Both work on smart phones and tablets. However, you can watch all the rest of Hulu's stuff on the web, a device or on your TV. DirectTV Now has a very limited on-demand selection. DirectTV Now also loads much slower that Hulu Live and often it did not load at all on our TVs using either our Amazon Fire Stick or our Roku 3. Also DTVN skipped and stuttered or paused a lot. One of the main decision points for me was that Hulu offers live major-league baseball games, which are absolutely not available on DirectTV Now, and I assume DTVN is similarly restricted for other sports. As I said, local channels? Fuggedaboudit on both services. We bought over-the-air HD antennas for local-channel broadcasts. I finally decided to keep Hulu Live and cancel DirectTV Now, even though the inability to watch Hulu's service on my computer is a major, major disadvantage for me. But that I can watch MLB games live is a huge advantage. Huku promises that PC viewing and Roku viewing are both coming, hopefully soon. I expect that both services will expand offerings and devices in the coming weeks or months.

Another big deal for both services is that there is no contract. They are both month-to-month. There is also YouTube Live, which seems really good and offers a one-month trial period, but its market is limited to large metro areas, so far.

There are other such services. My advice is to do a lot of research and take full advantage of trial periods.

At our prior home we had Xfinity's X1 service, which I really liked. But after so many weeks in a row of not watching TV at all, or watching very little, my wife and I both got used to two things:

• TV not being as big a deal as we used to think it was, and
• Not paying major bank to Comcast every month to rent many dozens of channels that we never watch.

There are channels on Hulu we don't watch, too, but not at near the cost. And we already had a Fire Stick and a Roku, but Comcast piles on fees every month: $10 per DVR/box, $10 for HD channels, $7 or so for sports, additional fees for local channels.

That said, Comcast does have an amazing streaming service that is really outstanding - but not by itself. You must have some level of their traditional cable TV service first. Bummer. Honestly, if they offered a streaming-only service, they would be king of the hill. I'd buy it for sure.

Maybe it is time for Comcast to ask themselves that crucial question, What Business Are You Really In? 

Harvard Business School professor Theodore Levitt, back in 1960, captured one of the major challenges most companies face today. His now classic article Marketing Myopia begins this way:  

Every major industry was once a growth industry. But some that are now riding a wave of growth enthusiasm are very much in the shadow of decline. Others which are thought of as seasoned growth industries have actually stopped growing. In every case, the reason growth is threatened, slowed, or stopped is not because the market is saturated. It is because there has been a failure of management.  

That failure is caused by what Levitt called “marketing myopia” which he defines exactly as you would expect.  It’s what occurs when company leaders define their mission too narrowly; it’s a form of business nearsightedness or shortsightedness. Levitt offered what are now a few classic examples.

Industry	Myopic Purpose	The Broader Purpose
Railroads	Train Travel	Transportation
Hollywood	Movies	Entertainment
Oil Companies	Petroleum	Energy

On the flip side, he cites companies such as DuPont, and Kaiser and Reynolds that have thrived for centuries by remaining thoroughly customer focused and that evolved—in terms of the products and services they offered—as the needs of their customers did.

What a concept.

Facebook, ISIS beheadings and child porn

Yet another reason I don't regret deactivating my FB account. The Times (UK) reports, "Facebook publishing child pornography."

Facebook is at risk of a criminal prosecution in Britain for refusing to remove potentially illegal terrorist and child pornography content despite being told it was on the site, The Times can reveal.

The social media company failed to take down dozens of images and videos that were “flagged” to its moderators, including one showing an Islamic State beheading, several violent paedophilic cartoons, a video of an apparent sexual assault on a child and propaganda posters glorifying recent terrorist attacks in London and Egypt. Instead of removing the content, moderators said that the posts did not breach the site’s “community standards”.

Facebook’s algorithms even promoted some of the offensive material by suggesting that users join groups and profiles that had published it.

A leading QC who reviewed the content said that, in his view, much of it was illegal under British law. Facebook was at risk of committing a criminal offence because it had been made aware of the illegal images and had failed to take them down, he said.

If you have a tough stomach, read the rest.

Remember these Internet hoaxes?

Good times, good times:

Our next door neighbor was made ill recently when he ordered a bucket of fried chicken from KFC. One of the pieces of “chicken” was actually a fried rat. He was home recovering this week when he went to sleep.

When he awoke he was in his bathtub and it was full of ice and he was sore all over. When he got out of the tub he realized that HIS KIDNEYS HAD BEEN STOLEN! He saw a note on his mirror that said "Call 911!" But he was afraid to use his phone because it was connected to his computer, and there was a virus on his computer that would destroy his hard drive if he opened an e mail entitled "Join the crew!"

He knew it wasn't a hoax because he himself was a computer programmer who was working on software to save us from Armageddon when the year 2000 rolls around. His program will prevent a global disaster in which all the computers get together and distribute the $600 Nieman Marcus cookie recipe under the leadership of Bill Gates. 

(It's true—I read it all last week in a mass e mail from BILL GATES HIMSELF, who was also promising me a free Disney World vacation and $5,000 if I would forward the email to everyone I know.)

Our poor neighbor tried to call 911 from a pay phone to report his missing kidneys, but reaching into the coin return slot he got jabbed with an HIV infected needle around which was wrapped a note that said, "Welcome to the world of AIDS." Luckily he was only a few blocks from the hospital, in fact, the actual hospital of that little boy who is dying of cancer—you know, the one whose last wish is for everyone in the world to send him an e mail and the American Cancer Society will get a nickel for every e mail he receives.

(I sent him two e mails and one of them was a bunch of x's and o's in the shape of an angel. If you get it and forward it to twenty people you will have good luck, but if you send to only ten people you will only have okay luck and if you send it to less than ten people you will have BAD LUCK FOR SEVEN YEARS).

So anyway the poor guy tried to drive himself to the hospital, but on the way he noticed another car driving along without his lights on. To be helpful, he flashed his lights at him and was promptly shot as part of a gang initiation. And it's a little known fact that the Y1K problem caused the Dark Ages.

Social media drives you crazy

Social Media Is Driving Americans Insane.

It means literally, not figuratively. Yet another effect of digital heroin.

The politics of Facebook

No, I don't mean the politics of Mark Zuckerberg and Company, but of FB users. I dropped off FB last August - apparently just in time.

I have seen the future and it stinks

At least in part - but it could be a pretty big part.

HT: Gerard.

Update: "Members of Best Buy’s Geek Squad passed incriminating evidence to the law enforcement agency and received payments from agents."

Google's poke in our eyes

Here was google.com's incomprehensible page on Christmas Day:

And here was Bing's:

Meanwhile:

This is a parody tweet, but is more than credible as a real one.

Bing v. Google, Dec. 7

Today is the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan. Here is how Google.com commemorates the day:

And here is Bing.com:

Over the past few months I have been using Bing more and more and Google less and less to search. Think I'll keep it up.

Skynet will be living inside your refrigerator

And your Amazon Echo or Google Home:

Security Experts Warn Congress That the Internet of Things Could Kill People

Answer to Fermi's paradox? "They got killed by their Roombas."

The Interview to open Dec. 25 after all

Just heard on radio news that Sony will release The Interview after all, in response to theater chains that have said they will show the movie if Sony releases it.

Whether Carmike and Regal, America's largest chains, are among those referred to was not said. Previously, both chains said they had dropped the movie from its planned opening.

Update: More:

Sony Pictures is set to release the canceled Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview” in theaters and on video on demand, TheWrap has learned.

The plan is to release the film simultaneously in participating theaters and via video on demand. The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, the MX Theaters in St. Louis and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin have now said they will distribute the film. The MX said it would be selling tickets as of 2 p.m Tuesday.

The release will likely be in the 200-theater range; exhibitors typically cap the rollout of films that offer day-and-date VOD at around 300 sites, because it usually cuts attendance significantly.

And apparently, a fair number of cyber-security experts do not agree with the US Government that North Korea was behind the hack of Sony. "Hackers 'had extensive knowledge of Sony’s internal architecture and access to key passwords,' writes one renowned security expert who thinks an 'insider' may be to blame."

Internet fakery nears perfection

Zilla van den Born boasts of trekking in Asia using photos taken in home town | Mail Online

A fraud stunning in its complexity of planning and simplicity of execution.

The beach is real The locale is real. The girl is real. The photo is fake.

+11

Proving a point: Zilla van den Born devised the scheme to show that Facebook posts and status updates are not accurate and we filter what we show on social media

What a scam! Student boasts to friends about trekking through Asia, visiting stunning beaches, tasting local cuisine and meeting Buddhist monks - using FAKE photos taken in her home town

Read and heed!

Malaysian Airliner Tinfoil Hat Brigade Marches In!

The Chinese satellite photo of presumed wreckage of Malaysian Airlines flight 370 brought a search of the photo area that turned up nothing.


Neither have authorities confirmed that the airliner radically changed course and flew far to the west before disappearing. Malaysian military leaders have asked the United States to help them sort out their radar records.

In short, the situation today is the same as it was last Saturday: the airliner is gone and no one has the slightest idea why or where.

Except, of course, the Tinfoil Hat Brigade:

)
Yep, space aliens got 'em! So now ya know!

But if the Greys got 'em, the THB needs to explain why there is credible reason to believe that the flight 370's engines continued to send engine-performance data to ground receivers for four hours after the plane disappeared from contact.

If this is so - and it is not confirmed - then it would argue against transponder contact being lost because the planes altitude fell too low for signals to reach ground stations. They would not have been out of range more than the engine-status radios.

This is the first I have ever heard that an airliner's engines send data continuously to ground stations. The data include altitude and airspeed, but not direction. But presumably, a rough plot of the flight path could be made by identifying the ground stations that received the data.

Curiouser and curiouser!


ew

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Living without Google Reader

Google Reader went offline at midnight last night. But despair ye not. If you like Google Reader's layout and interface, then AOL's Reader will be as comfortable an a pair of broken-in jeans. Go to reader.aol.com.

Get Bettar!

I got this pop-up window in my Chrome browser two days ago:

Surely this was an early April Fools joke, yes?