Thursday, November 17, 2016

Digital Disruptions and Conundrums


INK BOTTLE“The winds of gossip blow from the chests of people ventilating their opinions.”
~ Augustine, Confessions (trans. Henry Chadwick, courtesy of Richard Zuelch)

There are difficult writers and then there's D.H. Lawrence, for whom callousness was an intellectual catalyst. “You have to have something vicious in you, to be a creative writer in Sydney New York or Praha"  

Jonathan Swift, inveterate joker, rarely laughed late in life. Life was a farce in every sense but the most important one, in that it was tragedy 

Orwell 2016
Deloittes the creators of Compass - Order that we Fail Fast

  • Be careful who you trust the devil was once an angel

gidesistine03There is a provocative saying about leadership, discipleship, and the search for truth that is commonly attributed to the Czech statesman Václav Havel who passed away in 2011. Here are two versions:

Follow the man who seeks the truth; run from the man who has found it.
Seek the company of those who search for truth; run from those who have found it. 
Dough Carpenter of NSW and WA Parliament fames who recently passed away drew this quote to my attention many many moons ago and today BC fished it out again  ...  Trust Seekers Mistrust Finders

"To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.
 When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, 
because if you do you will sink and drown. 
Instead you relax, and float."
 ~ Mr Watts 

Make sure everybody in your boat is rowing and not drilling holes when you’re not looking. 
Know your circle even if it is not perfect 
Where are the Leaders and Followers we can Trust?

Chicago Sun-Times, Vrdolyak indicted on income tax evasion, impeding IRS. A long-time political figure in Chicago. He served time for charges relating to a “high-profile financial scam” a few years ago. If you can’t trust a Chicago Machine politician to obey the tax laws, what have we come to as a society?



 Just a handful of dodgy tax structures being used by Australians cost tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue, according to the Australian Taxation Office.  That could mean many millions more are missing, and is why the ATO is cracking down on people misusing trusts.
Distrust and Mistrust of Trust Structures ... 


Your mobile phone records and home address for sale (Different charges apply for politicians, police, celebrities etc....) Legal Call Centers: Your mobile phone records and home address for sale 


Indian scams IRS arrests: Illegal Call Centers
 

Digital licences could save the taxpayer millions, but there are practical and social challenges still ahead as states prepare services for a cardless and cashless future. Service NSW launches first with three licence types. First wave of digital licences still face privacy, flat battery conundrum


The worldwide scourge of cybercrime afflicted 689 million people in the past year, or more than twice the population of the United States, a California anti-virus software maker reported Wednesday. Yet those hit by cybercrime often remain complacent, even sharing their passwords with friends, says a survey from Norton by Symantec, the security software maker.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/politics-government/article115008073.html#storylink=cpy
Using public Wi-Fi? Hackers may be picking your digital pocket 

Secret Backdoor in Some U.S. Phones Sent Data to China, Analysts Say – “For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors, a secret feature: a backdoor that sends all your text messages to China every 72 hours. Security contractors recently discovered preinstalled software in some Android phones that monitors where users go, whom they talk to and what they write in text messages. The American authorities say it is not clear whether this represents secretive data mining for advertising purposes or a Chinese government effort to collect intelligence…” 

WSJ – “Amazon.com Inc. this week filed lawsuits targeting sellers allegedly listing counterfeit goods on its website, publicly cracking down on an issue that has caused increasing friction. The two lawsuits, Amazon’s first legal challenge against its third-party sellers for bogus products, pertain to fake versions of the Forearm Forklift, a strap system that allows users to lift heavy items, and TRX Suspension Trainer workout bands and products. The second lawsuit was filed jointly with Fitness Anywhere LLC, the company behind the authentic workout bands.” 

Hope in the Dark – Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities by Rebecca Solnit
“With Hope in the Dark, Rebecca Solnit makes a radical case for hope as a commitment to act in a world whose future remains uncertain and unknowable. Drawing on her decades of activism and a wide reading of environmental, cultural, and political history, Solnit argued that radicals have a long, neglected history of transformative victories, that the positive consequences of our acts are not always immediately seen, directly knowable, or even measurable, and that pessimism and despair rest on an unwarranted confidence about what is going to happen next. Originally published in 2004, now with a new foreword and afterword, Solnit’s influential book shines a light into the darkness of our time in an unforgettable new edition.”


Psalm 103:14-15 For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die...