2011-12-30 18:13:19 // The Operator
What do four European politicians, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, and a police informant all have in common?
- Pierre Bérégovoy – French Socialist politician. He served as Prime Minister under François Mitterrand from 1992 to 1993, two bullets to the head (5/1/1993)
- François de Grossouvre – French politician in charge of overseeing national security and other sensitive matters, discovered dead, two bullets in his head (4/7/1994)
- Gary Webb – Pulitzer prize-winning American investigative journalist best known for his 1996 “Dark Alliance” series of articles, two gunshot wounds to the head (12/10/2004)
- Yuriy Kravchenko – Ukrainian police officer and statesman, two gunshot wounds to the head (3/4/2005)
- Zamanbek Nurkadilov – Mayor of Almaty in Kazakhstan, shot twice in the chest and once in the head but “Government of Kazakhstan ruled his death a suicide” (11/11/2005)
- David Jacobs – steroid dealer and police informant, multiple gunshot wounds (6/5/2008)
If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, these fellows must’ve had more than a little knowledge – how else can you explain the need to shoot themselves twice – in the head ..?
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2011-12-27 18:19:53 // The Operator
That is not dead which can eternal lie / And with strange aeons even death may die
- The Call of Cthulhu
HP Lovecraft
For in that sleep of death / what dreams may come
- Hamlet (III, i, 65-68)
Shakespeare
What qualifies as the “fantasy” content is bent around the gravity well of its context; what matters most to this fantasy is whose.
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2011-12-27 01:58:17 // The Operator
Unfortunately, as often happens with bad ideas that make some people a lot of money, the idea caught on and has even become the conventional wisdom.
. . .
“Maximizing shareholder value” turned out to be the disease of which it purported to be the cure. Between 1960 and 1980, CEO compensation per dollar of net income earned for the 365 biggest publicly traded American companies fell by 33 percent. CEOs earned more for their shareholders for steadily less and less relative compensation. By contrast, in the decade from 1980 to 1990 , CEO compensation per dollar of net earnings produced doubled. From 1990 to 2000 it quadrupled.
Meanwhile real performance was declining…
- The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value
Steve Denning for Forbes.com
11/28/2011
[via Philip Greenspun]
… and it only took thirty-five years to see how manipulating stock prices vis-a-vis information might turn out to be a perverse incentive for CEO’s…
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2011-12-25 00:01:43 // The Operator
des·ti·tute /ˈdestiˌt(y)o͞ot/ – Without the basic necessities of life.
Answers
- Terminal celebration.
- Only a few months.
- In the desert.
- Sunburn.
- Only myself.
Questions
- What if you had to?
- How long have you ever been?
- Where did you end up?
- Why didn’t you stay?
- Who is to blame?
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2011-12-24 20:29:47 // The Operator
- $52,000,000,000 spent on Black Friday
- $31,522,551,938 cost to solve world hunger (inflation-adjusted)
- $548,900,000,000 was spent “defending” ‘merikuh
- $2,706,797,566~ paid to top 100 CEO’s
- 13,000,000 ‘merikuhns with no paying work
- 75,000,000~ born-again-type ‘merikuhns who reckoned Matthew 19:21 shouldn’t apply to them
Get drunk. ‘Tis the season.
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2011-12-21 19:01:42 // The Operator
If you have a dispute with the Bank, and you are not able to resolve the dispute informally, you and the Bank agree that upon demand by either you or the Bank, the dispute will be resolved through the arbitration process as set forth in this part. A “dispute” is any unresolved disagreement between you and the Bank.
It includes any disagreement relating in any way to services, accounts or matters; to your use of any of the Bank’s banking locations or facilities; or to any means you may use to access your account(s). It includes claims based on broken promises or contracts, torts, or other wrongful actions. It also includes statutory, common law, and equitable claims.
“Disputes” include disagreements about the meaning, application or enforceability of this arbitration agreement. This arbitration agreement shall survive any termination of your account(s).
YOU AGREE THAT YOU AND THE BANK ARE WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL OR TRIAL BEFORE A JUDGE IN A PUBLIC COURT.
- Important Changes to Arbitration Language
Wells Fargo policy effective 2/15/2012
Somehow I doubt that this change in policy bodes well for Wells Fargo account holders…
Locked out of the bank while trying to close your account? Talk to our friendly arbitration company.
A teller pocketed your cash deposit? Talk to our friendly arbitration company.
The branch manager misplaced your file – including sensitive account and personal information – and your account was recently emptied from a Ukrainian ATM? Talk to our friendly arbitration company.
When has a corporation ever changed its terms and conditions of service to better serve its customers?
Thank you for your business – it has a been a pleasure robbing you.
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2011-12-21 04:13:26 // The Operator
It matters not how far you stray
so long as you can lead others there
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2011-12-21 03:22:36 // The Operator
“All it takes is one slip up. It may be years, but I WILL kill you.”
I hear a voice in my head telling me the above quote every day.
I always hear, “You deserve to die, to suffer, to burn. Kill yourself.”
I can’t shake the emotions or thoughts that come with them.
No matter how many times I try to convince myself I deserve life rational thought is drowned out by a track of “DIE DIE DIE.”
- NeedThanatos at Reddit
“Sorry, not satisfied with your performance, you’ve forced my hand – now to pester you to death.” – XOXO, Your Operator
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2011-12-20 03:54:08 // The Operator
If you pay people to complete puzzles instead of paying them for being smart, they lose interest in the game. If you pay children to draw, fun becomes work.
Payment on top of compliments and other praise and feeling good about personal achievement are powerful motivators, but only if they are unexpected. Only then can you continue to tell the story that keeps you going; only then can you still explain your motivation as coming from within.
- The Overjustification Effect
[via This Isn't Happiness]
To ruin a subject’s source of happiness, the subject must be convinced that the object of the exercise exists outside the experience thereof; the pursuit of happiness vis a vis anything but experience yields apathy – or worse.
More’s the pity for a well-paid miserablist.
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2011-12-19 21:18:43 // The Operator
There is something particularly artful about the way time is proposed as continuously-even necessarily-cyclical (with a nod to the illusory transience of any thing which exists in the cyclical construct).
…and apparently David Wilson has made other offbeat (amazing?) things.
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