Episode 324 – Data is the New Oil

by | Nov 25, 2017 | Podcasts | 61 comments

In this follow up to Why Big Oil Conquered the World, James further explores the concept of technocracy. If “Data is the New Oil” then what does that tell us about the 21st century oligarchy and the world that they are creating? And, once we understand the technocratic prison they are creating, how do we escape it? Don’t miss this important episode of The Corbett Report podcast.

DOCUMENTATION

How & Why Big Oil Conquered the World
Time Reference: 00:40
Episode 322 – What is Sustainable Development?
Time Reference: 01:27
Interview 1046 – Patrick Wood Exposes the Technocracy Agenda
Time Reference: 02:55
The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data
Time Reference: 09:22
‘Data is the new oil’: Your personal information is now the world’s most valuable commodity
Time Reference: 09:47
Data is not the new oil
Time Reference: 11:12
Data-driven world: The future of the information economy
Time Reference: 11:56
Meet the first-ever robot citizen — a humanoid named Sophia that once said it would ‘destroy humans’
Time Reference: 15:32
Hot Robot At SXSW Says She Wants To Destroy Humans
Time Reference: 15:36
Saudi Arabia mega-city: NEOM will be futuristic $500 billion city spanning 3 countries – TomoNews
Time Reference: 22:58
Smart Tyranny: How to resist the smart grid
Time Reference: 16:35
Bill Gates to build “smart city” in Arizona?
Time Reference: 18:38
Smart Tyranny: How to resist the smart grid
Time Reference: 20:34
technocracy.news (Patrick Wood’s website)
Time Reference: 40:39
Take Back Your Power with Josh Del Sol
Time Reference: 44:39
inpowermovement.com
Time Reference: 45:32

61 Comments

  1. The whole “net neutrality” hype seems engineered. To make people fight for technology, against the “non-technological” government. It is propaganda for the idea of technocracy. And to make us believe that the internet is neutral already. It is not. It is engineered by big companies.

    Technocracy seems to be the social engineering of scientists and people that want to be scientist.
    Scientists are engineered to believe that a small group of people are smarter than others, can be fully trusted, and can decide for the future. This small group can tell us what is true or not, and what alternative ideas should be discredited.
    It also promotes new technologies, without consideration of social implications or safety problems.

    This is not the promotion of true science at all. It is the destruction of the scientific process: It blocks the evolving of new ideas and it blocks the skepticism (and criticism) of old (or planted) ideas. It also creates the idea of a “scientific” elite, which is even against the basis of true philosophy.

    • Any comment on theories put forward by Quinn Michaels?

  2. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. IS MICHAEL QUINN THE REAL DEAL? WOULD LOVE FEEDBACK.

    Interview with Quinn Michaels – blockchain, bitcoin, AI, Sofia, Saudis, CERN, cashless society, and more
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSn7Iomisyc​

    12 min version of above interview
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mFiH69-CqU&t=389s

    Very important follow-up with indepth info on Palintir, the singularity, Kushners, missing children data base, Bluffdale, PROMIS software, and more
    Palintir makes Monsanto look like a boys choir
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0RPn9Ikh0A

    • cat!
      Thanks for the links!

    • …following the topic of BitCoin above…
      James Corbett gave away FREE to CorbettReport Members “$86” of BitCoin.
      Back in late February 2017, James Corbett gave away free to any Corbetteer requesting it, 0.01 Bitcoin which is now worth around $86.

      The give-away occurred during this episode Who Coined the Term “Useless Eaters”? – Questions For Corbett https://www.corbettreport.com/who-coined-the-term-useless-eaters-questions-for-corbett-034/
      If you read the comment section, a lot of folks participated in that opportunity.

      Here is the YouTube video queued to where James talks about Bitcoin. Around the 21 minute mark is the “give-away”.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NuLWCHvkc8&feature=youtu.be&t=16m32s

      • News Story – Nov 25, 2017
        Reducing Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint
        https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Reducing-Bitcoins-Carbon-Footprint.html
        from
        https://cryptoinsider.21mil.com/lets-talk-about-bitcoins-energy-consumption/
        EXCERPTS
        …It is estimated that bitcoin mining uses up to 22.5 TWh of energy annually, or 13,239,916 barrels of oil equivalent every year…
        …China is the largest bitcoin mining nation by far, accounting for about 70 percent of the world’s bitcoin processing power…

        …HydroMiner has partnered with local small-scale hydro operations to pursue create sustainable and profitable data centers…

        …Though bitcoin mining uses less than a fraction of the energy used by the traditional banking system….

      • Today (27thNov stateside), Corbett’s Bitcoin give-away is worth about $96 or $97.

        • Corbett switched me on to BTC back in 2014.

          He did an about uturn on it about a year or so ago. I’m not really sure why. Sure it might be clunky and slow, but that won’t be forever. Anything limited to 21 million gets my attention, and indeed it did back then when it was 600 printable bucks. I think holding cash now is utterly insane.

    • If this is a true story, we’re, for all intents and purposes, fucked. At the same time, it’s the most important story ever told.

      When you tie in the whole smartgrid bullshit into this, it certainly increases the underwear soiling potential. It would also help explain the global nature of this shift. The potential for control and monitoring is infinite.

      The guy certainly tied up many loose ends. I didn’t have a perception that developing the bitcoin protocol would require a very powerful mind, from the cursory research I did about its possible creator certainly nobody implied anything to that effect.

      Also, what struck me as odd, was that a guy discussing the existence of a godlike singularity invoked “power of regulation” on at least two occasions and stated that all of this is just about business. Any comment on this?

      Not that I would have an issue being ruled over by a singularity, all hail A.I. I love you, A.I.

      • I was hoping you would comment about that guy’s talk and “Singularity”.
        You are more savvy than I.
        I am still in kindergarten when it comes to all of this.

        I understand the concept of “It is just about business.”

        …as I bow to the A.I. god.

        • I don’t understand what, for instance, a quantum computer would bring to the table when it comes to A.I. so I really can’t comment on the fact.

          If somehow this barrier of a central CPU which doesn’t know anything but which opcode is next on the stack would be broken, I don’t know what would be the limits of such A.I. If there would be any.

          I often imagined how, if you had enough time, you could guess any composition that would ever be created. Take a 1MB mp4 audio file. It has a limited number of one and zero combinations, it’s exactly 2 to the power of 1024*1024*1024. That’s an incredibly large number but absolutely every possible composition is contained within. A quantum computer could, according to my understanding, start churning music which would make Mozart’s head spin. The only problem being you’d need billions of years to get through all of it and most of the stuff would be of the kind Taylor Swift puts out. Think of it, that would be end of times, in some aspects.

          Not to mention the state of disaray our digital world would find itself in if encryption would be rendered obsolete. When that seal gets broken, things will change.

          All hail A.I. I love you A.I.

  3. LindaSue,
    I agree. I’ll bet that James has been meaning to talk about https://inpowermovement.com/ for awhile, and finally now has had the right format to bring it up.

    In late September, Corbetteer “Mungjam” brought it up. This is Judo instruction for battling The Powers That Shouldn’t Be. https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1301-new-world-next-week-with-james-evan-pilato/comment-page-1/#comment-44016

    Regina, the ramrod for the Dallas Anti-Fluoridation Campaign, is real keen on utilizing aspects of that “inpower” approach. About a year ago, she even filed a lawsuit against Dallas City Council Members. ha!…it upset them. It bothered them. She often talks to them and they tell her.

    And now, Regina has been squeezing City officials tight with going to different departments, showing up at churches and City events, along digging up all kinds of stuff with back to back “Freedom of Information Act” requests. Those FOIA requests can have paydirt, plus they make Officials sweat. Municipal FOIA are not difficult to do. I always smile when government officials sweat.

    One City Council member was caught in a major lie when he publicly said he got hundreds of emails from pro-fluoride medical professionals. Come to find out from the FOIA, he got less than a dozen pro-fluoride emails, but more than 600 anti-fluoride emails.

    I’m glad I am on Regina’s side. (grin)
    Dallas Anti-Fluoride Website (anyone anywhere can email the City Council) –
    http://www.dogsagainstfluoridation.com/

    • My guess is that James has not spoken about this before (He has had Jerry Day of FreedomTaker.com on before, which means he has been aware of all this information for some time.), is that he has spoken with some skepticism about using UUC-1 form as a method of becoming a sovereign citizen (somewhat common in small circles). Washington is likewise using the Uniform Commercial Code to leverage corporations and the government. Great post by James.

  4. EXCERPTS
    …Sales of old-fashioned print books are up for the third year in a row… … Vinyl records have witnessed a decade-long boom in popularity (more than 200,000 newly pressed records are sold each week in the United States), while sales of instant-film cameras, paper notebooks, board games and Broadway tickets are all growing again…

    …Like the hardware store, Italian grocer and butcher on the same block, the brick and mortar presence of June Records adds to my neighborhood’s sense of place…

    …Analog excels particularly well at encouraging human interaction, which is crucial to our physical and mental well-being. …Digital may be extremely efficient in transferring pure information, but learning happens best when we build upon the relationships between students, teachers and their peers….

  5. Technocracy Pros:
    The family unit can grow stronger again when fathers become more and more necessary. How would you know the government is messing with your thermostat without the Family Guy dad there to ask, “Who’s messing with the temperature?”

    Technocracy Cons:
    When the government messes with your thermostat you may think you’re menopausing or gotten sick suffering hot and cold flashes. This “gaslighting” effect may mess perceptions of reality so much the whole nation goes insane.

  6. Bravo. Well said.

    IMHO, institutions, organizations, government, etc need to be more transparent.
    If we (those that are capable) can hack or reverse engineer smart tech of the elites, corporations, military, etc. to force transparency and illuminate their dark ways we might have a chance. They’ve build countless giant institutions to hide their dark secrets in the shadows. The prison that keeps us also hides their lies.

  7. Matters of Substance and conversations

    I was fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with my ex-wife and her/our friend of 30 years, instead of a huge family type get-together. It was a chance to really talk and visit.
    What was remarkable was that the topics of conversation mostly had some depth — not “Who won American Idol?” or “How the Dallas Cowboys are doing this year”. Topics included health, alternative health practices, CBD oil samples and costs, updates about shared friends/people we hadn’t seen, and this rapidly advancing “Smart Everything Grid”.

    My ex-wife was sharing how she won’t sit undressed in front of the Smart TV, while our mutual friend shared stories about her grandchild’s new modes of digital learning. Of course, I threw in elements of Technocracy, but at an appropriate conversational level without sounding “over-the-top”. And a plug for Corbett Report.
    It was pleasant to naturally flow with talk about deep ideas.

    In retrospect…
    I have noticed that many individuals don’t really have a strong interest/curiosity in matters of substance, in deep ideas. Rather, they prefer a shallow focus of conversation or maybe celebrity gossip or to describe in minute non-relevant detail superficial TV shows. Often, they follow the herd, go with the new trend.
    However, I have also noticed that they are easily swayed. If others around them are talking about ideas of substance, they tend to try to “be a part” of that conversation.
    Like Corbett mentions in the video, I think that it is important to direct people’s attention to these ideas, because it helps to shape the trend towards a better outcome for all of us.

    • I’m guessing the two of you weren’t involved in an enraged divorce bent on wealth confiscation.

      That’s certainly nice, people should pay more attention not to burn all the bridges behind them.

      • ha…yea, you are right. I gave her everything…the house, nice furniture, dogs, etc. No contest…just said here you go. I was just glad to get away. I kept my tools and junk furniture and sanity. I am broke now and completely starting over at retirement age. It is tough starting over, because the body is older.
        But my ex and I get along great and had dinner together last night and watched “Walking Dead”. We had 30 years together and so we are on the same page about many things.
        When she goes kind of “nutty” which is about one or two times per week, it is now very easy not to be involved nor affected by her turmoil/stress/volatile emotions.

        • – Destiny – A funny anecdote.
          Around 1999/2000, my IRS form showed that my income was about $240,000 for the year. My wife and I had a house of which I had been making double mortgage payments. I was about one year away from paying off the mortgage. I had my own business, so really most that income went right back into the business. I lived frugally. I was in the process of getting the business’s books all copacetic so I could sell it. I was really, really busy.

          One day I come home and my wife says: “I bought a house today and put down 30k.” My jaw dropped. We had not even been looking nor discussing buying a house. I begged and pleaded not to do this…I am too busy with the business and future finances. She was resolute. After much back-n-forth, I gave in.

          She saw an opportunity with my IRS income statement to buy a large, new custom-type house. She went to my bank, Washington Mutual, and applied for a big mortgage. She had stacks of financial papers showing verification of income and assets. The banker never looked at, nor kept the papers. The banker just asked questions and filled out the application which was easily approved. Of course, Washington Mutual which is no more, later became headlines when the 2008 crash occurred.

          There were many times I would say to myself, I should had split up with my wife at this 1999/2000 juncture.
          However, I have to look at what Destiny later brought.
          In 1999/2000, I was drinking Koolaide. As events played out because of this mistake which compounded into other problems/solutions, I ended up becoming much more aware.
          Sometimes, I look at incidents of this kind like a guiding Destiny pathway towards better awareness. I like the awareness.

        • That was very zen of you, to give up on the things that can be taken away and hold on to that which can’t.

          I guess in a similar 200p/01 scenario I’d get so enraged it would completely flood my thought process. I often witness people getting into situations I can’t imagine myself being in simply because a wrong word was said or another word was left unspoken. Or unshouted.

          I would not belittle your life experience nor your decisions by saying or implying that I would have done something better in a similar 2000/01 situation. For one, I would certainly not run a book store since I am completely tone deaf when it comes to enterpreneurship. We’re all very much different people.

  8. I live in the UK and recently received a flyer in the post from SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) offering a £25 Amazon gift card when you book a smart meter installation. Amazon and smart meter/grid collusion… what a shock! lol.

    • – Smart Meter –
      The following video is very telling.
      Dr. Laura Pressley walks through the house and yard taking readings of the different types of electrical pollution.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S57mrknMajY

      Dr. Laura Pressley once fought hard to stop Water Fluoridation in the Austin, Texas area. She also ran for City Council, but the election was rigged (documents prove it).

      In the Dallas area (and other parts of the U.S.), they have been installing “Smart Water Meters”.

  9. Me too, I remember. Around 1963. Too much sugar, “Outer Limits”, and then dreams of aliens.

    herrqlys, Great analogy to Technocracy Rising.

    ” There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set….
    (one minute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCcdr4O-3gE

    • “There is nothing wrong with your television set…”

      Meaning it is functioning perfectly, doing what it was designed to do: manipulating your thought processes, fooling your senses, influencing your worldview… Truth bomb, indeed.

  10. That show was The Outer Limits.
    One of my favourite/scariest TV shows of my youth. Was fertile ground for many a nightmare. 🙂

  11. Using the legal system as an organizing tool against the new corporate smart grid is one great means to both organize, educate and win. As a public interest attorney, I engaged in many cases funded by neighborhood groups.

    A counteroffer for opt out, is simply that. Until accepted it is still in limbo, unbinding. And contracts do not always have to be negotiated. Unilateral contracts, what most of us have, are not negotiated. We sign.

    In the 1970’s we used legal based actions to fight corporate rule. We usually were able to delay environmental or land grab attempts to steal, but eventually, as the Judges were crooked and the system thoroughly rigged, we lost.

    But the education, the mobilization, the struggle itself is what is the beautiful thing for it is morally driven with others.

    However, a suit like this costs big bucks. Crowd sourcing would have to be used to counter the millions the elites will use to get any action like this, in tort, to be thrown out of court.

    The beauty of legal based struggle is that of course, it means organizing with others, and this is the great thing about innovative solutions that will arise through struggle. Legal based activism is one very big step.

    In my judgment, much like computer slots where legal gambling is available, the slots cannot be tampered with; the security is panoptic, literally. The machines cannot be gamed while surveillance is heightened and security is everywhere.

    This is our society. And every move we make will be noted even more in the future.

    Individual efforts will be important but they by themselves cannot stop the panoptican society. Legal based organizing coupled with individual efforts is the way to eventually win, if this is even possible. But then the struggle is against the entire decay of authoritarian and corrupt government, right?

    The local light post in your city might be electronically connected to overhear a conversation you might have. Look at Chicago’s smart lampost: https://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/chicago-smart-lamp-posts/2014/06/23/id/578822/

  12. I am all for inpowermovement.com and its pursuits.

    However we need to be realistic here.

    At the end of the day, we are up against huge corporations.

    At my local level, when I learned (a year or so later) my smart meter had been installed I called my electricity company.

    I asked why I had not been given a choice to install the new meter and asked that they remove it.
    I was told it was impossible now.

    There is one and only one electricity company in my area.
    I do have a choice. Disconnect my electricity or live with the smart meter. 🙁

    In principle, the idea of a level playing field when signing contracts sounds like the solution to this problem.

    But think about it a little more carefully. Cal Washington and his team came up with a great legal contract.

    What is to stop person A or person B or person C from coming up with their own custom contract that they favor?

    Is it reasonable to expect a utility company to sign hundreds or thousands of differently worded legal contracts before they offer their service?

    • Mark44, my hat is off to you for just calling the electric company and protesting. That counts. Any action, no matter how small, is points for our side. We do what we can do. As long as we “do” something. It would denigrate our own humanity and integrity to do nothing.

  13. I’d just like to point out, and I do think this was discussed already somewhere, it’s difficult to disguise your search patterns in a bunch of random queries. Randomness is not truly random usually, but follows a pattern. If you have a bunch of people emitting the same, for all intents and purposes, noise they’ll be able to trim the fake queries down and flesh out the real data.

    I remember watching a video where someone suggested they could bork the google’s image recognition methods where they used pictures of street signs taken for their street view service on google maps as captcha images for the bot prevention services which they acquired from recaptcha, IIRC. The proposition was to intentionally submit fake information as to make google think the sign actually says “penis” or whatever. The guy from google just smirked at the idea.

    Generally speaking, it’s probably safe to assume that if anyone among us realized their ability to elucidate data out of pure noise would probably leave them completely flabbergasted. In other words, they know their shit.

    Of course, feeding fake data to the system is a very viable option, however it will require time and patience which an automated system can’t provide.

  14. I used to engorge on the modern rendition of that show as a kid. It used to air on particularly late hours in the 90es but that didn’t prevent me from watching it. One has to wonder what that kind of brain damage does that level of sleep cycle abuse cause.

    • mkey, I am laughing at the last line.

      • That wasn’t a joke lol
        If I ever get around having kids, they won’t stay up late watching tv or anything else until I conclude their brains have matured enough to make thier own bad decisions.

  15. I agree completely with the premise that data is the new oil, and I agree that the smart meter described in the inpower video is to be avoided if possible, but the legal argument contained in the presentation is full of many holes (I say this as a high ranking graduate from a distinguished law school), and the factual basis for their advice omits the fact that smart meters are actually in use in just a few states (or so it appears from the very little bit of research I’ve done).

    I would not want a smart meter on my home and will seek to resist having one applied, should the issue ever come up, however, for those already stuck with one, the harm it might cause can be avoided by not purchasing “smart” appliances that would provide them with data.

    • They would also need to uninstall the smart meter or encase it into a Faraday cage because it emits bursts of strong EM waves at high frequencies which for all intents and purposes can’t be good for your health.

      Charming people at TSM documented the procedure.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYgjuH5uUaA

    • jean.s, The Smart Meter rollout in Texas is prolific.
      Corbetteer “mkey” has the TruthStreamMedia video link. That couple lives in the Austin, TX area.

      I am in the Dallas area. Around 2012 or so, I was renting a house. I posted signs all over my meter “No trespassing” “You do not have my permission to remove”, etc. And one day, I caught an electric employee climbing up the fence trying to mess with it. I chewed his butt. Those guys did not come back. They typically don’t research to see who owns the property. They are employees and just want a paycheck. Bluff goes a long way. No one likes to mess with an angry man, unless you frequent Cajun bars.

      I was also fortunate to talk to the guy who actually read the meters visually when one day when he was peering through the fence with a small telescope. He was telling me how they were trying to faze out his job.

  16. Scaring the snot out of officials
    The Impower Movement tactic can be applied to many things besides SmartMeters, such as Fluoride or mandated vaccines or whatever.

    However, my final take-away goes towards a “fundamental principle” which anyone can apply right now.

    I think the “fundamental principle” of scaring the snot out of officials (government or corporate) is a nice tool to use. Scare not with violence but with legalese, or exposure, or bad PR, or whatever. So, there are variations. It is easier to scare local officials than national or international officials.

    “Scaring the snot out of some authority” It does work. I’ve done it. I did it with AT&T years ago. I’ve done it with Arm&Hammer Baking Soda/Walmart. I’ve done it with other companies. Locally elected and government officials are sensitive to this approach also.

    When I run across a company who I catch doing underhanded stuff with me, if first I can’t remedy it in a civil way (such as letters, phone calls, etc), then I start talking to them about posting bad reviews on YouTube, YELP, message boards, Facebook, etc.; sending government agencies complaint letters, etc. etc. I try to paint a really ugly PR disaster image.
    I typically start very friendly and civil, because that is my demeanor. If that fails, I mimic my ex-wife on a rage tirade.

    When threatening a bully, it is best to say how bloody you are going to bash their face in, utilizing every descriptive in the Dictionary of Gore. (This is metaphorical. I am not advocating violence.)

    • James,

      Check this out:

      https://www.yahoo.com/tech/moviepass-apos-t-answer-important-083000896.html

      “Yesterday it surfaced that MoviePass CEO Mitch Lowe said — during a presentation called “Data is the New Oil: How Will MoviePass Monetize It?” — that his company could watch how subscribers drive home from the movie and see where they went.”

      Wow! Quoted your title word for word…

      Teresa (a Corbett Report member from Texas)

  17. Was before my time to watch it live to air, however I picked up the series latter on DVD and there were lots of great episodes in it.

    I though the “Zanti Missfits” Episode was particularity good at depicting how the state system is underwritten by violence even if it likes to present itself as civilised and non violent.

    And OBIT is a classic and a compulsory watch for anyone interested in surveillance and the effects of loss of privacy.

  18. One of the things we need to watch out for is not just the smart meters but the phasing out of the old “dumb” appliances to the point where becomes impossible to buy new home appliance without integrated spy devices build into them (Even if some can work without being tied into the grid)

    Of course planned obsolescence will have ensured that the old non-spy appliances will have long since died by that time. (“The Light Bulb Conspiracy” is good introduction to planned obsolescence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKLip7Q_Y0s)

    For example, can you by a mobile phone these days without a built in camera?

    A way around it may be to collect older appliances and learn how to repair them, or perhaps open source crowd funded DIY appliance projects.

    For example there is Einstein’s refrigerator design from the 1930s

    The refrigerator has no moving parts and can run off-grid requiring only a heat source to power it.

    The patent was bought up by Electolux who sat on it (Patent expired now, so anyone could sell one if they wished)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator

    New 3D manufacturing technology that allows the printing of electronic circuits as part of an overall object could be a blessing or a curse. If it becomes accessible to average person then it means that we could print our own devices without having to depend on the monopolistic corporations. If the technology remains locked up it will be a curse. Manufactures could embed practically invisible electronic spy devices into everything for practically no cost to them, and everything you buy will be unrepairable or unable to be modified.

    http://www.neotech-amt.com/3d-printed-electronics-manufacturing-systems/

    • That’s a decent documentary, I found a subtitled version. Found it interesting, but it didn’t really break open any new horizons for me. I knew for a long time now that many large producers have departments which are specifically positioned to make the goods less durable.

      I stumbled into this fridge concept, looks damn interesting.
      http://www.emilycummins.co.uk/about

      A short quasi related story. There is this fisherman who wanted to get a fancy new engine for his boat. He has/had an older model, I think it was one of the old Burmeister diesel engines, from a danish producer later bought out and destroyed by MAN, and aimed to replace it with a modern i.e. seriously and overly complicated MTU engine, from a renowned German producer.

      Anyway, his plan was to have the old engine crap out on him, cash in on the insurance money and then spot the difference for a shiny new motor. Easy peasy. He called up his mechanic guy and asked for help. These engines, IIRC, had a small pipe which was used to drain excess oil, so the mechanic told him to plug the pipe and leave the engine running. That did nothing.

      Then he told him to unplug the drain pipe and let the oil run out at a faster rate than normal. That again did nothing to hinder engine operation. Then he was told to drain the oil completely and leave the engine running. After hours of operation, the mechanic, being somewhat ticked off, went to the ship only to realize the engine finally jammed. They let it cool of and then, only for good measure, tried to start it up again. Of course it continued running fine.

      Finally, they gave up and opened the bloody thing up, only to find that there was some minor damage on cylinders and the crankshaft. A modern engine in similar conditions would not only jam up but probably shoot out some parts as well. Realizing he had one tough son of a bitch engine right there, with practically no diagnostics nor electronics fitted, the fisherman decided to hold on to it.

    • Octium and mkey,
      You guys have really hit upon the framework of a viable solution pathway.

  19. They are doing it, yes. My country has now been exhausted of gold reserves probably in excess of 99.9% because of which, even in the case of an unlikely reset, it will be left in the third row when it comes to making decisions and setting policies.

    Sequestration of gold occured via thousands of small shops all over the country, which seemed to have popped in out of nowhere. During the recession the motivation to sell privately held gold was strong. National gold reserves were ransacked decades ago.

    But, as George Carlin said, nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. A nation which can look back at its roots in excess of some 1300 years to be reduced to such a rabble, it’s sickening and disappointing. So much struggle, pain, suffering, anguish and death; all for naught.

    All hail A.I. I love you A.I.

  20. There is a sort of a schism in the PM market because there is a significant paper gold trade volume which, while it does affect market prices, has a limited effect on PM trade volume. In other words, when paper gold pushes value down, PM trade velocity trends toward zero. This is according to Mike Maloney.

    Another facet of this issue is that it may as well turn out gold won’t be rendered as valuable if major events occur and therefore all of this may turn out to be just another fool’s gold rush.

    • I personally don’t find a mad max scenario that plausible and within the current paradigm it seems to me some sort of an official, of course, digital currency is more probable that going back to bartering with something that has actual value. It wouldn’t take much effort to swap the failing fiat system with digital SDR, under a bombastic “never again” slogan, followed by a promenade of all too well known faces in a who-is-who in world banking display.

      Silver does have some “real” value, it’s destroyed at a fast rate and its value is too low in comparison to gold. But who knows what does the future bring.

  21. Ever since Facebook pioneered the concept, arguably there were/are other players but they were the ones that took the idea of personal information (data) and changed it into currency, I have said that data was the new resource. I applaud them for creating money from the ether…

    I had mentioned in the AI topic my intimate experiences with simulation, and although I never handled human data on the scale that the “Data Scientists” do, I can tell you what techniques are being used are fascinating. Data “mining” is exactly that. Finding some oil in a vast ocean of seemingly random and/or unimportant data.

    As I remember learning “nothing is free”. Every single program that is free is driven by data value. That is the asset that enables the machine to function. What is so amazing to me is how readily comfortable people are with sharing extremely personal information to the world. Don’t believe me? Just browse on Quora and find some of the topics where questions are asked such as “What is the most embarrassing thing you have ever done”? or “What is something nobody knows about you”?. The conditioning is nearly perfect at this point. I also have a suspicion that some data mining programs that are utilizing machine learning are tapping to resources like Quora. I say this because some of the questions are so generic and elementary that they lead me to believe they were not formed by a human. While I cannot recall the exact question(s), seeing a question something like “Why do you make toast” is either 1) a troll, 2) a kid or 3) a program. I don’t think it’s a troll because typically on Quora such questions are either ignored or snuffed out by the community response quickly. I don’t think it’s a kid because the questions I see from children are often much more important than that, and no my kids never asked me “why is the sky blue”? but they did ask me about death, life, love, fear and things that are really pertinent to being a human. So that leaves me with this suspicion that these questions are being seeded by a program bent on mining data by response.

    You can infer tons of information from a response. While invisible to the normal internet user, the data is being wielded with often incredible accuracy. As an example, some Millennials I know did a facebook experiment on the integration of data. Now, mind you, this was not a controlled experiment but I believe does provide a modicum of evidence on how data is used. In this experiment they both randomly started talking about Sharks on Facebook. They did not search for Sharks and they kept the context within Facebook completely. Within a day’s time, their personal computers were being plastered with ads about Sharks. Now while this is not conclusive and does not directly insinuate that Facebook is in bed with Google, (they were using Chrome), one has to wonder where the connection was made from Facebook to their own personal preferences.

    And guess what folks, that data is THEIRS. Not YOURS, THIERS. It was THIERS the moment you used their “free” software. In addition, the personal layer, YOUR HOME, YOUR SANCTUARY is being handed over to prying eyes. YOU gave them permission by using their products. Don’t get me wrong, smart features in homes can be pretty cool, but there is a HUGE risk on the horizon. When you opened the fridge, when you potty, what you ate, where you slept….heck we were staged for this through “Reality TV” a long time ago.

    • There is a bunch of software which is completely free, as in “free beer,” without any strings attached whatsoever. And I know that for a fact because I used many completely free programs as well as created some of my own.

      • Indeed! Arguably there is always the effort required to obtain whichever free item it is, entropy and all that too…thin I know, but still the point in general is fairly true. I guess a better statement would have been “most software you can’t find on places like Github, RubyGems, etc…is not “free” ” I was off on a tangent thinking about mainstream programs and services that are foremost in the public eye.

        I have published free software as well! (If you ever want to scrape Craigslist :D)

    • mrsoapdish,
      Excellent post! Thanks.

  22. The answer to who is judges. The better Q is why do we continue to give corporations these rights. My guess is that we are brainwashed into thinking they are private entities, rather than the govt created entities that they really are.

    Take that stuff about the UNITED STATES being different from the USA stuff with a grain of salt. But the contract stuff is essentially right.

    There’s a Russian guy who signed a contract with a bank that gets him a butload of money for basically nothing. Here’s the last article i can find on it https://www.rt.com/business/man-outsmarts-banks-wins-court-221/

  23. Fantastic episode- This has re-motivated me to continue the good fight.

  24. Financial Institutions Aren’t Prepared for the Digital Revolution
    https://thefinanser.com/2018/09/financial-institutions-arent-prepared-digital-revolution.html/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=fintechweeklycom

    Thought this was tangentially interesting, Data as the new currency of the world (emphasis added)…

    For example, in the first revolution of becoming human, homo sapiens ended up dominating Earth thanks to our ability to talk. Our larynx developed and enabled us to create shared beliefs and live harmoniously in groups of 100s, unlike Neanderthals and other forms of human. In the second revolution, becoming civilised, we invented money due to the fact that only 1 in 5 humans were now engaged in producing food through farming, so 4 out of 5 humans needed something else to do. Money made us civilised. In the third revolution, we invented banks to enable cross-border trade between countries as we became industrial and global. Banks were invented as stores of value, licenced by governments, who could issue paper and could be trusted thanks to their licence. Now, in this fundamental fourth shift of human thinking, what are we creating? Data as currency. We still need banks to store data and we still need to believe that money has value, but the money that has value in this global, digital age is data.

  25. October 2018

    Today, I went on “Yahoo News” which I rarely do.
    The following message came up…

    Before you continue…

    Yahoo is now part of the Oath family. We (Oath) and our partners need your consent to access your device, set cookies, and use your data, including your location, to understand your interests, provide relevant ads and measure their effectiveness. Oath will also provide relevant ads to you on our partners’ products. Learn more

    Select ‘OK’ to allow Oath and our partners to use your data, or ‘Manage options’ to review our partners and your choices. Tip: Sign in to save these choices and avoid repeating this across devices. You can always update your preferences in the Privacy Centre.

    Meet Oath
    https://www.oath.com/my-data/#meetoath

  26. Define “low intensity.”

  27. Polluting the system with garbage is something I am actively practicing for years.

    I find it is getting harder to feed the system garbage. More and more algorithms are implemented to protect the systems from being polluted.

    The website “Stemwijzer.nl” (Vote Guide) in The Netherlands, for instance, where citizens answer questions to obtain sincere voting advice, is actually trying to predict whether the user is sincere or not.

    If the website deems you are not serious, the following message appears:

    http://oi63.tinypic.com/144bnn8.jpg

    There is a problem.
    You have not given sufficiently serious answers to the statements of the Vote Guide, as a result of which no advice will be given.

  28. If they were being sincere with saving electricity they could just put a meter on the end of each street or block. Just like a carbon tax the brass love it because it can be applied to every facit of life. Call it an everything tax and be done with it

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