Today I am going to share with you an alarming article about the state of our culture, warn you about the pig butchering scams out to get us all, a must listen to podcast to keep up with the war in Ukraine, some fantastic science images and a collection of very interesting and weird maps of the US. The regular longer post returns on Friday featuring the usual mix of eclectic collection of curated links along with my commentary, thank you for reading my blog.
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We are back with another short Tuesday post. Back to you on Friday with the usual longer post.
I have been posting here at least once per week since 2012. In the early days I was posting daily lol. Anyway, I am not sure why I say we, this has always been my own labor of love while awaiting to be discovered one day, please laugh.
The State of Our Culture, 2024
This is a must read. I am not going to excerpt much as everything about it is absolutely brilliant.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately and I am trying to resist by just blogging away here all alone for years trying to save the online world. Please be aware of what is happening and resist as well. For the record, I do not click on clickbait, I scroll a lot less (and when I find myself doing it I stop immediately), I don’t gamble, I am not Tiktoking, etc. Oh, I don’t remember the last time I wrote a letter by hand and I have never seen what this swiping thingie is too sadly. Anyway, just be aware out there, think before you click!
If you consider not reading it, maybe just these two excerpts will change your mind. The article gets way better and, frankly, more depressing.
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity. The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
Here’s where the science gets really ugly. The more addicts rely on these stimuli, the less pleasure they receive. At a certain point, this cycle creates anhedonia—the complete absence of enjoyment in an experience supposedly pursued for pleasure.
Pig Butchering
Ok, I did something new. No link in the heading because I have two for you below:
Pig-Butchering Scams Net More Than $75 Billion, Study Finds.
You need to be alert. It can happen to you. Don’t get butchered! And…crypto is involved of course.
Pig butchering — a scam named after the practice of farmers fattening hogs before slaughter — often starts with what appears to be a wrong-number text message. People who respond are lured into crypto investments. But the investments are fake, and once victims send enough funds, the scammers disappear. As far-fetched as it sounds, victims routinely lose hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. One Kansas banker was charged this month with embezzling $47.1 million from his bank as part of a pig-butchering scam.
Pig Butchering Scams: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Is John Oliver getting better with age or what?
Ukrainecast
Fantastic podcast by BBC News if you are interested in the Ukraine Russia war, I am really enjoying it.
February’s Best Science Images
I am blown away by this one:
Exploring America: 45 Maps That Might Shift Your View Of The US
Everything above was kind of too serious. Let’s end this short post by something that is more entertaining, shall we?
The two most surprising ones imho:
Most Oddly Named Town In Each US State
This blog started with a focus on miles and points and travel. It has evolved since then. All the miles & points sections return on Friday, along with the other gems you have become accustomed to.
Let me leave you with this:
Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
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TBB
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Terrific stuff today! An E Holmes t-shirt anyone?
Silver! Good stuff, even shortened. John Oliver is an absolute treasure. Love to watch him go off on stuff.
Elizabeth Holmes T-shirt ought to have two pics. Front and side views from her booking!
I had a pig butcher scammer text me so I played along… I told them my name is Warren and I’m an investor from Omaha, Nebraska. Kept it going a surprisingly long time!
Hello to my three readers 🙂
Seeing neurologist this morning. We’ll see what he says about my foot.
Still looking to score the first cc sale with new provider. How embarrassing! What if I had focused on marketing as much as I did on identifying worthy content to appear here, smh.
So, of course Delta raised the bag fees. And many bloggers wrote about it. Frequent Miler chose to link to a post about it from One Mile at a Time! If I had a cc conversion every time I linked to FM I could afford an intern around here. To this day, none of the blogs I linked to numerous times every linked to me. Yet I have managed to keep you three readers you guys. Something is not right, like the State of Our Culture, the leading article today, indicates.
On Monday I had one of those moments in my financial planning career that will stick with me. As I was nearing the end of my meeting with my client, she received a phone call her dear sister passed away. Oh man, the emotions just spilled out. And tears…And guilt feelings I set up the meeting THAT day talking about stuff that does not really matter that much, you know, money. Take care of your health people!
Gotta run, I mean, drive to get my latte. Thanks to David!