A small group of people carefully prepares everything they need to sell a piece of property they do not own. Their preparations begin with a scout who locates a piece of real estate that might work with their scheme. Then they prepare artfully forged documents and a carefully rehearse a chump to play the owner.
We only watched a couple of episodes. The show does a good job of showing the technical aspects of the fraud, but we never got attached to any of the characters.
Stopped in Spella Coffee yesterday for coffee. It's a tiny place, maybe ten by ten, no seating, no food, just good coffee. Noticed this door right off and even without coffee I realized I needed a pic. The pic doesn't do it justice, it is much more impressive in person.
Why this data center is causing a ruckus
Morning Brew
Northeast Hillsboro, where I live, is getting overrun with data centers. Seems like a new, giant, tilt-wall building goes up every week. I wonder if all this investment is going to pay off. I can see how AI (Artificial Intelligence) can be useful for some things. I ask Google questions and it usually can provide a reasonable answer, and I've seen some clever videos made by AI (I suspect the script came from a human), but nothing that could justify the zillions of dollars being spent on these techno-palaces.
I suspect the biggest use of AI is going to be running voice chat-bots for dealing with customer service calls. And given that the whiz kids have deciphered human speech and can now reproduce most anyone's voice, we are going to see scamming elevated to the next level. And all those call centers in India are likely going to be replaced by chat-bots.
Also, with the proliferation of AI and the abysmally low level of intelligence of the general population, Artificial Intelligence is going to degenerate into Artificial Stupidity,
JMSmith has a philosophical approach to all this. In his latest post he is talking about Kevin O'Leary and ends with this:
It is obvious that life’s losers do not understand the secrets of success. But it is much less obvious, at least to successful men like Kevin O’Leary, that life’s winners do not understand the secrets of failure. They imagine they understand failure because they have known low points from which they “bounced back,” but the first secret of failure is that a failure does not bounce. Life’s losers hit bottom like a bag of sand and not like a basketball. Losers go plop; winners go boing. Winners think sandbags could bounce if they only tried harder. Losers think winners are bags, or rather balls, of wind.
Competition is Kevin O’Leary’s god, and I suspect he would be delighted if the nation’s motto were changed to, “In Competition We Trust.” But he does not understand that Competition looks to life’s losers very much as Yahweh looked to a trembling Amalkite. He does not understand that most men are not eager to enter a competitive footrace because they are fat, emphysemic, or lacking one leg. Life’s losers exchange loyalty for protection, not for the right to compete in contests in which they are certain to finish last.
Notes for the uneducated, like me:
Yahweh is the personal name of the God of ancient Israel and Judah, represented by the Hebrew Tetragrammaton (YHWH) and primarily used in the Hebrew Bible. Emerging as a national deity from the Iron Age Levant, Yahweh is identified in scripture as the creator and deliverer of the Israelites, often associated with attributes of power, war, and faithful covenant.
The Amalekites were an ancient, nomadic biblical nation known as persistent enemies of the Israelites, inhabiting the Negev desert south of Canaan. Descended from Esau's grandson Amalek, they were branded as hostile for attacking the vulnerable rear of the Israelite Exodus, leading to a divine decree for their eventual total destruction.
We were watching Absentia,a medium grade thriller, last night and someone mentions Boston Athenæum which we have never heard of. What the heck is an anthenaeum anyway? It's a library, and the Boston Athenæum is a private library. So I go look it up and find the above picture on Wikipedia. But I'm not satisfied, so I go to Google Maps to see if I can find a better view of the place. I can't, because Beacon Street is so narrow and the buildings are so tall. This is what I got:
Remodeled operating room. Last time I was here the surgery center and the operating room were all very industrial looking like something out of Star Wars. This time it was all soft pastels like a modern doctor's office.
Remodeled exterior. When we arrived, I walked out of the parking garage and saw this big, shiny, new building (top) and I thought 'this wasn't here before'. Turns out they just put a new facade over the old one (above).
Aisles in new garages are narrower than in the old one which is why I prefer to park in the old garage, even though I have to walk a hundred yards farther to the hospital entrance.
I think there was an oxygen level monitor as well, but I don't recall where that one was connected to me. Might be combined with the pulse monitor. The other end was connected to a fancy looking machine that didn't seem to do much (above).
Warm air hose connected to hospital gown
inflatable bladders wrapped around my lower legs to reduce the chance of blood clots and / or cramps. The ran on a cycle of about a minute - Inflate on one leg, then deflate, then repeat for the other leg. Funny thing was I noticed when it was inflating on my left leg (the surgery leg), but I had to pay attention to notice it on the right leg.
How many times did they take my blood pressure? I wouldn't be surprised if they measured it dozen times.
remote control for the TV. Not connected to me, but it was tied to the bed so I would be able to retrieve it. Not a problem until they started changing beds on me.
There was nothing on there that I was the least bit interested in watching. Or listening to.
The controls for the bed were built into the hand rails, so they didn't need to be disconnected or reconnected.
None of these connections were a problem until the gals from Physical and Occupational therapy showed up and wanted me to get out of bed. I suspect a lot of this was just protocol. Problem is I don't know how sick I am. I could be well on the healthy side of the hill, but then again I could be walking on a knife edge where one little glitch could send plunging into the abyss. So I didn't complain other than to commiserate with the njurse who had to struggle with warm air hoses. I don't think I needed any of it, but if I was just a little older and/or feebler, they could have been important. The last thing the administration wants to hear about is a catastrophic outcome to a routine procedure. Or a complaint from a Kevin that his feet are cold.
A couple days ago we heard that the fancy new Ritz Carlton had been reposessed by the lender. Now we hear about this. Things are looking kind of grim for the commercial real estate market. Well, grim for owners, but maybe opportunity for newcomers.
The Merchant Banker Building—the former home of landmark restaurant Greek Cuisina—has a new owner. . . . The sale price was $1.2 million. . . . The 1898 building is 22,920 square feet. Its last sale price in 2019 was $6.1 million.
$50 a square foot is a pretty good price for a building. No telling what kind of shape it's it, but as old as it is, it is surely going to require some work.
The jigsaw puzzle page incorrectly identifies this building complex as Castle Český Krumlov. Castle Český Krumlov is 40 miles southwest of Castle Jindřichův Hradec. 3D map of Castle Jindřichův Hradec is not available, all you get is the 2D satellite image.
Opened in 1893, the Châteauesque-styled building has 18 floors; its 262-foot height is augmented by its 177-foot ground elevation. It was one of the first of Canada's grand railway hotels. - Wikipedia
The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House (also 867 Madison Avenue and the Rhinelander Mansion) is a French Renaissance Revival mansion at the southeastern corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S. Built between 1894 and 1898, it was designed by Alexander Mackintosh of the architectural firm of Kimball & Thompson. Though the house was constructed for the heiress Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo, she never moved in. The mansion was converted to a commercial building in the 20th century, becoming the New York City flagship store of the Ralph Lauren accessory and clothing company in the 1980s. The mansion is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.
American Aristocracy has a page about this building. They give a couple of prices, so I thought I would compare the increase in the price of the house to what gold did in the same time frame. The house did much better.
City of Shadows - Official Trailer | Netflix
MVSRS
This is like a remake of 1992. We're in Barcelona, Spain, where we have a determined madman taking gruesome revenge on various civic leaders over the urban redevelopment that took place in preparation for the 1992 Olympics. We have several of the standard Netflix players here:
Turns out the madman has a sister and they are working together to not only exact revenge for having their home taken when they were kids, but also for their treatment in the orphanage. The madman was a real firebug when he was younger and that aspect of his personality re-emerges when he sets out on his course of revenge.
Milo is under suspension for punching his boss. To be fair he's been having a hard time. He lost his father to schizophrenia, his nephew to suicide, his wife has moved out, and his brother is slowly losing his mind. Also, his boss is a jerk. Rebeca isn't much better off, she just lost her mother in Madrid and moved to Barcelona.
Cast
Isak Férriz: Milo Malart - Detective investigating the murders
Verónica Echegui: Rebeca Garrido - Investigator working with Malart
Ana Wagener: Susana Cabrera - judge who happened to sentence the madman to the orphanage
I suspect Jordi and Jordi play coppers, did not find any definitive information about their roles. Note they have real life brother and sister playing the sibling villains.
Verónica Echegui died of cancer in August of this year. She was 42 years old.
By coincidence I came across this photo of Gaudi's cathedral from 1906:
The Great Peace Prayer Tower is a cenotaph tower in Tondabayashi, Osaka, Japan. . . . The tower is 180 m in height, white in color, and built by the Church of Perfect Liberty in August 1970. - Wikipedia
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