Ads & Amazon's Grand Tour

Ads

Okay so may have noticed I have decided to put ads on my site (may not be there yet, they might not have approve me) not because I am expecting oodles of cash from it but purely from a curiosity point of view.  I hate ads I really do, I stopped watching terrestrial TV years old ago preferring to stick BBC iPlayer, Internet downloads and now in the last couple of years I use Amazon Prime.  All with zero ads that being said any where I go on the Internet ads are prolific but these at static ads YouTube being the exception, but I can choose not to look at them.

What is really interesting about Internet ads is how tech savvy kids in Macedonia recently made a bundle of cash and are still making it an average of $6000 a month by leveraging fake news websites mostly aimed at the American Presidential Election. Fake stories about Trump got more hits any Clinton which just goes to show there is no such thing as bad press in politics.

Questions have been raised about these fake stories on Facebook's news feed, could it have swayed the election.  Owners of Facebook say they a drop a in ocean but there is no definitive way to prove that except by comparing what stories the voters clicked on and asking the somewhat private question to each voter, how did you vote?  That information will never be forthcoming, those kids in Macedonia only do it for the cash reward they are not interested in the politics.  Now that the election is over they moving on to Sports so I suggest you pay particular attention in theory they could skew the odds.

We now exist in two realities, the real world and cyberspace.  Once upon a time everything in cyberspace mirrored everything in the real world in terms of facts and history. Now its cyberspace's turn with advent of Big data, social media and Ads.  The real world reality can created in cyberspace.

The Cold War had spies and misinformation today with have 16/17 year old's with fake news.

I am curious as to what happens next.

Amazon's Grand Tour

BBC's Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond left or were fired for various reasons involving steak I believe, lets not go there.  Amazon in their infinite wisdom and considering how big they are they must have some brought the team back together for twelve episodes of extreme fun with anything that has a petrol engine spread round the world.

Watched the first episode on the weekend.  They have junked the celebrities, kept the track (different one) and employed a American to drive the cars round a track.  Supposedly because Amazon wanted an American racing driver.  No Stig in evidence.  Despite the loss of the some of the original format from the previous BBC show it all still worked very well.

Fast cars going round racing tracks very fast what's not to love about that.  The banter between the Jeremy, James and Richard is just as good as ever.  Yes there were a number references to the old show but that is just typical British humour which worked because I laughed whether the audience laughed because someone held a sign up that said 'Laugh Now' is anybodies guess.

There is some rumours going round that the team have not liked working together on this series but you know what they say about rumours and fake news sites.  Although that being said the view from their big windows in the tent looks suspiciously like a green screen perfect irony for a show called: Grand Tour.

I am however looking forward to the next episode.

The Hindsight Bubble

Bet Fair were offering 8 to 1 odds for Trump winning the election, normally the only gambling I do is low stakes poker but looking back upon his campaign I have realised that it was a forgone conclusion that he would win despite what everyone else thought.

The campaign itself was pure theatre and at no point did you think he was going to win, he however ripped up the rule book of political campaigning.  At no point did you know what was going to happen next, many of his speeches were completely unscripted.

It was not until towards the end of the campaign trail that the Obama/Clinton partnership realised that it was impossible to predict what Trump was going to do next.  Everything Trump did or said was designed to create controversy and it did not matter whether it was true and false.

It would not surprise me if many of the sexual allegations made against him were hoaxed by his own campaign.

This article from Vox shows Trump's ability to speak to the voters as opposed to speaking at them as most politicians do.

I read Trump's policies after he had won to see what what we were in for and what effect he would have on the world, to say I was surprised would be a somewhat understatement.  Zero evidence of a southern wall and in fact very little of what was said in sound bytes throughout the campaign appeared in his official policies.  His policies are heavily watered down versions of his rhetoric, unfortunately his ideas on huge tax cuts, deregulation and massive public spending looks like a recipe for disaster.  Although since he is a successful businessman I would like to think he has a better understanding of managing money and running a country than Hilary Clinton.  As Mae West said

"Between the lesser of two evils, I always pick the one I have not tried before."

Clinton had decided to stick with The Obama administration's failed policies which gave the voters an impossible choice.  The voter turn out was just over 50% a big drop from the last election, in one of his more understandable speeches Trump advised the voters not to vote which effectively took votes from the Democrats.  If the turn out had been higher it is possible that Trump would not have won.

This film from the BBC about HyperNormalisation shows how Trump's win occurred because of the way society and those that manage it have effectively placed us into mirrored bubbles of what we as a group or individuals wish to see.  The film is nearly 3 hours long but it is definitely worth watching.

Our perception of reality is controlled you only have to look at Amazon adverts to see that.

Shocking Lack of Rebels...

The locals think that because of the recent High Court ruling regarding the Prime Minister's ability to trigger Article 50 without parliamentary approval, Federation Guard shock troops have been sent in to quell rebels in the south east of England.

Aside from a few dogs the rebels have avoided capture.

The Federation Guard patrol close to Dover, Kent, UK

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