fingertip fragments for friday

Enjoy free fragments from my fingertips. I imagine with technology like Siri, future writers may just dictate their writing. 

If you like FF posts then be sure to visit Mrs. 4444's blog. She has a whole catalog of FF links to share.

As my fingertips hit these keys I’m reminded of technology’s impact. Our daughter just returned home from a final exam and had already checked her final exam grade via her smartphone (she is pursuing an advanced degree now). It just struck me how most people probably remember going back to the school to check a grade posting taped to the classroom door. 

Technology becomes accepted, part of daily life and then invisible. Do you think about the electricity when you flip a switch? Turn the shower faucet on and you might start thinking of your next blog post. I doubt you give much thought to the wonders of indoor plumbing. The internet is becoming water, electricity.

Don’t confuse marketing with technology. Did you hear this one yet? 

“In the category of you just can’t make this stuff up, a Chinese fashion company, Xiamen Jinzhi, is marketing a line of sunglasses under the Helen Keller brand.” 

Helen Keller sunglasses?  Really?  Here’s the story link.

This sounds like a stand-up-for-principle story. A bank customer sues his bank over $26.50. He is seeking a class-action suit (I hate wearing suits, they stop action) over the bank’s alleged practice of taking advantage of math errors. He made an error (bank got $26.50 extra) on a deposit slip and the bank didn't report the error or show it on his account statement.  This report here, goes into more detail but here’s the gist of it.

"Citizens Bank affirmatively masks or hides the actual amount deposited and retains and diverts customer funds into at least two accounts Citizens Banks maintains and control."

I don’t know if banks ever had great popularity but since 2008 they rank high as public enemies. Recently I finished the book “The Quants”. I am about finished with “The Big Short”. Both books take you behind the headlines of the 2008 market collapse. I actually feel like I could explain what happened in a general way. I now know what CDO and CDS investment products are. But the stories are much more than financial products. The authors introduce you to very interesting characters. One character, Dr. Michael Burry, saw the subprime disaster coming and he only had one working eye. 

Excerpted from “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”, by Michael Lewis 

“He sensed that he was different from other people before he understood why. Before he was two years old he was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and the operation to remove the tumor had cost him his left eye. A boy with one eye sees the world differently from everyone else, but it didn’t take long for Mike Burry to see his literal distinction in more figurative terms.”

(proofreading provided by C. F. Eyecare)