Interesting Links for 11-12-2017

[andrewducker]

Time for a 100% objective, unquestionably factual, absolutely not debatable ranking of the MCU films from worst to best!

I seem to be the only person who liked the Hulk movie with Edward Norton
(tags: marvel movies )

How Uruguay made legal highs work

(tags: drugs legalisation )

Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

(tags: banking security OhForFucksSake )

When did Italian become the language of Italy (rather than Latin)?

(tags: language history italy rome )

Thomas Train Stunts

(tags: video trains stunts )

Next Generation Robotic Recycling Sorting Station

(tags: robots recycling video )

Labour could move parts of Bank of England to Birmingham

(tags: uk banking labour )

I had a boss who stood up for me against sexist office jerks

(tags: sexism work )

Geothermal energy now supplies half of the electricity in Kenya

(tags: kenya electricity )

Saudi Arabia to allow cinemas to reopen from early 2018

(tags: saudiarabia cinema )

Bitcoin futures trading begins on CBOE exchange in Chicago

(tags: bitcoin finance )

Comments

Bitcoin futures trading begins on CBOE exchange in Chicago

[jack]

Huh. So... are people shorting it? That's what's supposed to reduce a bubble. Or is it too late for that?

Or, is the time frame too short? I'd bet on bitcoin crashing in a few years, but maybe not in a couple of months. (I don't know if it would then survive as an exchange medium, presumably not even if we'd like that.)

BitCoin Futures

[andrewducker]

It's crashed multiple times in the past. And will undoubtedly crash multiple times in the future.

Easiest to see on a log scale: (now a bit out of date, obviously)

I'd be pretty shocked if it didn't crash at some point in the next few months. Possibly tomorrow, possibly in February, but at some point the pure froth investors will get scared and pull out, and that will cause it to plunge by a fair bit, and then it will go quiet for a year or so while the Lightning Network gets up and running and it becomes more scaleable than it was, and more interesting again, and then whoosh another bubble.

Time for a 100% objective, unquestionably factual, absolutely not debatable ranking of the MCU films

[jack]

Huh. I think that Hulk just completely passed me by. I'm not sure why. I remember one, I guess the 2003 one?

Re: Time for a 100% objective, unquestionably factual, absolutely not debatable ranking of the MCU f

[andrewducker]

It's definitely worth a watch. Edward Norton and Tim Roth both good in it.

[sixbeforelunch]

I liked the Edward Norton Hulk movie. I'm not sure why so many people seem to dislike it. I thought it did a lot of things right.

[danieldwilliam]

Kenya seems unusually blessed with geothermal energy.

I suspect it must be pretty close to having a path to 100% renewable energy alongside Portugal and Costa Rica which have a relative abundance of hydro schemes.

What I wonder is what the scope is for those countries to act as despatchable renewable generators for surrounding areas in order to avoid having season long peaks and troughs and therefore lots of battery storage.

Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[doug]

The Twitter account asking him to DM details was particularly hilarious. Particularly as there is no evidence that I can find that the account is actually connected to NatWest, beyond the blue tick, which I don't trust entirely. How hard would it be to have a link back to official Twitter accounts from the page on their social media policy?

I've had Conversations about this with pretty much all of my banks when they pull this stunt. My current script is to stop them, say I can't give out personal details to an unverified number, and ask what's the fastest way to get back through to them from the number printed on my card. The first time it happened I wasn't particularly suspicious, since they phoned immediately after I'd made an unusual purchase - but on later reflection I realised that if someone had got some of my banking credentials they might be able to get that sort of information in real time. And reading back previous transactions is no verification either - as pointed out in the scam article in teh Graun that Ben Goldacre linked to.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[movingfinger]

I had a text message (!) from my bank from an unfamiliar number after an unusual transaction, which informed me that my Visa/DEBIT card had been locked and that I had to call another unfamiliar number to unlock it. I texted back LOL NOPE. They phoned, from another unfamiliar number, and I pointed out I had no way of verifying anyone who called me who was not personally known to me. Why hadn't they passed the message through the local branch, where I know the employees? Surely having a real, physical office facing customers is absolutely the last word in verification and security for financial matters. In the end it is all about trust, and customers can't afford to have any.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[andrewducker]

So far as I know the last place which was my local branch got turned into a restaurant about a decade ago.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[hilarita]

Also, my "local branch" is local to where I set my account up, 20 years ago. I don't even have the faintest clue about whether the branch still exists, let alone anyone in it.
What I do object to is that you can't handle those security things in branch anyway - you have to phone their crappy outsourced line, which makes these things much more stressful for me.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[movingfinger]

I'm lucky to have a local branch, I know!

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[doug]

Sudden flashback to one of the many ways in which RBS were horrible after my father died a couple of years ago. He'd opened an account with them as a student, and it was still his main account when he died. My mother was added as a joint account holder when they married in the late 60s. Most financial services, RBS included, were happy to take a death notification over the phone with surprisingly little verification beyond the minimum personal data, which is an issue in itself - it'd be an easy physical DOS attack on someone you didn't like that would cause them no end of a headache.

They were all much cagier about anything that would let money out, though, which is fair enough. However, RBS in particular refused to be of any help unless she presented herself in person, with original documents, not the expensive certified copies we'd got specifically to make the process easier, at the original branch. Which was up the other end of the country to where they'd been living for 40 years. They froze her credit card too, although so did the other credit cards she had, which were all joint. The other card companies were really apologetic about it, but RBS were rude and sharp on the phone. For a day or so I had to reassure her that if all else failed I'd max out cash machines on my own accounts so she she'd have enough for groceries after I left. Happily we got banking for her sorted out with another bank - I think NatWest, come to think of it, because there was a physical branch nearby and they said yes when we asked.

I will never bank with RBS and strongly urge other people not to.

Also, even if you love and trust your partner/spouse of many decades utterly, do make sure there is some independence to your financial arrangements on paper, because neither of you will live forever.

And more generally, financial services have changed completely since the 60s and 70s and now you are more likely to be punished for long-term loyalty (in terms of poor deals) than rewarded (in terms of understanding and flexibility when you find yourself in difficulties).

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[andrewducker]

From what I know of them, I don't think I'd want them looking after my money.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[anef]

I banked happily with RBS until a couple of years ago when they seemed to go through a sea change (for the worse) on customer care. I thought they did something very unreasonable about bank charges (they actually charged me for being overdrawn during a day, when my account was in credit at the beginning and end of the day). When I complained their attitude was "If you don't like what we do we can always find other customers." So I left.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[andrewducker]

That really is taking the piss.

Re: Natwest train their customers to be bad at security

[calimac]

The strangest security oddity I ever experienced was from door-to-door AT&T salespeople offering their broadband service. I was interested, and on the verge of signing up when the man handed me his mobile phone and asked me to tell whoever was on the line my SSN. In the US, that's your top-security ID number. I kicked the salespeople out of the house and phoned the police, because I was sure they were scammers. The police later reported back to me that they weren't, but I'm not sure I believe it.

[calimac]

Re Italian, I was reading a book on the history of French which tells a similar story, in particular that it wasn't until the 19th or 20th century that most of the inhabitants spoke what we'd now call French. I expect it was even more chaotic in Spain, a country which still hasn't settled on a national language.

[andrewducker]

Good point!

When did Italian become the language of Italy (rather than Latin)?

[anef]

This was fascinating. I don't have expert knowledge of Roman literacy below the elite level, but my impression from graffiti and gravestones is that there was quite a high level of literacy quite low down. Also the Vindolanda tablets imply that lots of soldiers (and their families) could read and write well enough to send letters.

Re: When did Italian become the language of Italy (rather than Latin)?

[andrewducker]

True. I do wonder how common it was.