Mexican heroin kingpin and Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman is one of the biggest drug lords of all time. Now, he’s been caught after six months on the run. But that’s just the beginning.
Three months earlier, El Chapo conducted an interview with acclaimed actor Sean Penn, which was published in Rolling Stone magazine. In the interview, El Chapo bragged that he sold more illegal narcotics than anybody in the world, and bragged about his submarines, airplanes, and other fleet. This interview took place in a secluded Mexican jungle, but a follow-up was done on a videotape sent to Penn. Surveillance was critical. They tracked cell phones and other electronics of the people El Chapo kept in contact with. The US and Mexican officials shared intelligence. There are pictures everywhere of Penn and El Chapo shaking hands. Surveillance followed Penn as he touched down in Mexico. Major Mexican newspaper El Universal has pictures of Penn greeting the guys who took them to an airstrip and flew them to secluded jungle in which El Chapo hid. Mexican intelligence photographed Penn and actress Kate del?Castillo (who helped set up the interview). Eventually, intelligence got to the tunnel El Chapo hid in. Penn himself said he thought he was being spied on.
There are more questions than answers here. Did Penn and del Castillo deliberately help the authorities catch El Chapo? I doubt it very seriously. That’s not their style. But I do believe Penn gave an unwilling assist in El Chapo’s capture. So we can all learn a lesson here. Big brother is watching, especially when you’re dealing with one of the most notorious criminals in the world. And in 2016, governments can easily track you. One would think Penn would know better. But he went through the interview anyway. No matter what the promise, payout, or potential reward is, would you interview one of the biggest drug dealers ever?
Or they at least want to do even better. For example, Turkey and Russia get Netflix, but it’s only in English. In Russia, only 6% of that nation’s population can speak English. In Turkey, it’s 17 percent. ?Neflix isn’t available in China at all. Keep in mind China has the fastest rising economy in the world and is home to 1.35 billion people. That’s nearly twenty percent of the world’s problem with no Netflix access. But there is great news though. Netflix has added 130 nations to their roster. But it’s not coming cheap. Programming costs in 2016 alone is expected to cost over $6 billion. But with increasing competition in the US, and increasing online availability worldwide, going international is Netflix’s best move. But China isn’t the only nation closing it’s door to Netflix. Netflix won’t be coming to Syria, North Korea or Crimea anytime soon, if ever. We can thank political tensions, war,oppression, censorship and isolation for that. Nevertheless, Netflix will add Arabic, Korean and Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese languages. ?So since they’re investing in the Chinese languages, what about Netflix in China?
Understand Chinese is the most spoken languages in the world, with nearly two billion speakers. That’s six times the number of English speakers. Netflix is working on it, and I hope it happens. It’s good for Netflix and it’s good for China. Whether we like it or not, they’re a major player on the world stage. This could make Netflix huge profits! I wish the censor dictators there would lighten up. If they want to be a free nation, let Netflix broadcast there. It wouldn’t hurt anybody. Well, it wouldn’t hurt anybody except for those who make millions in piracy. Netflix also needs to invest in Russian and Turkish languages, since they’re there already. But back to China: who and what else is holding up the Netlfix process there?
Let’s say you get a surprise bill for $5,900. You don’t know where this bill came from. Then you find out the bill came from your 7-year-son!
In the United Kingdom, that’s what happened to a father named Mohammad Shugga. In December 2015, he learned his 7-year-old son racked a $5,900 tab (4,000 British pounds), on his Apple account. All of it was billed to the iPad game Jurassic World, based on the wildly successful movie franchise Jurassic Park. Jurassic World is a combination of tycoon games like Sim City or Rollercoaster Tycoon and a Pokemon style gaming iPad game. You build your own dinosaur park, creating dinosaurs, and letting them fight. At first, it’s free to play. Key word: at first! But if you want to speed up production and get cooler beasts to fight to the death for you, then you gotta pay. You gotta pay Dino Bucks through an iTunes account. The 7-year-old made 65 transactions with Dino Bucks and was daddy Shugga was $5,900 in iTunes debt before he figured it out. Can you imagine Mohammad Shugga’s shock when he went to Apple, explaining what happened and requesting a refund? Can you imagine his reaction when Apple told him to monitor his child’s use of the iTunes account? I don’t know if Shugga got the refund or not.
But they’re several lessons to be learned here. Apple is right: parents should always monitor their kids’ computer activities as long as they’re minors, especially if they’re 7. I know it sounds big brother, but there’s no telling what perverts, predators,?and id thieves are lurking on the other side of that monitor. There’s no telling what they might be spending your money on either. Set ground rules with your children about computer safety and etiquette, and remind them why such rules are in place. Don’t be afraid to use your password and change your password if you find anything suspicious, even if it comes to your own child. If you do have to block your son/daughter from your account, tell them why. ?How did you think this father-son conversation went?
A few days ago, I wrote a blog of how Twitter evaluated 2015. The tweets of 2015 seemed more culture and celebrity oriented. But this is 2015 according to Facebook. According to Facebook, the past eleven months and ten days were very dark and grim.
Most if not all top 10 events talked about on FB this year have been tragic, disturbing and depressing news stories. On the list include the Charleston, SC shootings and confederate flag debate, Baltimore riots, both terrorist attacks in Paris (remember Charlie Hebdo in back in January), and the global war against ISIS. Other top ten Facebook issues include the devastating earthquake in Nepal, debt crisis and riots in Greece, and Syrian war and refugee crisis. The other two issues were somewhat lighter, but divided us as a nation. The first was the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriage in all 50 states. The top issue of Facebook talk was the US presidential election. While the US presidential election isn’t a catastrophe (well, depending on who you ask), but it’s already divided so many Americans. As contentious as the election is already, this issue is going to divide a lot more Americans in 2016 too.
Was 2015 that grim of a year? In a sense, yes. The top ten list didn’t include blizzards in Boston, droughts in California, a measles outbreak, a German pilot crashing his own plane with 150 passengers on board, and hundreds were trampled to death in a Mecca stampede. But there were some light and even inspiring events that happened in 2015. We had a heck of a Super Bowl. Pope Francis visited the United States. The US and Cuba thawed it’s 56-year-old icy relationship. So lots of good stuff happened. In previous years, events like the Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup, even the Harlem shake dance craze (that reminds me, the whip nae nae was extremely popular in 2015) made the top ten. So what is it about this year? Was this past year darker than the others? Or is our mood just darker?
What do Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Carlos Santana, Miley Cyrus, Hugh Hefner, and Paul McCartney have in common? They were all subjected to a celebrity death hoax. Someone announced on social media a famous person passed away when they’re just as above ground as we are. Now there’s another celebrity death hoax.
Are you familiar with Jim “Good ol’ JR” Ross? He’s one of the greatest pro wrestling commentator of all-time. Someone hacked into his Twitter account and reported Jim Ross passed away peacefully in his sleep. Good ol’ JR himself confirmed this tweet was a lie and that he’s “…healthy but not happy”. While Ross works to get his Twitter account right again,it’s obvious Ross isn’t happy with someone hacking into his account and posting such a big, blatant lie. Ross warns the culprits karma is crazy and whoever put his family and friends through this kind of emotional grief will have to pay for their lies. The hackers’ twitter account has been taken down and so has the false tweet. Nobody knows how they got into JR’s Twitter account, but there is a lesson to be learned here. It’s advised you make your password as complicated as you can. It’s also advised you configure Twitter to send a login confirmation request for your smart devices.
Here we go again. You see why Jim Ross is so angry? What if someone puts a death hoax on you and you’re alive and well? How would your family and friends react? So yes, I understand why Jim Ross is ticked. Why would anyone lie about a celebrity dying? Is it financially motivated? I wonder how. Are celebrity death hoaxes meant to be funny or a practical joke? I always thought jokes were meant to be funny. Nobody is laughing here, especially not the Ross family. What would another motive be to create such unnecessary grief?
Yesterday, I talked about the streaming race. Amazon lags behind You Tube and Netflix. And if you’re an aspire screenwriter, you could help Amazon Studios be more competitive in the streaming market.
A few days ago, Amazon launched a free cloud friendly screenwriter software service called Amazon Storywriter. Actually, it’s a product of Amazon Studios. Even before Amazon Storywriter, they accepted scripts for films, children’s shows, and comedies. With Amazon Storywriter, they will take drama submissions. There are other new policies. Before Amazon Storywriter, scripts submitted to Amazon Studios took a 45 day unpaid waiting option. It would pay $10,000 for an extended period. With Storywriter, they will negotiate with the screenwriter about proper payment. The writer can accept or reject the offer. Since I’m no attorney, you can read about it for yourself here. ?Amazon Studio is trying to follow Netflix’s footsteps and produce their own original programming. They’re starting to succeed. They have a show called “Gortimer Gibbon?s Life on Normal Street”, already in it’s second season. Amazon Storywriter has auto-formatting to help the screenwriter create his/her masterpiece. It supports PDF, FDX, and Fountain formats. It works with a Mac as well as a PC.
Amazon Kindle was to help get struggling authors get noticed, even make the big time. Amazon Storywriter is designed to help struggling screenwriters do the same. This is a great vehicle to get many a screenwriter the big break they dream of, without kissing up to the big boys in Hollywood. This could also help Amazon produce independent entertainment that can help them in the streaming race. It can help more professional scriptwriters, such as those from the Writers Guild of America. If they’re negotiating with screenwriters for proper salary, and they didn’t do that before, what does that tell you? So I wonder, will Amazon Storyline help Amazon get the edge in the streaming race?
