Hasta La Gadget!

It might be morbid and upsetting, but the death industry has always been
killing the competition (pun intended) because of the simple fact that
everyone on the planet will die. There is no other industry that caters
to a basic need of the entire world population. Admittedly, some of the
businesses in the industry, and the services that they offer, won’t
appeal to everyone; but they do demonstrate that creativity in business
isn’t dead. The latest business in the industry is futuristic, and takes
memorializing to a whole new level.

As many northern climes are still reeling from the harsh snowstorms of 2014 – the Ukraine is no exception. Yet, today’s report has more to do with a climactic versus climate change. Like the Arab Spring
that also commenced in the dead of winter [December 18, 2010] and
spawned dozens of revolutions throughout Africa and the Middle East,
similarly, news of the Ukrainian uprisings are now being conveyed by
digital technology, social networks and citizen journalism.

Life became stranger than fiction when federal authorities arrested the notorious hacker Ross Ulbricht [aka
‘Dread Pirate Roberts’] for crimes mirroring the fictional character of
Walter White in the award-winning TV drama, "Breaking Bad." Drug
trafficking, money-laundering and cold-blooded murder transformed a
mild-mannered physics student into an underworld kingpin, just as it had
for a chemistry teacher in that five-season AMC thriller.

What’s that buzz . . . tell me what’s happening? While the Internet of Thing’s clarion call has awakened the early
adopters, many of us still have it on snooze alarm. We may have seen
bits and pieces of it, like those that have popped up as apps on our
mobile devices. Perhaps we’ve recently purchased a Smart TV — or have
recently been intrigued by Nest’s Thermostat [after Google plopped down a hefty $3.2 billion to acquire it].

OK, so a $3.2 billion acquisition is nothing to sneeze at! However, when your current stock price on the Nasdaq exchange is trading at $1148 per share, and your coffers are overflowing in excess of $57 billion in cash and marketable securities – $3.2 is more or less chump change. . .