Yes, Bitcoin and cryptos seem to be getting more and more popular these days.
>>> “Former hedge fund manager Raoul Pal shared his view on the economy, gold, and bitcoin last week in a podcast interview with Daniela Cambone of Stansberry Research. “
A System of Robot Drug Dealers on Telegram Allows People to Buy Illegal Products for Bitcoin
With decentralization comes a few bad things. My view is that most people are good and there are very few exceptions. I am not saying here, that someone who is taking drugs is a bad person. I sincerely think that nobody has the right to force anybody to consume or not consume any substance.
For me, if you are selling drugs because you want to help people then you are a good person. If you are selling drugs because you want to hurt people then you are a bad person.
>>> “While many darknet markets have fallen to the wayside, a slew of new types of methods when it comes to selling illegal drugs online has risen. For instance, the world’s largest DNM in Russia, Hydra, leverages a complicated system of vendors who utilize drop zones. “
COVID-19: How 3 Prior Pandemics Triggered Massive Societal Shifts
This article is short and right to the point. It will show you how pandemics are transformative agents for society. A little lesson in history that is informative for me. I wish there would be more articles like this, on the internet universe.
>>> “Before March of this year, few probably thought disease could be a significant driver of human history.”
Crypto Cruise Ship ‘Satoshi’ to Make Panama Bay Home
Seasteading is an interesting notion. The reasoning is that on the sea there is no government and if you live there then you are free. In reality, anything on the sea that does not have a flag of a ‘recognized’ country might be fired upon by any vessels that see it, including big navy countries like the US and the UK.
Another problem with the notion of seasteading is that most projects are without possibilities of defending themselves and are subject to attacks by anybody ‘stronger’ than them. That goes contrary to one of the sayings of Machiavelli which says more or less that “Before all else, be armed!”.
I am a fan of decentralization projects, not because I like chaos but because the new decentralization techniques like blockchains and other “peer to peer” (P2P) technologies provide order without centralizing power in the hands of one or too few entities.
I have owned condos on multiple occasions and I do not think I will ever own one in the future because I feel less at home in one.
Condos do not solve the “musical problem” or when your neighbor plays his music too loud. When that happens in a condo you have almost no defense. You might lodge a complaint with local authorities but if you do it too often they will get angry with you. The condo administration will not be policing her members very strongly. Even when you own a house in a bad neighborhood, you are never completely at home. First, you still need to pay rent in the form of taxes to local authority and if you have a “noisy” neighbor, you are stuck with complaining to the police or public security.
I prefer to rent, in the current social paradigm. When I rent a place, I may always refer to the landlord for ‘justice’ and he is highly motivated to listen to me and resolve the situation, more so, if it involves more tenants.
I am ready to pay a little bit more by renting because then, the landlord is shielding me from higher authorities and that is a service I like.
Of course, I would not rent from a condo owner.
I wish them luck anyway, but I would prefer it if they would just rent the units on long terms (3,6,12 months).
>>> “Ocean Builders, a company that builds “seapods” or floating homes for seasteaders, has unveiled “The Crypto Cruise Ship” called Satoshi. It is being prepared to set sail from the Mediterranean and will anchor in the Gulf of Panama.”
Coronavirus: WHO backflips on virus stance by condemning lockdowns
Why are we still using lockdowns after 6 months of this virus presence? It should have been enough time to adjust and adapt by any social system.
>>> “Dr. David Nabarro from the WHO appealed to world leaders yesterday, telling them to stop “using lockdowns as your primary control method” of the coronavirus. “
www.sott.net/article/442733-Coronavirus-WHO-backflips-on-virus-stance-by-condemning-lockdowns
NFT Craftiness: Mint a Non-Fungible Token Art Collectible in Less Than 15 Minutes
This is to encourage creativity or the human need, and duty, to create. It is something that everyone should try to experiment with. Cryptos are getting really, really popular these days. In my opinion, it is the perfect medium to change the world into a decentralized system. Order without centralized power.
>>> “In the last few months the non-fungible token (NFT) art space has exploded and data shows that there’s been over 4.9 million sales worth well over $128 million to-date.”
news.bitcoin.com/nft-craftiness-mint-a-non-fungible-token-art-collectible-in-less-than-15-minutes/
Humans Are All More Closely Related Than We Commonly Think – Scientific American
Did you know that you and I are cousins?
I find this very interesting. It is not something I was aware and it is very surprising.
What it is saying, in short, is that we are all, more or less, cousins on this planet. With every person on earth, right now, you and that person will find a common ancestor somewhere in the past. That past might not be that far, most likely a few thousand years, not a hundred thousand.
The notion of isopoint is also worth discovering.
>>> “Imagine counting all your ancestors as you trace your family tree back in time. In the nth generation before the present, your family tree has 2n slots: two for parents, four for grandparents, eight for great-grandparents, and so on. The number of slots grows exponentially. By the 33rd generation—about 800 to 1,000 years ago—you have more than eight billion of them. That is more than the number of people alive today, and it is certainly a much larger figure than the world population a millennium ago. “
www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-are-all-more-closely-related-than-we-commonly-think/
The insanity of elite-defined “sustainability”
I tend to agree with this. The current ‘civilization’ paradigm is not sustainable in any way we can come up with. The maths is just not there. Nature has the most efficient way to convert the energy we receive from the sun to something useful (life).
Anything that we try to do better is doomed to failure. It is not even to our advantage to try to beat nature. Just let it go and it will sustain itself and us with it.
If we observe nature and just take our share of food by using some clever ways to get it, we work a lot less than trying to produce some tons of the same plants (say cabbage) from a square mile. If we let nature go, it might not produce a few tons of cabbages, but will produce a variety of plants and animals that will lead to a real sustainable cycle only because of the variety it will provide.
Look at fishermen today that are able to provide food for many people using those special nets. They do work a lot and hard, when they are fishing but they are not fishing all the time. When they do fish, they provide food for a lot more people than themselves and their family.
>>> “In fact, our civilization’s sustainability is zero. Aside from the pollution, poisoning and intoxication that we leave around us, our mostly western civilization has used natural resources at the rate of 3 to 4 times in excess of what Mother Earth so generally provides us with. We, the west, had passed the threshold of One in the mid-sixties. In Africa and most of Asia, the rate of depletion is still way below the factor of One, on average somewhere between 0.4 and 0.6. “
www.sott.net/article/442305-The-insanity-of-elite-defined-sustainability
Trump’s Surprising Alaska-Canada Rail Announcement: Might America Join the Polar Silk Road?
This is a good proof that he is leaning on the humanist side. Even if he is not re-elected, this will remain somehow. This is not only helping Alberta. This is helping the whole world.
>>> “On September 26, President Trump announced that a long-overdue project would receive Federal support which involves connecting Alaska for the first time with Canada and the lower 48 states via a 2570 km railway.”
US doctors express interest in Sputnik V, Russian direct investment fund says
I would take that vaccine before any others if I am obligated to get one.
>>> “The Russian researchers put an emphasis on the advantages of the human adenoviral vector platform used in Sputnik V over untested technologies such as the monkey adenoviral vector platform or mRNA technology, which have not been studied for potential side effects such as impact on fertility or cancer risks over the long term. “
Jan-Piet Mens :: It used to be simpler to teach
The same way I hate it when people are renaming public structures, like roads, bridges, airports, etc., I also hate it when the all-mighty consensus of elite developers in charge of maintaining Linux will have some changes in some programs that are affecting everyone without their consent. The coloring of filenames is a good example. What if you ssh into another kind of machine or a very old machine that is kept old for a good reason? Then, you are transporting with you the terminal type shell variable and suddenly, you can’t read anything. That is not good and desirable behavior. People should be aware that they can’t think about everything and should be more cautious in changing the current behaviors of programs.
Like public structures, I think it is best to add some programs than modifying current ones. If you want to honor a new person or event, then build a new thing, do not rename or modify an old one.
>> “Today in some versions of Linux ls puts single quotes around file names which contain white space likely in order to have those paths easier to copy and paste, but it does so only if !isatty().”
British Astrophysicists: “Mini Ice Age is Accelerating – New ‘Maunder Minimum’ Has Begun” + the Beaufort Gyre
We are heading for some cold in the near future but we really don’t know how it will develop. The hope is, that it will not be too strong, but nobody knows for sure.
My own opinion is that it will be moderate for the next five years and then go down strong.
I like Michael Crichton a lot. I was not aware (or did not remember) of this quote from him.
>>> “For the next 20 years it’s going to get colder and colder, on average, says Corbyn who holds a B.Sc. in Physics and an M.Sc. in Astrophysics. The jet stream will be wilder: there will be more wild temperature changes, more hail events, more earthquakes, more extreme volcano events, more snow in winters, lousy summers, late springs, short autumns, and more and more crop failures.” “…that Michael Crichton quote rings true: “Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had.” “
electroverse.net/british-astrophysicists-mini-ice-age-is-accelerating-new-maunder-minimum-has-begun/
We need young programmers; we need old programmers
Yes, like in the Shaw citation below, progress might be made by “unreasonable one” but is it the right progress to be made?
I think that we should try to adapt to the world instead of trying to bend the world to our needs. Technologically, we might seem to be advancing a lot, but scientifically, we are more or less stagnating.
There has not been any major discovery in physics for the past century or so, and physic is the base of all sciences. We invent new theories but we are stagnating comparatively to the centuries before.
We need some new goals. We need to go back to be advancing knowledge for its own purpose, not to enslave nature. I am ready to bet that it is also a lot less work or wasted resources.
>>> ” “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw ”
” I don’t think that these people, all of a sudden, had an epiphany after they retired. They knew all about the rot in the system they were part of, while they were part of it, but they’ve had too much to lose. You could argue that they should have said something before they retired, but that requires a moral backbone we can’t expect most people to have.
When people retire, the threat of getting fired disappears. Old people can speak freely to a degree most other people can’t. “
blog.ploeh.dk/2020/09/14/we-need-young-programmers-we-need-old-programmers/
The Future is Decentralized
I could not agree more. It used to be decentralized and it should go back to be just that. We need to look at the Web3 protocol a little bit closer.
>>> “Decentralizing the web through new technologies like blockchain and decentralized protocols can ensure that the web remains community-focused and user-oriented, just like it was originally intended to be.”
Backing up data like the adult I supposedly am
Backup is an art. Third parties are bad like banks and retirement plans, in the sense that you do not have the ultimate control of your data or money.
For doing backups, I think that ‘tar’ is the best, but try not to go too much fancy (like incremental backups). When you think about it, backup is just data processing.
A word of advice, do not compress and encrypt at the same time. Some specialist on encryption will tell you that is a bad idea because it really weakening the encryption. Encrypting WILL compress your data anyway.
Also, do not use file-system or operating system encryption. They change too often and when ‘upgrading’ your operating system, you may find yourself with an unusable file-system. It is better to use some sort of ‘bucket’ encryption like Truecrypt (now Veracrypt), and store your sensitive information on it. That way, you are also not wasting resources on encrypting everything and you will have more atomic control over what you encrypt. The backups will also be simpler.
Like always, your main problem will be to remember or storing your passwords.
>>> “Like so many things I’m supposed to do but don’t — getting exercise, eating right, sleeping well, standing up for women and minorities in public spaces — backing up my data has always been something I’ve half-assed at best.”
11 Scientific Predictions for the upcoming Grand Solar Minimum (spoiler: wrap up, its getting cold) – Electroverse
This is interesting. He has done a great job of collecting these scientific statements. Real science is never definitive. It is all about hypothesis, theories, and better approximation. We should never take the words of a scientist as absolute. It is always subject to questioning and revision, otherwise, there is no advancement possible.
>>> “The exact time-frame and depth of this next chill of solar minimum is still anyone’s guess, and the parameters involved (i.e., galactic cosmic rays, geomagnetic activity, solar wind flux etc.) remain poorly understood. However, there are some great minds on the job,…”
electroverse.net/11-scientific-predictions-for-the-upcoming-grand-solar-minimum/
Bitcoin Unlimited Launches Two-Option Voting App Powered by Bitcoin Cash
Another good application of blockchain technology and decentralization. I would use a voting system like this with a lot more confidence than regular mail or even email.
>>> “This week a couple of Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) developers released a new voting protocol called Votepeer. BU software engineers, Dagur and Jørgen Svennevik Notland, revealed the initial version of Votepeer, which can be located at the website voter.cash.”
news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-unlimited-launches-two-option-voting-app-powered-by-bitcoin-cash/
Assange lawyer says she saw Trump ally offer to arrange pardon
Mr. Trump is not perfect, of course, but he is teaching us all about the art of negotiations and deal-making. I know, I am learning from him at a distance. He is always negotiating on multiple levels at the same time.
>>> “A lawyer for Julian Assange told a London court on Friday that she was present when an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump offered to arrange a pardon for the WikiLeaks founder in return for information that would “benefit President Trump politically”.”
Study shows first proof that a safer UV light effectively kills virus causing COVID-19
This is interesting. This might help to protect public area. In any case, it would be a good idea to put some kind of device at the entrance of public areas to expose users to a non-harmful light. We can even use it in the future for some other diseases. I used to disinfect my water from the lake with UV light. It is very effective at 99.9% killing all diseases from water.
>>> “A study conducted by Hiroshima University researchers found that using Ultraviolet C light with a wavelength of 222 nanometers which is safer to use around humans effectively kills SARS-CoV-2 — the first research in the world to prove its efficacy against the virus that causes COVID-19.”
Meta-analysis indicates the Mozart effect might be the real thing
That will be interesting to follow. I believe that music has an effect on the brain and even on the body in general. After all, it is a physical sound wave and on top, it is highly organized.
>>> “They found, they say, that listening to Mozart, especially on a daily basis, led to a significant reduction in epileptic seizures, and also to a reduced frequency of interictal epileptiform discharges – abnormal brain activities commonly seen in epileptic patients.”
www.sott.net/article/441471-Meta-analysis-indicates-the-Mozart-effect-might-be-the-real-thing
“Solar Cycle 25 is Officially Underway,” Announce NASA and NOAA during a Media Teleconference
We are new at studying these cycles but it does not look good for the near future (11 to 20 years). I do not think that we will be experiencing to Ice Age, but we might be praying for more warming at one point. We will need to adapt to this new reality.
>>> “According to an international panel of experts, the sunspot number hit rock-bottom back in Dec 2019, bringing an end to old Solar Cycle 24 — a cycle which had the 4th-smallest intensity since record keeping began in 1755. It was also the weakest cycle in 100 years, reads NASA’s and NOAA’s analysis.”
…
“If Solar Cycle 25 has indeed begun, as NASA and NOAA state, then it is painfully slow to get going — this could-well be a harbinger of a historically weak cycle to come, as previously explained by NOAA’s Biesecker above.”
electroverse.net/solar-cycle-25-is-officially-underway-announce-nasa-and-noaa/
Russian scientists have photographed microorganism fossils likely to be from another planet — Science & Technology — Sott.net
Seems to be from a similar planet than Earth with magnetic poles and water. These days, I am more convinced that life in the universe would probably be very similar to ours. The universe seems to be working the same everywhere. There may be some other forms of life, but I think that we will be finding something similar to us more often than not.
>>> “Later, a renowned NASA astrobiologist, Richard Hoover, claimed that he found fossils in the meteorite but NASA distanced itself from his claims at that time, citing a lack of peer reviews. Now, according to RIA, Hoover has joined the Russian team to prove that the celestial object does, in fact, contain fossilized bacteria remains. Richard B. Hoover astrobiologist”
…
“The fossils were studied in detail with the help of a high-resolution electronic microscope, which allowed researchers to discover several species of bacteria preserved within the space rock. The microorganic fossils were found inside the meteorite and not on its surface, the scientists note, adding that they could not have gotten there after it had already fallen to Earth. “
US Consumers Flock To the First Mastercard Branded BitPay Card
This seems very cool. I was not aware (or maybe I forgot..), that it was possible to get a “standard” debit card linked to some cryptocurrencies.
>>> “The new BitPay card allows users to spend money anywhere Mastercard is accepted, both online and in stores. “
news.bitcoin.com/us-consumers-flock-to-the-first-mastercard-branded-bitpay-card/
‘It will start getting cooler, you just watch,’ Trump tells California official who tied climate change to raging wildfires
Again, I like his comment about “science does’nt know”. If you read between the lines, it may also means that science is obfuscated in some ways.
>> “Comment: Perhaps Trump has been following SOTT’s persistent call that global warming has historically preceded an ice age and that we could be heading into a mini-ice age right now. It’s good to see that he is seeing through the global warming nonsense. “
“I wish science agreed with you,” responded Wade Crowfoot, the state secretary for natural resources, to which the president replied, “Well, I don’t think science knows, actually.”
Trump casts doubt on climate change science during briefing on wildfires
A lot of things have been said about him. Now, I want to say this. He is well informed and he does not hide that he is well informed.
>>> “”It’ll start getting cooler, you just watch,” Trump replied. “
www.sott.net/article/441398-Trump-casts-doubt-on-climate-change-science-during-briefing-on-wildfires
Possible hint of life discovered on Venus
We are getting to know this planet better nowadays, partly because of some Russian and Chinese researches. I think the first images of Venus’ surface came from a Russian probe. It would be nice to cooperate a little bit more with the peoples who do such a good job in scientific advancement.
>>> “The unknown chemical is phosphine gas (PH3), a substance that on Earth mostly comes from anaerobic (non-oxygen-breathing) bacteria or “anthropogenic activity” — stuff humans are doing. “
www.sott.net/article/441356-Possible-hint-of-life-discovered-on-Venus
The Tell Tale Signs of a Scam Crypto Website: Bitcoin-Up.Live | Security Bitcoin News
Do not believe everything you see and read about bitcoin on the internet.
It is important to do your own research about any investment. Your money is safe when YOU are in control, not anybody else.
>>> “It turns out that criminals also appreciate the shifting dynamics and are aware that investing in bitcoin is the new in-thing.”
news.bitcoin.com/the-tell-tale-signs-of-a-scam-crypto-website/
UN says new polio outbreak in Sudan caused by oral vaccine
It may be best to do nothing and let nature works its ways.
I do not think we know enough to pretend to fix everything around us.
More and more, I am losing faith, hope, and trust in anything official.
I do not think vaccines are necessary unless we are facing extinction.
>>> “In a statement this week, WHO said two children in Sudan — one from South Darfur state and the other from Gedarif state, close to the border with Ethiopia and Eritrea — were paralyzed in March and April. Both had been recently vaccinated against polio. “
COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca on hold after ‘unexplained illness’
Yes, “historically rapid”, ok? The shortest vaccine production was 7 years with an average of 20 years for all of them.
Is this because we have so much advancement in sciences lately? I doubt it.
Maybe the research on some coronavirus was already underway for a few years back.
>>> “The interruption represents the first major hiccup in what has been a remarkably smooth path in the historically rapid vaccine effort spanning the globe. “
[A few of the] Scientists who warn of a coming Grand Solar Minimum and Little Ice Age
Take a look at this information if you want to know more about the coming Grand Solar Minimum.
This next winter 2020-2021 will probably be the worst in 100 years.
electroverse.net/scientists-who-warn-of-a-coming-grand-solar-minimum-and-little-ice-age/
Lies by omission – How to read the news
I like Mr. Corbett a lot. I like his writing better than his videos because I can read faster than I have to listen to. In general, I do not like videos that takes too much time. I think that an informative video should be no longer than 3 or 4 minutes. I understand that the platform may have some restrictions about monetizing but still, as a consumer, I tend to hate longer videos.
>>> “Alexei Navalny has never held any elected office, his political party doesn’t have a single MP in the Duma, and he polls at roughly 2% support with the Russian people. “
www.sott.net/article/440978-Lies-by-omission-How-to-read-the-news
How to Leverage Uniswap – Ethereum’s Noncustodial Defi Trading Platform
I need to learn to use the word “decentralize” more. I also need to learn how to trade in these DEX. It would seem that some of them are scams.
People will invent new ways to prevent scams on these exchanges.
>>> “In 2020 decentralized exchanges (dex) have grown quite mature compared to just a few years ago. One specific dex gathering a lot of steam this year in the defi world is Uniswap, a trading platform that held $1.3 billion locked in value and dominated most defi applications by over 18% Friday evening. “
news.bitcoin.com/how-to-leverage-uniswap-ethereums-noncustodial-defi-trading-platform/
‘Bitcoin Beats Gold on Every Single Measure,’ Says Macro Strategist Raoul Pal
Bitcoin might be going down temporarily but I think it is worth owning a little bit. Do not put all your eggs in the same basket is the best approach about Bitcoin.
>>> “In my opinion, bitcoin is the best reserve asset and best collateral asset ever seen. It is the hardest asset ever produced, with an impossible-to-change formula for supply that gives it predictability like no other asset ever.”