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tgirlblogger · 1 month ago

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Dear Diary,

CW: Eating Disorder, Self Harm

Today was okay. I just generally did nothing at school, and then did nothing at home, and that's fine. If I did one thing good today, it's been getting a knife. I've been itching to make another big mess, but I'll have to get to that in a month or so around March, I don't really have time right now. So I'll just have to subsist for now. I haven't actually used it, I think I'll use it in the washroom if I have time. I've got a pretty good hiding spot I think, it'll be really hard for them to try to steal it in my sleep, and it won't make too much sound while I'm retrieving it, so I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to cut in peace for once. I'm really not sure what it even does for me anymore, but I'll find out soon I guess.

Didn't throw up yesterday, it was a mix between simply not having the time and just not wanting to do so really. I don't know why, I'll have to throw up today, especially after the food I had. Since today was a half day, I had to eat lunch. We went to Costco and got the everfamous hot dogs. And yeah I'm wowed. I thought it was just the hotdog but its a hotdog and a drink with infinite refills for only a dollar fifty. Its pretty impressive all things considered. For dinner we went to some sort of sushi place, there was a lot of food yadda yadda. The problem with good food is that it is just so good to eat, but later in the shower or when you're changing you notice just how much weight you've gained, and its just such a horrible feeling. I really really try to just not look down whenever I'm not wearing thick layers of clothing. But also when I'm not wearing thick layers of clothing I'm also self conscious about my shoulders and all, so its another win for the dysphoria hoodie I guess. I feel like I'm entering a cycle where I throw up once, pat myself on the back, and then neglect to do so for another week, and then do it again and on and on and on. Like I don't really know how to reconcile trying to not be fatphobic but actively enforcing throwing up for no other reason than just for the purposes of being skinny. I really can't. If it was like a real mental disease then I probably could hide behind it, but like it really isn't. I have to fight and struggle to even maintain it, and like I don't really know how to tell myself I'm a good person. I just have to not think about it, but that just makes me a genuinely bad person. I don't have an excuse for myself.

Talking about cutting is really shitty after going on that little spiel about how I'm a bad person. Its almost manipulative, to try to make you and myself pity me. But I don't really have any good other things to say I guess. As of right now I just made 2 cuts, both to styro. I bandaged one wrong I think, there's some blood leaking through the bandage. I put a tissue over it and it stopped in only like 5 seconds, but I'm worried that the bandages I stole just aren't good enough to hold future cuts. And I do have to say. Cutting makes me feel good. Almost happy. Maybe even does something sexually, but lets not talk about that. Its also so terrifying to do. My parents can be perceptive when they feel like it, and even a tiny little drop of blood missed and they know. But I love cutting. I don't want to ever stop. Also, I may have misjudged how little sound that the hiding spot makes. We'll see. I think it'll be hard to try to get to it while I'm sleeping without waking me up though, so really we'll just have to see.

My parents have been getting super into politics recently. Not super recently, but like its just been nonstop talking about Trump and DEI and the 25% tariffs the last few days. Is DEI a new term? I swear I'd never heard of it until literally last month. Its annoying, since occasionally he'll bring up gender and whatnot, and like its breaking our unspoken agreement to not talk about me being trans and just silently hate eachother. For some strange reason, my dad is a devout follower and supporter of Trump. My mom's more of a center right person, she "supports the liberals, but lately they've just gone too left.". I think she protested against teaching sex-ed back when that was a big thing. But like what is extremely perplexing to me is that my father is like going to vote liberal next election. Because if Poilievre wins then he'll get fired. But he loves conservatism, and hates welfare. Even though he works for the government as a welfare guy. So thats strange but like whatever. I hope that he dies soon.

Been thinking a lot about NGE lately. It just gets better the more I think about it honestly. Not to be too generic but Shinji is literally me. Except for all the stuff that isn't me. But you know we've got some relatable qualities. And yeah, its a much better work if Shinji is a trans girl. The more I think about all my problems, the more I think it could all be solved with a little third impacting. I think that EoE is quite possibly the most hopeful thing that could ever happen for humanity. Like if you subscribe to the idea that everyone reforms after being LCL'd then like yeah its like a really hopeful ending and all that. World peace achieved. Honestly NGE is so good but Im just not a very smart person. I cant do analysis but I can know that its such a good piece of work and that just drives me to tears. I know Im not truly understanding the deeper meanings of it, but I need to.

Can't really think of much more to say. Bye I guess.

#diary entry #cw ed #cw sh

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starr-fall-knight-rise · 4 years ago

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HASO, “What You Missed.”

Hope you all are having a good day, and hope you enjoy!

The rumbling continued deep within the planet’s lower crust. Projections on the seismic map estimated the eventual collapse of the bran mining operation on the other side of the planet. Though they didn’t plan to go long enough for the tunnels to completely collapse, they planned to used the abandoned mining ground as the stage for their own setup.

Mining precious metals in the GA territories were highly regulated, and the products made and sold from those precious metals were also highly monitored, however, the GA could hardly monitor what they didn’t know about.

The biotin sniffed at the dusty air hating the way the dirt clung to her skin like a glove of fuzzy filth. The air here tasted sour and fake like most terraformed planets, and all she wanted to do was go back to her home world and relax where it didn’t smell so bad, but she knew she had to get this job done.

She glanced down at the paper she held, and idly walked her way over to where the staging operation had been set up, made out of several interlocking grey tents that were designed to look like the rocky surface of the planet if anyone was looking, as well as bloc their transmission signals so they couldn’t be spotted if anyone where to have an eye keen enough to spot them.

She stopped just inside the Tent to where the…. Human was sitting staring at the screens and tapping his long bony fingers together.

She hated this human, he was annoying and self centered, and likely thought he was enigmatic with the strange clothing he wore, and the mirrored glasses that covered his eyes, but she just found him wildly pretentious.

“How goes it, sir.”

He nodded, “The mining companies have left with the help of the Omen..” he sneered as the word passed through his lips, “The property is benign abandoned, and we should have a couple of months until they send someone to take a look and see what happened, at least until they send a force large enough for us to have to worry.”

She nodded but didn’t bother to agree or contradict him. It wouldn’t matter either way.

Besides, she didn’t care what happened as long as she got what she wanted.

The GA was too large and too involved in everything in the galaxy, The leaders of her planet were too lax with their tariffs and trade deals, and because of their poor economic management, the Iotin planet had fallen into relative anonymity and been ignored by the rest of the galaxy. She believed they could be doing so much more, but it's not like they could really compete with humans and Tesraki.

She was sick and tired of the GA thinking they could control everything.

And so was this human.

As much as she despised humans on principle, at least this human and her had similar goals.

She could work with the enemy for a little while longer while they hashed out a true plan.

The human turned to look at her through his mirrored shades. The man was an older human who she was sure dyed his hair to cover the grey, and she did her best to conceal her disgust as she moved forward and handed him the drawn schematic.

He glanced down at it.

“Where is the rest?”

“He said he would deliver the rest upon payment. This was just a show of good will.”

“A show of goodwill.” he snarled, but then slowly sat back in his seat, “Can he guarantee that it works.”

She bristled at his tone, but didn’t rise to challenge him, “He assures me it has already been tested on a human and achieved the desirable results.

“That's hardly comforting if I haven’t seen it.”

“Then take it up with him yourself. You should have worried about all this BEFORE agreeing to hijack an entire mining operation to build the damn things!”

He bristled right back at her but she didn’t care. She was coming to learn that not all humans were so like the ones the GA had met first hand. IN fact most humans weren’t loyal and honorable. Most of them were greedy, cowardly predators, who wanted nothing more than to push for their own personal gain while leaving others to rot in the dust.

This human was no different.

But soon it would all be over.

Very very soon.

She glanced down at the half schematic and the Kree seal stamped on the back.

***

“The seismic activity has escalated since evacuation. So far my scientists have been unable to pinpoint the source, as far as we knew, the planet wasn’t supposed to have plates, but something seems to be disturbing its stability. We were wondering if perhaps the extensive cave systems could do it, but, as far as we could tell the systems weren’t nearly large enough to disturb the lower crust of the planet.”

“And the evacuation?”

“The larger mining companies shipped off most of their employees on their waiting station ships, and I took some of what remained. We will be bringing most of them back to the Bran homeworld for recovery.”

“And you admiral, how do your people fare?”

“The rescue teams managed to make it out alive. I was almost crushed, but some quick thinking by Lord Celex’s son saved my life, but other than that no one was injured too badly, but I would take some scientists to keep an eye on the strange underground activity. We have never seen anything like it, and are worried that the planet might be destabilizing. It isn’t o dire considering that the planet was originally uninhabited, but I am told this mining station carries the highest percentage of Terbium to minerals in the galaxy, so it would be a loss.”

A few feet away, Ket lay curled on a ball on a pillow with a warm up of glowmoss in one hand. A few other miners sat around the room idly listening to the Admiral who was talking over communication to the GA council, a council that had grown a lot bigger since Ket had known of it five years ago.

In fact a lot of things had changed since the humans had arrived, and not for the worse as he had once suspected.

He munched on some of the moss and turned to watch the human as he paced across the floor. How strange it was to see the creature from his nightmares in such a…. non -nightmarish circumstance. He could still remember the chase all those years ago and felt the horror and concern that had almost driven him to madness down in the mining tunnels, but, there the human was talking like a civilised creature, apparently head of the GA’s coalition fleet, and some sort of bigshot ambassador.

Not to mention all the strange alien creatures that he had come across since stepping on the towering four-armed warriors and the fuzzy fluff balls of anger. The one that had come to rescue him was still sitting on the human’s shoulder, interjecting the occasional point to the council when the human missed something.

It was all so surreal.

For years he had been hiding in that tunnel, what he originally only saw as maybe half a year turned out to be around five years, and the galaxy had grown in scope and involvement. What had once been a coalition of uneasy allies held together by economics, the GA was now a thriving galactic metropolis based on mutual backing and delicate diplomatic involvement.

Or at least that’s what he had seen so far.

“Thank you.” The human said before shutting off the hologram and walking back across the room full of evacuees

His single green eye fell on Ket skin still dusted with the grime of rocks and dirt, and stepped over to kneel next to him and where he sat on his cushion. It had been a very long time since he had been aboard a spaceship and even longer since he had talked to anyone. He was still getting used to that.

And the human still managed to unnerve him.

“How are you feeling.” “Overwhelmed.”

The human’s rubbery, mobile face deformed a bit so one corner of its mouth stretched upwards for a moment, “I can hardly blame you for that. You’ve been away a long time.” The human paused, and Ket watched him curiously as he reached up to rub the back of his head, “Look I, know i've already apologized for what happened five years ago, but it was sort of a half assed apology considering that we were being crushed at the time.” He shifted his weight so he was now resting on his other knee, “I want to explain myself. Before I saw you, my entire planet thought that we were the only living things in the galaxy. No one believes in extraterrestrial life, and upon seeing you, I was just excited, and wanted to make sure it was all real.”

Ket waited.

“I know that doesn’t excuse years of psychological trauma, but I promise, when I was…. Chasing you, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was excited, and I should have been more diplomatic about it. I can see that now, but back then we didn’t really know anything about politicking with aliens. I am not trying to excuse my behavior, but I just want you to understand that I made a mistake and I am willing to apologize for it.”

It seemed so strange, and unusual coming from the mouth of a predator, but he found that he…. Believed it?

How odd.

“I understand…… I admit I am a bit surprised as to how things turned out.”

The human showed its teeth, which he was coming to realize was supposed to be a good thing, “Yes, a lot of things have changed in the last five years, come and I'll show you.” ket let the empty cup of moss fall to the side by his cushion and stood to walk at the feet of the human who was at least four feet taller than him since ket stood on six legs and the human stood on two, they might have been around the same height if the human had decided to walk on al fours, but at this point ket had to crane his neck up to look at the human.

“We began peace talks with the GA shortly after you were relocated to your new post. We signed the treaty in a little over a year and I offered to help in the Drev war, which I believe you might have heard of since it started before we showed up.”

Ket nodded his head.

“We won the Drev war for the GA and the Drev began peace talks after the war ended. I Was promoted to captain shortly after and given command of the ship under loan from the UNSC to the GA in order to support diplomatic relationships between our people. Since then the Gnarlak nation has fallen, and those remaining have been confined to a plot of land on their planet where they can no longer hurt the FInnari, a subjugated species which was farmed by the Gnarlak. Other notable discovered species have been the Tvek, Lumin, Mikes, Iotins, Celzex, dort of, Starborn Tricar, and hopefully I am not forgetting anyone. We have fought in two burg wars and won them both releasing the burg population from total supremacy under an unfeeling tyrant. Interspecies relationships are legal now, though the discrimination they face is still something we are working on. Planetary GDP has risen for petty much everyone and our job market is only getting better. The tourist industry is becoming a gib thing. My Tesraki market analysts say that humans, the Tesraki and and Rundi are currently galactic superpowers in regards to power and economic influence, but as far as we can tell this hasn’t caused to man problems between the other less influential groups. The Bran for instance.” he glanced down at ket, “are selling precious metals used in electronics at ten thousand percent higher output rate than you were a few years ago and selling at a fifty percent markup. As far as I know, no one is hurting.”

He tapped his fingers against his arm, “I think that is most everything important you need to know, oh I forgot the Kree war and discovering that, somewhere out in the universe, there is another sentient, and likely multi species galactic coalition, though we haven't had the pleasure of meeting or interacting with them just yet.” he frowned, “Well, I have, but I hardly consider it interacting because they kept me in a cage most of the time.”

Ket stared at the human, and the human shrugged, “that should catch you up to speed.”

It most certainly did not, but he supposed it was as good of an opening as he was going to get.

Honestly he had no idea what he was supposed to do or think. It was all so new to him, and all so strange. How was he going to actually catch up?

How was he going to integrate back into society after all this?

After months of being nearly incoherent?

He could still feel that part of him lurking somewhere in the background and knew that it was not gone.

He was going to have to figure out something eventually….

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billehrman · 6 years ago

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Investing in a VUCA World

We were clearly surprised by Trump’s tweet last Sunday informing us that he was raising tariffs to 25% from 10% on the initial $250 billion of Chinese imports as well as implement tariffs on the remaining $300+ billion. However, we had an action plan ready to go if trade talks broke down and it helped us last week. We have continued to outperform the market averages.

We have long commented that we live in a VUCA world. This a climate characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Therefore, you must always be prepared for the unexpected. Trump’s optimism that a trade deal was in reach shifted a week ago Friday after he heard from lead trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer that the Chinese had backpedaled on key portions of previously agreed to trade deal. Clearly, he was annoyed and who could blame him as he was made to look foolish having just announced that a deal was in sight.

Negotiations began again Thursday in DC but ended without a deal being reached, so the hike in tariffs went into effect Friday morning. In addition, the Chinese were given an ultimatum to reach a deal over the next month or else the tariffs on the additional $300+ billions of goods will go into effect, too. The Chinese responded with its price to conclude a trade deal yesterday. The simple truth is that we do not know what will happen, so we must plan for the worst and hope for the best.

We agree with Trump that we should all compete on a level playing field without tariffs, government subsidies, unfair regulations and currency manipulations. Protecting IP and having equal access is of paramount importance, too. The U.S. has run massive trade deficits for years with our major trading partners running huge trade surpluses. It is time to level the playing field while protecting our IP. Fortunately, we have a strong domestic economy more than just offsetting our trade deficit. The U.S. trade deficit is approximately $600 billion reducing our GNP by approximately 3% (exports are 10% of GNP reduced by massive imports). And, we have become an exporter of energy after years of huge importing from the Middle East.

Our trade deficit with China, alone, was over $420 billion in 2018: imports of $539 billion offset by export of $120 billion. There is an enormous imbalance that needs to be addressed. And that does not even deal with the greatest problem which is stolen IP over the years. Companies, if they wanted access to China, had to agree to share IP or else. And many companies, nonetheless, have not been granted access to China. Clearly the playing field has not been unfair.

While you may not agree with Trump’s tactics, it is a necessity for the U.S. to finally address unfair trade practices wherever they may exist including with our closest allies. Can you imagine the positive impact to our GNP if our trade deficit was reduced over time due to fair trade policies and a level playing field? And what is the downside dealing with trade imbalances/huge deficits now when our domestic economy is so strong? While prices may go up slightly near term due to the impact of tariffs, it is hard to imagine our trade deficit pressuring reported GNP. Will demand be hit by higher prices? Probably a little but most likely not as much as expected as the exporter as well as the importer absorb a slice of the tariffs while the supply chain is being moved. Herein lies a HUGE RISK to China. Already many companies have shifted production from China and that will grow exponentially over time without a trade deal. Just look at Under Armour as one example here. The company has lowered its production in China from 35% 6 months ago to less than 15% today and going down further fast. The key to our future success globally is for the U.S. to remain at the forefront of technological advancement which gives you some idea why our IP must be protected at all costs.

As you can imagine from our comments, we feel that China and our other key trading partners are at far more risk than the U.S. when/if trade conflicts escalate. What is our downside when we are already running huge trade deficits? Also, we really doubt whether there will be a surge in prices as global competition is more likely to escalate to maintain production and market share in home markets. The Chinese are keenly aware that production is moving offshore as supply chains are being shifted at an accelerating rate. China is also losing its cost advantage much like Japan did over 25 years ago. So, what will China do to hold onto market share? Cut prices in the face of tariffs sacrificing profits. China loses and prices don’t go up as many anticipate due to tariffs.

So why does Trump feel that this is the time to go to the mat on unfair trade policies? He sees domestic strength and foreign weakness. Is he right? Let’s look at the most recent data points:

The U.S. is in an enviable position compared to the rest of the world. Our economy just came off a surprisingly strong first quarter and it now appears that the second quarter is shaping up well to despite really bad weather in many parts of the country. We were particularly impressed that March wholesale sales rose 2.3 percent while actual inventories fell 0.1 percent therefore the inventory/sales ratio fell to 1.32 which should lead to higher production down the road as demand increases seasonally. We were equally pleased that both the CPI and PPI came in lower than projected and beneath the Fed projections testing the Fed’s view that low inflation is transitory. It was also reported that the trade deficit came in at $50 billion in March with the trade gap with China declining to a three year low of $28.3 billion. China still is nearly 60% of our trade deficit. Our trade deficit will be penalized for a while by the absence of Boeing Max 737 sales. Finally, job openings continued to grow and now stands at an amazing 7.49 million unfilled jobs. Opening increased in transportation, construction and real estate. While we still believe that our economy will chug along for the rest of the year into 2020, we remain concerned about the impact on consumer/business psychology if trade conflicts escalate. We must acknowledge that our Fed, unlike other monetary bodies, has ample room to lower rates need be to offset any domestic weakness or fear in the system. It is equally important to recognize how financially strong our banks are especially compared to overseas banks. And never forget that 2020 is an election year. Trump will do whatever he can to stimulate the economy and have a good stock market going into elections.

We clearly are more concerned about China’s growth prospects without a trade deal with the U.S.. There is little question that the Chinese government/monetary authorities have done as much as they could do to stimulate the economy in 2019: taxes have been lowered; domestic spending hiked; reserve requirements reduced and money has been flooded into the system. The government went so far as to buy stocks on Friday to boost their market to try and show the world that the new tariffs would not hurt. FALSE! While we won’t predict the magnitude of the impact of higher tariffs on China, it is clear that growth will be hit for a host of reasons as discussed earlier. And if the government lets the yuan fall to offset the impact of tariffs, it will eventually boomerang and hurt China’s financial system and economy. China is clearly between a rock and a hard place. While we can appreciate their desire to stand up to Trump, it is time to face reality by opening up its economy and ending huge subsidies while protecting everyone’s IP. By the way, China’s exports fell 2.7% in April while imports rose 3%. No matter what China says, its economy is at risk without a trade deal.

We remain pessimistic about the growth prospects of Europe without major fiscal, monetary, regulatory and trade reforms. And we see no way for any of that to occur with such differences between the members. The EU cut its economic forecasts for 2019 and 2020 to 1.2% and 1.5% respectively which we feel is still too optimistic. There really is not much more the ECB can do to stimulate growth in the Eurozone. That says it all!

Japan’s future prospects rest sorely on trade deals being reached with the U.S. and with the U.S. and China. What more can the BOJ do too at this point? It appears that first quarter GNP actually fell by 0.2% as firms postponed capital spending and consumer demand fell as well. We don’t believe that Japan reaching a deal with the U.S. is enough to really stimulate Japan’s economy.

So, what are we doing now?

We quickly adjusted our portfolios last week considering that the probability of a trade deal being reached near term had diminished substantially which would lower our outlook for accelerating global growth into 2020. Could it still occur? Of course, but we learned a long time ago that it was better to be risk averse in unsettled times so that we have the liquidity to take advantage of market weakness. We sold stocks Monday that would be penalized by an escalating trade conflict with China raising cash above 17% of our assets. In fact, we did some buying Friday morning as some stocks hit our buy points.

We agree with Lee Cooperman’s comments Friday on CNBC that the markets are fine longer term as the Fed is friendly, valuations are reasonable, and the chances of a recession are very low. We believe that the environment for risk assets is still favorable with an accommodative Fed; an expanding economy without inflationary pressures; a pro-business administration going into a national election next year; 10-year treasury yields hovering around 2.5%, bank liquidity and capital ratios at new highs; a strong dollar and rising earnings/cash flow. We do believe that long-term inflation will stay surprisingly low therefore the stock market multiple should be higher than 17 times earnings making the market still undervalued by 10% today. But we recognize that corrections can occur at any time especially in a VUCA environment.

We have adjusted our portfolios ever so slightly reducing our exposure to China while raising some cash. The overriding theme in our portfolios is owning companies with excellent managements; winning long-term business strategies in a globally competitive environment; rising volume, margins, earnings, cash flow/free cash flow and above market dividend yields.

Finally, we feel that each company sells well beneath its long-term intrinsic value.

Our holdings include pharmaceuticals with major new products; global industrial and capital goods companies; technology that enhances productivity and security; cable with content; housing related; U.S. based global financials selling beneath book; domestic steel; and many special situations. We remain flat the dollar and own no bonds as yields are just too low relative to even inflation at 1.5%.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; look at your asset mix with risk controls; do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman

Paix et Prospérité LLC

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easyfoodnetwork · 4 years ago

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Artisanal American Cheese Was Finally on Top of the World, and Then the World Fell Apart

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Talking to Joe Berkowitz, author of “American Cheese,” about the United States’ blossoming artisanal cheese scene, and the challenges it faces amid wildfires and a pandemics it faces amid wildfires and a pandemic

What do you envision when you think of American cheese? Probably not Wisconsin’s squeaky curds or an aged Vermont cheddar. Instead, you most likely see those melty, tangy, flat yellow squares, individually wrapped in plastic and paired with Wonder Bread or a fast-food cheese burger. I happen to love them in a grilled cheese, or stuffed in roti, or slowly melting over dollar ramen. However, the world of American cheese — or rather American-made cheese — is far more complex than than Kraft singles.

In his new book, American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World, Joe Berkowitz hopes to expand what we view as American cheese. Inspired by a tasting event at Murray’s Cheese in Manhattan, he dedicated himself to learning everything he could about American cheese production over the course of a year. What he found was a vibrant world of innovative and experimental techniques, unencumbered by the strict rules and traditions of European cheesemaking. And he’s not the only one making this exciting discovery: Last year, Rogue River Blue, made by Rogue Creamery in southern Oregon, became the first ever American-made cheese to win World’s Best Cheese at the World Cheese Awards in Italy.

Sadly, many employees of Rogue Creamery have lost their homes in the wildfires that have consumed much of the West Coast, and the creamery itself had to evacuate some of its cows to keep them safe. Artisan cheesemakers have faced an uphill battle against climate change, as well as outdated federal regulations and now the pandemic. Understanding what these makers are trying to protect is of the utmost urgency.

Berkowitz spoke to Eater about why cheese inspires such glee, and why the American farms, techniques, and producers are worth protecting. Hopefully, the next time you’re crafting a cheese plate, you won’t just look to Europe for the good stuff.

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Eater: You compare the American cheese scene to American wine in the ’70s, when Americans went to France and won a blind taste test. The whole world of American cheese seems so exciting and dynamic. What is it about cheese that attracts a certain type of fun, weird person?

Joe Berkowitz: I don’t know what it is about cheese that does it, but weird, interesting, dynamic people do tend to be attracted to it. I met people from all kinds of walks of life who walked away from those lives to just be full-time cheese people in one way or another. I met a literary agent who abandoned her whole life and then bought a farm in Vermont. There’s a cultural thing around it, like everyone sort of relates to that 30 Rock thing of “working on my night cheese.” It’s like a less annoying bacon, you know? I guess the reason the whole bacon thing is so annoying is because it was kind of grafted onto masculinity. Whereas cheese is just a genderless, quirky enthusiasm that runs through everybody, it seems, except for people who are lactose intolerant, and I have more thoughts about that, and some people just don’t like cheese and that’s fine. But —

“We were just mass producers of cheese rather than producers of any sort of quality.”

Wait, what are your thoughts on lactose intolerance?

Oh, well, a lot of people who think they’re lactose intolerant just aren’t, or they may have a condition but it doesn’t mean, as a blanket statement, I can’t eat cheese. What it means, for the most part, is you can’t eat fresh dairy products, probably not yogurt, definitely not a young mozzarella cheese. But when cheese ages, it sheds a lot of its lactose, and the harder aged cheeses — Parmesan, aged Gouda, things like that — people who identify as lactose intolerant should be fine eating them. This is all something I learned during the course of the book, when I asked a gastroenterologist whether I would be okay eating the amount of cheese I was going to be eating and we just ended up getting into that topic. Because everyone would make some joke about going to the bathroom when I told them what I was working on.

Your book makes the case for the vibrancy of the American artisanal cheese scene, and you have this bit at the end where you go to Europe and everybody is still a little derisive of American cheese. America has had a dairy industry for a really long time and we have all these really amazing, varied landscapes. Given the fact that we’ve had all these resources, why was cheese production sort of stagnant in America for so long?

“American artisanal cheese is indisputably — I think at least — as vibrant, and multifaceted, and delicious as any other in the world.”

What we mainly did is just make industrial cheese to export. We’ve been making cheese in America for a very long time. There was the creation of Monterey Jack, but then, with invention of the Kraft single, we just started making industrialized cheddar, and we would export it, and that was mainly all that we were known for. We were just mass producers of cheese rather than producers of any sort of quality. Over the decades, [European techniques] started coming to America, and cheesemakers didn’t have the regulations that they have overseas. That was a huge contributor to the vibrancy of the American cheese scene. And the amazing thing is that now American artisanal cheese is indisputably — I think, at least — as vibrant, and multifaceted, and delicious as any other in the world.

Maybe it’s changed a little bit since Rogue River Blue won best cheese in the world at the World Cheese Awards last year. But when I was interviewing people, especially people from overseas, I would ask questions like, “When did you realize that we actually did have cheese in America?” And a lot of people either have just discovered it or hadn’t discovered it. And at first I thought it was a snooty thing, but it’s not: It’s just that our cheese isn’t in shops all around the world. Some places carry it, but for the most part it’s still kind of like a weird secret. But hopefully that won’t be the case for much longer.

HarperCollins

American Cheese

Part of the issue being America’s raw milk regulations. What do you think it’ll take to not just change those regulations, but to get Americans to trust raw milk cheese?

I guess raw milk cheese is a lot like socialism, in that it works perfectly in so many other countries around the world, but for Americans it’s not enough to convince them. There would just need to be enough consensus and enough petitioning the FDA to take a closer look, because the studies under which we initially got these 60-day regulations (because of listeria outbreaks in America) — first of all, those studies were only done against cheddar and there are so many different kinds of cheese. But things are so, so different now, and it’s silly that we adhere to these rules pretty much arbitrarily because that was what was decided at the time.

Rogue River Blue winning the WCS award seemed like a huge deal for American cheese, but then COVID-19 hit. What is the pandemic doing to the American cheese scene?

That’s been really sad to watch, because this time last year everyone was really freaked out about the tariffs resulting from the war between Boeing and Aerobus, and what that would mean for their businesses. It ended up not being so bad. So for that to happen and, several months later, to have this pandemic come along and seriously mess up businesses has just been heartbreaking. A lot of cheesemakers rely on the restaurant business to buy from them directly. And that money’s gone, because nobody’s buying to-go cheese courses from a restaurant.

Cheese shops have also been affected a lot. For me personally, seeing Bedford Cheese Shop close [its Brooklyn location] was really sad. I didn’t know until I went into Bedford Cheese Shop that you could have the monger pick out some cheeses for you based on what you tell them, and they will serve it to you on a plate in a beautiful presentation with a bunch of fixings. And then [cheese producers] Jasper Hill had to sell off a herd of their cows. They’re just buying milk from local producers now, and they’re like the number-one independent cheesemaker in the country. So if they’re having to make sacrifices, then there’s got to be a lot of people who are not as established who are hurting too.

America’s cheesemakers also just got to this point of being recognized. The traditions aren’t as established as they are in Italy or France, where people might rally behind the industry as a whole. It seems like it’s in a very precarious spot.

I know that conditions have been tough for dairy farmers for a long time, and it’s gotten even worse in the last two years. I believe a double-digit percentage of Wisconsin’s dairy farms disappeared in the last year. There’s been billions in government money unilaterally allocated to “farmers,” but the line on that has been that money is kind of a bribe so that American farmers don’t get mad about the tariffs that have been going on. But the smaller farmers don’t necessarily benefit from that money.

In your book you have this whole section dealing with the fact that you’re a vegetarian, and coming to the realization that the dairy industry is so inherently tied to the meat industry, such that you can’t consider yourself free of it. Is there a world in which we could have cheese free from meat?

I really thought about going vegan. It’s something I’m interested in, but I just didn’t want to write a book about how awesome cheese is that ends in me becoming vegan.

Well, it would involve a lot of drastic changes. We would have to prioritize cow welfare in a way that I seriously think we’re incapable of right now. So it doesn’t seem feasible to me at this time. I wish it was. I wish that there was space and the will to take these single-serving-use male cows and keep them alive after they’ve impregnated female cows and served their purpose. But right now, as soon as that happens, they’re off to their next purpose, which is beef supply. And because of how much money that generates, I don’t know how there’s ever going to be no demand for beef.

It’s an unfortunate reality, and I was coming to terms with it when I was visiting these farms. I really thought about going vegan. It’s something I’m interested in, but I just didn’t want to write a book about how awesome cheese is that ends in me becoming vegan. So for that reason alone I never seriously considered it, but I felt pushed in that direction by my conscience while I was researching the book.

I know that there’s a saying that happy cows make the best milk, and from what I’ve seen, it’s actually true that the better you treat cows, the better the milk is. And there have been studies showing that when cows are frightened, and uncomfortable, and feel bad all the time, their cortisol shoots up and the milk tastes more bitter. So not only is it unethical, but it tastes bad. But I sort of assume after my experience writing the book that the better farms, and dairies, and creameries use milk from cows that were treated as best as they could be treated.

I know that there’s a saying that happy cows make the best milk, and from what I’ve seen, it’s actually true.

At this point in your diet, is there still room for Kraft Singles?

It’s weird: With grocery-store singles, I think there’s a hierarchy of mediocrity. The top level that you can get to is “This tastes pretty damned good on a cheeseburger” — or a veggie burger, in my case. I think there’s room for shredded mild to make your mac and cheese a bit more creamy, and there’s awesome artisanal cheeses that I want to buy just so that we can eat those off a plate and feel like we’re having a delicacy.

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/30zWNNP https://ift.tt/2GtmhFB

Shutterstock

This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

“We were just mass producers of cheese rather than producers of any sort of quality.”

Wait, what are your thoughts on lactose intolerance?

“American artisanal cheese is indisputably — I think at least — as vibrant, and multifaceted, and delicious as any other in the world.”

HarperCollins

American Cheese

Part of the issue being America’s raw milk regulations. What do you think it’ll take to not just change those regulations, but to get Americans to trust raw milk cheese?

Rogue River Blue winning the WCS award seemed like a huge deal for American cheese, but then COVID-19 hit. What is the pandemic doing to the American cheese scene?

I really thought about going vegan. It’s something I’m interested in, but I just didn’t want to write a book about how awesome cheese is that ends in me becoming vegan.

I know that there’s a saying that happy cows make the best milk, and from what I’ve seen, it’s actually true.

At this point in your diet, is there still room for Kraft Singles?

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/30zWNNP via Blogger https://ift.tt/3d1ekU5

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

0 notes

savetopnow · 7 years ago

Text

2018-03-28 12 BIT COIN now

BIT COIN

@AmberBaldet

Reminder: It’s not good enough to be right; you need to be right at the right time.

i just published "drowning in tokens: a pragmatists take on perceived scarcity and artificial demand" https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/drowning-in-tokens-184ccfa1641a …

LGBTQ devs & players speak up about the need for authentic queer culture in games - Gamasutra http://dlvr.it/QMBHjm pic.twitter.com/m0NhAhZxa8

But it is important to understand & respect that we all go through cycles of benefiting from others’ advocacy, paying it forward, and burning out or just getting “selfishly engrossed” in our own work. It’s ok!

It’s not an either/or: supporting and advocating for inclusivity is just a third shift of extra effort that falls disproportionately on the shoulders of those already doing real technical work and also fighting for their own legitimacy https://twitter.com/iam_preethi/status/976466780737568768 …

@AriDavidPaul

This is a great summary of Truebit, a potential off-chain scaling solution. Presented as general background reading, not investment commentary. https://medium.com/truebit/truebit-the-marketplace-for-verifiable-computation-f51d1726798f …

A bad side effect to being deemed an “expert” is that people correct me less frequently. I was walking around saying “directed acrylic graph” instead of *acyclic* for a month last year. A big reason I’m on twitter as much as I am. Y’all are less hesitant to call me stupid.

1/Let's have a little talk about GISH GALLOPERS. Gish Galloping is a debating technique that you will almost certainly argue at some point on Twitter or elsewhere. And it's really annoying. So you need to be prepared. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop …

5/ Why might BTC without fungibility still be a dominant cryptocurrency? Because many investors will like that it provides resistance against central bank fiat depreciation, and some degree of censorship and judgement resistance while still being legal.

4/ Are we likely to see both fungible and non-fungible coins co-existing on the same network? Is this a stable equilibrium optimizing for both capital inflows from institutional investors and the demands of the privacy conscious? I'm skeptical, but too many unknowns.

@ErikVoorhees

If someone proposes that "blockchain can solve X"... ask them "Which blockchain?" If they are confused by that question, they may not know what they're talking about.

Fantastic episode today with @zooko Wilcox of @zcashco! We discuss whether people care about privacy, why so few people choose the shielded addresses on Zcash and the moral implications of creating a tool that could aid criminals. Check it out! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/zcashs-zooko-wilcox-on-why-he-believes-privacy-coins/id1123922160?i=1000407572319&mt=2 …

When (not if) interest rates rise by 3%, putting them back in the range of normal, the US Federal Government will incur $600 billion in additional interest costs per year on its debt... roughly the size of the entire military budget.

too good https://twitter.com/Annrhefn/status/977966087458447361 …

Trump's advocacy of tariffs betrays not only economic ignorance, but moral desolation, for they impoverish private citizens on both sides of a border. Tariffs of all kinds, everywhere, should be extinguished on both moral, and economic, grounds.

@Excellion

Our UI designer @SeleneJin is really into #Lightning and #LApps!pic.twitter.com/Jsyn5oykse

It's just a happy coincidence that one of the goals in @infinitefleet will be to destroy these Pylons which resemble the #Ethereum logo. https://twitter.com/infinitefleet/status/978614751235223552 …

So many ways to use #ifpaytt with @IFTTT! #LightningNetwork https://twitter.com/shesek/status/978723036739375105 …

BlockStream Introduces Lightning Applications With The Week of LApps https://ift.tt/2GcrP65

Lightning Publisher ーLNをつかった有料記事がつくれるWord Press プラグイン。これだ！ https://github.com/ElementsProject/wordpress-lightning-publisher …

@KevinRose

Reminder: Mister Rogers stamps are now available at USPS, just ordered mine: https://store.usps.com/store/results?_dyncharset=UTF-8&Dy=1&Nty=1&siteScope=ok&_D%3AsiteScope=+&Ntt=mister+rogers&search=&_D%3Asearch=+&_DARGS=%2Fstore%2Fcartridges%2FSearchBox%2FSearchBox.jsp …

can't wait to read this!! https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/976850741985009664 …

So many cool topics in this episode...more reasons to use the sauna. https://twitter.com/foundmyfitness/status/975769511788929024 …

Happy Wednesday, much love to you all.

My first job was also $4.25/hr making bread sticks at Olive Garden. Then I got a job as a cashier at Computer City https://twitter.com/btaylor/status/970010441702260736 …

@Melt_Dem

absolutely OBSESSED with the new @onchainfx features - GitHub stats + night mode! just a few more data points and this is my dream dashboard... om nom nom feed me data!pic.twitter.com/eB8ouDtXua

we haven't caught up with the potato fund $SPUD in a while... down over 50% but surprisingly overall "fund" only performed slightly worse than $ETH over same time. only one asset, cindicator, matched $BTC performance. will start a distressed asset portfolio soon! stay tuned...pic.twitter.com/iA88qtxZQm

These relatively quiet periods are the best, in my opinion. Haters are happy because they think Bitcoin is dead / dying. Builders are happy because there are fewer distractions. Traders are bored to tears. Trolls are grasping at straws trying to retain attention.

fascinating. networking infrastructure isn’t necessarily sexy, but everyone has to buy a box to access the internet. what will people use to connect to blockchain networks? https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/26/17166272/foxconn-buys-belkin-fit-linksys-wemo …

and this is what we’re doing today in cryptoland: “In an interview with Business Insider, Lil Windex, the mysterious Canadian cleaning-product themed rapper, explained his commitment to bitcoin cash over bitcoin” (cc @CrosbyVentures) http://www.businessinsider.com/lil-windex-interview-bitcoin-core-cash-2018-3 …

@Naval

My favorite business quote is when someone asked the CEO of Charles Shaw how he could sell wine for less than the price of bottled water. "They're overcharging for the water. Don't you get it?" he responded.

From the afterword to “The Three Body Problem” by Cixin Liu.pic.twitter.com/H1Yh0oRPZE

In Conversation with @naval & @rrhoover: Communities, Investing & Technology https://medium.com/@UtsavSomani/in-conversation-with-naval-ryan-communities-investing-technology-d4ce96c8cbbb …

Wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook airdrops a coin. A wide distribution “faircoin” that literally buys good will, turns users into believers, and sets up for commerce.

This is why we need blockchain-based social media. Open source, decentralized, censorship-free and permissionlessly programmable. https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976569442728525824 …

@NeerajKA

How many of these monstrosities are there now??pic.twitter.com/ySOlDlzJfd

crypto makes you hyper aware of risk but it also makes it normal to sling around millions dollars on a website some random person made

The ultra rare Muzzy formation. What could it mean? https://twitter.com/LucasProto/status/978732491094876161 …

“Frank Becomes A Bitcoin Maximalist”pic.twitter.com/7Ml2OMphbM

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2018 Coin Center Annual Dinner. Find out how you can get tickets or sponsor a table here: https://coincenter.org/dinner pic.twitter.com/b7GRIDhb2J

@NickSzabo4

Micropayments: http://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/micropayments-and-mental-transaction-costs.pdf …

Nanobarter: https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2007/06/nanobarter.html …

Understanding mental transaction costs and preference revelation is crucial to evaluating payment, pricing, and smart contract schemes. Worry minimization: https://unenumerated.blogspot.ca/2015/10/minimizing-consumer-worry.html …

"A dental practice in Pennsylvania has a novel method for guaranteeing return business: Threaten to turn parents in for neglect if they stop bringing in their kids." https://reason.com/blog/2018/03/27/dentist-threatens-to-report-parents-for …

Discoveries of fossils with feathers established that at least some dinosaurs were feathered and that some of those survived the great extinctions and evolved into the birds we see today. http://bbc.in/2p7hY6e

@SatoshiLite

Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. I am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future. https://twitter.com/LTCFoundation/status/978256533434847232 …

Forbes: #bitcoin, #ethereum, and #litecoin are the most popular cryptocurrency investments among millennials. https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/03/25/bitcoin-ethereum-and-litecoin-are-the-most-popular-cryptocurrency-investments-among-millennials/#5529b2c176dd …

Coinbase made it into Silicon Valley’s intro!pic.twitter.com/HRGJHxlSiR

pic.twitter.com/770PrXdNZC

LoafWallet's 2.0.5 update will be released in the next few days. Important: make sure to backup your paper-key (12 words) to a secure location. You can find your paper-key at: LoafWallet > Menu > Security Centre > Paper Key. Loosing your key will lead to a loss of coins.

@TuurDemeester

Bitmain may be calling bluff on ETH transition to proof-of-stake. https://twitter.com/CryptominedCom/status/978676674089836546 …

Bitcoin On Chain Transaction Volume (USD) Jan 2017 - Current Jan 2018 - Currentpic.twitter.com/9xhjqZ4vlV

Some photos of a similar armada chest: https://colonialarts.com/products/iron-bound-armada-chest …

See for example this documentation from @TREZOR: https://doc.satoshilabs.com/trezor-user/securitybestpractices.html#using-passphrase-encrypted-seeds …

This 17th century armada chest has a feature similar to hardware wallets: while the fake keyhole is easily visible (seed recovered wallet empty), the real one is hidden in the lid on top (actual seed is passphrase encrypted). https://i.imgur.com/He1GXIj.gifv

@VitalikButerin

Excited to be part of this initiative! https://twitter.com/Give_Directly/status/978796862936375296 …

I don't get all the self-styled pundits first doing ICOs then bashing them. Most ICOs are crap, but the ICO mechanism is useful for bootstrapping new projects, raising funding, and generally deploying new tech. Why can't we have a reasonable non-extreme opinion? https://twitter.com/brucefenton/status/978618681629577216 …

I think it's some social media platform that people use to make scam accounts impersonating crypto personalities to pump crappy ICOs. At least https://www.facebook.com/VitalikButerln and https://www.facebook.com/public/Vitalik-Buterin … are. Can someone go report them already? I would but it requires an FB account.....https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/977209817012977665 …

"On Islands, Avenues and the Next Frontier" this is our first @Medium post. Find out where we come from and where we are heading! https://medium.com/ecf-review/on-islands-avenues-and-the-next-frontier-319c2da43441 … @omise_go @cosmos @golemproject @raiden_network @MakerDAO @web3foundation @VitalikButerin @mi_ayako @JUN_Omise @julianzawist

I think we should genetically engineer our children so that their brains have hash and elliptic curve operation precompiles.

@WhalePanda

Oh boy "Student suspended for drawing stick figure with gun" http://www.wafb.com/story/37814598/student-suspended-for-drawing-stick-figure-holding-gun …

That moment when one of your personalities tries to warn your other personality through Twitter.pic.twitter.com/3PKVlvMWzD

Lightning Network node count has exceeded Bcash node count. In addition 70%+ of the BCash nodes are hosted on a "Hangzhou Alibaba" servers which you can check here: https://bitnodes.earn.com/nodes/?page=6&q=Bitcoin%20ABC:0.16.1 … https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/87gvbd/psa_lightning_network_node_count_has_exceeded/ …pic.twitter.com/g1tmAMkXPz

1/ Check out Roger Ver's brilliant lecture on how a government would launch an attack on Bitcoin, presented at the Satoshi's Vision Conference. All his slides are in this thread:pic.twitter.com/6udmIC6CQ7

I loved how @AriDavidPaul called out @justinsuntron. We need more of this. Also for future reference: if someone calls their own coin "the new #Bitcoin", it's always a scam.

@aantonop

Friends. My new book: Cryptoasset Inheritance Planning: a simple guide for owners is now available for presale on Amazon. I can hardly believe I'm finally tweeting this!!! https://www.amazon.com/Cryptoasset-Inheritance-Planning-Simple-Owners/dp/1947910116/ … #bitcoin #ethereum #cryptoassets #inheritance

Bitcoin Q&A: Inflation and debt systems https://youtu.be/6CwxHiKf27A

Thread https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/978658249921781761 …

Get a 25% discount for We Are Developers with code: ANTONOPOULOS-25 https://twitter.com/WeAreDevs/status/978571501183164416 …

This is a specific example of a new threat case: our computers have senses more acute than ours, extending into vibration, infrared, and ultrasonics, and invisible/inaudible signals can now be used as attack channels humans can't perceive directly. https://twitter.com/doctorow/status/978340048662708224 …

@brian_armstrong

Our app doesn't follow this pattern yet but soon. More important for apps used in low connectivity countries.

3/ When it works, best of both worlds. App still solves some % of uses cases instantly by showing users as much history/context as as possible without data. But still proactively tries to update it for them and doesn't hide the fact it's a bit stale.

2/ Show a visual indicator (e.g. spinner) to suggest that you're attempting the refresh the data in the background, and it is stale.

Designing apps for low connectivity environments (we could do better here) 1/ Show the *previously* best known data on each screen, even if it is not up to date, immediately upon opening that screen. Don't make the user wait. This requires no data connection.pic.twitter.com/nfinYrW9cB

We’re excited to announce our intention to support the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard for Coinbase in the coming months. We are not announcing support for any specific assets today. https://blog.coinbase.com/adding-erc20-support-to-coinbase-fe9cba6782b …pic.twitter.com/S1tPXJcTGH

@gavinandresen

We’ve created https://doublespend.cash�� -- a tool demonstrating Bitcoin XT’s ability to monitor double spends on the Bitcoin Cash network

After a devastating earthquake in 2010, the world collectively pledged about $13B to aid to Haiti. That's enough to give every Haitian a 50% pay increase for 3 years (on average) and far less than we'd need to fund a #crypto #UBI there. https://jamespflynn.com/2018/03/21/the-cryptoeconomics-of-funding-a-universal-basic-income/ …

Damned if you do, damned if you don't? http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2018/03/precautionary-principle-problems.html?spref=tw …

What’s new with BlockSci, Princeton’s blockchain analysis tool: https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/03/15/whats-new-with-blocksci-princetons-blockchain-analysis-tool/ …https://twitter.com/random_walker/status/948408704596168704 …

1/ NEO thread. I never paid any attention to this project because "it's a Chinese Ethereum!" just sounded so stupid for reasons I didn't even know where to begin to explain. If you, like me, ignored NEO for this reason, here's a quick recap of how hilariously bad this project is:

@lopp

When you spend most of your time working in an adversarial environment, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of folks are good / moral. Human civilization as we know it would collapse if this were not the case.

After having spent countless hours of my life debating the merits of gun control with authoritarians, I only have two words left: ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/opinion/john-paul-stevens-repeal-second-amendment.html …

Today is the 5th day of our #WeekofLApps and @Blockstream is excited to announce a simple point-of-sale solution called #nanopos. Vendors can sell physical items in-person and accept #Lightning payments instantly via a simple graphical display. https://www.blockstream.com/2018/03/26/streamlined-nanopos-lapp-offers-point-of-sale-simplicity.html … $BTCpic.twitter.com/hfXJGb1CrA

@prestonjbyrne

Too bad it isn’t the law https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/978626335617798145 …

SCOTUS laid out a gun that is "in common use" standard, and a "dangerous and unusual" standard. The AR-15 is in common use and it's not unusual. It's protected by Heller's plain language. The lower courts have tied themselves into knots pretending otherwise.

This will be interesting to track.pic.twitter.com/ZO6gywyHZz

Avant Founders Raise $15 Million for Blockchain Firm, Token Sale https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-27/avant-founders-raise-15-million-for-blockchain-firm-token-sale …

Russia baned guns December 12, 1924. The Great Purge and Yezhovshchina followed. Estimates of between 20 and 25 million people were killed by the Stalin regime.

@rogerkver

Too many people don’t understand that: GUN CONTROL IS GUN VIOLENCEpic.twitter.com/rIrEKkSCHr

Software developers far too often underestimate the importance of business developers.

[email protected] , the man who had the vision to go all in on bitcoin in 2011 is one of Bitcoin Cash’s biggest supporters today. #MeToo https://falkvinge.net/2011/05/29/why-im-putting-all-my-savings-into-bitcoin/ …

Thanks to @MoneyToken Bitcoin Cash holders can leverage their BCH holdings into spending cash, while continuing to hold their BCH positions. That's why I'm now an advisor for http://moneytoken.com

The 1MB limit was intended to stop spam. The 1MB limit ended up stoping actual transactions.pic.twitter.com/TP1D7Ykr4G

@starkness

Tonight: @lightning Labs CTO @roasbeef to speak @SFBitcoinDevs about lnd 0.4, the beta release for the live bitcoin network! https://www.meetup.com/SF-Bitcoin-Devs/events/248815578/ …

Meet @starkness. The Lightning Queen. She'll stitch a global payment network on a shoestring budget. One of few people who can follow a rosabeef conversation in realtime. 15/10pic.twitter.com/Yvt8qRPbgN

The Times 21/Mar/2018 Bitcoin will the become world's single currency, tech chief says. https://twitter.com/Beautyon_/status/976511842926432256 …

Yes

Well, I am 15. I don't believe you need lots of experience to find security vulnerabilities.

@twobitidiot

Fantastic post. And one that mirrors my own thinking on how to construct a TCR, identify the optimal decentralized governors of a dapp, and value governance rights over valuable information resources. https://twitter.com/0xProject/status/978670519368089600 …

Monero is better off if the community and leaders are able to stomach actual criticism from people who care about the project

the decision to switch PoW was made unilaterally. monero leadership is empirically extremely concentrated

Monero can accomplish at most one PoW switch

This is pretty great crypto snark if you aren’t uptight about it. https://twitter.com/dandarkpill/status/978391416102584320 …

Bitcoin Magazine

Twitter Abruptly Bans Cryptocurrency Ads — Beginning Today

Students Use Loans to Fund Cryptocurrency Investment: Study

Coinbase to Support ERC20 Technical Standards “In the Coming Months”

Op Ed: Why Korea Could Be the First Cryptocurrency-Powered Nation

Op Ed: A Quick-Start Token Sale Compliance Guide: What You Need to Know

Bitcoin Price

Cryptocurrency market declines slightly; Monero devs say no to ASIC mining – March 26

Bitcoin continues to trade sideways. Traffic at crypto exchanges declines – March 23

Bulls start to exhaust as Bitcoin price falls back down to $8,500 range – March 22

As Bitcoin surges past $9000, Ethereum fails to make its own recovery beyond $600 – March 21

Bitcoin price stagnates at $8500, Ethereum continues struggles after weekend dip – March 20

Bitcoin Reddit

Hal Finney, while paralyzed by ALS, wrote code for a bitcoin wallet using only his eyes

Regulators & bankers in a few years: "the Lightning Network is not interesting, although the Hashed Time-Lock Contract technology has a great potential"

A Look At Blockstream's Lightning Charge Applications

Day 6 LApp: Ifpaytt Brings Lightning Micropayments to IFTTT

A BIG Bitcoin Billboard in Downtown Toronto looks great!

Bitcoin.com

Bank of Korea Poll: 40% of Young Adults Enthusiastic About Cryptocurrency

Russian, Chinese, Korean Associations to Sue Internet Giants Over Banned Crypto Ads

Twitter Confirms Restrictions on ICOs and Cryptocurrency Token Sale Ads

Germany’s Tourism Board Accepts Bitcoin Payments

PR: Ubank Launches Blockchain – Based Platform to Enable Mass Consumer Investment in Cryptocurrency

Brave New Coin

Ripple Price Analysis - Continued banking adoption

Belarus' new crypto accountancy laws kick in

Cryptocurrency complaints to Consumer Protection Agencies way up

Investment Watch: A guide to emerging cryptocurrency technologies

Crypto exchange moves to the home of online gambling

CCN

Central Banks: Blockchain Will Overhaul Securities Settlements

Poll: Two-Fifths of South Korean Millennials Keen to Invest in Bitcoin

China’s Ant Financial Touts Blockchain, Nixes ICO Chatter

Reddit Disables Bitcoin Payments Amid Coinbase Commerce Overhaul, But Are They Gone Forever?

Bitcoin Bull Mark Yusko Raising Capital for $500 Million Cryptoasset Hedge Fund

Coin Journal

Blockstream Introduces Lightning Applications With The Week of LApps

Bitify Now Looks Like a Darkweb Marketplace

Cboe Letter to SEC Argues Industry Can Support Cryptocurrency ETFs

NEM-based Blockchain Platform ProximaX Taps Decentralized Applications Market

Circle Hires Naeem Ishaq as Chief Financial Officer

Coin Telegraph

President Of The Atlanta Federal Reserve Declares ‘Crypto Is Not Currency’

Ford Proposes New System Of Marshalling Traffic Through Car-To-Car Crypto Communications

EU Markets Watchdog Increases Requirements For Crypto Financial Derivatives

Chilean Exchanges Seek Clear Regulations On Crypto After Banks Denied Them Services

Crypto Exchange Bitfinex Won’t Support Venezuela’s Petro, Following US Gov’t Ban

CoinSpectator Blog

You can now pay with crypto in over 6,000 South Korean Shops

Gibraltar leads on ICO regulation

How Blockchain can Solve Problems for Online Gambling Sites?

Blockchain-based Container Shipping Platform 300cubits to start the TEU ICO on 12th April 2018

TON Pool ICO Platform: universal new generation crypto currency platform

Coindesk

Bank of England to Test DLT Use in New Settlement System

AMD Bolsters Crypto Mining in Latest GPU Software Update

Massachusetts Halts 5 ICOs for Selling Unregistered Securities

Reddit Drops Bitcoin Payment Option For 'Gold' Membership

Ford Patent Envisions Car-to-Car Crypto Transactions

Crypto Currency Reddit

The Future Of ICO Fundraising: The Open Platform Case Study

New Episode of Scammer Running Away After ICO: Steven Seagal And Bitcoiin’s (Bitcoiin2Gen) Founders Leave The Project After The Completion of ICO

Genesis Vision Alpha Release (April 1) Report

Cboe encourages SEC to allow Bitcoin ETFs. This is the most bullish news I've seen since futures last year.

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Genesis Vision Alpha Release (April 1) Report

Cboe encourages SEC to allow Bitcoin ETFs. This is the most bullish news I've seen since futures last year.

Vitalik Buterin meets the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs

#bit coin

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on-the-wings-of-hope-prose-en · 5 years ago

Text

Offer

That night Oleg had a nightmare. Frightening in its unambiguous resemblance to his own personal realities, and therefore even more unpleasant. Don’t take us wrong – he didn’t dream of snakes crawling out of the skull of a horse in a black coat, and in his modesty of soul he did not even consider himself prophetic like his famous ancestor. He dreamed that night of broad lines of proudly marching men with horns and hooves, in all the languages of the underworld demanding him to accept their extremely tempting offer and to sell his own soul. Different prices were proposed: one of them was prepared to pay with “the wonderful crockpot that can turn any housewife into a queen of the kitchen”, the second offered him “the most powerful wet vacuum cleaner with a dozen of the latest universal tips”, the third was advertising “the new model of iPhone XR with advanced artificial intelligence system, capable to predict the actions of its owner”, and someone was even ready to part with “EPC-W Darling 2000”, that could be translated into a common human language as “Electron-positron cyber wife, model “Darling”, year of manufacturing 2000”.

All their extreme obsession and absurd tactlessness angered Oleg’s soul so greatly that at the end of this unearthly marketing hell-knows-what, he wanted to shout to all of them, who had surrounded him in a circle and were still mercilessly pointing their raking hands with otherworldly trojan “gifts” in his direction, “Go to hell, demons!” But then, with the help of some innate instinct, he finally realized that swearing at those to whom the devils themselves do not even hold a candle is the height of meaninglessness, much higher than all the modern achievements of earthly advertising combined.

And so he stood, shaking and refusing, while those who were doing their dirty work vied with each other about the delights of their proposed goods. But, fortunately, much in this as well as the other life has the trait of being limited in time, so this nightmare of not so prophetic Oleg ended. Continuing to grumble softly under his nose and rubbing his eyes with own fists, still dumbfoundedly staring in the direction of the alarm clock, which was showing ten o’clock in the morning, Oleg with a long-ago learned habit and immutable inevitability of yet another advertising call and staggering gait went to the bathroom in order to clean up a little after this lowly and violent night.

He was distracted from another sacred session of morning shaving by the phone that was bobbing from the vibrations on the chair. Oleg didn’t share the morning joy of his gadget at this moment – and, damn it, was he right.

“Good morning!” without unnecessary shyness joyfully shouted in Oleg’s ears the unknown voice of an even less well-known young man, had Oleg only to take the case of management of the ringing phone in his strong male hands. “I would like to talk to Oleg Alexandrov. Is that you?” – the voice on the phone confirmed the complete seriousness of his own intentions.

“Let’s say that you are lucky today, and it’s really me. What are we going to do with this fact?” still sleepy Oleg muttered into the phone, trying to hold the razor with his other free hand.

“Your Internet provider “Network achievements LLC” has prepared a unique new year’s offer specially for you! Only until the end of December this year you can switch to our new year’s tariff “freakynet” for just a thousand rubles and increase the speed of your internet connection by twenty megabits during January and February next year. Starting from March next year the cost of this service will be only two hundred rubles per month. We are also happy to offer you a service to insure your TV and Wi-Fi router from being harmed by lightning. The cost of this service is only three hundred rubles per month. This unique offer is valid only until the end of December. Well, do you agree to take advantage of our new terms of service, Oleg Alexandrovich? To confirm your consent and switch to the new tariff, please say “I confirm”, to refuse, say “no way”.

“No, hey!” Oleg muttered into the phone as soon as the smallest pause occurred in the monologue of chattering in his phone human-robot, allowing Oleg to intercept the verbal initiative.

“Excuse me? What were you saying?” came the voice at the other end of the line. “Do you confirm your consent?”

“Never! Never-ever did I give my consent to be disturbed by your early morning intrusive calls!”

“Too bad!” answered the nameless disappointed voice on the phone, clearly deeply annoyed by the fact that he didn’t manage to earn for himself another new year’s increase in his salary bonus. “Nevertheless, maybe I interest you in our offer to insure your Wi-Fi router?”

“Do you insure it from a falling meteorite?»

“Unfortunately, at the moment our company doesn’t provide such services. But we will definitely pass your offer to our sales department. I wish you all the best and to see you again!” Oleg was convincingly assured of the inevitability of their next meeting and then a young voice immediately hung up the phone without waiting for new original proposals for their marketing department.

Being no longer interrupted by morning advertising calls – “not a single break of silence!” – Oleg successfully finished the procedure of morning shaving and went to the kitchen to brew himself some coffee in order to awaken his still sleepy brain and cheer up his still timid spirit. He was definitely late for work, and today’s plan would almost certainly not be fulfilled, which meant that he would not see the weekly salary bonus as his own ears.

“Fuck this award, anyway,” Oleg reflected, continuing to brew coffee grains in a pot. “From such work, all sorts of demons are haunting me in my own dreams. Man, it’s time for you to find a proper job for yourself!” Oleg decided this morning for the umpteenth time. What a pity that the harsh everyday life in the capitalist economy within a single capital so often decided otherwise!

How irritating was this merciless obsession of advertisers and salesmen, from which he could find salvation only in the evenings, sitting at the computer in headphones and listening to heavy rock while rocking steadily in his chair in time with his own no less heavy than rock thoughts. And for what goddamn reason did he get such a fate, anyway?

Just yesterday, for instance, a “Shirby” vacuum cleaner salesman had arrived unexpectedly and unsightly. This “unique in its characteristics” vacuum cleaner produced a set of noises similar to that of a jet plane, screeching in all the voices of hell and trying, apparently, to dissuade Oleg from its possible acquisition, and during the demonstration two of its tips were completely broken. On sarcastically crossed arms over his chest and Oleg’s ironic look, the seller Rashanom didn’t even react, hardly puffing and switching something in his miraculous unit in the hope of still make it working again. At some point in time, these hopes were even justified – though not for long. Within ten minutes after being turned on again, the infernal engine of the infernal vacuum cleaner had stalled and ceased to give the slightest indication of what might have been considered as his personal technical life. Along with the engine, the chattering salesman fell silent, having silently realized as clearly as possible that against the background of utter silence his cheerful voice sounded somehow not so confident.

“That’s not Shirby, but a Shirley-Mirley of sorts!” Oleg laughed. “And it costs just – how much did you say? – a hundred thousand rubles?”

“We are ready to give you a discount for this unique unit equal to…” tried to save his sinking position Rashan. But the act of saving drowning people, as they say…

“The door is over there,” Oleg hinted softly. “We thank you for demonstrating the capabilities of your product. At the present moment, our company in the person of me is not ready to buy it, unfortunately.”

“Perhaps, you can share phones of your acquaintances or colleagues?” the seller of miraculous vacuum cleaners tried to grab the last straw of hope.

“I don’t have any spare friends to share! I’m a lonely maniac!” Oleg barked and moved on to the seller of jet vacuum cleaners with such conviction that he quickly hurried to retire for the previously indicated door, hastily packing his miracle-unit without any further unnecessary questions.

“That’s our type of fate, apparently,” reflected Oleg, continuing to devour rich coffee together with a couple of homemade sandwiches.

“Ding!” Oleg was distracted by the ringing of the doorbell, clearly signaling that his uneasy fate once again brought someone to his own doorstep.

“Pray tell us, do you believe in God?” synchronously, slyly, sweetly and without superfluous representations, two newly appeared old women sang to Oleg’s ears when he slightly opened an entrance door. “Jesus Christ, who passed through the death for our sins,” one of them decided to clarify just in case.

“Perhaps. It really depends on the mood,” Oleg tried to laugh it off.

“Would you like to know more about our Savior and his way?” just in case asked one of the old women, flipping through the pages of carried book in her obvious intention to strike Oleg on the spot with her own ability to read printed texts aloud.

“Does your God happen to be black? For I am, you know, a real type of racist,” Oleg decided to go on the offensive. “And I had a B mark in school in foreign languages. So I really hope that he speaks Russian!”

“How dare you!” protested one of God’s witnesses. “Of course, he understands all our languages. But our most important language is the language of the soul! Just listen to what he tells to his children…” started speaking the second old woman with a book, flipping with confident movements over several pages of the book at once.

“That you must believe his words and not those of some impostors? I knew that long before you came along.”

“Our God is merciful, he is ready to forgive your sins for a small fraction…”

“I haven’t rewritten my apartment to him for a long time? By the way, I would not advise you doing that either – Russia, as they say, was spoiled by the housing issue. We have no money, but we’re holding on. C'est la vie, arrivederci, hasta la vista – how do they say? We sincerely ask you to come next time with a real, genuine Christ. Until we meet again!” giving sectarians no time to recover, Oleg slammed an entrance door leading to their missed opportunities.

Having finally lost all hope to fulfill his current work plan in time, Oleg hastily threw the half-eaten sandwich in his travel bag, poured the rest of the coffee in a thermos, threw a winter jacket over his shoulders and in a hurried stance started moving in the direction of his own new year’s fate.

No sooner had he reached the bus stop than the phone happily informed him of a new – absolutely free of charge! – incoming call.

“Fearfallashfinance Bank is glad to offer you, our past regular client, new conditions and types of credit cards. The credit card’s issue has already been pre-approved for you by our bank. In order to receive it, if you agree to the updated terms of the credit agreement, you must…”

“Turn away in disgust!” Oleg somehow miraculously managed to interrupt the monologue of the bank employee that was uttered in a patter a second before pressing the coveted red button of his phone.

“No amount of red buttons will be enough for your kind,” he thought with annoyance, jumping into the opened door of the newly arrived bus.

Billboards glittering with all the colors of the rainbow. Young people peremptorily pushing colorful flyers into your hands. Huge screens on the walls of houses and shopping centers, day after day demonstrating their pre-recorded, pre-approved and pre-biased videos. Appearing here and there as if straight from the ground along the way advertising boxes. Morning Moscow was greeting Oleg from all sides with the mouths of its marketers, leaving no chance to remain uninvolved in this colorful nonsense.

On the move, dropping a call from yet another “Center for public opinion research”, persistently interested in the political views of his respondent and his attitude to sexual minorities, panting Oleg ran into the office of his permanent, but no more joyful workplace, maneuvering on the move between scurrying here and there like ants colleagues, more resembling cellmates for Oleg.

“The boss didn’t show himself?” he managed to ask a question to his colleague Lyudmila just a second before seeing his boss, who was confidently and imperiously heading straight to him with an expression that didn’t portend a single award.

“Oh my, isn’t that the appearance of Christ himself – sorry, just some pitiful Oleg! – to mankind!” the boss said sarcastically through his teeth. “That’s it, Oleg. If you want to keep at least a quarter of the new year’s bonus, quickly pick up the goods and sweep through the addresses. Lyudmila has already entered the current list into your database. And return only empty-handed!” the boss uttered his well-known in local circles joke, bared a pair of golden teeth and smoothly, slightly swaying from side to side like a heavy galleon under unruly winds, sailed off to his office.

“Out of sorts?” Oleg nodded understandingly in the direction of the boss.

“And when was he in?” without taking her head off the keyboard said Lyudmila and held out a sheet of paper leaning out of the printer.

“Here are the addresses. Goods are in the storehouse. Off you go!” she smiled. “Otherwise you will be left without a bonus for certain.”

* * *

“Who’s there?” a voice came from the speaker of the intercom.

“Santa Claus!” Oleg uttered the memorized phrase.

“All right, come in. Make happy at least someone in this dark and cruel world,” came the answer, and the door obediently opened.

Nine floors of the next old building.

“Hello, Santa Claus! Brought us rubbish? How it goes?” Oleg mentally mocked himself.

An iron door on the ground floor with carved wood paneling. Looks solid. There’s a chance.

Oleg adjusted his rented black business suit, coughed a couple of times, trying to clear his throat, and pressed the doorbell.

“Who the hell that winter brought?” came a dissatisfied greeting from behind the door after a dozen of seconds.

Oleg stiffly smiled, straightened up to attention, took a deep breath – and…

“Hello, my name is Oleg Alexandrov! Our company is holding a new year’s sale and right here and right now we have a unique offer – one that you surely will not be able to refuse!”

25.12.2019

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networkingdefinition · 5 years ago

Text

Mobile Phones Quotes

Official Website: Mobile Phones Quotes

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• A good example of the modern world is the Eurotunnel. And mobile phones – I like them. – Jools Holland • A good story remains a good story, whether it is on glossy paper or a mobile phone display, is carved into marble tablets or appears as a Bild headline. – Mathias Dopfner • A mobile phone needs a manual in the way that a teacup doesn’t – Douglas Adams • Anyway, yes, telephones but not mobile phones, fish and chips still wrapped in actual newspaper and still with some kind of flavour, people visiting each other without having to consult their appointment diaries, not being able to record anything from the television; if you missed it you missed it – these were all the kinds of thing that made up the normality of the seventies. – Quentin S. Crisp • As a result, we will continue to see more innovation on the Internet and on mobile phones than on consoles. – Trip Hawkins • At the start of 2005 the idea of downloading a song to a mobile phone was an idea, by the end of the year it was a reality. – John F. Kennedy

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'Case', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '68', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_case').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_case img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); ); • Because of technology, we don’t develop telepathy. We don’t use telepathy, but use, you know, the mobile phones. Why? – Marina Abramovic • Before mobile phones, I used to call my parents from a phone box and reverse the charges. – Tamara Ecclestone • Between now and when we graduate next year there are at least ten weeks’ holiday and five random public holidays. There’s email and if you manage to get down to the town, there’s text messaging and mobile phone calls. If not, the five minutes you get to speak to me on your communal phone is better than nothing. There are the chess nerds who want to invite you to our school for the chess comp next March and there’s this town in the middle, planned by Walter Burley Griffin, where we can meet up and protest against our government’s refusal to sign the Kyoto treaty.” -Jonah Griggs – Melina Marchetta • Britain, however, has ended up specializing in the ones you don’t see as much of: defense aerospace, making drive shafts for cars, pills and drugs, designing chips that go into 94 percent of the world’s mobile phones. – Evan Davis • Bullying behaviour can be communicated via text, mobile phones, internet, social networking sites, forums. But we can’t limit it because these messages are then reinforced by television which glamorises yelling, swearing and vulgar behaviour as the way to walk the red carpet of acceptance. – Louise Burfitt-Dons • Data is gathered all the time. Just take your mobile phone. Geo-location data collected by your (mobile phone service) provider is not just about your movements. It’s about who you are with and what you will do next. – Daniel Suarez • Enterprising law-enforcement officers with a warrant can flick a distant switch and turn a standard mobile phone into a roving mic or eavesdrop on occupants of cars equipped with travel assistance systems. – Jonathan Zittrain • Everyone on the set has a mobile phone, and I found by pushing a few buttons, they could be programmed into different languages. I fixed Robbie’s Coltrane to speak in Turkish. – Daniel Radcliffe • Everywhere you go, people have recorded or captured events in real time on their mobile phones. It becomes one of the first questions you ask when you go in to investigate something. – Jeremy Scahill • For his thirtieth birthday he had filled a whole night-club off Regent Street; people had been queuing on the pavement to get in. The SIM card of his mobile phone in his pocket was overflowing with telephone numbers of all the hundreds of people he had met in the last ten years, and yet the only person he had ever wanted to talk to in all that time was standing now in the very next room. – David Nicholls • Have I got a black book? Yes, it’s called a mobile phone. I do get offers. There is no shortage of people if you want to go on dates – working in TV, living in L.A., it is there if you want it. – Simon Cowell • Having access to mobile phones and being able to document your own life brings people together. – Robyn • I always cheerfully say, “Well, you know, the species is adapting, and whatever it needs to do, it’ll do,” but I do think it’s maybe a little bit alarming. Everybody knows that one thing we really have to do is to be more wherever we are, more present, that’s just kind of a commonplace. And the whole mobile phone thing is completely 100% the opposite – to never be where you are because you can always be somewhere else; and yet it’s so fun and addictive. – George Saunders • I am very aware of the fact that it’s highly unlikely anyone will write an article via their mobile phone. I’ve done it, but it’s painful. And it’s not just about the small keyboard and the small screen – though that’s awful. It’s the emotional experience of writing an article. – Sue Gardner • I don’t have a Facebook page. I don’t use Twitter. I don’t give anyone a lot to grab onto. Sometimes, I even take out the battery of my mobile phone so that I can’t be localized. – Daniel Suarez • I love the energy and the knowledge. I barely know how to use this thing [mobile phone]. I get by. – Naomi Watts • I originally welcomed the mobile phone as it seemed to me that it would enable you to work from anywhere. On the mobile, who was to know if you were sitting on the branch of a tree or sitting in an office? But it instead had the opposite effect: instead of freeing us from the office, it allowed the office to take away our freedom. – Tom Hodgkinson • I suddenly realized I was getting ten opening notes a day on my mobile phone, more than when I was in New York. But this is China, where nothing is surprising. – Ai Weiwei • I think kids are fairly similar. It’s just really the technology. Like, you won’t find kids in the 60s, or anyone for that matter, having mobile phones, texting, watching YouTube, and being absorbed in their technology. – Jared Gilman • I think to be a rich and successful person in Roman society would be pretty fabulous. They had all of the comforts we want now – central heating, baths, medicine. If I could choose not to indulge in all the things they did I don’t agree with, then I could be perfectly comfortable without a mobile phone, computer or anything. – Martin Shaw • I travel the world visiting global health programs as an ambassador for the global health organization, PSI, and sometimes the disconnect I see is truly striking: people can get cold Coca Cola, but far too infrequently malaria drugs; most own mobile phones, but don’t have equal access to pre-natal care. – Mandy Moore • I want to be buried with a mobile phone, just in case I’m not dead. – Amanda Holden • I was playing in the juniors at Wimbledon I forgot to turn my mobile phone off. It was lying there in my bag and it rang in the middle of a match, and it was one of my friends from school saying, ‘Murray, you’re on the telly!’ I learnt from that. I now put my phone on silent. – Andy Murray • I’m excited about the opportunities with mobile phones and being able to receive information on the go and relevant to what I’m doing at that moment in time. – Susan Wojcicki • Imagine if for years your habit is to use the phone when you’re having a massage on the bed, even one minute before going out to train? For 25 days I accepted this, because my first priority was to work on the field. However, I’ve said that from now if someone comes inside with a mobile phone, even in their bag, I’ll throw it in the North Sea. They’re banned. – Paolo Di Canio • In 1999, I said that in about a decade we would see technologies such as self-driving cars and mobile phones that could answer your questions, and people criticized these predictions as unrealistic. – Ray Kurzweil • In a time where the world is becoming personalized, when the mobile phone, the burger, everything has its own personal identity, how should we perceive ourselves and how should we perceive others? – Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani • In Africa it’s difficult to carry the money, it’s difficult to have a banking system with tellers, with distribution of cash. So they are using their mobile phones. – Maurice Levy • In England they always try out new mobile phones in Isle of Man. They’ve got a captive society. So I said, you should try the legalization of all drugs on the Isle of Man and see what happens. – Mick Jagger • In the era of mobile phones and emails, you’re no more out of the loop in China than you are in Sydney. – Tony Abbott • Inexpensive phones and pay-as-you go services are already spreading mobile phone technology to many parts of that world that never had a wired infrastructure. – Howard Rheingold • Inspiration hits me at the most annoying times. Like when I am on my bicycle going back home from the studio at 3 a.m.. I’ve many crackly recordings into my mobile phone practically inaudible from the wind rushing into the handset! – Imogen Heap • It is high time that the E.U.’s internal market delivered substantially lower communications charges for consumers and business people traveling abroad. A mobile-phone customer should not be charged a higher tariff just because he — or she — is traveling abroad. – Viviane Reding • It used to be that we imagined that our mobile phones would be for us to talk to each other. Now, our mobile phones are there to talk to us. – Sherry Turkle • It’s hard to maintain both smack and crack habbits and remember to keep up mobile-phone payments. – Irvine Welsh • It’s hard to say conversation has become a minimal thing, because look at the rise of mobile communications in the last 10 years. It used to be only the President had a mobile phone. Now everyone on earth, even if they have nothing else, they have a cell phone. It’s a larger anthropological shift in my mind than even the tattoo age in the United States. – Padgett Powell • Knowledge comes from our senses, extend our senses and we extend our knowledge. Let’s stop building apps for mobile phones and start building apps for our bodies. – Neil Harbisson • Life will be much more exciting when we stop creating applications for mobile phones and we start creating applications for our own body. – Neil Harbisson • Many actors have protested about mobile phones going off in theatres, but the real menace now is people texting during a show. It may only disturb a few people around them, but for me, as an actor, when I spot them answering their emails, I am outraged. – Simon Callow • Many students don’t really like it (fashion). If they don’t like it, they won’t be able to tell you who the stylists are or the photographers. If they say they can’t remember the names but they recognize the work, I’ll say that’s bullshit because if you were selling mobile phones, you’d know all about the phones’ features and tariffs. – Louise Wilson • Microsoft Mobile Oy is a legal construct that was created to facilitate the merger. It is not a brand that will be seen by consumers. The Nokia brand is available to Microsoft to use for its mobile phones products for a period of time, but Nokia as a brand will not be used for long going forward for smartphones. Work is underway to select the go forward smartphone brand. – Stephen Elop • Mobile phone technology can help to bring financial services to the 80 percent of African women who do not have a bank account and bolster the growth of the world’s poorest continent. It’s not just about empowering women, it’s about economic growth. Unless we can make access to finance easier for women in their businesses, we will be missing out on a significant portion of growth within our economies – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala • Mobile phones … they’re not for communicating, they’re for broadcasting. Broadcasting The Show Of Me. – Adam Nevill • Mobile phones amplify human talents for cooperation. – Howard Rheingold • Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge. – Ray Kurzweil • Mobile phones are one of the most insecure devices that were ever available, so they’re very easy to trace; they’re very easy to tap. – Evgeny Morozov • Mobile phones are the only subject on which men boast about who’s got the smallest. – Neil Kinnock • More and more we’re negating the validity of first-hand experience of people from other countries and other cultures… whether it’s on TV, the Internet, mobile phones or whatever – the world system we live in so values second-hand information. – Nitin Sawhney • Motorola has led the mobile phone industry in turning our vision of low- cost, yet quality, handsets for the developing world into a reality. In so doing, Motorola has played a major role in transforming the mobile phone from a luxury item for the few into an affordable tool for the many. – Rob Conway • My mobile phone battery runs out all the time because all the messages come straight to me. – Ed Balls • Now that mobile phones and the internet have altered the epistemic selective landscape in a revolutionary way, every religious organisation must scramble to evolve defences or become extinct. – Daniel Dennett • Old women with mobile phones look wrong. – Peter Kay • Power is not just for TV sets and charging mobile phones. This electricity is critical to the industrial development of this area. If there is electricity, small scale industry will grow. – Narendra Modi • Previous technologies have expanded communication. But the last round may be contracting it. The eloquence of letters has turned into the unnuanced spareness of texts; the intimacy of phone conversations has turned into the missed signals of mobile phone chat … (‘you’re breaking up’ is the cry of our time). – Rebecca Solnit • Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete. – Matthew Parris • Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn’t linguistically sensible. – David Crystal • Smart mobile phones connect you with 1 billion users worldwide, basically for free – you don’t pay for the phone, you don’t pay for the Internet, you don’t pay for the wireless connectivity. Social networks let you add a new customer or a new agent, again for free. – Geoffrey Moore • So actually I only got a mobile phone the day after I left being Prime Minister. – Tony Blair • So heedless have we become of our own image that second-hand mobile phones now invariably come with a SIM card chock-full of discarded intimacies. – Will Self • The advent of the mobile phone was a disaster. We are forced to listen, open-mouthed, to other people’s intimate conversations. Increasingly, we are all in our virtual bubbles when we are out in public, whether we are texting, listening to iPods, reading or just staring dangerously at other people. – Lynne Truss • The best mobile phone had the best mathematician. They know how to fit a huge amount of data into a small amount of space. How to do things efficiently, how to do them cleverly. – Marcus du Sautoy • The biggest opportunity in 2013 is in Africa. It has seven out of the ten fastest-growing economies in the world. In Nigeria alone there are 100 million people with mobile phones. In total, 300 million Africans – five times the population of Britain – are in the middle class. – David Miliband • The brand is only as good as your products, so.. if people have a good experience on Virgin Atlantic or if they have a good experience on Virgin trains or.. if they have a Virgin mobile phone and they can get straight through to our people and they’re well looked after and then they’ll try the next product that we launch. – Richard Branson • The institutions are working better now, the banks are much more functional. At this time, 1997, there were no mobile phones! It’s a whole different thing now with mobile phones: technology has created a form of regulation, because people can actually talk to each other a lot more. – Rem Koolhaas • The mobile phone acts as a cursor to connect the digital and physical. – Marissa Mayer • The mobile phone is very dangerous. If you’re walking and looking at your phone, you’re not walking – you’re surfing the internet. – Mohsin Hamid • The mobile phone, the fax, emails. Call me old fashioned, but what’s wrong with a chain of beacons? – Harry Hill • The mobile phone… is a tool for those whose professions require a fast response, such as doctors or plumbers. – Umberto Eco • The Muslim women that I have met are super-powerful and amazing and smart and they are, they’re not allowing themselves to be held back by the laws that exist. And you know, the Internet exists now, and mobile phones are freeing up stuff. I have a really good friend who’s from Iran and a really good friend who’s from Kuwait, and they talk about getting music on the black market and how that’s such an intense, amazing experience. And how they value the music so much more, because it’s such a risk to own it. – Larkin Grimm • The table was her stage. The mobile phone was the microphone. And the new moon was the spotlight. That kind of magic only Nana could make it happen. – Ai Yazawa • The two parts of technology that lower the threshold for activism and technology is the Internet and the mobile phone. Anyone who has a cause can now mobilize very quickly. – Howard Rheingold • The uptake on mobile phones in Africa is phenomenal. – Ethan Zuckerman • Then you get these articles about how unhealthy life is in the city. You know; mobile phone tumours – far more likely in the city. Well you know what, so is everything else! Including sex, coffee and conversation. – Dylan Moran • Theophilus Crowe’s mobile phone played eight bars of “Tangled Up in Blue” in an irritating electronic voice that sounded like a choir of suffering houseflies, or Jiminy Cricket huffing helium, or, well, you know, Bob Dylan. – Christopher Moore • There is a generation of skimmers. It’s not that they don’t want to read in-depth content, but they want to evaluate what the content is before they commit time. Especially on a mobile phone – you don’t have the phone, or cellular data, or screen size to be reading full-length content. – Nick D’Aloisio • There may be rhetoric about the socially constructed nature of Western science, but wherever it matters, there is no alternative. There are no specifically Hindu or Taoist designs for mobile phones, faxes or televisions. There are no satellites based on feminist alternatives to quantum theory. Even that great public sceptic about the value of science, Prince Charles, never flies a helicopter burning homeopathically diluted petrol, that is, water with only a memory of benzine molecules, maintained by a schedule derived from reading tea leaves, and navigated by a crystal ball. – Simon Blackburn • Think what we would have missed if we had never … used a mobile phone or surfed the Net — or, to be honest, listened to other people talking about surfing the Net. – Queen Elizabeth II • Today one can read the Gospel also on so many technological instruments. You can carry the whole Bible on your mobile phone, on your tablet. It is important to read the Word of God, by any means, but by reading the Word of God: Jesus speaks to us there! And welcome it with an open heart. Then the good seed will bear fruit! – Pope Francis • Today, most young women are exposed to technology at a very young age, with mobile phones, tablets, the Web or social media. They are much more proficient with technology than prior generations since they use it for all their school work, communication and entertainment. – Susan Wojcicki • Twitter is about the democratization of access to a platform that allows anyone in the world – who has a mobile phone and access to SMS – to have a voice and be heard. – Shailesh Rao • Until relatively recently, mass political movements were still about basic rights of food, shelter, education and self sufficiency. The reasons fewer people vote these days, or turn up for political meetings, is that for the vast majority of us those rights have been fulfilled. These days it’s in the adverts for mobile phones or foreign holidays where phrases like “Join the Revolution!” and “Cry Freedom!” are bandied about for a generation which knows nothing of their provenance. Just as now we have luxury illnesses to replace real ones, so now we have luxury politics. – John Diamond • We believe that within five years, 96 percent of British consumers will have access to the Internet, whether it be through a personal computer, a set-top box or a mobile phone. – Richard Branson • We once believed we were auteurs but we weren’t. We had no idea, really. Film is over. It’s sad nobody is really exploring it. But what to do? And anyway, with mobile phones and everything, everyone is now an auteur. – Jean-Luc Godard • We try to ‘self-medicate’ ourselves against boredom with mobile phones in any given moment of free time. – Alex Bogusky • We use similar products. Our focus industry is healthcare and hospitality. But we haven?t done anything interactive. The first day full of seminars is full of things I thought would be useful: quick service restaurant and mobile phone applications. Businesses are providing more services and products by self-service means. – Milton Jones • When I first went on Britain’s Got Talent I was famous for my cheap suit, my wonky teeth and the fact that I sold mobile phones for a living. – Paul Potts • When I think about, say, 1995, or whever the last moment was before most of us were on the internet and had mobile phones, it seems like a hundred years ago. … Time passed in fairly large units, or at least not in milliseconds and constant updates. A few hours wasn’t such a long time to go between moments of contact with your work, your people or your trivia. – Rebecca Solnit • When I was a student I did a report on Madagascar, and ever since then it was my biggest dream to go there. Three years ago I went, and it was so different. We live in this high tech world with Facebook, Twitter, and mobile phones, and there you land and you have nothing. Yet the people live and get by every day walking in the roads, living this super simple life, and they’re still happy. It is an experience that keeps you humble, puts things in perspective. – Irina Shayk • When thinking about how to deploy kind of professional and social networking into your business, it’s really not a question of if, it’s a question of when. And the reason is, just think about the fact that those businesses that adopt new technologies to operate efficiently and use them to get a competitive edge are the businesses that in fact, you know, it becomes one more competitive advantage. Whether it’s a fax machine or a mobile phone or a new way of doing financing or any of these things, you know, these are key things to do. – Reid Hoffman • When you get a mobile phone it is almost like having a card to get you out of poverty in a couple of years. – Muhammad Yunus • Woodstock happened in August 1969, long before the Internet and mobile phones made it possible to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere. It was a time when we werent able to witness world events or the horrors of war live on 24-hour news channels. – Richie Havens • Yelp is in a very nice spot: local data, and especially review data, is one of the killer apps on mobile phones. – Jeremy Stoppelman

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'a', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_a').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_a img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'e', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_e').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_e img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'i', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_i').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_i img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'o', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_o').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_o img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

jQuery(document).ready(function($) var data = action: 'polyxgo_products_search', type: 'Product', keywords: 'u', orderby: 'rand', order: 'DESC', template: '1', limit: '4', columns: '4', viewall:'Shop All', ; jQuery.post(spyr_params.ajaxurl,data, function(response) var obj = jQuery.parseJSON(response); jQuery('#thelovesof_u').html(obj); jQuery('#thelovesof_u img.swiper-lazy:not(.swiper-lazy-loaded)' ).each(function () var img = jQuery(this); img.attr("src",img.data('src')); img.addClass( 'swiper-lazy-loaded' ); img.removeAttr('data-src'); ); ); );

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equitiesstocks · 5 years ago

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Mobile Phones Quotes

Official Website: Mobile Phones Quotes

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anthonybialy · 6 years ago

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Nationalism and Isn't

You don't have to brag constantly if what you offer is so great. That goes for purported business empires and established countries. We probably shouldn't tip off those with such obvious tells, but it's always fun to embarrass the vain.

On an America-sized scale, nationalism is how those who don't appreciate this country's principles claim they like this place more than anyone else. Don't make it a competition, as they assure you their devotion is unparalleled. The restaurant bills itself as famous, which famous restaurants don't have to do.

Oh: you don't like this country, comrade? Binary thinking is a reflection of our sophisticated times. The call for vigorous federal action to advance conservatism is tiresomely brutish in the typical manner of those who presume their schemes are the only worthwhile possibility.

The only way arrogance can get worse is when it's unearned. Protections are unnecessary for those who generate good products, which our subtle friends can't imagine as a viewpoint. How could we turn down heroic shielding from our great and good president?

Nationalism means cheering for your team without realizing why. Such rabid fans are always the most contemplative. America is great precisely because it doesn't need a hype man. In the same way, the country became the best via minimizing government. But it turns out some who risibly self-identify as conservatives just wanted a bully from their lunch table.

Doing what’s best for your country means interacting with other ones. Buy Belgium's things if they offer something decent. You're just making yours worse by not trading with others. Why does America need protection from competition if it’s so swell? Now, that's a lot of trust in a quality product. Shelley Levene will never make that sale.

Integrity is found in those who check the president's tweets before they decide what's biblical truth today. Being a producer sounds fun. The Fox News devotion to lunacy during this daft presidency is most irritating because Democrats who've bitched about the channel since its inception now have a point. Worshiping the most liberal Republican since Richard Nixon is one way to demonstrate evenhandedness.

Insults develop in surprising ways, if you've been too basic to notice. Take how no linguistics professor could've predicted how “globalist” would refer disparagingly to someone out to trade with others. Laura Ingraham can fill an hour with a lunatic conspiracy about letting shady foreigners dominate our politics, which is sort-of a skill.

We used to worry that social media would give unhinged maniacs an unfiltered platform. Now, the primetime hosts sound like their fans with 37 followers and closeups of Trump paintings as avatars.

Let the smoker do the work instead of opening the door to fiddle with the meat chunk you're planning to dine on in six hours. All that escaped heat is why your pork shoulder turned out tough. The lack of trust is inherent to the insecure. Knowing superior products will triumph is part of craftsmanship. It may be tough to remain indifferent while seeing those on your side cope with competition. But a willingness to let consumers decide is the exact inaction that spurs prosperity.

At least this annoying era lets us see who doesn't think America can compete without protections. Panicky tariffs ruin what makes us special to keep us special. So, quit it with the self-defeating behavior. It's your loss if you don't buy our awesome stuff. China can keep dumping products if they foolishly think subsidizing cheap products for us is going to defeat our economy. Did I mention their language doesn't have a name for the ring finger?

Zealousness about misguided principles is sure to work out well. Dogmatism makes political discussions extra fun during a time when the obsession with defending the president is as relentless as the effort to malign him. These two charges unfortunately don't cancel each other out. A petty president with lame insults for targets he should ignore is apparently the paragon of masculinity. Nope: nobody here is overcompensating.

This country doesn't need such help. The patronizing attitude toward a country nationalists supposedly love is especially galling considering their drive to insulate from the bogeyman of commerce stands in contrast to everything America represents. Who'd think unpleasant wide-eyed lunkheads acting on Tucker Carlson's primly dismissive behalf wouldn't know what they're talking about?

I wish the black glass and tacky gold highlights weren't the only thing Trump left in the past. The desire to spend what's ours on our behalf sure is kindhearted. We don't need a messiah shepherding us from the iniquity of icky different countries. Let Second World hellholes invest faith in self-announced strongmen, as we trust free citizens here.

The mindless push to start unnecessary fights with trade partners isn't quite improving our lot. Please protect us from options. Thinking federal meddling is what makes America great constitutes unnecessary boasting for the wrong reasons. Nationalism is perfect for this presidency.

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djatoon · 6 years ago

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Would no-deal Brexit be a disaster? Probably not – and here’s why

From The Spectator https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/07/would-no-deal-brexit-be-a-disaster-probably-not-and-heres-why/

The government is better prepared than it has let on

Anthony Browne

14 July 2019

“How bad would a no-deal Brexit really be? This is now perhaps the most important question in politics, and the one provoking greatest disagreement. The answer will help decide whether parliament allows Brexit to happen, and whether Tory MPs bring down their own government. If they think calamity would follow, patriotic rebels might risk a general election to stop the Tories. But what if it would not be so bad? And is there any way of finding out?

Almost everyone accepts it will cause problems, but views range from manageable to ‘national suicide’. It is difficult to predict complex events without historic precedent, but there are other reasons for the divergent views. The first is that there is not a single ‘no deal’, but a whole spectrum. Leaving the EU with no deal (and no preparation) would indeed be ‘crashing out’. But leaving with no deal in, say, 2022, with government and business having prepared meticulously for three years, would be less dramatic. It is a moving target: given the preparations, no-deal Brexit now would be less damaging than a year ago.

Then there is the ‘millennium bug effect’. Before 2000, computer companies had an incentive to talk up the problem of everyone’s systems crashing when dates moved from 12/12/99 to 1/1/00. No one could tell for sure how bad it would be, the media loved an apocalyptic story and we had warnings of aircraft falling out of the sky. But despite the frenzy about the end of days, nothing happened. With no-deal Brexit, there are groups, including those wanting to block Brexit, who have an incentive to talk up problems and a media hungry for bad news.

The government has given conflicting signals about no deal, with parts of it sounding the alarm. ‘It was definitely deliberate to keep all the no-deal planning invisible,’ one former Brexit minister told me. It means the government is better prepared than is recognised — a source of irritation for the planners, who are never given credit for their success. A frustrated civil servant wrote anonymously in the Daily Telegraph in December: ‘Very detailed plans have been proposed, assessed, analysed to death and … are now being executed.’

So what are the preparations? Last year the French ports of Calais and Boulogne weren’t ready, leading to predictions of the M20 becoming a lorry park, and shortages of food and drugs. But Calais has now stepped up the number of checkpoints, employed 700 customs staff, and bought scanners which check lorries as they drive past. The president of the Port Boulogne Calais has said ‘there will not be any delay’ in a no-deal Brexit. This will disappoint Dutch ports, which have been gearing up to take business from France.

On the UK side, government has rolled out two computer systems to cope with new customs controls. It has set up an inland clearing site for lorries in Milton Keynes, to keep them away from ports. Major supermarkets have reassured ministers they have diversified supplies enough that food will remain on the shelves. Despite the concern about car manufacturing, one of Britain’s best-known car companies has told government it can cope. In an act of belts and braces, NHS stockpiling ensures that even if the border preparations failed, patients still get drugs. Drugs companies tell me they have two years’ of supplies. ‘The scare stories about food and drugs are completely unjustified,’ one planner told me.

When I was chief executive of the British Bankers’ Association, I convened the meetings of industry leaders in the wake of the referendum to decide how to respond. The only responsible position for a major industry is to hope for the best and plan for the worst. We wanted a transition deal, but banks — reluctant to put their fate in the hands of politicians — prepared for no deal. A no-deal Brexit at the time of the referendum would have been a major threat to financial stability, but three years later the international banks have the legal structures, people and capital in place. They can carry on business whether Brexit comes with a deal or without.

It cost banks billions for no immediate benefit, which understandably annoys them, but they are prepared. But they have the cash for such contingency plans: smaller companies don’t and haven’t bothered preparing for no deal. Only about 40 per cent of exporters that need to register for an export number have done so. With more political clarity, that will change quickly.

The EU has been preparing, most noticeably to ensure that haulage, aviation and visa-free tourism can continue. But many preparations have been kept quiet. To be able to export food to the EU, the UK needs recognition as a third-country supplier. The Commission quietly told the UK that in a no-deal Brexit it would immediately give that recognition if the UK stays aligned to EU standards for nine months.

There is then the issue of tariffs with the EU — about 4 per cent on average. They would clearly be bad for trade. But on average they are less than the depreciation of sterling, so exporters would still be more competitive than they were before the referendum. And there are solutions for badly hit sectors. The agricultural sector most potentially affected by Brexit is sheep farming, with 30 per cent of our lamb exported to Europe. But even if the EU imposes 40 per cent tariffs, the government will introduce a compensation scheme to offset it, costing £100 million a year.

That brings us to the £39 billion. No one can agree on how much the UK needs to pay to meet its legal commitments, but it is clearly less than £20 billion. This gives huge fiscal headroom to provide short-term relief. It can also provide a powerful incentive for the EU to agree to tariff-free trade.

The change of leader means the politics of no deal will change. If it’s Boris Johnson, then I suspect (having once advised him) that he’ll press ahead and demand full preparations from the offset. This would strengthen his negotiating position, and reassure voters and MPs, by highlighting how prepared the UK is. Senior civil servants are already planning to switch from Project Fear to Project Reassurance. Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, who previously sounded the alarm, said recently the public sector was ‘in pretty good shape’. Business groups should carry on pushing for problems to be tackled, but focus more on helping members prepare.

None of this means that no-deal Brexit will be without turbulence. I supported a deal and still do, but no deal could happen. And if it does?

The preparations show that the former governor of the Bank of England, Lord Mervyn King, was right when he said recently that MPs had ‘lost the plot’ when talking about ‘national suicide’. In an age of uncertainty, that is good to know.”

#Brexit #Politics

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michaeljtraylor · 6 years ago

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Jay Powell heads to the Hill

Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Money is published weekdays at 8 a.m. POLITICO Pro Financial Services subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 5:15 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here.

Powell prep — Fed Chair Jay Powell kicks off two days of hearings on Tuesday, this time before Senate Banking. Powell is not likely to veer much from his stance that the central bank could be done hiking this year depending on data and that balance sheet reduction may stop later this year.

Story Continued Below

He’s more likely to make news on the regulatory front where senators will press him on tailored regulations and stress tests. Out top Fed watcher Victoria Guida emails: “It’ll be interesting to see how he responds to a probable question from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on whether the Fed will keep the growth cap on Wells Fargo unless they fire CEO Tim Sloan.”

China impact on the Fed? — President Trump on Monday continued to signal that a China deal is coming, tweeting that talks are in “advanced stages” and that “American farmers will be treated better than ever.” Tons of details remain to be worked out and internal squabbling over the verification mechanism will continue.

But Trump desperately wants to announce a big purchase of soybeans and other farm goods. USTR Bob Lighthizer and other hawks might be annoyed but they are going to have to deal with it or walk.

What will Powell do? — The big question going forward is will Powell and the Fed rethink their pause now that the happy China talk has push market indices out of their December doldrums and back close to all time highs? They stopped hiking in part based on tightening financial conditions that are not longer tight.

GOOD TUESDAY MORNING — Greetings from Las Vegas where somehow it’s only like 40 degrees. Email me on [email protected] and follow me on Twitter @morningmoneyben. Email Aubree Eliza Weaver on [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @AubreeEWeaver.

MM hosts a session on the Trump economy with Moody’s economist Mark Zandi and Heritage Foundation’s Steve Moore at the Structured Finance Industry Group meeting here in Vegas at 11:00 a.m. PST … Powell testifies before Senate Banking at 10:00 a.m. … House Financial Services has a hearing on credit bureaus at 10:00 a.m. …

POLITICS IN ONE MINUTE — Check out my latest U.S. Politics in Sixty Seconds video for GZeroMedia here.

GOP may get relief on refunds — Republicans continue to get hammered on the decline in tax refunds. But help may be on the way as the numbers could get better for the GOP .

Per Morgan Stanley: “[T]he slow start to the tax refund season may not be indicative of what’s to come in the next few weeks. Last year’s data shows that the largest surge has tended to come at the end of February. … As the EITC and ACTC refunds start to arrive, we expect a significant surge of refunds in the next few weeks.”

DEMS TO PROBE TRUMP FINANCES — Our Zachary Warmbrodt: “House Democrats are planning to cross one of … Trump’s red lines: investigating his personal finances. With special counsel Robert Mueller expected to wind up his probe soon, Democrats are launching an investigation to discover why Deutsche Bank was willing to lend The Trump Organization money when other banks weren’t and whether Russia was involved.” Read more.

MORE POWELL PREP — Center for American Progress’ Gregg Gelzinis: “Lawmakers should question Powell on the Fed’s proposals to reduce big bank capital requirements and weaken stress testing, as well as the Fed’s stance on bank consolidation, persistent misconduct in the financial sector, and the concerning increase in hedge fund leverage over the past two years.” Read more.

CNBC’s Ylan Mui reports on Powell’s year-long charm offensive on the Hill.

YELLEN DISSES TRUMP— Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen (who is also in Vegas today and will speak in a private session at the SFIG meeting), in an interview with Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal:

“I doubt that he would even be able to say that the Fed’s goals are maximum employment and price stability, which is the goals that Congress have assigned to the Fed …

“He’s made comments about the Fed having an exchange rate objective in order to support his trade plans, or possibly targeting the U.S. balance of trade. And, you know, I think comments like that shows a lack of understanding of the impact of the Fed on the economy and appropriate policy goals.” Read more.

DEMS PRESS CREDIT AGENCIES — Also from Zach: “House Democrats this week are kicking off work on the biggest overhaul of the consumer credit reporting industry in years, marking the first major legislative effort launched by new Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters” Read more.

The 2020 Election. The new Congress. The Mueller investigation. … Keep up with POLITICO Playbook. Be in the know. Sign up today here.

WARREN REJECTS FUNDRAISING TACTICS — Our Natasha Korecki: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced … her campaign will shun fundraising through some of the old-fashioned means: dinners, donor calls and cocktail parties. In an email to supporters Monday, Warren also said she won’t sell access to big-name donors as candidates often do to raise money for a presidential bid.

“Warren has demonstrated as much in organizing events where she poses for photos with anyone who stands in line and requests it. Typically, candidates put a premium on such access, sometimes charging thousands of dollars for a personal photograph.” Read more.

SANDERS PLEDGES TO RELEASE TAXES — Our Holly Otterbein: “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promised on Monday to release 10 years’ worth of tax returns during his campaign for president, but he didn’t say when he would release them.” Read more.

STOCKS CLOSE HIGHER — AP’s Damian Troise and Alex Veiga: “Stocks closed modestly higher Monday after shedding most of the gains from an early rally spurred by the Trump administration’s decision to hold off on increasing tariffs on imported Chinese goods. …

“Technology companies and banks accounted for much of the market’s gains, outweighing losses in consumer goods stocks and other sectors. Oil prices fell sharply after … Trump said they were getting too high. On Friday, oil closed at the highest level since mid-November.” Read more.

This rally has everything (except investors) — NYT’s Matt Phillips: “Armchair investors have been selling stock. So have pension funds and mutual funds, as well as a whole other category of investors — nonprofit groups, endowments, private equity firms and personal trusts.

“The stock market is off to its best start since 1987, but these investors are expected to dump hundreds of billions of dollars of shares this year. So who is pushing prices higher? In part, the companies themselves.” Read more.

SEC TARGETS MUSK (AGAIN) — NYT: “The [SEC] … asked a federal court to hold Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, in contempt of court for violating a settlement he and the company reached with the commission last year. The S.E.C. said Mr. Musk published erroneous information about Tesla’s production goals for the year in a Twitter post on Feb. 19 without first seeking approval from the company’s lawyers as he was required to do under the settlement.” Read more.

THE LATEST DEBT CAP DILEMMA — Bloomberg’s Alex Harris: “Uncle Sam has to find a way to shovel more than $100 billion in cash out the door by the end of this week. That’s when the U.S. Treasury has to reduce its cash balance to about $199 billion in order to comply with rules surrounding the reinstatement of the debt ceiling.

“The cap is set to go back into effect at the end of this Friday and at that point the cash balance should be at or below the level it was at when the current suspension went into effect in February 2018. The Treasury’s cash hoard ended last week at around $312 billion, leaving around $113 billion to reach its target.” Read more.

TRUMP ORG DONATES NEARLY $200K — AP’s Bernard Cohen: “President Donald Trump’s company said on Monday that it donated nearly $200,000 to the U.S. Treasury to make good on its promise two years ago to hand over profits from foreign governments using its properties.

“The Trump Organization said a check for $191,538 sent to Treasury represents profits from embassy parties, hotel stays and other foreign government spending at its Washington hotel and other properties last year. The voluntary donation is up from $151,470 sent a year ago to cover the president’s first calendar year in office.” Read more.

BOFA REBRANDS — Reuters’ Imani Moise: “Bank of America Corp is dropping the ‘Merrill Lynch’ name from some of its businesses, phasing out a brand with a long history on Wall Street as part of a multi-year marketing effort, the lender said on Monday. The investment bank and capital markets business is ditching the 104-year old name to become BofA Securities and its wealth management businesses will collectively be called ‘Merrill,’ without the Lynch.” Read more.

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from RSSUnify feed https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/02/27/jay-powell-heads-to-the-hill/ from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.tumblr.com/post/183089857759

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itsworn · 6 years ago

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Greetings from The Grave: Keep on Dancing

I hope that the world is treating you kindly and that the scales of justice are balanced in all of your endeavors. Remember what Rocky said, “Life ain’t all sunshine and rainbows.” So if you if you want it, go out and get it. Don’t sideline yourself by blaming others, it’s your car and you’re driving.

Sorry, I just watched Rocky Balboa last night and as you all know, I tend to follow the shiniest objects. So, let’s talk about carz, shall we…

I doubt very much that when Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman wrote, “Save The Last Dance For Me,” they had a 1974 Barracuda in mind. Equally, it’s doubtful that when Ben E. King sang lead vocals with the drifters on that single in August of 1960 that he had a car in mind either. Only car nuts like myself would connect those dots. But, before you judge, I’m probably not the only one out there in Mopar land who tries to repurpose song lyrics to support my love of the Pentastar. Wait … am I?

OK, off with the radio and onto the article. I want to talk about the Plymouth Barracuda and the changes it experienced and later suffered. Beginning with the introduction of the E-Body in 1970 to its final curtain call in 1974.

As most of you know, the E-Body Barracuda was produced from 1970 until midyear 1974. The 1970 and 1971 are considered the most collectible of all those model years. Primarily because those were the only two years you could get the great options that made these cars so desirable, such as big-block engines, convertible tops, multi-carburetor induction, and, of course, the legendary 426 Hemi.

Now, this is where my Philly cheesesteak–eating friend, Tony D’Agostino of Tony’s Mopar Parts, in conspiratorial efforts with my producers, would chime in with an annoying pop up in the show and call me out. Something like “Tony D’Agostino interrupts this message to point out that Mark ‘The Ice Man’ Worman, is wrong. The big-block wasn’t an option on the 1970 and 1971 ’Cuda models. The 383 Super Commando was standard on these cars …” Or something biting like that, but back to my point.

Yes, our hypothetically interrupting Tony, would technically be correct. The 383 Super Commando (E63) was indeed, standard equipment in all ’Cuda models (BS23 and BS27) cars in ’70 and ’71. My point is, in 1972 you could no longer get a big block anything, in a Barracuda or ‘Cuda. For that matter its sister, the Challenger (or Challenger R/T) was also deprived of the mighty wedge engines.

Just as swiftly as the wild options and colors drifted onto the scene in 1969 (1970 model cars began production on August 1, 1969), they blew away in the wind, leaving behind a legacy that would truly stand the test of time. And why, you may ask. Well, that’s a long story … but I can give you the Reader’s Digest version.

Higher fuel costs, emerging emission equipment technology, and higher insurance premiums are the main reasons that production of high horsepower, poor fuel economy cars, began declining in 1972. The fact is, young adults were being hurt or killed, behind the wheel of these high-performance, lightweight muscle cars. It didn’t take the insurance companies long to begin rating the muscle cars according to engine and model. This is probably why the 340 Challenger in 1970 wasn’t an R/T model, but rather it featured an “A66” package. This somehow snuck the high-winding small-block under the radar of the pony counters.

Gas prices increased dramatically in 1973 due to an oil embargo placed on the United States by OPEC. The U.S. wasn’t the only nation hit. OPEC was targeting any nation that was thought to support Israel during the Yom Kippur War. When the embargo ended in 1974, oil had gone from $3 per barrel to almost $12 per barrel worldwide. U.S. prices were quite a bit higher. Just to give you an idea of the impact, at the end of 1973 the U.S. was importing about 6.2 million barrels of oil every day.

Now we could dive deeper into the politics of this and talk about tariffs, quotas, and price ceilings, and how the decline in U.S. oil production increased the reliance on foreign oil. Then how that segued into creating a perfect storm for what’s now called the “first oil shock,” but let’s not get mired in late ’60s/early ’70s politics — we’re here for the cars.

So, when you consider the hike in insurance rates, teen accidents, and high fuel costs, the manufacturers (most of them) had no choice but to eliminate temptation by switching gears to a more modest (nice way of putting it) muscle car. And although “modest muscle car” is nicely alliterative, it’s something of an oxymoron, but I digress.

Let’s get back on track and take a comparative look at the dramatic changes in available options between the introductory model ’Cuda in 1970 and its less than rousing denouement in 1974.

1970 ’Cuda 1974 ’Cuda E63 – 383 1-4BBL 330 hp (STD) Yes No E44 – 318 1-2BBL 150 hp No Yes E55 – 340 1-4BBL 275 hp Yes No E55 – 340 3-2BBL 290 hp (AAR) Yes No E56 – 360 1-4BBL 200 hp No Yes E86 – 440 1-4BBL 375 hp Yes No E87 – 440 3-2BBL 390 hp Yes No E74 – 426 2-4BBL 425 hp Yes No D56 – Dana 60 3.54 Yes No D58 – Dana 60 4.10 Yes No N96 – Shaker Hood Yes No J78 – Front Spoiler Yes No J81 – Rear Spoiler Yes No J68 – Backlite Louvers Yes No A22 – Elastomeric Bumper FT & RR Yes No L34 – Road Lamps Yes No

That, my friends, is a partial list of the losses suffered by 1974 on the E-Bodies. When you consider that the great hi-impact colors of 1970 and 1971 were also long gone by 1972, it’s no wonder that Plymouth pulled the plug on the Barracuda midyear, in December of 1972 — a sad end to an incredible beginning. As T.S. Eliot may have said (had he been a Mopar fan), they went out “not with a bang but a whimper.”

I leave you with these production statistics. Take note, if you own a real BS23*4, you do have a pretty rare car. Hopefully, one day the market will recognize them for their rarity over their desirability.

Barracuda production by model: 1970 1974 BH23 (base coupe) 25,651 6,745 BH27 (base convertible) 1,554 N/A BP23 (Gran coupe) 8,183 N/A BP27 (GC convertible) 596 N/A BS23 (’Cuda coupe) 18,880 4,989 BS27 (’Cuda convertible) 635 N/A

As the song goes: “So don’t forget who’s taking you home / Or in whose arms you’re gonna be / So darling save the last dance for me.”

Thanks for reading! I look forward to more Mopar Muscle musings next month. Until then, drive safely and appreciate the liquid dinosaur in your gas tanks.

Mark Worman

The post Greetings from The Grave: Keep on Dancing appeared first on Hot Rod Network.

from Hot Rod Network https://www.hotrod.com/articles/keep-on-dancing/ via IFTTT

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whatsonforperth · 7 years ago

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Protection of feral horses bad for our water

While the impact on water quality will primarily affect the ACT, a sizeable proportion of the population in the neighbouring NSW electorate, in particular Queanbeyan would be included. It seems apparent that the NSW government took no consideration into the potential impact on compromising our water supply prior to the introduction of the feral horse legislation. It would therefore be hoped, as an ACT ratepayer, that if and when the ACT government incurs increased costs protecting the catchments that this is passed on with a larger proportion of such costs being incurred by NSW consumers. Gary Thompson, Canberra The republican push The recent news that the Australian republic movement will join with Labor, Liberal and Greens MPs to rally support for a republic is an indication of how morally bankrupt our Parliament is. All of these members and senators of the Federal Parliament who are combining to do away with the Queen have actually sworn to "... be faithful and bear true allegiance..." to her majesty. Not, as republicans claim "the British Queen" but to the Queen as Queen of Australia. Monarchists oppose a republic, not for the sake of the monarchy alone, but to retain the Australian constitution, an Australian and not a British document formulated and voted upon by Australians and which continues to serve Australia well. It also blocks politicians from assuming total power, which could well happen under a republic. Republicans say they want an Australian citizen to become head of state. Whilst our constitution doesn't mention head of state, who on earth do they think General Sir Peter Cosgrove is? Why don't they come straight out and say they want a president heading a republic instead of trying to befuddle the people with their mantra of head of state. There is no such thing as a minimalist republic. The last proposal required nearly 70 changes to our constitution and even that would not have worked. If republicans want to push for a republic then they should draft a new constitution and tell us how they propose to better what we already have. Philip Benwell, national chair, Australian Monarchist League Modern-day Luddites Dale Welsby asserted in his letter (CT, July 11) that light rail will be around long after the letter writers who object to it have passed on to that great highway in the sky. Brisbane closed its 119-kilometre tramway in 1969. The reason for its closure was that Brisbane people preferred buses. Its rails are now buried beneath bitumen and most supporters of its closure live on. Closing our 12-kilometre section of light rail to make way for the new generation road tram/buses being operated in China will enable us to have a real transport network at a third of the cost of a tram network. The supporters of a 19th century tram network are our modern-day Luddites. Howard Carew, Isaacs Heading backwards I am currently surrounded by NBN cable in our unit with no idea of when my trusty ADSL 2+ will be disconnected and I will in all probability lose my 11 meg (consistent) to get the same download speed as this great leap backwards was going to give us. Not only has much needed federal money been squandered but instead of joining many who have been able to join those countries that did it properly in the first place we will remain at the bottom of the list. And what is even more annoying is many who have been most verbal about this mess will vote for the LNP again. D. J.Fraser, Currumbin, Qld Defence numbers game Donald Trump wants to persuade European countries to increase their spending commitment on defence from 2per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 4 per cent of GDP. But hold on, shouldn't spending be related not to GDP, but to what governments have available to spend? Shouldn't it be related to a percentage of the budget, rather than the figure for goods and services produced annually? Looking at the US budget for 2015, spending on the military took 16 per cent of all spending. This year, President Trump has persuaded Congress to further increase military spending to $700 billion. In Australia defence spending is less, but it still took up 7 per cent of the 2016-17 budget. Relating defence spending to GDP is misleading, making it look more affordable, and reduces the incentive to find other ways to improve security rather than the economically barren field of the military. Harry Davis, Campbell US on wrong side Given Julie Bishop's enthusiasm for gratuitously pontificating on the behaviour of nations she wants us to hate, perhaps she would also like to comment on the US's performance at the United Nations, over what was expected to be a routine resolution on the merits of breastfeeding, especially in the developing world. It took, apparently, Russia to end America's intimidation of the small developing nations at this session, threatened with US economic sanctions for not supporting the corporate interests of the milk formula manufacturing giants. The Russians must have been taking a break from indiscriminately nerve-gassing the world. How dare they? Alex Mattea, Kingston Solar plan shortsighted It was a shame that, in his haste to tell us that he told us so, all those years ago, Graeme Downie (Letters, July 16) neglected to balance his diatribe with an acknowledgement of the many benefits of domestic feed-in tariffs for solar PV, which operate successfully in many jurisdictions around the world: building local industries and jobs with a future; lowering PV manufacturing costs (through increased demand) so that solar power is now far more affordable; reducing summer peak demand and the resulting bill-raising infrastructure costs, and creating one of the only mechanisms that is enabling us to meet even our inadequate Paris commitments, given federal government ineptitude. He might have noted that lowering current tariffs was just one of 55 options canvassed by the ACCC and that environmental incentives like tariffs account for only a very modest percentage of increases in electricity costs with incentivised over-building of "poles and wires" and retail "competition" contributing far more, without any benefits. But most importantly, while there is a strong case for assisting those on lower incomes to cope with electricity costs, the single worst way to do this is to eliminate one of the few effective policies that is helping to build a better and ultimately more affordable energy system. Felix MacNeill, Dickson Upgrade a joke What a sick, expensive joke the much-vaunted "upgrade" of Constitution Avenue turned out to be. As I recall, we were given to expect an impressive boulevard that would dignify its name and complement the grandeur of Anzac Parade, which it intersects. Instead, what did we get? A ridiculously sinuous track from Civic to Russell, composed of four of the narrowest lanes imaginable, approximately two of which are available for private use. The absurdity of this fiasco can be seen in the fact that the gigantic trucks that regularly ply this route find it virtually impossible to stay wholly within one lane, the width of the lane being perhaps a millimetre or two greater than the width of the truck. As for the bus-only lanes, given the number of places at which it's possible to make a left turn, those lanes create a perverse situation whereby the more scrupulous drivers making such a turn delay their move from the right lane to the last moment, a highly unnatural manoeuvre that scarcely conduces to safe driving conditions. It's almost beyond comprehension that any sane traffic engineer could have come up with such a perverted design for what should have been one of the city's most impressive avenues, and that tens of millions of tax revenue were squandered on such a perversion. G. A. Joseph, Hackett Costly charade Last week I received a circular from my Murrumbidgee Labor representative, Chris Steel, notifying me of "Woden's regeneration". Not a mention of any employment initiatives to drive this regeneration, instead we will be the recipients of a new bus interchange to stage the influx of residents in the new high-rise apartment buildings, such as the twin 27-storey towers announced by Hindmarsh developers, into Barton, Civic and beyond. Never mind the recent research conducted by some of our most eminent ANU researchers ("Evidence should lead planning, not a rush for higher density", canberratimes.com.au, July 13) that shows that "packing people in more densely is good for the environment" may not be true. In addition, we are to be grateful for the next stage of Woden's regeneration that will be a multibillion-dollar light rail corridor, so that a slower tram service can replace the current rapid bus service. This is despite evidence, arising almost on a daily basis, about different forms of new autonomous transport technology that will revolutionise the way urban travel is undertaken, and that is far more economic than light rail. How long can this charade that we call government continue? John L. Smith, Farrer Joyce a bad fit I'm a fan of the Canberra Writers Festival (CWF). In fact, I volunteered in 2017 we had some great speakers. This year however the festival will be opened by Barnaby Joyce ... the disgraced. Why would the CWF give Joyce this honour when he has been such a consistent practitioner of "Canberra bashing", that old tactic beloved by Australia's conservative representatives. Joyce's last attack was pork barrelling as cynical as it was transparent uprooting Canberran public servants and relocating them to Armidale in his own electorate. Their new office was so inadequate they worked from the local McDonald's instead. And we're rewarding this behaviour with the opening talk at our writers' festival? Step back from your keyboards freedom warriors this isn't censorship. The man holds public office. He's an object of fascination to much of the media and seems to delight in the attention. Joyce is afforded the chance to share his views whenever he pleases and recently he's been paid handsomely for it. But is he the right person to open a festival that exists to promote our city? I don't think so, and I imagine many Canberrans think the same prompting the question, what were the festival's organisers thinking? Keaghan Yaxley, O'Connor Passenger transparency Nice to see some factual information related to passenger numbers used to support the case for changes to bus routes 2 and 3 ("New network not the ticket", July 16, pp 1, 6, 7). However, should not this information be available for public consultation purposes for all routes on a weekday/weekend basis? Then the process of changing routes and timetables becomes a far more genuinely consultative process. Nothing like a dose of transparency to enhance consultation related to policy issues that affect many in the ACT. John Landos, Ainslie TO THE POINT GETTING THINGS DONE It is refreshing to see President Trump's astonishing consistency in implementing his electoral program. This is something that our own politicians should do, but they are not likely to. Instead, they hate him for doing what he publicly promised to do, which is anathema for the vast majority of our career politicians. Mario Moldoveanu, Frankston, Vic THANKS IN ORDER? Will Trump personally thank Putin for his invaluable assistance in the 2016 election? Thos Puckett, Ashgrove LEADING THE WAY The amount of mass protests against Donald Trump at home and abroad leaves one wondering whether he is making America great again or taking that country, the leader of the free world, to the dogs? Rajend Naidu, Glenfield, NSW OUR SICK SYSTEM Perhaps the continuing damming reports that seem to endlessly flow from Canberra hospital, failing accreditation, strikes, corridor nurses, would have been better managed if Barr had not chosen to squander taxpayers' money on light rail. This would not have then necessitated endless rate rises, the selling off of assets, and the quick decline of Canberra into Third World status, with people who are already hard up picking up the lion's share of the bill. Ian Jannaway, Monash BIRDS OF A FEATHER Senators Michaelia Cash and David Leyonhjelm seem to have much in common. If they haven't already, they should get together to share their attitudes towards women. Susan MacDougall, Scullin CHILDREN SUFFERING We still have children held in indefinite detention on Nauru. These children will have and continue to suffer from PTSD. When is this govt going to stop this inhumanity? Sue Cory, Edge Hill SHOW THE VIDEO If the Raiders are so confident in the penalty they have applied to Jack Wighton ("Wighton paying for Lodge debacle", July 16, p56) why don't they release the video for everyone to make up their own minds? Jim Derrick, Florey LABOR RUCTIONS The public slanging match between Messrs Latham and Richardson is simply a sideshow. There are clowns to the left and jokers to right. Labor is stuck in the middle. Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW HOLDING A GRUDGE Commiserations to the Croatians on their gallant loss. As a loyal former Pom I proudly say "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It's only been 603 years since Agincourt. M. Moore, Bonython Email: [email protected]. Send from the message eld, not as an attached le. Fax: 6280 2282. Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Canberra Times, PO Box 7155, Canberra Mail Centre, ACT 2610. Keep your letter to 250 words or less. References to Canberra Times reports should include date and page number. Letters may be edited. Provide phone number and full home address (suburb only published). Most Viewed in National Loading Morning & Afternoon NewsletterDelivered MonFri. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/act/protection-of-feral-horses-bad-for-our-water-20180716-p4zru5.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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savetopnow · 7 years ago

Text

2018-03-28 09 BIT COIN now

BIT COIN

@AmberBaldet

Reminder: It’s not good enough to be right; you need to be right at the right time.

i just published "drowning in tokens: a pragmatists take on perceived scarcity and artificial demand" https://medium.com/@Melt_Dem/drowning-in-tokens-184ccfa1641a …

LGBTQ devs & players speak up about the need for authentic queer culture in games - Gamasutra http://dlvr.it/QMBHjm pic.twitter.com/m0NhAhZxa8

@AriDavidPaul

@ErikVoorhees

If someone proposes that "blockchain can solve X"... ask them "Which blockchain?" If they are confused by that question, they may not know what they're talking about.

too good https://twitter.com/Annrhefn/status/977966087458447361 …

@Excellion

So many ways to use #ifpaytt with @IFTTT! #LightningNetwork https://twitter.com/shesek/status/978723036739375105 …

BlockStream Introduces Lightning Applications With The Week of LApps https://ift.tt/2GcrP65

Lightning Publisher ーLNをつかった有料記事がつくれるWord Press プラグイン。これだ！ https://github.com/ElementsProject/wordpress-lightning-publisher …

#WeekOfLapps, 6 of 7: If Pay Then That Trigger IFTTT actions with Bitcoin Lightning payments! $ npx ifpaytt -t [chargeToken] -k [iftttKey] -x BTC --price-lightup_room404 0.00001 --price-vend_item3 0.000063 https://github.com/ElementsProject/ifpaytt …https://blockstream.com/2018/03/27/ifpaytt-brings-lightning-micropayments-to-ifttt.html …

@KevinRose

can't wait to read this!! https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/976850741985009664 …

So many cool topics in this episode...more reasons to use the sauna. https://twitter.com/foundmyfitness/status/975769511788929024 …

Happy Wednesday, much love to you all.

My first job was also $4.25/hr making bread sticks at Olive Garden. Then I got a job as a cashier at Computer City https://twitter.com/btaylor/status/970010441702260736 …

@Melt_Dem

Working on a new paper about how remote, distributed computing can lower transaction costs: "Extremely Cloud and Incredibly Coase"

@Naval

From the afterword to “The Three Body Problem” by Cixin Liu.pic.twitter.com/H1Yh0oRPZE

In Conversation with @naval & @rrhoover: Communities, Investing & Technology https://medium.com/@UtsavSomani/in-conversation-with-naval-ryan-communities-investing-technology-d4ce96c8cbbb …

Wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook airdrops a coin. A wide distribution “faircoin” that literally buys good will, turns users into believers, and sets up for commerce.

This is why we need blockchain-based social media. Open source, decentralized, censorship-free and permissionlessly programmable. https://twitter.com/fchollet/status/976569442728525824 …

The best sci-if really belongs in the non-fiction category.

@NeerajKA

crypto makes you hyper aware of risk but it also makes it normal to sling around millions dollars on a website some random person made

The ultra rare Muzzy formation. What could it mean? https://twitter.com/LucasProto/status/978732491094876161 …

“Frank Becomes A Bitcoin Maximalist”pic.twitter.com/7Ml2OMphbM

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2018 Coin Center Annual Dinner. Find out how you can get tickets or sponsor a table here: https://coincenter.org/dinner pic.twitter.com/b7GRIDhb2J

I’m so mad about Glen’s Shaw closing

@NickSzabo4

Sometimes trusted third parties are just blatant liars. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/978714961450061826 …

This is analogous to central banks debasing your fiat currency. Central banks in Bretton Wood: We will peg fiat to gold. People: And you won't debase it? CBs: No! Of course not. Few leaders can resist to temptations to abuse power. Except George Washington and Satoshi. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/978714961450061826 …

"Mental transaction costs raise fundamental barriers to customer acceptance of fine-grained bundling and pricing." Lightning can be great for many things, but pay-per-click & similar are jumping off the same cliff as many prior micro/nano payment attempts. http://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/micropayments-and-mental-transaction-costs.pdf …

@SatoshiLite

Coinbase made it into Silicon Valley’s intro!pic.twitter.com/HRGJHxlSiR

pic.twitter.com/770PrXdNZC

@TuurDemeester

Bitmain may be calling bluff on ETH transition to proof-of-stake. https://twitter.com/CryptominedCom/status/978676674089836546 …

Bitcoin On Chain Transaction Volume (USD) Jan 2017 - Current Jan 2018 - Currentpic.twitter.com/9xhjqZ4vlV

Some photos of a similar armada chest: https://colonialarts.com/products/iron-bound-armada-chest …

See for example this documentation from @TREZOR: https://doc.satoshilabs.com/trezor-user/securitybestpractices.html#using-passphrase-encrypted-seeds …

@VitalikButerin

I think we should genetically engineer our children so that their brains have hash and elliptic curve operation precompiles.

It still amazes me that academic fields, connected by co-citation, are arranged in a ring. Is there a missing "dark field" in the middle that we will find someday to connect it all together well?pic.twitter.com/LIK8a9pqXK

Premature recursion is the root of all premature recursion. https://twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/973023915382530048 …

@WhalePanda

Oh boy "Student suspended for drawing stick figure with gun" http://www.wafb.com/story/37814598/student-suspended-for-drawing-stick-figure-holding-gun …

That moment when one of your personalities tries to warn your other personality through Twitter.pic.twitter.com/3PKVlvMWzD

I loved how @AriDavidPaul called out @justinsuntron. We need more of this. Also for future reference: if someone calls their own coin "the new #Bitcoin", it's always a scam.

@aantonop

Bitcoin Q&A: Inflation and debt systems https://youtu.be/6CwxHiKf27A

Thread https://twitter.com/matthew_d_green/status/978658249921781761 …

Get a 25% discount for We Are Developers with code: ANTONOPOULOS-25 https://twitter.com/WeAreDevs/status/978571501183164416 …

... but PEANUT BUTTER!

@brian_armstrong

Coinbase made it into Silicon Valley’s intro!pic.twitter.com/HRGJHxlSiR

The internet costs $100-200 billion to run annually (ISP revenues). The cost to build the internet's infrastructure was over $1 trillion. Crypto is only $330 billion market cap today. We are still in the early days. The capital injection over next 3-5 years will be staggering.

Great energy at the @coinbase Women of Silicon Valley happy hour! #WomenInTechpic.twitter.com/iJHlyw0pfm

Presenting the all-new Toshi DApp browsing experience! Discover and use the best DApps on the decentralized web. https://blog.toshi.org/presenting-the-all-new-toshi-%C3%B0app-browsing-experience-566c6d01dce4 …

@gavinandresen

We’ve created https://doublespend.cash -- a tool demonstrating Bitcoin XT’s ability to monitor double spends on the Bitcoin Cash network

Damned if you do, damned if you don't? http://gavinthink.blogspot.com/2018/03/precautionary-principle-problems.html?spref=tw …

@lopp

key takeaway from a dive into ICO data and success rates: 81% of ICO’s were Scams, ~6% Failed, ~5% had Gone Dead, and ~8% went on to trade on a exchange https://medium.com/satis-group/ico-quality-development-trading-e4fef28df04f …pic.twitter.com/Xcj4jvvB8V

@prestonjbyrne

I embrace being one of those twitter feeds split roughly into thirds of shitposting, tech rants, and cat photos

Q: What is conservatism today? Me: https://twitter.com/blogTO/status/978662438022340608?s=19 …

An AR that fires 55 grain, .223 ammo is not even close to a “weapon of war”. We already do background checks. And “high capacity” magazines were already banned in the 90s & had zero effect on crime. LORD.... https://twitter.com/kleebsm/status/978738119057989632 …

Better than buying beer? Beer has not lost over 60 percent of its value in 3 months the way Bitcoin and other cryptos have. Those students who bought crypto-junk with their student loans in the last six months are mostly bankrupt now. The issue how many did buy those Shitcoins https://twitter.com/BzhClair/status/978736450203156480 …

LISTEN NOW: http://fdrl.st/9n8

@rogerkver

Too many people don’t understand that: GUN CONTROL IS GUN VIOLENCEpic.twitter.com/rIrEKkSCHr

Software developers far too often underestimate the importance of business developers.

Thanks to @MoneyToken Bitcoin Cash holders can leverage their BCH holdings into spending cash, while continuing to hold their BCH positions. That's why I'm now an advisor for http://moneytoken.com

The 1MB limit was intended to stop spam. The 1MB limit ended up stoping actual transactions.pic.twitter.com/TP1D7Ykr4G

@starkness

Tonight: @lightning Labs CTO @roasbeef to speak @SFBitcoinDevs about lnd 0.4, the beta release for the live bitcoin network! https://www.meetup.com/SF-Bitcoin-Devs/events/248815578/ …

The Times 21/Mar/2018 Bitcoin will the become world's single currency, tech chief says. https://twitter.com/Beautyon_/status/976511842926432256 …

Yes

Well, I am 15. I don't believe you need lots of experience to find security vulnerabilities.

@twobitidiot

This is pretty great crypto snark if you aren’t uptight about it. https://twitter.com/dandarkpill/status/978391416102584320 …

Sometimes trusted third parties are just blatant liars. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/978714961450061826 …

This is genius: Leaving Facebook isn't an option for everyone, so Firefox's new Facebook Container Extension lets you continue using Facebook, but quarantines your identity into a container that third-party cookies and trackers can't touch. https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/facebook-container-extension/ …

Subscribe to my Daily Bit for more: http://tumblr.us3.list-manage2.com/subscribe?u=c39de4e536e5e86994c064566&id=ffbb7d92cf …

Bitcoin Magazine

Twitter Abruptly Bans Cryptocurrency Ads — Beginning Today

Students Use Loans to Fund Cryptocurrency Investment: Study

Coinbase to Support ERC20 Technical Standards “In the Coming Months”

Op Ed: Why Korea Could Be the First Cryptocurrency-Powered Nation

Op Ed: A Quick-Start Token Sale Compliance Guide: What You Need to Know

Bitcoin Price

Cryptocurrency market declines slightly; Monero devs say no to ASIC mining – March 26

Bitcoin continues to trade sideways. Traffic at crypto exchanges declines – March 23

Bulls start to exhaust as Bitcoin price falls back down to $8,500 range – March 22

As Bitcoin surges past $9000, Ethereum fails to make its own recovery beyond $600 – March 21

Bitcoin price stagnates at $8500, Ethereum continues struggles after weekend dip – March 20

Bitcoin Reddit

Day 6 LApp: Ifpaytt Brings Lightning Micropayments to IFTTT

A BIG Bitcoin Billboard in Downtown Toronto looks great!

Bringing Bitcoin (Lightning supported!) to Streamers With CoinTippy

My wife and I bought Bitcoin for our 2 year old daughter. [Excited]

Bitrefill's node now has over 1 bitcoin of capacity on lightning. ⚡️

Bitcoin.com

Russian, Chinese, Korean Associations to Sue Internet Giants Over Banned Crypto Ads

Twitter Confirms Restrictions on ICOs and Cryptocurrency Token Sale Ads

Germany’s Tourism Board Accepts Bitcoin Payments

PR: Ubank Launches Blockchain – Based Platform to Enable Mass Consumer Investment in Cryptocurrency

Bitflyer Increases Bitcoin Adoption with Record Number of Users

Brave New Coin

Cryptocurrency complaints to Consumer Protection Agencies way up

Investment Watch: A guide to emerging cryptocurrency technologies

Crypto exchange moves to the home of online gambling

The lies spread by bankers about cryptocurrencies

Crypto Taxes? There’s an App for that...

CCN

Central Banks: Blockchain Will Overhaul Securities Settlements

Poll: Two-Fifths of South Korean Millennials Keen to Invest in Bitcoin

China’s Ant Financial Touts Blockchain, Nixes ICO Chatter

Reddit Disables Bitcoin Payments Amid Coinbase Commerce Overhaul, But Are They Gone Forever?

Bitcoin Bull Mark Yusko Raising Capital for $500 Million Cryptoasset Hedge Fund

Coin Journal

Blockstream Introduces Lightning Applications With The Week of LApps

Bitify Now Looks Like a Darkweb Marketplace

Cboe Letter to SEC Argues Industry Can Support Cryptocurrency ETFs

NEM-based Blockchain Platform ProximaX Taps Decentralized Applications Market

Circle Hires Naeem Ishaq as Chief Financial Officer

Coin Telegraph

EU Markets Watchdog Increases Requirements For Crypto Financial Derivatives

Chilean Exchanges Seek Clear Regulations On Crypto After Banks Denied Them Services

Crypto Exchange Bitfinex Won’t Support Venezuela’s Petro, Following US Gov’t Ban

Bithumb Exchange To Bring Crypto Payments To 8K South Korean Merchants By 2019

Singapore, Japan Associations Sign Agreement For Joint Fintech Development

CoinSpectator Blog

You can now pay with crypto in over 6,000 South Korean Shops

Gibraltar leads on ICO regulation

How Blockchain can Solve Problems for Online Gambling Sites?

Blockchain-based Container Shipping Platform 300cubits to start the TEU ICO on 12th April 2018

TON Pool ICO Platform: universal new generation crypto currency platform

Coindesk

Bank of England to Test DLT Use in New Settlement System

AMD Bolsters Crypto Mining in Latest GPU Software Update

Massachusetts Halts 5 ICOs on 'Unregistered Securities' Grounds

Reddit Drops Bitcoin Payment Option For 'Gold' Membership

Ford Patent Envisions Car-to-Car Crypto Transactions

Crypto Currency Reddit

Blockchain Development Tools: The next step in enterprise blockchain adoption

Vitalik Buterin meets the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs

Owner Of A.C. Milan Tried To Refinance The Club With Bitcoin

Oyster Update - PRL Beta tester applications now open. SHL Explainer Video.

FunFair's (FUN) updated website and roadmap. Beta will be launched early Q2 and the first casino to be operating with Fun will do so by the end of Q2.

NewsBTC

Buyer of Solid Gold Casts of Nelson Mandela’s Hands Pays $10 Million in BTC

Stars of Ireland’s Dragon’s Den Used for Bitcoin Scam Website Without Their Knowledge

Partnership Between Coingate and Prestashop Gives 80,000 Merchants the Ability to Accept Cryptocurrencies

NEO, EOS, LTC, IOTA and Lumens: Altcoins Technical Analysis March 28, 2018

Bitfinex Refuses to List Venezuelan Petro Digital Currency

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Blockchain Development Tools: The next step in enterprise blockchain adoption

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hksowrong-blog · 8 years ago

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Hong Kong and Mainland China

To say that the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China, or more precisely, the Chinese Communist Party, is complicated is somewhat of an understatement. It's also a cliche and made messy by varying historical narratives and both internal political and geopolitical factors. In the world of geopolitics, Hong Kong finds itself in a rather unique position. The city we know as HK today is the result of the long and drawn out retreat of British imperialism. As I've previously mentioned, HK was governed by the British as the result of treaty during the opium wars, with the new territories leased to the British for a period of 100 years in 1898. Just before the lease was set to expire, a deal was made to hand over the whole of HK as not to fracture the city state. With it's empire having declined so drastically in the previous 100 years, the British weren’t exactly thrilled to give up one of their last colonies. While the British theoretically could have handed back just the new territories this could not have happened in practice as the island and Kowloon had become too dependent on the new territories for basic resources such as food and water. If the territories of Hong Kong were fractured, the Island would easily starve in the event of a break down of supply chains despite being such a busy shipping hub. Another reason that Britain was forced to hand over the entirety of Hong Kong was the threat of Chinese invasion. Deng Xiaoping reportedly told Margaret Thatcher that the Chinese could walk in and seize HK in a day if they wanted to. Of course this would have damaged China's international reputation at a vital time of power expansion, though given the jewel that HK is the assertion of sovereignty would have in some ways been a fair trade.

After long talks, it was agreed that HK would be returned to the Chinese as Special Administrative Region (SAR) and governed under a model known as “two systems, one country” for a 50 year transition period. Under this pact, HK is to be considered sovereign in all areas other than foreign policy and defence, which would fall under the auspices of the Chinese government. Hong Kong would then cede to full Chinese control, after which it is unclear as to whether or not HK will remain a SAR. To manage the transition the Chinese Govt. maintains an oversight office to act as a liaison between he governments as well as a People's Liberation Army garrison force.

The SAR status of HK has worked to varying extents of effectiveness in different areas. HK maintains a decent separation of powers and while not a direct democracy, is arguably much more successful than others. HK's executive branch is quite powerful when compared to most democratic states, and this stems from the fact that the Legislative Council was originally a tool to advise the Governor during early colonial times, whom has had to act with their consent only since 1917. The Chief Executive is not directly chosen by the people, but rather a 1200 member electoral college which is mostly constituted of social and business special interest groups. Given the past circumstances this system is the most democratic system that Hong Kong has ever had. Overall there are all the hallmarks of a well-functioning society: people enjoy decent social welfare systems and a very good public health system, having some of the longest life expectancy rates in Asia, if not the world. The fledgling democracy has however had its sovereignty intruded upon, as several anti-CCP booksellers have been abducted and taken to the mainland 'convinced to return to the mainland' for interrogation/punishment in the last few years. There is a relative amount of respect for the deal in place though given the umbrella revolution was handled by the HK government's police force rather than attracting the heavy hand of the PLA as the Tiananmen square protests did.

From a western perspective, a lot of states and business groups don't like that the Communist Party will eventually reign over Hong Kong. It is feared that the lax regulation and free market attitude will be removed with the imposition of authoritarian and protectionist Chinese laws. It is predicted this outcome would destroy HK as a financial centre due to the imposition of higher taxes, tariffs, lack of transparency and other burdens for corporations. These laissez faire attitudes and internationalism have ingrained themselves into the culture of the SAR. Because HK currently presents itself as such an easy trading environment, people flock here from a myriad of foreign countries. It's easy to find British, continental Europeans, South Africans, Canadians, Americans Kiwis and Australians all over the island, and many other nations such as Arabs and Russians are well-represented too. Not to mention the masses of Indonesian and Filipinos domestic helpers and a healthy diaspora from Africa and the Indian subcontinent. What makes HK so valuable for all of these people is that it acts as a gateway to China, a comfortable middle-ground made easier by English being so widely spoken. If these people don't see the opportunity of a free market with great trade links then they'll just move to somewhere else like Singapore. These laissez faire attitudes and internationalism have somewhat ingrained themselves into the culture of the local culture. In order to preserve the uniqueness a lot of the west sees it preferable to delay any changes to the system of governance.

The Chinese however have a pretty different perspective of Hong Kong's situation. They're still pretty salty about the opium war stuff, and rightly so – they were a mighty empire for thousands of years and then out of nowhere had the living shit beaten out of them. As such, they see getting HK back as nothing other than a long-delayed triumph of justice. The idea that Britain could have continued to hold on to HK is nothing other than insulting for China. As it is, they are still not happy about the current delay in full control. Allowing the one country, two systems policy is seen as an infuriating concession to placate the west. They feel that they are quite within their rights to take it by force should the need arise, and potential needs to do so are present. In the event of escalation in the South China Sea debacle, China could take early control of Hong Kong to show that it is prepared to assert it's sovereignty. Ignoring the sovereignty issue, one of the real dangers that China perceives from the HK situation is that of insurrection potential. The communist party already has claims to lands which want full independence from them such as Tibet and Taiwan, as well as a host of border disputes like those with India. One thing it doesn't need is Hong Kong to provide inspiration for those provinces, and events like the 'umbrella revolution' and the Mong Kok riots have potential to provide such inspiration. If Hong Kong remains its own thing, it also poses the annoying risk of sowing destabilising democratic ideas to the main land. Having said this, China recognises that HK's uniqueness is also valuable, and they do not want to kill their golden goose. While it acts as a gateway for the world into China, it reciprocally acts as a gateway for China (and Chinese products) out to the rest of the world. For example, the electronics wholesale mecca of Shenzehn is located right on the border – no mere coincidence.

There are many inhabitants of Hong Kong, particularly those with vested business interests, that are in favour of the return to Chinese rule. However it would be ignorant to suggest that these people are representative of the entire population or have nothing to do with the reality of eventual handover. It would also be fair to say that many Hong Kongers look at the Chinese Government with some amount of uncertainty, if not distrust. While big money from China is never complained about as it comes across the border, younger people generally have a distaste for mainland Chinese. There are many factors contributing to this ranging from cultural fears of the erosion Hong Kong's local Cantonese dialect to more banal matters such as the hideous manners shown by some mainland Chinese. I've heard a lot of Hong Kong Chinese utter the slogan “fucking mainlanders” in only a few months here, usually when exasperated by the lack of adherence to the orderliness or social norms inherited from the British. When considering this difference, it is not unreasonable to say that Hong Kong has it's own culture distinct from the rest of China. Many feel that the local way of doing things will be ignored, if not suppressed as it could be seen as a symbol of hegemony, once the CCP takes over. Part of this fear is substantiated by the fact that China has interfered in HK's sovereignty in cases such as the billionaire Xiao Jianhua and several book-sellers being “voluntarily” repatriated to the mainland in order to assist Chinese authorities in their investigations. Perhaps a more direct assertion of power by China though is the penalisation and disqualification of Legislative Council members for acts of subversion when taking theirs oaths of office. Because of the extent to which China is perceived to be slowly eroding the 'one country, two systems' policy many people have taken to referring to it as 'one country, one and a half systems'.

It is important to note though that these are highly political cases in which individuals have been tied to factional in-fighting within the Chinese Communist Party or the publication of details about Party members at sensitive times. These sorts of issues represent an almost existential threat to the CCP and certain CCP members so it is not really surprising that they have occurred.

The main fear which exists on a grass-roots level though relates to everyday democratic freedoms of speech and expression. Many people are afraid that their freedoms will be restricted by mechanisms such as “the great firewall of China” and “Chengguan” style 'peace officers' (although triads currently serve as something not unlike Chengguan in Hong Kong at the moment). These are serious concerns for people, as shown by the fact that this stuff has led to giant protests – the 'umbrella revolution' and Mong Kok riots, as well as the rise of significant 'localist' and 'separatist' movements in local politics. As mentioned above though, this subversion just isn't something which the CCP considers acceptable in an amicable delegation of power.

Anyway, this is turning into a grand old essay so I’m going to leave it here and post the other half sometime in the next few weeks when I can be bothered finishing it. I’ll also chuck in some links by people who can explain this shit in a much more concise manner because holy shit how did that become an essay my writing aint that.

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