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beauknowsblogging-blog · 5 years ago

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Video Notes

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang – 20 Minute Short

· Markus “Notch Persson, of Sweden, built the game entirely by himself

· He always wanted to be a game developer since boyhood, programming since age 8

· Persson’s first individual take on game development, after having a job helping build other’s games, was a personal project he designed and was to take up to 12 months to make. That game is now called Minecraft

· Persson quit his job to try and keep up with the Minecraft demand. It went from a beta testing, 7 employee managed game, to exponential growth; Minecraft not long after its launch was making $250,000 a day!

· The Mojang founders are dedicated to developing a company that they want to work at for a long time to come, not sell for a quick profit, and this business model maintains the integrity of the game and its origins

· Mojang never received a penny from an investment party, it has never spent a penny on marketing, as all of it has become from blog users raving about it and the power of word of mouth. Entirely self-funded!

· Minecraft is not a linear game with tasks or objectives, but rather skills and tools and the power of the imagination to build practically anything

· Incredibly, Minecraft is still being built and developed, but more or less has been able to be played in a beta version since practically inception. All along the way, things have been added/improved and even at one point during ongoing development

· Mojang’s follow up game is ironically called the “The Game Which Is Not Announced Yet ™” and they already know it will be hard to top Minecraft

· As of February 2013, Minecraft continued to sell over $10,000 copies per day. As of May 2019, Mojang announced that Minecraft has sold over 175 million copies, and has over 200 million users in its free Chinese version already

Adults Try Minecraft

· Minecraft is the digital equivalent of Legos, built in 2009

· 2 game modes: Creative (limitless materials and no threats) or Survival, threatened by creatures and limited resources

· Although a much more preferred game for children on behalf of adults, it seems not a game for adults preference because of the time dedication

Moms Play Minecraft

· Minecraft?! I thought it was “Mindcraft” hahaha

· “What is the object of the game?” (There isn’t one)

· Totally zero to 100 once threatened and unprepared

· Endless creativity based option versus alternatives: shooter, violence, etc

Immersive Education Overview

· Immersive education is used to better engage students to material via a game-type atmosphere and mode of use for collaboration/education

· Can create/customize avatar to appear more like oneself & environment to resemble classroom or alternative landscape conducive to learning

· Immersive education, while not always designed for non-techonolgical courses, is a powerful tool designed to increase engagement and connection from teachers to students

· Unfortunately, Immersive education continues to worsen the social lack of interaction (anti-social) with others personally and face-to-face, despite a creative and significant alterative way to increase attention and students to material (I think that immersive education will be most successful in alternative education settings, but we should not lean on technology to learn as our primary resource, because the internet will eventually become that no matter what for each of us professionally)

China’s Web Junkies

· China has an internet addiction treatment center

· It seems like a horrible place where, rather than give people alternatives to using the internet like being outside and activities, they tie you up and make you have to quit cold turkey despite possibly thinking about using it still. Instead of healing oneself by not simply using the internet with an alternative, they are more of a detention center than treatment center

· In 2008, China declared internet addiction to be a clinical disorder, saying it’s a top health threat to its teenagers

· They say “treatment at this center includes a mix of therapy and “Military” drills, often lasting 3-4 months.

· “Our study shows that people who spend more than six hours on the internet for something other than work or study again, for other than work or study, are most likely to become addicted to the internet.” –Tao Ran, Addiction Specialist, Director of Daxing Center

· Parents are encouraged to stay during treatment and participate in therapy sessions, but this seems to be a conflict between parent and child

· It seems that the bigger issue amongst those addicted to the internet is loneliness, and that from this separation from daily life of loneliness, the kids in the treatment center bond over their interests in common, while the world continues to tell them they have a problem, instead of using their passion for the internet in a constructive and alternatively useful manner and practice to be beneficial society members.

· When somebody is lonely, they can always look to the internet for companionship, and this is a growing problem and concern

· One parent even drugged their child with sleeping pills to bring them to the treatment facility; this to me is a problem with parenting or lack thereof and the notion that if parenting is not done right at an early age, the child will more or less parent themselves based on a simple feel good or feel bad emotional system of right versus wrong or yes versus no

Video Game Addiction/Your Brain on Video Games

· Is video game addiction real? My opinion is yes and the ‘high’ or brain chemical levels react to the desire or need to play video games and that change biologically/physiologically is enough to warrant the label addiction from my point of view

· At first it may be an interest, a positive result, or emotional response to being safe and victorious in a game, but then can quickly become, if not in balance with other activities, feelings of anxiety, depression, agitation etc when not receiving their “fix” of gaming an adequate amount of time

· It is unique and “cool” yet concerning that the immersive virtual reality worlds in gaming we have entered and created are now coming back to us and entering our world more and more realistically and not providing a balance of separation from them, but rather taking over more of our time and energy in the real ‘finite’ world

· New Zealand has a national E-gaming team, oh no. I think at a certain point this has to stop being about the money and we need to start encouraging people to know that this is not the real world and that it can be fun in smaller doses, but shouldn’t take over or be the primary foundation of their schedules.

· If you are addicted to video games/alcohol then go work in the game development/alcohol industry, are you still an addict? Interesting parallel, but my answer would be yes from a medical/clinical point of view, even if you are capitalizing/profiting from your time spent now versus before

Growing Up Online

· 90% of teenagers are online, and the number is only growing

· Social media and the internet are seen by teenagers as an extension of real life and the continuation of their relationships not separate, essentially always keeping them connected even when apart. The new “currency,” if you don’t use it you will fall behind and stop becoming relevant or able to keep up with others

· Behind the comfort of a screen, people are much freer to behave in ways they would not normally. At first it may be an experiment of expression, afterwards becoming their identity and their escape from reality and the escape/decision to go with the identity that is cooler or more popular or welcoming and secure emotionally

· There is a fine line on the internet between privacy and public and the use of the information once it is out there is anybody’s and safety for children is the top priority for parents and their families/communities

· The internet is public, despite any claims to personal property, it is extremely hard to enforce and therefore it is said that the inaccessibility to children’s information by parents is considered invasive once they do and the internet has caused the biggest generational divide since rock and roll

· The internet is an enhancer, an accelerator of information and emotion and aspects of life that happen in the real world. A magnifying glass that inspects and magnifies the intensity of real-world feelings and questions and the way we go about solving them or letting them destroy us. It can and should be used positively, but often is misused and hurtful to others

· Cyberbullying is real and exists and is a serious issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly or any different than bullying in person and is truly concerning and making parenting and growing up for the children increasingly more difficult. We should provide them more ways to be trained and versed in cyber defense and protection so they can withstand the negative and embrace the positive of online/internet

Generation Like

· The current generation is dabbing in the currency of ‘likes’ and social media and broadcasting oneself out there in the world is a way for them to create an online identity and build oneself up emotionally. Unfortunately, this isn’t the real world and is sadly is just a temporary high and will forever be chased to increase unless we realize it is not what matters most

· Social media and the profile of individuals is free advertising and marketing for companies and data creation, collection, and free word of mouth

· We are all walking billboards and our own personal media and marketing companies/agencies etc. Therefore, we can provide exposure and time for free for companies and endorsements and through the power of connecting and relationships direct or indirect, people and products can connect and work together to increase their popularity and monetary value

· Consumers are the marketers if not more so than before. They want to be included and feel above or more involved in the conversation and by doing so they are rewarded and valued

· In a way social media is a real life hunger games version and the game is never ending and there will always be new players replacing those eliminated and just trying to live and survive for a share of the monetary value if possible for a split moment in time and doing so by exploring themselves and their interests and connections

· Fame by association, the interactivity, kids are using the very marketing techniques used on themselves and turning them onto others as increasingly manipulating middle people but appropriately getting their share of the cut on the things they endorse and support. I don’t think this is wrong but there is only a limited amount of exposure and ability to get a share of the pie even though it seems to be endless in the long run the short term it is a finite amount.

How Facebook Shares Your Information

· Shadow contacts/profile: the information you can’t see or control

· Information by people who know you that start to piece together a profile or an account about you and come at you from an aggregate group of sources of other sources that are connected to you in order to advertise and market to you

· Altogether, Facebook KNOWS you and your connections and it crosses lines and boundaries through connections and databases between people and connections in order to link everything and every one together simply by aggregate information. IE: Facebook is the data gatherers and organizers, and once they have them it is theirs because you didn’t provide all the outside info to them

· GO EUROPE! Battling versus Facebook because that information whether provided directly or indirectly is YOUR information and yours to decide who does and doesn’t have access to it. SCARY STUFF!

#phew

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kettumbar · 3 years ago

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MOTHER DOG

A Decentralized Meme Token with Decentralized Exchange and NFTs Marketplace

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Airdrop : 5%

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Pre-bargain : 300 Billion

Start : 2021–08–25

End : 2021–09–25

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Medium : https://motherdog.medium.com/

Author: ket tumbar

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2202323

BEP-20 Address: 0xde4b8cb6dBbA80E80041bA69fa115c5Ec58fb6AE

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thelagendjz4 · 3 years ago

Text

MOTHER DOG

A Decentralized Meme Token with Decentralized Exchange And NFTs Marketplace

About

The decentralized thought of blockchain makes the groundbreaking thought of a representative economy where the neighborhood can be circulated to the genuine substance producers and organization customers who make regard. Picture coins, of course, fill no authentic need right now, and most of them were made as a way to deal with make a fast buck. A part of these coins have gained notoriety since they're progressed by convincing VIPs, and retail monetary patrons have guided up their expenses by propelling them vivaciously on the web.

Tokenomic MDOG

Name : Motherdog

Ticker : MDOG

Supply : 1000 Billion

Devour : half

In Circulation : 10%

Pre-bargain : 30%

Advancing : 5%

Airdrop : 5%

PRE-SALE

-Supply : 1000 Billion

Pre-bargain : 300 Billion

Start : 2021–08–25

End : 2021–09–25

Time : 1 Month

Recognize Currencies : BNB

Trading scale 1 BNB : 1.000.000.000 MDOG

Max aggregate assembled : 3 BNB

We will finish the presale time when it shows up at the Hardcap and dispatch rapidly.

Motherdog Swap

Burning

Stage 1 : 20%

Stage 2 : 10 %

Stage 3 : 20%

Motherdog wallet on android and ios

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Whitepaper : https://mother.dog/whitepaper

Twitter : https://twitter.com/motherdogBSC

Telegram : https://t.me/motherdogBSC

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Medium : https://motherdog.medium.com/

Author: Thelagend jz4

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2577207

BSC Wallet Address: 0x61e238964a4676C2AC8D830714A95618B3De942B

0 notes

khanshiqqheil · 3 years ago

Text

MOTHER DOG

Decentralized Meme Token with Decentralized Exchange and NFTs Marketplace

About

The decentralized thought of blockchain makes the groundbreaking thought of a representative economy where the neighborhood can be circulated to the genuine substance producers and organization customers who make regard. Picture coins, of course, fill no authentic need right now, and most of them were made as a way to deal with make a fast buck. A part of these coins have gained notoriety since they're progressed by convincing VIPs, and retail monetary patrons have guided up their expenses by propelling them vivaciously on the web.

Motherdog Swap

Motherdog wallet

Motherdog mobile wallet for Binance Smart Chain /BEP20 and Ethereum /ERC20/ERC223 tokens.

Provide a fully security audited system that makes it simple to store your, designed for iOS and Android, provide the best possible experience and ease of use.

Burning

Stage 1 : 20%

Stage 2 : 10 %

Stage 3 : 20%

Tokenomic MDOG

Name : Motherdog

Ticker : MDOG

Supply : 1000 Billion

Devour : half

In Circulation : 10%

Pre-bargain : 30%

Advancing : 5%

Airdrop : 5%

PRE-SALE

Supply : 1000 Billion

Pre-bargain : 300 Billion

Start : 2021–08–25

End : 2021–09–25

Time : 1 Month

Recognize Currencies : BNB

Trading scale 1 BNB : 1.000.000.000 MDOG

Max aggregate assembled : 3 BNB

We will finish the presale time when it shows up at the Hardcap and dispatch rapidly.

Learn More:

Website : https://mother.dog/

Whitepaper : https://mother.dog/whitepaper

Twitter : https://twitter.com/motherdogBSC

Telegram : https://t.me/motherdogBSC

GitHub : https://github.com/Motherdog

Medium : https://motherdog.medium.com/

Author: KHAN SHIQ QHEIL

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2550289

BEP-20 Address: 0xCb8718048fecb50c2369BFD1EAD4B3686f42B86d

0 notes

batupermata · 3 years ago

Text

MOTHER DOG

Decentralized Meme Token with Decentralized Exchange and NFTs Marketplace

About

Tokenomic MDOG

Name : Motherdog

Ticker : MDOG

Supply : 1000 Billion

Devour : half

In Circulation : 10%

Pre-bargain : 30%

Advancing : 5%

Airdrop : 5%

PRE-SALE

Supply : 1000 Billion

Pre-bargain : 300 Billion

Start : 2021–08–25

End : 2021–09–25

Time : 1 Month

Recognize Currencies : BNB

Trading scale 1 BNB : 1.000.000.000 MDOG

Max aggregate assembled : 3 BNB

We will finish the presale time when it shows up at the Hardcap and dispatch rapidly.

Motherdog Swap

Burning

Stage 1 : 20%

Stage 2 : 10 %

Stage 3 : 20%

Motherdog wallet on android and ios

ACCURATE INFORMATION:

Website : https://mother.dog/

Whitepaper : https://mother.dog/whitepaper

Twitter : https://twitter.com/motherdogBSC

Telegram : https://t.me/motherdogBSC

GitHub : https://github.com/Motherdog

Medium : https://motherdog.medium.com/

Author: Batu permata

Bitcointalk Profile: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1875984

BEP-20 Address: 0xB38D41f33bcfB36b083F6AC9078003e5F45f6525

0 notes

divulgacion-alternativa · 3 years ago

Text

Ben Ful Links | August 16/2021:

Source: benjaminfulford.net

The publication does not contain links.

The March 11, 2011 Attack on Fukushima and Its Aftermath

After the Fukushima mass murder event of March 11, 2011 (3.11) the Rothschilds sent a representative to explain why Fukushima was attacked. He said they planned to move their Asian headquarters from Tokyo, Japan to North Korea. To accomplish this they intended to move 40 million Japanese from Greater Tokyo to North Korea. They even showed me a map of their planned industrial zone there.

Prime Minister Kan Naoto, who was in power at the time of the attack, told a packed press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan that he had been encouraged to evacuate Tokyo in the aftermath of the attack. Not a single corporate media outlet reported this.

The other thing that happened was that immediately after 3.11, Israeli crime minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Prime Minister Kan and told him that if Japan did not hand over its entire $7 trillion or so in foreign currency, then electro-magnetic weapons would be used to cause Mt. Fuji to erupt.

However, at this point, something unexpected happened. Hundreds of earthquakes hit the Atlantic Island of La Palma immediately after 311. There was a very real danger that it would collapse into the ocean and cause a 100-meter tsunami to hit the U.S. Eastern and European Southern coasts. The earthquakes stopped only after the U.S. military contacted the White Dragon Society and promised that no further attacks would be allowed against Japan.

Nonetheless, the Khazarian Mafia headquartered in Switzerland succeeded in re-imposing a slave Prime Minister on Japan. Abe Shinzo was put in place via a fraudulent election. Following this, he was invited to be a keynote speaker at the gathering of Western oligarchs in Davos, Switzerland.

At Davos, Abe told the international community that China was like Germany before WW1. What he was referring to was a plan by George Bush Sr. to have the G7, Russia, and Japan all gang up and attack China. The plan was to divide China into five or six separate countries to prevent it from ever again being a threat to Khazarian Mafia power.

Abe set up an openly fascist government and proceeded to carry out a massive, secret military build-up to participate in Bush’s planned invasion of China. A huge amount of military equipment was secretly stockpiled in the Kumamoto region of Japan that is nearest to China. At the same time, Abe set up a biological warfare facility disguised as a veterinary school.

However, the planned invasion of China was called off because both Russia and the Pentagon refused to go along. The Pentagon has done war game after war game simulating an attack on China and the end result is always the same. The war turns nuclear, 90% of humanity dies and the northern hemisphere of the planet becomes uninhabitable.

In 2016, a series of mysterious earthquakes, each centered exactly on a Japanese military base, destroyed this equipment. The earthquake seismographs all indicated they were artificial earthquakes. Abe was also secretly poisoned and told that if he did not go along with China he would not be able to receive the antidote, Asian secret society sources say.

At the same time, the White Dragon Society reached out to the global warming faction of the Western elite. If you recall, the year 2000 U.S. presidential election was a contest between the global warming faction under Al Gore and the Nazi fourth Reich faction under George Bush Sr.

The global warming faction, centered around Queen Elizabeth, believed that the environment could be saved by putting a tax on carbon and using the money to pay third-world countries to preserve their forests. The Nazi faction wanted to kill 90% of the global population.

This writer has a tape recording of an invitation to join this faction. They said that in order to preserve the environment it was necessary to eliminate the “useless eaters.” These were people like subsistence farmers who could feed their families but did not work at factories making things. They said that war did not kill enough people so that they would use starvation and disease to accomplish this goal.

This is why the Bush Jr. administration set up biological weapons factories all over the world. They released SARS, Bird Flu, Ebola, Mers, etc. in their attempt to kill people off. At the same time, they subsidized farmers in developed countries to use their grains to produce “biofuel,” instead of food.

However, the plans failed because none of their bio-weapons were able to kill the intended billions of people. The attempt to starve people to death was also stopped after insiders blew the whistle and explained that biofuel subsidies were causing starvation crises in 33 countries. This put an end to those subsidies.

A letter was sent via diplomatic pouch from the UK embassy in Tokyo to Queen Elizabeth asking for her blessing for a campaign similar in scale to World War III but this time the enemy would be “poverty, environmental destruction and everything else that plagues this beautiful but fragile planet we all share.”

Following this, a series of countries, England, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, Italy, etc. decided to join the China Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The multi-trillion-dollar Chinese Belt and Road Initiative followed this. The money was spent building highways, ports, schools, railways, hospitals, bridges, and other such infrastructure around the world.

Japan and the United States were the only major countries that held back from this initiative. They called it a Chinese debt trap. However, it clearly put the Bush Nazi faction on the defensive.

The other thing that happened in 2016 was that the Gnostic Illuminati decided to form a temporary alliance with the British commonwealth to prevent Hillary Clinton (Rockefeller) from becoming president of the United States. A meeting was held in Antarctica on the November 8th, 2016 election day that was attended by Skull and Bones John Kerry and many other members of the secret Western elite.

We have interviewed two people who were present at that meeting. They say a decision was made to flip the election so that designated loser Donald Trump would be elected president with the very votes intended for Clinton. This was accomplished after a firefight between Special Forces at the underground base near Denver Airport took over the election stealing computers on behalf of the Trump forces.

It is interesting to note how in the 2016 election things seemed to be going Clinton’s way and then they suddenly flipped and went Trump’s way. The opposite happened when the Nazi forces regrouped around Rockefeller proxy Joe Biden in 2020 and flipped a real Trump victory into a fraudulent Biden victory. We will get back to that later.

In any case, Trump became president of a bankrupt nation and there really was very little he could do about it. The $23 trillion raised for Barack Obama was running out. Trump tried many things, including tariffs to try to turn the situation around. Remember he also said things like China would buy $200 billion worth of goods every year, He also tried unsuccessfully to take over the World’s largest oil reserves in Venezuela and offered to “buy Greenland.”

However, a nation with a GDP of about $20 trillion and over $200 trillion in debt and unfunded liabilities really has no choice but to go bankrupt. The U.S. corporate government has external payment deadlines every September 30th and January 31st.

In September of 2019, the U.S. was able to avoid bankruptcy only by stealing Japan’s national pension fund. In January of 2020, they failed to make their payments. They were given a two-week grace period lasting until February 16th, 2020 but were unable to make their payments.

That is when all hell broke loose as we all know. The owners of the U.S. corporation lashed out with a massive 5G electromagnetic attack on Wuhan China. Remember, mass deaths began in Wuhan only after 10,000 5G transmission towers were activated, subjecting the population to deadly low-level electromagnetic attacks.

The official story that it was a “coronavirus” is provable nonsense. That is because if it was a biological attack then the pandemic should have spread first to the suburbs of Wuhan and then to other parts of China. Instead, it was restricted exactly to the 5G zones inside Wuhan proper.

After this, the spread of Covid-19 around the world coincided exactly with maps of where 5G networks had been activated. To understand 5G think of the defrost mode of your microwave. That operates at around 200 watts, while 5G is equivalent to about 30 watts. However, if it is transmitted 24 hours a day, it starts producing symptoms that resemble lung disease.

Japan warned the world about this danger after they subjected 5,000 passengers aboard the cruise ship Diamon Princess to 5G and started getting multiple deaths. After this, all 5G was stopped worldwide.

So the Khazarian Mafia was forced to resort to plan B. They went ahead with medical martial law and started renaming influenza, the common cold, pneumonia and tuberculosis, and all sorts of other deaths as being from “Covid-19.” At the same time, they used their access to fiat money printing presses to pay huge sums of money to doctors to diagnose Covid-19. Since Western doctors operate under a military regime, they were told to go along with the pandemic story or lose their licenses.

The Khazarian Mafia also used their corporate media to spread pandemic fear porn 24/7. Also, since the KM failed to kill their planned billions of people with 5G radiation, and since all their bio-weapons had proved ineffective, they next resorted to vaccines.

What has now happened is that the secret government of the West has been exposed by this campaign. The world’s military, police, and intelligence agencies began a counter-attack.

Next week we will report on the status of that counterattack and also on plans for running the planet after the Khazarian Mafia have been ousted from power.

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ploddingaroundtheglobe · 4 years ago

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Tokyo

Travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo via plane was around 7 hours, we travelled with Air Asia for a second time. We arrived in the evening of 20th December 2016. Very little research was done before we arrived, Japan was not one of our planned destinations. Our next venture was supposed to be Australia but due to visa issues, we decided to be spontaneous and travel somewhere random. Japan was totally different to what we imagined and exceeded our expectations. What an amazing little country! We hopped into a taxi transfer to our small apartment, we had rented for several days, little did we know and not until we reached the highway, that we was in a chauffeured hat and suit taxi and the meter was going up very quickly, when we arrived it was equivalent to £112.00, we felt sick and reluctant to pay the guy but it was our own faults for just jumping in, we may still have been in Asia but it was not as cheap as Thailand and actually quite an expensive city.

Tokyo is the capital city of Japan, with 37.393 million residents all residing in this one city. Tokyo was originally known by the name Edo, the city was founded by the Edo clan in the late twelfth century, they went on to build the Edo Castle. Japanese currency is known as Japanese yen, their seasonal weather is identical to the UK. Although it does get much warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter months. Spring is one of the most popular months due to the cherry blossom season. Japanese love cherry blossoms, it symbolizes human life, transience and nobleness. They hold flower watching parties known as “Hanami”. We would have loved to have visited the cherry blossoms but unfortunately it was mid winter when we arrived.

Me and Tom were literally lost in translation in Japan, obviously we had not learnt any Japanese language apart from Hai which meant yes and Arigato which means thank you. When we went into the shops, locals would spiel off full conversations and all we could reply with was Hai, we could have been agreeing to anything. Occasionally we would come across a local who spoke broken English which was a god send, but some how we made our way about Japan winging it. At the train stations the places and locations had English spellings underneath which did help us and they usually had English speaking person on the information desk. The trains were always rammed with people, doing their daily commutes. The Japanese are very reserved people, so trains were busy yet so quiet. It was forbidden to make loud conversation on the trains.

Spending Christmas in Tokyo felt right as it was their winter too, we come prepared with clothing as in Malaysia we decided to buy coats and winter accessories to keep us warm. It was the first time we had experienced cold weather in about 5 months so it was actually quite delightful. We spent Christmas in Tokyo in our little apartment. We had traditional Japanese style beds on the floor, which consisted of a wooden mat and padded cushions. It was actually really comfortable and has better benefits for the back allowing you to sleep in a more firm supportive position. we purchased our xmas gifts to one another from the 100 yen shop, which is like their pound shop. We got each other essentials like gloves, back massagers and chop sticks and of course Christmas hats. In Japan their traditional Christmas dinner is a KFC take out. 3.6 million Japanese families enjoy KFC on Christmas day. People have to prebook their meals due to the popularity and demand at Christmas time, otherwise they have to face long ques. We managed to scrape together some ingredients to make a Christmas meal. Going back to the part about getting lost in translation, what we thought was a traditional gravy was actually a soy sauce so when our meal was prepared we covered our meals in soy sauce and that pretty much cremated the meal.

There is so much site seeing to be done in Tokyo, our feet were aching most days from the amount of steps we put in. The city has arcades splashed all around, from photo booths, to teddy crane machines. Japanese are not allowed to gamble with actual money so they all play a game called Pachinko. It is a type of mechanical game used as both recreational and gambling. Purchasing Pachinko balls in the hope to win double back. Its like a loophole into gambling. watching them all fixated on the machines was crazy, there was even some areas where it was legal to smoke and play. Some of the players would sit there hours on end.

A lot of the locals walking round were wearing wacky clothing or fancy dress, Japanese love to bring out their inner child. There is a street in Tokyo called Takeshita Street. It is a pedestrian shopping street, lined with fashion boutiques cafes and restaurants. The street is mobbed with people in fancy dress, the shops are full of the latest gadgets and accessories, full of colour and character. Tokyo has the best crepe shops filled with your desired choices. Definately a must try whilst here!

Dressing like childrens toy dolls is popular in Japan, there is even a barbie cafe, where female Japanese would dress up as their favourite dolls and take a long their toy dolls, they would all meet up and enjoy afternoon tea together. Back home people would think it was a bit weird, but it was something that made them happy and reminisce been a child.

We visited one of the Maid cafes in Tokyo, in these particular cafes the staff dress up in maid costumes and act as servants, treating the customers as their masters in their private homes. This was definitely even a bit weird for me, it was a place for fetishes. The clientele was predominately old creepy men. As we sat down in the cafe, we was each given animals ears, and when we wanted to order we had to make animal noises. It was all too weird for me, you was not allowed to video or take pictures until your designated time where you would pose for a picture with one of the cafes maids.

Tokyo is so noisy and busy at night time, venturing the streets at night is amazing. Shibuya crossing is the famous and most busiest crossing at the peak times. When the lights turn red and green for pedestrians, people from all directions cross the road at the same time, you literally cannot stop in the middle as people would just stamp all over you.

There were even tours which you could join, where you could ride real life Mario go karts around the city. The gadgets in Tokyo are on another level, the toilets are amazing, you could literally loose 20 minutes just playing with each toilet function, the heated seat was my fave especially on a winters morning.

In Tokyo there are love rooms which can be rented by the hour, for people who would like some privacy for a few hours. The rooms usually come equipped with jacuzzi tubs, complimentary condoms and mirrored ceilings. We rented a room for the experience, we mainly just wanted to sit in the jacuzzi, nothing seedy about the visit.

It was essential that we didn’t leave Tokyo without seeing the sumo wrestlers. Sumo is a form of competitive full contact wrestling, where the wrestler “Rikishi” attempts to force his opponent out of the circular ring. Japan is the only place where the sport is practiced professionally and considered a national sport. The sumos wear a Mawashi which is a 30 foot long belt that they tie in a knot at the back. The thickness of the belt will cover the nether regions, the belt can be grabbed by the wrestler and used to assist them during the tournaments. Living a sumo life sounds very regimented, certain behaviours have to be followed, for example growing their hair into a top knot, they are also expected to dress in Japanese traditional wear, the type and quality of their dress depends on their hierachy status. Their strict eating regimens state that they should skip breakfast and have a large lunch, they will then have a siesta after this. This time allows them to gain the weight they need. Rich diets of meats, fish, and veggies washed down with a beer. The lifestyle of a sumo impacts their health as they usually only have a life expetancy of 60-65 years of age, as they usually develop health conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. In the neighborhood of Ryogoku, there is a training facility for sumos, we was able to visit one morning and watch them in training through the window. They even ventured outside afterwards to pose for pictures. The stance and stretches that they can get into is unbelievable. with all that weight and they are still so flexible.

Tokyo's famous landmark is the Sky tree, it is a observation and broadcasting tower. It became the tallest tower in 2011 at 634 metres high and the second tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa.

Our 6th year anniversary on boxing day was celebrated in Tokyo. We visited Meji Jingu Shrine. This is one of the most popular shrines in Japan. Nestled in the heart of the city and a bit of an escape from the busy city outside. It is located just outside the Harajuku Station, and there are approximately 100,000 trees in the surrounding area. The shrine is dedicated to the derifed spirits of the Emperor Meji. Inside the shrine was a station where visitors were writing down their wishes before posting them into a sealed box. We wrote down our wish and placed it into the love box. The shrine was vibrant and beautiful, a great little visit if your in the area.

We absolutely loved Tokyo and we would definately return in the future maybe in the spring next time. Our next venture was to Hakone to visit the Yunessun Spa via train.

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itbeatsbookmarks · 5 years ago

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(Via: Hacker News)

It can be hard to see the gradual improvement of most goods over time, but I think one way to get a handle on them is to look at their downstream effects: all the small ordinary everyday things which nevertheless depend on obscure innovations and improving cost-performance ratios and gradually dropping costs and new material and… etc. All of these gradually drop the cost, drop the price, improve the quality at the same price, remove irritations or limits not explicitly noticed, or so on.

It all adds up.

So here is a personal list of small ways in which my ordinary everyday daily life has been getting better since the late ’80s/early ’90s (as far back as I can clearly remember these things—I am sure the list of someone growing up in the 1940s would include many hassles I’ve never known at all).

When I think back, so many hassles have simply disappeared. I remember my desk used to be crowded with things like dictionaries and pencil sharpener, but between smartphones & computers, most of my desk space is now dedicated to cats. Ordinary life had a lot of hassles too, I remembered once I started thinking about it. These things rarely come up because so many of them are about removing irritations or creating new possibilities—dogs that do not bark, and ‘the seen and the unseen’—and how quickly we forget that the status quo was not always so. Limiting myself to my earliest relatively clear memories of everyday life in the 1990s, I still wound up making a decent-sized list. Now, imagine if I could have extended this back another decade. Then another decade. Then another few decades…

(For broader metrics of increase in well-being such as life expectancy, income, pollution, slavery, poverty etc, see Our World in Data, the Performance Curve Database, the work of Hans Rosling like Gapminder, Human Progress.org etc.)

Roughly divided by topic:

the Internet/human genetics/AI/VR are now actually things

electric cars will be ordinary things in 5–10 years; self-driving cars not long after that

not rewinding VHS tapes

not watching crummy VHS tapes, period

not making a dozen phone calls playing phone tag, to set up something as simple as a play date

hotels and restaurants provide public Internet access by default, without nickel-and-diming customers or travelers; this access is usually via WiFi

satellite Internet & TV are affordable & common for rural people

not worrying about running out of AOL hours

not being yelled at for tying up the phone line

USB cables mean that for connecting or recharging, we now only need to figure out ~10 different plugs instead of 1000+ (one for every pairwise device combo)

programmers able to assume users have 4GB RAM rather than 4MB RAM

not needing to know the difference between PLIP, SLIP, IRQ, TCP/IP, or PPP to get online

Linux X, WiFi, and laptops usually work

no longer needing to clean computer mice weekly thanks to laser mice

electronics prices keep falling to the point where people whine endlessly online if a top-end VR headset or smartphone costs less in real terms than a Nintendo NES did in 1983 ($1003071983) or a Sony Walkman cassette player in 1979 ($1504831979), and kids couldn’t even imagine having to pay $501131990 for a new copy of Super Mario Bros. 31—a far cry from paying $5 these days for a great PC game during a Steam sale.

hearing aids are a small fraction the size, have gone digital with multiple directional microphones (higher-quality, customizable, noise-reduction), halved or more in price, become water-resistant, and even do tricks like Bluetooth

wheeled luggage no longer expensive or rare, but cheap & ubiquitous

not getting lost while frantically driving down a freeway; or anywhere else, for that matter

most books and scientific papers can be downloaded conveniently and for free

search engines typically turn up the desired result in the first page, even if it’s a book or scientific paper; one doesn’t need to resort to ‘meta-search engines’ or enormous 20-clause Boolean queries

smartphones: far too much to list… (eg careless smartphone photographs are higher-quality than most film cameras from a few decades ago, particularly in niches like dark scenes)

spaced repetition has escaped the cognitive psychology labs

nuisance software patents have been expiring (eg GIF, arithmetic encoding, MP3)

catching the tail end of a cartoon on TV and being able to look it up instead of wondering for the rest of one’s life what it was about

having fansubs available for all anime (no longer do anime clubs watch raw anime and have to debate afterwards what the plot was! Yes, that’s actually how they’d watch anime back in the 1970s–1990s when fansubs were often unavailable)

everything is available subtitled, not just TV

most programs have a usable FLOSS equivalent and in some areas FLOSS is taken so for granted that new programmers are unaware they used to have to pay for even text editors/compilers or that Linux is Communism

we no longer need to strategize which emails to delete to save space

not worrying about Blockbuster or library fines

houses which are insulated and uniformly comfortably warm, rather than leaky and using heaters running constantly creating drafts and hot/cold spots

hot water heaters increasingly heat water on demand, and do not run out while shocking the bather

stoves which are increasingly induction-based and safe rather than fire hazards burners/gas

riding lawn mowers are affordable & common for rural people

power tools (such as drills, leaf blowers, or lawn mowers) are increasingly battery-powered, making them more reliable & quieter & less air-polluting

speaking of batteries: batteries are built-in—remember how advertisements always had to say “no batteries included”?—so no more mad scrambles at Christmas for AA or AAA batteries to power all the presents (which could easily add $5111990–$10231990 to the total cost!)

cars last longer and get better mileage

airplane flights no longer cost an appreciable fraction of your annual income2, and people can afford multiple trips a year.

coats are thinner, more comfortable, and warmer thanks to better forms of synthetic fiber and insulation

laser pointers are no longer exotic executive toys or for planetariums, they’re things you buy off eBay for $1 for your cat

LED lights are more energy-efficient, heat rooms less & are safer, smaller, turn on faster, and are brighter than incandescents or fluorescents

movie theater seats have become far more comfortable as movie theaters competed with DVDs/home-theaters & Internet & video games (and concession prices seem like they’ve increased less than inflation)

the European Union & single Euro currency make the EU easier to understand & travel in it much less tricky and expensive

we no longer have to worry about our car windows being smashed to steal our radios, or our GPSes

car security alarms no longer go off endlessly in parking lots

all cars have electrified power windows; I don’t remember the last time I had to physically crank down a car window

radio stations have minimal static

TVs no longer have rabbit ears that require regular adjustment

LASIK surgery has gone from an expensive questionable novelty to a cheap, routine, safe cosmetic surgery

teddy bears & other toys are much more cuddly and silky

clothing has become almost “too cheap to meter”; the idea of, say, darning socks is completely alien3, clothing companies routinely burn millions of pounds of clothes because it’s cheaper than the cost of selling them, and Africa is flooded by discards.

materials science has produced constant visible-yet-invisible improvements in textiles yielding, among other things, far better insulated (and cheaper) winter jackets: instead of choosing between winter coats which make you look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man or freezing (and if you get wet, freezing anyway) or exotic ultra-expensive garments aimed at mountain climbers, you can now buy ordinary (and much cheaper) winter coats which are amazingly thin and work even better to keep you warm—so much so that you have to be careful to not buy too well-insulated a coat, lest you swelter at the slightest exertion and be placed between the Scylla of overheating & the Charybdis of opening your coat to the freezing air to cool.

it is now reasonably safe and feasible to live in a big city like NYC, Chicago, or DC

crime, violence, teen pregnancy, and abuse drug use in general kept falling, benefiting everyone (even those not prone to such things) through externalities

Nicotine gum & patches no longer require a doctor’s prescription to buy (although moral panics have produced retrogression on nicotine vaping fluid)

marijuana has been medicalized or legalized in many states

air quality in most places has continued to improve, forest cover has increased, and more rivers are safe to fish in

board games have been revolutionized by the influx of German/European-style games, liberating us from the monopoly of Monopoly

shipping/logistics has become cheaper, faster, more reliable, and more convenient in every way:

USPS introduced self-adhesive stamps in the early 1990s, and by 2010, licking stamps was almost nonexistent

most people recognize rebates/coupons are scams, and the rise of discounters/warehouse stores/Internet shopping has largely obviated them

you can avoid ripoff mattress stores by ordering online, thanks to compact vacuum-compressed foam mattresses which can be shipped easily

the cost of shipping goods has plummeted

shipping speeds have dramatically improved for lower-cost tiers: consider Christmas shopping from a mail-order company or website in 1999 vs 2019—you used to have to order in early December to hope to get something by Christmas (25 December) without spending $30511999 extra on fast shipping, but now you can get free shipping as late as 19 December!

coffee/tea/alcohol:

decent loose-leaf tea widely available

microbrews/craft beers have revolutionized beer varieties & availability (similar things could be said of wine, cider, and mead)

McDonald’s coffee which doesn’t explode in one’s lap while trapped in a car and causing disfiguring third-degree burns

McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts coffee, and mass market coffee in general, no longer taste like ‘instant char-fee’

Keurig & other coffee machines which heat the water separately from the coffee-making are increasingly common, especially in hotels; this means that tea drinkers (like myself) can make tea which doesn’t taste hopelessly like coffee due to ineradicable coffee contamination

fast food in general has gotten much better: much tastier, and we don’t worry about getting salmonella or E. coli from our burgers

even mass-market grocery stories like Walmart increasingly routinely stock an enormous variety of exotic foods, from sushi to goat cheese to kefir

‘meat’ is an accepted fad diet

sous vide cooker have gone from devices bought only by professional European chefs for thousands of dollars to a popular $70 kitchen gadget

restaurants have gone from smoking, to smoking sections, to non-smoking entirely; and smoking in public has become rare

fresh guacamole can be easily bought due to pressure pasteurization (“Pascalization”), avoiding the inexorable spoilage of regular guacamole and buying fresh guacamole from the supermarket only to forget about it for a day and discovering it’s ruined

tasteless mealy bitter-skinned “Red Delicious” apples are still dismayingly common, but now one can buy (in most supermarkets) far superior varieties of apples, such as Honeycrisp apples (beginning 1991) or SweeTango apples (beginning 2009)

you no longer need to cook sausages to death because trichinosis is now rare.

Brussels sprouts no longer taste quite so bad

Part of why I never got an SNES or Super Mario Bros 3, despite enjoying it a lot whenever I could play it with my friends.↩︎

Where do you think all the money came from for those pretty stewardesses & elaborate meals in those glamorous Pan Am flights? Even much more recently, that $2896561990 average airfare in 1990 is not quite so amusing when you inflation-adjust it to today.↩︎

Have you ever noticed how much time even ‘middle class’ mothers used to spend sewing up pants or darning socks or organizing family clothes banks even as recently as the 1970s or 1980s? Somewhere around then, mothers stopped teaching their daughters how to sew or make clothes—I think less because of any feminism and more because it no longer seems like a particularly worthwhile skill to learn, especially given pressure from other uses of time like sports or homework. My grandmother in the 1950s routinely made whole outfits—dresses and pants and socks—for her family, while my mother only sewed under considerable duress, and my sisters couldn’t use a sewing machine at all (until one of them took up jewelry as a hobby as an adult). When I’ve asked about other families, this has been a common pattern.↩︎

#IFTTT #Feedly

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thechasefiles · 6 years ago

Text

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 1/15/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Tuesday 15thJanuary 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a DAILY Nation Newspaper (DN).

BARBADOS ECONOMY GETS AN UPGRADE – The following is a full text of the Press Release issued by regional credit rating agency Caricris: Caribbean Information and Credit Rating Services Limited (CariCRIS) has upgraded the Regional Scale Local Currency rating of the Government of Barbados (GOB) from CariD (Default) to CariBB, with a stable outlook. We however maintain the Regional Scale Foreign Currency rating of CariD (Default) on the country’s foreign currency denominated debt. The Local Currency Regional Scale rating indicates that the level of creditworthiness of the GOB, adjudged in relation to other rated obligors in the Caribbean, is below average. Our decision to upgrade the rating on the local currency debt is driven by the closure of the exchange offer for domestic (Barbados dollar-denominated) debt. This marks the successful completion of the restructuring of Bds $11.9 billion (equivalent to US $5.95 billion) in Barbados dollar-denominated claims on the Government of Barbados and its public sector. The restructuring is a central plank of the GoB’s Comprehensive Debt Restructuring Programme and the Barbados Economic Reform and Transformation (BERT) Plan. We have maintained our rating of CariD on the foreign currency debt as negotiations with foreign debt holders are not yet concluded. Upon successful completion of these negotiations, we will similarly revise up our ratings on the country’s foreign currency debt. (DN)

MAKE THEM COPS – One of the country’s most outspoken legislators is suggesting a downsizing of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF) and a recruitment of terminated soldiers to fill the serious shortage in the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). Putting forward the idea as a crime-fighting tool this morning, Opposition Senator and trade union leader Senator Caswell Franklyn, told Barbados TODAY it made no sense spending more than $60 million in taxpayers money every year on an army that was not necessary in its present form. “The police force need manpower. Crime is escalating and you ain’t got no more police. Right now we have a totally useless defence force that is not necessary. I am not saying send them all home. I am saying, redeploy them…just use the defence force as it used to be in the past . . . when it was the Barbados Regiment . . . for ceremonial occasions. Right now they are spending $60 something million dollars on the defence force a year,” Franklyn said. He argued that the reason this kind of money was being spent was for the army to protect the country in case of an attack by a foreign enemy or other force. The Opposition legislator contended that even if Barbados were attacked, it did not have the resources to repel any sophisticated onslaught. He said the fact that twice a year the Governor General signs an order allowing the army to assist the police, meant there was need for additional law enforcers. “Deploy them as police officers and let them do some useful work, rather than keeping them up there drilling and tending their uniform and shining their boots. They are not serving any useful purpose right now. There is no need for them,” the Senator declared. “The defence force needs to be downsized. Some of those people can be made police officers with the necessary training and that will help with the crime situation,” he stressed. Franklyn was of the view that there is a lot of talk and little action on the part of the Government to do anything about fighting crime in this country. “Have you seen anything where the Government has said this is an initiative to fight crime? No! There is only a lot of talk. And worse yet, they are filling up the Dodds Prison with a lot of young men for minor things and they are not fighting the big stuff,” Franklyn told Barbados TODAY. The Opposition Senator has pointed an accusing finger at the judicial officers. “I got to blame the magistrates for that . . . you lock up people because you want to teach them a lesson. That’s not what denying a man bail should be about. Denying a man bail should be if he is a threat or if he is going to interfere with the investigation or something like that . . . or he might be a flight risk,” he insisted. Franklyn said these inmates were then kept on remand for years and when they were released they returned to society angry. “’Well yuh lock me up for nothing . . . so yuh could lock me up for something,’” Franklyn said in reference to what some former inmates might suggest. Speaking generally, he suggested that this problem needed a study to be carried out into it, “because I think we are creating the criminals.” He said opportunities were not being provided for these mostly young men, so they create their own such as involvement in illegal drugs and robberies. Franklyn expressed concern that the young men were being converted into hardened criminals by the time they leave prison. “They take them in prison. There is no rehabilitation up there for them and when the time comes they let them out. They go and become hardened because they get better ideas from the people up there who teach them better. So you don’t really need to lock up these people. You need to find work for them,” he contended, adding that if employment were found they would not have time to be breaking into houses. Franklyn said he was not impressed with the way the Government was handling the crime situation. He said the Government had not created any increase in employment for the average person. He complained that people were being sent home who have children to feed and support. The Opposition Senator did not believe that jobless parents were going to stand idly by and watch their children starve. “This Government does not care anything about oversight. They pretend about oversight because the IMF is mandating it. That is why they come up with this new Bill, the Public Finance Management Bill which will go before Parliament tomorrow,” he said. He warned the Government not to rush this Bill because it was too comprehensive. Franklyn accused the Mottley Administration of bringing this measure without telling people what it was all about. (BT)

HELP IS COMING – The Mia Mottley-led Government will be launching its new jobs initiative by the end of this month for retrenched public workers. Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said this morning Government will begin registering them in the next couple of weeks. “Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be asking those persons who would have been already retrenched to start their process of registration as suppliers for Government, such that we can meet the 20 per cent of Government’s procurement over the next four years,” Straughn told Barbados TODAY. He pointed out that this was the Government’s way of easing the financial burden now resting on the shoulders of those who were once sole bread winners or who contributed to the upkeep of their homes. Straughn re-emphasized that the retrenchment exercise was not a numbers game. “The reason why we say it is not a numbers game, is from the perspective that, given the thrust to encourage a lot more entrepreneurship, we believe that once persons are able to come onboard, with respect to registering as suppliers and getting into the tendering process with respect to gaining that 20 per cent of Government procurement, then we believe that that is a key transition point,” Straughn told Barbados TODAY. He explained that the transition from being jobless to being an entrepreneur, allows Government to use its policy of not running arrears to pay them promptly. He also expects that the new business owners would be able to expand their services beyond the public sector in the coming years. “Given the fact that over the next few years, Government cannot run any arrears, it means that anyone supplying Government would be paid…and it allows these persons then, to be able to, in a sense, start their businesses supplying to Government, At the same time, they can also supply to the rest of the private sector or anybody else outside of Barbados,” he stated. Straughn said Government expects to see a number of new small to medium-sized businesses emerging in the island over time, as a result of this jobs initiative. “That is part of the reason why we say it is not a numbers game in terms of persons that may be laid off. These are the policies that we are putting in place to make sure that on the one hand, there is a mitigating factor with respect to procurement, but at the same time, it really is an opportunity to pivot to allow persons to realize that the work they can be involved in, obviously is much more entrepreneurial,” he explained. “We certainly anticipate we will see a number of small to medium-sized businesses being built up over the course of time,” Straughn reasoned. Having completed phase one of the structural reforms last year that involved over 1,000 job-cuts from Central Government and some state-owned enterprises (SOEs), Straughn disclosed that everything was on track to finish phase two by the end of this fiscal year in March. “In terms of implementation, some of it might have already . . . We had articulated, we needed to make sure that once we hit April, that what needs to be executed would be executed,” he said. He noted that as Government goes through its estimates process to meet the beginning of the 2019-2020 fiscal year in April, it is receiving updates on the implementation plans of some SOEs. “Obviously it would have implications for next year’s budget. And everything appears to be on track. But we are just making sure that we are able to maximize as much of the savings that we can, in order to be able to continue to meet our targets,” the minister told Barbados TODAY. He said most of the state enterprises were now deep into the implementation aspects of how they will function going forward. “And I think that over the next few weeks, you will be seeing more activity with respect to announcements for some RFPs [request for proposals] go out relating to some of the small ones [SOEs]. Some of the more critical ones you are going to be seeing over the next 12 months,” he disclosed. Straughn also assured the country that while the Government was focused on meeting its timelines under its loan arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it also intended to ensure taxpayers did not have to continue propping up SOEs, which could be better managed or supported outside of the public purse. “There are a couple of things that need to be followed up on with respect to, for example, the Garbage and Sewage Contribution . . . [this] allows the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) to be able to operate off [independently] of the Government’s budget from April,” he stated. He said there are therefore a couple of other entities such as the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI), which should also function independently of state funding as a result of revenue coming from the new Airline Travel tax and arrangements to be privately-managed. “Things are at varying points and certainly by the end of this month, we will have a clearer picture in terms of what is left to be done for phase two, which is up until the end of March. But we are also keeping an eye on the continuing roll out of some of the reforms relating to the phase three state-owned enterprises, which is really more relating to the Barbados Water Authority, Transport Board and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to a lesser extent,” Straughn said. (BT)

BITTER CUT FOR SUGAR WORKERS – Some of the sugar workers who received their walking papers yesterday were left with a bad taste in their mouths over how they were sent home. As soon as factory workers returned from their 11 a.m. to noon lunch break, some were told to report to the Barbados Agricultural Management Company (BAMC) headquarters in Warrens, St Michael, at 1 p.m. to receive their pink slips. When a DAILY NATION team arrived, workers were huddled in groups and some vented their frustrations. “Imagine getting that news right after eating,” said machine assistant Stefan Worrell. “That cut people belly and send them straight to the toilet.” Last Wednesday, BAMC general manager Leslie Parris said about 42 to 46 people across all departments would be sent home. Those who received their papers included masons, welders, mechanics, electricians, machine assistants and operators, and general workers. It is understood that four women – an assistant chemist, pack room assistant and two general workers – were severed, while one woman had opted to take a separation package last year. (DN)

ROSS UNIVERSITY INVESTING IN BARBADIAN STUDENTS – Barbadians looking to pursue a medical career may be eligible for significant help from Ross University School of Medicine (RUSM). The medical school today announced the launch of needs-based scholarships, covering the cost of medical school tuition and fees at RUSM for two deserving Barbados students. The scholarships will cover the cost of medical school tuition and fees at RUSM for two deserving Barbados students every semester, providing up to six scholarships a year. “The Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training (METVT) is very pleased to accept the award of the scholarships from RUSM in the area of Medical Education. These scholarships signal the commencement of an important partnership between RUSM and the METVT and a journey which is anticipated to yield significant benefits for Barbados,” said Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, Santia Bradshaw. “It augments the Government’s extensive investment in the development of human capital in Barbados. The ministry remains fully committed to providing access to medical education and training opportunities for Barbadians who attain the required standards and are deserving of support to assist them in achieving their career goals.” Students can apply for the RUSM scholarships effective today. To qualify, individuals must be citizens of Barbados, accepted to study at RUSM. The RUSM Admissions Office will evaluate students’ applications, and the scholarships will cover all tuition costs and fees, so long as the recipients maintain satisfactory grades throughout their enrollment. “Providing access to a quality medical education is at the core of RUSM’s mission,” said William F. Owen, Jr., M.D., FACP, RUSM dean and chancellor. “We’re proud to offer these scholarships to Barbadian students to help them achieve their career aspirations as physicians.” Having recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, RUSM’s 14,000-plus diverse alumni practice medicine throughout North America and across all specialties, including a high percentage of graduates who enter the in-demand field of primary care. The scholarships are in keeping with Adtalem Global Education’s commitment to provide Caribbean citizens with access to its three institutions in the region: American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (AUC) in Sint Maarten, Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) and RUSM. In the last four years, AUC has awarded seven full tuition scholarships to Sint Maarten residents, with four scholarship recipients graduating this year. RUSVM currently provides full scholarships to five residents of St Kitts and Nevis. The RUSM scholarships are in addition to the commitment it has maintained to qualified Dominican residents. (BT)

PLANT ODOR FLARES UP - Residents of Lakes Folly and Chapman Lane have become so accustomed to the pungent odour emerging from the Bridgetown Sewage Treatment Plant that many did not even realize it had got worse. When a Barbados TODAY team visited the area, most residents refused to comment extensively on the matter, indicating that they have been continuously contending with foul smells for years, making the most recent incident “nothing new.” In a statement, the Barbados Water Authority indicated that over the weekend, it encountered a glitch with one of the blowers at the sewage plant “which resulted in some malodours being experienced in the immediate vicinity of the plant. Consequently, the authority made some adjustments to the operations at the Plant, which has worked to reduce the odours and get the situation under control. One resident told Barbados TODAY he was not aware that the plant was experiencing challenges as the situation in the community did not differ significantly from what he had come to expect after living in the community for decades. Shawn Henry, one of the only residents willing to speak on record said he was away from the community over the weekend, but did not hear reports from neighbours about an unusual smell. Instead, he complained that successive governments had neglected the hundreds of people still living in the urban community, some still awaiting word on compensation for the many issues faced as a result of operations at the plant. According to Henry, it has resulted in a certain level of indifference among residents. “Since Mia Mottley come in, you have seen something’s being done, but other than that . . . The smell is going nowhere, but most of the time, the wind pushes it downward. Every once in a while, you would get a little swirl [foul smell], but other than that, it’s the ‘same old, same old’” he said. Indicating that from time to time, he had fallen ill because of the smell, he stressed, “it has been proven from then until now, people in Chapman Lane, aren’t getting anything done.” (BT)

DRUG, PSYCHIATRIC LINK A CONCERN – More than a third of people who have been admitted to the Psychiatric Hospital with disorders have a history of drug use. National Council of Substance Abuse (NCSA) research officer Jonathan Yearwood made the announcement on Saturday during one of the organisation’s outreach programmes at the Princess Alice Terminal, The City. Referring to the most recent Barbados Drug Information Network data of 2016, Yearwood said 36 per cent of the patients were admitted due to psychiatric disorders and drug use, noting that they were all between the ages of 20 and 24. Similarly, teenagers, some of whom started using marijuana as early as age nine, had behavioural problems at school or became involved in criminal activity. “Males seem to be the dominant gender coming into contact with the criminal justice system having problems with substance use,” he said. “Men under 30 start to experiment with these drugs from 13 to 15.” Yearwood said that there was a five per cent increase in marijuana and other substance usage in secondary schools and that had jumped from 17 to 22 per cent within the past decade. “What we saw is that this 13 to 15 age group happened to be among the persons suspended for drug use and behavioural problems at school. And from evidence, we know that males who use this drug early and persistently will develop problems over time with coping skills and being able to learn. So they drop out of school more likely than a person who doesn’t use the substance.” (DN)

‘NOT SO FAST ON THE WEED’ – Some members of the clergy believe that Barbados should approach the legalisation of marijuana for medical purposes with a greater degree of caution. Head of Mount Zion Missions, Reverend Dr. Lucille Baird, condemned what she called the sudden introduction of medical marijuana legislation as Barbadians were grappling with economic challenges. She accused the relevant authorities of “slipping it under the radar” while Barbadians were otherwise distracted. “While Barbadians were under the aneathesia of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, and anxious about the layoffs and the other issues associated with that, they got injected with legalised medical marijuana. “What is worse is that this measure was introduced without any national referendum, town hall meetings or any other public discussion, and it can potentially cause long-term devastating effects on this nation, as other much bigger countries have experienced since making similar moves,” she charged. Baird also expressed concern about policing the doctors who will prescribe medical marijuana, noting that there was potential for abuse in the same way that medical practitioners were called out several years ago for issuing sick leave certificates for people who were not necessarily ill, creating a drain on the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as a result. President of the East Caribbean Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, Pastor R. Danforth Francis, admitted that “not all the facts are available” regarding the effectiveness of medical marijuana. He noted that the health message was a major element of his denomination and the Seventh Day Adventist church did not support the use of any drugs, legal or otherwise, that could damage people’s health. He stated while “medical marijuana” implied the drug would be used in a controlled manner, “there are several strains of marijuana, some of which are more harmful than others, so if it is being prescribed, medical professionals will have to make sure they get it right. I know that sometimes people are given concoctions of drugs to relieve pain, but I do not think this is the route we should take.” Monsignor Vincent Blackett of the Roman Catholic Church agreed with Pastor Francis that the facts about medical marijuana were unknown, and admitted he was totally against the legalisation of any mind-altering substance. “Are the people advocating for the legalisation of medical marijuana really suffering from illnesses where the drug has been proven as an effective treatment, or is it just a gateway to full legalisation of it for recreational purposes as well?” he asked. In his view, there were “more questions than answers” on the issue, and “Just because other countries are doing it, that does not mean we should follow them, especially since we have no proof as to how effective it is in alleviating any health problems.” (BT)

BATTLE READY – Police, soldiers and all other agencies responsible for maintaining law and order on the island are being assured that Government will make sure they are armed with the necessary resources to fight illegal drugs and gun violence. With Barbados recording two homicides in just three days last week, Minister of Home Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, who frowned on the development said those engaging in deviant behaviour are affecting the island’s future as a viable society and economy. “We will give the resources, equipment, the machinery, the manpower to make Barbados secure and stable,” the minister assured. “It cannot be that this last week, every other night there has been gunfire across some part of Barbados with people being killed. There is an inextricable link between illegal drug use and criminal activity, guns and violence,” Hinkson said, as he delivered remarks at yesterday’s National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) Drug Awareness Month service held at First Baptist Church, Constitution Road, the City. Last Tuesday night, around 9:55 p.m. 24-year-old tattoo artist Shaquille Toppin was gunned down outside his Retreat Terrace Danesbury Black Rock, St Michael home. On Friday night, Ronald Raheim Rudder was killed at Ridgeway, the Pine, when his body was riddled with bullets. “We cannot afford for our country to be overtaken by a very small percentage of misguided persons who engage in deviant behaviour. These individuals are affecting our future as a viable society and economy. The future of our children and grandchildren, some of whom are not yet born, is at stake,” he said. Hinkson said the police, border security officers; and armed forces all need assistance from every right-thinking person in the country on this mission. Everyone in Barbados must play a role in wrestling the issue of crime and violence, Hinkson said calling on the church, non-governmental agencies, and all stakeholders, to help save the youth. “The youth need to be involved in meaningful extracurricular activities such as sports, culture, the arts, scouting, Girl Guides, Cadets, swimming. Every Barbadian it is said must learn how to swim since we belong to an island. All of us have to assist the youth in their involvement in these positive extracurricular activities, in order to assist in their acquisition of positive characteristics,” he said. (BT)

ST LUCY BAN ON ACCUSED – Andre Lord Evil Jackman is a free man once again, two months after he was remanded on four serious charges, one of them gun-related. However, Barbados TODAY understands that as one of the conditions attached to his bail he won’t be allowed to reside in St Lucy. That was one of the conditions to which the 39-year-old of Stroud Bay, Crab Hill, St Lucy, will have to adhere after he was granted bail in the sum of $150,000 by Justice Randall Worrell when he appeared in the Supreme Court on December 14, 2018. Jackman, also popularly known as Punchies, was represented by attorney-at-law Angela Mitchell Gittens and was released last week after his bail was finally posted. He had been remanded to HMP Dodds on October 5, 2018, by Magistrate Wanda Blair after appearing in the Holetown Magistrates’ Court on four charges. Jackman is charged with using a firearm without a valid licence; two counts of endangering life; inciting Shane Babb to engage in conduct that endangered life, as well as inciting Tyrone Moore to engage in conduct that endangered life on September 30, 2018. Last April, Jackman had a murder charge against him dismissed. He had been charged along with Zaviere Renaldo Walkes of Archer’s Road, Crab Hill and Rory St Clair Thomas of Grape Hall and Shane Akeem Omar Babb of Fryer’s Well, with the April 26, 2014 murder of Charly Dume. However, Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale acting on the instructions of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said there was insufficient evidence to go forward with the case against the men. (BT)

BAILOR GETS $750 BAIL – Only last Friday Susan Payne of Block 12A, Beachpath, Deacons Farm, St Michael stood surety for an accused in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Acting Magistrate Anika Jackson. Today, she re-appeared in court as an accused. Noting that she was disappointed in the accused, the Magistrate told Payne she had come to the court on Friday and presented herself as a “fit person” to stand surety for someone. The charge is that on November 30, 2018, the 23-year-old housekeeper, assaulted Shamika Cox of Second Avenue, Weekes Land, St Michael, occasioning her actual bodily harm. Payne pleaded not guilty and there was no objection to bail. However, when Payne’s mother Nicole Susan Payne Darrington presented herself as surety, she said she could not spell her last name since she did not use it much. Bail was granted in the sum of $750. (BT)

WOOD PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT – He admitted assaulting his ex girlfriend occasioning her actual bodily harm on January 8, 2019, but he will have to wait until tomorrow to know his fate. Ryan O’neal Wood, a 34-year-old painter of Braggs Hill, St Joseph, yesterday appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Acting Magistrate, Anika Jackson and pleaded guilty to the charge of assaulting Simone Gittens of Jackson Terrace, Stage 2, St Michael. According to prosecutor, PC Kenmore Phillips, the two are the parents of an 11-year-old boy. During the week, the secondary school student stays with his mother. He has a little sister on his mother’s side and she requested that he collect the little girl from school. However the girl’s father was against it. On January, 8, 2019, Wood picked up his son from school and the boy’s mother called her son and quarrelled with him because he did not collect his sister. Later, Wood took home his son and the boy’s mother started quarrelling and Wood held her by the throat. The complainant was not in court, and the Magistrate adjourned the matter and granted bail to Wood in the sum of $750. (BT)

EVALUATION ORDERED – Gregory MacDonald Hope pleaded guilty today to stealing items worth $24.18 from a supermarket. However, he showed no remorse and his mother told the court he had no problems. But Acting Magistrate Anika Jackson had concerns about the 43-year-old of Wilton Road, Lammings Park, St. Joseph, and sent him to the Psychiatric Hospital for evaluation for 21 days. He will return to court on February 4. Hope appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today charged with stealing three cans of condensed milk valued $8.01; one bag of rice valued $3.10 and two packs of frozen hot dogs valued $12.98 from Jordan’s Supermarket on January 12, 2019. According to prosecutor constable Kenmore Phillips, the unemployed man was seen by security the previous night at the supermarket with a black haversack perusing the shelves. He returned the following night and was observed putting things in the haversack and as he started to make his exit by-passing the cashier, security apprehended him and the police were summoned. The prosecutor also noted that Hope was placed on community service for a similar offence in 2004. Hope admitted going to the supermarket on that date and seeing a “Kadisha” he had recently met. Among other things, he said he had a black plastic bag and not a haversack and “Kadisha” handed him a plastic bag and told him she was going to collect something else. According to Hope, he also went back to get cornmeal, macaroni and another item and “Kadisha” returned with a bag and said the items were paid for and he said to himself that the items were not in a ‘Jordan’s’ bag. Hope added that when he was approaching the exit he was stopped by security who asked him if he had any of the supermarket’s possessions and he told the security guard that he did not know the items were stolen and offered to pay for them and the management refused. He told the court that concerning the 2004 matter, he went to Cave Shepherd and was trying on watches between 15 to 20 minutes and forgot that he still had one on his hand. It was when he started to leave the store with it that he was stopped by security. Noting that he had community service for a similar offence 14 years ago, the magistrate said that would not be the sentenced on this occasion. Hope told her he had not worked for ten years because he could not get a job and was being supported by his mother. When called, his mother told the court that in addition to being “a seven days [Adventist]”, his behaviour was very good and he helped people in the neighbourhood. (BT)

NO WALK OVER – WORLD No. 2 ranked England will not be underestimating the West Indies. Assistant coach Paul Farbrace told NATIONSPORT the West Indies are a dangerous side in home conditions and England will not take them lightly in the three-match Test series, which starts next week in Barbados. “You go into every series wanting to play well and this is no different, but the one thing that we are very aware of is that the West Indies have a fantastic record at home, so we will show them a lot of respect, that is the most important thing. “You never go on a tour and say you are going to win, you never go on a tour and say you are going to play well, cricket is a game where you have to be at your best to beat everyone and we know from the last time we came here, West Indies were very keen to beat us and the series was drawn 1-1. “We want to keep playing well, we played well in Sri Lanka, and we want to continue that way in the Caribbean, but you never show a lack of respect for the opposition, if we do, the game has a nasty habit of humbling you,” said Farbrace after completing a training session at the 3Ws Oval in preparation for today’s two-day match against a President’s XI. (DN)

SIX BAJANS TO DANCE WITH BROOKLYNETTES – Six Barbadian women faced their fears, overcame self-doubt and danced their way into the hearts of an international group. In a few months, Nandi Yard, Zhane Padmore, Shameka Walters, Keisha Dowridge, Asha Weekes and Aisha Comissiong will be able to say proudly, “I danced with the Brooklynettes”, the official athletic dancers of the Brooklyn Nets in the United States National Basketball Association (NBA). Director of entertainment Criscia Long said they had intended to pick only two local dancers to join them for Barbados Night on April 3 at the Barclays Center in New York. “Once we saw the talent and passion, I personally wanted to provide more opportunity because I felt like there is no way I could select only two dancers from this amazing group of women. “So we pushed this number up to four and then last night [Saturday] after hearing them share their stories, I had to push it to six,” Long said. After they were selected during a reception at Ocean Two Resort in Dover, Christ Church, yesterday, the women expressed their delight. Walters, 27, said there had been people in her ear suggesting that she not waste her time. But, like previous auditions, she used it as a teaching tool. “For me, it has always been a case of being judged for your size rather than your talent or personality. So, I’ve always just used that as fuel to go into any and everything. Even if they say they want people that are 5’ 11”, I would still turn up at the audition because I’m going to use it as something to learn,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it and it made me feel so good about overcoming the fears I had about my body type and what people would say,” 35-year-old Dowridge told the NATION. The youngest, Asha Weekes, 20, said she initially felt she was not as talented as the others but still auditioned. “Even though I’ve been training for so long, I didn’t consider myself a technical dancer . . . . But then I said, ‘Just go, don’t beat yourself up, just try’,” she said. Padmore, Yard and Comissiong are members of local group Riddim Tribe who have been building names for themselves in several areas. They have performed on the Wendy Williams show in the US. Yard said they hoped to set a good example for other Barbadians trying to make it. “We are a bunch of talented people here who are often overlooked because we’re the little small island, but we definitely have a lot to offer,” she said. The audition was the latest step in the ongoing relationship between the Brooklyn Nets and Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., which senior business development officer Eusi Skeete said had been fruitful. In the past, the Brooklynettes have taken photographs for their calendars in Barbados. Since 2015, Barbadian singers such as Alison Hinds, Nikita and Mahalia have sung the Star Spangled Banner on Barbados Night. (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 350 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

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johnmauldin · 8 years ago

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If Trump Doesn't Push Through the Tax Reform by 2018, the Stock Market May Crash

I’ve been doing a multipart series on the proposed tax reforms in Thoughts from the Frontline (subscribe here for free).

In part two, I talked about what I like about the Better Way proposal. In part three, I pretty much eviscerated the border adjustment tax (BAT).

I think it has the real potential to create a global recession. You’ll need to read the series to see why, but a lot of it has to do with simple game theory.

It holds that if you upset the equilibrium, the other partners at the table will change their strategies, too. This is a factor that the measure’s Republican proponents are ignoring.

Below is an analysis of the current tax proposal from my friend Constance Hunter, who is the chief economist at KPMG and wicked brilliant. She tries to be fair but comes up with many of the same negatives that I do (and a few more).

One of the things that Constance notes is that real, forceful change is required to get this reform through Congress. Without Democratic support in the Senate, there will be an automatic sunset provision in 10 years that would be devastating to the economy.

There needs to be a real effort to figure out how to create something bipartisan.

Again, it is not that the current proposal doesn’t have many good features. It is that the bad ones—which actually allow you to pay for the good tax cuts—go about it in the wrong way and create serious problems.

Why is this so important? Because if we don’t come up with a tax proposal that can get through Congress this year, then we’re looking at 2018; and do you really think the stock market is going to levitate, waiting until 2018 for a tax proposal that’s not even on the table yet?

Congress needs to focus clearly and figure out what they’re going to do—and not do things that would make the US and global economic situation even worse.

As investors and portfolio managers, we need to be paying attention to what Congress is saying and doing and figure out how their actions are going to affect the economy and our portfolios.

The right policies and programs could be very good for the markets. The wrong ones? You’d want to get out of the way of that train.

“Trump-O-Nomics” – An exploration of the proposals

By Constance Hunter and Jennifer Dorfman

As Donald J. Trump begins the presidency with promises of greater GDP growth and job creation, this report examines both the cyclical and structural backdrop that could impact the efficacy of his plans. The report will also discuss the border adjustable tax proposal and some possible implications. The analysis takes into account the more than 20 percent of U.S. imports that are priced in dollars, a unique situation that alters the normal currency adjustment assumptions economists make when assessing the impact of such a tax.

It is debatable how much influence presidents can have over near-term, cyclical, economic growth. Certainly expansionary or contractionary fiscal policy has some influence, but in the United States, discretionary government spending is a relatively small percent of GDP so this influence is minimal. Presidents have more influence over structural aspects of GDP via changes to regulation, changes to the tax code, and changes to total government spending and resulting debt levels.

In terms of the cyclical prospects for the UnitedStates, the recovery appears to be in about the 7th inning. The Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) is hoping its policies can create some overtime innings and a soft landing; however, this is often the hope of central banks, yet few are lucky enough to achieve such feats. The largest constraint to the Fed’s goals is apparent tightness in the U.S. labor market. For example, the National Federation for Independent Business1 reports that the number of respondents who say there are few or no qualified applicants for job openings exceeds the long-term average of 42 percent. This suggests that even if the participation rate rose, the lack of labor market depth would still pose constraints for business expansion despite any new incentives from tax changes or other stimulative measures.

In addition to relatively tight labor supply, the Fed has just raised rates for the second time in the current cycle. Since the election, long-term interest rates have risen more than short-term ones due to anticipation of more frequent rate increases in 2017 and some possible increase in risk premia due to fiscal policy uncertainty. However, we believe the biggest contributor to higher rates is the stronger U.S. economy that was in train before the presidential election. In addition to cyclical momentum seen in jobs and consumption growth, higher oil prices are supporting a return of oil and gas investment. Our base forecast for growth in 2017 is now higher than before the election due to strong growth momentum.

Therefore,Trump enters his presidency at the end of a long, if tepid, expansion with little capacity for faster growth in the near term.

Nevertheless, during the first 100 days, the Trump administration will want to achieve some quick wins. One way to start this would be to streamline regulation. A study from the conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation2 found the cost of new regulations implemented since 2008 amount to an average of $15 billion a year spent on compliance. The argument suggests this is money not spent on generating economic activity and it reduces productivity. Even if this number is off by 50 percent, given that U.S. corporate investment has averaged $130 billion a year since 2010, even $7 billion of extra investment could add up to 50 basis points a year to investment’s contribution to GDP.

In terms of fiscal stimulus from Trump’s tax policies, it is important to remember that in addition to lower personal and corporate taxes, there are proposals that would create offsets to pay for the cuts. At the moment, Republicans are united in saying that the tax cuts and offsets are part of the same proposal and cannot be separated. Therefore, their economic impact must be assessed in concert.

There is a good reason for the insistence by many Republicans that spending not simply stay the same while tax revenue declines due to tax cuts, as this would increase our already high 102 percent general government debt to GDP levels. Here one can turn to a well-established phenomenon in economics, the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem.3 Ricardian Equivalence states that the economic outcome between debt financing and increased private spending is equal.

Or put another way, there is no free lunch. If tax cuts cause the federal debt to rise, then companies and households spend and invest less than the amount of the cut. The greater the debt level at the initiation of the tax cut the smaller the portion that is spent or invested.

The first offset is a change to the deductibility of interest. Under the current House Republican proposal 4, interest would no longer be deductible unless it could be claimed against interest income.

While this is neutral for banks, in isolation it could hurt heavily indebted industries, many private equity structures, and companies that rely on debt versus equity financing. Proponents of the tax change argue that reducing the tax benefits of debt financing would allow better allocation of capital and would normalize the U.S. tax code with the rest of the world. Nevertheless, most U.S. companies will see an increase in their weighted average cost of capital (WACC). According to outside estimates of the GOP proposal, this would raise more than $1 trillion in additional tax receipts.5 However, this change comes at a price. A November 2015 paper by RLG Forensics in association with the Association for Corporate Growth predicts that “revenue neutral” in terms of the federal budget is not the same thing as “impact neutral” in terms of equity valuations or economic impact.6 Proponents of the change argue that investment expensing and the reduction of the overall corporate tax rate to 20 percent will offset the increase of the cost of WACC in many cases. While this may be true eventually, the transition period is likely to cause lumpiness in investment spending, which could well translate into some quarters of negative growth.

The second offset, implementing a border adjustable tax, is estimated to raise $1.2 trillion in tax revenue over 10 years. One main motivation for this tax appears to be that it would discourage corporate inversions. As A Better Way7 notes, “Taken together, a 20 percent corporate rate, a switch to a territorial system, and border adjustments will cause the recent wave of inversions to come to a halt.” However, other claims that the change will now favor exports over imports ignores linkages between imports, exports, and foreign exchange values. Perhaps more importantly, if the tax changes did reduce our imports, it would also reduce our standard of living, as more goods and services would be sent to foreigners while receiving fewer goods and services from them in return.8

Indeed the fact that in any given year 20–30 percent of U.S. imports are priced in dollars means the J-curve effects of the currency adjustment would likely take longer and could be adverse for importers of commodities in the short term. Additionally, the linkages in global value chains where many goods are priced in dollars, the long-term nature of contracts, and general price stickiness throughout the value chain mean the transition between implementation and complete currency adjustment could disrupt U.S. and global GDP growth.

Nevertheless, many economists make several arguments in favor of a border adjustable tax system.9

It would align more closely with the VAT system in most of our trading partners where exports are not taxed but imports are.

Border adjustments reduce the incentive to manipulate transfer prices by shifting to lower tax jurisdictions based on tax policy alone.

Border adjustments reduce the incentive to shift profitable production activities abroad simply for tax benefits of lower tax jurisdictions commonly known as corporate inversions.

Proponents argue that border adjustments are not trade policy, but rather create a level playing field between domestic and overseas competition.

Border adjustments do not distort trade as exchange rates should react immediately to offset the impact of these adjustments.

Many economists agree with most of these points. We concur largely with points 1-3 and in the long run with point 5, although the implementation phase could cause disruption that may have a significant near-term impact on GDP. On point 5, the reserve currency status of the United States blunts this negative impact. Our research suggests that the reserve currency status of the United States and integrated global value chains could slow the rate of currency adjustment with adverse unintended consequences for world and U.S. growth. The stronger U.S. dollar will raise prices of dollar priced goods for the rest of the world which will, at some point, if not immediately, lower demand for these goods. No immediate adjustment will take place on the 20–30 percent of imports priced in U.S. dollars, and it will raise prices and lower demand of these goods worldwide.

Raising $1.1 trillion in taxes means that cost must be borne by some part of the economy either domestically or by trading partners. In the example below, the tax law change simply shifts the burden of the tax to different types of businesses.

Auerbach and Holtz-Eakin assume that the world price of the goods remains the same and that the dollar appreciates to offset the border adjustment. They also appear to assume that the good is priced in foreign currency and no long-term contracts or integrated value chains are in place. Economic theory suggests that the higher import tax cost in the example below does not mean that the firm does worse after tax under the new system once the currency adjustment is completed and the cost of imports falls due to the higher value of the U.S. dollar. Under the new law, the firm in the example below can deduct only 20 of its purchases rather than 30 because 10 represents the imported amount. However, as Auerbach and Holtz- Eakin’s paper explains, the import costs will adjust to be 8 in dollar terms, rather than 10, if the tax rate is 20 percent. This means that the firm’s after-tax cash flow will be the same in the two cases; 80 percent of 15 = 12 under the current system, and 80 percent of 25 = 20 – nondeductible expenses of 8 = 12 under the new system.

We worry that this assumption is a bit too neat and the real-world adjustment will be less smooth and not immediate. As the home of the reserve currency, U.S. importers have the significant advantage of never having to worry about currency price fluctuations (in particular a devaluation of the dollar) impacting the purchase cost of commodities and many other goods that are part of the global value chain. There are other advantages such as significant demand for U.S. Treasuries keeping U.S. borrowing costs lower than they otherwise would be. But the chief advantage for the purpose of analyzing the border adjustable tax is that commodities trade in U.S. dollars.

The example put forth by Auerbach and Holtz-Eakin assumes the exchange rate absorbs the tax change and the cost evaporates in currency fluctuations. The tax law change would then encourage investment as its full expensing regime makes this activity more attractive; it would also blunt the impact from the import tax. It is implicitly assumed that this greater investment will translate into greater economic activity and yield a higher growth rate. One may also assume one has a can opener.10

Over the long term, it seems reasonable that the proposed tax law change would simplify the code, which in and of itself could allocate scarce resources to better use thereby improving GDP. However, the transition to the new system as laid out in A Better Way does raise some questions, a few of which are outlined below.

The assumption that all traded goods are priced in foreign currency is a key part of most exchange rate models that one can apply to this situation. Examples such as the Bickerdike-Robinson-Meltzer Model assume the supply and demand schedules shift downward by the same proportion as the appreciation.11 It also assumes the good is priced in foreign currency terms, which for the United States is not the case for 20–30 percent of its imports in a given year.

The demand elasticity is not the same for each imported product so the currency adjustment on a good-by-good basis may not be equal to the tax change. Therefore, some importers would be more or less advantaged as would some exporters.

With no offsetting tax cut, a rise in the value of the dollar would hurt exports. With the reduced corporate tax, exporters would presumably have room to lower the price of their goods in line with the amount of the appreciation of the currency. However, this transition is likely to be “lumpy” and could reduce exporters’ revenues during the transition period and beyond.

Not all importers are engaging in corporate inversion or are importing goods because of tax reasons. Global value chains (GVCs) have become increasingly integrated. In 2011, nearly half of world trade in goods and services took place within GVCs, up from 36 per cent in 1995.12 This is due in part to labor cost differentials, in part to sourcing of raw materials, and in part to expertise in certain products and services. Thus, changing the way imports are taxed for U.S.-domiciled companies is likely to cause disruption to globally linked supply chains many U.S. multinational companies have in place.

The J-curve effect means that there is a lag between when a currency change takes place and the physical change in imports or exports is realized in the current account balance. Usually orders that existed before the currency move have yet to be paid for, thus the J-shaped change in the trade balance immediately following a substantial currency move. A stronger dollar should increase the current account deficit over time as U.S. dollar exports become more expensive to our trading partners. Additionally, the immediate effect would be a reduction in the current account deficit. This would be an addition to GDP but it would also correspond to a significantly smaller capital account surplus and would likely negatively impact the U.S. equity market and increase U.S. interest rates, all other things equal.

The idea of wanting to stimulate exports, reduce imports, and reduce our current account deficit ignores the other side of this accounting identity, the capital account. As Ruddy Dornbusch wisely noted, “The flow of investment and the changes in the value of real capital potentially dominate the effects of current account imbalances. A good week on the stock market produces a change in wealth that is several times the magnitude of an entire year’s deficit in the current account. Although it is true that the current account is important because persistent current imbalances accumulate, exactly the same argument can be made for investment.” A persistently lower current account deficit would equal a persistently lower capital account surplus and over time higher interest rates and lower stock market returns. Conversely, a high current account deficit means there is a higher capital account surplus and an abundance of capital in the U.S. market. This is also a function of our reserve currency status; foreign holders of U.S. dollars need to invest their holdings in U.S. assets. Therefore, one can argue that the benefit to the economy overall of running a current account deficit and a capital account surplus not only outweighs the costs, but is a corollary to reserve currency status.

While it is commonly known that commodities trade in U.S. dollars, it is likely less widely known that much of the global value chain of intermediate goods also trades in dollars. This is in part because the U.S. consumer base is the largest in the world which reinforces the United States’ reserve currency status. If at the margin a border adjustable tax caused fewer goods to be priced in dollars, it could have the unintended consequence of pushing the U.S. dollar further from reserve currency status.

There are of course other aspects of the A Better Way blueprint that could have unintended consequences. The list above is meant to stimulate thought and improvement of the plan and its implementation.

While some theory does support the idea that it would improve U.S. GDP, there are a lot of assumptions that cannot be counted upon. It cannot be overstated that while a major tax overhaul of this kind could in the long run benefit the U.S. economy, the transition is likely to be lumpy and could even see some quarters of negative growth as adversely impacted firms or industries suffer or go out of business.

The comprehensive and sweeping nature of the proposed tax changes and the fact that they will be much more effective if they are permanent means that the GOP will want to be strategic in the way they pass the bill.

There are two options that would eliminate the need for a sunset provision. The first would require at least eight Democrat senators to sign on. This means that compromise will alter the current proposal. It also means that passage before the end of 2017 will be difficult. Reagan’s 1986 tax law change took three years to negotiate and this tax bill will take time as well. The second way the GOP could make the law permanent is the so-called reconciliation process. This is only possible if the law does not increase the deficit in any year beyond the official 10-year budget window. Some believe this is their current plan—to construct the bill in such a way to be revenue neutral or positive in years 11 and beyond. This too would require significant changes to the current law. The Tax Policy Center assumes the current plan adds to current deficit levels by $3.3 trillion over the first decade.

In the meantime, it is expected the U.S. dollar to be the most immediate asset to anticipate this change in policy over the course of 2017. Any move in the dollar will be buttressed by the interest rate differential between the U.S. and other high- grade government debt markets. Higher interest rates will put pressure on Trump to achieve GDP wins early as it will reduce U.S. exports, increase imports, and have a negative effect on GDP. Therefore, as stated above, regulatory changes are expected to be sweeping withinTrump’s first 100 days. However, even this is not a panacea as many of these changes will be seen in the energy space where the value of a barrel of oil will be just as important in determining investment levels as regulatory changes. Remember, a stronger dollar reduces the demand and price for oil in foreign currency terms, all things being equal.

Therefore, it is fair to say that Trump’s 4 percent growth target faces challenges from both structural and cyclical factors. Streamlining regulation is Trump’s best bet for a quick win on increasing GDP.

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In this weekly newsletter, John Mauldin shares controversial essays from fellow economic experts. Whether you find them inspiring, upsetting, or outrageous… they’ll make you think Outside the Box. Get it free in your inbox every Wednesday.

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1 NFIB, Haver Analytics 2 Gattuso & Katz, (2016) “Red Tape Rising,” Heritage Foundation 3 Buchanan, James M. (1976) “Barro on the Ricardian Equivalence Theorem,” Journal of Political Economy 4 A Better Way (2016) Better.gop 5 Nunns, Burman, Page, et al (2016) An Analysis of the House GOP Tax Plan, TaxPolicyCenter.org 6 Morris, (2015) Eliminating the CIT Deduction: Valuation Implications for Middle Market Enterprises. RLG Forensics 7 A Better Way (2016) Better.gop 8 Viard,(2009) Border Tax Adjustments Won’t Stimulate Exports, AEI.org 9 Auerbach and Holtz-Eakin, (2016) The Role of Border Adjustments in International Taxation, AAF.org 10 A can of soup washes ashore. The physicist says, "Lets smash the can open with a rock." The chemist says, "Let's build a fire and heat the can first." The economist says, "Let’s assume that we have a can opener.” Crickets. 11 Bickerdike-Robinson-Meltzer (1975), Vol 65, no 5 American Economic Review 12 Trade in value-added and global value chains: statistical profiles, WTO, wto.org

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sillyanimegamingroad · 4 years ago

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Epic games Fortnite introduces direct payment option in Google and Apple

Epic Games has just launched an ordeal to Google and Apple: it has enabled a direct payment system in ‘Fortnite’ for iOS and Android. The goal of this system is to avoid the 30% commission that both Google and Apple charge developers for using their respective payment gateways. Epic games Fortnite introduces direct payment option in Google and Apple to avoid commission. The reason is that Epic has launched a permanent discount of 20% on V-Bucks (the virtual currency of the game), a discount that, in the case of iOS and Android, only applies when using the new system. Quoting Epic Games verbatim:

“Currently, there are no discounts if players use Apple and Google payment options, where Apple and Google charge an exorbitant 30% fee on all payments. If Apple and Google lower their rates on payments, Epic will pass the discounts to the players”.

For example, 1,000 V-Bucks, which are normally worth 9.99 euros, now cost 7.99 euros. On iOS and Android, however, it will depend on the payment platform that the user chooses. If you select the App Store or Google Play Store, the price will be 9.99 euros (for that commission that Apple and Google charge), while if you choose the direct payment system the price will be 7.99 euros. Spain is one of the countries in which this system is already active.

The controversy over the 30% commission continues

Prices of a thousand V-Bucks purchased through the App Store / Google Play Store and through Epic’s direct payment system.

Epic games Fortnite introduces direct payment option in Google and Apple since the commission that Google and Apple charge for microtransactions in the apps and games in their stores has long been the subject of controversy. ‘Fortnite’, in fact, is one of the best examples. When ‘Fortnite’ launched for Android, Epic Games did not publish the game on the Google Play Store precisely to skip that 30% commission . Finally, the company ended up going through the hoop and publishing the game in the Android store , although with the new payment system it once again raffles the payment of the commission.

From Epic Games they have strongly criticized Google for its Play Store policies. In a statement published on its website in April this year, Epic Games said that:

“Google puts downloadable software outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary and repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive agreements and deals with manufacturers , Google public relations marking third-party software sources as malicious software and new efforts, such as Google Play Protect, to completely block software obtained outside of the Google Play store.”

Something similar happened with Hey , the subscription mail service from the creators of Basecamp that made so many headlines a few weeks ago. Hey offered the subscription through its own website and Apple threatened to eliminate it if they did not offer said subscription through its payment platform . The CEO of Hey strongly attacked Apple, accusing them of being gangsters and gangsters. Similar were the cases of Netflix and Spotify , which stopped offering the option to subscribe through the mobile app to avoid the commission.

And it is that in the rules of the App Store and Google Play Store it is established that all purchases made in an application must use its own payment gateway. Quoting verbatim:

App Store : “If you want to unlock features or functionalities of your application (for example: subscriptions, game currencies, game levels, access to premium content or unlock a full version), you must use the in-app purchase. Applications cannot use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality bookmarks, QR codes, etc. Applications and their metadata cannot include buttons, external links or other calls to action that direct users to customers to purchase mechanisms other than in-app purchase “.

Google Play Store : “Developers applying charges for Google Play applications and downloads must use the Google Play payment system. For applications and in-app products offered through Google Play, the service fee is equivalent to 30% of the price. You receive 70% of the payment. The remaining 30% goes to the distribution partner and the operating fees.”

As is obvious, the new direct payment system of ‘Fortnite’ directly violates these two rules, since it leads customers to make purchases outside the App Store and Google Play Store. Epic games Fortnite introduces direct payment option in Google and Apple. For this there are two explanations: that Google and Apple have given permission to Epic Games to implement it , something that does not seem to be due to the tone of Epic’s words, or that Epic Games is challenging the two American giants to one pulse . If this is the second case, the ball remains in the court of Google and Apple.

This 30% commission has led Apple to be investigated by the European Commission . Vestager explained a few days ago that the Commission had decided to ensure that “Apple’s rules do not distort competition in markets in which Apple competes with other application developers” and specifically referred to its own in-app purchase system. from Apple:

“(i) Mandatory use of Apple’s own in-app purchase system ” IAP ” for distribution of paid digital content. Apple charges app developers a 30% commission on all subscription fees through IAP .

(ii) Restrictions on the ability of developers to inform users about alternative purchase possibilities outside of applications. While Apple allows users to consume content such as music, e-books, and audiobooks purchased elsewhere (for example, from the app developer’s website) in-app as well, its rules prevent developers from informing users about such buying possibilities, which are generally cheaper “

In the hypothetical case that Epic Games has received permission to implement this system, we would be facing one of the most important changes in Google Play and the App Store , since other developers could begin to demand the same rights. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, said during his appearance before the United States Congress that they treat all developers in the App Store equally, so the controversy is served and surely there are thousands of developers pending the Epic movement and its consequences.

The post Epic games Fortnite introduces direct payment option in Google and Apple appeared first on Technoeager- tech blogs and articles.

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cryptswahili · 6 years ago

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Wrapped Tokens, Crypto-Derivatives and Candidate Ethereum Standards (ERCs).

Architecting an open permissionless financial system has been one of Ethereum's main ambitions, which is why it came about as implementing the blockchain paradigm (of a "a transactional singleton machine with shared-state") in a generalized fashion, capable of accommodating a wider range of applications on a single platform (compared to the somewhat strangely primitive, steampunk character of Bitcoin). For that purpose the Ethereum blockchain is coupled with a simple stack-based virtual machine (the EVM, Ethereum's general-purpose replicated "world computer") as the network's runtime environment for executing code residing on the shared ledger (carried out as blockchain transactions that use the ledger to globally synchronize the current state of the system across the network).

These persistent scripts, so-called "smart contracts", are triggered to execute when a transaction calls their account address. They can be thought of as stateful objects or automata that contain some custom logic exposed through API functions within the distributed peer-to-peer network and its address space, that way capable of serving the role of anything from a virtual safety deposit box, a pawnshop or an exchange, to a vending machine, a certificate registry or a notary of some sort, to a formalized pyramid scheme, a game or a money sucking trap of some sort or another. So, within the Ethereum ontology, one deals with designated objects identified through their public key or address - be those wallets or contracts.

The EVM is a stack-based machine. A stack is an abstract data type of a collection of elements that has two basic operations - push (adding an element to the collection) and pop (removing the most recently added one). This "last in, first out" (LIFO) order gives its name (a stack, or items stacked on top of each other). The above represents a simple stack's runtime (such with only push and pop operations). The EVM has a much longer list of opcodes.

These components together give the necessary base conditions for articulating more complex value statements in an open permissionless peer-to-peer network, allowing for building protocol overlays, composing specific dApps and refining interfaces that target particular audiences and interest groups as going further across the different levels of abstraction - from low-level bytecode to back-end contract logic and web application front-ends. Trying to extend Bitcoin with protocol overlays in efforts to accommodate the representing of other kinds of assets proved insufficient or inadequate based on that foundation. (A protocol overlay is similar to how HTTP, for instance, runs on top of the TCP/IP stack in the application layer of the Internet protocol suite, i.e. is an overlay on top of it.) Well-known efforts to formalize useful Bitcoin overlays and associate real-world assets with Bitcoin addresses were mastercoins and colored coins, the limitations of and frustration with which had also been one of the motivations driving the creation of Ethereum.

Account-keeping on the Bitcoin blockchain. Addresses in Bitcoin are neither wallets, nor accounts and do not carry balances. Instead, they are only used for receiving payments (there is no concept of a 'from' address) and a new address is usually generated for every new transaction. Essentially, the Bitcoin ledger only keeps track of unspent remainders of transactions (UTXOs) and wallets handle the logic in the back-end. Source: Bitcoin.org Developer Guide

Ethereum took the basic premise of Bitcoin at the time, advancing the general concept a step further, beyond primitive UTXO coin payments (the state of the Ethereum blockchain is defined by record-keeping of accounts and their balances, rather than keeping track of unspent transaction outputs) and into something that could possibly lay the foundations for supporting an entire financial system, capable of expressing more sophisticated financial products and instruments, financial and crypto derivatives and catalyzing experimental crypto-economies (which had until then been either practically impossible or difficult and prohibitively expensive to implement within the constraints of the more conservative Bitcoin protocol). Inevitably, this also comes with its own set of problems along its path of trial-and-error (most notably, the catastrophic DAO hack which cooled everybody's enthusiasm for a long while), but a commitment to non-stagnation and continuous experimentation/innovation has also been a defining trait of Ethereum's ethos and community.

The Ethereum block architecture. Things get significantly more complex. To mention just a few, uncles are blocks which were very close to being "correct" and appended to the chain, so miners who mined uncle blocks are also rewarded for their investment, participation, and efforts to secure the network regardless. The Gas Limit field defines the maximum amount of gas that all combined transactions in the whole block are allowed to consume (similar to the maximum block size limit in Bitcoin which is measured in bytes). All block header field definitions are available in section 4.3 of the yellow paper. Source: StackExchange

As Ethereum matures to develops into a decentralized, open financial system, parallel to the traditionally existing structures, advanced mechanisms and means for abstracting various kinds of assets and reliably capturing value from 'outside' (e.g., tokenizing commodities and precious metals, pegging to fiat currencies and currency baskets, etc.) become necessary, with various formulas and protocols proposed and discussed, some of which eventually getting implemented and gradually adopted across platforms and applications within the growing ecosystem.

Cross-chain interoperability and exchangeability of diverse crypto-assets across different systems and bridging between platforms is among the list of priorities in the present state of crypto-economic affairs and doing that via stablecoin mechanisms is one tendency right now which, combined with open standards and common protocols (such as the 0x protocol for decentralized off-chain exchange) together bring a set of primitives and engineering tools, easily integrated with all kinds of applications in more sophisticated structures which gradually contribute to organic growth and increased liquidity, accelerating network effects (though, as they say, Rome wasn't built in a day).

An interface contract declaring the required functions and events meeting the ERC-20 standard. The approve, allowance and transferFrom APIs expose the levers for operating on a token contract, allowing the transfer of an amount of tokens from one token holder's account balance to another.

Established technical standards and commonly recognized conventions and routines are also essential to codifying universally agreed upon formats and procedures, and some such as the ERC-20 specification of a token contract have been tremendously successful (at the cost of triggering a wave of scam-in-a-box ICOs throughout 2017-2019, as nobody would deny), while others, such as the ERC-721 standard for non-fungible tokens and collectibles might have been a bit premature, considering the subsequent clogging of network capacity as a result of the somewhat bizarre Cryptokitties mania. (All of which highlight the necessarily experimental nature of the project - in both the technical and societal sense of an experiment.)

Pushing the absurdity to the extreme just because. "MindBreed is a special type of Brainfuck interpreter that doesn't understand text input - only the fur patterns on CryptoKitties. Instead of simply typing out instructions, you must sacrifice an innocent kitty to the EVM for each added instruction." The Github repository with the Solidity contracts here.

Another up-and-coming mechanism for representing asset-backed tokens was introduced with so-called "wrapped" tokens. Which basically means converting an asset to an ERC-20 compatible token (and thereby, integrating it within Ethereum's crypto-economy), usually carried out in two ways:

Algorithmic, partially or entirely controlled by smart contracts and autonomous feedback mechanisms (e.g., locking an amount of collateral and issuing an equivalent amount of some other token or asset or automatically diluting the supply of some DAO governance tokens to re-calibrate a stablecoin's peg when market value falls below a certain critical threshold, as the case with MakerDAO, etc.), or

Semi-centralized/Federated by a consortium DAO of involved institutions and relevant bodies, trustworthy agencies and reputable parties which vote on decisions, proposals and system parameters and, importantly, operate transparently with verifiable proofs of reserves, registered and observable on the blockchain.

Obviously, this isn't a completely trustless arrangement where automation and algorithmic enforcement perfectly substitute for trusted third parties, system operators and an administrating bureaucracy (if it were that, it would quickly slide into inertia). What it tries to develop and institute instead is a regime of operating and an environment naturally conductive of healthy, beneficial market and governance behaviors via game theoretic alignments pulling the right actors and expertise where they naturally belong. While at the same time weeding out and discouraging other undesirable behaviors and ensuring there are no glaring, immediate technical or other loopholes to exploit so that one could relax assumptions under some clearly defined circumstances.

WETH: Wrapped Ether

Wrapped Ether or WETH is an ERC-20 compliant Ether. Since Ether (ETH), Ethereum's native proto-currency, does not itself conform to the ERC-20 standard specification (that defines how Ethereum tokens, or Ethereum-derived meta-currencies, are to be transferred and exchanged between one another while keeping a consistent record of the interactions within the Ethereum network), wrapping Ether as an ERC-20 eliminates the handling logic specific to ETH, allowing for directly trading it with other tokens on decentralized platforms within the ecosystem (such as Radar Relay). Technically, it's a stablecoin pegged to the price of Ether and implementing the standard token interface for the purpose of building more efficient and performant dApps, introducing standardization across them and establishing safer contract coding conventions.

"Wrapping" ETH really means exchanging it for an equivalent amount of WETH via a smart contract, while "unwrapping" it back to plain ETH means exchanging it back again (the smart contract instituted on the immutable ledger acting as a sort of back and forth vending machine). WETH is usually acquired via Radar Relay or 0x Portal through the provided interfaces there. Wrapped Ether (WETH) and its��contract code can be seen on-chain on etherscan.io and a version of the Solidity code is also available on Github.

The app interface for wrapping Ether before trading on Radar Relay.

Sending ETH to the contract with the CreateToken function sends back the equivalent amount of "wrapped" ERC-20 ETH while calling the withdraw function with the number of tokens to redeem destroys them, sending back the ETH deposit. In a word, WETH makes Ether behave and transact like a token, which may be practical in the case of many applications (such as decentralized exchange). Eventually, WETH may become replaced by some Ethereum standard or another (something along the lines of ERC-223) or made obsolete after some upgrades to the codebase and the EVM itself.

WBTC: Wrapped Bitcoin

WBTC is a fully Bitcoin-backed (in 1:1 ratio) DAO-managed ERC-20 that officially launched on January 31st (now available for trading on several platforms). Tokenizing Bitcoin on Ethereum allows for much faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions, enabling a whole host of Ethereum dApps to integrate and begin using it, that way giving both Bitcoin and Ethereum additional exposure and liquidity (most decentralized exchanges have only ETH/token and not BTC/token pairs, a gap WBTC is meant to bridge). One can think about it as an Ethereum certificate for ownership of bitcoin.

Wrapped BTC is governed by a consortium of institutions (below) performing different roles in the system. BitGo is the custodian that holds the assets (Bitcoins) and the keys to minting WBTC tokens. Kyber and the Republic Protocol are the authorized merchants who purchase the minting of tokens and from whom tokens are burnt as bitcoins enter into and exit out of circulation in Ethereum exchanges.

The parties forming the WBTC DAO. WBTC had been jointly initiated by Kyber, Ren (Republic Protocol) and BitGo, while partners include Maker, Dharma, bZx, Airswap, Hydrogen, Gnosis, Radar Relay, Blockfolio and others.

Each merchant has a key for initiating minting and burning of wrapped tokens. After acquiring wrapped tokens, users can transact them like any other ERC-20. Contract changes, adjustments and additions or removals of custodians or merchants are controlled by a multi-signature contract, the keys to which are held by institutions that are part of the managing DAO.

Custodian: BitGo

The custodian provides reliable, institutional-grade security for the tokenized ERC-20 Bitcoin and all WBTC in circulation is fully-backed, verified through on-chain proof of reserves. As the world's largest processor of on-chain BTC transactions (handling around 15% of all Bitcoin transactions globally), BitGo specializes in providing cryptocurrency financial services and regulatory compliant custodial solutions with high-security guarantees.

In 2018, BitGo launched the BitGo Trust Company introducing BitGo Custody as the first qualified purpose-built custodian for storing digital and crypto-assets. For WBTC, BitGo provides a pooled cold wallet (using off-line multi-signature keys) for supplying merchants and performs the minting (creation of WBTC) and burning (reducing the supply of WBTC when "unwrapping") operations that can be tracked by anyone through the public blockchain explorer.

Essentially, WBTC holders hold BTC by proxy via BitGo and on-chain contract arrangements. Upon redemption of BTC claimed by the ERC-20 coupon, the tokenized WBTC is burnt out of circulation. Making sure of the content of reserves is easier than, for example, with the notorious Tether (USDT) stablecoin since the accounting of both blockchains is public and open for audit and analysis at any time.

Merchants: Republic Protocol and Kyber Network

Merchants are the parties authorized to request minted WBTC tokens from the custodian. They are the institutions to which wrapped tokens are minted to and burnt from, in possession of the keys initiating either operation. Merchants play the important role of distributing the tokens, in this case, taken up by Kyber and Republic Protocol. Decentralized exchanges like these seem to be increasingly positioning themselves as Ethereum institutional and regulatory agencies, working to utilize the full potential of what Ethereum can offer.

Kyber's on-chain liquidity protocol enables instant token swap services that could be integrated into any application, while Republic Protocol provides dark pool exchanges for trading large volumes of assets via hidden order books, leveraging secure multi-party computations and zero-knowledge proofs (zkSNARKs). The Ren Project evolved from Republic Protocol as a separate virtual machine (RenVM) built around zero-knowledge protocols and strong privacy and security guarantees. When acquiring wrapped tokens through an authorized merchant, KYC'd users can atomically swap their bitcoin (via Kyberswap) for an equivalent amount of WBTC.

Swapping tokens with KyberSwap.

Other DAO Members

WBTC launched with a total of 26 partners and 15 DAO members. Among them are MakerDAO, Dharma, Gnosis, OmiseGO, Set Protocol, Kyber, BitGo, AirSwap, Blockfolio, Compound, Hydro, and others. DAO details such as member addresses can be seen here and the applications to join is open to all that wish to apply.

MakerDAO's address for WBTC Dao Membership: 0xd5d4aB76e8F22a0FdCeF8F483cC794a74A1a928ehttps://t.co/eflCGm5BFd#WBTC #WBTCDAO

— Maker (@MakerDAO) January 30, 2019

A "Bitcoin maximalist" interpretation. Only, a sidechain by definition relies on the security and jurisdiction of its mainchain, i.e. Plasma sidechains are accountable to the Ethereum mainchain (which is not the case here). WBTC is simply a tokenized representation of BTC on Ethereum.

Overall, this introduces another important metric of measure in the crypto-economy given Bitcoin's status in that landscape. It must be reminded that the same thing is always much easier to implement in Ethereum than it is in Bitcoin, but sidechains as such are accountable to the main chains they derive from. Some decentralized exchanges can be conceived of as sidechains. And so-called Bitcoin maximalism appears to be a strange, supposedly radical expression of the crypto-libertarian ideology which claims influence from Austrian economics. One couldn't help but sometimes wonder, what would Hayek do/think about all this?

Wrapped Bitcoin Proof of Assets and Reserves

Bitcoin reserves backing WBTC can be publicly verified by opening the WBTC network order book. The "on-chain validation” link leads to the proof of asset page at wbtc.network/dashboard/audit. The token contract link on Etherscan is found here. All associated contracts have been audited by established firms including Solidified Technologies, ChainSecurity, Coinspect, and are publicly available. Any ERC-20 compliant Ethereum wallet can interact with WBTC by adding the token address: 0x2260fac5e5542a773aa44fbcfedf7c193bc2c599.

Publicly auditable proof of assets, accessible at wbtc.network/dashboard/audit. Also, see WBTC on coinmarketcap.

Public accountability and transparency are what is of critical importance in that context, not forgetting the original motivation and raison d'être of distributed crypto-economies and so-called crypto-currencies post-2008. But no less important is the issue of reconciling traditional structures and institutions with this newly emerging socio-technical paradigm of institutional technology and socio-economic coordination. Particularly given how the two are in many fundamental ways different in nature (as originating from and building upon an already globally distributed technology whose character is defined by open access and hyper-connectivity, or is otherwise rhizomatic).

DigixDAO and the DGX Token: Tokenized and Notarized Gold Assets on Ethereum

Digix is a Singapore-based early Ethereum DAO dedicated to tokenizing gold and precious metals within Ethereum via yet another Proof of Assets (PoA) protocol. At each step of the PoA process, proof records and audit trails are published permanently with IPFS and Ethereum. DGX tokens are divisible units representing one gram of gold redeemable from the custodian vault (The Safe House, located in Singapore).

PoA asset cards are stamped with the digital signatures of the entities involved in the chain of custody (and further validated with proofs of purchase and depository receipts, parmanently uploaded onto IPFS), namely Vendor, Custodian and Auditor. The Vendor, ValueMax Singapore, is a publicly listed company that sells London Bullion Market Associate certified gold bullion bars. The independent Auditor, Bureau Veritas Inspectorate, a recognized world leader in testing, inspection and certification services (with a 180 years history), checks the quality and quantity of the gold every quarter.

The Safe House, Singapore is DigixDAO's custodian vault.

The participating Custodian Vault, The Safe House, is located in Singapore. Their vault can store up to 30 tons of gold, but in the future, Digix will look to include more vaults around the globe for regulatory redundancy. The Safe House takes full advantage of Singapore's jurisdictional and counterparty risk protections, particularly focusing on and specializing in providing such safe haven storage vaults.

Product life cycle. Source: Digix white paper ("The Gold Standard in CryptoAssets")

Similar to the Maker DAO, the Digix DAO operates via two distinct tokens - a governance token (DGD) that grants holders the rights to vote on how the DAO allocates funds and allows them to make “active managerial decisions to any proposals submitted to DigixDAO.” And the DGX token, the actively managed product which the DAO ensures it represents a gram of redeemable gold (which can be purchased from Kyber or directly from the Digix marketplace app).

The big advantage tokenized gold has over traditional ways of trading it is the divisibility of the token without incurring any additional costs and "premiums". Also, it introduces a valuable kind of stablecoin to the Ethereum ecosystem, one which is not too correlated with the 'crypto' market overall and which the Maker DAO has planned integrating into its multi-collateral system (allowing to create CDPs, collateralized debt positions, with DGX and other kinds of assets).

sETH: Wrapped Short and Leveraged Positions via dY/dX Protocol

The dY/dX protocol is an Ethereum protocol for expressing crypto-derivatives (asset classes that derive their value from some underlying blockchain-based asset) and enabling margin trades. Derivatives are considered factors increasing market efficiency for the underlying asset by facilitating price discovery and allowing individuals to express more complex statements on price and volatility. As such, dY/dX consists of a set of protocols specifying the operation and execution of different types of financial products.

The "dY/dX" notation (also called Leibniz's notation) is known as the derivative operator, the basic rule of financial derivatives and formula for generally expressing gradients of difference (implicit differentiation) mathematically. If dY denotes the rising gradient (change in Y), dX is the lower bound or run gradient (change in X), and dY/dX is really (dY2 - dY1)/(dX2 - dX1) - the remainder from the difference. The dY/dX protocol makes use of 0x channels for decentralized off-chain exchange. Lenders sign a message in which they offer loans which are aggregated and listed on other platforms (both on-chain and off-chain).

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a prominent German polymath and philosopher in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. His most notable accomplishment was conceiving the ideas of differential and integral calculus, independently of Isaac Newton's contemporaneous developments.

A trader can open a margin position by sending a transaction to the dY/dX margin smart contract that contains the offer and locks in the deposit sent for issuing the market position contract. The on-chain contract autonomously mediates the exchange and issuing of margin trading short and long positions (as Nick Szabo first gave the example of the vending machine as the primitive precursor of smart contracts - they execute some instructions upon being triggered by what they've been programmed to react in response to).

Short Tokens and Margin Trading

In a margin trade, a trader borrows an asset and promptly trades it for another asset. The asset must be repaid to the lender, usually along with some interest, at some later specified date. Margin trading includes both short sells and leveraged longs. In a short sell, an investor borrows an asset and sells it for the quote currency, making money should the price of the asset decrease (as rebuying the asset to pay back the lender costs less than what it was originally bought for). The investor loses money if the price of the asset rises, since, vice versa, rebuying the asset to repay the lender would now cost more than the original sell-price.

That considered, a Short Token is a short position wrapped in an Ethereum token. Short tokens can be directly traded via Radar Relay like any other ERC-20. When holding a Short Token, one's return depends on the inverse price movement of the underlying token. In sETH/Dai for example, when ETH goes down, the price of sETH goes up (Dai, the MakerDAO managed stablecoin, is used to fund, buy and sell the token). Short tokens are useful in hedging risk and gaining upside in a downtrend, adding another market lever to Ethereum and the crypto-economy.

Diagram illustrating the dynamics of constructing short tokens. Source: shorttokens.io

Short token positions are opened via the dY/dX protocol and last for 28 days. By the end of the 28th day the token expires and locks to the market price. Every short token is labled by the asset being shorted and the expiration (e.g., sETH 6/11). Short tokens can be either sold on Radar Relay or paid out upon expiration at expotrading.com.

dY/dX along with projects like the Dharma protocol for tokenized debt issuance are important developments for Ethereum and exemplify the possibilities of what could be accomplished within such distributed framework of decentralized exchange unbound from cultural and geopolitical constraints and state-governmental and bureaucratic regulatory limitations.

Universal Ethereum Standards and Contract Form Templates

Universally accepted technical standards that set a commonly accepted frame or format of how particular assets and objects are represented, registered and accounted for in the shared ledger are obviously an important component in ensuring frictionless flows of value, exchange and ease of interaction. EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) become ERCs (Ethereum Request for Comment) upon community approval. The informal governance process of Ethereum is similar to the well-known RFCs (Request for Comments).

"Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards."

An RFC is authored by engineers and computer scientists that may come from many different agencies and bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB). They take the form of a memorandum describing methods, behaviors, formal procedures, research or innovations applicable to the workings of the Internet and Internet-connected systems. Ethereum takes the same approach to standardizing protocols, methods and formal specifications within its infrastructure.

ERC-223: Token with Transactions Behaving like Ether Transactions

Originally proposed by an Ethereum Classic dev (Dexaran), ERC-223 defines the inverse of what WETH does - it makes token transfers behave like Ether transactions and offers a solution to losing tokens when mistakenly sending them to contract addresses. ERC-223 utilizes event handling that prevents tokens from being lost in unhandled transactions, making the transfer function throw an error on invalid transfers and canceling the transaction so no funds are lost, irreversibly locked in contracts that do not support/recognize them.

ERC-223 transaction handling. Checking if a given address (_to) contains bytecode (codeLength) to determine if it is a contract address or a wallet. If tokens are sent to a contract address, that contract must implement the tokenFallback function, else the transaction fails (the same way as if one would send Ether to a contract without the called function being explicitly defined as payable). The receiver contract interface is found here.

The economy of ERC-223 is such that users can send tokens to both contracts and wallets (both represented by public addresses on Ethereum) with the same function in a single step (instead of two, as commonly done in ERC-20), thereby increasing efficiency and lowering gas expenditure. At present, however, most Ethereum wallets don't support ERC-223 tokens.

ERC-223 contract interface. Unlike ERC-20, there's no allowance, approve and transferFrom functions. Instead of calling approve and then transferFrom, users can transfer tokens to contracts as simple as they would Ether.

Instead of abstracting away at the user interface level of an application (with the ERC-20 approve + doSomething) and therefore needing to trust the UI/UX developers, ERC-223 follows the Ethereum Classic reasoning of "code if law", implementing security on the lower levels.

ERC-777: More Transaction Handling Mechanisms, Token Registry and Event Hooks

Another fungible token aiming to improve upon and solve the issues with ERC-20 that relies on the ERC-820 (also backwards compatible with ERC-20). ERC-777 is focused on providing a wide range of transaction handling mechanisms and advanced features for interacting with tokens. It is highly customizable, allowing people to build extra functionality on top of tokens (such as a mixer contract for improved privacy or an emergency recovery function for bailing out upon loss of private keys).

ERC-777 logo.

ERC-820 uses a central registry of smart contracts on the Ethereum network. ERC-777 takes advantage of the same central registry to make contract functions easy to verify and instead of the 'transfer' and 'approve' functions it uses a 'send' function for transferring Ether itself (similar to the ERC-223 'transfer'). Another aspect of ERC-777 is allowing for 'approved operators' - parties that can approve smart contracts to move tokens on their behalf.

The above is the ERC-777 contract interface that the token contract must implement. The granularity function returns the smallest non-divisible unit of a token.

Both contracts and regular/external addresses can control, accept and reject which tokens they send or receive via the tokensToSend and tokensReceived functions (also that way avoiding the double call approve/transferFrom required in ERC-20). Wallets that do not contain the tokensReceived function can be backwards compatible via a proxy contract deployed for the wallet.

A Solidity reference contract is available on Github here. The EIP describing all the methods and rationale in more detail is found here.

ERC-1155: A Multi-Token Standard

The ERC-1155 was announced by Witek Radomski, the CTO for the video gaming company Enjin. ERC-1155 takes a new method to describing tokens (non-fungible and otherwise). Items are stored in a single contract with the minimum possible amount of data necessary to distinguish one token from another. The contract state contains configuration data per token ID and all the behavior governing the collection.

The on-chain contract serving as an items registry that describe the properties and parameters of a given token.

In ERC-1155, one can send any number of items to one or multiple recipients in a single transaction, reducing gas costs and congestion on the Ethereum transaction pool (as was the case with Cryptokitties and ERC-721). The transfer, approve, melt, and trade functions all take arrays as parameters, which lets one perform between 100–200 such operations packed in a single transaction.

An ERC-1155 minting service is available here, with tokens compatible with and supported by the Enjin wallet.

Summary and Conclusion

All the above should give one a good idea of the present state of development and maturity of Ethereum, as well as the explored avenues and areas of ongoing research. The direction Ethereum has taken significantly differs from the philosophy of Ethereum Classic, where a slower, more gradual and conservative approach to development and innovation is taken (one closer to the philosophy of Bitcoin). Regardless, one cannot deny that the entire space has been learning from the mistakes and mishaps of Ethereum, and while some never missed the chance to jump on the bandwagon of critique and tireless efforts to discredit and even disseminate aggressive, self-serving disinformation, others have quietly been taking notes on the side and yet others exploited opportunities to launch yet another "Ethereum killer". Either way, the value Ethereum has brought to the space - in experience and knowledge (the value of well-documented failures is more valuable than that of accidental success and the following desperate attempts by others to replicate it or improve upon it) is undeniable.

And while nobody can know for sure how things will unravel in the future ahead, continuous experimentation and active community discussion and debates in the long road ahead are fundamental prerequisites to the possibility of success. The incubation and hype periods seem to have cooled down beginning 2019, entering a more mature, stable phase and one more critical, self-reflective and less ideologically driven. And in the historical juncture we seem to find ourselves at, this critical phase transition characterized by rapid loss of confidence in governments and public institutions and eroding trust in traditional structures and even capital itself, paralel structures and institutions that we could transit to or fall back on are of fundamental importance in preventing a possible collapse and disintegration down to simpler levels of organization and operation, or in other words, an entering into a period of a dark age. As such, frameworks like Ethereum seem to offer a possible safety net of security, as when things get too unstable and unpredictable capital tends to flee to safety. Stablecoins and the volatility insurance institutions like the MakerDAO seem to actively work on developing could prove tremendously important (with the introduction of multi-collateral Dai and support for a wide range of assets to hedge risk with), but we mustn't forget that they are still in a way laboratories that need the parameters of reality and observing how assets behave and correlate in different circumstances. The periodic failures that take place are the price we pay for learning the way forward.

Dai, the MakerDAO managed stablecoin. MakerDAO is to Ethereum like what the International Monetary Fund is to the global economy or the Federal Reserve to the US economy. (Originally, it was proposed that Dai be pegged to IMF's SDR currency basket instead of the US dollar. But the end-goal is to diversify into all possible configurations of stability providing assets as collateral - such as DGX, REP and others, and develop a platform for flexible volatility insurance that provides protection against all kinds of scenarios and multi-shaded black swans.)

System-wide standardization and widely adopted simple mechanisms for smoothening friciton and paving the roads for capital flows are just as critically important, but we must also consider the levels of possible centralization they may in some circumstances introduce and what degree of centralization is acceptable in any particular circumstance. The Ethereum community has so far proven honest and genuine in their intentions, efforts and ethics and as such is self-regulating (despite the often unintended consequences), but we must always maintain a healthy and sober critical thinking attitude and extrapolate the effects of given set of conditions to their possible extreme manifestations, because as history has shown (for example), republics always tend to eventually develop into oligarchies just as stagnation (political, intellectual, economic) tends to allow corruption and rot to creep in. We must not forget our original motivations, neither allow them to turn into empty slogans of repetitive cliches. Instead of seeking opportunities to exploit quick profits in the rigged casino of the market, we should better consider investments and trading as making statements and pulling towards desirable futures to be. By making an effort to gain better understanding and not be cheated by people with questionable ethics, we contribute to the overall health and well-being of the system and by setting an example with what we do, we help trigger a cascading ripple effect across the system. We should consider things like Ethereum as toolkits and frameworks for building institutions - whether local, regional or international or commerical, financial, academic, professional or political. The rest is the creative efforts of our collective imagination and desire.

Links and Additional Resources

WETH website.

WBTC network official site.

DigixDAO official website.

Short tokens and dY/dX white paper.

Radar relay.

0x protocol.

Ethereum EIPs sorted in lists of categories.

Ethresear.ch, the official discussion forum for all things Ethereum.

The EVM specification known as the Ethereum yellow paper

The MakerDAO Medium and Rocketchat.

The OpenZeppelin repository of audited and secure Solidity contracts/implementations.

Kyber network (decentralized exchange) and the Kyberswap dApp for quick ERC-20 swaps.

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