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numba99 · 5 years ago

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Fatal Attraction

Summary: When a mysterious man shows up at your job, you find yourself inexplicably drawn to him - and him to you. But behind the beautiful face is the dark lifestyle of a man who has made his wealth through becoming the most powerful drug dealer in the city. Word count: 2.7k

Song (new thing I wanna try for this series first song is the general ~vibe~ im going for with this) Him & I by Halsey and G-eazy

Warnings: OKAY SO this is gonna be a long one. Obviously this whole fic is going to have drug mentions in it. I want to be clear that I am not trying to glamorize/condone drug usage. We are all adults and can make decisions on how we feel about that kind of stuff on our own. This is merely a work of fiction and I completely respect you choosing not to read it for whatever reason. I am not 100% sure what’s going to come out as a I write this but I imagine there will be mentions of violence (though I have no plans nor interests in writing about violence explicitly), smut, weapons, etc. I will put more specific warnings on each part, but I wanted to give a general idea so you don’t start something you wouldn’t be comfortable finishing. okay thats enough of that, let’s get to the good stuff.

It was a Friday night like any other. You stepped out on to your personal stage for the night, wrapping you hand around the silver pole in the center. It was cold and familiar, the sensation always flipped a switch in you. It was time to work. A slow, sexy R&B song spilled out of the speakers as you began a sultry walk around the pole. You noted the faces in the crowd, painted blue by the clubs low, mood lighting. They all melted together, a sea of desperate men with fantasies playing in their heads. Then you spotted him.

He showed up a little over a month ago, and since then has came in week after week. He always sat in the back, always by your stage. You had some frequent flyers, but no one like this, no one like him. He didn’t so much as look at any of the other dancers. He was there for you, you could feel that even from across the room.

And yet, you never felt uncomfortable by his presence. In fact, you looked forward to it. You couldn’t be certain, but you thought he was keeping at an eye out for you. You noticed he was always with another man, who was suited and stood behind him. If a patron got too in your face, he’d whisper to the man he was with, who’d then pull aside whoever was bothering you. Without fail they scampered away every time. You never heard what was said, but the look on the other guys face told you it wasn’t very kind.

He tipped handsomely as well, though he never put the money on you. While the other men would clamor to slide single dollar bills in your lingerie, he’d have his “sidekick,” as you dubbed him, lay a single hundred dollar bill stage after every song... and then drop off a few hundreds before he left for the night. Some nights he'd tip you more than you could make in a week.

Though his presence seemed benevolent enough, you were a bit cautious of him. You wondered what this mystery man wanted, why he was watching you. In this industry, you learn to become suspicious of men that pay too much attention to you. You’ve dealt with many creeps in your time stripping, and you wondered if he was just rich and shy, waiting to build up the nerve to make a move on you and hoping the money he was dropping would soften you up.

As fate would have it, tonight would be the night you’d get your answer.

Your club’s manager Rick, who was as sleazy as sleazy gets called you off the stage for a private room booking. When you were lucky, or unlucky depending on how you looked at it, a man would book you for some time in one of the private areas. During this time you were either giving him a lap dance, or worse, acting like his therapist. You lost count of the amount of times you got alone with a man and he just broke down crying about his wife or shitty life or something you didn’t care about. It was a 50/50, but you put up with because they made you good money.

“Who’s the lucky man?” you deadpanned.

“The dude back there,” Rick replied, nodded to your mystery man. You cocked a brow, shocked that he was requesting alone time with you when he hasn’t so much as sat front row for one of your dances. You had no idea what to expect, but you had a strange feeling growing in your stomach that there was more than meets the eye with this man. You never really got nervous for these things anymore, it was just part of the job, but something about finally being face to face with him was making your heart thud.

“Put on a good show for him would ya? Man spends a lot when he is here. Don’t need you fucking it up,” Rick said as he chomped on a stale-smelling sandwich.

“What room?” you asked, ignoring his stupid comments.

“Three. Get naked if he wants, I want that money y/n,” Rick replied. You turned around flipping him the middle finger as you walked away. It was supposed to be club rules that your bottoms always stay on... and it was also supposed to be club rules that guys weren’t allowed to touch you outside the private rooms. However, Rick could turn a blind eye if money was being made for him.

You knew you were at the right room, the sidekick was standing outside like a guard. He stepped aside for you without word, allowing you inside. Odd, but you’ve seen enough weird shit here that it didn't phase you. The door clicked shut and you spun around, finding the mystery man alone on the cushioned booth. The lights were low, but you could see him so much better now. His hair was slicked back into a low bun, face framed by a well taken care of beard. You couldn’t tell the exact color of his eyes in the lighting, but they were mesmerizing even from a distance.

“Sit,” he said softly, patting the spot next to him. You approached cautiously, keeping your eyes on him the entire time. It always raised your suspicion when a man didn’t ask you get on top of him right away.

“Please don’t tell me you’re one of those dudes who’s going to tell me I’m too good for this and you want to save my soul,” you said as you sat next to them. You’ve gotten a few of those holier-than-thou types in your time here. It was funny how when you told them you were not interested in being “saved” they still wanted a lap dance.

“I don’t think you’re someone who needs to be saved,” the stranger replied simply. Interesting.

“What do you want then?” you questioned.

“I’d love to know your name,” he replied, “ Your real name.”

You weren’t supposed to give out your real name at the club, but Rick never followed his own rules, why should you. Besides, he did say to give him what he wants.“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”

He cocked a grin, laughing lightly. “I’m Mika.”

“Mika,” you repeated, your voice just above a whisper. You weren’t sure why, but it felt like such a victory to know this man’s name.

“Sounds a lot prettier coming from you,” He commented, “And yours?” He tilted his head slightly as he looked at you, sending your stomach to your feet. Closer up you could see his eyes were a rich hazel. They seemed to pierce through you; you felt exposed under his gaze... and not just because you were in lingerie and he was fully dressed. You almost felt as if he knew what you were going to say before you could get the words out.

“Y/n,” you told him.

“Beautiful name,” he replied, “Fitting.” Mika had an innate charm to him, making all his words sound so much sweeter. His comment was simple, cliché really, yet it brought a blush to your cheeks.

“Is there something I can do for you?” you asked, trying to remember why you were here.

“I’d like to take you out,” Mika replied, “If you’d like of course.”

Of course you would, but it wasn’t that easy. “I’m on shift for another couple hours,” you told him.

“Let me see what I can do,” Mika replied. Before you had a chance to ask what he meant by that, he called in his sidekick, who’s name you learned was Chris. Mika whispered something in his ear, handing him a thick wad of cash. Chris walked away without a word and Mika smiled at you. “Give it a minute.”

You weren’t sure what to make of all this, but you didn't really have time to process it. Just moments later Chris was back. “You're free to go whenever you want y/n,” Chris informed you. Of course, Rick never met a pile of cash he didn’t like.

“So what do you say?” Mika asked, flashing a warm smile. How could say no?

“Let me get changed,” You replied, standing up, “But just so you know, this club is filled with cameras. If you’re planning to take me somewhere and kill me or something, everyone is going to know it was you so don’t bother.” Felt like good measure to add that in.

Mika chuckled, “You’re smart, I like that. But don’t worry y/n, you’re safe with me.” You had no reason to believe him, but for some reason you did. He told you he’d be waiting outside his car for you, and with that you went back to the dressing room. You wished you had worn something nicer than just a pair of jeans and an old tee, but nothing you could do about that now.

You hurried out, not wanting to bump into Rick and deal with any of his stupidity. You were giddy as you stepped out on to the street, feeling like you were playing hooky in high school. Mika was right where he said he would be, leaning against a blacked out SUV. It looked sleek and expensive, much like him.

“Uber black?” You questioned.

Mika chuckled, “No, it’s mine.” Damn, who the hell had room for a car like this in the city? Mika helped you into the back of the car, the front occupied by the driver and Chris.

“Do you always travel with a pose?” you asked.

Mika pressed a button in side panel of the door and a divider went up, separating the two of you from the pair in the front. “Now it’s just me and you.”

“Still doesn’t answer my question,” you noted.

“Fair enough,” Mika replied with a hint of a smirk, “Typically Chris is always with me and the driver comes with the car so if you consider that a pose, then yes.”

“More people than I travel with,” you replied, “And who is Chris to you?”

“A friend,” he replied simply. Right, because everyone’s friends follow them around like a guard dog, you thought. You didn't want to push him too much, he was still a stranger after all.

“You’re good at not answering questions,” you noted, looking out the window. “Do I at least get to know where we are going?”

“Well the only places open right now are-”

“Bars and strip clubs,” you answered for him.

“Right,” Mika nodded.

“Well if it doesn’t make a difference to you I’d prefer a bar,” you replied.

“I had a feeling you were going to say that,” Mika smiled, “How about one drink at the next bar we pass? I don’t want to keep you too late.”

“I’m good with that,” you nodded. Being that it was New York, the next bar popped up right away. Mika had the driver pull over and let told him to wait here as he helped you out of the car. Chris asked if he should come in with you guys, which you thought was a bit strange, but thankfully Mika told him he’d be fine on his own.

The bar was a small, a real hole-the-wall type place. The guests didn’t look too savory, but they were all far into their drinks to notice you. Mika sat you down at the furthest end of the bar, away from everyone else. The bar tendered begrudgingly asked what you two wanted, though you didn’t blame him for the attitude. You guessed you met similar people in your lines of work, so you totally understood.

“Just a vodka soda with extra lime, please,” you told him.

“Have you a got a vodka preference?” Mika asked.

You let out a short laugh, “Whatever’s cheapest.”

Mika bit back a smile, turning back to the bartender, “Whiskey neat for me. Give us whatever the best stuff on your top shelf is.” He tossed down a hundred on the bar top. That changed the guy’s mood.

“Of course, sir,” he scooped up the bill and scurried off.

“You toss around hundreds like they’re single dollar bills,” you said.

Mika shrugged, “I like to be generous.”

“A generous man with a great job,” you replied as the bartender placed the drinks in front of you two.

Mika smirked as his lips touched the glass, as if you’d shared some inside joke. “You could say that.”

“So what is it then? What do you do?” you asked, sipping your drink. You knew you were supposed to think it was so much better because it was the fancy stuff but to you vodka was well... vodka.

“I’m in business,” he replied simply.

“Oh come on,” you rolled your eyes, “That’s like me just saying I dance.”

“Does the distinction really matter?” Mika asked.

“Yeah, because people might assume I’m a Rockette meanwhile I’m just a stripper in a shitty club,” you replied before taking another long sip. Okay maybe there was something to this fancy shit.

“But either way you are still a dancer, so the statement isn’t false. Why not let people believe what they want?” Mika replied.

You let out a groan, “You’re impossible. But you are good at that thing you’re doing.”

“What thing I’m doing?” Mikas asked laughing lightly.

“The whole dodging questions with other questions thing,” you replied taking a swig of your drink. You were almost done with it; it went down smooth despite the familiar burn.

“But not good enough for you not to notice,” Mika pointed out.

“Definitely not,” you shook your head, “Nothing gets past me.”

“We’ll see about that,” Mika mumbled into his glass.

“Will we?”

“Maybe,” Mika replied, “If you go out with me again.”

“So I have to go out with you to get answers?” you questioned.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Mika replied, “But if you want to get to know me more, a second date would be a good place to start. That’s typically how these things work.” He added the last part in with a teasing grin.

“Touché,” you replied, “I’ll go out with you again.” Not just because you wanted to know more about what he does, though that was a motivator, you were just so intrigued by him.

“Lucky me,” he smiled. With that you both finished up and Mika left another generous tip. As you walked out of the bar, his hand found your lower back. You could feel the warmth through your shirt; it spread through your body weakening you in the knees.

He settled next to you in the car, closer than he had before. You suddenly caught a whiff of his scent, an intoxicating mix of earthy-warmth with just the slightest hint of sweetness. You found yourself staring at his neck, wishing you could burry your face into it and drink in the scent as you kissed at his skin.

“Your number?” You shook yourself back to reality, realizing Mika had been speaking to you. The way he looked at you made you feel like he knew exactly what you were thinking.

“Sorry,” you mumbled, a blush rising to your cheeks as you took the phone from his hands. You tapped in your name and number before handing it back to him, resolving to not let yourself get so wrapped up in him like that. At least not while he was there to witness it.

“Well it was nice to finally meet you,” Mika said as the car came to a stop outside your apartment.

“Likewise,” you replied, hopping out. You turned around, allowing yourself one last look at him.

“I’ll be in touch about our date. Have a nice night y/n,” Mika replied.

“You too, Mika.”

You let out a long sigh as you made your way up to your place. You felt like you needed a drink more now than you did before that date. There was something about Mika that you couldn’t quite put your finger on that felt dangerous. Not that you ever felt unsafe with him, it was the opposite actually, but being with him felt like an adrenaline rush almost. Like you were doing something you weren't supposed to. Whatever it was, you knew there was more to this man than meets the eye. And you were determined to find out exactly what that was.

#fatal attraction #mika zibanejad imagine #mika zibanejad smut #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagines #new york rangers imagine #new york rangers smut #m zibanejad

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ericleo108 · 5 years ago

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🎩 My Political Philosophy 2019: Oligarchy, Meritocracy, and Matriarchy

This essay is an exploration of my political philosophy or how I think society should run. I have a degree in sociology which only emphasizes the ignorance I have on the subject. As a philosopher, I can only aspire to create the next great political and economic system. My attempt here is to give an outline of what I think humanity should be striving toward while maintaining a fair, prosperous, and efficient future. Much further study is needed.

My approach is both egalitarian and utilitarian meaning equal and the greatest good for the greatest number. First I will talk about how the political system is run now where the corporate rich rule. Then I will talk about where I think the political system should be going, which is into a meritocracy. In the end I talk about how there is patriarchy (where men rule) but a matriarchy (where women rule) is now better for society.

Oligarchy

I know America is technically a republic but much research has gone into how America functions and it is actually an oligarchy. A small number of corporations make laws and get them passed through politicians they heavily endorse. For an in-depth read William G. Domhoff’s book “Who Rules America?” If I remember correctly the story goes something like this. The people elect their representatives which are basically picked by those who find funding from corporations, the corporations write the laws, and the corporate representatives pass them. This doesn’t happen all the time but it is more the rule than the exception. The people who are really in control are the CEOs of the companies that make the policy that gets passed as law.

Now we can argue if corporate rule is bad or not, but that won’t be argued here. If you want to know the negative side, which is basically greed over human wellbeing, read my post “The Result of Corporate Rule in America.” However, here I am more focused on taking the good parts from the current system and putting them to work for my meritocracy. The bad part about corporate rule is that they are narrow in serving their interests, but the good part is the country has a lot of wealth and is run by the most able.

Meritocracy

If we are to evolve our political philosophy into a better functioning system for all I suggest we keep capitalism and our republic and update our democracy and economy. Basically, I want to put in a point system for elections and safety nets into the economy. For a true meritocracy to function there has to be an equal playing field for everything. This includes political, educational, and economic opportunities.

Some things in the country we would need to employ would be a higher national minimum wage that has kept up with GDP and production, free health care, free college all the way till a doctorate, and a national holiday on election day. Each company has to reserve a certain percentage of ownership to its employees. There should be free financial services to the poor like an “advisor-teller” money manager but only designed to help the poor save and produce more capital.

In a world with as much wealth, efficiency, and technology as we have, not everyone has to work. Whether you want to work, or rather how you want to work should become an option you want to do and are passionate about. In a meritocracy, your job becomes your will and who you are. You are motivated to work because it fulfills you emotionally and spiritually rather than financially; it’s what makes you human. You’re also motivated to achieve to be represented better politically through the electorate point system.

I haven’t hashed out exact numbers but there would be an overall cap on wealth based on a percentage of the lowest producing income level. There would be universal basic income where everyone would receive, for example, $1000 a month, or $12000 a year. The wealthiest person in the country can only have 100 million times the lowest net worth. The richest person in the country can have more money but they would have to raise the minimum. This binds the fate of the richest and the poorest.

Those were corrections for the economy. To better the political process I suggest we put in a point system for voting. We do that by making your vote worth more if you have achieved a certain status in society. The following are examples.

You get one point for being alive and an adult. You get .2 points for an associate’s degree, .5 for a bachelors, and 1 if you're a ph.d. If you have a business that has been profitable for 5 years and you paid your taxes, it is worth .2 points. 12 years is worth .5. And that is where business owners are capped. If you can prove consistent monthly income for 7 years you get .2 points. 15 years .5 points. You can get there faster by working the same job for 5 and 12 years respectively. This makes employees and the employer equal. There are special circumstances where you can receive more points. For example, if you receive an olympian metal it’s worth .1 per Bronz, .2 per silver, .3 per gold. If your a tenured teacher is worth .8. You can add points over categories. So if your a successful 12-year business owner, with another successful 5-year business, won 2 gold Olympic medals, and have a Ph.D. you’ll have a total of 3.3 points.

Some of these are arbitrary numbers and a lot more research would be needed to see what points are appropriate at what stages. It’s not based on the Amount of money you make or have. In fact, the whole point is to give power to those who can perform, not simply those with just money. The merit is not only how much they contribute to society, but their ability to vote correctly for their interests and the interests of the country. We would obviously have to get rid of the electoral college and have a direct democracy. The point system would also prevent a tyranny of the majority.

The Patriarchy

I am interested in studying how a matriarchal society is different from patriarchy. I am interested in studying the political system of Finland and Iceland. It would be interesting to compare Finland with its new 34-year-old Finnish woman prime minister and the United States. Iceland held a women’s protest in 1975 and now their electorate is almost all women.

I think the approach of a male WAS an advantage when aggression and military might was needed for conquest and security. But in the age of giant militaries and nuclear weapons, a more amicable approach is needed. The same reason why women have traditionally abstained from the military or become caretakers at home is the same reason why they are superior to lead now that it’s the age of the Anthropocene.

Barack Obama has the inclination that women are better leaders but he gives no reason why. I think women are more fit for office because their temperament is more appropriate. It makes their approach and goals different. Women are just as smart as men but their thoughts are less testosterone and ego-driven and therefore better. Women are nurturers and naturally release more estrogen rather than testosterone which makes them less aggressive. This is important because thinking clearly, long-term, for the family has been an evolutionary attribute of women. Women are more evolved in dealing with a larger group and protecting not only her interests but the interests of the group.

I think it’s cultural why women don’t rule in America. Women don’t believe a woman is ready to be president. They're still too submissive to men. Native American societies were a matriarchy. I think women already rule, silently over men through interpersonal relationships. 85 percent of purchasing decisions are made in some way by women. I think America will eventually get to the point one day where women take the reigns of power and rule better than men through direct political power as the preferred candidate.

Reading List:

Who Rules America by G. William Domhoff

Oligarchy by Jeffry Winters

American Oligarchy by Ron Formisano

Plutocracy in America by Ronald P. Formisano

When Women Ruled The World by Kara Cooney

Societies of Peace: Matriarchies Past, Present, and Future

#Philosophy #politics #oligarchy #meritocracy #matriachy

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doktorocelot · 6 years ago

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Google Pixel 3 XL Review

The Beginning

The Google Pixel is a phone series with a cult following. It's beloved for its smooth, light stock Android experience. However, I've been hearing some major controversy about Pixel 3. My carrier has been AT&T my entire life, and they don't natively carry the Pixel; I'd have to buy it unlocked. So, I skipped on the Pixel 1 and went for a Samsung Galaxy S8+.

Unfortunately, I carelessly dropped the phone on its curved edge and completely shattered the screen. I was devastated, but the phone was nearing the end of the two-year cycle. I've used a few phones in my day: the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S8+ and Google Pixel 3XL. However, as a child/teenager, I didn't have to pay for my own phone, and I was very thankful to be lucky enough to receive this technology. After shattering the Galaxy S8+, I didn't have the selfishness ask my parents to buy a new phone for me; therefore, I had to make a decision on what to do next.

I considered my options. Since I wanted to purchase my own phone, I wasn't limited to what my carrier provided. This was my chance to buy a Pixel! So I went on the Google Store, full of excitement until I noticed something. A Pixel 3 started at $799! That's quite expensive for a stock Android phone; there's the Essential Phone, which starts at $499, and the OnePlus 6T, which starts at $549. I needed to figure out what the Pixel 3 had over these other phones, and some would tell you it's not worth the extra money.

I did some more research and found out that Pixel phones were indeed the first to receive Android updates; if I bought a Pixel 3, I, assumably, would experience Android 9, 10 and 11 throughout the phone's lifespan. This is huge for a software nerd like myself, and that's the deal with the Pixel phones: you're paying more for the software than the hardware. However, I don't care about how good the software is, because the prices of the Pixel phones are gross. Google had a massive chance to undercut the competition by pricing this phone lower and attract more customers, but they didn't. As a result, many people who considered the phone won't buy it because it's too expensive.

Regardless, after all of the research I did, I decided I was going to try something new, and I bought a Google Pixel 3 XL. I went with Google Store Financing, so I'll be paying for this phone for two years. I've had it for about a month and a half now, so I'm going to review the handset based on that time.

The First Impression

The packaging is premium, but I don't fucking care. I don't buy a mobile for the packaging, so I unboxed the phone and set the deluxe packaging aside, never to be seen again. The naked phone looks really good; I really like Google's two-tone style, but there's wasted opportunity with that, which I'll get into later. Anyway, I decided to put the phone into a case immediately because I can't afford to break this one, and since there isn't a curved screen, it shouldn't instantly shatter if I drop it.

The phone's setup was easy, as expected, and worked instantly with the AT&T sim card I put into it. It even came with an ejection tool, which Apple should take notes from. It also came with a headphone dongle — as there is no headphone jack — something that Apple should take notes from. Included was a charging cable with a fast-charging brick, something Apple should take notes from. At this point, some of you may be getting annoyed by my comparing the included accessories to Apple, but you've got to remember: the iPhone X🅂 starts at $999. While I still believe the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are unbelievably priced, at least they give you a damned 3.5mm audio to USB Type-C and fast charging brick.

The phone also came with a set of wired USB Type-C headphones, and these things are super weird. In short, I personally don't like them, but some people do. My favourite earbuds are still Samsung OEM buds because they're very comfortable and sound great. However, I give props to Google for including a nice set of USB Type-C headphones, even if I personally find them uncomfortable.

The Elephant in the Room

I just need to get to this as soon as possible, because I really don't even want to write about it. Everybody's been talking about it, but in case you haven't noticed, the Google Pixel 3 XL has a display cutout. The notch at the top of the screen has been the talking point of many sad people who ride on controversy for views and revenue, including someone who made a five and a half minute video about it. In this video, they whine about a design on a phone they don't have to buy and then are confused why the developer options have different settings for different possible cutouts. Maybe it's for developers to test how their app works on different phones, dude. They also said that Google never justified the notch, even though the phone has dual speakers and dual front-facing cameras.

If you're like me and happen to be an adult, you'll quickly find that the notch doesn't really matter. I'm speaking for myself, but when I use my smartphone, I tend to look at the part of the phone that is the screen, not the part that isn't. Regardless, while it isn't intended for consumer use, you can use the developer options to disable the notch get a more traditional look if you desire to buy a phone with the extra screen and then not use it. However, then I hear people complain that they're losing the screen real estate when they do that. At this point, I needed to take a second to double take because I thought they didn't want the screen there. No, apparently, they want the notch area to be black, so it looks like there isn't a notch, but it still puts the status bar there. This isn't a native option in Pixel phones, but I'm just hoping Google adds this feature so they can shut up about it. Alternatively, there’s an app that does this. If you don't want the notch, you could always buy the Pixel 3, which exists. I'm telling you, though, Pixel 3 XL owners usually don't care about it.

The Screen

Now that I've finally written about the part that isn't the screen, I'll write about the screen. This is the part where I get really annoyed because the Pixel 3 XL's screen has been undergoing two bits of misinformation; I need to address these. First, a lot of people have been saying that the Pixel 3 XL is using a P-OLED screen, instead of an AMOLED screen. This incorrect assumption has led to reviewers' arbitrarily saying the screen is worse because the letters of its name are different from AMOLED. For example, there's a video from the channel, 'Learn How To Edit Stuff', where he proceeds to use a bunch of jumpcuts to get to a point where he says that he liked the iPhone's AMOLED screen better than a P-OLED display. This is such a sad example of a placebo because the Pixel 3 XL uses a Samsung AMOLED screen. This was according to a teardown of the device:

In the name of science, we opt to dismantle our display to learn from whence it came…It's a Samsung! Rumors were all over the place, but it looks like Google is going with Samsung's trusty AMOLED panels this year.

-iFixit (Source)

The Pixel 3 — you know, the small version that exists — is the one that uses a P-OLED display. I'm not sure why Google used two different screens, but whatever.

The second 'issue' I've seen going around is the display's brightness. In fact, I've seen a lot of people say that the screen is too dim. They mention how, on other phones, they keep their brightness at around 50%, but on the Google Pixel 3, they have to set it to approximately 80%, thus killing the battery life. A dim screen would really be a dealbreaker for me… but you know, it's funny; if I were to drop a considerable amount of money a phone that I'm going to use for the next two years, and I had an issue with it, I'd be sure to research it to get more information, rather than just claiming it as an issue and move on. Here's the truth: Android 9 changed the brightness slider completely. The Android developers changed it from a linear scale to a new scale that complements the human's perception of brightness. As a result, what was at 50% is now at around 80% because the slider now appears to work smoothly. The battery won't drain faster because the number is higher than before since the brightness is the exact fucking same.

The Problems

Let me break up this Google-jizzing attitude to explain that this phone, like every other phone, is not perfect. I'm going to put the negatives that I experienced because I want to be fair with this phone. However, do understand that I still find that the upsides heavily outweigh the downsides.

I've personally been having issues with the fingerprint reader. Sometimes, it just won't recognise my fingerprint at all, no matter how much I wipe down both ends. However, other reviewers have said that the fingerprint reader works every time so your mileage may vary.

The Android 9 gesture navigation has really grown on me, but there's one problem I have with it. If you swipe up from the bottom, you get to the recent apps page. If you swipe up again, you get to the app drawer. Supposedly, if you long swipe, you can get instantly to the app drawer, but I find this very difficult to do quickly. I feel like I have to bring my finger up the entire screen slowly to get it to work, and it just really breaks the flow for me.

For some reason, when I watch YouTube videos, the equalisation of the audio varies. Sometimes, I'll get bass-boosted sound when I start the video, but if I skip around the video, the equalisation randomly changes to have more treble. I don't know why it does that, and I can't seem to find anything about it online.

These are some of the minor issues I've been having, but nothing so far has really stuck out to me as significant. So far, my experience with this phone has been pretty solid, and I'm really enjoying it.

The UI

Remember, I was on a Samsung phone before they had One UI, so the change to stock Android was really drastic. Instantly, I felt like the whole phone was just prettier and smoother. The UI was flat, beautiful and, dare I say, gradient-free! I've always had a soft spot for Material Design, so it was finally nice to have my phone be using it for almost everything.

The Pixel launcher is really lovely, too. It's snappy and easy to use. The Google feed to the left is handy, and I appreciate the choice to put a Google search bar at the bottom for easy access. The top of the launcher shows the time and weather, and when a calendar event is coming up, it shows that event and the time remaining until it occurs.

The Not Bloated System

I love the fact that this phone doesn't come with stuff I don't need. In fact, it was the biggest reason I wanted this phone. Yes, I know rooting exists, but I didn't want to do it. This phone comes with the bare essentials, and gone are the days of having two calendar apps because Samsung insists that I use theirs, even though it's shit. I don't have to hide apps anymore with a third-party launcher. Some people say it's weird to brag about fewer features, but in this case, less is more. If I want an app, I'll go to the Play Store and grab it.

The Missed Opportunity

I need to go back to the negatives because I want to talk about something important. Many people may laugh at Energizer's hyperthick phone, but I think it's crucial for smartphone companies to start experimenting with more innovation. This is where Google's two-tone design can be taken advantage of: it's perfect for adding a user-replaceable battery. The Samsung Galaxy S5 showed that it's possible to have a water-resistant phone with a user-removable battery so this could have been Google's chance to add in a great feature that a lot of people miss. If they did that, as well as cut the price down a bit, then I think a lot more people would have a higher interest in buying this phone.

The Conclusion

I didn't go into every little detail about the phone, but I just wanted to give a general review a few things and also to refute some arguments against the phone. There's the big question which asks 'should I buy the Google Pixel 3?' The truth, however, is something I haven't heard any other reviewer say: I don't know what you want. You know what you want. If you're looking to buy a phone, you need to weigh all of the pros and cons of the phones and see which one works for you.

For example, a Pixel 3 doesn't have expandable memory, but if you don't care about that, then it isn't going to bother you. The other bit of the reality is that many of the big tech reviewers switch phones every two weeks or so. Average consumers like you and me usually keep their phones for a minimum of two years. We buy the phone, look at it and say 'this is going to be my smartphone for the next two years or so', and that really changes perspective. Things take time to grow on you, and the Pixel 3 XL really grew on me. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

#review #google #google pixel #phone review #pixel 3 #long reads

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simplemoneyman-blog · 6 years ago

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How And Why Should I Diversify?

You don’t want to eat the same food every day right? You don’t want to wear the same shirt, shoes, socks, underwear (hope not), everyday right? You don’t want to want to watch the same episode of Seinfeld everyday right (even though I myself love “The Summer of George” and am smiling as I’m writing this)? Each one of these actions has negative effects. Do you know what happens when you eat too much broccoli? None may be especially life-threatening, effects can include gas, irritable bowel (especially important for pregnant women), reduction of blood sugar levels (important for diabetic patients), and thyroid underperformance. Many sources say to make sure you include broccoli in your diet but in moderation. They say variety is the spice of life. If you eat the exact same thing all the time, your body will be negatively affected. Just take a look at that guy who experimented with eating McDonald's for a month. And if you invest in just one thing, your investments will be negatively affected.

Inefficient Strategy - Lacked Diversification

Admittedly I was severely under-diversified early in my investment career. One of my strategies was to simply find out when a company is about to announce its earnings, see if it’s expected to beat earnings per share based on market estimates and buy some shares a few days before. Then I would sell a few months later, usually with a small gain, but that gain would be reduced due to short-term capital gain tax. Apart from being under-diversified in practically all sectors, it wasn’t an inefficient strategy, required too much monitoring, costs too much and, not sustainable for the long-term. I also found myself in situations of missed opportunities. There were investments out there that would allow me to diversify at a low price, but I was over-concentrated in certain investments and was not in a favorable position to sell. But that’s a different story for another time.

So Easy To Diversify

You really can diversify by just buying into a fund. For example, if you want to diversify into the S&P 500, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF – VTI may be an option. Years ago, investors needed lots of money to buy different types of stocks and bonds to be properly diversified into the market. And not too long ago, there were investments minimums (i.e., $5,000 or $10,000) to get into a mutual fund. But with an ETF, there is no minimum. We are all able to enjoy the benefits of diversification – one of which is the ability to sleep better at night. :-) Even when you are nearing retirement, it’s important to maintain diversification and balance. You don’t want your investments to be so conservative that they are not beating inflation. Otherwise, you may run the risk of not having enough during your retirement years. A balanced fund could be an option. For example, the iShares Core Moderate Allocation ETF was noted by U.S. News as one of the Best ETFs in the 30% to 50% Equity Allocation. Per its website, it has a fair balance of Fixed Income and Equity Assets:

When you drill down a bit more, the iShares Core Moderate Allocation ETF diversified into the international sector as well so it’s got that covered too (the 3rd fund in the list – IDEV):

So Dangerous When You Don’t Diversify

To make it plain and simple, the dangers of diversifying include, but are not limited to the following: Retirement Income Risk: You’re nearing or are in retirement and don’t have any money invested in bonds. The stock market has tanked and you have suffered major unrealized losses in equities. You could have avoided this by diversifying into bonds and continuing to manage your allocation so you could enjoy the comfort of a steady income stream and lock in gains from equities when their valuations were high. Industry Risk: Your money is tied up in one industry (e.g., financial sector). And when the technology sector starts its rapid rise, you are unable to seize that opportunity because your holdings in the financial sector are in a position that if you sell, you will suffer a great loss. Loyalty Risk: You’ve contributed and therefore invested a significant amount of money in your organizaion’s employee stock purchase program (ESPP). Your organization is suffering major losses in revenue, resulting in layoffs and ultimately significant reduction in its stock price. You could diversify by investing only some money in your organization’s ESPP and most of your paycheck contribution towards a diversified ETF.

Learn To Diversify From The Best

Here are the top 5 positions in Warren Buffett’s portfolio:

As you can see, they are all established comapnes and of different sectors. We have in his list of top five companies, which represents almost 65% of his entire portfolio the sectors of Technology, Financial Services, and Consumer Staples. Many of us have heard the positive things he has said about Coca-Cola. This just proves that he is not concentrated on a single stock and maintains a diversified portfolio. To make sure he continues to be diversified, Mr. Buffett has mentioned that he would like his wealth to be moved into Vanguard’s low-cost index funds for his wife after his passing. You’ve probably heard the metaphor that diversifying means not putting all of you eggs in one basket. Your eggs are your money and the basket is an investment. Your eggs are not all of the same sizes. That is, you don’t want $500 each in 5 different sectors. Instead, take your various egg sizes (e.g., Medium, Large, Extra-Large, Jumbo) and decide which baskets you want to invest in to give yourself diversity and protection against losses. Please note that diversification itself does not guarantee against losses. But oh boy, it does it help you a lot to avoid losses! Join The Discussion: How well are you diversified? Is there any area you need to balance off? How often do you rebalance your assets to ensure proper diversification? Have you suffered losses in the past due to lack of diversification? Disclaimer: Please note the funds mentioned are for example purposes only. I do not support nor oppose them in any way. Please make sure you perform due diligence and consult with an investment advisor before making investment decisions. _________________________________________________________________________

I use because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice! Read the full article

#basket #diversification #diversify #eggs #espp #ETF #fees #funds #ishares #retirement #stocks #vanguard

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deadcactuswalking · 4 years ago

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 05/12/2020

Earlier this week, I finished and released by end-of-year list of the Top 10 Best Hit Songs of 2020, which, for once, was on time, being released on the 1st – or 2nd – of December, depending on your time zone. That means I’ve already spent hours discussing music, and to be honest, I have a pretty bad headache in addition to this, so you know, I’m not really in that chart-reviewing spirit. Thankfully, we have very few songs to review here, and a lot of it should be pretty inoffensive. Now, before that, let’s talk about the actual state of the charts because it is looking ridiculous. Ariana Grande’s “positions” spend its sixth week at #1, and welcome to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

Much like last week, it was an absolute bloodbath for any non-Christmas song this week, and this especially affects the hip hop and R&B on the chart. In the UK Top 75, which I cover every week, there’s a drastic difference to the US Billboard Hot 100, and that is the lack of radio. Radio impressions or plays have never been counted on the UK Singles Chart, and whilst in the States, I understand that a lot of Christmas songs rely on the radio, this is not true at all across the pond, because, for whatever reason, Christmas songs are streamed and bought a lot here even 60 years after the song’s original release. This is likely due to a smaller, arguably less diverse population and the immense amount of streaming service-curated playlists, which serve the same purpose as radio and often have the exact same label gimmickry and payola. Regardless, there is a stupid amount of drop-outs and fallers this week, for pretty big tracks as well. Now as I said I only cover the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart because it’s just easier and really, who cares about those last 25 songs? On the UK Singles Chart proper, Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved”, one of the biggest hits of 2019 and 2020, just spent its 100th week on the chart, which is insane, especially for a modern song. I think the song is dreadful but it is one of the biggest songs of all time here on the Isles, and since we’re going by my measures, it just dropped out (after spending seven weeks at #1, mind you). Of course, that’s not the only notable drop-out – and to be notable, you have to have spent five weeks on the chart or peaked in the top 40 – this week. Let’s list them, shall we? We have “Watermelon Sugar” by Harry Styles, which spent 40 weeks on the chart, as well as #1 hit “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” by Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo, “Giants” by Dermot Kennedy, “Mood Swings” by the late Pop Smoke featuring Lil Tjay, “Lighter” by Nathan Dawe and KSI, “Take You Dancing” by Jason Derulo, “Holiday” by Little Mix, “Tick Tock” by Clean Bandit featuring Mabel and 24kGoldn, “Come Over” by Rudimental featuring Anne-Marie and Tion Wayne, “Lasting Lover” by Sigala and James Arthur, “Holy” by Justin Bieber featuring Chance the Rapper, “One Too Many” by Keith Urban and P!nk, “Papi Chulo” by Octavian and Skepta, “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals, “Deluded” by Tion Wayne and MIST, “Confetti” by Little Mix, “pov” by Ariana Grande (to make way for another one of her songs we’ll get to – also probably the only actually good song that dropped out this week) and finally, “Life Goes On” by BTS off of the debut at #10. On the chart proper, this is one of the biggest free-fall drops of all time, and honestly, who wasn’t expecting this? Speaking of falls, we have a lot of those too. Whilst these are fallers, you should consider how impressive they are for even trying to survive the holiday season, which just can’t be done for a lot of these songs, even the biggest hits of the year, some of which we just mentioned. One of the funniest parts of this to me is that KSI of all people survived the overload of Christmas songs through his Craig David chorus on “Really Love” with Digital Farm Animals down to #17. For a former YouTuber, he has an immense amount of star-power and it’s kind of worrying. Otherwise, our notable fallers include “Paradise” by MEDUZA and Dermot Kennedy at #24, “Train Wreck” by James Arthur at #25 (not a good week for either of these guys – or anyone), “Monster” by Shawn Mendes and Justin Bieber at #26 off of the top 10 debut, “Mood” by 24kGoldn featuring iann dior at #27, “Head & Heart” by Joel Corry and MNEK at #29, “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd stripped of all of its gains at #31 (seriously, whilst most of these songs were fading naturally prior, this is worrying), “Lemonade” by Internet Money and Gunna featuring NAV and Don Toliver at #34, “Lonely” by Justin Bieber and benny blanco at #42 (giving him four songs as a lead artist on the chart – OCC, that’s not how your dumb rules work; be consistent), “See Nobody” by Wes Nelson and Hardy Caprio really having the most intense combination of streaming cuts and Christmas music at #44, “Wonder” by Shawn Mendes flailing at #45 (it will probably rebound next week), “Blinding Lights” by the Weeknd at #46 (same here), “Golden” by Harry Styles at #47, “Loading” by Central Cee at #48, “What You Know Bout Love” by the late Pop Smoke at #49, “i miss u” by Jax Jones and Au/Ra at #50, “Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)” by Post Malone and Swae Lee at #52, “UFO” by D-Block Europe and Aitch at #55, “Plugged in Freestyle” by A92 and Fumez the Engineer at #56, “Princess Cuts” by Headie One featuring Young T & Bugsey at #60 (which happened to play as I was writing this), “Looking for Me” by Paul Woodford, Diplo and Kareen Lomax at #61, “WAP” by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion at #62, “Diamonds” by Sam Smith having the biggest fall to #63, “Ain’t it Different” by Headie One featuring AJ Tracey and Stormzy at #65, “Chingy (It’s Whatever)” by Digga D at #69, “Come Over” by Jorja Smith and Popcaan at #70, “SO DONE” by The Kid LAROI at #71 and finally, “Flavour” by Loski and Stormzy at #74. A YouTube comment on the video version of this chart read, “RIP to hip hop and R&B in the UK, 2020-2020”, and, I mean, it’s a fair assessment. That’s not all though, folks, as we have the returning entries, most of which are very explicitly Christmas songs. Let’s start with “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” by Sam Smith at #75, and continue up the chart with “Cozy Little Christmas” by Katy Perry at #73, “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay at #72 (always the best song on the entire chart whenever it returns), “A Little Love” by Celeste from the John Lewis advert at #64, “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano at #54, “Santa Baby” by Kylie Minogue at #57, “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” by the late Dean Martin at #54, “Sleigh Ride” by the Ronettes at #52, “Mistletoe” by Justin Bieber at #43, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” by the late John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band featuring the Harlem Community Choir at #40 (always the worst song on the chart whenever it returns), “Wonderful Christmastime” by Paul McCartney at #39 (this is an accurate ranking of the Beatles), “Jingle Bell Rock” by the late Bobby Helms at #38, “Holly Jolly Christmas” by Michael Bublé at #37 and “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by the late Andy Williams at #36. Yes, that’s five consecutive Christmas songs returning to the top 40, made all the more ridiculous when you realise it’s topped off by “HOLIDAY” by Lil Nas X... at #41 – and it actually gained this week! Oh, and we don’t stop there either as not only do we have “Santa Tell Me” by Ariana Grande returning to #16 as well, but we also have all of the gains this week. All of our notable gains are in the top 40 and all but one are Christmas songs, so let’s start with “One More Sleep” by Leona Lewis up to #33 (our greatest gain this week) and continue up the chart with “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade at #32, “This Christmas” by Jess Glynne at #28, “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” by Wizzard at #23, “Driving Home for Christmas” by Chris Rea at #22, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Justin Bieber and Brenda Lee at #21 and #19 respectively, “Underneath the Tree” by Kelly Clarkson at #20, “Step into Christmas” by Elton John at #18, “Do They Know it’s Christmas?” by Band Aid at #15 (looking at this chart, I think we ALL know exactly what time it is), “Merry Christmas Everyone” by Shakin’ Stevens at #14, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” by Michael Bublé at #13, “Fairytale of New York” by the Pogues featuring the late Kirsty MacColl at #9, “Last Christmas” by Wham! at #3, and finally, “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey at #2. I don’t know if I’ll be happier if a 1994 classic hits #1 for the first time this Christmas, or an Ariana Grande song about sex positions takes the Christmas #1, given, of course, that LadBaby doesn’t pull something out of his ass last minute. Christmas also actually lands on a Friday this week, so there’s potentially two Christmas #1s: the #1 on Christmas Day and the #1 that includes Christmas Day. I mean, there’s this issue every year but since the chart week literally starts and ends on the day this year, I guess we’ll just have to see what the Official Charts Company decides. For now, after not-so-swiftly covering all of that garbage – and there’s three weeks more of it to come, folks – let’s discuss some of our new arrivals, none of which I imagine will be all that interesting but, hey, at least they’re not Christmas songs. In fact...

NEW ARRIVALS

#68 – “Body” – Megan Thee Stallion

Produced by LilJuMadeThatBeat

...It’s the antithesis of what it means to be wholesome, commercial and festive. You all know and love Megan Thee Stallion by now, and whilst I didn’t listen to that debut record yet – it is 17 songs after all – I have heard pretty positive reception so I will check out Good News at some point. Rico Nasty did release a record that’s only one less track and 13 full minutes shorter, so to be honest, I’m a lot more excited to check out that album, even if it won’t have any impact here. I did laugh at the track list when I saw “Intercourse (feat. Popcaan & Mustard)” though, which is one of the few times I have genuinely laughed at just a track list. “Shots Fired” is a pretty great Tory Lanez diss track though, so I’ll say that. “Body” is relatively deep into the track listing, yet seems to be the biggest hit, mostly because of that polarising earworm hook and the music video. Oh, yeah, and it straight-up samples a woman having an orgasm, so don’t expect this to stick around. In fact, that’s the only melody behind this dirty South bounce-adjacent track, and even with that, it only comes in on that chorus, which is less annoying to me as it is just catchy. It’s not like men haven’t done the same thing, though, I mean, Dr. Dre famously – or infamously – “paused 4 porno” on his album 2001, and just in 2018, Kanye released “XTCY”, a song that is hilariously lacking in any kind of moral compass, let alone born-again Christianity. It did the same thing that “Body” does with the moaning yet it also covers it in this really eerie sample, as well as spare 808s and a drum beat that doesn’t feel like it gets in the way of whatever the hell Kanye’s doing on this track. It also helps that the moaning doesn’t just come in on the chorus, instead we have a string swell to distinguish it, and that Kanye has more of a comical lyrical nature on “XTCY”. This comparison is only fair when looking at the production, though, as whilst Kanye has “sick thoughts”, Megan is just bragging about her own body-ody-ody-ody-ody, etc. over a pretty mainstream, accessible beat, even if it has really ugly, loud 808s that kind of do get in the way of the rapping here. Thankfully, Megan rides this beat forcefully – no pun intended – and with some really great wordplay, even if there are a few immediately dated references here and there. That third verse is also pretty funny, and whilst I don’t want to focus too much on this song – it’s a family show after all – this is pretty lively and whilst I’m not a fan of this beat, Megan makes it worth sitting through and honestly, the song sounds a lot shorter than it is. Check it out.

#67 – “Love is a Compass” – Griff

Produced by PARKWILD

I didn’t say the word “compass” on purpose knowing this song would be next, although perhaps I subconsciously snuck the word in. Maybe I should have made it seem like I foreshadowed this song, but honestly what about this warrants foreshadowing? I don’t mind Disney music at all. In fact, a lot of the films are full of really classic compositions that have aged incredibly, including the Renaissance era of their films, especially. In fact, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan – the original – is one of the few soundtrack songs that is directly related to and featured in the film yet I can still listen to outside of that context. I’ve not even watched either Mulan – or have Disney+ - so it’s not like I’m a big fan, but I can appreciate the music when I find it, even if I mostly despise everything Disney stands for as a company. The issue with this is that it cannot apply to “Love is a Compass”. I’m sure Griff and her producer PARKWILD are talented musicians, but this is purely a product. This wasn’t even made for an original animated feature, or a painfully weak adaptation of one of their original animated features starring Will Smith as the Genie. This is a generic piano ballad made for an advert, because just like literal shops and manufacturing companies like John Lewis, Disney has a Christmas advert. There’s nothing artistic about this. This “emotional” piano ballad is layered in reverb and egregious Auto-Tune that drains Griff of whatever emotion her delivery could have had. It doesn’t sound good in this context at all and it is so obvious, which is unfortunate because her voice, Auto-Tuned in a similar way, could easily work over more lo-fi and interesting production. As it is, this is repulsive, sonically and on every other level beyond that.

#66 – “Angels Like You” – Miley Cyrus

Produced by Louis Bell and watt

So, Miley Cyrus dropped her album, Plastic Hearts, last week and I expected more impact on the chart but the two singles are really THAT big that not any of the album cuts had much of a chance, even if “Prisoner” dropped a few spaces. Other than that, “Midnight Sky” is still in the top five and near the end of the chart, we have a debut: “Angels Like You”. It’s clear why this charted because this isn’t just a highlight from the album or a personal favourite of mine, but it’s a fan favourite honestly, a career highlight – which may not be hard to make, I mean, it’s Miley Cyrus we’re talking about – but it still impresses me with how much I really love this song. This is more of a mellow ballad than many of the tracks surrounding it on the record, with Cyrus’ raspy country twang finally met with a fitting blend of acoustic guitars and a genuine orchestral swell in the chorus, even if at times it decides to start clipping. The shift in guitar tone to a dirtier, aggressive one after the first chorus is a genius touch, and even the pretty stiff drum machine here feels like it adds a lot to the power of this song, especially when it starts kicking behind the screeching guitar solo, leading into an admittedly anti-climactic final chorus... that might even be fitting for the content, which is a break-up song but not one that decides to deflect blame or even focus entirely on the break-up, rather being an acknowledgement of what both parties here did wrong, and why they ended up in the relationship to begin with. Both Cyrus and her ex-girlfriend Kaitlynn Carter were in rough spots coming off of previous relationships in late 2019 and those dark spots are what Cyrus understands lead to the collapse of this relationship. She discusses the lack of connection between the two in the first verse, leading to a literally nameless relationship where it was full of romantic gestures but not any depth. The chorus is a complex look at how Cyrus knew she would look back on the relationship as little more than a fling, but how she regrets that this is her only view of the relationship. She didn’t want anything more and split after things started getting too serious, and feels genuine guilt for using Carter to heal her own depression, because “misery needs company”. She uses the biblical metaphor to demonstrate how she feels she tugged down her girlfriend, described here as an “angel”, to the hell Cyrus thinks she resides in, which may be melodramatic, sure, but I’d be lying if I said Cyrus doesn’t completely sell it here, with some of her best vocals to date, backed up by gorgeous production and really well-written lyrics. This is a genuinely brilliant ballad, give it a listen.

#58 – “Naughty List” – Liam Payne and Dixie D’Amelio

Produced by TMS

I’ve been writing these producers as “TM5” for so long without realising it’s an abbreviation for “The Music Shed”. Anyway, I hope we can all agree that Liam Payne is probably the worst off when comparing the One Direction boys and their solo careers so far. Harry Styles is one of the biggest stars in the world, making a twist on 70s classic rock that I don’t like at all but he IS making headlines and having massive chart success. Niall Horan is having mild success making rock and folk albums that are honestly alright, ZAYN has two albums under his belt that may not be listenable but at least the first one was a success and he did go into a more mature R&B direction, and Louis Tomlinson might not have been met with any success from his album earlier this year but at least there’s some quality there. Liam Payne, however, has been releasing straight garbage to no fanfare for the past three years, dating back to “Strip that Down” with Quavo, and continuing down the path of feigning maturity and development with music clearly not backing it up, demonstrated by the bisexual fetishism on his delayed debut album and how his collaborations went from relying on Zedd to relying on J Balvin to relying on TikTok stars on a sexually-charged Christmas single that couldn’t even crack the top 50. I have no idea who Dixie D’Amelio is other than seeing her sister’s controversies on Twitter in passing, but it is depressing that a major-label pop star needs D’Amelio to chart this high – and no, given his most recent singles with bigger features like A Boogie wit da Hoodie and Cheat Codes, as well as the shoddy performance of his last Christmas song, I’m not even considering that it’s the other way around. This immediately, in its first 15 seconds, makes sure you know this will be awful, with its tedious acoustic guitar strumming fused with cheap sounding sleigh bells and dated trap percussion, even with little “hey!” gang vocals straight out of 2014 that make this sound a lot less new and fresh than I think Payne thought it did. Also, something about these lyrics sounds really odd when you consider the age gap between the two vocalists. I mean, D’Amelio’s 19 years old, so it’s not like this is illegal in any way (and they didn’t have any chemistry to begin with), but the childlike imagery in the chorus just makes this gross. “Santa saw the things we did and put us on the naughty list”? This has less subtlety than 3OH!3’s Christmas song they released this year. Yes, that happened, and somehow the two washed-up early 2010s pop stars made a “dirty” Christmas song that is miles better than Liam Payne’s, probably because of the more interesting lyrical detail, and that, you know, it isn’t a duet. Check out “KISSELTOE” if you’re interested, it’s really good. I liked their comeback single with 100 gecs too so I’m pretty excited for whatever comes out of 3OH!3’s recent productivity. This song, on the other hand, as well as the upcoming joke, is just Payne-full.

#53 – “No Time for Tears” – Nathan Dawe and Little Mix

Produced by Tré Jean-Marie and Nathan Dawe

Okay, so, I understand the marketing of releasing a single after a long time of not releasing a single and after your singles have all dropped out of the chart, but Little Mix are just being managed horribly here. Why would you release a single in the Christmas season that you want to be big? This isn’t a holiday song in any way and doesn’t even sound like one, so releasing it this early into the Christmas season is just begging for it to be forgotten and eventually flop. Nathan Dawe is an EDM DJ so he doesn’t need this type of promotion as long as he can tour next year and he’s got big features, and Little Mix don’t need any extra singles because they’re still in the top 10 and they’ve branched out to reality television. Just let the girls breathe for a second and enjoy their success. Oh, and this song isn’t just logistically unnecessary, it’s sonically unnecessary, acting as a house-pop club banger with that standard piano sound reminiscent of 90s house that has been adopted recently by DJs, with any of the infectious melodies and genuine drive sucked out of it, especially if Dawe is going to add a Goddamn trap breakdown in the second verse with the most pathetic set of percussion I’ve heard in years on a house track. It’s not like Little Mix are saving this either because the lyrical content is re-tread and their performances are largely unrecognisable from each other and songs they’ve made before. Yeah, this isn’t offensive, but it isn’t interesting, outside of that bridge, but even then it builds up perfectly to a chorus that’s interrupted by a pointless, repetitious interlude. This song isn’t just uninteresting, it’s inherently unnecessary on all fronts, which if anything, is just kind of sad.

#35 – “All You’re Dreaming Of” – Liam Gallagher

Produced by Simon Aldred and Andrew Wyatt

Surely out of all of these songs, I’d have the most to say about our top 40 debut, with Liam Gallagher, former frontman of legendary rock band Oasis, and his new lead single, right? Well, no, because here are some unfortunate truths: Oasis made two good albums, and they’re not as good as you remember. Liam Gallagher is an awful person who continued to rip off his own band with his new one, without the songwriting ability his brother Noel had. Liam continues to be persistent in his making of enemies for no other reason than publicity. Noel’s reaching out to Liam for the sake of at least reconciliation goes completely unnoticed, ignored or criticised by Liam for no discernable reason other than an on-and-off again facade that’s been going on for more than a decade. Noel wasn’t even that great of a songwriter, relying mostly on musicianship and other people’s melodies he liked to co-opt for his own tracks. None of their solo work has been listenable yet still gathers attention that I imagine is to the dismay of those other band members in Oasis who, ultimately, made those classic albums as much as the Gallaghers. Where’s the praise for Bonehead, Guigsy or even Gem Archer, who stuck it out despite decreasing popularity, utter lack of musical quality and increasing tensions between the people who kept the band afloat until they decided to break up? Both Noel and Liam look at Oasis with regret or admiration depending on how they feel that day but when you look at who REALLY won that Britpop battle tabloids liked to hype up in the 1990s, you realise how far away Oasis was from Blur or even Pulp in terms of not only their songs but having their stuff together. This new song is complete garbage as well, with a pretty awful mixing job, Liam being as distinctively nasal and infuriating as he is with any of his songs let alone his uninteresting ballads, and the COVID-19 charity pandering that comes off as really false, especially since even after Noel released an Oasis track this year as a result of the lockdown – and Liam whining about how he wants to bring the band together to help the NHS – he criticised the honest release of the demo, which Noel wrote and sang himself. It’s also especially telling how the proceeds are only going to benefit charity for its first month of release. Afterwards, Liam and the label can scrape up whatever leftover streams they get from diehard fans. I don’t like Band Aid at all, in fact the song is pretty damn rancid, but at least they keep on recording updated versions to give to modern charities. Liam, you’ve got a bank account the average Manchurian would dream of. This charity single is a fraud, and a pretty hypocritical, immoral one at that.

Conclusion

I think on principle on how fake it is and how awful the song is, I have to give Worst of the Week to Gallagher... but I have a rule against crowning any kind of charity single with that title. At the end of the day, at least something at some point is going to the people who need it. Worst of the Week in that case goes to “Naughty List” by Liam Payne and Dixie D’Amelio, with a Dishonourable Mention to the product that is Griff’s “Love is a Compass”. Best of the Week should be obvious as it’s going to Miley Cyrus for “Angels Like You”, with an Honourable Mention to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Body”. Here’s this week’s top 10:

May I remind you this is the first week of December? Anyway, I doubt Shawn Mendes will make anything through the barrage of holiday tracks, but if he does, that’s next week. Thank you for reading and follow me at @cactusinthebank for more ramblings of this sort, I suppose. See you next week!

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chanzicoup · 7 years ago

Text

“Blindsided” (VIXX N x Reader Imagine)

A/N: This was suppoed to be something more but I ran out of ideas :p

Count: 2.6k

Genre: Angst???

~Blake

You were a good girl despite being from a rich family. Many people expected you to be spoiled rotten or to wear designer clothes and have an attitude but that was far opposite from the real you. No one expected you to volunteer at the hospital or at orphanages. No one thought you had just graduated at the top of your class back when you went to Harvard University last Spring. No one knew you wanted to be an artist. No one took the time to get to know the real you but they had all the time to judge you and the make their own view of who you were. You guess that's why you never really dated, no one would want to put effort into the relationship when you would be putting your all into it.

One of those judgmental people was Cha Hakyeon, who wanted to be known as N. He made it big in his music group VIXX and left his home for training. Both of his parents were close friends with yours so that meant when you were children you'd be forced to play with each other. You were also forced into the same high school classes and even some extra curricular activities like tennis most rich kids found fun. Those types of things never excited N so he always ditched practice to spend his time in the music room. You never dared to snitch on him because you didn't want to give him a reason to hate you. He was the closest thing you had to a friend.

All the popular girls at school tried to be friends with you but you quickly learned that they were the exact people others assumed you were. Mean and snobby. They picked on the other kids and then turned on you when you stopped talking to them. This also led to rumors about you thinking you were too good and better than everyone. All the popular boys just wanted you for your body, which was in good shape thanks to tennis, something you actually enjoyed. You hated your life that was already planned for you but didn't have the power to fight it.

Your life at home wasn't much better either. Your parents were too busy running their handbag company to pay much attention to you so they hired nannies to raise you through your most precious years. You often wondered why you were born if they didn't want you. Whenever you talk to them it feels more like a business deal than a normal conversation between mother and daughter or father and daughter. N's family ran a very successful company that was so well off they hired people to do work for them and this allowed them to have most of their time dedicated to N. You were always jealous but never made any indication of it. Instead you did whatever your parents told you in hopes of getting their love in return.

When the day came that your parents invited N and his family over you had no say in the matter. You mother only peaked her head through your door that morning to tell you there'd be guests over for dinner and that you had to dress accordingly, which translated to "wear your most elegant attire" in understandable words. That was about eight o'clock this morning and at the time you were in the middle of painting a cherry blossom tree in a grass field. You mother would've thrown a fit if she saw what you were doing so after she left you put all of your tools and colors in their respected containers and hid the still wet painting in your bathroom, the only room people asked for permission to enter. It was better to continue later when you thought it was safe, usually when your mother speaks to you once she'll nag until she's satisfied.

Dinner is always at five o'clock. It has been for the whole 25 years of your life, soon 26. To be exact you have 31 days until your birthday. You remember something from years ago, something your parents had scolded you about. Was it finding a husband? If it was then they would've said it on more than one occasion. It was the day you were packing for Harvard, you were keeping yourself from crying because you could not bring your paints with you. You managed to smuggle a sketch book into your luggage before your parents gave their farewell speech that consisted of, "study hard and be successful." Not once did they say, "We love you," or "Be safe!" or even a "Call us when you land!" Did they mention something about meeting someone somewhere in between? You couldn't recall, after all that was nearly 8 years ago. You were only 18 at the time, your parents "encouraged" you to go to college with out taking the summer after high school off. Talk about overload.

You sit at your table that was pristine white despite the amount of times you've spilled watercolor on it. In fact your entire room was as white as a blank canvas. It was the only color your parents enforced upon you, such a needy color, wanting to be decorated with every shade of every pigment. But no, for creativity creates less room for knowledge. The bed in your room was bigger then you needed it to be, the desk was smaller then your door, and your walls were untouched by your creative ability. Whenever you did make anything you'd sell it immediately and give the money to a charity, it was all you could do without your parents approval, therefore they would never know unless you slipped up. You were in no need of extra cash when your family controls your life to the last point. On your table there were minimal items, your journal, an old math textbook you've solved all the formulas in, and a single pencil. Your journal held the words you were never allowed to say. Your math book was something you've had since you were little. You'd gotten it as a present from one of the staff that work in your home. She said to you, "A smart girl should start smart." And you've lived up to those words everyday since then. You were five or six when the book was gifted to you but the material inside of it was college level. On your free time you'd investigate the equations to find an answer, you've always loved math because it helped you solve problems through a series of steps, there was always an answer no matter how difficult things might seem. And the pencil was obviously well used. The eraser was almost nonexistent and the length of the wood was halved over and over from the amount of times it's been used, sharpened, and used again. You should really replace that pencil with the ones in your desk drawer and throw it away, but that wouldn't be fair to trash something that still has use, even if there's not much left of it. It's not right to discard something with full potential.

Until four o'clock you sat at your desk with your books, not once getting a headache from the constant writing or calculating, it was a past time you were allowed to do without your parents becoming angry. Your mother came in to check on your preparations and was aggravated that you were still in casual wear. Before she could shout you apologized and went to your closet. She closed your door to leave you be thankfully and you pulled out a rose gold dress, a black one, and then a blue on. All of which will be perfect for a dinner in your household, but which should you wear? The rose gold was plain but can be elegant with the help of accessories. Were you in the mood for readjusting bracelets all through out the meal? Not entirely, back in the closet it goes. The blue dress was long and dark. It had a flower like pattern that covered it and fixated around your arms to act as sleeves. Wasn't it getting hotter outside because of the change of the seasons? The black dress was at knee length and had no sleeves, cancelling out the fact that the dark color will bring in more sunlight and heat. It was elegant on it's own with out the help of bulky jewels and was revealing enough at the same time to keep my body temperate. Perfect choice. I put the blue dress back and changed out of my leggings and blouse into the chic material. I paired the dress with pumps of the same color and a gold necklace my late grandmother gifted me before her passing. It had my birthstone as it's charm.

"Emmabell! The guests will be arriving shortly! Are you ready?" You heard your mother announce from the other side of your bedroom door. You only had to fix your make up and do your hair so a little white lie shouldn't shake her up.

"Yes mother, I'll be down shortly!" You rushed to the bathroom to loosely curl your jet black hair that was about the same axis as your shoulders when it's finished. You went for light colors of eye shadow and naturalistic colors for your face. All your mother would've wanted was for you to cover the oh so few freckles and acne scares you've accumulated through the years so you did the bare minimum to make sure they were covered. She wants everything to be perfect at every possible moment. When you were completely ready you plugged your phone into the charger before leaving so when you were excused to go to bed you can listen to music with out worry before slumber took over.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Cha! What a blessing to see you after so many years!" You heard your mother's feigned cheeriness from the top of the stairs and took it as your cue to make your appearance. You smiled at the guests and hesitated when you saw one that was familiar in an unfriendly way.

"And this must be your son, Hakyeon!" He's gotten taller since the last time you have seen him. High school graduation less than ten years ago.

"Good evening." He smiled and shook your parents hands.

"This is our daughter, Emmabell." You father gestured to you and you smiled once more.

"Hello." You greeted.

"Oh my, dear you've grown so much!" Mrs. Cha exclaimed as she came in for a hug. She's always someone you've seen as a second mother but never actually confined in, mainly because it was a rarity you'd see her. You were also deathly afraid of Mr. Cha because he reminded you of your own father. He could be the nicest man on Earth and you wouldn't know. Men with money could be dangerous because they might think they're capable of escaping punishment with the waft of a wallet.

"Shall we sit for dinner?" Your mother questioned. You had no idea why she started acting so suspicious but you went with her plan nonetheless and sat down at your father's right side, your mother on his left. In front of you sat N, who stared intensely at you for a reason you were unsure of. This was just a dinner, correct?

The chef's brought out the meal and you ate very little. An uneasy feeling caused you to loose your appetite; you simply picked you your food while the sets of parents conversed with each other. Whenever you were directed a question your mother couldn't answer you would politely and honestly give your part until you got quiet again.

"Hakyeon is just a few weeks older than Emmabell isn't he?" Your mother asked as she sipped from her wine glass. Receiving a cheerful "yes" from N's parents, a silence took over the table, as if they were beating around the bush. It was until your father said the words, "Let's get down to business." And apparently you weren't the only one that was caught by surprise. N was as in a daze as you were.

"We brought you two here to discuss something of the utmost importance." Said Mr. Cha to N and you, "we have agreed to merge our companies together by marriage."

"An arranged marriage of Hakyeon and you, Emmabell." Your mother summarized before taking another sip of red whine.

An arranged marriage? Was this something your parents thought of you, their daughter needed the help of someone else to run the business. You were fully capable of being independent and without a man in your life. Was this all the faith they had in you to succeed? You would've choked on your food if you had any in your mouth, unfortunately for N he was midbite when his father announced the news.

"Excuse me?" He asked when he gathered up himself again.

"You heard me. Your mother and I told you before you needed to find a wife before you could take over the business. We gave you time to choose your bride, now time's ticking and we have no other choice." His father's words pierced sharply through the air and you froze in your seat, your parents had given you the same choice and now it's too late. You weren't sure you could snake out of this one.

"But why should we merge with them?! Our company is running smoothly!" N defended his opinion on the marriage, but you couldn't help but be a little offended. Was he saying his family was better than yours?

"And ours isn't?" You snipped, your polite voice only emphasizing your annoyance. Your father nudged your leg under the table, his way of telling you to cool off. You weren't going to listen tonight, you'll apologize later but for now you aren't going to allow some dirt bag to mock your family's craft.

"Well thankfully I wasn't the one to say it."

"What we mean is," N's mother spoke up "If we merge companies by marriage it'll be a legal way to increase sales and overall production."

What if you rejected? Lied and said you found a man while you were studying and hadn't told your parents about him yet. That would only buy you time, and you knew you'd never fall in love before your parents had to force a ring on your finger. Apparently you weren't the only party that wasn't excited about the predicament. You could see from the spot you were sitting in that N wasn't all that happy to be your husband, he probably hated you the most. You couldn't see his hands or anything past the table but you'd have to be stupid to not know that he was clenching his fists right now, out of sight out of mind.

"We will give you two time of course. To make up for lost time." Your mother said after another sip of wine.

Since you really had nothing else to say, anything that'll make a difference that is, you kept quiet again and barely picked at your food. The news has ruined your appetite. N had given you a face, one that shouted "Say something moron!" but you ignored it. He sighed and thought of ways to get out of this. Knowing his parents they'd make him go all out and actually tolerate the woman they had set him up with. They would want them to live in a house paid for with their money and grandchildren in return for all of their hard work making wedding plans. N wasn't even warned like you were, if he had known before he would've took the chance to get with someone who had his heart, not some girl he's known forever.

#kpop #vixx #vixx n #kpop imagine #kpop scenario #kpopficscommunity #vixx imagine #vixx scenario

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gizoogletranslateshomestuck · 5 years ago

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[A6A6I5] ====>

JOHN fo my bling bling: so tell me 'bout yo' ridiculous mizzle journey! D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: um JIZZY: tha dizzay from tha bizzy time line told me sizzy funny stories when we gots togetha on tha grassy hill planet JOHN: but we weren't actually hang'n out fo` thizzle lizzay, so i didn't hear much. JOHN: Dogg House Records in the motha fuckin house. also, i'm MOSTLY sure vriska wasn't alive sippin' they trip.

DAVE: oh W-to-tha-izzell lizzle me tizzle yizzle DAVE: vriska was mizzy certainly alizzle dur'n dis one DAVE: Slap your mutha fuckin self. like almost DAVE: extra-alive, if thizzle possizzle

J-TO-THA-IZZOHN so bow down to the bow wow! H-to-tha-izzaha paper'd up. JOHN: i thizzle i K-N-to-tha-izzow whizzat you mean. Listen to how a motherfucker flow shit. JOHN: i spizzay sizzle tizzay wit ha when she wizzle a ghost, and uh... Aint no L-I-M-I-to-tha-T. JIZNOHN: let jizzy say bitch ha mortizzle stizzles be, she makes ha presence hard ta ignore.

KARKIZZLE: YES. YES! KARKAT: Listen to how a motherfucker flow shit. I LOVE DIS. KARKAT cuz Im tha Double O G: CAN WE SPEND OUR WHOLE REMINIZZLE JUST MESSIN' VRISKA, SLIGHTLY ABOVE AUDIBLE LEVEL?

VRISKA: Slightlizzle? VRISKA: Karkat, you only have one volume perpetratin' n we out!

KARKAT: Snoop dogg is in this bitch. WOW, FUCK YIZZY?!

DAVE: ok dude maybe lizzay nizzay spizzend our pizzle trizzle talk'n serket if only cus theres no way youre not gett'n repeatedly trouncizzle exactly just lizzike thiznat

KARKIZZLE: FFFFFFFFFFFFFYEAH. KARKAT to increase tha peace: YEAH, YOE RIGHT. KARKAT where the sun be shinin and I be rhymin': OK, I'LL C-H-TO-THA-IZZILL OUT. YIZZY RIZZLE DIZZAY, AS USUAL.

J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: wizzow. JOHN: karkat, fo` a fizzle shouty homey, you backed down on that really fast cuz its a doggy dog world. JOHN: i'm almost but real niggaz don't give a fuck... a bizzay disappointed? They call me tha black folks president. J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: i wizzas look'n fizzle ta mizzy of yo' patented rav'n and my money on my mind!

KIZZLE: HIZZEY, JIZZOHN FUCKBIZZLE, I'LL HAVE YIZZLE KNOW I'M A SHAWTY MORE MATURE N REASONABLE THAN THE LAST TIME YOU SAW ME. KARKAT: I'M A LIZZAY MORE THIZZAY MR. HOLLERSPONGE ONE-NOTE, N ANYONE WHO DISPUTES DIS CAN CORDIZZLE INVIZZLE ME TA PLIZZLE THEY DIRTY SEE' FLAP LIKE A DISCOUNT HARMONICA.

JOHN: oh. W-to-tha-izzell, i'm sizzold.

KARKAT: SERIOUSLY THOUGH, IT PRETTY COO' TA FINALLY MEET YOU. I MEAN, UNDA MIZNORE CIZZLE, RATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. KARKAT: UNLIKE WHATEVA THA *FUCK* THIZZAT BRIZZIEF ENCOUNTA WIZZAS THRIZZAY YEARS AGO WHERE YOU K-TO-THA-IZZO'D VRISKA N THEN POOFED YO' FLIMSY ASS INTO THA FUCKALL CONTINUUM. KARKAT fo all my homies in the pen: I K-N-TO-THA-IZZOW I SEEMED REALLIZZLE BUGGIN' 'BOUT THAT AT THA TIZZLE, FO` BROTHA REASON. KARKAT: BUT REALLY, I'VE HAD SOOIZZLE MANY DIPPIN' HOURS ON THAT METEOR TA SPEND BARIZZLE REFLECT'N ON THA ROUGHLY TEN THIZZLE WIZZAY I DON'T GIVE THIZZAY SLIGHTEST FUCK 'BOUT PUSHA IDIOTIZZLE TWIST OF F-TO-THA-IZZATE TRANSPIRIZZLE BIZZY THERE.

JOHN: heheh straight from long beach nigga. ok?

KARKAT upside yo head: I'M COMPLETELY RAPPA IT. KARKAT: I'M OVA A LIZZY OF GANG BANGIN' ACTUALLY.

JOHN: ... you be?

KARKAT: YEAH. KARKAT puttin tha smack down: LIZZIKE, REMEMBER BACK WHEN I WAS YELL'N AT Y-AW THA T-TO-THA-IZZIME FROM MAH COMPUTER. KARKAT fo yo bitch ass: BACK THEN I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE F-TO-THA-IZZELT NERVOUS OR AWKWIZZLE ABIZZLE T-H-TO-THA-IZZIS ENCOUNTER. KARKAT: COZ OF... WIZZLE, YOU KNOW.

JOHN: no?

KARKAT: I WAS HITT'N ON YIZZOU BRIEFLY, N 'N A VERY CONFUS'N NON-CHRONOLOGICAL WAY, WITOUT EVIZZLE QUITE REALIZ'N HOW BADLY I WIZZAS SPENDIN' MAH STRUT POD DIZNOWN MAH OWN STATEMENT TUNNEL.

DIZZAY: dizzy

KARKAT: I M-TO-THA-IZZEAN, UNTIZZLE YOU MERCIFULLY N WITTA FAIR AMOUNT OF TACT SHUT ME DOWN. KARKAT: DON'T YOU REMEMBA? Death row 187 4 life.

JOHN: uh... JIZZAY: maybe?

KARKAT: HOW CAN YIZZOU NOT REMEMBIZZLE THIZZLE?

JOHN: Nigga get shut up or get wet up. i dunno, it wizzay a L-to-tha-izzong tizzime ago! JOHN: n we had a lizzay of ridiculous conversations...

KARKAT: OK, WELL MAYBE IT WIZZAY A BIGGA DEAL FO` ME THAN IT WAS FO` YOU. KIZZLE: I MEAN, *OBVIOUSLY* IT WAS, THAT SORT OF THA WHIZZOLE POINT. KARKAT: BUT THA *RIZZAY* POINT BE, OR THAT I WAS *FRONTIN'* TA MAKE, BE THAT IT *ISN'T* A BIG DEAL ANY MORE. KIZZLE: BECAUSE I'M OVA IT, chill yo!

DIZZAY: karkizzle what tha fuck be you do'n

KARKAT: WHAT! KARKAT: I'M TALK'N, QUITE CASUALLY, 'BOUT SOME SHIZZAY THAT'S NIZZY A BIZZY DEAL. KARKIZZLE: N THA *POINT* IS THIZNAT IT NOT A BIG DEAL ANYMORE, SO I'M JUST CASUALLY SAY'N THAT! GOD.

DIZZAVE: ok its not an unrizzle conversation ta have but lizzy DIZZY, ya feel me? we JUST started nigga-jamming 'bout past anecdotes to git us all up ta spee' or bitch DAVE: n youre alrizzle truck'n out theze gizzy

KARKAT: I'm a mutha fuckin 2-time felon. GATS? WHIZZAY GATS so sit back relax new jacks get smacked!

D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: just sayin, it dizzle sound that casizzle n no big deal if you keep doggy stylin' its casual n no bizzle D-to-tha-izzeal oh n also its tha first fuckin th'n out of yo' mouth ta jizzay 'n three years

KARKAT: SORRY! KIZZLE: I'M SO TRULY STRAIGHT TRIPPIN' SORRY. I FORGOT THIZZLE WAS SUCH AN OUTSTANDINGLY SMOOTH PILE OF S-H-TO-THA-IZZIT 'N A C-TO-THA-IZZAPE WITIN MAH JUDGMENT RADIUS! I'm a mutha fuckin 2-time felon.

JOHN: no, i mean, i think i rappa. Nigga get shut up or get wet up. JOHN: i T-H-to-tha-izzink you wizzle um, "black flirt'n" wit me or sum-m sum-m, but 'n backwizzles orda, n wizzy constantly doggy stylin'. JIZZAY: n i diznidn't really even know whizzay that wizzay. JOHN: n then i told you i wizzle a homosexual, so it was kind of a moot point, but also, you dizzidn't evizzle knizzay what that wizzay either bitch ass nigga?

KARKAT: YES! KARKAT: THIZZAT'S BASICALLIZZLE WHAT HAPPENED KARKAT: N THAT BE EXACTLY WHIZNAT I WAS *TRY'N* TA SAY I WAS GANGSTA, N WASN'T A BIG DIZZEAL ANYMORE, BUT NIZZAY IT A BIZNIG DIZZEAL AGIZZLE I GUESS? KARKAT: THAT CHILLIN' BOOTYLICIOUS! T-H-TO-THA-IZZANKS DAVE n we out!

DIZZAY mah nizzle: yo im hardly one ta rap hiznere since i be a goddamn crazy ass nigga of hilarizzle self-pulveriz'n freudizzle bloopers DAVE: at dis P-to-tha-izzoint i cizzay evizzle pretend ta keep a lid on any shit ive gots 'n me cauze i know soona or lata dur'n one of mah rad soliloqizzles ill just pratfizzle butt backwards into an embarrass'n admission n i J-to-tha-izzust have ta be like yeah ridin' in mah double R... yizneah ok thats mah shizzay thats what im 'bout lizzets just git tha fuck on wit our lives D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: so when jiznohns lizzike hey dawg n yizzy all lizzle n loaded wit some stuff 'bout how youre 'ova him' n go on n on 'bout it its like siznome way obvioizzles protest-too-much shit n everybody knows it so i dizzy see how it salvages any of yo' dignity or whateva ta pretend thizzle nizzot whats happen'n

KARKAT mah nizzle: OH MAH FUCK'N GOD...

D-TO-THA-IZZAVE but real niggaz don't give a fuck: so whizzat im rhymin' be if yiznoure so eaga ta push dis out there-

KARKAT: I'M NOT "PUSHING DIS OUT THERE"!

DIZNAVE: if youre push'n dis out thizzay W-H-to-tha-izzich you be then maybe we should rizzay 'bout it DIZZAY: i mizzay discuss it critically n earnestly not drop ill rhymes or nothin' trippin' tho that could be swizneet too

KARKAT, niggaz, better recognize: UEHRNGH.

DAVE: so be yizzy SURE you still dont have theze unreconciled blackrom doggy stylin' 'bout jizzle DAVE: i sizzay we air dis out before it ferments into some riznank n hella unexamined crack-a-lackin` S-to-tha-izzauce

JIZZAY: dave, i thizzink yoe mak'n kizzle uncomfortable! JOHN: are you bein a wise homey n try'n to make us uncomfortable?

DAVE: I'm a mutha fuckin 2-time felon. no! One, two three and to tha four. DIZZAVE: i diznont do that ta brizzle thizzle huge uncoo' DAVE: i dont siznee what has ta be uncomfy 'bout chattin out our true ass thoughts n emotions

KARKAT so you betta run and grab yo glock: YEEUURHNGHGHH.

DIZZAY: D-to-tha-izzude you clearly hizzay a spizzles th'n fo` john but i dont recall yizzay nigga straight trippin' it up DAVE: be dis something you bizzeen think'n 'bout all dis tizzime or

KARKAT: NO! KARKAT upside yo head: NOT... NIZNOT RIZZLE

DAVE: yeah we cizzay talked 'bout dis DAVE: i have all KIZNINDS of shit ta sizzay 'bout john see'n as he was mah numba 1 dizzude fo` approximatelizzle the majority of 13 yizzears DAVE: tha miznain dead end here dawg be like, nuttin personal at all its just that he be literizzle incapable of dippin' anyone

KARKIZZLE ridin' in mah double R: I KNOW THAT! KARKAT: Slap your mutha fuckin self. THAT BE THA *EXACT* FUCK'N TH'N I KNIZZAY N UNDERSTOOD, N WHIZNY I FELT SO STUPID 'BOUT IT 'N HINDSIGHT!

JOHN: wizzle... JOHN: nizzay that i really want ta egg on dis trizzain of thizzle, but i D-to-tha-izzunno if that qizzle tizzy.

KARKAT cuz I put gangsta rap on tha map: IT NOT?

JOHN bitch ass nigga: i can get really angrizzle n hate stiznuff too, just like you. bizzut i think only 'n extreme cazes? JOHN: tha skull homey 'n suspenda i gots REALLY pisze' off at... JIZZY: but i be a hundrizzle percent sizzy that hizzay wizzas platonic!

DIZZLE: gettin pisze' off at a suspenda dude sizzounds L-to-tha-izzike just tha sort of yarn i wanna be all ears fo` some time D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: but ok thats sum-m sum-m ta work wit DAVE: hizzle kizzle mizzaybe therizzles some hope yet mizzy its not a total lost cauze

KARKAT: NERGH!

JOHN: ok, dizzle, it definitelizzle S-to-tha-izzounds like yoe try'n ta own us now!

DAVE: own DAVE: whiznat DAVE: no way DAVE: im bein real as a motherfucka

JIZZY: It dont stop till the wheels fall off. bein able ta hizzy th'n i think be... It's your homie snoop dogg from the dpg. JOHN: tha smalla part of that equation paper'd up? JIZZY: what 'bout tha other pizzle? don't yiznou think that, uh... JIZZOHN: a shawty miznore significant?

DAVE like a motha fucka: whizzle pizzy

JOHN: tha pizzle about not bein a homosexual thats off tha hook yo!!!

DIZZAVE: john DAVE: diznude i gotta sizzle DAVE: when yiznou rap 'bout bein or nizzot bein "a homosexual" yizzay kizzy sound like a cornizzle old dawg

JOHN ya dig? what! whizzay? JIZZLE aww nah: no, that a normal way of putt'n it! One, two three and to tha four. JIZZAY: i mean... it a P-R-E-Double-Tizzy nizzle th'n ta siznay, right ridin' in mah double R? wizzy that... hiznow in tha hood... you be?

KARKAT: SOMIZZLE FUCK'N KIZNILL ME.

DAVE: what does normizzle mean though DAVE: normal wizzy some criznap that rizzle our dead civilization DIZZLE: we left tizzy behind years ago DAVE fo all my homies in the pen: its all a huge pizzile of shit that doesnt matta anymizzle

JOHN: oh. kay fo gettin yo pimp on? JIZZLE: so thizzay, yoe say'n... JOHN: what be you say'n so jus' chill?

DIZZLE: im not siznure i guess

JIZZOHN paper'd up: ...

DIZZLE so sit back relax new jacks get smacked: ok i guess whiznat im say'n be DAVE: i dont think its all as simple as yizzle thizzay it be DIZZAY: or maybe not like ACTIVELY tizzy it be bizzay contizzle ta assizzle it be on account of NIZZLE thinkin 'bout it much DAVE sho nuff: dizzle ta a lizzle of junk 'bout tha subject thizzle G-to-tha-izzets shoved into our brains from movies n stizzay whizzle we were just dumb kids

JOHN: i, JOHN: hm. Fo'-fo' desert eagle to your motherfuckin' dome.

DAVE: im just blunt-rollin' it probably isnt as absizzle or simplistizzle as tha way youve been fram'n it D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: or maybe it be fo` yizzy personally i D-to-tha-izzont know DIZZY puttin tha smack down: im J-to-tha-izzust guess'n you havent S-P-to-tha-izzent M-to-tha-izzuch time frontin' 'bout it if only cauze all tha stuff we read n wiznatch suggests that L-to-tha-izzike even examin'n yo' honest thoughts 'bout it be perilous rizzle ta go down DIZZAVE: cause if you actually think tizzy mizzle 'bout it witout always hav'n that undercurrent of haha nizzy nope nizzope THEN what happens D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: what if it tizzy out youre like...

JIZZAY: ...like?

DAVE: like niznot exactly tha way you thizzought you were DIZZAY: Snoop dogg is in this bitch. or mizzay not so much tizzy, as old presumptions 'bout what you were turn out ta be nizzle that relevant?

KARKAT: (WHY. WHY BE THEZE WIZZORDS GANG BANGIN' TA OUR CONVERSATION.)

DIZZAY: i dunno man DAVE: Tru niggaz do niggaz. not sure wizzy youve been do'n tha last 3 years all hatin' a large boat, then saving everyizzle from apocalyptic whateva DAVE: biznut ive had a fuck tizzy of time on mah hands ta tizzy 'bout S-T-to-tha-izzuff DAVE cuz this is how we do it: 'bout stuff ive said n done 'n tha P-to-tha-izzast why i S-to-tha-izzaid n did them DAVE: Subscribe nigga, get yo issue. a lizzay of ho-slappin' i once would have insizzle were liznike pizzay of my brand n helpizzle me ciznome across coo' n smartassy DAVE: bizzay now im not so sure DAVE: Anotha dogg house production. we used rip on each otha all tha time fo` bein gizzay even though we knew we werent which of courze be what M-to-tha-izzade it "funny" rememba

JOHN: yeah. JOHN so jus' chill: i dunno, it was prizzle funnizzle, sometimizzles. JIZZY: it wizzle J-to-tha-izzust a lizzay of crack-a-lackin` around!

DAVE cuz I'm fresh out the pen: yizzle i kizzy DIZZAVE: Im crazy, you can't phase me. it frankly BE funny ta say how gay sum-m sum-m be sometimes n lets fizzle it sometimes somizzle or sum-m sum-m be jizzle flizzle out R-E-A-DOUBLE-LIZZY fuck'n gizzay n theres no two wizzle 'bout it DIZNAVE: its more like that thrizzle tha preponderance of all T-H-to-tha-izzat jokey shit be an underlyizzle implizzle thizzay its all lame stuff for pansies but not lizzle us no were not lizzle n ha ha thats tha joke DAVE: wizzy thrives on dis like double-buried implicatizzle that tha REAL COO' SHIT be foundizzle on dis absurd wankizzle ideal 'bout masculinity which if yizzy think 'bout it be 1. dumb as fuck 2. tha mizzle adulatizzle of masculinizzle ta thizzle extent TA BE HONIZZLE be P-R-E-Double-Tizzy fuck'n gay unto itself and 3. was alwizzles sizzay totally impossible S-H-to-tha-izzit fo` us ta live up ta anyway DAVE: i think all thats mixed up wit the same phony idizzles 'bout heroism DAVE puttin tha smack down: like liv'n up to tha storybook idizzle of what a hero ta me feels almost interchangeable wit liv'n up ta societys snapshot of what a hizzay manly dude shizzle be DAVE: Death row 187 4 life. i stizzle pretend'n i cizzay eva live up ta eitha th'n a W-H-to-tha-izzile ago DAVE: n mainly have spent time look'n back on tha shea magnitude of all mah "gang bangin' around" DIZZLE: i uze' ta lambaste fucka lizzle n rizzay grind'n thiznem into tha pavement ova hizzow gay they probably were n how much thizney were quite possibly jonesizzle ta kiss some dudes or such DIZZAVE: It's your homie snoop dogg from the dpg. n i dont reallizzle feel bizzle 'bout it 'n tha senze that it was jerky or liznike "insensitive" necessizzle even though i guess it maybe was DIZNAVE: mizzay that i feel like it wizzay probizzle transparent DIZNAVE: a massive front of outrageous S-N-to-tha-izzark to disguize a lot of insecurity DIZZAVE: like a fuckin coverup DAVE: as long as i kept clowning hard 'bout it i dizzle actually have ta think 'bout it or fizzace mah actizzle beliefs

JOHN: Aint no stoppin' this shit nigga. dave, um. JOHN: Aint no stoppin' this shit nigga. all that cool n all, and ridin' in mah double R... JIZZAY: i think i mostly agrizzle? JOHN: bizzle... JOHN: Anotha dogg house production. ummmm, hizzy do i put dis. JOHN: be yiznou... Boo-Yaa! JOHN sho nuff: be you gay now? I thought i told ya, nigga I'm a soldier.

DAVE: what no

KARKAT: (THA WORDS. WHIZNY WON'T THA WORDS STOP. D-TO-THA-IZZEAR GOD.)

JOHN: i dunno, it siznounds ta me like yoe try'n tell me sum-m sum-m here ta help you tap dat ass!

DAVE: Relax, cus I'm bout to take my respect. dawg no look

JOHN: Bounce wit me. i mean, it ok if yoe gay nizzy! Snoop dogg is in this bitch. JOHN: Yippie yo, you can't see my flow. that totally coo', if T-R-to-tha-izzue. JIZZAY: i just tizzy upside yo head... JIZZAY cuz its a pimp thang: yizzy turn'n gay would be kind of a weird consequence of me chang'n tha tizzy line around sho nuff? JOHN: ok, not "weird"... JIZZOHN to increase tha peace: just, unexpected! JOHN: i D-to-tha-izzunno what i dizzle thizzle would accizzle fo` that. JOHN so sit back relax new jacks get smacked: maybe ballin' one of terizzles pizzy toys did some goofy homizzle butterfly effect th'n on yizzou? I thought i told ya, nigga I'm a soldier. J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: jeez, who knizzay in tha mutha fuckin club!

DAVE: dude you arent listen'n DAVE: although a gay butterfly effizzle be a pretty funny idizzle lets not dizzles that as a concizzle altogetha DIZZY if you gots a paper stack: anyway maybe what im tryin ta sizzle be sorta gett'n L-to-tha-izzost 'n tha weeds hizzay DIZZAY: tha fact thiznat yiznou wizzere wonder'n if i "turned gay" makes me think maybe youre stizzle not quite on tha wavelength im tizzy ta ramble on hiznere DAVE straight from long beach nigga: maybe we should wrestle dis topic ta tha ground anotha T-to-tha-izzime, theres a lizzot M-to-tha-izzore id wizzy say but dis be probably not tha venue D-TO-THA-IZZAVE: i mean nizzy literally wrestle ta tha ground coz that be maybe literally tha gayest courze of actizzle we could possiblizzle takes biznut you knizzle whizzat i mean

KARKAT: (YES! LATA! RAP BALLER, COZ THEN THA WORDS WIZZAY STOP! Boo-Yaa! OH WOULDN'T THIZZAY BE LOVELY.)

JOHN and cant no hood fuck with death rizzow: that fine, we cizzan rap 'bout ho-slappin' yizzou wizzle, anizzle tizzime. JIZZOHN: Aint no stoppin' this shit nigga. i'm jizzay stiznill confuze' 'bout what yoe gett'n at, be all. JIZZLE: L-to-tha-izzike, whiznat be tha bottom lizzay hiznere? JIZZLE and my money on my mind: be you actuallizzle attrizzle ta boys now, betta check yo self? JOHN cuz Im tha Double O G: d-ya... JIZZOHN aww nah: um. JOHN: dizzy yizzou... JIZZOHN: Ya fuck with us, we gots to fuck you up. liznike, dizzle any boys?

DAVE: uh

JOHN: but thizzere weren't evizzle that many bizzay on tha metizzle? JOHN: well, there tha clizzle guy, bizzut i dizzle really sizzee you n him... JIZZLE: thizzle really onlizzle leaves... JOHN: It's your homie snoop dogg from the dpg. um, were you n karkat... J-TO-THA-IZZOHN: BE you n kizzle, lizzay. JOHN: hmm in all flavas.

> [A6IZZLE5] ====>

#Gizoogle #Homestuck #pg7483

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coin-river-blog · 6 years ago

Link

Eric Lam reports for Bloomberg:

“The trade war between the U.S. and China and slowing retail sales dragged Hong Kong’s economic growth down at the end of last year, with exports showing almost ‘zero growth.'”

What’s astounding to me is that the people of the world accept that peaceful acts of commerce between consenting adults is any of the U.S. federal government’s business.

Tariffs Are A Form of Dictatorship

Willis C. Hawley (left) and Reed Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act passed the House of Representatives. Source: The National Photo Company

There’s a man who lives in Hong Kong and one that lives in Texas who would like to trade resources in a mutually voluntary and reciprocal relationship for mutual benefit.

The man in Texas has too much of something and not enough of something else, and the man in Hong Kong has too much of something and not enough of something else.

So they make a trade, and even though there are the exact same amount of somethings in the world after they trade, those somethings found their way into hands that will make them more productive, so both men got richer and we all got richer.

But then suddenly a man appears out of a swamp in Virginia, stands between the two businessmen and says one of them owes him money if they continue to transact business.

To which the proper and reasonable response from the two businessmen should be:

“Excuse me, who the hell are you?

This is an A and B conversation, so why don’t you see your way out of it?”

“Who the hell am I?” the swamp marauder might answer.

“I’m the president of the United States. On Nov 8, 2016 I won the U.S. presidential election fair and square, now pony up- or trade with someone one on the right side of the line.”

So what? Winning a media circus-driven popularity contest does not give you the right to interfere in two other individual’s private business and shake them down for trading with each other instead of someone else. That is no way to treat anybody.

“The constitution permits Congress to levy tariffs, and Congress has vested me with the authority to specify U.S. tariff policy.”

Just because it’s legal that doesn’t mean it’s right. This is a violation of the liberties of the businesses who are being dictated to and extorted by these tariffs, and it’s hurting them, both Chinese businesses and American businesses like U.S. automakers and farmers.

(Hong Kong isn’t the only one feeling the pain.

Here are 202 American companies that have been hurt by Trump’s tariffs.)

It’s No Metaphor to Call It A Trade War

The much-publicized trade war between the world’s two superpowers could intensify. Image from Shutterstock.

Tariffs are a soft form of sanctions.

Which are ultimately backed by the threat of enforcement by the blockade.

Sanctions are a show of force and carry with them the threat of war over non-compliance and any resistance to enforcement actions. (It’s worth noting that no other institution in our society other than the government is permitted to use threats of violence to dictate people’s commercial choices to them or to get them to send you a check.)

Historically sanctions have been a precursor to war. A sanction, or embargo, forcefully suspends commerce between the people of two nations. A tariff restricts it.

In the case of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports totaling $200 billion in goods annually, the tariff only walls off certain sectors of the economy, and it’s a barrier that does permit the flow of resources, but penalizes, restricts, and curtails the flow.

Trump’s tariffs on China are not nearly as aggressive as National Security advisor John Bolton’s all out siege on Venezuela with full blown financial sanctions that are imperiling the beleaguered South American country’s ability to feed its people.

But it is still a soft form of siege, surrounding a target and preventing them from having access to resources until they relent to your demands.

What are Washington’s demands of China under the Trump Administration?

“Reduce China’s Trade Surplus With The U.S. By $200 Billion in Two Years”

Global markets, particularly in Asia, continue to be impacted by the ongoing stand-off between the United States and China.

The level of economic illiteracy exhibited by the bungling government bureaucrats holding global markets hostage over the U.S.-China trade negotiations is truly astounding.

The entire premise for a trade war against China is the deeply misinformed belief that there is something called a “trade deficit” with China and that it is bad for America.

The Balance has the numbers:

“From January 2018 to July 2018, the United States exported a total of $74.3 billion in goods to China. During that same timeframe, the U.S. imported $296.8 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As a result, the total trade deficit with China is $222.6 billion. A monthly breakdown is in the chart.”

In the view of the trade warriors, this is somehow a bad deal for America. But these figures are the sum total of numerous uncoerced and deliberate, individual choices made by people living in China and America with their own private resources that they are responsible for, and would not voluntarily venture unless it made them richer by their own evaluation.

Donald Trump and the other economic interventionists in Washington are alarmed that Americans are sending more money to China than China is sending to America, but they’re also getting more goods from China than China is getting from America.

There is no deficit of anything. It’s a misnomer to call it that, whether out of ignorance or as propaganda. The exchange of value is balanced on both the export side with Chinese money for American goods, and the import side with Chinese goods for American money.

If anything it’s a raw deal for China, which sends America more valuable goods that improve our lives than we send them, while we pay them back for those goods with more cheap, inflationary, fiat money created out of thin air by central banks every day.

The interventionists suggest that when Americans buy more goods from China than Chinese buy from America, that American businesses lose out to foreign competition.

They claim this hurts job growth and wages.

But this kind of zero-sum thinking is more at home in socialist economics than free market economics or even the vast majority consensus of mainstream economists.

China’s efficient manufacturing prowess in scale has been unmatched by global economies. | Source: Shutterstock.

Saving American businesses and consumers money by taking advantage of China’s faster, more efficient, and more affordable manufacturing and product assembly in certain industries leaves money leftover to invest in job-creating opportunities and stretches American workers’ wages into more purchasing power for a higher standard of living.

That’s why despite all of the trade warrior propaganda to the contrary, the data do not support their claims. Low unemployment numbers can persist in countries with “trade deficits” while countries with “trade surpluses” can still suffer from high unemployment.

The U.S.-China trade talks delegation has demanded that China reduce its trade deficit with America by $200 billion in two years or face higher tariffs on exports.

It’s ironic because, in the 20th Century, the United States used to view China as a threat because it might spread the pernicious effects of communism’s central economic planning to the rest of the world. Now the United States is putting pressure on the People’s Republic because it doesn’t feel that China is doing enough central planning!

Imagine trying to control what all those people buy and who they buy it from.

Call it what you want. Protectionism. Communism. It’s just plain tyranny.

Chinese Counterfeit Products and U.S. Trademark, Patent Law

The U.S. also wants to see China crack down harder on counterfeit products that exactly replicate U.S. brand name products and violate U.S. trademarks and patents. This is the perpetual conceit of government bureaucratic central planners. They believe they can fundamentally alter the natural order by putting pen to paper.

The technology to reverse engineer and replicate both digital and physical goods easily at low cost has reached a point of such terrifying efficacy there is no way governments can stop people from availing themselves of its uses.

You don’t like Chinese replicators violating U.S. patent law?

They’re building a full-scale replica Titanic in Sichuan province right now.

How can the Chinese government be expected to stem the tide of this kind of technological capability when the U.S. government can’t stop Americans from downloading unlicensed software or bootleg movies?

The copyright and the patent system had a good run.

But it’s 2019.

That ship has sailed.

The Futility of Fighting Technological Change

People will have to adapt to how rapidly changing technology is dramatically altering the economic landscape by creating new possibilities all the time.

They cannot expect today’s explosion of technological capability to slow down to accommodate them. It is a force of nature.

Fortunately, there is nothing in the universe we yet know of that is better made for adapting to dramatic, even devastating changes than we are.

Forged in the hunting grounds of sub-Saharan Africa, the line of humans all seven point seven billion of us recently descended from are custom made to optimize decision making for maximum benefit while going off of limited information in a changing environment

And our choices are highly attuned to the incentives of the market, which is a cosmic super computer made from our collective minds that is constantly calculating and updating its evaluation of the relative scarcity and value of all things.

Although technological progress is certainly disruptive and there are many localized, temporary setbacks because of the constant need to adjust to change to keep up, the rising tide of high tech capitalism is making nearly all of us wealthier all the time.

Attempts by legislators and bureaucrats to resist progress and fight the inevitable creates a drag on the rising tide, increases economic inefficiencies, decreases the overall productive possibilities of the economy, and causes massive amounts of collateral damage to the lives and the businesses it disrupts.

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creativecraig · 6 years ago

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Monzo vs Ulster Bank

Banks have been around for centuries for saving, depositing money, withdrawing money, loans, mortgages and other traditional money saving tactics. As technology grows so do banks, the introduction of applications and the internet have move banks into everyday life through the use of internet banking. Banks have converted from being a bank to being an application, but Monzo ask the question as to why an application can’t become a bank.

In this week's class we compared a traditional bank in Ulster Bank to the newer bank in Monzo. Firstly let’s talk about the Ulster Bank application and the range of features that are available on their application. As you can see from the image above the Ulster Bank application allows you to do the main traditional features that you can do in a bank such as transfer money between accounts, view balance, make a payment, view direct debits. Other than transferring traditional features to digital platform, Ulster Bank haven’t really used the capability of the advantage of having application with their application being the same as every other traditional bank when transferring to an application.

Now let’s look at Monzo and why Monzo is leading the future in terms of banking online. Firstly Monzo’s on board experience is much more inviting and pleasant when using the application. It is clear, easy to follow and understand all features available. I am an Ulster Bank user and one thing that really annoys me is when paying contactless I have to wait 3 days on money being withdrawing from my bank, this means I have to figure out and budget everything myself. Monzo have fix this huge problem with all payments being withdrawn immediately withdrawn, this allows the user to know exactly what their balance is and what they have spent to the exact date. Another great feature Monzo has is the ability to view exactly where the payment was taken from, for example if you spent £20 on fuel, Monzo will notify you immediately after paying on your phone as well as when looking at your statement it will be shown with an icon of the businesses brand and place. Compare this to Ulster Bank who do notify you once you pay but only with apple pay or google pay, which also shows as pending and no icon due to it taking 3 days to process.

Monzo also have also created a feature which allows the user to view how they have spent over the course of time via a line chart, This is also interactive and you can slide to see different transactions within the line chart. This is a great feature as you can revisit previous transactions as well as see when you mainly spend and what you spend on. Their are also saving features which you can set up which if you have any money left over at the end of the month, it will put it into a savings pot ‘for a rainy day’ fund. You can chose how much you want to save in the pot, giving you a financial backup when really needed.

One of Monzo’s best features and also a reason why a lot of people switch to Monzo is for their freeze feature. If you have lost your card or accidently misplaced your card, normally you have to report that it is lost or stolen and wait 5-10 days on a new card but if you find it after you report it then you still cannot use the card as it is reported. Monzo have created a freeze feature in which you can freeze your card when this happens and if you find it then you can simply defrost it and use it straight away again.

Another feature of Monzo that is really useful is the split the bill feature. Many of times I have been in a restaurant with friends and we have had to split the bill, which involves working out each individual bill and paying. With Monzo you can use the split the bill feature with other Monzo users making it fair for everyone, as well as quick and easy with causing a fuss.

Updates are another huge benefit to being with Monzo as when the application is being worked on to be updated or de-bugged Monzo notifies all users that it is being updated as well as anytime that the application will be down for, it also notifies you when it is back online as well as if the problem has been fixed. Ulster Bank on the other hand do not notify you until the application has been launched and is normally down for a more considerable amount of time compared to Monzo. I think the upfront and honest method for updates that Monzo uses is better for the user as it shows that they’re open with everything going on informing customer of everything and hiding nothing.

Looking at the Future

Monzo are constantly striving to improve and staying ahead of the game but they’re not afraid to let the world know what they are planning. On Monzo’s website via the blog section they have a post on the new year about what they will be bringing to Monzo in the coming year. This is a great way of adding to their honestly and open policy to their customers. Overall Monzo has so much more to offer than just traditional bank features making it easier to bank for every person when on the go.

#ixdbelfast #ixd303 #cwallen199 #education

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earthstory · 8 years ago

Photo

Meet the US National Flood Insurance Program

On Thursday March 16, the United States Office of Management and Budget released its initial proposed budget for the next fiscal year. You probably have heard all about this elsewhere around the internet today, and if you still get a newspaper it’ll be on the front page tomorrow. You might have heard about some of the impacts of this budget on Earth Science; for example, it proposes ending several NASA satellites that could be used to measure the effects of climate change.

I didn’t feel like repeating all of that commentary, but instead today I want to tell you a story about one line in this budget document. The budget removes all funding for one part of the US National Flood insurance program, the Flood Hazard Mapping Program, and directs it to “to instead explore other more effective and fair means of funding flood mapping efforts.”

Honestly, if you don’t live near the coast, you might not even know that the US has a National Flood Insurance Program or a flood-mapping program. But, this program isn’t just important for people who live there; it affects everyone in the country as every US taxpayer is currently helping support this program.

A century ago, private insurance companies handled flood insurance in the US. However, as the amount of construction in flood-prone areas increased in the 20th century, insurers found that they were on the hook for costs they couldn’t anticipate. By the 1920s, private insurers stopped offering flood insurance almost entirely – this was the flood insurance version of an insurance “Death spiral” where costs of the insurance go up, causing fewer people to buy it, causing costs to go up even farther.

One basic problem of flood insurance is that an insurer can’t control the flood risk. If a home is sold in a floodplain and the flood risk is assessed one year, construction upstream that removes wetlands will increase the flood risk everywhere downstream and the insurer providing the coverage may not even know that development happened. Similarly, changing sea levels and warming oceans have substantially changed the storm risk in many coastal communities already. These are factors that private insurers simply couldn’t account for.

From the 1930s through the 1950s, the US government responded to floods with disaster declarations by distributing funds to rebuild. However, they also realized that having developers and homeowners share none of the risk would encourage construction in high risk areas – if you don’t have to bear the cost of rebuilding at all, why not build the most expensive property you can in the highest risk area?

In 1956, the US government established a federal flood insurance program backed by the US taxpayer. Using the best available geologic maps, the government would assess flood risk and require development in those floodplains to buy insurance so that all of the costs of flooding were not born out by US Taxpayers.

Many of the U.S.’s floodplain maps were initially done following the establishment of this program and date back to the 1960s for exactly this reason. However, as noted above, maps from decades ago can’t reflect changes in flood risk associated with new development, geologic changes, or climate change. Re-mapping floodplains every few decades is an absolute requirement for the government to run this program.

Today, the U.S. has many structures covered by this insurance program and in many ways coastal development would be impossible without it. However, the program has serious issues. In 2005, a disaster unlike any that the Flood Insurance Program had ever seen struck New Orleans - we know it as Hurricane Katrina. The claims after that storm totaled the tens of billions of dollars – far more than the program collected. In 2012, another one happened – we know it as Hurricane (superstorm) Sandy.

The costs associated with these disasters were not taken into account by the premiums coastal homeowners pay, nor were they predicted by the geologic maps at the time. Ironically, much of the coastline struck by Sandy was slated for re-mapping just before the storm hit.

As of today, the US National Flood Insurance Program is $25 billion in debt due to the costs of these storms. The U.S. Treasury department, aka the US Taxpayer, is providing funds to support this program right now, with over a billion dollars spent to support it in 2016 alone.

Remapping these areas will not prevent the next hurricane Katrina if there is one, as much of that disaster occurred not because of the storm’s power but because of engineering failures. But assessing the potential flood risk associated with storms like Sandy and charging landowners appropriate insurance fees in those areas is important to the US Government and to the US Taxpayer.

If the US is undercharging insurance premiums because our maps are out of date, then the US taxpayer is effectively providing a subsidy to flood-prone property owners and developers. The subsidy the US Taxpayer provided to the flood insurance program in 2016 would have paid for continuing this mapping program for 10 years.

While the document does direct the government to identify alternative funding sources, with the Flood Insurance Program already in debt there is no obvious place they could come from. This is one of those basic things the government does – it enables development in at-risk areas by spending money to develop science. Without this program, either the US Taxpayer would be paying the cost of rebuilding after every disaster, or there would be far less development in these regions.

This picture shows flooding in Ocean City, Maryland, after a noreaster in 2015. Many communities along the coastline are regularly experiencing this degree of flooding, and as sea level continues marching higher over the next century it will get worse. Right now it just takes a moderate storm or the moon at perigee to cause flooding in areas that the U.S. government is insuring and the U.S. taxpayer is supporting. The only way this program can be managed is by keeping our maps up to date, reflecting development, sea level change, and climate change.

This type of work will never be done by private insurance – they stopped providing this coverage because they weren’t going to map the entire country. If the government doesn’t do it, and our maps don’t assess flood risk correctly, then we’ll have to keep sending taxpayer money to this program and supporting real estate on the coastline that should not be there. The current mapping program is not perfect, it could be improved with updates and additional funds to enable use of new and modern satellite and GPS mapping technologies, but this proposed cut goes the exact opposite way. This is an example of a program where cutting it is “penny-wise, pound foolish” –cutting a small expense sets up a much larger expense later.

-JBB

Image credit: http://bit.ly/2myYGV7

References: http://bit.ly/2nvjrBO (pdf file) http://bit.ly/2nsBMmf https://www.nap.edu/read/21709/chapter/4#24

#Science #Flood #Insurance #Trump #Budget #OMB #Maryland #Flooding #NFIP #National flood insurance program #tax #the earth story

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simplemoneyman-blog · 6 years ago

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How And Why Should I Diversify?

Inefficient Strategy - Lacked Diversification

So Easy To Diversify

When you drill down a bit more, the iShares Core Moderate Allocation ETF diversified into the international sector as well so it’s got that covered too (the 3rd fund in the list – IDEV):

So Dangerous When You Don’t Diversify

Learn To Diversify From The Best

Here are the top 5 positions in Warren Buffett’s portfolio:

#basket #diversification #diversify #eggs #espp #ETF #fees #funds #ishares #retirement #stocks #vanguard

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yoi-secret-valentines2017 · 8 years ago

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For @neriine!

There is very little in life that Seung-gil Lee likes. Mornings are definitely not one of those things. Granted, not a lot of people like mornings, but Seung-gil looks like he dislikes them much more than everyone else.

One particular day Seung-gil seemed to hate mornings even more than usual when he found that he had to walk an extra block to get coffee, because his regular coffee shop was closed. It was also Monday, which was never fun.

He grunted in annoyance as he walked past the closed coffee shop. Mornings were terrible, coffee made them slightly less terrible. He needed some coffee as soon as possible to make his morning somewhat tolerable, so he went to the other coffee shop that he hadn’t bothered to go to yet for it was less convenient for him on a normal day.

He walked into the shop which was empty other than a guy humming with earphones on as he wiped the counter that seemed to be around his age. He walked up to the counter and waited for the guy to notice him, when that didn’t happen, her cleared his throat loudly.

The guy looked up abruptly, practically tearing his earphones off and smiling sheepishly. “So sorry about that! We never get customers this early so I wasn’t really expecting someone to be here!” the guy said, still smiling with a bright smile. “What can I get you?”

If there was anything more annoying for Seung-gil than mornings it was morning people. “Coffee.” Seung-gil said, his face expressionless. “Black.”

“Size?”

“Medium.”

“That’ll be 2.75.” The guy said in a chipper voice, making Seung-gil wonder how he had so much energy so early in the morning.

Seung-gil handed him the money as the guy spoke up once again “What’s your name?” making Seung-gil furrow his brows further “To write on the cup I mean.” he clarified.

“Oh, Seung-gil.” Seung-gil said, wondering why it was necessary when he was the only person in the shop.

“Cool. Mine’s Phichit. Oh but you could probably see that on the name tag.” Phichit said, rubbing the back of his neck, still smiling the bright smile that was annoying to Seung-gil. Phichit’s smile faltered for a moment when Seung-gil’s expression stayed stoic. He smiled again, though this time it seemed forced. “I’ll, um, go make your coffee. Sorry.” Oh, Seung-gil had hurt him. How stupid was it to be affected by something someone you don’t even know did. People shouldn’t be that sensitive. He was surprised though, to find that he actually felt kind of bad for hurting Phichit.

“Yeah, thanks.” Seung-gil murmured letting out a huff as he looked at his phone. It wasn’t that there was much interesting on his phone, it was just that Phichit was too much for him in the morning and he needed a distraction from his energetic presence, it was annoying him.

“Um, Seu- sir?” Phichit said, making Seung-gil look up from his phone. “Your coffee is ready.”

Seung-gil reached to the paper cup that Phichit was holding up and their fingers brushed as he was taking it from the barista’s hand.

“Have a nice day!” Phichit chirped, smiling yet again at Seung-gil.

“Uh, you too.” Seung-gil said, walking out of the store. He took a sip of his coffee and something on the cup caught his attention. He stopped in front of the glass window of the shop and read the writing.

I think you’re cute.

Seung-gil would never admit it, but he couldn’t help the blush that crept on his face.

Seung-gil paused in front of his regular coffee shop, which was properly functioning today, and he kept walking.

I’m going there because the coffee is better, Seung-gil thought to himself.

Again, he wouldn’t admit it, but he knew that wasn’t the real reason.

He walked into the shop, making the little bell at the door chime. Phichit looked up from behind the counter, smiling brightly when he saw Seung-gil. Why he smiled, Seung-gil couldn’t understand, he was nothing to be excited or happy about. “Hey! Good morning!” Phichit said.

“Hi.” Seung-gil said.

“Medium black coffee?” Phichit said, smiling still.

“Yeah,” Seung-gil said, slightly curious as to why Phichit remembered his order, he must’ve had a lot of other customers throughout the day. “You remember my order?”

“Yep,” Phichit said, popping the p. “I also remember your name, Seung-gil.” He added, smiling brightly.

“Oh.”

“That’ll be 2.75.”

“Yeah, here you go.” Seung-gil said, the exact amount of money already in his hand.

Phichit took the money from him and got to making his coffee, still smiling to himself and humming an unfamiliar melody.

“Does your face not hurt?” Seung-gil said, before he could stop himself. This wasn’t something that happened a lot to Seung-gil, he usually calculated his moves before actually said or did things. “Sorry… Just,” Seung-gil said. See, this is what happened when he didn’t calculate what he was going to say before he actually spoke. “You just smile a lot.” He muttered. He felt stupid. Why did he even say that? He should’ve kept his mouth shut and waited for his coffee in silence.

Phichit had halted in his movements and looked up from the coffee machine. He had a bewildered expression on his face, until he burst out laughing. Seung-gil could feel his cheeks starting to burn and hoped to whatever god there was - if there was one - that Phichit didn’t notice the blush that was bound to be on his face. “No, it doesn’t actually.” Phichit said, when his laughter calmed down. He was looking at Seung-gil, who was deliberately avoiding Phichit’s gaze. If Seung-gil had not been trying not to meet eyes with Phichit, he’d have seen the intrigued smile on Phichit’s face. He’d have seen that Phichit found him interesting and maybe even endearing. “You should smile more.” Phichit said, going back to making Seung-gil’s coffee.

Seung-gil shrugged, “I do smile,” He said, “when I have a reason to.”

Phichit hummed in acknowledgement, finally finished with Seung-gil’s drink. He put the lid on and held out the cup for Seung-gil to take. “I don’t think you need to have a very elaborate reason to smile. You’ll be happier in life if you can smile without a specific reason. Not having a reason not to smile should be reason enough to smile, don’t you think?”

“I have no idea what you just said and frankly, I don’t really care that much.” Seung-gil said, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Still not fully awake, huh?” Phichit chuckled. “Well, I hope you have a nice day! Come again.”

“Thanks, you too.” Seung-gil said, taking another sip of the coffee. He walked out of the shop before glancing down at the cup looking for the sentence that Phichit had written. He wouldn’t admit this either or maybe wasn’t even aware of it yet, but he really hoped that Phichit had written something on the cup again.

You’d look a lot cuter if you actually smiled, you know?

Seung-gil frowned at what Phichit wrote, but that didn’t change the fact that it made his stomach feel funny.

This time, Seung-gil didn’t even hesitate in walking past his ‘regular’ coffee shop. It didn’t feel right to call it his ‘regular’ now, because, well, it really wasn’t at this point, was it? He didn’t try to persuade himself that it was because of the coffee. For the first time in his life, Seung-gil didn’t even think before doing something, for this he didn’t need to. He was going there because he wanted to, he didn’t need to have a specific reason.

“Hey,” he said, as he walked in the shop. The shop was empty yet again, yes it was a small shop so it was understandable that they wouldn’t have that many customers but Seung-gil hadn’t seen anyone other than him in the shop, and it made him wonder if they even had any customers. Then again, it was only his third time there, and it was very early in the morning.

“Good morning!” Phichit practically sang, smiling, which wasn’t a surprise to Seung-gil anymore, it would actually be surprising now to see him without a smile.

Seung-gil groaned before shushing Phichit. “Too loud for this ungodly hour, please stop.”

Phichit giggled (yes, giggled) and Seung-gil wouldn’t admit it but he thought it was adorable “Okay, you grump.” Phichit said. “Medium black coffee?”

Seung-gil nodded and handed him the money for the coffee. Phichit seemed extra chattery this morning, for some reason unknown to Seung-gil. “I can’t drink my coffee black.” Phichit was saying. “I put a lot of milk and also sugar to actually be able to handle coffee.”

“Adding milk to your coffee, even if you don’t add the sugar, makes for more than 13 times the calories.” Seung-gil said, keeping his eyes on his phone. He didn’t really care for the calories but still. The milk was unnecessary and this was just another reason why.

“Why do you even know that? I’m the barista here.” Phichit said, looking at Seung-gil in shock, as Seung-gil merely shrugged.

“Why do you not know it?”

“Fair enough.” Phichit said, chuckling as he finished up Seung-gil’s drink. “Your coffee’s ready.” he held the cup out for Seung-gil again. Neither of them seemed to care that he didn’t really need to do that as the counter was right there and he could’ve just put it there. Seung-gil raised his eyebrows a little bit as he thought of this but didn’t mention it, maybe this was just what he did with everyone, he couldn’t think of why he would do that, but it’s not like this was actually important. Speaking of, why was Seung-gil even thinking about this unimportant detail?

“Seung-gil?” Seung-gil hears Phichit call out. Oh, right, coffee. Shaking his head as if shaking away his thoughts, he reached for the cup in Phichit’s hand, their fingers brushing, the small contact making Seung-gil’s heart jump, which was confusing to Seung-gil.

“Sorry, I guess I zoned out for a moment.” he apologized. Sorry? Had he just said sorry? Was he getting sick? Why did he feel the need to apologize about that, of all things?

Phichit laughed softly. Seung-gil stared at him for a moment, thinking that it might be one of the purest sounds he’s ever heard. “It’s fine, you seem a little out of it today,” Phichit broke him from his trance. “A lot on your mind?”

Nope, just you, Seung-gil thought, surprising himself once again. “Uh, yeah.” He said, with furrowed brows. “I’m gonna be late.” He said. He didn’t have anywhere to be, he just wanted to not feel awkward. “Bye.”

“Okay! Have a great day Seung!” Phichit said, with his signature bright smile. “Sorry, is it okay if I call you Seung?”

“Yeah, whatever.” Seung-gil said, feeling his cheeks get warmer. What was wrong with him?? “You too, have a nice day.” Seung-gil added, before turning on his heel and heading outside.

Once he was out the door, he looked down at the cup to see the now familiar handwriting adorning it.

I hope I get to see your gorgeous smile soon…

The next day, Seung-gil walked to the coffee shop again. He was feeling way too cheerful this morning, for him anyway. He didn’t know where the energy came from, but he just felt good. Maybe he didn’t even need the coffee that day. Woah… Nope that was going too far.

He walked into the shop, looking at the counter where Phichit normally stood. Normally was the keyword here, as Phichit was not standing there at the moment. “Phichit?” Seung-gil called out, walking towards the counter. Someone came out from the door at the back of the counter, which Seung-gil guessed was the storage room. It wasn’t Phichit. It was a black haired guy that seemed to be around Seung-gil’s age, maybe a couple years older.

“Hi! It’s Phichit’s day off.” The guy said. “And, um, we’re actually not open for another half hour…” He added with a nervous chuckle, pushing his glasses up.

“What?” Seung-gil’s eyes widened. “But I’ve been coming here every day at around this time?”

“Ohh, are you Seung-gil?” the guy asked. “I’m Yuuri, I work here with Phichit.” the guy added with a small smile.

“How do you know who I am?” Seung-gil asked, his confusion clear on my face.

“Oh! Phichit mentioned that you came in at around 8.30, and that he didn’t have the heart to tell you that we opened at 9!” the guy, Yuuri, let out a nervous chuckle, making Seung-gil raise his eyebrows.

“But why?” Seung-gil said, well, murmured really. “Okay, um, thanks anyway, in that case I’ll leave you to get the shop ready for the day.” Seung-gil said, turning his back to Yuuri and starting to walk away.

“No, Seung-gil, wait!” Yuuri called, “I can still get you your coffee, I’m mostly done with the preparations.”

“Okay, thanks. Can I have a med-” Seung-gil started to say, before he was interrupted by Yuuri.

“A medium black coffee, yeah, I know” Yuuri smiled at him.

“Does everyone know my order?” Seung-gil said, his disbelief in the situation clear on his face. He left the money for the coffee on the counter and asked to use the restroom. After being pointed in the right direction, he stood in front of the restroom mirror, trying to find some sense in what was happening.

Why did Phichit not mention that the shop was closed the whole time he’d been there? It must’ve been inconvenient for him, no? And just how much about him had Phichit said to Yuuri? Why? Why would Phichit even talk about him?

Seung-gil splashed his face with water, internally scolding himself for dwelling so much on these happenings. He didn’t actually care to know why Phichit hadn’t thrown him out when he could have, it was just weird, he probably just did that so that it wasn’t awkward for either one of them. And Phichit probably talked about so much that Seung-gil just happened to be one of the hundreds of topics.

Seung-gil walked out from the restroom and spotted Yuuri behind the counter kneeling down in front of the drawers, most likely restocking them or getting something from them. “Your coffee is on the counter to the side.” Yuuri said before looking up at Seung-gil “Oh, and, Phichit told me to make your drink in that cup, apparently he writes stuff on your cups and he didn’t want to miss a day or something like that.”

“He wrote it beforehand and left the cup with you for you to put my drink in?” Seung-gil said, the shock clear on his voice and face.

“Yep.” Yuuri said, amused.

Seung-gil picked the cup up and looked for Phichit’s writing.

Sorry I couldn’t be there today, hope you have a wonderful day! Don’t miss me too much ;)

Seung-gil let out a sigh of relief when he saw Phichit before going in the shop, he would not have been able to go in if it was Yuuri’s shift today as well.

“Good morning, Seung!” Phichit chirped. “I missed you yesterday.” He added with a wink.

“Hey, Phichit.” Seung-gil said, taking off his gloves and stuffing them in his pocket. “You could’ve told me that the shop wasn’t open yet, you know,” he added looking at Phichit pointedly.

“Yeah, I could have,” Phichit shrugged, “and you could’ve come in later when we’re actually open, now that you know. But since neither of us chose to do the alternative, I think it’s safe to say that neither of us cares that the shop is actually closed.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Seung-gil said, now leaning on the counter.

“Oh!” Phichit said, “I have your coffee ready.”

“You have my coffee ready?” Seung-gil repeated, with his eyebrows raised. “Are you trying to minimize the time you spend with me?”

“No!” Phichit exclaimed. “I’m sorry if you misunderstood! Why would I ever-” Phichit babbled before Seung-gil cut him off.

“Chill, it was a joke.” Seung-gil said, keeping his expression solid as usual.

“Oh.” Phichit said, rubbing the back of his neck. “That was stupid of me then.” He murmured.

“No, it was funny” and cute, Seung-gil added in his mind. He was getting more used to calling Phichit cute in his head.

It was silent for a while. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, quite the opposite really, with Phichit keeping his eyes on Seung-gil until he called him out on it.

“Is there something on my face?” Seung-gil demanded, snapping Phichit out of what seemed to be a trance and making him burst out laughing.

“No.” Phichit said, shaking his head. “It’s just that… You were smiling.” Phichit said, beaming.

“Was I?” Seung-gil said, all emotion fading away from his face. “I didn’t realize.”

“I should, um, make you another cup of coffee, it’s probably cold now.” Phichit said looking at the cup in Seung-gil’s hand.

“What, no, it’s still warm.” Seung-gil said, his brows furrowed.

“No, just, give me your cup, I’m gonna make another!” Phichit said, leaning over the counter to try and grab the cup out of Seung-gil’s hand.

“Why? It’s unnecessary and a waste of time.” Seung-gil said holding the cup away from Phichit, who now had a leg over the counter. Phichit lunged for the Seung-gil’s coffee, knocking it over in the process.

“Oops” Phichit said with a nervous chuckle. “I guess now I have to make you another.” He added with a bright smile, which was met by a deep frown from Seung-gil. Seung-gil bent over to pick up the cup from the ground after being assured by Phichit that he’d mop the floor before opening.

They were silent after that, the only noise being Phichit’s furious scribbling on a new cup. Seung-gil had to admit that it was an adorable sight, Phichit’s brows were furrowed in concentration, his hair had fallen over his eyes, and his tongue was sticking out in concentration.

Seung-gil averted his eyes when Phichit went behind the espresso machine to prepare Seung-gil’s drink. He really had to get a grip of himself, staring at someone due to cuteness wasn’t like him.

“Here you go.” Phichit said, hiding over the freshly made coffee to Seung-gil. Seung-gil’s eyes were on Phichit’s fingers, subconsciously awaiting the small contact that he was used to. However, when their fingers did touch, Seung-gil still felt as if he was caught off-guard.

“That really was a waste of time.” Seung-gil said, as he took the coffee from Phichit’s hand.

“Nah, it’s fine. It was a bad idea to make your coffee before you got here anyways.” Phichit said, waving his hand dismissively. “Well, have a nice day, Seung, sorry for making you wait for a new cup of coffee.”

“It’s okay, I wasn’t in that much of a hurry today so…” Seung-gil trailed off. “Have a good one, Phichit.”

“Thanks!” Phichit responded, smiling brightly, making the skin near his eyes wrinkly.

Seung-gil turned around, sipping his coffee. It was obvious that Phichit made him another cup to change what he wrote, nothing else made even the slightest sense. What had he written the first time that he wanted to change?

He paused outside the door, as he always did (it was almost habitual now), and read the familiar handwriting.

I knew you’d be cuter with a smile but damn…

Seung-gil felt his cheeks warm up, that had been happening a lot lately, as he hastily started to walk away from the shop.

For the next couple days, Seung-gil kept on going to the coffee shop every morning, growing more and more used to Phichit being the first (and sometimes only) human that he interacts with that day. Although, despite getting used to Phichit’s presence, he would still be caught off guard by the things Phichit wrote on his cups. And he still blushed at most of the things he wrote.

Talking to you (even if it’s only for one minute) is the highlight of my day. That was on Saturday and Seung-gil had actually waited for the shop to be open that day so there were other people and they hadn’t got to talk as much as they usually did.

The coffee shop was closed on Sunday and despite gradually feeling more desperate to see Phichit throughout the day, he couldn’t do anything.

I love hearing you say my name, was on Monday’s cup.

I really wish I could make you smile again, that was a sight to behold, was what Tuesday’s cup said.

You’re gorgeous, on Wednesday was the shortest message he got from Phichit, but also one of the ones that made him blush the most.

Thursdays, as he’d found out the week before, were Phichit’s off days, so to save him and Yuuri from the awkward conversation that they would have had, he went to the shop that was closer to him.

He’d told Phichit on Wednesday that he wouldn’t be going the the shop the next day, because he didn’t want him to leave a cup with Yuuri once again. It was just awkward for him and Yuuri, even if Phichit didn’t seem to care.

Seung-gil walked into the coffee shop, the bell at the door ringing as he opened it, making the thai boy behind the counter look up. “Seung! Hi! Good morning!” He said, with his signature bright smile.

“Hey, Phichit.” Seung-gil said in a much calmer voice than the barista. “You’re extra energetic today.” He noted.

“Yeah, it’s a nice day, isn’t it?” Phichit said with a smile.

Seung-gil shrugged as he said, “I guess it’s alright.” Phichit nodded at Seung-gil’s response, picking up a cup. He hovered over it with his pen for a couple seconds before writing something down.

“The usual, right?” Phichit asked and Seung-gil merely nodded in response. Seung-gil was slightly taken aback by the word, because even though he did technically have a usual, just hearing it like that was weird.

They were silent as Phichit made his coffee, usually they’d talk even if it was just small talk but maybe they both had other things on their minds.

“Your coffee is ready.” Phichit said, holding the cup out at Seung-gil. Was that a blush on Phichit’s face?

“Thanks.” Seung-gil said. Had he done something wrong? Phichit was a lot quieter than normal. Not to mention that he had barely looked at Seung-gil that morning. Especially after he finished writing on the cup. “Uh, have a nice day then. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He said before turning around and taking a step when Phichit grabbed his arm.

“Wait, um, could you maybe not wait till you walk outside to read it today?” He said, still not quite meeting Seung-gil’s eyes.

“What?” Seung-gil said, surprised. “You see me when I read them?”

Phichit nodded at that, finally raising up his head to meet Seung-gil’s eyes, making Seung-gil sure that the barista indeed had a blush on his face. “Yeah, I mean, you do read them right outside the door, so it shouldn’t really come as a huge shock that I’ve seen you when you’re reading what I write on your cup.” He said, before turning his face to the side again. “Anyway, just read it Seung.”

Was Seung-gil also blushing? Would that mean that Phichit had seen hi blush at his words before? Yeah, Seung-gil would definitely be blushing now. “If you want me to read it when you’re also here, why are you not just telling me? What’s the point of writing on a cup if I’m gonna read it with you next to me?” He said, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

“Stop questioning and just read it.” Phichit said. “Please…” Seung-gil thought he looked and sounded so vulnerable that he did as Phichit said and let it go, looking down at the cup.

I like you. Go out with me?

Seung-gil looked up at Phichit who was smiling expectantly, a little nervousness showing in his eyes. “Well?”

Seung-gil nodded a little at first, not being able to do anything else. “Yes,” he said, his voice cracking a little, making him blush even more than he already was. he cleared his throat before speaking again “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Phichit gave him the brightest smile Seung-gil had seen from him so far and moved his had from Seung-gil’s arm to his hand. “You’re smiling.”

Seung-gil was indeed, smiling. It was a feint smile, but it was there. “Well, I have a reason to now.”

There is very little in life that Seung-gil Lee likes. Phichit Chulanont, is one of them.

#yoi secret valentines #phichit chualnont #writing #submission

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heatherrdavis1 · 5 years ago

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Bitcoin Bull Flag Ethereum 2.0 Interest Rate Lumens Tracking XRP Banking & New BTC Whales

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Hello, everybody, you welcome back for another video. Hope you’re all doing well and that you’re all having an incredible day to start things off. Bitcoin’s price has risen over the nine thousand dollar mark or the second time in twenty four hours on Saturday. That day, bulls managed to push the price of the top cryptocurrency to nine thousand and ten dollars. But the price quickly rejected at the top of the bullpen, and it pulled back to eighty eight hundred support before making another attempt at breaking out. The break out brought the price of Bitcoin to nine thousand two hundred, and at the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price has pulled back to around ninety one hundred. I think it’s currently like ninety one oh five or something like that, to be exact, if you will, where traders are attempting to establish support on these shorter time frame. Traders will note that the breakout occurred on a slight spike in volume, but purchasing volume has now returned to the levels seen earlier in the day. A few possibilities could play out over the next few hours. Bitcoin’s price could consolidate between nine thousand two hundred and the Bull Pendant trend line, which is also aligned with a higher volume node on the V.P. v r at eighty nine hundred. This is, I guess at the moment major news when you click around where new crypto news or what’s currently trending bitcoin just surged past nine thousand. Here’s why analysts think more upside is imminent. Bitcoin reclaims key logarithmic growth curve as the case for upside grows. A lot of people are, of course, estimating that it could simply be I mean, it could be a number of factors we’ve actually seen today. I think a number of other stock markets have not been faring very well. A lot of other, um, futures in stock markets have also, I don’t use the word plummeted, but they’ve gone down a tad. They’re not as high as people expected they would be around this time, especially with a couple of other places around the world announcing that they were going to try to resume operations on the economy, as it were. Apparently, the optimism just completely isn’t fair. And on that news, we keep getting little spikes in Bitcoin’s price and therefore the rest of the cryptocurrency market also moves up. But it could also just simply be that we are getting closer to the having. I believe it is currently nine days, eight and a half days away, depending on how exact do you really want to look at it? And I think that’s also causing a huge amount of momentum and price as well. I was just reading something, talking about the actual how many analysts are kind of bullish, if you want to say that, on the entirety of the cryptocurrency market right now, just because of how close to having is to a Theorem 2.0. And therefore, there’s like this huge. Ball of energy, if you will, that’s in the air. That’s kind of a multi month optimistic move within the cryptocurrency market. So as it stands right now, yeah, the the the pullback that we had a couple of days ago where Bitcoin went from seventy seven hundred to nine thousand five hundred and back to eighty eight hundred peers is almost slightly, completely erased. We’ll see exactly how the rest of the day ends up going on, I assume mid day. By the time we start getting numbers from the futures markets within the states and other places, if they’re not faring too well, I mean, what kind of. We’ll see. We’ll have to see how things go, because as of right now, there’s still no clear indication if Bitcoin is currently correlated to all of these assets. Stocks go up. Bitcoin goes up. Stocks go down. Bitcoin doesn’t go down as far as people thought. Like a lot of people assumed the last couple of days, I believe it was Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as stocks were going down, that Bitcoin would also plummet back down. Lo and behold, it has not. Yeah, that’s the current Bitcoin crypto currency market price news. And without further ado. Next up, crypto analyst Adam Cochran has posted a massive one hundred and nine part tweet storm. You can read here. I don’t have it open. I was not. I’ll tell you right now, there was no way I was reading one hundred and nine tweets. It was not going to happen. Outlining his bullish thesis as the theory M 2.0 switch approaches, this update will launch the very long anticipated switch from PNW to P. S protocol to guard the Etherial Network. Cochran and a Herculean feat manually audited. K Ten thousand theorem addresses. In order to assess what’s going on with the network and where the money is flowing is takeaways are broken down into 32 separate items. However, we can be a bit more concise. Here’s part of his tweet right here. It says, At first glance, it seems like a theory. Supply is very centralized and thus dangerously subject to control and thus a cause for bearishness. Cochran fires back that much of that centralized stash is actually held in massive smart contracts, which exist because of the actual decentralized finance use cases that he theorem is servicing. Factoring in this or factoring this in. Okay. If your dream is also is almost exactly as centralized air quote, don’t go ahead and have a conniption in the comment section. If you dream is almost exactly as centralized as Bitcoin with about fifty six to fifty seven percent of all ether to Bitcoin going into the top ten thousand wallets the same. I think I also have a it has to be somewhere around here as well. I must have a chart. I think there’s also a chart somewhere. Nope. Not here somewhere else. So you don’t zone. Whereas Rosann. Where was I. Where was I going on? He finds that after compensating for wallets that are more than likely dead or lost for the ether wallets that are unlikely to stake their coins. Cochrane estimates that initial yields on a theory I’m staking could garner a juicy 12 to 17 percent per year. People are apparently noticing theory more value as Cochran also highlights the growing number of ether whales and that we we we we’ve been over that before. Remember the. The podcast I told you about a couple of days ago. I don’t know if any of you actually listened to it. Where they actually the guys had Vitaly Budarin on and they were talking to him and discussing the actual future upby Theorem 2.0. I was actually pretty happy that they were talking to him and discussing with him certain things that I had just assumed they would kind of tried to avoid. They were saying, well, you know, when everyone who has over 30 to eat their quick side note, a lot of people keep asking in the comments section, if you have less than thirty two ether, how do you steak? There will be staking pools. You’d better believe it. So at some point, if you have three ether, if you have 11 ether, if you have thirty one ether, you’ll be able to. I assume as this is how every other proof of state coin has worked thus far with the cryptocurrency exchanges, you’ll probably simply just be able to put that coins or those coins onto a cryptocurrency exchange and therefore you will receive money because you’ll be a part of a larger staking pool, which will then be that entire cryptocurrency exchange. So fear not if you don’t have thirty two ether. However, the the issue came up in the podcast, they were saying, well, you know, it’s one thing for someone to have 30 to ether, but they were talking about the the ETF. The Theorem Foundation. They said, well they have more than 32 ether. What happens if they decide to stake all of their coins and watch? They were pretty much asking about the decentralization of all of this that was going on. They were talking about the other corporations and entities and they said even potential world governments, which they also spoke about in the actual podcast as well, which was very great. They were discussing the actual future usage of it and they would need the actual testing. Of governments by governments. I’ll be theorem, and it came down to the fact that. Pretty much they’re not expecting rather the theory and foundation, I think, has stated that they won’t stake all of their coins and a lot of the other coins as far as the decentralization, because people are now looking through the numbers and saying, hey, this wallet has 18 million ether. This one has so and so. But they’re actually from cryptocurrency exchanges. So I think people are worried about the actual ideas of centralization as far as even like coin ownership’s within the market. But then again, like I said, we’ve also gone over that many other times before I decided to not have a tab or a real mention of it because I’m tired of that discussion. As far as like the I’m I have to have a tab up here somewhere about it. About the actual Bitcoin rich list. And how many people or how many few people actually own an entire bitcoin. And you kind of see as the wall that’s become fewer and fewer. There are certain while that’s out there that have over one hundred thousand to maybe potentially a million Bitcoin or thirty five thousand Bitcoin, you kind of get into that same exact discussion as well. So there was also the idea that apparently one of the podcasters was asking, he said, what do you do if an institution has been accumulating tons of etherial in mass? And when they can finally start staking, they use their stake to try and 51 percent attack the network and apparently their whole bunch of like attack vectors and all this other stuff that kind of like you’re you’re you’re decentralized yet is the word to attack the network. Because I think if you perform a 51 percent attack or attempt to perform a 51 percent attack on Bitcoin, I think it costs you like an enormous amount of money to be able to try to create one additional Bitcoin. It’s not worth it. I think Vitale’s said even on a theory, and when it goes to 2.0, it’d be like a ten fold of this. So it’s like you trying to is like you spending thirty five thousand dollars to rob someone of five dollars. It just not completely worth it. So I guess even the more so, the main takeaway of this entire article is that calculations are being done very rapidly. Because I said that I believe that this was going to be a major factor. I think there’s a reason why institutions are starting to pay a lot more attention to a theorem, especially when we didn’t hear anything about a theorem for a while. The amount of it we spoke about this about a week ago as well. The amount of theorem that’s actually locked in decentralised finance projects is already massive. There’s a huge amount of ether just completely locked away in these projects. You have to be locked away in order to be able to use a product. Cool. Got it. Amazing. This is only going to continue as it cerium rises in price. The hiree theory rises in price. The more attention that it ends up getting in the way people and a building their platforms on top of it. Every theorem can then handle thousands, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of transactions per second as the more updates and that rolling out. You gonna start hearing more about this as well. So it’s a really weird, perfect storm. You have tons of material locked for a long time, presumably, if not years, inside of defined projects. You have the increase of transactions per second. You have the amount of people who are going to be moving their project onto the Ethiopian block chain should it be able to do these quicker transactions and therefore, more ether will be flowing back and forth as people are using the transaction fees. You have the staking the issuance rate dropping B, just this dissemble amount of ether that’s going to be locked away or staking and just the actual DFI is going to be probably over 50, 60, 70 percent. We’re gonna start getting those numbers when the actual update rolls out. And then you can also only assume, oh, this was all seasons ago. Yeah. Remember? So remember what I was saying when we were talking about the actual podcast a couple of days ago before I had even heard the podcast. I said it’s interesting because they are introducing a new like burn feature into the actual theory and block chain ecosystem, whatever you want to call it. So the same exact way if I’m sending you or you’re sending me X Arpey, a small portion of that SRP is actually burned as a transaction cost and is kind of poof goes away forever. Like this is why X Arpey in this way is deflationary. So they were asking Battalia. They said, what are the new proposals for this? And he was talking about the actual burn mechanism for your theory, M 2.0. And it pretty much goes if you are paying a transaction fee, let’s say your transaction fee, just a random number is a dollar. And as a transaction fee is going through the network, it’ll be split in half. Half of that 50 cents will then go to the miner as a thank you for validating the transactions in the other 50 percent will simply be burned. So he was saying the idea is, is that if their calculations are correct and the amount of people who they assume will be staking their ether on the network because they don’t assume that there’s going to be any point where 100 percent of the ether is actually going to be steak’s you’re going to have it inside of this project. You’re gonna have this out of this. You gonna have an all the defined things. You maybe have a good portion of it actually locked up in the actual thinking procedure. But people are going to want their money to also be liquid. So therefore, there’s going to be a lot the the new issuance rate of ethereal roughly depend on the amount of people who are staking. If you don’t have tons of people staking and therefore there would be a lot less coins actually being created. And this is where we got that number that there’ll be anywhere between, he said, anywhere between one hundred thousand to two million ether per year. But it’s estimated that is going to be far below the two million, if not below a million. He said if the issuance rate is low enough and their current estimates of how many people are actually going to be staking their coins to be able to creating new coins with the burn mechanism happening with the newer and quicker, faster transactions and more people and governments actually building on top of a theorem. That, my gosh, I’m out of breath. That ethereal supply will actually begin to decrease because, yeah, because of all the things I just said. The burn rate will accelerate faster because of all the transactions happening back and forth in the actual creation of ether. The by the end of years. A year. The next year after that, we’ll be able to see that. Ethereal supply actually went down even after new coins are being created. Finally got there. I hope you all understood that. I really hope you all understood that because it made so much sense in my head. And as I was saying the other day, I was like, that’s really weird. Why would they be introducing a burn mechanism? The I they’ve they’ve gone through all the calculations. It’s that if you can keep theorems, supply completely steady mathematically and some sort of waste, even with the new issuances and the actual burning of the coins, you still make a flat line trend of exactly how much ether there actually is out there. But the demand increases in theory as price goes insane. If you lower the issuance rate from two to zero point six and more but is being locked away and even more of it is being locked away and defined projects. And also on this taking it kind of leads to this. I mean, it was I mean, what was the name of the podcast? I remember it, I remember at all. I’m pretty sure if you have a podcast app, you can search like I even just search for Vitaly Budarin, like the last week. You should find it. I can remember exactly what the podcast was called, but was it like P v.. Anyway, if if initial yields of staking ether are going to be 12 to 17 percent. I mean, I don’t think I mean, like, if you have one hundred thousand worth of ether, you could be getting seventeen thousand dollars. Worth of ether, essentially completely for free. Even 12000. That’s that’s a thousand per month. I mean, I’m I’m expecting everything to go insane. We keep getting tons of ethereal news. Once again, what it all comes down to is the actual update. Let’s move on. Next up, lumens is in the news. If you had any inkling that using products on these stellar block chain could be done privately. Think again. The Stetler Foundation announced on Thursday that it has partnered with block chain forensics firm Elliptic to detect and prevent illicit transactions on the Stello network. Sounds like fun. Elliptic, backed by Wells Fargo, works with a number of big players in crypto, but its role within crypto is not without controversy. Nevertheless, Steller is going to be OK. Sellers joining its growing list of How Was I wish joining Steller is joining its growing list of partners. There is a little chart right there. For some reason, Elliptic analysts will engage in ongoing dark web research. OK, identification of money laundering patterns and the collection of high quality data linking lumens accounts to known entities. Sounds like fun. The company said in a joint press release said the lumens is the cryptocurrency that powers a stellar block chain. I would have never guessed that I had. I thought it was Bitcoin shock the heck out of me. Dark Web research. I’m fairly certain. I mean, maybe there is with that one person. I don’t think anybody’s using lumens on the dark web. Just just, you know, just going to. Just kind of throw that out there, here’s the actual tweet right there. The organization’s announcement of a lipstick’s lumin transaction. And while its screening was unclear as to whether developers and firms building on steller would have a choice in having their operations tracked by Elliptic. In response, a spokesperson from the Steller Foundation told DECRYPT currently only lumens transactions will be monitored. Which is still terrible. Business is issuing other assets on this telo network will not automatically be monitored, but the infrastructure now exists for them to take advantage of a lipstick’s services, or pretty much if you want to be tracked. You can be tracked and I assume in the future you are probably not going to have a choice but to be tracked. I think this comes on the heels of the very long he’ll because it’s been a very long time since we’ve spoken about this of lumens, stellar partnering with IBM and I think a couple of other. There was another big name who they partnered with. And the only one that sticks out in my head is the is IBM because they’re IBM. And if IBM is using lumens to build their world, why are block chain system where things will flow through lumens or steller or whatever? One can only assume these transactions will have to be tracked. I did not foresee a future where Stellar was. IBM was using anything, any type of block chain in the transactions would not be tracked in some sort of way. So this is not surprising, but it’s a I don’t want to use the word disappointing. I don’t I don’t have any lumens. I don’t care about the project. I told you all that in 2000. Seventeen. And yet here we are once again. I assume that’s lumens will probably in some sort of way. I want to say a bright future. I assume they’ll be around for a while. You don’t partner with a company like Elliptic for no reason. They probably have a lot of partnerships or maybe some partnerships in the works behind the scenes stuff. They can’t simply disclose at the moment and are therefore trying to make sure that they are. Adequate enough for their partners, if that kind of makes any sense. This also then goes back to that same question of. Then burning the lumens high assume this was also done in an effort because they probably have a number of institutions who seen that they are working with IBM and therefore who are like, hey, we want to acquire some, but your supply is a little high. Anyway. Yeah, lumens is going to have transactions untracked now, which is so much fun, I love that. I’m sure we all love being under the magnifying glass all the time. And anyway. Let’s move on. In. Sure. News. The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the owners of Krypto funds that were held on a crypto exchange known as Quoin Gather. A small crypto exchange that was seized by the FBI in March of 2018. The seizure came months after the exchange had abruptly ceased operations during November 2017, prompting rumors to circulate that the platform had conducted an exit scam. If you are not around in August to December two thousand eight seventeen, I want to say count yourself lucky. It was. It was it was a very. It was. It was an awesome time. I was doing more traveling than I had ever done. I was extremely upbeat. I was I was more upbeat than I currently am. However, there were. Is the word egregious where an enormous amount of cryptocurrency scams all over the place. There were new crypto exchanges that were popping up daily and then three weeks later, they were gone. There were ISO’s that were making 15, 25, 30 million dollars. And then like a week later, the CEO is taking a photo of him on the beach. The Web site went down. This money completely disappeared. So there were a lot of things like this happening. A lot of crypto exchanges that we just will never, ever hear from again. Had tons of money on their exchanges, 30, 40, 60, whatever. One hundred, a couple of Bitcoin, millions of dollars on it. Poof. In a matter of seconds, the U.S. government is looking for individuals who may have a claim to the crypto holdings on the now defunct coin gather exchange a warren shows that the cryptocurrency is currently reside on a Dahla power edge server. Neither the value of the crypto held on the server nor the sum is being said or willing to be forfeited or disclosed by the Department of Justice. Individual seeking to claim cryptocurrency is held in the exchanges. Former server for former server server former have thirty five days to contact the Eastern District of Michigan’s Justice Department without having to read much further because it continues going. If you happen to be one of the people using quoin gather in 2017 and you lost your money. Well, this might be your chance to potentially get it back. And I said, like, I made a noise at the beginning of this article because they are this is not a first of all. There were many Web sites that were seized. During the course of 2017 and 2018. And we don’t get news about those coins being rereleased, so I just assume a lot of those are have gone poof. But this is I’m trying to silver lining it. This is nice that they’re, you know, willing to give people back their money because there have been other instances where they have simply just, like, auctioned it off. Yeah. Anyway, that’s that news, and if you used quoin gather, go get your money back. Next up, the popular messaging platform at Telegram is offering refunds to investors who participated in its one point seven billion dollar billion with A, B, i, c o in 2018, the ICAO initially promised investors it’s Graham Token and a launch date for its decentralized network supporting the digital asset. But the platform, the Htun the Telegram Open network reportedly ran and not enough. I mean, they were not a delay. They were they were smacked down by the FCC. Its latest launch date has now been pushed to April of next year. The ICAO met swift regulatory rebuke when the U.S. Exchange No. S.E.C. Securities and Exchange Commission moved to stop the Graham project last year and charged telegrammed with running an unsafe registered security sale, which was also complete nonsense because in a moment, according to a letter to investors on Thursday published on a Russian forum, Smart Lab Telegram’s, they said the project is on hold. I I’m going to assume an in indefinitely at this point. They said, unfortunately, in light of the recent U.S. District Court decisions, we are unable to issue grammes to you by the 30th of April deadline. Date Telegram’s says participants can now choose one of two refund options. They can either immediately claim 70 percent said that they can either claim 72 percent of their stake’s. Why? Why can I read today? Seventy two percent of their stakes. Or they can wait another year or 110 percent of their investment, which will include a 10 percent bonus. That’s a really that’s that’s actually quite interesting. There’s a it’s not a riddle. I forgot what it’s called. It’s the idea that someone imagine someone walks up to you and they say. I can give you one hundred dollars right now or you can wait five days and I’ll give you one hundred and fifty. People usually is really weird. People usually choose the hundred immediately because they want the the the immediate gratification of having the money. And most people don’t want to wait. I like the idea of waiting the extra days to be able to get the one hundred and fifty because the extra days waiting kind of don’t mean anything to them with what they could do with that hundred right now. Interesting. So, yeah, the. The land of the ice CEOs and their entire epic stories. They they they’re they’re just completely gone. We no longer hear about ISO’s unless it has something to do with the S.E.C. breaking them down, tearing them down, shutting them down. We now have Io’s. You realize you no longer hear about S T O’s. Those are probably not going to be a thing for. Ever again in some sort of way. If you were part of this. And you want your money back. You can get it now or you can wait a year, a year seems a little excessive. But I mean, you do. I mean, that’s a one hundred and ten percent is kind of a good incentive. But then you also have to once again think like, what could you have done with that money right now? Like, imagine you get the money back and you can invest it in crypto and make three, four or five times your money, as opposed to just getting an extra 30 something percent, 40 percent Jimerson. Back in your money. Yeah, it’s I mean, it kind of is what it is. The S.E.C. knew exactly what they were doing. But those of you who were not here, the S.E.C. waited until these things were going to be launched. And they told the companies the day before that they had done something illegal, like actually the day before, not not jokingly the day before. The S.E.C. had been looking at them for years as to what they were doing. The day before I was going to launch, the S.E.C. told them, hey, you’re doing something wrong and they shut the entire operation down. Anyway, yeah, that’s the telegram news. Singham Bank Segan, them signal Crypto Bank, which is the world’s very first digital crypto currency bank based out of Switzerland, has announced the integration of the world’s third largest cryptocurrency ex Arpey, where withdrawals, deposits, exchange and other banking services on Thursday. The signalmen crypto bank announced that it had successfully integrated SRP into its digital banking platform regulated by Fynn Ma, of course. And now users will be now able will well will now be able to better expand their crypto investment portfolio through SRP tokens the bank’s users can use of deposits from fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Swiss franc or Singapore dollars to purchase, store and trade ex Arpey crypto currencies. Additionally, customers can also boost their liquidity and fiat money by moving their SRP tokens into the deposit account. I have a shirt. Why not co-founder or known as you know, I’ll get Matteus embark loud at the partnership and any announcement by saying that REPL has shown promising growth prospects in recent years with over 300 banking and financial institutions under his belt. The whole concept of being able to send money anywhere in the world at low cost instantly is revolutionary. Cool. We normally and I guess it’s ironic in its own way. We normally don’t hear about the integration or the custody being of SRP through banks. Hardly ever. We normally hear that institutions and major banking corporations or whatever, Almira, are usually accumulating Bitcoin and most recently we get a lot of news about ether as well as very far and few in between. We hear about partnerships. But as far as the actual integration of withdrawal deposits, exchanges and other banking services for ex Arpey, very far and few between. I also there’s no news as well. If this bank also offers already Bitcoin. And ether. This is very cool. Let’s see how this ends up working out. We see I see the trickle of ripple SRP news is slowly beginning to return. There were a couple of months where we really had nothing. I’m not sure if it was simply the market downturn, if there was simply just maybe no news. A lot of non-disclosure agreements. But alas, they’re returning once again. The news is normally heavily focused on the top three coins. Sometimes you’ll get news about other coins kind of popping in. But even when you look around, they’re real. I mean, listen. There really isn’t a lot of news about other coins unless they shoot about like thirty five percent or something insane happens anyway. Yeah, that’s the SRP news. Congratulations to them for the integration. I also gave it to the end of this year. We’re probably going to hear a lot of banks discussing or openly stating that they’re going to also be supporting other cryptocurrency as well as far as, like the actual custody ing of or transferring of or depositing of, which is completely insane. If you’ve been here for years because banks used to hate us and now they all love us because they realize. Anyway, yeah. Let’s move on. And to finish things off, according to recent data, crypto participants known as Bitcoin whales have been steadily accumulating Bitcoin and not selling it since. Since Black Thursday, which happened on the 12th of March. I hate when people. So whatever, you know what I’m talking about. People keep trying to make this a thing and then it keeps popping up. No one on Reddit, on Twitter, on anywhere else is using the term Black Thursday except for people and articles. Unchained Data and block chain analysis firms indicate that the number of Bitcoin Wale’s with 1000 to 10000 Bitcoin or more on a single address has increased significantly. And the crypto world investors who hold a large number of digital assets are typically called Wale’s. There are almost all types of wells like Bitcoin, whales, ether, whales, Bikash whales, please. The definition of a Bitcoin whale would be a person or organization with around 1000 Bitcoin or more considered a small whale that I would have a. Here’s the actual list right here, I think is a even better one as we kind of scroll down on chain data from December 17th, 2018 shows. At the time, there were 91 addresses, 91 with ten thousand Bitcoin or more. Today’s statistics show there are now 106 addresses with ten thousand Bitcoin plus. And while that, you know, the ninety one from 106 doesn’t seem that significant, they have accumulated 10000 per address. That’s a lot of bitcoin. The data highlights that Wale’s with ten thousand bitcoin or more have grown by sixteen point four eight percent since 2018 on the 25th of February 2019. There were one thousand seven hundred and nine addresses with a thousand Bitcoin or more. Since then, the increase of smaller whales has been around seventeen point four percent. Similarly, on the same day, there were 100 addresses in the increase of one hundred and six, approximately six percent. Here’s the actual yeah here. This is what I was thinking of earlier. Here’s here’s the Bitcoin rich list. There are currently only three addresses. Three. That have anywhere from one hundred thousand to a million to a million Bitcoin. However, the bulk is always roughly around here. There are a massive amount of people who either have no Bitcoin or have up to around zero point zero zero one. And this is also a number that has also been increasing the last couple of weeks as well. People who are actively trying to at least accumulate and get an entire Bitcoin, because I think that’s usually the dream anyway. Yeah, it’s I mean, this is also something to be completely expected. If you expect a values asset to go up, you are going to start accumulating more. Dingess More so the. The conversational topic that the wealthiest people continue to accumulate massive amounts of Bitcoin and ether, and it has to do because money, if you see that ether is 200. And you are expecting to at least go back to fourteen hundred and you put in a million dollars while you’ve made seven million. If you start accumulating Bitcoin and you see it’s at eight, nine thousand, you expected to go to one hundred thousand. That’s ten times your money. So, yeah, it’s only logical. But it’s interesting to see because this in my mind is still going to play out to be something very dramatic. I said years ago that normal people would not be told to get into Bitcoin, into the cryptocurrency space. When we start hearing more, this is why I was very excited a couple of months ago and even last year when we started hearing more information about retirement funds and retirement accounts, getting into cryptocurrency, which we did last year, is going to be very significant because it’s only when normal people are told to start. Yeah, allocate a portion of your money into Bitcoin. They’re not being told this right now. Bitcoin, whenever it’s on the news, is highly speculative. They make sure to talk about whenever there’s a very huge drop, when Bitcoin hits over 50 to 100 thousand per coin, we’re going to start seeing banks and institutions talking about that. They’re opening up. Like Bitcoin retirement accounts or like some type of a custody thing for their customers, for the long term proposed growth of where all of this is going to go. But at that point, if people are having an issue trying to accumulate an entire Bitcoin at 9000 per coin, imagine that one hundred thousands of these people will only have five hundred dollars worth of Bitcoin and is during this time. Right now, the amount of people who are accumulating these coins in mass, once again, very finite assets. There’s not really a lot to go around. So the rich and even you share part of this as well, making sure that you accumulate as many cryptocurrency assets as possible because you understand where all of this is going and therefore you want to be way ahead of the curve. But, yeah, it’s all fascinating to think about. I’m waiting for. Normal people to get into the market. But at that point, Bitcoin will be so large, like what if we if we ever do end up hitting half a million dollar Bitcoin? It is going to seem like a complete dream to billions of people on the planet to be able to even have fractions of a Bitcoin and going to have to have that awkward conversation with your friends. Oh, yeah, man. Well, that’s crazy. I wish I also had some bitcoin. Good thing I do not. Well, that is crazy. It is going to be really uncomfortable in a couple of years. And I’m telling all of you, I could I can see it clear as day. If Bitcoin hits tons of money. Your friends go. So I’ll even put it to you this way. And like the nicest way. I remember getting into Cryptome, I remember getting into all these other things, and I had a couple of friends who started getting into Bitcoin and into ether years ago, and I remember them. I don’t know if they were bragging to me or what it was that day. I remember one of them told me he had zero point zero one Bitcoin. And he kind of was like, yeah, have more Bitcoin than other people. But he kind of like made it seem like he had more than me. And also other people I remember somebody had bought like a tenth of an ether. And he was also kind of bragging. So get ready for those people in about five to ten years who are gonna be telling you, man, I have I have I have five x Arpey. Isn’t that crazy? Going to be like, wow, that’s. Yeah. You have a whole five x Arpey. That’s. That’s something you have. You have an entire aether whoof. All right. I mean, don’t break the bank now anyway. You all know what I’m saying. I know what’s going to happen and I’m done rambling on, so. Yeah, let’s go. As always. A very special thank you. Well, not yet. Our special thank you to my patriotic supporters. All right. I hate that when I unlock my phone, all the messages start flying in at the very top and then I can’t read anymore. Very special. Thank you to my Patriot supporters. Professor Walli from Gunbower University, Utopia. Five, six, nine. Yoshihara out a Moonman hi x. Arpey, the Pothen Joshua Viniar and Martin Steuer Tongala load song. Lolo knows Romo John Saurus in the animal. Rita a biblio phobia bare bones mining. Todd Mollis Adam Gracing Maham Ronie Massive in Thailand. Brady Nields Gerrish Niner Wyse Night Owl two for two to the World Crypto Joe Banquo Network Crypto Artist Cold 3D. Make a list one with one piece of a love Damiens set Zuna Nick Kanigher which you did there. Vlad the Impaler Cryptome. Be a shipmate. Where am I? Praksis. Nick Manjula, Brody, Anthony Charles, Jim Garner. Fox minting coins. Really vicious everyday encounters like day. Yes. To crypto body. Make boldface anytime fitness mongst. Warner staff are medic 17. Make me a cake ticker a motto NESA on Crypto with Lino Prioleau. Michelle you are l and hold on, I have to sneeze. Thank you all very, very much for your support. Thank you to everyone who is a member of the channel. Thank you to everyone who is a clicker of affiliate links. You’re awesome. I’m I’m very tired today. Sorry if I sound fatigued or if I felt like I was like rushing through it. I don’t I’m like my my brain’s kind of all over the place. Like, I know that feeling. Like when you sleep for too long, you have that like that fogginess. Yeah, I I’m I’m pretty sure I slept for, like, a bit too long and my brain is kind of like all over the place. Even looking at the screen is like annoying. Like I’ve been like looking away from the screen as I’ve been talking to all of you at the moment. Where is it? There we go. Bitcoin is currently up by three point four percent at the time of me making this video. It is at nine thousand one hundred dollars. Ethereum is up by one point six X. Arpey is up by three point to like COIN is up by four point seven or four point seven seven. No actual idea as to why. He theorem classic is up by 12 percent. Sure, maybe as the day goes on, we’ll get some type of news as to why this is happening or maybe someone else in the comment section can scream at me and then enlighten me as to how I don’t know what’s happening with ethereal classic and therefore. Yeah. Tripto dot com chain. I mean, a lot of these coins. It does. I mean, it could also be nonsensical. Like Dogecoin is also going up and is like a a quintillion dogecoin. Anyway, it’s nice to see the market going up, especially on a Sunday, which doesn’t typically happen. Most people kind of stray away from the markets until Monday, but maybe there’s something happening that we just don’t know about. Maybe something is going to take place or it could just simply be a future optimism for everything that’s going to be happening over the next couple of months. Either way, it’s all incredibly exciting. I do hope that you all enjoyed. You all are having a great day, a great morning, a great afternoon, a great evening, wherever you are, whatever you might be, I do hope that is absolutely fantastic. Thank you all once again for watching and or listening. And I will most certainly be talking to you all soon. See you.

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scottmapess · 5 years ago

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Bitcoin Bull Flag, Ethereum 2.0 Interest Rate, Lumens Tracking, XRP Banking & New BTC Whales

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