Too many people have given Elon a pass. Don't give him a pass.

He's a marketer, not a founder or an engineer. He didn't found PayPal or Tesla; he bought into them early. He's good at selling narratives and equity valuation for perpetually unprofitable companies.

Everything for him is a narrative. His green revolution was a narrative to sell more cars and get more subsidies. His bitcoin purchase was to gain appeal among bitcoin/crypto people in a bull market. And he shilled doge like a dumbass. His SpaceX narrative is to get money from the government.

His rooftop solar thing was an outright scam; the technology isn't ready and went nowhere because of that. His full-self-driving-in-an-intermediate-term timeline was a scam, and is going nowhere because of that. He makes scams to draw people and capital in, because for him it's all about narratives and equity valuation.

And then he dug unproductive holes, suggested unproductive hyper-tubes, built meme flamethrowers, for what? It's a narrative, not a business. None of this is real productive shit to make peoples' lives better.

His latest "we need free speech" narrative was a scam too. He tapped into something real, which is what marketers do and why it kind of worked. Yes, we need free speech. Yes, Twitter had censorship issues. He saw that and jumped on it maliciously rather than productively.

But what did he replace it with? He replaced it with arbitrary journalist censorship about his private jet, arbitrary censorship of Substack, selective Twitter Files release, won't talk seriously about any of his China connections because Xi Jinping fucking owns him economically there like Jack Ma, has his balls firmly in his grasp, etc.

Elon's playing the narrative, the anti-woke meme of the day. He's a master meme-momentum-player. Don't fall for it.


A 'banned bookshelf' at a Houston public high school flies below the radar
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1222539335/banned-books-high-school


#Utah would rather repeal #socialmedia age check law than defend it in court
https://reason.com/2024/01/29/utah-would-rather-repeal-social-media-age-check-law-than-defend-it-in-court/


Imagine a future dictator using this to keep Americans from escaping

https://void.cat/d/JJkjqsXvq6eGyfxeKnNRdh.webp


"In our society, we don’t rape people who rape. We don’t torture people who torture. That’s because we believe that the integrity of the law means we have to do better than the worst offenders in our society."

 - Bryan Stevenson
Equal Justice Initiative


"How to Stop Doomscrolling" from the podcast Science Weekly.

https://share.harkaudio.com/GfJoLhHhzp6uXJaQ6


RIP 😿

https://void.cat/d/3j3PXa8W4jL1E1kB35M2d2.webp


Life in the compost heap of the industrialised mono-cult
https://neuroclastic.com/life-in-the-compost-heap-of-the-industrialised-mono-cult/


Scientists create ‘OpinionGPT’ to explore explicit human #bias — and the public can test it
https://cointelegraph.com/news/scientists-created-artificial-intelligence-opinion-gpt-explicit-human-bias-test

#artificialintelligence #ai


Breaking: #NSA style mass #surveillance in #Switzerland

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonMail/comments/1930vnh/breaking_news_nsa_style_mass_surveillance/


2023 in two headlines

https://void.cat/d/3b3GG2DirDvbjdykLKSKBa.webp
https://void.cat/d/J2SWRJzfajN4yvPnX7GLzZ.webp


Governments spying on Apple, Google users through push notifications -
https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/governments-spying-apple-google-users-through-push-notifications-us-senator-2023-12-06/


The democratic power of the Risograph
https://hyperallergic.com/856227/the-democratic-power-of-the-risograph/


Up to $1 billion stored in early Bitcoin wallets may be at risk due to "Randstorm" vulnerability
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/single/randstorm


beware
https://boingboing.net/2023/11/12/court-rules-that-automakers-may-store-your-texts-and-calls-without-explicit-authorization.html


Just how dodgy are cheap USB chargers anyway?
https://hackaday.com/2023/11/03/just-how-dodgy-are-cheap-usb-chargers-anyway/


every so often i have a craving for this


So TSA is utterly useless, as I've long suspected. Someone at PDX will hopefully be fired over this. It's time to do away with this security theater that fails to keep a gun out of a carry-on.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/wa-state-senator-arrested-in-hong-kong


"Stop resisting, Stop resisting!" is one of the most instantly recognizable phrases of the new American century. When you read the words, you can probably still hear them shouted in your head, the echoing memory of a generational trauma, the indelible recollection of the moment that the citizen became subordinate to the state.


It's feeling like you have no control over your life and no hope of making things better that make people stupid and lazy. Quite to the contrary, the one thing you don't have to do at all is force people to innovate or risk. Its base human nature. We have a deep, innate need to go do something and be a part of something.

And you are still missing the most important and inescapable causality:
IF people don't innovate and produce, then the money doesn't increase in value.

Remember the money is NOTHING. Its just a record keeping system that track who contributed what into the economic pool. There is zero world where everyone does nothing and hoards money and we all get infinitely rich or have all things provided for us. The *money* does exactly zero part of the job of making wealth. The wealth is all the stuff and all the production. Money merely acts as a positive feedback tool for distributing that wealth (only when it isn't cheated, of course).

You cannot get wealthy hoarding and doing nothing. The only wealth in the world is genuine knowledge, genuine production, and genuine innovation. Money doesn't just magically grow in value. It grows because *the real wealth grows,* and the money simply reflects that.


“Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” - Edward Snowden


“The War on Drugs is over. Drugs won. It's time to stop wasting money, destroying lives, grinding up the Bill of Rights, and giving greater and greater power to the jackbooted thugs, in an unnecessary and futile attempt to enforce one group's ideas about what chemicals and vegetables some other group ought to manufacture, cultivate, distribute, purchase, possess, and consume. Repeal the drug laws, and prices will drop a thousandfold, driving most participants out of the business.” - L. Neil Smith


Chestnuts 🌰 in the air fryer: unbelievably perfect 🤤🤤

#nostr #cookstr #plebchain #cookchain https://video.nostr.build/24ef06775b27c21c26bfc7f1a6470ae74394420eff7b516bc432f293c24e4e49.mov


Deconstructed: Hijacked Hope: Why a Decade of Mass Protest Backfired

Episode webpage: https://shows.acast.com/deconstructed/episodes/hijacked-hope-why-a-decade-of-mass-protest-backfired

Media file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/deconstructed/e/651f56c28e657c0011bbda74/media.mp3


Scientists Find an Awesome Practical Use For Ping Pong Balls
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-find-an-awesome-practical-use-for-ping-pong-balls


33889:1cb0ebecfbe8e291d46c4e082df1e6a183bb321245ef29df5e2703f84b1d86e1:AI generated random images


“Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.  It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage - the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.” - Ayn Rand


Each note you write, you are giving the world a piece of yourself.


new feature just dropped.

Like free sats? Want to get future Satograms? Add yourself to the list.

https://satogram.xyz

https://void.cat/d/EgzPkWAy2hANtbLRkMvXHL.webp


Airports are like a scenario of communist dystopia.


“This is the gravest danger that today threatens civilization: State intervention, the absorption of all spontaneous social effort by the State; that is to say, of spontaneous historical action, which in the long-run sustains, nourishes and impels human destinies.” - Jose Ortega y Gasset


“The gold standard would keep you from printing money and destroying the middle class. Every country where you have runaway inflation, there's no middle class. Mexico, there's no middle class, you have a huge poor class, and a lot of wealthy people. Today we have a growing poor class, and we have more billionaires than ever before. So we're moving into third world status.” - Ron Paul


Earthjustice just write a report on Bitcoin mining in Texas full of factual errors and already debunked claims.

So I debunked it.

https://batcoinz.com/rebuttal-of-earthjustice-report-of-bitcoin-mining-in-texas/

Looking forward to the day this is no longer necessary.


“I don't want to live in a world where everything that I say, everything I do, everyone I talk to, every expression of creativity or love or friendship is recorded. That's not something I'm willing to support, it's not something I'm willing to build, and it's not something I'm willing to live under.” - Edward Snowden


This is why we #bitcoin https://image.nostr.build/5d49b7485598b8af672f3535146fd8781c3aa2c94267546ef30e8e14e27e91a1.jpg


good morning cats


Nostr & ZBD Social will be perfect for experiencing the beauty of art!

We look forward to sharing more about Gesso as we get closer to launch 🎨🚀

Meanwhile here is a little weekend teaser for you all 🎉

Join our waitlist from profile bio ✅

https://youtu.be/fbwExe7DD28


1.800.000 Artists globally are unbanked and unable to sell their masterpieces. Gesso will bring their art to the world!

https://i.ibb.co/yftpG2n/gesso-unbanked.jpg


I learned a few important things early in my career.

First: If a company tells you they’re like a family, they’re not.

Second: When they say they care about you, they don’t.

Third: If they say “We’re all in this together,” you’re on your own.

Thank your for coming to my TED Talk.


The internet was so cool before go*gle

I feel sorry for the youths that didn’t get to experience it


a win for privacy, data security, and free speech
https://reason.com/2023/09/19/federal-judge-blocks-california-online-age-checking-law-as-unconstitutional/


The inanity of the SEC 'Stoner Cat' action
https://www.coindesk.com/consensus-magazine/2023/09/14/the-inanity-of-the-sec-stoner-cat-action/


“The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free.” - Julian Assange


It was public square, dive bar, office water cooler, nightclub, and philosophy department all rolled into one. And you never knew who you were dealing with, and when those various "places" would interact.


The desire to label everything and place everyone into a rigid box is what causes the most division. One can be a diehard bitcoiner and still champion the values of economic or social justice. This is how we bring more people in, not by insulting them or saying things about them that aren’t true. People should try listening more and soapboxing less.


“And thus we see the government is at once both protector and predator. It is not that governments begin in virtue only to end in sin. Government begins by protecting some against others and ends up protecting itself against everyone.” - Robert LeFevre


“The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.” - H.L. Mencken


“Libertarians see the individual as the basic unit of social analysis. Only individuals make choices and are responsible for their actions. Libertarian thought emphasizes the dignity of each individual, which entails both rights and responsibility. The progressive extension of dignity to more people — to women, to people of different religions and different races — is one of the great libertarian triumphs of the Western world.” - David Boaz


“Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.” - Mark Twain


This is strong evidence that nostr:npub1a2cww4kn9wqte4ry70vyfwqyqvpswksna27rtxd8vty6c74era8sdcw83a‘s thesis that the difference in the speed of settlement between commodity money and credit money was gold’s downfall as money is correct.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read McCulloch v. Maryland. Certainly it was before Bitcoin was even invented. I’m going to have to reread it.

https://hls.harvard.edu/today/mcculloch-v-maryland-two-centuries-later/ https://image.nostr.build/77023f1c3aab61ad95b18af3ee831930383a5c62b235eb21a14ba24a799b670d.jpg


50 years ago today CIA overthrew Chile's Salvador Allende and instituted a reign of terror under Augusto Pinochet

So much for spreading freedom

Recordamos el día como hoy, hace 50 años, la CIA estadounidense derrocó la presidencia elegida popularmente de Salvador Allende en un golpe militar, en nombre de la "libertad", instauró un reinado de terror en Chile


deleted


Good evening Cyberpunks ⚡

Today, as we mark the memory of the 11th of September, an event that shook the very fabric of humanity, we must not close our eyes to the countless narratives of pain and perseverance that don’t have a date on our calendars. A vast tapestry of nations has experienced anguish and loss — stories untold, memories buried deep.

But are we not all the same flesh and blood, bound by shared dreams and aspirations? Every corner of our world has seen suffering at the hands of the few who seek control, power, and dominion. Every tear shed, every life lost, regardless of the land it occurred upon, is a testament to the sacrifices made, often in the shadows of secrecy and silence.

To remember only one day would be to forget the countless others. For every act of subjugation, there exists a story of resilience. For every freedom taken, there’s a spirit that refuses to be caged. We, the collective humanity, are the sentinels of our own history. Let us never be blinded by our grief, but rather be illuminated by our unity.

In a world fragmented by borders and beliefs, let us remember not just one day, but every single moment when a soul cried out for freedom. As we honor those lost on this day, let us also uplift the memory of all who have suffered in silence.

[807190]


Pretty based class description for a state school

https://image.nostr.build/705c935216ce146b3a60eb0872b09c48bcd9539b8aa6e1f3d20414b401c702f4.jpg


Imo, people are too concerned about mining centralization. The physical ownership and operation of mining rigs is pretty decentralized (even the big miners are a small % of the network).

I would like to see a bit more mining outside of North America, and I’m also supportive of efforts like Stratum V2 to provide further decentralization assurances for transactions. So there are opportunities for improvement but the incentives generally make sense.

On the other hand, what I don’t see talked about enough is supply chain centralization. The production of the chips themselves has a lot more centralization to it. This is true for most advanced semiconductors in general (and thus is a geopolitical issue) but is of particular concern for a decentralized protocol.


Repeal USA PATRIOT Act

Repeal REAL ID Act

Abolish Homeland Security

Prosecute Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney for war crimes


This really is the worst. Instagram started the trend with their hideous "log in or else" flow. Then Twitter and reddit went to insanely privacy-hostile API changes instead of simply requiring a proof of work or anon payment. Even some major nostr relays seem to be doing Tor blocking now (damus? Not sure, but I get a ton of errors connecting to certain relays via Tor.)

Platforms have become so fearful of bots/spam/scraping (or rather pretend to be fearful, so as to justify blatantly commercial and anti-social decision-making) that they've totally destroyed the open access model that a functioning freenet depends on.

This is the main reason I want to see "unowned" protocols succeed. Jack has it right: we're at a turning point.

nostr:nevent1qqsd0vg2qvd63qsrlravfujy5ret8pzeke59hxlwhzx4v0n0r0paa3qpzpmhxue69uhkummnw3ezuamfdejsyg8h9rv7decysdvwwzfs7h9xfvyhwuxe38xds6z5lescak5u3gupqcpsgqqqqqqs9pjua5


I’ve always been amazed that people go cashless, meaning they literally walk around and even travel without cash, and just rely on cards to pay.

Credit and debit cards are centralized and can be shut off or denied for all sorts of reasons, or can run into technical issues. BTC/LN is better because it’s decentralized, although it still needs power+internet and merchant acceptance. Cash as physical bearer asset money is great. Of course I wish cash was redeemable for something sound, but maybe in the future that’ll be the case again. In the meantime it’s good to have a few meals or taxis or hotel rooms worth of cash on hand.

I always have a diverse mix of digital and physical payment methods on hand, so I never get caught unable to pay.

So far in life I have only had one instance where I couldn’t pay. I was at a restaurant in Cairo a few years ago and their card machine/connection was down, and were only accepting cash. I had physical US dollars but they were part of a bigger corporate restaurant chain and so didn’t have the flexibility to accept them. My husband normally carries Egyptian currency but didn’t have any on him that day, and since he carried it, I previously did not. Neither did our friend that was with us. So we had to go on an awkward search for an ATM for a while and then come back and pay. And from that point I iterated, so I always carry Egyptian currency in Egypt as well as my other methods. And it has come in handy a bunch of times, when my husband needs some spare cash for tips or something I always have a little stockpile ready to go since I am a stickler about always having a certain amount whereas he is more flexible.

I always have a kind of “prepare for everything” type of mentality and like to be in control of my situation, and thus always have like backups for my backups in various contexts, including payment or being able to access various types of value anywhere, even when such preparation is not really needed.


If you haven’t thought about how precious your time is lately, today’s a good day to remember and do something that brings you joy.


🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

https://boingboing.net/2023/09/06/dumpkin-spice-wet-wipes-will-make-your-butt-smell-like-a-pumpkin-spice-latte-if-thats-a-thing-you-want.html


yikes

nostr:nevent1qqsq9xk42xzd6rcchlw0ts3r9s7s7zgcl2xudmkdejf5qnq0vrhm2sspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfdupzqx78pgq53vlnzmdr8l3u38eru0n3438lnxqz0mr39wg9e5j0dfq3qvzqqqqqqywzprdk


Do not drive new cars
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/09/connected-cars-are-a-privacy-nightmare-mozilla-foundation-says/


TPB51 - Using Your Voice to Amplify Stories of Perseverance with Ayelen Osorio (nostr:npub1rscuek38p87xeawmpg9ssump8cjkgmz2j3rhnha4artvh0xjacwq9upeqk) is live now! In this episode we discuss:
- Ayelen's work via "Notes from the Margin"
- The Power of Storytelling
- Human Rights & Financial Freedom

https://zurl.co/5KCd