113 - Mediterranean spring
🇪🇸 We had great weather over the weekend but the rest of the week was much cooler with Monday, Tuesday and Friday even being rather damp. So, there you have it: it's not always sunny, blue sky here - that's spring weather for you!
With the damp and cooler weather this week I had plenty of time to get back into my development projects and even rewatched a few classic movies - read more about these below.
On Tuesday, to get out of cold and rain the rain, V and I went along to see the Tattoo exhibition at Caixa Forum. It was an interesting exhibition to visit, even if it is still beyond me why people would want to do this to themselves. I am not quite sure why this was running here - as always I am looking for the motives and motivation behind public events. If you know or have ideas, let me know!
Catalina market is a great place to have a snack lunch with local beer and tapas. V loves to go shopping there for fresh meat and vegetables. There is a great selection and we do like to support local small businesses everywhere we go.
Wednesday we had Tai Chi outside in the bright sunshine - it was certainly quite fresh (10 degrees). It is a small class every week with a few regulars and us. In addition to all the Tai Chi benefits we get to practice our Spanish and enjoy the facilities at the Tennis club!
Thursday the weather also rather pleasant and we had a good day out and about around Palma. I expect that we will be doing a few trips around the island in May and June.
Friday was also a busy day for us - more on that next week!
Movies of the week
Monday and Tuesday the weather here was fairly grim - rather like in the UK so I had time to rewatch a few rather good movies. All of these have quite some subliminal and other messaging for those who want to see. Given what happened after these movies came out, you ought to really wonder about a few things, especially if you are awake to the current situation.
Firstly, The Truman Show (1998). I cannot believe that I have not watched this since it came out, some 26 years ago. How about you? How much did you remember? If you watch it again now you will be surprised by what you see.
The Flammarion is a famous engraving created in 1584 by Flemish engraver and cartographer Johannes de Beer. The engraving depicts a celestial map that includes various constellations, planets, stars, and other celestial bodies. At its center lies a representation of Earth surrounded by water, with a man gazing through the edge of the universe, observing the workings of the cosmos beyond.
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."
- Genesis 1:6-8 KJV
I must admit that there was quite a bit of dialog from Christof that I did not recall but once you are awake, the symbolism and clues are everywhere. What things did you spot? Let's discuss!
And then I rewatched The Sixth Sense (1999) from one year later. This might remind you of, and make you think about, some of the seemingly outlandish claims of David Icke in Children of the Matrix and in The Dream.
As we have discussed before, even if David is right on 10% of his claims you need to rethink a few things that are not at all what you have been told and taught.
Lastly, I rewatched The Matrix (1999). I have highlighted many times the predictive programming and subliminal messages that are hidden (in plain sight) in this movie. Every time I watch it I see new things that make me think.
Click below to listen and learn as Jason goes through 26 clips from the movie and for each one he gives his original insights and interpretation.
Well worth a watch and a listen - what is your interpretation? Anything he misses?
More in this issue
- Photo memories - another week in Palma de Mallorca
- Project Updates - Command Line tools, Cashu and quite some Bitcoin
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - post eclipse insights and Hereford by MLB
🛠️ Project Updates
This week I have quite a mix of topics to cover. Firstly some updates to my development environment that you may find useful if you are a developer. Next is fascinating hands-on tool that shows you how Cashu works. Then I cover a set of important Bitcoin development topics and I conclude with some thoughts on the post-halving environment.
Command line tools
This week I have been reconfiguring and optimising my development setup. You will likely recall that I have a setup that is internationally distributed with servers in various locations. I came across a couple of great power-user commands. Try them and you will be amazed.
zoxide - the replacement for cd!
One of the frustrations of using command line is how hard it is to navigate to far distant folders, especially if they are on remote and mounted devices. This little tool is amazing. Watch to the end to see the integration with fzf, fuzzy finder, to become an instant power user.
This is a great tool and the more you use it the more useful it becomes. It completely replaces making aliases for specific locations; aliases are hard to synchronise or replicate across machines and dev environments.
stow - why did I not know about this before?
Having multiple machines, one of the challenges is to keep all of the environments in sync. I have often suffered with environment things out of sync just because of the difficulties of keeping all the dotfiles aligned and under change control.
stow changes all that - watch the explainer and then: just do it! This is a full A-Z explainer, including the GitHub setup to allow you to keep everything in sync and under perfect change control.
Cashu - hands on with the protocol
@gandlaf21 is the Cashu developer that I first met when I was in Bangkok last year. He is doing extraordinary work with @calle and others moving things forward. This latest utility from him allows you to experiment with the production of eCash step by step with a mint. Fascinating - give it a try and click through the steps. So, now you know!
Bitcoin Optech
You will be aware of my enthusiasm for Bitcoin.review, the regular broad review of all that is going on plus deep dives on specific projects - hosted and facilitated by @NVK.
Well there is a level beyond all of that going into the workings of Bitcoin itself and all of the ongoing discussion on fixes and possible changes. There is a weekly summary of the most relevant topics and a corresponding newsletter you can follow. Listen to, and be amazed by, this recent update, links to specific noteworthy topics below:
- DSL for experimenting with contracts (1:24)
- Updating BIP2 (15:50)
- Discussion about resetting and modifying testnet (21:00)
- Implement 64 bit arithmetic op codes in the Script interpreter (37:19)
Great Consensus and much more
Yet another great meeting hosted by Stephan. This very much complements the discussion in Bitcoin Optech above. Stephan does a great job to make this material accessible to a wider audience. Listen and learn:
This discussion certainly convinces me on the need to revisit and progress on the GC Cleanup. What do you think? Supporting material here below:
- BIP Proposal: The Great Consensus Cleanup
- Delving post on Great Consensus Clean up Revival:
- Steve’s X thread on GCC:
Also - I do agree that there is a risk of MEV being Evil - though the risk seems less than with Ethereum and it still seems hard to pin down a good definition.
- BlueMatt's Blog: Stop Calling It MEV - it is MEVil!
Lastly - I agree with all the comments on Lightning. It is indeed THE tool that we have and it works well for what it does. There are gaps and there are people and projects that are filling those gaps and the current fee climate will certainly expedite those projects. Go Fedimint and Cashu!
Post Bitcoin Halving
Right on schedule, along with the Halving the Runes protocol got enabled with degens aplenty piling in to mint their Runes. This caused crazy fees to be due to the miners though as the week ends they are pretty much back to normal. All of this proves the demand for the reliable blockspace on the network and how Bitcoin is resilient.
I did listen to this interview of Casey, the creator, and whilst I do not normally listen to Bankless they sometimes do good interviews on interesting topics (of course with their ETH slant all around it) - this was one and it is worth understanding - even if you do not agree or do not yet know how this concludes. Casey is pushing the boundaries of what is possible entirely within the consensus rules and (happily) this new protocol is efficient, unlike the previous Ordinals and Inscriptions that will likely fade away or migrate to other chains.
One of my subscribers is an ardent supporter of BCH; why not welcome and encourage these implementations there and stimulate some innovation? Another suitable location for such things can also be the Liquid network which is altogether more open for innovation. Using these other networks for testing such innovations is the responsible way - I tend to agree with Matt K that such things should not be recklessly "tested" on the main bitcoin network. Consider the recent developments of Aqua and Boltz that have adopted a proper safe and prudent approach, leveraging Liquid.
Lastly - remember that the Halving does have an dramatic effect on the revenue for the miners (until/unless the price goes up) so if you want the best analysis of the mining environment, watch James' comprehensive analysis here:
Another interesting statistic that I was reminded of this week is that while these Public Company miners are important they only represent 28% of the global hashrate. It would be interesting to know who else is mining bitcoin - who do you think?
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire RSS feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Game Theory
This video is absolutely fascinating and very clearly presented. Who knew? Tit-for-Tat does seem to be the winning strategy and may even take over the world!
Successful Strategies demonstrate the following characteristics.. They are:
- Nice, Forgiving, Retaliatory and Clear
Make your choices wisely and hope that others do too!
Food for thought..
I am generally sceptical of AI produced or narrated videos, however some of them can be rather good and informative when produced by conscientious individuals who use them to optimise presentation of their own valid research rather than generate/hallucinate(?) content.
This is one good example that should open your mind and make you think.
It reminded me of when I was doing a similar exercise back in Madeira two years ago. I am glad that I did. It is never too late to do the right thing.
Right in the end?
Maverick is beginning to look smart and sound rather correct. You really ought to pay attention. Delivered in his inimitable style. Don't say nobody told you!
Geopolitically...
I'll let Neil explain his observations on the week's developments. Nothing that he tells you is good news but none of it is unexpected given that the lunatics are running the asylum. Not in my name - as we have discussed before.
Perhaps the long-anticipated financial event is nearing? WDYT?
🤔 Closing Thoughts
Continuing the pattern break - a couple of thoughts this week following the recent total solar eclipse. Suffice to say that all is not necessarily what it seems and there is lots that is hidden, sometimes in plain sight. Lastly, another one from MLB who uncovers findings from the UK.
An interesting find by Jon
Jon shares some interesting video and analysis from previous eclipses for which the original video from multiple independent photographers on a plane has become rather hard to find and for which the Empire propaganda sources only provide edited versions. That, alone, should make you think - why would they edit out what they have?
Dragons and fires - right on schedule
Listen as Jordan explains how you might well have anticipated many of the recent rituals - indeed he has been talking about these for quite some time. Perhaps you now begin to spot the recurring themes that he, Jason and MLB also talk about frequently?
Jordan goes on to discuss quite some other insights into likely developments in the financial world in the coming months - you may or may not agree - DYOR.
Hereford and more
Lastly MLB continues to spot things that everyone seems to have missed and he does ask some rather good questions. I think more and more people begin to have suspicions (at least) in those directions.
You might not agree with all his conclusions but it ought to be apparent that the official story is blatantly false. So, what you do think?
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No one can be told what The Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix
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You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me
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