137 - Next stop, Bangkok
🇬🇧 We had a pretty busy week with family commitments every day both here in Holywood and also in Belfast. Unsurprisingly, Grand Central Station is still not finished in Belfast so the trains are still useless and there are now extravagant roadworks closing down Sydenham bypass for days on end. If the Empire wanted to disrupt travel into, out of and around Belfast it would be hard to do it better than this.
We also had all sorts of challenges thrown in our way to disrupt our plans this week. Our son was supposed to visit us here last weekend but had to postpone at the last minute - this took quite some re-booking. Next, our accommodation in Bangkok for next week fell through and we needed to rebook that too. V is expert in all these things and she took these challenges in her stride. Everyone has some super-powers and this is certainly one of hers!
During the week I had an ad-hoc meetup with a few Holywood Bitcoiners. We had some good discussion and hands-on practice with Lightning, Phoenix, Fedi and peer-to-peer exchange. Remember that you can join in too: simplest way is to download the Fedi app and join the Bitcoin Principles community. You can send me a message (I am travellr#9746 ) in this app and I will send you your first bitcoin to welcome you and get you started.
We had quite a bit of sunny, if cold, weather this week I do not see that improving here any time soon. The leaves are turning red now and one windy night during the week seemed to remove about half of them from the trees. It's definitely time to seek out warmer climes.
This weekend our son is visiting (on his rescheduled flight) and we have a few family events planned, getting everyone together before we head off to SE Asia for the winter. As I post this he has yet to arrive and since he has fluffed up all of the last three flight bookings we made for him we are not out of the woods yet. Even so, we plan our family visits on Saturday and we will all go down to Dublin early Sunday morning. He will head back to Belgium while V and I are off to Bangkok and Hong Kong for a bit.
Book of the week
Being so busy this week I wanted something easy and fun to read so what better than revisiting Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's also quite pertinent now.
Written in 1992 (!) the story takes place in a post-crisis world where trust in governments and countries has broken down and the world is made up of territories controlled by various corporations - each of which has their own "passport" and rules. The inhabitants of the world spend their time "living" in the Metaverse (yes - he did coin that term). Of course there is some sort of virus that strikes and threatens to spread out of control - you can likely imagine that many things develop from here.
Something that I really loved was the "data dumps" and discussions with the librarian with references to ancient Sumerian culture and the Tower of Babel among many other things. Without spoiling things, you will be surprised and challenged to read and understand the implications of what he says. For those who just want the insights see Quinn's review below.
Interesting too is the role that librarians and historians play in so many books that I am have read - eg "Guards! Guards!" and Sazed the Keeper in "Mistborn - The Final Empire". You really ought to recognise and understand the importance of learning from wisdom of prior generations. This should be no news to anyone familiar with The Fourth Turning by Neil Howe (first published 1996) - summarised here by Roger Hamilton.
I probably cannot do the story justice - so, for a review I'll point you to Quinn's superb video review or this review by Michael Gold with nice imagery.
More in this issue
- Photo memories - Bangor, Crawfordsburn and Holywood
- Project Updates - technical wrinkles and medium term thinking
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - Sleep - there is more to it than you think
Bangor, Crawfordsburn and Holywood
🛠️ Project Updates
A couple of updates this week. Firstly some technical wrinkles that I hit on moving to my new phone and eReader. Secondly some medium to longer term thinking on Bitcoin.
Technical wrinkles
With switching to the new Pixel 7a setup I hit a few bumps (some expected, some not) and I share them here and if you have other/better suggestions do say!
First up is that the Pixel7a does not have an audio jack. I don't know how I did not notice this before getting it. I refuse to use bluetooth headsets. The solution is a 4$ USB-C-3.5mm adaptor - it's pretty simple but annoying to need this. To be honest, this is a strong argument to remaining with my Pixel 4a - it is so light and works perfectly with wired headphones.
Next disappointment is that the Kobo is not so good at reading PDFs. The main reason for this is that the PDF pages are fixed size and this determines the font size and it will usually be too small on the eInk screen. The best solution that I have so far is to stick with the iPad for these. Other file types work fine and I really enjoy having all my ePub books accessible on the Kobo and Olly confirms it is a good choice. Calibre really is a great tool for managing all types of eBook.
Lastly, SimpleX is not the easiest messenger to use when you have multiple phones as I do, especially when changing the configuration. Session does give a much better experience both for me and correspondents so for now I am switching back to Session as my prime secure messenger - you can still reach me on SimpleX and it does have some quite unique benefits. If you want a mainstream secure solution, Signal is the app of choice. Click here for all contact options.
Time will tell
As time goes on I think we are all becoming more realistic and pragmatic about the scaling and adoption of bitcoin. There are interesting theories as to how this will be reflected in the price of bitcoin. This article makes interesting reading.
The premise of this theory is that bitcoin derives its value through exchange. Its ability to store value is of course anchored to its fixed supply, but its utility is in future exchange. Value is realised at the point of future exchange, and value in the bitcoin network is actually created as bitcoin coordinates the transfer of value between economic participants–both in the nominal value of the currency unit and in the network as a whole. As a result, bitcoin increases in value as it enables more trade and that trade will naturally gravitate toward direct exchange for goods and services for reasons fundamental to the nature and utility of money.
Parker Lewis
Click for an interesting read
As the the current international money system continues to deteriorate in openness and usability, pressures increase for one or more better alternatives. We also need (and likely will get) some serious alternatives to SWIFT. Personally I do not see the yuan as a strong contender to replace US dollar not least because of the Triffin Dilemma from which the Dollar now suffers. Any commodity-backed basket of currencies will also suffer from Sovereignty issues and issues of trust and audibility.
Alex Richardson
Don't underestimate the negative impact of Triffin Dilemma
On the other hand - Bitcoin, being "perfect, pure money" the international game theory that is now ongoing may well force things quicker than you think and adopting it as "part of the basket" may well be the necessary first step and it would seem that this is already foreseen (if somewhat disguised).
Tiff Macklem, Chair of the GHOS and Governor of the Bank of Canada
January 2025 - it's quite close now...
Bitcoin, The IMF, and El Salvador
The IMF and World Bank do not seek to fix poverty, but only to enrich creditor nations at the expense of the nations and people they claim to "help. Read on to lean how the IMF and World Bank repress poor countries and funnel their wealth and resources to rich ones. As with all of these NGOs, they achieve the opposite of what they claim to be doing.
All of this ought to remind of John Perkins' confessions that we considered back in Newsletter #27 - over 2 years ago.
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
Stop it - to remain silent is to be complicit
The Northern Ireland Health Bill threatens your medical freedom with forced exams, quarantine, and vaccinations. It extends emergency powers, allowing authorities to impose severe restrictions without consent. This bill undermines human rights, limits personal choice, and bypasses true public consultation.
It’s crucial that we continue to raise our concerns and engage directly with our MLAs to ensure our voices are heard.
Crimes against humanity are being prepared - speak up or be complicit
Many will gather in Belfast on Saturday to protest these crimes that are being planned and perpetrated by the organised criminals (aka Government). It should come as no surprise to you that the roads and trains are blocked that day - there are no coincidences.
The Republic
You likely have not read The Republic by Plato - I'll admit that it is indeed a lengthy and not straightforward read. However it is remarkably prescient and it is packed with wisdom that explains quite a lot of the things that you see going on around you today. All these current challenges and issues were known and solutions were well understood and documented.
Rob may look a little unconventional but his overview of key topics and learning from the book is a must watch. Not only that but this is just book 3 of a series of similarly pertinent books that he is reviewing and sharing currently.
Even if you have not read the book, you likely have heard of the Allegory of the Cave. This too is ancient wisdom that has been hidden and suppressed. Thankfully more and more people are now waking up to this - the image below sums things up rather clearly
If you are intrigued by this and want to know more - click the image above for Howdie Mickoski's and the first chapter that he will read to you.
🤔 Closing Thought
Again, just one closing thought for this week. It is another breakthrough from Jason and well worth taking the time to watch, listen and understand.
Keys to navigate the construct
You will certainly be aware that your brain has two sides that are responsible for distinctly different attributes and characteristics. This dichotomy is something that most are aware of - at least superficially - but there are others too.
In this video, Jason takes things a step further considering another duality that you likely have not thought much about. I encourage you to listen to his arguments and form your own considered opinion. This links back to topics that we have been discussing in recent weeks - including holographic paradigm and manifestation.
He argues that sleep is the time when the "programming" for the coming days is put in place and that you can either accept the default programming of the "collective" or you can write your own program. The more you think about this and the deeper you investigate, the more this makes perfect sense.
Jason's explanation goes a long way to explaining the mystery of sleep. This is something that everyone does, every night and it is essential - you cannot do without it. In the same way that activity and attributes of left and right cerebral hemispheres are inaccessible to eachother, so too Jason argues are things in wake and sleep. This next video confirms and supports Jason's arguments and also his claims that this wisdom has been intentionally suppressed to create dependent masses.
The Gospel of Thomas is an early Christian non-canonical text that consists of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus. This is but one example of hundreds of suppressed documents - this was only discovered in 1945 as part of the Nag Hammadi trove. Some of the key nuggets that you will find include:
- The Kingdom of God is internal and present, rather than a future or physical place
- Humans have a divine origin and can return to it through knowledge
- Jesus should be considered as a spiritual guide rather than a saviour
All of this ties back to what we discussed last week about "religiosity" where the rulers and so-called elites have worked over centuries to divide people up against eachother using religion as a divisive topic.
The truth is simple and non-divisive and it is something you cannot be told and need to see for yourself - once you see it you cannot unsee it.
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- Morpheus to Neo in The Matrix
- The Architect
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