77 - End of summer in Belfast
🇬🇧 This was our last full week here in Belfast. It has certainly been cool (if not cold) every day since we got here and it has rained on at least 90% of the days. Enough! After all our family visits we will be moving on to warmer climes - so this is indeed the end of our summer in Belfast.. Also true:
Once you have lived in a warm country...
you do not want to live in a cold country any more!
- Roger Price
Happy also this week to meet up with a few local bitcoiner friends - nice and may the force be with you! Remember the local Bitcoin Meetup - first Tuesday of the month at Ormeau Baths, Belfast. OrangePillApp is also great. Go along and you will meet interesting people and learn lots.
Next stop for us, albeit on the way to those warmer climes is Belgium. So if you are in or around Antwerp Thu 24th -Sat 26th, do say Hello! Further updates in next week's newsletter.
This week I have got a book that I recommend you read as well as a short cartoon that will teach you much. On the projects we will cover Overlay Networking, Nostr, SimpleX and Fedi. There are many links you would do well to consider and, as always, I have something thought provoking to wrap up at the end.
In case you need a bit of nostalgia, it is interesting to look back one year in the Newsletter - we were in a similar situation to now, planning the rest of the year; interesting to reflect on how things panned out. Interesting too that this is when I first found out about Nostr - how far it has come and I am happy to have played some part in that!
The book I was reading this time last year was "The Uncommunist Manifesto" - also recommended!
Book of the week
This week, at the recommendation of one of my subscribers and after an interesting discussion with him about it, I felt that I had to finally read this one. Like many I was put off by Harari and his current prognostications and odious agenda. However, it was also last week's discussion on Ethical Skepticism that helped tip the balance.
The book is very interesting and well written - Harari is a very good story-teller. It is a comprehensive review of the human race and its evolution from earliest days right through the last 5000 years or so for which there are some sort of documentary trail. He thoughtfully dissects many fascinating and fundamental topics that form the basis of civilisations and how people and populations behave and how various forces work to influence this and change it. He does not shy away from controversial ones and, whilst I can detect evidence of the laying of seeds for what he now espouses, I think that when he wrote this back in 2014 he was still quite balanced.
Topics covered include: How Homo Sapiens emerged, development and impact of language, imagined orders, legal fictions, shared myths, religion, money, nations, laws and rights. There are large sections on agricultural revolution and the transition from nomadic to organised communities as well as industrial revolution and capitalism. He covers money rather well - also his dissection of all the world religions really ought to make you think; recall we have discussed both of these topics here at length. Interesting discussion on how empires emerge (and fail) and it is here that he hints at his now current agenda.
I do not agree with all his conclusions and he does seem to omit some seminal events (or give alternative versions) that are well documented in Chronicon (which itself includes may cross-references), however this book will certainly give you plenty to think about. He does tell a very convincing story and much of it will certainly be true - salt needed for some points and you will likely object to some of his ideas in Chapter 20.
Have you read it? What do you think? Happy to discuss with you!
Video of the week
This week I have a classic cartoon for you - it is a cartoon with a message.
When Larken Rose wrote out the concept for the 12-minute animated short film called “The Jones Plantation” back in 2012, there was no reason for him to expect that it would one day evolve into a full-length feature film with a dozen actors, shot on an actual former slave plantation, but that is exactly what happened thanks to a remarkable vision of director Drew Treglia.
Two years in the making, filmed on location in Mississippi and Louisiana, and ready for release, Jones Plantation takes a look at the role of slaves and slave masters in the mid-1800s and makes the case that slavery comes in a few different flavours these days.
The overt, visible chains of physical slavery have been removed by our modern world, replaced with a more covert version of control disguised as the freedom of choice. But how free are we really when the only choice is between two corrupt politicians, the usage of a monopolistic, fiat currency, or the mandatory taxation imposed by the State? The truth is that we all live on the Jones Plantation.
More in this issue
- Photo memories - around Belfast and Holywood
- Project Updates - More hands-on activities this week
- Plenty of useful links - don't say nobody told you!
- Closing out - Isometric Patterning - obvious with hindsight
🛠️ Project Updates
The following are some of my own development notes along with updates from some projects that I am following, supporting and collaborating with. What are you doing?
This week I have been working on my new server; you will recall that I was pleased to discover SSDnodes that offer very affordable high-end dedicated servers with just the right amount of features and good technical support. In the coming weeks I'll be running more services on my server and getting more benefit from it.
Overlay networking
I have got to say that I love this. Tailscale (and its open source incarnation, Headscale) is just amazing. Listen here to Christian explain:
This allows me to have all of my machines easily and securely accessible, no matter where they are with all of the convenience of a local network and security of VPN.
Doing more with Nostr
This week I am pleased that I have spun up a second Nostr relay, this one running on my SSDnode - nice! Getting this up and running was very straightforward - you can follow the step-by-step instructions here. This will get you up and running with 3 services: caddy as a reverse proxy, the umbrel front-end for the server and the relay itself.
This is a nice little project and it gives you real hands-on exposure to docker, SSL certificates, reverse proxy, firewall configuration as well as Nostr itself. You can do all this in 20 mins or less!
SimpleX
This week I was also rather happy to get my SimpleX server up and running on my SSDnode. It is really simple and straightforward - Docker is indeed your friend. SimpleX is a most interesting tool. It enables secure, private messaging without any user IDs and it allows you to host your own decentralised messaging infrastructure rather than relying on any other parties. They also have very good public servers freely available by default.
They have big plans - listen here to learn more. There is also quite some interest in integrating SimpleX as a messaging option within the Nostr ecosystem, improving on the current Direct Message (DMs) that I think most will agree could benefit from something! You can chat with me on Simplex here,
You begin to see the advantage of Nostr where all new applications immediately benefit from the established user-base and the ability to integrate with all existing users, content and features - the absence of silos.
Fedi - scaling and democratising bitcoin access
This is a nice explainer from Matt. Fedi is one of the projects that I am following with eager interest. Additional links are below and the eCash technology used here and also in Cashu have world-changing possibilities.
Fedimint: https://fedimint.org/ Fedi: https://www.fedi.xyz/ Fedi's founders: https://twitter.com/EricSirion/status... Fedi Launched First Ever Pop-Up
David Chaum and ecash: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash
This next link is an example of a great use-case. We have all had the experience of being at some event where they sell tokens or vouchers that you need to exchange for food and drinks or access to the attractions. These are often annoying in lack or granularity and inability to cash-out and are no use anywhere else. Bitcoin fixes this and Fedi recently demonstrated how at the Prague Event - a big success with many benefits including educating people how easy it is to use Bitcoin over Lightning.
🔗 Links for your edification
The following are links from my NetNewswire feeds - learn, enjoy and share.
There is no smoke without fire
Grace explains. You ought to listen and indeed you have seen this story before. Not wanting to consider the truth does not make it go way. The locals are very clear and I would trust them more than any government media.
And then this... here not to mention Grace's part 1 here.
Financial Repression is coming ...
... to a city/country near you soon. This is a very good explainer of Russel Napier's arguments and expectations - you would do well to consider these. Interestingly, Guy and I do not agree with all his predictions - that is why we Bitcoin!
0:49 Who is Russell Napier? 3:58 Asian Financial Crisis 6:56 Age of Debt 9:54 Inflation And Interest Rates 13:08 Financial Repression 16:16 Russell’s Predictions 19:41 Russell’s Hedges
Related to the above - Richard explains rather clearly why you wouldn't want a cashless society. You must retain the possibility to trade person to person with a bearer asset and not be required to use only the Social Credit CBDCs.
Further explainer here from Guy. Simple, straightforward and terrifying. And Neil explains how this is happening in the UK right now. Did you vote for this?
So what is next?
And then this interesting interview of MacroAlf by Peter - you will understand Japanification and where that ends... Also, just like with EuroDollars, the truth is not what you have been told and once you understand what is really going on you will be amazed and disgusted.
Meanwhile in the UK and Europe
Listen to this important interview with Andrew Bridgen. Remember that he is an MP and his attempts to have proper debate within parliament are being obstructed and denied. Perhaps you can recognise the corruption and evil at work.
Woke-free zones do exist
Thoughtful one from Andrew H - shoutout to Serbia! Are you counting on the Silent Majority - maybe not such a great plan unless you are doing things to activate them. Recall too our discussion last week on Flag Theory...
Hiding in plain sight...
This video is from 2 years ago - if you can see it, share it!
🤔 Closing Thoughts
This should make you stop and think. Jason explains his observation that historical events tend to demonstrate a most interesting interesting phenomenon - some would say coincidences! Specifically you will see interesting correspondence between events of 1973 and 1974 with what is happening in 2023 - and many other "pairs" that he and SquarePeg point out.
If that has got you thinking then you might want to follow one of Jason's regular "team meetings". You have been warned - they do go quite far in their discussion of evidence that is all around; you may or may not be ready for this. If nothing else you have to be impressed by his mastery of his material and original historical documentation and the quality of dialogue and discussion on these topics. Reminder - his Chronicon his here.
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