Norton has announced integrated Ethereum mining software
Norton Antivirus software, and the company that makes it, NortonLifeLock , best known for being bundled annoyingly in new Windows computers, has announced via press release that they intend to bundle a feature they call “Norton™ Crypto”.
The feature which they say will be added to Norton360 starting tomorrow for “early adopters” to begin mining from within the already installed software.
They are also, with a very helpful tone, declaring that they will also bundle an ethereum wallet which will be safely stored in “the cloud” so it won’t be lost.
They do not specify any minimum computing requirements but they do say that :
“Norton Crypto is expected to become available to all Norton 360 customers1 in the coming weeks.”
Yo’ dude this shit’s getting real
So, although this comes off as a somewhat desperate attempt to try and maintain relevance after likely millions of forced installations are never monetized (just a guess) it nevertheless could send millions of civilians into crypto mining without “just a few clicks”.
This brings up so many questions immediately it’s a bit mind-boggling. Although the first media reactions, predictably, mention “environmental” issues and take a negative tone, doubting why anyone would want to risk “taxing” the computer’s GPU for such a task.
Of course questions such as how mining efficiency would be affected by millions of “micro-miners” there is also the question of why wouldn’t a virus software subscriber want to essential use their idle computer resources to pay for the software itself (cut to happy Norton execs congratulating themselves on the genius idea).
Above:Photo Credit / Norton
Could there be another story here? Mainstream experience with crypto, demystifying the blockchain?
Further and more interestingly. If more mainstream software companies and even service subscription software companies follow suit and millions if not hundreds of millions of average people begin collecting small months ethereum “dividends”, even if only $10 per month, how easy is it to put the Genie back into the bottle, so to speak?
When millions are not “irresponsibly” using dollars or euros to purchase cryptocurrencies, but rather, instead “earn” a few extra dollars, once the coins are traded for local “hard” (read: fiat) currencies, here and there for each computer or GPU they own, can the whole thing, like green stamps, air miles, credit card loyalty program be suddenly outlawed?
As appears everywhere more and more on a daily basis, isn’t crypto, via Bitcoin, Ethereum and many various alt coins, become more and more woven into the financial system? Isn’t the number of people who own, buy or even mine crypto exploding exponentially on a daily basis?
Isn’t this just one more sign that the trend of crypto becoming “normalized” and woven more and more deeply into the fabric of our lives is not likely to reverse itself?
Yes. That’s the answer. More news tomorrow, probably.
The evolution of content continues at warp speed due to pure individual creativity
By now, the open algorithm, where a new account can blow-up in the first week because videos are not pre-judged by past performance or prior stats is well known and a huge draw to creators.
The apps and filters and tricks that are provided by the software are also extremely enticing. There are many videos (“TikToks”) that feature how-to and DIY tips for using various hacks to get SFX into your clip.
But, by far, the biggest draw and quality that most sets TikTok apart from virtually all other social media is the character of the creators themselves. And the diverse and unique spectrum of what can be perceived as successful and popular on the app is a creation of the creator and user community itself.
The contrast with Instagram and Facebook couldn’t be more extreme
After sampling 20 hours of TikToks a year ago and comparing those to today, what stands out most is how the same qualities that seemed like a blast into a different universe a year ago, compared to what came before, are now much more developed and refined, if a concept like refinement can be applied to absolute quirky free expression.
What stands out is the level that creators are embracing the platform, not just to get seen and build stats, and possibly influence earning potential, but to communicate. With sometimes almost shocking honesty what they really believe in and and especially who, exactly, they are. That confidence is contagious and gives the experience an addicting quality, and yet, it’s a more positive addiction than any other social media experience.
Most intriguing, from a journalists point of view, is how highly intelligent, mostly self-educated creators are devoting enormous energy toward propagating highly valuable, yet often overlooked, insights about society, finance, internet business, wealth and, well, life itself. All without concern for an immediate reward.
There’s an electric feeling that, once given a platform and a megaphone, the chance exists for a world of information and constantly changing ideas to be rescued from the bland pit of ignorance and convention that is the weakness with most of media product.
Above: 3 TikTok Creators / Photos from TikTok
A faint echo of hope, bouncing back from the dream of a better future
News and media web sites, that bend and contort content choices out of fear of revenue reductions, are rightfully lambasted and called-out for lack of coverage in areas that are critically important and yet given scant or negative coverage.
The ethos of being yourself, with or without glamor, and still be accepted, or even rising to the top echelons of stat-killing influencers, is not just a theoretical fairytale but is a visible reality all across the community.
You just have to look at what is popular, or even just showing viewer interest generally, and you’ll see incredibly creative people who made the choice to double-down on their uniqueness, rather than trying to conform to some social standard of bland attractiveness or fake charisma.
Because of the emphasis on the “content” of the content, for the most part, rather than slick visuals and production values, or a fake self-aggrandizing fantasy image bolstered by props like mansions, hot cars, make-up and wardrobe, etc. there’s a feeling that great clips will be rewarded for authenticity, more often than not.
The ethos and attitude that pervades the experience as a passive user is an organic outgrowth, in part, of the openness of the algorithm, and appears to be a more honest reflection of what people will “like” if not manipulated with dark patterns and all of ‘Zuckerbergian’ tricks.
Above: 3 TikTok Creators / Photos from TikTok
Don’t mess with the recipe: just let it grow and evolve
Of course, no app or community is perfect and the best of what is happening on TikTok could disappear at any time. On the whole, however, it seems like the app is now locked into a situation where if TikTok were to lose that “magic”; the magic created by the community of creators themselves, it would destroy the actual formula that built the success of the platform.
And, hopefully, that reality will therefore prevail and will continue and allow millions of creators to grow, share insights and evolve together into a force that could, one day, make the rest of social media adopt at least some of those positive qualities, in order to maintain their own fan base and popularity. Or they will just disappear, to be replaced by a new type of online exchange that has not yet been conceived.
The TikTok indicator is saying crypto is here to stay…
It was, astoundingly, less than a month ago, May 8th, 2021, that Ethereum reached an all time high of $4,169. That was two days after Dogecoin, full of Musk momentum, hit .69 cents, after starting the year around .10 cents. Bitcoin had peaked about a month earlier at $63,674 on April 12th.
As is so often seen in manias, bubbles and feeding frenzies, at the time you could not find a person in America who was not talking about crypto. The proverbial shoe-shine boy was now your cousin, your uncle even your grandmother and they were all bursting with FOMO after reading the articles, especially the ones about the Dogecoin millionaires, who had made fortunes starting with a tiny sum.
Now, many of those same people are seeing a typical reversal, correction, bear phase, whatever you want to call it, and they are just as convinced of crypto’s demise today as they were that it was a sure-thing less than a month ago.
The kids get it and are not backing down
Much like TikTok itself, the later arrivals to the huge phenomena that is Crypto are the old and out-of-touch, not the young and fast. Interestingly, an anecdotal survey of young and successful crypto “influencers” on TikTok and other social media are not shocked about the downturn. They get it.
Many have been learning about and actively involved with the crypto world for years. There is a real sense that the corrupt events that led to the financial crisis and near collapse in 2008 shaped their thinking and hardened their resolve to search for a better way. Crypto’s ideals and independent foundations have provided that in a real, tangible way, it seems.
While the mainstream of the media and the bulk of the financial establishment swing from an almost grudging respect to complete derision and rejection, it appears to be the underlying concepts and ideologies that present such a stark contrast in the perspective of up and coming generations.
While perhaps no less vulnerable to the excitement of 20,000 % gains and other sensational enticements, there is a somewhat surprising depth and resolve that is demonstrated in a level headed and clear thinking allegiance to the reasons crypto was created in the first place.
The outlandish price gains (and drops) are only window dressing
At the core of the question of crypto’s eventual widespread adoption and long term success lies a simple truth: fiat currencies and the governments that print them are a big problem for the world’s future. And, naturally, the new generations of the future will be those that are most affected.
What Elon Musk recently called “The true battle… between fiat & crypto” is one that Gen-Z appear to understand in ways that 100-year-old billionaires like Warren Buffet and his side-kick Charlie Munger do not. Or maybe they just side with the financial establishment they helped build, to the bitter end.
For any reading this that also “get it”, it would be wise to understand that, even at this early phase in the future of “the true battle” there is an army rising. It is not one of suicidal fossil fuels and battlefield tanks but one of ideology and belief in the possibility of a better way.
The army that will stand up for the survival and continued development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain and “DeFi” are not a few random conscripts, they are the generations of the future and they have chosen a side.
For that reason, all signs point to an unlikely permanent collapse of cryptocurrencies and an impossibility of banning or stopping them. It is already too late to prevent their eventual rise.
Which new series and films are looking like a good bet to stream this month
These days, it seems at times like finding something worth watching, and, more importantly, devoting precious free time to, can be a challenge. Sure, you can just randomly try the next thing in your recommendation queue and take your chances.
We’ve all been there; a tried and true classic we know is pretty good but we’ve seen it three times or a new item, marketed hard by the platform, but of unclear quality or interest. Sometimes you find a gem, by sheer luck. Other times it takes some deep digging to come upon an acceptable risk profile. The last thing we want is to get twenty minutes into a film, or worse yet, a unknown series, and have to “abort plan” due to low quality or just a theme that doesn’t tickle our fancy.
With some luck, and based on prior research and experience, the recommendations below might fit the bill. “Lupin” was a bonafide smash hit and, as any who devoured the first season can attest, once hooked, this series is a top notch binge-fest. Hopefully season two will turn out to be as good.
Based on prerelease buzz, the cast, the concept and the trailer, “Awake” looks quite interesting so far. A bit in the direction of “Bird Box” another big success for Netflix, it will be the differences, rather than the similarities that will be the test.
“Sweet Tooth” is already stirring discord among reviewers and the press. Perhaps due to the “sacred” and known DC Comic origin, and the pedigree of the production team, while the critics wariness could be warranted, it’s interesting enough to give this one a good test run before discounting it out of hand…
Lupin: Part 2– Netflix Original Series – 6/11:
Assane’s quest for revenge against Hubert Pellegrini has torn his family to pieces. With his back to the wall, he now has to think of a new plan, even if it means putting himself in danger.
Awake – 6/9:
Chaos ensues after a global event wipes out all electronics and takes away humankind’s ability to sleep. But Jill (Gina Rodriguez), an ex-soldier with a troubled past, may hold the key to a cure in the form of her own daughter.
Sweet Tooth – 6/4:
Based on the beloved DC Comic, and Executive Produced by Susan Downey & Robert Downey Jr., Sweet Tooth is a post-apocalyptic fairytale about a hybrid deer-boy and a wandering loner who embark on an extraordinary adventure. All episodes of Sweet Tooth premiere June 4th, 2021, only on Netflix.
Workin’ Moms (Season 5) – 6/15
Warm, loyal PR executive Kate and her longtime friend, no-nonsense psychiatrist Anne, attend a judgmental mommies’ group, where they meet timid IT tech Jenny and blindly optimistic real estate agent Frankie. The four quickly form an unlikely friendship, sharing struggles of urban motherhood filled with the chaos of toddlers, tantrums, careers, and identity crises, all while trying to achieve the holy grail: a sense of self.
There’s a joke somewhere in here but it’s hard to see it through the tears
Woody Allen’s onscreen counterpart, Alvy Singer, complaining about Hollywood Award Shows in “Annie Hall” remarked that a category of award for “Greatest Fascist Dictator” would not surprise him, and that Adolf Hitler would probably win.
Amazon, viewed from some neutral future date or by aliens from another planet would surely win the award for “Greatest Company to Amass Wealth & Power by Intentionally Losing Money” award. Or maybe just “World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme”.
For now the fawning books and articles on the greatness of “Bezos’ Behmouth” continue to pile up.
An exception to the fawning fan fiction is “Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power” by David Dayen. The author also commented cogently on the current situation with Amazon and MGM. His thoughts shed much needed light on the simple and yet sadly overlooked truth about Amazon: its core mission is to monopolize not just online sales but all transactions that take place in the economy where a “cut” of those transactions can be extracted.
What’s with all these awards? They’re always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler. — Alvy Singer
This viewpoint, it would seem, can be traced back to a rare case where Jeff Bezos let his guard down and accidentally explained a core concept of the Amazon business model.
He said, simply: “Your margin is my opportunity”.
With this seemingly innocuous and widely misinterpreted phrase he unleashed the dogs of hell on the world of commerce. The MGM deal, according to Dayen, who is also editor of The American Prospect, is yet another attempt to gut an industry with techniques designed to use predatory pricing strategies to crush all rivals.
The sub-head from his article states: “The company wants to control pricing on everything, and funnel as many transactions to itself as possible.”
Meanwhile, somehow, this statement is finally being generally understood in its real context.
Yet what is astounding is that this is not a supposition or an accusation, but rather is a stated fact, and how this company has behaved and operated for decades.
Putting 2+2 together, the common interpretation that there is an “innocent” pro-customer meaning possible, is finally being seen for the absurdity that it is.
Simple, Effective and Disgusting: Selling below cost or at a loss to harm competition
We’ve seen how that goes. In this case, since Amazon does not make any data available on the profitability of various business segments, using nearly $9 billion to enhance its “free with Prime” business creates yet another loss-leader opportunity to destroy the margins of all other streaming platforms, who, like other businesses actually have to make a profit or at least break even, unlike Amazon due to its cross-subsidization of products and services.
Amazon wants to control all economic activity in the United States and the world. It wants a cut of every transaction. — D. Dayen
Amazon as “cross-subsidized content devourer” is how Dayen described the inevitable outcome of the deal in his article.
He also succinctly argues that by using its virtually unlimited power and resources to devour an ever larger share of the market, ultimately the result will be to drive up costs for competitors (for I.P., production and star power) and achieve the goal of squeezing the already slim margins for those poor schmucks (or rich schmucks like Disney, HBO, Netflix, etc.) that don’t have an unlimited budget for intentional losses.
The playbook is so obvious and familiar that it’s almost laughable. That is, if not for the death and destruction that always follow in the next chapters of this plot schema.
They pick on an established industry where no one will have sympathy for the rich victims – did anyone feel sorry for Borders or other large book retailers? Does anyone cry over the loss of Diapers.com or Quidisi? When Birkenstock complains does anyone listen?
How can gutting the streaming industry or unassailable giants like Disney and HBO be bad? Isn’t it just capitalism at its finest? Should we start preparing the award now for “Greatest Consolidator of Content in History”?
But what about the “loss leader” system? What about the ultimate outcome of less competition and higher prices overall, an obvious harm to consumers, regardless of how stupid and convoluted the route is to get there?
By moving the market in a way that will make streaming a terrible business for any company that has to compete with this, “oughta be illegal” script, margins will, if the gambit succeeds, face a similar fate to the one that anyone who used to be in the retail book industry, or any of the other entire industries that Amazon has received kudos for destroying, knows all too well.
Dayen also makes the point that, once this thinly veiled ploy is seen for what it is, the harm, not only to Amazon’s competitors but to the general public, should be obvious and impossible to ignore.
Citing the similarities with the recently brought antitrust action by the Washington, DC attorney general, it is exactly this kind of pernicious practice, that Amazon has not only gotten away with for decades, but Bezos has been lionized for “inventing”.
That lawsuit, which deals with an Amazon clause in 3rd party marketplace terms and conditions (since altered to disguise its true intent) that 3rd party sellers must sell anywhere outside Amazon’s marketplace at the same or higher price that they have listed on Amazon, is a sign of a gradual shift toward seeing the real meaning of Amazon’s behavior.
Since there are massive, exorbitant fees added to every transaction for all 3rd party sellers, the only way for them to make any profit at all is to tack on the cost of those fees, meaning artificially higher prices.
Amazon has ways to retaliate through “dark patterns” of its own special stripe, by manipulating buyers behaviors on its web site, making sure that sellers that don’t toe the line will get, essentially, zero sales.
For Amazon this kind of bullying and blackmail is a “win-win-win”. They see and have tattooed into their DNA all pain, suffering and loss for anyone other than the company (AMZN) as a gain for them.
3rd party sellers caught in hell trying to survive while paying fees up to 43% or more without recourse to try and recoup by selling anywhere else at lower prices?
Amazon congratulates themselves. Sellers undercutting each other, in spite of those fees in an effort to behave like a “mini-Amazon” and getting into a race to the bottom death match with each other? Yippee! Great for Amazon, when they are dead, there are always new victims waiting in line to enter the cage.
How about sellers that obtain goods illegally, counterfeit, illegal imports, stolen products, remainders and aftermarket overstock? They are GREAT for Amazon because they put even more pressure on the individual, honest sellers to immolate themselves trying to survive (and eventually die via pricing suicide) while Amazon can claim to be offering lower prices!
Oh, and when they “do their best” to stop all those illegal sellers, albeit at a snails pace, they are bailed out by section 230 and can point to their “partners in crime”, the counterfeiters, the knockoffs from China, the illegal imports and the stolen and aftermarket goods and say: “We tried our best, these are just a few bad apples” laughing all the way through every board meeting.
“Your margin is my opportunity”, indeed.
Above: Photo Collage by Lynxotic
There are no mitigating factors here. There is no “good guy” or customer obsessed hero. Just evil and the dead or dying. Wake the fuck up, America.
The praise and adulation continues, even as the $400 million yacht is being prepared for its maiden voyage
It’s as if Bezos is given award after award for the “genius” of selling 1$ bills for .75 cents. Championed for using a strategy that masquerades short term margin destruction as “customer obsession”, pretending that the dumping levels of pricing won’t in the long run flip into price gouging and the destruction of competition.
Somehow the massive detriment to consumers and the society at large is overlooked amid all the parties celebrating the “genius”.
But have the chickens finally come home to roost? Is anyone seeing a pattern of systematic use of the same tactics over and over, applied to each and every sector that Amazon chooses to “disrupt”? They didn’t get the nickname “grim reaper” for nothing. The problem is that it was meant as a compliment.
It is a sea change in the antitrust orientation, a sea change that is desperately needed, and with Lina Kahn and Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu, it might be just over the horizon. Could even have a chance to come about.
That change, so long overdue, could finally begin the process of dismantling the damage wrought and and still to come, if there is no interdiction.
The worm will eventually turn. When? After decades of obvious abuse and criminal behavior, completely and willfully ignored (too complicated to see).
Will there eventually be so many victims that they will outnumber the duped and the sycophants? Stay tuned.
This is a world where four major banks control most of our money, four airlines shuttle most of us around the country, and four major cell phone providers connect most of our communications. If you are sick you can go to one of three main pharmacies to fill your prescription, and if you end up in a hospital almost every accessory to heal you comes from one of a handful of large medical suppliers.
Over the last forty years our choices have narrowed, our opportunities have shrunk, and our lives have become governed by a handful of very large and very powerful corporations.
Today, practically everything we buy, everywhere we shop, and every service we secure comes from a heavily concentrated market.
Dayen, the editor of the American Prospect and author of the acclaimed Chain of Title, provides a riveting account of what it means to live in this new age of monopoly and how we might resist this corporate hegemony.
Through vignettes and vivid case studies Dayen shows how these monopolies have transformed us, inverted us, and truly changed our lives, at the same time providing readers with the raw material to make monopoly a consequential issue in American life and revive a long-dormant antitrust movement.
Above: “Brokeback Mountain” / Photo Credit / Focus Features
Sitting on top of the heap of ultra successful streaming giants Netflix must spend and produce more and more content to keep up with views that binge watch new movie titles and even series as fast as they arrive, it seems. It’s given that the deluge of new arrivals helps to reduce the feeling of frustration that can arise when you are searching for something you have yet to watch, but it feels like hours go by, with little new to consider.
With a large number of new titles coming down the pipeline each month, and spread out in terms of release dates presumably in order to prevent a bulge in the first week, at least there is a chance that something completely new, or at least new to the classic library of titles on the streamer, will pop up in the browsing selection.
But what if you don’t stumble across a great, classic title and it is removed, perhaps permanently, before you had a chance to see it? To help pay for the many new titles that are always being added, and produced from scratch, the library must also be culled on a continuous basis. And as we all know by now, often the older classic titles outshine the more recent productions, sometimes with aging, half interested stars and “direct-to-streaming” titles and directors.
Fortunately, this month the last day falls on a Monday and it also comes in direct proximity to a 3-day weekend for Memorial Day, so we have a bit more time to warn you about what you might want to see, before it’s too late.
Netflix had a huge release of new titles for May 2021, 90 to be exact, that were added to the platform. As the end of the month rapidly nears, 20 titles will be leaving to make space in the budget for the June 2021 arrivals.
Therefore, be sure you don’t miss out on the titles below. We have provided trailers and a synopsis for a few select choices, since they are classic movies boasting high-profile stars. Examples such as Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in “50 First Dates”, “Meryl Street and Amy Adams in “Julie & Julia” and Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway in “Brokeback Mountain” give you a taste and the full list also follows below.
Comedy, Romance, Action, Historical, Horror, Thriller are all on the list.
The list of titles leaving Netflix also includes award-winning films such as: “Milk”, “Miracle” and “The Pursuit of Happyness”.
Below are the titles that will officially be gone from the platform on May 31st at midnight:
Brokeback Mountain
In 1963, rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) and ranch hand Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) are hired by rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid) as sheep herders in Wyoming. One night on Brokeback Mountain, Jack makes a drunken pass at Ennis that is eventually reciprocated. Though Ennis marries his longtime sweetheart, Alma (Michelle Williams), and Jack marries a fellow rodeo rider (Anne Hathaway), the two men keep up their tortured and sporadic affair over the course of 20 years.
50 First Dates
Playboy vet Henry (Adam Sandler) sets his heart on romancing Lucy (Drew Barrymore), but she has short-term memory loss; she can’t remember anything that happened the day before. So every morning, Henry has to woo her again. Her friends and family are very protective, and Henry must convince them that he’s in it for love.
The Help
In 1960s Mississippi, Southern society girl Skeeter (Emma Stone) returns from college with dreams of being a writer. She turns her small town on its ear by choosing to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent white families. Only Aibileen (Viola Davis), the housekeeper of Skeeter’s best friend, will talk at first. But as the pair continue the collaboration, more women decide to come forward, and as it turns out, they have quite a lot to say.
Milk
In 1972, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) and his then-lover Scott Smith leave New York for San Francisco, with Milk determined to accomplish something meaningful in his life. Settling in the Castro District, he opens a camera shop and helps transform the area into a mecca for gays and lesbians. In 1977 he becomes the nation’s first openly gay man elected to a notable public office when he wins a seat on the Board of Supervisors. The following year, Dan White (Josh Brolin) kills Milk in cold blood.
The Pursuit of Happyness
Life is a struggle for single father Chris Gardner (Will Smith). Evicted from their apartment, he and his young son (Jaden Christopher Syre Smith) find themselves alone with no place to go. Even though Chris eventually lands a job as an intern at a prestigious brokerage firm, the position pays no money. The pair must live in shelters and endure many hardships, but Chris refuses to give in to despair as he struggles to create a better life for himself and his son.
Act of Valor
All Dogs Go to Heaven
The Blair Witch Project
The Boy
Deliver Us from Eva
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Julie & Julia
Above: “Julia & Julia” / Photo Credit / Columbia Pictures
Marauders
Miracle
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption
Soul Surfer
Striptease
Waiting…
Above: “Striptease” / Photo Credit / Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s nearly June and that means new films and shows to stream on Netflix
Every month a kind of sudden house cleaning happens these days at Netflix. out go the “old” but sometimes classic films and in come a batch of new shows and movies. Sometimes a new season of an established show like The Kominsky Method, now already starting season 3, or a long term binger like Lucifer already at season 7!
Also there’s a film that’s only now getting to Netflix’s streaming availability like Collateral Beauty, which admittedly has a funny name, what? Is it like “American Beauty but with collateral? Or do collateral “damage” victims suddenly get very beautiful? Well, with Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Keira Knightley all showing up, perhaps it’s worth a bit of your time to try to solve that riddle.
The Kominsky Method – Season 3:
The third and final season is here. The show will be leaving with a bang with six Emmy nominations. Although its often sad to see a great series end, with the finality of any show, you are able to binge 1-2-3 seasons all in one go. Another bonus is the all-star cameos for the season which include Morgan Freeman and Barry Levinson.
The show follows the once-famous, now aging acting coach Sandy Kominsky played by Michael Douglas. Alongside him his longtime agent Norman Newlander played by Alan Arkin. The two navigate their later years together and all the crazy curveballs thrown out them, all the while, keeping each other laughing.
Lucifer- Season 5 / Part 2 :
Don’t sleep on Lucifer. It does not disappoint. Netflix picking up the show when it was cancelled from Fox appears to be right on the money. The show has been doing so well that Lucifer will be renewed for a 6th season. Fans know that it has felt like a considerably “long” time since the Part 1 of Season 5 initially dropped on Netflix (back in August 21, 2020). Now the final half of the season, with another 8 episodes will be available May 28.
The show, which originally was released in 2016 aired on Fox until 2018. The series follows, well, Lucifer Morningstar, the original fallen angel, who becomes dissatisfied with spending his life in hell and comes to live in Los Angeles. Lucifer runs the nightclub LUX as well as working as a consultant to the police. He loves indulging in the pleasures of women, drinking and nightlife. Yet after a murder takes place outside his club, something changes him, awakening the buried feelings of what he thinks is compassion and empathy, ultimately begging Lucifer to wonder if there is hope for HIS soul.
Collateral Beauty:
The 2016 drama/romance film is another title dropping on the streaming platform Friday. I honestly had not heard of the movie, yet there are some big name stars that definitely make me interested to add this to the weekend watch cue. The cast includes: Will Smith, Kate Winslet, Edward Norton and Keira Knightley.
The movie follows, Will Smith who plays a successful New York executive, who after suffering a tragic loss, retreats from his life. As a way to search for meaning, he begins to write letters addressed to Love, Time, and Death. The notes end up bringing about unexpected and revealing responses to how love, time and death connect to every human being on Earth.
Dog Gone Trouble:
If you are looking for more of a light and fluffy, feel-good, goofy movie, look no further. The animated film was originally released in 2019 under the title “Trouble”. Netflix acquired the rights under the new name “Dog Gone Trouble”.
A pampered dog name Trouble has his world turned around when his owner passes away and he finds himself lost. He has to figure out how to survive big-city life and all the adventures that come along with it. Voices by Big Sean, Lucy Hale, Wilmer Valderrama, Snoop Dogg, Betty White.
The first teaser trailer Warner Bros. just released for the upcoming drama highlights a truly star-studded ensemble cast. Although the video clip below doesn’t give audience much of a taste of what the movie will be about, we do get to see the stars that include: Don Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, David Harbour, Jon Hamm, Ray Liotta, Kieran Culkin, Brendan Fraser, Noah Jupe, Julia Fox and Amy Seimetz.
The new crime thriller will first premiere at Tribeca and shortly after be released onto the HBO Max streaming platform, written by Ed Solomon that brought us “Bill and Ted“. The film is also directed by Steven Soderbergh, who is responsible for numerous hit movies including: “Ocean’s Eleven“, “Erin Brockovich“, “Traffic”, “The Informant! ” with Matt Damon, “The Laundromat” and so many others.
The film is set in the 1950’s Detroit and centers on a group of small-time criminals that are brought together to steal what they thought was just a simple document. Inevitably the plan goes down horribly wrong and now the group is set out to search for who hired them in order to discover the real purpose of whats going on.
With the annual Tribeca Film Festival just a few weeks away, the 12-day outdoor celebration will be held June 9 through June 20 and will be one of the first major festivals within North America to hold such a large in-person event coming out of the pandemic.
Soderbergh in a statement, “A year ago I was on lockdown in Tribeca,” and continued “So I never imagined we could return 12 months later with a new movie screening for a live audience in our neighborhood. I’m VERY happy.”
“No Sudden Move” is currently scheduled to premiere at Tribeca on June 18th and will be then be released to stream on HBO Max in the U.S. starting July 1st. Watch the teaser trailer below:
The first sneak peak trailer for Marvel Studios’ “Eternals” has dropped welcoming the next epic Superhero movie. The film is based on the comics of the same name that follow a group of eclectic god-like beings from another planet, an immortal race that have been on Earth living secretly for thousands of years. The heroes team up in order to protect humanity from a new threat, one of mankind’s oldest enemy, The Deviants.
Massive amounts of eyeballs watched the “Eternals” trailer, 77 million global views within the first 24 hours, which reportedly now marks the highest numbers for a Disney movie during the past 14 months.
The Academy Award winning director of “Nomadland” Chloe Zhao will direct and also co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming movie.
The new team of Super Hereoes as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will be the third Phase 4 movie and will boase major star power including: Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan and Brian Tyree Henry
Check out the official first-look trailer for Marvel Studios’ “Eternals”:
Above: Photo Credit Lynxotic collage with Photo by Sadman Sakib on Unsplash
Visible in the Western U.S. states early Wednesday
This kickoff to the Lunar eclipses for the year will be the fantastically named “Super Flower Blood Moon”. Although the visibility during the eclipse will vary across the nation, the west coast will have a great, bright vantage, where clear skies oblige.
Also, unlike solar eclipses the Lunar variety is completely safe to view with the naked eye. Just watch your forecast as clouds vs. clear skies will be the determining factor when it comes to visibility.
The “flower” moniker is perhaps less significant than it sounds, but no less poetic. Call the flower moon due to that simple fact that it occurs in late May, coincident with the spring bloom.
Although there were four penumbral lunar eclipses in 2020, they were less spectacular that what is anticipated for the one we will get on May 26th. That’s because this month’s total lunar eclipse will have a more obvious darkening phases as the moon passes through the umbra, Earth’s inner, darker shadow.
The eclipse will be at least partly visible in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, while the total phase will only be seen from some of these locations. In the case of North America, the eclipse’s total phase, the time during which the moon turns orange or red in color, will only be seen from the western U.S., British Columbia, Alaska and parts of western Mexico.
Alternatively, if the full Super Flower Blood Moon has got you curious but you are not in the ideal spot to view from your backyard, livestreams will be hosted by observatories and astronomers around the world.
The west coast is the best coast for this moon
The rest of North America will only see the first part of the eclipse before the moon will set in the western sky. There will still be something worth seeing but it will be a partial view of the entire event.
If you are in the Los Angeles area Wednesday morning these are points worth noting:
Total duration: 4 hours, 6 minutes
Penumbral begins: 1:47 a.m. Wednesday
Partial begins: 2:44 a.m. Wednesday
Full begins: 4:11 a.m. Wednesday
Maximum: 4:18 a.m. Wednesday
Full ends: 4:25 a.m. Wednesday
Moonset: 5:52 a.m. Wednesday
If you are a photographer please be aware that the moon, at any time, is hard to capture without powerful telephoto lenses. A cell phone will retrieve an image but the distant orb will be far more visible with magnification.
The moon has many meanings and astrologically the event is significant also
Any discussion of all things lunar, blood moons and eclipses would certainly be congruent with a taste of the astrological perspective. We have it on good authority that this will be a Sagittarius full moon. There haas been prognostication that this will be a very challenging and “difficult” full moon eclipse, there are also signs that it will mark triumphs for some in the career dept., even accolades and awards.
A “major project” could be coming to a happy conclusion. As is always the case with Full moon lunar eclipses, if things are unclear and seem oddly incomplete, waiting 30 days can often bring the resolution that you are awaiting.
Above: Photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash with elements added by Lynxotic
Coming after a frenzied run-up the hand wringing is no surprise
I many ways it seems as if Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies appeared suddenly in 2021 out of the head of Zeus. Protean and fully formed, with billions and trillions in market caps, and all your sisters, brothers, cousins and even the Uber driver climbing aboard.
And the FOMO blog posts, where every hour an innocent reader is assaulted by a story, perhaps true, perhaps exaggerated and certainly foolhardy in retrospect, of an innocent putting their life savings into Dogecoin and suddenly having, theoretically, huge gains at their disposal.
Meanwhile, craggy faced, ancient stock market mavens would interject famous last words that now appear to be wise. However, all that notwithstanding, this week’s crash is nothing new or unexpected.
In reality, as can be seen from the graphic below, provided by Visual Capitalist, there have been so may crashes / corrections and doomsday prognostications since 2012 in Bitcoin that it seems like a miracle the there’s any thing such as Crypto at all.
There’s a reason it’s not dead and it’s in the DNA
The resiliency, far from a shock to those that have been around more than a fortnight, is kinda the point. When Satoshi Nakamoto built the system architecture of Bitcoin and since then inspired the over 8000 new crypto entities that have been developed, it was, just like the internet itself that was build to survive WWIII, supposed to be as indestructible as possible.
Like physical gold, which is considered have been adopted as a store of value partly due to its indestructibility and immutability (alchemy notwithstanding) the volatility and sometimes violent-seeming life story of Bitcoin is a necessary adjust to its role in finance, commerce and even individual monetary survival.
Not for the faint of heart, perhaps
While the mainstream and those forces opposed to the adoption or survival of Bitcoin and Crypto are out in force pointing to the “unsuitability” of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for any “legitimate” use as a trade or savings vehicle, the progress so far, in spite of the obvious fact that volatility has always been baked in to the situation, is an obvious refutation of that viewpoint.
Will the current drop in dollar values relative to Bitcoin end it’s popularity and strip it of the respect it has thusfrar earned among many? In a word, no. In essence what is happening is, as many have foretold, what happens often and repeatedly, the excess attention and dollars that were pumped into crypto by you brother, sister, cousin and Uber driver are now getting blown out, since those were more speculation and psychosis than any kind of vote for viability or permanency.
And, why not? Where was to concern, shock and hesitation by the masses when the prices seemed to only rise for weeks and even months across so many products and coins it was impossible to keep count? Why was to feeding frenzy and the mania-like piling on not ignored as an anomaly?
The herd does as the herd will do. Diamond hands and Paper hands will ebb and flow as long as the rivers flow to the sea and humans herd like buffalo. And, in all likelihood, dollars and euros and yen will be long forgotten when the last bitcoin is transferred to the final wallet in the sky.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Lynxotic does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Oregon State University Press
Lessons to how we can better listen to the wisdom of plants
A blend of scientific, indigenous and personal experiences is where author Robin Wall Kimmerer memoir will take readers as she explores the relationship between humans and nature.
Robin’s first book, was also a collection of essays “Gathering Moss“. Her Second will follow suit and dig deeper into the genre while expanding the subject matter by way of a series of personal essays. She is devoted to focusing our attention on restoring ecological communities and humans’ relationship with land.
The view that Natural resources are not unconditionally “given” and should not be viewed as property but instead “gifts” from mother nature is a persistent thread of the narrative.
“I think now that it was a longing to comprehend this language I hear in the woods that led me to science, to learn over the years to speak fluent botany.”
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Kimmerer is a botanist, teacher and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and with that pedigree she is able to write about her lessors from plants, animals and nature from both a scientific and spiritual perspective.
With her wealth of knowledge she has appeared in many YouTube videos as a guest speaker including below in “Gifts of the Land”.
We’ve provided a closer look at Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerers, along with a description, provided courtesy of Bookshop.org (and the publisher), and added some links for a variety of options where to purchase.
Braiding Sweetgrass:Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of Plants
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings–asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass–offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.
In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world.
For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
The Ice Road is the latest venture for Liam Neeson, who, no stranger to action packed thrillers, already boasts a huge list of theatrical hits including: “The Marksman“, “Honest Thief”, “Cold Pursuit“, “Non-Stop“, “Taken” and more.
This time, he’s back at it in the Netflix produced Ice fest. Neeson’s character, Mike, plays a big rig driver traveling through the dangerous icy roads of Canada. A remote diamond mine collapses, trapping workers with only a limited time to survive without freezing. Mike must lead a seemingly impossible rescue mission transporting necessary equipment needed to save the 26 trapped miners.
In a sense with plot is a hybrid of Neeson’s two most dominant sub-genres, the violent triumph of the good guy against obvious pure evil and, initially in this case, the survival hero against the odds. As the trailer shows, the evil enemy does emerge, apparently in the form of the corrupt mine company that conspired in the collapse and thereby add even more tension to the already dire straits.
Though not a surprise in terms of genre, there is a sense that Liam Neeson is pushing all the buttons he’s pushed so well before, and with a star cameo from Laurence Fishburne as the man charged with putting together the crack team of misfits to make the rescue happen, it looks like this could be another winner.
Along with Liam, cast includes: Benjamin Walker, Amber Midthunder, Marcus Thomas and Laurence Fishburne. Check out the official trailer that just dropped. “The Ice Road” will be available to watch on the streaming platform starting June 25, 2021.
If you are stuck on the word ‘fiat’ this post can help you (everyone else too)
In a single, 14 word reply to a follower (@TheRealShifo) that asked “Yo Elon what do you think about the peeps who are angry at you because of crypto?” He gave a simple answer that is the often unmentioned, yet most important, question regarding crypto vs. fiat, government issued, currency such as the US dollar.
Looking around during the ongoing frenzy surrounding crypto and digital finance you’ll see countless ‘news” stories and blog posts comparing, or pretending to compare cryptocurrencies, especially the two biggest Bitcoin and Ethereum (as coin sometimes referred to as “Ether”) and they virtually always quote the “price” fluctuations of those coins as a certain number of dollars and cents.
Interestingly I have yet to see any of these “comparisons” use the reverse valuation method, such as, “the US dollar is currently worth .00002703 Bitcoin. Can you imagine everything using that as a standard – CNBC quoting stock prices in Bitcoin, your house is “worth” 32 Bitcoins (if you’re in California, for example).
The reason this comes off sounding strange and ridiculous is that all communication related to the US dollar, which has been a fiat currency since abandoning any “backing” (such as gold) and continuing on by decree (or fiat) of the government with no backing other than than decree, also carries a decree (tacit) not to undermine it in public.
So when Elon says:
“The true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter.”
The true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter.
Simple and straightforward and yet intentionally shrouded in mystery
Musk is directly comparing crypto, generally, and fiat currencies around the world that “float” against each other. And by inference, doing so in terms of the difference between a fiat currency like the US Dollar and a crypto currency, like Bitcoin.
A fiat currency is money that is not backed by a physical commodity like gold, but instead backed by the government that issued it. Most modern currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, euro, pound and yen, are fiat money.
from Wikipedia
The term fiat derives from the Latin word fiat, meaning “let it be done” used in the sense of an order, decree or resolution.
— common Definition
The fact that Bitcoin was created as a digital alternative to fiat money stands at the forefront of that point. The fact that it was designed precisely to counter the drawbacks and dangers of a system based on fiat paper money (or digital ledgers of those paper dollars such as your bank balance or any method to keep track of how many “imaginary” paper dollars you “have”) is exactly the real issue at hand.
photo credit: twitter
It’s no secret that many attack those goals and intentions superficially and dismiss the entire discussion with a wave of the hand. They willfully use the complexity of the cryptographic solutions, at the heart of cryptocurrency, as a way to gloss over the real and substantive problems being targeted.
They prey on the ignorance of the majority to try and discount out of hand any value at all for the movement and the various products.
Opening up the door to this exact exchange and characterizing it as a “battle” in one fowl swoop clarifies and simplifies the real issues and the real reason for the existence, and according to many, including Elon Musk, the need for monetary “reform” or change via a shift toward crypto.
Opening up the door to this exact exchange and characterizing it as a “battle” in one fowl-swoop clarifies and simplifies the real issues and the real reason for the existence of, and the need for, monetary “reform” or change via a shift toward crypto.
D.L.
The “price” of Bitcoin or any other crypto currency on any given day has almost nothing whatsoever to do with that debate.
Speculation abounds but not just in Crypto
The “price” is a function of, mostly, speculation and scarcity, due, in the case of Bitcoin to the mining cap, or at least a perceived scarcity. And additionally the various perceived advantages of crypto such as privacy, decentralization, use of block chain systems, etc.
But the price is like the smoke above the battlefield, not the reason for the battle or any indicator who is winning or who is on the side of might or right.
Two major questions that arise from this tweet and the potential shift toward a clearer and simpler dialogue on crypto are the following:
Is crypto generally, and Bitcoin / Ether more specifically established and entrenched enough to withstand the coming backlash from governments that feel threatened and other status quo institutions that will do whatever it takes to discourage or even stamp out crypto usage?
Will the very battle itself, that Elon Musk says is the current “true” battle, bring even more attention to the weaknesses and problems with the current fiat money system and thereby increase, perhaps inadvertently yet massively, the size of the battle and its stakes?
Alternative systems of trade have been tolerated in the US for some time now. How are those air miles doing? What about the chips and points for perks you got at the Indian Casino? Is it too late to outlaw all crypto without causing a revolution in the streets?
The other side of the (clipped) coin
It is truly surprising to see how little is to be found in the media about the deeper reasons for the rise of crypto. How it sometimes seems like direct criticism of fiat currency is almost taboo.
Naturally any internet search will find many “rabbit hole” sources for all kinds of information critical of the current monetary system, the same system the near total collapse of which in 2008 inspired the creation of bitcoin.
It appears that Elon Musk is emphasizing, in a subdued manner, exactly the way that the nonsense-furor over huge price gains or declines is completely missing the actual point. The “true battle”.
Many stories in the media and millions of private comments are currently following a kind of convoluted logic – first the popularity of crypto (which is linked to the unpopularity of the very messed up fiat system) artificially and massively increases prices in many crypto assets.
This “bubble”, a typical outcome of human herding behavior in financial markets, inevitably bursts or sees large setbacks. Then the coin or crypto system itself is blamed for the human stupidity and greed that caused the distortions of price, just like happened in the dot-com bubble and the 2007 housing bubble and subsequent crash.
The difference is that the crypto bubble, in an interesting way, is in reality due to a surge in skepticism toward fiat currencies, a boom in the prevalence of mistrust toward governments and a combination of fear and greed that is growing, not dissipating.
Although many have rightly criticized Elon Musk’s tweets and odd Saturday Night Live appearance, and there is a kind of mini-backlash (growing?) against all things Musk, in this case it is a healthy and wise tweet that we have shown above.
Reframing, or more aptly refocusing the discussion away from prices and speculative profits and back to the real reasons that cryptos were initially created and why it has gained such massive support is a welcome shift. That this reframing comes from the likes of Musk himself, is fitting and who better to put forth a message to simplify and clarify the nature of the real “battle” at hand.
The following video has some interesting data and arguments for, and mainly against, the fiat regime under which we have lived for most of the last century. Although, in a sense, a kind of advertisement for Gold and Silver, the overview is nevertheless accurate and does not exaggerate the dangers and issues that revolve around the fiat system.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Lynxotic does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
New Braided Solo Loop & Pride Edition Nike Sport Loop announced via Apple Newsroom
Apple first launched the Apple Watch Pride Edition in 2016. The company’s unique bands have been a visible illustration of the ways in which Apple supports, and is proudly made up of members of the LGBTQ+ community. On on May 17th, 2021, the New Braided Solo Loop and announced with the subheading that it “represents the breadth of LGBTQ+ communities and experiences”.
The reactions on twitter were all over the map, to say the least. Many were sniping about the high price of the special band. Others seems to just be sniping as anti-Apple folks will do, but there were also plenty of defenders of the empire and Tim Cook himself.
Some of the criticism, sad and hilarious at the same time, was from people knocking Tim Cook as a presumably “straight-white-male” and defenders felt the need to remind them in a reply that he himself, is in fact publicly gay, giving him a different perspective on the LGBTQ+ movement and it’s importance overall.
“Apple's commitment to support the ongoing work toward equality.” More like, “ Apple's commitment to support the ongoing work toward fill up our pockets” Give the money made to a charity, then we talk.
There also seemed to be a lot of confusion over finances. The fact that there were associated donations to charities and pro-LGBTQ+ orgs seemed to be widely misunderstood or not recognized by would-be detractors. Again there were defenders who came to the aid of the reading-impaired:
There are obviously further questions people can ask about how much of the money goes to LGBT+ supporting organizations, or whether the organizations are the correct ones to support or whether there are better ways to support people.
Another aspect of the special product launch was the timing: “On International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT), Apple debuts the new Apple Watch Pride Edition band and dynamic watch face, both of which incorporate a broader set of colors inspired by multiple Pride flags that have represented the diverse LGBTQ+ community throughout its rich history.”
In case the explanatory text above was not 100% clear the following is also spelled out in the Apple press release:
Apple donates all the proceeds to International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (IGLA), The Trevor Project, and LGBT+ youth charity GLSEN.
The 2021 edition of the Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop includes black and brown strips that symbolize Black and Latinx communities, in addition to those who have passed away from or are living with HIV/AIDS.
The light blue, pink, and white stripes represent transgender and nonbinary individuals.
Cook, who in 2014 became the first chief executive of a Fortune 500 company to publicly come out as gay, also added the following:
Black, Brown and transgender activists have always been at the heart of the LGBTQ+ movement. The new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop honors their legacy and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to support the ongoing work toward equality.
Tim Cook / Twitter
Thanks for the visibility and for taking actions, so proud to have you on the LGBTTTQIA+ community 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Quotes from new book are illuminating to say the least
In a report from The Guardian, based on pre-release galleys of “Battle for The Soul” written by Atlantic staff writer Edward Isaac-Dovere, the private exchanges about Trump bore little resemblance to the public niceties and careful self-censoring that went on during “the former guy’s” disastrous reign from the Oval Office.
According to the excerpts shared with The Guardian, in direct quoted pages former President Obama slammed Trump throughout the 2016 campaign and during 45’s term in office. According to Atlantic staff writer Edward Isaac-Dovere in his forthcoming book. Obama referenced Trump as a “madman”, “lunatic”, “racist”, “sexist pig” and a “corrupt motherfu–er”.
More often: ‘I didn’t think it would be this bad.’ Sometimes: ‘I didn’t think we’d have a racist, sexist pig.’ Depending on the outrage of the day … a passing ‘that fucking lunatic’ with a shake of his head.”
obama Quoted in “battle for the soul” by Edward-Isaac Dovere
Obama isn’t the only person that has something unflattering to say about the Trump, as news that the New York attorney general’s office will be going forward with a now-criminal investigation of the Trump Organization, Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and fixer for 45 hilariously tweeted Don behind bars:
As more documents are reviewed by the #NYAG and #NYDA, it appears that the troubles for Donald #Trump will keep on coming! Soon enough, Donald and Associates will be held responsible for their actions. pic.twitter.com/nOvd7Dry81
We’ve provided a look at Battle for the Soul, by Edward-Isaac Dovere, below, along with a description, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the publisher), along with some links for a variety of options where to purchase.
Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats’ Campaigns to Defeat
The 2020 presidential campaign was a defining moment for America. As Donald Trump and his nativist populism cowed the Republican Party into submission, many Democrats–haunted by Hillary Clinton’s shocking loss in 2016, which led to a four-year-long identity crisis–were convinced he would be unbeatable.
Their party and the country, it seemed, might never recover. How, then, did Democrats manage to win the presidency, especially after the longest primary race and the biggest field ever?
How did they keep themselves united through an internal struggle between newly empowered progressives and establishment forces–playing out against a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a new racial reckoning?
Edward-Isaac Dovere’s Battle for the Soul is the searing, fly-on-the-wall account of the Democrats’ journey through recalibration and rebirth.
Dovere traces this process from the early days in the wilderness of the post-Obama era, though the jockeying of potential candidates, to the backroom battles and exhausting campaigns, to the unlikely triumph of the man few expected to win, and through the inauguration and insurrection at the Capitol.
Dovere draws on years of on-the-ground reporting and contemporaneous conversations with the key players–whether in Pete Buttigieg’s hotel suite in Des Moines an hour before he won the Iowa caucuses or Joe Biden’s first-ever interview in the Oval Office–as well as aides, advisors, and voters.
With unparalleled access and an insider’s command of the campaign, Battle for the Soul offers a compelling look at the policies, politics, people and the often absurd process of running for president. This fresh and timely story brings you on the trail, into the private rooms and along to eavesdrop on critical conversations. You will never see campaigns or this turning point in our history the same way again.
Above: Christian Bale, playing Dr. Michael Burry in “The Big Short“
The more things change, the more they stay the same
Shorting in the stock market has gotten a bad rep recently among the “WallStreetBets” crowd on Reddit, and those that were in the run-up frenzy over Game-Stop and AMC, Koss, etc. This was, for the most part, due to a lack of understanding of what shorting is, how it works and why it adds liquidity and has other benefits to markets as a whole.
Many of the crowd from that frenzy has now moved on to the crypto frenzy, which has a lot of speculators worried after relatively large drops in many of the top coins. Similar to the misunderstanding of short positions many of the speculators in crypto are new arrivals and, for a short time, had no experience of the fact that volatile, fast moving instruments, such as shares in tech companies or “alt-coins” also go down faster than slow moving investments. They don’t “only go up” as was the “slogan” for the Game Stop crowd and others at the time.
Michael Burry, the genius founder of Scion Asset Management, the firm that was chronicled in “The Big Short” (both the book and the film) which tells the story of how Burry bet against the US housing market at the peak of the bubble and experienced massive success when his billion dollar bet paid off.
That bet was, as the name of the book implies, the longest of long shots, and in the movie the skepticism and outright scorn and derision that he experienced for even thinking of taking that gamble was shown and formed the backbone of the story.
The power of that story was how a man with knowledge and experience could see clearly, even with one good eye, what millions of “experts” either could not see or were too corrupt to admit or accept.
That the housing market and the products devised to profit off of it, mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and so forth, were about to take the entire world economy to the brink of doom.
A collapse did occur, and were it not for desperate and questionable bail-outs by the governments and the central banks around the world, could have collapsed the world economy to a level that would have taken decades to recover from.
Instead this “largest band-aid” in the history of the universe has been followed up by larger and larger ones until as of the writing some 14 trillion has been created to prop up the original “fix” and kick the can further and further down the road.
Fast forward to 2021 and see where Burry sees a big opportunity now…
Michael Burry, the same man who say the end of the housing bubble in 2006 and 2007, and bet big against the one market that no one, literally no one, believed could ever go down, appears to believe that the end of the road for the current speculative bubble ( at least in Tesla stock prices) is near.
Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management has disclosed a major, half-a-billion dollar short position against Tesla Inc.
Scion Asset Management disclosed via a regulatory filing on May 17th that purchases were made for bearish put options on 800,100 shares in Tesla. In the disclosure was also the further information that, as of the end of the first quarter, the options had a value of US$534 million.
“my last Big Short got bigger and Bigger and BIGGER,” Burry said in a tweet from February, apparently referring to Tesla’s large surge in market capitalization. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” he continued.
It appears that, as of May 18th, he may have deleted his Twitter account entirely. Which, if true, may be over concerns that the SEC could have questions about the tweets, as wells as earlier tweets he made referring to other short position in GameStop Corp.
Revelations already leaked into de-classified public domain are enough to shock and amaze
Now that UFO sightings, also known as UAP (“unidentified aerial phenomena”) encounters have become too numerous and too tangible to dismiss as “swamp gas” or “reflected light” or anything of the kind, the next step is for the Pentagon to reveal much more about what it already knows. And from all accounts; it’s a lot.
Recently, for example in the CBS “60 Minutes” segment that aired on Sunday, May 16th, 2021 the growing body of de-classified data and credible accounts from government, ex-government and military personnel has been thoroughly cataloged and competently explained, the the degree that it is possible to explain at all.
In an interview exchange between CBS correspondent Bill Whitaker and Lue Elizondo, who was in US military intelligence for 20 years and was part of “what The Pentagon called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, the discussion turn to the amazing current state of publicly available information on UFO sightings by the military.
Lue Elizondo:
“The mission of AATIP was quite simple. It was to collect and analyze information involving anomalous aerial vehicles, what I guess in the vernacular you call them UFOs. We call them UAPs
Imagine a technology that can do 6-to-700 g-forces, that can fly at 13,000 miles an hour, that can evade radar and that can fly through air and water and possibly space. And oh, by the way, has no obvious signs of propulsion, no wings, no control surfaces and yet still can defy the natural effects of Earth’s gravity. That’s precisely what we’re seeing.
In some cases there are simple explanations for what people are witnessing. But there are some that, that are not. We’re not just simply jumping to a conclusion that’s saying, “Oh, that’s a UAP out there.” We’re going through our due diligence. Is it some sort of new type of cruise missile technology that China has developed? Is it some sort of high-altitude balloon that’s conducting reconnaissance? Ultimately when you have exhausted all those what ifs and you’re still left with the fact that this is in our airspace and it’s real, that’s when it becomes compelling, and that’s when it becomes problematic.”
A series of revelations that are building and increasing, not a scattered random sequence
The segment went on to interview two of the four pilots that were witnesses to an very close encounter with a UAP during a training mission with the USS Nimitz carrier strike group 100 miles southwest of San Diego, CA in 2004.
CBS News interviewed them, David Fravor, a graduate of the Top Gun naval flight school and commander of the F/A-18F squadron on the USS Nimitz; and flying at his wing, Lieutenant Alex Dietrich, who has never spoken publicly about the encounter:
“For a week, the advanced new radar on a nearby ship, the USS Princeton, had detected what operators called “multiple anomalous aerial vehicles” over the horizon, descending 80,000 feet in less than a second. On November 14, Fravor and Dietrich, each with a weapons systems officer in the backseat, were diverted to investigate. They found an area of roiling whitewater the size of a 737 in an otherwise calm, blue sea. “
The interview went on to describe in great detail the shockingly real and yet impossible to grasp behavior of the UAP and how hard it is to fathom the origin of something so advanced and so far beyond anything we can imagine as being possible to build by humans with current technological means.
‘Either or’ is a short list of what could explain the mysteries
According to various unnamed pilots, of the many that have had sometimes multiple highly corroborated and documented UAP encounters, there are three likely possible sources for these “anomalous aerial vehicles” origin:
secret U.S. technology,
an adversary’s spy vehicle
something otherworldly.
What no-one, outside the “UFO fringe element” has speculated to is the exact meaning and source of “something otherworldly” being involved, or a 4th possibility that this is the most advanced and elaborate hoax ever devised to create the illusion of an ultra sophisticated entity “watching” us.
This last completely speculative statement underscores just how unlikely it is, with this much evidence already uncovered, that this is any kind of “hoax” at all, and how that would be even more far fetched than #3 above, an “otherworldly” explanation.
Now that, since last August, AATIP has been reactivated by the Pentagon, and it’s now called the UAP task force, more information has likely been cataloged since service members now are encouraged to report any strange encounters.
In December 2020, while still head of the intelligence committee, Senator Marco Rubio, of all people, asked the director of national intelligence and the Pentagon to present Congress an unclassified report.
That report will be next major step in this building story. It is scheduled to be released to the Senate on June 1st, 2021.
Above: Photo Collage / Lynxotic / Johns Hopkins University Press
There’s a massive migration coming as the physical and political landscape changes
A gradual, subtle, yet immensely important shift is underway across the planet. That shift is the change in thinking that will be required to accompany the changes that we now know, for a fact, are coming. Global warming, sea level rise, mass decentralization and migration and many more macro trends that are no longer in doubt but will be a reality to cope with.
Taking the positive approach to this – searching for solutions to the many huge geopolitical and technological issues that we face, is a trend that must come to the front and center of our dialog about the future.
Although, it is a book more thought of as a guide for city planners and other professionals, Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities is fascinating evidence of where these forced changes could lead, and what potentials can be unlocked by the opportunities that will inevitably arise from the extreme, changing circumstances.
A great step in the right direction, we’ve provided a look at Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities, by Matthew E. Kahn and Mac McComas, below, along with a description, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the publisher), along with some links for a variety of options where to purchase.
The urban centers of New York City, Seattle, and San Francisco have enjoyed tremendous economic success and population growth in recent years. At the same time, cities like Baltimore and Detroit have experienced population loss and economic decline. People living in these cities are not enjoying the American Dream of upward mobility.
How can post-industrial cities struggling with crime, pollution, poverty, and economic decline make a comeback? In Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities, Matthew E. Kahn and Mac McComas explore why some people and places thrive during a time of growing economic inequality and polarization–and some don’t.
They examine six underperforming cities–Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis–that have struggled from 1970 to present. Drawing from the field of urban economics, Kahn and McComas ask how the public and private sectors can craft policies and make investments that create safe, green cities where young people reach their full potential. The authors analyze long-run economic and demographic trends.
They also highlight recent lessons from urban economics in labor market demand and supply, neighborhood quality of life, and local governance while scrutinizing strategies to lift people out of poverty. These cities are all at a fork in the road.
Depending on choices made today, they could enjoy a significant comeback–but only if local leaders are open to experimentation and innovation while being honest about failure and constructive evaluation.
Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities provides a roadmap for how urban policy makers, community members, and practitioners in the public and private sector can work together with researchers to discover how all cities can solve the most pressing modern urban challenges.
As can be seen in the tweet above, Elon Musk has announced that he is working with Dogecoin developers to improve system transaction efficiency. He feels, apparently that this ongoing development, an effort to improve energy efficiency, no doubt, is “promising.
This comes after both his silly kinda-sorta negative jokes from his Saturday Night Live appearance a week ago, and his subsequent announcement regarding bitcoin and issues with energy consumption (see below).
Regardless of those issues being about perception or reality, which is an ongoing hot debate within the crypto community, at least the issue of making crypto even more viable as a medium of exchange and store of value is being talked about in good faith serious tones.
This is an indicator of his highly positive attitude and beliefs regarding the future of Bitcoin, Dogecoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
PR nightmare abated and pre-empted by announcement that Tesla will no longer accept Bitcoin
In a sudden about-face Elon Musk announced that Tesla would not accept Bitcoin for its environmentally friendly electric vehicles after all. This, after the company made big news when it purchased $1.5 billion of the cryptocurrency which was revealed in an SEC filing.
In the first quarter report of 2021 the company revealed that it sold a portion of its Bitcoin and netted a $101 million profit. That number represented nearly a fourth of the reported total profits for the quarter.
An even larger contributing factor to the positive news at the time was the massive sales of regulatory credits were $518 million. In other words, profit from Bitcoin and government subsidies was basically 100% of the upside. Car sales, not so much.
Enter the massive media frenzy over the energy use “wasted” on Bitcoin mining and you have a PR disaster waiting to happen for Tesla and Musk. Naturally, clever lad that he is, it was prudent to cancel, at least temporarily the policy of allowing customers to pay with Bitcoin.
Odd thing is, there are many worse things sucking up energy than Bitcoin. And the mining will not stop or slow down because Tesla is not getting any for its cars. But the perception that there’s a “great cost to the environment” from crypto-mining is enough to make this sudden announcement mandatory from a PR standpoint.
Though not mentioned in the tweet where this policy change was announced, it is unlikely that Tesla will go forward with accepting Dogecoin, which was mentioned recently by Musk also, due to the perceived similarities in the mining process.
In the statement attached to Musk’s tweet he also states that they will potentially use a crypto currency if it can be used at an energy cost of less than 1% of Bitcoin per transaction.
This is a separate issue from the mining energy usage but it has also been a criticism that the energy expended to transact using Bitcoin is very high, compared to what is a separate question. Perception is at the root, but wanting more efficient crypto is certainly a laudable goal.
This part of the statement will no doubt lead to feverish speculation as to which cryptocurrency might meet his stated requirements.
Elon Musk’s support for cryptocurrency is, like his commitment to sustainable energy, a positive stance and, before his personal success became completely overblown, a courageous one.
Taking on the fossil fuel industry, it’s easy to forget, was no easy feat in the early days. And, similarly, the inevitable upcoming clash between crypto-adherents and governments (printers of fiat currencies) will need established eminent “super-citizens” to give crypto a chance of survival.
For that reason it is good to see that this does no represent a rejection of crypto itself on Musk’s part, but a necessary response to mounting criticism based on the perception of hypocrisy.
You can bet that, if there is a way to mine with sustainable energy sources (actually in many ways already happening) he will reverse his stance yet again.
A unique talent for choosing and presenting exactly the theme and subject of the moment, and for posterity
Above:Photo from ‘The Big Short’ courtesy of Paramount
Very few authors have the intense feeling for the “zeitgeist” that Michael has shown throughout his long career. The ability to capture the spirit of the times so well is also possibly the reason why so many of his books have been snapped up and made into successful films. Examples are “The Big Short” (Christian Bale), “Moneyball” (Brad Pitt), “The Blind Side” (Sandra Bullock), all three of these also received Best Picture Oscar nominations.
While perhaps not an author to be remembered as a high literary genius such as James Joyce or William Shakespeare, the body of work, as a chronicle of modern times seen through the lens of his minds eye is, nevertheless, substantive and engaging. While “The Big Short”, both the book and subsequent film, capture with amazing clarity a confusing period that has been in many ways glossed over, even willfully, by those that were partially responsible but never held to account.
Though it remains to be seen how the future will look back on the 2020 novel coronavirus era, “Premonition” has, once more, the same potential to become one, potentially definitive portrait, of the crisis and it’s emergence into a full blown worldwide pandemic.
Now, soon, “The Premonition” is set to be produced by Amy Pascal for Pascal Pictures, with Rachel O’Connor. Directors are slated to be Phil Lord and Chris Miller who are mostly known for lighter fare.
To make it easier a great selection of Michael Lewis’ books are featured front and center, below, along with descriptions, provided courtesy of the Bookshop (and the various publishers), and with some links for a variety of options of where to purchase.
Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis’s taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl’s science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control.
A local public-health officer uses her worm’s-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society.
A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu…everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.
Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.
The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn’t shine and the SEC doesn’t dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can’t pay their debts.
The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren’t talking.
Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar’s Poker.
Out of a handful of unlikely-really unlikely-heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time.
Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms.
During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush. Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years–a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business.
From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.
Moneyball is a quest for the secret of success in baseball.
In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis follows the low-budget Oakland A’s, visionary general manager Billy Beane, and the strange brotherhood of amateur baseball theorists. They are all in search of new baseball knowledge–insights that will give the little guy who is willing to discard old wisdom the edge over big money. Also made into a hit movie starring Brad Pitt, Moneyball is a book that exposes human nature, and how it can suddenly be overcome when unique perspectives lead to innovative choices.
When we first meet him, Michael Oher is one of thirteen children by a mother addicted to crack; he does not know his real name, his father, his birthday, or how to read or write.
He takes up football, and school, after a rich, white, Evangelical family plucks him from the streets. Then two great forces alter Oher: the family’s love and the evolution of professional football itself into a game where the quarterback must be protected at any cost.
Our protagonist becomes the priceless package of size, speed, and agility necessary to guard the quarterback’s greatest vulnerability, his blind side.
In Michael Lewis’s game-changing bestseller, a small group of Wall Street iconoclasts realize that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders.
They band together–some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries–to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you. Billions have been spent by Wall Street firms and stock exchanges to gain the advantage of a millisecond. “Is it a scam?” 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft asks during his interview with the author, It’s bigger than a scam, Lewis says.
Lewis further explains how ordinary investors are affected and argues that high-frequency traders have created instability in the stock market — for everyone. A reoccurring metaphor Lewis uses in his book “Flash Boys” is one of “prey and predators.” According to Lewis, the prey is “anybody who’s actually an investor in the stock market.”
Michael Lewis’s brilliant narrative of the Trump administration’s botched presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed.
The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works.
Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original papers that invented the field of behavioral economics.
One of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, Kahneman and Tversky’s extraordinary friendship incited a revolution in Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. In The Undoing Project, Lewis shows how their Nobel Prize-winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality.
What you didn’t even know you needed: a zombie heist movie!
Director Zack Snyder has been hard at work. As most are patiently awaiting the upcoming “Justice League” movie to drop on HBO Max on March 18, 2021, another entertainment gem has landed on our laps.
Now “Army of the Dead” is here and will follow to an online audience on May 21st after first going for the live in theater crowds, newly legal across the USA.
The initial theatrical only stint will be the widest release in company history after limited engagements for Oscars hopefuls in recent years. Naturally, this has caught the attention of the entire entertainment industry
A new teaser trailer for the next action packed film by Snyder, this time for the Netflix streaming platform has dropped called “Army of the Dead”.
According to Netflix, the film will follow a group of fearless mercenaries who decide to take the ultimate gamble during a zombie outbreak in Las Vegas. The group breaks away from the quarantine zone to pull off one of the wildest heists ever attempted.
“It is a full-blown, balls-to-the-wall zombie heist movie, so it’s genre-on-genre in a great way,” Snyder told EW.com. “So you expect pure zombie mayhem, and you get that, 100 percent. But also you get these really amazing characters on a fantastic journey. It’s going to surprise people that there’s a lot of warmth and real emotion with these great characters.”
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The movie will be released to stream on Netflix on May 21, 2021, with plans to make the film into a franchise in the form of a prequel anime series.
Starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Matthias Schweighöfer, Tig Notaro, Nora Arnezeder, Hiroyuki Sanada, Raúl Castillo, Michael Cassidy, and Garret Dillahunt.
![Collateral Beauty - Official Trailer 1 [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dpFyds_pS2E/hqdefault.jpg)
