Saturday, 23 September 2017

Loosen the (Mega)Reigns

Thanks to SportsPicksSystem for this recommendation: 

Since you asked. I would advise you the electrum wallet (https://electrum.org/#home) which is a light wallet (no need to download the whole blockchain). This wallet can also be recovered with a 12-word passphrase in case your computer got corrupted (a wallet is just a file).
For an exchange I use Kraken (https://www.kraken.com/) which asks you for personal information (anti-money laundering). The service is working as expected. Fees 0.26%.
At $3,770, I'll not be a buyer, but one of the more interesting markets to keep an eye on. 

One of the blogs on my prestigious blog roll is that of Megarain, who opens his latest post with these words:
I am still here, but, am genuinely getting more enjoyment from non-internet based activities, and have accordingly, greatly reduced my social prescience, and thus the blog has suffered.
The world is still an odd place, we have a President of the United States, whose own biographer, in 'The art of the deal' finds it hard to find more than 2 redeeming qualities in him - yet, the US stock market is at an all-time high, nuclear warheads are tested, with bravado, and the climate appears to have become more severe.

Some of this is just fluff. Gamblers tend to be incredibly narrow-minded .. and consider, just, what can help them, find and develop/mine an edge. This is fair enough, but, at some point, maybe a more balanced approach is needed, and we need to take a more active role, in what is actually happening in the world. But, u probably don't want to hear this .. so, will reign myself in.
I'm not sure how old Megarain is, but that there is far more to life, and that there are far more important things in life, than chasing a small and likely short lasting edge, is an observation from someone with some experience of life. 

As for Trump, I'm surprised that his biographer Tony Schwartz was able to find two redeeming qualities in him. His latest NFL related outbursts are those of an out of touch dotard (new word, learned it this week). 

Suggesting that protecting players from brain injuries and the life long problems they are causing is "ruining the game" simply showing how out of touch he is. Concussions and CTE are serious, life-altering events. The game will cease to exist if this issue isn't addressed, and Rugby will take over, which would actually be a good thing. Trump 's input is ill-informed at best.

More controversial politically were his comments that the NFL should fire players who exercise their right to kneel during the national anthem, and calling them "sons of bitches". Perhaps not the most presidential of speeches. 

Main target Colin Kaepernick's Mum (Mom) had this response:
Interesting and disappointing that at least seven NFL owners donated $1 million to Trump. A perfect opportunity for all NFL teams to express their support for the right to express an opinion and "take a knee" tomorrow, especially those of the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, Washington Redskins, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Jets and Houston Texans. OK, so the Rams have already played this 'weekend', and the Cowboys are the Monday Night game, but you get my point.

Also sports related, and after hearing that Steph Curry (of the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors) would not be attending the White House, Trump withdrew the invitation! 

"I quit!". 

"Too late, you're fired!". 

All very childish and pathetic as are many of his Tweets and comments. Aren't there more important things going on in the world than getting peeved because someone doesn't want to come to your party? Perhaps that Russia is known to have hacked into the election systems of 21 states?

LeBron James' response was great:
Megarain says that we probably don't want to hear his views, but I do! The problem is that as much as I enjoy engaging others in person on religion and politics, the two topics we're not meant to discuss in public, as well as other topics such as climate change, which should be based on science but which has become political, I've learned that facts and evidence don't change minds. And that's a real problem. 

Where's the leadership in the UK saying "Listen people - appreciate your input on our non-binding Brexit opinion poll, but we've looked into it, and it's really not a good idea"? Or at least promise a second vote when the terms and conditions of Brexiting are actually known. Check out the excellent Marina Hyde's latest article on the topic. It contains some great lines.

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