Selection vrs Election

       The Democracy Hype

Much has been made of the potential spread of democracy around the world.  The words Pax Americana, can be heard, and might not be far off.  Democracy has become a catch all media buzz word, generally used to justify some manor of intervention. Which likely looks anything but democratic in nature.  As an American I can not deny the obviously selective nature of our desire for other nations to experience the blessings of democratic rule. The examples of support for "friendly" dictatorships by the United States would be laughable if it weren't so hypocritical.  While media outlets tout the overthrow of one regime as a victory for the people, and blow for democracy. Movements in nations with western friendly dictatorships are in large part ignored, and often these governments are receiving aid, or military backing from the US.  Leaving it painfully obvious, that as a nation we are far more concerned with our perceived national self interest than any notions of self determination, or democracy.  In the US we pride ourself on our right to vote, yet how many feel represented? How many even know how our electoral system works?  Democracy is great, one of the most amazing innovations, but like so many things context plays it's role.

     The Choice We Can't See

To serve as an elected public official can be viewed in many ways, an honor, an act of duty, maybe even a burden. The one thing for the public well-being it would best left not thought of is as a career. By the time a candidate is offered for your consideration, they have already been approved by their party, and in the days of money equals speech, the contributors.  It's not really a surprise than to see that often organizations fund both parties equally.  Call it strategic planning, or corporate governance, the effect is undue influence to put it nicely.  If you did notice, there were many on that list that did not fund both sides, which is just as telling.  When you have only two main political parties as entrenched as and pervasive as in the US, they can not be opposites, they can only be opposames. The parties never leave power, they share power, just changing the distribution. We find ourselves in a the role of child being offered choice as a balm for all the no's in our daily existence.

    Factions

 In an absolute government there can be no... equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation." --Thomas Jefferson to John Langdon, 1810. ME 12:377

"Warring against [the principles] of the people,... there is no length to which [the delusion of the people] may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore, however atrocious which may not be expected." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798. (*) ME 10:56   

Now revisit the idea that our parties never leave power, are backed pretty equally by most major corporate entities, in a nation who's currency is owned/controlled by a what amounts to a private bank.  Our two party system with elections, is seeming to offer less and less of real choice.


As always, make up your own mind
Jack
aka
PansyBard

B Movie Plot? or Hidden History?

          That is Just Ridiculous!

     From nazi's on the moon, zombie nazi's, alien nazi's, one might argue nazi's are more popular now than ever. Who can argue, they do make a bad guy not many would be willing to defend.  In the world of political correctness casting hero's and villains can be a minefield.  Enter the nazi's, a group so heinous, and dripping with the style of threat, and menace, and little to no current public representation.  For most the nazi threat disappeared with the conclusion of WWII, or shortly after, the known truth is much more complicated, and uncomfortable.  One that may not yet have been fully written, let alone fully told.  So what might my personal nazi b movie plot look like?

          Jumping the Shark

     Since I'm going for camp, I figure why hold back, something along the lines of  "Rise of the Alien Nazi's", or "White House Nazi", maybe even "Nazi, Slavers, from Outer Space".  The plethora of conspiracy theories combined with the sad twisted history, are so ripe with possibility.  Why not go for the grand overarching take over the world. It can't be true anyway, right?  Not so fast, some of the most outlandish do have at least partial basis in fact.  While it is true there was a public push, and show trial hanging some high ranking nazi's,  many more nazi's simplely reinvented themselves, with the help of various intelligence agencies.  The US had operation paperclip, operation alsos, and project ticom to grab as many nazi assets as possible. ostensibly to  keep them from the soviets. What of the people that were nazi supporters, or sympathizers that were in the US.  As laid out in much research american supporters of fascism, or Fascism Support Hitler US.  Backed up by a historically forgotten coup attempt, involving names almost everyone would recognize today.  Sprinkle with a dash of Tall White's control America, and we really got a fun story of historical intrigue.

        Tall Tale

     How might a rough outline of this fantastical alternate history farce look?  Well how about we take a look.  Likely we'd flash through some real history leading up to and through the war, slowing briefly to highlight some prominent figures.  Leading to a slow revelation of the alien backing of the nazi's, leading the US not to recruit the nazi's to counter the soviets, but initially to oppose the aliens. Cut to the Byrd mission operation highjump played out as a loss, and agreement to work with the Tall Whites.  This new shadow organization initially made up of portions of the intelligence community, and the military industrial complex, guided by the Tall Whites.  This group has no moral guiding compass easily shown through US foreign assassinations, 1960s era of assassination, or CIA drug involvement.  Of course we have to highlight some of our key players, tying our supposed villains to the cause.  A few well placed dramatically sinister scenes with loads of creative license, linking the Bush family as central players, in not just JFK, but all of the 60's removal of opposition, and various nefarious doings.  Being certain to add in social engineering, hippy movement, and ultimate takeover of media ala operation mockingbird. As if this were not enough, we'd also need to breeze through the economic changes.  So now that America has been taken over by alien nazi's, who is our hero?  Well why not just go all the way with our farce, and make The Bush family also be the hero's, protecting the human race from outright enslavement, or elimination at the hands of the Tall Whites.  Perhaps we make a story where the truth is so bad, that even an ugly lie is preferred.

as ever, make up your own damn mind
Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Is it Money?

This is a United States one dollar bill, it has been, and is many things.  If you have lived on planet Earth over the last couple of hundred years, than this piece of paper has affected your life.
If you have grown up in the United State, you have been told a story of how breaking the grip of monarchy has made you free.  Omitted from this narrative has been the story of the dollar, and how the war for it's control, has created invisible shackles of economic entrapment.  While it is beyond the scope to offer a complete historical account in a blog post.  I will instead hit some high points, and show how our collective misunderstanding of money, currency, and economics has left our continued freedom in doubt.

No More Kings:

    Yes the revolution was fought for the right to self determination. In other words to wrest control of the fledgling colonies from english rule.  This in part involved the physical arm of rule, the King, military of Britain.  Another aspect was the power to create currency, not create money, as I will show later these are not always the same.  The colonies had been using a self created currency to allow for trade amongst themselves, called colonial script, much like the paper money we use today. This had the effect of a healthy growing local economy, it also had the effect of cutting the Bank of England out.  By this time control of the bank of england was not in the hands of the crown, but had already transferred to private hands.  As evidenced by numerous passages from the time, they were well aware that this amounted to a hidden tax on all trade.  A hidden mechanism that ensured the transfer of wealth from the colonies to Bank of England.  As well as ensuring a method of control beyond force of arms, much like a parent might manipulate a child through monetary controls today. Well documented is the victory over the physical control.  When it comes to being governed through control of currency, we lost, so we do not hear about it.  Like any conflict, the history is written by the victors.  Once the physical conflict ended, the economic conflict kicked into high gear.  The First Central Bank of America was chartered in 1791, backed most famously by Alexander Hamilton, and opposed by Thomas Jefferson.

This Means War:

When the charter for the First Bank of America expired in 1811, and fueling the ignition of the War of 1812.  This conflict was fought all over the Globe with many varied participants, it ended in 1815. In 1816 the Second Bank of America was chartered, by James Madison with the promise of controlling inflation that had been created as a result of the the war.  Lasting until it's charter was not renewed by Andrew Jackson, who had denounced it as corrupt.  It's demise in 1836 created what has become known as the "free banking era".  During this time there were only state banks, and without a plan to replace the outgoing central banking authority.  There was nothing in place to ensure economic interests were being protected.  This period culminates in the Civil War, which while it had the effect of ending slavery, a close inspection shows it was not the cause or intent of the conflict. This conflict from a banking perspective culminates with the banking act of 1863. Which set up the national banking system, ending the free banking era.  This framework was exploited repeatedly to push forward the need for a central lender of last resort.  The final push of instability known as the panic of 1907, prompted the push for a lender of last resort.  After the failure of the Aldridge plan, The Federal Reserve Act was adopted in 1913.

The Beat Goes On:

Once The United States entered WWI, which had much of it's underpinnings found in the railway running from Iraq, to Germany, redrawing the economic power structure of europe,  The fledgling Federal Reserve became the issuer of the bonds used to finance US participation.  Post WWI, the Fed, was able to cement it's power to create and destroy the nations currency, under the leadership of Paul Warburg.  It proceeded to institute a series of policies creating booms and busts, leading to the crash of 1929.  At this point the United States is effectively bankrupt, the years following known as the Great Depression find their conclusion in 1933 and the New Deal.  This had the effect of holding all future generations responsible for the debts incurred by their parents, and grandparents. This was also when the US began to exit the gold Standard. FDR in 33, making it a crime for US citizens to own and hold gold bullion.  Once the gold had been confiscated the government price for gold was raised to $35 an ounce.  Enter WWII, which of course also, aside from having the highly emotional, and publicized drive of hate. The atmosphere which fostered these attitudes, had roots in the harsh economic penalties placed on Germany with the treaty of Versaille.  Post WWII, at the Bretton Woods conference, the dollar was established as the world reserve currency, with the Federal Reserve guiding international monetary policy in 1944.  The dollar becoming the world reserve currency had the effect of placing a hidden a tax on all trade settled, payable to the Federal Reserve.  This held relatively steady till 1971 when Nixon removed final ties to gold.  In it's place had been engineered what has been called the petrodollar.  The United States had engineered deals with the opec nations, to only accept dollars in exchange for oil.  Thus maintaining the need for all other nations to continue to use dollars to settle international trade.  This final decoupling of the dollar from gold, just solidified the identity crisis paper currency has had forever.

It Never Was Money:

Paper currency, even when backed by real money, never was, and never can be real money.  It is at best a representation of money, and that only while it is directly backed and exchangeable for real money.  Currency is money when it is made out of money, like silver, and gold coins.  In 1974 when Ford lifted the prohibition against American citizens owning, and holding gold bullion.  The minds of the people had already come to think of the paper as the thing with value.  To make things really simple, money is what people turn the currency they do not need for day to day living expenses in to. Currency on the other hand is the accounting tool. It measures how much an economic system owes you, or how much you owe it.  This basic misunderstanding has been used to ensure, the masses remain in perpetual debt, and considering this debt to be wealth.  Understand, this is not about enslavement on an individual basis, how much or little an individual participates is unimportant.  This about dependency on a macro level.  If you want to partake of the benefits of the system you automatically participate in sustaining.  There is a reason gold is considered money, even when it is obviously not currency, and the same can be said of silver, and many other tangible assets.  They hold value over time, and are exchangeable for currency everywhere.  Being key aspects of money, the dollar obviously does not fit, having lost over 90% of it's value since 1913.

Now and Forward:

What are called fiat monetary systems, with interest on currency creation have a mathematical life span.  This kind of system is in essence what is commonly referred to as a ponzi scheme.  It is also the background push behind the infinite growth idea.  The interest attached to every dollar created is a hidden tax, or wealth transfer. As long as the economy as a whole has a growth rate ahead of this interest no one is the wiser.  In 2008 this system reached a mathematical break point,  Interest rates now have to remain at near %0, along with passing around a series of currency printing. The ironic thing being with the suppressed interest rates this new currency does not enter at the bottom. Instead it directly goes into whatever will provide a return. This continues the decoupling of the top from the bottom started in the 80's, as well as lowering the currency velocity.  In the simple terms, this is the time of the monopoly game where 1 person owes everything is only a matter of dice rolls from attaining all the paper.  Alternately if interest rates are allowed to rise even above 3% the US government can no longer afford to borrow the currency it needs to function. Even at 0 interest, anyone can notice the debt has already gone parabolic, doubling in Obama's presidency this is likely to accelerate.  This broken system, will than be offered up as a failed idea, with fiat currency being shelved as evil.  Only nothing will be changed, the alternative gold backed currency will be just that. Gold backed, a representation of money, with debt still attached to it's creation.  Perhaps if done correctly what has been used to secretly enslave, can be used to ensure a move toward ultimate freedom.  

Solutions:

1: Nationalize the Federal Reserve, ownership to be a trust made up of ever citizen of the United States.  It's books to be publicly available, to ensure it's transparency. The fed would still be responsible the management of the currency. As well as the IRS, you still have to pay for services if you desire to have services. This is not as bad as it sounds in an a working system.

2: No interest on currency creation, this is so big it gets it's own.  Currency being different than money is only created by the Federal Reserve.  Money is not created, it's value being intrinsic.

3: End fractional reserve banking practices. This is actually covered in only the Fed creating currency, being in essence a mechanism for creating currency from nothing.

4:  End Corporate personhood, along with currency being considered speech.

5: End Currency speculation, currency is to facilitate, and encourage productivity, and trade.  Speculation only distorts the purchasing power.

These of course are not complete, or do I believe they are the only fixes.  These are small moves that would be steps on the way.

As always make up your own damn mind

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

App: Idea Auto Surround Sound Setup

    Just a quick one today.  A friend started talking about wanting a 3d microphone. Which being a bit high at the time sent my thoughts racing down how a thing like that would work.  Quickly returning the though of triangulation of the sound using the know quantities of the speed of sound, and the distance between the microphones.  Those are all you need to calculate where a sound originates, Once here it was easy to imagine listening to your favorite performance as if you were sitting in the middle of it.  Being able to point to a location in the room and say thats where the guitarist is standing.  Of course the recording is only half the equation, and my natural tendency toward playing devils advocate was only to happy to point out. Without a surround sound system correctly set up the effect would be diluted, or dispelled completely.  Crap this would for sure limit the appeal, I mean getting the settings right is the biggest pain in the butt for surround sound systems. That was when it hit me.  Take that same concept, and reverse it.  Make a smart phone app that has access to the microphone, and the settings and playback on the surround sound system.  The app plays a series of tones through the speakers. So the phone tells the surround sound systems to play tones out of the speakers, knowing an approximate direction to expect it from. The app tracks the time between when it triggered the tone to play, and when the mic heard the tone.  With that information the app can get a location, and adjust the settings for that to be the sweet spot.

As an aside, Many economists despite mainstream reporting of economic recovery, continue to warn of pending bubble collapses.  Now for the most part these types of events have little impact on me directly.  That doesn't change my curiosity involving this pseudo science governing our lives.  The main question asked over and over is when.  Not that I believe you can figure out the exact when, but there is a way to figure out a last possible date.  The math for when the system itself can not function, This would give you a collapse by date.  Of course it would have to be run regularly as the date would shift as policies are enacted to stave off the inevitable.  There are some known qualities, and well understood correlations.  Things such as, there is a cap on the maximum interest rate the federal reserve can set, before the US government can no longer afford to borrow the money to keep running. My understanding is this is currently about 3%.  There is also a predicable point where if the currency velocity drops below the system grinds to a halt.  Even the slow down in currency velocity is predictable, as the wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, the velocity of course slows.  These would give a great start point for the math certain end date, almost like the doomsday clock.  The other side is psychological, as people lose faith, the systems breaks down.   This is going to be tied to large indicators, that may or may not be an accurate reflection of economic health,  This does not make them any less predictable.  Such as, with compounding interest, there will come a point when people are unable to pretend anymore.  A mass holy crap, that can never be repaid, related to the rate of the debt increase, which is speeding up.  You can get the psychological by looking where it has already happened.

As always make up your damn mind

Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

Fiat Currency, and Greece's EU Exit

           There is much ballyhoo made about the US dollar being backed by nothing but faith.  While it is true there is no material resource, gold, silver or the like acting as backing.  This does not mean it has no backing at all, only that it not resource based.  The truth as is so often the case is stranger than the fiction.  Fiat currencies in general are backed by the governments ability to tax it's citizenry in the future.  This is partially true for the US dollar, but the dollar has another backing, oil.  As I said a resource does not directly back it. Meaning you can not go to your local bank and trade your dollars directly for oil.  What we did was much more insidious, and far less noticeable to the everyday person.  The US made deals with the opec nations to only sell oil in dollars, ensuring the dollar would be in high demand.  Fiat currency is not the real issue at hand, as I've stated many times, if your going to use a currency system fiat is the only way to go.  Resource backed currencies always run the risk of the resource being cornered, altering the value of the currency.  Our problems with the global financial system are more foundational.  Currency creation being held not by the collective, but by private organizations, who than attach interest onto the creation of said currency.  This starts the cycle of fiat currency being treated as a commodity.  This speculation on what is essentially an accounting tool, distorts the real world purchasing power of the currency.  These combine quite nicely with fractional reserve banking, an other distorting effect.  Fiat currencies may be many things, legal tender, banknotes, and the like, one thing it is not is money.
          There is no way for Greece or any other nation within the EU to fix their economic woes while remaining in the union.  What we see taking place across the EU is a direct result of the structural issues of a currency union without a political, and/or a fiscal union accompanying it.  The rise of debt amongst the EU nations being shifted to the troika(EU, ECB, IMF) is about centralization of power. Greece was saddled not with economic relief, but loans, and policies that would ensure the loans could never be repaid. All Greece need do is exit the EU, bring back their own currency being printed by the government, not the privately controlled central bank.  This would allow them to internally jump start the flagging production, as well as lower the prices on Greek exports.  For a real recovery, look to Iceland.  For those saying the Greek's entered the debt, and must pay it, is just propaganda silliness.  We live within a debt based system, and most of these debts never have any reality other than on paper.  Add to that ideas of compounding interest, and debt transfer from private to public, and suddenly they look less and less legitimate.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Living in the Current Sea

         

Toes in the Water

         Once again I'm going to talk about money, and currency, things I find fascinating, frustrating, and generally misunderstood.  Money is anything that stores value, and is widely expungeable, meaning it's easy to trade.  This makes almost any object money of a sort. Currency on the other hand is often not money, Fiat currency is never money, yes I'm saying those pieces of paper people seem so enamoured with are not money, though they are currency. So what does this mean on a practical level?   For many nothing, they will not make the distinction, and will have a confusing relationship

with what has become an essential tool in an increasingly complex global civilization.  Others will quickly grasp the concepts and see myriad ways to apply that understanding for individual advantage. Still others, myself among them come to a rather uncomfortable realization, at the core of many "conspiracy" tale.  Private central banks of issuance in a fiat system have come to own the world.  Crazier still, with how the systems have been set up, future generations taxes have been promised to pay for "borrowing" of the present (I used the quotes there due to borrowing requires something to be transferred).  So the productivity of future generations has been promised as collateral for infinite "borrowing" power in the present.  We hear screams of out of control debt in a system where no currency is ever created except through debt.  There is a valid reason for this, we are in many ways a bipolar system.  On the one hand coldly rational, on the other fluidly emotional.  In pure fiat systems, being backed up by nothing other that acts of faith (laws, continuity of government, that the sun will come up...tomorrow), perception is often more important than the hard figures.  When fiat currency systems reach numbers people start to view as unrealistic, it triggers a cascade collapse. This of course is an emotional event, not a mathematical event. In a purely math sense a fiat system can expand infinitely.  So if debt is the basis of the system, yet to much debt crashes the system, what we have is cleaver tight rope act, of keeping enough debt being retired, or payed off, with a constant supply of new debt being created,  Issues begin when you start to add in ideas of fractional reserves, leverage, interest, and speculation. Before I get on with a visualization of these concepts, lets take a quick stab at some of those issues.

The Waves

          Fractional reserves, and leverage have much in common. Each act as force multipliers to steal a term from military strategy.  In fractional reserve it allows for the lending of thing that do not exist. In simple terms, it lets a bank hold 1 dollar, and lend out 10. In a similar fashion leverage allows 1 dollar to pretend to be 10.  These both create distortions in the Current Sea(more on this later), or economy,  With the bank there is never any risk when using a fractional reserve system.  Banks do not lend any money out, when a loan is created new currency is created, supposedly fractionally backed by bank money.  This newly created currency has a life span of the loan, and it's value is in it's tie to house, or car, business it was originated for.  Leverage distorts the current sea is similar ways by creating an artificial increase in total number of units making up the complete current sea.
Though it does so in a different manor. Using leverage you can take 1 dollar, put it up as your risk, while you use 10 dollars to speculate in some market, or venture.  Leverage is generally a short term loan so to speak. often lasting only the day.  This is tied in to the ideas of margin,  Margin calls have, or the act of calling in all loans due, is how our system has repeatedly transferred real wealth to the banking interests.
         Interest, or usury, especially compounding interest might be the single biggest factor in turning currency from a tool to support the development of humanity, into a tool to enslave it.  As already pointed out if a fiat system our currency has nothing physical backing it, and is only brought into being through creation of debt. This sets up the need for what has become known as the infinite growth paradigm.  Essentially, if you borrow 10 dollars today cuz you need to eat, and promise to pay it back in a week with interest here is a simplified version of what takes place.  You go to a bank, and ask to borrow 10 dollars cuz your hungry, you say you will have more currency in one week, and pay it back in full at that time.  The bank says sure, but, you have to pay us 11 dollars.  The bank than types 10 dollars into a computer letting the current sea know you now have access to this newly created energy.  Ok so at the end of the week you have used the 10 dollars, and go into the bank and hand over 11 dollars just as promised, sounds ok right?  On a closer look this presents many problems.  As soon as those 10 dollars are created, the value, or purchasing power of each existing dollar is reduced. The 1 dollar of interest was never created, so must be taken from somewhere else. This where the enslavement comes in. where that effort it takes you to generate that dollar  is taken from you. In basic theory the interest is the banks "profit", in reality it's much different.  As the dollars did not exist until you asked for them, and you "paid" the loan of those phantom dollars with dollars obtained from another source, be it your work, or a loan from another source, or whatever, the whole 11 dollars is pure "profit" with zero risk, all at the stroke of a few keys.  This also creates a system where all currency is not created equally.  Currency created at lower interest rates becomes much more powerful, and desirable, as it can be used to for speculative purposes with a higher rate of return.  That might seem complex, but really it's fairly simple, if a dollar is created with .10 cents of interest attached to it, or a simple flat 10% interest rate, that dollar starts out with a value of 90 cents. Where a dollar created with .20 cents of interest attached with start out with a true value of .80 cents. Not to tough to see, how these hidden differences in the values of the same currency can  be exploited by those with access and understanding.  Another distortion occurs when the interest rates are manipulated, causing misallocation of currency, along with a changes in the currency velocity. When interest rates are held artificially low, currency pools as the perceived risks of "lending" it outweigh the potential returns, as well as higher returns are easier to find in speculation of growing pools of currency that new real world productive endeavors.  When interest rates are artificially high than the speculative investment moves into making loans. Causing the currency velocity to soar, but increased risk in the nature of the loans made. Many other issues exist in interest being attached to currency creation, just look into the history of usury.
      Lastly, before we take a look at the idea of the "Current Sea"  lets look at at how speculation warps, and distorts our whole economic system.  First off there is a difference between speculative, and productive investment.   Productive investment has real world attachment, and purpose, for example a community coming together to be sure the farmers have enough seed to provide for food needs, or even providing the currency for research and development of new technology, or advancement of medical understanding.  Productive investment carries a risk to the currency invested, but the pay off is not in a return of currency, but produced item, or resource.  The flip to this, speculative investing is purely done with the intent to generate more currency for the investor.
 Productive investment adds to the well being of the whole, multiplying the beneficial effects of new development by pooling the resources of a group, and directing the flow of the "Current Sea".  On the other hand speculative investing is purely done for the purpose of generating more currency for the speculator.  Now it still sometimes provides currency used for productive means, and many productive investments are speculative. The real problems arise when the investing drifts into the purely speculative.  In commodities when there is no actual transfer of possession, and the speculation is purely on paper, it creates distortions in value of products people rely on for daily survival such as food, and water.  When currency itself is allowed to become a speculative commodity, the potential distortion to the purchasing power of the individual units of currency can be catastrophic.  Basically each dollar used to bet on the future value of the dollar distorts the current, and future purchasing power the everyday person uses to sustain their daily lives.  Pure speculative investment is a tax, plain and simple it creates no value, instead stealing value from whatever it infects, kind of a parasite, on the productivity of the whole. So how can these be avoid, while still allowing for the benefits or fiat currency? Just change how currency is viewed and hopefully it becomes evident.

Smooth Sailing

       I've repeatedly used the term "Current Sea" throughout this meandering, but what is meant by it? Our economic system taken in it's entirety is the "Current Sea", with the people, and corporations being the entities, and the currency being the water all depend on and exist in.  Like any body of water it has currents, eddy's, shallows, and hidden depths.  It can be likened to a living sea with all different types of entities all connected and sustained by the sea.  So pretty easy analogy, currency is the water, the life blood, or energy flowing through our "Current Sea" driving the living system that sustains us all. With this depiction in mind, apply some of the distorting ideas, suddenly some of the entities find themselves as fish out of water.  The distorting effects of our current economic systems could be likened to whirlpools, drawing in more and more currency, sucking it away from entities on the edges of the "Current Sea".  In a healthy "Current Sea" the currency flows bringing along with it all each entity needs to thrive.  This relates to the ideas of money, and currency in profound ways, true money becomes a store for currency, but not currency itself.  Currency stays in it's proper place as the life blood of productive endeavor, while money acts as a store house for the future use of

productivity.  Under the rules of the game as we now play, a central bank of issue, combined with a cartel of private banks run the "Current Sea" for the benefit of themselves.  In an ideal system the currency would be managed from the perspective of keeping the "Current Sea" healthy.  In other words keeping the currency as a tool of the people. In this type of system, the entities living in the "Current Sea" naturally direct the flow of the currency, ebbs and flows of industry come back to demand based. The rise and fall of the so called business cycle ceases, to shamelessly steal from those much more perceptive than I, the spice flows.
      I have no degrees in economics, and might be inclined to debate if any such thing is reasonable in relation to what is an admitted pseudoscience.  Our systems have been increasingly complexified in order to obfuscate it's true predatory nature.  If I need more qualification aside from having been a participant for my entire life and being capable of observation, it has yet to been brought to my attention.  I could go on and on, but I think that will have to wait for future posts.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

Once there was a Country

          All through my childhood I learned about a country.  The most amazing nation ever conceived, founded on principals of individual liberty.  Where justice was blind, and color was known properly as fiction having no foundation in reality.  A land where accidents of birth did not define a life, with people being judged on their own merits.  Where self claims of exceptionalism are met with the proper disdain, and understanding of immaturity such exclamations warrant.  A country that protected the rights of those living within it's shores, not because the country had granted any rights, but precisely due to knowing they were always present.  Where people were free, leaders were servants, and we did things not because they were easy, only that they were right.  A nation that understood unrestrained democracy was tantamount to might makes right, with a people firm in their understanding that selecting leaders is as important as electing them.
         A painful glimpse of the America that lives in my heart, and mind.  There is no self deception, if my vision of the land of my birth ever existed, it's name is long lost to the mists of time.  The United States corporate entity, and subsidiaries who control the world I find myself experiencing are another matter entirely.  No longer a nation of people occupying a land mass, but a slick pr machine to backed the might an empire the likes scarcely dreamed of.  Hundreds of bases, millions of assets, every corner of the globe in short reach.  Rome reborn, Alexander's dream come true?  It's plain to see America was slaughtered, or subjected, when The United States were born. The stamp of D.C, clearly lays out the pattern.  Ask yourself a question, If your a free person, and this is a land of freedom, than why are you policed? why are streets patrol'd?  These are words of prison and war, they have no place among the free.  Don't fret, I am not an advocate of anarchy, it is a revolution of mind, a blossoming of understanding gnawing in these guts.  Strip away the legal fictions, that have enslaved the mind and spirit, and is quickly claiming the body.  Peace is not enforced, it is disturbed, and than restored.  Officers upholding the peace respond to complaints and disturbances, not enforce statutes, codes, and regulations.  A government derives it's authority from the consent of the governed, it can hold no powers not granted by the people.  Now our politicians ask not what is right, but what is legal,   Where hatred is protected, yet openness is shunned.  Artificial shared experience engendered through the superficial connection of technology.   Trauma based mass mind manipulation, sorcery of the highest order, turned to mathematical certainty.
         Many will dismiss these words as paranoid delusional, or misguided. Perhaps they even deserve such a label, though there no sense of being personally persecuted.  Only a profound sense of a sadness as perception replaces projection.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard
         

What The F@#$ People, Are You Kidding Me!!

            As you might have gathered, today is just pure exasperation.  In the US we have been warned of growing threat to our liberty for decades. It's even quite simple to follow the warnings back to before the founding of this nation.  While I might be a charter member of the tin foil hat wearing club by many peoples standards.  I am not talking about any grand over arching conspiracy, though there are many to go around.  Our current scandal over torture is another slide toward the ideals of collective self interest.  In almost all of the warnings our leaders have given us, they seem to have this common thread,  The instances of, as well as the broad scope lead most to see disparate unrelated causation. Is this really the case or are we looking at a more fundamental challenge to individual expression?  To answer this we might need to take a step back at the principals the US government were founded on.
          The most basic idea drilled into school children has been the separation of powers, or checks and balances.  Three branches, with the press being the public check on the system as a whole.  No one branch being afforded a dominate position. Extend this idea to a nation, or the planet, and suddenly a new picture emerges.  Oppression, exploitation, and genocide, repeated through history. One groups collective self interest being used to justify all manor of horrors, perpetrated on those perceived as other.  Even taken to the scale of humanity as a whole, the dangers of unrestrained collective self interest are apparent.  This is something that was well understood by the founders of the US, corporate charters were for short duration, and to be renewed the public benefit had to be shown.  The alteration of these ideals was not done in your interest, or mine.  Now we have gotten to where corporate entities have become almost super beings.  Wielding influence over aspects of everyday life most can scarcely imagine.  Enacting policies even to the detriment of those employed by the corporate entity.
         A bunch of gobbledygook to get to, the purpose of any governing body is not to govern it's people, It's to protect them from being governed by anyone, or thing aside from their own conscience. To ensure the liberties we all see as our birthright are not infringed.

Is that the government we have?


Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Endowed by His Creator

           Hello again folks, today I'm gonna talk a bit about the concepts of rights, privileges, and where these are derived from.  I'd like to start by stating clearly I am not a constitutionalist. The constitution while a wonderful document was not written to set out my rights. It was to outline, and limit the powers being granted to the created nation.  When it comes to an actual free people their rights can in no way be limited, or by definition it would make them not free. The rights of free people are not even laid out by the bill of rights. These are limitations being placed on government and it's agents to ensure the protection of the individual.   Before I continue I must say these are thought experiments, I in no way advocate or endorse any actions or behaviors.
         So what is a right? According to legal dictionary in constitutional law rights are broken into three categories natural, civil, and political. Natural rights, this is an interesting concept. It's a continuation of the idea, there are rights inherent to each that derive from a source beyond all human influence.  So what does this mean practically, and why is it important?  When it comes to being in a society this may be one of the most important concepts ever put forth.  Through this idea is an acknowledgement that you as a natural person have rights that can not be taken or surrendered as they are inborn. So the constitution, and bill of rights had no intention of laying out those rights, but in limiting, and laying out what we the people empower government to do on our behalf.
        Has this worked? Are you free?  The founders of the USA understood that any authority would become entrenched and move to consolidate its grip on power. That in absence of rule of law applied equally to all, those in power will abuse those not in power. Try this thought experiment, imagine there were never any speed limits signs, or speedometers. Each person would drive the speed they felt comfortable driving at that moment.  As seemingly meaningless as a speed limit might seem when talking about intrinsic rights, it points to a larger context of how these ideas are viewed by the government. So obviously we are not completely free, we have freedom within boundaries, of course it must be pointed out this is all that can ever be said. Even if the boundaries are only set by nature, or physics our freedom will always have it's limits.
        Many of you many heard of that our governments have become corporations, and wonder what if any effect this has on you?  It is through this legal fiction that the justifications for the curbing of your freedoms is carried out. When you apply or register for anything with a corporate entity you are entering into contract, the terms and conditions of that contract lay out responsibilities, and privileges imposed, or granted to each party.  So when you go get a drivers licence you enter into a contract with the state binding you to conditions set forth in that contract.  Does that mean you do not need a license to operate a motor vehicle on public streets?  That is something being pushed by many, just look up the traveller vrs driver concept. What I will say is we empowered government to regulate commerce, and most use of the public roads has little to do with commerce.
        To wrap this up as I get bored typing the same ideas in different ways,  Truly free people do not ask permission, there is no authority over them to ask. They make choices, and accept consequences.
Ask yourself this, what is the purpose of government, and is yours serving that purpose?.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard 

Money is a Tool

            I'm going to talk about currency again today.  I know, I know it seems to be one of my favorite things to write about. While it might seem like that, I assure I'd rather spend my time pondering the so called deep questions of existence.  The thing that keeps me coming back to the topic of currency, and money is simple, it's at the heart of most if not all of the short comings of humanity. I'm not going to cover the history of the hijacking of the world, and I feel full confidence in saying the world. As of the the writing of this there are 3 countries without a privately owned/controlled central bank.  When you begin to look a bit behind the scenes you find a very small number of people who flat out own the worlds currency.  I intentionally did not use the word money, as we do not use money, what we use as a means of exchange does not fit the definition of money, so in using the term money you help reinforce the open lie.  Let me again state I am not anti currency, I'm not even anti fiat currency.  I actually am in favor of a currencies value being tied to the nations gdp, and the amount of currency in circulation.  Where a nation treated the currency as a utility, an accounting tool to both allow for as well as track the exchange of goods and services.  What we have is a magic trick designed to transfer all real wealth into the hands of a few.  Any nation that allows for a privately owned/controlled central bank to issue it's currency at interest will fail, this is just a mathematical certainty.
          So why do I feel this is such an important issue for the world?
It's simple really, I won't even have pets, as I do not like the thought of being a pet. With privately owned/controlled currency creation we are little better then economic chattel.  By even using the currency you help perpetuate the system. Many will balk and chafe at these  words insisting we need the system, I agree we need a system to allow for exchange to easily take place. I do not agree we need to allow a small global cartel to profit of the labor of every man, woman, and child.  Do not be fooled, if you use the currency of your nation, or union you are profiting people you've never even heard of.  Do your research learn how this system works, come to grips with the responsibility inherent in the idea of freedom.  Come to grips with the hard truths, once enough of the people point out the emperor has no clothes, we can do something about it.
           Fix the money, and many other things will fix themselves.


Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

Flag Yourself for Privacy

     Just wanted to throw out this idea.  There is a list of keywords that flag your communications as needing closer inspection.  Some of these are obvious, and most people would hardly ever use, some are pretty common, and you have likely used them recently, and often.  Here are a couple of places for this list, I'm certain it's only partial as things are added.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/reuvencohen/2012/05/26/department-of-homeland-security-forced-to-release-list-of-keywords-used-to-monitor-social-networking-sites/2/

http://realityviews.blogspot.com/2012/05/full-list-of-374-keywords-and-phrases.html

Here is my idea, it's based on the concept of a DDOS attack hackers use to bring down websites.  Instead of people actively staying away from these.  What if as many people as possible used them as often as possible.  Putting em places where they don't even make any sense. Fill posts with them, put them in sig's for forum pages, in headers or footers for e-mail.  Just blast em all over the net on a continuous basis by as many ordinary net denizens as possible.  

If they are watching, give them something to watch.

Jack

aka

PanseyBard

The Not so Uncertain Future of BitCoin

       I like many others are very excited by BitCoin as well as other crypto-currencies.  This is still true as I write this, I still see decentralization as the future of almost all things. 3d printing has the ability to decentralize production. While new developments in energy production as several fronts will potentially make anyone who desires it energy independent.  Even with this optimism BitCoin as I see it lacks future potential as a currency is limited.  It's math nature makes it unsuited to being used as such with our current model of capitalism.  There are some concepts of the nature of currency. Currency is a tool for accounting, its a method to make easy the tracking, and transfer of goods and services. Currency not to be confused with items of inherent value are only useful in the realm of issuance.  So what makes BitCoin unsuited to this task? Mathematically planned maximum number of coins would be all that is needed to see it's future is pretty easy to guess. From the much ballyhooed worlds most powerful decentralized network, to the trading of coins.
      Miners will cease operation all together when the coins are all mined.  With their exit most of the processing power of the network will go with it.  The miners those that have kept up with increase in difficulty will turn their machines to other problems, most of these are what are called asic, or application specific integrated circuit making them unsuitable to any other task.  So there will be a fork or division of the algorithm used as proof of work for mining BitCoins.  Most of the power backing the network gone it's only those trading the coins, and only when they have their machines on with their wallets open to be supporting the network. When trading coins between individuals it's the same as cash no fees, this isn't true when your using it to pay for actual items. The payment processing will take a percentage away every transaction, till the coins are pooled in the wallets of very few. The value of the ideas presented in BitCoin will be realized in the coming of the DAC a digital autonomous corporation.  This is a legal entity that once birthed into the digital world it takes on a life of it's own out of the hands of it's creators just as the coins currently do.  The difference will be these entities will provide a service and live and die on their own merits paying dividends to those active. Some I've seen ideas for are a streaming service combining torrent ideas with bitcoin ideas allowing the videos to be hosted across the network and rewarding those serving data.  We will shortly see the release of many new DAC's reshaping the digital world.
       Bottom line is the planned end of new coins will mean the end of use as currency. It still may hold value, as any "rare" item holds value. A currency though needs wide acceptance, and the amount in circulation has to meet the needs of trade. A fiat currency which by default BitCoin is, needs strict controls on issuance, and maintenance to keep the system the currency supports in motion. That is not to say I'm in favor continuing the current system prevalent in the world with private corporations issuing currencies for nations.  This leads to a whole other set of problems myself, and others have covered many times.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

Linux on an Android Stick PC

         A little over a year ago I picked up an android mini PC, otherwise known as a TV stick.  These are really fun devices.  Mine is a Dual core 1.6 ghz processor, with 1 gig of ram.  Not a bad little machine to run the droid OS on.  This has been used pretty much as a streaming content device, and at $50 it's not a bad solution for turning any hdmi ready TV into a smart TV.

        Thanks to Sean at gagetreactor for the pic, and a nice overview of this device.  What I find really intriguing about these is the power use.  This works on 3.5 volts at a fixed 6 watts, while here is a nice site that can give you a pretty good idea what your machine at home is using. Most will be over 300 watts, having both 12, and 3.5 volt rails.  Put a full version of a desktop OS on this and wow, your full home set up that you can pop in your pocket, runs on usb, this is amazing.  Like I said it sat being not much more then a entertainment stick, not a bad use mind you, I just like getting more out of my devices. So I finally got into my head to set it up to dual boot between Android, and Linux.  Having played with the Android OS for awhile now, I have come to see that most people can do everything they do with a computer right through it. Even running small businesses, and use only android.  Many still cling to the traditional desktop look and interface, and there are many things on the tech side I would have problems doing through Android.  What I found out was my device had been left in the dust, with the current versions being quad core, with more everything.  Amazing people had been hard at work, reverse engineering, and recompiling code to get a flawless working Linux on the arm processors.  Check out the folks over at Picuntu keep in mind that site is being hosted on a stick, running Picuntu.
       Using several guides, and forums big ups to http://www.freaktab.com/, and https://www.miniand.com/, the forums there are invaluable. Even just flashing the Android OS to the Finless Bob custom rom made the device like new again.  There are a few areas that really gave me fits. I want to make this a dual boot machine, and for some reason my stick will not dual boot as it should with the bootloader from the finless 2.1 release. The 1.6 release loader substituted in nicely, and dual boots nicely. A note on the dual booting, the guides all say to use the reboot app, and boot to recovery to access Linux.  Every time I do this I can no longer boot back to Android.  Sticking to reboot to bootloader solved this problem.  In a few of the guides, and a few places on the forums they tell you to make sure you use a class 10 or higher sd card.  Many will not get why this can be huge, in experimenting I have been using what I have around. This ended up being an 8 gig card I pulled from an Eris I use for mp3.  The problem is this is only a class 4 card, the transfer rates, and even the power up time cause a host of errors all related to data corruption.  While I have been able to set up Picuntu .9c rc2.2 and 3. as well as boot to a Ubuntu desktop, the amount of errors make it not practical.  So I'm going to try using a usb drive, and see how that goes at least till I can get my hands on a different sd card.

Update: switching out the sd card for the usb drive solved the stability issues. Now to get a decent sd card to try it out on.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

if your feeling generous
btc: 169rA3pQzk1KGh6HjipDYVcNsaKGJFfRQn
ltc:  LUKSpaVnZ6REFs61yG1BnpE5xTzdzje7vE
pts: Pd7xb3Q4idGiGa1iMawVuAYx42WZch1KdG

Setting up a Cloud Miner for Protoshares

          Well I've been playing around with mining crypto currencies for a few days now, did some research going in, and as I wrote in yesterdays post stumbled upon Protoshares, developed by http://invictus-innovations.com/ their approach is rather ingenious from my perspective.  After setting up a cpl dual core laptops to mine, I know the warnings.  I was actually being able to see shares being credited to my account with http://ptsweb.beeeeer.org/  the pool I chose.  It suddenly clicked and boy did I feel stupid when it did, people are not using their own machines to mine this. So I started to look at the virtual machines, cloud based computing for those of not up on the jargon.  The idea is you rent processor power, memory, the whole nine from a one of the many cloud hosting companies.  Once you set up your machine through their interface, and log into it, you can run the mining software remotely.  As long as you are making more then the cost of hosting it's profitable.  For testing, and learning I am using http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/ there are lower cost solutions, but Microsoft offers a $200 credit for a trial, and pay as you go programs so it's a safe test bed for a newbie like myself.
           Setting up the server was a breeze as long as you choose an image from the library and go through the guided set up.  I chose the newest linux, 4 cores, 7gigs.  once it's deployed and running it's time to log in.
Logging in is simple, you need a terminal client, I downloaded  http://www.putty.org/.  From the management page copy the ssh details, and paste them into the putty.  If all is well your on a terminal for your VM. Log in, this where I had to dig the memory banks a bit.  It has been a long time since I was in front of a terminal needing to know command line functions. Even though I've been doing freelance low level tech work for years, very few people knowledgeable enough to use Linux need my help. Thanks to https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=345386.0 to the folks on this forum for having the pieces there even if they were a bit scattered.  I pieced together the commands to get the miner up and running.
          Here is the list of commands I used,

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y git make g++ build-essential libminiupnpc-dev

sudo apt-get install -y libboost-all-dev libdb++-dev libgmp-dev libssl-dev dos2unix

sudo apt-get install build-essential libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-thread-dev zlib1g-dev yasm

git clone https://github.com/thbaumbach/ptsminer

cd ~/ptsminer/src

make -f makefile.unix

./ptsminer <your PTS number> <number of cores>


other then setting up the pts wallet to make sure you have a place for them to go that was it.

if this was of use to you consider a small gift

PTS# Pd7xb3Q4idGiGa1iMawVuAYx42WZch1KdG

or for BTC

Note it seems this works for intel based. so it will work on the the intel based clouds. I got one up on amd through another pool, will post the steps for that soon.



Thanks much
Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Did You Miss the Boat on Bitcoin?.....Don't Sleep on Keyhotee!!

         A couple of years ago I learned about Bitcoin, and Bitcoin mining.  I had no actual understanding of what the project was about, or how it actually worked.  I just found out enough to if I had been more cognizant of future trends I could have jumped on the band wagon.  Really I wasn't all that interested, at the time I was more interested in the idea that the vibration of the planet is increasing. So I figured if that was true there would be a way to work out what the new vibration would settle into.  I'm not going to dull your senses with a blow by blow, If you want to know more about that just ask.
        Today lets take a look at what could be the biggest thing to hit the web since well the web.  Almost all of you have some concern or another about internet privacy, identity theft, NSA spying, the works basicly.
Now what if I told you a start up has figured out how to make the traditional cyber threats individuals face obsolete, as well as how to determine fair market for just about anything you can imagine?  Sounds pretty damn amazing huh?  Well take a look at this http://invictus-innovations.com/, for all those concerned with privacy you might be interested in watching this video. Even as a low level computer tech it really helped bring into the view the big picture of what These folks have going on. Introduction to Keyhotee, for some reason blogger couldn't find that video.
        I am not a pro anything, I play. Because of that I have a lack of desire for riches in the traditional fashion.  So for me this isn't about a money making idea, it's the principles behind it that made me look closer, and the desire to get involved.  It's the concept of distributed versus centralized power in all forms.
That being said, I'm not devoid of material needs. So as I write this I have laptops mining pts hoping to make at least the minimum 10 needed to get in as a founder before the x-mas deadline.  That is a wonderful piece of marketing, the ties to the dates already ingrained, the time crunch. and making it the present you get to give all those who saw the new year coming before it was.  Wonderful.

happen to have a pts to spare lol
Pd7xb3Q4idGiGa1iMawVuAYx42WZch1KdG

Jack
aka
PanseyBard   

Does Bitcoin Have an Exploitable Binary Futures Component

       I'm gonna take a break for the day on the mystic side of myself.  Today is about something I noticed in the crypto currency Bitcoin.  For those of you who have no understanding of what Bitcoin is please check out this http://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works. Then you will need to understand a bit about how Bitcoins come into being, for that please take a look at this https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining.  Now that you have a bit of the basics, lets talk turkey.  There are at any given time only so many Bitcoins in existence, There is also a limit on how many Bitcoins will ever be made.  This combined with trade volume give you a fairly good picture of how the value of each Bitcoin is either over, or under priced. This is a pretty obvious one to one correlation.
This will give you the supply versus demand portion, this however is only half the picture.  Due to how Bitcoins are created and the rate at which new, and more processing power is added to the network constantly there is another indicator, This is the network hashrate. What this tells you is how hard it will be to create the next bitcoin, as well as how much processing power is being used to create it.  The charts for this can be found on http://bitcoincharts.com/ which has a link to http://bitcoin.sipa.be/ the latter being the charts for the creation, or mining of new Bitcoin.
      Now I do not consider myself to be sophisticated when it comes to finance. From my perspective our currencies have become decoupled from the resources being used to create them.  With Bitcoin the currency has no way to be decoupled.  So as the demand for Bitcoin as a limited edition item goes up, the price for them goes up as well.  By watching the creation side of it you can see how easy new Bitcoins will enter the market place in the next 30 to 90 days.  This will give a clear picture of how over or under valued each bitcoin is currently.  Allowing the savvy trader to predict peaks, and valleys well ahead of there actual appearance.

As I said I'm not a bitcoin or finance expert, I'm just a crazy person that sees patterns where others see chaos.  Please feel free to correct assumptions  I'm making you know to be incorrect.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

Last Call Has Sounded

I've been staying away from economics, so many people think it's so dull, and frankly I have never cared all that much for money as an abstraction.  My heart does have large tracts of space for all sorts of creatures who still believe in the dollar, or piles of gold. What ever make you feel secure I suppose.  The U.S. has been belly up to the bar of cheap cash for so long now, that people don't even know what sound fiscal policy is.  This is likely to change, and in the short term as opposed to the long haul.  Take a look at this article, and then lets take another look at the financial house of cards has been built.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-20/pboc-says-no-longer-in-china-s-favor-to-boost-record-reserves.html  not enough, then maybe this one will get ya over the hump
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/china-announces-that-it-is-going-to-stop-stockpiling-u-s-dollars

I was so not paying attention to it anymore, and it was so under the boards that I almost missed it.  Think of this now, we are printing 85 billion a month, someone needs to buy that debt, or we are going to swallow it.

Bottom line, we stop printing and our interest rates must rise, we've been trading long term debt for short term debt. Meaning we have to cycle through it ever faster. If that new debt has no place to go, and the interest rates are forced to rise then we as a nation will not be able to fund our obligations due to the interest payments rising out of control.

Again, for me, this is not a bad thing, it's just a thing. If your counting on dollars for your security, then buckle up it's gonna get bumpy.

Jack

Who's idea was this Random thing anyway?

        One of my favorite people to learn about has always been Einstein.  He seems such the tragic figure to me, working tirelessly on fundamental questions of existence to the point of only being partially functional here.  There is a quote attributed to him goes something along the lines of "god does not play dice with creation".  This is something that has in the past given me fits, Einstein brilliant enough to give relativity theory, and be instrumental in the bomb. I say the bomb cuz, lets face it once you have that one how many others do you need?  I mean come on the guys name has become a word for smart person.  So of course any halfway intelligent person is gonna use them as a measuring stick.
         Well I always came up short, not on relativity, or energy to matter conversion. I came up short on God. I could not conceive of a "God" that would not just allow for the horrors I saw, but insist on them.  The conception of randomness became a balm for a pain inflicted on my soul by my own creator.  I needed the idea somethings just happened and could not be explained in any meaningful way. Even that stops being randomness when you start to be able to see more and more of the variables.  What is true has always been true. GOD does not play dice with creation, but sure does play with the math.  Even in computers there are no such thing as random numbers, they approximate it.  In the so called "real world" events we tend to call random are anything but. We may or may not understand the totality of an event, that doesn't mean there isn't one.  So when your told you are well loved, and cared for, believe it, or don't.
       For a clearer example of just what I mean, lets take a look at roulette. On the surface this is a sucker game, and I can not deny it is, as a physical game.  Due to so many variables of a physical nature it is almost impossible to predict what numbers will come up next, as well as a skilled croupier will be become proficient enough to influence the outcome intentionally.  That being said take this sucker game into the realm of the almighty 0,1 of the digital verse and blamo suck game becomes potential profit maker.  Once in a place where random is a thing striven for, we can use that with the payouts, and table limits to slowly make steady gains. The idea is very simple, if I bet 1 credit on # 9  and the payout is 36 to 1, then I do not actually lose any money till the 36th spin, as which point instead of 1 credit, you put 2, this gives you an additional 18 spins before you have lost anything.  Of course this is a very simplified version of what I actually set up, as I was starting with the entire game board covered, and would remove them as they hit. Keeping track of the number of spins a current progression had gone, what numbers still needed to be played for the next spin, and how much needed to be bet on each number.  It seems tougher then it is, it's only a few tables to memorize and then keep track of whats hit which the machine does for you, you just take off the last one.  To tie it up, when you start a progression keep track of your credits. If you are over where you started even by a credit or 2, start over.  Believe it or not the first spin of the progression was the best.

Well hope that gives ya pause at least in thinking lol

Jack

Pirates and the New World Order

      Americans seem to have a love affair with idea of a pirate.  We romanticize them like we do the cowboys, creating a picture of a world that never existed.  They have come to represent a sense of freedom we seem to have lost in our constricted civilized world.   This got me thinking what place does the pirate have in our modern world.  When I started to look around I noticed many of our most famed or infamous have much in common with the beloved pirate.

Pirate defined

      What we get is a picture of a person that holds no loyalty to any nation. A pirate is beyond such considerations, not out of a sense of duty to something bigger then a nation. The pirate is out for the pirate. Many of our top level corporate officers, bankers, and the like are modern pirates.  They profit from off shore, paying no heed to national loyalties.

         So when I was watching the popular modern pirate epics Pirates of the Caribbean. I started noticing  there seemed to be an odd theme to the first movie.
I then watched the 3rd, looking to see if this one also had an odd overall teaching.
Not surprisingly it was easily found.  By the time I watched the middle film I was sure it would be easy to spot. Surprisingly it completely escaped me, this may have been due to being distracted.  Taken in whole these are basic guidelines for how to live a pirates life.

Curse of the Black Pearl: "what a man can do, and what a man can't do"  that is a very profound lesson for a would be pirate.  Laws do not apply to a pirate, so there is only what you are able and willing to do, and what you are unable, or unwilling to do.

 Dead Man's Chest: there is no quote from this movie that I found that aptly spells out the lesson. Instead the lesson is shown by every character in their actions. That message being every man for himself, or self interest governs all.
This is clearly shown as every character lies, cheats, and steals for their own perceived well being.

 At Worlds End: "take what you can, give nothing back" This is pretty self explanatory, and quite evident.

So there it is, if you want to know how to become pirate, live by those guidelines.

Oh and for a bit of fun, look at how our international corporations have been acting.

Jack
aka
PanseyBard

The Jobs Aren't Coming Back

            For years the back bone of the middle class has been whats called "low skill" "low wage" manufacturing jobs.  With the onslaught of freetrade agreements these jobs fled the wealthier nations, and took up residence in the undeveloped or poorer nations.  This has led toward more global equilibrium of wealth, and power. Simultaneously leading to greater income inequalities within each respective nation.  Many have noticed the jobs created are lower paying then the jobs lost. Even the jobs that currently available may not be for much longer, automation, and technology advancement may make them obsolete.
            I'm not trying to be an alarmist, or chicken little.  This could be an end of the world as they know it for some people.  Though they would of had to have been playing ostrich for quite sometime now.  Most have seen this coming for decades, if not since Mr. Ford invented the factory.  For those forward thinking people this amazing transitional period can offer opportunities unheard of even ten years ago.
          The very concepts of work, and money are changing before your eyes.

          How you react is up to you


Jack
aka
PanseyBard