tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69525453903977379882024-03-27T14:42:35.036-04:00NunaviewBias in the democratic commons. Embedded assumptions in influential speech. Editing our own story.Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-8844172927998457362024-03-26T13:32:00.007-04:002024-03-26T14:24:15.893-04:00The Financial Jargon IndustryWhen resuming more regular postings to this eclectic site a few weeks ago,
I mentioned my extended absence had been due to pretty intense contributions to
a trading and investement forum. <p> I'm certainly not about to duplicate it here,
but several people have asked where they can find that more specialized
financial feed and hence the following links. <p> The overall thread now known as
<b><i>M-33 Trading</i></b> and <b><i>The Bigger Lie</i></b> series, is a rather
fierce, deeply down-to-earth attack on the deception and obfuscation in the
mainstream, financial Press. What we call the <i>Financial Jargon Industry</i>. <p>
The commercial web platform on which the discussion first arose suspended
operations recently, so participants have moved to an independent and more
stable venue using Telegram. Those of you who appreciate investigative
journalism will recognize Telegram as a solid generic messaging tool, but also
as the saving grace that allows people living under autocratic and repressive
regimes to communicate with the rest of the world. <p> Anyone interested in
exploring the finance related topics that have fascinated us for the last
couple of years are welcome to visit the totally free sites where they now
live. <p> I look forward to meeting you there. <p>
<a href="https://t.me/P7_M33_Trading/226/227" target="_blank">https://t.me/P7_M33_Trading/226/227</a><p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-19185229759671927102024-03-12T18:19:00.010-04:002024-03-12T20:06:26.240-04:00<p>
</p><h1 class="western">NY Attorney General Letitia James Sues World’s
Largest Beef Producer</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">NY AG Letitia James deserves tremendous
credit for intent and a severe scolding for her concurrent sin of
omission.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">She correctly states that current beef
production emits the bulk of New York's environmental methane. Then
she concurrently and shamefully omits the fact the ruminants are not
responsible for its accumulation. The crime of methane accumulation
accrues to New York's soil industry and the vested interests in the
pharmaceutics and heavy equipment industries that have corrupted
those soil managers.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">The <i>methano-phagic</i> organisms that
naturally return environmental methane to the soil by default, die in
soils with less than 4% carbon. Healthy NY soil contains 7% carbon.
Most contemporary NY soil barely maintains 1%. Those essential
<i>methano-phagic</i> organisms have been destroyed by three multi-billion
dollar predatory and biocidal industries:
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<ul><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">machinery that breaks and inverts
soil to a depth greater than 4 inches;
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">chemical pesticides that finish
killing any soil organisms that survive the ploughing; and
</p>
</li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">chemical fertilizers
re-administered every year.</p>
</li></ul>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I sincerely admire AG James' courage in
taking on the powerful beef industry.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">I cringe at the cowardice, or perhaps
the intellectual laziness, that criminalizes the ruminants rather
than the predatory conditions under which they are raised.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">That omission is all the more
scandalous, nay criminal itself, when those innocent ruminants
actually represent the solution to, not the cause of environmental
methane accumulation. Ruminants freed from feed lots, returned to
pasture under regimes of skilfully managed grazing, both till with
their hooves to the ideal depth of four inches and, along with other
restored organisms, fertilize and replenish soil to the requisite 7%
carbon.
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">When Ms James re-allocates her quota of
legislative and enforcement courage to banning or severely
restricting petroleum based heavy equipment tillage, banning or
severely restricting big-pharma pesticides, and banning or severely
restricting big-pharma fertilizers, she will have graduated from
difficult, but still <i>cliché</i> logical fallacy, to the truly
heroïc.
</p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-90182404652623508062024-03-11T13:31:00.002-04:002024-03-11T14:59:08.420-04:00<h1 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> Peter7 M-33 The Bigger Lie <br /></span></b></h1><p>Greetings all. </p><p>It's good to be back.</p><p>I've been distracted by my finance related writing, much of which has consisted of volunteer contributions to a discussion group called The Arena. Unfortunately, the sponsors suspended operations a few weeks ago, leaving hundreds of followers high and dry with no warning or opportunity to backup the data. <br /></p><p>A tough lesson!</p><p>At the instigation of those orphaned <i>Arena</i> subscribers (<i>who met me as Peter7</i>), I've opened a thread using <i>Telegram</i> primarily as an index and repository for the instructional videos people had come to appreciate. </p><p>Others pushed for a <i>YouTube</i> channel instead, so I've done that as well, though I personally attend more faithfully to the Telegram group now, because it has already spawned several sub-topics in just its first few weeks.</p><p>For those of you who follow my eclectic postings here in Nunaview, I apologize profusely for neglecting it for so long and would like to make up for it both by resuming its currency and also by providing links to the new<b><i> <a href="https://t.me/P7_M33_Trading/551" target="_blank">Telegram</a> </i></b> and <b><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Peter7-M-33/videos" target="_blank">YouTube</a> </i></b>channels in case you are interested. </p><p>Those series concern <i>M-33</i>, a personal financial trading process, and a broader historical theme titled <i>The Bigger Lie</i>, which is more along the nonconformist lines you'd expect from me. 😉</p><p>I'll leave it at that for now and return here in the coming days to resume the essays that constitute Nunaview proper and renew your good company, something I've missed through the turbulent goings-on of the last few of years.</p><p>Best Regards,</p><p></p><p>pb <br /></p><p> <br /></p><p><br /></p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-74158617643986556762023-03-27T12:25:00.000-04:002023-03-27T12:25:17.733-04:00Nunaview 2023 - Investment Conference<p>I have an idea for a global investment conference.</p><p>How about we mount a Virtual Zoomsters’ Conference in <em>Connect e-Cloud</em> next time the world's fancy pants billionaires are off flashing their bling in Davos or Zurich?</p>
<p>We could invite Danilo, Daniella and Chris, the smartest investors I know on three continents, with a keynote address by the 2023 <em>Colombian Cigar Queen</em>, all on condition they keep their speeches to under 140 characters.</p>
<p>The breakout sessions would consist of 30 seconds each of absolute
silence during which we all sit and stare at each other while
desperately trying to keep from bursting out laughing.</p>
<p>Price of admission would be 7 Satoshis sent to a Nul Bucket address that nobody could ever collect, not even <em>E-long-muck</em>, sort of like those trinket trophies we put on one-way deep space probes in case they encounter extra terrestrial life.</p>
<p>The conference would conclude with a rousing standing ovation, with all microphones muted . . . except for the Colombian
Cigar Queen’s, who would thus be crowned our honorary <em><strong>Miss Mundo-2023</strong></em>, a sort of thoroughly back tested Implied Volatility score, since by then it would already be 2024.</p><p> What was the old ASCII character version of today's <i>'rolling-eyes' </i>emoticon? <br /></p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-57123793287848740352023-03-27T11:52:00.039-04:002024-03-19T09:57:42.238-04:00Social Trend versus Financial Trade - Forex Shenanigans<p>Can we tolerate a bit of crypto musing today?</p>
<p>Bitcoin's distributed and decentralised design stands in pretty stark
contrast to traditional power structures. </p><p>Consider the gaming industry.</p><p>Massively
centralized games can slip surreptitious misinformation and propaganda
presuppositions to entire populations, or generations, and do it more
subliminally than any dozen Trump-deau-ian election conspiracies or Goebbelian
propaganda regimes.</p>
<p>Yet (a) central bank interest rate
hikes continuing after economic deceleration has already begun, (b) Biden's shooting
down a few Chinese drone balloons and (c) Liz Warren's fretting about Chinese components
in G5 networks, look a lot like falling for Cold War diversion
tactics. Somebody is afraid we plebians might notice the actual war has already morphed from mere <em>Surveillance</em> Economy into fully-meshed <em>Subliminal Influence</em> wars.</p>
<p>Like the old Shakespearean adage, <em>“Methinks he doth protest too much”</em>,
Bitcoin protocol’s ability to sidestep hegemony makes the ferocity of
attacks by the Jim Jordan - Peter Schiff - Liz Warren - CBDC (central bank digital
currency) cabals look an awful lot like fear to me. </p><p>Far from labelling
BTC a mere financial Ponzi scheme, their behaviour smacks of a rather desperate attempt to disguise their panic.</p>
<p>Beginning with the earliest days of Phil Zimmerman releasing PGP into the
public domain in anticipation of pending US arms trafficking export controls and continuing until Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper, 'crypto' today is
actually in the process of exposing, not hiding, the manipulation and
corruption at the heart of
contemporary government and finance. </p><p>The ‘friction’ in the Bitcoin
execution stack lies not within the BTC protocol itself, but rather in global banking’s massive collusion against processing any
Crypto/Fiat FX pairs.</p>
<p>So, you tell me. What is the best process that allows us to trade or invest long transparency and short hegemony?</p><p> </p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-23093122932555254882023-03-27T09:46:00.006-04:002023-03-27T10:13:38.780-04:00Has It Been This Long?<p>I'm embarrassed. </p><p>First by how long I have ignored this channel.</p><p>Secondly by some pretty silly posts going back to March 27 2010. </p><p>Exactly thirteen (13) years ago.</p><p>For today, just to let any remaining followers know, I will start afresh over the coming days.</p><p>Greetings.<br /></p><p> </p><p> <br /></p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-76902427983857276622015-01-12T07:59:00.000-05:002015-01-12T07:59:05.155-05:00¿Dónde están los teólogos musulmanes?
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="es-ES">El primer
mandamiento, bien entendida, no prohíbe las imágenes de lo Divino,
se prohíbe pensar que cualquier imagen sea capaz de representar lo
divino en el primer lugar!<br /><br />La carnicería en Charlie Hebdo fue
una escaramuza en esta lucha contemporánea hasta la muerte contra la
distorsión del Islam fundamentalista sobre el significado de la
idolatría.<br /><br />Que sea a través de un exceso de precaución, la
corrección política equivocada, la pereza intelectual, o la
cobardía absoluta, teólogos en las tres tradiciones abrahámicas se
han convertido en colaboradores silenciosos en el epicentro moral de
esta herejía.<br /><br />Hasta que teòlogos y devotos musulmanes
desafían esta profunda distorsión en la definición de la
idolatría, la carnicería continuará y provocará una reacción
violenta contra el Islam que definirá el resto de este siglo tan
vergonzosamente como su homólogo antisemita definió el
ùltimo.<br /><br />Honor en esta guerra se destinará a los que tienen
el coraje de exponer esta idolatría en la raíz de la masacre de
Charlie Hebdo. Los mártires heroicos de Charlie Hebdo tendran
'Nouveau Résistant' grabado en sus tumbas del siglo 21.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="es-ES"> </span>
</div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-30408648724815026442015-01-10T18:21:00.001-05:002015-01-11T16:59:46.477-05:00Charlie Hebdo - qui sont les vrais lâches <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div lang="fr-FR" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="result_box"></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>(Il
y avait une profonde idolâtrie à l'origine du massacre Charlie
Hebdo, mais qui sont les vrais lâches?)</i></span> </div>
<div lang="fr-FR" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="fr-FR" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Le premier
commandement, bien compris, ne fait pas référence à des images du
Divin. Il nous défend, <i>a priori</i>, de penser que n'importe
quelle image puisse représenter le divin! Le carnage à Charlie
Hebdo n'a été qu'une seule escarmouche dans une guerre que les
terroristes livrent à ce sens fondamental de l'idolâtrie.<br />
<br />
Que ce soit par
un excès de prudence, de la rectitude politique erronée, une
paresse intellectuelle, ou de lâcheté catastrophique, nos théologiens sont devenus collaborateurs dans cette tromperie.</div>
<div lang="fr-FR" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
Tant
que les leaders religieux de toutes les traditions ne contestent pas cette profonde distorsion
dans la définition de l'idolâtrie, le carnage continuera. <span lang="fr-FR">Incontestée, cette
lâcheté catastrophique de la part de nos théologiens risque et
encourage une réaction contre l'islam en particulier qui définira
le reste de ce siècle aussi honteusement que son homologue
antisémite a défini le dernier.<br /><br />L'honneur dans cette guerre ira à ceux qui ont le courage d'exposer
la nouvelle idolâtrie au cœur du terrorisme
contemporain.<br /><br />Dans cinquante ans,</span> <span lang="fr-FR">les
martyrs héroïques de Charlie Hebdo auront </span>la désignation <span lang="fr-FR"><i>Nouveau résistant </i></span>
gravé <span lang="fr-FR">sur leurs tombes.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span lang="fr-FR"> </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-59968518610667212002015-01-10T17:03:00.001-05:002015-01-11T16:51:05.607-05:00Muslim Theologians - get off the fence! <br />
The First Commandment, properly understood, does not prohibit images of the Divine, it prohibits thinking any image
is even capable of depicting the divine in the first place!<br />
<br />
The carnage at Charlie
Hebdo was a skirmish in this contemporary fight to the death over
fundamentalist Islam's distortion of the meaning of idolatry.<br />
<br />
Whether through an excess of caution, misguided political
correctness, intellectual laziness, or outright cowardice, theologians in all three Abrahamic traditions have become silent collaborators at the moral epicenter of this heresy.<br />
<br />
Until trusted devout Muslims challenge this
profound distortion in the definition of idolatry, the carnage will
continue and it will provoke a backlash against Islam that
will define the remainder of this century as shamefully as its
antisemitic counterpart defined the last.<br />
<br />
Honour in this war will go to those
with the courage to expose this idolatry at the root of the <i>Charlie Hebdo</i> massacre. The heroic martyrs at Charlie Hebdo should have <i>'Nouveau Resistant'</i> engraved on their 21<sup>st</sup>
Century tombs.
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-29663398977537908772014-06-14T11:01:00.000-04:002015-10-19T07:34:29.295-04:00Snowden, Cryptography and Cowboy Ethics<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
A message for impudent bullies hiding behind post-World War II definitions of sovereignty.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No other society on this planet was
more fiercely protective of neighborhood privacy than the American frontier.<br />
<br />
At a time when distance and isolation bred distinct and even wildly eccentric
personalities, if one rancher lost his barn to desiccated prairie fire,
every man's uncle from a hundred miles around showed up, unbidden,
tools and materials in hand, ready to rebuild that barn within days. An extremely rare crossing of borders. Uninvited. Preemptive. Essential to survival.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There was one other exception. Even more rare and even more fierce.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If word got round that one of their number was routinely abusing a
mother or sister, there would be some diplomacy in the form of a group sanction or two after church some Sunday morning. But if the abuser persisted in the bullying abuse, then quietly and rather mercilessly, the abuser would be discovered one day lying behind his own barn having been
administered the beating of a lifetime.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This wasn't vigilantism. It was just brothers and neighbors protecting the community.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mr. Obama, Mr Putin, next time you have a
hankering to travel to Ryadh or Beijing, tone
down the condescending jesuitical apologetics and ramp up a little
brotherly love. Let the world know that unconditional respect for
sovereignty was an extremely useful step while the community of
nations dialed down tribal fears and regional insecurities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
But the neighborhood
has indeed gone global. The family is Human. <br />
<br />
Edward Snowden's message to the world is that the winds of human expectation are blowing everywhere, especially when it comes to soil, air, water and a reasonable expectation of privacy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No territorial ambition involved. No more wussing about garden fences or non-disclosure impunity. Just a quiet little
message among brothers. If one of us has been secretly beating on the innocent or repeatedly poisoning the informational well, we're about to bust every tooth in his cyberface and there
ain't a fucking thing he can do about it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The global frontier.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-12823645911985439672014-06-14T10:20:00.001-04:002014-06-14T20:47:01.773-04:00Obama to Snowden<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Nixon went to China. Reagan pointed fewer nukes at Russia. Sadat flew to Jerusalem. Mandela hugged de Klerk. Bush acknowledged Aids.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Each took a significant political risk in a direction opposite to their previous leanings. Each spent immense political capital in doing so. <br />
<br />
In each case, their most unexpected move became their more lasting legacy.<br />
<br />
Now it's Barry's turn.<br />
<br />
"You pissed off a lot of people Ed. Distracted me from my entire second term agenda. But in the process you seem to have handed America a possible way back to History's moral high ground. 'Nuff said? Come on home. Safe passage granted. Let's thrash this out together. All of us."<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-9391999151009315312014-06-14T09:50:00.000-04:002014-06-14T20:48:58.936-04:00Bushama<br />
<br />
<b>George Bush to Saddam Hussein</b>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;">“No territorial ambition involved Saddam. Just a quiet little message from one bully to another. You're still beating and raping your own sisters. I'm about to bust every tooth in your face and there ain't a fucking thing you can do about it.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><b>Barrack Obama to </b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px; text-align: center;"><b>Nouri al-Maliki</b></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;">:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;">“Relax Mr. Prime Minister. Just a quiet little message from one constitutional deviant to another. We're both mostly interested in fattening our corrupt sponsors and there is nothing anyone under surveillance can do about it.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;">Only the weapons have evolved.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.336000442504883px;"><br /></span></div>
<br />Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-59099809375519893722013-09-10T15:51:00.001-04:002015-10-19T07:35:24.999-04:00Syria - The hidden assumption<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
No society on this planet was
more fiercely protective of neighborhood privacy that the American frontier
rancher. It remains the consummate instance of Cowboy culture. In a place where distance and isolation bred wildly eccentric
personalities, live and let-live was the dominant social mantra.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yet amidst this fierce independence, if one rancher lost his barn to desiccated prairie fire,
every man's uncle from a hundred miles around showed up, unbidden,
tools and materials in hand, to rebuild that barn within days. It was an extremely rare uninvited crossing of borders, but deemed an
essential element of preemptive survival.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
There was one other exception. Just as
fierce and even more rare.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
If word got round among young cowboys that one of their number was routinely abusing a mother, or sister, or defenseless animal, those young men tried a little
diplomacy in the form of a group sanction or two, or even three,
after church some Sunday morning. But if the abuser persisted in his
bullying, then quietly and rather mercilessly, without further
warning, perhaps during a festive community gathering, the abuser would
suddenly be discovered behind an isolated building having been
administered the beating of a lifetime.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This wasn't vigilantism. It was
brothers and husbands protecting sisters and wives.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So Barack, next time you have a
hankering to travel to Cairo, Stockholm, Beijing, or Bogota, tone
down the jesuitical apologetics and ramp up a little
brotherly love. Let the world know that unconditional sovereignty was an extremely useful step while the community of
nations learned to deal with strangers. However, since that time, the neighborhood
has gone global. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The neighborhood is Humanity. Earth, air,
water and morality flow and blow everywhere.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So try this speech next time Putin plays holier than thou with <i>al Assad</i>. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
“No territorial ambition involved Bashir. No more wussing about property lines. Just a quiet little
message from one bully to another. You are still beating on your sisters. So, I'm about to bust every tooth in your face and there
ain't a fucking thing you can do about it.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-31677589525229398212013-08-30T20:40:00.001-04:002013-08-31T15:08:04.461-04:00George Orwell 3.0<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Architecture of Consent </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In his iconic novel, <i>'1984'</i>,
George Orwell warned that powerful special interests would one
day use ubiquitous surveillance to manipulate and exploit human
behaviour.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
He was off by a few years.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then came George Orwell 2.0.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When the US secret service tried to
deprive Barrack Obama of his private citizen's cell phone, they retreated,
not because the President overruled them, but because they were
themselves astonished to discover that, properly configured, a
Blackberry was indeed immune to eavesdropping.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
At this stage, long before Bradley
Manning and Edward Snowden,
politically and technically savvy people began putting their private
records into encrypted envelopes before entrusting them to any
electronic or digital communication service. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSFkmrOhABNs_V56D-Zv8T2faxZ5ChCbDCqgVxarAwFlVonYxLPPTo7A2cPYHmI2JmmLbdDiVH6TIQ6WVOTysCTT_j3hpUCJDIekWLvFyZdZVXFKVcWXpCXChFevMsRBiHowNK6ib5_fL/s1600/Smart+Home+Monitoring+-+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSFkmrOhABNs_V56D-Zv8T2faxZ5ChCbDCqgVxarAwFlVonYxLPPTo7A2cPYHmI2JmmLbdDiVH6TIQ6WVOTysCTT_j3hpUCJDIekWLvFyZdZVXFKVcWXpCXChFevMsRBiHowNK6ib5_fL/s200/Smart+Home+Monitoring+-+001.jpg" width="200" /></a>The first counter tremors to this trend appeared when the government of India threatened to expel
Blackberry from all of South East Asia precisely because their voice
and messenger services were <i><u>too</u></i> secure. Blackberry
Messenger was a private fortress that even state-sponsored crackers
couldn't hack. Ironically, that's when telecommunications managers the world over began
insisting that only Blackberries would be allowed inside corporate
firewalls. Inexpensive eye candy from Nokia and Samsung were to be
left at home.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Then, during the night of May 9, 2011,
Microsoft Corporation bought Skype for $8.5 Billion. Cash. The world
wondered why. When China subsequently threatened to expel Google and
Twitter unless they provided back doors to their customer accounts,
we had our answer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
George Orwell 2.03 had arrived and the
majority of ordinary citizens suddenly understood that the 'smart' in
smart phones referred to what these devices could now reveal <i>about
us</i>, not what they could do <i>for us</i>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
In a single historical nanosecond, the
veil was rent.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The forces of Orwellianism had blown their cover. They couldn't keep their activities secret
much longer. They began to prepare a <i>coup de grace</i> the
audacity and subtlety of which would amaze even the most dire
adventists of George Orwell 3.0.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The Sanhedrin itself encouraged a wave of
crypto-mathematical baptists crying in the righteous wilderness,
whom they briefly condemned as Manningian and Snowdenean
heretics, all the while secretly welcoming this diversion to camouflage their final thrust.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
During the otherwise quiet Autumn of
the year 2016 ME, with the world attending
to the bread and circus distractions of outgoing President Obama's last minute pardon of Manning and Snowden, a signal
advertisement slipped into view, hiding in plain sight.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It was the <i>last mile</i> in the long Orwellian journey.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The immense satellite and
sub-oceanic fibre optic networks that link continents and countries
were already in place; national grids linked
metropolitan areas; even the few remaining meters linking
each house within neighbourhoods had all been upgraded.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
All that remained was to start monitoring each individual room within those houses. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-O1BU2V-2mjFQRdwP0sj1IAuqBKszJ5SvCbDtsLVz1gwb1Os_drqVN1QDtSquRDd9tjz5aHmpE1J4255q5CLnETOJQTqIDtQQvkEYQi18KmFHOrDdTMPEfEoDyNbnR4p2Y43kQIBszLCs/s1600/Smart+Home+Monitoring+-+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-O1BU2V-2mjFQRdwP0sj1IAuqBKszJ5SvCbDtsLVz1gwb1Os_drqVN1QDtSquRDd9tjz5aHmpE1J4255q5CLnETOJQTqIDtQQvkEYQi18KmFHOrDdTMPEfEoDyNbnR4p2Y43kQIBszLCs/s200/Smart+Home+Monitoring+-+002.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Rogers Advertisement: "Knowing with certainty that your
kids are safe when you're not there is what Smart <b>Home
Monitoring</b> is all about. Unlike traditional security
systems, you know instantly what's happening at home using
your<b> </b>smart phone. You can actually see your kids come in the
door! Thanks to our dual cable and wireless networks,
this is a security system whose reliability you never have to worry
about. Get peace of mind knowing your kids are safe."</i></span><br />
<br />
(Embedded assumption: <i>Home Monitoring</i> is all about surveillance. Using your smart phone to access your home. Through NSA and PRISM-susceptible networks, you and your kids will now be monitored in house, with your consent, and, talk about audacity, at your expense!) <br />
<br />
The brilliance of Homeland Orwellian Preemptive Excision 3.0 is that it
assumes Main Street will '<i>choose'</i> the final implementation of uber-surveillance believing it protects their latchkey-offspring. <br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That's George Orwell 3.0. Universal penetration. Acquiescence, access and acquisition. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
"And on the seventh day the NSA rested. And its PRISM control rooms
saw to it that we were good."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The audacity of H.O.P.E. indeed!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
<br />
- - - - - - - <br />
<br />
<br />
PS: If you doubt the intent, I suggest you review the associated <i><b><a href="http://tinyurl.com/ojk2rok">budget numbers</a></b></i>. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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</div>
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</div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-66625782496226896552013-06-09T14:22:00.001-04:002013-07-09T13:29:47.332-04:00The Architecture of Consent - PRISM 2<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Sitting at supper one evening many years ago in Metz,
France, I asked a Canadian military acquaintance how he planned to
vote in the upcoming Canadian federal election.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
"Same way as last time", he replied rather
curtly.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
"Yes but how was that?" I ventured.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
"For the retention of the secret ballot!"
he growled.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
I looked up sharply from my supper plate expecting
some sign of humour, but found myself peering into the cold, almost
belligerent stare of a man who had killed other men and survived
attempts on his own.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
He had nearly been killed flying Spitfires in Malta
in 1942. He had faced the Viet Cong and been shot at again while a
member of the Truce Commission in Viet Nam in 1956. Now (1962), he
was the senior intelligence officer for the RCAF in Europe as the
Berlin wall went up, the Cuban missile crisis was in full swing, and
DeGaulle was being threatened with assassination by elements of his
own military for pulling out of Algeria.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
There were two legitimate monopolies in democratic
society at that time: the armory, and the mint. They controlled the use
of military weapons and the right to print money. Yet here was a
soldier telling me he was willing to lay down his life, <i>willing to
die</i>, to keep the keys to the gun locker in civilian hands!</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
The ultimate difference between democratic and
totalitarian regimes.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Today, there is a third battle underway that is every
bit as pitched and critical to human freedom as were the arsenal and
the mint sixty years ago: control over citizen identity.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
In the first part of this essay on human consent I
mentioned a new development currently sweeping through the Identity
and Authentication industry, known as 'claims-based-authentication'.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
During the early days of the Internet, data engineers
assumed that citizen information would have to reside in unimaginably
huge, centralized databases. Since then, the very thought of such
repositories containing all personal identifiers makes both citizens and enlightened politicians squirm uncomfortably.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
We all now realize that government systems are no
more qualified or trustworthy than commercial interests to hold all this data.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<span lang="en-CA">Happily, visionaries among information
technology professionals have taken up this task of re-locating
citizen identity and human consent. Rather than assigning the keys to vested-interests in the private or public sectors, they are returning them smack dab back into the hands of each and
every individual citizen! </span><br />
<span lang="en-CA"> </span>
<br />
<div lang="en-CA">
How can this be possible?</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Through a kind of massively distributed,
blockchain-based, cryptographic and peer-to-peer process called
'claims-based-authentication', a kind of third pillar of democratic
governance inextricably rooted in the presumption of foundational
anonymity.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
The most disturbing aspect of the warrantless powers of surveillance that Dick Cheney and Barack Obama
have given Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Agency
(NSA) is the accompanying fallacy that privacy is only about avoiding embarrassment and hiding sins.
</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, just making
that assertion, in itself, violates natural Law and betrays the United States
Constitution.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Do you want a payment receipt at Disneyland in Florida
to reveal to a ring of thieves that you are temporarily away from home in Dayton?</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Do you want details in your municipal civic registration to
hint to political hacks or partisan employers how you voted in the last election?</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
Should an advertiser be able to bribe a computer clerk
at the local hospital to sell them your medical history when you prefer to wait another year before worrying your family about prostate or cervical tests?</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
These situations have nothing to do with feeling ashamed or hiding personal wrongdoing. Love others though you might as a good
friends, this kind of information is nobody else's business if you prefer to keep it to yourself. Anyone who advocates risking its disclosure under a 'nothing-to-hide-if-you-have-a-clear-conscience'
argument, is advocating twenty-first century civil war!</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
With luck, the ten year betrayal of civil liberties
in both government and finance since 9/11 will be reversed
during the next decade through the ever increasing choice of ordinary
citizens to use cryptographic and peer-to-peer data
management software.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
<div lang="en-CA">
We are on the verge of Identity being re-rooted in
human consent and its attendant presumption of initial anonymity. Both will be embedded at
the very core of modern communications technology.</div>
<div lang="en-CA">
<br /></div>
PRISM might soon mean Privacy Restoring Identity Systems and Monitoring.<br />
<br />
<div lang="en-CA">
<i><br /></i>
<i><span style="color: blue;">... part 3 continues next month.</span></i><br />
<br /></div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-9227265520192742912013-06-08T08:18:00.000-04:002013-06-10T22:09:31.565-04:00The Architecture of Consent - PRISM 1<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br />
I've watched the tweetsters, blabsters
and blogsters debate privacy for the last several months.<br />
<br />
The
invective against government-sponsored intelligence gathering is colourful, but not very helpful. Meanwhile, their opponents see
every wish for anonymity as a sign of tax evasion, money laundering,
terrorism or pornography.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Both sides cite real or imagined
constitutional constraints, wallowing in the kind of law that
relies on 'Thou Shalt Not'. Tell someone
“Don't think of blue!”, and they must think of blue in
order to understand your command. That's why legislated prohibition often produces the opposite result.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Odd thing though, neither side seems
particularly competent in the other kind of law. You don't go to jail for gaining altitude too quickly.
The airplane simply stalls, crashes and you die. The laws of nature and mathematics.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
That's why thousands of software engineers and data architects are quietly
building new systems that will soon succeed where enforcement has failed, because "that's just the
way it works"? They're called 'disruptive technologies', not
because they upset the rest of us, but because they might make spies,
regulators and most banks seem a little silly and beside the point
eventually.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
These disruptive technologies all have
one fascinating thing in common. They store identity separately from
service information. Ta-dah!
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Wait a minute. Is that all there is to
it?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Yep. That's it. Anonymous data.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The database with your name, birth
date, address, finger prints and retinal scan won't include your
eyeglasses prescription, your bank balance, your blood pressure
readings, your parking tickets, your ethnicity, your religion or your
shopping preferences. All that stuff will be kept in separate data tables
that aren't linked to your identity, except when you authorize it. Or when
a qualified judge orders it. Not because it's not allowed, but
because that's just the way these databases will be built.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Spies, regulators, banks and business
hackers will be thrilled. They won't have to break in to profile service
data anymore. The NSA and Homeland Security will have a ball. They will be allowed to monitor traffic patterns to their heart's content.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
They can track how
many Muslims with high blood pressure, a university education and
more than two pairs of bi-focals are boarding a flight from Amsterdam
to Madrid after requesting a vegetarian meal.<br />
<br />
But they won't be able
to link that information to individual identities on their own any more.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Not because it won't be allowed, but
because that's just the way these systems will be built. That's how
they'll work.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Anonymized data bases will free national defenders to engage in much more powerful terrorist
profiling than current legislation allows, all without inappropriately
invading innocent individual identity. Those
data tables just won't contain identity information.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
When the profilers detect a
threatening pattern in the service stream, they will request corresponding identity information, only on reasonable grounds, in a process similar to getting a
traditional search warrant.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
These 'disruptive technologies' will
have preemptive anonymity embedded at the very core of their
architecture. They will restore a bunch of democratic and
civil protections that earlier information architectures could not.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Curious political operatives won't
bother to hack Watergate offices or voter registration systems hoping to
find out how you vote. Neither will a terrorist or thief disguised as
a pharmacist, nor a Walmart cashier, nor a bank teller be able
to hack payment systems to learn where you live, or how much credit
you have, or whether your home is unoccupied while you travel.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Disruptive technologies will
embody a whole new architecture of individual privacy and consent at their very
core, not because the Walmart clerk isn't allowed to pry into your
affairs, but because they simply can't. They won't have access. It won't work that way
any more.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Engineers call this astonishing,
elegant, even beautiful structure, '<i>claims-based authentication'</i>.
It is almost ready. Several pioneering health care and health
records systems are already using it, testing it in the most
sensitive data area of all.<br />
<br />
Epidemiologists will love the enhanced profiling ability and patients will relish their absolute control over who peeks at their personal records.<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The only difficulty I foresee is that
when claims-based authentication systems come to the world of finance, they
might neutralize some of the distorted processes that have unfairly
fattened Wall Street at the expense of Main Street. That might indeed upset certain people.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Oh, and by the way? Bitcoin already appears to be 'claims-based-compliant'. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Next time I'll examine the role
anonymity plays in consent and a third essay is in the works to explain how
claims-based systems work between you, your doctor, your pharmacy and your bank account.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://nunaview.blogspot.ca/2013/06/nsa-prism-and-architecture-of-human.html">continue to part 2 </a>:<br />
<br /></div>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-55988542466032461112013-04-04T15:48:00.000-04:002013-04-05T23:36:10.096-04:00Reuters on Bitcoin<p>
Felix Salmon's mainstream article for <u><i><a href="https://medium.com/money-banking/2b5ef79482cb">Reuters on Bitcoin</a></i></u> pretends to be more thoughtful than most.
<p>
The rhetorical deception is subtle. He doesn't try to fool us with lies. He just leaves out the truth.
<p>
He doesn't mention that due to its already indispensable advantages when moving funds internationally, BTC can no longer disappear overnight. Even if an equally independent but improved digital currency emerged and seemed the more likely candidate for a new global standard, the transition would be orderly. People would have ample time to exit one and enter the other, likely with acquiescence and cooperation of both systems. There would be no more cost, probably significantly less, in making that transition than Forex currently charges for any routine currency exchange.
<p>
The article is rife with other sins of omission, deliberately under-representing bitcoin's most important elements.
<p>
To wit:
<p>
It makes no mention of the well pre-planned divisibility of BTC into Satoshi(s), the established term for 0.00000001 BTC that exchanges and retail payment engines will eventually use, not BTC itself. In fact, the term Bitcoin will likely recede lexically or semantically to refer more to its underlying technical architecture, not the unit of currency.
<p>
Further, the length of time during which BTC will continue as the vehicle for large inter-currency exchanges and as an inflation-proof form of commodity-as-capital storage will be substantial, even after it cedes primacy to the Satoshi for smaller retail payments. Bitcoin itself will increasingly shoulder the longer term responsibilities of Gold and Silver, but with the added advantages of effortless divisibility and portability.
<p>
I do agree the history of commodity and stock bubbles suggests that BTC is likely to ease up, back up, and consolidate at various stages, but the monetarily savvy will patiently continue to participate until and unless an alternative not only appears, but matures.
<p>
Until then, the shrill voices of people like Mr. Salmon will try to distract us with their vested interests and frantic need to delay their own vulnerability.
<p>
Bitcoin users who started out around $11/BTC, dropped as low as $3-4, then climbed to where things are today, did so by thinking of the dollar as fluctuating, not BTC. That thinking will continue to allow a remarkable degree of calm amid the cries of purported 'bubble' and extremes.
<p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-30898915794960390072013-03-18T14:17:00.000-04:002013-03-18T14:29:25.265-04:00On Bitcoin Bubbles<p>
Why don't otherwise competent financial analysts chart Bitcoin compared to earlier vanguard infrastructure technologies like silicone chips, microcomputers, operating systems, email, mobile telephones, and social media?
<p>
Instead, they persist in describing it as a single stock or commodity caught in a speculative bubble.
<p>
While bursting bubbles certainly appear in the price charts of individual companies providing services using various components of global infrastructure, do such bursting bubbles really appear in the growth of infrastructure itself?
<p>
Doesn't quantum-leap evolutionary significance occasionally produce sustainable parabolic exceptions? Might not the 'nothing goes up forever' mantra have its own exceptions?
<p>
I honestly don't know the answer; I only mean to decry the lack of inquiry into this possibility by professional commentators who seem not to ask whether 'bitcoin', (judicious use of lower-case 'b'), might be less a brand name and more an underlying standard that is soon to embed into a number of fundamental human transaction types.
<p>
I suspect bubbles are more likely to burst in specific 'speculative' applications of bitcoin (sic) infrastructure, not in the underlying technology itself.
<p>
For that reason, while ordinary investors should certainly treat individual 'Bitcoin' ventures with the same caution they would any other start-up or penny-stock investment, they should take a stake in the legitimate underlying 'bitcoin' infrastructure.
<p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-42544319291788582512013-02-18T16:58:00.000-05:002013-02-18T17:00:40.427-05:00Fancy that!
<p>
For about a year now, as a mental exercise, I have tried to think and, more importantly to feel in my gut, differently about my meager pension and bank savings.
<p>
I have never paid much attention to daily news reports about the fluctuating prices of stocks, or bonds, or mutual funds, or real estate, or commodities. I've never owned much of any of them except for a share in our house.
<p>
My miserably few savings are sitting at the bank, in simple cash, as an ordinary expense account.
<p>
What I began doing, however, in June 2011, is to 'virtually' track the value of that bit of cash <i>as if </i> I had cleverly converted it into gold and bitcoin back then, in June 2011.
<p>
As the months creep by, I've been intrigued to notice that my wee bit of capital, had I allowed it to simply stagnate as inert gold and electronic bitcoin, would now be worth quite a few more dollars.
<p>
Conversely, my little pool of hard earned cash, even including accumulated interest, could not possibly buy the amount of gold or bitcoin it could have in June 2011.
<p>
Fancy that.
<p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-10164256264787937002013-02-18T15:27:00.000-05:002013-02-18T15:27:43.342-05:00Philosophy of Bitcoin<p>
I seldom reprint the writings of others in this space, preferring to merely link to the original source. But this is the clearest take on bitcoin I've come across so far and I want to save you the effort of even that one link. From <B><a href="http://blog.oleganza.com/">Oleg Andreev</a></B>, here are his words unaltered:
<p>
<i>
"There is no philosophy in Bitcoin. It is not anarchic, libertarian, Austrian or anonymous. It is just an internet protocol and a bunch of people that use it to transact between each other.
<p>
The protocol has purely technical and monetary measures to prevent spam, DoS, double spending and reversal of transactions. Transactions themselves do not advertise their purpose or identities of people involved.
<p>
It is not “against Bitcoin spirit” to have non-anonymous service built on top of Bitcoin. It is not a “hack” to use Bitcoin addresses generated not from random numbers, but from document hashes to implement secure document timestamping.
<p>
You can do whatever you want with Bitcoin as long as your transactions are compliant with the protocol and you pay the fees when needed. You can use it as a currency. Or as a payment system. Or as an investment. Or not use any of its monetary properties whatsoever, but use it to register predictions about the future. You can use it in clear to accept donations for a good cause, or you can use it through Tor network to buy illegal stuff. You may require others to identify themselves before accepting payments, or you may allow your customers to hide their identities from you. After all, you can avoid the whole thing completely and live a happy life.
<p>
If there is a single philosophical thing about Bitcoin, it is this one: voluntarism. On the internet, across oceans and thousands of walls, you cannot force another person to do what you want. And neither can he or she. Therefore, to make a deal with another person, you have to negotiate and find consensus. And if you envision risks and potential problems, you are free to creatively find voluntary solutions to them, which will also be part of negotiation. No amount of unilateral declarations, laws or appeals to objectivist philosophy will make another person send you bitcoins. Only negotiation and reasoning give you a chance to get what you want."
<p>
</i>
Oleg Andreev
<p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-51708103169765115692013-02-13T23:13:00.001-05:002013-02-13T23:18:52.433-05:00Bitcoin matters, folks. A lot!
<p>
Greetings everyone.
<p>
It's been a while since I've posted here. Six months ago I suddenly tired of what Facebook had become and decided to re-evaluate Twitter. In the process, I'm sorry to say, I abandoned this blog ... and you too for a while.
<p>
Well, recent encounters with the worlds of finance, parcel post, banking and service industries in general have drawn me back to you. I'm furious, frustrated, and looking forward to your comments.
<p>
Two weeks ago, for the first time in decades, I needed to receive and send some money to two distant acquaintances. My bank insisted their 'wire transfer' service would meet my needs. For fees between $25.00 and $47.50 they could deliver the money within three days. They said.
<p>
Now, understand, I'm not talking about shipping actual physical currency here. No dollar bills, no metal coins, no gold bullion or anything like that. Just electrons. Bits and bytes traveling as electronic pulses at the speed of light over satellites and fiber optic cables.
<p>
Three days!
<p>
Now get this. The incoming wire to me, originally sent on December 28th, 2012 for $500, ended up as only $429.75. That was due to $70.25 in intermediary correspondent banking fees. But in addition to that, the process gobbled up two and a half working days of my time chasing the transaction after my bank 'lost it' in a manual sorting queue, following which <b><i>it took a total of 46 days to arrive!</i></b>
<p>
The outgoing transfer did get to its destination within 48 hours as promised, but it also cost an outrageous $47.75 in fees and I wasted <b><i>an hour and sixteen minutes standing at a teller window in my local bank</i></b> before bank staff figured out how to complete the task using their slow-as-mollasses-in-February computer systems.
<p>
Now get this.
<p>
Yesterday, without leaving my home even for a moment, without even getting dressed, I sent $ 273.87 to a business colleague in San Diego California. The transfer took me 47 seconds. My colleague acknowledged receipt in two minutes and fourteen seconds. And the total cost was ZERO! Nada! Zip. Nothing. I didn't even have to convert from CAD to USD.
<p>
How did I do it? One word: <b><i>*Bitcoin*</i></b> !
<p>
Now if you can give me one good reason why banks, credit cards, PayPal and Western Union shouldn't be scared shitless of this stuff, I'll give you an ear full of reasons why Amazon, eBay, Craigslist and Ottawa's Metro Glebe grocery store should start accepting Bitcoin as one of their favourite payment methods.
<p>
<p>
Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-29544852764346617472012-10-03T12:58:00.001-04:002012-10-03T13:20:55.120-04:00Beware the Bull about Bitcoin<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
<br />
There is a lot of sloppy thinking going around these day concerning digital currency.
<p>
Any unethical or amoral use of any unit of exchange says absolutely nothing about the unit itself and everything about the user and the person reporting on that use. Cash, silver, gold, diamonds & digital currencies are all units of value that can be used to purchase things.
<p>
The fact that you can buy drugs, porn and assassinations with most currencies is utterly beside the monetary point. No real currency was designed for such a single purpose. Even Canadian Tire 'money' can get you a discount on thousands of different products. A trusted currency can be used to buy everything from socks, to computers, to mining shares. It is only intended to flow through efficient networks of exchange, secured by the trust of the parties.
<p>
Reliable money also maintains its value through an economic crisis, offering an indirect critique of weaker alternatives and even of our whole banking system, but no currency, in and of itself, expresses a moral position, or advocates more ethical behaviour.
<p>
The best monetary agreements strive for the following characteristics: (1). Transactions can be anonymous (2). Sending money is instantaneous and free (3). Users can memorize and keep secret the information needed to access their money, or store it on paper in a vault (4). No change or transaction in that currency can shut down the entire global economy.
<p>
This all seems reasonable and works very well providing each of us is free to choose and use whichever currency we trust most.
<p>
That is why it is going to become crucial over the next few years that we all realize that only weak currencies, weak governments, or weak banks feel threatened by any currency more trusted than their own.
<p>
So, next time you hear Chuck Schummer, Joe Lieberman, Hillary Clinton, or any purported defender of national security or morality argue that digital currencies such as Bitcoin, or the Canadian Mint's proposed new MintChip, are dangerous or need to be outlawed, know beyond a shadow of doubt they are only trying to prop up their own cash, or vested interests in a mistrusted or collapsing currency.
<p>
<p>
<p>
(Adapted from a blog post by 'Daniel' at: http://moneydick.com)
</p>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-31593006600262729232012-06-29T00:24:00.000-04:002012-10-03T13:01:55.376-04:00WAKE UP RIM!<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
I'm fascinated by the traction the latest <span style="color: black;">RIM </span>rumour received until they denied it. That they were about to split into separate handset and 'software' businesses.<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCDBbryX5FtQnF_7owWgPZCVpEWmGsW56p_PxLGWxSh2JJt-ChZbiIA4SSfZ7pSv9jGUdctf7W-GmHqYM5cTO0U2SL4AiaaupC_z4qP_T9nP6OTxkacQ8JeYUNbAztsZ2qeiS6JDF8GTL/s1600/bbpicx11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZCDBbryX5FtQnF_7owWgPZCVpEWmGsW56p_PxLGWxSh2JJt-ChZbiIA4SSfZ7pSv9jGUdctf7W-GmHqYM5cTO0U2SL4AiaaupC_z4qP_T9nP6OTxkacQ8JeYUNbAztsZ2qeiS6JDF8GTL/s200/bbpicx11.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>BBM-MBB</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My immediate reaction was "Yes! Spin BB Messenger off into a cross-platform, OS-independent global IM service because nothing comes close yet."<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
So be <span style="color: black;">schizophrenic! Why </span>deny it?<br />
<br />
I realize they would want to delay further deterioration in their smart phone business, but it's idiotic not to plan for such a possibility.<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
As if to compound the idiocy, they block BBM from the Play Book as a stand-alone app over Wi-Fi?<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
Duh!<br />
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
For gosh sakes, RIM, take the plunge now or risk a terrific Canadian success story dying altogether.
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span><br />
<br />
And if further incentive were needed, Billy Gates has bought Skype!<br />
<br />
Hello?<br />
<br />
What do you suppose spinning Skype IM off from the phone service might be? Yep, the aforementioned cross-platform, OS-independent global IM service.<br />
<br />
Sheez RIM, Wake Up!
<span style="color: black; font-size: 110%;">
</span>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-39886142774262945292012-04-08T11:27:00.011-04:002012-04-08T14:17:22.345-04:00The Nunavut Primaries<span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" >
<p>
Nunavut aspires to consensus government rather than partisan politics. We prefer to avoid jargon flinging fiascoes like Ottawa's Question Period and the American GOP primaries.
<p>
But pre-election primary processes are remorseless and soon emerge in other areas of life where they beg the role of careless jargon.
<p>
In the Human Resources section of a Government department recently, a staffing consultant referred to a fellow Inuk employee as 'prejudiced' in their hiring decisions.
<p>
That is such a loaded word at this stage of Nunavut's development that it should never be used lightly, but rather be reserved for occasions when its immense power is justified.
<p>
We have lost so many useful words and powerful expressions through careless use. Many of us have even grown wary of the word 'antisemitism' because it is now used so carelessly.
<p>
Yet other diasporic peoples around the world often resent Euro-America's reflex and institutionalized fixation on the word when it is used outside its Euro-centric context. It can seem ... well, almost routine to people immersed in continuing generic patterns xenophobia typical of all the world's diasporic regions.
<p>
Excluded from the political and military elites of an adoptive country, what is a bright young 'Paki' to do in Africa, or a 'Chink' in Polynesia, or a 'Kike' in Europe except excel in those domains left open to them: academia, the arts, science and business.
<p>
While Euro-American antisemitism has centered mostly on banking, credit and trade, successful Jews often revel in the most exquisite refinements of music, art, literature and science in each of their host countries. Over centuries, some of these national achievements have risen to transnational significance as part of the global human legacy and Jews, like most diasporic peoples are disproportionately represented. Too often, they can be disproportionately resented as well.
<p>
Why does the Euro-American empire so easily dismiss the Indo-Pakistani diaspora in Idi Amin's Uganda, in Trinida or Guyana? What about third and fourth generation Chinese living in the Philippines? How about the attitude of local academics to the rise to prominence of Japanese scholars at the University of Hawaii in the 1980s? How about the ratio of Asian admissions to McGill or Harvard compared to their proportion in the overall North American population?
<p>
I suggest we pause for a moment before suspecting every evaluation of Nunavut's Inuit Employment objectives as prejudicial or racist. I have a dear friend who says, "Look out for jargon, it usually indicates a repository of power!" Mere clichés only wilt to benign insignificance, but deep-structure jargon, the insidious and routine failure to explicitly disclose the realities to which the jargon refers have been co-opted to the service of power. Whether we call it a 'lobby' or a vested interest, they deliberately marry semantic subterfuge to political correctness in order to censor public discourse and disguise social upheaval.
<p>
The unexpected result of such jargon is postponement, anxious pretense and a political deafness that deepens the resentment it purports to divert.
<p>
The evidence spews each day from the mind-numbing likes of John Baird, Ralph Goodale, John Boehner and Mitt Romney. Semanticists and comedians must sorely miss Canada's breathless former Queen of Rant, Ruby Dhalla.
<p>
Let not Nunavut fill the gap.
<p>
.
</span>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6952545390397737988.post-22067741423972827762011-11-13T01:36:00.037-05:002011-11-13T23:07:10.276-05:00Occupy Wall Street vs. Christine Lagarde and the Tea Party<span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" >
<p>
What a remarkable week.
</p><p>
Municipal authorities all over North America directed their police forces against local instances of 'Occupy Wall Street' with nary a peep from the mainstream.
</p><p>
Of all places and peoples, you would think this continent and society, cradle of 1960s revolutions, would be among the first to realize that 'Occupy' is no adolescent prank. This is serious stuff folks and authorities who fail to recognize 'Occupy' as a legitimate sibling to the 'Arab Spring', risk sharing the legacies of Richard Nixon and Julius Hoffman.
</p><p>
Perhaps these denizens of denial have been seduced by the bought-and-paid-for narrative emanating from our mainstream media with their comforting saw about the movement's purported lack of cohesion.
</p><p>
Where is the zippy catchphrase? Where is the mobilizing slogan? Surely such a disparate hoard of vagrants and dilettantes could not possibly muster into an organized threat?
</p><p>
Ha! “Here come dah Judge!”
</p><p>
Evicted from mushrooming city-centre encampments, they will be herded into the Courts where the slander of "inarticulate clowns" will dissemble, leaving a constitutional earthquake in its place.
</p><p>
The monumental lie known as “servicing the debt” will be revealed for the scandal it veils. A new parable is about to emerge. Across four continents, but especially in Euro-America, torrents of us will line-up in the lobbies of our neighbourhood banks, not City Hall.
</p><p>
The truth will suddenly dawn across the planet that all these years of “servicing the debt” have had nothing to do with repaying the capital borrowed, nor even with paying simple interest as a fee for carrying that debt. Rather, servicing the debt consists of nothing less than the statutory and exponential rape of personal and sovereign ownership through the subterfuge of Compound Interest.
</p><p>
As the vast majority of humanity awakens to the fact they pay up to 300% of the value of their homes before ownership is transferred into their name, they will demand to know where the additional 200% has gone. Along with Greeks and Germans they will realize that of the billions upon billions of additional taxpayer money misrepresented as bailout, not one cent will go to repaying original debt, but rather entirely to the 200% + in still compounding interest charges.
</p><p>
The final straw will come when those aforementioned Court proceedings, backed by the gun-toting police we ourselves have funded, show the whole process of compounding interest has always been designed to transfer ownership into the hands of a few chartered lenders and their derivative industries of speculative investment and pseudo-insurance.</p><p>
</p><p>
When this entire financial crisis finally focuses public attention on the transfer of ownership that occurs <span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" ><span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" ><span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" ><span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" ><span style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:110%;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVd82xbAwA8GOS0jyv7x5Ci9f0mLgAxr7i5FVVv2ytWj-njvm7zish1DYErGzmOXASs8VXRCpu3MBmQ1NgiOvKMxzSrihssl3LTsHfIaQa7gnTKlvy-JmfvQnCcxgbg7jEqKxsniUmFey/s1600/Lagarde-001.jpg"><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 125px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVd82xbAwA8GOS0jyv7x5Ci9f0mLgAxr7i5FVVv2ytWj-njvm7zish1DYErGzmOXASs8VXRCpu3MBmQ1NgiOvKMxzSrihssl3LTsHfIaQa7gnTKlvy-JmfvQnCcxgbg7jEqKxsniUmFey/s320/Lagarde-001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674368747057710690" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span>when borrowers default on compound interest, the 'occupy' movement will morph into a 'withdraw your deposits in protest' movement that will bring the entire global banking system and its political pawns to their knees within days.
</p><p>
Occupiers, leave your tents by your tens of thousands, walk quietly to your nearest bank branch, form unending cues simultaneously at all the teller windows, and simply withdraw all your deposits immediately and in cash.
</p><p>
That is your secret weapon. That is what terrifies them.
</p><p>
<i><b>The ultimate risk in this global financial crisis is that we might finally foreclose on them!</i></b>
</p><p>
The IMF (International Monetary Fund ), World Bank and BIS (Bank of International Settlements) would collapse within days. Global financial reform would follow within mere weeks.
</p><p></p>
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
<p>
<span style="font-style: italic;">PS: If a layman like me saw this coming <a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);" href="http://nunaview.blogspot.com/2010/06/money-stupid.html">so long ago</a>, and again <a style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;" href="http://nunaview.blogspot.com/2011/09/compounding.html"> more recently</a>, where the hell are the professional financial press?</span>
</p><p>
</p></span>Peter Barilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15671415825705181697noreply@blogger.com0