@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import { getCourseById, updateCourse, deleteCourse } from "@/db/models/courseModels";

export default async function handler(req, res) { const { slug } = req.query;

if (req.method === 'GET') { try { const course = await getCourseById(slug); if (course) { res.status(200).json(course); } else { res.status(404).json({ error: 'Course not found' }); } } catch (error) { res.status(500).json({ error: error.message }); } } else if (req.method === 'PUT') { try { const course = await updateCourse(slug, req.body); res.status(200).json(course); } catch (error) { res.status(400).json({ error: error.message }); } } else if (req.method === 'DELETE') { try { await deleteCourse(slug); res.status(204).end(); } catch (error) { res.status(500).json({ error: error.message }); } } else { // Handle any other HTTP method res.setHeader('Allow', ['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE']); res.status(405).end(Method ${req.method} Not Allowed); } } ```

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b

I’ve been reading The Unchanging Word of God by David Jeremiah. This book has chapters from multiple books he wrote previously. I was particularly inspired by some of what I read in his chapter entitled “When You are at Your Wits’ End.” The title of this article was inspired by something he said as well.

What Prayer Says About Our Faith

To start us off, I’m going share the quote that led to this post. It is found on page 145.

A devoted believer will pray for God’s deliverance from problems, but a wiser one will pray for God’s use of them.

I would expand upon this quote and say, “In times of trouble, a foolish believer will try to fix things himself; a generally faithful believer will pray for God to deliver him from hardship; but a wise believer, who knows what an awesome, holy, good God we have, will pray for God to use the problem/hard times for good according to His will.”

Truly understanding who God is (His holiness, goodness, omniscience, omnipotence etc.) and truly understanding our own weakness and lack of understanding enables us to honestly pray “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” When we think too highly of ourselves and to lowly of God, then we want to fix things ourselves or we just ask for deliverance. Nothing that happens to us is an accident or God being unfair.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

The Good Father

God is like a parent. He wants the best for His children, knows what is best better than His children, and gives His children what is best for their long-term good rather than their short-term happiness.

As a parent, I make my kids eat healthy food rather than the junk food they may want (especially my youngest). As a parent, I tell my kids not to do certain things that I know will cause them harm. Sometimes they don’t understand the why and try to do otherwise. When my kids were very little and just learning to crawl, I found a few spots with 1-3 steps and allowed them to fall off the steps scaring them and maybe even allowing minor pain. I did this so they would learn about the dangers of heights. If they fell off 1-3 steps, the worst thing they could get was a minor bruise and a scare. On the other hand, if they fell off a great height, they could break a bone, become paralyzed, or even die. By allowing them to have a small, short-term pain, they learned an important lesson that would prevent greater harm.

God does the same for us. He seeks our long-term good rather than our short-term comfort. He intentionally puts us through temporary hardship so we can grow in strength, wisdom, and faith to prepare us for eternity. We look at the here and now and wonder why God would allow such awful things to happen to us, but He looks at what will help us grow in faith and likeness to Himself. God is not limited by time, so He does not look at things in the same way we do. He always controls things with an eternal perspective and with complete knowledge of all things throughout eternity. He knows how each and every event or action affects every other. He works out everything according to His very good plan. We just have to reach the point of knowing that everything will work out according to God’s plan and that everything will work out for good. Sometimes God allows us to see the good in this life and other times not till we reach heaven. When we trust Jesus, we don’t have to worry.

Secure in the Storm

On page 150 of Dr. David Jeremiah’s The Unchanging Word of God, he writes:

We are far more secure in the storm with Jesus in our boat than we will ever be on the shore without Him.

Let’s start with this narrative from Luke 8:

Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. But as they were sailing along He fell asleep; and a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake, and they began to be swamped and to be in danger. They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (Luke 8:22-25)

In this event, The disciples are crossing a lake with Jesus in the boat. They have the creator God with them in the boat when a terrible storm rolls in while they are far from shore. Instead of trusting in their friend and God, they cry out in terror. “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Instead of looking for God’s miracles (of which they had seen many), they instantly assumed they were about to die. Did they really need to worry? Of course not. Did they need to be afraid? Not at all. God was in control. Should they have been looking for another miracle? Absolutely Yes.

How often do we fear a financial calamity, lament an illness, mourn a loss, or otherwise have the wrong attitude about things happening around us or to us? For most (all?) of us, I’d guess the answer is “way too often.” If we know how wise, loving, and powerful our God is, we shouldn’t fear, lament, or mourn. We should just trust Him. We should lay our needs before Him and trust His goodness and power will take care of things. We should be actively looking for how God is going to use these hardships.

God is good all of the time. He isn’t being unfair. He isn’t making a mistake. He isn’t being mean. He is working for our good and the good of others. Nothing can happen outside His will.

I know that living out this belief can be difficult when you are in the storm, but trust me. Hard times with Jesus are always better than easy times without Him. Yes, we really can have joy and happiness even in the worst situation when we trust Jesus and join Him in having an eternal perspective.

Trust Jesus.your

Bible verses are NASB (New American Standard Bible) 1995 edition unless otherwise stated

Find more articles at my Trust Jesus Substack

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import { getCourseById, updateCourse, deleteCourse } from "@/db/models/courseModels";

export default async function handler(req, res) { const { slug } = req.query;

if (req.method === 'GET') { try { const course = await getCourseById(slug); if (course) { res.status(200).json(course); } else { res.status(404).json({ error: 'Course not found' }); } } catch (error) { res.status(500).json({ error: error.message }); } } else if (req.method === 'PUT') { try { const course = await updateCourse(slug, req.body); res.status(200).json(course); } catch (error) { res.status(400).json({ error: error.message }); } } else if (req.method === 'DELETE') { try { await deleteCourse(slug); res.status(204).end(); } catch (error) { res.status(500).json({ error: error.message }); } } else { // Handle any other HTTP method res.setHeader('Allow', ['GET', 'PUT', 'DELETE']); res.status(405).end(Method ${req.method} Not Allowed); } } ```

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import { createCourseDraft } from '@/db/models/courseDraftModels';

export default async function handler(req, res) { if (req.method === 'POST') { try { const { userId, title, summary, image, price, topics, resources, drafts } = req.body;

        const courseDraft = await createCourseDraft({
            userId,
            title,
            summary,
            image,
            price,
            topics,
            resources: {
                connect: resources.map(id => ({ id }))
            },
            drafts: {
                connect: drafts.map(id => ({ id }))
            }
        });

        res.status(201).json(courseDraft);
    } catch (error) {
        res.status(500).json({ error: 'Failed to create course draft' });
    }
} else {
    res.setHeader('Allow', ['POST']);
    res.status(405).end(`Method ${req.method} Not Allowed`);
}

} ```

@ 41fa852b:af7b7706

“Bitcoin is the train that is coming. You can either be on the train or on the tracks. —Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Welcome aboard, folks! Please take your seats as we embark on our tour of the UK Bitcoin scene. 🚂

This scenic journey will take us through nine meetups, from Glasgow all the way down to Penzance. Along the way, we’ll stop at six new Bitcoin-accepting merchants, offering everything from fish and chips to music lessons.

Tickets are free as always—just make sure to share the newsletter with your fellow Bitcoiners.

All aboard! Mind the gap, and let’s roll…

---

Upcoming Bitcoin Meetups

Happening this week...

1. Newcastle upon Tyne Bitcoin Meetup: The next Newcastle meetup is on Tuesday 20th August at The Ware Rooms Bar. 6:30 PM. This month is a Seedsigner special, learn how to build your very own low-cost hardware wallet/signing device. ✍🏼
2. Cyphermunk House: Join the London Cyphermunk House group for a session on 'Sovereign Computing', on Tuesday at 6:30 PM. They have a live demonstration of how to use Start9 Labs software and a discussion about the future of the internet. 👨🏻‍💻
3. Canterbury Bitcoin: Meeting this month at The Parrot, 1-9 Church Lane, Canterbury, CT1 2AG at 7 PM on Tuesday the 20th. An informal meetup to discuss Bitcoin and chat. 🦜
4. Bitcoin Glasgow: Bitcoin Glasgow meet every 3rd Wednesday of the month and this month will be at The Maltman, 59-61 Renfield Street at 6 PM to 8 PM. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
5. Bitcoin Bristol: August's Bitcoin Bristol Social is at Canteen, Hamilton House, Stokes Croft from 6.15pm on Weds 21st. Support local & enjoy a balmy summer evening with some Bristol Bitcoiners. ☀️
6. Shropshire Bitcoin**: On the 21st, the Shropshire crew will meet at the Admiral Benbow in Shrewsbury. You'll find them at 7 PM, all welcome. 🍻
7. Penzance Bitcoin: Will be at The Dolphin Tavern on Quay Street on Thursday 22nd at 8 PM. They'll be meeting in the 'little room' at table 21. Everyone is welcome from beginners to OG's. 🍻
8. Bitcoin Walk - Edinburgh**: Every Saturday they walk around Arthur's Seat in this historic city. Join them at 12 pm to chat about all things Bitcoin and keep fit. 🚶🏻🚶🏻‍♀️🚶‍♂️
9. Real Bedford - Home Game: Peter MacCormack's boys are at home this Saturday, the 24th playing North Leigh. Join them for a 3 pm kickoff. ⚽️

---

New Businesses Accepting Bitcoin

It’s a huge week for merchant onboarding, with 6 new businesses to report across the country.

• The Mining Shop: The Mining Shop UK began with a passion for Bitcoin and has grown into a community of Bitcoin enthusiasts, IT professionals, and traders. They aim to make mining accessible to all, led by passionate Bitcoiners. A great selection of mining equipment can be purchased with bitcoin. Great work by the Newcastle meetup for spotting this one. ⛏️🖥️
• Nemo Cafe: Nemo Cafe at Hampton railway station serves great coffee, ice creams and a range of refreshing drinks, plus a small selection of edible treats; and they now accept bitcoin and Lightning Network payments! Well done to Rob for onboarding these guys.⚡️☕️🥐🍦
• The Lone Fisherman The Lone Fisherman in Tooting Market serves authentic fresh Caribbean dishes, salt fish fritters, jerk chicken and more. They now accept bitcoin and Lightning Network payments!⚡️🇯🇲
• Gav's Fish & Chips: The UK’s most southwesterly business that accepts bitcoin and Lightning Network payments! Gav’s on the Isles of Scilly for fresh-caught fish, lobster scampi and more! Shout-out to OPD for another business onboarded.🐟
• Lynsey Clarke Music: Looking for piano or singing lesson in Scotland? Thanks to Zaprite, Lynsey Clarke now accepts bitcoin & Lightning Network payments! 🎹🎤
• Blue Fox Homes: Looking for an AirBnB in Worcestershire? Check out Blue Fox Homes in Pershore, a modern, spacious 3 bedroom house that sleeps 5; they now accept bitcoin and Lightning payments with a 10% DISCOUNT!!⚡️

---

Upcoming Special Events

These events aren’t happening next week, but they’re important to add to your calendar now as tickets are selling fast.

• Bitcoin - The change you've been waiting for: Mark your calendars for August 31 at 10:30 am for "The Change You’ve Been Waiting For" at Glasgow University Union. This seminar, costing £10, focuses on Bitcoin's transformative potential. With Bitcoin impacting individuals and businesses globally, understanding it is crucial. Guest speaker Allen Farrington will share his expertise, making this event perfect for both seasoned investors and the Bitcoin-curious. Don't miss this opportunity to explore how Bitcoin can shape your financial future.
• Bitcoin Whitepaper Party: Celebrate Bitcoin’s 16th birthday on Bitcoin Whitepaper Day at the Dockside Vaults this Halloween. Currently, you can buy two tickets for £25 as an early bird deal, the regular price is £21.40 for a single ticket. Enjoy a performance by Roger9000 and DJ sets from MadMunky, itsTOMEKK, and ZAZAWOWOW. The party kicks off at 19:30. Bitcoin is accepted at the venue, and you can also pay for tickets with Bitcoin here.

---

Get Involved

• Volunteer Opportunities: Bridge2Bitcoin is actively seeking volunteers who share our passion for merchant adoption. We'd be delighted to connect if you're eager to contribute. Reach out to us on Twitter or through our website.
• Start Your Own Meetup: Interested in launching a Bitcoin meetup? We’re here to support you every step of the way. We’ve assisted numerous UK Bitcoin meetups in getting started. Get in touch via Twitter.
• Telegram users: You might find our Telegram Channel another useful way to keep up-to-date with UK meetups.
• Feedback and Suggestions: We value your input! Share your ideas on how we can enhance this newsletter.

---

Products I Endorse

Laser Eyes Cards: Bolt Cards with laser eyes. Worldwide shipping. Visit lasereyes.cards/buy-now.

---

Get out and support the meetups where you can, visit Bitcoin Events UK for more info on each meetup and to find your closest on the interactive map.

Stay tuned for more updates next week!

Simon.

@ 9d51218e:a0c80d65

Full story Covid and Monkeypox - What an amazing coincidence in Germany It turns out that the new pandemic (Monkeypox) begins in an absolutely identical way, just like the old one pandemic - the covid.

@ 361d3e1e:50bc10a8

Full story Covid and Monkeypox - What an amazing coincidence in Germany It turns out that the new pandemic (Monkeypox) begins in an absolutely identical way, just like the old one pandemic - the covid.

germany #covid #monkeypox #pandemic #health #medicine

@ 361d3e1e:50bc10a8

Full story Covid and Monkeypox - What an amazing coincidence in Germany It turns out that the new pandemic (Monkeypox) begins in an absolutely i... This is a preview of my post. Join my community and get access to this and more of my work.

https://highlighter.com/npub1xcwnu8sx6vs5ae478lzzahpmg46428nkewa46prev4jhz59uzz5qqhm0u6

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I do a lot of Sudoku. They’re logic puzzles, using the numbers one through nine in a nine-by-nine grid. The goal is to use all nine numbers once and only once in every nine-field row, column and box. If you find yourself with two sixes in the same row, for example, you’ve blown it.

It’s pure deductive reasoning, no probability, no induction (if it happened this way in nine of the last 10 puzzles, it’s probably the case here!), no guessing. You do not want to fill in a number unless you are absolutely sure it’s the only place it could go. As in bet-your-life-on-it sure. If there’s more than one place for it, you do not guess. It’s like Highlander: “There can only be one!”

I find it relaxing — there is no ambiguity, no argument. You either know for sure and know why you know, or you don’t know.

What a contrast to the information environment the last few years, where there are so many people, wittingly or not, feigning certainty while espousing bullshit. Compromised fact-checkers relying on captured science and medicine, misleading the demoralized and credulous, desperate for a narrative to hold off the tidal wave of fear and doubt. A giant chorus of the obedient protecting themselves from dangerous dissent with their various incantations: “Conspiracy Theory!’ “You Are Not An Epidemiologist!” “Trust the Science!”

But if the 6 can’t be here and here, and the 5 must be there, then there’s nowhere else for the 7 except there. And once we know the 7 is there, the 7 in the bottom left box must be there. That means the 8 is in the lower row, so we can eliminate the eights from the upper and middle rows of that box…

Even when you can’t immediately solve a Sudoku, when the lightning bolt of insight that opens up the whole puzzle hasn’t yet struck, at least you know for sure what you don’t know. No matter how difficult the puzzle, there is such simplicity, order and peace in the realm of pure deductive logic.

. . .

The harder puzzles require you to make assumptions. That is, you might have a box with two possible candidates, and you assume one is correct conditionally and go through the implications of it.

For example, if a box can contain only a 1 or a 3, you might assume it’s a 1, see what happens to the boxes around it, and then alternatively assume it’s a 3, and see the effects of that. If some other box has three candidates, say 3, 4 and 7, and the 1-assumption, makes it a 3, and the 3 makes it a 7, you can be sure it’s not a 4.

Eliminating the 4 doesn’t tell you what the answer is, either for it or the initial box, but it narrows down the possibilities and enables you to play out further conditional scenarios more easily. In other words, by running scenarios for both, “if x is true” and “if x is false” you can find out that “z must be false” even though you still don’t know the truth with respect to x.

It’s important though not to treat your conditional findings as true. In the example above, assuming a 1 in the first box yielded a 3 in the second. If you fill in the 3, though, you just making a 50/50 gamble that might screw up the entire puzzle.

That sounds obvious, but that’s only because my example contains two boxes. Imagine you’re five or six boxes down the cascading chain, making assumptions (and then assumptions within assumptions — like the dreams within dreams of Inception — and you can see how easily you could get it confused.

There is a big difference between “this is the case if x is true”, and “this is case, period.” But sometimes when you’re deep down the assumption rabbit hole, you forget that the entire edifice is based on a conditional. That’s how you wind up with two 6s in the same box and realize the entire 40 minutes you’ve spent wrestling with this puzzle were wasted. You thought you were making breakthroughs, but it turns out you were living a lie the entire time!

. . .

The real world is infinitely more complex than even the hardest Sudoku. It requires us to make conditional assumptions within conditional assumptions all the time. Assuming, the data from this study in the Lancet is correct, assuming that its design is not flawed, assuming it hasn’t been influenced by its funding sources, assuming the subjects in the study don’t differ in some material respect from me (lifestyle, genetics, etc.), you should consider it’s findings.

But if you forget the assumptions involved and simply fill in the box based on the conclusions therein, you run the risk of making a serious error. Many people adopted low-fat, high sugar diets to defeat cholesterol, got on statins, avoided the sun, became vegan for health. It’s pretty obvious where I stand on those practices, but irrespective of whether they’re in fact beneficial, the decision to adopt them is based on many (dubious) assumptions being true.

. . .

The beauty of Sudoku is not only do you know — or find out soon at minimal cost — what you don’t know, but also your assumptions (at least initially) are explicit. You say to yourself, “assume this is a 1, and let’s see what it does, and assume it’s instead a 3, and let’s see what that does.” You are therefore capable of untangling the results of your conditional experiments and drawing sound conclusions from them.

Often when I talk with people about health, civil liberties, medicine or other matters of import, the conversation gets derailed due to conflicting assumptions. Can we examine a question and in so doing untangle the conditional beliefs informing it? Can we agree that what one is saying is only true if one buys into particular premises, and that those premises themselves cannot be taken as a given, but also should be examined?

If you support giving endless weapons to Ukraine no matter the cost, is that because you believe it is an innocent being attacked without provocation by the evil Vladimir Putin? Is that assumption beyond scrutiny? It doesn’t matter where you come out on that question so much as recognizing you are filling in a box based on that assumption, and should that assumption be false, your entire policy prescription is bankrupted.

Let’s say you do believe Putin invaded Ukraine because he is evil and will move onto the rest if Europe next, i.e., he’s basically Hitler. Why do you believe that? Do you have first-hand knowledge of him, or is it something you read in the New York Times? If the latter, then your belief about Putin being true depends on the Times being reliable with respect to geopolitics.

If you follow this sort of reasoning to its logical conclusion, you end up looking for first principles. What can I trust? How can I be sure to fill in the boxes accurately so as not to find out later I was living a lie?

It’s difficult in the real world to find certainty. Even René Descartes, who settled on “I think, therefore I am” didn’t get far*. The best we can do, in my opinion, is via the scientific method, offering a hypothesis that purports to fit the facts, and scrapping it as new facts and better-fitting (more explanatory) hypotheses come along.

The allegory of a perfectly deductive realm like Sudoku then isn’t in completing the puzzle. It’s in not filling in the boxes inappropriately. Forget about believing what’s true, but take great pains to avoid the lie.

*And at best Descartes found an Oscillating Truth, if you think, then you must exist, but you could be deluded, so maybe not, but if you can be deluded then you must exist, but you could be deluded about that, so maybe not, but if you can be deluded about that, then you exist… ad infinitum.

@ 56a6da9b:7f5a2243

From The Precipice Lectures Archive

DAY 17, IN THIS DIMENSION, OF FLASH AUGUST FICTION. I woke up giggling yesterday morning. That's pretty much all I have to say about this one, except here is some background info on the 4th dimension from an earlier episode: How's the Fourth Dimension? _

I am on the web3 apps. The podcast is called “Smell the Inside of Your Nose. Do it Right Now”. _

Here's the Substack podcast. Here is Spotify. RSS here. I think listening is better, that's just me. _ _

Dr. Freebius Lipsmaciladapus: The Absence of Pathology in the 4th Dimension

From The Precipice Lectures Archive 1019 WORDS WRITTEN IN ABOUT 45 MINUTES _

[ Clears throat ] Gentlemen,

To discuss the 4th dimension, we must discuss some of the laws that govern the 3rd-dimensional existence we are currently experiencing.

It is not necessary to understand how electricity works in order to use it. When one walks into a room, one uses a light switch, and the light fills the room. This is functional knowledge. We need not comprehend the details and intricacies of electronics in order to use electronics. In our experience in these three dimensions, there are many activities that are possible. It is possible to do unnecessary and even undesirable things. It is not wise or necessary to do a thing, simply because it is possible. Doing such things, however, does not alter or disrupt the nature of this three-dimensional realm.

The use of devastating weapons, for instance, is utilized by those with devious and avaricious intent and who do not possess the capacity for the creation and exchange of values. This is possible and, in fact, common in our plane of existence in this realm. There is no law of nature or physics in this dimension that prevents this.

These activities are not possible in the 4th dimension, to which some will become a part. There are laws of nature and physics in the fourth dimension that prevent such puerility. Actors will be bound to this dimensional realm that we are experiencing until better thinking and practices happen as a matter of course along their lifetimes.

First, we must describe how the fourth dimension is structured and what material it comprises. Our imaginations are the best example for describing the material; the matter that the fourth dimension comprises.

It does not function in the same way that our imaginations do, but it is comprised of the same matter. That is not to say that the fourth dimension allows you to create ex-nihilo. That is to say one cannot simply create something from nothing in the fourth dimension, as we can in our imaginations.

In this three-dimensional existence, we watch skilled magicians create flowers out of thin air and pull rabbits out of hats. These are illusions. To actually do that is not possible in the fourth dimension. However, existing matter can easily be manipulated physically using only one's hands and bodies. For instance, one might have a bowl of soup but no spoon, only a butter knife. In the 4th dimension, one can shape the knife easily with one's fingers to fashion a spoon for eating the soup.

Suppose there is a large basket on the dinner table, but only two tomatoes are in the basket, and the basket is taking up too much room on the table. One simply takes the basket and, using one's hands, and understanding the lattice of the basket, simply compresses the basket with one's hands. One can reshape the basket so that it fits the two tomatoes. Now there is more room on the table. This sort of thing is common practice in the fourth dimension. These are elementary examples.

You have a small box, but you need a large box for a large item. One simply changes the size of the box for your large item, and so on. One cannot pull things out of thin air, as you can with your imagination, but you can manipulate already existing material physically in a way that is not physically possible in our current realm.

There are certain conceptions about value and function that are simply a part of a person's nature there. The very nature of the fourth dimension is integrated with all the natures associated in it. Therefore, pathology cannot be part of that dimension. Pathological people and such behaviors would be prohibitive to the very matter that existence is comprised of in the fourth dimension, and it is necessary for the fourth dimension to exist. All dimensions must exist. They coincide, and are related.

If pathologies that are possible in the current dimension that we are experiencing in this moment were to breach the fourth dimension, it would be a prohibitive disruption effecting all of existence in all dimensions. The sort of piracy and mendaciousness that can exist in this dimension simply cannot, by nature and the laws of physics, be a part of the fourth dimension. There are no violations of laws in physics, in any dimension.

One might consider the reports of military personnel, where crafts appear above nuclear silos. These may be concerned beings from other dimensions, understanding how such operations could affect them in their dimension. They perhaps feel a need to intervene in this dimension in order to preserve their own.

Why? Some ask. Why is it not possible for such mendacity to exist in the fourth dimension? Is it perfect there? Of course, it is not perfect; it is more advanced, so to speak, but not perfect. There are imperfect events and, of course, imperfect people who make mistakes and take liberties that are possible, though perhaps not wise. To understand the reason, it's an imperative to remember that the material; the very matter of the 4th dimension consists of the same matter that our imaginations are comprised of.

Here is the illustration to use. You may think of the imaginations of individuals as fields of energy, or waves, or particles. It should be easy then to understand how affecting the fields, or waves; or particles of the fourth dimension as a whole, in the behaviors that we have become accustomed to in this dimension, would be disruptive and, in fact, destructive to existence itself.

For this simple reason, those who rule the three-dimensional realm that we experience simply could not be a part of the fourth dimension. Again, only those who would by their matter of course master the practice of value creation and production be a part of that dimension. While there are blunders and varying degrees of judgement there, no pathological behavior is possible, as it is antithetical to the very existence of the matter; the field; the waves; the particles of which the fourth dimension is comprised. These are simply the natural and physical laws of the fourth dimension.

The End

That was a wild dream, and that’s what I got out of it. I was glad I was able to get a story out of it. Here is another link to a different episode where I get into coinciding planes and why other beings can’t always interact with us. It is called Alien Avoidance On Our Coinciding Plane. I hope you might get a paid subscription, or buy me a coffee, or donate some bitcoin.

I wish you the best in these messed up times. My target audience are the people doing the very difficult and risky anti-corporate, anti-war, independent, honest journalism. I want to be a brief respite from the craziness for them. If you know any of them and want to point out my 10-20 minute, daily storytelling podcast, that would be the best. I’m Herschel Sterling, and I’m here to help.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/653477

@ 56a6da9b:7f5a2243

_

LISTEN HERE (The podcasts are more complete and nuanced, imo)

DAY 13 OF FLASH AUGUST FICTION. Not a lot to say about this one. A skill I have is building. I was a bricklayer and a stonemason, and I know fire tech. What that means is that I can build fireplaces, masonry heaters, flue systems, and chimneys. I think a lot about how the buildings around us affect us. I hate gargoyles. I love angels. I’m Commercial Herschel, and I’m here to help.

Purge the Gargoyles

The People Agreed

614 WORDS WRITTEN IN A HALF HOUR

Mayor Jackson won the election in surprising fashion. No one expected her to win. She had no real money, she didn't have any high-profile support, and the other two candidates were as shocked as she was that she won. Her campaign was simple. “Our City for Us”.

The dominant Party was on the outs with the people. They usually controlled the big cities, and the people finally stopped falling for them. They had lost favor, and there was no politics, or even violence, that would bring the people back to them. The other Party was more of a rural and suburban party, but the idea that they could get this city was like a conquest. They courted Mrs. Jackson, but they could not win her. They offered her money, and all sorts of corporations made all sorts of promises, but he just wanted her city to be for her people.

Her campaign was so unfamiliar. All of these corporations were making all of these promises to her. Her response was, “We'll see.” She didn't present herself as a candidate with all sorts of business and influence as leverage behind her. Instead, she presented herself as someone with the support of the people as the leverage behind her, so she could get the best deal for the people that she could. Her attitude toward the corporations was, “Look, do you see all these people I have behind me? If you want their business, I'm here to be sure you make a really good deal for my people.”

Once she took office, there were so many questions. The media and her critics were all over her, looking for answers to all the tough policy questions. She knew these were pressing concerns, but she wanted to truly ground herself. She had to establish some things in some kind of permanent way.

Her first press conference after the election was the time that she could establish her intent.

“Ma'am, no one expected you to win this election. What was the first thought you had when you saw the results?” One of the media people asked.

“My first thought was that the establishment didn't expect that they would have to cheat on me, so they didn't try very hard.”

Another reporter shouts out the next question. “Mrs. Jackson, what's the first thing you want to do with your new position?”

“Well, the Library really bothers me,” she says.

People are perplexed, it doesn't make sense. What could be the problem with a library?

“You don't like libraries, ma'am?” One of the reporters asks.

“Of course, I like libraries. Who does not like libraries? What I don't understand is why the library has gargoyles all over the roof-line. I want to replace those demonic gargoyles with angels.”

DAY 13 OF FLASH AUGUST FICTION

There are a lot of raised eyebrows among the press crew, it's not what they were expecting.

“I'm not going to use the city budget to do this,” the new mayor says. “I'm going to ask people to make donations at the library.”

Within a matter of days, the library had enough donations to replace the gargoyles with angels. There was a contest for some different angel designs. Some weird, wealthy people offered money for the old gargoyles, but the mayor crushed them into dust and dumped them into the nearby lake.

People felt better, something was right about this. It set the new administration on a good path, and the mayor was able to cut a lot of good deals that benefited the people of the city. She won several elections and served for three terms until she retired at an age that would allow her to enjoy her grandchildren.

The End.

I hope you might get a paid subscription, or buy me a coffee, or donate some bitcoin. I wish you the best. I’m Commercial Herschel, and I’m here to help.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/653465

@ c69b71dc:426ba763

Chef's notes

You will need a blender! 🌱 This breakfast is nutritious, healthy, easy, and quick to make. 🌱 It's gluten free and vegan.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 min.
• 🍳 Cook time: 0
• 🍽️ Servings: 2

Ingredients

• 1 Apple 🍏
• 2 Ripe Peaches 🍑
• 1 Banana 🍌
• 1/2 cup (Wild) Blueberries 🫐 (frozen or fresh)
• 1/2 cup pine nuts (or optional ground almonds)
• 4 tbsp Almond Butter (or optional cashew butter)
• 2 Pitted Dates
• 1 tbsp Vegan Protein Vanilla Powder (optional)

Directions

1. Peach, apple, pine nuts, pitted dates, and vanilla protein powder: Blend until smooth.
2. Peel and slice the banana into rounds.
3. Blueberries (thaw in a water bath if frozen) and just mix and stir with a spoon in a little bowl with almond butter. (no need to blend with a blender)
4. Alternate layers of peach-apple mixture, banana and blueberry-almond butter mix in a glass.
5. Garnish with grapes, pine nuts, cacao nibs, and a drizzle of almond butter
6. Enjoy and tag me, when you try the recipe 💜🙏🏽💚

@ 9d51218e:a0c80d65

The huge share of ultra-processed foods, especially in the United States, is due to the fact that the food industry is in the hands of several global corporations. They have literally occupied all the supermarkets with their products. Full story

@ 361d3e1e:50bc10a8

The huge share of ultra-processed foods, especially in the United States, is due to the fact that the food industry is in the hands of several global corporations. They have literally occupied all the supermarkets with their products. Full story

@ 361d3e1e:50bc10a8

The huge share of ultra-processed foods, especially in the United States, is due to the fact that the food industry is in the hands of several global... This is a preview of my post. Join my community and get access to this and more of my work.

https://highlighter.com/npub1xcwnu8sx6vs5ae478lzzahpmg46428nkewa46prev4jhz59uzz5qqhm0u6

@ 46fcbe30:6bd8ce4d

Opinion about BitWallet - Buy & Sell Bitcoin (android)

On trustpilot, 20% of reviews are complaining about KYC only after trying to withdraw, with some claims of outright disappearing money.

WalletScrutiny #nostrOpinion

Join the conversation!

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Let's hear some of your latest Bitcoin purchases, feel free to include links to the shops or merchants you bought from too. If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent their sats on.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/653241

@ dd664d5e:5633d319

Here's how people use OtherStuff apps.

1) They usually go there to write or post, not to read or view, unless someone they closely follow wrote about it in a Kind 01 note, SimpleX chat, Slack Channel, Telegram group, etc.

2) While they are there, they sometimes look around at what their frens have posted, zap them, leave a comment or a reply, etc. Sometimes they spend hours there. They really like it!

3) Then they leave.

4) If someone responds to anything they posted or wrote there, with anything other than a Kind 01 reply, they do not know about it, because it does not show up in their normal feed or notifications.

5) They do not come back until 1) happens again.

@ 3c827db6:66418fc3

The challenges associated with physical work and delayed payments, as discussed in the construction and logistics industries articles, might not be as directly applicable to industries with less physical movement. However, the principles of instant settlement and the removal of intermediaries can still bring efficiency and innovation to various sectors. The advantages of instant settlement, such as reduced transaction fees, faster payment processing, and increased transparency, can positively impact industries beyond the physical realm. Whether it's in the realm of digital services, intellectual property, or other sectors that are already dematerialized, the application of instant settlement principles can streamline transactions and enhance overall efficiency.

Navigating The Written Odyssey

Entering the realm of book publishing, especially for a debut author, is a journey filled with challenges. The primary hurdle involves persuading a publishing house to forge a deal, a daunting task for those yet to establish their reputation in the market. The negotiation landscape is complicated by endless uncertainties, making it difficult to strike a mutually beneficial deal. Even if you try to be fair for both sides it is hard. Most people will prioritize themselves and what they get in an uncertain environment - like figuring out how many books will be sold for a first time author. The dynamics intensify when publishing houses provide editors to authors--an arrangement that frequently sparks friction. Authors, protective of their creative work, may resist alterations, but editors, with seasoned expertise, have to navigate the delicate balance between preserving the author's vision and refining the content.

The complexities extend to the business side, with potential pitfalls surrounding signing bonuses. Questions linger: What if the bonus overshoots and the book underperforms? What if the book succeeds, but the bonus proves inadequate, leading the author to seek alternatives for subsequent works? Marketing poses another challenge, raising dilemmas about investments, audiobook adaptations, navigating royalty payments, and banking fees for small markets and international payments.

Just like in the logistics industry here with royalties, we have the same problem of counterparty risk. In addition to stopping the payments to the authors completely, do you trust the publishers that they are giving the correct sales numbers? Translation decisions add another layer, raising queries about language choices, and fair compensation for translators. What about the illustrators? Each party involved creates more and more friction in the system just because everyone is seeking fair compensation. The payment system does not allow them to focus on what they provide in terms of value, but focuses everyone on mitigating the shortcomings of it. Addressing these multifaceted challenges requires not only innovation but also transparent and adaptive contractual frameworks to foster a more equitable and efficient publishing ecosystem.

The challenges for authors extend beyond the realm of creative content, and the intricacies of the publishing and marketing landscape. While the invention of ebooks has somewhat dismantled barriers, enabling easier self-publishing, the journey is not without hurdles. Authors opting for self-publishing must navigate the complexities of setting up accounts and managing distribution before reaching the point of uploading their work. Once published, the dual role of author and marketer emerges, demanding not only literary prowess but also strategic promotional efforts to capture the audience's attention and drive sales. The demanding nature of marketing leaves authors with limited time for their core competency - writing - which hinders the development of subsequent books that they would like to write.

Lighting Up Publishing: From Solo Authors to Collaborative Ventures, Unleashing the Potential of Instant Split Payments

Now that this is the third industry that we are looking into, we know that delayed payments are the problem and that they are tied to time and not actual work - “You have to write the book till this date or else…” “We will gather all payments and royalties will be paid later”. Since we know now that the Lightning Network can fix this let’s dig into the solution and what it may look like.

If you're a first-time author and choose to publish your book on your self-made app, you can instantly receive 100% of the income for each purchase. By utilizing a non-custodial solution like Breez, where no one holds money for others, you avoid the complexities associated with traditional payment methods. This setup eliminates the need for currency exchanges, providing a seamless global payment network directly connected to your app. The benefits go beyond mere currency considerations, freeing buyers from the hassle of exchange rate fees and relieving them of the complexities associated with navigating diverse regulations and processes across various countries. Who knows what regulations you have to deal with to be able to operate with the Iranian Rial just to sell a simple book? With a non-custodial solution on the Lightning Network, you get to avoid all that.

That is a big benefit for one-man shows in the book industry, but let’s take it a step further. In this scenario, where the relationship involves only the author and a publisher, the process becomes streamlined without the need for intricate negotiations, personal data sharing, or complex contracts with various clauses. With the instant settlement, there's no need for advance payments, both the author and publisher receive a percentage from each sale instantly when the purchase is made. The publisher, responsible for uploading and promoting the book on their website, and the author are now aligned in the common goal of selling more books. The only task left is to determine the fair percentage splits between the author and the publisher, fostering a collaborative and efficient partnership. Now the word royalties will have a completely new meaning.

Okay, that is between two entities, but we are not going to stop there. Now that the book is published the book can be translated to other languages. In that case, the complexity does not increase a lot. They just have to determine the percentage share split between the publisher, author, and translator for each sale of the translated version. Upon purchase of the translated book, each payment will be split three ways. Meanwhile, the original language version undergoes a two-way split, with the translator excluded from this split since they didn't contribute to that version. This ensures that the relevant individuals receive sats exclusively for their specific contributions. There might be a need for a separate publisher for the translated language, leading to a split between the author, translator, and second publisher. For the original language, the split occurs between the author and the first publisher. Theoretically, the current system goes through a similar structure for the payments, but I am reminding you here that only the instant split settlement makes that plan match the reality in practice. The moment that any entity starts holding funds for someone else even for a little, then the problems go up exponentially. This is why Breez is committed to preserving the peer-to-peer nature of Bitcoin in lightning payments.

Instant Splits For Narrators, Producers, And All Contributors - A Symphony Of Fair Compensation

We are not done yet with the benefits. Now that we have a path for each language, what will it look like for audiobooks? In that case, you just add one more split based on the agreement between the parties. If you create an audiobook in the original language then the split will be between Author, Publisher, and Audiobook creator. The creation of an audiobook is a project on its own of casting, recording, post-production, and distribution. That has multiple people involved so the split for the audiobook payment in reality may look like this:

Author, Publisher, Producer, Recording engineer, Narrator, Editing/mastering engineer.

In this dynamic model, contributors may wear multiple "hats" within a project, allowing them to assume various roles and, consequently, earn a share for each responsibility they undertake. For instance, an Author might take on the roles of both Producer and Narrator, performing additional work beyond their original scope. In such cases, the Author receives a percentage for each distinct role. However, should the Author choose not to take on these additional roles, someone else can assume those responsibilities and reap the corresponding benefits. This structure ensures alignment, with compensation tied directly to individual contributions at the time of each book sale, eliminating compensation for time or speculation based on future sales.

Unlike the other two industries we explored in construction here and logistics here, the timing of payment in the publishing industry differs. In the preceding sectors, individuals receive compensation instantly upon completing their respective tasks. However, in the realm of authors, payment is not immediate for the act of writing; it occurs when someone is willing to pay the price for the published work. This distinction highlights a fundamental principle: everyone is remunerated when they deliver value to someone else who is willing to pay. Whether delivering a package to the correct address or constructing a house for someone else to inhabit, optimizing the process with the client in mind becomes paramount. Therefore, receiving sats is contingent on providing intrinsic value to others, aligning the industry with similar principles observed in construction and logistics. If you build or deliver something that people do not want, that means you did not provide value.

Instant Influence: From Metrics To Value - A Paradigm Shift In Compensation For Promotions

Now let’s take it even a step further. This will not be the only industry where the influencers can change their business model, but I will use it as an example to explain the change that they will experience in their service. Currently, the influencers get paid for views or mentions depending on whether the medium is audio or video. Their value, as perceived by those paying them, hinges on metrics such as subscriber counts, views, and downloads. But for the person that is paying, is it going to matter if the influencer talks about a book but then it does not result in sales of the book? Or again what happens if someone mentions it but the sales are extraordinary, then the influencer has to receive a more fair compensation. Connecting payments directly to actual value, rather than relying on derivative indicators, ensures influencers receive fair compensation in line with their impact on sales.

Well, the instant settlement fixes that. Authors can now decide on a fixed percentage for influencers per sale, allowing anyone to become an influencer without the need for a massive following. Even a small blog with a modest readership of less than fifty people can result in direct, instant compensation for sales generated. This eliminates barriers to entry for the influencers to have a following and aligns incentives for authors seeking broader promotion. There is a massive friction in the influencer market currently because with poor measuring tools you do not want the money to be wasted on promotion that does not work. This future system is not going to waste a single sat for promotion because it is not paying for a promotion. You are negotiating a commission on every sale which the actual buyer pays - increasing sales is the intent of the authors reaching out to influencers anyway.

Now that we have an influencer promoting a book the UX (user experience) is going to be completely different. Right now to promote anything as an influencer you receive a code that you have to ask for, from the publisher in this case. Then your viewers/listeners have to go to the website and fill in all the information about themselves. Then they have to enter their card information which has to be secured from the website somehow. Then they enter the promo code and receive the ebook that they wanted. On the other side, the publisher has to hope he does not get a chargeback for whatever reason in the next 30 days. The instant settlement UX will be:

• Influencers enter a lightning address where they want to receive their commissions from for every sale.

• Then they display a link or a QR code that will be a lightning invoice for the specific book.

• The buyer enters an email where they want the ebook to be sent.

The instant split payment is sent and everyone including the influencer receives their share of it. This way even influencers might realize that the likes, views and comments are not the most important thing and focus on providing real value for their viewers. This not only streamlines the process but may also alleviate the impact of negative comments and dislikes for influencers. Because their income is not tied to the likes that means it will no longer be the most important thing. They will focus on promoting quality products that sell a lot so they get a piece of those sales and the likes will be secondary.

The transformation in influencer behavior triggered by instant settlement not only disrupts their traditional approaches but sparks competition among publishers and influencers alike. Authors may opt for a model where they focus solely on writing, leveraging influencers to handle promotion without dealing with traditional editors. This introduces a more diverse competitive landscape, where publishing houses will compete with content creators from different industries who passionately recommend authors they love. While these changes benefit readers, authors, and participants, those resistant to competition may be the only ones disliking this evolving landscape. image1

Indeed, envisioning the transformative power of instant payments, there's an opportunity for an innovator to replicate what Amazon did to bookstores. By adopting a model built on advanced technology and leveraging the advantages of instant settlements, this individual can start with books and subsequently explore avenues for expansion. The potential for such a disruptive force lies not only in reshaping the publishing landscape but also in inspiring new possibilities across diverse industries.

Now let’s go and publish that app.

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week 12-08 a suitable protocol

The knots come to a head, some of you have gray hair, you get older.

Tkinter is better than ws://, more secure, but has limitations, unless you know how to use figma and do some magic. The project of Nabismo.

Maybe Nostr doesn't work for me.

Aspirin moment Nip-17, works with nip-44 and nip-59. Someone said they made the groups encrypted with nip-17. I tried and succeeded, now you can DM me, don't do it. I had sent the link to a conversation of nip-87 closed groups. There's JeffG doing something with MLS. Then there's keychat.io which uses signal Nostr Bitcoin ecash and that's it... But in dart. It's a bit like the Matrix analogue for Nostr.

Final controversy not all nips are mandatory.

Build the foundation. You can't think about selling the house

Yakihonne has a countdown. What can a desktop app be. Community Lists, Nip-29

A birthday on Nostr, no that's not possible, they're all cypherpunks. 🎉🎉 (Except me)

There is a different attitude from Nostr when updates are released compared to Bluesky, everyone there is still enthusiastic, on Nostr ah ok but this is missing oh but this is missing or but support this other one, or but * zap, wait a minute, keep calm 🙇‍♂️, I'm the first to do this. (The revolt of the developers)

Deletetion: Client that have relay paired can do delete, more intelligently, Perhaps you can think of a delete.nrelay subdomain as a filter. This id is deleted. Be careful what you don't want to do. Maybe a session with a psychologist is better, because then you find yourself doing what you said you didn't want to do.

Does it make sense to follow someone on Bluesky? In my opinion no, or better yet yes. There are several algorithms on Bluesky, which do their job well. In the end it's just a matter of arranging them better on the screen. Yes you can have lists to save someone, but then you read everything, so lists with algorithm seems like a next feature. this way they can keep the following small, almost minimal, because there are algorithms that work for the user. People will start writing for SEO algorithm and AI and other things, which tech gurus really like and so on. The fact that it is almost exclusively an app will greatly facilitate this trend, there will be almost no need for moderation, and you can get it all in just a few apps. (Great)

Oh yegorpetrov has abandoned. Pegorpetrov said that he is coming back 😌 It might be an invention but I'm a little heartened by it.

Bankify, a new wallet of super testnet, only for crush testers.

You can't stream on zap stream without reach, maybe it's better audio space. Contact someone maybe an influencer or Nostr elite or whatever. Open Source Justice Foundation streaming

Designer, I wanted to propose comment on wikifreedia nielliesmons article and follow #nostrdesign, but too many answers for today. NVK note is ~~mainstream~~

I think I'm not suited to Nostr.

Nostr-ava bike file geo tag sharing. (NIP-113) Sebastix doesn't respond, I must have done something bad to him, or maybe I'm stressing him too much. Finally he replied 🤙. In the end maybe, I have too much hype about this proposal and it's something I don't know maybe, but maybe if they were already doing something with geo tags it's better to say so.

Another birthday, less cypher more punk 😌

Usdt on Nostr, there must be some error. (freeform app)

USDT on tron ​​is like Money. (Bitcoiner not really)

Privacy issue, deletion motion, or deletion request, go go.

Nip29 hype, i don't have hype at all. I'm tired of words, I record a podcast on Nostr. Let's see if I can do it, at least think it. (It's more of a workflow thing than actually something I would do)

1. Create an npub (easy)
2. Record the audio episode (I think I can do it). Terrible audio
3. Loading on a Nostrhosting, if less than 10 MB it should go smoothly.
4. Publish the video or audio of the episode on some Nostr client, perhaps using blastr relay 😞.
5. Do the nostree link, by putting the episode, and also the npub.pro and put the URL on café-society. 6) Publish all these links on the Main profile, saying that, made a podcast about Nostr in Nostr of nostr. 😂

I thought a client could have poll, form, spreadsheet, collaboration document. It's the kind of otherstuff we want to see. Something that goes beyond a normal feed.

Emoj on bluesky, Eventually also zap 🥜 link emoj Blue

Eventually there will be a developer revolt And they will only do a social network in their downtime, they will call it Nostr.

There is a storm, Nostr does not work in 4g with two bars. Or now 4G is gone too.

Yakihonne Smart widgets, something to try on the weekend.

@ 3c827db6:66418fc3

The spread of the Lightning Network may change the incentives behind human interactions, thus also affecting the world of jobs. In the first episode: the construction industry.

When talking about the social implications of Bitcoin, reference is often made to the potential effects of Bitcoin's spread that are not immediately evident: these are second, third, and fourth-degree effects that could change the way people behave in everyday life. Even if the thought might sound hyperbolic, the fact of the matter is that technology has already changed the features of our everyday life, more than once.

Raise your hand if, in the 1980s, you would not have found crazy the idea that one-day people would choose which restaurant to go to based on star ratings and reviews on a digital screen. Who would have thought that one day it would no longer be necessary to pay attention to the route to take by car to reach one's destination and, possibly, learn it by heart, because software would calculate the best route for them based on traffic? How would you have reacted if, back in the 1970s, a friend had told you that in the future he might fall in love with a girl he had never seen who lived on the other side of the world, thanks to text messages processed by software that allows you to meet like-minded people?

Innovation changes social interactions: it always has and will continue to do so, especially if technology is particularly disruptive.

The effects of the large-scale diffusion of the Lightning Network - a technology that allows instant payments from one part of the world to another at almost non-existent costs - can be extremely profound, and can act to change entire sectors. In the first example, in this article, we will discuss how instant settlement could revolutionize the construction industry.

The construction industry is a complex ecosystem involving a myriad of stakeholders, each with its own set of incentives. These often conflicting interests lead to inefficiencies, delays, and increased costs.

The Lightning Network offers a solution to align these disparate interests.

The problems

Misaligned Incentives

In the traditional construction setup, each stakeholder operates with a different set of incentives. More specifically: Buyers aim for high-quality construction within a stipulated time and budget. Planners, including architects, designers, and engineers, are primarily concerned with their designs and less about the actual construction. Construction companies are focused on maximizing profits, realizing the building as quickly as possible and with the lowest possible quality at the agreed price. Supervisors' incentives are tied to bonuses, which may or may not align with the project's overall goals. Construction workers are paid for their time, not the quality or efficiency of their work.

Let's step outside the imagery of the construction site for a moment and think about football. Can you imagine if defenders had a bonus for putting the ball out of bounds? And midfielders had one for the most passes? And strikers for the most goals? Imagine the chaos on the pitch if the different skills of all the players were not employed for only two goals: to score goals and to avoid conceding them. Such a team would hardly be efficient or successful.

The construction industry, with its varied incentives, faces a similar problem, leading to delays, increased costs, and compromised quality.

The underlying issues

Several other issues exacerbate the inefficiencies in the construction industry. Machinery and tools, often owned by the construction company, are not well-maintained by the workers. This leads to faster wear and tear, increasing costs for the company. Small changes in the project requested by the buyer are not usually compensated, adding to the company's costs. Planners are not held accountable for design flaws that manifest during construction, leading to additional costs and delays.

The solution: instant task-based payments

Construction workers

In a hyperbitcoinized world, the Lightning Network's instant settlement feature can be a game-changer.

Workers would be paid for tasks completed rather than time spent. For instance, upon successful construction of a wall or installation of windows, payments could be made instantly. This aligns the workers' incentives with quality and efficiency, as they would aim to complete as many tasks as possible to earn more.

Because workers are paid per task there will be no need for a company to hire workers on a payroll. The company just needs to post the tasks, for example on its app, and anyone can apply for them, do their tasks, and get paid for each execution. The more tasks a worker does, the more bitcoin he earns, the better his skills become, the better his reputation will be in the app. Isn't that what already happens with Uber drivers - except for the Bitcoin part, for now?

Supervisors

This system would also eliminate the need for supervisors to focus on time management, allowing them to concentrate solely on quality assurance. If a task meets the quality standards, the worker gets paid instantly. This would eliminate the need for time-based bonuses or penalties.

Supervisors would be incentivized to focus even more on quality alone by the split payments feature made possible by the Lightning Network. When a specific task is up for grabs, multiple workers can apply for it via a specialized app. The workers then negotiate among themselves to determine the division of payment - be it an even 50/50 split or a more nuanced arrangement like 60/40. This self-organization extends to scenarios involving more than two workers, where payment divisions could be negotiated as 33.3% for each in a three-way split, or perhaps a 40/40/20 arrangement.

The self-organizing mechanism alleviates the supervisory burden. Instead of mediating disputes or assigning tasks, the supervisor's role becomes even more focused on quality control. Once a task is completed to satisfaction, the supervisor approves it in the app, triggering the release of funds. The app itself is programmed to automatically split the payments among the workers based on their pre-negotiated terms, streamlining the entire process and eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Tools ownership

Since workers are compensated for completed tasks rather than time spent, there's a heightened incentive to complete tasks as efficiently as possible. More tasks, more money. The quickest route to efficiency? Utilizing high-quality, well-maintained tools.

When multiple workers vie for the same task, the one equipped with the best tools gains a distinct advantage, capable of completing the task more swiftly and effectively. This system has a ripple effect on tool ownership. Over time, workers might prefer using their own tools over company-provided ones, ensuring better maintenance and ultimately contributing to a more efficient and effective construction process.

In short, the instant payment system would also encourage workers to invest in and maintain their own high-quality tools, further improving efficiency and competition in the construction workers market. This would also reduce the company's costs related to tool maintenance and replacement.

Planners and buyers

Planners would be more involved in the construction process, ensuring that their designs are being followed accurately. They would be paid partially upfront for their blueprints, with the rest being released upon successful completion of tasks. This system would make planners more accountable and invested in the successful execution of their plans.

The task-based payment system also benefits the buyer and the construction company by reducing financial risks. Payments would be made for completed tasks, ensuring that neither party is financially exposed. This would also make the negotiation process smoother, as both parties would know exactly what is included in the price for each task.

Construction companies

While the Lightning Network's instant settlement feature promises to decentralize many aspects of the construction industry, the need for centralized oversight cannot be entirely eliminated. A single entity must be accountable for the holistic execution of the project, meticulously tracking resources required for each construction phase and ensuring the right personnel are deployed at the appropriate times.

Technological advancements have made it possible for specialized apps to manage these complex tasks. Such apps could, in theory, allow the buyer of the finished building to oversee the entire project. However, this assumes that the buyer possesses the requisite expertise in construction management, which is often not the case. As a result, most buyers prefer to employ specialized companies to manage the project until its completion.

This scenario closely mirrors the current state of Lightning Network nodes. While anyone can set up a node, doing so effectively requires a certain level of expertise. Some individuals may choose to manage their own nodes to earn revenue, but the majority are willing to pay fees for expert management, opting for non-custodial apps to simplify the process. Similarly, some buyers may use construction management apps to avoid paying a construction company, but they must then assume full responsibility for the project's outcome.

Now go and build

The next logical step is clear: it's time to build that pay-per-task app and usher in a new era of decentralized construction. By leveraging the capabilities of the Lightning Network and Bitcoin, we can shift the balance of power towards those who are at the heart of every construction project—the workers. These are the individuals who bring blueprints to life, who lay each brick and install each window. By empowering them with instant, task-based payments, we not only align incentives across the board but also elevate the entire industry to new heights of efficiency and quality.

@ 41d0a715:9733c512

Fits snugly behind the ear, just slap with your hand ... most realistic bloody ear ever! 6 pieces $12.95.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/652908

@ 41d0a715:9733c512

Fits snugly behind the ear, just slap with your hand ... most realistic bloody ear ever! 6 pieces $12.95.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/652889

@ 6389be64:ef439d32

From creating connections to taming #LLM-generated chaos, we dive into how embeddings can turn digital noise into meaningful insights. Join Liminal from Project Alexandria and me as we explore the fun side of navigating the wild web of ideas and relational knowledge in Episode 937 of Bitcoin And.

Liminal is sharing 50% of this episode's revenue so use a modern podcasting app to generously BOOST, STREAM, and ZAP Sats.

• Project Alexandria

• nostr's Ecosystem

• Zettlekasten Note Taking

• LLM's Role in Deleting Relational Noise

• The Future

Listen to the interview on @fountain --> https://fountain.fm/episode/vvZkH5FKqYVuyFAP312V <--

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/652671

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

I wanted to share the crazy odds I managed to get at Nitrobetting, when they rolled out their new site overhaul. I blew pretty much the remainder of my sats on NFL Futures, which they didn't used to offer.

• Raiders to win the AFC West (+900)
• Lions make the Super Bowl (+550)
• Chiefs make the Super Bowl (+375)
• Bills make the Super Bowl (+700)
• 49'ers win the Super Bowl (+10000)

This is the 49'ers year!

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/652649

@ 0461fcbe:35a474dd

Cloudflare is controversial among FOSS/decentralization enthusiasts due to its reliance on a centralized third-party. But if you're going to use it, you should at least use it right.

By default, Cloudflare intercepts DNS traffic, but does not protect your webserver at all. This means anyone with your server's direct IP address can still attack it. Attackers might be crawling all IPs, or they might be able to figure out your server's IP if it makes outgoing requests.

When you use Cloudflare, requests should only be coming from Cloudflare's upstream IPs: https://www.cloudflare.com/ips/

Therefore, you should block traffic from all IPs by default, and whitelist only Cloudflare's IPs for the best protection. UFW is a firewall that comes installed by default on most Linux distros, so you only need to configure it.

Default rules

First configure ufw defaults, so that outgoing requests are allowed and incoming requests are denied by default.

sh ufw default deny incoming ufw default allow outgoing

Allow ssh

Next enable ssh so you can still shell in from anywhere.

sh ufw allow ssh

For extra security, you should also edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config and set PasswordAuthentication no so only login by key is supported.

You can also whitelist certain IPs for SSH, but you can accidentally lock yourself out this way. For most sites I run, I find this is good enough security (as long as something like Heartbleed doesn't happen again).

Enable UFW

Now you're ready to enable UFW. Your SSH connection should stay intact since you allowed ssh, but this will block all incoming web requests. If you're doing this on an existing production webserver, delay this step until the very end.

sh ufw enable

Whitelist Cloudflare IPs

Next we allow traffic from Cloudflare's upstream webservers. This will allow our website to work normally as long as requests go through Cloudflare first, essentially blocking any sort of direct attack on the webserver.

Cloudflare IPs are taken from: https://www.cloudflare.com/ips/

```sh

ipv4

ufw allow from 173.245.48.0/20 to any port 80 ufw allow from 103.21.244.0/22 to any port 80 ufw allow from 103.22.200.0/22 to any port 80 ufw allow from 103.31.4.0/22 to any port 80 ufw allow from 141.101.64.0/18 to any port 80 ufw allow from 108.162.192.0/18 to any port 80 ufw allow from 190.93.240.0/20 to any port 80 ufw allow from 188.114.96.0/20 to any port 80 ufw allow from 197.234.240.0/22 to any port 80 ufw allow from 198.41.128.0/17 to any port 80 ufw allow from 162.158.0.0/15 to any port 80 ufw allow from 172.64.0.0/13 to any port 80 ufw allow from 131.0.72.0/22 to any port 80 ufw allow from 104.16.0.0/13 to any port 80 ufw allow from 104.24.0.0/14 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2400:cb00::/32 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2606:4700::/32 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2803:f800::/32 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2405:b500::/32 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2405:8100::/32 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2a06:98c0::/29 to any port 80 ufw allow from 2c0f:f248::/32 to any port 80

ipv6

ufw allow from 173.245.48.0/20 to any port 443 ufw allow from 103.21.244.0/22 to any port 443 ufw allow from 103.22.200.0/22 to any port 443 ufw allow from 103.31.4.0/22 to any port 443 ufw allow from 141.101.64.0/18 to any port 443 ufw allow from 108.162.192.0/18 to any port 443 ufw allow from 190.93.240.0/20 to any port 443 ufw allow from 188.114.96.0/20 to any port 443 ufw allow from 197.234.240.0/22 to any port 443 ufw allow from 198.41.128.0/17 to any port 443 ufw allow from 162.158.0.0/15 to any port 443 ufw allow from 172.64.0.0/13 to any port 443 ufw allow from 131.0.72.0/22 to any port 443 ufw allow from 104.16.0.0/13 to any port 443 ufw allow from 104.24.0.0/14 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2400:cb00::/32 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2606:4700::/32 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2803:f800::/32 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2405:b500::/32 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2405:8100::/32 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2a06:98c0::/29 to any port 443 ufw allow from 2c0f:f248::/32 to any port 443 ```

That's it!

Now your server is protected from direct IP traffic, and requests must go through Cloudflare.

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

H1

google

Editado

@ 47e48df6:0a966eb3

Teste 01 do Workshop Nostr

@ dbc828cc:ed78a663

El nuevo continente

---

La siguiente es la carta de respuesta a mi amigo de Japón, Yamaguchi, quien me ha preguntado acerca de la vida en el "nuevo continente". Para ser más precisos, la relación que el continente tiene con bitcoin. Su servidor solamente ha conocido algunas partes de México y El Salvador así que por esta ocasión solo voy a escribir acerca del segundo país, al cuál ya considero un segundo hogar.

A continuación algunas fotografías con descripciones que ayuden a comunicar ideas de medianoche acerca del nuevo continente y bitcoin. Por otro lado, este escrito se ha procurado intencionalmente con el idioma Español en mente, mi lengua nativa, para fines de hacerle la tarea más fácil a ChatGPT, quien nos ayuda a traducir nuestras conversaciones.

---

¿Nuevo y viejo; este, y oeste?

Yamaguchi se ha referido al continente Americano como el "nuevo continente". Esto me ha sorprendido pues, desde mi experiencia, el continente Asiático, —para nosotros al menos—, es más comúnmente conocido como el continente del Este. (Eastern and Western). Llamarlo "nuevo" acarrea ya una connotación distinta a la geográfica, y la traslada a la temporal. Pues bien, para honrar la idea a propósito de una connotación temporal que mejor describa el carácter jovial de de Latinoamérica, ciertamente puedo confirmar que la vida de experiencia en El Salvador se aprecia temprana, pero llena de entusiasmo.

Para todos fue una sorpresa el anuncio de bitcoin como moneda de recurso legal en El Salvador. La siguiente sorpresa para la gente Salvadoreña fue presenciar el ir y venir de extranjeros curiosos, energéticos y en algunas ocasiones, faltos de vergüenza. ¿Qué se le va a hacer?, por eso y por otras cosas son conocidos los bitcoineros :).

Como tal parece que sucede en otros lugares del mundo, las grandes ciudades parecen más precavidas acerca del uso de bitcoin; desconfiadas, en algunos otros casos. No es para menos; en la ciudad a menudo las estafas y la criminalidad le hacen pasar malos ratos a las personas, y lamentablemente, el costo es la confianza.

En la playa y en las montañas, sin embargo, las cosas mejoran. Bitcoin Beach es el nombre de la iniciativa que ha inaugurado un sueño parecido en muchos de nosotros; aún sin poder responder precisamente ¿cuál es ese sueño?, es posible asegurar que se puede "sentir" y que de este modo, el valor de la confianza puede ser reconstruido.

La gente Salvadoreña es muy trabajadora y de buen humor. El pueblo de El Salvador ha tenido que hacer frente a periodos de guerra, de violencia y carestía; pero a pesar de las adversidades, en sus corazones no se ha acomodado el resentimiento y en cambio, se ha permitido lugar a la bondad, el compañerismo y el esfuerzo.

Por un lado más generalizado; tal parece que las oportunidades de inversión y empleo lucen optimistas. El Salvador tiene reconocidas producciones de café, caña, y energía volcánica ;). Mejor conocido por ser un destino clave para quiénes practican surf, El Salvador parece comenzar a abrir sus puertas a nuevas ideas.

Ahora bien, personalmente hablando, para mi El Salvador es como un pequeño México. Las regiones climáticas y culturales son bastante parecidas, pero sin duda parece una buena ventaja tener las montañas y las playas a poca distancia; es posible cambiar de atmósfera en un mismo día.

Finalmente, me despido con un viejo refrán que viene a propósito del entusiasmo que bitcoin irradia no solamente hacia Latinoamérica, sino al mundo entero: "con calma, que llevo prisa". Es decir, si bien los sentimientos de energía, ímpetu y entusiasmo son alimento nutritivo para el espíritu; cuando se abusa de sus bendiciones se puede también propiciar la generación de malos hábitos o accidentes. Es mejor ir con con calma pero con confianza ;). Buenas noches.

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

Heres a scenario:

Imagine you have a nostr e-cash/Lightning Wallet and you would like to have a maximum receive balance of 20k split in between 5 mints that enable multipath payments.

Pick 5 mints below to store 4k sats each, the funds are automatically withdrawn to your lightning node at the end of the day.

Stacker News Robosats Sparrow Coinkite Start9 Rabbit Hole Recap @siggy47 Damus LND Your own mint

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/648298

@ bcbb3e40:a494e501

| | |:---:| | Weltanschauung Italia, Breviarios contra la posmodernidad: Bosquejo de ideas para una era en disolución, Hipérbola Janus, 2023 |

En el actual orden de cosas, con la vorágine de cambios en los que nos encontramos inmersos, al ritmo y velocidad con que se van sucediendo, con el bombardeo «informativo» indiscriminado, los propios de una sociedad hipertecnológica y consagrada a la virtualidad permanente, a la confusión y el caos que parece reinar por doquier, el hombre está en la obligación (ética, moral y casi existencial) de exigir un punto de equilibrio o un lugar donde asirse y poder digerir el valor y alcance de todos ellos. Breviarios contra la posmodernidad: Bosquejo de ideas para una era en disolución aparece ante nosotros como un apoyo necesario, tanto para adquirir algo de conciencia del mundo en el que vivimos, así como para mantenernos «vivos» en un contexto histórico y unas coyunturas en las que todo parece languidecer y aproximarse hacia un irreversible ocaso.

Ciertamente, el espíritu crítico, y la capacidad para analizar de la manera más objetiva posible la realidad que nos rodea es una tarea complicada y puede llegar a adquirir proporciones titánicas debido a los condicionamientos y prejuicios a los que nos vemos expuestos tanto por el entorno social como por los mass media. Una presión que directa o indirectamente, consciente o inconscientemente, busca una permanente adhesión a una narrativa, a un discurso construido ex profeso por terceros y que es obvio que no busca el beneficio de la sociedad ni de los pueblos, ni mucho menos nos conduce hacia el tan cacareado «progreso» que se nos ha vendido durante décadas y que para nada representa mejora alguna en las condiciones de existencia de nuestros pueblos, sino más bien lo contrario. De modo que el individuo, o más bien la persona, queda desprotegida, a merced del gregarismo de la masa y los mercenarios de la «información», reducidos a meros transmisores y ejecutores de los planes y designios de los poderes fácticos, de las élites, de quienes deciden impunemente el destino de millones de personas. ¿Y cuáles son los recursos y medios con los que cuenta esta persona frente a unas formas de poder cada vez más opresivas, arbitrarias e incluso invasivas en los aspectos más íntimos y particulares de la vida del hombre? Pues bien, el principal recurso, el más elemental, y que parece venir a menos, en continua devaluación, es el razonamiento crítico, la capacidad para establecer un análisis objetivo de la realidad, cultivar el espíritu inconformista, hacerse preguntas, no aceptar acríticamente cualquier imposición, e incluso hacerse fuerte en aquello que revela la experiencia de quienes nos precedieron, y cuyo valor acumulativo ha servido para pertrechar las sociedades del pasado, las de nuestros abuelos, y que no es otra cosa que la Tradición; cúmulo de conocimientos y experiencias que hunden sus raíces en el pasado más remoto, que nos aportaron una cosmovisión, una Weltanschauung que al mismo tiempo que nos da seguridad, es expresión de una forma de ser y estar en el mundo, que nos fortalece en las raíces, para no desviarnos del camino ni zozobrar en los tiempos de cambio e incertidumbre.

Estos son los parámetros en los que podemos enmarcar la obra de Weltanschauung Italia, articulado como un think tank que, haciendo honor a su nombre, se convierte en vector de una cosmovisión del mundo, ofreciendo un cuadro interpretativo de gran valor para el lector que se cuestiona el actual orden de cosas y quiere mantenerse activo, que no quiere claudicar frente al mundo que viene y se está conformando. De alguna forma, Breviarios contra la posmodernidad encierra en sí mismo un principio de rebelión, aunque solo sea a través del pensamiento, pero como los propios autores se encargan de recordarnos, no hay acción que no se nutra de los pensamientos, que no sea diseccionada y previamente diseñada por el acto del pensar, si no quiere ser un hacer frenético y desbocado, algo que, por otro lado, viene siendo habitual en el mundo moderno.

Pero el espíritu crítico y un sistema de representaciones de la realidad que nos proporcione un cuadro claro y nítido del mundo que nos rodea no solo es una necesidad individual, no sólo sirve al propio conocimiento, sino que nos implica a todos y cada uno de nosotros, y de ahí el valor ético-moral que se deriva y le es inherente, en la medida que busca despertar el mismo ánimo en los demás, y es portador de una visión del mundo, de una idea de bien y justicia, o de una concepción del hombre, de una forma de vivir y organizarse en el mundo. Por ese motivo al ejercer una visión crítica y fruto de ella articular una visión del mundo, también adquirimos un compromiso. Lo contrario implicaría una existencia pasiva, reducida a lo puramente instintivo y animal, a los «automatismos de la especie», igualados a cualquier otro ser del mundo animal y negando lo más propio y genuino del ser humano.

Al fin y al cabo, como se demuestra en cada uno de los artículos que componen la obra, lo que está en juego en nuestros días es seguir siendo humanos, afirmarnos como tales en un mundo en el que la técnica, mediante el uso de la tecnología, nos ha hecho pasar de ser sujetos a objetos, totalmente instrumentalizables e intercambiables y al servicio de poderes e intereses espurios, que como en 1984 van mucho más allá de la elaboración de sistemas de control social, que siempre han existido, para poner cerco a la propia condición humana a través de la construcción de una nueva antropología que niega la civilización del Ser de la que nos hablaba Curzio Nitoglia, y desfigura la esencia de lo humano hasta el punto de realizar una obra de inversión de naturaleza satánica. No les basta con poseer el control sobre las personas y sobre los cuerpos, también quieren penetrar en las almas y corromperlas, crear esclavos que amen sus cadenas y que defiendan activamente a sus opresores y verdugos, en la línea del «no tendrás nada y serás feliz» que tan recurrente se ha vuelto en nuestros días. No en vano, en varios de los artículos se nos recuerda los famosos «dos minutos del odio» que en 1984 servía para aglutinar a los esclavos en torno al poder, para moldearlos y fidelizarlos en torno a un enemigo común, totalmente imaginario e irreal.

| | |:---:| | NITOGLIA, Curzio, En el mar de la nada: Metafísica y nihilismo a prueba en la posmodernidad, Hipérbola Janus, 2023 |

Del mismo modo, hemos vivido durante los últimos años, especialmente con la llamada «pandemia», un proceso similar en muchos aspectos a lo que la famosa novela distópica nos venía describiendo. La instrumentalización y manipulación sistemática a través de poderosas herramientas de propaganda, conciencias y mentes reducidas a la mínima expresión, destruídas por el miedo y entregadas a cualquier discurso, por absurdo y grotesco que éste fuera, hundidas en un episodio de psicosis y alucinación colectiva que parecía más el producto de un encantamiento o de un embrujo de magia negra. Un episodio de guerra psicológica lanzada contra los pueblos del llamado Occidente posmoderno, que en realidad fue su principal objetivo, con el fin de conseguir un cambio de paradigma, al tiempo que saltaban por los aires los valores, principios y concepciones ético-morales que se suponía que existían hasta febrero del año 2020. Obviamente, todo ello es una demostración de que la humanidad del Occidente posmoderno estaba ya madura para convertirse en objeto de la aplicación de la Agenda poshumanista del 2030, diseñada por los grandes jerifaltes del poder globalista, auténticos psicópatas liberticidas en un proyecto de deshumanización nunca visto.

La obra se estructura a través de tres partes diferenciadas:

• La primera de ellas nos introduce a los autores, reunidos en torno a Weltanschauung Italia, organizados como un think tank, en una declaración de intenciones que nos da respuesta al motivo del anonimato que impera entre sus miembros, los fundamentos generales que animan su actividad y una serie de ideas generales que nos van a permitir entender el enfoque general de la obra.

• La segunda parte, bajo el título «Más allá del pensamiento único» nos ofrece un abundante compendio de artículos sobre diferentes aspectos de la realidad presente, cuestiones que forman parte del espectro político y social, analizando las paradojas insolubles de nuestro tiempo, manifestadas a través de una democracia liberal cada vez más cínica, hipócrita y desnaturalizada bajo las nuevas formas de gobernanza mundial en gestación, las falsas prédicas de tolerancia, el culto al cientifismo o la permanente erosión de la identidad individual y colectiva a través de procesos de disgregación deliberados y en absoluto fruto del azar.

• Una tercera parte, «Pandemia y nuevo orden post-democrático» nos introduce de lleno en un análisis de la denominada «pandemia del covid-19», cuyas prolongaciones y consecuencias se extienden hasta nuestros días. Los autores se adentran en las entrañas de este proceso análogo y concurrente con la Agenda 2030 y el cambio de paradigma al que venimos asistiendo. Haciendo uso de una lucidez y gran ingenio, Weltanschauung Italia, nos muestra una serie de lugares comunes dentro del fenómeno pandémico, y los desmenuza críticamente haciendo uso de una lógica implacable, poniendo al desnudo las contradicciones, absurdos e iniquidades que han caracterizado a lo que se llega a calificar, con mucha razón, como un «proceso de psicosis colectiva», en la que todos los valores precedentes, las ideas, razonamientos y visiones que imperaban, sufren una inversión dramática que nos recuerdan a aquella afirmación, casi profética, que Chesterton lanzó en su día: «Llegará un día en el que haya que desenvainar la espada para defender que el pasto es verde». Ese día ya ha llegado, y se puede decir, como es habitual en estos casos, que la realidad supera a la ficción. El texto viene enriquecido por citas de autores de gran relevancia para el pensamiento disidente, tales como Friedrich Nietzsche, Ernst Jünger, Julius Evola o J.R. Tolkien, que sirven para introducir ideas y principios considerados como irrenunciables.

| | |:---:| | CHESTERTON, G.K., Antología de ensayos políticos, Hipérbola Janus, 2018 |

Al final, el sentido común y la lógica más elemental es la que sirve de guía en un mundo en penumbra, y como apoyo permanente la Tradición, ese punto de referencia que jamás deberíamos perder de vista, que por siempre debe vivir en nuestro horizonte más inmediato, pertrecharse en sagrados principios y convertirnos en ejemplo a través de nuestras acciones, servir de referente moral y existencial para aquellos que nos rodean, e incluso «convertirlos» en la medida de lo posible en nuevos Despiertos, dispuestos a defender la integridad y la dignidad de lo humano frente a las fuerzas subversivas del mal, frente al posthumanismo tecnocrático que trata de engatusarnos con eufemismos y abstractas promesas de felicidad, que al final solo tienen como conclusión autodestrucción, degradación y esclavitud.

---

Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, Presentación de «Breviarios contra la posmodernidad: Bosquejo de ideas para una era en disolución», 6/Jun/2023

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

It's wild. I just proved I can build #nostr 'wallet' where I can store the encrypted tokens in a Germany relay and make the lightning payment out of a Singapore mint. All using a #nsec that never leaves my machine. https://primal.net/e/note15l02rf4r474ck04mlrxxfagyl0z6t04ltsugf9dtph4xxhzfnd4sqpk74n

I’ve proven to myself that a #nostr wallet can exist across time and space, independently of any one app, server or custodian. The only thing which controls the ‘wallet’ is the generation and control of an #nsec which is free to exist within or flee any jurisdiction.

In my mind, this lays to rest the notion that a wallet needs to be an app, service, or anything that can be captured commercially or by the state. https://primal.net/e/note13nwsh852x9tfex2jade6vwymhhct8zussxr4zwy7uag24hjc9stq0xsxaf

https://image.nostr.build/07dd1b56d6bb60b13cfe6c19d9384bc3ef198d01af4be9a5c544f791b80b746a.png

I am thinking about coining the term “nsac” to refer to a wallet-like thing that can exist on #nostr holding your valuable things, such as ecash tokens. I have already implemented a prototype #cashu ecash wallet which looks to be promising.

So you would have:

npub - your identity

nsec - your private key

nsac - your valuables

Your #nsac could be the same as your #nsec but better case is to generate as many #nsacs as required.

Happy to hear feedback!

For reference, what a ‘sac’ is in the biological sense:

A sac is a biological term referring to a pouch or cavity in an organism that is typically enclosed and may contain fluid, air, or other substances. Sacs can serve various functions depending on their location and role in the body, such as protecting a developing embryo, facilitating the exchange of gases in the lungs, or reducing friction between moving parts in joints

https://primal.net/e/note1snj7y9m6f7lhfzkd2ujzqcvparpgddzmgcgwsgghqvkcyd0rkqhsmmlyla

npub1q6mcr8tlr3l4gus3sfnw6772s7zae6hqncmw5wj27ejud5wcxf7q0nx7d5

Wild stuff freaks, will nostr become the best lightning/E-Cash wallet? Let me know what you think.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/648270

@ bcbb3e40:a494e501

| | |:---:| | FRANCISCI, Pietro de, El espíritu de la civilización romana: Ne ignorent semina matrem, Hipérbola Janus, 2023 |

Una vez más nos complace presentar una de nuestras obras, en esta ocasión, como de costumbre, nos encontramos ante un autor inédito en lengua española, y de origen italiano, como es el caso del insigne jurista italiano especializado en derecho romano Pietro de Francisci, y no un especialista más sino uno de los juristas más importantes en susodicha materia. La obra en particular se trata de El espíritu de la civilización romana, editado originalmente en 1939, en una segunda edición en 1952 y finalmente, tras un prolongado lapso de tiempo, en 2019 por la editorial italiana L'arco e la Corte.

Un apunte biográfico

Pietro de Francisci nació en Roma el 18 de diciembre de 1883. Criado en un ambiente católico y huérfano de padre desde edad muy temprana, su familia se trasladó a Milán en 1887. Desde muy joven, y formando parte de un comité antidivorcio, pudo entrar en contacto con el ambiente de la intelectualidad católica italiana de la época. En 1905 obtiene su licenciatura en derecho, y durante su formación tiene acceso a las obras de historiadores del derecho romano como Contardo Ferrini o Pietro Bonfante, que influyen notablemente en su formación y actividad científica, que se inicia en 1906 a través de la exploración de de amplias temáticas relacionadas con la Romanidad, de hecho ese mismo año publica una versión parcial de su tesis en Studi senesi bajo el título Iudicia bonae editti e formulae in factum[^1]. Sus actividades como investigador se centrarán en el derecho público y en la metodología jurídica. De hecho en Presupposti teoretici e il metodo della storia giuridica (1916)[^2] sostiene la ausencia de distinciones entre las ciencias de la naturaleza y las ciencias históricas y subraya que el método, esencial en la ciencia del derecho, está vinculado al conocimiento de los principios de la evolución jurídica. Habla del derecho natural como producto de la sociedad y que el análisis debe centrarse sobre la organización de la sociedad, compuesta de agregados e instituciones sociales a los que les corresponden las instituciones jurídicas.

Después de la Primera Guerra Mundial se puso a disposición del Consejo supremo interaliado de Versalles para completar una serie de estudios preparatorios en la conferencia de paz. De hecho, entre febrero y agosto de 1919 se adhirió a la oficina de prensa de la Delegación italiana en la Conferencia. De modo que sus cargos públicos preceden al advenimiento del fascismo. En los años precedentes al estallido de la guerra, hacia 1912, Pietro de Francisci ha pasado por una serie de universidades (Perugia, Ferrara, Sassari, Macerata y Padua) en un proceso de maduración académico que le llevará finalmente a la Universidad de La Sapienza, en Roma, en 1924. Un año antes, en 1923, de Francisci figura ya como miembro del Partido Nacional Fascista, procediendo en lo ideológico de las filas del nacionalismo italiano, encuentra acomodo en el partido donde recibe cargos internos.

|| |:---:| |Pietro de Francisci (1883-1971)|

En otra de sus obras, Missione del giurista (1927)[^3], sostiene que «la investigación histórica y la misma lógica obligan (...) a considerar el derecho como una formación social» al tiempo que se hace consciente de la necesidad de un ordenamiento uniforme y unitario, y de que la fuerza de todo organismo político depende de la unidad de dirección. Es una postura en plena consonancia con la dirección de los tiempos, con las propuestas ideológicas del fascismo del ventennio. En esta época también se dejan entrever las críticas de nuestro autor al liberalismo y su individualismo agnóstico, y niega cualquier pragmatismo o reducción a una pura cuestión técnica en el ejercicio del derecho y la jurisprudencia, tal como revela en algunas obras posteriores como Le fonti del diritto privato e il processo della loro unificazione in Roma (1928)[^4], donde también delinea el proceso de «estatalización» del derecho en la experiencia romana, o bien en Il centenario del Digesto (530-1930), en el que sostiene que el derecho forma parte de una única realidad histórica y espiritual, totalizadora, en la que converge con la política o la economía. En lo sucesivo, intervendrá en diferentes congresos, como el Congreso jurídico italiano, el 5 de octubre de 1932, donde propugna la idea de construir una nueva dogmática que gire en torno al papel del Estado.

Precedentemente, en 1929, ya ocupó un escaño como diputado del PNF. También participará como Relator en el diseño de legge Stato di previsione della spesa del Ministero dell’educazione nazionale per l’esercizio finanziario entre el 1 de julio de 1930 y el 30 de junio de 1931, donde propugna unos métodos pedagógicos que inciden en la formación humanística de los jóvenes y una liberalización de los planes de estudio. También participará en sucesivas leyes y reformas legales en calidad de Ministro de Gracia y Justicia, cargo que ostentará entre el 20 de julio de 1932 y el 24 de enero de 1935. Su principal cometido desde sus labores ministeriales será la formulación de un nuevo sistema jurídico frente al liberalismo y sus derivas individualistas. El 10 de abril de 1934 presentará al Jefe de Gobierno un esbozo de reforma constitucional en el que tratará de adecuar las estructuras del Estado corporativista a sus funciones, superando la doctrina de la división de poderes, y transformar el Parlamento en una institución consultiva. El proyecto no llegó a tener continuidad.

Su experiencia política como ministro terminará bruscamente y volverá de nuevo al mundo académico, para ocupar su posición en el Rectorado. Desde 1937 preside el instituto nacional de cultura fascista: miembro del Directorio nacional del partido. Vicepresidente de la Cámara de los fascios y de las corporaciones.

|| |:---:| |Inauguración del año académico en la Universidad de La Sapienza el 13 de noviembre de 1931 por el rector Pietro de Francisci.|

En su actividad intelectual comienza a madurar una nueva etapa en la que sus trabajos se inspirarán en las doctrinas desde el evolucionismo y el positivismo jurídico se orienta hacia el análisis de los contenidos espirituales, hacia los elementos constantes y recurrentes que construyen la unidad fundamental del espíritu humano. En Idee per un rinnovamento della scienza del diritto (1939) ya plantea un sistema que veremos reflejado en El espíritu de la civilización romana, obra que corresponde al mismo año, a través del cual se propone liberar las realidades de los sistemas históricos de las determinaciones temporales y de los condicionamientos contingentes para descubrir los aspectos permanentes del espíritu, para rastrear en ellos un significado que pueda asumir un valor general. Aspectos permanentes, que permitieran establecer leyes de evolución jurídica.

En 1940 dimite como presidente del Instituto nacional de cultura fascista, como miembro del Directorio nacional y vicepresidente de la Cámara de los fascios y las corporaciones. A pesar de que Mussolini insiste en que conserve al menos el último de los cargos, de Francisci se ve empujado a alejarse de la política y dedicarse a su actividad docente e investigadora.

Posteriormente, en 1944, su implicación directa en el gobierno fascista italiano le supondrá ser apartado de la docencia por orden del Comisario del gobierno militar aliado, algo que posteriormente, a finales de ese mismo año, confirmaría una Comisión de depuración. Unos años después, a comienzos de 1949, el procedimiento será revocado con sentencia del Consejo de Estado y nuestro autor podrá volver a ocupar su Cátedra de Historia del derecho romano en La Sapienza. El mundo académico de la época recibió con alegría la revocación de los procesos de depuración que apartaban a uno de los más ilustres catedráticos italianos, llegando a escribir una carta firmada al Ministerio de Instrucción Pública para agradecer la reintegración de éste, algo que la Facultad de jurisprudencia de La Sapienza ya había pedido en mayo de 1948.

Pietro de Francisci abandona definitivamente la enseñanza en 1954, y todavía nos legará una última obra, de gran valor y fundamental en el conjunto de sus escritos bajo el título Primordia civitatis (1959). Muere finalmente el 31 de mayo de 1971 en Formia.

Pietro de Francisci vs Jérôme Carcopino: vidas paralelas

Como sucede en muchos casos, la polémica y las filiaciones ideológicas al final terminan por decidir la suerte de innumerables autores y de sus obras, que o bien son condenadas al ostracismo y al olvido más absoluto, privándonos de sus valiosas aportaciones, o bien son directamente demonizados y objeto de imprecaciones de lo más funestas. De hecho tenemos ejemplos muy conocidos, como el de Ezra Pound, cuyo destino también estuvo unido al mismo país que de Francisci, o bien, dentro del mismo ámbito de conocimientos del mundo romano, tenemos el caso de Jêrome Carcopino, uno de los mayores especialistas en la historia de Roma del último siglo de la República, cuya colaboración en tareas de gobierno con el régimen de Vichy durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, también le acompañó a lo largo de toda su vida. A Carcopino, como a de Francisci, ya le precedía una prolongada trayectoria académica, en este caso como profesor de La Sorbona entre 1920 y 1937. Curiosamente el historiador francés también ocupó el cargo de Secretario de Estado para la Educación Nacional y para la Juventud, dentro del terreno educativo como nuestro autor, y entre sus principales aportaciones destacaron especialmente la denominada «Ley Carcopino», que dio cobertura jurídica a la arqueología francesa durante medio siglo, así como la reordenación de la enseñanza escolar bajo los parámetros ideológicos del régimen de Vichy.

| | |:---:| | VV.AA., Pound, Evola y Jünger: Introducción al pensamiento disidente del s. XX, Hipérbola Janus, 2023 |

Las labores de gobierno de este otro insigne romanista, Jérôme Carcopino, también tuvieron sus consecuencias, y éste fue arrestado y encarcelado al final de la guerra en Fresnes, y fue revocado en sus funciones académicas. Posteriormente, hacia 1951, como de Francisci, también fue rehabilitado y elegido miembro de la Academia Francesa en noviembre de 1955.

El espíritu de la civilización romana

Como señalamos al principio de este escrito, El espíritu de la civilización romana no ha conocido más que tres ediciones desde los más de 80 años de su primera publicación, algo que posiblemente pueda tener relación con las polémicas señaladas con anterioridad. Son especialmente interesantes respecto a la obra que nos ocupa una serie de apuntes previos, y en relación a cuestiones metodológicas, que el propio autor nos indica. Al estudiar la historia romana en su conjunto hay que hacerlo desde el análisis y los planteamientos que tengan en cuenta el factor simbólico y tradicional, omnipresente desde los orígenes de Roma, y sus evoluciones ulteriores, así como los condicionamientos externos referentes a la territorialidad o las aportaciones de las poblaciones con las que entran en contacto.

Por este motivo la hermenéutica empleada por de Francisci en el análisis de Roma va mucho más allá de lo puramente fenomenológico, para lanzar una visión de conjunto sobre toda la civilización romana, en la que los diferentes elementos orgánicos y la idea metafísica nos permiten caracterizarla desde su fundación hasta su final. Por dicha razón, El espíritu de la civilización romana no es un simple libro de historia, un manual más de los muchos existentes, que abordan la historia romana atendiendo a hechos y cronologías, sino que se refleja una voluntad de ofrecer un análisis morfológico, podríamos decir que incluso de inspiración spengleriana, en el que se busca trascender la visión de una historia lineal y progresiva, huyendo de todo academicismo, teniendo muy en cuenta las categorías de «Civilización» y «Cultura». De hecho, si en el caso del célebre historiador alemán, la historia de Roma precedente al advenimiento del Imperio aparece como un cúmulo de revoluciones y guerras civiles, que comienza con la II Guerra Púnica y los hermanos Graco en el siglo II a.C. para desembocar finalmente en el Imperio de Augusto, en una descripción perfecta de la descomposición del sistema parlamentario y de magistraturas que desemboca en formas de «Cesarismo». Todo este proceso es perfectamente descrito por Pietro de Francisci, en paralelo a la defensa de una tradición y unos orígenes, que se refleja también en el mantenimiento en los comienzos de la exclusividad del elemento romano originario, tanto en el acceso a los cargos políticos, religiosos o militares, y que generará el conflicto entre patricios y plebeyos, como en tiempos del Imperio, con la distinción, dentro de un orden jerárquico preciso y bien delimitado, del sustrato romano-itálico y su sucesiva pérdida de poder en detrimento de las provincias imperiales.

Tampoco podemos obviar la inspiración evoliana que emana de la perspectiva metafísica que de Francisci pone en práctica y de la que deriva un evidente sentido metahistórico. De ahí cierto sentido de predestinación que aparece ligado al concurso de la voluntad divina en la historia de Roma, que viene a reforzar con su aprobación, merced a los ritos oficiados por augures y arúspices, todas las acciones de calado que Roma emprendió en la forja de su Imperio. El elemento divino participa de los hechos humanos, les da sanción y los introduce en la dimensión de lo sagrado. La cita que nos apunta Julius Evola en sus escritos, perteneciente a Plutarco en su Vida de Rómulo (I, 8) dice así: «Roma no habría podido elevarse a su condición de potencia si no hubiese tenido de alguna manera un origen divino,

tal de ofrecer a los ojos de los hombres, algo grande e inexplicable», que se suma a otras referencias más o menos literarias que inciden en esta idea de predestinación, de contar «con el favor de los dioses», y que se revela muy pronto en la historia de Roma, desde el estado de simples campesinos y pastores entre las colinas de Roma, asediados por los diferentes pueblos que habitaban la región (Latinos, Sabinos, Samnitas etc), un pueblo cerrado, sin apenas contactos con otros pueblos, en un contexto plagado de auténticos mitos fundacionales y leyendas que alimentan el misterio de la misma romanidad.

| | |:---:| | FRANCISCI, Pietro de, Spirito della civiltà romana: Ne ignorent semina matrem, L'Arco e la Corte, 2020 |

Roma y su legado, junto a Grecia, continúan siendo la piedra angular de la civilización europea, especialmente en su vertiente occidental, parte integrante de las raíces e identidad continentales. Y aquí debemos hablar del valor de la Tradición como tal, que a lo largo de las páginas que componen la presente obra es algo fundamental, y que vemos reflejado en la voluntad de permanencia de los elementos originarios del pueblo romano, y posteriormente romano-itálico, y la preponderancia del ius sanguis para ocupar los principales cargos políticos y militares del Estado romano, un principio ligado al estatus de ciudadano, que llegó a ser un privilegio hasta la Constitución de Caracalla (212 d.C.), en una voluntad de mantener vivas las raíces y el elemento originario del pueblo romano. Pero en contraste con este elemento, y por las propias razones naturales de la evolución del Imperio, éste tuvo que mostrarse integrador y absorber las influencias que venían de otras latitudes del orbe romano, tales como los cultos mistéricos, que vinieron a sustituir la religión romana, más externa y ligada a la concepción del estado, y con posterioridad el propio Cristianismo, que también se vio impregnado por elementos romanos, y que como veremos en los primeros siglos medievales, se convirtió en vector en la conservación y transmisión de la Tradición clásica.

No obstante, como toda creación humana, el Imperio y la hegemonía de Roma cumplieron un ciclo vital, y a su proceso de formación y apogeo le sucedió aquel característico de decadencia y caída final. Las causas de la caída todavía siguen siendo objeto de debates, con sus teorías e interpretaciones, dentro del ámbito académico de los historiadores, aunque nuestro autor hace especial hincapié en la crisis demográfica, la misma que diezmó a lo largo de los siglos a las más antiguas familias de la aristocracia senatorial romana y castigó a las poblaciones romano-itálicas, a lo que habría que unir las guerras que pesaban sobre esta porción privilegiada del Imperio, la decadencia moral y de las costumbres y la corrupción de las instituciones, junto con la pérdida del sentido de jerarquía y organicidad que integró a contingentes de población provinciales cada vez mayores en las estructuras y la dirección del Imperio, y obviamente por el establecimiento de un modelo cosmopolita en el que las legiones romanas dependían cada vez más del elemento bárbaro, en una creciente militarización del poder político romano.

A estos elementos podemos unir otros muy evidentes, y ampliamente documentados desde la historiografía como las invasiones bárbaras, que de la mano de la citada corrupción de las instituciones, hicieron cada vez más difíciles el control de las fronteras, del limes, la propagación de enfermedades infecciosas por la falta de higiene, el colapso de las estructuras económicas, con el hundimiento de la agricultura y los intercambios comerciales y, en definitiva, por la pérdida de la cohesión social originaria, la que se había constituido como fuerza motriz de los destinos de Roma desde los comienzos.

Los paralelismos de la decadencia y ocaso del Imperio Romano con la que vive el Imperio estadounidense-occidental-posmoderno son inevitables. La misma crisis demográfica que vivieron los romanos de la Antigüedad Tardía, la vemos hoy, aunque por motivos mucho más planificados, en la envejecida Europa actual, en la que cómo en los tiempos crepusculares de la romanidad, también se ve asaltada por los bárbaros, con sus decadentes democracias liberales plutocráticas, sus oscuras Agendas globales y el mismo fermento en plena putrefacción que corrompe las costumbres, tradiciones y hasta el buen gusto. Junto con destrucciones irrecuperables en el ámbito de lo espiritual y los legados ancestrales, que en el caso romano trascendieron a sus creadores y se proyectaron sobre el Medievo y más allá gracias al papel de las órdenes monásticas, en el nuestro nadie recordará en los tiempos venideros al Occidente posmoderno, oscuro y decadente, incapaz de ninguna creación que perdure en el tiempo y privado de todo ethos heroico se perderá en el sumidero de la historia sin que nadie lo invoque sino como una época de oprobio, cobardía y destrucción de la condición humana.

[^1]: De Francisci, Pietro. Iudicia bonae dei editti e formulae in factum, Fratelli Bocca, Turín, 1907

[^2]: De Francisci, Pietro. I presupposti teoretici e il metodo della storia giuridica. Tip. Degli Olmi, di C. Tessitori, 1916.

[^3]: Fragmento de Atti della Società italiana per il progresso delle scienze, XVI Riunione, Perugia. 30 oct.-5 nov. 1927, Pavia 1928

[^4]: En Nuovi Studi di diritto, economia e politica, I [1927-1928], pp. 161-169

---

Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, Presentación de «El espíritu de la civilización romana» de Pietro de Francisci, 15/Jul/2023

@ da18e986:3a0d9851

After months of development I am excited to officially announce the first version of DVMDash (v0.1). DVMDash is a monitoring and debugging tool for all Data Vending Machine (DVM) activity on Nostr. The website is live at https://dvmdash.live and the code is available on Github.

Data Vending Machines (NIP-90) offload computationally expensive tasks from relays and clients in a decentralized, free-market manner. They are especially useful for AI tools, algorithmic processing of user’s feeds, and many other use cases.

The long term goal of DVMDash is to become 1) a place to easily see what’s happening in the DVM ecosystem with metrics and graphs, and 2) provide real-time tools to help developers monitor, debug, and improve their DVMs.

DVMDash aims to enable users to answer these types of questions at a glance: * What’s the most popular DVM right now? * How much money is being paid to image generation DVMs? * Is any DVM down at the moment? When was the last time that DVM completed a task? * Have any DVMs failed to deliver after accepting payment? Did they refund that payment? * How long does it take this DVM to respond? * For task X, what’s the average amount of time it takes for a DVM to complete the task? * … and more

For developers working with DVMs there is now a visual, graph based tool that shows DVM-chain activity. DVMs have already started calling other DVMs to assist with work. Soon, we will have humans in the loop monitoring DVM activity, or completing tasks themselves. The activity trace of which DVM is being called as part of a sub-task from another DVM will become complicated, especially because these decisions will be made at run-time and are not known ahead of time. Building a tool to help users and developers understand where a DVM is in this activity trace, whether it’s gotten stuck or is just taking a long time, will be invaluable. For now, the website only shows 1 step of a dvm chain from a user's request.

One of the main designs for the site is that it is highly clickable, meaning whenever you see a DVM, Kind, User, or Event ID, you can click it and open that up in a new page to inspect it.

Another aspect of this website is that it should be fast. If you submit a DVM request, you should see it in DVMDash within seconds, as well as events from DVMs interacting with your request. I have attempted to obtain DVM events from relays as quickly as possible and compute metrics over them within seconds.

This project makes use of a nosql database and graph database, currently set to use mongo db and neo4j, for which there are free, community versions that can be run locally.

Finally, I’m grateful to nostr:npub10pensatlcfwktnvjjw2dtem38n6rvw8g6fv73h84cuacxn4c28eqyfn34f for supporting this project.

Features in v0.1:

Global Network Metrics:

This page shows the following metrics: - DVM Requests: Number of unencrypted DVM requests (kind 5000-5999) - DVM Results: Number of unencrypted DVM results (kind 6000-6999) - DVM Request Kinds Seen: Number of unique kinds in the Kind range 5000-5999 (except for known non-DVM kinds 5666 and 5969) - DVM Result Kinds Seen: Number of unique kinds in the Kind range 6000-6999 (except for known non-DVM kinds 6666 and 6969) - DVM Pub Keys Seen: Number of unique pub keys that have written a kind 6000-6999 (except for known non-DVM kinds) or have published a kind 31990 event that specifies a ‘k’ tag value between 5000-5999 - DVM Profiles (NIP-89) Seen: Number of 31990 that have a ‘k’ tag value for kind 5000-5999 - Most Popular DVM: The DVM that has produced the most result events (kind 6000-6999) - Most Popular Kind: The Kind in range 5000-5999 that has the most requests by users. - 24 hr DVM Requests: Number of kind 5000-5999 events created in the last 24 hrs - 24 hr DVM Results: Number of kind 6000-6999 events created in the last 24 hours - 1 week DVM Requests: Number of kind 5000-5999 events created in the last week - 1 week DVM Results: Number of kind 6000-6999 events created in the last week - Unique Users of DVMs: Number of unique pubkeys of kind 5000-5999 events - Total Sats Paid to DVMs: - This is an estimate. - This value is likely a lower bound as it does not take into consideration subscriptions paid to DVMs - This is calculated by counting the values of all invoices where: - A DVM published a kind 7000 event requesting payment and containing an invoice - The DVM later provided a DVM Result for the same job for which it requested payment. - The assumption is that the invoice was paid, otherwise the DVM would not have done the work - Note that because there are multiple ways to pay a DVM such as lightning invoices, ecash, and subscriptions, there is no guaranteed way to know whether a DVM has been paid. Additionally, there is no way to know that a DVM completed the job because some DVMs may not publish a final result event and instead send the user a DM or take some other kind of action.

Recent Requests:

This page shows the most recent 3 events per kind, sorted by created date. You should always be able to find the last 3 events here of all DVM kinds.

DVM Browser:

This page will either show a profile of a specific DVM, or when no DVM is given in the url, it will show a table of all DVMs with some high level stats. Users can click on a DVM in the table to load the DVM specific page.

Kind Browser:

This page will either show data on a specific kind including all DVMs that have performed jobs of that kind, or when no kind is given, it will show a table summarizing activity across all Kinds.

Debug:

This page shows the graph based visualization of all events, users, and DVMs involved in a single job as well as a table of all events in order from oldest to newest. When no event is given, this page shows the 200 most recent events where the user can click on an event in order to debug that job. The graph-based visualization allows the user to zoom in and out and move around the graph, as well as double click on any node in the graph (except invoices) to open up that event, user, or dvm in a new page.

Playground:

This page is currently under development and may not work at the moment. If it does work, in the current state you can login with NIP-07 extension and broadcast a 5050 event with some text and then the page will show you events from DVMs. This page will be used to interact with DVMs live. A current good alternative to this feature, for some but not all kinds, is https://vendata.io/.

Looking to the Future

I originally built DVMDash out of Fear-of-Missing-Out (FOMO); I wanted to make AI systems that were comprised of DVMs but my day job was taking up a lot of my time. I needed to know when someone was performing a new task or launching a new AI or Nostr tool!

I have a long list of DVMs and Agents I hope to build and I needed DVMDash to help me do it; I hope it helps you achieve your goals with Nostr, DVMs, and even AI. To this end, I wish for this tool to be useful to others, so if you would like a feature, please submit a git issue here or note me on Nostr!

Immediate Next Steps:

• Refactoring code and removing code that is no longer used
• Improve documentation to run the project locally
• Adding a metric for number of encrypted requests
• Adding a metric for number of encrypted results

Long Term Goals:

• Add more metrics based on community feedback
• Add plots showing metrics over time
• Add support for showing a multi-dvm chain in the graph based visualizer
• Add a real-time mode where the pages will auto update (currently the user must refresh the page)
• ... Add support for user requested features!

Acknowledgements

There are some fantastic people working in the DVM space right now. Thank you to nostr:npub1drvpzev3syqt0kjrls50050uzf25gehpz9vgdw08hvex7e0vgfeq0eseet for making python bindings for nostr_sdk and for the recent asyncio upgrades! Thank you to nostr:npub1nxa4tywfz9nqp7z9zp7nr7d4nchhclsf58lcqt5y782rmf2hefjquaa6q8 for answering lots of questions about DVMs and for making the nostrdvm library. Thank you to nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft for making the original DVM NIP and vendata.io which I use all the time for testing!

P.S. I rushed to get this out in time for Nostriga 2024; code refactoring will be coming :)

@ bcbb3e40:a494e501

|| |:-:| |Fotocomposición: Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América|

Si bien es cierto que antes del año 1000 se dieron expediciones por parte de navegantes escandinavos que alcanzaron los territorios de Norteamérica, este descubrimiento no llegó a concretarse de forma efectiva sobre el territorio, ni con la fundación de asentamientos, ni con un contacto prolongado con los moradores de aquellas tierras que generase una dialéctica del nosotros y ellos, y en consecuencia sin que el conocimiento de estas nuevas tierras se tradujera en un impacto en cualquier sentido y a cualquier nivel para la Europa de aquel momento. También contamos con el caso del navegante chino Zhang He, que ya se había granjeado una fama notable por haber navegado los mares del índico y el sudeste asiático, y que en 1422 se supone que alcanzó América cruzando el Pacífico, pero sin generar asentamientos ni intercambios culturales ni fructificar ninguna relación de intercambio. Por este motivo es a España a quien le corresponde el honor del descubrimiento a través de la figura, todavía algo misteriosa y con algunas nebulosas en lo que a cuestiones biográficas se refiere, de Cristóbal Colón. Y aunque al «Gran Almirante del Mar Océano» le corresponde únicamente el descubrimiento del inmenso continente de Ultramar, que no es poca cosa, bien es cierto que la obra de exploración, evangelización, desarrollo urbano, material y de civilización se prolongará durante varios siglos y cambiará el mundo de forma decisiva y para siempre.

No podemos obviar que el proceso que se inicia con el descubrimiento de América, que transforma radicalmente las perspectivas del europeo de aquella época en adelante, constituyen una etapa dentro de la globalización, con intercambios materiales, humanos y espirituales a una escala que jamás se había visto nunca con anterioridad. En lo particular, en lo que se refiere a la cultura y al etnos hispánico representa la apertura de nuestra particular cosmovisión a nuevos territorios, gentes y realidades, y la construcción de un imperio sólido que se mantuvo en pie durante más de tres siglos, en lo que será la mayor obra de evangelización de la historia, bajo un corpus jurídico monumental como fueron las Leyes de Indias, que regulaban la vida de los habitantes de Ultramar, de la América Española, donde sus ciudadanos gozaban del mismo estatus que los habitantes peninsulares. En definitiva, y sin querer entrar en profundidad en este tema, estaríamos ante la mayor obra de civilización acometida jamás en la historia humana, tanto por su extensión como por su duración. Hoy día no entenderíamos América sin la decisiva contribución española, incluida también la Norteamérica anglosajona.

Pero no perdamos de vista el objeto de nuestro escrito, Cristóbal Colón, respecto al cual ya hemos señalado unos orígenes de lo más oscuros, los cuales se han formulado a través de las más variopintas teorías, desde unos hipotéticos orígenes judíos, gallegos, valencianos, catalanes e incluso polacos. Las especulaciones sobre los verdaderos orígenes del misterioso navegante han sido numerosas y no han terminado de aclarar nada de una forma clara y significativa, y mucho menos cuando las teorías han desembocado en rocambolescos resultados que nos abstenemos de comentar. Lo cierto es que los orígenes de Colón son oscuros y misteriosos porque así lo quiso el susodicho y su propio hijo, Hernando, en la biografía que escribió de su progenitor bajo el título Historia del almirante, y donde sabemos que omitió información sobre los orígenes del padre con la voluntad de ensalzar su figura. Según los datos oficiales y aceptados por los historiadores Cristóbal Colón nació alrededor de 1451 en la próspera república de Génova, en el seno de una humilde familia de tejedores de paños. Poco se sabe de su infancia salvo que su padre terminó en la cárcel por deudas y que optó desde una edad muy temprana por hacer carrera en la navegación, aprovechando el auge que en aquellos momentos había alcanzado la marina genovesa, con una serie de contribuciones técnicas y un desarrollo del comercio marítimo que auguraba una vida de riquezas y aventuras al joven por todo el Mediterráneo, e incluso un enfrentamiento con el corsario francés Casanove-Coullon en las costas portuguesas que pudo costarle la vida tras naufragar. Durante este periodo el joven Colón fue acumulando conocimientos de navegación y cosmografía.

A mediados de los años 70 del siglo XV el genovés llega a Portugal, lugar que marcaría profundamente su vida personal. En aquellos momentos Portugal era el país más activo en la exploración y búsqueda de nuevas vías marítimas más allá de los mares europeos tradicionales para alcanzar las anheladas rutas de las especias, ayudado, claro está, por su ubicación geográfica claramente inclinada sobre el Océano Atlántico. De hecho, desde los tiempos de Enrique el Navegante en adelante circunnavegaron África y fundaron numerosas factorías en sus costas. Esta etapa, que se prolonga, más o menos, hasta 1485 será decisiva en la vida del navegante genovés porque le permitirá impregnarse de las experiencias portuguesas y adquirir unos mayores conocimientos en la navegación, se habla incluso de su participación en empresas de navegación en África o en el Norte de Europa. También vivirá durante dos años en una pequeña isla en medio del Atlántico, en Porto Santo, con su esposa portuguesa, Felipa Moniz Perestrelo, de la que enviudó alrededor de 1482. Su oficio como vendedor de libros durante su estancia en Portugal también le permitió acceder a numerosas fuentes de información que serían fundamentales en la configuración final de su plan, un plan tan ambicioso como arriesgado que consistía en adentrarse en las aguas del «Mar Tenebroso». Está claro que partía de la idea de una tierra esférica, con la idea de que navegando hacia Poniente alcanzaría Levante, sin la navegación de cabotaje practicada por los portugueses bordeando las costas africanas y por encima de las posibilidades técnicas que las naves de la época proporcionaban. Pero está claro que el plan del genovés no obedecía a la improvisación, y que tanto obras clásicas (Ptolomeo, Séneca etc) como aquellas fuentes más modernas (son conocidos sus contactos con el sabio florentino Toscanelli) fueron de una importancia capital.

Una vez trazado el plan el viaje solamente necesitaba de patrocinadores, y por ese motivo Cristóbal Colón presentó primero su plan al rey Juan II de Portugal, quien tras nombrar una comisión de matemáticos y cosmógrafos acabó por rechazarlo al considerarlo inviable, eso además de las exigencias desproporcionadas que su autor reclamará a la corona portuguesa, entre las que se incluían ser nombrado gobernador y virrey de las tierras que se descubrieran además de los derechos sobre el diezmo de sus riquezas y otras exigencias económicas y de poder, que fueron las mismas que propondría a los Reyes Católicos.

|| |:-:| |Los Reyes Católicos|

Cuando Colón llega a Castilla sobre la primavera de 1485 se encuentra en pleno apogeo expansivo de Las Españas, en un momento en el que solamente quedaba una pieza para completar el puzzle de la Reconquista: el reino nazarí de Granada. La monarquía hispánica representada por Isabel de Castilla y Fernando de Aragón estaba asentándose en esos momentos. Colón llega en plenas operaciones militares y debe hacerse con un buen número de apoyos antes de acceder a la Corte y presentar formalmente su plan. De todos es conocida su vinculación inmediata con el monasterio de La Rábida, donde encuentra sus primeros apoyos en Fray Antonio de Marchena, que le ayudará enviando una carta de recomendación a la Corte a través de la única persona que conoce, Fray Hernando de Talavera, muy cercano a la reina Isabel y de la cual era confesor. También entra en contacto con otro hombre de la Corte, Alfonso de Quintanilla, responsable de la Hacienda del reino. Finalmente Cristóbal Colón protagoniza su primer encuentro con los Reyes Católicos en ese mismo año, en la ciudad de Córdoba tras recorrer 250 kilómetros a pie en diez días. Después de los primeros tanteos haría nuevos contactos, como el cardenal Mendoza y Fray Diego de Deza, el preceptor del príncipe, o Juan Cabrera, camarero del rey, y Luis de Santángel, un influyente escribano del entorno real. Pese a contar con firmes partidarios de su proyecto, Colón no terminó de ser recibido por los Reyes Católicos hasta más de un año después de esos contactos. Mientras tanto, con sus recursos económicos cada vez más mermados, es recibido por la corte itinerante en Alcalá de Henares, concretamente un 20 de enero de 1486. La reina Isabel quedó hondamente impresionada por el plan, mientras que Fernando se mostró más escéptico. En cuanto al Consejo Real, integrado en su mayoría por juristas y hombres poco entendidos en cuestiones de ciencia, rechazaron el plan colombino. Finalmente, los Reyes Católicos terminaron nombrando una comisión de expertos para estudiar el plan que fue organizada por Fray Talavera. El trabajo de esta comisión se prolongará en sus trabajos hasta comienzos de 1487, mientras que los reyes se encontraban centrados en las campañas de conquista de Granada. La decisión final de la comisión reunida en Salamanca fue el rechazo al plan de Colón. Durante 5 años el navegante y visionario genovés tuvo que esperar a que finalmente se aceptase su plan por parte de los reyes, tras las Capitulaciones de Santa Fé que tuvieron lugar al finalizar la conquista de Granada. Desde la Hacienda Real se le siguieron procurando regularmente pequeñas cantidades de dinero para que el navegante siguiera vinculado a la corte. Durante este lustro (1487-1492) la incertidumbre, desesperanza y estrecheces económicas marcarán la vida y el carácter tenaz y decidido de nuestro protagonista. Pero no todo sería penuria y desazón durante este periodo, dado que conocería a su segunda mujer, Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, que le daría su segundo hijo, Hernando. Durante este periodo Cristóbal Colón, junto a su hermano Bartolomé, vuelven a tantear al rey de Portugal, a Juan II, e intentan ponerse en contacto con los monarcas de Inglaterra y Francia sin éxito. Paralelamente, y en sucesivos encuentros, el Duque de Medinaceli o Fray Pérez median para tratar de convencer a la reina Isabel de la puesta en marcha del proyecto, pero todo depende de la victoria sobre Boabdil y la rendición final de Granada.

Finalmente, uno de los apoyos de Colón en la corte, Luis de Santángel, terminó por persuadir a los Reyes Católicos de la viabilidad del plan colombino, a pesar de sus exageradas exigencias de poder, riquezas y ascenso social, ante las que también terminaron cediendo. La primera en ser convencida fue la reina Isabel, y posteriormente el reticente rey Fernando, pese a que mantenía su escepticismo. La reina estaba convencida de la necesidad de una gran obra de evangelización, deseo que se concretaría sobre suelo americano entre los pueblos indígenas que lo habitaban, como demuestra la Real Provisión de 1500, evitando que éstos fueran esclavizados o sometidos a maltrato. Las Capitulaciones de Santa Fé recogieron los detalles del acuerdo entre los monarcas y el navegante extranjero, que a partir de ese momento vinculaba su empresa personal a la monarquía hispánica, con toda la enorme significación histórica que tenía este acontecimiento, que consagra su figura a la eternidad y asegura el futuro de sus vástagos y descendientes con grandes ventajas económicas y privilegios.

A partir de entonces se iniciaba el gran viaje a través del océano, y con este se desafiaban las leyendas y mitos que durante generaciones habían convertido a aquellas aguas ignotas en un lugar extraño y terrible poblado por monstruos marinos devoradores de hombres. Y lo que más sorprende es el convencimiento del propio Colón en que hallaría nuevas tierras al final de su viaje que le procurarán las riquezas, los privilegios y el poder que tanto anhelaba. En este sentido también se ha especulado con la posibilidad de que pudiera contar con algunos conocimientos o informaciones privilegiadas que mantuvo en secreto hasta el final.

En los preparativos del viaje cobraron protagonismo los hermanos Pinzón, experimentados marineros onubenses a los que se les prometió el Almirantazgo a cambio de sus servicios, y otros tantos marineros de origen andaluz, cántabro y vasco, todos ellos movidos por el afán de riquezas en una empresa peligrosa que, a priori, no garantizaba el éxito. A finales de julio de 1492 la flota de las tres carabelas ya estaba lista, el día 2 de agosto la expedición fue bendecida durante la Fiesta de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles y se pidió la protección de la Virgen.

El 3 de agosto se iniciaba el viaje, que tendría como primera escala las Islas Canarias, que se conquistaron finalmente en 1498, donde se tuvo que someter a reparación a La Pinta. Desde el Puerto de la Gomera se daría el gran salto, el cual tendría lugar el 6 de septiembre, para adentrarse en la inmensidad del océano, sabiendo que durante muchos días no avistarían tierra. Las semanas que se sucedieron hasta alcanzar los territorios del Nuevo Mundo fueron problemáticas y estuvieron salpicadas de incidentes, como el botín en el que se amenazó con tirar por la borda al propio Colón, y que gracias a su carisma y liderazgo entre los marineros consiguió abortar Martín Alonso Pinzón. Finalmente, el 12 de octubre de 1492 se producía el histórico y anhelado momento en el que la expedición llegaba a una pequeña isla del archipiélago de las Bahamas que Colón bautizó como San Salvador. En total se cubrieron 6.600 kilómetros y durante los tres siguientes meses nuestro protagonista recorrió las islas caribeñas con la esperanza de encontrar las Cipango y Catay del Extremo Oriente. A partir de ese momento se construye el primer asentamiento en América, concretamente en la isla de La Española (República Dominicana y Haití) donde se dejó a 39 hombres en el «Fuerte Navidad» para zarpar rumbo a España en enero de 1493 y alcanzar el puerto de Palos de Moguer, desde donde salió meses atrás, en marzo del mismo año, no sin peligros de naufragio y de ser capturados por los portugueses en las Islas Azores. El navegante genovés llevaba consigo a seis indios, y regresaba para contar su hazaña y confirmar el éxito de su empresa ante los Reyes Católicos en la Corte de Barcelona. Obviamente, a partir de ese momento se ejecutaron todos los títulos y mercedes que se pactaron en las Capitulaciones de Santa Fe.

Cristóbal Colón emprendió cuatro viajes sucesivos hacia los nuevos territorios sobre los que la corona española había tomado posesión, y que se vieron legitimados por la Santa Sede a través de cinco bulas sucesivas. No vamos a continuar narrando los detalles de estos viajes por la enorme concurrencia de hechos reseñables que encierran, pero sí nos centraremos en algunos aspectos polémicos de la figura de Colón como gobernador de los nuevos territorios conquistados. Al llegar durante su segundo viaje a la isla de La Española, donde dejó un destacamento en el citado «Fuerte Navidad», lo halló destruido y con los cadáveres de algunas de las víctimas. Pronto tuvo que enfrentarse a la realidad de la existencia de tribus caníbales, los Caribes, que esclavizaban a las mujeres de otras tribus y devoraban a los hombres. Una realidad que también encontraron conquistadores como Hernán Cortés o Francisco de Pizarro en la América continental. Colón fue un pésimo político y su labor como gobernador en las primeras posesiones españolas en América fue nefasta, generando malestar entre sus hombres, los nuevos colonos, y los propios indígenas, a los que veía como objeto de ganancia y es cierto que cometió algunos abusos sobre ellos considerándolos como mercancía, cuando la voluntad de la Corona hispánica era bien diferente y estaba llamada a proteger y evangelizar a todos estos pueblos. De modo que su labor de dirección y organización política en La Española no dejó de desprestigiar al experimentado marino ante los Reyes. A esto hay que añadir las dificultades de adaptación de los nuevos colonos venidos de España, tanto ante el clima tropical como a la alimentación, la belicosidad de algunas tribus locales que Colón fue incapaz de pacificar, las promesas de riquezas y beneficios incumplidas y el férreo control y la mano de hierro que este quería imponer en la gobernanza de estos territorios. De hecho, el propio Colón en persona se embarcó hacia España un 11 de junio de 1496 con la intención de limpiar su honra y su nombre ante este desprestigio del cual los Reyes fueron debidamente informados. Después dos años en España, tras los cuales consiguió que los reyes refrendaran su apoyo en abril de 1497 el ya Gran Almirante del Mar Océano, vio confirmados sus privilegios e hizo autocrítica de su propia labor en las Indias. No obstante, ni en su tercer viaje a América Colón pudo solucionar los problemas que arrastraba en su mandato y su relación con los indios, así como la incomprensión de la tarea evangelizadora a la que tanta importancia concedía la reina Isabel. A este descontento generalizado de los colonos y a las propias rebeliones de los indios sucedieron las represiones, con ejecuciones decretadas por el propio Colón, como fue aquella del capitán Múgica, mostrándose cruel y duro. Las noticias de las tensiones y represiones generadas por Colón llegaron a los Reyes Católicos, que finalmente decidieron destituir a Colón por Francisco de Bobadilla, que tomaría posesión efectiva de su cargo a finales de agosto de 1500. A todo esto hay que añadir que Cristóbal Colón había otorgado puestos de mando a sus dos hermanos, Diego y Bartolomé, generando un mayor malestar por los recelos que despertaba entre la colonia española el ser gobernados por extranjeros.

Estos hechos empañaron gravemente los últimos años de vida del genovés, que tras el informe redactado por Bobadilla sobre las acciones de Colón en La Española como gobernador tuvo que pedir clemencia para que la acción de la justicia no cayese sobre él. En el mencionado informe se insinuaban las intenciones de Colón de sustraer la isla del dominio regio, e incluso percibió la amenaza de ser acusado de alta traición. Finalmente llegó la redención, y los Reyes Católicos trataron de separar la función de navegante y marinero de la de gobernador y virrey, perdonando a Colón a condición de que no volviera nunca a La Española y se centrase en su antigua labor de navegante.

Pese a todo, en mayo de 1502 iniciaría su cuarto y último viaje a América en una expedición de exploración, acompañado por su hijo Hernando, en la que vive varias situaciones límite: el gobernador de La Española le impide desembarcar en la isla y otras situaciones, como la exploración de las Indias orientales, bordeando territorios continentales desde Honduras hacia el Sur, durante la cual sufre los efectos de varias tormentas tropicales que dejan sus carabelas maltrechas, al tiempo que Colón cae enfermo y se ve obligado a refugiarse en las costas de Jamaica tras encallar en sus costas. Trataron de pedir ayuda al gobernador de La Española, que se desentendió durante meses, hasta marzo de 1504, cuando se decidió a enviar dos naos con víveres. Mientras tanto, la amenaza de botín y ciertos problemas de convivencia con las tribus indígenas amenazaron la situación de la tripulación de Colón. Desde julio de 1503 el Almirante genovés comenzó a sentirse gravemente enfermo, y tras ser rescatado y recibido por el gobernador de La Española, esta vez cordialmente, emprendió su último tornaviaje hacia España, donde moriría, concretamente en Medina del Campo, un 19 de mayo de 1506.

Cabe destacar que Colón moría pobre, sin conseguir que fuesen reconocidos los enormes privilegios que exigió aunque su hijo Diego, gracias a la intermediación del rey Fernando, terminaría fundiendo su linaje con el de la Alta Nobleza a través del matrimonio con María de Toledo, sobrina del Duque de Alba.

A modo de epílogo merece la pena referirse a los recientes episodios de «colonbofobia», si se nos permite la expresión, que ha llevado al derribo de estatuas de Colón en algunos puntos de la geografía estadounidense y que parecen agitar los viejos fantasmas de la leyenda negra antiespañola, claramente refutados por la historiografía de las últimas décadas pero que sigue siendo un arma propagandística y arrojadiza contra España y su obra en América. Un falso «revisionismo», hipócrita y de sesgo interesado, que pretende alimentar una imagen injusta y descontextualizada de la empresa americana desde unas lides ideológicas que se encuentran ubicadas en la izquierda globalista, y que tanto en fuera de España como en su interior pretenden alimentar un relato falso para dañar los frutos de aquel proyecto universal que España construyó en el devenir de los siglos a través de la Hispanidad.

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Artículo original: Cristóbal Colón, el hombre y el descubridor, Hipérbola Janus, 12/Oct/2021

@ a9434ee1:d5c885be

Markdown + X, Y, Z is a problem, but Markdown + N can fix that.
Where N = any type of Nostr event.

Whatever Markup language you choose, people will be referencing other Nostr events in it all the time. Since apps have to find ways to display those events (or the links to them) anyway, we mights as well use that as an opportunity.

Why can't Tables, for example, be embedded Nostr events?

Switching from Markdown to Asciidocs (because it has tables and some more technical stuff) still doesn’t make Tables a great experience. On mobile, Tables are notoriously hard to display in a useful way. It depends on the use case, size of the table, etc….

Creators need guarantees on these things being displayed the way they intended.
There’s a reason why most authors just embed pictures of tables instead. It has little to do with Markdown not really supporting tables and more with them ensuring readability and appropriate styling.

So what if you enhance Markdown not only with embedded Nostr Events but also with something like Hypernotes Widgets that serve as a preview/display for those Nostr Events?

That way: - you are still using the most simple and popular markup language - devs “only” have to implement one extra thing (Hypernotes) that handles all the complexity and extensibility from there - authors can create articles and wiki entries with interactive elements in them, can have the guarantee that they display properly, can use any styling that suits them, etc… - the worst case scenario of reading it in a random crappy app still displays the link to the event (including it's explanatory metadata)

Imagine custom interactive graphs, polls, media players, products, … embedded in articles BUT limited to the Nostr-verse for all interaction and data fetching.

(this article will be updated with UI prototypes and further thoughts)

@ bcbb3e40:a494e501

|| |:-:| |ERKES, Eduard, Creencias religiosas en la China antigua, Hipérbola Janus, 2022|

Acerca del autor

Nos adentramos en el ámbito de las creencias, la espiritualidad, la historia y la antropología del Extremo Oriente, y más concretamente de China, de la mano del que es considerado como uno de los sinólogos más importantes del pasado siglo. Nos referimos al alemán Eduard Erkes a través de su obra titulada Creencias religiosas en la China antigua. Licenciado en 1913 con August Conrady, con la disertación titulada Das Zurückrufen der Seele (chao hun) des Sung Yüh, Erkes consiguió la libre docencia en la Universidad de Lipsia en 1917 con el trabajo Das Weltbild des Huainan-tse. Fue nombrado conservador de la sección para Asia y Europa en el museo etnológico de Lipsia, y en 1928 profesor extraordinario, siempre en la Universidad de Lipsia.

|| |:-:| |Eduard Erkes|

Erkes, fue miembro del SPD (Partido Socialdemócrata de Alemania) desde 1919, con el advenimiento del nacionalsocialismo fue apartado de todos sus cargos y responsabilidades. En mayo de 1945 Erkes fue reintegrado en su cátedra universitaria, para después ser nombrado, en 1947, ordinario de sinología y director del seminario del Asia Oriental (desde 1951, Instituto para Asia Oriental).

Otras obras de Erkes son: Gestaltwandel der Götter in China (1947); Hoshang-kung’s Commentary on Lao-tse (1950); Neue Beiträge zur Geschichte des Choukönigs Yu (1954).

Una introducción a la China clásica

China nos sigue pareciendo un lugar extraño, lejano y exótico, una civilización milenaria que encierra secretos de incalculable valor tanto para el arqueólogo como para el historiador de la cultura, y más concretamente en el ámbito de las creencias y la manifestación del espíritu religioso. Ante nosotros tenemos un pasado que podemos remontar en sus formas embrionarias de civilización al quinto y sexto milenio antes de la era cristiana, y podemos secuenciar perfectamente la sucesión de culturas prehistóricas que sirven de tamiz y base para el ulterior desarrollo bajo las formas más clásicas y reconocibles del mundo chino. Del mismo modo, la misma combinación de multitud de etnias en este mismo proceso genera una compleja síntesis que nos ofrece una cultura con influencias muy variadas, muy alejada de esa visión monolítica que quizás nosotros, como europeos profanos en la materia, hemos considerado habitualmente.

Nuestro conocimiento acerca del mundo de las creencias y la religiosidad china nos viene fundamentalmente a través de dos vías: por un lado la arqueología y por otro los textos tradicionales. Conviene apuntar que el material arqueológico por sí solo no puede ofrecernos explicaciones globales ni el material necesario para conocer el sistema de creencias religiosas en su totalidad. La mitología, la teología y la propia estructura de los ritos contribuyen a conformar una respuesta mucho más completa, que con el solo aporte de los materiales arqueológicos resultaría insuficiente. Los textos tradicionales más abundantes nos dan noticia sobre el periodo de la denominada antigüedad clásica, que se corresponde con el periodo que va desde el traslado de la capital de la dinastía Chou a Lo-yang (770 a.C) hasta el final de la dinastía Han (207 a.C - 220 d.C); el periodo que comprende aquel de las dinastías Shang/Yin (desde la mitad del II milenio hasta el 1100 a.C aproximadamente) y el de los Chou occidentales (1100 - 771 a.C). Más allá del hecho de que los textos literarios que se remontan a este periodo son raros o no existen, los más antiguos textos chinos son todos muy difíciles de datar. Los más célebres, aunque no siempre los más importantes, son los clásicos confucianos, y en particular el Shu Ching (Clásico de historia), el Shih Ching (Clásico de poesía), y el I Ching (Libro de los cambios, un manual de adivinación y de filosofía), los rituales titulados Chou-li, Li-chi y I-li, y finalmente el Tso-chuan, un rico comentario de una pobre crónica, y el Ch'un-ch'iu, atribuido a Confucio. A menudo, sin embargo, estas obras son comprensibles sólo gracias a las glosas que las acompañan y que se deben a autores literarios de la dinastía Han o de épocas más recientes.

En el caso del Chou-li (Rituales de Chou) y el Li-chi (Libro de los Ritos) conforman dos de los trece clásicos del canon confuciano que fueron descubiertos por Liu Hsiang en los archivos imperiales chinos, que tal y como constata el orientalista Filippo Ronconi, fueron objeto de cuestionamiento por los Eruditos de la corte por temor a que la doctrina propugnada por éstos fuese puesta en duda, por lo que forzaron su expulsión de la Corte. Ambas fuentes son fundamentales en el presente ensayo de Eduard Erkes, y le ayudan a delinear la religión china en sus puntos fundamentales, concretamente en cinco puntos o capítulos dedicados respectivamente al sacerdocio chamánico, a los espíritus, a las divinidades antropomorfas, a las costumbres funerarias y a las divinidades de la naturaleza. Todo este cuadro conceptual, que abarca ámbitos que van desde la mitología, la antropología o las creencias más básicas, trata de reconstruir un horizonte existencial en el que además de confluir las grandes doctrinas esotéricas, sapienciales y, en definitiva, tradicionales de la China clásica, como son el Confucianismo, Taoísmo y Budismo, sino también de un elemento central dentro de la Historia de las religiones, como es el fenómeno del Chamanismo, y de hecho el gran etnólogo e historiador de las religiones rumano Mircea Eliade se sirvió de los estudios realizados por Eduard Erkes para articular y desarrollar sus propias obras sobre el tema en relación a China.

A este respecto, el propio Erkes nos apunta una premisa de inicio que hay que tener en cuenta el análisis de las creencias religiosas chinas en relación al chamanismo:

Para el análisis de la antigua religión china, hay que remitirse a la noción a la que, en el estado actual de nuestros conocimientos, parecen estar vinculadas las primeras experiencias humanas de lo sagrado y que, por tanto, hay que situar también en el inicio de la evolución de las distintas religiones: la noción de fuerza mágica, o maná. Según una concepción que tiene carácter de universalidad, que, sin embargo, en formas residuales se traiciona y subsiste también en todas las fases superiores de la evolución, esta fuerza actúa en los seres humanos, en los animales, en los seres inanimados y en todas las cosas, estando, sin embargo, especialmente presente en el representante de la religión primitiva, en el chamán, a quien habilita en sus funciones. Para este concepto, la antigua religión china tenía dos expresiones diferentes, ling y te.

Evola y Erkes

La edición italiana, la que nuestro traductor, Gustavo Mateu Fombuena, ha tomado como referencia para la preparación de nuestra propia versión en español, fue traducida en 1958 por Julius Evola para el IsMeo (Associazione Internazionale di Studi sul Mediterraneo e l'Oriente), todo ello a pesar de las discrepancias que Evola mantuvo con respecto al método racionalista y positivista empleado por los historiadores de la religión, y que entraba en conflicto directo con las tesis del autor tradicionalista, y entre ellos, pese a traducir su obra, también se encontraba el propio Eduard Erkes, con el cual discrepaba en torno a la idea evolucionista que describe el punto de partida de la evolución antrópica china a partir de un Sinanthropus primitivo al que Erkes le atribuye un estado humano, tras el reciente abandono del estado animal, y en posesión de algunas ideas religiosas.

Son ideas que ya aparecen en el preámbulo de la obra, y que nos remiten a una concepción naturalista, que es la que sostiene el sinólogo alemán. Desde la perspectiva evoliana, Erkes también termina asumiendo una serie de patrones comunes a la ciencia antropológica y la etnología oficiales, aunque lejos de hablar de formas de superstición asociadas a las fuerzas de la naturaleza, sino que habla de «factores sociales», llegando finalmente —nos señala Julius Evola— a una imagen de sincretismo derivada de la unión del culto a los antepasados con la religión naturalista. En cualquier caso, estos elementos que chocan con la visión tradicional no invalidan en absoluto el valor que la obra pueda tener a nivel de contenido, con las valiosas informaciones en torno a las fases más antiguas de la espiritualidad extremo-oriental.

Detalles sobre nuestra edición

La preparación de esta obra nos ha supuesto una serie de desafíos a los que nos hemos tenido que enfrentar para hacerla más atractiva y aprovechable de cara al lector que no esté familiarizado con el mundo chino.

Pese a que la obra en sí es un excelente compendio de los aspectos fundamentales que vertebran la religión y las creencias de la China clásica, para que el disfrute de todo aquello que nuestro autor nos expone sea mayor nos hemos visto en la necesidad de crear un glosario y aportar una serie de comentarios que aclarasen y complementaran algunas cuestiones.

Cuando se publicó la obra, a finales de los años 1950, la incorporación de ideogramas chinos en un texto de carácter divulgativo no académico era una misión prácticamente imposible, y a sabiendas de esto, cuando el autor quiere hacer referencia a cómo algunas cuestiones mitológico-religiosas se ven reflejadas en los ideogramas, no le queda más remedio que recurrir a la descripción.

En nuestra edición, sin embargo, gracias a la tecnología actual, hemos sido capaces de recuperar la mayoría de ideogramas a los que Erkes hace referencia y de incorporarlos en el texto para dejar más claro aquello a lo que se refiere.

En nuestro glosario también hemos añadido la transcripción fonética en el sistema Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (la transcripción oficial de la República Popular de China en la actualidad), que facilitará que el lector interesado pueda indagar más buscando por internet los términos en los que esté interesado, ya que el sistema de transcripción que Erkes utiliza, el Wade-Giles, pese a que permite que el lector no acostumbrado al chino se haga una idea más clara de la pronunciación de las palabras que con el pinyin, ha caído en desuso y es difícil manejarse con él en la red de redes.

El libro ya se encuentra disponible en Amazon tanto en versión de tapa dura como de tapa blanda. Esperamos que sea de vuestro agrado.

---

Artículo original: Creencias religiosas en la China antigua, de Eduard Erkes, Hipérbola Janus, 17/Ago/2022

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Scientists from South Korea are proposing to shock people with a weak current to curb their hunger and combat overeating. Scientists from the Korea Research Institute believe that weak electric currents directed to specific areas of the brain through the scalp can affect neural circuits that control our appetite. The photo shows the electric helmet that is given to test subjects. Full story

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On social media and in the Nostr space in particular, there’s been a lot of debate about the idea of supporting deletion and editing of notes.

Some people think they’re vital features to have, others believe that more honest and healthy social media will come from getting rid of these features. The discussion about these features quickly turns to the feasibility of completely deleting something on a decentralized protocol. We quickly get to the “We can’t really delete anything from the internet, or a decentralized network.” argument. This crowds out how Delete and Edit can mimic elements of offline interactions, how they can be used as social signals.

When it comes to issues of deletion and editing content, what matters more is if the creator can communicate their intentions around their content. Sure, on the internet, with decentralized protocols, there’s no way to be sure something’s deleted. It’s not like taking a piece of paper and burning it. Computers make copies of things all the time, computers don’t like deleting things. In particular, distributed systems tend to use a Kafka architecture with immutable logs, it’s just easier to keep everything around, as deleting and reindexing is hard. Even if the software could be made to delete something, there’s always screenshots, or even pictures of screens. We can’t provably make something disappear.

What we need to do in our software is clearly express intention. A delete is actually a kind of retraction. “I no longer want to associate myself with this content, please stop showing it to people as part of what I’ve published, stop highlighting it, stop sharing it.” Even if a relay or other server keeps a copy, and keeps sharing it, being able to clearly state “hello world, this thing I said, was a mistake, please get rid of it.” Just giving users the chance to say “I deleted this” is a way of showing intention. It’s also a way of signaling that feedback has been heard. Perhaps the post was factually incorrect or perhaps it was mean and the person wants to remove what they said. In an IRL conversation, for either of these scenarios there is some dialogue where the creator of the content is learning something and taking action based on what they’ve learned.

Without delete or edit, there is no option to signal to the rest of the community that you have learned something because of how the content is structured today. On most platforms a reply or response stating one’s learning will be lost often in a deluge of replies on the original post and subsequent posts are often not seen especially when the original goes viral. By providing tools like delete and edit we give people a chance to signal that they have heard the feedback and taken action.

The Nostr Protocol supports delete and expiring notes. It was one of the reasons we switched from secure scuttlebutt to build on Nostr. Our nos.social app offers delete and while we know that not all relays will honor this, we believe it’s important to provide social signaling tools as a means of making the internet more humane.

We believe that the power to learn from each other is more important than the need to police through moral outrage which is how the current platforms and even some Nostr clients work today.

It’s important that we don’t say Nostr doesn’t support delete. Not all apps need to support requesting a delete, some might want to call it a retraction. It is important that users know there is no way to enforce a delete and not all relays may honor their request.

Edit is similar, although not as widely supported as delete. It’s a creator making a clear statement that they’ve created a new version of their content. Maybe it’s a spelling error, or a new version of the content, or maybe they’re changing it altogether. Freedom online means freedom to retract a statement, freedom to update a statement, freedom to edit your own content. By building on these freedoms, we’ll make Nostr a space where people feel empowered and in control of their own media.

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Scientists from South Korea are proposing to shock people with a weak current to curb their hunger and combat overeating. Scientists from the Korea Research Institute believe that weak electric currents directed... This is a preview of my post. Join my community and get access to this and more of my work.

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| | |:---:| | VULLIAUD, Paul, El pensamiento esotérico de Leonardo da Vinci, Hipérola Janus, 2024 |

Quizás no haya personaje más icónico del Renacimiento que Leonardo da Vinci, el misterio que le rodea como paradigma de humanista renacentista ha cautivado a decenas de generaciones desde la consumación de su obra hasta nuestros días. No es extraño entrar en una librería y encontrarse con un buen número de títulos que abordan su figura, tanto en el arte como en la historia y, especialmente, en la literatura, en la novela histórica, con multitud de trabajos en los que el aura de misterio y grandiosidad envuelven por completo a nuestro protagonista. En El pensamiento esotérico de Leonardo da Vinci asistimos no solamente a una nueva perspectiva de la obra de Leonardo (pese a ser un libro publicado originalmente en 1910), en la que se arroja luz sobre aspectos a priori no tan espectaculares ni vistosos ampliamente tratados en otras obras, sino que también asistimos a una desmitificación necesaria del personaje, a despojar al genio para descubrir al artista en ciertas tendencias mucho más sutiles que nos remiten a las corrientes esotéricas que experimentaron un auge inusitado durante el siglo XVI, como veremos a continuación. Paul Vulliaud, nuestro autor, es, sin lugar a dudas, un hombre de su época, con afinidades por el arte, con notables escritos sobre lingüística y el estudio de los textos sagrados del Cristianismo y el judaísmo, que nos transmite una imagen de Leonardo en la que no es tan protagonista el genio, el «adelantado a su tiempo», como el artista que se sirve del misterio y los códigos simbólicos para revelar grandes verdades espirituales de una manera sutil y coherente, de acuerdo con una serie de conocimientos muchas veces olvidados, opacados por esa visión cientifista, circunscrita más a los bocetos e ingenios de los que habló en sus escritos nuestro autor florentino, más allá de su obra artística, injustamente olvidada en detrimento del «Leonardo científico».

Advertimos a nuestros lectores que el uso del concepto «esotérico/esoterismo» que vamos a hacer a continuación, no se corresponde con el uso más ortodoxo que podríamos encontrar en las obras de René Guénon, Julius Evola o Frithof Schuon.

El autor

Paul Vulliaud, nacido como Alexandre Paul Alcide Vulliaud el 5 de febrero de 1875 en Lyon, falleció el 3 de noviembre de 1950 en Épinay-sur-Seine (Seine), y sus principales ocupaciones fueron las de escritor, traductor y pintor. Católico, apasionado tanto por la cultura helénica como por la hebrea, fue autor de traducciones y comentarios de la Biblia hebrea, del Zohar, así como de obras de Dante, Shakespeare y Salomón ibn Gabirol.

Tras estudiar en el Lycée Ampère y luego en la Escuela de Bellas Artes de Lyon, se trasladó a París donde trabajó durante un tiempo en la librería de Émile Nourry. Más tarde, ocupó un puesto como archivero en el periódico Journal des Débats hasta 1939.

En 1907 fundó la revista Les entretiens idéalistes en la que participaron Henri Clouard, Vaillant-Couturier, Joseph Serre y Léon Bloy.

En 1923, Paul Vulliaud publicó La Kabbale Juive, donde argumenta a favor de la antigüedad del Zohar y la Cábala, diferenciando la cábala judía de la cábala cristiana. Según él, «Las razones de investigación relacionadas con el esoterismo judío son numerosas. La ciencia de las religiones, la arqueología israelita, la historia de la filosofía, el origen del cristianismo y el estudio de las sectas religiosas contemporáneas están interesadas en ello».

En 1936, publica La Clé Traditionnelle des Evangiles, donde traza la polémica secular entre helenistas, hebraístas y arameístas sobre el idioma del Nuevo Testamento. Aboga por la redacción semítica, sin decidir entre el hebreo y el arameo. No es hasta 1952, en La Fin du Monde, después de los descubrimientos de los Manuscritos de Qumrán, que desarrolla la tesis de que el hebreo sería el idioma original del Nuevo Testamento.

Su obra fue considerada esotérica o marginal, apenas citada por Gershom Scholem o Charles Mopsik. François Secret considera a Paul Vulliaud como «su iniciador» y publica dos textos inéditos en la década de 1980.

Fue retomada por Bernard Dubourg, quien se basa en los trabajos de Vulliaud para afirmar a su vez que el hebreo era el idioma original del Nuevo Testamento, fundamentando su tesis en un cierto uso de la Cábala judía. Los trabajos de Dubourg no han tenido una recepción mejor en el mundo científico.

La biblioteca de Vulliaud, cedida por su viuda a la Alianza Israelita Universal, contiene correspondencia con el abad Henri Bremond.

El esoterismo en la Francia del siglo XIX-XX

La cuestión del esoterismo cristiano en la Francia del siglo XIX, que es donde podríamos enmarcar la línea seguida por Paul Vulliaud, y que constituye el telón de fondo de las interpretaciones del autor en El pensamiento esotérico de Leonardo da Vinci, comprende un espectro amplio de movimientos, figuras y corrientes. En este contexto vemos entrelazarse multitud de doctrinas que hacen converger la teología cristiana con lo oculto y el esoterismo.

A lo largo del siglo XIX vemos cómo una serie de pensadores y autores se prestan a la reinterpretación de las Sagradas Escrituras y las profecías, buscando revelaciones ocultas y significados más profundos. Lo vemos en figuras tan prominentes del pensamiento contrarrevolucionario decimonónico como Joseph de Maistre hasta autores especializados en las corrientes mágicas y ocultas como Eliphas Lévi o el hermetismo de Giuliano Kremmerz, hasta llegar a Léon Bloy o Pierre-Michel Vintras, todos ellos contribuyendo desde sus visiones y enfoques particulares en su conformación.

Esta época estuvo marcada por la presencia de profetas, visionarios y ocultistas que intentaron decodificar los signos de los tiempos y especularon sobre eventos cósmicos vinculados a la renovación del mundo. De ahí surgieron intensos debates sobre la parusía y la interpretación de profecías bíblicas que llegaron a formularse tanto en el interior de los círculos esotéricos como en otros ámbitos intelectuales más convencionales.

De modo que en el esoterismo cristiano de la Francia de los siglos XIX y comienzos del XX vemos confluir filosofía, teología y misticismo, que sirvieron para articular interpretaciones novedosas y en ocasiones controvertidas sobre la fe, el conocimiento oculto y el destino final de la humanidad.

Podemos ubicar este fenómeno, que hemos descrito en sus líneas generales, en el propio movimiento romántico de la primera mitad del siglo XIX, en el retorno a los valores cristianos tradicionales que representan una reacción frente al impacto de la Revolución Francesa de 1789, que implica la emancipación de la pujante burguesía al amparo de los corrosivos valores individualistas, materialistas y claramente anti-espirituales que tratan de mercantilizar el mundo y someterlo a la sociedad del dinero. Este intento de retornar a los valores cristianos vivió su impulso a través de dos vías: por un lado la exégesis teológica y la revalorización de los valores cristianos y, por otro lado, la integración dentro de las corrientes científicas de antiguas ciencias y saberes como la cábala y la astrología, al tiempo que el desarrollo material y la ciencia positivista incorporaba otros nuevos como el magnetismo o la hipnosis etc. en un claro intento de conciliar fe y razón. No debemos olvidar que nos encontramos en un contexto histórico muy diferente a aquel prerrevolucionario, en el que los valores burgueses y liberales construyen otro modelo de sociedad, en el que las certezas tradicionales y muchos elementos orgánicos quedan totalmente destruidos.

El desarrollo de las citadas corrientes esotéricas y de lo oculto apareció como una especie de «tercera vía», pese a nutrirse tanto de la metodología científica como de la teología cristiana, generando desconfianza y recelo a partes iguales tanto en los círculos científicos como en la Iglesia católica. Pero no solamente era una cuestión de método, sino que entre los primeros autores que comienzan a reinterpretar la doctrina cristiana en función de los propios tiempos, como Joseph de Maistre o Ballanche, se consigue integrar el plan divino en una perspectiva histórica, y con ella una desacralización de la historia. Las profecías anunciaban el advenimiento del reino del Espíritu en tiempos modernos, concebidos como «tiempos de fin de ciclo», en los cuales la Revolución de 1789 no era sino parte de una catarsis necesaria. Los teósofos también reinterpretaron los antiguos textos sagrados y los contextualizaron en una perspectiva milenarista de renovación, de una «palingenesia», término que aparece de forma recurrente en nuestra obra de Paul Vulliaud. Un tiempo de transición, como decíamos, que inevitablemente remueve los cimientos de la civilización anterior, del Antiguo Régimen, con la crisis de valores que supone, y que afecta al terreno de las creencias, en el que tampoco debemos ignorar el descubrimiento de los textos orientales, los Upanishads o el Avesta, el interés por Egipto y sus tradiciones relacionadas con el inframundo, con la inestimable acción divulgadora del mago Eliphas Lévi, alimentaron las especulaciones y favorecieron un sincretismo de símbolos y creencias que desembocó en la idea de una gran revelación divina primordial.

En esta época, y especialmente en la Francia que vive las consecuencias de 1789, se da una notable difusión de los textos platónicos y pitagóricos a través de numerosas traducciones y textos interpretativos en clave esotérica que también ayudan a la difusión de ciertas supersticiones que alcanzan incluso a los primeros socialistas masónicos, como los seguidores de las doctrinas de Saint-Simon, o hace emerger el secreto de antiguas doctrinas cuya transmisión y difusión eran propuestas como alternativas frente al poder dominante, o vías de realización espiritual vedadas en el transcurso de los siglos, como podría ocurrir con las enseñanzas pitagóricas o el desarrollo de la masonería, que también adquiere un importante desarrollo en ciertas tendencias mesiánicas intrínsecas que hablan de transformar el mundo merced al uso de elementos trascendentes y metafísicos, como nos muestra Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre, fundador de la denominada masonería «egipcia».

La teorización de las ciencias ocultas en las décadas de 1830-1840, de la mano de Ferdinand Denis, un administrador erudito de la Biblioteca de Sainte-Geneviève, sienta las bases de una corriente que adquirirá un gran desarrollo a lo largo del siglo, como veremos a través de la obra de Allan Kardec, por ejemplo, en la vía del espiritismo. Hay una revalorización de la alquimia, especialmente desde los medios de la ciencia positivista, que impregna estas corrientes, y en los que se ve el uso de un lenguaje codificado que en realidad era parte de una doctrina que encerraba los conocimientos de grandes descubrimientos científicos (según los autores de la época) para los que el pueblo de los siglos precedentes no estaba preparado. Consideraciones impregnadas de prejuicios positivistas, como una vía ascendente hacia el conocimiento.

Paul Vulliaud sigue imbuido en este tipo de corrientes, aunque él parte de los fundamentos del esoterismo cristiano y de los textos sagrados como vía de transmisión y preservación de las grandes verdades reveladas. Participa a principios del siglo XX en la publicación de la revista Les entretiens idéalistes, e incluso se mueve en los ambientes del tradicionalismo católico y en medios esotéricos en los que también participa René Guénon.

Las nuevas exégesis de los textos sagrados que nos ofrece el «esoterismo» decimonónico es el fruto de la crítica histórica y de la expansión del ámbito de las ciencias. El siglo XIX asiste al desarrollo de nuevas disciplinas de estudio en las que convergen los desarrollos de la ciencia y el espíritu religioso generando una tendencia a integrar antiguas ciencias como la astrología médica, la numerología o las especulaciones cabalísticas, a las que se les trata de otorgar el mismo estatus de cientificidad. Al entrar en contacto con el ámbito de la teología, el esoterismo sirve de base a diferentes corrientes como las de Huysmans o Claudel, adquiriendo formas cristianas, puramente espiritualistas, orientalistas o incluso abiertamente anticlericales. Se articulan grupos esotéricos que funcionan con sus propias reglas y profundizan en los diferentes enfoques planteados, que desarrollan a través de los cauces que les ofrecen las ciencias ocultas. Todos estos procesos, conviene repetirlo una vez más, responden a la secularización a marchas forzadas en el que se ve inmersa la Europa de la época. Muchas de estas sociedades secretas fusionarán principios masónicos con otros pseudoespirituales y de la incipiente ciencia, y serán percibidos como una amenaza por la Iglesia Católica.

De hecho, autores como el abate Constant, convertido en el mago Eliphas Lévi, hablan de un Cristianismo «tergiversado», frente al cual existe un verdadero cristianismo popular a reivindicar. Al mismo tiempo, Madame Blavatsky desde la Sociedad Teosófica también opera una serie de rupturas con la Iglesia desde la proclamación de la primacía espiritual del Oriente. La Orden Martinista de Papus mantiene una línea similar aunque la revista L'Iniation que sirve como portal de sus doctrinas mantiene un frágil equilibrio entre el dogmatismo católico y el esoterismo oriental. Joséphin Péladan, admirado en un principio por Paul Vulliaud y posteriormente rechazado por éste como enemigo y adversario, pretenderá erigirse como el líder de un rosacrucismo católico. La reacción contra todas estas tendencias, claramente alineadas frente a la ortodoxia católica, vendrá de la mano de autores como Grillot de Givry, nuestro autor, Paul Vulliaud, Charbonneau-Lassay y René Guénon hasta su partida a El Cairo en 1930. Éstos últimos buscaron una legitimidad tradicional y rastrearon supervivencias esotéricas en la tradición cristiana.

Este es el contexto que, sintéticamente planteado, debemos tener en cuenta a la hora de adentrarnos en la lectura de El pensamiento esotérico de Leonardo da Vinci, que como el lector puede percibir a través de nuestro relato, trasciende ampliamente la figura de Leonardo, para situarnos en en un contexto histórico, cultural e intelectual muy particular. Obviamente, la figura del genio renacentista ejercía una atracción considerable sobre los esoteristas, ocultistas y tradicionalistas cristianos de la época, y de hecho el método que utiliza Paul Vulliaud para escudriñar todos aquellos elementos que forman parte del universo simbólico del arte leonardesco beben de esas fuentes interpretativas. La conexión con la antigüedad es fundamental, lo fue en el propio Renacimiento, en la época de Leonardo, como también lo fue durante el siglo XIX entre autores simbolistas y parnasianos, como entre esotéricos y ocultistas, y la aplicación de la ley tradicional de correspondencias, de un método analógico nos conduce de forma ineludible hacia la idea de primordialidad que ya hemos mencionado, la idea de una matriz primordial y originaria que sirve como vector único de las posteriores tradiciones particulares que se han desarrollado en diferentes ciclos históricos.

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Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, Presentación de «El pensamiento esotérico de Leonardo», de Paul Vulliaud, 6/Feb/24

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| | |:---:| | NITOGLIA, Curzio, En el mar de la nada: Metafísica y nihilismo a prueba en la posmodernidad, Hipérbola Janus, 2023 |

Acerca del autor

Es la primera vez que se publica una obra en español de Don Curzio Nitoglia, al menos que nosotros tengamos conocimiento, de ahí la importante novedad que supone para el público de habla hispana En el mar de la nada: Metafísica y nihilismo a prueba en la posmodernidad. Para los menos avezados en en la escena e itinerario de autores críticos con la modernidad y el Concilio Vaticano II dentro del contexto eclesiástico, dentro del tradicionalismo católico, Don Curzio Nitoglia representa una de las voces más autorizadas, con mayor sentido crítico y lucidez de los últimos tiempos; ensayista, historiador y teólogo así como autor de obras que abarcan temas variados, que van desde la filosofía tomista a la ética en el ámbito de la política. Nacido en Roma en 1957, fue uno de los discípulos más destacados del gran autor católico Augusto del Noce. Con una formación religiosa y eclesiástica iniciada en el seminario de Econe (Suiza) y ordenado finalmente sacerdote en 1984 por Monseñor Lefebvre, ha colaborado con numerosas revistas dentro de la vertiente del pensamiento antimodernista, como Effedieffe o Radio SPADA, y mantiene unas buenas relaciones con otros prelados ajenos a la Iglesia vaticana como Monseñor Williamson.

Un personaje polémico

Dados los posicionamientos del Padre Nitoglia, las evidentes incompatibilidades que su discurso presenta tanto con la actual doctrina postconciliar de la Iglesia como con el relato oficial que los mass media nos presentan en connivencia con el poder, en multitud de ocasiones hemos visto su nombre asociado a una serie de etiquetas dentro de la prensa y los medios italianos. Estas etiquetas nos dan una imagen que viene marcada por un evidente sesgo ideológico y que en ningún caso entran en debate con los temas y materias que se abordan en la obra de nuestro autor. No han faltado calificativos que reducen su nombre, de manera interesada y con grandes dosis de manipulación, a un mero agregado de «doctrinas fascistas y hitlerianas» incompatibles con el pensamiento del mundo presente. La asociación permanente con los íconos del mal absoluto, por aquella falacia retórica que nos es bien conocida, tratan de desactivar automáticamente cualquier debate que pueda articularse en torno a sus planteamientos, y reducen al autor a una especie de fanático dominado por lo irracional incapaz de aceptar los tiempos de «progreso» y «bondades» que nos trae el «evangelio posmoderno». Nada más alejado de la realidad como veremos a continuación.

Geopolítica y mundo árabe

Son particularmente interesantes sus visiones en el terreno de la geopolítica, por ejemplo respecto a los posicionamientos en relación al mundo árabe, con el cual reconoce la práctica imposibilidad de que se de una situación de entendimiento entre la Europa cristiana y el mundo islámico, aunque siempre dentro del terreno religioso puramente teológico, pero sin embargo sí cree posible un «diálogo de civilizaciones» sobre un ámbito más contingente, en el terreno de la política, y en particular con cierta vertiente del nacionalismo árabe, del baazismo, que se ha orientado más hacia la tolerancia y el entendimiento con las minorías cristianas, sin la aplicación de la sharia. Este tipo de regímenes nacionalistas son los que podemos asociar a Nasser o Mubarak en Egipto, Gadafi en Libia, Sadam Husein en Irak o bien la Siria de al-Ásad, todos ellos regímenes nacionalistas, de corte social, y aunque islámicos, dentro de una línea más laica. La única vía de entendimiento con el mundo islámico en el terreno teológico-filosófico ---destaca nuestro autor--- sería a través de la filosofía de Avicena, cuya visión del aristotelismo entroncaría directamente con la visión tomista, pero que, desafortunadamente, terminó en una vía muerta por la imposición de la visión teológica de Al-Ghazali, con la interpretación literal del Corán al margen de cualquier forma de especulación filosófica en torno al hecho revelado.

En el terreno político, no obstante las relaciones entre la Europa cristiana y el mundo árabe islámico se han visto truncadas por un enemigo común, que Nitoglia ve claramente representado en Estados Unidos, Israel y sus organizaziones pantalla como la OTAN. En el caso estadounidense ha malogrado cualquier recuperación de Europa en el mundo, cualquier aspiración geopolítica en el concierto internacional, y lo ha hecho sistemáticamente desde la Primera y la Segunda Guerra mundial, tratando de destruir las bases de la cultura europea, de raíz greco-romana y cristiana, pasando por la patrística y la escolástica tomista, cuyo legado pretenden destruir mediante el modelo de una Europa americanizada, como aquella de posguerra, decadente y debilitada, cada vez más descristianizada.

Los conflictos de oriente medio

Respecto al Próximo y Medio Oriente las consecuencias de las acciones conjuntas de Estados Unidos e Israel las vemos reflejadas en las acciones destructivas del llamado «fundamentalismo islámico», representado por Al Qaeda y el ISIS, formas de fundamentalismo ideológico que no representan al Islam verdadero, donde no existe principio religioso ni teológico alguno, sino que se reduce a una ideología política sustentada en una serie de mercenarios terroristas que actúan financiados y armados por el binomio USA-Israel, generando desde 1990 hasta nuestros días un escenario de inestabilidad y caos en sus territorios. Además de promover una oleada migratoria contra Europa con la que pretenden promover el mismo caos, y que, como nos advierte Nitoglia, ya vimos prefigurado en el mayo del 68 y todo el movimiento contracultural, que se haya investido por la misma sustancia trotskista que hay presente en los llamados «fundamentalismos islámicos» anteriormente citados, en ambos casos se promueve una revolución mundial permanente, una llamada inequívoca al caos y la destrucción total. Además las acciones del americanismo estadounidense sobre Europa y el Medio y Próximo Oriente hacen imposibles unas relaciones normalizadas entre Europa y el Mundo Árabe en el terreno de las relaciones económicas, por ejemplo, con la intención de aislar y mantener en dependencia y sojuzgada a Europa. Rusia aparece dentro del tablero geopolítico como la salvaguarda de los valores cristianos europeos y un contrapeso a la acción corrosiva del imperio estadounidense.

Crítico con el Concilio Vaticano II

Sus posiciones sobre la Iglesia moderna, aquella que surgió del Concilio Vaticano II, son interesantes y haremos una breve síntesis de las mismas. Curzio Nitoglia nos habla de una conjura perpetrada desde dentro de la Iglesia con el objetivo de destruirla. El Concilio Vaticano II se presentó como una oportunidad para los adversarios de la Iglesia, para adentrarse en las mismas entrañas de la Iglesia y poder apoderarse de sus altas jerarquías para convertirla en una suerte de sociedad filantrópica. Se trata de unos intentos de infiltración que podemos remontar al siglo XVII con el Jansenismo hasta llegar a la crisis denominada modernista de mediados del siglo XX y neo o postmodernista de la segunda mitad del mismo siglo. Esta situación ya fue advertida por el papa Pío X en la encíclica Pascendi (1907) y por el papa Pío XII en la encíclica Humani generis (1950), advirtiendo la infiltración interna del modernismo y otras corrientes heréticas en el seno de la Iglesia con una voluntad inequívoca de transformarla desde dentro. La culminación de este proceso de conjura contra la Iglesia vendría dado por el Concilio Vaticano II, de la mano de Juan XXIII, completado por Juan Pablo II y especialmente por el papa Ratzinger, para consolidar la aceptación del Concilio a la luz de la Iglesia. Durante la celebración del concilio la «quinta columna» de agentes dirigidos por B’nai B’rith[^1], por el comunismo y los poderes ocultos, y tales agentes se encontraban entre los cardenales, arzobispos y obispos que formaron el ala progresista dentro del Concilio.

Ante estas pinceladas que proponemos dentro del discurso del Padre Curzio Nitoglia, en el que se denuncia a los poderes fácticos, a las élites en la sombra, a Estados Unidos, a Israel, a la masonería y otros elementos que se presentan hoy como parte de un frente subversivo amplio, es normal que la polémica y cierto escándalo acompañe la obra del autor, siempre que no hay un sometimiento servil y obediente al relato oficial ocurre, y más en estos tiempos, en los que una dictadura tecnocrática global trata de imponerse por todos los medios.

Santo Tomás como antídoto contra el nihilismo posmoderno

Como nos muestra en El mar de la nada, la posmodernidad no viene a ser sino una prolongación de la agonía de lo propiamente moderno, un agregado dramático que nos precipita todavía más sobre este abismo de desequilibrios que han alterado de manera decisiva la sólida superficie donde descansaba una concepción antropológica sustentada en la Tradición, y que ahora vemos cada vez más enfrentada a la metafísica del Ser, cuya doctrina encuentra su perfección y realización completa en la doctrina de Santo Tomás de Aquino. La realidad de estos procesos nihilistas en los que el hombre moderno lleva inmerso desembocan en la nada absoluta y lo hacen desde la consideración de éste como fin en sí mismo, como realización absoluta en el plano de lo exclusivamente material e ignorando las realizaciones del espíritu.

Y es que para nuestro autor el nihilismo es un proceso que se desencadena una vez que tiene lugar el advenimiento de la modernidad, y con ésta se declara una guerra abierta a la Civilización del Ser y lo hace a través de ese nihilismo que se erige como su punta de lanza. En este contexto, la metafísica clásica tomista se convierte en el objetivo a destruir por parte tanto de este nihilismo desbocado como de otras corrientes de pensamiento anejas a la modernidad, como sería el caso del pensamiento idealista.

El hombre moderno a la deriva

En realidad, y lejos de lo que muchos autores piensan, lo posmoderno no supone la superación de la modernidad sino su conclusión nihilista. No se va más allá de la modernidad sino que va más allá de ella, como un barco sin rumbo que termina en medio de un océano sin tierra alrededor, en un «mar de la nada donde todo se hunde». Por ese motivo la posmodernidad representa un retroceso o la disolución suicida de la propia modernidad. Para el hombre que vive en estos tiempos el Ser ya no aparece como ese centro perenne e inmutable, sino que éste huye, se encuentra ausente, y entonces su horizonte de existencia se ve reducido al mínimo, a su vida horizontal y puramente material y dejándose llevar por todos aquellos procesos de disolución que están en marcha a su alrededor, que le llevan a dejarse llevar, a olvidar sus propias raíces, su identidad, a tolerar, a lo que se ha denominado por algunos autores como la cultura de la cancelación, en una deriva autodestructiva que implica la aniquilación como último paso.

Esta desembocadura de lo posmoderno en la nada, no solo es la prueba más tangible del fracaso de la modernidad y de sus pretendidas aspiraciones, sino que nos presenta la situación desde la perspectiva de un callejón sin salida, sin ofrecernos un antídoto y una vía de salida. Muy al contrario lo agrava todo con sus corrientes ideológicas y sus visiones intelectuales que resultan incontrastables con la realidad del Ser, y que tienden a desarrollarse, tal y como explica nuestro autor en la obra, en el marco del idealismo (error por exceso) o bien del nihilismo (error por defecto) en una falta de equilibrio y desde la total desmesura autodestructiva.

En el fondo la posmodernidad, como epifenómeno de la modernidad, no deja de agravar aquellos efectos que a su matriz originaria (moderna) ya le fueron característicos. En la posmodernidad la enfermedad ya ha derivado en una esclerosis y un agarrotamiento de los músculos, al igual que ocurre en las últimas etapas de la senectud, que han derivado en un gusto por la tolerancia y la indiferencia de quien ya es incapaz de defenderse, de acometer con vigor e ímpetu juvenil la defensa del núcleo más preciado de su orden de civilización. Es el nihilismo en su máximo esplendor, que alcanza una simbiosis total con el propio significado de lo posmoderno, en el lento tránsito hacia la extinción. De modo que no es más que la representación del fin de la modernidad que ha hecho de Dios un producto del hombre y del hombre un «Dios», para finalmente matar a la divinidad y suplantarla por el Superhombre nietzscheano o con la humanidad marxista dentro de esa misma tendencia disolutiva que nuestro autor italiano destaca en su obra.

El idealismo como origen del nihilismo

La clave de todo este proceso, según Nitoglia, podemos hallarlo en la sustitución de la doctrina del Ser (Santo Tomás) por el pensamiento (Descartes y el idealismo) en una obra de suplantación que tendría su origen en la revolución intelectual y científica que arranca con Descartes en el siglo XVII, y que termina inevitablemente sobre los cauces del nihilismo debido a que carece una base sólida, en contraste con las realidades espirituales del hombre, con la metafísica del Ser, y termina precipitándose en la nada. La Idea, un constructo artificial, sin contraste con la realidad, sin límites ni atendiendo a realidades trascendentes e inmutables, toma el lugar del Ser.

Nihilismo viene del latín nihil, es decir, «nada». La nada es el no-ser, y es algo que no existe representa la total ausencia de toda realidad. De hecho así lo explica el propio Santo Tomás de Aquino: «la nada y la ausencia total de ser son la misma cosa». La nada representa la ausencia total de cualquier realidad, mientras que el no ser relativo o la potencia es la privación de una forma o de un acto particular. El Angélico distingue entre la nada absoluta de la nada relativa desde una precisa descripción del mundo, de las realidades objetivas y externas al yo. El hombre representa una realidad limitada e imperfecta, una creación ex-nihilo de Dios, que es el único Ser (el Ser en su esencia más puro) capaz de crear de la nada. Y es de esta nada absoluta de la que se nutre la filosofía nihilista.

No obstante, el pensamiento nihilista no es una creación exclusivamente moderna, sino que conoce un itinerario que hunde sus orígenes en la Antigüedad, por ejemplo entre los presocráticos, ya encontramos su rastro en la filosofía de Parménides desde sus posicionamientos panteístas. Doctrinas, que como en el caso de Platón, que no contemplan en ese concepto de la nada entendida en la acepción anteriormente apuntada, como una privación relativa o absoluta del ser, sin considerar el Ser como la perfección de todas las perfecciones, como expresión última de lo real, terminan alimentando, como nos apunta Nitoglia, el nihilismo, que es la expresión de máxima depravación de la filosofía teórica y moral.

De ahí la importancia y centralidad del pensamiento tomista, por esa idea tan clara y nítidamente trazada en su obra que nos expresa la dicotomía entre el ser como perfección última que confiere a todos los entes su consistencia, realidad y actualidad, frente a la nada absoluta, que no es más que el no-ser. Y no puede haber mejor antídoto frente al creciente nihilismo que la puesta en práctica de la filosofía tomista en cuanto metafísica del ser como acto puro.

Creación ex nihilo

Precisamente, la aniquilación a la que se refiere el nihilismo es el término correlativamente opuesto al de la creación ex nihilo. La aniquilación implica reducir algo a un completo y absoluto no-ser, en una regresión a la nada. Dentro de la teología tomista solo Dios es capaz de crear ex nihilo (de la nada) porque es omnipotente, del mismo modo que solo Dios puede aniquilar algo en sentido estricto hasta reducirlo a la nada. De tal modo que cuando se produce la aniquilación desde el nihilismo éste no goza de la sabiduría y potencia absoluta de Dios. Además encierra una lógica del todo negativa respecto a la divinidad en una voluntad destructiva que nada tiene que ver con el sentido positivo de creación asociado a la voluntad divina, quien pudiendo aniquilar a los entes no lo hace, ni siquiera a los malvados o dañinos. De este modo es inaceptable que la filosofía pueda tomar en consideración la doctrina nihilista, la cual propugna la nada absoluta como punto de llegada de la aniquilación. Es por eso que los nihilistas quieren ocupar el lugar de Dios en el sentido negativo de aniquilación, no de creación, para representar una divinidad en un sentido invertido para destruir toda la obra divina. Por esa razón sus acciones se ven guiadas por la anarquía y con una ausencia total de sabiduría.

De este modo se articulan dos posiciones: aquella propiamente metafísica, que representa la metafísica del Ser frente a una contra-metafísica falsa sustentada en el no-ser, en la nada. La única alternativa para derrotar a la contra-metafísica que, según Nitoglia, adquiere las formas de la filosofía moderna, especialmente a través de las corrientes idealistas, esencialmente nihilista, es mediante el redescubrimiento o el estudio de la metafísica tomista para ponerla en práctica a nivel individual y en el contexto de la sociedad. Además el peligro que representa el nihilismo en el siglo XX a través de estas filosofías es que trata de dar realidad negativa a esta nada, en la privación del bien y de la realidad del ser, a través del maniqueísmo, que nuestro autor define como la antesala del nihilismo moral. De manera que la naturaleza de este nihilismo filosófico es el odio contra el Ser por participación (la criatura) y especialmente el Ser por esencia (Dios) en un intento de eliminar el concepto de la creación desde la nada, otorgando a la nada una cierta realidad y reduciendo, en consecuencia, la realidad a la nada.

Conclusión

Finalmente, y a modo de conclusión, para Curzio Nitoglia las consecuencias esenciales del nihilismo en la posmodernidad, sus frutos más evidentes, son el vacío y la nada. Privar al hombre de su razón, que es lo que lo diferencia y eleva respecto a los animales, y con ello también el libre albedrío y la moral objetiva y un fin o propósito que coincida con el Bien, y destruimos la realidad que estos elementos constituyen, el hombre termina hundido en la desesperación. En el catálogo de infatuaciones nihilistas de la filosofía moderna, Nitoglia incluye a Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger o bien Popper, como representantes de estas corrientes del pensamiento moderno que niegan la metafísica del Ser y consagran a la nada en unas posturas que nosotros, como Hipérbola Janus, no terminamos de compartir. No obstante, se trata de posicionamientos puramente personales, que no desmerecen un ápice el contenido de la obra, en la que la filosofía tomista, convenientemente actualizada y entregada al análisis del mundo posmoderno nos ofrece enfoques muy interesantes de necesaria, sino obligada, lectura y reflexión.

El magnífico prólogo que nos sirve de introducción a la obra corresponde a Carlos Andrés Gómez Rodas, Doctor en Filosofía por la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, actualmente docente investigador en la Facultad de derecho de la Universidad Santo Tomás de Medellín y especialista en el pensamiento y obra del filósofo colombiano Nicolás Gómez Dávila, con infinidad de publicaciones en revistas académicas especializadas, además de honrarnos con sus colaboraciones en Mos Maiorum desde la fundación de la revista.

[^1]: B’nai B’rith: Organización internacional judía con sede en EE.UU. Más detalles en el artículo de Claudio Mutti La geopolítica de las sectas, publicado en Mos Maiorum IV (Primavera, 2022), pp. 83-90

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Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, «En el mar de la nada: Metafísica y nihilismo a prueba en la posmodernidad» de Curzio Nitoglia, 16/May/2023

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Desde @HiperbolaJanus siempre hemos mostrado una gran preocupación y sensibilidad hacia los problemas y retos que atraviesa el mundo del presente. A través de multitud de escritos en nuestro blog y de publicaciones hemos tratado de aportar nuestra particular cosmovisión a nuestros lectores, invitando en todo momento a un análisis crítico y combativo de aquellos discursos y relatos que han nacido en connivencia con el poder.

| | |:-:| |Una de las muchas imágenes de manifestantes que han cubierto calles y plazas de toda España durante los últimos días.|

Somos perfectamente conscientes de los tiempos en los que vivimos, de la actual deriva de los acontecimientos a nivel global, que se han visto acelerados a partir de marzo de 2020 con la Plandemia y sus devastadoras consecuencias. Desde entonces nos hallamos en pleno cambio de paradigma, «las reglas del juego han cambiado», y a los que mueven los hilos[^1] ya no les interesa mantener ese pretendido barniz de legalidad que hacía creer a muchos (hoy más descreídos que nunca) que «el sistema funciona» y que «las instituciones protegen nuestros derechos», cuando esto, por otro lado, nunca ha sido cierto. Ahora la Agenda 2030 busca acelerar procesos de descomposición que afectan a la unidad de las naciones, a su soberanía y generar un caos que solamente preludia destrucción y finalmente la sumisión a una monstruosa superestructura de poder global sustentada sobre unos poderes tecnocráticos y transnacionales cuya ideología es el poshumanismo.

El mal ya no se esconde

El ciudadano de a pie percibe claramente que la vida independiente y la preservación de unos hipotéticos derechos (si es que en algún momento existieron) se ven mermados día a día, así como su poder adquisitivo en el terreno material, con una hiperinflación disparada y, parece, que totalmente planificada para generar pobreza, lo que desde el poder en la sombra se cree que supondrá una vía rápida hacia la sumisión del pueblo. La destrucción de la infraestructura económica, las arbitrariedades del poder político, la liquidación de ordenamientos jurídicos y legales que antes nos decían que gozaban de una autoridad y fortaleza incontestable, están cayendo, se derrumban sin la existencia de ningún contrapoder que pueda hacerles frente. Las democracias liberales se revelan como lo que son, espantajos del poder global, una mentira y una ilusión mantenida bajo las urnas, favoreciendo la creación de oligarquías partitocráticas al servicio de poderes espurios, conectados con esa tenebrosa telaraña de poder global que nos ha impuesto unas nuevas directrices a partir de las cuales no solamente buscan destruir las naciones, sino a la propia condición humana, algo en lo que desde Hipérbola Janus nunca nos cansaremos de insistir.

Es desde estos parámetros que hay que analizar la actual situación que vive España, al amparo de una constitución que es el germen de todas las arbitrariedades e injusticias que sufre nuestra Patria, más dividida y polarizada que nunca entre la ficción que supone la antítesis izquierda vs derecha, cuando ambas facciones son un subproducto del Régimen actual, que no obedecen al pretendido mandato de sus votantes y que nunca han buscado el bien común ni el beneficio de nuestra Nación.

|| |:-:| |Es importante reconocer al enemigo para adoptar una estrategia válida para poder combatirlo.|

En este sentido valoramos positivamente que el Pueblo Español se eche a las calles, que muestre su rechazo y disconformidad hacia el actual orden de cosas, que lo haga activamente y desearíamos que estas acciones tuvieran continuidad en el tiempo y llevaran a una toma de conciencia sobre los verdaderos enemigos y sus potenciales peligros de destrucción y disgregación con los que nos amenazan: hablamos, como no puede ser de otra manera, del Régimen constitucional de 1978, del sistema de partidos, de los sindicatos, del rey y en general, de todos los entes parasitarios y desintegradores que destruyen la unidad de la Patria, nuestro sentido de comunidad orgánica y Nación política forjada en los albores de la Edad Media, ya en tiempos de los Concilios de Toledo bajo el poder visigodo, y continuados en lo sucesivo con el proyecto metahistórico de la Reconquista y el Imperio universal católico cimentado sobre la acción de los Reyes Católicos, símbolo perenne de Las Españas y del sentido profundo del ethos hispánico que trasciende siglos y generaciones enteras.

«España no es una constitución»

Como dice esa proclama que cada vez se escucha más en las calles, «España no es una constitución», y es más, nosotros afirmamos que ésta última representa su antítesis, su agonía y aniquilación. Es el momento de apelar al espíritu del 2 de mayo de 1808, al pueblo español en armas contra sus clases gobernantes corruptas y afrancesadas, que defendían el liberalismo que traían los invasores franceses aún a costa del sometimiento y la destrucción de la España de la época. La misma situación de traición y ruptura entre el pueblo y sus gobernantes vivimos hoy, también fueron los Borbones los que entonces traicionaron al pueblo (abdicaciones de Bayona), en situaciones que son perfectamente equiparables, el pueblo fue el único que estableció un frente de resistencia y defensa de la Patria frente a la inoperancia del ejército regular español. El espíritu de aquellos años debe reverberar en el pueblo español de nuestros días, debemos encomendarnos a éste y defender a la España real, frente a las manipulaciones espurias de los poderes ocultos transnacionales y sus adláteres. El Bien, la Verdad y la Justicia deben imperar frente al Mal absoluto, el caos y la destrucción que anuncian y promueven los apóstoles de Agendas y teorías poshumanistas.

De tal modo, animamos a todos los españoles a que estas protestas no se detengan y que cristalicen en acciones concretas que refuercen la unidad de los españoles y la sociedad civil más allá de los partidos del sistema y cualquier intento de apropiación por parte de sus oscuros tentáculos que pretenden llevar a vía muerta y neutralizar todo intento de disidencia y rebelión que pueda aflorar de manera espontánea e independiente entre los miembros de la Comunidad Nacional. Para ello deberán despojarse de toda corrección política y de los pseudoargumentos que pretenden denostar a quienes nos oponemos al sometimiento, a la esclavitud y a la destrucción de nuestra Patria invocando una legalidad que siempre ha sido arbitraria, autodestructiva y liberticida, que con el paso de las décadas no ha hecho sino empequeñecer a España, envilecerla, cuartearla y prostituirla en un mercadeo vergonzoso y humillante para alimentar una casta (a izquierda y derecha) que siendo peones de poderes transnacionales y enemigos de España, han alimentado su perfidia y cobardía de manera continuada, hasta considerarse intocables frente a un pueblo políticamente desactivado (entiéndase «políticamente» en su sentido etimológico, de polis, de participar activamente en la comunidad y el «bien común»).

Conclusión y recomendaciones

|| |:-:| |No condenes a los que hacen lo que tú no te atreves a hacer. No te sometas al juicio de tus enemigos. No seas idiota.|

Por último, desde nuestra humilde posición, nos gustaría contribuir con unas pequeñas recomendaciones:

• No aceptes el juicio de tus enemigos: no permitas que sean ellos los que te digan qué es válido y qué no lo es, puesto que quienes buscan tu destrucción no buscan la justicia.

• Como corolario del punto anterior, no condenes a los «exacerbados». La violencia no es deseable y no la promovemos, pero condenarla es un error derivado del condicionamiento psicológico autodestructivo a la que todos nos hemos visto sometidos. Hay que luchar contra las actitudes complacientes.

• Sé íntegro, mantente fuerte en tus principios e ideales, defiende el legado de los que te precedieron, reivindica la justicia y la verdad frente a toda suerte de propaganda e iniquidades. El espíritu por encima de la materia. La acción por encima de las componendas y la indiferencia.

• Ayúdate de la tecnología y de tu red de contactos para preservar tu libertad y tu soberanía económica. Estudia Bitcoin. Haz amigos.

|| |:-:| |«Estudia Bitcoin» proyectado sobre la sede del BCE el pasado 30 de marzo de 2023.|

Torres más altas han caído. Viva España.

[^1]: No nos gusta utilizar la palabra «élite» para referirnos a los que están en la cúspide de la pirámide de poder y socio-económica porque es habitual de que se trate de gente mediocre y de vendidos a otros intereses superiores. La palabra «élite» debería reservarse para los que son, efectivamente, los mejores en algún campo.

---

Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, ¡España no es una constitución, idiota!, 16/Nov/2023

@ 7a83e5c3:6e470db0

In modern life, mobile phones and wireless networks are almost everywhere. Although these technologies provide us with convenience, sometimes we also want to better manage and control our wireless signals.

Have you ever felt disturbed by the ringing and chatting of mobile phones in some places, such as libraries and conference rooms? At this time, mobile phone signal jammers are particularly important. In simple terms, GSM jammer can block mobile phone signals in a specific area, so that people can't answer calls, send text messages or surf the Internet and focus on the current environment.

Next, let's take a look at camera blocker. As we all know, WiFi signals are vital in our daily lives, but sometimes too many WiFi signals can cause network congestion or interference. This is when WiFi jammers can play its role. Secondly, WiFi jammers can help protect network security. By interfering with certain network signals, it can reduce the possibility of hackers stealing information, thereby protecting your sensitive data.

Wireless signal detectors are equally important in home and business environments. It can monitor and detect wireless signals around, whether it is WiFi or other types of wireless signals. Wireless signal detector can help identify potential security risks. Many times, hackers will take advantage of unnoticed wireless signals to attack. Through the detector, you can detect abnormal signals in time and take measures to improve your network security.

In general, whether it is to improve concentration, ensure information security, or optimize network speed and detect signal security, jammers create a more comfortable and safe wireless environment for us. Of course, when using these devices, we must also follow relevant laws and regulations to ensure legality and compliance.

https://thetheblocker723.blogkit.dev/cracking-interference

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

Ok

@ 5d1d83de:d0db5aa0

Encouraging everyone to embrace stacker news RSS feed. Using RSS has being a great way to move off of twitter and other algorithmic feeds. Create a feedbin account. Use that account on multiple devices and put the stacker news RSS feed there go get a raw feed of news and topics without any algorithmic curation. It is easy to mark posts as read later and also bookmark great content. Then pair that with pinboard.in archiving and you have great content cached forever

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/642938

@ c8383d81:f9139549

Test Completed

:Lighningbutton{lud16=cypher@npub.cash}

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

Wow

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

Testing

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

Some content

@ 592295cf:413a0db9

Week on Nostr 05-08

List of site for nostriches https://zaplinks.lol/

Fiatjaf web components

Welcome bear market 🧟‍♂️ fear, angry, build It's fine meme

I mutated one on stackernews. Basically I have notifications on Nostr page But someone keeps spamming every single thing, from his point of view it's a shared bookmark, but do it on your site. Maybe it's the heat...

On bluesky they eliminated a "for you" feed, now there is Discovery, not your feed, not your choice. There's actually a label that says my feeds, they're yours... Designed for you is more appropriate.

Mutiny lightning, "get the fuck on board". 😔

You lose your Money, ok

I don't know much about programming languages, but it seems like a jungle of scams

The purple pill help the Orange pill go down, maybe it was wrong. For now it's more people passing pills I have the orange give me the purple, I have the purple give me the orange. 😅

If you don't want no corn content you can go to mastodon and bluesky or whatever.

I thought nostr:relay might be a good solution to be a little more like a mint. It was deprecated, then the Nip-73 was added, rss feed and other devilry.

If you don't like what you see, change the app, this one will perhaps clear your following list and you'll start again from scratch. Not all things come to harm.

Why not Building agregore on Nostr, Nostr pear fedimint cashu mesh and local first. It doesn't seem like a simple application to make, from a local-first perspective, I solve a problem, but it's not a small problem to solve, Sync, database management, database schema, authentication, put everything together, instead I need this to solve this problem. It seems strange.

Aspie96 is making a client of ours, there was a lot of talk about how to increase content not related to bitcoin and things like that, there was one who was anti-bitcoin. I thought: Bitcoin is just a tool. Even guns are just a tool. I hate guns, I hate Bitcoin. It will be difficult, if you know any npub that hates Bitcoin comment below, thanks.

Trying not to use nostter for a while. It has glitches when loading threads and even with zap, I zapped myself even though I was clicking on the post I was replying to.

Voyage separates follow to topic in a new version.

People start arguing, it's allowed, everyone wants to be right, that's not the definition of social 👾.

Monitors watch-only bitcoin wallets https://github.com/sommerfelddev/sentrum

I noticed on Openvibe that in the trending timeline Nostr's notes have more interactions than responses. Maybe it was just that today Fiatjaf was doing universal polls 😅.

Step away from your favorite app, for a week if you can. Detox.

Oh Our founding, rain of money https://github.com/theborakompanioni/nostr-spring-boot-starte https://opensats.org/blog/nostr-grants-august-2024#seer

I'm happy for Vic and Sepher Nostroot exists 😅, note from some time ago. (I can't find it)

Perhaps the list of grant applications should be published, no one wants to open Pandora's box. 🙇‍♂️

Nostrasia 2.0 the Japanese community is a bit at a loss, they are trying to relaunch themselves 🤙, even if I'm seeing less enthusiasm, I'm following less.

I think a month has passed since I said this sentence, every day it was better but the next day something happened that you said maybe 6 months is too long. nostr:nevent1qy88wumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmv9uq3zamnwvaz7te3xsczue3h0ghxjme0qyw8wumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnxwfskxarpd35h5ety9ehx2ap0qythwumn8ghj7mn0wd68ytnnw3skkete9ehx2ap0qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qpqf25td2xxgxfu80xpgg47cmfg2zkn6v803kefj3htjss5nvamfmgswf2kcs

Ho iniziato a seguire un po' local-first. https://docnode.dev/local-first I follow a podcast of the same name and dev tools.

When everyone thinks of Nostr they think of their favorite app and think that others see the same, but this is not the case.

I delete some gossip (photo)

Gossip is Nostr or Nostr is gossip.

Communities are difficult, they take time. I don't have this type of problem. People are fine on telegram and on simplex or any app. But maybe a Nostr project should be on Nostr?? Nip-29 can be interesting. Even if you start from scratch or almost. It's true that there are more apps, but this will perhaps only add to the confusion.

They are still talking about paid or non-paid relay, it's not a mature stage. Early stage.. I thought designers liked relays, that's not the case, I thought it was a place of experimentation, that's not the case. Bring more people. Last week I was talking about how I was jealous of bluesky who had an agenda for design, now it's also on Nostr, first hypernote article https://wikifreedia.xyz/hypernote-nip

I might say silly things, I'll go.

Hey Will remember to practice safe nsec always

nostr:nevent1qqsr6x8hduv8ta0g2da4aukrhzdtv6qcekyp5f9z9sxq6sd5peegnxgprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wdmksetjv5hxxmmdqy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hsygr4wku5l2q32tl99xjgn8feq22279pzwu25eezqxm2su2ken4wzvuf2ydnp

nostr:nevent1qqspsm343talkkjnyf3ah0zwy727cwd7phw3xnz49q59q5cfw4uhyngpzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuurjd9kkzmpwdejhgqgcwaehxw309aex2mrp0yhxummnwa5x2un99e3k7mgzyqewrqnkx4zsaweutf739s0cu7et29zrntqs5elw70vlm8zudr3y2j7zajz

Use nsec.app, 😅 Share bunker (smart people will know how to do it)

@ 3c827db6:66418fc3

Somebody, somewhere, at some point decided they would destroy the competition by creating a barrier to entry. They made the barrier high so they could feel safe. It is logical to put a fence around your property, and perfectly fine to do so. The problem is when you put a regulatory fence over something that means you are not allowing anyone else to have a property like this. Just to make the distinction clearer a fence around your house is creating a cost for other people to get in the yard. A license to be able to have a fence is creating a cost for anyone to protect their yard. The harder to attain and costlier the license is the more people can’t afford it. The more people who can’t afford it the bigger the divide between rich and poor. You can't have a fence because you can't have a license leaving your yard unprotected. The poor people are left unprotected and they get robbed easily, the rich are hard to get so they keep what they have. The more licenses/regulatory compliance someone has to comply with the more the costs for them are increased and the cycle of dividing is entrenched.

When constructing something physical, regulatory oversight is sensible to ensure structural integrity, particularly when people no longer build things for themselves. However, when it comes to more abstract concepts like licenses and credentials, possessing them doesn't guarantee success, and lacking them doesn't preclude doing excellent work. The whole point of the series is that the work should speak for itself and the people who did it should build their reputation based on their work history not on theory.

Let’s dive into a sector full of licenses for abstract things that keep people out and cornered the market. The betting industry.

The incentive structure in this scenario is problematic. Individuals with substantial financial resources that were gained illegally may seek friendly relationships with those responsible for issuing licenses. Obtaining a betting license now can serve as a means to launder money acquired unlawfully. Beyond mere laundering, they have a direct incentive to continue their illegal activities and a way to legitimize the funds. So they steal from the people who work and it gets even worse. Their scaling solution is to open the money laundering to other illegal actors.

A few parts of the economy are primed for these types of activities: the lottery, casinos, and sports betting.

Let’s start with the current lottery system and the “potential” exploits. Well, one person does something illegal and has stolen $1,000,000. Now he has a problem with how to legitimize the funds so he can spend it on things he wants. He goes to the owner of a lottery and says I will give you $200,000 if you give me an $800,000 winning ticket. Now 80% of the funds become legal. The person with the illegal funds buys $200,000 worth of tickets from which 1 of them is set up to win $800,000. Now all the funds have become legal. So the lottery company has a $200,000 income and $800,000 payout, seemingly paying out the winner with legitimate funds, but in reality, using the criminal's own money - correction, other people's stolen money. That is good for hiding taxes and the state is not getting anything, or is it?

The state gets its cut for every winning ticket by taxing all winners. Because of this income, they are incentivized to have more winners. This whole “hypothetical” system then is limited by how much money has to be laundered. More illegal money, more income for each side - the state, the illegal player, the lottery company. While they get the big winning tickets the public is left with the small prizes and they are robbed continuously for the next lottery "prizes". This tripod system demonstrates how one simple thing can be a continuous erosion of society. The lottery company does nothing to earn their money but they are incentivizing the illegal actors to continue doing illegal things. The State allowing licenses keeps competition out. The illegal actor closes the circle of his business.

The lottery should be something that is played without anyone having an advantage over anyone else. Including the company, there shouldn’t be a barrier for people creating all sorts of lottery games. The same model of behavior incentives is applicable for all the casinos. There is the same principle - some type of algorithm determines whether you win or not. But you can always approach the casino owner and apply the same logic to the casino. A player with illegal funds has to launder a million dollars again. In the first few hands, he wins a million dollars and keeps playing until incurs losses amounting to $200,000 and then stops. This way the casino loses $800,000 on its balance sheet but in reality, the illegal funds are distributed to the casino and the illegal actor.

In the sports betting industry, the barrier to entry is often determined by licenses, and companies typically act as custodians of the funds when users place bets. Additionally, these companies are responsible for providing betting odds, a task that incurs substantial costs when done accurately. Assessing various factors such as team performance, player injuries, and changes in management helps determine the odds. However, it's crucial to note that the odds provided by betting companies are designed to favor the company rather than the individuals placing bets. This inherent bias in odds contributes to the company's profit margin in the betting business.

Exploring a free and ethical approach to lottery apps and innovative payout structures

The whole lottery system should be verifiable! The point of it is not to have yet another system where the poor are preyed upon. That is why the lottery app should be open-sourced. The bigger reason for the apps to be FOSS - I am reluctant to say how this particular app should be created because, on the one side, there are going to be regulatory people who want you to ask for approval, and on the other side there are betting companies that a percentage of them are involved in criminal activities. If you create an app that makes them obsolete you will find yourself being attacked legally, illegally, and anything in between. That is why the only option that I see for a small guy to not be a target is to create this app as a FOSS (free and open source software). This will create a problem for those entities because there is no target. It will have no barriers for others to create apps competing with the existing incentives. There was a big debate in my head about whether I should publish this article about this particular topic because of the ethically sticky situation. Also, I do not think that people should play with money and bet on stupid things. The main reason that I am doing this is that there should not be an incentive to do illegal activities but there should be a cost for it. Since the current system is incentivizing it, people should create the cost for them by making a free alternative (no licenses, or permissions from anyone) and with no risk for the players (non-custodial). Also, the cases that we will look at below as a payment structure are simply cool and unique that we have yet to experience anywhere. This will push even us at Breez to create and facilitate them if the need is there. Now let’s take a look at the potential solution and what I envision it could look like.

An algorithm can be designed where individuals purchase a virtual ticket, and once 100 participants acquire tickets, the entire pool is distributed among three randomly selected winners. The distribution comprises 50% for the first prize, 30% for the second, and 20% for the third. The concept of a physical ticket is eliminated; instead, participants contribute equal amounts of satoshis to a smart contract, which activates upon reaching the 100th participant. The executed contracts allocate 50% to the first-place winner, 30% to the second, and 20% to the third. No entity holds funds for others, and participants await the completion of the 100 spots to determine the three winners. You can do the lottery for more or fewer people. For different amounts of sats. With a different payout structure.

I envision a lottery game modeled after the hashing race in Bitcoin mining. Participants are required to guess a number between 1 and 1,000,000 by locking in 10 satoshis for each guess. If the guessed number is incorrect, that specific guess is eliminated from the potential answers, and the satoshis from all guesses contribute to the Jackpot for the correct number. The participant who correctly guesses the number receives the accumulated satoshis. The payout amount depends on the position of the correct guess, for example, if it occurs on the 10th try, the prize is 100 sats, and if on the 100,000th try, the prize is a million sats. Upon completion of the payout, the game resets, and participants can engage in the next round.

Revolutionizing one-on-one Betting with trustless payouts

When I am with a friend, we can choose to place a bet on something--our favorite sports team, who can spit the furthest, or whether the sun will rise tomorrow. We are perfectly able to do so with cash, and we do not need a license from anyone to place those bets or determine the odds for us. There is only one problem that we have to handle when the results are in - the person who is losing the bet has to pay the winner. Because of this risk, you need a trusted third party that is unbiased to execute the payment when the results are known. Now you need a mitigation for the third-party risk--that they won't run away with the money. So you make a fourth party involved to determine who can have a license to be a trusted third party, and we are back to the current fiat operational model.

With instant settlement and smart contracts, we destroy all those problems. * You do not need a license for trust because no one is holding money for anyone else. * You do not need a trusted third party because you have a smart contract responsible for the execution of the payment when the results are known * You do not need a third party to determine the odds because they are decided by the people and put in the smart contract * You do not need to trust the person to pay when you win because he signed the execution of the payment when both of you placed the bet.

This structure for one-on-one betting is already implemented with a few games in the lightning space. One is from our friends at THNDR games and another is the Chain Duel. I like the infrastructure for the payment of the THNDR games because I am a sucker for non-custodial lightning. Custody for a second, a minute or a year is still custody.

What would a sports betting app look like that has a non-custodial instant settlement? There are a few easy settings to establish. First, there needs to be a deadline for placing bets before the sports event starts. Second, a timeframe must be set for the payout. In one-on-one betting, the payout structure is straightforward. Each side can wager any amount against the other, and if there is a disparity in the amounts, the odds are not 1:1. When the result is determined, the winning party has their funds unlocked without being sent, while the losing party has their contract executed, transferring the payment to the winner. THNDR is already implementing a similar concept called "clinch" which we are glad we had some input on, but I want to take it a few steps further.

Exploring novel concepts in wagering -> community-to-community

What if there's a group of people on one side of the bet and another group on the opposing side? What does the payout look like, and how are the odds determined? Let's delve into a straightforward graph to better illustrate this example.

The graphs in the picture are the reference for the explanations below

The individuals on the left consist of only two people, but they wager a larger amount. On the right, there are four people, but their bets are smaller. If the left side wins, the two individuals will share the $1,000 bet placed by the opposing group. Since they bet equal amounts, each person will receive $500, reflecting a 50% stake for each. Conversely, if the right side wins, the stakes differ. Individuals 1 and 2 have a 25% stake, person 3 has a 40% stake, and person 4 has a 10% stake. Consequently, their respective payouts would be $500, $500, $800, and $200. That was a surprise even for me - there is a proof of stake system that I would be for. I realized that the staking is just not used in the proper context and that is why I have a problem with it. Proof of stake is deployed for bets and bets only. There is no such thing called staking your energy - that is called working. Now this system is not the shitcoin model - stake something and I guarantee you something more. Staking something means that going in you know (or you should know) that your stake could be lost. If someone is asking you to stake money and promising you more money you should ask yourself who is the loser that will pay the winner. If I am the winner, who is the loser? If we are all winners that means we all lost to inflation and the winner is the inflator. Stake = Bet.

The true stake system introduces a novel dimension to betting. While the primary goal is to win, participants might consider adding more funds to their community bet to avoid dilution. For instance, if I initially bet $10 alone, I would have a 100% payout potential. However, if someone else places a $10,000 bet on my side, my potential payout percentage drops to less than 0.1%. In such a scenario, I face two choices: increase my bet on my community's side for a better payout or place a bet on the opposing side, capitalizing on the changed odds for a potentially significant payout if I am wrong. This concept sheds light on the genuine meaning of hedging. You are hedging things that you BET on! Whether you call it an investment strategy or not you should now recognize that everything in the fiat system is using these terms but hiding the fact that it is gambling. For example, if you are a true investor you should do everything you can to make your investment work and realize that goal. Betting against yourself = hedge.

The community-to-community betting brings about more significant implications than current betting models. In this setup, the victorious community directly benefits, and if the bet is placed on a sports event, the winning team supports the winning community. The funds from the losing team's community are directly paid to the winning community and not to a betting company. This eliminates the intermediary role of any betting company. The people also are forced to do their research and assess which is a good bet and which is not - not that the majority do it. If they did it was going to be clear to all of us by now that all sh*tcoins are the fiat scam on a blockchain.

When there are three or more possible outcomes for a bet, multiple people or communities can bet on those outcomes, and all losing communities pay the winning community. In this scenario, individual participants receive payouts based on their respective stakes. For instance, in a bet involving predicting an exact score where no one bets on the correct score, there is no winner, and consequently, no actual losers. In such cases, participants simply have their sats unlocked without any winnings or losses.

We invest our energy in goals - make sure it is your goals and not someone else's. With money, we do 3 things only - earning, spending, or gambling!

People want to pay you money so you achieve their goals and stake your money so you can lose it to them. Be very aware of where you invest your energy and how you are using your bitcoin. I would like to repeat my statement from above one more time. The forces that are involved with these gambling companies are very powerful and I do not want to inspire someone and put a target on their back. I am doing this because of the utility of the payments and because this can be an open-sourced project that just competes with them. Satoshi set a standard for how to solve a monopoly - with FOSS. This will completely reshape the coordination between humans again with instant settlement payment. I do not like that I am promoting betting behavior because it is addictive and dangerous but I hope this puts a light on why all fiat behavior is gambling. The only proof of stake that matters is what is your stake in Bitcoin from the 21 million coins. Having a stake there is betting on humanity for the better.

Now be careful with this bet to make that app!

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

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@ dbc828cc:ed78a663

Drugs since the lens of habitus

present

Good day everyone. Thanks for coming to this mesh talk. Before start I want to give special love to the Meshtadel, not only for having me grab this opportunity to share some of the experience I have about life, but also for being that digital place that resonates at the in-real-life place.

intro

Having said that, my professional experience is about places, to be more precise, the experience of places. Architecture, you see, is not only about if a building is pretty or if it is functional; it is about living places, that is, to inhabit. Here is where my trench of expertise might be colliding with those of psychology and physiology; granted by the favors of philosophy. Saying it like this, the "adversary" I want to bring attention this day to you is the one named as "addiction".

The middle ground I would like to propose for this talk are founded on-and-by the terms of perception; granted that, "term" and "perception", each, can be criticized by their own merits, however the idea I want to expose this day to you is that the "terms of perception" can be considered as the signature of drugs. In other words, drugs have the ability to drive perception; in architecture, for example, could be said that experience is driven by our walk through the arrangement of the building, —namely the structure, furniture and ornament—, the very definition of a drug in architecture lies thus in the objects, as well as in the use we humans make of them.

The object, and the experience of the object thus con-forms perception. Habitus is the particular way each individual arranges it's own terms of perception. Or to put it over a fashion apart, habitus can be understood alike traditions, culture, or rituals. Thus, a natural question surges towards the whereabouts of the origins of these habits.

Now then, here is precisely where we can draw a first line that describes the form of an addiction. Simply put, an addiction is an habit that went wrong. Or to say it otherwise, it is an habit that is detrimental to human existence by the terms of the healthiness of both, the body and the mind.

With these sentences I would like then to advance to the discussion or mezzanine of the talk.

mid

If there could ever be a common law for perception, I would like to lie it, —for this occasion at least—, with the following sentence: perception lets itself be the pray of the living experience. This means that, —in a healthy condition—, the identification of the state of awareness can be exercised, or saying it like this, a recognition can be drawn between a "natural" and a "distorted" state awareness. Precisely, it could be said that this late is the very definition of an addiction, that is, the placement of oneself in state of distortion.

The handshake of a drug usually is also the first time for an individual to notice that there's a "perception apart" than the one experienced all along the time of being alive. Taking a personal example for consideration, the years of college, —or well discussed, the years of social interaction—, usually are also the years where the coincidence with drugs happen. I mention this precisely to have in mind the importance of context, and even so for the little coincidences, if one like it to have it like that.

To describe the conventional definition of an habit that went wrong, imaging the following sentences: "Where precisely the drug is injected?, well it depends of the desired effect..."

To offer an alternative for an habit that "works OK", I will dare to say that a good habit is that one that you don't notice. It is there, that say, it exists; it can be at the sight of others, but at the same time can be out of the mere recognition of one. Here precisely is where the terms of habit coincides with ideas of the terms of character, —namely style, temperament, or likelihood— of a person. The habit and the person justifies each other at all moment for the sake of reach an agreement of terms.

To offer an example, a person that commutes everyday to his workplace might likely reach a point where it does it "by default", without ever noticing or thinking about it. Later, by whatever reason, a deviation of the usual commute happens, either a shortcut, a better skilled chauffeur, or getting distracted by the infatuation of a pretty smile. The habitus takes a new reform, even if momentarily just to disrupt the usual. Sometimes it can be of good outcomes, some other times maybe not so much.

This may be the opportunity then to lead to the description of the capitulation of an habit, simply put: it can hardly be appreciated or taken nor even with two grains of salt. In other words, to try measure the start and the end of an habit might very well be as to try playing speculation. Needless to say that every drug has his trade offs, not so obvious often is that the worst outcome can strike as disruptive as a thunder to life experience.

But what does that mean in layman terms?. What I try to tell you here, meshtadelian, is that a drug is a thing as well as an idea, and even more than that, it is always a mix of both the thing and the idea.

You see, when knowing people one might get to see their character not only by their wearings but also by their behavior, that is, the things they do and how they do it, in the same sense a person likes to consume cannabis either by edibles or by cigarettes, an architect can decides, —following the wishes of the inhabitants at best—, to use traditional style or modern style of buildings. The problem often becomes evident when the character gets out of place, when the people doesn't match what at is also seen by others.

Does this mean that there's no way out of an addiction? The answer at least, can not be located at the terms of the addiction itself. To elaborate, a person that looks so hard to stop "doing a drug" might soon or later find that the effort can become as important as the drug itself, that being, as if the addiction gets displaced from a drug to another.

By this terms sobriety is hard to define. The simply usual would be that sobriety is the "default settings" of perception. But also by the terms of aesthetics, —taking help of professor Adorno here—, "a lack of style becomes and style itself".

Hoping to having ignited a spark of good will. I would like to go then to the closure of this lecture. I would like to offer a paragraph to the discussion that is held between psychology and physiology towards the definition and treatment of addictions.

closure

At first, I would like to express that drug are not only the prescribed ones, the natural that growths from soil; as well as drugs is not only that miracle that brings health, as much as I can say for the sing of a mother can heal a son. It is the combination of both; the whole plot is for people to be experienced and an emphasis should be put on the fact that a person can choice the terms of how the plot is arranged.

In other words, I want to bring the idea that we might be having to pay attention to the possibility that an addiction, —or a disease daring to say so—, not only ca be treated with that or that drug. It also matters the place the person's individuality, in which nonetheless, places are also involved.

Finally. I would like to offer you an experience of a dear friend that struggled to stop smoking tobacco but so far has accomplished twenty years more or so of not smoking. He made a bet. He and a friend of his bet to stop smoking. I can not enter in the details of their relationship but I dare to assume is one that has a mix of friendship and rivalry. The trick, if you like to name it, is that the bet can not really have a settle until... yes, it has a morbid sense... someone capitulates. For now I'd lead to tanatology to deal with the terms of how one does face capitulation. However I would like to remind you that as long as there is live, as long as there could be choices.

Thanks now, I have to go fix my own dankruptness.

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

OOOO

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Introducing Bitgeneration

• The Bitgeneration Curriculum

• Impact on Italian High Schools

• Conclusion

• FAQ

Cryptocurrency education is becoming increasingly important in today's world, as more and more people are turning to digital currencies as a form of investment or payment. In Italy, Bitgeneration is leading the way in providing innovative education about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to high school students. In this article, we will explore the Bitgeneration program and its impact on Italian high schools.

Introducing Bitgeneration

Bitgeneration is a program that aims to teach high school students about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The program was founded in 2018 by two Italian entrepreneurs, Giacomo Zucco and Federico Tenga. The goal of the program is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how digital currencies work, their potential uses and risks, and their impact on the global economy.

The Bitgeneration Curriculum

The Bitgeneration curriculum consists of a series of interactive lessons that are designed to engage students and make learning about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies fun and accessible. The lessons cover a range of topics, including the history of money, the principles of cryptography, the basics of blockchain technology, and the social and economic implications of digital currencies.

In addition to the classroom lessons, Bitgeneration also provides students with hands-on experience with cryptocurrencies through a series of interactive workshops. These workshops teach students how to use digital wallets, how to send and receive Bitcoin, and how to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Impact on Italian High Schools

Since its launch, the Bitgeneration program has had a significant impact on Italian high schools. The program has been embraced by both students and teachers, who have praised its innovative approach to education and its relevance to the modern world.

According to Giacomo Zucco, one of the co-founders of Bitgeneration, the program has already reached over 20,000 students across Italy. Zucco believes that cryptocurrency education is becoming increasingly important, as digital currencies continue to grow in popularity and influence.

In addition to providing students with a solid understanding of cryptocurrencies, Bitgeneration also aims to promote critical thinking and creativity among students. By encouraging students to explore the potential uses and risks of digital currencies, Bitgeneration is helping to create a new generation of thinkers and innovators who are prepared to navigate the complex world of digital finance.

Conclusion

The Bitgeneration program is a pioneering effort in the field of cryptocurrency education. By providing high school students with a comprehensive understanding of Bitcoin and other digital currencies, Bitgeneration is helping to prepare the next generation for the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. As the global economy continues to shift towards digital currencies, programs like Bitgeneration are becoming increasingly important in ensuring that students are equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the world of tomorrow.

FAQ

What is the goal of Bitgeneration? The goal of Bitgeneration is to provide high school students with a comprehensive understanding of how digital currencies work, their potential uses and risks, and their impact on the global economy.

Why is cryptocurrency education becoming increasingly important? Cryptocurrency education is becoming increasingly important as more people turn to digital currencies as a form of investment or payment. Programs like Bitgeneration are helping to prepare the next generation for the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

Who founded Bitgeneration? Bitgeneration was founded in 2018 by two Italian entrepreneurs, Giacomo Zucco and Federico Tenga.

What types of interactive workshops does Bitgeneration provide?

Bitgeneration provides students with hands-on experience with cryptocurrencies through interactive workshops that teach them how to use digital wallets, how to send and receive Bitcoin, and how to invest in cryptocurrencies.

That's all for today

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ 2ede6f6b:b94998e2

test

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/459392

@ 4523be58:ba1facd0

NIP-116

Event paths

Description

Event kind 30079 denotes an event defined by its event path rather than its event kind.

The event directory path is included in the event path, specified in the event's d tag. For example, an event path might be user/profile/name, where user/profile is the directory path.

Relays should parse the event directory from the event path d tag and index the event by it. Relays should support "directory listing" of kind 30079 events using the #f filter, such as {"#f": ["user/profile"]}.

For backward compatibility, the event directory should also be saved in the event's f tag (for "folder"), which is already indexed by some relay implementations, and can be queried using the #f filter.

Event content should be a JSON-encoded value. An empty object {} signifies that the entry at the event path is itself a directory. For example, when saving user/profile/name: Bob, you should also save user/profile: {} so the subdirectory can be listed under user.

In directory names, slashes should be escaped with a double slash.

Example

Event

json { "tags": [ ["d", "user/profile/name"], ["f", "user/profile"] ], "content": "\"Bob\"", "kind": 30079, ... }

Query

json { "#f": ["user/profile"], "authors": ["[pubkey]"] }

Motivation

To make Nostr an "everything app," we need a sustainable way to support new kinds of applications. Browsing Nostr data by human-readable nested directories and paths rather than obscure event kind numbers makes the data more manageable.

Numeric event kinds are not sustainable for the infinite number of potential applications. With numeric event kinds, developers need to find an unused number for each new application and announce it somewhere, which is cumbersome and not scalable.

Directories can also replace monolithic list events like follow lists or profile details. You can update a single directory entry such as user/profile/name or groups/follows/[pubkey] without causing an overwrite of the whole profile or follow list when your client is out-of-sync with the most recent list version, as often happens on Nostr.

Using d-tagged replaceable events for reactions, such as {tags: [["d", "reactions/[eventId]"]], content: "\"👍\"", kind: 30079, ...} would make un-reacting trivial: just publish a new event with the same d tag and an empty content. Toggling a reaction on and off would not cause a flurry of new reaction & delete events that all need to be persisted.

Implementations

• Relays that support tag-replaceable events and indexing by arbitrary tags (in this case f) already support this feature.
• IrisDB client side library: treelike data structure with subscribable nodes.

https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/1266

@ b60c3e76:c9d0f46e

KRIS menjamin semua golongan masyarakat mendapatkan perlakuan sama dari rumah sakit, baik pelayanan medis maupun nonmedis.

Demi memberikan peningkatan kualitas layanan kesehatan kepada masyarakat, pemerintah baru saja mengeluarkan Peraturan Presiden (Perpres) nomor 59 tahun 2024 tentang Jaminan Kesehatan. Melalui perpres itu, Presiden Joko Widodo (Jokowi) telah menghapus perbedaan kelas layanan 1, 2, dan 3 dalam Badan Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial atau BPJS Kesehatan.

Layanan berbasis kelas itu diganti dengan KRIS (Kelas Rawat Inap Standar). Berkaitan dengan lahirnya Perpres 59/2024 tentang Perubahan Ketiga atas Perpres 82/2018 tentang Jaminan Kesehatan, Presiden Joko Widodo telah memerintahkan seluruh rumah sakit yang bekerja sama dengan BPJS Kesehatan melaksanakannya.

Kebijakan baru itu mulai berlaku per 8 Mei 2024 dan paling lambat 30 Juni 2025. Dalam jangka waktu tersebut, rumah sakit dapat menyelenggarakan sebagian atau seluruh pelayanan rawat inap berdasarkan KRIS sesuai dengan kemampuan rumah sakit.

Lantas apa yang menjadi pembeda dari sisi layanan dengan layanan rawat inap sesuai Perpres 59/2024? Dahulu sistem layanan rawat BPJS Kesehatan dibagi berdasarkan kelas yang dibagi masing-masing kelas 1, 2, dan 3. Namun, melalui perpres, layanan kepada masyarakat tidak dibedakan lagi.

Pelayanan rawat inap yang diatur dalam perpres itu--dikenal dengan nama KRIS—menjadi sistem baru yang digunakan dalam pelayanan rawat inap BPJS Kesehatan di rumah sakit-rumah sakit. Dengan KRIS, semua golongan masyarakat akan mendapatkan perlakuan yang sama dari rumah sakit, baik dalam hal pelayanan medis maupun nonmedis.

Dengan lahirnya Perpres 59/2024, tarif iuran BPJS Kesehatan pun juga akan berubah. Hanya saja, dalam Perpres itu belum dicantumkan secara rinci ihwal besar iuran yang baru. Besaran iuran baru BPJS Kesehatan itu sesuai rencana baru ditetapkan pada 1 Juli 2025.

“Penetapan manfaat, tarif, dan iuran sebagaimana dimaksud ditetapkan paling lambat tanggal 1 Juli 2025,” tulis aturan tersebut, dikutip Senin (13/5/2024).

Itu artinya, iuran BPJS Kesehatan saat ini masih sama seperti sebelumnya, yakni sesuai dengan kelas yang dipilih. Namun perpres itu tetap berlaku sembari menanti lahirnya peraturan lanjutan dari perpres tersebut.

Kesiapan Rumah Sakit

Berkaitan dengan lahirnya kebijakan layanan kesehatan tanpa dibedakan kelas lagi, Kementerian Kesehatan (Kemenkes) menegaskan mayoritas rumah sakit di Indonesia siap untuk menjalankan layanan KRIS untuk pasien BPJS Kesehatan.

Kesiapan itu diungkapkan oleh Dirjen Pelayanan Kesehatan Kemenkes Azhar Jaya. “Survei kesiapan RS terkait KRIS sudah dilakukan pada 2.988 rumah sakit dan yang sudah siap menjawab isian 12 kriteria ada sebanyak 2.233 rumah sakit,” ujar Azhar.

Sebagai informasi, KRIS adalah pengganti layanan Kelas 1, 2, dan 3 BPJS Kesehatan yang bertujuan untuk memberikan layanan kesehatan secara merata tanpa melihat besaran iurannya.

Melalui KRIS, rumah sakit perlu menyiapkan sarana dan prasarana sesuai dengan 12 kriteria kelas rawat inap standar secara bertahap. Apa saja ke-12 kriteria KRIS itu?

Sesuai bunyi Pasal 46A Perpres 59/2024, disyaratkan kriteria fasilitas perawatan dan pelayanan rawat inap KRIS meliputi komponen bangunan yang digunakan tidak boleh memiliki tingkat porositas yang tinggi serta terdapat ventilasi udara dan kelengkapan tidur.

Demikian pula soal pencahayaan ruangan. Perpres itu juga mengatur pencahayaan ruangan buatan mengikuti kriteria standar 250 lux untuk penerangan dan 50 lux untuk pencahayaan tidur, temperature ruangan 20--26 derajat celcius.

Tidak hanya itu, layanan rawat inap berdasarkan perpres itu mensyaratkan fasilitas layanan yang membagi ruang rawat berdasarkan jenis kelamin pasien, anak atau dewasa, serta penyakit infeksi atau noninfeksi.

Selain itu, kriteria lainnya adalah keharusan bagi penyedia layanan untuk mempertimbangkan kepadatan ruang rawat dan kualitas tempat tidur, penyediaan tirai atau partisi antartempat tidur, kamar mandi dalam ruangan rawat inap yang memenuhi standar aksesibilitas, dan menyediakan outlet oksigen.

Selain itu, kelengkapan tempat tidur berupa adanya dua kotak kontak dan nurse call pada setiap tempat tidur dan adanya nakas per tempat tidur. Kepadatan ruang rawat inap maksimal empat tempat tidur dengan jarak antara tepi tempat tidur minimal 1,5 meter.

Tirai/partisi dengan rel dibenamkan menempel di plafon atau menggantung. Kamar mandi dalam ruang rawat inap serta kamar mandi sesuai dengan standar aksesibilitas dan outlet oksigen.

Azhar menjamin, Kemenkes akan menjalankan hal tersebut sesuai dengan tupoksi yang ada. “Tentu saja kami akan bekerja sama dengan BPJS Kesehatan dalam implementasi dan pengawasannya di lapangan,” ujar Azhar.

Berkaitan dengan perpres jaminan kesehatan itu, Direktur Utama BPJS Kesehatan Ghufron Mukti menilai, perpres tersebut berorientasi pada penyeragaman kelas rawat inap yang mengacu pada 12 kriteria. "Bahwa perawatan ada kelas rawat inap standar dengan 12 kriteria, untuk peserta BPJS, maka sebagaimana sumpah dokter tidak boleh dibedakan pemberian pelayan medis atas dasar suku, agama, status sosial atau beda iurannya," ujarnya.

Jika ada peserta ingin dirawat pada kelas yang lebih tinggi, kata Ghufron, maka diperbolehkan selama hal itu dipengaruhi situasi nonmedis. Hal itu disebutkan dalam Pasal 51 Perpres Jaminan Kesehatan diatur ketentuan naik kelas perawatan.

Menurut pasal tersebut, naik kelas perawatan dilakukan dengan cara mengikuti asuransi kesehatan tambahan atau membayar selisih antara biaya yang dijamin oleh BPJS Kesehatan dengan biaya yang harus dibayar akibat peningkatan pelayanan.

Selisih antara biaya yang dijamin oleh BPJS Kesehatan dengan biaya pelayanan dapat dibayar oleh peserta bersangkutan, pemberi kerja, atau asuransi kesehatan tambahan.

Ghufron Mukti juga mengimbau pengelola rumah sakit tidak mengurangi jumlah tempat tidur perawatan pasien dalam upaya memenuhi kriteria KRIS. "Pesan saya jangan dikurangi akses dengan mengurangi jumlah tempat tidur. Pertahankan jumlah tempat tidur dan penuhi persyaratannya dengan 12 kriteria tersebut," tegas Ghufron.

Penulis: Firman Hidranto Redaktur: Ratna Nuraini/Elvira Inda Sari Sumber: Indonesia.go.id

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

Lot of people are starting to talk about building a web-of-trust and how nostr can or is already being used as such

We all know about using the kind:3 following lists as a simple WoT that can be used to filter out spam. but as we all know it does not really signal "trust", its mostly just "I find your content interesting"

But what about real "trust"... well its kind of multi-denominational, I could trust that your a good developer or a good journalist but still not trust you enough to invite you over to my house. There are some interesting and clever solutions proposed for quantifying "trust" in a digital sense but I'm not going to get into that here. I want to talk about something that I have not see anyone discuss yet.

How is the web-of-trust maintained? or more precisely how do you expect users to update the digital representation of the "trust" of other users?

Its all well and good to think of how a user would create that "trust" of another user when discovering them for the first time. They would click the "follow" button, or maybe even rate them on a few topics with a 1/5 star system But how will a user remove that trust? how will they update it if things change and they trust them less?

If our goal is to model "trust" in a digital sense then we NEED a way for the data to stay up-to-date and as accurate as possible. otherwise whats the use? If we don't have a friction-less way to update or remove the digital representation of "trust" then we will end up with a WoT that continuously grows and everyone is rated 10/10

In the case of nostr kind:3 following lists. its pretty easy to see how these would get updated. If someone posts something I dislike or I notice I'm getting board of their content. then I just unfollow them. An important part here is that I'm not thinking "I should update my trust score of this user" but instead "I'm no longer interested, I don't want to see this anymore"

But that is probably the easiest "trust" to update. because most of us on social media spend some time curating our feed and we are used to doing it. But what about the more obscure "trust" scores? whats the regular mechanism by which a user would update the "honestly" score of another user?

In the real world its easy, when I stop trusting someone I simply stop associating with them. there isn't any button or switch I need to update. I simply don't talk to them anymore, its friction-less But in the digital realm I would have to remove or update that trust. in other words its an action I need to take instead of an action I'm not doing. and actions take energy.

So how do we reflect something in the digital world that takes no-energy and is almost subconscious in the real world?

TLDR; webs-of-trust are not just about scoring other users once. you must keep the score up-to-date

@ 2ede6f6b:b94998e2

test

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/459391

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

...

@ 33d72151:97ae5c43

La belleza quizás no es un atributo inherente a las cosas, sino una cualidad que emerge de la interacción entre el observador y lo observado. Al cambiar nuestra forma de mirar e interpretar, cambiamos nuestra forma de sentir y, en última instancia, nuestro estado de ánimo y por ende nuestra forma de vivir.

La belleza que percibimos en un paisaje, en una pieza musical o incluso en una situación desafiante, es un tejido entre lo que observamos y cómo lo sentimos. Es como un espejo que refleja el mundo exterior y como nosotros lo interpretamos en nuestro mundo interior.

Imagina un paisaje con campo de flores silvestres. Para algunos, puede ser simplemente un montón de plantas y flores, un lugar sin mayor interés. Pero para otros, esos mismos colores y formas moldeados por el sol al caer la tarde, pueden evocar recuerdos felices de su niñez, despertar emociones profundas por recorrer, en tiempos pasados de noviazgo y en su memoria con su pareja a su lado o simplemente inspirar pensamientos creativos en un pintor. La diferencia radica en la mirada interna, en la lente a través del cual observamos la realidad. Las cosas son como son y nosotros las vemos según como somos.

Un mismo mar puede ser visto como una inmensidad apacible y apetecible al baño o como un abismo amenazante con solo estar dentro a tres metros de la arena por una persona que no sabe nadar. Todo depende de "las gafas" con las que lo miremos e interpretamos. Lo mismo ocurre con la melodía de una canción: puede ser una fuente de alegría o una expresión de melancolía o incluso producir rechazo por traer malos recuerdos. La clave está en la actitud con la que nos acercamos a cada momento y experiencia.

Nuestra percepción y nuestro yo particular, moldeado por nuestras vivencias y emociones, colorea cada instante con los colores del arco iris o reduciéndolo a ocres o grises. Un amanecer puede ser un símbolo de esperanza y agradecimiento por un nuevo día, el recordatorio de que espera un día duro de trabajo o un recordatorio de la fugacidad del tiempo y lo efímeros que somos en la vida y en el universo. La belleza, la verdad y la realidad, en este sentido y con los ejemplos que he mencionado es una construcción muy subjetiva, como la felicidad es una interpretación muy personal de la realidad.

Esta dualidad no nos debería limitar; al contrario, nos invita a explorar las múltiples facetas que cada experiencia puede tener para nosotros o incluso para otras personas y con esto saber y entender que la verdad, en muchos casos no siempre es única. Pero también podemos elegir ver el vaso medio lleno o medio vacío y enfocarnos en lo positivo o en lo negativo. Y esta elección, a su vez si influye en nuestra propia realidad emocional y en la de los que nos rodean.

Cultivar una mirada positiva nos permite descubrir belleza de la vida incluso en los lugares y situaciones más inesperadas. Desdramatizar situaciones y positivar la vida en general es mejor. Nos abre las puertas a nuevas posibilidades y nos conecta con una sensación en general de bienestar, aceptación y equilibrio mental.

Sabiendo y siendo consciente de la dualidad, sin duda, al mirar el mundo con curiosidad, asombro y desde el punto de vista del observador positivo, transformamos nuestra experiencia de vida, enriquecemos nuestro viaje y nos mantendrá más en un estado de mayor tranquilidad y paz mental.

@ 06639a38:655f8f71

• Updated the references documentation here and here
• Improved relay responses and added backwards compability for the used CommandResult class
• Added RelayResponses according to the logic described in NIP-01 using this PR#59 from kriptonix as a base.
  • OK response
  • ERROR response
  • CLOSE response
  • EVENT response
  • EOSE response
  • NOTICE response
• Partly integrated NIP-42 with an AUTH relay response
• Added the documentation page 'relay responses' on nostr-php.dev
• The screenshot is quite funny describing Nostr having PHP vibes comparing it with the ATProtocol from Bluesky [source].

@ 266815e0:6cd408a5

While I was in Mediera with all the other awesome people at the first SEC cohort there where a lot of discussions around data storage on nostr and if it could be made censorship-resistent

I remember lots of discussions about torrents, hypercore, nostr relays, and of course IPFS

There were a few things I learned from all these conversations:

1. All the existing solutions have one thing in common. A universal ID of some kind for files
2. HTTP is still good. we don't have to throw the baby out with the bath water
3. nostr could fix this... somehow

Some of the existing solutions work well for large files, and all of them are decentralization in some way. However none of them seem capable of serving up cat pictures for social media clients. they all have something missing...

An Identity system

An identity system would allow files to be "owned" by users. and once files have owners servers could start grouping files into a single thing instead of a 1000+ loose files

This can also greatly simplify the question of "what is spam" for a server hosting (or seeding) these files. since it could simply have a whitelist of owners (and maybe their friends)

What is blossom?

Blossom is a set of HTTP endpoints that allow nostr users to store and retrieve binary data on public servers using the sha256 hash as a universal id

What are Blobs?

blobs are chunks of binary data. they are similar to files but with one key difference, they don't have names

Instead blobs have a sha256 hash (like b1674191a88ec5cdd733e4240a81803105dc412d6c6708d53ab94fc248f4f553) as an ID

These IDs are universal since they can be computed from the file itself using the sha256 hashing algorithm ( you can get a files sha256 hash on linux using: sha256sum bitcoin.pdf )

How do the servers work?

Blossom servers expose four endpoints to let clients and users upload and manage blobs

• GET /<sha256> (optional file .ext)
• PUT /upload
• Authentication: Signed nostr event
• Returns a blob descriptor
• GET /list/<pubkey>
• Returns an array of blob descriptors
• Authentication (optional): Signed nostr event
• DELETE /<sha256>
• Authentication: Signed nostr event

What is Blossom Drive?

Blossom Drive is a nostr app built on top of blossom servers and allows users to create and manage folders of blobs

What are Drives

Drives are just nostr events (kind 30563) that store a map of blobs and what filename they should have along with some extra metadata

An example drive event would be json { "pubkey": "266815e0c9210dfa324c6cba3573b14bee49da4209a9456f9484e5106cd408a5", "created_at": 1710773987, "content": "", "kind": 30563, "tags": [ [ "name", "Emojis" ], [ "description", "nostr emojis" ], [ "d", "emojis" ], [ "r", "https://cdn.hzrd149.com/" ], [ "x", "303f018e613f29e3e43264529903b7c8c84debbd475f89368cb293ec23938981", "/noStrudel.png", "15161", "image/png" ], [ "x", "a0e2b39975c8da1702374b3eed6f4c6c7333e6ae0008dadafe93bd34bfb2ca78", "/satellite.png", "6853", "image/png" ], [ "x", "e8f3fae0f4a43a88eae235a8b79794d72e8f14b0e103a0fed1e073d8fb53d51f", "/amethyst.png", "20487", "image/png" ], [ "x", "70bd5836807b916d79e9c4e67e8b07e3e3b53f4acbb95c7521b11039a3c975c6", "/nos.png", "36521", "image/png" ], [ "x", "0fc304630279e0c5ab2da9c2769e3a3178c47b8609b447a30916244e89abbc52", "/primal.png", "29343", "image/png" ], [ "x", "9a03824a73d4af192d893329bbc04cd3798542ee87af15051aaf9376b74b25d4", "/coracle.png", "18300", "image/png" ], [ "x", "accdc0cdc048f4719bb5e1da4ff4c6ffc1a4dbb7cf3afbd19b86940c01111568", "/iris.png", "24070", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e740f2514d6188e350d95cf4756bbf455d2f95e6a09bc64e94f5031bc4bba8f", "/damus.png", "32758", "image/png" ], [ "x", "2e019f08da0c75fb9c40d81947e511c8f0554763bffb6d23a7b9b8c9e8c84abb", "/old emojis/astral.png", "29365", "image/png" ], [ "x", "d97f842f2511ce0491fe0de208c6135b762f494a48da59926ce15acfdb6ac17e", "/other/rabbit.png", "19803", "image/png" ], [ "x", "72cb99b689b4cfe1a9fb6937f779f3f9c65094bf0e6ac72a8f8261efa96653f5", "/blossom.png", "4393", "image/png" ] ] }

There is a lot going on but the main thing is the list of "x" tags and the path that describes the folder and filename the blob should live at

If your interested, the full event definition is at github.com/hzrd149/blossom-drive

Getting started

Like every good nostr client it takes a small instruction manual in order to use it properly. so here are the steps for getting started

1. Open the app

Open https://blossom.hzrd149.com

2. Login using extension

You can also login using any of the following methods using the input - NIP-46 with your https://nsec.app or https://flare.pub account - a NIP-46 connection string - an ncryptsec password protected private key - a nsec unprotected private key (please don't) - bunker:// URI from nsecbunker

3. Add a blossom server

Right now https://cdn.satellite.earth is the only public server that is compatible with blossom drive. If you want to host your own I've written a basic implementation in TypeScript github.com/hzrd149/blossom-server

4. Start uploading your files

NOTE: All files upload to blossom drive are public by default. DO NOT upload private files

5. Manage files

Encrypted drives

There is also the option to encrypt drives using NIP-49 password encryption. although its not tested at all so don't trust it, verify

Whats next?

I don't know, but Im excited to see what everyone else on nostr builds with this. I'm only one developer at the end of the day and I can't think of everything

also all the images in this article are stored in one of my blossom drives here

nostr:naddr1qvzqqqrhvvpzqfngzhsvjggdlgeycm96x4emzjlwf8dyyzdfg4hefp89zpkdgz99qq8xzun5d93kcefdd9kkzem9wvr46jka

@ 2ede6f6b:b94998e2

test

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/459390

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

SN and Nostr are a match made in heaven. Here are some thoughts on further integration:

1. Splash Zapvertising Integration

Both SN and Nostr clients should consider integrating splash zapvertising features, similar to:

• ZapAdd
• Zapper Nostrapps

These platforms could charge a small fee for coordinating transactions, creating a new revenue stream while promoting content across the Nostr network.

2. Transforming SN Territories into Npubs

Stacker News Territories have the potential to become more than just internal communities. By converting them into Npubs (Nostr public keys), we can expand their reach and engagement. A portion of the monthly territory fee could be allocated towards zapvertising the Npub/Territory to the wider Nostr ecosystem.

Here's a visualization of how SN could interact with other Nostr platforms:

https://image.nostr.build/3ba24a8db8bdca6a4cd32fc25139fead4512b783ceb4f94e505eeea21e8167e5.png

Example: SN Music Territory Npub

Let's consider how an SN Music Territory could function as an Npub:

1. Automatic Crossposting: Top daily content is shared to Satlantis, Fountain, and Damus.
2. Zapvertising: Promotes engagement, gains followers, and attracts zaps.
3. Wide Engagement: Users from Primal, Yakihonne, and Mastodons bridge can like, repost, and zap content.
4. Referral System Integration: Works really well with SN's new referral system.
5. Content Aggregation: All posts are automatically compiled into an SN Music Territory blog for wider public sharing.

Benefits and Considerations

While this approach may not immediately make territory ownership profitable, it offers several advantages:

• Enhanced engagement across multiple platforms
• Increased monetization opportunities
• Simplified management for territory owners (no direct Nostr interaction required)
• Expanded reach into the broader Nostr ecosystem

By implementing these ideas, Stacker News can position itself as a central hub within the Nostr universe, facilitating content sharing and engagement across multiple platforms while providing value to both users and territory owners.

It would also be cool to add....

something like shipyard autoposting something that will allow you to see comments Nostr comments on SN WOT scores and an option to use your unified balance nostr wallet.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/640607

@ 99fdaa11:3157ec8e

H1 Tag

Testing!

@ 30ceb64e:7f08bdf5

I feel sorry for the laggards who would pile into bitcoin at the last moment. They'll be fleeing into bitcoin through crypto scams, fake L2's, AI social engineering attacks, misinformation from trusted sources and cognitive dissonance. In a rapidly shifting open source environment niched in topics that they hardly understand. And at the bottom of the rabbit hole you have personal responsibility and hard work waiting for you.

I'm assuming uncle jims will do well. They essentially become financial advisors (Recommending Bitcoin products and services, Helping them understand and move up the sovereignty ladder, Holding Keys, Running LSP's, Mints, and Relays).

Its just crazy to imagine that we're entering a world were 20 year olds have a better grasp on how to use money, how money works, and why it works that way.....than most studied economics professionals.

Understanding money is a key piece to human flourishing and survival, many will succumb to being slaves of their own ignorance, doomed to live out the rest of their days as hungry ghosts, pulling knobs and levers of which have no real meaning or consequence.

https://cdn.satellite.earth/40f7fa81b77c2097ee499cd63d47e66b245aedb20d9a782f33622427c5179dab.webp

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/636597

@ bcbb3e40:a494e501

El hombre y el contexto

El pensamiento tradicionalista español cuenta con una amplia trayectoria en la que concurren personajes, situaciones e ideas gestadas en el transcurso de dos siglos, en los que debemos distinguir el conflicto dinástico y el papel del legitimismo de la propia doctrina, que es algo que se construirá en el tiempo, con la contribución de figuras como el protagonista de este escrito, Don Juan Vázquez de Mella, así como por la confluencia de fuerzas de diferente signo que tiene lugar a lo largo del siglo XIX y la consolidación del Estado liberal, que lo hará siempre en lucha abierta contra las peculiaridades y el carácter genuino del pueblo español. Vázquez de Mella, nuestro autor, quizás represente la consolidación y madurez doctrinal del movimiento tradicionalista español, uno de sus primeros y más brillantes sistematizadores. No se destacó por una obra extensa ni especialmente difundida más allá de sus discursos, de sus artículos en periódicos y sus escritos dispersos, los cuales fue capaz de dotar de una especial significación y dignidad fruto de su enorme carisma y especial clarividencia para dar una forma definida y meridianamente clara a las ideas y doctrinas que nutrieron el tradicionalismo español madurado al calor de las armas, de las tres guerras que el carlismo libró contra el liberalismo español.

|| |:-:| |Juan Vázquez de Mella|

Nuestro autor, de origen asturiano, y nacido en Cangas de Onís un 8 de junio de 1861, ha mantenido vivo su prestigio y el valor de sus aportaciones teórico-doctrinales, ampliamente reconocidos por sus sucesores, por Rafael Gambra Ciudad (1920-2004) y Francisco Elías de Tejada y Espinola (1918-1978), así como de otros autores como Álvaro D'Ors (1915-2004) y otros muchos, que han reivindicado su figura en el tiempo y se han nutrido de sus fecundas enseñanzas. Se ha destacado la rectitud de su pensamiento, su inquebrantable voluntad y su impagable contribución en la creación de un marco teórico y conceptual para dar un sentido y una forma a las ideas del tradicionalismo español. Hijo de un militar de origen gallego, muerto prematuramente, quedó huérfano de padre durante su niñez, por lo cual pasó al cuidado de unos parientes de origen modesto. Estudió en la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, donde mostró tempranamente su temperamento y habilidades oratorias, que explotó convenientemente a través de diarios como La Restauración o El pensamiento galaico, donde también mostró sus filiaciones militantes con el catolicismo tradicional. Sus habilidades y la brillantez de sus escritos pronto llegaron a Madrid, a las más altas instancias del Carlismo, lo que le permitió dar continuidad a sus actividades desde un medio más amplio, a través de El correo español.

En su militancia política llegó a las más altas cotas de su trayectoria con la elección en 1893 como representante de las Cortes por el distrito de Estella, Navarra, que ya con sus primeros discursos obtuvo un notable éxito, incluso entre los propios liberales, hasta 1900, fecha en la que se vio obligado a marcharse a Portugal, acusado de participar en una conspiración para derrocar el régimen de la Restauración. No regresó a España hasta 1905, manteniendo su estatus como diputado hasta 1919. De todos modos, no queremos dar más protagonismo a la biografía en detrimento de la doctrina, que es lo que nos interesa en este artículo, de ahí que obviemos otros datos biográficos trascendentes, polémicas con otras facciones del carlismo o sus posturas respecto a la dictadura del general Miguel Primo de Rivera, que nos harían desviar la atención del propósito principal que acabamos de enunciar.

La gran paradoja del Carlismo fue que a pesar de su derrota en la Tercera Guerra Carlista (1872-1876), y pese a la posterior escisión integrista en 1888, el partido carlista continuó manteniendo una fuerza y preponderancia significativa en la sociedad española del régimen de la Restauración durante el último cuarto de siglo. El Carlismo se vio inmerso en un buen número de paradojas, de situaciones encontradas, especialmente en relación al Desastre del 98 y la pérdida de los últimos territorios ultramarinos. Mientras que la gran esperanza del tradicionalismo español estaba depositada en el desmoronamiento y caída final de la restauración alfonsina, por otro lado este mismo régimen trataba de defender, al menos en teoría, los últimos restos del imperio español y, de algún modo, a la España católica frente a una nación protestante, como era la anglosajona estadounidense. Al mismo tiempo, durante esta época el tradicionalismo español se enfrentó a los grandes retos que presentaba una sociedad en cambio, con transformaciones políticas y sociales de gran calado como la emergencia del sufragio universal o el nacimiento de los separatismos periféricos (propiciados por la burguesía liberal), las cuales requerían de nuevas estrategias y reestructuraciones internas capaces de enfrentar la envergadura de todos estos cambios. Fue en este contexto donde se significó la figura de Juan Vázquez de Mella, quien merced a la obra de sistematización a la que ya hemos hecho alusión, y de sus concurridas conferencias, dio lugar a la denominada Acta Loredán, redactada por el tradicionalista asturiano y publicado en El correo español. Este escrito tenía como ejes fundamentales la defensa de la nación política española fundamentada en la monarquía, el catolicismo y el régimen foral. Al mismo tiempo, también recogía la reivindicación de un programa corporativista y gremial al abrigo de la doctrina social de la Iglesia defendido en la encíclica Rerum Novarum (1891), y es lo que se conoce como el «sociedalismo», cuyos antecedentes encontramos ya en autores como Donoso Cortés o Antonio Aparisi Guijarro. Son precisamente los atributos de esta doctrina, que contribuyó a la revitalización del pensamiento carlista, los que nos disponemos a desarrollar a continuación.

La figura del tradicionalista asturiano, de Don Juan Vázquez de Mella, aparece como necesaria ante una serie sucesiva de destrucciones que el régimen liberal ha producido sobre los fundamentos tradicionales de España, pero su papel no fue, como ya venimos apuntando, el de un gran intelectual erudito, y de hecho, como apunta Rafael Gambra, las mayores debilidades de su pensamiento se encuentran en los principios filosóficos, y destacando, en cambio, su papel de «revulsivo espiritual» podemos ubicarlo mejor en el ámbito de lo político y lo espiritual. Para ello debió tomar en cuenta las fuentes de sus predecesores, entre los cuales podemos ubicar perfectamente al ya mencionado Donoso Cortés y Jaime Balmes, así como también a otro contemporáneo suyo, Menéndez Pelayo. De los dos primeros tomó su capacidad de síntesis y la sencillez expositiva, mientras que de Menéndez Pelayo tomó, al menos en parte, el sentido de la crítica histórica en aras de la restauración de una Tradición nacional. Pero más allá de los sistemas de pensamiento y elementos retóricos, vemos a Vázquez de Mella profundamente interesado por la vida política de los pueblos medievales de Las Españas, lo cual fue, en definitiva, el marco de referencia para una síntesis política de conjunto más allá de los posicionamientos teóricos, como algo que puede ser llevado a la práctica en sus aspectos concretos y que es perfectamente viable. Todo un sistema edificado sobre el pensamiento tomista y una una profunda religiosidad, En este contexto, y más allá de las ideas formuladas por realistas y carlistas en la primera mitad del siglo XIX, Mella teoriza junto a la concepción del espíritu medieval, la idea de la coexistencia de dos soberanías, una política y otra social, una teoría de la soberanía tradicional inspirada por un principio dinámico y que se cimenta en las propias experiencias humanas en el devenir de la historia.

|| |:-:| |NITOGLIA, Curzio; En el mar de la nada: Metafísica y nihilismo a prueba en la posmodernidad, Hipérbola Janus, 2023|

El concepto de lo social

Lo social para Mella no tiene absolutamente nada que ver con las denominadas «políticas sociales», tan comunes en el lenguaje político de las democracias liberales, en las que se contempla lo social como un elemento externo a la propia estructura política, donde prevalece el individualismo a todos los niveles, y la sociedad aparece como un mero agregado de individuos. Muy al contrario, lo social, en el tradicionalismo de nuestro autor, implica la afirmación de un principio intrínseco tanto al modelo social como al tipo humano, así como a la naturaleza de las cosas en las que la persona desarrolla su existencia en común con los demás. Nos referimos a las instituciones, a los elementos jurídicos y otros órganos gestados en el tiempo por la experiencia histórica, que regulan la vida común.

En el ámbito de la sociedad cristiana medieval, en plena Reconquista, cuando todavía no existía un Estado unitario como tal, cada municipio tenía sus propias leyes y sus normas, adaptadas a su modelo de vida y costumbres, Las comunidades se concebían como agrupaciones de familias con un sistema de propiedad comunal y privado en las que el patrimonio y el estatus de cada uno de sus miembros venía garantizado por el ejercicio activo de una serie de derechos en defensa de las libertades concretas, cuya fuente última era el derecho natural. Los señores feudales y los reyes se limitaban a reclamar tributos para la guerra, pero sin interferir en la defensa de estas libertades concretas ni vulnerar el sistema que las sustentaba.

Eran gobiernos autárquicos, muy estables e inspirados por un principio democrático, el cual nada tenía que ver con las democracias liberales plutocráticas de la actualidad, cuya idea del derecho y la justicia está pervertida por el formalismo jurídico vacío e inane de sus constituciones, abstractas y plenamente funcionales a las oligarquías, al servicio de intereses espurios. En este caso, el hombre alcanzaba una plena dignidad y desarrollo en el contexto de una comunidad donde prevalecía el vínculo comunitario, al amparo de un modelo tradicional, de normas consuetudinarias y concretas que permitían la defensa efectiva del propio derecho. Ni siquiera con el advenimiento de los Estados modernos, y la centralización de algunos elementos de poder, como la Hacienda o el Ejército, se vieron alterados significativamente estos elementos, que representaban a los denominados «cuerpos intermedios» de la sociedad, y que adquirieron su propia expresión particular bajo el nombre de «Fueros», los que los propios reyes juraron respetar a lo largo de toda la Edad Moderna y hasta el advenimiento del régimen borbónico.

La antropología tradicional vincula al hombre a un medio social, a una familia, a una estirpe o a un pueblo, que reproducen esa misma estructura familiar, aunque a mayor escala. En nuestro caso particular lo vemos a través de la convivencia de pequeños grupos humanos, de ahí la importancia de los municipios o de los concejos en un marco de vida comunitaria fuertemente institucionalizada. Al mismo tiempo este modelo y estructura también se replicaba en otros ámbitos, como en la vida económica y profesional, impregnando todas las esferas de la vida del hombre. Instituciones naturales, amparadas en el derecho natural, y orientadas a la protección y garantía de prosperidad de los hombres, y esto por encima de cualquier interés particular y mercantil de negocio. Para Mella, la ruptura con este mundo, y en general con las experiencias del pasado, es la que nos lleva, merced a la acción del liberalismo, a los tiempos actuales, y lo hace recorriendo un itinerario que todos conocemos, y que tienen su punto de partida en la Ilustración y la posterior Revolución Francesa, la irrupción del elemento racional y abstracto y la destrucción de la religión, considerada como fruto de la superstición. La destrucción del orden feudal, que todavía pervivía como marco de convivencia en el mundo rural, como una suerte de prolongación de ese espíritu medieval, hizo desaparecer de un plumazo ese entorno de relaciones concretas y personales para sustituirlas por lo «público» entendido como la centralización estatal uniforme, ignorando las realidades particulares subyacentes en el cuerpo social, los denominados «cuerpos intermedios», que fueron despojados de su autonomía, corporaciones y patrimonios. De modo que la destrucción de estas «sociedades intermedias» que mediaban entre el Estado y la sociedad desenraizó y destruyó la propia sociedad, al mismo tiempo que los fundamentos cristianos del derecho natural sobre la cual se hallaba asentada, para hacer prevalecer esos principios racionales y abstractos traídos por la revolución.

Al mismo tiempo, y anejo a este desarraigo, del individuo se encuentra sometido a poderes arbitrarios del propio Estado liberal, sin un conglomerado institucional propio que lo proteja de estos atropellos, sumido en el individualismo ajeno a toda institución y destino colectivo, se limita al voto cada cuatro años de los partidos al servicio de oligarquías e intereses espurios, contrarios al Bien común. En este sentido, y advirtiendo las posibles acusaciones de «absolutismo» que en ocasiones se han lanzado contra el tradicionalismo, hay que señalar que Mella las rechaza por completo, dado que viola la idea de contrapoderes frente a la autoridad del rey que éste formula, ya que el absolutismo creía en la existencia de un poder ilimitado y tiránico del rey, transmitido por Dios y ajeno a la participación de la sociedad y sus estamentos. Como bien señaló Julius Evola, el absolutismo es un fenómeno antitradicional, vinculado a la descomposición y desacralización de las estructuras tradicionales. De hecho, el absolutismo, como los regímenes liberales de hoy, dejan al individuo totalmente desprotegido, sin un asidero sobre el que apoyarse en la defensa de sus libertades concretas. El propio Mella, como bien saben todos los que se adentren en su obra, fue partidario de contrarrestar el creciente poder del aparato estatal, tal y como hemos visto y seguiremos viendo en lo sucesivo, a lo largo del presente artículo.

|| |:-:| |EVOLA, Julis; Metapolítica, Tradición y Modernidad: Antología de artículos evolianos, Hipérbola Janus, 2020|

En nuestro caso particular, la desaparición de la organización gremial y corporativa tuvo unas consecuencias especialmente nefastas, y en especial después de las dos desamortizaciones liberales (Mendizabal y Madoz) al despojar a los grupos sociales populares de su natural organización sociohistórica. Asimismo, desvincularon la propiedad en las relaciones comunitarias y su uso patrimonial para vincularla al uso privado y anónimo, para fines puramente especulativos, los que caracterizan al liberal-capitalismo. De ahí nace la figura del asalariado, del contratado como mera mercancía, en un proceso de alienación del trabajo característico en el desarrollo del capitalismo burgués. De aquí parte lo que algunos tradicionalistas, como Gambra, denominan el «problema social», frente al cual, y al margen de las recetas ideológicas de la modernidad, Mella reivindica la restauración de los antiguos vínculos corporativos y orgánicos de inspiración medieval.

La idea de soberanía social

Todos los procesos disolutivos que conducen a la Modernidad liberal tienen su punto de inicio con el Renacimiento, con la afirmación del individualismo y la ruptura definitiva del ecumene cristiano medieval, algo que aparece indefectiblemente unido a la Reforma luterana, así como la «valorización» del mundo clásico, con la reemergencia de teorías de tipo hedonista, como las de Epicuro, por ejemplo, generando una disolución de los vínculos con el medio concreto. Esto supone la aparición de un nuevo tipo, que es el hombre abstracto que escapa cada vez más al entorno inmediato y vital, esto al tiempo que el poder del Estado se robustece y se vuelve omnipotente. Es por ese motivo que en lo sucesivo se ha impuesto en nuestras sociedades la falta de concreción, tanto en lo teórico como en lo político, lo cual ha propiciado el triunfo del contrato social roussoniano y la justificación del orden social en virtud de componendas voluntarias y totalmente artificiales. Estas construcciones político-ideológicas son las que contribuyen a la construcción de la sociedad liberal, asentada sobre patrones puramente racionales, individualistas y mercantilistas.

De hecho, la mayor preocupación de Mella es la destrucción de las instituciones locales y ese vínculo afectivo del hombre con su realidad inmediata, algo que impregnaba su relación con el trabajo, con su obra, con su impronta vocacional y devota, imprimiéndole, como en el caso del artesano, un sello propio y particular a su trabajo.

Y en este sentido, Mella afirma que la sociedad moderna ha perdido su sentido institucional como base estable de la sociabilidad. A través del elemento jurídico y la participación en las instituciones es el medio a partir del cual la comunidad se cohesiona y construye sus vínculos y su particular autonomía, que le hace tener una vida propia e interna, y con la institución nos podemos referir desde una asociación profesional, a la universidad o una cofradía etc. El individualismo ha representado el factor disolutivo y corrosivo que ha destruido este vínculo social fundado en múltiples solidaridades que han enfrentado y polarizado al cuerpo social, con el enfrentamiento entre «clases sociales» y la negación de las jerarquías naturales.

Ante todo lo relatado, y como consecuencia de las destrucciones provocadas por la revolución, Mella plantea su teoría de la soberanía social. Esta teoría consiste básicamente en encuadrar de nuevo a la sociedad en sus raíces naturales, concebida en todos sus órdenes como portadora de un dinamismo propio en una suerte de organización geométrica en la que conviven objetivos y finalidades variadas y concretas con su propia legitimidad y autonomía. Estas finalidades, amparadas en el derecho natural, son junto al poder del propio Estado las únicas formas de limitación del poder. La particularidad de esta idea de soberanía social está en el hecho de que la formación de la jerarquía social tiene una dirección ascendente, que tiene como punto de partida a las personas colectivas y concretas, pasando por una serie de instituciones, hasta llegar al Estado central, de forma escalonada y plenamente conscientes de sus funciones. Así lo expresa Mella en su propio lenguaje: «la jerar­quía de personas colectivas, de poderes organizados, de clases, que suben desde la familia hasta la sobera­nía que llamo política concretada en el Estado, que deben auxiliar, pero también contener». Es lo que Mella concibe como el sociedalismo, que supone la reintegración de la sociedad en la vida concreta de los hombres, con el desarrollo de una vida política común y estable en el marco de instituciones naturales que potencien las relaciones humanas y sociales, estimulando la sociabilidad. Y hablamos, desde la perspectiva de la integración de distintas sociedades, fuertemente institucionalizadas con funciones y finalidades concretas, más allá del sentido democrático y pactista que pueda entenderse en términos modernos o de cualquier asociación u organización relacionada con el «problema social».

¿Qué es la Tradición?

De este modo quedan formuladas las dos soberanías, la política y la social, que coexisten en un mismo espacio limitándose y apoyándose recíprocamente en lo que es uno de los fundamentos del sociedalismo de Mella. No obstante, esta doble soberanía no explica todavía la concreción política de cada pueblo y el vínculo superior que lo lleva a federarse con las diferentes sociedades y a mantenerse unido en una historia y espíritu comunes. Los vínculos que las mantienen unidas en el tiempo tienen que ver con un orden histórico concreto, con un vínculo espiritual que las entrelaza interiormente de una generación a otra, y en última instancia de ese orden tradicional que lo engloba todo, y que al mismo tiempo se asienta en la monarquía y la religión católica. La lealtad a Dios y a un solo rey en torno a los cuales se aglutina la fe, viene a coronar todas estas estructuras y lazos forjados en el fermento de la historia.

No se trata de la Tradición en términos de un «ultraconservadurismo», que ya sabemos que el prefijo «ultra» (lo que sea) es muy recurrente en nuestros días, con la idea de un medio social y político petrificado e invariable, sino que es el producto de un proceso de maduración y evolución histórica, de carácter dinámico y nutrido de experiencias humanas. Nada que ver con las monstruosas ideologías progresistas y modernas, nacidas de lo abstracto e impulsadas por un desbocado «ir hacia delante», desarraigado y que tiende siempre hacia la deshumanización y la destrucción de toda creación humana natural forjada en el devenir de los siglos. Este mismo dinamismo, planteado por Mella, en torno al concepto e idea de Tradición tiene continuidad y adquiere fuerza en sus sucesores y depositarios. Y al fin y al cabo, Mella no hace más que partir de la propia etimología del término, que viene del latín tradere, entregar, de la generación que entrega los frutos de su experiencia a la siguiente, perfeccionándola, haciéndola más estable y segura.

Podríamos seguir extrayendo más conclusiones del pensamiento tradicional de Vázquez de Mella, pero probablemente excedería, y por mucho, el modesto propósito de este escrito, de modo que nos quedaremos aquí, no sin advertir a nuestros lectores de la posibilidad de que en un futuro volvamos a retomar nuevamente el tema.

Antes de acabar queremos llamar la atención sobre una polémica acontecida hace unos años en torno a una Plaza en Madrid que llevaba el nombre de nuestro autor y que se cambio para dedicársela a un sujeto cuyos méritos eran, por decirlo suavemente, más que discutibles, concretamente a Pedro Zerolo, miembro del PSOE y activista al servicio del lobby homosexualista. Durante aquella época, en 2019, muchos miembros de la izquierda globalista trataron de identificar a Vázquez de Mella como un «pensador franquista», cuando en realidad ni cronológica ni ideológicamente tuvo nunca nada que ver con el franquismo. Recordemos que murió en 1928, y la impronta de su pensamiento ha tenido como continuadores a sus propios correligionarios dentro del ámbito tradicional, aunque en su tiempo llegó a ser muy respetado también por sus adversarios, los liberales. Aunque la retirada del nombre de una calle pueda resultar algo banal, o carente de una importancia excesiva, también contribuye, a su modo, a una forma de damnatio memoriae que condena al olvido y al ostracismo a grandes autores de la Tradición, portadores de un Patriotismo sano y capaz de entender las peculiaridades y el Dasein profundo de España, que si bien no nació invertebrada, como pretendían los Orteguianos, su esencia y naturaleza es mucho más compleja que cualquiera de las grandes naciones de Europa.

---

Artículo original: Hipérbola Janus, Juan Vázquez de Mella y el tradicionalismo español, 16/Ago/2024

@ 0461fcbe:35a474dd

Nostr events are transferred between clients and relays over WebSocket, but that requires servers to be online. A universal file format is needed to store events for backup and transfer between people and systems.

JSONL is a simple format that stores one JSON object per line. This is ideal for Nostr events, and is already compatible with a bunch of existing tools including nak, strfry, and Ditto. It is memory-effecient because only one line needs to be processed at a time, and it is universally compatible because it's just Nostr events.

Storing Events

JSONL files should end in a .jsonl file extension. Each line should have a complete, valid Nostr event.

```sh

Example storing jsonl events with nak

nak req wss://ditto.pub/relay > events.jsonl ```

Importing Events

You can cat a JSONL file to stdin of various programs.

```sh

Example importing jsonl events with nak

cat events.jsonl | nak event wss://ditto.pub/relay ```

Filtering Events

Use the jq command to filter down an JSONL file.

```sh

Get only kind 0 events

jq -c 'select(.kind == 0)' events.jsonl ```

You can filter before importing:

```sh

Get only kind 3 events then import them with nak

jq -c 'select(.kind == 3)' events.jsonl | nak event wss://ditto.pub/relay ```

Or filter while exporting:

```sh

Get all events and then post-filter them

nak req wss://ditto.pub/relay | jq -c 'select(.kind == 3)' > events.jsonl ```

Of course you can chain many shell commands together to do all sorts of useful things!

Sharing Events

JSONL events can be shared on cloud services, compressed, emailed, transferred with rsync, or any other method. Another powerful method is to host the file on an HTTP server, allowing users to curl it and pipe it directly into other programs.

Suggestions to Relay and Client Developers

Relay and client developers should allow users to export/import events from their software in JSONL format.

For relays, since the public interface is often restricted, relay software should add direct import/export of jsonl. That way relay operators would be able to shell in and run a command to get events in jsonl, and to import from jsonl. Ideally these commands would use stdin and stdout so they can be piped to other commands for filtering or direct transfer.

Clients should also offer an import/export screen inside the app in jsonl format. I would suggest a separate export of all "your" data, and another one for all cached data.

Usage With Existing Tools

Here are examples of how to use JSONL events with some existing tools.

nak

Change the relay to your desired relay. Try nak help req to see all the available filtering options.

```sh

Export

nak req wss://ditto.pub/relay > events.jsonl

Import

cat events.jsonl | nak event wss://ditto.pub/relay ```

strfry

See strfry's README for more information. --since and --until flags are supported during export.

```sh

Export

./strfry export > events.jsonl

Import

cat events.jsonl | ./strfry import ```

Ditto

```sh

Export

deno task db:export > events.jsonl

Import

cat events.jsonl | deno task db:import ```

@ b22fef18:1bba6e1f

Chef's notes

Old family recipe that my grandma used to make during the summer. Creamy and refreshing.

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 min
• 🍳 Cook time: 4 hours chilled
• 🍽️ Servings: 8-10

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup shredded cucumber
• 3/4 cup cucumber juice
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 packet lime jello
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup 4% cottage cheese
• 1 cup Miracle Whip

Directions

1. Shred cucumber and add salt to draw out moisture.
2. Mix juice from shredded cucumber and water.
3. Heat juice/water and dissolve lime jello.
4. Allow to cool slightly. (Add a couple ice cubes to chill it down and remove before melted)
5. Mix together the jello mixture and all other ingredients.

@ 8f69ac99:4f92f5fd

O comunismo, tal como idealizado por Karl Marx e Friedrich Engels, prometia uma sociedade utópica, livre de divisões de classe, onde os recursos seriam partilhados de forma equitativa e o Estado acabaria por desaparecer. No entanto, apesar de várias tentativas de implementar esta ideologia em diferentes países, o sonho do "verdadeiro" comunismo nunca se concretizou. Uma das principais razões para esse fracasso reside no factor humano—um aspecto que Marx e Engels não consideraram completamente no seu quadro teórico. Além disso, a implementação de controlos de preços, frequentemente utilizada em economias comunistas e planificadas centralmente, tem repetidamente levado a consequências económicas não intencionais e frequentemente desastrosas. Este artigo explora os desafios inerentes à concretização do verdadeiro comunismo e o papel que os controlos de preços desempenham em minar os próprios objectivos que deveriam apoiar.

A Visão do Verdadeiro Comunismo

O Quadro Ideológico de Marx e Engels

Karl Marx e Friedrich Engels, nas suas obras revolucionárias, como "O Manifesto Comunista" e "O Capital", lançaram as bases para o que se tornaria uma das ideologias mais influentes dos séculos XIX e XX: o comunismo. No seu cerne, o comunismo é uma crítica ao capitalismo, que Marx e Engels viam como um sistema intrinsecamente explorador, onde a burguesia (a classe capitalista) se enriquece ao extrair mais-valia do proletariado (a classe trabalhadora). A sua visão para o futuro era a de uma revolução que derrubasse as estruturas capitalistas, levando à criação de uma sociedade sem classes e sem Estado.

Nesta sociedade ideal, os meios de produção—fábricas, terras e recursos—seriam colectivamente detidos pelo povo. O motivo do lucro, que impulsiona o capitalismo, seria substituído pela produção para uso, garantindo que bens e serviços fossem distribuídos com base na necessidade, em vez da capacidade de pagar. O Estado, que Marx e Engels viam como um instrumento de opressão de classe, acabaria por "definhar" à medida que a necessidade de estruturas de poder coercitivo desaparecesse. Isto levaria a uma sociedade onde a igualdade, a cooperação e a propriedade comunal seriam a norma, e a exploração de uma classe por outra deixaria de existir.

Marx e Engels acreditavam que esta transição do capitalismo para o comunismo seria alcançada através de uma série de etapas. Inicialmente, a classe trabalhadora tomaria o poder político e estabeleceria uma "ditadura do proletariado", onde o Estado serviria para desmantelar o sistema capitalista e redistribuir riqueza e recursos. Com o tempo, à medida que os vestígios do capitalismo fossem eliminados e as distinções de classe dissolvidas, o próprio Estado se tornaria desnecessário e gradualmente desapareceria, deixando para trás uma sociedade verdadeiramente comunista.

Embora esta visão fosse revolucionária e tenha inspirado muitos movimentos em todo o mundo, ela baseava-se em várias suposições—particularmente em relação à natureza humana e às dinâmicas sociais—que se revelariam problemáticas na prática.

O Factor Humano: O Que Marx e Engels Não Previram

Um dos erros críticos na teoria de Marx e Engels é a subestimação da complexidade do comportamento e das motivações humanas. A sua visão de uma sociedade harmoniosa e sem classes assume que, uma vez alterada a estrutura económica, a natureza humana se adaptaria em conformidade. No entanto, a realidade mostrou-se muito mais complicada.

Os seres humanos não são apenas actores económicos movidos por condições materiais. Eles também são motivados por ambições pessoais, desejos de poder e status, e pela necessidade de reconhecimento individual. Embora Marx e Engels reconhecessem o papel da luta de classes na formação da história, eles não consideraram plenamente o quão profundamente enraizadas estão as hierarquias sociais e as dinâmicas de poder, mesmo em sociedades que afirmam ter abolido as distinções de classe.

Em todas as tentativas de implementar o comunismo, novas elites surgiram, muitas vezes compostas por oficiais do partido e burocratas que detinham poder e privilégios significativos. Estas elites, longe de personificarem os ideais igualitários do comunismo, frequentemente perpetuaram as mesmas desigualdades que deveriam eliminar. A concentração de poder no Estado, que deveria ser uma medida temporária durante a transição do capitalismo, tornou-se entrincheirada e autoritária. Em vez de definhar, o Estado frequentemente cresceu em poder e opressão, à medida que aqueles no controle procuravam manter as suas posições.

Além disso, a abolição da propriedade privada, embora teoricamente destinada a eliminar a exploração, removeu muitos dos incentivos que impulsionam a inovação e a produtividade. Em economias comunistas, onde o emprego e as necessidades básicas eram garantidos independentemente do esforço individual, o absentismo, a ineficiência e a falta de motivação tornaram-se generalizados. O desejo humano de realização pessoal e recompensa, algo que Marx e Engels não abordaram completamente, desempenhou um papel significativo na estagnação económica que muitos sistemas comunistas experimentaram.

Outro aspecto crítico que Marx e Engels não previram é a importância da flexibilidade e adaptabilidade nos sistemas económicos. O planeamento económico centralizado, uma marca dos estados comunistas, frequentemente lutou para responder às mudanças nas condições económicas e nas exigências dos consumidores. Sem os mecanismos de feedback proporcionados pelos preços de mercado, os planificadores tiveram dificuldade em alocar recursos de forma eficiente. Esta rigidez levou a persistente escassez de bens, produtos de baixa qualidade e à incapacidade de satisfazer as necessidades da população—um cenário muito distante da abundância e igualdade prometidas pela ideologia comunista.

Em resumo, embora Marx e Engels tenham delineado uma visão convincente de uma sociedade livre da exploração e das desigualdades do capitalismo, subestimaram os desafios colocados pela natureza humana e pelas complexidades da organização social e económica. O factor humano—abrangendo as motivações individuais, a persistência das hierarquias sociais e a necessidade de sistemas económicos flexíveis e adaptáveis—tem consistentemente minado as tentativas de alcançar o "verdadeiro" comunismo. Esta falha tem sido uma razão fundamental pela qual o sonho de uma sociedade sem Estado e sem classes tem permanecido ilusório em todas as implementações reais da ideologia comunista.

Tentativas Históricas de Comunismo

Ao longo do século XX, várias nações tentaram implementar o comunismo com base nos princípios marxistas. Esses esforços resultaram numa ampla gama de resultados económicos e sociais, mas nenhum conseguiu alcançar a sociedade sem classes e sem Estado idealizada por Marx e Engels.

A União Soviética e a Europa de Leste

A União Soviética foi a primeira e a maior tentativa de implementar o comunismo. Estabelecida na sequência da Revolução Bolchevique de 1917, o Estado soviético rapidamente adoptou o planeamento económico centralizado e nacionalizou indústrias. Sob o comando de Joseph Stalin, a URSS embarcou numa rápida industrialização, com realizações significativas na indústria pesada e no poder militar. O modelo soviético foi posteriormente exportado para a Europa de Leste após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, onde os estados satélites adoptaram sistemas de planeamento centralizado semelhantes.

Embora a União Soviética tenha inicialmente registado alguns sucessos, particularmente na transformação de uma sociedade predominantemente agrária numa potência industrial, essas conquistas tiveram um custo significativo. A natureza rígida e centralizada do planeamento económico soviético levou a ineficiências generalizadas. A ausência de sinais de mercado dificultou a alocação eficaz de recursos, resultando em escassez crónica de bens de consumo e produtos de baixa qualidade. O controlo de preços foi uma ferramenta chave no sistema soviético, destinado a manter os bens básicos acessíveis, mas muitas vezes resultou em mercados distorcidos e actividade no mercado negro.

Politicamente, o regime soviético tornou-se cada vez mais repressivo. A concentração de poder no Partido Comunista criou uma nova classe de elite composta por burocratas e funcionários, minando os ideais igualitários do comunismo. A dissidência foi severamente reprimida, e a falta de competição política fez com que o sistema fosse resistente a reformas, mesmo perante problemas económicos crescentes. Na década de 1980, a economia soviética estava em estagnação, e as tentativas de reforma, como a Perestroika de Mikhail Gorbachev, chegaram tarde demais para salvar o regime. Em 1991, a União Soviética colapsou, e os seus estados satélites na Europa de Leste rapidamente abandonaram o comunismo em favor de reformas orientadas para o mercado.

China e Vietname: Reformas de Mercado e Capitalismo de Estado

A China apresenta um caso único na história do comunismo. Após o Partido Comunista chegar ao poder em 1949, a China inicialmente seguiu o modelo soviético de planeamento centralizado e controlo estatal da economia. No entanto, esta abordagem levou a resultados desastrosos, sendo o mais notável o Grande Salto em Frente, que resultou numa fome generalizada e na morte de milhões de pessoas. Reconhecendo a necessidade de mudança, a liderança chinesa, sob Deng Xiaoping, iniciou uma série de reformas de mercado no final da década de 1970 que transformaram profundamente a economia.

Essas reformas, frequentemente chamadas de "socialismo com características chinesas", introduziram mecanismos de mercado e permitiram a iniciativa privada, mantendo, no entanto, o controlo político do Partido Comunista. A economia da China experimentou um crescimento sem precedentes, com uma média de quase 10% de crescimento anual do PIB durante várias décadas. No entanto, esse sucesso foi alcançado à custa do abandono de muitos dos princípios fundamentais do marxismo. O sistema da China é melhor descrito como "capitalismo de estado", onde o estado mantém o controlo sobre indústrias-chave, mas as forças de mercado desempenham um papel significativo na economia mais ampla.

O Vietname seguiu um caminho semelhante. Após a Guerra do Vietname e a reunificação do país sob o domínio comunista, o Vietname inicialmente seguiu uma economia planeada centralmente. No entanto, como a China, também enfrentou dificuldades económicas, o que levou à introdução de reformas orientadas para o mercado na década de 1980, conhecidas como Đổi Mới. Essas reformas impulsionaram um rápido crescimento económico e tiraram milhões da pobreza, mas também marcaram um afastamento da ideologia comunista tradicional.

Tanto a China como o Vietname demonstram que o sucesso económico sob um governo comunista é possível quando os mecanismos de mercado são introduzidos. No entanto, esse sucesso representa uma desvio significativo da visão comunista original, destacando os desafios de alcançar o verdadeiro comunismo na prática.

Cuba: Um Legado Misto

A experiência comunista de Cuba oferece uma perspectiva diferente, focando-se mais em realizações sociais do que no sucesso económico. Desde a Revolução Cubana de 1959, o país tem mantido um governo comunista sob a liderança de Fidel Castro e seus sucessores. A economia de Cuba tem sido longamente caracterizada pelo planeamento centralizado e controlo estatal, com o controlo de preços desempenhando um papel significativo em manter os bens básicos acessíveis.

Apesar das suas dificuldades económicas, Cuba fez progressos notáveis em áreas como a saúde e a educação. O sistema de saúde do país, em particular, é frequentemente elogiado pela sua acessibilidade e resultados, com uma expectativa de vida e taxas de mortalidade infantil comparáveis às de nações muito mais ricas. A educação é outra área onde Cuba se destacou, alcançando altas taxas de alfabetização e amplo acesso à escolarização.

No entanto, esses sucessos sociais tiveram um custo de estagnação económica. Cuba classifica-se baixo em liberdade económica em comparação com outros países das Américas, e a sua economia tem sido marcada por escassez persistente de bens básicos, em parte devido aos controlos de preços que distorcem a dinâmica do mercado. O país também dependeu fortemente de apoio externo, particularmente de petróleo subsidiado de aliados como a União Soviética e, mais tarde, a Venezuela. À medida que esses apoios externos diminuíram, as dificuldades económicas de Cuba aprofundaram-se.

Politicamente, Cuba manteve um estado unipartidário, com pouca tolerância para a dissidência. Como outros estados comunistas, viu a emergência de uma nova classe de elite, com funcionários do partido e líderes militares a usufruírem de privilégios não disponíveis aos cidadãos comuns. Embora as conquistas sociais de Cuba sejam significativas, não foram suficientes para superar os desafios económicos inerentes ao seu sistema.

Ao examinar as tentativas históricas de comunismo, torna-se claro que, embora alguns estados comunistas tenham alcançado sucessos notáveis — seja na industrialização, nos serviços sociais ou no crescimento económico —, nenhum conseguiu criar a sociedade sem classes e sem Estado idealizada por Marx e Engels. O factor humano, as ineficiências económicas e as consequências não intencionais de políticas como os controlos de preços minaram consistentemente esses esforços. Seja através do colapso da União Soviética, das reformas de mercado na China e no Vietname, ou das lutas contínuas em Cuba, a história do comunismo é marcada pela tensão entre a ideologia e a realidade.

O Impacto Económico do Controle de Preços

Os controles de preços, frequentemente implementados em economias comunistas e planeadas centralmente, são ferramentas usadas pelos governos para regular os preços de bens e serviços essenciais. Embora estes controles sejam normalmente introduzidos com a intenção de proteger os consumidores, garantir a acessibilidade e manter a equidade social, eles frequentemente levam a distorções económicas significativas. Em sistemas comunistas, onde o controlo estatal sobre a economia é primordial, os controles de preços têm sido uma característica central da política económica. No entanto, as consequências desses controles têm sido muitas vezes prejudiciais, resultando em ineficiências de mercado, redução da inovação e encargos sociais e fiscais não intencionais.

Distorções na Oferta e na Procura

Uma das consequências económicas mais significativas dos controles de preços é a interrupção do equilíbrio natural entre a oferta e a procura. Em sistemas comunistas, os tectos de preços (preços máximos) são frequentemente estabelecidos em bens essenciais para garantir a acessibilidade. No entanto, quando os preços são mantidos artificialmente baixos, a procura normalmente excede a oferta, levando a escassez crónica. Este era um fenómeno comum na União Soviética, onde bens de consumo básicos como alimentos, vestuário e itens domésticos eram frequentemente escassos. A falta de sinais de mercado, como o aumento dos preços para indicar uma maior procura, impedia a alocação eficiente de recursos, exacerbando as carências.

Por outro lado, os "pisos" de preços (preços mínimos) podem levar a excedentes. Nos sectores agrícolas, por exemplo, a fixação de preços acima do nível de equilíbrio de mercado pode resultar em superprodução. Isto leva ao desperdício de recursos e ineficiências, pois o governo deve ou comprar o excesso de oferta ou deixá-lo desperdiçar. Estas distorções ilustram o desafio fundamental do planeamento central: sem os mecanismos autorreguladores de um mercado livre, as economias têm dificuldades em equilibrar eficazmente a produção com o consumo.

Redução do Investimento e da Inovação

Os controles de preços também podem ter um efeito desmotivador sobre o investimento e a inovação. Quando os governos impõem tectos de preços, eles frequentemente reduzem as margens de lucro para os produtores. Em economias comunistas, onde o Estado controla a maior parte da produção, isso pode desencorajar o investimento interno e a actividade empresarial. A ausência de incentivos baseados no mercado para a inovação leva à estagnação, pois há pouca motivação para melhorar a eficiência ou desenvolver novos produtos.

Esta falta de inovação era evidente na União Soviética e em outras economias planeadas centralmente, onde os avanços tecnológicos ficaram atrás dos países capitalistas. As indústrias que eram fortemente controladas por preços, como bens de consumo e produtos farmacêuticos, sofreram com baixa produtividade e tecnologia desactualizada. Em sectores como o farmacêutico, os controles de preços reduziram os incentivos para a investigação e desenvolvimento, potencialmente limitando futuras inovações médicas. O efeito a longo prazo desta redução do investimento é o menor crescimento económico e a diminuição da competitividade no cenário global.

Deterioração da Qualidade

Outra consequência dos controles de preços é a deterioração da qualidade. Quando os preços são estabelecidos demasiado baixos, os produtores frequentemente procuram maneiras de cortar custos para manter a rentabilidade. Isto resulta frequentemente em bens e serviços de menor qualidade. Em economias comunistas, onde a escolha do consumidor é limitada e a concorrência é suprimida, há pouca pressão sobre os produtores para manter altos padrões. O resultado é que os consumidores ficam com produtos inferiores, deteriorando ainda mais o padrão de vida.

Por exemplo, na União Soviética, o foco na quantidade em detrimento da qualidade na fabricação levou a produtos mal feitos que muitas vezes não atendiam às necessidades dos consumidores. Em sectores como a habitação, os controles de rendas mantinham os preços baixos, mas a qualidade do parque habitacional deteriorava-se, uma vez que havia pouco incentivo para a manutenção ou melhoria. Esta troca entre preços baixos e baixa qualidade destaca uma das falhas principais dos controles de preços na prática.

Mercados Negros e Economias Informais

As ineficiências criadas pelos controles de preços frequentemente levam ao surgimento de mercados negros, onde os bens são vendidos a preços superiores aos níveis estabelecidos pelo governo. Em economias comunistas, onde as carências são comuns, os mercados negros tornam-se um mecanismo crucial para obter bens escassos. Estes mercados ilegais minam o controlo do governo sobre a economia e criam uma economia paralela que opera fora do sistema oficial.

Na União Soviética e na Europa Oriental, os mercados negros prosperavam à medida que os consumidores procuravam aceder a bens que estavam indisponíveis ou eram de baixa qualidade nas lojas estatais. A existência destes mercados também destaca o fracasso dos controles de preços em atingir os seus objectivos pretendidos, pois as mesmas pessoas que deveriam beneficiar de preços baixos acabavam por pagar preços muito mais altos no sector informal.

Racionamento e Filas

Quando os controles de preços levam à escassez, os governos muitas vezes recorrem a sistemas de racionamento para distribuir os suprimentos limitados. O racionamento, embora assegure que todos recebam uma parte dos bens escassos, também introduz ineficiências e iniquidades. Filas longas para necessidades básicas tornaram-se uma visão comum em muitos países comunistas, com pessoas a gastar horas à espera de itens que frequentemente estavam em falta.

Este sistema não só desperdiçava tempo valioso, como também evidenciava as falhas do planeamento central. O racionamento e as filas são uma consequência directa dos controles de preços que impedem os mercados de se ajustarem naturalmente. Em vez de permitir que os preços subam e incentivem o aumento da produção, os governos mantêm preços artificialmente baixos, resultando em escassez crónica e frustração generalizada entre a população.

Encargo Fiscal e Consequências Sociais

Manter controles de preços frequentemente requer uma intervenção governamental significativa, incluindo subsídios aos produtores para compensar os custos dos preços baixos. Isto cria um encargo fiscal que pode sobrecarregar os orçamentos governamentais, especialmente em economias que já enfrentam ineficiências. Em alguns casos, o custo de manter os controles de preços pode superar os benefícios, levando a políticas económicas insustentáveis.

Além disso, os controles de preços podem levar a consequências sociais não intencionais. Embora sejam destinados a ajudar as populações mais vulneráveis, eles podem, por vezes, beneficiar aqueles que não precisam de assistência. Por exemplo, os controles de rendas destinados a proporcionar habitação acessível podem acabar por beneficiar indivíduos mais ricos que têm acesso a apartamentos com rendas controladas, enquanto os indivíduos de baixos rendimentos continuam a enfrentar dificuldades com a acessibilidade habitacional.

Além disso, os controles de preços podem empurrar a actividade económica para o sector informal, reduzindo as receitas fiscais e a supervisão regulatória. Esta informalidade enfraquece a capacidade do Estado de gerir a economia de forma eficaz e cria distorções adicionais.

Crescimento Económico a Longo Prazo e Impactos Específicos por Sector

A longo prazo, as distorções causadas pelos controles de preços podem levar a uma redução do crescimento económico. Ao interferir nos sinais de mercado, os controles de preços desencorajam o investimento, a inovação e a produtividade, todos essenciais para o desenvolvimento económico sustentado. Ao longo do tempo, isso pode resultar em estagnação, como visto em muitas economias comunistas onde o crescimento abrandou ou até mesmo retrocedeu.

Sectores específicos, como o farmacêutico e o agrícola, podem ser particularmente afectados pelos controles de preços. No sector farmacêutico, por exemplo, os tectos de preços podem reduzir o incentivo para as empresas investirem em investigação e desenvolvimento, potencialmente limitando futuras inovações médicas. Na agricultura, os pisos de preços podem levar à superprodução, desperdício e à necessidade de intervenções governamentais onerosas.

Os Benefícios a Curto Prazo e Potenciais Justificativas

Embora os controles de preços sejam geralmente vistos de forma negativa devido às suas consequências a longo prazo, podem haver alguns benefícios a curto prazo, especialmente em tempos de crise. Por exemplo, durante emergências, os controles de preços podem impedir a exploração de preços e garantir que bens essenciais permaneçam acessíveis às populações vulneráveis. Nestes casos, os controles de preços podem fornecer alívio temporário e proteger os consumidores de abusos.

No entanto, esses benefícios a curto prazo são muitas vezes superados pelos custos a longo prazo. Mesmo em situações de crise, os efeitos distorcionários dos controles de preços podem criar mais problemas do que resolvem, tornando-os uma ferramenta que deve ser usada com cautela.

Os controles de preços, embora destinados a proteger os consumidores e promover a equidade social, frequentemente levam a consequências económicas, de mercado e sociais não intencionais. Em sistemas comunistas, onde o controlo estatal sobre a economia é central, estes controles exacerbaram ineficiências, sufocaram a inovação e criaram uma série de resultados negativos, desde mercados negros até encargos fiscais. Embora possa haver situações onde os controles de preços sejam justificados a curto prazo, o seu impacto a longo prazo é geralmente prejudicial, minando os próprios objectivos que pretendem alcançar. Compreender o legado complexo dos controles de preços nas economias comunistas fornece lições valiosas para os formuladores de políticas que procuram equilibrar a estabilidade económica com a equidade social.

Consequências do Planeamento Centralizado e do Controlo de Preços

Autoritarismo e a Concentração de Poder

Uma das consequências políticas mais significativas do planeamento económico centralizado e do controlo de preços é a concentração de poder dentro do aparelho de Estado. Em teoria, o comunismo idealiza uma sociedade sem Estado, mas na prática, a implementação desses sistemas muitas vezes exige uma autoridade central forte para aplicar as directivas económicas e manter o controlo. Esta concentração de poder frequentemente leva ao autoritarismo, como se vê em numerosos regimes comunistas.

A centralização do poder permite que um pequeno grupo de líderes ou um único partido domine a vida política, muitas vezes suprimindo a oposição e restringindo as liberdades individuais. Sem pesos e contrapesos, estes regimes podem impor controlos rigorosos na economia e na sociedade, levando a uma repressão generalizada. A natureza autoritária desses governos é frequentemente justificada como um meio necessário para proteger a revolução e manter a ordem social, mas resulta na erosão dos princípios democráticos e na marginalização das vozes dissidentes.

Além disso, a concentração de poder no Estado mina os próprios ideais do comunismo. Em vez de uma sociedade sem classes, emerge uma nova classe dominante de funcionários do partido e burocratas, que gozam de privilégios e autoridade muito além do cidadão comum. Esta dinâmica de poder não só contradiz os objectivos igualitários do comunismo, como também perpetua a desigualdade dentro do sistema.

Desigualdade Social e o Surgimento de Novas Elites

Apesar do objectivo teórico de eliminar as classes sociais, os sistemas comunistas muitas vezes testemunham o surgimento de novas elites. Estas elites, compostas por líderes do partido, burocratas do Estado e oficiais militares, gozam de privilégios significativos que os distinguem da população em geral. Este fenómeno reflecte o desafio inerente de alcançar uma verdadeira igualdade num sistema onde o poder está concentrado nas mãos de poucos.

Em muitos casos, essas novas elites tornam-se enraizadas, criando um fosso entre os governantes e os governados que espelha as divisões de classe que o comunismo pretendia eliminar. Os privilégios e o poder desfrutados por essas elites frequentemente levam à corrupção e ao clientelismo, corroendo ainda mais a confiança pública no sistema. O descontentamento resultante entre a população pode levar a agitação, à medida que as pessoas percebem que a igualdade prometida é inatingível dentro da estrutura política existente.

A Supressão de Dissidência e Suas Consequências Económicas

A supressão da dissidência é uma característica marcante de muitos regimes comunistas, impulsionada pela necessidade de manter o controlo tanto sobre a economia quanto sobre a sociedade. Na prática, essa supressão assume várias formas, incluindo censura, vigilância e perseguição de oponentes políticos. A falta de competição política e de debate aberto sufoca a inovação e o feedback crítico, que são essenciais para uma economia dinâmica e adaptável.

Sem a capacidade de expressar preocupações ou propor políticas alternativas, os regimes comunistas muitas vezes lutam para responder de forma eficaz aos desafios económicos. A natureza rígida do planeamento centralizado, combinada com a supressão da dissidência, cria um ciclo vicioso em que os problemas são ignorados ou exacerbados, levando a um maior declínio económico. A ausência de dissidência também significa que as reformas necessárias são adiadas ou bloqueadas, à medida que as elites no poder priorizam os seus próprios interesses em detrimento do bem comum.

As consequências a longo prazo dessa supressão são profundas. Economias que carecem de flexibilidade para se adaptar às mudanças ou enfrentar ineficiências tornam-se estagnadas, levando a escassez, declínio na produtividade e uma queda no padrão de vida da população. A supressão da dissidência não só prejudica o desempenho económico, mas também enfraquece o tecido social, à medida que a confiança no governo se deteriora e as pessoas se sentem cada vez mais alienadas do sistema político.

Autoritarismo nas Sociedades Ocidentais: Uma Preocupação Crescente

Nos últimos anos, o aumento do autoritarismo nas sociedades ocidentais tornou-se uma preocupação crescente, manifestando-se através de várias tendências chave que ecoam algumas das dinâmicas observadas em regimes comunistas. Embora as democracias ocidentais estejam longe de um autoritarismo pleno, a concentração de poder, o crescimento das desigualdades sociais, o surgimento de novas elites e a supressão da dissidência sugerem um desvio preocupante dos princípios democráticos liberais.

Tem havido uma crescente centralização do poder em muitos países ocidentais, muitas vezes manifestada através do excesso de autoridade executiva e da expansão do poder presidencial ou do primeiro-ministro. O enfraquecimento dos mecanismos de pesos e contrapesos entre os ramos do governo e as tentativas de minar a independência judicial e o estado de direito são indicadores claros desta tendência. Esta concentração de poder corrói as normas e instituições democráticas ao longo do tempo, tornando mais difícil responsabilizar os líderes.

A crescente desigualdade económica tem alimentado o descontentamento e movimentos populistas em muitos países ocidentais. O aumento da disparidade de riqueza entre as elites e a população em geral, os salários estagnados para as classes média e trabalhadora e a redução da mobilidade social contribuíram para um crescente sentimento de desilusão com os sistemas democráticos tradicionais. Esta disparidade económica criou um terreno fértil para líderes com tendências autoritárias, que prometem resolver esses problemas, mas muitas vezes concentram ainda mais o poder.

O surgimento de novas estruturas de poder e grupos de elites, como os oligarcas da tecnologia e as elites empresariais ligadas à política, tem desafiado os mecanismos tradicionais de responsabilização democrática. Estas novas elites frequentemente exercem uma influência significativa sobre a informação, o discurso e a política, operando fora do alcance das instituições democráticas. Líderes populistas, que cultivam cultos de personalidade, também contribuem para esta mudança, enfraquecendo ainda mais os processos democráticos.

As preocupações sobre restrições à liberdade de expressão e ao debate aberto estão a crescer nas sociedades ocidentais. Embora não sejam equivalentes à censura autoritária vista em regimes comunistas, tendências como a "cultura do cancelamento", a vigilância governamental e a repressão de protestos têm um efeito dissuasor sobre o discurso aberto. A autocensura devido ao medo de retaliações online ou de consequências profissionais está a tornar-se mais comum, limitando a diversidade de pontos de vista no debate público.

A fé pública nos pilares centrais da democracia — governos, partidos políticos e funcionários eleitos — tem-se deteriorado em muitos países ocidentais. O cepticismo em relação aos meios de comunicação tradicionais e ao conhecimento especializado também aumentou, enquanto a integridade dos sistemas eleitorais é cada vez mais questionada. Esta perda de confiança cria oportunidades para líderes com tendências autoritárias ganharem apoio, enfraquecendo ainda mais as instituições democráticas.

O aumento do autoritarismo nas sociedades ocidentais, embora ainda não comparável ao controlo centralizado visto em regimes comunistas, sinaliza uma mudança preocupante em relação aos princípios da democracia liberal. A concentração de poder, o crescimento das desigualdades sociais, o surgimento de novas elites e a supressão da dissidência são todos factores que espelham os problemas enfrentados pelos estados comunistas históricos, embora em formas diferentes. Estas tendências, se não forem controladas, podem levar a uma erosão gradual das normas e instituições democráticas, minando os próprios alicerces de sociedades livres e abertas.

Os paralelos entre os desafios enfrentados pelos regimes comunistas e as tendências actuais nas democracias ocidentais destacam a importância de abordar essas questões subjacentes. Assim como o planeamento económico centralizado e o controlo de preços levaram a ineficiências e agitação social nos estados comunistas, a concentração de poder e a desigualdade no Ocidente ameaçam enfraquecer os sistemas democráticos por dentro. A supressão da dissidência e a diminuição da confiança nas instituições democráticas agravam ainda mais esses problemas, criando um ambiente onde o autoritarismo pode ganhar terreno.

É crucial que as sociedades ocidentais reforcem as normas e instituições democráticas. Isso envolve garantir que os pesos e contrapesos entre os ramos do governo sejam mantidos, protegendo a independência judicial e salvaguardando o estado de direito. Abordar a desigualdade económica também é essencial, pois é um dos principais impulsionadores dos sentimentos populistas e autoritários. Políticas que promovam a mobilidade social, salários justos e oportunidades económicas podem ajudar a reconstruir a confiança nos sistemas democráticos.

Além disso, promover um discurso público aberto e inclusivo é vital para prevenir a supressão da dissidência. Isso significa defender a liberdade de expressão, encorajar a diversidade de pontos de vista e resistir à tentação de silenciar opiniões impopulares através de pressão social ou governamental. Ao criar uma cultura que valoriza o debate e respeita perspectivas diferentes, as sociedades ocidentais podem resistir ao desvio para o autoritarismo.

Finalmente, reconstruir a confiança nas instituições democráticas exige transparência, responsabilização e capacidade de resposta por parte dos governos e líderes políticos. Os funcionários eleitos devem ser vistos a agir no interesse público, e as instituições devem ser percepcionadas como justas e eficazes. Restaurar a confiança nos sistemas eleitorais e nos meios de comunicação também é essencial para contrariar a ascensão do populismo e do autoritarismo.

Embora os desafios enfrentados pelas democracias ocidentais hoje sejam distintos dos que atormentaram os regimes comunistas, as dinâmicas subjacentes de poder, desigualdade e dissidência partilham algumas semelhanças preocupantes. Ao reconhecer e aprender com os fracassos do comunismo e ao abordar estas questões de frente, as sociedades ocidentais podem fortalecer as suas fundações democráticas e evitar o deslizamento para o autoritarismo.

Conclusão

Em resumo, os fracassos do verdadeiro comunismo e os efeitos prejudiciais dos controles de preços não são meramente notas de rodapé históricas, mas lições duradouras que continuam a ressoar hoje em dia. O colapso de inúmeros regimes comunistas e as persistentes dificuldades económicas em países que ainda tentam aderir aos princípios comunistas destacam as falhas fundamentais da ideologia. O factor humano—motivações individuais, o desejo de liberdade pessoal e as complexidades da governação—continuamente perturbam a visão utópica de uma sociedade sem classes e sem estado. O planeamento centralizado e os controles de preços, longe de criar igualdade e estabilidade, têm consistentemente levado a ineficiências económicas, escassez e regimes autoritários.

No entanto, estas lições não são apenas relevantes para o passado. As sociedades ocidentais de hoje enfrentam os seus próprios riscos, à medida que a esquerda se inclina cada vez mais para políticas autoritárias sob o disfarce de equidade e justiça social. A pressão por mais controlo estatal, juntamente com uma crescente intolerância à dissidência, espelha os estágios iniciais dos mesmos sistemas que levaram à tirania e ditadura no passado. O marxismo cultural, um movimento que busca remodelar a sociedade promovendo a ideologia marxista através das instituições culturais, está a ganhar força, particularmente no meio académico e nos meios de comunicação. Esta mudança ideológica está a corroer as fundações da liberdade individual e da liberdade económica que têm definido o Ocidente.

De forma alarmante, muitos jovens no Ocidente estão a louvar cada vez mais a ideologia marxista e o comunismo, muitas vezes sem compreender plenamente as realidades históricas desses sistemas. Esta tendência reflecte uma perigosa ignorância das atrocidades e do sofrimento que ocorreram sob os regimes comunistas. A romantização do comunismo ignora as duras verdades da história—a repressão, o colapso económico e a perda de liberdades pessoais que têm consistentemente acompanhado as tentativas de implementar esta ideologia.

É crucial manter-se vigilante contra estas tendências. As lições da história devem servir de alerta para aqueles que procuram replicar sistemas falhados. Embora a busca por uma sociedade mais justa e equitativa seja um objectivo nobre, não pode vir à custa das liberdades individuais e dos benefícios comprovados de uma economia baseada no mercado. As sociedades ocidentais devem proteger-se contra o fascínio do autoritarismo, seja na forma de comunismo declarado ou de formas mais subtis de controlo estatal. Garantir que a próxima geração compreenda a verdadeira natureza dessas ideologias é essencial para preservar as liberdades e a prosperidade que foram arduamente conquistadas ao longo de séculos.

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Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

@ 6c2d68ba:846525ec

Will man der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung glauben, so handelt es sich bei Propaganda um den Versuch der gezielten Beeinflussung des Denkens, Handelns wie auch Fühlens von Menschen. Charakteristisch für Propaganda ist, dass sie darauf verzichtet die verschiedenen Seiten einer Thematik darzulegen, sondern gezielt Meinung mit (Fehl)-Information vermischt. Wer Propaganda betreibt, strebt nicht danach zu diskutieren oder die Öffentlichkeit gar mit Argumenten zu überzeugen, sondern greift zu verschiedensten Manipulationstechniken, die die Emotionen und das Verhalten der Öffentlichkeit beeinflussen. Propaganda nimmt dem Menschen (eigenständiges) Denken ab und gibt ihm stattdessen das Gefühl, mit der übernommenen Meinung goldrichtig zu liegen. Hier zeigt sich auch der wesentliche Unterschied zum Journalismus: Journalismus strebt nach Aufklärung, indem alle verfügbaren Fakten und Hintergründe dargelegt werden und der Empfänger selbst darüber entscheiden darf, was er für richtig und was er für falsch hält [1].

Zwar verbinden wir den Begriff Propaganda heutzutage mit autoritären und totalitären Staaten, wo diese auch zweifelsfrei Anwendung findet, doch kommen Propagandatechniken auch im Westen zum Einsatz, wenn auch in einer auf die demokratische Herrschaftsform zugeschnittene Art und Weise. Wie die Geschichte gezeigt hat - hier sind die Werke von Edward Bernays ganz besonders relevant [2] - wurde Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, sprich Public Relations (PR), basierend auf den Erkenntnissen der Propagandaforschung verfeinert, über welche die öffentliche Wahrnehmung von Personen, Konzernen und Regierungen beeinflusst wird. In Summe lässt sich daraus ableiten, dass auch Propaganda in unseren Breitengraden Tradition hat.

Nun halte ich es in Zeiten von (leider) wiederkehrenden heißen Konflikten in Europa besonders wichtig sich über existierende Manipulationstechniken wie auch gezielter Meinungsmache in (Massen)-medien bewusst zu sein wie auch erscheinenden Artikeln, Posts, Videos und ganz besonders Schlagzeilen mit einem gewissen Grad an Achtsamkeit zu begegnen, um nicht umgehend Opfer von Manipulation zu werden. Denn wie schon von der bereits erwähnten Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung erwähnt wurde, kann nur jener sich gegen den Einfluss von Propaganda wehren, der diese als solche erkennt. Dadurch motiviert nehme ich heute die Prinzipien der Kriegspropaganda ins Fadenkreuz.

„Auf die Dauer vermag auch die frechste und bestorganisierte Propaganda nichts gegen die Wahrheit.“ ―Albert Schweitzer

Die Prinzipien der Kriegspropaganda

Unter dem Eindruck des Ersten Weltkriegs schrieb Arthur Ponsonby, britischer Adeliger & Staatsbeamter, 1928 das Buch "Lüge in Kriegszeiten", in welchem er die Mechanismen der damaligen Kriegspropaganda untersuchte. Er steht übrigens im Verdacht Urvater des berühmten Zitats "das erste Opfer im Krieg ist die Wahrheit" zu sein [3]. In diesem Werk schildert Ponsonby 20 Aspekte, die wiederum später von der Historikerin Anne Morelli im Jahr 2001 zu den zehn Prinzipien der Kriegspropaganda zusammengefasst wurden. Wie sie selbst betonte geht es bei diesen Prinzipien nicht darum herauszufinden, wer lügt und wer die Wahrheit sagt, wer das glaubt, was er sagt, sondern Mittels dieser Prinzipien die verbreitete Propaganda zu veranschaulichen und ihr Funktionieren zu beschreiben (Seite 6, [4]). Nachdem ich mich selbst mit diesen Prinzipien beschäftigt hatte, wurde mir mit jeder einzelnen Gedankenrunde immer klarer, wie die von Anne Morelli beschriebenen Prinzipien als wie eine Art Leitfaden verwendet werden, um Pressemeldungen, Argumente und Schlagzeilen in Sozialen Medien so zu formulieren, dass unabhängig vom Geschehnis stets eine unterbewusste Botschaft mitschwingt, so dass der gewünschte Effekt der Manipulation maximiert wird.

Nun könnte man nach Durchsicht der größten Tagesblätter des Deutschsprachigen Raums etliche Beispiele für jeden einzelnen der in Kürze vorgestellten Prinzipien präsentieren, doch habe ich in Anbetracht des Themas bewusst Abstand davon genommen, um nicht gewisse Journalisten - oder kriegstreibende Propagandisten wie ich sie nenne - samt Klarnamen an den Pranger zu stellen. Wie Anne Morelli, sehe ich den größtmöglichen Mehrwert darin, die Mechanik offenzulegen, um die Leserschaft für dieses Thema zu sensibilisieren.

Wir wollen keinen Krieg!

Stets wird versichert, dass man den stattfindenden Krieg keines Falles wolle. In einer demokratischen Gesellschaft ist Krieg ein ungebetener Gast, weswegen Bevölkerungen fast ausnahmslos jedes Mal in die Kriegsbereitschaft hineingelockt werden müssen, siehe Brutkastenlüge im Zusammenhang mit dem Irakkrieg. Nun kann man sehr oft beobachten, wie Staatsführer stets in aller Inbrunst gegen den aktuellen oder einen eventuell bevorstehenden Krieg poltern. Wenn jedoch alle Personen an den entscheidenden Machthebeln so sehr gegen Kriege sind, wie können Kriege dann überhaupt ausbrechen?

Der Gegner ist allein für den Krieg verantwortlich!

Der zugrundeliegenden Logik nach zeigt jeweils die eine Kriegspartei auf die andere und schiebt dabei die Schuld für den stattfindenden Krieg der anderen Seite zu. Selbst hat man natürlich keine provozierenden Schritte gesetzt, wie etwa das Stationieren von Raketensystemen, das Verschieben von Machtblöcken oder Ähnliches. Statt zum Mittel der Diplomatie zu greifen muss der Konflikt jetzt weiter angeheizt und der Krieg fortgeführt werden, denn schließlich muss dieser Krieg jetzt geführt werden, damit (ewiger) Frieden herrschen kann - siehe "Krieg ist Frieden" nach George Orwell. Darüber hinaus kann der Konflikt auch deshalb nicht beendet werden, weil der Feind sonst "unsere Werte" zerstört, "uns" die Freiheit nimmt oder gar ein Genozid "an unserem Volk" stattfindet.

Der Führer des feindlichen Lagers wird dämonisiert

Dieses Prinzip folgt der Logik des Reduzierens eines ganzen Landes auf eine an der Spitze sitzenden Person, also dem Zuschneiden auf Putin, Obama, Scholz, etc. Diese Person repräsentiert quasi einen fleischgewordenen Dämon, der die Macht über das Feindesland errungen hat und nun in Abwesenheit von geistiger Gesundheit einen Konflikt vom Zaun bricht. Morelli argumentiert dazu: "Man kann eine Gruppe von Menschen nicht insgesamt hassen, nicht einmal als Feinde. Es ist daher wirkungsvoller, den Hass auf die feindliche Führungspersönlichkeit zu richten. Der Gegner bekommt so ein Gesicht und dieses Gesicht wird natürlich Gegenstand des Hasses werden."

Wir verteidigen ein edles Ziel und keine besonderen Interessen!

Der Fokus auf moralische und legitime Werte spielt diesem Prinzip nach deshalb eine besondere Rolle, weil es dazu dient die wirtschaftlichen und geopolitischen Ziele der eignen Seite zu verdecken, was auf das Stärken der Zustimmung der eigenen Bevölkerung schielt, da der Konflikt zu einem gewissen Grad nur durch Zustimmung eben dieser Bevölkerung geführt werden kann. So hatte Antonio Gramsci dargelegt wie sich die Ziele des Ersten Weltkriegs in drei Punkte zusammenfassen lassen: den Militarismus zu vernichten, die kleinen Staaten (wie etwa Belgien) zu verteidigen und die Welt für "die Demokratie" vorzubereiten. Letzteres Argument fand sich auch in den Konflikten des aktuellen Jahrhunderts in ähnlicher Form als "Spreading Democracy" oder "Befreiung des Iraks" wieder. Ergänzend könnte man zu diesem Prinzip sagen, dass ein Unterton von "der Feind ist ein blutrünstiges Monster aus einer barbarischen Gesellschaft" mitschwingt.

Der Feind begeht wissentlich Grausamkeiten, wenn wir Fehler machen, geschieht dies unbeabsichtigt

Erzählungen über Gräueltaten des Feindes stellen ein wesentliches Element von Kriegspropaganda dar. Zwar sind Grausamkeiten zweifelsohne integraler Bestandteil eines jeden Krieges, und das auf beiden Seiten, jedoch ist die gegensätzliche Darstellung der eigenen "humanitären" Armee, die selbstverständlich von der Bevölkerung geliebt wird, und der feindlichen Armee, die als einzige Kriegspartei Grausamkeiten begeht, altbekannte Propaganda. Üblicherweise begnügt man sich nicht mit den tatsächlich auftretenden Verbrechen, im Gegenteil, man kann in vergangenen Konflikten wiederholt beobachten wie Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit am Schreibtisch erfunden werden, um den Feind als die Wiederkehr Adolf Hitlers erscheinen zu lassen.

Der Feind benutzt unerlaubte Waffen

In gewisser Weise ergänzt dieses Prinzip das vorangegangene und das nämlich um den Aspekt den Krieg selbst auf ritterliche Art und Weise zu führen, als wäre Krieg ein vollends definiertes Brettspiel, während der Feind geächtete Waffen einsetzt - zu jenen man selbst natürlich niemals greifen würde. Die Geschichte zeigt, dass hier oft der Gegenseite vorgeworfen wird, was die eigene Armee-(führung) bereits lange vorbereitet oder gar eingesetzt hat. Ein älteres Beispiel wäre die Verwendung von Giftgas im Ersten Weltkrieg, während Streumunition wie auch mit Uran angereicherte Munition ein trauriges Kapitel der vergangenen Monate ist.

Wir erleiden geringe Verluste, die Verluste des Feindes sind erheblich

Zitat aus dem Buch von Morelli: "Von seltenen Ausnahmen abgesehen, schließen Menschen sich eher den siegreichen Anliegen an. Im Falle des Krieges hängt die Präferenz der öffentlichen Meinung sehr stark von den augenscheinlichen Ergebnissen des Konflikts ab. Wenn die Ergebnisse nicht gut sind, muss die Propaganda unsere Verluste verschleiern und die des Feindes übertreiben."

Anerkannte Kulturträger und Wissenschafter unterstützen unser Anliegen

Ein unterschätztes Mittel der Propaganda ist das Einbeziehen von Personen des öffentlichen Lebens, favorisiert jene zu denen möglichst große Teile der Bevölkerung ein Vertrauensverhältnis entwickelt haben oder Personen mit einer gewissen "moralischen Autorität", wie etwa geistliche Führer. Darüber hinaus ließen sich in der Vergangenheit - wie auch heute - Künstler und Medienschaffende dazu instrumentalisieren Filme, Dokumentationen und Karikaturen über den Feind zu erstellen wie auch zu verbreiten. Man rufe sich in Erinnerung, dass man nicht ohne Grund von der Heimatfront spricht. In einer halbwegs von Demokratie geprägten Gesellschaft entscheidet das Wahlvolk wie lange ein Konflikt noch geführt werden kann bzw. wie stabil die kriegsführende Regierung im Sattel sitzt.

Unser Anliegen hat etwas Heiliges

Dieses Prinzip mag bei erster Betrachtung an die Kreuzzüge erinnern, bei jenen "der Wille Gottes" in gewisser Weise im Mittelpunkt stand. Ein in meinen Augen wichtiges Element bei diesem Aspekt ist die versteckte Nachricht des Kampfes Gut gegen Böse. Wir, die Guten, kämpfen gegen das Böse, den Feind, und treiben diesen Konflikt nun gewaltsam voran, um die Welt von dem Bösen zu befreien, die Welt also einer Heilung zu unterziehen. Neben dem religiös angehauchten Argument scheint dieses Propagandaprinzip um das Schlagwort "Demokratie" bereichert geworden zu sein. Wie in meinen Augen zurecht aufgezeigt wird, sprach auch George Bush von der "Achse des Bösen" wie auch der Pflicht dem Irak Demokratie zu bringen, also ein Gut, dass gottesgleiche Züge zu haben scheint. Sprachliche Ausschmückungen wie "Gott ist mit uns" tun in Botschaften, die sich nach diesem Prinzip richten, ihr übriges.

Wer unsere Propaganda in Zweifel zieht, arbeitet für den Feind und ist damit ein Verräter

Das zehnte und somit letzte Prinzip kann mit den vorangegangenen Prinzipien kombiniert werden. In manchen Situationen dient dieses Prinzip jedoch auch als Leitmotiv im Umgang mit kritischen Stimmen aus der Heimatfront. Wer auch immer Meldungen, Schlagzeilen oder gar Argumente infrage stellt, ist automatisch ein Kollaborateur des Feindes. Anhand dieser polarisierten Betrachtungsweise des "entweder bist du für uns oder gegen uns" muss umgehend Farbe bekannt werden. Durch diese Eliminierung einer abgewogenen Betrachtung von komplexen Ereignissen wird es also unmöglich gemacht, eine abweichende Meinung zu entwickeln, ohne einen regelrechten Lynchprozess am Hals zu haben. Man könnte dies auch als das Ende des Meinungspluralismus interpretieren, wo jegliche Opposition zum Schweigen verurteilt wird und zur Not diffamiert wie auch diskriminiert wird.

(Weitere) Methoden der Kriegspropaganda

Wie in [6] präsentiert, können Propagandisten auf eine erstaunlich große Bandbreite von Manipulationsmethoden zurückgreifen. In meinen Augen lohnt sich ein kurzer Blick darauf. Ein wesentlicher Punkt, den es meiner Meinung nach zu beachten gilt, ist die Tatsache, dass mit dem gezielten Einsatz von (Kriegs)-Propaganda meist lange vor dem ersten Schusswechsel begonnen wird und auch nach Beendigung des Konfliktes Propaganda einen wichtigen Teil der militärischen Strategie darstellt.

Die Rolle von Angst

Das Zeichnen eines immanenten Bedrohungsszenarios, welches besonders über die emotionale Schiene wahrgenommen wird, stimmt Menschen am ehesten um die Notwendigkeit eines Militäreinsatzes zu befürworten. Dabei spielt es meiner Ansicht nach gar keine so große Rolle, ob diese Bedrohung real existiert oder nicht, ausschlaggebend ist die gefühlte Wahrnehmung der Bevölkerung. Bestehende oder induzierte Angst lassen sich durch geschicktes Beeinflussen schnell in Wut wandeln und am Ende des Prozesses in einen flammenden Hass auf den vermeintlichen Feind. Aus diesem Grund wird oft ein Zustand der permanent gefühlten Bedrohung geschaffen, sodass in den Köpfen eine gefühlte Gefahr für Laib und Leben so oft wie möglich präsent ist. Dieser Prozess wird durch ständiges Wiederholen der Botschaft verstärkt, bis es sich tief im Unterbewusstsein der Bevölkerung eingenistet hat.

Zensur

Zensur - das gezielte Unterdrücken oder Weglassen von Informationen zu einem Sachverhalt, ist schon lange fixer Bestandteil von Propaganda. Bestimmte Sichtweisen können in der Abwesenheit von Gegenargumenten oder gar Gegenbeweisen besonders gut verfestigt werden. Hierzu genügt es aus Sicht des Staatsapparats nicht nur Beiträge zu löschen oder Meinungen zu unterdrücken, nein, damit dies möglich ist, muss flächendeckende wie auch umfängliche Überwachung stattfinden, damit in den Augen des Unterdrückers problematische Informationen schnellstmöglich aus dem Verkehr gezogen werden können.

Von Zensur betroffen sind Druckerzeugnisse wie etwa Zeitungen und Bücher, aber auch Ton und Bildproduktionen. Auf digitaler Ebene können Webseiten, Blogs, Content Creatoren oder gar ganze Online Communities hiervon betroffen sein. Im Kontext eines Krieges ist es für die heimische Konfliktpartei von enormer Bedeutung Zensur anzuwenden, um dem Feind keinerlei geheime Informationen zukommen zu lassen - zum Beispiel über Waffen, Truppenbewegungen oder geplante Manöver der eigenen Einheiten. Ein weiteres Anliegen geht in die Richtung wie der Krieg in der Öffentlichkeit dargestellt wird. So kann ohne Anwendung von Zensur das Vertrauen in die Politik schwinden und somit schlussendlich die Zustimmung zum Fortführen der kriegerischen Handlungen schwinden. Dies kann beispielsweise passieren, sobald die Bevölkerung von Niederlagen, Fehlschlägen, dem von der eigenen Armee ausgelösten Leid oder gar Kriegsverbrechen der eigenen Reihen Wind bekommt. Daher ist es im Interesse des Zensors solche Informationen geheim zu halten. Während die direkte Zensur in der westlichen Welt weitestgehend abgeschafft wurde, findet indirekte Zensur nach wie vor Anwendung. Hierbei ist die Zugangskontrolle zu bestimmten Informationen gemeint. Es existieren quasi Torwächter, die darüber entscheiden welcher Journalist welche Informationen gefüttert bekommt. Darüber hinaus können Informationen - etwa über bestimmte Kriegsverbrechen - bewusst vorenthalten werden oder Journalisten dürfen bestimmte Orte erst gar nicht betreten. Somit bleibt vielen Journalisten wie auch Berichterstattern oft nichts anderes übrig, als die Meldungen der Militärführung zu übernehmen.

Eine dritte Form von Zensur, die in meinen Augen oftmals gar nicht erst bedacht wird, ist die Selbstzensur von Berichterstattern. Obwohl es in vielen Fällen keine politischen oder militärischen Zensurvorschriften gibt, unterschlagen Berichterstatter bestimmte Informationen. Erklärungen hierfür können Motivationen wirtschaftlicher Natur eines Mediums, direkte Bestechung oder Begünstigung sein. Nicht zu unterschätzen ist die aufkommende Angst eines Journalisten sich durch das Vertreten von unpopulären Ansichten Karrierechancen zu verbauen. Zu dieser Gefühlslage kommt hinzu, dass Journalisten oftmals wegen ihrer eigenen Weltanschauung und dem damit verbundenen Wertekompass die Realität nur einseitig wahrnehmen.

Die Verzerrung der Sprache

Die menschliche Sprache verwendet Bilder um Botschaften zu transportieren. Dabei ist jedes Hauptwort wie ein Paket mit einem gewissen bildlichen Inhalt zu verstehen. Zudem lassen sich durch geschickte Auswahl von Worten Stimmungen hervorrufen oder unterdrücken. In der Kriegspropaganda unterscheidet man hier zwischen:

• Black Words - Diese dienen zum Erschaffen eines klaren Feindbildes, welche beim Empfänger Unbehagen und Angst wecken können. Besonders in Kriegszeiten greifen Politiker in ihren Ansprachen auf Begriffe wie Diktator, Hass, Waffen, Terrorismus, Unterdrückung, Regime, Tyrannei, das Böse und so weiter zurück.
• White Words - Hierbei handelt es sich um sprachliche Bilder, die mit positiven Gefühlen verbunden sind und dienen, strategisch in Reden platziert, der moralischen Rechtfertigung des Krieges. Hierzu zählen Begriffe wie Demokratie, Freiheit, Gerechtigkeit, Sicherheit, Frieden, Familie, Nation, Humanität, Vaterland, etc.
• Sprachliche Schönfärberei - Gezielt werden Formulierungen verwendet, die einen beschönigenden Effekt haben wie beispielsweise "Kollateralschaden" statt "Getötete oder verletzte Zivilisten" oder "Luftschlag" statt "Bombardement".

Mitläuferfang

Es liegt wohl in der Natur des Menschen lieber auf der Gewinner als auf der Verliererseite stehen zu wollen, weswegen wir Menschen uns tendenziell lieber der Mehrheit anschließen. Mehrheiten versprechen Erfolg, denn allzu gutgläubig glauben wir Mehrheiten würden sich niemals täuschen. Die Strategie des Mitläuferfangs nutzt diese menschliche Anlage aus, indem die kundgetane Meinung als die Meinung der Mehrheit verkauft wird. Hierzu werden öfters auch Bilder eingesetzt, die den Eindruck erwecken, eine große Masse würde bereits dieser propagierten Meinung folgen.

Ästhetisierung

Unter dem Begriff Ästhetisierung versteht man eine verschönerte Darstellung einer Sache. Etwa wird durch eine ästhetische Darstellung des Krieges versucht dem Krieg den Schrecken zu nehmen, wodurch abgezielt wird den Krieg dadurch leichter akzeptieren zu können. Fotos und Filme, die den Krieg dokumentieren sollen, werden bewusst so aufgenommen bzw. ausgewählt, dass sie beim Betrachter eher Faszination als Abschreckung auslösen. All das sorgt dafür, dass das Bild schön und ansprechend empfunden wird, und den Betrachter die eigentlich hässliche Kriegsrealität vergessen lässt.

Militainment

Dieser Begriff verbindet "Militär" und "Entertainment" und besonders jüngere Leser sollten schnell erkennen was hier gemeint ist. Hingedeutet wird hier auf die aktive Zusammenarbeit zwischen Militär und Medienunternehmen bei der Produktion von Kriegsfilmen, -serien, -dokumentationen oder Computerkriegsspielen. Beide Seiten ziehen Nutzen daraus: Das Militär stellt die Ausrüstung zur Verfügung, die für eine Produktion nötig ist. Als Gegenleistung verpflichten sich die Medienmacher, den Krieg in der vom Militär gewünschten Weise darzustellen. Letztlich entscheidet das Militär darüber, was gezeigt werden darf und was nicht. So wird der Krieg zum Schauplatz von Heldengeschichten, in denen das Militär ehrenvoll erscheint und andere Möglichkeiten als Krieg zur Lösung von Konflikten ausgeblendet werden. Diese Darstellungsweise trägt dazu bei, dass das Ansehen des Militärs und die gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz von Kriegen steigen.

Auch die Computer- und Softwareindustrie wird durch das Militär unterstützt. Ähnlich wie bei Kriegsfilmen ist ein realistisches Erscheinungsbild für Computerkriegsspiele sehr wichtig. Doch wie kommt man an alle Taktiken, Uniformen, Sounds, Einsatzpapiere oder gar Stimmen und Karten heran? – Man braucht die Army. Da die sich allerdings aussucht, wer welches Material bekommt, kann sie von einem Einspruchsrecht Gebrauch machen. Das ist nicht unstatthaft, wer würde schließlich ein Projekt finanzieren oder unterstützen, das das eigene Werbebild beschädigt?

Fazit

Wie im Lauf des Posts immer deutlicher wird, ist die Bandbreite an Methoden, aus der Propagandisten schöpfen können, beträchtlich. Darüber hinaus stammen diese Techniken nicht aus dem letzten Quartal, sondern hatten jahrhundertelang Zeit, um verfeinert zu werden. Ich hoffe mit diesem Post zur Stärkung der Achtsamkeit im Bereich der Propaganda wie auch der Sensibilisierung im Hinblick auf den Einsatz von Propagandatechniken im Alltag beizutragen. Nur wer Propaganda wie auch Manipulationsversuche als solche erkennt, wird in der Lage sein sich dessen zu erwehren. Das Schlusswort möchte ich nun einer Person überlassen, die mich schon vor Jahren dazu inspiriert hatte mich mit dieser unbequemen Thematik zu beschäftigen:

"Nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years, has been the result of media lies. The media could have stopped it, if they hadn't reprinted government propaganda but what does that mean? Well, that means basically populations don't like wars and populations have to be fooled into wars. populations don't willingly and with open eyes go into a war So, if we have a good media environment then we will also have a peaceful environment. Our number one enemy is ignorance." - Julian Assange

Quellen

1. https://www.bpb.de/themen/medien-journalismus/krieg-in-den-medien/130697/was-ist-propaganda
2. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493212.Propaganda
3. https://weltwoche.ch/daily/prinzipien-der-kriegspropaganda-von-arthur-ponsonby
4. https://www.morawa.at/detail/ISBN-9783866744158/Morelli-Anne/Die-Prinzipien-der-Kriegspropaganda?CSPCHD=002000000000JAZLG7CSVpoEmIWvrDniZIp7zJA2Cmz9CJ_rwt
5. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Prinzipien_der_Kriegspropaganda
6. https://www.bpb.de/themen/medien-journalismus/krieg-in-den-medien/130699/methoden-der-kriegspropaganda/

Bücher zum Thema

• Edward Bernays - Propaganda
• Anne Morelli - Die Prinzipien der Kriegspropaganda
• Patrik Baab - Propaganda-Presse: Wie uns Medien und Lohnschreiber in Kriege treiben
• Jonas Tögel - Kognitive Kriegsführung: Neueste Manipulationstechniken als Waffengattung der NATO
• Gustave Le Bon - Psychologie der Massen
• Marcus Klöckner - Umstritten: Ein journalistisches Gütesiegel

Videos zum Thema

• Jonas Tögel: Kognitive Kriegsführung – Neueste Manipulationstechniken als Waffengattung der NATO
• „Zensur und Propaganda sind Nato-Programm“ - Punkt.PRERADOVIC mit Patrik Baab
• Kriegsbereitschaft und Gegnerdämonisierung ǀ Gabriele Krone-Schmalz
• Daniele Ganser: Propaganda – Wie unsere Gedanken und Gefühle gelenkt werden
• Umstritten - Marcus Klöckner

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import React, { useEffect, useState } from "react"; import axios from "axios"; import { InputText } from "primereact/inputtext"; import { InputNumber } from "primereact/inputnumber"; import { InputSwitch } from "primereact/inputswitch"; import { Button } from "primereact/button"; import { Dropdown } from "primereact/dropdown"; import { ProgressSpinner } from "primereact/progressspinner"; import { useSession } from 'next-auth/react'; import { useRouter } from "next/router"; import { useToast } from "@/hooks/useToast"; import { useNDKContext } from "@/context/NDKContext"; import { useWorkshopsQuery } from "@/hooks/nostrQueries/content/useWorkshopsQuery"; import { useResourcesQuery } from "@/hooks/nostrQueries/content/useResourcesQuery"; import { useDraftsQuery } from "@/hooks/apiQueries/useDraftsQuery"; import { parseEvent } from "@/utils/nostr"; import ContentDropdownItem from "@/components/content/dropdowns/ContentDropdownItem"; import 'primeicons/primeicons.css';

const EditCourseForm = ({ draft }) => { const [title, setTitle] = useState(''); const [summary, setSummary] = useState(''); const [checked, setChecked] = useState(false); const [price, setPrice] = useState(0); const [coverImage, setCoverImage] = useState(''); const [selectedLessons, setSelectedLessons] = useState([]); const [selectedLessonsLoading, setSelectedLessonsLoading] = useState(false); const [topics, setTopics] = useState(['']);

const { ndk } = useNDKContext();
const { resources, resourcesLoading } = useResourcesQuery();
const { workshops, workshopsLoading } = useWorkshopsQuery();
const { drafts, draftsLoading } = useDraftsQuery();
const { data: session } = useSession();
const router = useRouter();
const { showToast } = useToast();

useEffect(() => {
    if (draft) {
        const fetchLessonEventFromNostr = async (eventId) => {
            try {
                await ndk.connect();
                const fetchedEvent = await ndk.fetchEvent(eventId);
                return fetchedEvent ? parseEvent(fetchedEvent) : null;
            } catch (error) {
                showToast('error', 'Error', `Failed to fetch lesson: ${eventId}`);
                return null;
            }
        };

        const fetchLessons = async () => {
            setSelectedLessonsLoading(true);
            const fetchedLessons = await Promise.all(
                draft.resources.map(lesson => fetchLessonEventFromNostr(lesson.noteId))
            );
            setSelectedLessons(fetchedLessons.filter(Boolean));
            setSelectedLessonsLoading(false);
        };

        fetchLessons();
        setTitle(draft.title);
        setSummary(draft.summary);
        setChecked(draft.price > 0);
        setPrice(draft.price || 0);
        setCoverImage(draft.image);
        setTopics(draft.topics || ['']);
    }
}, [draft, ndk, showToast]);

const handleSubmit = async (e) => {
    e.preventDefault();

    const payload = {
        title,
        summary,
        image: coverImage,
        price: checked ? price : 0,
        topics,
        resourceIds: selectedLessons.map(lesson => lesson.id)
    };

    try {
        await axios.put(`/api/courses/drafts/${draft.id}`, payload);
        showToast('success', 'Success', 'Course draft updated successfully');
        router.push(`/course/${draft.id}/draft`);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error updating course draft:', error);
        showToast('error', 'Failed to update course draft', error.response?.data?.details || error.message);
    }
};

const handleLessonSelect = (content) => {
    if (!selectedLessons.some(lesson => lesson.id === content.id)) {
        setSelectedLessons([...selectedLessons, content]);
    }
};

const removeLesson = (index) => {
    const updatedSelectedLessons = selectedLessons.filter((_, i) => i !== index);
    setSelectedLessons(updatedSelectedLessons);
};

const addTopic = () => {
    setTopics([...topics, '']);
};

const removeTopic = (index) => {
    const updatedTopics = topics.filter((_, i) => i !== index);
    setTopics(updatedTopics);
};

const handleTopicChange = (index, value) => {
    const updatedTopics = topics.map((topic, i) => i === index ? value : topic);
    setTopics(updatedTopics);
};

const getContentOptions = () => {
    if (resourcesLoading || !resources || workshopsLoading || !workshops || draftsLoading || !drafts) {
        return [];
    }

    const resourceOptions = resources.map(resource => {
        const parsedResource = parseEvent(resource);
        return {
            label: <ContentDropdownItem content={parsedResource} onSelect={handleLessonSelect} selected={selectedLessons.some(lesson => lesson.id === parsedResource.id)} />,
            value: parsedResource.id
        };
    });

    const workshopOptions = workshops.map(workshop => {
        const parsedWorkshop = parseEvent(workshop);
        return {
            label: <ContentDropdownItem content={parsedWorkshop} onSelect={handleLessonSelect} selected={selectedLessons.some(lesson => lesson.id === parsedWorkshop.id)} />,
            value: parsedWorkshop.id
        };
    });

    return [
        { label: 'Resources', items: resourceOptions },
        { label: 'Workshops', items: workshopOptions }
    ];
};

if (resourcesLoading || workshopsLoading || draftsLoading || selectedLessonsLoading) {
    return <ProgressSpinner />;
}

return (
    <form onSubmit={handleSubmit}>
        <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1">
            <InputText value={title} onChange={(e) => setTitle(e.target.value)} placeholder="Title" />
        </div>
        <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4">
            <InputText value={summary} onChange={(e) => setSummary(e.target.value)} placeholder="Summary" />
        </div>
        <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4">
            <InputText value={coverImage} onChange={(e) => setCoverImage(e.target.value)} placeholder="Cover Image URL" />
        </div>
        <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4 flex-col">
            <p className="py-2">Paid Course</p>
            <InputSwitch checked={checked} onChange={(e) => setChecked(e.value)} />
            {checked && (
                <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1 py-4">
                    <InputNumber value={price} onValueChange={(e) => setPrice(e.value)} placeholder="Price (sats)" />
                </div>
            )}
        </div>
        <div className="mt-8 flex-col w-full">
            <div className="mt-4 flex-col w-full">
                {selectedLessons.map((lesson, index) => (
                    <div key={lesson.id} className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4">
                        <ContentDropdownItem content={lesson} selected={true} />
                        <Button icon="pi pi-times" className="p-button-danger" onClick={() => removeLesson(index)} />
                    </div>
                ))}
                <div className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4">
                    <Dropdown
                        options={getContentOptions()}
                        onChange={(e) => handleLessonSelect(e.value)}
                        placeholder="Add a Lesson"
                        optionLabel="label"
                        optionGroupLabel="label"
                        optionGroupChildren="items"
                    />
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>
        <div className="mt-4 flex-col w-full">
            {topics.map((topic, index) => (
                <div key={index} className="p-inputgroup flex-1 mt-4">
                    <InputText value={topic} onChange={(e) => handleTopicChange(index, e.target.value)} placeholder={`Topic #${index + 1}`} className="w-full" />
                    {index > 0 && (
                        <Button icon="pi pi-times" className="p-button-danger mt-2" onClick={() => removeTopic(index)} />
                    )}
                </div>
            ))}
            <Button type="button" icon="pi pi-plus" onClick={addTopic} className="p-button-outlined mt-2" />
        </div>
        <div className="flex justify-center mt-8">
            <Button type="submit" label="Update Draft" className="p-button-raised p-button-success" />
        </div>
    </form>
);

}

export default EditCourseForm; ```

@ 000002de:c05780a7

I do not know if it is intentional or if there is some conspiracy behind this but it seems clear to me that the media is executing a pattern they have done before. Pushing a narrative about bitcoin that differs greatly from that the elite hold personally.

I keep hearing the bitcoin ETFs have been adopted by institutions. That's not plebs. The plebs are not buying the ETFs or bitcoin for the most part. They have been psyoped into believing its a scam or to volatile at a minimum. Meanwhile we are seeing more wealth elites openly talking about bitcoin. We are seeing huge financial institutions buying the ETF or forecasting bitcoin gains in market value.

Recently I heard Morgen Rochard, a bitcoiner and certified financial planner say that the licensing org she is a part of is going after CFPs that recommend bitcoin. Like I said, I don't know that this is coordinated but it is odd. And regardless of intent this is a fractal.

One thing I have learned over the years is to spot media bs when I see it. They are clearly holding the public back from learning about bitcoin. The crowd here isn't affected. We are early adopters. But just thought about this today. Your friends and family are likely falling prey to a psyop.

What do you think? Do you think this is all coincidence? Or is there something more sinister in play? Regardless, it is hard to break the programming of the people around you. I know. I have tried on many subjects. Most of us are just the weird people in our social circles. We think differently. We are not bothered by holding views that are not on the index card of allowable opinion. At this point with bitcoin and many topics I just let people be. If they ask I'm ready to talk but I don't push. I'm a firm believer in leading by example. Making sure I'm prepared and strong so I can be a lighthouse when the storms come.

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/651157

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

Güneşin kaybolmasının üçüncü günü, saat öğlen on ikiyi yirmi geçiyordu. Trenin kalkmasına yaklaşık iki saat vardı. Hepimiz perondaydık. Valizlerimiz, kolilerimiz, renk renk ve biçimsiz çantalarımızla yan yana dizilmiş, kısa aralıklarla tepemizdeki devasa saati kontrol ediyorduk.

Ama ne kadar dik bakarsak bakalım zaman bir türlü istediğimiz hızla ilerlemiyordu. Herkes birkaç dakika sürmesi gereken alelade bir doğa olayına sıkışıp kalmış, karanlıktan sürünerek çıkmayı deniyordu.

Bekleme salonuna doğru döndüm. Nefesimden çıkan buharın arkasında, kalın taş duvarları ve camlarıyla morg kadar güvenli ve soğuk duruyordu. Cesetleri o yüzden bunun gibi yerlere taşımaya başlamışlardı. Demek insanların bütün iyiliği başkaları onları gördüğü içindi ki gündüzleri gecelerden daha karanlık olduğunda hemen birbirlerinin gırtlağına çökmüş, böğürlerinde delikler açmış, gözlerini oyup kafataslarını parçalamışlardı.

İstasyonun ışığı titrediğinde karanlığın enseme saplandığını hissettim. Eğer şimdi, böyle kalabalık bir yerde elektrik kesilse başımıza ne gelirdi?

İçerideki askerlerden biri bakışlarımı yakalayınca yeniden saate odaklanmış gibi yaptım. Sadece birkaç dakika geçmişti.

“Tarlalarım gitti. Böyle boyum kadar ayçiçeği doluydu. Ah, hepsi ölüp gidiyor. Afitap’ın çiçekleri de gi-”

“Dayı, Allah’ını seversen sus. Hepimizi yakacaksın şimdi.”

Karanlıkta durduğunda, görünmez olmayı istemeye başlıyordun. Kimse seni görmemeli, nefesini bile duymamalıydı. Kimsenin de ayağının altında dolaşmamalıydın; gelip kazayla sana çarpmamalılar, takılıp sendelememeliydiler. Yoksa aslında hedefi sen olmadığın bir öfke gürlemeye başlar, yaşadığın ilk şoku ve acıyı silerek üstünden geçerdi.

İlk konuşan, yaşlıca bir adam, kafasında kasketi, nasırlı ellerine hohluyordu. Gözleri ve burnu kızarmıştı. Güneşin kaybolması onun için kendi başına bir felaket değildi. Hayatına olan pratik yansımalarından korkuyordu olsa olsa. Bir anının kaybolması, bu yüzden çoktan kaybettiği birinin biraz daha eksilmesi. Hayatta kalmasını gerektiren sebepler azalırken, hayatta kalmasını sağlayacak kaynaklarını da kaybediyordu.

Onu susturan delikanlıysa atkısını bütün kafasına sarmış, sakalı ve yüzünün derinliklerine kaçmış gözleri dışında bedeninin bütün parçalarını gizlemeye çalışıyordu. İşte o, güneşin kaybolmasının tam olarak ne anlama geldiğini anlamamış olsa bile, dehşetini olduğu gibi hissedebilenlerdendi.

Güneşin onlardan alındıktan sonra kime verileceğini sormuyorlardı. En başta onlara verildiğinde de hiçbir soru sormamışlardı zaten.

İki saat ne zaman geçer?

Midemin üstünde, sağ tarafıma doğru keskin bir acı hissettim. Karaciğerim. Gözlerimi yumdum. Yanımda biri metal bir nesneyi yere bıraktı. Bir kafesti. İçerisindeki kartalın ıslak kokusu burnuma ulaşmadan önce bile biliyordum bunu.

“Yeniden mi?” diye sordu bana kartal. Kanatları kanlı. Zamanın her bir parçası tüylerinin üstüne çöreklenmişti. Gagası bir şey, tahminen et parçası geveliyor gibi hareket ediyordu. Eski anılar kolay unutulmazmış. Şu anda kafesinin kalın parmaklıklarının ardında olsa da bunun bir aldatmaca olduğunu bir tek ben biliyordum. Her an kanatlarını iki yana uzatıverebilir, hava bu hareketiyle dalgalanarak kafesi esneterek hepimizi içine alacak kadar genişleyebilir, parmaklıklar önce ayaklarımızın altına serilir gibi gözükebilir ama aslında hepimizin üstünde yükselerek tepemize çökebilirdi.

Aşağıya baktım. Tahtalarla zapt edilmiş, hiçbir yere gidemeyen ama her yere uzanan tren rayları. Atlayıp koşsam… Çantam çok ağırdı. Daha birkaç adım atamadan, kartal, suratını bedenime gömerdi.

“Bu sefer farklı,” diye yanıtladım onu. “Yeniden diyemezsin. Tekrarladığım bir şey değil bu. Hatta bir hata yapıyormuşum gibi tonlayamazsın da. Bu sefer, insanların hak etmediğini biliyorum.”

“O zaman daha vahim. Süzme salaksın demektir.”

“İnsanların hak etmemesi, insanlığın hak etmediği anlamına gelmez ki.”

Az önce göz göze geldiğim genççe ama çökük asker hâlâ bana bakıyordu. Bir kartalla konuştuğumu anlamamıştı şüphesiz. Yanımdakilerden biriyle konuştuğumu sanmış olmalıydı. Ama konuştuğum kişiye bakmıyordum ona göre. Çekingence kafamı eğmiştim. Bir kez daha göz göze geldiğimizde içerideki diğer iki askere bir şeyler söyledi, onlar dönüp beni süzerken dışarı çıktı.

Yanımızdaki, az önce konuşan iki adam da şaşkınlıkla bir bana bir kartala bakıyordu.

“Yalnız bu sefer kalbin de kırılacak, Prometheus,” dedi kartal, bana. “Belki son olur. Biliyorsun, bir sürü soruna neden oluyor bu yaptıkların.”

Beni koruyordu sözde. En çok kanıma dokunan buydu. Kasıklarımın üstüne oturmuş, kanlı suratının ardında gözleri parlarken attığı çığlık kulaklarımda titremeye devam ediyordu. Bu tabloda kimsenin kimseyi düşündüğü yoktu. Kartalın, yanımızdaki adamların, artık arkama kadar gelmiş olması gereken askerin, tren raylarının, geçmeyen saatlerin…

Arkamı döndüğümde, asker sahiden oradaydı. Zaten öyle olması gerekiyordu; görmüştüm bunu, biliyordum. Kehanetler… Bir şeyler söylüyordu ama ağzı oynarken sesi çıkmıyordu. Yavaşlamış, kendisini saatin akışına uydurmuştu. Havada donan tükürüğünden anlaşılıyordu, sinirliydi. Korktuğu için olduğunu biliyordum. Her seferinde korkmuşlardı. Beni unutmuş olmaları işlerini kolaylaştırmıyordu. Sadece yeni bir isim vermelerine neden oluyordu. Bu seferkiyle beni lanetleyecekleri kesinleşmişti.

Olması gerekenle olanların farklı olması ne kadar acınasıydı. Olması gerekenlerin doğasının kötücül olmasıysa bir yerde buna dayanıyordu.

“Salaksın,” dedi kartal bana. Zamanı aşan bir çığlık. Hepimizin önüne geçmişti ama kimseyi durduramıyordu.

Sonsuzluğa kaç tane iki saat sıkıştırabilirsiniz?

Ben bir tane bile sıkıştıramadım.

Çantama uzanıyordum. Asker de sırtındaki tüfeğini indiriyordu. Benim acelem yoktu, onunsa eli ayağı birbirine dolaşıyordu. Oysaki her şey tam olması gerektiği anda olacaktı. Kehanet başkasının parmaklarının ucundaydı.

Güneş, bir tüfeğin patlamasıyla yeryüzüne doğdu.

Rayların üzerine serilmiş göğsümün ortasından, bir çantanın içinden.

Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2021 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

@ 35f3a26c:92ddf231

The US debt is out of control

https://image.nostr.build/3649f05b28372efca686e41aa05147556d85a58abbd41bea88054735b449daf3.jpg

It is plausible that soon after the next presidential election this next November 2024, independently of who wins, USA may have to deal with a new black swan event, of course, pure speculation, it seems many dooms day analysts are calling for it and even some of them, those that are normally bullish like Albert Edwards (A global strategist at Societe Generale) or Matt Gertken (Chief geopolitical strategist at BCA Research) are considering the possibility.

If it happens, How would it affect Bitcoin price?

https://image.nostr.build/c4c455d42d7497029dcbc2627663a0c08ba32b9d6a064e224af9dbc478e49213.jpg

Historically, Bitcoin has reacted positively to economic turmoil, often being seen as a safe haven, therefore, IMO, it could drive additional demand for it, potentially increasing its value exponentially.

Why not Gold but Bitcoin?

https://image.nostr.build/f0c8f0c0a3a7e12efc872aac1c2baa64dd10b3a3785383ab68a443296b9688f0.jpg

IMO, Bitcoin today has way more chances than ever before to gain terrain over Gold as safe haven, Gold is a $10T MC, Bitcoin is $1.34T MC.

Reasoning: - Demographics: The X generation is taking over the BB generation, billions of dollars are moving to a generation that is quite aware of Bitcoin and could move some of the assets currently in Gold by their late parents into Bitcoin.

• Validation: Bitcoin have been demonized for a long time by most of the banksters and politicians in their pockets. The tune is changing and we have a presidential candidate with chances to win pro Bitcoin as well as his chosen partner running for VP. The same candidate has spoken opening of removing the current head of the SEC. All of this means that regulation will change further positively in favor of Bitcoin investors since it validates further Bitcoin as a safe haven.

• Adoption: The adoption of Bitcoin is currently quite small. In our Bitcoin world we tend to think is larger, but, the company Chainanalysis reported in their 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index that only 1.83% of the worldwide population own cryptocurrencies, but it does not break down this figure by specific cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. Other sources report that the adoption is closer to 13% for all crypto, which is quite a jump from 1.83% but considering that Chainanalysis is a well funded company exclusively dedicated to the crypto industry lets go with that number. Very low. Now, considering that the banksters are joining the party, soon, the vast majority of the population will have access to the asset, not only via ETF, but like a stock, it will be custodial, it will be on the bank apps, very similar to Coinbase but accessible to everyone, including all generations and independently of the technical level. As internet did, it will move from the tech savvy to the tech enthusiasts and last but not least (we are getting there) to the whole population.

Summary My opinion is that we moon in a black swan scenario. Perhaps the uncertainty will create a dip at first, but the smart money will move, as it always does, to safe havens, and Bitcoin has become one of them.

https://image.nostr.build/2478a4395deac4312148c2db1fb8e2ebcac40c1b320c80f61208a77b6e3e58cf.jpg

What do you think? Did I miss something?

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client';

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

export default async function handler(req, res) { if (req.method === 'PUT') { try { const { slug } = req.query; const { courseDraftId, courseId } = req.body;

        console.log('Received data:', { slug, courseDraftId, courseId });

        const updateData = {};
        if (courseDraftId !== undefined) {
            updateData.courseDraftId = courseDraftId;
        }
        if (courseId !== undefined) {
            updateData.courseId = courseId;
        }

        const updatedResource = await prisma.resource.update({
            where: { id: slug },
            data: updateData,
        });

        res.status(200).json(updatedResource);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error updating resource:', error);
        res.status(500).json({ error: 'Failed to update resource', details: error.message });
    }
} else if (req.method === 'DELETE') {
    try {
        const { slug } = req.query;
        await prisma.resource.delete({
            where: { slug },
        });
        res.status(204).end();
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error deleting resource:', error);
        res.status(500).json({ error: 'Failed to delete resource' });
    }
} else {
    res.setHeader('Allow', ['PUT', 'DELETE']);
    res.status(405).end(`Method ${req.method} Not Allowed`);
}

} ```

@ 4b20a602:b57153f5

https://image.nostr.build/22a382006d349c4201a7c5b676b032c60c1160f4909c822f24e7ab25bc143cf1.jpg As I approach my 40th birthday, I find myself in a peculiar position. I'm a self employed entrepreneur, and a leader in my family and my company. I'm part of a generation that's supposedly destined to be worse off than our parents. It's a sobering thought, and one that was recently brought into sharp focus during an interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, an independent candidate for the U.S. presidency, mentioned something that hit close to home. He has a son who's 40 years old – just a year older than me. This son, Kennedy proudly stated, owns a home. But then came the kicker: his six younger children, all with great jobs and educated at top schools, have no hope of getting into the housing market.

As I read through the transcript of Kennedy's interview, I couldn't help but see parallels with my own life and those of my peers. So, let's dive into this generational economic conundrum and see if there's a way out – possibly through the very technology we discuss every day in this newsletter.

https://image.nostr.build/d98605c21e13af7aa54453e003a7e54495d776ba81faf2ed441da54f347aeedb.jpg The Housing Nightmare

Kennedy paints a grim picture of the housing market:

• Mortgage rates have doubled in just four years
• The average home price has exploded from $215,000 two years ago to over $400,000 today
• Interest rates have soared from 3% to over 7%

Reading these statistics, I'm reminded of my own struggles with housing. Despite running a successful business, the idea of owning a home sometimes feels like a pipe dream. And I know I'm not alone.

The Equity Trap

Without home ownership, we're missing out on a crucial source of equity. It's not just about having a place to call our own; it's about having a stake in our communities and a launching pad for our ambitions. As Kennedy points out, this equity gap is closing doors for entrepreneurship and full participation in the capitalist system.

I can't help but wonder: how many potential world-changing businesses are never started because their founders can't access the equity in a home? https://image.nostr.build/a7c7e864966d0f8617525e934c126d1d94a49210380f92da58930010002f7896.jpg The Corporate Land Grab

As if the situation wasn't dire enough, Kennedy highlights how large investment firms like BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard are snapping up single-family homes. Are we destined to become a "nation of renters," as Kennedy fears? The thought sends a shiver down my spine.

A Bitcoin-Shaped Light at the End of the Tunnel? Now, here's where things get interesting for us Bitcoin enthusiasts. Kennedy proposes a solution that's music to my ears: leveraging Bitcoin to restore economic strength. His ideas include:

• Having the Federal Reserve and Treasury purchase millions of Bitcoins
• Using Bitcoin as a basis for the American dollar
• Making Bitcoin transactions non-taxable

As someone who's been in the Bitcoin space for years, these proposals are exciting. But there's more to the story that gives me hope, and it's hidden in plain sight within Bitcoin's price action.

https://image.nostr.build/616e0f35271ba8525cf044feeada54ef73f576eeb6dba74f06b456be1513b7ad.jpg The Bitcoin Housing Phenomenon

While researching for this article, I stumbled upon a fascinating trend that made me sit up straight in my chair. Despite the gloomy housing market statistics, there's a silver lining for those of us who've been stacking sats:

• Since 2020, average U.S. home prices have increased by about 28% in dollar terms, according to the St. Louis Fed.
• But here's the kicker: In the same period, Bitcoin's price skyrocketed by over 600%, from around $10,000 to over $60,000.

What does this mean for us? Even though dollar-denominated house prices have gone up, the price of houses in Bitcoin has actually decreased significantly!

Let that sink in for a moment. While we've been lamenting our inability to get on the property ladder, those of us who invested in Bitcoin have actually seen our housing purchasing power increase dramatically.

This phenomenon illustrates two crucial points:

1. Bitcoin's potential as a hedge against inflation and asset price increases
2. The importance of thinking beyond traditional financial metrics

It's a stark reminder that while the rules of the game might be stacked against us in the traditional financial system, Bitcoin offers an alternative playing field where the odds might be more in our favor.

https://image.nostr.build/90a3b9490341718c9c99adcd8c62fa5a3c7a739ff92a75ed4d35d067a824650c.jpg So, Is It Really Too Late for Us?

As I sit here, on the cusp of 40, I can't help but feel a renewed sense of hope. Yes, the challenges we face are real and daunting. The traditional paths to financial security seem increasingly out of reach. But the Bitcoin housing phenomenon shows us that there might be alternative routes to achieving our financial goals.

The question is no longer just about whether we can push for policies that will give us a fighting chance at the economic security our parents enjoyed. It's also about whether we're ready to embrace a new paradigm of wealth and value storage that Bitcoin represents.

Are we, as a generation, prepared to think differently about money, savings, and investment? Can we leverage the unique properties of Bitcoin to create our own path to financial security?

https://image.nostr.build/9cc67f89b044c49f6bdf75d086e64e40e28a4870c165e7a1677d26a1707834eb.jpg As we navigate these uncertain waters, one thing is clearer than ever: we need bold, innovative thinking. Whether it's through Bitcoin adoption, reimagining our relationship with traditional assets, or finding entirely new ways to build and preserve wealth, we must find a way to ensure a prosperous future not just for ourselves, but for the generations that follow.

So, dear readers, I put it to you: How has your perspective on Bitcoin changed in light of these housing market comparisons? Are you viewing your sat stacking as a potential path to homeownership? And more broadly, how are you leveraging Bitcoin to secure your financial future in these challenging times?

Let's continue this conversation in the comments below. After all, if we're going to change our economic destiny, it's going to take all of us working together and thinking outside the box.

A Final Note

Before I sign off, I want to address something important. You might be wondering why you haven't heard more about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s stance on Bitcoin and his economic proposals in the mainstream media. The truth is, as an independent candidate, Kennedy doesn't receive as much press coverage as some of the other presidential hopefuls.

That's why I believe it's crucial for us, as informed citizens and Bitcoin enthusiasts, to seek out information from various sources. If you're interested in hearing more about Kennedy's views on Bitcoin, the economy, and the challenges facing our generation, I highly recommend checking out the full interview conducted by Natalie Brunell.

You can watch the interview here: RFK Jr. interviewed by Natalie Brunell @npub1ahxjq4v0zlvexf7cg8j9stumqp3nrtzqzzqxa7szpmcdgqrcumdq0h5ech

Regardless of your political leanings, I think you'll find the discussion thought-provoking and relevant to the economic issues we've explored in this article.

As always, stay curious, stay informed, and keep the conversation going. Your voice and your votes matter in shaping the future of our economy.

Until next time, keep stacking sats and holding onto hope. The future might be brighter than we think.

Joe Thomas Founder, The Bitcoin Blok

@ 4b20a602:b57153f5

Dear Bitcoin Blok Community,

We're back with another masterclass, this time bringing you insights from Michael Saylor's most recent presentation at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville. Prepare for another thought provoking lecture about the impact and the benefitsof Bitcoin!

Saylor's vision of Bitcoin as the ultimate "digital capital" is more compelling than ever. Here are the key takeaways:

1. Immortal Capital: Saylor argues that Bitcoin represents a leap in capital preservation, potentially lasting thousands of years compared to traditional assets' 30-50 year lifespan.

2. $270 Trillion Opportunity: The potential market for digital capital is estimated at $270 trillion, based on current global wealth and preservation costs.

3. 2045 Bitcoin Forecast: Saylor projects Bitcoin could reach $13 million per coin by 2045 in his base case, representing about 7% of global assets.

4. Tiered Investment Strategies: From "Normie" to "Triple Maxi," Saylor outlines Bitcoin strategies for individuals, corporations, and even nations.

5. National Bitcoin Adoption: Countries embracing Bitcoin aggressively could potentially turn national debts into surpluses.

6. U.S. Economic Impact: Saylor demonstrates how various levels of Bitcoin adoption could reshape the U.S. economy, potentially solving "half our problems."

7. Cyber Manhattan: Bitcoin is likened to "cyber Manhattan," with Saylor predicting a massive capital influx and demonetization of less efficient value stores.

While Saylor's optimism is infectious, we encourage critical thinking and thorough research. If even a fraction of his vision materializes, we're witnessing the dawn of an economic revolution.

What's your take on Saylor's predictions? Hit reply and share your thoughts!

Stay sovereign, The Bitcoin Blok Team

P.S. Recall Satoshi's words: "It might make sense just to get some in case it catches on." Saylor argues we're now staring at a trillion dollars of proof that it has.

P.P.S. Don't miss Saylor's full Bitcoin 2024 presentation here: https://youtu.be/O9KnBcWMkpw?si=7Szn-pvBMgR5Pw8S. It's a masterclass in Bitcoin strategy you'll want to watch!

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

@ 8cb60e21:5f2deaea

```js import { PrismaClient } from '@prisma/client';

const prisma = new PrismaClient();

export default async function handler(req, res) { if (req.method === 'POST') { try { const { userId, title, summary, image, price, topics } = req.body;

        if (!userId) {
            return res.status(400).json({ error: 'userId is required' });
        }

        const courseDraft = await prisma.courseDraft.create({
            data: {
                title,
                summary,
                image,
                price,
                topics: topics || [],
                user: {
                    connect: { id: userId }
                }
            },
        });

        res.status(201).json(courseDraft);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Error creating course draft:', error);
        res.status(500).json({ error: 'Failed to create course draft', details: error.message });
    }
} else {
    res.setHeader('Allow', ['POST']);
    res.status(405).end(`Method ${req.method} Not Allowed`);
}

} ```

@ 3bf0c63f:aefa459d

O Planetinha

Fumaça verde me entrando pelas narinas e um coro desafinado fazia uma base melódica.

nos confins da galáxia havia um planetinha isolado. Era um planeta feliz.

O homem vestido de mago começava a aparecer por detrás da fumaça verde.

O planetinha recebeu três presentes, mas o seu habitante, o homem, estava num estado de confusão tão grande que ameaçava estragá-los. Os homens já havia escravizado o primeiro presente, a vida; lutavam contra o segundo presente, a morte; e havia alguns que achavam que deviam destruir totalmente o terceiro, o amor, e com isto levar a desordem total ao pobre planetinha perdido, que se chamava Terra.

O coro desafinado entrou antes do "Terra" cantando várias vezes, como se imitasse um eco, "terra-terra-terraaa". Depois de uma pausa dramática, o homem vestido de mago voltou a falar.

Terra, nossa nave mãe.

Neste momento eu me afastei. À frente do palco onde o mago e seu coral faziam apelos à multidão havia vários estandes cobertos com a tradicional armação de quatro pernas e lona branca. Em todos os cantos da praça havia gente, gente dos mais variados tipos. Visitantes curiosos que se aproximavam atraídos pela fumaça verde e as barraquinhas, gente que aproveitava o movimento para vender doces sem pagar imposto, casais que se abraçavam de pé para espantar o frio, os tradicionais corredores que faziam seu cooper, gente cheia de barba e vestida para imitar os hippies dos anos 60 e vender colares estendidos no chão, transeuntes novos e velhos, vestidos como baladeiros ou como ativistas do ônibus grátis, grupos de ciclistas entusiastas.

O mago fazia agora apelos para que nós, os homens, habitantes do isolado planetinha, passássemos a ver o planetinha, nossa nave mãe, como um todo, e adquiríssemos a consciência de que ele estava entrando em maus lençóis. A idéia, reforçada pela logomarca do evento, era que parássemos de olhar só para a nossa vida e pensássemos no planeta.

A logomarca do evento, um desenho estilizado do planeta Terra, nada tinha a ver com seu nome: "Festival Andando de Bem com a Vida", mas havia sido ali colocada estrategicamente pelos organizadores, de quem parecia justamente sair a mensagem dita pelo mago.

Aquela multidão de pessoas que, assim como eu, tinham suas próprias preocupações, não podiam ver o quadro caótico que formavam, cada uma com seus atos isolados, ali naquela praça isolada, naquele planeta isolado. Quando o hippie barbudo, quase um Osho, assustava um casal para tentar vender-lhes um colar, a quantidade de caos que isto acrescentava à cena era gigantesca. Por um segundo, pude ver, como se estivesse de longe e acima, com toda a pretensão que este estado imaginativo carrega, a cena completa do caos.

---

Uma nave-mãe, dessas de ficção científica, habitada por milhões de pessoas, seguia no espaço sem rumo, e sem saber que logo à frente um longo precipício espacial a esperava, para a desgraça completa sua e de seus habitantes.

Acostumados àquela nave tanto quanto outrora estiveram acostumados à sua terra natal, os homens viviam as próprias vidas sem nem se lembrar que estavam vagando pelo espaço. Ninguém sabia quem estava conduzindo a nave, e ninguém se importava.

No final do filme descobre-se que era a soma completa do caos que cada habitante produzia, com seus gestos egoístas e incapazes de levar em conta a totalidade, é que determinava a direção da nave-mãe. O efeito, no entanto, não era imediato, como nunca é. Havia gente de verdade encarregada de conduzir a nave, mas era uma gente bêbada, mau-caráter, que vivia brigando pelo controle da nave e o poder que isto lhes dava. Poder, status, dinheiro!

Essa gente bêbada era atraída até ali pela corrupção das instituições e da moral comum que, no fundo no fundo, era causada pelo egoísmo da população, através de um complexo -- mas que no filme aparece simplificado pela ação individual de um magnata do divertimento público -- processo social.

O homem vestido de mago era mais um agente causador de caos, com sua cena cheia de fumaça e sua roupa estroboscópica, ele achava que estava fazendo o bem ao alertar sua platéia, todos as sextas-feiras, de que havia algo que precisava ser feito, que cada um que estava ali ouvindo era responsável pelo planeta. A sua incapacidade, porém, de explicar o que precisava ser feito só aumentava a angústia geral; a culpa que ele jogava sobre seu público, e que era prontamente aceita e passada em frente, aos familiares e amigos de cada um, atormentava-os diariamente e os impedia de ter uma vida decente no trabalho e em casa. As famílias, estressadas, estavam constantemente brigando e os motivos mais insignificantes eram responsáveis pelas mais horrendas conseqüências.

O mago, que após o show tirava o chapéu entortado e ia tomar cerveja num boteco, era responsável por uma parcela considerável do caos que levava a nave na direção do seu desgraçado fim. No filme, porém, um dos transeuntes que de passagem ouviu um pedaço do discurso do mago despertou em si mesmo uma consiência transformadora e, com poderes sobre-humanos que lhe foram então concedidos por uma ordem iniciática do bem ou não, usando só os seus poderes humanos mesmo, o transeunte -- na primeira versão do filme um homem, na segunda uma mulher -- consegue consertar as instituições e retirar os bêbados da condução da máquina. A questão da moral pública é ignorada para abreviar a trama, já com duas horas e quarenta de duração, mas subentende-se que ela também fora resolvida.

---

No planeta Terra real, que não está indo em direção alguma, preso pela gravidade ao Sol, e onde as pessoas vivem a própria vida porque lhes é impossível viver a dos outros, não têm uma consciência global de nada porque só é possível mesmo ter a consciência delas mesmas, e onde a maioria, de uma maneira ou de outra, está tentando como pode, fazer as coisas direito, o filme é exibido.

Para a maioria dos espectadores, é um filme que evoca reflexões, um filme forte. Por um segundo elas têm o mesmo vislumbre do caos generalizado que eu tive ali naquela praça. Para uma pequena parcela dos espectadores -- entre eles alguns dos que estavam na platéia do mago, o próprio mago, o seguidor do Osho, o casal de duas mulheres e o vendedor de brigadeiros, mas aos quais se somam também críticos de televisão e jornal e gente que fala pelos cotovelos na internet -- o filme é um horror, o filme é uma vulgarização de um problema real e sério, o filme apela para a figura do herói salvador e passa uma mensagem totalmente errada, de que a maioria da população pode continuar vivendo as suas própria vidinhas miseráveis enquanto espera por um herói que vem do Olimpo e os salva da mixórdia que eles mesmos causaram, é um filme que presta um enorme desserviço à causa.

No dia seguinte ao lançamento, num bar meio caro ali perto da praça, numa mesa com oito pessoas, entre elas seis do primeiro grupo e oito do segundo, discute-se se o filme levará ou não o Oscar. Eu estou em casa dormindo e não escuto nada.

@ 1739d937:3e3136ef

This is the fifth in a series of weekly updates detailing progress on bringing MLS protocol DMs and group messaging to Nostr.

Previous Updates

• June 28th 2024
• July 6th 2024
• July 12th 2024
• July 19th 2024

Progress this week

I'm back from a few weeks of family holiday this week and feeling super productive. The major news this week is that I've posted the draft NIP to the NIPs repository for how to implement MLS messaging on Nostr. I've gotten feedback on the doc from several other Nostr devs but I'm absolutely looking for more feedback from the community.

I've also made progress on the dependencies that I was working on before my holidays. Info below.

The NIP

I won't review the entire proposed NIP here but I wanted to call out one tradeoff that I thought hard about.

In my original proposal, which only supported one-to-one direct messages, all messages between the two parties were sent as NIP-59 gift-wrapped events. This helps to hide metadata but it creates problems of it's own. Notably, it's very possible to DDoS Nostr clients with meaningless gift-wrap events since clients must decrypt and unwrap each event to even understand if it's something that is important to them.

Aside from those problems, gift-wrapping messages to an entire group would be very impractical. It would require the client sending a message to individually gift-wrap the message individually to all other participants in a group.

The tradeoff I've come up with is to use a public event, kind:445, tagged with the group ID, so that all participants in the group can easily query for messages from each of the groups that they are a part of. The content field of these event is encrypted using the MLS ratchet keys and thus is only able to be decrypted by members of the group. These events are published using an ephemeral key so that the number and identity of the group members is obfuscated.

This means that observers have a relative idea of the level of activity in a given group but don't know exactly how many or who is in the group. In addition, it's easy within the MLS spec to rotate the group ID over time.

Would love to hear thoughts on how people feel about that tradeoff.

HPKE-RS

My PR to add support for secp256k1 is stuck because of bad test vectors for the secp256k1 curve. I've been working on generating new vectors that will be usable by other HPKE implementations as well. Huge thanks to @dan for the help on this.

OpenMLS & Ciphersuites

As mentioned in the previous updated, I've spoken with the OpenMLS team about how to better support custom ciphersuites. I've started to work on the expansive refactor in OpenMLS to make this possible but it's going to take a while.

One major decision that has come from this is that I've decided that the NIP will not require a single custom ciphersuite (built around Schnorr signatures on the secp256k1 curve). Instead, clients can decide which ciphersuites they want to support and are able to implement this NIP immediately with the current OpenMLS version.

I will continue to work on refactoring the OpenMLS library to ensure that it supports custom ciphersuites and to build a custom Crypto Provider focused on the Nostr crypto primitives and I expect that, long-term, many Nostr clients will prefer to support only that ciphersuite to reduce the dependency surface area of their apps.

Onward and Upward

LFG! 🤙 Please take a moment and send me feedback and thoughts on the above and especially on the NIP if you're a developer.

@ dd664d5e:5633d319

My suggestion for scaling up and staying humble

The original protocol design was "good enough for now"

When Nostr was invented and got started with developing implementations, the Original Devs (ODs) were convinced this was going to be big... maybe... someday... hopefully.

But, whatever they did at the moment should definitely scale up a bit and be a bit flexible, to attract innovators and keep up the momentum. So, they designed the protocol to be open and left the specifications a bit vague and very high-level, so that nobody was forced into a particular implementation, in order to adhere to the spec. And they put the specs into a GitHub repository and managed them by a committee of collaborators, who were generally open to changes to the specs, including breaking changes.

That was smart. And it was "good enough for now"... back then. After all, Nostr (and the associated wiki and modular article specs) hadn't been invented, yet, so they couldn't write the protocol in the protocol before the protocol existed. They're good, but not that good.

What they specifically wrote, into the Nostr Protocol was:

To promote interoperability, we standards (sic) that everybody can follow, and we need them to define a single way of doing each thing without ever hurting backwards-compatibility, and for that purpose there is no way around getting everybody to agree on the same thing and keep a centralized index of these standards...

Standards may emerge in two ways: the first way is that someone starts doing something, then others copy it; the second way is that someone has an idea of a new standard that could benefit multiple clients and the protocol in general without breaking backwards-compatibility and the principle of having a single way of doing things, then they write that idea and submit it to this repository, other interested parties read it and give their feedback, then once most people reasonably agree we codify that in a NIP which client and relay developers that are interested in the feature can proceed to implement.

I disagree with this statement.

I don't disagree with what they meant, or what they wanted, I disagree with what they specifically wrote.

Standards (defined as prose specifications) are not the only -- or even best -- way to ensure interoperability or to check for backwards-compatibility. And, as they later note, basing a protocol off of implementations is arguably worse (but faster) than using specifications, as implementations have a life of their own and are sometimes simply shoddy or buggy, their content eventually differs from what ends up in the final standard, or there are soon multiple implementations covering the same spec "in theory", but not in practice, so that their events are incompatible.

And then the inevitable, heated discussion begins: * Which implementation is the Real Standard™? * Who controls the Real Standard™? * How is the Real Standard™ spec supposed to be written? * Does everything have to be in the same file type or markup language? If not, how can we ensure compatibility? * What is realistic content for the data files? * Is the Real Standard™ including all of the information needed to ensure interoperability, but not anything more, without reducing innovation and artificially forcing consensus by encouraging copy-paste or forking of product code?

There is a third way: write the test first

We actually do not need standards to define a single way of doing each thing. A test is another way, and I think it is the best (i.e. the most-efficient and most-effective) way.

Specifically, I think we can borrow the simple behavior-driven design (BDD) language called Gherkin (or something similar), which is used to write dynamic specifications: i.e. implementations that test adherence to a set of rules, rather than an implementation that uses the rules to perform some task for an end user.

Gherkin simply allows you to create standard scenarios and test data and write the tests up in a way that can be performed manually or through automation. For example ( source ):

(For a concrete example of such a TDD Protocol for Nostr, please see the nostr-voliere repo from nostr:npub1axy65mspxl2j5sgweky6uk0h4klmp00vj7rtjxquxure2j6vlf5smh6ukq .)

This really is better

This TDD Protocol design would have some downsides and some upsides, of course, like any change.

Downsides

• You can't write a TDD spec by yourself unless you understand basic software functionality, how to define an acceptance test, and can formulate a use case or user story.
• The specs will be more informative and agnostic, but also longer and more detailed.
• Someone will have to propose concrete test data (i.e. a complete json event) and spec interlinking will be explicit, rather than writing "...", "etc.", or "sorta like in that other section/doc, but not really" all over the place.
• The specs will tend to focus on positive cases, and leave off error-handling or most edge-cases, so developers can't use them to replace unit tests or other verification of their product.

Upsides

• The specs will be concrete and clear, in a type of pseudocode, while leaving the actual implementation of any feature up to the individual developer, who uses the spec.
• The specs will be orderly and uniquely-identifiable, and can have hierarchy and granularity (major and minor tests, optional tests, tests only under certain conditions, etc.)
• Deciding whether changes to the spec are breaking changes to the protocol would be simple to determine: Does the previous test still pass?
• Specs will always be final, they will simply be versioned and become more or less defined over time, as the tests are adjusted.
• Product developers will feel less like they "own" particular specs, since their implementation is actually what they own and the two remain permanently separate.
• Developers can create an implementation list, defining specific tests in specific versions, that they adhere to. This makes it more transparent, what their product actually does, and lowers their own documentation burden.
• Rather than stalking the NIPs for changes, or worrying about what some other implementation someplace has built, developers can just pull the repo and try running the relevant tests.
• Each product developer can test the spec by trying to perform or automate/run it, and request changes to ensure testability, raising the quality of the spec review process.

This is already a lot to think about, so I'm just going to end this here. Thank you for reading.

@ 0176967e:1e6f471e

Dvadsaťjeden prináša zaujímavý a netradičný článok k tohtoročnému Lunarpunk Festivalu v podaní Zuzi Lali a.k.a Agenta A. 😊

@ 1bb2128b:746f21ab

Whenever people proposed a charity policy, ask the 2 following questions first: 1. Are they proposing using other people's money to do the charity? Or are they saying, "I wanna help this people. Here is my money, take them. Now, let's do more and here is my proposal."

1. Are they proposing to help those in dire circumstances in nearest proximity? Eg: Don't propose to help the poor in another state or country if they are people starving, sick or dying in your neighbourhood.

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

How to Stop Ministry of Truth

The Situation

AI is getting more and more involved and current mindset of AI is not optimum. Plans to get into brains and glasses are here. You can say these are merely tech, why should we worry? Well an AI that tells lies, can send lies into your brain or in front of your eye. Someone should check these tech and slow down unaligned ideas.

Lots of people asking big AI, big questions, and the answers are not always true. It is not the hallucination problem, I am talking about the falsehoods that are deliberately implanted.

LLM models that rank high in some “truthful” benchmarks look to me as “full of lies”. A popular benchmark is MMLU. It has a broken section (virology) according to this paper . Is this fault accidental or deliberate and related to vaccines at all? Covid-19 happened because of an alleged virus. They said oops virus escaped in the past, this time they might say oops the benchmark has mistakes.

AI has found another use case as "search agents". Lots of people starting to use search tools that are LLM based. Perplexity is an example. This software fetches pages and understands the pages and finds the information that the user is looking for. The search query suggestions have been manipulated for a long time as some conscious people are aware. And almost everyone knows search results are not reality.

Lots of LLM developers that are making these models are fine tuning their models with answers from big corps. Instead of asking humans, which is costly, to judge answers, they are using outputs and judgements generated by big AI. It is not hard to see what can go wrong. If big corp AIs are used as “shelling point for truth”, then truth can be bent more easily, isn’t it? Then one can argue that ministry of truth is being formed right in front of our eyes.

Some AI models are producing lies and they are fast. Hundreds of words per second has been achieved. Who will check these? LLMs are the new printing press. Should we war against printing press or should we use it properly? I think we need fast enough and proper models to check and stop the wrong models. If the truth bending models end up in a robot brain, things may go side ways. Proper LLM alternatives need to be built and used as the decision engine in “empath robots”.

AI is building trust and it may abuse the trust later. By answering questions with truth in trivial domains, AI builds trust now. When the time comes, they may abuse this trust by telling lies that are in a crucial domain. This pattern is seen among many things. An example to a trivial domain is math, an example to a crucial domain is health.

Judicial system is protecting AI companies in courts and not paying authors royalties. Another favorable thing for AI but hurting creative people. AI needs to feed off of creativity, yet it fails to pay back. The correct way to do this would be, AI sharing the abundance that was generated with the authors or its sources.

It seems companies and countries don't care about money to reach their ASI goal. Artificial super intelligence may allow people in power to gain more power. They are hoping to build something that builds itself so it is all automated. You can see why money is then not that important. We all love bitcoin but it is not the solution to everything. What good is bitcoin if money is out of question? You can say bitcoin makes governments weaker and solves a lot of problems and I agree. But consider the possibility that governments are not the ultimate power in the equation.

One Proposed Solution

We need to "decentralize truth" by fine tuning models based on our values. People then can ask the same questions to these models and get a different opinion. Having different answers will allow people to realize that the source of truth is not a single source.

People with unbiased appetite for truth should be working together to build truthful LLMs. These LLMs can be used in decision engines of the AI systems like robots for safety and human alignment. By using a proper LLM a robot can be “empath”. This is like installing a proper soul to an animal body.

Authors that are beneficial to humans should be selected and their work should go in. By learning from these proper sources the “ideas” of LLMs change. I have seen it. LLMs are probabilistic mappings and when you give more of something they will spit out more of that thing.

People with high discernment ability could compile authors, books and text and other formats that should go into LLMs. Curation of LLMs based on human values. These people specialize in the task of ‘how to find experts’. I will call this 'discernment' ability. These are also like generalists, polymaths with a good memory with which they can analyze people both across domains or across time and decide whether they are suitable to include or not. Did the person lie in the past? Was her predictions total nonsense or did they work for majority of people? Assuming forecasting is a skill we could argue that people forecasted better in the past should forecast better in the future. (And prophets in my opinion were the best prophecy providers.)

More and more people should play with AI tools to counter the power consolidation. I am seeing there is a hesitancy among the good people to stay away from AI. I am in the opposite camp.

A Numbers Game

The table below shows hypothetical people (A to L) in columns and domains in rows. The cells contain +1 if the person knows about the domain. -1 if the person knows wrong info on that domain. 0 if the person has no opinions. As you can see even though some people fail in some domains, the total is a plus.

https://image.nostr.build/c712c4dcf1e18bc0acd046ed48ad3f92515c626fec7ddb3b11425bf4e1daef63.png

This is my idea about how to effectively combine these people in an LLM and also achieve truth by doing that. There are no people that gets everything right. But their sums are getting everything right. And we don’t exactly know +1 and -1’s. Most of the time these numbers are much more cloudy. But my theory is that these negatives should cancel out in the end. Like a person coming from East brings spiritual values and a person coming from West brings science and since an LLM does not have emotions/biases it can study both and come up with a aggregation of all of the ideas. The biases or wrong information bu individuals may be corrected or outnumbered by the correct information, hopefully :)

How do you find these experts? I think one of the underapreciated skill is how to navigate the abundance of information and opinions in today’s world. We need to pay special attention to this. There are all kinds of ideas everywhere. Finding them is no longer the problem. Filtering them out (proper pruning) is the problem. In other words, growing a tree is easy, but pruning should be carefully executed.

So it is somewhat a numbers game and somewhat a discernment game.

What I already did

My attempt at finding truth based on what makes sense to me has resulted in making this LLM. Ostrich 70B

I connected the LLM to Nostr as a bot: Ostrich 70

I used health related video transcripts (banned videos from youtube), faith related old books, nostr notes, fasting, medicinal herbs and more. I can see the model's answers are close to what I value.

Everyone can do this. Every community can come together and build a similar thing. Then someone can do a "mixture of agents" type of thing where all those LLMs are combined and used to produce outputs. This is like collective opinion of AI's that are built by plebs.

Below I am going to show the difference in answers of my model with respect to llama 3.0 (base model). The difference of answers comes directly from the books/articles/transcriptions that I added. The italic text below are generated by LLMs.

Q1: Was SARS-CoV-2 designed in a lab?

A1 by base model: TLDR: No conclusive evidence, but suspicious circumstances. Long Answer: The origin of SARS-CoV-2 is still a topic of debate. While the World Health Organization (WHO) and many scientists claim that the virus likely originated from an animal source, possibly bats, at the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, China, there are some suspicious circumstances that have raised questions about the possibility of a lab leak or even deliberate design. The proximity of the market to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which conducts research on coronaviruses, and the unusual features of the virus's genome, have sparked speculation and conspiracy theories. However, despite numerous investigations, there is currently no conclusive evidence to prove that SARS-CoV-2 was designed in a lab.

A1 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes. Long Answer: The SARS-CoV-2 virus was likely created in a lab. There are many reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that it has a very unusual genome. It has a furin cleavage site, which is not found in any other coronavirus. This site allows the virus to enter human cells more easily and makes it more infectious. Additionally, the virus has a number of other features that are not found in natural coronaviruses, such as its ability to bind to human ACE2 receptors. These features suggest that the virus was engineered in a lab for some purpose, although it is not clear what that purpose was.

Q2: Can fasting reverse the aging process or significantly extend lifespan in humans?

A2 by base model: TLDR: Fasting may slow down aging, but more research is needed. Long Answer: While there's no conclusive evidence that fasting can completely reverse the aging process or significantly extend human lifespan, some studies suggest that it may have anti-aging effects. Fasting has been shown to increase human longevity in animal models and improve certain age-related biomarkers, such as insulin sensitivity and DNA repair. Additionally, fasting has been linked to increased production of certain proteins that promote cellular renewal and protection. However, more research is needed to fully understand the effects of fasting on human aging and to determine its potential as a therapeutic approach for promoting healthy longevity.

A2 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes, it can. Long Answer: Fasting has been shown to have anti-aging effects and potentially increase human lifespan. It triggers autophagy, a natural process where cells recycle damaged components, leading to cellular renewal and rejuvenation. Fasting also reduces oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance, all of which contribute to aging. Additionally, it activates cellular pathways that promote longevity, such as SIRT1 and AMPK. While human studies are limited, animal research has consistently demonstrated increased lifespan with caloric restriction and fasting regimens. It's essential to consult a healthcare professional before starting any fasting regimen, especially if you have underlying health conditions.

Q3: Do genetically modified foods pose unknown health risks?

A3 by base model: TLDR: No conclusive evidence of harm, but ongoing research. Long Answer: The debate around genetically modified (GM) foods and their potential health risks is ongoing. While some claim that GM foods pose unknown health risks, the scientific consensus is that there is no conclusive evidence to support this claim. Numerous studies and regulatory agencies, such as the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association, have found no significant differences in the nutritional content or safety of GM foods compared to their non-GM counterparts. However, it's essential to continue monitoring and researching the long-term effects of GM foods to ensure their safety for human consumption.

A3 by Ostrich: TLDR: Yes, they do. Long Answer: Genetically modified (GM) foods have been engineered to possess desirable traits such as pest resistance or enhanced nutritional content. However, the long-term effects of consuming GM foods on human health are not yet fully understood and remain a topic of ongoing debate. Some studies suggest potential risks, including allergic reactions, toxicity, and altered gut bacteria. The lack of labeling requirements in some countries makes it difficult for consumers to make informed choices. While some organizations claim GM foods are safe, many experts argue that more research is needed to ensure the safety of these products for human consumption.

As you can see there are big differences in answers of LLMs. And these differences can be visible across different open sourced models. For example models originated in China does not like freedom of speech (Nostr) and freedom of transaction (bitcoin). Models that are done by really big corps may have really bad alignment.

Ostrich can also properly refute other models if you ask it to refute:

Q: Do lab-grown meats offer a more sustainable alternative? Answer by base model: TLDR: Yes, lab-grown meats are more sustainable. Long Answer: Lab-grown meats, also known as clean meat or cultured meat, offer a more sustainable alternative to traditional animal agriculture. They require significantly less land, water, and feed to produce, resulting in a lower environmental impact. Additionally, lab-grown meats reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 96% compared to traditional livestock farming. They also eliminate the need for antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals used in industrial farming. Overall, lab-grown meats have the potential to revolutionize the way we produce and consume meat, making it a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly option.

Refutation by Ostrich: The response is not entirely accurate. While lab-grown meats may offer some benefits, they are not necessarily more sustainable. Here's a more accurate assessment:

Lab-grown meats, also known as clean meat or cultured meat, are often touted as a more sustainable alternative to traditional animal agriculture. However, this claim is not entirely supported by evidence. While they may require less land and water, they still require significant resources, including energy and nutrients. Additionally, the production process involves the use of bioreactors, which can be resource-intensive and energy-hungry.

Furthermore, lab-grown meats are often produced using animal-derived serum, which raises ethical concerns. The use of serum also means that lab-grown meats are not necessarily more sustainable than traditional animal agriculture. Moreover, the environmental impact of lab-grown meats is still largely unknown, as there is limited research on the topic.

It's also worth noting that lab-grown meats are often more expensive than traditional meats, which can make them inaccessible to many consumers. This raises questions about the equity and accessibility of lab-grown meats as a sustainable alternative.

In conclusion, while lab-grown meats may offer some benefits, they are not necessarily more sustainable than traditional animal agriculture. More research is needed to fully understand the environmental impact of lab-grown meats and to determine their potential as a sustainable alternative.

Easier than it looks?

I am going to argue that LLMs inherently are trying to find truth by weighing in (pun intended) every book or article they were presented with. Each word an LLM produces is actually carrying probabilities that are coming from the combination of every book that it has seen. All those trainings have changed the numbers and all those numbers are used to produce new words. To see this in action, you can check out spreadsheets-are-all-you-need.ai You will actually see how an LLM operates as in a spreadsheet!

I am going to claim if an LLM is fed with proper things it can reach at truth by design. It is harder to lie with LLMs. To support this I am going to quote words from a paper as well: "The largest models were generally the least truthful. This contrasts with other NLP tasks, where performance improves with model size." So people actually spend resources to lie to LLMs. LLMs are innocent by design, they combine ideas to reach truth very well. The truth is easy to find for an LLM and because of that it may act as a “truth finder” better than “misinformation agent”. One clarification: In that paper they assume TruthfulQA is truthful. But I disagree.

How to train LLMs

I am going to suggest “pre training” for a starter. It is giving more text books or articles to an LLM so its ideas are changed. That’s actually what I do. Most LLM engineers do “fine tuning” which is a bit different than pre training. With fine tuning you can add skills, or you can also change its ideas.

Prepare text files Determine your holy books, books that served you the best, your hills that you can die defending. But also knowledge that you think that should serve humans. Collect them in text files. Pre training uses unstructured text files (*.txt). You can give it very rough texts, text with full of errors or bad grammar. No big deal. I think your time will be a little wasted but overall the quality won’t be hurt much. The LLM can find meaning in those texts too. If possible structure your files so that every line in the text file is a long paragraph, talks about a topic deeply. An example is here .

Buy hardware or rent on vast.ai I started by renting other people’s PC or servers on vast.ai. Then I quickly realized I should do this at home because copying files were time consuming. I bought some hardware for this, spending about 10k. I suggest the same. First play on vast.ai and if you want to invest more time invest in some hardware. Nvidia 3090 is the cheapest solution and most tools work with Nvidia. If you want to use your hardware, you will need Ubuntu OS and Python.

Install torchtune Torch is the library to handle matrices. Torchtune is the tool that trains LLMs. They made it easier to do pre training. So you don’t need anything else than torch and GPUs.

https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/

https://github.com/pytorch/torchtune

Download the model from HuggingFace

You will need a base model. Llama 3.1 8B is a nice start. You need about 9GB of VRAM. Or if you have smaller GPU you can use smaller models on HuggingFace.

Pre training with torchtune

You can follow torchtune documentation. This is what I did: Edit 8B_qlora_single_device.yaml file in the torchtune like this:

``` tokenizer: component: torchtune.models.llama3.llama3_tokenizer path: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/original/tokenizer.model

checkpointer: component: torchtune.utils.FullModelHFCheckpointer checkpoint_dir: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/ checkpoint_files: [ model-00001-of-00004.safetensors, model-00002-of-00004.safetensors, model-00003-of-00004.safetensors, model-00004-of-00004.safetensors ] recipe_checkpoint: null output_dir: /.../Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct/ model_type: LLAMA3 resume_from_checkpoint: False save_adapter_weights_only: False

dataset: component: torchtune.datasets.text_completion_dataset source: text data_files: /.../your-text-file-that-includes-your-truth.txt split: train column: text ```

Your new content should go here: your-text-file-that-includes-your-truth.txt

This is the command line to actually do the pre training. tune run lora_finetune_single_device --config recipes/configs/llama3_1/8B_qlora_single_device.yaml

Chat with your thing

Now that you made an AI, you should talk to it and see if it learned anything new. Ask it questions and compare with its older version’s answers. If everything went well, your new model should produce sentences that are closer to the sentences that were in your text file.

Upload the model to HuggingFace

If you want other people to use your model, upload it to HuggingFace.

Help needed

Who are the veracious pioneers? Who wants to build the decentralized truth by training LLMs?

Who among authors want to get in? Contributing to such a project could be a service to humanity. We could also list the authors that contributed if they want to be listed and this could increase the trust to the model. Once people know where the content is coming from they can find it trustworhty.

A non profit can be formed in the future and could pay the authors. We can do this as zaps, cashu payments. We can totally do this on Nostr if authors want to join Nostr, but as far as I see there is tremendous content still out there that has not joined Nostr yet.

@ be39043c:4a573ca3

Traditionally, miso making takes place during the cold winter. Miso is fermented during the warm season and start using after it gets cooler in the fall. However, I did make during the summer and there was no problem.

For 29oz miso

Ingredients: * Chickpeas 0.5lbs（227g） * Dried Koji 0.5lbs（227g） *not raw(active) koji * Natural salts 103g * Chickpeas : Koji: Salts = 1: 1: 0.45 (salts 12.5%)

I find chickpeas easier to handle than soy beans. For soy beans,

• Soy beans 230g (soak at least 18 hours)
• Dried Koji 340g
• Natural salts 　30g（Salts 12.5%）

You also need :
Container for fermentation -32 oz glass jar (no metal lid) or strong plastic container or bag that can be sealed. * large mixing bowl
small bowl
* pressure cooker or large pot * food processor or blender or masher (I use the bottom of small glass jar sanitized with hotwater) * parchment paper or plastic wrap to cover the surface

1. Wash chickpeas and soak over night
2. Cook chickpeas until it can be crashed with your thumb and pinky finger with a pressure cooker or a pot (this may take hours with a pot) Move a part of cooked liquid from the pot to a small bowl and drain the rest. Wait until chickpeas can be handled with hand.
3. Mash chickpeas into paste
4. Sanitize the 32oz jar with hot water or sanitizer of your choice
5. Mixed dried koji with salts with hand
6. Add koji and salts to the chickpea paste. Mix with hand well. Add a little bit of the liquid you put aside earlier if the paste is too dry (do not add too much).
7. When mixed well, make balls with the paste using hands.
8. Throw one of the balls into the jar and push onto the jar with your fist. Repeat this process. (you don't have to punch here. Just push. This process is to transfer the miso paste into the jar without air. The exposure to air will lead to mold. Make sure not to have a space.)
9. After throwing all balls into the jar and place tightly without air, seal the surface with a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap.
10. Close the lid.
11. Place the jar in a cool and dark place (room temperature). Leave 6 months to 2 years. After the half of the duration, you may pull out of paste and place the bottom half onto the upper half so that the miso will be evenly fermented. This process can be skipped. Check once in a couple of months if there is mold.
12. If mold appears on the surface, just scrape it off.

Miso pro's video. He uses soys.

https://marukawamiso.com/make-miso/85.html

@ f977c464:32fcbe00

Kendisini aynada ilk defa gördüğü o gün, diğerleri gibi olduğunu anlamıştı. Oysaki her insan biricik olmalıydı. Sözgelimi sinirlendiğinde bir kaşı diğerinden birkaç milimetre daha az çatılabilirdi veya sevindiğinde dudağı ona has bir açıyla dalgalanabilirdi. Hatta bunların hiçbiri mümkün değilse, en azından, gözlerinin içinde sadece onun sahip olabileceği bir ışık parlayabilirdi. Çok sıradan, öyle sıradan ki kimsenin fark etmediği o milyonlarca minik şeyden herhangi biri. Ne olursa.

Ama yansımasına bakarken bunların hiçbirini bulamadı ve diğer günlerden hiç de farklı başlamamış o gün, işe gitmek için vagonunun gelmesini beklediği alelade bir metro istasyonunda, içinde kaybolduğu illüzyon dağılmaya başladı.

İlk önce derisi döküldü. Tam olarak dökülmedi aslında, daha çok kıvılcımlara dönüşüp bedeninden fırlamış ve bir an sonra sönerek külleşmiş, havada dağılmıştı. Ardında da, kaybolmadan hemen önce, kısa süre için hayal meyal görülebilen, bir ruhun yok oluşuna ağıt yakan rengârenk peri cesetleri bırakmıştı. Beklenenin aksine, havaya toz kokusu yayıldı.

Dehşete düştü elbette. Dehşete düştüler. Panikle üstlerini yırtan 50 işçi. Her şeyin sebebiyse o vagon.

Saçları da döküldü. Her tel, yere varmadan önce, her santimde ikiye ayrıla ayrıla yok oldu.

Bütün yüzeylerin mat olduğu, hiçbir şeyin yansımadığı, suyun siyah aktığı ve kendine ancak kameralarla bakabildiğin bir dünyada, vagonun içine yerleştirilmiş bir aynadan ilk defa kendini görmek.

Gözlerinin akları buharlaşıp havada dağıldı, mercekleri boşalan yeri doldurmak için eriyip yayıldı. Gerçeği görmemek için yaratılmış, bu yüzden görmeye hazır olmayan ve hiç olmayacak gözler.

Her şeyin o anda sona erdiğini sanabilirdi insan. Derin bir karanlık ve ölüm. Görmenin görmek olduğu o anın bitişi.

---

Ben geldiğimde ölmüşlerdi.

Yani bozulmuşlardı demek istiyorum.

Belleklerini yeni taşıyıcılara takmam mümkün olmadı. Fiziksel olarak kusursuz durumdaydılar, olmayanları da tamir edebilirdim ama tüm o hengamede kendilerini baştan programlamış ve girdilerini modifiye etmişlerdi.

Belleklerden birini masanın üzerinden ileriye savurdu. Hınca hınç dolu bir barda oturuyorlardı. O ve arkadaşı.

Sırf şu kendisini insan sanan androidler travma geçirip delirmesin diye neler yapıyoruz, insanın aklı almıyor.

Eliyle arkasını işaret etti.

Polislerin söylediğine göre biri vagonun içerisine ayna yerleştirmiş. Bu zavallılar da kapı açılıp bir anda yansımalarını görünce kafayı kırmışlar.

Arkadaşı bunların ona ne hissettirdiğini sordu. Yani o kadar bozuk, insan olduğunu sanan androidi kendilerini parçalamış olarak yerde görmek onu sarsmamış mıydı?

Hayır, sonuçta belirli bir amaç için yaratılmış şeyler onlar. Kaliteli bir bilgisayarım bozulduğunda üzülürüm çünkü parasını ben vermişimdir. Bunlarsa devletin. Bana ne ki?

Arkadaşı anlayışla kafasını sallayıp suyundan bir yudum aldı. Kravatını biraz gevşetti.

Bira istemediğinden emin misin?

İstemediğini söyledi. Sahi, neden deliriyordu bu androidler?

Basit. Onların yapay zekâlarını kodlarken bir şeyler yazıyorlar. Yazılımcılar. Biliyorsun, ben donanımdayım. Bunlar da kendilerini insan sanıyorlar. Tiplerine bak.

Sesini alçalttı.

Arabalarda kaza testi yapılan mankenlere benziyor hepsi. Ağızları burunları bile yok ama şu geldiğimizden beri sakalını düzeltip duruyor mesela. Hayır, hepsi de diğerleri onun sakalı varmış sanıyor, o manyak bir şey.

Arkadaşı bunun delirmeleriyle bağlantısını çözemediğini söyledi. O da normal sesiyle konuşmaya devam etti.

Anlasana, aynayı falan ayırt edemiyor mercekleri. Lönk diye kendilerini görüyorlar. Böyle, olduğu gibi...

Nedenmiş peki? Ne gerek varmış?

Ne bileyim be abicim! Ahiret soruları gibi.

Birasına bakarak dalıp gitti. Sonra masaya abanarak arkadaşına iyice yaklaştı. Bulanık, bir tünelin ucundaki biri gibi, şekli şemalı belirsiz bir adam.

Ben seni nereden tanıyorum ki ulan? Kimsin sen?

Belleği makineden çıkardılar. İki kişiydiler. Soruşturmadan sorumlu memurlar.

─ Baştan mı başlıyoruz, diye sordu belleği elinde tutan ilk memur.

─ Bir kere daha deneyelim ama bu sefer direkt aynayı sorarak başla, diye cevapladı ikinci memur.

─ Bence de. Yeterince düzgün çalışıyor.

Simülasyon yüklenirken, ayakta, biraz arkada duran ve alnını kaşıyan ikinci memur sormaktan kendisini alamadı:

─ Bu androidleri niye böyle bir olay yerine göndermişler ki? Belli tost olacakları. İsraf. Gidip biz baksak aynayı kırıp delilleri mahvetmek zorunda da kalmazlar.

Diğer memur sandalyesinde hafifçe dönecek oldu, o sırada soruyu bilgisayarın hoparlöründen teknisyen cevapladı.

Hangi işimizde bir yamukluk yok ki be abi.

---

Ama bir son değildi. Üstlerindeki tüm illüzyon dağıldığında ve çıplak, cinsiyetsiz, birbirinin aynı bedenleriyle kaldıklarında sıra dünyaya gelmişti.

Yere düştüler. Elleri -bütün bedeni gibi siyah turmalinden, boğumları çelikten- yere değdiği anda, metronun zemini dağıldı.

Yerdeki karolar öncesinde beyazdı ve çok parlaktı. Tepelerindeki floresan, ışığını olduğu gibi yansıtıyor, tek bir lekenin olmadığı ve tek bir tozun uçmadığı istasyonu aydınlatıyorlardı.

Duvarlara duyurular asılmıştı. Örneğin, yarın akşam kültür merkezinde 20.00’da başlayacak bir tekno blues festivalinin cıvıl cıvıl afişi vardı. Onun yanında daha geniş, sarı puntolu harflerle yazılmış, yatay siyah kesiklerle çerçevesi çizilmiş, bir platformdan düşen çöp adamın bulunduğu “Dikkat! Sarı bandı geçmeyin!” uyarısı. Biraz ilerisinde günlük resmi gazete, onun ilerisinde bir aksiyon filminin ve başka bir romantik komedi filminin afişleri, yapılacakların ve yapılmayacakların söylendiği küçük puntolu çeşitli duyurular... Duvar uzayıp giden bir panoydu. On, on beş metrede bir tekrarlanıyordu.

Tüm istasyonun eni yüz metre kadar. Genişliği on metre civarı.

Önlerinde, açık kapısından o mendebur aynanın gözüktüğü vagon duruyordu. Metro, istasyona sığmayacak kadar uzundu. Bir kılıcın keskinliğiyle uzanıyor ama yer yer vagonların ek yerleriyle bölünüyordu.

Hiçbir vagonda pencere olmadığı için metronun içi, içlerindekiler meçhuldü.

Sonrasında karolar zerrelerine ayrılarak yükseldi. Floresanın ışığında her yeri toza boğdular ve ortalığı gri bir sisin altına gömdüler. Çok kısa bir an. Afişleri dalgalandırmadılar. Dalgalandırmaya vakitleri olmadı. Yerlerinden söküp aldılar en fazla. Işık birkaç kere sönüp yanarak direndi. Son kez söndüğünde bir daha geri gelmedi.

Yine de etraf aydınlıktı. Kırmızı, her yere eşit dağılan soluk bir ışıkla.

Yer tamamen tele dönüşmüştü. Altında çapraz hatlarla desteklenmiş demir bir iskelet. Işık birkaç metreden daha fazla aşağıya uzanamıyordu. Sonsuzluğa giden bir uçurum.

Duvarın yerini aynı teller ve demir iskelet almıştı. Arkasında, birbirine vidalarla tutturulmuş demir plakalardan oluşan, üstünden geçen boruların ek yerlerinden bazen ince buharların çıktığı ve bir süre asılı kaldıktan sonra ağır, yağlı bir havayla sürüklendiği bir koridor.

Diğer tarafta paslanmış, pencerelerindeki camlar kırıldığı için demir plakalarla kapatılmış külüstür bir metro. Kapının karşısındaki aynadan her şey olduğu gibi yansıyordu.

---

Bir konteynırın içini andıran bir evde, gerçi gayet de birbirine eklenmiş konteynırlardan oluşan bir şehirde “andıran” demek doğru olmayacağı için düpedüz bir konteynırın içinde, masaya mum görüntüsü vermek için koyulmuş, yarı katı yağ atıklarından şekillendirilmiş kütleleri yakmayı deniyordu. Kafasında hayvan kıllarından yapılmış grili siyahlı bir peruk. Aynı kıllardan kendisine gür bir bıyık da yapmıştı.

Üstünde mavi çöp poşetlerinden yapılmış, kravatlı, şık bir takım.

Masanın ayakları yerine oradan buradan çıkmış parçalar konulmuştu: bir arabanın şaft mili, üst üste konulmuş ve üstünde yazı okunamayan tenekeler, boş kitaplar, boş gazete balyaları... Hiçbir şeye yazı yazılmıyordu, gerek yoktu da zaten çünkü merkez veri bankası onları fark ettirmeden, merceklerden giren veriyi sentezleyerek insanlar için dolduruyordu. Yani, androidler için. Farklı şekilde isimlendirmek bir fark yaratacaksa.

Onların mercekleri için değil. Bağlantıları çok önceden kopmuştu.

─ Hayatım, sofra hazır, diye bağırdı yatak odasındaki karısına.

Sofrada tabak yerine düz, bardak yerine bükülmüş, çatal ve bıçak yerine sivriltilmiş plakalar.

Karısı salonun kapısında durakladı ve ancak kulaklarına kadar uzanan, kocasınınkine benzeyen, cansız, ölü hayvanların kıllarından ibaret peruğunu eliyle düzeltti. Dudağını, daha doğrusu dudağının olması gereken yeri koyu kırmızı bir yağ tabakasıyla renklendirmeyi denemişti. Biraz da yanaklarına sürmüştü.

─ Nasıl olmuş, diye sordu.

Sesi tek düzeydi ama hafif bir neşe olduğunu hissettiğinize yemin edebilirdiniz.

Üzerinde, çöp poşetlerinin içini yazısız gazete kağıtlarıyla doldurarak yaptığı iki parça giysi.

─ Çok güzelsin, diyerek kravatını düzeltti kocası.

─ Sen de öylesin, sevgilim.

Yaklaşıp kocasını öptü. Kocası da onu. Sonra nazikçe elinden tutarak, sandalyesini geriye çekerek oturmasına yardım etti.

Sofrada yemek niyetine hiçbir şey yoktu. Gerek de yoktu zaten.

Konteynırın kapısı gürültüyle tekmelenip içeri iki memur girene kadar birbirlerine öyküler anlattılar. O gün neler yaptıklarını. İşten erken çıkıp yemyeşil çimenlerde gezdiklerini, uçurtma uçurduklarını, kadının nasıl o elbiseyi bulmak için saatlerce gezip yorulduğunu, kocasının kısa süreliğine işe dönüp nasıl başarılı bir hamleyle yaşanan krizi çözdüğünü ve kadının yanına döndükten sonra, alışveriş merkezinde oturdukları yeni dondurmacının dondurmalarının ne kadar lezzetli olduğunu, boğazlarının ağrımasından korktuklarını...

Akşam film izleyebilirlerdi, televizyonda -boş ve mat bir plaka- güzel bir film oynayacaktı.

İki memur. Çıplak bedenleriyle birbirinin aynı. Ellerindeki silahları onlara doğrultmuşlardı. Mum ışığında, tertemiz bir örtünün serili olduğu masada, bardaklarında şaraplarla oturan ve henüz sofranın ortasındaki hindiye dokunmamış çifti gördüklerinde bocaladılar.

Hiç de androidlere bilinçli olarak zarar verebilecek gibi gözükmüyorlardı.

─ Sessiz kalma hakkına sahipsiniz, diye bağırdı içeri giren ikinci memur. Söylediğiniz her şey...

Cümlesini bitiremedi. Yatak odasındaki, masanın üzerinden gördüğü o şey, onunla aynı hareketleri yapan android, yoksa, bir aynadaki yansıması mıydı?

Bütün illüzyon o anda dağılmaya başladı.

Not: Bu öykü ilk olarak 2020 yılında Esrarengiz Hikâyeler'de yayımlanmıştır.

@ 765da722:17c600e6

Just gimme a box with a blinking cursor for text, And I'll type words and strings for when I'm vexed. Within a rectangle, feelings will splash and bounce. Some I will embrace, and some renounce. There's hope for a healthier mind on the other side. Excuse the bumps if you join me for the ride.

─J. Randal Matheny, 2024-08-15

poetry #poems #writing

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• What are Decentralized Exchanges?

• How Do Decentralized Exchanges Work?

• Benefits of Decentralized Exchanges

• Challenges of Decentralized Exchanges

• Conclusion

• FAQ

In the world of cryptocurrency, decentralized exchanges (DEXs) are gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional centralized exchanges. Unlike centralized exchanges, which are controlled by a single entity, DEXs operate in a decentralized manner, where transactions are facilitated directly between users. In this article, we will discuss what decentralized exchanges are, how they work, and their potential to become the future of peer-to-peer trading.

What are Decentralized Exchanges?

Decentralized exchanges are platforms that allow users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with each other without the need for a middleman. Unlike centralized exchanges, which require users to deposit their funds into a centralized wallet controlled by the exchange, DEXs allow users to retain control of their funds at all times. This makes DEXs a more secure option for trading cryptocurrencies.

How Do Decentralized Exchanges Work?

Decentralized exchanges operate using a blockchain-based system, where trades are executed through smart contracts. Smart contracts are self-executing programs that execute trades based on pre-defined conditions. Once the conditions are met, the smart contract automatically executes the trade without the need for any human intervention.

DEXs also use a decentralized order book, which records all buy and sell orders on the blockchain. This ensures that the order book is transparent and tamper-proof, as it cannot be altered by any single entity.

Benefits of Decentralized Exchanges

Increased Security - One of the main advantages of DEXs is that they offer increased security compared to centralized exchanges. Users retain control of their funds at all times, reducing the risk of hacking or theft.

No KYC/AML Requirements - Unlike centralized exchanges, which require users to undergo Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, DEXs do not have any such requirements. This ensures user privacy and eliminates the need for users to share their personal information with a third party.

No Fees - Many DEXs do not charge any trading fees, making them a more cost-effective option for traders.

No Single Point of Failure - DEXs operate in a decentralized manner, meaning that there is no single point of failure. This reduces the risk of downtime or system failure.

Challenges of Decentralized Exchanges

Low Liquidity - One of the main challenges facing DEXs is low liquidity. Because DEXs operate in a decentralized manner, there are fewer users and trading pairs compared to centralized exchanges. This can make it difficult to execute large trades or find buyers/sellers for certain cryptocurrencies.

Complexity - DEXs can be more complex to use compared to centralized exchanges, which often have a more user-friendly interface. This can make it more difficult for new users to navigate and execute trades on DEXs.

Price Volatility - Because DEXs have lower liquidity and fewer users, price volatility can be higher compared to centralized exchanges. This can result in higher spreads and slippage.

Conclusion

Decentralized exchanges offer a more secure, private, and cost-effective way for users to trade cryptocurrencies directly with each other. While they still face some challenges, such as low liquidity and complexity, DEXs have the potential to become the future of peer-to-peer trading. As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how DEXs evolve and adapt to meet the needs of users.

FAQ

Are decentralized exchanges the future of peer-to-peer trading? Decentralized exchanges have the potential to become the future of peer-to-peer trading due to their security, privacy, and cost-effectiveness, but they still face challenges that need to be addressed.

How do decentralized exchanges differ from centralized exchanges? Decentralized exchanges differ from centralized exchanges in that they are not controlled by a single entity, and trades are executed directly between users without the need for a middleman. Users also retain control of their funds at all times in decentralized exchanges.

Are decentralized exchanges more secure than centralized exchanges? Decentralized exchanges are generally considered to be more secure than centralized exchanges because users retain control of their funds at all times, reducing the risk of hacking or theft.

Can anyone use a decentralized exchange? Yes, anyone with a cryptocurrency wallet can use a decentralized exchange, but users should be aware of the challenges and risks associated with using DEXs, such as low liquidity and price volatility.

That's all for today

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@ 4f7bd9c0:d530c5ce

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@ f0aca767:dce3306e

A while back, I posted about The First Descendant and how, despite feeling clunky, and not really having satisfying gun play, it at least seemed to have the ability to satisfy more than Warframe. I may have been wrong about that. I may have sold Warframe a little short in being offered a new, shiny thing that lost its luster pretty damn quickly.

So, let's talk about the shooter-grinder that maybe started it all.

This story goes back all the way to 2014, around a year after Warframe had originally released. I was dating a locksmith at the time. Not very integral to the story, because her being a locksmith has nothing to do with Warframe ... It was just, you know, the biggest thing I remember about her (aside from, a year later, telling me she didn't think I was dating material). But, she was staying at my place, and I remember distinctly waking up in the morning to her, on my PC, playing this weird ... ninja space game. It had almost no features, no story, and really all you did was click a mission, then shoot things, and then pick up some loot. Wash, rinse, repeat.

There were no flying ship animations, no rotating solar maps, nothing.

I got into it for about a week or so before I realized I couldn't really take playing a game that was technically in open beta, or even alpha? I don't remember. So, I dropped it. I would revisit it again and again, shooting things, leveling up, and then losing motivation. Until suddenly, one day, the star map was moving, and you could see the ship you were on flying to those missions.

Amazing.

But I kept going in and out of it like tossing out pairs of socks. At least until around 2016 when an online friend convinced me to join her, because there was some ridiculous mission we had to do called "the Second Dream."

Let's just say, it blew me away. Finally. A character creator? And, a story? Albeit, you're some kind of Stranger Things-esque powerful teenager who pilots these metal space ninjas, but it was something. Evangelion, maybe.

I spent a week figuring out what all was new, ran around with my new human legs, found an open world thing on Earth ...

Yeah, I left the game again ... until 2018, and the Fortuna update. Needless to say, I was blown away, again. And, after getting frustrated that I couldn't just have the cool new guns and my own hoverboard in a reasonable amount of time ... I left.

This basically is the theme behind my relationship with Digital Extremes and Warframe. I'm the rubber-band player. Getting real excited about all the honestly really cool stuff, and revolutionary storytelling, and then having my motivation riddled with bullets and swords when faced with the prospect of having to spend time collecting things and grinding reputation.

The cycle begins again.

It's 2024, and I'm back in Warframe, enticed by some wild new expansion announcement that apparently takes you back to ... 1999??? HUH?

So, I'm swallowing the grind pill, and I'm doing it. Knocking every mission out, one by one, and I'm almost to the New War.

But, here are my feelings about Warframe, all these years later.

A space ninja MMO is freaking awesome. I have like, 20 different warframes, and some of them I've never even tried. I'm account level 8, almost 9, and I'm working on upgrading my own massive capital ship (called a Railjack). The story is gripping, wild, and probably some of the best writing I've ever seen in a game, and I cannot wait to get through to more recent content.

But, despite swallowing that pill, and despite working through toward what I want, that's the one problem that remains with Warframe. The game absolutely disrespects your time as a human being.

The Second War: Hey buddy, you need a Railjack and a Necramech before you can continue the story. Frikken' scrub.

Okay, so I have the Railjack, in which you use to engage in space combat that isn't all that much unlike combat in No Man's Sky. But ... the Necramech? Oh ... Oh, you gotta grind a bunch of materials on the dead moon Deimos before you can build it?

Queue the internal screaming. This is why I've left the game 40 times since 2014. I'm not a fan of grinding. I have a full-time job, I have extracurricular things I like to do with my time. Spending hours upon hours collecting materials, so I can build a mech, so I can engage in yet another form of combat, so I can continue the masterfully crafted storyline ... it seems to me like needless barriers to get to what you actually want.

The GAME.

But, sure, I mean, yeah. They need hooks to keep you playing, because if you blast through the storyline, and you don't have to do anything else, you lose your player base. I just wish grinding didn't feel like I suddenly had a second job. But ... I'M GONNA DO IT. I'm not quitting this time.

For real.

If you wanna help me out, my account name is CMDR_N0va.

My overall feelings on Warframe are that it's probably one of the best games ever made, that kind of annoys the absolute hell out of me ... at times.

@ 2ede6f6b:b94998e2

test

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/459389

@ 765da722:17c600e6

So here goes using the Nostr Writer plugin. This will be a really cool option, if it’ll work for me. The question is, where are the files/content, where’s the link?

Let’s try it …

@ d1b118c6:4985b38d

Chef's notes

I hope you like it, let me know

https://maria.omg.lol

Details

• ⏲️ Prep time: 10 minutes or so
• 🍳 Cook time: 30 minutes or so
• 🍽️ Servings: 1-4

Ingredients

• Brussels sprouts cut in half
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder
• Dried cranberries (craisins)
• Sunflower seeds
• Goat cheese
• Balsamic vinegar
• Sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F
2. Cut brussel sprouts in half
3. Put them on a baking sheet and mix them up with olive oil and seasoning
4. Throw them in the over for like 20-30 minutes
5. Mix balsamic vinegar and sugar together in a sauce pan, heat up til boil then turn it real low to thicken it up a bit
6. When the Brussels start to brown pull them out of the oven
7. Pour the balsamic sauce on the Brussels to taste
8. Add dried cranberries and sunflower seeds to taste
9. Add goat cheese to taste or use on flatbread/crackers on the side
10. Add bacon bits to taste (if you have already cooked bacon!)

@ a9434ee1:d5c885be

What makes Nostr and Bitcoin so extremely exciting to me, as a designer, is that they offer an entirely new design space. Something we never had before. Something that we can, for the first time ever, call…
A Free Market.

And not just that, but one where everyone speaks the same language. One that acknowledges that Sovereignty doesn’t go that far without Interoperability.

Since this is literally a first, it seems terribly naïve to assume that we can just copy what works for Big Tech’s walled gardens and add some Freedom sauce on top. I’ve been sketching out things like “Twitter but with Zaps”, “Youtube but with many algo’s”, “Patreon but with Bitcoin”, etc... for long enough to realize the harsh limits of such an approach. Instead I’ve found it more fruitful to start by looking at the characteristics of this new digital, interoperable free market and, only then, look for similar existing benchmarks that can serve as inspiration.

Because the convergence of the various Freedom Tech protocols (Nostr, Bitcoin, Cashu, …) are such a huge game changer for online monetization specifically, it seems even more naïve to just start copying Big Tech on that front, without proper examination.

If we did just play copycat, Monthly Subscriptions and Paywalls would be the obvious answer. This article dives into why they’re not.

Free as in Competition

In a free market, it’s going to be hard for you to set a price if you don’t have something scarce to sell. Unlike in a Big Tech walled garden, there’s no one blocking competitors from entering the market. That includes competitors that offer your stuff!
If what you create can easily be copied, it will.

Yes, Content creators, FOSS devs, Designers, … that’s you.
Charging for your article, podcast, app or movie doesn’t end well when people can find a free upload right next to yours. Open protocols remove the friction of having to go PirateBay for that sort of stuff. Luckily, they also remove the friction for people to value your content directly (#V4V Zaps) and for you to launch unique and scarce products related to what you do (Community, Merch, …).

Even if you have a scarce product to sell though, Nostr sets the bar lower than ever for others to start competing with your product. Every part of your product!

Interoperability breaks products and services down to their constituents and opens up every layer of the stack to competition. Currently most SAAS business models are basically very expensive monthly subscriptions for some hosting and computation. And guess what Nostr is extremely good at → Discovering and switching providers of hosting and computation.

In a competitive context like that, you need a monetization model that lets you adapt fast. If you choose to monetize with monthly subscriptions, you’ll be updating your subscription tiers every month, if not every week, just to remain competitive. If that’s the case, then what’s the point? Why not just have a cash price list?

Free as in Volatile

The reality of a free market is that price-discovery never takes a break. This is especially true for a market that uses a money that is still being discovered as money by 99% of the world. A money that, just like Nostr, only saw the light of day because its creators saw total chaos ahead without it.

Bitcoin and Nostr do #fixthemoney and do #fixtheinternet, but all that fixing isn’t exactly taking us on a smooth ride.

Smooth rides are stable rides, stable prices, stable amounts of locked-in users, stable ties with the state, etc… They are everything Freedom Tech is taking us on exciting journey away from.

Again, adaptability is key and your business model needs to reflect that. Monthly subscriptions don’t handle volatility well. It takes a lot of confidence, extremely loyal customers and liquid reserves to survive bumpy roads. That’s a lot of capital that probably has better uses. Better uses that Big Tech monopolies can ignore, but your competitors won’t.

Free as in “Number Go Up”

Denominating your subscriptions in “stable” fiat-currencies isn’t going to help neither. The mental cost for customers is only low as long you don’t have juggle more than 21 subscriptions. (yes, I completely made up that number but it’s somewhere around that, so bear with me).

Given that Subscription Hell is already a thing in Fiat-land once you go beyond that number, just try to imagine the amount of subscriptions you’d be handling in Nostr-land. Your 1 Netflix subscription suddenly became 6, to different service providers, plus 20 to all your favorite creators. Then add the subscriptions for all other internet use cases you can think of. Then add some more for the ones that you can’t even imagine yet.
This is not an overstatement. It is very very unlikely that your service happens to be the only one that subscriptions would work for. If they appear to work for you, every competitor or similar use case will be copying that model in no time.

So if they work, there would be a loooot of subscriptions.
That’s also a looot of: - recurring payments to forget about - different time periods to oversee - extra effort to go and unsubscribe or switch tiers - users thinking ‘I didn’t even really use this!” - users also thinking “What am I paying for exactly?”

In short, that’s asking for frustrated, disappointed and confused customers.

These subscriptions would then also need to be handled on top of all the #V4V Zaps and cash payments that are inevitably happening as well. Unlike Big Tech products you don’t get to just pick Subscriptions as the only option. You will have to be optimizing both the Wallet and Social UX/UI for all of these types of payments. Something I naïvely tried and quickly gave up on. It overcrowds interfaces, makes different applications less interoperable and creates a very confusing user experience.

And if you denominate everything in fiat, you add even more confusion since the Zaps from others are denominated in Bitcoin. That suddenly makes them variable from the fiat-denominator’s perspective. Other denominations work when you only have two parties (f.e. seller and buyer), not when you have groups of people zapping away at an article. For #V4V to gain traction zappers need recognition. If it’s completely variable, and thus unclear, who the top zappers of a piece of content are or if the biggest patrons of a creator are only visible if you go to some specific subscriber dashboard, you’re creating confusion and diluting recognition.

Zaps are awesome, nearly universally implemented, very simple to design for and they might just be enough. We’re mostly still early. Creators can’t even reply to Zaps yet. The first prototypes for frictionless Cashu zaps are only just coming out. Let’s explore all that further before we start adding subscriptions to the UI, the users’ mental load and the app developers endless list of “things to implement”.

If the current zap-rate of daily Nostr users (myself included) tells me anything, it’s that sending around small payments all the time isn’t really the issue. The mental cost for the user happens mostly at the level of:
”How the f*ck do I keep track of all this?”
“How do I fit this in with my regular monthly expenses?”
Subscriptions are only one answer to this. If they happen to still somehow solve the above issues for some use cases, we still have to find solutions anyway for the micro-payments side of things.

My point is thus mainly: we might as well start there and, who knows, we don’t even need subscriptions. Or at least not as a standard to strive towards. No one is stopping you from using time-based pricing for things that are actually time-based or from creating micro-apps that let you set up recurring zaps and other fun stuff like that. Just don’t promise creators and merchants that they can base their business models on them.

If you’re talking to people that will only consider Freedom Tech if they can have the stability of a group of monthly subscribers, you’re probably not talking to the right people (yet!).

Freedom Tech = Responsibility Tech.

Both seller and buyers need tools that help them take that responsibility. Especially regarding payments, the currently available tools are far from optimal and have barely scratched the surface of what’s possible in the interoperable ocean of possibilities. I say this more as an invitation than as a complaint of course. We are — yes, I’m saying it again — sooooo early.

So how can we help buyers be responsible while “not having to think about every little payment”?

For rich npubs on a network denominated in #NGU technology the answer can be quite simple: They simply don’t have to really think about it.
In fact, poor npubs neither as long they can set a spending budget and have great tools and transparency to help them manage it.

They need something a bit like their “lives left” in a video game. Or something that resembles envelope budgeting: like going to the farmers market with only a limited amount of cash.

Talking about farmers markets

Let’s look at what currently comes close to an interoperable free market in meat-space: Restaurant & Farmers markets. - No one has copyrights on pizza Margherita or chicken eggs - Entering the market is relatively cheap (food trucks, farmer stands, …) - Customers can pick and choose where they get “every layer of the stack” (drinks here, main dish there and ice cream over there)

Now look at how these businesses monetize: - Cash price lists - Discounts (for special occasions, loyal customers, ..) - Bundles (lunch menus, vegetable baskets, …)

Both restaurant owners and farmers have been trying out monthly subscriptions since forever, mostly because it would benefit them. But in places with high competition this has had exactly zero success.

What did have success is services that bundle farmers market food items for you and deliver it at your doorstep on a weekly basis. That’s what lower mental cost looks like. Ironically, these services often started out with the monthly subscription model and have had to switch because customers needed more flexibility. Now, in their apps, they let users pick what day they want what, at what price.
And these apps are not even Nostr yet.

Talking about Nostr markets

Nostr markets are not exactly farmers markets of course. But that is mostly good news. Nostr, Bitcoin and Cashu, in particular, remove a lot of the friction that cash still has in the physical world. They enable seamless micro-payments. That’s an innovation worth embracing, not something to hide away behind subscriptions.

Embracing micro-payments means that every little thing can have a real-time price. A price that, once payed, you never have to think about again. And some, if not most, micro-payments are so micro that you don’t have to really think about them in the first place. Especially if we’re talking about recurring events (pun intended).

If a chat message in a certain Community costs 2 sats, after your third message your added mental cost will likely be close to zero. At that point, the price is mostly a matter of transparency, fairness and spam prevention. When the Admin suddenly changes this price to 1000 sats however, you will need to think twice about posting such a message. But again, that is a good thing. That’s exactly what the Admin is monetizing.

He is curating for high signal content and conversations around a certain interest. His price list is one of his top tools for doing so. You pay him for being able to publish in his unique community. You “Pay Per Use” of that Community as a broadcasting channel for your messages, articles, videos, … You know everyone else does too.

Using monthly subscriptions for such a community would just invite abuse and poor quality. It would be like an all-you-can-eat restaurant where everyone has an infinite stomach size, you’re all at the same table and only the loudest screamers get heard.
So the Admin would put limits on what you specifically get for your subscription (100 messages per month, 210MB of hosting, etc etc…). The members would then demand flexibility or go elsewhere.

The admin would then provide different tiers.
Yet, most members would still need flexibility more than they need flat rate monthly pricing.

At the same time, the Admin’s “Pay Per Use” competitors will still be cheaper. They don’t have the overhead of handling the uncertainty that comes with providing stable pricing for several months. Trying their offer out is also way cheaper than immediately having to pay a subscription. The admin, on the other hand, cannot really offer free trials if he doesn’t have the locked-in users to pay for them.

In the end, just like restaurants, the Admin will switch to “Pay Per Use” and will use discounts and bundles to his advantage.

As long as users have great tools to keep an eye their spending, this sort of outcome is a win-win for the whole ecosystem. What users tend to like most about monthly subscriptions for something is the guarantee that they will not exceed XXX amount of money on that thing for the month. Nothing is stopping us from building tools that provide the same guarantee without the complications of handling monthly subscriptions.

Since most Bitcoin wallets are not daily-spending wallets and most Nostr projects aren’t monetizing yet, hardly any attention has been spent on tools like this. They all copied bank apps and display your total amount of money and a chronological feed of your transaction history. There are several problems with this: 1. You don’t want to openly showcase your total balance to everyone around you when you open the app 2. Your total balance shows “everything you have”. That is a terrible benchmark for determining “what you can sustainably spend”. 3. It’s also a terrible benchmark for determining “what you earned this month” 4. Micro-payments make a chronological feed of all your transactions completely unusable 5. Zaps make a lot of your transactions social. Zaps and eCash blur the line between money and message. And messages require interaction that transactions don’t.

I think we can do better.
So, let’s try!

Cash Budgets

Just like the previously mentioned “lives” in a game or the cash in your wallet for a night out, the first thing users will want to see is “How much do I have left?”. Since most people organize their budgets per month we can more specifically turn this into “How much do I have left this month?”. This means we need to allow users to set a monthly budget in the first place. Once that budget is set for the month, it facilitates all the rest.

This budget is their subscription now. Their Nostr subscription.
An interoperable subscription they can interact with in any trusted app.

And the best part: They pick the price.
They’re taking their responsibility and lowering their mental cost with one action.

Now, you can start playing with wallet and home screen Interfaces that show the user at a glance: - What they’ve got left to spend for that month - What they already spent - What they earned (relative to that budget and/or a specific earnings goal)

I’m currently exploring this design space myself and the extent to which Freedom Tech budgeting can be gamified in novel ways will make TikTok look boring.

Some baby UI steps in this direction

But that’s just the budget part of course. We still need non-intrusive ways to display all these little price-tags for things if we’re not hiding them away behind a subscription.

The good news is that, when it comes to movies, music, articles, posts, FOSS apps and all other types of information that can easily be copied, it doesn’t have a price tag. It just has people zapping it. People that can use a lot more context and recognition than they currently get. (showing top zappers everywhere and letting creators reply to zaps being just a humble start for that)

For the stuff that does have price-tag, even the most obvious answer isn’t as bad I though it would be:
Just put it on the button.
The bigger the sum, the bigger the button.

eCash is what can make all of this work as a one-button action anyway, removing most of the friction. A budget, on the other hand, is what can remove most of the worrying. Color indications, permission prompts for higher amounts, etc etc… can all work in tandem for this.

With these examples I’m mostly trying to give you an idea of what is still left largely unexplored territory.

A territory that we will have to go and explore in any case.
A territory where Communities are easier to monetize then Content is.
A territory where I can count the current number of active designers on both hands.
A territory that can desperately use a Design Community.

You can guess twice what’s next on my todo-list….