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@ c230edd3:8ad4a712
2025-04-09 00:33:31
## Chef's notes
I found this recipe a couple years ago and have been addicted to it since. Its incredibly easy, and cheap to prep. Freeze the sausage in flat, single serving portions. That way it can be cooked from frozen for a fast, flavorful, and healthy lunch or dinner. I took inspiration from the video that contained this recipe, and almost always pan fry the frozen sausage with some baby broccoli. The steam cooks the broccoli and the fats from the sausage help it to sear, while infusing the vibrant flavors. Serve with some rice, if desired. I often use serrano peppers, due to limited produce availability. They work well for a little heat and nice flavor that is not overpowering.
## Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 25 min
- 🍳 Cook time: 15 min (only needed if cooking at time of prep)
- 🍽️ Servings: 10
## Ingredients
- 4 lbs ground pork
- 12-15 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 Thai or Serrano peppers, rough chopped
- 1/4 c. lime juice
- 4 Tbsp fish sauce
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
## Directions
1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Portion and freeze, as desired.
3. Sautè frozen portions in hot frying pan, with broccoli or other fresh veggies.
4. Serve with rice or alone.
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@ 4bc0bea1:29b9f2aa
2025-04-08 12:27:36
## **How I’m Training Around An Elbow Injury**
My right elbow is a mess.
I hurt it wrestling with a friend on a wooden deck.
It's easy to avoid injuries in wrestling...if you only wrestle on the mat. I guess I don't like it easy.
To take it a step further, I made it much worse by doing straight arm ring exercises.
C'mon Jordan!
Straight arm ring exercises while your elbow already hurts...pure buffoonery.
Alas, here I am.
I could sit out from jiujitsu, but instead, I’m adjusting how I train so I don’t lose progress.
Injuries are part of the game, but how you adapt defines your progress.
Most people see injuries as setbacks. But they're actually opportunities to refine your game.
These opportunities force you to find ways to keep improving even when things aren’t perfect.
Things don't need to be perfect if you have some **G.R.I.T.**
Let's break this approach down.
---
## G – Grapple (Smart)
*Don't stop training. Modify it. Drill with a dummy, watch tape, or do technique you can handle. Buy a brace if need be. Stay in the game.*
There's nothing worse than forgetting everything you worked hard to learn. So don't let it happen.
Keep rolling. Do what you can without pain. Buy a brace if you think it will help. I wear [Anaconda's Elbow Brace](https://anacondafightwear.co/products/anaconda-elbow-brace) when I roll to make sure my elbow stays safe and pain-free.
I stop if I experience pain and don't allow myself to go 100%. Ignore your ego and give your body the pain-free work that it needs.
On days when it's fatigued, I drill with my dummy and watch instructionals so I can improve my technique.
Don't sit around. Grapple. But do it smart.
---
## R – Restore Movement
*Move the injured part pain-free to get blood flowing. Restore function over time.*
If you sit around and don't move your injured body part, it will heal slower.
Healing requires the nutrients that blood brings. And blood won't bring as much of the goods if it's not recruited.
Rehab your injury to give it the blood boost it needs.
I diagnosed myself with Olecranon (Elbow) Bursitis. I've been doing exercises recommended [here](https://youtu.be/71ISxtSxgds) to help it heal faster.
I only do the exercises that are pain-free for me right now. And I'm moving on to more difficult ones as my elbow condition improves.
Waiting for an injury to heal is a slow, frustrating process.
Be patient and stay consistent with your rehab.
---
## I – Integrate Strength
*Once pain-free, begin light strengthening. Train around the injury, not through it.*
Instagram recently sniped me with an ad for something called [The Torque Bar](https://thetibbarguy.com/products/the-torque-bar).
The benefits from using it are endless:
- It's a single tool that targets forearms, wrists, elbows, biceps, triceps, and shoulders.
- It has a thick knurled handle that enhances grip strength and forearm activation.
- It improves rotational strength (supination/pronation) for sports.
- It helps with tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, wrist tendinitis, and rotator cuff issues.
- It strengthens stabilizing muscles to reduce joint hyperextension and strain risks.
So of course I had to buy it.
A couple weeks of these [torque bar exercises](https://youtu.be/tUDgqpFcJ9k) and I'm hooked. It's strengthening my neglected arm muscles and my elbow without any pain.
It's a key piece of my routine going forward and I highly recommend it for others.
The best part is that it doesn't agitate my injury and it's helping me get stronger.
That's the goal here.
---
## T – Thrive with Nutrition & Sleep
*Eat clean to recover faster. Sleep well. Don’t waste healing energy on processed junk.*
This is the number one lever to pull in your healing journey. And also a great way to live.
### Eat Clean
I eat healthy foods like ground beef, wild caught salmon, fruit, and more whole foods 80% of the time.
The days I eat clean are the days my elbow feels it best.
The other 20% of the time – when I eat some processed, junk food – my elbow aches. It makes me feel like I'm back at square one. The consequences of junk food are astounding.
I've put the 80/20 rule on hold and changed it to 95/5 to help this injury heal faster.
### Sleep Well
My sleep has been horrible.
My daughter was born 3 weeks ago and she's been fussy. I'm getting 3-6hrs of sleep a night. It's definitely not helping my elbow.
Sleep is the most important piece of the human equation.
Bad sleep can result in
- Low energy levels
- Increased risk of injury
- Poor eating habits
- Lack of productivity
It sets the tone for each day.
If you take anything away from this, let it be that you need to optimize for sleep.
If you're in a situation like me, control what you can control.
I have more control over my food than my sleep so that's why I'm being more disciplined with it.
Once my sleep improves, I expect everything to be firing on all cylinders.
---
## The Bottom Line
Injuries are opportunities to refine your game.
But you need to have some **G.R.I.T.** to do it.
- **G – Grapple (Smart)**:
Don’t stop training. Change it. Drill with a dummy, watch tape, or do technique you can handle. Stay in the game.
- **R – Restore Movement**:
Move the injured part pain-free to get blood flowing. Restore function over time.
- **I – Integrate Strength**:
Once pain-free, begin light strengthening. Train around the injury, not through it.
- **T – Thrive with Nutrition & Sleep**:
Eat clean to recover faster. Sleep well. Don’t waste healing energy on processed junk.
Do the above and you'll be back better than before.
---
Injured and not sure what you *can* still train? Send me a message – happy to help however I can.
*Original post is [here](https://www.jordanlaster.com/how-to-keep-progressing-on-the-mats-while-injured/)*
*You can find more of my work on [Ghost](https://www.jordanlaster.com/) and [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAJ8Q1orv_rAeXLYm9PAf1Q)*
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@ 000002de:c05780a7
2025-04-08 01:24:25
> Trump is trying to sell a victim narrative and I don't buy it.
Trump repeats a troupe that I find hard to swallow. The US is getting ripped off. When he says this, as far as I can tell he's not referring to the people. He's referring the US government getting ripped off by other nations. This is so absurd I'm surprised I don't hear more people push back on it.
The US is the most powerful government in the history of the planet. No nation has the firepower or wealth of the US. The US has manipulated the governments and policies of much of the world since WW2. The idea that the US government is getting ripped off is absurd.
Trump and I agree that NATO is obsolete. It was created to counter a government that dissolved in the 90s. This should be an example to everyone that governments do not behave like businesses. They do not respond to market forces. They will always seek to increase their power and influence and always resist any efforts to reduce their size and scope. But back to Trump. He says that the US is getting ripped off by the other NATO countries. I would say the US people are in indeed being ripped off by their own government. But the US government is NOT getting ripped off.
The US military power in Europe is a massive influence on geopolitics in the region. US military companies benefit massively as well. The US military has bases all over the globe and if you don't think that is a factor in "diplomatic" negotiations you are being naive. The US uses this "defensive" shield to keep the "leaders" of Europe in line. The US isn't being ripped off. This is just a marketing tactic Trump is using to sell downsizing the US military deployments.
Trump also loves to point out how other countries are imposing tariffs on the US. We are being ripped off! I mean, he has a point there. But if tariffs aren't a tax as many in his admin like to claim, how exactly are "we" being ripped off? We are being told that Trump's tariff policy isn't a tax and that expecting prices to increase is oversimplifying things. The talk about tariffs is frankly frustrating.
On the one hand the left is saying tariffs are a tax and is going to drive up prices. Yet these same people pretend to not understand that corporate tax increases don't have the same effect. The right claims to understand tax policy and often oppose corporate taxes. They will tell you that those taxes just get passed down to consumers in the form of price increases. Now they are pretending to not get this in relation to tariffs.
I've read and listened to the pro tariff people and they aren't all dumb. They may be right about tariffs not effecting all products and nations equally. I guess we will find out. But, can we be honest? The US is not getting ripped off.
Someone is getting ripped off, but it isn't the US federal government. Its the people of the world. First, the people of the world live under the thumb of the US fiat dollar standard. We in the US complain about 3+% inflation but most people in the world would kill for that level of inflation. Most of the world gets none of supposed benefits from government spending. They only get the debasement of their own currencies.
Moving away from economics, the entire globe is affected by the elections in the US. The US is the top dog government and its decisions effect people everywhere. The US deep state has manipulated many elections across the globe and continues to do so. Meanwhile we are told that Russia is manipulating our elections. So who exactly is getting ripped off here? I think the nation (the people) are being subjected to massive mismanagement at best. I can support that argument.
Don't get me wrong... I know we in the US are getting ripped off. We are being ruled by people that do not represent us and do not answer to us. The politicians that claim to represent us are being paid and influenced by foreign groups ranging from Israeli political groups, to any number of other groups domestic and foreign. We are getting ripped off, but I firmly believe the people in the US have it better than most of the world. Trump is trying to sell a victim narrative and I don't buy it.
originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/937482
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@ 3165b802:a9f51d37
2025-04-07 17:01:23
#Humanrights #Human #Rights
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@ f7d424b5:618c51e8
2025-04-06 16:48:03
The promised Nintendo direct has come and there is a LOT to say about it. If you ever wondered how such a reveal would be taken differently by a dad, a NEET, and a people programmer this is the episode for you! Also those SAG bootlickers are getting uppity again. All of that and more!
Sources cited:
- [Nintendo Online subscribers get to upgrade the zelda games for free for some reason?](https://www.nintendo.com/us/whatsnew/whats-new-with-nintendo-switch-online-on-nintendo-switch-2/)
- Do Nintendo games ever actually go on sale?
- [Kirby](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/kirby-and-the-forgotten-land)
- [Metroid](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/metroid-dread)
- [TOTK](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom)
- [Pokeshit](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/pokemon-legends-arceus)
- [EOW](https://www.dekudeals.com/items/the-legend-of-zelda-echoes-of-wisdom)
- [there's literally 252 games on sale at VGP right now](https://videogamesplus.ca/collections/sales?filter.p.product_type=NINTENDO+SWITCH&page=1&sort_by=best-selling&grid_list=grid-view)
- [SAG agreement you can read for yourself](https://www.sagaftra.org/interim-interactive-media-agreement)
- [SAG literally says on their website to go audition for non-union roles and then strongarm them into going union if they wanna keep you](https://www.sagaftra.org/union-myth-10)
Obligatory:
- [Listen to the new episode here!](https://melonmancy.net/listen)
- [Discuss this episode on OUR NEW FORUM](https://melonmancy.cafe/d/106-mp104-im-professor-dielan-and-this-is-how-to-be-a-hater-101)
- [Get the RSS and Subscribe](https://feeds.rssblue.com/melonmancy-podcast) (this is a new feed URL, but the old one redirects here too!)
- Get a modern podcast app to use that RSS feed on at [newpodcastapps.com](http://newpodcastapps.com/)
- Or listen to the show on [the forum](https://melonmancy.cafe) using the embedded [Podverse](https://podverse.fm) player!
- [Send your complaints here](https://melonmancy.net/contact-us)
Reminder that this is a [Value4Value](https://value4value.info/) podcast so any support you can give us via a modern podcasting app is greatly appreciated and we will never bow to corporate sponsors!
-

@ ee6ea13a:959b6e74
2025-04-06 16:38:22
## Chef's notes
You can cook this in one pan on the stove. I use a cast iron pan, but you can make it in a wok or any deep pan.
I serve mine over rice, which I make in a rice cooker. If you have a fancy one, you might have a setting for sticky or scorched rice, so give one of those a try.
To plate this, I scoop rice into a bowl, and then turn it upside-down to give it a dome shape, then spoon the curry on top of it.
Serve with chopped cilantro and lime wedges.
## Details
- ⏲️ Prep time: 20
- 🍳 Cook time: 20
- 🍽️ Servings: 4
## Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into 2" pieces
- 2 tablespoons coconut or avocado oil
- 1 cup white or yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 cup red bell pepper, sliced or diced
- 4 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small (4oz) jar of Thai red curry paste
- 1 can (13oz) unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 cup carrots, shredded or julienned
- 1 lime, zest and juice
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish
## Directions
1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Once hot, add onions and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook 3 minutes, or until onions are softened, stirring often.
2. Add the red curry paste, garlic, ginger, and coriander. Cook about 1 minute, or until fragrant, stirring often.
3. Add coconut milk, brown sugar, soy sauce, and chicken. Stir, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium. Simmer uncovered for 7 minutes, occasionally stirring.
4. Add carrots and red bell peppers, and simmer 5-7 more minutes, until sauce slightly thickens and chicken is cooked through.
5. Remove from heat, and stir in the lime zest, and half of the lime juice.
6. Serve over rice, topped with cilantro, and add more lime juice if you like extra citrus.
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@ 9358c676:9f2912fc
2025-04-06 16:33:35
### OBJECTIVE
Establish a comprehensive and standardized hospital framework for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of pulmonary embolism (PE), aiming to improve quality of care, optimize resources, and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with this condition in the hospital setting.
### SCOPE
All hospitalized patients over 15 years of age in our institution.
### RESPONSIBILITIES
Institution physicians. Nursing staff.
### REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
- SATI Guidelines for the Management and Treatment of Acute Thromboembolic Disease. Revista Argentina de Terapia Intensiva 2019 - 36 No. 4.
- Farreras-Rozman. Internal Medicine. 16th Edition. El Sevier. 2010.
- SAC Consensus for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Venous Thromboembolic Disease. Argentine Journal of Cardiology. October 2024 Vol. 92 Suppl. 6 ISSN 0034-7000
- 2019 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of acute pulmonary embolism developed in collaboration with the European Respiratory Society (ERS). European Heart Journal (2020) 41, 543-603. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehz405
### INTRODUCTION
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a cardiovascular emergency caused by a blood clot, usually originating from the deep veins of the lower limbs, that travels to the lungs and obstructs the pulmonary arteries. This condition represents a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitals. Timely diagnosis and treatment are essential to improve clinical outcomes.
The clinical presentation of PE is highly variable, ranging from mild symptoms to acute cardiovascular shock. Risk factors such as prolonged immobilization, recent surgery, and chronic illnesses complicate its identification and management.
PE has an annual incidence of 70 cases per 100,000 people. Prognosis varies from high-risk PE with high mortality to low-risk PE with minimal hemodynamic impact. Without thromboprophylaxis, deep vein thrombosis (DVT)—the main predisposing factor (90–95% of cases)—has variable incidence depending on the surgery type, and up to 25% of embolic events occur post-discharge.
### PREDISPOSING FACTORS
Strong Risk Factors (OR >10):
- Hip or leg fracture
- Hip or knee prosthesis
- Major general surgery
- Major trauma
- Spinal cord injury
Moderate Risk Factors (OR 2–9):
- Arthroscopic knee surgery
- Central venous catheters
- Chemotherapy
- Chronic heart or respiratory failure
- Hormonal replacement therapy
- Malignancy
- Oral contraceptives
- Stroke with paralysis
- Pregnancy or postpartum
- Prior VTE
- Thrombophilia
Mild Risk Factors (OR <2):
- Bed rest <3 days
- Prolonged travel
- Advanced age
- Laparoscopic surgery
- Obesity
- Antepartum period
- Varicose veins
### CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS AND BASIC COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES
**Symptoms:** Dyspnea, chest pain, cough, hemoptysis, bronchospasm, fever.
**Signs:** Tachycardia, desaturation, jugular vein distention, orthostatism, DVT signs, syncope, or shock.
**Basic Studies:**
- Chest X-ray (may show infarction or atelectasis)
- ECG (T wave inversion, RV strain, S1Q3T3 pattern)
### RISK ASSESSMENT SCORES
**Wells Score:**
- >6 points: High probability
- 2–6: Moderate
- ≤2: Low
- Modified: >4 = likely PE, ≤4 = unlikely PE
**Geneva Score:**
- >10: High
- 4–10: Intermediate
- 0–3: Low
**PERC Rule:**
If all criteria are negative and clinical suspicion is low, PE can be excluded without further testing.
### DIAGNOSTIC STUDIES
- **D-dimer:** High sensitivity; used in low/moderate risk patients.
- **CT Pulmonary Angiography (CTPA):** First-line imaging; limited in pregnancy/renal failure.
- **Lower limb Doppler ultrasound:** Indirect evidence of PE when DVT is detected.
- **V/Q scan:** Alternative when CTPA is contraindicated.
- **Transthoracic echocardiogram:** Used to assess RV function, especially in shock.
- **Pulmonary angiography:** Gold standard; reserved for complex cases due to invasiveness.
### RISK STRATIFICATION
**High-risk PE (5%):** Hemodynamic instability, mortality >15%. Requires urgent reperfusion.
**Intermediate-risk PE (30–50%):** Hemodynamically stable with signs of RV dysfunction or elevated biomarkers.
**Low-risk PE:** Mortality <1%, eligible for outpatient management.
**PESI Score:**
- I (<65): Very low risk
- II (65–85): Low
- III (86–105): Intermediate
- IV (106–125): High
- V (>125): Very high
**Simplified PESI:** ≥1 point = high risk; 0 = low risk
### TREATMENT
**High-risk PE:**
- **Systemic fibrinolysis** with alteplase 100 mg over 2 h or 0.6 mg/kg (max 50 mg) IV bolus over 15 min.
- Suspend UFH 30–60 min before lysis if already on treatment.
- Resume anticoagulation (UFH or LMWH) when aPTT <2x normal.
- Consider surgical embolectomy or catheter-directed therapy if fibrinolysis fails or is contraindicated.
- Maintain SpO₂ >90%, CVP 8–12 mmHg, and use vasopressors/inotropes as needed. ECMO in select cases.
**Contraindications to Fibrinolytics:**
- Absolute: Recent stroke, active bleeding, CNS tumors, recent major trauma or surgery.
- Relative: Anticoagulant use, recent TIA, pregnancy, uncontrolled hypertension, liver disease.
**Intermediate-risk PE:**
- Initiate anticoagulation (enoxaparin 1–1.5 mg/kg SC every 12 h, max 100 mg/dose).
- Fibrinolysis is not routine; reserve for clinical deterioration.
- Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) may be considered.
- Consider IVC filter in absolute contraindication to anticoagulation or recurrence despite treatment.
**RIETE Bleeding Risk Score:**
- >4 points: High risk
- 1–4: Intermediate
- 0: Low
### INVASIVE TREATMENT
Consider catheter-directed therapy when:
- High bleeding risk
- Fibrinolysis contraindicated
- Delayed symptom onset >14 days
Some centers use this as first-line therapy in high-risk PE.
### QUALITY INDICATOR
**Indicator:**
Proportion of PE cases with documented risk stratification in the medical record at initial evaluation.
**Formula:**
(PE cases with documented stratification / total PE cases evaluated) × 100
**Target:** >85% of PE cases must have risk stratification recorded at the time of initial evaluation.
### Autor
**Kamo Weasel - MD Infectious Diseases - MD Internal Medicine - #DocChain Community**
npub1jdvvva54m8nchh3t708pav99qk24x6rkx2sh0e7jthh0l8efzt7q9y7jlj
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@ 8d34bd24:414be32b
2025-04-06 14:34:37
This weekend my pastor was preaching on this passage. Two words stood out when we were reading the passage, “*but Jesus* … .” This made me start searching for other instances of “*but Jesus* …” to see what we could learn.
> And a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, “Who is the one who touched Me?” And while they were all denying it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing in on You.” ***But Jesus*** said, “Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.” (Luke 8:43-46) {emphasis mine}
In this passage people were crowding Jesus and fighting to get close to Him or even touch Him and in this dense crowd he asked, “*Who is the one who touched Me*?” Despite many people being pressed up beside Him, they all denied touching Him and Peter basically reprimanded Jesus that this was a ridiculous question because so many people were touching Him. “*But Jesus* …” knew that someone had touched Him and faith and that His power had healed that person. For the sake of the woman, the crowd, and His disciples, He wanted them to know what had happened and bless this woman that had suffered for more than a decade. He didn’t see the situation like everyone else. He saw things they did not see and like all of the best teachers, he asked His students questions to lead them to the truth. Despite the fact that he was on the way to helping Jairus’s dying daughter, Jesus stopped for this moment to bless this suffering woman and to teach the crowd the meaning of faith and the meaning of mercy.
How often do we ignore teaching moments or moments of service that could make a difference in a person’s life because we are busy and focused on something else? But Jesus did not miss the opportunity.
So often Jesus’s response to things are not like our own. “*For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts*.” (Isaiah 55:9)
> But the news about Him was spreading even farther, and large crowds were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ***But Jesus*** Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. (Luke 5:15-16) {emphasis mine}
Most of us, if we were bringing crowds through a blog or preaching or conferences would tend to continue working to reach more people, but Jesus took time to slip away from the crowd to pray. He prioritized prayer and fellowship with the Father knowing that ministry without the Father is no ministry at all. Jesus knew that there is more to sharing the Gospel than just drawing a crowd or growing a following. Jesus built the foundation before trying to build the church.
> And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and to set him down in front of Him. But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” ***But Jesus***, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.” (Luke 5:18-24) {emphasis mine}
This suffering man was paralyzed. His loving friends were trying to get him help by focusing on his physical needs, but Jesus saw the man’s most important need — his need for salvation. Instead of focusing on the obvious physical needs of the man, He dealt with the more important spiritual needs. He also knew that His critics were judging Him and denying His ability to wipe the man’s sins away. To prove that He could forgive the man’s sins, He also healed the man’s paralysis. After healing the man’s more important spiritual needs, He then healed the more obvious physical needs.
I know I catch myself spending lots of time praying for people’s physical needs. I pray asking for people to have healing from sickness and cancer. I pray for jobs and finances. I pray for relationships. I’ve noticed that I spend more time praying for physical needs that are problem today, but don’t matter eternally and not enough praying for salvation and guidance for people. I focus on what I can see, that although urgent, have little to no effect on the eternal well-being of the people. I should be more like Jesus and spend more time on praying for people’s spiritual needs that determine their eternal well-being.
> Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. ***But Jesus***, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. (John 2:23-25) {emphasis mine}
When we have people asking for us to share Jesus with them, we jump at the opportunity. We seek the crowds and the following. We seek the influence and prestige, but Jesus did not trust those seeking Him and knew they were looking for blessings without the submission or repentance.
I’ve noticed that I will have people asking questions about the Bible and Christianity. They ask me to defend everything in the Bible and what I believe. Because I have studied these things and studied apologetics, I tend to spend a large amount of time debating these topics, but it is frequently obvious from the beginning that these people are not truth seekers. They are people looking to throw “gotcha” questions at Christians in the hope of destroying their faith or making them look bad. I need to get better at asking questions of them and recognizing these situations as not interest and inquisitiveness, but attempts to destroy and not waste time on them. (Of course, sometimes there are watchers/listeners who can be helped by knowing there are answers to these questions.)
> When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ***But Jesus*** said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. (Matthew 14:15-20) {emphasis mine}
We so often see the glass half empty. We see all of the things we can’t do, but Jesus knows what can be done and we should know that we can do all things in Christ who strengthens us. Instead of focusing on why we can’t, we need to trust God to enable us to do whatever He asks us to do.
> Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” ***But Jesus*** said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Mark 10:2-8) {emphasis mine}
How often do we look for a loophole in God’s word? The Pharisees were looking for an excuse to do what they wanted to do, but Jesus said that He had allowed for their evil ways (for the good of the woman they wanted to divorce) despite His perfect plan which they had rejected. “*Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times*. (Matthew 18:21-22)” Peter thought he was being generous forgiving someone seven times, but Jesus wanted him to forgive as He had forgiven Peter. (See the Lord’s Prayer “*Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us*.” Luke 11:4)**
> And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any. Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” ***But Jesus*** perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away. (Matthew 22:16-22) {emphasis mine}
Instead of directly answering the question that was asked, since it was not asked in good faith, He corrected their hypocrisy and showed them the truth. We are not nearly as wise and observant as Jesus, but we should still try to see what is truly being asked instead of just answering the obvious question. So often there is a need or motive behind the question that needs to be addressed. I’ve found that asking questions of the questioner can both uncover what is behind the question and also lead them to the truth. This method, also known as the Socratic Method, is taught well from a Christian perspective in the book [“Tactics”](https://www.amazon.com/Tactics-10th-Anniversary-Discussing-Convictions/dp/0310101468/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1) by Gregory Koukl.
> They brought the boy to Him. When he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling around and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. It has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!” And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” When Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again.” After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” ***But Jesus*** took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. (Mark 9:20-27) {emphasis mine}
Jesus sees things as they are. He honors belief. I love the boy’s father’s response to Jesus, “*I do believe; help my unbelief*.” I’ve felt like this before. Jesus never gives up and as long as we have Jesus, we should never give up on someone.
> As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting:
>
> “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord;\
> Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
>
> Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” ***But Jesus*** answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:31-40) {emphasis mine}
The Pharisees saw a threat to their power and prestige, but Jesus saw reality as it was. Jesus saw the fulfillment of scripture and a small glimpse of the glory He deserved. They focused on what they disagreed with and what they didn’t like. Jesus focused on the fact that worship of God cannot be stopped. What do you focus on?
> Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered into the Praetorium again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” ***But Jesus*** gave him no answer. So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” (John 19:8-11) {emphasis mine}
Most innocent men would be continually speaking the truth of their innocence and trying to convince Pilate to listen, but Jesus had a purpose. He didn’t act like a normal innocent man, nor did He act like a normal guilty man. He was God incarnate living out His perfect plan. He knew Pilate didn’t have authority to kill or free Him, but that everything was going according to His perfect plan.
When we are following Jesus, we need to accept that God is in control. Not every hardship needs to be fixed. Sometimes it is part of God’s perfect plan. No one, man or spirit, has the authority to harm a believer unless God allows it and He only allows it if it furthers His perfect plan and is used for good. We need to know God and know His word. We need to listen to His leading through the Spirit, so we respond as Jesus did, “*You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above*.” This is as true of us today as it was about our savior on that fateful day. God is always in control.
> Pilate questioned Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He \*answered him, “It is as you say.” The chief priests began to accuse Him harshly. Then Pilate questioned Him again, saying, “Do You not answer? See how many charges they bring against You!” ***But Jesus*** made no further answer; so Pilate was amazed. (Mark 15:2-5) {emphasis mine}
How often are people amazed because Jesus does not respond in the way a normal person would. Are there times that we should speak up and defend the word of God? Yes. Are there times that we should, like Jesus, make no further answer? Yes. We must ask God for guidance on the right response for each situation.
> While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. ***But Jesus*** said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. ***But Jesus*** answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him. (Luke 22:47-51) {emphasis mine}
The common response to being mistreated is to mistreat back. We so often try to do to others at least as badly as they have done to us, but Jesus was different. When Judas betrayed Jesus, He mercifully responded, “*Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss*?” When soldiers came to arrest Jesus for crimes He did not commit and one of His disciples struck a man with his sword, Jesus healed this man who had come to do Him harm. Jesus followed His own command to turn the other cheek. He gave love to those who were unloving. He gave mercy to those who showed no mercy. Do you seek revenge or do you seek to understand those who do you wrong and help them? Be loving and merciful just as Jesus is loving and merciful.
The best way to be a light for Jesus is to act like Jesus and acting like Jesus requires thinking like Jesus and responding in the most unimaginable ways. Jesus was not like a normal man and neither should we be.
Father God, help us to see other people and the world as you see it. Help us to respond as Jesus would. Help us to be different, so we can honor you with our differences.
Trust Jesus
-

@ f839fb67:5c930939
2025-04-06 08:59:54
# Relays
| Name | Address | Price (Sats/Year) | Status |
| - | - | - | - |
| stephen's aegis relay | wss://paid.relay.vanderwarker.family | 42069 |   |
| stephen's Outbox | wss://relay.vanderwarker.family | Just Me |   |
| stephen's Inbox | wss://haven.vanderwarker.family/inbox | WoT |   |
| stephen's DMs | wss://haven.vanderwarker.family/chat | WoT |   |
| VFam Data Relay | wss://data.relay.vanderwarker.family | 0 |   |
| VFam Bots Relay | wss://skeme.vanderwarker.family | Invite |   |
| VFGroups (NIP29) | wss://groups.vanderwarker.family | 0 |   |
| [TOR] My Phone Relay | ws://naswsosuewqxyf7ov7gr7igc4tq2rbtqoxxirwyhkbuns4lwc3iowwid.onion | 0 | Meh... |
---
# My Pubkeys
| Name | hex | nprofile |
| - | - | - |
| Main | f839fb6714598a7233d09dbd42af82cc9781d0faa57474f1841af90b5c930939 | nostr:nprofile1qqs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgpramhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3us9mapfx |
| Vanity (Backup) | 82f21be67353c0d68438003fe6e56a35e2a57c49e0899b368b5ca7aa8dde7c23 | nostr:nprofile1qqsg9usmuee48sxkssuqq0lxu44rtc4903y7pzvmx694efa23h08cgcpramhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3ussel49x |
| VFStore | 6416f1e658ba00d42107b05ad9bf485c7e46698217e0c19f0dc2e125de3af0d0 | nostr:nprofile1qqsxg9h3uevt5qx5yyrmqkkehay9cljxdxpp0cxpnuxu9cf9mca0p5qpramhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3usaa8plu |
| NostrSMS | 9be1b8315248eeb20f9d9ab2717d1750e4f27489eab1fa531d679dadd34c2f8d | nostr:nprofile1qqsfhcdcx9fy3m4jp7we4vn305t4pe8jwjy74v062vwk08dd6dxzlrgpramhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3us595d45 |
# Bots
### Unlocks Bot
**Hex:** *2e941ad17144e0a04d1b8c21c4a0dbc3fbcbb9d08ae622b5f9c85341fac7c2d0*
**nprofile:**
*nostr:nprofile1qqsza9q669c5fc9qf5dccgwy5rdu877th8gg4e3zkhuus56pltru95qpramhxue69uhhx6m9d4jjuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3ust4kvak*
**Latest Data:**
nostr:naddr1qq882mnvda3kkttrda6kuar9wgq37amnwvaz7tmnddjk6efwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyqhfgxk3w9zwpgzdrwxzr39qm0plhjae6z9wvg44l8y9xs06clpdqqcyqqq823cgnl9u5
### Step Counter
**Hex:** *9223d2faeb95853b4d224a184c69e1df16648d35067a88cdf947c631b57e3de7*
**nprofile:** *nostr:nprofile1qqsfyg7jlt4etpfmf53y5xzvd8sa79ny356sv75gehu50333k4lrmecpramhxue69uhhx6m9d4jjuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3ustswp3w*
**Latest Data:**
nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4gupzpy3r6tawh9v98dxjyjscf357rhckvjxn2pn63rxlj37xxx6hu008qys8wumn8ghj7umtv4kk2tnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jtcqp3ehgets943k7atww3jhyn39gff
### RCTGuest
**Hex:** *373904615c781e46bf5bf87b4126c8a568a05393b1b840b1a2a3234d20affa0c*
**nprofile:** *nostr:nprofile1qqsrwwgyv9w8s8jxhadls76pymy2269q2wfmrwzqkx32xg6dyzhl5rqpramhxue69uhhx6m9d4jjuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3usy92jlx*
---
# "Personal Nostr Things"
> [D] = Saves darkmode preferences over nostr
> [A] = Auth over nostr
> [B] = Beta (software)
> [z] = zap enabled
- [[DABz] Main Site](https://vanderwarker.family)
- [[DAB] Contact Site](https://stephen.vanderwarker.family)
- [[DAB] PGP Site](https://pgp.vanderwarker.family)
- [[DAB] VFCA Site](https://ca.vanderwarker.family)
---
# Other Services (Hosted code)
* [Blossom](https://blossom.vanderwarker.family)
 
* [NostrCheck](https://nostr.vanderwarker.family)
 
---
# Emojis Packs
* Minecraft
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqy566twv43hyctxwsq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82nsd0k5wp</code>
* AIM
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqxxz6tdv4kk7arfvdhkuucpramhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuanpdejx2unhv9exketj9enxzmtfd3usyg8c88akw9ze3fer85yah4p2lqkvj7qap749w360rpq6ly94eycf8ypsgqqqw48qe0j2yk</code>
* Blobs
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqz5ymr0vfesz8mhwden5te0wfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqgs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgrqsqqqa2wek4ukj</code>
* FavEmojis
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqy5vctkg4kk76nfwvq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82nsf7sdwt</code>
* Modern Family
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqx56mmyv4exugzxv9kkjmreqy0hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jq3qlqulkec5tx98yv7snk759tuzejtcr5865468fuvyrtuskhynpyusxpqqqp65ujlj36n</code>
* nostriches (Amethyst collection)
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq9xummnw3exjcmgv4esz8mhwden5te0wfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqgs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgrqsqqqa2w2sqg6w</code>
* Pepe
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqz9qetsv5q37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82ns85f6x7</code>
* Minecraft Font
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq8y66twv43hyctxwssyvmmwwsq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82nsmzftgr</code>
* Archer Font
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq95zunrdpjhygzxdah8gqglwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0ypzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqvzqqqr4fclkyxsh</code>
* SMB Font
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqv4xatsv4ezqntpwf5k7gzzwfhhg6r9wfejq3n0de6qz8mhwden5te0wfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqgs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgrqsqqqa2w0wqpuk</code>
---
# Git Over Nostr
* NostrSMS
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqyxummnw3e8xmtnqy0hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jqfrwaehxw309amk7apwwfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqyj8wumn8ghj7urpd9jzuun9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jqg5waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t0qyxhwumn8ghj7mn0wvhxcmmvqgs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgrqsqqqaueqp0epk</code>
* nip51backup
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq9ku6tsx5ckyctrdd6hqqglwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0yqjxamnwvaz7tmhda6zuun9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jqfywaehxw309acxz6ty9eex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0yq3gamnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwv3sk6atn9e5k7qgdwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkcq3qlqulkec5tx98yv7snk759tuzejtcr5865468fuvyrtuskhynpyusxpqqqpmej4gtqs6</code>
* bukkitstr
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqykyattdd5hgum5wgq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gpydmhxue69uhhwmm59eex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0yqjgamnwvaz7tmsv95kgtnjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dspzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqvzqqqrhnyf6g0n2</code>
---
# Market Places
Please use [Nostr Market](https://market.nostr.com) or somthing simular, to view.
* VFStore
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqjx2v34xe3kxvpn95cnqven956rwvpc95unscn9943kxet98q6nxde58p3ryqglwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0yqjvamnwvaz7tmgv9mx2m3wweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7f0da6hgcn00qqjgamnwvaz7tmsv95kgtnjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gpydmhxue69uhhwmm59eex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0ypzqeqk78n93wsq6sss0vz6mxl5shr7ge5cy9lqcx0smshpyh0r4uxsqvzqqqr4gvlfm7gu</code>
---
# Badges
## Created
* paidrelayvf
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq9hqctfv3ex2mrp09mxvqglwaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8vctwv3jhyampwf4k2u3wvesk66tv0ypzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqvzqqqr48y85v3u3</code>
* iPow
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqzxj5r02uq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82wgg02u0r</code>
* codmaster
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqykxmmyd4shxar9wgq37amnwvaz7tmjv4kxz7fwweskuer9wfmkzuntv4ezuenpd45kc7gzyrurn7m8z3vc5u3n6zwm6s40stxf0qwsl2jhga83ssd0jz6ujvynjqcyqqq82wgk3gm4g</code>
* iMine
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqzkjntfdejsz8mhwden5te0wfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqgs0sw0mvu29nznjx0gfm02z47pve9up6ra22ar57xzp47gttjfsjwgrqsqqqafed5s4x5</code>
---
# Clients I Use
* Amethyst
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3cx5urqv3nxymngdphqgsyvrp9u6p0mfur9dfdru3d853tx9mdjuhkphxuxgfwmryja7zsvhqrqsqqql8kavfpw3</code>
* noStrudel
- <code>nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3cxccrvd34xser2dpkqy28wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hsygpxdq27pjfppharynrvhg6h8v2taeya5ssf49zkl9yyu5gxe4qg55psgqqq0nmq5mza9n</code>
* nostrsms
- <code>nostr:naddr1qq9rzdejxcunxde4xymqz8mhwden5te0wfjkccte9emxzmnyv4e8wctjddjhytnxv9kkjmreqgsfhcdcx9fy3m4jp7we4vn305t4pe8jwjy74v062vwk08dd6dxzlrgrqsqqql8kjn33qm</code>
---
# Lists
* Fediverse
- <code>nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4xqpzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jtcqp9rx2erfwejhyum9j4g0xh</code>
* AI
- <code>nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4xypzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jtcqqfq5j65twn7</code>
* Asterisk Shenanigans
- <code>nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4xypzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jtcqz3qhxar9wf5hx6eq2d5x2mnpde5kwctwwvaxjuzz</code>
* Minecraft Videos
- <code>nostr:naddr1qvzqqqr4xypzp7peldn3gkv2wgeap8dag2hc9nyhs8g04ft5wnccgxhepdwfxzfeqys8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnkv9hxgetjwashy6m9wghxvctdd9k8jtcqzpxkjmn9vdexzen5yptxjer9daesqrd8jk</code>
-

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2025-04-05 21:51:52
# Markdown: Syntax
* [Overview](#overview)
* [Philosophy](#philosophy)
* [Inline HTML](#html)
* [Automatic Escaping for Special Characters](#autoescape)
* [Block Elements](#block)
* [Paragraphs and Line Breaks](#p)
* [Headers](#header)
* [Blockquotes](#blockquote)
* [Lists](#list)
* [Code Blocks](#precode)
* [Horizontal Rules](#hr)
* [Span Elements](#span)
* [Links](#link)
* [Emphasis](#em)
* [Code](#code)
* [Images](#img)
* [Miscellaneous](#misc)
* [Backslash Escapes](#backslash)
* [Automatic Links](#autolink)
**Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you
can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL](/projects/markdown/syntax.text).
----
## Overview
### Philosophy
Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible.
Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted
document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking
like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While
Markdown's syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML
filters -- including [Setext](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/mirror/setext.html), [atx](http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/atx/), [Textile](http://textism.com/tools/textile/), [reStructuredText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html),
[Grutatext](http://www.triptico.com/software/grutatxt.html), and [EtText](http://ettext.taint.org/doc/) -- the single biggest source of
inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email.
## Block Elements
### Paragraphs and Line Breaks
A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is considered
blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be indented with spaces or tabs.
The implication of the "one or more consecutive lines of text" rule is
that Markdown supports "hard-wrapped" text paragraphs. This differs
significantly from most other text-to-HTML formatters (including Movable
Type's "Convert Line Breaks" option) which translate every line break
character in a paragraph into a `<br />` tag.
When you *do* want to insert a `<br />` break tag using Markdown, you
end a line with two or more spaces, then type return.
### Headers
Markdown supports two styles of headers, [Setext] [1] and [atx] [2].
Optionally, you may "close" atx-style headers. This is purely
cosmetic -- you can use this if you think it looks better. The
closing hashes don't even need to match the number of hashes
used to open the header. (The number of opening hashes
determines the header level.)
### Blockquotes
Markdown uses email-style `>` characters for blockquoting. If you're
familiar with quoting passages of text in an email message, then you
know how to create a blockquote in Markdown. It looks best if you hard
wrap the text and put a `>` before every line:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
> consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
> Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
>
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
> id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Markdown allows you to be lazy and only put the `>` before the first
line of a hard-wrapped paragraph:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Blockquotes can be nested (i.e. a blockquote-in-a-blockquote) by
adding additional levels of `>`:
> This is the first level of quoting.
>
> > This is nested blockquote.
>
> Back to the first level.
Blockquotes can contain other Markdown elements, including headers, lists,
and code blocks:
> ## This is a header.
>
> 1. This is the first list item.
> 2. This is the second list item.
>
> Here's some example code:
>
> return shell_exec("echo $input | $markdown_script");
Any decent text editor should make email-style quoting easy. For
example, with BBEdit, you can make a selection and choose Increase
Quote Level from the Text menu.
### Lists
Markdown supports ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists.
Unordered lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens -- interchangably
-- as list markers:
* Red
* Green
* Blue
is equivalent to:
+ Red
+ Green
+ Blue
and:
- Red
- Green
- Blue
Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods:
1. Bird
2. McHale
3. Parish
It's important to note that the actual numbers you use to mark the
list have no effect on the HTML output Markdown produces. The HTML
Markdown produces from the above list is:
If you instead wrote the list in Markdown like this:
1. Bird
1. McHale
1. Parish
or even:
3. Bird
1. McHale
8. Parish
you'd get the exact same HTML output. The point is, if you want to,
you can use ordinal numbers in your ordered Markdown lists, so that
the numbers in your source match the numbers in your published HTML.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to.
To make lists look nice, you can wrap items with hanging indents:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent
paragraph in a list item must be indented by either 4 spaces
or one tab:
1. This is a list item with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit
mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet
vitae, risus. Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum
sit amet velit.
2. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
It looks nice if you indent every line of the subsequent
paragraphs, but here again, Markdown will allow you to be
lazy:
* This is a list item with two paragraphs.
This is the second paragraph in the list item. You're
only required to indent the first line. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
* Another item in the same list.
To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote's `>`
delimiters need to be indented:
* A list item with a blockquote:
> This is a blockquote
> inside a list item.
To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs
to be indented *twice* -- 8 spaces or two tabs:
* A list item with a code block:
<code goes here>
### Code Blocks
Pre-formatted code blocks are used for writing about programming or
markup source code. Rather than forming normal paragraphs, the lines
of a code block are interpreted literally. Markdown wraps a code block
in both `<pre>` and `<code>` tags.
To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the
block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.
This is a normal paragraph:
This is a code block.
Here is an example of AppleScript:
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
A code block continues until it reaches a line that is not indented
(or the end of the article).
Within a code block, ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` and `>`)
are automatically converted into HTML entities. This makes it very
easy to include example HTML source code using Markdown -- just paste
it and indent it, and Markdown will handle the hassle of encoding the
ampersands and angle brackets. For example, this:
<div class="footer">
© 2004 Foo Corporation
</div>
Regular Markdown syntax is not processed within code blocks. E.g.,
asterisks are just literal asterisks within a code block. This means
it's also easy to use Markdown to write about Markdown's own syntax.
```
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
```
## Span Elements
### Links
Markdown supports two style of links: *inline* and *reference*.
In both styles, the link text is delimited by [square brackets].
To create an inline link, use a set of regular parentheses immediately
after the link text's closing square bracket. Inside the parentheses,
put the URL where you want the link to point, along with an *optional*
title for the link, surrounded in quotes. For example:
This is [an example](http://example.com/) inline link.
[This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
### Emphasis
Markdown treats asterisks (`*`) and underscores (`_`) as indicators of
emphasis. Text wrapped with one `*` or `_` will be wrapped with an
HTML `<em>` tag; double `*`'s or `_`'s will be wrapped with an HTML
`<strong>` tag. E.g., this input:
*single asterisks*
_single underscores_
**double asterisks**
__double underscores__
### Code
To indicate a span of code, wrap it with backtick quotes (`` ` ``).
Unlike a pre-formatted code block, a code span indicates code within a
normal paragraph. For example:
Use the `printf()` function.
-

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2025-04-05 21:36:33
# Markdown: Syntax
* [Overview](#overview)
* [Philosophy](#philosophy)
* [Inline HTML](#html)
* [Automatic Escaping for Special Characters](#autoescape)
* [Block Elements](#block)
* [Paragraphs and Line Breaks](#p)
* [Headers](#header)
* [Blockquotes](#blockquote)
* [Lists](#list)
* [Code Blocks](#precode)
* [Horizontal Rules](#hr)
* [Span Elements](#span)
* [Links](#link)
* [Emphasis](#em)
* [Code](#code)
* [Images](#img)
* [Miscellaneous](#misc)
* [Backslash Escapes](#backslash)
* [Automatic Links](#autolink)
**Note:** This document is itself written using Markdown; you
can [see the source for it by adding '.text' to the URL](/projects/markdown/syntax.text).
----
## Overview
### Philosophy
Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible.
Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted
document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking
like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While
Markdown's syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML
filters -- including [Setext](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/mirror/setext.html), [atx](http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/atx/), [Textile](http://textism.com/tools/textile/), [reStructuredText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html),
[Grutatext](http://www.triptico.com/software/grutatxt.html), and [EtText](http://ettext.taint.org/doc/) -- the single biggest source of
inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email.
## Block Elements
### Paragraphs and Line Breaks
A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is considered
blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be indented with spaces or tabs.
The implication of the "one or more consecutive lines of text" rule is
that Markdown supports "hard-wrapped" text paragraphs. This differs
significantly from most other text-to-HTML formatters (including Movable
Type's "Convert Line Breaks" option) which translate every line break
character in a paragraph into a `<br />` tag.
When you *do* want to insert a `<br />` break tag using Markdown, you
end a line with two or more spaces, then type return.
### Headers
Markdown supports two styles of headers, [Setext] [1] and [atx] [2].
Optionally, you may "close" atx-style headers. This is purely
cosmetic -- you can use this if you think it looks better. The
closing hashes don't even need to match the number of hashes
used to open the header. (The number of opening hashes
determines the header level.)
### Blockquotes
Markdown uses email-style `>` characters for blockquoting. If you're
familiar with quoting passages of text in an email message, then you
know how to create a blockquote in Markdown. It looks best if you hard
wrap the text and put a `>` before every line:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
> consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
> Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
>
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
> id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Markdown allows you to be lazy and only put the `>` before the first
line of a hard-wrapped paragraph:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Blockquotes can be nested (i.e. a blockquote-in-a-blockquote) by
adding additional levels of `>`:
> This is the first level of quoting.
>
> > This is nested blockquote.
>
> Back to the first level.
Blockquotes can contain other Markdown elements, including headers, lists,
and code blocks:
> ## This is a header.
>
> 1. This is the first list item.
> 2. This is the second list item.
>
> Here's some example code:
>
> return shell_exec("echo $input | $markdown_script");
Any decent text editor should make email-style quoting easy. For
example, with BBEdit, you can make a selection and choose Increase
Quote Level from the Text menu.
### Lists
Markdown supports ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists.
Unordered lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens -- interchangably
-- as list markers:
* Red
* Green
* Blue
is equivalent to:
+ Red
+ Green
+ Blue
and:
- Red
- Green
- Blue
Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods:
1. Bird
2. McHale
3. Parish
It's important to note that the actual numbers you use to mark the
list have no effect on the HTML output Markdown produces. The HTML
Markdown produces from the above list is:
If you instead wrote the list in Markdown like this:
1. Bird
1. McHale
1. Parish
or even:
3. Bird
1. McHale
8. Parish
you'd get the exact same HTML output. The point is, if you want to,
you can use ordinal numbers in your ordered Markdown lists, so that
the numbers in your source match the numbers in your published HTML.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to.
To make lists look nice, you can wrap items with hanging indents:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent
paragraph in a list item must be indented by either 4 spaces
or one tab:
1. This is a list item with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit
mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet
vitae, risus. Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum
sit amet velit.
2. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
It looks nice if you indent every line of the subsequent
paragraphs, but here again, Markdown will allow you to be
lazy:
* This is a list item with two paragraphs.
This is the second paragraph in the list item. You're
only required to indent the first line. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
* Another item in the same list.
To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote's `>`
delimiters need to be indented:
* A list item with a blockquote:
> This is a blockquote
> inside a list item.
To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs
to be indented *twice* -- 8 spaces or two tabs:
* A list item with a code block:
<code goes here>
### Code Blocks
Pre-formatted code blocks are used for writing about programming or
markup source code. Rather than forming normal paragraphs, the lines
of a code block are interpreted literally. Markdown wraps a code block
in both `<pre>` and `<code>` tags.
To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the
block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.
This is a normal paragraph:
This is a code block.
Here is an example of AppleScript:
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
A code block continues until it reaches a line that is not indented
(or the end of the article).
Within a code block, ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` and `>`)
are automatically converted into HTML entities. This makes it very
easy to include example HTML source code using Markdown -- just paste
it and indent it, and Markdown will handle the hassle of encoding the
ampersands and angle brackets. For example, this:
<div class="footer">
© 2004 Foo Corporation
</div>
Regular Markdown syntax is not processed within code blocks. E.g.,
asterisks are just literal asterisks within a code block. This means
it's also easy to use Markdown to write about Markdown's own syntax.
```
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
```
## Span Elements
### Links
Markdown supports two style of links: *inline* and *reference*.
In both styles, the link text is delimited by [square brackets].
To create an inline link, use a set of regular parentheses immediately
after the link text's closing square bracket. Inside the parentheses,
put the URL where you want the link to point, along with an *optional*
title for the link, surrounded in quotes. For example:
This is [an example](http://example.com/) inline link.
[This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
### Emphasis
Markdown treats asterisks (`*`) and underscores (`_`) as indicators of
emphasis. Text wrapped with one `*` or `_` will be wrapped with an
HTML `<em>` tag; double `*`'s or `_`'s will be wrapped with an HTML
`<strong>` tag. E.g., this input:
*single asterisks*
_single underscores_
**double asterisks**
__double underscores__
### Code
To indicate a span of code, wrap it with backtick quotes (`` ` ``).
Unlike a pre-formatted code block, a code span indicates code within a
normal paragraph. For example:
Use the `printf()` function.
-

@ fd208ee8:0fd927c1
2025-04-05 15:27:55
# Overview
### Philosophy
Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible.
Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted
document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking
like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While
Markdown's syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML
filters -- including [Setext](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/mirror/setext.html), [atx](http://www.aaronsw.com/2002/atx/), [Textile](http://textism.com/tools/textile/), [reStructuredText](http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html),
[Grutatext](http://www.triptico.com/software/grutatxt.html), and [EtText](http://ettext.taint.org/doc/) -- the single biggest source of
inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email.
## Block Elements
### Paragraphs and Line Breaks
A paragraph is simply one or more consecutive lines of text, separated
by one or more blank lines. (A blank line is any line that looks like a
blank line -- a line containing nothing but spaces or tabs is considered
blank.) Normal paragraphs should not be indented with spaces or tabs.
The implication of the "one or more consecutive lines of text" rule is
that Markdown supports "hard-wrapped" text paragraphs. This differs
significantly from most other text-to-HTML formatters (including Movable
Type's "Convert Line Breaks" option) which translate every line break
character in a paragraph into a `<br />` tag.
When you *do* want to insert a `<br />` break tag using Markdown, you
end a line with two or more spaces, then type return.
### Headers
Markdown supports two styles of headers, [Setext] [1] and [atx] [2].
Optionally, you may "close" atx-style headers. This is purely
cosmetic -- you can use this if you think it looks better. The
closing hashes don't even need to match the number of hashes
used to open the header. (The number of opening hashes
determines the header level.)
### Blockquotes
Markdown uses email-style `>` characters for blockquoting. If you're
familiar with quoting passages of text in an email message, then you
know how to create a blockquote in Markdown. It looks best if you hard
wrap the text and put a `>` before every line:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
> consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
> Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
>
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
> id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Markdown allows you to be lazy and only put the `>` before the first
line of a hard-wrapped paragraph:
> This is a blockquote with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,
consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
> Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit. Suspendisse
id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
Blockquotes can be nested (i.e. a blockquote-in-a-blockquote) by
adding additional levels of `>`:
> This is the first level of quoting.
>
> > This is nested blockquote.
>
> Back to the first level.
Blockquotes can contain other Markdown elements, including headers, lists,
and code blocks:
> ## This is a header.
>
> 1. This is the first list item.
> 2. This is the second list item.
>
> Here's some example code:
>
> return shell_exec("echo $input | $markdown_script");
Any decent text editor should make email-style quoting easy. For
example, with BBEdit, you can make a selection and choose Increase
Quote Level from the Text menu.
### Lists
Markdown supports ordered (numbered) and unordered (bulleted) lists.
Unordered lists use asterisks, pluses, and hyphens -- interchangably
-- as list markers:
* Red
* Green
* Blue
is equivalent to:
+ Red
+ Green
+ Blue
and:
- Red
- Green
- Blue
Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods:
1. Bird
2. McHale
3. Parish
It's important to note that the actual numbers you use to mark the
list have no effect on the HTML output Markdown produces. The HTML
Markdown produces from the above list is:
If you instead wrote the list in Markdown like this:
1. Bird
1. McHale
1. Parish
or even:
3. Bird
1. McHale
8. Parish
you'd get the exact same HTML output. The point is, if you want to,
you can use ordinal numbers in your ordered Markdown lists, so that
the numbers in your source match the numbers in your published HTML.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to.
To make lists look nice, you can wrap items with hanging indents:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
But if you want to be lazy, you don't have to:
* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
Aliquam hendrerit mi posuere lectus. Vestibulum enim wisi,
viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet vitae, risus.
* Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum sit amet velit.
Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent
paragraph in a list item must be indented by either 4 spaces
or one tab:
1. This is a list item with two paragraphs. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aliquam hendrerit
mi posuere lectus.
Vestibulum enim wisi, viverra nec, fringilla in, laoreet
vitae, risus. Donec sit amet nisl. Aliquam semper ipsum
sit amet velit.
2. Suspendisse id sem consectetuer libero luctus adipiscing.
It looks nice if you indent every line of the subsequent
paragraphs, but here again, Markdown will allow you to be
lazy:
* This is a list item with two paragraphs.
This is the second paragraph in the list item. You're
only required to indent the first line. Lorem ipsum dolor
sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
* Another item in the same list.
To put a blockquote within a list item, the blockquote's `>`
delimiters need to be indented:
* A list item with a blockquote:
> This is a blockquote
> inside a list item.
To put a code block within a list item, the code block needs
to be indented *twice* -- 8 spaces or two tabs:
* A list item with a code block:
<code goes here>
### Code Blocks
Pre-formatted code blocks are used for writing about programming or
markup source code. Rather than forming normal paragraphs, the lines
of a code block are interpreted literally. Markdown wraps a code block
in both `<pre>` and `<code>` tags.
To produce a code block in Markdown, simply indent every line of the
block by at least 4 spaces or 1 tab.
This is a normal paragraph:
This is a code block.
Here is an example of AppleScript:
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
A code block continues until it reaches a line that is not indented
(or the end of the article).
Within a code block, ampersands (`&`) and angle brackets (`<` and `>`)
are automatically converted into HTML entities. This makes it very
easy to include example HTML source code using Markdown -- just paste
it and indent it, and Markdown will handle the hassle of encoding the
ampersands and angle brackets. For example, this:
<div class="footer">
© 2004 Foo Corporation
</div>
Regular Markdown syntax is not processed within code blocks. E.g.,
asterisks are just literal asterisks within a code block. This means
it's also easy to use Markdown to write about Markdown's own syntax.
```
tell application "Foo"
beep
end tell
```
## Span Elements
### Links
Markdown supports two style of links: *inline* and *reference*.
In both styles, the link text is delimited by [square brackets].
To create an inline link, use a set of regular parentheses immediately
after the link text's closing square bracket. Inside the parentheses,
put the URL where you want the link to point, along with an *optional*
title for the link, surrounded in quotes. For example:
This is [an example](http://example.com/) inline link.
[This link](http://example.net/) has no title attribute.
### Emphasis
Markdown treats asterisks (`*`) and underscores (`_`) as indicators of
emphasis. Text wrapped with one `*` or `_` will be wrapped with an
HTML `<em>` tag; double `*`'s or `_`'s will be wrapped with an HTML
`<strong>` tag. E.g., this input:
*single asterisks*
_single underscores_
**double asterisks**
__double underscores__
### Code
To indicate a span of code, wrap it with backtick quotes (`` ` ``).
Unlike a pre-formatted code block, a code span indicates code within a
normal paragraph. For example:
Use the `printf()` function.
-

@ da18e986:3a0d9851
2025-04-04 20:25:50
I'm making this tutorial for myself, as I plan to write many wiki pages describing DVM kinds, as a resource for DVMDash.
Wiki pages on Nostr are written using AsciiDoc. If you don't know ascii doc, get an LLM (like https://duck.ai) to help you format into the right syntax.
Here's the test wiki page I'm going to write:
```
= Simple AsciiDoc Demo
This is a simple demonstration of AsciiDoc syntax for testing purposes.
== Features
AsciiDoc offers many formatting options that are easy to use.
* Easy to learn
* Supports rich text formatting
* Can include code snippets
* Works great for documentation
[source,json]
----
{ "name": "Test", "version": "1.0", "active": true }
----
```
# We're going to use nak to publish it
First, install `nak` if you haven't already
```
go install github.com/fiatjaf/nak@latest
```
*Note: if you don't use Go a lot, you may need to first install it and then add it to your path so the `nak` command is recognized by the terminal*
```
# this is how to add it to your path on mac if using zsh
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin' >> ~/.zshrc
```
And here's how to sign and publish this event with nak.
*First, if you want to use your own nostr sec key, you can set the env variable to it and nak will use that if no secret key is specified*
```
# replace with your full secret key
export NOSTR_SECRET_KEY="nsec1zcdn..."
```
Now to sign and publish the event:
*Note: inner double quotes need to be escaped with a `\` before them in order to keep the formatting correct, because we're doing this in the terminal*
```
nak event -k 30818 -d "dvm-wiki-page-test" -t 'title=dvm wiki page test' -c "= Simple AsciiDoc Demo\n\nThis is a simple demonstration of AsciiDoc syntax for testing purposes. \n\n== Features\n\nAsciiDoc offers many formatting options that are easy to use. \n\n* Easy to learn \n* Supports rich text formatting \n* Can include code snippets \n* Works great for documentation \n\n[source,json] \n---- \n{ \"name\": \"Test\", \"version\": \"1.0\", \"active\": true } \n----" wss://relay.primal.net wss://relay.damus.io wss://relay.wikifreedia.xyz
```
You've now published your first wiki page! If done correctly, it will show up on wikistr.com, like mine did here: https://wikistr.com/dvm-wiki-page-test*da18e9860040f3bf493876fc16b1a912ae5a6f6fa8d5159c3de2b8233a0d9851
and on wikifreedia.xyz https://wikifreedia.xyz/dvm-wiki-page-test/dustind@dtdannen.github.io
-

@ 68c90cf3:99458f5c
2025-04-04 16:06:10
I have two Nostr profiles I use for different subject matter, and I wanted a way to manage and track zaps for each. Using Alby Hub I created two isolated Lightning wallets each associated with one of the profile’s nsecs.
YakiHonne made it easy to connect the associated wallets with the profiles. The user interface is well designed to show balances for each.

In my case, I have one profile for photography related content, and the other for Bitcoin, Nostr, and technology related content. I can easily switch between the two, sending and receiving zaps on each while staying up to date on balances and viewing transactions.

Using my self-hosted Alby Hub I can manage Lightning channels and wallets while sending and receiving zaps for multiple profiles with YakiHonne.
#YakiHonne #AlbyHub #Lightning #Bitcoin #Nostr
-

@ bf95e1a4:ebdcc848
2025-04-04 06:11:18
This is a part of the Bitcoin Infinity Academy course on Knut Svanholm's book Bitcoin: Sovereignty Through Mathematics. For more information, check out our[ Geyser page](https://geyser.fund/project/infinity)!
## The Gullible Collective
We humans are biased by nature. Everything we think we know is distorted in one way or another by our cognitive shortcomings. The human brain has been forced to evolve and adapt to whatever environment it found itself in over millennia. Having a brain that is capable of setting aside personal aims for the sake of the collective has proven to be advantageous for the evolution of our species as a whole. The same is true for every other social life form. However, letting these parts of our brains guide our political judgment can lead to disastrous results in the long run — not because of bad intentions but because of the simple fact that a few individuals will always thrive by playing every political system for personal gain. From an evolutionary perspective, an army of ay-sayers and martyrs, regardless of whether we’re talking about an army of humans or an army of ants or bacteria, has an advantage over a less disciplined one. From an individual's evolutionary perspective though, it is better to *appear* like you’re a martyr but to run and hide when the actual battle happens. This at least partly explains the high percentage of sociopaths in leadership positions all over the world. If you can appear to act for the good of the collective but dupe your way into more and more power behind people’s backs, you’re more likely to succeed than someone playing a fair game.
The story of banking and fiat currency is a story about collective madness. Historically, rulers have tricked people into killing each other through the promise of an after-life. Through central banking, the rulers of the world wars could trick people into building armies for them by printing more money. This is seldom mentioned in history classes because it still goes on today on a massive scale. Inflation might no longer be paying tank factory workers, but it is the main mechanism that funnels wealth into the pockets of the super-rich and away from everyone else. Inflation is the mechanism that hinders us from transporting the value of our labor through time. It makes us avoid real long-term thinking. We hardly ever consider this a problem because none of us has ever experienced an alternative to it.
Money is still vastly misunderstood by the lion's share of the world’s population. In most parts of the world, banks do something called fractional reserve lending. This means that they lend out money that they don't have — conjuring up new money out of thin air and handing it out to their customers as loans. Loans that have to be paid back with interest. Interest that can’t be paid back with thin air but has to be paid with so-called real money. Real money, of which there isn’t enough around to pay back all the loans, so that a constant need for new credit becomes a crucial part of the entire system. Not to mention central banks, which do the same and worse for governments. We’re so used to it by now that every country is expected to have a national debt. All but a handful of ridiculously rich ones do. National debts are also loans that have to be paid back with interest backed by nothing. Think about that. Your taxes are paying someone else's interest. Your tax money is not paying for your grandmother's bypass operation, it is paying interest to a central bank.
When the ideas of the catholic church ruled Europe, people who didn’t believe in God were few and very seldomly outspoken. They had good reason for this since belief in God was virtually mandatory throughout society. Ever since 1971, when famously dishonest American president Richard Nixon cut the last string that tied the US Dollar to gold, our conception of what the world economy is and ought to be has been skewed by an utterly corrupt system. We’re led to believe that we’re all supposed to work longer and longer days in order to spend more and more money and bury ourselves in more and more debt to keep the machine running. We’re duped into thinking that buying a new car every other year is somehow good for the environment and that bringing a cotton bag to the grocery store will somehow save the planet. Stores manipulate us all the time through advertising and product placement, but we’re led to believe that if we can be “climate-smart,” we’re behaving responsibly. Somehow, our gross domestic product is supposed to increase indefinitely while politicians will save us from ourselves through carbon taxes. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for them, there now exists a way for unbelievers of this narrative to opt out. Life finds a way, as Jeff Goldblum once so famously put it.
Collectivism has ruined many societies. Those of us fortunate enough to live in liberal democracies tend to forget that even democracy is an involuntary system. It’s often referred to as the “worst form of government except all others that have been tried,” but the system itself is very rarely criticized. We’re so used to being governed that not having a leader seems preposterous to most of us. Still, we pay our taxes, and an enormous cut of the fruit of our labor goes to a third party via inflation and the taxation of every good and service imaginable. Institutions, once in place, tend to always favor their own survival just as much as any other living thing does. People employed in the public sector are unlikely to vote against policies that threaten their livelihood. This is a bigger problem than we realize because it’s subtle and takes a long time, but every democracy is headed in the same direction. A bigger state, a more complicated system, and fewer individual freedoms. Long term, it seems that all of our systems tend to favor those who know how to play that system and not those who contribute the most value to their fellow man. Proponents of socialist policies often claim that failed socialist states “weren’t really socialist” or that “that wasn’t really socialism.” What most people fail to realize is that we’ve never tried real *capitalism* since we’ve always used more or less inflationary currencies. This might very well be the most skewed narrative of our era. We’re all experiencing real, albeit disguised, socialism every single day. True free market capitalism is what we haven’t experienced yet, and it might turn out to be a very different thing than what we’re told to believe that it is by almost all mainstream media.
The validity of the classic right-left scale describing political viewpoints has been debated a lot lately, and alternative scales, like GAL-TAN, the one with an additional Y-axis describing more or less authoritarian tendencies, are popping up in various contexts around the web. After the birth of Bitcoin, there’s a new way to see this. Imagine an origo, a zero point, and a vector pointing to the left of that. *All* politics are arguably on the left because *all* policies need to be funded by taxes, and taxation can be viewed as theft. Taxation can be viewed as theft because, at its core, it’s involuntary. If a person refuses to pay his taxes, there is a threat of violence lurking in the background. Not to mention inflation, which Milton Friedman so elegantly described as “taxation without legislation.” What you do with the portion of your wealth that you have in Bitcoin is another matter altogether. If you take sufficient precautionary privacy measures and you know what you’re doing, your business in Bitcoin is beyond politics altogether. With the introduction of the Lightning Network and other privacy-improving features, it is now impossible for any third party to confiscate your money or even know that you have it, for that matter. This changes the political landscape of every nation on Earth. Bitcoin is much less confiscatable than gold and other scarce assets, which makes it a much better tool for hedging against nation-states. In this sense, Bitcoin obsoletes borders. You can cross any border on Earth with any amount of Bitcoin *in your head*. Think about that! Your Bitcoin exists in every country simultaneously. Any imposed limit on how much money you can carry from one nation to the other is now made obsolete by beautiful mathematics. Bitcoin is sometimes referred to as a “virtual currency.” This is a very inaccurate description. Bitcoin is just mathematics, and mathematics is just about the most real thing there is. There’s nothing virtual about it. Counterintuitive to some, but real nonetheless.
The complexity of human societal hierarchies and power structures is described perfectly in a classic children's book, *The Emperor’s New Clothes*, by Hans Christian Andersen. See the world as the kid who points out that the king is naked in the tale, and everything starts to make sense. Everything in human society is man-made. Nations, leaders, laws, political systems. They’re all castles in the air with nothing but a lurking threat of violence to back them up. Bitcoin is a different beast altogether. It enables every individual to verify the validity of the system at all times. If you really think about it, morality is easy. Don’t hurt other people, and don’t steal other people’s stuff. That’s the basic premise. Humans have but two ways of resolving conflict, conversation and violence, and in this sense, to hurt someone can only mean physical violence. This is why free speech is so important and why you should defend people’s right to speak their minds above everything else. It’s not about being able to express yourself. It’s about your right to hear every side of every argument and thus not have to resort to violence should a conflict of interests occur. You can’t limit free speech with just more speech — there’s always a threat of violence behind the limitations. Code, which both Bitcoin and the Internet are entirely made up of, *is speech*. Any limitations or regulations that your government implements in regard to Bitcoin are not only a display of Bitcoin’s censorship resistance but also a test of your government's stance on freedom of expression. A restriction on Bitcoin use is a restriction on free speech.
Remember, the only alternative to speech that anyone has is violence. Code is a language, mathematics is a language, and money is a linguistic tool. A linguistic tool we use as a means of expressing value to each other and as a way to transport value through space and time. Any restrictions or regulations regarding how you can express value, for example, making it impossible to buy Bitcoin with your credit card, prove that the money you have in your bank account is not really yours. When people realize this, the demand for Bitcoin goes *up*, not down. If you know what you're doing, there’s no need to fear the regulators. They, on the other hand, have good reason to fear an invention that shamelessly breaks their spell.
### **About the Bitcoin Infinity Academy**
The Bitcoin Infinity Academy is an educational project built around [Knut Svanholm](http://primal.net/knut)’s books about Bitcoin and Austrian Economics. Each week, a whole chapter from one of the books is released for free on Highlighter, accompanied by a [video](https://www.youtube.com/@BitcoinInfinityShow) in which Knut and [Luke de Wolf](http://primal.net/luke) discuss that chapter’s ideas. You can join the discussions by signing up for one of the courses on our [Geyser](https://geyser.fund/project/infinity) page. Signed books, monthly calls, and lots of other benefits are also available.
-

@ c8adf82a:7265ee75
2025-04-04 01:58:49
What is knowledge? Why do we need it?
Since we were small, our parents/guardian put us in school, worked their asses off to give us elective lessons, some get help until college, some even after college and after professional work. Why is this intelligence thing so sought after?
When you were born, you mostly just accepted what your parents said, they say go to school - you go to school, they say go learn the piano - you learn the piano. Of course with a lot of questions and denials, but you do it because you know your parents are doing it for your own good. You can feel the love so you disregard the 'why' and go on with faith
Everything starts with why, and for most people maybe the purpose of knowledge is to be smarter, to know more, just because. But for me this sounds utterly useless. One day I will die next to a man with half a brain and we would feel the same exact thing on the ground. Literally being smarter at the end does not matter at all
However, I am not saying to just be lazy and foolish. For me the purpose of knowledge is action. The more you learn, the more you know what to do, the more you can be sure you are doing the right thing, the more you can make progress on your own being, etc etc
Now, how can you properly learn? Imagine a water bottle. The water bottle's sole purpose is to contain water, but you cannot fill in the water bottle before you open the cap. To learn properly, make sure you open the cap and let all that water pour into you
If you are reading this, you are alive. Don't waste your time doing useless stuff and start to make a difference in your life
Seize the day
-

@ 6389be64:ef439d32
2025-04-03 21:32:58
Brewing Biology
Episode 1068 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
This episode of Bitcoin And dives into Brewing Biology—a regenerative system combining compost tea, biochar, Bitcoin mining, and carbon credits—developed through a deep, idea-driven conversation with ChatGPT.
LISTEN HERE --> https://fountain.fm/episode/p0DmvPzxirDHh2l68zOX <-- LISTEN HERE
The future of Bitcoin isn’t just about code or money—it’s about soil. A groundbreaking fusion of biology, technology, and financial innovation might change the rules of agriculture, offering landowners a path to profitability while Healing our soils. At the heart of this revolution is biochar, a form of charcoal that supercharges soil health. When mixed with compost tea and microbial inoculants, this carbon-rich material becomes a game-changer.
Biochar’s porous structure acts as a microbial hotel, hosting fungi like arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis. These organisms form symbiotic networks that boost nutrient absorption and secrete glomalin—a natural “glue” that binds soil, preventing erosion. But here’s the twist: this system doesn’t just heal the earth; it also generates revenue.
Biochar’s Hidden Superpower: Adsorption & Buffering
Biochar’s porous structure acts as a molecular storage hub. Unlike absorption (soaking up water like a sponge), adsorption is a chemical process where water and nutrients cling to biochar’s surfaces. A single gram of biochar has the surface area of a basketball court, creating a lattice of microscopic nooks and crannies. This allows it to:
Lock in moisture: Biochar retains up to 10x its weight in water, acting like a “soil battery” that releases hydration slowly during droughts.
Hoard nutrients: It buffers nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients in its pores, preventing leaching. Plants access these nutrients gradually, reducing fertilizer needs.
Stabilize pH: Biochar’s alkaline nature buffers acidic soils, creating a neutral environment where microbes and roots thrive.
This buffering effect means plants face fewer nutrient and water spikes or shortages, ensuring steady growth even in erratic climates.
The Carbon Math
Every ton of biochar (which is ~85% carbon by weight) sequesters 3.12 tons of CO₂ (using the 1:3.67 carbon-to-CO₂ ratio). With carbon credits trading at $42–$60/ton, a 1,000-acre project applying 1 pound of biochar per linear foot (via a three-shank plow at 2-foot spacing) could sequester ~12,000 tons of CO₂ annually—generating $504,000–$720,000 in carbon credit revenue.
Tools for the Revolution
The Keyline Plow fractures subsoil to inject biochar slurry 30–45cm deep, revitalizing compacted land. For smaller plots, the VOGT Geo Injector delivers pinpoint inoculations—think of it as a soil “injection gun” for lawns, golf courses, or urban gardens. These methods ensure biochar stays where it’s needed, turning even parched landscapes into carbon sinks.
Bitcoin’s Role in the Loop
Biochar production generates syngas—a byproduct that fuels electric generators for Bitcoin mining. This closed-loop system turns agricultural waste into energy, creating dual revenue streams: carbon credits and mining income.
The Market Potential
Farmers, ranchers, and eco-conscious landowners aren’t the only beneficiaries. Golf courses can slash water use and homeowners can boost lawn resilience.
Why This Matters
This isn’t just farming—it’s a movement. By marrying soil science with economics, we can prove that healing the planet and profiting go hand in hand. Whether you’re a Bitcoin miner, a farmer, or an eco-entrepreneur, this system offers a blueprint for a future where every acre works for you—and the planet.
The takeaway? Regenerative agriculture isn’t a trend. It’s the next gold rush—except this time, the gold is carbon, soil, and sats.---
P.S. – If you’re ready to turn your land into a carbon credit powerhouse (and maybe mine some Bitcoin along the way), the soil is waiting.
You can read the full article, Brewing Biology HERE -> https://the-bitcoin-and-Podcast.ghost.io/ghost/#/editor/post/67e5922fa289aa00088da3c6
originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/933800
-

@ df67f9a7:2d4fc200
2025-04-03 19:54:29
More than just “follows follows” on Nostr, webs of trust algos will ingest increasingly MORE kinds of user generated content in order to map our interactions across the network. Webs of trust will power user discovery, content search, reviews and reccomendations, identity verification, and access to all corners of the Nostr network. Without relying on a central “trust authority” to recommend people and content for us, sovereign Nostr users will make use of “relative trust” scores generated by a wide range of independent apps and services. The problem is, Nostr doesn’t have an opensource library for performing WoT calculations and delivering NIP standard recommendations to users. In order for a “free market” ecosystem of really smart apps and services to thrive, independent developers will need access to extensible “middleware” such as this.
### Project Description
I am building a library for independent developers to offer their own interoperable and configurable WoT services and clients. In addition, and as the primary use case, I am also developing a web client for “in person onboarding” to Nostr, which will make use of this library to provide webs of trust recommendations for “invited” users.
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me) (onboarding client) : This is my first project on Nostr, which began a year ago with seed funding from @druid. This web client will leverage “in person” QR invites to generate WoT powered recommendations of follows, apps, and other stuff for new users at their first Nostr touchpoint. The functional MVP release (April ‘25) allows for “instant, anonymous, and fully encrypted” direct messaging and “move in ready” profile creation from a single QR scan.
- [GrapeRank Engine ](https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs)(developer library) : Working with @straycat last fall, I built an opensource and extensible library for Nostr developers to integrate “web of trust” powered reccomendations into their products and services. The real power behind GrapeRank is its “pluggable” interpreter, allowing any kind of content (not just “follows follows”) to be ingested for WoT scoring, and configurable easily by developers as well as end users. This library is currently in v0.1, “generating and storing usable scores”, and doesn’t yet produce NIP standard outputs for Nostr clients.
- [My Grapevine](https://grapevine.my) (algo dashboard) : In addition, I’ve just wrapped up the demo release of a web client by which users and developers can explore the power of the GrapeRank Engine.
### Potential Impact
Webs of Trust is how Nostr scales. But so far, Nostr implementations have been ad-hoc and primarily client centered, with no consistency and little choice for end users. The “onboarding and discovery” tools I am developing promise to :
- Establish sovereignty for webs of trust users (supporting a “free market” of algo choices), with opensource libraries by which any developer can easily implement WoT powered recommendations.
- Accelerate the isolation of bots and bad actors (and improve the “trustiness” of Nostr for everyone else) by streamlining the onboarding of “real world” acquaintances directly into established webs of trust.
- Improve “discoverability of users and content” for any user on any client (to consume and take advantage of WoT powered recommendations for any use case, even as the NIP standards for this are still in flux), by providing an algo engine with “pluggable” inputs and outputs.
- Pave the way for “global Nostr adoption”, where WoT powered recommendations (and searches) are consistently available for every user across a wide variety of clients.
### Timeline & Milestones
2025 roadmap for “Webs of Trust Onboarding and Discovery” :
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me) (onboarding client) : MVP release : “scan my QR invite to private message me instantly with a ‘move in ready’ account on Nostr”.
https://nostrmeet.me/
- [GrapeRank Engine ](https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs) (developer library) : 1.0 release : “expanded inputs and output WoT scores to Nostr NIPs and other stuff” for consumption by clients and relays.
https://github.com/Pretty-Good-Freedom-Tech/graperank-nodejs
- [My Grapevine](https://grapevine.my) (algo dashboard) : 1.0 release : “algo usage and configuration webapp with API endpoints” for end users to setup GrapeRank scoring for consumption by their own clients and relays.
https://grapevine.my/
- [Meet Me On Nostr](https://nostrmeet.me) (onboarding client) : 1.0 release : first GrapeRank integration, offering “follow and app recommendations for invited users”, customizable per-invite for Nostr advocates.
https://nostrmeet.me/
### Prior contributions
- Last spring I hosted panel discussions and [wrote articles on Nostr](https://primal.net/p/npub1manlnflyzyjhgh970t8mmngrdytcp3jrmaa66u846ggg7t20cgqqvyn9tn#reads) exploring how to build “sovereign webs of trust”, where end users can have control over which algorithms to use, and what defines “trust”.
- I contributed [gift wrap encryption](https://github.com/nostr-dev-kit/ndk/commit/82b60c3b6ae2f38bde0e542d31bfa10d58d08116) to NDK.
- I am also authoring [gift wrapped direct messaging and chat room](https://github.com/nostr-dev-kit/ndk/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Amanimejia) modules for NDK.
- Last July, I attended The Bitcoin Conference on an OpenSource pass to raise funds for my onboarding client. I onboarded many Bitcoiners to Nostr, and made valuable connections at Bitcoin Park.
### About Me
I discovered Nostr in September ‘23 as a freelance web developer, after years of looking for a “sovereignty respecting” social media on which to build apps. With this came my first purchase of Bitcoin. By December of that year, I was settled on “open source freedom tech” (Nostr and Bitcoin) as the new direction for my career.
As a web professional for 20+ years, I know the importance of “proof of work” and being connected. For the last 18 months, I have been establishing myself as a builder in this community. This pivot has not been easy, but it has been rewarding and necessary. After so many years building private tech for other people, I finally have a chance to build freedom tech for everyone. I have finally come home to my peeps and my purpose.
Thank you for considering this application for funding.
-

@ c13fd381:b46236ea
2025-04-03 07:55:31
Over the past few years, The School of Bitcoin (TSOBTC) has built a reputation as a decentralised, open-source educational initiative dedicated to financial sovereignty and digital literacy. Our faculty, contributors, and global community have worked tirelessly to create resources that embody the Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) ethos, ensuring that knowledge remains accessible to all.
As part of our commitment to maintaining an open and transparent model, we are excited to announce that The School of Bitcoin is officially migrating to Consensus21.School. This transition is not just a rebranding--it marks the consolidation of all our initiatives, projects, and educational resources under the Consensus21.School banner. The School of Bitcoin will no longer exist as a separate entity.
This move comes as a response to growing confusion between our initiative and another entity operating under the domain schoolofbitcoin (SOB), which has taken a direction that does not align with our open-source philosophy. To reaffirm our dedication to FOSS and community-driven education, we are bringing everything--our courses, programs, and collaborations--into a singular, more focused ecosystem at Consensus21.School.
What Does This Mean for Our Community?
Rest assured, all the valuable content, courses, and educational materials that have been developed under TSOBTC will remain available. We continue to embrace a value-for-value model, ensuring that learners can access resources while supporting the ecosystem in a way that aligns with their means and values.
By consolidating under Consensus21.School, we are doubling down on the principles of decentralisation, self-sovereignty, and permissionless learning. This transition includes all of our key initiatives, including V4V Open Lessons, the Decentralised Autonomous Education System (DAES), and our involvement with the Plan B Network.
Full Migration of DAES and Plan B Network Collaboration
As part of this transition, the Decentralised Autonomous Education System (DAES) is now officially part of Consensus21.School and is fully reflected in the Consensus21.School Whitepaper.
DAES will continue to provide a platform for aspiring learners to submit their Bitcoin project ideas for potential funding and mentorship, with active engagement in our Stacker News /~Education territory and Signal chat for collaboration.
We invite contributors to support our learner fund and help bring innovative ideas to fruition within this new ecosystem.
Additionally, our collaboration with the Plan B Network will now operate under Consensus21.School. Through this partnership, we will continue teaching using the Plan B Network's curriculum to provide high-quality Bitcoin education and strengthen local Bitcoin communities. This global initiative remains a core part of our mission, now fully integrated within Consensus21.School.
Looking Ahead
With Consensus21.School, we will continue innovating in peer-to-peer learning, integrating cutting-edge developments in Bitcoin, Nostr, and decentralised technologies. We encourage our community to stay engaged, contribute, and help us build an even stronger foundation for the future of open education.
This is more than just a domain change--it is the next evolution of our mission. The School of Bitcoin as an entity is now retired, and all our efforts, including DAES and the Plan B Network collaboration, will move forward exclusively under Consensus21.School. We invite educators, students, and enthusiasts to join us in shaping this next phase of open financial education.
The journey continues, and we are thrilled to embark on this new chapter together
-

@ cbaa0c82:e9313245
2025-04-02 18:53:57
#TheWholeGrain - #March2025
March of 2025 was a standard month for Bread and Toast. However, it did include a the occasional five Sunday Singles which seems like hitting the jackpot! Talk about lucky!
Included with the five Sunday Singles was two more pages of the Adventure Series: Questline where we saw Bread, Toast, and End-Piece face off against their first adversary!
End-Piece made a first appearance for in Toast's Comic Collection under the title E: The Last Slice while the Concept Art piece was the original drawing of all three slices of bread together. And, last of all we updated the Bitcoin logo because why not!?
**Sunday Singles - March 2025**
2025-03-02 | Sunday Single 82
Title: Slingshot!
*Watch out! Toast is quite the sharpshooter!*
https://i.nostr.build/zHA9C7cOOZLOCl0o.png
2025-03-09 | Sunday Single 83
Title: Puzzles
*End-Piece just figured out the puzzle!*
https://i.nostr.build/u2EBdcsuwO2xo23P.png
2025-03-16 | Sunday Single 84
Title: Basketball
*Oh, the madness!*
https://i.nostr.build/8F1OFFVra7zQOIy6.png
2025-03-23 | Sunday Single 85
Title: Coffee
*The perfect way to start the day.*
https://i.nostr.build/aiGZOvOmow3igru6.png
2025-03-30 | Sunday Single 86
Title: Origami
*End-Piece has a way with paper.*
https://i.nostr.build/0ySzGwF9QnZxwLxD.png
**Adventure Series: Questline**
The group is attacked by a crow with Bread being the target of the giant bird, but with a group of trusty friends any enemy can be defeated!
Artist: Dakota Jernigan (The Bitcoin Painter)
Writer: Daniel David (dan 🍞)
2025-03-11 | Questline
005 - Under Attack
*Toast and End-Piece are able to escape the attack from the giant winged predator, but Bread being distracted by thoughts of the village is caught off guard. End-Piece immediately charges the attacker with a fury of mallet swings. Meanwhile, Toast loads up an arrow with intentions of piercing through the giant bird.*
https://i.nostr.build/F24sd7SFFbsW9WZY.png
2025-03-25 | Questline
006 - A Finished Battle
*End-Piece lands a series of blows to the winged beast. Toast finishes it off with a second arrow to the heart. Bread is only slightly injured, but is more upset about having been so vulnerable due to being so distracted. Moving forward Bread will have to be more vigilant.*
https://i.nostr.build/n5a7Jztq9MHxuGNf.png
**Other Content Released in March 2025**
2025-03-05 | Toast's Comic Collection
Title: E: The Last Slice #11
*A gluten-based pandemic has killed off all slices of bread that are not Toast except for one slice of bread that happens to be an end piece.*
https://i.nostr.build/aar20oHAAKmZOovD.png
2025-03-12 | Concept Art
Title: Original Bread and Toast
*This was the first drawing of all three characters together. It was used a lot for branding when the project first started up in 2023.*
https://i.nostr.build/yqkmBuTiH8AKbCzI.png
2025-03-19 | Bitcoin Art
Title: Bitcoin/Bread
Block Height: 888566
*Two things that just go together.*
https://i.nostr.build/MDPkzOPVEaOJVTFE.png
Thanks for checking out the seventh issue of The Whole Grain. The Whole Grain is released on the first of every month and covers all of the content released by Bread and Toast in the previous month. For all Bread and Toast content visit BreadandToast.com!
**So long, March!**
***Bread, Toast, and End-Piece***
#BreadandToast #SundaySingle #Questline #ToastsComicCollection #ConceptArt #BitcoinArt #Bread #Toast #EndPiece #Artstr #Comic #Cartoon #NostrOnly #🍞 #🖼️
***List of nPubs Mentioned:***
The Bitcoin Painter: npub1tx5ccpregnm9afq0xaj42hh93xl4qd3lfa7u74v5cdvyhwcnlanqplhd8g
dan 🍞:
npub16e3vzr7dk2uepjcnl85nfare3kdapxge08gr42s99n9kg7xs8xhs90y9v6
-

@ 8d34bd24:414be32b
2025-04-02 14:13:03
I was reading this passage last night:
> …from that time when one came to a grain heap of twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there would be only twenty. I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; **yet you did not come back to Me**,’ declares the Lord. ‘Do consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month; from the day when the temple of the Lord was founded, consider: Is the seed still in the barn? Even including the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree, it has not borne fruit. **Yet from this day on I will bless you**.’ ” (Haggai 2:16-19) {emphasis mine}
Why were bad things happening to the Israelites? Because they were not following God. Why did God allow these difficult situations to occur? Because God was calling them back to Himself.
This made me think of several times lately, when I had written about Christians going through hard times, that fellow believers had tried to kindly correct me implying that God would not allow these painful things to happen to believers. They were trying to defend God’s honor, but instead they were degrading God. If God is not in control of everything, then either God is unable to protect His own from harm because of sin or bad things happened accidentally and God ignored the injustice. Saying God was not in control of allowing every hardship is either saying God isn’t strong enough, isn’t smart enough, or isn’t loving enough. The God I serve is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, and love incarnate. He also didn’t promise us easy, pleasant lives, but did promise that good would come out of every situation.
> And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
When Jesus walked on earth and some people said they wanted to follow Him, His response was not what we would expect:
> And He was saying to them all, “**If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me**. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. (Luke 9:23-26) {emphasis mine}
When one particular man said that he would follow Jesus anywhere, Jesus responded this way.
> As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “**The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head**.” (Luke 9:57-58) {emphasis mine}
Jesus was brutally honest that following Him would not be easy or comfortable. Following Jesus is more likely to lead to hardship and persecution that prosperity and comfort.
> “Then **they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name**. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But **the one who endures to the end, he will be saved**. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:9-14) {emphasis mine}
Of course God isn’t putting us through hardship to torture us. He is putting us in situations to grow our faith and dependence on Him, i.e. Abraham. He is putting us in situations where we can minister to others, i.e. Joseph. He is using us as examples of faith to others, i.e. Job. Any hardship has an eternal purpose. Sometimes we can see it (at least eventually) if we are looking for God’s will and plan. Sometime we won’t see what He was accomplishing until we get to heaven. Still we need to trust God through it all, knowing His plan is perfect.
> “**For my thoughts are not your thoughts,\
> neither are your ways my ways**,”\
> declares the Lord.
>
> “As the heavens are higher than the earth,\
> so are **my ways higher than your ways**\
> and my thoughts than your thoughts.
>
> As the rain and the snow\
> come down from heaven,\
> and do not return to it\
> without watering the earth\
> and making it bud and flourish,\
> so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,\
> so is **my word that goes out from my mouth:\
> It will not return to me empty,\
> but will accomplish what I desire\
> and achieve the purpose for which I sent it**. (Isaiah 55:8-11) {emphasis mine}
God understands how hard it is to understand what He is accomplishing. We live in the here and now while He is outside time and space and therefore has a heavenly and eternal perspective that we will never truly have this side of heaven. He has told us how the story ends, so that we can have peace and trust Him through whatever circumstances He has blessed us.
> Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. **These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world**.” (John 16:31-33) {emphasis mine}
In fact, Jesus made this so clear that His disciples rejoiced in persecution they received due to obeying Him and sharing His word.
> They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and *then* released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, **rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for *His* name**. (Acts 5:40-41) {emphasis mine}
Peter specifically warns believers to expect trials and hardship.
> Dear friends, **do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you**. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. **If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed**, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, **if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God** that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And,
>
> “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,\
> what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”
>
> So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good. (1 Peter 4:12-19) {emphasis mine}
Paul writes about begging God to take away a health issue. Eventually he accepted it as part of God’s plan for his life and boasted gladly in his hardship.
> …Therefore, in order **to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn** in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times **I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you**, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore **I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me**. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7b-10) {emphasis mine}
No matter what hardships we experience in life, whether poverty or persecution or poor health or loss of a loved one or any other hardship, God is with us working everything for our good.
> Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
>
> “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;\
> We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
> ****But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us**. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39) {emphasis mine}
I like to look at the story of Joseph as an example of God’s extraordinary plan in the life of a faithful believer. Joseph trusted and honored God. God had a plan for Joseph to be used to save the lives of his family and the people of the Middle East from famine, but God didn’t just instantly put Joseph in a position of power to help. He prepared Joseph and slowly moved him to where he needed to be.
First Josephs brothers wanted to kill him out of jealousy, but God used greed to get them to sell Joseph as a slave instead. He orchestrated the right slave traders to walk by at the right time so that Joseph would wind up in the house of Potiphar, the Pharaoh’s guard.
Then when Joseph acted honorably towards God, his master, and his master’s wife, Joseph was sent to jail for years. I’m sure Joseph was wondering why God would send him to prison for doing what was right, but it put him into the presence of the cupbearer of Pharaoh. A long time after correctly interpreting the cup bearer’s dream, Joseph was called up to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, put in charge of the famine preparation and became second in command after Pharaoh. Joseph, after years of slavery and jail time, was now the second most powerful man in the Middle East, if not the world. God had a plan, but it was hard to see until its completion.
In the same way, Job lost his wealth, his children, his health, and his reputation, but remember that Satan had to get God’s permission before anything could be done to hurt Job. So many people today are blessed by seeing Job’s response to hardship and loss, by seeing Job’s faith, his struggle, and his submission to God’s plan. In this case God even gives Job more after this time of testing than he had before.
When we experience hardship we need to know that God has a plan for our life. It may be something amazing here on Earth. It may be souls won for Christ. It may be to prepare us for heaven. Whatever the case, it is for our good.
We don’t need to be ashamed that God would allow hardship. We grow most when we experience hardship. Our light shines brightest in darkness.
> Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!\
> How unsearchable his judgments,\
> and his paths beyond tracing out!\
> “Who has known the mind of the Lord?\
> Or who has been his counselor?”\
> “Who has ever given to God,\
> that God should repay them?”\
> For from him and through him and for him are all things.\
> To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)
Trust Jesus
-

@ 06639a38:655f8f71
2025-04-02 13:47:57
You can follow the work in progress here in this pull request [https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/68](https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/pull/68) on Github.
Before my 3-month break (Dec/Jan/Feb) working on Nostr-PHP I started with the NIP-19 integration in October '24. Encoding and decoding the simple prefixes (`npub`, `nsec` and `note`) was already done in the first commits.
Learn more about NIP-19 here: [https://nips.nostr.com/19](https://nips.nostr.com/19)
### **TLV's**
Things were getting more complicated with the other prefixes / identifiers defined in NIP-19:
* `nevent`
* `naddr`
* `nprofile`
This is because these identifiers contain (optional) metadata called Type-Lenght-Value aka TLV's.
_When sharing a profile or an event, an app may decide to include relay information and other metadata such that other apps can locate and display these entities more easily._
_For these events, the contents are a binary-encoded list of_ `_TLV_` _(type-length-value), with_ `_T_` _and_ `_L_` _being 1 byte each (_`_uint8_`_, i.e. a number in the range of 0-255), and_ `_V_` _being a sequence of bytes of the size indicated by_ `_L_`_._
These possible standardized `TLV` types are:
* `0`_:_ `special`
* _depends on the bech32 prefix:_
* _for_ `nprofile` _it will be the 32 bytes of the profile public key_
* _for_ `nevent` _it will be the 32 bytes of the event id_
* _for_ `naddr`_, it is the identifier (the_ `"d"` _tag) of the event being referenced. For normal replaceable events use an empty string._
* `1`_:_ `relay`
* _for_ `nprofile`_,_ `nevent` _and_ `naddr`_, optionally, a relay in which the entity (profile or event) is more likely to be found, encoded as ascii_
* _this may be included multiple times_
* `2`_:_ `author`
* _for_ `naddr`_, the 32 bytes of the pubkey of the event_
* _for_ `nevent`_, optionally, the 32 bytes of the pubkey of the event_
* `3`_:_ `kind`
* _for_ `naddr`_, the 32-bit unsigned integer of the kind, big-endian_
* _for_ `nevent`_, optionally, the 32-bit unsigned integer of the kind, big-endian_
These identifiers are formatted as bech32 strings, but are much longer than the package `bitwasp/bech32` (used in the library) for can handle for encoding and decoding. The bech32 strings handled by `bitwasp/bech32` are limited to a maximum length of 90 characters.
Thanks to the effort of others (nostr:npub1636uujeewag8zv8593lcvdrwlymgqre6uax4anuq3y5qehqey05sl8qpl4 and nostr:npub1efz8l77esdtpw6l359sjvakm7azvyv6mkuxphjdk3vfzkgxkatrqlpf9s4) during my break, some contributions are made (modifiying the bech32 package supporting much longer strings, up to a max of 5000 characters). At this moment, I'm integrating this (mostly copy-pasting the stuff and refactoring the code):
* [https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/issues/74](https://github.com/nostrver-se/nostr-php/issues/74)
* [https://github.com/nostriphant/nip-19](https://github.com/nostriphant/nip-19)
### **So what's next?**
* NIP-19 code housekeeping + refactoring
* Prepare a new release with NIP-19 integration
* Create documentation page how to use NIP-19 on [https://nostr-php.dev](https://nostr-php.dev)
-

@ 7bdef7be:784a5805
2025-04-02 12:37:35
The following script try, using [nak](https://github.com/fiatjaf/nak), to find out the last ten people who have followed a `target_pubkey`, sorted by the most recent. It's possibile to shorten `search_timerange` to speed up the search.
```
#!/usr/bin/env fish
# Target pubkey we're looking for in the tags
set target_pubkey "6e468422dfb74a5738702a8823b9b28168abab8655faacb6853cd0ee15deee93"
set current_time (date +%s)
set search_timerange (math $current_time - 600) # 24 hours = 86400 seconds
set pubkeys (nak req --kind 3 -s $search_timerange wss://relay.damus.io/ wss://nos.lol/ 2>/dev/null | \
jq -r --arg target "$target_pubkey" '
select(. != null and type == "object" and has("tags")) |
select(.tags[] | select(.[0] == "p" and .[1] == $target)) |
.pubkey
' | sort -u)
if test -z "$pubkeys"
exit 1
end
set all_events ""
set extended_search_timerange (math $current_time - 31536000) # One year
for pubkey in $pubkeys
echo "Checking $pubkey"
set events (nak req --author $pubkey -l 5 -k 3 -s $extended_search_timerange wss://relay.damus.io wss://nos.lol 2>/dev/null | \
jq -c --arg target "$target_pubkey" '
select(. != null and type == "object" and has("tags")) |
select(.tags[][] == $target)
' 2>/dev/null)
set count (echo "$events" | jq -s 'length')
if test "$count" -eq 1
set all_events $all_events $events
end
end
if test -n "$all_events"
echo -e "Last people following $target_pubkey:"
echo -e ""
set sorted_events (printf "%s\n" $all_events | jq -r -s '
unique_by(.id) |
sort_by(-.created_at) |
.[] | @json
')
for event in $sorted_events
set npub (echo $event | jq -r '.pubkey' | nak encode npub)
set created_at (echo $event | jq -r '.created_at')
if test (uname) = "Darwin"
set follow_date (date -r "$created_at" "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
else
set follow_date (date -d @"$created_at" "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M")
end
echo "$follow_date - $npub"
end
end
```
-

@ 7bdef7be:784a5805
2025-04-02 12:12:12
We value sovereignty, privacy and security when accessing online content, using several tools to achieve this, like open protocols, open OSes, open software products, Tor and VPNs.
## The problem
Talking about our social presence, we can manually build up our follower list (social graph), pick a Nostr client that is respectful of our preferences on what to show and how, but with the standard following mechanism, our main feed is public, so **everyone can actually snoop what we are interested in**, and what is supposable that we read daily.
## The solution
Nostr has a simple solution for this necessity: **encrypted lists**.
Lists are what they appear, a collection of people or interests (but they can also group much other stuff, see [NIP-51](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/51.md)). So we can create lists with contacts that we don't have in our main social graph; these lists can be used primarily to create dedicated feeds, but they could have other uses, for example, related to monitoring. The interesting thing about lists is that they can also be encrypted, so unlike the basic following list, which is always public, **we can hide the lists' content from others**.
The implications are obvious: we can not only have a more organized way to browse content, but it is also **really private one**.
One might wonder what use can really be made of private lists; here are some examples:
* Browse “can't miss” content from users I consider a priority;
* Supervise competitors or adversarial parts;
* Monitor sensible topics (tags);
* Following someone without being publicly associated with them, as this may be undesirable;
The benefits in terms of privacy as usual are not only related to the casual, or programmatic, observer, but are also evident when we think of **how many bots scan our actions to profile us**.
## The current state
Unfortunately, lists are not widely supported by Nostr clients, and encrypted support is a rarity.
Often the excuse to not implement them is that they are harder to develop, since they require managing the encryption stuff ([NIP-44](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/blob/master/44.md)). Nevertheless, developers have an **easier option** to start offering private lists: give the user **the possibility to simply mark them as local-only**, and never push them to the relays. Even if the user misses the sync feature, this is sufficient to create a private environment.
To date, as far as I know, the best client with list management is [Gossip](nostr:npub189j8y280mhezlp98ecmdzydn0r8970g4hpqpx3u9tcztynywfczqqr3tg8), which permits to manage **both encrypted and local-only lists**.
Beg your Nostr client to implement private lists!
-

@ a60e79e0:1e0e6813
2025-04-02 08:26:48
*This is a long form note of a post that lives on my Nostr educational website [Hello Nostr](https://hellonostr.xyz).*
So you've got yourself [started](https://hellonostr.xyz/start), you're up to speed with the latest Nostr [jargon](https://hellonostr.xyz/glossary) and you've learned the basics about the [protocol](https://hellonostr.xyz/101), but you're left wanting more!? Well, look no further! This post contains a useful list of Nostr based utilities than can enhance your experience in and around the Nostr protocol.
## Search and Discovery
Getting started with Nostr can sometimes feel like a lonely journey, particularly if you're the first of your friends and family to discover how awesome it can be! These tools can help you discover new content, connect with existing follows from other networks and just generally have a poke around at the different types of content Nostr has to offer.
> Have a hobby or existing community elsewhere? Have a search for it here to find others with shared interests
- **[Nostr.Band](https://nostr.band/)** - Search for people, posts, media and stats literally anything Nostr has to offer!
- **[Nostr.Directory](https://nostr.directory/)** - Find your Twitter follows on Nostr
- **[Awesome Nostr](https://github.com/aljazceru/awesome-nostr#implementations)** - Extensive list of Relay software
- **[Nostr View](https://nostrview.com/)** - Generic Nostr search

<br/>
## Relays
Relays might not be the sexiest of topics, particularly for newcomers to the network, but they are a crucial part of what makes Nostr great. As you become more competent, you'll want to customize your relay selection and maybe even run your own! Here are some great starting points.
> Running a personal relay is a powerful way to improve the redundancy of your Nostr events.
- **[Nostr.Watch](https://next.nostr.watch/)** - Browse, test and research Nostr relays
- **[Nostrwat.ch](https://nostrwat.ch/)** - List of active Nostr relays
- **[Advanced Nostr Search](https://advancednostrsearch.vercel.app/)** - Targetted search with date ranges
- **[Nostr.Wine](https://nostr.wine/)** - Reliable paid Relay

<br/>
## NIP-05 Identity Services
Your nPub, or public key (that long string of letters and numbers) is your ‘official’ Nostr ID, but it’s not exactly catchy. NIP-05 identifiers are a human-readable and easily shareable way to have people find you on Nostr. They look like an email address, like qna@hellonostr.xyz. If you have your own domain
and web server, you can easily [create your own](https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/nostr-account-nip-05-verified/) NIP-05 identifier in just a few minutes. If you don't, you'll want to leverage one of the many free or paid solutions.
> Make yourself easier to find on Nostr with a NIP-05 identifier
- **[Bitcoiner.Chat](https://bitcoiner.chat/)** - Free service operated by [QnA](nostr:npub15c88nc8d44gsp4658dnfu5fahswzzu8gaxm5lkuwjud068swdqfspxssvx)
- **[Nostr Plebs](https://nostrplebs.com/)** - Paid service with extra features
- **[Alby](https://getalby.com/)** - Lightning wallet with + NIP-05 solution
- **[Nostr Address](https://en.nostraddress.com/)** - Paid service with extra features
- **[Zaps.Lol](https://zaps.lol/)** - Free service

<br/>
## Key Management
Your private key (or nsec) it the key to your Nostr world. It is what allows you to access and interact with your social graph from any client. It doesn't matter if that client is a micro-blogging app like Amethyst, a podcast app like Fountain, or a P2P marketplace like Plebeian Market, your nsec is paramount to
those interactions. Should your nsec be lost, or fall into the wrong hands, whoever then holds a copy can access Nostr and pretend to be you, meaning that you'll need to start again with a new keypair. Not a nice situation to find yourself in, so treat your nsec VERY carefully.
> Your private key IS your Nostr identity. Treat it with extreme care and do not share it.
- **[Alby](https://getalby.com/)** - Browser extension enabling you to sign into web app without sharing the private key
- **[Nos2x](https://github.com/fiatjaf/nos2x)** - Another browser extension key manager
- **[Keys.Band](https://keys.band/)** - Another browser extension key manager
- **[Amber](https://github.com/greenart7c3/amber)** - Android app for safe nsec storage. Can talk to other clients on the same phone to log in and sign events
- **[Nostr Signing Device](https://github.com/lnbits/nostr-signing-device)** - Dedicated device to store your nsec
- **[Passport](https://docs.foundation.xyz)** - Hardware wallet for offline and deterministic nsec generation and storage

<br/>
## Zap Tools
Zaps are one of the most fun parts of Nostr. Never before have we been able to send fractions of a penny, instantly to our friends because their meme made us laugh, or their blog post was very insightful. Zaps use Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, a faster and cheaper way to move Bitcoin around. To Zap someone, you need a Lightning wallet linked to your Nostr client. Some clients, like Primal, ship with their own custodial wallet to make getting started a breeze. Most clients also allow more advanced users to connect an existing Lightning Wallet to reduce reliance and trust in the client provider.
- **[Alby](https://getalby.com/)** - Browser extension and self-custodial Lightning wallet
- **[LNBits](https://github.com/lnbits/lnbits)** - A Zap server running on your own Bitcoin node
- **[BTCPay Server](https://btcpayserver.org/)** - Another Zap server running on your own Bitcoin node
- **[Zeus](https://github.com/ZeusLN/zeus)** - Zap compatible self-custodial mobile Lightning wallet
- **[Nostr Wallet Connect](https://nwc.dev/)** - Communication protocol between Lightning wallets and Nostr apps
- **[Ecash Wallets](https://github.com/cashubtc/awesome-cashu)** - Custodial Ecash based wallets that are interoperable with Lightning and Nostr (Funds may be at risk)
- **[Wallet of Satoshi](https://www.walletofsatoshi.com/)** - Custodial Lightning wallet (Funds may be at risk)

---
If you found this post useful, please share it with your peers and consider following and zapping me on Nostr. If you write to me and let me know
that you found me via this post, I'll be sure to Zap you back! ⚡️
-

@ deab79da:88579e68
2025-04-01 18:18:29
The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five-dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:
Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.
Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough. So Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share in the glory that was Multivac's.
For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.
But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.
The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.
Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public functions, and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.
They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.
"It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever."
Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said.
"Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert."
"That's not forever."
"All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Ten billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?"
Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Ten billion years isn't forever."
"Well, it will last our time, won't it?"
"So would the coal and uranium."
"All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do that on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me.
"I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that."
"Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up, "It did all right."
"Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for ten billion years, but then what?" Lupow pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun."
There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.
Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren't you?"
"I'm not thinking."
"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one."
"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too."
"Darn right they will," muttered Lupov. "It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants won't last a hundred million years. The sun will last ten billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last two hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all."
"I know all about entropy," said Adell, standing on his dignity.
"The hell you do."
"I know as much as you do."
"Then you know everything's got to run down someday."
"All right. Who says they won't?"
"You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said 'forever.'
It was Adell's turn to be contrary. "Maybe we can build things up again someday," he said.
"Never."
"Why not? Someday."
"Never."
"Ask Multivac."
"You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can't be done."
Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?
Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?
Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended.
Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
"No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.
By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten the incident.
🔹
Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright shining disk, the size of a marble, centered on the viewing-screen.
"That's X-23," said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened.
The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of insideoutness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, "We've reached X-23 -- we've reached X-23 -- we've --"
"Quiet, children." said Jerrodine sharply. "Are you sure, Jerrodd?"
"What is there to be but sure?" asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship.
Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the hyperspatial jumps.
Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship. Someone had once told Jerrodd that the "ac" at the end of "Microvac" stood for ''automatic computer" in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that.
Jerrodine's eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. "I can't help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth."
"Why, for Pete's sake?" demanded Jerrodd. "We had nothing there. We'll have everything on X-23. You won't be alone. You won't be a pioneer. There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our great-grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be overcrowded." Then, after a reflective pause, "I tell you, it's a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing."
"I know, I know," said Jerrodine miserably.
Jerrodette I said promptly, "Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the world."
"I think so, too," said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.
It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father's youth, the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors, had come molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship.
Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as complicated as Earth's Planetarv AC (the largest) that had first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars possible.
"So many stars, so many planets," sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own thoughts. "I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever, the way we are now."
"Not forever," said Jerrodd, with a smile. "It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase.
"What's entropy, daddy?" shrilled Jerrodette II.
"Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"
"Can't you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?"
"The stars are the power-units. dear. Once they're gone, there are no more power-units."
Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. "Don't let them, daddy. Don't let the stars run down."
"Now look what you've done," whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.
"How was I to know it would frighten them?" Jerrodd whispered back,
"Ask the Microvac," wailed Jerrodette I. "Ask him how to turn the stars on again."
"Go ahead," said Jerrodine. "It will quiet them down." (Jerrodette II was beginning to cry, also.)
Jerrodd shrugged. "Now, now, honeys. I'll ask Microvac. Don't worry, he'll tell us."
He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, "Print the answer."
Jerrodd cupped the strip or thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, "See now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time comes so don't worry."
Jerrodine said, "And now, children, it's time for bed. We'll be in our new home soon."
Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it: INSUFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.
🔹
VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, "Are we ridiculous, I wonder in being so concerned about the matter?"
MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. "I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion."
Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.
"Still," said VJ-23X, "I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council."
"I wouldn't consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We've got to stir them up."
VJ-23X sighed. "Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More."
"A hundred billion is not infinite and it's getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years --
VJ-23X interrupted. "We can thank immortality for that."
"Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problem of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."
"Yet you wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose."
"Not at all," snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, "Not yet. I'm by no means old enough. How old are you?"
"Two hundred twenty-three. And you?"
"I'm still under two hundred. --But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this GaIaxy is filled, we'll have filled another in ten years. Another ten years and we'll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we'll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known universe. Then what?"
VJ-23X said, "As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next."
"A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year."
"Most of it's wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those."
"Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in a geometric progression even faster than our population. We'll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point."
"We'll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas."
"Or out of dissipated heat?" asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.
"There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC."
VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.
"I've half a mind to," he said. "It's something the human race will have to face someday."
He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.
MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of submesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite its sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.
MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, "Can entropy ever be reversed?"
VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, "Oh, say, I didn't really mean to have you ask that."
"Why not?"
"We both know entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash back into a tree."
"Do you have trees on your world?" asked MQ-17J.
The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.
VJ-23X said, "See!"
The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.
🔹
Zee Prime's mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load of humanity. --But a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.
Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There was little room in the Universe for new individuals.
Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind.
"I am Zee Prime," said Zee Prime. "And you?"
"I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?"
"We call it only the Galaxy. And you?"
"We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and nothing more. Why not?"
"True. Since all Galaxies are the same."
"Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have originated. That makes it different."
Zee Prime said, "On which one?"
"I cannot say. The Universal AC would know."
"Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious."
Zee Prime's perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrank and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being the original Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.
Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and he called out: "Universal AC! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?"
The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had its receptors ready, and each receptor led through hyperspace to some unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.
Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe, two feet across, difficult to see.
"But how can that be all of Universal AC?" Zee Prime had asked.
"Most of it," had been the answer, "is in hyperspace. In what form it is there I cannot imagine."
Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew, when any man had any part of the making of a Universal AC. Each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to build a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its own store of data and individuality would be submerged.
The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime's wandering thoughts, not with words, but with guidance. Zee Prime's mentality was guided into the dim sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.
A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN."
But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Lee Prime stifled his disappointment.
Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, "And is one of these stars the original star of Man?"
The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS A WHITE DWARF"
"Did the men upon it die?" asked Lee Prime, startled and without thinking.
The Universal AC said, "A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TlME."
"Yes, of course," said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never wanted to see it again.
Dee Sub Wun said, "What is wrong?"
"The stars are dying. The original star is dead."
"They must all die. Why not?"
"But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I with them."
"It will take billions of years."
"I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC! How may stars be kept from dying?"
Dee Sub Wun said in amusement, "You're asking how entropy might be reversed in direction."
And the Universal AC answered: "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
Zee Prime's thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a Galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime's own. It didn't matter.
Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.
🔹
Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.
Man said, "The Universe is dying."
Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts, were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.
New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new stars built, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.
Man said, "Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of years."
"But even so," said Man, "eventually it will all come to an end. However it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase forever to the maximum."
Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC."
The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The question of its size and nature no longer had meaning in any terms that Man could comprehend.
"Cosmic AC," said Man, "how may entropy be reversed?"
The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
Man said, "Collect additional data."
The Cosmic AC said, 'I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT.
"Will there come a time," said Man, "when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?"
The Cosmic AC said, "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES."
Man said, "When will you have enough data to answer the question?"
The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
"Will you keep working on it?" asked Man.
The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL."
Man said, "We shall wait."
🔹
The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.
One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.
Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.
Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?"
AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."
Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in hyperspace.
🔹
Matter and energy had ended and with it space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer [technician] ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.
All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.
All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.
But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.
A timeless interval was spent in doing that.
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.
But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
And there was light --
To Star's End!