The unimportant news thread

[Iota]

Sounds like there are a few good'uns in the Somerset Police Department. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55522825

[André]

The story is a bit more complete - and even more uplifting - in other media. The Officer took time to listen.


https://people.com/human-interest/massachusetts-police-officer-buys-holiday-groceries-for-shoplifting-suspects/

[Todd]

Rubik's Cube Movie in the Works From Ashok Amritraj and Endeavor Content

Color me puzzled.

[greg]

Anyone investing in bitcoin?
I'm up $1300 now but am thinking about/going to research whether to dump a bunch of money into it (like 10k).
My thinking being, if I do and it immediately drops down to where I lose that $1300 then maybe I'll sell and break even, worst case scenario.

[greg]

I'm dying... Robinhood taking so long to transfer 10k from my bank so I can put into bitcoin...

every day it's making me over 100 dollars, but just think what it would do if I had ten times that amount invested in it! But no, just sitting there, missing out on the crazy gains that are happening.

There's some wild forecasts out there about how high it may get in the near future.  But who knows if it will crash hard like it does normally.

Could save so much time from my life so I could spend it on doing something actually meaningful, like make another album in the future rather than working. Also considering Ethereum. There seems to be a strong long-term optimism in these two nowadays.

[greg]

Meanwhile:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/investing/alibaba-tencent-stock-us-bans-intl-hnk/index.html

I have stock in Alibaba, but they're talking about delisting it on Monday! 

Idk if I should sell it or not, wasn't making me much anyways, but does that mean my whole investment would be gone or would it just be frozen?


The real sad news is Jack Ma... if the CCP did anything to him, I'd wanna see Winnie the Pooh become Winnie the Piñata. 

[JBS]

Just leaving this here
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/01/07/europe/denmark-john-dillermand-controversy-scli-intl/index.html

[greg]

Elon Musk is now the world's richest person.


https://robinhood.com/news/article/6398f1f4-8919-35dd-8727-69c4e44e6873

[T. D.]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-08/european-soccer-super-league-moves-closer-to-deciding-lineup

Top European soccer teams are moving closer to deciding the lineup for a proposed "super league" that could end the UEFA Champions League's run as the premier event in the sport, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Organizers are working to finalize a list of at least a dozen permanent members after offering spots to clubs including Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, the people said. They hope to publicly announce their plans in the next few months, one of the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.


Bayern Munich, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester United and Real Madrid are also being discussed as potential permanent members, the people said. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is in talks to provide financing for the project based on the expectation of future television contracts, according to the people.

[T. D.]

https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/news/neil-young-music-catalog-hipgnosis-investment-1110037/

More megabucks pop music rights sales: Neil Young, Stev(i)e Nicks and others.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Had debated where to post this, but.....:  Trump National stripped of 2022 US PGA Championship

https://www.bbc.com/sport/golf/55615022

PD

[Pohjolas Daughter]

It will cost the American tax payers over a half a million dollars for the White House to be deep-cleaned before the Bidens move in due to Covid.  No idea what it typically cost pre-Covid days, but still.... 

Apparently, Melania has been steadily organizing what will go to their Florida residence and what will go into storage and has already moved most of their belongings out of there.

Above news heard on CNN this morning.

[greg]

It's probably a good idea to invest in crypto right now, pretty much everyone is saying that the next year it's going to increase in value dramatically.

For several reasons, but one that is captivating is the idea that the US Dollar's value will be falling, especially if they went through with the next proposed $2000 stimulus check. So financial institutions are buying it up as a backup, and the attention towards gold is starting to strongly shift towards bitcoin.

Dumped 5k into Etherium and 6k into Bitcoin (originally just bought $500 months ago when it was way lower)...
kind of more than my comfort level, but you have to hang on to the roller coaster ride, regardless, and not get scared.
The final 5k that I put towards Bitcoin yesterday was just at the right time when the dip had ended, so there is an element of trying to time things just right.

Was looking at Etherium and my gains were fluctuating between being up $300 around midnight to droppping to -$100 to going back up to +$116 just now.

[MusicTurner]

It's probably a good idea to invest in crypto right now, pretty much everyone is saying that the next year it's going to increase in value dramatically.

For several reasons, but one that is captivating is the idea that the US Dollar's value will be falling, especially if they went through with the next proposed $2000 stimulus check. So financial institutions are buying it up as a backup, and the attention towards gold is starting to strongly shift towards bitcoin.

Dumped 5k into Etherium and 6k into Bitcoin (originally just bought $500 months ago when it was way lower)...
kind of more than my comfort level, but you have to hang on to the roller coaster ride, regardless, and not get scared.
The final 5k that I put towards Bitcoin yesterday was just at the right time when the dip had ended, so there is an element of trying to time things just right.

Was looking at Etherium and my gains were fluctuating between being up $300 around midnight to droppping to -$100 to going back up to +$116 just now.

You seem outside those considerations, but some are boycotting digital currency for ethical reasons, besides the possible personal risks of fraud.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

You seem outside those considerations, but some are boycotting digital currency for ethical reasons, besides the possible personal risks of fraud.

I'm trying to remember the name of a woman who created a currency, convinced people to invest, and then ran away with the money and not caught so far last I heard.

Ah!  Here we go.  It was called OneCoin.  It was a Ponzi scheme.  https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-50435014

Have they caught her yet?

PD

[greg]

You seem outside those considerations, but some are boycotting digital currency for ethical reasons, besides the possible personal risks of fraud.

Interesting.

Does this possibility extend to all digital currency, including the top 2 (Bitcoin and Etherium)?

[drogulus]

Interesting.

Does this possibility extend to all digital currency, including the top 2 (Bitcoin and Etherium)?

     Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history

In my opinion, it's a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen. In a pump-and-dump game, promoters "pump" up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then "dump" some of their holdings at artificially high prices. And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst & Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen.

The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters. And "massive" is a massive understatement — 1,500 different cryptocurrencies now register over $300 billion of "value."

It helps to understand that a bitcoin has no value at all.

Promoters claim cryptocurrency is valuable as (1) a means of payment, (2) a store of value and/or (3) a thing in itself. None of these claims are true.

1. Means of Payment. Bitcoins are accepted almost nowhere, and some cryptocurrencies nowhere at all. Even where accepted, a currency whose value can swing 10 percent or more in a single day is useless as a means of payment.

2. Store of Value. Extreme price volatility also makes bitcoin undesirable as a store of value. And the storehouses — the cryptocurrency trading exchanges — are far less reliable and trustworthy than ordinary banks and brokers.

3. Thing in Itself. A bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It only has value if people think other people will buy it for a higher price — the Greater Fool theory.

     Legit currencies, all of them, are backed by the tax power of the authority that issues them.

[greg]

     Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history

In my opinion, it's a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen. In a pump-and-dump game, promoters "pump" up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then "dump" some of their holdings at artificially high prices. And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst & Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen.

The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters. And "massive" is a massive understatement — 1,500 different cryptocurrencies now register over $300 billion of "value."

It helps to understand that a bitcoin has no value at all.

Promoters claim cryptocurrency is valuable as (1) a means of payment, (2) a store of value and/or (3) a thing in itself. None of these claims are true.

1. Means of Payment. Bitcoins are accepted almost nowhere, and some cryptocurrencies nowhere at all. Even where accepted, a currency whose value can swing 10 percent or more in a single day is useless as a means of payment.

2. Store of Value. Extreme price volatility also makes bitcoin undesirable as a store of value. And the storehouses — the cryptocurrency trading exchanges — are far less reliable and trustworthy than ordinary banks and brokers.

3. Thing in Itself. A bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It only has value if people think other people will buy it for a higher price — the Greater Fool theory.

     Legit currencies, all of them, are backed by the tax power of the authority that issues them.

Regardless if it's a "scam," "legit," or not, if I decided to sell at this very moment, that's $2400 for doing almost no work at all. That's about a month of saving money while working (on a good month with no large purchases). That's all I care about, personally.

The "pump and dump" thing seems to be what happened last week, but it's back up to where it was already. If you can withstand the wave and just hold for a while, it's probably a good idea, since the long-term trend is only going upward.

And decentralized currencies, despite the volatility, probably should exist anyways, since centralization means single point of failure, so you really have to put utmost faith that correct decisions are made. Really, everything is a gamble, but more options are always better.

[BWV 1080]

     Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history

In my opinion, it's a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen. In a pump-and-dump game, promoters "pump" up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then "dump" some of their holdings at artificially high prices. And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst & Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen.

The losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed. The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters. And "massive" is a massive understatement — 1,500 different cryptocurrencies now register over $300 billion of "value."

It helps to understand that a bitcoin has no value at all.

Promoters claim cryptocurrency is valuable as (1) a means of payment, (2) a store of value and/or (3) a thing in itself. None of these claims are true.

1. Means of Payment. Bitcoins are accepted almost nowhere, and some cryptocurrencies nowhere at all. Even where accepted, a currency whose value can swing 10 percent or more in a single day is useless as a means of payment.

2. Store of Value. Extreme price volatility also makes bitcoin undesirable as a store of value. And the storehouses — the cryptocurrency trading exchanges — are far less reliable and trustworthy than ordinary banks and brokers.

3. Thing in Itself. A bitcoin has no intrinsic value. It only has value if people think other people will buy it for a higher price — the Greater Fool theory.

     Legit currencies, all of them, are backed by the tax power of the authority that issues them.

not to mention that Chinese Bitcoin miners currently control 65% of the network hash rate, so its effectively under the control of the CCP

[Papy Oli]

Now, Boris can always blame the ravens if need be

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/14/tower-of-london-raven-missing-feared-dead