Just as an indication of a somewhat different mindset, I have zero interest in 'converting'¹ anyone to using or receiving Bitcoin. I am not evangelical and dislike it when evangelism is tried on me. Or, if you want to phrase it differently, I dislike attempts to influence me or 'sell' things to me, and so I don't try either of these things on other people. Of course, ppl do influence me and I presume I influence others, but that is by the (genuine) example they set and by the behaviour they (genuinely) model as they go about their lives, and not because they are thinking about how to influence others.

I would certainly ask merchants and service providers whether they take Bitcoin, and would answer questions (with positivity) about Bitcoin if they asked why they should accept it, but again, I have zero interest in actively trying to convince them.

My own interest in and conviction about the soundness of Bitcoin came from hearing about it, thinking it sounded interesting (the very first time I heard of it) and then going and researching it for myself. And in the early days yes, I did talk to friends & family about it with enthusiasm but now consider that a mistake (should have kept my interest private).

I don't mean that we should keep Bitcoin secret, far from it. Certainly we should provide information and education about it, and produce podcasts and explanatory videos and so on. That's all very good. But that information should be there for ppl who already have some interest (even if it's just an initial spark), and not as material to 'convert the heathens'.

Here's a few FOSS tools for cleaning image metadata (EXIF) that I've just very quickly researched (and haven't personally used) :

If you say this then you either have a very different definition of 'intelligence' (a much poorer and non-useful one) or you are a fantasist

Haven't listened to this but I will as I enjoy when Preston Pysh is being a podcast guest (rather than an excellent podcast host, his usual role).

Yes. I wouldn't have discovered Bitcoin pretty early on if I hadn't had 'fragmented' attention. I tend to read fairly widely and follow tangents that interest me and the focus of my interest shifts around from day to day (although I do still have abiding interests). And my mind was already 'pre-prepared' for receptiveness to Bitcoin when I did first come upon it from having preciously followed some interesting things my fragmented attention had come across earlier (like how public key cryptography works and how powerful a concept it is).

This isn't meant to be a boast at all, because I'm very much aware of how my fragmented attention often takes me away from the deep focus required to complete projects. It's an interesting trade-off problem, because to focus you have to shut out 'distractions', while some 'distractions' can actually be very useful and enlightening new information. I'm sure there are many people who are doing valuable work requiring deep focus who have dismissed Bitcoin as a distraction, when, as we all agree here, Bitcoin is way too important to dismiss but it does require giving it some attention to appreciate why.

edit : should have read @elvismercury's answer to your question before replying, as they say it better than me

This post appears to only be looking at the medium of exchange function of money, while ignoring its store of value function

'AI' / 'Artificial Intelligence' does not and will never exist

Don't use bullshit terms made up by fantasists and bullshitters

Really good having your kiwi voice here on SN, cheers mate

And thanks for posting. Just finished watching and it's a great 40 minute segment, with a lot of interesting discussion and informed opinion. (Helps that Nik Bhatia is also so knowledgeable and a good interviewer.)

Well, it's completely up to you of course, but if you want to get more attention (and maybe sats, if you care about that) for your submission, it helps to give useful information in the title. Caitlin Long has a very strong reputation based on her inside knowledge of how Wall Street works and also for being a good bitcoiner, so it only makes sense that you're going to attract more attention by including her name in the submission title.

Would have been a good idea to put who the interview guest is (Caitlin Long) in the title

(Warning : Super pedantic response on a completely trivial matter)

Ok, I've just tried it and I don't like it. I don't see how it's a shortcut when it still requires two inputs, the CTRL + i to initiate and then the necessary use of a cursor key to move over the trailing underscore. My way is just two inputs too - two asterisks (I use asterisks, you can also use underscores) that are typed in order, so no funny cursor movement.

And the point of Markdown is that it's intuitive - markdown is meant to look like 'marked up' text. Putting stars around a word clearly indicates some sort of emphasis. That's easy for someone from any culture to grasp. Italics is cursivo in Spanish and 斜体の in Japanese. If they don't know English (and why should they have to?) then it doesn't make any intuitive sense to them for why they're using (and having to remember) the first letter of a word they don't know in a key sequence to emphasise a word. Imagine explaining CTRL + i to a class of Swahili speaking kids, rather than just showing them how to directly put stars (or underscores) around a word for emphasis.

Perhaps, perhaps not. It was a little embarrassing for me to look at that article because it reminded me that I have Marshall McLuhan's doctoral dissertation on the Trivium¹ in book form, and still haven't got around to reading it after quite a few years.

I actually thought the Bell Curve might be a playful reference to the Midwit meme

(And Nassim Taleb, while being a very problematic character, was right on Steven Pinker. He's a fraud.)

@Atreus is referencing the Trivium here

Markdown isn't really that hard to master. And SN is great in that it gives you a preview tab to check yr formatting before posting. (Not to mention a 10 minute editing window to further catch mistakes.)

I can appreciate using one of these (admirably FOSS) tools to craft a longer post but for short to medium replies (up to say 10 paras) I personally wouldn't bother (been using markdown for 15+ years, totally comfortable with it).

And btw, why bother with

when straight markdown is just *italics* for italics ?

What's your thinking on exclamation and question marks immediately after an italicised word ?

I note that you didn't italicise the exclamation mark after packed above. The run on to the exclamation mark looks a little clumsy to me, but the alternative of also italicising the exclamation mark also looks a little weird.

(My own solution is to adopt the French practice of leaving a space before exclamation & question marks. Which I find more appealing anyway, in general use.)

Agreed so much with this comment that I clicked through to the user profile, and then thought, huh, looks familiar...

I like the name change on the b_c theme. Now wondering what future permutations you might try. Bearstate_champion ?

That's a far better article (judging by the bit you have shown)

@TomK the submission headline you have used is not actually a good summary of the (badly written) Reuters article.

They have agreed to use profit (e.g. interest paid) from the frozen assets and not actually liquidate the confiscated assets. The article leads with this information :

but fails to properly draw out what this means in the article, as would be good journalistic practice, and thus allows confusion on what has actually happened from the reader.

What they are doing represents a significantly smaller step taken (but still a grossly stupid and criminal one) than actually liquidating the frozen assets. Euroclear, the authority that actually holds over 70% of the frozen assets, had previously given the ok for using the interest paid on the assets but is still, very strongly, warning against the liquidation, i.e. full seizing, of the assets. Because Euroclear recognises, correctly, that seizing the assets will have catastrophic consequences for Europe as a financial centre.