Saturday 13th April, 2024 - Good Output (Issue #159)
Sun, moon & the solar eclipse, Tom Hanks spaceman, Bitcoin lending, student debt, civil war dystopia, Bitcoin’s design, Tik Tok ban, monopolies, free speech
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
It’s been a week of 2 halves.
It started off with the much anticipated Solar Eclipse that happened in the US. So there was all sorts of interesting podcasts about the event itself but also more general stuff about the sun, the moon, how they have shaped the evolution of our species, and of course the fascinating story of the Apollo missions that led to landing actual men on the actual moon. A much more amazing feat than I had appreciated previously.
The later part of the week was back to, I suppose, more usual fare. Still interesting though. Some really good long form exploring the important topics of the day. Bitcoin & the realities of modern society, tech regulation, free speech, governance, society and more. There’s some AI stuff buried in there, even if it’s not apparent on the surface. AI permeates everything at the minute.
I wrote a surprising amount of code this week. I’m making structural fixes to my static site generator. Deep in the depths of the main app. It’s a bit of code that all the plugins use to create posts. I think I have most, or at least many of the issues ironed out. I’m having to be very careful with build minutes since I’ve used up most of this month’s allocation.
The world has continued with it’s synchronicity tsunami. It just never ends really. Just when you think something nice has happened, you get gut punched, quite literally in this case. A few hours after being told that I had ‘good output’, I ended up having to make an emergency visit to the bathroom. The optimist in me had figured the young woman in question was making a robot related joke, which I thought was sort of funny, though I did note at the time that it did sound quite ominous.
Nope, it was part of another multi location multi day intimidation campaign from locals, which was followed up by butch women everywhere I walked shouting ‘our lie’ and ‘our’ at me for the rest of the day. Anyway, today is another day. This sort of stuff is like the weather, eventually it passes. Life moves on.
The cold I had is showing signs of clearing up. At least the sneezing and blocked nose part. But I fear there’s still an underlying lung infection because I’m still coughing up flem quite a lot. It’s gross, I sound gross, I feel gross, but there’s not much I can do. One weird thing, today I’m noticing my mouth tastes exactly like how it tasted when I was taking the first course of Amoxicillin anti-biotics. Except I haven’t, to my knowledge, taken any. I don’t even have any to take. Pretty weird.
There’s been so much happening that again this week I haven’t had time to write episode descriptions, though if you’ve read this intro you’ll have a vague idea what they cover. Unfortunately I likely won’t have time later to add them. I can only go to one cafe today and want to be out of the midday sun. It’s blisteringly hot around lunch which is when the newsletter gets sent out. Hopefully next week the world will be a little less confrontational and I’ll have more time for descriptions.
Update: As I was scheduling the issue, I realised it’s only Friday today! Every day blends into the same amorphous blob of never ending thankless grind in this place sometimes. Maybe I will get the chance to write the descriptions after all.
Update: Podcast descriptions done!
Podcasts
How Our Moon Shaped the Course of Human History and Human Kind w/ Rebecca Boyle (Into the Impossible Podcast) - Moon expert Rebecca shares all sorts of fascinating things about the moon and the impact it has had on our species. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vaW50b3RoZWltcG9zc2libGU/episode/NWEyNzZiZDQtZjE4OS0xMWVlLWE0MWUtZTdhMDg5MmE2MDAw?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwigyIKbtLuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNg
On the eve of the eclipse Christopher Cokinos illuminates the sun and moon’s history and their future Ep#2025 (Keen On Podcast) - Christopher has a ton of information about the moon as it relates to humanity, from the science, to more esoteric stuff. Really enjoyed this episode. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcGkuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC8zMDk0OTQucnNz/episode/c3Vic3RhY2s6cG9zdDoxNDMzNjY1Mzg?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahgKEwigyIKbtLuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ-QI
The Moonwalkers with Tom Hanks (The Rest is History Podcast) - Turns out Tom Hanks is some sort of world expert on the moon landings. He’s studied it extensively and knows all the missions and stories. I hadn’t appreciated exactly how dangerous these missions were. For instance, they literally had to get the return leg right first time. Tom also is right at home with the RIH guys, good banter, even if his black cabby impression is a bit questionable. They also discuss whether there will ever be another instalment of the Pixar Toy Story franchise. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9yc3MuYWNhc3QuY29tL3RoZS1yZXN0LWlzLWhpc3RvcnktcG9kY2FzdA/episode/MDkyYTY1YzYtZjRkZS0xMWVlLWEyOTMtZDc5ZjE1OGQzMTQy?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwigyIKbtLuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ0gY
Future of Bitcoin Borrowing and Lending w/ Max Kei Ep#177 (We Study Billionaires - Bitcoin Podcast) - Lots of new possibilities open up when it comes to Bitcoin and lending. Lending is a big part of the economic system, so this discussion was pretty interesting. I feel like we need more concrete examples in this space. https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/bitcoin-fundamentals/the-future-of-bitcoin-borrowing-and-lending-max-kei/
Michael Costa Reacts to Biden’s Student Debt Relief Plan and An Interview with Alex Garland (The Daily Show Podcast) - The student debt discussion is quite on point. The Alex Garland interview was pretty cool. His new piece that depicts what a US civil war would be like nowadays sounds kind of good, and scary. Interesting to hear the reasoning behind his approach. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cub21ueWNvbnRlbnQuY29tL2QvcGxheWxpc3QvZTczYzk5OGUtNmU2MC00MzJmLTg2MTAtYWUyMTAxNDBjNWIxL2U1ZTQ5ZjkxLWJlOWItNDJmMS1hNDI2LWFlM2MwMDAyNmU4Yi8wNGI1MWMzNC04MDI4LTQ5YTMtYjQyZi1hZTNjMDAwMjZlOTUvcG9kY2FzdC5yc3M/episode/NmY2YjdhNmEtY2E5OC00MTkyLWFjNDUtYjE0ZTAwMTFiMmQy?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahcKEwiQupOntbuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQCg
Why Bitcoin’s Design Fixes Money with Nikolas Bowick (What Bitcoin Did Podcast) - Great episode. An engineer with a very good steady job did some calculations and realised he’d literally never be able to get a house over the course of his life because of the fiat money system. He spent 12 years trying to change his trajectory. He’s managed to do this successfully, with Bitcoin as a main component of his strategy. Some really clear descriptions of the dynamics at play since he fully analysed his predicament using his engineering skills. The fascinating thing is how normal this situation is. Most people just never think to check out the pot of water they are being boiled in. Following an encounter at a house party, Nikolas for whatever reason decided to go down the path less travelled. It’s fascinating to me that the route into Bitcoin and financial freedom for many would have been via exposure to slightly shady things like the Silkroad, because in the beginning that’s who was using Bitcoin. Discovering the truth isn’t always very straight forward, and can take a long time. I’ve been travelling for 12 years and can say it really is a long and windy road. https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/why-bitcoins-design-fixes-money
Tik Tok ban and the iPhone monopoly (Vergecast Podcast) - As usual the Vergecast crew do a fantastic job covering all the angles with some light humour so you don’t die of boredom in the otherwise quite dry regulation space. There’s a lot of great insight in this episode. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/NTUwM2U4NGUtOWVhYS0xMWVlLTgyY2ItNmIwNmQ5NGNiYWRj?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwiQupOntbuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQrAc
Brendan O’Neill (Joe Rogan Podcast) - First brit I’ve heard on the show. Very knowledgeable bloke, gets on really well with Rogan, they have a long and at times kind of intense discussion about free speech, wokeism, political correctness, war in Gaza and other sometimes controversial topics. I found many of his arguments very convincing, and really liked the back and forth with Rogan who didn’t have exactly the same views which made for a good discussion. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9qb2Vyb2dhbmV4cC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw/episode/NDg0MTJjNDItZjZlZS0xMWVlLWI3ZWMtZTMxOTk3MzBkYWRj?sa=X&ved=0CAQQkfYCahgKEwiQupOntbuFAxUAAAAAHQAAAAAQmgs
That’s all from me…
Best reguards,
Mark
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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!