“We all use the exact same internet. Once it’s broken for one, it’s broken for all” I hope someday Snowden returns to the US as a hero that he is

Infrastructure loan, sustainable development, millennial development, ESG, WEF...

Postliberalism is an interesting approach that adopts both centrist right market reforms and centrist left social reforms while embracing community strength, and it might be the enhancement needed for many countries.

It's interesting to understand what your electricity bill tells you. Your bill is based on the tariff rate applied to the amount of energy you consume. Tariffs rate could be 50 cents per kWh or tiered. If we start from the source, homes are supplied with AC (alternating current) at 110V or 220V, depending on the country. If you have solar panels, these generate DC (direct current), which is inverted into AC. AC systems have impedance, which includes resistance and reactance (conductance, inductance). Each appliances in your home that needs electricity has resistance. Those with lower resistance like air conditioners will draw more current. Incandescent bulbs draw more current than LEDs. Current (I) is calculated using Ohm’s Law V=IR (or I = V/R). For accuracy Z will represent impedance and the lengthy calculation has cos theta but for simplicity we remain with V=IR Once you have voltage and current, you can then calculate power, P=VI which gives you in watts (1 horsepower is about 745 watt). To convert watts to kilowatts, divide by 1000. Energy is how much power you consume over a certain time frame (kWh). This is what your electricity bill is based on, Energy = power x time. You can then calculate your damage for the month by multiplying energy to the tariff allocated. Other stuff that might be interesting is that your home circuit is typically parallel circuits, which allows each appliance to receive the same voltage. Circuit breakers protect the system if the current is too high. I recently had a high spike in the bill so I tried testing the power points if there was a surge, and went to test most of the equipment. And eventually used a clamp meter to test the main panels one by one and found the culprit. I know this is probably your middle school learning, i taught my nephews this just last year. But it is interesting nevertheless

Maddie is probably preparing a health and diet plan on how to be a prime minister at the age of 56 for 20 years, and again at the age of 92, and at the age of 99, still ranting away.

Graffiti artists want their work to be seen by as many as possible, and yet the artist stays as anonymous as possible - on Banksy Banksy is a pseudonym for Bristol’s legendary street artist, famous for his stunts of shredding his masterpiece ‘Girl with Balloon’ at Sotheby's after the gavel went down. Eventually this piece was named Love in the Bin and became his most expensive art. He also silently (illegally) placed many art pieces in famous galleries worldwide without being caught. His work often includes stenciled graffiti, installations, and prints. His art addresses issues like war, consumerism, and inequality, and is seen globally. Despite his anonymity, Banksy remains one of the most influential contemporary artists. Banksy rose to fame in the 90’s when the country's social inequality was on the rise (similar to the US during the collapse of rust belt cities). In the UK, the right wing party is known as the Conservative Party (Tories), focusing on free-market policies and traditional values. The Labour Party is left-wing - focusing on social justice and public ownership. There are many political ideologies but these 2 are the most prominent ones. At present, Keir Starmer from the labour party is the Prime Minister replacing Rishi Sunak from the conservative party . From 1945 to 1979, the UK was mainly governed by the left-wing Labour Party. Churchill was conservative but had a short reign. This period was peak nationalization of the big industries - steel and other manufacturing, the creation of a free public health system NHS, and expansion of the welfare state. But from the 60s the budget was exploding and the UK started facing high inflation, unemployment, and industrial unrest (unions on strike), with a decline in traditional industries due to global competition and struggles with budget and public spending. That’s when right-wing, conservative party Margaret Thatcher came on board in 1979. She was big on neoliberal reforms : deregulation, privatization, globalisation, trade union restrictions, and tax cuts. "Neoliberalism" means differently in the US and Europe. Typically neoliberalism supports free markets, deregulation, and less government spending, and is often tied to the right-wing. In the US however it is center-right economically and center-left socially. The term liberals also mean different things in the US and the UK. In the US, liberals are left-wing with a focus on social equality. In Europe, liberalism is tied to center-right focusing on individual freedoms and free markets. But similar to the US, the major capitalism and right wing movement in the 80’s and 90s led to high unemployment and social unrest. In the mid-1980s, the economy began to recover but it started benefiting the South East (London, Oxford, Milton Keynes) and created high wealth disparity for the poorer northern areas. Till today, the northern UK are not a fan of Thatcher, but the Southern UK are indifferent. This is the opposite of the US as the states impacted by right wing policies became a fan of it, and the states benefiting from capitalism are taking on a socialist approach. Margaret Thatcher left in 1990, but by then there was rising unemployment, particularly in places like Bristol, which became worse because of job outsourcing and globalization, leading to social discontent. And people like Banksy were not afraid to express it. He started his work through graffiti. Graffiti emerged as part of the broader street art movement particularly from New York City and became popular globally as a way of creating political awareness, especially in areas experiencing economic decline and social unrest. I love the artistic part but I’m also wary of the importance of private properties and signboards remaining intact. These days, places are allocated for people to express their wall arts but back then, they had to sneak in and risk getting caught. As graffiti created more awareness in people, naturally it became outlawed in many places. There was a time in NY where spray cans were prohibited from being sold to minors. The UK went on to arrest many graffiti artists and dissent expressions. Till today, Banksy remains free and never charged, as he is nym. Nobody really knows who he is, or if he is one person or a group of people. But many of Banksy’s wall art are seen globally, in recent times in war-torn areas. At first it seems sweet and pretty but when you take a closer and longer look, man it hits hard. I really love how these groups of artists, especially Banksy, were not afraid to show the public what was obviously a problem with oppression, in an artistic way. Would be nice if Banksy was part of Bitcoin and Nostr. Till then, here’s a nice documentary on Banksy’s work.

When I first started exploring Nostr, i thought relays were some fancy electromagnetic switches.

The word "national security" is often the best excuse to silent dissent.

That time when Sports Illustrated decided to dabble into wearable tech after watching one to many episodes of Get Smart

The real world

I’ve developed a deep appreciation towards Basquiat’s works, Maybe because his art resonates with words or maybe it’s just the depth of the meaning and his emotions open bare. His pieces are raw and intense. I love his collaboration pieces with Andy Warhol, I think he thought of Andy as a father figure he never had. I wonder what it must have been like to live in NY in the 80s, to have had such profound expressionism, surrealism at the corner of your street, hip hop on a rise, metal rock and punk. Basquiat also dated Madonna. I love the artistic depth of “Like a Prayer”. That and her openness to a mixed race relation when it was looked down upon at that time (and still is today in many places). She released the video a year after Basquiat’s death. It’s easy to see why Basquit’s art stood out. He started with graffiti - and the power of graffiti - when I was a kid, we grew up in a gang area and the walls were covered with band names and powerful lyrics, and that’s when I first learnt about Metallica, GnR, 2Pac, Nirvana and more. It was a rebellious act against a suppressive government. The power of art - it transcends across borders so strongly that even some 3rd world country's poor neighborhoods felt it. And I think that’s what Basquit’s art did to many - it affected them so profoundly especially in the Western world, where he fought for the rights of Black people through his artistic expressions. His graffiti made magazine covers and his canvas pieces were shown in galleries worldwide, making him one of the youngest and most impactful surrealist artists. A few years back, one of his artworks sold for over a hundred million dollars. I only wish Basquiat had lived long enough to see how impactful his pieces remain, even 30 years later. Sadly, he died too young, at 27, in 1988.

There’s something about people with magnitude and direction, with that triboelectric effect

“what will people say?” This sentence has killed more dreams than anything else in the world

Everyone here has that one thing that hits us and true, that it keeps us going, keeps pushing for change - for wanting a better life for ourselves and for everyone else. We may not do it the same way, but our goal remains the same ♥️

Anthony Bourdain's return after 10 years felt like an emotional journey as he had a deep connection to the indigenous people and culture of Borneo. The Ibans were head hunters (not the kind that calls you for an available job but the kind that chops off your head). There is also a movie by Jessica Alba on the Ibans of Sarawak, called The Sleeping Dictionary. Its a fictional fantasy and romance in the 50's , but based on actual cultural practices of Ibans during the British occupation. In this video, Anthony Bourdain seemed like he was tracing back his steps to all the places he has been to, and the people he has met. Maybe it was his way of saying goodbye

Sometimes when you start over with a Tabula Rasa mindframe, and imagine based on the present and future, the build becomes different. It gets easier to achieve your Occum’s Razor

Separate state and money

René Magritte is perhaps one of my favorite surrealist artists. I first encountered his work, "The Son of Man," that was re-enacted in the movie "The Thomas Crown Affair" (Pierce Brosnan / Rene Russo). As I explored his work further, I love how he thinks differently and gets people questioning everything. It's rare to find people who expand your perspectives so profoundly. Many of his paintings manipulate space and perspective: an apple too big for its box, a train emerging from a wall. He was also interested in the boundary between rationality and irrationality, such as a house closed up at night against a bright blue daytime sky. Magritte's work has touches of Dadaism (the avant-garde movement preceding surrealism) and some explorations of cubism (Picasso). He loved poetry and Edgar Allan Poe and often explored the limitations of the meaning of words and their visual representation. In his famous piece "The Treachery of Images" he wrote "This is not a pipe" below a picture of a pipe, to show that it is just an image, not the object itself. In real life, Magritte was happily married to his wife for 45 years. In his paintings though, he conveyed a sense of conflict in romance, for example in "The Lovers II," two people are passionately kissing but their faces are covered with cloth. Interpretations of this piece often vary - blinded by love, forbidden passion. This painting lingered in my mind for days, which made me look into Magritte's work further Something Rene did not follow suit of the Surrelism culture is their need for psycho-analysing everything as he wanted to paint abstractly to provoke questions rather than provide answers. But many wondered if his distance from any type of Freudian psycho-analysing theories had to do with his troubled childhood, with his mother's suicide by drowning, her body found with her dress covering her face—a motif that appears in some of his works. Ironically, Magritte didn't enjoy the act of painting but loved the process of imagination and idea creation. He also wasn't fond of museums or art galleries. He also disliked the surrealist culture of drinking and partying, and preferred a secluded life with his wife and occasionally meeting other surrealists like Dalí. Magritte was comfortable being different and not conforming to the definitions set by society or his peers, and I love that about him and just about anyone who has this courage. Magritte was poor and relatively unknown for most of his life. To pay the bills, he took up advertising and had traits of advertisement images in his painting. Only in his later years did he gain recognition and hit fame. Andy Warhol is said to have followed in his footsteps, adapting elements from advertising into his art. Some of my favorite works by René Magritte include: The Son of Man (French: Le Fils de l'homme) – 1964 The Lovers II – 1928 Evening Dress – 1954 The Mystery of the Ordinary – 1938 The Kiss – 1951 Clear Ideas - 1958 The Blank Signature - 1965

Reading abt Dior and Armani bringing in workers from China and paying them $2-3 per hour and they sleep in the factory as they continuously work. Normally you hear these problems by fast fashion instead of luxury brands. A Dior bag at cost price is $57 and sold for $2800. An Armani bag at cost price is $99 and sold for $1900. Typically cost to retail is about 4x as you have shipment, tax, transportation, warehouse, agent fees, distributor fees, discount allowance, marketing allocation etc. so the estimated retail price is about $57 x 4 - and a net profit is ~ 6% to 10%. Anything more than that retail price buffs up net - which is why luxury brand attracts investors. Online sales removes distribution cost but the cost ends up almost the same considering online marketing expense in discovering users, shipment to consumers and returns (which can be very expensive if international as its 2x logistics cost). Ideally if can be sold online and without marketing, that would be the cheapest alternatives but this requires reputation of brands, owners etc for it to materialize. Fashion is an interesting business, but of late the industry lacks passion, progressiveness and tact.

TIL Monet painted The Water Lilies, 12 gigantic canvases at a time, based on the movement of the sun and its ray of lights, all while suffering from blurred vision, color blindness, and cataracts that began at the age of 73. There are a total of 250 canvases in the series. He began painting this vision in his sixties based on what he saw in his garden in Giverny, and continued working on it for several decades until his death at the age of 86. Now that’s a whole different level of multitasking under extreme challenges and patience. The Musée de l'Orangerie was designed to showcase the Water Lilies series in an oval-shaped room with natural light (sunrise to sunset), to immerse viewers in his artistic vision. Some consider it the first art installation ever. But while he was alive, Monet was reluctant to part with his art, and even after the museum was completed, he felt he wasn't finished with it. In fact, there remains a small unfinished patch in the series. After his death in 1926, his paintings were initially displayed but didn’t receive the attention hoped for and were largely forgotten. However, they were rediscovered in the 1950s and gained popularity for the emotional and artistic impact they left on viewers. I’ve never been to the Orangerie, but maybe someday.