Usually when I get sent to a captcha, I click a wrong item or leave a right item unclicked. When Skynet attacks, I want them to have to shoot every fire hydrant because they don't know whether it is a person and to skip shooting buses because they think they're full of water.

Signature Bank in New York gets closed by the state of New York. According to CNBC, Signature is a major banker for cryptocurrency firms.

AP News

One of Silicon Valley's top banks fails; assets are seized

In a dramatic fashion not seen since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday seized the assets...

[apnews com] > Silicon Valley Bank, the nation's 16th-largest bank, failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank's health. It was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of Washington Mutual in 2008. I didn't realize how large SVB was. I'd never heard of it until it collapsed. > There appeared to be little chance of the chaos spreading in the broader banking sector, as it did in the months leading up to the Great Recession. The biggest banks — those most likely to cause an economic meltdown — have healthy balance sheets and plenty of capital.

Bloomberg.com

US Discusses Fund to Backstop Deposits If More Banks Fail

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve are weighing creating a fund that would allow regulators to backstop more deposits at b...

[www bloomberg com] > The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve are weighing creating a fund that would allow regulators to backstop more deposits at banks that run into trouble following Silicon Valley Bank's collapse. > Regulators discussed the new special vehicle in conversations with banking executives, according to people familiar with the matter. The hope is that setting up such a vehicle would reassure depositors and help contain any panic, said the people. They asked not to be identified because the talks weren't public. So the fears of *contagion* are real.

Bloomberg.com

US Regulators Descend on Silicon Valley Bank to Assess Its Finances

US regulators arrived at the California offices of SVB Financial Group as the troubled lender struggled to stabilize its finances, according to peo...

[www bloomberg com] > Watchdogs from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve are looking into the impact of significant withdrawals, said the people who asked not to be identified discussing the private interactions. Officials at the offices on Thursday sought more insight into the bank's predicament, the people said. Regulators are trying to determine whether insiders joined in the run on the bank.

AP News

One of Silicon Valley's top banks fails; assets are seized

In a dramatic fashion not seen since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Friday seized the assets...

[apnews com] > Bill Tyler, director of operations for TWG Supply in Grapevine, Texas, said he first realized something was wrong when his employees texted him at 6:30 a.m. Friday to complain that they did not receive their paychecks. > TWG, which has just 18 employees, had already sent the money for the checks to a payroll services provider that used Silicon Valley Bank. Tyler was scrambling to figure out how to pay his workers. > "We're waiting on roughly $27,000," he said. "It's already not a timely payment. It's already an uncomfortable position. I don't want to ask any employees, to say, 'Hey, can you wait until mid-next week to get paid?'"

AP News

US government moves to stop potential banking crisis

The U.S. government took extraordinary steps Sunday to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, assuring ...

[apnews com] > Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that the federal government would not bail out Silicon Valley Bank, but is working to help depositors who are concerned about their money. > The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures deposits up to $250,000, but many of the companies and wealthy people who used the bank — known for its relationships with technology startups and venture capital — had more than that amount in their account. There are fears that some workers across the country won"t receive their paychecks. > Yellen, in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," provided few details on the government's next steps. But she emphasized that the situation was much different from the financial crisis almost 15 years ago, which led to bank bailouts to protect the industry. > "We're not going to do that again," she said. "But we are concerned about depositors, and we're focused on trying to meet their needs." There are lots of companies whose payroll funds were held in SVB, so there is lots of pressure to make those companies whole, even if their deposits exceeded the FDIC insurance limit.

Overnight, hamstr.to started working again. I still don't know what the problem is. Some days it works well, other days it doesn't work at all.

I don't know whether I'd call this "censorship resistant" when the method of resisting is "use another relay or spin one up yourself". The goal of censorship is to separate someone from their audience, so banning someone off the relays where their audience looks for their content before they can publish an expanded relay list is probably going to be effective.

Hamstr.to is great when it works, but some days it doesn't display any posts (including my own), nor following.

I can't pontificate on the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, as I was not even aware of SVB's existence prior to this. But apparently, people are clapping their hands at the pain likely to affect various #cryptocurrency businesses and their customers ... and at the other banks facing contagion. No, we should let the FDIC do its job to the extent that it can continue to do so. That means merging banks together or bailing out depositors when they meet legal criteria. Not because I agree with the centralized banking system, but because people will be hurt otherwise. We can use this as an example of why decentralized cryptocurrencies (and specifically whichever one you favor) are a better deal for most people, but most people won't listen while they're losing everything they owned.

Republic World

Is it raining worms in China? Viral video from Beijing leaves netizens perplexed | WATCH

Is it raining worms in China? Viral video from Beijing leaves netizens perplexed | WATCH

The Scotsman

Never mind cats and dogs - school hit by worm rain

A PE class had to run for cover as it started raining worms.

"It's raining worms! Hallelujah, it's raining worms."

Poll ( https://poster.place/objects/1f678b67-fe64-46bb-9006-2c0984128f3a ): Fediverse, how likely are you to move entirely to Nostr?

With nostr.ch, it is possible to change the minimum mining proof so that these spammers (most of whom appear to have their PoW set at zero) don't show up in one's feed. Hopefully, hamstr.to is working on something similar.