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My wife and I were robbed in broad daylight by a pair of motorcycle thugs. I struggled against one for about 10 seconds, and even though there were about 30 people around us, nobody helped.
There faces were wrapped with rags and they wore nondescript green vests. As they drove off with my wife's bag, I tried to get as many details about the motorcycle as I could. I noticed that it was a fairly large cycle by Nairobi standards (600 to 750 cc size), extremely quiet muffler, probably automatic transmission & four cycle engine from the sound.
I generally feel safe being in third world countries by the simple virtue that I own practically nothing. I walk around in Levis and a tshirt. I have a cheap $10 watch and I rarely even wear that outside. I am in excellent health and have no problem with resorting to violence to protect myself. My most valuable material possession is a Dell D430 laptop with a 32 GB SSD drive. My second most valuable possession is a pair of cheap Nike shoes that are over a year old.
My wife lost her Android phone ($100) and her small netbook (around $150). These are tools that she uses for work and makes her much more productive in her job (which pays about $200 per month). She lost basically everything of value that she owned.
What really bothered me about that robbery was the opulent display of wealth by these thugs. That motorcycle was worth at least $2-3k and probably closer to $5000. They had the wealth to invest in a major resource to make it safer for themselves to steal from poor people. Their M.O. was smooth and practiced. I doubt they will ever be caught.
As a libertarian, it got me to wondering...is this why some people hate the rich so much?
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He was in prison from 1975 to 2008 for molesting a 11 year old girl when he was 17. He was released on supervision, then failed a urine test which would have resulted in him doing another third of the original 99 year sentence.
So he fled to mexico.
He has been caught, so he will do another 33 years of that original sentence according to federal guidelines in effect in 1975.
He will be 90 when he gets out this time.
OP, I strongly suggest you move on with your life. I will not judge him for something that happened 40 years, but I promise you that other people in this country will and very harshly. There is absolutely nothing you can do to help him. There is no hope and your testimony would be ignored even if you could appear at his revocation hearing. His life is done and over.
edited-corrected age for when he offended.
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For most people in the USA, it is a matter of being lazy or lack of patience. They could earn money honestly, but don't want to put out the effort.
But sometimes it is just survival...
If a particular group of people becomes disenfranchised and not allowed to work or accumulate wealth they will need to find a way to survive. Example, ex-convicts in U.S.A., gypsies & jews in early europe.
In some parts of the world, there just aren't any decent jobs. I when I say decent, I am not even referring to some minimum wage job, I am referring to a job that will buy enough food to feed you and your kids.
I use to spend a lot of time in the Philippines. Before my trips I would chat with girls online. Many would try to scam me and I would stop talking to them. Except this one girl, she was fun to flirt with even though she was always trying a new scam with me. Anyway, when I was in Butuan, she begged to meet me. She was living in a cardboard shack with her sister and a bunch of kids. Their husbands had ran off years ago. However, she was smart and knew english. So she would go online and try to get men to send her money with sob stories. It was the only way she knew how to survive. The money she got paid for food and internet cafe time. She slept on an old reed mat. Her kids were half starved, but never complained.
I stayed with her for about a month and got a good look into her life. It was pure grinding hardship. She worked harder to survive than 99% of the females I know in the USA.
While I was there, the internet went down for about two weeks, this included all ATMs, so I was completely broke for a while. She never complained once. Would go out and find scraps of wood or paper to cook with. One morning there was nothing but an egg and some left over rice. She cooked the egg and gave it me (which I refused and made her give it to the kids). Told me that if my money didn't show up, we could go up into the hills to scrounge for food. Crawdads and stuff.
The sister would try to sell stuff all day beside the road. I think she averaged less than 100 pesos ($2.50) a day in sales. I don't know how much she paid for the stuff, so not sure what her profit was.
I make fun of scammers just like everyone else, but I don't wish them harm or loss of freedom. Many are just trying to survive. Now Somalian pirates...or people that resort to violence....no mercy.
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I bought over two dozen around $120-$200, sold a few around $800, bought some more over the last year as it dropped. I think my average cost is around $160 each.
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Wanted to make a quick buck? Thought you found the short-cut to endless riches? Serves you right bitch, the punishment is only proportional to your greed and the damage done to Bitcoin by the bubble you derps caused.
Why are you so full of hate? Bitcoins were under $7 a coin when you joined these forums back in 2011, so I know you must have made/accumulated a lot of wealth since then. Even if you were only earning minimum wage and spending a mere 10% of your income on bitcoins, you are easily a millionaire by now. Besides, I consider accumulating bitcoins a get rich slow strategy. Low prices just means I get a chance to buy more coins cheap. Cost averaging for the win. Bitcoin may never reach mass adoption in my lifetime, but it makes no difference. There will always be a core group of believers and users of the technology. In just a few more years, I will be getting $560 a month in social security, more than enough money to retire in Kenya with my young beautiful wife there. Even if Bitcoin crashes and dies, I will not only survive, but will be happy and content. One way or another, 2020 will be a good year. |
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I'd say the average optimist or bull, or there abouts, would presume that $5-10k a coin should be a reality during the next normal rally (ie. not like the one that happened last spring). So, place your bets on when that'll be, ya know w/ the ETFs and all the related boosting that would happen during such a time. This year, maybe, the following- perhaps more likely. Nobody knows when the next surprise factor will take place and most people aren't trying to discredit themselves nor their account here by looking at the stars and signing off on a date. We could be on the cusp of a weird upside-to sideways- to upside and again movement before going moon (see, not trying to get the future to look back negatively on me  ) and then whatever else. If the past was a guide and we all know how that goes, we'll get my opening statement sometime this year or next and you'll around 100 bitcoins to reach millionaire status. But, let's face it, anyone hovering in the 5-10 coin category should be having a new standard of life if all goes well. As it stands, 90%+ of everyone here has been beat down in their soul and enthusiasm because of the last year or so, so there's obviously a skewed takeaway value that everyone is getting from reading here - and I feel real sorry for noobs looking for guidance from allegedly seasoned and skilled veterans here. That was a mouthful! I will also go with 100 bitcoins. If you would be willing to wait up to twenty years, I think a dozen bitcoins would be more than enough. |
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Start buying slowly. Split this 100k for let's say 5k chunks and buy bitcoins every week with one chunk. If it raises your average price will be relatively low at the end. If it falls you will be able to buy more. Either way after a year you should see some profit.
^ This ^ |
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I use brainwallets all the time. My current system is composed of three parts. A salt phrase which I never change, a few passphrases, and a digit area which i simply increment to create a group of brainwallets so I don't have to reuse addresses (I started doing that after blockchain started reusing R values for transactions). So for example, my brainwallet is the HSH256 of "Mypassphrase+Mysalt+0000", "Mypassphrase+Mysalt+0001", ect. I also use alt-keys to increase the level of entropy, even made a web site to make it easier on myself (also didn't trust brainwallet.org): http://www.paganmind.com/_BrainWallet.htmlI have a FB page for brainwallets now: https://www.facebook.com/BrainwalletIf brainwallets catch on much, I was thinking of programming a wallet that is kind of like the Electrum wallet, but instead of a password, you would enter your brainwallet phrase. It would generate a set of addresses based on that phrase by incrementing a counter that is added to the phrase for each address. BTW, I have a small amount of funds sitting in an old brainwallet with much less entropy than my current batch of brainwallets. Those funds are still sitting there. |
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Anyone notice that the 1wMACD lost it's downward momentum but never turned green? Instead it is doing a double downward momentum. These 1wMACD cycles take several months to change direction. Could we be seeing $233 bitcoins?
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Africa is already the poorest continent. They dont need to get robbed anymore. Even if you want to, probably you can't; cause they dont have anything than pure soil to buy crypto.
Stay away from there you greedies, let those people live in peace.
When was the last time you were in Africa? Or did you read to many old National Geographic magazines? My wife there uses her phone to pay her electric bill via MPesa. She sends money to her parents using MPesa. Her boss pays her using MPesa. They are already using electronic currency over their phones, Bitcoin will be a small step for them. Get on a matatu headed to downtown Nairobi at 5 am in the morning on a weekday. It will be full of young professionals using Android phones. 3G in Nairobi is faster than internet in Hawaii. |
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A while back someone set up a huge sell wall at 300, it was eaten up pretty fast. Most people who day trade btc remember that and so consider 300 a super strong support. Some big whale may come along and dump enough to drop below 300, but it will bounce back real fast.
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And back down to $330.....nothing major is going to happen till after the summer of 2015.
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Now @ $333 to $335 could you tell me any substantive difference on this $2? He accidentally double dosed on his anti-depressants, so this particular $2 is making him euphoric. |
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Sideways for another year, then we will start growing again.
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Use your backup to create another account. Alternatively, the backup can also be used with one of the alternative wallets, does anyone remember which one?
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I noticed that the 1wMACD bar is green today! On the bad side, 3dMACD seems to be losing momentum.
Just makes me feel like an astrologer figuring out when all the planets will align.
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I think that people who don't use bank systems earlier like afrika.
In Africa, those who does not use bank are mostly illiterate people. Unless u can educate them, they wont be able to use bitcoin. Just curious, when was the last time you traveled in Africa? Most young people I have met in Africa, are literate, own several phones including a smart phone. They are already sending money over the phones with MPesa. My youngest wife lives in Africa and she is paid via MPesa, she sends money to her parents with MPesa, she pays her electric bill with MPesa. Where did you learn about Africa...from old national geographic magazines? |
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1000
You wouldn't be a millionaire in $US, but you could spend some without worrying until it takes off in value.
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Re. the OP's post, is this still legit/valid? Is paypal still bending over btc or trying to now work WITH it , it seems.......
?
Still valid, and things are getting worse. On Nov 18, according to new user agreement, Paypal will allow chargebacks to be filed up to 180 days after a purchase. If you follow the forums on Ebay & Paypal, chargeback & other scams by buyers are getting much worse. They (PP & Ebay) are forcing sellers to eat the costs of these scams. This is partly due to the collapsing economy around the world. There are a lot of smart people that can't find decent jobs, so they are turning to fraud to make money. This, of course, is only making things worse as legitimate sellers have to either raise prices to compensate for fraud or quit selling products with small profit margins. The new user agreement does forbid returns for virtual products (including cryptocurrency), but this won't hold up when the buyer claims their credit card or paypal account was compromised. Openbazaar is going eliminate buyer fraud. Seller fraud may be a problem at first, but this will simply make name recognition much more important. |
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