I've been thinking frozen and fresh foods are probably the hardest to deliver an keep (most other things survive fine). I'm surprised there's not been an attempt to just not stock fresh and frozen food because of this. Powdered/dry food (like noodles and pasta) and canned food (fruit, veg, soups, curry and even dairy) seem like they'd be a lot easier to deliver. I got a box of snickers bars from amazon, years ago. They shipped it inside a big thermal bag with an ice pack inside to keep it from melting. Not certain what their shipping standard for perishable goods is, but some suppliers do make an effort to keep items fresh. |
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I am always skeptical why billionaires are always losing huge amount of money in days while people are suffering. Last time I read in a new that Elon Musk loses upto 4 billions in just few hours and the other time he made close or more than that in days. Money that would be very hard for an employee or middle class business owners to make in a year. Tech billionaires hold large quantities of stock in their respective corporations. The net worth gain and loss reported by the media is measured in fluctuating stock prices. Post 2020 we have witnessed several massive swings in stock price shift the net worth of tech billionaires by unheard of amounts of volatility. They "lose money" when stocks decline and "gain money" when stocks rise. Holding a majority percentage of stock in the company gives them certain voting rights and influence within the corporate structure. Helping the poor is much more difficult than many might expect it to be. Many have drug and substance abuse issues. Which only multiply whatever spiritual, physical and psychological troubles they might have. Years ago, there was a comprehensive study done in the united states which tracked the development of fetuses who were born addicted to crack cocaine. Their conclusion was being born and raised in poverty was a more debilitating and damaging condition, than being born addicted to crack. Being surrounded by negative mindsets, bad attitudes, substance abuse, violence, crime and other issues which plague the poor were damaging to people in ways that is difficult to measure. In which case, it may not simply be a matter of simply throwing money at the problem. There has to be some type of significant readjustment that has to take place. People have to work very hard to unlearn the environment they were born and raised in, to be able to live outside of it. |
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Years ago, there was a study claiming that becoming rich and successful was more a matter of being an early adopter who was in the right place at the right time. Than it does correlation with intelligence, work ethic or talent. If that is true, then the best strategy to becoming rich and successful could be to become an early adopter in as many prospective emerging innovations and inventions as possible. And also to start as soon as possible with whatever appears to have good potential.
Let's look at this over a broader scale.
Bill Gates: early adopter of PC OS market.
Steve Jobs: early adopter of PC home market.
Jeff Bezos: early adopter of internet retail.
Elon Musk: early adopter of electric cars and affordable spaceflight.
Mark Zuckenberg: early adopter of social media.
A case could be made for a high percentage of the wealthy in this day and age being 1st in their respective industries, which translates to wealth and success over the long term.
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Four senior Biden officials penned a note Friday urging lawmakers to hasten their efforts to create a regulatory framework for crypto.The White House pointed the finger at Congress Friday for stalling on a comprehensive, national crypto regulatory framework, outlining numerous actions lawmakers could take to reign-in fraud and bad actors in the crypto sector. Congress “needs to step up its efforts,” four of President Biden’s senior advisors wrote in a White House blog post on crypto policy published Friday morning. The post goes on to highlight a number of moves Congress could make immediately to purportedly enhance consumer protection standards in the crypto space. Those moves include expanding the powers of federal regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); strengthening transparency and disclosure requirements for crypto companies; aiding law enforcement by increasing funding, strengthening penalties for existing finance rules, and enhancing those rules to penalize intermediaries; and passing legislation to regulate stablecoins, as outlined in a recent Treasury Department report. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies whose values are tied to sturdy assets like gold and the U.S. dollar; this relationship is meant to keep the values of stablecoins relatively constant, even in periods of crypto market volatility. That theory has been repeatedly tested, however, most notably last May when so-called algorithmic stablecoin UST de-pegged from the U.S. dollar and subsequently collapsed, leading to a chain of events that wiped out some $40 billion in value. UST was not actually backed by a reserve of dollars, but instead an algorithm designed to keep its value consistent. That algorithm failed, and it's at least partly responsible for kicking off the current crypto winter. Biden’s advisors went on to caution in Friday’s note that the recently sworn-in Republican House of Representatives could also make matters worse by loosening regulations at such a crossroads. “Congress could also make our jobs harder and worsen risks to investors and to the financial system,” the advisors wrote. “It would be a grave mistake to enact legislation that reverses course and deepens the ties between cryptocurrencies and the broader financial system.” The warning appears to be an allusion to the new Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion recently announced by House Republican leadership. The committee’s chair, Representative French Hill (R-AR), has stated he aims to “promote responsible innovation” in the cryptocurrency and FinTech sectors. While the White House was quick to put blame for crypto-related inaction on Republicans, President Biden hasn’t exactly made it a priority either in the two-year period from early 2021 to just weeks ago, in which Democrats controlled the presidency, the House, and the Senate. During that period, several controversies rocked the crypto industry, including the collapse of UST last May, and the implosion of $32 billion crypto exchange FTX in November. Multiple cryptocurrency bills are currently floating around Washington, though none have yet been voted on. The Stablecoin TRUST Act, which would establish a federal regulatory framework for “payment stablecoins,” was introduced in the Senate in December. The Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act—which would give crypto regulatory power to the CFTC—has been kicking around the Senate since last June. The Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act (DCCPA), introduced in August, would have similarly limited the SEC’s ability to regulate the crypto industry. Seen as a boon for crypto exchanges, the bill was a pet political project of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who spent tens of millions of dollars on political donations and ample time in Washington in the months surrounding the bill’s announcement. Bankman-Fried donated $5 million to an organization that funded a blitz of pro-Biden ads in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election; the White House has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter. While the DCCPA did gain bipartisan momentum among lawmakers in the fall, the bill’s association with Bankman-Fried—who is currently awaiting trial for eight criminal charges, including fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering—has potentially derailed its path to adoption. https://decrypt.co/120153/white-house-congress-crypto-regulations .... Proposals for US crypto regulation were vague prior to the 2022 election season. Now that the elections are over, it appears we have more clarity on the topic: The post goes on to highlight a number of moves Congress could make immediately to purportedly enhance consumer protection standards in the crypto space.
Those moves include expanding the powers of federal regulatory agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC); strengthening transparency and disclosure requirements for crypto companies; aiding law enforcement by increasing funding, strengthening penalties for existing finance rules, and enhancing those rules to penalize intermediaries; and passing legislation to regulate stablecoins, as outlined in a recent Treasury Department report. I'm not certain whether proposals for greater US crypto regulation will be enacted. It is known generation Z and the youth demographic are the largest userbase of cryptocurrencies in the USA. While precious metals markets of gold, silver and platinum are generally supported by older generations. The age divide of assets is very sharply defined in terms of age demographic. There is a chance that crypto regulations will never be passed to appease (or avoid alienating) the youth demographic. Upon which a fierce battle has been waging for some time. With both the political right and political left claiming generation Z. The right claims generation Z is the most conservative generation in decades. While the left claims generation Z is the most politically left demographic. Its a bizarre scene to say the least. Without much clarity or reliable information being available. Realistically speaking, if they ever crackdown in earnest on crypto. The majority of people they will be attacking will be the youth and generation Z demographic. Who we know are the largest age bracket of crypto users. There is a big question mark in my mind as to what the implications of such a move could be over the long term. |
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My initial kneejerk reaction to many years of de dollarization by nations of the world, was to assume the dollar would exhibit a linear decline in value, correlating with a linear decline in demand.
What happened instead, they were able to stabilize the US dollar through heavy purchasing of the asset on FOREX exchanges. While this type of behavior is nothing new, nations like china are known to dump the yuan in an effort to diminish its value to boost china's exports. It was a surprise to learn assets like fiat currencies can be compensated in such a fashion.
As a result, if we view FOREX exchange rates of the world, many global currencies are significantly weakening versus the US dollar. Rather than the US dollar failing in power versus foreign currencies. The US dollar is staying strong, while other currencies of the world decline by a high rate. It is a very strange case of role reversal.
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One of the largest retailers in the world could soon be among the companies exploring the world of non-fungible tokens. A new report pointed to an NFT initiative from Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) coming this spring.Here are the details and what it could mean. What Happened: A new report pointed to Amazon exploring interest in digital assets and NFTs. The news came after it was recently announced Amazon’s cloud segment Amazon Web Services was partnering with Avalanche (CRYPTO: AVAX), a layer-1 blockchain. A report from Blockworks said Amazon was exploring interest in layer-1 blockchains, blockchain-based gaming companies and digital asset exchanges. The sources told Blockworks NFTs could be a big part of the new initiative that could launch in the spring of 2023. One example in the report saw Amazon offering games to customers that would offer free claimable NFTs. A source told Blockworks that Amazon was entering the crypto and NFT space was big “for many different reasons.” “We knew it was possible, but now it seems like it’s really happening. That’s going to affect the existing players in the space — if they execute and do this right and are smart about it,” the source said. Why It’s Important: The NFT market was booming in 2021 and saw many players enter the sector, including some big names like Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE), Anheuser-Busch Inbev (NYSE: BUD) and PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP). Nike made a big splash in the NFT market with the acquisition of RTFKT, a digital sneaker company and owner of the CloneX NFTs. Retailer Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) also put forth aggressive plans for the metaverse that included shopping in virtual stores and the launch of a dedicated themed area inside the Roblox Corp (NYSE: RBLX) game. Shopify Inc (NYSE: SHOP) also launched NFT integration that allowed merchants to create their own NFTs and sell them. The report said the new NFT initiatives for Amazon would be separate from its Amazon Web Services business, but the possibilities should be considered for the company. Like Shopify, Amazon could offer NFT integration for its website partners. The company’s AWS has an NFT explainer listed on its website. Amazon has a massive customer base, including its Amazon Prime members who pay an annual or monthly membership fee for access to free shipping, a video streaming platform and other perks. The report did not indicate if Amazon planned on launching an NFT marketplace, which could become a competitor to market leader OpenSea. The most likely NFT initiatives from Amazon, as mentioned above, could center around gaming and be similar to what GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) previously launched. GameStop used its expertise in the gaming sector to launch an NFT marketplace and to partner with gaming companies for NFTs. Amazon purchased game streaming platform Twitch in 2014, which along with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL)-owned YouTube, is one of the largest video game streaming platforms in the U.S. Along with Twitch ownership, Amazon has also released several hit games including “Lost Ark,” which could give the company an opportunity to launch games that have NFTs integrated in them. The ownership of Amazon Prime Video and MGM Studios also offered the company the chance to make NFTs and digital assets based on hit movies and shows it could also use to promote upcoming series and season premieres. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been open to the idea of the company selling NFTs in the future. “I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly,” Jassy told CNBC in April 2022. “I think it’s possible down the road on the platform.” Jassy also said Amazon was not close to adding cryptocurrency as a payment option for its retail business. The company had been rumored to be exploring more possibilities for cryptocurrency integration at the time. Last year, Amazon.eth Ethereum Name Services (CRYPTO:ENS) domain received a $1 million offer from an anonymous wallet. The ENS was purchased for 33 Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) over a year ago. With news of more NFT initiatives, Amazon could look to purchase the desirable ENS domain. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/amazon-nfts-could-be-coming-soon-what-could-it-mean-for-the-sector-and-investors/ar-AA16Oyob .... Amazon. NFTs.  Could there be a resurgence of NFTs? What is happening here? Interestingly enough, it appears that most of amazon's proposed NFTs are related to in game assets. Which could remain a viable market, despite the massive crash in NFT values. The mobile gaming market has taken off in recent years with micro transaction based revenue of in game assets being touted as the surefire method for game developers to boost profit margins beyond the meager 5% industry standard found with triple A gaming titles requiring millions of dollars of investment. NFTs could represent the next evolution of in game assets and micro transactions. Minting limited edition game assets with their own unique ID and serial number of a known quantity allows game developers to capitalize upon the in game assets they produce. In which case, I think this could actually be a good move by amazon. There are some P2E (play to earn) games which are known to retain decent stability and price inflation of in game assets due to them being blockchain based and limited if not deflationary in quantity. |
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(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. will start charging fees to online shoppers for grocery orders of less than $150, underscoring the challenging economics of getting food to shoppers’ doorsteps.The new fees, which take effect Feb. 28, coincide with the company’s efforts to cut costs and adjust to slower growth in online shopping. Charges for the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service in the US will be $9.95 for orders of less than $50, $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $3.95 for orders of $100 to $150, the Seattle-based company said in an email to shoppers reviewed by Bloomberg. Amazon had previously offered free grocery delivery for orders of more than $35 to subscribers of the company’s $139-a-year Prime program in some locations. Members can still get free delivery if their carts are more than $150. The company in 2021 eliminated a prior offer of free delivery for Whole Foods Market shoppers, tacking on a $9.95 service fee. “We’re introducing a service fee on some Amazon Fresh delivery orders to help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience,” Lara Hendrickson, an Amazon spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. “We will continue to offer convenient two-hour delivery windows for all orders, and customers in some areas will be able to select a longer delivery window for a reduced fee.” Groceries are the most frequent shopping trip for most households. Amazon has long been working to crack that market, following in the footsteps of rival Walmart Inc., which grew into the largest US retailer in part by adding groceries to its supercenters. Amazon started selling groceries online in 2007. A decade later, it bought Whole Foods to jumpstart its efforts. Amazon tacked on home delivery from Whole Foods shelves, but the partnership has delivered mixed results to date. The company also operates the line of Amazon Fresh-branded grocers, opening dozens of stores around the US. Amazon and Whole Foods together account for about 4% of the US grocery market, analysts with UBS said in a research note this week, making the company the fifth-largest food retailer in the US behind Walmart, Kroger Co., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Albertsons Cos. Walmart accounts for 22% of the market, the UBS analysts estimate. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-start-charging-prime-members-191411928.html .... The new fees go into effect february 28th 2023. The new fees, which take effect Feb. 28, coincide with the company’s efforts to cut costs and adjust to slower growth in online shopping. Charges for the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service in the US will be $9.95 for orders of less than $50, $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $3.95 for orders of $100 to $150, the Seattle-based company said in an email to shoppers reviewed by Bloomberg. This is interesting. Amazon and Whole Foods together account for about 4% of the US grocery market, analysts with UBS said in a research note this week, making the company the fifth-largest food retailer in the US behind Walmart, Kroger Co., Costco Wholesale Corp. and Albertsons Cos. Walmart accounts for 22% of the market, the UBS analysts estimate. If true, that means amazon and walmart together account for 26% of the entire US grocery market. Which is crazy to think about. I would guess walmart has gained the advantage over amazon due to them having local brick and mortar locations in many regions of the USA. Making it more feasible for US customers to order food in larger quantities. Target is also known to be targeting (no pun intended) the US grocery market aggressively with their grocery delivery services and pick up plan. I wonder what percentage of the US grocery market amazon, walmart and target have accumulated collectively? It could be a massive chunk. We still have about a month until the new fees go into effect. Until then amazon groceries can still be a great deal. They carry many items which can't be found in local markets. Free shipping makes their prices competitive with local alternatives. |
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While I am a big supporter and fan of bitcoin maximalism. Don't forget that digital assets are reliant upon electronic networks and electricity. Both of which can become intermittent and unreliable in circumstances like natural disasters, wars or unexpected events. In this sense, it is good to diversity by holding whatever physical assets you can get your hands on to compliment your digital assets. In the event that catastrophic electronic or internet failure occurs.
There are physical assets and commodities which could be described as being deflationary in the current era, similar to deflationary digital assets like BTC.
Real Estate. Population growth in many regions occurs at a higher rate in comparison to home construction, resulting in real estate becoming an increasingly scarce and deflationary asset in terms of supply.
Firewood and lumber. We definitely do not regrow forests and trees at a rate faster than they're being cut down. Trees are a deflationary asset, although this may not be completely clear at the moment judging by market trendsd.
Common metals. Metals markets and industry has become extremely reliant upon globalisation. The decline of globalisation and global trade could result in common metals like steel and aluminum becoming deflationary in terms of local markets.
Agriculture. Natural gas is used to produce agricultural fertilizers and agrochemicals. Agriculture is also very reliant upon globalisation. Which overall could lead to agriculture becoming deflationary in a local sense.
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I like past proposals invoking the yuan. Gold backed yuan. Then they touted petrol gold backed yuan. Game Changer: China to Buy Oil With Gold-Backed YuanSEP 5, 2017 The world’s top oil importer, China, is preparing to launch a crude oil futures contract denominated in Chinese yuan and convertible into gold, potentially creating the most important Asian oil benchmark and allowing oil exporters to bypass U.S.-dollar denominated benchmarks by trading in yuan, Nikkei Asian Review reports. https://goldbroker.com/news/game-changer-china-to-buy-oil-with-gold-backed-yuan-1183 That was back in 2015 and 2017 respectively. There has never been a shortage of good ideas for the evolution of the yuan. For whatever reason, they simply never pulled the trigger. I think digital yuan and CBDCs would become natural competitors to paypal, mastercard, visa card and 3rd party payment processors like apple pay. That is the segment of the market they would be targeting. CBDCs would bash heads with credit cards and paypal much more than they would conflict with BTC. |
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This might sound crazy and irregular. But is very common in investment and finance.
The plot of Rocky 5 (1990) is one where Paulie grants Rocky's financial advisor power of attorney. Which the advisor uses to gamble with Rocky's wealth and loses. Rocky is broke as a result. This is much more common than most realize. It was common 30 years ago when Rocky 5 was produced. We have popular stories about famous financial families engaging in similar practices hundreds of years ago.
Trust can be abused. Which could necessitate the development of trust less formats in BTC and other technologies.
That said, who embezzles funds to invest in a lottery? There are so many better and smarter investment opportunities out there. $200,000 in funds isn't enough to rig a lotto. They could have googled it, learned the basic statistics and saved themselves a lot of trouble.
If you could rig a lottery with 1 million dollars? Why don't millionaires simply invest their funds in lotteries rather than stocks? Even with more than $1 million in funds investing in the lotto is a losing proposition.
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Dana White sold off his UFC ownership around mid 2022. He no longer owns a stake in the UFC. The same with Mark Wahlberg, Kobe Bryant and other celebrities who became fractional UFC owners. Endeavor bought out their shares to become sole UFC proprietor.
No longer being a fractional owner in the UFC, could mean Dana White is looking for a new business to become involved in. That could be the origins story behind Dana interest in Power Slap.
When MMA was a small time business, many athletes were paid $100 or $500 per fight. The UFC's TV deal with Fox sports was accompanied by a significant bump in pay. Followed by another bump in salary with the ESPN UFC TV deal.
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The ACCEPT Resolution could see the Capitol Complex accepting cryptocurrency for payment at vending machines.There’s no such thing as a free lunch (or snack) and Texas Senator Ted Cruz knows this, which is why the conservative wants to bring cryptocurrency into Congress. On Wednesday, Cruz introduced the ACCEPT Resolution, which stands for Adopting Cryptocurrency in Congress as an Exchange of Payment for Transactions Resolution. If adopted, the resolution could see the U.S. government contracting with food vendors and vending machine operators that accept cryptocurrency. The ACCEPT Resolution is not a bill, but a concurrent resolution, which are used to make or amend rules for the House and Senate, meaning that the ACCEPT Resolution wouldn’t apply to any vending machines or food sales outside of the Capitol property. “A concurrent resolution requiring the Architect of the Capitol, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to contract with food service contractors and vending machine contractors for the Capitol Complex that accept cryptocurrency, and for other purposes,” the resolution reads. The resolution doesn’t specify any types of cryptocurrency, if the resolution will bar cash or card payments, or what the timeline could be for this resolution. Cruz’s office did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment. According to CoinTelegraph, Cruz has been a vocal advocate for cryptocurrency in the past. Specifically, the senator has rallied behind the decentralization of Bitcoin, stating on Twitter that “The Left hates Bitcoin because they can’t control it.” Cruz also reportedly purchased an investment in Bitcoin early last year that was somewhere in the ballpark of $15,000 to $50,000. The ACCEPT Resolution is a resolution with a bizarrely small scope, and the next steps are for the Senate and House to agree (or disagree) on whether or not to implement it. The resolution does not need the approval of President Joe Biden. https://gizmodo.com/ted-cruz-congress-crypto-snacks-vending-machines-1850039521 .... Senator Ted Cruz represents the US state of texas, which is known for having constructed new wind farms. Crypto mining operations have relocated to texas to utilize their newly built wind energy. As such Cruz has tried to defend the texas crypto mining industry in years past. Cruz has been a vocal advocate for cryptocurrency in the past. Specifically, the senator has rallied behind the decentralization of Bitcoin, stating on Twitter that “The Left hates Bitcoin because they can’t control it.” Cruz also reportedly purchased an investment in Bitcoin early last year that was somewhere in the ballpark of $15,000 to $50,000. This is interesting as it might relate to endorsement of a cashless society, if other forms of payment are banned: The resolution doesn’t specify any types of cryptocurrency, if the resolution will bar cash or card payments, or what the timeline could be for this resolution. Cruz’s office did not immediately return Gizmodo’s request for comment. Could this trend gain momentum to become a nationwide movement? |
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My storage areas might be described as disorganized and messy. But I can find what I'm looking for and know where everything is located. Everything has a purpose. It only appears messy and disorganized as its an attempt to store too much capacity inside of an area that is not large enough to hold it.
Wide open spaces are a luxury and design aesthetic. Utilitarian demands could represent a higher priority.
While many architects love uncluttered design. They might fail to realize their designs are uncluttered simply due to them not having anything in them. Some things are supposed to be cluttered to capacity for them to be useful. A hammer should have scratches from hammering things. The area around a saw should be cluttered with sawdust from sawing things. The beautiful uncluttered aesthetic can sometimes only be maintained in areas which are not seeing real world use for their proper purpose.
Organization however is excellent. Categorizing. Proper storage with labels. That is a great aesthetic to implement and maintain.
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An example would be buying something in bulk e.g. some gadgets on Chinese markeplaces like Alibaba (providing that I find someone happy to take BTC instead of FIAT) and resell this stuff locally, on ebay, etc. Other example: rent bare metal servers for BTC, reconfigure and resell as VPSs or run some hosting service on them (minecraft server or whatever). Any other ideas? Conditions are: - this will be a legit business under my real name so must be legal
- it must be possible to fund all expenses with crypto directly, so no exchanging BTC for FIAT first
- I'm in the EU (it may matter for things like customs, taxes, legality)
Good ideas. There appears to be some plastic bottle waste in the world. With not many good methods of recycling. Many discarded bottles are composed of PET plastic which can be recycled into PLA filament for 3d printers, without specialized skillsets or tools being necessary. The following youtube clip demonstrates the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eecbdb0bQWQPerhaps BTC can be exchanged for parts and equipment necessary to achieve this, in which case it would also serve as a positive environmental process. There are many different niche ideas flying below the radar which are not currently being used. Being a local business it would depend upon the needs of your area. In my case, electricity is expensive here. Alternatives are in high demand. If I was starting a business it would revolve around methods to diminish electrical consumption. Which might invoke things like solar panels, windmills or solar water heaters. In europe's case, it might be alternatives to natural gas. Things like firewood. If someone had space to grow trees or plants, they might invest in fast growing trees to quickly generate and replenish firewood stock. If they were serious they might learn to turn wood into charcoal using 55 gallon drums for higher efficiency. There are instructional clips on youtube demonstrating the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_CK1nSD9Q4Most believe they need a big down payment to start a business. I think producing charcoal from woodstock and turning PET bottles into FLA filament are both businesses which could be started for less than $500. There are a lot of businesses which could be founded without a large capital investment. |
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Most have no trouble grinding 12 hours a day on MMORPGs. Spending countless hours customizing their character, leveling up and exploring digital worlds. There are gamers who spend 16 hours a day, working hard, chasing their gaming goals. While they may not think of it as work. Can it be said that tendencies people have to spend inordinate and excessive amounts of time and energy on video games, defines their true self and true work ethic.
The real you is the person who can spend countless hours everyday obsessively leveling and grinding in games.
There is no need to develop a work ethic or drive. We can see by the way people obsessively play games and indulge in other activities that we already have that.
What is it about people that allows them to invest 12 hours a day obsessively chasing goals in games, that have no affect on their futures. Feeling it is a great use of their time. While feeling that spending 12 hours a day on a crypto exchange looking for good investments. Or investing time and energy reading and learning, doing things which might allow a person to be wealthier and more successful, is not a good use of time?
Could it be fair to say that the only difference between successful crypto whales and unsuccessful ones is crypto whales have learned to treat investment and finance like a video game. Where its fun and worthwhile to explore and learn about the digital world of numbers, math and statistics which comprise market based investment and trading?
In which case, could it be fair to say that being successful financially isn't so much about trying to be a different person from who you are.
But rather its about learning more about yourself and learning to have the same fun and enjoyment with finance and investment. That you have with video games. That way it becomes easy to invest 12 hours a day everyday learning to grind and level up in a way which is profitable.
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Tom Brady officially announced his retirement prior to the 2022 NFL season: You can see by the date he initially planned to retire. Probably to spend more time with his wife and family. Tom Brady opens up about his divorce from GiseleIn a recent conversation on his podcast, Brady talked about some of the personal costs of playing in the NFL for two decades. “I haven’t had a Christmas in 23 years and I haven’t had a Thanksgiving in 23 years, I haven’t celebrated birthdays with people that I care about that are born from August to late January. And I’m not able to be at funerals and I’m not able to be at weddings,” Brady said. Meanwhile, in an interview with Elle magazine published in September, Bündchen, 42, said she had “concerns” about her husband returning to the field after initially retiring last winter. “This is a very violent sport, and I have my children and I would like him to be more present,” Bündchen told the publication. “I have definitely had those conversations with him over and over again. But ultimately, I feel that everybody has to make a decision that works for [them]. He needs to follow his joy, too.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/01/sport/tom-brady-gisele-divorce-open-up-intl-spt-scli/index.html I don't think Tom Brady expected to make it to the superbowl this year. Everyone that plays for the tampa bay buccaneers probably didn't train hard or prepare well for the 2022 season. Given that all of them thought Tom Brady was retiring. If they were making a run for the superbowl they would have needed to plan for the 2023 year when everyone could have put in the preparation to make it happen. |
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More than two years since announcing Amazon Pharmacy to take some of the prescription drugs business away from big (and smaller) drug stores, Amazon is launching a new product to expand its reach in the space. Today, it’s taking the wraps off RxPass, a service where Prime users in the U.S. can pay a monthly flat fee of $5 to get as many generic versions of medications as they need. Amazon said that initially the service will cover generic drugs for 80 common ailments — they include, for example, Losartan (the generic for the hypertension drug Cozaar) and Sertraline (the generic for antidepressant Zoloft) and hair-growth pills — and it would not comment on its plans to expand the list. The 80 conditions were selected, so to speak, to make it an offer attractive to a wide base of potential customers. Dr. Vin Gupta, the chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, said that more than 150 million people in the U.S. already take one or more of the medications in the RxPass offering. In addition to RxPass (not to be confused with another healthcare service for B2B called RxPass) only being available to U.S. Prime users — one more sweetener for Amazon’s membership tier that started with free shipping but now nets services like entertainment, grocery shopping services, etc. to attract repeat purchasing — RxPass is not open to people on government medical plans like Medicare or Medicaid (Amazon Pharmacy is a provider for these and thus cannot offer it direct). One pays the $5 out of pocket, not on insurance. You sign up for it in your app as a Prime user, under Pharmacy. This is a big and pretty bold move for Amazon; $5/month is the fee regardless of the amount a customer orders, meaning the service is aimed at those who are currently already paying more than this per month for their meds for these 80 conditions, or think that they might over time need to pay more, or are looking for one-stop services with a predictable cost each month. It also competes with a few other things also brewing in the market: namely, Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs effort. Indeed, as with a lot of other services on Amazon’s platform, it’s balanced that promise of convenience carefully against pricing, playing in this case also on a shortcoming in the market and specifically in healthcare. On one hand are the basic predicaments and pitfalls of systems like those in the U.S. that rely on health insurance to operate, and generally are very expensive regardless for users even with those plans, leading many to forego getting what they need. (This is not the only problem with health in the U.S. of course, but a big component of preventative and chronic care.) “Navigating insurance can be a maze and getting to the pharmacy a burden,” Gupta writes. “Sometimes that has led to poor outcomes: new medications don’t get filled, refills don’t get picked up, and patients suffer.” On the other hand are the conveniences and cost benefits of the Prime service being put to work to fill that gap. “Prime members already get fast, free delivery on prescription medications, and RxPass is one more way to save with Amazon Pharmacy. Any customer who pays more than $10 a month for their eligible medications will see their prescription costs drop by 50% or more, plus they save time by skipping a trip to the pharmacy,” said John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, in a statement. “We are excited to offer our customers surprisingly simple, low pricing on the eligible medications they need each month.” Amazon would not disclose how it arrived at $5 and whether that’s a subsidized figure to attract more users, but data published last year by health policy researchers KFF, citing figures from the OECD, noted that in the U.S. in 2019, annual per-capita out-of-pocket payments for prescribed medicines annually averaged $164. This is not a direct comparison, as this is not a figure that covers 80 conditions, but it is the average, giving an idea of what is spent around the most common conditions that Amazon is also targeting. Its aim also is to net in users for Amazon Pharmacy, which will provide meds for all of the other conditions. The bigger service also provides discounts on generic and non-generic meds (up to 80% and 40% respectively, Amazon says). Amazon has been eyeing up the opportunity to do more in healthcare for many years, buying startups and launching new services and products in aid of that. These have included acquisitions of online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and primary care tech platform OneMedical for $3.9 billion in 2022. And in addition to the launch of Amazon Pharmacy in 2020, last year it launched a telehealth service called Amazon Clinic. This was the company’s second attempt at telehealth after mothballing Amazon Care (a service for its own employees). The OneMedical deal is still making its way through regulatory approvals, but in the meantime this latest launch of RxPass underscores the company’s intent to keep at this, despite the wider restructuring and 18,000 layoffs at the business that are currently underway. https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/23/amazon-launches-rxpass-a-5-month-prime-add-on-for-all-you-need-generic-drugs-covering-80-conditions/.... Large retailers in the US deployed a significant portion of peak COVID testing. Now they're offering generic pharmaceutical plans for $5 a month plus amazon prime membership. Considering the costs of pharmaceutical drugs, it sounds like a good deal for those who use items listed under the plan on a monthly basis. I wonder how they can afford to rollout plans like these. Is the wholesale price of pharmaceutical drugs considerably less in contrast to over the counter prices? Does amazon own or have connections to production facilities for generic off brand drugs? While the cost of unpatended generic drugs is known to be considerably less in contrast to FDA approved equivalents. The FDA often does not green light generic drugs for distribution in US markets. It would seem that amazon may have found a loophole or have an advantage here, which is not being acknowledged. Whatever circumstances or conditions contributed to this becoming a thing. I have to say this is one of the coolest and best developments in US healthcare I have seen in years. |
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Researchers have developed a new tool and technique that uses "vortex ultrasound"—a sort of ultrasonic tornado—to break down blood clots in the brain. The new approach worked more quickly than existing techniques to eliminate clots formed in an in vitro model of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST). "Our previous work looked at various techniques that use ultrasound to eliminate blood clots using what are essentially forward-facing waves," says Xiaoning Jiang, co-corresponding author of a paper on the work. "Our new work uses vortex ultrasound, where the ultrasound waves have a helical wavefront. "In other words, the ultrasound is swirling as it moves forward," says Jiang, who is the Dean F. Duncan Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University. "Based on our in vitro testing, this approach eliminates blood clots more quickly than existing techniques, largely because of the shear stress induced by the vortex wave." "The fact that our new technique works quickly is important, because CVST clots increase pressure on blood vessels in the brain," says Chengzhi Shi, co-corresponding author of the work and an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. "This increases the risk of a hemorrhage in the brain, which can be catastrophic for patients. "Existing techniques rely in large part on interventions that dissolve the blood clot. But this is a time-consuming process. Our approach has the potential to address these clots more quickly, reducing risk for patients." CVST occurs when a blood clot forms in the veins responsible for draining blood from the brain. Incidence rates of CVST were between 2 and 3 per 100,000 in the United States in 2018 and 2019, and the incidence rate appears to be increasing. "Another reason our work here is important is that current treatments for CVST fail in 20-40% of cases," Jiang says. The new tool consists of a single transducer that is specifically designed to produce the swirling, vortex effect. The transducer is small enough to be incorporated into a catheter, which is then fed through the circulatory system to the site of the blood clot. For proof-of-concept in vitro testing, the researchers used cow blood in a 3D-printed model of the cerebral venous sinus. "Based on available data, pharmaceutical interventions to dissolve CVST blood clots take at least 15 hours, and average around 29 hours," Shi says. "During in vitro testing, we were able to dissolve an acute blood clot in well under half an hour." During any catheterization or surgical intervention there is a potential risk of harm, such as damaging the blood vessel itself. To address this issue, the researchers performed experiments applying vortex ultrasound to animal blood vein samples. Those tests found no damage to the walls of the blood vessels. The researchers also conducted tests to determine whether the vortex ultrasound caused significant damage to red blood cells. They found that there was not substantial damage to red blood cells. "The next step is for us to perform tests using an animal model to better establish the viability of this technique for CVST treatment," Jiang says. "If those tests are successful, we hope to pursue clinical trials." "And if the vortex ultrasound ever becomes a clinical application, it would likely be comparable in cost to other interventions used to treat CVST," says Shi. The paper, "A Model of High-Speed Endovascular Sonothrombolysis with Vortex Ultrasound-Induced Shear Stress to Treat Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis," is published in the journal Research. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-01-tool-ultrasound-tornado-blood-clots.html.... While there have been many statements made regarding various COVID treatment methods. We have not seen much discussion for treating illness post COVID, as well as treating COVID related illness. Ultrasound being deemed safe for matters as sensitive as tracking fetus development. The high safety rating of ultrasound makes it a natural option for treating blood clots. After reading about blood clots becoming a major issue, I tried to find something that might be a good treatment for it. This was the best thing I found: New ultrasound 'drill' targets deep vein blood clotsJune 14, 2017 Researchers have developed a new surgical tool that uses low-frequency intravascular ultrasound to break down blood clots that cause deep vein thrombosis. The tool is the first ultrasound 'drill' that can be aimed straight ahead, allowing doctors to better target clots -- which holds promise for significantly reducing treatment time. To date, the technology has been tested only in synthetic blood vessels. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170614091837.htm While the tobacco industry has been criticized in the past for investing in healthcare providers and services. Perhaps blood clot treatments like ultrasound can be a feel good investment and moral project to support. If they prove to be viable and effective. |
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"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."
-1 Timothy 6:10 The money being a root of evil, could be a 2,000 year old view derived from the christian bible. Its illustrated by King David being moral and just as a shepherd. Later after having become king he attains wealth, power and fame. This changes his behavior completely. He murders men and steals their wives. The story of King David is meant to illustrate how money and wealth can change people for the worse. How power and money can have a corruptive influence. On a broader scale, how might the behavior and tendencies of ruling elites be defined across all of human history. Is the behavior of the wealthy and powerful today, different from their peers in previous eras? If people have money and power they naturally trend towards abusing it. This precedent might define the behavior of ruling elites in all eras of human history. Whether its Top G flaunting pics of women and bugattis on social media. Or more sinister things. Having wealth and power would appear to change the way people behave and how they see the world. In recent times, we adopted the urban myth of the "benevolent billionaire" who uses his wealth primarily for charitable and humanitarian causes. We have a paradigm shift in our views of the wealthy and powerful which could contrast with past eras. |
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I think there are variables factoring into the viability of home property rental markets.
We know that the value of real estate exhibits consistent growth on a historical timeline. How this contrasts with wage growth determines viability of rentals. Population growth factors in as a factor of demand growth. Real estate construction represents supply. In terms of supply versus demand, population growth is rising at a faster rate than development and construction of living space, resulting in scarcity.
Rental markets were more viable in past decades when the proportion of wages to rental costs were better proportioned. Population growth was also in better proportion to home construction for living space to not be so much of a scarce and overpriced commodity.
In some respects, housing and real estate markets are becoming deflationary in nature. In terms of supply (home development and construction) not maintaining pace with demand.
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