I gotta say, the SEC causing a mass liquidation event right before announcing their decision on the ETF approval is something I didn’t see coming but is intriguing nonetheless. I wonder if crypto traders that got liquidated have a case against the SEC for their “hacked” tweet and also if it was a hack at all.

The Lakers and Raptors game is the only one I avoided. I am not confident in the Lakers these days…

As for the others, I tossed all the favorites together in a multi-bet to win. The odds are decent when you consider the rest of the games are pretty big mismatches. Hopefully there are no surprises today.

We nearly broke through a 2 year old resistance level on the fake tweet! Thats pretty impressive. We seemingly got our answer on which way the market is going to go on the news as well. The chartist in me thinks there’s a chance we could follow the inverse of the pattern from 2 years ago and drop significantly from here, but if people celebrate an ETF approval and break the resistance at $48K and the last big line at $52K, it could be off to the races until the ATH. Seems early still, but I guess I’ve been saying that about BTC since 2013.

You do make a point and I wish you success on your creation.  I would say taking the ever changing profitability into consideration, users might prefer to have an auto-switching miner as opposed to switching it manually based on profitability.  That's where a site like Nicehash comes into play.  However, for users who want to control what coin they mine and might be OK holding alts in wallets in hopes of realizing appreciation as opposed to being immediately paid out in BTC, this could be a good tool.  Nice job!

This.  Moderators exist for a reason and when you have a forum with as many users as bitcointalk you can't make threads for each instance you notice something is wrong.  That isn't sustainable and causes additional headaches as now the moderator not only has to moderate the issue, but has to come in here and see if there's something they didn't see or explain their actions in order to satisfy the OP.  Just report to moderator and move on.  If you notice things aren't being handled the way you think they should, start a topic on the IDEA of what is happening being wrong as that encompasses the entire issue, not just a specific case.

Some signature campaigns (like Stake's for example) have requirements on the number of characters that have to be in a post.  So while they may have a very simple answer that could be given in a few words, they are incentivized with money to make their posts a little longer in order to reach the character requirements that have been set.  I'm not familiar with how widespread this is with other campaigns, but perhaps that explains why you singled out Stake. 

While I will say that I enjoy Plinko and it is easy to gamble for a long time without losing money as stated above...  When it comes to what I believe is the most logical form of gambling, I'd have to say sports betting.  It's as trustless as a bet can be in my opinion as the outcomes are public and any shenanigans would be easy to detect.  As someone who doesn't tend to trust websites or people, I feel more comfortable when the outcome is something that can be easily independently verified.

I don't follow along with various programs enough to be able to take advantage of them.  For example, I always hear people talking about Stake's monthly bonuses, etc...  I think I've only remembered to claim once ever and I can't even recall what the amount was, so for me bonuses of any kind are just kind of there...  It wouldn't get me to use a different casino and I don't even bother to check them.  I think people should focus on the gaming experience and less on the frills that are meant to keep you playing to try and win money.

My feeling is usually, "OK, that was fun but I'm bored now.  On to something else." 

In rare occasions I may even be happy that I won some money.  Typically though I gamble when I get some down time and want to kill a couple minutes, so just occupying 10 or 15 minutes of my time is usually the motivating factor, not trying to get rich.  I think if more people gambled like this they would probably enjoy it more and save themselves from losing streaks.  The second it stops being fun I'm gone.

That is a good point that it wasn't a knee injury so it's not like he couldn't possibly come back and be his old high flying self.  My concern is that he is a young guy, still learning and getting better.  Being out this long will certainly have a negative effect on his skills and with his off-court habits he could get completely out of shape.  With so much of his game relying on his athleticism and that only getting worse as he ages, being out this long could be the difference between being the most athletic player in the league to being on par with everyone else, only way undersized.  I hope he has people around him making sure he's keeping in playing shape.  If he got injured after missing a couple dozen games, imagine how bad it could be when he comes back after a year.

If your gambling habits are negatively effecting your relatives you really do need to seek help.  I couldn't imagine having a habit so bad that you have to borrow money from family members knowing that you will never repay them, just so you can continue your habit.  I understand that people can have different beliefs and can discriminate against you for how you live your life regardless of if you believe it is bad or not.  However, if you're having to borrow money to keep your habit going and can no longer even provide for yourself, it's a major problem.

I got a call from someone yesterday that I consider a close friend.  They are a holder of 1 BTC they bought for $8,000 back in 2016 or 2017 I believe after being aware and following BTC since probably 2012.  They called me to let me know that they were cashing out their 401K to go all in on Bitcoin.  I warned them this was a bad idea and urged them to dollar cost average instead, but they are dead set on "betting big" and fine if they lose everything.  They just want to be more in the game.  I say this both as a warning that people are starting to overinvest in Bitcoin and perhaps a potential bullish signal, as this is someone who holds BTC, has watched it for a long time, and was early to the bubble in 2017.  Maybe this is a sign we're about to jump to $80,000 or it may be a sign that people are acting irrationally which is usually a top.  I'm not sold on this being a top yet, but if I start getting messages on Facebook from people who have never owned Bitcoin or followed it, I'll begin getting worried.

I don’t know if I’d call them the team to beat but they have been playing great lately. After a rocky start they seem to have quickly figured out how to make it work. If they can continue to improve and maybe bolster their bench a little bit, they have a shot at a deep playoff run. I think they’d still struggle against the Bucks or other teams with big superstars though.

I learned that lesson a long long time ago after dealing with estate sales. In my experience, auction houses are never a good idea. They make money either way and can be motivated to do a bad job promoting in order for their partners to get great deals. Imagine getting paid so your friends can get goods below value. That’s what auction houses (at least the bad ones) will do for you.  This particular auction and timing were at best ill advised.

It’s funny to me that you can become the richest person on earth, jumpstart the electric car revolution, give the world a platform of free speech, and help man become a multi-planetary species, yet people will still say bad things about you. I’ll never understand the motivation for people to be so jealous and bitter. It makes me feel better about being harassed though. Envy is real.

They’re saying Ja Morant is out for the season with his injury now. Ouch. The dangers of making a star athlete sit idle for so long… It’s quite possible he’ll never be the same after this and it’s very likely the result of his suspension. Not the greatest look for the NBA.

Is there a total list of victims somewhere? How much would it cost to make this situation right?

^ Y’all are attributing a quote to me that I didn’t say…

Life comes at you fast…

Highest price of the year.  

It’s January 8th! Funny but it does feel like the tidal wave of funds crashing into Bitcoin cannot be stopped.

Drama alert…

Ryan Garcia divorced his wife one hour after their child was born. I haven’t heard any reason why, but speculation on the internet is that the baby came out looking very much not like Ryan Garcia… I guess we’ll have to wait to learn the truth, but that’s a wild story.