Kirk

Freedom Maximalist

Public Key

npub16dvms6kppqgnv9k0murxnp8zyap2y6yem5y2f74sm8dgxfdvtj4syj2dq2

NIP-05 Address

Kirk@nostr.nz

NIP-57 Address

Kirk@primal.net

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdxkdcdtqssyfkzm8a7pnfsn3zws4zdzva6z9yl2cdnk5rykk9e2cusph69

Author Public Key

npub16dvms6kppqgnv9k0murxnp8zyap2y6yem5y2f74sm8dgxfdvtj4syj2dq2

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-04-19 17:34:06

I've been using o3 for a complex surgical and unfortunately it still hallucinates a ton. It fully fabricated a couple of citations.
Would recommend using 'Deep Research' for investigating a topic, and then o3 for contextual reasoning about the results of that investigation.
npub1fls5au5fxj6qj0t36sage857cs4tgfpla0ll8prshlhstagejtkqc9s2yl#nevent1q…5cll

2025-03-18 08:52:50

I'm really not a fan of MSTR getting these kinds of passive flows.
Within bitcoin we rightly view yield with a mixture of suspicion and contempt, often saying things like "you are the yield".
MSTR stock has a perpetual gravity that pushes the stock price back to the value of their bitcoin treasury. The way Saylor generates his "BTC yield" is from indiscriminate buyers who pile in at multiples to MSTR's underlying bitcoin holdings. They are the ones being harvested.
Having retail investors passively and indiscriminately buying this thing every month makes them easy to harvest. Being charitable, MSTR is a strategic trading vehicle and shouldn't be treated as something you just allocate to the same way you DCA bitcoin.
#nevent1q…20pc

2025-03-16 18:49:38

Bitcoiners make fun of goldbugs a lot (and often for good reason).
However, gold is still the only other asset that it really makes sense to own. The kind of asset you would feel comfortable holding if you knew you were about to go into a coma for a decade.
Gold is the perfect compliment to bitcoin in a portfolio. The tail risks that could make bitcoin go to zero are twofold: political and technological. The tail risk that could make gold fall is that bitcoin's tail risks don't materialize.

2025-03-13 19:14:10

- reply

Brian, didn't recognize you without your caps on

2025-03-13 06:58:30

We have to remember, he’s saying this to a man who referred to Abu Dhabi as Aboo Daboo four times after having spent a week there.
#nevent1q…wtrz

2025-02-25 18:14:56

A nation of genocidal Jussie Smollett's
#nevent1q…judu

2025-02-09 08:24:40

- reply

As do I 💔

2025-02-02 21:14:35

- reply

Are you optimistic about bitcoin's future as freedom tech? Does a future where the vast majority of people interact with bitcoin through large custodians seem inevitable to you?

2025-01-25 09:01:07

https://m.primal.net/NzMX.png
I knew things were going to change with Gensler gone, but this is pretty wild

2025-01-23 09:37:27

- reply

When is Simplicity coming to Liquid?

2025-01-22 02:26:33

- reply

Reminiscent of 2008-9, when they used the media frenzy of Obama's election to commit atrocities whilst the world was looking the other way.

2025-01-12 08:18:28

Rogan was nothing short of heroic during covid. That makes it all the more disappointing to see what he has become since: the Oprah of the new right — the place all the most despicable people go to rehabilitate their image.

2025-01-10 06:48:58

It is curious to me that so many of those apoplectic about the supposed "grooming gangs" in the UK, are also staunch defenders of Israel, a state that explicitly advocates for the rape of Palestinian hostages.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/

2025-01-06 09:20:23

- reply

I did much the same and finished the trilogy in September. The characters are so great!...and actually admirable.

2025-01-01 09:26:32

Iyah has incredible talent! I really hope this doesn't turn out to be another 'Rich Men North of Richmond'. Her voice is much needed in our crazy world.
https://youtu.be/y29kmnhjtc8?si=TRckyzELOx99pJDC

2025-01-01 00:04:12

Ross Stevens just dropped his latest investor letter. As always, beautifully written and an absolute must-read.
https://www.nydig.com/research/stone-ridge-2024-investor-letter

2024-12-27 06:02:45

The NZD is like one of those shitcoins that doesn't even make the first page of Coinmarketcap.
https://m.primal.net/NHtq.jpg

2024-12-22 09:37:15

- reply

I think this is the Saylor-effect on Bitcoin culture. It's not so much that any of the people who were preaching self-sovereignty in 2020 have changed their tune, it's just that bitcoin has gone more mainstream and those with the largest microphone now don't care about freedom tech.

2024-12-21 08:29:25

For some reason YT decided to feed this up to me today 😂
Mike is one of those guys who is ideologically such a Statist that bitcoin's success is both a repudiation of everything he believes, and deeply threatening to the "reasonable, centrist, adult-in-the-room" soft authoritarianism he yearns to see enacted across the world.
Mike is the man for whom the "Have Fun Staying Poor" meme was invented. He is poor in the sense that really matters: intellectually bereft and morally bankrupt... And I can only hope bitcoin's continued rise will make him reputationally destitute as well.
@npub1d3f…r4xv
https://m.primal.net/NCOT.png

2024-12-05 08:35:38

Just having fun playing with my bitcoin

2024-12-03 09:58:55

- reply

Welcome!

2024-12-03 09:34:47

It's generally not my kind of art, but I swear all I want for Christmas is a @npub1ndk…gk2v painting of some babe and a machine gun.

2024-12-03 04:28:29

I can imagine how many eth folks are looking at this lovely little series of higher lows and higher highs and embodying that dude with the butterfly meme.
If it rolls over, max pain.
https://m.primal.net/Mmbx.png

2024-11-23 21:59:59

🎯
#note127v…cw7l

2024-11-22 02:54:17

You can't convince me this is healthy
https://m.primal.net/Mdhx.png

2024-11-10 02:58:49

Am I the only one feeling a bit depressed by the resurgence in shitcoins?

2024-11-05 20:25:25

- reply

💜 https://m.primal.net/LtnN.jpg

2024-11-04 22:09:10

Great, non-technical overview of the Ark protocol by @npub1jus…hr2e: https://youtu.be/HKaj41uFMr4?si=Oe4tDeGXhkm-IEyk

2024-11-02 17:37:24

For those looking for the best independent reporting and commentary on the US security state and Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, I highly recommend The Grayzone: https://www.youtube.com/live/PgDHJyaSCjY?si=faZcB8M5lyAxicM6
They come from a really principled anti-war progressive viewpoint. And even though I am in the free market anarchist camp (the the extent there's enough ancaps to comprise a camp), I have deep admiration for their intellectual honesty and rigor.

2024-11-02 06:24:22

This painting by @npub17nd…950x has quickly become one my prized possessions 💜
It isn't just the beauty of the art, and incredible expressivity in the brushstrokes, but the fact that I purchased it on Nostr, with bitcoin.
Every time walk through my entryway and see it, it makes me smile. I think of how this nascent, censorship-resistant communications protocol connected me in New Zealand with an incredible artist in Italy. And using unstoppable money I was able to instantly transfer value across the globe. No middle-men. No "platforms" taking a cut and manipulating me with their ads and perverse incentives. Just two people, trading value for value. The best money in the world, for some the best art.
https://m.primal.net/Lpzl.jpg

2024-10-29 05:44:00

- reply

Don’t be discouraged 💜 This guy clearly doesn’t understand the value of art. Fiat mindset.

2024-10-28 22:03:45

https://m.primal.net/LlOK.png

2024-10-28 20:09:19

- reply

Sounds epic! Throughly regretting missing it

2024-10-22 05:20:40

I think the vitriol is a result of people correctly identifying, if not always fully articulating, that Saylor frequently talks out of both sides of his mouth.
In a few short years has he gone from saying "tax that!" to essentially condemning self-custody, cryptoanarchy, and anyone with an adversarial mindset vis a vis the state.
There is more than a whiff Elon Musk-esque carnival barker-y in Saylor. He reeks of inauthenticity and a lack of any deeply held values. He seems willing to change his views on a dime, with no acknowledgement, based on what he sees as being in his economic interest at that moment.
This isn't a case of Bitcoin's overactive social immune system. The pushback against Saylor is warranted and healthy, in my view. He wields a lot of influence, and has the potential to do a great deal of harm even as he helps pump the price. I would argue his position as an ossificationist has already done significant damage. And his opposition to self-custody and bitcoin's more revolutionary potential could do even more (btw, notice that his opposition to further protocol changes and self-custody are entirely consistent).
Just my 2sats. I'd be curious to hear if anyone disagrees.
#note1tlt…lc4c

2024-10-07 16:12:59

https://youtu.be/bFEurGy05ps?si=EmYoZ9XNUNXUyyIl

2024-10-07 09:10:34

This is the least important election of our lifetime

2024-10-04 19:48:24

- reply

In what culture do they call a sunshower "the devil is beating his wife"?

2024-10-01 16:39:38

- reply

When Fedimint?

2024-09-19 19:30:50

- reply

The book or the mini-series?
The mini-series with Pierce Brosnan is superb! It’s this perfect time-capsule of Hong Kong at its peak in 1988.

2024-09-18 22:18:07

Did Coracle go down?

2024-09-18 22:16:06

- reply

I notice that Israel doesn’t make the list, but Palestine does.
So we can use Geyser to donate to those perpetrating a genocide, just not to those being slaughtered?

2024-09-18 14:46:26

- reply

As good as this conversation was, the aesthetics of this studio is truly sublime 💜

2024-09-15 07:59:44

https://m.primal.net/KqZK.png

2024-09-13 08:03:01

- reply

It's very true. Things being a bit inconvenient and unintuitive is a feature 💜

2024-09-09 18:36:25

- reply

💜 Gold on the Ocean

2024-09-04 14:42:30

Is anyone else finding their zaps only intermittently work on Primal?
On Coracale and Iris they send every time, but on Primal I get maybe a 30% success rate.

2024-08-29 10:09:12

It's interesting how two people can look at the same data point and take away diametrically opposed signals.
To me, the fact the market has absorbed so much sell-side pressure over the past six months, and the most we got a 32% drawdown (and even that lasted for 48hrs), is bullish.
TX believes that this cycle is going to be more muted than in the past. And that the fact that bitcoin could not even break $70k last cycle, even with all the covid stimulus, it would be unrealistic to expect bitcoin to perform anywhere near as well in tighter monetary conditions.
My view is that the covid stimulus actually hurt bitcoin's performance last cycle. It turned the entire market into a casino. Pokemon cards, NFTs, rare watches, memecoins...every piece of shit asset mooned. It encouraged gambling, which actually drove liquidity out of bitcoin and into things way farther down the risk curve.
What we are seeing this cycle is bitcoin decoupling as the market sobers up and has to actually work out what has fundamental value: What is real and what is fake.
Long the real (bitcoin, gold, energy). Fade the fake (shitcoins, unprofitable tech).
https://m.primal.net/KTQW.png

2024-08-25 21:30:13

- reply

Szasz also points out how pseudo-scientific the concept of mental illness is. It misattributes the cause of feelings and behavior to mere brain chemical balances and hand-wavy genetics without being able to objectively demonstrate any of this.
Instead, the true cause of what are often called mental illnesses is the trauma individuals experience (generally at young age). And the lessons that get internalized from these traumas.

2024-08-23 14:41:31

"what is a Nostr conference without a million talks by @npub1l2v…ajft?"
#note1r9w…8znj

2024-08-23 14:34:08

- reply

Congratulations! 💜

2024-08-22 21:11:26

- reply

Thanks 🙏 Copied a bunch and it's already noticeably improved things

2024-08-22 21:07:27

@npub1s5y…6q7z practicing pole dancing in preparation for the next bear market
#note1h2u…jnqk

2024-08-22 18:11:18

Can anyone recommend the best relays to join, outside of what Primal automatically connects you to?
I previously went and subscribed to a bunch of paid relays, yet it somehow made my Nostr experience worse 🤷‍♂️

2024-08-22 17:22:14

tis the season
https://youtu.be/9X4Z1lLUMfw?si=BAv7wMkmrcde6W5H

2024-08-20 20:33:26

- reply

I struggle to put myself in the mindset of the architect who designed this. Unless it was originally built as some rendition dark site for MI6, or the place for Jimmy Savile to take his victims, its malevolence makes no sense.

2024-08-20 20:25:54

- reply

I would watch AND zap 💜

2024-08-20 20:24:59

I've been in UK for medical care at this place.
I struggle to believe anyone has ever recovered from anything in this building.
https://m.primal.net/KFzN.jpg

2024-08-20 20:22:14

- reply

Hello Tony

2024-08-16 05:18:31

- reply

https://loaf.com/products/our-perfect-mattress?variant=firm
Affordable, but excellent

2024-08-16 05:13:40

- reply

Pocket sprung, relatively firm, a slatted bed frame that allows air flow through the mattress.
Latex and memory foam are torture devices, especially if you are a hot sleeper.

2024-08-15 08:57:57

- reply

I think because Saif has heard Konstantin in other venues and has seen how dishonest of a broker he is. His actions bely his protestations that he is not pro-genocide.
The debate he moderated with Brianna Joy Gray and Eli Lake was especially revealing: https://youtu.be/_M15lTZ41dM?si=prBKnHdbDrfOAbwK
Saif is in a difficult position of calling bullshit on someone who feigns objective impartiality but who is really a propagandist with an agenda.

2024-08-15 07:01:21

- reply

When you consider that Konstantin is advocating for the continued genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, I can understand Saif struggling to keep his cool.

2024-08-14 18:45:55

Weird juxtaposition

2024-08-11 07:41:54

In a hotel restaurant enjoying my morning sencha, I can’t help but overhear the only other person there ask the Hungarian waiter if he had heard that Ukraine had managed to take the fight into Russia (presumably referring to their recent assault on Kursk)?
She sounded so excited, and clearly believed this was some sign that Ukraine was turning the tide of the war (which is exactly the PR effect Ukraine hoped to achieve). I found myself looking at her, just thinking how we are living in totally different universes. How, in the year 2024, could she still uncritically believe anything the news feeds her?
Then I went back to enjoying my tea and the beauty of the courtyard garden.
GM

2024-08-10 18:50:11

- reply

I could totally see you creating an amazing painting of this scene! It would very much suit your style 💜

2024-08-10 18:45:11

It’s such a pretty surveillance state
https://m.primal.net/JvEt.jpg

2024-08-10 07:23:03

- reply

Looking forward to it! 🔥

2024-08-10 07:19:58

In London atm and it really is beginning to feel like the dystopian London from V for Vendetta.
It's a jarring juxtaposition: all these beautiful buildings and gardens within the context of dystopian surveillance state that, if I understand Starmer correctly, is now using live AI facial recognition combined with more CCTV cameras per square km than anywhere else on earth.
I was listening to a bit of a Keir Starmer speech and it sounded almost exactly like high chancellor, Adam Sutler when he is ramping up surveillance and control to monitor dissident thought and capture V.
It’s as though these politicians have never seen a movie, or read a dystopian sci fi novel. They certainly have no sense of irony.

2024-08-09 08:00:31

- reply

Hope all the zaps are revitalizing 💜

2024-08-09 07:59:03

https://m.primal.net/JtRG.png

2024-08-05 06:43:10

Why hello you pretty, pretty Orwellian surveillance society
https://m.primal.net/JoXa.jpg

2024-08-05 06:40:47

- reply

The inner-most circle of hell is reserved for such inconsiderateness

2024-08-05 06:38:40

I’m not sure if Bitcoin has conditioned me to love volatility, or this was always part of my investing psychology

2024-08-02 20:12:38

There is a soulful, haunting quality to Lizzy Paplinger's voice that lingers with me after I've listened.
MSMR was one of the innumerable indie pop bands that came out around the '08-14 period. And while most of them sound interchangeable (Marina, Charli XCX, Tove Lo...) and have these darker themes and moodiness, MSMR stands out as having a bit more substance.
It's a bummer they never broke out.
https://youtu.be/lazZJdkQ05g?si=ZUB3hnGPpIwgY8tX
https://youtu.be/7N82nu2oIzI?si=CDpX41g7_VsJtgEh
https://youtu.be/cfF-qQT__s4?si=e9zwdFke6em3nhBn

2024-07-30 04:17:27

- reply

Looking at the history of US foreign policy, you have to wonder if they ever had the plot to begin with.

2024-07-26 03:47:40

- reply

What an ridiculous statement. The final paragrah is pure cuckery.

2024-07-25 22:58:15

As big a fan as I am of @npub1trr…hdpu , I’ve been incredibly disappointed by HRF’s silence now ten months into an ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Worse than silence, really. Of all the people they could have featured at the Oslo Freedom Forum, they chose Ahmed Alkhatib. I encourage you to watch it as, to anyone who knows anything about this conflict and its history, it is truly an atrocious speech: https://youtu.be/dxEZtVSO7_4?si=Q7EC1DnFNKU6Cqb3.
Ahmed reminds me of the character of Saeed, from Emile Habibi’s satirical fiction, ‘The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist’. The character is a quizzling and a collaborationist with the occupying forces, and if you watch Ahmed’s talk you see a similar psychology.
Notice how long Ahmed spends denouncing Hamas—the venom and vitriol in his tone. Notice the kind words for the collaborationist Palestinian Authority, which functions as little more than an arm of the Israeli government oppressing the people of the West Bank as they are continually dispossessed, brutalised and murdered. Notice his use of the passive voice when describing the mass murder committed by Israeli forces that switches to an active, adjective-laden screed when describing Hamas’ October 7th attacks. Notice how he calls for a “bilateral ceasefire”, instead of an immediate end to Israel’s decades-long military occupation.
Watching his talk you would think that Hamas is really the problem and that history really did begin on October 7th. And if we can just get rid of Hamas, and maybe that nasty right-wing Netanyahu government, then there will be peace.
Aside from being delusional, the truth is there can’t be peace between lions and men. When one party is intent on being a lion— on occupying, dispossessing, oppressing, kidnapping and torturing (what Ahmed antiseptically refers to as “the arbitrary detention of Palestinians”)and murdering, there can be no meaningful peace. The peace Ahmed speaks of is the same as the peace Israelis speak of: Palestinians in Gaza quietly lying down an dying in the concentration camp, whilst Palestinians in the West Bank continue to allow Israeli settlers to steal their land.
The solution is for Israel to immediately end their brutal and illegal occupation of the Palestinian people. That is the only solution. Not “education” or “empowering civil society” in Gaza.
There is no “both sides” to this. Israel is the occupying force and the Palestinians are the indigenous people resisting occupation. And the have every right to do so. Over the decades, the Palestinians have tried both political means of resisting occupation (Oslo, Camp David, the much-ballyhooed “peace process”). As Edward Said aptly noted, the whole peace process was just Israeli domination disguised as compromise. To quote the American-Israeli scholar, Barry Rubin, it was “all process and no peace”—a sham from the outset to continue denying Palestinians their rights.
The Palestinians in Gaza also tried peaceful protest, most recently in The Great March of Return of 2018-2019. Ahmed does not mention this, of course. Nor does he mention what the Israelis did: lining up their best snipers along the fence-line and intentionally targeting the knee-caps of young Palestinians to cripple them for life. They had a competition to see how many they could cripple.
Over 200 Palestinians were killed, and over 36,000 injured (including almost 9,000 children). 156 limb amputations had to be performed, 27 were left paralysed, 1200 suffered severe limb injuries requiring long-term surgical reconstruction.
You do not hear about this, though, because Palestinians have been so dehumanised and erased from Western media coverage. And Ahmed only furthers this whitewashing and dehumanisation.
Palestinians have a right to resistance. And if peaceful means only get them massacred, it is absurd for anyone to act outraged and clutch their pearls when they turn to violence.
Anyway, if Alex or anyone from HRF cares to comment, I’d be interested in why they have been assiduously covering every bomb Putin drops but ignoring the crime of the century being perpetrated in Gaza.
And I’d be curious if any of my fellow Nostriches have noticed the same thing I have.

2024-07-25 19:17:19

- reply

🧡

2024-07-24 23:30:26

I'm there in spirit
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
https://www.youtube.com/live/lUOMXV8-fgM?si=-e5Y-ntB_Y_ajixq

2024-07-24 03:47:45

I'm convinced the venn diagram of people who say "bitcoins" and people who say "maths" is just a circle.

2024-07-11 11:35:01

GE
https://m.primal.net/JMwk.jpg

2024-07-04 05:39:38

- reply

Beautiful! Thanks for taking us with you 🧡

2024-06-24 08:58:26

- reply

Already drinking Champagne as a 15yr old. Australia in a nutshell 😉

2024-06-10 05:53:55

I can feel the beginnings of a second Nostr adoption wave forming. There is a new energy 💜

2024-06-09 03:33:09

- reply

I think that aerodynamics and lift would be the internet itself, along with the various technologies that bitcoin is dependent on. That would be bitcoin’s environment, so to speak.
And you could say that when altcoins do things like massively raise the block size, they crash and burn because their hubris leads them to ignore these “physical” constraints of the environment.
Mapping the analogy:
* Aerodynamics and lift = The underlying networking, computing and cryptographic primitives that Bitcoin relies on (internet, CPUs, bandwidth, storage, etc.)
* The 737 airframe = The core Bitcoin protocol itself
* The engines = Scaling solutions like Lightning, Liquid, etc. that need to be integrated carefully
However, this highlights the issue with arguing by analogy. You really have to make sure your analogy is apt, otherwise it creates more confusion than clarity.
...And, for someone like Saylor, with the gift of gab, analogies can be effectively used for sophistry.

2024-06-08 23:20:09

The irony of making this analogy is that it actually illustrates the danger of NOT making protocol changes.
What happened with the 737Max is that Boeing wanted to put larger, more powerful, more fuel efficient engines on their 737. The only problem was that the physical structure of the plane (the base layer protocol, in this case) couldn’t handle larger engines.  The 737 has a relatively low ground clearance compared to competitors like the Airbus A320. Mounting the larger engines in the same position as previous 737s would cause them to hit the ground during takeoff and landing.
Instead of changing the protocol - the base, physical structure of the 737 itself - to safely allow for the new engines, what they did was a hack to try to bolt these new engines (think L2s) to work with the old 737 structure (protocol).
Boeing moved the engines forward and higher up on the wing. However, this gave the 737MAX a tendency to pitch up more during high angles of attack, increasing stall risk.
To correct for this they created flight control software to automatically push the plane’s nose down in certain situations to prevent stalls. This software relied on data from a single angle-of-attack sensor. There was no redundancy built in.
It was this faulty sensor that caused planes to go into a nosedive that the pilots (unfamiliar with how to override this overly complex software) couldn’t pull out of.
In its current state, with no added covenants or expressivity at the base layer, virtually all Bitcoin users will be forced to use bitcoin through some custodial arrangement (even if it is a collaborative custody model like Liquid or Fedimint).
You can think of these custodians as the sensor in the 737Max , where if they become faulty you lose everything.
And you can think of conservative, well-vetted covenants upgrade as redesigning and lengthening the landing gear (and making minor alterations to the wing and fuselage) to safely accommodate new engines.
Anyway, all of this to say that sometimes changing Bitcoin’s protocol is safer than not doing so.   I believe this is one of those times.
#note12vk…ywr6

2024-06-08 22:37:07

- reply

Thanks! 💜

2024-06-08 19:52:32

My favorite feature of the old twitter was lists - being able to curate my own subject-specific feeds.
I'd love to see this on Nostr. Especially with all the human rights activists joining, it would be great to be able to just create a list with all of their content.

2024-06-07 23:34:41

I like to think @`Blockstream` has just put some seven year old in charge of zapping.
"See all those lighting bolts? Click them all as many times as you can!"
https://image.nostr.build/893f08c0ef512d4507cc5358ee64145b8d0d410d3df83958b81e669c135a18f9.jpg

2024-06-05 23:01:03

I will never understand this level of degeneracy.
https://m.primal.net/IaEG.png

2024-06-01 06:48:40

https://fountain.fm/episode/RRxEhb7uF2mgRMmPnrh1

2024-05-29 10:23:33

GM
https://m.primal.net/IRNZ.jpg

2024-05-27 22:46:51

@npub1spy…5j7y has been writing a great daily journal chronicling his trip in El Salvador: https://stacker.news/items/552530

2024-05-24 07:37:22

There’s nowhere better than New Zealand in fall 🍁
GE.
https://m.primal.net/ILIB.jpg
https://m.primal.net/ILID.jpg
https://m.primal.net/ILIE.jpg
https://m.primal.net/ILIF.jpg

2024-05-23 07:08:24

Never forget the 23rd of May. The day the big blockers tried to steal it all away.
https://m.primal.net/IKZZ.png

2024-05-22 10:24:21

GE. Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day
https://m.primal.net/IJwC.jpg

2024-05-20 06:14:11

I recently visited Hong Kong for the first time in years. Even on my last visit in late-2019, when protesters were still out in full force, it was clear the city was dying - gradually being deformed from a bastion of freedom into ‘just another city in China’.
I grew up in HK in the 90s before my mother moved us to New Zealand. I would return every year to my visit my father, and spent my gap year and college summers there as well. The city had an incredible energy, and the sense of freedom was unlike anywhere else.
It’s sad that those who didn’t know it during that time have no point of reference, and can’t see what was lost. They just see what it is today: Shenzhen + the ability to use google without a VPN. For those that do know the Hong Kong of old, visiting today feels like watching one of those horror films where the murderer wears the face of their victim. Things superficially look the same, but soul is gone.
I had hoped to revisit some of my old haunts, including doing the Victoria Harbour Ferry Zig-Zag that leo@lightning.engineering charted out in a blog post: https://blog.liongrass.hk/2020/05/04/victoria-harbour-ferry-zigzag/#more-916. I found I had very little motivation, though. The weather and pollution were also abysmal, which mirrored my spirits and seemed appropriately funereal.

2024-05-16 06:20:37

- reply

All caps AND a larger mempool...🤨 Are you okay? Have you been kidnapped?

2024-05-16 04:01:59

- reply

Don't bend the knee, Clark!

2024-05-08 04:15:43

- reply

Beautiful lime wash on those bricks! ♥️