COVID-19
Dan is saying “Stop sending us your kiwis!”
137 active cases in Victoria (12 in hospital), 50 in NSW. 219 total active cases in Australia.
I found an interesting thing when I go to the logarithmic scale on the chart. It looks like recovery almost matches the total number of cases. Have a play yourself on the site.
New lock down rules are out for Victoria! To head off the high court challenge, the 5km rule has been expanded to 25kms. Hopefully the high court will still give a ruling on that, I’d like to know if it breach any Victorian human rights charters. You can also get haircuts again, but can’t get your nails done. You can go to an automated car wash again. (Apparently staying in your car to drive through an automated car was a virus risk.) Outdoor photography is now allowed. (I didn’t even know that it was illegal for me to take a selfie.) You can also go out for as long as you want, I’m not sure anyone was even checking themselves for this as there’s been plenty of people out having a picnic in the grass everywhere.
The WHO have never advocated for lock down, they think it doesn’t work, you should only be using it to buy you time to regroup, re-balance your resources and protect your health workers because they are so exhausted. But it also draws attention to the fact that your health system is inadequate. But this also draws attention to why YouTube were censoring people for opposing lock downs, censorship is never a good thing, all information should be available for everyone to have public discourse, as society have done for millennia.
Scientists at CSIRO have done a test and the findings are COVID can still be active on most surfaces for 6-7 days. I would assume that’s in laboratory conditions.
Worldwide there are now 9,272,597 active cases, and total deceased is at 1,115,627 people. Iran is going through the 3rd wave, in a glimpse of what’s installed. It’s golden week in China where 600 million people traveled around the country in a global pandemic. The badaling (八达岭) section of the great wall is more packed than ever. Here some photos we took there.
Nightly curfew in France, not really sure it would be needed outside of major cities, I always rush to the supermarket before it closes at 7 pm! And also did you know that supermarket closes from noon on a Sunday!
Johnson and Johnson have paused COVID vaccine trial after some unexplained illnesses. Does anyone else think of baby powder when they hear Johnson and Johnson?
Bunnings being innovative!
Markets and Economics
We all know that US National Debt is at $27 trillion, it just keeps growing and they are never going to be able to pay it back. But how about Australia? Well we are at 7.5 trillion total across public and private sectors. Gov debt is at 1.2 trillion, which consist of 827 billion at the federal level, and 168 billion at the state and local gov level. Household debt is at 2.8 trillion, and private credit is at 4.7 trillion.
The IMF are calling for a new bretton wood monetary negotiation. If you don’t know what Bretton Wood system is, then it’s worth reading up. You need to pay attention to this because you are about to be screwed by the world’s elite.
The signals are there for more tough times ahead in the Australian economy, expecting a rate cut in November, and negative interest rates not long after that. Which brings us to the summary from Raoul Pal on where we are at, absolutely worth a listen if you are interested in markets.
More from Michael Saylor, I do realise that the message he has is the same, but I find it insightful every time I listen to what he has to say because he might say it in a slightly different way that brings new insight in my head. – Like his view on inflation and how the government excludes things that matter to everyone, like food.
I found the conversation with a couple of south African guys very interesting – Philip Haslam and Russ Lamberti are two south African guys, and author of When Money Destroys Nations. Talk about Zimbabwe and how hyperinflation scenario might play out.
Godfrey Bloom, former politician in the UK, understands bitcoin. It was a very amusing episode he has this kind of old fashion army guy kind of humor.
One scenario that could play out is, the government will let the bank fail, when the bank fail you will get an account with digital central bank currency with the amount you had at the bank. This is how the system could be reset. It will then allow greater control of you and your spending habits, if you are not spending enough, then the interest rate will go negative. If you spend at the wrong place, then your account will be automatically banned.
Bitcoin is trading at $11,400 USD. What government trying to stop a decentralised currency looks like. I found a great BTC wallet for iOS called Blue Wallet, which includes some advanced features. I will need to try out, but it looks very promising.
Other Stuff.
I found how to build a great series A pitch deck quite interesting.
I’m going through the books that Matt Mullinweg (Co-founder of WordPress, and CEO of Automattic) recommends. I’ve divided his list up for my own purpose.
Just started this weekend.
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
Have read and on my recommended reading list.
Principles by Ray Dalio
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind by Annaka Harris
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Remote by Jason Fried and Daivd Heinemeir Hansson
On my wish list to read one day.
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu
Sum: Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Becoming Wise by Krista Tippett
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
On my bookshelf but haven’t read.
On Grief and Grieving by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler
Not on any of my list right now.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charles T. Munger
The World is Sound: Nada Brahma by Joachim-Ernst Berendt
I really enjoyed the episode of Tim Ferris with Naval Ravikant. I would consider Naval one of the smartest thinkers in the world. The main thing I got was mediation should be just sit in silence for 60 mins for 60 days to clear out your own mental inbox. I need to find the time to try this. Also his thoughts on making money is always interesting re-read.
In the age of the internet, often I see people make the mistake of looking just to their circle of friends and family for thoughts, or even to people in the company that they work at, and sometimes these people who they are listening to are stupid and illogical. The internet age is here, you need to seek out the thoughts of the best thinkers in the world to shape your view and inform your opinion, otherwise you will get run over. And that’s not even to say you should just blindly follow their opinion, you should fact check, validate it. And always look to reassess your own opinion in case it’s wrong! If everyone did this and we has good open discourse, then the world will be a better place.
I’ve been geeking out on some guy building a monster water cooled computer, it goes over a few episode. Don’t think I could ever justify all those high end components.
Enjoy your week, and give it 100%!