1872 active cases in Victoria, down from 2830 last week. It looks like the tail end of the 2nd wave now. 283 still in hospital. 666 deceased in Victoria (the number of the beast, Wikipedia tells me it’s the natural number that follows 665, and preceding 667)
Not much has changed in NSW. 160 active cases still
The WHO guy says it will end in 2 years, which sounds about right. The 5 steps to get Victoria out of lockdown seems optimistic yet overly oppressive on the economy. There’s going to be no haircut until at least October 26! Outdoor pools could reopen on 28 Sep, but gyms are still closed.
Why do we need 5 Victorian police to deal with 2 little old ladies on a bench, and why is he ripping the phone out of her hands? Also why are they turning up to the journalist house to tell him he is on a list. Hitler also had a list. What’s going on?
Father’s day yesterday – the 5 stages of working from home from a dad. I liked when he was in the bathtub.
Relocation is considered an acceptable reason to leave the country according to Border Force. So should you secure work overseas, it’s possible to line everything up to leave. Relocation is also an acceptable reason to leave Victoria to go interstate.
7,107,556 active cases in the world, 886,591 deceased. Europe is avoiding the whole lock down during this second wave. The governor of Florida says “We will NEVER do any of these lockdown again” The most clearly thought out arguments I’ve heard.
The hotels in Hong Kong have begun removing beds in their rooms since there’s decreased tourism, to give you a private dining experience instead. Good pivot.
If you’re interested in Biology, MIT have opened their weekly lecture series on COVID to the public for free. I think the lectures are on a Monday morning. Interesting article from Scientific American on how COVID and wreck your heart even if you had no symptoms.
Markets and Economics
Jim Rogers co-founder of the legendary Quantum Fund talks about the next big market crash. Never in history has printing money worked. I especially liked how he called MMT – more money today, it usually stands for modern monetary theory. His advice was find your passion and do it – even if it’s gardening. If Jim Rogers looks at spreadsheets, I’m not sure anyone has any right to dismiss it.
The Australian debt default cliff is still coming.
Some people say the increase in super contribution should be deferred or abandoned, to allow employees who need every cent to basically survive. Or to allow business to have increased cash to survive, where super is on top of an employee’s salary.
Bridgewater people discussion about Monetary Policy 3 is interesting. I was looking at bridgewaters recent 13F filing (as you do on a late weekend evening while watching the TDF), and there seems to be quite a few gold names in their holdings.
What is Bail-In – explained simply the whole bail-in from an international perspective, going all the way back to a April 24, 2012 discussion paper from the IMF. It has been the plan from the global banking community for a while now, that should a bank be in trouble, all the governments of the world need to implement a way to take depositors money to shore up the banking system. Which leads to this interesting discussion on How to Avoid Bank Bail in and protect your cash.
There’s 3 types of change that can happen, economical, technological, and social. Society is going through all 3 at once at the moment. It feels like, we are just rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic now.
The Canton of Zug in Switzerland, which is considered the Crypto valley will start accepting cryptocurrencies for tax payment in 2021.
BTC is trading at 10,300 USD, down from 12,000 USD. According to Forbes if it drops below 10,000, then it’s all over. Which gives you a good tutorial on how to write a clickbait headline. But it should also earn it a spot on the Bitcoin Obituary, where according to articles through the years – bitcoin has died 382 times.
Other Stuff
On September 1st 2000, the Nokia 3310 was released. Remember when you needed to press the numbers to text?! If you still have one, it probably still has 40% battery.
Have you seen how a blind person uses an iPhone?! I’m amazed.
Most people know that The Age can be read by opening the articles in a new incognito window. The AFR can actually be read without a subscription by installing a browser plugin called No Script, which stops the javascript from running. Being able to control which site is allowed to run javascript is very powerful because you can block stuff that you don’t want, and it’s another layer of protection from malware. But just be aware that some of your favourite sites might not work correctly until you deem certain javascript on that page as safe.
Did you know that there is a religion called Pastafarianism who’s Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster believes that in heaven there is a beer volcano, and stripper factory. There’s similar thing in hell, except the beer is stale and the strippers have STD. How did I get to this point, it came from this article about a vietnamese man who believes that if he cuts his hair, it goes against the coconut religion, and he will die. Some people like the random stuff, and it doesn’t get more random than that.
AMA
So we’re back for round 2. (Also it’s not random! I just have eclectic interests.)
What’s a good pair of earphones?
I currently use the SoundPeats Trueengine SE wireless earphones from Amazon AU, and they’ve been working great for months, and it’s only 50-60 bux. But i noticed that an updated version is out SoundPeats Truengine 3 SE, which from the sound of things are even better. I would probably get these new ones, the mic would probably be better.
What’s a useful gadget?
No it’s not an apple watch
We have an Amazon Alexa device in the kitchen. Sure I accept, it’s probably spying on us, and knows all my secret herbs and spices. But it’s useful. We mainly use it to set timers, play music and tell the occasional bad joke. Sure it’s not perfect, it named Henny’s playlist as Hands playlist.
Favourite kitchen gadget?
Cast Iron pan, once you’ve learnt how to season it (google that), it’s better and lasts longer than any non-stick pans.
What’s your favourite gadget for kids?
Lunii Box, it’s a French thing, but the English version is not sold in Australia yet. Basically it reads stories to kids, my daughter loves it. Very useful for travel.
Need to keep the kids busy?
I gave my daughter a gem digging kit, and didn’t hear from her for hours after that. Also Kinetic sand in a large container is fun. (not the exact one i got)
Take better photos and videos?
I was backing up some old VCR over xmas onto the computer, and was surprised at all the videos that the parents were not in, and it was mainly of the kids. And I’m sure we are all guilty of that. Make sure you are in it, give your phone to your kids to take some photos / video of you. Don’t deprive that of your children the chance to look back one day on how you were at this age, what you were like.
Also taking better photos of kids and animals means you need to get down to their eye level.
I can’t sleep at night, What should I do?
If it’s because you have things ticking over in your head, just play tetris on your phone for 10 mins. The app is free, do a search on the app store. The simple act of problem solving and finding places for your pieces will force your brain to stop thinking about the thing that was keeping you awake.
I want to learn marketing, where do I go?
Read Seth Godin’s books. I own a few of them. He rarely gives interviews, but him talking through things is highly thought provoking.
What are you learning at the moment?
You know that moment you realised you should have been taught finite fields instead of trigonometry in high school? No? Well I’m trying to get my head around finite fields as I need it to understand more advanced topics.
What’s on for the rest of the year?
I’m putting it out there that I will get my DELF B1 level in French certificate this year (lockdown allowing). I just need to write in French more. I’m just putting it out there to make myself publicly accountable.
Who’s going to win the tour this year?
Not Richie Porte, he has disappointed me year after year.
What do you do at 1:00am?
Learning about the Paradoxes of Time Travel from Sean Carroll, while waiting for the podium presentation in TDF. Is it just me but i find it hilarious that everything seems to collapse into a black hole.
One of my favourite movies in recent time
Interstellar – because of the accuracy of how a black hole is represented with the accretion disk, and how time dilation works. If you missed the photo last year, this guy did an excellent explanation on what we were seeing in the photo of the blackhole that you can nerd out on.
No song this week, however I was going through a notebook where I keep interesting quotes and things I come across so I’ll leave you with this one .
“You work and work for years and years, you’re always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin’ dough
Someday, you say, you’ll have your fun, when you’re a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rockin’ chair
Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think”
Enjoy your week.
