The Matrix Resurrections: The Studio Is Making Us Do This! – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

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Lets address the most contentious issue first. This movie isnt great, but its not The Last Jedi bad. Matrix fans arent going to be storming the gates in protest, because their beloved characters were assassinated for the message. Its true that Neo is nerfed so that Trinity can take his place. This is annoying because, as Ive said before, nobody wants to see a Dragon Ball Z spectacle featuring Neos powers just so the poor sap could die in obscurity because nothing he did mattered anyway. They didnt do this, and that is to the writers credit.

If there was anybody who deserved a Deus ex Machina sent by the Social Justice Warriors from on high, it was Trinity. Her decision to go with Neo to the machine city, even though it meant certain death, easily made her the most courageous character in the trilogy. Nobody gave her Matrix Wi-Fi. So, even though, the twist at the end of the film made zero sense, from a narrative standpoint, she earned her miracle. Were not talking about Rey, Mary-Sue, Skywalker, some random character with no connection to the things that were before whos magically able to fix the old ships, shoot better, fight better, jump better, drive a boat better even though she grew up on a desert planet, basically do everything better for no reason other than she is the narrative equivalent of a jingling set of keys. Trinity is not Rey. She earned her place in the original trilogy because she suffered with the other characters, and I would argue she even earned her position as the new One alongside Neo because she suffered as Neo suffered.

I bring this up because there have been multiple people who have compared this movie to The Last Jedi, and while this movie is by no means good, equivocating it to Rian Johnsons cinematic abomination is a little harsh.

The real issue with this movie is that it clearly did not want to be made. Over an hour is devoted to Neos new life within the Matrix. There is a scene toward the beginning where the new Agent Smith who is now a cooperate bigwig is telling Neo that they are making the Matrix Trilogy, which is now a video game, into a new franchise, and the company is going to do this with or without his cooperation. I imagine is this exactly how the pitch meeting went when the studio approached Lana Wachowski. The implications are about as subtle as Neo being called the One and dying only to rise from the dead. Say what you will about the Wachowskis, subtlety is not their strong suit. After this scene, we get a montage showing all these corporate suits arguing over what the Matrix is and over time redefining the game altogether. Theres only one word to describe this sequence, meta.

This reset is noticeable, and it contributes to the contrived nature of the film. Wachowski wants to affirm her characters struggles in a world which is being rebooted by force. The way she resolves this dilemma is interesting. When Neo expresses regret because his fight did not end the Matrix, one of characters shows him her pet sentient robots which are literally called sentients. So, the One did not end the Matrix, instead the One created a unity between man and machine. This isnt transhumanism in the sense that man has merged with machine, but rather, the machines have become, for all intent and purposes, human. They can completely wake up and leave the Matrix if they wish, and now, the free humans are tasked with liberating the machines as well as other humans.

This is interesting, and I suppose it should have been obvious, considering the machines seemed to be practically human anyway by the end of the previous trilogy. But it was a surprising twist anyway, and a clever way of getting around undermining Neos previous accomplishments.

As before, none of these details are explained. How the robots are doing any of this remains a constant nagging question throughout the film, but this time, one could arguably be a little more sympathetic about the plot hole because Wachowski is struggling to reestablish a finished franchise without negating the accomplishments of the previous characters.

I have much more to say about the movie, and we will cover those topics as well as go into more details regarding how the machines work, the programs work, and how the main antagonist operates in the next review.

Here are my thoughts on the original Matrix Trilogy:

Bringing you up to date with the Matrix series: Will The Matrix Resurrections (dropped December 22) break the mold? The culturally influential trilogy (control by evil aliens) enjoys a fascinating beginning but a thud! ending. Can we really escape a world of illusions simply by following our most basic influences? If wisdom cant help, why should instinct be the answer? (Gary Varner)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) just did not load properly. Although the second part of the Matrix trilogy offers interesting ideas and exciting action, the confusing plot obscures the concepts it should explore. Free will is hard to explore when, among AIs, Agent Smith can think freely, the Architect cant grasp the idea, and the Oracle understands but doesnt have it. (Gary Varner)

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) spins out of control. In Part I of this review of the third film in The Matrix trilogy anticipating The Matrix: Resurrections (December 22) we bring you up to date on the story. The plot continues to baffle: How did Neo end up in digital purgatory? How can machines fall in love and produce a child? Answers are awaited.

and

The Matrix Revolutions churns into a cosmic drama. It turns out to be a conflict between chaos and probability with no apparent moral compass. As fans await The Matrix Resurrection, we begin to sense an outline in The Matrix: Revolutions of the ultimate conflict of human vs. machine.

The Matrix Trilogy: Some Final Thoughts I enjoyed the films and am looking forward to the Matrix Resurrections but there are some things I need to say as a reviewer. The problem with the Matrix trilogy that it tries to say too much, and so the messages conflict when theyre not downright confusing.

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The Matrix Resurrections: The Studio Is Making Us Do This! - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Finland’s hugely exciting experiment in basic income …

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The headlines are shocking: "Finland plans to pay everyone in the country $876 a month"; "Finland plans to give every citizen a basic income of 800 euros a month"; "Finland plans to give every citizen 800 euros a month and scrap benefits."

The reality is a little less wild. Finland is definitely not close to paying "everyone in the country" or "every citizen" not yet, anyway. What it is doing is weighing a proposal for a basic income: an approach to welfare in which residents would get a flat amount of money every month, regardless of how rich they are.

Finland is, however, conducting a pilot project, with a tiny fraction of the Finnish population participating, according to Olli Kangas, director of research at Kela, the Finnish Social Insurance Institution that runs basic unemployment, health, family, and many other benefit programs. Kangas and his research team have been tasked by the Finnish government with presenting proposals for testing out a basic income.

So, no, a European country is not on the verge of adopting a basic income. If the trial is a success, they could go all in, but that could be years off. Nonetheless, Finland is on the verge of conducting the most methodologically rigorous and comprehensive test of basic income to date. And that alone is a big deal.

The reason Finland is doing this now is thanks to Juha Sipil Finland's center-right prime minister who took office in May after his Centre Party won the largest bloc of seats in parliamentary elections. The party's platform promised to bring a "new political culture of bold experiments," of which the basic income trial is to date by far the boldest. Sipil has been publicly supportive of the idea of a basic income, and Kangas says the government has set aside 20 million (a little under $22 million) to fund the trial. The basics are laid out in the following PowerPoint presentation, which Kangas forwarded to me:

The consortium running the experiment headed by Kangas but including researchers at various research centers, think tanks, and universities plans to file an interim report on March 30 and a final report on November 15 that will lay out how exactly the experiment is to proceed. It will begin in 2017 and last for two years. So far, the consortium has already polled the Finnish population and found widespread support for the idea: 69 percent of Finns reported support for a basic income, with the median respondent calling for a minimum of 1,000 a month ($1,083).

The 800-a-month figure reported in the international press is just illustrative, Kangas says: "800 is just one sum, nothing more," he wrote in an email. "Nothing is fixed yet. It can be any other sum or many other sums." Indeed, Kangas is looking to test more than one model. He emphasizes that nothing is fixed yet. The research group only makes suggestions, and political decision-makers will then determine which models, which research settings, which target groups, and what benefits levels will be experimented with in 2017 and 2018.

There are four options he says ought to be considered and evaluated:

This degree of comprehensiveness puts the Finnish experiment far ahead of basic income trials in the past. US experiments from the 1970s not only focused exclusively on the negative income tax model, but they also only targeted existing welfare recipients. Utrecht, Netherlands, is conducting an experiment, but it's also only giving money to people already getting benefits. By trying a bunch of different models and not merely limiting the checks to existing welfare recipients, Finland's trial could give us much more meaningful results than past experiments.

Ideally, Kangas told me, he'd like to take several different kinds of samples. In the scientifically ideal research setting, there would be a national lottery so he gets a representative random sample of Finns across the country who'll receive a basic income. But he also wants to do regional lotteries that are regionally representative, and then lotteries confined to large towns. He also wants there to be some smaller municipalities that have a large portion of their populations (30 percent, say) get checks. In the PowerPoint, he suggests that in a couple of districts 100 percent of households could get checks.

The idea is to see what happens to a community under a basic income, rather than just to individual people. Having a whole town get benefits could have cascading effects as households escape poverty, as some people use the income guarantee as insurance so they can take risks and form companies, as universities see increased enrollment from people better able to afford supplies, etc. "If people in a smaller area are getting the benefits, their behavior vis-a-vis other people will change, employers and employees will change their behavior, encounters between clients and their street-level bureaucrats (social workers, employment offices, etc.) will change, and the interplay between different bureaucracies will change," Kangas says.

These externalities are not possible to catch in a national random sample, but the national random sampling makes for more reliable results on a household level. Thus, the combination of random nationwide sampling with local experiments would yield the most reliable results. But before any experiments start, all the models, their costs and distributional effects who wins and who loses will be evaluated by rigorous microsimulation, Kangas says.

A community-level trial has only really been tried once before, in Dauphin, Canada, in the 1970s, and the results were quite positive. While the more poorly designed US studies suggested that a negative income tax could deter people from work, in Dauphin only mothers of young children and teenagers appeared to work less; it's not as clear working less is a bad thing when it takes the form of maternity leave, or when it leaves young adults more time for studying and volunteering. Dauphin was instructive, but a more contemporary trial in Finland could provide still better evidence about what happens when an entire town comes under a basic income regime.

There are some ways in which the trial will necessarily be limited. It only lasts two years, and people's behavior after getting a benefit they know will be taken away shortly could differ from their behavior under a permanent basic income system.

The experiment also has a special difficulty due to the Finnish constitution's guarantee of equality, a guarantee that possibly conflicts with a policy randomly giving some people checks with no strings attached while giving others nothing. The PowerPoint suggests that the researchers will seek to get around this through the local experiments (where everyone in one area can get benefits, so people at least on the local level are equal) and perhaps by making participation voluntary, which could lead to some selection bias.

But all told, Kangas is overseeing what is by far the most important and informative test of a basic income to date. It's the first time a non-negative income tax basic income plan will be experimentally tested using rigorous methods in a developed country. That's a huge, huge deal, and we should all be paying attention in 2019 when the evaluations begin to trickle in. It's still very up in the air what the trial will show, and how the government will decide to use its findings.

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Ten books of 2021 that you must not miss – Mint

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The Future of MoneyHow the Digital Revolution Is Transforming Currencies and Finance

ESWAR S PRASAD

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In the last few years, there has been a spate of books trying to tell the world that we need to be bullish about crypto and bitcoin. Most such books either get stuck with the point that central banks are printing tons of money and, hence, we should all buy bitcoin or they argue that crypto can unleash a technological revolution. No book gives a complete perspective. Economist Eswar S Prasads The Future of Money fills that gap. Prasad writes about the economics of crypto and says that the chances of cryptos emerging as a medium of exchange that can replace government-issued fiat money are minimal. He also writes about the technological possibilities of crypto. Also, Prasad starts right at the beginning by trying to explain how the banking and financial systems actually work.

While the technology part can get a little complicated for the lay reader, the rest of the book reads like a breeze. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the highly-jargonized world of cryptos, how they work and what the future holds for them.

ShutdownHow Covid Shook the Worlds Economy

ADAM TOOZE

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It is said that the first draft of history is written by journalists. Shutdown is that first draft of the covid-19 pandemic and the impact it has had on the global economy. However, Tooze is not a journalist. He is a historian. As he writes: In the historic record of modern capitalism, there has never been a moment in which close to 95% of the worlds economies suffered a simultaneous contraction in per capita GDP, as they did in the first half of 2020." Taking off from this basic premise, Tooze tackles everything from organized irresponsibility and the lack of preparation of governments to the whatever it takes" monetary policy followed by central banks, which involved an endless amount of money printing. This is a great read for anyone wanting to get a broad overview of the negative economic impact of covid across the world and the possibilities that lay ahead.

How to Read NumbersA Guide to Statistics in the News (and Knowing When to Trust Them)

TOM CHIVERS AND DAVID CHIVERS

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The world now generates more data than it ever did in the past. And that has led to more and more data-oriented stories making it into the news. The trouble is that a lot of this data is dodgy. When it is not dodgy, the media, in order to catch the attention of its readers, has a habit of making it simplistic and, at other times, outright sensational. How to Read Numbers goes right to the heart of this problem and explains to lay readers in very simple English what to make of statistics in the news and what not to make of it.

This writers favourite part of the book is its last chapter, where the books authors talk about Goodharts Law, which when simply stated says: When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". Politicians and bureaucrats regularly present data in a way that makes it look much better than it is, something that has been happening regularly all across the world when it comes to presenting covid-related data. The book is worth a read for just this chapter alone.

The Pay OffHow Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything

GOTTFRIED LEIBBRANDT AND NATASHA DE TERN

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Most books on money get stuck with the different forms of money as they have evolved over the centuries. Almost no book talks about payment systems, which actually make the money go around and the impact that they have on the world at large. This book does just that, which is why it is important. It gets into the nitty-gritty of payment systems and how they are changing. As the authors write: How do we teach our children about money if they can no longer touch it? How do we budget if we no longer see numbers, much less experience the pain of payment? The consequences of the unbundling and repackaging of payments are not yet well understood". These are questions that not many people are engaging with currently, despite the fact that it is going to have important consequences for us in the years to come.

ExponentialHow Accelerating Technology Is Leaving Us Behind and What to Do About It

AZEEM AZHAR

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This was the year when platform businesses like Zomato and Nykaa were listed on the stock exchanges via bumper initial public offers (IPOs). Many other platform businesses hope to announce their own IPOs soon. The question that has baffled many is this: Why are the IPOs of these companies, which make next to no money, being priced at such high levels? Exponential provides the answers, albeit not in an Indian context. The answer lies in what economists refer to as network externality. Take the example of WhatsApp. Everyone uses it because everyone else uses it. Platform businesses lend themselves very well towards network externality and if successful, they can become a monopoly or a duopoly in a particular line of business, which will then throw up a lot of money someday. This is why investors give these IPOs such high valuations. They are counting on the prospect of a monopoly business niche that can generate massive profits in the future. The trouble is this leads to issues for gig workers and suppliers of these firms. This is a new evolving type of economics that the world is still trying to understand and Azhars book is an excellent introduction to it.

Principles for Dealing with The Changing World order Why Nations Succeed and Fail

RAY DALIO

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Dalio, who runs Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund in the world, shares a single digestible story of the last 500 years that shows how and why history rhymes with what is happening today". The reason, Dalio says, is because human nature doesnt change much over time".

Dalio primarily looks at three past empiresthe Dutch Empire, the British empire and the current American one, each being different in its own way but having enough common characteristics. The book isnt exactly an easy read but it is an important one, given the world order may perhaps be changing again, with the US weakening and China rising.

Numbers Dont Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World

VACLAV SMIL

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Smil is a favourite writer of Bill Gates and he normally doesnt write easy to read stuff. This book is an exception where Smil writes very small chapters which explain very broad topicseverything from what happens when parents have fewer children and why its difficult to predict how bad a pandemic will be while it is happening to the unfolding rivalry between India and China. The book is an excellent summary of a lot of important topics which readers may want to have a view on but dont have the time to sift through a lot of dense academic tomes. The book is also a masterclass on how numbers can be used to make an informed argument and is a must-read for anyone in the business of presenting information in an interesting way.

Anthro Vision How Anthropology Can Explain Business and Life

GILLIAN TETT

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Tett, an editor at large at the Financial Times, studied anthropology in college. She uses a key principle from anthropology that listening to someone elses view, however strange, does not just teach empathy for others, which is badly needed today; it also makes it easier to see yourself," to examine everything from the financial crisis of 2008 to why medicine alone cant just stop pandemics.

One of the stories in the book is about the chocolate wafer brand Kit Kat. The fascinating story tells us about how lessons from anthropology were used to popularise this foreign brand in Japan. Sales of the brand soared as students began to treat the chocolate bar as a new variant of an ancient Japanese phenomenon called omamori, a good luck charm that the Shinto religious shrines sell to devotees in Japan after it is blessed by a priest".

Tett also explains how the financial crisis of 2008 came about because people in the financial sector worked with a very similar worldview and no one was interested in flipping their lens on how they viewed the world. As she writes in what is perhaps the best line in the book: An investment banking conference is just like a Tajik wedding, I thought. A group of people were using rituals and symbols to create and reinforce their social ties and worldview". If there is one book you should definitely read from this list, this has to be it.

NoiseA Flaw in Human Judgment

DANIEL KAHNEMAN, OLIVIER SIBONY AND CASS SUNSTEIN

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The world that we live in has too much noise and this comes in the way of making better decisions. As the authors put it: Wherever there is judgment, there is noiseand more of it than you think". The authors dig deep into this issue and look at how noise impacts decision making in the interpretation of the law, in forensic science, in medicine, in performance ratings in organizations and even in public discourse. Another area where noise impacts judgement are predictions. The noise here can take the form of unforeseeable future events. As the authors write: Detailed long-term predictions about specific events are simply impossible Unforeseeable events are bound to occur and the consequences of these unforeseeable events are also unforeseeable". Nonetheless, this doesnt stop forecasters from making predictions. As the authors write: The obviousness of this fact is matched only by the regularity with which it is ignored". The authors offer workable solutions to get rid of the noise in the specific case of forecasting, as well as noise in general.

Red RouletteAn Insiders Story of Wealth, Power, Corruption and Vengeance in Todays China

DESMOND SHUM

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The joke going around in the Indian English language publishing industry is that anyone and everyone who has stepped inside the ministry of external affairs now wants to write a book on China. Of course, many good books have been written by Indians on China, but what they offer is an outsiders perspective. But the real story of things as they stand can only be told by an insider. Shums Red Roulette is that insider story. In the book, Shum writes a very personal story about the relationships that the Chinese Communist Party shares with private enterprises and the kind of corruption it is marred in. The book reads like a page-turning crime thriller and is a must-read for everyone who is in love with Chinas rapid economic growth.

Ultimately, it is always difficult to fit all the good books into just one list. So, here are a few books that didnt make it into this list. Steven Pinkers Rationality What It is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters, Eric Johnsons The Elements of Choice, David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters Covid by NumbersMaking Sense of the Pandemic with Data, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunsteins NudgeThe Final Edition and Marcus du Sautoys Thinking Better The Art of the Shortcut.

Happy reading.

(Vivek Kaul is the author of Bad Money)

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Ten books of 2021 that you must not miss - Mint

Look back at the life of Archbishop Desmond Tutu – Action News Now

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican cleric whose good humor, inspiring message and conscientious work for civil and human rights made him a revered leader during the struggle to end apartheid in his native South Africa, has died. He was 90.

In a statement confirming his death on Sunday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed his condolences to Tutu's family and friends, calling him "a patriot without equal."

"A man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility against the forces of apartheid, he was also tender and vulnerable in his compassion for those who had suffered oppression, injustice and violence under apartheid, and oppressed and downtrodden people around the world," Ramaphosa said.

Tutu had been in ill health for years. In 2013, he underwent tests for a persistent infection, and he was admitted to hospital several times in following years.

For six decades, Tutu -- known affectionately as "the Arch" -- was one of the primary voices in exhorting the South African government to end apartheid, the country's official policy of racial segregation. After apartheid ended in the early '90s and the long-imprisoned Nelson Mandela became president of the country, Tutu was named chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Nelson Mandela foundation called Tutu's loss "immeasurable."

"He was larger than life, and for so many in South Africa and around the world his life has been a blessing," the foundation said in a statement. "His contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies."

Tutu's civil and human rights work led to prominent honors from around the world. Former US President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Obama called Tutu a "mentor, a friend, and a moral compass" in a statement after his death.

"Archbishop Tutu was grounded in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also concerned with injustice everywhere. He never lost his impish sense of humor and willingness to find humanity in his adversaries," said Obama.

In 2012, Tutu was awarded a $1 million grant by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for "his lifelong commitment to speaking truth to power." The following year, he received the Templeton Prize for his "life-long work in advancing spiritual principles such as love and forgiveness which has helped to liberate people around the world."

Most notably, he received the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, following in the footsteps of his countryman, Albert Lutuli, who received the prize in 1960.

The Nobel cemented Tutu's status as an instrumental figure in South Africa, a position he gained in the wake of protests against apartheid. Despite anger about the policy within South Africa, as well as widespread global disapproval -- the country was banned from the Olympics from 1964 through 1988 -- the South African government quashed opposition, banning the African National Congress political party and imprisoning its leaders, including Mandela.

It was up to the clergy to take the lead in speaking out, said Rev. Frank Chikane, the former head of the South African Council of Churches and a Tutu colleague.

"We reached the stage where the church was a protector of the people, who was the voice for the people," Chikane told CNN.

The current archbishop of Cape Town and metropolitan of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, Thabo Makgoba, said that the church will plan Tutu's funeral and memorial services.

"Desmond Tutu's legacy is moral strength, moral courage and clarity," Makgoba said in a statement. "He felt with the people. In public and alone, he cried because he felt people's pain. And he laughed -- no, not just laughed, he cackled with delight when he shared their joy."

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby issued statements praising Tutu for his sagacity and infectious positivity.

"(He) will be remembered for his spiritual leadership and irrepressible good humor," Johnson said.

Welby called Tutu "a prophet and priest, a man of words and action -- one who embodied the hope and joy that were the foundations of his life."

"Even in our profound sorrow we give thanks for a life so well lived," he said.

In the 1950s, Tutu had resigned as a teacher in protest of government restrictions on education for Black children, the Bantu Education Act. He was ordained in 1960 and spent the '60s and early '70s alternating between London and South Africa. In 1975 he was appointed dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg and immediately used his new position to make political statements.

"When we were appointed we said ... 'Well, we'll live in Soweto,' " he told the Academy of Achievement, referring to the black townships of Johannesburg. "And so that -- we begin always by making a political statement even without articulating it in words."

It wasn't a plan, though from an early age he'd been inspired by Trevor Huddleston, a priest and early anti-apartheid activist who worked in a Johannesburg slum in the 1950s. By embarking on this path, he inspired thousands of his countrymen -- and more around the world.

"Desmond Tutu had no reason to act as he did other than his profound sense of our shared humanity in working for a world in which justice and the wellbeing of all is an expression of his ethical leadership of compassion," wrote Episcopal priest Robert V. Taylor on CNN in 2011.

Tutu believed he didn't have a choice, even if the path was rocky.

"I really would get mad with God. I would say, 'I mean, how in the name of everything that is good can you allow this or that to happen?' " he told the Academy of Achievement. "But I didn't doubt that ultimately good, right, justice would prevail."

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, a town in South Africa's Transvaal province. His father was a teacher and his mother was a domestic worker, and young Tutu had plans to become a doctor, partly thanks to a boyhood bout of tuberculosis, which put him in the hospital for more than a year. He even qualified for medical school, he said.

But his parents couldn't afford the fees, so teaching beckoned.

"The government was giving scholarships for people who wanted to become teachers," he told the Academy of Achievement. "I became a teacher and I haven't regretted that."

However, he was horrified at the state of Black South African schools, and even more horrified when the Bantu Education Act was passed in 1953 that racially segregated the nation's education system. He resigned in protest. Not long after, the Bishop of Johannesburg agreed to accept him for the priesthood -- Tutu believed it was because he was a Black man with a university education, a rarity in the 1950s -- and took up his new vocation.

The 1960s and 1970s were tumultuous times in South Africa. In March 1960, 69 people were killed in the Sharpeville Massacre, when South African police opened fire on a crowd of protesters. Lutuli, an ANC leader who preached non-violence, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize later that year -- while banned from leaving the country. (The government finally let him go for a few days to accept his prize.)

Mandela -- then a firebrand leading an armed wing of the ANC -- was arrested, tried and, in 1964, sentenced to life in prison. In the early '70s, the government forced millions of Black people to settle in what were called "homelands."

Tutu spent many of these years in Great Britain, watching from afar, but finally returned for good in 1975, when he was appointed dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. The next year he was consecrated Bishop of Lesotho. He gained renown for a May 1976 letter he wrote to the prime minister, warning of unrest.

"The mood in the townships was frightening," he told the Academy of Achievement.

A month later Soweto exploded in violence. More than 600 died in the uprising.

As the government became increasingly oppressive -- detaining Black people, establishing onerous laws -- Tutu became increasingly outspoken.

"He was one of the most hated people, particularly by White South Africa, because of the stance he took," former Truth and Reconciliation Commission member Alex Boraine told CNN.

Added Chikane, the South African Council of Churches colleague, "His moral authority (was) both his weapon and his shield, enabling him to confront his oppressors with a rare impunity."

South Africa was becoming a pariah country. Demonstrators in the United States protested corporate investment in the nation and Congress backed up the stance with the 1987 Rangel Amendment. The United Nations established a cultural boycott. Popular songs, such as the Special AKA's "Free Nelson Mandela" and Artists United Against Apartheid's "Sun City," deplored the country's politics.

With his scarlet vestments, Tutu cut a distinctive figure as he preached from the bully pulpit -- perhaps never more so than in his Nobel Prize speech in 1984.

After reeling off the prejudices and inequalities of the apartheid system, Tutu summed up his thoughts. "In short," he said, "this land, richly endowed in so many ways, is sadly lacking in justice."

There were more injustices to come: assassinations, allegations of hit squads, bombings. In 1988, two years after being named Archbishop of Cape Town, becoming the first Black man to head the Anglican Church in South Africa, Tutu was arrested while taking an anti-apartheid petition to South Africa's parliament.

But the tide was turning. The next year, Tutu led a 20,000-person march in Cape Town. Also in 1989, a new president, F.W. de Klerk, started easing apartheid laws. Finally, on February 11, 1990, Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. De Klerk died last month.

Four years later, in 1994, Mandela would be elected president. Tutu compared being allowed to vote for the first time to "falling in love" and said -- behind the birth of his first child -- introducing Mandela as the country's new president was the greatest moment of his life.

"I actually said to God, I don't mind if I die now," he told CNN.

Tutu's work was not done, however. In 1995 Mandela appointed him chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the human rights violations of the apartheid years. Tutu broke down at the TRC's first hearing in 1996.

The TRC gave its report to the government in 1998. Tutu established the Desmond Tutu Peace Trust the same year.

He returned to teaching, becoming a visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta for two years and later lecturing at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He published a handful of books, including "No Future Without Forgiveness" (1999), "God Is Not a Christian" (2011), and a children's book, "Desmond and the Very Mean Word" (2012).

He retired from public service in 2010 but remained unafraid to take controversial positions. He called for a boycott of Israel in 2014 and said that former US President George W. Bush and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair should be "made to answer" at the International Criminal Court for their actions around the Iraq war.

But he was also distinguished for his sense of humor, embodied in a distinctive, giggle-like laugh.

While visiting "The Daily Show" in 2004, he broke up at Jon Stewart's jokes. And he poked fun at "On Being" interviewer Krista Tippett in 2014, chiding her for not offering him the dried mangos -- his favorite -- she'd brought along.

Despite all the praise and fame, however, he told CNN he didn't feel like a "great man."

"What is a great man?" he said. "I just know that I've had incredible, incredible opportunities. ... When you stand out in a crowd, it is always only because you are being carried on the shoulders of others."

For all of his good works, he added, there may have been another reason he had so many followers.

"They took me only because I have this large nose," he said. "And I have this easy name, Tutu."

Tutu is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Nomalizo Leah Tutu, with whom he had four children, Trevor, Theresa, Naomi and Mpho.

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Apartheid in the Holy Land Middle East Monitor – Middle East Monitor

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In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were Jewish people. They almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust centre in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.

What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I've been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.

On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements. I thought of the desire of Israelis for security. But what of the Palestinians who have lost their land and homes?

I have experienced Palestinians pointing to what were their homes, now occupied by Jewish Israelis. I was walking with Canon Naim Ateek (the head of the Sabeel Ecumenical Centre) in Jerusalem. He pointed and said: "Our home was over there. We were driven out of our home; it is now occupied by Israeli Jews."

My heart aches. I say why are our memories so short. Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions? Have they forgotten that God cares deeply about the downtrodden?

Israel will never get true security and safety through oppressing another people. A true peace can ultimately be built only on justice. We condemn the violence of suicide bombers, and we condemn the corruption of young minds taught hatred; but we also condemn the violence of military incursions in the occupied lands, and the inhumanity that won't let ambulances reach the injured.

READ: Veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Tutu dies aged 90

The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred.

Israel has three options: revert to the previous stalemated situation; exterminate all Palestinians; or I hope to strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders.

We in South Africa had a relatively peaceful transition. If our madness could end as it did, it must be possible to do the same everywhere else in the world. If peace could come to South Africa, surely it can come to the Holy Land?

My brother Naim Ateek has said what we used to say: "I am not pro- this people or that. I am pro-justice, pro-freedom. I am anti- injustice, anti-oppression."

But you know as well as I do that, somehow, the Israeli government is placed on a pedestal [in the US], and to criticise it is to be immediately dubbed anti-semitic, as if the Palestinians were not semitic. I am not even anti-white, despite the madness of that group. And how did it come about that Israel was collaborating with the apartheid government on security measures?

People are scared in this country [the US], to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosevic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust.

Injustice and oppression will never prevail. Those who are powerful have to remember the litmus test that God gives to the powerful: what is your treatment of the poor, the hungry, the voiceless? And on the basis of that, God passes judgment.

We should put out a clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to the Palestinian people and say: peace is possible, peace based on justice is possible. We will do all we can to assist you to achieve this peace, because it is God's dream, and you will be able to live amicably together as sisters and brothers.

Desmond Tutu is the former Archbishop of Cape Town and chairman of South Africa's truth and reconciliation commission. This address was given at a conference on Ending the Occupation held in Boston, Massachusetts, in April 2002. Published by The Guardian on April 2002.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Brothers Offer New Perspective on Maternity and Family With Parallel Mothers – Yahoo Entertainment

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Pedro Almodvar has written and directed 23 feature films since 1978; each one carries his unique style, yet he manages to keep surprising audiences. Parallel Mothers may be his best and most accessible; it features his frequent outrage at government oppression and deceit, mixed with great compassion for his characters.

Almodvar has had shockingly few Oscar nominations, but this film could wind up with bids for him, for best picture and for star Penlope Cruz.

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The filmmakers brother, Agustin Almodvar, has been his producer since the 1987 Law of Desire. Thats fitting, since families are at the center of many of the films, including this one but theyre not necessarily traditional families.

Says producer Almodvar, I think Parallel Mothers gives an interesting perspective on maternity and family. This is one of the films in which Pedro refers to families based on love, rather than on biology. Parallel also offers Cruz a terrific role. Almodvar says of the new film, Penlope Cruz gives a magisterial performance; its a master class in acting.

The producer says that with each new film, Im very lucky to be there from the beginning, when a script is just an idea.

I play two roles. One is to support Pedro during his creative process, specifically in doing research or information he needs for the film. The other role is more technical: finding funds to make the film. I keep those two things very separate because I dont want economic constraints to affect Pedros creative choices.

Did they know during production that this film was special?

We never really know. Were always working with uncertainty and thats always a challenge, entering new territory. Thats stimulating to me as a producer and to Pedro as a writer-director. We always ask that a script takes us into new places.

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He adds, Pedro likes to work with characters facing a moral dilemma. In Parallel Mothers, Cruzs character is dealing with two dilemmas: an atmosphere of secrecy and lies that go back to the Franco era, and a private truth, which shes incapable of confronting right away, says Almodvar.

Aside from the work of his brother and Cruz, Agustin notes, Also, you have the soundtrack by Alberto Iglesias and the photography by Jos Luis Alcaine. All this makes the film an amazing collaboration of artists.

Pedro Almodvar personally has only been nominated for two Oscars, as writer and director of the 2002 Talk to Her, winning for original screenplay.

Of his previous 22 films, only three received Oscar nominations for foreign-language/international film: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), All About My Mother (which won, 1999) and Pain and Glory (2019). Spain, for whatever reasons, often fails to choose his films for submission.

When Pain and Glory opened, star Antonio Banderas talked with Variety about the 1982 San Sebastian premiere of Labyrinth of Passion, saying the audience was passionate, pro and con, with vocal reactions to the film.

I realized Almodvar was more than a movie director; there was a social movement attached to the way he was expressing himself. Banderas added the filmmaker was part of a revolution that shook the foundation of Spanish cinema and Spanish morality.

Varietys Owen Gleiberman reviewed Parallel Mothers at the Venice fest and proclaimed it his best since All About My Mother. He added, It is as serious as any film Almodvar has made but he hasnt let go of his luminously light, beguiling puckish side and Cruz acts the part with a mood-shifting immediacy that leaves you breathless.

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PPP cant make Sindhs residents its slaves, say PSP and ANP – The News International

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Leaders of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and Awami National Party (ANP) on Saturday criticised what they said ongoing discrimination against certain citizens in Sindh regarding issuance of domiciles and computerised national identity cards (CNICs).

The two parties were of the view that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) could not make residents of Sindh its slaves.

A delegation of the PSP led by its central leader Syed Hafeezuddin met ANP leaders, including Sindh Secretary General Younas Bunariee, at the latters provincial headquarters to discuss the controversial law on local government bulldozed by the PPP government in the Sindh Assembly despite opposition by all the major opposition parties in the province.

Hafeezuddin said the PSP and ANP had same views against what he called a black law on the chapter of local government in Sindh. He added that the PSP had opposed the controversial bill and condemned the reduction of powers and authorities of the city government setups.

ANPs Bunariee said that all opposition parties had the same opinion on the recently passed local government bill but they were following their own course of action. Opposition parties must first come to the same page so that they all together fight for an empowered local government system that is necessary for resolving the citys civic issues, he said.

Earlier on Friday, PSP chief Syed Mustafa Kamal said it was high time that the people should come out of their homes and stand against the perpetual tyranny of the PPP as silence was no longer an option. Silence on oppression is tantamount to supporting and strengthening the oppressor, he said while addressing a meeting with the partys office-bearers of District East.

The PPP will make it difficult for those who remain silent in oppression to survive. We believe that those who remain silent will have to suffer in this world and in the hereafter, Kamal said.

From Karachi to Kashmore, Sindh is a victim of the PPP's democratic terrorism, he said. The PPP wants to make Sindh the personal dynasty of Asif Ali Zardari which will be thwarted together with all the patriotic Pakistanis.

The PSP chairperson said the Sindh LG Amendment Act 2021 was a conspiracy against Pakistan. Such laws were not made by India in the Occupied Kashmir and by the British in the occupied Subcontinent, he said.

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‘My wife, my sons and my daughter all drowned. They left because life here is so bad with no electricity, no jobs and no salary’ – Morning Star Online

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THEY were trying to escape from them, Mohammad says as the Kurdistan Regional Government announced that the bodies of 16 people who drowned in the channel in Novemberwere being returned home.

Now it is the Barzanis that are bringing them back. Even in death they cannot get away from them, he tells me, his voice tinged with sadness.

His best friend is one of the thousands who have fled Iraqi Kurdistan in recent months, desperate to escape a brutally oppressive regime and deepening poverty that has blighted the region.

Having made it from Belarus to France via Germany, his friendis one of the many Kurds camped in Dunkirk waiting to make the crossing.

He didnt make the boat. They had to wait because of the waves. But he says he is still going to try, he tells me. I tried to talk him out of it, told him it is not safe. He will not listen.

Mohammad was one of many I spoke to in Iraqi Kurdistan and was part of the student protests that erupted across the semi-autonomous region in early December.

Their action, which was met with a violent crackdown from Kurdish authorities including allegations of torture, is symptomatic of the deepening crisis across the region.

Many students approached me to say they planned to leave as soon as they could, hoping to make their way to Europe, with London a favoured destination.

I want freedom. This country is like a prison, the people here arent free, one of them explained as they blocked the road outside the university on the outskirts of the city.

I trained as an engineer, a female student says as she walks past. I will be lucky to work in a kitchen.

They feel a sense of hopelessness in a region where there are severe electricity and water shortages and public-sector workers have gone for months without being paid.

Last year at least 13 people, including children, were shot dead during similar protests which saw party offices set on firein anger at a corrupt and undemocratic political system.

Britains Home Secretary Priti Patel says that the country needs to eradicate the so-called pull factors that she insists are the reasons migrants risk their lives on flimsy boats.

What sheand many others continue to ignoreare the many push factors that see thousands of people fleeing Iraqi Kurdistan in sheer desperation.

The region is a war zone, a powder-keg waiting to explode. In the northern Duhok province thousands of villagers have been forced from their homes due to an eight-month bombing campaign by Turkey.

The Nato member state has established around 80 military bases and a military airfield from where it launches drone strikes and missiles that terrorise the local population in an occupation that is aviolation of Iraqs sovereign territory.

Iranian forces are waging war against a US troop presence, launching missile attacks against its compound close to Erbilinternational airport, along with other targets.

Isis has made a resurgence, with security forces telling me that there are thousands of cells taking advantage of instability in the areas contested between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government.

The village of Liheban near Kirkuk was recently evacuated because of the renewed threat from the jihadists, whichsecurity forces told me was linked to Turkeys increased presence in the region, which has expanded roughly 20 milesinto Kurdish territory.

Added tothe toxic brew is a brutal internal regime under whichdissent is not tolerated and government critics are jailed, disappeared or even killed.

Once heldup as a beacon of stability and regarded by many liberals as perhaps the only success story of the illegal US invasion and occupation of Iraq which ousted Saddam Hussein, the reality of life under the grip of the Barzani family is very different.

Far from being a model for the rest of the Middle East, the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq has become a deeply divided society riven with corruption and divided into two spheres of influence ruled over by just two families.

The Barzani familys Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) dominates Erbil and Duhok provinces in the north, along with the Kurdistan Regional Government, while the Talabani-run Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) rules in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja.

Both parties operate a feudal-style system of patronage. Jobs in both the public and private sector depend on loyalty to either clan and a corrupt political system that has enriched both families leaves no room for democratic reform.

The media is also controlled by the main parties. Rudaw and Kurdistan 24, the main news sources, are owned by the Barzanis while others are owned by the PUK, with any critical media organisations pushed to the margins.

Those that report on alleged government corruption face closure while their journalists are jailed on spurious charges.

Last week the New Generation-affiliated NRT TV reported 441 million attacks on its website after interviewing US journalist Zack Kopplin following his report on alleged corruption by Masrour Barzani.

It is frequently targeted by the authorities, with its offices even burned to the ground in 2013, and it is often taken off air on spurious grounds and its headquarters stormed by security officials.

At least 81 government critics known as the Badinan activists and journalists were handed lengthy prison sentences earlier this year on espionage charges based on secret evidence and confessions extracted through torture, with the trials slammed by human rights organisations.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Kurdistan Region is the fourth-worst jailer of journalists in the world per capita.

If the Baathists were to stand today, they would win around 80 per cent of the vote, 95-year-old former communist peshmerga leader Abdul Qadir tells me as we sit in his Darbandikhan home in Sulaymaniyah province.

It is a bold claim, I tell him, especially in a region that suffered so much under Saddams tyrannical rule at least 185,000 Kurds were killed in his Anfal campaign alone.

Under Saddam Hussein we had jobs and roads, he says. Now we dont even have those. We are only left with the oppression.

I remember being shocked when I first heard similar sentiments in Halabja earlier in the year.

The town close to the Iranian border is best known in the Western world as the site of a gas attack in which 5,000 Kurds were killed in 1988.

Then, as now, a brutal regime continues to be propped up and supported by Western governments who continue to turn a blind eye to the internal oppression which they tolerate or even encourage for their own interests.

It was certainly these push factors that led the family of Rizgar Hussein to attempt the perilous crossing from France to Britain last month. It was a journey that ended in tragedy.

My wife, my sons and my daughter all drowned. They left because life here is so bad with no electricity, no jobs and no salary.

He first met his wife Khazal Hussein in a refugee camp just outside the city of Kermanshah in Rojhilat, the name for Iranian Kurdistan.

They married and moved to Darbandikhan in Iraqi Kurdistans Sulaymaniyah province in 2004 where they had their children; daughter Hadia who was 22, son Mubin, 16, and younger daughter Hasti who was just seven.

She was my best friend, he says tearfully. As were my children. Every day with them is now just a happy memory.

He has been living with his father-in-law in the southern city of Kalar since the tragedy and thinks about his family every day.

Left with nothing after selling his house he has had no contact from the Kurdistan Regional Government nor the French authorities where the bodies of his loved ones were held in a morgue.

Rizgar did not even know the fate of his family, waiting anxiously for news but fearing the worst after his daughters mobile phone lost signal and eventually its battery.

But he knows they waited for hours in the freezing cold water of the Channel for someone to rescue them and had been rebuffed by the British authorities despite a number of phone calls pleading for help.

He shared images showing the location of his family in the boat when they called the British coastguard. His daughter was told while the cold gripped their bodies that they were not their responsibility.

Officials allegedly insisted that they were in French waters and Rizgar says that they were simply left to drown.

They were not in French waters, Rizgar said. You can see clearly that they were close to Britain. Someone should have rescued them.

This has been confirmed by the only two survivors from the fateful trip along with geolocation data shared by other passengers.

His anger is directed at both British and French authorities and he wants them to be charged with neglect a case was lodged by an NGO on behalf of two of the families earlier this week.

He is waiting to be reunited with his loved ones, never imagining that he would never see them alive again after they began the journey to start a new life.

But nobody would help him other than the Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs who asked him for a sample of DNA to match with the bodies that had been recovered.

I tried to go to France so I could see my family and identify them, he explained. But they refused to give me a visa.

In this country [Kurdistan] visas are only for the rich and corrupt people, not for the poor like me.

He begged the British people to hold the government to account and show support for the people of Iraqi Kurdistan, especially those who lost so much in the freezing waters of the Channel.

The silence of the all-party parliamentary group for Kurdistan is perhaps not surprising considering its history of funding by Barzani-linked oil companies, which pay tens of thousands to provide secretarial support.

That tale of corruption is a story for another day.

But while it acts as the regimesmouthpiecein Westminster it will be up to the people of Britain to be the voice of the Kurds on the streets and in their communities.

It will be here that the fight for justice for Rizgar and those that drownedwill be won.

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'My wife, my sons and my daughter all drowned. They left because life here is so bad with no electricity, no jobs and no salary' - Morning Star Online

Victimless Crimes Examples, List & Explanation | What is a …

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Victimless Crime Examples

Remember, victimless crimes in the United States are classified as such if they do not harm other individuals or property and involve only consenting adults. Regardless, these acts are still considered to be crimes because they involve acts that many consider unethical or immoral, such as drug use, illegal gambling, and prostitution.

Trespassing that does not harm the property or other individuals is considered a victimless crime.

A more complete list of crimes that are perceived as victimless include:

Because prostitution typically occurs between two consenting adults, many say that it is a victimless crime. However, others argue that prostitution exploits sex workers, who are often forced to engage in sex work against their will. They also argue that because it often involves sex acts which are considered by many to be degrading, it is harmful to all women because it perpetuates their continued objectification. Sex worker advocates say because they often lack resources, those who are employed in prostitution are also victimized by the criminal justice system.

When most people think of victimless crimes, drug use is usually among the first to come to mind. Drug use is often done in private and involves only consenting individuals (spiking someone's drink or somehow drugging them without their consent is not a victimless crime). However, drug use and drug trafficking, in particular, often have indirect victims. As mentioned above, children of drug users are often considered victims, as are other family members. Some say the entire community is harmed because those who abuse drugs are often unable to be productive members of society. Public drug users can leave behind needles which can harm others.

Drug trafficking can be a highly lucrative activity. Sometimes competition and a desire to evade law enforcement leads those involved to commit additional crimes which do have victims. Additionally, drug users themselves, particularly when under the influence, often become victims of other crimes, including robbery or sexual assault.

Some have also argued that the "War on Drugs" and other efforts to stop drug use have been used to justify racist policing policies that have victimized communities of color. Studies have shown that when compared to white men, black men have been disproportionately arrested, convicted, and incarcerated for drug-related offenses. The "broken windows" theory of policing asserts that relatively minor crimes, including many victimless crimes, lead to more serious crimes. That theory led the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies to take a "stop and frisk" approach, allowing officers to stop individuals in hopes of finding drugs or other evidence of illegal activity. Because Black and brown males have been stopped at much higher rates, stop and frisk policies have been ruled unconstitutional because they violate the rights of brown and black residents, who were unfairly victimized.

Possession and use of marijuana, once considered a crime, has been legalized in several states.

When a large percentage of a jurisdiction's citizens no longer opposes victimless crimes, the crimes often become legal or decriminalized. In the U.S., the possession and use of marijuana has been decriminalized in several states, including Massachusetts, Colorado, California, and others. Assisted suicide is now legal in several states. Prostitution has been legal for decades in some parts of Nevada. Outside the United States, other countries view victimless crime from vastly different perspectives, with some handing down harsh punishment for the actions, while other countries deem the same action to be legal.

Victimless crimes are illegal acts that occur between one or more consenting adults and do not harm property or other people. In the United States, some examples of victimless crimes include:

Some experts say that all crimes harm society and there is no such thing as a victimless crime. Drug use and prostitution both happen between consenting adults, however, it can be argued that they harm others and, therefore, are not victimless crimes. When a society's view of victimless crimes changes, those acts are often legalized. Assisted suicide and marijuana use are two examples of acts that were once criminalized that are now legal in many parts of the United States.

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Woman Charged in Alleged Theft of over $300K in Items from …

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A woman has been charged with several felonies for taking items worth over $328,000 from Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx shops in Orange County, California.

Thirty-eight-year-oldEkaterina Zharkova of Costa Mesa was charged with four counts of grand theft, one count of receiving stolen property, and seven misdemeanor counts of petty theft, according to the Orange County District Attorneys Office, KTLA reported Friday.

She had additional open felony grand theft cases in Orange and Los Angeles counties and is wanted on a $320,000 warrant after failing to appear in another case recently.

During the period between October 7 and November 23, Zharkova allegedly went to TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack stores located in Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley, and Tustin, filling empty bags with expensive merchandise and leaving without paying the bill.

The KTLA report continued:

She was arrested on Nov. 23 by the California Highway Patrols Organized Retail Theft task force after an investigator witnessed her stealing more than $3,500 in merchandise from a Nordstrom Rack in Costa Mesa.Investigators followed Zharkova to the store, where they watched her fill a shopping cart with designer items, covering them with a coat before using a device to remove the security sensors, officials said. She then allegedly left the store without paying for the merchandise.

She was taken into custody outside the South Coast shopping center and a few days later, posted $20,000 bond and was reportedly let go.

A search warrant was served at the womans residence, which was packed wall to wall in every room with stolen merchandise worth more than $328,000, according to CHP. The items still had their store tags and disabled security sensors in place, the outlet said.

Authorities said they believe she was trying to resell the merchandise via a luxury online consignment shop.

Shoplifting and other retail theft is out of control across California as a result of reckless laws that have made the risk far less than the potential reward, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a social media post.

Woman Charged with Stealing More than $328,000in Merchandise from Nordstrom Rack, TJ MaxxOrange County District Attorneys Office Assisting California Highway Patrols Organized Retail Theft Task Force, Sheriffs Department to Protect Orange County Businesses and ConsumersSANTA ANA, Calif. A woman has been charged with multiple felonies for stealing items worth more than $328,000 from Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx stores in Orange County and attempting to resell the stolen items through a luxury item online consignment store. She also has open felony grand theft cases in Orange County and Los Angeles.Ekaterina Zharkova, 38, of Costa Mesa, has been charged with four felony counts of grand theft, one felony count of receiving stolen property, and seven misdemeanor counts of petty theft. She faces a maximum sentence of nine years and two months if convicted on all counts in this caseShoplifting and other retail theft is out of control across California as a result of reckless laws that have made the risk far less than the potential reward, said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. These are not victimless crimes and if you engage in these kinds of outrageous theft schemes were going to arrest you, were going to prosecute you, and were putting you behind bars. I have assigned some of my most experienced investigators to work with the California Highway Patrols organized retail theft taskforce and the Orange County Sheriffs Department to help protect Orange County businesses from being victimized and protect consumers from increased costs. Were not tolerating this in Orange County.Full Press Release: http://orangecountyda.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=15&Entry=6202

Posted by Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer on Friday, December 10, 2021

These are not victimless crimes and if you engage in these kinds of outrageous theft schemes were going to arrest you, were going to prosecute you, and were putting you behind bars, he added.

Meanwhile, prosecutors and retailers voiced disagreement on assertions from Californias governor and attorney general that they have the needed tools to combat retail theft in the aftermath of voter-approved easing of laws relating to the problem, the Associated Press (AP) reported December 3.

Zharkova will be arraigned on February 3 and faces a maximum sentence of nine years and two months if she is convicted on every count, the KTLA article read.

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Identity of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto could be …

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The identity of Satoshi Nakamoto a pseudonym for the legendary, still-unidentified creator of Bitcoin could soon be revealed in a court case in Florida, according to a report.

The family of deceased computer scientist David Kleiman contends he created the cryptocurrency along with Craig Wright under the Satoshi Nakamoto name. And Kleimans heirs are suing to get their half of a Bitcoin stash worth nearly $70 billion thats under the famous pseudonym, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Wright, a 51-year-old, Australian-born tech entrepreneur living in London, claims he created Bitcoin on his own a contention that has drawn widespread skepticism in the crypto community. But heirs to Kleiman, who died in 2013, argue that he created Bitcoin alongside Wright and they say they have evidence that proves the two men were partners.

We believe the evidence will show there was a partnership to create and mine over one million bitcoin, Vel Freedman, a lawyer for the Kleiman family, told the paper.

We believe the court will find theres nothing to indicate or record that they were in a partnership, said Andrs Rivero, a lawyer for Wright.

Whether they were partners or not, for many Bitcoin enthusiasts the only proof that either of them has a genuine claim would come in the form of Kleimans family producing a password or private key for the digital wallet in Satoshi Nakamotos name, which holds more than 1 million bitcoins.

The trove has never been touched, and the fact that neither Wright nor Kleimans family has produced a private key has kept many skeptical about both of their claims.

The identity of Bitcoins founder has been a question since the digital currencys inception in October 2008 when a person, or group of people, released a nine-page white paper introducing the new cryptocurrency under the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.

According to Kleimans family, he helped Wright author the white paper and launched Bitcoin with him, thereby entitling him to more than half a million bitcoins, according to their suit.

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Will Revealing Satoshi Nakamoto’s Identity Help Bitcoin in 2022? – Analytics Insight

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Satoshi Nakamoto holds around 1.1 million Bitcoins, which is valued at US$70 billion today

In 2021, even the biggest Bermuda Triangle uncertainty has come to a convincible end. However, the mystery behind the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto still remains in the shadow. Today, every Bitcoin is worth more than US$46,000. The cryptocurrencys value managed to hit an all-time high of US$68,000 in November and experts predict that Bitcoins price will go up to US$100,000 in 2022. Despite the fueling interest in BTC, the identity of its creator remains behind the walls. Unfortunately, there is no assurance that revealing Satoshis identity could do any good to the currency falling Bitcoin market.

Bitcoin was a preeminent cryptocurrency that rocked the financial ecosystem. It emerged as the first digital token that countered and contemplated the traditional financial models. Bitcoin began its journey from zero and is currently valued at US$46,000. It rose to prominence in 2017 and gained more investors over the next few years. But the real action started in May 2020 when Bitcoins price touched new records and attracted new investors into the sphere. Owing to the surging dominance of BTC, other altcoins like Ethereum, Cardano, Ripple, etc also came into existence. But despite its growing importance, the identity of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, is yet to be revealed. According to reports, Satoshi holds around 1 million Bitcoins, which is worth trillions of dollars today. In this article, we explore the impact Satoshis identity reveal could have on the cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin was created in 2008 after Satoshi Nakamoto published a nine-page whitepaper containing the first-ever mention of a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Although this was not the first time somebody talked about blockchain technology and its global applications, Satoshis initiative managed to hit fruition when Bitcoin became the first cryptocurrency to make its debut. Satoshi partnered with developers and coders online to improve Bitcoins capabilities. The scenario continued till 2011 before Satoshi disappeared in thin air. But he didnt walk away empty-handed. When Satoshi left, he took with him a whopping 1 million Bitcoins.

One million Bitcoin is really a huge number because the total circulation of all Bitcoin is limited to 21 million and already over 18 to 19 million BTCs are in circulation. Therefore, according to crypto enthusiasts, Satoshi has the potential to tank the whole Bitcoin market with those 1 million coins. Besides, the Bitcoin community strives on a motto that it is decentralized and is not governed by any central authority. Without a leader, the Bitcoin community makes decisions through consensus. Currently, various constituents of the community including miners, developers, and investors, gather to discuss changes. However, revealing Satoshis identity could be a threat since it gives power to somebody who holds 1 million coins.

While the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto is still under speculation, a Florida court case is thriving to give an answer to this. The family of deceased David Kleiman, a computer scientist, has sued his former business partner over control of their partnerships assets. According to the claims, Kleiman and his business partner, Craig Wright, created Bitcoin under the pseudonym, Satoshi Nakamoto, and stashed 1 million BTCs.

Craig Wright is a 51-year-old Australian computer scientist who claims to be the brain behind Bitcoin. Although there is some evidence to back Wrights claim, Bitcoin investors still seem to have varied opinions. They believe that Wright could be engaging in an elaborate hoax to convince the Bitcoin community.

On the other hand, David Kleimans heirs have sued Wright to get their half share of the Bitcoin stash that is worth nearly US$70 billion. Kleimans family lawyer has also claimed that they will soon show evidence to back the partnership avows. However, Wrights lawyer has said that soon the court will find that there is nothing to indicate of record that they were in a partnership. Despite the fuming court battle, many Bitcoin investors seem to deny the allegations and say that the claim could only be real if either Wright or Kleimans family produces a password or private key for the digital wallet that holds the 1 million Bitcoins.

According to Coinbases IPO filing, revealing Satoshi Nakamotos identity could be a major threat to the cryptocurrency market. A number of possible events could happen once Satoshis identity is brought under the scanner. One is that Satoshi holds the key to 1.1 million Bitcoins, which is around 5% of the total supply. In case if Satoshi plans to sell off those 1.1 million coins, then the cryptocurrency market as a whole will collapse. If he is already deceased, then the world will learn that those Bitcoins will be inaccessible forever. Therefore, revealing the face behind Bitcoin is not going to help the digital currency market in any way. Bitcoin will have to gain its ground from adoption and popularity and make a bounce back to perform well in 2022.

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Will Revealing Satoshi Nakamoto's Identity Help Bitcoin in 2022? - Analytics Insight

Explained: What happens when all 21 million bitcoins are mined – CNBCTV18

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Over 90 percent of the total 21 million bitcoins that will ever be available have been mined within 12 years after creating the cryptocurrency, a report on Blockchain.com said. Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator(s) of bitcoin, kept the supply fixed to keep Bitcoin valuable. But with only a limited number of coins now left to be mined, there are questions about what happens to the Bitcoin economy when the supply runs out.

How does the bitcoin supply work?

Satoshi put a hard cap or maximum limit of 21 million on the bitcoin supply, regulating it through an algorithm in its source code. The limited supply makes it a scarce commodity and can help increase its price in the future.

A new bitcoin is added to the supply at a fixed rate of one block every 10 minutes. However, the algorithm is such that the new bitcoins in each block are reduced by half every four years.

Around 19 million bitcoins have been mined, leaving only 2 million to be mined in the future. Experts predict that the remaining bitcoins will be mined by 2140.

What will be the impact on miners when all bitcoins are mined?

Miners are integral in creating bitcoin tokens; they solve cryptographic puzzles to verify and validate a block of transactions in the network. For playing their part in the network, the miners get block rewards that include the newly-minted bitcoin and the cumulative transaction fees paid in a block.

The only hurdle for miners is that the block reward also roughly halves every four years. In 2012, it was halved to 25 bitcoins, and it went down to 12.5 in 2016. In May 2020, miners stood to earn 6.25 bitcoin for every new block.

The mining process involves solving complex mathematical puzzles; they require high-tier computational hardware (like GPUs and CPUs) that consume large amounts of energy. The miners use the money they make from the block reward to offset the operational cost of mining and make a profit.

But as the rewards get halved every four years, the price of running the operation will eventually exceed the rewards for the miners. This might make mining an unsustainable business model for them.

The transaction fees will gradually rise, though, since only a limited number of transactions can be confirmed every 10 minutes. While this can compensate miners for the lack of block rewards, the transaction amount depends on the state of the network in the future. Miners could also use innovation to increase energy efficiency in mining and lower costs.

What will be the impact on the network?

The most vital aspect of bitcoin is the network. The distributed ledger model is the heart of any cryptocurrency.

If the number of transactions increases in the network in the future, there is a chance that the speed of the transactions will slow down. Bitcoins architecture is favoured towards accuracy and integrity more than speed.

If the number of transactions decreases in the network, there is a chance that bitcoin may become a reserve asset. This will push out small retail traders and replace them with large institutional players, possibly increasing the transaction fees and making trading expensive.

What will be the effect on bitcoin as a currency?

The scarcity will probably lead to more buying in bitcoin. As the FOMO (fear of missing out) sets in, there could be a rush to buy the rare asset, and the people holding bitcoins will be in a great position to sell. However, there is also the expectation that potential regulations will help keep the lid on volatility.

(Edited by : Yashi Gupta)

First Published:Dec 25, 2021, 06:00 PM IST

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Crypto vs. Banking: Which Is a Better Choice? – Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The past few years have seen the launch and blossoming of blockchain technology. This technology also harbors other innovations like cryptocurrencies, DeFi, NFTs, and other digital assets. These innovations are mostly solving the concurrent problems caused by centralized monetary systems.

Blockchain technology dates back to the 2007 economic decline that saw the world suffer from poor central banks management. Many banks were already in debt, and they were also minting excess fiat currency that raised inflation rates in the world. Satoshi Nakamoto made a digital currency, BTC, as a remedy. This currency has a design to solve this issue and avoid such mistakes since it is fully decentralized. Nakamoto also made his source code an open resource for other developers to make similar innovations and solve the banking issues.

As a result, Cryptocurrencies were born, and now they function more efficiently than the banking systems. They also offer even better financial systems than banks. Currently the biggest drawback of cryptocurrencies is its volatility, as seen in the crypto fear and greed index. This makes cryptocurrency unable to be used in daily day to day transactions. This issue is widely expected to be resolved once cryptocurrency gains widespread popularity. Read on to learn why cryptocurrencies should strive beyond what banks can offer in the financial scope.

Related: How Blockchain-Based Firms Are Taking Over Banking and Public Sector Roles

Cryptocurrencies are digital assets that function like traditional money and can serve as means of exchange. They are usually bought through crypto exchange platforms and stored in safe crypto wallets. These digital currencies are decentralized, and they operate in a very secure way with minimal human interactions. As a result, many now classify them as the future of the finance sector.

Banks are the current financial systems in the world. They offer financial support like loans, savings, and other transactions. However, unlike cryptos, they have many setbacks since they are centralized and subject to biases. They are also relatively slower than cryptos, and some charge too high interests on loans and some transactions.

Related:8 Ways Digital Banking Will Evolve Over the Next 5 Years

Below are some of the main drawbacks of banking systems that cripple the financial system.

The banks are usually not available during the weekend. Therefore, people usually encounter many problems when expecting to complete essential transactions on weekends and holidays. The banks also require people's physical appearance to complete huge transactions, which takes up too much time.

The traditional banking systems use different techniques to market their work. They set aside some projects for select groups of people which cannot be available to the others. These groups get some favors like soft loans, prolonged payment durations, and lower interest rates. As a result, the systems end up being unfair and devoid of financial inclusion.

Skilled technicians can hack many mobile banking apps. As a result, some people end up losing large sums of cash fom their accounts. The systems are also prone to fraud and money embezzlement. These occurrences may result in loss of hard-earned money.

Banks come with extra fees and taxes during transaction periods. For example, the sending and receiving banks usually impose very high transaction fees and taxes during international remittances. Due to slow protocols, these transactions also take a long time, especially for large sums of cash.

Since bank transactions and financial services depend on account numbers and names, they are open to biases. In case of a feud with the officials of a certain bank, the financial service issuing officer can deliberately delay the transactions.

Related:Five Challenges Blockchain Companies Face While Working With Banks

Cryptocurrencies came to solve the issues within the current banking systems. Therefore, they should do better in creating a more effective financial ecosystem in the world. Below are some of the ways how cryptocurrencies can offer better financial services than banks.

Cryptocurrencies are completely free of the control of third parties, unlike banks. This decentralized nature minimizes human interactions, which makes them free from biases. They are more secure and reliable since it is hard to tamper with them because they use anonymous ID numbers in transactions.

The biggest issue surrounding financial systems is security concerns. Cryptocurrencies run on blockchain technology which is highly intact and free from major security threats like hacking.

It is also free from fraudulent activities since the system automatically processes the transactions with minimal human interactions. Therefore, if cryptos innovate more ways to deal with security concerns, they can remain better than banks.

Related:What is a 'smart contract' and what is it for?

Cryptocurrencies can also have smart contracts running in their blockchain networks. These smart contracts have a design to give computer instructions and process them with minimal human interactions. Therefore, they can serve excellently in doing away with fraudulent activities and corruption, which is a challenge to banks.

Many crypto platforms also encourage investors to take a positive initiative to buidl and ensure the growth of coins. In turn, users and holders can actively contribute to the boom of not only their tokens, but also other tokens at large; hence, securing a brighter future for crypto adoption and spreading crypto's diversification. One buidling tactic is leveraging smart contracts during transactions.

Cryptocurrencies have minimal entry barriers. As a result, they are easily accessible to everyone regardless of their status. This feature is encouraging since they may help improve the economy wholesomely as everyone gets equal chances.

Unlike banks, cryptocurrencies use automatic systems that do not require too many human interactions. Therefore, they are accessible every time of the day, including the weekend and holidays.

As a result, their incorporation into financial systems may make them better than banking systems due to better uptime.

Cryptocurrencies have very fast transaction speed, unlike the traditional financial system with queues and protocols to follow. As a result, more transactions can be done in a day through cryptocurrencies than in banking systems. This functionality gives them a notch above the banks since they would give the economy a better chance at quick growth.

Related:Ingenious Blockchain Solutions To Enterprises Through Smart Contracts

Unlike banking systems which offer almost uniform financial services, cryptocurrencies are many and have different features. Therefore they are more diverse than banks. Such diversity is a cut above the traditional services since crypto investments can grow in more than one way simultaneously.

ADACash is one such platform offering simpler and better earning opportunities from your ADA holdings. To increase incentives, the platform gives you more Cardano (ADA) reflections with the more ADACash tokens you have on your wallet.

Such staking options like ADACash can give additional income and serve as a diversification tool even on the bearish market. With staking as an option investors are increasingly opting for holding ADA that has halved in price over the past two months. Despite the market fall, Cardanos total transaction volume has outperformed that of Ethereum this month.

To sum up all of the above, it is good to mention that cryptocurrencies have advantages that outdo the banks. However, more needs to be done to ensure that they remain in power for long. They need to provide the world with more practical solutions to problems caused by the banks.

Luckily enough, they are already doing it. Cryptos have very intact security systems that are encouraging to investors. They also offer reliable transactions at better speeds than the traditional features. As a result, they are proving to be vital in ushering a better and cashless financial age. However, there is still more that cryptocurrencies need to do to fill all loopholes from traditional banking systems.

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Crypto vs. Banking: Which Is a Better Choice? - Entrepreneur

Taxes and regulation of cryptocurrencies: this is what Argentina and the world try – Market Research Telecast

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It has been more than a decade since Satoshi Nakamoto created the queen cryptocurrency, Bitcoin. More than ten years in which more and more cryptocurrencies were appearing (there are thousands and counting) in a market that lived on the fringes of the law until rather recently, when they began to enter into force laws that try to regulate these digital assets. And with an outlook, it is inevitable to wonder how it will affect the sector, if there will be more and more regulations and restrictions, or if banks will increase the pressure on these currencies.

In Europe, the regulation began in 2018 with the promulgation of the Fifth Directive of the European Union (EU) arrived on November 12, 2018. A regulation approved by Parliament to strengthen the battle against money laundering included in the Directive on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (AMLD), which introduced the regulation of the activity of cryptocurrency service providers.

In theory, the member states of the European Union had until January 2020 to transpose the rule. Some countries such as Germany, France, Luxembourg and Portugal are working on their own tax frameworks, although by 2022, the MiCA (Market in Crypto Assets) Regulation is expected to advance.

However, its entry into force was delayed to 2024 for the 27 members of the European Union. MiCA represents the great unified update of the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the European economic space. This regulation aims to become the core of the regulation of cryptocurrencies and provide legal security to the market, so that it is attractive for developers and investors as well as safe for users and consumers, says Vials.

It is about establishing a homogeneous, single legislation for all member countries that would greatly simplify the regulation of said market. From Coinmotion they highlight that its implementation would mean two great advances: any regulated company could operate with total freedom in the EU and the investor would see their protection strengthened.

Ral Lpez, country manager at Coinmotion, highlights that this regulation is very ambitious, but necessary, since the development of new products and services related to cryptocurrencies proceeds at breakneck speed, which requires that the legislation be adapted as soon as possible so as not to be left behind and delay the revolutionary development of digital finance that would leave us at a clear disadvantage compared to powerful countries such as China and the United States.

In the United States there is nervousness about fear that any cryptocurrency could threaten the dollars dominance in global finance. This means that there is a certain fragmentation in terms of regulations. So as with much of the laws of that country, those related to cryptocurrencies vary from one state to another, and the federal authorities also interpret and regulate them differently.

In the United States it is even more complicated, as many states go it alone and each applies its regulations and guidelines, being in general quite restrictive and especially in those governed by the Democratic party, although it is not that there are many Republicans with pro-crypto legislation. For this reason, and so that talent and innovation do not have to leave the USA, a movement is beginning to take shape to create a new political party that is truly committed to technological innovation, with cryptocurrencies at its spearhead , clarifies Castro-Acua.

Recently, some milestones have been seen such as the IPO of a cryptocurrency company went public (Coinbase on the Nasdaq) or the launch of the first cryptocurrency ETF (the one from ProShares). However, the challenges of the cryptoassets industry are great to come.

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Taxes and regulation of cryptocurrencies: this is what Argentina and the world try - Market Research Telecast

The Shared Connection Of The Bitcoin Community – Bitcoin Magazine

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Satoshi Nakamoto originally invented Bitcoin in 2009 as an alternative to traditional financial systems; like most of us, he1 had seen firsthand the disastrous impact corrupt centralized institutions can have on the world through the 2008 financial crisis. Nakamoto recognized the need for a better system, one that could separate itself from centralized powers and be the backbone of a truly free economy. He also understood that such a digital system should rely on no one, not even the creator/founder, to keep running.

Bitcoin was eventually created as a solution: an indiscriminate and decentralized digital asset that relied on a distributed network of miners, rather than a centralized party. The Bitcoin network proposed a new economy in which individuals would be free to transact as they wish, without oversight, surveillance, or tracking. Bitcoin was also the first practical application of blockchain technology, setting in motion a decentralized revolution that continues to this day, slowly breaking free our worlds technology from centralization.

When Bitcoin was first released, it primarily drew a lot of attention from the cypherpunk community, who were a collection of hackers and hobbyists interested in cryptography and private transactions free from government censure. After a period of testing by this community of programmers, bitcoin was at first little more than an anonymous currency, and became widely used to support illicit transactions for drugs and other paraphernalia. In fact, one of the first applications of bitcoin was Silk Road, a website that enabled users to buy a variety of illegal products using the currency.

However, as time went on, Satoshis true vision was slowly realized. Bitcoin slowly began to become the center of a new decentralized economy, and attracted many individuals who had simply become fed up with the economic state of the world. Holders of bitcoin,'' as they are now called, were separated into two categories: those who treated bitcoin as an investment, and those who truly believed in a decentralized future. While the former has certainly helped bitcoin become mainstream, it's been the latter that has pushed bitcoin to being more than just a digital currency. This article aims to provide several personal accounts of the realization that ultimately comes when one goes from looking at bitcoin as an investment to looking at Bitcoin as a lifestyle.

I myself first heard of bitcoin on a snowy Christmas Eve about four years ago. My family was about to make an annual road trip to visit some relatives, and I stopped by the local library to pick up some books to entertain myself on the way. This was right after the famous boon of 2017, when bitcoin and other digital assets gained mainstream attention for the first time due to massive gains in price. Being a high school student interested in both technology and economics, the concept of a currency and financial ecosystem running entirely on the internet had always excited me. With a six-hour road trip ahead of me, I decided to take a chance, and picked up several books related to Bitcoin and its potential to disrupt the economy.

These books ranged from a wide variety of topics and viewpoints: some derided bitcoin as nothing more than a scam that should be avoided, others praised Bitcoin for providing the means to transact freely without any permission or oversight, and one went deep into how Bitcoin represented one of the last hopes for independence in a world that was becoming increasingly populated with surveillance states. This take particularly grabbed my attention: I had become increasingly aware of the semi-authoritarian stance which both governments and big corporations were taking against the average citizen, and while I barely knew it at the time, I had a feeling that Bitcoin could be a part of a broader cryptographic movement that shielded the average person from constant monitoring and control.

As I dove deeper and deeper into the Bitcoin rabbit hole, I slowly began learning more about its history. I learned more about the philosophies of Satoshi, Hal Finney, and others who were part of the early Bitcoin ecosystem. I also began interacting more with the broader blockchain community, and met some of the most kind, intelligent, and welcoming people in the world. Then, after personally winning some prizes at the 2021 MIT Bitcoin Expo Hackathon, I decided to work in blockchain full-time, and eventually had the pleasure of becoming a part of the Bitcoin Magazine contributor network. It was here that I finally understood that Bitcoin was more than just software; it was a culture, a community composed of like-minded individuals who believed in the potential of Bitcoin to make the world a better place to live.

While interacting with the Bitcoin community, I had the pleasure of meeting Sam Cargo, a contributor to Bitcoin Magazine and a strong advocate for its potential to bring freedom to the lives of many. What follows is an abridged version of Sams personal story of getting into Bitcoin, and the lessons he learned along the way:

During summers between semesters, I interned at an engineering firm which presented two significant life-changing opportunities: the first one I was blind and missed, the second one I saw and created. That first opportunity was to invest in bitcoin and begin mining with a fellow, wiser intern who introduced me to the blockchain spectrum in 2014. I thought he was an idiot and I couldn't understand how a computer mines magic internet money.

Sure enough, provided one does their homework, bitcoin's value proposition becomes common sense and crystal clear. The second opportunity didn't come until many years later; after finally realizing Bitcoin's mystique, I resolutely put skin in the game and diverted income into bitcoin. Despite feeling late to the party, I sought to entirely commit myself to furthering Bitcoin's mission and re-creating the opportunity I regretfully missed. Perhaps ironically, my primary focus is the mining industry and how I can apply my current engineering career towards mining that sweet, sweet magic internet money.

In missing that first opportunity, I was forced to reflect on personal biases and question the status quo of the current monetary regime. Given our indoctrination into fiat as the norm, I find it completely sane for one to be skeptical of Bitcoin because it violates the "too good to be true" rule-of-thumb when filtering out bullcrap products. Bitcoin is truly a virtual elixir for many of today's socioeconomic illnesses, which is indeed difficult to imagine, let alone believe.

In studying Bitcoin, one tends to become enamored with doing all they can to participate in the Bitcoin community; whether it be developing, mining, writing, learning... I initially got into Bitcoin for the money, but stayed for the peaceful protest and the community. We are fortunate to witness the adoption of a revolutionary monetary system, entirely dictated by an apolitical protocol, bound by immutable natural law.

Bitcoin is ultimately a family composed of people like Sam who believe in a decentralized future. It is more than just a currency or a software; it is an economic movement, a sort of protest as Sam mentioned against the abuse that centralized powers have levied against the common man for generations. Over the past couple of years, the Bitcoin family has certainly been growing, with more and more people subscribing to the belief that what was once a project mainly being supported by a group of ragtag coders and cryptographers could one day indeed be the centerpiece of a decentralized economy.

This is a guest post by Archie Chaudhury. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

1. The name implies Nakamoto was male, although it could have been anyone, or even a collection of people.

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The Shared Connection Of The Bitcoin Community - Bitcoin Magazine

The 2021 DAO Global Hackathon ended and the RainbowDAO team won three awards! – Benzinga – Benzinga

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Singapore, Singapore, Dec. 26, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lasting for 3 months, the largest Web3 hackathon ever organized on Gitcoin: 2021 DAO Global Hackathon (hackforfreedom.org), has officially ended at the end of December 2021.

In this grand event, the RainbowDAO team won three awards in four different tracks and became the biggest winner of this competition. The RainbowDAO Protocol has also become one of the most popular projects in this competition.

The 2021 DAO Global Hackathon ended and the RainbowDAO team won three awards!

What is the DAO Global Hackathon?

The DAO Global Hackathon is a virtual event sponsored by leading DAO infrastructure providers to build Web3 governance tools. It was officially launched on October 25 and officially ended on December 17, 2021. It has also become the largest Web3 hackathon ever organized on Gitcoin, and it has also become the largest event in the DAO infrastructure industry in 2021.

This competition has received extensive support and sponsorship from various well-known projects and DAO organizations in the DAO field. There are 23 strategic partners in total. They are: Agora Space, BanklessDAO, BitDAO, Daedalus, DeepDAO, Gitcoin, Gnosis, Harmony, Human protocol, LAUNCHub, VENTURE DAO, Metagov, MintGate, Mirana, Near Protocol, openzeppelin, Polygon, POKTnetwork, radicle, Snapshot, Superfluid, Tally and UMA.

It is precisely because of the strong support of so many top projects and well-known DAO organizations that this DAO hackathon has become the most watched event in the DAO industry in 2021. It has had a significant impact in the entire encryption world, and it also provides a new direction and cutting-edge solutions for the future development of the DAO infrastructure industry.

The DAO Global Hackathon is divided into four tracks, namely Multi-chain, Core DAO Tech, Finance & Operations and Community & NFTs. In the three-month competition, more than 1,000 hackers and technicians participated in the competition for a prize pool of 200,000 US dollars. In the end, a total of 12 winners were produced. Among them, the RainbowDAO team submitted a total of four projects, and finally three projects won awards, becoming the biggest winners in this DAO hackathon.

Among them, the multi-chain DAO factory project created by the RainbowDAO protocol won the championship in the Multi-chain track, the DAO NFT bank project won the second place in the NFT track, and the multi-signature committee project won the third place in the Core DAO Tech track. The projects submitted by the RainbowDAO team have received high praise from many judges in terms of code quality, UI design, and operation video demos. The RainbowDAO protocol has also become one of the final concerns of this competition.

What is RainbowDAO Protocol?

RainbowDAO Protocol is a multi-chain DAO infrastructure service protocol, focusing on the creation of web3 basic component. Anyone can create and manage their own DAO organization through RainbowDAO Protocol, including independent DAO,alliance DAO, parent DAO and child DAO. Any DAO can also create a management department within the DAO to achieve multi-level management of the organization.

There are two versions of RainbowDAO Protocol, Solidity version on EVM and Ink! version on WASM.The Solidity version is mainly deployed on Ethereum, BSC, Poygon, Avalanche, Fantom, and various L2 networks; the Ink! version is mainly deployed on the parallel chains on the Polkadot and Kusama relay chains, as well as other blockchains developed with the substrate framework.

What is Rainbowcity Foundation

Rainbowcity Foundation is a non-profit foundation initiated and founded by Mr. Kunyuan. Headquartered in Singapore, Asia.It mainly engages in the incubation and investment of the crypto ecosystem. Mr. Kunyuan himself is a loyal fan of Bitcoin and a believer of Satoshi Nakamoto, dedicated to the spread of Satoshi Nakamoto's decentralized ideas.

He once put forward the concept of "Bit Civilization" for the first time in the world in July 2021 at the Bitcointalk Forum established by Satoshi Nakamoto , and wrote more than 60 articles to popularize the idea of Bitcoin,hoping to promote the development of the encryption industry worldwide and practice the true Bitcoin spirit.

Mr. Kunyuan has a rich experience in the crypto world. He was once the highest community leader of FCoin, the most influential community exchange in the Chinese world. In November 2018, in a referendum on the FCoin exchange, Mr. Kunyuan was elected as the first community committee member, and was appointed as the vice chairman of the community committee to fully preside over the work of the FCoin community.

In the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019, Mr. Kunyuan cooperated with FCoin founder Mr. Zhang Jian to lead the FCoin community to achieve a comprehensive revival, making FCoin Exchange once again become one of the world's largest exchanges in the first half of 2019.

However, because many of Mr. Kunyuan's ideas could not be effectively implemented in the FCoin community, he chose to resign in June 2019 and began preparations for the Rainbowcity project. To some extent, Rainbowcity is a continuation of FCoin's community-based thinking, and it is also a continuing exploration of the true Satoshi Nakamoto spirit.

Mr. Kunyuan believes that in the crypto world, human civilization will have an unprecedented super economy in the future. It is constructed in the form of a decentralized protocol, which puts different and decentralized economic behaviors into a unified economy, and truly becomes the infrastructure of human civilization in the future. The Rainbowcity Foundation was established under this background.

The Rainbowcity Foundation plans to invest in 7 major areas in the next ten years, including Rainbow DeFi, Rainbow Investment, Rainbow Culture, Rainbow Network, Rainbow Industry, Rainbow Education and Rainbow R&D. Strive to become a super economy with a market value of one trillion US dollars. The RainbowDAO Protocol is the first project launched by the Rainbowcity Foundation to build the infrastructure of the DAO ecosystem and contribute our wisdom and strength to the development of the global DAO career.

Social media of RainbowDAO Protocol:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RainbowcityDAO

Discord https://discord.gg/vbnvFEeYRr

Telegram(en): https://t.me/RainbowDAO

CompanyRainbowcity Foundation Ltd

Contact Person:Jim

Email:RainbowcityDAO@gmail.com

Website:http://www.rainbowdao.io

Telephone:+852-57050497(Only receive SMS messages)

There is no offer to sell, no solicitation of an offer to buy, and no recommendation of any security or any other product or service in this article. Moreover, nothing contained in this PR should be construed as a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any investment or security, or to engage in any investment strategy or transaction. It is your responsibility to determine whether any investment, investment strategy, security, or related transaction is appropriate for you based on your investment objectives, financial circumstances, and risk tolerance. Consult your business advisor, attorney, or tax advisor regarding your specific business, legal, or tax situation.

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The 2021 DAO Global Hackathon ended and the RainbowDAO team won three awards! - Benzinga - Benzinga

Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Price History, Major Differences, and Which Is the Better Investment? – iTech Post

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Blockchain technology had a massive acceptance and usage this year. With that, most investors are facing the dilemma of which to choose, Ethereum or Bitcoin?

Bitcoin was created in 2009 by a man named Satoshi Nakamoto. It was designed as an anti-inflation digital asset with a total supply of 21 million bitcoins expected to appreciate in value as more people acquire and keep the cryptocurrency.

On the other hand, Ethereum was created in 2014 by the Russian-Canadian computer programmer Vitalik Buterin. It is a so-called "utility token" which means it's used to pay for transactions on its blockchain by an increasing number of apps and platforms.

Bitcoin's price is known for being extremely unpredictable, however, it has been the best-performing asset of any type over the last decade, rising 9,000,000 percent between 2010 and 2020.

When Satoshi Nakamoto mined the bitcoin genesis block, the first-ever block on the Bitcoin blockchain, 50 BTC was priced at $0.00. For the first time in February 2011, the price of BTC was equal to that of the US dollar. The price of bitcoin continued to grow, reaching a high of almost $30.

In 2013, it had risen above $1,000 for a brief period. In 2017, Bitcoin's price continued to rise eventually reaching $19,850, its previous all-time high.

The whole cryptocurrency market entered what is now known as the "crypto winter" in 2018. As reported by This is Money, it wasn't until December 2020, when bitcoin returned to challenge the previous all-time high, rising another 239 percent resulting in a new all-time high of $64,799.

Read Also: Forever 21 NFT Game? Complete Details, How to Play Forever 21 Shop City in 'Roblox'

Ethereum introduced its native token, ether, through an initial coin offering (ICO) in August 2014. As stated in Investopedia, Ethereum price was at $0.31per coin. As a result, 50 million ETHs were sold, raising nearly $16 million for the initiative.

The price of ether remained fairly stable between $0.70 and $21 from its official debut date in 2014 to March 2017. However, in May of that year when the bull crypto market began, the Ethereum price climbed beyond $100 for the first time.

After that, ether soared to a high of $414 in June 2017 before falling again. Bullish momentum needed another five months to regain strength. By that time, the whole crypto market had begun to face significant purchasing pressure, causing nearly every crypto coin to reach new highs. In January 2018, the price of ETH had risen to $1,418 before plummeting.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market size, Ethereum, took approximately three years to retest its previous all-time high price. The Ethereum price quadrupled between February and May 2021, reaching a new all-time high of $4,379.

Both Bitcoin and Ethereum carry similar dangers, and their future growth is highly speculative. However, both Bitcoin price and Ethereum price have recently reached new all-time highs, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of even more volatility in the future.

According to Time, Ryan Sterling, the CFP and founder of Future You Wealth, if he is facing the dilemma of Ethereum vs Bitcoin, he would choose Ethereum. This is largely dependent on the fact that the Ethereum blockchain is widely accepted and utilized for payments and NFTs.

However, according to veteran investing experts, Theresa Morrison, the CFP at the Beckett Collective, and Jeremy Schneider of Personal Finance Club, they would choose both.

Related Article: Stephen Curry NFT Sneakers Price, Where to Buy Warriors Star's Wearable Metaverse NFT Shoes

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Ethereum vs. Bitcoin: Price History, Major Differences, and Which Is the Better Investment? - iTech Post

Cryptoactives and International Exchange of Information – Bloomberg Tax

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We are witnessing a historic period in terms of tokenization of the economyalso called Web3as an evolutionary stage of the internet. Its development began after the financial crisis of 2008, when the Bitcoin blockchain was introduced on Oct. 31, 2008 with a white paper under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.

Within this economy, asset tokenization is a process by which the value of a real-world asset (tangible or intangible) is digitized and becomes a token under representation on a blockchain.

There are multiple cryptographic tokens, payment tokens being the most used, where cryptocurrencies are included. There are also utility tokens that grant rights of use or access; security tokens (which represent ownership shares in a company that does business using blockchain technology); asset tokens that represent an asset, within which can be included non-fungible tokens (NFTs), currently experiencing an amazing expansion within the art world; and hybrid tokens as a combination of the above.

Faced with this phenomenon, states are trying to regulate these operations, in the first place to identify them in order to enhance them, but also to protect consumers and avoid criminal activity around their taxation within current regulatory frameworks.

In the first place, there is no uniform tax treatment in different countries, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warns in its report Taxing Virtual Currencies. The OECD discusses the lack of comprehensive guidance or a framework for tax treatment, which is partly due to the complexity of defining the treatment applicable to these assets in a way that covers their different facets as well as their complex and rapidly changing nature.

The report was prepared and endorsed by the 137 members of the OECD/G-20 Inclusive Framework on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), providing a comprehensive analysis of the approaches and gaps in the main types of taxes (income, value-added tax and property), in relation to more than 50 jurisdictions which participated in the study.

Regulations are also important to protect consumers; for example in this regard, Spain recently approved that the National Securities Market Commission could regulate the advertising of crypto assets.

In addition, for countries in general, and for tax authorities in particular, the following difficulties arise:

While the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recognizes that virtual assets are an innovative technology for transfering value globally, such as sending payments, and for reducing commissions, it also regularly cautions that crimes such as money laundering and financing of terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal arms smuggling, fraud, tax evasion, cyberattacks, evasion of sanctions, child exploitation, and human trafficking may be committed through the use of cryptocurrencies.

For this reason, the FATF published a report aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing, which points out, among other factors, the following difficulties in its control:

In October 2021, the FATF updated its 2019 Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs). This updated guidance forms part of the FATFs ongoing monitoring of the virtual assets and VASP sector.

The FATF standards require countries to assess and mitigate risks associated with virtual asset financial activities and providers; license or register providers; and subject them to supervision or monitoring by competent national authorities. VASPs are subject to the same relevant FATF measures that apply to financial institutions.

This guidance will help countries and VASPs understand their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations, and effectively implement the FATFs requirements as they apply to this sector. The guidance provides relevant examples and potential solutions to implementation obstacles.

The 2021 guidance includes updates focusing on the following six key areas:

As we can see, the challenges faced by states are numerous, and go beyond the strictly fiscal issues.

For the reasons outlined above, I believe that it is a priority for countries to have access to information on these operations, which is why many jurisdictions have already established information regimes. To this end, VASPs are obliged to report their operations both to the organizations in charge of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as to tax administrations.

The great limitation for states is that they only have the power to demand that subjects residing in their jurisdictions, whether exchanges or VASPs, report operations with crypto assets; they do not have the power to regulate the information regimes obliging nonresident subjects to report such operations.

In short, states do not currently have information on operations carried out through exchanges located abroad, since these do not have an obligation to share information with central banks, tax authorities or other public bodies.

For this reason, the OECD promoted an initiative to collect information on these assets at the national level, in order to exchange it; leveraging the experience of the automatic exchange of financial accounts in accordance with the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), which has been operating since 2017 and has increased year-on-year the number of participating countries, accounts reached, and amounts covered.

Recall that the CRS urges jurisdictions to obtain information about their financial institutions and to automatically exchange this information annually with other jurisdictions. The CRS defines the type of financial information that must be exchanged, the financial institutions called upon to transmit this information, the different types of accounts, and the taxpayers involved, as well as the reasonable common diligence procedures that financial institutions must follow.

The results of the CRS have been very successful since its implementation, enabling the detection of offshore operations and their taxation.

I believe that it would therefore be a good initiative to include operations involving crypto assets within the CRS information regime. If this does not happen, we will continue to see a proliferation of information regimes in different countries, which will also create complexity for parties that carry out operations in many countries.

In the face of global developments such as those we are experiencing, the path of cooperation, collaboration and multilateralism between states is more appropriate than taking unilateral measures. I say this both from the perspective of legislating to regulate and promote the development and digital transformation of countries, and as regards the fight against tax fraud, money laundering, terrorism and other crimes.

I am convinced that today, more than ever, we must continue to advance in cooperation and multilateralism at the international level.

Collaboration between the public and private sectors is also imperative in order to monitor the virtual assets sector and new business models, given their technological dynamism.

Countries should promote faster mechanisms to define legal frameworks, always prioritizing multilateral solutions for the new business models of the digital and tokenized economy that seek on the one hand to enhance them, but also guarantee transparency, security and certainty in terms of their tax legal framework, all with a view to improving the quality of life of citizens.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Bureau of National Affairs Inc. or its owners.

Alfredo Collosa is a consultant and tutor in Tax Administration at the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), professor, investigator, author of books and publications, and lecturer. He holds an Official Masters in Public Finance and Tax Administration (UNED-IEF).

The author may be contacted at: aecollosa@gmail.com

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Cryptoactives and International Exchange of Information - Bloomberg Tax

Neither Bitcoin, nor Ethereum, nor BNB This is the ideal world for the CEO of Binance – Central Valley Business Journal

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Key facts:

According to Changpeng Zhao, It is important for entrepreneurs to issue their own cryptocurrency.

Several examples show that investing in these currencies, many times, is not a good deal.

There are currently more than 8,000 cryptocurrencies and tokens. For Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the Binance exchange, that number is not enough and he considers that there should be millions.

This was stated by the businessman (better known by his initials CZ) in a publication on the companys official blog bearing a Tolkien-inspired title: One coin to rule them all or millions of coins?

CZ himself answers the question at the top of his text: I think people will continue to create new tokens for their projects. And there will be millions of tokens. Like startups, most will fail. But those who are successful will be very successful and will create a lot of value for the world.

Chagpeng Zhao not only imagines that this will happen, but he wishes it to be so. For him it is important that entrepreneurs issue their own currency and he ensures that he is in charge of explaining them to them when he speaks with executives of other companies. Once I explain it to them, they usually have a completely new perspective on cryptocurrencies and why it is important to their future economy.

The 44-year-old Chinese-Canadian businessman argues that there are three benefits to a company creating its own token or cryptocurrency.

The first of these is the possibility of raise money at launch. Through initial coin offerings (ICOs), coin issuers manage to receive large sums. In return, they give low-priced coins to early investors.

As a second benefit, CZ mentions the coins the team is holding. These are sometimes sold later if the price of the crypto asset increases. Thus, the issuing company obtains economic benefits.

Finally, the CEO of Binance describes that, with your own token, you can create a new ecosystem that can retain users.

The Binance Coin (BNB) token is an example of the latter. Within the exchange it is used to pay commissions, to participate in launchpads and to obtain interest (paid in the same currency) if it is left blocked for a certain amount of time. Outside the exchange, BNB is the native token of the Binance Smart Chain blockchain and there are numerous decentralized finance platforms (DeFi) and play-to-earn games in which BNB plays a leading role.

The metaverse development teams, so fashionable lately, also understood that. To make life in Decentraland, for example, it is required to have the mana token, which is the currency of that virtual universe.

All that said, Changpeng Zhao advises entrepreneurs:

You cant do this with fiat currencies. It just doesnt work. You cant do this even with bitcoin. You must create a new token for your platform or ecosystem; otherwise, you cant create a symbiotic growth environment with its users.

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the Binance exchange.

Binance, founded and led by Changpeng Zhao (photo), is the cryptocurrency exchange with the highest volume of trade. Source: Piergiorgio Borgogno / YouTube.

There are no flaws in your logic. Indeed, for issuers of tokens and cryptocurrencies, the launch is usually a good deal. It is also true for Binance and other exchanges that list these crypto assets. The commissions for trading and withdrawals report million-dollar profits to the exchange houses.

Investors who manage to enter pre-sales (if the project is not a fraud), in general, also manage to make a profit.

The problem, possibly, is to assume that these projects (and their tokens) will continue to appreciate in the long term. Those who have been in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency world for years know about the numerous fashions that arrive from time to time and attract all the attention.

But they are usually just that: fashions. The Royal Spanish Academy gives two possible meanings for this word and in both its passing and changing character stands out.

Fashion: 1) Use, mode or custom that is in vogue for some time, or in a certain country. | 2) Collective and changing taste when it comes to clothing and accessories.

Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy.

For example, one of the fads that hit the bitcoin universe was ICO fever in 2017 and 2018. Dozens of initial coin offerings were launched daily. Thousands of bitcoins were collected by the issuers of these assets. Almost 5 years later, most of these projects which seemed extremely promising at the time failed to transcend. With few exceptions, their prices, when measured in a hard currency like BTC, have been trending down since then.

It can be named, among other failed projects (from the point of view of investment in their currency), to EOS and IOTA. Also cardano (ADA), despite the fact that its price in dollars has increased, it still does not exceed the figure in BTC reached in March 2017.

The price of ADA, Cardanos native cryptocurrency, failed to exceed the all-time high reached in 2017 (if its price is measured in bitcoin). Source: CoinMarketCap.

In this context, bitcoin (BTC) continues to present itself as the old trusty one. With its monetary policy defined since its genesis; its supply limited to 21 million coins; its issuance rate, which is halved every 4 years; and the support that the market and the miners give it; The decentralized money that Satoshi Nakamoto created has been going strong and going for 13 years.

Possibly bitcoin wont make you rich overnight. You may even have to wait long hours of hodl before seeing a monetary gain measured in fiat money after investing in BTC. This is not a problem: bitcoin was not created to make you rich but to give you complete financial sovereignty as an individual (a possibility that centralized cryptocurrencies do not offer, with a company or foundation that determines the progress of the project and its use cases).

In the long run, the increase in the price of bitcoin left most hodlers in profit. Source: CoinMarketCap.

Anyway, the historical graph of the price of bitcoin shows that in the long term the first cryptocurrency has not disappointed anyone who has understood its properties, and has decided to use it to protect their capital.

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Neither Bitcoin, nor Ethereum, nor BNB This is the ideal world for the CEO of Binance - Central Valley Business Journal