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#like they have a headstart of hundreds or thousands of times
caffeineinducedbeing · 2 months
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Our Story is Just Getting Started
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Ten years. One hundred and twenty months. Three thousand six hundred and fifty-two days. All that time, and yet it seemed like no time at all.
Alyss woke groggily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she shifted toward her still-sleeping husband's form. She smiled softly at him, his eyes shut peacefully, breathing through his mouth due to the sickness that had plagued him all week, denying him airway through his nose.
Gently laying a hand on his bare shoulder, she whispered, "Will."
That was enough to wake him. He grunted, "Yeah, hey, Lyss. Morning."
"Morning."
He grunted again as he sat up, rubbing and squinting his eyes against the morning sunlight coming through the window, and reaching for a handkerchief on the nightstand to blow his stuffy nose.
Alyss opened her mouth to speak but hesitated. She had always been the first to say it; this year, she would let him.
"Got any plans today?" she said instead.
Will sniffed, shaking his head several times. His eyes dissociated at the wall; he had never been a morning person. It took him until he had coffee running through his veins to be fully functional. He looked down at her, shaking his head still. "No. You?"
Alyss shook her head, hiding her disbelief. Had he truly forgotten? Or was he messing with her? He couldn't have forgotten. He always remembered every year and always did something special, remembering the previous year when he had taken her out for dinner and dancing, and gifted her a beautiful necklace, in the shape of a golden sun, which she hadn't taken off since. He wouldn't forget.
But then again, he'd been sick, and not "the good sick" as he called it where you're "sick enough to sleep all day and not work." She remembered him describing it to her. No, he was just the "annoying and inconvenient sick," where he's not sick enough to justify taking off work, but he's sick enough to be miserable as he does it.
She felt for him, truly. The "annoying sick" must truly be... annoying. But bad enough for him to have forgotten today? Surely not.
But as he left the room to go prepare breakfast, just like a typical day, she hesitated. Maybe he had.
The rest of the morning was spent with a weary and sniffling Will and a suspicious and disappointed Alyss.
They left the cabin together to go to their respective jobs as always, separating at the fork in the path as always, where she set off for Redmont and he went about doing his rounds. As always.
Will kissed her gently, saying a quick "Love you, have a good day, baby."
"You too, see you tonight," she said briskly as she watched him ride away without any further contemplation about it, she rode toward the castle, deep in disappointment.
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"Good morning, Alyss," Pauline said happily, placing a stack of papers on her desk. "The Baron requested these be done by noon today if that's at all possible. Sorry, I know you hate loan papers."
Alyss sighed, "I do, but it's not a problem, Pauline." Her tone was dreary, and Pauline picked up on it quickly.
"And a Happy Anniversary to you and Will." With a knowing glint in her eyes.
Alyss looked up and smiled, "Thank you, I'm glad someone remembered."
Pauline's eyes widened, "No! Will?! He never forgets your anniversary; he always does some big grand gesture."
Alyss nodded, "Yes, and my gift is always lame in comparison to his. Ten years, Pauline, and he's never forgotten. But this morning was just... a regular morning. He's been sick lately, of course."
"Yes, Halt's told me, blasted colds, they're quite a nuisance."
"Yes, evidently enough to cause my husband to forget our anniversary."
"I'm sure he'll remember, dear. And he'll feel awful about it."
Alyss nodded, her eyes returning to her paperwork, "I'd better get a headstart on all this."
Pauline nodded, gathered her things, and left Alyss to her despair.
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Against all odds, Alyss did end up finishing by noon. She delivered the papers to a very surprised Baron, who also wished her and Will a Happy Anniversary, referencing his very handy calendar with important dates scribbled on the days. Alyss inquired about where he got it, making a mental note to pick one up on the way home as a way of breaking the news to Will that, for the first time ever, he had forgotten.
Around 5 pm, when the sun began to dip in the sky, casting a warm glow across the castle, Pauline came to find her again.
"Alyss dear, would you take a walk with me, please?"
Never one to refuse her mentor, she did.
They walked down to the courtyard, Alyss attempting to mask the disappointment that tinged in her eyes. Halt and Will were standing by Tug at the very edge of the courtyard. Halt and Pauline exchanged a knowing glance as Alyss resigned herself to just an ordinary day, leading into an ordinary night.
Will approached her with Tug, "Hop on, my Lady," he said, with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Alyss raised an eyebrow, curiosity mixed in with her suspicion.
"Will, what is this?"
"Come on, get on," he extended his hand to her. She took it, and he helped hoist her into Tug's saddle.
"Where are we going?" She asked as he got on behind her, his strong arms snaking around her waist to grab the reins.
"Someplace special," was his response as he guided her toward the woods.
When they entered a familiar clearing where they had exchanged their wedding vows, Alyss gasped. The field was adorned with golden lanterns, casting a soft, enchanting light. Rose petals covered the ground like a delicate carpet, and a white blanket was laid out on the ground, surrounded by a specially prepared dinner.
"Will," Alyss said, her voice filled with awe, "I thought you'd forgotten."
Will's playful smirk deepened. "Well, that was the point."
He wrapped his arms around her, feeling the weight of the moment as they stood in the very spot where they had gotten married.
"Happy Anniversary, my dear," Will said, his voice filled with warmth.
Alyss' smile couldn't get any wider, and her eyes sparkled with tenderness, "Happy Anniversary." They kissed gently.
They shared a romantic dinner, the dark forest around them enveloping the scene in an even more enchanting regard. As the night progressed, they kissed under the lantern glow. Again, and again. The passion ignited between them, and they made love on the soft blanket, surrounded by the beauty of the scenery. Will did know how to paint a pretty ambiance.
Afterward, wrapped up in Will's cloak, Will smiled mischievously. "I do have one more surprise." He pulled out two wrinkled sheets of paper.
Alyss gaped as she realized what they were. "Our vows?" she asked incredulously. "I wonder if they still hold up." She said playfully.
Will began reading, his voice filled with sincerity. "Alyss Mainwaring, saying I do to you today means saying I will, I will love you today, tomorrow, and every day after for the rest of my life, just like I have since we were children..."
And suddenly they were back in time, standing in this very clearing in the summer sunset, surrounded by friends and friends who were considered family.
And Will was baring his soul in front of them all, "Growing up as orphans, there were no good examples of what a perfect love looked like, I wasn't sure if I even believed in it, but Alyss, you have changed the way I think about love, you have shown me what true love is. And I know things haven't always been easy, and they won't always be easy, but through thick and thin, I promise to show you my love for you every day. Because our love has always been worth it, it will always be worth it, I will encourage you, trust and respect you, confide in you, and create a home with you; full of laughter and compassion..."
Halt sniffled in the background, causing Will to smile even bigger as he completed his vows. And just like that, it was ten years later, the same clearing, the same couple, the same love story, just a little older, a little quieter. And Will was whispering the same vow he had written when he was 26, with the same sincerity that he had when he had read them to the woman he loved.
"I want to love you till the end of our days, I want to grow old with you, I want to share my dreams with you. So today, in front of everyone here, I pledge myself to you, Alyss Mainwaring."
They smiled at each other, tears brimming in Alyss' eyes as she unfolded her own sheet and began reading.
"Will, I've been in love with you for as long as I can remember since we were children. But somehow, I still seem to fall in love with you more and more each day that passes..."
Alyss looked beautiful in her white dress, with a crown of flowers atop her head and an excited glimmer in her eyes.
And she was reading with all the clarity and dignity she was trained to do in her apprenticeship. But the sincerity and the weight of the moment gave her voice a slight tremor; which nobody would've noticed typically, except Will, who gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"You are kind, courageous, faithful, the best friend, the best brother the best son, I think anyone here can vouch for those. In you, I have found my soulmate, my best friend, my lover, my partner, my safe place."
Will squeezed her hand now, as she finished renewing her own vows under the lantern light in the clearing.
There was a catch in her throat, and she paused to clear it, then looked up at him as she finished.
"You are my great love story, Will Treaty, and our story is just getting started"
They look at each other a long while and Will nods whispering "I love you,"
"I love you too,"
"We're gonna be okay"
"I know,"
"I'm sorry I made you think I was a horrible husband today," Will said, his voice tinged with amusement.
Alyss snorted a laugh, "I did think that, but you made up for it"
His arm went around her shoulders and she pressed her body to his, as they lay on the blanket. Looking up at the night sky, the twinkle of the stars reflected in their eyes.
Will gave her forehead a gentle kiss, a silent promise, a testament to all they had been through, all they had endured. None of it truly mattered in the end, these last few months which had been the worst in the history of their relationship. Too many arguments, too many regretful and selfish words, too many sleepless nights in separate bedrooms. Looking back now, it seemed ridiculous, how could they ever get so ugly with each other? They love each other.
But that's the false illusion of love. That it's always perfect, and happy, and beautiful.
But real love, true love, is loving through it all. Loving through the perfect and the imperfect, the happy and the unhappy, the beautiful and the ugly.
Loving through the ugly until it's beautiful again, and trying to do better next time. Rinse and repeat. The endless cycle of life and love.
But that's what makes it so special.
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coffeespillsthebeans · 11 months
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The Hypocrite Writer
Introduction
Hi everyone!
Back from the dead we shall arise! Wow, it must be the first time I'm posting a real post on this page, not just an introductory message or rec list.
Some of you must be a bit perplexed by the title. "Hypocrite Writer"? What does that even mean?
Let me fill you in on a bit of context.
Me and my dreams
For the first time last year, I decided to seriously consider writing as a hobby. I used to write fanfics for this very niche fandom (an anime called Hetalia, if you're interested), but soon stopped thanks to the explosive mix of crippling anxiety and laziness.
My writing journey is incomplete. I'm just finishing my first story and starting on new projects. But I haven't been indifferent to the book world for that long.
I'm now sharing another one of my great passions: reading. My goal with this is much different. I'm playing the long game, for one. Why? Because I'd like one day to open my own book publishing agency and promote writers. Just thinking about it makes me feel giddy.
My issue
I pretty much devoured hundreds off thousands fanfictions online
...
And that's the problem. Not that reading fanfictions is a problem, but just that. I haven't touched a proper paper/digital/professionally published book in almost three years. I'd like to tell you that it's because my experience as an OIB student traumatized me, but yet again, I'm finding myself fighting off an old foe of mine -- laziness.
That's why I like to call myself a "Hypocrite Writer"
How can you strive in your art if you're not aiming for perfection? And this entails also knowing when to look out for examples, for masters to follow.
My solution
But today, today I'm changing the rules of the game. No more leisuring around, scrolling through my phone. It's time to grab the bull by the horns and take control of my destiny.
Each month, I'll be posting a book review both here on Tumblr but also on goodreads. There are 8 months left, which means reading at least 8 books.
But hey! I got a headstart! While browing the English Library in my city, I stumbled upon a series of fantasy novels by Jen Williams, so I picked the first one, The Copper promise from the Copper Cat series. Now I'l stop procrastinating and quickly finish it, so I can review it for you!
Have a nice day!
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liebesletter · 3 years
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whining-ylthin · 2 years
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Me, describing the OC: "their backstory is very sad and serious, a tragic tale of loss, grief and betrayal, of dead-ending self-discovery, denied potential, repression, systemic abuse, unbreakable circle of violence, self-destructive tendencies, lingering fear born from uncertainty, truth forever lost to the flow of time..."
Me, drawing the OC:
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IMAGINE GETTING RUBRIC'D AND MUTATED WHEN YOU'RE A PART OF THE *RUBRIC CABAL*, AND SO YOU ALSO GOT YEETED OUT OF THE LEGION ACCORDINGLY
AND THE TECHNICAL QUIRKS OF YOUR PART-RUBRICAE STATE LIKELY CAUSED EVERYONE ELSE TO MISS OUT ON YOU WHEN THEY WERE BANDING UP WITH OTHER EXILES
Have fun with the next ten thousand years as everyone else not only has a better headstart and less handicaps, but also the whole arcane field gets power-creeped to hell and you're struggling to stay afloat, let alone catch up. Welcome to late-stage capitalism, Tzeentchian Sorcery Edition, where the rich only get richer and anyone without a humble inheritance of five bajillion dollars and a hundred loyal-ish guns behind them fights for absolute scraps.
*pause*
This was supposed to be a funni but even I can only do an ironic dry wheeze for so long before the tears in my eyes go from "my face is strained by the fake smile" to "oh fuck, this is too close to the reality outside my window".
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monster-bait · 3 years
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Hi, Mx Nascosta, I've been following you for a long while now and I really admire you as a writer and now as a published author. I'm currently editing my own paranormal book and I'm looking to get a headstart on marketing with social media. So far, I've been building a following on Twitter, but I was wondering if you had any tips or could share what you've been doing? Thank you!
Network, participate, make friends — rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. Becoming involved in a community is the quickest way to gain a foothold within said community. Social media is definitely a case study in reaping what you sow, effort-wise. Beyond that, don’t spread yourself so thin that you’re not able to make an organic impact.
I’ll use myself as an example: I have the best interactions with people here on Tumblr. This is the kindest social media platform for creators, I’ll fight anyone who claims differently. There are no funky algorithms, no blue check-marks, no influencers. The ability to engage directly with readers has been a gift over the past year and a half. I’ve put the most into this platform, between my masterlist (I posted content every single week during the first year of my blog, until I got sick,) the Monster Matches, my askbox, etc — and as a result, you guys have been wonderfully supportive, and I can’t thank this community enough. 
The other platform I give my time to is Instagram (and I would really, super-duper love it if you guys followed me there as well!) My IG is only about a year old and it’s only in the last 6 months or so that I’ve been posting on it regularly. I followed a BUNCH of people--other writers, book bloggers, publishing houses, merch shops, etc--and I interacted on their posts, reblogged in my stories, etc. The more I shared and commented, the more other accounts interacted with my content and stories. I still don’t have a ton of followers there (like less than 500) but the engagement with other authors and bloggers and my patrons has been consistent, which makes up for the lack of reach. As a result, 50% of my ARC team came from IG and I’m still reaping the benefits of word-of-mouth within that community even though GW is almost 2 months old at this point.
(And just to change gears for a hot second...reach is important, obviously. That’s why it’s important to reblog vesus liking creator posts, but follower count isn’t everything and it’s folly to get too wrapped up in it. I have less than half the followers of some other writers in the Tumblr sphere, but quality engagement is what’s more important for me, and has had the biggest impact on the reach of my work. Don’t ever let yourself get too caught up in the follow counts and notes on posts. Find your tribe, the people who are passionate about the story you’re telling, and the numbers will follow!)
I put very little into Twitter and virtually nothing into FB, and as a result, I get very little back in return. 
I’m going to write a post later this week about my learns in the wake of Girls Weekend, I’ll tag you in it, if you’d like! (I’m going to be posting Alder the Ghillie Dhue’s revisit in the next day or so and polishing that up is my first priority before I work on anything else... @tmnt-bucklover, I hope you really love Cambric Creek, because this is less of a “monster match revisit” and more of a “these characters are a permanent part of the community now, so get used to it” story.)
I will say this—Girls Weekend is almost 2 months old at this point, still technically a “new release” but also an old dinosaur in the world of Amazon publishing. As of today, it’s still in the top 100 of three different genre categories, I’ve sold copies every single day since release, I’ve sold out of book boxes twice, and I’ve not spent a single penny on advertising. It’s 100% because of the work I put into building relationships and readers in the community here and on IG—that means all of you guys—and my wonderful patrons. I would love to be able to tell you it wasn’t work, but that would be a *tremendous* lie. It causes my heart an ENORMOUS amount of joy to hear you’re already thinking ahead on that angle of publishing. One thing to keep in mind: you’re not on anyone’s timetable but your own if you’re publishing independently. You only get one release per book. Even if you’re done, even if you’re edited and formatted with a killer cover and you’ve worked on your blurb and are SO READY to publish...give yourself the time to do it right. If you make mistakes--and you will--good news: you can learn from them and do things differently with the next one. But there’s no one holding a clock to you, so if you feel like you want to work on building your community first, you have the latitude to do so.
Talk about your book, talk about your characters, be your own biggest fan. Your passion will attract the passion of others. And I’ve said this before, but I will repeat it a hundred thousand times—you guys can ALWAYS tag me on stuff you’d like boosted. I don't have the biggest platform, but it’s a damned good one with awesome followers and readers. Whether that’s a story, an announcement, artwork, cover reveals, contests—use me! I’m a free resource!
💖💖💖
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your-dietician · 3 years
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Warren Buffett's top 8 lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/markets/warren-buffetts-top-8-lessons-from-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Warren Buffett's top 8 lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
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Warren Buffett’s top 8 lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic
One of the ways many people become successful is by approaching every crisis as an opportunity — to learn, to invest, to grow. Take billionaire business guru Warren Buffett.
He once famously advised investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” He has come through the worst of the pandemic not only richer — his net worth passed the $100 billion mark in March, even as he donates billions to charity — but with some valuable lessons for his fellow investors.
Even if you don’t have the resources to work the market like the “Oracle of Omaha,” these eight COVID-19 tips from Buffett can help strengthen your finances.
1. New to investing? Tap into the S&P 500
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Joyseulay / Shutterstock
During the annual meeting of his company Berkshire Hathaway last month, Buffett talked up his favorite investment — which has been a winner during the COVID crisis.
“I recommend the S&P 500 index fund, and have for a long, long time to people,” Buffett said, adding that, upon his death, 90% of the money he leaves his wife will go into an S&P 500 fund.
S&P 500 index funds are mutual funds or ETFs mimicking the familiar stock index that tracks 500 of the largest companies in the U.S. Despite the pandemic, the S&P 500 surged 16% in 2020, and it has been hitting new highs in 2021.
“I like Berkshire, but I think that a person who doesn’t know anything about stocks at all, and doesn’t have any special feelings about Berkshire, I think they ought to buy the S&P 500 index,” Buffett told shareholders at the meeting in Los Angeles.
Be like Buffett: Getting in on the S&P 500 through an ETF or mutual fund doesn’t require a store of cash. You can start building a diversified portfolio merely by investing your “spare change.”
2. Be practical — even when the market’s losing its mind
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Ric Perin / Shutterstock
Though the stock market made millionaires out of people who clicked on the right Reddit thread during COVID lockdowns, Buffett has advised his investors to take a long-term, practical approach to the market rather than making “30 or 40 trades a day to profit from what looks like a very easy game.”
Story continues
During the meeting, Buffett displayed a pair of slides that showed the 20 largest companies in the world by stock value today and in 1989. None of the companies on the list from ’89 was on the 2021 version. The lesson: things change, and picking winners isn’t easy.
“If you just had a diversified group of equities, U.S. equities, that would be my preference, but to hold over a 30-year period,” he said.
Be like Buffett: Investors who do their homework and make informed choices have been rewarded this year as the stock market has marched to new record highs, even amid the chaos of COVID-19.
A popular stock trading app helps you reduce your risk by diversifying your investments into exchange-trade funds and even fractional shares (pieces of individual stocks) — and you never have to pay any fees or commissions.
3. Don’t count on pensions
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Matej Kastelic / Shutterstock
One of the more alarming trends Buffett dove into during the Berkshire meeting was the increasingly shaky status of many state pension funds, an issue he said he’d had his eye on since 2013.
“The pension situation is terrible in a great many states,” Buffett said. “It has not gotten better. It has not gotten better at all, obviously.”
The pandemic has been murder on states’ finances and will only exacerbate a pension problem that currently has no long-term solution. Before the pandemic started, state pension plans were already $1 trillion short of the funding they’d need to meet their future obligations to retirees, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Be like Buffett: If you have a traditional pension plan, you may not be able to count on it to provide for you in retirement. You’ll want to get a headstart on making up for whatever shortfalls might await you.
One solid long-term investment play is farmland. The average rate of return on farmland over the past 47 years has been better than 10%. That makes it a better performer than most stocks or other forms of real estate. With worldwide demand for food rising, farmland will only grow more attractive as an asset.
4. Investors should stay wary of some investments
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Pradpriew / Shutterstock Buffett has gotten out of airline stocks because of COVID-19.
The coronavirus crisis has ravaged entire industries. Airlines survived with help from government support. Take that support away, and you’d be looking at an entirely new kind of airplane disaster. The industry has months to go before anything resembling normal business — and normal profit margins — return.
“I still wouldn’t want to buy the airline business,” Buffett told his Berkshire shareholders.
One of the carriers Berkshire dumped from its portfolio was Delta Air Lines, whose shares lost more than half their value between March 1 and May 15 last year. That stock has since recovered, along with those of other major U.S. airlines, but Buffett has little confidence in the sector’s economic fundamentals.
Be like Buffett: Choosing the right stock out of thousands of potential options can make for a confusing entrance into the market. But several investing apps are available that can make the process a lot easier.
Find out which investing app is right for you and get in the game.
5. Stick to your long-term plan
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Things / Shutterstock Buffett says stay on target with your financial goals.
Buffett remains confident that the U.S. economy will bounce back from the COVID crisis, but he told his shareholders that the future is far from certain.
“You can bet on America, but you have to be careful about how you bet,” he said, later reiterating that the world can change in “very, very dramatic ways.”
Buffett has never wavered from his belief that holding on to stocks long term is the right investment play for a stable financial future. During the Berkshire meeting, he was even reminded that he once said holding on to a stock forever “was too short a time period.”
Be like Buffett: A financial planning service can help you sit tight and stay focused with your investments, and using one is much more affordable and convenient than you might think.
Today, you can connect with a certified financial planner online and inexpensively to keep you on track toward your long-term goals.
6. Take full advantage of low interest rates
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1599686sv / Shutterstock With interest rates falling, Buffett says it’s a great time to borrow.
Buffett sees fantastic opportunities for borrowers in 2021, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s commitment to keeping its key interest rate near zero.
“It’s a fascinating time,” Buffett told investors, adding that the low-rate environment “is enormously pleasant.”
“The economy went off a cliff in March [2020],” Buffett said. “It was resurrected in an extraordinarily effective way by Federal Reserve actions.”
Be like Buffett: If you’re a homebuyer or homeowner and have a solid credit score, you can capitalize on today’s dirt-cheap interest rates by getting an unbelievable deal on your mortgage.
Mortgage rates have inched up this year, but they’re still low enough that you could save hundreds of dollars a month by refinancing your mortgage. Compare the best offers from several lenders to be sure you’re making an informed decision.
7. Credit card balances should be avoided
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Krakenimages.com / Shutterstock Buffett says if you’re carrying credit card debt, get rid of it
The pandemic, with its business closures and layoffs, has forced millions of Americans to rely on their credit cards to cover basic financial needs. It’s a fine survival strategy, but the resulting balances and high interest can make for long-term financial stress.
During Berkshire’s 2020 shareholders meeting, which was held online, he recalled the advice he gave a friend who came into a windfall and was wondering about the wisest way to spend it. She told Buffett she also had credit card debt — at 18% interest.
“If I owed any money at 18%, the first thing I’d do with any money I had would be to pay it off,” Buffett remembered telling her. “You can’t go through life borrowing money at those rates and be better off.”
Be like Buffett: If your credit card debt is affecting your finances, experts say a good first step toward managing it is to roll it into a debt consolidation loan.
Not only will you simplify your life by reducing the number of bills you’ll be paying, but you’ll also slash your interest costs and pay off your debt faster. Instead of 18%, you might find yourself paying as little as 5.95% APR.
8. Always be ready for the worst
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Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock Buffett said a ‘megacatastrophe’ was coming.
They don’t call Buffett an oracle for nothing. In 2019, he warned that the world was due for a “megacatastrophe” that would dwarf the chaos created by hurricanes Katrina and Michael. When the coronavirus first hit the U.S., the multibillionaire said during an interview, “I’ve always felt a pandemic would happen sometime.”
You’d expect that kind of foresight from someone so heavily invested in the insurance industry — Berkshire Hathaway owns Geico and several other insurers — where planning for the worst is a central part of the business model.
“We’ve seen some strange things happen in the world in the last 15 months,” he told his investors this year. “And we always recognize the fact (that) stranger things are going to happen in the future.”
Be like Buffett: Prepare your family for whatever might come by buying life insurance. COVID-19 has shown how vital it can be to secure coverage for a family breadwinner.
In less than two minutes online, you can find and compare multiple life insurance rates tailored to your family’s needs. Lining up $1 million in coverage can cost as little as $1 a day.
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chefdanielkarofsky · 7 years
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Reunited on the Southside || Ian, Mickey, & Daniel
Daniel had been Southside born and bred. He’d been raised in a small three bedroom shotgun house with his twin brother. His dad was a mechanic and his mom taught at the local headstart program. They didn’t have much but neither did anyone else in the neighborhood. Frankly they were the lucky ones because his parents always were able to cover the bills and still put clothes on his and Dave’s backs and food on the table three times a day. His two best friends were Mickey Milkovich and Ian Gallagher. They became friends in kindergarten after he had comforted Ian when he cried on the playground cause his mommy was sick and had run away again and Mickey had beaten up the kids who called Ian a crybaby because of it. 
They were the Three Musketeers going everywhere and doing everything together. That lasted until they were sixteen. That year Daniel realized he was gay, that he liked guys. He got a fake I.D. and went down to boys town to pick up a guy to fool around with since it seemed everyone else in his class was fooling around. He knew that gay guys were not excepted by a lot of the thugs in their neighborhood but he for some reason he let the guy he’d picked up walk him home from the L station. Unfortunately some of the thugs in his neighborhood saw them kiss good-bye and Daniel grab the guy’s ass as they kissed. The last thing he saw was a tire iron being swung at his head.
Daniel woke up four days later with both of his legs broken in multiple places, a broken clavicle, three broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a brain injury. He spent three and half months in the hospital and in a rehabilitation center to relearn to walk and function in the world. At the end of it his aunt had arranged a full scholarship for him and his twin brother at the boarding school she worked at in Ohio. While he was happy for his safety he greatly missed his two best friends. 
Now it was six years later and Daniel was moving back to the Southside of Chicago. His parents were killed in a drunk driving accident and had left everything they had to him and his brother, including a one hundred fifty thousand dollar insurance policy. Dave had been drafted by the Bears earlier that year so he signed the whole thing over to Daniel. He ended up moving back into his childhood home and was working on opening his own restaurant in the neighborhood. The area had become popular recently amongst hipsters and other young professionals so there would be plenty of clintental. He was planning on hiring local southsiders to work there but he was surprised when his first interview walked into his office. “Mickey? I can’t believe it! I have been so worried about you!”, he said surprised. “I tried calling after I left but Mandy said you were in juvie and then your phone number was disconnected a few months later. Do you know what happened with Ian? Last I heard his mom came back and he disappeared.”, he asked him hoping Ian was okay.
@mindlessnovamuses
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tinyballofbeatrix · 5 years
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Epilogue - Beatrix
And just like that, it's over. Hrandune the Ancient Shadow Dragon, Lord of Flame, Master of the Shadowfell, is no more.
What comes next is harder. The first night is spent on the cold, bone-littered ground of the plane of undeath, and getting the survivors back to Rockfall takes a little while, but Daven and Eldwr manage well enough. Then the real work begins.
Rockfall is lucky that Landaar the forgekeeper keeps such fastidious accounts. One hundred thousand gold is more than most of the party have seen together at once, combined, and what it does in service to their adopted city is a sight to behold. It is no wonder that word soon spreads, and the name of Drag'Gorak is replaced by Daven Bersk, the blacksmith who tamed both the fire and the shadow.
Bea doesn't say anything to encourage or discourage the outlandish ways the people tell the tale. Nobody expects a seventeen year old girl to have witnessed the death of the calamitous beast, and she'd rather not speak about the reasons why they are wrong.
It's been fifty years since she's been in control of her own actions. In the early days it takes prompts to even get herself out of bed in the morning, to eat, to wash, to go with Daven to the forge and sit in the front of the shop whilst he and Landaar's family tend the fire. She helps where she can, mending smaller items with her cantrips the same way she always used to, and counts it a good day if she can hold it together until closing time.
She cries a lot in the first few years. She grieves for Tilly and Casadius, for her mother Leikny and Lord Illys, and the many, many other souls that lie heavily on her conscience. Her tears for the loss of Basil are compounded by an even deeper guilt; if she had let him stay dead the first time, the part of her mind that speaks in Hrandune's malicious death-rattle reminds her every day, then none of this would have happened. Her nights too are often restless, worrying about Fleitmir and her plans despite the realms are quiet. She stops talking to the rats at the sewer grates. They wouldn't have cared about Basil even if this city had been his home.
She's equally fractious about throwing herself behind a new master, a new deity, and declines offers to participate in prayer. She knows that it was Momma's god who broke her chain however, and tries to be thankful for it internally at least. She figures that a god like that probably doesn't need Hrandune's leftovers anyway. Despite that she clings to Momma in the way she never could with her own mother, and to Daven, who is neither father, uncle or older brother but somehow manages to be all of the above at once.
It does get better, especially once the city is mostly rebuilt and the lives of its people return to a steady routine. The thrum of life which supports her remaining magic is a comfort, a promise of better days ahead. She looks forward to visits from Eirek, who is older than she remembers and even harder to get hold of, but always in fine voice and ready with a song for her, and Teddy, who doesn't seem to have aged at all. They talk about nature-based magic in a roundabout, wishy-washy sort of laymen's terms, and whilst it takes a little longer, when she eventually finds the energy to go and visit she finds the same thrum in the forest of Skogur. It's life, at heart. Movement, reaction, growth. Above all, balance. It helps.
She mentions it in passing to Willow one wet day in spring, and Willow can't help herself but tell Bea about the research she and Cipher are doing; rediscovering together what Cipher had already spent a lifetime learning. Bea is by no means a natural scholar, but Willow's enthusiasm is contagious enough that she tries to apply herself to books in the years that follow. She remembers what her warlock spells did, what words and components they required, and that gives her a headstart. With practice and guidance she manages to relearn a couple of cantrips, and one spell, before her patience wanes.
She's nearly 33 when Teddy succeeds in bringing back Cas and Tilly. Such is her shame that it takes a good couple of days before she can bring herself to stand in the same room as them. Despite their forgiveness, she can't forget. Briefly she wonders whether she ought to follow Casadius into a life of quiet reflection, but Bahamut would be another dragon to serve, and that's not a line she is prepared to cross. Still, she goes with the group to Mynt to see him safely aboard the boat to Hafbae, and Tilly and Momma off on their journey north. Her hometown is much changed, and it's not the same without Basil.
She tries her new spell, crouched near the bank of the river around the corner from Teer's shop, now empty and abandoned. The first creature she summons is a mouse, but whilst it sits and looks at her with fey interest it's just a mouse, not Basil. He's gone, and in all honesty it's a relief. She casts it again, thinking about her friends. The Duke and Duchess' quest. The journey north to Blackjaw and the Glistening Forest. Casadius the ebony fly. Fleeing from Cerion and the Malar, in the days before they'd ever seen or heard of Hrandune.
The creature that appears as she completes the spell is, surprisingly enough, a badger. She looks at it, and it looks at her, and for the first time in what feels like an age, she laughs.
She names him Nutmeg.
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joshuajacksonlyblog · 5 years
Text
Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin (BTC) project, always expressed an inkling of mistrust and cynicism towards centralized institutions, including Wall Street and the incumbent government. This theme was only accentuated when the first ever crypto diehard embedded a Financial Times headline, which pertained to 2008’s Great Recession, into the coinbase of his/her brainchild’s first-ever block.
Related Reading: Would McAfee’s Revelation of Satoshi Nakamoto Affect Bitcoin Prices?
But over the years, the underlying value proposition of Bitcoin has been misconstrued, especially as ‘get rich quick’ schemes have become a sector mainstay. In fact, many argue that now, BTC’s primary use case isn’t as a media of exchange, but as a speculation instrument, giving its ‘investors’ an asymmetric risk-return profile. However, some are sure that Bitcoin is best suited as a form of digital gold.
The Digital World Demands Digital Gold
Gold has been an integral part of human society for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Although the precious metal does have viability as a component for modern technologies, gold has, is, and will likely continue to be primarily used as a store of value, an asset that allows its holders to keep their wealth over time, rather than lose it due to inflation of fiat monies or the destruction/degradation of purchasable goods.
But, a contender to gold’s hegemony as the go-to value store is approaching. And that contender, if you haven’t guessed it already, is Bitcoin. Grayscale Investments, an investment subsidiary of crypto industry conglomerate Digital Currency Group, recently released an extensive report on why Bitcoin might be better than the already good gold.
Is #bitcoin ($BTC) the new digital #gold? Check out our recent report: Bitcoin & the Rise of Digital Gold #DropGold https://t.co/0FNfz9r7Zq pic.twitter.com/ZyrITTyIml
— Grayscale (@GrayscaleInvest) April 23, 2019
Grayscale’s team, known for putting out works on industry trends, such as the impending block reward reduction, first pointed out that gold’s usability has plummeted in the 21st century. The long and short of it was: try purchasing your groceries with gold.
Respects were paid where they were due, however, with Grayscale noting that the metal remains a viable store of value against inflation, especially in nations which are stricken with “hyperinflation, currency wars, and imprudent monetary policies.” Gold’s value is only accentuated when you realize that the average lifespan of a government-issued currency is 30 years. No, not 300, but a mere three decades.
But Bitcoin may do an even better job than gold. Unlike the metal, BTC is mathematically scarce, capped at 21 million units; BTC is decentralized and verifiable through the Internet; BTC is portable and divisible through digital technologies, and is unconfiscatable. Gold, on the other hand, has an unlimited supply, centralization risks, an inability to be easily divided and moved around, and legitimacy concerns. The chart below from Grayscale sums this argument up fairly well.
The benefits that Bitcoin provides has led some, like Gemini’s Tyler Winklevoss to quip that the only thing that gold has over BTC is a “3,000-year headstart.”
What A World Where Bitcoin > Gold Would Look Like
Let’s say the world realizes the potential that Bitcoin holds, resulting in the world looking to store their value in BTC compared to gold. What would this hypothetical (yet totally possible) world look like?
According to HodlWhale, a Seattle-based cryptocurrency investor, a world where Bitcoin has absorbed all the value of the gold in circulation would see BTC valued at $350,000.
If #Bitcoin were to displace the value of gold the current value of a single Bitcoin would be $350K. Bitcoin has the ability to displace value across many financial and technology markets. $BTC is greater than #Gold #BTC350K
— HodlWhale (@HodlWhale) April 19, 2019
This figure isn’t exactly baseless. As reported by NewsBTC on an earlier date, all gold in circulation is currently valued at approximately $7.83 trillion, while all BTC has a mere $94 billion valuation. If the latter was to fully displace the value of the first, Crypto Voices, an industry analytics and research group, estimated that BTC would swell to a value of a casual $450,000 — slightly above HodlWhale’s estimate.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why appeared first on NewsBTC.
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brettzjacksonblog · 5 years
Text
Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin (BTC) project, always expressed an inkling of mistrust and cynicism towards centralized institutions, including Wall Street and the incumbent government. This theme was only accentuated when the first ever crypto diehard embedded a Financial Times headline, which pertained to 2008’s Great Recession, into the coinbase of his/her brainchild’s first-ever block.
Related Reading: Would McAfee’s Revelation of Satoshi Nakamoto Affect Bitcoin Prices?
But over the years, the underlying value proposition of Bitcoin has been misconstrued, especially as ‘get rich quick’ schemes have become a sector mainstay. In fact, many argue that now, BTC’s primary use case isn’t as a media of exchange, but as a speculation instrument, giving its ‘investors’ an asymmetric risk-return profile. However, some are sure that Bitcoin is best suited as a form of digital gold.
The Digital World Demands Digital Gold
Gold has been an integral part of human society for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Although the precious metal does have viability as a component for modern technologies, gold has, is, and will likely continue to be primarily used as a store of value, an asset that allows its holders to keep their wealth over time, rather than lose it due to inflation of fiat monies or the destruction/degradation of purchasable goods.
But, a contender to gold’s hegemony as the go-to value store is approaching. And that contender, if you haven’t guessed it already, is Bitcoin. Grayscale Investments, an investment subsidiary of crypto industry conglomerate Digital Currency Group, recently released an extensive report on why Bitcoin might be better than the already good gold.
Is #bitcoin ($BTC) the new digital #gold? Check out our recent report: Bitcoin & the Rise of Digital Gold #DropGold https://t.co/0FNfz9r7Zq pic.twitter.com/ZyrITTyIml
— Grayscale (@GrayscaleInvest) April 23, 2019
Grayscale’s team, known for putting out works on industry trends, such as the impending block reward reduction, first pointed out that gold’s usability has plummeted in the 21st century. The long and short of it was: try purchasing your groceries with gold.
Respects were paid where they were due, however, with Grayscale noting that the metal remains a viable store of value against inflation, especially in nations which are stricken with “hyperinflation, currency wars, and imprudent monetary policies.” Gold’s value is only accentuated when you realize that the average lifespan of a government-issued currency is 30 years. No, not 300, but a mere three decades.
But Bitcoin may do an even better job than gold. Unlike the metal, BTC is mathematically scarce, capped at 21 million units; BTC is decentralized and verifiable through the Internet; BTC is portable and divisible through digital technologies, and is unconfiscatable. Gold, on the other hand, has an unlimited supply, centralization risks, an inability to be easily divided and moved around, and legitimacy concerns. The chart below from Grayscale sums this argument up fairly well.
The benefits that Bitcoin provides has led some, like Gemini’s Tyler Winklevoss to quip that the only thing that gold has over BTC is a “3,000-year headstart.”
What A World Where Bitcoin > Gold Would Look Like
Let’s say the world realizes the potential that Bitcoin holds, resulting in the world looking to store their value in BTC compared to gold. What would this hypothetical (yet totally possible) world look like?
According to HodlWhale, a Seattle-based cryptocurrency investor, a world where Bitcoin has absorbed all the value of the gold in circulation would see BTC valued at $350,000.
If #Bitcoin were to displace the value of gold the current value of a single Bitcoin would be $350K. Bitcoin has the ability to displace value across many financial and technology markets. $BTC is greater than #Gold #BTC350K
— HodlWhale (@HodlWhale) April 19, 2019
This figure isn’t exactly baseless. As reported by NewsBTC on an earlier date, all gold in circulation is currently valued at approximately $7.83 trillion, while all BTC has a mere $94 billion valuation. If the latter was to fully displace the value of the first, Crypto Voices, an industry analytics and research group, estimated that BTC would swell to a value of a casual $450,000 — slightly above HodlWhale’s estimate.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why appeared first on NewsBTC.
from CryptoCracken SMFeed http://bit.ly/2Gx03P7 via IFTTT
0 notes
Text
Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why
Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin (BTC) project, always expressed an inkling of mistrust and cynicism towards centralized institutions, including Wall Street and the incumbent government. This theme was only accentuated when the first ever crypto diehard embedded a Financial Times headline, which pertained to 2008’s Great Recession, into the coinbase of his/her brainchild’s first-ever block.
Related Reading: Would McAfee’s Revelation of Satoshi Nakamoto Affect Bitcoin Prices?
But over the years, the underlying value proposition of Bitcoin has been misconstrued, especially as ‘get rich quick’ schemes have become a sector mainstay. In fact, many argue that now, BTC’s primary use case isn’t as a media of exchange, but as a speculation instrument, giving its ‘investors’ an asymmetric risk-return profile. However, some are sure that Bitcoin is best suited as a form of digital gold.
The Digital World Demands Digital Gold
Gold has been an integral part of human society for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Although the precious metal does have viability as a component for modern technologies, gold has, is, and will likely continue to be primarily used as a store of value, an asset that allows its holders to keep their wealth over time, rather than lose it due to inflation of fiat monies or the destruction/degradation of purchasable goods.
But, a contender to gold’s hegemony as the go-to value store is approaching. And that contender, if you haven’t guessed it already, is Bitcoin. Grayscale Investments, an investment subsidiary of crypto industry conglomerate Digital Currency Group, recently released an extensive report on why Bitcoin might be better than the already good gold.
Is #bitcoin ($BTC) the new digital #gold? Check out our recent report: Bitcoin & the Rise of Digital Gold #DropGold https://t.co/0FNfz9r7Zq pic.twitter.com/ZyrITTyIml
— Grayscale (@GrayscaleInvest) April 23, 2019
Grayscale’s team, known for putting out works on industry trends, such as the impending block reward reduction, first pointed out that gold’s usability has plummeted in the 21st century. The long and short of it was: try purchasing your groceries with gold.
Respects were paid where they were due, however, with Grayscale noting that the metal remains a viable store of value against inflation, especially in nations which are stricken with “hyperinflation, currency wars, and imprudent monetary policies.” Gold’s value is only accentuated when you realize that the average lifespan of a government-issued currency is 30 years. No, not 300, but a mere three decades.
But Bitcoin may do an even better job than gold. Unlike the metal, BTC is mathematically scarce, capped at 21 million units; BTC is decentralized and verifiable through the Internet; BTC is portable and divisible through digital technologies, and is unconfiscatable. Gold, on the other hand, has an unlimited supply, centralization risks, an inability to be easily divided and moved around, and legitimacy concerns. The chart below from Grayscale sums this argument up fairly well.
The benefits that Bitcoin provides has led some, like Gemini’s Tyler Winklevoss to quip that the only thing that gold has over BTC is a “3,000-year headstart.”
What A World Where Bitcoin > Gold Would Look Like
Let’s say the world realizes the potential that Bitcoin holds, resulting in the world looking to store their value in BTC compared to gold. What would this hypothetical (yet totally possible) world look like?
According to HodlWhale, a Seattle-based cryptocurrency investor, a world where Bitcoin has absorbed all the value of the gold in circulation would see BTC valued at $350,000.
If #Bitcoin were to displace the value of gold the current value of a single Bitcoin would be $350K. Bitcoin has the ability to displace value across many financial and technology markets. $BTC is greater than #Gold #BTC350K
— HodlWhale (@HodlWhale) April 19, 2019
This figure isn’t exactly baseless. As reported by NewsBTC on an earlier date, all gold in circulation is currently valued at approximately $7.83 trillion, while all BTC has a mere $94 billion valuation. If the latter was to fully displace the value of the first, Crypto Voices, an industry analytics and research group, estimated that BTC would swell to a value of a casual $450,000 — slightly above HodlWhale’s estimate.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post Investment Firm: Bitcoin Might Already Be Better Than Gold, Here’s Why appeared first on NewsBTC.
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radiodespieds · 3 years
Text
How much more important is the climate change fight compared to other issues ?
Wowee what a rant. Sorry in advance
The lede
Climate change is, by the numbers, by far the biggest threat humanity has been facing. That makes it more threatening than say, World War I, all of the terrorism attacks put together, the Holocaust, Stalin’s Ukraine famine, the Vietnam war, Leopold II’s colonization of Congo, the Cultural Revolution, the Khmers, etc. The only thing that ever came close in terms of credibility and danger is that time when we didn’t know if nuclear weapon testing would ignite the atmosphere, or if the nuclear arms race would lead to planet-wide destruction on a whim.
How we measure and balance the importance of issues
There is long-standing, widespread philosophical debate on how we are supposed to weigh options against each other when it comes to morality. Some simply try to quantify the amount of suffering / pleasure each option would bring. Some imply that not all suffering / pleasure can be freely exchanged, and that you cannot actively sacrifice something irreducible (like a life) to preserve a perceived greater good (even several threatened lives). Some look to the transgressions of a chosen moral code as absolute and not related to numbers at all. I argue that, even though they might disagree on the course of action, all of these interpretations would conclude that climate change is the scariest thing ever. But for a deeper understanding, let’s see how these can apply to past issues, and how people have reacted.
What’s a reasonable reaction to other issues ?
You don’t need to look too far back to find issues that are worth bickering with family over, voting over, protesting over, radically altering one’s lifestyle over. Only in the last year, billions of people have participated in isolation and social distancing in order to curtail the millions more deaths that the Covid-19 could bring over. Hundreds of thousands have shown up around the world to protest against systemic racism and lethal violence against black people. Hundreds thousand more showed up to defend or bring in the right for women to not die in botched illegal abortions. In a lot more understated fashion, billions of people have kept on putting their safety belt when driving, even though these buckle things are a hassle and why should we have to do anything when it’s the other people who are driving dangerously.
These are big issues, because each individual affected by them might be risking their life, and because there are many such individual affected. That’s the crude way in which we evaluate the importance of topics. And while it definitely leaves some issues out of the limelight every year, what it has brought forward is indeed worth acting over. They are worth making little sacrifices every day, they are worth making big sacrifices over the whole year, and they are worth getting into shouting fights with opposing protesters.
The only thing is, some of the issues that are left out of that limelight, if they were put under some deeper scrutiny, would outweigh the ones in the headlines like a whale is outweighed by the weight of all the emerged landmass on earth.
(To be clear, the other issues aren’t less important in themselves)
(It’s like having been stabbed in the arm and start crying out and twisting because of it, only to realize later that a whole cliff is falling on you, your family and your whole neighborhood. The cliff doesn’t make it that you’re less stabbed in the arm, and while it might shift your focus it’s not going to make the knife less painful or less damaging to your arm tissue.)
How much bigger is climate change compared to these issues ?
Climate change is *pretty* big. And by pretty, I mean extremely ugly. Like 7 billion deaths ugly. Climate change’s damage, and the speed at which this damage is arriving, depends a lot on the famed temperature increase that the news and the international treaties love to mention but not actually do anything about. The current target is to stay under 1.5°C of temperature increase, which would already incur dramatic changes and yet is far from being secured. The more likely scenarios, given current trends, is that we would end up at 2 - 2,5°C.
If we do get there, that would be a problem, because many scientists are finding out that the planet might have some positive feedback loops that would kick into gear at that temperature and accelerate the warming further. There’s currently about 15 of these potential feedback loops that are being monitored, but we can take maybe the most famous one to illustrate how that works : imagine that the temperature does increase ; as a result, massive amounts of ice at the poles start to melt, and release all the gasses that were stored in the water’s solid form. Among these gases, methane goes into the air, significantly increases the greenhouse effect of our atmosphere, trapping more heat, and increasing the global temperature yet again. That’s what we mean by “positive” feedback loop : it’s positive only in the sense that the more it goes, the more it accelerate.
Take all these hidden feedback loops kicking into gear together, and they take us from 2°C... to 4 - 4,5°C.
It’s hard to overstate how bad that is, for everybody. And I do mean EVERYBODY. First world privilege, White privilege, male privilege, etc. all of these headstarts are not gonna get you far when the earth can only sustain 1 billion humans.
No, that’s not a typo : if climate change gets its way, there won’t be 1 billion deaths, there will only be 1 billion people left to survive. If you’re keeping count, at 7.8 billion persons alive right now, that’s at least 6.8 billion deaths. And that’s not taking into account the population increase in that period. It’s also just the number of people that the earth’s resources can sustain and doesn’t count all the lives that would be lost to resource wars, global supply chain breakdowns and generally being in the wrong place whenever the crisis reaches you. 1 billion is not so much the number of survivors as it is the number to which the human population will come back to after the hot, searing dust has settled over our mess.
6.8 billion people is a bit hard to wrap one’s head around. Let’s come back to our other issues to see if we can use them as comparison points. What’s the deadliest event in history that you can think of ?
What about the Holocaust ? You could redo the ‘41-45 Holocaust back to back over and over again, Jewish and non-jewish deaths included, and you would need about 459 of them, or about 1 600 years of non-stop extermination, before you start matching the potential threat of climate change.
What about “Communism deaths“, a famous ill-defined talking point from right-wing advocates ? Figures thrown around are usually in the 100 to 150 million range, mostly comprised of USSR and PRC deaths over their combined 100-year history. You would need about 50 communism eras to catch up to what climate change would do to us. That would take you about 5 000 years of cyclical regime-induced famines and mass killings before you catch up to what could happen in just the next 30 years with 4°C. 
What about pandemics, since they’re so trendy ? The deadliest pandemic for which we have estimates for is the 14th century Black Death in Europe and Asia. Back then, it killed around 200 million people in 5 years. Very good score. It still takes about 34 Black deaths back-to-back to catch up to a climate change wipeout. That’s a 170 years of non-stop, barely contained outbreaks of the plague.
But these are not really current issues anymore, they aren’t very useful to decide for us how we should be acting. The PRC is still going on, but most of it’s death toll happened before the 21st century. (A quick look at their recent history will teach you that they definitely haven’t exactly stopped either, but that’s a whole other topic).
Since we were on the topic of pandemics, why not look at the current one ? It makes little sense to try and do the count for a pandemic that’s not even over yet, especially with all the hidden “excess deaths” that will come into full light only afterwards. But for the sake of using it as a visualization tool for the looming climate crisis, let’s see how it might stack up. The current confirmed death toll is soon to reach 2 million deaths, about 1/100th of a Black Death. That number is not yet decelerating, and is in fact still slightly accelerating, so with no knowledge of how soon the various vaccination campaigns will affect it and by how much, it would be foolish to make an attempt at a reasonable projection. My unreasonable bet, though, is that we are at best sitting at the middle of this confirmed death count, add to that a number of unknown proportion of excess deaths and I’m going to make my bad bet at 5 million worldwide deaths when the pandemic is over. That’s still 40 times before you reach the Black Deaths, and consequently 1 400 times before you reach climate change. Imagine the earth has to relive 2020 a thousand four hundred times.
Or rather, imagine what it feels like if we had to live through ten 2020 at the same time. That means ten times more of the people you know die of covid. The hospitals receive ten times more extreme cases. The Now imagine a hundred 2020 simultaneous epidemics. Remember the mortuary refrigerators on TV ? They’re stacked in towers now, and they’re overflowing with corpses. Now multiply that by ten once again. One in ten people in your neighborhood have disappeared. Now imagine we have to live through this hundred-fold 2020 for 14 years straight. That’s what the years after 2040 are gonna feel like.
And that, I think, is where the kicker is. During this pandemic, we are undergoing what I would qualify as one of the biggest self-imposed lifestyle changes in history (please do send me any other competing example if you can think of any). And yet we’re still telling ourselves we can’t do it, or even a 10th of it, when it comes to climate change. Even though climate change is going to be literally a thousand time more devastating, Even though climate change is most likely going to kill each of us at some point, as well as our children if we have any, and as well as every other person under 50 that doesn’t die in the time in between.
Is climate change really out of the limelight though ?
As of 2021, a lot of people are aware of the existence of climate change. It’s been widely discussed about by researchers since the 1970s. There’s been major international treaties on it since the 1990s. In the US, a 2000 presidential candidate ran a good part of his campaign on it. Environmental activists have made it a major part of their battles for 30 years. So why am I saying it’s out of the limelight ?
Because, when you compare the amount of chatter it gets to the amount of people it’s about to kill, the underestimation of the problem is appalling. Treaties keep on missing their already widely insufficient targets. Political campaigns keep on placing climate action as a side-piece to their program. Scientists yell their heart out that we’re heading for the wall, and we all cover our eyes and keep our feet on the gas.
Compare the amount of publicity other issues get to their impact. Out of all the issues that get more coverage today than climate change, how many are likely to literally destroy the human world ?
Again, this doesn’t mean the issues are less important than they are portrayed to be. But how exactly are they going to matter if everybody they affect is going to die in 30 years ? Given that a climate apocalypse would render all efforts of all current and past causes moot, you would think that people would be paying attention. How about if you’re “not into politics at all” ? You would think that people who don’t yet participate in any cause would maybe consider this one, given that it’s about to kill them and all their children.
In any case, climate change is getting slightly more coverage every year, but compared to the actual size of the threat we might as well be looking at it through welding masks.
What’s the reasonable reaction to climate change then ?
It’s hard to capture exactly what would be a good response to this, because it’s hard to compare it to other stakes that individual have to deal with throughout their life. Whatever decision you have to make, side you have to choose, demeanor you have to craft, you’re rarely dealing with the end of your life if you get it wrong. You’re even more rarely (hopefully) dealing with the end of all human life. So comparing the stakes and asking “how much more involvement should climate change get over this” the answer is always going to be “More”. That in itself is kinda scary, but it doesn’t even give you a good idea of how much more, how much more extreme behavior would be appropriate.
So really, what’s not an acceptable level of intensity in the face of climate change ? Try to ask this question in earnest and you’ll realize how extreme things could be going and still be a reasonable answer to climate change.
I’ll say this : think of any intense activist, even if you don’t personally know one. Somebody that devotes a good part of their life to it, going to major protests, talking about it on a regular basis, donating to campaigns, donating to NGOs tackling field issues, voting based on their engagement, shifting their way of life in some places etc. Imagine they would be doing all that for the cause of climate change. Would it be too extreme an answer to what they are battling ? Which, if you remember well, is the death of 7 billion people ?
Obviously not. Counting the deaths makes the question almost moot. It even appears that their response is far below the emotionally-appropriate response. If you and everybody you know is about to have their life cut decades short, it doesn’t feel enough to just be smiling at an annual rally. What’s appropriate regarding your own feelings would go into pretty aggressive and violent territory pretty quickly. Fortunately, that’s not taking into account what would work, and that has to be a part of the reasonable answer as well. But for this long-ass rant, I just want to settle how intense you would be allowed to go if you had to.
I fail to see a clear upper limit. When your life is in immediate danger, pretty much any behavior becomes appropriate, whatever gets you out of danger quickly. Here your life is not in immediate danger, you still have around 30 years to spare, but it is in unequivocal danger. You will die. And it’s not like you were the only one in that life-threatening situation : if a stranger is about to die, any action that you might take to remove them from harm would be welcome and hailed as heroic. If a loved one was about to die, then all actions become obviously acceptable. Here 7 billion strangers and all your loved ones are about to die, so at what should we be stopping ?
This might be starting to scare you the other way rather than helping.  What is this person going to be asking that I do ? Am I gonna be asked to commit crimes ? Should I expect eco-conscious people to be committing amateur terrorism now ? So I want to take that time to remind you of the deep reason why we would be fighting climate change. We’re fighting climate change to prevent lives to be lost and way of lives to be wrecked. If the fight itself is putting lives in danger, what’s the point ? That would be like cutting the tree to escape a falling branch.
My point is, whatever you think you’re doing for climate change now, it’s time to admit it’s not enough. You will have to go all-in. You will have to make the craziest activists up their game just to compete with you. You’re gonna have to be comfortable with doing and saying stuff people will hate you for. You’re gonna have to show up. You’re gonna have to move where your money goes. You’re gonna have to deprive yourself of some stuff. You’re gonna have to try to deprive other people of some stuff. Some of it won’t be easy, it will feel bad, it will be tough to pull off, it will take time and effort. But you’ll do it because if you don’t, everybody you know will die young.
See you soon.
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future of Amazon Web Services and the cloud computing market
In the beginning, life in the cloud was simple. But, Now in these days cloud has changed drastically. The cloud has grown so complex and multi-functional that it’s hard to jam all the activity into one word, even a word as protean and unstructured as “cloud.” There are still root logins on machines to rent, but there are also services for slicing, dicing, and storing your data. Programmers don’t need to write and install as much as subscribe and configure.
Here, Amazon has led the way. That’s not to say there isn’t competition. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Rackspace, and Joyent are all churning out brilliant solutions and clever software packages for the cloud, but no company has done more to create feature-rich bundles of services for the cloud than Amazon. Now Amazon Web Services is zooming ahead with a collection of new products that blow apart the idea of the cloud as a blank slate. With the latest round of tools for AWS, the cloud is that much closer to becoming a concierge waiting for you to wave your hand and give it simple instructions.
Here are 10 new services that show how Amazon is redefining what computing in the cloud can be.
1.Glue 2.Fpga 3.Blox 4.Xray 5.Athena 6.Rekognition 7.Lambda@edge 8.Snowball edge 9.Pin point 10. Polly.
>As we know well that Google is known in almost every country as the world’s dominant search engine, Amazon as the world’s biggest online retailer, and Microsoft as the computer software powerhouse behind Windows.
But the three companies are also locked in a battle to define the next revolution in computing, a gold rush that could become even more lucrative than the hundred-billion dollar operations they run today: the cloud.
Cloud computing lets companies or people essentially rent on-demand processing power, storage and software over the internet. Instead of buying expensive computer servers, memory and programs, companies can now hire them, tapping into the vast enormous data centres run by the likes of Google, Amazon and Microsoft. The cloud is the difference between being able to listen only to the music you have stored on your computer and finding any song on an on-demand internet service like Spotify, and the difference between losing a crucial document and having it accessible from any computer with an online file locker.
However, for many companies, it is more than that. While businesses would traditionally store their data and run complex processes such as programs that analyse customer shopping habits on an expensive computer server in the office that required hiring dedicated engineers,
cloud computing means they can use somebody else’s hardware thousands of miles away, doing away with upfront costs and letting them add capacity whenever they need it.
AMAZON WEB SERVICES
A decade ago, Amazon kickstarted the cloud revolution by launching AWS. Originally designed as a way of meeting the company’s own huge demand for resources as its retail empire grew, it began making its online infrastructure available to outside developers. The move blindsided many of the IT world’s establishes players, and Amazon’s first-mover advantage has now made it the world’s dominant cloud provider: it commands almost a third of the market, against single-digit shares for both Microsoft and Google.
AWS made unbreakable revenue last year and is expected to grow by as much as 50pc this year, making it the fastest-growing enterprise software company of all time. When Amazon first revealed the division’s financials last year, they were well beyond what any investors had expected and the company’s share price soared. It could well become more profitable than Amazon’s colossal retail operation this year. “Everyone else is playing catch up against Amazon,” says David Richards, the chief executive of WANDisco, a British company that helps businesses move complicated data to the cloud. “They have a seven to 10 year lead on some of their rivals.”
But if Amazon has built up a sizeable headstart, Microsoft and Google are both fighting back hard.
The division is Amazon Web Services, or AWS, the section of the company that sells cloud computing services to both the outside world and to Amazon itself. You can buy storage space to hold a huge database, bandwidth to host a website, or processing power to run complex software remotely. It lets companies and individuals avoid the hassle of buying and running their own hardware, while also letting them pay for only what they actually use.
It began as almost a point of principle for Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, before evolving to become the single most profitable part of the entire company. Now, AWS is moving into the third stage of its life, providing the underpinning for Amazon’s own quest to dominate not just our shopping, but our homes themselves.
We are at the beginning of what’s possible; businesses are just starting to adopt the concept and we are set up with the right people at the right time. We’re seeing a real acceleration in customers choosing us.
Analysts were largely impressed, if cautious about the company’s ability to claw back the lead its rivals have. We still view Google as a very distant third place player behind AWS and [Microsoft] Azure,and finally we can understand well that AWS is just like as a leader on cloud for everyone who are in market of cloud and we can imagine that future of AWS will take a long,long time.
Get — ->> Aws training in pune 100% Job Placement Guaranty
Join Now — https://bit.ly/2SXXDOu
0 notes
mylenegf-blog1 · 4 years
Text
future of Amazon Web Services and the cloud computing market
In the beginning, life in the cloud was simple. But, Now in these days cloud has changed drastically. The cloud has grown so complex and multi-functional that it’s hard to jam all the activity into one word, even a word as protean and unstructured as “cloud.” There are still root logins on machines to rent, but there are also services for slicing, dicing, and storing your data. Programmers don’t need to write and install as much as subscribe and configure.
Here, Amazon has led the way. That’s not to say there isn’t competition. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Rackspace, and Joyent are all churning out brilliant solutions and clever software packages for the cloud, but no company has done more to create feature-rich bundles of services for the cloud than Amazon. Now Amazon Web Services is zooming ahead with a collection of new products that blow apart the idea of the cloud as a blank slate. With the latest round of tools for AWS, the cloud is that much closer to becoming a concierge waiting for you to wave your hand and give it simple instructions.
Here are 10 new services that show how Amazon is redefining what computing in the cloud can be.
1.Glue 2.Fpga 3.Blox 4.Xray 5.Athena 6.Rekognition 7.Lambda@edge 8.Snowball edge 9.Pin point 10. Polly.
>As we know well that Google is known in almost every country as the world’s dominant search engine, Amazon as the world’s biggest online retailer, and Microsoft as the computer software powerhouse behind Windows.
But the three companies are also locked in a battle to define the next revolution in computing, a gold rush that could become even more lucrative than the hundred-billion dollar operations they run today: the cloud.
Cloud computing lets companies or people essentially rent on-demand processing power, storage and software over the internet. Instead of buying expensive computer servers, memory and programs, companies can now hire them, tapping into the vast enormous data centres run by the likes of Google, Amazon and Microsoft. The cloud is the difference between being able to listen only to the music you have stored on your computer and finding any song on an on-demand internet service like Spotify, and the difference between losing a crucial document and having it accessible from any computer with an online file locker.
However, for many companies, it is more than that. While businesses would traditionally store their data and run complex processes such as programs that analyse customer shopping habits on an expensive computer server in the office that required hiring dedicated engineers,
cloud computing means they can use somebody else’s hardware thousands of miles away, doing away with upfront costs and letting them add capacity whenever they need it.
AMAZON WEB SERVICES
A decade ago, Amazon kickstarted the cloud revolution by launching AWS. Originally designed as a way of meeting the company’s own huge demand for resources as its retail empire grew, it began making its online infrastructure available to outside developers. The move blindsided many of the IT world’s establishes players, and Amazon’s first-mover advantage has now made it the world’s dominant cloud provider: it commands almost a third of the market, against single-digit shares for both Microsoft and Google.
AWS made unbreakable revenue last year and is expected to grow by as much as 50pc this year, making it the fastest-growing enterprise software company of all time. When Amazon first revealed the division’s financials last year, they were well beyond what any investors had expected and the company’s share price soared. It could well become more profitable than Amazon’s colossal retail operation this year. “Everyone else is playing catch up against Amazon,” says David Richards, the chief executive of WANDisco, a British company that helps businesses move complicated data to the cloud. “They have a seven to 10 year lead on some of their rivals.”
But if Amazon has built up a sizeable headstart, Microsoft and Google are both fighting back hard.
The division is Amazon Web Services, or AWS, the section of the company that sells cloud computing services to both the outside world and to Amazon itself. You can buy storage space to hold a huge database, bandwidth to host a website, or processing power to run complex software remotely. It lets companies and individuals avoid the hassle of buying and running their own hardware, while also letting them pay for only what they actually use.
It began as almost a point of principle for Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, before evolving to become the single most profitable part of the entire company. Now, AWS is moving into the third stage of its life, providing the underpinning for Amazon’s own quest to dominate not just our shopping, but our homes themselves.
We are at the beginning of what’s possible; businesses are just starting to adopt the concept and we are set up with the right people at the right time. We’re seeing a real acceleration in customers choosing us.
Analysts were largely impressed, if cautious about the company’s ability to claw back the lead its rivals have. We still view Google as a very distant third place player behind AWS and [Microsoft] Azure,and finally we can understand well that AWS is just like as a leader on cloud for everyone who are in market of cloud and we can imagine that future of AWS will take a long,long time.
Get — ->> Aws training in pune 100% Job Placement Guaranty
Join Now — https://bit.ly/2SXXDOu
0 notes