#then they exchanged social medias and then the saga begins.

[callilouv]

NOOO THE DETAILS OF MY DREAM R FADING FROM MY MIND IT WAS LITERALLY A WHOLE ASS STORY

[citynewsglobe]

[ad_1] Step into the intriguing world of on-line mysteries as we unravel the enigmatic story behind the lexi bonner footage. Put together to delve deep into an online of social media posts, YouTube movies, and authorized implications surrounding this charming saga. Be a part of us on this thrilling journey of uncovering the reality behind the viral sensation that has captured the eye of web sleuths worldwide. Overview of the Lexi Bonner Footage Have you ever heard in regards to the Lexi Bonner footage making waves on-line? It’s a sequence of movies capturing sudden incidents which have sparked curiosity amongst viewers. The footage showcases moments which can be each intriguing and puzzling, leaving many questioning what actually occurred. With quite a few clips circulating on social media platforms, the Lexi Bonner footage has garnered consideration for its mysterious nature. Persons are drawn to the weird occasions captured on digital camera, prompting discussions and speculations in regards to the authenticity of the content material. As extra particulars emerge in regards to the origin of those movies, people proceed to investigate and dissect every body in an try and unravel the secrets and techniques hidden inside the Lexi Bonner footage. Keep tuned as we delve deeper into this charming digital thriller. Understanding the Incidents The incidents captured within the Lexi Bonner footage have sparked intense scrutiny and debate. Viewers have been left shocked by the unfolding occasions, attempting to make sense of what was occurring on display screen. Understanding the context and nuances of those incidents is essential in forming a well-rounded perspective. Every second within the footage requires cautious evaluation to know the complete scope of what transpired. The sequence of occasions raises questions on accountability, duty, and societal norms. As spectators dissect every body, differing interpretations emerge, highlighting the complexity of human interactions. Peeling again layers to uncover the motives behind these incidents provides depth to our understanding. From refined gestures to vocal exchanges, each element performs a task in piecing collectively the puzzle offered by Lexi Bonner’s recordings. Deciphering the Twitter Posts Social media is usually a treasure trove of data, and Lexi Bonner’s Twitter posts aren't any exception. Delving into her tweets reveals a mixture of private anecdotes, opinions on present occasions, and interactions with followers. The cryptic nature of some posts has sparked curiosity amongst netizens, main to varied interpretations and speculations. Among the many sea of tweets, sure patterns emerge that make clear Lexi’s mindset at totally different deadlines. From informal mentions of each day actions to extra profound reflections on societal points, every publish offers a glimpse into the multifaceted persona behind the display screen. By analyzing the timestamps and content material themes, one can begin connecting the dots to uncover hidden meanings or underlying motives. Participating with followers by likes, retweets, and replies provides one other layer to the narrative woven by Lexi’s Twitter feed. The back-and-forth exchanges supply insights into her relationships with friends on-line and trace at potential influences shaping her digital presence. Investigating the YouTube Footage In relation to uncovering the reality behind the Lexi Bonner footage, one essential piece of the puzzle lies in analyzing the YouTube movies circulating on-line. These clips present a visible depiction of the incidents which have sparked controversy and hypothesis. As we navigate by these YouTube uploads, it turns into evident that a number of views exist concerning what transpired throughout these controversial moments involving Lexi Bonner. The feedback part is ablaze with opinions, theories, and heated debates as viewers try and decipher the occasions captured on digital ca

mera. From slow-motion replays to detailed breakdowns by armchair detectives, YouTube has turn into a hub for novice sleuths desirous to unravel the mysteries shrouding this contentious footage. Delving into Lexi Bonner’s Social Media Presence Within the digital age, our on-line footprint speaks volumes about who we're. Lexi Bonner’s social media presence isn't any exception. Scrolling by her profiles reveals a curated glimpse into her life – from vogue selections to journey adventures. The rigorously chosen photographs and posts paint an image of a vibrant persona. Participating together with her followers by witty captions and candid snapshots, Lexi invitations others into her world. From Instagram tales showcasing behind-the-scenes moments to heartfelt tweets sharing private insights, she connects with an viewers that eagerly follows alongside. Nevertheless, as with all public determine, scrutiny comes hand in hand with fame. Navigating this on-line panorama requires a fragile stability between authenticity and picture curation. Authorized and Moral Implications Questions come up about consent for filming and sharing such delicate moments with out permission. Ethically, the influence of circulating footage like this raises issues about respecting the dignity and well-being of these portrayed. Society grapples with balancing freedom of expression with defending people from unwarranted publicity or hurt. It prompts reflection on our duty as viewers and sharers of on-line content material. Legally, navigating points surrounding defamation, invasion of privateness, and potential repercussions for these concerned is advanced. Understanding the boundaries between public curiosity and private rights turns into essential when analyzing controversial movies like those involving Lexi Bonner. Conclusion As we navigate by the complexities of the Lexi Bonner footage, it turns into evident that there are layers but to be uncovered. The twists and turns on this digital saga depart us yearning for extra data, stirring our curiosity about what actually transpired. Each bit of proof provides a brand new dimension to the narrative, prompting us to query the motives behind every motion captured on display screen. The social media posts, YouTube movies, and on-line presence all contribute to portray an image of intrigue and thriller. FAQ’s Q: What's the significance of the Lexi Bonner Footage? A: The Lexi Bonner footage has sparked discussions on social media platforms concerning private privateness, ethics in filming public interactions, and the facility dynamics between people in public areas. Q: How did Lexi Bonner reply to the incidents captured within the footage? A: Lexi Bonner addressed the incidents by her Twitter account, expressing her perspective on what transpired and shedding gentle on her expertise throughout these moments. Q: Are there any authorized actions being taken associated to the footage? A: As of now, there have been no reported authorized actions immediately linked to the Lexi Bonner footage. Nevertheless, it has raised questions on consent, recording legal guidelines, and digital rights when sharing content material on-line. The publish Uncovering the Reality: Analyzing the lexi bonner footage appeared first on Vamonde. [ad_2] Supply hyperlink

[trustcapitalltd]

What You Need to Know About Forex Trading: Your Epic Journey Begins!

Hey there, future Forex trading champ! Ready to tackle an adventure in the world of Forex? Well, grab your trading cap, because we’re about to set sail into the exciting seas of currency exchange, where the future is made and dreams are realized.

Forex Trading for Beginners: The Forex Playground

First things first, let’s talk about the basics. Forex trading, or foreign exchange trading, is like the ultimate global game of buying and selling currencies. Take a scenario where you’re the mastermind behind trading currencies like the Dollar (USD), Euro (EUR), and Yen (JPY). Your mission? Speculate on currency price movements and make a sweet profit.

If you’re new to the scene, don’t fret! Every trading legend starts as a beginner. Dive into the fascinating world of currency pairs, market analysis, and risk management. Knowledge is your trusty companion on this journey.

Forex Trading Strategies: Crafting Your Trading Magic

So, how do the pros do it? Successful Forex traders don’t rely on magic spells; they have strategies. Think of these strategies as your trading superpowers. There’s day trading (for the quick decision-makers), swing trading (for the patient players), and scalping (for the adrenaline junkies).

But remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. Try your hand at different styles and see which one fits like a glove.

Forex Trading Platforms: Your Trading Fortress

Every hero needs a base, right? Well, in Forex trading, that’s your trading platform! It’s like your trusty steed, your Excalibur. Your platform provides the tools you need to make your trading dreams come true executing trades, analyzing markets, and managing your treasure chest of currencies.

Make sure you choose a platform that’s as user-friendly as your favorite social media app, offers real-time data, and lets you unleash your inner trading genius.

Choosing the Right Forex Trading Account: Your Trading Passport

Your journey through Forex trading requires a passport: your trading account. There are different types, like the standard, mini, and micro-accounts. Each comes with its own perks and quirks. Think of it as choosing your adventure mode!

Consider your risk tolerance and the size of your treasure chest (capital) when picking your account type. Also, check the broker’s terms and fees to make sure they align with your grand plan.

Best Trading Platform and Online Trading Broker: Your Trusted Sidekicks

Choosing your trading platform and broker is like assembling your superhero squad. They should offer tight spreads, a buffet of currency pairs, and a platform that’s smoother than butter.

Do some detective work read reviews, compare offers, and find your ideal partner-in-profit. Trust us, a reliable broker is Robin to your Batman.

Conclusion

In this epic saga of Forex trading, remember that every trading legend started as a newbie. Armed with knowledge, a solid strategy, the right platform, and a trustworthy broker, you’re ready to conquer the Forex universe.

So, buckle up, champ! Your Forex adventure is about to begin. Each trade is a step closer to your financial dreams. Enjoy the journey, and may the pips be ever in your favor!

[miclient]

Why Closing Deals on Email Threads Can Become a Never-Ending Task

Where time is of the essence and every prospect holds the potential for revenue, the art of closing deals can sometimes resemble an intricate journey. A particularly intricate facet of this venture is the endeavor to seal deals through email exchanges — an arena where replies can linger, clarity can waver, and the finish line might appear ever-elusive.

Then comes the follow-up game. You send more emails, each one sounding a bit more anxious than the last. Suddenly, your email thread starts looking like a long chain of messages, and it feels like you’re stuck in a loop, going back and forth without getting any closer to closing the deal.

Why does this happen? Well, that’s what we’re here to uncover. We’ll dig into why dealing with potential customers over email can turn into a never-ending challenge. And don’t worry, we won’t leave you hanging — we’ll also share some smart tricks to escape this email maze and actually get those deals done.

The Communication Enigma

Imagine this scenario: you’ve meticulously crafted an email that encapsulates your product’s value proposition, benefits, and a compelling call to action. You hit “send” with a sense of anticipation, only to find your message drifting into the vast expanse of an inbox, surrounded by countless other messages clamoring for attention. This is where the conundrum begins.

The Silence that Echoes

The initial silence that often follows the dispatch of an email can be deafening. Days turn into weeks, and the void remains. You begin to question whether your meticulously crafted pitch vanished into the digital ether, or worse, got buried under an avalanche of incoming emails.

The Chain Reaction

In an effort to rekindle the conversation, you follow up — once, twice, perhaps even thrice. Before you know it, your email thread has metamorphosed into a seemingly never-ending chain of messages, each subsequent one slightly more desperate than the last. What started as a well-intentioned follow-up becomes an intricate dance of diplomacy and persistence.

The Lost Context

As the thread lengthens, the risk of losing context becomes palpable. Your prospect might misinterpret your intent, forget crucial details, or, worst of all, lose interest altogether. Suddenly, the thread that was meant to streamline communication has become a convoluted saga, leading you further away from the coveted “closed deal” milestone.

Escaping the Loop

Breaking free from the cycle of endless email threads requires a strategic approach that combines the precision of a surgeon with the finesse of a negotiator.

Strategic Timing

Instead of bombarding your prospect with a flurry of follow-ups, consider spacing them strategically. A well-timed message can rekindle interest without overwhelming the recipient.

Compelling Call to Action

Craft your emails with a clear and compelling call to action. Make it easy for your prospect to understand the next steps and the value they stand to gain from engaging further.

Multi-Channel Engagement

Don’t put all your eggs in the email basket. Utilize a multi-channel approach, integrating phone calls, social media interactions, and personalized video messages to capture your prospect’s attention and keep them engaged.

Value-Driven Persistence

Instead of repeating the same message, provide value with each interaction. Share relevant insights, success stories, or tailored solutions that showcase your dedication and expertise. For best solution use a sales enablement software like MiCLIENT.

Closing Thoughts

While closing deals on email threads can indeed become a never-ending task, it’s crucial to remember that it’s a challenge rather than an insurmountable barrier. By understanding the dynamics at play, employing strategic tactics, and maintaining a persistent yet value-driven approach, you can navigate the email labyrinth and emerge victorious, sealing deals with finesse and efficacy.

In Conclusion

Remember, it’s not about the length of the thread, but the impact of each interaction that paves the way to a successful close. The difficulty of closing deals via email arises from its impersonal nature. Recognizing these challenges and implementing strategies to mitigate them can transform email communication from an enigma into a powerful tool for sealing the deal. So, equip yourself with the right tactics like using sales automation solution in your business processes.

[jjheejz]

What is Fate?

[Part 5/5] WOH concert and after

WOH Concert (3-4 May 2021)

- The fact that they even have a grand scale wedding ceremony drama concert

- GJ did not attend ZZH's first solo concert, but both of them have their own concert together for the first time

- Chinese have a traditional tradition of calculating auspicious dates (metaphysics). It can be calculated commonly for when to move in to a new house, bury a deceased, open a business, hold a wedding etc. 3 - 4 May were auspicious dates for Wedding and marriage registration.

- The concert was held at a stadium in Su Zhou, but the entire city was blatantly supporting everything and anything about WenZhou like it's New Year's Eve. Eg. Building, helicopter banners, bus advertising, drone show, lantern display, subway endorsement, city's official account using WOH quotes applying to safety regulations, curated photo booths, life sized figurine of WenZhou (YouKu kept it as prideful display at their office entrance after the concert), crowds of fan support and cheers etc.

Drone show snippet:

- Both of them were given the center of attention for the entire 2 days of WOH concert. It was WenZhou/JunZhe concert in disguise as WOH concert.

= This gave them both the opportunity to show what they feel for each other openly (whether as WenZhou themselves or as JunZhe)

- To have a stage to be what they are* and have fun, while being accepted and greatly supported by a sea of Mountain people (山人), no matter how one sees it, it's an extremely touching form of support for them

*Disclaimer: obviously they weren't 100% themselves, mindful of the fact that this stage was monitored by important media bodies (not exactly sure what kind, but somewhat government-ish regulators I presume), but their gaze and body language is just as natural as what they are.

= The fact that the country in general is not open to this kind of relationship, yet they were in a place where most of the people were supportive.

- Yes, there were some important bodies (or eyes) during the 2 days concert. Which was why all the actors and actresses were warned. For whatever reason they chose to continue in their own way, it's daring consensus of support. And for whatever reason the regulators didn't do anything (there weren't any big news at all from them), is also a miracle.

- They had the opportunity to sing a duet on stage, live. For the audience, GJ's singing skills started from November 2020, ZZH likes GJ's singing, and 5 months later, they have a duet on stage.

- Official acknowledgement of cpfans

= First in history where the recognition was officially verbally mentioned in-person. You can say this fate belong to the fans.

- ZZH had the opportunity to vow a promise to GJ witnessed by X million of people in the stadium and those watching livestream, that he will always be there for GJ. He did not only vow as a companion to GJ, in ZZH terms, he actually vowed "I will love you forever" [ZZH on 'love' saga]

- The in-ear mic had the voices of the backstage crew's coordination. ZZH took it off early, but GJ was still wearing them during the exchange. That itself is a stressor as the backstage coordinator must have warned extremely sternly and loudly and GJ was shakingly nervous. When ZZH was giving this vow (which in the concert BTS release, we see him say "Don't I have a segment to speak to WKX?" Note, it's WKX, not GJ), the backstage crew was cursing and swearing when ZZH went with "I have things to say to Jun Jun." (as WenZhou, they have a disguise/a shield, with direct GJ, it's just...danger danger red light) Try imagine being the backstage crew and going all mad and crazy over what ZZH said that moment.

= ZZH's daring courage to say things like these was probably built up from his sportsmanship, hot-blooded passion from his past. It's beyond my peasant mortal's comprehension.

- Supporting Cast shenanigans and warnings for them, link here

After

- After the concert was over, solo fans expect the main leads to break up even as co-workers or say, being even in the same frame. This expectation is extremely strong in the industry for years. The same goes for JunZhe despite this time many are cpfans but they do know this prevalent expectation. So imagine crying over the vow and the next moment, just hours after the concert, JunZhe is happily sticking to each other singing in the same frame as if they did nothing big a few hours ago. They sang a phrase together with this lyrics: 30% arranged by fate/god, 70% arranged by hard work. A love for perseverance will lead to success/winning.

= Debunking expectations, breaking many years of industry's common consensus successfully. They invented after after-sales CP service.

- Stage, endorsements, film scripts, major public events, variety shows, top brands etc. Poured in, and although it's all solo events, we see traces of the other half.

- Aside from that, we now see social media exchanges (almost always for the other half), brand endorsement captions (almost always about the other half), official brands partnering with each other because of them (despite being legit competitors) etc.

- The word 'support' or at least 'love seeing them together', is the general reason CPfans are fans of them. But to both GJ and ZZH, it really goes beyond the word itself. Acknowledging is just the beginning. ZZH does take LLD to heart and GJ is very interactive with LLDs in his own quirky way.

*From the [Star X Moon Saga], to the developed feelings because of this drama and actually accepting their feelings, to the fact that the pitiful budgeted amount for WOH was not well received at all before it was broadcasted but boomed records in the end, to the open shipping support by the production crew/casts/general media/fans/brands/cities, to the climbing successes and mountainous opportunities opened for GJ and ZZH overnight, everything was unprecedented and unexpected, but they all dramatically happened to the two of them in a span of one year.

Bonus

A fan went to a temple to check out JunZhe's fate. You can only check for one person and she checked for GJ. She passed her result to a Master and he immediately tell her to give up because that person is taken and turned away. The fan quickly corrected and say she's actually checking for someone else, the master turned back and checked her read again and said, everything is aligned to their favour, it's blessed by the Gods. (If I can find the full article again, will add on more but that's the gist, surfing in China made me love Google's search engine algorithm so much more).

A few other fans who 抽签 (Chinese praying tradition - simply put: draw a stick of varying luck). They all got the bestest of luck for JunZhe. (Reading the readings, I'm just...in awe...I...)

= Borrowing the meaning of another famous novel title, to me, this is a true "Heaven's official blessing" pair.

-------End of series-------

🌻To returning readers: Updated info are in purple for your easy references!

🌸Part 1 - Before filming here

🌸Part 2 - During filming here

🌸Part 3 - After filming, before broadcast here

🌸Part 4 - Broadcast/Promotion period here

🌻Upcoming: JunZhe Saga series

🌻[Ongoing updates] Will add if I remember or found new ones - last updated 220721

🌻For long posts like this, I tend to look back for grammar and phrasing mistakes (sometimes info updates), so when you reblog for future references, do keep in mind that there may be updates in the original post! :)

[chemicalpink]

Hey, I hope you are doing good this was a thing that was wondering me so there are lot of bts future spouse /soulmate/twinflame videos being made on youtube and honestly everyone is being psychic like it has become a shitshow and what was previously just for curiosity fun and entertainment are becoming extremely emotionally invested in the topic especially for maknae line soulmate it would be interesting if the can do a tarot reading or your spiritual experience why is the future spouse saga turning ugly and does universe what us to know something through it !? Because it's becoming pretty crazy right now

Okay so I believe that yes, the spiritual part has a lot to do behind this occurrence, but I also think its roots lay on psicosocial matters and honestly I could go on for days about this but I’ll try to restrict it to a few points that you’ve mentioned

Why all of a sudden everyone seems to be tarot readers/astrologers/psychic?

The capitalism behind celebrities and how does that play a part in what is going on?

Are these people accurate at all?

How does energy shifting play a part in this?

Is the soulmate journey even something a third person would be able to note?

But first a Disclaimer: this opinion/rant is based on my experience with spirituality, I am obviously a mere mortal, so I do not hold the absolute truth. Spirituality is a constant learning process and it is open to discussion and interpretation of each person. I am also now a proud sociologist graduate that specialises in a lot of the stuff that has to do with what anon is asking, I’m a social behaviouralist applied to the entertainment industry as well but I’ll also provide my resources in the end.

A/N: Some of you might not yet be ready to read all of this, if I see ANY of you trying to start beef with me, even after the disclaimer, I'm gonna block you. If you want to talk more about it or want to discuss it further, DO SO OFF ANON. ISTG you’ve been warned, I’ve been working on this for the longest time, it even has resources to back all of it up! I’m so glad anon asked, I’m done being diplomatic on this topic (I know people that usually ask stuff are so respectful and i love you guys for it, this note is for those people that regularly jump on my asks to stir things up)

You guys are in for a whole academic article if you decide to read this

SO FUN AND EXCITINGGGG Let us start with behavioural economics as our base to understand the whole phenomenon, it's such a broad and kinda complex concept (especially since I’m trying to extrapolate it to this particular scenario) so let me do my best. It has a lot to do with trend following, although at least to me, it's unclear how exactly this content came to be (soulmate readings, channeling messages, etc) I am guessing it had something to do with an intersectionality between the general spirituality boom that we’ve met with during the pandemic and some person that just as any other marketable opportunity, saw a bridge between fandom life and this spiritual life (both prominent trends in the last two years or so) and honestly, it worked perfectly, whatever their initial intentions were, they threw out a new “product” and it kind of sold itself, two different trends coming together… turned into a behavioural game theory where if you played the part that allows your content to be consumed, you’ll get rewarded for it. In more simple words, tarot meets fandoms (alternatively, tarot meets BTS) is great as it is! but the fan behaviour (which we’ll talk about in a bit) positions the most private parts of the celebrities’ lives to be much more interesting than things that we are already able to see (personal experience, love readings do so much better than idk career readings and it all comes down to behavioural trends of perceiving ‘love’ as something very intimate)

Now, this is where we’ll begin to talk about capitalism as a whole, even in non-monetary systems like social media, where it takes more of a rewarding system via likes, views, reblogs, etc. The whole principle of us living in such a system is being aspirational, we see others profiting off of something, we might want to reach out and do the same so we can profit ourselves, which honestly, I think is what happened with the whole BTS soulmate readings boom, they get a lot of attention, and as a basic market law, as demand goes up and a few people that initially did these readings are no longer capable to satisfy the need of the people wanting to know all the tea, there are market opportunities for other people to do the same thing and increase the offer, although since this whole theory is behavioural, it is very context-dependant, which ends up not following the principle of the consumers being rational about how much and what content they consume, they just sort of consume all of it, regardless of whether the content creator is qualified to offer such content or not, which ultimately only adds onto a never ending cycle of more people claiming they are tarot readers/astrologers/psychics and fear nothing because this is the internet, you don't really have to enter any qualifications to be able to create content, whether someone is reliable in internet terms is basically all about how many likes they’ve got (which is why I always tell you guys to please consume content responsible).

When it comes to accuracy- I guess that’s the hardest part of all, we can’t just have pointers that would automatically tells us if someone’s craft is valid or not, since everyone’s craft is different all craft is valid to a certain extent (you can easily find scammers of course but that’s another story) what we can have are personal standards and deciding what content to consume or whose content to consume, but that’s entirely a personal decision and since so many people are invested in it- it seems really hard that these “market tendencies” might change any time soon. On that same note of accuracy, I really feel the need to talk about a major occurrence I’ve come across in this whole soulmate scene, minors. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being a minor and approaching spirituality (I was very much a minor when I started) but there’s a huge difference between just playing around and deciding to create content for the whole world to have access to. Of course I’m aware not all tarot readers in the BTS fandom are minors, and ARMY is very diverse and even if they were only minors it would be wrong to invalidate them, but we can’t ignore the statistics of it when touching this particular topic, according to 2020 data, 50,31% of ARMY are below 18 years old, and 42,59% are between 18-29 but why is this important? because the exact historical and economic moment we are living in mainly impacts these two age groups, thus making all 92,90% of ARMY a potential target to consuming or falling in a behavioural game theory of creating this content without them necessarily being qualified for it. But hey, why do you keep talking about the importance of being qualified? Glad you asked, creating spiritual content all comes down to one amazing term: accountability.

And this will explore two main phases of it, one applicable for that 50,31% that could potentially be drawn to create spiritual content and other for the 42,59% that could potentially be dragged to creating that content without much spiritual knowledge. For the first one, it has a lot to do with cognitive aspects, young people tend to do stuff without much further thought about how their actions impact other people, which, as they should, they are kids, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about emotional responsibility as us adults do, furthermore, they are in life stages where they can’t really comprehend many abstract concepts that we later learn in life, and spirituality is one of those concepts, so they tend to just have fun with it with no regards on how their content might impact other minors (this is where the whole feeding a false scenario that is potentially delusional in exchange of more views, likes comes into play) on a more spiritual level, they also aren’t able to comprehend the boundaries of the celebrities they’re reading for, us readers have to always be careful about the information we give out since it is not ours to give. As for the second group, some of this is still applicable since theorists consider a full cognitive maturity until 23 years of age, but since it is very intersectional itself, i would found it more to a spiritual responsibility, since they are young adults, and if they haven’t been spiritually guided as kids, they’re most probably eager to learn and just awakening yet to some of them the drive to this spirituality is content creation instead of inner work, so they get their hands on a tarot deck, might kind of read a few things, call it a day and start reading for BTS (note: not all of them, I’m aware)

As for the maknae line being the most sought out people with this content, I guess it kinda makes sense now that I’ve said all of the information above, maknae line is closest to the age group of 92,90% of ARMY, so they instantly become more marketable to this content creation and the whole Game Theory that we are seeing. With all that being said, and just adding a note coming from my own spiritual experience, soulmates in any form are a difficult topic for a third person to prode, which is why I, personally, tend to not touch that topic, love is one hell of a concept, especially since we all have different conceptions of love and interpersonal relationships. I do know for a fact that there’s only so far we can go in terms of fated connections, like with astrology, but even then, we would have to know their birth times exactly (so we can check for any indicator or a soulmate connection), and/or compare BTS with the rest of the world’s population in order to accurately tell if someone has a soulmate synastry/overlay/composite with them. Also, soulmate journeys are intimate and we are all just fans, what right do we even have to look for things that do not and will never belong to us?

This is why I’m always telling you guys to PLEASE consume content responsibly! Really! Us content consumers also have our part to play that can help us get more accurate, more drama-free content

REFERENCES (what? you thought I was joking? they’re in alphabetical order)

ARMYCENSUS 2020

Loewenstein, G., O’Donoghue, T., & Rabin, M. (2003). Projection bias in predicting future utility. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(4), 1209-1248.

March, J. G. (1978). Bounded rationality, ambiguity, and the engineering of choice. The Bell Journal of Economics, 9(2), 587-608.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion and motivation Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.

Mazar, N., Amir, O., & Ariely, D. (2008). The dishonesty of honest people: A theory of self-concept maintenance. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 633-644.

Murphy, S. T., & Zajonc, R. B. (1993). Affect, cognition, and awareness: Affective priming with optimal and suboptimal stimulus exposures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 723-729.

Samson, A., & Voyer, B. (2014). Emergency purchasing situations: Implications for consumer decision-making. Journal of Economic Psychology, 44, 21-33.

Schwartz, B. (2004). The paradox of choice: Why more is less. New York: Ecco.

Shah, A. K., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). Heuristics made easy: an effort-reduction framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 207-222.

Thaler, R. H. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics. Allen Lane.

Thaler, R. H. (2008). Mental accounting and consumer choice. Marketing Science, 27, 15-25.

Wood, W., & Neal, D. T. (2009). The habitual consumer. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19, 579-592.

[theparanormalperiodical]

Paranormal Activity (2007) - The True Story Behind The Franchise, And The 5 Other Demonic Hauntings You Need To Know About

What does the election of Margaret Thatcher, the industrialisation of Europe, and a shitty found footage film have in common?

They all changed the world.

Sure, Paranormal Activity (2007) may have not brought about the socio-economic changes created by the Iron Lady, nor that of the Industrial Revolution.

But there’s doubt about it: it defined a new era of horror films.

“Whoa whoa whoa - what about The Blair Witch Project?”

Okay, fine, The Blair B*tch Project is an icon that I supernaturally-stan. But it was the chaotic web of films that made up the Paranormal Activity franchise that set off a new focus on real stories, on real hauntings we can see and hear and film and photograph.

Type ‘ghosts’ into YouTube. Go on, do it. 

With enough 10 minute videos clogged with adverts, cheap jumpscares, and a nightvision overlay that would resurrect Paris Hilton’s career, these films tapped into what’s happening right here, right now.

Thanks to the rise of social media and the phones we use to update them, ‘evidence’ of the paranormal is now scattered across the internet. Paranormal Activity tapped into that, providing us innocent viewers with a terrifying movie that would span 5 more films.

(Oh, and it turns out another one is set for release in 2021! Which isn’t unnecessary at all. Nope. Definitely not unneeded.)

But what’s really scary isn’t the film itself. 

Oh, no.

It’s the fact that it’s all based on true stories.

Today’s post is going to recap the Paranormal Activity films, explain the true stories of demonic hauntings it’s based on, and go through the 5 other demonic hauntings you need to know about.

Let’s get spooky.

First, Let’s Recap The Paranormal Activity Franchise

With 7 films under its belt (you can’t forget the spinoff set in Japan!), this saga takes a detour around the core of the franchise and the explanation of the activity.

The franchise centres around a coven of witches who sacrifice first born boys to demons in exchange for money and success. Some first born boys are also used to create a demonic army to protect the coven. 

Most of the films follow one family who experiences the actions of the coven - The Midwives - firsthand. One of the two daughters is kidnapped by her grandmother, a member of the coven, and prepared for the day that she will fulfill her womanly duties:

That’s right, she’s gonna give birth to a demon.

And yes, you are invited to the baby shower!

The films start in the present with one of the daughters beginning to experience traces of paranormal activity which evolves into a full on demonic haunting. It is then revealed in scraps of conversation - and then embellished in later films - that weird paranormal stuff happened when they were kids. 

We then jump back and forth between past ‘n present until the whole witchy-shebang is revealed.

Here’s the film-by-film summary:

Paranormal Activity: Katie and bae Micah witness paranormal activity in their home and decide to film the mysterious things that happen at night - less sex tape, more supernatural. The activity becomes more intense and is revealed to be demonic, focusing on Katie and eventually possessing her. She kills Micah in full demonic-mode, and goes missing.

Paranormal Activity 2: Katie’s sister, Kristi, and her family set up cameras in their house following a burglary (spoiler alert - it ain’t no burglary). Activity escalates, and the daughter of the family, Ali, works out that this is a demonic haunting and that humans made deals with demons by forfeiting the soul of a first born son. Kristi’s son, Hunter, is the first boy born in their family since the 1930s. Kristi is eventually possessed and subsequently exorcised to protect her and the family. They do this by passing the demon onto Katie by burning a photograph. Katie then rocks up in demonic-mode and kidnaps Hunter.

Paranormal Activity 3: Before Hunter was born, Katie gave some old videotapes to her sister, Kristi, which contains footage of their childhood - and the paranormal activity that occurred within it. The activity offers up strange symbols, invisible figures, and the emergence of the coven, The Midwives. Tobi the demon also rocks up for the first time. We also find out what the coven does and that their grandmother, Lois, is one of these witches. Their parents are killed, and Katie and Kristi are told to ‘get ready’. 

Paranormal Activity 4: A new famalam are busy living a non-demonic life when a neighbour falls ill. The neighbour’s child, Wyatt (pssst - it’s Hunter! And the neighbour’s Katie omgggggg) goes to live with them. Their non-demonic life then becomes demonic. Spooky shenanigans ensue, we see the coven, Katie kills people… On reflection, this film didn’t need to be made. But oh well. 

Paranormal Activity 5: The Marked Ones: Lovable high school grad, Jesse, is living his non-demonic life above his totally-demonic neighbour, Ana. Turns out she’s a witch in the coven. One of his classmates is also demonic, and is seen doing demonic shit as a result of Ana. It is then revealed that some first born sons are recruited into this demonic army. Jesse is one of them, and begins to exhibit strange behaviour - he has been ‘marked’. Jesse’s friend and rag-tag group of anti-demonic people investigate and rock up at witch-HQ. His friend is then chased into a door which is revealed to be a portal from which he goes into the kitchen of Katie and Micah. Katie screams and thinks he’s an intruder who Micah tackles. Katie then kills Micah - this is the last scene of the first Paranormal Activity. 

Paranormal Activity 6: The Ghost Dimension: In this film we see snapshots of young Katie and Kristi being taught to unleash their demonicy powers, as well as a new family living on the property where they used to live. The young daughter, Leila is seen talking to and interacting with a dark figure. It is then discovered Leila was born on the same day as hunter, and that Leila has gone through a portal into another world.  A priest attempts to cleanse the house, Tobi goes cray-cray and kills someone. Leila flees through the portal and the mother follows. They rock up at Katie and Kristi’s house and meet young Katie and Kristi. The mother is killed, and Leila and Tobi walk off into the sunset. 

Confused?

Me too.

Sure, it is a thin plot that’s been stretched across far too many flicks, but it’s the frightening filler that really defines the franchise.

Doors moving, earthquakes, dark figures appearing and moving, footsteps seen and heard, strange symbols appearing....

It all ties together to make an iconic set of films. 

Are they going to be remembered for being great?

No. 

Do I care?

Hell to the nah!

But what I do care about is the true story the franchise is based on.

So, What Is The True Story Behind Paranormal Activity?

Okay, fine, I told a lie: they’re actually based on multiple stories of demonic and other paranormal hauntings.

Yes, that is worse. 

I’ve dissected 3 components of the films that I’ve traced back to real paranormal theories and stories.

Demonic hauntings

Animal and children interaction with paranormal activity

And the coven

Let’s Start With The Demonic Hauntings 

If there’s one thing that Paranormal Activity gets right, it’s the paranormal activity.

With minimal discussion of what the shit is actually going on - particularly in the first movie - it truly lives up to its name of just being pure spooks. Now, in case you’re new to this blog, you probably won’t be as versed as I am in everything-spooky.

*flips hair*

Things like objects and furniture moving are just a few components of paranormal activity, as is lights flickering, for example; this all features as the beginning of the films’ activity, similar to that of real cases of spirit and demonic hauntings.

But the films then go on to capture what makes hauntings truly demonic:

Growling noises, people in trances or acting strange, and aggressive supernatural activity - all build up to the inevitable possession of a character which happens in every single film. 

And it hits possession like a nail on the head. 

It follows historic theories closely, focusing only on female possession. According to medieval theories, women were more likely to be possessed as they were deemed weaker, and thus more vulnerable to demons and spirits wanting to control their bodies. 

Young girls? Magnets for Satan.

So, given the centrality of the young girls to the film who are besties with and apparently shit out a demon via the vag, this is pretty accurate. 

Which, you know, is fine, this is fine.

Another key component of the demonic haunting we need to discuss rocks up in the first film, setting alight the curiosity that had us humble viewers coming back to every following film:

It’s the burnt photo of Katie as a child.

Burnt photos - or just destroyed photos - figure as key milestones of a demonic haunting. And smashed photo frames, scratched pictures all feature in this franchise.

In the films, it is eventually deduced that the burnt photo is used to transfer a demon to someone else. That explains why later in the film, the demon goes on to possess Katie. 

In terms of paranormal cases, photos being used for ritualistic purposes is well documented in cases of witchcraft. One example of this is from the mysterious death of Estefanía Gutiérrez Lázaro, a story immortalised in the horror hit, Veronica.

At one point during the real case of Estefania, her picture burns spontaneously in front of her family around the time of her death.

In fact, burning items in general is a classic ritual related to unleashing demons. Fancy getting rid of your Ouija board? Don’t burn it - as hell is, uh, hot, demons can be released. Or they’re trapped in the board itself and by destroying it, they can escape.

Burning is also used in invocation, a ritual used in demonolatry, the worship of demons. 

Next Up Is The Interactions Between Animals, Children, And The Paranormal

All horror films tend to start with the same thing:

The doggo starts acting weird.

In The Conjuring, the dog dies. In The Woman In Black, the dog draws attention to the dark figure approaching Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe. And in Paranormal Activity 2, the doggo barks at invisible figures and gets hurt by the demon. 

Question is, does this actually happen?

Yep. 

Apparently, dogs and cats are highly susceptible to the supernatural. With their proved heightened senses - and some folklore to back it up - animals are considered one of the first signs of something paranormal.

And kids?

It’s the same thing. Remember what I said about young girls being really vulnerable ‘cause all women are weak? Children were considered to be on that same level of ‘open-to-demon-ness’ as women, so it follows that they’d be equally aware of the paranormal. 

Enter the imaginary friend, Tobi. You know - the demon. 

Imaginary friends bulk out most creepypastas, as well as the true ghost stories littering the internet. So unfortunately, Tobi is far more common than we’d like to think.

Yay.

Let’s Talk About The Coven, The Midwives

The underlying plot of the films - aside from being about cupboards opening all by themselves - is about the puppet-like control of the family by The Midwives.

And there are 3 things which directly link to real cases of covens and witchcraft.

However, when I started my research, I immediately ran into a problem: covens worshipping demons they want to bring back to earth and take over the world aren’t exactly shouting about their activities.

There’s no Twitter account posting memes about kidnapping kids. There’s no YouTube channel devoted to altar hauls. And there’s no crowdfunding to raise money for the indoctrination of women as they sacrifice their kids to demons.

But I did want to pull apart a few things like the symbol of the Midwives, their obsession with first born boys, and the confusing plotline of time travel. 

First, we have their motives for their worship and sacrifice: its to gain money and success. This is a well documented component of black magic and demonolatry, a motive we can trace back to concepts from the medieval era.

Next is the symbol.

Despite looking like they copied and pasted it from Harry Potter, symbols containing a triangle and circle frequent literature documenting witchcraft. Specifically, this symbol is close to that of Soloman’s Seal, or the Triple Tale.

The latter represents gates, or spiritual manifestations. 

That’s pretty fecking close to the plot of the movie!

Following up from your next tramp stamp tat is their obsession with first born boys. 

“It’s the patriarchy!”

Hell fucking yeah, it is. 

These witches are seriously behind the times, and stick to biblical notions of magic, deducing their obsession from the value appointed to first born boys in the biblical era. This is especially true given that the sacrifice of a first born son often crops up or is referred to in this bestselling book. 

Finally, we have to discuss the time travel.

The franchise ties all the films together by using time travel to…

Look, I have no fucking clue why or how or for what reason. But What I do know is that there are these portals that can take people back to key plot moments of extreme witchy-demony-stuff. 

Take the first time we see one of these portals: during the 5th movie we see a character stuck in Witch-HQ, looking for a way to escape. He decides to go through a door covered in strange symbols cause that’s not gonna be witchy at all. 

He walks through, and enters a kitchen. He then sees Katie, the lass from the first movie walk down the stairs, and scream for Micah, her boyfriend.

That’s right - we witness the moment she becomes possessed, suggesting the witches had some direct hand in that moment.

The circle is complete! I think, I don’t know, I’m still confused...

Unfortunately, these portals end the series. In the last film, a new family rock up in a house built on the property where the young girls kidnapped by the coven used to live, and the kid of the new family ends up time travelling to when they used to live there, even though that house burnt down.

“So, is it based on paranormal theories?”

No. 

Sure, some witchcraft does mention travelling to other plains - see astral projection and Insidious - but, like my coven research, witches ain’t posting their time travels on insta.

That being said, I would love to see that classic hand holding/leading shot as a witch takes bae into another dimension...

Paranormal Activity may be the cinematic representative for a jumpscare-binge, but the film goes much deeper than a demon throwing a tantrum and slamming a door cause nobody understands him. 

(Dammit, Tobi.)

Fact is, Paranormal Activity isn’t just ‘based on a true story’. It’s an accurate representation of a demonic haunting.

The 5 Demonic Haunted Houses You Need To Know About

Let me guess:

You’re currently hiding under a quilt and watching Gordon-Ramsay-Getting-Hella-Angry compilations on YouTube to try and calm down. 

If so, you’re gonna want to stay under there - It’s time to discuss the other demonic hauntings that are similar to the Paranormal Activity franchise.

Uncomfortably similar, that is.

Fantastic.

#1 -  The Demon House

Topping our list is a house which clearly fits the topic of this post by its name alone.

Bob Cranmer, former resident of this Pittsburgh house, claims he lived in a house that was haunted by a demon for 18 years. Why did he stay in this house for 18 years if this was in fact also home to a demon?

*shrug*

Either way, before a demon was cast out by an exorcism in the mid-noughties, the haunting manifested in hands pushing and slapping family members, you know, the usual escalation of violent attacks…

Oh, and Cranmer also saw blood dripping from the walls. 

But it’s the backstory to the property that really makes things terrifying. It was discovered that the Demon House was built upon a site from which Native Americans were murdered by European settlers. On top of that, a builder cursed the land during construction. 

Also, a former tenant of the house is believed to have been an illegal abortionist who performed hundreds of these operations in the house. Well, depending on what you believe, this supposedly brought forward a demon.

(It’s at this point that I would think “oh I should be neutral” but nah fuck that #prochoice)

Anyway.

According to Cranmer’s investigation - from which he even churned out a book on the house - the name of the demon is Moloch, a god mentioned in the Old Testament. By researching the old tenants of the house, he discovered that some were actually worshippers of this demon.

And considering Moloch’s love for child sacrifices, Cranmer connected some dots regarding the illegal abortionist that once lived there.

Regardless of my disagreements with this verdict, there is no doubt that this be a spooky house.

#2 - The Smurl Family House

You know shit’s spooky when Ed and Lorraine Warren rock up at your house. 

For a period of 13 years, the Smurl family of Pennsylvania was tormented by a demon which smothered them with an abundance of supernatural activity. 

Toilets flushing by themselves, electronic devices failing to work, and awful odours passing through the house was just a few components of the activity faced. This escalated into arguably more violent activity synonymous with demonic hauntings:

Claw marks appeared in various rooms, full bodied apparitions would appear over beds, and a demon they named ‘Old Hag’ became a permanent resident.

Whether ‘Old Hag’ was passing through walls, or sexually assaulting the human residents, there was no doubt that the Smurls were witnessing an intense level of activity.

50 exorcisms were used to cleanse the house, but to no avail; the assaults didn’t stop until the Smurls moved out, giving further evidence to support the skeptics that this demonic haunting was no haunting at all. 

#3 - The Bean’s Family House

It’s the 1970s. We are in Baltimore, in a quiet suburb crammed full of all-american families. 

Unfortunately, there was no Tracy Turnblad around to brighten up this ranch style house. This home was cursed with a negative energy that was soon determined to be the result of a demonic presence. 

This demonic haunting manifested in cold hands touching and grabbing family members, reenacting all the ways someone could be murdered. It even transformed itself into a human draped in a black suit!

With fierce black eyes giving away its true identity, the demon was ascertained as the cause of the activity, and the Bean family fled in the 1980s. 

Question is, what was the root of this demon? 

The former residents claim it was extra-terrestrial contact, with strange pictures supporting their claims.

#4 - The Haunting of Latoya Ammons

There’s a ghost making your TV turn on and off… And then there’s mysterious occurrences so intense the local police are involved.

This case is the latter.

It all started in 2011, shortly after a small family moved into their new home in Indiana. Large black flies began to swarm their front porch, and the frequent sound of footsteps began to trouble the family.  

Shadowy figures also began to emerge, and would become the centre of the haunting. Alongside this, Ammons claimed she also witnessed her daughter levitating above her bed, sparking the need for supernatural support. Mediums were called, and they deduced that 200 demons haunted their house. 

Following an exorcism, the family decided to leave the house as it failed to rid the house of its paranormal residents. Not convinced? Here’s the iconic picture believed to show a demon standing at the window of the house:

#5 - The Sallie House

Considered one of the most famous haunted houses in the world, this home is the residence of a young girl named Sallie. Oh, and she’s dead. It is believed that she was a victim of a lobotomy in the early 20th century, and attacks any men who enter the house in vengeance of her doctor.

But what really made this house famous was the investigation by a TV crew who experienced scratches and bruises from unseen forces in real time. Such violent assaults are a trademark of demonic hauntings.

Other visitors have also cited apparitions, floating objects, and animal noises, confirming that this house features something that we simply cannot explain. .

When mediums rocked up to deduce the centre of this haunting, they determined that that little girl was a magnet for darker, demonic forces that have entered the house.  

I told you - young girls are magnets for Satan. 

So - what’s your verdict?

Do you think these houses are haunted?

And who’s ready for a sleepover in one of them?

(not me)

Be sure to let me know in a comment.

And don’t forget to hit follow for a spook every single day. 

[wateenleventje]

The Beginning of Us

I used to write fiction. Nothing really remarkable, yet I enjoy composing fictious character's life and tell how love can change our life. Maybe because I watch too much romantic comedy. When I finally stop writing these type of writing, is I think because it does not give much impact to my personal life, let alone to bigger audience.

I decided to write more based on my real personal experience or share my thought in a blog platform. It feels different, it feels more therapeutic because I can stop bottling up what is on my mind and how I actually feel. It is also nice to have pensieve (Harry Potter vocab alert)!

I sometimes miss the good old days when I soak myself in the story of love. No matter how cheesy the story is, I believe that every person's life worth a once in a lifetime story, especially their journey of finding love. That is why I love watching movie about love story (Earlier episode of The Crown with Elizabeth and Philip's story, Felicity Jones' The Theory of Everything, Sandra Bullock's The Proposal, Hilary Duff's Cinderella Story, Lily Colin's Love, Rosie., Lindsay Lohan's The Parent Trap, Emily Clarke's Me Before You are some of my favorite). I enjoy reading hundred of pages (oh well, thousand? I even guilty for reading the whole Twilight Saga series) of how people's life twisted once love came. I kept quotes of love advice, reading and listening to random podcast, videos and blog post about love story, and I even wrote scientific paper about Long Distance Relationship couple (for my bachelor's thesis).

I have to admit that I even perceive so many things in my life happening in a way of a romantic comedy writer works. As an intro I would summed up that we started off as two strangers meeting in a destined time. We came with our own baggage a.k.a history and current situation on-going, but we just gotta meet that night and get through the labyrinth first. Even the setting could not be anymore "hollywood-like": one night, in a new city, simple hello and cheesy line, and we instantly hit if off. 

One thing lead to another, we did not just related, but we keep in touch regularly after that night. It was a memorable night and I was enchanted by him. However, it was on hold shortly after he casually mentioned about his current relationship and became supportive to my situation that time. I was not in my best state at that time, as I took so many careless choices and not focusing on what really matters in life and in love. I think, it was because I was 23 and living on the edge seems like a celebration of getting “my freedom”. 

Even when we became busy with our own circle, our own love life, and our routine, we maintain our close friendship. We came to each other naturally but carefully refraining ourselves from diving in real feeling. I somehow sense that I messed up a little too much and with him I just found a safe haven. I became so comfortable showing my actual thought and telling him how I felt, even when he frowned after hearing about it. I have to be honest, even though I was in a relationship with someone else by that time, I enjoyed his constant care (like taking the closest chair or walking beside me most of the time), his abudant encouragement (how he called me "genius" just because I told him excitedly that I passed my exam without caring the grades I have), our sweet personal talk (I remembered how he shared his "wedding theme song" to me when we were just friend), his being protective to me (not letting me out on my own during winter night) and making a big deal out of his spontaneous compliment (telling me that I made the best fried rice--just because I decided not to put chili on it, because he dislikes spicy food). I remembered that we spent so many alone time, one on one talk when our group of friends are hanging out, catching up in a short groceries walk.

By the end of our first semester, I noticed that something change between us. We become overtly friendlier but also trapped in our current situation. I was so consumed by a long distance relationship struggle back then and did not realize that he also getting close with someone else. I still think that he paid that degree of attention only to me and we have different level of closeness, so I got myself so comfortable with him. I was indulged in our special routine: taking time, just the two of us, strolling around the city in dawn, having kebab and soda when I need someone to talk to, watching the first snow shower together, and even had our best-honeymoon-trip-scenario, where he acted as if he helped me to create a honeymoon itinerary for the me and my future spouse while we just filled it with our favorite places.

I had my breakdown that year after a short holiday where we spent far away from each other as I just broke up from a relationship that I actually knew would not survive. Still, it hurts and what I wanted that new year eve was just to returned to our Maastricht and met him. I was delighted that he was eager to meet me and my parents as well, to the point he initiated it. We arranged a short trip out of the city and I can't deny how I felt about him once I found him getting along with my father. I watched them just sync effortlessly and how he made conversation with him all day long while me and my mom getting “busy” shopping. Maybe I was not rational at that time, wanting to escape from my heart break, but I swear I hear myself saying "I think, all these things happened so I can realize that Madeza is the one".

I did not pay attention or simply refute from seeing the signs, I let myself build hope that this might be a start of something new, only to find out that he had a new girl friend. I remembered that night very clearly, I remember the place when he told me casually about it. I felt like a fool and I keep wondering whether it was a plot twist in our story. Anyway, is it quite clear how our love story resembles one of that movie up until this point?

The shock and even worse heartbreak this time, I got angry and tried to find another resort. So, I chose to spend time with someone else out of the blue, making it clear that I tried to escape watching someone I am in love with enjoying a good time with someone else. I tried to run away from the fact that I have to witness them together, because we were in the same group and we lived in a small city, and I need to at least be able to "do what he do to me”. I don’t know if I am so angry at him or at the timing.

Nonetheless, I can’t keep my joy whenever we sneaked out for a meet-up. But our conversation became bizarre as we keep so much from each other. It only took us weeks to realize that our so called friendship needs a closure. We approached each other, talking until dawn and crying and laughing at how ridiculous the situation we got ourselves into. We talked about past, about our feeling, about moments we secretly keep and treasure it. I was told that he actually recognized me before we talked for the first time. He spotted me through a social media posting and he read some of my blog posts. 

I think, that moment we were too happy and got ourselves into a bubble, we were too afraid to return to the reality we were in that we did not talk about it. But morning comes and we just have to face the reality we were in. Once or twice we exchanged some difficult conversation, like a passive I-want-you-to-tell-what-is-going-on-between-us and we did not continue in the middle of our conversation because it was too hard just to straightly said how we actually feel. So, we let the distance grow, we did not really exchange news or let ourself start any conversation. It was hard, but I think by that time it was what we need for a while.

I remember the spring was around the corner when we finally reconnected. It started with a random meeting and hang out. It ended up with a text where I confessed that I miss him so badly. Ever since that day, we just know that things are escalating. Although we spend time with our friends, we cannot keep that longing stare off each other. I feel that moment very significant to our relationship because we were so close to hit that point in our romantic relationship, yet we were not so sure where we stood.

One of the most special memory in that period is related with the celebration of my 24th birthday. We did not get to celebrate my birthday together, but we went to the church that morning together. He took me to a birthday brunch and it was a lovely morning. I was not really in a good place back then, I felt a bit disoriented in between what I have not achieved in my life and where I want to walk after this. We talk about future, not as the two of us, yet, but about each of us. We learn about surrender (berserah) our life in God's hands and not give up our situation to the situation at road's end (terserah). I never had that kind of conversation with anyone before, that moment I know how much I want to have those conversations for the rest of my life.

As we only have part of my birthday together, we decided to go for a date to annual spring garden, away from our city. I bought a pinky seed of tulip, we strolled, chatted, and had dinner. He took me to have dinner in a cozy café by the pier called Plek. We stayed there long enough until the crowd dissolved, looking the sky turned black, the lights hanged warmly, and we had the bench by the pier for ourselves. We sit there, looking at pitch black far horizon, just close our eyes in silence side by side. The weather feels cool, but I cant help feeling sad for this moment, as verything is quite blurry even when we can't deny what is hanging the air. He said something though--something that replace the 3 words we have not really dare to say to each other as we just throw the badge of friendship that we used all this time. "If one day I don’t fight for us as much as I do today, please remind me of this place and this moment."

He took my breath away.

For 23 years I was falling and failing miserably, worrying that I wont come up with the love story that as magical as my parents’. I am afraid I won’t ever stop looking until I found my own great love story. Then, I met Madeza that year and I know he is my great love story. It was just the beginning and I already know how it turned out to be, and I love it. I’ve found the one and it is much more wonderful than any love story in the whole world. 

#whatalife

[cryptoevent]

Twitter, GameStop… enough! The world needs true decentralization

GameStop and Twitter are both a mirage and an iceberg, but don’t try to tweet about it. Not because you won’t own a tweet (because you won’t), but because the only completely truthful expression Twitter can offer as a platform is to expose the ugly truth about the Internet itself. Or as Elon Musk recently tweeted:

In retrospect, it was inevitable

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2021

Let me explain.

As Robinhood stops doing business for its so-called users, Jack Dorsey talked about the decentralization of Twitter and social media in general. But aside from a few enthusiasts, the word “decentralization” is the equivalent of a syntactic vote. But don’t fall asleep right away. I’m not promising to tell you to buy Bitcoins (BTC), but I will tell you why you should be able to own a piece of the next Twitter and Robin Hood. Let’s start by saying what we all clearly feel.

It seems: The GameStop saga shows that legacy funding is rigged, and DeFi is the answer.

Decentralization has begun

There’s something… in the air. There is a palpable electricity. A tax is about to burst – not a literal tax, but a symbolic tax that has blocked the flow of progress and equality in many parts of our world. Power has always been in the hands of the few, and in all these areas it is about equality of power.

People are beginning to shift from centralized to decentralized models of power, away from the few who possess all the power to share it with the many. When that dam breaks, there will be a huge shift where everyone will become more powerful, while the most powerful among us will begin to become less powerful. The flight has already begun. This is the dawn of a new power.

Jeremy Heymans and Henry Timms, authors of the bestseller New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World – and How to Make It Work for You, describe the situation in a 2014 article :

“The old power works like a currency. It is held by a few. Once acquired, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful have a substantial reserve to spend. It is closed, inaccessible, and controlled by a leader. It downloads and captures. The new power works differently, like a stream. It is created by many. It is open, participatory and driven by like-minded people. It downloads and spreads. Like water or electricity, it is more powerful when it spreads. The purpose of new energy is not to accumulate it, but to channel it.”

A new force for the 21st century

Although the classic model of top-down power, the model of the tree or pyramid, has been around since at least Aristotle, the 21st century is moving toward something very different. We have seen it with the invention of the Internet, with political movements like the Tea Party or Black Lives Matter, with the Me Too movement, with free software, with collective knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and of course with the invention of Bitcoin (BTC) and the blockchain. But perhaps most interestingly, the universe itself, the human brain, art, and our natural ecosystems all resemble decentralized networks. Moreover, they do not resemble top-down energy models.

Heymans and Timms continue in their book:

“Those who build and operate huge platforms, in the service of the new power, have become our new elites. These leaders often use the language of the crowd – “share,” “open,” “connect” – but their actions may tell a different story. Consider Facebook, the new power platform most of us know best. Facebook’s two billion users have no stake in the enormous economic value created by the platform. No word on how it is managed. And no insight into the algorithm that appears to determine our moods, our self-esteem and even some of our decisions. Far from the free-spirited organic paradise that the early Internet pioneers imagined, there is a growing sense that we live in a world of participatory farms, where a few large platforms are fenced in and harvest the daily activities of billions of people for their own gain.”

Robinhood and Twitter – and, more importantly, the Internet design that made their business models possible – are centralized and unfolding. They are promoting the old power while bragging about it. This is where the mirage meets the iceberg. But after a tumultuous 2020, it seems people have had enough. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak.

Cultural and technological changes

What was once a theory has now become a reality. The network model really exists and, ironically, it needs a new home because it currently operates at the top of the pyramid.

The Internet is controlled by central servers of central entities. All our human data is controlled, manipulated, studied, sold and used to influence our behavior and obtain the greatest possible value for a small group of people. That’s the way it is, whether the technology giants want to admit it or not. Users are products, not customers. In the case of Robinhood, which has stopped trading GameStop and other stocks, the free service now shows that users’ commercial data is the real bread and butter by selling it to hedge funds. In the case of social media platforms, they sell our data to advertisers and sometimes to political campaigns – or worse.

So where are we now?

Millions of people today are desperate for new platforms where they can control their digital identity, manage their own data, and even enjoy and manage the platform. This new power proposition, where democracy meets libertarianism, fortunately already exists.

From the Bitcoin model created for peer-to-peer value transfer, to decentralized exchanges of digital goods only in code form, to decentralized financial stacking platforms that allow users to literally set the rules of the platform-all without a central governing body-the future looks bright.

But that’s not enough.

The everyday applications we use on our phones still run on the old electrical infrastructure. They all use central servers and corporate identities (about 70 people on average), and they all have companies that own all the data generated by their products/customers. This needs to change.

The new Internet, or Web 3.0, is creating a new infrastructure and new ways to move and store data. By removing centralized servers, giving Internet identities to public rather than corporate blockchains, and giving users the choice of how they store their data, applications are part of a new power movement. With a decentralized Internet, the popular phrase “if it’s free, you’re a product” can finally be refuted. How can this be done? Because Web 3.0 is a global movement, not a corporation.

It has always been thought that the Internet was a vast decentralized and intelligent network that no one controlled, like our universe, our brains, our oceans, and now our cultural movements. Decentralized social networks are already in development, with decentralized versions of Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp in the works.

The year 2021 marks the beginning of the end of the old power of the Internet. In my opinion, this cannot happen soon enough.

This article does not contain investment advice. There are risks associated with every investment and trading transaction, and readers should do their own research before making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this document are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Cointelegraph.

Donald Bullers has worked in the technology industry for over 10 years, from Vice President of Digital Marketing to founder of Tuum Technologies. He is interested in digital identity and Web 3.0 and leads several teams developing software for a fully decentralized Internet using Elastos technology.

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Sleepless in the Senate On Feb. 22-23, DealBook will bring together some of the sharpest minds in business and policy for our DealBook DC Policy Project. Join us from anywhere in the world, free of charge. Register today. Fifteen hours later … From around 2:30 p.m. yesterday to 5:30 a.m. today, senators engaged in a “vote-a-rama,” dealing with a flood of amendments to a budget resolution that would accelerate the passage of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan, without any Republican votes if necessary. Indeed, after dealing with dozens of amendments, the Senate passed the bill along party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote in the evenly split chamber. And so begins the “budget reconciliation” process. The arcane, filibuster-proof procedure — which was used to pass President Donald Trump’s tax cut in 2017 — features “baroque parliamentary tricks that few understand,” writes Times Opinion’s Ezra Klein. In short, after the House passes an identical resolution to the Senate’s, probably within a day or so, lawmakers will take a few weeks to work out the details of the stimulus bill, subject to some constraints under reconciliation. The final package won’t include everything Mr. Biden wants, most notably raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, which will be delayed by an amendment that senators passed to put off any increase until after the pandemic. Senator Bernie Sanders, unfazed, said that his plan for the wage increase was to phase it in over five years, not impose it immediately. Senators also agreed to a motion to block tax increases on small businesses during the pandemic, backed a fund to provide grants to bars and restaurants hit by the coronavirus crisis, voted to overturn Mr. Biden’s halt on the Keystone XL pipeline, and forbade $1,400 stimulus checks from going to “upper-income taxpayers,” which will be defined when the bill-writing process begins. The upshot: Something resembling the $1.9 trillion package proposed by the White House will probably become law in the coming weeks. Later today, the monthly jobs report will provide an important gauge of the strength of the economic recovery, and could influence lawmakers as they haggle over the small print for a huge stimulus. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING Johnson & Johnson applies for emergency approval of its Covid-19 vaccine. The drugmaker submitted paperwork for its single-shot treatment to the F.D.A. yesterday. Approval could come by late this month, clearing J.&J. to begin shipping it in early March. Senator Amy Klobuchar proposes sweeping changes to antitrust laws. The new Democratic head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee introduced legislation that would prohibit companies with dominant market positions from buying rivals unless they can prove such deals wouldn’t hinder competition. Expect skepticism from Republicans and the tech industry. The Bank of England paves the way for negative interest rates. The central bank told British banks yesterday that they should prepare for rates to go below zero, though policymakers have kept the benchmark rate at 0.1 percent. Still, the pound and bond yields rose in anticipation of a future rate cut. A short seller takes on Chamath Palihapitiya. Hindenburg Research, the research and investment firm, accused the health insurer Clover Health of misleading investors and failing to disclose an inquiry by the Justice Department. Hindenburg, which said it has no investment in Clover, questioned whether Mr. Palihapitiya was aware of those issues when one of his SPACs took the company public. Clover rebutted Hindenburg’s claims this morning, but acknowledged the S.E.C. has begun an investigation. Private equity might join the club of N.B.A. team owners. CVC Capital is reportedly in talks to buy a minority stake in the San Antonio Spurs at a $1.3 billion valuation, The Financial Times reports. A deal could open the door to investment firms buying pieces of other N.B.A. teams, as some minority owners demand more options for selling their stakes. Cashing in on meme-stock mania Here’s another winner in the meme-stock frenzy: the Koss family. The headphone maker that bears their name was swept up in the recent market mania, pushing the heavily shorted small-cap company’s share price up by nearly 2,000 percent in a matter of days. Koss insiders sold some $44 million in stock this week, an amount worth more than the company’s entire market cap before the crowds of retail traders sent its shares soaring. Michael J. Koss, the C.E.O. and son of the firm’s founder, sold shares worth more than $13 million, and was joined by other family members, executives and directors in paring their holdings. Can they do that? Although executives at other companies at the center of the frenzy, namely GameStop and AMC, haven’t sold shares during the rally, there is nothing untoward legally about the move, provided that the insiders did not have access to private information about the run-up in share price. There’s no reason to believe that they did, since it seems that the Reddit-fueled rally was largely conducted in the open, by investors cheering each other on via a public message board. “As the stock goes up in price, whether it makes sense or not, the people on the end of the short sale suffer,” said Craig Marcus, a partner at the law firm Ropes & Gray, “and people who hold the stock and have the opportunity to sell it and benefit from it, benefit from it.” Speaking of cashing in, Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, where meme-stock traders gather, sold the rights to his life story to a production company. Other moderators at the forum, who pushed out Mr. Rogozinski last year, are now fighting for control of the group, which has 8.5 million members, amid accusations that they are trying to position themselves as key players in the saga in hopes of signing deals similar to Mr. Rogozinski’s. In other meme-stock news: GameStop crashed again yesterday, leaving it more than 80 percent lower than at the start of the week. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held a meeting with fellow regulators to address market volatility, which concluded with statements promising further research but no immediate action. And Elon Musk, who had celebrated the meme-stock rally before saying he would take a break from Twitter, returned to tweet praise of the jokey cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which promptly surged in price. A big week for Big Media At CNN: The news network’s longtime leader, Jeff Zucker, announced that he would be stepping down at the end of the year. His exit from CNN raises questions about the network’s future — including speculation about whether he would try to buy out the channel from AT&T or seek to replace his boss, Jason Kilar of WarnerMedia. At Fox News: The election technology company Smartmatic has sued the network for more than $2.7 billion, accusing Rupert Murdoch’s broadcaster of peddling false conspiracy theories about its technology. It follows Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.3 billion lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani on similar grounds. In the papers Some of the academic research that caught our eye this week, summarized in one sentence: Speculative trading in volatile assets creates “pseudo-wealth,” which becomes “dangerously untethered from either market wealth or the real wealth of the economy.” (Joseph Stiglitz) Bankruptcy filings have fallen during the pandemic, but governments should prepare for a surge later this year. (Simeon Djankov and Eva Zhang) Covid-19 may accelerate the automation of jobs, which would affect women more than men. (Alex Chernoff and Casey Warman) How you’d fix the market In his column this week, Andrew suggested six ways to restore trust and fairness in the stock market. We asked what you would add to the list, and received a ton of thoughtful submissions. We read all of them, and here is a selection of common suggestions, edited and condensed for clarity: “Have a zero percent capital gains tax on securities held more than two years. This would encourage long-term investing at the expense of short-term speculative trading.”— Bob Knutson in St. Paul, Minn. “Limit how much of each new issue the big guys can grab and let the small fish get their nibbles first.”— Miriam Kelly in Baltimore “Restore the uptick rule.”— Andrew Oliver in Marblehead, Mass. “Buying back shares should not be allowed. It does nothing for the value of the company, nor does it lead to better investment performance.”— Joyce Hum in Ottawa “Limit the total percentage of float allowed to be sold short. Anything over 100 percent seems to be a recipe for a short squeeze.”— Dan Niemiec in Chicago “Have the exchanges process market orders in a manner that nullifies the machinery of high-frequency trading, like adding a random delay of between five and 15 seconds to any market order.”— Ronny Lempel in Redmond, Wash. “Go to T-0 equity settlement, which reduces the overall credit exposures from trading T+2. Before anyone objects to the technical challenge, China operates this way.”— Stephen Howard in Hong Kong THE SPEED READ Deals Exxon Mobil is reportedly considering adding Jeff Ubben, the environmentally minded activist investor, to its board amid pressure from hedge funds like D.E. Shaw. (Bloomberg) In I.P.O. news: Shares in Kuaishou, a Chinese rival to TikTok, more than doubled in their market debut in Hong Kong. And the yogurt company Chobani plans to go public later this year. (CNBC) A SPAC backed by Alex Rodriguez — yes, A-Rod — hopes to raise about $500 million. (Reuters) Politics and policy Millions of dollars in donations to key Senate races last year came from mysterious nonprofits and companies with little to no paper trail. (Axios) “Can the Man Who Saved the Euro Now Save Italy?” (NYT) Tech Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook unexpectedly made his debut on the social network Clubhouse last night, causing service outages on the platform. (Newsweek) Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island, President Biden’s pick for commerce secretary, said she saw “no reason” to lift U.S. national security restrictions on Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE. (Bloomberg) Best of the rest The economist Nina Banks argues that community activism and other unpaid social labor by Black women is ignored by traditional economic data. (NYT) The number of Black executives who serve as chairs, C.E.O.s or C.F.O.s of Britain’s 100 biggest companies has fallen to zero, thanks to a “vanilla boys’ club.” (HR Magazine) Peloton is spending $100 million on air and ocean freight to shorten shipping delays of its exercise bikes and treadmills. (CNBC) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #Senate #Sleepless

[ladystylestores]

Trump’s Visa Ban Has Foreign Workers And Families Desperate For Answers

Courtesy of Sraboni Bose

Sraboni Bose with her family.

Sraboni Bose was sitting in her parents’ home in India this week closely reading a proclamation signed by President Trump that restricted the entry of thousands of foreign workers and their families. As she did, she looked for any confirmation that it wouldn’t affect her family.

Her husband, a software engineer, was in Texas and had a current H-1B visa. Check.

She had come to India in February for her brother’s wedding, but had her H-4 visa —for spouses and children of certain foreign workers — stamped and renewed. Check.

Her 5-year-old daughter was set to get her H-4 visa renewed before the coronavirus pandemic prompted the US to halt regular processing of visas. Foreign workers and their families can receive extensions on their stay in America, but if they travel abroad, updated visa stamps are necessary to reenter the US. She had yet to get the stamp.

Bose, 32, read the order over and over, and every time she came to the same fear: Since her daughter did not have her valid visa on June 24 as required by the proclamation, she believes she will not be allowed to return to the US.

“I was devastated. We never imagined this would occur,” she told BuzzFeed News. “How can a 5-year-old affect the economy? She studies pre-K and wants to see her dad.”

Desperate, Bose tweeted about her family’s saga.

“How can A H4 minor waiting for stamping for 4 months in India affect the economy!?? @USCIS @StateDept . We have been waiting in India for four months for her F2F Interview which was cancelled in light of Covid-19. There should be some considerations when the H1 is in USA,” she wrote.

How can A H4 minor waiting for stamping for 4 months in India affect the economy!?? @USCIS @StateDept . We have been waiting in India for four months for her F2F Interview which was cancelled in light of Covid-19. There should be some considerations when the H1 is in USA. https://t.co/nwT0bTMmWE

06:22 AM – 25 Jun 2020

A State Department spokesperson said the agency could not comment on individual cases because visa records are confidential under federal law, and instead referred to the text of Trump’s proclamation.

Bose is just one of thousands of people stuck abroad or who have family outside the US seeking answers on social media in the days since Trump signed his order suspending some employment-based visas for foreigners.

It’s a phenomenon that’s played out since the beginning of the Trump era: a broad order impacting thousands of people who are left confused, anxious, and seeking help or advice online.

The proclamation has spawned hashtags such as #excludeusfromban and #LetMeGoHome. Immigration attorneys who have put out calls for stories or offered advice have been inundated with replies and messages. The State Department has been responding to tweets all week on the order’s particulars. Even some reporters have been sought out for their expertise.

“The administration’s execution of this and other immigration policies shows a complete disregard for the affected populations,” said Sarah Pierce, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “Ideally, a major policy change like this one would have been accompanied by Q&As from relevant agencies to educate the public and efforts to reach out to stakeholders so they were prepared for the change. Instead, we’ve seen the affected population and their advocates reduced to seeking advice on their futures in 240-character bits.”

Trump’s proclamation details how “under ordinary circumstances, properly administered temporary worker programs can provide benefits to the economy.” But under the economic situation following the pandemic, “certain nonimmigrant visa programs authorizing such employment pose an unusual threat to the employment of American workers.”

The order, signed Monday, suspended H-1B visas for specialized highly skilled workers, most H-2B visas for nonagricultural seasonal workers, most J-1 visas for exchange visitors, and H-4 visas for those accompanying workers.

Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the conversations on Twitter were proof of “total confusion, lack of clear guidance, and fear for people’s livelihoods and their futures.”

The outpouring of questions and pleas for help this past week could also be attributed to the large number of people affected and the cumulative impact of yet another immigration order restricting access to the US, said Greg Siskind, a Tennessee-based immigration lawyer.

Siskind said he has received thousands of messages on social media. When he can’t get to a question on Twitter, people flood his LinkedIn, Facebook, and email seeking advice.

“This is the usual botched roll out we’ve gotten used to with this White House,” he said in reference to previous orders like the initial ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries that led to chaos at airports across the US.

Reed Saxon / AP

A woman offers legal services at the customs arrival area as demonstrators opposed to President Trump’s executive orders barring entry by Muslims from certain countries march at Los Angeles International Airport on Feb. 4, 2017.

This time around, he said, the order’s language has tripped up even the most seasoned of attorneys.

“The order itself is written confusingly so even the experts can’t really be sure who’s in and who’s out,” he said.

There are still questions on whether those who have current visas, but leave the US and go abroad, will be subject to the ban if they need new visa stamps to return.

Siskind said State Department officials have said online that these individuals would not be able to return to the US, but “that’s a complete contradiction of the plain language of the order.” He believes that those like Bose’s child could be denied entry.

Gayatri Patankar, a 32-year-old Arizona resident, was one of those who reached out to Siskind on Twitter. She had gone to India along with her infant and husband earlier this year. She had needed a new H1B visa stamp, but was unable to receive it because of the consulate closures. She later lost her job and hoped to return to the US on an H4 visa along with her husband.

“Hi, I came India with 2 month old infant for family reasons and have been stuck here since then. I have been studying/working in USA for 7 years now. We have our home, car and other belongings back in USA. Please help us go back home. This is not fair,” Patankar tweeted at Siskind.

@gsiskind Hi, I came India with 2 month old infant for family reasons and have been stuck here since then. I have been studying/working in USA for 7 years now. We have our home, car and other belongings back in USA. Please help us go back home. This is not fair.

05:22 PM – 24 Jun 2020

She asked for help and guidance on Twitter, she added, because “we don’t know what else to do.”

Sakshi Sharma, a 30-year-old H-1B visa holder who lives in Baltimore, had been thinking about her husband when she went on social media. He had to leave the US for Canada once his student visa ran out.

Because of the proclamation, he will not be able to receive an H-4 visa to accompany her in the US.

“I am personally impacted by the family separation ban. I know friends who visited India to meet dying parents for one last time, leaving newly wedded spouse, home, car, everything in US and are now stuck! This is inhuman,” she tweeted.

She posted her predicament on Twitter because she wanted people to know that the proclamation “separates me from my husband..we have a lot of things planned for our personal and professional life for the next 6 -12 months, now with this ban we have lost all of that.”

Meanwhile, Bose is left with difficult conversations with her 5-year-old daughter on whether they will be able to return to the US anytime soon.

The family has lived in the US for the last three years.

“I don’t know how to explain it to her,” she said. “I told her, ‘Right now the proclamation is not letting us because they think some of us can work and that cannot help them because they want more work. It’s like you’re grounded or in a timeout. You can’t see your dad for another 6 months.’”

Jun. 26, 2020, at 23:40 PM

Correction: Sraboni Bose’s name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.

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Bitcoin SV Sets the Stage for Extreme Price Crash

The Bitcoin SV (BSV) rally did not manage to keep up to its highest level. For now, BSV survives with significant gains, but the price is yet to dump. Bitcoin SV Exploded in Early 2020, but Rally Viewed with Suspicion Bitcoin SV, with its market price igniting at the beginning of 2020, has already completed another episode of unusual price action. The asset bounced off the $260 range, only to rally back above $314. BSV hovers close to its highs at 0.03 BTC, a position not seen since the asset forked in November 2018. But just like last time, which led BSV above $330, the price action is viewed with suspicion. During the past rally, some evidence of faked volumes and wash trading were seen. But the overall expectation is that the current price range cannot hold. $BSV This is how I expect this entire saga to unfold. pic.twitter.com/dT1IKO1qz0 — DonAlt (@CryptoDonAlt) January 21, 2020 Popular crypto analyst, DonAlt, has predicted that Bitcoin SV will follow the same colossal crash course that Enjin coin endured during 2018. He comments on the striking similarity between the two fractals, and expects Bitcoin SV to plummet beneath $100 – a 68% decrease from its current $315 valuation (at time of writing). Without a concerted effort, and with volumes slowing down, BSV may continue to slide. This is not unusual altcoin behavior, where spectacular rallies are followed by the price unraveling. In the case of BSV, this may happen even faster, as the coin loses its artificial support. The BSV rally has also been in a way predicted by the Bitcoin SV proponents, and awaited by the community. On social media, there were multiple mentions of big events coming in 2020. Right now, the Bitcoin SV market is much smaller, and allows for speculation to lift the prices. In a way, BSV resembles the early BTC market, where direct speculation could lift the prices easier, without the pressure of futures markets. Mining, Transactions, Pick Up in Early 2020 to Challenge Bitcoin Bitcoin SV expanded to $315.10, rising close to 10% net in the past day. Trading volumes remained around $3.36 billion in 24 hours, with a 47% share of trades against Tether (USDT). Inflows of stablecoins can lift liquidity overnight. This time, BSV saw its biggest rallies on the Bibox exchange, as well as OKEx, where previous doubts of faked volumes have surfaced. The recent price behavior of Bitcoin SV has also raised doubts on whether it’s wise to short the coin. With high pump activity, attempting to short the coin may lead to significant losses. At the same time, buying the asset outright exposes to risks that BSV would slide, leaving bagholders with their depreciating investment. Bitcoin SV transactions continue to reach above Bitcoin (BTC) activity, with around 450,000 transactions per day. The Bitcoin network still carries closer to 300,000 transactions per day. In early 2020, the BSV hashrate has also gone parabolic, doubling within days to above 3.5 EH/s, or 3.5 quintillion hashes per second. But Bitcoin’s mining is still unchallenged, and roughly 30 times higher at above 100 quintillion hashes per secong. Do you think Bitcoin SV is primed for a steep decline? Add your thoughts below! Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @CryptoDonAlt The post appeared first on Bitcoinist.com. from Cryptocracken Tumblr https://ift.tt/38wprkf via IFTTT

[rickhorrow]

15+5+5 To Watch : 9919

15 TO WATCH/5 SPORTS TECH/POWER OF SPORTS 5: RICK HORROW’S TOP SPORTS/BIZ/TECH/PHILANTHROPY ISSUES FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 9

with Jacob Aere

NFL Network rolls out centennial celebrations on air. Thursday marked an historic occasion as the NFL's 100th season got under way with the 2019 NFL Kickoff. NFL Media has been building up to the occasion with a slate of NFL Network series and specials that celebrate the “memories, moments and people that have made the NFL an iconic brand for 100 seasons.” The league announced that “NFL 100 Greatest” and “NFL 100 All-Time Team” would be serving as the anchor series for the full lineup of NFL 100 programming, with additional series “NFL 100 Roundtables” and “NFL 100 Sessions” also showcased across the network this fall. NFL 100 Greatest debuts September 13, rolling out over 10 weeks with two one-hour episodes airing back-to-back every Friday night. NFL Films conducted more than 400 interviews with celebrities, current NFL stars, and legends that will air across 20, one-hour episodes. “NFL 100 Roundtables” debuts September 27 as a special eight-part series that connects some of the greatest to play the game by position. It’s also worth noting that Thursday’s NFL season kickoff on NBC scored 22 million viewers, a 16% jump over last year.

Nearly one-quarter of adults in the United States say they would bet on an NFL game this season if it were legal in their state, according to a recent survey commissioned by the American Gaming Association. An online poll conducted for the gambling trade association by Morning Consult last month found that 24% of adults would bet if they could do so legally, while 39% of avid NFL fans plan to bet on a game this season, legally or not. The survey also drew the now familiar correlation between betting and engagement. Three-fourths of NFL bettors said they are more likely to view a game when they wager on it, while 51% said they are more likely to watch pregame shows if they intend to bet. Based on the survey, the AGA projects that 38 million American adults will bet on NFL games this season – and you can bet the league will continue to monitor this scenario very closely.

Buffalo Wild Wings moves toward the sports gambling world alongside MGM. According to USA Today, the two giants released a mobile football game designed to let customers pick favorite NFL teams, choose weekly fantasy performers and make proposition picks. The name of the partnership is called Roar Digital, and it tries to offer a sports betting-style experience beginning with a free-to-play football game. Odds and point spreads will appear on screens at select Buffalo Wild Wings. The long term goal is to have Buffalo Wild Wings expand in states where sports betting is legal through a mobile app called BetMGM. Although there won’t be cash bets at first, players can win prizes such as trips to Las Vegas or to the Borgata casino in New Jersey to compete in the first BetMGM sports betting competition. This partnership looks to capitalize on the casual gamer and new sports bettors – a route that may find success on the back of Buffalo Wild Wings’ 1,200 restaurants across 10 countries, with abundant clientele to test the new venture.

Spaniard Rafael Nadal won the 2019 U.S. Open and his 19th Grand Slam title. Canadian Bianca Andreescu won her first Open and first Slam respectively. Both singles winners took home $3.85 million paychecks. But those winnings are a mere blip to the cash cow tennis tournament. According to Hashtag Sports, in 2018, the two-week-long U.S. Open generated $65 million in sponsorship deals alone. Tickets and broadcasting pulled in $120 million each; while concessions added $30 million. And in 2019, the annual tournament, put on by the nonprofit USTA, was on target to have the biggest year in its 51-year history. The U.S. Open is evolving, and becoming more brand-friendly, by design, and tennis is reaching a global audience at an unprecedented scale. The sponsors on the ground at Billie Jean King Tennis Center reflect the global appeal of the sport. Heineken is the official beer, not a domestic brew. Rolex replaced Citizen as the official timekeeper. Emirates is the official airline. And the spacious newly-renovated facility attracted 737,872 spectators this year, an all-time attendance record. If you build it, the brands, and the fans, will come.

In NFL stadiums, brands are activating as well, starting with Pepsi. Season 100 for the NFL will see Pepsi unveil its “Always be Celebrating” NFL campaign, a season-long campaign via Goodby Silverstein & Partners that “spotlights and honors the amazing celebrations that NFL fans and players have taken part in over the years,” and includes "two national TV ads using real footage of player touchdown celebrations set to the 'Cha Cha Slide' by DJ Casper" according to Cynopsis Sports. Also included in the campaign will be a new charitable program with United Way and the NFL, a national retail POS campaign running all season featuring 26 of Pepsi’s NFL player partners, local market kick-off celebrations in New England and Miami, and more. Pepsi also renewed it Super Bowl halftime sponsorship through 2022, and it has a separate deal dating back to 2002 that "makes it the NFL's official soft-drink sponsor." The halftime act for Super Bowl Super Bowl LIV in Miami was not revealed – but like all recent shows it will be leaked on social media before the official NFL announcement, much to the league’s chagrin. 

Other returning NFL sponsors reveal new creative as well. Pizza Hut is tackling the new season with “Buy. Play. Win.” that will the brand-new interactive NFL-themed game Hut Hut Win and offer the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime NFL experiences and millions of instant win prizes. "In our second season as the Official Pizza Sponsor of the NFL, we're taking our partnership to the next level for fans with the launch of Hut Hut Win," said Marianne Radley, Chief Brand Officer, Pizza Hut. "Our game plan is simple – create unforgettable experiences that connect our fans to their favorite sport." Finally, Snickers enters the season by unveiling a new branded, iced-out chain created by famed jeweler Ben Baller. Each week during the NFL season, the chain will be passed from one player to another player, “who has not only shown hunger for more with a huge game or play on the field, but who is also driven to do more off the field.” Towards the end of the regular season, Snickers will invite fans to weigh in on which “Hungriest Player” is the hungriest. That player will then award proceeds from the chain to a charity of his choice.

Player deals also color the NFL’s opening week. The Cowboys last week reached an agreement on a contract extension with running back Ezekiel Elliott for six years and $90 million, ending his much-publicized holdout and making him the "highest-paid running back in NFL history," according to the Dallas Morning News. The Rams' Todd Gurley previously had the "biggest contract in the NFL for a running back with a total package" of $57.5 million. One source said that Elliott's deal includes a running back-record $50 million guaranteed. In other high-profile NFL contract news, the Rams and quarterback Jared Goff reportedly agreed to a "four-year extension" through 2024. The Los Angeles Times reported that the deal is worth $134 million with a "record" $110 million guaranteed. But the biggest headline-grabbing player saga, of course, was the journey of receiver Antonio Brown, who demanded his release from the Oakland Raiders via social media and landed with the Patriots in a one-year deal reportedly worth up to $15 million that included a $9 million signing bonus.

From an agency perspective, the NFL is moving in the right direction. Rick recently sat down with Arnold Wright, Executive Vice President and co-head of consulting for Octagon. Wright brings NFL team, league, and player deals to life for sponsors including Castrol, Delta, Bank of America, and others. “The league is obviously an incredible platform that leaps up year to year in terms of ratings and engagement,” Wright said. “The on field action is also as good as it’s ever been.” From a global perspective, Wright says, “The international piece in particular has been great for the league. You continue to see key markets like the UK, Mexico, and even Brazil growing internationally. It’s bringing other brands into the NFL ecosystem from a partner and promotional perspective.” As for the NFL’s 100th season platform, Wright says, “The league has done a lot of really great work in terms of positioning themselves, celebrating the history of the league from a player and a fan perspective. They have demonstrated a real savviness around their marketing and their connectivity to fans. The league several years ago probably would not have demonstrated that level of flexibility in terms of their marketing and what you could do with their platforms. But that’s certainly changed.”

Endeavor reported that its entertainment and sports division generated revenues of $1.33 billion during the first half of 2019, according to a new Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The filing attributed approximately $352 million of the 46.4% year-on-year increase to the sale of media rights, primarily relating to IMG’s international distribution deals with Italy’s top-flight Serie A and La Liga in Spain, along with England’s FA Cup knockout competition. Another contributing factor was the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s new $1.5 billion rights deal with ESPN. The filing also cited the growth of IMG Arena, the company’s sports betting and content business, owned events, and sports production as reasons for the increase. The first-half revenues generated by Endeavor’s entertainment and sports division is by far the most of each of the company’s three main units. The agency’s representation arm generated $688.3 million during the first half of 2019, while Endeavor X, the company’s streaming services, brought in $57.4 million in revenue. In total, Endeavor generated revenues of $2.05 billion for the six months ending June 30, up from $1.5 billion for the same period in 2018. The latest revenue figures come ahead of Endeavor’s highly anticipated, but delayed, initial public offering. 

Disney has completed the sale of its 80% stake in the YES Network for $3.47 billion to an investor group comprising the New York Yankees, Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Amazon. Sinclair acquired a majority stake in the YES Network as part of its $71.3 billion purchase of Fox assets in 2017, though it had to divest the property due to a Department of Justice order last summer, along with 21 other RSNs purchased by Sinclair for $10.6 billion. The YES Network, of which the Yankees already own a 20% share, broadcasts Yankees games and also those of the Brooklyn Nets. An announcement made by all parties on August 29 confirmed the transaction, which brings an end to a year of negotiations between Disney and prospective buyers for the 22 Fox RSNs. The networks were originally valued in the region of $20 billion, though have been sold for just over $14 billion. For Sinclair, the deal adds to its portfolio or regional sports rights while Amazon continues its push into sports broadcasting.

The NFL sees flag football as a path forward. Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement from the NFL sparked another round of debate surrounding football’s future. And a report from the National Federation of State High School Associations on sports participation indicating that nearly 71% of the 43,375 athletes who stopped competing between 2017-2018 were football players has only fanned the flames. Despite the downturn, JohnWallStreet reports that NFL COO Maryann Turcke is actively working to grow flag football participation. The barrier for entry is much lower for flag than it is for tackle because no equipment is needed, and playing will “help people to understand and love the game” – some of whom who will inevitably go on to play professionally. Turcke’s ultimate goal is to see flag football recognized as an Olympic sport in time for the 2020 Tokyo Games. She says that “making flag football a global sport will generate fandom for [the NFL] around the world.” It will also drive global revenue growth that will help the NFL reach its goal of doing $25 billion per year by 2027.

The Denver Broncos have inked a 21-year naming rights deal for their Mile High Stadium with retirement plan provider Empower Retirement. The agreement will see the team’s 76,000-seater home renamed Empower Field at Mile High until 2039. The Broncos have been on the hunt for a new stadium naming rights partner since their deal with Sports Authority came to an abrupt end in 2016 when the sports retailer went bankrupt. SportsBusiness Journal reports that Empower’s contract with the Broncos is similar to the terms the team had in place with Sports Authority, which paid a reported $6 million annually. The partnership will afford Empower significant national brand and media exposure through a mix of visibility on game days and throughout the year with signage, media placement, promotional opportunities, and hospitality. The deal further expands the business relationship between the two parties. Empower, which is based in Denver, has been a partner of the Broncos since 2015. The announcement comes ahead of the Broncos’ first game of the new NFL season, which sees them travel to the Oakland Raiders on September 9. 

A-B InBev capitalized on last year’s Browns Bud Light "victory fridge" by putting new versions of the appliance "up for sale at 'B.L. & Brown’s Appliance Superstore' in Cleveland.” According to Ad Age, the refrigerators sold for $200 for a small size or $600 for a larger one, with proceeds going to the “Browns Give Back” charity. To promote the effort, Bud Light ran an “ad on Cleveland TV starring WWE personality, The Miz.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer notes the B.L. & Brown's Appliance Superstore actually "doesn't exist," as it is just a "vacant store front." The refrigerators will be the "only product sold in the store." The Miz, a noted Browns fan, was given an original "victory fridge" last year that opened when the team scored its first win of the season. The fridges sold out in just under three hours after going on sale last week. Browns players Myles Garrett and Jarvis Landry were on hand for the first – and last – day of sales.

Ahead of the NASCAR regular season finale, Kevin James to lead NASCAR comedy series on Netflix. Actor Kevin James is set to star in and executive produce a multi-camera comedy that has been ordered to series on Netflix. The show, titled “The Crew," will be set in a NASCAR garage with James playing the crew chief. When the owner steps down and passes the team off to his daughter, James finds himself at odds with the tech reliant millennials she starts bringing in to modernize the team. NASCAR senior director of content development Matt Summers and chief digital officer Tim Clark will be involved as executive producers. James is a big NASCAR fan and has served as grand marshal and given the command for drivers to start engines several times by himself, as well as with friends Adam Sandler and Shaquille O’Neal. This isn't the first time NASCAR has played a starring role in a comedy, but it's now been over a decade since Talladega Nights. The league's ambitions are clear: leverage pop culture to connect with young audiences.

Oracle launches a new series of lower-tier professional tennis tournaments across the U.S. As the American leg of the global pro tennis circuit drew to a close, Larry Ellison’s company announced the Oracle Pro Series, comprising approximately 25 new women’s tournaments and 25 new men’s tournaments, with the intention of providing American players with a better route to the top-tier ATP and WTA tours. Most of the tournaments will be staged as combined events, with equal prize money and many will take place on college campuses. The prize funds will range from $25,000 to $108,000 per competition. Crucially, according to the New York Times, ATP and WTA ranking points will be up for grabs at each of the tournaments, which will enable players to step up to tennis’ elite men’s and women’s circuits. The new series is to be managed by InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the New York-based event production company founded by former World Number One player Jim Courier. Seven combined events will take place later this year in California, Florida, and Texas before the series begins in full next year. 

Top Five Tech

The NFL joins TikTok to cater to Gen Z. According to TechCrunch, just ahead of the kickoff of the NFL’s 100th season, the social media video app and the league formed a partnership to launch of an official NFL account on TikTok. The deal also includes a series of NFL-themed hashtag challenges and other marketing opportunities for brands around the NFL content. The first hashtag challenge, #WeReady, encouraged fans to show pride for their favorite NFL team while using the hashtag. Several popular TikTok creators and NFL clubs also joined the fans in the challenge. The NFL’s TikTok account already features several videos, ranging from behind-the-scenes action to highlights, to funny memes and even inspirational content. This is a big step for the NFL, a league usually hesitant to jump into new media configurations. This is the first step to the NFL’s developing a tighter bond with younger generations of fans.

DRIVE by DraftKings looks to bring together an ecosystem of athletes, entrepreneurs, investors, and sports business professionals. According to Forbes, DRIVE hopes to accelerate the movement of sports industry professionals into high-tech ventures and, additionally, to serve as a bridge for startups that want to innovate with sports, media, and entertainment. The two main components of DRIVE are its Venture Studio and Athlete Network. The first of the two will create customized programs for early stage sports tech entrepreneurs while the latter will provide both active and former professional athletes as well as Olympians with opportunities and connections to explore careers as entrepreneurs and/or investors within the sports technology space. To kick off the new venture, the DRIVE venture will launch at the DraftKings headquarters in Boston. NFL All-Pro Arizona Cardinals Wide Receiver Larry Fitzgerald will serve on its board of advisors. The firm’s inaugural internship program has already drawn more than 25 athletes, and looks to aid those individuals who are making the transition off the court or field into their post sports life.

Manny Pacquiao creates his own cryptocurrency to sell his merchandise. The champion boxer announced his new currency, the “pac,” which behaves like a standard cryptocurrency and provides a digitally tradable token with a floating value secured by the fact that it's a visible-to-all and publicly traded value. According to The Verge, Pacquiao is launching the venture with help from the GCOX Group, a company in Southeast Asia that has developed a new model for celebrity tokens. Although Pacquiao is the guinea pig of this new form of celebrity cryptocurrency, singer Jason Derulo and English soccer star Michael Owen are reportedly also planning launches with GCOX. This will be a test to push the exchange market into other forms of trade outside of standard currencies and may work with the backing from star power such as that of the ultra-likable Pacquiao.

YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI will make their professional boxing debut. Last year, the two online sensations faced each other in an exhibition fight that generated more than 1 million pay-per-view buys on YouTube. Now they will fight each other again – this time, in an official professional fight at in Logan’s hometown of Los Angeles at Staples Center on November 9. According to ESPN, the event will be a six-round cruiserweight fight streamed on DAZN and is sure to pack the house after last year’s sold out 57-57 majority draw that happened at Manchester Arena in KSI’s hometown of Manchester, England. They are both now professional boxers, have passed their required medical exams, and will meet at a launch news conference in Los Angeles on September 14, with another news conference to be scheduled in the United Kingdom. KSI and Paul have more than 40 million YouTube subscribers between them and should bring tons of new fans to the sport of boxing, while the sport’s traditional enthusiasts can relish undercard events that will feature an assortment of more established fighters in the boxing world.

HBO Sports and NFL Films are teaming on Belichick & Saban: The Art of Coaching, a feature-length film about the four-decade friendship between football coaches Bill Belichick and Nick Saban. According to Cynopsis Sports, the pair grant unprecedented camera access to their annual coaching retreat, where they share conversation about their interwoven history, admiration, coaching philosophies, and more. “Bill Belichick and Nick Saban have become the modern versions of Vince Lombardi and John Wooden – symbols of success not just in sports but in life,” said Ross Ketover, Chief Executive of NFL Films. “Their lessons on leadership are an inspiration; not just for those of us who love football but for anyone who wants to thrive at whatever passion they pursue.” The film is slated air in December on HBO. Belichick and Saban have both started their 2019 campaigns off with a bang, as Alabama handily won its first two games and the Patriots obliterated the Steelers 33-3 on Sunday night.

Power of Sports Five

Cleveland Indians pitcher Carlos Carrasco will donate $200 per strikeout for the rest of the season to childhood cancer research after just beating cancer himself. According to CBS Sports, Carrasco returned to the mound on September 3 for the first time since May 30 after he was diagnosed with leukemia. On top of being celebrated by his teammates for such a healthy and quick return, Carrasco came up with the new charity name to support his childhood cancer research: Punch Out Cancer with Cookie. As September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, it is only appropriate that Carrasco announced his charity during the final month of MLB’s regular season. Further, New Balance and other MLB partners play a role in donations to fight childhood cancer. The sporting goods company will even match donations made on punchoutcancerwithcookie.com to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital up to $200,000. After defeating his own form of cancer, it seems Carrasco isn’t taking any moment for granted and is already giving back to those similarly afflicted. 

Former NFL player Mike Brown is using gaming as a way to modernize philanthropy. According to Black Enterprise, the former Colts linebacker created Win-Win after he observed an overall decline in the number of people donating to charity. Win-Win tackles this problem to help pro athletes, entertainers, and anyone with influence activate their fans to support causes they care about through games in which users pick winners for upcoming sporting events. After making picks, users donate to enter the competition and unlock unique perks and prizes like dinner with their favorite athlete – the activity becomes a mixture of gambling and philanthropy for a charity cause. To push his company to the next level, Brown recently launched an equity crowdfunding campaign for Win-Win to allow for fan investments. After exceeding his initial fundraising goal, he is now building the platform and launching new partnerships. By leveraging star power and the newest forms of technology into philanthropy, Brown looks to be a leader in sports philanthropy.

Steph and Ayesha Curry link up with PGA REACH to host their first charity golf tournament. According to NBC Sports, the first Stephen Curry Charity Classic will benefit the Currys’ "Eat. Learn. Play." Foundation and PGA REACH. On Monday, September 16, Curry will be joined by 50 teams of friends to participate in a team-based golf competition at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco with the goal to raise $1.3 million to benefit PGA REACH and his family’s foundation. The Curry’s “Eat. Learn. Play.” charity was launched earlier this year to create equal opportunities for every child by fighting to end childhood hunger, ensuring universal access to quality education, and enabling healthy, active lifestyles. Steph became involved with PGA REACH last year when the PGA asked him to become an official ambassador for the foundation's young pillar program, PGA Jr. League. The basketball star has his own mini-golf show, “Holey Moley,” and is backing up his new business venture with charity golf tournaments.  

Greenland is combating their country’s melting ice with the world’s first electric racing series. According to Thomson Reuters, Greenland will be one of five climate-threatened locations to host the first Extreme E championship in 2021, the pioneering all-electric off-road racing. The Extreme E races will race in five of the world's remote environments, using the global appeal of motorsports to shine a spotlight on the biggest climate threats to the planet and see electric sport utility vehicles used in the events. In a 10-part “docu-sport” package, Extreme E will showcase electric SUVs in head-to-head races in areas suffering from environmental damage or under threat. Fox Sports has signed a multi-year broadcast deal. Currently, E Extreme is scouting four additional endangered locations that are facing climate threats such as deforestation, rising sea levels, desertification, and plastic pollution and will announce the locations in the near future. This is sports, tech, and activism coming into one to save the planet.

The new Roc Nation and NFL partnership will donate $400,000 to Chicago charities. The two charities that will receive the support are the Better Boys Foundation Family Services organization and the Crusher’s Club. According to Variety, both groups are designed to present local at-risk youth with alternatives to gang violence and criminal activity. The donation is attached to a free concert in a “Songs of the Season” series that featured Meek Mill, Meghan Trainor, and Rapsody in Chicago. The three performers, along with Chicago rapper Vic Mensa, will visit the programs this week. The event is the first in a planned Inspire Change series that will make similar donations in each NFL city. Songs of the Season is an initiative that will run throughout the season in which selected musicians will create and deliver a song to be integrated in all NFL promotions each month and their songs’ proceeds will go toward Inspire Change. Although Jay-Z took heat for partnering with the NFL, it seems that through his collaboration he will be able to make a large impact on social injustices.

[cryptonewsworldwide]

HitBTC Responds To Recent Claims Against Them - After Critics Said The Exchange Is Insolvent, Scamming Users...

We have just received this extended response from HitBTC.    If you're catching up, a good summary of accusations can be found here. HitBTC's Statement:

Dear Existing Traders, Future Traders, Cryptomedia who know what they are writing about, those who don’t, those who write for money, and those genuinely enjoying the show, we would like to state our position in a clear way with respect to recent write-ups attempting to portray HitBTC in an unfavorable light. We’d like to address some of these issues and provide context into why they happened and what we are doing to develop our product and the way we communicate. Let’s start with some background:

HitBTC has been in the cryptocurrency market since 2013. We were among the first and one of the most technologically advanced exchanges. When the early crypto enthusiasts built their first matching in Python or JS, we offered our traders a robust high-throughput C++ matching engine.

We are always ready to admit our weaknesses. While focusing on technological and security parts of the product, we have somewhat neglected the Public Communication and PR. We can see that this might have been our major omission. When faced with a trade-off between focusing our company on security of user assets or PR efforts, we have always opted for the former. A day will come when we will achieve both goals.

The Winter of 2017–2018

3.1. The market for digital assets experienced staggering growth during the winter of 2017–2018 which caused explosive growth in the number of our customers. Our technology performed well with this demand showing its superior capability. However, due to the overwhelming demand for our services we encountered major bottlenecks at an operational level. Our Customer Care and Compliance departments were frequently unable to deliver timely responses to clients’ applications and enquiries and a significant number of these cases became public. Substantial investments were made in the aforementioned departments and the issues were solved in successive months. Unfortunately, however, the negative impact to our public perception had already taken place.

3.2. We would like to emphasize that our technology was built by following procedures rooted in the mature financial industry. To ensure the robustness of mission-critical systems, our philosophy dictates that every issue (whether it is daemon lag, lack of 2-step transaction in ADA currency, detection of a transaction stuck in the bitcoin mempool for more than 48 hours due to a low transaction fee, ethereum smart contract vulnerability, etc.) is handled manually and is thoroughly documented. This assures established procedures and workarounds to be in place should the same issue recur. Over the years our dedication to established financial industry practices has guarded us against losses. This a priori more time intensive approach by today has delivered an extremely resilient system, supporting the largest number of assets in the industry without the risks which many platforms may not be able to anticipate.

3.3. Since the beginning of 2018, we have been able to bring the average support response time down to below the 12 hours mark. At the same time, we were the first to create the System Monitor – a tool made available to everyone, and specifically designed to track platform’s performance and status of initiated, pending and completed transactions as well as deposit, withdrawal and trading components status across over 500 assets.

It has always been our core value that the only acceptable mean of expanding our market share is the constant perfection of our product. Apparently, not everyone shares this belief. As a result, besides real cases, which inevitably seem to surface on social media with projects of our scale, we sometimes stumble upon anonymous “cases” and other general allegations lacking substance. We let them slide more often than not since we have always been focused on addressing real cases and foregoing the opportunity of entering into fruitless disputes on the anonymous Internet space. To summarize, the combination of technological advancement and self-imposed communication isolation has repeatedly made HitBTC a target for various provocative statements, both genuine and motivated otherwise. The following recent articles are a vivid illustration of unfounded claims that were casted against HitBTC:

4.1. “HitBTC failed Proof-Of-Keys” saga,  January, 2019 CCN article: “Bitcoin Exchange HitBTC Freezes Customers’ Accounts ahead of Proof of Keys Event”

A widely quoted article, in its entirety, is based on only 2 AML cases. One of them was initiated as part of the investigation into the December, 2018 BTCP security breach, at the request of the coin’s core team. Unfortunately, there is no clear indication of the nature of the second case that can be discerned from the article.

The author of the article failed to track the deposit/withdrawal dynamics that did not uncover any irregularities. A simple block explorer or our public System Monitorwould suffice for these purposes.

4.2. “HitBTC insolvency: by @ProofofResearch” saga, May, 2019

BitcoinExchangeGuide article: “HitBTC Appears Insolvent [Blockchain Analysis]”

This article’s case claiming delayed withdrawals is based on 3 AML cases and social media gossip. All quoted AML cases  were resolved within 3, 12 and 33 days respectively.

Obviously, a subset of hot wallets’ balances are not representative of exchange’s total assets. This makes the statement in the article look like someone has been motivated to openly harm our reputation.

Since we have touched upon the topic of KYC/AML, let us expand upon it. Against the will of crypto anarchists and early crypto adopters, the crypto market is progressively becoming more like a regular financial market. That makes it the subject to practices common to legacy financial institutions. Among these practices are design and enforcement of prudent AML/KYC policies and procedures.

5.1. Protection of market participants To provide some background: One of the main outcomes from The Great Depression was the establishment of a regulatory framework to protect the general public. As a result, markets became more transparent and protective for its participants which entirely corresponds with our values. The cryptocurrency space will go through a similar process. We foresaw the trend of regulation as an essential factor enabling its mass adoption. We have been setting up an institutional grade infrastructure (KYC/KYT/Market Surveillance/AML and other systems) to protect future mass market participants by following best practice from established financial markets.

5.2. Elimination of bad actors We respect and understand the inevitable trend of increasing regulation. In our capacity as the largest spot crypto market, we are making extreme efforts to shield our users from bad actors. This coincides with our philosophy and we consider it to be the only way for the mass adoption of crypto to take hold. That is why we have been constantly evolving our processes, and have developed our AIA Policy, structured around AML/KYC procedures that have allowed us to become one of the “cleanest” exchanges in crypto. Years ago our AML team were happy to uncover posts on darknet websites advising to “never use hitbtc”.

Our stance has exposed us to allegations related to or in some way implying “inappropriate suspensions or significant withdrawal delays”. In fact, these allegations always fall in one of the following categories:

6.1. AML cases that indicate suspicious activity on a user account and require a manual check. A Security Officer reaches out to the user and requests the necessary documents – a delay from either side during communication might prolong the verification process.

6.2. Bad actors using fake documents or counterfeit materials for verification purposes. Rarely, it happens that a person on the other side of a confirmation video call (which is a part of our extended AML procedure), shows no signs of affiliation with the account.

6.3. Deposits to the wrong address. If a user accidentally deposits digital assets to the wrong address on HitBTC, we can usually rectify the situation. For example, if a user sends BTC to a USDT address – this is a reversible mistake. Our technical and financial specialists can recover it manually if it’s eligible for retrieval. Naturally, it takes time.

6.4. Victims of phishing. Even though we are always on the lookout for sites mimicking our interface for malicious purposes and initiate their shut down, some of them might escape our attention. We do our best to increase the level of protection of customer accounts. In recent years we have implemented a number of additional security features, such as: one of the first-in-the-industry 2FA confirmations, whitelisted addresses for withdrawals and advanced market surveillance systems.

6.5. Rare cases of account suspension due to a law enforcement request in which we are explicitly prohibited from informing the user in question about the matter.

6.6. Law enforcement requires us to freeze assets without explicit prohibition from informing the user in question. One of the recent public cases.

6.7. A third party request claiming their funds are involved in fraudulent activity – user in question’s account is frozen if we have reasonable arguments to back up the claims and we’re obliged to ask a third party to get law enforcement involved.

6.8. Loss of access to 2FA device requires an extended verification process which shouldtake time due to the security policies that aim to protect users that didn’t lose their 2FA keys, but might have someone pretending to be them.

6.9. A separate category of cases that cause deposit/withdrawal delays on a subset of assets have to do with comprehensive custodial security infrastructure and technical issues of daemons (please refer to 3.2 above). They are an artifact of a large system – given the nature and quantity of assets we support, at any point in time, there are some of them that are down for maintenance. We have custodial SLAs that we are constantly improving, and we are confident that they are at the optimal level of security vs performance within the entire industry. We share necessary statistics transparently in our System Monitor.

We would also like to communicate our position with respect to assets being integrated into and occasionally removed from our platform as this has also caught its share of public attention. We are honored to work with a diverse range of blockchains and tokens. Given the fact that the crypto industry was in it’s very early days, some lapses of judgement in assessing our integration partners have occurred despite our best efforts to prevent this. Sometimes, it was that we did not possess a complete understanding of the integration partner’s business; sometimes it was the change of the integrated project’s course over time. As a result, the decision to remove a project from our platform occasionally had to be made. In these circumstances, we inevitably face a tough choice – whether to announce it beforehand, adversely influencing the asset’s price, or carry out the process instantaneously. We considered the second option to be less harmful. Withdrawals for the currency or token that was removed always stay open even after the removal takes place except for cases when the technical team is aware of issues. The vast majority of removal decisions fall into one of the following categories:

7.1. Hacks, security breaches, and critical contract bugs solely on the side of the token or coin issuer. For example:

7.1.1. The MXM Case

On March 26, 2019 04:19 UTC MXM had reached out to HitBTC reporting a “critical vulnerability” in their smart contract. We immediately suspended the withdrawals and deposits.

On March 28 the team reached out to us again asking to list a fork of their token that had been distributed using a snapshot made on March 25, 19:00 UTC”, 9 hours before we were notified.

The resolution proposed by the core team:

HitBTC lists a forked token.

MXM would send to HitBTC custody tokens of the new contract.

HitBTC will exchange the old tokens for the new ones transparently to the users.

MXM team sent  the new tokens to our custody.

During the audit, our financial department identified a mismatch between the new tokens received and the quantity required for a one to one conversion for our customers.

Having reached no consensus with the core team, we decided to remove MXM from the platform.

We reversed the transaction of the insufficient amount of tokens transferred to us back to the MXM team.

After negotiations, the MXM team solely took responsibility to convert old tokens for our customers. We carefully monitored this process.

7.1.2. The MORPH Case

June  20, 2018, a security breach was exploited in the MORPH smart contract by malicious actors, that allows anybody to issue an unlimited number of tokens.

June 21, 2018 at 20:06 UTC the MORPH team contacts our sales department with requests to “pause listing”, and “pause trading”, and to be prepared to swap the smart contract with the reason “issues with our smart contract”.

No mention of any security breach was made.

June 22, 2018 at 10:29 UTC. Following established procedures, our sales department initiated negotiations to support the new smart contact as defined by our standard procedure for any regular business activity involving the resources of our tech team.

Independently on June 22, 2018 at 20:46 UTC our AML and security departments’ alarms were set off indicating malicious activity related to MORPH’s smart contract.

Transfers from custodial to trading accounts were suspended immediately to prevent fraudulently issued tokens entering our liquidity pool.

A financial control check found that 19,842,265 compromised MORPH tokens had entered our liquidity pool. We contacted the MORPH team and had provided detailed blockchain transaction data, analytics from our security department and data gathered regarding the malicious activity. We want to stress that during future communication we did not disclose irrelevant data that the MORPH team was requesting.

The MORPH team refused to provide the requested 19,842,265 new MRPH tokens in order to carry out the contract swap procedure with a 1 to 1 rate.

The MORPH team’s values not to admit own mistakes did not align with ours and we made a decision to cease our relationship with them.

Following this case, we thoroughly examined and revised our internal smart contract audit processes and KYC procedures for potential partners.

7.1.3. The BNT Case, an example of a core team acting in good faith when resolving their security breach.

Bancor experienced a security breach leading to a part of their funds being compromised on July 9, 2018.

On 9 July, 2018, the BNT core team moved a part of funds from our custody accounts without our consent*. This action immediately set off our financial control alarm and we closed all deposits and withdrawals of the BNT token. *We realize that the vast majority of tokens are controlled centrally by their respective core teams, and we understand the importance of constructive communication with them.

After discussion with the core team we have reached mutual understanding. Bancor returned the funds retrieved from our custody on July 12, 2018.

7.2. Although we have been constantly improving our internal processes, in the past, a few cases of insufficient review did occur. Here are the most notable of them:

7.2.1. The XMV Case

We made an announcement regarding XMV integration on May 3, 2018.

Resources of technical team were engaged and severe technical problems in XMV daemon and network were discovered.

In parallel a Due Diligence process was conducted. MoneroV failed to provide the set of required documentation.

We rejected XMV integration in early November, 2018.

7.2.2. The AMM Case

As mentioned above, in December 2017, our back office was overwhelmed with requests.

The malicious activity occurred and some accounts were credited with x106 larger amounts than they actually deposited via the  blockchain.

We invested a considerable amount of technical and operational resources into dealing with each customer affected on a case-by-case basis.

7.2.3. The HitBTC, McAfee & MTC Case

On May 4, 2018 John McAfee Tweets about the MTC token integration into HitBTC.

On June 28, 2018 McAfee Tweets his disdain for exchanges, targeting HitBTC specifically. “The crypto exchanges have become the thing that we have originally fought against. Their power is immense. Hitbtc, for example, has increased suffering for millions of poor people who cannot afford the minimum buy-in since it is greater than their monthly income. Boycott them.”“@hitbtc I will be your worst enemy until you prove that you are aligned with our community and are truly interested in helping the poor. You have not done shit to help access the only free healthcare in the world.”

Referring to ambiguous McAffee’s critics about the “buy-in” price (a term from poker), on June 30, 2018 we answered with a Tweet explaining our withdrawal fees.

Despite this, John McAfee continued to make significant efforts to create a toxic atmosphere around HitBTC.

We have deep sympathy to John’s beliefs that poor people should have access to new technologies, but we see a different way to achieve that – by building a robust infrastructure for future mass adoption.

7.3. The activity of a coin’s core team negatively affects our customers. For example:

7.3.1. The BTCP Case

On December 30, 2018, after  persons with malicious intent exploited a vulnerability in the coin’s code, BTCP made the decision to make a hard fork of their blockchain, burning “shielded” and “unmoved” coins.

The BTCP team’s decision put in danger the unmoved coins stored in our custody system under Segwit BTC addresses. To “move” and protect them from being burned we had to either import cold custody’s BTC private keys to BTCP daemon or implement the BTCP transactions signature ourselves.

As importing keys from the high security segment of our custodial technical infrastructure to any third party daemon fundamentally contradicts our policy, we opted for signature implementation in order to protect our custody funds.

Despite our utmost efforts, we were unable to obtain clear documentation from the BTCP team that would have allowed us to implement the P2SH-P2WPKH signature in time.

We requested that the BTCP team to compensate us for the loss of coins that were burned based on their conscious decision to proceed with a hardfork.

The BTCP team refused to provide any alternatives, that would have prevented damage to the funds in our custody.

We decided to remove BTCP from our platform. You can find more details related to the BTCP case on our blogpost.

Please note that coin burn did not affect coins deposited to our custodial accounts after the BTCP network launch, so none of customers’ assets were affected. Nevertheless, no airdrop of old coins was held.

Let us summarize the key points mentioned above. We believe in a future filled with self-sustainable Internet and virtual reality economies and we have actively been creating its vital infrastructure for many years. During this course we’ve mastered ways to create both a product that can support millions of users and the technology behind it. We have expended substantial effort in complying with the evolving regulations in the digital asset space including the practices necessary to exclude bad actors and establish fast and secure operations among many other aspects of the business in this industry.

However, by keeping our main focus on the things we consider to be fundamental, we perhaps neglected Public Relations as well as the necessity of reacting to public accusations – both fabricated and genuine. We consider it to be an important part of a public product and we are confident in our ability to convey our values and ideals.

We are constantly on the lookout for public communications talent with or without experience in blockchain technologies. Please feel free to contact us at careers@hitbtc.com. We’d love to hear from you.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at joan@hitbtc.com with any enquiries regarding our values.

Joan Gald Board Member, HitBTC

Ultimately - 3rd party verification and audit will be necessary at this point.  There's no way around it. The sooner HitBTC opens the books, the better.  Understandably, delaying this process invites increased suspicion. ------- Author: Mark Pippen London News Desk //<![CDATA[ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); //]]>

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Markelle Fultz’s Sixers Tenure Was Filled With Bizarre, Head-Scratching Moments

The Markelle Fultz saga was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever experienced in 10 years of covering sports. You probably feel the same, for however long you’ve been watching.

He’s no longer a Sixer, but the former #1 draft pick leaves the team having logged these numbers over a little more than a year and a half in Philadelphia:

33 games

15 starts

7.7 points per game

3.4 assists

3.4 rebounds

41% from the floor

26.7% from three

53.4% from the line

That’s the legacy of a kid who never really had it and may or may not have been dealing with a significant nerve and/or shoulder injury, depending on what side of the debate you fall on.

What I do know is that Markelle certainly had a ton of support here. You can’t say he was run out of town or never given a chance or anything even close to that. You had fans cheering him for simply taking a jump shot. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen.

I picked out 11 of the more bizarre moments of the Markelle saga and laid them out in no specific order, for a trip down memory lane:

Changing the shot

Almost immediately upon his training camp arrival, Markelle’s shot looked completely different than what we saw in college.

This was one of the first clips to result in a bit of confusion:

Interesting how dramatically different Markelle Fultz's FT stroke looks here compared to @ UW (65%). Has lowered release point considerably. pic.twitter.com/6REIFX0qtR

— Mike Schmitz (@Mike_Schmitz) September 28, 2017

Said Markelle back on September 28th, during his rookie year:

“It was just something going on where I wanted to try something new. But my free throw is going to look the same as college. I’m just trying to look at different ways to see how the ball can go in the hoop.”

It seemed like nothing at the time, didn’t it?

The yips?

Were Markelle’s issues physical or mental? The running theory was that he had a case of the yips, but that word was never used publicly by anyone until trainer Drew Hanlen talked about it on a podcast this past summer:

“With Markelle, obviously he has one of the most documented cases of kind of the YIPS of basketball in recent years, where he completely forgot how to shoot and had multiple hitches in his shot. So for me it was, hey listen, how can I get this kid that was No. 1 in last year’s draft back rolling and get him to the point where he was before, if not better?”

Markelle disputed that claim at media day:

Yeah, you know, I think it was a mis-term in words. But me and Drew have talked, and what happened last year was an injury. Let me get that straight. It was an injury that happened that didn’t allow me to go through a certain path that I needed to to shoot the ball. Just like any normal person, when you’re used to doing something the same way each and every day, and something happens, of course you’re going to start thinking about it. It’s just normal. So, of course I had that injury happen, and then people took certain things, of changing shots, and ran with it. But that didn’t affect me. That’s the reason I didn’t just come out last year and try to go against the media or whatever. I just was worried about getting healthy and getting back to what I do. That’s what I did this summer, so I’m happy.

In retrospect, that might have been the beginning of the end.

The deleted Hanlen tweet

Fultz struggled through the early part of this season, resulting in the following Twitter exchange between trainers Clint Parks and Hanlen:

“He’s still not healthy,” said Hanlen.

We were able to ask Markelle about that tweet on November 2nd of 2018, which resulted in this exchange:

Fultz: “I haven’t seen that tweet. I stay off social media during the season. I’ve heard about it but my mindset is the same – come to work every day, play as hard as I can, help my team get better.

Did you have a conversation with (Drew Hanlen), to ask what his intention was?

Fultz: “I’m not going to speak too much on it. Like I said, my mindset has just been to come to practice and be the best teammate and player I can be.”

Are you 100% healthy or close to it? 

Fultz: “For sure. I mean, nobody is ever 100% healthy in this game. You play five games in seven days and you get bumps and bruises. That’s life in the NBA. It’s the stuff you signed up for when you get here. But I’m working every day to get better.”

That ended up being the last time we spoke with Markelle.

Total silence

When Fultz returned to the Sixers last spring, he played pretty well in a home win against the Nuggets.

After the game, I asked him about his shoulder injury, to which he responded by staring straight forward and saying nothing at all:

He also responded to a follow-up from Sarah Todd with total silence. The post-game availability became national news and was all over ESPN the next day.

Shooting from his back

Remember this one?

Markelle Fultz shooting from the floor (April 2017) pic.twitter.com/g2V2ZTlhEd

— The Render (@TheRenderNBA) June 8, 2018

The video is from April 3rd, 2017, so it predates the NBA draft and summer league. Apparently it was just sitting there on Andrew Sharp’s Instagram before it found its way into the news cycle.

The common thought was that Fultz started tweaking his shot sometime after summer league in 2017, not before it, because the mechanics looked perfectly fine during his short time on the court out west. Keith Williams, Fultz’s trainer, says he never changed the shot at all. Bryan Colangelo said that he felt like the changes took place sometime in August. 

Double clutching

If the Hanlen tweet was the beginning of the end, this brought us much closer to the end, the free throw heard around the world:

This is worse than we have ever seen Fultz's free throw form look. pic.twitter.com/FhCYpNpd5b

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) November 13, 2018

Fultz said the ball slipped out of his hand.

Brand said this:

I saw the free throw, for sure. I’ve been seeing him work this summer, and all of this season, and he has times where something like that happens. But following that, he shot it very well and it looked very fluid. He’s going to have some ups and downs. He’s going to have more ups than downs. You saw the talent level in flashes, how talented he is.

The NCAA probe

Back in February of last year, Markelle was named in the sweeping NCAA corruption case:

Wrote BWanks at the time:

The report focuses on the dealings of former NBA agent Andy Miller, his ex-associate Christian Dawkins, and the ASM Sports Agency. The documents reveal what could be a major headache for up to 20 NCAA programs and up to 25 current and former players, which allege that ASM worked with programs and players to get them to sign with the agency. Among the players reported to have taken money? That’s right—you guessed it. Markelle Fultz. The top pick of the 2017 NBA Draft reportedly received $10,000 from ASM, but didn’t go on to sign with the agency. Boss move.

It ended up being no much of a thing, not that I recall, but it was another one of those, “holy shit, what’s next?” kind of moments at the time.

Security cameras?

Strange report from earlier this season.

A story in the Washington Post alleged that Markelle’s mother, Ebony, installed security cameras inside his house.

Wrote Candace Buckner:

Fultz is now a professional on a four-year contract worth $33 million, but close associates said Ebony still goes to great lengths to shield him. During Fultz’s first season in Philadelphia, Ebony had cameras installed inside his New Jersey home, according to several people familiar with the setup who described the indoor surveillance as unusual. The cameras have since been removed. Multiple people said Ebony has asked some who have dealt with Fultz to sign nondisclosure agreements for reasons that are unclear to them.

“There’s definitely crazy [expletive] going on with the mom and how involved she is and how overprotective she is,” said a person with a close connection to Fultz. “The best possible situation is if the mom just backs off for a period of time and gives him a chance to breathe.”

….

Scapular imbalance… or dyskinesis?

Markelle was originally diagnosed with something the Sixers referred to as “scapular muscle imbalance” last season.

Said Bryan Colangelo, on March 27th, 2018:

“It was diagnosed as a scapular imbalance by a well-known expert in Kentucky and the cause is unknown at this stage. We don’t know where it started, when it started, but it was sometime from the time we saw him in summer league – when everyone saw that he did not have a shoulder problem and there was no indication there was a problem with his shot – to something that very quickly rose to awareness in late September and early October as we started the season. Once it was determined that he really was not able to function, we dove deeper to determine whether or not there was something going on. Even though an MRI showed that there was no structural concerns, there was a scapular imbalance, as determined by the doctor in Kentucky. It literally was just a breakdown of muscle function. We don’t know enough about the injury. It’s very uncommon in basketball. It’s very complicated and complex, and that’s why there’s been so much unknown here.

But when Fultz did a TNT interview during a national broadcast, the injury was referred to as scapular dyskinesis:

A Liberty Ballers story looked into this weird disconnect in terminology.

Not having his back

Among the first (and few) to publicly suggest that Markelle Fultz was being let down by the people around him, Joel Embiid first dropped the hint in February of last season:

ICYMI: @JoelEmbiid joined the #FastBreak Postgame Show to talk @sixers win over the Knicks, Markelle Fultz and burner accounts!#TTP pic.twitter.com/8iyw2bJmGR

— NBA TV (@NBATV) February 13, 2018

Said Embiid:

“I feel like we’ve been really close since he got to Philly, and I feel like I’m the guy who can help him the most because I went through it. I missed two years, you know, going through all of those injuries, and that’s what he’s going through right now. All I’ve been trying to tell him is to take his time. Everybody’s going to criticize you, especially when you’re the number one pick. Everyone’s going to criticize you, call you a bust, I was called all of that during my first two years. But I don’t exactly know what the origin of the problems are. I’m still trying to figure that out. But I don’t feel like a lot of people around him have had his back. He’s only 19 years old and that can be hard. The people around you that are supposed to support you, that aren’t supporting you, it’s hard. I was in that situational especially after my first year when I needed a second surgery and I lost my brother. I just wanted to quit, wanted to get away and go home and literally leave everything behind but I’m glad I stuck with it and kept pushing and worked really hard. That’s a tough situation, but the main thing I always thing I tell him is just to stay patient and keep working hard.”

“I don’t feel like a lot of people around him have had his back.”

Fluid drained.. or injected?

Remember the agent, Raymond Brothers, telling ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Markelle had fluid drained from his shoulder to help alleviate the problem of raising his arms over his head?

Brothers had it backward, and revised the comment:

“He had a cortisone shot on Oct. 5, which means fluid was put into his shoulder — not taken out,” agent Raymond Brothers told ESPN on Tuesday night. “My intention earlier was to let people know that he’s been experiencing discomfort. We will continue to work with (Sixers general manager) Bryan Colangelo and the medical staff.”

Strange stuff all around, but it’s Orlando’s problem now.

The post Markelle Fultz’s Sixers Tenure Was Filled With Bizarre, Head-Scratching Moments appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores

On January 10, 2019, Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money recommended that Apple buy Epic, a market leader in EHRs. At that moment in the Twitterverse, it occurred to me that health IT as a consumer-facing industry was beginning to mainstream in America.

Cramer’s pronouncement led to a tweetstorm where hundreds of tweeters in and outside of health/care talked back and with Cramer.

A few of my favorite comments were:

“Jim Cramer needs a crash course in FHIR standards” from the wonkier section of peanut gallery.

“They are not even in the same universe” among people dissing the idea in short-hand.

“Where is the iPhone listed on Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs?” from someone noting Apple fans’ brand-love.

“Epic has too much technical debt and would be a mess for Apple” for those with a strategic bent.

Then the final consensus that, Epic, at the end of the day, would “never sell,” which most health IT insiders confidently asserted.

Here’s what I wrote.

My longtime health IT pal John Lynn wrote an entire treatise on “why” this just couldn’t/wouldn’t happen.  Brian Ahier, another close collaborator, asserted that “Judy” (Faulkner), Epic’s CEO, would have nothing to do with such a deal would go against the company’s legal foundation structure. Cramer later tweeted that such arrangements could change, on January 16th asserting, “I still say never say never.”

As I approach my 20-somethingth HIMSS, having been a member of the organization for most of my professional life, I’ll be focusing on the mainstreaming health IT Zeitgeist as I meet with innovators and experts this week in Orlando. I’m keen to learn where the industry is on that diffusion curve in putting health information and tools into the hands of consumers, patients and caregivers.

Why is this so important? I’ll give you four big reasons:

The patient is expecting a consumer experience from health care.

The patient is worried about privacy and data security.

The patient is growing aware of her personal “data space.”

The patient is a payor.

The patient-consumer experience. Central to this theme on the HIMSS exhibition floor will be the Personalized Health Experience at Booth 888 in Hall A. I spent time on the phone before the conference with John Sharp of HIMSS. John has been hands-on in curating the participants in this space, which John said are moving care outside of the hospital into peoples’ homes and hands across the continuum. In addition to exhibits, there’s a full agenda of sessions that focus on consumer health at home. A few topics that pique my interest address benefits for people and their pets, AI for everyday peoples’ health, and the assertively (spot-on) titled session, “don’t build more healthtech without asking patients first.”

Patient’s privacy and data security. Personalized health in the context of connected health means the flow of personal data, and this is another theme I’ll be exploring at HIMSS19 in terms of privacy, security, and consumer data ownership and control. We know that the volume of cybersecurity breaches against healthcare providers and plans has escalated year over year. One reason is because a medical data breach is more valuable than a hack of, say, consumers’ credit card identities. There will be a slew of data security solutions to evaluate at this conference. I expect a large proportion of HIMSS19 attendees will be at the conference focusing on just this challenge, the response to which can make-or-break a provider’s reputation in their local market.

The patient’s personal data-space. In the post-Facebook/Cambridge Analytics era, people have sobered up on the issue of the value of their data and respect for their ability to control and even monetize the value of that information. This is subtler than the data breach challenge. It’s related to Big Data algorithms and analytics that health care stakeholders assuming financial risk employ to manage that risk. More companies that supply the healthcare industry with personal data beyond the health care claim are exhibiting at HIMSS19. Several big-name vendors in this space that are also speaking on  the importance of gathering and using personal consumer data from retail, wearable tech, and other non-healthcare sources. LexisNexis has already garnered attention on this topic in a Politico story published earlier this month on the company’s approach to calculating a personal score for opioid risks.

Acxiom will host a lunch-and-learn on “Using Data to Overcome the Barriers to Patient-Driven Experience.”  Ahead of HIMSS19, Acxiom published a paper on this topic, summarizing a HIMSS survey on social determinants of health and data analytics. As the pie chart from the study result illustrates, well over one-half of health care providers are interested in integrating SDOH data into the EHR. With this growing demand on the provider side, it will be critical for providers – who currently enjoy a trusted relationship as patient data steward – to ensure consumers understand how their personal data is being used, and what rights people have over their data. The fact is that HIPAA may not cover all of these data flows. Consumers should be informed that their providers are using these data in the context of their health and health care in a value exchange. This area will get more attention as patients become more aware of personal data from retail receipts and social network check-ins being used in disease management, wellness programs, or other uses that might do well to receive a patient opt-in in advance of using PHI beyond HIPAA’s embrace. I covered this topic in my paper, Here’s Looking At You, prepared for the California Healthcare Foundation. The cautions I raised in that paper five years ago remain unresolved in U.S. privacy law.

The patient as payor. Americans don’t save much relatively to peers in other developed countries (even compared  to health citizens living in highly-taxed Scandinavia). Revenue cycle management (RCM) is a big HIMSS theme from providers’ points of view. But patients are now payors, facing high deductibles and thousand-dollar out-of-pocket costs that can overwhelm the average person’s savings account. Lively Inc.’s HSA Spend Report found that people who use a health savings account tend to interpret the “s” as “spending” more than the opportunity of “saving” with a triple-tax advantage. This is a benefit that too many patients-as-payors don’t well understand or take advantage of. Experian and TransUnion will be among the companies exhibiting at HIMSS that are involved in this space, which deals with a growing problem for healthcare CFOs and for consumers, as well. For patients facing cancer and other serious diseases, people can experience financial toxicity – that is, the side effect of being prescribed an expensive drug or procedure. I’ll be looking for consumer-facing solutions to lessen this fiscal-health challenge.

As I close out this first-of-many posts that I’ll be writing this week during HIMSS19, I come full circle to the Cramer-Apple-Epic saga. I found this tweet of mine from 2009 about Apple and Epic’s collaboration for a mobile EHR. That was tweeted ten years ago.

Life is long; HIMSS20 is but 366 days from today. Can we even imagine the bedfellows, strange or not, that will be collaborating for health-tech interoperability and consumer-facing care twelve months from now?

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  I expect many conversations during HIMSS19 to involve the “A” words, Amazon and Apple. Since HIMSS18, Apple has expanded its footprint and collaborations in health, with hospitals, tech developers, and patients. Most relevant for HIMSS attendees, Apple has revealed plans to expand its reach into patient records which could, eventually, disrupt the businesses of, yes, Epic, along with other major EHR vendors like Allscripts, Cerner, et al.

As for Amazon, Investing.com just-released a survey conducted among Prime members asking what kinds of products these ecommerce shoppers would be keen to buy from the site. Health-oriented goods and services ranked highly along with the usual fast-moving consumer goods suspects.

Emerging categories, like medical cannabis, was also a new-new thing to add to the growing menu of possible healthy things Amazon could channel.

This is continued evidence that in 2019 and the near-term future, Amazon continues to “prime” consumers for experience. Price transparency, consumer reviews, and fast-shipping feature high on Prime shoppers’ love-list of features. These facets of consumer experience are bleeding over into peoples’ expectations for health care.

At HIMSS19, we’ll see this play out, through the fast-growth of voice assistants, price transparency and appointment-scheduling tools, and platforms for health benefits self-service.

See you on the show floor, or at any of my four public meet-ups this week, linked here:

Tuesday 12 February, 3 pm – Women in HIT Meet-up  – Changing the Scales to #BalanceforBetter, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/womeninhit-meetup-changing-scales-balanceforbetter

Tuesday 12 February, 4 pm – Meet the HIMSS Social Media Ambassadors, HIMSS Spot, Hall C

https://www.himssconference.org/session/meet-himss-social-media-ambassadors-1

Wednesday 13 February, 8 am – Microsoft Health Forum and Innovation Awards

https://www.himssconference.org/education/microsoft-health-forum

Thursday 14 February, 10:15 am – PCHA Consumerism of Health Forum– Digital Traction of Consumerization of Health Care panel with leaders from Walgreens, Heal, and Cleveland Clinic

https://www.himssconference.org/session/digital-traction-consumerization-healthcare

 PS — For more insights into Epic, see a New York Times article published December 23, 2018, titled, “Willy Wonka and the Medical Software Factory.”  This story takes us into the inner sanctum of Epic, and begins: “In the farm country of southern Wisconsin, 12 miles from Madison, is one of the nation’s biggest tech companies – and almost certainly the quirkiest.” It is a must-read for any HIMSS19 attendee.

The post HIMSS 2019: The Mainstreaming of Health IT, from Jim Cramer to Opioid Risk Scores appeared first on HealthPopuli.com.

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