John Oliver tries to explains cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin has been much in the news recently, along with new words like ‘cryptocurrency’ and ‘blockchains’. When bitcoin first appeared some years ago, I was intrigued by the idea of a currency that was not issued by any government and tried to learn what it was about and even downloaded the software that supposedly enabled people to ‘mine’ the currency. I soon lost interest and gave up because I lacked the motivation. I am not really driven by the desire for money and the process seemed to be so complicated and boring that it did not have any intellectual appeal for me either
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Latest OK Go video

The music group OK Go is known for its highly choreographed videos done in just one take that depends upon carefully timed movements that must require plenty of rehearsing. Sometime ago, I linked to one that had a large number of dogs involved. Their latest one seems to exceed all their previous efforts and involves a ton of paint. I felt sorry about all the guitars, though.

First you can see the video.
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Trump doesn’t just lie, he now boasts about it

That Donald Trump lies incessantly is now an unquestioned fact. But we are now witnessing lying taken to the next level where he proudly boasts that he lies. In private remarks, Trump told a group of people at a fundraising dinner that at a meeting with Canada’s prime minister he had knowingly lied to him about the trade deficit. The only lying level left is the dreaded Lying Singularity where the lies feed upon themselves so much that they collapse into a black hole.
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Comedic round up of the news

This has been a manic week in US politics even by Trump standards, and the comedy shows were hard pressed to cram in all that happened. Both Seth Meyers and Samantha Bee paid close attention to the student walkouts all across the nation is support for real gun control. This clearly has the NRA and Republicans worried because political views are often shaped by one’s experiences as a young adult so they fear losing this generation. Being total reactionaries on women’s, minorities, and LGBT rights was bad enough but did not cause this kind of mass protests.
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Trump seems scared of firing people

Normally the way that someone gets fired is their boss calling them in to their office and telling them directly. Depending on the boss, the words used may be gentle or they may be callous but they are usually done in person, especially if the person being fired is high-ranking in the organization. To fire someone by text or email would be highly unusual and by Twitter would unthinkable.
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