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Friday, March 25, 2016

The Enigmatic Bitcoin




At this point in history, our position is precarious.

Am I talking about politics? NO...well, maybe...maybe not. Haven't really thought this essay out beyond its opening sentence. If I want to talk politics, people run away just as I do when politics come up --either from someone else or from me when I am not quite myself.  Maybe you have a friend who talks politics with you. Well, I know your friend and he drinks.

I have a friend too. He talked exclusively about politics for many years. Now he spends all his time peeling spots of light off the curtains and stuffing them into his wallet. He calls them Bitcoins. He doesn't drink. He is delusional. I will now post an enigmatic Normaphoto:
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We were relaxing in The Metatarsal Bar ,  a club, organized by podiatrists, known for its mixed drinks and pedorthic modifications. Many retired gardeners who, like me, at some point put a pick through one foot or the other, avail themselves of concoctions that reangulate the sagittal plane, and frequent the establishment. Our friend insisted on paying and, as usual, when he gets them out they twinkle like pixie dust and wiggle chuckling out the door. So the photo above shows two Bitcoins streaking into the sky. One seems to have snagged in a eucalyptus tree. However, in a second photo...
...it has untangled itself and followed its fellow into the sky. Are they streaking into nonexistence or en route from this coast to North Korea? Before doubt sets in, let's consider exchange rates.

If only two of a thing exist in political-economic reality, they are rarities and each is worth half the money in the whole world. Just think how their value would rise if only one existed --all the money in the world! Or, if none existed, they'd be worth ALL the money in the Universe by the same ampliative calculus.  So I hope they're headed somewhere that will appreciate them whether they exist or not.


24 comments:

  1. Who ever catches them will either curse or rejoice. It's a 50/50 thing.

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    1. Thanks, Susan. I kind of hope they'll respond with a rejoiceful curse, which might help me understand economics.

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  2. Fly bit coins. Fly. Stay away from the monkeys.

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    1. So they're like OZ-currency? I can almost understand that. What is their melting temperature, you think? Just asking.

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  3. As always the Normaphotos are spectacular. The trail of the bitcoins may be as close as we will ever get....

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    1. Oh EC, I've been hearing about how unregulated and unreliably fungible this currency is for years, and yet it still flies. True enigma.

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  4. I have it on good authority that those are not bitcoins. They are reflections of the moonlight hitting silicon crystals on the ground that expand into the linear lights you think you see.

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    1. Moonbeams and mirrors was my guess --sounds like our theories are getting pretty close to
      plumbing this enigma.

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  5. Anything with a semblance of value will eventually be appreciated. That's why politicians aren't appreciated.....

    I desperately needed some humor - and intelligent humor is the best kind. Thanks for providing smiles accompanied by brain food.

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    1. My pleasure, Jon. And, by the way, I found out why I got so tired today. Thought I'd taken my new allergy prescription but had accidentally taken a pill I had discontinued that made me feel lousy --might have been Bitcoins. Ok now though.

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    2. Good heavens - - I'm glad you're okay. Read the labels carefully, Geo - and throw out those bad pills....

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    3. Excellent advice, which I will follow

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  6. I'm sure what you say is absolutely correct. Trouble is, I simply do not understand "Bitcoins."

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    1. Tom, I've been hearing about Bitcoins for years and have understood none of it. I gather they are only fungible currency by consent --like the beans in "Jack and the Beanstalk".

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  7. Sounds like you probably don't leave bitcoin tips in the Metatarsal Bar. The place must have a lot of sole.

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  8. Geo., I've never been on a roller coaster, but I expect it would be comparable to reading one of your posts. I reach the finish line with hair blown back, hanging on for dear life to the safety bar, and wondering what-all was in the blur that went by me in the middle of it all! At least this time I know the blur was bitcoins.

    And now that I've got my hairs in place again, I have to thank you for the link to the metatarsal bars. I didn't realize there was such a thing and they look like they might be the answer to some pain I've been having. (I like to diagnose myself for the lesser medical issues. Ahem.) I hope they've helped you, too. Assuming you've had issues - with your feet, I mean, not with puns. Your puns seem to be quite healthy.

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    1. O Jenny, first rolleycoaster I ever rode was at Coney Island, 1962. My hair's been unruly ever since. As to Metatarsal Bar, the device was recommended by my GP after a work-related injury (yes, it involved a pick) and I thought the name would be good for a podiatrists' saloon. Unfortunately, none of these experiences have helped me understand Bitcoins.

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    2. I was hoping the "pick through one foot or the other" was ... an analogy ... or poetic license ... or something, anything but reality. Ow.

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    3. It was about 35 years ago, my pick glanced off a concrete berm and detoured into my boot. Good thing they were steel-toed boots so damage was minimal but a metatarsal bar kept me functional.

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  9. I'm always in a queue for a metatarsal bar. Except today, when I visit, coin free, bearing only gifts of Happy Eastertides :-)

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    1. Thanks, Lisa! Happiness is the legal tender of holidays. All my best to you and yours.

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  10. Oh I learn to be wary when I read words like "The Metatarsal Bar" - which formerly I MIGHT have thought of as a sort of elegant pub - but no longer do I fall into such traps (if I would I might hurt my feet and then need a drink and/in those bar(s).
    Norma's photos: as always so excellent! I never understand the mathematics of bitcoins - remind me of a header I read in a magazine today: ""Five out of four people do have a problem with mathematics." Next page: "That is almost half of them! Can't one change that?"
    Somehow I have the feeling that bitcoins belong into that category. But who knows?

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    1. Dear Brigitta, your mathematics make sense to me. There are huge fortunes of national currencies in constant circulation but no one knows WHERE most of it is. With Bitcoin, no on knows WHAT it is. Divide one into the other and a new Metatarsal Bar springs up.

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