Trying to find an article that explains this twisted tale.   The Right-wing president of El Salvador decided to make Bitcoin legal tender in that country.  An exchange was opened and everyone who wanted to participate (over half the country) was given $30.  After the initial enthusiasm, usage went to zero.

In order to get IMF loans El Salvador had to disclose where the Bitcoin money was coming from and where it was going.  It seems “private donations” were used to build up government Bitcoin reserves.  Also Bitcoin is no longer Legal Tender.  The president says it was perhaps his most unpopular move.  I can’t say I understand the unpopularity of free money (even Bitcoin money) but there it is.  It all sounds shady, but this is Bitcoin.

Two articles below.  Like I said, it’s hard to find a full story on this, especially in the mainstream press.

IMF clears El Salvador bitcoin: Private donors never named or quantified

Why is Bitcoin use down 99.8% in El Salvador?

I arrived in Austin, TX during the brief Slacker era.  I was in grad school and working at a semiconductor company to pay the bills.  I recall seeing Richard Linklater once a week, like clockwork, as I was heading north to get lunch at Conan’s between classes and he was headed south.  We were nodding acquaintances.  As we passed each other on the sidewalk, two long haired guys in shorts and t-shirts, a brief nod would pass between us.  Austin was a friendly place.

Austin was coming out of the Liberty Lunch era of Willie Nelson and his hippie cowboy outlaws and a new generation dubbed Slackers was emerging.  People were doing nothing and everything. Rents were cheap, so was tuition.  The university and even the state government anchored things down a bit but otherwise everything seemed wide open.  You could do pretty much whatever you wanted.  But it was the opposite of ambition.  Not that ambition was frowned upon, if that was your thing.  Success might even be cool.  But it was strictly optional.

London Review of Books revisits that time and place, mostly in the form of an extended music review.  It must be said that there were lots of bands but very little music you would want to revisit.  A good read all the same mostly for the beginning and end.

All Kinds of Not Much

I didn’t appreciate that one of the great cartoons of my youth is all about this part of the world (New Mexico).  We do see roadrunners regularly.  Coyotes, less so.  A new movie was made, was shelved (for tax purposes?), and then finally put in theaters.  Will have to check this one out.  I’m told our commuter train plays a prominent role.

Keep Chasing That Bird: The Oral History of ‘Coyote vs. Acme’

A good read from the New Orleans Times-Picayune about the history of man-made ice, which has its roots in New Orleans.

N.O. played pivotal role in man-made ice

Someone followed the money.  Looks like they are all guilty here and they all need to go to jail.

Outrage, call for change continue to mount following Hope Florida grand jury report

TL;DR solar is now cheaper to install than other electricity generating technologies like gas or coal.  It was always much cheaper to operate.  From Oil Price.

Solar Has Crossed a Critical Economic Tipping Point

That’s 6% of registered voters.  Just before a major election.  I wonder if there is any pattern to who is getting “scrubbed”.

I was scrubbed in Texas after living in the same house for a decade and voting in all major elections.  I even had the voter registration card they mailed me. I was only able to provisionally vote.  It still pisses me off.  This was during the Rick Perry era.  Contacted my congressmen to complain but got nowhere.

Texas Has Suspended More Than 1 Million Voters Ahead of Senate Race

Last April I ordered some non-stick aluminum foil from Walmart.  They delivered a roll of normal foil. Not what I needed, not what I ordered.  So I returned it at the store for a refund.  Yesterday I got a text that I had a FedEx delivery that would need a signature.  Weird.  I wasn’t expecting anything.

I tried to track it and it was a duplicate tracking number.  The number was another delivery to me from April.  But I couldn’t get any more information from the FedEx site.  I figured it was a mistake, or possibly some scam that I couldn’t figure out.

FedEx just delivered — a roll of aluminum foil.  No box, no bag.  All covered with stickers with various scan codes.  I’m pretty sure it’s the same roll they delivered here in April.  It certainly seems worse for wear. I wonder where it has been the last few months.

Anybody need a roll of aluminum foil?  I’m thinking to trying to bring it back to Walmart, just to see what happens.

From Giffords.org, a site run by Gabby Giffords, a former US Congresswoman who was shot in an attempted assassination in 2011.  The link below is to a long page filled with charts and graphs on guns in America.  It’s very well done, but very grim.  I got halfway through it a few weeks back, intending to finish it later.  Worth your time.

Two things that struck me.  More than half of gun deaths are suicides. 85% are male.  Most are white (although other races are over-represented).  So the most common gun death in America is a white male suicide.  Not what most people probably think of first, if at all.

GUN VIOLENCE STATISTICS

Google owned self-driving taxi company is buying Chinese cars, even though you can’t.  BTW, I would never trust the self driving on my Tesla but have enjoyed using Waymo.  From The Cool Down.

Waymo imported 3,200 Zeekr vans despite a 127.5% tariff on Chinese EVs