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Bitcoin Drops 40% in Four Months. Bloomberg Blames Absence of Buyers and Belief

October saw Bitcoin reach $123,742. But less than four months later, "The world's largest cryptocurrency slipped below $76,000..." Bloomberg reports, "dropping about 40% from its 2025 peak..."


"What began as a sharp crash in October has morphed into something more corrosive: a selloff shaped not by panic, but by absence of buyers, momentum and belief."


Unlike the October drawdown, there's been no obvious spark, cascading liquidations or systemic shock — just fading demand, thinning liquidity, and a token that's untethered to broader markets. Bitcoin has failed to respond to geopolitical stress, dollar weakness, or risk rallies. Even during gold and silver's violent swings in recent weeks, crypto saw no rotation. Bitcoin fell nearly 11% in January, marking its fourth straight monthly decline — the longest losing streak since 2018, during the crash that followed the 2017 boom in initial coin offerings...

Even more striking than the drop itself is the relative lack of optimism around it on social media. In a space known for relentless bravado and "number go up" memes, Bitcoin's slide has been met with little cheerleading or dip-buying fanfare... [Despite legislative wins and some institutional investments] Many investors say that optimism was front-run. Prices rallied early — and then stalled. Meanwhile, spot ETFs continue to bleed, a sign of weakening conviction among mainstream buyers — many of whom are now underwater after buying at higher prices.

On Thursday, Bitcoin closed at 88,228. By Sunday it had plunged another 13%, to 76,790...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Walmart Begins Building Out Nationwide EV Charging Network Across America

Walmart, the world's largest retailer, will be adding spaces for electric vehicle charging to parking lots in 19 different states, reports MLive:

The move follows up on a plan announced in 2023 to build a network of charging stations at Walmart and Sam's Club stores throughout the U.S... "With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in rural, suburban or urban areas," wrote Walmart Senior Vice President of Energy Transformation, Vishal Kapadia in 2023. Walmart plans to have the nationwide network operating by 2030.

Walmart plans to have the nationwide network operating by 2030.


Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Geoffrey.landis for sharing the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When 20-Year-Old Bill Gates Fought the World's First Software Pirates

Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland writes: Just months after his 20th birthday, Bill Gates had already angered the programmer community," remembers this 50th-anniversary commemoration of Gates' Open Letter to Hobbyists. "As the first home computers began appearing in the 1970s, the world faced a question: Would its software be free?"

Gates railed in 1976 that "Most of you steal your software." Gates had coded the BASIC interpreter for Altair's first home computer with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff — only to see it pirated by Steve Wozniak's friends at the Homebrew Computing Club. Expecting royalties, a none-too-happy Gates issued his letter in the club's newsletter (as well as Altair's own publication), complaining "I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up."

But freedom-loving coders had other ideas. When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs released their Apple 1 home computer that summer, they stressed that "our philosophy is to provide software for our machines free or at minimal cost..." And early open-source hackers began writing their own free Tiny Basic interpreters to create a free alternative to the Gates/Micro-Soft code. This led to the first occurrence of the phrase "Copyleft" in October of 1976.

Open Source definition author Bruce Perens shares his thoughts today. "When I left Pixar in 2000, I stopped in Steve Job's office — which for some reason was right across the hall from mine... " Perens remembered. "I asked Steve: 'You still don't believe in this Linux stuff, do you...?'" And Perens remembers how that movement finally won over Steve Jobs and carried the day. "Three years later, Steve stood onstage in front of a slide that said 'Open Source: We Think It's Great!' as he introduced the Safari browser, which at that time was based on the browser engine developed by the KDE Open Source project!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Angelo Plumbing

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Angelo Plumbing

An Endless Static Sea

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

An Endless Static Sea

The Cango Caves colorfully illumintated

BertvB posted a photo:

The Cango Caves colorfully illumintated

Grave Condition

Greg Adams Photography posted a photo:

Grave Condition

Pocono Cemetery

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Secret Genius review – Alan Carr and Susie Dent’s moving IQ contest will have you instantly hooked

There are estimated to be a million undiscovered geniuses in the UK, and this show is out to find one. It’s a stressful, heartwarming, shocking watch – which raises big questions about the UK

This, then, is what Alan Carr did next. Fresh from his victory as the last traitor standing in The Celebrity Traitors, and elevation to national treasure status, the Chatty Man is co-presenting Secret Genius with Countdown’s dictionary-botherer, the lexicographer and author Susie Dent. On second thoughts, given the lead times for these things, this is probably better billed as “What Alan Carr was contracted to do next” but no matter. We are here to have fun and fun we shall! Though, this being a reality-competition show in which people take part in regional heats to find out who among them is “one of the estimated million undiscovered geniuses” in the UK (no definition of the term given – Dent, you had ONE JOB), it comes with a buffet of sob stories, a side order of stress and a hefty dollop of whatever the word is for that patented mix of schadenfreude and voyeurism on which the genre depends.

We begin with a dozen participants drawn from north-west England and Northern Ireland. They have either nominated themselves or – more often – been nominated by friends and family who know them as the cleverclogses of their circles. All will compete in the first round: eight will reach the second.

Continue reading...

‘Made me want to punch the air’: The Night Manager’s seductive, twisty return was a TV triumph

Without a weighty Le Carré novel behind it, there were fears the steamy, stylish spy series would feel phoned in. We needn’t have worried – it’s been a delight

  • This article contains spoilers for the season finale of The Night Manager

What a pleasure it is to be seduced – and The Night Manager is just about the most seductive show on television. The palatial houses and swish hotels; the expensive suits and crisp shirts (does anyone wear a button-up better than Tom Hiddleston?); all the beautiful people with their beautiful faces, elegantly stabbing one another in the back. The first season aired 10 years ago – an entirely different world – so when it was announced that a second season was coming, my first thought was: oh no, lightning doesn’t strike twice. Delightfully, I was wrong.

If you haven’t revisited The Night Manager since 2016, here are the pertinent points: Jonathan Pine (Hiddleston), a night manager in a Cairo hotel, weaseled his way into the rarefied world of arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper (Hugh Laurie), AKA “the worst man in the world”, under the direction of Angela Burr (Olivia Colman), who ran a British intelligence operation. As a supposedly loyal henchman, Pine beguiled Roper, shtupped his girlfriend, imploded his arms deal and made off with a cool $300m, as Roper was dragged off screaming to a violent fate by unhappy customers.

Continue reading...

Brighterdaysahead topples favourite Lossiemouth to win Irish Champion Hurdle

  • Dublin racing festival belatedly starts on Sunday

  • Brighterdaysahead cut in betting for Cheltenham festival

There was a full-throated roar from the stands as the 2026 Dublin racing festival finally got under way on Sunday and another as Lossiemouth, the favourite, went to post for the Irish Champion Hurdle later in the afternoon, but the cheers 10 minutes later were for her market rival, Brighterdaysahead, as Gordon Elliott’s mare convincingly reversed the form of the December Hurdle here last month to win the big race of the day.

Lossiemouth and Brighterdaysahead were foaled within three weeks of each other in March 2019 but last month’s Grade One was the first time that the two mares had met on the track.

Continue reading...

US is in talks with Cuban leadership, says Trump, after blockade threats

US president announces efforts being made to strike a deal having earlier threatened to stop island importing oil

Washington is negotiating with Havana’s leadership to strike a deal, Donald Trump has said, days after threatening Cuba’s reeling economy with a virtual oil blockade.

“Cuba is a failing nation. It has been for a long time but now it doesn’t have Venezuela to prop it up. So we’re talking to the people from Cuba, the highest people in Cuba, to see what happens,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on Sunday.

Continue reading...

Foord sees off Corinthians in extra time to put Arsenal on top of the world

  • Final: Arsenal 3-2 Corinthians (aet)

  • Smith 15; Wubben-Moy 58; Foord 104; Zanotti 21, Albuquerque 90+6 pen

The most decorated women’s club in England made more history at the Emirates stadium on Sunday night, Arsenal securing a 3-2 win over the Copa Libertadores champions Corinthians in extra time to see them crowned winners of the inaugural Fifa Women’s Champions Cup.

They were made to work for their victory, the Brazilians twice coming from behind to force another 30 minutes of football, but it was somewhat of an inevitability. The Uefa Champions League winners benefited from being mid-season with players at full fitness, in contrast to Corinthians being in their pre-season and Concacaf Champions Cup winners Gotham FC in their off-season, and from the decision to hold the tournament in London, and play the final at the Emirates. This was a competition set up for European success and Arsenal delivered. They are officially the world’s best club and they have a nice trophy to prove it. The 13-point gap, albeit with a game in hand, between them and WSL leaders Manchester City though, says otherwise.

Continue reading...

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Waterpolosters ondanks verlies tegen Spanje naar halve finale EK

FUNCHAL (ANP) - De Nederlandse waterpolosters hebben de halve finale bereikt van het Europees kampioenschap in het Portugese Funchal (Madeira). De ploeg van bondscoach Evangelos Doudesis verloor weliswaar na penalty's met 16-13 van Spanje, maar eindigde toch bovenaan in de poule van de tweede groepsfase. Italië is dinsdag de tegenstander in de halve finale.

Nederland verdedigt de Europese titel van 2024, behaald in Eindhoven. De waterpolosters kunnen in Funchal voor de zevende keer Europees kampioen worden.

Oranje keek in de tweede periode tegen een achterstand van 5-1 aan, maar werkte dat verschil weg dankzij treffers van Kitty-Lynn Joustra en Lieke Rogge. De stand bleef gelijkopgaan tot in de vierde periode. Daarin nam olympisch kampioen Spanje weer twee doelpunten afstand, maar Joustra en Simone van de Kraats brachten Nederland weer op gelijke hoogte.

Reguliere speeltijd

Na de reguliere speeltijd was de stand 13-13. Dat leverde Nederland het punt op voor de groepswinst. In de strafworpen was Spanje beter, maar dat kon Oranje niet meer deren.

"Dit was de prettigste nederlaag in mijn carrière", zei bondscoach Doudesis na afloop in het flashinterview. "Ik heb nog geen goede analyse, maar het was wel duidelijk dat dit een wedstrijd was tussen hele goede schutters. De keepsters hadden grote moeite met ballen stoppen."

De Spaanse Beatriz Ortiz was een van die schutters. Zij scoorde zeven keer. Joustra legde er vijf in voor Nederland.


thexiffy

Last.fm last recent tracks from thexiffy.

Marilyn Manson - The Love Song

Marilyn Manson

Goa - Total Eclipse - Waiting For A New Life

Goa

XL Recordings - Looney Tunes - Just As Long As I Got You

XL Recordings

Muse - Exogenesis Symphony Part 2 (Cross-Pollination)

Muse

kottke.org

Jason Kottke's weblog, home of fine hypertext products

ProPublica : “The two federal immigration agents...

ProPublica: “The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez.”

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

Fabio Bruna

Fotografie (ansichtografist), architectuur, kunst, wandel & Den Haag liefhebber ✨

Obsidian plugins

Obsidian plugins

Het werken met een Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) systeem bevalt me inmiddels zo enorm goed, dat ik bijna niet meer weet hoe ik mijn leven hiervoor organiseerde. Obsidian is de tool, en ik ben in jaren niet zo tevreden geweest met software. De laatste keer dat ik zoveel enthousiasme voelde, was bij Amarok 1.4 (een muziekspeler, maar vooral podcast downloader van voor de smartphones uit de vroege jaren 2000).

Maar na Amarok 1.4 kwam het drama van Amarok 2.0. Een herontwerp dat alles wat goed was overboord gooide. Dat soort digitale trauma's maakt waakzaam. Obsidian werkt op basis van gewone tekstbestanden (Markdown), wat in theorie betekent dat mijn data in ieder geval goed houdbaar is. Verder heb ik een prima indruk van de makers van Obsidian. Maar er zijn ook plugins, die eenvoudig te installeren zijn, en soms handige dingen doen. Passen die de markdownbestanden niet te veel aan? Ben ik niet te afhankelijk geworden van die plugins?
Wat is het risico als ik de stekker uit Obsidian trek en de bestanden in een simpele teksteditor open?

In de onderstaande tabel heb ik de plugins die ik gebruik op volgorde gezet van die impact. Wat doen ze met mijn bestanden?

Plugin Impact Effect
Dataview Hoog Gebruikt eigen querytaal
Excalidraw Hoog Slaat tekeningen op in Markdown bestanden met JSON.
Admonition Hoog Gebruikt specifieke codeblokken voor styling.
Charts Hoog Gebruikt codeblokken om data te visualiseren.
Tasks Gemiddeld Gebruikt eigen syntax voor metadata
Templater Gemiddeld De scripts in de templates werken alleen in Obsidian. Uitvoer is standaard tekst.
Map View / Maps Gemiddeld Gebruikt specifieke YAML frontmatter.
Mermaid Tools Gemiddeld Gebruikt Mermaid syntax.
QuickAdd Geen Voornamelijk een workflow tool.
Natural Language Dates Geen Verwerkt input naar standaard datumtekst. Geen impact op de uiteindelijke tekst.
Periodic Notes Geen Beheert mapstructuren en titels, maar gebruikt standaard Markdown.
Calendar Geen Puur een element in de zijbalk; verandert niets aan de syntax van je notes.
Outliner Geen Verbetert de workflow van lijstjes, maar de onderliggende Markdown blijft standaard.
Projects Geen Gebruikt bestaande metadata voor weergave in een aparte UI.
Omnisearch Geen Een zoekfunctie die de inhoud van bestanden niet wijzigt.
Pandoc Plugin Geen Een tool voor exports.
Workspaces Plus Geen Onthoudt alleen de vensterindeling in Obsidian.
Beautitab Geen Verandert alleen het uiterlijk van een nieuw tabblad.
LanguageTool Geen Tekstcontrole.
Extract url content Geen Converteert webcontent naar standaard Markdown.
Paste image rename Geen Hernoemt bestanden op schijf, verandert niets aan de Markdown.

Van de plugins met een hoge impact zijn er twee die ik direct heb verwijderd.

De Charts plugin is de eerste. Eenvoudig, die gebruik ik niet.

Ook Admonition gaat de deur uit. De callouts ogen mooi, maar essentieel zijn ze niet.

Zorgelijker is de dataview plugin. De charts plugin kon weg, omdat ik dataviewjs gebruik voor mijn visuals. Een onderdeel van de dataview plugin. Dataviews en visuals gebruik ik niet in standaardtemplates, alleen in losse notes. Maar wel in behoorlijk wat notes. En ik zou ook niet eenvoudig kunnen zonder de visuals. Een dataview blok gebruikt een eigen querytaal. Dataviewjs voor de visuals is weliswaar standaard JavaScript, maar wel volledig afhankelijk van de API van de plugin.

De Dataview plugin is op dit moment het zwakke punt in m'n systeem. Het inzicht dat ik uit mijn data haal, maakt dat ik de plugin (nog) niet kan of wil verwijderen. Een (nu bekend) risico.


DNA Lounge: Wherein I have some thoughts on food delivery apps

Yesterday I mentioned that DNA Pizza takes online delivery orders again, after a year-long hiatus. Hooray...

Perhaps it has been long enough since I talked about deliveries that you have forgotten how terrible everything has been! Let's recap!

We opened DNA Pizza in 2011, and from then until roughly 2015, we had decent delivery business. It was a pretty significant portion of our income. In fact, our delivery business was a big part of why it sounded like a good idea at the time to open a second venue, Codeword in 2015. We had been having trouble keeping up with orders on weekend nights, so once Codeword opened we staged all delivery orders from there, freeing up the DNA Lounge oven for in-house slices.

In the early days, we employed our own delivery drivers (we had a car topper and everything!) And while some restaurant apps like Eat24 and Grubhub existed at the time, they just ran the menu-and-credit-cards system: restaurants were still responsible for doing their own deliveries. But having our own drivers just wasn't economical and in around 2014, I held my nose and we switched to using "Uber Eats" for delivery. Again, at the time, they were a delivery company, which is a thing that (thanks to them) no longer exists. We conducted the transaction; they put it in a car. You used the app to summon a driver to pick up a bag instead of a person.

But in 2017, Uber abruptly decided that if you wanted them to deliver something, you also had to allow them to operate your online store, and let them take a percentage of that. So we dropped them on principle, and switched to Postmates. But then eventually Uber bought Postmates too. So we switched to Grubhub, who had recently started doing deliveries as well as ordering: this gave Grubhub the same downsides as Uber Eats, but at least they weren't Uber.

It was between 2015 and 2017 that Grubhub and similar apps started becoming really popular, and as soon as they did, our delivery business absolutely cratered. Not only did the number of delivery orders go way down, but deliveries became damn near uneconomical due to the huge cut taken by the apps, taking 15% to 30% of the value of the order rather than charging per mile for a delivery. Our margins were obliterated.

And on top of the extortionate delivery apps came the fraudulent "ghost kitchens", the fake clickbait restaurants all running out of the same warehouse that existed only as online branding. So by 2017, Travis Kalanick's debasement and destruction of the restaurant industry was nearly complete.

Twelve or fifteen years ago, the idea of a pizza restaurant that made no money from deliveries would have been inconceivable. Pizza was the canonical late-night delivery food for the entirety of the Twentieth Century. But here we are, "disrupted" by techbros.

Over the years, besides Grubhub, we used to use some other delivery services as well (DoorDash, Slice, Allset, a few others) but we stopped because we got no business from them. Like, literally one order a month or less. And that was back in the day when we did get a significant number of delivery orders through Grubhub. It was just that nobody used those services. Grubhub was, at least at the time, the 800 pound gorilla, the only game in town.

And then around 2022, Grubhub just flat out stopped working. They were so astoundingly incompetent that we got essentially zero orders through them. Their web site was never showing DNA Pizza to customers, even when they searched for it directly, and for close to two years their tech support was so useless that eventually we just gave up. It was so bad that in 2023 I asked the Lazyweb for help out of desperation, And despite turning up some technical contacts within Grubhub, nothing got better at all. So in early 2025, we just closed our Grubhub account and decided, "Welp, I guess we don't offer deliveries at all any more".

Then! Funny story! A couple months ago, a new "territory manager" got hired at Grubhub and hit us up with a "please come back" email. Devon's reply was so blistering that I'm just gonna include most of it here:

Your suggestions don't even begin to address the issue we had.

We had issues with your backend. Menus would vanish. I spent countless hours providing your support teams with steps to reproduce the problem. we got extremely deranked. I got support once to agree to completely rebuild our storefront from scratch so that we would be free of the various issues that support was unable to fix. Support just cloned the store and it had the same problems.

There was some deeply buried bug involving an integration from the otter tablet company that was disabling menus in some non-standard way. And we got de-ranked again, because our menus would turn off at inconvenient times with no way to turn them back on. Support was terrible and useless and never believed me.

So, no, having commissions waived won't do us any good when your platform itself was turning off our menus in ways that nobody who worked for you could figure out how to fix. [...]

I wasted easily 100 hours of my life over a few years on this nonsense.

Nope. Never again. Your company is terrible. You should get a job somewhere else before Grubhub gets bought again and they gut staffing even more.

So, let's hope this Chow Now thing works better than that.

As with all techbro disruption, you have to follow the money to understand this. At first glance you might think that Grubhub's customers are the hungry people ordering food. But Grubhub's actual income is the money that they claw back from the restaurants as subscription fees and a vig on every order, which means that their actual customers are the restaurants. And they will put the screws to each of those restaurants harder and harder, until they die off and another one is slotted in to replace them. They can do this because these days the restaurants have no other choice. This is a canonical example of the oft-misapplied term "Enshittification".

And the galaxy-brain version of "who are the customers?" is "the investors". It doesn't matter if Grubhub becomes so useless that it collapses entirely, so long as the VCs and C-suite get an IPO or private equity buyout just before that happens. Their victory condition is a mob bust-out, rather than a sustainable, long-term business.

Oh yeah! Speaking of Travis Kalanick's ratfucking of the restaurant industry,

Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2025 14:11:26 -0500
From: ██████@cloudkitchens.com
Subject: Request to Discuss New Market Opportunity

DNA Pizza Team,

Thanks in advance for your time and attention.

I'd like to connect and talk with you about a possible partnership with one of our food halls in the Bay Area. Have you considered expanding your reach to other markets? I'm not sure if what we offer would work for you, however, It wouldn't hurt to hear me out, take a tour, and see what options we can offer.

What are your thoughts?

Keep up the good cooking,

I did not hold back:

Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2025 12:28:34 -0700
From: jwz@dnalounge.com
To: ██████@cloudkitchens.com
Subject: Re: Request to Discuss New Market Opportunity

You have got a lot of nerve. Your company single-handedly destroyed the Bay Area restaurant industry and you still have the gall to come sniffing around the corpse. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, you absolute parasites.

BTW, have your Saudi owners murdered any journalists lately?

What I did not expect... was a reply!

Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2025 14:56:13 -0700
From: ██████@cloudkitchens.com
To: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@dnalounge.com>
Subject: Re: Request to Discuss New Market Opportunity

Hello Jamie,

Thanks for your patience with me getting back to you.

It's unfortunate you feel this way towards CloudKitchens and what the company is attempting to accomplish for restaurant owners and operators in the industry. However, I appreciate your candor. I'll be sure to relay your message to the proper channels.

In summary, running a small business is a land of contrasts. Please buy our pizza, it's actually really good.