It's coming up to the State of the Nation address time again. If you want to know what the state is, just drive around your neighborhood. Are the roads in good condition? Are the road markings clear? Do the sidewalks have overgrown weeds? Do you even have side walks? Are the road sign boards straight, upright and rust free? Are the traffic lights working? How about the street lights? The public parks? The list goes on and on once you stop to take a look. Politicians are good at speaking. What they don't understand is that words are useless. Only action matters. Have a look around and see - use your eyes, not your ears.

If the Deep State in the US is seemingly powerful enough to control government policy, why is the Deep State in the EU seemingly unable to do the same? Carbon Zero goals are killing the European Industrial machine. Why is it not doing the same in the US?

The greatest sport on the planet

The Lazy Lizard restaurant in Prince Albert accepts bitcoin payments. Powered by @Blink Wallet , it's a sweet experience. Be sure to stop by and support them.

Morning sun is the best

Cook'n up something new

Nothing comes close to artwork from @NoGood ✌️. This wallpaper on my phone makes me smile every time I pick it up.

The porn industry is always an early tech adopter. VHS, Internet, streaming and now NOSTR

After the space bar, the "enter" key must be the most used key on the keyboard. For the love of all that is holy, why is there not a standard size/placement/position?!

Monthly Round-Up 4: We trade war stories about AI coding that dazzles then stalls, and show how self-hosted LLMs and agents can reclaim privacy and time. The talk shifts to real-world Bitcoin: QR payments across South Africa, M-Pesa bridges in Kenya, community custody with FediMint, and a world-first open secure element from Trezor. • AI tools that impress early then hit walls • Self-hosted LLMs on Start9 for privacy and resilience • Defaults and data: using AI to summarise terms • Local hosting versus cloud trade-offs • FediMint community custody experiments and limits • Money Badger scaling Bitcoin at 700k+ South African merchants • Safety gains with Tando bridging Bitcoin to M-Pesa • How Bitcoin scales via existing rails and “change in sats” • Breez Time To Build challenge and OpenSats grants • Trezor Safe 7 with open secure element • China’s e-CNY, BRICS, and why neutral money matters If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, what are you doing? You can get 10% off your ticket if you use the code OKIN

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Monthly Round Up 4: Freedom Needs Better Defaults: Self-Hosted AI, Community Custody, And Paying With Sats • Listen on Fountain

We trade war stories about AI coding that dazzles then stalls, and show how self-hosted LLMs and agents can reclaim privacy and time. The talk shif...

I've started using @Nextcloud 📱☁️💻 on my home server. It's really incredible that this quality and functionality is free and fully open source software. Anyone looking to move away from big tech in the cloud, and to a more secure solution that just works, should just start here.

The news cycle says crisis; history says pattern. We sit down with political philosopher and lecturer Gerhard Wolmarans to test whether our moment is truly exceptional or simply another liminal passage where the old order fades and the new hasn’t yet taken shape. From Rome to Mali, the Glorious to the French Revolution, Gerhard traces how change arrives—sometimes as a flood, sometimes as a slow thaw—and why the health of politics often decides whether societies reform or fracture.

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Gerhard Wolmarans - If It’s Not 200 Years Old, I'm not Interested • Listen on Fountain

The news cycle says crisis; history says pattern. We sit down with political philosopher and lecturer Gerhard Wolmarans to test whether our moment ...

Immigration happens for two reasons; the push of conflict or the pull of opportunity. Opportunity seems divided between highly skilled, sought after people, and low skilled labour people. AI could replace the first, and robotics replace the second. This should be interesting.

Want to see Bitcoin move from theory to till? I sit down with @Bridge 2 Bitcoin —the team quietly onboarding UK pubs, cafés, galleries, and independents—to unpack a playbook that starts with footfall, not hype. Their pitch is disarmingly simple: free setup, native Bitcoin stack, and a customer base that seeks you out.

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Bridge to Bitcoin - Money Changes Culture Before It Changes Policy • Listen on Fountain

Want to see Bitcoin move from theory to till? We sit down with Bridge to Bitcoin—the team quietly onboarding UK pubs, cafés, galleries, and inde...

What does freedom look like when it’s not a slogan but a daily practice? For Dirk Roeder, it starts with owning his time—and he stress‑tests that idea by circling the globe with his wife, mapping an eight‑month route through 21 wonders across four categories. The stories are vivid and honest: planning around seasons, securing the rare Machu Picchu slot, and discovering that people are kinder than headlines suggest. El Salvador’s transformation becomes a standout moment, not as a hot take but as a lived encounter with safer streets and proud citizens.

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Dirk Roeder - From 21 Wonders To Energy Freedom: On Travel, Grids, And Human Prosperity • Listen on Fountain

What does freedom look like when it’s not a slogan but a daily practice? For Dirk Roeder, it starts with owning his time—and he stress‑tests ...

Business owners that accept bitcoin payments, are having a great time stacking extra sats, every time the bitcoin price drop.

Episode 3 of the Monthly RoundUp: The mood swings of the market don’t define the mission—and this roundtable proves it. We swap war stories from live demos and travel to Lugano with an update on a coastal Bitcoin hub in South Africa, then dive straight into the most charged question of the moment: what really happens when crypto dollars move on Bitcoin rails via Lightning and RGB? There’s clear utility for cross-border payments and the global south, but also a live risk of compliance creep, node capture, and cultural drift away from self-sovereign money. We unpack the geopolitics, from Washington’s embrace of Tether as an inflation export and Treasury buyer to the EU’s CBDC-first strategy, and ask what builders should assume about state incentives and surveillance. @OKIN @BitcoinEkasi @Ricki Allardice

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Monthly Round Up 3: Silent Rails, Loud Implications • Listen on Fountain

The mood swings of the market don’t define the mission—and this roundtable proves it. We swap war stories from live demos and travel to Lugano ...

Everybody can. But most won't. We are our own gate keepers.

When people ask why Nostr is important.

Episode 3 of the Monthly RoundUp: The mood swings of the market don’t define the mission—and this roundtable proves it. We swap war stories from live demos and travel to Lugano with an update on a coastal Bitcoin hub in South Africa, then dive straight into the most charged question of the moment: what really happens when crypto dollars move on Bitcoin rails via Lightning and RGB? There’s clear utility for cross-border payments and the global south, but also a live risk of compliance creep, node capture, and cultural drift away from self-sovereign money. We unpack the geopolitics, from Washington’s embrace of Tether as an inflation export and Treasury buyer to the EU’s CBDC-first strategy, and ask what builders should assume about state incentives and surveillance. @OKIN @BitcoinEkasi @Ricki Allardice

Fountain

Straight, No Chaser • Carl Kritzinger - If money is freedom, what happens when 600,000 stores switch on Bitcoin? • Listen on Fountain

Ever scanned a supermarket QR and paid with Bitcoin? That quiet click is a big story. We sit with Carl from Money Badger to trace how South Africa�...