FTX - The Gift That Keeps On Giving!

In Terms Of Blog Content Anyway

Conrad has to admit that the way stocks and shares operate is pretty opaque to him, although ex-colleague Manni, an Economics graduate, said the London Stock Exchange was the world's biggest casino.  I still don't understand how that scene in the stock exchange in "Trading Places" works, and just blithely put it down to white magic.  Art!

     Then we have the new kid on the block, crypto-currency.  People bought into this literally, openly boasting how much their Bitcoin wallet was worth now as opposed to when they opened it. Don't get too smart, matey, because come the Revolution Shelli is going to pursue you with a knife and fork*.  Art!

      That's Bitcoin's trading value over time.  What it will be this time next year is anyone's guess, since the dust from FTX will have settled a little.

     ANYWAY back to Sam Bankman-Fried (you couldn't make that up, could you?), who has just pled 'Not Guilty' to eight charges of fraud.  Wiser counsel than I have frowned at that, since two of his major partners in crime, Caroline Ellison and Richard Wang NO SNIGGERING AT THE BACK (it's Chinese for 'King') have already pled Guilty.  So, they've already done their deals, probably blaming 99% of malfeasance on their old chum.  There is speculation that SBF is going to try and negotiate a deal with the prosecution, rather than spend 115 years in jail.  Art!

     You'll notice he's not wearing an orange boilersuit.  That is because he was granted bail and is now living at his parent's house with an ankle tag.  Bail was set at $250 million, which his parents couldn't cover themselves, at which point the plot thickens, because two so-far anonymous donors have put up the rest of the bail money.  SBF wants them to remain anonymous, and so do the donors, because revealing who they are might be embarrassing.  O, SBF also claims they might become the target of threats, because that's what happened to his parents.  Yes, SBF, they were threatened because you involved them on the periphery of your financial fraud.  The hilarious irony - to outsiders, not his parents - is that they are highly respectable Professors in the legal field.  

     This is definitely a 'before' picture as they're both smiling.

     But wait!  There's more!  SBF has other restrictions in place.  For one thing, he's not supposed to trade more than $1,000 per day, and yet a series of very detailed accusations have been levelled at him for activity on the old FTX Alameda Research accounts, totalling $684,000 in transfers to an Ethereum wallet.  If he is responsible (no SEC investigation yet) then it counts as rank stupidity as he must be aware he's going to be under severe scrutiny.

     Nor is this all, except you can only have so much financial folly, greed and stupidity in an Intro before you convert to Communism and occupy Wall Street, so we'll call a halt here and merely tease you with two words: Robinhood & Silvergate.  Art!

Close enough

     Don't forget wise old Conrad's definition of crypto-currency: a scamble.

     Props and a shout out to Joe Blogs and his Youtube vlog for making this stuff comprehensible.

This May Be Malicious Compliance

 - salted with Manglement, or the other way round.  It's one of those "I don't pay you to think, I pay you to do what I say" which never ends well for the manager.  If an employee comes back to you and says either "Are you sure?" or "I want that in writing" then manager beware!

     Okay, Original Poster worked as a clerk in a software company, and was responsible for shipping product out to conventions and meetings and displays.  They were very experienced, so much so that OP knew what to ship out even if items had been omitted by the requester.  Art!

"They ship"

     Except their boss, being bossy and bitchy, decided that OP only send out what was on the list.  Nothing more.  No questions to be asked.  No input.  No compensating.  Of course this immediately messed things up for the marketers, who complained.  Then OP is handed a request form by BB for the company to attend a major convention.  It is immediately obvious that various important bits of kit are absent, so OP ships out only what's on the list.

     The presentation was a disaster.  In fact the owner of the business, who was BB's husband (!) quietly took OP aside and told him to ignore whatever BB said and go back to his previous method.  So  he did.

     And BB?  She had to eat - Art!

Another Of THAT Crossword's 'Clues' For You

If you're feeling a little depressed that you're not solving many of these, don't forget that it took Lord Peter, Bunter and two young ladies working together to solve the original.  Now, the clue: "It was a brazen business when, King Phalaris made these for men. (5)"

     Conrad actually solved this one, presumably because I Googled 'Phalaris'.  The solution is OVENS.

     A quick dash of Google-fu and - Art!

     If you fell foul of Phalaris, why, you were roasted alive inside a brass bull.

     What a splendid chap!  I bet he was a scream at parties.

"The Sea Of Sand"

One of the alien bio-vores is rashly gloating about how well his little invasion is going.

He called up the HQ building at the Infiltration Complex.

‘What are those wretched Farmers doing?’ he barked at the technician who answered.  ‘They’d better not be standing around uselessly!’

‘No, Assault Leader!  They are removing the remaining sand from the Complex, dumping it beyond the rim of the site, sir.’

‘Eviscerate one of them as an example to the others.  If the trans-mat is not repaired by the time all the sand is removed, Eviscerate them all.’

‘Immediately, Assault Leader!’

Ah but it was good to be the conqueror!  A new world to plunder, limitless life-energy to absorb, and the local natives not powerful enough to halt the process.

 

At the Doctor’s request, Roger had drawn from memory an outline plan of the depot, numbering the squares that represented piled crates of supplies.  The Doctor’s attention was on a pyramid of crates full of two-pounder anti-tank shells, the very one he had taken refuge upon.  It made a good target because one crate had already been opened up by his own hands.

‘Set that on fire and there’d be a pretty bonfire display, hmm?’ he asked the collected soldiers.  All except Doretti, the Italian radio-operator on sentry-duty, were gathered around the Doctor’s Heath Robinson contraption.

     Heath Robinson translates in South Canada to Rube Goldberg.  Inventions all done with pulleys and bits of string.

Finally -

We have new neighbours, a couple with a very young baby about one month old.  I think they're re-decorating their upstairs room next to mine, judging by the sounds.  Well and fine, except Your Humble Scribe rather blotted his copybook last night, opening up a video on Telegram.

     Normally these things are silent.  Not this one!  O no, the creator had seen fit to add a BANGING HOUSE DANCE TRACK AT FULL VOLUME, thanks very much.  Conrad got told off by Wonder Wifey.

     I blame Putin.

The Tin Of Pu himself

     And with that, Vulnavia, we are done.

*  A blunt knife.