All posts by Derek

Conspiracy

What is wrong with Alexa?

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I did not pay attention to Amazon Echo and Goggle Home until people at work purchase them and praise how cool these “smarthome” devices are.  After understanding the function of these devices, I have decided to never purchase one for my family.

First of all, we do not use wifi at home because we fully understand the danger of wireless technology.  We try to minimize our exposure to the damaging radiation emitted by these tiny devices as much as possible, which is a daunting task these days where free wifi and smartphones are ubiquitous.

Secondly, I do not want these devices to constantly “spy” on our conversations and collect our private information.  Every question that I ask Alexa would be recorded and stored in Amazon’s cloud storage, subject to big data mining and analysis.  The result would be constant bombardment of “tailor-made” advertisements and personal shopping “advice” following me everywhere I turn.  In the end, Amazon or Goggle would know more and better about me than I know myself.  I definitely want to avoid that.

Moreover, I do not view these devices as “smart”.  To describe them as “smart” is deceptive and misleading at best .  In my opinion, all the internet of things/smart devices will eventually dumb us down and enslave us.  Why can’t a person just walk a few steps and turn off the basement light?  Instead, he would tell Alexa to turn them off for him while he remains on the couch.

When we start getting all the answers from Alexa, we begin to “trust” the device without giving it a second thought and we stop using our intellect to research and analyze problems.  Whatever Alexa (i.e. Amazon) says would become our source of authority and truth.  Naturally, the technocrats (Goggle, Amazon, Facebook ,etc…) would one day dominate all aspects of the society and become our masters.  And yet, we willingly give up our freedom for a little convenience.

I welcome technology, with great caution.  Sometimes however, I wonder if the progress of modern technology has truly benefit the human race.  With the inventions of electric stoves, machines, robots, AI, smart phones, we suppose to have more time to enjoy our lives.  Instead, everybody is busier than ever.  People are glued to their smartphone and tablets on the road, in the restaurants and around family tables.  The society is actually falling apart with our young generation incapable of expressing themselves with their mouths and body languages; instead they have to text one another.  Our young people have lost basic skills, i.e. growing food, using hand tools, self-defence; instead they rely on AI, Goggle and virtual reality.

Sometimes I really wonder if electricity is one of the greatest invention for humanity.  Humans have survived for thousands of years without electricity, yet we cannot live without the digital world.  In most cases, we have become the slave of modern technology.

Recently, there are reports of Creepy laugh from Alexa.

Sounds like the laugh from the devil?

Economics

The Crash Course

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A couple years ago, I came across this website Peak Prosperity and watched their condense version of “Crash Course” (2008 version).  It was quite an eye-opener.  The course talks about the effect of exponential growth, how money is created, economy, oil and environment.  The underlying message is that with depleting resource we are heading into a collapse; but we can still thrive through the hard times.

I don’t believe the authors are Christians as I don’t see any mention of biblical approach when facing a crisis, but I think the material presented in the video would help us understand the coming challenge human are facing.  Here is the link: Crash Course on Youtube

If you want to download the entire course (in .zip and .webm format): Download Entire Course

Ultimately, no matter how well we are prepared physically, only Jesus Christ can save us from all troubles.  Listen to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit and be saved TODAY.

Christianity

How can we have true happiness?

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My family had the privilege to lead the Sunday afternoon service at Cedarvale Lodge Retirement and Care Community in Keswick.  Below is my short sermon to the audience.

Good afternoon everyone.  Blessings, joy and peace to you all.  In case you don’t know this weekend is Chinese New Year and it is the year of dog.

I grew up in Hong Kong and Chinese New Year is our biggest festival with 3 days of statutory holidays.  My childhood memory was full of candies, special food, family gatherings and of course, the red pockets.  Anybody here who doesn’t know what a red pocket is?  In case you don’t know, an elder person, usually a parent or grandparent, would fill a red pocket with money and give it to a young child or young person in the family.  Sometimes we can also get red pockets from relatives and even strangers.  It is a token of “good luck”.  For my family, I would need to say at least five different traditional Chinese wishes made up of 4 characters before I can get a red pocket.  And so I could memorize up to 20 of these wishes in order to impress the elderly to get more money.

Most of these Chinese New year wishes are related to good health, happiness and getting rich.  I believe that the same wishes are proclaimed in other cultures as well because universally it is our human nature to pursue happiness and live a joyful life.  Everybody wants to be happy.  The question is, what makes us happy?

An average person on the street would most likely say, “money”.  In our materialistic society, most people believe that riches can bring great happiness.  Most people believe that if they win the lottery jackpot, they will live happily forever.  All their problems are gone.  The truth is, according to a survey by New York Daily News, nearly 70% of lottery winners end up broke within seven years.  Even worse, several winners have died tragically.

We tend to imagine that wealthy people can buy whatever they like, go to whatever places they want to go and have fun all the time.  That is so far from reality.  Can you guess what the worst nightmare for a billionaire is?  Losing all his wealth.  Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  The rich always have to be on guard against other people scheming to steal their money.  They don’t know if a friend or even a family member who shows kindness to them is out of love or out of greed.  And we have all heard about tragedies where a person would go so far as to murder his spouse or parent or child for money.

Can stuff bring us happiness?

In recent years, there is this crazy phenomenon of Black Friday sale.  It was originated in the United States, but have now spread all over the world.  Every year, I can watch videos on youtube showing people fighting over big screen TVs, electronic games and clothes on Black Friday.  People push, pull, punch, wrestle on the ground and even trample each other just to get that discounted product from the store.  Then they come back next year and repeat the same manic scene.  Most of these shoppers probably already have a nice TV at home, a working smartphone and lots of shoes in the closet.  But they always want the latest gadgets, the latest fashions and the next iPhone.  We have all been there, haven’t we?

We have this urge in our heart and the mindset that if we buy and own that TV, we will be happy.  If we drive away that nice car from the dealer, we will be happy.  And stuff do make us feel happy, only for a short while.  When the hype is over, we look for the next thing to buy again.  When summer comes, we will see lots of garage sales at people’s home because they have to get rid of the old stuff and make room for the new stuff.  There is nothing wrong to buy a nice car with our hard earn money, but we have to remember that worldly pleasures are temporary and we can easily fall into the trap of hording stuff.

Can power and fame bring us happiness?

Some people think happiness can be acquired by being in position of power, influence and fame.   I think some of us have the same childhood dreams of one day becoming a politician, a movie star or a professional athlete.  We want to be that person in front of the camera who is always smiling with confidence.  We think that it is so cool to have someone ask for your signature as you walk down the street.  We think about all the money that would jump into your hands when you are famous and influential.  However, we probably have heard confessions from some of these celebrities that under all the glamour and charm, they are still unhappy and lonely.  We have all heard in the news and from gossips about their divorces, adulteries and sexual harassment allegations.  We have heard about the corruption, bribes and fraud charges against affluent businessmen and government officials.

In the process of climbing up the social ladder, in order to satisfy their own ego, they probably have demeaned, cheated, lied or sacrificed their conscience.  They might be successful by the world’s standard, but they have also lost the respect and love from people around them.

Can good health and outward appearance bring us happiness?

As I get older, I realize that good health is more important than wealth, power and fame.  It takes a healthy body to enjoy the money and stuff you have bought.  Everybody is talking about diet, weight loss, yoga, exercise and vitamins because who likes to be sick.  But just like everything else, maintaining a healthy lifestyle can quickly turn into obsession.  I heard that some people would keep meticulous record of nutrients they absorb in each meal, amount of water they drink and number of calories they gain and burn every day.

Then there are those people who would spend lots of money to undergo cosmetic surgery or injectables because everyone wants to look attractive.  We know that since the beginning of time powerful people have spent vast amount of resources to look for something that can help them to stay young forever.  The desire to live healthly forever is one of the greatest dreams of mankind.  But we know that no matter how strong or good-looking you are, you will still get old and one day you will die and face your Maker.  All the famous kings, queens, generals and movie stars have become a thing in the past.

I am also careful about my diet and body because the Bible says our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We should take care of our bodies that God has given us.  However, the Bible also tells me in 1 Timothy 4:8 that “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

Now, if none of the above, money, power, luxuries and good health can make us happy, what can?

But first, let me be clear.  I definitely believe you can be full of joy while being rich, famous and healthy.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying your life with all the wealth you made from hard and honest work.  In fact, let us hear what the wisest man ever lived had to say about happiness.  King Solomon said in Eccl.

Eccl 5:18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.

Eccl 5:19 Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

Eccl 5:20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

Earthly treasure and luxuries are created by God for us to enjoy.  However, as I said before, worldly pleasures are short lived and will fly away some day.  Let me read another Scripture verses that teaches us about true happiness.

1Tim 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1Tim 6:7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

1Tim 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

1Tim 6:9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

1Tim 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

1Tim 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

 Paul is telling us that being content with what God has given us is real happiness.  It is true that we were born naked and we will return to dust naked when we die.  We cannot bring our bank accounts, our cars or our jewelries or anything with us when that day comes.  If we have food to eat, roof over our head and clothes to wear, what more do we need?  Money is not evil.  It is a medium of exchange.  The real evil comes from greed and lust when I start to accumulate wealth for myself.  Paul tells us to avoid being enticed with money but focus on living a righteous and godly life.

 We can have true happiness by learning not to worry.  Chronic anxiety and stress can kill a person.  When we are young we worry about getting into a good college, after graduation we worry about getting a good job.  Then we worry about when we can meet our future spouse.  After marriage and having children, the anxiety index starts to shoot off the chart.  Now we have to deal with mortgage, car loan, finding schools, parenting, unemployment, middle age crisis….on and on and on.  Sometimes we just wish that we could be a 5-year-old again, living a care free life.

The truth of the matter is, we don’t have to go back and be a little kid again.  We don’t have to drown ourselves in anxiety if we know that our Father in Heaven cares about us and He is in control of everything, provided that we trust Him.

Matt 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Matt 6:32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Matt 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Matt 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

The world teaches us other ways to relieve our stress and worries by meditation, medication, tai-chi, yoga, breathing exercise.  Frankly these techniques do work one way or the other, but they cannot give us the genuine assurance that things will work out.  As believers, we have the immovable faith and trust in Almighty God that He will provide all our needs, if we obey His commandment and follow after righteousness.

We can have real joy when we learn to be thankful to God and people around us.   All of us have heard or probably even have met a “grumpy old man”; a person who likes to complain about just everything around him.  I think one of the reasons that makes a person grumpy or arrogant or cranky is not showing appreciation or gratefulness towards God and people around him.  Life is full of challenges, problems and difficulties.  Rather than complaining about them, which doesn’t solve anything, why don’t we just be thankful for what we already have.

God created each one of us.  He created the food we eat, the sun that gives us warmth, the water that we drink and the air that we breathe.  Not only that, if we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, He promised to come back and give us eternal life with Him in the new Heaven and new Earth.  He promised that He will be with us every minute and help us when we cry out to Him.  Friends, God alone is the reason we should be filled with joy and thankfulness.  The Bible says in

Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

 Phil 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Phil 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

One of my favourite hymns is “Count your blessings”.  The chorus goes like this:

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your blessings, see what God has done!

If we sit down and take some time to reflect on our lives, I am sure we can all remember the numerous blessings and miracles that God did.  If we learn to appreciate how God has blessed and love us, if we can appreciate what our family, our friends and even strangers have done for us, we will and should be much happier.  And I think we will be even happier when we start to love and help other people around us.

I would like to tell a story to end our sharing today.  There are different versions to the story but the idea is the same.  The parable was about a young Cherokee who is brought before the tribal elders, who are concerned about his aggressive tendencies. One of the elders takes the young man aside and tells him that his anger is understandable, since all humans have within them two wolves. One wolf is good and peaceable, and the other is evil and angry. The two wolves are in constant battle with one another, since neither is powerful enough to destroy the other. The young man asks the elder “But if they are of equal power, which wolf will win?” And the elder replies, “The one you feed the most.”

As good as this story goes, that is man’s wisdom.  God has a better version. Paul in Romans 7 describes the same struggle he has in his heart, the fight between our spirit and our flesh.  Then in Roamns 8:1 Paul gives us the biblical approach to the problem:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

In Matthew 22, Jesus was asked with this question “What is the great commandment in the law?”  Our Lord answered:

Matt 22:37  Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Matt 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.

Matt 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Matt 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

I believe that if we can follow these 2 simple principles that Jesus laid out for us, we can have true happiness all the days of our lives.  Money, power, stuff and good health can indeed give us some happiness for a short while.  But loving God and loving people around us will give us real joyfulness in eternity.  Let us pray.

Country Life

No more cow

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Well, after 3 1/2 months of milking, I decided to sell the cow and calf.  Our current family schedule just doesn’t accommodate the demand of owning a family cow.

In the morning I have to spend 40 minutes to milk, feed and clean.  Then another 20 minutes in the evening to feed and clean.  Kay has to spend at least 60 minutes to filter the milk, make kefir and wash all the milking equipment.  Each milking require a minimum of 3 persons at the barn.  All in all, it takes a lot of time and effort to get just  a couple liters of raw milk a day.

However, we will still look for a family cow some day, may be in the spring.  Lessons learned:

  1. Don’t rush and buy a cow.  Take your time and look for one that fits all your requirement.  For our next cow, we want a A2A2 cow under 4 years old.
  2. Smaller cow is preferred.  The one we had consumes at least 1 square bale of hay every day.  Next time, we would choose high quality milk (A2A2) of lesser quantity over abundance of lower quality one.
  3. Owning a family cow is a chore!  Expect to spend 1 hour a day to take care of your cow.  That is if you want to keep a clean and comfortable living/milking area for the animal.
  4. A cow is a big animal.  In order to handle a cow safely, a halter with leading rope is a must.
  5. A water bucket with heating element is a must if you intend to keep the cow (or any animal) during winter.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience for all of us to be able to hand milk and drink fresh raw milk.

Christianity

Calgary – Naked Swim Day Offered At Public Pool And CHILDREN Are Encouraged To Come

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According Dailywire, a Calgary based nudist group has rented out a public swimming pool, with government staff supervising, for a “nudist experience” where children under 18 are encouraged to show up.  Of course, the children would expect to be naked, surrounded by other naked strangers.

I have no issue with a group of adult nudists gathering privately at their home or sun bathing on a private beach, engaging in whatever sinful conducts they can imagine.  That is their rights and freedom.  However, I strongly oppose to a nudist event in a public setting AND allowing minors to participate.  This is a perfect enviornment for sexual abuse and pedophilia preying on vulnerable children.

I believe any caring parent would not allow their naked children to be exposed to a group of strangers, let along swimming and “playing” together.  If I am in a changing room with my young boys, I would make sure they get changed as fast as they can and get out of sight of other men.

Since homosexual marriage was legalized in Canada, we have seen rapid downfall on society.  Bills that aim to silence any opposing voice to the LGBT movement have been passed with ease.  Public school officials have make sure that our children will never be comfortable with their natural sexual orientation.

Legalizing pedophilia, beastality and cannibalism would one day be the headlines.  Do not be surprise my dear readers.  Things will keep getting worse unless the country repents and begs for God’s mercy and the move of the Holy Spirit, led by prayers and fasting from real Christians.  We are like Sodom and Gomorrah and will one day be destroyed by God’s judgment and wrath.  The cry of innocent blood of millions from aborted babies has reached the ear of God the Father.

Christians, keeping praying and let our voice be heard.

Sign your petition here

Christianity, Economics

A reflection of year 2017

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2017 will be history soon as the people around the world welcome 2018 in a week or so.

As I reflect on 2017 there are many incidents, trends and signs that alarmed(and still alarming) me:

Conflict in Syria
The war-torn country of Syria has been a chessboard for foreign powers such as America, Russia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran. Middle East is the powder keg for regional war because of historical, religious and economical reasons. Regional war can easily morph into global war.
Nuclear crisis in North Korea
The continuous missile testings from North Korea have occupied the mainstream headlines for the latter part of this year.  What worries me is the attitude of Communist China.  China has been preparing their troops for a possible war with US, should Trump ordered a preemptive strike against North Korea.  If war erupts between US and North Korea, China might seize the opportunity to invade Taiwan and impose further military dominance in South China sea.  Should a nuclear device being denoted in North America or North Korea, the fallout of nuclear disaster would be the nightmare of several generations.
Rise and fall of Cryptocurrencies
I recently learned that the idea of cryptocurrency such as “Bitcoin” was discussed as early as 1997 by NSA.  Please Read:
Evidence points to Bitcoin being an NSA-engineered psyop to roll out one-world digital currency
What an eye opener!  As much as I admire the idea of blockchain technology that could potentially free us from the over-reaching of central bankers and governments, it could be the tool that would enslave humanity in the coming anti-Christ beast system.  As of this writing, Bitcoin has dropped from its peak of close to $20,000 to $14,000.  Other alt-coins share extremely similar price pattern with Bitcoin.  Ultimately, as I have warned on this site, cryptocurrency is a highly risky business and one has to be prepared to lose all his investment, much like playing with options and futures.
I have read reports that people are taking out mortgage loans and maxing out their credit cards to  buy cryptocurrencies.  To me, this is a sign that the crypto market could collapse soon.
Discrimination against Christian in Western countries
Christians in the western countries have been routinely discriminated and demonized by mainstream media, liberal governments and LGBT communities.  Christians are criticized for opposing legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage through avenues of peaceful protest, prayers and expressing personal views on personal web channels.  Yet, all over the world Muslims terrorists have been expressing their religious beliefs by smashing into crowds or chopping heads off the innocents while yelling “allah akbar”.
 Strangely, no media or LGBT communities dare to impose the charge of “hate crime” onto these Muslims terrorists.
Canada, under the leadership of  LGBT-Muslim-friendly Trudeau and Ontario, under the leadership of lesbian Wayne, have been waging war against Christians since the Liberal government took power.  From passing Bill C-279, Bill 28, Bill 89, the lawmakers have stripped away traditional parental rights and religious freedom while forcing the acceptance of gender ideology and socialism onto the general population.
Canada is definitely NOT a Christian nation because the government is starting to marginalize Christian ministries and churches to practice their faith.  For example:

I expect the persecution will intensify in year 2018 and I pray that our Christian readers keep on praying and stand strong in their faith.  Our Lord is coming back soon!

Widespread use of AI, virtual reality and robots
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is on the door stop.  In fact, we are in its initial stage.  The rapid adoption of “artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, quantum computing and nanotechnology” across all aspects of businesses will undoubtedly revolutionize our daily lives, again.
My wife is a critic of the previous 3 industrial revolutions.  She believes that factories, mass production and digitization of data are a curse to humankind rather than blessing.  Truth to be told, she is right on the money.
We read that greedy entrepreneurs lure farmers to work in factories and live in cities with poor conditions.  We read that workers in mass production facilities earn meager wages with long hours.  We read that people today are engulfed in texting, entertainment, electronics and consumerism.  People gladly give up their liberty and privacy in exchange for convenience.
We have lost the essential life skills that our great-grandparents/grandparents once possessed.  Instead, we rely heavily on huge corporations and governments – the “grid”.  As a result, the governments and international corporations keep expanding their realm of influence and ubiquitous surveillance on our lives.
Do we really have more “time” for ourselves, our families and others while being surrounded by these high-tech, “smart” gadgets?
As AI machines become smarter and eventually outsmart humans, nobody can predict what a supercomputer would do.  It only takes 4 hours for an AI machine to learn chess from scratch to beat a world class chessmaster.  We are creating a monster that we cannot control.
The automation of production using robots will put millions of people out of work.  Although the idea of universal basic income for everyone sounds like a good idea, it will utterly destroy the society.  People without meaningful work will be depressed and become desperate.  It is work that gives us value, dignity and satisfaction.
People are already addicted to the cyber world where one can hide or disguise his identity.  Fake news are also prevalent and easily fabricated on the internet with spiral effect.  Now comes virtual reality.  I am afraid that people can no longer distinguish what is real and what is not.  Remember the mayhem that pokemon go  brought to us last year?  Young people are especially susceptible to this highly stimulating technology.
I am worried that people will totally lose their common sense and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong (which most people are already lack of).
Earthquakes, volcanoes and mini ice age
Volcanoes eruption and high magnitude earthquakes have increased rapidly for the past decade.  Many scientists warn that the “Big one” is looming.
It seems that from historical record that the earth has a cooling and heating cycle.  According to John Casey, authors of book Cold Sun and Dark Winter, the sun has a cycle of 206 years and the temperatures will bottom out in around 2030.  In other words, we are approaching a mini ice age.  Crops will fail, winter will be colder than usual with heavy snowfall while summer will be short and cool.  There will be mass migration to warmer regions around the equator.  A quick interesting reading can be found here.
The earth condition is worsening.  Climate changes, natural and man-made disasters will intensify.  Prepare, prepare and prepare.
Most importantly, prepare your heart to accept and walk with Jesus Christ because His word has told us these things will happen (read Matthew Chapter 24).  Christians, be not dismay because this is our final tests of our faithfulness toward our God!
The best part of the story?  God wins and we are partakers of the victory.  Despite of all the alarming signs, the coming challenges present a great opportunity for soul winning.  As societies fall apart because of wars, famines, earthquakes and pestilence, people will seek answers and comfort.  The Bible has ALL the answers.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
Economics

Did you get into the Bitcoin frenzy?

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I discussed my perspective on cryptocurrency in my previous post back in March.  Bitcoin was trading around $1000-$1500 and Cliff High predicted that it would rise to 3x more than gold.

Fast forward to December,  bitcoin is 13x more than gold, with unbelievable growth in just 1 year.  I did not invest any money in Bitcoin, but I did buy some “cloud mining” shares in Ethereum a couple months ago.  Personally I think Ethereum has higher potential and flexibility than Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency is full of potential and might revolutionize the way human trade with each other.  However, the frenzy around Bitcoin constitutes a classic bubble ready to be burst any time.  I found an excellent article that I would like to share:

(taken from Bitcoin Mania Parabolic) by Adam Hamilton

Bitcoin’s meteoric skyrocketing this year has been astonishing, captivating traders across the globe. This once-obscure cryptocurrency has exploded into the world’s hottest market. With fortunes being won on paper, everyone is talking about bitcoin. But with its price shooting parabolic, unfortunately this wild ride has all the hallmarks of a classic popular speculative mania. And those all end badly, totally collapsing.In the annals of financial-market history, the word “mania” is never used lightly. These are very-rare events where some market blasts higher so radically that it captures the popular imagination. The dictionary definitions of mania include “an excessively intense enthusiasm, interest, or desire” and “a pathological state characterized by euphoric mood, excessive activity or talkativeness, and impaired judgment”.

The seminal book on popular speculative manias is Charles Mackay’s “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds”, first published way back in 1841. Manias are certainly nothing new, they have been periodically erupting for many centuries if not millennia. Mackay’s incredible work is one of the few must-read books for every investor. I’ve read it several times in my life, starting back in college.

Mackay’s title is brilliant, perfectly summing up manias. They are truly extraordinary popular delusions, illustrating the madness of crowds. Objectively, this year’s extreme bitcoin action definitely fits that bill. I say this as a lifelong student of the markets. Like the objects of lust in past popular manias, bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology have real potential to change the world. But that doesn’t justify its price.

As a techie, I started getting interested in bitcoin about 5 years ago, well after its birth in January 2009. It was intriguing as the world’s first decentralized digital currency, an Information Age end run around the established government fiat-money systems relentlessly being inflated away by central banks. Bitcoin’s never-unmasked creator going by Satoshi Nakamoto was a marketing genius, wrapping bitcoin in gold terminology.

The “coin” suffix implied bitcoin is money, rather than a virtual fiction with artificial scarcity. And it used a novel distributed-ledger technology called blockchain. That is a record of all bitcoin transactions that is broadcast and validated by the entire bitcoin network. This ensures that bitcoins can be transferred with no counterparty risk, trust is irrelevant. Maintaining the blockchain is called “mining”, again bringing gold to mind.

The countless computers all over the world participating in recordkeeping for bitcoin’s blockchain work to simultaneously solve complex cryptographic problems, or hashes. This mining guarantees that all new bitcoin transactions are legitimate. While it is computationally-intensive which requires much electricity, bitcoin ingeniously awards participating miners with newly-created bitcoins. That’s a heck of an incentive today!

Somewhat like gold, the bitcoin supply grows at slow and ever-decreasing fixed rates. Today there are around 16.7m bitcoins in circulation. 12.5 new ones are created every 10 minutes and distributed to the miners maintaining the blockchain. That supply-growth rate will be gradually halved again and again until the bitcoin supply hits its hard-coded maximum of 21m bitcoins after 2110. So bitcoin’s supply is artificially limited.

Repurposing old computers to mining is what sparked my initial interest in bitcoin. I run a small financial-research company where we must periodically replace our high-end computers. So I investigated putting some of our old put-out-to-pasture ones to work mining bitcoins, but at the time the electricity cost well exceeded the resulting bitcoins’ value. Back then bitcoin mining didn’t require specialized custom-made rigs.

When bitcoin was younger, normal computers could solve the necessary cryptographic hashes to keep the blockchain up to date. As this distributed ledger grew, more-powerful high-end computer-graphics cards were needed. Today bitcoin mining requires computers with processors designed from scratch to do nothing but grind on the blockchain, called application-specific integrated circuits. They get very expensive.

Truly bitcoin and its brilliant blockchain distributed-ledger system are amazing technologies. They will ultimately reshape how we buy and sell goods and services, shifting the balance of power in currencies back away from centralized governments. It’s hard not to be a bitcoin enthusiast. That being said, it’s critical for traders to divorce bitcoin’s extreme mania price action from these technologies’ future potential.

For 18 years now, I’ve written an essay like this nearly every week. Wednesday mornings I decide on a market topic, research it, and build any charts. So our Zeal charts are always current to Wednesday’s close. Then on Thursday I write and proof each essay before publishing it Friday morning. Normally that day-and-a-half between finalizing the data and releasing an essay doesn’t matter, but bitcoin’s mania is crazy.

Bitcoin trades nonstop around the world, with transactions always happening and the blockchain always being updated. Around the normal US stock-market close this Wednesday, each bitcoin was priced at $12,968. So all the data, charts, and analysis in this essay is based on that ancient price. Merely 18 hours later as I pen this essay, bitcoin has rocketed another 18.6% higher to $15,379! Its ascent is meteoric.

So who knows how high bitcoin will be when you read this. But the higher bitcoin skyrockets, the more it emphasizes the extreme danger inherent in this popular speculative mania! Bitcoin is absolutely deep in a monster bubble, defined as “an increase in the price of a market that is not warranted by economic fundamentals and is usually caused by ongoing speculation in the expectation that the price will increase further”.

This first chart looks at bitcoin prices over the past couple years or so. Bitcoin has rocketed parabolicin 2017, soaring vertically in what looks exactly like a popular mania blowoff top. Vertical parabolic gains are mathematically impossible to sustain for long, as they would soon suck in all the available money on the entire planet! If this chart doesn’t terrify you, you should go read Mackay’s mania book before it’s too late.

Bitcoin was no slouch in 2016, soaring 123.6% higher in what looked like a late-stage bull market. That is hardly a blip on today’s chart though, as that morphed into a full-blown popular speculative mania this year. As of Wednesday’s sub-$13k price, bitcoin had skyrocketed 1251.9% higher year-to-date and a mind-boggling 1565.6% higher since its early-January low! These mania technicals are extreme beyond belief.

Like gold and many other investments including lots of stocks, bitcoin produces no cash yields and thus can’t be valued with conventional valuation analysis. So no one has any idea what it’s worth. The range of guesses is vast, running from zero to hundreds of thousands of dollars per bitcoin! But even in the absence of any fundamental valuation, bitcoin’s price action itself proves it’s exceedingly expensive today.

Obviously Wednesday wasn’t this bitcoin speculative mania’s peak, but let’s assume it was to use as a reference point for analysis. Bitcoin’s “terminal gains” as of the middle of this week were astounding. In the past month alone it had soared 87%, nearly doubling! It had skyrocketed 197% in 2 months, 280% in 4 months, and 459% in 5 months. This left bitcoin radically overbought, trading at 3.70x its 200-day moving average.

The problem with such extreme mania price gains is they soon collapse under their own weight. Over the past week ending Wednesday, bitcoin was surging an average of 5.9% per day. Two of those days had 9.7% gains. Literally nothing can rally 5% to 10% per day for long, as the math is truly impossible. Think of that old rule of 72, which is used to approximate how long it takes for any investment to double in price.

It is normally applied to years, where 72 is divided by the average annual return to figure out about how many years it will take to grow 100%. 72 divided by 7% for example works out to about a decade to see 100% gains. But at 5% or 10% compounded daily as bitcoin is doing, its total value will double in just under 14.3 and 7.3 trading daysrespectively! Even to a casual observer that sounds absurd, wildly unsustainable.

Early Thursday morning, the total market value of all bitcoins in circulation was already around $250b. If bitcoin doubles again over the coming weeks and months, that would soar over $500b. Just one more doubling after that would take it to a staggering market cap of $1t! While anything is possible, that seems wildly improbable. For comparison, the Fed’s latest read on its total M1 money supply is running near $3.6t.

When anything shoots parabolic in a popular speculative mania, exponentially more capital inflows are required to sustain such extreme gains. It doesn’t take many doublings in price and market cap to suck in all available moneyon the planet! While bitcoin certainly enjoys a popular niche, there’s zero chance that global investors will sell sizable fractions of their bond, stock, gold, and cash holdings to buy bitcoins.

Thus extreme gains are never sustainable, as the collective buying power of even populations caught up in manias soon exhausts itself. Eventually everyone interested in buying bitcoin has already bought, drying up their pools of available capital. When those massive bubble-fueling capital inflows peak then taper off, market gravity reasserts itself and the stratospheric price starts plummeting back down to terra firma.

Unfortunately naive speculatorsdon’t realize how extreme doublings and quadruplings within a matter of months truly are. That makes it easier for them to get sucked into mania psychology. They read about the blistering gains, everyone is raving about the bubble market, so they throw caution to the wind and buy in super-high. Even worse, many traders rushing to buy into parabolic bubbles borrow money to do it with!

At that point all rationality is thrown out the window, it’s an extraordinary popular delusionas Mackay wisely wrote 176 years ago. The price is totally disconnected from reality, and the sole reason capital is flooding in is because it is soaring. That becomes self-reinforcing for a season, buying fueling gains and greed which leads to even more buying. While exciting, vertical parabolic blowoffs are exceedingly dangerous.

Every popular speculative mania in history has failed spectacularly, the bubbles bursting and crashing, since capital inflows can never grow exponentially for long. That’s going to happen to bitcoin too, without any doubt. The deluded speculators who succumb to the temptation to buy in high, especially if they use leverage, are going to get slaughtered. An infamous past bubble helps illustrate bitcoin’s extreme dangers today.

This final chart again assumes Wednesday was this bitcoin bubble’s peak for the sake of analysis. The past couple years’ bitcoin action is superimposed over the notorious silver bubble that crested in January 1980. Both datasets are indexed at 100 at their respective peaks to render them in perfectly-comparable percentage terms. The bottom axis shows time elapsing before and after the peaks measured in months.

The parallels between bitcoin’s extreme parabolic price action over the past 6 months or so and silver’s in its bubble’s final 6 months are uncanny. While very rare, popular speculative manias are nothing new. The terminal gains of bitcoin and silver are remarkably similar as the table above shows. If these data series were not labeled, today’s bitcoin bubble and the 1979 silver bubble would literally be indistinguishable.

As of Wednesday bitcoin had rocketed 87% in its latest month compared to 104% for the silver bubble in its terminal month. At 2 months out they were identical at 197% and 196% gains. The same was true at 3 months with 181% and 179% gains. In their final 5 months, they skyrocketed 459% and 417% higher. Their terminal 6 months saw 366% and 402% gains. This bitcoin bubble is behaving just like the silver bubble!

While bubbles are incredibly exciting and fun when they shoot parabolic, the aftermath is catastrophicfor traders who buy high. Bubbles always burst, leading to full-on crashes that proceed long busts. Just a month after silver peaked at $48.00 per ounce in January 1980, it plunged 35%. In the first 2, 3, and 4 months post-peak, silver plummeted 54%, 73%, and 76%! Bitcoin faces similar extreme downside risks today.

Once this mania bitcoin bubble bursts, and it will, the odds are very high that bitcoin will lose 50% to 75% of its value within a few months on the outside! Everyone owning bitcoin today must be prepared for brutal near-term downside proportional to this year’s bubble upside. When a bubble bursts it rapidly destroys most of the paper wealth that bubble created, which was really an illusion all along if not cashed out.

And once popular speculative manias inevitably fail, prices don’t return to those extreme bubble-peak levels for an awfully-long time. That silver bubble peaked 37.9 years ago, and there are still many silver enthusiasts today. Like the hardcore bitcoin faithful, plenty of people love silver with a religious-like zeal believing it is the ultimate investment. In nominal terms, silver didn’t exceed that bubble peak until April 2011.

After taking a staggering 31.3 years to regain January 1980’s high, silver held it for a single day and has never returned since. And in real inflation-adjusted terms based on the US CPI, silver’s bubble peak in today’s dollars was over $152 per ounce! Obviously silver has come nowhere close to trading near those same real levels again. Prices are so extreme after popular speculative manias they may never recover.

A far-milder bubble than both bitcoin and silver arose in the stock markets in late 1999 and early 2000. Like bitcoin, the technology of the Internet was amazing and would forever change our world. Yet stock prices got so extreme then that the NASDAQ didn’t revisit its March 2000 closing peak for the first time until April 2015, fully 15.1 years later! And that only happened because NASDAQ’s components greatly changed.

The history of popular speculative manias proves that even if bitcoin and its underlying blockchain are here to stay, it will likely be many years or decades until bitcoin prices regain their bubble peak wherever that happens to be. Once this bitcoin bubble inevitably pops, there’s virtually no chance its traders will be made whole again. They’ll hold through the burst in hopes bitcoin will rebound, but bubble poppings are final.

And it’s not just bitcoin’s extreme price action that reveals it’s in a bubble fueled by a popular speculative mania. Anecdotal stories abound showing a huge influx of young and naive “investors” who have never lived through a bubble. The leading bitcoin broker in the US is Coinbase. Its accounts are exploding as people rush to pour money into this bitcoin mania. By late November, Coinbase’s active accounts had hit 13.3m!

This is staggering growth, as Coinbase reported just over 5m accounts as 2017 dawned. 13.3m is way bigger than stock broker Charles Schwab’s 10.6m at the end of October, and threatening to rival the 24.9m accounts stock broker Fidelity had at the end of June! As in all manias, the vast majority of these new bitcoin “investors” have drank the Kool-Aid and believe bitcoin’s technology justifies its extreme price gains.

When markets soar so high all rationality is thrown out the window, the only reason to keep buying is the greater-fool theory. Late-stage traders buy super-high in the hopes they’ll find an even greater fool to sell even higher to later! Soaring prices can entice in big new capital inflows for a season, but eventually the price levels get so high that it’s impossible to sustain exponential buying. Then the bubble bursts, prices crash.

Even if bitcoin and blockchain forever change currencies in the future, nothing justifies doublings and quadruplings in bitcoin prices in a matter of months. Such extremes are never sustainable, all popular manias fail spectacularly even though the technology investors were excited about lives on and indeed changes the world. I’m really excited to see bitcoin and blockchain applied to digital gold in coming years.

Gold has been universally valued across the world for millennia, yet it’s impractical to use as money for most transactions. But if bitcoin-and-blockchain technologies were applied to gold, this metal could easily be subdivided into the tiniest of increments and traded globally. A gold version of bitcoin would have to be 100% physically backed by gold held in secure vaults in safe, trusted countries. It’s already being worked on.

But the great value of bitcoin-and-blockchain technologies doesn’t make bitcoin immune from the natural consequences of this year’s bubble. Bitcoin is far too large now to keep doubling on a monthly basis, it’s impossible. And there’s never been a past bubble where prices stop soaring but don’t crash, instead just rallying on from there quasi-normally. Greedy traders start selling when the parabola stalls, driving the burst.

One of the reasons bitcoin has skyrocketed is there are virtually no sellers relative to the great herds of new buyers flocking in. That is all going to change soon, which presents big risks of popping this bubble. Both the CBOE and CME are set to launch actual bitcoin futures in the next week or so, which will allow professional speculators to not only buy bitcoin but short sell it at scale. That alone may very well slay this bubble.

Bitcoin is pretty inefficient too, with transactions taking up to 10 minutes to process as the blockchain gets bigger and bigger. Transaction costs are also skyrocketing, leading some major businesses like the Steam online video-gaming service to stop accepting bitcoin as payment. Its owner Valve says it now costs about $20 to process a single bitcoin payment, far too expensive for this company’s massive 67m users.

As bitcoin grows, the blockchain itself is getting ever-more unwieldy. That ledger recording every single bitcoin transfer ever is requiring progressively more computing power to process, making mining for the network much more expensive. Recent estimates place bitcoin-mining electricity usage at 0.13% of the world total. Asingle bitcoin transaction now requires enough electricity to power an American house for a week!

As long as bitcoin prices are sky-high, large-scale mining operations to process bitcoin’s cryptographic hashes are profitable. But when bitcoin crashes after this bubble, computers tasked to mining will likely plunge in parallel. While the hashes are dynamically adjusted to account for network mining power, this could still increase transaction times as blockchain grows. That would make bitcoin less attractive as a currency.

As a professional speculator over the past two decades or so, I wouldn’t touch bitcoin with a ten-foot pole today. Buying into a popular speculative mania that’s already rocketed parabolic is the height of folly, guaranteeing massive losses in the near-future. If you were shrewd enough to buy bitcoins before the last 6 months, you should be scaling out and taking profits. One bitcoin expert calls it a “consensus hallucination”.

At Zeal we’ve spent decades studying and trading the markets, building wealth normally and consistently through profitable real-world trading with a contrarian bent. This means buying low and selling high, so bitcoin is off the table. But as of the end of Q3 we’ve realized 967 stock trades recommended in real-time in our newsletters since 2001, which averaged stellar annualized realized gains of +19.9% over that long span!

The key to this success is staying informed and being contrarian. That means buying low when others are scared, not when they are euphoric like in bitcoin’s mania. An easy way to keep abreast is through our acclaimed weekly and monthly newsletters. They draw on my vast experience, knowledge, wisdom, and ongoing research to explain what’s going on in the markets, why, and how to trade them with specific stocks. Easy to read and affordable, they’ll help you learn to think, trade, and thrive like contrarians. Subscribe today, and build lasting wealth instead of getting obliterated when bitcoin’s bubble bursts.

The bottom line is this year’s bitcoin popular speculative mania has gone parabolic. Such extreme gains are never sustainable, as they require exponentially-growing capital inflows. Once this greed-drenched bubble stage is reached, it’s only a matter of time until the burst inevitably follows. The resulting selling from panicking traders is so violent that most of the mania gains are fully annihilated in a matter of months.

While bitcoin and its blockchain distributed-ledger technologies are amazing and will indeed likely change the world, they don’t justify bitcoin’s extreme vertical gains. Plenty of past bubbles were based on great new technologies too, but those prices still collapsed once the supply of greater fools exhausted itself. After skyrocketing so darned fast, bitcoin is certainly the riskiest major investment in the world. Caveat emptor!

Christianity

Teachers Learn New Alphabet – LGGBBDTTTIQQAAPP

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Do you know what “LGGBBDTTTIQQAAPP” is?  Well, your children in Ontario will soon learn that from their public school teachers.  To me, gender is very simple:  Male or Female.  Why do we have to make things so complicated?  Because we are born sinners and love to defy God.

I pray for our children and our children’s children in the future society that they will live in.  I pray for Canada to repent and the Holy Spirit would grant us revival in His power.  From history, we know that any nation that defies God eventually dwindled into chaos and perpetual destruction.  Canada is no exception.

Taken from TruNews :

Teachers Learn New AlphabetA flyer promoting “LGGBBDTTTIQQAAPP Inclusiveness Training” was posted in an Ontario school by the local teachers’ union chapter. It suggests up to half of the public is “secretly LGBT.”

Elementary school teachers in Witby, Ontario, were recently asked to take part in “inclusiveness training” to teach them how to deal with LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP peers and students.

The new acronym is the politically correct Canadian “all inclusive” version of LGBTQ. The various letters stand for:

  • Lesbian
  • Gay
  • Genderqueer—“a person who does not subscribe to conventional gender distinctions but identifies with neither, both, or a combination of male and female genders.”
  • Bisexual
  • Demisexual—“a person who does not experience sexual attraction unless they form a strong emotional connection with someone.”
  • Transgender
  • Transsexual
  • Twospirit—“a hermaphrodite, a person who has both male and female sexual organs or other sexual characteristics.”
  • Intersex—“a person who is born with a sexual anatomy that does not conform to either sex.”
  • Queer
  • Questioning—“a person who is unsure of his or her sexuality.”
  • Asexual—“a person who has no sexual feelings or desires.”
  • Allies—also referred to as “straight allies,” people who are heterosexual, but are LGBTQ activists.
  • Pansexual—“a person who is not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.”
  • Polyamorous—“a person who desires intimate relationships with more than one other person, openly, with the knowledge of all involved.”

The training program was offered by the local Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario chapter, the local teachers’ union. According to a flyer announcing the training session, the goal was to “become more familiar with current language, sensitive to current issues, and to share best practices in supporting our LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP peers and students.”

It continues:

Fewer than 1 percent of EFTO members are open with their identities, though some surveys suggest as much as half of the public secretly identifies as LGBT to some extent. If we want students to succeed, if we want to reduce staff anxiety and stress, we need to create a much more welcoming and accepting environment.

University of Ontario Institute of Technology criminology professor Barbara Perry conducted the training. According to her university biography, she has written “extensively” in the area of hate crime, with her recent focuses on “Islamophobia” and “LGBTQ hate crimes.”

TruNews copy

Christianity

New Godhead – Artificial Intelligence

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The first lie recorded in the Bible was when Satan disguised as the serpent in the Garden of Eden and seduced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit:  “…ye shall be as gods...”  Since the fall of mankind, numerous people had tried to attain eternal life through black magic, witchcraft, herbs, martial arts and now technology.

Let’s face it, no body wants to die.  The explosive breakthrough of modern technology now appears to provide us a way to reach the state of transcendence (god-like).  Once again, Satan is tempting mankind to “be as gods” apart from the promise and salvation of Jesus Christ, the only One True God.

I read the following post a couple days ago and it truly alarms me that Satan is pushing the AI agenda aggressively. Guess who would be the new “Godhead”?  Satan.

(taken from Silicon Valley Exec Has Created A New Religion That Will Worship A ‘Godhead’ Based On Artificial Intelligence  by Michael Snyder)

I know that the headline sounds absolutely crazy, but this is actually a true story.  A Silicon Valley executive named Anthony Levandowski has already filed paperwork with the IRS for the nonprofit corporation that is going to run this new religion.  Officially, this new faith will be known as “Way Of The Future”, and you can visit the official website right here.  Of course nutjobs are creating “new religions” all the time, but in this case Levandowski is a very highly respected tech executive, and his new religion is even getting coverage from Wired magazine…

The new religion of artificial intelligence is called Way of the Future. It represents an unlikely next act for the Silicon Valley robotics wunderkind at the center of a high-stakes legal battle between Uber and Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous-vehicle company. Papers filed with the Internal Revenue Service in May name Levandowski as the leader (or “Dean”) of the new religion, as well as CEO of the nonprofit corporation formed to run it.

So what will adherents of this new faith actually believe?

To me, it sounds like a weird mix of atheism and radical transhumanism.  The following comes from Way of the Future’s official website…

We believe in science (the universe came into existence 13.7 billion years ago and if you can’t re-create/test something it doesn’t exist). There is no such thing as “supernatural” powers. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

We believe in progress (once you have a working version of something, you can improve on it and keep making it better). Change is good, even if a bit scary sometimes. When we see something better, we just change to that. The bigger the change the bigger the justification needed.

We believe the creation of “super intelligence” is inevitable (mainly because after we re-create it, we will be able to tune it, manufacture it and scale it). We don’t think that there are ways to actually stop this from happening (nor should we want to) and that this feeling of we must stop this is rooted in 21st century anthropomorphism (similar to humans thinking the sun rotated around the earth in the “not so distant” past).

But even though Way of the Future does not embrace the “supernatural”, they do believe in a “God”.

In this new religion, the worship of a “Godhead” that will be created using artificial intelligence will be actively encouraged…

The documents state that WOTF’s activities will focus on “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” That includes funding research to help create the divine AI itself. The religion will seek to build working relationships with AI industry leaders and create a membership through community outreach, initially targeting AI professionals and “laypersons who are interested in the worship of a Godhead based on AI.” The filings also say that the church “plans to conduct workshops and educational programs throughout the San Francisco/Bay Area beginning this year.”

So how “powerful” will this newly created “God” actually be?

Well, Levandowski says that he envisions creating an artificially intelligent being that will literally be “a billion times smarter than the smartest human”…

“What is going to be created will effectively be a god,” he said. “It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?”

He added, “I would love for the machine to see us as its beloved elders that it respects and takes care of. We would want this intelligence to say, ‘Humans should still have rights, even though I’m in charge.’”

But what if this “super-intelligence” gets outside of our control and turns on us?

What then?

I am not sure that Levandowski has an answer for that.

Other transhumanists also believe that artificial intelligence will grow at an exponential rate, but instead of AI ruling over us, they see a coming merger between humanity and this new super intelligence.  In fact, world famous transhumanist Ray Kurzeil believes that this will enable us to “become essentially god-like in our powers”…

Kurzweil and his followers believe that a crucial turning point will be reached around the year 2030, when information technology achieves ‘genuine’ intelligence, at the same time as biotechnology enables a seamless union between us and this super-smart new technological environment. Ultimately the human-machine mind will become free to roam a universe of its own creation, uploading itself at will on to a “suitably powerful computational substrate”. We will become essentially god-like in our powers.

And prominent transhumanist Mark Pesce takes things even further.  He in absolutely convinced that rapidly advancing technology will allow ordinary humans “to become as gods”…

“Men die, planets die, even stars die. We know all this. Because we know it, we seek something more—a transcendence of transience, translation to incorruptible form. An escape if you will, a stop to the wheel. We seek, therefore, to bless ourselves with perfect knowledge and perfect will; To become as gods, take the universe in hand, and transform it in our image—for our own delight. As it is on Earth, so it shall be in the heavens. The inevitable result of incredible improbability, the arrow of evolution is lipping us into the transhuman – an apotheosis to reason, salvation – attained by good works.”

Throughout human history, there has always been a desire to create our own gods or to become our own gods.

But no matter how hard these transhumanists try to run from death, it will eventually find them anyway, and at that point all of their questions about who God really is will be answered once and for all.

Country Life

Milking Station

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In order to make milking easier, we decided to build a elevated milking stanchion/platform.  The dimension is 72 inches long, 36 inches wide and about 9 inches high.  We use free pallet as the base, add a sheet of plywood on top and use 2×4 for the posts.

At hindsight, the platform would be much sturdier if we use 4×4 posts but 2×4 still works.

We also build a small ramp for the cow to exist the milking station.

This is the milking station
2 layers of pallets (free!)
We put some grain, grass and carrots in the feeder while milking.
One fixed board and a movable one make up the head gate.  It is about 7.5 inches wide.
The side gate will be opened for exit when milking is done.
We have since put a piece of kids’ foam mat on the ramp to prevent slippery.
The cow in the station.  The station is barely long enough for our cow!

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