Sagesex ist zurück. Warum jetzt? Weil es aufregendes zu berichten gibt: Bitcoins, das Geld der Zukunft, stimuliert Fantasie und Diskussion. Was ist dran?Es ist viel über Bitcoin geschrieben worden in letzter Zeit. Aber erstaunlich wenig auf Deutsch. Noch weniger ohne politische Meinungsmache, die man radikal nennen könnte. Das was dann noch übrigbleibt, ist meist verkürzt oder schlicht falsch. Ich hoffe, das können wir ändern.
Was ist neu an Bitcoin?
Bitcoin ist das erste Zahlungssystem und die erste Währung, die ohne eine sogenannte trusted third party auskommt, also ohne eine Bank, der sowohl der Sender als auch der Empfänger einer Zahlung vertrauen müßten. Was ist daran eigentlich so revolutionär?
Banken, auch Zentralbanken, haben ja – gerade zur Zeit – keinen besonders guten Ruf. Bei Zahlungen – gerade international – verlangen sie oft undurchsichtige und scheinbar überhöhte Gebühren, sind unbegründet langsam – drei bis fünf Tage für eine Überweisung innerhalb von Europa – und um das Bankgeheimnis war es auch schon besser bestellt – siehe etwa das Terrorist Finance Tracking Program. Zudem lassen sich Zahlungen durch Banken von Regierungen kontrollieren, die damit etwa Spenden an Wikileaks oder den Zugang zu Onlinecasinos unterbinden, und es kommt immer wieder zu zweifelhaften Kontosperrungen. In Bezug auf Währungen sind die aktuellen trusted third parties, die für den Wert des Geldes garantieren, eher die Zentralbanken oder Regierungen selbst. Auch hier gibt es viele, die mit der Geldpolitik dieser Vertrauensquellen nicht zufrieden sind, wie die aktuelle “Eurokrise” zeigt. Aber warum brauchte man diese trusted third parties bis jetzt überhaupt?
Der wichtigste Grund ist wohl das sogenannte double spending-Problem, also die Frage, wer mich bei einer Überweisung daran hindert, das gleiche Geld einfach zweimal auszugeben, oder im Fall von Bargeld einfach ständig Neues zu drucken. Im ersten Fall sorgt die Bank dafür, daß das Geld von meinem Konto abgezogen wird, und im zweiten unternimmt der Staat drastische Schritte gegen mich. Eine weitere wichtige Frage ist, wie denn neues Geld in Umlauf kommt. All diese Dinge tun Banken, Zentralbanken und Staaten für uns und bis jetzt gab es keinen Weg, ohne sie auszukommen. Read the rest of this entry »
It has come to our attention that vicious lies have recently been spread in dubious Internet publications about the masters of the world, the royal Vietnamese. Thus it is time to rectify this injustice. Here is the bare truth about this amazing country: Vietnamese are always right!
Sichuan – in all of China, even internationally, this province is lauded for its tasty and, most of all, spicy cuisine. But who could be able to decide on even a handful of dishes when presented with this spectrum of varied delicacies. How about a grilled chicken foot? A light green glibbery weirdness or rather a brown lard rind repulsiveness? Whatever it shall be, don’t forget to round it off with a lot of chili! Yes, life can be a bitch, especially when you have to choose. But fear not: For the indecisive among you wanting to relinquish undefinable animal parts once in a while, sagesex has composed an exclusive seasonal menu.
Before we start you should be sure to have a bowl of rice at your disposal. Admitted, this will dampen the intensity of enjoyment, yet you will soon realize the necessity of this precautionary measure. In order to prevent the rice from being to boring, we recommend mixing it with an equal amount of beans with pork and, of course, fresh red chili. So much for the side dishes. But what’s for dinner?
Proteins are in order – so take some of the funny brown-crusty tofu brick. But Sichuan means spicy – so don’t forget the mountain of dried red chili piled upon it! Next we need some vegetables for the vitamins … How about a plate full of whole, fried, hot-as-hell green chilis? – delicious! Because the whole thing is a little one-sided like this, we recommend adding a plate of Chilis of mixed skin color with a touch of brown weirdnesses. Well done, now that’s a well-rounded meal. Sichuan experts know: Chili goes especially well with chili and chili. Enjoy your meal!
Motorbiking is fun. Being a lonely wolf. Racing with the wind and the feeling that your under. The thrill when you break down – will you be able to fix it, will you need a mechanic? Suddenly: Vietnamesian! The bored grandpa must have spotted you from his window-sentinel. Now everything is lost. You do exactly know, you´ve got fuel, the sparkplug is fastened and it won´t do any good to kick the starter a hundred times. Now guess which three things the Vietnamesian grandpa is going to try first, after pushing you aside. Of course he does not speak one word of English and your gesticulations won´t argue him out of it. Naturally you could hustle the old know-it-all away. Baring violence you will not get him away from your machine. What a shame that violence against old people hardly fits the code of behavior accepted by the other 20 Vietnamesians gathered around you. Simply fleeing does not work either, otherwise you`d not be here.
… and support sagesex.com in a new and easy way! The nerds among you know already: The Swedish heroes from the Piratebay have had another stroke of genius: Flattr! It’s like Digg with money: Now you can’t just tell everybody what you think is cool on the Web, but also reward and support (flattr!) your favorite projects in a way that is brilliantly simple, secure, and adapted to your personal finance and generosity budgets: fantastic Open Source software, free texts, music, images, video and, of course, masterful mixed media contributions like sagesex!
It’s very simple: Go to Flattr, register, pre-pay an arbitrary amount via Paypal or credit card, and adjust how much of this money you want to give for the good in the world every month. From then on and everywhere in the Web, you can simply press one of these cute little buttons that you can now see below all our posts, and your monthly contribution will be fairly distributed among all the projects that you have flattrd in this month. Plus, from this moment on you also have the opportunity to have your own contributions to the world’s information culture rewarded by the world. And, as with Digg, you can always see how popular something is by how much it gets flattrd.
You can see, I find this idea beyond brilliant and of course I have begun to flattr my favourites myself (by the way, it would be great to have a wordpress plugin that shows you my favorite things). Flattr is a concrete and well-made utopia that might even make redundant the often talked-about “culture flat rate”. There are still some concessions to grey reality, like the 10% that Flattr keeps (though they are supposed to have promised decreasing this percentage in the future – plus, I like to support the pirates in their lawsuits), the idiotic fees that Paypal/Moneybookers take, or the minimum contribution of 2€/month (which is OK for me, but it could keep a few Indians from taking part in this new world economy). Still I’m hoping and believing that Flattr will be outrageously successful, that it will blur even more the boundaries between producers and consumers, and that it helps bringing free culture to free people without making the producers starve. In this spirit we naturally rejoice deeply if you flattr us.
It is a demon that numbs our senses, and its power is impossible to overthrow until you throw up. It is on the five continents and the seven seas. Alcohol is the universal language; this has now been confirmed by dermatologists. In South East Asia it doesn’t just make the hearts of the locals beat slower: Be it on Ko Panghan in Thailand, in Nha Trang, Vietnam, or Vang Vieng in Laos – entire tourist party hells live off continuous irrigation by overpriced bars. But stop! It doesn’t have to be like that! Already in the past sagesex has proven that South East Asia offers festive inebriation in price ranges below any budget – at least for those with a tough stomach. Which means looking for a compromise: Good and affordable is what counts! After half a year of experience in this part of the world sagesex is ready to present the ultimate guide to almost free intoxication in South East Asia: The top three in affordable and enjoyable alcoholica.
Without a doubt China is among the countries with the most amusing half-assed English T-shirt prints in the world. In this great genre of fine arts, vocabulary, grammar, and meaning are being bent to achieve cool sound and design. The creator of this piece is setting new standards and leading T-shirt art into a new age. Watch out designers and avantgarde artists – the Chinese are coming!
Dali is a small town in Yunnan, China. Actually, it is three towns: When we arrived at the Dali bus station in the evening we consulted the Lonely Planet and found out that we were supposed to be right next to the city walls of this enchanting little old town. So we ignored the waiting taxis and started to walk. Unfortunately, nothing here looked similar to our map, and after half an hour of wandering about we had to admit to ourselves that we had no clue where we were. Everything here looked so typically newly Chinese and modern, not a hint of old town.
and found out that we were supposed to be right next to the city walls of this enchanting little old town. So we ignored the waiting taxis and started to walk. Unfortunately, nothing here looked similar to our map, and after half an hour of wandering about we had to admit to ourselves that we had no clue where we were. Everything here looked so typically newly Chinese and modern, not a hint of old town.
english
deutsch