As the December 29 deadline set by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fast approaches, applicants for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) are in a race against time to finalize their filings. This critical deadline is pivotal for firms hoping to be part of the first wave of spot Bitcoin ETF approvals slated for early January 2024.

Bloomberg’s analysis of the 2023 cryptocurrency market reveals a dramatic shift from the previous year’s downturn, with Bitcoin leading a significant market resurgence. After a $1.5 trillion market wipeout in 2022, Bitcoin’s value soared by over 160% in 2023, adding about $530 billion to its market capitalization. This bullish trend was mirrored in smaller tokens, including Solana, where a $100,000 investment at the beginning of the year would have grown to over $800,000.

The Bitcoin network’s mining power, measured by its hash rate, achieved a historic high on Christmas Day, leading to increased challenges for miners in the face of declining profitability. Data from Blockchain.com revealed that the hash rate soared to 544 exahashes per second (EH/s), a milestone also noted by Bitinfocharts over the same weekend.

J. Michael Dennis, ll.l, ll.m

You do not have to accept the roles that society foists on you. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.

The man or woman who intends to make his fortune in this world must be a chameleon susceptible of reflecting the colors of the surrounding times and atmosphere, a Proteus apt to assume every form, every shape, supple, flexible, insinuating, close, inscrutable, often base, sometimes sincere, sometimes perfidious, always concealing a part of his or her knowledge, indulging in but one tone of voice, patient, a perfect master of his or her own countenance, as cold as ice when any other man or woman would be all fire; and if unfortunately, he or she is not religious at heart, a very common occurrence for a soul possessing the above requisites, he or she must have religion in his mind, that is to say, on his face, on his lips, in his manners. He or she must suffer quietly, if he or she be an honest man or woman, the necessity of knowing himself or herself an arrant hypocrite. If your live is not getting anywhere, rebrand yourself, re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions-your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

BE THE MASTER OF YOUR PUBLIC IMAGE

When appearing before crowds, make sure not to be upstaged by anyone. Know to say a lot by saying a little, intuiting the moment to end a speech for maximum effect. Never fail to incorporate a surprise into your public appearances, a starling announcement that will heighten the drama. Understand that there is a vital link between power and theater. Make yourself an actor, and director on the world stage. Say your lines as if they have been scripted and move through a crowd with a constant sense of how you appear to your audience. Incorporate surprise into your repertoire, building drama into your speeches and make your gestures broad enough for the common man to grasp them instantly. Learn to enlarge your actions through dramatic techniques such as surprise, suspense, the creation of sympathy, and symbolic identification. Also, be constantly aware of your audience, of what will please them and what will bore them. Always make sure to arrange to place yourself at the center, to command attention, and never to be upstaged at any cost.

UNDERSTAND THIS

The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role you are doomed. Your power is limited to the tiny amount allotted to the role you have selected or have been forced to assume. An actor, on the other hand, plays many roles. Enjoy that protean power, and if it is beyond you, at least forge yourself a new identity, one of your own making, one that has had no boundaries assigned to it by an envious and resentful world. This act of defiance is Promethean: It makes you responsible for your own creation. Being a costume that you can put on and take off whenever suitable, your new identity will protect you from the world. Forge yourself a new identity, one of your own making, that will set you apart and give you theatrical presence. Those in the back rows will see you and hear you. Those in the front rows will marvel at your audacity.

The The character you seem to have been born with is not necessarily who you are; beyond the characteristics you have inherited, your parents, your friends, and your peers have helped to shape your personality. The Promethean task of the powerful is to take control of the process, to stop allowing others that ability to limit and mold them. Remake yourself into a character of power. Working on yourself like clay should be one of your greatest and most pleasurable life tasks. It makes you in essence an artist, an artist creating yourself.

In fact, the idea of self-creation comes from the world of art. For thousands of years, only kings and the highest courtiers had the freedom to shape their public image and determine their own identity. Today the concept of self-creation has slowly filtered down to the rest of society and has become an ideal to aspire to. you must demand for yourself the power to determine your position in the painting, and to create your own image.

THE SELF-CREATION PROCESS

The first step in the process of self-creation is self-consciousness, being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your appearance and emotions. The bad actor is the one who is always sincere. People who wear their hearts on their sleeves out in society are tiresome and embarrassing. Their sincerity notwithstanding, it is hard to take them seriously. Those who cry in public may temporarily elicit sympathy, but sympathy soon turns to scorn and irritation at their self-obsessiveness. Good actors control themselves better. They can play sincere and heartfelt, can affect a tear and a compassionate look at will, but they don’t have to feel it. They externalize emotion in a form that others can understand. Method acting is fatal in the real world. No ruler or leader could possibly play the part if all the emotions they showed had to be real. Learn self-control. Adopt the plasticity of the actor, who can mold his or her face to the emotion required.

The second step in the process of self-creation is the creation of a memorable character, one that compels attention, that stands out above the other players on the stage. Good drama, however, needs more than an interesting appearance, or a single stand-out moment. Drama takes place over time; it is an unfolding event. Rhythm and timing are critical. One of the most important elements in the rhythm of drama is suspense, keeping your audience on the edge of their seats, letting events unfold slowly, then speeding them up at the right moment, according to a pattern and tempo that you control. You must learn to orchestrate events never revealing all your cards at once but unfolding them in a way that heightens their dramatic effect. Besides covering a multitude of sins, good drama can also confuse and deceive your enemy. Other dramatic effects for your repertoire include the beau geste, an action at a climactic moment that symbolizes your triumph or your boldness. You must also appreciate the importance of stage entrances and exits.

Remember that overacting can be counterproductive, it is another way of spending too much effort trying to attract attention. It is less what you do that matters, clearly, than how you do it, your gracefulness and imposing stillness on the social stage count for more than overdoing your part and moving around too much. Finally: Learn to play many roles, to be whatever the moment requires. Adapt your mask to the situation, be protean in the faces you wear. Doing so, you cannot be grasped, and what cannot be grasped cannot be consumed.

ONE LAST WORD:

Bad theater is bad theater. Even appearing natural requires art, in other words, acting. Bad acting only creates embarrassment. Of course, you should not be too dramatic, avoid the histrionic gesture. But that is simply bad theater anyway, since it violates centuries-old dramatic laws against overacting.

JMD

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J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

FREE SPEECH ABSOLUTIST / PERSONAL & CORPORATE FIXER

Systemic Strategic Planning; Regulatory Compliance; Crisis & Reputation Management

We owe it to humanity to see the rules of war are observed, no matter how tough a test the Israel-Hamas conflict proves. No set of crimes justifies another. To succumb to this principle would mean a never-ending cycle of violence.

For almost 4,000 years, most governments have insisted that if wars must be fought, there should be rules. The first known code, by the Babylonian king Hammurabi, laid down the principle on which all subsequent laws of war have been based: “To Prevent the Strong from Oppressing the Weak”.

During its assault, on Black Saturday, Hamas broke numerous laws of war, starting with its rocket fire into Israel, which made no attempt to discriminate between military and civilian targets, breaking article 13 of protocol II of the Geneva conventions. Its fighters allegedly murdered, tortured, and raped, breaking common article 3 of the Geneva conventions and articles 27 and 32 of the fourth convention. They also allegedly engaged in pillage and terrorism (33, fourth convention) and the taking of hostages (34, fourth, and article 8 of the Rome statute). Though this is harder to prove, these acts might have been motivated by genocidal intent, arguably also putting Hamas in breach of the genocide convention. Any of the people responsible who are captured should be tried for crimes against humanity.

In responding to this attack, Israel has also broken several laws of war. These crimes begin with the use of collective penalties against the people of Gaza (article 33 of the fourth convention and article 4 of protocol II). One aspect of this punishment appears to be the pattern of Israel’s bombing and shelling of Gaza.

“The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy,” a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces announced, which looks to me like stated intent to commit a war crime. The war crime in this case is the damage to property: article 50 of the first Geneva convention, article 51 of the second Geneva convention and article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention. Many of the buildings hit, including numerous schools and health facilities, do not appear to qualify as military targets, despite Israeli claims that Hamas uses people as human shields. Such indiscriminate attacks contravene article 13, protocol II and article 53, fourth convention. The bombing of mosques breaks article 16 of protocol II.

Human Rights Watch claims that Israel has fired white phosphorus shells at Gaza and Lebanon during its counterattack, although this has been denied. White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smokescreens, mark targets, or burn buildings, but it is considered an indiscriminate and terrible weapon, whose use in such cases might constitute a breach of the chemicals weapon convention.

The Israeli government has admitted cutting off essential supplies to Gaza. On 9 October, the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, stated: “I ordered a full siege on the Gaza Strip. No power, no food, no gas, everything is closed.” This is collective punishment. The energy minister, Israel Katz, appeared to confirm this when he wrote: “No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home.” The siege also breaches articles 55, 56 and 59 of the fourth convention and article 14 of protocol II, which protects “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”.

While the Israeli government could argue that instructing the people of Gaza City to leave is an attempt to protect them from bombardment, this directive constitute a breach of article 17 of protocol II, forbidding the forced movement of civilians, and of article 49 of the fourth convention on deportations and evacuations. Again, to judge by the statements of some officials, in the siege and attacks on Gaza there could be evidence of genocidal intent. The current fighting, of course, takes place in the context of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and the many subsidiary crimes associated with it.

No set of crimes justifies another

There are no excuses in war or ethics for crimes against humanity. There is never a legal reason to attack one person for the crimes of another, to confuse a people with their government or with the armed forces that claim to defend them, on either side of any conflict. The issue, as always, is enforcement, the most powerful countries customarily refusing to succumb to the rule of law. The laws of war, it seems, are for the little people.

So why bother? Why even mention war crimes, knowing that the charge is unlikely to be enforced against powerful perpetrators? Why not accept that war and atrocity are inextricable?

I will tell you why! Because it is upon these laws that aspects of our humanity hang. If we succumb to cynicism, if we are dissuaded by the hypocrisy of the dominant powers, if we cannot demand and hope for a better world, we accept the premise that might is right, and the powerful may treat the powerless however they wish. Because when we accept atrocities to be perpetuated by one side, this acceptation will be used to justify atrocities by another side, in a never-ending cycle of revenge and carnage.

… and this is exactly what is going on right now and has been happening since 1948 in this perpetual, never ending Palestinian-Israel conflict.

JMD

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J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

FREE SPEECH ABSOLUTIST / PERSONAL & CORPORATE FIXER

Systemic Strategic Planning; Regulatory Compliance; Crisis & Reputation Management

There is life changing magic in a productive story

Are you going to get that promotion? Is your marriage going to make it through a rough patch? Is your company going to hit its projections for the year? The single biggest predictor for all these events is not the facts of your situation, but the story you tell. The bad news is that there is an epidemic of rotten storytelling going on in our culture right now.

The good news is that we can fix that. And the best news is that it is not as hard as you might believe. Small shifts in mindset can trigger a cascade of changes so profound that they test the limits of what seems possible.

The secret is to identify the ideas that trigger a narrative reset, that get your brain out of a negative spiral, and into a productive mindset. Here are five strategies, grounded in science, to help you reset your own narrative.

1. Stop consuming junk stories.

People take in average of 14 newspapers worth of information every day, and most of it is junk. This epidemic of junk storytelling is killing our minds just as surely as junk food is destroying our bodies. The single best thing you can do to reset your narrative is simple: do not take in too much junk.

How can you tell if you have a lot of junk in your storytelling diet?

Junk stories are any kind of story that is designed primarily to rile up your emotions: cable news, most of twitter, lots of clickbait. It is designed to trigger an emotional response. It is addictive, destructive and dangerous. Junk stories tend to create junk thinking, and it is literally bad for our brains.

2. See the river, not the rocks.

When I was first learning to kayak, I kept banging my boat into rocks. I said to my instructor in frustration, “I am hitting every rock on this river!” He said, “Well then, stop looking at them!” This is exactly what I was doing: I was going down the river, staring straight at the things I was most afraid of, and therefore, heading right for them.

We all tend to obsess over the things we are afraid of. The problem is that in life, as on the river, our boat goes where our eyes go. When we read lots of stories, and tell lots of stories, about how bad things are likely to be, we literally make these bad things more likely to happen.

But therein lies the secret to changing this pattern: see the river, not the rocks. Instead of obsessing over all the things that could go wrong, focus on all the things that could go right. Tell stories to your team, your family and in your own head, about everything beautiful that could happen in life.

3. Expect setbacks.

There is a critical corollary to a good mindset: the story you are telling must be true. You cannot deceive yourself with false optimism when the world is falling apart.

To say that you feel positive about the culture in America right now, or to try to convince yourself that everything is going great when your business is faltering, is to deny reality. It creates a form of narrative dissonance: a disconnect between reality and the story we are telling. And it will ultimately break down.

The trick is not to deny suffering, or setbacks, but to accept the setback and the suffering and know that it will pass. Do not tell yourself a story about how easy things are, or how good they are. Tell yourself a story that says: this is all part of the story line. After all, every single success story in history or in literature or in business shares one quality: that moment when the hero needs to decide, against all odds, whether, or not, to keep going.

Teaching low performing people about the growth mindset, the fact that we are all bad at everything before we are good at I, helps improve their performance. Giving new employees students pep talks before they start at their new job, letting them know that struggling during the first year is normal, reduces dropout rates. Telling employees at the start of a project that failure is both inevitable and temporary, will increase the team’s likelihood of success.

4. Tell good stories about the people around you.

Spend some time thinking about the stories you tell about other people because those stories are incredibly important, too. Always look for the best in people. People are not performing the way you want! Meet with every member of your team, asked what they needed from you, and tell them that you believe in them. If their performance is not improving, then, and only then, get rid of them.

For better and for worse, the stories we tell about people tend to become true. When team leaders are cued to think good things about their team members, those team members do better. When people are told, “you are the kind of person who performs well under pressure” before doing a high-stress task, their performance goes up by 33%. Stories change brains, and behaviors.

The lesson here is this: practice telling good stories, even just in your own head, about your spouse and your boss and your colleagues and your clients. You will find that when you change the story you are telling about them, they will change too.

5. Do not plan, just do one thing.

You are overwhelmed with the size and the scope of a problem, and you believe that if you can just write all down, think it all through, you can get a handle on it. But weirdly, the more you think about it, the more stressed out you get. And how often do you find yourself at the end of a long meeting feeling frustrated that nothing has changed? That way of thinking can easily turn into a negative story spiral.

What you need to do is to reset that narrative. When you are feeling overwhelmed, do not plan, do not make, or write down a plan, just do one thing. It literally does not matter what you do. Whenever you act, take any action, it resets the chemicals in your brain from overwhelmed to empowered. Think of the brain as a binary system: you are either frozen in fear or empowered by action. So, if you have a huge to-do list, check off the smallest thing first. Talk to one person, make one call. The chemicals in your brain will change, and so will your story.

Yes indeed, this is your choice.

JMD

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J. Michael Dennis, ll.l., ll.m.

FREE SPEECH ABSOLUTIST / PERSONAL & CORPORATE FIXER

Systemic Strategic Planning; Regulatory Compliance; Crisis & Reputation Management