My first (very) lame foray into Splinterlands:

So I finally signed up for Splinterlands. Did a practice battle. Absolutely no idea what’s going on. Then again, I’m a total noob. I generally don’t read instructions for new software, just treat it like a black box and experiment by trial and error. But I guess I should probably find a good tutorial or two. Any have suggestions?

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:

BTC price hovers above $61K amid fresh concerns over fate of physical Bitcoin ETF

Uncomfortable Inflation Is Here

One of the biggest problems with inflation right now is not the ships stuck at the Port of Los Angeles or the price of a pack of chicken thighs or even how difficult it is to nab a reasonably priced rental car — it’s what’s happening in Americans’ minds as their expectations shift about how much goods will cost going forward.
While policymakers debate how long higher prices will last — what ‘transitory’ inflation means — the real question is how American families and businesses are going to react to this new era of uncomfortable inflation. What is the psychological impact of this jump in so many prices after years of low inflation? Are people’s behaviors going to shift?

John Deere tried hiring scab workers — and immediately had a tractor crash in its plant

Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:

Thousands of Britons May Have Had False Negative Covid Results

Russia's daily Covid deaths pass 1,000 for first time

Ivermectin is a Nobel Prize-winning wonder drug – but not for COVID-19

Politics:

Biden's clean electricity program is likely to be scrapped because of opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin, who has made millions off the fossil-fuel industry.

Trump’s Stolen Election Lie Is on the Ballot In 2022

In next year’s races for governor and secretary of state, for Congress and all the way down to state legislative seats, Republicans eager for Trump’s support have embraced these baseless claims. Democrats, eager to rally their base in a potentially unfavorable political climate, have branded GOP candidates as propagators of ‘the Big Lie.’
The issue is particularly animating campaigns for secretary of state — the office that in many states oversees elections — in electoral battlegrounds that narrowly backed Biden over Trump in 2020 and will be hotly contested again in the 2024 presidential election.

Whatever Democrats Now Pass Could Be Seen as Defeat

Here’s the cold reality: It now appears all but impossible for Democrats to enact a reconciliation package that’s anywhere near as far-reaching as what polls suggest a large majority of Democratic voters want. And that effectively means that for a lot of Dems, it will be hard to see whatever ends up coming out of this process as a success — with potentially dire implications for the party in 2022.

Democrats Weigh Carbon Tax

Some House and Senate Democrats, smarting from a move by Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, to kill a major element of President Biden’s climate plan, are switching to Plan B: a tax on carbon dioxide pollution.
A carbon tax, in which polluting industries would pay a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit, is seen by economists as the most effective way to cut the fossil fuel emissions that are heating the planet.

If Manchin hated Plan A, wouldn’t he hate Plan B even more?

Serendipity:

What the Supply Chain Crisis Reveals About American Infrastructure

Alabama School Districts Hit With Food Shortage, Warn Of Remote School Days

Scientists Detect 1,652 Radio Signals From Mysterious Source in Space

La Niña is coming. Here's what that means for winter weather in the U.S.

Official Wizard of New Zealand fired by city council after more than 2 decades

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