Troy

I purchased $500 in Bitcoin and $500 in Ethereum back in 2021 I believe (after the peak). I knew full well going in that I could lose all of my money, but again it was a learning exercise, as I was also interested in NFTs. I'm ALWAYS wary of schemes where people say you can get rich buy doing literally nothing, or maybe buying a jpeg. I'm even more skeptical of people who charge you a great deal of money to tell you how, if you do what they did you get rich too. Most people would simply continue doing the thing that got them rich rather than taking the time to show you how. The only time that happens is when the thing they are showing you is no-longer working for them -- assuming it every did. I hold my own crypto, so losing it in an exchange is not possible -- thought I could lose my keys. At any rate I should get on the value of my coin, maybe I will cash out. I have really afford to have a few hundred bucks doing nothing...

@ProfD, that fact makes the fact that dinosaurs survived for so long amazing! @Stefan, the original study is not too difficult to understand or at Least get the gist https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06083-8 No need to write off to remain capable of supporting human life just yet. We need to understand that "...stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked..." (Emphasis mine)

That is the reason AALBC.com, and any other platform elevating Black people has to exist. But we also have to acknowledge, that things have improved -- greatly. Neely would not only have been executed with total impunity his mere presence on the train would have been sufficient justification. @ProfD, obviously Barry was revered, he was a man of the people. Considering the was setup tells you he was a threat to those do not want to see a leader rise amongst Black people. This is how I knew Obama was the safest President to hold the office.

Thanks @richardmurray it is actually very useful to know what is going around the country.

@Pioneer1 I normally would have banned at account up front, as there were several signs it was a spammer, but I approved it by mistake. When I read their first post I completely missed the link. It was a spammer, a clever one, but spammer nonetheless.

@DanjumaTela welcome to the forums... I think. nI'm keeping my eye on you.

Hey @Pioneer1 this priest had an NDE (near death experience) and he reported that he went to hell. He said, we saw men walking like dogs and heard demons singing Rihanna songs. Is this the type confirmation you are talking about? Seriously. @ProfD, if there was confirmation of what would happen after you die, people would forget what is happening in this life and begin preparing for the next one... explains why so many people are already doing that now.

I always read ebooks on my cell phone. If I'm gonna read on something as big as a tablet I just go with the book.

"Confirmed," really? Please tell me what happens after we die? Again, there are many things that are unknowable from the grand, like what happened before the big bang, to fantastically small, like where exactly is an electron. No. Whatever most people believe or what those in power force us to believe is the closest we can come to truth, but it is never universally accepted. We can't tell, that would be one of those unknowable things

Yes, of course, most things are unknowable. We accept things based upon approximations or just straight up faith. What happens after you die? Many claim to know, but they are relating faith not knowledge.

If something is unknowable, how do you know it is true?

I was thinking the reaction was fascination and a desire learn what could possibly interest a monkey enough to try to read a book.

On some level I don't think we can actually tell what is "true." Our brains don't have the capacity for this. Our bodies are very limited in terms of what we can actually sense, Our brain create our perception which can differ from person to person. Even when our physical perception of the world is very close, we still can't agree on what is true. This has become more evident in the age of alternative facts and the resulting alternative realities they conjure. Some people believe Astrology is real others don't. Some people believe there are multiple human races, choosing to completely ignore the science. Still other believe you will suffer eternal damnation of you don't accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. If is real for them, while for the majority of the rest of the world something else is "true." How we decide what is true is different for each person, and I'm not convinced it is a completely rational and conscious decision.

I generally don't ask people about what they are reading in public. This is not because I don't care; in fact, I'm often very curious, but I don't interrupt them to ask out of respect for the person's privacy. I was on the NYC subway reading the book Cold Mountain. Engrossed in the novel I looked up and noticed the woman sitting next to me was reading the same book. I looked at her, she smiled and said, "Isin't this a really good book!" I said, "Yes it is." We went back to enjoying our novels. It was a pleasant enough exchange, but neither of us probed the other for more information. @Pioneer1 Why do you think these white folks are curious enough to impose and ask you what you about what you reading?

While u was writing about the supply side. I don’t think demand for books is contracting. in fact i believe there is room for growth as there is unmet demand in some categories and distribution for what is in print is constrained by the power of Amazon and the near monopoly of Ingram, so the books in print are harder to discover and get to the places where people will purchase then. Things may be entirely different down under though. People could reading their books on their phone. The last book i read, i read the ebook version and listened to the audio book. So to a casual observer in public it may have appeared i was looking at my phone. When i read the hardcover i was at home. That was the first book i consumed in 3 different modalities. (I needed to get through it quickly).

@Pioneer1 In my mind's eye I always envisioned you as more Kalid Muhammad than Master Fard Muhammad in the completion department. Would you pass the brown bag test? LOL!

Here is a list of more than 200 book festivals and fairs from around the world. Thes are not just the Black events, virtually all of them feature Black writers. I included all the ones I could find Of the 18 depicted in the graphic below I've attended 8 of them. I always wanted to go to Calabash, which is held in Jamaica. I'm going to the Go On Girl! Book Club event in two weeks. I need go through the entire list an see how many events I've attended

Hey @Pioneer1 I could not help but think of you when listening to Neil Irwin Painter relate the pseudo-science of race from her book the History of White People.

As far as I know @josephinabazan the data does not exist. But my data has to be indicative, or reflective of the total given the large differences. I think it is newsworthy to understand the decline. Welcome to the forum!

I forgot to mention i added this book to the site when pioneer first mentioned it.

Added: https://aalbc.com/events/event-detail.php?st=Maryland#BLK+Author+Expo

Black comics also include imagined Black characters, like Tuvok of Vulcan. Every so often I but a comic, usually to support the artist. Yesterday however i brought a comic just because i liked the cover. I’m just imagining what the sister is saying to the Hulk Now thatis a Black comic!

Richard don’t under estimate the power of the algorithm. Think of it like a very addictive drug like crack. People can’t help themselves. Still it is a pet peeve of mine too. People all on “Black Twitter” talking about Black empowerment — it is ludicrous. @Pioneer1 the other day a buddy of mine who runs a website knows the site was no longer coming up in google search. The problem was an important file on his server was modified to tell Google Not to index his site. No one knows how happened. The guy is a former Panther and when stuff like that happened back in the day they would just chalk it up to “the man.” Most of the time they would be right…

It does not look like this event survived the pandemic I'm updating my events calendar. I see The Southern Minnesota Book Festival was not the only event to make it to 2023. My own Black Pack Party did not recover. Still, I have found more than 200 events this calendar year! If you want to enjoy books in the Prescence of other humans 2023 has been the best year since the "before times." Here is a list of book fairs and festivals for 2023 and 2024 (the list continually evolves). On a related note I used Chat GPT to write python code to copy information from my website into my events database which drives the events pages -- Amazing!

@ProfD That is a good question for any poster. If I understood that, I would use that information to attract more posters. What bring you back to these forums? I enjoy reading all of y'alls posts. I don;t know enoguth about Sudan to participate, but I appreciate reading what @Stefan and @frankster have shared.