Five Nuggets from Uncle Faust (Episode 4)

Five nuggets is a series inspired by an accidental collision with a similar project by Tim Ferris, author of The 4 Hour Work Week and Tools for Titans. In this weekly series, I share five things which caught my interest this week through my wanderings, web surfing, researching and time spent on Steemit.

Without further ado, five nuggets which caught my attention this week:

The Machine – Bert Kreischer on Robbing a Train with the Russian Mafia (Comedy)

This has to be one of the absolute best gems of comedy I’ve stumbled across in a while. I first learned about Bert Kreischer on Joe Rogan’s podcast. In this episode of his stand-up comedy, he talks about his summer spent as a foreign exchange student in Russia, how he earned his nickname, “The Machine,” and wound up robbing an entire train with the Russian mafia.

By far one of the best finds this week.

Steemit Featured Post: POCKET Genesis Post

In the event you have not heard already, STEEM now has its own derivative token POCKET (courtesy of @biophil). In some ways, POCKET can be equated to ERC20 tokens on Ethereum. In my opinion, this is nothing short of groundbreaking for STEEM.

The POCKET protocol will be generating tokens over a 14 day period commencing from the post date of the POCKET Genesis post (linked above). After that 14 day period has passed, no further POCKET tokens will be generated and the supply is locked. Any Steemit account holder can claim their free 1,000,000 POCKET tokens by following the directions from the POCKET Genesis post.

Thanks to @biophil for pioneering this initiative.

The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History (Book)

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Wave-Revolutions-Rhythm-History/dp/019512121X

After visiting the American Numismatic Association (Money Museum) one had to know posts about money would soon make their way to my blog. Years back when I lived in Manhattan, one snowy day I spent the day in the café reading this book cover to cover. It had such a profound impact on me and became one of the major influences which made me consider my first purchase of Bitcoin in 2013.

In this book, David Hackett Fisher provides some spectacular historical insight into the three great inflationary waves starting from the Middle Ages until the modern era. Were I to be asked for a single book recommendation, this is absolutely always the first which comes to mind.

Ascent of Money (6 Part Video Series)

On that same snowy day, I discovered the book The Great Wave linked above, I discovered another absolute gem of a book by Niall Ferguson, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. It was breathtaking in its scope and impacted me just as deeply as The Great Wave.

About five years after I read the book, I came across this six part series on YouTube developed my Ferguson. He traces the history of money from the very first clay tablet bearer bonds in ancient Egypt, into the rise of banking and through the modern financial crisis of 2008. It’s absolutely amazing.

Across the USA by Train for Just $213

http://dereklow.co/across-the-usa-by-train-for-just-213/

There is something beautifully nostalgic and romantic about rail travel in the age of airlines. Before I started to write on a consistent basis, my wife was busy establishing her career as a writer. While deep in the throes of writing her book, she stumbled across a promotion by Amtrack offering a limited number of free, cross-country rail tickets to authors writing a book. Unfortunately, it's something she missed out on, but it's been a bucket list item ever since for both of us.

In this blog post, Derek Low writes in depth about his cross country rail trip through the United States (3,397 miles, through 11 states and across 4 time zones in four days). He then summarizes how it’s possible for someone to do the same trip for much less than he did, and explains how to do it. It seems I may be scratching an item off my bucket list in the near future.

That concludes my #fivenuggets for this week’s episode. Take care my Steemitland friends and until next time…

---

If You Enjoyed This Edition of Five Nuggets, Check Out Some Previous Editions

• Five Nuggets from Uncle Faust (Episode 1) – Timeline of the Far Future, Scotch Song and Soul, New Microchip Tech, Loving Vincent Film, American Numismatic Association Money Museum

• Five Nuggets from Uncle Faust (Episode 2) – Discovering Quantum Consciousness, An Unreal Experience, 30 Days of Writing Prompts, Waiting Film, Buycott (Web Application)

• Five Nuggets from Uncle Faust (Episode 3) – Amper Music AI, Heavy Metals and Black Holes, Puddles the Clown, Steve Kardynal Chatroulette, Farting Ass Bank