It’s All About Attitude
All six books now have updated covers. Great work by Billy Wright. Hopefully, potential readers will find them refreshing and interesting. Ads are now running on Amazon, Facebook, and Google. The narrator for the Audible version of Reflection Attitude got a cold and this has delayed things a bit. I hope to get the sound track for review this weekend. Please take a look at the new site if you have not already. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.
Ukraine
Some more words from the Great Communicator. He gives a video update to the country every night. Here is one of his profound statements from this week:
“We always want to warmly welcome our friends and partners in Ukraine. But, the World Bank delegation arrived in Kyiv on the day when Russia launched another massive missile attack on Ukrainian territory. We appreciate you staying here. This is an important signal for us.
During the meeting with World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Anna Bjerde we discussed the preparation of projects related to the restoration of Ukrainian transport, energy infrastructure and the sphere of health care.
I thank the World Bank and its management for their support and quick response to the needs of Ukraine since the first days of the full-scale war.”
Space
NASA’s long awaited Artemis I mission finally launched from historic LC-39B in Cape Canaveral, FL this week, kicking off a 26 day mission to a unique orbit around the moon in a shakedown cruise before humans fly on Artemis II no earlier than 2024. In development for more than 10 years, the Space Launch System (SLS) is the most powerful rocket NASA has ever flown and is currently the largest and most powerful operational rocket in the world, producing a staggering 8.8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Its payload is an Apollo-style space capsule called Orion, which is designed to take four humans to lunar orbit where it will rendezvous with a commercial lunar lander, which in turn will take the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the moon on Artemis III no earlier than 2025.
Artemis I has three main objectives; 1.) Demonstrate Orion’s ability to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at a blistering 25,000 MPH and splash down safely in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, CA. 2.) Demonstrate the ability of SLS and its upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion System (ICPS) to launch into and maneuver in space. 3.) Demonstrate the ability to recover Orion by a US Navy platform dock ship.
On a personal note, this writer and space geek traveled from Boston to see the launch, and it was a sight to behold. Standing on the Max A Brewer Bridge over the Indian River (about 10 miles from LC-39B) with thousands of people cheering on, SLS put on a spectacular display of power, lighting up the sky at 1:47AM as if it were daytime. And then it was gone. Definitely worth the trip.
Crypto
The gloom and doom from startup FTX continues. Multiple federal investigations will unravel what happened but it will take time. There are no excuses for how FTX was mismanaged but a faster pace at developing appropriate regulation would have helped. Slow to regulate is often because those to be regulated resist. That is not the case here. Crypto company executives have been begging for clarity and regulation. Bitcoin continues to be stable. Bitcoin owners would prefer that it stabilized at a higher level. Bitcoin volatility is actually no more extreme than that of stocks, especially techs. Volatility will likely continue until regulation is in place. Everybody wants regulation but Congress cannot get its act together. Coinbase is being impacted by the FTX debacle but I remain bullish on the potential of the company. It is operating in a transparent manner and is run by grownups.
Wall Street
Some stocks up but all of the major averages posted losses for the week. Rate fears still everywhere. GAMMAT still high at $7.5 trillion. Tesla still under pressure. Twitter seems to be a mess but I am not going to judge yet although some of Musk’s moves seem erratic. I still think he has some surprises ahead. Tech layoffs are huge. They are all admitting they grew too fast and ramped headcount and big salaries way to fast.
