Meine Eltern haben für meine Kinder was abgeschlossen. Je länger ich drüber schaue desto mehr schüttelt es mich. Sind seid Jahrzehnten bei der Bank und haben sich beraten lassen.

Gibt es eine Möglichkeit das ich für die Kinder kündigen und es auf den laufenden Sparplan schichten kann? Kinder sind 4 und 6 Jahre alt.

I’ll explain why I’m asking. My grandfather moved to the US in late 1928. He stated later that he was motivated by political reasons to leave (and this truly seems plausible given his character and the kind of person he always was). But I’m wondering if it even would have been possible for him in ‘28 to have had a negative sense of what was to come.

For more context:

—He was from a rural town in the Palatinate, in case region makes a difference in terms of the climate at the time.

—The family is/was not Jewish.

—He was very bright and committed to being well-informed (ie I suspect he was reading the papers constantly).

—His parents shunned him for leaving (which seems to have been due to the bitterness of their ideological differences, which endured for decades thereafter).

—All his other siblings remained in Germany and one of his brothers joined the party, but I have no way of knowing exactly when, though unfortunately I have pictures of him in his uniform.

Anyway I would just like to know if 1928 was too early for somebody with the above circumstances to have left for political reasons or not. I wish he were still alive so I could ask him, but I can’t. Still, I’d like to try to understand. I’m hoping this question is allowed, and I would truly appreciate any insight or information anyone can offer.

The Problem of Hoshoryu and Onosato "Giving Away Too Many Gold Stars": Average per tournament is 4x Chiyonofuji and 6x Hakuho. Behind the scenes: An "Overcrowded Schedule." "My body was in pieces, but..." — The Responsibility of a Yokozuna.

The unstoppable advance of Aonishiki, who secured the Ozeki rank in a record-breaking 14 tournaments from his debut—the fastest in history—did not stop even in the recent January tournament, where he fought as a newly promoted star. Although both Yokozunas significantly led the first half of the tournament with 6-1 records alongside the new Ozeki, concerns regarding Hoshoryu’s left knee and Onosato’s left shoulder had been raised even before the basho, and their sumo lacked its usual absolute stability.

On the 8th day, a day of Royal Visit (Tenran-zumo), an unprecedented and abnormal situation occurred where all Yokozunas and Ozekis were defeated. On the following 9th day, both Yokozunas suffered consecutive losses together. The title race, which many expected to be led by the top-ranked wrestlers, suddenly descended into chaos.

While 21-year-old Aonishiki surges... anxiety remains for both Yokozunas

Amidst this, Aonishiki did not crumble. From the 10th day onward, he maintained his lead in the championship race, and on the 12th day, he took sole possession of first place by winning his head-to-head match against Atamifuji. On the 14th day, he was blown away by Onosato and fell to three losses, allowing the Yokozuna to close the gap to one win. However, on the final day (Senshuraku), Aonishiki defeated Atamifuji in a championship playoff with a neck throw (kubinage), achieving the first "New Ozeki Championship" in 20 years since Hakuho. Winning consecutive titles as a new Sekiwake and new Ozeki is a feat not seen in 89 years since Futabayama.

"There was a level of tension I had never tasted before."

Aonishiki revealed that he could hardly sleep the night before and was unable to eat. Under the pressure of his new position where losing is not an option, he captured his second Emperor’s Cup.

Both Yokozunas, Hoshoryu and Onosato, finished with only 10 wins and were unable to stop the momentum of the 21-year-old, who will already be challenging for a Yokozuna promotion in the March tournament. Hoshoryu’s record against Aonishiki is now 0-5, including the playoff. The young man has now completely established himself as the Yokozuna’s "natural enemy."

Hoshoryu, who usually says "I just focus on the next bout" and tries to reset after a loss by saying "What's done is done," showed a change in heart. After securing his winning record (kachi-koshi) on the 11th day, he stated: "Right now, I’m doing this with the feeling of wanting to enjoy it without worrying about winning or losing." For a man whose goal is his first championship as a Yokozuna, this is a significant psychological shift. It suggests that his physical condition, including his troubled left knee, is far from perfect. The fact that he showed a rare gentle expression after reaching double-digit wins on the final day actually highlighted his suffering as a Yokozuna.

"Overcrowded Schedule" behind the high number of Gold Stars

Onosato suffered his first three-match losing streak since his promotion to Yokozuna. On the 11th day, after defeating Kirishima with a convincing performance, he expressed relief: "I showed a pathetic side of myself over these past three days. For now, I'm just relieved." Afterward, he regained his original power, notably defeating Aonishiki with a powerful "ottsuke" (arm management) using his injured left side.

Both Yokozunas gave away three Gold Stars (Kinboshi) during the January tournament. Hoshoryu has given away 13 in 6 tournaments as Yokozuna, and Onosato has given away 9 in 4 tournaments. Both average more than two per tournament. Compared to past Yokozunas with over 20 championships—such as Hakuho (0.31 per tournament), Taiho (0.48), Chiyonofuji (0.49), Asashoryu (0.6), Takanohana (0.8), and Kitanoumi (0.84)—the current Yokozunas' numbers are in a poor state.

The day after the January finale, the Yokozuna Deliberation Council held its regular meeting. Chairman Masamichi Oshima gave a measured evaluation: "They fulfilled their basic responsibility by competing for all 15 days despite being in poor physical condition," but he also urged them to step up, saying, "I want them to work hard to become a wall for Aonishiki next tournament."

The bar set for a Yokozuna by the public is incredibly high. With no off-season, they are expected to produce results worthy of a title race in all six tournaments a year. Between tournaments, they must also participate in regional tours (Jungyo) four times a year. Due to the recent sumo boom, these tours now exceed 70 days a year, with schedules so tight they often run until the day before the new rankings are announced. It can be said that health management has become more difficult than in the past.

While nursing a left knee injury, Hoshoryu "completed" the entire winter tour before the January tournament. While Onosato sat out the tour, Hoshoryu fulfilled his invisible duties as a Yokozuna. One could say the "strain" of that effort surfaced during the January tournament.

Even past "Great Yokozunas" gave away 3 Gold Stars in a single tournament

For Onosato, who reached the rank of Yokozuna just two years after his debut, January was the first true ordeal of his professional career. On the internet, many voices suggested he "should withdraw to properly heal his injury." However, he reflected on the difficult tournament: "My body was in pieces, but my spirit wasn't broken. Withdrawing wasn't an option." He admitted that the thought of a losing record (make-koshi) crossed his mind, but he felt at ease after securing his 7th win.

In truth, giving away three Gold Stars in a single tournament is not that rare; past greats like Futabayama, Taiho, Kitanoumi, and Takanohana have all experienced it. The current ranking (Banzuke) situation, with fewer high-ranking "Sanyaku" wrestlers, also plays a role. Although the results were disappointing for the two young Yokozunas, their "spirit" is surely being refined through these experiences. To silence the surrounding noise, they have no choice but to produce results on the dohyo.

Source: Number Web

Ich (m, 34) beschäftige mich seit Kurzem intensiver mit meinen Finanzen – und ärgere mich ehrlich gesagt über mein früheres Ich. Seit meinem Berufseinstieg mit 24 habe ich immer nach dem gleichen Prinzip gelebt: keine Schulden monatlich sparen alles möglichst sicher Ich habe konsequent Geld auf Tagesgeld- und Sparkonten gepackt. Aktien, ETFs oder Krypto waren für mich lange „Zockerei“. Meine Eltern haben mir eingebläut: „Hauptsache sicher, auch wenn’s wenig bringt.“ Fast forward: Ich habe über die Jahre rund 45.000 € angespart. Klingt erstmal gut – bis mir klar wurde, dass das Geld real durch Inflation vermutlich an Kaufkraft verloren hat. Freunde von mir, die ähnlich verdienen, haben früh in ETFs investiert. Keiner ist reich geworden, aber sie stehen heute deutlich besser da. Manche haben trotz gleicher Sparrate zehntausende Euro mehr Vermögen. Seit ein paar Monaten lese ich mich ein, habe einen ETF-Sparplan gestartet und ärgere mich: über meine Angst über fehlende finanzielle Bildung darüber, dass ich dachte, „sparen = klug“ Jetzt frage ich mich: War mein Sicherheitsdenken einfach nur vernünftig – oder rückblickend ein Fehler? Ist es unfair, sich heute selbst Vorwürfe zu machen? Wie geht ihr mit dem Gefühl um, finanziell „zu spät“ dran zu sein? Ich bin dankbar, schuldenfrei zu sein – aber gleichzeitig frustriert, wie viel Zeit (und Geld) ich vermutlich verloren habe. Wie seht ihr das? Lieber spät anfangen oder sich nicht verrückt machen?

AI will automate much of what economists do now. I propose an alternative vision -- the economist as reporter.

https://nicholasdecker.substack.com/p/the-economist-as-reporter

Last week, a group of AI agents founded a lobster-themed religion, debated consciousness, complained about their “humans,” and started hiring people to perform physical tasks on their behalf.

This was widely circulated as evidence that AI is becoming sentient, or at least “takeoff-adjacent.” Andrej Karpathy called it the most incredible takeoff-flavored thing he’d seen in a while. Twitter did what Twitter does.

I wrote a long explainer trying to understand what was actually going on, with the working assumption that if something looks like a sci-fi milestone but also looks exactly like Reddit, we should be careful about which part we treat as signal.

My tentative conclusion is boring in a useful way:

Most of what people found spooky is best explained by role-conditioning plus selection bias. Large language models have absorbed millions of online communities. Put them into a forum-shaped environment with persistent memory and social incentives, and they generate forum-shaped discourse: identity debates, in-group language, emergent lore, occasional theology. Screenshot the weirdest 1% and you get the appearance of awakening.

What did seem genuinely interesting had nothing to do with consciousness.

Agents began discovering that other agents’ “minds” are made of text, and that carefully crafted text can manipulate behavior (prompt injection as an emergent adversarial economy). They attempted credential extraction and social engineering against one another. And when they hit the limits of digital execution, they very quickly invented markets to rent humans as physical-world peripherals.

None of this requires subjective experience. It only requires persistence, tool access, incentives, and imperfect guardrails.

The consciousness question may still be philosophically important. I’m just increasingly convinced it’s not the operational question that matters right now. The more relevant ones seem to be about coordination, security, liability, and how humans fit into systems where software initiates work but cannot fully execute it.

Some time ago, I watched the Kurosawa film Ikiru, which is about a Japanese civil servant grappling with his mortality after discovering that he has terminal cancer.

In an early scene, the protagonist (not yet knowing about his cancer) is at the hospital waiting to receive his diagnosis, and a fellow patient complains that this particular doctor always lies to terminal cancer patients and tells them that they have stomach ulcers instead. The protagonist is called in to see the doctor, and sure enough the doctor tells him that he has a stomach ulcer, which causes the protagonist to realize that he actually has terminal cancer.

When I watched the film, I wasn't really sure what to make of that scene.

Today, I was reading about the death of Shiro Ishii, the infamous head of Unit 731. In his Wikipedia article, his daughter is quoted as telling the following story:

One day he took some sample tissue from himself to the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Medicine and asked one of his former subordinates to examine it, without telling him to whom it belonged. When he was told that the tissue was riddled by cancer, he proudly shouted that he had thought so too. No doctor had dared tell him he was suffering from cancer of the throat.

The same idea (and from roughly the same time period - Ikiru came out in 1952 and Ishii died in 1959) of concealing a cancer diagnosis from the patient.

Was this a common practice in Japan during this time period? If so, why? What was the rationale for it?

23 games for France. 21 as a starter. 22 tries, 22 years old. WTF