The payments wars in Japan are heating up and one of the battlegrounds is convenience store coffee.

“Coffee? What does that have to do with payments?” I’m glad you asked.

Convenience stores are low net margin businesses, which sell some high gross margin goods/services but a lot of low ones, and have high fixed costs and a low ticket size. The typical transaction is under 500 yen ($5) and many are about $1.

They need repeat custom.

A few years ago, all of the chains had a good idea for increasing frequency of use: make a minor capital investment in automatic coffee machines. Sell access to them for the price of a cup / ice; customers self-serve with the machine.

The price point is $1 to about $2.

Coffee quickly became one of the most frequently repurchased items at convenience stores, in no small part because it’s the one thing they can sell which is phameceutically habit forming but totally unregulated. (Just telling it like it is.)

But the coffee is not very defensible

The problem, such that it is, is that competing chains are everywhere and *all* of them serve Thoroughly Adequate Coffee at similar prices, so you’re back into the brutal economics of “Who is 3 meters closer to 40 customers at 1 office?”

Enter payment apps.

In the early 2010s, there was a lot of pushback from up-and-coming left media figures like Owen Jones and Laurie Penny to criticisms of their PMC and educational backgrounds.

"So what if we went to Oxford, or if our parents were solicitors?", the line of defence went. "Our hearts are in the right place. We fight for the many, not the few."

Ten years on, seeing where PMC domination of the left has taken the movement, we can revisit those criticisms and see the importance of the original pushback.

What a PMC parental background and a prep-school and Oxbridge education tend to provide their beneficiaries with is a high degree of entitlement, verbal polish and presentation, and an often unshakeable personal confidence.

Combined with the utopian and improvement- and uplift-focused aspects of left thought, this prior socialisation tends to produce a highly authoritarian form of left-managerialism, one in which the PMC left appoint themselves both moral spokespeople and moral technicians.

Hi teachers and parents 👋 I have complied a short list of useful online maths tools and virtual manipulatives to assist you with distance learning. I have included the curriculum area and suggested what class group they would be most suitable for. See below! #mathschat #edchatie

This website allows you to create a graph. Useful for 5th/6th class. Children can create pie charts, bar charts, etc. adding in their own data and designing and labelling the X and Y axis themselves. Charts are easily

Online protractor. Useful for 5th/6th class. The teacher can use screen sharing to how to use a protractor. Children who do not have a protractor at home can use this to measure angles.

Exploring area and perimeter. Useful for 4th - 6th class. Tasks can be set to create shapes of a specific area/perimeter. There is also a game that can be used for formative

Interactive geo-board. Useful for 1st - 6th class for exploring perimeter and area and the characteristics of shapes. Images can be saved easily to be shared with the teacher via email, screen share etc.

If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).(The Holy Quran, Al-e-Imran 3:85)
#OurFaith_Khatam_E_Nabuwat

The following portion of the last revealed verse of the Holy Quran is also a testimony that no Apostle with new instructions or interpretations of the holy Quran will ever need to be sent to the humanity:
#OurFaith_Khatam_E_Nabuwat

This day have I perfected your religion for you, completed my favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.
(The Holy Quran, Al-Maidah 5:3)
#OurFaith_Khatam_E_Nabuwat

The following verses, which appear at the very beginning of the holy Quran, indicate the qualities of the individuals, who will benefit from the holy Quran, and have been given an assurance of salvation.
#OurFaith_Khatam_E_Nabuwat

In its concise and precise form, Quran makes clear that these include revelations up to the time of Prophet Muhammad(SAW), and precludes the possibility of any future revelations, prophets, or religions.
#OurFaith_Khatam_E_Nabuwat

thokozani. i understand that consulting with isangoma is still an act that is shrouded in secrecy and is a source of shame for many. it is this shame and secrecy that makes people ripe for exploitation and harm.

i am not here to perpetuate already existing boogeyman narratives about my job but i beg you all to never, ever go to a sangoma without alerting at least one person of your whereabouts.

unless you know you are up to no good wena self, it should be an easy location pin drop and "friend, this is where i am should you not hear from me in x hours." no further explanation necessary.

we must admit without taking it with our chests that certain generalisations exist because there are certain individuals that perpetuate them. that's life. i will give personal anecdotes:

there is a client that came asking for help some months back. her life was at a standstill and she didn't understand why until, together, we connected the dots. her secret trips to isangoma sakhe were not what i would call normal.

A thread of business related TV series..... Which is your favorite?

1. Billions vs Suits

2. Better call saul vs Ozark

3. Madmen vs The profit

4. Start up vs shark tank

5. Ballers vs Dirty Money

Jim Traficant US Bankruptcy FDR sold USA to the UN International Bankers IMF-

FDR was a Traitor who gave our Sovereignty to United Nations Banksters IMF under The Federal Reserve Act

Dissolving American Sovereignty and our Constitutional

It’s happening and it’s happening NOW! The first movie, Guardians of the Pedophiles, just had its big release.

Buckle up, Patriots, it’s going to be a very bumpy ride.

The take down of the Cabal A-Z Charlie Freak & @djmarkdevlin

...In May 2017- Prince alwaleed tala sold his soul to the 13 bloodline families

Thread.. please retweet this truth 🙏

Trump visits the Middle East and receives royal Saudi welcome, highest Saudi honour by receiving the golden collar of abdulaziz al Saud
Not been seen with past presidents ...

When trump arrived in the summer of 2017 14/09/2017 he laid out all the documents, all the folders and they had all the photographs, disks, cds, dvds with all footage of them doing horrific things, the NSA has it all!

2 weeks later the richest men begun getting arrested...

They hand picked Obama, alwaleed tala decided to make Obama the linchpin of the us presidency. Barack has connections all over the cabal

Bitcoin recently hit $34,000 yesterday when as recent as October 10th, it was $11,000

Here’s some unsolicited advice: If you feel you have “bad luck” with investing; i.e. you feel that “if you buy Bitcoin today, the price of Bitcoin will drop”; don’t buy in.

Here’s why I say so

I try to never categorically give financial advice because I’d rather show people how I’d make decisions if I were in their shoes and I like (prefer) people to think for themselves and consciously make decisions they feel is best for them or decisions they can live with and not

just go off what some random person on the internet says BUT I’ll make an exception this time and tell you this, if you think you have bad luck with investing, don’t buy in. Here’s why:

People that feel they have bad luck with investing often have 3 things in common:

1. Fear:

This fear might be informed from bad experiences they’ve had in the past or it might be some irrational fear but they have high fear of losing. If you feel like you have bad luck with investing, anything (good/bad) that happens to your investment is going to feed into that fear.

In fact, you could go as far as looking for anything that would confirm your fear that you’ve made a bad decision. You’ll suddenly start seeing news articles saying that asset will drop, you’ll watch the charts and any small drop in price would confirm that fear.

2. Because of

#Assange Extradition Decision

Joined the videolink to London’s Old Bailey.

There are 12 of us on this link so far, but journalists can join for another half an hour.

Well cross to the court room shortly before 10 London time.

ABC News Europe correspondent @lb_online also on the link

Carrie-Ann Greenbank from Channel 9 also

38 of us now plus Jen Robinson.

We’re in court . Nothing to see yet

#SouthSudan #Sudan #SSOT

*Exposé of the Healthcare Sector in South Sudan*

Monday 4 January, 2021
(Washington DC; London)

*HIV/AIDS in South Sudan: The Diagnosis That Leads to the Murder of Doctors*

*Thon Wal* is an officer within the South Sudan National Police Service (SSNPS).

He was partly trained in Khartoum, Sudan, by the north Sudanese National Intelligence Security Service of the former Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and National Congress Party regime.

Aside from being a...

...policeman in the SSNPS, Thon Wal has also been operating in South Sudan for several years as a “private contractor” within the South Sudanese security apparatuses. Mercenaries who make themselves available for hire; and are sometimes more commonly called, the “Unknown Gunmen”.

So what is the relationship between Thon Wal and the former southern Sudan Inspector General of Police (IGP), *Makuei Deng Majuch*?

What is Thon Wal’s relationship with the key eye-witness, another policeman called *Mathew Aluong Makor*, in the murder of the British medical doctor, neuroscientist and academic, *Dr. Ding Col Dau Ding*? (1)

FYRE FESTIVAL FOR KIDS

Strap in folks for I have story about a festival I ALMOST worked at many years ago that essentially turned out to be a massive scam akin to Fyre Fest only it was aimed at families.

And believe me when I say this tale has a killer twist ending.

THREAD

I say 'almost' worked at because I backed out a few days before. My suspicions were already on alert due to the natural wariness a balding man like myself has towards any full grown adult who uses loads of hair gel, like the Event Organiser (EO) in question. Also he was horrible.

I looked after a STEAM workshop for Science Gallery for a few years and in 2014 we were asked to do a new family friendly festival in Malahide called Wonderfest.

I met with the EO to discuss details & from the off he seemed a bit off. Not my kind of

He promised everything under the sun but wouldn't just give me a fixed budget. The way he talked about the festival sounded great but also far too good to be true. Anyway, we agreed to do the festival, I put a programme together and he approved.

And then it started to get weird.

This was 3 months before the festival & I didn't hear from him again until 3 weeks out. I sent him numerous emails to discuss info we would need for the festival. We did soldering workshops with kids & on a weekend like this you'd get through around 200 workshops, details matter!

Re: Declas: multiple moving parts as the known Bad Actors will have no part in their own exposure and/or arrests. I will tell you, multiple people hold MULTIPLE KEYS relating to very serious crimes against humanity. All are working towards same goal of exposure. #DarkToLight

It had to be this way.

Take what Mr. Lin Wood said just now and compare/contrast it against Sidney Powell's statements regarding the Anthony Weiner laptop.

Compare/contrast Flynn's original tweet re: same laptop.

In addition, add in the missing 33k emails from HRC's illegal AF server that people thought we didn't have. Imagine for a moment that we do have them.

Yoga? Wedding?

Or, Huma go-between from SoS to CF?

Add to that at least 3 Hunter Biden hard drives: 1 laptop, at least 2 other hard drives where 1 contains Xi's "financial transactions" to US persons (blackmail files/payoffs).

Separate is actual blackmail videos of MANY & similar description as Lin Wood's tweet next...

We're moments away from British judge announcing extradition decision in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's case. I'll have live updates shortly.

In their closing argument, Assange's legal team outlined how they believed the case brought by the Trump Justice Department was "politically motivated"

The Crown Prosecution Service, which represents the US government in the extradition proceedings, has contended WikiLeaks is in the "business of encouraging individuals to hack into computers"—clearly criminalizing their decade-plus record of journalism.

I see a bench inside of a glass container, where Assange will be isolated during the announcement of extradition decision. This has been standard practice during his case, even after he complained about how it infringed upon his ability to participate in his defense.

Overheard Fitzgerald, who is on Assange legal team, complaining about lack of water.

"It's not as bad as Iwo Jima, I suppose..."

The problem that the ‘lets-shut-schools-for-a-couple-of-weeks-crowd’ ignore is that its much easier to shut schools than to open them. Therefore, the probability is that once schools are shut, they will be shut for months on end, just like last time.

In other words, they are engaging in wishful thinking. The probability is that schools will be shut for months on end whilst online teaching provision will likely be patchy/minimal/inadequate/non-existent like it was last time & educational inequalities will continue to widen.

We’ve learned nothing from the schools shutting for 6 months last yr. Once those schools are shut, they will be shut for months. Online learning will continue to be inadequate, meanwhile big-mouthed Twitter users with no skin in the game will continue to opine on the subject.

The average Twitter user is more likely to be parent to a cat than to a human child. No skin in the game & it shows, quite frankly. The online learning that is available for parents is inadequate & it will be left to parents to utilise their own resources, again.

Educational inequalities will widen into a chasm. It will be a disaster for children, especially primary school-aged children, & for what? Where is the evidence that school closures minimised the spread of C-19? But the average Twitter user need not worry, their cat will be fine

The first working day of the new UK-EU relationship. We're going to hear a lot this year from all sides (remain and Brexit in UK, EU, etc) using any possible scrap of evidence. But what we need to look for is trends, over time, so a few to think about in this thread... 1/

Obvious disruption or reduction to UK-EU trade flow. Here we may be thinking e.g. of a permanent 10% fall in traffic, or regular queues, or indeed no change. And apart from goods, the same with individual travel, for work, residence etc... 2/

As a reminder we're not expecting permanent scenes like those of the week before Christmas when borders were closed. But 5-10% reductions in UK-EU traffic would not seem to be out of line with economic forecasts of a hit to the UK economy. 3/

Then we'll need to look at whether UK-EU trade is being substituted by UK-non EU trade. This probably should happen to a degree, and in theory efficiencies could come this way. But its also possible that all UK trade falls, with the UK no longer an EU entry point. 4/

Inward investment is another key post-Brexit indicator. There isn't a single obvious data set here, but the impression of the last four years has been a fall off in manufacturing, but not in services, particularly tech. Continuation would suggest economy tilting to services. 5/