Author: kumbhorg

In XRP news today, David Schwartz, Ripple’s CTO Emeritus and co-creator of the XRP Ledger, publicly admitted on July 20, 2026 that he regrets selling XRP at $0.10 and 40,000 ETH at roughly $1.05 each – but he was clear that neither sale reflected a loss of conviction in crypto. Both were products of a rules-based risk-management pact he had made with his wife years earlier. The admission landed on X under his longtime handle @JoelKatz, after another user raised his history of selling XRP at $0.10 and Ethereum near $1. Obviously, I wish I hadn't done those things. But…

Film­mak­er Hayao Miyaza­ki detests being referred to as the Japan­ese Walt Dis­ney. The great ani­ma­tor and sto­ry­teller admires the gor­geous ani­ma­tion of clas­sic Dis­ney films, but finds them lack­ing in emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty, the ele­ment he prizes above all else. Miyaza­k­i’s films are cel­e­brat­ed for their mys­ti­cal, super­nat­ur­al ele­ments, but they take shape around the human char­ac­ters inhab­it­ing them. Plot comes lat­er, after he has fig­ured out the desires dri­ving his peo­ple. “Keep it sim­ple,” he coun­sels in Lewis Bond’s short doc­u­men­tary The Essence of Human­i­ty above. An inter­est­ing piece of advice, giv­en that a hall­mark of his 60-year career is his…

Megan Fox and Machine Gun KellyFrom the moment the Jennifer’s Body star met the rapper born Colson Baker on their shared movie set in 2020, she knew their relationship was destined to become what she called a “once in a lifetime” romance. Chatting with their Midnight in the Switchgrass director Randall Emmett on his and his then-fiancée Lala Kent’s podcast in July 2020, Fox recalled inquiring who was going to fill the empty chair on set. “And [Emmett] was like, ‘Oh, we just got Machine Gun Kelly,'” she said, “and immediately, I was like, ‘Uh oh.’ Because I knew, I could feel…

As a “Star Trek” fan, it’s hard not to feel the bittersweet sting of another set of Wilderness Years coming. With Paramount feeling the sweet sting of budget cuts and an impending merger with Warner Bros., it feels like the higher-ups at the Big Blue Mountain are closing up shop on the Final Frontier. Its now-flagship show, “Strange New Worlds,” has a mere two seasons to wrap up its five-year mission, and its last gasp at a hit series, “Starfleet Academy,” is burning off a pre-shot second season and closing its doors, hobbled by its expansiveness and the fact that…

Nearly five years after federal pandemic unemployment programs expired, they remain in the news. Federal investigators continue to uncover billions of dollars in fraudulent pandemic unemployment claims. States are still repaying debts incurred during the COVID-19 economic downturn. Despite the massive federal assistance, fewer state unemployment funds are prepared to weather a recession today than they were before the pandemic. My paper, A Safety Net Full of Holes, explores unemployment insurance (UI) before, during, and after 2020. Long after the emergency has subsided, many of the system’s financial and administrative problems remain. That persistence raises the paper’s central question: If…

Some stuff I am reading today morning: Mojtaba Khameini calls for continued Jihad (JPost) The AI trade is still on (Yahoo) Chinese memory co is Asia’s largest IPO this year (MC) Manipal Health IPO this week (Rediff) 25,000 Cr IPOs in the pipeline (HT) India’s secret Stock Exchange (BW) Company: 100Hands (Forbes) Market Indicators (Humble $) Picking stocks in a bloodbath (CS) Microcaps are struggling in US (Verdad) Discover more from Alpha Ideas Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Trent Rockets clash with London Spirit in Match 8 of The Hundred Men’s Competition 2026 at the iconic Trent Bridge in Nottingham. Both franchises head into this high-stakes fixture eager to turn their fortunes around after stumbling in their respective tournament openers.The Rockets fell short against Birmingham Phoenix in their first outing despite a spirited half-century from opener Tom Banton. Back on home turf, skipper Sam Billings will look to harness a formidable batting line-up featuring explosive talents like Ben Duckett, Finn Allen, and Tim David. Their bowling unit, spearheaded by Matt Henry, Calvin Harrison, and veteran fast bowler Mohammad…

Morgan Rogers’ £117m switch from Aston Villa to Chelsea and Elliot Anderson’s £116 million move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City each broke the record for the most expensive British player of all time in July 2026. New figures, though, show that neither transfer has threatened the most expensive moves ever in the Premier League when they are adjusted for inflation. Football finance experts Valuball have compiled a list of deals in today’s money based on a range of comprehensively calculated data. Here’s how they rank the most expensive Premier League signing ever, plus a look at where more recent…

Sekeres and Price: Frank Corrado says that the Elias Pettersson speculation to the Pittsburgh Penguins makes so much sense from the Penguins side of things. Watching how Sidney Crosby prepares could do wonders for Pettersson. “Prior to Nashville, it was like the, the hot team on the Elias Pettersson front was the Pittsburgh Penguins, and I kind of thought about that, and I was like, that makes a lot of sense on a few different levels. First of all, if we just go with like the Pettersson angle. Like he’s a veteran. He makes a lot of money. I get…

Lots of people might opt for the £50,000 guarantee, deciding that it is a life-changing amount of money in itself.After all, it is £10,000 more than the median average earnings for full-time workers in the UK for an entire year, according to official statistics, external.But younger people generally earn less and yet, according to this survey, external, those aged 18 to 24 are more willing to take the bet on £1m than any other age group.Some 28% go for the coin flip, compared with just 11% among the over-65s – their grandparents’ generation.There is a different tipping point for everyone.…