Mt Everest had its first documented climb in 1953.

The first person went to space in 1961.

It's kind of crazy to think about how "new" mankind's spread over the world is. My father was already a teenager the first time someone climbed Everest, and in his twenties by the time someone went to space.

If we start the "modern era" as roughly coinciding with the telecommunications age (ie the dawn of the cross-continental telegraph in the1860s), it's less than two consecutive human lifetimes old.

Everything is new.

Some guesses for 2026:

1. The Federal Reserve will lower the fed funds rate below 3.5%...

2. Which will spur economic growth and inflation...

3. Which will cause the long end of the Treasury yield curve to rise towards and above 5%...

4. Which will be unacceptable to Wall Street and the current administration...

5. Which will induce the Fed to begin yield curve control...

6. Which will cause material weakness in the US dollar...

7. Which will lead to further currency debasement...

8. Which will become fodder for large increases and volatility across risk assets.

I find Bladerunner 2049 frustrating, because I *almost* love it.

The characters, themes, acting, and the overall plot structure are great, imo.

However, villains give melodramatic exposition monologues, villains leave heroes alive for no reason other than the plot needs them to, important things are left thinly guarded for no reason other than the plot needs the heroes or villains to easily get at them, etc. In other words, there are distracting writing/execution issues in what could otherwise be a masterpiece.

The first time I watched it, I didn't love it. It did stick with me though; I think about it sometimes, for years afterward. And watching it a second time I appreciated it more, but still was frustrated by the same things.

What does everyone else feel about it?

Full quoted portion at ~5:45.

What I'm watching... 👀

Priced in gold, the last time MSTR was as oversold (in RSI terms) on the weekly charts as it is today was during the deep valley of the flash Covid recession in March of 2020 (see vertical green lines).

At that harrowing time, MSTR reached as low as $9 per share.

For a long-term investor, this may be a proverbial "blood in the streets" moment for MSTR shareholders.

Not investment advice... but interesting to note.

Thoughts?

Stay humble, and stack sats.

Bitcoin is crashing! (Below key levels… again.) #Bitcoin

Space operas set 20,000 years in the future and spanning half the galaxy are pretty cool.

Anyway, here's a review of Demon in White, which I just finished. It's book #3 in the Sun Eater series, which is a 7-book epic space opera.

The crazy thing about this series is that on the first page of book one, the narrator tells you how the whole 7-book series ends: the protagonist blows up a star, which genocides an entire race of evil aliens and kills billions of humans in that solar system including his own emperor, but saves the rest of humanity throughout the galaxy from that alien threat.

So the whole series is basically a deadly serious version of, ::record scratch:: "I bet you want to know how the hell we got here, huh?"

For worldbuilding, I'd give the series a 5/5 so far. It's not hard sci fi, in the sense that there is ample use of faster-than-light travel, "high matter swords" which have some similarities to light sabers, "Royce shields" which people and ships can shield themselves with against most projectiles, etc. The author himself views it more like science fantasy, although there's more of a tech focus than, say, Star Wars. Humanity has spread across about 40% of the galaxy, and although they can travel faster than the speed of light, it's not instantaneous, and instead takes years or decades to cross a big chunk of the galaxy and they cryo-freeze themselves during the trips (they travel 100s or in rare cases 1000s of times the speed of light).

But what's cool about the worldbuilding is the culture. Kind of like Dune, AI was destroyed and outlawed long ago in a great war (and Earth was decimated by atomics in the process). The Sollan Empire, which is modeled after a blend of the British and Roman empires, spans millions of worlds. They operate with a conservative aristocratic culture, and are the most harsh against AI or cyborgs to preserve order, although their nobility are still genetically modified to live centuries and avoid most diseases. The Principalities of Jadd are culturally similar but managed to separate themselves and remain aligned with the empire, and they push their genetics a bit further. The Demarchy of Tavros is a somewhat egalitarian/communist culture that is more receptive to cyborg adaptations and computers. The Extrasolarians are basically anarcho-capitalists; they live on the edge of civilization and more fully embrace AI/cyborgs/computers and extensive body modifications to whatever extent is possible. And then there are the alien Cielcin, the main adversaries at war with humanity. There are also some god-like or cthulhu-like beings out in the vastness of space and time. The series explores the interactions between all these cultures and more.

For writing quality, I'd also give it a 5/5. It's written in first person by the aristocratic main character, Lord Hadrian Marlowe, and has a rather sophisticated aspect to it.

For pacing, I'd give it a 3/5, and that's a trade-off from the above point. Hadrian himself is wordy and melodramatic, and that colors his first-person writing of the story. So he'll make all sorts of historical or philosophical references in the middle of a fight, which makes the whole project feel reflective rather than in the moment. The books are long and could be cut by 20% or more if a more direct prose style was chosen.

Plot/characters so far are a 4/5 in my view. The plot is interesting, and there's a huge array of interesting characters. Hadrian himself is very dynamic (the reader at times is not sure if they're supposed to like him or not), a cyborg named Valka is really unique, and then all sorts of supporting characters from emperors and cyborg gods to plebian soldiers round out a big cast. Sometimes the cast is too large so that otherwise interesting characters don't get as fleshed out as much as they could. And the author consciously embraces the "chosen one" trope, which can be polarizing from a plot perspective.

Overall, I'd rate it 4/5. I've read Empire of Silence, Howling Dark, and now Demon in White. I would note that the first book, Empire of Silence, is a lot more setting-limited and character-focused than the others; it's not until Howling Dark that the series expands to a full-on space opera.

Yes, we had a major deleveraging event and it affected the #Bitcoin price. But would you rather hold dollars or euros in the long term?

EUR

Low: 930 sats → Now: 1049 sats

USD

Low: 793 sats → Now: 899 sats

In euros, the recent low was the first one since Jan 20th of this year, and we’re again fighting the 1,000 sats per EUR level.

In dollars, we already had several lows, and are approaching 500 sats per USD even faster.

If you're worried about current price action (orange area), you might want to zoom out. This chart is only 2 years of data.

Just saw a guy drive by in an open top jeep with a 50 cal mounted in the middle.

'Murica, fuck yeah!

STH cost basis at $99k. #Bitcoin

Add bananas, avocado’s, honey, blueberries, açai, fish, cucumbers, broccoli sprouts, broccoli, mangoes, paw paw, Moreton Bay Bugs (seafood creature), lobster, mussels, mushrooms, fennel, basil and parsley.

The now wins. Every time.

Open. Air. Bitcoin.

Uncharted territory. 🚀 #Bitcoin

Doing podcasts while sick is so annoying.

I literally click mute every time I sniffle, and speak with an even more nasally voice than usual since I have to low-key blow my nose but don’t want to interrupt several times to do this.

Anyway, thanks for tuning into today’s episode of “Over-sharing with Lyn”.