Ancestors
Daily Ramble
I’m still chewing over the science I shared yesterday—science proving how mRNA can alter our DNA. That moves the COVID19 vaccine to be a potential gene-therapy treatment instead of a vaccine. I’ve been working to resolve my internal response to that information.
As I’ve been chewing it over, what’s come to mind is my ancestral lineage. It’s not something modern society talks about, but the history of our ancestors is what led to our existence. Full-stop. None of us would be here if our ancestors hadn’t fought wars, battled plagues, made daring journeys risking life and limb, and scraped each day for their daily bread. All to provide for the next generation. Now that I’m a father, I can feel that in my efforts to provide for the next generation.
And my DNA is a physical manifestation of the link to my ancestors. It also represents what I am passing along as I become an ancestor for the generations that follow. Our DNA contains the natural wisdom of the 250,000 years of evolution that our species has gathered since becoming upright, walking hominids. To turn my back on that and knowingly allow the ancestral wisdom in the sacred double helix I carry to be jeopardized; I cannot accept. I have no desire to take that decision away from anyone else, but for me, nature knows best, not a human-crafted authority with no long-term studies to support it.
But that doesn’t mean I want to take the choice of the vaccine away from anyone else. On the contrary, I want the ability to chose for myself whether to be vaccinated or not. Unfortunately, and increasingly, that choice is being taken from individuals in the name of fear. Even though no long-term data exists to prove the vaccine is safe, or that it works to slow the spread of or prohibit contracting COVID, populations around the planet are under the belief that the vaccine is their salvation back to a pre-COVID life.
That most people want life back and are scared of something they don’t understand is totally understandable. But the lengths at which the media and governments are going to convince the unvaccinated to be vaccinated are appalling. Take, for instance, this New York Times article someone recently sent me.
I love how this chart was used to spread fear in those who don’t take the time to understand what the chart says. Let’s focus on Wyoming since that’s the least safe. The vaccinated rate is a bit more than 35% in Wyoming, and just over 2 people in 1,000,000 are dying from COVID. With a population of 576,000 people, that amounts to a bit more than 1 dead person in Wyoming from COVID. Does Wyoming still sound scary?
But what the New York Times also fails to do is share a fair comparison. The vehicle death rate for the entire US is not much better — 1.1 out of 1,000,000. By exaggerating the vertical scale and removing it from the context of other dangers we accept, the article serves to poke our collective unresolved fear of death. Oh, and the rest of the article says nothing about health and everything about peer pressure being necessary. I grew up in the D.A.R.E. era of “Just say No!” and recall peer pressure was to be avoided — what happened? I guess that only applies to street drugs, not pharmaceuticals… 🙄
Despite the peer pressure being levied against me and others who want the right to choose, I sleep well at night knowing that my ancestors faced much worse than I did and that I’m honoring their sacrifices by keeping my DNA mine.
Funny Things on the Interweb
Where are my sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads?
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Yesterday: $28.8k - $31k
Today: $29.8k - $31.8k
Tomorrow: $28.8k - $32.6k
The market, myself included, had gotten overly bearish yesterday, and the bulls punished the late shorts by pushing the price up into a short squeeze in the early hours of today’s session. Recall that a short squeeze is created by short positions being forced to buy to cover their positions. It creates further buying pressure and leads to rapid price ascension. At the moment, we see if the bulls have the momentum to push through the first substantial point of resistance at $30.7k. If they can, then the potential for a bullish trend reversal starts to increase. If they can’t, then this will be another bull trap before sending the price lower. All in all, the probability of a bullish reversal is still on the table and will stay on the table the next day if the bulls can continue to push. Though still a long shot, the bullish reversal odds increased in the last day.
Bitcoin Q & A
Q: How can I send and receive Bitcoin if all the apps are banned?1
A: By running a Bitcoin node.
A Bitcoin node is any internet-connected device running a copy of the Bitcoin protocol. Because the node is directly synchronized with the open, permissionless monetary network known as Bitcoin, the ability to send and receive is assured. Thus, by using a node, no entity can prohibit sending and receiving bitcoin across the Bitcoin network.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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Thanks, Adam R, for the inspiration for today’s Q&A