Winter Solstice
Daily Ramble
I unintentionally tricked my wife into getting married on the Winter Solstice. (Happy anniversary Ana!) See, she thought it was a specific day. But it falls on either the 21st or 22nd. This is confusing. How can an event change days? It’s not that the event changes days, but that our calendar sucks.
What do I mean? Well, the Winter Solstice is the day when the sunlight hours are shortest in the northern hemisphere — and longest in the southern hemisphere. It also marks the day when the northern hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the sun. After the Winter Solstice, the earth slowly starts tilting back towards the sun, and the days begin to increase in length. It’s a celestial event — literally an event marked by a specific occurrence of two celestial bodies: the earth and the sun.
Being the end/beginning of the cycle, it seemed a fitting time to choose for our marriage. And it was. We were gifted with an incredibly sunny day for our religious wedding three short years ago (the civil one came two years before that). Each year my wife struggles to figure out what day we’re going to be celebrating our anniversary. Why? Because the Winter Solstice lands on either the 21st or the 22nd. Why? Because in the 1580s the Gregorian Calendar was adopted and the amount of time the earth takes to revolve around the sun was decided as 365.2425 days long. Leave it to us to think a day can be less than a day.
Just for a moment, imagine that our calendar was instead built around the solstice, equinox, and moon phases. Granted, it would be a bit more complicated at first, but in the long run, wouldn’t it just be better to say something like “let’s meet the third day before the Winter Solstice” rather than December 18th? Something tells me we’d know our place in the universe a bit better if we used it as our frame of reference for telling time.
Favorite Thing on the Interwebs Today
Bitcoin Price Prediction
Weekend: $21k - $30k
Today: $21.7k - $24k
Tomorrow: $20k - $26k
The price increased over the weekend, jumping from a low of $22.8k to $24.4k. There was a moment when it looked like we were going to break out for further upside, but instead, the price stalled and today took a solid pullback dropping from $24k down to $21.7k. But as is the case in bull markets, dips are for buying, and indeed, the bulls showed up in force, setting up a potential pivot for more upside in the next couple of days. We’ll see how things unfold in the next 24 hours, but odds are that we see further upside in the next couple of days.
Bitcoin Ed Bite
How does Bitcoin work? It’s a question I’m asked often. And it’s taken me a long time to realize that most people asking the question don’t actually care. The real question they’re asking is: is it safe?
See, 99% of the world has no clue how the internet, their smartphone, their car, or even their toaster works. But they feel comfortable using these technologies knowing they’re safe to use without understanding how they operate. Why is it different with Bitcoin?
It’s not. What’s different with Bitcoin is that it’s a technology that hasn’t reached consensus acceptance yet. Because there’s still conflict within society about it, there’s a fear that it’s unsafe to use. I get that, and it makes sense. But I’ve realized that when I hear this question, I no longer try to explain how it works to people and instead describe how:
Bitcoin is the most powerful network in the world and it’s never been hacked (though individuals have had their funds stolen).
Bitcoin is decentralized and open-source making it nearly impossible for anyone to maliciously change the code.
Over any 4 year time period, an investment has always made money.
Thanks for reading,
Kent
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