Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome - Charlie Munger
💡 Did you know?
Urban Density and Administrative Innovation
Historical data indicates that by 1 BCE, Rome became the first city in history to reach a population of approximately one million residents, a feat of urban density that would not be replicated in Europe until 19th-century London. Managing such a concentrated population required the invention of advanced civil engineering and public accounting systems, many of which remain the foundational blueprints for contemporary municipal governance and infrastructure logistics.
📜Today…but some years ago!
March 25, 1807: The Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire
On this day in 1807, the British Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, officially prohibiting the trade of enslaved people throughout the British Empire. This landmark legislation was the culmination of decades of tireless campaigning by abolitionists like William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, who leveraged one of the first mass-scale public advocacy movements in history. While it did not immediately end the institution of slavery itself, which continued until 1833, the Act effectively criminalized the transatlantic transport of human beings, leading to the deployment of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron to suppress the trade globally.
Tech Talk
The venture capital world is currently witnessing a staggering display of "AI or bust" conviction, with global funding hitting $220 billion in the first two months of the year alone. While early-stage founders are still grinding, the real action is a high-stakes consolidation at the top; OpenAI and Anthropic are vacuuming up the lion’s share of capital to fund the eye-watering energy demands of their next-gen models. The irony isn't lost on anyone: as private investors pour billions into "agentic" software that promises to run our lives, hardware giants like NVIDIA are frantically redesigning the silicon substrate to prevent the AI boom from melting the power grid. It’s no longer just a software race; it’s a desperate, well-funded scramble for compute sovereignty.
Science Scoop
Nature continues to surprise us with a mix of the ancient and the adorable. Researchers have finally decoded the "Ediacaran Mystery", using ancient rocks to prove that Earth’s magnetic field during that era wasn't the chaotic mess we previously assumed, providing a much clearer picture of our planet's early protective shield. On a more heartwarming note, biologists have discovered that honey bees actually dance better when they have an audience, suggesting a social complexity in their communication that is as charming as it is scientifically significant. Meanwhile, the discovery of a hidden 100km-wide granite mass beneath Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier is giving geologists critical new data to help predict how the ice sheet will respond to a warming world.
The Rest of the World
The geopolitical map is currently being redrawn by a volatile mix of conflict and shifts in the global order. Tensions in the Middle East reached a fever pitch this week as Israel and the U.S. intensified strikes against Iranian infrastructure, leading to a precarious standoff in the Strait of Hormuz that has the energy markets on edge. Yet, amidst the heavy headlines, there are signs of a maturing "multipolar" world where cultural and economic power is moving steadily East; India’s rising influence is increasingly seen as the decisive "swing" factor in global stability. In a moment of sporting history that briefly cut through the noise, Venezuela celebrated a major cultural milestone by defeating the United States to win its first World Baseball Classic, proving that national pride still finds its most joyful expression on the diamond.
Our Money, Our Risk, Real Investment, No Advice
We pledged approx. €2000 for you to see the ups 😀 and downs 👎. And both the War Experiment as well as Bitcoin are “enjoying” a down-slide.
Market Pulse - March 18 – March 24, 2026: War, Witching, and the $1000 Reality Check
The global markets spent the last seven days navigating a geopolitical minefield as the conflict in the Middle East reached a fever pitch. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively a parking lot and Brent crude dancing near $110 a barrel, the "inflation is over" narrative has been unceremoniously shoved into a locker. Risk assets faced a brutal "quadruple witching" event on Friday, where the simultaneous expiration of trillions in derivatives sent volatility screaming into the 30s. While the S&P 500 and European indices spent most of the week in a defensive crouch, India’s NIFTY 50 managed a late-week rally, proving that even in a global storm, some emerging markets still know how to dance in the rain.
The $1000 Story
If you had split $1000 evenly across our global basket a week ago, your portfolio would be nursing a modest bruise today, sitting at roughly $978. Your $250 in the S&P 500 would have shriveled to about $244 as US tech buckled under the weight of "higher for longer" interest rate fears. The European STOXX 600 was the week's underachiever, dragging its $250 share down to $241 as energy costs throttled industrial sentiment. India provided the only green shoot, with your $250 in the NIFTY 50 edging up to $253 thanks to a massive 1300-point surge on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Bitcoin lived up to its reputation for chaos; after diving toward $67,000 on war headlines, it staged a dramatic "V-shaped" recovery to end the period around $70,800, leaving your crypto slice effectively flat at $240 after a wild round trip.
H2FLY just successfully flew a hydrogen powered drone that stayed in the air for eight hours. For context, your standard battery drone usually taps out after about thirty minutes and needs a nap on the charger. By using liquid hydrogen and a fuel cell system, they managed to keep a 55 pound aircraft cruising without the heavy weight penalty of lithium batteries. It’s essentially a marathon runner competing against sprinters who need a snack break every two miles.
My Take: We’ve been promised the "hydrogen revolution" for about a decade now, usually with a side of "it’s just five years away." But watching a drone stay up for an entire workday actually feels like progress. It turns a hobbyist toy or a limited delivery tool into a legitimate long distance vehicle. The best part? No "range anxiety" unless you’re worried about where to find a liquid hydrogen refill station in the middle of a forest. It’s clever engineering that finally addresses the elephant in the room: batteries are just too heavy for the long haul.
Why It Matters: This tech shifts drones from backyard gadgets to industrial workhorses. Think long range cargo delivery, real time disaster monitoring, or inspecting thousands of miles of power lines without stopping. If they can scale this fuel cell efficiency up, the "last mile" delivery problem suddenly looks a lot more solvable. It’s a massive win for logistics and a gentle nudge to the battery industry that they have some serious competition in the sky.
TEPCO just unveiled a massive, 22-meter-long "snake-like" robotic arm designed to crawl into the belly of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 reactor. This 4.6-tonne piece of machinery is built to navigate tiny, cramped passages to reach the roughly 880 tons of highly radioactive fuel debris still sitting at the bottom of the reactors. Unlike previous "fishing rod" attempts that could only snag tiny specks of dust, this new arm is designed to grab larger samples and navigate complex structures. Trials are set to begin later this year, with the goal of finally understanding what exactly is happening inside that radioactive mess.
My Take: We’ve been "sending robots in" for years, but most of them end up as expensive, radioactive paperweights within hours. This new 22-meter snake arm is basically the world’s most intense game of Operation, except instead of a funny bone, the prize is a lump of molten fuel that emits enough radiation to kill a human in minutes. TEPCO is acting like this is the home stretch, but they also just pushed back the full-scale debris removal until at least 2037. It turns out that cleaning up a triple meltdown is slightly harder than a weekend DIY project. It’s impressive tech, sure, but the timeline keeps sliding so far right it’s almost off the chart.
Why It Matters: It's a massive R&D lab for the global nuclear industry. As the world pivots back to nuclear to power AI data centers and reach carbon goals, we need to prove we can actually retire and clean up these plants when things go sideways. If Japan can’t figure out how to pull 880 tons of "corium" out of a hole, it’s a major red flag for the "nuclear renaissance" everyone is betting on.
This video shows the actual 22-meter robot arm in action during a simulation, giving you a better sense of the scale and movement of the device TEPCO is betting on.
PODCASTIf you thought the GameStop "Stonk" saga was the peak of Robinhood’s stress levels, you’re adorable. As it turns out, navigating a global PR nightmare while the internet tries to meme you into oblivion was just the warm-up act for Vlad Tenev.
The real challenge? Surviving an 80% market crash and the soul-crushing realization that your company has become a "bloated hyper-growth" monster. Here is the brutal reality of how Robinhood went from "accidental villain" to a lean, mean, founder-led machine.
IN OTHER NEWS
Soviet sub K-278 Komsomolets still leaking radiation into Norwegian Sea. Researchers discovered a visible plume of radioactive material escaping from a ventilation pipe near the reactor compartment.
'Dr. Doom' shares biggest economic concerns as the US war on Iran persists. The war on Iran could have serious implications for inflation and interest rates, said a noted economist.
Ads are coming to Apple Maps, as Apple expands its business offerings. Apple says it will only show users one ad in its Maps’ search results
Wishing you a productive week ahead!
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