Good news! The Vernal Equinox was last week. 

No, that’s not the opening of an elite gym. It’s when the Sun is exactly above the Equator, resulting in equal day and night lengths. This is the beginning of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. 

This happens twice a year, with the Autumnal Equinox around September 23rd marking the beginning of Fall. 

Longer days and warmer weather ahead. 

Markets

*Source: CoinGecko.com As of 7:03PM March 23, 2025

World news

Top news stories of the past week

1) German military rising: Germany has announced a significant increase in military spending, pledging to invest €100 billion in its armed forces. This decision comes in response to growing security concerns in Europe and aims to modernize the German military and meet NATO defense spending targets – a historic shift since World War II. Ominous.

2) London airport chaos: London's Heathrow Airport just resumed operations after a massive fire at a nearby electrical substation shut down the airport and triggered chaos across global air travel, leaving a quarter of a million passengers stranded. Disruptions could continue for days.

3) Fresh PM wants to make it official: Canada’s recently appointed Prime Minister, Mark Carney, wants to press his advantage in the polls, calling a snap election for April 28. Carney got the top job after the Liberal Party of Canada appointed him their leader when Justin Trudeau, now-former PM, stepped down. Favour towards the Liberal Party has swung dramatically since.

Top WEIRD stories of the past week

1) A rare wolfdog named Cadabomb Okami became the world's most expensive dog after being purchased for €5.3 million by an Indian dog enthusiast. If that dog costs that much, how much is Air Bud?

2) Thinking of going to Barcelona? They don’t want you there and will shoot you (with a water gun).

3) A man has been convicted in connection with the theft of a $6 million golden toilet from an exhibition, though the “artwork” remains missing. I wonder what the secondary market is like for golden toilets.

Personal finance

Ultimate Financial Checklist

Are you in your 30s and wondering if you're on track financially?

Most people think they’re doing fine—but small gaps today can become huge regrets later.

That’s why we put together The Ultimate Financial Checklist for Your 30s—a simple, step-by-step guide to help you:

✅ Optimize your spending
✅ Build your emergency fund
✅ Crush high-interest debt
✅ Max out employer benefits
✅ Start investing with confidence

Technology

On the edge - GR00T N1

Look at this thing. Adorable? Yes. Real? Yes. Important? Very much so.

Meet NVIDIA's GR00T N1 - a groundbreaking AI model for humanoid robots, unveiled at the 2025 GTC conference. It features a dual-system cognitive architecture inspired by human brains: a fast-thinking "System 1" for intuitive actions and a methodical "System 2" for complex reasoning. And the best part is that it’s powering a real Star Wars droid.

This structure allows GR00T N1 to plan tasks and execute them in real-time with unprecedented efficiency and natural movement. The model can handle a wide range of tasks, from simple object manipulation to complex multi-step operations, making it highly adaptable.

The significance of GR00T N1 for robotics is immense. It represents a collaborative effort between NVIDIA, Google DeepMind, and Disney Research, combining advanced AI with realistic physics simulations to bridge the gap between virtual training and real-world performance.

This innovation solves major challenges in robotics development, such as the need for vast amounts of training data and the difficulty of generalizing skills across different tasks and environments.

By enabling more efficient and effective training of humanoid robots, GR00T N1 has the potential to transform industries facing labor shortages and accelerate the development of more capable, general-purpose robots that can adapt to complex real-world scenarios.

Chart

You like charts? Graphs? Ya you do

DoorDash and Klarna just partnered so you can eat now, buy later. Expectation? Market share go up.

Investment idea

What are we investing in?

Barbell approach

Barbells aren’t just for the gym. You can also use them in investing.

A barbell strategy balances two different types of investing - usually risky and safer.

The goal is to achieve a smoother overall return by offsetting the weaknesses of each strategy with the strengths of the other.

What’s one way to do this? By balancing momentum and low volatility.

Momentum strategy: Think of it like betting on the winning team. If a stock has been going up a lot lately, this strategy says it'll probably keep going up, so you buy it. If a stock has been going down, you sell it, hoping it keeps going down. It's all about following the current trend.

Low-volatility strategy: Imagine you want to avoid rollercoasters. This strategy is like picking investments that don't go up and down as much as the rest. It's about finding stocks that are more stable and less likely to lose a lot of value quickly, even if they don't go up as fast when the market is booming. You want steady and safe, not wild and risky.

Here are a few options:

Low Volatility Global Equities
iShares MSCI Global Min Vol Factor ETF

Momentum Global Equities
Cambria Global Momentum ETF (GMOM)

Low Volatility US Equities
Invesco S&P 500® Low Volatility ETF (SPLV)

Momentum US Equities
iShares MSCI USA Momentum Factor Index ETF

How to combine them? In upwards-trending markets, bias toward momentum. In more uncertain markets, bias toward low volatility. 

History

On this day…

…in 1896, Russian physicist Aleksander Popov achieved the world's first radio transmission, sending the words "Heinrich Hertz" (which probably means “what’s up gang?”) from one building to another at St. Petersburg University.

Music

Banger of the week

Most important thing

Meme? Nah. Art.