Fibonacci, Salt-less Bread and Saltier Ham 月旦評

Fibonacci

Bitcoin and STEEM has been range-bound so far, locked between Fibonacci retrace levels with of course STEEM way outperforming the former. You may wonder why Fibonacci ratio (23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%) is so important? It's the golden ratio derived from the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ......., 144, 233, 377, etc. Golden Ratio = 1.618 from dividing two adjacent Fib numbers.
(圖一) Look at a seashell(圖二) and the number of male vs female bees in beehives.

Who invented Fibonacci Sequences?

Fibonacci is actually short for Fi(glio di) Bonacci - Son of Bonacci, a mathametician from Pisa in the 13th century, who popularized the sequence, a concept well known centuries ago already in India. His father, a wealthy merchant who owned a port in what is modern-day Algeria, brought him along around the different Mediterranean ports and he quickly realized the advantages of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system which is widely in use outside of Europe. He wrote a book that popularized how to perform currency conversions and to calculate profit and interests, and most important of all, explaining how the growth of the population of rabbits follows the Fibonacci sequence.

13th Century Pisa

The early 13th century marked the golden era for Pisa, having established presences in Sicily, Sardinia, Northern Africa and as far as the Byzantine's empire. The constant exchanges of merchants and trades brought about new ideas on arts, mathematics and riches to Pisa. And it's exactly during such backdrop that culminated with Fibonacci popularizing a new branch of mathematics and Pisano being credited as the founder of modern sculpture. Pisa's growing influence started to manifest itself into conflicts with neighboring Florence, both competing for commanding the sea and inland trade routes.

Salt-less Bread

Salt is such a precious commodity in the old days. Why? There is no refrigeration and food can only be preserved through salts and a majority of salt is harvested along the coast. You can imagine with Pisa along the coast constantly waging wars with Florence, which is inland, the supply of salt would be limited to Florence. To conserve the usage of salt, Florentine began the tradition of not adding salt while making bread. That's why bread in Tuscany is meant to be consumed as panini but not as your typical toast with jam or peanut butter in the morning. Left-over bread are made into dishes such as Ribolita and Pappa al pomodoro
(圖三)

Saltier Ham

Such tradition of not adding salt to bread continues till today and ham cured in Tuscany is relatively saltier than other regions to compensate for that.

La Prosciutteria Firenze (Above 圖四)
Antica Macelleria Falorni (Above 圖五), in the Chianti wine region, is famous for its wild boar sausages.

In the next series, I am going to write about Pricing Power and how history is more affected by the strive for pricing power than the lives of kings and queens history books had you believed.

Fibonacci 回調

bitcoin 及steem 在Fibonacci 50％回調徘徊。值得一提steem 技術圖表樂觀，不像bitcoin 一浪比一浪低，不過自二月九日起steem相對 bitcoin又乏上升力，不知跟當日Facebook主席研究應用block chain 有否關係。其實Fibonacci 回調跟黃金比率息息相關，黃金比率乃兩個跟隨的Fibonacci 數字(1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ......., 144, 233, 377, etc)之百分比，即161.8%，它又是大自然的定律：蜂窩內蜜蜂增長率(圖一)，響螺螺旋的增長(圖二)都不會超過161.8%。短期看，steem 跟bitcoin 仍會窄幅上落。反而要看股票市場這個星期的表現。單從圖表看s&p500 從2530漲到2740剛巧是Fibonacci 回調的61.8％，一般股票會調整一下上星期的升幅，可以下試2700或 2630 或返回2530 。如果下試， bitcoin 和steem難免又要跌到下一個Fibonacci 回調。
(BITCOIN 圖)(STEEM 圖)

何許人也？

既然Fibonacci 那麼重要，究竟Fibonacci 何許人也？他乃十三世紀Pisa 比薩城邦(比薩斜塔所在地)之數學家，持着他父親游歷地中海四方，見識了藉阿拉伯數字衍生出來的數學勝人一籌，著書立說引進西方。其後弗羅倫薩的大銀行家medici 慿藉此發展出會計系統建立早期的銀行網絡，不過此乃後話。
十三世統乃城邦的戰國時代，重點是爭奪商路的擁有權。誰擁有商品的定價，商品的路過權，就決定誰的天下。比薩城臨海，弗羅倫薩居內陸。海鹽成為比薩要挾弗羅倫薩的一枚棋子。有見及此，為節省鹽以供保存食物，弗羅倫薩的麵包不再含鹽。這一直流傳到現在。意大利三文治panini(圖三) 一般加橄欖油、乾肉火腿、及奶酪。既然麵包無鹽，弗羅倫薩的乾肉火腿一般偏咸(圖四、五)，此乃由來。

本人第一篇中英兼備之文。旨在跟大家steemians 分享所見所聞。縱橫歷史，古今中外，下一期跟大家分享定價權，包括是誰主宰bitcoin 期貨的建立及其影響。不過，Facebook 的引入blockchain 來勢洶洶，不可輕視，望各位steemiams嚴陣以待，本人也會抒發己見，望整個steem 系統包括steemit 更上一層樓。
(攝於medici大銀行家其中一間別墅- Villa di Castello)