The Monday Mix (14/03/2022)
Hi friends,
Another week, another newsletter. Been a bit of a slow week for me. I wanted to write some new articles but other work commitments got in the way. Hopefully, I can get around to writing one article this week. If I do it will most likely be on the Ukraine situation, which isn’t looking great for Putin.
I’ve been using my history degree this week reading up about the war, and Russia’s past to take a look at why things haven’t gone so well. One thing I learned that struck me was that Russia has not fought a war against another country/alliance this big since the Second World War. While their war in Afghanistan lasted ten years, the opposition was nowhere as big as the Ukraine forces they face today.
80 years is a remarkably long time, and it does go some way to explaining why the Russian advance has been reduced to a mere trickle at the moment. It’s also dispelled a lot of beliefs about the strength of their army. More and more, it appears the Russian army is more of a paper tiger than a snarling one.
The Geopolitics of Oil
An interesting read on how oil affects the world we live in. As one of the largest exporters of oil, the sanctions on Russia will have a huge effect on the global economy. Disconnecting ourselves from Russian oil will lead to many countries looking elsewhere for their fix of black gold. While one can hope it results in a transition to renewables too, which would kill two birds with one stone: help fight climate change and remove a chief source of income for Putin.
Expanding our crop menu
Did you know that 15 crops account for 90% of the world’s energy intake? Neither did I before I read this article. One of the effects of climate change that’s not regularly touched upon is how it will make it harder to grow these crops. That’s why we need to expand what we grow to mitigate the potential impacts of a warmer climate.
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense
A more light-hearted link here, which looks at some scientific quandaries that don’t make sense. I read the book of the same name by this author years ago, and re-read it during the pandemic and highly recommend it. You might be familiar with some of the things listed in the article, such as dark matter, the wow signal and homoeopathy. Others are more niche such as tetraneutrons, which I’d never heard of before I saw this article. Of the 13 things listed, one, the Pioneer Anomaly, has been resolved since the article was written in 2005. So that leaves 12 things that don't make sense!
Book I’m reading - So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
Another of Jon Ronson’s books that I’m making my way through and this one is just as fascinating as his others. It covers an important topic, that of publicly shaming people, which has only increased since the advent of social media. The book certainly makes you think twice about the necessity and benefits of calling people on the internet. An irony is that this book was banned in some US states for some of the points contained in it.
Quote I’m pondering: “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” – Richard Feynman
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom