The Monday Mix (18/04/2022)
Hi friends,
Happy Easter! Hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend whatever you get up to.
Once again, I’m late in sending this out, so I’ll get straight into it!
Biodiversity and The Food System
This is a fascinating interactive article that looks at how the biodiversity in our food system has decreased sharply in the past 100 years. The story around bananas is instructive and shows the pitfalls of relying on a limited variety of food types, in this case, the Cavendish banana. If the crop gets affected by blight, then it will spread across the globe affecting every species of its kind. This is why it’s better to hedge your bets with multiple species of banana, something we need to do in the years to come.
Mystery of the Dyaltov Pass
I doubt most of you will have heard of the Dyaltov Pass, I hadn’t when I first stumbled across this piece. But what happened there in 1959 still baffles experts to this day. Known as the Dyaltov Pass Incident, nine hikers lost their lives in uncertain circumstances. The incident has been shrouded in mystery ever since, and I don’t want to spoil the article, but some of the injuries the hikers suffered were gruesome. A recent Russian investigation concluded that their deaths were caused by an avalanche.
Whether this is true or not, and the Russian authorities aren’t a reliable source on most matters, the story is a fascinating and gruesome tragedy.
The Stupid Last 10 Years of American Life
This is a long, but thoroughly interesting article on what has gone wrong in America since 2012. If you think back to that year, Obama won a second term, beating Mitt Romney, and the idea that a guy who said ‘you’re fired’ on a corny reality TV show, would become President four years later was laughable. You’d have been laughed out of the room if you suggested such a thing.
Yet that’s what happened, and in 2022, many of Trump’s most ardent supporters still love him. This article is a good look into what went wrong in the country and what caused it. I also feel it applies to Britain as well. I remember watching the opening ceremony of the London Olympics that year and feeling immense pride in being British. The ceremony did a fantastic job of portraying what it means to be British and representing the best of the country. Watching it back today is painful because it feels like a reminder of a bygone era, replaced by the false promises of Brexit and the banality of Boris Johnson. All of which has diminished my pride in being British to the point where I’m now ashamed to be British.
I feel this article speaks to more than just America. It reflects a trend that’s developed over the past years. A regression into a darker time helped by technology supposed to bring us together, which has instead done the opposite.
Book I’m reading - Anti-Social by Nick Pettigrew
Another book that’s been on my shelf for over a year, is the account of an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer here in the UK. So far it’s a funny and harrowing read of what it means to live in the poorer parts of Britain. Considering we’re the fifth biggest economy in the world, the levels of deprivation in some areas are shocking. If you want a good account of what life can be like for many people in modern Britain, this is a fantastic book to read.
Quote I’m pondering: “On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.” – Michel de Montaigne
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom