The Monday Mix (25/04/2022)
Hi friends,
Yet again, I’m late in sending out this email, so I won’t hang around too much with an intro. I have a few articles in the pipeline that I hope to share in the coming weeks, while my reading list for April should be done by Wednesday (hopefully!)
Here’s what I want to share with you this week.
Lab-Grown Meat
This is a really interesting piece on an industry we’re going to be hearing a lot more about in the coming years, lab-grown meat. Industrial farming is one of the reasons I became a pescetarian. It’s a macabre industry that leads to untold suffering, all so we can have cheap meat on our plates. I haven’t been inside an abattoir or factory farm, but I’m sure if more of us did, it would turn a lot of people off meat.
People are never going to stop eating meat and nor should they. I still eat fish and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The best solution is to remove factory farms altogether and rely on organic farms and lab-grown meat. This will reduce suffering and greenhouse gas emissions. The science has progressed sharply in the past few years but this article highlight shows how far we have to go until lab-grown meat is a fixture on supermarket shelves.
Crypto or Ponzi?
I’m very sceptical of the crypto industry. It’s basically predicated on the belief that the value of these tokens will continue to go up and up, despite having little use case while causing greenhouse gas emissions as the blockchain they exist on requires huge amounts of energy to function. The problem is, for the price to go up, you need more and more people to buy a token. Without an ever greater number of fools, the price can’t go up and those who hold a shedload of the tokens can’t cash out. All of which sounds very much like a Ponzi scheme.
This is where this remarkable transcript from an interview with a chief executive of a crypto exchange comes in. It’s a brief passage from a podcast Sam Bankman-Fried did with Bloomberg, but it’s remarkable how candid he is about the industry and what it essentially is; a giant ponzi scheme.
Putin’s Useful Idiots
An interesting read on how Putin’s propaganda and disinformation are spread by his useful idiots in the west. Twenty years ago, these people would have been on the fringes of politics, unfortunately, now they are very much in the mainstream and command sizable audiences.
It’s mindboggling to me that Russia Today, essentially Russia’s propaganda network was allowed to broadcast in the UK up until the invasion of Ukraine two months ago. Why this wasn’t dealt with sooner I don’t know. I think it’s still broadcasting in America, which is just crazy. Putin is losing the war, but he’s been winning the propaganda battle for years now. Fighting back is a must if we want to stop him in his tracks.
Book I’m reading - Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano
An incredible book that delves into the world of the Camorra, a criminal organisation in Italy. The author took such risks in documenting and publishing the book, he now lives with security guards 24/7. I’m blown away by the bravery of the author and what I’ve read so far. A fantastic book.
Quote I’m pondering: “Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.” – Benedict de Spinoza
That’s all for this week.
Until next time,
Tom