Weekend Reading
Writing worth reading - 13th/14th August 2022
Get Ready for the Forever Plague by Andrew Nikiforuk
“Meanwhile the variants keep on marching like some vast army of Amazonian ants hellbent on global conquest. Their current success owes much to the behaviour of public health officials and politicians who think society can live with disrupted supply chains, overwhelmed hospitals, chaotic airports and a workforce with crippled immune systems …”
Planet of the Bored Apes: Inside the NFT world’s biggest success story by Jessica Klein
“Years later, in 2017, the two started talking crypto. Like everybody else, they tried to make some money during the bull run. ‘We rode the wave all the way up,’ says Aronow, ‘and all the way down.’”
Peter Thiel on the dangers of progress by Mary Harrington
“In his view, much of what passes for ‘progress’ is in truth more like ‘distraction’. As he puts it, ‘the iPhone that distracts us from our environment also distracts us from the ways our environment is unchanging and static.’ And in this culture, economy and politics of chronic self-deception, as Thiel sees it, we tell ourselves that we’re advancing because ‘grandma gets an iPhone with a smooth surface,’ but meanwhile she ‘gets to eat cat food because food prices have gone up.’”
The Calm before the Big Wind of 1839 was particularly Eerie by Turtle Bunbury
“Stuffle was not the only man who believed the hurricane, occurring on the night of the Epiphany, was of Divine origin. Many saw it as a warning that the Day of Judgment would soon be here. Some believed the Freemasons had unleashed the Devil from the Gates of Hell and failed to get him back in again.”
Upcoming meals with 9others
Manchester — Thursday 8th September — details and signup here.
London — Wednesday 28th September — details and signup here.
Please book in & share with good people you know in the above cities.