The Breads Roundup No. 88
The End of Couchsurfing, Rigged Stock Market and Viral Indigenous Culture
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Hello Kyles,
I come forth to you with a television show recommendation. It is now in its third season and it may be the funniest show I’ve seen in years. I just binged the first two seasons in a week. What We Do In The Shadows is well worth the hype. It’s about vampires living in modern day Staten Island, mocumentary style. I saw the movie and loved it years ago, but somehow thought the show wouldn’t do it justice despite the same people being behind it. The characters are incredible. Each and every one of them. They are cast and written and acted perfectly. It’s all so incredibly clever and you will giggle with delight. Just watch it if you haven’t and thank me later. If you have watched it please email me with your favorite bits from the show.
Ok time for the usual linkies. Enjoy.
Paradise Lost: The Rise And Ruin Of Couchsurfing.com
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
A really poignant piece about the perils of running a modern internet company. What started as a utopian dream of sleeping on people's couches for free turned into a whole other thing when money got involved.
And A Quote From The Article Please:
Plus, Couchsurfing had failed in its multi-year effort to become a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The way Fenton tells it, Couchsurfing was required to convert to a for-profit fast, and to do that, Couchsurfing had to buy its assets from the state of New Hampshire without using its own money, which, according to Fenton, cost about a million dollars, counting legal fees. “I knew that it was going to destroy the community,” says Shultz of the plan to raise venture capital. “I knew that we were not Airbnb, which was what was being sold to the investors.”
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
Interestingly Couchsurfing started as a non-profit. That however, was not sustainable, partially because of leadership but also partially because of the way the world views internet companies at this point. People think things with users need to be monetized but do they really? When VC gets involved, yes. Which I understand they’re a business. Kind of a depressing look at how difficult it is to maintain a for the people type of internet commodity. But also encouraging because for every Couchsurfing that is ruined there are still many other internet goodies that remain free.
‘Most Americans Today Believe The Stock Market Is Rigged, And They’re Right’
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
This article in particular goes into detail on the nuances of insider trading by people that are known as an “insider” which is defined as "a senior executive, board member, or any shareholder who owns 10% or more of a company. There are about 82,000 of them, and every time they trade they’re required by law to file a disclosure, known as a Form 4, within two days." These people, obviously, have very deep knowledge of the companies they work for and are trading on, which coincidentally they often have large numbers of shares in. If you're curious how it all works – the trading, the information, the prosecution (or lack thereof) – this is a good one to read.
And A Quote From The Article Please:
It’s not just those at the top of the rankings who constantly beat the market. Purchases made by U.S. executives outperformed the S&P 500 over the ensuing 12 months by an average of five percentage points between 2015 and 2020, according to a TipRanks analysis. The gap might seem scandalous to those with only a passing acquaintance with U.S. insider trading rules, which make it illegal for insiders to trade using material—or financially significant—nonpublic information. And yet on Wall Street it’s long been an open secret that insiders trade on what they know. In 1962, Perry Wysong, a bow-tie-sporting investor from Florida, started a newsletter identifying opportunities based on insider trades. Years later, a young stockbroker in Florida, George Muzea, set up a consulting firm to advise George Soros, Stanley Druckenmiller, and other hedge fund managers, often over games of tennis. “We used to call the best prospects studs,” he recalls. In 2008 a group of quants from Citigroup Inc. published a paper that found a portfolio mirroring insiders’ trades could yield an astonishing 23.5% a year, more than all but the most profitable hedge funds.
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
Well you should care because as this article points out, it is a classic example of the super wealthy not really playing by the same rules as everyone else. How can insiders be expected to not have privileged information on the shares they are trading (and the shares their buddies who are insiders at other companies are trading on) and they are almost never prosecuted for what is insider trading by any other metric.
Now I think there is some nuance to it, and it isn't just a situation like "these people are bad because they do this" because a) they're probably bad for a lot of other reasons and b) the laws are very vague so when you can afford good lawyers you can skirt around that shit. What you should consider, which I learned from this article however, is follow the trades of these insiders and when they make large purchases of a stock consider buying it as well because it will probably go up in the short (this is not investment advice so don't sue my ass if you lose your retirement money because you invested in a publicly traded streaming service based on their CEOs trades but then the stock plummets because their live action adult Teletubbies movie is universally hated and they lose all their subscribers).
Taking Indigenous Culture Viral
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
I love this look at how social media and internet culture can penetrate even the most remote of places, and not always in negative ways. This TikToker living in the Amazon jungle has amassed a following of over 6 million showing the world her people's way of life. (Also this article has a really cool UX, would recommend checking it out).
And A Quote From The Article Please:
As social media reaches into the Amazon rainforest, one of digital media’s final frontiers, it is opening an unprecedented window into Indigenous life, clearing away the barriers once imposed by geography. For the first time, some of the planet’s most isolated peoples are in daily communication with the outside world without the traditional filters of journalists, academics or advocates.
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
Yes there are a lot of really bad things about the internet. Like a loooot. But there are also some good things. Like the potential for people in far flung corners of the globe to share their culture, and even more so for there to be an audience for it. While many people are scared of "the other" in bigoted ways, platforms like TikTok, while being 80% mind numbingly dumb content also allow individuals to to teach the world about their culture. In turn it allows the curious to hear directly from the source and not via the typical modes of travel television or journalism or academia which tend to skew impressions. When you can look at someone and learn about them and go "oh they aren't all that different than me and what they do is really interesting" it can serve to close some of the borders made up of hate that we have surrounded ourselves with. Nothing like a video all about ass shaking to a Megan Thee Stallion song followed immediately by a video extolling the medicinal properties of Amazonian plants used by Brazil's Tatuyo Indigenous Community!
Other Interesting Things You May Or May Not Care About
The Pitch To Switch To Eco-Friendly Toilet Paper Mainly Boils Down To Color
People only want pristine white TP touching that booty apparently. It all goes back to weird puritanical beliefs that associate white with purity. But to get that white (and also plush) TP it has to go through a lot of processing which ain’t good for the environment. So next time you get rug burn on your ass from really shitty, single-ply toilet paper at least take solace in the fact that you’re saving the environment. Also a lot of interesting info on the history of humans using TP in here if you’re a bathroom history buff.Psychedelic Companies Hope At-Home DNA Tests Bring Better Highs
Just swab the old cheek and find out how much you’ll trip balls the next time you do some shrooms.The World Thought This Cheer Mom Created A Deepfake To Harass Her Daughter’s Rival—But The Real Story Is Way More Confusing (And Bizarre)
Well this article is pretty terrifying for what the future may hold. Where every video has to be broken down as either real or a deep fake and real videos (that are bad for someone) can just be dismissed as deep fake. There will no longer be any accountability.Goldman Sachs, Ozy Media And A $40 Million Conference Call Gone Wrong
Wow this is a crazy story. There’s a chance you’ve read an article on Ozy at some point. It was kind of a digital media darling of the past few years, seemingly figuring out how to crack the code for driving a lot of readers in a short period of time. Except it turns out they really didn’t and well they had a conference call with potential buyers (Goldman Sachs) and it turned out their COO just got on the call and pretended to be someone else vouching for the company. All very weird.Food Fraud And Counterfeit Cotton: The Detectives Untangling The Global Supply Chain
This one mad scientist guy is breaking down global supply chains and making sure foods and crops come from where they say they are coming from by analyzing the hyper-specific elements that make up things from a specific area. Aka the beef grown in the USA has a different elemental make up than the beef grown in China and so on.
The Latest In Things I Would Like To Own
This is a new section where I put up things that I will likely never own but would like to. They will probably always be rare or big or improbable things. They will also always be cool things.
Honda N-Van Camper Concept Is For Those Who Travel Solo In Japan
Would you just look at how cute and awesome this thing is? If I was ever doing a solo road trip this would be my vehicle of choice. Just look at that rig. Just look at it! It has passenger seats that all easily fold down into the bed so you can just lay a little twin mattress right on out there. Sleepy sleepy nap time after a long day of driving listening to Bobby Womack. Compact living at its finest folks. Drive me to the moon sweet Honda N-Van.
Let’s Just Looks At Art Because Reading Sucks
Lists Are What The Internet Was Made For!
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