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Hello Old Weathered Souls,
Y’all want to see something funny? Remember how I sent out a survey to get an idea of what to do with this newsletter. One of the main questions I had was thinking about the idea of quantity in the newsletter and how much you guys valued curation versus analysis. Welp it seems like I have quite a conundrum on my hands. Below are the results of one of the questions:
LOL. Thanks a lot. The old 50/50 split.
Now that we got that straight I want to thank everyone who responded. Your input on everything is much appreciated. Ok I will never speak of this survey again.
Ok time for the usual linkies. Enjoy.
Tse Chi Lop, The Suspected Ringleader Of A $21-billion Crime Syndicate, May Be The World’s Most Innovative Drug Lord.
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
This is a great read delving into the history of Tse Chi Lop, possibly the greatest drug kingpin of all time. He's had two completely separate multinational, multibillion dollar drug empires. It's impressive, and this is his story, complete with his brilliant business mind (and all the drug stuff).
And A Quote From The Article Please:
By the late 2010s, Sam Gor accounted for 70 per cent of Australian meth. It controlled somewhere between 40 and 70 per cent of the $90-billion Asian market, dominating the trade in the Philippines, South Korea and Japan. The Company kept its heroin network as a legacy, but methamphetamine was the core business—and the supply was so plentiful that prices dropped dramatically. In Cambodia, the price of a tablet of meth went from $5 to $2 (U.S.). In Thailand, it went from $8 to $2.25 (U.S). According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Asia-Pacific methamphetamine trade increased fourfold between 2014 and 2019. For the second time, Tse Chi Lop had changed the nature of the marketplace. And this time, 20 agencies would have to work together to catch him.
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
While this is a really interesting story to read about the ingenuity (and badness) of one man in particular, the grand point of it all is really that we as humans have created a virtually unwinnable drug war for ourselves. Something I think pretty much everyone has already acknowledged, but nonetheless needs to be solved another way. Regardless it’s cool to read about crime, so here y’all go.
Restaurant Work Can Destroy Your Body — But It Doesn’t Have To
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
A look into how restaurants and owners are changing infrastructure and policies to help employees. Working in a restaurant can be a grueling gig, so rethinking things like never being able to sit down on the job or having no air conditioning in the kitchen can be majorly helpful and have serious health benefits for an often under-insured population.
And A Quote From The Article Please:
There have already been calls to improve worker pay, and provide benefits like health insurance, child care, and sick leave. But now, some operators are rethinking the very physical nature of the work as a way to counter reticence and burnout. They have implemented new technology, upgraded their spaces, and redesigned how restaurant work happens in order to make that work better. And through that process, operators and workers are rethinking just what about restaurant work really is unchangeable.
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
We've covered this topic a bit before, but the pandemic has made a lot of us rethink how we treat important working members of society. Whereas before if you saw someone sitting for a few moments during a restaurant shift you may think to yourself that they're slacking off, or if you're really a tattletale, you might ask to speak to the manager. Now thanks to some of the light that has been shed on the plight of essential workers, some employers and some customers are becoming more empathetic to the hardships of the profession. I will caveat this by saying that still not nearly enough people on all sides (owners, customers, law makers) are doing what they can to help. Oh also make sure you tip well.
How Drop-Shipping, A Decades-Old Business Model, Became Part Of A Side-Hustle Trend That Affects Nearly Every Shopper On The Internet.
Just Give Me A Synopsis:
We've all seen it. Whether we engage with it, scroll past it or aspire to it, we know the hustle culture idea of dropshipping your way to the top. Well that market, just like everything else, has become saturated now and people are mostly failing at it or getting out of it. It has become a multi-level marketing scheme, where people who have had success in the past now run courses to teach newbies how to get rich quick by drop shipping. Please pay $60 for this $5 dollar plastic waterbottle I bought on Alibaba!
And A Quote From The Article Please:
Over the past two decades or so, an emergent class of independently run drop shippers has entered the e-commerce equation, made possible first by platforms like Amazon and eBay, and later Shopify. These are virtual brands and storefronts with little capital, no inventory, and few employees. They are essentially digital facades constructed by independent entrepreneurs, who, in the model of Wayfair, don’t own or handle any physical inventory before setting up shop. These solo merchants tend to provide very little or vague information about a product’s provenance. As a result, many consumers regard drop shipping, and the cottage industry of e-commerce entrepreneurs behind these enterprises, with disdain.
And Tell Me Why I should Care:
This phenomenon is kind of right in the middle of the spawning ground of social media, internet shopping, hustle culture and the age old get rich quick scheme. If you want to go for it, be my guest. However, as consumers we need to make sure we're educating ourselves about what we're buying because you do not want to buy that water bottle you think is from a cool brand, but is really just from someone who knows how to make a cool shopify page and source cheap shit from China. Which I guess is maybe a cool brand in today's world, who is to say anymore. This is all just to say when you click through an ad you see on social media, do a bit of research on the brand before you click buy. I just want what is best for y'all.
May I Interest You In A Book?
Dave Pell, who runs a daily email called Nextdraft, is basically the godfather of curatorial emails. I’ve read his shit for a very long time and am a bit in awe at how he is able to do what he does. He is the master of current events and political news presented in a funny and engaging, but still insightful way. Now things are offline in the form of a new book outlining everything that happened in the year of our dark lord, 2020. It’s called Please Scream Inside Your Heart and is a look back at all the sad, crazy, funny and bullshit things that happened in the worst year in a very long time. If you dare to recount it all, I would highly recommend. Check it out here.
More Newsy Stuff Than Usual (But Still Weird!)
2 Germans Arrested In Paraguay After Dad And Teen Killed Over Rare Violins
They were in a small town popular amongst German expats so this was an all German showdown, just in Paraguay. And the violins in question were Stradivarius, which are hundreds of years old and can get you millions of dollars on the auction block. Insert usual statement that this 1000% needs to be a movie or podcast or something.Hundreds Stung As Extreme Storms Unleash Scorpion Plague In Egypt
Damn it's storming out like crazy, good thing I'm in my nice cozy home. Let me just curl up under the covers and read a good book. Perhaps The Da Vinci Code or maybe I'll get crazy and pick up Infinite Jest finally— Ah fuck what the shit was that? Feels like I just got stabbed in the thigh with a pen, but that pen was also on fire and was also full of bees. Let me just look under the covers, oh shit, that thing has eight legs and a tail and a few claws. I'm woozy now but I think it's a scorpion. HEY MARIAM (according to google this is the most common girl's name in Egypt) GET THE CAR I NEED TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL. There's like 10 scorpions in our bed and one of them stung me!Elijah Wood Touted A Newly Acquired NFT. A Racism Scandal Ensued.
Elijah Wood bought pieces from a former cartoonist at Hustler who drew some preeeetty fucked up stuff back in the day. After Wood made purchases a bunch of people online pointed some of this bad stuff out and a whole hullabaloo ensued. In the crypto world the term DYOR (Do Your Own Research) is a frequent creedo, well the same thing should be said about buying NFTs. In addition to searching for value in the research make sure the artists is also someone you want to support and do a little critical thinking on the project.
Other Interesting Things You May Or May Not Care About
London Cabbies’ Brains Are Being Studied For Their Navigating Skills. It Could Help Alzheimer’s Research.
To be a "green badge" cab driver in London you have to memorize some 26,000 streets in order to pass. So these dudes just got that crazy memorization ability. And whip skills, of course. So now science wants to know how their brain works and how it relates to losing your memory. London cabbies are all like “fuck Google Maps Bruv, I got all me directions in me head.”Inside Death Valley Junction, The Forgotten California Town With Two Residents And An Opera House
Seems to be a very hot and dry place. But there's an old mining hotel with an opera house! Go out and give it a try but watch out for the ghosts.What It Was Really Like To Work With Tony Bourdain
An interview with Tom Vitale, who was a director and producer on over 100 episodes of Bourdain's shows. He also has a new book coming out about that time. Man did that show get me through quarantine, cooped up in the house it helped me escape and it was wonderful.The Untold Story Of Sushi In America
I first learned about the wildness of Sushi's history on David Chang's new show on Hulu (The Next Thing You Eat) which I would highly recommend. It has to do with a Korean religious magnate, his multi-billion dollar church, his Japanese devotees and an unrivaled supply chain of fish. Shit is like a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. This article from NYT Magazine is super informative and also has a really cool ux. This is the long read of the day that you need.Where Did All The Public Bathrooms Go?
America has an absolutely terrible record when it comes to places to go twosie in public. Restrooms available to all are damn near impossible to find and when you do find one they are usually in a public park and very gross and/or the site of an in-progress drug deal, which I have no problem with, but don't want to get caught in the middle of when I'm trying to relieve myself of the seven glasses of water I had that day. Pro tip: find the nearest starbucks and walk in like you deserve to shit there.To Catch A Turtle Thief: Blowing The Lid Off An International Smuggling Operation
International animal smuggling can be big money and run-of-the-mill turtles that seem common to us in the US can fetch tens of thousands of dollars in places like China, so of course people are gonna try and sell those slow daddies.
The Most Important Reddit Thread Of The Day
What Would Happen To The Patient Who Had A Junior Mint Dropped Into His Body Cavity By Kramer?
God bless Reddit, answering all the questions we didn't know we desperately needed to ask. But it turns out the guy who had a junior mint dropped into his body cavity while in surgery by the clumsy Kosmo, would maybe be ok and maybe not be ok.
Let’s Just Looks At Art Because Reading Sucks
Unseen Images Of 90s Supermodels From Claudia Schiffer's Personal Archive
A Striking Short Film Documents The Otherworldly Organisms Living Just Beneath The Water's Surface
Lists Are What The Internet Was Made For!
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