16 Oct 23 Monday Briefing
What a conflagration
What a start to October, I said a couple of weeks earlier, and what an October it continues to be, dear readers. I departed Singapore for Sydney as news of Hamas’s attack hit the news, and while I would have liked to release a Monday briefing on the 9th, I was caught up in full-on workshops and came to appreciate the space from jumping in with visceral hot takes. This Monday Briefing is dedicated to all the innocent lives lost to conflict and terror, wherever on earth they may have resided.
Losing My Religion (Status)
Chasing after airline status and credit card miles is actually a religion, and I happen to know a few devotees. In fact, entire businesses are formed out of advising the average consumer in a debt-driven economy about the best way to leverage their consumption into tangible rewards. For a few halcyon years I emitted much carbon and managed to rack up Elite Gold on Krisflyer, which anyone in the know will know isn’t an easy feat to pull off. Just as I landed in Sydney, I received an email saying that I was now a measly Silver but still very much a valued customer, yes ma’am. Friends, I felt nothing. I’ve not flown very much at all since 2020, and that is actually ok.
Folks who aren’t ok, however, would be The Points Guy. He’s pretty mad about the Credit Card Competition Act and what it means for miles chasing, which of course impacts his entire business. This is a very tiny violin issue, but I can understand how devotees are losing their shit. As the Atlantic puts it, airlines are just banks nowadays, and we’d better get used to it.
Vox Populi not Dei
Lots of people have spoken in the past week. Australia largely noped, New Zealand banked right in an attempt to course correct (but as insiders assure me, their governments are always more centrist than not), Ukraine is probably relieved that Donald Tusk will form a coalition government (Brussels definitely is), so much for the Atlantic piece just earlier this month prognosticating on Poland and Slovakia. Bonus watch: Economics Explained video on Poland possibly becoming the next Germany
As I was reminded today, “… democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…”
We shall see, won’t we?
Singapore Stoned
The ever excellent
of Southeast Asian Archaeology highlighted a news item close to home, literally. A high school student published a research paper (free download on MDPI) that shows evidence that the Stone that it dates back to the 11th century, which is a considerable narrowing down from the accepted 10th to 14th century date range. And to think this teenager considers himself more of a STEM fella.Rat Over Roach
Look, I’d take a rat over a cockroach any day, and I fully admit to my katsaridaphobia. Just last night I was shooed into the house by my partner, whose eagle eyes had spotted a particularly large specimen chilling over our neighbours’ front door. Needly to say, I doused our entire doorframe and entrance with Baygon.
With rats, at least, there can be some kind of co-existence and even mutual benefit. Roaches? Not a chance. Too bad they’ll survive even nuclear shit.