Non-State Actors

By Péter MARTON In today's brief post I am invoking the spirit of the late scientist Carl Sagan. Citing his words, it is interesting to reflect on the implications of the ongoing bitcoin rush that may make you wonder if the bursting of the bitcoin bubble (anticipated by some) may be the worst thing that could happen. 1. You can read here from Carl Sagan , addressing the question of whether humanity should invest an effort into trying to find out about the presence or absence of alien life out there in the universe. Sagan quickly concludes that given the enormous distances in light years, interstellar monologue will in any case be more (twice as) likely than an interstellar dialogue. Even so, he ultimately comes to the conclusion that receiving a message from a superior civilisation may determine humanity's fate, for in that message one may find the answers as to how the period of "technological adolescence," with its dangers, could be survived by us. In his w...

By Péter MARTON This recent ARD report about German gummy bear maker Haribo is a must watch for those interested in where components of different products that may be part of our lives are sourced from. Normally you find things once you search for them. Here the searching may come after the finding as the findings presented in the report may lead to some soul-searching in the end... All those cute little gummy bears you have eaten. They. Are. Not. Coming. Back. There are all sorts of issues here. Gummy bears being made of up to 46% sugar, to start with. And then. Dreadful conditions in a supplier's pig farm, inside Germany, so you don't need to go all inter- and transnational to run into first-rate horror along supply/value chains. The pigs are not simply held in dire conditions. These are conditions that make you wonder if the owner of the pig farm actually hates these animals. That's where at least some of the gelatin in the gummy bears is coming from. And...