Otto

von bismarck?

Jun 15, 2022

I’m going to Italy soon and need to brush up on Italian, so don’t worry about this becoming a history lesson…

Is this newsletter my Intellectual Property?

I was in Alicante this week and visited the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) where a friend works. Fortunately I got to be let in as a guest after some security protocols. That way I could take a tour of the beautiful campus and get some grub at the not-so-good, but very convenient, cafeteria. It’s structured more like a tech company campus and has stores and other services inside. They’re much more forward thinking than your standard government branch and I’m told they have a Digital Transformation unit. Pretty solid stuff if you ask me.

Drugs; Natural & Artificial

Thanks to the availability of Libby and my kindle I coincidentally started listening to “This is Your Mind on Plants” by Michael Pollan and “Naked Lunch” by William Burroughs. The first section of TIYMOP is all about opium which is the substance that Burroughs’ characters (and/or himself) is hooked on. The first focuses on legality of the war on drugs’ and even growing the poppy species that can grow the psychoactive chemicals, the second much more on the experience of the junky/ Separated by ~40 years, it’s crazy to see that the problems remain the same. I don’t have the book in front of me know but Burroughs had a quote basically saying that it is already/would be a major societal issue. Which even at the writing of the opium section wasn’t the full fledged problem like it is today in the US. I don’t really have much to add to this part but both have been good reads so far and are worth checking out if you’re interested in the topic.

Air Conditioning

I’ll end with an ode to a/c which has been saving me these last few days in Spain (currently suffering a wild heat wave). Something I didn’t have in my Madrid AirBnB and missed immensely.