On this episode of Brigadoon Radio, Gerald Ashley and Marc Ross discuss the weather in Europe, Turkish foreign policy, living in a linear world, Dominic Cummings, ludic fallacy, Amazon + Roomba, finding good tacos east of the Mississippi River, and what they are reading and watching.

Show notes for this episode of Brigadoon Radio:

Turkey’s growing foreign policy ambitions: Turkey’s geography and membership in NATO have long given the country an influential voice in foreign policy, but the assertive policies of President Erdogan have complicated its role. CFR

Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World - Tim Marshall Amazon

The real Cuban missile crisis: Everything you think you know about those 13 days is wrong. Benjamin Schwarz

What is a linear worldview? A linear worldview is orderly, progressive, and certain, with a beginning and an end. The world can be understood by a cause- and-effect relationship between separate events.

The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World - Zachary Karabell Amazon

+ "How did we come by the “leading indicators” we place such stock in? We allocate trillions of dollars and make public policy and personal decisions based upon them, but what do they really tell us?"

Some thoughts on education and political priorities Dominic Cummings

The ludic fallacy, proposed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book The Black Swan (2007), is "the misuse of games to model real-life situations". Taleb explains the fallacy as "basing studies of chance on the narrow world of games and dice."

Why Amazon paid $1.7 billion for a Roomba: How a robot born as a $10,000 prototype found its way into the middle of a $1.7 billion deal. WSJ

The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China - Julia Lovell Amazon

The Menu is an upcoming American black comedy horror film directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy. A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises. Trailer

Commonwealth Games: 'An education in what esports actually is' BBC

French President Emmanuel Macron wants esports to be part of 2024 Olympics David Barshop

+ According to Esports Charts, the most viewed esports event of 2021 in terms of peak viewers is the Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore. The mobile title garnered a peak viewership of 5.41m and an average viewership of 2.08m across its short none hour airtime.

Protocol: The Power of Diplomacy and How to Make It Work for You - Capricia Penavic Marshall Amazon

Industry: Industry follows a group of hungry, young graduates competing for a limited number of permanent positions at Pierpoint & Co., a leading bank in London, while being thrown head-first into the exhilarating world of international finance. Industry is created and executive-produced by Mickey Down and Konrad Kay; executive-produced by Jane Tranter, Lachlan MacKinnon, Ryan Rasmussen, and David P. Davis, along with Ben Irving for BBC; co-executive-produced by Ed Lilly; produced by Lee Thomas. Produced for HBO / BBC by Bad Wolf. HBO