My favourite field trip growing up was going to the zoo. And it wasn’t because it was educational, or there were fun exhibits, or just being around animals you don’t see everyday. I loved going to the zoo because of the freedom. I haven’t been to many zoos in my life but the Toronto Zoo is pretty big. And back in elementary school it was big enough for us 12 year olds to roam around in packs without a teacher. As a 12 year old, this was the ultimate freedom at school.

On occasion parents would chaperone the trip. One year my dad volunteered and was our group’s “leader”, “responsible one”, “parent”? He was the oldest so by default he had to watch us. Which just meant it was slightly more embarrassing for me as we roamed around with freedom.

That said, on this particular trip to the zoo I distinctly remember our experience with the gorillas. Something had set them off and they kept running like savages towards the inclosure’s window slamming right into it, basically running right at us like they wanted to kill us. And it didn’t help that we stood right at the window banging right back on it, infuriating them. My dad just watched…and possibly laughed. Nowadays when we go to the zoo those crazy gorillas from the 90’s are in the back of my mind and I wonder if they’ll be tripping out when we get to their exhibit.

However now I know they’ll most likely be calm because apparently people are playing videos on their phones and showing the animals, which in turn is turning them into zombies. Why someone would take their phone and show a gorilla a YouTube video is beyond me. One gorilla named Nassir, is described as “[t]ruly the epitome of a teenager, fascinated by videos and screen time would dominate his life if he had his way.”

Who knew showing photos and videos to gorillas from a smartphone would turn them into lethargic zombies that can’t stop watching. We really did evolve from apes, didn’t we.

This week's issue is a 4 minute read:

🥤 Not so Primetime

🏙️ A termite’s vacation destination

👔 Company #7 for Elon

There’s HOW MUCH caffeine in Prime??

I remember when Red Bull first came out and the whole world was up in arms with kids drinking it at 80 milligrams of caffeine in one can - and for good reason given kids don’t need that level of caffeine, let alone any caffeine at all. I had way too many nights in my 20’s drinking Jägerbombs to know Red Bull does not give you wings - only the jitters. So if Red Bull does that at 80 milligrams of caffeine in a can, you can only imagine what Prime energy drinks do at 200 milligrams.

Created by popular YouTubers, Logan Paul and KSI, their website says the two of them created Prime to showcase what happens when rivals come together as partners. I’m pretty sure they created Prime to monetize their audience, where A LOT of them are under the legal drinking age. So what’s the next best drink? An energy drink that is the equivalent of six cans of Coke or 2-3 cups of coffee, of course.

Canadian federal food regulations do not permit more than 180 milligrams of caffeine in a beverage, so how Prime found itself on the shelves of “As Seen On TV” stores amongst others, is beyond me. But the federal government has said enough is enough and the drink has been officially recalled in Canada. Given Prime did $250M in sales in 2022 according to Logan Paul, something tells me being recalled in Canada is just a drop in the energy drink bucket for Prime.

The feds actually recalled a bunch of caffeinated drinks recently, which will explain all the empty slots in the drink section at the gas station.

Fire and this city don’t mix

In Sweden, a new real estate development made entirely out of wood is slated to start in 2025 called, “Stockholm Wood City”. I know what you’re thinking and no, Ikea is not the developer. But judging from initial renderings of the city, everything seems to look like it either came from Ikea or it was assembled with Ikea instructions. According to the developer, Atrium Ljungberg, the city, which is really a development project in the south end of Stockholm, aims to be carbon neutral and showcase innovation around real estate development.

However, there is one big obvious concern for a city like this - FIRE. What, did you expect me to tell you that this innovative project was going to be built out of flame resistant wood? There are already concerns surrounding fire regulations with this project as there is a lack of consensus across different building code jurisdictions with regards to what is safe and what is not. If you ask me, if the entire city can burn down because it’s all made of wood then none of it is safe!

I used to think it was so wild that construction companies built scaffolding out of bamboo in Asia but a city built solely out of wood is a whole new level of wild. Proponents for the project claim that the carbon footprint for the project will be much lower than the typical development however, given this has never been done before, there actually isn’t any data to prove that the labour and construction needed for a project like this will actually be less carbon intensive.

Reminds me of the time all these people showed up to a climate conference in private jets.

Elon started another company

Elon obviously wasn’t phased by last week’s launch of the Twitter copycat, Threads, since this week he announced the launch of his new company x.ai. According to their website, the purpose of X dot AI is to “understand the true nature of the universe”.

What this really means? Who knows. But apparently we find out in a Twitter spaces announcement today. One could only assume this company is going to be building something within the realm of AI given Musk’s distaste for how OpenAI has, well, just openly built AI, without much regulation. Can you blame them? I mean, it’s in the name…of the company he helped start originally - make it make sense!

Using my fingers to count, he’s now the leader/chairperson/CEO of Telsa, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Twitter, Solar City & Tesla Energy, Neuralink, and now X.ai. Elon also has 10 kids. The only reason I can see him running all of these companies is perhaps to one day give a company to each kid? If that’s the case he’s got 3 more to go!