| This week, everyone was buzzing about those two dire wolf puppies born earlier this year. It’s a pretty wild headline, considering the last dire wolf checked out around 10,000 years ago. Thanks to a handful of fossilised cells and some genetic cut-and-paste, a company called Colossal Biosciences has basically brought the species back from the dead. Though, to be fair, there’s still a fiery debate about whether these pups count as real dire wolves or just really intense cosplay.
Upon reading this, we couldn’t help but wonder if the scientists involved in this project had seen any of the Jurassic Park films. Seriously. There are so many of them (too many of them?), and none of them end well. What is it about humanity that makes us create such visceral cautionary tales - whether in written format or film - and then treat them as guidebooks?
Remember Event Horizon, that cult-classic sci-fi horror film from 1997? It showed us (in rather gory detail) all the horrific consequences of warp travel through space. Well, that warning hasn’t done much to scare off the multiple scientists who continue to explore warp speed travel, with some predicting that we might finally crack the secret to bending time and space by as early as 2030.
As for some of the recent legislation coming out of the US, we can’t help but wonder if anyone in government has read (or seen!) The Handmaid’s Tale. The height of irony has got to be that the series, which depicts a dystopian future where American women are stripped of all of their rights and freedoms, released its 5th season in the same week that The House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act, which would make it significantly harder for a large percentage of American women to vote.
What’s that saying about living in interesting times?
We don't even need to depend on the movies to give us a sense of what could happen. We can just look at history. In Dominique Olivier's column this week, she raises the ghost of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Yes, a piece of legislation that happened just after the start of The Great Depression and before the rise of Nazi Germany. This timing isn't a coincidence. Dig in here for a cautionary tale>>>
Humans are astonishing good at getting themselves into trouble, even in remote locations. Read on for examples of crimes committed in Antarctica and what the punishments tend to be. And in the Fast Facts this week, Dominique brings you some of the strangest headlines of 2025 - so far.
Have a lovely Sunday!
The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn) |
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| Raising the ghost of Smoot-Hawley |
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| | | We can't guess where the tariffs and trade war will end up. Instead, we can just revisit the historical parallel. As the saying goes: history doesn’t always repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Dominique Olivier tells the story of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 in this piece>>> |
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| Crime in the cold TL;DR: Antarctica might seem like the last place on Earth where a crime could be committed. But when you drop a small group of humans into an isolated, freezing, sunless landscape for months at a time, strange things happen. Tempers flare. Sanity frays. Inevitably, chess gets banned.
Antarctica has no government, no currency, and no cities… but it does have criminals. How is that possible when no-one lives there? Well, at any given time, the coldest continent is home to a rotating crew of scientists, engineers, and support staff from all over the world who brave the elements in the name of research and data collection. There are about 66 scientific stations scattered across the ice, with roughly 37 of them occupied year-round.
There’s barely anything to steal, since those who visit aren’t able to bring much in the way of personal effects, and money’s pretty useless in a place with no banks or shops. That said, isolation and extreme boredom do strange things to people. Toss in some poorly timed vodka and months of not being able to light a braai, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a psychological pressure cooker.
Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, if you do commit a crime there, you’re handed back to your home country for punishment. That means that if you’re South African and find yourself in Antarctica, you’re still under South African law, specifically under the jurisdiction of the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
On the 27th of February this year, an email sent from South Africa’s SANAE IV base in Antarctica claimed that a researcher had allegedly attacked one colleague, sexually assaulted another, and plotted to kill a third. Not exactly the scientific breakthrough they were hoping for. The team, which was meant to be stationed on the ice until December (when the next supply ship was due) barricaded their violent crewmember in a room and asked to be rescued ASAP, if not sooner.
The problem with an Antarctic rescue is that it takes so long to get there. By mid-March, Environment Minister Dion George gave a public update stating that the alleged perpetrator was cooperating with psychological evaluations, and officials had decided not to evacuate the 9-person team. The rescue was shelved because the weather was deemed to be too dicey, and flying a rescue mission into an Antarctic storm isn’t as simple as sending an UberXL. Government sources insisted the base was “calm and under control” - a phrase that always sounds more reassuring in theory than in practice.
The case remains one of the most serious criminal allegations involving South African citizens in Antarctica to date, but it seems quite mild compared to some of the other crimes that have taken place on the continent. In 1959, there was a fight between Soviet scientists that ended in one being attacked with an ice axe. Apparently, the attacker was peeved over losing a chess game. Chess was promptly banned at all Soviet and Russian research stations. Then in 2018, there was a stabbing at another Russian base that was allegedly triggered by the victim spoiling the endings of the books the attacker was reading. Then there are your garden variety instances of illegal drug use, indecent exposure, wildlife harassment, and even joyriding through environmentally sensitive zones on motorbikes. Nothing screams “scientific integrity” quite like doing donuts in a penguin habitat.
Turns out, even at the edge of the Earth, where there’s no traffic, no Tinder, and no tariffs (yet), humans still find a way to upset each other. Maybe next time we send people down there, we should pack fewer ice axes and more therapy dogs. |
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| Dominique's fast facts: Strangest headlines of 2025 (so far) |
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| An assortment of facts that will only take you five minutes to read. |
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