Weekend Reading #333

This is the three-hundredth-and-thirty-third weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 20th September 2025.

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What we’re thinking.

More of the same this week as the much anticipated September Fed meeting came and went without much fanfare. Not much to report to be honest on markets this week at all. We continue to ride the market. Wake me up when September ends. Trump is in the UK and what was interesting to us is how he was so well received by the King compared to the media. The role of the monarchy is fascinating. Ceremonial at best in theory but it almost seems that is where the wisdom is housed. The signalling from King Charles is unmistakable. What does this mean?

What we are doing.

A visit to Istanbul for the first time in 6 years, with family in tow, has been just excellent. What a city. Absolutely hums. But damn it’s expensive compared to then. Bear in mind the first time I came to Turkey in 2010 the Lira was 1.5 to the Dollar. Now it’s 41.6! I kid you not. Near London prices at most decent restaurants. But the fish is fresh and delicious and the people smilier than ever. Sultanahmet and all its old wonders are more spectacular than I can remember. It isn’t peak season so it’s not as busy and it’s not too hot. To stand inside the 1500 year old Hagia Sophia is pretty cool and even better with my kids who surprisingly expressed great interest in the history! The Blue Mosque is beautiful inside and my wife reached self-actualisation at the Grand Bazaar (although funnily enough the “Ons” she bought are not quite as comfortable as she hoped). Galata port is a newer addition but very similar to the Waterfront in Cape Town albeit not quite as picturesque. It plays host to the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art which was a real treat to visit once again the kids surprising me with their endurance and curiosity! This time I decided to balance the cultural and historical stuff with plenty swimming and downtime so as not to burn out the kids and today we culminated our visit with a ferry trip to the Princes Islands. The largest is Buyukada and we spent the day there. I’ve always wanted to go and was not disappointed. The ferry trip is an hour or so from Beskitas and for some reason the ferry featured a chap putting on a show to sell a double sided peeler and a fruit juicer. It involved audience participation which was odd but everyone seemed to enjoy it. Anyway, the islands are completely pedestrianised although electric buggies are around and electric minibuses for those who can’t cycle or walk. We rented some bikes and rode to the top of the hill and despite much protestation everyone made it. We had a good lunch overlooking the Marmaris before heading back. Tomorrow, we head to Cappadocia! DC

What we’re reading

It was with equal measures of chuckling and dread that I was reading this article about James Cameron struggling to write a new instalment of the Terminator series, particularly because everything he comes up with for a Terminator film seems to be coming true – can’t be science fiction if it’s true, can it? One thing’s for sure – we wouldn’t want any of the Terminator films to be anything close to a documentary.

In a similar vein, this interesting study published by Swinburne in Australia poses an incisive question: If quantum computing is seemingly solving the unsolvable in everything from physics, medicine, cryptography and more, how do we check that these “impossible” solutions are correct? Especially if even with a supercomputer, cross-checking the solution would take millions or even billions of years. The potential solution: a quantum computer that uses photons, called a “Gaussian Boson Sampler” which at the very least validates if the output is statistically and computationally viable. Doesn’t tell you the right answer, but certainly tells you when the answer is wrong – which in the grand scheme of things actually might be a good enough outcome for quantum computing.

And finally on a very different topic – mummification. Until now, the oldest known mummified humans were from northern Chile (c. 7000 years ago) and Ancient Egypt (c. 4500 years ago). This article in NewScientist this week showcases mummies from up to 14,000 years ago, found in Southeast Asia, preserved by exposing bodies to smoke – a practice continued today by the Dani people in West Papua, Indonesia. It turns out that similar human remains, kept in a hyper-flexed, tightly-bound crouching pose, have been also found in Australia, China, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan, dating from 12,000 to 4,000 years ago. That such practices pre-date the Chinchorro culture of Latin America suggests Southeast Asia was a much more significant and independent centre of cultural development than previously believed. EL