I met up with WordPresser Blake Bertuccelli-Booth to catch a set by Jason Marsalis at Snug Harbor, featuring some great originals and surprising arrangements of Maroon 5’s “This Love” and the music from the Bejeweled Butterflies game. Great artists find inspiration everywhere.

Afterward, we went to see my friend Troy, aka Trombone Shorty, at his studio. (Troy and I met when we both received the Heinz Award in 2016.) He was with Silkk the Shocker and Reggie Nicholas Jr., working on beats and songs. Though I was there for just a short while, it was inspiring to see the act of musical creation.

A few days ago, Ed Sheeran went on the new Benny Blanco / Lil Dicky / Kristin Podcast Friends Keep Secrets. I haven’t watched the entire episode, but the twenty minutes from about 1:09 to the end where Ed and Benny come up with a new song I’ve seen 4 times now, it’s magical. Check it out, it’s one of the coolest things you’ll see this week.

I’ve seen Ed Sheeran loop his songs live, but this act of creation is very special, and I love the dynamic between him and Benny. It reminds me of that magical moment in Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary where you see Paul McCartney and the band come up with the idea for the classic song Get Back.

Now on the handle you’ll find a special surprise. Anyone recognize which WordCamp it’s from?

Ioanna and Hisashi run one of the coolest bars in the world; it’s been on my bucket list to visit. Hisashi is a big jazz fan, he even gifted me two records from a Japanese jazz pianist in Sapporo called Ryo Fukui.

I can’t wait to play these in San Francisco, where I have a Shindo Laboratory vinyl setup. (Pics from visiting Shindo Labs in 2009.) Some more snaps from the town since I haven’t done much PhotoMatting in a while.

I actually didn’t ski this trip despite the outfit because WordPress and Automattic had too much interesting stuff going on. So I’ll have to return to experience the famous snow of Niseko. And if you’re ever in the area, definitely make the trip to check out Bar Gyu! Maybe drop another WordPress sticker on the door.

Let’s back up: Why does anyone care about rhino horns? First, you have to start with how dangerous false ideas and memes can be. Rhino horns are 92-95% keratin, just like your fingernails, the rest is basic stuff like melanin, calcium salts, magnesium, sulfur, nitrogen, amino acids, and phosphorus. There is nothing special or magic about a rhino horn that you couldn’t easily obtain many other ways.

However there is a dangerous infovirus going back thousands of years that rhino horns can cure various ailments, from cancer to fevers, and have aphrodisiac properties. To quote Scientific American:

Some purchase horn chunks or powder for traditional medicinal purposes, to ingest or to give others as an impressive gift. Wealthy buyers bid for antique rhino horn carvings  such as cups or figurines to display or as investments. A modern market for rhino horn necklaces, bracelets and beads has also sprung up. […]

On the bright side, traditional Chinese medicine experts have increasingly joined the fight to reduce the demand for rhino horn. When China officially banned the international trade in 1993, it followed up by removing rhino horn as a medical ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine’s pharmacopeia  and curriculum. […]

“Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of 3,000 years and we have been educating the public for less than 30 years,” Huang notes. “Therefore this is an ongoing education.”

Regardless of the reasons, there is a price for rhino horns. I was told the larger front horn would get about $300,000 on the black market, and rhinos have been poached to near-extinction. Combine that with South Africa’s 33% unemployment rate, some people turn to crime or poaching to make money. It’s cheaper and faster to kill the rhino and take its horn than tranquilize it as the game reserve did.

I don’t want to criticize the people at the game reserve. They clearly cared for the animal quite deeply, and while it was tranquilized, they provided other veterinary help for it, like removing ticks. They also put a tracker on its foot. They say they lock the horns in a vault… why? Burn it, toss it. The thinking is that reserves that are known for de-horning will attract fewer poachers.

This is obviously a middle solution, and I hope ten years from now we’ll look back at this as a point in time we learned from. On the demand side, it seems like aggressive education campaigns could help decrease demand for keratin from rhinos. On the anti-poacher side, I think drones will be able to secure perimeters far more securely than fences currently do. It would be fascinating for an economist like Tyler Cowen to dive into these issues.

When you visit Ottawa, I’d recommend checking out Aiana Restaurant Collective (powered by WordPress, natch!) and Stolen Goods Cocktail Bar to see craftspeople operating at the top of their game. Riviera was also nice.