Could there really be 26,911 words of European Union regulation dedicated to the sale of cabbage? This figure is often used by those arguing there is too much bureaucracy in the EU. But we trace its origins back to 1940s America. It wasn't true then, and it isn't true today. So how did this cabbage myth grow and spread? And what is the real number of words relating to the sale of cabbages in the EU? After the recent announcement that all schools would be converted to academies, a number of listeners have asked us to look into the evidence of how they perform. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan wrote a guest post on Mumsnet and More or Less were called upon to check her numbers. The popular TV show The Only Way is Essex claimed in its 200th episode that it had contributed more than a billion pounds to the UK economy. We investigate if this is true. Plus, can we trust food surveys? Stories about which foods are good and bad for you, which foods are linked to cancer and which have beneficial qualities are always popular. But how do experts know what people are eating? Tim Harford speaks to Christie Aschwanden, FiveThirtyEight's lead writer for science, about the pitfalls of food surveys. She kept a food diary and answered nutrition surveys and found many of the questions were really hard to answer.
African Tech Roundup - Nigerian House of Representatives Calls For MTN Nigeria To Pay Over $10bn
MTN’s West African headache is now officially a chronic migraine. Just as the MTN Group thought the worst was over, lawmakers in Nigeria’s House of Representatives decided to shake things up. Some members have declared any concession (promised or granted by the Nigerian Communications Commission) in terms of the $5.2 billion fine that MTN Nigeria was charged some months ago, “unlawful”. Others have gone as far as saying that if Nigerian law is correctly applied, the fine ought to be doubled. We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on this situation for you, so keep it locked.
In place of this week’s discussion on the African Tech Round-up, we’ve published a clip from my recent chat with two well-regarded poster boys from South Africa’s tech startup scene: Lungisa Matshoba, of Cape Town-based fintech startup, Yoco, and Shafin Anwarsha, of the Johannesburg-based mobile recruitment startup, Giraffe.
Listen in to hear Lungisa and Shafin share key growth metrics for their respective businesses, and explain why African startups are so secretive with their numbers.
Music Credits:
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Serious Inquiries Only - AS229: No Straw Men Allowed
It’s a Tommentary episode! Last week I let a straw man argument get by me and I even encouraged it. So, I spend the first part of this Tommentary trying to right that wrong. I never want to perpetuate straw man arguments if I can help it! From there, I take us on a look … Continue reading AS229: No Straw Men Allowed →
The post AS229: No Straw Men Allowed appeared first on Atheistically Speaking.
New Books in Native American Studies - Heather Kopelson, “Faithful Bodies: Performing Religion and Race in the Puritan Atlantic” (NYU Press, 2014)
Heather Miyano Kopelson explores how religion, primarily expressed through bodily action, contributed to colonial notions of difference in her recent book Faithful Bodies: Performing Religion and Race in the Puritan Atlantic (NYU Press, 2014). She examines the religious rituals of TaÃno, Algonquian, and West African peoples in the New World, and how they intersected with Puritan theology and expression. By comparing these interactions in both New England and Bermuda, she demonstrates how divergent attitudes toward race could be, even among like-minded colonists. Her book demonstrates the centrality of religious attitudes in Puritans’ changing conceptions of colonized bodies, and therefore how racial ideologies developed in two radically different imperial outposts.
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African Tech Roundup - Lungisa Matshoba Of Yoco & Shafin Anwarsha Of Giraffe on repping Africa’s startup scene abroad
Lungisa Matshoba is a Co-founder & Director of the Cape Town-based fintech startup, Yoco, and Shafin Anwarsha is Founder & Head of Product at Giraffe— a Johannesburg-based mobile recruitment startup. The two are well-regarded poster boys for South Africa’s emerging startup scene. Both their firms are currently enjoying a season of relative success as their businesses continue to gain traction and land the backing of venture capitalist interests.
Among other things, Lungisa and Shafin chat to Andile Masuku about some of the misconceptions about the realties of Africa’s startup scene that they have encountered when trotting out their businesses in foreign markets, and they get real about two of arguably the most important growth metrics— revenue and profit. They also share some of the mistakes they would avoid if they could start their entrepreneurial journeys afresh.
African Tech Roundup - Geraldine Mitchley of Visa Sub-Saharan Africa on buying in innovation
Geraldine Mitchley is the Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships and Emerging Payments at Visa Sub-Saharan Africa. Andile Masuku caught up with her at Nest.vc's recent #WhatsNext #FinTech event in Johannesburg and asked her to describe Visa's approach to acquiring fintech startups that might be able to deliver the type of innovative solutions they might have difficulty developing in-house.
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe - The Skeptics Guide #560 – Apr 2 2016
Special Guest: Kevin Folta; Forgotten Superheroes of Science: Dorothy Hodgkin; News Items: Ghosts in the Brain, Neuronal Feedback, Tribeca Pulls Anti-Vax Film, Minimal Genome, Vegetarians and Cancer; Who's That Noisy; What's the Word: Chemiosmosis; Science or Fiction
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know - ISIS Recruitment Tactics
The advent of social media technology has made global communication easier than ever before - yet this innovation creates opportunities for evil as well as good. Learn how ISIS is using social media to manipulate, groom and ultimately recruit people across the planet.
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More than two weeks have passed since President Obama tapped Merrick Garland to fill Antonin Scalia’s vacant seat on the Supreme Court. But while their rationale has shifted somewhat, Senate Republican leaders remain as firm as ever in their refusal to hold confirmation hearings for the nominee. On this week’s episode, University of Chicago Law School professor Geoffrey R. Stone joins us to explain why the GOP’s intransigence is so threatening to the core institutions of federal government.
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Podcast production by Tony Field.
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The Gist - The Hamilton Rule
On The Gist, actress Erinn Hayes joins us to share her experiences performing as Dr. Lola Spratt on Childrens Hospital from Adult Swim. The show will be ending this year after seven seasons. For the Spiel, Zoe Chace
from This American Life takes over. She’s been speaking with Republican stalwarts about how Alexander Hamilton
inspired them to vote for … Hillary? Today’s sponsors: Slack, bring all of your communication at work into one place. Create a new team right now at Slack.com/gist, and you’ll get $100 in credit for when you decide to upgrade to a paid plan. Goldman Sachs. Information about developments currently shaping markets, industries, and the global economy, on the firm’s podcast, Exchanges at Goldman Sachs, available on iTunes. Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus.
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