One of the key aspects of most plans to reopen the economy is digital contact tracing. This would be an apparatus whereby mobile phones kept track of the other mobile phones they had been physically proximate to, so that if someone were diagnosed with COVID-19, the at-risk people they had been in contact with could be notified. Apple and Google have proposed one plan while a European consortium is working on another.
At the center of the issue is whether contact tracing can be done in a way that doesn’t violate privacy and doesn’t open a Pandora’s box of new issues around the data governments have on their citizens.
Today’s episode of The Breakdown explores the crypto community’s response to contact tracing and why we don’t need big brother to beat the virus.
Three L.A. comedians are quarantined in a podcast studio during a global pandemic. There is literally nothing to be done EXCEPT make content. These are "The Corona Diaries" and this is Episode #20. Music is "Talkin' at the Texaco" by James McMurtry.
If you have ever watched a spider as it works to build a web, spiralling inwards with a thread of silk, that intersects each glistening spoke with a precise touch of the foot, you will know that it is a remarkably complex behaviour. In this episode, presenter Geoff Marsh dives into the minds of spider-constructors as they build their webs.
CrowdScience listener Daan asked us to find out how spiders can build webs without ever being taught how to do it. Are they just little robots controlled entirely by their genetic instructions?
Spider silk expert Dr Beth Mortimer, describes the process of building a web in detail, while Professor Iain Couzin explains the simple modular behaviours that build up, in sequence, to create apparently complex instincts, like the huge locust swarms that are sweeping across vast areas of Africa and Arabia.
Taking us deep under the exoskeletons of invertebrates, Professor Gene Robinson reveals an animal's behaviours can be altered by their genes, and the root similarity between learning and instincts. Spiders, despite their tiny size, have fascinating behaviours. Some jumping spiders can work out the best way out of a maze, and one arachnologist reveals how some social spiders can cooperate to build communal webs and capture moths that are many times their size.
Geoff searches for the science that can reveal how instinct can create complex behaviour by setting up interviews at the homes of spider experts from around the world.
Presented by Geoff Marsh. Produced by Rory Galloway for BBC World Service.
Image: European garden spider, Araneus diadematus hanging in the web. Photo by: Michael Siluk / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
John Horton Conway died in April this year at the age of 82 from Covid-19 related complications. An influential figure in mathematics, Conway?s ideas inspired generations of students around the world. We remember the man and his work with mathematician Matt Parker and Conway?s biographer Siobhan Roberts.
In this episode Anita speaks with Alakanani Itireleng, who founded the Satoshicentre in Botswana in 2014 and single-handedly built a growing Bitcoin community. She is the heart and center of Bitcoin education there, even the government is relying on her consultancy. This interview was recorded as Anita traveled through southern Africa in February of 2020, just days before the Covid-19 lockdowns went into effect. Her greatest ambition, the organization of a Bitcoin conference in Southern Africa will not come true soon. If you’d like to support her work and the Satoshicentre – please do so, her Twitter handle is @bitcoinlady.
“Bitcoin is for everyone, Bitcoin is the currency of love.” – Alakanani Itireleng
“Bitcoin is allowing me to use and receive money from anyone and to send it to anyone around the world without discriminating. That’s the most excellent thing about Bitcoin. It’s money for everyone, regardless of where you are coming from, your race or creed or whatever. So it’s the best.” – Alakanani Itireleng
They talk about:
How her sons illness and death lead to the first meetup
The internet as “white people’s problem”
The high unemployment rate in Botswana
The cost of internet connections
Ponzi schemes and how they are disturbing bitcoin adoption
Bitcoin usecases and regulation in Botswana
Exchanging the local currency Pula to Bitcoin
African countries on the forefront of adoption
Her opinion about Libra and Lightning
Mobile Money in Botswana
The Future of Bitcoin in Botswana
A message from Anita:
If you have a question, feel free to visit the episode page https://bitcoinundco.com/en/africa6 press the appropriate button and record your question.
This podcast special and my trip to Africa would not have been possible without my sponsors and supporters.
I want to thank my sponsors first: Thank you:LocalBitcoins.com a person-to-person bitcoin trading site, Peter McCormack and thewhatbitcoindid podcast,Coinfinity and theCard Wallet,SHIFT Cryptosecurity, manufacturer of the hardware walletBitBox02 and many thanks to several unknown private donors, who sent me Satoshis over the Lightning Network.
This special is edited by CoinDesk’s Podcasts Editor Adam B. Levine and published first on theCoinDesk Podcast Network. Thank you very much for supporting the Bitcoin in Africa series with your work.
Thanks goes also out tostakwork.com – stakwork is a great project that brings bitcoin into the world through earning. One can do microjobs on stakwork, earning Satoshis and cash them out without even having an understanding about the lightning network or bitcoin. I think we need more projects like that to spread the usage of bitcoin around the world.
Thank you also toGoTenna, for donating several GoTenna devices to set up a mesh network in Zimbabwe and toTeam Satoshi, the decentralized sports team for supporting my work.
President Trump opposes Georgia's reopening plan. The House set to pass small business aid. Deadly southern tornadoes. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
This week, our lithe psychiatrist takes his favorite patient hiking, a priest burns some furniture and Michelle tries to escape her remembering. This episode contains descriptions of kitten sacrifice, sexual abuse and three more dead babies.
The Rohingya genocide was just one of many sectarian flashpoints in Rakhine state; now a slick separatist insurgency is getting the better of Myanmar’s army. America is floundering in its bid to win the 5G mobile-technology race; we ask what options it has. And denying locked-down Sri Lankans booze has driven them to home-brewing. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/radiooffer
Paris Marx is joined by James Wilt to talk about how COVID-19 is affecting transportation systems, the flaws in tech’s auto-oriented visions of the future, and why we need to fight for better transit systems to more equitably serve everyone.
Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.
