This podcast series tells how Byzantium was central to the Crusades. It is based on the book "The Byzantine World War" by Nick Holmes. In this episode, we look at the fall of Byzantium after the Battle of Manzikert. We start with the civil war that followed the battle between the Emperor Romanos Diogenes and the powerful Doukai family who had betrayed him at Manzikert.
Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.
In this audio interview, CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen and adult content creator Allie Awesome talk about payments and money in the sex industry, especially the trends impacted by the coronavirus crisis. From how porn performers and entrepreneurs deal with Bitcoin Twitter to the ways the pandemic changed our digital sex lives, Cuen and Allie explore what actually drives demand for censorship-resistant systems.
The biggest problem? Allie and other performers and sex workers basically have their digital advertising and distribution platforms controlled by third parties that aren’t responsible to the workers. For example, OnlyFans briefly froze Allie’s account earlier this year. Although she regained access, her distribution conduits remain at the mercy of tech platforms. This is where peer-to-peer transactions come in. Allie said she knows how to use a cryptocurrency wallet and would gladly do so if more customers wanted to pay her directly. The fact is those customers are few and far between.
“To those people who want to come up with a solution, my first question is ‘well, are you paying for porn’?” she said. “I think a lot of people want to make money off of ‘adult’, but they aren’t really willing to invest in ‘adult’”.
Another major issue according to Allie, is an increase in traffic or visibility doesn’t always translate to profits. Plus, many crypto fans see her industry as something they want to profit from, by building their own tech solutions, rather than contribute to experienced performers. Compared to other bitcoin or ether holders, sex workers are even more likely to rely on social networks like Twitter than exchanges like Coinbase, which deplatforms them just like Paypal. Performers require either a high degree of technical skill, to use decentralized exchange (DEX) platforms like Bisq, or a de facto social liquidity network in order to use cryptocurrency without trusting third parties. Allie shares why she is excited about cryptocurrency, even if it’s a challenge to use it for censorship resistance.
The police killing of 26-year-old EMT Breonna Taylor has rocked Louisville, Kentucky. Radley Balko argues that the warrant used to enter her home was illegal. Louisville has since banned the use of no-knock warrants.
On the Gist, the stock market is on a coronavirus coaster.
In the interview, Dr. Christina Greer of Fordham University is here to talk with Mike about politics and police reform. They discuss Joe Biden, if police unions should continue to exist, and what the future of policing could look like. Greer is the host of FAQ NYC.
In the spiel, a good-faith effort to hear out the bad-faith arguments.
From the mayor’s outrage at a videotape showing police misconduct to the latest on the governor’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve got all the week’s local news for you in less then 30 minutes. WTTW’s Heather Cherone and Paris Schutz join Jenn White on her final broadcast as host of Reset before she heads off to Washington, D.C. to host the national NPR program 1A.
All week we've been hearing about rising cases in states around the country. The stock market reacted on Thursday, in part after Federal Reserve officials predicted the unemployment rate will still be above 9% at the end of the year.
There's a lot we don't know about the White House's public-private partnership to develop a vaccine, Operation Warp Speed. NPR's Sydney Lupkin reports on a winnowing field of vaccine candidates.
And during a pandemic, the most vulnerable newborns require even more protection.
Plus, NPR's Maria Godoy shares tips to minimize the risks of COVID-19 for yourself and others if you've been out protesting.
While fears of a “great monetary inflation” have driven the recent bitcoin narrative, other aspects like censorship resistance and peaceful protest matter just as much.
A bank-the-unbanked narrative for the digital dollar
It’s Dave Portnoy’s world and we’re all just living in it
Today’s main topic: Why inflation isn’t the only bitcoin narrative that matters.
When bitcoin’s halving coincided with the most aggressive central bank policy of all time, it set a clear narrative framework for bitcoin as an inflationary hedge. This was captured by people like legendary hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones, who warned of a “great monetary inflation.”
In this episode, NLW argues 1) that inflation could be a dangerous narrative to focus on too closely due to a number of countervailing deflationary forces, and 2) there are a variety of other narratives that are just as important to bitcoin, including:
We were bowled over by a question from one CrowdScience listener in Australia wants to know how likely it is that the atoms in his body have been used in someone else’s body? We all like to think we are unique; no one is quite like us. But is that really true?
Presenter Marnie Chesterton tackles Moshe’s question with help from every area of science. From geologists helping us work out how many atoms are on the Earth’s surface to biologists helping us work out how many atoms each body uses. Perhaps we are much less special than we think.
Presented by Marnie Chesterton. Produced by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service.
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State pensions typically rely on stock market returns to fund the benefits to retirees, and fall back on taxpayers when stocks are down. What about when taxpayers are also down, in a sense, because of a viral pandemic? AEI's Andrew Biggs comments.
