Studies in children who have been severely affected by Covid-19 in Italy, Britain and the US are showing the same thing – a range of symptoms linked to an overactive immune system. Elizabeth Whittaker from London’s Imperial College discusses the similarities in these cases and possible reasons for this syndrome with Shanna Kowalsky from Mount Sinai hospital in New York.
How much should drugs for Covid-19 cost? Remdesivir, which has shown promise against the virus, has been priced at over $2000 for a course of treatment, but drug price analyst Andrew Hill says the cost of production is actually below $10.
And how about some really alternative energy? Marion Cromb at Glasgow University has run an experiment to simulate a spinning black hole. In theory, a rocket sent to an equivalent real black hole could use its rotation as a power source.
Shoes are a surprisingly recent human invention. But running isn’t. That means for most of our time on the planet, we’ve run barefoot. Today, in most countries, it’s rare to see people out in public without shoes, let alone running. But might our aversion to the free foot be causing us pain?
CrowdScience mega-fan Hnin is an experienced runner - she enjoys ultra-marathons back home in Australia. But about six months ago she developed extreme foot pain, the condition Plantar Fasciitis, and this meant she had to stop doing what she loves. She reached out to CrowdScience presenter Chhavi Sachdev, to find out if barefoot running could reduce her pain and improve her performance. Simply put, is barefoot running better?
In an attempt to find Hnin some answers, Chhavi hits the ground… running. Literally throwing off her own shoes on the streets of her home city of Mumbai, India, to see how feeling the ground can change her whole gait. And with Prof. Dan Lieberman, Chhavi learns what sets the human runner apart from other species, while uncovering the strange form our feet have. She speaks with Dr Peter Francis, a researcher whose life’s work has focused on curing the pain in his own feet and learning how to help others.
But performance is also important for runners. Biomechanics and shoe expert Dr Sharon Dixon explains how modifications to the sports-shoe are helping marathon runners set records, and blade-running athlete Kiran Kanojia shows Chhavi how the technology behind her two prosthetic legs let her emulate either natural walking or natural running.
In this audio interview, CoinDesk’s Leigh Cuen and Blockade Games co-founder Marguerite deCourcelle talk about bitcoin’s impact on artistic careers. From collecting unique, interactive pieces to designing video games, Cuen and deCourcelle explore how crypto could redefine modern art.
Bitcoin is money but blockchain technology can also be used in a wide variety of art projects.
Perhaps the best known variety of blockchain-based visual art is non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
For example, Blockade Games co-founder Marguerite deCourcelle said her startup sold $160,000 worth of crypto assets, like NFTs, with most of the profits from two editions of their first game Neon District.
“Blockade has minted over 850,000 assets to blockchain game players,” eCourcelle said.
She initially broke onto the scene with paintings that included clues to hidden bitcoin prizes, then started creating interactive, digital art coupled with written roleplaying folklore as well.
“Instead of the idea of running through the digital treasure hunt and possibly getting bitcoin at the end, the design is now that you start at the beginning, there’s no barriers to you can just start playing,” she said, describing her video games. “Earning tokens in the background and you’re notified once you’ve created something that’s unique.”
In short, the artist can now co-create with the audience in a way that scales individual experiences. Although DeCourcelle still paints, she’s become fascinated with the creative and artistic potential of blockchain technology.
Since the first wave of so-called decentralized applications (dapps) in 2017, non-fungible tokens (NFTS) have earned gamers more than $20 million through trading and startups roughly $13.6 million for selling the digital assets, according to blockchain analytics firm Flipside Crypto. Most of that traction was in 2017, when the collectibles game CryptoKitties was the season’s hottest trend and briefly surged to more than 14,000 users.
Yet Flipside Crypto CEO David Balter said observers should not dismiss blockchains like Celo and the CryptoKitties creators’ upcoming Flow. Other gaming dapps like Gods Unchained and My Crypto Heroes garnered $4.2 million and $1.5 million, respectively, selling digital assets.
“There are a number of chains that are working to establish dapps that are participants on the chain. Celo, for example, is doing a good job,” Balter said, listing the above-mentioned gaming projects as well. “We’re talking about customer acquisition costs and lifetime value...these are real businesses.”
Flipside Crypto data scientist Angela Minster added most of these games so far see a surge during the first year then struggle to retain users. In 2020, she expects to see improvement in that department.
In addition to niche gaming fans, investors’ interest in NFTs hasn’t wavered yet. The “Bitcoin Billionaire '' twins, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of the Gemini crypto, are also bullish on NFTs. They acquired the NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway in 2019, which opened for business in March 2020 with digital pieces from artists like doodle-master Jon Burgerman and painter Kenny Scharf. A Nifty Gateway spokesperson said the platform has partnered with 16 brands and artists so far, with one Nifty selling for $1,500.
“Kenny Scharf sold out his collection around two and a half minutes,” the spokeswoman added.
Very early
Barely anybody uses crypto games these days and even Ethereum fans love to diss them, but some aficionados say a few startups show potential.
It’s a long shot, to be sure. Critics may argue these efforts are merely a small group of people trading software trinkets between friends. If so, that is also still true of the broader industry.
Balter estimated that by May 2020 roughly 2.13% of bitcoin wallets held 95% of bitcoin in circulation. This is still an industry with thousands of people holding most of the assets, betting broader demand from millions will drive value.
“This is actually the lowest concentration of [bitcoin] wealth since March 2016,” Balter said, as a crypto optimist himself. “Developer behavior rating is superb, over the past year the [diversity and contributions] rating has been trending up.”
According to a survey of 15,000 crypto fans by the startup Crypto.com, 73% of users believe cryptocurrency needs to be used as a currency to qualify for “mass adoption,” which 92% of respondents said could happen in the next 5 years. To some, this may seem as optimistic as betting on artistic crypto collectibles. Companies like Nifty Gateway are exploring how users might display them IRL, while video game creators like deCourcelle focus on interactive features.
“We try to keep a heavy focus on art and [the] story,” she said, speaking to how her characters can involve many interchangeable, tokenized parts. “When you compose them all into this one character, it’s a pretty unique item you’ve created, both in its story and legacy and also in terms of what it can do in the game application itself.”
She said she’s excited to explore what it means for a bitcoiner to develop her career as an artist, using software as a medium. If bitcoin is significant, and we accept its slow growing usage after a decade, then perhaps the fact the CryptoKitties trend of 2017 now has less than 100 daily users isn’t enough to dismiss all NFT experiments. Flipside Crypto’s analytics showed the top CryptoKitties user earned $698,887 and the median user earnings hovered around $53. Earning pocket money through relatively short gameplay, compared to Minecraft or Animal Crossing, may be an attractive factor for some avid gamers.
Balter said it’s “still very early.” If a niche app needs around 500,000 daily users to be successful, then there’s still a long way to go before anyone can claim crypto games are a significant niche within the gaming sector.
“You will see glimmers of better models and outcomes in 2020,” Balter said. “The more that the user is able to monetize, the more the company will succeed.”
Every year on July 4th Americans celebrate their independence. The fireworks, parades, and cookouts have been a tradition for over 200 years.
But why do we celebrate it on July 4th and did America really even become independent on July 4th, 1776? Have we been celebrating on the wrong date this entire time?
Learn more about the real date of American independence on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
COVID-19 Update; What's the Word: Water Caustics; News Items: Raw Milk, Monster Quasar, Asteroid Really Killed the Dinosaurs, Visualizing Data; Who's That Noisy; Name That Logical Fallacy; Science or Fiction
This podcast series tells the story of the Crusades from the Byzantine angle. It is based on the book "The Byzantine World War" by Nick Holmes. In this episode, we follow the desperate attempts by the remarkable Byzantine Emperor, Alexios Komnenos, to save Byzantium from the host of enemies surrounding it, from Normans to Pechenegs and Turks. This would eventually lead to a plea for help to the West. This plea was the basis for one of the most extraordinary events in history: the First Crusade.
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.
To decrease wealth inequality, one passionate financial adviser argues why financial education needs different content, from different voices, delivered through different channels.
Financial education and financial literacy are at crisis levels in this country. Financial advisers spend billions on advertising but a fraction of that on education. The resources that are available tend to be inaccessible and not designed for the people who need them most. Financial media remains a boring, exclusionary acronym game.
The net result of all of this is a population of Americans who don’t have the mental tools to understand, make sense of and make good decisions around their finances.
In this passionate conversation with NLW, financial adviser Tyrone Ross argues that all hope is not lost. According to Tyrone:
Financial literacy is a cross-cutting crisis not limited to any one demographic
Even the resources that do exist aren’t designed for the way their intended targets consume media
Despite all the bad things happening, this moment is also providing an inflection point where change is possible
Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Melissa Murray of NYU School of Law and Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker for a round table discussion of the big abortion case of the term, why Chief Justice John Roberts chose to strike down the Louisiana abortion law in June Medical Services LLC v Russo, and why opinion about Roberts’ opinion seems to be divided along very gendered lines.
In the Slate Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark Joseph Stern break down the other big opinions of the week and their implications for executive power and the separation of church and state. Finally, they look ahead to what remains of the term. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show.
