How much power does the mind wield over physical matter? Could certain human beings, through the force of focused thought alone, walk on fire, lay on nails, and survive being buried alive for days at a time? Listen in to learn more about the fact, fiction and controversy surrounding the famous feats of the mystics.
A promising vaccine trial put on pause. Wildfires rage across the west. A boy with autism shot by police. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
What is money? No, really, what is money? It turns out the answer is not so simple.
During the course of the 20th century, most of us have gotten used to the notion of a single medium of exchange based on Federal Reserve notes which we call dollars. They look the same, feel the same, and have the same use everywhere in the country. We are so comfortable with that medium of exchange that we are now increasingly doing away with the paper and accepting a digital version of said money. The convenience of having a single and stable currency as a medium of exchange did no exist in the early republic.
Joshua Greenberg's Bank Notes and Shinplasters: The Rage for Paper Money in the Early Republic (University of Pennsylvania Press) describes the many types of money in circulation at the time and how all participants in the economic system had to master the discounting of paper money from one institution to another, from one town to another, from one transaction to another. It constituted an entire sub-culture, and an excellent lens to view the economic history of the pre-Civil War period.
Joshua R. Greenberg is the editor of Commonplace: the journal of early American life.
Sanctions are tightening around the Chinese province amid suspicions of forced labour. Western firms that are reliant on the region’s cotton and other commodities are in a bind. The pandemic has shown the merits of some governments’ digitised bureaucracies, but rushing the digital shift comes with risks. And how Canada’s border closures threaten a tiny town in remotest Alaska. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer
Tesla-challenger Nikola just saw its stock jump 40% because it’s marrying an older, wealthier life partner: GM. Just a year after jacking up private tech valuations, turns out Softbank is doing the same thing now to publicly-traded tech stocks. And Boeing has itself a cancelation problem because business class’ future is uncertain in the age of Zoom.
$NKLA $GM $SFTBY $BA
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For months after Donald Trump’s 2016 victory, pundits labored over how the polls, and the reports surrounding them, had badly misjudged and mischaracterized the election. Since then, pollsters have made significant changes in hopes of painting a more accurate picture of the 2020 race.
How much trust should voters put in the numbers this time? And what does the data say about Joe Biden’s perceived lead in the 2020 presidential race?
A jump in the number of UK Covid-19 cases reported by the government has led to fears coronavirus is now spreading quickly again. What do the numbers tell us about how worried we should be? Plus a guide to balancing life?s risks in the time of coronavirus, the government?s targets on test and trace, and a suspicious statistic about the speed of jelly-fish.
Two L.A. podcasters record a socially-distanced conversation in a front yard during a global pandemic. These are "The Corona Diaries" and this is Episode #79 featuring our co-host emeritus, Dr. Pat Reilly!
Fire has always been part of California's landscape. But long before the vast blazes of recent years, Native American tribes held controlled burns that cleared out underbrush, encouraged new plant growth, and helped manage wildfires. It's a tradition that disappeared with the arrival of Western settlers. NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer explains how tribal leaders are trying to restore the practice by partnering up with state officials who are starting to see cultural burns as a way to help bring extreme wildfires under control.
