Scales don’t come planet-sized, so answering a question from David in Ghana may require some ingenuity, after all, calculating the weight of the Earth is a huge task.
Using a set of weighing scales and a 400 year-old equation, Marnie Chesterton attempts to find out just how much the Earth weighs and is it getting heavier or lighter over time?
But how would a planet gain or lose mass? Which tips the scales: meteorites falling from space or gases constantly escaping from our atmosphere?
And does the answer have any implications for the future of Earth? Could the atmosphere eventually run out?
Contributors:
Anuradha TK, former project director at ISRO
Matt Genge, geologist at Imperial College London
Jon Larsen, researcher at the University of Oslo
Anjali Tripathi, astrophysicist
Ethan Seigel, journalist and astrophysicist
Presented by Marnie Chesterton.
Produced by Caroline Steel for the BBC World Service.
The idea of a multiyear supercycle is fading as shorter cycles take their place. In this episode, NLW and guest Larry Cermak, director of research at The Block, discuss the transformation of the supercycle timeline as the crypto space evolves. The discussion includes:
An analysis of the macro-narrative and the current “wait-and-see” mode
Shorter cycles taking hold as the crypto space matures
The larger institutional narrative promised a bevy of substantial allocators to contribute to the market. That narrative, however, has weakened over time as the promise falls short. Add on the uncertainty from China’s partial ban on mining and Tesla’s environmental concerns, and the narrative continues to lose momentum. What narrative will take over next? When will this “wait-and-see” mode end?
Historically, crypto was perceived to fall into semi-stable cycles. For a couple of years, prices would rise, and for the next two or three years after, prices crash. However, with longer-term investors and a broader focus on usability over speculation, is there now a foundation for a more stable market with shorter cycles?
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Image credit: metamorworks/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Michael Malice says many of the criticisms of anarchism boil down to a description of the status quo. His new book, The Anarchist Handbook, provides a useful diversity of anarchist views.
This is a bonus episode, part of Pledge Week 2021. Patreon backers get one of these with every episode of the main podcast. If you want to get those, and to support the podcast, please visit patreon.com/andrewhickey to sign up for a dollar a month or more.
It's no secret that the 'wilderness therapy' and 'troubled teen' industry has been accused of unethical and illegal behavior, but just how much do we know about how these situations actually occurred? In today's episode, the guys sit down with Josh Thane, the creator and host of Camp Hell: Anneewakee, for a disturbing look into the long-suppressed story of a horrific institution in the guys' own home state of Georgia.
Today’s podcast discusses the amazing fact that conservative justices on the Supreme Court often go against what people say their political allies demand of them—but this happens far more rarely among liberal justices. Now, why would that be? Also… Donald Trump is running. Give a listen. Source
In the book, she analyzes different moments in the history of Asian migration to North America and their attendant racialization. In particular, we discuss the association of Asian immigrants with "excessive economic efficiency." That is, the basis of anti-Asian racial sentiment has been the idea that Asians represent a hyper-efficient economic threat. Anti-Asian racism, then, is a sort of misplaced, reactionary revolt against capitalism itself.
Examples span from the 19C. "yellow peril" of Chinese miners and railroad workers, culminating in Chinese Exclusion; fears of Japanese property ownership, buttressing WWII internment; and even now, the "model minority" stereotype of post-1965 Asian immigrants ("high-tech coolies" in white-collar jobs, engineering, tech), who are both revered for their efficiency but also scapegoated for the abstract and destructive ills of globalization.
I see Day's work as contributing to literature on the history of racial ideas specific to the history of capitalism. Most famously, we have books and essays on how slavery and segregation turned the social categories of "White" and "Black" into biological ones by the nineteenth century. But of course, her intervention is to theorize the specificity of Asian racialization.
Thus, Anti-Asian racism is not simply analogous to anti-Black racism, for instance, which centers on ideas of biology and inferiority, but rather represents something abstract and threatening, personifying and embodying the destructiveness of capitalist value. In this sense, it is closer to modern anti-Semitism.
Ultimately, Day returns to the bigger question of how Asian racialization fits alongside other racial forms in North America, such as indigenous, Black, Latinx, etc.
Other topics include: the politics of being a PMC Asian, fears of "alien capital" around the world, locating the role of literature and art, the relationship between borders and prisons, and joining reading groups for Marx’s Capital.
Also, a quick note: this episode’s format is a bit different. Alien Capital was actually chosen for the inaugural session of the TTSG Discord’s new monthly (?) book club back in April/May. We discussed the book one week before this episode, and later, Andy spoke with Prof. Day online, with listeners in attendance.
The first half is our interview; the second half (49:30) features questions from the Discord community themselves (one calling in from a van full of listeners) either spoken directly or read out loud by Andy.
Finally, a few works referenced in the conversation:
Nearly a century ago, government officials pushed a Black family from their beachfront property in the Southern California city of Manhattan Beach. Now, in what could be a landmark in this nation’s efforts to correct past injustices to African Americans, the County of Los Angeles wants to give Bruce’s Beach back to the family that once owned it. Today, our senior producer Denise Guerra speaks with the historians, family members and grassroots organizers who championed this cause for years until it could not be ignored. We also speak with L.A. Times environmental reporter Rosanna Xia about her work, which amplified the story of Bruce’s Beach to the world.
Drought grips the west as the Gulf Coast prepares to be drenched. First federal Juneteenth holiday. AZ shooting spree. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
