On Friday, October 21, 1966, the small Welsh village of Aberfan suffered woke up to a typical autumn day. Many of the men in the village went to work at the local coal mine and the children went to the local school.
At 9:15 am, the lives of everyone in the village had changed forever. The village suffered one of the worst industrial accidents in British history.
Learn more about the Aberfan Disaster, its causes, and its aftermath, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
We’re talking about the back-to-school season and the new hurdles students and parents are facing this year. For starters, many kids are entering the new school year at a severe disadvantage.
A recent study by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company found kids didn’t learn as much as they normally do last year when the pandemic kept taking them out of their routines. Elementary school kids across the country are now about 4-5 months behind where they should be. We’re speaking with the lead author of the study, Emma Dorn, about how parents and teachers can help their kids catch up and what’s at stake for everyone.
But first, we’ll hear from Dr. Kate Williamson of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She’ll weigh in on what schools and parents can do to keep kids healthy, both physically and mentally, as they enter another school year under threat from COVID-19.
With Outremer destroyed in 1291, Christian Europe lost its final link with the original crusading ideology focused on the capture of Jerusalem. What then should happen to the three religious Military Orders which had been established to defend Outremer - the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights? A particularly grim fate awaited the Templars, which has served as the inspiration for countless myths and conspiracy theories, not least that contained in Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code.
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.
As Will, Dan, and the Court all navigate their August vacations, we learn how a controversy over the qui tam statute indirectly saved Roe v. Wade. We then catch up on a few legal developments: The Biden Administration has renewed its eviction moratorium, confusing many legal observers in the process. The administration has also finally given us a nomination for Solicitor General. And a controversial cert. petition by the state of Oklahoma provokes an extended discussion of stare decisis and lawyer shaming.
In the last week, the Taliban have gained control of large sections of Afghanistan faster than most people expected. The Pentagon is dispatching troops to assist in evacuating staff from the American embassy in Kabul, where refugee camps are growing more crowded. The U.N. says the country may be on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told Audie Cornish the 300,000-member Afghan military needs "the willpower" to stand up to the Taliban.
Disney’s blowout 3rd quarter is fueled by growth in Disney+ subscribers. Airbnb predicts record revenue on the horizon. Unity Software’s 2nd-quarter report calms shareholder concerns. Boston Beer and Pepsi team up to create an alcoholic version of Mountain Dew. Jason Moser and Ron Gross analyze those stories, discuss the latest from eBay, Chegg, DoorDash, and The Trade Desk, and share two stocks on their radar: Outset Medical and bluebird bio.
Plus, Motley Fool analyst Maria Gallagher talks with Julia Galef about her book, The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t.
Culture war battles, however seductive in the moment, are a distraction to the long-term fight for liberty, and broader perspective can help focus our attention. Wolf von Laer of Students for Liberty comments.
The city mourns a slain officer, relations grow tense between Mayor Lightfoot and CPD, and the Mayor and police worsen, and Illinois is expected to win big in Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
Reset goes behind the week’s headlines in the Weekly News Recap.
Humans are responsible for emitting over 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year – and we all know that we need to reduce that figure to prevent devastating climate change. Listener Saugat wonders whether smart technology and artificial intelligence can help us do this more quickly?
Green energy will go a long way to tackling the problem, but integrating wind and solar into our current electricity grid is complicated. CrowdScience hears how AI is being used at a wind farm on the island of Orkney to predict periods of high winds, so that excess energy can be turned into hydrogen and stored, then converted back to electricity when there’s greater demand.
Digital mirrors are also playing a major role in optimising performance, and scientists say cloud-based “twins” of physical assets like turbines can improve yield by up to 20%, allowing engineers to identify problems via computer without ever having to be on site.
Marnie visits an intelligent building in London’s financial district where sensors control everything from air-conditioning to lighting, and machine learning means the building knows which staff will be on which floor at any given time, switching off lifts that are not in use and adjusting ventilation to save on power. Its designer says incorporating this kind of digital technology will help companies achieve net zero more quickly.
And in India, more than half the population are involved in agriculture, but the sector is plagued by inefficiency and waste. Tech start-ups have realised there’s potential for growth, and are using drones to monitor crop production and spraying, giving farmers apps which help them decide when and where to fertilise their fields.
Produced by Marijke Peters for BBC World Service.
Featuring:
Professor Srinivasan Keshav, University of Cambridge
Coinbase’s massive Q2 earnings and more institutional news
Crypto tax companies popping up
North American bitcoin mining companies saw a significant increase from the previous month. Contributing to this increase is the downward difficulty adjustment, a built-in and automatic Bitcoin feature that incentivizes more miners to join the network. The adjustment came after China’s crackdown on their miners and a subsequent drop in hashrate. Is this mining success bullish for bitcoin?
Coinbase’s Q2 earnings report revealed a successful quarter with a bigger portion of trading volume attributed to institutional over retail. Additionally, ethereum surpassed bitcoin in trading volume for the first time. Will these trends continue?
With regulatory pressure on the horizon, several new crypto tax companies are being formed (and venture capital-backed) to fill the gap. Crypto presents new complexities for reporting and the tax implications of the U.S. infrastructure bill are imminent. Will these companies be able to find a solution when it’s tax time?
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for Bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features NLW, with editing by Rob Mitchell and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Only in Time” by Abloom. Image credit: eclipse_images/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
