Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have been billed as a major disruptor to finance. But digital currencies issued by governments might be even more radical—they may even threaten the future of traditional banking.
Yearly Archives: 2021
Media Infographic: The World’s Top 50 Websites
Design: Top 10 Innovative Pickup Truck Bed Campers
When it comes to mobility, versatility, and drivability – you really can’t go wrong with a truck bed camper. There’s no need to buy an additional RV or caravan. Your truck can convert to a mobile home and back again – with the benefit of only paying one registration fee! Here are the 10 best you’ll find in North America.
Saturday Morning News: Latest Headlines From London (May 8, 2021)
A roundup of the weekend’s newspapers, Monocle editor in chief Andrew Tuck’s column and Henry Mance tells us what people can do for animals. Georgina Godwin sets the tone for the weekend.
Aerial Views: ‘Crimea Peninsula’ (4K Video)
Crimea is a peninsula located on the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe that is almost completely surrounded by both the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the northeast.
The Crimean Peninsula is divided into two parts. The first one is a steppe area, with huge open spaces and dry, hot summer. The other part is a coast with a subtropical climate. The natural boundary between the areas is the eye-catching Crimean Mountains with a dormant volcano called Kara-Dag.
Highlights 01:38 – Cape Fiolent 04:02 – Karaul-Oba Mountain 05:53 – Fox Bay 07:44 – Koshka Mountain 09:40 – Genoese fortress of Sudak 11:42 – Pink Lake 14:16 – Gora Ay Petri
Political Analysis: Brooks & Capehart Discuss Latest Employment, Election Law
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the latest jobs report, the internal politics in the Republican party as it attempts to oust Rep. Liz Cheney, and the latest string of election law changes in conservative states.
Views: ‘Cape Ashizuri’ – Southern Japan (8K Video)
Cape Ashizuri is a headland at the southernmost tip of the Japanese island of Shikoku, in the city of Tosashimizu, Kōchi Prefecture. The promontory extends into the Pacific Ocean and is situated within Ashizuri-Uwakai National Park.
Reviews: Author Michael Lewis, ‘The Premonition – A Pandemic Story’ (Podcast)
In 2018, Michael Lewis published “The Fifth Risk,” which argued, in short, that the federal government was underprepared for a variety of disaster scenarios. Guess what his new book is about? Lewis visits the podcast this week to discuss “The Premonition,” which recounts the initial response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It wasn’t just Trump,” Lewis says. “Trump made everything worse. But there had ben changes in the American government, and changes in particular at the C.D.C., that made them less and less capable of actually controlling disease and more and more like a fine academic institution that came in after the battle and tried to assess what had happened; but not equipped for actual battlefield command. The book doesn’t get to the pandemic until Page 160. The back story tells you how the story is going to play out.”
The historian Annette Gordon-Reed visits the podcast to talk about her new book, “On Juneteenth,” which combines history about slavery in Texas and Juneteenth with more personal, essayistic writing about her own family and childhood.
“This is a departure for me, but it is actually the kind of writing that I always thought that I would be doing when I was growing up, dreaming about being a writer,” Gordon-Reed says. “I’ve always been a great admirer of James Baldwin, and Gore Vidal’s essays I thought were wonderful, better than the novels, and that’s the kind of thing that I wanted to do. So it was sort of a dream come true for me to be able to take this form and talk about some things that were very important to me.”
Also on this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks back at Book Review history during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Parul Sehgal and John Williams talk about the latest in literary criticism. Pamela Paul is the host.
Here are the books discussed by the critics this week:
“The Secret to Superhuman Strength” by Alison Bechdel
“Jackpot” by Michael Mechanic
Analysis: The Politics Of Germany’s Auto Industry
The German automotive industry has long played a key role in the country’s prosperity. It employs hundreds of thousands and enjoys cozy relationships with politicians.
But the COVID-19 crisis threw a wrench in the works. What’s next? The prosperous German auto industry has long been lagging when it comes to innovating new automotive technologies. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the industry is turning to decision-makers for help. But just how far will policymakers go to help the car companies?
Arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic has hit them hard, the auto industry is demanding the postponement of stricter CO2 limits and a purchase premium for new vehicles. They maintain that nothing less than the prosperity of the whole country is at stake. But is Germany’s success really dependent on the auto industry? And how much blame does industrial policy bear for the failures of the automotive companies?
Analysis: Why Demand For Armed-Drones Is Surging
Armed drones are growing in military importance as conflicts around the world have proven the utility of these effective tools of war. Companies in China, Turkey, and Russia, among others, have developed advanced remotely piloted aircraft that can use guided weapons on and off the battlefield.
The widespread use of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States to target and kill insurgents jump started a new chapter in the history of conflict. These high flying and remotely piloted aircraft could engage targets with impunity while the operators were safely working in a ground control station. Keeping the crews out of danger also made the drones politically cheap to use over dangerous skies.
Now more and more countries are gaining this military capability for their own purposes. “At the moment, we’ve seen over 100 states worldwide using military drones and that number is growing significantly” said Wim Zwijnenburg, Project leader, Humanitarian Disarmament at PAX. “We have over 20 states that are using armed drones in conflicts or outside of armed conflicts.”
Although larger and more complex drones, like the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper are not cheap to develop or operate, smaller drones are becoming more ubiquitous in conflict zones. Limiting the proliferation of these smaller drones, and the ability to weaponize them, is a regulatory nightmare for government agencies around the world.
“Drones are just model airplanes with great sensors on them. And all of these are dual use and have been used in the civilian realm” said Ulrike Franke, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “And in fact, drones have risen enormously in the civilian realm over the last five to 10 years. And so controlling their export is really difficult.”
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