Month: May 2022
Bitcoin price drops
Bitcoin accounts for about a third of the cryptocurrency market with a total value of close to $640bn. Trading was dominated for years by individual investors, but more recently the market has seen an influx of professional investors, such as hedge funds and money managers. With more traditional investors trading digital assets, cryptocurrencies have increasingly
Black sea importance
Russia planned to seize southern Ukraine, connecting the Russian-occupied parts of the Donbas region to the breakaway statelet of Transnistria in Moldova. This would cut Ukraine off from the Black Sea, Russia has 20 warships, including submarines, in the Black Sea. But its ability to mount a naval offensive or to land troops has been
global-positioning-system for the seawater
Zoologists routinely track animals, from albatross to zebra, using global-positioning-system (gps) tags which then return their data via satellite. However, for the sea water it is hard because seawater is infuriatingly opaque to radio signals. Data collected and stored in a tag can either be sent to a satellite in bursts if the species in
Turbines and Solar for Green Energy
The unreliability of solar and wind power compared with that generated by fossil fuels is well known and with it the concomitant need for storage facilities such as large battery packs to smooth things over. Modern electrical grids operate on alternating currents (ac), and these need to be of a fixed and reliable frequency (usually
Coal Shortage in India
The past couple of months have been even hotter than usual in South Asia. In north-west and central India average temperatures in March and April were the highest since records began 122 years ago (see map). As a result, air-conditioners in homes and offices have been whirring away at levels not usually seen until mid-May.
Russia Victory Parade
On may 8th 1945 in Berlin, the Wehrmacht’s remaining generals surrendered unconditionally to Marshal Georgy Zhukov, commander of the Red Army, and to representatives of the Allied powers in Europe, ordering their forces to lay down arms just before midnight. Because that fell in the early hours of the next day according to Moscow time,
Menstrual data usage
There are fears that menstrual tracking apps could be used to punish those seeking a termination. Exactly what the apps do with the period data is unclear, but some third parties feed that information back to the big tech companies like Google, Meta and Amazon. Period trackers have been extremely popular with women trying to
Girl Education in Arab World
Across the Arab world, girls are less likely than boys to be at school. But in the classroom girls vastly outperform their male peers to a degree unmatched anywhere else in the world. Boys’ shockingly bad school marks are a big drag on Arab economies, as is the continuing oppression of females. Shoddy boys’ schools
spy in the sky that sees backwards
wide-area motion imagery was first employed by American forces in Iraq to track down those placing roadside bombs. When such a bomb went off, it was possible to run the relevant footage in reverse and trace the events that led up to the explosion. That often allowed the bombers to be identified and dealt with.
China Military presence abroad
American and allied nerves were rattled when it emerged in late March that China, their new Pacific rival, was signing a security deal with the Solomons that could give it a military foothold there. Over the past month, hurried visits from American and Australian officials prompted denials from China and the Solomons that a Chinese