Monthly Archives: April 2021

‘Quarandreams’ with calamities are keeping us up – Edmonton Journal

Posted: April 2, 2021 at 10:43 am

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Avoid nightly replays of your worst fears with a cooler bedroom, a warm bath and thinking of your favourite person before sleep.

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The pandemic may be slowly slogging toward a merciful end but for some, the anxiety-induced nightmares wont be fading to black anytime soon.

The ongoing existential threat posed by the virus has left large segments of the population struggling to cope with previously unseen levels of stress that combined with ensuing changes to sleeping patterns can produce disturbing quarandreams.

This is something that weve seen in other traumatic events that occur around the world and in our country, Raj Dasgupta, a sleep specialist and assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, told CNN. So the fact that were having more nightmares during this pandemic doesnt surprise me.

The restlessness began just over a year ago as waves of lockdowns freed many from the monotony of their daily commute, leaving them willing and able to stay up later than they otherwise might. The longer one sleeps in, the more likely they are to experience deeper stages of REM sleep, the time the brain uses to process and store memories from the previous day.

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It has also led to some really strange dreams, said Deidre Barrett, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School who designed a quiz to get a better sense of how the pandemic is pestering people after hours. There are armies of cockroaches racing at the dreamer, she said. There are masses of wriggling worms; there were some grasshoppers with vampire fangs; there are bed bugs, stink bugs.

Metaphors for the pandemic were hard to miss, she said, unleashing massive devastation in the form of tornadoes and tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes and unsurprisingly given the source the arrival of mass shooters. Other nightmares focused on the sensation of being trapped or caught in public without a mask, unable to avoid the constant coughs of other people.

Some were far, far worse. There was a woman who in reality was homeschooling her child, but she dreamed that someone had decided that her childs entire class had to come and live with her, Barret said. People who are sheltering at home alone will dream that theyve been locked up in prison, or one woman was sent to Mars by herself to establish the first one-person Mars colony.

Another common theme was a terrifying inability to help a loved one overcome the crisis. They tend to involve taking care of someone whos dying of COVID-19, and theyre trying to do something like put a patient on a respirator, or get the tube reattached thats come off a respirator, or the respirator machines are not working, Barrett said. So they feel like its their responsibility to save this persons life and yet they dont actually have much control over it and the person is dying anyway. Thats their nightmare. Its the worst moment from their daytime experiences.

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Even as the world inches its way out of the pandemic, front-line workers and patients lucky enough to check out of the hospital will likely be dealing with PTSD-like symptoms for years to come.

Im an ICU doctor, Dasgupta said. Patients are not on the ventilator for days were often talking weeks to months. Theyre on medications, theyre lonely, its scary, so of course, they have post-traumatic stress nightmares.

To avoid a nightly replay of some of your worst fears, Rebecca Robbins, an associate scientist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston who studies sleep, recommends turning down the temperature before you turn off the lights. Weve done this experimentally with heat blankets, she said. If we administer heat blankets on people during sleep, we find the dreams are scarier, a little bit more in the nightmare category, and sleep is more fragmented.

If the cooler climate doesnt help, Robbins recommends talking to your doctor because depression, anxiety or the drugs used to treat either could be to blame. There are some medications that do cause hallucinations and nightmares, she said.

Its also important to prepare your body for sleep by leaving the screens on the other side of the bedroom door, taking a warm bath before bedtime and paying close attention to your sleep environment. You can even encourage your mind to cue up better content, Barret said. Think of what you would like to dream about. You could pick out a person youd like to see in your dream tonight, or a favourite place. If its a general one, like a person or place, just visualize that person or place, she said.

If you have a particular favourite dream youre focusing on, you might try to replay that in detail before falling asleep, and that would make you likelier to have a similar dream. That makes it likelier that youll dream about that content and it also makes it less likely youll have anxiety dreams.

DaveYasvinskiis a writer withHealthing.ca

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'Quarandreams' with calamities are keeping us up - Edmonton Journal

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Space mission: Former Ellwood woman teaches students about trips beyond Earth – Ellwood City Ledger

Posted: at 10:43 am

By Louise Carroll| Special to The Ledger

SpaceX crew astronauts discuss journey to ISS

SpaceX crew astronauts had their first press conference from orbit on Thursday. They described Sunday nights launch and their first impressions of the space station, their home until spring. (Nov. 19)

AP

ELLWOOD CITYMary Kaye Houk Hagenbuch met her first astronaut when she was a student at Grove City College, and she is still meeting them.

"In the late 1980s, I metHarrison Schmitt, from the last manned Apollo 17 mission to the moon," the Ellwood City area native said recently. "I was inspired by his account of being tasked to find moon rocks to bring back to earth."

Schmitt, a geologistturned astronaut, was the first person to speak a Bible verse aloud on the moon. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help.My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121.

Schmitt looked up to see to the ghostly hills of the lunar landscape against the black backdrop of space and drove his lunar rover over the next ridge and was delighted to find a nice big pile of moon rocks that everyone back on Earth was so anxiously hoping for.

As a science teacher for 19 years at the Jupiter Christian School in Palm Beach County, Fla., Hagenbuch has been taking her students to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for field trips and meeting astronauts.

"I finally got to touch one of those moon rocks at the Saturn V Rocket exhibit that Schmitt found," she said. "My students and I are surprised to see that the rocks are smooth, dark in color, and wonderfully iridescent."

On March 12, 2020, the last normal day before the lockdown of the schools due to COVID-19, Hagenbuch's class went on itsannual field trip to the Kennedy Space Center.

The tour included an experience of the Apollo 8 firing room that launched the first crewed mission to space, an unveiling of the Atlantis Space Shuttle and a ride on the Space Shuttle Launch simulator.

"We even got to meet Wendy Lawrence, an astronaut who inspired us with stories of her job performing science experiments on the International Space Station," Hagenbuch said.

"I always look forward to meeting another astronaut and hearing of their accomplishments in space exploration. Some of my favorites have been Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan, who both went two times to the moon on Gemini and Apollo missions;JackLousma, who went on Apollo and Shuttle missions to work on Skylab;John McBride;and Nicole Stott," Hagenbuch said."I think my favorite story, by astronaut Mark Lee, involved a science experiment on the International Space Station, testing out the best way to drink a Coke in microgravity by using a nozzle to shoot the soda into your mouth likeReddi-Wip."

Hagenbuch's students have surprised her with their connections to the space program.

"One student had his grandfather join us for the day who pointed out which rockets he had actually built and how many he had blown up before getting it right. Another student invited her father to come tell us about the booster engines that he helped develop that launched the Space Shuttle," Hagenbuch said.

"Another parent spoke to our class about his role in polishing the replacement lens for the Hubble Space Telescope when it was out of focus," she said. "This same parent returned years later to tell us of his part in giving the Mars rover, Perseverance, its ability to 'see'like a self-driving car."

In March 2019, the field trip to Kennedy Space Center just happened to be on the day SpaceX launched a Falcon Heavy Rocket.

"Our students will not soon forget the tremendous vibrations that rattled nearby windows and shook the very ground they stood on," Hagenbuch said. "They watched in awe as the rocket returned minutes later, gently setting down on launchpad via remote control."

In recent months, Hagenbuch's science class has been following the trials and triumphs of SpaceX launching itsSN8,9,10and11 rockets and learning that NASA has partnered with SpaceX and Blue Origins to put a permanent colony, along with the first woman on the moon, by 2024. This is the new Artemis mission.

"The space program is preparing for careers in a world with daily rocket launches, lunar coloniesand satellites that will launch rockets to Mars.What a time to be a science teacher," Hagenbuch said.

The Feb.7, 2010, Space Shuttle Endeavor that was launched at night for a 13-day flight to the International Space Station was a special time for Hagenbuch.

"One of my treasured memories was watching this last Space Shuttle launch at night," she said. "My family and I sat on the beach and watched the glowing, red fireballarcout over the Atlantic Ocean at 17,500 mph."

The family group included Hagenbuch's parents, Jim and Kaye Houk of Ellwood City.

"I had often seen the TV pictures of the launches with people lined up along the roads to watch and never thought I would see one. It was spectacular, awesome," Kaye Houk said.

Jim Houk said that by the time they drove the 1 mile back to Hagenbuch's home, the rocket was already passing over London.

Mary Kaye Hagenbuch and her students can look out their classroom windows and see science and history happening.

"Jupiter is just two hours south of Cape Canaveral, so my students and I have had the amazing privilege of watching the Space Shuttles and now SpaceX rocket launches out of our classroom window," shesaid.

In 1986, Hagenbuch graduated from Lincoln High School and entered the engineering program at Grove City College, but ended with a teaching degree in 1990. Her husband, Robert, teaches geography at Jupiter High School;their older son, Samuel, teaches physics, engineeringand earth science at Jupiter High School;and their younger son, Stephen,is currently enrolled in Metropolitan State University in Denver to earn his teaching degree.

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Colonizing Mars means contaminating Mars and never knowing for sure if it had its own native life SoccerNurds – SoccerNurds

Posted: at 10:43 am

The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonize this planetary neighbor within the next decade. Before that happens, we need to recognize that a very real possibility exists that the first human steps on the Martian surface will lead to a collision between terrestrial life and biota native to Mars.

If the red planet is sterile, a human presence there would create no moral or ethical dilemmas on this front. But if life does exist on Mars, human explorers could easily lead to the extinction of Martian life. As an astronomer who explores these questions in my book Life on Mars: What to Know Before We Go, I contend that we Earthlings need to understand this scenario and debate the possible outcomes of colonizing our neighboring planet in advance. Maybe missions that would carry humans to Mars need a timeout.

Where life could be

Life, scientists suggest, has some basic requirements. It could exist anywhere in the universe that has liquid water, a source of heat and energy, and copious amounts of a few essential elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and potassium.

Mars qualifies, as do at least two other places in our solar system. Both Europa, one of Jupiters large moons, and Enceladus, one of Saturns large moons, appear to possess these prerequisites for hosting native biology.

I suggest that how scientists planned the exploratory missions to these two moons provides valuable background when considering how to explore Mars without risk of contamination.

Cassini shot this false-color image of jets erupting from the southern hemisphere of Enceladus on Nov. 27, 2005. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute, CC BYBelow their thick layers of surface ice, both Europa and Enceladus have global oceans in which 4.5 billion years of churning of the primordial soup may have enabled life to develop and take root. NASA spacecraft have even imaged spectacular geysers ejecting plumes of water out into space from these subsurface oceans.

To find out if either moon has life, planetary scientists are actively developing the Europa Clipper mission for a 2020s launch. They also hope to plan future missions that will target Enceladus.

Taking care to not contaminate

Since the start of the space age, scientists have taken the threat of biological contamination of other worlds seriously. As early as 1959, NASA held meetings to debate the necessity of sterilizing spacecraft that might be sent to other worlds. Since then, all planetary exploration missions have adhered to sterilization standards that balance their scientific goals with limitations of not damaging sensitive equipment, which could potentially lead to mission failures. Today, NASA protocols exist for the protection of all solar system bodies, including Mars.

Since avoiding the biological contamination of Europa and Enceladus is an extremely well-understood, high-priority requirement of all missions to the Jovian and Saturnian environments, their moons remain uncontaminated.

NASAs Galileo mission explored Jupiter and its moons from 1995 until 2003. Given Galileos orbit, the possibility existed that the spacecraft, once out of rocket propellant and subject to the whims of gravitational tugs from Jupiter and its many moons, could someday crash into and thereby contaminate Europa.

Cassinis Grand Finale ended with the spacecraft burning up in Saturns atmosphere.Such a collision might not occur until many millions of years from now. Nevertheless, though the risk was small, it was also real. NASA paid close attention to guidance from the National Academies Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration, which noted serious national and international objections to the possible accidental disposal of the Galileo spacecraft on Europa.

To completely eliminate any such risk, on Sept. 21, 2003, NASA used the last bit of fuel on the spacecraft to send it plunging into Jupiters atmosphere. At a speed of 30 miles per second, Galileo vaporized within seconds.

Fourteen years later, NASA repeated this protect-the-moon scenario. The Cassini mission orbited and studied Saturn and its moons from 2004 until 2017. On Sept. 15, 2017, when fuel had run low, on instructions from NASA Cassinis operators deliberately plunged the spacecraft into Saturns atmosphere, where it disintegrated.

But what about Mars?

Mars is the target of seven active missions, including two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity. In addition, on Nov. 26 NASAs InSight mission is scheduled to land on Mars, where it will make measurements of Mars interior structure. Next, with planned 2020 launches, both ESAs ExoMars rover and NASAs Mars 2020 rover are designed to search for evidence of life on Mars.

The good news is that robotic rovers pose little risk of contamination to Mars, since all spacecraft designed to land on Mars are subject to strict sterilization procedures before launch. This has been the case since NASA imposed rigorous sterilization procedures for the Viking Lander Capsules in the 1970s, since they would directly contact the Martian surface. These rovers likely have an extremely low number of microbial stowaways.

The Curiosity rover was tested under clean conditions on Earth before launch to prevent microbial stowaways. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BYAny terrestrial biota that do manage to hitch rides on the outside of those rovers would have a very hard time surviving the half-year journey from Earth to Mars. The vacuum of space combined with exposure to harsh X-rays, ultraviolet light and cosmic rays would almost certainly sterilize the outsides of any spacecraft sent to Mars.

Any bacteria that sneaked rides inside one of the rovers might arrive at Mars alive. But if any escaped, the thin Martian atmosphere would offer virtually no protection from high energy, sterilizing radiation from space. Those bacteria would likely be killed immediately. Because of this harsh environment, life on Mars, if it currently exists, almost certainly must be hiding beneath the planets surface. Since no rovers have explored caves or dug deep holes, we have not yet had the opportunity to come face-to-drill-bit with any possible Martian microbes.

Given that the exploration of Mars has so far been limited to unmanned vehicles, the planet likely remains free from terrestrial contamination.

But when Earth sends astronauts to Mars, theyll travel with life support and energy supply systems, habitats, 3-D printers, food and tools. None of these materials can be sterilized in the same ways systems associated with robotic spacecraft can. Human colonists will produce waste, try to grow food and use machines to extract water from the ground and atmosphere. Simply by living on Mars, human colonists will contaminate Mars.

Cant turn back the clock after contamination

Space researchers have developed a careful approach to robotic exploration of Mars and a hands-off attitude toward Europa and Enceladus. Why, then, are we collectively willing to overlook the risk to Martian life of human exploration and colonization of the red planet?

Scientists hypothesize that dark narrow streaks were formed by briny liquid water necessary for life flowing down the walls of a crater on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona, CC BYContaminating Mars isnt an unforeseen consequence. A quarter century ago, a National Research Council report entitled Biological Contamination of Mars: Issues and Recommendations asserted that missions carrying humans to Mars will inevitably contaminate the planet.

I believe its critical that every attempt be made to obtain evidence of any past or present life on Mars well in advance of future missions to Mars that include humans. What we discover could influence our collective decision whether to send colonists there at all.

Even if we ignore or dont care about the risks a human presence would pose to Martian life, the issue of bringing Martian life back to Earth has serious societal, legal and international implications that deserve discussion before its too late. What risks might Martian life pose to our environment or our health? And does any one country or group have the right to risk back contamination if those Martian lifeforms could attack the DNA molecule and thereby put all of life on Earth at risk?

But players both public NASA, United Arab Emirates Mars 2117 project and private SpaceX, Mars One, Blue Origin already plan to transport colonists to build cities on Mars. And these missions will contaminate Mars.

Some scientists believe they have already uncovered strong evidence for life on Mars, both past and present. If life already exists on Mars, then Mars, for now at least, belongs to the Martians. Mars is their planet, and Martian life would be threatened by a human presence there.

Does humanity have an inalienable right to colonize Mars simply because we will soon be able to do so? We have the technology to use robots to determine whether Mars is inhabited. Do ethics demand that we use those tools to answer definitively whether Mars is inhabited or sterile before we put human footprints on the Martian surface?

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Bitcoin: The Aperture Of Money – Bitcoin Magazine

Posted: at 10:42 am

Our perception of money is expanding. The way humans think about money, understand it, discuss it and interact with it is changing. As an inverse to previous regressions in freedom like the transition from the gold standard to the fiat standard, we now progress to the inevitably more advanced money of modernity.

In a world with the internet, fiat money is obsolete. Instantaneous global value transfer is not only a necessity but now a reality. An immutable, deflationary computer program taking over the global monetary system should be expected. If humans want to get to Mars, they need Bitcoin.

As we come from a century of financialization across the globe, we have an excess of "monetary light" present. Monetary light, as this essay defines it, is simply the excess energy spent on this financialization of the global economy. What Bitcoin does is focus this light through an ever-contracting aperture, slowly directing this vast energy of value onto a single focus point.

It is still early on in this process. As William Clemente III illustrated so beautifully for Bitcoin Magazine, Bitcoin is going to compress quadrillions of monetary energy into just 21 million BTC. The reality shift necessary for this to happen will be dramatic and, indeed, entirely unpredictable.

The future will happen according to the actions of individuals, and the impact of those actions will decide the direction that Bitcoin goes. This shift will most likely manifest itself as major changes in the traditional finance industry.

But, regardless of how it looks, the focusing of monetary energy via Bitcoin will surely happen. Much along the same lines as the black hole analogy, it suffices to say that Bitcoin is extremely effective at gathering energy upon a single point. Once this energy is focused on this point, it would be reasonable to expect an excitation of the point itself like a fire being lit by a magnifying glass, the concentration of monetary energy into Bitcoin will ignite innovation within the Bitcoin network, further attracting and consuming more monetary energy.

This positive feedback loop will be inextinguishable, and is already at work. It is what allows me and so many others to contribute to this magazine; with Bitcoin, you are rewarded for contributing to the strengthening of the network, which in turn enhances the reward.

The earliest of Bitcoiners know this, as evidenced by their wealth accumulation throughout years of working in the space. What goes around comes around, and when you start sending hard work into the Bitcoin universe, bitcoin comes back to you; and when you understand the scarcity of that bitcoin, you treasure it.

Bitcoin is the natural result of human progress. The internets invention, the creation of an interconnecting virtual reality which is free to be shaped by the user, was the precursor to a form of money built on these ideals. Satoshi Nakamoto created an interconnecting virtual reality of money, by creating a fixed technology, which allowed the market (price) and industry to be free to be shaped by the user.

The nature of Bitcoin is such that once version 0.1 was released, the core design was set in stone for the rest of its lifetime. -Satoshi Nakamoto

To reiterate, it's actually the rigidity of Bitcoin which enables it to be shaped by the users of the network. This isnt unlike the protocols which enable the internet as we know it to exist. Consensus is necessary for interconnecting virtual realities.

When Bitcoin was created, the technological progress which enabled the internet was shifted in focus to money, even if only by a small amount. As the network has grown, absorbed brain power from other industries, and therefore the time and output of fantastic individuals, so the aperture of this technological progress has been further focused upon money.

The existence of the network, entirely reliant upon users, is now bolstered by all of the work being done on it. In addition, the built layers that exist on the network serve as applications and uses for bitcoin, and further bolster the network.

A product of human ingenuity, Bitcoins network finds its foundations in the same technological innovation which serves as implementation of the grand-scale economic transformation that Bitcoin necessitates. That is, the work that built Bitcoin originally, is now being applied to creating access to Bitcoin for the whole world.

As we havent witnessed anything like Bitcoin before, the potential of it is yet to be known. I, for one, excitedly await to see what human progress generates next.

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Chipotle is giving away burritos and Bitcoin. Heres how to play – WBTW

Posted: at 10:42 am

Posted: Apr 1, 2021 / 12:22 PM EDT / Updated: Apr 1, 2021 / 12:22 PM EDT

On April 1, National Burrito Day, Chipotle will give away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in Bitcoin. This occasion makes Chipotle the first U.S. restaurant brand to offer a cryptocurrency giveaway to consumers.

(NEXSTAR) Chipotle is giving away $100,000 worth of burritosandBitcoin in celebration of National Burrito Day, but youll have to play to snag a freebie.

Chipotle says the contest is the first time a restaurant brand has given away cryptocurrency.

Ten-thousand people will win one free burrito, 50 will win $500 worth of Bitcoin and three lucky individuals will get $25,000 in Bitcoin, the company said in a press release.

To win, you must visitthis websitewhen it goes live Thursday, and then youll have ten chances to guess a six-digit code.

If players are unsuccessful in their ten attempts and endure they may be surprised and delighted with a special offer from Chipotle, the release said.

The game was inspired by Stefan Thomas, the founder and CEO of Coil,who famously cant remember the passcodeto a hard drive that stores $387 million in Bitcoin.

Thomas holds a small hard drive called an IronKey that controls access to a digital wallet containing 7,002 Bitcoin, theNew York Timesreported.Forgotten password stands between man and $240M Bitcoin fortune

But Thomas cant seem to figure out the password and he only has two more chances to get it right. The IronKey only allows users ten guesses.

Thomas said he lost the paper where the password was written years ago. Hes already tried eight of his most commonly used passwords.

I would just lay in bed and think about it, Thomas told the Times. Then, I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldnt work and I would be desperate again.

On Twitter, Thomas called the saga a painful memory and said he hopes others can learn from my mistakes.

Test your backups regularly to make sure they are still working. An ounce of foresight could have prevented a decade of regret, he said.

One Bitcoin is currently worth $58,628.

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Ether Rises to Record as Crypto Rally Broadens Beyond Bitcoin – Bloomberg

Posted: at 10:42 am

Ether, the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency rose to $2,000 for the first time, as the rally in digital assets continues to broaden beyond Bitcoin.

The digital token for the Ethereum network gained as much as 2.3% to $2,014 on Friday. It has surged about 170% this year. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index gained gained about 3%, while Bitcoin was little changed after more than doubling this year.

Were now really breaking higher and that will very likely attract buying activity, said Julius de Kempenaer, senior analyst at StockCharts.com. Ether is gaining in relative strength versus Bitcoin.

The token has mirrored the gains in Bitcoin over the past year amid a flood of stimulus aimed at boosting the global economy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Critics warn that crypto is a speculative bubble that will likely burst.

Ether has a market value of about $230 billion, compared with about $1.1 trillion for Bitcoin, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.

With assistance by Vildana Hajric

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Chipotle giving away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in Bitcoin today – syracuse.com

Posted: at 10:42 am

Its all treats and no tricks at Chipotle on April 1.

The popular chain is giving away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in Bitcoin to celebrate National Burrito Day, which happens to fall on April 1 the same day as April Fools Day. The company said the giveaway is the first time a U.S. restaurant has offered a cryptocurrency giveaway to customers.

How can you win?

Theres a bit of backstory here, so that first. Chipotle is launching the game with Stefan Thomas, the founder of CEO of Coil. The event will include a new interactive game called Burritos or Bitcoin, an ode to Thomass experience losing the log-in to his hard-drive that stored $387 million in Bitcoin. In response, Chipotle is encouraging fans to carry out a mock cryptocurrency rescue mission and crack the code on its digital wallet.

Each player will have 10 tries to guess a valid six-digit code for a chance to win a free burrito or up to $25,000 in Bitcoin. If players are unsuccessful in their 10 attempts and remain locked out, they may be surprised and delighted with a special offer from Chipotle, the company said in a release.

Ten thousand fans will win a free burrito, 50 fans will win $500 in Bitcoin and three fans will win $25,000 in Bitcoin.

The contest goes live April 1 at 9 a.m. PT (11 a.m. CT) and ends at 6 p.m. PT (8 p.m. CT) the same day. You can play Burritos or Bitcoin by visiting burritosorbitcoin.com.

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Will Bitcoin Ever Become Truly Mainstream? – Motley Fool

Posted: at 10:42 am

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) has risen more than tenfold in the past year and has been around for more than a decade, but it still has a long way to go before it gains mainstream acceptance. In this Fool Live video clip,recorded on March 18, The Motley Fool's chief growth officer, Anand Chokkavelu, asks Gemini cryptocurrency exchange co-founder Cameron Winklevoss about the obstacles standing in the way of Bitcoin becoming a truly mainstream currency.

Anand Chokkavelu: What does Bitcoin have to do to be truly mainstream? We've seen it take such strides, we're just a dozen years in or so and obviously there were a lot of things. I remember, you got the Mt. Gox situation. I remember reading about just how, early on, when you all were setting up your keys, you were going to different banks around the U.S. and almost a covert operation thing. You've got the cold storage and things like that. But now there are lots of options. I think maybe in the last year, Bitcoin has really come into the public conversation more. What does it have to do or achieve to become truly mainstream, and how close are we?

Cameron Winklevoss: Yeah, so I think part of it is education. When we first got into Bitcoin, the common prevailing view was that it was only used for drug dealers and illicit activity and terrorist financing, all of which has been proven to be effectively false, and whatever kind of dark market activity that happens on Bitcoin, pales in comparison to other major currencies, right. We obviously monitor for that. We take it very seriously, we have obligations and we don't want bad actors in the system, but it is not a system of bad actors. But that was the narrative. So education is important. There's also this concept that Bitcoin was totally anonymous in this Wild West, and it's actually not totally anonymous. We work a lot on education, whether it's engaging with regulators to help them think through the problems, or just talking on Twitter. We're very vocal and active there and trying to get to demystify a lot of these concepts. Then COVID-19 has actually accelerated, I think the adoption of cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin, in a big way, because of all the money printing and people are looking at what's going on and like, "Wait a second, where are these trillions of dollars coming from, they're actually just being printed." What does that mean to the other dollars that I'm holding? Like COVID has accelerated the decline of a lot of brick-and-mortar. The uptake of big tech in many ways, I think it also has brought Bitcoin to the forefront faster, so there's always going to be these catalysts. In 2013, the Cyprus bail-in really brought a spotlight to Bitcoin and people said, "Wait a second. Okay. If you could have deposits in a bank account in Cyprus and the government can one day just come in and hair cut everything above a 100 thousand euros and it's just gone." It was called the bail-in, as opposed to bail out, in 2013, in that sense, the Bitcoin price. That was one of the big catalyst moments. It wasn't driven by people in Cyprus saying, "Let's now go into Bitcoin." It was really everybody around the world seeing what was happening in Cyprus and saying, "Wait, maybe I should just get some disaster insurance over here and check out Bitcoin." I think a lot of people view it as a break glass, a way to future-proof against inflation or fiat regimes just acting poorly. We've seen a lot of mismanagement over the past couple of decades. I think it's frightening and I think it's a good way to protect yourself.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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CoinShares Partners With Canadas 3iQ to Launch New Bitcoin ETF on TSX – Yahoo Finance

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Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The promised end of the pandemic draws closer with every shot in the arm. So in the first three months of 2021, traders raced to position themselves for a post-Covid world by girding for super-charged growth and higher inflation.This reflation trade put Treasuries on course for their worst quarter since 1980, with the global bond plunge sending yields surging to pre-pandemic levels. These sharp moves spooked investors, who were already turning away from pandemic favorites, like tech companies, into value stocks poised to benefit from economic reopening. Market fever dreams played out in cryptocurrencies and newfangled ways to take companies public. And even as the U.S. dollar proved its resilience, traditional haven currencies were battered.At the same time, recovery measures of new U.S. President Joe Biden helped to flood money markets and, if he has his way, this will soon be followed by trillions of dollars in additional infrastructure spending. All the while, the Federal Reserve shows little inclination to rein in long-end yields.Generally reflation has been the dominant driver of global price action, said Simon Harvey, senior market analyst at Monex Europe, who revised his dollar outlook this week. What wrong-footed most people coming into 2021 is just how aggressive the U.S. outperformance was going to be.Here are some of this quarters most notable moves:Treasuries RoutWith the size of U.S. stimulus putting the nation on course for a swift economic rebound from the pandemic, its no surprise that U.S. Treasuries led the global rates selloff. Theyre on track to record their worst quarter since 1980, according to Bloomberg Barclays indexes. By comparison, the retreat seen in Europe and Asia was in line with quarterly declines seen in 2019 and 2020, respectively.Treasuries extended losses this week, fueled by Bidens plans to accelerate the vaccine campaign and rebuild infrastructure. The divergence between U.S. and European markets was borne out in the spread between benchmark Treasuries and bunds, which widened more than 50 basis points. That about matched the move seen in the final quarter of 2016, and a bigger jump hasnt been seen since 1993.Read More: Bond Rout Reignites as U.S. Stimulus Bets Overshadow Quarter-EndDominant DollarThe climb in U.S. yields relative to major peers helped to drive a surge in the dollar that ran counter to many expectations for 2021 as the currency turned from a prime haven at the height of market turmoil in March 2020 into a bet on U.S. economic supremacy.Traditional havens of the currency world -- the Japanese yen and Swiss franc -- bore the brunt of the selling, with each suffering their worst quarter in years.The importance of pandemic recovery was evident across currency markets. In a change from last years Brexit wrangling, the outlook for the British pound was all about the U.K.s vaccine drive, which far outpaced the European Unions effort, setting the euro up for its worst quarter since 2015.Brazils currency, which fell more than 7%, was among the poorest performers over the period as the country struggled to contain its mounting Covid crisis. Turkey was one of the few emerging markets whose currency did even worse. While much of that is the result of a shock decision to fire the central bank chief, that move came after the monetary authority raised its benchmark in response to global rate and foreign-exchange pressures.Read More: Dollar Reigns Supreme With Rate Gaps Too Big to Be IgnoredStock RotationsBillions are on the move as investors rotate away from previously high-flying areas and toward pockets of the market that stand to benefit from a brightening economic outlook. In that environment, tech stocks -- 2020s undisputed winners -- have lagged, while smaller companies have outperformed. The Russell 2000 index of smaller firms outperformed the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 for the second-straight quarter, beating it by about 10 percentage points. Value stocks, too, stepped into the limelight, with the Russell 1000 value index beating its growth counterpart by roughly the same amount.We would expect that rotation to continue, said Adam Phillips, managing director of portfolio strategy at EP Wealth Advisors. Moving forward, its going to be more about the recovery plays, and thats not a story thats going away.But the rise in rates rattled more speculative corners of the market as investors started to question lofty valuations. Sentiment soured, for instance, on special purpose acquisition companies, a group that came to symbolize risky behavior in equities. An index tracking SPACs is down roughly 21% since its mid-February peak. Meme-stock mania also cooled: An index tracking companies including GameStop Corp. and Naked Brand Group Ltd. is down about 28% since its recent January high, data compiled by Bloomberg show.Youre seeing corrective phases in those previously hot areas, but its happening through a process of rotation, so the money is just going to other parts of the market, Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said by phone. There was so much hype and so much appreciation that, yes, I think its natural and healthy to see rollovers in those areas.Volatility EverywhereBut while benchmark stock indexes glide along, the subsurface churn has been extremely violent. A model from Bank of America that plots how much value is being created and destroyed each day in individual stocks shows that 2021 has generated more turbulence than virtually any other year. The volatility -- which is prevalent among small-cap stocks as well -- is just being masked because up-and-down moves in different companies over days and weeks have tended to offset each other.Read more: Blowups and Rotations Making This Market Just as Brutal as 2020Meanwhile, turbulence in the $21 trillion Treasury market has been on the rise. The ICE BofA MOVE Index, a gauge of U.S. bond volatility, has been grinding higher. The measure currently clocks in at 67, higher than its one-year average of 52 and well above Septembers low of 37.Commodities SupercycleRaw materials from copper to oil have started the year off strong, with investors flocking to commodities as a popular pandemic recovery trade and to hedge against inflation.The 23-member Bloomberg Commodity Spot Index in February reached the highest in almost eight years before easing this month, and still remains on track to notch a gain this quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. even went as far as to flag the start of a new commodities supercycle. An upcoming energy transition could constrain oil supplies, while at the same time boosting demand for metals required in renewables infrastructure, JPMorgan analysts said in a report last month.Bond SalesInvestors in credit benefited from a narrowing in spreads to pre-pandemic levels, but that did little to offset the negative impact from the broader rise in rates -- the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Bond Indexs 5% drop has it on course for its worst quarterly return since 2008.Emerging-market bond spreads drifted wider, but the shift wasnt enough to throw bond sales off track. The gap between emerging-market hard currency debt and Treasuries rose seven basis points in the quarter, according to a JPMorgan Chase & Co. index, compared with a 335-basis point jump the same period last year.That said, cracks have recently started to show on issuance front. Indonesia shrank the size of a debt offering, Russia canceled a bond sale and South African debt saw lower demand than usual.Read More: The Sweet Spot Is Behind Us: Bond Rout Hits Deals Around WorldBitcoin BoomCryptocurrencies have had a marvelous 2021 so far. Bitcoin, the worlds largest digital asset, has doubled since the start of the year, gaining 104% in its second-best quarterly performance since June 2019. Much of its momentum has been driven by wider institutional acceptance, with more mainstream firms taking a greater interest in crypto assets. At the same time, applications for Bitcoin exchange-traded funds also trickled in, with Fidelity Investments the latest firm to join the list of crypto-ETF hopefuls.Meanwhile, fans, including Tesla Inc.s Elon Musk, have argued the coin can be a great store of value -- Bitcoin gained after the electric-vehicle maker said that it put more than $1 billion into the coin.Still, others worry its run up too far, too fast and could be losing its shine as speculation grows that retail investors are becoming less involved in the market. Bitcoin hit a record of $61,742 in mid-March and is roughly 4% off its highs.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Could Bitcoin Solve The Oil Flaring Problem? – Yahoo Finance

Posted: at 10:42 am

As governments aim to curb carbon emissions from gas flaring, Bitcoin data centers offer a way to use this energy instead of letting it go to waste, in return for the digital currency.

Gas flaring, a byproduct of fracked shale production, produces around 1 percent of global carbon emissions at present. Companies burn the gas off at the well site, rather than using it as an energy source, because of its unprofitable nature. The alternative option is simply to vent the gas into the atmosphere, releasing methane and adding to harmful greenhouse gasses that have a knock-on effect on the environment.

However, several companies are calling for an end to gas flaring within the next decade and looking to find other uses for this energy.

Bitcoin producers realized this gas could be a great source of energy for small, transportable cryptocurrency data centers. One of the biggest problems faced by digital currency producers is the high price of electricity needed to farm the currency. But if this energy can be found cheaper from a product that would not otherwise be used, it could present the perfect solution for both industries.

In 2019, it was discovered that Bitcoin required more energy than the entire country of Switzerland for mining. This figure increased in 2020 and it is estimated that the Bitcoin network consumes around 80 terawatt-hours per year.

But the swinging price of Bitcoin and the Covid-19 pandemic deterred oil companies from making a commitment until now. Bitcoin did not appear a viable long-term option due to its volatility, especially when the future of oil was also looking bleak in 2020. While some companies took the plunge and trialed a Bitcoin-for-gas program as early as 2019, this was a widely overlooked solution to flaring and venting.

Related: ExxonMobil Set To Outperform As Oil And Gas Prices Climb

Sergii Gerasymovych, the owner of a Bitcoin mining company, EZ Blockchain, reached out to oil and gas companies a few years ago to no avail. But The market conditions have changed, he explained. Now, every oil and gas company we reached out to in 2018 is calling us back because they see Bitcoin is making a lot of money.

Story continues

Bitcoin is becoming increasingly attractive to companies looking to modernize and go digital with the price of the digital currency doubling during the last year, despite a pre-pandemic dip.

EZ blockchain has recently set up five Bitcoin mines on gas sites, the latest in Utah with independent gas company Wesco Operating Inc. Other companies using the innovative solution include Crusoe Energy Systems Inc., which has introduced low-cost/no-cost Digital Flare Mitigation programs with Bitcoin companies to put 20 data centers into action.

Other countries have also recognized the opportunity, with Russian companies developing similar projects. In January, Russian state-owned oil major Gazprom Neft has announced a successful pilot project that uses gas that would otherwise be flared to produce electricity to mine cryptocurrency at a Siberian drilling site.

Vekus was the first Russian cryptocurrency company to develop such an energy source for digital currency mining. Vekus used a shipping container to create an on-site mine, demonstrating the potential for digital currency mines to be placed on oil and gas sites around the country.

Russia is the worlds biggest gas flare producer, followed by Iraq, the U.S., and Iran, which in total accounted for 45 percent of global gas flares in 2017-2019.

Other cryptocurrency companies could make similar deals with oil and gas companies so long as they have proof of Work (PoW) option to process transactions. This could make digital currencies more sustainable in the long-term as electricity costs currently account for the majority of their production costs.

As oil and gas companies are feeling increasing pressure from regulators and governments to curb their carbon emissions over the coming decade, Bitcoin-for-gas could offer a simple solution to put an end to flaring and venting.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

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