Monthly Archives: January 2022

I own that $4.5bn of digi-dosh so rewrite your blockchain and give it to me, Craig Wright tells Bitcoin SV devs – The Register

Posted: January 19, 2022 at 11:13 am

A man who claims he's the creator of Bitcoin says his private keys to 14m of Bitcoin SV were deleted by hackers in 2020 and now he's suing developers to forcibly give him access to internet coins he "owns but cannot access."

Craig Wright (yes, him again) is suing 15 people and one Swiss company in the hope of forcing them to "re-write or amend the underlying software code" so Wright can get his hands on a large amount of Bitcoin SV.*

The High Court of England and Wales recently ordered Wright to pay the court security for costs in case he loses, with the resulting judgment shedding light on yet more English litigation involving Wright and Bitcoin.

Master Clark, the procedural judge, summarised the main case as follows:

Wright claims the defendants "owe fiduciary and tortious duties" to "re-write or amend the underlying software code to enable [Tulip Trading] to access the Bitcoin." It appears the judge may have confused Bitcoin (as in BTC, the original) with Bitcoin SV ("Bitcoin Satoshi Vision", a fork of a fork from the original Bitcoin.

Continuing his run of bad luck, Wright's Tulip Trading** Ltd lost its bid to avoid having to pay security for costs. This is a legal procedure where if a judge believes a claimant might not have assets inside the jurisdiction that can be used to pay the other side's legal costs if they win, the claimant has to pay a substantial sum to the court, which passes it to the defendants at the end of the case or returns it accordingly. If the claimant doesn't pay, the case is halted.

The 15 defendants include Bitcoin vlogger Roger Ver, Swiss company Bitcoin Association for BSV, and a list of other cryptocurrency enthusiasts, all of whom Wright says are developers involved in Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Cash ABC, whatever that is.

They've all refused Wright's demands, though a firm called nChain Ltd is "said to be working on a modification to the existing BSV client software, which would enable someone who owns but cannot access the BSV to regain control of them."

Wright claims he is the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, and has spawned a global litigation-themed pantomime in his wake as various people say, "oh no you're not," Wright says, "oh yes I am," and lawyers around the world bank fat fees from all the arguing. Last month, he had to pay 70m in Intellectual Property rights after technically winning a court case against the estate of a deceased business partner. Wright had told a Miami jury that he and David Kleiman co-created Bitcoin (BTC) through a professional partnership called W&K Info Defense Research.

Back in 2016 Wright made posts on his blog that were roundly ridiculed by people after his "proofs" at the time turned out to be nonsense.

*1 Bitcoin SV is currently worth 81 according to a graph generated by Coinmarketcap, a website owned by UK-banned cryptocurrency speculation business Binance.

**Keen students of history will note that one of the earliest stock market crashes was when the Dutch tulip bubble occurred in the 1630s. An investment website explains the link: "The Bitcoin market is frequently compared with tulipmania, in that both prompted highly speculative prices for a product with little clear utility.

"Bitcoin prices tend to crash after significant gains, exhibiting many signs of a classic bubble."

We have no information on whether Wright knowingly called his Seychellois company Tulip Trading as a nod to this, though maybe the man just likes colourful flowers.

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I own that $4.5bn of digi-dosh so rewrite your blockchain and give it to me, Craig Wright tells Bitcoin SV devs - The Register

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EU regulator calls for a ban on proof of work Bitcoin mining to save renewable energy – Euronews

Posted: at 11:13 am

The European Union should ban the energy-intensive system used to mine Bitcoin, one of the bloc's leading financial regulators has said.

In an interview with the Financial Times, vice-chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) Erik Theden called for a bloc-wide ban on "proof of work" crypto mining, saying the industry's energy usage was becoming a "national issue" in his native Sweden.

"Bitcoin is now a national issue for Sweden because of the amount of renewable energy devoted to mining," Theden told the FT.

"It would be an irony if the wind power generated on Swedens long coastline would be devoted to Bitcoin mining," he added.

Bitcoin now consumes 0.6 per cent of the world's electricity, according to figures from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.

Bitcoin and Ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies, are minted via the proof of work system, which financially incentivises miners to use ever more computing power - and therefore electricity - to validate blockchain transactions and earn the tokens.

Theden previously called for a ban on proof of work crypto mining in November last year, in his capacity as director of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority.

From April to August 2021, the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining operations in Sweden rose by "several hundred percent," Theden said at the time.

In the interview published on Wednesday, the Swedish regulator emphasised that he was not calling for a blanket ban on cryptocurrencies, but rather that he was trying to promote a "discussion about shifting the industry to a more efficient technology".

"The solution is to ban proof of work," he said.

One potential avenue to explore could be a move to "proof of stake" mining, Theden told the newspaper.

While proof of work encourages competition between miners to keep the network secure, proof of stake mining is a less energy-intensive process where miners put their tokens up as collateral against errors in the validation process.

Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, is due to move to proof of stake mining in the second half of this year.

Rising concerns over the growing energy consumption of the crypto mining industry have already prompted governments to take action. Earlier this month, Kosovo banned crypto currency mining in an effort to tackle the country's worst energy shortage in a decade.

In November, Norwegian authorities told Euronews Next that they would consider backing a ban on proof of work and said the Nordic country was "considering potential policy measures" to address the challenges crypto mining posed.

"Although crypto mining and its underlying technology might represent some possible benefits in the long run, it is difficult to justify the extensive use of renewable energy today," Norway's local government and regional development minister Bjrn Arild Gram told Euronews Next.

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If You Want To Stick a Toe in Bitcoin’s World Read This First – Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Posted: at 11:13 am

At Expensivity, Bernard Fickser, who has explained how to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) now offers The Truth About Cryptocurrencies: A Clearheaded Guide to the Crypto World. (January 15, 2022) For your convenience, we are serializing his work, which can be read in whole here. Heres Part 2:

This first section is for those who want to begin investing in crypto right away. But it is also for those who simply want to understand cryptocurrencies without investing in them. Later sections will present the underlying theory and history of crypto, as well as reasons to take crypto seriously but also to be cautious. Yet it helps to see how cryptocurrencies actually behave in practice, and nothing beats buying some crypto at an exchange, setting up a crypto wallet, and then sending some crypto from one wallet to another. So, in a clearheaded guide to the crypto world, its good to start with a practical section like this

To be a successful crypto investor, however, youll also need a general grasp of cryptocurrencies, The later sections of this article therefore provide a solid overview of cryptocurrencies. If you want to dig still deeper into the crypto world by investing in or even creating non-fungible tokens, you should also read ourcompanion piece on non-fungible tokens.

In explaining crypto investing, well focus on investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most popular cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization (all the other cryptocurrencies together dont have the value of these two). Investing in other cryptocurrencies is straightforward, and simply means going to exchanges or websites that handle them, buying those cryptocurrencies there, and then procuring the appropriate (crypto) wallets that allow you to move such currencies from wallet to wallet. Specific (crypto) wallets have specific private keys and are designed to work with specific currencies.

For Bitcoin and Ethereum, the exchange Im going to recommend isCoinbase. In our Expensivity article onthe 10 best crypto exchanges, we rank Coinbase as best for first-time cryptocurrency investors. Hence, to buy bitcoins and ether (note thatfor Bitcoin the plural is either bitcoins or bitcoin, butfor Ethereum the plural is simply ether; note also that these are abbreviated respectively as BTC and ETH), simply sign up for an account at Coinbase and transfer funds to the account with which to buy these cryptocurrencies.

Unlike a few years ago, government regulation and IRS intrusion into the crypto world has since gotten much more extensive, so youll need to verify that you are who you claim to be (KYC, or Know Your Customer, is a big deal these days with the exchanges). Once you are signed up and have funds in place, you can buy your first bitcoins and ether. As it is, Bitcoin is at the moment trading around $50,000 per BTC ( a month ago it was at an all-time high of almost $70,000) and Ethereum is trading above $4,000 per ETH, so its likely you will only be buying fractional bitcoins and ether.

Next, get yourself a Bitcoin wallet (I recommendElectrum) and an Ethereum wallet (I recommendMetaMask). Coinbase will now allow you to transfer cryptocurrency to those wallets and from there you can transfer cryptocurrency to still other wallets. You are now good to go in having these cryptocurrencies available to you for the purposes of buying, selling, and investing.

Using the these wallets is straightforward, but do a Google search on these or any other wallets you choose to use if you get stuck. Once you set up a crypto wallet, youll be given a sequence that looks like this (which happens to be the one associated with my MetaMask wallet):

Thats the public address of the wallet. Its readily copied to your clipboard. Youll need such an address for people to send you crypto or to send yourself crypto from an exchange.

Associated with any crypto wallet is a 12-word seed phrase, which you obtain when you set up your wallet. If you lose the seed phrase, you lose your wallet and everything in it. Its typically advised that you write down the seed phrase on paper and keep it entirely away from digital storage.

Unfortunately, paper is easily misplaced, and reports abound of people losing incredible amounts of cryptocurrency by forgetting or misplacing their seed phrase. I therefore prefer to record the seed phrase in an image file, and then hide the image among a vast horde of other images where it gets tucked away inconspicuously unless you know what youre looking for.

NOMENCLATURE: In the crypto world, youll see references to cryptocurrencies as well as to tokens. Cryptocurrencies are encrypted digital currencies that are native to particular blockchains and thus specifically created for them. For instance, bitcoins make up the currency native to the Bitcoin blockchain, and ether make up the currency native to the Ethereum blockchain. A unit of a cryptocurrency is typically referred to as a coin.

Cryptocurrency blockchains can also allow transactional protocols or smart contracts. These are computer programs that run on cryptocurrency blockchains and allow for the creation of exchange mechanisms that transact units distinct from but also derived from the underlying cryptocurrency. Such derivative units are called tokens, and they can act like cryptocurrencies in their own right, but also serve other purposes (as, for instance, vouchers, rewards, or rebates).

The Ethereum ERC-20 standard, at the time of writing, supports 200,000 different tokens. One such token is theBasic Attention Token, which functions like a cryptocurrency but also like anopen-source,decentralizedad exchangeplatform. Although the analogy is imperfect, it can help to think of the relation between tokens and cryptocurrencies as the relation for financial instruments between derivatives (such as options and futures) and underlying securities (such as stocks and bonds). Tokens are thus built on top of crypto.

Even though theres a valid distinction here, many writers ignore it, describing the coins that make up a cryptocurrency also as tokens. In a sense, a coin native to a cryptocurrency is also built on top of it, so by that token (pun intended), tokens are the more general notion and encompass the coins that make up a cryptocurrency. Thus one will read (in Yahoo Finance) that Solanas token is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The distinction is valid, but it is often breached.

Also, one more bit of nomenclature at this early point in our discussion. In the crypto literature, youll often find reference to altcoins. These are coins or tokens other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, the latter being the gold standard of the crypto world, other coins/tokens thus being treated as second-class citizens. For now, Bitcoin and Ethereum so dominate the crypto world that the altcoin designation seems justified.

How much crypto gets lost or stolen? According toBusiness Insider, People have lost roughly $140 billion in Bitcoin because they forgot their passwords or got locked out of accounts, and would-be millionaires are struggling to access their wallets. That report was issued in January of 2021, when the price of Bitcoin was about half of what it is now. So with Bitcoin sitting at $60,000 per bitcoin, and thus a total market cap of around $1 trillion, total Bitcoin losses exceed $250 billion, which means that over 25 percent of all bitcoins have gone missing. Imagine if a quarter of your bank account simply went missing.

The case of James Howellsis particularly poignant. He began Bitcoin mining early in the game (in 2009; Bitcoin was founded in 2008). In 2013 he inadvertently threw away the hard drive with the credentials to his Bitcoin wallet. The hard drive ended up in a landfill and he knows roughly where in the landfill it is. But the city wont let him exhume the hard drive. On it is the information that will allow him to claim 7,500 bitcoins, valued at half a billion dollars (i.e., $500,000,000) at Bitcoins recent peak price.

As you start buying cryptocurrencies and moving them around between exchanges and wallets, it will feel like you are moving money remotely in the same way as with your bank through its smartphone app. But this similarity is deceiving. Crypto wallets are vulnerable to amnesia (forgetting your access credentials, typically referred to as your private key or the seed phrase that allows you to reconstruct the private key). And they are vulnerable to theft (someone stealing your private key and making off with all the crypto in your wallet). Moreover, there are no laws to redress this sort of amnesia or theft. Its on you to keep your credentials safe and intact. Thats a lot of responsibility. That means theres no safety net. And people pay the cost.

Working with a crypto exchange offers some safety against amnesia in that an exchange will have reliable ways of identifying and contacting you, such as through your email account or cell number. But theft remains a big problem. A crypto exchange may feel like a bank, but it is not a bank. The big difference is that with a bank, you have a trusted third party that islegally liablefor your deposited funds. Moreover, theFederal Deposit Insurance Corporationinsures your deposits at a given bank for up to $250,000.

With crypto, whether through an exchange or through a wallet, you are much more on your own. If hackers steal the private key to your crypto wallet, you lose all the crypto in that wallet. Similarly, if hackers break into your account at a crypto exchange, you lose whatever they choose to remove.Even at Coinbase, hackers in the fall of 2021 stole cryptocurrency from 6,000 of its customers (largely through phishing attacks).

If a crypto exchange as a whole is hacked, all the crypto assets of the exchange may be compromised. The hacking ofMt. Gox, an early Bitcoin exchange, stands out to this day. Its bankruptcy almost ruined confidence in Bitcoin. In being hacked, Mt. Gox ended up losing 650,000 BTC, worth over $40 billion at Bitcoins recent peak price. People who owned those BTC lost them.

Ive had a Coinbase account since 2016, and in that time Ive seen Coinbases security measures become ever more stringent. Thats encouraging, and it keeps me from being too worried about losing the crypto that I have in my account there. But the recent theft from 6,000 of its customers is less encouraging.

In any case, banks provide additional safety nets that are lacking in the crypto world. If somebody steals your debit card information and starts unloading the money in your bank account, once you catch it, the bank will stop the fraud and, if you are under the $250,000 FDIC limit, will reimburse you for your loss. Ive experienced this myself when someone stole my debit card information at an airport, and then started buying large items at Best Buy and Walmart. By the time I caught on to what was happening, $2,000 had been removed from my account. Yet the bank, once I pointed out the theft, restored all those stolen funds. Nothing and I mean NOTHING like that exists on a crypto exchange.

If you accidentally wire money from your bank to the wrong account or wire the wrong amount of money, your bank will be in a position to reverse the transaction. With crypto, all transactions are irreversible, so once you send crypto, the only way to get it back is by asking the party that received your crypto to give it back. And often that party will be anonymous, so good luck with that.

If you have crypto in a wallet and somebody learns your 12-word seed phrase or the associated private cryptographic key for the wallet, they can transfer all the crypto in the wallet to one of their own crypto wallets, and youll have no recourse for retrieving the cryptocurrency that was transferred. Even the legal system is unclear about what it means to steal cryptocurrency. Thats because cryptocurrency theft simply moves around bits electronically on a peer-to-peer network according to agreed upon protocols, and those bits have no legal standing as claims on property.Cryptocurrency theftis a multibillion dollar a year problem, and there is no clear system of legal redress.

Given these caveats, if you still want to invest in crypto, Im going to propose two approaches. One is simple (dollar cost averaging), and the other requires more work (trend trading). Im going to assume that you are investing in crypto because, despite extreme volatility, you see the price continuing to go up. In other words, Im going to assume you are bullish on crypto, and thus will be going long on it.

The alternative to being bullish on crypto is being neutral or bearish about it. If you are neutral, you may just ignore it. If, on the other hand, you are bearish on crypto, thinking that it is ultimately going to crash and burn, or even if you think it is going to go down significantly in the short term, then you will likely want to sell crypto short. Short selling crypto, especially with its extreme volatility, is, however, a recipe for losing a lot of money.

Short selling requiresmargin trading,which Coinbase no longer allowsbecause of recent regulatory changes in the U.S. (Coinbase is based in San Francisco). On the other hand, Binance, based in the Cayman Islands, does allow margin trading and thus short selling of crypto. Heres a briefvideo on how to short sell crypto at Binance, but engage in short selling crypto at your own peril.

In this light, its worth noting the attitude toward crypto of the hedge fund managers who successfully shorted mortgage-backed securities back during the financial crisis of 2007-08 (such as Michael Burry, played by Christian Bale in the filmThe Big Short). They made billions when the housing market collapsed in 2008.These same hedge fund managersthink that Bitcoin, and crypto in general, is a bubble that ultimately will deflate to zero. Even so, they are unwilling to short Bitcoin on account of its volatility as well as their inability to predict the details of its expected demise.

One final point, which well examine in more detail later, is the inequality with which crypto wealth is distributed. Those who have made the most money off of crypto have gotten in early when the cryptos valuation was low and have profited as its price skyrocketed. Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, is thought to havemined 1.1 million bitcoins. All these bitcoins have to date gone unused (did Satoshi die and are they forever lost?). Satoshis stash of bitcoins represents about 5 percent of all bitcoins that have or will ever be mined (the total being 21 million). At Bitcoins peak price to date, that represents about $70 billion. Satoshis case is extreme but not unique among crypto founders.

In going long on crypto, you are taking a bullish attitude toward it, thinking that over time it will, on average, continue to rise. In that case, your simplest strategy isdollar cost averaging(abbreviated DCA). In this strategy, you set aside a fixed amount of money and invest it in equal portions at regular intervals until the amount is used up.

In the limiting case, this strategy involves nothing more than putting aside a fixed amount for crypto and investing it all at once, such as when it has taken a huge dip after a historic high. Thus, after April of 2021, when Bitcoin hit over $60,000, it came down to about $30,000 that July. If you had been fortunate to invest in Bitcoin at that time, then you would have doubled your money when in October of 2021 Bitcoin went back up over $60,000.

In actual practice, however, dollar cost averaging means setting aside a sum money, dividing it into more than one equal portions, and investing each portion at regular intervals. For instance, suppose youve got $6,000. Lets say you want to invest that amount in a given cryptocurrency, spreading it out over the next four weeks, and so $1,500 per week. Lets say that the first week this cryptocurrency is valued at $100 per unit, the next week it goes up to $150 per unit, the next week it is down to $50 per unit, and the fourth and final week it is back to $100 per unit.

In that case, you obtain 15 units of the cryptocurrency the first week, 10 the second week, 30 the third week, and 15 the fourth week. Thats a total of 70 units of the cryptocurrency in the fourth week. Because the cryptocurrency in the fourth week is back at $100 per unit, and because you now own a total of 70 units, the value of the cryptocurrency you acquired over the last month is now $7,000, up $1,000 from what you had to invest at the start.

Note that in this four-week window, the cryptocurrency went up as much as it went down from the starting point, but you ended up gaining because you made back with extra during the low more than you lost during the high. If youre going long, you always make money by buying low and selling high, and dollar cost averaging allows you to come out ahead as long as buying high doesnt too much outweigh buying low.

As it is, the consistent pattern, at least for Bitcoin and Ethereum, is that however high these cryptocurrencies have gotten and however much they fall in value, they always eventually rebound and reach new unprecedented heights. If this pattern continues (no guarantees here), it means that dollar cost averaging will make you a return at whatever point you start using this strategy (even if you start at a high because youll be making losses back as you invest during the intervening lows and as the currency goes to its next unprecedented high). Or course, dollar cost averaging will make you that much more money the further down in the fall from the last high you start.

One caveat with this strategy: Dont use this strategy with money that you cant afford to lose or that you may need to reclaim for some urgent need. If you use this strategy, set aside the money you will use, and invest it according to your plan at the regular intervals specified by your plan. To make this strategy work, you need to stay the course with it.

Even so, recognize that your ability to stay with your DCA strategy may require some courage on your part given the extreme volatility of crypto. This volatility, when it hits a low, may convince you that youve invested in a sinking ship, in which case youll be tempted to jump ship. To counter this temptation, you may want to automate the investment at each interval and ignore the investments as they are happening in real time. With an investment strategy, its also good to have a strategy for dealing with your own psychological reactivity to unpleasant drops that may tempt you to lose heart.

In trend trading (akatechnical analysis), you try to capitalize on market momentum as the price goes up or as it goes down. You therefore want to buy as the market is low and sell as it is trending up (toward a peak). Conversely, you want to sell as the market is high and buy as it is trending low (toward a trough). Full-orbed trend traders will thus want to have short selling in their arsenal (so that they can sell the asset in question high even if they dont own it).

Trend trading looks for patterns in the price movement of an asset and attempts to profit by exploiting those patterns. Does trend trading work? Economist Eugene Famasefficient market hypothesissuggests that it shouldnt work because prices of assets are supposed to reflect all available information about the asset. But Famas subsequent work suggests that extreme momentum tilts of the sort one sees with cryptocurrencies may be exploited through trend trading.[1]

If you are going to be a trend trader, you really need to do your homework and develop for yourself the tools for spotting trends in the momentum of cryptocurrencies that you can exploit for profit. Some of these tools may be off the shelf, others you may need to build for yourself, and all of them will need to be continuously monitored, adapted, and updated. This can easily become a full-time job.

Its best to start by simulated trading (often still called paper trading) to see how well your system for exploiting trends really works and if it is capable of delivering a profit. And even if you are successful with simulated trading (showing a virtual profit), you need to make sure you stay the course with your trading strategy once your own money is on the line (and thus stand to see a real profit or loss).

If you want to do trend trading, you need to do your homework. A good place to start is Glen GoodmansThe Crypto Trader. For a deeper dive into the type of pattern analysis (also known as charting or technical analysis) that underlies trend trading, the locus classicus is Thomas SchabackersTechnical Analysis and Stock Market Profits, with the latest understanding of this field captured in Edwards et al.sTechnical Analysis of Stock Trends(11th edition, 2019).

Unlike dollar cost averaging, trend trading is not something you can just jump into. You first need to learn the ropes. In trend trading there are lots of moving pieces to keep track of. Youll need to be able to get in and out of trades quickly. This will requireconditional orders(such as stop and limit orders) where you can automate buys and sells when prices of the crypto in question reach certain ranges within certain time frames.

One final caveat: As with dollar cost averaging, the money you set aside for trend trading should be an amount you can afford to lose, especially in the early going. Even the best trend traders make plenty of mistakes in spotting and timing trends. As a trend trader, you expect to be losing on some trades and then hope to be making it back with more on others. But if trend trading were a magic bullet, you would see a lot more successful trend traders. The fact that you dont is itself telling.

Heres Part 1: Some brute facts about Bitcoin and other cryptos. Crypto is transforming money and finance. Like the computer, you dont need to use one but youre wise to know the basics. Start here. Crypto functions much like cash, avoiding or minimizing the increasing ability of government or other big institutions to snoop on who you give money to.

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If You Want To Stick a Toe in Bitcoin's World Read This First - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

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Where Will Bitcoin Be In 5 Years? Why Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Predicts Massive Growth And Adoption – Ben – Benzinga

Posted: at 11:13 am

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has beenextending the lean patch it has found itself in since early November. An analyst at Ark Invest, however, sees the apex cryptocurrency resuming its uptrend and outperforming in the coming years.

Cryptos A Hit In Developing Countries: Crypto activity in Turkey and Brazil surged in the recent week, which highlightsincreasing adoption in developing countries, Ark's Yassine Elmandjra said.

Cryptocurrency trading volumes in Turkey increased 1,065% from $169 million on average per day during the fourth quarter of 2020 to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, buoyed by Turkish lira's depreciation, the analyst said, quoting Chainalysis data. Tether (CRYPTO: USDT), a controversial stablecoin, gained ground in Turkey, outpacing both the dollar and the euro, he added.

Ark Invest noted that Rio de Janeiro mayor Eduardo Paes announced during Rio Innovation Week that Rio de Janeiro would invest 1% of its Treasury in bitcoin and deduct 10% from all property taxes paid in bitcoin.

Related Link: 2022 Begins With A Whimper For Most Cryptos, But 2 Currencies Are Making Strong Gains

Bitcoin Market Cap To Triple: As an investment, bitcoin could become an important savings vehicle in emerging markets, so much so that businesses might prefer payments in bitcoin rather than in fiat currency, Cathie Wood-founded Ark Invest said.

"If so, the velocity of fiat currencies could increase, exacerbating inflation and currency devaluations," Elmandjra said.

In the worst-case scenario, hyperinflation could render dollar-denominated debt worthless, he added.

Demand for bitcoin in emerging markets could increase as its infrastructure scales and reaches critical mass, Ark Invest said. If bitcoin were to capture just 5% of the global monetary base beyond the four largest fiat currencies the US dollar, yen, yuan, euro its market cap could more than triple from $800 billion today to $2.8 trillion by 2027, the firm noted.

Ark Invest is bullish on Bitcoin. The firm said in late December that Bitcoin offers the most profound function of blockchain technology, the foundation for "self-sovereign" digital money.

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Ranking the 10 Best Manning Cast Guests During Eli and Peyton Manning’s First Season – Sportscasting

Posted: at 11:12 am

The first season of the Manning Cast is now in the books. The innovative alternateMonday Night Footballbroadcast on ESPN2, hosted by former NFL quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning, finished its inaugural run with the first-ever Monday night Wild Card game. Now, well look back at the season that was and rank the 10 best Manning Cast guests from the shows maiden voyage.

When Peyton Mannings production company, Omaha Productions, announced its partnership with ESPN for a new type of football broadcast, no one knew what to expect. What followed was an exciting, hilarious, awkward, fascinating, and sometimes profane new football-watching experience.

Peyton and Elis brotherly relationship was at the shows core. However, the people who truly made the venture special were the guests. Some guests were good, some guests were, lets say, less than good, and a few were simply superb.

Here are all the guests who appeared on the Manning Cast this season:

It was an illustrious group of guests in season one of the Manning Cast, a virtual whos who of NFL players, ex-players, and celebrity fans. Some stood out above the rest, though, so here are the 10 best Manning Cast guests on the 2021 season.

The Manning Cast is, at its core, two ex-athletes talking football in a more entertaining way than has ever been done before. While the concept of the Manning Cast specifically is novel, the idea an ex-player can revolutionize a television format by sheer force of personality, and talking about the game in a way fans have never heard isnt new.

Sir Charles Barkley did that for NBA pregame shows. So, who better to start the first-ever Manning Cast?

The Round Mound of Rebound didnt disappoint either. Rocking aCarl Nassib Raiders jersey,Barkley was the perfect choice to kick off a bold new format.

Barkley came in hot, talking about his NFL gambling, crushing his high schools football coaches, and calling out modern-day NBA players for complaining about fouls. And with that, the Manning Cast was up and running.

What makes someone one of the best Manning Cast guests? Two things that many of the best guests had in common this season are A) they have a previous relationship with Peyton and/or Eli or, B) they have television/broadcast experience.

Michael Strahan delivers on both of those qualifications.

Strahan was an NFL superstar in the same era as Peyton Manning and was teammates (and won a Super Bowl with) Eli Manning. Listening to the three of them talk was truly like sitting with three of the most fun, knowledgeable buddies you could ask for, watching football at a bar.

The running highlight of the segment was Strahan and Eli venting their frustration about how far their beloved New York Giants have fallen.

Aaron Rodgers delivered everything weve come to expect from Aaron Rodgers in the last year during his Manning Cast appearance.

The controversial QB told a lovely story about howhe and Pat McAfee became friends, talked football with the Mannings on a level that no mortal human can understand, andsent the internet into a frenzyby shouting out Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged on his bookshelf.

Love Rodgers or hate him, when hes talking on TV, its hard to look away. The Mannings did a good job harnessing that vibe.

Phil Mickelson, as Pat McAfeetweetedduring the golfers appearance, understands the assignment of appearing on the Manning Cast. During the broadcast, it seemed like his sole goal was to roast Peyton and Eli, and he accomplished that goal.

Whether it was telling the two QBs that the Manning Cast Curse is absolutely a real thing or breaking down Elis cute little golf swing, Mickelson showed off his goofy, hilarious, trash-talking person that hes cultivated in recent years on social media and duringThe Match.

While the Manning Cast overall makes you want to watch football with Peyton and Eli, Mickelsons appearance demonstrated there is likely no person on earth who would be more fun to play 18 with than the six-time Major winner.

Dwayne The Rock Johnson is quite simply the most pleasant, positive, and enjoyable person in all of sports entertainment.

The wrestler/actor/businessman/likely future President of the United States was just a fantastic guest to spend a half-an-hour with. He told great stories about his football days at the University of Miami and gave an incredible motivational speech to the floundering Arizona Cardinals (who definitely didnt listen).

One of the most uplifting parts of his appearance was Johnson explaining how he bought the XFL to give more football players a chance to achieve the (seemingly) one and only dream that didnt come true in his life: making the NFL.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski has no filter, making him the perfect person for a live TV broadcast and one of the best Manning Cast guests.

Gronkbragged about not practicingon Fridays because he Red Zone Robby G, baby and doesnt need to practice catching touchdowns. He also told the notoriously studious Peyton and Eli that he doesnt really watch film. He simply asks his longtime QB Tom Brady who to run by, then runs by them.

Gronkowski eventually walked back his film comments after getting a talking-to from head coach Bruce Arians. However, Manning Cast viewers now know the truth. Gronk runs. Gronk catches. Gronk scores. Gronk spikes. Thats all there is to it, and its fantastic.

As much as youd love to share a beer or a cocktail with many of the stars on this list, Snoop Dogg once again cemented his longtime, well-earned reputation as the one person in the world who would be the most fun to share a wellsomething elsewith.

Snoop D-O-Double G was cool, funny, and both passionate and knowledgeable about the game of football. His connection to the game goes way back. He even runs a youth football league in the LA area that has produced NFL players, like Juju Smith-Schuster.

Also, Snoop gifting the buttoned-up Eli Manning a Death Row Records chain for being so hip hop for his birthday and the producers photoshopping the rapper into a Manning Family photo as the fourth Manning brother were two of the highlights of the entire season.

Former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch was one of the best Manning Cast guests because he was the perfect example of a former player who decided to just get loose and hang out with the Mannings on a Monday night.

The Beast Quake runner told the Mannings he took three shots of Hennessy before his appearance. I took one for me, I took one for big bruh, and I got one for little bruh, Lynch said. That may explain why he dropped three s**** and one f*** during his live TV appearance.

It. Was. Awesome.

One of the only things that could make the Manning Cast better (and slightly less awkward) is if the broadcast had a host to play traffic cop and make the show flow a little more smoothly. The problem is, where can you find an ex-NFL player who knows Peyton and Eli and has bona fide hosting credentials?

Enter Pat McAfee.

The sports talk host would be a perfect addition to the broadcast next season if the Mannings want to enhance the show. In his appearance, McAfee led the conversation when needed but still let the brothers shine. He also told hisamazing Red 18 story, which added to the broadcast.

Heres hoping the 2022 Manning Cast cast is Peyton, Eli, and Pat.

The Manning Cast is all about NFL fans getting to spend time with two legendary QBs talking about life and football. Whats the only thing better than that?

Three legendary QBs.

Listening in on a conversation between, arguably, the two best signal-callers in NFL history and the one QB to get the best of the GOAT twice was quite a treat. Watching Brady on the Manning Cast was truly a football fans dream.

The three quarterbacks with 11 Super Bowls between them talked football, busted each others chops, and had what certainly looked like a great time together. It was a true joy for fans and the pinnacle of what the Manning Cast can be, which is why Brady was the best Manning Cast guest this season.

If Pat McAfee doesnt join the Manning bros next season, maybe they will add Brady to the broadcast when he finally retires, just in time for the 20th anniversary of the Manning Cast in 2041.

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Ranking the 10 Best Manning Cast Guests During Eli and Peyton Manning's First Season - Sportscasting

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Novak Djokovic is a profile in selfishness, and sports leaders are failing us all – ESPN

Posted: at 11:12 am

Novak Djokovic, at least for the time being, has won his case against Australian authorities attempting to revoke the visa that would allow him to compete in the Australia Open, which begins Monday morning in Melbourne -- Sunday evening for U.S. viewers. The moment Djokovic takes the court at Rod Laver Arena, he will be the overwhelming favorite to win his 21st major title, finally, at long last, surpassing both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in their exhaustive, historic major title race. He has won the past three Australian Open titles and nine overall.

The start of the tennis season in Australia and New Zealand is usually full of optimism and anticipation. The Australian Open is even nicknamed the "Happy Slam" because of the festive energy on the grounds. But in the arena of his greatest dominance, Djokovic now faces heightened distrust and hard feelings, nationally and internationally, in addition to his potential deportation. How Djokovic emerges over the coming weeks and months will have come at the heavy cost of current events: Djokovic detained by Australian border authorities; his admission that he appeared at several events in December apparently having tested positive for COVID-19 days earlier; his continued decision to be indirect about his vaccination status; appearing to receive special treatment the Australian people are denied. Even if the Australian government removes him from the country, the questions of his behavior during a pandemic nevertheless remain. At the moment, Djokovic has lost by winning, the crowning achievement that could await him already tarnished before he hits his first ball of the fortnight.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

On its face, the story is Djokovic. He has cemented his membership within the pandemic's most infamous group -- the anti-vax multimillionaire athlete who behaves as if his fame, wealth and enormous platform to disseminate misinformation place him above the rest of us. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving are also members of the club -- and even Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, long held as politically conscientious antithesis to his frightened, apolitical generational predecessors, posted Spider-Man memes conflating COVID-19 with the flu. In his own way, Irving has emerged as something of the most principled of the group, unable to play home games at the Barclays Center because of New York City's vaccine mandate. He first responded to the pandemic with disdain, confidently repeating his conspiracy theories as if he possessed knowledge beyond that of mere lifetime health professionals before quietly choosing to not play -- and dealing with the consequences that accompanied his decision.

2 Related

Rodgers purposely misled the public with an insulting word dance, calling himself "immunized" when asked whether he was vaccinated. In another appearance, Rodgers then trolled his critics, brandishing a copy of Ayn Rand's dystopian 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" as some form of harbinger that we live in a time of persecuting society's winners, or as the bible of his invaluable individualism -- or both -- and that as one of those winners, he is the prime victim of a looming nefariousness. Rodgers is nowhere near as clever or interesting as he thinks he is.

While the past 10 years will be remembered for the return of the political athlete, the COVID-19 era has produced a less heroic professional citizen-athlete. Athletes lauded for using their voices to benefit the conditions of others have been replaced by the pandemic-era player beholden completely unto himself -- unburdened by community or responsibility to others, using vaunted platforms to disseminate pseudoscience, to elevate and separate themselves.

These superathlete voices now send a different message -- that they owe nothing because they create so much: revenue and legacy for the suits; pleasure for the watchers; security for their families. They are the value. They are why we watch. In turn, they carry themselves as though they are exempt from our common struggle. While Australians and citizens around the world sacrifice to resume their lifestyles by suffering through the difficult steps of vaccine mandates ostensibly for the long-term greater good, several high-profile athletes have decided the only name that matters is the one on the back of their jerseys.

The Atlases have shrugged. Everyone is on their own.

The easy reflex is to focus on only Djokovic, and scrutiny of him is appropriate. His recklessness has run counter to the leadership example he claims to want beyond possessing the greatest backhand in the world. He is, after all, not a first-time offender when it comes to poor pandemic decision-making. It was Djokovic, after all, who was behind the disastrous maskless charity exhibition tournament in the summer of 2020 held in defiance of medical opinion that turned into a superspreader event. And now, he has apparently broken the isolation protocols of his own country by traveling to Spain and entered Australia with false documents. He has blamed human error, his handlers, but treats each infraction as an unfortunate clerical error and not a pattern of broken trust during a deadly time.

Djokovic will receive the attention now -- there certainly will be vitriol to accompany his wide support. But it is the entire industry of sports -- the leagues and their teams, governing bodies, the players and their unions, and fans -- that has collectively been one of the least responsible entities during the pandemic. Perhaps COVID-19 has merely exposed the selfishness that comes with individualism as orthodoxy, but it has been the game's leadership that has enabled the players' behavior, not the other way around.

The United States must always carry its negligent and deadly initial response to the pandemic, denigrating mask use as a tool for the weak, and worse, a symbol of fascism, positioning the pandemic as a hoax, even as the health care system overloaded and Central Park served as a portable morgue.

So, too, must sports carry its burden. Two years ago, the industry saw the apocalypse -- the games shut down but more importantly, of life moving on. In the weeks and months between the initial shutdown in March 2020 and the slow resumption of the Major League Baseball regular season and the NBA/WNBA bubbles, America seemed hungry for sports because it provided a pathway to give people hope that normalcy was possible. But Americans also were quickly adjusting to life without the games. When people couldn't find hand sanitizer or toilet paper, hitting a ball with a stick wasn't that important, after all.

UNESSENTIAL

The games responded by assuming their historical position, ready to assist their nation in times of crisis, to provide diversion as healer -- and then used that position to do whatever it took to survive. Sports have been needed for the nation's morale, just as the World Series was not canceled during either World War -- and during the first year of the pandemic, the public was told it needed the games. In the cultural lexicon, alongside the doctors, nurses, EMTs, supermarket employees and delivery people, athletes were being called essential workers. While borders were being locked down and citizens were being asked -- and told -- to take on increased safety measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, the business of sports was given a special exemption. Sports was positioned as an ally to getting the world back to normal. Borders opened -- not for you, but for sports. Tennis players still traveled the world when few others could. When COVID-19 tests were first rolled out, athletes often had first access to them.

And what did sports do with that special exemption? It did everything it could to not set the example, to not be essential, but to stay in business on its terms. The industry refused to act on its responsibility in fighting a global health crisis. Sports adopted the divisive political rhetoric of vaccine efficacy over health, of the personal over the collective, guided by the specter of the existential moment -- any possibility of a second mass shutdown. The NBA players, led by LeBron James, refused a second bubble. Players' associations across each sport rejected the suggestion of vaccine mandates. That was a nonstarter. Desperate to win, Kyrie Irving was back on the court. Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians put Antonio Brown back on the roster after the receiver's three-game suspension for using a fake vaccine card. Colleges exempted athletes from rules that applied to student bodies. Instead of leading, several highly prominent players, as well as their counterparts in the celebrity class, immediately questioned the value of vaccines. Sports was in it for itself. Atlas shrugged.

It did not become an example but instead an accelerant of the divisions, a reflection of the anti-science, the cynicism, the pandemic as politics. At its core -- a point that can never be forgotten -- is the issue of public health and the trust that, as a public figure, an athlete will not expose other people to an airborne illness. But many of its highest-profile players gave the loudest voice to the anti-vax rhetoric that has stifled recovery -- using their platforms to shout conspiracy from the rooftops. The leaders have acted as poorly as the players, fearing bad news from their accountants and resistance from the athletes. The games rejected -- as they often do during stadium and relocation battles with local municipalities -- the partnership with the public they espouse in theory but rarely in practice. Some of the healthiest, most visible people in the country are actively using their positions to undermine confidence in the public health. The dispensation that sports leagues and their teams receive -- the tax breaks on stadiums, the public money for their private enterprise as schools and roads crumble -- exists under the premise that, at its core, sports serves the public. During a pandemic when breathing air can be a deadly exercise, the private business has horribly failed the public. The same criticisms could be leveled at politicians, media, celebrities, but those entities don't routinely rely on in-person audiences to perform at peak efficiency while selling their product as vital to the health and fitness of the nation, its performers role models to the youth. Restaurants in New York City have made harder choices than the NBA, NFL, ATP Tour and all the rest.

Some athletes understand the deal, like three-time tennis major winner Andy Murray. "Ultimately I guess the reason why all of us are getting vaccinated is to look out for the wider public," Murray told The New York Times in September. "We have a responsibility as players that are traveling across the world, yeah, to look out for everyone else as well. I'm happy that I'm vaccinated. I'm hoping that more players choose to have it in the coming months."

As an industry, sports pulled a bait-and-switch, deciding collective health was now an individual choice -- and the reason Rodgers and Djokovic and others like them receive outsized attention when most players are vaccinated isn't because the world prefers to focus on the negative but because these players are actively using their positions to serve only themselves. Sports has failed us, and the resultant failure of its leadership has insulted the people who have shouldered the real-life costs of the pandemic -- more than 61 million cases in the United States, and, to date, nearly 840,000 deaths.

League leadership has relied on the personal responsibility of its members to avoid its own. Whether it's MLB, tennis or the NHL, leagues have touted the high percentages of vaccinated players but avoided implementing a mandate, which paved the way for specious exemptions to coexist with the legitimate ones. Instead of protecting the public, sports have devolved into the minutiae of sleuthing the individual whereabouts of players trying to skirt flimsy policies.

Tennis, in particular, could have made the choice of decisive collective action. The tournaments that constitute the coveted Grand Slam -- the Australian and US Opens, Wimbledon and Roland Garros -- are the most powerful events in the sport. Each could have individually or collectively made the choice that players must be vaccinated to participate -- virtually without exception. Each did not hesitate to act in concert when Naomi Osaka refused to agree to postmatch media sessions during the French Open, which eventually led to her withdrawal from the tournament. When organizers at Roland Garros threatened Osaka to submit to do media sessions or be removed from the tournament, organizers at the other three Slams all issued statements that if Osaka did not agree to media interviews in Paris, she would not be welcomed to participate in New York, London or Melbourne. The four most important tennis tournaments in the world could immediately agree to make Osaka sit for an interview -- or else -- but chose to consider vaccinations during a pandemic that has claimed the lives of millions a personal choice.

THE POPULIST ILLUSION

Now it is Djokovic who stands as a symbol, both as a system-fighter and as a system-fighter for the wrong reasons. While Americans John Isner and Venus Williams embarrassingly cheered his victory over the Australian government, Djokovic is not trying to make a point beyond wanting to play tennis on his individual terms, not an ally to the improvement of public health, nor a contributor to the eradication of a virus that has ruined people's lives worldwide. Neither is his sport. When Australian authorities detained Djokovic, organizers of Roland Garros continued the pattern of sports undermining the public health by immediately capitalizing on the situation, releasing a self-serving cynically timed statement that Djokovic would be allowed to play the French Open in June.

Djokovic's appeal can be seen as simple. He is arguably the greatest tennis player in history. In this era of counting major titles, he likely will surpass Federer and Nadal -- the game's standard-bearers of this era -- and possibly shatter their totals. Djokovic is the perfect player for this era, with impeccable balance, backhand, forehand, constricting defense and a champion's will. When Djokovic improved his serve in 2011, he became unstoppable -- 19 majors in the ensuing 10 years. Like Federer at Wimbledon and Nadal at Roland Garros, he has dominated Melbourne like no other male player. In an era when many top world players would not travel to Melbourne because of the distance, Margaret Court nevertheless won 11. Like Federer and Nadal, Djokovic is one of the greatest players of all time on every surface.

He is human, given to fits of temper and occasional loss of control. He is to some a sharp, relatable contrast to the regal and gentlemanly artifice so carefully crafted around Federer and Nadal. To others, he is an unbecoming ambassador despite his titles. Djokovic being defaulted from the 2020 US Open for hitting a lineswoman with a ball, and his tremendous 2021 season where he was a US Open victory away from winning the calendar Grand Slam, appeared to heal that wound and bring Djokovic closer to the unqualified adoration great champions receive.

But he is complex in what he represents to his people. His presence is populist, a symbol of the uninvited, condescended-to Eastern European whose winning has forced a hostile, Western elite to recognize him -- which explains why supporters in Melbourne endured pepper spray in clashes with police. Despite the cheers and the championships, Djokovic has never been able to stray far from the persistent narrative that tennis audiences love him less than a champion of his stature should be loved. For Serbs and millions of others worldwide who have felt the First World looking down its privileged noses at their people, the great Djokovic is their avenger.

In a certain sense, Djokovic represents to his Serbian followers a similar symbolization to how Black American fans view Serena and Venus Williams -- the interloper to the elite, white, First World game, tolerated but never wanted by the great establishment, whose overwhelming success and dominance made them impossible to ignore. Finally, they have a champion who can avenge all of their endured slights, who is great enough to beat them in their own house, and by their own rules. Djokovic can exact revenge for every humiliation. For a century, tennis has been the game of the white West, created and owned by England, Australia, France and the United States -- and the exclusive country clubs and prestigious tournaments that come with it. It has been primarily a First World game in culture and geography, and the twin powerhouse of Federer and Nadal added new flags to the mantel. But Switzerland was already part of the European in-crowd, Spain an original colonist that had already enjoyed a comfortable (if not dominant) place in the history of tennis, men's and women's.

Djokovic's representing of the spurned classes -- primarily as a national figure of a long-spurned, battered country -- has protected him. While Djokovic was detained, his father said his son being in federal custody was a direct insult to the Serbian people, and his release set off clashes between Djokovic supporters and law enforcement, who used pepper spray against the crowds that blocked traffic.

As a symbol of Western aggressions against his people, Djokovic has taken his position as outsider and used it to become a reformer. He is the public face and co-founder of the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA), the fledgling rival to the long-established ATP, and speaks of being an advocate for lower-ranked players who can barely eke out a living outside of the top 50. But despite being the greatest player in the game, he is not universally trusted as a leader.

This latest episode, regardless of its resolution, only further weakens that trust -- even as Djokovic will draw additional support from the anti-vax, anti-mandate crowd that feels aggrieved. Djokovic is merely today's Atlas. Tomorrow, there will be another. And while he, Rodgers and many of sports' most prominent performers shrug along, masters of their universe, the behavior is theirs, but it should not be forgotten that reckless populism is largely responsible for creating the global disaster from which we cannot emerge.

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Every extra decibel matters – The Times of India Blog

Posted: at 11:12 am

A recent paper by Jennifer DSouza and colleagues [1] analyzed the effect of long-term urban noise in Western cities, on blood pressure and found that for every 10 dBA increase in noise, there was an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Audio version of the blog

Noise pollution is ubiquitous and affects all of us to some degree or the other, in one way or the other.

A few years ago, I went to a discotheque/dance pub in Bandra with a visiting niece and her husband. They played trance music in an enclosed room and a couple of hours later when we left, my ears were ringing.and continued to ring till the next evening. Clearly, I had killed some of my auditory sensory cells that day.

This was an example of extreme exposure to loud noise, but even the noise that pounds us on a daily basis can cause harm. The older I grow, the less I can stand people honking or playing loud music or for that matter using loud ring tones on mobile phones. I now wear a pair of AirPods Pro whenever I am in the car and restrict my outdoor walks and runs to the morning, when the din is far less. A secret? I carry and often wear my earphones at weddings and other events, especially in halls where loud music is being played or performed. Hell, I even carried them to the horrible U2 concert two years ago in Mumbaihorrible because the sound was so terrible, it made U2 sound worse than a college band getting together for the first time. The AirPods helped dampen the screechy sound and actually made it easier to listen to them.

Sixty five dB is the upper daytime limit in commercial areas, 55 in residential and 75 in industrial zones. Inside our homes and living areas, 30 dB is the maximum level of sound that the WHO and other bodies recommend [2].

Consistent exposure to noise above these levels is harmful.

The harm can be broadly divided into two verticals. The first is direct, where the noise affects our hearing. Hearing loss is a profoundly disabling condition and creates problems, not just for you, but also for those around you, who then have to adapt to your inability to hear. Modern hearing aids make a huge difference as do cochlear implants, even in the elderly, and I will write about this in detail in the future. But suffice to say, if we can take steps to prevent hearing loss in the first place, by limiting or reducing our exposure to loud noise, that would go a long way in our atmasvasth quest to live long, healthy. The temporary ringing that I experienced after my exposure to loud trance music, is medically called tinnitus and if this becomes permanent or continues for a long period of time, it also affects our health adversely.

The other health problems with loud noise are the more insidious changes of noise sickness. The first is raised blood pressure, where the causal data is becoming more and more robust as in the recent article that I started this piece with.

Loud noise also affects sleep and poor sleep, in turn, is associated with a reduction in healthspan and lifespan. Noise sickness includes increasing annoyance levels and irritability, poor mental well-being and increasing risk of cardiovascular disease, apart from high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, the quality of evidence for these outcomes is not robust and though it seems quite obvious that loud noise is harmful, a lot more research needs to be done to show cause and effect and then to determine whether measures taken to reduce noise levels improve these outcomes.

As Danah Boyd says, Uncertainty is central to the scientific process. But in a public policy context, uncertainty can be politicized to undermine scientific consensus, [3] as has happened with cigarette smoking, ultra-processed foods, Covid-19 vaccines, etc.

Surprisingly and thankfully, most governments and policy makers are not waiting for the results of high quality research, but based on common sense, laboratory tests and guidance from the WHO, have already instituted measures and laws to reduce noise levels to the lowest possible.

Legislation though is just a start, because what is more important is enforcement. While we are often able to reduce decibel levels related to firecrackers or festival music through a combination of enforcement and social and peer pressure, reducing noise due to honking, especially in Indian cities, seems to be an impossible task at this point in time. All our major cities have outdoor noise levels beyond prescribed norms and Mumbai and Delhi are also among the noisiest cities worldwide.

So how does this affect you and I and what can we do. At a community level, we should try and put pressure whenever and wherever possible, on noise polluters around us to reduce noise levels. Often, those who create noise (pandals, commercial ventures) may not even be aware of the problems they are causing and just talking to them sometimes produces positive results, without having to take recourse to the law. Loud noise affects all of us and often the perpetrators themselves are willing to reduce noise levels for their own well-being.

At an individual level, you can start by not honking and by training your drivers and chauffeurs not to honk. You can also request taxi drivers to not honk and perhaps even give them an incentive (an additional Rs 50 or Rs 100), if they can manage the ride without honking. Apart from not honking, you can also make sure that you are not the one adding to the noise pollution at home or at work.

And lastly, you can reduce your own exposure to noise by wearing headphones and earphones, preferably noise cancelling, whenever and wherever you believe there will be undue loud noise. I started with a pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones many years ago on flights. Nowadays, I make sure my AirPods are always near me and use them liberally. Most noise cancelling headphones reduce decibel levels by 20-30 dB, which can mean the difference between staying sane and being annoyed and distracted and irritable.

In our atmasvasth quest to live long, healthy, it is a good idea to reduce our exposure to noise. And even if the medical evidence related to specific harmful effects and adverse outcomes is not as robust as with other factors such as physical activity, food, smoking, etc, the lower the noise levels, the more peaceful our lives will be.

Footnotes:

1. DSouza J et al. Hypertension 2021;78:18012. https://cpcb.nic.in/who-guidelines-for-noise-quality/3. https://zephoria.substack.com/p/statistical-imaginaries

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Tulamor returns to in Charge Recordings with brand new track ‘Route 88’ – Rave Jungle

Posted: at 11:12 am

Super-talented DJ and producer Tulamor is back again with a powerful new track entitled Route 88 just for your listening pleasure!

On the highway to the danger zone, Polish piledriver Tulamor follows Night Rider and Venom into the realm of do-or-die trance, testing the speed limit with dark tones and high intensity.

Dramatic key changes in the main melody of Route 88 will have you fastening your seatbelt, loosened by an ambient breakdown installing a temporary dream sequence drawn towards white lights.

Then its back to reality with a bang as the race for survival resumes and Tulamor continues his journey as one of the most forward-thinking trance producers out there.

Listen to the track here.

Alex Gelevski is our official photographer. He has been listening to electronic dance music since middle school. Apart from being photographer for Rave Jungle he likes to play basketball in his spare time.

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Armin van Buuren’s ASOT 1000 show rescheduled due to Covid-19 – We Rave You

Posted: at 11:12 am

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic continues to unleash devastating blows to the live events industry, with lockdowns throughout the world making festivals and shows impossible. Armin Van Buuren sees himself as the next artist to be affected by these restrictions as his highly anticipated ASOT 1000 in Utrecht, a celebration for Armins 1000thASOTepisode, faces a further postponement.

Already receiving multiple postponements in the past, the show was originally supposed to take place on 3rd and 4th September 2021 before being rescheduled to the 18th and 19th February 2022. Now due to the extension of restrictions in The Netherlands brought in by the Omicron variant of Covid-19 Armin Van Buuren himself took to social media via a video announcement in great sadness to inform eager festivalgoers that the iconic shows new date would be 3rd and 4th March 2023. Armin Van Buuren states in the video:

Weve been following the news closely and with the current situation, we feel its not responsible to organise episode 1000 the celebration weekend in February 2022 with the health and safety of our fans, staff and the artists on the line. Therefore its with deep sadness weve decided to postpone the show once again.

there was a further statement on The State Of Trances official website which informs that the international element, as well as the sheer magnitude of the event, was another reason that the show has seen a postponement. It also states that ticket holders will receive more information on the next steps regarding their tickets via email over the next few days. You can check out the statement in its full here and you can also view the video from Armin Van Buuren below. We hope that the ASOT 1000 Utrecht can take place on its new date of3rd and 4th March 2023.

Last night, the Dutch Government has extended the covid measures. Therefore, it is with deep sadness that we have decided to postpone the ASOT Celebration Weekend to 3 & 4 March 2023, in Jaarbeurs Utrecht.

Read more: https://t.co/4yV3gW3etg @arminvanbuuren #ASOT1000 #ASOTNL pic.twitter.com/kGsCuLa7ji

A State of Trance (@asot) January 15, 2022

Image Credit: Armin van Buuren (via Facebook)

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Latest acts revealed for the festival dubbed the ‘Welsh Glastonbury’ – Nation.Cymru

Posted: at 11:11 am

//= do_shortcode('[in-content-square]')?> In It Together Festival 2022

The biggest music festival that Wales has ever seen has revealed the names of another 50 acts that will be playing the three day event this summer.

Styling itself as the biggest ever festival of its kind in Wales and promising it will be a true celebration of Wales and Welsh culture, organisers have announcedthe full list of 50 Welsh artists who will perform across the 40,000 capacity festival to be held between June 3-5 in Margam.

Some of the best new talent across the country will perform alongside a plethora of international superstars (such as previously announced headliners Noel Gallagher, Two Door Cinema Club and Clean Bandit) shining a light on local talent like never before.

Weekend to remember

The 50 artists cover a huge range of genres spanning the entire musical spectrum, with 25 artists performing across the Paddock Stage, showcasing the very best in indie, rock, grime and hip hop, including Cardiff born singer-songwriter Gwenno and Swansea indie rockers Whos Molly.

The other 25 artists will take over the Escape Records Stage covering all things electronic, from rising Trance star Will Rees, to tech-house maestros This Culture.

Both stages have been carefully curated alongside Focus Wales and BBC Horizons, providing an unrivalled platform that will truly establish them as Wales next generation of music stars.

Bethan Elfyn, Project Manager for BBC Horizons said: Were excited at Horizons to see a new festival on the Welsh map we look forward to supporting the festival, curating some of the Welsh talent and working with the team to make the weekend one to remember. Its so important after the last couple of years of restrictions on music events to see new events provide new opportunities and experiences for Welsh artists.

As well as welcoming some of the best talent Wales has to offer, the festival will also host a range of local food vendors providing the very best in local cuisine, as well as working with local suppliers from across the country to create a truly Welsh experience, while the festivals website will also be available in both English and Welsh.

Escape Records Director Adam Gore added: Our company was born out of the Cardiff nightclub scene, starting out hosting parties in the smallest venues in the city, to filling 3000 capacity venues on Greyfriars Road. Weve since gone on to launch festivals all over Wales, but this will undoubtedly be our biggest project to date. We are incredibly proud of our Welsh roots and felt it only right that we make our biggest ever festival a true celebration of Wales and Welsh culture.

To buy tickets and find out more click HERE

The 50 Welsh artists are:

A-J/72ADWAITHAFROCLUSTERANDREW DAVIESARKALA DREBANDICOOTBENJI WILDBENNIEBLACKELVISCAMPFIRE SOCIALCAMRONCLUCLWB FUZZDOMZEADYTHELERI ANGHARADELMARSHEMMA PONESKIGEORGE ELLISGREG COLMANGWENNOHANA LILIHPDIEUAN HAILEJACKSON LUCITTJASON PJAY PJONNY GRIFFITHSKATY HARRIZLEMFRECKLITCHY & SMILEYLOCALLONG CAILOS BLANCOSMARTIN ROGERSMONIQUE BNFAMADY KOUYATERAUDI TTREAPERREBECCA HURNREUEL ELIJAHROB DAVIESROB EROB REESRYAN REESSILENT FORUMT4NKTHE NOWTHIS CULTURETWO TILL TWELVEWHOS MOLLYWILL REESYEAR OF THE DOG

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Latest acts revealed for the festival dubbed the 'Welsh Glastonbury' - Nation.Cymru

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