Top stories in Ottawa in 2024(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Maximilian Brichta , University of Southern California (THE CONVERSATION) Rockets aren’t the only thing Elon Musk is sending into the stratosphere. After a three-year plummet, Dogecoin is blasting off again , jumping 250% since the election of Donald Trump – part of a broader wave of optimism in the industry , due to Trump’s courting of crypto advocates during his campaign. Trump’s informal appointment of Musk to what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency – D.O.G.E for short – also helped pump the dog-themed meme coin . This isn’t the first time Musk, who styles himself as “ the Dogefather ,” has fueled interest in Dogecoin. In May 2021, its price shot up in anticipation of Musk’s guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” During one skit, Musk played a financial analyst in conversation with a Weekend Update host, who repeatedly asked him, “What is Dogecoin?” After some obfuscation, Musk’s character finally admitted that it was a hustle. The price of the coin went into a freefall . Just over a year later, it had shed over 90% of its peak value . The losses hit small investors hard. In 2022, one of them filed a class action lawsuit against Musk for market manipulation and insider trading, though the case was dismissed in August 2024. Why has Dogecoin – a meme coin that was never meant to be taken seriously as an investment – seen such extreme swings in value? We’re all in this together Dogecoin was launched in 2013 to spoof bitcoin and a slew of other cryptocurrencies that were claiming to disrupt the traditional world of finance. Two strangers from across the globe met online , copied the code of an existing coin, and branded it with the already popular Doge internet meme – a picture of a Shiba Inu dog surrounded by fragments of broken English: “wow much coin.” Although their main goal was to make the coin pointless and undesirable, it became one of the most popular and enduring cryptocurrencies on the market. Following Dogecoin’s previous surge in 2021, I studied how its fervent network of influencers and everyday investors worked together to draw tremendous attention – and capital – to the joke currency. To understand the appeal of these absurd investments, you have to look at the time and energy that users invest into these networks and the rewards, both financial and social, they get in return. Meme coins are collaborative enterprises. Members of these online communities have an economic incentive to become outspoken boosters: The more the value of Dogecoin rises, the more their investments grow. But they also receive social validation from other meme coin investors when they pump up the coin. In other words, behind every meme coin is a collective of strangers on a communal mission to make more money. Dogecoin and its imitators have been described by their leadership as crypto movements , shared journeys and community-owned projects. Beyond branding the assets with culturally resonant images, whether it’s a Shiba Inu dog or Pepe the Frog , successful crypto ventures are characterized by complex webs of trust. Trust in the technology. Trust in its potential for future appreciation. And trust that those holding power in the networks won’t exploit the rest. This loyalty is woven among a global network of users who collaborate around the clock to promote their coin and demonstrate their unwavering commitment to its success. In times of price appreciation, the collective buzzes with elation . During price dips, community members mutually reinforce their comrades’ – and their own – beliefs that this is just a bump in the road and that their collective efforts will eventually lead to a handsome payoff. Even in the coldest of crypto winters , this ritualistic behavior helps these speculative communities endure. Community serves as a substitute for financial loss. The investment strategies in these communities – and the conviction in their payoff – involve repeating and reposting what others have said, like any traditional internet meme. Trolling traditional valuation The real value of meme coins cannot be understood in the same way as traditional assets, such as stocks and physical commodities. These types of assets have fundamentals, such as a company’s financial statements, or public demand for basic goods, from coffee to oil. Conversely, the fundamentals of meme coins are reflected in their network activity, such as daily active users, and less concrete metrics, such as social sentiment and mindshare – how much public awareness a coin has generated compared with its rivals. Of course, the valuations of traditional assets are also affected by these social factors. The difference is that meme coins offer little by way of productive activity. They add nothing to the economy. Occasionally, their leadership will build financial services around them , but these are generally added as afterthoughts, especially as a way to drum up more speculative excitement. Meme coins troll the traditional conventions of valuation and mock the edicts and dogmas of mainstream investors. And that’s exactly the point. Participation in meme coin communities – or any crypto community, for that matter – entails embracing an alternative economic experience. They are speculative sandboxes for playing outside of the conventional rules of investment. Who let the Doge out? Musk is the quintessential meme coin influencer. As the richest man in the world, he’s viewed by many as a paragon of savvy investing. His massive following extends far beyond Dogecoin’s social network. And his promotional efforts are playful – so playful that the judge in his class-action case dismissed his Dogecoin tweets as mere “puffery” and that “no reasonable investor could rely upon them.” Dogecoin previously reached the peak of its memetic momentum when Musk appeared on “Saturday Night Live.” Now, instead of sitting at the Weekend Update news desk cracking jokes, he’s sitting in Trump’s office advising the president-elect. In other words, Dogecoin’s memetic resonance has ascended from pop culture to politics, helping it capture a bigger slice of the public’s mindshare. While Dogecoin has specifically benefited from Musk’s proximity to Trump, the broader crypto market is leaping with optimism for a crypto-friendly administration. Speaking at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in July, the GOP candidate ensured he’d make the United States “ the crypto capital of the planet .” After pouring $131 million into this election cycle , the crypto industry can now claim 274 pro-crypto members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 20 pro-crypto U.S. senators. Between Musk buddying up with Trump and a shifting regulatory environment, the dog can once again run free. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/dogecoin-is-a-joke-so-whats-behind-its-rally-243686 .
A team has developed the world's first technology to prevent damage caused by "positive lightning," which frequently occurs in offshore wind farms during winter. Just as voltage has positive and negative poles, lightning also has positive and negative polarities. When clouds carry a positive charge and the ground carries a negative charge, positive polarity , while the opposite case results in negative polarity lightning. About 90% of the lightning strikes that occur are negative polarity lightning, while positive polarity lightning occurs with a relatively low probability. However, positive polarity lightning has a much higher current intensity, increasing the likelihood of causing major accidents. Additionally, positive polarity lightning primarily occurs in winter when the altitude of clouds is lower. With the recent increase in demand for , the construction of wind turbines has also been on the rise. In particular, in South Korea, there is a growing trend of large wind turbines specialized for low wind speed environments being moved offshore. However, are highly vulnerable to lightning strikes from thunderclouds because the turbines are tall and there are few other structures around. Damage to the blades (rotors) caused by such lightning strikes can lead to the shutdown of wind turbines, resulting in significant losses, including repair costs. KERI's achievement is the development of a new edge receptor to protect wind turbine blades from positive lightning. Currently, wind turbine blades are equipped with an air-termination system, a type of lightning rod that attracts lightning strikes to minimize damage. However, this system has low protection efficiency against positive lightning. Positive polarity lightning has a highly irregular pattern and a much higher current, requiring more advanced technology for effective protection. To address this, Dr. Woo Jeong-min's team conducted in-depth research on various polarities and conditions, and thoroughly analyzed the effects of the blade's rotation angle and material. As a result, Dr. Woo Jeong-min's team found that, unlike negative polarity lightning, positive polarity lightning strikes the side edges of the blade, bypassing the air-termination at the tip and causing damage. This happens because the positive charge in the air accumulates near the air-termination, and the positive polarity lightning, having the same charge, avoids it and strikes the middle part of the blade, which carries a negative charge. The research team created a scaled-down model to thoroughly analyze the blades affected in these specific lightning vulnerability areas, and repeatedly conducted artificial lightning experiments using high-resolution cameras to accumulate data. They also used precision measurement systems and simulation technologies to replicate various blade rotation angles and environmental conditions during the experiments. Through this, the research team was able to design a new edge receptor that optimally positions the air-termination along the side edges of the blade. They confirmed that this method can control the charge distribution of positive polarity lightning, minimizing the damage. Dr. Woo Jeong-min of KERI said, "KERI is the only institution in the world that has designed countermeasures against positive polarity lightning for wind turbine blades and successfully conducted experimental verification. "With our technology, we will greatly contribute to improving the stability and efficiency of wind turbines, promoting the expansion of renewable energy, and ultimately have a positive impact on reducing electricity bills for consumers." The results of this study are in . KERI plans to apply the newly developed edge receptor to full-scale wind blades and collect more experimental data. They also aim to register related patents and pursue technology transfer to companies. Furthermore, KERI envisions that this achievement could be applied not only to wind power but also to other lightning-prone areas, such as tall buildings, communication towers, and offshore structures, and they aim to expand the scope of their research.
Home | Dlamini dismisses reports that Ndlozi is barred from EFF’s conference EFF Secretary-General Marshall Dlamini has dismissed reports that the party’s MP, Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, has been barred from attending the party’s elective conference in December. Ndlozi has been publicly criticized for his silence, while senior members are leaving the red berets to join the Zuma-led MK Party. Speaking on the sidelines of the Provincial General Assembly in East London in the Eastern Cape, Dlamini has described such reports as misleading and an attempt to defocus the party ahead of its conference. “We’ve got 2,500 delegates that are coming. If you want me to give you the list ... because I can’t speak on behalf of someone ... I think it’s an unfair question. If I can ask you is your colleague going to be at work today? What if he is not there? You are going to come back to me and say this is what you said. I don’t know! We are going to a conference as 2,500 delegates that are sitting and Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi is a member of the Central Command Team. So, as a member of the Central Command Team, it’s our conference. Everyone is going to be there,” explains Dlamini. EFF | SG Marshall Dlamini denies claims that Ndlozi has been sidelined: In Limpopo, EFF President, Julius Malema, has told delegates that party’s Limpopo Provincial Assembly in Westernburg, that factionalism, disunity and disloyalty will not be tolerated ahead of the party’s third National People’s Assembly (NPA) next month. He says members must refrain from engaging in behaviour that sows divisions in the party.... “If you keep quiet when your name is used to divide and undermine the integrity of the organisation, your name shall be disqualified from contesting for any position in the organisation. While people do wrong things in your name, you must be able to stand up and say: ‘not in my name’,” he says. Malema has urged candidates to remain loyal to the party — even if they are not elected during the NPA. EFF | Members are expected to be loyal to the party’s constitution: Malema SABC © 2024Empowered Funds LLC Buys Shares of 70,142 Jamf Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:JAMF)
Techcon Socal 2025 Slated For January 2025, Bringing 100+ Speakers And More Than 500 Industry Leaders From Around The World To San DiegoAP Business SummaryBrief at 2:14 p.m. EST