ACCRA, Sept 8 (Reuters) – A keypad-locked door in Ghana’s capital Accra hid a neon-lit hall of flickering processors, clicking keyboards and excited voices. The young crowd erupted as brother beat sister in a tight-fought but good-spirited round of Mortal Kombat.
British-Ghanaian gamer Annabel Ashalley-Anthony smiled at her brother Adam, after the tournament match at a gaming hub organized by Melanin Gamers, a collective she hopes will change the video game landscape.
A ‘network state’ is ideologically aligned but geographically decentralised. The people are spread around the world in clusters of varying size, but their hearts are in one place.
In June 2022 Balaji Srinivasan, former chief technology officer of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, published an ebook entitled The Network State: How To Start a New Country. It is the latest in a flurry of utopian visions by self-styled digital visionaries, crypto believers and web 3.0 evangelists who are lining up to declare the death of the traditional concept of countries and nationhood.
James Freeman, University of Bristol
Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister comes to an end next week, giving us all a chance to consider what his legacy will be. More than his predecessors, Johnson owed his premiership to his reputed ability to persuade audiences other Conservatives couldn’t, through his charisma, unpredictability and energetic campaigning.
Chantal Gautier, University of Westminster
In the digital age, online dating and swiping right are the status quo for romance. Practically gone are the days of meeting “the one” in a pub. But what about flirting by the water cooler or over Zoom? The consensual office relationship has been both a romance trope and a taboo for decades.
Jennifer Grant, University of Portsmouth
The most hated man on the internet, according to a new Netflix docuseries, is Hunter Moore. The convicted criminal and self-described “professional life ruiner” Moore enabled the non-consensual distribution of thousands of private images by founding “revenge porn” website Is Anyone Up?.
By Anya Schiffrin, director of the Technology, Media and Communications specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
When worries about online mis/disinformation became widespread after the 2016 U.S. election, there was hope that the tech giants would use artificial intelligence (AI) to fix the mess they created. The hope was that platforms could use AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automatically block or downrank false. illegal or inflammatory content online without governments having to regulate.
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Paul Whiteley, University of Essex
A YouGov poll of party members completed on August 2 shows Rishi Sunak to be trailing Liz Truss 31% to 69% in the Conservative leadership contest. A similar poll completed on July 21 had him on 38% to her 62%. She appears to be winning the contest hands down.
Jonquil Lowe, The Open University
The Bank of England has raised its base rate by 0.5 percentage points, the largest single upward jump in 27 years. It takes the base rate to 1.75%, its highest level since 2008. This latest interest rate hike will affect personal finances and reflects the Bank’s efforts to control rampant inflation amid the cost of living crisis in the UK.
A major study published in leading cancer journal, The Lancet Oncology1 have ground-breaking findings on Michelson Diagnostics, the UK based medical device company that use multi-beam Optical Coherence Tomography (‘OCT’) technology, which can transform patient’s treatment and care of basal cell carcinomas (BCC). It was concluded that OCT-guided diagnosis, when compared to a standard punch biopsy could reduce the number of consultations and invasive procedures by a massive 66%. Continue reading
A woman can be many things… Super excited and totally looking forward to next week. I will be taking to the Catwalk to represent my country Zambia at the Commonwealth Games Global Catwalk by POSITIVE RUNWAY. The Catwalk Show will take place at a Gala Dinner at the conclusion of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom and will feature UK-based Diaspora Community Leaders from various Commonwealth countries, who will showcase their National Attire on the Runway… I love flying the Zambian flag. Watch this space for further details! In this photo, myself in rehearsal in preparation to strutt my stuff for the provision of Quality Education in Africa, at Africa Fashion Week in London.