Writer. Zinemaker. Been at @tagropemag & @whatculture & @gizorama & @unwinnable. Fuzzy guitars for @badideadude and @gutspunx. Waluigi Enthusiast.
Articles by Liam Lambert
The Unicorn Scale: Moonage Daydream
David Bowie was the first boy I ever loved. There. I said it. It feels good saying so. I know this doesn’t by any stretch make me special. There’s a generation of people who watched Labyrinth and felt... things. That codpiece made it all but impossible. But I came from a rock and roll household, you see. My parents had seen him several times before I was born, and once after. My mom brought home her shirt from the Sound and Vision ’90 tour, and I stole it almost immediately.
Rogues' Gallery: Aleister Crowley
Ozzy Osbourne wrote songs about him. Jimmy Page lived in his house and supposedly practiced Satanic rituals there. He’s on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (1967) right next to Mae West and Lenny Bruce. He’s influenced writers such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Alan Moore, to say nothing of bands like Black Sabbath, The Doors, and David Bowie. He’s also influenced movie directors like Rob Zombie and Kenneth Anger, and even showed up in a Batman spinoff.
The Unicorn Scale: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Everybody has a Goth phase. Whether it’s a full cape-and-ankh, Bauhaus-loving, living like a vampire period, or just dabbling in Anne Rice and Wicca for a semester, everybody goes through some sort of period of time where darkness, creepy stuff, and eeee-vil, to quote Mermaid Man, appeals to them.
Liam Lambert: The fine art of dying well
Taboos seem to come and go in this country, moving like tides across the face of the land. What once was considered abhorrent becomes reasonable dinner table conversation with a few passing years. The one thing, though, that seems to be an abiding taboo among North Americans is the subject of how we die. Ironically, we'll give all sorts of TMI about the various and sundry rituals with which we prolong our youth and keep ourselves healthy, but no one seems to want to deal with how the story ends.
Liam Lambert: Disability Capitol Action Day can change the way you think
First, a confession. Growing up, people with disabilities made me … uncomfortable. I had no specific issue with them, per se, but I always had a hard time relating to them. The fact that I was, and am, myself disabled, complicated things somewhat, to say the least. Then, a couple years ago, everything changed. Here's how: When I was growing up, my mother's constant refrain to me was "Why don't you embrace your disability more?" I was pretty confused by this.
Liam Lambert: Women taking action on national, local levels
Over the past year, there's been a lot of attention paid to, and activism around the discrimination toward women and minorities in the workplace. Hollywood being the highest-profile workplace there is, most of the focus has been there, as scandals and revelations have rocked the industry.
How Wrestling is Embracing New Masculinity
How Wrestling is Embracing New Masculinity By Liam Lambert • December 14th, 2017 SponsoredThere is an infamous moment in Grant Morrison and Dave McKean’s original Arkham Asylum, in which The Joker gropes Batman. In 2017, the idea that Batman is dark, gritty, and “not for kids, man” has become a joke in and of itself, but back in 1989, Arkham was pretty much the gold standard for edgy Batman comics.
Tezos Litigation: The Beginning for ICO Regulation
Considering Bitcoin’s recent troublesome happenings with SegWit2x, the rest of the cryptosphere could be under assault from a different direction. The US’ Securities and Exchange Commission has previously voiced concerns over the legal nature of ICOs, tokens and token sales, but as of yet has not established any formal guidance nor legal regulation on ICO practices.
Cybersecurity: The Focal Point of 2018
As the world grows increasingly connected, moving towards both the Internet of Things and the 4th Industrial Revolution, greater cybersecurity is needed. In recent years, cyber attacks against companies have been increasing in sophistication, with their damage ranging from brand damage to irreparably destroying the lives of consumers. However, it not merely about ensuring the safety of consumer data, but rather guaranteeing the integrity of systems as well.
China-UK AI: A Business Fusion - The Market Mogul
China has made known its 2030 vision for AI. However, the fight to reach those goals is far from won. How can a country, whose culture is draped in a rich history and intricate social tradition, use its economic prowess to achieve these goals? As Syrus Lohrasb, CEO of the China-Britain Business Fusion Group, reported to EE Times, when one does business in China, one will ‘come across a very ancient culture, and you’ll understand that this culture is deep-rooted.
Bitcoin: The Upcoming Fork and What It Means - The Market Mogul
Brazil’s central bank recently labelled bitcoin a ‘pyramid scheme’, joining several other entities, from JP Morgan’s CEO to Russia’s key finance organs, in attacking bitcoin. Central bank president Ilan Goldfajn stated that ‘the bitcoin is a financial asset with no ballast that people buy because they believe it will appreciate.
Cryptocurrencies and the Unbanked: Financial Empowerment - The Market Mogul
From impoverished first-world nationals to isolated citizens in a developing country, access to banking can be difficult. Being unable to access banking infrastructure, or credit, prevents growth and stability -particularly to those on the fringe of society. Without financial literacy, there is no hope of maintaining a lifestyle, seeking financial assistance, managing money or even having the opportunity to spend.
Cryptocurrencies and the ICO Mania: Here's Where We're At - The Market Mogul
Cryptocurrencies and the underlying technology have split existing financial and technological opinion, most notably JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon espousing a lack of confidence in bitcoin, going as far to call the platform a fraud. The most recent comments against the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) mania comes from Kyle Bass, a Hayman Capital hedge fund manager, who commented that many of the ICOs that occurred this year are frauds.
Ripple, Bitcoin and Ethereum: Each to Their Own - The Market Mogul
With lightning quick transaction times (1,500 transactions per second) and low transaction costs, ripple aims to be “one frictionless experience… sending money globally using the power of blockchain,” states Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas, adding that, “financial institutions can process their customers’ payments anywhere in the world, instantly, reliably and cost-effectively using just one API.” Being increasingly adopted by banks (including UBS and Santander), ripple’s latest expansion in Asia,...
Future Proofing ICOs: ASIC Guidelines - The Market Mogul
South Korea joined China in banning ICOs, prohibiting domestic companies and start-ups from participating in them, despite South Korea seeing a recent surge in crypto activity, including domestic exchange Bithumb, exceeding a trading volume of 104,113 bitcoin, or $427m in recent days.
Ethereum and ICO Regulation: Rising Like a Phoenix - The Market Mogul
The crypto sphere is coming under increasing scrutiny, globally, highlighted by recent news that Singaporean cryptocurrency firms have faced bank account closures. While some are pointing to enforcement of anti-money laundering and fraud policies, the fact remains that crypto companies are coming upon hard times. Raising capital is an important stage in a companies life cycle, failure to effectively launch can often doom the enter enterprise.
Blockchain and Cyber Security: the Equifax Episode - The Market Mogul
In sheer scale, the Equifax breach is small, impacting 143m people, when compared to other data breaches of the past year such as Yahoo’s 1bn user account violation. However, Avivah Litan, a fraud analyst at Gartner notes that Equifax’s hack is much more dangerous in terms of risk to the consumer.
The Changing Role of the CEO: Why Technology Is a Business Catalyst - The Market Mogul
As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, developments in technology are advancing at quicker and quicker paces. Trustworthiness is a new currency from consumers and business partners, including reputation and branding. These can create value in talent acquisition, trust in the market and create bargaining power to broker deals. Companies, as well as countries, are competing to attract the best talent, from cyber security professionals to AI specialists.
Why China's ICO Ban Actually Helps Bitcoin - The Market Mogul
China’s ICO ban, backed up by news of exchange closures, hit the market hard. The latest financial directive to come from Beijing restricts ICOs from taking place, banning the mechanism as illegal fundraising. Additionally, all cryptocurrency exchanges in China must, by law, stop offering domestic coin trading and coin buying in Chinese yuan. The Chinese yuan (CNY) has been the third-largest market for bitcoin trading volume for most of 2017.
ICOs: Doomsayers, Wishful Thinkers and Regulators - The Market Mogul
Support for blockchain technologies appears to be at an all time high, from the EU investing over €5m in start-ups to the Finland Central Bank praising Bitcoin’s “revolutionary” ecosystem. Yet, spurred in part by a Chinese crack down on ICOs, new coins could be under threat of regulatory strangulation. From China to the UK, regulators are issuing warnings against ICOs, urging investors to be cautious.
Regulating Cryptocurrencies: The Neccessity of Cooperation - The Market Mogul
Cryptocurrency companies and providers sprung out of a rebellion started by Bitcoin, to have a decentralised and digital currency, free from any state or central authority interference. Applying the old adage, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, the best approach to regulating these currencies is cooperation.
Mobile Banking in Africa: Regulation Required - The Market Mogul
The ability to send and receive money over the phone, without the need for an internet connection, revolutionised the way banking is conducted in Africa, especially in Eastern countries such as Kenya. These mobile financial services (MFS) now span the full spectrum of financial services, offering customers the ability to transfer money securely, using current accounts as well as allowing users to access savings, loans, investments, and insurance.
Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies: UK - The Market Mogul
The advent of financial technology has revolutionised many industries, prompting Central Banks to research, develop and field their own versions to keep abreast of financial developments. One such revolutionary tech is Bitcoin (cryptocurrency), and recently, the Bank of England published a document assessing the implications of a Central Bank Issued Digital Currency (CBDC).
Cyber Battleground: Why There's a War Against ICOs and Cryptocurrencies - The Market Mogul
Among several criticisms of ICOs and cryptocurrencies, from facilitating black market activities and cyber crime to being part of ponzi schemes, ICOs may be back in the firing line. Whilst Russia has already put plans in place to legalise the ICO, it may be backtracking a little, with China also taking steps to reduce public exposure to risk.
IoT Security: Internet of Things and Vulnerability - The Market Mogul
Undoubtedly, as McKinsey and Company point out, the Internet of Things (IoT) has promising applications for businesses of all sizes. By 2025, Internet of things applications could have $11 trillion impact. However, with such power, there comes an even greater duty of security.
What role does China play in the world's fight against cyber crime?
A shelter mentality to cyber security The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, on November 7th, 2016, formally passed China’s first comprehensive, all-inclusive security regulation for cyberspace. The Booz Allen Cyber Power Index 2014 placed China in 13th place in terms of its 2015 global cyber power ranking, whereas the US ranked second.
A Second Fork: Bitcoin to Create a New Cryptocurrency - The Market Mogul
Not long after a hard fork split Bitcoin in two, creating Bitcoin Cash, there are moves to create a third currency from Bitcoin. Agreed in May 2017, a group attempting to combine the efforts of the original platform with the updated block size of the fork currency is seeking to establish this third currency. The new block will be created after block 494,784, which will be sometime in November.
Golem Cryptocurrency: A Worldwide Supercomputer Network - The Market Mogul
A lesser-known cryptocurrency is seeking to become the AirBnB of computing. This digital token is part of a project to improve our experiences with the existing internet. Golem’s ICO, launched a few months ago, reached their 820,000 Ethers (~$9m) in under an hour. Currently, in Alpha, early development, the platform seeks to utilise a global pool of computing resources to assist users with projects.
Here's How Big Data Transformation Will Sweep Information Technology - The Market Mogul
With an estimated 40 zettabytes (43 trillion gigabytes) of data to be created by 2020 (an increase of 300 times on the amount of data in circulation in 2005), at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes per day, data is a valuable resource. Slava Koltovich, CEO, EastBanc Technologies stated that, ‘In 2017, we’ll see data become more intelligent, more useable, and more relevant than ever,’ and such a prediction is not far off.
The Four Challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution - The Market Mogul
The evolution of global industries to Industry 4.0 (Rev 4.0) is both exciting and scary. Industry 4.0 is the designated code name for a combination of traditional manufacturing practices and industrial processes with technological capabilities, from automation to AI. From factories becoming self-monitoring to delivery vehicles becoming self-driving. Whilst there are many benefits of Industry 4.0, there are several key challenges that lie ahead.
AI Race: Red Dragon Rising - The Market Mogul
With AI poised to be the next disruption of business and the digital environment, China has set its sights on being the leader in the field. The effects of automation and AI, alongside machine learning and other digital enhancements like Big Data have already been well discussed, from enhancing the work we currently conduct to directly replacing us.
Here's What You Need to Know About the Bitcoin Hard Fork - The Market Mogul
Bitcoin has undergone a hard fork, August 1st, 2017, splitting the currency in two, with Bitcoin Cash emerging. Initially, Bitcoin Cash was slow to get out of the gates, perhaps due to a lack of mining support, but it is unlikely to dethrone the 8-year-old house name Bitcoin any time soon. According to Saxo Bank analyst Kay Van-Petersen, Bitcoin could be responsible for 10% of the $5trn average daily volume in the foreign exchange market within 10 years.
Altcoins: Seven Cryptocurrencies You May Not Have Heard Of - The Market Mogul
Bitcoin may be the most well-known cryptocurrency, being the example that most illustrates a virtual coin. However, Bitcoin is one of many cryptocurrencies and in recent years, ‘alternate coins’ (Altcoins) have been making gains in the peer to peer, decentralised and anonymous currency market.
Russia to Legalise the ICO: Moving Forward - The Market Mogul
Amidst current plans to recognise cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, the members of the Russian working group assessing the risks of cryptocurrencies in Russia have turned their attention to the possibility of amending civil law to allow ICOs to be held in the Russian Federation.
What You Need to Know About the Brexit Repeal Bill - The Market Mogul
The express and unequivocal wording of a direct and intentionally written Act of Parliament is the most powerful legal tool in the UK’s legal system and the EU Law Repeal Bill is an embodiment of this notion. However, whilst the bill itself is the tool that the UK will use to unhinge itself from the EU, there are issues in the context of a clean Brexit.
Apple Opens Data Centre in China: Complying with New Cybersecurity Laws - The Market Mogul
Apple opens its first data in Centre, ahead of complying with the latest cybersecurity laws, establishing it as the first foreign firm to make amendments to security policy since the law’s announcement. Adopted by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in November 2016, the new Cybersecurity Law (CSL) became effective on June 1st 2017.
ICO and Cryptocurrencies – Threat to Securities Law? - The Market Mogul
With the overall value of the coin market reaching $90bn, and the recent, frenzied activity surrounding cryptocurrencies (including the all-time high of $2,911.86 per Bitcoin) more pressure is mounting on legal institutions to classify, regulate and oversee investor participation in the cryptosphere. It is here that ICOs, likened to the phenomenon of dotcom bubble, are the new frontier.
Keep the Terminator Puns Rolling: Google DeepMind is Back - The Market Mogul
Despite recent controversies surrounding a kidney-failure spotting app, Google DeepMind has been making strides in recent months, displaying the prowess of intelligent AI. A recent, unpublished paper tells of DeepMind researchers creating a data set specifically to help AI learn how to identify different human actions, differentiate between them and understand the situation. Currently, the results indicate that AI can identify the object or person, but struggles with the actions performed.
It's Raining Cash: Hawaii Suggests Implementing a Universal Basic Income - The Market Mogul
Hawaii has made ripples this week with the announcement that the state is one step closer to implementing a Universal Income (UI). The plan, in which the ‘government would regularly send everyone in each country/state/city money just for being alive,’ is being discussed and methods of implementing and sustaining the project are being devised. What is Universal Income (UI)? What is its purpose? What is it fighting?
Chinese Trade: One Belt One Road - The Market Mogul
A monumental economic and diplomatic program, aimed at transforming China’s relations with the world through revitalising trade routes, connections and diplomatic ties, the One Belt One Road policy is a scheme predicated on the investment in and development of trade routes in the Euro-Asian region. However, this program has ramifications for global trade, particularly in the new protectionist era.
Black Money: Does Bitcoin Make Life Easier for Criminals? - The Market Mogul
Bitcoin, the most widely known cryptocurrency, has been a media sensation and an investment fad recently, reaching highs of $2,000 per bitcoin. However, for all of bitcoin’s potential for financial good, it lends itself well to illicit goals. It can be a tool for cycling black money and money laundering.
Blockchain E-Voting: a Bastion of Democracy? - The Market Mogul
Ordering food has been digitised. Hailing a ride has been digitised. Legal advice is also being digitised. Should the most common way of voting – paper-based voting – also be digitised? Whilst e-voting (through using electronic ballots on devices at polling stations) and i-voting (through internet browsers) are being used, there remain issues with the way such systems facilities elections. Perhaps Blockchain is the answer. Born out of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin, blockchain can help secure data.
Blockchain and the Law: an Insurmountable Challenge? - The Market Mogul
Due to a mix of political and economic circumstances, Bitcoin has hit a new high, with each coin now worth over $2,000, demonstrating a 65% growth within one month. However, with its rise in popularity and value, alongside the interest of banks eager to adapt blockchain for use, there are several legal issues that also arise.
iPhone 8: Apple’s last stand in China? - The Market Mogul
Globally, Apple’s iPhone 7 was the best-selling phone in Q1 2017, with 21.5m units shipped, which led to the capture of a 6% market share worldwide. Yet, after losing ground in China – Apple’s third operating segment by revenue – to home-grown brands such as Huawei in 2016, Apple has lost a further 1.8% of the Chinese market, for a total of 26.7% year-on-year from 2016 Q1. This led to Apple experiencing five quarters of year-on-year declines in revenues in China.
The Law’s Role in Pushing Automation Forward - The Market Mogul
If one subscribes to the idea of technological unemployment, which is the loss of employment caused by the increasing use of, and development of, technology in the workplace, then the advancing tide of technology is a frightful sight. From the relief of labour workers through ‘machine muscle’ to the reduced need for human input in analysing large data, more automation is reducing the demand for human workers.
The Market Mogul
Advancements in AI, Big Data, the Internet of Things and automation have many industries worried that these systems will push them out, absorb their work, make humans redundant, or accelerate the speed of business too fast for them to adapt. From formal models of legal reasoning to automated information extraction from legal databases and texts, the interaction of artificial intelligence and law will disrupt the contemporary status of legal practice.
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