Arquivo para a ‘Economia’ Categoria
Bitcoin: the digital coin
25
Feb
Although thought of as currency coin, with all the nuances of a currency, changes in rates and prices, in practice, works as virtual chips and its value depends on the amount of people who are willing to trade them thru the internet. Mainly used in games, often, to buy some items in a game it must be paid in a national currency; you can also process transactions in Bitcoin through a procedure called “mining” where the computer solves a difficult math problem getting a solution of 64 bits.
This is different because it´s the first time in history that a “pure ” intellectual procedure is rewarded with cash without any real equivalent .
It is mining and not the banks that manage the Bitcoins, as the number of coins is limited and demand has increased the coin has been valued.
There have been thefts of Bitcoins, as occurred with the company MtGox (see in Wired magazine) and this caught the attention of regulators, who if were, in fact, can make the coin/currency “legal” and marketable in many social places.
Hamburg: city green
19
Feb
An ambitious plan was announced to create the first city completely sustainable, Hamburg called the European Green City in 2011, now wants to have the incredible 27 square miles of new and existing green areas all over the city of Hamburg in Germany.
The result expected is that it becomes a city that puts nature within easier reach of every resident; becomes more resilient to flooding caused by global warming; and provides enough connectivity for walking and cycling to become car-optional citywide in 20 years.
Angelika Fritsch, a spokeswoman for the city’s department of urban planning and the environment said to the news paper, The Guardian:
“[The plan] will connect parks, leisure areas, playgrounds, gardens and cemeteries through green paths. Other cities, including London, have green rings, but the green network will be unique in covering an area from the outskirts to the city centre. In 15 to 20 years you’ll be able to explore the city exclusively on bike and on foot.”
Germany wants to protect data
17
Feb
In her weekly podcast (posted video), the prime minister of Germany, Angela Merkel, said: “We will talk to France regarding how can we have a good level of data protection” and added: “above all, we´ll talk about suppliers that give security to our citizens, so we will not have to send emails and other information to the other side of the Atlantic”, she said about data surveillance.
Merkel noted that companies like Google and Facebook have their operations not only in countries with little data protection, but are still active in others, such as Germany, which has a high degree/grade of data protection.
In Germany, where there have already been periods of extreme vigilance, as in the time of the Nazism and also in the former GDR, the communist part of Germany, there is a great suspicion about data control and lots of worries concerning privacy, and may impose a privacy policy, making Google and Facebook respect the German law.
In France, Hollande‘s office confirmed that the idea has already been presented and France agrees with it. “It is important that we take the initiative together”, said a French responsible quoted by Deutsche Welle.
The initiative will tend to expand to Europe, it is better than spreading a neurosis about data privacy, the governments are the ones who should take concrete action to protect its citizens and not to forbid or create disincentives to the use of these democratic means.
Latin American: new empreneteurs?
14
Feb
It´s what the BBC Online says, stating that besides natural resources that can boost/push these countries, citing/quoting: the oil from Venezuela, the copper of Chile, Argentinean soybeans, Ecuador´s bananas, Mexican silver, and the Brazilian timber, “the vast region is blessed with a fabulous variety of raw materials that the world wants and needs”.
.(não encontrei no original em portugues)
While the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) spend an average of 2.4% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development, in Chile and Mexico – the only two Latin American members of the club – the rate is 0.4%, but in other countries of the region (including Brazil) it’s even less.
But thankfully, the magazine says that this is changing.
Until recently, entrepreneurship in Peru was a question of survival,” says Gary Urteaga, a Peruvian entrepreneur of Cine-Papaya: “People started their own businesses because they couldn’t get a job. They’d sell sandwiches in the streets and wash cars”, and he said: “But now, for the first time, people are choosing to be entrepreneurs.”
In Colombia, a medical start-up called Keraderm has won state funding to develop a new technology for skin grafts.
Vivek Wadhwa, a US-based technology entrepreneur who advised the Chilean government on Start-ups in Chile, says: “the culture is changing”.
Argentinean app controls prices
10
Feb
An Argentinean app controls the prices in this country, the app is called “Precios OK” and it was developed by two 
university students Yamila Fraiman and Alejandro Torrado and it works by reading the bar code of the product, then the system analyzes based on other prices and indicates whether there is an excessive increase.
The tool is already in the list of the most downloaded in Argentina, being, for example, among Candy Crush and Instagram, and has already received complements of the President Cristina Kirchner.
The government from there alerts the people that abusive prices and rising inflation would be linked only to greedy businessmen and is “under control”, seems like a speech already known.
Prices for meat, medicine and many other foods, in Brazil, seem not to be compatible with what inflation says, not to mention the abuse of banks and providers of telephone services.
We are at the time of the beginning of school classes and it would be good to keep an eye in the value of the tuition, school materials, and bundled services such as school and urban transportation.
A pause for technology
15
Jan
We are sailing by reading about Edgar Morin was the
emergence of a “global” era in a world that is seen together, perhaps more united while respecting their diversity .
Finished last week the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, attended by more of 150 thousand people, with 3.500 products, ranging from the 4k TVs (four times the HD high – definition), drones (drones), smart cars, versatile devices such as washing machines and other appliances more intelligent machines.
A novelty already known but promising in 2014 , are the smartwatches , smart watches some interesting and unobtrusive as Toq , Qualcomm , others more creative and showy as the Galaxy Gear of the Samsung, but the highlight for technologists was Nabu, Razer, which changes the concept of clock and looks more like a bracelet with various functions .
Another highlight are the smartest cars , the most appreciated features are those which prevent collisions during parking maneuvers and go, but the trend of driverless cars seems to be for real , because they are already testing the automakers .
After some time without much novelty, the new chips with graphics processing seem determined to migrate from games for tablets and PCS , Nvidia promises to bring visuals worthy of the new generation computer games for tablets and smartphones . One with 192 cores, K1 employs the technology of Kepler graphics cards and elevates the picture quality of the games of mobile devices to the level of home consoles and PCs.
The 4K TVs are now much advertised and should reach the domestic market this year , 3D iterative equipment for interactive games also showed incredible realism (see photo).
A planetary tele-participation
14
Jan
This whole process excluded people and cultures, Edgar Morin
and Anne B. Kern to analyze the emergence of Earth – Homeland, remember that the invasion of China by Japan in 1931 was ignored by Europe , the “Chaco War between Bolivia and Argentina (1932-1935) was another planet ” (p. 38 ) , and ” only after 1950 is that the Korean War , the Vietnam and ( with the generalization of television) the Middle East have become close. ” (p. 38) .
It is then that world events begin to seem that occur in our backyard , the authors cite Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas in 1963 , the arrival of Sadat to Jerusalem and his assassination in 1981 , the attack on the Pope in Rome , the assassination of Indira Gandhi and her son Rhajiv and murder of Mohammed Boudiaf the House of Culture of Anaba , and they add ” if only for the duration of a flash human emotion wells up to the point we take our clothes , our mite to international aid organizations to humanitarian missions.” (p. 39) .
It is only when people see is that the medical and food aid arrive , but when the authors wrote the book ( in 2000 ) said they still ” we felt for planetary flashes ” (p. 39), is now with videos and simultaneous photos can say the same ?
Tsunamis , hurricanes , floods seem to occur in distant places make us feel more part of the people so far away , and bring us the “feeling of belonging to the same community of destiny , now the Earth community ” (p. 39)
The authors finish Chapter 1 , despite the concern with “agonizing convulsions” claim that ” although there is not now a community of fate , there is still no common awareness of this Schicksalgemeinschaft . ” (P. 41 ) (in certain situations that communities share the destination : shipwrecked people trapped in a mine, etc. and it can now become a common feeling to the entire planet ) and here I include the noosphere, “the spirit” planetarium..
The authors also analyze the planetary identity (Chapter 2) and the problems of planetary distress (Chapter 3), but I’m optimistic I think it is possible now that we have a media mirror network , see the fact that we have to face and decide how it her pleasant creating a new nation – World´s peoples, cultures, biosphere and noosphere shared by all.
Sketches of a planetary consciousness
10
Jan
The atomic threat (initiated by the West in second War) 
continues to be a factor present , remember the recent episode of the tsunami in Japan that affected nuclear plants Hiroshima, Edgar Morin and Edgar B. Kern initiate the issue of planetary consciousness”, analyzing this issue together with the ecological issue and “the entry of the Third World ” until then just a plaything in the hands of the economic struggle of the most developed countries .
“Decolonization the years has raised proscenium 195-1960 Globe 1.5 billion human beings hitherto thrown by the West in the dustbin of history” (p. 34 ) and that humanity “inspire fear or compassion , his tragedies , its shortcomings , its mass force us to relativize our permanent euro- Western difficulties … the problems of the Third World ( demographics , supply , development) are increasingly felt as the problems of the world itself “(p. 34 ) .
This has advanced a unit of man on earth, “despite all the setbacks ethnocentric” (p. 34 ) which can be seen in the anthropological works of Levi – Strauss, Malaurie, Castre, Jaulin “and films and documentaries mentioning several among them Derzu Uzala, Akira Kurosawa who speak in a new way of “primitive” people.
It’s something new that Western culture tries to regain consciousness lost in thought of modernity , he sees the man only as “Awareness is the immediate perception of the subject of what ‘s going on inside or outside” in dicionaire, or as the relationship with their instruments of production, consumption , or in the case of science , with the objects of study , but is not yet an awareness of the world , planetary , who see everyone and everything with a relational and human sense .
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The planetary consciousness of wars , economic and social problems are growing prisoner is subject-centered vision, and ecology is the first attempt to free the consciousness of an anthropocentrism, is what I call home – world, to be greater than the Homeland Earth, although this global perception of the subject is very importante mas isn´t complete.
Economy and planetary consumption
09
Jan
Even before the fall of the Berlin Wall , there were “forces of globalization and integration of cultural
disintegration, civilizational, psychological, social, political , globalized economy itself was ( and is weakened ) increasing : thus the economic crisis born in 1973 the shortage of oil has undergone several transformations without ever truly recover” (p. 30 of the book of Patria Land – Morin and Anne B. Kern ), occurs in a “global dialogic”.
The authors explain that the fall in the price of coffee, for example , encourages farmers to cultivate coca in Colombia, feeding international drug trafficking networks , as well as wage increases in Germany can affect the price of cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire ivory, and the authors point to the “general slowdown in economic activity” which highlight two :
” … d ) the United States , with lack of money , drive up interest rates ; … f) Third World countries where the interest rate is indexed must reimburse at a higher rate ; … “(p. 31 ) that are interesting to reflect for those who think there is in Brazil and other countries Latin American independence from any “global” economy.
But the other aspect of planetarization, which the authors call “hologram” is that “every part of the world is increasingly becoming part of the world , also the world as a whole is increasingly present in every one of its parts . This happens not only with the nations and peoples , but also with individuals” (p. 31 ) .
Cites numerous cases ” takes from Ceylon , India, or China tea, unless it is a moka coffee Arabica from Ethiopia or Latin America … can be found on his desk winter [ my case in Italy ] strawberries and cherries from Argentina or Chile, fresh green beans from Senegal …. “(p. 32 ) , etc. . a globalization of consumer objects .
Thus , ” for better or for worse, each of us , rich or poor , has in it , without knowing it, the entire planet . Globalization is both evident fear , subconscious and ubiquitous “(p. 33 ) , but will be in our awareness and consumption of culture , not just the technology but all together, we reflect on this ?
Changes in post-war and hope
07
Jan
Their analysis follows , and despite the post-war there was ” immense hope in a new world
of peace and justice … weakening or in ignorance of the Red Army brought not liberation , but another servitude and colonialism that will relaunch its influence in Africa and Asia … the Cold War begins in 1947 ” (page 29 , the book Earth – Homeland Edgar Morin and Anne B. Kern, we are analyzing here) .
” Despite passing openings , antagonisms of the two great systems maintain its virulence until 1985 and exasperate during the Afghanistan war ” (p. 27 ) .
But “the withering away of the myth of ‘ real socialism ‘ , started with Kruchtchev report continued repression of the Hungarian (1957 ) and the Prague Spring (1968 ) , The Myth of Chinese socialism also languishes in 1975 ( the ‘ plot ‘ of Lin Piao , the case of the Gang of Four ) , as well as the myth of releasing Vitename ( subjection of Cambodia ) … the reforming process of perestroika , which leads to implosion of communist totalitarianism and the dismemberment of its empire (1987-1991) , did ruin the great religion of earthly salvation that the nineteenth century had developed to suppress the exploitation of man by man … “(P. 28 ) .
The subsequent period seemed to show that ” the laws of the market and free market principles apparently triumph ” (p. 28 ) but ” the convulsions of post – communism accelerate and amplify a formidable process of return to the past , tradition , religion , ethnicity born all over the world , the crisis of the future [ that the authors return in Chapter 3 and we made this blog a relationship with technology in the text of Alvin Toffler ] and startle identity against homogeneity. ” ( p. 29 )
Although the analysis may seem chaotic, and it is towards complex, there is a prospect of unity in diversity in the homeland-world environment that builds on this analysis, but is necessary others “walls” similar of Berlin will be destroyed.
