Thursday, April 24, 2014

An Hypothetical Situation with A New Monetary System - A Big Epic BitCoin Fail


The idea of a decentralized monetary system could bring fear and disdain into the heart of the most conservative economist and statisticians. Hypothetically speaking centralizing a decentralized series of systems, is almost a an idea that is bring from science fiction. Ideally speaking, the centralized institutions are in the need of a reform in order to improve the system that'd placed millions into misery.

To analyze the tip of the iceberg is that if the world fully systematized and digitize money, will bring a catastrophe; as, every single storage system can be violated one way or the other; leaving the world into an economical chaos. Speaking on a psychological and sociological aspect, getting rid off the money and leaving people with plastic or Google Wallet will induce individuals, not to say that is not happening right now because is a fact. If there is going to be a collapse in the world with towards the economic system, it will be in a systematic attack to the different segments of the population who can not self-control. On a crazy science fiction world, if humanity is going to be "controlled" what a better way to do it through psychological means.?

In a worse case scenario, almost under a fascist idea; a not so brave new world could be done. The idea of exerting a monopoly, where the wealth is controlled through a big psychological experiment as well the world economies aren't far-fetched. People are subjugated to their emotions, and they can be impulsive, on a sales point of view, the example of Black Friday or Boxing Day around the world, where people go into a frenzy and they will go and buy everything they consider cheap.

Now, thinking that if different retails start accepting unregulated money it won't be a big issue itself, the point on this dichotomy goes that there is laundry money roaming around, but the part that can be a problem lays on the appropriation of the assets. A well skilled Trojan could create a money laundry scheme where the funds from different inversions will be send to one corporation; yet, this scenario seems the most innocent one.

The most cruel one and probably one that can happen easily, it is as hypothetically a company as Google with such control in communications, who also has an application as Google Wallet as the application is interconnected to the bank information of the customers. Google itself could easily drain billions of accounts and bring the world to an economical collapse, just by overriding the protocols of the different banks.

Virtual money is not a proper solution, it will be a fail, much as BitCoin has turned to be on the last 9 years, as there hasn't been a proper grow on the company due the lack of trust of investors; yet, due on every crisis, just as it happens a new system as well powers could be bring from the ashes, albeit it seems to be cyclical every other centuries between the same countries of the East and West. 

Thursday, April 17, 2014

La Playa de Los Pobres - La Puta del Casino Pierino Gallo

La Playa de Los Pobres - La Puta del Casino Pierino Gallo
Por: Gustavo Calvo
Los grandes rascacielos de marfil se izaban en el medio de una península imposible; no había brisa aunque la playa estuviera a tres metros de distancia. En el medio del vecindario, había una plaza comercial que rimaba con gallo.
La plaza en si parecía una estructura imposible, parte del segundo piso sobresalía, y en medio del segundo piso había una plazoleta. En si la plaza era famosa por el casino Pierino Gallo, al igual que era uno de los puntos de encuentro de las putas de Bocagrande, no solo de las damas de la noche pero también de las distinguidas señoras de la sociedad que iban a conseguir un amorío en manos de algún cachaco, gringo ó barranquillero.
Su figura era diminuta, morena y con unos ojos que parecía una gata en celo. Vestía un traje elegante, y joyas que sus múltiples amantes le habían comprado en las diferentes joyerías; no era una dama de sociedad, vivía en La Castellana, pero vivía mejor que muchas personas que pagaban por la exclusividad del poco mar que podían ver desde las ventanas de los baños, y mirando a la izquierda para no ver a los vecinos encueras y en pelotas que estaban en los pisos 37 y 40.
El nombre de esa dama era Yurleidis Pájaro, ó Yurla como la conocían en el sector; siempre se sentaba en la tercera banca a la izquierda de la fuente, para esperar por los clientes que conocía. A las doce de la noche siempre cruzaba la calle para ir al único Presto que cerraba pasada las dos de la mañana para comer algo; si por alguna razón no podía, se iba con algún cliente a comer en el restaurante El Muelle, que quedaba al lado del edificio El Mirador.
La idea de tener sexo en la playa la aterraba, y en ocasiones si podía, lograba convencer con quien se estuviera acostando de llevarla alguno de los hoteles del área para que la evitaran ver a simple vista.
Siempre esperaba a su cliente favorito alrededor de la una de la mañana, ese hombre gordo, corroncho como una cabra que llegó a ser alcalde de Cartagena apunta de compra y venta de votos debido a los abanicos que repartió a diestra y siniestra.
Le daba asco, pero nunca se lo decía; por cariño le llamaba ratón, que tenía similitud con su apellido. Pero cada vez que le besaba el cuello y manoseaba los pezones, ella lo único que pensaba era "solo por el dinero, y nada más, el día que este viejo hijeputa se muera, me lo quitó de encima."
Nunca se lo quitó de encima porque ese viejo vivirá mas allá de cuando ella se retirara del negocio, pero siempre disfruto todos los regalos. Ella siempre recordaba con alegría esos días, mientras veía por la ventana de la habitación que su familia le había conseguido en el marchito Nuevo Hospital Bocagrande; siempre le encantaba poder ver la playa, y recordar aquellos tiempos de decadencia en los que alguna vez fue la reina de la noche.
Sentía como el vaivén de las olas la arrastraba hasta lo más profundo del océano. El beso de la muerte de sus células alrededor de sus senos sentía que le llegaba al corazón de manera apresurada y en su último aliento, le agarro la mano al nieto que la acompañaba y le sonrió.

Murió sola, imaginando familiares que nunca tuvo. Ahí quedo tendida en la cama con una sonrisa, de pronto Dios le concedió una ilusión para dejarla ir al mas allá de manera pacífica, un perdón de último minuto a una vida de decadencia. Una suave brisa venía de su habitación, y una figura compuesta por el viento salió caminando por encima de las olas, solo para ver la gracia eterna. 

Monday, April 14, 2014

Would you vaccinate your dog.? The Strange Paradoxes of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

As someone who was born and raised in a third world country, I always saw survival at every expense possible as well growing up in a family where my maternal grandfather was a physician, I always valued science above anything else in the help of the survival of humanity.

When I heard for the first time about the anti-vaccine movement, was in the mouth of Jenny McCarthy. I found it fascinating because I never seen even now, a person who has been known for her stupidities to have such a public weight. Maybe, maybe, that is one of the many problems with America, we are letting celebrities and luminaires to have more weight than the actual scientific community.

As I was in Colombia, I never heard anyone saying that vaccines are the problem; but, if he we are going to talk about a natural cleanse where the parents are going to be responsible of the genocide of an entire generation by letting their children die on diseases that are controllable and can be eradicated. It is true that everyone is entitled to believe into what they want, but there should be also some common sense because slowly we are turning into a parallel of the Late Middle Ages.

One paradox it seems it can not die it is the "autism is linked with mercury in the vaccines". If it was truth at least two generations of humanity would be autistic as the claims of the quackery says but there is one way to analyze the fails on their reasoning and that is with logical fallacies.
A man and a woman had a child, the child was born healthy but his parents after listening to Andrew Wakefield, a so-called doctor and a man of science, that vaccines turn children autistic. Sometime later, they heard on FOX News and CNN an actress talking about how vaccines turned her son autistic. So they decide to not vaccinate their child, even he wasn't in the risk of having problems with his immune system.
Sometime later, the couple adopted a dog; as they did with their child, they opted to not vaccinate the dog at all, because they were fearful the dog was going to die because of the vaccines; as the puppy grew older, the couple slowly decided to take the dog for his first walk.
As the couple, the child and the dog were walking on the park, a rabid raccoon appeared and attacked the dog; as the couple didn't vaccinated their pup against the rabies, the puppy grew up sick and at a certain point attacked the husband and the young child.
The woman tried to seek help four weeks later, but as they child wasn't vaccinated in a fear that he will turned autistic, the father of the child survived but the child died a couple of days later as he was interned in the hospital; only because his parents feared something that could saved his life; and the dog had to be put down to confirm the diagnosis.
Tragedies can be avoided, but there are always people who profit on the ignorance of people. Vaccines save life, and the stupidity of the anti-vaccine movement proliferated in the country with the biggest pharmaceutical monopoly in the world; if you go to third world countries, you are not going to hear the same idiotic and moronic speech that Jenny McCarthy keeps babbling about it, because people are aware of the dangers to die of diphtheria, "yellow fever" and a few other diseases that can be controlled and eradicated.

The focus of this Twenty First Century problem has its roots on the media, because mass communications are giving more weight to pseudo-science as an absolute truth. Just go the supermarket and you will see Mehmet Oz (Which he shouldn't be called a doctor, even if he is an Harvard graduate) on 10 different covers promoting weight loss and a few other strange things about metabolism.

If there is going to be a change, even a little one on the perceptions of the public health system as well the private one has to come from the media that is aimed at a middle class public, that is influenced by the pop culture. It sounds a little bit difficult but not impossible because we don't want some old diseases to rise again, even if they can be gone as easy when you vaccinate your dog.