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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Global Economy Explained | How Much is Worth the Dollar in your Pocket?|

What if you ever thought about what is the worth of the dollars in your pocket? what if you really don't want to know?. Ok, let's find out.

We all know that the USA is the world's biggest economy (GDP= 18,624.48 billion dollars), actually, the U.S economy is bigger than the BRIC's economies (Brazil-GDP=1,796bn, Russia-GDP=1,283bn, India-GDP=2,264bn, China-GDP=11,199bn, South Africa-GDP=295bn) all put together. But what will it happen if we see it in some other way, how about GDP per person?. China will move down because of its massive population, (China-GDP per Capita=8,481) and the US will still be on top by far (USA-GDP per Capita=59,609), but for how much longer.

So, how would this look like if we see it in a different way, let's think about growth, America has settled for 1.5% (US thinks that it should be enough in order to keep things the way they are forever), while China (9.5%), India (7.8%) South Africa (3.4%) know that they have some impressive growth, it is not enough in order to keep their countries moving. Now, why is this important? Let's find out.

Today's US debt is $20,804,998,625,487 American dollars and it is still growing, not only because politicians keep on borrowing money from other countries, but because of the interests on the money already borrowed. Putting this in a more uncomfortable way, every US citizen owes the rest of the world $ 64,411.76, and the way the US takes most of its debt is by T-bills or U.S Bonds, which yield at 3.03% if issued to mature in 20 years. So, let's round the numbers, Uncle Sam's income is close to 2 trillion dollars but spends 3.8 trillion dollars every year, to make out the difference, he does what most Americans do, he borrows money so we can pay the old debts with new debts. Since this happens every year, our debt is growing at an average of 50% every year. In a perfect world, if we were not paying interests on the obligations we already have or in the future ones for that matter, we would still owe 47.37% of the money we have to foreign countries.

Let's see what we've covered so far, our debt is growing and growing because our very expensive government layout, old debts are being paid with new debts, debt is growing at an average of 50% but we grow at 1.5%. So where are we all heading?. Let's get back to the way we honor our obligations, suppose that you pay your car loan with your credit card for several periods, and it seems to be so easy and comfortable, so you start doing it to your mortgage too and then to everything else plus using your cash to buy stuff you don't really need, and for a while you thought that you have found the secret formula to make money out of nowhere, that is until the new debts start to add up faster than you can borrow more money, and there we have it, the bottom of the pit. Let's take this example to a country level, Uncle Sam takes money from anywhere through bonds because he needs to do so, but the interests of the bonds add up really quickly to the point that we owe half the money we earn and we don't want to stop, this is why we are recently seeing the "government shutdown", that is because the Congress fails to approve the funding for the government operation and agencies, in a desperate effort of making the politicians of country come to their senses, fearing that this time, it might be too late to get back on the right track.

Then, what is the way to go when we owe 47 cents for every dollar we print? well, cut spending and/or increase taxes will do in order to close the gap, but if spending was cut, the people that the government is spending money on would complain that they don't have any money to spend and that it was hurting the economy, on the other hand, if the way to go was to raise taxes, not only people will definitely have less money to spend, but the government would probably would have riots on its hands.

This is why "uncle Sam" chooses the easiest way to get around this, make money, so dollars are created and deposit in banks all around America, the problem is that the more of something there is, the less is worth, the same goes for the US dollar, the more dollars there are, the less each will buy, that is why commodities like gas, food, and gold become more expensive whenever "Uncle Sam" does his "money making magic" the commodities aren't worth more, your money is worth less. That is called inflation.

Remember the foreign countries that lent money to Uncle Sam?, when they lend money to the American government, something interesting happens, it makes the US look richer, and their countries look poorer. when a country looks poor compared to America, one dollar of their money buys a lot of their money, so they can pay their workers a few pennies a day, with such low labor cost, they can sell their products in America for lower prices than any American manufacturer can, so the easiest way for American companies to compete is to move their factories overseas, and pay their workers a few pennies a day too, this contributes to a recession, because Americans lose their jobs, stop paying taxes and start collecting goverment benefits like Medicaid, and unemployement, this means that Uncle Sam has even less income and even more expenses. At the same time, people that still have jobs are desperate to keep them, so they tend to do more work, but not to get paid anymore.

When your dollars are worth-less and you are not earning more of them that is called stagflation, so the US government can't raise taxes or cut spending without causing the recession worse, and it can't have the federal reserve create more money without making inflation worse. For now, it can keep on borrowing money, but since it can pay adequately the interests of the loans it already has, it just makes its inevitable bankruptcy even worse.

Whether if it takes 2 months, 2 years or 2 decades, the day will come, when Uncle Sam can no longer pay his bills, when that happens, the banks, investors, and foreign governments, that were counting on that money, won't be able to pay their bills, because just like Uncle Sam, foreign governments don't actually have much money, mostly, all they have is debt to each other, if one link in the debt chain breaks, the whole thing falls apart. If investors can't pay their bills, corporations won't be able to pay their employees, if banks can't pay their bills, you won't be able to take out a loan, use a credit card, or even withdraw your savings, if foreign governments can't pay their bills, their own banks and corporations will have the same problems, and that is called a "global economic collapse". It has never happened before so nobody knows how bad it will be, for how long we will all suffer or even how eventually get out of it. The house of cards is already being built, there is no painless way to avoid it, so what if we take a little conscience, learn from the past (our ancestors) and start saving more, spending less and do what people in Germany do, working as a team and refusing to take more money for their work in order to save the Eurozone from the crisis. What if my friend, what if.






Friday, February 23, 2018

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes |An Awesome Way to Teach |

What if you could see the world's history of wealth and life expectancy in a really good looking chart, like if you could see how we all went from the sickest and poorest state to where we are now. If could be awesome for us to see why the early XX century was so important to us all.

Let's get ready to see how the world was 200 years ago when we all shared misery in an equal manner, that is in 1810, when all countries in the world were sick and poor when life expectancy was 40 years or less, when only the richest countries, like the UK, had families that lived with less than 2.5K/year of today's dollars a year.

The industrial revolution caused that Europe move away from the rest, while the colonized countries in Africa and Asia were stuck at the poor and sick zone, with a rapid progress of the richest countries that got healthier a and wealthier, but then, there it comes the first world war and the Spanish Flu Epidemic (1918-1919).

Now, take a look at the 1920 and 1930, and in spite of the great depression, western countries kept on accumulating wealth, now we see Japan trying to keep up with the leaders and doing it fairly well, but still, the majority of the countries stayed down in the pit.

And then we jump to a time, after the tragedies of the second world war, let's take a look at the world in 1948. What a year, the war was over, Sweden was the absolute winner of the winter Olympics held in Switzerland after 12 years of not celebrating them, where neither Japan or Germany were invited, but the most important to us was that the difference between the countries in the world was wider than ever before, the USA leading the race, Japan catching up really quick, Iran was getting a little richer because of the oil, and the Asian giants, India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonessia, were still poor and sick as they were at the biginning of the 19th century. But something happens, foreign colonies of Europe gained their independence and finally started to get traction and fastly run after the leading western countries, and then, countries in Asia and Latin America started to catch up with the western rich countries, therefore becoming the emerging economies.

But after that, bad things kept on happening to African countries, Congo and its civil war, Ghana was hit big time with HIV,

Today, most people have a life expectancy above 50 years, but there are huge differences at the same time from the best of all countries (Luxemburg, GDP/Capita = 88.3K/year and lifespan of 82 years) and the worst (Central Africa Republic, GPD/Capita = 599/year and lifespan of 50 years)and of course, huge inequalities within countries.

Let's watch all the above in a pretty bad ass presentation by Prof. Hans Rosling.


So, what if learning was this much fun?

Cheers.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Cannabis Associated with Immune Cell Frequency Reduction in ART-Treated HIV Patients



Recently, studies found that the regular use of Cannabis is associated with the activation of the immune system and the reduction of systemic inflammations in regards "ART" or antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected individuals.

All the above means that, for these HIV-infected individuals, a heavy and regular use of cannabis, will decrease frequencies of activated T-cells and inflammatory antigen-presenting cell subsets, in other words, heavy and frequent use of cannabis will provide immunologic benefits through decreasing the immune activation (HIV-patients)

Study participants were divided into 4 categories: heavy, medium or occasional cannabis users or non-cannabis users. The categories selection was based on a blood test. The ones that use cannabis on a daily basis were 65, while non-cannabis users were 133.

Although the clinical implications and side effects of regular use of cannabis are still unclear, researchers found that heavy users have decreased frequencies of intermediate and nonclassical monocyte subsets, as well as decreased frequencies of interleukin 23- and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) producing antigen presenting cells compared to frequencies of activated T cells in non-cannabis-using participants.  

The results are consistent with previous studies demonstrating that cannabinoids can reduce immune cell cytokine production and cellular proliferation.

It’s also important to note, that in the study, researchers found that the moderate and heavy cannabis-using individuals had a significantly higher frequency of HCV-coinfected individuals compared to non-cannabis-using individuals. Despite the higher frequency of HCV coinfection, the individuals still have significantly lower indicators of inflammation and immune activation compared to non-cannabis-using groups.

But, why is marihuana beneficial for inflammatory diseases, well let's hear doctor McDougall, who is the professor of pharmacology at Dalhousie University and a member of the scientific advisory committee for the Arthritis Society.





So, the presence of 2 major cannabinoids, THC and CBD have shown to be effective in reducing inflammation that is linked to several diseases, especially the nonpsychoactive constituents of marihuana, when administering orally, are excellent as anti-arthritic therapy in murine collagen-induced arthritis.

In other words, the CBD component of cannabis provides the body the ability to self-heal and ward off disease.



What if Cannabis was the cure to HIV?...well, sadly it isn't, but it has a vast potential in regards the treatment of HIV-related neuropathic pain, inflammation and the spread of the virus itself, this is due to the administration of the THC component of marihuana, leading to a generalized attenuation of viral load and tissue inflammation. But, we are only watching the tip of the iceberg on cannabis research in regards HIV and other diseases, perhaps it is the cure, but we can't tell how, not yet.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Promising cancer vaccine would use patient’s own cells to train the immune system



Now, there is a new hope for cancer patients. It is a new vaccine that reprograms adult cells to act as embryonic stem cells (ESCs). The way it works is to inject the patient with these reprogrammed cells to trigger an immune response that ends up with the body’s immune system rejecting cancer cells, which is possible since the reprogrammed cells share proteins with the cancer cells.

The idea behind this therapy is to create a cancer-specific antigen receptor and couple this to an effector cell (iPSCs), now, the problem is that it's necessary to identify new tumor-specific antigens, but large numbers of tumor antigens are possibly still unknown.

Nevertheless, it is still very interesting and I think it’s putting medicine in the right direction since chemotherapy has shown not to be very effective and downgrades the person quality of life greatly.

Here is the interview with Joseph C. Wu MD, Ph.D., director of Standford Cardiovascular Institute and author of this study.



ResearchGate: What are induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and how are they typically used?

Joseph Wu: iPSCs are created by reprogramming the nucleus of an adult somatic cell, like a skin cell or blood cell, to express similar genes as embryonic stem cells. By doing so, the adult somatic cell actually transforms into a cell that is similar to embryonic stem cells. These can then be differentiated into a large number of other cell types in the human body, like heart muscle cells, nerve cells, pancreatic cells, liver cells, etc. The main applications of these cells include understanding disease mechanism, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine.

RG: How did you use them in your study?

Wu: In our study, we use the iPSCs in combination with an immunostimulant agent to create a vaccine to activate the immune system to target the proteins on iPSCs. The rationale behind the vaccine is the overlap in proteins that are present in both cancer cells, and iPSCs. So when you activate the immune system to target the proteins on the iPSCs, it makes them also attack the cancer cells that have the same set of proteins.

RG: What were the results? 

Wu: For all cancers, the treatment worked very well. For breast cancer, for instance, it resulted in the complete rejection of cancer in 70 percent of the mice. Even with a large number of cancer cells we injected, the mice’s immune systems were able to fully reject or severely reduce tumors. For a very aggressive melanoma (skin cancer), it resulted in a significant reduction of tumor sizes. It might have resulted in complete rejection down the line in some of the treated mice, but the control mice had such big tumors that we had to stop the experiment after two weeks.

RG: Do you think it would work with other types of cancer too?

Wu: We tested for skin cancer (melanoma), breast cancer, and lung cancer (mesothelioma). And yes, we believe that because of the large number of cancer-related proteins that are present on the iPSCs, this vaccine will also work on other cancers.

RG: How big of a step is this towards a cancer vaccine for humans?

Wu: We feel that this has great potential as a possible vaccine. For example, patients could be vaccinated at a certain age—say at 70—to boost their immune system to target possible cancerous cells, and limit cancer from growing out. As a next step, we are currently setting up and performing in vitro experiments to validate the efficacy and safety of the vaccine on human samples.



Currently, this vaccine against cancer has not reached the clinical trial stage, but the results observed in mice are very positive and I think that we will see the cure for cancer in the near future.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Rocket Engine Part Recovered by Amazon CEO Has Apollo 11 History



I wish the title would leave a little a little room to intrigue you so I could ask you. Do you know what this is?, well guys, this is the base of a Saturn V engine thrust chamber recovered by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and just in case you can't see it, the serial number "Unit No 2044".

This was amazing and although some people think this is nothing more than the expensive hobby of a filthy rich guy (they might be right), I think that Mr. Jeff Bezos is doing something really nice for human history...not to make history, don't get me wrong.

In March 2012, the billionaire entrepreneur underwrote a private — and secret — expedition to find and recover the Apollo engines that launched astronauts Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the moon.

"I'm thrilled to share some exciting news," Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote Friday (July 19) on his Bezos Expeditions website. "44 years ago tomorrow [July 20] Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and now we have recovered a critical technological marvel that made it all possible."

So, Mr. Bezos's team was searching for discarded NASA rockets in the Atlantic and finally, in 2013, the team salvaged 2 rockets, and after a very careful inspection, the team realize that they found a part of the rockets that took Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon 44 years ago, on the Apollo 11.

It had to be great to be there. Here I cite, in the words of Mr. Bezos what happened that day.




"One of the conservators who was scanning the objects with a black light and a special lens filter has made a breakthrough discovery – '2044' – stenciled in black paint on the side of one of the massive thrust chambers," wrote Bezos. "2044 is the Rocketdyne serial number that correlates to NASA number 6044, which is the serial number for F-1 Engine #5 from Apollo 11."

Although NASA is retaining ownership of the artifacts and will ultimately decide where they go on museum display, Mr. Bezos expressed interest in having one of the engine's parts displayed at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, which is close to Amazon's headquarters and the offices of Blue Origin, the commercial spaceflight company founded by Bezos in 2000.

Now everything is coming to a logical explanation, this altruistic effort is surely supporting Mr. Bezos plans to set up Amazon to the Moon (one hell of a deal). But, It doesn't matter, after all, he is doing a great thing for us, by spending so much money bringing this awesome part of history back to us and to our children.

Regardless of the final intentions, what if more actions toward history, culture, and education, were carried out by other billionaires. I know they must do several things that never are going to be known by us, but there must be a few, with a few million in change, that could do a lot of good to the world's historical heritage, and they might not be cheap, just frugal (in the end, they are stingy as hell).




Friday, February 9, 2018

What if Clean Energy was the Way to Go

And you know the answer, that is a big yes, but while every person in the world knows that the way to go is clean energy, on January 22, 2018, president Trump imposes 30 percent tariff on solar panel imports which he thinks is a bid to protect domestic manufacturers, therefore taking a more aggressive approach in regards his commercial relations toward China.

Now, let’s make some numbers, since this $28 billion dollar industry (solar industry) gets nearly 80% of its components and solar panels from imports, all we can expect are bad news for the industry and for the planet, since 23 thousand jobs will immediately be killed and 3 thousand more by the end of the year.

Apparently, the broke American companies Suniva and SolarWorld Americas, applauded this new tax against the planet, yes, I mean the planet, since America is one of the biggest green house effect contributors  in the world and you don’t have to go very far to see the planet going sick, the weather is crazy and worse than ever, and just by saying that this 30% tariffs would boost domestic manufacturing and add more than 100,000 jobs, it doesn’t mean it will happen in the near future, which is when we need it, not 20 years from now, when there will be no turning back.

This type of actions are the ones that make us think. Is America getting lonelier?, and this is an important question because, even though America is still the greatest country in the world, no one can keep on the top without the help of others.

So, what if taxing the future of the world is not the way to go to “make America great again” ? what if there was another way that could help the American workers and the planet at the same time?. It might be somehow difficult to group both things, but the good news are…there is a way and it is happening already, it only needs a little push to jump to a greater and healthier future.

There is an article from the Michigan State University called “Farm Sunshine, Not Cancer: Replacing Tobacco Fields with Solar Arrays” in which we can see that the demand for solar energy grows and so it does the demand for land for solar farms, this is to completely eliminate the need for burning fossil fuels, solar technology requires large surface areas. Hopefully one day, we will get paid to consume energy, like in Germany.

 

Think about it, the oil energy is coming to an end, you can tell because America, the biggest consumer of fossil energy sources is now out of the sudden exporting oil and more than that, beating one of the greatest producers of all time, (yeah, beating Russia), isn’t that suspicious? For years buying oil from the rest of the world and now because of fracking it can supply itself and even sell?. I think something is really wrong, I think that oil is been pumped so fast because a more sophisticated technology is going live very soon, but all that oil?. Well let's use it before is not worth a dime.


So, there is a way, not a taxing way to "Make America Still Great", we just need to open our eyes and don't let the monetary intentions of politicians get us off the good track to a better world.