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The dollar has fallen to a record low against the euro as traders bet that further interest rate cuts will be needed to stem a US recession.

The euro rose to $1.509 after buying $1.50 on Tuesday for the first time. Sterling climbed against the greenback too, reaching almost $2.

Lower US rates tend to send investors in search of other currencies which give a better rate of return.

The view is that UK and eurozone rates will not fall as much as in the US.

The UK pound traded at $1.988 in morning European trade after a raft of gloomy economic numbers isused on Tuesday.

In addition, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn suggested that risks of a cooling economy were overshadowing the worries of rising inflation, hinting that US rates will be cut below their current level of 3%.

Y eso qué? Ejemplo: Macbook blanca con procesador a 2.4 Ghz en Alemania: €1,199 ($1,804). El mismo modelo en USA: $1,299 (€862). El ahorro: €340 ($511) aprox, que es el equivalente a un iPod Touch de 32 Gb en USA.

La nota aquí

Modelos financieros y la carabina de Ambrosio

El fascinante mundo de las finanzas. Un mundo donde la gente cree que puede pronosticar todo con modelos matemáticos que ni ellos mismos entienden. No quiero provocar malentendidos. Algunos modelos matemáticos para finanzas son buenos. Sin embargo, el mejor de los modelos fallará siempre porque, hasta donde yo sé, no toman en cuenta el factor “gente”.

Ciertamente existen modelos financieros que toman en cuenta factores externos a los que les llaman riesgo. Pero ninguno toma en cuenta el factor “miedo”. Sí, a final de cuentas los que toman las decisiones en los mercados financieros son simples mortales cuya esperanza de vida es de 30 anios.

Si algún imbécil analista dice algo como “Encuesta muestra que la demanda de iPods disminuirá en 5%”, toda la vola de Lemmings que se hacen llamar Brokers comienzan a vender las acciones de Apple como si el maniana nunca muere haciendo que el precio de la acción se desplome. Después resulta que “dijo mi mamá que siempre no” que la demana del iPod sigue fuerte y entonces…. otra vez salen las hordas de Lemmings a comprar acciones de Apple porque la demanda de sus productos no ha disminuído y, en efecto, el precio de la acción sube.

No soy un experto en modelos financieros, pero no creo que exista alguno que tome en cuenta ese tipo de situaciones. Si bien los modelos sirven para observar ciertas tendencias, su utilidad está realmente muy limitada.

Un analista financiero experto y un chango ciego y manco tienen las mismas posibilidades de ejecutar movimientos financieros adecuados porque al final todo depende lo que los Lemmings hagan. Si no me creen, pueden tomar como ejemplo la crisis hipotecaria actual donde los bancos con “mayor reputación en el mundo” están teniendo pérdidas enormes. Yo pensaría que esos bancos tienen un equipo de expertos que se percatarían de que algo anda mal en ciertos mercados…

En fin, si van a meter su dinero a la bolsa lo único que pueden hacer es informarse sobre las empresas en las que van a invertir, pero aparte de eso no hagan tanto caso a los analistas.

Ya lo dijo el sabio Sr. Andrés cuando le pregunté que qué acciones me aconsejaba comprar y me contestó “tu invierte y ponte a rezar”

Irán quiere legalizar pena de muerte si renuncias al Islam

Nomás eso faltaba. Que si no quieres ya pertenecer a las filas del Islam en Irán te pueden sentenciar con pena de muerte. Qué sigue después? Que te quemen vivo en una plaza por hereje? Ah no esperen… eso ya pasó.

La “ley” aún no es aprobada y está siendo fuertemente criticada por la Unión Europea.

An EU statement expressed deep concern about what it calls the ongoing deterioration in the human rights situation in Iran. It singled out Section Five of the draft penal code currently before the Iranian parliament, imposing the death penalty for apostasy.

In the past, Iranian courts have handed down the death penalty in such cases, but have done so relying on Sharia law.

If the draft is approved by parliament, the sentence will be formalised in the country’s criminal code.

Muslim scholars are divided over what the appropriate punishment should be for leaving Islam.

Some conservatives regard it as such a heinous offence as to warrant the death penalty.

Others believe it is not up to politicians or governments to set the penalty but is for God to decide on the Day of Judgement.

La nota completa aquí

Brasil revela plan anti-pobreza

Aunque es muy probable que el plan tenga motivos electorales y exista la posibilidad de que no sea lo que Brasil necesita para erradicar la pobreza, lo notable aquí es la iniciativa del gobierno.

Yo no recuerdo ninguna iniciativa similar por parte del gobierno mexicano. Sí, promesas sí y muchas. Pero algo en concreto como una inversión de 6 billones de dólares para ayudar a 24 millones de personas? No.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the biggest cost to the country was not taxes but a century in which poor people had been forgotten.

The move comes months before important municipal polls are held across Brazil.

The programme, which will see some $6bn (£3bn) spent in 2008 alone, still has to be approved by Congress.

The initiative, known as “Territories of Citizenship”, is meant to help around 24 million people, including rural workers and indigenous communities.

The money, which is part of the existing budget, will be used to supplement 135 policies, involving 15 government departments, that are focused on 958 towns in states across the country.

The government is also promising to finally reach its target in the “Light for Everyone” programme to bring electricity to poor communities.

La nota aquí

Nuevas Macbooks y Macbook Pros

Ambas láptops están basadas en la nueva arquitectura de Intel: “Penryn”. Las Macbook Pros pueden ser configuradas hasta con 6MB de caché L2.

Y las actualizaciones son:

MacBook

The price configuration is the same same (starting at $1099 US for the non-Super Drive white base model, $1499 for the BlackBook), but the base features have received a nice upgrade. The significant changes:

• Processor speeds now start at 2.1 GHz for the base model, 2.4 GHz for the $1299 and $1499 models
• 120 GB drive is standard for the base level MacBook, 160 GB for the $1299 MacBook and a whopping 250 GB drive for the BlackBook. All drives are 5400 RPM
• 2 GB RAM standard for all but entry-level MacBooks (that remains at 1 GB)

MacBook Pro

• Processor speeds now start at 2.4 GHz, and are available up to 2.6 GHz (2.5 GHz is standard for the 17″); the new 2.5 GHz chip has 6 MB of L2 cache
• The MBP 17″ now has an LED backlit screen option
• 200 GB is the starting HD size (this is up from 120 GB in the last revision), 250 GB standard for the upper 15″ and 17″ models. A 300 GB drive is available BTO, as is a 7200 rpm 200 GB drive
• NVidia 8600GT now starts at 256 MB of VRAM — 512 for the higher end 15″ and stock 17″
• Multi-touch trackpad a la the Air.

Por cierto, los codos marrajos de Apple ya no incluyen el control remoto al comprar una láptop.

La info extraída de TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)
Sitio oficial de la Macbook Pro 

Secretos alemanes de la 2a Guerra Mundial

Navegando por ahí encontré un documento muy interesante escrito en 1946 en Harper’s Magazine, las segunda revista más vieja de publicación mensual en USA.

En el documento (.doc), que pueden bajar aquí, el autor menciona varios de los secretos más trascendentes descubiertos inmediatamente después de la 2a guerra mundial. Todo esto fue gracias a que los aliados llevaron a cabo operaciones para obtener toda la propiedad intelectual, inventos, patentes, etc. que los alemanes generaron durante la guerra.

Según el artículo miles de secretos/inventos fueron recolectados por dichas operaciones.

Los inventos van desde el Cassette, plasma sanguínea artificial, procesos avanzados de fabricación y rayos infrarrojos hasta cohetes intercontinentales.

El autor describe algunos de los inventos que le fueron presentados al momento de hacer el artículo. Por ejemplo este que narra el primer encuentro de los gringos con la eficiencia y procesos de manufactura avanzados…

“You see this”. . . the head of Communications Unit, TIIB, said to me. It was metal, and looked like a complicated doll’s house with the roof off. It is the chassis, or frame, for a radio. To make the same thing, Americans would machine cut, hollow, shape, fit-a dozen different processes. This is done on a press in one operation. It is called the cold extrusion_ process. We do it some with soft, splattery metals. But by this process the Germans do it with cold steel! Thousands of parts now made as castings or drop forgings or from malleable iron can now be made this way.

Cuando le mostraron la unidad de rayos infrarrojos:

He showed me then what had been two of the most closely-guarded technical secrets of the war: the infra-red device which the Germans invented for seeing at night, and the remarkable diminutive generator which operated it. German cars could drive at any speed in a total black-out, seeing objects clear as day two hundred meters ahead. Tanks with this device could spot targets two miles away. As a sniperscope it enabled German riflemen to pick off a man in total blackness.

There was a sighting tube, and a selenium screen out front. The screen caught the incoming infra-red light, which drove electrons from the selenium along the tube to another screen which was electrically charged and fluorescent. A visible image appeared on this screen. Its clearness and its accuracy for aiming purposes were phenomenal. Inside the tube, distortion of the stream of electrons by the earth’s magnetism was even allowed for!

Avances en la industria química manufacturera:

But of all the industrial secrets, perhaps the biggest windfall came from the laboratories and plants of the great German cartel, I. G. Farbenindustrie. Never before, it is claimed, was there such a store-house of secret information. It covers liquid and solid fuels, metallurgy, synthetic rubber, textiles, chemicals, plastics, drugs, dyes. One American dye authority declares:
It includes the production know-how and the secret formulas for over fifty thousand dyes. Many of them are faster and better than ours. Many are colors we were never able to make. The American dye industry will be advanced at least ten years.

Tecnología en refrigeración/calefacción

Refrigeration and air-conditioning on German U-boats had become so efficient that the submarines could travel from Germany to the Pacific , operate there for two months, and then return to Germany without having to take on fresh water for the crew.

Y tenían planeado fabricar misiles intercontinentales:

A long range rocket-motored bomber which, the war documents indicate, was never completed merely because of the wars quick ending, would have been capable of flight from Germany to New York in forty minutes. Pilot-guided from a pressurized cabin, it would have flown at an altitude of 154 miles. Launching was to be by catapult at 500 miles an hour, and the ship would rise to its maximum altitude in as short a time as four minutes. There, fuel exhausted, it would glide through the outer atmosphere, bearing down on its target. With one hundred bombers of this type the Germans hoped to destroy any city on earth in a few days operations.

Torpedos guíados por sonido:

A German variation of the guided air missile was a torpedo for underwater work which went unerringly to its mark, drawn by the propeller sound of the victim ship from as far away as ten miles. This missile swam thirty feet below the water, at forty miles an hour, and left no wake. When directly under its target, it exploded.

En el artículo hay un comentario de la fuerza aérea gringa:

Little wonder, then, that today Army Air Force experts declare publicly that in rocket power and guided missiles the Germans were ahead of us by at least ten years.

Tanto era el avance tecnológico que se llegó a pensar que con un poco más de tiempo (unos 6 meses) la guerra hubiera tomado otro rumbo diferente… favorable a Alemania.

All such revelations naturally raise the question: was Germany so far advanced in air, rocket, and missile research that, given a little more time, she might have won the war? German secrets, as now disclosed, would seem to indicate that possibility. And the Deputy Commanding General of Army Air Force Intelligence, Air Technical Service Command, has told the Society of Aeronautical Engineers within the past few months:
“The Germans were preparing rocket surprises for the whole world in general and England in particular which would have, it is believed, changed the course of the war if the invasion had been postponed for so short a time as half a year.”

Varias companías gringas querían tener acceso a dichos inventos pues les ahorraría anios de investigación:

The Bendix Company in South Bend, Indiana, writes for a German patent on the record player changer with records stacked above the turntable.

Pillsbury Mills wants to have what is available on German flour and bread production methods.

Kendall Manufacturing company (Soapine) wants insect repellent compounds.

Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Company, Iowa, asks about interrogation of research workers at the agricultural high school at Hohenheim.

Pacific Mills requests I. G. Farbenindustrie’s water-repellent, crease-resistant finish for spun rayon.

The Polaroid Company would like something on the status of exploitation of photography and optics in Germany. (There are, incidentally, ten to twenty thousand German patents yet to be screened.)

Las companías gringas se beneficiaron mucho económicamente de la propiedad intelectual alemana (cof cof Apple cof cof):

After a certain American aircraft company had ordered a particular captured German document, it was queried as to whether the information therein had made it or saved it any money. The cost of the report had been a few dollars. The company answered: Yes-at lease a hundred thousand dollars.

A research head of another business firm took notes for three hours in the OTS offices one day. Thanks very much, he said, as he stood to go, the notes from these documents are worth at least half a million dollars to my company.
And after seeing the complete report on the German synthetic fiber industry, one American manufacturer remarked:
This report would be worth twenty million dollars to my company if it could have it exclusively.

En ese entonces el proceso de traducir los documentos de alemán a inglés era monumental. Hasta se tuvo que definir un nuevo glosario para los términos utilizados

Today translators and abstracters of the Office of Technical Services, successor to the OPB, are processing them at the rate of about a thousand a week. Indexing and cataloging the part of the collection which will be permanently kept may require more than two million cards; and at Wright Field the task is so complicated that electric punch-card machines are to be installed. A whole new glossary of German-English terms has had to be compiled on new technical and scientific items.

Publicar los documentos era un árduo trabajo también:

For the German secrets, which conventionally used to be counted in scores, will run to three-quarters of a million separate documentary items (two-thirds of them on aeronautics) and will require several years and several hundreds of people to screen and prepare them for wide public use.

Afortunadamente los tiempos han cambiado. USA ya no tiene acceso gratuito a propiedad intelectual alemana sino que paga billones de dólares por ella para aplicarla en varias industrias, la industria militar entre ellas.

El abuelo de Bush financió a los Nazis

Hijo de Tigre, pintito.

Otra prueba más de que la familia Bush no ha aportado nada a la humanidad…

El artículo es algo viejo pero está bastante interesante. Al parecer el dinero que el abuelo Bush hizo con su intervención con los Nazis fue la base para convertir a la familia Bush en una “dinastía” política…

George Bush’s grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany.

The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a hum of pre-election controversy.

The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator’s action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

The debate over Prescott Bush’s behaviour has been bubbling under the surface for some time. There has been a steady internet chatter about the “Bush/Nazi” connection, much of it inaccurate and unfair. But the new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis’ plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

Thyssen owned the largest steel and coal company in Germany and grew rich from Hitler’s efforts to re-arm between the two world wars. One of the pillars in Thyssen’s international corporate web, UBC, worked exclusively for, and was owned by, a Thyssen-controlled bank in the Netherlands. More tantalising are Bush’s links to the Consolidated Silesian Steel Company (CSSC), based in mineral rich Silesia on the German-Polish border. During the war, the company made use of Nazi slave labour from the concentration camps, including Auschwitz. The ownership of CSSC changed hands several times in the 1930s, but documents from the US National Archive declassified last year link Bush to CSSC, although it is not clear if he and UBC were still involved in the company when Thyssen’s American assets were seized in 1942.

Lean el artículo completo aquí

Gráfica de películas en taquilla

Chequen esta gráfica del NYtimes que muestra de manera original las películas que han estado en taquilla desde 1986 a la fecha. La gráfica muestra cuánto tiempo estuvieron en taquilla así como cuánto dinero recaudaron.

También se pude hacer búsqueda por película. Chequen la duración y recaudación que tuvo Titanic!

Realizan primer vuelo ecológico

Un Boeing 747 de Virgin Atlantic realizó el domingo su primer vuelo con biocarburante, visto como una alternativa más barata y menos contaminante que la gasolina, informó la aerolínea británica. El aparato, sin pasajeros, despegó de Londres a eso del mediodía  con destino a Amsterdam. El combustible está compuesto de una mezcla de dos tipos de biodiésel, uno extraído de la palma aceitera de babassú y otro a base de coco. “Esta demostración de vuelo con biocarburante pone de manifiesto la factibilidad del uso de biodiésel en aviones comerciales y es un paso significativo hacia una visión a largo plazo, totalmente sustentable y con escasas emisiones de carbono, para la aviación industrial”, dijo Richard Branson, responsable de Virgin. Las aerolíneas están buscando reducir costos, ante la escalada del precio del petróleo, que la semana pasada llegó a 101 dólares el barril.

Fuente: Mural

El nuevo reto del Blu-Ray

Después de la victoria contra el HD-DVD, el Blu-Ray se enfrenta a su nuevo rival: El interné.

La única posible (y pequenia) ventaja que los pro-blurayanos podrían argumentar es que la definición de una película en Blu-Ray es superior a la de una película adquirida en Internet (no a través de torrentazo sino comprada en iTunes o Amazon por ejemplo). Claro que para sacarle el jugo al Blu-Ray hay que tener una TV de buena calidad (un Plasma Full-HD por ejemplo).

Yo creo que la calidad de las películas en internet no tarda en igualar a las de Blu-Ray. El problema en sí no es técnico, sino que al aumentar la calidad se aumenta el tamanio de la película de manera considerable y eso podría perjudicar un poco la experiencia del usuario al comprar la película en internet y tener que bajarla a su computadora.

Yo creo que el Blu-Ray tiene que buscar más ventajas o establecerse en un nicho. Porque NADIE NADIE!!!! puede vencer al Interné (pregúntenle a las disqueras)… Oh Dios bendiga el Interné.

Un artículo al respecto menciona lo siguiente

But the victory for Blu-ray Disc may be short-lived if consumers choose to download high definition content from the Internet, market researchers say.

“After years of a standards war, the major question for Sony Corp. and the Blu-ray camp is whether a physical format for high-definition still has any relevance to consumers in this era of Internet-delivered movies and video on demand,” said David Carnevale, vice president of multimedia content and services at iSuppli, in a report.

Online movie download services from iTunes, Amazon, and others have gained traction in recent years and increased their movie, TV and other video content offerings. The Internet gives consumers a choice of building a library of HD movies bought over the Internet instead of buying a Blu-ray Disc player and building a new library of movies-on-disc, said Carnevale.

“Physical media distribution could become a thing of the past,” he said.

Apple added the ability to buy movies at its online iTunes Store in September 2006. Last month, the company added the ability to rent movies through iTunes, with owners of the Apple TV now able to rent movies directly from that set-top box.