Nudismo em tempos de Covid-19

Com o crescimento do número de pessoas infectadas, as autoridades tchecas passaram a exigir que as pessoas usassem máscaras de proteção. Mesmo aqueles adeptos do nudismo estão sujeitos a regra e podem ser punidos se não estiverem com a boca protegida. Nudismo ainda pode ser praticado, mas com máscara de proteção. 

Rir é o melhor remédio

Conquista da quarentena

Imprimir dinheiro não é solução para o Brasil

Neste momento de crise, muitos, no Brasil, têm defendido que o Banco Central expanda a quantidade de moeda para enfrentar os problemas. Essa...

Leia mais em https://braziljournal.com/nao-podemos-transformar-esta-crise-numa-longa-depressao

Covid-19 e o monopólio da Amazon

The home confinement forced on most Americans by Covid-19 has created a new dependency on internet-based services for work and for play. Although using a variety of applications gives many users the sense that they are supporting many different companies, this is a façade.

This new normal represents a near-total dependence on Amazon’s cloud-computing operation, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and places a substantial portion of our professional and social lives in the hands of a private monopolist.

The internet-based services enabling remote work and play have experienced unprecedented growth because of Covid-19 restrictions. Netflix’s new subscriber growth increased by 47 percent over the past month. The communications platform Slack added 2.5 million additional users in just one week, and the videoconferencing software Zoom was downloaded by more than 600,000 new users in one day last week and has recorded a 21 percent increase in users since December.

But these three booming applications—and many others like them—all depend on the cloud computing power of AWS. In essence, AWS lets any company outsource its computational and storage needs, to save it the expense of buying its own equipment.

And the coronavirus outbreak has made AWS more indispensable than ever. Zoom, Slack, Netflix, Reddit, and Twitter all depend on AWS for their operations. Furthermore, General Electric, Apple, and Yelp also significantly depend on AWS, paying Amazon what are essentially digital rents for the use of the AWS computer infrastructure. Apple alone pays Amazon $30 million per month for AWS. Even government agencies rely on and utilize AWS for critical aspects of their services.

The success of AWS has made the division Amazon’s most profitable operation. The most critical sector in the cloud computing market is the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) sector, which supplies clients with computer servers, data storage, and networking hardware.

AWS is the dominant market leader in the industry, with a 48 percent market share in the IaaS sector, more than triple that of its closest competitor, Microsoft.

Amazon has used its dominant market share in various anti-competitive ways that choke competition. Amazon’s computer infrastructure provides it the ability to essentially spy on its competition.

[..]

Fonte: Zoom, Netflix, Slack: Amazon Is Behind All the Services We Use to Work From Home (and That’s a Problem)

Seja trouxa: faça Day Trade

Resumo:

We analyze the performance of and learning by individual investors who engage in day trading in Taiwan from 1992 to 2006 and test the proposition that individual investors rationally speculate as day traders in order to learn whether they possess superior trading ability. Consistent with models of both rational and biased learning, we document that unprofitable day traders are more likely to quit than profitable traders. Inconsistent with models of rational speculation and learning, we document that the aggregate performance of day traders is negative, the vast majority of day traders are unprofitable, and many persist despite an extensive experience of losses.

“Learning, Fast or Slow,” with Y. Lee, Y. Liu, T. Odean, and K. Zhang, forthcoming, Review of Asset Pricing Studies.

Cor do papel higiênico

Qual a razão do papel higiênico ser da cor branca? Quando li esta pergunta no MentalFloss imaginei que a resposta seria devido a facilidade que a cor branca permite na determinação do término da limpeza. Isto é uma resposta plausível.

Mas a principal resposta diz respeito ao processo de produção, ao custo e as preocupações ambientais. O papel higiênico é produzido a partir da celulose; no processo, há a remoção da lignina, o que faz com que o papel fique mais macio e prolongue a vida útil do produto. Este processo faz com que o resultado final seja um produto branco. Esta seria a primeira explicação: o processo de produção.

Mas é possível produzir um papel de outra cor. Para isto, os fabricantes poderiam acrescentar corantes. Há dois problemas aqui. O primeiro, é que isto aumenta o custo de produção, o que significa preço mais elevado. O segundo problema é que os corantes podem trazer irritação na pela do cliente e provocar danos ambientais.

Custo do sequenciamento genético

Desde o início da utilização da técnica de sequenciamento de genoma, o custo caiu substancialmente. Isto ajuda a explicar, em parte, a rapidez da resposta que a ciência está dando, até agora, para o Covid.