International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
Norweigan Nobel Committee says award made ""in recognition of work to draw attention to catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons".
Physics
Barry Barish
Kip Thorne
Rainer Weiss
"For decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves"
Corruption is flooding Latin American democracies and leading to their disintegration, until they fall into the hands of ambitious populist politicians who end up destroying the remnants of the rule of law and sink their countries into a corrupt totalitarianism from whose grip peoples find it very difficult to free themselves. That is the stark reality in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, among others. It is essential to wake up the peoples of our Continent before it is too late, so that they understand that absolute power corrupts absolutely and work together to fight the enemies of democracy, crouched in the pit of totalitarianism. This initiative reported below aimed at the Latin American youth is a ray of hope.
As colleagues at Harvest Collegiate High School, Andy Snyder and I talk a lot about the way humans develop. In this essay he presents a vision for how to reform social studies curriculum, one that I have seen him enact with good results: students who are engaged, thinking critically, and actively developing meaningful skills. Regardless of what you teach, and especially if you teach social studies, your students could also benefit from his ideas, written below, that help students engage in meaningful disciplinary skills.— John T. McCrann
Imagine a basketball coach with no hoops and no ball who provided a textbook history of basketball, showed video of some of the greatest games, and imparted a passion for teamwork. But she never held a practic and the players never bounced a ball. How would her team do in a game? How well do our students and former students do as participants in a democracy—with all that we've taught them of history, geography, government, and economics? Knowledge, skills, and values are necessary aspects of a good civic education but the most important element has been left out—action. Civic duties involve doing things in the world—pushing us to go beyond knowledge, thinking skills, and values within our classrooms. Civic education requires practice working with others to take action.
Money is an intangible based more on consumer’s confidence than in the economic and financial base that supports its real value, although this base, of course, is essential to hold its value. Therefore, for practical purposes, there is no real difference between a piece of paper or a piece of rectangular plastic. It all depends on these two fundamental factors. The problem of replacing paper with plastic rests primarily in the fact that the State issues paper money, while private companies, especially banks, issue credit (or debit) cards. In the first case, it is an instrument to handle and control economic stability, while in the second case it is a lucrative business that feeds consumerist exceses that often lead to increased debt and the capital loss suffered by consumers having to pay substantial interests. That is why it is so interesting the article that follows, which focuses on the forceful way banking and financial interests are driving a transformation that stimulates even more dangerous consumerism.
War on Cash 2.0 — Visa Now Paying Businesses to Stop Taking Cash
July 18.– According to the most recent data, Visa — which is mostly owned by banks–accounts for over 50 percent of all credit card transactions and 70% of all debit card transactions in the world. Hundreds of billions in transactions process through Visa’s databases every year and this number continues to grow.
Despite their overwhelming increase in market share, cards issued, and overall total volume, Visa has made a recent move that shows they intend to completely snub out their most unaccountable, untraceable, and most liberty-associated competitor and means of payment–cash.
Argentina es un país de amplios recursos naturales, baja demografía y elevado capital humano y cultural. Sin embargo, ha vivido largos períodos de inflación, desempleo y derrumbe crediticio, provocados por la política derrochadora del peronismo antes y después de la feroz dictadura militar. El gobierno de Cristina Fernández de Kirchner fue uno de los peores en el aspecto económico, llegando a extremos de corrupción que superaron los excesos de su esposo Néstor, que la antecedió en la Presidencia. Néstor Kirchner recibió un país que estaba saliendo de una crisis fenomenal de la mano de su promotor Duhalde. También recibió un país eminentemente agro exportador que gozaba en esos momentos de los mejores precios en los últimos 150 años de sus productos exportables, una oportunidad histórica que no aprovechó sino para un mayor derroche. Aún así, la economía argentina, que era la primera hasta 1974, se ha alzado en nuestros días a la tercera posición de Latinoamérica detrás de Brasil y México, y forma parte del G-20. Empero, en los últimos 7 años el país atravesó 4 recesiones, en 2009, 2012, 2014 y 2015, y el 17 de diciembre de 2015, el peso experimentó una devaluación cercana al 40 %, (la mayor registrada desde 2002, cuando se puso fin a la convertibilidad). Los argentinos deben tener paciencia, porque el proceso de recuperación de semejante desastre toma tiempo.
Macri impulsa 'boom' hipotecario en Argentina
El Ministro de Hacienda argentino concede entrevista en Miami; se presentó también el Ministro de Transporte en la serie "Americas Conference"
Miami, Jun.30.─ Un ‘boom’ hipotecario está viviendo Argentina desde principios de abril, mes en el que el gobierno del presidente Mauricio Macri lanzó los créditos ajustables por inflación a 30 años con tasas de interés que van desde el 3% al 6%, dependiendo del banco, afirmó el viernes en Miami el ministro de Hacienda de ese país sudamericano, Nicolás Dujovne.
Dujovne, precisó que se están otorgando entre 3,000 y 4,000 créditos al mes, es decir entre 100 a 130 al día, y se estima que para finalizar el año esta cifra llegue a los 6,000 o 7,000 e incluso podría superar los 20,000 para el 2019.