martes, 25 de agosto de 2020
sábado, 22 de agosto de 2020
martes, 18 de agosto de 2020
Helado de Yogurt
viernes, 14 de agosto de 2020
Hattori Hanzō: The Demon Samurai/Ninja
Hattori Hanzō began his life out as a samurai, but through family ties and the implementation of guerrilla warfare, he would adopt the ways of the ninja. Under the service of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu he would be given his very own ninja clan
miércoles, 12 de agosto de 2020
What monkeys can teach us about money
In experiments, monkeys make some ‘financial’ decisions which are remarkably similar to those made by humans.
On a island off the coast of Puerto Rico, a fascinating simian experiment has taken place. The results could give us a deeper understanding of behavioural economics, the psychology of risk and may explain why our economies suffer from periodic financial crises.
It involved six Capuchin monkeys. Researchers trained the monkeys to exchange small metal tokens for food. They were put in a makeshift tiny market where experimenters would offer different foods at different prices. What we found surprising was, with very little training, the monkeys shopped at experimenters who gave them food more cheaply
One of those trading with monkeys was Laurie Santos, a professor of cognitive science and psychology at Yale University. “We could use that set up to really ask, do the monkeys pay attention to things like price - are they trying to maximise their monkey token dollar?” she explains.
“What we found surprising was, with very little training, the monkeys shopped at experimenters who gave them food more cheaply. So if they got twice as much food for one token with an experimenter, the monkeys shopped there more often.”
The monkeys also displayed other human-like traits such as opportunism. They tried to grab any tokens that were left lying around while the scientists were not paying attention. Primates engaging in some monkey business no doubt. Nevertheless, it also showed that the monkeys considered the tokens as valuable items.
However, it is the monkeys’ attitude to risk that might hold the most intriguing lessons for us humans.
The researchers introduced an element of choice into their experiment. They could trade with one of two people. One would give them two pieces of food, grapes in this case, for their token, every time they traded. It was a no-lose, safe option.
But the other gave them either one grape or three grapes, in exchange for their token. The second deal carried more risk as half the time it was one grape, the other half three.
Most people will go for the safe option - they take the $2000. That is also what monkeys do
Translated into human terms, look at it like this: You have a choice, you could get a guaranteed $2000 or have a 50% chance of getting $1000 and a 50% chance of $3000.
To gamble or not to gamble - which option would you choose?
Most people will go for the safe option - they take the $2000. That is also what monkeys do.
So far so good. Apes and monkeys are, after all, our nearest animal relatives. We share a common evolutionary history. However, once the experiment was adjusted so that the monkeys had the same options but from a different starting point, something fascinating happened.
Professor Laurie Santos explains “So the monkeys come in and it looks like both experimenters [are] kind of holding three [grapes] so this monkey brain is probably thinking ‘oh there’s a chance to get three.’ One guy is safe, he does the same thing every time...the monkey trades with this guy [and] he’s holding three but he takes one away and gives the monkeys two so it’s kind of a sure loss - a small loss but a sure one,” says Santos. “The second guy is risky - sometimes he gives the monkeys all three but sometimes he takes two away and only gives the monkeys one.”
Again, let’s look at that another way: You start with $3000, now you have a choice. Either you take a guaranteed loss of $1000 leaving you with only $2000 or you gamble. If you gamble half the time, you will lose $2000 leaving you with just $1000 but half the time you will not lose anything. What would you do?
Most people will gamble and go for the riskier choice. Surprisingly, so do the monkeys. The thought of losing out is so painful that they will risk a bigger loss just for a chance of no loss.
When stocks and shares crash or house prices collapse, you might expect people to become more cautious. In fact, they take more risks. People will hold onto stock that is losing value, speculating the price will rise again, because we can’t bear the thought of having less than we have now. This is loss aversion.
Many people would like to save, but the act of taking money out of your paycheck and putting it into a savings account can feel like a loss - Santos
So, if loss aversion is hardwired into us, what can we do about it?
Well Professor Santos says that sometimes it makes sense to find cunning ways to nudge people into behaviour contrary to our destructive instincts.
One example is saving.
“Many people would like to save, but the act of taking money out of your paycheck and putting it into a savings account can feel like a loss,” she says. To offset this, academics have come up with programmes that take this into account and take your savings away from the income raises that you get later in life so it never really feels like a loss.”
Economists Richard Thaler (of Nudge Theory fame) and Shlomo Benartzi came up with the Save More Tomorrow (SMarT) scheme. This a simple but clever way of nudging employees to save towards retirement which operates in four steps.
Firstly, employees are encouraged to sign up to the programme well in advance of it actually starting – so no immediate financial consequences. Then, the actual pension contributions don’t start until you get your next pay-rise, so the employee doesn’t feel like they are losing out on the wage they currently get. The contributions increase over time, with each pay-rise, until the pot reaches a pre-set maximum. Lastly, employees can opt out at any time. This final step works on the basis that humans have a tendency towards status-quo bias. In other words, doing nothing is easier than doing something.
The decisions humans make about money often seem irrational and can lead to price bubbles and market crashes. Sometimes we just make bad decisions that don’t make sense.
So, perhaps what Professor Santos and her monkeynomics underlines is that there may be some evolutionary quirks of nature that are still difficult to erase.
Taken from: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180406-what-monkeys-can-teach-us-about-money
martes, 11 de agosto de 2020
domingo, 9 de agosto de 2020
sábado, 8 de agosto de 2020
viernes, 7 de agosto de 2020
Destino
"En 1945, dos artistas legendarios empezaron una colaboración en un corto animado. Más de medio siglo después, su creación por fin ha sido completada".
Con estas líneas, empieza el video que fue lanzado por The Walt Disney Company en 2003. Además de Dalí y Disney, trabajaron también Armando Dominguez, compositor musical mexicano, que fue interpretado por Dora Luz.
A pesar de haber trabajado en el corto por 8 meses (durante el 1945 / 1946), la película no se concluyó a causa de los problemas financieros de la compañía tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
En 1999 uno de los sobrinos de Walt Disney, Roy E. Disney, redescubrió el proyecto -y decidió concluirlo. Un equipo de 25 animadores se encargó de revisar los storyboards producidos por Dalí y John Hench para completar la producción.
El film es una mezcla de animaciones realizadas por Hench (quien produjo 17 segundos en la década de los 40s), combinadas con animación tradicional, y escenas creadas por computadora.
jueves, 6 de agosto de 2020
Tartar de tomate
Otra receta sencilla para triunfar cuando queramos "fardar" ante la novia (jefa para los casados) o ante el cuñado (equivalente a meterle el dedo en el ojo a ese cuñado impertinente q todos tenemos).
Hoy en día se ha puesto de moda hacer "tartar" de cualquier cosa y te encuentras platos con este nombre de todo tipo en los restaurantes. Muchas veces se limitan a cortar en pequeños trozos y listo! pero eso no es ni tartar ni nada, eso es una ofensa al paladar y al plato primigenio. La receta que os propongo dejará atónitos a los comensales y a vosotros os sacaran a hombros por la puerta grande. Básicamente prepararemos el tomate como si de un bistec se tratara
Material:
10 -15 tomates tipo pera (o pepino según la zona los denominan de diferente manera y aunque son diferentes variedades con frecuencia se confunden. En cualquier caso ha de ser un tomate alargado. Utilicé 12 tipo pera)
4 cucharadas de pasta de tomate
4 Pepinillos en vinagre
4 filetes de anchoa grandes (como no tenia a mano anchoas grandes de esas q venden en salmuera, usé toda la lata ya q son anchoas bien pequeñas)
1 cebolla de Figueres
1 diente de ajo
una cucharada de alcaparras
una cucharada de mostaza de Dijon
Una cucharada de pimienta verde
Pimienta negra
Sal gorda
Azúcar
Licor (Yo usé cognac pero estuve tentado de echarle vodka)
Aceite de oliva virgen extra
Agua mineral
Albahaca
Métodos:
Preparamos una mezcla de sal y azúcar mitad y mitad. Para ello mezclamos en un bol 1,5 kg de sal gorda (o gruesa) i 1,5 kg de azúcar.
Ponemos agua a hervir en una cazuela y añadimos los tomates a los cuales hemos practicado con un cuchillo un corte en cruz en el extremo distal (la zona del estigma), los escaldamos (cuando empieza a hervir el agua contamos 15 segundos y retiramos los tomates) y cortamos la cocción llevándolos a un bol con agua y hielo.
A seguir, pelamos los tomates (es realmente fácil tras escaldarlos) y los cortamos en forma de pétalos. Eliminamos las zonas más leñosas cercanas a los sépalos y pedicelo así como la placenta y semillas. La parte que nos interesa es el peri y mesocarpo, la parte carnosa del tomate.
Sacamos el taper de la nevera y limpiamos los pétalos en un bol con agua mineral pare eliminar el exceso de sal y azúcar. Observareis que el tomate ha soltado una gran cantidad de agua vegetal que contiene y hay un sobrenadante rojizo. En este punto las tiras de tomate al perder el agua y ser tratadas con la sal y el azúcar han adquirido una consistencia carnosa, parecen pequeñas fibras de carne deshilachada. Es un proceso semejante a curar la carne. Finalmente los secamos.
Cortamos el tomate a la brunesa y lo ponemos en un bol.
Añadimos al bol del tomate 1 cucharada de mostaza de Dijon, 4 de pasta de tomate, un chorro de aceite de oliva, un chorrito del licor elegido (en nuestro caso cognac pero estoy seguro que en una próxima ocasión usaré vodka o whisky) y pimienta negra para darle el punto picante. Lo mezclamos.
Cortamos a la brunesa (una manera fina de decir primero dando forma de bastones alargados y luego de pequeños cubos) 1 cebolla de Figueres, 4 pepinillos en vinagre, el diente de ajo y los filetes de anchoa. Lo añadimos al bol i lo removemos todo.
Picamos unas pocas hojas de albahaca y las añadimos al bol, junto a una cucharada de alcaparras y otra de granos de pimienta verde en salmuera. Mezclamos y removemos.
Da trabajo, pero no requiere habilidades especiales y es un éxito asegurado. Gustará incluso a los que no les gusta el tomate