A year in posts

Pencil
Image via Wikipedia

This blog was born at the end of 2011 and we already have had more than four thousand visitors! This is also, the 75th post in this blog and is again one more reason to celebrate!

Following the tradition of UDADASI and the blog of The Harvard University Press here’s my summary of the top 5 posts for 2011 by the amount of unique visitors,

  1. Joel Cohen: Top 10 key population trends on Earth with 7 billion
  2. The Drug War in Guatemala: A Conversation with Giancarlo Ibarguen
  3. On Free Press and On Capitalism
  4. At the Monument to the Battle of the Nations
  5. On Globalization

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Thanks for your support in the first year of Globalization & Capitalism!  I hope to share lots of more ideas and meet more new great people in 2012!

On Liberty,

Because College Education is not the only way to Success

The Thiel Fellowship is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The Fellowship brings together some of the world’s most creative and motivated young people, and helps them bring their most ambitious ideas and projects to life. Thiel Fellows are given a no-strings-attached grant of $100,000 to skip college and focus on their work, their research, and their self-education. They are mentored by our network of visionary thinkers, investors, scientists, and entrepreneurs, who provide guidance and business connections that can’t be replicated in any classroom. Rather than just studying, you’re doing.

“Every tech story is different. Every moment in history happens only once. All successful companies are successful in their own unique way. It’s your task to figure out what that future history will be.” – Peter Thiel

 

Fellowship: Two Years. $100,000. Some Ideas Just Can’t Wait.

2012 Applications are open: See the application.

Win an Audiobook of Ayn Rand this Xmas!!!

I have decided to give a Christmas gift for my readers!  Starting today, December 05 until December 15 at 23:59 (UTC/GMT -6 hours) I will open the comment area of this post for you to WIN ONE AUDIOBOOK written by Ayn Rand!!!

THE OPTIONS ARE:

HOW TO WIN?

  1. Click “Like” in the Facebook Box on the Right.
  2. Write a comment and register with a valid e-mail in the Comment Area of this post.
    1. Share a short bio of who you are, where you live, etc.
    2. Include which book of the previous list you want to read (actually, to listen) and why.
    3. Tell us why you like Ayn Rand’s ideas, since when have you studied her works and which is your favorite book by her. Or maybe this will be your first time reading (listening) one of her books? Tell us that too and why you decided to participate!

WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT

  • I will announce the winner on December 16th. here at www.capitalisthistory.com after writing all your names in a paper, mixing them in a bag and choosing one without seeing!
  • The winner will receive the gift code of his chosen book from me on December 25th.


“The charming aspect of Christmas is the fact that it expresses good will in a cheerful, happy, benevolent, non-sacrificial way. One says: “Merry Christmas”—not “Weep and Repent.” And the good will is expressed in a material, earthly form—by giving presents to one’s friends, or by sending them cards in token of remembrance . . . .” Ayn Rand

From One Prohibition to Another (1933-2011)

On December 05, 1933 the Prohibition on the production and commercialization of Alcohol was finally over in the United States when Utah became the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacturing, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States).

Since then, the alcohol industry (widely hated and considered evil before 1933) started developing into one of the most successful industries of the modern world.  The access to competition ignited an immense diversification of marketing, production and commercialization strategies that improved the quality, safety, additives and capabilities of the previous distilled liquors.

By 2010 The world’s five biggest alcohol companies by market cap had their hubs in Beligum Anheuser-Busch Inbev (BUD), Brazil (Companhia de Bebidas das Américas (AMBEV) (ABV); United Kingdom (Diageo plc (DEO), The Netherlands (Heineken (HINKY.PK) and France (Pernod-Ricard (PDRDF.PK).  And the industry gives provides with jobs to millions of workers around the globe.

Today, in 2011 we face a different but at the same time similar Prohibition of a product.  I refer to the research, production, industrialization and commercialization of controlled drugs (marihuana, cocaine, etc.) that has been condemned by world government with the same irrational argument once used with alcohol.

Because of this Prohibition on Drugs; the world is facing a Trillionaire war leaded by the United States politicians who profit from it. More so, millions of jobs are lost every day and in the countries in which it is produced and stored before reaching the final markets the chaos reigns (for just one story of how this chaos come into being check: The Drug War in Guatemala: A Conversation with Giancarlo Ibarguen).

Let us learn from history and save our children and future generations from committing the same mistakes.