Inauguration Photos from Activities of the 36th Hemispheric Congress and the 5th MMFM @ The Biltmore Hotel

 


    
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First Day of Plenary Sessions @ The Biltmore Hotel

First Pleanry: Tourism

 Second Plennary: Communications

 Third Plennary: Trade

(E N M I O P I N I O N Ricardo Tribín Acosta)

(Mayo 20, 2015)

Yo deseo pero…. 

Una de las cosas que más dificulta el bajar de peso tiene mucho que ver con aquella frase que se repiten a diario los comelones “Yo deseo pero……no puedo”, cuando por el contrario este solo podrá ver su esfuerzo convertido en una realidad cuando se diga con firmeza “Yo quiero”, lo cual constituye el primer paso para dejar atrás la adicción a la comida lo cual, no es fácil pero tampoco  imposible.

Lo anterior implica que hasta que uno no le ponga acción a su deseo por dejar la glotonería o cualquier exceso similar, no será nada sencillo el lograrlo. Sin embargo en lo que aquí manifiesto no se trata de hacer una dieta más en la que con gran esfuerzo el individuo baja de peso en pocas semanas, el cual recupera después y con creces, si no ha quedado con la convicción de no comer sanamente.

Otros factores como el metabolismo lento se interponen a veces por la edad de las personas pero ante ello hay que decir con firmeza aquello de que “si otros pueden pues también yo puedo”. Es entonces un cambio de pensamiento el que finalmente nos librará del exceso de peso, decisión que podremos tomar y aplicar en nuestras vidas, un día a la vez.

http://ricardotribin.blogspot.com

Miami, Mayo 20 de 2015

(Mayo 27, 2015)

Las repercusiones 

No es muy común este término, verdad? Sin embargo su ocurrencia si lo es. Repercusión es el resultado de algo, esto es la consecuencia, lo cual se acopla muy bien con el concepto físico de Sir Isaac Newton que expresa que " a toda acción corresponde una reacción"

El mentir, para citar algo, trae pésimos resultados cuando el ocurrente se cae o mejor dicho, cuando lo pillan en su propia ausencia de veracidad, lo cual confirma aquel sabio refrán que dice que " primero cae un mentiroso que un cojo", reflexión que invita a ser siempre veraces.

Por lo anterior se hace preciso concluir que cuando actuamos, ello no solo se refleja en nuestras propias vidas , sino que su influencia en muchos casos alcanza también a otras personas, motivo por el cual resulta más que conveniente tener en cuenta el modo de actuar y  por consiguiente, cuando lo hagamos, resultará preferible que este sea bien.

http://ricardotribin.blogspot.com

Miami, Mayo 27 de 2015

Can Tesla's Battery Hit $1 Billion Faster Than the iPhone? (BusinessWeek)

Elon Musk's battery launch could be even bigger than Viagra's

Tesla’s new line of big, stackable batteries for homes and businesses started with a bang. The reservations reported in the first week are valued at roughly $800 million, according to numbers crunched by Bloomberg. If Tesla converts even a fraction of those reservations into actual sales, the battery roll-out could measure up as one of the biggest ever for a new product category.

The chart below compares the estimated value of Tesla battery reservations—these are not ironclad commitments to buy—with the early sales of three breakthrough products: the original iPhone, released in 2007; Viagra's debut in 1998; and the introduction of the Tesla Model S battery-powered car in 2012. The iPhone surpassed $1 billion in sales by its third quarter on the market, while Viagra and the Model S needed a bit longer. 

The new line of storage batteries is designed to extend solar power into the night and save companies money on its electric bills during expensive peak hours. Any comparison of batteries to smartphones and erection pills is, of course, a stretch. Most of Tesla’s battery revenue will come from utilities, not the consumers who snapped up iPhones and Viagra. The price of the new batteries is also much higher. Tesla’s Powerwall units designed for home users cost $3,000 to $3,500 per unit, not including installation, while the commercial batteries are sold in roughly $25,000 incremental blocks.

Tesla hasn’t even defined what qualifies as a "reservation" at this point. Of the $800 million in reservations from the first week, almost $625 million came from businesses and utilities that would seem likely to complete the transaction. The remaining reservations from home users are little more than expressions of interest made through a no-strings online reservation system.

Manufacturing giant batteries will also be much more difficult to scale than Pfizer’s little blue pill, which was filling 46,000 prescriptions a day by the end of its first month on the market. Tesla won't begin shipping batteries until this summer, and it’s already sold out through mid-2016.

Still, approaching $1 billion of interest, just days after introducing path-breaking product, marks a significant achievement. Tesla is going to need that battery revenue as soon as it can get it: The company is burning through cash to invest in the Model X electric SUV due later this year, the more affordable Model 3 slated to arrive 2017, and a $5 billion battery factory to power it all.  In a call with analysts last week, Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk wouldn’t rule out the possibility that the battery business could someday exceed electric-car revenue.  

"We too easily forget that Tesla is much more than just the Model S,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas in a note to investors on Monday. "In the past week, I have been asked by more friends, colleagues, clients and relatives about the virtues of the residential Powerwall product for their own personal household use than I’ve been asked about any vehicle manufactured by any auto company I’ve covered in my 18 years as an auto analyst." 

Electricity storage products aren't new. But Tesla’s price, power, and packaging set these batteries apart in a way that echoes the gap between the first iPhone and the smartphones that came before it. Now Musk has brought an Apple-launch level of public interest to what's essentially a infrastructure product, albeit one with potential to transform the way electrical grids are managed and the speed that solar power is adopted. 

The next daunting challenge will be to turn that interest into bookable revenue for Tesla. 

Watch Next: Why Tesla Is Building Batteries for Your Home 

Why Tesla Is Building Batteries for Your Home

Low Rates Mean You Can Now Get a Mercedes With a Chevy Income

Low Rates Mean You Can Now Get a Mercedes With a Chevy Income

A Mercedes-Benz SLK 250, now a bit more within reach of the average driver.

This is a tempting time to be a lover of cool cars. Thanks to lease offers, low interest rates, and low gas prices, it’s gotten dangerously easy to drive off the dealer lot with a brand new luxury car.

Buying a used car is almost always a better deal over the long term than buying or leasing a new one. That’s the classic personal finance advice, and it still applies. But in recent years the irresponsible choice has gotten a lot more enticing.

Low interest rates make it possible to afford pricier cars for the same monthly cost. In the past five years, the average vehicle’s cost is up about $5,000, to almost $33,000. Despite this, the monthly payment on that car is up only about $30, an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence shows. That’s because the interest rate on the average five-year auto loan is now only about 3 percent per year, down more than four points since 2009.

Gas prices have also tumbled. That has little direct impact on car buyers, but it has a psychological one, says Bloomberg Intelligence senior auto analyst Kevin Tynan. When prices are high, consumers tend to be more conservative. Now that they’re low, drivers can feel like using their savings to upgrade their wheels.

Finally, luxury automakers such as BMW and Mercedes are eager to get young buyers to try their cars. They’ve come out with lower-priced models, and they’re offering big incentives for those who lease them. The strategy is working: About 60 percent of U.S. “entry luxury” cars are leased, up from 43 percent five years ago, according to Edmunds.com. That’s more than twice the lease rate for all vehicles. When leasing a luxury car costs about the same per month as buying a used, low-mileage Chevrolet, who can resist?

Leasing a car isn’t necessarily the dumbest move a driver can make. There are practical reasons a lease can make sense. You might need a certain kind of vehicle for only a short amount of time, says Kelley Long, a Chicago-based CPA financial planner who serves on the National CPA Financial Literacy Commission. For example, a family might need a minivan for only a few years before the children grow up.

Also, a lease may make sense for people who temporarily need to hoard cash or avoid taking on debt, says financial adviser Matt Haghighi of Amity Capital. Consider people who are about to buy a home: Leasing might let them save more for a home downpayment, while also reducing their debt load and making them eligible for a lower mortgage rate. 

Then there are those who just love driving a new, expensive car. “If driving a luxury car is important to you, this is an excellent opportunity,” Long says. Her warning: Just because you can afford a luxury car, don’t let yourself upgrade other aspects of your lifestyle above your budget. And realize that it can be hard to go back to a lower-quality car when the lease is up. You may need to do so, though. In a few years, leases and auto loans may be far more expensive.

Price-conscious car lovers might consider another strategy. With so many luxury cars being leased these days, there may be a glut of expiring leases in a few years. So if you can wait until 2017 or so, Tynan says, you can expect to find many more low-mileage, attractively priced luxury cars out on used-car lots.

Four in Rhode Island charged with stealing $1.6 million in checks

Four people in Rhode Island, including two post office employees, have been charged with stealing $1.6 million worth of checks from the U.S. government, according to federal prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Providence said late Tuesday that it cracked a ring that stole benefit payments to military veterans and other federal checks from a mail-sorting facility in Providence, then deposited the money into fraudulent bank accounts.

The four people were arraigned in federal court in Providence, according to court papers unsealed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The arrests grew out of an inquiry that began in September when U.S. Postal Service investigators and other law enforcement began examining reports of an unusually large number of checks from the U.S. Treasury Department disappearing after being sent through Providence.

"Mail theft is always a crime, but when it is perpetrated by Postal Service employees and it impacts our veterans and our most vulnerable customers who depend on these checks, it is beyond disgraceful," Rafael Medina, a postal investigator, said in a statement.

The USPS employees charged were Joan Manuel Mustafa, 36, and Erick Vera Garzon, 35, both of whom had worked nights at the Providence facility. Brenda Canuelas, 39, and Secundino Velazquez Tirado, 45, were also charged.

The four defendants could not be immediately reached for comment.

E N M I O P I N I O N: Ricardo Tribín Acosta

El juego del turmequé

Luis Carlos Palacio es un muy querido compañero de nuestra facultad de Ingeniería Industrial de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira de la cual me honro en haberme graduado en 1970, época en la cual la carrera hacia sus primeros pinitos en Colombia. El, junto con Pachito Jiménez, conocieron la afición de mi padre Carlos Tribín Biester por el juego del Turmequé, más comúnmente conocido como el del tejo, el cual sentó sus pilares en la provincia cundí-boyacense, en donde se ha practicado por mucho tiempo.

 

Las "agrias", esto es las cervezas ingeridas, más el entusiasmo gestado al hacer una "moñona", "embocinada", o el “reventar una mecha o papeleta”, le dan a tal juego un colorido de alegría impresionante. Mi viejo, divirtiéndose cual más, repetía con frecuencia un pequeño verso que él había compuesto y que a la letra decía " Y tú con el tejo dabas y yo con el tejo di", usando su "calambour" santafereño que con tanta gracia y frecuencia utilizaba, heredado de sus orígenes bogotanos y facatativeños.

 

Al recordar a mis queridos compañeros de la UTP y a mi padre, no puedo dejar de traer a la memoria a su gran amigo, Don Fernando Bedoya, con quien iba religiosamente los sábados a practicar el tejo y quien junto con Carlitos, dieron origen al nombre de una famosa cancha que sus amigos decidieron en su honor bautizarla en ese entonces, por los años sesenta, como la de "Los abuelos"

http://ricardotribin.blogspot.com

 

Miami, Mayo 14 de 2015