Are Males needed? The Komodo Dragon and Parthenogenesis

At Chester Zoo, a Komodo dragon named Flora awaits the birth of eight babies, and another four dragons have already hatched at London Zoo — each and every one the product of a virgin conception.The miraculous births, which are all males, could be a product of keeping this threatened species in captivity, say researchers, and could have implications for the continued health of zoo-bound populations.Parthenogenesis — reproduction without the need for fertilization by a male — is rare in vertebrates. Some animals, including several lizard species, are known to be capable of it. But Komodo dragons have never been seen to breed like this before.Yet in the space of 8 months, two of the three Komodo dragons in the UK have reproduced parthenogenetically.Zoo keepers knew something strange was happening because the female dragons had not been around any males within the period during which they must have become pregnant. To confirm the dragons' parentage, a team led by Phillip Watts at the University of Liverpool used genetic fingerprinting.The dragon sons are not direct clones of their mothers, but that the babies' DNA contains half as much variation as is present in the mother's genes, indicating that it represents a doubling up of one set of mother's chromosomes. The results show that no other Komodo dragon could have been involved in their conception.

A Komodo mother's eggs each contains half of her genetic information, and has attached to it a 'polar body' — a smaller version of the main egg, containing a copy of the same genetic information. Normally, the polar body would wither away and sperm would make up the full set of chromosomes required for the embryo; in parthenogenesis the polar body is reabsorbed into the egg.In dragons, the female carries two different sex chromosomes (ZW), while males are homozygous ZZ. As WW is not a viable combination, all surviving offspring created by doubling up half of the female's genes must be males.Reproducing this way means that there is no mixing of genetic information from different animals as occurs in sexual breeding. That carries with it the risk of decreased fitness, because the effects of detrimental genes cannot be masked by normal copies. "Inbreeding is not a positive thing in the long term," says Richard Gibson, the Zoological Society of London's curator of herpetology and a co-author on the paper.So why do they do it? "Imagine you're a Komodo dragon and you're living in an archipelago of tiny islands, and a female gets caught in a storm and swept out to sea, ending up on an island with no other dragons," says Gibson. "After two or three years of waiting with no-one to breed with, she spontaneously reproduces parthenogenetically."

The same reproductive trick has been seen in other species that find themselves in isolated situations — a parthenogenetic group of damselflies, for example, was found living in the Azores, reproducing quite happily without a single male in the population. But it had not occurred to anyone that the same thing might happen in Komodo dragons. Now they think it might be more common in nature than thought.Most zoos keep only female dragons, bringing in males occasionally for mating. Maybe this isn't enough to convince the females that a mate will be around one day, prompting her to opt for the male-free alternative.

Burgled in the middle of the night

Last Wednesday morning Marta woke up and found the kitchen window open. Suddenly, she head to wake up Joan who was still very much asleep, and then we realised, our laptops were gone. Indeed, in the middle of the night , whilst sleeping in London , some bastard managed to get into our kitchen and took the two laptops we had for work . Joan had one month files in there , Marta had less important stuff. There were no emotional reactions, at the end of the day there were no more than objects, valuable but objects.

The frightening thing is that some can get in and violate you intimacy just like that. London will never be a safe city anymore for us. It true that living in a garden flat makes things easier for burglars, but honestly they had to just quite impressively (Joan cooked supper the night before and Marta who is quite sensitive to smells opened left the small window open, the bastard managed to stretch his hand inside through the small window through the large one and got in just like that).

We try to understand what has happened and why . Our response is that we were not cautious enough. But even if we were, should be all beware in a civilised world of our things else other people steal them? (Yes, the civil project is still at its infancy) Are human being that bad? (Hobbes was partially right) Does really private property exist? )yes but not always respected) Does police services prevent crime really? (clearly not enough) Are there people that desperate or simply lazy bastards watching you all the time? (It seems that’s the case)The day after Joan had a seminar on mental health and we watched the movie “ Truman Capote” last night too. It reminds you of the need of correcting inequalities, of enhancing social inclusion, on dealing with mental conditions all not for altruistic reasons but to allow civilisation to work.

A star is born : "Rauxa", living in Joan's parents place

Reflexions from a late September English lesson

Haven’t I ever before heard about Mr David Attenbourough, in the last seven days the scientist-journalist has appeared in my daily conversations in several occasions. It makes me wonder. Is it just casualty or is it something else?

Let me explain in more detail about my encounters with the scientist. It was first during my Wednesday English lesson, while working on an article in the Evening Standard. Pete Clark, one of the newspaper columnists, reported on the death of Australian naturalist Steve Irwin and compared his style to the more ‘traditional’ approach in Attenbourough’s documentaries. I had never heard before about Mr Attenbourough so I didn’t understand the comparison until Margaret, my tutor, explained.

Hadn’t paid special attention to the name, I remembered though when it was mentioned again as part of a Sunday evening pub conversation with my friend Marc. Clearly Irwin’s death has provoked widespread debate, not only because of his popularity but also because his unfortunate accident with a stingray that was captured on film as part of a new series. And due to this current awarness I came across Mr Attenbourough for the second time. Marc started the conversation as ‘have you heard about…?’ (Irwin’s news). And then, as he had also read the Evening Standard article he also referred to Attenbourough. My first reaction when the name came up was, yep!, now I know this person. So I was confident with it – even felt well-informed about giving a sensible opinion. Not to mention how proud I was about the usefulness of my English lessons.

Not having heard enough, my relationship with this now familiar BBC scientist has continued. The third time I was looking at some data on levels of trust across Europe. I nearly screamed in front of my computer when I saw that the most trusted person in the UK, according to a Reader’s Digest survey is, guess whom, yes, in actual fact it is…Mr Attenbourough! Unbelievable. I’ve been in this country for four years now, and it’s not I watch lots of television but I know who Paxman is, or Jonathan Ross. But never saw any of Attenbourough’s programmes and he seems to be even more a celebrity than Kate Moss.

Why? I repeat to myself thinking it is absolutely urgent that I manage to watch one of these out of this world documentaries. It has even become personal. Is somebody telling me that life is miserable without Attenbourough’s being part of it?

After a couple of weeks, I’m trying to look at this story from another perspective. Trying to rationalise. It seems clear that the media agenda determines to a high extent our conversations and interests. So, hadn’t Steve Irwin not died, would I ever have heard about Attenbourough? Probably yes, yet in another context. Which makes me wonder even more because it means that my opinion about this person now has been formed as a comparison to another and not by his own achievements. In spite of this, what really makes me feel a bit annoyed, and definitely very repressed, is how randomly we get to know about things. In a world of liberties, we like to think we are always in control. Yet our choices appear to come up in rather unexpected ways.

Copenhaguen with "laponsieltremosa",....

August Paellas at home,....early in the evening,...

Feminism, Women and Happiness ( from the Observer)

Fay Weldon gives short shrift to the views for which feminists have fought so bitterly over the years. In her latest book, she not only warns high-flying women that they should expect to end up single, she also suggests that sexual pleasure may be incompatible with high-powered careers and that women should simply accept they are less capable of being happy than men.

'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'

According to Weldon, sensible members of the sisterhood should, therefore, follow the example so graphically set by the actor Meg Ryan in the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally, and fake orgasms whenever necessary.

'If you are happy and generous-minded, you will fake it and then leap out of bed and pour him champagne, telling him, "You are so clever" or however you express enthusiasm,' she says. 'Faking is kind to male partners ... Otherwise they too may become anxious and so less able to perform. Do yourself and him a favour, sister: fake it.'

In fact, Weldon's views are surprisingly similar to those of Michael Noer, the news editor of Forbes.com, who caused his own furore last week by advising male readers to steer clear of ambitious women or face a lifetime of misery and discord. 'Marry pretty women or ugly ones, short ones or tall ones, blondes or brunettes, just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career,' he wrote in an article that sparked outrage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Weldon, however, goes even further that Noer. She does not restrict herself to comments on how women should conduct their sex and careers. Instead, her book covers eating, social life, the family and shopping. The latter receives high praise: 'The urge to acquire is in your genes,' she writes. 'Don't beat yourself up about it. Just remember, 12 pairs of shoes is fine but 24 pairs is pushing it.' Overall, very few things make women happy - and even fewer of them, suggests Weldon, are matters of substance. 'Ask a woman what makes her happy and she comes up with a list: sex, food, friends, family, shopping, chocolate. "Love" tends not to get a look-in. "Being in love" sometimes makes an appearance. "Men" seem to surface as a source of aggravation,' she writes.

Why women in a long term relationship are less interested in sex?

Researchers from Germany found that four years into a relationship, less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex. Conversely, the team found a man's libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship. Writing in the journal Human Nature, the scientists said the differences resulted from how humans had evolved. For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male

Dr Dietrich Klusmann, lead author of the study and a psychologist from Hamburg-Eppendorf University, believed the differences were down to human evolution. He said: "For men, a good reason their sexual motivation to remain constant would be to guard against being cuckolded by another male." But women, he said, have evolved to have a high sex drive when they are initially in a relationship in order to form a "pair bond" with their partner.
But, once this bond is sealed a woman's sexual appetite declines, he added. He said animal behaviour studies suggest this could be because females may be diverting their sexual interest towards other men, in order to secure the best combinations of genetic material for their offspring. Or, he said, this could be because limiting sex may boost their partner's interest in it.

Cuba Libre & Tourist Extravagance

Nobody can imagine how far individuals could go in doing tourism; we did quite that after visiting Cuba. Cuba is a museum for “alternative tourists” that do not mind” or “are expecting to ” seeing the disaster of a communist planed system whilst having a mojito or a piña colada somewhere between “la floridita” ( favourite Hemmingway daiquiri place) and “la bodeguita del medio” ( favourite Hemmingway mojito place). The country beaches are incredible, exciting places for diving such as Maria la Gorda or Cayo Levisa close to Cayo Paraiso where again Hemingway had his personal fishing resort.

The country is a prison for cubans, who are condemned to live in misery with no choice. So people - within the legalconstrains- do their best to steal from tourists any money they can. Examples of this were a guy in Havana asking us for euros to pray to his “Afro-American saints” or, the women at the City Hall Museum asking us either for euros or for us to exchange them into local currency. Another anecdote from Trinidad, was these two guys who appear to be extreme catholics and one night we were little pist one of them attempted to sell us an outragous image of “ Saint Terese of Jesus” (despite his devotion and after telling us that a Spanish offered him already 5000 €). Marta sent him to hell, and Joan recognised he is not a mainstream catholic to the guy.

That the country resembles a prison there is little doubt when the news papers ( e.g., Granma) is literally "three pages" and one is fully devoted to sports, whilst the front page talked about a meeting between Belarusian and Cuban authorities. Everyone that wants something has to rely on tourism, such as the guy running our B&B in Havana who literally asked us to send him ( to his "private address"), all the music we could find from an old fashion Spanish band "Olé Olé" . Another curios anecdote was a female singer in the famous “Rincon de la Trova” in Trinidad who got to know us and after paying a couple of drinks, started asking us for dresses and money, in exchange when she sang a song she mentioned her “ Catalan friends”, in front of a group of “Ralph Lauret” type Spanish. That’s was a moment to remember.

Some say that Cubans are nice people, as if they would be a "special ethnic group", but we think they are simply as everyone else, just that they live in total fear of exclusion or reclusion. Waiters are probably a bit less nice than elsewhere else given that as we were told, they don’t keep the tips, all go to a cancer fund roughly. Interesting experience was being stopped whilst driving in the sole motorway that crosses the country . Poeple try to sell you anything or get into you car to drive them somewhere and in the meantime they kep begging you or they might even steal anything they find handy. The best one was a guy who we picked up for car stop, and told us in a total brain washing response that "the commandant(Fidel)would improve the roads, and that he was very fortunate to be able to where he was: working for free in a local schol in Cienfuegos". Food is totally seasonal, we happened to be able to eat lobster and prawns but there was no salad at all, meat was scarce as well among other things. It was like going back one hundred years, where fridges would not exist and people would confine their menus to the uncertainty of local agriculture.

On a different order of things we spend some time trying to find the Catalan Centre with no success, the only Catalan remaining are the Bacardi building and some surnames such as Canals, Balaguer and Vinyals among other.We discovered the secret of Cuban cocktails: not to add too much rum in the drink, may be use agostura if you have any. And we enjoyed Havana very much walking all the way east and west the Malecon, and listening to music in the Jazz Café or having supper in the Paladar la Guarida where Fresa & Chocolate was filmed. Nice rest, rich experience but lets leave current Cuba for Cubans (if they want it to stay as it is), may be if it changes will be one of the places to be besides London and Barcelona.

New photographs of lavileielcosta

Marriage: "an institution of the past" by Rosa Montero in El Pais

La vida plena y democrática, y la ampliación de las libertades sociales, pasa porque cada cual pueda ser lo que quiera, en tanto en cuanto no violente la libertad de los demás. Y así, conseguir que dos hombres o dos mujeres puedan casarse es sin duda un progreso. Además, habrá que repetir que ser homosexual no te convierte en una persona diferente. Por eso entre los gays, como entre los heteros, hay gentes de todas las ideologías. Dicho esto, debo reconocer que, para mí, el matrimonio es, en efecto, algo más bien retrógrado. Por eso nunca entendí el guirigay de la derechona contra las bodas homo, porque suponen una reivindicación y un ennoblecimiento del valor del matrimonio en momentos de decadencia de la institución. Yo provengo de una generación reacia a las bodas y me enorgullece no haberme casado. Es verdad que antes el matrimonio era peor, más tradicional y asfixiante, pero incluso ahora sigue arrastrando una carga de convencionalidad que en ocasiones pesa demasiado. Leo que el primer matrimonio homosexual ya ha pedido el divorcio. Se casaron en octubre y en junio dieron su unión por acabada. Pero lo más triste es que estaban viviendo juntos desde 1993. He aquí una pareja que presumiblemente se llevaba bien y sobre la que el matrimonio cayó como un rayo. Este efecto devastador del vínculo es bastante común. La conyugalidad, reconozcámoslo, puede crear vicios; hay personas que, tras la boda, se creen demasiado seguras del otro y le descuidan. La rutina engorda, la individualidad se resiente, familiares y amigos empiezan a hablarte en un plural perpetuo. El amor es demasiado frágil y la convivencia demasiado difícil como para sumarle la complicada ortopedia de un matrimonio.

Are "masculine" men ideal partners?

A study published in the Proceedings of Biological Sciences suggests interesting resuts of women's preferences for male faces. Interestingly, preferences for feminine faces and no effect of masculinity–femininity on male facial attractiveness. Women's preferences for masculine male faces are positively related to ratings of the masculinity of their actual partner and their ideal partner.

Correlations with partner masculinity were independent of real and ideal partner age, which were not associated with facial masculinity preference. Collectively, these findings suggest that variability among studies in their findings for women's masculinity preferences reflects individual differences in attraction to masculinity rather than differences in the methods used to manufacture stimuli, and are important for the interpretation of previous and future studies of facial masculinity.

Why praying from someone make him/her worst off?

La investigación, publicada en la prestigiosa revista de cardiología The American Heart Journal, fue llevada a cabo en seis hospitales estadounidenses por un amplio grupo de prestigiosos cardiólogos, encabezado por Herbert Benson, profesor de la Universidad de Harvard. Los resultados muestran que de los 1.802 participantes, el 59% de los pacientes que fueron informados, antes de la intervención quirúrgica, de que las congregaciones rezarían por ellos padecieron complicaciones serias, como ataques de corazón, apoplejías o infecciones. Por el contrario, sólo el 52% de los enfermos que fueron, sin saberlo, objeto de plegarias, y el 51% por los que no se dijeron oraciones, experimentaron complicaciones posoperatorias. Los expertos han llegado a la conclusión de que mientras los rezos a espaldas del doliente son inocuos, rezar por un enfermo que ha sido previamente avisado de las oraciones es, estadísticamente al menos, perjudicial para su salud.

Pese a la posibilidad de que rezos bien intencionados puedan dañar sin querer a pacientes bajo ciertas circunstancias, estoy seguro de que este aviso de la ciencia no va a impedir que las personas religiosas sigan orando por sus semejantes desafortunados. Hoy sabemos que los frutos de las prácticas solidarias revierten a quienes las ejercen. Por ejemplo, en el caso del voluntariado, está demostrado que las personas que se involucran en actividades que tienen un impacto positivo en la vida de otros, disfrutan de una autoestima más alta, sufren menos de ansiedad, duermen mejor, abusan menos del alcohol o las drogas y persisten con más tesón ante los reveses cotidianos, que quienes rehúyen estas tareas altruistas. El Las personas que se sienten parte de un grupo solidario superan las adversidades mucho mejor que quienes carecen de una red social de soporte emocional. Todos o casi todos, en momentos penosos buscamos aliento de nuestros seres queridos o promesas de alivio de expertos del dolor que nos aqueja. Con todo, para la mayoría de las personas que se enfrentan a las calamidades de la vida, los mensajes más reconfortantes proceden de sus propias voces internas, de su dimensión espiritual.

Si bien todavía nos queda mucho por aprender sobre los mecanismos que intervienen en la conexión espiritualidad-salud, numerosas investigaciones en Europa y Estados Unidos revelan que los sentimientos espirituales ayudan a superan mejor las enfermedades graves. Estos sentimientos pueden alimentarse de creencias religiosas; de causas como el amor, la libertad o la justicia social; o de alguna faceta del Universo, como la puesta del sol o la brisa del mar. El elemento terapéutico principal de cualquier tipo de espiritualidad es la esperanza, porque la confianza en que ocurrirá lo que deseamos nos protege del fatalismo y la indefensión.

En mis años de práctica he comprobado que, para ser eficaz, la espiritualidad no debe socavar el sentimiento de que el rumbo de nuestro barco está en nuestras manos. La conciencia de que ocupamos el asiento del conductor, aunque tenga una dosis de fantasía, nos motiva a vencer situaciones de riesgo. Si creemos que mandamos sobre nuestras decisiones y que nuestras acciones cuentan, tendemos a transformar nuestros anhelos en desafíos y a luchar con más fuerza contra los males que nos afligen, que cuando sentimos que la solución no depende de nosotros o "nada que yo haga importa".

Por todo esto, es comprensible que resulte contraproducente comunicar a un enfermo grave que terceras personas piadosas rezarán por él. El motivo no es el temor que pueda provocar esta noticia -"¿tan mal estoy para que tengan que implorar a Dios por mi recuperación?"- sino el peligro de que el doliente decida eludir su responsabilidad personal de combatir la enfermedad y opte por delegar a otros su salvación. Todos nacemos con dos nacionalidades: la del país de la vitalidad y la del estado de la invalidez. Aunque preferimos habitar en el país de la salud, tarde o temprano casi todos nos vemos obligados a vivir en el reino de la enfermedad. Llegado ese momento, pienso que si almas caritativas nos ofrecen plegarias a Dios para que sanemos lo más prudente es decirles, ¡no, gracias!

by L. RojasMarcos

When do words make sense?

People for Mediterranean (“Med”) countries are well known for being very passionate, expressive. Surprisingly some northern Europeans admire this, until they come to a southern European country and discover that those stereotypes are untrue. People work much harder that what they are thought to, are much less passionate that would be expected to be,.....stereotypes are not applicable in a chinging world.This can well be simply the effect of globalisation,…may be,…but an interesting thing remains,..Spanish people ( and less so Catalans but still) would often conclude email and phone conversation wishing you “warm hugs”, “hugs” and especially with opposite sex with “kisses” even though they might not know each other,….Yes, it is likely that these are meaningless words, faked stuff from psychological biases. The consequence though is that those words become devaluated and meaningless, other words might have to be figured out. A tentative alternative : use other language greeting words .

Some American Humour for a Change

A feeling of Barcelona by Simon

Here attached is a feeling of Barcelona gently provided by Simon Tarry. Amazing photographs, that really make us think that thanks God, Marta's bag got stolen rather than Simon's camera,...here there are some photgraphs for it is for any potential guests,...take care! Clickhere to have a feeling of the view

Here and in Lima

These last days have been strange and active. some consultancy work got comission to Joan in Lima for the World Bank just before a weekend in Barcelona. Weekend was busy, we experienced with having six friends of us from London, and was fun. The only incovenient was that Marta's bag with all her things got stolen whilst having a drink in Irati (a restuarant in the city centre , pretty nice). We could repot the crime on the internet, and we managed to replaced every thing ina few hours, the initial shock went off it is just a new story to tell. At the end of the day ,they only steal a replaceable object (although when the bag is Marta's, then the bg is probably more expensive than the content. Finally, the day after, someone discovered Marta's wallet and agenda in a bin nearby carrer del carme at the other sid eof Las ramblas, so the stroy ended up well. Anyhow, that night we were saved by Marta's sister Anna and Javier that went to Marta's parent to get another copy of Marta's car as we were supposed to drive all back home. That night Joan had no sleep as got the flight to Perú at 5 am, a KLM flight Barcelona-Amsterdam-Bonaire ( Dutch Antilles)- Lima, that took about 22 hours . Once in Lima, got cheated by the taxi driver , it is not corruption nor it is smuggling, simply that they don’t give back the right change and you assume people are honest. Food was excellent. Peru as the culinary capital of Latin America, even at the World Bank (WB) offices they eat properly.

WB Work was in group. Four or us headed by Monique Mrazek followed by Jorge Carichio from Chile and Oscar Humar an Argentinean from Slovenian origine. The Peruvian experience demostrates that “free” market means that a both local and international corporations are more free ad less tight to respct human and economic rights. Free means in developing countries lack of order, deregulation, no rules . As a result 20% of drugs are sold in the black market and nothing can be done, that despite the state regulates the market, there is no way to enforce the law, that 70% of pople cannot pay for basic health care needs. Some treatements cost twice the household monthly salary and there is no help whatsoever from the "free state".
In other words, it is a savage civilization despite all its modernity, it shoudl be the shame of US political influence. Shame on all of us for accepting the system like this. The country is in hand of few elites normally white that determine government priorities whilst the vast majority of the population has no real influence (middle classes and the poor). Salaries are really bad ( 70 £ a month in a city like Lima) and prices for certain essential products such as drugs are even higher that those of developed world. Average salary in Lima is approximately the same price as a room in our hotel which belongs to the American chain Marriot. The country's public servants all look totally captured by some interest groups with close links with the industry, they need to make thier life they say, bastards! The same aplied to doctors, with the exception of only few young doctors that still beleive in the hypocratic principles ruling doctors profession. The Pharmacy General director was a women ( such as the Minstry of Health) that we informally called ”la ministra”, a 1.40 m tall lady with corrupt face that cultivates bonsais as a main job actitivty. She is literally queen of the deparment and treated all the rest literally as "sheet". Next was the time to visit some labs and distributors called “doguerias”. The industry is divided into confronted local and foregin companies, but when needed they collude .

Security is not guaranteed by the state and Joan had trouble in a vist to a drugstore. After knocking the main building door , a guy at the other side of a black window asked for the passport ( and kept it for a long while) and inspect the taxi that was driving me (and waiting for me later to dive me back to downtown). Then literally a group a paramilitary carrying weapons escorted him to the operating offices and once there a bunch of gagster-type guys asked in a very strong and rude way: - “what do you want!”. Happyly, nothing happened, just another experience that might come out in the nest nightmare.

Peruvians are interesting, they are overall slim as food despite being excellent. Hardly anyone smokes ( and its clearly a symbol of low social position to smoke), people do not drink that much either. Typical beers are 'cristal' and a sort of pilsner not especially bad, but after the secondthey all look at you as an alcoholic.

We dont have time, not even to write a short note for our blog

Shall we stop the time? shall we change our routines? Are we happy with the current speed of live? Do we control our life? We dont even have time to have a thought about it.

Is money our goal? Is it worth it?

Money is for some a needed good to achieve what some most desire whilst for other is simply a dirty stuff, that is to accumulate money only cannot be the desire of one’s life. This sort of extrinsic goal does not make people happy and it has been demonstrated that does not even make people efficient.

Possibly the problem with money is that all want to have it. Money is what some economists call a “numeraire” for us to keep track of the value of things. For instance, to say that something is expensive, we would all refer to how much money will imply buying it. The problem is that not everything can be that easily translated into money, there are lots of thing we value and that we can even be able to sacrifice and to pay for (both in money and in time) that we value as much as money.

Another problem is that there are far too many things to keep track of what each single coin or note imply and cost. Those that have a salary often we forget the value of money and what can be done with it, until they really need money to meet the essentials. We might psychologically compare amounts of this good with more tangible things such as nice dinners, bright clothes and cozy weekends. In any case it is not easy to have an account of what money buys and, whatever it does it is not possible to have a precise idea of what could have alternatively been bought had we invested our funds in other sources.

Money in any case is or should be important if we are to accept and live, regardless of being or not a capitalistic society ( else we should need another numeraire). It is indeed important for ethical reasons as well as for othermore practical ones, though it is insuficient just to search for money alone. We individuals might have a natural inclination to selfishness, but we do care about our environment, our motivations and in general our meanings. Money has no acceptable meaning, we all need to be something but consumption organisms. We are social animals, and we need to experience individual pleasure and shared goals as members of wider groups and comunities.

Problem is that money is not totally deserved, is not the result of greater effort, and neither it comes form being better person but often from luck, innate talents and intergenerational transfers in addition to some limited effort. Hence, the ethics of money should lead us to be efficient after all, to invest in whatever is worth the effort, to beware of its value and the need to pursuit each individual’s selfish and collective goals.

Tourist are cool, sometimes too much! (notice what is written on the wall)