This is how the new digital art market works, and the pessimism of Bill Gates

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1- NFT: HOW DOES THE NEW DIGITAL ART MARKET WORK?

A new edition of Gallery Weekend is coming (September 28 to October 1) and the journalist Emilia Aparicio has written a note on one of the topics of the moment, the famous non-fungible tokens (NFT, for its acronym in English), digital works that can be bought and sold like any other type of property, but that lack a tangible form.

• An example is the famous gifby Nyan Cat, a biscuit-bodied cat that left a rainbow in its wake as it passed across the screen and became an iconic image of internet pop culture. In 2021, his creator sold his NFT for no less than 600 thousand dollars (about 600 million Chilean pesos).

• Gallery Weekend Santiago, one of the most anticipated visual art events of the year, for the second time will offer an unprecedented platform with works by 28 digital artists who were chosen to be able to sell their NFTs.

More information in a note that appears this weekend in El Mostrador.

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2- RUSSIAN COSMONAUT WHO IMPOSED SEVERAL RECORDS DIES

As a good boy born in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), In space things, my references were the cosmonauts of the Soviet Union (“big brother”, they called the USSR), much more than the NASA astronauts.

• That’s why I grew up with the image of the Soviet Yuri Gagarin –the first human being to go into space (who died early in an accident)–, the cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova –the first woman to travel outside of Earth’s orbit, a deputy of the Soviet and still alive– and, of course, the dog Laika – the first living being to orbit the Earth.

• This, regarding the recent death of cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov. He was 80 years old and in his career he held several records, such as having spent 437 days aboard the Mir space station.

“His research helped demonstrate that the human body is ready for flights not only to near-Earth orbit, but also to deep space,” highlighted the Russian space agency.

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3- CLONING, A SOLUTION AGAINST THE EXTINCTION OF SPECIES?

anyone who has seen jurassic-park (1993) has dreamed of the possibility of reviving the dinosaurs Thanks to cloning. And this seems to be getting closer.

• It turns out that in China the cloning of a wolf called “Maya” was announced,member of an endangered species, the wild arctic wolf.

• Cloning, the fruit of two years of research, It was announced by the company Sinogene Biotechnology one hundred days after the birth of the animal that –according to those responsible for the project– is in good health, in a company laboratory located in the province of Jiangsu, in eastern China.

According to scientists, The success of this cloning project opens the door to the artificial reproduction of other threatened or endangered animals, to guarantee the survival of these species by increasing their population.

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4- BILL GATES IS PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

I remember when I was a teenager, in the late ’80s, my faith in progress was limitless. He thought that the world was going to get better and better, as if it were something obvious and natural. Today, in my forties, it’s the other way around: I’m not sure the world my children will inherit will be any better. Rather I fear that it will be more polluted, more overpopulated and with an irremediable climate crisis.

• Well, apparently there are many of us who think similarly. One of them is Bill Gates, the creator of Microsoft and one of the richest men in the world, also creator of the charitable Gates Foundation.

• In 2015, the United Nations set 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to “end poverty, fight inequality and stop climate change by 2030”.

• However, seven years later,the world seems to be very far from those goals, according to a report by the aforementioned Gates Foundation.

• In relation to poverty, the objective was to eradicate extreme poverty, and, since 2015, the percentage of the world living on less than $1.90 a day has only dropped to 8 percent from just over 10 percent; in terms of malnutrition, the prevalence of stunting in children under five remains above 20 percent; and maternal mortality is almost twice as high compared to the goal set in 2015.

“In the current situation, we would need to accelerate five times the rate of progress to achieve most of our goals, even it may not be enough, since some of the projections do not yet take into account the impact of the pandemic, let alone the war in Ukraine or the food crisis it has caused in Africa”, says the text introduction.

You can read the full report here.

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5- WHAT IS BRAIN FOG AND HOW TO TREAT IT

An article from New York Times has tackled “brain fog”an evil that is more frequent than people think.

• It is a cognitive dysfunction that includes forgetfulness, confusion, exhaustion and that responds to different causes, such as COVID, hormonal changes and multiple sclerosis.

• The note also adds tips to deal with the problem,such as maintaining a good diet, a nurturing social environment and better rest.

“The brain is extremely malleable,” says one of the scientists quoted by the media. “There is substantial evidence that the brain can recover after traumatic brain injuries and after strokes, and that gives me hope that recovery after brain fog is possible.” emphasizes.

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And now, we say goodbye until next time. Take care of yourselves and I hope that these days of the National Holidays have helped you to regain strength for the rest of the year.

Send us your comments to our email cultura@elmostrador.cl or to our Instagram account @elmostrador_cultura

Have a nice spring weekend!