Indian man wears gold face mask to ward off coronavirus

Businessman Shankar Kurhade wears a facemask made of gold and being worth 289,000 rupees amid concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, in Pune on July 4, 2020.

An Indian man said he paid about $4,000 for a bespoke gold face mask to protect him from the coronavirus raging in the country. 

The precious metal covering weighs 60 grams and took craftsmen eight days to make, said businessman Shankar Kurhade, from the western city of Pune.

"It is a thin mask and has tiny pores that is helping me to breathe," Shankar told AFP.

"I am not sure if it will be effective to protect me from a coronavirus infection but I am taking other precautions," he added. 

When going out, the 49-year-old said he likes to adorn himself with gold jewelry weighing a kilogram, including a bracelet, necklace and rings on each finger of his right hand. 

Kurhade -- whose company makes industrial sheds -- said he got the idea for the gold face mask after seeing a media report about a man wearing one made from silver. 

"People are asking me for selfies," he said. 

"They are awestruck when they see me wearing the gold mask in markets." 

India has made face masks mandatory in public places in a bid to control the spread of the virus in the country, which has around 650,000 confirmed cases and more than 18,600 fatalities.  

source: thejakartapost.com

A Lesson from the History (of Money)

Yes, I start to write in this blog again. Don't ask me why, but in recent days, I have a bit "free time" and an idea to put on the writing.
A few days ago my daughter asked me to help her make an essay about the history of money. It is an interesting topic - well who does not like money. I will not do storytelling about the history of money on this blog but it gives me the idea to highlight the evolution of traditional trade from early history until what we know today and the relation with the gold and other precious metal.

In the early age of human history when people start to realize that one part of living as a social being is interaction with other individual and other groups. Trading is then created as a means to fulfill one's needs. The early method of trading is by bartering goods with goods. Then they realise that by bartering goods so many problems occur.

History seems to be repeating itself, but to be fair, this is technology’s first real crack at disrupting the very nature of money. Things like smart contracts are like standing instructions at a bank — programmatic money, which has a zillion use cases that have never been seen before. In my experience, I’ve seen an entire market form in front of my eyes and seen the intersection of economics, human psychology, and technology play out in real time. There are a lot of benefits (and pitfalls) of such disruptive financial technology, but I’m most interested in seeing how this pans out in the virtual economy/gaming world because that’s where I think most humans will be when the world runs out of jobs.

source : https://yourstory.com/2018/11/brief-history-money-barter-bitcoin