Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Scrisorile noastre, scrisorile lor. Pateticii nostri, pateticii lor

Rogozanu scrie despre scrisoarea "intelectualilor" francezi, "Avant qu’il ne soit trop tard" , pentru sustinerea 'candidatei sperantei', ie. Ségolène Royal- "la candidate de l’espérance" (ce fel de speranta? "Une espérance à la fois sociale et écologique, éthique et démocratique, française et européenne, ne sacrifiant pas les conditions de vie et de travail à la modernisation économique. L’espérance d’une république nouvelle, rompant avec un présidentialisme étouffant pour un parlementarisme vivant. [etc. , oh-la-la]", impotriva 'candidatului fricii', ie. Nicolas Sarkozy, "le candidat de la peur" (scrisoarea continua sa explice ce fel de frici 'exploateaza' sau 'inspira' Sarkozy: "Des peurs qu’il exploite – celles de l’avenir, du monde, de l’étranger, des jeunes – mais aussi des peurs qu’il inspire en convoquant l’imaginaire de l’homme fort, du chef vindicatif et exalté, épris du pouvoir et de lui-même... "). Eu (si Dan) prefer o confruntare "Lady in Red" vs. "Man in Black", ii caracterizeaza mult mai scurt si concis :-).

Voilà, au si ei pateticii lor! In cazul de fata nu e vorba nici de stanga, nici de dreapta (vezi Rogozanu mai sus), acestea sunt minore aici, e vorba de gregaritate si prostie. Generala. Si la noi si la ei. Prostie, repet, nu maniheism, à la Andrei Cornea. LOL, domnule Cornea, LOL...

Fabula cu fabulo-spiritul

Nu e nevoie sa scriu prea multe despre ultimul racnet (sau raget, al MAE oricum) in materie de "branding Romania" pentru ca au aparut deja opinii bine formulate care se suprapun sensibil si parerii mele. Vezi de exemplu o sinteza de pareri in Cotidianul (intre altele subliniind inconstienta- eufemism- Corinei Vintan, purtatoarea de cuvant a MAE, care totusi parea mai dezghetata cand am intalnit-o la Londra- poate pentru ca la ora aceea inca nu era, desi era visul ei sa fie, purtatoarea de cuvant a MAE?). Roblosfera s-a sesizat si ea, vezi de exemplu entry-urile lui Dan Anghel (aici si aici) sau un post mai recent, al lui Florin Dumitrescu.

Eu zic ca morala fabuloasei fabule a MAE e urmatoarea: romanul a avut dintotdeauna spirit- in cantitati fabuloase!-, dar nu a avut niciodata substanta. Problema e ca fabula MAE il arde substantial la buzunare pe contribuabil si tare ma tem ca, daca strainii nu inghit nicicum fabulele noastre (you wanna bet?), asta i-ar putea zdruncina crunt romanashului nostru si spiritul cel de pe urma. Si sa vezi ce fabulam atunci.

Quote for the week 25th of Feb to 3rd of March '07

Dans les premières passions les femmes aiment l'amant, et dans les autres elles aiment l'amour.


François de La Rochefoucauld


Mankiw's "10 principles of economics" translated

After this nobody should say that Economists don't know how to have fun. The only worry is that "the translation" might become more popular than the original :-).

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Roncea vs. Liiceanu & co

Iulian Comanescu posteaza ceva extrem de interesant pe blogul propriu.

Nu m-as mira ca multe din acuzele aduse lui Liiceanu (si altora din "grupul" sau) sa fie valide, dar din pacate cel care arunca piatra este tocmai bufonul Roncea, un zero barat al jurnalisticii, cu stilu-i binecunoscut (am mai vorbit despre gargaunii 'mnealui si sunt sigur ca omul nostru e nerabdator sa se afle iarasi in centrul atentiei cat de curand). Raspunsul lui Liiceanu e zero, nul, nada (desi ar fi avut ocazia sa raspunda imediat: probabil insa ca nu ar putea raspunde cum ar dori la toate acuzele- nimic neasteptat), preferand sa diminueze din vizibilitatea scandalului prin 'trecerea acestuia prin justitie': intr-adevar strategia "first best" in caz ca a fost prins cu musca pe caciula... Deci doar doua vorbe despre "articolul" lui Roncea. Pe langa faptul ca fiecare fraza e terminata cu cate-o flegma- nothing but "Roncea style"- in loc sa o tina pe partea de acuzatii obiective la Liiceanu, care ar trebui neaparat lamurite (eg. plagiat, renuntarea la anumite pasaje "compromitatoare" in noi editii ale 'operelor' sale, antedatarea unor articole, pentru a aparea ca facand parte din disidenta etc.), Roncea face un talmes-balmes in care- era inevitabil- apare clar si tenta nationalista: vezi eg. sectiunea unde il acuza pe Liiceanu de "tradare" fata de Noica (daca e ceva pentru care Liiceanu ar trebui admirat la Humanitas, primul - si poate singurul- lucru ar fi publicarea acestei carti, in particular dat fiind background-ul relatiei sale cu Noica; daca cineva are probe contrarii ar trebui sa publice o carte raspuns s.a.m.d., dar cenzura nu e un raspuns). O alta idiotenie majora care iti sare in ochi e inversunarea lui Roncea impotriva intelectualilor si NGO-urilor care ii sustin pe Basescu sau Macovei, dar din cu totul alte motive decat cele pentru care eu, de exemplu, ii consider patetici pe respectivii semnatari; in plus sa nu uitam ca Roncea si grupurile sale afiliate erau initiatori si semnatari ai unei si mai mari tampenii, "salvati icoanele" (link la Dan, care le-a sugerat solutia ideala)- dar ipocrizia e doar un cusur minor intre multele neajunsuri ale lui Roncea... LOL.

All in all. Una e ca Roncea nu poate scrie decat subiectiv, fascinat de extrema dreapta, legiune & co (in toate articolele sale, de cand lumea; intrebarea e de ce nu a ajuns in cadrul echipei de la Romania Mare si face in continuare pui la Ziua- trebuie ca e foarte iubit de cineva acolo)- si asta e problema lui personala si pe mine cel mult ma amuza; alta e insa consecinta- si aici e pierderea tuturor- ca intreg articolul isi pierde credibilitatea si eventualele sectiuni (curatate de flegmele lui Roncea...) care ar trebui serios investigate, vor fi aruncate la gunoi, la pachet (singurul care jubileaza fiind Liiceanu...). WTF l-a lasat pe bufon sa scrie articolul din Ziua, doar materialele referitoare la plagiat etc., au fost adunate si de altii? Sau, prin prostia si nebunia lui, e singurul care ar fi scris ceva "impotriva" lui Liiceanu, chiar avand sub nas probe care ridica cel putin niste intrebari? Asta ar fi intr-adevar foarte, foarte trist pentru jurnalismul nostru.

"Ant scam" worth 3 billion yuan...and a death sentence

I don't think anybody will start an 'ant business' in China any time soon. Not after this. Link via Tyler Cowen.

Geeky chairs vs. Danish chairs

This comes in nice, after the short 'Danish design' exchange of views we had on Troniu's blog :-). Of course no resemblance, no comparison, to Verner Panton's (S and more) chairs, true masterpieces. But well, I guess you can call it design... I would vote for the Danish 'old chair' :-). Geeky chairs link via Tyler Cowen.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Song of the day: Katie Melua's "Call off the search"

One thing I and Katie Melua have in common is that we're both convinced Eva Cassidy is one of the greatest voices ever (I wrote on this blog about Eva Cassidy here and here). Katie took a step further (and she's one of the few who could have done that step properly): she wrote and interpreted a very beautiful song, a tribute to Eva Cassidy, "Faraway Voice", song which is included on her first album, "Call Off the Search". That would've already been enough to mention her on my blog, but read on, this was just the warming up!


Who is Katie Melua? Chances are you still don't know her, though I am biased in this judgement by my own former ignorance in the context: a year and a half ago I didn't have a clue about who she was, although (ex post realization) I had certainly heard some of her songs. My rendez-vous with her music was intermediated by one of my former housemates here in Denmark, Aleksandra, who has a great taste for, inter alia, music; she suggested that, since I like Norah Jones (who will obviously not escape from featuring in my 'song of the day' rubrique; btw, this comparison should already say something about Katie's profile and potential), I might want to listen to Katie Melua as well (thank you, Sasha, very inspired thought!). Katie Melua is a Georgian-born jazz/blues musician, now living in England, an artist who, despite being still very young, has already proven that she's got an amazing potential, especially as a singer and, to a less extent, but very promising, also as a songwriter (I think she's already more than prepared to try more on that direction). Her collaboration with songwriter (and producer) Mike Batt (writer of her most well-known songs) and other songwriters resulted in some truly great tunes, some of which I'll mention below. Much more details on Katie Melua's bios and discography are on the wikipedia entry dedicated to her.

But let's get back to the music. Lots of music. Good music. Linked to YouTube clips. Some of my favourite pieces sung by Katie Melua are "Closest thing to crazy" (with a great live performance in Belfast), Piece by Piece" (written by Katie herself; here, live on a French TV channel), "I cried for you" (written by herself; excellent idea for the videoclip!), "Nine million bicycles" (perhaps her most commercialized song; see also the original videoclip). I also like a lot some cover songs by her (usually I don't mention covers, but I believe these to be exceptional): "Crawling up a hill" (song included also on her debut album- awesome live performance here; the original version is the classic by John Mayall), "Moon River" (of course, this was Audrey Hepburn' s and will forever remain Audrey's, but I think Katie's signature has got something special) and one of my all-time favourites, "I put a spell on you" (covered by so many since its writer and first singer, Screamin' Jay Hawkins- whose style was certainly unique). The song I chose for today is the superlative "Call off the search", the title song from her 2003 debut album- lyrics here. Enjoy!

PS. BTW, I really wouldn't mind if all "Romanian window cleaners" looked indeed like Katie Melua (apparently her hairdresser tells her that she looks like a Romanian window cleaner...), even without having Katie's voice :-).

Update: If you look carefully at the youtube clip for the song of the day, you'll see at some point (check, for instance, the time ranges min 1:1o to 1:20 or min 2:50 to 3:00, in that videoclip) a close profile of the lead violin player. I would almost bet that this is Alex Balanescu (about whom I wrote a bit on this blog, already). Maybe somebody can confirm or infirm that.

Mankiw's advice for new junior faculty

Plenty of good advice from Greg Mankiw for new junior faculty. Though I might have a problem with his one-before-the-last piece: "Avoid activities that will distract you from research. Whatever you do, do not start a blog. That will only establish your lack of seriousness as a scholar." I am not even a new junior faculty (yeah, yeah, still busy on my PhD dissertation for the moment, but I am getting there...) and I already have a blog. Well, well, but there is still some hope. Mankiw's last piece of advice could (should! must! please?) override everything else: "Remember that you got into academics in part for the intellectual freedom it allows. So pursue your passions. Do not be too strategic. Be wary of advice from old fogies like me." Amen!

SuperBots!

I've always loved those 'Transformer' cartoons. Well, it seems that researchers affiliated with the 'Information Sciences Institute' at the University of Southern California are very close to designing some real-life Transformers. For now they are called SuperBots and they can already do an amazing range of things. Here's a short characterization of a SuperBot:


Superbot consists of Lego-like but autonomous robotic modules that can reconfigure into different systems for different tasks. Examples of configurable systems include rolling tracks or wheels (for efficient travel), spiders or centipedes (for climbing), snakes (for burrowing in ground), long arms (for inspection and repair in space), and devices that can fly in micro-gravity environment.

Read more and watch videos of SuperBots in action here or here.

Capitolul "Resurse umane" in Romania

Cotidianul are o (co)initiativa foarte buna, zic eu: un workshop foarte interesant pe tema resurselor umane, probabil primul workshop decent pe topicul acesta, in Romania. Pacat doar ca vine atat de tarziu. Zic "decent" mai sus pentru ca uitandu-ma la lista de invitati, nu e chiar vid (desi se putea mult mai bine, dar: e un inceput), iar cel putin planul worshop-ului, organizat in doua sesiuni (paneluri), e conceput destul de bine, a priori. Costul inscrierii e poate putin cam piperat pentru Romania, dar avand in vedere ca majoritatea audientei ar fi reprezentanti ai diverselor corporatii, costul ar putea fi acoperit de firmele respective. Avand in vedere lipsa de experienta vis-a-vis un management profesionist al resurselor umane, in Romania- vezi, de exemplu, lipsa generala de competenta in HR a managerilor IMM-urilor sau ultimele "provocari" in materie de management al resurselor umane, ceva fara precedent in context autohton, dar cotidian in economiile dezvoltate - ar fi foarte de dorit ca acest workshop sa fie mediatizat cat mai mult. Iar din audienta ar fi indicat sa faca parte si jurnalisti 'specializati' pe topicul resurselor umane sau pe management/economie in general: intre altele, ultimele doua link-uri mentionate mai sus conduc la articole care ar fi putut fi scrise mult, mult mai bine.

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Mogulocaracatitza sau 'Comanescu si politica'

O fi 'mnealui analist "media" dar cum e nevoie de extrapolat la dimensiunea politica etc. (sine qua non daca vrei sa faci o analiza realista, in echilibru general), cum o da in bara. Stimate Iulian Comanescu, sa o luam simplu, cu primul pas, ca altfel devenim confuzi de-a binelea: de ce ar trebui ca Presedintele sa se ia la tranta cu "mogulii", "oligarhii", "mafiotii" si alte 'grupuri de interese economice', pana la urma (care exista si vor exista in orice democratie)? Normal ca daca asta i se repeta ad infinitum (cu Base fiind extrem de competent, lasat de capul dumnealui, dupa cum bine stim- eg. parca tragea un spritz cu Gigi la un moment dat si voroveau despre ale lor), asta va face. Si asta a facut de cand lumea (a intrat in capul romanului- a "analistilor" mai ales- ca Base rezolva, Base face, Base drege, Base e singura speranta, "normalitatea intr-un stat"- enter "analistul" Ungureanu- e garantata de un singur om: Base; WTF, v-ati pierdut cu totii mintile?), de asta suntem in zastoi, vorba rusului, de buna bucata de vreme, si probabilitatea e mare sa ramanem acolo. Lipseste complet cadrul institutional (functional!), asta e, si daca Basescu chiar ar urmari altceva decat populism si rabufniri personale, ar insista aici si ar face treaba. Dar: habemus analisti...LOL.

PS. Nu am mai amintit de "analiza" facuta Razboiului Rece (analogia e complet deplasata, dar mai e unul, alt "analist", pre nume Baconsky, care umple media de oroarea "jihadului romanesc" pornind de la McWorld vs. Jihad; astia trebuie sa isi trimita editorialul si scriu la repezeala ce le trece prin cap: "jihad" lui Baconsky, "feciorie perpetua" lui TRU etc, altfel nu imi pot explica: totusi e vorba de oameni cu scaun la cap, in general). Dar domn Comanescu stie multe si despre strategiile de conflict. Brinkmanship, does it ring a bell? If not, here's a start.

Song of the day: КОРАБЛИ (The Ships) by Vladimir Vysotsky

The song for today is written and interpreted by the one and only Vladimir Vysotsky, the Russian "Elvis" as many called him. A concise description of Vysotsky's musical "signature" can be consulted here. I've just read an interesting short article about him, in Romanian (which reminded me of the great Vysotsky, to start with), article which is however contained in the much more detailed English wikipedia entry (most likely the inspiration source for the Romanian articled linked above), which has quite a few of further excellent references. For instance, there is a site where you can download most of Vysotsky's songs (in mp3 format). You can also read the English translation of some of his songs. And (again, long live YouTube!) you can actually see quite a few good quality videoclips with Vladimir Vysotsky, on YouTube. The song of the day is the beautiful "КОРАБЛИ" (The Ships). The lyrics in English are below. Enjoy, keeping in mind what Vysotsky himself said about his songs: "I want to state and assure you, that the author's song demands great work. This song is always living with you, never giving you rest".

The Ships (КОРАБЛИ)

Vladimir Vysotsky (translation in English by Alec Vagapov)

They will stay for a while,
And then they’ll take course
But they will return
Breaking through winds a-wailing.
And it won’t take six months
Till I’m back at my house.
Just to set out again,
To set out for a six month’s a-sailing.

Everybody returns
But the best of our friends,
And the best loving, faithful,
Adorable women.
Everybody returns
But for those we need most
I believe not in fate
I believe not in fate
Nor myself I believe in.

Yet I really want
To believe I am wrong,
And that burning one’s boats
Will be soon void of meaning.
I am sure to return
Full of dreams, friends along,
And it won’t take six months
And it won’t take six months
Till I get back to singing.

Buscu vs. TRU, arbitreaza Turcescu

"Luni seara, incepind cu ora 22.00, la emisiunea „100%“ de la Realitatea TV, moderata de Robert Turcescu, se vor afla fata in fata Doru Buscu si Traian Ungureanu."


Nu as pierde treaba asta (mai ales ca vine dupa asta). Nu ma astept sa imi schimb deloc opinia formulata, cel putin in privinta lui TRU, dar ar putea fi totusi extrem de interesant (in particular, nu ar fi chiar uimitor sa il avem pe Base intervenind telefonic, i-a intrat in obicei...). Dane, ai vreo idee cum as putea sa vad "100%" in Danemarca (eventual pe internet, chiar ex-post)- din cate imi amintesc tu esti expert pe Franta :-) ? Sau in orice caz poate cineva ia notite (obiective!) si astfel ma pun si eu la curent, dupa...

Web 2.0 in less than 5 minutes or 'Digital Cultural Anthropology'

I bet no one would fall asleep in this sort of presentations.
Thanks to Paul for the link.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Scientific publishing lags: Maths vs. Economics

I've received today this email (I receive quite often such emails since I am also interested- rather actively, I'd like to think- in Applied Mathematics). I put in bold what is the most interesting thing for my purpose here (I won't search for the rank or reputation of this journal below etc. etc, since it is not crucial for the context) and which should make any Economist shout and scream and jump from the nearest window:

[...] it is a pleasure for us to invite you to publish one work in "International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics".
Let me inform you that the reviewing period for one paper is 2-3 weeks, the printing period is 4 weeks.
You may submit papers electronically. Please send the paper as an attachment to the following address [...]. You are welcome to visit our web-page: http://math.uctm.edu/journals
Below is some necessary information about the journal.
Sincerely Yours,
[...]

Now, for most other Maths journals, from both ends of the 'formal' (say, ISI- based)quality distribution, as far as I know, the timing is very much similar (even increased two-three times: I still wouldn't mind); there isn't really a large time lag. Moreover, most natural sciences (I know the situation in Physics best) behave similarly from this point of view. Compare this to the absolutely ridiculous periods of 4-6 months, on average (certain very good journals take much longer, my impression is that there 6 months is really a minimum!) to get a first reaction, within Economics (if, but that very rarely happens, you get accepted immediately, maybe in other 6 months you're in; in practice, revise and resubmit and reviewing that takes other 6 months, so hope that in about 2 years you can publish a good paper that you finished just now; in case of a rejection start all over again at another journal, maybe revising here and there: could take you forever- cases of 5-6 years, or more!!!, of famous 'working papers' waiting for publication, that subsequently influenced a whole subfield, are really not so uncommon in Economics). If I only had an idea about this when I decided for graduate studies in Economics (despite the fact that I was at the same time accepted for an MPhil in Theoretical Physics, for instance)! Somebody must do something about this situation and it has to start from the top. You can't expect things to change if the major journals - and I name here only what I consider the top 5 in Econ, American Economic Review, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics and Review of Economic Studies- do not start by providing the example.

See also a previous post on various proposals to improve and in particular, to speed up things in scientific publishing. None of these is good enough, of course. But it should be an editor's task to think about speeding up things. Does anybody do that? If so, the results are very hard to see. And if it is really nothing to do from the part of the editors and this is inherent in the Economists' species, I can only agree with and even extend Ariel Rubinstein's idea that Mathematicians are "more skilled, highly educated and intelligent" than Economists: they are also much smarter.

How to (and how not to) praise (your) kids

I certainly agree with the conclusions of this interesting article in the New York Magazine (overviewing a few dozen recent studies on the topic): praising the effort rather than the intelligence or, even better formulated, praise needs to be specific. Could have certainly worked much better also in my case, though it wasn't my parents who didn't do their job properly :-). But the magnitudes observed even in very simple one-time experiments are simply unbelievable (plain counter-intuitive, from some point onwards). This clearly calls for more research and for seriously trying to formalize the findings by means of a model (again, we are faced with soft, descriptive social sciences, on the one hand vs. economics, on the other hand). And the NYMag author's self-impressions, in the end, even as a parent, are spoiling somewhat the spirit of the article so far. But it is still interesting.

The link is via Tyler Cowen on MR.

Ernst & Young's "Southeast Europe Attractiveness Survey 2007"

...places Romania first in the investors' ranking. See here a summary of the SE investment "attractiveness survey" results, in English (or the same, in Romanian). I think a lot of attention should be devoted to the indicators where we lag behind (and this report should probably have emphasized those to start with, Romanians tend to read the first pages and skip the rest...). Namely, we are doing bad (or in some cases, really bad) in the following dimensions:
  • infrastructures (telecom and logistics)
  • political environment stability
  • quality of life
  • R&D

So I think there's a lot to do, rather than fight among the various decision-making institutions, nonsense which has been going on ever since our entry in the EU (before that there was sheer chaos; now at least you know who bullies who). But do we have in power any people that "know things", quoting Larry Page? You judge it.

D-Wave's Orion: The first practical quantum computer

It still doesn't work properly, but well, it is a start. I am optimistic and I think it's a matter of 5-10 years (not half a century as some think!) to get it to solve all existing Sudoku puzzles in seconds, for instance (although there are much more important things one could do with a quantum computer than solve Sudoku...). Here's the website of "D-Wave Systems", the Canadian 'Quantum Computing Company' that created the first, 16-qubit, "Orion" processor (many also hope that D-Wave will start in Fraser Valley, British Columbia, Canada, in close collaboration with University of British Columbia, what "Fairchild Semiconductor" started in Silicon Valley, California, USA, in collaboration with Stanford University). And here's a short (free) article about it, in the Scientific American (the latest print edition of the Economist also had an article on it- subscription required). And here's (only if you're still not bored and want to read some quantum 'theory' about superposition, entanglement, decoherence, error-correcting codes etc.) a very short "scene-setting" article (in PDF) on fighting decoherence, with particular applications to quantum computing and quantum communicating, which I wrote for one of my Quantum Physics courses in Utrecht, back in 2000 (don't judge my English in there, I admit it was pretty awful...hopefully it is better in my current articles :-)).

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Quote for the week 18th to 24th of Feb '07


Brinkmanship is thus the deliberate creation of a recognizable risk, a risk that one does not completely control. It is the tactic of deliberately letting the situation get somewhat out of hand, just because its being out of hand may be intolerable to the other party and force his accomodation. It means harassing and intimidating an adversary by exposing him to a shared risk, or deterring him by showing that if he makes a contrary move he may disturb us so that we slip over the brink whether we want to or not, carrying him with us.

Thomas Schelling


Previous week's quote.

Pe unde si-a mai varat coada Behemoth sau 'Patriarhia romana si sculele diavolesti din hambarul CNSAS'

Chiar daca nu sunt intotdeauna de acord cu dumnealui, Mircea Dinescu este unic si de cele mai multe ori este mult deasupra celorlalti. Ia cititi-i ultima poveste,, despre pofta Preafericitului la sculele diavolesti din hambarul CNSAS. Bulgakov insusi l-ar felicita pe Dinescu pentru stil si inspiratie (vom reveni la Mikhail Bulgakov si dosarele de politie secreta ale Necuratului si cu alta ocazie...)! Dinescule, ad majora! Banuind ca Adevarul va schimba adresa link-urilor undeva in viitor (s-a mai intamplat...sper sa nu se mai intample), redau o parte a articolashului lui Dinescu si aici:


Principiul separării turnătorilor în stat
de Mircea Dinescu

Cine a avut ocazia să călătorească în noaptea de Lăsata Secului pe şoselele patriei ar fi putut observa cum şi-a băgat dracul coada în străvechiul obicei de a sări peste un foc de vreascuri întru izgonirea păcatelor. Rugurile urît mirositoare în jurul cărora sătenii stăteau ciopor emanau vălătuci infernali de smog asemănători celor de pe un cîmp de bătălie irakian. Şi asta din pricină că, în locul parfumatelor lemne de brad, amestecate cu crengi uscate de măr şi de prun, creştinii noştri se purificau pe marginea şanţului prăjindu-se la dogoarea unor cauciucuri stropite cu benzină. De la Turnu Severin pînă la Bucureşti n-am văzut măcar un preot care să-i afurisească pe păcătoşii care aduceau cu inconştienţă un omagiu infernului citadin.

Abia ce reuşisem să-mi scuip din plămîni duhoarea de pucioasă, că un vînticel ardeiat bătînd dinspre Patriarhia Română îmi semnala că şi pe acolo arde ceva.

Preafericitului Teoctist i se făcu poftă de sculele diavoleşti din hambarul CNSAS-ului, dorind să depoziteze numaidecît dosarele fostei securităţi în magazia unde ţine sub cheie sfintele moaşte, tămîia, busuiocul şi agheasma neîncepută.

Ca o dovadă că pe sub nasul politicienilor n-au trecut doar geamantane cu bani, ci s-au traficat şi paporniţe cu colivă şi colaci, invocînd principiul separării puterilor în stat, un sobor de senatori a hotărît scoaterea înalţilor ierarhi şi a cultelor religioase de sub incidenţa legii privind colaborarea sfinţiilor lor cu poliţia politică.
[...]

Let the Transylvanian Phoenix rise from the ashes! And Jonathan Harker's first days in Transylvania

This is a short note to inform everybody that we (Dan, Lolka, Tihi and yours truly), a small but ambitious group of new generation Transylvanian idealists, of both Romanian and Hungarian ethnicities, launched "Phoenix Transylvania", the first interethnic Romanian-Hungarian weblog (for now we do not commit to any frequency of posting, but I'll guess once we seriously start posting, it'll become natural). Most entries will be in Romanian (here's our "Mission Statement"- all in Romanian, except its title :-)), but whenever we consider that some matters might interest other people than Romanians and Hungarians from Romania, we'll switch to English. It goes without saying that all reactions/proposals are very welcome.

For those of you for whom "Transylvania" doesn't ring a bell (or, alternatively, it pretty much overlaps- geographically or otherwise- with "Pennsylvania"- this is not a joke, unfortunately, I've been asked that before...) , below is the very first entry in Jonathan Harker's Journal (from Bram Stoker's "Dracula"), which introduces Transylvania to everybody (probably it is the most well-known description of Transylvania ever, despite the fact that it is so outdated- but we have to start somewhere :-) ). I emphasize in bold what mostly relates (related) to Transylvania. But first, here's the (my) motto (taken out of the text below):

"[...]every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool[...]"



3 May. Bistritz. __Left Munich at 8:35 P. M, on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.
The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called "paprika hendl," and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians.
I found my smattering of German very useful here, indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country.
I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.
I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place.
I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it.
I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.
I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was "mamaliga", and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call "impletata". (Mem.,get recipe for this also.)
I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.
It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?
All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject ot great floods. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.
At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets, and round hats, and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque.
The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them.
The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest
, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.
It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. Being practically on the frontier--for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina--it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease.
Count Dracula had directed me to go to the Golden Krone Hotel, which I found, to my great delight, to be thoroughly old-fashioned, for of course I wanted to see all I could of the ways of the country.
I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress--white undergarment with a long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty. When I came close she bowed and said, "The Herr Englishman?"
"Yes," I said, "Jonathan Harker."
She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door.
He went, but immediately returned with a letter:
"My friend.--Welcome to the Carpathians. I am anxiously expecting you. Sleep well tonight. At three tomorrow the diligence will start for Bukovina; a place on it is kept for you. At the Borgo Pass my carriage will await you and will bring you to me. I trust that your journey from London has been a happy one, and that you will enjoy your stay in my beautiful land.--Your friend, Dracula."


Recommended:

Don Quijote de la Londra si jurnalismul de companie

Trist, trist, foarte trist (extrem de trist din perspectiva personala). Traian Ungureanu devine ultra-defensiv si se autocaricaturizeaza. Articol scris "la cald" (fierbinte!) ca marea majoritate a articolelor recente ale dumnealui (daca nu a fost scris la cald, e mult mai grav; incerc din rasputeri sa ii gasesc circumstante atenuante...). Din pacate. Candva (demult, tare demult...) TRU era apreciat pentru obiectivitate, impartialitate si realism si mai putin pentru... declaratii de razboi impotriva morilor de vant. A ramas cu stilul si forma, dar fara continut. "Normalitatea de stat"- LOL (mai frate, si tocmai in UK vrei sa faci pledoarie pentru aceasta "normalitate" de stat?). Din tot motto-ul (existential!) al lui Ungureanu, "Cultul lui Basescu nu e ilegal si nu e cult. E campania pentru normalitatea de stat. Presedintele insusi o slujeste, abrupt si legal.", doar "abrupt" are sens. Adica are dreptate pe ici pe colo si anume prin locurile esentiale...

Acestea fiind spuse, articolul lui Doru Buscu , care l-a scos din rabdari pe Don Quijote-le nostru, e mult sub nivelul contributiilor dumisale anterioare (vezi de exemplu aici). Nu era nevoie nici de ad hominem, nici de sarcasme redundante. Dar se pare ca trebuie sa cazi sau intr-o parte sau in alta, exista o lipsa acuta de coloana vertebrala in jurnalismul nostru (well, si in diplomatie, avand in vedere ca orice jurnalist cu 'opinii monocolore' ajunge ambasador la o adica- depinzand de cine are fraiele in mana si de cat de bine i-a fost cantat acestuia in struna- Buscu probabil e deja pe vreo lista sau biletel (roz, desigur) a celuilalt clown, Don Calin Popescu-Corleone...oops, scuze, Tariceanu..., desi nu l-am vazut inca "pupincurist", sa folosesc expresia lui, in mod direct; a, nu, nu l-am uitat nici pe domn Voinescu la Washington- care l-a ridicat in slavi pe Base cat i-a stat in putere si care declara ca domn Plesu l-a binecuvantat... si preafericit deja ,epifanie, ce mai! (vezi PS-ul editorialului dumnealui, restul e copy-paste cu o nuanta autohtona))

Mai avem. Mai avem pana vom intelege ca cei care se erijeaza atat de vehement in slujitori ai "binelui", declarand crunt razboi tuturor oportunistilor, nu sunt decat alti oportunisti ( nu stiu daca ar fi mai fericiti sa se stie acuzati de prostie, ar fi cealalta alternativa). Mai avem pana vom intelege ca jurnalistul nu are nevoie nici de "feciorie perpetua" (LOL- ia uite de ce se temea Ungureanu!), dar nici de prostitutie (selecta, ce e drept, vorbim de dama, ehem... jurnalist, de companie, ehem...de campanie). E mult mai simplu: e nevoie doar de coloana vertebrala intacta. Din pacate, generatia Ungurenilor si Voinestilor si-a fracturat coloana cam de mult timp. Domnilor (si doamnelor), cele mai sincere regrete: fractura dvs. de coloana nu mai e remediabila.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Song of the day: Ciocarlia (in three different interpretations)

On Friday last week I had dinner in one of the "bring-your-own-wine" restaurants in Aarhus (in case somebody doesn't yet know, in Aarhus and in DK or Scandinavia in general, a good wine can easily double- a very good wine can multiply it a few times...- your restaurant bill, hence these types of bring-your-own restaurants- I only know the ones in Aarhus- are extremely popular- you can basically bring your own wines and just have them serve you the meals). This time the chosen place was Le Regal (where I am very popular with some members of the staff, it appears...) and my guest for the evening was Marisa (hola, I hope you're reading this :-)), a very good friend visiting from Seville, Spain.

At some point during the evening, three street musicians bumped in (literally) the restaurant and started playing and singing various famous Spanish (or rather, Spanish-spoken) tunes (included several pieces from the Gypsy Kings, for instance, played quite well). This lead me to think that they were Latin Americans or even Spaniards. I remained with that impression until the very last moment when they played their last piece, clearly the most impressive of the evening - judging after the reaction of the people in the restaurant. Well, this last melody was nothing else but our very Romanian famous tune, "Ciocarlia" ("The Lark" in English). I now regret that I did not ask them whether they (or at least one of them) were Romanians or Eastern European neighbours. But the important part is that to my credit (yes!!!), I immediately recognized the piece and told Marisa about it, but I attributed it wrongly to George Enescu, our most famous composer (also a very gifted violonist, pianist and conductor); I also knew that he included it in the 1st Romanian Rhapsody (which only reinforced my prior that he was also the composer- of course, this only shows my ignorance...). It turns out that in fact most people are more or less confused about the origins of this melody. After some searches, I tend to side with the Wikipedia entry on it, although it is not clear at all from there to what extent the initial folk tune was enriched by either of the Dinicu artists, who "popularized" it to start with (or by Enescu himself, eg. when including it in the 1st Romanian Rhapsody) and if it wasn't at all (hard to believe) then the hunt for the anonymous composer behind it is/should be far from over (I have to confess that I don't believe in the pure "folk" origin of this masterpiece, no matter how much I trust the collective creativity and musical genius of my Romanian people, even cumulated over several generations...)!

But that was a long introduction (introduction?!). To get to the gist of this post: I searched of course for renditions of "Ciocarlia" on YouTube. I found 3 (completely different ones), that are certainly worth mentioning and that I warmly recommend to you.

  • The first is the "standard ", popular, version, with leading violins, interpreted here by an artist called Marek Balog and his Hungarian colleagues, playing in some pub in the Czech Republic (taking the info on the clip at face value). I thought this was a good rendition (somewhat better than the one in Le Regal by the-most likely Romanian - trio :-))- they even put some "personal feeling" in it (though there is a clear heterogeneity among the players here).
  • The second version I found on YouTube would have been truly amazing if it weren't from a sort of jam session where people in the audience simply couldn't keep quiet. But, apart from that, this electric guitar player (Cristi Iakab if the info on the YouTube clip is correct) is extremely good and I just love his version of "Ciocarlia".
  • The last and my favourite version among the three circulated already, quite a lot, through the Romanian blogosphere ("roblosphere"), and strangely enough exactly in the last few days when I was also searching- independently!- for it, on YouTube (inter alia, I noticed that somebody placed a link to the same clip on the hotnews blogroll, yesterday). Just think of it, this seems impossible: playing "Ciocarlia" (by now you've listened to the previous two versions, I hope) with an acoustic guitar!!! And still, there is one artist who did it and you can admire his outstanding rendition here. Incredible, really. The musician is an Israeli flamenco (I'll most likely come back to the 'flamenco' style which really experiences a hype lately, all around the world) artist called Baldi Olier, who was born in Romania in 1953 and emigrated to Israel in 1964 (info on the bios section from his website). I searched YouTube for other instrumental pieces by him, but I did not really find, among the available ones, one that- in my opinion- comes anywhere near "Ciocarlia".

I hope you enjoyed listening to "Ciocarlia" (any impressions are welcome). If I were to talk about branding Romania through music, it is this sort of melodies (if played with style!) that I would really want to include in that set (in particular, what can be more Romanian then a "Romanian folk tune"?). But this will of course be a recurrent theme on my blog.

Monday, February 19, 2007

On Larry Page's address at the AAAS Annual Meeting 2007 and more from that event

Excerpts from Larry Page's address at the AAAS Annual Meeting of this year are in the third part of this recent Science podcast (in .mp3 format) from the 17th of February (his talk starts from around min 14 in the podcast). Some very good points that particularly draw my attention (with my summary and further comments):
  • There is a serious marketing problem in science, in general and much more should be done to remedy that. Page explains this state of facts by the typical lack of any expert in marketing in the scientific environment - you can't expect people who are paid to do research, to think of how to sell research ideas to the public (in particular, Page gives as example the enormous time and effort it took him and Brin to even come up with the name 'Google' for their venture).
  • It is necessary to have people in power who "know things" (inter alia, to have some idea about science and technology), which is so hard to come by with respect to current political leaders, for instance
  • Linked to the first point, society should be encouraged to think that 'things are possible', that scientific research has attainable and desirable goals. If people have a positive attitude about this, the rest comes easier. Page underlies that the media is to play a much bigger role in this.
  • Science and engineering should be much more integrated; the scientists should use the engineers' insight in what are the problems requiring priority and what are feasible solutions to them, while the engineers should use the scientists' depth of knowledge and level of abstraction and generalization etc.
  • On scientific publishing, articles and working papers should be made readily accesible (free of charge) for the public, it is in the best interest of both parties. And obviously the issues with the time lags in publishing and all that should be given priority.
  • On USA: USA has a marketing problem in general, in the eyes of the rest of the world, in the opinion of Page. Much more attention should be given right now to making more friends in the world.
  • Creating and taking advantages of great opportunities is a very important part of any succesful strategy and the scientist- entrepreneur should be the model. Page gives the example of the 'cyclicality' between Silicon Valley and Stanford University, a place where interaction of "brains" was at its best (people starting Silicon Valley after leaving from Stanford, others returning to Stanford after having had succesful entrepreneurship spells etc), which could and should be followed in other places.

I also found very interesting the short interview with Stanford's Robert Sapolsky (starts around min 8 in the Science podcast linked above) about the influence of stress on health and general well-being, with the clear difference between short-term "good stress", which can have positive outcomes on the subject, and the severe problems (starting from high blood pressure, to malfunction of the reproductory organs, to nervous breakdown etc.) that can be caused by the chronic, "bad stress". Reminds me strongly of the discussions in the 'stress at the workplace' workgroup that I was part of when attending, years ago, a "Generation Europe" Summit on the Role of Business in Society, in Bruxelles (I must say that I was then thinking much more about the positive role of (short term) stress- alert stimulus, for instance- than of its negative outcomes on, eg., job productivity, but Dr. Sapolsky is obviously right - the hazards of chronic stress are not at all negligible).

Song of the day: Yann Tiersen's "Rue des cascades"

While I've been too busy in the last days and my "song of the day" rubrique hasn't been updated for a while, the artist and song I propose today more than make make up for all that delay.

There is one (perhaps only one) musician whose concerts I would in no way miss, should he perform anywhere around the place I were located. This person is Yann Tiersen, a true musical genius (unequalled composer; superlative player of pretty much any conventional music instrument, not to mention that he uses many unconventional ones!- I am not kidding, see the evidence below). Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky and didn't yet get a chance to actually see him on stage: the last missed opportunity was exactly a week ago, on Monday the 12th of Feb, when he performed in Amsterdam's Paradiso (and when you think that he could have done so in all the years I was fulltime in Amsterdam!). Nothing unexpected, the tickets for his concert were sold out long time before the date of the concert. I have written a bit on Tiersen and his music also before, inter alia already mentioning some of my favourite pieces from him and linking to some excellent clips available on YouTube; hence, I will not repeat myself - and cut short the introduction for the purpose of this post.

The song for today (and for the last 5 days or so...) is Yann Tiersen's sweet & intriguing "Rue des cascades" (vocals Claire Pichet). The linked clip contains sequences from the movie "La vie rêvée des anges" (which I haven't yet seen, but it is on my list of "must see movies"), which has "Rue des cascades" as one of its soundtracks. Talking about movie soundtracks, Tiersen has got a lot of experience and outstanding successes with those (and this includes basically the entire soundtrack set for one of my favourite movies of all times, "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain", likely his most famous). See also a live interpretation of "Rue des cascades".

I believe that all of Tiersen's creations are masterpieces in their own right (as I already stated, this guy is a genius); however, given time and space constraints (next to youtube availability...), I'll single out only an additional few of my top favourite ones, next to those I mentioned in my old "Monochrome" post and to today's song of the day. Such outstanding pieces are: "La boulange" (excellent original clip of this song!) or "Comptine d' un autre été" (with a perfectly assorted videoclip!). You can also watch the whole short (about 12 min) animated movie "Le cyclope de la mer", with superb music composed entirely by Yann Tiersen (first part movie, second part movie).

The happiest man

An interesting material/ interview in The Independent about/with Matthieu Ricard, author of 'Happiness: A Guide To Developing Life's Most Important Skill' and arguably the happiest man alive (at least according to the conclusions of research done by top neuroscientists at the University of Wisconsin). Two excerpts that I believe to summarize the essence of what Ricard states in this article:

Developing happiness, Ricard argues, is a skill. Most people exist like beggars, "unaware of the treasure buried beneath their shack". We can develop our potential as if "polishing a nugget" and eventually (omega) achieve happiness, "like a bird soaring into the sky when his cage is opened".
...
But ultimately, it's how your mind relates to the world that determines whether you're miserable or not. You have to ask yourself: is my happiness dependent on other people?"

One immediate problem (that I notice) with being happy 'on your own', independent of all other people around you, is that most empirical research in the economics of happiness, for instance (I guess there are zillions of studies on happiness in many other disciplines...), seems to agree that your happiness does depend to a considerable degree on the people to whom you directly compare/relate to (your peers, your neighbours etc)- for instance, one of the consistent results seems to be that your relative income (with regards to your reference group) and not so much your income in absolute level, are determinants of the general level of happiness. The happiest man in the world seems to state precisely the opposite: that it is not about that, that your happiness only depends on yourself. I guess the whole issue ultimately boils down to the definition of happiness (Mr. Ricard repeatedly points out that 'happiness' is by no means 'elation'- so at least he's giving an idea of what happiness is not- that obviously does not answer the question of what happiness IS).

Best thing I've read in the last couple of weeks

....is John Rust's Comments on Michael Keane's "Structural vs. Atheoretic Approaches to Econometrics". Perhaps too strong in some parts (though I can understand why), but simply great overall (inter alia, possibly the best defence of structural econometrics I've seen so far- for sure the clearest and most concise one). I am still reading the (excellent so far) article by Keane (forthcoming in the Journal of Econometrics, see a working version here).

Thanks to Nicolai for pointing out to me Keane's paper and Rust's comments on it.

PS. Reading Rust's short paper mentioned above, one also has a better idea of which parts of Rubinstein's critic to Levitt and Dubner's 'Freakonomics' I agree with, to link with my previous post.

Rubinstein's "Freak-Freakonomics"

This is an interesting 6-page "review" of Levitt and Dubner's "Freakonomics", by Ariel Rubinstein (it is probably the most negative among the reviews of this book, that I've read so far). I find some of his points excellent (and welcome: somebody with high levels of competence/authority should have mentioned these at some point), but some others exaggerated and very likely misunderstanding Levitt's purpose (probably having to do with a more general, well known attitude of Prof. Rubinstein - one of the current most brilliant economic theorists- who doesn't really believe that research in Economics has pretty much any use in practice etc). In any case, I (and I suspect, many others...) am very much looking forward for Steven Levitt's (mandatory, I'd say) reaction (maybe on the Freakonomics blog?). As far as I see him, he usually welcomes any sort of criticisms, which is always something to admire in an academic.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Song of the day: "In the death car", by Goran Bregovic and Iggy Pop

Neither Goran Bregovic nor Iggy Pop needs any introduction- moreover I'll write more about each of them and their music at some point(they happen to be in my top favourite artists, in general). Today's song is a superlative result of their collaboration, which was also used as soundtrack in Kusturica's excellent "Arizona Dream". Enjoy the one and only "In the death car" (music Goran Bregovic, lyrics and vocals Iggy Pop)!

New information technologies and the eternal Helpdesk...

This is hilarious (plus it teaches you some Norwegian and Danish at the same time:-)). Thanks to Greg Mankiw.


Update, 14th of March: this is the (unavoidable...) problem with YouTube, sometimes the user removes the material (or the YouTube administration has to act because of copyright infringement...). Here's the same thing, uploaded by another user (the Danish subtitles are missing here, so you've got the chat in Norwegian and English subtitles only); I hope this will stay on YouTube for longer....

Nu e rau deloc

...articolul lui Doru Buscu din Cotidianul. Exceptand insa impartirea in seriile A si B. Care sunt cei din seria A? Vreau un exemplu din marea aceea de semnaturi. "Nume sonore"- poate, "marci publice acceptate"- poate (stim si cum), dar "purtatori onesti de competenta"? Give me a break! E doar "turma", "cardul de bibilici", pateticii...

Our Bulgarian neighbours and their bus stations or How to make buses popular again, as transport means? :-)

'We wanted to give the passengers something to take their minds off the cold and to pass the time while waiting for a bus". Only 'soft' porn (duh...), but I guess it'd warm them up a bit anyway: Bulgarian invention. I would not worry a bit on 'moral' grounds (absolute nonsense), but probably it should come with a curfew for children (or individuals below a certain age- I will not get into a debate about what that age should be)- and I am very curious whether any of our southern neighbours has actually thought of how on Earth to enforce such a thing.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Song of the day: Manu Chao's "Desaparecido"

A few years ago I saw Manu Chao (and other very interesting artists that I might talk about with other occasions) performing at the Pinkpop festival. As I remember it, I ended up somewhat dissapointed because he did not sing any of the pieces from the "Clandestino" album, which is by far my favourite from Manu Chao (instead he and his collaborators sang mostly Mano Negra songs, very good otherwise, but, well, not my favourite...). Hence, I had far higher expectations from this great artist, with that occasion. But to cut short what could be a long post, some of my favourite Manu Chao pieces, available as clips on youtube, are (most from the Clandestino album): today's song, "Desaparecido" (my number 1- lyrics here- with a special dedication to Chrisje, to whom I owe my interest in Manu Chao and in a lot of good music, in general- Chrisj, I think you should read my blog :-)), "Clandestino" (my number 2), "Welcome to Tijuana", "Je ne t'aime plus" and "Me gustas tu" (from the later album "Próxima Estación: Esperanza"). Enjoy!

Blogging as self-experimentation

I think Tyler Cowen is right to a great extent. And I just love the "less patient with the Continental philosophy" idea. True, true, how true! I would only add that blogging is also providing me (some of you) with an incentive to actually learn more, in a much more (self)disciplined way (understood here that one only blogs about things s/he himself considers interesting and worth blogging about, to start with; this should be the sine qua non of blogging).

Quote for the week 11th- 17th of Feb '07

I am happy to belong to a nation that is too small to commit big follies.
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz




Monday, February 12, 2007

Today's song: Francesco de Gregori's "La Donna Cannone"

Francesco de Gregori does not need any introduction: for anybody who knows Italian music, this artist is one of their gods. He is one of my top 5 favourite Italian musicians, in his case superlative both as singer and as songwriter. Some fabulous songs from him that I could trace as clips on YouTube (there are more that I really like but could not find...): Alice, Buffalo Bill (live performance from 1976!), La Storia. Today's masterpiece and perhaps de Gregori's all time most famous song, an Italian 'classic' really, is "La Donna Cannone". Let me know if it did not impress you. The lyrics can be read here (and here there is an English translation). Grande, grande Francesco de Gregori!


Note: I have to say that my absolute favourite piece from de Gregori is "Generale" (in fact this is how I got interested in the music of Francesco de Gregori to start with, by travelling - years ago- with a bus, from L'Aquila to Roma, and listening for the first time, on radio, to this amazing song!), but I could not find anywhere to link it here. I only found a cover of it (not bad, gives you an impression of its force, but it is certainly not the 'de Gregori signature'...) by another Italian legend (in my top 5 as well), Vasco Rossi, about whom more with the next occasion.

As usually, Eddie Lazear rocks!

This is going to be very very interesting, indeed somewhat of a "giant leap for the blogosphere" (especially if it would set a precedent!), as Stephen Dubner calls it. Unfortunately, I will only have time to read all the discussions in a few days; as usually I am too busy... So Prof. Lazear will not be bothered by my questions this time :-), but I did ask him quite a few of them last time (October '06) when he gave a seminar here, in Aarhus :-). Not on official President Economic reports though, but on a (one of the very very many...) very interesting paper co-authored by him.

Does China have a problem with the gender imbalance? If so, how big of problem?

Economics at work! Compare this article from the BBC (echoing what I believe to be the 'general'- rather gloomy!- perspective on China's gender imbalance) and the viewpoints of economists Gary Becker and Richard Posner, who start from discussing whether there is any valid case for forbidding the 'sex selection' practice, but end up discussing a series of wider implications. While indeed in the short term (Just how short is short? Posner's favourite numbers seem to be 20-30 years...) China's "problem" could indeed be 'somewhat of a problem' (with the provision that- violence contained- all women should be better off...), I cannot but agree with the excellent analysis of Becker, complemented with further observations by Posner (I thought Posner's idea of using the societies that permit polygyny as a 'natural experiment' to provide some answers to the question of how much should China and other countries in similar situations worry about the gender imbalance, was an excellent one). I really think the market should be let to do its job; and, if anything, in terms of state intervention, polyandry should be allowed in these countries (if the problem turns into a PROBLEM, it would be practiced, more or less informally, anyhow). What's the problem with that? (Except for the fact that such a word probably equates blasphemy in such countries as China, where male domination and polygyny used to be the standard for ages: well, maybe it's high time for a change...)

The (real) danger of emulating Jack Bauer's torture techniques

My friend Dan wrote a couple of times on Jack Bauer and the '24' TV series. To start with my opinion on that series, I don't think it is bad (could be even exciting now and then), although I've seen much better ones and, moreover, it simply drives me crazy to see an episode stop exactly after that one hour and to have to wait for the next one etc. (this is why, if anything, I'll watch all of them when I have them on DVD or so, 3-4 episodes at once :-)).

But this post is not so much about the TV series. This is rather about serious side effects that TV series where heroes such as Bauer use, advocate for, and ultimately justify, torture, as, for instance, a means to extract information, and, crucially, where certain audiences confuse the virtual and real worlds. I've written "serious side effects" above, maybe it should have been "very serious...". See a detailed treament here. And even if you take into consideration the rather alarmist tone that many such human rights NGOs adopt (which is in the end only detrimental for their- hopefully, honest- goals, but many of them do not seem to understand that), the evidence they put forward here (in this case we are talking about the NGO "Human Rights First") looks clear-cut: inter alia, it is about the real danger of adopting Jack Bauer torture tactics among army recruits (and not only new recruits...) and de facto applying them in wars of all kinds (the latest fashion being the 'war against terror', as we all know). See also a Yahoo News synthesis of all that material. After reading this, I also think it would not be redundant if Kiefer Sutherland pointed out to everybody, in a public address, that all the Jack Bauer thing is fiction and that one should realize what the real world is and use 'The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of the Prisoners of War' & related applicable international treaties, and not Jack Bauer trivia , as their war-user's-manual (or well, Bible)...

Cum mai ajunge lumea pe blogul meu

Mult prea multe keyword-uri care conduc lumea la mine pe blog (yeap, numarul de vizitatori a crescut exponential in ultimele luni: nu stiu daca e de bine sau de rau...), deci prezint doar combinatia castigatoare, de departe, a ultimelor luni: "femeile lui patapievici" (cautare pe google.ro, de la "Romanian Parliament - Informatics Department"- insiders, insiders...). E oare vorba (si) de alter ego-ul Marianne, Marianne Patapievici? :-)

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Song of the weekend: Eva Cassidy's "Autumn Leaves"

This is a special weekend edition of the 'song of the day' category on my blog. And for special editions, we certainly need special artists and special songs. Today it is time for one of the best voices of all times; it is time to talk about pure talent and musical genius; it is high time I shortly reminded you of Eva Cassidy and her story, a story sad and (ultimately) happy, at the same time. But since I wrote a bit about Eva Cassidy some (quite long) time ago as well, today I'll let the concrete documentary evidence (Long live YouTube!) do the 'talking'. First, there is a great ABC Nightline documentary about Eva Cassidy and her story, from relatively unknown local artist (though adored and idolized by all those who knew her) while she was alive, to world-wide legend, soon after her music was (re)discovered and played, years after her death, by some very inspired BBC reporters and ever since... You should thus start by watching the three parts of this documentary, with, inter alia, interviews of people who knew her (friends, family, collaborators, the BBC guys to whom we owe her 'rebirth' etc):

Second - and truly amazing (particularly considering that she recorded so little before her premature and unfortunate death)- on YouTube there are video recordings of several of the pieces she used to sing at the Blues Alley. These include exceptional renditions of what had already been famous musical pieces, receiving however a unique Eva Cassidy "signature" once they became part of her repertoire. Among my favourites: "Cheek to cheek" , "Time after time", "You've changed", and of course what I consider THE masterpieces: "What a wonderful world", "Fields of gold" (for each of these pieces, I believe she is the only other person able to SING them), "Tall trees in Georgia", "Over the rainbow" (her favourite song) and my number 1 and song of this weekend, "Autum Leaves". Enjoy!

Chapeau^3: Véritable tour de force!

Ex ante intrebarea a fost "WTF e Iulian Duma?". Ex post, dupa KO-ul aplicat de Darius, raspunsul este "Indiferent cine (ce!) a fost, e FUBAR acum". Lovely, lovely! Executie profesionista, cu stil si gratie. BTW, Bre’ Jeg Rigorescu rocks! Darius Groza ar trebui sa primeasca un premiu (inca unul!) si pentru prima demonstratie- concret, pe viu, cu resurse 100% domestice- ca dezinsectia jurnalismului romanesc e posibila. Who's the next bug?

Friday, February 09, 2007

Song of the day: "De Bom", by Doe Maar

My absolute favourite Dutch band (I'll come back to Dutch bands with other occasions as well) is, by any measure, Doe Maar (chose the only rather complete bios in English to link here, the wiki one). It is difficult to compare them to anything, in another country, but if we look just to the prestige, status over the years, the fact that they are a LEGEND and if I were to compare them to something similar, in Romania, perhaps counting together "Pasarea Colibri" and "Phoenix" (we are talking about the prestige, not about the musical genre here, it would be impossible to match that pop-ska-punk-reggae synthesis), would match their status in NL... Without further ado on the band bios, perhaps their most famous song is "32 jaar(sinds 1 dag of 2)" , which I dedicate to all my friends who happen to be 32 (or ok, in their early 30's, then there are quite a few of them) years old this year (and remember: Het kan me niet schelen zolang ze maar met me vrijt :-)). Another personal favourite of mine is "Is dit alles?". See also a compilation of their best pieces.

But the song of the day is "De Bom"(live in 2000, their later performing years), a masterpiece! Met z'en allen:
Carriere maken voordat de bom valt
Werken aan de toekomst voordat de bom valt
Ik ren om mijn agenda voordat de bom valt
Veilig in het ziekenfonds voordat de bom valt

En als de bom valt
Dan lig ik in mijn nette pak, diploma's en mijn cheques op zak
Mijn polis en mijn woordenschat -aaoei
Onder de flatgebouwen van de stad naast jou

Laat maar vallen dan, het komt er toch wel van
Het geeft niet of je rent
'k Heb jou nooit gekend, 'k wil weten wie jij bent
'k Wil weten wie jij bent

Ik ben verzeker van succes tegen brand en voor mijn leven
Ik heb van alles, maar geen tijd, ook niet voor heel even
Ik moet aan mijn salaris denken en aan mijn relaties
Maar liever weet ik wie jij bent voordat het te laat is

Want als de bom valt...(etc.)

Jij moet nog huiswerk maken voordat de bom valt
Een diploma halen voordat de bom valt
E is MC kwadraat voordat de bom valt
Mit nach nebst naechst samt bei seit von zu zuwider entgegen ausser aus

Bad research...

The problem with all this type of research is that they (the authors) do not have any model to account for their findings. I mean, interesting observations, but...nothing more. Not to mention that it does contradict other studies (also within psychology; every day there's a new descriptive study observing something else on two dozens observations and extrapolating to the whole population...). Not to mention that it does not take into account the subjects' own social status and other observables (forget about unobserved heterogeneity...). Not to mention that- and this is linked to the previous critique- this is in no way a 'ceteris paribus' conclusion. Not to mention that the sequential process here (first photos, then info on the persons) could influence the final choice- a lot. Etc. Probably this is why the authors are not (and cannot ever be) economists.

Note1: already from the title, the whole thing is counter-intuitive and I don't think extensive data supports the conclusion asserted here (ie. "women fall for Mr. Average", ceteris paribus, that is controlling for everything else, looks included)

Note2: it could be of course that the BBC distorted the message of the original article, could not find that.

Google back in 1997

Stephen Dubner has this excellent post about how Google looked like 10 years ago. Pretty amazing, isn't it? And you can also see the webpage of a young PhD called Sergey Brin, full of ideas (and- most likely without knowing it- with a very succesful career just years away). See more on Freakonomics.

Control freaks

I keep wondering how can there be such a mixture of (not always) good (sometimes excellent!) economic policies (far better than most 'opposition' in the USA advocate- and that's one problem there: the alternative might be worse, in overall terms), but absolutely insane 'political' ones (eventually leading to bad economic outcomes as well...), interfering with private life/ choice and meant to control, there is this obsession with controlling each and everybody's activities, thoughts etc., for the 'sake of security', in the USA (unfortunately even amazing thinkers- in general- like Gary Becker and Richard Posner- sustain some tradeoffs between privacy and security in this respect- I think all that is sheer nonsense and simply shows incapacity of the government, who, let's not forget, is supposed to serve their people, not to control them; if one is an Economist one should recall Milton Friedman's position on all that- Ave Milton, morituri te salutant!). There is no doubt that this dichotomy in policy making only confuses the masses, since in the end you have to prioritize, you have to choose- no side seems to offer you the whole best package, which is completely non-strategic (ok, maybe not in the USA...).

But back to the concrete story here: for now, that was just a (nice?...) visit and probably some-incipient- intimidation, but I would not bet that the decision makers would not translate such attitudes in policies (some of such policies are in fact on the way) as long as President Bush and his (political; it is amazing to see that his econ advisers have been/still are some of the best in the USA) entourage have their way. The funny part is that you can find this 'anonymous surfing', 'IP-hide' software everywhere on the internet and I have been myself using some of them (not Tor, though) in the past. So what's the problem?

PS. Talking about control freaks, for long time now I think Mr. Basescu, the Romanian President, got inspired by the wrong side of Mr. Bush.

Inflation is illegal! (in Zimbabwe)

I don't know whether it is in any way comforting to know that there are even worse politicians and decision makers than our very own, in Romania. Of course it is not at all comforting for the poor people from Zimbabwe, where the following example comes from. So what's going on there? Many bad things, for sure, but one of the worst is that the inflation reached 1281 % (this is not a typo) this months and has been over 1000 % since last year's April. What does Mr. Mugabe and his (indeed, his, everything is his there...) central bank do about it? Well, they apply the most clever solution one could think of: they declare inflation illegal- not a type either- (and of course blame the West for plotting against them)! I think I won't put this in the 'fun' category, though it is indeed tragicomic, as Greg Mankiw points out (and he also mentions in passing, his 10 concise principles of Economics- useful for all readers of this blog, Economists or not).

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Song of the day: Goldfrapp's "Utopia"

Alison Goldfrapp, from the British band Goldfrapp (the other member of the duo is Will Gregory), could be the perfect woman. I just said it. Skeptical? Judge for yourself: looks, personality (sorry, PERSONALITY), style, voice- and you might sense part of these from Goldfrapp's hits, among them "Black Cherry" or "Strict Machine" or "Number 1", the latter from their very succesful most recent album, Supernature. One of the other songs from them, not really considered a hit by the critics, "Lovely Head", is the soundtrack of a very interesting and intriguing movie, "My summer of love". One point about Goldfrapp's creations is that they really follow the 'scientific' approach: they start by using a very few leitmotives and they just know where to change/add that bit to obtain almost every time a new chef-d'oeuvre. The result is really an alternative reality, their own world, characterized, inter alia, by, to cite one of their critical appraisals, "pioneering electronics, crystalline vocals, visual theatrics and glam-sex decadence". But, to come back to Alison Goldfrapp and her own supernature: she might not be the greatest cook, but she's surely got a great touch and taste for good humor. Moreover, she clearly knows what she wants and- crucial!- she's not at all shy asking for it: Twist (one of my favourite pieces from Goldfrapp!). How can you not adore this woman? I have been in love with her ever since I saw her performing in Amsterdam's Paradiso, quite some years ago :-).

But today's song is a piece from their early album, Felt Mountain, song which I personally consider one of their masterpieces. Enjoy Utopia (clip recording a great live performance)!


Update, 14th of March '07: this becomes really annoying: most of the clips I linked above were removed by the YouTube administration because of copyright violations. Fortunately, I also found again all of them, in YouTube versions uploaded by other users, at least for the moment "looking safe & good", ie. not violating any copyrights. So, here they are: Utopia (rare live version), Black Cherry, Strict Machine, Number 1, Lovely Head (live in London), Twist.

Dining "Acasa", in the Big Apple

Andy (see the comments section to this post on 'Csikszereda musings') draws my attention to this very interesting review in the NYT, of the Romanian restaurant "Acasa", from Queens, New York. The reviewer seems to be quite impressed. Not bad, although I would choose other dishes as best dishes (should there be others of quality at this place)- I keep only the pickled red peppers there- rather than "Caviar spread; meatball appetizer; grilled lamb with mamaliga; mamaliga with egg and sour cream; pickled red peppers." I also notice the correction to the article, from yesterday :-). In all cases, here's a question for Carmen: have we been to this restaurant or to another one on the same street, last time when I visited NYC? I really can't remember. And a proposal to everybody: let's gather all suggestions for Romanian dishes (both Romanian and English name required). I plan to come back with an entry on this topic and it wouldn't be bad to have some input from more people, with various tastes. I would also welcome any links for Romanian restaurants reviews from all over the world.

MRIs and sex drive. And the science of love

Since I was just mentioning nudity and inspiration, let's go a step further and talk without inhibition about science and sex. This is very serious research. And it is one of the most read BMJ article of all times (if you want to be a scientist and desire popularity with the media as well, you might consider this field of research- well, you could also post personal nude photos on your website/weblog, though that might lead to somewhat of a negative attention...). The conclusion of this short study reads:

What started as artistic and scientific curiosity has now been realised. We have shown that magnetic resonance images of the female sexual response and the male and female genitals during coitus are feasible and beautiful; that the penis during intercourse in the "missionary position" has the shape of a boomerang and not of an S as drawn by Dickinson; and that, in contrast to the findings of Masters and Johnson, there was no evidence of an increase in the volume of the uterus during sexual arousal.
(Via Wired News.)

That being said, for the more prudish among you (sic!), but in for the scientific drive, here's something on the "science of love". It turns out that the sex drive is but a first stage (lust) of the whole process (I admit I usually stop there, big danger ahead...). So all you need to manage is proper quantities of testosterone and oestrogen. Full stop. But anyway, the next two stages are attraction (adrenaline, dopamine and serotonin at work) and attachment (oxytocin and vasopressin will do), respectively. These scientists have also devised the perfect recipe for falling in love (try applying that next week, on Valentine's ):
  • Find a complete stranger.
  • Reveal to each other intimate details about your lives for half an hour.
  • Then, stare deeply into each other’s eyes without talking for four minutes. ( I realize why it didn't work for me in most cases: 2 minutes were already too boring...)

More details.