Albert Einstein Bizottság: Szerelem

I don't think it has occured to any of you that simulated maximum likelihood OX programs, which often take days to converge (given I do not--yet!-- have the parallel computing power I would love to possess...), run much faster if in the meantime one listens to Albert Einstein Committee's brilliant music. Without any doubt, this is the best ever Hungarian band (where I 200% agree with the master of all good Hungarian music, wisest Daniel); and-- as conjecture-- probably the best Eastern-Central European band of the 80's (this should be as clear as-- to switch areas for a second-- the best movie of the same time, same region, being the Polish film "Seksmisja"; unfortunately no time to go in that direction today). Had they sung also in English, they could have been as popular as, dare I say, the Beatles (ok, I said it), two decades earlier; in any case, a band with a similar fate (extremely popular among domestic intelligentsia, but without too much exposure outside, mainly because of the language barrier) , about the same period, but in Western Europe, is for instance the Dutch band Doe Maar. In Romania, the closest to A.E. Bizottság is probably Timpuri Noi (though their top work came out in mid/late 90's).

A subset of my favourite A.E. Bizottság pieces: "Szerelem" (perfect; if you make an effort to understand the lyrics, you will fully agree); "Kamikaze"; "Már megint ez a depresszió "; "Konyhagyeplő" ; "Putty Putty"; "Egy lány kéne nékem" (oh well, I see this one comes with a striptease session in the youtube clip; depending on your tastes/orientation that might be a plus or a minus :-)); finally (update) listen to/see this if you want the total fun part. You will enjoy all of it!

PS. Check out some other excellent/interesting Hungarian music I mentioned earlier on this blog: here, here, here, here, or here. Blame YouTube if clips are not available any longer (though, tip: you can still find them, if you search carefully, under different links).

Econlinks for 06-02-'08

• Why we kiss, in case you were wondering... Not much to do with economics per se, unless you want to make the link to things some people consider related, such as when to say "I love you" (4th bullet point):-). And come to think of that, let's travel one year back in time and (re)consider the (neuro)science of love. Finally, keeping it assorted, you might also want to (re)check why you (don't) have sex (4th bullet point).

• 'Economics according to Google': a very interesting interview with Hal Varian, the currrent Chief Economist at Google. The interview was taken just a few days after Varian took over his new (full-time) job. Retain Varian's prediction: "I think marketing is the new finance".

• Sell illegal US immigrants the right to stay: wise thoughts (far too wise for any of the current US politicians) from Gary Becker; read also his former posts related to this topic: here, here and here).

• For those of you in any way interested in computing power, here's the most recent top 500 list of (commercially available) supercomputers (Nov '07), with all kinds of statistics available. Here's a PDF on the interpretation of the Top500 data.

Econlinks for 4-02-'08

• Greg Mankiw's birthday wish (with my "Happy Birthday", of course!). Among other things, I learnt I'd be young forever, despite being (aspiring to be?) an economist; here's why: "[...] you know you are old when you spend more time thinking about money than sex. If so, we economists must age prematurely. After all, it’s our job to think about money, both our own and other people’s." Apparently Mankiw forgot about the Solow-Friedman sex vs. money context (see page 3 of that PDF presentation; don't worry about the rest of the presentation in Romanian- unless you are Romanian, of course, in which case you might also want more background on that presentation).

• "[...] beware the one-armed economist; sometimes a good economist could use two or even three arms or more". This is the conclusion of a nice article by Tyler Cowen in the NYTimes.

• We all look forward to the Super Tuesday tomorrow; high time to remember some of the differences in the economics perspectives of the Democrat leading candidates and, respectively, of the Republican leading candidates (with Giuliani out, for better or worse...). For a brief account of their views on science see here: Clinton, Obama; McCain, Romney. Also see an excellent editorial by Donald Kennedy on why it is important to know the Presidential candidates position on science.

• When to say "I love you", in Tyler Cowen's perspective. I am particularly fond of the 'Proustian reminder' rationale in 4 (though I will strongly deny that was my only reason, ever, to utter those words) :-).

Song of the day, month, year: "Wild is the wind", by David Bowie

This is one of my favourite songs ever, by one of my favourite artists ever (I said that elsewhere, as well). And I don't have to write much more (here's a wiki entry nonetheless, to refresh your memory on e.g. the proud fathers of this song, Tiomkin and Washington etc.), since we're talking about an absolute masterpiece here (in the sense that one can only remain awe-stricken Salieri-like, when listening to it...). Perhaps only that it reminds me that I loved all the women I slept with plus a very few I did not sleep with :-). Enjoy "Wild is the wind", in David Bowie's version.

Quote for week 29th of Jul-4th of Aug '07

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.

from T.S. Eliot's "Burnt Norton"- the 1st of the "Four Quartets"

Quote of the previous week.

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

Quote of the previous week.

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.

Love forever

Now, is this love or is this LOVE? Romeo and Juliet (or Tristan and Iseult, Pyramus and Thisbe, Orpheus and Euridice etc.): the ultimate proof. Amazing!

PS. The Daily Mail article would ideally have as audio background the Dark Waltz song of Hayley Westenra, which I was talking about some days ago.

Quote for the week 28th Jan to 3rd Feb '07

Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.

Emily Dickinson

Quote for previous week.

Confessions in the blogoshere

Here's a well written confession on Violent Acres that all those of you who wrote (a hell lot of) ineffective love letters anytime during your lifetime might want to read. Of course this does not concern such heart-throb types as myself. Nonetheless, we'd still be very interested in reading John's reaction.