Arrival

After a long movie break I managed to see one during this holiday season. Arrival is not the standard SF movie, as it is not packed with action and special effects. It's rather a philosophical story about communication and how a language can shape our mind. What is more weird is that after seeing the movie I realized I read the book on which it is based a few years ago. It is a short story and I wrote about it at that moment here. The screenplay was adapted and the focus of the movie is on the interaction between civilizations and not on the personal story of Louise which is actually the key. I read the book once again after seeing the movie and, strangely, they complement somehow and you understand better both of them in the end.

So my advice is to consume both, no moderation here :)

Carpool Karaoke

I just discovered a show from UK, a guy doing interviews with various singers while driving a car. And mixed with doing karaoke on the songs of the guest. It's fun and it's nice. Here is a special Christmas edition with a mesh of many guests singing a Christmas song:

Girls Talk

I found this little gem today while digging in some Garbage (playlist :)). Enjoy!

New Voices on My Playlist

Sometimes I stumble upon new songs that I like, but usually it's just an isolated hit. If I search for other songs from the same band they don't impress me. However recently I discovered not one, but two performers (one band and one singer) that I really like: Cake and Findlay. I can make a playlist with only their songs, put them on repeat and listen them all day long :)

If Cake is an alternative rock band formed in the nineties which is probably not active anymore nowadays, Findlay is a young British singer as the beginning of her career. So one of the comments on her songs reads like this: "man your are such a fucking  band! please don't kill your self ! Need more"

So, let's hear them out :)

Tonight We Are Young

A nice song to listen after playing for more than an hour with all the kids from the playground :)

Si Me Das A Elegir

Life is somewhere else these days, but I stumbled onto this addictive song today and I remembered I had a blog where I used to post songs I like. So here it is "Me Quedo Contigo (Si Me Das A Elegir)" from Manu Chao:



If you open the above video in YouTube it has also the lyrics. The funny thing is that although I have a 68 days running streak of Spanish lessons on Duolingo I still cannot understand all the lyrics. It seems I need to practice some more :)

When The Levee Breaks

I don't have that much time for watching movies anymore, so the only Oscar nominated movie I watched this year was "The Big Short". It tells the story of some guys who realized early on that the American housing market will collapse, bet against it and made a fortune in the end. Apart from the artistic part, the movie tries also to explain to the audience in simple terms the technical market terms and the instruments invented by bankers which lead to this huge unaccounted risks and the melt down that followed.
But apart from other aspects of this movie, what caught my eye from the trailer was the music (When The Levee Breaks) from Led Zeppelin, my all time favorite band. Maybe this was the real reason I watched it in the end :)

Coaliția România Respiră

Vreme de un an de zile cei de la Coaliția România Respiră au dus o luptă continuă pentru adoptarea noii legi care interzice fumatul în spațiile publice închise. Și iată că astăzi legea a fost publicată in Monitorul Oficial, ceea ce înseamnă că va intra în vigoare pe 16 martie. Este o victorie importantă a societății civile care ne arată din nou că perseverența în apărarea unei cauze poate avea succes pănă la urmă. Altfel e doar o intrare într-o normalitate care în alte țări există de mai mulți ani.
Una din criticile celor care s-au opus acestei legi este că sunt și alți factori care ne afectează sănătatea, cum ar fi poluarea aerului care e mult prea mare în multe orașe din România. Cum s-ar zice: de ce vă luați de noi și nu de mașinile care emit atâtea noxe de exemplu. Pe langă faptul că acest tip de argument e stupid, nu e adevărat că lumea nu se preocupă de poluarea atmosferică. De fapt chiar Comisia Europeană s-a sesizat și a deschis o achetă împotriva României pentru că depășește limitele admise de poluare. Această postare are mult mai multe detalii despre poluarea din București și indiferența autorităților la aceată problemă.
Am început să mă gândesc și eu la cum am putea reduce poluarea din București. Știm că unul din pricipalii factori sunt emisiile automobilelor care circulă prin oraș. Ideal ar fi să reducem traficului, ceea ce se poate obține printr-un transport în comun mai performant. Însă pănă atunci m-am gândit la ce mă deranjează cel mai mult în trafic din punctul de vedere al poluării. Și mi-am dat seama ce mult mă deranjează când merg în spatele unei mașini care scoate o tonă de fum, așa de mult încât trebuie să pui aerul condiționat din mașină pe recirculare ca să scapi de fumul respectiv. Dar acele mașini au făcut o inspecție tehnică periodică (ITP) relativ recent, nu? Care inspecție verifică și că mașina respectivă respectă normele de poluare, nu? Deci cum ajung acele mașini să treacă acea inspecție: prin șpagă, nu? Așa că ajungem din nou la acel slogan de la protestele de după tragedia de la Colectiv: corupția ucide!
De câteva săptămâni am început să îmi notez numerele acestor mașini pe care le văd în trafic și le-am strâns într-un document aici. Pasul următor ar fi să găsesc o modalitate prin care să raportez aceste mașini la RAR sau la poliție și să îi forțez să le reverifice cumva. Are cineva vreo idee despre cum am putea face asta?

După 20 de ani

Acetst post l-am început anul trecut, dar pe parcurs m-am luat cu altele și nu am reușit să îl mai termin atunci. Dar știți vorba aia: niciodata nu e prea târziu, așa că uite că îl termin acum. În 2015 s-au împlinit 20 de când am terminat liceul. În iunie am organizat o întâlnire cu foștii colegi de clasă și profesorii de la Liceul Mircea cel Bătrân. Ne-am simțit foarte bine împreună, am depănat amintiri, am povestit ce am făcut in viață și am realizat încă o dată cât de frumoasă și importantă a fost acea perioadă pentru formarea noastră ca oameni. Cum am amintiri de la toate materiile și cu toți profesorii pe care i-am avut țn liceu, m-am gândit să fac un serial cu unele din aceste amintiri.

Am să încep cu economia, o materie nouă pe vremea aia, care se studia pentru un an în clasa a XI-a. Profesorul de economie nu prea relaționa cu elevii, nu știu exact din ce motiv, dar îmi amintesc foarte clar despre el cum ne povestea lecția uitându-se mai mult pe geam în loc să se uite la noi. De altfel și la întâlnirea de 20 l-am regăsit pe domnul Fulea tot stingher. A venit în fața liceului, l-am salutat mai mulți dintre noi și am vorbit puțin cu dânsul, dar când ne-am strâns în clasă am constatat că între timp dispăruse. Manualul de economie era primul făcut dupa revoluție, de un anume Coșea, care avea să ajungă un politician de succes, iar ”succesul” în politica românească se masoară și prin numărul de partide prin care treci, căci și domnul Coșea e un traseist notoriu. Colegii mei care urmau să dea examen de admitere la ASE au învățat efectiv pe de rost acel manual, îmi amintesc că o colegă era în stare să recite fraze întregi din el. Eu am decis să dau bacul la economie, așa că învățasem și eu destul de bine conceptele de acolo, dar cel mai mult m-a frapat o frază din introducere sau prima lecție. Se vorbea acolo despre tipuri de oameni și cum unii nu se gandesc decât la ei, altora le pasă de ei și de familia lor, altora și de cei din orașul sau poate țara lor, iar altora le pasă de toți oamenii de pe Pământ. Și cum in funcție de cum ești iei decizii economice într-un fel sau altul. Atunci inevitabil m-am întrebat și eu: oare ce fel de om sunt eu? Îmi pasă numai de mine sau și de rude sau și de cei pe care îi cunosc sau poate de toți oamenii în general? Nu are rost să vă spun ce mi-am răspuns atunci, știm cu toții de la cei cu filosofia că mai importante sunt întrebările pe care ți le pui decât răspunsurile la care ajungi :) Dar cert e că într-un fel acel moment de la începutul clasei a XI-a m-a schimbat.

David Bowie

I started listening to international music in 1990 after the fall of communism. And one of the first hits I remember from the radio was "Ice Ice Baby" from Vanilla Ice. With this came the scandal that he copied the song from another band, Queen. So I got to listen and like "Under Pressure" from Queen, which I learned was really wrote by Queen and David Bowie.

Then Nirvana came and in their Unplugged concert they sang "The Man Who Sold the World", which later on I found out it was a cover from David Bowie, original version here.

I never searched his discography, but here and there his gems where showing up on the music stage in the 90ies, 2000, or even today: "Jump They Say", "Let's Dance" and so on.

So who was this guy, a space oddity passing by the Earth? Good bye, David Bowie.

P.S. A cover of this song was actually made on board of the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield, on of the astronauts currently on ISS

How to Bootstrap Education

I read recently an article (link here) in The Economist about behavioural economics and how it can be applied in development policies. The main point of behavioural economics is to challenge the assumption of classical economics that people always make rational decisions that are best for them. There are many reasons for people not to take the best decision for them: peer pressure, impulse or rushing to take a decision and so on. This approach to economics turns out to be very successful and it is now incorporated in many other theories. The development programs like the ones funded by the World Bank now take into account behavioural aspects when designing their policies. One good example is education. We know for sure how important is education to boost a child's chances to be successful in life. So many people invest heavily in the education of their children. But exactly the poorest people many times miss this point and neglect or sometimes are even against the education of  their children. So to give them a chance to escape poverty you have to actually design some incentives to make sure children actually go to school and learn something. I recently heard about two such programs in Romania:
- one is aiming to get every 3-5 years old child from poor families to attend kindergarten by giving to families a monthly stipend on the condition that the children do actually go to kindergarten. You can read more details here.
- the second is called Teach for Romania and aims to recruit, train and send teachers to impoverished communities; the training focuses on education techniques, but also on leadership, so that those teachers would also change the schools and communities where they will be teaching.

I like both these programs and from what I read they achieved a lot already, so I'll try to support them as much as I can in the future. This is one of the reasons I wrote this post: to let you know about them :)

Over in the Meadow

Lately I became a big consumer of a new music genre, children songs :) Like in every area there are good pieces and also some others that are not that well made. But there are also masterpieces like the one below. The song, the orchestration, the voices and the cartoons, all of them are excellent in this video from Barefoot Books. And I'm not the only one in the family who likes it :) Well done, guys!

Fruits from Moldova

Have you bought recently any fruits from Moldova? Or fruit juices or fruit preservers?
Here is why you should:



In most of the shopping centers from Romania there are stands which sell juices and preserves from Moldova, go ahead and try them, they are very tasty.
This is cover power square (CP^2), not only a cover, but with a clever and powerful message, so let's share the original clip too:

In fiecare zi

I don't listen often hip-hop music, but this song is addictive, I listen it "every day" (that's the name of the song) since I heard it on the radio. The bottom line is that you have to be careful when you buy cherries :)

Abididou

A few weeks ago we were in the car and we listened to a song on the radio.We didn't pay much attention, but the chorus caught our attention, it was something with: "abididou". Later on I remembered about that song and I tried to find it on the internet with no luck. There were too many songs with blah-blah lyrics and I didn't have any other clue about what to search for. So I gave up and I waited for the next time I would hear the song on the radio. I should pay attention to the lyrics so I can identify it later on. And that happened one day, I heard it again on the radio. It was totally different than what I expected, the singer was saying in fact "I'd leave it all" :)

Playful Parenting

I always liked to play, even when I was at school or afterwards in my adult life, I found learning or doing something is always easier when playing with/around/about it. So when someone gave me this book about Playful Parenting I thought that this is what I wanna do with my child. The book is much more than a list of games, the author is a psychologist and explains how you can approach various difficult situations like getting close, communicating feelings, confronting fears through playing. Or you can simply explore the world and consume some energy :)

So if you want to be part of the most important part of your kid's life, her playing, and enjoy yourself while doing it go ahead and read this book. You can find more resources on this topic on the author's website here.

Common People

Common People from Pulp is one of my favorite songs from my student years. At that time I did not care too much about the lyrics of a song, as there were no sites with song lyrics yet and I was not very good at English, but I remember that part about seeing cockroaches on the wall which resonated well with a resident of Grozavesti :D Recently I found out this song was based on a real story, but the author would not tell who that Greek girl was. However, some journalists investigated who could have met the guy from Pulp when he was in college and they found that the most likely person is the wife of the current Minister of Finance from Greece (the story is here). Isn't it ironic? :) The socialist Greek politician who goes at E.U. official meetings like a rebel and wants to free Greeks from the evil troika is married with the girl loaded with money who wanted to live like common people. I guess an option would be to donate her money to the state to pay off some of the debts of Greece and then they could truly live like common people.

Libertarians in Action

Libertarianism covers many movements according to Wikipedia, but what I mean by this term is what Wikipedia defines as anarcho-capitalism: the political theory that all problems of human society are best resolved by market forces. So they want nothing more than to abolish the state and leave the market to take care of everything: from schools to health care and from defense and police to the justice system. These ideas originate from the group of economists known as Austrian School, like Mises and Hayek. The Austrian School had important contributions to the development of economics, refuting the marxist theory that was very popular in Europe at that time. For example they developed the subjective theory of value opposed to the labour theory of value proposed by Marx. They also predicted that implementing Marx's ideas will lead people to misery and dictatorship, but few people listened to them. We had to learn it the hard way, after 50 years of communism. However, libertarians took these ideas to the other extreme, idealizing the market forces in every aspect of our life. This is even more bizarre to me since even Hayek, the most recognized economist of this school, acknowledged in his works that there are situations of market failures, or other motives like moral grounds which legitimate the existence and intervention of the state.

I met once such a group, they were organizing a seminar discussing libertarian authors. They were very passionate about their ideas and would not consider any counter-argument. I remember somebody cheering the situation in Somalia on a forum, saying that the collapse of the state there 10 years ago will let people develop better since there will be only market forces at play. My reaction to this was to propose them to go on an inhabited island and build there the society they dreamed of. Recently I found that somebody did try to do exactly this. Not on an island (it's hard sometimes to eat your own dog food), but on the internet. This guy created an online marketplace, called Silk Road, using only encrypted connections so people cannot be traced. He wanted to seal this market from any possible government intervention, following the true spirit of libertarianism. And guess what trade flourished on this market: drugs, of course. It took FBI a couple of years to penetrate and dismantle this network. You can read the fascinating story on how Silk Road raised and fell in Wired in two parts here and here. A few days ago the creator of this market was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is not at large anymore...

New Voices in Romanian Music

I was challenged today at work to name some new Romanian singers or bands that make good music and here is what I came with:

• Toulouse Lautrec
• The Mono Jacks
• Moonlight Breakfast
• TiPtiL
• Alternosfera
• Byron

Note that I don't actively follow what's new on the music scene, this is just what I picked up by listening to the radio now and then. Radio Guerrilla used to promote new Romanian bands, but since they closed there was a gap in my knowledge on this topic. Luckily the team from that station regrouped in two other radios, some of them at Gold FM and others at Tananana Radio. I recently started listening to these new stations, so I might pick up new bands. Until then let's listen to the song dedicated by Toulouse Lautrec to Radio Guerrilla, "Nu se termina asa" ("It Doesn't End Like This"):

The Origins of Music Videos

I saw recently on Facebook a post about what is called the first Romanian music video. This was done for the famous song "Andrii Popa" by Phoenix, see below:



 By music video I mean a video telling a story together with the song, not just a recoding of the singer or band performing the song. I was curious to see how this special form of art appeared and I found some interesting facts. For example, Beatles were overwhelmed by requests to perform in TV shows, so they started recording performances for TV, which they sent to many stations. They got the idea to make them more fun by adding other types of videos apart from them just playing the song. An example is this video clip for their song "Help!":



On the other side of the world, in Australia, there were no that many bands willing to travel there in the seventies, so they made TV shows where they started doing collages to show while playing new songs on TV. They also starting producing video clips for local bands, like AC/DC, like this one for "Jailbreak":



The guy doing this work realized the potential of this new form of art and quit his job to become a director of video clips. Then MTV appeared and this business exploded, the rest is history :)
I found some of the information from this Wikipedia article on Music video, you can find more interesting details there.