Tag Archives: culture

Thoughts

The world wouldn't be the same without Romania

This video will show you why Romania is a wonderful and inventive country. Yes, it was sponsored by some beer companies, but it’s very nicely put together, and the things it talks about are all true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSoruzRkj7g

The subjects presented in the video are listed below in the order of appearance:

  • The invention of the fountain pen, by Petrache Poenaru
  • The invention of the cybernetic model, by Stefan Odobleja
  • Insulin, invented by Nicolae Paulescu
  • The first jet-powered aircraft, invented by Henri Coanda
  • The first History of Religions, written by Mircea Eliade
  • Defending four penalty strokes in a row – done by Helmut Ducadam, in the soccer World Cup of 1986
  • The second most spoken language at Microsoft is Romanian
  • The Maramures Gates – some of the most beautifully sculpted wooden gates in the world
  • Romanian girls are some of the most beautiful in the world – I should know, I married one!
  • The sculpture of Constantin Brancusi
  • Brancovenean Architecture
  • Baseball (its grandfather, anyway – the sport got started all the way back in 1364)

In case you’d like to learn more about Romania, ICI.ro has a great collection of illustrious Romanians right here. Use the link menu on the right hand side to brows by subjects like Geography, History, Politics, Culture and Tourism.

(Thanks, Cristina!)

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Thoughts

Lawrence Lessig's presentation on free culture

I highly recommend viewing the presentation given by Lawrence Lessig on free culture. I’d been really annoyed by DRM and certainly recent implementations of it by Apple did nothing to help the case for it. Then I viewed this presentation, and it really opened my eyes to what’s going on out there, and why there are more and more restrictions on content. It was given in 2002, and if you look at what’s happened since, you can really see the changes! They’re for the worse, not better – so please, take 20 minutes to watch it or download the transcript, and do your part to save our collective works of culture! Thanks!

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Thoughts

Today is Spring Day in Romania

It’s the tradition in Romania to offer the woman in your life (wife, mother) a “martisor” today. It can be a snowdrop or an ornament designed for just such an occasion and packaged in a greeting card. Women can then pin them on their clothes, usually on the lapels. It’s quite the big deal there.

I used to drive myself cuckoo looking for just the right “martisor”. As happens often with these sorts of holidays, the list of recipients quickly expands from intimate family to close family, to relatives, then neighbors and teachers, etc… You end up carrying a stack of the darned things and handing them out like flyers. Thank goodness I don’t have to do that anymore…

Here’s to virtual “martisori”! 🙂

Snowdrop

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