Mircea Bardac /random_thoughts

I have returned home this morning from a party. It was about 7am.
I was impressed by the quiet nature that surrounds Bucharest’s concrete buildings. The sky was red, with some scattered clouds here and there. Fresh air. Walking was a pleasure.

I took the bus home. In the bus I found a teenager sleeping. He didn’t appear to be a homeless because he was well dressed. I have remembered that waking up in unknown places is not very idealistic (:) ) so I’ve decided to wake him up. He told me he had to get down at University Square. I told him where we were and he said “Oh, this is where I got up“. Might seem funny, but you wouldn’t wish that to happen to you.

The return home was one of the most interesting and pleasant walks of my entire life. I had forgotten of the stress in Univerisity and I was enjoying each and every bit of the morning. I should try to enjoy some more mornings from time to time…

I was out tonight, spending some time on the streets of Bucharest, together with some friend.
We were on the Magheru Bulevard when we have noticed a weird display of some artwork. There’s a gallery somewhere between Univeristy Square and Romana Square. Some plastic curtons (I might say) were hanging from the ceiling and they were lighten on the floor by some colourfull neon lights.

Curiosity lead us in. We asked what those things meant. We were explained by the author that, on the floor, we will see a fingerprint. The artwork represents that the life of each individual is like a maze. The particularities of the individuals are characterized by the fingerprint. Nice idea, isn’t it?

On top of all this, the artist (it was a she) described some of the concepts behind and things she found out about life. One major thought involved the fact that some American phychologist (I think) thought at some moment What if I would study healthy people, unlike everyone else? How’s a normal human being?. The conclusions of this study were that people are a lot more different than animals. The comparison with animals is totaly wrong. The society we’re living in makes us compare ourselves with animals, instead of making us think positive and adopt a more relaxed perspective.

I believe I’m missing some ideas here, mainly because of my computer science oriented thinking. Anyway, listening to her ideas really made me think…

Writing this made me think wether somebody else thought about this or not. Here’s what Google revealed to me. Check the first few links. Interesting projects. Enjoy some deep self-reseach on the nature of the individual now…

I have arranged my stuff around here a bit and found my notes on the meeting with Cristian Tudor Popescu we had back in November 2004. I was also reminded of this meeting by a comment in my my above weblog entry (thanks simona).

I am going to put down some of the facts I’ve noted, more or less connected one with eachother, as I have written them at the meeting. I admit I don’t remember much of the talks and I will, most likely, not make extra comments on the notes I have.

CTP graduated Computer Science and Automatic Control Faculty - POLITEHNICA University Bucharest in 1981 and he was sent by the communists in the famous “Mischie’s Empire” (as he called it), in Tg. Jiu.

On some comments on the educational system in Romania, he remembered the days when he was teaching young students Mathematics. Each one of us knows the expression: “Let f(x) be …”. One of the students then asked him: “Why does f(x) have to be?”. Pretty silly question at first sight, but this really made CTP think about it. Why would a function have to be? The response to this question was given by what CTP named “functional dependencies” - connections between things in nature and mathematical objects. If functions were taught right in the first place, with this functional dependencies taken into account, confusion could have been easily avoided. Students in other countries (USA for example) learn Mathematics by manipulating objects.

CTP remembered his Mathematics teacher in University, Octavian Stanasila, my teacher also, who once said:

Think Mathematics as a science of the nature.

On discussing about career, CTP noted:

You can’t be an editor for a newspaper at 18, but you can be an editor at 23

An engineer can be a good politician.

(ro) Scoala Nationala de Studii Politice si Administrative (SNSPA) = “vrăjeala”
(en) National School of Political Studies and Public Administration = bulls*** (I admit, this might not be the best en translation)

CTP worked for 8 years before becoming a newspaper editor.

The best teacher for 14 year old kids are the 18 year old teachers.

This comment revealed the acceptance of the fact that many teachers, nowadays, are not well connected with the youth philosophy and, therefore, a big gap in mentality between generation appears.

At this point in the conversation, one of the students said what I had called the quote of the day:

I can’t call reform the fact that I learn the same courses as my father had, but in PowerPoint.

As you probably noticed, at first sight, there’s a big difference between Automatic Control and Journalism. Asked about this, CTP said that what helped him in Journalism from what he learned were the laws of thinking.

He also noted that, during various appearances on TV talkshows, he was confronted with people which were not able to address issues properly. Many of the interlocutors used petitio principae in their speaches. Petitio principae means anticipating the principle - prooving what needs to be proven using what you need to proove.

I’m not really sure about the meaning of my following note. I believe it has something to do with somebody who might have argued the fact that we are taught too much electronics, something which should be taught (actually, it already is) in the Electronics Faculty. CTP noted that any electronic circuit can be simulated pneumatically or hydraulically. That can make a person who knows electronics a pretty good engineer.

Comming back on the discussion on the teaching system in Romania, CTP said:

It is essential that the teacher should not sugest the student he (the teacher) knows.

This is one thing I personally remember Octavian Stanasila doing. He seemed to be always discovering Mathematics with us.

CTP noted that there are 2 types of intelligence:

• analytical intelligence - problem solvers (where a well formulated problem is given - life does not offer this type of problems)
• synthetical intelligence - where people create problems

Given this context, CTP said research means elaborating the problem right.

Talking about hobbies, CTP declared himself a passioned for Science Fiction. He wanted to add that the correct meaning for SF would be speculative fiction (= a fantastic hypothesis supported with mathematical rigour)

In the end of the meeting, he quoted one famous writer (no name given):

Anything you will do, you will regret.

I think I found myself a new hobby.

Somebody on the ArchLinux forums created a package for Stellarium. Curiosity made me have a look over the project’s homepage. Due to the clean way programs get on and off my ArchLinux installation using pacman, I’ve told myself it can’t hurt.

My first impression: WOW.
I have never seen OpenGL used scientifically so well. I didn’t know much on astronomer terminologies but using that program is so much fun, I quicky understood them. Zooming in and out on stars, watching Jupiter and it’s sattelites move (& spin) in fast forward motion, watching the sun rise, watching eclipses, watching the constelations rolling on the sky… believe me… it’s incredible. This program is done so well… it’s absolutely amaizing. Even if astronomy might sound geekish, this is not true. Stellarium makes it so fun.

You have to try it. Stellarium is freely available for download for all the major platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOS.

Believe me, you’ll enjoy each and every corner of your on-screen night sky-view…

I’ve spent a lovely afternoon pleasing my eyes with some professional dancing moves at the Bucharest Sport Dance Cup. I’ve also met a good High School friend of mine, Bianca, who participated in the contest. She’s a big fan of dancing. She’s been dancing for several years now.

I’ve watched dancers from the Hobby class, E class and D class (closer to A = better). The most exquisite moves belonged to the dancers participating at the Latino Open. The passion in their moves simply leave you speachless. You start dreaming with your eyes opened… it’s a great relaxing feeling.
All the dancers tried to show their strengths in dancing Wals, Quick Step, Jive, Samba, Rumba and many more.

Even if you have nothing to do with dancing, the elegant moves will definitely fill your heart with joy.

The lack of time (& unappropriate school schedule) didn’t allow me to continue dancing, not even as a hobby. But… there’s still plenty of space in my room… :)… and good friends who let me know when dance contests take place. Thank you.