Markets and Stability
Probably the biggest topic in the news these days is the forthcoming, seemingly unavoidable downfall of the world economy. So much so that the most read article in Romanian news this week, as listed by 9am.ro, was entitled "ALERT: Stock Markets Eveywhere Collapse".
In Romania the exchange rate reached 3.94 Lei to the Euro on Monday, October 6th, a 12% increase compared to September 1st. This obviously lead to my having all sorts of meetings and discussions seeking to address the issue. 12% is a really big number, especially since some business models rely on profit margins that are in fact smaller than 10%. If any of these businesses sold stuff in September and collected payment for it in October they practically lost more money than they made.
Hedging and diversified portfolios come up pretty frequently in conversation these days. I was talking to Larry about financial instrument security and government bonds when a very interesting point came up. Government bonds are the most secure type of investment as governments can always pay back their debts, because they can print more money when they run out. So they'll repay their debts, only their repayment might just be worthless due to the inflation created by printing money. You generally don't look at things this way but a 12% exchange rate variation over a 30 day period has a way of bringing out the pessimism in realistic people. Anyway, the lesson to be learned is that in troublesome times you need to think past what you were taught in school and realize that things aren't simply black or white, or in this case safe or unsafe.
The enclosed picture is of a 500000000000 Yugoslav dinar banknote that I got two weeks ago when I was in Belgrade. This is the largest nominal value for a banknote ever issued anywhere, the result of hyperinflation during the war in Yugoslavia in 1993 and further proof that scenarios like the one proposed above do happen. This banknote was worth about 0.08 Deutsche mark in its final hours.
Further reading:
The Worst Episode of Hyperinflation in History
The Yugoslav dinar (Wikipedia)
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| Christian Nasulea - 10.10.2008 | |
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Ski Slope Fire
We've started planning this winter's skiing. One of the plans includes
a 7 day stay in Kaprun, Austria, which should allow us to ski on slopes
starting at over 3000 m altitude and should cost about 1/3 the price of
a similar holiday in Romania.
As I was talking to Dani about the trip, and as he is inclined to
consider all possible risks involved, he mentioned something about the Kaprun disaster.
On November 11, 2000 a fire broke out in the tunnel of the funicular
train that took skiers up to the top of the Klitzsteinhorn glacier (the
over 3000m ski slope) and killed 155 people (practically everybody).
Although the troublesome tunnel is now closed I guess this adds to the "extreme sport index" of our trip.
A more detailed account can be found on the Wikipedia under Kaprun disaster
The event is also featured in National Geographic's 2004 Seconds from Disaster series.
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| Christian Nasulea - 07.10.2008 | |
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Sky School
October came around and school's back. PhD school in the second year is pretty light on actual classes so I decided to take a course in paragliding. Yes, that's right, paragliding. The title isn't a typo, it is in fact "sky" school, as in, a school in the sky.
For the past 3 days I've been working out of Brasov, closer to Sinpetru and Sacele where most of the practical classes take place. The course is challenging and sometimes frustrating, like anything where you have to start from zero and learn completely new skills, but it more than makes up for the effort when you're soaring in the air hundreds of metres above the world below.
The enclosed video is of my 6 minute tandem flight at Bunloc, Sacele with my instructor on the 3rd lesson.
Now I've got a two week break until my next series of lessons, more than enough time to cram for the many theoretical paragliding exams.
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| Christian Nasulea - 04.10.2008 | |
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ReadyBoost
Let's start with how it should be done for those people who've already heard about it and want to waste no time and start reaping its benefits.
Step 1: you insert a USB Flash Disk in a USB port of the computer or a memory card in a card reader.
Step 2: open My Computer and right click the inserted external memory, then go to the ReadyBoost tab
Step 3: choose Use this device and set the amount of space you wish to allocate.
What this does is essentially tell your Windows Vista PC to use the external memory as a supplement to its installed RAM. It's not exactly an extension of the RAM as it actually puts a totally different type of memory at the OS' disposal. Whatever it is it should theoretically speed up the system by reducing load on the hard drive and optimizing speed on non-sequential disk access operations.
Read more about it:
in the ReadyBoost article in the Wikipedia
or on the Microsoft website
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| Christian Nasulea - 01.10.2008 | |
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Belgrade
After a very adventurous wedding in Timisoara on Saturday night, the story of which shall remain untold on this blog, I came to Belgrade for a long promised visit of the city.
My guided tour was very nice and enlightning. A big thanks to everyone for showing me around and congratulations to Dea on finding one of the coolest downtown accomodation options I've ever seen. Besides the sightseeing tour we also did about 10 km on rollerblades around the lake at Ada. Belgrade by night was interesting to see, with a special note on the Hram, which is a huge temple to St. Sava "glowing" in the night on one of Belgrade's hills.
As with every visit to Serbia I have to make a note on the food. Besides the fact that it is good it always comes in massive quantities. I will probably eat again a couple of days after I get home.
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| Christian Nasulea - 29.09.2008 | |
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Singing Rock Climbing Harness
After a quick 2 hour visit of the 4x4 exhibit in Poiana Brasov today, we went on a little documentary round through the mountain equipment shops in downtown Brasov.
The result was a bit more than just documentary as I bought myself my first Rock Climbing Harness. After trying out virtually every model we ran accross the final choice was Singing Rock's RL Rhythm. The harness seems very comfortable (I am in fact wearing it as I'm writitng) and I'm really looking forward to putting it through the ropes... or rather putting the ropes through it... literally.
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| Christian Nasulea - 25.09.2008 | |
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Circus at the Theater
Sunday night we went to the Bulandra theater to see a play called Cafeneaua (EN: The Coffee Shop) which was part of the whole Bucharest Days event. It was a free play due to the big city anniversary.
The catch was you were supposed to go to the theater beforehand to get an invitation. The second catch was the people from the theater "forgot" about the invitation part and they let an additional few hundred people in on the spot. Now the people with the invitaions had seat numbers allocated to them, the people without just sat anywhere they could. The problems started when people without invitations stormed the theater and occupied whatever seat they could get their...um... hands on.
You cannot imagine the show/circus we sat through for an hour, following the various arguments over the seats. The play was almost cancelled. Never before in my life have I seen an old man (70+) sitting in another old man's lap. No, they weren't trying to make the best of it. The guy on top had an invitation with the number of the seat the other guy was occupying.
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| Christian Nasulea - 23.09.2008 | |
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Skate Night 2008
Saturday afternoon through Saturday evening, during this year's Bucharest Days, the German Embassy co-organized Skate Night. They closed off Kisselef Boulevard between the Arc of Triumph and Ion Mincu and they let skaters do what they like best all afternoon and up until about midnight.
There were several speed, endurance and free-style contests. I took part in the "professional / amateur plus marathon" (10.4 km in 8 laps). I averaged 22.2 km/h for my 8 laps and I finished just under 2 laps behind the leader.
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| Christian Nasulea - 22.09.2008 | |
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Forgotten Attachments Nevermore
I'm not generally a light-minded person but this is something that happens to me more often than it should. I want to send someone something, I write the introductory email for the attachment and then I press send without attaching anything.
A new Gmail Labs feature has been developed to put an end to all of this. Go to the Labs section of your Gmail Settings and enable the new "Forgotten Attachment Detector".
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| Christian Nasulea - 18.09.2008 | |
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Via Ferrata Cheile Rasnoavei
Yesterday after trying my new climbing shoes on the first climb and taking a break for a little picninc Ionut decided we should try something else and we tackled the Via Ferrata.
I don't have all the numbers yet, but just to give you a general idea the Via Ferrata is a very long climbing course which is lined by a steel cable that you attach yourself to for safety. Along the way, in places where it gets too difficult, there are big steel bolts inserted into the rock creating a sort of ladder. It's a fairly easy course but it can get tiring because of its length (it took us one hour to get to the top).
The enclosed picture is taken near the top, some 150 m above the starting point at the bottom of the valley. There's another person in the picture dressed in yellow on the road bellow, just to my right. It should give you an idea of height.
LATER NOTE: Via Ferrata is a generic term for this kind of climbing course. There's a comprehensive Wikipedia article on Via Ferrata.
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| Christian Nasulea - 15.09.2008 | |
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