Where extraordinary becomes eccentric

1) I officially graduated. Or not really, because I wasn’t present at the ceremony and thus my diploma is still in the headmaster’s office. Why weren’t I at a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony?

2) Because I and my brother were fighting our way to win a four day trip to Amsterdam in July. One reason for our success, besides being two awfully good debaters, was that I developed a strategy that might have been immoral, but strictly adhered to the rules of that quazi-debate format. In short, we didn’t disclose our solution to the problem until the second — and last — speech of ours. Because the primary purpose of this format is not to make the two sides engage in argumentation, this was a perfectly legitimate way to deliver speeches.

3) I picked up golf. During my stay in the U.S. four years ago I played two rounds of nine holes, finishing each round with approximately 300 shots above par. But yesterday on the driving range the balls were flying in the right directions and into plausible distances, which motivated me to start golfing more intensively in the future. That will be another way to fill my free summer time.

More about each later.

Tuesday was fun. It all started with the right wake-up call; setting David Bowie’s live version of Alabama song as my alarm clock tune was one of the best moves I’ve done in a while. After a tasty breakfast and all the routine activities one indulges himself when he’s intending to leave the house, I was ready to excel. As arrogant as it might sound, it perfectly described my mood at the moment. I was wearing a rather comfortable suit with my favorite combo of a white shirt and red tie, making me look like Hitman who hasn’t seen his barber for a while, and the headphones were playing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy in full blast. What could possibly go wrong?

Those tidbits of healthy uncertainty and doubt from the previous night were gone; I became self-assured in my infallibility, I felt like Nick Naylor. The majority of others, however, felt differently. The hallway in front of the classroom where the exams were in progress resembled a busy street in New York — only the low number of individuals was compensated by the pace of their moves. People were cruising up and down the corridor, raising their eyebrows periodically in searches for the forgotten name of a man who founded the humanistic psychology or that nationalistic verse our late-19th century poet wrote while drunk, sometimes mumbling quietly the answer in satisfaction, other times quietly but distinctively uttering a swear word and swinging their arms in desperation. Although not a single one of our classmates by that time (as a matter of fact, none of our classmates failed, that made us the most “successful” class in the past five years I believe), too many people were filled with tension, were being crushed by stress (isn’t it ironic that one of the topics in psychology was how to battle stress and why stress is bad for your body?), and many seemed generally unhappy.

The procedures in our maturita exams are rather simple: one draws a number, gets 15 minutes to prepare on his own, and then speaks for 15 minutes in front of the Board of Great Inquisitors (there still are disputes over the correct name of the board, this one is derived from a 15th-century book on education that was partly damaged during a flood of 1823; or so do many believe it can’t be otherwise). While the preparation might produce fruitful outcomes, it’s usually the subsequent delivery that makes one succeed less. The Czech students are not used to officially speaking aloud in front of anyone but their contemporaries, and the shaky voice, which every debater remembers from his first debates, unofficially takes points off their score. I think it’s quite unfair that we’re never practicing speaking as such, because the style delivery is what counts in favor of a better grade when the committee is vacillating. Perhaps it’s the stress and fright of unknown that worsens one’s performance.

During each of my 15 minutes designated for preparation I was listening to a poor girl who came before me. She was the person in whom the characteristics described above mixed. When I got an embarrassingly easy question for English (”My Life & Future Career” - how ridiculous), she got “Global Problems” which gave her great shivers. When I was to speak about historical prose, she had to elaborate on the works of few provincial poets whose memories only live in the notes of maturants and the sheets of paper covered in dust in the basements of local archives. Honestly, she didn’t do well in any of the exams I listened to. It might sound harsh and aloof, but she was supposed to fail at least her history exam, if not English as well; the claim that Japan fought the U.S. and France in 1905 as a part of its hunt for colonies was followed by many that shared the same amount of absurdity. But she passed, and so did two other souls the day before. who did equally terribly.

That’s what bothers me. In case of maturita it’s the pass or no-pass verdict that matters. You either have a high school diploma or not. No one cares about the grades you get; a high school graduate with 4.0 GPA is equal to a graduate with 1.0, the lowest passing grade. Apparently, trying does not count much to your advantage, there is no reward for trying. I would have felt embarrassed if I got 1.0 GPA, but other than in my memories this regrettable result would never be taken against me.

So the only way the excellent and average can be distinguished from the below average and terrible is failing the latter. It’s harsh but that’s the only way we can battle the current inflation of degrees. When everyone is allowed to receive a degree (or in case of high school a honorable title of a high school graduate), its value is diluted and it no longer serves the original purpose - to show that this person truly demonstrated an ability to successfully cope with an overabundance of facts that needed to be learned. If only a part of a part of the overabundance is known, it can’t be on par with the knowledge of the entire overabundance. The status quo makes us all equal, but education isn’t law where equality is the key concept. Education should be like a flexible caste-system, where the rights and obligations depended upon one’s qualities. This didn’t happen in our maturita, and is not happening elsewhere either.

From the very beginning I knew maturita won’t be about sweat and blood as the teachers claimed. Three months ago such claims only rendered subtle smiles on my face, but they now worry me. When people with such dramatically different levels of knowledge and abilities are put together, isn’t it discriminating?

Thankfully my further educational path will continue overseas. While the level of education in the Czech Republic bothers me, its malfunctioning logic probably won’t affect me directly. Or so I hope.

All in all, I am fairly happy with the result of my exams; I passed all four of them with A’s, thus earning honors on the final marksheet. Although my topics belonged among the easier ones, they were fairly assigned to me by a draw, and I excelled in them. My boasting self-confidence allowed me to crack jokes about various authors and about myself, and I enjoyed that. I was hoping for more sweat and blood, I was hoping the exams will be more like they were described by our teachers, according to which I adjusted my preparations. But it wasn’t to be. It’s unnecessary to cry over unspilled milk. Thus I am now retiring back to work and The Selfish Gene which now entertains me. I excelled and that was fun.

Or at least not completely lost. It is in a state from which ever stronger force won’t move it.

I am going to watch an episode of Seinfeld, then double check whether I have everything for tomorrow and then head to bed. My inner clock got confused over the Saint Week, causing me to fall asleep no sooner than at 3am, which would be a little impractical tomorrow.

The game has begun. This morning we all gathered in the special “Maturita room” where we were introduced to the head of the commission (a mighty and unpredictable woman whose vote has veto power) and were given encouragements from our teachers and each other. The funny thing was that not only the students but also the teachers had their faces turned pale and some (our jocular chemistry TA) were visibly shaking from fright.

But so far my class has done well — all four people have passed; some more, some less successfully. I don’t know about the afternoon batch yet, but I am more skeptical. I am a nice, supportive classmate, aren’t I?

Meanwhile I realized that a shot of beautifully translucent Havana rum can cure the anxiety and stress resulting from the brutal realizations about the states of affairs. While it’s rather tasty and quick-acting, the “side effects” of lessened ability to concentrate and induced drowsiness make the rum consumption for this purpose unfeasible in the long run.

Now I know why everyone has been preparing for his or her maturita for weeks — there’s quite a bit of content to absorb. But I still have 36 hours before the exam and there’s only a few more chapters to go. But all in all, this week I’ve spent more time studying than in the past year altogether.

It’s not surprising the Libertarian party is trying to capitalize on the buzz created by a former Republican candidate, Ron Paul, who had closely associated himself with its ideas. As opposed to last elections where the their candidate got some 200,000 votes, this time they’re hoping to score big. The final nomination is not closed yet, but as you can see, every candidate has some real potential:

The Libertarians, now deciding who should be their presidential nominee, are usually a sideshow. Their last candidate, Michael Badnarik, took a third of a percentage point in 2004. The hopefuls this year include one who wants to move the United Nations headquarters to Somalia, one known mostly for a book about the spirituality of John Denver, a country singer, and a near-obsessive marijuana-legalisation advocate.

Not yet, but some are apparently thinking about it. That should really solve the energy problems!

At another point, Ms. Waters [Democratic Congresswoman from California] brazenly suggested that perhaps the American oil industry should be nationalized, acknowledging that it was an “extreme step” but one that might be necessary if outsize profits and exorbitant gasoline prices continued.

I and my brother have owned an Xbox 360 for almost two years now and up until today we’ve had no problems whatsoever. Neither of us is an overly avid player, especially I am not, so the system serves as a media center most of the time; for us it replaces a DVD player and by connecting my iPod to it I can finally listen to music from adequate speakers too. But occasionally, a hell doesn’t have to freeze over, we play games there too.

Now, Xbox games are extremely expensive in the Czech Republic. Unsurprisingly, the price difference between a Czech and American version doesn’t justify itself by any form of advantage, say an extended warranty or translation of the game (which is a common added value in case of PC games). We’ve realized after our first purchase that buying a brand new game from an official distributor will not be sustainable in the long run, even though we hadn’t planned on shopping much from the beginning. So instead of laying out $100+/a game for a new copy we’ve begun buying used games for a significantly lesser price, say $30 for a title. Buying used games carries with itself a risk that the disc might malfunction — because of its treatment by the previous owner– or the package as such might be incomplete — the manuals or original boxes and covers are often missing — but even if the costs negative externalities are added to the final price, one still buys a product with a good premium.

But from an economic point of view of a developer, this rational behavior is comparable to piracy, only that in this case the developer is receiving his share for the first copy. Once an original owner completes the game and sells it to someone else, he is causing an economic loss to the producer, because all the subsequent buyers take the non-variable utility of the game while compensating only the previous owner, not the original developer. It is a bit unfair.

(more…)

According to Bloomberg, Nymex Crude Future closed at $133.75 per barrel, $4.77 or 3.70% up from yesterday.

Reasons for such bullish market?

1) Oil is mysteriously disappearing from the Gulf. One day the reserves are surprisingly high, the next day they vanish. It’s uncertain why.

2) Falling dollar is causing stress to the petrobarons who are afraid that soon their profits from oil sale will be worthless. They increase the oil prices and cause the dollar to plummet even further.

3) and Irrationality. People are afraid the prices will surge even further, thus stocking themselves with “cheap oil.” Goldman Sachs was right two weeks ago when it reported that the price is driven by real demand rather than speculators.

I am wondering what effect will today’s hike have on the overall price levels in next month. $130 was viewed as another psychological barrier passing which will clear the way to new highs. Although some expect a major correction soon, I don’t believe it will be significant enough to considerably influence the prices one pays at the gas station where people feel it the most. The Czech dailies currently print bold headlines warning people the cost non-premium gasoline could quickly exceed 34/l and possibly landing above 35 Kc/l during the summer. From the Czech point of view that looks like a significant sudden increase even though the it’s more gradual than it appears upon a cursory look. The falling dollar had been falling dramatically in the period between January and April, thus compensating for the increasing prices of crude oil. But the fall has slowed (and dollar even rebounded for a short period of time) and exposed the Czechs to the harsh reality of the situation on the commodity marketplace. Who is to blame? The Czech National Bank. Why? For its stoic impassiveness, possible consequences of which I have already discussed in detail in one of the previous posts.

The $307 billion farm bill that rolled through Congress is a perfect example of the pattern. Farm net income is up 56 percent over the past two years, yet the farm bill plows subsidies into agribusinesses, thoroughbred breeders and the rest.

The growers of nearly every crop will get more money. Farmers in the top 1 percent of earners qualify for federal payments. Under the legislation, the government will buy sugar for roughly twice the world price and then resell it at an 80 percent loss. Parts of the bill that would have protected wetlands and wildlife habitat were deleted or shrunk.

David Brooks’s NYT column is the last one I would like to point at today. The quotation above explains the core of the problem, the farm bill, but that’s not the core of the article.

Brooks argues that by supporting this bill (although not casting a vote in favor or against it), Obama has betrayed his promises about ending the support to “special interests.” The author points out that this bill, largely aimed at farmers in Iowa, might serve as Obama’s tactics to insure his popularity in Iowa, despite all the negative outcomes associated with the legislature.

McCain, on the other hand, has voted against it, claiming “It would be hard to find any single bill that better sums up why so many Americans in both parties are so disappointed in the conduct of their government, and at times so disgusted by it.” And he’s right.