Feb 26th, 2010 | economics, politics | No Comments
You are sitting in a cinema. The movie sucks. Do you go out now or do you stay till the end of the film? A rational actor would choose to leave immediately because the price of the ticket is sunk cost and it should not affect his decision about the future. Even though he has spent money on getting in the theatre if he could have better time doing something else he should not try to get some bang for his bucks out of a crappy film.
The Bulgarian minister of economy appears not to pay much attention to the concept of sunk cost when discussing whether the country should build a second nuclear power plant in Belene. Traycho Traikov says “We should decide whether to lose the already invested in Belene if we decide to cancel the project” (in Bulgarian via Dnevnik). The question is not whether the country would lose 1-2 billion euro - those are already deep in the ground (or pockets if you believe some really believable rumors) but rather if the cost of finishing the construction and operating a second plant makes economics sense. I have yet to see a convincing analysis in support of that.
Oct 26th, 2009 | culture | No Comments
Apparently today everyone who goes by Dimitar or some derivative has a name day. I had totally forgotten about it. So when my boss saw me in the morning and headed toward my desk smiling I thought, “Damn, I must be really good at this job if I’d accomplished something praiseworthy even before fully waking up.” Alas, my parents had done the laudable deed by following the naming convention of the day. A bit of a downer.
Here is what wikipedia has on Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki:
During the Middle Ages, he came to be revered as one of the most important Orthodox military saints, often paired with Saint George. His feast day is 26 October for Christians following the Gregorian calendar and 8 November for Christians following the Julian calendar.
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The earliest written accounts of his life were compiled in the 9th century, although there are earlier images of him, and accounts from the 7th century of his miracles. The biographies have Demetrius as a young man of senatorial family who was run through with spears in around 306 AD in Thessaloniki, during the Christian persecutions of the emperor Diocletian or Galerius, which matches his depiction in the 7th century mosaics.
That is right - I have not one but two name days. But if I remember correctly, as a kid I would have much preferred to have two birthdays instead.
Oct 23rd, 2009 | media | No Comments
Yana Buhrer Tavanier is one of the best journalists I know. She has just completed a four-month long undercover investigation of institutions for people with mental illnesses or intellectual disabilities located in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania. Yana finds out that the people in our society who need most care get least. This also holds on a micro level in the institutions responsible for those men and women - the patients in direst states are the most neglected. Here are the first few paragraphs.
Reform is coming too slowly to institutions for adults with intellectual and mental health disabilities in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, where chronic neglect, filthy conditions, and the use of physical restraints and high-dosage drugs to control behaviour remain routine.
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By Yana Buhrer Tavanier in Sofia, Goren Chiflik, Svilengrad, Radovets, Oborishte, Belgrade, Kulina, Churug, Bucharest, Mocrea and Gura Vaii
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Someone is screaming.
Someone is screaming her head off in what seems a desolate part of the yard. There is a fence surrounding some shacks and, with each step taken towards it, the shrieks get louder. Ten more steps and there’s a gate in the fence. Another ten and all hell is let loose.
There is the screaming woman – barefoot, skinny and dressed in rags.
There is another woman, unable to walk, rolling on the ground outside. She is literally covered in flies – fifty, perhaps a hundred flies on her face, filthy clothes, bare feet, hands and the two chunks of bread she’s holding.
The story is available in English and Bulgarian. You can find more by browsing the site.
Great job Yana.
Nov 2nd, 2008 | media | No Comments
Idealist is a new Bulgarian media covering selected bits of everything (economics, business, politics, finance, science, art, social processes… the list goes on). It starts as a blog but a magazine is in the works as well. The print edition will be a weekly emulating The Economist/Time format and certainly some of their great writing. I will be checking it out regularly.
Many thanks to Nikoleta Popkostadinova (a friend and one of the writers) for letting me know.
