Rubrics » Bridging News
Will We 3D-Print Medicine at Home?
It is around 7 AM, little Jim has just been woken up by his mom. He can distinguish clatter of softly gyrating gears from rain taping at his windowsill. There was no reason to focus more on those everyday sounds especially because he heard the same demand again “Can you come to breakfast, finally?” When he gets to the table, he spots his medicines, like usually, little and “zero” shaped. He has problems with swallowing the bigger ones. While looking at them he could spot little difference between layers. The bluish part is preventing him from epilepsy attacks that he has been suffering for years, the other one is navy blue; he was told that those were vitamins. On social media, he saw some anti-medicine printers posts again. That those are causing Down Syndrome or something, he is not about to read this till the end, in his mind is only one thing: if it was not for the 3D printed heart that his father received after the heart attack, they would have never played football again, never hug again and have no more breakfasts together. More
The Crisis of Our Age: A Retrospective Glance
As a political philosophy and system of governance, liberalism is a product of Western Christian civilization. Yet some of its roots are decidedly illiberal. Thomas Hobbes offered an intellectual framework for our burgeoning Provider State, reducing people to hedonistic machines that accept the oversight of a Sovereign who serves as theologian-in-chief. Jean-Jacques Rousseau cited man’s natural compassion in support of rendering everyone collectively dependent on a sovereign General Will, which Jacques Maritain later called an “immanent social God”. Frederic Bastiat dismissed these pretensions by noting how self-serving lawmakers bend morality to justify—via greed and false philanthropy—the legal plunder that divisively empowers them. More
Photon(e)s 4.0
The project I’m working on at the moment is influenced by a collection of photographs bought on eBay. I started with the thought of using them for collages or for other projects I’m working on, but the marks from their backs changed my plans because, well, you sometimes stumble at the threshold. With the family’s cat, in the reeks, or on the beach, the totally different frames one from another capture a couple of a Jewish family’s years that lives in England. I have more of them coming, so I recommend you to peek on Dissolved. More
On the Law Enactment Trap
A free society is that society in which the general law governs, that is, the law which concerns all the members of society in relation to the norm which that general law establishes. And, on the contrary, society is not free when the private law governs, that is, the law that concerns only a very small number, a minority or, to the limit, an individual or a few individuals. Such a law is also referred to as a privilege (private law). The current effervescence in Romania on amending the laws of justice is an example within reach for philosophers of law, but also for social philosophers or moral philosophers, to reflect on this fundamental aspect of freedom (I refer here to the concept of individual freedom, which is the source of all punctual liberties, which must under no circumstances be confused) in the Romanian society. More
National Sovereignty in Crisis
In the following article, we will analyze the issue of sovereignty, its characteristics and the elements that form and compose the term. Afterwards there will be a historical overview, so that we can observe what was the springboard that led to the introduction of the concept, who dealt extensively with the issue and what were the views that prevailed over the centuries. There will be also an examination of the issue in the modern world and the so-called New World Order, whether with positive or negative connotations. Τhe role of sovereignty will be examined within the international and European organizations, such as: the European Union, the UN, etc. We will also look at the reasons why national sovereignty is indispensable for states, as well as the risks that need to be avoided for it to continue to exist in practice. More
Innovators from Germany, France, UK and the US Will Attend “Future Summit” on November 28th in Bucharest
The global director of Artificial Intelligence of E-ON, the Innovation Manager from Disneyland Paris, the inventor of the first electric flying taxi awarded in Paris by Emmanuel Macron, the activist planting tens of millions of trees in Africa and 25 more speakers come to Bucharest to offer insights on what the next ten years will look like and what decisions businesses and companies have to take now. More
Corruption as Bad Governance
The issue that has polarized, more than any other, Romanian politics and Romanian society for the last decade and a half is the subject of Alina Mungiu-Pipidi’s book, “The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption”, Cambridge University Press, 2015 (translated in Romanian by Ioana Aneci as “În căutarea bunei guvernări: cum au scăpat alte țări de corupție”, Polirom, 2017). More
Coronavirus: Commission Hosts a European Hackathon to Develop Innovative Solutions to Fight the Outbreak
As of 24 April and throughout the weekend, the Commission will host the pan-European #EUvsVirus Hackathon, under the patronage of Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. The hackathon, led by the European Innovation Council and in close collaboration with the EU Member States, will connect civil society, innovators, partners and investors across Europe to develop innovative solutions aimed at fighting the coronavirus outbreak. More
Coco & Chanel: Creating Herself and a Whole Universe, from Croquis to Couture
Imagine the epitome of an elegant, stylish woman of modern times. Is she sporting chic suit pants and a matching blazer, or maybe a timeless black dress? Is her jewellery exquisite without overbearing opulence, perfectly assorted to her handbag and shoes? In this case, she is most surely also wearing a fine perfume, a subtle but essential element for her demeanour, demeanour that states – not whispers, nor screams – concinnity and confidence. More
The Neighbourhood and Its Meanings
In order to know the Romanian society as it is today more intimately, it is preferable that we analyse it from the inside to the outside, for the general characteristics and conclusions that might be traced from this “outside” (such as national psychologies or civilizational traits) are brought into existence by a set of norms and behaviours embraced by the “inside” (which, in this case, refers to every individual, to his family and then to his immediate community). More
Inflation Surpassing Populism
In a Europe locked-in below-target inflation, for the most part, one country basically surpasses all others. Romania managed to almost triple its inflation rate one month into the New Year, after a brief – and unique period in the last quarter century or so – when the headline figure was actually negative. What’s behind this astonishing success, or not such a success after all? More
The Emerging Frontier of the Bucharest Stock Market
Since 2016, The Bucharest Stock Exchange (Bursa de Valori București - BVB) is actively seeking official recognition of emerging market status from the world’s leading providers of stock market services. In fall last year, for instance, BVB entered FTSE Russel’s “Watchlist”, the London Stock Exchange’s research and rating agency shortlist of potential emerging markets, while also being under the consideration of S&P, MSCI and Stoxx. More
