The legend has it, there was a time when, if you wanted to spend and evening with your family, friends or significant other watching a film, you actually had to physically visit a DVD store – like good ol’ Blockbuster, for example – and rent or buy a copy of the product by yourself. The same applied for music in record stores or books in bookstores, not to mention the hassle of writing letters and storing your documents in drawers overloaded with files and folders. Whether you believe such rumors or not, those dark ages are now over, and from the screen of your laptop, bright like a beacon of civilization in the night, you can access a virtually unlimited range of content at any time, anywhere in the world, with just a few clicks. As an individual, you may decide to use this power to purchase and download any sort of media content, or perhaps to transfer your data from point A to point B anywhere on the globe, the choice is yours. However, as a company, storing and sharing data within the personnel might prove slightly more difficult through the common channels. Fortunately, there are two tools companies can use to make the most of their virtual resources: one is a Local Area Network (LAN), a hub through which all computers within the company can access the Internet via connection to a local server, the other is a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Quick summary of how a VPN works. A VPN is a network that unites all sites and domains belonging to one company, wherever they may be located, into one single entity, using the Internet and other shared and public networks as infrastructure. This can effectively be used to connect several LANs into one larger system accessible from anywhere in the world, with the only condition of Internet access. Logging into a VPN generally requires two forms of identification: a personal identification number (PIN) and a password. Usually the PIN is fixed, but sometimes, when a higher level of protection is needed, the provider of the VPN may decide to implement algorithms that continuously change the PIN – say, every thirty seconds – which needs to be entered again upon access. A VPN is a relatively cheap way of building a private network, as it uses the Internet as its main communication channel, instead of expensive leased private lines: the only significant costs are those relative to the authentication hardware and software and any other security device. The ease, speed and flexibility of VPNs have made them ideal tools for companies that require flexibility in data sharing between users that may be scattered across the globe. One great example of such use of VPNs is our own university, which employs a network called UVAVPN, provided by Juniper Networks. By accessing UVAVPN, you automatically acquire the same authorizations as any other employee of the university, which includes access to academic journals and article storage systems. This allows you to read any article you need for your research even outside of Amsterdam, in your home country, as long as you have Internet access. VPNs can potentially make any sort of content available to billions of users simultaneously, but is that something we should be glad or worried about? As an independent user that supports the inevitable advance of progress, you might be tempted to state that the benefits compensate the downsides by far. However, as a company or artist that benefits from copyrights, the matter becomes slightly more complex. It so happens that some VPNs do not track users’ IP address – our “ virtual fingerprint” on the Internet – whenever they access the network. This means that anybody can log in to the network and use it while remaining completely anonymous, which is why these specific VPNs are called “no-logging” VPNs. The consequences of this sort of policy are, in fact, very predictable: nothing really stops anybody from uploading copyrighted or illegal content into the VPN for the entire world to take advantage of. The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) estimated that file-sharing worldwide increased by 80% between 2008 and 2014, peaking at an average of 6090 petabytes per month worth of content. To give you an idea of what this figure means, imagine having 9.7 billion CDs stacked all together in the same place. Chances are you would end up covering the entire surface of your city, and most likely also that of the surrounding region and maybe even that of a small country, with piles and piles of CDs. Now, imagine adding 9.7 billion more CDs to the pile every month: that’s a rough but effective estimate of the entity of the illegal data flow that runs through our globe every month. Even without an in-depth knowledge of the inner workings of the music and film industry and art in general, you might realize how much this means for firms and artists alike in terms of unrealized profits, which is why VPNs have recently become the target of a crusade led by anti-piracy agencies throughout the world. The latest case involved streaming giant Netflix, which cracked down on the increasing number of users exploiting VPNs to access country-specific contents from abroad but to no avail: the strict privacy clauses between VPN and user allow providers to repeal requests of IP address disclosure from anti-piracy agencies or governments, thus keeping pirates under anonymity. It is clear then that the legal system still needs time to adjust to the new reality and that, at the moment, there is no effective legislation preventing anarchy to rule the Internet. VPNs are the ushers of an age in which all data will be available to everyone. In the meantime, however, we should not forget that what is right and what is legal not always coincide, and that the guarantee of copyright is often an effective incentive for art to thrive and prosper in our society, without which life would lose all flavor.

“The most important thing in life is the feeling that you have worked fucking hard to achieve something” – Dennis Dijkstra, Co-CEO of Flow Traders Rostra Economica is starting a new series named “How Close Can You go”. This will be a series of interviews with top executives, partners, recruitment professionals and other interesting people. We will talk about actualities, and the business they are in, but mostly about us; the students. How was the student life of the CEO of Flow Traders? What were the most important goals of the CFO of your dream company back in the days? How did they got the motivation to work so hard to become what they are today? What is in their eyes the perfect student? All these kind of questions will be reviewed during an interview, and will be published right here in Rostra Economica. Anyway, welcome to the first edition of How Close Can You Go! This time, I had the pleasure to chill at the headquarters of Flow Traders and talk to Co-CEO Dennis Dijkstra, Head of Trading Pieter Entius, and Corporate Recruiter Floor de Wit. Very inspiring people with a broad background, and a very fresh and interesting look at the financial business, and especially the young professionals of today. Flow Traders is a listed leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider specialising in exchange traded products (ETPs). Flow Traders provides liquidity in ETP markets 24 hours a day while seeking to stay market neutral at all times and without having directional opinions. While Flow Traders does not have any clients, they enable investors to buy and sell ETPs efficiently by quoting bid and ask prices. Thereby Flow Traders seeks to earn small amounts of money on large numbers of individual transactions based on the differences between our ETP prices and the prices of the underlying or related instruments. They provide liquidity in over 4,000 ETP listings across the globe, tracking all underlying asset classes, including equities, fixed income, commodities and currencies with access to over 90 trading venues in 36 countries. The company has been named Europe’s number one Trading House for ETFs in the EFT Risk European Rankings over three consecutive years – 2013, 2014 and 2015. Flow Traders is headquartered in Amsterdam, with trading offices in Asia and the US, covering all time zones. So, that was the sales pitch, but when I asked Mr. Dijkstra to describe Flow Traders in only one sentence he answered: “Conscious pushing oneself to the limit. We are the Google of the financial markets. You can deduce this from the way we interact with each other, and our remuneration policy.” When I walked trough the entrance, a smell of fresh carpet, new desks, and young ambitious people came into my nose (if that even has a smell). That all has its reasons; Flow Traders is just a little older than ten years. It came off the ground like a space rocket and almost doubled its revenues last year (from 240 to 400 million euros). And guess what? It is still growing. I asked Co-CEO of Flow Traders, Dennis Dijkstra, about the reason of this phenomenal growth over the last couple of years. What is in your opinion the most important reason? “This is because of the focus we have on what we do. Day in, day out, we have such a focus on the product. Another reason might be that we started in a niche market, the Exchange Traded Fund market. This market has grown exponentially in the last couple of years, so we definitely took advantage of it. However, in my opinion, the most important reason is the culture we have created around Flow Traders. I can say that we were, and are, very successful in this.” According to Floor de Wit, Corporate Recruiter at Flow Traders, it is also really important that Flow Traders is really strict in selecting the right people. “We only select people who will be staying for the long-term, that is because we want to invest a lot in our people. This has ensured that Flow Traders could add value in a high phase. I think at Flow Traders, the people make the company. It sounds cliché, but it’s the truth. Everyone who is active here is so entrepreneurial and driven, that is what makes this company so beautiful and at the same time successful.” So, what are you looking for in your candidates? “Well, mainly we are looking for candidates who got excellent numerical, analytical, and creative skills. Candidates must be very entrepreneurial which can be deduced from its CV. Also, they must have a master degree and an obvious affinity with financial markets.” When I asked her for her opinion about the upcoming trend of companies who only hire young professionals with cum laude master degrees she responds with one simple answer: “Not only your grades say something about how good you are as a trader. We want to hire people who have the competences of a good trader. Such as entrepreneurial, as I mentioned before, but competiveness is also a really important factor. If we would like to invite you for an interview, you first need to take a numerical assessment and IQ-test before you are invited, so if you pass the assessments, you are already at the correct level. Also, a large amount of our traders have played a lot of poker. This game has many similarities with trading, think about risk, strategy, and money. This reflects the kind of person behind the CV and motivation letter. This shows that we are looking for much more than only grades.” Later that morning I had a chat with Head of Trading Pieter Entius. He studied international business administration at the VU and started as a Junior Trader at Flow Traders. I asked him what his most convincing argument was to make this choice? “This function fits my personality. Back in the days I played at lot of poker, which I really enjoyed. I searched for a job which has a similar enjoyment. I came out on a job as a trader. Once you are a trader, you need to be good to have a lasting motivation. You see that most traders who have received a negative job review will leave a job as a trader behind and try to find another, more fitting, job. It simply is not a satisfying job if you are not good enough.” Back to Co-CEO Dennis Dijkstra. What are his positives and negatives? “I think I can see things really quick. I see the connection between events, and I am not afraid to think different, be different. Also, I am stubborn, and not afraid to take risks. In this all, there is a good aspect as well as a bad one. It is just about the balance between those two.” After he studied business economics, at our own faculty at the University of Amsterdam, Mr Dijkstra began as an accountant at Arthur Anderson. After five years he started his own hedge fund. Then he became Vice-President of structured finance at NIBC, and thereafter started his own mortgage bank and became CFO and Co-Founder. At that moment, Flow Traders was just five years old, and Mr. Dijkstra became very interested in this company. This caused his latest move when he became CFO, and later Co-CEO at Flow Traders. I asked him about his student life back in the days. “I studied at the UvA and was a member of A.S.C., the biggest student association in Amsterdam. At A.S.C. I came in contact with a lot of diverse people. I played hockey at a high level and surrounded myself with inspiring and motivated people. I think this is a really important factor in your student life. Your motivation needs to come from inside, but if this is ensured, you need to surround yourself with motivated and inspiring people to keep this motivation running. When I became Co-CEO of Flow Traders, it was a challenge for me to find the balance between my personal life and work, but in the end these two do not even differ a lot. For example, I do not see any difference between taking care of my people here and taking care of my wife and children at home. If you take your leadership role very serious, in the end it will be almost equal.” I asked him about the trade-off between graduating cum laude and extra curricular activities and his answer was really inspiring. He answered: “If you really want something, and you have the required motivation, you can get both. You need to do things you like, and when you like something you are automatically motivated to do this. Well, you know what is the most important thing in life? The feeling that you worked fucking hard to achieve something. That feeling, that is the best feeling you can get!” #CEO #Trading #FlowTraders #Investments #Finance

UvA Inside – by Yoeri Min Around the University of Amsterdam’s Roeterseiland campus, stunts for the American action-comedy film “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” will be recorded recorded from the 26th until the 28th of June.  On the 8th of July, actors will be welcomed to the University of Amsterdam to record to some of the movie dialogues. Actors playing in “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” include Samuel L. Jackson, Ryan Reynolds, Elodie Yung, Gary Oldman and Salma Hayek. On Thursday the 23rd of June, from 16:30 until after sunset, the Summer Festival at Roeterseiland is organized. The programme includes performances of De Nachtdienst, 45ACIDBABIES, Couleur Café, Faut Haut, DJ OHMS and Boom Chicago. More than 1.200 students and employees already told they will be coming. On the 10th of June, the complete University of Amsterdam Supervisory Board resigned. The seven members of the Supervisory Board quit, as the student council and works council threatened to give a declaration of no-confidence in the chairman Atzo Nicolaï and other board members. Business Recap – by Michel Mijlof In the last month, two companies,  Basic-Fit and A.S.R., joined the stock exchange in Amsterdam with an initial public offering (IPO). Basic-Fit is a nation-wide fitness concern which is willing to expand their business to more countries in Europe. That is also one of the reasons behind the IPO, in which they are offering between 25% and 50% of their shares. The managers of Basic-Fit are positing it as a potential growth share because their dividends will not be very high compared to other countries on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (AEX). Their value is estimated around 1 billion euro. The other company, A.S.R., is a Dutch insurance company which was a part of the former Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis. Therefore, they are brought back to the AEX by the government. Fortis went bankrupt due to the last financial crisis and A.S.R. was nationalized by the Dutch government to save it. The government bought it for 3.6 billion euro and, with the IPO, they sold 35% of the shares which gained them around 1 billion euro. There was a big difference between the two shares who went public on the same day, which is that A.S.R. did it a lot better compared to Basic-Fit. A.S.R. was almost 5% above their initial price while Basic-Fit was closing at 3,3% lower than their initial price. The War of the Titans – Walmart Canada Stopped Accepting Visa Cards – by Ioana Nicolau Walmart – which filled a heavily redacted complaint against Visa Inc in New York state’s court in May this year – has recently taken the extreme action of stopping accepting Visa cards in its Canadian stores. The world’s largest retail chain argued that the chip and pin payment protocol is more secure than the actual use of signature verification for debit transactions. Company spokesperson Randy Hargrove stated that: “Walmart believes Visa’s position creates unacceptable risk to customers and its actions and rules are inconsistent with federal law.” Walmart went further and explained that the reason behind the issue is that Visa stands to make more money (5 cents more/transaction) by impelling signature verification. A Visa spokeswoman responded that “We are disappointed that Walmart chose to put their own financial interests ahead of their own consumers’ choice.” Canadian retailers have long criticised the perceived high interchange fees they pay to credit card companies. Two years ago, Visa and MasterCard Inc said they would cut down Canadian transaction rates to an average effective rate of 1.5 percent, given that serious complaints about their fees almost resulted in government intervention. Apparently, this was not enough. Economics Recap – by Daniel Koudijs Once again the ECB is raising the stakes. This month, Frankfurt expanded its existing programme of quantitative easing (QE): the buying of bonds and asset papers from the market in in exchange for cash. Their QE programme now also includes corporate bonds (debt issued by companies). So far, all efforts to spur inflation have been largely disappointing. By buying corporate bonds the ECB hopes to reduce the lending costs for companies. As a result companies are expected to take on more debt which they will invest and spend: driving up inflation in the process. A fairly reasonable expectation, but as the ECB keeps expanding QE, economist have started to warn about the dangers of unlimited QE. Steadily buying bonds and assets from the market, will cause their prices to inflate “unnaturally”. Market value is supposed to be derived from market expectations and the underlying fundamentals of a company such as profit, revenue and investments. QE is driving a wedge between market value and these real fundamentals, potentially creating hazardous financial bubbles. At the same time, central banks around the Eurozone are having an increasingly hard job finding suitable bonds to buy. All parties agree on one thing: it is about time for QE to show its merits. Autobahn – by Nando Slijkerman The German government wants to partially privatize the well-known “Autobahn”, the highway with unlimited speed limits. People who cross the borders of Germany often know that these ways are not properly maintained. Unfortunately, Germany does not want to make this investment, so this could be an option to maintain the quality of the German highways. According to the Finance Minister, this would be a great chance for pension funds and insurers to invest in. Because of its long-term and illiquid nature, it would be an attractive investment for those kind of investors. Also, because German treasury bonds have a really low return, investing in infrastructure with a low risk profile would be a great alternative. The quality of the highways would increase, and investors could have a relatively safe investment. That would be great, right? However, state governments have different opinions. They think that the government will lose its say, and they doubt whether the privatization provides any benefits. To support this statement, they mention the German railways back in the nineties, who got themselves into financial difficulties. MSCI Emerging Market Index and China – by Hải Đăng Vũ Chinese mainland A-listed share application into MSCI Emerging Market (EM) index was again postponed after its two prior failed attempts since 2014. The move was described as a “rushed attempt” after Beijing tried to establish sufficient evidence for its shares to be included into one of the most valuable non-US equity market index. MSCI EM index currently represents 10% of the world market capitalization, consisting of 24 emerging economies around the world. In an official statement released by MSCI on the 15th of June, the committee pinpointed the restriction on each investor repatriation withdrawal value. This curtailment prevents liquidity movement and proves to be a significant obstacle for investors who “honor redemption value from their clients”. Another impediment that MSCI would want China to address is the pre-approval process by stock exchanges, which possibly delays overseas transactions on Chinese shares up to 24 hours. MSCI thus wants to enable more accessibility of shares and hopes for more alignment of these shares to international standards, but also highlights “significant improvements” about the reforms commitment by Chinese authorities. Reactions of fund managers and investors are mixed, but all are optimistic about its potential inclusion in the near future, the earliest being summer 2017. Politics Recap – by Raffaele Di Carlo The world of international politics is still mourning the loss of Jo Cox, British Member of Parliament for the Labour party, who was stabbed and shot to death on the 16th of June, when the MP had scheduled a meeting with her constituents. The alleged culprit, a 52-year-old Scottish man named Thomas Mair, finally arrested and charged with murder and other offences, was found involved with far-right organizations of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist kind. It has been speculated that the killer might have tried to make a political statement with his actions, especially considering the approaching referendum for EU membership in the United Kingdom. The possibility of Britain remaining within the European Union is seen by many British citizens as a risk for their country to relinquish its sovereignty and independence in favor of an organization which they consider at the very least uncaring of British interests, a view strengthened by the recent rise of the UKIP party and its propaganda. British nationalists have also been alarmed by the recent proposal of Jean-Claude Juncker, former Prime Minister of Luxembourg and now President of the European Commission, to create a common European army as a pledge of mutual defence between member states. A vast majority of British political forces, including Prime Minister David Cameron, dismissed the proposal, claiming that defence should be a national responsibility and that NATO is a sufficient diplomatic infrastructure for the current state of the European Union. The Bleeding Rainbow – by Artur Rymer On the 12th of June, once again, the world had witnessed and was left shocked at what human hate and fundamentalism can do. In Orlando, Florida, a 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who claimed to have been a Daesh (ISIS) member, entered the gay nightclub Pulse and opened fire, killing 49 people (their names can be found on this website) and wounding 53 more in what was the worst mass shooting in US history. The attacker was later shot dead in the club by the police. The Orlando shooting has spurred a new wave of discussion on so many big issues of the modern world at the same time: rights of the LGBT people and the prevalent discrimination against them, the gun laws in the US, terrorism, attitudes of religions towards LGBT rights as well as prejudice against Muslims in the West. Messages of love and equality have been sent to Orlando and the LGBT community from all over the world, while peaceful gatherings have been held in many cities and famous landmarks have been lit with the colours of the symbolic rainbow flag, including the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Some of the most heart-warming responses to the attack were the hacking of Daesh’s Twitter accounts and uploading there rainbow flags and gay porn by the Anonymous group and the project of Seriously TV, which will pay $1 to the shooting’s victims for each homophobic comment under this video of gay couples kissing. If anything good came out of this tragic event, it is the rising awareness of the threats posed by homophobia, hate, fundamentalism and unrestricted access to firearms. Whether a real change will follow remains to be seen, however, the change starts with us – we should always fight discrimination around! English and Russian Fans Riots – by Yana Chernysh After the match between Russia and England on the 11th of June, fans got too emotional and a series of riots appeared. With more than 16 injured and at least 36 arrested, French authorities warned Russia and England that both teams can be banned from the tournament because of their fans. Three of Russian fans were sentenced to 24, 18 and 12 months in prison for extreme violence during the riots. Several English fans were sent to jail as well. Others received lighter punishment – both English and Russian fans were deported from France and cannot attend further matches. Now, there is already one case of death, and more than 30 people taken to hospital, because of these fan fights. French authorities are doing their best to prevent this, like closing all bars before midnight, however, it does not has the desired effect now. Last Month Two Tragic Events Took Place – by Magdalena Wiśniewska On the 21st of May, a vulnerable, 16-year-old girl was a victim of a mass rape in the poor neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. Six men and a boy are charged with the rape – among them a boyfriend of the girl, whom she was visiting. Two other two men are supposed to be charged with posting of the tragedy’s recording to Twitter. The girl woke up naked and wounded the day after the assault, with no recollection of what has happened, in a strange house still filled with the attackers. Initially 30 men were suspected to take part in the attack, however, the number was reduced during the investigation. In January 2015, a freshman from Stanford University named Brock Turner, a champion swimmer aspiring to compete during Olympics, sexually assaulted an unconscious woman during a campus party. The victim was visiting her sister; they both have been under the influence of alcohol. The offender was stopped by two cyclists passing by. At the beginning of this month he was sentenced to 6 months in county jail and probation, due to the judge‘s fear that a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner. Here you can read a statement of the woman, who was a victim of the attack. It is painful to lean over those event collectively, even more than when you consider them as separate cases. When events like the one in Rio take place and the judiciary still dear to address situations like one at Stanford in a lenient way, it feels like a slander into the face of every woman. Dutch Girl in Qatar – by Leonie Ernst That there are some huge differences between the Islamic culture and our Dutch culture is nothing new, but last week the Dutch citizens were quite astonished when these differences came into contact with each other. On social media people expressed their surprise and indignation concerning the 22-year-old Laura who was kept in Qatari prison since March. The Dutch woman was sent to jail after she reported being raped during her vacation in Qatar. She was arrested for having extramarital sex and drinking alcohol, which are both seen as a serious crimes in this Islamic country. Last Monday, Laura was convicted to a one-year suspended sentence and a fine of €750. The man who the woman said had raped her, was convicted to 140 lashes. The Dutch embassy acted quickly after the lawsuit, and got Laura back to The Netherlands. However, she still had to pay the fine. Laura is not allowed to enter Qatar within the three coming years, but at least does not have to go to jail. The travel advice to Qatar remains unchanged after the incident, since the Dutch government argues it is already clear that in Qatar Dutch people will face different standards and laws. Ramadan Gets Underway – by Michael van Rhee June 7th marked the start of this year’s Ramadan, which sees prayer, fasting, and giving to charity become the main focus of 1.6 billion Muslims (22% of the world population) for an entire month. Ramadan is the ninth month of Islam’s lunar calendar, a system which sees each month begin at the sighting of the new moon. Because lunar months are shorter than solar months (which are used elsewhere), the month moves back by around ten days each year. According to some scholars, the month is said to be the one in which the Qur’an was first revealed, making it the holiest and most sacred month for Muslims. It’s the period when Muslims fast every day from sunrise to sunset, and is one of the five pillars — or duties — of Islam. Not only do Muslims abstain from food and drink, it’s also a time of deep contemplation, prayer to Allah, and charitable generosity. All able-bodied Muslims are required to take part in Ramadan. Although there is some debate over the age at which young Muslims should begin to take part, it’s typically at around ten to twelve years old. Good luck!

It may sound strange, but after living for already a few months in the Dutch capital, whenever I went abroad for holiday, I felt that I cannot wait to come back to Amsterdam. Why? How much fun I had abroad is of little importance, when considering the feeling of safety and clarity with which my new city provides me. Cities such as Paris are of big hype, right? However, while being there, I still got my mother saying: “I am so glad you did not proceed and do your studies here, Amsterdam is golden.”. The truth is, I consider the it a wonderland for living due to the fact that it is so incredibly well organised – its constant ranking in top 10 cities which deliver their inhabitants a high standard of living being a proof. Unfortunately, there are moments when I find myself thinking about Amsterdam differently. And this happens when I am in the city center and making my way to work on time becomes a real quest, given that all areas are overcrowded with tourists. As a bit of a paradox, I work in the hospitality industry. Whenever I lend company bikes to tourists, I am only thinking about how many locals they are going to annoy, because visitors are clearly not accustomed to the biking traffic rules in Amsterdam. The Dutch capital, which evolved from a small fishing village to the main trading hub in the 16th and 17th centuries, currently faces a 5% annual increase in sightseers of its eye-popping attractions. Great marketing campaigns went hand in hand with other brave investments of EUR 12 billion in the effort of attaining this escalation in popularity. But perhaps the initially expected success of these actions has been underestimated. Opposition Labour councillors in Amsterdam now urge council marketing officials to stop selling the capital as a great amusement park and start developing plans to ensure that tourism will not disrupt any other businesses. Currently, Amsterdam welcomes around 17 million sightseers every year and seems to be threatened by a tide of tourists amounting to 23 million by 2025. Local Labour leader, Marioleijn Moorman, believes that ‘Tourism can end up eating away at the city’s unique character, which is what makes it a draw to locals and tourists.’. She also states that “Amsterdam has a historic downtown where lanes are narrow. If tourist buses, beer bike, bike-taxi, etc. circulate, space is becoming too small and causes aggressiveness.”. Thus, the unique Dutch “gezelligheid” is actually an element soon to disappear given these concerns – because of the tourist overflow and because of the soon-agitated 830 000 inhabitants. “It’s Tuesday and it’s raining. There shouldn’t be so many people here,” contended a 25-year-old Brazilian visitor while sheltering under the arches of the world-famous Rijksmuseum. He was left a bit surprised and annoyed by the fact that he had to opt for visiting some less-appealing attractions. Biggest interest points, such as the Anne Frank House, are constantly facing a queue that takes several hours to make. Therefore, it can be concluded that not only locals, but also tourists themselves, suffer from the issue. But there is one thing that cannot suffer… and that is obviously the economy. Nationwide economic benefits In the report from 2014, the World Travel and Tourism council ranked the Netherlands on the 27th place in the world for the GDP percentage contribution of tourism (5.6% of GDP, EUR 36.5 bn). Out of this total contribution, direct one amounted for only EUR 12.5 bn (1.9% of total GDP) in 2014, and was expected to rise by 2.7% from 2015 till 2025. The contribution brought to employment, including jobs that are indirectly supported by the industry, was represented by a percentage of 9.8% of total employment – yielding around 709 000 jobs. This was believed to be rising by less than 1%, up to almost 70 000 more jobs in the next ten years. The current environment of this sector seems to have also stimulated an investment of EUR 3.5 bn (2.9% of total) and forecasts show that figures tend to increase to EUR 5.3 bn (3.5% of total) by 2025. The economic impact of the persecuted market In the first place, what is believed to have made Amsterdam famous since the ‘70s is, of course, its relaxed approach to Drug Policy. The city is now a hub of Cannabis culture, bringing millions of visitors to flock here for the green stuff. Sources estimate a total gross annual revenue that exceeds EUR 1.6 bn from this industry. Out of this, around EUR 400 millions are redirected in tax revenues to the Dutch government. Although trends depict an easily sustainable economic strategy given current drug policies, efforts are now being made for capping the amount of these businesses. Rumors say that a relatively high number of coffee-shops that were located on Warmoesstraat have been closed and that owners have made big riots about it. Locals believe that marketing officials are actually trying to make Amsterdam escape from this sex and drugs halo that has been making it shine for more than a decade – which, in fact, might be true. The city has much more to offer, but youngsters and (allow me to call them) “old stoners” are definitely not interested in the museums or astonishing views, but in this great freedom of sin that the city seems to expose. Solutions? The municipality is definitely happy with making cutoffs in the marketing budget, having mayor Eberhard van der Laan affirming that “We must not do anything to attract people here” – he has told the newspaper Het Parool. Decongesting the downtown is seemed as an emergency by him and, therefore, he demanded good operating conditions to parks, plains and channels in order to ameliorate the flood of 2 000 events that are held each year in the city. The aedile appealed directly to tourists to make them look for accommodation in other major Dutch cities (such as Rotterdam, the Hague and Utrecht), which are easily reachable by train from Amsterdam. Other solutions involve the ban of large tour busses to the centre, better supervision of private apartments that allow vacationers through websites such as Airbnb, reducing the legal number of subletting days from 60 to 30 and putting a cap on museum lines. Future promotion should aggressively encourage tourists to travel outside the city to spots such as Zandvoort, Zaanse Schans windmills and Keukenhof tulip fields. “You can have a look at the canals, but also have a look at other neighborhoods to the north or the south or upcoming east for example,” said Machteld Ligtvoet, spokesperson for Amsterdam’s city marketing team. But the great challenge that will remain lies in Amsterdam’s position that facilitates an easy reach of many European countries and in the large number of budget airlines, which it currently serves. In the end, we are often going abroad and joining the category previously mentioned. But we complain about tourists just as we whine about traffic – we are part of it but it is painful to admit it.

Your phone rings. The bright letters on the screen make you reluctant to answer, but after a moment of hesitation you decide to pick up. Silly you, always trying so hard to be a good friend. The words ¨hey man, how are you¨ have barely left your mouth, when your friend starts a five minute long dialogue about his current state of being. Overwhelmed by the cascade of words that pours into your ear, you hardly pay attention to what he says: something about an internship, his latest grades, a girl he met on Tinder, kick box classes, the healthy food he has been eating and a master abroad. Somehow you manage to make it through ten more minutes of unidirectional conversation. Feeling exhausted, you hang up the phone and wonder since when people need so many words to express how they are doing. You cannot help but feeling sorry for your friend. He seems so committed to reaching his full potential in every aspect of life that he never succeeds to live up to the ambitious standards he poses for himself. Consequently, he lives a life of chronic anxiety. Honestly, the fact that you can easily relate to your friend is what scares you the most. You too try to develop yourself as much as possible and you too feel like you are always one step behind. Modern Culture The story above aims to exemplify the basis on which we evaluate our own state of being. Of course, every human is unique and this basis differs from person to person. Nonetheless, we cannot deny the role culture plays in shaping this basis. Arguably, the idea of ‘maximizing our talents’ forms a central part of modern culture and determines our perception of how we are doing: someone who feels like he is reaching his full potential thinks he is doing great, whereas someone who does not manage to do so feels like he is lacking behind. So, how did the idea of ‘reaching our full potential’ become so prominent? First, we can point at the post-WWII increases in personal freedom and economic wealth. As a result of these developments, many people have acquired the autonomy to choose the way in which they want to live their lives. That is, for the first time in history large parts of the population are able to choose their type of education, their profession and much more. Confronted with this widening array of choices, people also start to feel responsible for making the most out of the options they have. The rise of mass media strengthened the popular belief in self improvement. Mass media tend to focus on exceptional individuals, ranging from the exceptionally beautiful to the exceptionally funny. Furthermore, mass media give marketing professionals a useful tool for advertising. Advertisements too generally focus on the exceptional and often revolve around the simple message ‘buy this and you will be just as cool as these people.’ Finally, smartphones and social media play a central role in imprinting the idea of reaching our full potential in our brains. First, smartphones give us continuous access to mass media. Consequently, mass media are becoming more important in shaping our cultural environment. Second, social media add a whole new dimension to this phenomenon. Whereas mass media only inform us about extraordinary achievements of distant people, social media keep us informed about the achievements of ‘ordinary people’ in our close environment. Memes When theorizing about cultural evolution scientists often use the term meme. The so called meme is the unit of cultural heredity. Memes consist of cultural elements like, for instance, dance moves, catch phrases, words, songs, hairstyles and so forth. It is essential to know that the reproduction of these memes does not depend on the reproduction of the human individuals that carry them around. That is, memes proliferate not because they are especially helpful for human survival nor because they make us happier, but simply because they taste, look, feel or sound good. This opens up the possibility for the existence of so called infectious memes: memes that proliferate by exploiting some genetically built-in characteristic of their human host. To illustrate this, Daniel Dennett – an important theorist in this field – argues that the chocolate cake can be seen as an infectious meme. Because of our built-in preference for food that contains a lot of sugar and fat, eating a chocolate cake feels amazing. However, the chocolate cake´s high doses of sugar and fat are harmful for the health of the human individual. In an analogous fashion the idea of ‘reaching our full potential’ can be seen as exploiting our genetically built-in desire to be a respected member of society. We believe that reaching our full potential is the way to go. But, when taken to the extreme, this belief can be detrimental for normal psychological functioning. Conclusion Being extremely fit, getting high grades, eating super healthy and speaking five languages fluently: striving for perfection is fighting a lost battle. In a world of finite time and resources, reaching your full potential is an impossibility. In trying to do so, you are like a juggler that is doing an act with too many balls. Any time you prevent one of your balls – your ambitious projects – from falling down, you anxiously realize that two others are about to hit the floor. Don’t feel bad about letting some balls drop, it is the natural thing to do. There is no fundamental reason to believe that you have to be excellent in every aspect of life. That belief is only based on an idea that managed to settle itself in your brain through modern culture. #career #Reachingyourpotential #Selfdevelopment

With the vote on the UK’s future relationship with the EU approaching rapidly, British news headlines seem, almost daily, to highlight a new group of people warning of the negative consequences of Brexit. Start-up investors have warned of its impact on London’s status as a tech hub. Last week doctors warned that it could harm public health and patient care. On Friday environment professionals warned of the impact on air pollution and Nobel Prize-winning scientists warned of the impact on British science. The following day housebuilders warned that leaving the EU would make building new homes more expensive. Of course, there are many people and groups who, for various reasons, favour Brexit, but with the potential losses of Brexit more concrete than the gains, the wide-reaching negative effects of an EU departure are obvious, at least domestically. Relatively little attention has been paid to the impact of the vote on the rest of Europe. But Brexit would have huge consequences beyond the borders of the UK, with a report from the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis warning of a particularly severe effect on the Dutch economy. Indeed, the OECD has placed the Netherlands at the top of its list of nations whose economies would be hurt by Brexit – by 2030 it has been estimated that the costs of Brexit for the Netherlands could be as high as 2% of GDP, with the highest costs being related to sectoral adjustments to increasing trade costs. Of course, the negative impact of Brexit on the Netherlands could be mitigated if the UK and the EU swiftly agreed a new free trade agreement, however, it’s not certain that this would be particularly desirable for the EU as a whole, given that a British EU exit sans punishment could set a dangerous precedent. Elements within other member states would be encouraged to negotiate the EU settlements that suit them best. Those EU member states that would benefit most from a free trade agreement with the UK, such as the Netherlands, Ireland and Belgium, might not be able to muster the necessary support of other member states. So what’s the most likely outcome? The UK, at a minimum, would only need to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations. But it’s also possible that the UK would make additional arrangements through free trade agreements. The highest levels of access such as the European Economic Area (EEA) and a customs union are unlikely – those countries that are members of the EEA, such as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, have to pay in exchange for the free movement of people, services, goods and capital within the EU, and they have to comply with EU standards and regulations without having the influence to change them. Such a settlement – with the free movement of people in particular – would likely be unpalatable for the UK given that much of the Brexit debate has centred around immigration, with the Conservative government failing to deliver on its promise to reduce net migration to tens of thousands. Likewise, a customs union such as those the EU has agreed with Switzerland and Turkey is unlikely given that Brexit supporters don’t want the UK to be obligated to comply with EU standards and regulations. The most likely scenarios are the UK turning to WTO regulations, which it is estimated would lead to a 13% increase in the trade costs for services and goods, or some kind of free trade agreement, which would increase the trade costs for services and goods by around 6%. So what does this all mean for people in the Netherlands? As a Brit, I have to say this is rather awkward news to deliver. When accounting for the increased trade costs, as well as the potential impact on trade-induced innovation, the WTO scenario could reduce Dutch GDP by 2%, or the equivalent of 1,000 euros per person. Sorry about that.

As is well-known, longevity increases throughout the world. This is mainly due to the advance of medical technology, which also includes prescription drugs. Now, this is an interesting category from an economic point of view. Given that drugs can make the difference between alive or dead or, somewhat less extreme, a life without too much pains and one with chronic pains, they can have very large value added. Moreover, they sometimes allow for reduced spending on other types of medical services. Hence, no wonder that prescription drugs are highly priced. In turn, high prices ensure that firms are willing to supply what consumers demand. Obviously, we know that this outcome is not the most desirable one. High drugs prices mean that large parts of the population will be unable to buy them if needed. And that’s where health insurance steps in. Insurance can make drugs accessible for the entire population, which is considered a great virtue in most cases. In addition, if the insurance industry is sufficiently competitive, profits made will be modest. If money does not matter, drugs producers can raise drugs prices with several percent However, not all is that well. Due to problems of adverse selection, markets for health insurance may fail to develop. In addition, competition within the health insurance sector may be far from perfect. Indeed, if a few insurers dominate the market, the sector may be more akin to a monopoly than to a case of perfect competition. And there is another problem that is maybe even more important. That is that the protection that insurance offers makes the insured passive. Due to insurance, the insured do not need to compare prices of different providers (if there are more than one) nor do they have to spend energy asking whether a certain drug is worth the fee. Rather, they can make their decision whether to buy a drug purely on medical grounds. This may sound well to many: after all, what is more important than your health? Well, that may be the case, but there is an economic side effect. If money does not matter, drug producers can raise drug prices with several percent. Or double them. Or even more. As long as patients (and their doctors) make their decisions on medical grounds only and send the bill to the health insurer, price increases will mean virtually no loss of demand. Good news for the profits of pharmaceutical firms, which means that due to health insurance these firms have an incentive to set drugs prices sky-high – without any relation to production cost. Supply will still meet demand, but at the cost of high health insurance premiums. This may help to reduce drugs prices, thereby avoiding very high health insurance premiums Hence, one can understand that countries define policies to lower prices. These include policies that determine whether a certain drug is allowed to enter the country’s market or policies that induce pharmacists to substitute low-priced generic drugs for high-priced branded drugs as in the Netherlands. Another type of policies is to use co-payments. Co-payments, whether in the form of deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance, may help patients becoming more active and foster that decisions whether or not to buy a drug are based on financial conditions as well. This may help to reduce drugs prices, thereby avoiding very high health insurance premiums. Now, it is a practical issue how large should be the co-pays on typical products. If they are set too low, opportunities to benefit from low insurance premiums will be partly lost. If they are set too high, society will give up too much in terms of accessibility of health care. In a recent research, Einav, Finkelstein and Polyakova show that in the case of US Medicare insurance for prescription drugs, private health insurers use co-payment policies quite efficiently. Particularly, these health insurers set the level of co-pays high in those cases in which drugs can be easily substituted for other drugs and low in those cases where substitution is not possible or very difficult. In the case investigated, health insurers thus seem to fine-tune the balance between health care accessibility and moral hazard to the characteristics of typical drugs. On the other hand, public insurers seldom differentiate their co-pay policies between different drugs. Rather, these insurers typically apply uniform policies. think of the future drug that will let mankind live until eternity but that is too expensive for many of us This line of research is novel and also important. Indeed, current levels of health care spending are so high that we must have a clear view on what typical policy instruments can and cannot achieve. Moreover, due to population ageing, spending levels will only increase further in the future and the role of pharmaceuticals will likely get only bigger. And to those who are not convinced, I invite you to think of the future drug that will let mankind live until eternity but that is too expensive for many of us. Agree it is important?

It has been almost one year since my arrival in Amsterdam, and it’s time for us to sit down and talk a little bit about this experience. It’s really hard to explain to another person, who didn’t have the experience of studying outside their country, what you feel in the first few months of having full freedom and responsibility for yourself. It’s a mix of unexplainable emotions: fear, excitement, happiness and fear again (you can never emphasize how afraid you are). Normally, you will try to play it as cool as possible: not let anyone know how afraid you are, show yourself all strong and mature for the situation, even granting some compliments of your old uncles/aunts that you haven’t seen in forever. What follows is the best way I found to describe what was the reaction of most of my old aunts/uncles: “Wow! Brunno is so mature. And he’s going to Amsterdam? But then what about the weed? Oh my god, maybe it’s not the best choice. Are you sure? Well, he’s a mature kid and he will know what to do. But, Amsterdam?” I have to say, most of the comments, compliments and appraisals you receive in the period close to your departure work as a peer pressure: you know you have the chance of your life, and that you have to grab it with your hands and make it work, whatever it takes. The first few months of living abroad are full of excitement: for a Brazilian who before had come to Europe only during some summer holidays, it seemed like an endless vacation. The weather was amazing, everyone was outside until 11:00 PM and the city was at its best. For a carioca (a person raised in Rio de Janeiro), it felt like I had hit the jackpot. But nothing is a fairy tale. And as a popular meme in the internet would say: life hits you in the face, straight away. You realize all the work your mom/dad had to put to organize the house, give you washed and ironed clothes (oh, how I miss ironed clothes), plan what to eat every day. You realize how hard it was for your parents to do a part-time job, and study at a top-ranked university at the same time. You start valuing everything you had at home and didn’t appreciate that much. And that’s when you get homesick. Now, don’t get me wrong, maybe this happened to me because the winter arrived at the same time, and I just couldn’t handle having to wear pants instead of shorts everyday. But the last few months before the end of the academic year are hard. You know you will see your family soon, you have tons of tests to take, assignments, and, don’t forget, you work! Stress takes over and you just want to be done with everything. However, when you arrive home, ‘it’s full party’, as a good friend of mine likes to say. You see your friends, your family, everyone throws a good party when they see you, and, trust me, it feels amazing. You feel the luckiest woman/man alive to have all these people around you, but everyday, every single day, you arrive at home thinking: did I make the right choice to leave all this behind, to get a better education? Of course, all that self-motivating crap says you have to sacrifice everything to be stronger, happier, healthier, and all other “ier” adjectives you can imagine, but at this moment, believing that you made the right choice becomes really hard. After coming back from holidays, I have to admit I was kind of down. And for me, February was the worst. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. My cellphone got stolen, I got locked outside my house in the rain (in Amsterdam!) for 4 hours, my scooter broke and my bike, which I was using after the scooter broke, also broke. So yeah, the year started, and the general feeling was: “I definitely did not hit the jackpot”. This, right there, is the worst feeling you can have if you are living abroad: when you consider the possibility of going home. This makes you doubt everything, start being a bit angry with everything, and kind of fed up to be quite fair. At this moment, a few things may help you, but what really helped me were my friends. See, after living a while with a bunch of people you get to know them, trust them, and start to think of them as part of your Family. The connection you have with these people becomes kind of like a cult: you make everything to preserve it and nurture it. In my case, my friends, which are from 8(!) different countries, helped me a lot. Don’t get me wrong, they didn’t make an intervention or anything like that. They showed me that there were actually lots of good things in this life that I wouldn’t be seeing, living, neither hearing, if I wasn’t here. But most of all they showed me that I had people around when I needed, and that home is wherever your mind is. I guess that, after one year living abroad, I have reached some conclusions, learned a lot from others, and, most of all, put some question marks in my head. Learning to question yourself is the biggest lesson I will ever take from this experience. You get to know people from so many different cultures, religions, countries, beliefs, that if everyone was exposed to this kind of hate-free environment, maybe we would see more cooperation between countries, minorities, democracies, and people that have diverging beliefs. It hits you really hard when you realize that what you learn the most when you study abroad is not a credit-worth subject, it’s life experience. Note: In order not to make the article too motivational: at the moment, the author of this article doesn’t have a stove, and uses an iron to make coffee and fry eggs.

EURO 2016: What Dangers Is France Facing? On the 10th of June, the first match of the UEFA European championship will take place. Being a big event in the football and sports world, the championship also becomes a risky event for France. What dangers are there for the football fans and how French authorities will cope with it? First of all, the police discovered the plot of ISIS terrorists to target England fans during the game on the 11th of June. It was found on the laptop of one of the main suspects to be guilty of Paris and Brussels attacks, Salah Abdeslam. UK security is afraid that English fans can be targeted not only at the games but also during their time in parts of France, where the security is not as high as it is at the stadiums and fan-zones. Moreover, the threat for all the football fans is not only from the terrorists but also from the French protesters. As you may know, recently there have been huge clashes between the police and some of the French unions, because of the new divisive labor bill passed by the government. After several weeks of protests, the union leaders claimed to have transport strikes during the games in the 10 cities, in which the championship will take place. As well as this, the leaders of the protest are planning to call a strike at the streets during each match. The French government says that the strikes will damage France’s image and is trying to find a solution to this problem. Authorities also advise fans not to stay in the streets during the matches, but to remain at the special fan-zones. This advice is not issued only because of the threat of the terrorist attacks, but also because of the unpredictable behavior of some of the supporters (special attention is drawn to English and Russian fans due to their behavior during previous championships). French police say that people suspected of antisocial behavior may be subjected to a football banning order and sent back to their country. Going deeper into the topic of the security, during some matches cars will not be allowed to come too close to the stadiums and special buses will take people to the games. As well as this, alcohol may be banned for 24 hours during some of the matches, like the match between England and Wales in Lens. Also, all of the people will be searched. French police too take some other steps to increase security. First of all, they increased the number of policemen guarding the streets to around 100.000. Secondly, law-enforcement authorities, who will be heavily armed, are given additional powers. For example, they can arrest anyone they suspect of being a threat to security and public order. But is this all enough to keep people safe during the period of EURO 2016? Jean-Christophe Lagarde (the head of France’s Union of Democrats and Independents party) says that «the securities measures demanded by UEFA don’t appear at all suitable and risk to increase rather than reduce the threat». He is not the only one to be worried: Philippe Galli (state representative for the Seine-Saint-Denis region) claimed that «there are weak points that are not acceptable» when referring to the security of the stadiums. For example, there was a lot of controversies considering a fan-zone under the Eiffel Tower. There are around hundred thousand people expected to attend the fan-zone. However, the prime minister of France – Manuel Valls – said: «we need to live, otherwise we give in to fear, and fear and turning in on ourselves is a victory for terrorists». I want to end this article on this note:no one can predict if something will happen during the championship and I think the best way to act for the fans is to just enjoy the matches. If people are panicking and are afraid every minute of the game, then, well, there is no point in the game at all, as it should be a way to enjoy the evening. Of course, the authorities should provide the best security they can, but this applies to all big events and not only ones happening in the period of active terrorist attacks. To wrap things up, I want to say that although every country with such a big event faces a certain amount of danger, usually everything goes fine and hopefully it will be the case for France as well.

Have you ever felt that you wasted those 10 euros watching that crappy movie in the cinema? We all did, especially lately, if you are a DC universe fan. Or, on the opposite, you watched online something so good, so incredibly awesome that you wished you could have paid for it? Or that at least you could have paid for being able to get more of it. Here the Patreon comes in. As this quite aesthetically pleasing promotional video informs, Patreon is a platform which allows fans to support their favourite online creators in their everyday work, by becoming a ‘patron’. It works in a form of subscriptions: you contribute a small amount of money periodically or every time your favourite artist posts a piece of their work. Actually, the amount of money doesn’t have to be that small as you are the one who sets the limit and the limit is the sky. Or the bottom of your wallet. I am a huge fan of the Patreon idea for a few reasons. From an artist’s point of view it is the biggest verification of the quality of their work, if somebody is looking forward to paying them for it already AFTER obtaining it. Moreover, making a living from your content and, therefore, being able to focus on creating instead of having to worry how to support yourself, is a dream come true. From a fan’s perspective it is also a pretty decent way to make sure you pay specifically for a subscribtion that you will appreciate, instead of what conventional media offers – a bundle of programmes, among which you are supposed to look for something you like. Especially that this search is not always successful. What’s more, you can easily withdraw from the contribution, if it does not live up to your expectations and you can suggest and influence the content and subject of the new creations. In the times when creativity is cherished and the entertainment expectations become more and more individual, diversified and demanding, there is no longer trust or even possibility that the broad range of centralised institutions can ensure the exchange of value between the creator and the recipients. Therefore, if we do not want the content we consume to decrease in value and if we want the artists, entertainers and influencers to create content that is not commercial and funded by adverts and cooperation with brands, new solutions have to emerge. And I believe that the Patreon is a nice step towards that direction. Check it out – maybe your favourite YouTuber is already there and you can help him out to launch that funny Sunday video to come out every afternoon and feel like a medieval duke patroning the arts. I am, of course, not saying, that you should procrastinate with YouTube every day, but let’s be honest – you do it anyway, just with a poorer content.

If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing yourself painted by the likes of Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci or Henri Matisse, you might have imagined you’ve missed your chance, but with the development of DeepArt, an algorithm inspired by the human brain, that generates digital paintings by combining your pictures with the artistic styles of other images, your dream could finally become a reality. The algorithm, which was developed at the University of Tübingen in Germany, uses the latest advances in deep learning to process the image data. It first analyses the image, before extracting the key features, such as a face or an object, before digitally painting the new image by repeatedly comparing the initial features of the submitted picture with the painting it seeks to emulate. After around ten minutes, the program delivers a unique work of art. Perhaps what is most surprising about the technology is the variety of recognisable art styles that are so easily imitated. From the blue and yellow swirls of van Gogh’s Starry Night to the bold lines and shapes of Kandinsky’s Transverse Line, DeepArt’s algorithm is somehow able to interpret the stylistic elements of an image and transpose them onto another with a minimal level of noise. This isn’t any old Photoshop oil painting filter. To the untrained eye, these images, essentially generated by a single algorithm, are indistinguishable from original artworks. Indeed, DeepArt offers a Turing test – a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from that of a human – whereby you can guess which one of two paintings is by a human artist and which one has been generated by DeepArt’s algorithm. On average, people guess just six out of ten pairs of images correctly. The value of original art Of course, original art isn’t going to disappear anywhere any time soon. Works of art have long been imitable – most obviously in the form of prints. But this new technology – and whatever follows it – will enable anyone to produce thousands of iterations of personalised works of art using styles that artists may have spent decades refining. And I can’t help but feel that giving people the ability to generate hundreds of unique paintings of their dead cats will somehow debase the styles used. Just as Instagram filters have made photographers of us all by enabling us to convert any dreary old photo into the kind of thing you might find in Amsterdam’s Foam photography museum, so technology threatens to make artists of us all. But the art industry itself won’t be hurt by the development of technology that emulates human creativity because art economics is fundamentally based on the scarcity of unique objects. What might have once been considered remarkable will be viewed as relatively plain, leading artists to shift their attention to art styles that are less imitable by technology. Proust once said something to the effect of, “we only see beauty when we‘re looking through an ornate gold frame“. The democratising effects of art-generating technology will simply effect a shift of the ornate gold frame. But the development of art-generating technology will also be a boon for artists who want to run more experiments. Just as the development of music production software has enabled composers to experiment with different sounds, so artists will use technology to experiment with materials and textures they might not otherwise have access to. Create your own Head over to DeepArt.io to create your own masterpieces. Unfortunately there’s a little waiting time – around nine hours at the time of writing. Having experimented with a few styles, I feel qualified enough to make a few suggestions. First, selfies seem to be more impressive than group shots because of the relative lack of detail in the algorithm’s creations. Second, artworks using a uniform style seem to work best – the recognisable motifs used in paintings like Kandinsky’s Transverse Line, van Gogh’s Starry Night and Hokusai‘s Great Wave off Kanagawa seem to translate particularly well. For more inspiration, click here.

Listening to grandparent’s’ history as a child is one of the best and most frustrating activities of childhood at the same time. On one hand, you listen to these great stories about the Second or even the First World War, but on the other hand you think if you will ever be able to see history happening in front of your own eyes, just like your grandparents did. Well, Brazilians now cannot say that they still may experience the same feeling: the last month was historical to Brazilian politics. Petrobras corruption scandal The proofs gathered so far by the police revealed evidence of more than one type of irregularity. Apartments, country side houses, are some of the purchases made by politicians with money deflected from the state owned company, Petrobras. So far, the inquiry called Operacao Lava Jato found out that more than 200 Billion Reais (Brazilian currency) was transferred between Petrobras and other small companies established by politicians. The information gathered so far showed that the Petrobras scheme was aligned with different parties, not only the Workers Party (PT). The tentacles of the scheme go so far that from the 320 congressman/woman that voted in favour of the impeachment of the President Dilma Rousseff, more than 70% were involved in the corruption scandal. Rousseff is accused of being complacent with the situation, since she was in the board of the company at the time that this whole scheme started. There are no hard proofs linking her to it, but the generally accepted idea is that she knew what was going on. The worst crisis since 1930 The country registers 3 consecutive months of GDP reduction, the worst results since the first time GDP was recorded, in 1930. From 2014 until the end of 2016, economists forecast a total fall of 8,7% in the GDP of the country. Moreover, the unemployment rate is around 8,5%, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The country suffers not only from the economic crisis, but also from a huge political disruption. Since the elections, the political debate has been heated up, mainly when the discussion is between supporters and oppositions of the Workers Party (PT). The dissatisfaction with Rousseff’s way of governing made the opposition take extreme measures, which can be represented by a single one: the support given to the vice president, Michel Temer, in order to get Dilma impeached. At that moment the opposition crossed a line that brought Brazil back to the 1960s, a few years before the dictatorship started. Congressman/woman were voting against the impeachment, using God and the institution of Family as justification. The ministry of culture was obligated to shut down its doors. For the first time since the dictatorship there were no woman or black people in the ministries. All social developing programs are going to be shut down, and the expectation is that by the end of the year the government will only be assisting people below the extreme poverty line, leaving more the 70 million people out of the assistance program. But hold on. There is more. The new president Michel Temer, is affiliated to a party in which more than half of the politicians are being investigated. That party also supported the dictatorship, and is known in Brazil as the Corporation party: if you have money, you have their support. What is going on now? As you, reader, may have realized after reading all this information, Brazil suffered a coup d’état. Using a fake accusation as precedent, the opposition deposed Rousseff and now PMDB (let’s keep the description as before, cause the real name does not matter: the corporation party) gets to call all the cards. However, as every good episode of House of Cards, this history is not over yet. This week a WhatsApp audio of one the current ministers, revealed what was obvious for you and me: the coup was designed to put someone in the power that was able to stop the investigations of the Operacao Lava Jato, after all, if the operation kept going, most likely they would all go to jail. There is a fog of fear going around the country, especially now that most people who supported the coup realized that it was actually a coup. Now that Temer has real power, anything can happen. Let’s just hope that he gets impeached. Or suffers a coup d’état. I guess now in Brazil both terms mean the same. #Brazilianpolitics #coupdétat #Petrobras