This post is meant chiefly to provide some background facts, figures, and food for thought regarding the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. While I will be providing a bit of a narrative along the way, please feel free to ignore that: the numbers pretty much speak for themselves.
I just ran across this picture today while procrastinating:
It never ceases to amaze me how curious life is. It takes a bunch of primates to bring together these two creatures which, in the ‘natural’ world, would never in a million years come upon one another. You’ll forgive the anthropomorphism, but I just can’t help but wonder what each was thinking. “What a curious creature!”, “Ack! Water!”, “Dinner!”, or just “Wtf?”
Hmm…
On a related note, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans.
And then watch this (which is only very tangentially related): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo
I love science.
On another note, I’m in the middle of papers and final exams right now, but I’m hoping to be able to do some blogging over the holidays. We’ll see if I get around to it or if I’ll end up watching unhealthy amounts of TV or finding some new game into which to immerse myself.
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Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
- The Tiger (William Blake)
What then to do on a lazy Saturday at home but have a great breakfast while catching up on some of the week’s Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes? I can hardly think of anything better. Except for, of course, taking pictures of said breakfast and then blogging about it.
Anyway, as most people who actually know me have found out, I have a very mean appetite:
The above is actually a regular breakfast for me. It consists of: 2 bagels (with cream cheese and sprinkled grated cheese), a good-sized slice of cheese (here represented by some hard cheddar), some slices of meat on the side (here represented by some turkey), 2 soft-boiled eggs (here being large brown eggs), some cottage cheese (mmm… protein and fat), and, naturally, a nice cup of milk (here being some good ole’ fattening whole milk). Yum.
Anyway, that pretty much wraps up this post. Except, one final thought: its only been about 1 hour and 15 min since I ate… and I’m already kind of hungry again. I guess I need to find some denser bagel.
I hope this has been an enlightening experience for everyone 
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I looked out this morning and the sun was gone
Turned on some music to start my day
I lost myself in a familiar song
I closed my eyes and I slipped away.
- More than a Feeling (Boston)
That’s right. Simple, isn’t it? Instead of calling it an Election, just call it Rapid Emergency Stimulus Injection.
I’m, of course, referring to the potential (?) upcoming election in Canada. It would see Iggy v. Harper v. Jack v. Ducceppe in an all-around nail-biter to see who can scrounge up two or three extra seats. Or, it could see a tectonic shift in Canadian politics and the ascension of a thousand-year Liberal Reich. Or Conservative Ascendancy. Or NDP Social Utopia. Or maybe an topsy-turvy world where Quebec is in charge of the rest of Canada. Who knows.
In any case, though, I think we can most comfortably look on another 300-million dollar exercise in dysfunctional democracy not as such, but rather as an instant stimulus package. If you think about it, I think you’ll agree that it works all too perfectly:
Is exactly what my life isn’t going to be for the next little while. That said, I had a fantastic summer about which I’m going to have to fill the wonderful wide interwebs at some later point. Maybe this weekend, if I get bored.
For now, I get to share my upcoming semester’s reading list with you, my faithful (and non-existent) audience. You see, I’m taking 5 classes (and a language class):
Economics of Immigration
Dynamics of Commodity Economies
Jessup Moot Court Competition (yes, its a class)
Public Policy and Federalism
Behavioural Sociology of Conflict
Needless to say this will probably keep me quite busy. However, I am in Washington DC, after all. I’m going to do my best not to disappoint my own expectations in sightseeing and museum visiting (the Smithsonian(s) are huge! and free!). Also, this city seems to have a lot of free (or cheaper) cultural activities that I’m going to have to partake in. SAIS also offers a lot of super interesting-looking seminars, workshops, and visiting lectures. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend some of those as well as other similar stuff around the city.
Anyway, here’s my term 1 reading list. Its in chronological order. All I can say is:
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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
This is a short post.
I was in Budapest, up on Gellért Hill and inside the Citadel’s Nazi-era bunker-turned WW2 museum. To keep it short, there was photographs of life during WW2 and this included children, adults, graves, and the like. All very depressing, especially considering the location and that there had been a rainstorm so I was pretty miserably wet and there was water leaking into the bunker and was dripping in the background.
Anyway, to get to the point: I was listening to music on my iShuffle and while I was going through the Holocaust section, this happened to be The Prophet’s Song by Queen. As I was looking at the photo below, the lyrics underneath, and the end of the song played in my ear. Needless to say, the juxtaposition was striking.
Oh Oh children of the land
Love is still the answer, take my hand
Food for thought.
So… yeah… its been something like 3 months since my last post. I would apologize profusely for this, but somehow I don’t think anyone really noticed my absence. Besides, its quite excusable. Remember that reading list I posted way-back-when? Yeah, that really crushed my free time into little grains of sand which then proceeded to flow freely from my grasp, unchecked.
Anyway, now that exams have come again (next 3 weeks) and the summer is in close poximity, I’m likely to be able to devote slightly more time to this project. Look forward to that. I guess?
For now, however, I need to head out and study for my French (shudder) and International Trade Law exams which are this week. Wunderbar.
Continuing on with my guest-speaker discussion posts. This is no. 2:
The Challenges of Climate Change and Implications for International Trade
Patrick Low, Chief Economist (Director of Economic Research and Statistics), World Trade Organization (WTO)
As governments gear up to engage more intensively in cooperative actions to address climate change, many questions arise regarding the nature and timing of appropriate action. International trade may be significantly affected by future climate change mitigation policies, especially if governments fail to cooperate effectively.
So, as promised, here is the first part of the, hopefully, multi-parted series of my notes, thoughts, and impressions of guest speakers who’s talks I have the fortune to attend. Enough chit-chat. Let’s go.
The topic of today’s guest was as follows:
Backstabbing for Beginners: A Crash Course in International Diplomacy
Michael Soussan, Writer. Professor of International Affairs, Center for Global Affairs, New York University
The year is 1997. Michael Soussan, an idealistic young Brown University graduate has recently accepted his dream job at the United Nations’ Oil-for-Food program, the largest humanitarian operation in the organization’s history. His mission is to help 23 million Iraqi civilians survive the devastating impact of economic sanctions that were imposed following the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Under conflicting guidance from the fifteen bickering nations on the UN Security Council, the Oil-for-Food program would oversee the use of 64 billion petrodollars against a backdrop of simmering international tension that constantly threatens to explode into an all out war.
Backstabbing for Beginners is at once the darkly comic tale of one man’s political coming of age, and a stinging indictment of the hypocrisy that prevailed at the heart of the world’s most idealistic institution.
If yes, then you’re certainly missing out if you don’t watch QI.
“But what is this QI?” you no doubt ask.
Well, the answer is easy my friend. QI is perhaps the best source of random facts and Trivial Pursuit wisdom ever. Oh, and its a comedy too. So, I’ll keep this short: read about it (on Wikipedia, naturally), then go watch it (since its on BBC4 which you probably don’t get, pirate away).
Its ridiculous, hilarious, educational, and is hosted by Stephen Fry. You just can’t beat that. The end.
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There`s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?
There`s a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna go?
I`m gonna fix that rat thats what i`m gonna do,
I`m gonna fix that rat.
- Rat in Mi Kitchen (Ub40)
