Another War to Wage

"Progress slow in war on cancer," declares a headline in this morning's Boston Globe online. Adding that to the list of endless war, we're now waging:

The War on Terror
The War on Drugs
The War on Poverty
The War on Want
The War on Cancer

Some sects are also waging:

A War on Guns
A War on Christmas
A War on Journalism
A War on Democracy
A War on English

Et cetera, ad nauseam...

Can't people find a better a metaphor than war? While I could advance arguments against the metaphor on moral grounds, I prefer to say that further "wars" should not be declared simply because doing so is too damn clichéd.

Hot Zone: Uganda

WHO reported an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Uganda November 30. The outbreak, in the Bundibugyo District, features a new species of the virus, which has a 31.4% mortality rate thus far, with 16 fatal cases of 51 reported.

Hot Zone: Sudan

The UN reported concerns surrounding a possible epidemic of Rift Valley Fever (RVF) in central Sudan. CDC data shows that RVF, a zoonotic viral hemorrhagic fever, has a mortality rate of 1% among humans, with considerably higher rates among animals. However, according to WHO reporting on the current epidemic, of the 436 human cases reported in the states of White Nile, Sennar, and Gazeera, 161 have been fatal, a mortality rate of 36.9%.

Apricots in the White House

The Hungarian word denoting "apricot" is "barack."

A colleague sent along Andrew Sullivan's thoughtful article from the Atlantic on Senator Obama. My response, as written to my colleague, appears below:

I haven’t read anything of Andrew Sullivan’s in a while (despite having his blog bookmarked), so it was a pleasure for me to read this. His ability to approach issues of great contention in a rational manner that defies the traditional ideologies in American politics has always impressed me. (He is, if you didn’t know, a self-declared conservative libertarian.)

Overall, I found the whole piece enlightening, early references to “Islamist terrorism” notwithstanding. I was particularly taken with Sullivan’s recapitulation of Obama’s his view of faith as both a spiritual and intellectual exercise; his view of his religion not as a source of values but as an institution that reinforces values already instilled. With all the other points Sullivan raises, Obama himself rises above the traditional ideologies in American politics, ones, as Sullivan pointed out, have been intensified with the perceived polarization of the US over the past 50 years.

Sadly, an index of polls that examine public opinion of candidates for the Party nominations puts Obama a little over 22 points behind Clinton at 22.9%. And while trial heats show Obama currently leading all viable Republican opponents, Clinton leads in such heats as well with greater margins.

Regardless of this, Sullivan has me solidly in Obama’s camp. (I hereby withdraw all my previous calls to draft Al Gore.)

For your consideration...

...a few new photos on Flickr, hopefully with more to come over the weekend.

Mr. Hill Goes to Pyongyang; U.S. vs. the World on Cuba; Mr. Roh Goes to Pyongyang; Pirates!!; Eight Years Left for MDGs; "The path to hell..."

Some interesting stories in the news over the past few days:

First is the story of Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill's visit to Pyongyang, working with his counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Removal from the list was one of the major demands of North Korea during negotiations surrounding the disabling of a nuclear reactor used to produce weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea was placed on the list after its involvement in a terrorist attack on a South Korean airliner in 1987, which resulted in 115 deaths. The only subsequent act of terrorism registered by the U.S. State Department is the abduction of 13 Japanese nationals between 1977 and 1983, five of whom were repatriated in 2004. The status of the remaining eight is a point of contention between North Korea and Japan, with the former claiming that they are dead and the latter demanding proof of the deaths. Japan also maintains that there are at least an additional three abductees held by North Korea, while a 2002 report by a North Korean defector maintains that, overall, 70 to 80 Japanese nationals had been abducted. Additionally, South Korea maintains that over 400 of its nationals have been abducted by North Korea.

An interesting note: Also on the State Department's List of State Sponsors of Terrorism is Cuba, due to its providing safe harbor to fugitives and maintaining relations with other State Sponsors of Terrorism. However, some in the international community feel that this case is overstated: on Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of UN members adopted a General Assembly resolution calling for the U.S. to end "commercial, economic, and financial embargoes" against Cuba.

Hill's visit is the latest in a series of stories over the past week involving North Korea. The Christian Science Monitor aggregated analysis of a Pyonyang summit on Tuesday between North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea.

North Koreans were in the news on Wednesday as well, with the crew of the North Korean Dai Hong-Dan regaining control of their vessel after an attack by pirates of the Somali coast. U.S. warships in the area responded to the crew's distress calls and treated members of the crew for gunshot wounds sustained during the altercation with the pirates. U.S. Naval forces are continuing to monitor the situation of the Japanese-owned tanker Golden Nori that was commandeered by pirates on Monday.

***

Always having trouble keeping track of those pesky intergovernmental development objectives? Wish you could see how the international community is progressing towards its stated goals on reducing poverty, reforming education and health care, and promoting equality? Google and Cisco have a solution for you!

The UN teamed up with Google and Cisco to develop an online tool to track progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out in the Millennium Declaration in 2000. (N.B., a timer in the upper-right corner serves as a sobering reminder to visitors that there are less than eight years before the target for achieving the MDGs.)

***

Finally, a story that reminds me that "with mere good intentions, hell is proverbially paid." Members of the French NGO Zoe's Ark are currently held by the Chadian government after they attempted to abduct over 100 children and resettle them in France. While the stated goal of the organization's mission in Chad was to averting starvation among many child refugees from Sudan, upon arriving, representatives of Zoe's Ark started addressing the needs of orphans, and then providing medical attention to wounded children, and finally collecting children for resettlement in France. However, a closer examination of the "good intentions" of the French "humanitarians" raises doubts about the mission of the organization and has given rise to charges of human trafficking. Indeed, the French families who offered to host the African children had paid over 4,000 USD in cash to Zoe's Ark. Furthermore, the group of children comprised many children who were Chadian, not Sudanese, and who were not even orphans. Several international groups active in Chad and Sudan have decried the actions of the French organization, citing concerns that the incident detracts from the legitimacy of humanitarian efforts of well-established international non-governmental organizations.

A new set...

...of photographs, taken in Slovenia, are now on Flickr.

50 Years of Doctrine and Practice on Displaced Persons Compressed into Three Pages i.e., ...

...a fact sheet on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, prepared for my course on International Policy Practice.

Maybe they just like Mariah Carey...

Sitting this afternoon in the CEU cafeteria, I turned and glared at the speakers blaring the broadcast from a local radio station. So jarring was the music that I continued to stare for a few seconds before resigning myself to eating my lunch. But even as I sat, slowly digesting my greasy midday meal, the thought remained in my head: it is far too early in the year for "Santa Claus is Coming to Town..."

What good are all those pixels if nobody can appreciate them?

I've been posting photographs from Budapest on my Facebook profile, but have been frustrated with the site's limited storage capacity and functionality. Enter Flickr, an online community where photographers of every ilk can share their work. (O, would that it were owned by Google and not Yahoo!...integration with Blogger would be a breeze!)

Issues of ownership aside, I've posted my first set of photos on Flickr, in glorious, full-resolution black and white. (There is a single color shot in the set which I'm quite fond of, actually, though I find my favorite is the dark, brooding image of István Bibó.)

Saturday Morning Coming Down

For any and all interested: an album of photos taken yesterday, October 13, 2007. I'm considering moving these to Flickr...perhaps, perhaps not...

Can't We All Just Get Along and Use the Same Damn Measurement System?

As in any scientific endeavor, it is difficult to manage a complete failure in baking, as even recipes that have gone far awry still hold some value: one can usually enjoy at least a modicum of success, if not the knowledge that, most likely, there was much done correctly in the process, with all of it being thrown off by possibly one small error, one minute miscalculation.

Of course, if dealing with a new recipe, it can be difficult to discern where such an error lies. However, when using a recipe one has previously made, it is considerably easier to track down the source of error in a recipe that resulted in a less-than-ideal product.

Thus, when the blueberry scones I baked this morning turned out soft and lacking the ideal flakiness, I compared my process to that I used when I last made the recipe, which resulted in firm, flaky scones, well-risen.

The most obvious difference is that I'm baked this most recent batch in Hungary and not in the U.S. This, of course, means that I am required to use the metric system when purchasing items and when measuring temperature. (I thankfully have a set of U.S. measuring cups and spoons graciously sent from home!) I did not, however, measure the amount of butter correctly: I grated about 24 tablespoons, despite only needing a third of that amount.

Another difference was the size of the recipe. Wanting a higher yield from this batch than my last, I multiplied the recipe by one-and-a-half.

Third, I made a significant substitution. The grocer's I visited Saturday to collect ingredients didn't stock baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). I did, however, find powdered baking ammonia (ammonium bicarbonate), which is similar in composition to baking soda and, supposedly, can be substituted for baking soda.

Fourth, there was a serious dearth of equipment in the kitchen. Most significantly, a lack of mixing bowls or stockpots left me using small saucepans to combine ingredients.

Finally, while I prepared the dough last night, I froze it overnight, baking it this morning.

In one of these above differences, in a combination thereof, or in some factor I have yet to consider (Sarah Lippek has suggested that perhaps a Hungarian effluvia of sorts effects the baking process here), lies the difference between the soft, flat, dense scones I have and the full, firm, flaky ones I once made.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Academics II - Initial Classes

Classes at CEU officially started this week, though the undergraduate students in the Bard/CEU program were treated to the inaugural session of a mandatory course on Central European History last Friday. The second session of that class was held yesterday evening (it's currently scheduled to run Mondays and Thursdays, 19.30-21.10), and the initial sessions of the Policy Process, Policy Analysis, and Public Sector Management and Public International Law were held this afternoon (Policy Process is generally held Tuesdays and Thursdays, 13.30-15.10; Public International Law is scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays, 15.30-17.10).


Policy Process was straightforward enough, with a presentation of the basic outline of the course, including topics to be covered and expectations of the cohort; personal introductions from the professor, the teaching assistant, and all of the students; an examination of some basic definitions of public policy, polity, politics, and the interaction of the three; and a review of the syllabus.

The expectations of the course are quite simple: (1) one in-class presentation on one of the required readings for the class; (2) acting as discussant during another student's presentation, analyzing the quality of the presentation with respect to both structure and content; (3) a short written exam covering major principles examined throughout the course; (4) a short, six-to-eight-page policy brief; and, naturally (5) class participation. Readings for presentations will be selected on Tuesday (I hope to present either a reading on the structure of decision-making in the policy process and the importance of veto players in that process as they pertain to health policy in three European countries, or a reading on direct democracy). A topic for the policy brief must be selected by October 14.

The presentation of all the above did unfortunately suffer from the Professor Alex Fischer's lecturing style, which consisted of him reading from detailed PowerPoint slides he had prepared. There was an consequent lack of discussion and a feeling, for me at least, that I wasn't engaging with the material as fully as I could.

In Public International Law, however, Professor Boldiszar Nagy engaged students from the start, interjecting into introductions information about Budapest and Hungary that each student might find relevant: given my interest in public health, he directed me to several Hungarian journals that have recently examined national health care reform; for students who mentioned an extracurricular interest in music, he suggested a few concert halls with especially good programs; to the cinéastes in the group he provided the names of a number of small art houses throughout the city. After introductions, he moved directly into the assigned reading for the day, leading a discussion that covered definitions of law and international law and the distinctions between municipal and international law. The course requirements, a short mid-term exam, a short presentation on an issue of international law relevant to current affairs, and a take-home final exam, were covered in the class introduction last week.

On Friday, the first session of my class on Freedom of Information will be held. Next Friday, the first session of International Policy Practice will be held. Also, my course in basic Hungarian begins next Tuesday.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Dispatch from Budapest: First Impressions - Public Transportation; Academics I

Hopefully I'll be able to average more than one of these postings per week, especially now that I have a small but indubitably faithful readership to serve.

***

Public Transportation

I've made considerable use of public transportation systems in only two major U.S. cities: Boston and New York. Boston's system, operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), is comfortable, reliable and fairly expansive, though not nearly as expansive as New York's system, maintained by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Of course, with its greater scope, the MTA is plagued with delays and lacks the comfort the MBTA's smaller system.

The Budapesti Metro (Budapest Metro), operated by BKV, offers both expansive coverage of the city and comfort for passengers, comprising a system of three rapid transit lines, a large array of light rail lines (both quite reliable), bus service (not quite so reliable), and heavy rail service to surrounding suburbs.

Comfort in the system is engendered by padded seats throughout the system as well as the considerate habit of rail engineers of gradual acceleration and deceleration, which is far nicer than the jarring starts and halts of both the MBTA and the MTA.

As for cost, a single ticket, which grants access to a single route of a single mode of transportation for a single use (i.e. without the ability to transfer to another line or mode of transportation), costs HUF 230 (Hungarian Forints) or USD 1.25. Books of ten tickets cost HUF 2,050, approximately USD 11.13. Monthly passes, which provide unlimited access to all modes of transportation with the exception of the heavy rail lines, cost HUF 7,350 or USD 39.90.

When using tickets, they are marked upon entry to a particular line with the line number as well as the date and time of entry. However, there is no physical barrier to prevent riders from getting on a particular line without validating their ticket. Thus, the Budapest Metro relies on conductors to check tickets on all lines, as opposed to the token- or card-based systems in Boston and New York, which prevent physical access to the mode of transportation if one hasn't purchased a card or token granting such access. However, the Budapest Metro does enforce a strict fine for those riding without validating a ticket: HUF 5000 or USD 27.21!

Academics I

Central European University has the interesting and, frankly, quite useful policy of conducting what is called "zero week" at the beginning of the semester. After last week's plethora of orientations to everything from the Student Records Office to fire are safety procedures to departmental organization and regulations, this week, "zero week," comprises lectures on courses scheduled for the coming semester by the responsible professors.

Even only having attended two sessions, one held during the orientation week and one held today, I have a fairly good sense of the courses for which I would like to register:


Public International Law

This course addresses treaty law, law regarding territorial claims, including those made on continental shelves as well as in outer space, law regarding refugees, law regarding statehood and international recognition of statehood, law regarding international conflict, and diplomatic and consular law.


The Policy Process and Policy Analysis

A requirement for students in the Department of Public Policy, this course, taught by Alex Fischer, examines policy processes in detail, addressing the place of policy in political processes, the principle actors in policymaking, and the challenges that result not only in policymaking, but in policy implementation.


Freedom of Information from a Comparative Perspective

Taught by Péter Molnár, a former Hungarian Parliamentarian, this class examines the differing policies that various nations have on freedom of information. Such exploration is achieved by having students request sensitive information from their home governments and, in the event of a refusal, having them find an NGO with which they can coordinate legal action in order to obtain the requested information


International Policy Process (Audit)

Also conducted by Alex Fischer, this course is run as a colloquium series, with representatives of eight major international organizations speaking about their work and fielding questions from students. In addition, students are required to research a particular institution and present a the relevant history and facts as well as an analysis of the work of the organization in the context of theoretical questions about international policymaking raised during the course.


Additionally, I intend on taking a basic, two-credit course in Hungarian along with the course in Central European history required of all undergraduate students in the Bard/CEU program.

***

Next:

• life outside the Residence Hall;
• a trip to Szentendre; and
  
• photographs.
  

Powered by ScribeFire.

Dispatch from Budapest: First Impressions - Arrival; the CEU Residence Hall

Alas, I wasn't able to muster the will to write a detailed account of my first days in Budapest as soon as promised, but, being reasonably well settled at this point, I can report to the few who read this the first tales of my foray into Central Europe.

***

Arrival

Upon arrival at Budapest's Ferihegy International Airport, I walked off the jetway, turning to see a fairly clear, sunny day over the tarmac. Having cleared passport control, I collected my checked baggage and, not having anything to declare, cleared customs, meeting Karl Hall, director of the Bard/CEU undergraduate program, in the terminal's arrival area. After introducing himself and providing me with some basic documents from the program, Karl arranged for a taxi to take us to the CEU Residence Hall, which serves both as a dormitory for University students and as a conference center. Arriving at the Residence Hall, I met the undergraduate program coordinator, Monica Jitareanu who provided some additional documents and helped me settle myself in my assigned room.

The Residence Hall

There are a few irritating things worth noting about the Residence Hall. First, and perhaps most frustrating, is its distance from downtown Budapest: getting to the heart of the city requires a 30-minute ride on Budapest's public transportation system. Second, there are few amenities nearby, save two large shopping complexes about a mile from the Hall, as well as a grocery store and a McDonald's which are a short, 10-minute walk away. Third, the rooms in the Hall are of variable quality, some sporting a television and a small kitchen, while others, like mine, only contain a bed, a desk, a few shelves, and a full bathroom. Finally, the food at the Hall's cafeteria, while inexpensive, consisted mostly of heavy, fried dishes along with a salad bar that comprised vegetables which were, almost without exception, pickled. Such a menu seems hardly typical, as most restaurants sampled so far have offered a much wider variety of dishes.

***

Next:

• the public transportation system; and
  
• life outside of the Residence Hall.

Dispatch from Budapest: Abbreviated First Impressions

I arrived in Budapest on Saturday at noon, some 11 hours earlier than my anticipated time of arrival thanks to some fast and greatly-appreciated footwork on the part of my parents, who were able to change my BA flight from 20.00 to 07.50. Kudos to them!

Tomorrow, details on my first 84 hours in the Pearl of the Danube and the Heart of Europe, including:

• general impression of the city;
  
• the Central European University Dormitories;
  
• the public transportation system;
• the University campus;
• academic plans;
  
• seeking and viewing flats;
• weather; and
  
• a gustatory diary.

CONFIRMED: Scheduled wheels up at 9.00 on 8.31.2007

I'd have far preferred the 19.20 flight to Heathrow, but American Airlines has assured me that there are no seats available. Assuming there will be no mitigating circumstances that would alter either this or my current plans, I now have a confirmed departure time of 9.00 tomorrow morning. Huzzah!

Prep.

Plenty to be done today in preparation of wheels up tomorrow morning: deposits, withdrawals, returns, exchanges, purchases, reimbursements, reconciliations, a healthy amount of shredding (don't ask), &c. And packing. Didn't mention packing, did I? Packing, checking, cross-checking, and checking again.

D-2 H-11 M-3

My Own Personal D-Day

The level of stress induced for me in preparing for long-range travel is considerable, though not unmanageable. Can't wait to actually get on my flight, though. Scheduled wheels up at 9.00, Friday, August 31.

D-4 H-20 M-35

Mr. Negroponte, Meet Mr. Dell

My search for an inexepensive, yet functional laptop for my travels to Europe came to an end yesterday, when I was loaned an old Dell Latitude C600 from an old employer, who rarely uses the thing. It requires some updating (PCMCIA cards for ethernet and wireless internet access; a USB splitter; and a new battery), but overall, is in wonderful shape and will serve me fine for the next five months. It's certainly not a MacBook Pro, but it's closer to one than it is to an XO.

Troy, by Way of Route 93

This morning, I'm off to Fall River to do some data entry and training for BSAS at Steppingstone, Incorporated, a service provider that operates some ten houses that provide support to both the homeless and people who abuse substances. According to the town's website, Fall River, which is about an hour-long drive from Newton, was known as Troy in the early 19th century, with its name officially being changed to "Fall River" in 1834. Fall River, of course, is probably best known for Lizzie Borden (alleged celebrity murderer of the 1890's; imagine a fin-de-siècle cross of Paris Hilton and O.J. Simpson), for being a major mill town in the late 1800's (the town was also known as "Spindle City"), and for being the destination of a proposed extension of the MBTA Commuter Rail.

Croatian Inspiration; Overcommitment Redux; Smackdown: Nicholas Negroponte vs. Steve Jobs; and Yet Another Failure

When I started a blog, I wondered if anyone would actually read the damn thing. Initially, my reason for blogging was to work in a medium in which I could write on a daily basis. There are, of course, other forms that my writing could have taken: a diary, daily free-writing, a notebook of musings and thoughts, &c. But the public nature of blogs somehow made this particular medium more compelling for me than others, despite my belief that any feedback I might receive was irrelevant to my purpose of quotidian composition. Of course, anyone call tell at a glance that I have failed miserably in my attempt to write each day. But in the course of my occasional posts, I have found that I am most compelled to write when I have received comments, whether they be feedback on writing, a response to particular argument, a reflection, or simply a friendly recognition of the post. Having said this, it is therefore not surprising that I compose this post just having received word from a good friend of mine suggesting that I write more often. Knowing that there is at least one person who attends to my musings makes them worth all the while.

***

As I mentioned in an earlier post. I've committed myself to working some sixty to seventy hours per week for the last few weeks of August. I have I have yet to earn a considerable amount of the money necessary to cover expenses for living in Budapest, so in addition to a full-time position working on data migration for the Department of Public Health's Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, I've taken a half-time position at a public university, assisting a graduate college in preparing for a major accreditation review. These positions, along with doing various paid work for my family (I'll be installing insulation in our attic this week), should minimize the amount I'll have to obtain through loans.

One of the major expenses in my budget is a laptop. Supposedly the computer labs at Central European University (CEU) have rather inconvenient hours, so the purchase of a laptop is requisite. I am torn between a desire for something elementary and inexpensive (think Nicholas Negroponte's XO design for the OLPC project, retooled for adults) and a desire for something completely over the top: a 17-inch MacBook Pro. I'll probably settle somewhere in the middle: something not quite as simple as the XO, but considerably cheaper and lower-end than a Mac.

***

Finally, I sadly report that, as a result of a lack of both discipline and time, I have officially resigned from my efforts to learn Hungarian before my impending trip to Budapest. Thankfully, CEU offers a two-credit course in basic Hungarian for which I intend to register come September.

***

Eagerly awaiting an underfunded trip abroad, I remain,

-M

Today's Writer's Block: Overcommitment

I've intended to publish some three lengthy posts for some time now, each of which, while not an onerous undertaking, has taken a great deal of time to compose. Having committed myself to working some fifty to seventy hours per week for the next month, I have sadly been unable to actually complete any of these works. However, as I prepare for my departure to Budapest at the end of August, I will be writing more often, in an attempt to ready myself for the academics at Central European University.

The posts address:

• the shootings at Virgina Tech;
• policy training for parents of children with disabilities through NYS DOH; and
• thoughts on the Farm Bill, locally produced food, bottled water, desertification, roads, AIDS, and globalization.

More later....

A Quick, Random Thought

The following is a blatant truism, for the writing of which I hope any readers will forgive me.

There are certain people that one meets in life with whom one shares some unknown, indefinable bond. One might colloquially phrase it as two people "clicking" with each other or as "being on the same wavelength," or as some other cliché that suggests this connection that seems hard to pin down. Anyway, it's a nice thing. I'd probably be more introspective about this if it weren't for pressing work. But it will suffice for now to say that it's a wonderful thing when it happens.

Perhaps the beginning of "a beautiful friendship?" Who knows...

"The following film may be missing reels..."

Grindhouse. Well worth $10. See it in a small, grungy, funky theater with small screens, old seats, and bad sound (e.g., Circle Cinema in Brookline, Mass.). Not for the faint of heart (most of Rodriguez's and Tarantino's films aren't).

"The Motel"

Well-executed, independent film about a Chinese family that runs a motel. Worth watching. Depressing, though. (It's an indie film; I'm not sure what I was expecting.)

"Heroes" is Looking Really Good Right Now

As the sixteenth episode of the current season of "24" came to a close, I saw the spectre of Fonzie waterskiing across a lake in his leather jacket and now know, with a sinking feeling in my gut, that a shark is lurking somewhere in those waters.

It seems Joel Surnow and his writers are running out of plots that they can recycle on what, conceptually, is a very innovative series, but which now suffers from a variable quality of writing and acting.

A few plots from season six that are recurrences of plots from previous seasons:

• the invocation of the 25th Amendment, a plot from seasons two and four;
• the amputation of Gredenko's arm with an ax, an occurence reminiscent of both the amputation of Chase's hand by similar means in season three and Jack's removal of Marshall Goren's head with a hacksaw in season two;
• the assasination attempt on Wayne Palmer, reminiscent of the three attempted assasinations of David Palmer in seasons one and two and his assasination in season five;
• Morris's struggle with an addiction to alcohol, redolent of Jack's addiction to heroin in season three;
• Jack's assault on the Russian consulate in Los Angeles, a repetition of the CTU assault on the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles in season five;
• Vice President Daniels's attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Wayne Palmer's presidency, redolent of similar attempts by Vice Presidents Prescott and Gardner to undermine, respectively, the presidencies of Presidents David Palmer and Charles Logan in seasons two and five; and
• the threatened and realized nuclear attacks on Los Angeles, reminiscent of seasons two, four, and five.

The writers of "24" need to get back to basics: focus on writing realistic dialogue for deep characters and create tension through more suspense and less action. More suggestions to come.

Four Days ("Merci, La Poste" Redux)

Four days: that's how long it took for a letter from a wonderful friend to go from being posted in Paris to being delivered to the hamlet of Annandale-on-Hudson. Bravissimi, La Poste and USPS!

Being Blue Hardly Makes You Green

It's often presumed that Bard, deemed by the Princeton Review as an a institution of "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians," is a radically green campus.^{1, 2} If the administration and students at Bard were truly invested in maintaining a green campus, one would expect them to be a little more conscious of some simple behavior that's detrimental to the environment: turning lights out when they leave a room; investing in printers that have the capacity for automatic duplexing (I just printed out a 32-page article in the library); not littering. Am I expecting too much of the intelligent, liberal population of Bard?

---

¹"Best 361 Colleges." The Princeton Review. 2007.
²Bard is first of the list of "Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians." Apparently the students also "Ignore God on a Regular Basis" (#2) and smoke a great deal of pot ("Reefer Madness," again #2).

Merci, La Poste

Alas the French postal system has redeemed itself in my eyes. I sent a letter to Paris a few weeks ago and, after not hearing from the addressee, believed for some time that the French couriers had been stayed by rain or snow or heat or maybe one too many glasses of wine along with a penchant for not being invested in their work. I know the Francophiles will be displeased with that last statement for implying that the French are a bunch of lazy drunks and that's hardly the esteem in which I actually hold the French, but one must wonder about the motivation of workers in a society where citizens are essentially guaranteed a job for life once they're hired. As for being alcoholics, that's made from wholecloth on my part (mea culpa).

Of course, at this point, critical thinkers out there are screaming at their monitors: "What about the U.S. postal service?!? They're not exactly reliable, now, are they?" In short, yes, they are. Very. Complain as people may about the quality of service from the venerable USPS, few can deny that, in comparison to other countries, the postal system in the U.S. is one of the best: it is highly efficient and delivers 93% of first-class mail within its service commitment.¹

---

¹United States Postal Service. "2006 Comprehensive Statement on Postal Operations." 63. 2007.

A Brief Complaint

I generally don't complain about being single, but as the rain comes and the days get longer, as the frigid chill of February fades from memory, as I look around and see more and more couples, more of my peers happily involved with someone else, I grow weary of my solitude. I can endure it infinitely, but, o, how trying it can be at times like these.

High-beams

I just returned to campus from a weekend with my folks in Boston and I've a splitting headache: some nut-case on the Taconic was not only driving like an idiot (speeding up and slowing down at random, driving parallel to cars in the slow lane instead of passing them, &c.) but was doing so with his high-beams on. I did manage to get behind the fool, but he'd been behind me for some time and his headlamps had already done their damage. Qué será, será, but still, what a pain.

Do As Your Mother Told You

Wash your hands! Last week brought a Hepatitis A scare to campus. Hep. A, transmitted by hand-stool contact, leads to unpleasant, albeit short-term, symptoms of "jaundice, fatigue, abdomnal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea, and fever."¹ The spread of Hep. A is best prevented through thorough handwashing. While a 2005 observational study indicates that the vast majority of Americans in major metropolitan areas, 83%, wash their hands after using a restroom, there still remains 17% who, in not doing so, contribute to the outbreaks of diseases like Hep. A. And if infectious diseases aren't motiviation enough for you, think of how proud of you your mother would be for washing your hands.

---

¹Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Hepatitis A: Fact Sheet," Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/a/fact.htm (accessed February 18, 2007).

Breaking News: Suicide is Now Entertaining!

I have seen two ads in the past month that have featured suicide as a comic element. The first (to my knowledge) was a spot for GM that ran during Super Bowl XLI, which GM has since pulled. The other, advertising Volkwagen cars, is still airing. Forget about Prozac...you just haven't bought the right car yet. Since when has suicide become a topic treated so lightly?

ACUAH

I've started another blog on Blogger to address my academic interests. A City Upon a Hill will complement my academic work in American Studies and, perhaps, promote discussion about the specific topics listed there as well as the discipline in general.

The Beginning of a Brain Drain

Jay Leno once noted that President Bush believes that Iraq "can have a strong economy...can have a good health care plan, and...can have a free and fair voting." Of particular interest to me here is health care. Indeed, Article 30, Paragraph 1 of the Iraqi constitution states that:

the state guarantees to the individual and the family -- especially children and women -- social and health security

My question: how can we get that over here in the States?

Of course, there are countless social institutions in the U.S. that are far superior than the comparable institutions in Iraq. Education is an excellent example. In an earlier post, I noted that school-age children in Iraq are not attending classes and are instead working to support their families. The situation in higher education is just as dismal. Reporting for NPR, Anne Gerrels filed this story on the sad state of Iraqi universities.

Back in the Saddle

It's official: I have returned to Bard College to finish my studies. Student Accounts has my parents' money, I've "registered" for courses, and even the library caught whiff of my presence and is asking me to return overdue books from my last semester here (more on the scare quotes in a moment).

I'm living on the periphery of the main campus in Gahagan, an old house which was converted into a dorm. The construction from that conversion was either poorly executed in the first place or has been warped and skewed over the years. (I tend to believe the former with the latter as a factor that compounded already existing problems.) The house has three entrances, one in the front which leads to a common kitchen and the three rooms on the ground floor. A side door serves as a private entrance for one of the rooms on the ground floor. The third entrance is located near the back of the house and leads to a stairway to the second floor, which, in my estimation was either an attic or originally part of the ground floor before the house became a dorm. There is low clearance walking up the stairs and in most of the second floor, making it a less than ideal setting for a tall person such as myself. It is impossible to move from the second floor to the ground floor rooms without going outside to the front entrance. Finally, the latch on the door to my room will not shut completely unless it is lifted while closed.

These annoyances aside, it's quite a nice place to live. The other students living on the second floor are quite friendly and welcoming. The rooms are also quite warm, a nice problem to have after suffering from insufficient heat in my previous room.

As for "registration," technically, there is no space in the classes in which I would like to enroll. In order to register today, I would have had to settle for a selection of classes that, while certainly interesting to others, would have been devestatingly boring for me. Thus, I will be registering by adding classes to my course load during the add/drop period. The two professors who I spoke to today seemed eager for me to be in their classes: political science professor Mark Lindeman and I had a brief conversation about the politics of education, the false dichotomy of dividing America into two diametrically opposed ideologies of red/blue and conservative/liberal, and the decline of Hollywood cinema; sociology professor Yuval Elmelech and I discussed his seminar on social problems in America and my interest in education as one such problem to be explored in his class. I intend to take three courses this semester as a way of easing back into the strenuous academics of Bard, which leaves space for one additonal course. Hopefully, for that final course, I will be able to join history professor Myra Armstead in her research seminar on urban history.

There is one final note, a disappointment, which I must register: the food. "Same shit, different day" seems to me an apt description. All the more motivation for taking up cooking this semester.

The Evolution of Technology: Scratch-n-Sniff Develops into Rub-n-Sniff

It seems like a minor distinction, but according to AdAge, the Wall Street Journal is going to start integrating "rub-n-sniff" advertisements into their newspaper. The smell emitted by the new ads will supposedly be more subtle than the offensive perfume ad inserts that pervade fashion magazines.

This all seems a bit silly to me, though. Last I heard, circulation of print papers was down considerably and I can't imagine that readers will flock to the WSJ just because they can smell the ads. Another questions: how much is this going to cost the Journal to implement? Do they really think those costs could possibly be offset by potential increased circulation and ad revenues?

Mala Vista

According to a story today from The Times of London, Microsoft's profits for the last quarter are down 28%. Why? Microsoft couldn't get its act together in to release their new O.S., Vista, when they had planned to. Thus, Microsoft had to offer coupons so that consumers purchasing new machines at the end of last year could upgrade to Vista upon its release. My question: why bother waiting for an upgrade when you could go out and buy a Mac?

Che cosa, Cusamano?

I've been wending my way through the first season of The Sopranos, which is wonderful not only for the stellar performances by the entire cast, but for the complexity of its writing. The Sopranos' writers withhold such a wealth of information as to intentions, motivations, and even the meaning of words that watching each episode requires one's utmost attention. One particularly confusing feature of the last episode I watched, "A Hit is a Hit," was the use of the word "cus," a nickname for a character with the last name of Cusamano. The character alludes to the fact that, in Italian, the word "cus" bears a negative connotation, but does not elaborate on the meaning. The writers deny the audience a chance to understand the full meaning of the word, which I can only hope will be explained in a later episode. Even drawing on the wealth of information now available through the internet, I was unable to find a hint as to the meaning of the phrase.

"Hogwash:" Proof that Cheney Doesn't Know Dick

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq that Blitzer alluded to with characteristic gravitas: "I simply don't accept the premise of your questions. I just think it's hogwash." While Blitzer contended that the war in Iraq has created a "terrible situation," Cheney suggested that the difficulties in Iraq are simply "ongoing problems" that pale in comparison to rule under Saddam Hussein.

While Cheney's assertion may be true, the dire nature of the situation in Iraq cannot be aptly described as a set of "ongoing problems." The ramifications of daily attacks by insurgency forces have expanded far beyond the cost of lives alone. Not only is the Iraqi government falling apart at the seams (Nouri al-Maliki isn't too keen on staying in his position; neither, apparently, are the legislators), but the general populace is suffering, too. According to a report by ABC, children of Iraqi's who have been injured or killed in insurgent attacks are now leaving their schools so that they can support their families by working. Attendance in Iraqi elementary schools has dropped from 75% in 2005 to a mere 30% in 2006. Instead of pursuing an education, children are working either for legitimate businesses or for insurgents eager to indotrinate a new generation of Jihadists.

With a failing government, Iraqi children being raised as soldiers for the insurgence, and a host of economic shortcomings, perhaps Mr. Cheney should choose his words more carefully when describing the Iraqi state.

Stories of Note for the Morning of Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Politico Downgrades Giuliani's Chances
Writing for The Politico, Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith look at the former mayor of New York and his uphill battle for the RNC nomination in 2008, suggesting that Giuliani's failed run for Senate in 2000 along with his highly public lifestyle is detrimental to his current campaign. Of course it doesn't help that earlier this month, Smith, writing for the New York Daily News, obtained a copy of Giuliani's '08 campaign playbook. For his part, Giuliani claims that his campaign will be working full swing in Iowa by mid-February.

Security, Growing Doubts over Stability Hinder Iraqi Legislature
The constant threat of bombings along with a fragile infrastructure have recently left the Iraqi legislature often lacking a quorum of members. Damien Cave of The New York Times examines the threats and doubts that face legislators and the paradoxical attempts to promote attendance.

L.A. Considers a Gangbusting Tax
How bad is the gang violence in Los Angeles? Bad enough to spur the City Council to call for a parcel tax that would raise the $50 million to enact a variety of anti-gang measures. Patrick McGreevy and Steve Hymon of The Los Angeles Times write on the the likelihood of the passage of the tax and the opposition from citizen who have rejected recent tax hikes.


Other Stories

• Analysis of the President's State of the Union speech from The Nation, The New York Times, and The Washington Times.

• The Boston Globe is carrying an AP story today confirming that John Kerry will not make a bid for the presidency in 2008.

• AFP reports that the the President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, will step down in the face of rape charges.