20 questions for any of us

Foreign Policy magazine has published 20 questions it would like to ask Sarah Palin, assuming, I'm sure, that she will not have answers to many of them. While I don't assume that any of my many illustrious readers are vying to be back-up Leader of the Free World (correct me if I'm wrong), I'm wondering how many the rest of us could answer. I like to think I'm up to speed, but here are a few good ones:

1. Is Iraq a democracy?
2. What is your preferred plan for peace between Israel and Palestine? A two state solution? What about Jerusalem?
3. Do you support the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which would lift restrictions on sales of nuclear technology and fuel to India, a country which hasn't signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
4. Other than more drilling, what steps do you suggest the U.S. take in order to move toward energy independence? Do you believe more investment is needed in alternative energy research? If so, how would you recommend this funding be allocated?
5. How would you balance concerns over human rights and freedom in China with the United States' growing economic interdependence with that country?
6. What's more important: securing Russia's cooperation on nuclear proliferation and Iran, or supporting Georgia's NATO bid? If Vladimir Putin called you on the phone and said, "It's one or the other," what would you tell him?

Here are my quick thoughts:
1. No
2. Tough one: would a one-state solution get everyone focused on mutual well-being?
3. India needs power, there's no question of that, and nuclear power might be a good option. Yet, we know they have the bomb and might not mind using it in Kashmir. We need to press them to sign the NPT.
4. Ah, I have so many thoughts - yes, pour lots and lots of money into alternative energy research and even more into energy efficiency/conservation research.
5. Continue with diplomatic pressure. Countries that open up to trade open themselves up to communication and culture. The Chinese people will begin to demand more transparency and a greater political voice as their prosperity increases.
6. Russia would never support Georgia's NATO bid, so get their cooperation on proliferation and Iran.

What are your answers?

Open Secret.org

This site is fascinating. I found it today when looking up a company we just lost a project bid to. 

I also looked up who in my company gave what to all the presidential candidates. Fun.

Cool, big, expensive science

They turned on the Large Hadron Collider today! I love it that pure science still finds a place and funding in this world.

"We will be able to see deeper into matter than ever before," said Dr Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool.

"We will be looking at what the Universe was made of billionths of a second after the Big Bang. That is amazing, that really is fantastic."

The LHC should answer one very simple question: What is mass?

Palin & McCain

While I'm a huge Obama fan, I thought that I would have been ok with a McCain presidency. His choice of Palin makes his ticket completely unacceptable to me for many reasons. In an op-ed by Frank Rich today, he points out how the choice of Palin brings to light things about McCain which maybe should have made me pause before as well. For example, do we really need another 4 years of running the world's most powerful country by gut-feel rather than analysis? 

Even more fraudulent, if that's possible, is the contrast between McCain's platonic presentation of his personal code of honor and the man he has become. He always puts his country first, he told us: "I've been called a maverick." If there was any doubt that that McCain has fled, confirmation arrived with his last-minute embrace of Sarah Palin.

We all think Green is the province of the young, but...

Here's consumption data showing that those over 55 are twice as likely to buy Green as the average consumer. 

Climate risk in business terms

At the end of the day, engaging business on the level of risk and risk mitigation is the way that change will come. Here's an article on the UN IPCC's next phase. Too bad they're going to take 6 years to come out with their next conclusions.

The United Nations climate panel, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, said on Thursday it plans to work with corporate leaders and investors to flesh out the business risks linked to global warming.

With its next major "synthesis" report not due until 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will focus now on renewable energies and also engage with companies about the dangers of a warming planet and ways to confront it.

Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chairman of a IPCC working group, said pension funds were keen to hear which sectors and countries are most threatened by climate change, a phenomenon the panel's scientists have linked to the burning of fossil fuels like oil.

"Their investment decisions depend heavily on that," he said, referring to pension fund managers. "The business community, the investors' community, is really interested."

An IPCC report on the risks and potential of renewable energy technologies is in the works for 2010, Edenhofer added.

IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri dismissed worries a slowing world economy would eclipse concerns about global warming, which the U.N. panel has said will cause more extreme storms, floods, drought, and rising sea levels, among other disasters.

"There is a perception of the public, every time there is an extreme event, to link it to human-induced climate change," he told journalists in Geneva, where the IPCC met this week.

"I don't think there is any danger of this being driven off the radar screen of decision makers and the public at large," Pachauri said.

Border regions and the Taliban

Foreign Policy magazine calls this a "must-read" article, exploring the tribal regions on the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Admittedly, I haven't read it yet.

Palin: Pro-entrepreneur?

And for an angle on Palin I hadn't thought of before. Making life easy for small business is a very good thing for everyone:

"As Mayor and CEO of the booming city of Wasilla, my team invited investment and encouraged business growth by eliminating small business inventory taxes, eliminated personal property taxes, reduced real property tax mill levies every year I was in office, reduced fees, and built the infrastructure our businesses needed to grow and prosper."

Sexism, sexism, sexism

I'm not convinced that Sarah Palin is a great pick as VP, but that aside, I think that the blatant double standard that is being applied to her is appalling.

Can she be VP and mother to five children?
Can McCain be president and father to seven children?

Hmmm, I've heard the first question about 100 times by now and I've never heard the second one.

Economic policy by the Candidates

Here's an interesting summary of McCain and Obama's proposed economic policies from the Council on Foreign Relations. It says Obama proposes big govenment spending programs to increase employment and stimulate the economy, and that very differently, McCain proposes a decrease in corporate taxes, so that they can afford to hire more people.

Interestingly, it says that either one of the them might well be thwarted, either by Congress or by the fact that the economy is in such dire straights that even a lot of government spending might not help dig us out. Also, they think that Obama will adopt a more centrist position once elected.

Thoughts?

Oil, Lobster, Insecurity

It's sad that fuel prices and economic insecurity lead to this, but lobster demand and prices are down, according to the NY Times. One interesting thing noted here is that the fishermen are leaving traps for, say, two days instead of one to save on fuel. I wonder if that's a fuel efficient practice they'll keep for the long term.

So, if you are looking for a treat, why not go for lobster instead of beef or some other food that's also rising in price. Beef, in fact, gets the price bump from both transport costs and the huge rise in grain and feed stock prices.

McCain rolling the dice

There's a good blog entry in the FT today talking about how McCain might be a very scary choice as Commander in Chief:

Opinion polls consistently show that the American public has more faith in Mr McCain as commander-in-chief. He looks like the safe choice for dangerous times.

But this is wrong. Mr McCain will not run a "safe" foreign policy. He adores rolling the dice. His decision to select Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate typifies the man. It is a big risk. It could turn out to be inspired. Or it might turn out to be a disaster. But it is not "safe".

Mr McCain approaches international affairs in the same spirit. His instinct is always to take the radical option and to march towards the sound of gunfire.

Brits behaving badly

The NY Times has a big article about the scourge of drunken Brits who descend on the Mediterranean, behave badly, get arrested or injured and basically make a nuisance of themselves.
I don't this comes as any surprise to anyone who's visited Britain or any place in southern Europe. It's become the standard stereotype of Brits.

The only up side is that by comparison, "ugly Americans" aren't so ugly any more.

Olympics - Where is India?

I was looking at this very nifty graphic on the NY Times site, which shows medal counts for all of the modern Olympic Games, and I thought to myself: Where's India??

It is so often compared to it's equally enormous neighbor to the north, China, which won 100 medals. I realized India was essentially missing, not just in this Olympics, but in past ones as well. India won 3 medals, half the number of Uzbekistan, and far, far fewer than Belarus, for example.

Why does India have so few? Tell me your thoughts, I'd love to hear.

Power can make you a jerk

This is a great article in Business Week talking about 1) how we start to behave like the people around us - so surround yourself with good and happy people, and 2) how power can make people into jerks. This sounds exactly like some people I work with. Hits the nail precisely on the head:

A growing body of research—notably by professors Dachner Keltner at University of California, Berkeley, Deborah Gruenfeld at Stanford, and their students—documents that three things happen when people are put in positions of power:

1. They focus more on satisfying their own needs;

2. They focus less on the needs of their underlings;

3. They act like "the rules" others are expected to follow don't apply to them.

A particularly amusing study—undertaken by Keltner, Gruenfeld, and another colleague—shows that giving people just a little more power than their colleagues causes them to eat more cookies, chew with their mouths open, and leave more crumbs. Keltner also cites research showing that power leads people to process information in shallower ways and to make decisions that are less carefully reasoned.

Julia Child was a Spy

Check this out, Julia Child worked for the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, during WWII.

Of course, Julia Child immediately brings to mind French cooking, but my favorite book by her and one of the only cookbooks I regularly refer to is The Way to Cook. It tells you how to poach and how to debone, as well as giving classic and delicious recipes.

Yucky Water as Art

There's an art exhibition in Belgium showing vials of vile stuff that passes for potable water in different parts of the world.

''There is growing concern about the scarcity of water, and the need to save it, but in many countries, it's still taken for granted as something that pours out of the tap,'' said Jane Withers, who co-curated the exhibition with Ilse Crawford. ''People think of water as a clear, neutral product that always looks the same. It doesn't, because it's a living thing, as the samples show. We hope that once people realize this, they'll consider using water more pleasurably as well as more thoughtfully.''

US taking over Georgian Ports!

Now that the cold war is over, are we going to enter a hot war with Russia over Georgia?  The verdict is out. Once we occupy Georgian ports, which is where Russia Black Sea fleet calls home, are the Russians going to try to take the ports back?

Speaking of Architecture

I've finally downloaded my pictures from my trip to Europe, and I was struck by the similarities between the "puzzle wall" at Delphi in Greece and the famous Incan wall in Cuzco.

This top one is from Delphi, which you would have guessed because of the column, I'm sure.

This second one, I found on the web. I'd like to go to Cuzco some day. I've been to Peru twice, but always for work and only to Lima, which is hardly a tourist highlight.

Olympic Architecture

I have to say I love the Olympics. For a wild and crazy Saturday night, we stayed in last night and ate dinner in front of the TV watching swimming and men's gymnastics.

I'm also loving the architecture. Of course, everyone's talking about how massive the investment was, but in some of these cases, the buildings are amazing. The Bird's Nest has become iconic, but I also love the Water Cube.

I know that usage for the facilities after the games has to be part of the plan and is taken into consideration when the city is chosen as host. It's not clear to me that it ever really works out very well. We'll have to wait and see.

So green

I was talking this morning over breakfast with George about EcoCities. There are a number of ambitious plans in the Gulf, as well as China and India, to build ground-up green cities. The solutions feel like overlaying smart technology onto traditional city layout, with public spaces and more room for walking than driving. So when I saw picture, which is the picture of the day from National Geograpic, of a clothesline, it made me think about how many things which in the 20th century we "improved" upon using machines and power, we are now going back to.

On a much less serious note...

In case you haven't seen the Paris Hilton response to McCain, it's great:

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Western China

A few days ago, 16 police officers were killed in Kashgar, supposedly by a Uighur jihadist group. Here's a good article in the FT talking not only about the incident, but the situation in Xinjiang province overall.

I remember that after September 11th when Bush declared a "war on terror", the Chinese were the first to support it. I'm sure it's so they could legitimize any dissent in western China by the oppressed Uighurs, whose situation as been compared to the Tibetans except that they don't have a photogenic leader to take their cause to the world.

So, what do you think? True or False? One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. Does it just depend on which side of the fence/ocean/ethnic divide you sit on?

A View of Oxford

Here's a cool picture from the BBC showing restoration work on the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theater in Oxford. This is the theater where the graduation ceremonies take place, entirely in Latin, which in my humble experience made it difficult to know when to walk.

Obama's Energy Plan

Hmmm, I liked Obama's refusal earlier in the summer to back the silliness of a summer gasoline tax holiday, but now I'm not sure I'm completely in line with his new thinking. I'm all for weaning ourselves off Venezuelan and Middle Eastern oil within a decade (though I can't imagine that will actually happen.) What I'm no so excited about is the interest in opening up more Alaskan wilderness to drilling for several reasons:

1. There are ample federal lands where oil companies already have concessions and are doing nothing with them
2. We only have so much wilderness - leave it alone!
3. We should be spending that money, yes THAT MUCH money, on conservation technologies and alternative energy technology