by Dan Nexon | 27 Jul 2008 |
David Brooks has an Alanis Morisette moment (except this one really is ironic): But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But...
by Charli Carpenter | 26 Jul 2008 |
Lots went on in international criminal justice this past week. A few thoughts about three big news stories and a smaller one are below the fold.1) Omar Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court. I was less surprised by the fact that a sitting head of state might be charged than that the list of charges actually included genocide. Not because the facts on the ground don't suggest they should, but because of the nature of the crime...
by Peter | 24 Jul 2008 |
Yesterday I was running a short simulation exercise on the Cuban Missile Crisis for students in my summer program, and lo and behold, what appeared in the paper, but:Russian bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons could be deployed to Cuba in response to U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, a Russian newspaper reported Monday, citing an unnamed senior Russian air force official.The report in Izvestia, which...
by Dan Nexon | 23 Jul 2008 |
Hasn't it occurred to any of these idiots that adopting Nazi iconography and aesthetics is the last thing a US Presidential candidate would want to do to improve his popularity in Germany?Unless he's aiming for that all-important 14-25 East German demographic, half of whom apparently believe that "National Socialism had good sides" (meaning that the other half believed it had no positive qualities whatsoever, I might add).As Haaretz reported:A...
by Dan Nexon | 23 Jul 2008 |
I have a very difficult time getting worked into a lather because John McCain has, on more than one occasion, referred to "The Czech Republic" as "Czechoslovakia" (video). I'm less than half McCain's age, and I often slip (during lectures no less) and call Russia the "Soviet Union" and substitute "Soviets" for "Russians." Shockingly enough, I almost always do this, like McCain, in contexts when I'm discussing nuclear deterrence, ballistic...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
The BBC reports on a new study finding that drummers are "top athletes" (also available on video):Burke was connected to equipment to measure his heart rate and oxygen uptake, and the levels of lactic acid in his blood.He found that during a performance, his heart averaged between 140 and 150 beats a minute, peaking at 190, levels comparable to other top athletes.However, Dr Smith said that while top footballers were expected to perform once or...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
The Abkhazia plan proposed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been getting close to zero press in the United States. Which may be appropriate. As a Kommersant headline sums it up: "Russia Signs On to German Plan, After Abkhazia Rejects It."Russia has given high marks to the plan for a Georgian-Abkhazian settlement proposed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and called it “conceptually absolutely correct.”...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
From Damien Mansell of Swansea University:The cabin was situated on the top of a ridge, at the bottom of a large valley looking out to the Arctic Ocean. The Ocean met large ice-cliffs and nunataks, which stared back at us from across the water.We shared out all the necessary equipment and supplies amongst our packs and pulkas (sledges). Those who skied ahead of us had the coal and fire wood and we were welcomed by a toasty warm fire.Adam and I...
by Dan Nexon | 22 Jul 2008 |
Although I've played around with Wordle (h/t Daniel Little) before, I admit that I never thought of using it for a particular form of academic navel-gazing: generating text-clouds of one's books. Thus, following in the immortal footsteps of Henry Farrell, Kirean Healy, and Steven Taylor, I present....The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University...
by Charli Carpenter | 22 Jul 2008 |
Well, I was all set to blog this morning about having my faith in international institutions renewed by the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, but then I discovered I'd been "tagged" by Dan Drezner to blog about my favorite "guilty pleasure" songs. I have explained to Dan I have a committed relationship with pleasure but only an occassional flirtation with guilt, so the five songs he requested will be hard to come by.Still, there are those that...
by Peter | 20 Jul 2008 |
Eight years later, and we're back to the same spot with North Korea.Lets review:After a nuclear crisis that nearly results in war, the Clinton Administration reaches a nuclear deal with North Korea. After up and down implementation, North Korea lashes out with an ICBM test. Negotiations eventually resume, resulting in a more robust deal and further cooperation by North Korea. Things go so well that Secretary of State Madeline Albright visits...
by Rodger Payne | 19 Jul 2008 |
The figure at right is borrowed from a U.S. government website of Dennis A Wolf, a statistician with Oak Ridge National Lab. This particular image relates to a short article: "Assessing Fish Susceptibility to Predation." As anyone can clearly see, fish exposed "to a startling stimulus" do not flop. Rather, they exhibit "the characteristic C-shape (see figure)... behavioral response." They start swimming in a completely different...