Tuesday 4 November 2008
My Wait
Well, I remember doing this four years ago with Helen and Jonny, going to bed sure that Bush wouldn't win. Well, this time Ohio and New Mexico have just fallen to the Democrats, meaning that at 200 electoral votes projected, only Florida (27) and California (55) need to go to Obama for a final win. Given the current (somewhat surprising) vote in Florida (2,873,710 McCain, 3,052,972 Obama with over 50% of the votes counted) I think it's game over. So I think it's bed-time...
My Doubt
Let me put it on record that I am dubious about Obama.
Not because I think he isn't a good man - both McCain and Obama are clearly decent people. Or because I think he doesn't have proposals - I know from his manifesto that he does, and I'm in agreement with most of them. For that matter, I'm in agreement with a lot of McCain's too.
It isn't even that I'm in doubt over whether Obama is the better person to be the next president of the US - he has the popular vote and will have the backing of the Senate - which also means that he's more likely to get his ideas passed. Not only that, but the vast majority of his policies are solid, and although his track record has not been as green as that of McCain (I know, it was a surprise to me as well!), he has the intelligence to fight and stick to what he believes in.
No. What I'm concerned about is the aura surrounding him ... particularly amongst his supporters - and that includes the majority of the European media. I think this could mean that even the smallest slip up will lead to these people - of which there are many - being more than a little disappointed. More importantly, to his critics there will be the chance to say 'I told you so'. I truly don't know whether people will have the confidence to stick with him when difficult decisions have to be made.
The reason for my worry is that by having such great faith in one man America seems to be setting itself up for another Blair saga. Now, I always thought Blair was a good decent man, and a good politician. An incredible orator with immense personal charm, he swayed the public into believing in him - that it was his efforts that would lead Britain to the fore of the world stage. And that lasted up until the Iraq war. I remember my peers in high school walking out en masse in protest against the war (which hadn't yet started) leaving me more-or-less alone with the entire school to myself. To them, the war was an inevitability - they were just looking for a chance to skive. And so it was for many. Yes, the war was unpopular, but most people accepted that WMDs existed, and I think many would have been happy to go to war had international consensus been reached. But Blair had to make a difficult decision. He clearly believed there were WMDs - I don't believe for a second that he was lying to the public - and therefore had to make a very difficult choice over whether to follow Bush into the war. And whatever the Labour Government's reasons for this, I think their intentions could be justified at the time. And yet, looking back most people still have this intense hatred against 'Bliar', as they relish calling him. And why? I think a big part of that is their original faith in him.
I think we may all too soon reach a similar point with Obama. I truly hope we don't, and I have faith that he can help to solve many of his own country's problems, as well as those of the world. And whatever people may say, America can still hold huge sway over the world's politicians, and therefore the world. But this unbelievably strong unfaltering belief in another human being to undertake a superhuman task is a fragile thing - and if it breaks, things will never be the same.
Not because I think he isn't a good man - both McCain and Obama are clearly decent people. Or because I think he doesn't have proposals - I know from his manifesto that he does, and I'm in agreement with most of them. For that matter, I'm in agreement with a lot of McCain's too.
It isn't even that I'm in doubt over whether Obama is the better person to be the next president of the US - he has the popular vote and will have the backing of the Senate - which also means that he's more likely to get his ideas passed. Not only that, but the vast majority of his policies are solid, and although his track record has not been as green as that of McCain (I know, it was a surprise to me as well!), he has the intelligence to fight and stick to what he believes in.
No. What I'm concerned about is the aura surrounding him ... particularly amongst his supporters - and that includes the majority of the European media. I think this could mean that even the smallest slip up will lead to these people - of which there are many - being more than a little disappointed. More importantly, to his critics there will be the chance to say 'I told you so'. I truly don't know whether people will have the confidence to stick with him when difficult decisions have to be made.
The reason for my worry is that by having such great faith in one man America seems to be setting itself up for another Blair saga. Now, I always thought Blair was a good decent man, and a good politician. An incredible orator with immense personal charm, he swayed the public into believing in him - that it was his efforts that would lead Britain to the fore of the world stage. And that lasted up until the Iraq war. I remember my peers in high school walking out en masse in protest against the war (which hadn't yet started) leaving me more-or-less alone with the entire school to myself. To them, the war was an inevitability - they were just looking for a chance to skive. And so it was for many. Yes, the war was unpopular, but most people accepted that WMDs existed, and I think many would have been happy to go to war had international consensus been reached. But Blair had to make a difficult decision. He clearly believed there were WMDs - I don't believe for a second that he was lying to the public - and therefore had to make a very difficult choice over whether to follow Bush into the war. And whatever the Labour Government's reasons for this, I think their intentions could be justified at the time. And yet, looking back most people still have this intense hatred against 'Bliar', as they relish calling him. And why? I think a big part of that is their original faith in him.
I think we may all too soon reach a similar point with Obama. I truly hope we don't, and I have faith that he can help to solve many of his own country's problems, as well as those of the world. And whatever people may say, America can still hold huge sway over the world's politicians, and therefore the world. But this unbelievably strong unfaltering belief in another human being to undertake a superhuman task is a fragile thing - and if it breaks, things will never be the same.
Tuesday 28 October 2008
My Shiny Thing
Apologies for shamelessly ripping the title of my post from Red Dwarf, but I've been falling into my normal autumnal spirit of a) wishing I was a squirrel, and b) finding Cat extremely cool (especially the dancing). Meh, each to their own, I suppose. Anyway, here's an update on the last month or so...
Firstly, of course, I've started my PhD. At present this involves learning how to use command line in Unix, and also the ins and outs of various programs, including (but not limited to) GMT, Latex, BREQfast and SAC. Oh, and today I've got started with C programming language. Only simple programs at the moment, but I'm hoping to get something useful coded by December. I've already updated a program designed to sort earthquake catalogues and sift through them for interesting data - but this wasn't real programming - that'll have to wait.
Of course, all of that work requires a desktop in my room (which I've had for four years, although now with a 'new' hard-drive), and one in my office. But being a greedy person, that wasn't really enough. So, with some of my lovely scholarship money, I decided to get my first laptop. It arrived a week ago today, and I still haven't got over how pretty it is. And easy to use. And fast! For those of you wondering, it's a Sony SR19-XN. I particularly like how Sony have bundled Adobe Standard and Elements for free. Oh, and it has a fingerprint reader. For those who want to look like Bond.
Apart from this, things have been fairly relaxed - I've settled in at my new college (Magdalene), and started demonstrating and supervising (which I won't talk about, as I can never tell who might be reading this). Now that Freshers' Fortnight is well and truly over, things have calmed down considerably, and I'm ready to get back into the normal social side of things, which, apart from a couple of dinners and parties, and a great evening out in London have had to take a back seat. Roll on November!
Firstly, of course, I've started my PhD. At present this involves learning how to use command line in Unix, and also the ins and outs of various programs, including (but not limited to) GMT, Latex, BREQfast and SAC. Oh, and today I've got started with C programming language. Only simple programs at the moment, but I'm hoping to get something useful coded by December. I've already updated a program designed to sort earthquake catalogues and sift through them for interesting data - but this wasn't real programming - that'll have to wait.
Of course, all of that work requires a desktop in my room (which I've had for four years, although now with a 'new' hard-drive), and one in my office. But being a greedy person, that wasn't really enough. So, with some of my lovely scholarship money, I decided to get my first laptop. It arrived a week ago today, and I still haven't got over how pretty it is. And easy to use. And fast! For those of you wondering, it's a Sony SR19-XN. I particularly like how Sony have bundled Adobe Standard and Elements for free. Oh, and it has a fingerprint reader. For those who want to look like Bond.Apart from this, things have been fairly relaxed - I've settled in at my new college (Magdalene), and started demonstrating and supervising (which I won't talk about, as I can never tell who might be reading this). Now that Freshers' Fortnight is well and truly over, things have calmed down considerably, and I'm ready to get back into the normal social side of things, which, apart from a couple of dinners and parties, and a great evening out in London have had to take a back seat. Roll on November!
Thursday 25 September 2008
My Cure
Should have known there was a way around feeling antsy. The Beiderbecke Affair. James Bolam, Barbara Flynn, and great jazz. Oh, and some genius lines to boot. For example, on discussing Jill's method to persuade Trevor to go to a meeting (she's an active activist, Trevor isn't):
Jill Swinburne: D'you fancy going out tonight? Belated anniversary celebration.
Trevor Chaplin: What is it? "Save the whale" or "single-parent families"?
Jill Swinburne: I've got no kids - I can't be a single-parent family.
Trevor Chaplin: Have you considered fostering a blue whale? Solve two problems.
Like I said, genius. And not a swear-word or murder in sight.
Jill Swinburne: D'you fancy going out tonight? Belated anniversary celebration.
Trevor Chaplin: What is it? "Save the whale" or "single-parent families"?
Jill Swinburne: I've got no kids - I can't be a single-parent family.
Trevor Chaplin: Have you considered fostering a blue whale? Solve two problems.
Like I said, genius. And not a swear-word or murder in sight.
My Feeling
Well, this'll have to be yet another short post, as I should really be writing up my field diary, notes for a paper, and packing for Cambridge. In reality of course, none of these things are going to get done tonight. And this is for one very good reason. I'm feeling antsy.
Having got back from Greece yesterday evening, I've been feeling a mixture of tiredness and irritability which pretty much only comes from two things with me. If you know me well enough, you might be able to guess what both of them are - but it doesn't matter anyway, as the results are the same. Firstly, there's a complete inability to stay still; for example, right now I'm rocking backwards and forwards manically on a swivel chair whilst biting my finger nails, and tapping my foot on one of the chair legs. Secondly, and in this case more importantly, I find it impossible to do anything actually useful. As a result, I'm temporarily limited to menial tasks like looking at other people's photos, website maintainance, checking bank accounts, the news, the price of cheese, whether that noise is someone else in the house or just the phantom plumbing and any number of other useless things.
This, of course, is what keeps diaries like mine going - I have far too many things to do before I go back, and I really want to meet up with at least a couple of friends before I do, but until I shake off this feeling, that ain't going to happen. Can anyone suggest any drugs for this kind of thing?! Whilst I still have fingers left?
Having got back from Greece yesterday evening, I've been feeling a mixture of tiredness and irritability which pretty much only comes from two things with me. If you know me well enough, you might be able to guess what both of them are - but it doesn't matter anyway, as the results are the same. Firstly, there's a complete inability to stay still; for example, right now I'm rocking backwards and forwards manically on a swivel chair whilst biting my finger nails, and tapping my foot on one of the chair legs. Secondly, and in this case more importantly, I find it impossible to do anything actually useful. As a result, I'm temporarily limited to menial tasks like looking at other people's photos, website maintainance, checking bank accounts, the news, the price of cheese, whether that noise is someone else in the house or just the phantom plumbing and any number of other useless things.
This, of course, is what keeps diaries like mine going - I have far too many things to do before I go back, and I really want to meet up with at least a couple of friends before I do, but until I shake off this feeling, that ain't going to happen. Can anyone suggest any drugs for this kind of thing?! Whilst I still have fingers left?
Saturday 30 August 2008
My Travels
Well, this will have to be a short post, as there's absolutely no way that I can actually write everything that has happened since my last post!
Anyway, having graduated with the grades I wanted from Cambridge (apart from failing my Greek course, but we'll leave that aside) my next task was to get everything organised for my PhD, to start on 1st October. You'd think this would be easy, but in fact I've had to chase the Board of Graduate Studies (BoGS) and the Department pretty much every step of the way. Never mind, it's all done now - Magdalene College have accepted me, so I've now left Peterhouse - and as soon as accommodation is sorted out I'll be ready to go!
Of course, I've been doing other things with my time apart from this. I now have my name in the Newton Catalogue for the Huppert Essay on Geophysics that I wrote whilst I should have been preparing for my finals. I've been doing a little bit of reading for my PhD (with Dan McKenzie FRS PhD CH, on Deep Focus Earthquakes). What else? Ah yes...
More or less straight after graduation, I took the opportunity to return to Greece to do a little work on migmatites and exhumation within the Pelagonian (which, amazingly, could be found only about 30 minutes from where I've stayed over the past three years, in the village of Paliouria). Maybe there'll be a publication from it, maybe not - but it was fun anyway, and gave me a good excuse to meet up with some of my friends from the village!!
After that (as in, 1 day after that), came our family vacation, to Hampshire, which was lovely. We stayed in a fantastic old cottage, surrounded by truly free range horses, deer and donkeys. It was very good to see my uncles, aunts and cousins again, too...
My most recent adventure, which came just a couple of days afterwards, was a 10 day trip to Iceland with my new supervisor. I can't find superlatives great enough to describe the sights, sounds and experiences there - but I'll try when I actually post my diary from the trip!!
In about a week's time, I return to Greece for a big symposium on the Ophiolites of the area. Who knows how that'll turn out, but it should be fun...
Bob
Anyway, having graduated with the grades I wanted from Cambridge (apart from failing my Greek course, but we'll leave that aside) my next task was to get everything organised for my PhD, to start on 1st October. You'd think this would be easy, but in fact I've had to chase the Board of Graduate Studies (BoGS) and the Department pretty much every step of the way. Never mind, it's all done now - Magdalene College have accepted me, so I've now left Peterhouse - and as soon as accommodation is sorted out I'll be ready to go!
Of course, I've been doing other things with my time apart from this. I now have my name in the Newton Catalogue for the Huppert Essay on Geophysics that I wrote whilst I should have been preparing for my finals. I've been doing a little bit of reading for my PhD (with Dan McKenzie FRS PhD CH, on Deep Focus Earthquakes). What else? Ah yes...
More or less straight after graduation, I took the opportunity to return to Greece to do a little work on migmatites and exhumation within the Pelagonian (which, amazingly, could be found only about 30 minutes from where I've stayed over the past three years, in the village of Paliouria). Maybe there'll be a publication from it, maybe not - but it was fun anyway, and gave me a good excuse to meet up with some of my friends from the village!!After that (as in, 1 day after that), came our family vacation, to Hampshire, which was lovely. We stayed in a fantastic old cottage, surrounded by truly free range horses, deer and donkeys. It was very good to see my uncles, aunts and cousins again, too...
My most recent adventure, which came just a couple of days afterwards, was a 10 day trip to Iceland with my new supervisor. I can't find superlatives great enough to describe the sights, sounds and experiences there - but I'll try when I actually post my diary from the trip!!
In about a week's time, I return to Greece for a big symposium on the Ophiolites of the area. Who knows how that'll turn out, but it should be fun...
Bob
Saturday 2 February 2008
My New Start
Well, it's been ages since I wrote a proper post on here, so I'll begin again with a boring one (sorry)!
Things seem to be going wrong at the moment - nothing that won't sort itself out in the fullness of time (I hope) but still, it's difficult to actually feel happy about anything. For example, I decided to do one of those phone-contract things last year with Phones2UDirect, with cashback tied in at 6, 9 and 12 months. Anyway, long story short, I ended up paying £420 and getting zero cashback despite doing everything the contract told me to. I've been thinking about going to court, as the watchdogs weren't interested, but decided to send one last email, to which I received the following reply:
"Phones2UDirect has ceased trading and was placed into creditors' voluntary liquidation on Thursday, 21 February 2008".
I believe the phrase is hurumph. Technically I am a creditor - but in practice I get the feeling I'm not going to see any of that money again...
Just the latest in a string of unfortunate mishaps. Anyway, I'm hoping with my PhD interviews round the corner I can turn a new leaf - I've just printed out my Part III Dissertation again, and decided that it isn't too bad really (despite a couple of errata) so providing they don't ask me too many taxing questions on the effect of the high thermal budget of mantle material beneath Tibet on exhumation, stratigraphic development of Bhutan since the Palaeozoic or the thermodynamics of anticrack propogation at 650km depth, I should be ok. Maybe. Fingers crossed.
For Oxford, I am amazed at how many people from Cambridge are applying - nearly 1/3 of our year group, for just 3 NERC studentships (numerical data courtesy of Rob Sparkes). Out of a total 30-or-so applicants, things may get a little heated. Ah well, we all have second choices and/or Plan Bs if things don't go too well. It'll be interesting to see what Oxford think of us, as we descend on them like a gaggle of voracious penguins*.
Anyway, it's after 2 a.m., so I should probably head off. At least it's set to be warm later today... maybe it'll be sunny by my first interview on Wednesday :O) ...
Bob
*I allude to the fact we're all coming for the dinner, and probably all dressing in suits, rather than showing signs of affection towards fish, and shuffling forwards to meet Philip England with an egg between our feet. Although the latter option might be fun.
Things seem to be going wrong at the moment - nothing that won't sort itself out in the fullness of time (I hope) but still, it's difficult to actually feel happy about anything. For example, I decided to do one of those phone-contract things last year with Phones2UDirect, with cashback tied in at 6, 9 and 12 months. Anyway, long story short, I ended up paying £420 and getting zero cashback despite doing everything the contract told me to. I've been thinking about going to court, as the watchdogs weren't interested, but decided to send one last email, to which I received the following reply:
"Phones2UDirect has ceased trading and was placed into creditors' voluntary liquidation on Thursday, 21 February 2008".
I believe the phrase is hurumph. Technically I am a creditor - but in practice I get the feeling I'm not going to see any of that money again...
Just the latest in a string of unfortunate mishaps. Anyway, I'm hoping with my PhD interviews round the corner I can turn a new leaf - I've just printed out my Part III Dissertation again, and decided that it isn't too bad really (despite a couple of errata) so providing they don't ask me too many taxing questions on the effect of the high thermal budget of mantle material beneath Tibet on exhumation, stratigraphic development of Bhutan since the Palaeozoic or the thermodynamics of anticrack propogation at 650km depth, I should be ok. Maybe. Fingers crossed.
For Oxford, I am amazed at how many people from Cambridge are applying - nearly 1/3 of our year group, for just 3 NERC studentships (numerical data courtesy of Rob Sparkes). Out of a total 30-or-so applicants, things may get a little heated. Ah well, we all have second choices and/or Plan Bs if things don't go too well. It'll be interesting to see what Oxford think of us, as we descend on them like a gaggle of voracious penguins*.
Anyway, it's after 2 a.m., so I should probably head off. At least it's set to be warm later today... maybe it'll be sunny by my first interview on Wednesday :O) ...
Bob
*I allude to the fact we're all coming for the dinner, and probably all dressing in suits, rather than showing signs of affection towards fish, and shuffling forwards to meet Philip England with an egg between our feet. Although the latter option might be fun.
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