Hat tip: Jill

Posted in africa, aid and development, crazy | 5 Comments

On Jer’s recommendation, I’m reading Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother, which you can and should download for free from his site.

The book is a fictional account of a high school kid — a smart, technologically skilled high school kid — who ends up on the wrong side of the Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack in San Francisco. As I sat in Dulles airport last night waiting for my flight back to Boston, I realized just how much information I put online and how little effort it would take the DHS to throw me in a holding cell were the American government so inclined.

I came to work this morning to news that the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs has approved the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which among other things gives the president the power to force ISPs and search engines to limit or shut down connections at his whim. Oh, and by the way, the ACLU has announced that “Americans have been put under surveillance or harassed by the police just for deciding to organize, march, protest, espouse unusual viewpoints and engage in normal, innocuous behaviors such as writing notes or taking photographs in public” in at least 33 states.

I’m trying not be alarmist about this, but maybe I should be?

Posted in crazy, technology, terrorism | 1 Comment

I’m nearing the end of grad school and starting to get a bit nervous about finding a job. Google spreadsheets full of companies, NGOs and university research institutes — some hiring, more not — are constantly open in Firefox, Idealist is constantly being refreshed, networks are being tapped. There is an abundance of stress.

I was cleaning out a drawer yesterday and ran across a stack of index cards held together with a yellow binder clip. In the statistics class I help teach at SIPA, I ask my students to write down an interesting fact about themselves on the first day of class. It’s a fun way to get to know people, and sometimes it’s easier for me to remember who’s afraid of emus or whose favorite color is mauve than whose name is Greg or Jamie.

I shuffled through the cards before tossing them in the recycling bin and came across one I had forgotten, less “interesting fact” and more “dark confession”:

I was almost singlehandedly responsible for the near collapse of global capitalism in my former career.

You know? All things considered, my life could be much worse.

Posted in SIPA, crazy | Leave a comment

Just arrived in the inbox (emphasis mine):

To: SIPA Student Groups

While on patrol this morning Post 15 PSO Patterson noticed three animals in front of Lewisohn Hall. Sgt. Galan responded and spotted one animal and identified it as a coyote. Sgt. Gillis contacted 911 and NYPD responded. NYPD spotted one of the animals and confirmed it was a coyote. The one coyote that was seen by NYPD and Sgt. Galan went behind the CEPSR build and it is believed exited the campus. An additional sighting by facilities was called in to base at approximately 1000 hours this morning. The undersigned responded and was unable to confirm the sighting. Patrol units were advised if they see any possible coyotes while on patrol to notify the base and maintain a visual but not to approach the animal.

For Your Information,
Sgt. Oakley

I would like to take this moment to point out that, while being raised in Kansas, I never once spotted a coyote.

Posted in crazy, new york | Leave a comment

I’ve been using Blogger for six years. It’s seen me through angsty college musings, a public to-do list, the beginnings of a cooking blog, an ill-fated attempt at blogging in Russian, and an even iller-fated attempt at Rebekah auf Deutsch. Oh, and this here web log.

When I started blogging, WordPress.com didn’t exist, and everyone I knew who wasn’t using Xanga (cringe) or LiveJournal (ditto) was on Blogger. But as I’ve continued, more and more of my friends have defected, falling head over heels for WP’s plugins and beautiful themes and shiny dashboards and seamless post tagging (Blogger was sadly late to the post categorization party) and integrated commenting (remember the days of Haloscan?).

To which my response has always been: bah humbug.

You see, I’m a bit of a Scrooge: I like Blogger. Specifically, I like the control it gives me over my template and the fact that I have this control absolutely free of charge.

But in the meantime I’ve grown up and moved to the Big City and somehow become editor and technical director of one of the best graduate school blogs on international affairs in the country. And we use WordPress.

And I like it.

A lot.

Which is why I’m spending November 13 and 14 at WordCamp NYC, surrounded by WordPress lovers and their shiny, shiny dashboards.

If things go well (for the shiny dashboard people), I may even swaddle my precious Jackfruity baby in WordPress clothes.

Care to join me?

Posted in crazy, new york, the morningside post | 4 Comments