e pur si muove

Happy Year of the Dog to everyone out there. I’ve just started writing my first paper for publication, so that explains the recent lack of updates here. That, and attending quite possibly the most brilliant series of concerts at Krannert ever. Gershwin by Marvin Hamlisch, Lyle Lovett live, Bach’s Art of the Fugue by the Kuss String Quartet, Schubert from the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and ballet classics from the Russian National Ballet Company, among others. I think I’m OD-ing on good music.

The United Nations Development Programme has come up with a proposal to unlock six trillion dollars of wealth by restructuring the world economy. And how is this supposed to work? Here’s a quote from the Independent Online:

At the heart of the proposal, unveiled at a gathering of world business leaders at the Swiss ski resort of Davos, is a push to get countries to account for the cost of failed policies, and use the money saved “up front” to avert crises before they hit.

Among the proposed measures are insurance policies for small economies against financial instabilities à la 1997-era Southeast Asia, and allowing countries experiencing brain drain to borrow money from remittances that professionals send home from abroad. Intriguing indeed. Read more from the book itself, The New Public Finance: Responding to Global Challenges. Some background material is available for reading on the book’s website.

Otterman also links to the destruction of three priceless Qing vases in a British museum, bringing the curator’s worst nightmare to life.

The most depressing day of the year has seen Daryl’s pet lobster die (from hyposalinity?), two squirrels chasing a baby rabbit on the University’s main Quad, and my coat seeing a close brush with white emulsion paint (they’re repainting the door frames at my place yesterday morning) and me with 45 mins alone with whiteboard cleaning spray (which worked surprisingly well!).

To top it off, it’s bright and sunny outside todau but the people at the local weather bureau are baying for blood. Why? Because tonight temperatures are going to dip well into the tweens (-10°C for you metric readers), bucking a trend since Thanksgiving or so of unseasonably above-freezing weather (which is still kinda cold, but sure beats the pants off having to worry about whether your nose will freeze off when you walk a block to the store for some soy milk.) Betruth, it’s not getting anywhere as cold as in Poland, but it’s still loads of un-fun. Oh, and it’s snowing in Hawaii. On the mountaintop only, but still a rare occasion.

More depressing news: Yahoo! admits giving up the quest for search engine domination.

“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”

Erm, hello!? Why did we even waste our time hoping then?? It’s not like Google = search nirvana. Might be time to send some top officers for Public Relations 101. Tip #1 probably should be to never make a statement that may be taken out of context to admit that your company’s products are the best.

And perhaps, finally, a little ray of sunshine: South Korea is considering tightening stem cell regulation as probes begin reviewing reports of stem-cell therapy. At least one patient initially lauded as launching a miraculous recovery from a spine injury has now been found to have suffered a relapse. Some are pointing fingers at the government’s laissez-faire attitude and the nation-building spin given to the former Supreme Scientist. You know, it’s really painful to see this kind of thing go on. It’s never easy to admit you’re wrong. But you gotta applaud the South Koreans for doing the right thing, picking up the pieces and then getting on with it.

Oh, and HP is all happy with its iris-recognition security system. The press release certainly looks innocent enough, but wait till you read to the end of sentence one:
HP today announced that its blade server and PC technology is powering an iris recognition security and visitor management system launched Monday by the Freehold Borough School District in Freehold, N.J.

Does the name of the client sound any kind of warning bells? What kind of school has to resort to high technology to keep itself safe? Now that’s one school district I don’t plan on sending my hypothetical children to.

Singapore makes the world news again. This time, it’s on Reuters’ Oddly Enough, for having a Thai prostitute escape a sentence of caning for drug trafficking after doctors certified that he had successfully undergone a sex change operation and is now a woman.

Just one of the benefits of lacking a Y chromosome in your personal genome in Singapore. *cough cough national service cough*

Today I learnt how deadly boring quantum chemistry can be. My prof. was deriving the Born-Oppenheimer approximation on the board in class today when one of my fellow classmates collapsed in her seat. I guess many-body quantum mechanics isn’t for the faint of heart after all.

The paramedics came and took her blood pressure, found it to be borderline on the low side. She’s now going to the hospital to get an IV drip and observation.

What an exciting first week back in school. At least I think I’m getting better now: the fever is gone, and the phlegm is dissipating.