Tony took a short break from rebuilding the Iraqi Air Force (seriously) to photoshop some signs for a protest (date TBD) in front of the Department of the Interior, where the anti-wiffleball National Park Service is headquartered. Thanks, dude.

I think we’ll also need wiffle bats, a drum circle, face paint, bullhorns, and whatever else people bring to protests. It can’t be too hippie-ish, though, as us PWL’ers are all hard working professionals. A protest song would be cool. I vote for “Killing in the Name” by Rage, mainly due to the last verse.

Fear us, National Park Service apparatchiks!

The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor is generally a very useful resource on the region’s hot topics, but this slight mistake in Monday’s edition was quite amusing:
Kazakh Court Decision Against Chevron Carries Political Implications:

But to ensure stable oil deliveries from Tengiz the BTC managers will have to increase the pumping capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Arzu Azimov, deputy head of the marketing board of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, reports that currently 750,000 barrels of oil are pumped through the pipeline every 24 hours. If Azerbaijan reaches its planned daily output of 1 billion barrels at its Azeri-Cirag-Guneshli oilfield in 2010, then BTC will not have enough capacity to handle Kazakh oil (Panorama, October 19).

100 meat patties, 100 slices of cheese, 19,490 calories. Yes, someone did order a 100×100 (at an In-N-Out in Vegas back in ’04) and managed to document the entire process, with plenty of photographs.

Only 21 days until I am back in California. Not that I’m, uh, keeping track or anything.

My brain has literally been turning into mush since I’ve left LSE. I was once again craving the classroom environment, so I signed up for the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics course at the USDA Graduate School last spring. If you’re living in the DC area, I highly recommend taking a class or two there. The facilities and professors are impressive, and there are hundreds of courses to choose from.

We covered a lot of material in the environmental econ class, but my main interest was in energy. As part of our grade, we had to choose two topics and develop presentations for the class. My first presentation was on the Natural Resource Curse Hypothesis (3.6mb), which posits that countries with abundant natural resources (i.e., oil & gas) actually experience lower rates of economic growth than countries without similar resources. An oft cited example would be the so-called “Dutch Disease” experienced by the Netherlands following the discovery of large natural gas reserves in the North Sea. Contemporary examples would include Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.

My second presentation was on the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) (4.2mb), currently the largest greenhouse gas emissions trading system in the world. The first phase of the EU ETS experienced a number of problems, but the cap and trade system they’ve developed is actually quite interesting, especially when you start delving into the “linking directive” that allows EU countries to reduce their emissions via the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation arrangements. Gazprom has even gotten into the act by bundling carbon credits with the gas it sells to EU power generation companies.

I’ll probably take another class during the winter term…maybe something a bit lighter, like travel writing. I should probably start taking Russian again, though, if I ever hope to attain a higher vocab level than that of a three year old peasant girl.

Here is my first attempt at customizing Google Maps. It basically chronicles the majority of my travels (all international, some domestic) from 2002 to the present.

View Larger Map
It’s viewable in Google Earth (KML file) as well. Granted, it still needs a bit of work, but overall I think it’s rather useful in giving a more “geographic” feel to the travel entries and photos on this site. A few examples:

Chernobyl Tour

Russia Summer 2003

Make your own at Google Maps. I love you, Google.

Just learned from the PWL Commish that the bureaucrats over at the National Park Service are putting an end to our glorious wiffleball Sundays at Gravelly Point:

The formality and lack of a personal nature caused my senses to prepare for bad news immediately. I’d received several notices from the United States Department of the Interior over the last few seasons. Usually a confirmation of the permit to engage in organized sports activity, in this case wiffleball, at one of the National Park Service managed properties, in this case Gravelly Point, part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway National Park.

This form letter, however, was different. It was notifying me that the last thing that was right about America was about to change. It was shattering not only my hopes and dreams, but taking away something that has become so much a part of the lives of close to 60 people.

Starting January 5, 2008, weekend sports activities at Gravelly Point will only be permitted from 6 AM to 9 AM.

No, that’s not a type-o…three short hours, 180 minutes, and quite possibly the worst 180 minutes of the day. For league that plays from 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, the new rule is a death certificate.

The federal government’s anti-wiffleball stance does not surprise me, as it is generally acknowledged that the federal government disapproves of any activity that its taxpaying citizens might enjoy (i.e., travel to Cuba, Cuban cigars, absinthe, and large scale securities fraud).

You can sign a petition to the NPS that asks them to reconsider their anti-wiffleball stance, but I think this calls for some real action, like making protest signs and marching on the Department of Interior headquarters.

If the NPS still says no, then why not continue to play regardless? Would the Park Police really arrest us for playing wiffleball? On second thought, they probably would.

This is not an article from The Onion…this really happened:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency staged a fake news conference this week, with agency staff officials, pretending to be reporters, peppering one of their own bosses with decidedly friendly questions about the response to the California fires, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged Friday.

[...]

The questions from the staff were posed after FEMA gave reporters only 15 minutes notice for a news conference on Tuesday, meaning that other than television camera crews, no reporters showed up before questioning began. A toll-free telephone line was provided so reporters could listen in, but it was not set up to allow questions.

As a result, staff members asked Mr. Johnson a series of friendly questions like, “Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” and, “What lessons learned from Katrina have been applied?”

Mr. Johnson gave no indication that the questions came from his own staff.

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” Mr. Johnson said in response to one question, according to a transcript.

I love it. Very…Soviet-esque.

Drove down to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center today. The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum doesn’t have enough room at its location on the National Mall, so they built the Udvar-Hazy annex near Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia to display more of their collection. It opened in December 2003, but I hadn’t made it out there until today. Visiting the Udvar-Hazy Center is a must do if you have any interest in aviation, as the collection of aircraft assembled in this giant hangar is truly impressive.

SR-71 down below

Boeing 707 and the Concorde

Recognizer that B-29? It’s the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.

Space Shuttle Enterprise – NASA’s first shuttle, built for atmospheric test flights. It was originally supposed to be named “Constitution”, but a bunch of Star Trek fans waged a letter writing campaign and NASA caved-in to nerd pressure, thereby naming the shuttle “Enterprise” (sorry, I can’t stand Star Trek).

Concorde supersonic airliner. DC to London in 3.5 hours.

This is what computers used to look like…and you couldn’t even play games on them.

SR-71 Blackbird

Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer, the plane Steve Fossett used for his record breaking solo nonstop flight ’round the world.

North Vietnamese propaganda rocket

MiG-15 used in the Korean War.

MiG-21

A-6 Intruder. This was one of my favorite planes as a kid, probably because of the movie.

This would probably be the first thing I would purchase after spending time in a Soviet prison, too.

Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka (Cherry Blossom), rocket powered kamikaze aircraft.

Rest of the photos are here.

From Bush’s most recent press conference (don’t bother reading the entire transcript, it’s too painful).

Q. And what would it mean for Russian democracy if, when you leave power, assuming you do, in January 2009 — (laughter) — if Vladimir Putin is still in power?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, one of the interesting — well, my leadership style has been to try to be in a position where I actually can influence people. And one way to do that is to have personal relationships that enable me to sit down and tell people what’s on my mind without fear of rupturing relations. And that’s how I’ve tried to conduct my business with Vladimir Putin. We don’t agree on a lot of issues; we do agree on some. Iran is one; nuclear proliferation is another. Reducing our nuclear warheads was an issue that we agreed on early.

But I believe that diplomacy requires good relations at the leadership level. That’s why, in Slovakia, I was in a position to tell him that we didn’t understand why he was altering the relationship between the Russian government and a free press — in other words, why the fress press was becoming less free. And I was able to do — he didn’t like it. Nobody likes to be talked to in a way that may point up different flaws in their strategy. But I was able to do so in a way that didn’t rupture relations. He was able to tell me going into Iraq wasn’t the right thing. And to me that’s good diplomacy. And so I’m — and I’ll continue to practice that diplomacy.

Now, in terms of whether or not it’s possible to reprogram the kind of basic Russian DNA, which is a centralized authority, that’s hard to do. We’ve worked hard to make it appear in their interests — we made it clear to them that it is in their interests to have good relations with the West. And the best way to have good long-term relations with the West is to recognize that checks and balances in government are important, or recognize there are certain freedoms that are inviolate. So Russia a complex relationship, but it’s an important relationship to maintain.

WTF does that mean? Hey, Russia, you guys aren’t getting this whole democracy concept so we’re gonna have to reprogram your DNA, ok? Isn’t he constantly decrying stereotypes like these in his speeches on democracy in the Middle East?

WashPost has a semi-scathing editorial on the remark.

Saint Seraphim’s most popular quote was “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.” Fitting for a guy who was recently declared the patron saint of Russia’s nuclear forces:

This month the secretive, nuclear 12th Main Directorate of the Defense Ministry celebrated its 60th birthday…Today Russian nukes are produced by the Rosatom Federal Nuclear Energy Agency and then handed over to the 12th Directorate, which is in charge of delivery, security, maintenance, and testing of nuclear weapons, both strategic

To mark the anniversary in the new Russian official style, top officials from the Defense Ministry and Russian Orthodox Church attended a special service held in Russia’s newly rebuilt Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. An official meeting (torzestvennoye sobranye) followed the service in the Hall of Church Assemblies, which is part of the Cathedral complex. The meeting was reminiscent of Communist anniversary celebrations, but still distinctly different given that the top generals presided alongside black-robed Orthodox clergy (Itar-Tass, September 4). As nationalism has replaced the Communist ideology in Russia, the Orthodox hierarchy has been endorsing official events instead of Communist Party chiefs.

The rank-and-file of the 12th Directorate were formally blessed. The favorite Orthodox saint of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II — St. Seraphim of Sarov — was officially declared the spiritual patron-protector of all Russian nukes, strategic and tactical. An Orthodox Church flag with the icon of St. Seraphim was bestowed on the 12th Directorate.

And General Vladimir Verkhovtsev, the current commander of the 12th Directorate, had this to say about security at American nuclear installations:

Verkhovtsev says that the Americans are too shy to allow Russians to visit their nuclear storage facilities in return, because the security there is comparatively flimsy. Verkhovtsev told me: “The Americans have a wire net fence with a sign that trespassers may be shot, a camera, and some movement detectors. In Russia such a security fence would have been torn down and stolen before long by citizens to use at dachas.”

You know, he has a point there…that wire fence would make a lovely dacha accessory.