Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

Entering the last captive weekend

Revision notes

The process of revision continues. Later tonight, I am planning to write a practice exam for history, if only to get the feel of writing three one hour timed essays in a row. First, I need to finish getting through some more of my notes. Even without reading anything other than the notes I have made on assigned readings and seminars, I have thousands of pages of text to deal with.

At least I have proven surprisingly capable of shifting my sleep schedule so that I am up and ambling around – if not exactly thinking at my sharpest – before 9:00am. Once again, I apologize for being uninteresting for a while. Once exams finish on Wednesday, I will try to write something more compelling here.

PS. While cycling up South Parks Road this evening, the rear tire on my bicycle seems to have exploded. The inner tube has torn along one of the seams, leaving a gash several inches long. A few patches and some rubber cement will not be enough to correct things, this time.

High school history

In the course of revising for the history exam, I have found myself looking over notes from my last year of high school. In many ways, they are ideal. I have a six page document that highlights the key features of alliances in the inter-war period in bullet form. We see dates, participants, major purposes, and outcomes, all without the need to wade through hundreds of pages of academic text. Something similar is true of the timeline of Cold War leaders that we all had to make.

I actually wish I had my paper notes from the class, in addition to my typed assignments. I remember having to memorize dozens of little quotations and hundreds of key terms. In terms of the amount of teaching time devoted to each subject, the class was significantly more comprehensive than our history seminars here. Of course, the level of discussion here was enormously higher, and the expectations in terms of argumentation and analysis are equivalently greater. All the same, having a few solid pellets of birdshot in one’s general blast of knowledge makes it seem and feel rather more substantial. It is also good to be acutely reminded of how hopelessly ignorant one was with respect to certain things, seven years in the past. Without such comparison, it is too easy to slip into the belief that you have always had your present understandings and views.

Climate change and the G8 meeting

All Souls, Oxford

Who would have thought – three or four years ago – that climate change would become the central focus of a G8 meeting? While the situation certainly demonstrates the problems that remain to be overcome (both American unwillingness to accept emission caps and the need to incorporate large and rapidly developing economies like India and China into such a system), the level of attention being directed at the problem is very welcome.

The sad fact is that Canada has the worst record of any G8 state, when it comes to the gap between our Kyoto commitment and our present level of emissions. For a state that prides itself on being a responsible global citizen, this is hardly a position that is tenable in the long term.

When Canada ratified Kyoto, we committed ourselves to emissions 6% below the 1990 level, achieved by 2012. At present, Canadian emissions are about 26% over. The United States, by contrast, is only about 16% above 1990 levels. The only G8 state on track to meet its commitment because of policy efforts is Britain. Germany has cut emissions, but not yet by as much as they pledged. Russia has much lower emissions, but it is on account of the collapse of their economy after 1989, rather than any self-restraint. Indeed, Russia ends up in the odd position of being able to sell credits for emissions that would never have occurred anyhow (the so-called ‘hot air’).

Global emissions continue to grow at a rate even higher than the most pessimistic option modeled by the IPCC. Indian and Chinese emissions are each up by about 100% since 1990. Everyone need to do better. Hopefully, the ongoing gathering of political energy will make that come to pass.

[Update: 7 June 2007] Unsurprisingly, the G8 seem to be developing a fairly toothless joint statement on climate change.

The early bird… cannot think

I have been trying to wake up early so as to acclimatize before my 9:30am exams next week. Of course, the transition to early rising has the effect of making my brain feel as though it is slowly sinking through honey for most of the day: hardly the best state in which to be going over all this material. In the end, however, the relative value of being awake and thinking at the time the exams are written (and not just running on the jittering energy of sheer terror) is probably greater than that of greater reading comprehension during the revision period.

PS. The general copyright on the blog, wiki, and my photography has been updated to a more current Creative Commons license. See the projects page for more details.

Proofread

This afternoon, my mother kindly passed along a list of 28 minor spelling and grammatical errors in my thesis. Curiously, there seems to be an direct correlation between the number of people who read a particular chapter and the number of errors. The same goes for the length of time that passed between writing and submission. 25 of the 28 errors are in the three chapters for which Dr. Hurrell gave me comprehensive feedback.

  • Chapter 1: 8 errors
  • Chapter 2: 9 errors
  • Chapter 3: 8 errors
  • Chapter 4: 1 error
  • Chapter 5: 2 errors

Chapter two was the single most edited of the lot, with 25 major revisions prior to the one submitted. This seems to confirm the Law of Editing: “For each correction or clarification made, an equal and opposite error will be inadvertently introduced.”

Since the thesis is 30,000 words long, the version that will reside in the Bodleian has about one error per thousand words. The PDF that I will put online once the thesis has been graded will be better, and probably more widely consulted. For those with access to the appropriate restricted pages on the wiki, the corrected version has been uploaded.

Lakeland photos II

Sarah and Rob, reclining on packs

Once you reach a peak, a bit of a rest is surely in order. Actually, Rob and Sarah were ill during the whole trip, so their fellwalking demonstrated particular persistence.

Walkers atop Wetherlam

Walkers atop Wetherlam.

Hiking boot

The hiking boot: noble symbol of our determination.

Bare feet

Which isn’t to say we never take them off…

Arm wrestling

If you can shear a sheep, you can arm wrestle two humans at once and win.

Review: UCO Ultrapod Small Tripod

For the Paris trip, Hilary kindly acted as courier for this small tripod, sold by Mountain Equipment Co-Op. While it is not without some good features, it is a disappointment overall. The main reason for this is bad design.

The first mistake has to do with the rubber pads at the base of the legs. They fall off very easily: particularly the one shaped like an L-joint. They should be tighter or glued on. The second problem is with the velcro strap. It has no convenient place to go when the tripod is unfolded, except wrapped around one leg. It should be positioned more intelligently for situations where you want to fold and unfold the tripod often, or it should be made removable. I have never used it once, but I am a bit hesitant to irreversibly cut it off.

Far and away the biggest problem has to do with the knob controlling the ballhead. Even if you twist the knob with as much torque as you can possibly muster, the tripod head remains somewhat loose. If you want to keep the tripod on the side of your camera with the legs folded up along one side, the friction between the ball and the plastic socket for it is not enough to keep it there. Even more annoyingly, when you have tightened the knob as much as you can, it often becomes badly stuck. You will find yourself frequently using your teeth to loosen it. I have had to resort to pliers on several occasions.

While light and promising in its form-factor, this little tripod does not live up to its potential. I am grateful to Hilary for bringing it, but my search for a small, always-on tripod for my A510 is not over.

PS. ThinkGeek sells the same device.