People interested in global health, take note: Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet is speaking in the Swire Seminar Room (12 Merton Street) this Friday at 2:00pm. His topic is “Health: The Global Architecture of Apathy.” The talk is part of the Global Economic Governance Program.
Category: Oxford
Posts about living and studying in Oxford, the Oxford system, etc
Fire at The Perch
The Perch, one of Oxford’s best pubs, suffered from a fairly severe fire on Wednesday. Based on the look I had at it today, the external damage is limited to the roof. Inside, things might be a lot worse. Apparently, the fire started in one of the chimneys. Thankfully, nobody was injured. A similar blaze took place thirty years ago, so it seems likely that rebuilding will occur.
The nicest thing about The Perch is the location. To get there from northern Oxford, you need to walk across the Port Meadow and then up along the canal for a short ways. At night, you are likely to see some of the Port Meadow cows or horses along the way. During the day, patrons can sit outside in a grassy area surrounded by willow trees. When each of my parents visited Oxford, we made a visit to this pub. I have also been there with a good collection of friends over the last year and a half.
Despite the high probability that the pub will eventually be open for business again, I doubt it will occur before I depart. One more reason to visit Oxford in a few years, I suppose.
Oxford B&W photo competition
I have been thinking about submitting a few images to the Intra Muros competition, but I am finding it hard to locate arty black and white shots of the right sort within my collection (1, 2). The general pattern of the ones they have accepted is that they show recognizable Oxford architecture, individual people are often included but never highlighted, and they have an abstracted quality to them. Somewhat surprisingly, most of my favourite photos taken in Oxford are in colour. Normally, I am a big fan of black & white.
The deadline isn’t until June 9th, so perhaps I can keep my eyes open for the right sort of image from now on. The winners get photos printed in their calendar and the best single entry wins £50.
Five boxes left to tick
Along with revising, I am now working on my final paper for the M.Phil. As with the previous one on the environment, this is for the international law course with Vaughan Lowe and Adam Roberts. With that submitted by Friday, only exam preparation will remain.
The weather is doing its bit to aid the process along. Few people are out enjoying the spring greening of Oxford while there is so much rain coming down.
Circularity
A night that one had no reason to expect to be abnormal has actually been highly interesting, though in entirely non-academic senses. I learned about how delicious Ketjap Manis is, a bit about Greenpeace, lots about a private Oxford company of interest, some things about friends of mine, and a bit about improvised cooking. The dish was invented in three stages, while being cooked, and worked out quite well.
In some ways, this last Oxford term is proving a lot like my first.
Forty days and forty nights
Over the next six weeks, I have two more papers to write on international law, then twelve hours of exams on two years worth of reading and coursework. I have never been called upon to apply so much raw information to a set of examinations. It seems a bit bizarre to be presented with hundreds of pages of notes and thousands of assigned readings, in order to be quizzed upon twelve randomly selected topics and evaluated largely on the basis of how one’s argument is structured.
I will feel a lot better about everything once plans for the time after the M.Phil have been solidified.
Postal discount for printed matter
One useful bit of knowledge for students in the UK: if you need to mail documents internationally, you can write “Printed Papers” on the package and mail it from a post office for about half the normal postal rate. Doing so cuts the cost of mailing a thesis-sized collection of printed pages from about £12 to about £6.
Wadham climate change discussion
Today’s Wadham Research Forum on climate change was very interesting, despite how all the ideas expressed were fairly familiar. The extent to which the points highlighted are the same as those in my thesis is both encouraging and dispiriting. It suggests that I have not missed the mark completely, but also that I may not have contributed anything terrible novel. Of course, there is a good chance that the key issues to be considered are obvious enough, and that it is the approaches taken that generate the value of a particular assessment.
Final exams
I now know when my final exams will take place. Twentieth century history will be at 9:30am on the 11th of June. At 2:30pm that afternoon, I will have my IR theory exam. On Tuesday at 2:30pm, I have my international law exam. Wednesday at 9:30am, I have my developing world exam. After that, I will have completed all the coursework and exams associated with the MPhil, barring the unlikely possibility of having a viva voce exam.
Oxford verdant and twittering
The emergence of spring in Oxford is rather dramatic. I would expect that this seems especially true for someone from Vancouver. Since most of our trees are coniferous, the degree of colour change that accompanies the passage of the seasons is much less pronounced. Our green mountainsides may spend less time obstructed by cloud-banks, but we are rarely treated to the elegant site of a large and ancient tree gaining or shedding its foliage.
In addition, Oxford seems to be positively thronged with birds these days: singing in the early morning and escorting the first – almost comically cute – ducklings along the banks of the Cherwell. All this has made showing Hilary around even more enjoyable. Today included a lengthy visit to the Natural History Museum and a far shorter one to the Museum of the History of Science, complete with the famous Einstein blackboard. Attending my first OUSSG meeting in a year in a non-executive capacity was enjoyable, even if I didn’t partake in the very fine dinner that takes place beforehand.
Speaking of the OUSSG, some of you may remember when I said that the Oxford University Strategic Studies Group needs a new webmaster? Well, the position remains open. The level of work involved is fairly limited and the group is a rather interesting one. Anyone who can run a blog knows enough about the web to maintain the site.