Ian > Recent Status Updates

It feels like this is right around where this case starts - or at least picks up - in an IR course. Ultimatums and Stevenson at the UN and Krushchev's missives...

One rolls one's eyes at Khrushchev calling the US regime "piratical" and then reads that RFK instructed the CIA to secretly blow up Cuban ships. Food for thought.

It is too easy to forget the politics of the situation. I think Dobbs does a good job of keeping politics in mind. US electoral politics, sure, though other works include this. I mean politics in the sense of symbolism and signaling between various actors. The historical detail allows for contingency as well, though I never feel swamped by the details. I wish I had this book when I was an undergrad.

Finally, the point starts to emerge. On a side note, how does retinal response compare to skin conductance as techniques to measure stimulus response?

The writing is good and I am learning a lot about Israeli intellectuals of the middle 20th century. The overall premise of the book still eludes me at this point. Perhaps it eluded the author as well. Where is this "friendship" to which the cover alludes?

Gestalt psychology versus behaviorism

That eyeball to eyeball moment in the film? Was not quite as stressful as you might think because it did not happen as portrayed in the film. The popular historical record gets it wrong too. Those Soviet freighters had already turned back. So, what is the rest of the book about?

As a Philly sports fan, the chapter about Daryl Morey has not aged well (yet...)

Continues the trend of the odd-numbered entries being better.

In the midst of a skeptic's take on the Arab Spring. I feel at home.

Why exactly does Israel not recognize the Armenian genocide? More concerned with relations with Turkey?

Almost too enormous to handle. I wish more journalists wrote like this.

Surprisingly little about Iran, though the US deserves Fisk's criticism.

I do not understand how or whether validating emotions solves all of the problems it is claimed to solve.

Picking through it. It is fine.