Redistricting Game

Just wanted to pass this on - The Redistricting Game.

This game effectively explains the issues concerning redistricting, and it is kind of fun to boot.

Judging from the gerrymander-looking districts in Texas,, it looks like legislators could stand to learn a lesson in creating fair districts.

Democrats Talk about God???

Being overseas, I have been a bit out of touch with what is going with the presidential campaigns. In an attempt to get up to speed, I watched the video from the Presidential Forum on Faith, Vales, and Poverty. It was interesting to hear the three leading Democratic candidates (Edwards, Obama, and H. Clinton) speak on their faith and how it would influence their actions as president.

To me Edwards seemed the most comfortable of the three in talking about his faith. He was also the most convincing, talking about he actions he has taken over his lifetime to combat poverty. He is clearly committed to acting on his faith but I am not quite convinced that his convictions will translate to effective policies. He mentioned his intention to encourage unionization more than once, and from what I have learned in economics this seems counterproductive to encouraging economic growth and prosperity.

Obama was also at ease talking about how his views are shaped by his religious morals. Repeating the phrase "I am my brother's keeper," he pointed out that we could end a lot of problems in the world if we all just took care of each other. Unfortunately he did not state how he would translate this feel-good mantra into policy. He did say that if elected he would put a high level person in charge of New Orleans and request daily reports on progress there.

Of the three candidates, it was most unusual seeing Clinton talk about her personal faith. I was quite surprised how comfortable she looked as she talked about how prayer had gotten her through various crises (including Bill's infidelity).

Again, I felt that Edwards was the most convincing, but I'm not sure he would be the one I'd be most likely to vote for. I will need to do more research on the specific policies that all of the candidates (from all parties) are proposing. In any case it was refreshing to hear these candidates talk about how their faith has shaped their convictions. Hopefully this trend will lead to creative solutions from both parties for issues such as poverty and health care.

I recommend watching the whole forum if you have the chance.

My Travel Map

Thanks Angela for passing this on...

There is a lot of white space on my map. Maybe I should take a job in South America or Africa. I'm also looking forward to going to Iceland and Greenland, which is the becoming a new tourist "hotspot" due to global warming. (Ah, who doesn't love a good global warming pun? Take that Al Gore!)

Good Times at the G8

There have been some interesting photos coming out of the G8 summit that took place last week in Germany. Bush, Merkel, and Blair got together with some other world leaders to solve the world's problems over a few cold ones.











It looks like they were having a good time, but Bush certainly didn't impress anyone with his beer pouring skills.

As you can see, Angela Merkel looks a bit concerned as Dubya quickly empties his bottle into the upright glass.










She politely looks away as his glass overflows.










Video of the scene here:




I have to say I am a bit disappointed in Dubya... he should know how to pour a beer properly. Isn't he supposed to be a Texan? Besides that, I don't think this is the first beer he has consumed. Then again, Bush has been on the wagon for a while now, so maybe he forgot. (The beer they were drinking was non-alcoholic).

It is good to see Bush and Merkel getting along so well. Of course this is not the first time they have been chummy... Bush's impromptu shoulder rub at last year's G8 also raised some eyebrows.



He may not have been able to provide solutions to global poverty or carbon emissions, but Dubya never fails to deliver quality unintentional humor.

Trip to Brussels and Amsterdam

Go over to www.wesandannette.blogspot.com to hear about my trip to Brussels and Amsterdam!

Anti-Americanism 'feels like racism'?

BBC recently ran an article (click here) about one woman's encounters with anti-Americanism in the UK. In the story, the woman tells of being called "terrorist" and "scum." She even suffered a black eye in a pub brawl. Her friends have suggested that she pretend to be Canadian, and she now tries to avoid talking on the tube.

Thankfully my experiences here in London have been far different from hers. Over the last two months I have yet to suffer any abuse for being an American, and my American classmates have not mentioned any abuse either. My personal experience leads me to believe that this woman may just be exceptionally obnoxious, and perhaps spends too much of her time in pubs.


On a slightly different topic, I have seen surprisingly numerous Canadian flag patches sewed on the backpacks of young travelers in the UK. I certainly don't know of any other group that likes to advertise their nationality to the degree that they feel compelled to stitch their own country's flag on their backpack. "Hey, I'm Canadian! Love me!" (What is so great about Canadians anyway? Ok, before I go on a Canada rant, let me return to the point.) It may very well be that some of these 'Canadian' backpackers are actually Americans masquerading as Canadians. (Shocking assertion, I know.) To me this ruse seems likely to inefficacious. Instead of slapping a Canadian patch on their backpacks, Americans need to educate themselves about local culture and perhaps refrain from speaking 20 decibels louder than anyone around them. Being sensitive and self-conscious will go a lot farther than displaying the maple leaf.

Around London and a Visit to the Homeland

Head over to Travel Fun with Wes and Annette to read about Wes' meeting with Samuel L Jackson and his trip to Scotland.


"Now, when you were on that plane with the snakes, did you ever consider just decompressing the cabin?"

London Eye and Record-Breaking Coconut Orchestra

LBS was kind enough to treat us to a trip to the London Eye, so I jumped at the chance to take a free "flight." Hey, I'm a student - I can't be expected to shell out $30 to ride a big ferris wheel (or observation wheel, as they call it).

The trip around the wheel was a pleasant experience. We had nice views of Parliament, Westminster Cathedral, and the rest of central London. One bummer was that it was cloudy for the first time in about three weeks.


In the bubble


In the bubble


The Spokes


Near the top


In the bubble


The view

During our 30 minute trip around the wheel we worked up an appetite, so we decided to walk to Chinatown and get some dinner. However, as we walked past Trafalgar Square we couldn't help but notice that a horde of silly Londoners were gathered around watching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Many of them held coconut shells and would clap them together at appropriate times. While one might be tempted to think this is just something they do every Monday night in London, we later found out that it was part of a celebration of St. George's day. We also found out that we had just missed a Guinness World Record-setting Coconut Orchestra performance.


Silly Londoners

This all seemed like good fun so we abandoned our plans to go to Chinatown in favor of grabbing a few pizzas and watching the rest of the movie.

"What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?"


Good times

First month in London...

It is hard to believe that I have already been in London a month. It has been a complete blur... two intense "block week" classes and a mini-vacation with Annette has meant that I have not had much time to slow down and smell the curry.

The two courses I have taken so far have been extremely worthwhile. My course in project management was probably the most practical course I have ever taken at any level.

The second course, negotiation and bargaining, will hopefully give me an advantage in negotiating at work and in other situations as well. I'll let you know how well my new tactics worked the next time I buy a car or house. One thing I observed during my course is that bargaining position is quite a bit more important that negotiation skills. It is easier to buy a house for less than asking price if you are the only one interested in it. With any luck I'll have multiple job offers this fall and will be in a good position to negotiate my new compensation package.

My upcoming courses are project finance, decision analysis, and world economy. Of these, the world economy course will be particularly interesting. Topics on the syllabus include the US account deficit, the European Monetary Union, globalisation, immigration and foreign aid. I'll post about anything I find exceptionally enlightening.

Saturday I made my second trip to the British Museum. After glancing at the Egyptian artifacts I headed to the SE Asia room. In this room the exhibits traced the origins of Hinduism and Buddhism, and most of the artifacts were from India, as you might expect. It was very interesting to see how these religions spread from India to other regions of Asia, and how local cultures adopted and modified the symbols, rituals, and beliefs. I am getting a bit better at figuring out who is who and what their role is (Buddha, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, etc.). I am going to have to make multiple trips back to the Brit to check out the other exhibitions. I could probably spend a month in there and not have enough time to check out all of the rooms in detail.

Today the rain came back to London, unfortunately. This is only the third or fourth day of rain since I arrived. Last Saturday Seth bought a BBQ grill and we have used it just about every day, cooking hamburgers (the call them beef burgers here - I guess that does make more sense), chicken, fajitas, and steaks. Mmmm mmmm...

This evening I'm headed to the London Eye for a school-sponsored "flight". Hopefully it will be clear out. I'll post some pics in the next day or two.

Ciao!

Quick Update

Well, I had good intentions to keep this blog updated more frequently while I am in London. Unfortunately, however, I have had little time to blog and only intermittent internet access. I finished my first intense 'block week' course in Project Management, then Annette came for a visit (see www.wesandannette.blogspot.com), and now I am in the midst of my second block week class, Negotiation and Bargaining. After this week I will have a bit more time since I will only have class three days a week. So, I will try to do a bit better about posting updates. Check back soon!

A Stroll Around London

On Saturday Chris and Vikram, a couple of my classmates, asked if I wanted to join them for a walk around London. Luckily the weather was great (again!).

We started our walk at Trafalgar Square and made our way down to Buckingham Palace (Buck House, as the locals call it), then walked through St. James park to the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben) and Westminster Abbey.


Baker Street Tube Station - near LBS


Trafalgar Square


Admiralty Arch


Buckingham Palace


St. James Park


Big Ben


Westminster Abbey


The London Eye


Battle of Britain Memorial

As we walked along the river towards London bridge, we passed the relatively new Millennium Bridge, also known as "Wobbly bridge." When it was first opened, it swayed due to resonant vibrations caused by people walking on it. It had to close down while the city spent 5 million pounds to stabilize it.


Millennium Bridge and Tate Modern


Chris and Vikram at St. Pauls Cathedral


Statue of John Wesley at St. Pauls


Ship and London Bridge


View of the Gherkin from the London Tower


In other news, I have just finished my second day of class at London Business School and things are going great. I am taking a project management class with about 40 other students. It is a very diverse class and the classroom discussions can be quite lively. This is a "block class" - an intense and compressed one week course - we meet from 9-5 every day for five days. The class will wrap up on Thursday, the same day Annette arrives. Hopefully the weather will still be great for her visit.

It rains in London???

After two days of fun in the London sun, the ugly weather finally reared its head. Thursday started off cold and rainy and got only marginally better as the day went on. Oh well, two days of sunshine was a pretty good run.

It will not come as a shock to anyone that has been here, but London is expensive!! Today I went to get a duplicate key made and it was over 6 pounds - about 12 dollars! I was missing the 1.97 Wal-Mart key cutting.

Fortunately, some things in London are free. Take museums for example. There are probably a dozen excellent free museums in London.


The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square


Fountain in front of the National Gallery


Flying rats in Trafalgar square


Self explanatory

Today I took a peek in the national gallery before going to the national portrait gallery. I got to brush up on my British history by reading about London's royal family from the 1500s or so on and seeing portraits of Kings, Queens, and other notable people.


Slightly crooked photo of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

As I was leaving the museum there was a bit of sunshine. It even looked like good weather for a jog. So, when I got back the flat Seth and I went for a jog down Paddington canal.

The big plan for tomorrow evening is to find a cheap theater ticket and see a show.. will let you know how it turns out.

New series coming: Wes in London

I'll be in London from now through June and will be brushing off my blog to report on some of my experiences. Check back soon!