It's that time of year.. time to register for next semester's classes, or at least time to start looking. Looking over the course catalogue, the difference between CMU and most universities is again highlit.. the 'missing' majors, the particular courses offered in each field... An art school plus a science school != a general school... Anyhow, I likely will end up taking two psychology classes, but it's tempting to take something really different, like an urban planning class. I'd like to take a language, but the only ones offered this semester are the 2nd-half of ones from last semester. Also, no Hebrew or Arabic. Maybe I'll take Russian or Japanese, or perhaps I'll be able to convince Andrew that it'd be useful for me to know Arabic, so I could take it at Pitt (I'd need permission).

Britain and Spain are at ends over Gibraltar. Apparently, Spain closed its border with Gibraltar when a ship full of sick people landed, and Gibraltar lacks a hospital. Spain, according to the article, considers Gibraltar a tax-shelter that has outlived its time, and they've been playing politics in the E.U. on various matters relating to it. It's a shame -- in the end, the goal of the E.U., I think, should be to reduce the differences between countries, eventually to the point where it doesn't matter whether Gibraltar is considered British or Spanish..

I know very little about the country or its troubles, but I'm fascinated to read that things in Sri Lanka have deteriorated to the point where the military is now deployed in TV/Radio stations. Wow.

It seems a bit premature to me to start condemning Putin for arresting Khodorkovsky -- It makes me wonder if the condemnation is purely inspired by businessmen who have an interest in seeing Russia with inadequate legal/market controls.

This looks interesting. A clever feat of engineering, to be sure. It might be useful for my laptop too.

An exercise: Rewrite this story, retaining all facts but altering the spin to a more sympathetic viewpoint. If you like, get a login on my BLOG, and post it as a reply... :)

Right now, free time is scarce, but I'm looking forward to geocacheing soon.. Also, I'm going biking with a friend soon! Woo!