still a good event

Too tired to write it up now, but today was more of the same. It’s an unorthodox event, sure, but very well organized. Everyone seems happy with it, and I certainly am.

Tomorrow afternoon is the only free time on the week’s schedule, but it’s not free time for me. If you’re in the vicinity, I hope to see you at Said Business School.

That’s something I’ve seen quite often in the UK over the past 4 or 5 years (and possibly earlier; I’m speaking only of personal experience here)… business schools are frequently the most intellectually challenging places you’ll find. Not sure of the history behind that, but they are often loaded with deeply serious thinkers.

knowledge ecology with another OOO-related post

It’s another busy day coming up, so I’ve had no time so far to do anything but skim THIS.

something we can be very, very, very glad did not happen

Report: U.S. was ready to fight Pakistanis

It could have been the ugliest diplomatic dispute in years, if not something much worse.

I understand why Obama had to plan for it, and why he felt the stakes were high enough in this case to risk it. But still. I’m glad the U.S. did not ultimately shoot up the soldiers of a nuclear-armed quasi-ally. Yes yes, I am very happy indeed.

[ADDENDUM: Interestingly, Obama was always surprisingly hawkish on Pakistan issues all the way back to the 2008 campaign, much more hawkish on that particular point than McCain, who said he would never violate Pakistani sovereignty to go after any al-Qaeda figures. And then Obama added James Jones as his National Security Advisor, who if memory serves had expressed similarly hawkish views on that particular point. It seemed at the time like it might just be campaign positioning, but evidently it is Obama’s genuine view that he will strike inside Pakistan without their permission. This dispute is going to take awhile to play out, and could still get pretty ugly.]