A note

About a week ago I got back from a five-day backpacking trip in the snowy wilderness of Pennsylvania. It was my first experience being outside for an extended period of time without technology, only with the members of my group, sleeping under a plastic tarp. It was an interesting, if sometimes challenging, ordeal and it opened my eyes even more to the corruption and worthlessness of our modern society. My frustration has increased with the coming of the 'Holiday season' (one month spent focusing on one day?), a time of mass consumption and materialism.

On a lighter note, I will be returning to 2006/07 post levels soon. I'm going through a very busy period in my life.

Hope all my American readers had an exceptional Thanksgiving.

~Cameron

OBAMA WINS!

CNN projects Barack Obama has won the 2008 presidential election.

Now three words I am very proud to say: President-elect Obama. This is an America I can be proud of.

I am perfectly ecstatic.

Hope is alive, even in a political cynic like me.

Going door-to-door for Obama

I canvassed for the first time today. Though it was just a few hours of my day, canvassing gave me a sense of fulfillment. When I got back home and looked at the polls, there was good news. Obama's pushing on as strong as ever now that the nation can fully see Palin for who she is. Hopefully Obama can maintain this lead when election day comes, and we can finally have a competent person in the Oval Office. And, for what it's worth, I plan on canvassing more next weekend and making calls during the week.

If you're looking to volunteer for the Obama/Biden campaign, get involved in more ways than one by checking out the campaign website.

Meanwhile, I must get back to these college applications.

Back home

My plane arrived yesterday from Heathrow, and I'm missing London already! Be on the lookout for new posts...

Update

Hey readers, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I will try to squeeze in a few posts in the coming days, but on Friday I leave for a two week trip to London. Expect July and August to be good post months!

Away

Note to readers —

I will be away all week. New post on Sunday.

More posts coming soon...

I would like to apologize to all my readers for not posting much the past month or so, but expect regular postings from today on! I am also working on a series of essays about religion and other fundamental topics, and I hope we can have an open debate about these pressing philosophical issues. In addition, more eco-tips will be coming as we enter March.

Taking a break

I am taking a break from blogging. My life is currently very busy but I am drafting future blog posts, and will continue to do so during my break. Look for new posts a week from Friday (i.e., the 1st of February), although I may blog a bit before then.

I'm back

My flight was delayed (we ended up waiting four hours for a flight only a bit over four hours) so I got back home at 4:30 AM last night. Needless to say I haven't had a great amount of time for blogging in the past couple days, but I do have some plans for posts in the last few days of this year...

Conflict Map (Iraq slightly downgraded; Lebanon political turmoil; Afghanistan steady...)

[The ever-popular] 2008 US election poll leaders Pre-primary edition. this will probably be the last post on polls until the January party primaries (the rise of Huckabee the Baptist minister/Arkansas governor/homophobe, weightloss guru, etc. in Iowa, the vulnerability of Dem still-leader Clinton, the hope for Edwards in Iowa, GOP hopeful Thompson doesn't live up to dying hype; Edwards strong against Republicans in Iowa; Romney's religion factor)

Pakistan

Religion in US politics (Romney and the religion test; past couple decades of religious lobby)
http://economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10277230

305 men in legal limbo, the fates of whom will be decided by Americas highest court (Gitmo)

EU-Africa

McCain comeback

Ron Paul

Putin: Time's Man of the Year

My China trip:
-environment
-developing cities
-civilian population
-political freedom
-sites to see/landmarks/touristy stuff
-food/culture/history/etc

More messed up US foreign aid

Thailand's return to democracy (?)

Kenya and other elections

Israel-Palestine

Hope you all had a merry Christmas — if you celebrated it. I look forward to a new year of blogging.

Leaving for LA

I will soon be departing for Los Angeles, California for a one week vacation. I should be able to catch up on blog posts there.

I'm back!

Visiting China was a very eye-opening experience, but it's good to be back home. I'll post more about what I found China's culture and politics to be like soon; 16 hour plane rides don't exactly aid the blog post brainstorming and writing process. As much as I loved China, I am glad to now be back in a country where I can speak my mind — for the most part — and access whatever news websites I want to (i.e. the US).

Greetings from China!

So it turns out I am able to access the web... (see post)

I arrived in China late last night. I am currently in Qinghuandao and the time here is 3:37 PM. While the culture differences are for the most part dramatic, many things are the same; I think a lot of people have misconseptions about this vast nation. Wherever one goes in the cities, one observes growth and development.

Hopefully I will be able to post more politically-relevant content later, although I don't know when I will be able to use the computer next. Search engines and news websites are hard to fully access due to government censorship; it's a wonder Blogger works!

Anyway, that's enough for now.

Oh, and Musharraf has worsened his dictatorial hold on Pakistan.

Two week hiatus!

My trip to China
Today, Friday, I leave for my two week long trip to the People's Republic of China. I cannot assure any posts until the 16th of November. I don't know whether I will have the time or the internet access to blog while I am in China. (Check back a couple times during the later part of the trip and I may have some posts up courtesy of Beijing's internet cafes.)

My visit comes as the country is experiencing extreme economic growth, but also continuing practices that lead to environmental degradation and the violation of human rights and political freedoms. In addition China will be hosting the Olympics next summer.

At first I will be in the coastal city of Qinhuangdao; then ancient capital Xi'an to see the Terracotta Army and climb a mountain; then current capital Beijing to do and see a number of things. I'll post some of my experiences — including photos and analysis of the country's change and what I observed — after the trip.

Zai jian (再见) for now!

Sick

New posts coming later this week.

I leave for China on 2 November.

More soon...

6 years later: looking back on 9/11

It's been six years since an act that changed modern history and the world as we knew it. Acts of terrorism were committed on the morning of 11 September 2001 in New York, Washington, DC, and, as it turned out, Pennsylvania. Now, I'm sure you have heard this all and have heard it again, but the political and social effects created by 9/11 have been, suffice to say, enormous. It led to the invasion of entire countries, an international 'war' being declared, the decline in popularity of numerous politicians, the death of many civilians and soldiers, and a shift in the perspectives of both the Muslim world and the West.

A poll recently released said that many Americans will do nothing special or different on this day — not even watch the news to see what's going on in the world. Considering their nation's place in the world and their fortunate socioeconomic placement, world events is something many Americans are quite ignorant about. I try not to be one of those ignorant Americans.

I know it sounds cheesy, but in one way or another, 11 September is always a day of reflection for me, a time to remember times past. I remember the morning of 9/11. I had just left the dentist's office after my six month checkup. I turned on the radio and heard that there had been a plane crash, black smoke, New York, World Trade Center. It didn't click in my mind until a little while later. Soon, the towers fell, and the entire world seemed to be in shock. CNN replayed the video for what felt like weeks, immediately a 'war on terror' was declared. I remember how everyone displayed a flag — on their car window, in front of their house, on their clothes. Everyone was soaking in a sea of patriotism that would soon turn into anguish and, for some, war-mongering despair and an opportunistic outlook. Not only did companies capitalize off of that patriotism; politicians did too. I, like most others, went along with President Bush until I realized you cannot fight terrorists by invading nations, implementing poor policies, thus counter-intuitively breeding more terrorism.

Here are some of the posts from In Perspective I've picked out that are especially relevant to this day:

Warping facts and rewriting history: 9/11 conspiracy theories [here]

A tale of two viewpoints [here]

A look back to a moment in history: 9/11 [here]

Course of action: some GWOT recommendations [here]

"Freedom isn't free" [here]

There's a clash of something(s), but what? [here]

Osama Bin Laden can continue his little video messages for all I care. What he should know is that, eventually, he will be brought to justice — in actuality or in principle — for masterminding the killings of thousands of Americans on 9/11, and many more in other horrible incidents. He is one person who will go down in history for what he really is: bigoted, militant, murderous scum. His followers receive just as much sympathy (i.e. none) from me for their 'cause' as their twisted leader.

technorati tags: 9/11, 9-11, september+11

Oh, so it's Tuesday...

Having Labor Day off yesterday really messed up my day today. I thought it was Monday. Anyway, news-wise today it looks like the usual: Bush 'stays the course' on Iraq, another hurricane hits the Central America, bad news from Gaza, record-breaking train in Europe, missing explorer, sub-prime mortgage confusion and volatility, more evolutionary psychology 'findings', aka junk (I side against the biased evo-psycho scientists)... the usual.

More posts coming soon...

I've been really busy the past week or so. Expect September to be an active month for In Perspective, though.

Back home

No longer will I take a constant, easily-accessible high speed internet connection for granted (I thought I'd already learned that lesson!). It has too many secure wi-fi networks... but nonetheless Southern California is very nice. The three-hour time difference can be a drag, especially on the return. Just as I get back from (my final) summer vacation, it seems everyone has left for late July and August: governments, ordinary people, etc. At least on the political front it's some time to spend jotting down smear ideas against your opponents while enjoying the beach.


If you think Europe's heat wave and Britain's flooding have been bad, take a look at perhaps one of the more underreported stories of late: torrential rains and flooding in South Asia. This year's monsoon season has been disastrous. In the recent wave, hundreds have been killed and millions possibly affected by flooding.

Also take a look at what else to expect in the news this week.

Last trip of the summer

I'll be gone to Los Angeles (it's in California, for all you geography buffs) for the next seven days or so visiting family. I have no clue as to whether I will be able to connect to the internet, but I imagine I will be able to some time or another. This is my final vacation this summer; the next time I'll be away will be in November, when I take a two-week trip to China.

Happy first of August.

My personal bible

The bible:

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy

Philosophy is unlike any other subject. It studies the core of human understanding (philosophy of psychology) and knowledge (epistemology), but also how we reason that knowledge (philosophy of logic), and record and communicate it (philosophy of language). It explores our social fabric (social and political philosophy), but also the fabrics of the theoretical: space and time beyond what we see (philosophy of metaphysics); and then some.

I have some fond stories of my 'bible'. Once — late last year — I was quite sick, unable to read anything. Naturally I was bored out of my mind. I eventually picked up my Oxford Companion to Philosophy and began reading. Lo and behold I read for nearly two hours and only stopped once I realized I'd been reading in an awkward position with my neck arched downward. I get lost in this tome of thought all the time. Anyways, the Oxford Companion to Philosophy is full of thought-worthy, provocative, informative, and all around interesting entries ranging from the big names to the small, the widely-known ideas to the lesser-known, and so on.

The Companion features over 2,200 entries, including some 300 new to this 2005 edition (the first edition was issued a decade earlier), 291 contributors, and covers everything and everyone from "animal consciousness" to "David Hume" to "God, arguments for the existence of" (and an entry of "arguments against the existence of") to "zombies". There are some illustrations, and articles can be a small paragraph or several pages. There are also references and books to see for more information listed at the end of virtually every entry. Plus, diagrams chart out the various main branches of philosophy in the back of the book, followed by a complete cross-index, all being preceded by a nice chronology of philosophy.

However not everything can fit in what is seen as the definitive one-volume philosophy reference book. I have compiled a list of entries my bible is lacking — including "negative utopia", "George Orwell", "Big Brother" (yes I like George Orwell, a lot), "A.C. Grayling", "Eric Hoffer" and more — and will email the editor and publisher once I'm sure I have thought of everything.

The website of Oxford University Press (OUP), the book's publisher, states that the book's readership is targeted at:

General readers interested in abstract thought, the eternal questions, and the foundations of human understanding; students and professionals in philosophy and related fields (physical, human, and social sciences, the arts and humanities).

The book runs about US$60, but you can easily find it for cheaper (see Amazon). I keep my bible handy at all times; I take on vacation (when I can). It's a great book; anyone interested in more advanced thought than portrayed by tabloids and celebrity rags, not to mention the often shallow politics of the day, should check it out. It's one of those books that you keep for a lifetime.