O’Hare Airport

After being bumped from my flight last night and spending the night in the airport, I have finally arrived back in Rhode Island. The security line in Terminal 1 lasted an hour and a half and made Chinese airports look like the epitome of efficiency. People were mostly civil until the end when everyone had some sort of emergency which prevented them from being bumped to the next flight. I made the mistake of allowing one traveler to get in front of me and I suppose that most people confuse kindness for weakness because the well dressed business traveler who had been in line behind me for over an hour decided to push me out of the way. I confronted him and he tells me that he has been in front of me the whole time and that I need to calm down. The man is obviously well educated and affluent. Judging from his accent and features he is most probably Nigerian, but has an Illinois driver’s license. The other people are staring at us including the passenger that I just allowed in front of me, but no one says anything. I tell him, “Fine. Knock yourself out.” I immediately hate myself for being a human doormat, but there is not enough time for a longer discussion as we are about to go through the metal detector. Once through, the man takes his time putting his shoes back on; obviously not in a rush for a flight. I keep playing the incident back through my head wondering if there was a way to handle the situation while preserving my dignity without resorting to violence, but nothing comes to mind. I briefly considered reminding him that I had seen his address on his license and that I can score a head shot at 500 yards without a scope, but that seemed ill-advised in the middle of the security checkpoint. This is a picture during the twenty minute wait on the tarmac before we were airborne.
The FAS site has a good explanitory article about the North Korea test here.

Stockbridge, Massachusetts

We spent Columbus Day bicycling around Stockbridge in Berkshire. We stopped by the Norman Rockwell museum, but it was mobbed by senior citizens and the tickets were $12.50 each. New England is known for the foliage in autumn and tourists come from all over just to see the trees. Just north of Stockbridge is the summer home of the Boston Pops at the Tanglewood Music Center. Other than that, the only thing to do in Stockbridge is to visit one of the many apple orchards along the road. Still, it was a worthwhile excursion. Meanwhile, North Korea apparently tested a nuclear bomb.

Supergirl

Last night, I attended a talk entitled, “Supergirl in China: How Sex in the City Invaded China and its Impact on Film and Visual Arts”. The presentation was given by Dr. Jonathan S. Noble, assistant professor of East Asian Languages and Literatures at University of Notre Dame. Dr. Noble did make passing reference to Sex in the City and spoke for about five minutes on the Supergirl show’s success, but the bulk of the presentation was spent explaining that some big budget movies are successes while others are flops. No real conclusions were made other than the obvious fact that movies are becoming formulaic. As usual, the professor had not practiced his own presentation and had difficulties controlling his PowerPoint slides. The presentation concluded with a performance by Dr. Noble’s wife, Xin Zhang. Ms. Zhang performed two of her originally recorded songs, “What is Love After All” and “Second to None”. Both songs were very good except for the skipping of the CD playing the background tracks, but Ms. Zhang clearly had the stage presence of a professional. The Moon Festival dinner that followed was excellent!

Better Late than Never

When the current Iraq war began in 2003, counterinsurgency doctrine had not improved much since Vietnam. Three years later our military leaders have begun to develop a counterinsurgency doctrine. I can only stand in awe of the think-tanks, military schools, and doctrine commands that are now learning from experience rather than anticipating the same problems we have experienced in every medium to low intensity conflict we have been involved in for the last 30 years. Finally, we are starting to get serious about winning this war and I am proud that our leadership has figured out what we are there to do.

Bryant in the Fall

Fall semester is in full swing and many students are beginning to camp out inside the library preparing for their first major exams of the semester. A flock of geese has taken up residence in the pond at the center of campus. I’m not sure what happened to the school of fish that were there in the spring. I’ve started the interview process for a number of firms so the next three weeks will be very busy. Luckily, most of the major extracurricular academic trips and presentations will occur in November. I will be back in a few weeks with more substantial material.