The Palestinian Problem Some problems never go away. And some problems just bubble away under the surface, hiding in wait, biding their time. The problems of the Middle East seem to embody both sorts. History and religion are difficult backdrops for justice and nowhere on the face of the earth has more of both than the corner of the world where three continents meet. Africa, Europe and Asia and their diverse cultures come together is…
Why Humans? I am drawn to unusual articles from sources like National Geographic that challenge the very foundations of our existence on this planet. Today I saw an article that, in some ways, does a better job of challenging those foundations than most. I think we all understand that human life began, for one reason or another in East Africa. A great deal of recent research indicates that this precept is a bit mistaken in…
Rowdy All Over Again Last night was my last class in my ethics class for a month. Kim and I are headed off on Monday to Egypt and Jordan for a few weeks. Normally I try to not miss more than two weeks when I teach, but this time I will miss three weeks, but I get a pass on the last week since it is the official school Spring Break. I have been sure…
Namaste We love our new hilltop community. We like all the people and especially like the diversity of the community. We have Persian, Japanese, Arab, Scottish, Indonesian, French and Nepalese people in addition to a full array of mixed American nuts as well. Almost two years ago, Ramesh and Lili Pandey, who are Nepalese, moved in next door, making them physically our closest neighbors. We have gotten friendly with them, which is nice for us…
Superbloom of Bust There is a natural phenomenon here is Southern California that occurs every few years. The “Golden” state is mostly covered with semi-arid landscape that I like to call chaparral. It creates a lovely golden backdrop on which outcroppings of green scrub oaks and such get highlighted. The other thing that happens is that the weeds that are native to California decide that it’s time to declare their presence the way weeds do,…
Booking-Up I have now booked all of our travel for 2023. I’m not sure why I do that all so early, but I do. I don’t think I get such a great price advantage by doing that, especially if you add in the inevitable flight changes that sometimes are required, but I do worry a bit about availability of the preferred flights and that is clearly helped by booking early. This year’s travel consists of…
Keeping Up I speak often about teaching and what it means to me. But now that I’ve done it at the graduate level for thirteen years, ten at Cornell and three so far at USD, I am approaching an inflection point and decisions will need to be made. Last week I bumped into the Chairman of the Finance Department, who is my boss for the Advanced Corporate Finance course that I have taught for two…
Dear Roger I have always been a fan of the name Roger and even named my oldest son Roger. The Roger I am addressing this to is a motorcycle friend of mine who is about as different from me as he could be. He is small and slender, but mostly he leans in the exact opposite direction that I do on almost every topic. Roger and I (along with Kevin) text almost every day about…
The Tornado of Life I’ve never really been in a Tornado, a Hurricane, a Tsunami or a Derecho. At least I don’t think I have. I was once riding my motorcycle across a vast open plain in Southern Utah and there was a small dust whirlwind off to my left in a field and I watched it as it came toward the road I was on. It caused me to pull over and watch it,…
Wadi Bashing What a shame that everything is not perfect at all times in our lives. Most of us come to expect and deal with the imperfection on a day-to-day basis, but on vacation it suddenly takes on expanded importance. We got “dumped” here at the Wadi Rum Sun City Camp at 1 PM today. Other than taking a hike, we had pretty much done everything that Wadi Rum has to offer. I wish I…