What can I say? I’m a man of mischief and I’m a sucker for honesty.

I spent 5 days last month hiking/camping the Grand Canyon. Some notes while my memory is somewhat fresh.

– I remember it being prettier. The part I was at didn’t have that milky blue water. And earth that was less…swirly? Something was missing.

– But Sedona was even more beautiful than I remember.

– The Grand Canyon is big. It’s hard to believe, but you can’t actually see most of its depth unless go right into it. All you can see from the top is how wide it is, but you’re missing half the grandness!

– Before my trek on the Inca Trail, Jessica told me that Machu Picchu would ruin all my future travels by comparison — that maybe I should save it for later in life. I told her she was crazy. She has been very right so far.

– If there were words to describe how it feels to casually stroll through the Canyon at night without any lights because the full moon is so bright that you can easily see where you’re walking and everything else around you, I would write them here so that I could remember forever. Alas, this description of how impossible it is will have to do, hopefully triggering flashbacks of sorts.

– Oh and the caves! Who knew there were random caves to explore!

– Imagine that when I was 13 I had had this site and posted my thoughts from my first Grand Canyon trip! I wonder what I would’ve said…

The bank runs in Cyprus have reminded me that we euro doomers have been repeatedly wrong over the last few years: the euro still lives (and thank goodness!). Let’s hope that stays true, because the last thing we want to see is radicalism spread through Europe.

For what it’s worth, keep in mind that currency crises are extremely rare events in the developed world — or at least they’re supposed to be! If the euro collapses even 20 years from now, we should consider that a huge failure of current policy. I don’t think we’ll need to wait 20 years, but hey…

The real world plays out a lot slower than what we (or at least I) imagine in our heads. Something I’ve seen referred to as Dornbusch’s Law:

The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought, and that’s sort of exactly the Mexican story. It took forever and then it took a night.

He’s referring to the Mexican financial crisis in 1994.

I used to tell something similar to my friend Jessica every time we’d argue over political change: freedom takes time, I’d say, but when it happens it happens suddenly. I was telling her not to be cynical about what seemed like little progress in the world.

She never got to see Tunisia, Egypt or Libya. But she still owes me a coke.

 
(HT: Paul Krugman)

Student A: Sir, what was the highest mark on the test?

Math Prof: A couple of students actually got perfect, one of which is a student from the economics department — which should be embarrassing for the rest of you.

Student B: Oh wow, he must be very smart.

Sina: I hear he’s seven feet tall with eyes of steel: cold and hard.

I’m late to the game on this, but here’s lovely Ms. Malala talking about her recovery.

Why Ms.? Because that  girl  lady has earned the respect. Just listen to her — amazing. Reminds me of my lovely niece Alisha.

So much love for this lady.

Tina Fey summarizes internet forums in just 33 secs.

[jwplayer mediaid=”6504″ width=”482″ height=”305″]

As part of FDR’s New Deal in the 1930’s, the Works Progress Administration created posters to promote the US’s various national parks. These posters are amazing, and the national parks now sell them in miniature form as postcards.

As an avid postcard sender, I’ve seen a lot of postcards in my day, and these are absolutely gorgeous.

You can search the interwebs if you want to see them — search “wpa national parks posters” in the googles. They’re all so good! Here are my favourites.

Long have I wanted to once again see the red earth and chalky blue water.

See you in 10 days.
 

Sina: There was a student trying to glance at someone else’s test for the answers — I had to move him to another seat.

TA #2: You let him write the rest of the test?!

Sina: He looked so desperate, I just let it go.

TA #2: That’s terrible!

Sina: Nahh. We don’t know this guy’s story. Maybe he’s going through a tough time, maybe something serious, and hasn’t been able to keep up. Why should I add to his troubles? Or hey, maybe not — maybe he’s just a lazy student. But either way, simply moving him makes the problem go away.

TA #2: That’s not fair to the other students.

Sina: Sometimes people just need a break. Sometimes people just need to be forgiven.