Tidbits and Random Thoughts...

Airport Security - As a frequent flier, I am all in favour of measures that will help make flying safer and am quite willing to go through the occasional pat-down, answer random questions, and go through the a revealing scanner, if in fact those measures will achieve the desired ends. I am no security expert but this Toronto Star story makes sense to me. We will need to rely more on human intelligence and judgement and less on machines if we are going to secure the skies. I am quite amazed at how much stuff that technically is not supposed to come on-board a plane actually does, and that is just from my own carry-on luggage. I try to fly with just carry-on most times and frequently have mistakenly left nail-clippers, bottles of liquids, and a corkscrew in my suitcase, only to have it make it through at least half the time. I can also predict with some accuracy which airports I can get away on this and which I can't. I fear that more than new rules and new machines, ensuring we have the capacity to consistently enforce the rules would be a more useful investment.

Foreign Service or NGOs - On the After Hours blog, my colleague Rob Joustra makes an interesting point regarding the decline of the foreign service as a desirable institution for idealistic international politics students to work for, having been replaced by NGOs. A year ago in this space, I mused about the changing nature of institutions as a significant item to be paying attention to. It clearly remains an issue in 2010, and one about which I think we all should be more concerned than we typically are.

Economists Typecast - This Wall Street Journal article spurred by a convention of economists in Atlanta provided several one-liners that caused me a chuckle.

Economist Robert Gordon, of Northwestern University, says he drives out of his way to go to a grocery store where prices are cheaper than at the nearby Whole Foods, even though it takes him an extra half hour to save no more than $5....."You might be an economist if you refuse to sell your children because they might be worth more later."....One year, Yale University economist Robert Shiller, who'd never gambled in his life, found himself at a casino there. He says that was because Wharton economist Jeremy Siegel realized that by using coupons offered to conventioneers, they could take opposing bets at the craps table with a 35 out of 36 chance of winning $12.50 each. Over two nights, Mr. Shiller netted $87.50. He hasn't gambled since.

Reading the article made me muse on how many similarities there are between first generation Dutch immigrants and economists. (Not that Dutch immigrants would sell their children nor gamble, and they are far more generous towards charities than this profile of economists seem to be, but the story describes an ethos which does seem familiar.)

Economist on Proroguing - I suppose the fact that the internationally respected Economist magazine devotes the better part of a page to critiquing Mr. Harper for proroguing Parliament does cause a "Grassroots fury skeptic" like myself to pause, but I still think this is a tempest in a teapot. Turns out a few more and different people than I anticipated are partaking of that particular brew but my gut still tells me that six months from now, our attention will have turned to other matters and most voters will once again have to look up what prorogation means.