Movie: The Painted Veil (2006)
This love story has Kitty meeting young, intelligent, shy and somewhat dull Dr. Walter Fane, whose forte is the study of infectious diseases, and the convenient marriage that she finds herself committed to. It is in this web of intrigue that they head for China, only after Walter discovers Kitty’s infidelity with one dashing and witty diplomat Charlie Townsend. So much as to hide her from herself and to help thwart a cholera outbreak, this is a marriage more than on the rocks. This is a cold, indifferent and loveless partnership in a vast unknown and deadly environment that will test both these flightless lovebirds and with the hardships and tolerances more than any had ever anticipated. A visual delight amid the pain and suffering of a dying people and failing marriage. Will a cure be found for both, before it’s too late?
Movie: Gallipoli (1981)
The story of a group of young Australian men who leave their various backgrounds behind and sign up to join the ANZACs in World War I. They are sent to Gallipoli, where they encounter the might of the Turkish army.
Movie: What Dreams May Come (1998)
Chris Neilson dies to find himself in a heaven more amazing than he could have ever dreamed of. There is one thing missing: his wife. After he dies, his wife, Annie killed herself and went to hell. Chris decides to risk eternity in hades for the small chance that he will be able to bring her back to heaven.
This is the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale. It’s beautiful and it houses the collective memory of our planet. There are few buildings on Earth that mean as much to humanity as this one. You could call it the Eighth Wonder of the World.
Magazines For Women
Over at pbh3 they have a pretty clever image of a stereotypical women’s magazine. Original probably came from elsewhere.
pbh3:
One part Cosmo, one part Vogue, one part Glamour, mix with two parts “Hate yourself and your body”, and VOILA.
Mandelbaum’s Review of Three IR Books is Pretty Depressing
In the May/June issue of Foreign Policy, Michael Mandelbaum, IR professor at Johns Hopkins’ SAIS, reviews three new international relations books (Super-power Illusions by career diplomat and adjunct professor at Columbia’s SIPA Jack Matlock, The Power Curse by Wesleyan IR Professor Giulio M. Gallarotti, and The Power Problem by CATO’s Director of Foreign Policy Studies Christopher Preble) that say the same thing about American power abroad but in different ways.
Each argues that the indisputable power enjoyed by the US since World War II has led the country to make the mistakes that will bring about the end to that power. The policy proposal from each book is basically the same as well: do more with less. Narrow the objectives so that the objectives can be focused on and met.
Mandelbaum, after reviewing each book, provides a pretty darker assessment of the future of America’s ability to exert influence abroad:
The three books [are] backward-looking. Although they do not seem to recognize it, the era in which U.S. foreign policy could be driven in counterproductive directions by an excess of power is in the process of ending.
He thinks that the budget deficits from the last ten years, the most recent economic slump, and the political inability to do anything about the unmanageable strain on Social Security and Medicare from fast-retiring baby boomers will make it impossible for the US to maintain the military presence in the globe that it has since World War II.
Mandelbaum also points out what I think is an important point that does not get said enough in response to cautions about American overreach:
If, as Washington pulls back, others do not step forward, the world is all too likely to become both more disorderly and less prosperous.
Although the US might not be the friendliest, most moral superpower, it’s the only one that the world has – and at this point the potential replacements aren’t that friendly either.
The Last Unicorn
I have been told that everyone should see this film.
"God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn…"
Numbers 24:8 (King James Bible)
Erasure’s music video for Always, as heard in Adult Swim’s Unicorn Robot Attack. A fitting inaugural post for Unicorn Robot. We’ll see how many more there are.
