politics | Minter Dial

Obama to bring bullet trains (TGV Shinkansen style) to USA

by Minter Dial | Apr 21, 2009 | Politics, Travel

There are plenty of surprising deficiencies in the US, it being the number 1 world power (still). I have written previously about the poor state of education (at the high school level) in the US and the insufficient medical coverage (despite the disproportionately...

The Dead played at the Obama Inauguration

by Minter Dial | Mar 18, 2009 | Entertainment, Politics

It took a little bit of exploration on dead.net and Rolling Stone to find out — substantially after the fact — that the [revised Grateful] Dead played for Obama in the Mid-Atlantic inaugural ball (20 Jan 2009). No one I know was in attendance or perhaps...

Curvature of Constitutional Space – Spacious if not Specious

by Minter Dial | Feb 17, 2009 | Politics

Here’s a juicy title for a thesis: “Curvature of Constitutional Space.” Is this thesis for a student of the law? Or Is it for a student of astrophysics? As I happen to be an amateur of astrophysics, the title certainly caught my attention.The full...

Velib in Paris – Wheels are coming off…

by Minter Dial | Feb 11, 2009 | Travel

The wheels are coming off the track for the Vélib bicycle programme in Paris, a subject I have been following since its inception. According to this BBC write-up (taken in turn from Le Parisien), the Parisians seem to have taken a little too much liberty with the vélo...

MEDEF Débat – Bâtir le leadership {français) en Europe

by Minter Dial | Feb 11, 2009 | Leadership, Politics

J’ai participé à la première heure du débat monté hier soir par le MEDEF dans le cadre de leur programme “Bâtir le leadership Europe.” La question posée pour ce débat était: “L’influence française à Bruxelles: le vrai et le faux”...