Random Thoughts

Well it is a beautiful day and I'd love to be outside but have a lot of work to do. Yesterday I really slacked off and went on a 2-1/2 hour bike ride in the afternoon. I had a really nice ride, though. I tried to ride to Woodland Park, which is 2000+ feet up and 20 miles away from here, but the road up there really sucks. It is basically a four lane highway through a valley with some sections of terrifyingly narrow shoulder. And to make it worse, there is a creek in between the highway, so you can't just turn around when you decide you'd rather not get hit by a 60 mph semi. I think I was only about 5 miles from Woodland Park when I finally had a chance to turn around. Instead I did some winding in the hills west of Colorado Springs. There is one road with a couple of switchbacks, that is a good little climb. There was a guy sitting behind me on the way up to the climb, once it started getting steep he came around me. I decided to let the competitive side of me go and tried to stay close to him. I managed it but it was really hard. Probably the most I've suffered on the bike in a while but in that sick way I really enjoyed it :)

To make up for slacking yesterday I am trying to focus on work today. I woke up at 5:30 and started working almost immediately. It took 3 alarms but I made it out of bed! We are talking about ethics this week, so there is not a ton of prep I can do because the classes are almost all discussions between the students. But I need to be prepared to guide the discussion in the direction we want it to go, so I have a little bit of research to do. Today we talked about the Tragedy of the Commons by George Hardin. Here is a good qoute from in that kind of sums it up: "Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all." So it is a little depressing. Basically, according to Hardin, people need to be coerced to do what is right for the common good. In the case of climate change, that coercion might come in the form of a cap and trade system. It's a complex issue ...

I find it hard to know how to prepare for these types of classes. I'd rather just have a specific topic that I am more familiar with. On the flip side, ethics and policy stuff is interesting. And luckily the students are all really good about being involved. We broke them into groups of 5 today and they had some good discussions. I guess that's it for now. I really should get to work ...