Decrease the obliquity of the ecliptic
Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.
Man, I've got jet lag. I've been trying to work all day, but I can't concentrate. I just got back Tuesday afternoon from a vacation/class in Istanbul, Turkey, that can only be described as epic.
I love traveling abroad. It certainly broadens the mind and gives a real perspective of these United States. The biggest problem is no matter where I go, I have incorrect ideas about the place I'm going to visit. The class had a pretty large amount of advance reading, so I had a lot of accurate historical information, but it's the modern cultural stuff that made me worse than ignorant, since I thought I actually knew something from watching the news.
Plus that whole Gezi Park, Taksim Square thing blew up basically as I was getting on the plane. At any rate, I'm going to write a longer piece about it in the near future, but in a nutshell, these were some of the best weeks of my life. I had a blast. I met an amazing number of cool people, met a couple of crazy ones, saw more mosques and churches than I can remember, had some beers, saw some protesters, had some beers with some protesters.
The only times I ever felt threatened in this 99 percent Muslim country were when I heard false reports of anti-American sentiment or deadly force being used against protesters. To the contrary, people went out of their way to help me, even when I was acting stupidly.
I did get to see how it feels to be under constant surveillance by the government. We were warned about saying too much on our cell phones, in emails or on social media. In fact, a whole big news story about government spying came out while I was there. I also saw real examples of government using the media to tell its lies to the public. And if you think that sounds horrible, the Turkish government is just as bad.
Finally, don't forget to vote in our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada popularity contest. Time grows short.