This week, T&D happy hour is going classy. I know everyone will miss the greasy Big Hunt burgers and pizza, but don’t be afraid, change is good.
We will be at Heritage India, about a block down Connecticut from Dupont, at 6pm on Thursday, August 30.
Top 5 Policy Recommendations Reasons for Think and Drink Attendance
- Who are we kidding, it’s more drinking than thinking.
- Little Indian tapas to go with that martini.
- Key opportunity have conversations that start with “so this one time, my summer intern…”
- Jeffrey has stories and gossip far too scandalous and inappropriate even for the blog. Just keep those beers coming.
- My last DC happy hour before academia sets in.
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So wait, I gather this isn’t the kind of place I can sport my, “Sex, Drugs, and the Turkmenbashi” t-shirt, is it?
— Jim · Aug 28, 02:31 PM ·
Hmmmm… will the NPT get in the way of anything at Heritage India?
Will the group be divided into those allowed to possess and those for whom drinks are outlawed?
Will there be discussions of inspections to uncover hidden liquor programs, looking for stills, yeast, and things like bottling equipment?
Is there any chance of participants from India conducting peaceful testing of their brews?
Will there be discussions of India joining the liquor suppliers group?
— Lao Tao Ren · Aug 28, 05:18 PM ·
@Lao Tao Ren:
In that spirit, I will have to maintain strategic ambiguity as to whether or not I will attend.
— Haninah · Aug 29, 08:23 AM ·
Izvenite, ya seichas v Moskve; no, ya stoboi—na duhovnosti.
— Vash drug v Moskve · Aug 29, 02:09 PM ·
In honor of my colleague and China expert Gregory Kulacki, I announce that, if I attend, I will not be the first to drink.
— Stephen Young · Aug 29, 05:10 PM ·
“No first drink” policy.
Would this policy go along with efforts at proliferating brewing and distilling technologies to Pakistanis, tolerating tests by DPRK, and reliance of diplomatic means to resolve Iranian attempts to acquire liquor making capabilities?
Would it involve making a drink for a bottle that never leaves the bar?
I can’t wait to hear about the high surety drinks.
— Lao Tao Ren · Aug 29, 06:22 PM ·
Just in case anyone is worried, the U.S. government did, in fact, confirm (in 1957) that beer would survive the nuclear holocaust. The Operation-Teapot-irradiated beer even passed a taste test, if you can believe it, and was deemed a possible emergency substitute for potable water.
— Alex W. · Aug 29, 08:33 PM ·
In that case, if I make it tonight, I will be the first person to get drunk, the first and only person to throw up, and become obnoxiously enraged when people whom I mistrust signal that they too want to drink.
All the while I plan to hang out with the bartender and dream up new drink ideas long after closing time.
— abcd · Aug 30, 08:01 AM ·
“first person to get drunk … and only person to throw up …”
That sounds like a challenge …
— Jeffrey Lewis · Aug 30, 09:13 AM ·
Since I can’t come to the sabbat, I mean, midnite meeting, here is my joke for the evening.
UNMOVIC Inspectors, inspect thyself…
UN inspectors find chemical in UN office
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writer | August 30, 2007
UNITED NATIONS —U.N. weapons inspectors discovered potentially hazardous chemical agents in their office near U.N. headquarters that were probably taken from Iraq’s main chemical weapons facility 11 years ago, officials said Thursday.
“There is no immediate risk or danger,” U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
She said there was no evacuation of the office of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission known as UNMOVIC, about a block north of U.N. headquarters on Manhattan’s east side, and U.S. authorities were called in to dispose of the material.
Okabe said one of the substances, identified Wednesday, was phosgene suspended in oil, “whose present state is unknown but which could be potentially hazardous.”
Phosgene can be used as a chemical weapon — and was used extensively in World War I — as a choking agent. Both phosgene gas and liquid can damage skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs.
UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said the phosgene was in liquid form, suspended in the oil, in a soda-can-sized container. It was found in a sealed plastic bag that included “unknown liquid substances contained in metal and glass containers ranging in size from small vials to tubes the length of a pen,” she said.
“The only information we have of the contents of that bag is from an inventory of a 1996 inspection, which indicates that one of the items may contain phosgene, an old generation chemical warfare agent,” Okabe said.
Okabe said the material was immediately secured by UNMOVIC experts and the U.N. sought assistance from U.S. authorities in having the material safely removed. The U.N. was informed that the FBI was going to the office Thursday to remove and dispose of the material, she said.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/08/30/un_inspectors_find_chemical_in_office/
— Lao Tao Ren · Aug 30, 02:38 PM ·
> UNMOVIC spokesman Ewen Buchanan said the phosgene was in liquid form, suspended in the oil, in a soda-can-sized container.
http://www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/hsg/hsg106.htm
“Approximately 3×10^6 tonnes of phosgene are used annually worldwide.”
That’s three million metric tons of phosgene. Many soda cans.
— Allen Thomson · Aug 30, 05:34 PM ·
3 X 10^6 million metric tons of phosgene.
That is a full employment program for the WMD inspectors and regulators in and of itself?
The only problem is the most powerful (and through) countries in the world, namely Israel and the US, do not seem to be able to stop the smuggling of large, bulky crops, white powder, people and other stuff across their borders.
With that many soda cans to go through… that can drive one to drink.
Order me up a glass of hemlock please.
PS Dr Lewis, I hope you are working on the Part 3 of your series and that it will be posted soon.
I take it everyone had a good evening at Heritage India and knocked down many sacred cows.
— Lao Tao Ren · Aug 31, 08:52 AM ·