Monthly Archives: September 2012

What To Expect When You’re Electing

Posted on September 26, 2012 by panoptical

Last week we saw democracy in action in Georgia. On Monday, we’re going to see something completely different: a Constitutional Parliamentary Republic in action. I’ll start with my predictions: I predict that the President Saakashvili’s UNM will remain the ruling … Continue reading →

Posted in Civics, Politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Georgian Prison Scandal: This Is Democracy

Posted on September 21, 2012 by panoptical

This week, Georgia’s prisons were reformed. This could never happen in America. There is no event that would cause every prison guard to be suspended, that would cause the police to be sent in to run America’s prisons, that would … Continue reading →

Posted in America, Civics, Politics | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Open Questions Regarding Cumin

Posted on September 15, 2012 by panoptical

Well, first of all, I’ve already announced this on Facebook, but there’s cumin in Tbilisi. The Turkish market on Aghmeshenebeli next to the Turkish restaurant Cappadocia sells it – in fact you can smell it as soon as you walk … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures in Cooking in Georgia, Linguistics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Do We Hate Ignorance?

Posted on September 8, 2012 by panoptical

On a basic, almost primal level, we all hate ignorance. At the very least, a display of ignorance makes us uncomfortable, like a crawly itchy feeling that we just absolutely have to scratch: In the more extreme cases, we react … Continue reading →

Posted in Deep Thoughts at 3AM, Education | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments