Ooh, interesting reading. I just happened upon New Mandala -- New Perspectives on Southeast Asia, a blog written by a couple Australian academics -- an anthropologist and an international development doctoral student with a background in Asian Studies.

I found it because, slow to read my email, I finally looked at the American Anthropological Association homepage and found their open letter to Prime Minister Sundaravej, opposing Thailand's War on Drugs. I was looking to see if there's an online petition regarding this issue and happened upon Andrew Walker and Nicholas Farrelly's discussion of anthroplogy's potential contribution to this cause, "Anthropology goes to war".

I was pleased to see the AAA engaged in human rights issues, and also pleased to discover that there's now a AAA human rights blog.

Last night I met some of the new recruits to my programs at dinners sponsored by the departments. Yay for great students and free food. I also enjoyed a couple happy hour drinks at Cafe Habana with K&J. It was a wonderful day, with a talk with Eri, who was in the midst of nursing and burping her newborn baby girl, and positive tenure news about a beloved professor. And it was SUNNY. And I made a decision, for better or worse, that I'm not going to apply for any more summer funding to travel, because I think it would be better for me to stay in the States this summer, work on my existing papers and studies, and REST.