This has been long… Very long…

I never thought my studies could be so intensive. Not that I don’t like blogging, but I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of time spent staring into my laptop’s glossy screen, which I have been remarkably unsuccessful at. I am still stuck in Akureyri. This fact doesn’t necessarily make me happy, as well as endless struggles with my university’s grading system (I’ve become so paranoid about marks, no good!), 8500 words of the BA thesis due on 8th May (preferably an intellectual discussion of the modern theory of state sovereignty), and the absent love of my life.

I’m not going to whine and grumble. Quite on the contrary, let’s see what’s going on in the world today shall we?

Google has launched a new service called Google Voice. The first announcement is here, the access point is here. In a nutshell, it should be like a substitution for skype. I remember I was crazy about testing different calling platforms and concluded that skype was the cheapest for calling Russia. Can’t wait to test the new arrival but it’s only open to the GrandCentral users, the company Google bought the other day.

Now Muntadar al-Zaidi is going to spend the next three years in jail for a Bush shoe attack. Sad story. I wish him all the best and sincerely hope his lawyers will get him out of there. He doesn’t deserve any jail term.

In the Icelandic domain, Baugur files for bankruptcy. Farewell Jón Ásgeir, I wish you all the best too in your future undertakings and do not doubt your success. Which is far more likely to happen than a poor journalist escaping a prison. Oh and Staumur-Burðarás has also been nationalised. It looks like these days are more about goodbyes than hellos, and that’s fair enough. We’re in a kreppa, wei wei!

The last but not least, it seems like it’s a good idea to do an LLM first and then apply for a training contract. Law firms are not exactly hiring this year. Besides, doing a Master’s at a good school is going to give me some advantage. I’m still guessing what it is going to be: UCL, LSE or IALS. Fingers crossed for UCL!

It’s just some of the stuff I need to take a look at in the nearest time.

Nuclear physics on Wikipedia. In our environmental law class today, we were talking about whether it’s possible to use nuclear waste to produce dirty nuclear bombs. I really doubt it; I do think the science is pretty different between the two and I just want to recap some of the basic school physics to be able to argue in the debate. 

The BBC is now covering the Arctic issues almost every day. Here’s another BBC article on the climate change/Arctic change thing. This time someone in the US Coast Guard thinks there may well be a conflict over the unresolved Arctic border disputes. Now are we talking World War Three I wonder?

Environmental ethics, also from Wikpedia. How green should we be, and where does sustainable development really fit in? 

Space law, interesting stuff too

And here it comes – the major scandal. Now Mrs Palin can consider herself a full-fledged member of the big party. She’s got her very own, significant scandal which perfectly suits her personalty

Hello everyone. This is the first entry of a new blog, and you are very welcome to celebrate this significant event. 

I don’t expect a large audience here; actually what I want to do is to make this like an e-library for all that stuff that I find on polar law on the internet. I am doing an LLM in Polar Law at the University of Akureyri; we’ve just finished the introductory course and there’s an take home exam waiting for me out there… 

There is one thing to be said. I’ll tell you a great secret. Not only that I am doing the polar law LLM, I am also doing the last third year of my BA in Law studies at the same school so don’t fret if you find, amongst the arctic stuff, notes on the Icelandic administrative law, or Chinese trade law, or some sociology of law or whatever other knowledge our teachers want us to absorb  

So, just to fuel it up a bit, I’m giving you three links that are in one or another way connected to the polar law. Just to say, polar law is not just about law; but also climate change and environment, policy making and governance, risk management and hydrocarbon exploitation… As we have been told, polar law deals with whatever challenges the thawing Arctic bumps into. There are many resources out there, telling you seriously, and the media has already been eager to talk about ‘cold rush’ (I like the term though ) 

Anyway, judge for yourself. 

The Economist, Of ice and men. It’s not even an article, just a graph showing how fast the Arctic ice has been melting, and a sad cute polar bear to make us all aware of its cuteness… cutility… cutability?.. and the melting Arctic too, apparently.

BBC (I like them, I read them and I’m going to reference them a lot), Major ice-shelf loss for Canada. The story which kinda made me scary, these changes are happening so much faster than we can even think of.

BBC (I told you!), Arctic ice is at ‘tipping point’. For those who haven’t yet realised what it is all about.