Lapu-Lapu

If only for a couple of days, we are back in South-East Asia. When we left the region in February, I was struggling to put together a co-authored policy paper which is now in press with the SSCI-journal “Weather, Climate and Society”. Although I got one more paper accepted earlier this spring, it has still been pretty rough on the publishing front recently as I have been reminded both of my own limitations and how hard it is to challenge orthodoxies (in particular among those who insist that they do not have any and that their own views and values are only those of “science”).

Though we have been to Mount Pinatubo and Manila on Luzon in the past, this is our first trip south in the Philippines.  Some of my students joked about the fact that we were going to a resort on Mactan Island rather than somewhere more adventurous. As stereotypical as it sounds, I guess it is indeed true that preferences change when travelling with a baby. Plus, Shangri-La does serve up a wonderful molten chocolate cake to go with my product placement for Coffee D.N.A.