New Testingstan

Hey Straha you did model UN?

I was Russia in the Tassie Model UN once.

Man. What a fucking waste of time that was.

just like the real UN amirite :V

http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 7#p3611327

i'm fucking clever

tell me i'm brilliant and that u understand that post









but i was thinking about saying something about "if it's them or us, i choose us" or "niggers are subhuman dontchakno". I think I'll try to fit the former in if the thread goes on, but the latter morphed into the above post, which says even more and avoids the n-word!

Sweet! I was Russia in my high school model UN. People (the US andnChina) tried to fuck us on the death penalty by bringing up shit Stalin did. I was all like NOPE we are Russia, not te USSR. We have had a moratorium on cap punishment since 1996.

I got invited to join my Uni's delegation to the National Model UN in NY in April. We're representing S Korea. Pretty excited.

adr wrote:http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... 7#p3611327

i'm fucking clever

tell me i'm brilliant and that u understand that post

at first i thought you were referring to the stephen jay gould book and then i thought it was the star trek episode with data

i still feel like there's a reference i'm not getting

it is indeed the star trek episode

i talk about star trek a lot


but in that episode the main story was how data isn't a person so it seemed apt to the thread

and one of the characters mentioned how slavery was handled in the real world which is why it came to mind from the original subhuman idea


and taking the star trek idea into the context of utilitarianism, does mr. data count for anything at all since he can never feel happiness? so the reference goes omg deep

and the title, without any reference at all, is kinda apt

how do you measure someone?

i know you didn't do it on purpose but the gould book also works surprisingly well

it's called "the mismeasure of man" and it's about scientific racism (as seen in iq tests -- iirc the book predates "the bell curve" but it's about that sort of thing)

so congrats on the triple entendre or something

cool. eventually i need to start reading books, some of them sound pretty ok

adr wrote:and the title, without any reference at all, is kinda apt

how do you measure someone?

Phantasee wrote:Hey Straha you did model UN?

No, I did Policy Debate.

I had a bunch of friends who did Model UN, though, and they described it in vivid and horrifying terms.

centimeters lol what a shitty way to measure anything

adr wrote:centimeters lol what a shitty way to measure anything

What's a centimeter?

Flagg wrote:

adr wrote:centimeters lol what a shitty way to measure anything

What's a centimeter?

it's how centipedes measure their height

i'm here all week, folks

Straha wrote:

Phantasee wrote:Hey Straha you did model UN?

No, I did Policy Debate.

I had a bunch of friends who did Model UN, though, and they described it in vivid and horrifying terms.

honestly i kinda wanted to join Model UN in hopes of securing a security council seat and vetoing everything

so now i'm kinda curious about how horrifying it could actually be beyond that level of dickery.

For a while I wanted to go to the Model UN as Canada and roleplay Quebecois secession during the conference and have my Ambassador change sides and everything. I'd even bring a tiny Quebecois flag and a pocket English-to-French Dictionary, because why not?

do they let kids do that

like what is it used as a tool to teach

Straha wrote:For a while I wanted to go to the Model UN as Canada and roleplay Quebecois secession during the conference and have my Ambassador change sides and everything. I'd even bring a tiny Quebecois flag and a pocket English-to-French Dictionary, because why not?

So these 2 Canadians were walking down a stretch of beach, one from Ottawa the other from Quebec. The guy from Quebec finds a bottle and a genie pops out. He says he'll grant them each one wish. The Quebec guy says "I wish to build a mile high wall around la belle Quebec to keep all the English Canadian filth out! "Granted" the Genie says. The guy from Ottawa thinks for a minute then says, "Fill it with water".

starku wrote:do they let kids do that

like what is it used as a tool to teach

The finer points of international debate, negotiation, and problem solving.


I am told, however, that in practice it tends to be a lot more like the actual UN than any sort of pedagogical tool especially because there's very little you can do in the way of quality control on the representatives and nothing in the way of 'judging'.

Flagg wrote:

Straha wrote:For a while I wanted to go to the Model UN as Canada and roleplay Quebecois secession during the conference and have my Ambassador change sides and everything. I'd even bring a tiny Quebecois flag and a pocket English-to-French Dictionary, because why not?

So these 2 Canadians were walking down a stretch of beach, one from Ottawa the other from Quebec. The guy from Quebec finds a bottle and a genie pops out. He says he'll grant them each one wish. The Quebec guy says "I wish to build a mile high wall around la belle Quebec to keep all the English Canadian filth out! "Granted" the Genie says. The guy from Ottawa thinks for a minute then says, "Fill it with water".

Fuckin A

Straha wrote:

starku wrote:do they let kids do that

like what is it used as a tool to teach

The finer points of international debate, negotiation, and problem solving.


I am told, however, that in practice it tends to be a lot more like the actual UN than any sort of pedagogical tool especially because there's very little you can do in the way of quality control on the representatives and nothing in the way of 'judging'.

The NMUN in NY is judged and super prestigious and shit. The Poli Sci kids get a hardon whenever they talk about it. Apparently you get awards.

There's three kinds of groups that attend: school groups like ours, just a club full of poli sci/econ kids with an interest; people who just kinda decide to go cuz LOL sounds like fun!; and people who are doing it as part of their masters or honours thesis project. The last group is pretty hardcore since their marks depend on their performance.

One of the things judges look for is faithfulness to your country's views. If you're Vietnam, you can't talk about how awful nuclear power is because Vietnam is building two nuke plants right now. The judges apparently know these sorts of things, so you'll get caught out on it; plus the other delegates will be happy to point out your hypocrisy. So it's less about your own opinions and more about the opinions of the nation you rep. Which makes sense, it's a good way to get people to learn about other countries in depth.

The head of the Anthro, Poli Sci, and Econ depts at our uni (one guy, wtf) is on the board of the NMUN apparently so for us it's pretty important to do well and take it seriously to win awards to make our school and Dr Mensah look good, so I guess it's really down to how seriously you want to do it.

I've never met the prof but he sounds pretty cool.

Aaron wrote:

Flagg wrote:

Straha wrote:For a while I wanted to go to the Model UN as Canada and roleplay Quebecois secession during the conference and have my Ambassador change sides and everything. I'd even bring a tiny Quebecois flag and a pocket English-to-French Dictionary, because why not?

So these 2 Canadians were walking down a stretch of beach, one from Ottawa the other from Quebec. The guy from Quebec finds a bottle and a genie pops out. He says he'll grant them each one wish. The Quebec guy says "I wish to build a mile high wall around la belle Quebec to keep all the English Canadian filth out! "Granted" the Genie says. The guy from Ottawa thinks for a minute then says, "Fill it with water".

Fuckin A

I sincerely doubt the Ottawan would want to flood Gatineau.

so it's supposed to show people how politics is about deals and compromise and seeing the other side and stuff?

because i can't really see that working in highschool

we didn't have a model un at my school but we did have a politics week where we all divided up into different political parties and then had a mock election

it was a lol

The one we did in high school wasn't really about making deals, it was way too fast-paced for that. We would go up, present our position, and then if we called anyone out on something they would do a rebuttal; then it went to the next country, and they'd present their position, and then any rebuttals. Then we voted.

I imagine there's different ways to implement a Model UN in different environments. The NMUN is supposed to be very similar to the actual UN, though. We'll have to write proper resolutions and shit.