Foreign Policy Analysis and evensong

Today's (many!) activities of note:
1) I attended the evensong service at King's College Chapel this evening, which was absolutely magical. The choir sounded beautiful in the giant stone echo chamber, and the interior of the chapel was stunning, of course. It is in perfect condition, and has the largest fan-vaulted ceiling of anywhere in the world. We weren't allowed to take any pictures or video, but here is a photo of it I found on the internet:

3) Lastly, I went to the first plenary lecture of the term, entitled What Makes Cambridge Unique? by Professor Jonathan Steinberg (he has an unbelievable resume - check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Steinberg). He talked about the major differences between Oxbridge and private American universities and between Oxford and Cambridge, and some marvelous anecdotes about Cambridge "wranglers" (the title acquired by the top 30 students of each Cambridge graduating class back in the day - it was extraordinarily competitive) and famous alumnus Charles Darwin (who apparently didn't go to class, and was so obsessed with collecting beetles that one time when he saw three rare beetles under a piece of bark, he tried to store the last in his mouth, upon which his mouth immediately filled with a horrible acrid taste and he was forced to spit it out and lost one other beetle in the process). His best quote of the evening - "The first eight chairs of the Cambridge math department all won Nobel Prizes. In fact, Cambridge has won more Nobel Prizes than...FRANCE!"

Punting on the Cam tomorrow :)