Just Switch Off Your Internet Connection And Go Out And Do Something Less Boring Instead?

You could, for example, like I am going to do, attend the free debate taking place this week at LSE on the Israeli academic boycott:

Israeli Academic Boycott: Helpful or Harmful?

LSESU Israel Society and LSESU Palestine Society public debate

Date: Thursday 13 January 2011
Time: 6.15-7.30pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building
Speakers: Dr John Chalcraft, Professor Daniel Hochhauser
Chair: Professor Kevin Featherstone

This is a joint event hosted by the LSESU Palestine Society and LSESU Israel Society, this debate will be centred around the following motion: “This house believes in an academic boycott of Israel”.

John Chalcraft graduated with a starred first in history (M.A. Hons) from Gonville and Caius college Cambridge in 1992. He then did post-graduate work at Harvard, Oxford and New York University, from where he received his doctorate with distinction in the modern history of the Middle East in January 2001. He held a Research Fellowship at Caius college (1999-2000) and was a Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Edinburgh University from 2000-05. He is currently reader in the History and Politics of Empire/Imperialism in the Department of Government at the LSE. He is interested in the popular history of the Middle East and the global South, migration, uneven capitalism, imperialism, political contention, and counterhegemony.

Daniel Hochhauser is Kathleen Ferrier Professor of Medical Oncology at UCL. He is a consultant medical oncologist at UCLH specialising in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer.

This event is free and open to all but pre-registration is required for non LSE staff and students.  Please email Su.Soc.Israel@lse.ac.uk or Su.Soc.Palestine@lse.ac.uk to register by 6pm on 12/01/2011. LSE staff and students will need to show their LSE ID in order to gain entry to the event.

If you are planning to attend this event and would like details on how to get here and what time to arrive, please refer to Coming to an event at LSE

I apologise to those who do not live in London and wish to make the accusation that I am regionalist.