Why a blog?

I decided to experiment with a blog to share ideas, news about events, and interesting people and places without having to flood everyone with email! Now friends, colleagues, and family can visit me here to find out what I've been doing and what I've been thinking about.

The main idea was to post important stories from the media and share reports from public events on this blog, and it will likely be a space to explore issues from the Environmental Management program I'm starting at Harvard this summer.

Although blogs are adding to the quantity of information, much of it terribly unimportant, my goal is to actually decrease my contribution to the Data Smog (David Shenk, 1997) by using this blog as much as possible instead of sending email to friends and colleagues all over the world!

This will be a very personal site, but it will be mostly about my professional interests in the Environment and in Sustainable Development in Armenia and other countries. A word about the title: cicer (chickpeas) is one of my favorite foods (I am a vegetarian). It's great in an Indian curry, in Middle Eastern food, and even in a burrito. It's a great source of protein and I find it to be very hearty and healthy.