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March 25th, 2008 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
 “The Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations.” Aren’t they? Actually, the Olympics seem an ideal place for demonstrations. – Anne Applebaum, pointing out the obvious fact that the Olympic Games are highly political by their very nature. I am feeling a greater and greater sense that the Beijing Olympics are going to be highly memorable, quite possibly in the sense that a trainwreck is highly memorable. And I am not sure this is bad. March 25th, 2008 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
The top headlines from BT Yahoo! news a moment ago:
March 25th, 2008 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
The crazy guys from VBS have 14 parts of strange-but-interesting video footage from that open air prison known as North Korea… check it out. I do not think they are going to be invited back. March 25th, 2008 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
“Can you believe this place?” Admiral Driscoll said to me. He sounded like a bit like a kid on Christmas morning. I felt weirdly like a jaded old man who had seen it all even though he is older and more accomplished. I understood then what some American soldiers and Marines mean when they say the top brass lives and works at “echelons above reality”. I’m not blaming the admiral. His job requires him to be isolated from nuts, bolts, and the street most of the time. March 24th, 2008 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Michael Totten’s latest from Iraq is up and as usual highly recommended:
In less dissembling mealy-mouthed times, that would simply be described as saying it the ways he sees it. March 24th, 2008 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
In my neighbourhood of Pimlico stands one of the ugliest public buildings in the known universe: Pimlico School. Unbearably hot in the summer (all that glass), miserable in the winter, with the sort of cavernous, Stygian style unlikely to suit enquiring young pupils, the place is being demolished for hopefully something rather more attractive. I cannot help but wonder, though, at the resemblance between the school and the main spacecraft in Battlestar Galactica. Mind you, I have not seen any Raptors flying out of the end of it. Some people actually like Brutalist architecture. March 24th, 2008 | 19 comments - (Comments are closed)
For those who want us all to live in terror, is that would-be terrorists are seldom very competent, and that doing any very big damage is difficult. An illustration just how difficult has just turned up. The Guardian luridly reports:
A properly skeptical report probably would not use the magic word “al-Qaida”, rather than referring to terrorists in general. Nor would there be the superstitious mention of “radioactive material”. However the salient facts are informative: An expert; no difficulty obtaining the materials and knowing what was wanted; proper care and attention – and he still managed to go horribly wrong. The task is a very difficult one. Could it be the reason the average would-be terrorist doesn’t blow himself up prematurely (as used to happen quite often to old-style IRA/Fatah, etc., bombers equipped with commercial/military explosives), is because he lacks the knowledge to make an explosion at all? The idea that even a real expert could disperse suitably weaponised chemical/radioactive agents, or biological ones using low-explosive paint-tin bombs is just a bit ludicrous. The idea that an inexperienced religious nutter/power fantasist using recipes off the internet could do so is wholly absurd. Terrorists in Britain are a threat to life comparable with police car-chases. Terror of terrorists is the threat to civilization. No chance of the government, media, security services, just suggesting we all calm down, I suppose? Nope. March 24th, 2008 | 36 comments - (Comments are closed)
What is it this week? Ah, tobacco again. Now displaying them for sale is to be banned. It is a public consultation – but the point of public consultation is to be able to point to endorsement of policy and to disarm objectors at the point of actual legislation, not to discover anything. Departmental minds are clearly made up:
‘Its-for-the-children!’ – usually delivered in a sobbing voice on the edge of hysteria – remains an unstoppable weapon by which public life crushes private life. March 24th, 2008 | 31 comments - (Comments are closed)
I came across a couple articles that puzzled me. Advocates of all beliefs, be they religious, political or philosophical, generally try to argue their position and convince other people their view of the world is the best one. Of course some religions (and pretty much all political systems) are evangelical, whereas some, like Judaism for example, are not. Nevertheless even Jews will argue their corner on why their beliefs are sensible and it is far from unheard of for people to convert to Judaism, something most Jews would probably regard as A Good Thing. Yet strangely as of late, some Jews and Muslims seem a bit bent out of shape when another religion, the Roman Catholic Church, either lands a high profile convert or prays openly for non-believers to convert. Being God free myself, I have no dog in this fight but this all strikes me rather like shop owners protesting that some other shop is advertising and therefore ‘stealing’ their customers. Guys, like everything else, religion is a market… why are you shocked that the Boys in Rome engage in marketing? March 24th, 2008 | 25 comments - (Comments are closed)
XCOR will be holding a press conference this Wednesday about the spaceship they are building. It will be their third manned rocket powered vehicle so this is no idle threat. This press event will be held Wednesday, March 26, at 10 a.m. in the Canon Room of the Beverly Hilton at 9876 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA 90210. Lunch will be served afterwards. The speaker will be XCOR test pilot Rick Searfoss. Rick has also flown the Space Shuttle three times as pilot and commander. If you are a media person who would like to attend, I presume you should call XCOR as soon as possible, although the information passed to me did not give any details on this. According to a source associated with XCOR:
I must of course note that I have worked as a consultant to XCOR, which basically means I know from the inside how good they are at this! I would tell you more but I would have to shred you afterwards. March 24th, 2008 | Comments are closed
The BBC states that MPs who oppose the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill will be allowed a free vote and will not face sanction as long as the law is passed by Parliament. An act of conscience becomes an exercise in power.
This is a compromise that smacks of Brown’s calculation: you may vote as you wish, but you will have to take the possibility of defeat into account. That is when you will face sanctions. Like many other vanished parliamentary conventions, this government will overturn liberal principles in pursuit of advantage. All MPs whould receive a free vote, even though the Bill is worthy of support. No law needs to be passed: another hoary shibboleth trotted out by Labour. Comparisons with the masochistic contortions that the Liberal Democrats put themselves through under Clegg are clear. One almost wishes that the bill is defeated so that the ‘moral’ Prime Minister is seen to punish those who acted freely. If any Prime Minister is able to sully an act of conscience, it is Gordon Brown. March 23rd, 2008 | 28 comments - (Comments are closed)
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