Blood & Treasure

styles of official mourning

From 2006:

Among the more high-profile supporters of the appeal are the newsreaders on the major channels, most - if not all - of whom pin a poppy to a lapel.

At the BBC, there is no policy on poppy-wearing, it is a personal decision. A spokeswoman says that most do wear one, generally from 31 October until 13 November.

This year:

Organisations like the BBC usually choose a day for presenters to start wearing one. This year it was from 6am on 24 October.

Not so voluntary now, and earlier too. All the politicians suddenly started sprouting poppies at the same time too. I suppose the next stage will be having them officially issued early to significant personages, because, you see, they care more and earlier. Meanwhile, every moderately efficient PA has the appropriate unveiling date marked in the desk diary, somewhere between “wipe nose” and “change nappies”.

messenger shot, message sent

Professor David Nutt, the government's chief drug adviser, has been sacked a day after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

Nutt incurred the wrath of the government when he claimed in a paper that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The home secretary has asked Professor Nutt to resign as chair of the ACMD [Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs]. "In a letter he [Alan Johnson] expressed surprise and disappointment over Professor Nutt's comments which damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs.

When we said that we wanted science what we actually wanted was someone to dress in a white coat look authoritative, stand in front of some boiling retorts or machines going ‘bleep’ and nod along solemnly while we were tough on something. We’re now going to see if Manpower can get us a Magnus Pike impersonator, or maybe one of those people who do the voiceovers in shampoo ads.

It’s not as if there’s any obligation for the government to accept the scientific advice it’s offered. It can always point to other reasons not to legislate accordingly. But that would be to accept that science exists autonomously rather than just being there to lend scienciness to whatever the government decides to do.

Additional question: given this, what does it say about any scientist who would agree to work for the government under these conditions?

survivor types

As Marines train to deploy to war zones, there is daily discussion about how to detect and disarm the buried roadside bombs that are the No. 1 killer of Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Military researchers have found that two groups of personnel are particularly good at spotting anomalies: those with hunting backgrounds, who traipsed through the woods as youths looking to bag a deer or turkey; and those who grew up in tough urban neighborhoods, where it is often important to know what gang controls which block.

Personnel who fit neither category, often young men who grew up in the suburbs and developed a liking for video games, do not seem to have the depth perception and peripheral vision of the others, even if their eyesight is 20/20.

The odd thing about this is that it reflects the pop culture fears you see in portrayals of crazed rednecks and feral urbanites. One day the casts of The Hills Have Eyes and Assault on Precinct 13 will unite and destroy the suburbs.

I wonder how this maps on to the British army.

American way of death, updated

The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, now plans to hold on to customers even after they die - by selling coffins.

Prices range from a "Mom" or "Dad Remembered" steel coffin for $895 (£540), to a bronze model at $2,899.

The retailer is allowing customers to plan ahead by paying for the caskets over 12 months for no interest. They can be dispatched within 48 hours.

Should be a hit with the secondary Goth market, too. Funeral directors apparently say that it won’t work because it lacks the “personal touch”. But that simply amounted to a sales pitch which enabled undertakers to leverage family grief and guilt into spectacular mark ups, as explicated at length in Jessica Mitford’s The American Way of Death. I guess this is the sort of thing Mitford would have approved of, despite being a pretty much lifetime Communist.

Anyway, the Mom Remembered coffin is here. You can “be the first to review this product.”

meat hand

“The nails are made of onion”, apparently.

who we're fighting for

Get your warlords here. I think they should make a calendar. Also:

In August, a report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed that the Pentagon’s Joint Integrated Prioritized Target List — a roster of 367 approved terrorist targets — had been expanded to include 50 “nexus targets”, or Afghan drug lords with links to the insurgency. Since Mr. Karzai, a “suspected” drug boss, obviously isn’t on the list, the only conclusion one can draw is that the United States is wiping out his competitors for him.

That’s not President Karzai, by the way. That’s his brother.

approaching zero

David Icke fans debunk telly psychic, or why skeptic is an increasingly valueless term.

I know, bee/bonnet insertion, etc. It’s just bugging me today for some reason.

I think its time to appropriate and repurpose the word nihilist. Let the buggers try and steal that one.

blogging of distinction

There’s been lots of blogging about al Qaeda, the Taliban and the relations between the two, but I can’t think of another occasion where a senior al Qaeda member has actually blogged back.

a relevant organ

Here’s another fearless contrarian, unafraid to boldly contradict the secular religions of the day and strike a blow against the stultifying consensus:

The South Korean Army’s defense of the land border has come under fire after a South Korean man defected to North Korea Monday by cutting through barbed wire on the east coast front line.

The Ministry of National Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday they would closely investigate the incident and hold commanders of army units in the area accountable.

On Monday, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that a South Korean man named Kang Dong-lim defected to North Korea to fulfill his “longing for the northern half of Korea.” The KCNA in Pyongyang also said that the 30-year-old Kang was “under the warm care of a relevant organ” and that he was pleased with his defection.

Bet he’s sitting there with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his fat face. Can a front page piece in the Spectator be far behind? It certainly seems to be the relevant organ for Mr Kang.

the people of China also congratulate us for cutting the king's head off

Currently popular in the PRC, or at least provoking thought: a translation of Geoffrey Robertson’s The Tyrannicide Brief:

The book sells well and there are some interesting book reviews. From the feedback I've received, I'm quite happy that most of the readers find the book stimulating and enlightening. They were impressed by the detailed depiction of the trial of the King and the trial of the "tyrannicides" 360 years ago.

I wonder what people in China could possibly find impressive about that.