November 30, 2007
Itinerarium
The Tabula Peutingeriana is believed to be the only surviving copy of a roadmap of the Roman Empire. Even the copy is 800 years old and quite delicate; all 22 feet of it made a rare, one day public appearance from the vaults of the Manuscripts, Autographs and Closed Collections of the Austrian National Library.
The department's director compares it to a map of the London Underground.
Tasty. On display for a UN "celebration", I would have had to hold my breath and attend regardless. Flea-readers who missed the day may peruse the whole of the Tabula Peutingeriana thanks to the miracle that is the "internet".
Francis Monkman: The Long Good Friday
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Related: A Prophet 5 demonstration.
November 29, 2007
Exodus 3:12
James Purefoy, aka Mark Antony from the late lamented Rome, is to play Robert E. Howard's most ass-kickingest of anti-heroes: Solomon Kane. The film is currently in pre-production (via Weird Tales).
Howard describes him as a somber and gloomy man of pale face and cold eyes, all of it shadowed by a slouch hat. He is dressed entirely in black and his weaponry consists of a rapier, a dagger, and a couple of flintlock pistols.
Add a well thumbed copy of the Geneva Bible and we are cooking with gas.
Update: We very nearly had Ray Stevenson as a detective in “apocalyptic zombie drama”, Babylon Fields. The did not make the cut and, what with the writers' strike - I expect we have missed the zombie boat.
Nina Simone: Sinnerman
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Rush hour
The best Top Gear race yet: Bicycle vs Bus vs Underground vs Boat to the London City Airport. Hard to call. The last time I went there I arrived by black cab (Part I, Part II, Part III).
I now have a new goal in life: To radio for permission to pass through the Thames Barrier at speed.
Cursed rams
Microbiologist Siro Trevisanato believes Hittites used "cursed" rams infected with tularemia as an early biological WMD.
The Phoenicians of Simyra took a hit and were subsequently vulnerable to Hittite raiding. Fifteen years later when mysterious rams began appearing on roads in Arzawa the locals must have thought it was good fortune until the plague struck, again to Hittite advantage. Once could be an accident. Twice looks like you meant it.
November 28, 2007
Requiem
This Alien V Predator: Requiem widget may not be visible to Flea-readers on slower connections or lacking shockwave flash; my apologies. I was lying awake thinking about using this critter as a segue into discussing the fragility of social arrangements which can seem eternal and the various collapsed civilizations whose example should have taught us better. Suffice to say: I worry (via Reverse Vampyr.
Basil Poledouris: Anvil of Crom
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
And here is Battle of the Mounds. This just never gets old. If I was to, say, interview an American presidential candidate I would ask him/her to watch this and correctly identify its relevance to United States foreign policy.
November 27, 2007
Inked
Thanks to an intervention in yesterday's Battlestar Galactica post, I noticed Starbuck's awesome interlocking rings tattoo. One half appears on her arm while its mate appears on the arm of her character's husband, whiny Pyramid jock guy.
...
In a TV Guide photoshoot video interview, Katee Sackhoff comments: "...the tattoos that Anders and Starbuck got when they got married and uh, it kinda looks like the Redwings sign doesn't it? Or logo, but its, um... when he's holding me the rings match up and it becomes one ring with two wings. So it's very cool there's some signs in there like the Caprica symbol and some space things and its all very intricate and very cool and the guys over at Twin Villain Tattoo down in Gastown designed it so we're all very excited about it."
It turns out Katee Sackhoff has some tattoos as well.
The case against Giuliani
Channel 4 correspondent Sarah Smith introduces what I believe is the likely Democrat line of attack against Rudy Giuliani. Viz, arrogance and hubris leading up to 9/11.
Giuliani spent $60m on the command centre in the World Trade Centre. He installed a humidor for his cigars, monogrammed towels in bathroom, even had private elevator which was handy when he brought his mistress here at the weekends. But he also installed a 600 gallon fuel tank which meant that when burning debris hit the building it went up like a blowtorch So Giuliani found himself wandering the streets because he had ignored advice to put his command centre safely underground in Brooklyn. Insisting instead it had to be near City hall.
This is dangerous rhetorical ground. It is fair to say Giuliani is loved for his strength on a day when some sign of strength was desperately needed; when strength seemed in desperately short supply. I doubt there are one in a hundred Americans - or Channel 4 correspondents - who had heard of al Qaeda before that day. The first sane analysis of what was happening on the day did not come from a government or emergency services official, let alone the ladies and gentlemen of the press, but from a brief CNN interview with Tom Clancy.* To criticize Guiliani on this score is to criticize the whole free world. The difference, of course, is that some minority woke up to our peril that morning. Channel 4 has not.
Does the name Sayyid Qutb mean anything to Sarah Smith? The term takfir? Taqiyya? Does any candidate for office Sarah Smith has ever voted for know any better? Anyone she has ever worked for? It is obvious Channel 4 failed to learn anything salient from 9/11. Not about the United States. Not about the enemy. And certainly not about Rudy Giuliani. It is absurd to demand prophetic foresight from a man who was at least capable of learning better in hindsight.
Munafiqin is a useful word: It means hypocrite.
Related: Jason McBride at Postpolitical suggests Mike Huckabee can clear a path to the nomination for Fred Thompson by crushing Mitt Romney in Iowa; a great outcome and obviously worth doing on its own merits. It is an excellent analysis.
* He was making too much sense and was cut off so CNN talking heads could return to moaning about how incomprehensible everything was. They have been at it ever since.
November 26, 2007
Razor
I am going to assume most UK Flea-readers have not seen the Battlestar Galactica Season 3.5 episode Razor (which falls at around Season 2.5 and earlier in the continuity). I will not say anything spoilerish but every link here does; here is a trailer for anyone wanting just a taste... Flea-readers unafraid of spoilers can have a look at this Ace of Spades HQ comment thread or Ron Moore's responses to fannish questions.
I am still technically boycotting the show though I appear to be actually watching it.
Andrew Spencer vs The Vamprocker: Zombie
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
November 24, 2007
Flea-ish
Sweeney Todd: The Movie. This via Goth Magazine, adding:
All this and Helena Bonham Carter... delish.
Robots In Disguise: The Sex Has Made Me Stupid
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance (via La Petite Claudine).
Hoist the black flag
SoftFocus interviews Henry Rollins for VBS.tv. While Rollins has a mild case of BDS - if it was any other man I would say it is feigned - he has done multiple engagements for the USO. He not only has the right as an American to disagree, he has earned it through his actions.
November 23, 2007
Datamancer's Steampunk Laptop
Datamancer's latest creation: The Steampunk Laptop. It takes a clock-winding key to start... (via Brass Goggles).
Flea-readers desperate for a Datamancer original might consider this Steampunk Keyboard; a snip at $1000! Not by Datamancer but steampunk and inexplicably enticing is this necklace, these earrings and especially this necklace.
Rachmaninov plays Rachmaninov: Elegie
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Creole Scream
I could use some help settling something. Creole Scream: One olive or two?
Updated: Dorkafork provides the definitive answer:
Philosophically, I'd say that more than one olive makes it a salad.
Enigmatic notoriety
Is there anything positive in life Skinny Puppy feels disposed to write about? Warning: Features terrifying '80s Much Music vjs. Also, City Limits in 1985. The second interview gave me Zinc - a once upon a time goth club in Hull, Québec whose name I have been trying to remember for weeks now - and Foufounes Électrique, a club in Montréal I have not been to in years.
November 22, 2007
Well, of course, warfare isn't all fun
Ultraquiet No More links a BBC piece sure to inspire confidence in the Royal Navy.
This via The Belmont Club where Wretchard adds the following.
Or, as one comment points out, a Bic pen. Which does rather put the kibosh on any number of Bond film finales...
Front Line Assembly: Mindphaser
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The Moby Question
Bill Wyman discusses the art of selling out in an article to the Washington Post.
Which is all very interesting, of course, but I am looking for more of a how to.
November 21, 2007
Wolf Cave
It appears the birthplace of Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, has been unearthed. Discovered during excavations of Augustus' palace on the Palatine, the Lupercal has now been penetrated with a probe - archaeologists are concerned for its structural integrity - which provided images of the Wolf Cave.
In Roman times a popular festival called the Lupercalia was held annually on 15 February. Young nobles called Luperci, taking their name from the place of the wolf (lupa), ran from the Lupercal around the bounds of the Palatine in what is believed to have been a purification ritual. Naked, except for the skins of goats that had been sacrificed that day, they would strike women they met on the hands with strips of sacrificial goatskin to promote fertility.
No word re goings on in the cave once they were done with the purification ritual. Yahoo! News has a slideshow while the BBC (from whence the quote) offers a cross-section diagram of the Palatine featuring the cave.
John Barry: Amicalement Vôtre
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Virtuosity
Ace supports Rudy Giuliani in light of Giuliani's support for a virtual fence along the Mexican border.
November 20, 2007
Starry wisdom
Formerly, the Sun was the largest object in the Solar System. Now, comet 17P/Holmes has pride of place. Its remarkable outburst changing the shape of Perseus.
Which is all very interesting. But what does it mean? The problem with astrology these days is that - as with so much else - the discipline has been PC-fied into whining kintergarden pablum for the edification of the slow. I can just imagine one ersatz astronomer of my acquaintance "In council" with "Elders" determining this new star* in Perseus signifies the necessity for new growth and change but holds within its message a warning against rampant, unprovoked warmongering and the threat of global warmenism due to humanity's hubris and an addiction to sweet crude oil (mmm... so sweet).
This being complete toss, obviously. Far more likely is a sign from Perseus that Alyson Hannigan is seconds away from my door. I will hear her knocking and, opening, find her there with a bottle of Maker's Mark in her hand and the words "Face it, Tiger... you just hit the jackpot!" on her lips. Even now, I hear footfalls on the stairs. I rise and make for the door... Ia! Ia! Nyarlathotop ngai! Ia! Ia! The stars are aligned!
* Thinking like the ancients for a moment.
Martin Denny: Quiet Village
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Unfriendly and rude
Fleeing from, ahem, torture in Algeria, Mokhtar Tabet is unhappy in England. Britons are "rude and unfriendly", apparently.
It gets better.
Best of all. He wants to return to Algeria - torture not seeming like the worst option having been exposed to the English - but will not leave unless the his airfare is paid for. That and he is reluctant to leave the NHS and his "free" health care. You can hardly blame these people for thinking of us as dhimmis when we insist on making ourselves exactly that.
November 19, 2007
The bell shall ring to wake them
Prime Minister Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Now there is an excellent idea. Perhaps she still will be. This generation is still seeking its Churchill*; wouldn't that be something.
'They are mighty Arthur's warriors!'
Said the grey-man; 'Till the day
When the bell shall ring to wake them,
They must sleep. Then wake for aye!
* Thanks to one of several Red Ensign bloggers last week for the expression. Auchentoshan concentrates the mind.
Erik Satie: Gnossienne No. 1
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Sand People always travel single file
A Royal Navy officer reportedly averted a friendly fire incident involving a Predator or Reaper UAV.
One comment suggests use of gait recognition software to help avert future incidents and anthropologists to teach our forces "local gaiting" to prevent hostile forces from recognizing them the same way this Royal Navy officer did. If only they had someone on hand who, for example, had taught nonverbal communication for a few years... Walk without rhythm and you won't attract the worm.
November 16, 2007
When you look with your eyes everything seems nice
Speculation that Lily Allen was to become the new... face of Agent Provocateur may have proved to be unfounded. That is not to say they were unjustified. She is looking fine.
There aren't any Flea-readers who have missed the Kylie Agent Provocateur ad by any chance?
Mark Ronson feat. the Winettes: Valerie
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance. This via Mr. Atrocities: "Die, Lily Allen!"
HPAI A(H5N1)
Rantburg regular, Anonymoose offers a useful introduction to some of the formal nomenclature surrounding Avian flu in the first comment to a post on an outbreak in the UK. Also: Fun facts. For instance, I had no idea fish could be carriers of the virus. And this tidbit struck me as interesting.
Reassuring if you happen to be a lucky plague victim descendant.
November 15, 2007
Horizontal Gothic
Blackballed by Airbus for his unflattering remarks about their new product, Patrick Smith makes an intriguing claim which leads me to ask: The Boeing 727, goth or not goth?*
Did it need to be this way? Is it true, to cite a quote attributed to an Airbus engineer some years ago, that "Air does not yield to style"? Jet age romantics recall the provocative curves of machines like the Caravelle; the urbane, needle-nosed superiority of Concorde; the Gothic surety of the 727. You're telling us that planes need to be boring, or worse, in the name of efficiency and economy. No, they don't.
A fair point.
* Now to be serious: Gothic or not gothic? While the allusion is fascinating I cannot see anything gothic in the 727. It is beautiful, yes, but without ornament and conveys no sense of awe or the numinous. Nor, I think, is it meant to. I suppose the silhouette might work as negative space for a vault if the vehicle was sat on its tail...
The Ultimate War Simulation Game
David Wong's Grandpa always said, there were no naked human pyramids in Starcraft. A reminder in case there is anyone who thinks defeating the enemy in detail means having better stats.
Better stats
The United States considers new space weaponry with an eye on the ChiComs.
The most ambitious project in a new $459 billion (£221.5 billion) defence spending Bill is the Falcon, a reusable "hypersonic vehicle" that could fly at six times the speed of sound and deliver 12,000lb of bombs anywhere in the world within minutes.
November 14, 2007
Well fit
The Daily Mail proves it is good for something with a photo-pictorial piece documenting, amongst other things, Kylie Minogue's recovery from breast cancer and her course of treatment. She is looking fit. Ahem (hat tip to Agent Bedhead).
Fun fact: Kylie also makes music!
On a completely unrelated note is Sarah Michelle Gellar topless in Maxim. I cannot think of anything I plan to write about over the next few days where this link will fit. But I somehow feel obligated to let Flea-readers know. So there you go.
Sh*tdisco: OK
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.*
* This indirectly via a link at Ace of Spades HQ: A nsfw job interview.
January 29, 2006
An awesome aspect of the internet and, by extension, our new way of life is how one day I can be missing London as I do a Google Earth flyby and abstractly wonder what was going on in Trafalgar Square and a couple days later I can visit Londonist where somebody else had been wondering the same thing.
Third Section
Michael Ledeen thinks through the Kremlin's deception of Persia, concluding with a satisfying - if perhaps apocryphal - homily. Pity the Third Section, whatever it is calling itself these days.
Crazy like a fox.
November 13, 2007
Egg shells armed with hammers
With the 2014 commissioning of the HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales in 2016, the Royal Navy is relearning big deck carrier operations.
“Although we invented carrier operations, we have lost a lot of the knowledge needed to run big decks, and we are relearning it from countries like America and France,” said Lt. Jon Llewellyn, flight deck officer on the HMS Illustrious.
The Royal Navy last operated a big deck in 1978, when it retired the 54,000-ton HMS Ark Royal and its 50-jet air wing. Since then, the British fleet has flown 20-aircraft groups of Harriers and helicopters from three 22,500-ton Invincible-class ships.
The Flea is a big fan of carriers - the bigger, the better - but an even bigger fan of submarines. HMCS Cornerbrook, for example. That is HMS Illustrious* in her cross-hairs above. A Defense Review article arguing the vulnerability of supercarriers and, by extension, of the might of the United States Navy is worth revisiting. The comments section to this Rantburg aircraft carrier post are also worth a look; from whence the source of my tag-line and for an excellent question: "Does somebody have the link to the invulnerable weapons systems list?"
* NATO’s High Readiness Maritime Strike Carrier, now operating with a United States Marine Corps Harrier wing. The Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force cannot scrape together enough aircraft between them to do the job. Have we learned nothing from Battlestar Galactica?
Update: Damn the BBC.
The BBC: Your license fee supporting twenty-first century pirates. Real pirates not Johnny Depp pirates.
Laibach: Das Spiel ist Aus
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Perfume, smoke and scotch
Peggy Noonan argues Hillary Clinton is no Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, she argues, never stood as a woman but was a woman at the head of a movement.
November 12, 2007
See the bones in your hand, see through clothes!
Defense Tech reprinted an article from the Wiltshire Gazette and Herald.* At issue: The helmet in development for the F-35. No word whether it will also reveal details of a lady's undergarments.
"Unlike other jet aircraft the JSF, which is planned to replace the Harrier, does not have a traditional head-up display. Instead the computerised symbology will be displayed directly on to the pilot's visors, providing the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting the aircraft. ... It even will superimpose infra-red imagery on to the visor to allow the pilot to look through the cockpit floor at night and see the world below - like something out of Terminator.
* A note defense industry publication, I am certain.
Yazoo: Don't Go
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Electronics Tattoo
There was a time when RE/Search #12: Modern Primitives was the dernier cri in counter-culture self-expression. Now there is Philips Design Probe, Electronics Tattoo.
An odd refractory effect of postmodern authenticity - for I think this is not the contradiction in terms many critics would suggest - is to the effect that a multinational corporation can appropriate a counter-culture practice but, thanks to Neuromancer and Blade Runner, such corporate appropriation of said practices only serves to reinforce the aesthetic it would commodify. The advertising does not subvert or attenuate the scene, only serve as a backdrop or wallpaper for it.
All I can say is I am glad I read Pattern Recognition before reading this William Gibson interview for Rolling Stone. Full on BDS and global warmenism suggests the man is a bit of a dim bulb. Disappointing when a white goods manufacturer is doing a better job living in the future than the father of cyberpunk.
November 11, 2007
I wonder what Wellington will do now? He will never be content to become a private citizen again.
Even in defeat, perhaps especially in defeat, it was beyond Napoleon's capacity to ascribe any motives but his own to his greatest adversary.* Free peoples have shown time and again they can defeat the Enemy. Time and again we have demonstrated we want nothing more than to return to our families and the warmth of the home fires. Napoleon's ilk are missing something; some part of their humanity which would allow them to understand how great a sacrifice it is to be away from home. In the end, the men we face are little men; from the Dark Lord down to his Death Eater apologists amongst us.** Something else to remember.
* Thanks to C.S. Lewis' A Preface to Paradise Lost for the observation.
** And their "pacifist" fellow travelers.
Worth reading: A conversation in Bagram, Afghanistan; End of the War Hero; How the War was Won (Part one).
Anomalee
An aside for someone in particular: Looking for my music? Check out my MySpace...
November 09, 2007
Airship piracy is an attractive option
I did mention Abney Park* played the Opera House last week? Images from the event are starting to appear on Flickr; here** and here, for example. Also featured was some local steamfashion (hat tip to Ragged Robin). I will not comment too closely on the above image. While I have been assured I am currently in violation of no temporal restraining orders it is best not to push one's luck in these matters lest a vortex open and the nice gentlemen arrive with the Odic generators and the butterfly nets and the taking away for assisting with inquiries. There are only so many times a soul can escape Bedlam without making a nuisance of oneself.
* I do not believe I have ever mentioned Abney Park Cemetery at the Flea. It is about two minutes further along the Number 73 bus route from my Islington home; close and consequently was a frequent dog walking destination. There are some Quaker connections besides. The last I saw the place it was in some disrepair... the first time I saw the place I managed to put a foot wrong and straight into some poor soul's not quite final resting place. Not an experience to be repeated. But I digress.
** Joe Szilvagyi is clearly a genius. These images are stunning.
Fields of the Nephilim: Moonchild
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The Experiences of a Very Unimportant Officer
The Experiences of a Very Unimportant Officer, The Great War diary of Captain Alexander Stewart of 3rd Scottish Rifles, was written in 1917 shortly after an injury and returning home. Only three copies existed until his grandson Jaime Stewart came across them and decided they deserved a wider public. I will never be one tenth as Flea-ish as Captain Stewart was on the front line.
He wrote: "After my third or fourth shot, I found that the bowl of my pipe and the smoke from it was obscuring my line of vision as I was firing slightly downwards all the time. Much to my annoyance, I had to put my pipe in my pocket alight as it was; it was lucky that it did not burn my jacket.
"Just as I got my rifle working I saw a man in the trench calmly kneeling down and taking an aim at me. At the moment I saw him he fired. But in a miraculous way he missed."
Telegraph readers share their parents and grandparents stories of the War in comments to a related article.
From beyond
BldgBlog finds a parallel between the Antares neutrino telescope and the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, viz:
Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftagn!!
November 08, 2007
Conquistador
It is a peculiar day when Power Line gushes over anybody, let alone a French President. "Nicolas Sarkozy at the French embassy in Washington. Sarkozy looks even better in person than on television. In addition to leading-man good looks, he’s charismatic and energetic. ...", etc. etc.*
M. Sarkozy goes to Washington.
"French and American troops are helping to defend a young democracy in Afghanistan. Our two nations support the democratic government of Lebanon," he said. "We agree that reconciliation and democracy in Iraq are vital to the future of the Middle East and our two nations condemn violations of human rights in Darfur, in Burma and around the world."
Here are some details of French overseas military operations - so called "peacekeeping operations" - courtesy of the French embassy to Canada. Tangentially related but quite interesting is this Global Security list of world wide military deployments. I am not certain how recently it has been updated. For example, I believe the United States military presence in Iceland has been withdrawn.
* I have been holding on to this NYPD picture for a special occasion myself.
Update: A video of President Sarkozy's speech (via Instapundit).
Elena Gibson dances the Bolero
To think Elena Gibson was disqualified for stripping. Perish the thought. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance. A little risquée for work unless you are employed in a pole-dancing related industry.
Smoots
A search for memorable hacks of MIT's Great Dome lead to the following supplement to my vocabulary: smoots.
Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr., it transpires, was in the fullness of time to become Chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and President of the International Organization for Standardization ( ISO) from 2003 to 2004. The wheels of karma grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.
The apotheosis of freedom
The University of Delaware doubles down on its Maoist indoctrination program. Student RAs have been forbidden to speak to the media about the curriculum of their program but have been mandated to speak against the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) (via Instapundit).
The Chronicle of Higher Education blog said several RAs had been asked to speak favorably about the program to the news media. "When I declined I was taken aside and told that my future as an RA was in jeopardy as was my future as a student, " he said "I decide to stand up for myself."
I have no idea what this last fellow's personal views might be; it is entirely possible I would disagree with him on every point. But his decision to stand up for himself is a decision to be free. It is a decision which in today's academy imposes a stiff price. The University of Delaware almost certainly has no idea its actions are tyrannical and their methods totalitarian; the program appears to be in violation of the 1871 Civil Rights Act - the Ku Klux Klan Act - forbidding a state from denying civil rights to its citizens. I hope the University's officials are held personally liable for this little bubble of evil. Let their lives be an object lesson for the rest of their kind. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see what legal recourse Canadian undergraduate students would have if faced with the same brainwashing program. They would have to face down the entire Canadian establishment were they to complain.
November 07, 2007
The Tallis Fantasia
BBC3's Discovering Music considers The Tallis Fantasia. Stunning. Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis was first performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester Cathedral on September 6, 1910.*
Vaughan Williams encountered Tallis' hymn while editing The English Hymnal in 1906; it had first appeared in Archbishop Parker's Metrical Psalter in 1567, set to the words, "Why fumeth in fight?" The peculiar modal qualities of the tune, with its prominent flatted seventh, not only allowed the composer considerable harmonic freedom from the prevailing strictures of diatonicism and chromaticism, but also made possible the simultaneous sense of the ancient and the modern that is the work's hallmark.
It must have been both Potterish and extraordinary; the acoustics of Gloucester Cathedral are just otherworldly...
This is a sound file split into six parts and uploaded to YouTube. There is no video component so possibly listenable even to dial-up using Flea-readers. Alternately, the whole piece may be downloaded as a RealMedia file from the Discovering Music archive.
* The photo pictures a carving in Gloucester Cathedral made around 1280. The photo itself was borrowed from The English Square Fydell page, one of a number of wonderful, unprofitable instruments... "Some all-but-forgotten bowed instruments from centuries ago produce sounds so ghastly and aggressive that it's easy to understand why they may not generate much revenue for their makers."
The Soldiers' Story
Panorama presents that rarest beast to be found on British public television: A sympathetic portrayal of the British mission in Afghanistan, the British Army and - most important - of British soldiers. "Taking on the Taleban -The Soldiers' Story" will be available as streaming media for the next few days (via the Drink Soaked Trots).
We drove to one of the patrol bases and slept on the sand and gravel outside. At 0200 we got up and walked into the Green Zone; by morning we had gone through the whole of Kakaran without incident. The sun wasn't yet scorching and I was enjoying a ludicrously false sense of security when one of the interpreters ran over with a radio held in the air.
He'd found the Taleban's frequency and had heard them say that they were about to attack. ...
For so it is written: Watch the whole thing. If you cannot spare the time, watch a few minutes from about 36 to 41 minutes in. The people want the Afghan and the British armies to stay. Remember this the next time some self-styled progressive wants to hand everything back to Dark Ages lunatics. I will try to remember it the next time some intemperate thought crosses my mind.
Related: An invisible tank the British Army may never get to use and the Taranis unmanned fighter-bomber; an innovation we may live to regret (with video!).
November 06, 2007
Question everything
Theodore Dalrymple considers a rash of neo-atheist publications. Much to consider as ever. I am particularly taken with his critique of a bone-brained skepticism.
Not to belabor the point, but if I questioned whether George Washington died in 1799, I could spend a lifetime trying to prove it and find myself still, at the end of my efforts, having to make a leap, or perhaps several leaps, of faith in order to believe the rather banal fact that I had set out to prove. Metaphysics is like nature: though you throw it out with a pitchfork, yet it always returns. What is confounded here is surely the abstract right to question everything with the actual exercise of that right on all possible occasions. Anyone who did exercise his right on all possible occasions would wind up a short-lived fool.
Though their purpose is a good deal more sinister than mere philosophical fol-de-rol, there could be no more succinct condemnation of those who claim to be "just asking questions".
Here is what I would like to see: Another of Christopher Hitchens' challenge debates with this time with Dalrymple, a non-believer himself. That would be a proper argument.* The above image is Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber (1602) by Juan Sánchez Cotán. Dalrymple puts it in context, as he does some fine thoughts of Joseph Hall, late lord bishop of Exeter and of Norwich.
* As opposed to the usual death-match with half-wits. For example, Dinesh D’Souza & Christopher Hitchens debated “Is Christianity the Problem?” Hitchens has a high opinion of him, one I do not believe is merited given the secondary school debating club rhetoric D'Souza brings to the fight. I will put up with a law of physics being confused with a moral law when I am watching Event Horizon, not in matters of public policy.
Attrition: A girl called Harmony
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Arrowhead Project redux
Flea-readers who have not read Stephen King's classic novella The Mist or heard its astonishing ZBS Foundation radio adaption - in kunstkopf binaural sound! - and have any plans whatsoever to do so are best advised not to watch this trailer for the forthcoming film. I understand the artards need to be reassured they will enjoy a movie before they shell out to see it but why must the rest of us be made to suffer for it? These are the same cretins who read the last page of a romance novel; they need to know everything turns out for the best for for committing to the story.
Shoot them. Shoot the people who enable them.
In Search Of...
With my apologies to anyone with work to get done:
... Bigfoot
... Ghosts
... The Elephant Man
... Marilyn Monroe
... UFOs
November 05, 2007
Many people do not enjoy the Spice Girls' music
These people are completely missing the point. The point is about girl power and how you should be proud of yourself no matter what you look like. Take Victoria Beckham, for example. You can assume a positive attitude about your appearance despite having had a somewhat pneumatic breast enhancement. Not everyone's cup of tea, admittedly, nor indeed everyone's champagne glass or - as circumstances have it - whisky quaich. But each to his own. Each to his own. For does not the Good Book counsel us that what is one man's bread is another man's poison? Exactly.
Duran Duran: Falling Down
Laura Pyper is looking well fit. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Hard headed idealism
"... everybody who values freedom, progressive thinking, innovation, has a stake in America. The country you may own. But not the idea." Some interesting points to dis/agree with and - miracle of miracles - a voice of reason, a reasonable voice, from the left: Bono. You heard me.
For example, he argues the the neoconservative strategy of providing a model of democracy and broad prosperity in the Middle East as an alternative to the al Qaeda death cult was always doomed to failure and the liberation of Iraq was always going to go the way of the British Army in Northern Ireland.*
But.
I think people as reasoned as Tony Blair looked at the world and didn't want to be Neville Chamberlain, who came back from meeting with Hitler with a piece of paper saying "peace in our time," while Hitler was planning to cross the channel from France.
Mazel tov. He gets it.
* A closer parallel than his pessimism might allow, given that both places may finally be on the mend.
November 02, 2007
Shoewawa Report
The Age claims the big trend in footwear this season is fetishism.
There is an article attached as well. It is probably very interesting.
Unrelated good news: Joss Whedon is reported to have a new television series on the way. Better yet, it is set to star Eliza Dushku (hat tip to the Sister of the Flea). Here is a Fox blurb; an interview follows.
Massimo & Pierce: A Suicidal Bunny
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The Lady in White
A bit overwhelmed by Abney Park 's appearance at last night's A Clockwork Fantasy. Suffice to say, watching a lovely ex dance on stage with Magdalene Veen is a moment to treasure.
Flea-readers not in attendance can get a little steampunk fix with StormWinds, a fanciful time waster for the Friday cubicle bound (via Brass Goggles).
November 01, 2007
The Cult of Huma
Very little is known publicly about Hillary Clinton's traveling chief of staff, Huma Abedin. This month's Vogue reportedly suggests she has been "close" to John Cusack and Lance Armstrong while others - perhaps inevitably - wonder just how close she is to HRC. Some on the right are concerned at her having been raised in the Saud terror entity. The best observation I have come across, however, is from comment at Gawker.
Eerie. So, which would be presidential nominees are most likely to be Cylons? It looks like a packed field.
Carla Bruni: Quelqu'un m'a dit
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Radical Son
C-Span's "In Depth" hosts a three-hour encounter with ur-neocon, David Horowitz. I only knew the man's work through FrontPage Magazine and his criticism of contemporary academia. I had no idea of the particulars of his biography or horrifying early experience with the Black Panthers.
I particularly enjoy his description of leftism as a form of religion and specifically a form of Pelagianism with the United States as the great obstacle to the creation of heaven on Earth.
Related: Horowitz appears on Charlie Rose via the Jawas.