December 31, 2008
When men were men
Once upon a time, a minor argument could become a duel to the death. That was England. That was the first of the Anglosphere.
Here is a thought: If you see someone carrying a badly spelled injunction to kill Jews and the police are doing nothing to stop him, take his sign and smash it. Sticks and stones, remember, really do break bones but it's the name calling that leads to murder. We let this happen before and we said we would never let it happen again.
Urban knitting
Urban knitting kind of totally kicks parkour's ass. Are you hard enough?
i've scoured all yarn covered corners of the intertubes to find some of the best examples of knit/crochet graffiti (legal or otherwise), we'll start with a video from a crew by the name of knitta please, a renowned and nimble fingered group of rebels who have been covering public property with guerilla knitting for some time.
The franchise
Cast your vote: Canadian Newsperson of the Year. The Flea supports Ken Whyte, Hammer of the Sock Puppets.
Also, the 2008 Weblog Awards. We are spoiled for choice for Best Canadian Blog. This is a new medium that serves and honours Canadian traditions well.
December 30, 2008
Live Free or Die
From Anonymous.
I want to say something about it. About that slogan.
Not long ago, on BBC TV, a member of the British government tried justifying yet another police state Nu Labour law by saying it was to protect the majority's right to life. The audience expressed disgust. (It was a programme called Question Time.)
This started me thinking.
Supposed the only right you had was the right to life? No right to justice, no right not to be tortured or enslaved. No right to free speech, freedom of thought, personal privacy or security. Only the right not to be killed.
Imagine living a life of tortuous slavery. You're raped for the amusement of your owners. You're hobbled to stop you escaping. You're punished for thoughts you're presumed to have. Your life is a living hell.
What value does the right to life have?
None.
The right to life is a right with no intrinsic value.
The value of that right is in the other rights that depend upon it. You can shut someone up by killing them. Deny someone justice by killing them. Stop someone's thoughts by killing them.
With these other rights, such as the rights to justice, free thought and speech, privacy and security, the right to life is vital. It is as valuable as the most valuable of all the other rights, since those other rights usually depend on life itself being preserved.
Sacrificing those other rights and freedoms for the sake of protecting the right to life is itself an absurdity, a perversion. It is sacrificing the very value of the right to life for the sake of preserving that then worthless right.
As General John Stark said,
LIVE FREE OR DIE
Death is not the worst of evils.
Common Missile Compartment
More gear for the new Caliphate to deploy against China and India. These toys are worthless without the will to use them. We would be better off spending the money on one last big party before the veil descends.
However, the contract also states that the CMC is intended for the US Navy's Ohio-class replacement as well. While the US and UK SSBN programs have long been joined at the hip through the use of the same missiles, this is another step forward in collaboration.
December 29, 2008
Four words
What Laberge has set out to build in this office park, using $2 million in private funding and a skeletal workforce, is a nuclear-fusion power plant. The idea seems nuts but is actually, he says, not at all far-fetched. Yes, he'll admit, fusion is generally considered the kind of nearly impossible challenge undertaken only by huge universities or governments. Yes, fusion has a stigma to overcome; the image that it is fundamentally bogus, always and forever 20 years away, certainly doesn't help. Laberge would probably even admit that the idea of some Canadians working in a glorified garage conquering one of the most ambitious problems in physics sounds absurd.
But he will also tell you that his twist on a method known as magnetized target fusion, or MTF -- to wildly oversimplify, a process in which plasma (ionized gas) trapped by a magnetic field is rapidly compressed to create fusion -- will, in fact, work because it is relatively cheap and scalable. Give his team six to 10 years and a few hundred million dollars, he says, and his company, General Fusion, will give you a nuclear-fusion power plant.
The technology for the Aetheric Battle Zeppelin of the Flea is almost upon us. Now to find a sheet of graph paper big enough to start dungeon mapping the Demiplane of Dread (hat tip to Capt H and Mr Barnett).
Related: This steampunk Dalek.
The Top 10 Rightblogger Stories of 2008
According to the Village Voice. Please to refer to No. 9.
The election wasn't close, no. Let us hope the average Village Voice reader made the right call. The rest of us are going to be paying for it for some time to come.
That intergalactic swine, Xenu
Tom Cruise attempts to martyr himself on an altar of stupid. Sadly, $cientologists - who will believe anything - probably believe this nonsense too.
Naturally, Tom doesn’t think anyone but anti-Scientology group Anonymous would target him, so that’s what the Daily Mail, in all its journalistic integrity, has quoted the “source” as believing.
Agent Bedhead posts Anonymous' reply.
Organic Armor
Organic Armor could be just the ticket for the coming bad times. Tina Turner will be with us.
Nadya: Sexy
People move to Bulgaria and teach English all the time probably. It's not like there is a law against it.
December 28, 2008
Operation Cast Lead
Barak Ravid details the planning and disinformation campaign leading up to Israel's trike on Hamas. Excellent. I hope they got the lot of them.
"Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday."
Can we has strike Iran please?
Related: Israeli Arabs show their true loyalties. Some names spring to mind. These being Jericho, Ai, Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir.
Furthermore:Switzerland, Brazil and the usual laundry list of suspects condemn a disproportionate Israeli response to attacks from Gaza. Normally I would say the Swiss and the Brazilians can rot in hell but on this occasion I agree; a proportionate response is called for.
I demand Israel launch two hundred attacks per week at random on densely populated civilian areas in the Arab occupied territories then hand out candies in the streets when Arab children die. This would be exactly proportionate.
December 27, 2008
Oral histories
Scientists say female Everquest II players are five times more likely to be bisexual than non-Everquest players. See? It is not all doom and gloom at the Flea (via Stephen Kellat).
Pic supposedly related.
Top ten: I survived a faculty meeting by generating a top ten introductory speculative fiction list for a colleague. I reproduce it here for your edification and brickbats.
*****
I have been reading Gordon Dickson... fun with not terribly well thought out military sf but he does not make the cut. I am going to assume you have read Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. If not, Pratchett's The Colour of Magic goes to the top of the list! You are one of the few people who will appreciate his Lovecraft references.
1. Frank Herbert - Dune
The masterpiece.
2. Frank Herbert - The Dosadi Experiment
Featuring Jorj X. McKie, Saboteur Extraordinary and one of my favourite characters, like, ever.
3. Robert Heinlein - Citizen of the Galaxy
Free Traders kick ass. I believe this is the "before" of Firefly.
4. Anne Rice - Interview with the Vampire
On the remote off chance you have not read it. '70s Victoriana.
5. Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood
Quite possibly the only original fantasy novel since Tolkien. Fun with archetypes.
6. Larry Niven - Protector
My favourite in Niven's "Known Space" continuity. Fun with evolution.
7. Tanya Huff - Summon the Keeper
I met Austin on several occasions. Fun with talking cats.
8. Scott Westerfield - The Risen Empire
The newest title on this list. Fun with immortality.
9. Robert Harris - Fatherland
A gateway drug to the Harris oeuvre (my favourite is Pompeii). Fun with counterfactual history.
10. William Gibson - Neuromancer
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
And a PS: Cannot believe I forgot this one.
Max Brooks - World War Z
I am not much for zombies but I am all for oral histories of the zombie war.
Tastefully thick, with a watermark
It turns out I am not the only one after American Psycho business cards. The book was grotesque but the film was quite amusing.
War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.
A great catch by Feng at Information Dissemination. The Peoples Liberation Army Navy has not sent just any ships against the pirates; China has sent two of its most advanced destroyers.
More on the 052B class destroyers and type 052C class destroyer; the latter is an ever so slightly more recent vessel built for a fleet air defence role around the same hull as the type B. The Chinese are using this deployment to make a point. I hope the Somalis are about to open a fortune cookie that says "Man who run in front of car get tired."
Fruit of a poisonous tree
Arif Mohammed Khan describes a "hate culture" against India to be found in Pakistani textbooks.
One factor that has played a crucial role in creating this culture of hate is the educational policy of the government of Pakistan pursued since 1977. The officially prescribed textbooks, especially for school students, are full of references that promote hate against India in general, and Hindus in particular.
A cursory glance at Pakistani school textbooks - especially the compulsory subjects like Pakistan studies and social studies - gives an idea of how history has been distorted and a garbled version prescribed to build this mindset and attitude.
Read the whole thing then steel yourself for the fruit of this poisonous tree. Further news - including photographic evidence - of the Bombay jihadis foul work has emerged over Christmas. Many of those massacred by the jihadis had been tortured, sexually abused and mutilated and then summarily executed; the victims of this abuse including a rabbi and his pregnant wife, two of the only Jews in a country that is home to more than a billion souls.
These images are all over the dextrosphere. You owe it to yourself, to your children and their children to find them. I started with Five Feet of Fury.
Gaza braces for invasion as Barak threatens children
Such is the headline to an Agence France Presse piece in the Daily Star. The article reports on the killing of two "Palestinian" children by a rocket launched by other Arabs trying to kill Jews.
Ehud Barak is the Defence Minister of Israel. His name does not appear in the article.
But that is nothing next to Israel's actual policy: Pinpoint strikes for the delectation of Europe's anti-Semite press and a massive shipment of medical supplies for the near enemy in Gaza. Note to Israel: You are doing it wrong.
And there is the small matter of Persian nuclear weapons this little sideshow is doing nothing to resolve. Such is democracy. Once again it is only the incompetence of the enemy - and the grace of God - that may ultimately save us from ourselves.
December 26, 2008
Hoist on their own retard
News to renew my holiday cheer.
Christmas has got absolutely nothing to do with Jesus
My inner Oliver Cromwell agrees wholeheartedly. As to the rest, I agree with Rod Liddle. This is where we are now (via Mark Steyn and Kathy Shaidle).
Well, indeed; but whose fault is that? Place it alongside all the stuff I mentioned above and it would seem to be the logical consequence of an agenda driven by the liberal middle-class Left over the past 30 years, in which the common denominator is the yearning for an artificial world that is entirely risk-free. Certainly there must be no risk to life or limb, even if that risk is vanishingly small. No risk, either, that anyone could possibly be offended by anything, no matter how barking mad you would have to be to take offence. No risk that anyone's sensibilities (religious or otherwise) might be offended, no matter how thin their skins may have become over the years. It is an aspiration towards a pretend world, a confection every bit as make-believe as Santa's grotto.
Read the whole thing. In mounting horror.
Exit observation: We have to retake the education system or everything else is lost. Our economic and military might will count for nothing so long as we continue to cede civilization to the barbarians and to heap abuse on those few remaining men willing and able to protect the rest of us.
If Lawful Good is not up to the job, I vote for Lawful Evil
Days into its new patrol off the coast of Somalia, German frigate Karslruhe foiled pirates in their attempt to commandeer an Egyptian vessel.
And promptly released the pirates.
"We had forces on board the frigate, and they used fast small boats, and together with the helicopter we were able to surround the pirates and disarm them," he said.
He said the decision not to detain or arrest them was taken by the German government in Berlin. A spokesman for the EU's mission off Somalia, Cdr Achim Winkler, told the BBC's Europe Today programme that Germany would only bring pirates to justice where German interests were hurt. This would be the case if a German ship was attacked or German citizens were killed or injured, he said.
Quite right too. I demand legal action be taken against the Kriegsmarine - or whatever it is calling itself these days - for the illegal detention of these Somali citizens, for the illegal confiscation of their property, for the humiliation/hurt feelings/harmed reputation resulting from being detained without charge and for German officials to be subject to citizen's arrest as war criminals should they set foot on Canadian soil. Guantanamo. Oil. George Bush. Did I mention it's all about oil? George Bush. In fact, I should file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission as this illegal act has risked bringing Somalis - and especially Muslims, who had nothing to do with this act of peace - into hatred and contempt.
Though judging by this risible result, the German government seems bound on heaping contempt on its own navy. Perhaps the CHRC might consider charges of mockery and derision.
Related mockery and derision: Fun fact. The European Union has a "naval task force" on the scene. Better yet... it is headed by the Royal Navy. That will have the pirates quaking in their berths.
Law and/or order: By contrast, the Chinese navy (PLAN) is on the way with two destroyers and a complement of special forces (pictured above). And that, I suspect, will have the effect of concentrating the Somali mind. Lawful Evil can put the smack down on Chaotic Evil without worrying about all the bitching from Neutral Europe.
Beyond my own imagination for cruelty
The Taliban have extended their campaign into Pakistan proper, announcing they will kill girls attending school.
Progressives everywhere: You keep telling us you oppose military action under almost any circumstance and, in practice, see any American military intervention as imperialism. Your new President has made plenty of noise about Pakistan, including specific noises about an overland invasion from Afghanistan. Let's assume (quite safely in my opinion) this approach is a non-starter.
Fine. Now is your chance. Use all your soft power might to protect the rights of women and specifically the rights of Pakistani girls to an eduction. Go!
Later: No, seriously. Do something. Tell me what you are doing. I will help in whatever way I can.
Much later: Kind of assuming you don't actually give a damn about Pakistani girls and could do nothing about the situation even if you did.
For the rest of us
Michael Tennenhouse is probably too young to become a Senator from Illinois. Pity.
"This is grown adults arguing about something nobody could really prove," he said. "Religious displays should not be in public buildings."
So Tennenhouse filled out an application to put up the Festivus pole ("the lady burst out laughing"), which was approved the same day.
11-plus
On the remote off chance you are having an unstressful season of good cheer, you can take ten minutes away from the spirit of goodwill to all men and try to pass the 11-plus. I did pass but the prospect of having my ass kicked by an eleven year old was disconcerting.
Flea-readers are left to judge for themselves.
December 25, 2008
The Queen's Christmas Speech 2008
Not that Canada's state broadcaster could be bothered airing it this year. They used to hang people for sedition. And draw and quarter. But I digress. (Update: My apologies to the CBC. Please see the comments to this post.) Here is the Queen, bless. Harry does a good job too.
Also, Christmas trees.
It's beginning to look a lot like Mithras
As a Christian, I think this Christmas business is complete pagan nonsense, obviously. Fortunately, I happen to enjoy a bit of pagan nonsense on the side. Time enough for the witch burnings and the denunciations in the New Year (the New Year also an human social convention, of course).
Don't forget to feed the elves, and one jolly old elf in particular; they get tetchy otherwise. Worth considering: In the beginning this creature did not give presents; it demanded them.
Related: "Scientists" warn Christmas lights harm the planet. I say "scientists" need a kick in the teeth. That's the Christmas way.
Heart warming
A couple heart warming Gurkha stories for Christmas day. The other story is at the link.
December 24, 2008
Nogs I have known
Karen Turner offers a handy review of store bought eggnogs, though missing from the list is the best of them all. Kawartha Dairy produces an eggnog that is unmatched; creamy and suggestive and lacking the chemical yellow most producers add in place of making something that tastes like real food. Kawartha: That's a spicy egg nog!
I can only speak for southern Ontario, of course, so results will vary for Flea-readers worldwide. A heads up on the best nogs of, say, Australia would be much appreciated.
Jobs I have been
Edward Michael George has tagged me. So much for my no tagging commitment!
"It’s simple. Just list all the jobs you’ve had in your life, in order. Don’t bust your brain: no durations or details are necessary, and feel free to omit anything that you feel might tend to incriminate you. I’m just curious. And when you’re done, tag another five bloggers you’re curious about."
For your edification, most of the jobs I have had in my life arranged more or less chronologically. There is a lot of overlap and I have left out odd jobs like the brief gig I had in demolition; writing about concrete is much easier than breaking it... Happily, my current employment is the best ever:
baking bagels / selling bagels
selling music (records and tapes)
selling books (various)
teaching anthropology / cultural studies
teaching anthropology / registrar for a television museum
research consultant (policy / supply chain and vendor management)
teaching archaeology / urban studies
teaching business studies
freelance writing
contract research (policy / change management)
partner in a film production start up
teaching anthropology / cultural studies / communication studies
teaching archaeology / history
partner in a television production start up
research administration (cancer research)
teaching communication studies
Now to tag some victims of my own: Agent Bedhead, SondraK, RightGirl, Kathy Shaidle and Nancy Pelosi.
Update: Agent Bedhead has indulged my Christmas wish! Someone beat me to Kathy!
Among the blind, the squint rules
The Taliban have announced they will ally with Pakistan in the event of war with India. Expect leftist transvaluation of cause and effect to follow as surely as snow follows Gore; they will blame George Bush for having driven these "foes" together.
Related: Jeremy Page on links between the ISI and the jihadis. The FBI has gathered evidence showing complicity between Pakistani "state actors" and the Bombay ("Mumbai") jihadis. Also, Pakistan appears to have adopted a high state of readiness eagerness to once again have its ass handed to it by the Indians.
Hammer time
If the Armorer is at work he is going to miss this contest between explosive and sledge hammer.
Left-wing version
Michael Taube - yes, the Michael Taube - lists his top ten favourite leftist Canadian blogs. Making the cut, Robert "Fuck the Jews" McClelland. Charming.*
I disagreed with the first list, obviously, but any list of left-wing Canadian blogs that does not include Gen X at 40 shows a list maker who does not know what he is talking about. So much for that.
* No. Fuck the French.
December 23, 2008
The New Adventures of Mr. Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry has a podcast, damn him. I have finally cracked and installed iTunes as a result.
The latest episode: Language. To me, Fry embodies everything both irritating and inspirational about a certain worthy Anglicanism. Old fashioned, a bit stuffy and somehow profoundly reassuring. Fry's latest features news to me regarding the term "willy-nilly", a bit obvious once it is pointed out.
Handy for Stephen Fry: Cobbled together out of vintage Cold War-era Soviet vacuum fluorescent tubes and custom driver circuitry, the Super Electrofluorescent Profanity Machine sits at the juncture of steampunk form and steampunk function (hat tip to Minicapt).
Night comes to the city, to Moscow city
Chistroprudov Dimitri's focus is on is night panoramic views of Moscow take from the city's roofs. Beautiful. It would be a shame if anything happened to the place.
Also fascinating, part of the KGB museum is devoted to the Soviet Russian military intelligence.
Douche Girl
Douche Girl speaks for me. Word up to a certain Canadian newspaper.
December 22, 2008
Weebl: Pirates
If YouTube is blocked at your office you should still be able to dance. Just go to Somalia. They got yer oil.
December 21, 2008
Lost the bottle
Michael Portillo speaks truth to power, saying Britain has lost the stomach for a fight. Years ago, I stayed up to watch Portillo lose his seat. I was not alone. As I opened another bottle of champagne at the news, I heard the echo of popping corks up and down the terrace gardens of Islington.
Now I am forced to wonder what we missed.
Prestige apart, it is hard to explain why we have nuclear weapons, and what price prestige, if it is clear to the world that we could not protect the civilians of a single city in Iraq?
Blair’s military adventures exposed the gap between Britain’s pretensions and capabilities and perhaps between our aspirations and national character. Leaving Basra closes a chapter and Britain now pursues a new delusion.
Not everyone gets the Flea vibe
Having recently - inaccurately - been described as a "Tory", it is with some satisfaction I note the Flea has not made the cut for Michael Taube's best of the blogosphere (right-wing version). That said, and given the Flea also does not qualify for the left-wing version, it is with some consternation I find the Flea does not even make the list of ok, non-partisan blogs. Given the Flea's links and traffic - and the fact I have been at this for some years now - Taube might usefully expand his horizons ever so slightly.
Or maybe he thinks I suck.
Either way, I am forced to conclude I am typing in an air pocket. Or possibly that Canada is the problem, that there is a good reason 85% of my traffic is from the US of A, that I am an American at heart and that Canada's media establishment can kiss my ass.
December 20, 2008
TH.2058
The Tate Modern is looking for short stories about a future London. Admittedly, this future London eerily like present London, though in all probability with more "peace".*
This is your chance to share your vision of 2058 by adding your short story.
All submissions will appear here. At the end of January, six stories will be selected by a panel of judges (including writer Jeff Noon and Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster) to form an audio book voiced by Christopher Ecclestone, which will be available for download once it is produced.
To be more specific about life in 2058. I expect contributors are meant to run with this conceit.
Charlotte Higgins had a look at the Turbine Hall installation. The BBC has TH.2058 pictures as do Richard Sunderland and Doctor Boogie, who makes a brilliant comparison to Henry Moore's shelter drawings. Ben Lewis says it is all a bit Day of the Triffids - the obvious metaphor if your editor thinks your readership has not touched sf since it was on a course list in school - and, finally, here is a video of the installation.
* "Peace" is a racist code word, btw.
Open source data
"I mostly did this because it was a picture off a DoD website, and it's a great teaching moment for how open source data, all innocuous in and of itself, becomes actionable intelligence over time."
The rest is silence
Lest anyone doubt the inventiveness of the young, I bring news to set your mind at ease. Or, if you are in a teaching profession, to fill you with an incalculable dread/rage/foreboding. I have only just got used to the idea my lectures will be second guessed live by the top ten Google search results (which is pretty cool, if I'm honest).
Now this latest horror: The Mosquito Tone.
Plastic Mind hosts sample tones for the more sceptical Flea-readership. I can just hear 16KHz... do remember to turn down your speakers...
Blestyashchie: Agent 007
This is much more representative of my life than might seem possible to the casual observer.
And the following is relevant to my interests.
December 19, 2008
Snowmageddon
Toronto has been hit by seven or eight inches of snow. The National Post is live blogging*, Global has a handy storm watch site including a live video news feed as I type these words.
* From whence this snow plow game.
Related: How to shovel now without breaking your back. A variety of advice: What to do if you are in an accident, how to drive in a blizzard, what your emergency kit should contain and how to control a skid.
Visuals: Four Flickr images sets lifted from the National Post: First Storm 2, Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree, Xmas Toronto Snow Storm and Snowmageddon 2008.
The end of the world: A society with too little to complain about decides to be outraged at the term snowmageddon.
Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips acknowledged many people found the term — which became the most popular term internationally on Twitter and inspired a series of ‘‘I survived snowmageddon 2008” t-shirts — overblown.
Mr. Phillips said he knows which of his co-workers first coined the term in a press release, and called it an “appropriate” way to describe the massive winter storm that walloped southern Ontario today and the two more snow dumps that are expected this week. But he would not tell us his name.
It's Snowmageddongate!
Ich werde ganz nervös, wenn ich Deutsch spreche
Some might say I have been heavy handed with German culture this week. Some people might need to shut the hell up. One World Cup and two World Wars. Doo dah. Doo dah.
Also, fuck the French.
Video enthrallment via Iowahawk. Sprockets sketch? You know I am going to be all over it.
A preference for barbarism
Erudite and perspicacious as ever, Theodore Dalrymple is interviewed for Pajamas Media (via Solomonia). I particularly enjoyed the following observation on inclusion and self-esteem, both exemplary of hegemony in a strict Gramscian sense.
RTWT, obviously. Food for thought regarding a false compassion for criminals and the substitution of daydreams for ambition. He is right about something else too. I cannot speak to the before of hospital life but having recently worked for two years at a large research hospital, I can second Dalrymple's observation on the universality of the will to power as its organizing principle.
Growing heavy
A short cut to fine wine, yes. But the secret to removing a wine's Canadianity remains elusive.
Via.
December 18, 2008
The final frontier
Majel Barrett Roddenberry has died of leukemia, aged 76. Doubly sad news as Variety reports she had reprised her role as the Enterprise computer in J.J. Abrams' forthcoming Star Trek reboot. She will be missed.
Fair warning on the following fan tribute: Jerry Goldsmith's Main Title to First Contact kicks in at about 1:58. There cannot be a dry eye in the house.
I expect there are many who will not understand the sadness at her passing, let alone earnest, hasty - and slightly sad - tributes like this one, spelling errors and all. Say what you like about fans: We know we are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Oh hell, here's the whole thing.
You're sitting on a chair in the sky
Kids these days.
Via Small Dead Animals. Hat tip to Five Feet of Fury.
Loseur
As I have been introducing the Girlfriend of the Flea to Clive Barker's Hellraiser oeuvre, it is with a grotesque sense of timing Agent Bedhead should choose to profane these sacred works by associating their sacred words with Trent Reznor, the poseur who destroyed industrial music.
To Buddhists, hell is a state of mind; in light of this evidence, I am forced to concede they have a point.
I can haz vengeance.
Generation Pussy
Clint Eastwood speaks.
But stoicism didn't mean a lack of sentiment, Clint adds. "Look how fast—seven years—people have been able to forget 9/11. Maybe you remember if you lost a relative or a loved one. But the public can get pretty blasé about stuff like that. Nobody got blasé about Pearl Harbor."
So much for your Miranda rights
How not to do it: Sob stories for jihadis.
How to do it better: "A Georgia judge ordered a Muslim woman arrested Tuesday for contempt of court for refusing to take off her head scarf at a security checkpoint."
How to do it right: "China is considering sending ships to fight pirates off the Horn of Africa in what would be the country’s first significant long-range naval combat mission since the 15th century" (Reuters video at the link).
Note to the "free" world. This is what happens if you refuse to do the job.
Note to the pirates: Time to explore your career options.
Saga of A Star World
Ralph McQuarrie's Battlestar Galactica concept art stands the test of time and the series' visually impressive reboot. There is something to be said for paint in an age that has become almost entirely pixelated (hat top to the Armored Facilities Manager).
Bulgaria: Dance Girls
Evolutionary theorists conducting an analysis of personal ads have discovered middle-aged men want to meet younger women. It's science, apparently.
Bulgaria - Dance Girls - More free videos are here
December 17, 2008
No Mr. Bond, I want you to tan
It turns out China's new Bond villain submarine base sits next to a new Bond villain beach resort development. There is a metaphor in here somewhere about China's ersatz Marxism but it is post-term and the language fails me.
The obsession with military secrecy sits oddly with China’s efforts to turn Hainan, which is about the size of Sri Lanka and sits on China’s southernmost fringes, into an international tourism hotspot. Officials proudly describe the island as China’s Hawaii. From the beach, this correspondent clocked a couple of Luyang-class destroyers and a missile frigate. One of the destroyers emerged from the base and steamed cheerfully up and down in front of the hotels.
On the plus side, if the Chinese become the global hyperpower, capitalism may triumph over socialism after all.
Doom
The greatest one issue comic ever published. Twitter readers should be warned I plan to lift this guy's material.
Vereen
Considering massive spending on AbbyShot products. I particularly like the look of this Wolverine style Vereen jacket.
If you can't smoke it, kick it to death
This song is dedicated to the Drink Soaked Trotskyite Popinjays for WAR.
December 16, 2008
Twittervangelism
It is like blogging but fun again. There is a parallel conversation underway there and far more frequent updates.
I do not drink... wine
| Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Vampire You are a social pragmatist, as likely to kiss as to bite. Your sensuality and social pragmatism is the counter-balance to your existential angst and your tendency toward depression. | |
| Sorceror | |
| Incubus/Succubus | |
| Demon | |
| Cthulu Spawn | |
| Ghost | |
| Werewolf | |
| Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
This not terribly surprising result arrives via Raincoaster.
December 15, 2008
German celebrities hit by credit crunch
Elizabeth Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (better known to her fans by her UK stage name, Elizabeth Windsor) and her family have been hit hard by the credit crunch as her dressmaker Hardy Amies and porcelain maker Royal Worcester and Spode have both filed for administration (that is Chapter 11 to our American friends), the former business failure perhaps going some way to explain why "Windsor" has been spotted wearing the same outfit twice this year.
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who is Queen of Quebec amongst other places, is quoted as saying the situation is "awful", asking "Why did nobody notice it?" and exclaiming rhetorically "How can a merciful God have allowed this to come to pass?"
Though perhaps not that last one.
(Image hat tip to the Parental Units of the Flea, who most probably will not approve this message.)
More seriously: William sports a beard in Barbados as he trains with the Special Boat Service.
Also: The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square is reserved for an equestrian bronze of Queen Elizabeth. Good choice.
Twitter Tube Tracker
London Underground status updates are now available via Twitter. I have subscribed to the Northern Line. If I cannot be at the Angel, I can at least imagine I am stuck somewhere south of Euston Station.
Post-democracy
Speaking truth to power, dissent as the highest form of patriotism, yadda yadda yadda. An incident involving Czech President Vaclav Klaus and 68er Daniel Cohn-Bendit illustrates the difference between an authentic dissident and a poseur.*
President Klaus, an economist and former dissident against Stalinism, has authored Blue Planet in Green Shackles, a book expressing scepticism regarding supposed global climate change. Klaus has also criticized the European Union, comparing it to the Soviet Union and claiming it is a threat to democracy, freedom and prosperity. Green European Parliament leader, Cohn-Bendit - who allowed children to open his fly and tickle his private parts in his days as a kindergarten operator (YJCMTSU) - and other equally notable figures, chose a meeting at Hradcany Castle as their moment to object.
You can read about Cohn-Bendit's grandstanding for yourself. For me, the moment of maximum leftist contempt for democracy lies in a further exchange with Irish MEP, Brian Crowley, Crowley exclaiming.
On the EU constitution, Klaus recalled that three countries had voted against it, and that if Mr Crowley wanted to talk about insults to the Irish people, "the biggest insult to the Irish people is not to accept the result of the Irish referendum". This provoked Crowley to retort angrily, "You will not tell me what the Irish think. As an Irishman, I know it best."
This is typical of what now passes itself off as the left: Truth drawn from collective racial identity no matter what the democratically expressed will of the electorate might happen to be. We used to call it Nazism.
Also typical, catastrophic sums they could never have earned for themselves squandered on fictional problems, an overweening sense of entitlement, and the gruesome spectacle of a moral dwarves lecturing a decent man.
* True fact: The word poseur is French.
Related: Klaus on Hayek... The Intellectuals and Socialism as seen from a post-communist country situated in a predominantly post-democratic Europe.
The question is what kind of ideas is favoured by the intellectuals. The question is whether the intellectuals are neutral in their choice of ideas with which they are ready to deal with. Hayek argued that they are not. They do not hold or try to spread all kinds of ideas. They have very clear and, in some respect, very understandable preferences for some of them. They prefer ideas, which give them jobs and income and which enhance their power and prestige.
They, therefore, look for ideas with specific characteristics. They look for ideas, which enhance the role of the state because the state is usually their main employer, sponsor or donator. That is not all. According to Hayek “the power of ideas grows in proportion to their generality, abstractness, and even vagueness”. Hence it is not surprising that the intellectuals are mostly interested in abstract, not directly implementable ideas. This is also the way of thinking, in which they have comparative advantage. They are not good at details. They do not have ambitions to solve a problem. They are not interested in dealing with the everyday affairs of common citizens. Hayek put it clearly: “the intellectual, by his whole disposition, is uninterested in technical details or practical difficulties.” He is interested in visions and utopias because “socialist thought owes its appeal largely to its visionary character” (and I would add lack of realism and utopian nature), the intellectual tends to become a socialist.
But I was not bendy so I said nothing
First they came for the yoga mats. Then they issued a fatwa against bras.
OK, fine, so what's the problem with me modestly donning my sports bra? Answer: Now there's also a fatwa against bras! Bras? Why on earth would bras be considered blasphemous? Well, the reasoning of our revered clerics is that bras fool men into thinking that a woman's breasts are bigger than they really are, so it's a kind of fraud.
December 13, 2008
Aimless
Joe Klein cites a number of problems with the war in Afghanistan. For example:
Point taken, as are the rest (RTWT). What Klein - and the rest of the pseudo-left - fail to offer is an alternative. Let us say it is impossible, or at least too costly and troublesome, to pacify and civilize Afghanistan or the "tribal areas" of Pakistan. In an ear of WMD terrorism, we do not have the luxury of abandoning the place once again to the worst impulses of an apocalyptic suicide cult.
It seems to me the current mission is the best of bad options. These are, in case it needs to be pointed out, an unacceptable defeat by the jihadis or going Roman and finishing what the Russians started.
All the dread is mainly in the head
India is to test a multi-layered ballistic missile defence system. This would be the same sort of missile defence that communists, fellow travellers and the morally retarded have insisted was impossible since the mid 1980s.
Next up: India continues to ignore imaginary global warming.
Related: The Sanskrit lyrics for Duel of the Fates, i.e. the only good thing about the first "prequel".
Alternate title: "Nuclear Attack on Pakistan".
Alder, front of the line, formed the vanguard. Willow and Rowan were late to the fray.
Now wondering how I had never come across Cad Goddeu, The Battle of the Trees (see Sanskrit lyrics for Duel of the Fates).
Literary allusion:
Another literary allusion:
Welsh haka:
December 12, 2008
Bettie Page
Also known as Betty Page, apparently.
And again. Just possibly NSFW.
Don't miss: Bettie Page (1923 - 2008)... the hipster's William F. Buckley?
Design for Obama
Reading an otherwise sensible leftist blog the other day, it occurred to me I have never heard a conservative use a racial epithet to describe Senator Obama while progressives appear to relish doing so.
Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
Or quite possibly it is the left that is comprehensively, irredeemably racist.
December 11, 2008
The Test
Forwarded by the Parental Units of the Flea. Take a moment to read.
The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision.
Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.
Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.
THE SITUATION:
You are in Canada , Ottawa to be specific.
There is chaos all around you caused by a huge early December storm with severe flooding.
This is a flood of biblical proportions.
You are a photo-journalist working for a major Canadian newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless.
You're trying to shoot career-making photos.
There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing into the water of the Ottawa River .
Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.
THE TEST:
Suddenly, you see four men in the water.
They are fighting for their lives, trying not to be taken down with the debris.
You move closer... Somehow, the men look familiar...
You suddenly realize who they are.. It's Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe!
You notice that the raging waters are about to take them under forever. You have two options:
You can save lives or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of the country's most powerful men at possibly one of Canada 's most important historical moments!
THE QUESTION:
Here's the question, and please give an honest answer...
Would you select high contrast colour film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?
December 10, 2008
Socialites of the world, unite!
Michael Musto chats with Paris Hilton about her forthcoming genetic opera. He coins the handy term "socialitism" on the way by.
Paris: I don't say who I vote for.
Me: I do. He's super-sexy.
Paris: Yeah, he's good-looking, and he's inspiring people.
Me: But what a country he's inheriting! Has the economy's free fall affected you?
Paris: Not at all. The business I'm in is not affected by it.
Me: Huh? But I'm in the same business, and I'm wearing K-Mart shoes. You have no money in stocks?
Paris: Yes, but they're in good stocks.
Me: Tell me what they are!
(Silence.)
Quite right too; know, dare, will and keep silent.
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach
Agent Bedhead tells us Anne Hathaway's cab light is switched on. Given Hathaway's glassy eyed predatory look, I think I speak for much of the Flea's male readership in seeing hazard lights followed closely by my turn signal.
December 09, 2008
RAN Silent RAN Deep
Aviation Week has details on a Royal Australian Navy review of its submarine fleet and speculation on its next generation submarine hull. Their headline was good enough to steal.
I am not a number
But if I *** have *** to be a number I am quite happy to be No. 3, thank you kindly.
Note to self: Shouldn't I be making more money with this thing?
Peachy: Super Jet Shoes
Sure there's the war, the depression and the stack of ungraded papers.
Then there are my super jet shoes.
December 08, 2008
The author function
From Michel Foucault's "What is an Author?" translated by Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice.
At the same time, however, "literary" discourse was acceptable only if it carried an author's name; every text of poetry or fiction was obliged to state its author and the date, place, and circumstance of its writing. The meaning and value attributed to the text depended upon this information. If by accident or design a text was presented anonymously, every effort was made to locate its author. Literary anonymity was of interest only as a puzzle to be solved as, in our day, literary works are totally dominated by the sovereignty of the author.
I gather there is some sort of controversy as to the provenience of Victoria Beckham's new line. Roland Mouret appears to have had a hand in. Smart chap.
Aboard the SS St. Louis
Canada's government defends a Saudi policy of shunning tourists who have visited Israel (via Atlas Shrugs).
According to the Web site of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, "Canadians have been denied entry into Saudi Arabia because their passports bore: a) an Israeli visa; b) an Israeli border stamp; or c) an Egyptian or Jordanian border stamp issued by an office bordering Israel (such a stamp would indicate the traveller entered from Israel)."
Contacted via e-mail by the Post, Department spokesman Lisa Monette was asked how the Canadian government views the Saudi policy. Monette refused to criticize or condemn the practice, instead asserting that, "it is the sole prerogative of each country or region to determine who is allowed to enter.
Would it were my prerogative to determine which passport was worth keeping. Between the UK and Canada, a move to Austalia is looking better and better.
In related news, many Canadian conservatives mistakenly imagine Stephen Harper's government is worth defending.
Of course, as proud as I am of our Government's actions and as proud as we all are of our country's values, Canada's history is not without its scars. For example, the decision to turn away hundreds of German Jewish refugees aboard the SS St. Louis was both tragic and indefensible.
Dear Mr. Harper, if you are not too busy trying to hold on to your job, you might consider living up to those words and addressing this abomination at Foreign Affairs. Some people need to be very noisily fired.
Best practice
Pace Christopher Hitchens, it is not only the DPRK using 1984 as a guide to best practice rather than a warning. Words associated with Christianity, the monarchy and British history have been declared doubleplusungood and dropped from Oxford's Junior Dictionary for children. Children in a modern, multicultural and multifaith Britain need to be told what an MP3 player is, apparently.
The following words are surplus to requirements and have been condemned to the Memory Hole. But enough of Orwell, he saw this coming; it is the shade of Tolkien that weeps. Soon the Black Speech of Mordor will be spoken as the master's tongue in the smoking remains of the Shire. Oxford might as well take "Britain" out of their next edition.
And "English" while they are at it.
Note the word "bacon" has been removed. Allahu sodding akbar.
Dwarf, elf, goblin
Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar
Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade
adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.
Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow
Back to the pixel mines
I have spent the last several days browsing with Google Chrome and am only now noticing some embedded video formatting fun in Firefox. Despite Mozilla's product being a memory hog - Google's product appears to use more but does so better - and the blindingly fast load times in Chrome, it is back to Firefox for me. There are important gadgets I am missing in Chrome and for some reason it cannot or will not find the font style and link buttons in Movable Type. That is enough html for now, thanks Google.
Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Overman -- a rope over an abyss
December 07, 2008
I blame Hugh Hewitt
The Flea is now on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ghostofaflea.
While I dread to think of yet another virtual gadget in my life, it does seem to be a good vehicle both for presenting material that falls outside the posting format of the blog and more importantly for pestering Agent Bedhead.
Merely for the sake of his appetite
The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko is the first Russian warship to traverse the Panama Canal since World War II.
The Carter presidency: A gift that keeps on giving.
December 06, 2008
The semiotics of repetition
Some will criticize Marilyn Manson. I say: Enjoy your symptom!
Directly related.
How not to measure temperature, part 78
When they miss one critical detail.
The Hours: See the Light
Warning: Contains art (hat tip to Agent Bedhead).
December 05, 2008
Depressing news for the Gwyneth Paltrow voter
A film review site shocked - just shocked - to learn there are Republicans in Hollywood. For the rest of us, good news about Dennis Hopper, Vince Vaughn, Denzel Washington, Dwayne Johnson and Sam Raimi. The last one is particularly important as it facilitates 100% guilt free Army of Darkness viewing, baby (via Agent Bedhead).
The near enemy
Ace considers Jon Stewart, sticks and stones and the left's newfound bellicosity.
Though, in fairness, the left has a point in setting these priorities: The war is not an engineering problem - it is a cultural problem - and it is the left that must be defeated if we are to win/survive. It is, after all, cultural Marxism that is the real strategic adversary; were it not for our moral and intellectual turpitude, we would have swatted the savages without a second thought and gone back to the serious business of driving big ass cars, eating steak, drinking scotch, and listening to Frank Sinatra albums.
We paved paradise but instead of enjoying the spoils we handed the lot over to people who had contributed nothing to building the empire and to those whose fondest wish is to tear it down and (force other people to) live in grass huts. Whether the grass hut is to be stocked with a Koran or An Inconvenient Truth is only a question of ideological superstructure, the feudal mode of production will be the same.
Pot Cookie Monster
Pot cookies are probably best thought of as a sometimes food.
December 04, 2008
No matter who loses, we win
Governor General Michaelle Jean does the sane, cautious thing and agrees to suspend Parliament rather than dissolve Parliament and force a new election or turn Parliament over to a defeated opposition party, socialists and Quebecists. Congratulations, Stephen Harper, you get to pretend to govern Canada as Prime Minister while not having to face the House upon which your job depends.
If it was good enough for Charles I it is good enough for Canada.
On the minus side, waffling onservative pseudo-government. On the plus side - double plus, actually, I don't have to watch Stephane Dion pretend to be Prime Minister or listen to Annex leftists celebrate yet another repudiation of democracy. Of course, watching our pseudo-conservative government being discomfited would also have been a win or, better yet, to watch our FLQ friendly pseudo-head of state attempt to justify putting French national socialists into power. That could have been epic win. But then I am easy to please and arguably not a good person.
The Complex
The latest communique from Anonymous details attempt by $cientology to block sale of John Duignan's The Complex, a book that describes the inner workings of the cult's paramilitary Sea Organization. Amazon UK has already folded and withdrawn the book from sale "for legal reasons".
Do not forgive. Do not forget.
Read the whole thing
Mark Steyn responds to the latest from Ryerson University's J-school (via Five Feet of Fury, who comments to great effect).
You go fuck yourself. I say what I want.
No mandate
(To begin with an aside: I now think I know why YouTube/Google has been running so slowly for 48 hours; they were introducing these retarded search bars to the top of their embedded video function. Congratulations Google, you have pushed my lazy butt one step further toward your competitors.)
(Update: The feature is now a default but can be disabled by adding "&showsearch=0" to the URL. I will leave the code as is on the first video below for demonstration purposes. It does not look so bad in the first video as the image has already been letterboxed but looks like hell on a normal television aspect ratio.)
Here is an idea: Excepting the Cree and the Mohawk who are Canadian, Canada should force Quebec out of confederation. They can take their corrupt politics, their sodding metric system and above all their permanent whining with them. Good riddance.
For non-Canadians, the background in detail. Steve Paikan is a sensible fellow and can guide you in the boring intricacy of our ways.
Tallying voter percentages vs seats is a nonsense, btw. Otherwise, the Green Party should have a place in the coalition and two seats in cabinet and the Bloc should be given the External Affairs portfolio (what other cabinet position could suit their supposed ideology?). If we are to accept the legitimacy of a Prime Minister who has already been rejected by his own party and the prospect of our next Prime Minister to be elected by the Liberal Party without having to face the polls for years to come - such is the Parliamentary system - then we cannot justify said coalition by attacking the first past the post system that got them into Parliament in the first place.
Unless, that is, said coalition were taking power in order to replace said system with proportional representation or some such. But as they are planning to take power for the sake of "economic stimulation" (with release) they can shut the hell up if they do not like the numbers.
Tina Turner: One of the Living
Don't want to fight.
Sometimes you got to.
She makes an excellent point.
On that note, you have a choice. Take the Blue Pill, watch the video again and go about your life. Or you can take the Red Pill and see what it really looks like down the rabbit hole (more below the fold).
For those of you who took the Red Pill and want to take it back: I don't make the rules.
Actually, this is freaking awesome.
December 03, 2008
The bright lights of downtown seen from our distant suburb
Is our planet at the centre of a giant cosmic void? If the hypothesis gets rid of dark energy, I am all in favour of it. It might also account for why the Earth has yet to be sterilized by Berzerkers.
Belanova: Baila mi corazón
Belanova - Baila Mi Corazon - Click here for this week’s top video clips
December 02, 2008
Enur feat.Natasha: Calabria 2007
Attention Jawa readers: Sound is optional.
December 01, 2008
Their ego does not absolvo
Mark Steyn responds to a Ryerson J-school professor (and some Canadian blogger).
Once again, read the whole thing. Iowahawk explains why:
In fact, scratch "evisceration." Make that vaporization. At this point your next of kin will be lucky to find intact bits of "Doctor" Miller's reputation quivering in the treetops of Ryerson, let alone complete dental records.
A transvaluation of all values
Theodore Dalrymple: For England, the past is another country.
Aurelle spots the paradox: “You despise the academic,” he replies, “and you quote Herodotus. Even better, I caught you the other day in flagrante, reading Xenophon. . . . Very few French, I assure you . . .”
Parker quickly disavows any intellectual virtue in his choice of citations or reading matter. “That’s very different,” he says. “The Greeks and Romans interest us, not as an object of enquiry, but as our ancestors and as sportsmen. I like Xenophon—he is the perfect example of a British gentleman.”
Today, not so much. To my mind, Dalrymple's most important point in this piece: "It is a more important goal of government to uphold civilization than to find a general principle that will iron out all the apparent inconsistencies of the current dispensation."
As always, read the whole thing for context and, as you do so, please consider what we can do to reclaim that England (and that Canada and that America...).
One hopeful moment I have been meaning to pass on: My recent excursion to the annual book sale at Trinity College was an encounter with the same line ups, the same elbows and knees and - this year - the unpleasant discovery of just how many bibliophiles need to consider adding deodorant to their vocabularies. The Poetry section was picked over as never before and the Astrology/Occult section was, as usual, a bust. But I cleaned up in Classics and Military History, scoring a first edition of The Generalship of Alexander by J.F.C. Fuller and a gorgeous 1904 printing of Langhorne and Langhorne's Lives by Plutarch.
As much as I was pleased by my finds I was more pleased to learn the men competing with me for the classics were in Canadian armed forces uniforms. It may be that most of our people are no longer taught - and no longer care to learn - our most profound history. But it may be the most important of our people have not forgotten and are eager to educate themselves. I met a woman in the stacks who was organizing a drive to send reading materials to Canada's forces in Afghanistan. A number of us searched out some improving material to send along with the (also important) diversions.