Odds and sods

1. Uses of fear- the Guardian website features apposite articles on the Home situation today, with more on stop & search, detention powers etc., all for the good of British society. Also an article on psychiatry in Iraq, where what amounts to collective psychological and physical torture has had the expected effects.

The Hilla bombing yesterday (approx 150 dead) is a potent tool for this purpose, because of its randomness. No matter how good, compliant, obedient you are, anytime your time may have come. In truth, it would be difficult (not to say unethical) to construct a better experimental model of helplessness and hopelessness.

More on Home fear here

Fortress Gleneagles: missiles and SAS

IAN BRUCE and DOUGLAS FRASER March 02 2005

SURFACE-TO-AIR missiles and between 1200 and 1500 soldiers and Royal Marines are being drafted in to bolster security at key Scottish sites during the G8 summit in July. Special forces, including the SAS counter-revolutionary warfare squadron's sniper teams, are also likely to be deployed amid fears terrorists may try to infiltrate the 200,000 anti-capitalist protesters who are expected to converge on central Scotland from all over the world.

Incidentally, the news that during G8 the Forth and Kincardine road bridges are to be closed mystified the staff in the lunchroom yesterday. The closure will mean that the considerable population who commute by car to Edinburgh from the Kingdom of Fife will have to drive via Perth, taking them much closer to Gleneagles. Using this map, residents of areas 13, 16 and 9 will have travel to area 24 (containing Gleneagles) to reach area
12. Nice!

2. Medialens editors have started a blog facility.

3. Battery chickens and eggs. Been told that free-range and other 'kinder' eggs are a con for the consumer, and the chicks are just as miserable. Same for the smaller, tastier, less fatty corn-fed cooking birds. 'Organic' veg- is this pesticide free, or simply pesticide limited? Seem to recall that organic grapes for winemaking can still be dusted with sulphur dioxide to discourage moulds.

4. Lobsters. 'The Secret Life of Lobsters' covers their little-known natural history and ethology, recipes, history and economics of their associated fishing communities on the Atlantic seaboard and addresses some of the problems of the commons highlighted. 100 yr old, 22 lb lobster caught off Massachusetts recently. Also, why on earth wouldn't they feel pain or distress while being cooked? They'd be a pretty crappy animal deign if they hadn't the apparatus to sense and attempt escape of conditions that kill them. I'm not fond of lobster to eat- too rich in taste, and has caused a slight histamine response before I didn't like. Now your crab is a different matter...

5. Uses of happy stories
Baby 81 (rescued and reunited with parents after tsunami) has arrived in the US with his parents for a publicity drive. Q: Why do they have to go to the US for this? Or do Faux or CNN need to own the story of their reunion.