A big boy did it and ran away...

Dave came to Milton Keynes yesterday to demonstrate how a career in public relations has prepared him for high office. Without actually giving any concrete information about what his government was about to do, he told us that Tough Decisions would have to be made, but it was all somebody else's fault :

I think people understand by now that the debt crisis is the legacy of the last government. But exactly the same applies to the action we will need to take to deal with it. If there are cuts – they are part of that legacy.

I think we can see where the buck stops for Dave - anywhere but here.

Suicide protesters

Israelis are all too familiar with suicide bombers. Did the Gaza Flotilla activists on the Mavi Marmara include a hard core of suicide protesters? It's beginning to look that way. If so, they delivered an ironic propaganda victory for the serial human rights abusers in Turkey and the Arab world. As if that wasn't quite cynical enough, remember the Turks are still quite keen on buying Israeli weapons...

I still think the Israeli operation was terribly botched. With better planning, loss of life could have been avoided. The possibility that some of the activists actively wanted "matyrdom" just underlines how much more careful they needed to be.

A bargain from EasyJet

The ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano cost EasyJet alone £50-£75 million. They're testing infra-red ash-detection gear, as a possible alternative to shutting down huge areas of airspace. The pilot study - if it works - will have been a bargain at £1 million.

EasyJet Plc said it will fit a dozen aircraft with ash-detection gear within the next 12 months in order to minimize disruption from volcanic eruptions.

Equipment that uses infra-red technology to evaluate the density of dust particles in the air will be attached to the tails of the jetliners, Luton, England-based EasyJet said today at a press briefing in London.

The program will cost about 1 million pounds ($1.46 million), EasyJet Chief Executive Officer Andy Harrison said at the announcement, which was attended by Andrew Haines, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, Britain’s air-safety regulator.

More about AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Identifier and Detector) here.

Pulled over by the Face Police

At last, an introvert speaks up:

Why do people ask introverts, “Are you OK?” just because we aren’t yammering on all the time? Who are these people who’ve appointed themselves the facial expression police? I can be at my desk, deep in thought, maybe trying to figure out a complex formula, and someone walks by and says calls my name, shattering my thoughts. I tear myself away from my calculation and focus on their face, getting ready to respond, then here it comes: “Are you OK?” To me, if I’m not in tears or screaming or otherwise outside the norm of calm office behavior, why would anyone imply that I had the incorrect expression on my face? “Are you OK?” is what you’d say to someone who’s stumbling, weaving, or having a seizure, not to a deep-in-thought coworker who’s intently staring at her screen.

Emily Roberts is an introvert who refuses to be stigmatized and put down. She's out and she's proud, and why shouldn't she be? In a noisy, shallow world that places an absurdly high value on image, instant reaction, gossip, grooming, spin, schmoozing, negotiating and networking, those of us who function by thinking things through and just quietly getting on with it get a shoddy deal.

Thought for the day over - time to put on an appropriate face for the Expression Police:

Winston turned round abruptly. He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen.

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Victory signs?

The activists from the Gaza flotilla are trickling home. According to the BBC:

Some of the activists came off the planes waving flags and victory signs.

Victory? Not for anybody wanting to see an end to the insane cycle of violence, martyrdom and reprisal in the Middle East, it's not. Almost lost in the barrage of predictably unhelpful instant comment about this bloody mess, this perceptive but despairing blog post summed up why it was a disaster for everybody except the hardest of hard-line nutcases on both sides:

I'm now certain that the Israeli government is packed to the hoop with Iranian sleeper agents. Short of handing Syrian intelligence the launch codes to their nuclear arsenal, I really can't think of any way in which the Israeli political class could do their country more harm.

It's been clear for years that the Israeli right is utterly dependent on the looniest fringe of Palestinian society for their power and legitimacy, and that both sets of nutters use violence against the other as a means to cementing their rule. The basic situation over there is that both Hamas and the Israeli government are committed to policies that harm their populations but ensure their own continued rule. It's a godawful, mutual death spiral that's heading in precisely the wrong direction.

Shorter - there really is an urgent and perilous threat to Israel. It's called "the Israeli government".

Read the full thing here (a bit sweary, but it's pretty hard to encompass the enormity of this screw-up in temperate language). It's hard to think of anything that would actually be helpful at this stage although Netanyahu could do the decent thing and resign, along with those responsible for the planning and execution of the boarding (assuming that he's not really an enemy agent dedicated to the destruction of Israel).

That would be small a gesture sanity to the world after a crazy act. Sadly, like Anthony Eden's resignation after the Suez fiasco, it wouldn't come close to undoing the damage already done.

Thagomizer

Life imitates the art of Gary Larson. One of a series of splendidly 'tooned Wikipedia articles by Greg Williams. Via.

The real Dunkirk spirit

The famous Carnival leads annually from January to March, the whole city in a real joy. A whirlwind of happiness, music, popular songs, of camaraderie and horseplay among the most unexpected guises. A gentle madness not to be missed! Good living, be home here! Enjoy regional dishes made with fish or fried mussels become an institution!

So says France-Voyage.com's breathless tourist guide to Dunkerque. The rather magnificent translation presumably owes quite a lot to Google Translate.

Guided tours: guides Dunkerque or at Malo-Les-Bains at sea are guided above all to greedy desire.

I've only just stumbled across this, so haven't checked out any other destinations but, with any luck, the lowdown on the rest of France is written in the same flamboyant style.