tonkin ghosts or mess-o'-potamia

Finally released seven years after the beginning of the investigation and five years after its conclusion, with publication delayed several times, the Chilcot Report (or the Iraq Inquiry) brought back a surge of memories and is confirmation of what many if not most of us suspected:
diplomatic solutions had not been exhausted, Iraq presented little imminent threat beyond its neighbours and the actions of the US and the UK undermined the United Nations’ authority through the unilateral determination, the case for war of their leaders. Legality and thus the ability to indict or exonerate anyone of war crimes was outside of the scope of the investigation, and thirteen years on it is difficult to conceive how a world with or without Hussein might be. The forces that rushed in to occupy that void in power does seem rather like a hydra instead of any improvement, and prosecuting regime-change under once dubious and now patently false fears and scaremongering seems beyond regrettable.  Sadly, this publication will not vindicate the suffering of Iraqis or service members that have been pained by this pretext, and I wonder if the political fall-out will be momentous and haunting enough to ensure that such adventures are not embarked upon again.  The world’s threshold and memory sometimes seems woefully inadequate.

game on or it’s dangerous to go alone – take this

Just as the soundtracks to video games are scored to be memorable and catchy and to motivate on to persevere and hone one’s attention for a specific goal, our arcade friends and familiars (and play in general) is far from a frivolous activity and could in the broad sense teach us resilience and give us a quiver of tools for success.
Recently, I found out about the existence of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) of an unusual sort, a forum called SuperBetter for a technique that a games researcher developed when she resolved to use her academic passion to work through a rough patch her own life. Resolving either to give up or turn her challenge into a sort of Sanity Quest, peopled with level-bosses and power-ups that were allegories of her own daily challenges, and other players, companions that she could surreptitiously recruit for her personal mission. Transforming one’s goals into a game allows one to be more pragmatic while still attached and recognise the potential outcomes of incremental moves and be less discouraged by set-backs. Modifying the programme—just a brilliant way of thinking really and not tethered to any specific venue other than to share success stories and hearten other players, to fit one’s own aims has seen some pretty amazing and enduring changes in behaviour and attitude.

interferometry or duel aperture

This September China’s just completed gargantuan radio telescope will be brought on-line.
Twice as big as the observatory of Mount Arecibo, the Five-Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), I appreciate how the article reprinted the unsourced scalar comparison that if the dish were filled to the brim with wine, it would be enough for five bottles for every man, woman and child on Earth—a rather distracting analogy, though, since all I could think about afterwards was, “Hmm—wine.” Magnitude aside, the telescope will enhance the search for extra-terrestrial life and the study of the strange phenomena of the Cosmos that don’t fall within our visual spectrum.

protocol and perfidy

No wonder Oslo withdrew its candidacy for the 2022 Winter Games, leaving it to Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan to duke it out amongst themselves for the dubious honour of hosting the Olympics, given this rather unappetizing list of demands hurled at them by the steering committee.
Via the always brilliant Boing Boing, we are given a taste—and mind you, this catalogue is not on behalf of the athletes and does not even begin to address larger matters like venues, onerous security and logistics, just the bed and board for the organisers—of what the queen bees had expected, causing Norway to laugh them out of the country:

• The hotel bar at their hotel should extend its hours “extra late” and the minibars must stock Coke products.
• The IOC president shall be welcomed ceremoniously on the runway when he arrives.
• The IOC members should have separate entrances and exits to and from the airport.
• During the opening and closing ceremonies a fully stocked bar shall be available. During competition days, wine and beer will do at the stadium lounge.

two-by-four

The always engaging Everlasting Blört shares a gallery from Popular Mechanics of some of the finest timber structures from around the world—including a couple that only exist as blue-prints so far. We haven’t visited any of these select sites yet (but the Borgund stave church ought to have made the cut, in our humble opinion)—and surely for the modern buildings, we wouldn’t have appreciated that they were made of wood, but I think from now on we’ll be on the lookout. Given the changing tastes for building materials and construction approaches, it’s rather nice that architects are rethinking traditional methods and willing to challenge the assumed limitations of lumber, with a wooden skyscraper slated for London’s skyline to rival the Shard.