We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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noun. A meme is considered to be a discrete idea that replicates itself, with the connotation that memes replicate themselves and are propagated by people through social and technological networks, much like both real and computer viruses.
(Coined by Richard Dawkins)
Usage: “The sarcastic meme of ‘Our friends, the Saudis’ continues to spread across the Intenet”
Note: Although not strictly speaking a ‘blog specific’ term, meme is very widely used in the Blogosphere (qv).
Also see: Meme hack, Meme war
A few honest men are better than numbers
– Oliver Cromwell
Regarding Dale Amon’s problem of uranium smuggling, he’s right, if the US can’t keep “wetbacks” out, and the UK can’t stop IRA terrorists from crossing from the Irish Republic, what chance for any country with a long, contested land border?
However, does anyone know anything EASIER to track remotely than radioactive isotopes?
If I were a terrorist I would order a truckload of ammonia and another of iodine, and a suitcase of coffee filters. A pistol to detonate the dynamite paste is probably the hardest item to locate in the UK (steal one from a police officer is probably the safest and most inconspicuous method).
In guerrilla warfare the optimum weapon is one that doesn’t break down, and is cheap. This is why the British Army’s SA80 rifle is a good weapon: no one has ever stolen one for terrorist use (because they are expensive and break if you look at them sideways  ). Until someone makes a mass-produced, miniature nuke which is less prone to malfunctions than Microsoft software, I’m not going to worry overmuch about the threat of nuclear terrorist attack.
Just a thought for the paranoia squad: how do you know there haven’t been a dozen dud nukes set off around the world last week in underground car parks? The triggers were just dodgy…
This is my favourite explanation for the non-appearance of Bin Laden: he’s waiting for the b***** things to go off 
In discussing the options that are before the Israelis I wish to make it clear that I do not, personally, wish to see any of them unfold. I am merely resigned to the fact that one of them will unfold. This is analysis not advocacy and I have to make this point crystal clear because there are seemingly no end of people who are unable to distinguish those two things.
Now if I had my way, I would like to see some sort of negotiated political settlement that would bring a sort-of peace, or, at least, some measurable abatement in the level of violence. However, such an outcome would require not just an ideal world but a whole other world because it is not going to happen in this one. In this world, negotiations, conventions, conferences and processes are nought but an exercise in futility. You don’t just have to take my word for that, you can refer to Article 13 of the Hamas Covenant:
“Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…
Now and then the call goes out for the convening of an international conference to look for ways of solving the (Palestinian) question. Some accept, others reject the idea, for this or other reason, with one stipulation or more for consent to convening the conference and participating in it. Knowing the parties constituting the conference, their past and present attitudes towards Moslem problems, the Islamic Resistance Movement does not consider these conferences capable of realising the demands, restoring the rights or doing justice to the oppressed. These conferences are only ways of setting the infidels in the land of the Moslems as arbitraters.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one. Still, if you were to ask the Palestinians they would probably argue that it was nothing more than an affirmation of an extant reality. As far as they are concerned, it’s Jihad or it’s nothing.
→ Continue reading: Israel .vs. Palestine (Part II)
Following on from Perry’s reference to the event on Saturday, and prompted by Brian Micklethwait, I have decided to commit my presentation to the Libertarian Alliance meeting to the Samizdata.
It isn’t all arm-twisting. This is not just an important issue, unarguably one of the ‘hottest’ of all topics, it is one that has potentially global implications and I do think it fitting to examine it in depth.
This is not merely a recantation of the events that are plastered bloodily across our TV screens and newspapers every day for every bomb that explodes and every bullet that flies makes headline news and anyone reading this post is already likely to be conversant with the actual events.
This is more a strategic assessment and overview.
The conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians (or more accurately, this round of the conflict) can be traced back to the Oslo Accords of the mid 90’s and the subsequent rounds of complex negotiations, culminating at Camp David in July 2000 when the Ehud Barak offer of Palestinian sovereignty over 95% of the West Bank, was rejected. Very shortly afterwards the Second (or Al-Aqsa) Intifada began.
Despite the welter of accusation and counter-accusation flying back and forth at the time, the real reason for the breakdown was the Israeli refusal to countenance the Palestinian demand for ‘Right of Return’ i.e. a right for all and any Palestinians to return and reside in Israel proper. It is a proposal that the Israelis cannot, under any circumstances, accept and one that the Palestinians will not, in any circumstances, withdraw.
→ Continue reading: Israel .vs. Palestine (Part I)
If the UN adopts the kind of resolution authorizing force to enforce the kind of inspections that they should have a resolution adopted for, then I believe this resolution should say: In the event the UN adopts a resolution authorizing member states to use force to enforce the inspections, I believe this resolution should say that under those circumstances we should authorize force to enforce that UN resolution.
Carl Levin, chairman of the USA’s Senate Armed Services Committee, summing up the current Democrat position on attacking Iraq, reproduced by Mark Steyn in his Chicago Sun-Times column yesterday
While doing some research on my previous news item, I ran across this fascinating article on the WWII German nuclear weapons program.
Much of it was shrouded in mystery and misrepresentation prior to the declassification of the “Farm Hall Reports” discussed in the aforementioned link. Werner Heisenberg was caught out by statements he made in a bugged room when first told of the American bombs. It is quite apparent he was indeed committed to building a German nuclear weapon and might have if not for an egregious theoretical error.
Sometimes the gods do smile on us.
I’m sure most of you have read or heard by now about the “15 kilos” of Uranium seized by Turkish authorities. It’s turned out to be only 100 grams. I delayed writing about this due to my skepticism about the quantity. A quantity of enriched Uranium (ie high in U235) that “close” to critical mass in that small a container would be, shall we say, a bit on the warm side? …in both senses! There are ways around this if it is all pelletized (as from power plant fuel rods) and packed in neutron absorbing materials. Those, along with the lead shielding, would drive the weight up. The taxi would have been down on it’s axles!
So there were only 100g of possibly enriched Uranium and it was caught. That’s the good news. But there is a dark lining to this “silver cloud”. According to Ha’aratz:
Smugglers use Turkey’s porous eastern border to import drugs, and hundreds of thousands of migrants each year illegally cross the rugged frontier on their way to more affluent European Union nations.
Police in Istanbul seized more than one kg of weapons-grade uranium last November that had been smuggled into Turkey from an east European state. The smugglers were detained after attempting to sell the material to undercover police officers.
Note what Ha’aretz leaves you to infer for yourself. We all know how successful attempts to stop drug smuggling have been. About all you can do with drug seizure data is infer an order of magnitude more was not caught. Given the value of fissionable material and the actual quantities seized in Turkey alone in the last year…
Folks, we have a problem.
Armadillo Aerospace has finally let one of it’s team fly on their testbed. Although the flight was a tethered one of short duration and trivial height, it encompassed all the dangerous bits of engine startup, liftoff, hover, setdown and engine shutdown. Major kudos are due to John Carmack and his team! You can read more and find the video here.
In John’s own words:
We finally let someone ride on one of our landers. Only a few seconds in the air, but still pretty damn cool!
If the name John Carmack sounds familiar… it’s probably because it is. He is a founder of Id Software and the author of all those classic state-of-the-art pushing games from Castle Wolfenstein through Quake Arena and beyond.
For some years now, sister Daphne and brother-in-law Denis, with whom I had a most happy stay last weekend, have been telling me interesting things about dogs. I promised to do a posting about this earlier, and here it is. (“Education” is an odd way to categorise it, but this was the best I could find.)
D&D have two dogs themselves, but more to the point they’ve also been reading a particularly interesting book about dogs, The Dog Listener by Jan Fennell. Denis did a very positive customer review of this book for Amazon. However, these customer reviews apparently come and go, and Denis’ one, which was there a week ago, seems now to have gone. Luckily I had already copied and pasted some of what he had said:
Her suggestions are so simple that, as a dog owner for many years, I thought they could not possibly work. I was so wrong that I was amazed. Within days my two labradors were so much more relaxed and better behaved that I experienced a fresh delight in keeping dogs. … Over the years I have read many books on dog training and this is the best.
Jan Fennell’s wisdom is based on the observation of dogs and dog packs in the wild, including wolf packs, dogs being the domesticated descendants of wolves. In this respect Fennell’s work resembles that of Monty Roberts, the famous “man who listens to horses” alluded to in the title of Fennell’s own book, and the writer of the forward for it.
I read through The Dog Listener while staying with Daphne and Denis, and I can’t say that I grasped all of its subtleties. But a few core notions I do now understand. → Continue reading: Dogs and dog people – is Jan Fennell the new alpha-dog-expert?
Stacy Tabb worked on the samizdata.net web site and then threatened us with carnivorous plants until we agreed to pay her
Delectable! Her derriere is the very apogee of nadirs
– Overheard recently by Samizdata Illuminatus
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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