http://www.johnband.org/blog The idle musings of John B Thu, 29 Dec 2011 23:36:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Governments in both England and Scotland are planning minimum-pricing regimes for alcohol. These are a terrible idea, not only if you're a liberal, but even on their own terms. There are three main issues associated with minimum pricing, all of which are conflated by minimum price proponents (this article is ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/12/30/why-minimum-alcohol-pricing-is-a-terrible-idea/ Via Tim, I find a very cool article on the Aussies who worked in Melbourne under Bletchley Park's command, breaking the Pacific Axis's codes during WWII [*]. Very cool, and - unlike the (shamefully underfunded, GIVE THEM MONEY) museum at Bletchley, not even remembered at all. Should be. This obviously gets ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/12/30/this-little-thing-oh-it-doesnt-matter-here-you-go/ So, you're a lifelong civil servant. You're quite competent, and you're amazingly good at tolerating people who aren't, especially your political 'masters'. You've spent over 30 years in the service, and you've risen to be in charge of collecting tax and that. You're well aware that a lot of companies are ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/12/11/being-for-the-retirement-of-mr-hartnett/ Shannon, who is aces, just came up with the best mashup concept ever. Civ + sex devices + Lulu + Lady Popular = "No, fuck YOU. This bling does look fabulous against my fur, because I am the queen of the Zulus, and you're still fucking an analog blow-up doll." http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/10/27/because-i-am-the-queen-of-the-zulus/ While we're still on UK-nomenclature, this article (written by an American for a British-based international magazine) has one of the oddest phrasings I've seen in a while: The An-124 will likely be a rare sight in Kinston as Spirit plans to typically deliver its fuselage panels by boat to France, while ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/10/22/deeply-odd-uk-usage/ Just because people seem confused on all this (for some reason). Before 1535, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland were legally separate countries. Following the English conquest of Ireland in the 12th century and of Wales in the 13th, England, Ireland and Wales had a single ruler, who was styled King of ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/10/17/its-another-exciting-british-constitutional-history-post-hurrah/ My bankster buddy Dan has an excellent post on Crooked Timber about how the venal British middle class are basically blaming the disaster they created, caused and voted for, on the small subset of the venal British middle class who are actually bankers - rather than on their own stupid ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/09/24/this-this-all-of-this-all-of-the-time/ I wrote this piece about British national terms after my Cross-Cultural Communication lecturer asked me about the differences between different UK-ish groups. Anyone/everyone disagree? The most important bit, and by far the most offensive to get wrong, is recognising that the non-English nations within the UK can never be called ‘England’. ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/08/26/poms-paddies-jocks-sheepshaggers/ My riot policing piece yesterday attracted 600 unique visitors in 24 hours. That isn't exactly Perez Hilton, but is about six times my current normal run rate (I think the biggest this blog has ever been is about 1000 daily visitors, for some of the global financial crisis articles). The fact ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/08/12/blogging-is-dead-and-no-one-cares/ I'm not going to do a hand-wringing riots piece. We've seen a million of them, whether from a cartoonish 'make them less poor' point of view, an authoritarian 'hell in a handbasket, we're doomed' point of view, or a bigoted 'rivers of blood' point of view. It's dull. However, following on ... http://www.johnband.org/blog/2011/08/11/riot-strategy-or-why-calls-for-tougher-cops-are-missing-the-point/