Adam Tinworth points out this and this regarding the Kelly case. The latter is in particular full of pertinent details. Also, the Hutton Inquiry has a web site. It includes full transcripts of the entire hearing to date. This sort of transparency impresses me. Between Adam and Lord Hutton, one suspects one might get all the necessary coverage and pointers.
WISH 58 (original) asks about metaplots: What do you think of metaplots (plots developed in the rules and supplements published by the game company)? Are they good, bad, or indifferent? Have you played in a game with a metaplot? What was your experience? I don’t really like ‘em. They don’t stop me from buying a game, but I don’t have a whole lot of interest in them when you get right down to it, so space used on a metaplot is space I’d like to see used elsewhere. ...
Pictures of last night’s flash mob are here (original) (mmm, lots of cops), here (original) (mmm, lots of media), and here. I forgot to mention that the Coop had a bunch of copies of Smart Mobs (original) piled up at one of the registers. Lucky guess on someone’s part.
The Boston Globe reports that we may put out a kill order on Saddam rather than attempt to capture him. The reports come from the infamous anonymous officials, of course. This is pretty much a conspiracy theorist’s wet dream, but interesting nonetheless. Just bear in mind it could be bad reporting, it could be Bush floating a trial balloon, it could be the CIA honing their knives in the backs of Bush, or it could be absolutely true.
Tonight was the first Boston flash mob (original). (The mailing list isn’t hard to find, but I think I won’t link to it; email me if you want to know.) It went OK. I showed up and got instructions around 6:50, and hit the designated spot at the designated time. People were kind of quiet, as per instructions, but not really. Then someone hushed the crowd, and the crowd obeyed. Cool. ...
The Red Sox picked up a pitcher at the trade deadline, to nobody’s surprise. But it’s a really interesting trade — I’m coming to the conclusion that Theo Epstein has some kind of a mind control ray. Follow this one with me: A couple of weeks ago, the Red Sox traded Brandon Lyon and Anastacio Martinez to the Pirates for Scott Sauerbeck and Mike Gonzalez. Sauerbeck and Lyon were the meat of the trade. Sauerbeck is a very good lefthanded reliever, and Lyon is a young guy with promise but a tendency to be wild. Good trade for the Sox. ...
This time, it’s stuff I did at Gen Con. Showed up Thursday afternoon. It’s really nice to have Gen Con within a reasonable distance from where I live; much better than when I lived in California. Not losing two days to travel greatly increases the chances that I’ll go back next year. The cab from the airport to the hotel was quick, checkin was easy, etc. I hit the dealer’s room first. Assume that filled in a lot of the excess time throughout the con, and you’ll be right. Much hellos, hiyas, good to meet you face to face, and so on. The dealer’s room was enormous, but poorly laid out. Upper Deck had a huge chunk of the room, in which they erected some kind of a mini-mountain. Absolutely nobody visited it and they cut off a third of the room, dramatically reducing traffic in that neck of the woods. Ooops. ...
Various and sundry commentators have been making alarmed noises about the new DARPA-organized political stock market. There are a few rational objections. Someone over at CalPundit noted that the system may be very gamable by people who want to conceal the possibility of their own terrorist activity. Kevin Drum notes that there’s the possibility of pissing off allies who would prefer that we not enable a market for futures based on negative events occurring in their country. ...
Adam Tinworth brought me up to date on the David Kelly story, and rather than just rephrase his words I thought I’d simply quote his comment: You might want to note that Dr Kelly has turned out to be much more senior (original) than the Government tried to make out. You might also want to note that one of journalists Kelly spoke with has a tape of the conversation. The story moves on, and it’s swinging back in the BBC’s favour. ...
The BBC is having a Jayson Blair moment of sorts. It’s an interesting, complex story, which may wind up getting Tony Blair out of the tight spot he’s in. On May 29th, Andrew Gilligan said that a British official told him that the government spiced up a dossier which made the case for war. He did not name the official, because he wanted to keep his sources confidential. That’s reasonable journalism. On June 19th, Gilligan told the Foreign Affairs select committee that his source was one of the senior officials who assembled the dossier. The British government promptly accused Gilligan of lying. The BBC Board of Governors backed Gilligan up. ...