3 Comments
Hands-on
Books have spines; the New Zealand Film and Literature Board of Review, not so much. The group has caved to pressure from Christian advocacy groups and instituted a temporary national ban on the sale of Ted Dawe’s bildungsroman Into the River for its profane language, sexual content, and depictions of drug and alcohol use. The book had not previously garnered much attention outside of New Zealand, but this act of censorship—the board’s first in 20 years—seems set to join countless other cases of the Streisand effect. (VICE News)
“Long spines?” has twelve characters; so does “lonely cabin”. The connections between the two may end there, but you won’t know for sure until you ponder them in the Alaskan wilderness. Or perhaps that’s an awful idea. (The Atlantic)
The human spine consists of 33 vertabrae. It’ll probably take you about 33 seconds to skim the important bits out of this article about a drone strike ordered by UK PM David Cameron against a pair of British citizens in Pakistan. You can spend the time you saved by not fully reading the article basking in your moral superiority over a head of state. (The Economist)
Follow the spine far enough upwards and you’ll find yourself at the head. If you’re lucky, it won’t be your boring, bony head but a 3.5-tonne granite sculpture of the head of Vladimir Lenin! (BBC News)
Ostensible content via Shutterstock.
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3 Comments
@hmmm Regarding the article about David Cameron, I simply don’t understand what is the big deal about bombs landing on enemy operatives who happen to be citizens of your country. Soldiers don’t check for passports in foxholes– they fire at the enemy. What a ridiculous controversy. The real issue of importance is the fact that people who were given or born with British citizenship, along with all of the attendant privileges, decided to make common cause with some of the worst people on earth. The fact that they were killed is the only solace.
@Anonymous Not that I’m disagreeing with the use of drone strikes against militants, but the executive approval of a drone strike against a citizen sort of completely bypasses due process and whatnot. So it’s kind of a big deal.
@hmmm I really don’t think it should be regarded as a big de at all. It is a killing of enemy operatives on the battlefield. Were it in Britain, within reach of courts, and were the combatants accessible to apprehension, it would be a different matter of course– but then again their citizenship would be irrelevant. Soldiers are targetted on the battlefield nit because of their passports, but because of the uniforms they wear.