Friday night, Saturday morning.

John Rebus owns a Morphine album. No indication as yet whether he likes it. And Mogwai - "I like the lyrics."

Tenebrae wasn't as good last night. I didn't really get enough to talk to the people I went in to see (apart from Tom), and let it bother me more than it usually would. I did meet and get to talk to a few other people, including a commercial Smalltalk programmer (?!). In the end I passed on Tom's offer of his couch and walked back to Kings' Cross, hung around outside the station for a couple of hours and caught the first train back here.

Today I've been reading and sleeping. I didn't even make it to Sheffield, due to lack of enthusiasm from myself and the other people I was going to drive up.

(no subject)

I dreamed I was visiting some academic scientists who worked at an institution attached to a US naval base somewhere tropical, which then got nuked for no readily-apparent reason. I didn't wake for a while after this, but the reason never did become obvious, and neither did I find out whether it was a single blast or a general end-of-world situation. After a while, I realised that people were deliberately not talking about the explosion, its causes or the consequences.

And then I did wake up. I'm trying not to think about why I dreamed this, because if there is a reason, then I'm sure it's not going to make me happy.

In other news . . .

It's windy outside. Proper weather!

There's a willow up by the main road that looks just fantastic, waving as if it's in pain. If I head back up that way while the wind holds I'll take a camera with me.

We're back onto proper time as well. Why is it that we change the clocks round twice a year instead of just agreeing to turn up to work an hour earlier? Makes no sense to me.

Another thing I didn't do was go see some friends in London for a drink yesterday. Saturday was a bit of a washout in social terms. Ho hum.

Chechnya

From today's Observer:

The Society for Russian-Chechen Relations, in collaboration with Human Rights watch, reports that in the span of a month between 15 July and 15 August this year, 59 civilians were shot dead, 64 were abducted, 168 were seriously wounded and 298 were tortured. Many men simply disappeared after being detained by Russian soldiers or security police; others were shot outright. During an operation in Chechen Aul between 21 May and 11 June, 22 men were killed. The majority were aged 20 to 26; two were 15.

Anyone considered a "collaborator" by the guerillas is subject to abduction for ransom or execution. This summer, a radio-controlled mine, presumably intended for a Russian military convoy, exploded at a bus stop in the Chechen capital of Grozny, killing 11 civilians including 2 children.

Meanwhile, the Russian government doesn't seem to have revealed yet what gas was used in the Nord Ost theatre. Medical staff would quite like to know what sort of treatment the survivors need. The people who know don't seem to regard it as a priority.

The thick plottens.

According to this Reuters report,
"a senior medical official" in Moscow has stated that of the 117 hostages who have died during or since the assault on the Nord Ost Theatre yesterday, only one died of gunshot wounds. The rest seem to have died of the effects of the gas used to overpower the gunmen holding the hostages.

There is also speculation from a London-based "security expert" that the gas used, judging by the symptoms displayed by the hostages, may have been BZ, which they describe as a "colourless, odourless incapacitant with hallucinogenic properties". What they don't say is that the stuff has a truly evil reputation and was abandoned by the US in the sixties after tests showed that it was too unpredictable in its effects for military use.

The film "Jacob's Ladder" is based on stories of tests of BZ in Vietnam.

Also, Gore Vidal (that whinging liberal cryptocommunist) has an article in the Observer today, concerning the ongoing debâcle that is Western (specifically US-driven Western) policy towards the Middle East and central Asia. A lot of it is exactly what you'd expect from one of us recidivist self-hating hypocritical pro-evil lunatics, but he did raise a couple of points which I found quite puzzling.

The US, of course, like most western nations, has a relatively complex air defence system which is not at the high alert status that it used to be. Time was we were constantly regaled by stories of Russian heavy bombers testing British air responses by mounting sneak attacks at only several hours' notice, flying round the north of Norway and down past Iceland with only our massive Radar sets to tell us they were coming. Of course, our plucky Phantom pilots were ready and snoozing, waiting to be woken at the correct time to have a cup of tea and pop upstairs to meet them as they arrived without wasting too much fuel and make them go home again. We were assured that this could be done at a couple of minutes notice, day or night, 365 days a year. So the revelation that the US only had four interceptors ready on the day was a bit surprising. After all, there's a permanent no-fly zone over nearly all of DC precisely to prevent attacks, and has been for decades. Andrews Air Force base is supposed to be on permanent readiness for this.

So why did all four of those planes stay on the ground until it was all over? There's been no word that they flew, and Vidal believes that the order to fly came an hour and twenty minutes after the alarm was initially raised. What was going on here? Could it have been incompetence? History is littered with the bodies of military officers executed for lesser fuck-ups, and as far as I know no charges have been brought. Has anyone been carpeted over this? And where is the major enquiry into how the planes reached their targets?

It only seems to be in the print edition, but there's a brief summary here.

Best interpretation : they're cynically covering their backs to avoid having to explain why they ignored the danger signs.

Worst interpretation : No, let's not go there. Never ascribe to malice what can safely be put down to incompetence.