Pen Fetish Friday

Pen Fetish Friday submissions can only be mass-produced pens, preferably available in office supply stores at the very least. Preferred pens and mechanical pencils in the Comments, thank you.

The Sharpie(R) Retractable Ultra Fine Permanent Marker is currently the weapon of choice. Was at first annoyed when Filthy Assistant (yay, I have a Filthy Assistant!) picked up a box of the wrong kind of Sharpies, and know I carry fistfuls. Clean, thin line but Sharpie-black -- perfect clarity, jumps off the page.

Alternate fancy-pants everyday pen -- the Waterman Harmonie fountain pen. Once you go fountain pen, you never go back.

More COIN

Abu Muqawama, found a while ago through Ackerman, and should have been sidebarred. I'm actually using this stuff for the Doomed Pulp Novel, but there is the pleasant side-effect of , y'know, learning useful stuff along the way.

Open-Source Insurgency Blues

No one could have predicted:

One of southern Iraq's two main oil export pipelines was also severely damaged in a bomb attack, officials said today.

The bombing of the pipeline, seven miles south of Basra, immediately caused oil prices to rise by more than a dollar, though officials gave varying accounts of how supply would be affected.

"This morning, saboteurs blew up the pipeline transporting crude from [the] Zubair 1 [oil plant] by placing bombs beneath it," an oil company official said.

"Crude exports will be greatly affected because this is one of two main pipelines transporting crude to the southern terminals. We will lose about a third of crude exported through Basra."

The official said it would take three days to repair the damage if security could be provided for workers.

But officials in Baghdad were optimistic that the damage could be contained and production returned to normal within a day.

Iraq exported 1.54m barrels of crude per day from Basra in February.

I mean, what a total wildcard development. Oh, wait --

... Disrupt the oil system. This hasn't occurred yet, but it is very likely to occur shortly. The Mahdi army has the ability to shut down, indefinitely, all oil production (a million barrels a day) in southern Iraq. This effort will cost the government tens of millions in revenues for each day of the conflict. It may prove be the most effective means of prematurely terminating Maliki's offensive.

Man, those crazy dirty hippy bloggers, eh?

Go over to John Robb's joint. I also appreciate that he recently posted a precis of his open-source insurgency work, which was sadly lacking in his excellent book.

For those who are fuzzy on the difference between the Da'wa (the Iranian-backed Shiite group we like), your ISCI (the Iranian-backed Shiite group we don't much like but need) and your Sadrists (the Shiite group we don't like), one can always stroll over to Juan Cole.

Also highly recommended, the really old-school boots-on-the-ground investigative journalism of Spencer Ackerman over at the Washington Independent. Spencer does insane things like actually go to Iraq, call military guys to confirm the bullshit levels on government press releases, and generally learns Iraqi acronyms so you don't have to. I enjoy reading him because he lays out his analytical process pretty clearly, and it's a pleasure to watch high-speed gears whirl. Also a dab hand with the EEBE.

Regenerating Severed Limbs

So using a powder manufactured from pig bladders this fella allegedly regenerated his severed fingertip, nail and all. I can never help but ask: who was the first person who thought this was a good idea?

"AGH! MY FINGER!"
"Quick, put the pig bladder powder on it."
"... why do you have pig bladder powder?"
"Nevermind."

Imagine if back the 80s, if they'd cut cocaine with this stuff ...

To paraphrase Warren -- you already live in the future. Catch up.

(h/t BoingBoing)

Message from Management II

UPDATE: There seems to be some confusion as to the nature of the average White Person's "assigned duties" mentioned in yesterday's memo. These include but are not limited to:

-- Paying $3 trillion dollars for a war started by rich old white people.
-- Sending your kids off to fight in a war being run very poorly by rich old white people.
-- Allowing many of those kids to die thanks to crappy equipment provided by companies owned by rich old white people.
-- Watching media controlled exclusively by a small number of rich old white people.
-- Consuming tainted medicine or bad meat because government regulatory agencies have been gutted by rich old white people.
-- Getting boned on your pension by investment firms run by rich old white people.
-- Watching your house lose value because of financial screw-ups by rich old white people.
-- Losing said house because your kid's cancer treatments aren't covered by insurance companies run by rich old white people.
-- Losing your job because your company's been moved to Belize by rich old white people.
-- Watching government records being blatantly destroyed by rich old white people.

-- Cheering while the Constitution is used to wipe the ass of several rich old white people.

-- etc.

Rest assured, Management has its priorities in place.   We will remain vigilant against the words and actions of radical old black preachers in neighborhood churches.

Sincerely,

Management

A Message from Management

Attention, Fellow White People:

There seems to be some cultural panic initiated by the recent Rev. Wright controversy. One e-mail sent to us recently asked :"I don't understand! We let between two to three hundred black people become incredibly rich in professional sports and pop music! Why are some of them still so angry?!"

We sympathize with your confusion, but wish to clarify --

If Senator Obama becomes President, we will still run everything.

Everything.

Please remain calm and return to your assigned duties. Thank you.