'Nother Solent

James Bartholemew says

"It is revealed in several newspapers today that the London School of Economics has been operating a secret quota system to favour the admission of state-educated students. It has been doing this, no doubt, because of the pressure from the government."

(Telegraph and Guardian accounts confirm what he said.)

Secret quotas? In open, progressive, meritocratic Britain? I thought that sort of thing was what the Old Boy network in Britain used to do to keep out grammar school oiks, or the Ivy League in the US used to do to keep out Jews.

In many ways the most interesting part of this story is that the quotas were secret. ("These notes are for guidance only and should not under any circumstances be discussed with any member of the public, including students, parents and schools.") When those who want to assign university places by class in the manner of Mao's China feel confident enough to be open about it, then we should fear.

And the particular segment of "we" that should fear the most is those who are being educated, or whose children are being educated, in poorly performing state schools. Reform is a painful process at the best of times. Why reform when there is an actual incentive to have bad results?

UPDATE: Since writing the part of the post above that implied the secrecy was reassuring, a counter-argument has belatedly occurred to me. The secret nature of the quotas allows the degree to which bad state schools are bad to be hidden for longer.

"Teenagers who killed friend with scythes get life," says the Guardian in a headline about a horrifying recent case. Other outlets have used similar words.

Friend?

Find some other way to convey that this was not a case of murder by strangers.

UPDATE: I'm not the only one to notice. I must have missed this when it came out, just as the case was going to trial.

"You are surprised by..."

... the fact, discovered via Ace of Spades, that the Israeli Army discriminates against D & D players. Apparently the army shrinks think that D & D players should be given low security clearance as they are "detached from reality and susceptible to influence." Ace responds vigorously to this slur:

And as far as "susceptible to influence" -- well, that's why I wear a Talisman of Free Will. Duh.

All the comments say the "detached from reality" video clip is hilarious. Pity I couldn't make it work.

(Via Silflay hraka.)

Reality TV.

The Times reports on the Iraqi TV show that consists of confessions from insurgents.

I figure it must be effective:

Insurgents have begun a propaganda counter-offensive, denouncing the tapes as fakes and threatening to impose “God’s justice” on the station’s employees — a threat apparently made real with the killing of Raeda Wazan, an anchor- woman, last month.

Another journalist working for the station, Abdul Hussein al-Basri, was murdered in February, together with his young son. Some accounts put the child's age at three, others say he was six.

Journalists are indeed being deliberately targeted in Iraq.

Oddities of human behaviour.

In Spain, one year after the Madrid bombs, there is a memorial to the slain that consists of

metal keyboards on which you can type a message of commemoration or solidarity, linked to a scanned image of your hand. Between the two memory machines hang large white cylinders on which people can write whatever they like. "Never again", features several times. "Aznar, Bush and Blair are the assassins."

Actually it was some other people.

Distributed stupidity.

My kids could use the TV remote at two and a half.

Did I sit next to them while they watched of a morning, explaining all the disturbing bits in Thomas The Tank Engine? Nah. This is real life. I had romper suits to wash, sheets to change and all the other exciting details of housewifery. I popped in and out, as you do. Let'em choose themselves between Bear in the Big Blue House and Thomas. There's even more choice nowadays. Tweenies, Razzledazzle, or a man sticking a needle into his groin.