Abandon all hope, ye who enter here...

Yesterday's finest story: 'Stoned wallabies make crop circles' (BBC, Guardian, Times). Read the BBC article, then read the comments. They're hilarious. Excellent. Amazing. Hysterical. Enjoy.

Secondary to that story is the death of Michael Jackson. Rather than lament the death of a deeply disturbed individual who should have been locked away for the safety of both himself and others a long time ago, I'm going to stay consistent with my disdain and contempt for Michael Jackson and post a couple of links. The first is one of the best episodes of South Park ever made, The Jeffersons. Mark Day also has a hilarious "apology" for a couple of videos he'd made earlier Thursday lampooning Jackson's death. Let's face it, folks, the world has lost a moderately talented, highly controversial, exceptionally bizarre human being - and I use the term loosely - who, let's be honest, made it longer than anyone should have expected. The money quote comes from one of Mark Day's commenters:

Everybody seems to be forgetting the real problem. How to properly get rid of the Michael Jackson remains without creating an ecological disaster.

It is said that some pieces of MJ, if left untreated, can remain intact in the ground for billions of years without decomposing, leaving them a real threat to little woodland creatures who could choke to death on them.

Always dispose of you dead bionic/cyborg/plastic pop icons by putting them in the biohazard popstar bin every odd wednesday.

Yup. Okay, now for the news, then one other item, and then the Stuff Fly Wants list.

General:

Danger Room: Why was Pakistan Drone Strike so Deadly? - A very interesting article, and better than most of the swill that Danger Room churns out. If you follow the Taliban war in Pakistan, it's worth reading.

BBC: Guns still at the ready in Nagorno-Karabakh

BBC audio slideshow: Medals of Dishonour

BBC: [Mauritanian] al Qaeda 'killed' US man

Times: Space image shows first stage of volcano eruption

Times: Saakashvili: Russia invaded for resources; Georgia fears second Russian invasion

Michael Totten's guest columnist: We will take that as a compliment - A pretty funny blurb about the London mayor reacting to Iranian claims of British spies instigating protests.

Afghanistan:

Guardian: Capturing Osama bin Laden

Guardian: Battle of Babaji: A fight for hearts and minds in Afghanistan, but none are to be found

BBC: 'Shift needed' in Afghan combat

BBC: Helmand 'not a losing campaign'

BBC: New Allies: Making friends with the Taliban

AFP: Taliban could move from Afghanistan: NATO chief

AFP: Even at home, Afghanistan is close for Green Berets

So, one of the things that I've started to listen to during the day is the Book of Mormon on MP3 - not because I'm planning on converting, but because I've been studying Mormonism for years, and I've never actually read/"read" the book all the way through. I was in the process of reading it with a Mormon friend in 2004 before I went to England, and when I got back she wasn't in a position to resume our studies, so I've never gone back to it despite intending to. There are a lot of interesting things on the Internet about Mormonism, from a wide spectrum of viewpoints. One that I was previously unaware of was a brief commentary by Mark Twain about the Book of Mormon, which is somewhat reminiscent of an essay of Twain's titled Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses. I used the latter in my eleventh grade English class when writing a paper about one of Fenimore Cooper's works. Anyway, if you've read the story about the wallaby crop circles, and you still need a chuckle to get you through, check out either of those links. To be honest, Father Time writes a lot like Mark Twain did in those particular essays. And Father Time will hate this...

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British Desert DPM ~~trousers~~ and shirt

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Sand Crye Precision Field Pants AC - $115.00

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