Deja viewed

Deja-vu

"Two tenses grappling with one instant, one perception:
forgotten as it happens, recalled before it has begun."

Cardiff based Patrick McGuiness' new volume of poems begins with this striking description of common phenomenon that we have all had.

The slim  volume arrived the same day as news that  scientists have simulated the out-of-body delusion experienced by many people in moments of anguish. Computer scientists in the US are developing a system which would allow people to "teleport" a solid 3D recreation of themselves over the internet.

Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that, within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic "atoms".

The impossible may be experienced in futures as a fantasy so convincing that it may be indistinguishable from reality.

The Argus asked me what super human trait I would like. Spending so much dashing from Newport to London to Strasbourg and back, the ability to teleport myself would be the most useful.

Fascinating, isn't it?

2500 dead?

Kim Howells has pontificated on the future on the Afghan Disaster. He says the campaign can continue for 'decades.'  One 'expert ' had suggested that  it could go one for 38 years.

How does Kim see it?

Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells, visiting the Afghan capital of Kabul, suggested some of the other NATO countries with military deployment in Afghanistan ought to be "pulling their weight". "The countries of NATO have caused this mess by refusing to commit the resources necessary to get the job done. Afghanistan would be a democracy by now if they weren't such a bunch of wimps."  Wimps OK, but they have have not thrown away the lives of 73 of their own soldiers  in vain.

In 2005, Military leaders celebrated the start of the fifth year of coalition forces serving in Afghanistan. The party was held in the Afghan capital Kabul and was attended by Foreign Office Minister, Kim Howells. After the event, the Minister congratulated British forces on a "cracking party" and said he was very much looking forward to the 10 year celebration.  How many deaths will there be by then?

Since June 2006, there have been  66 deaths in Helmand. There were 7 only in the five previous years - mostly accidents. The  blood price  for 38 years could be 2,500 British deaths. The Russians lost 15,000 soldiers chasing their delusion that Afghanistan can be conquered by military force.

In the Foreign Office deliberations do they discuss whether 2,500 deaths is a reasonable price to pay for a mission impossible?