"Without firing a shot..."

This footage underscores pretty well just how foolish John Reid was when he described the prospect of Britain's deployment in Helmand. That we could come out of that place without a battle is not just unlikely, believing such an obvious fairy tale demonstrates a wilful ignorance. Not believing it, but asserting it anyway, demonstrates a much more serious problem.

The footage comes from At War, an upcoming documentary about the war in Afghanistan. Proper coverage of the fight for Afghanistan's future is slowly trickling out now, but it is long overdue.

Champion Script

I've become rather taken with The Ministry of Type of late and it has introduced me to an incredibly impressive font called Champion Script Pro. Now, I know next to nothing about fonts, but I do know that having 4280 glyphs in each weight, covering Latin, Greek and Cyrillic, this one is exceptionally elaborate. Over at their blog you can also read a making of which makes pretty fascinating reading. P.S. I nicked these cool examples of the font from the Ministry of Type too, so double hat tip.

Battlestar Recap

Before Season 4 starts on April 4th it's time for a quick - and quite witty - recap on the Galactica's journey to Earth so far.

Best line: "But then Helo tells Starbuck there's a bun in the toaster..." (h/t Slate).

Kanye Hands

Impressive handiwork. Chortle. (h/t Kanye West.)

Joe Building

Jonathan Meades has just finished his latest series, Magnetic North; once again, relegated to digital, this will not have reached anywhere near the audience it deserves (even on the excellent BBC Four). The programme asked why we are so drawn to the South and toured the cities of the Hanseatic League in order to find a definitive North, but it was in Meades' handling of the dual Totalitarianisms of Nazism and Stalinism that the documentary excelled. Meades is blunt about the similarities between the two and his contempt for 'Ostalgia' and similar romanticisation of the abhorrent Soviet regime. He has tackled Stalin - and his unique aesthetic sensibilities - before, and you can watch that programme, Joe Building, below: