Quotulatiousness

September 25, 2014

Roll of Honour at the Tower of London, 24 September, 2014

Filed under: Britain, History, Personal, WW1 — Nicholas @ 08:57

Roll of Honour at the Tower of London

Roll of Honour 24 September 2014

Private William Penman who died in 1915 at Le Touret (25 years old) was Elizabeth’s great uncle. Private Walter Porteous who died in 1917 at Passchendaele (18 years old) was my great uncle.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for submitting a name for the Roll of Honour at the Tower of London. We are delighted to confirm that your nomination will be included at the ceremony on the 24th of September.

The list of 180 names will be read from the poppy-filled Tower moat at sunset, starting at 7:25pm (19.25). The names will be read the order in which they were submitted and validated.

We regret we are unable to make changes to the reading lists.

At the end of the reading, which will take about 20-30 minutes, an Army bugler will play the Last Post.

If you would like to watch, you can get a good view from the area in front of the Tower ticket desks on Tower Hill.

We will be filming the ceremony and posting the video online. This site is currently under construction, we will let you know when it goes live.

We are also adding the lists of names being read each night at http://rollofhonour.tumblr.com/ so that they can be seen and remembered from anywhere in the world.

Vikings place two starters on injured reserve list

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 00:02

This season is starting to feel cursed, as news came out on Wednesday that Matt Cassel and Brandon Fusco are both being placed on season-ending injured reserve. Cassel isn’t a surprise, given the initial reports on his foot injury, but Fusco also being lost for the year is a very unpleasant surprise. Fusco has been one of the pillars of strength on the offensive line, and his replacement on Sunday was beaten badly on the first two plays he was in on. And it’s not just Viking fans who think he was becoming a great offensive guard:

Christian Ponder moves up the depth chart to be the backup quarterback behind Teddy Bridgewater. Vlad Ducasse may or may not replace Fusco, but the other choices are not great either: backup center Joe Berger can do the job at least in spot duty, rookie left guard David Yankey is still learning and may not be ready yet. Austin Wentworth has been activated from the practice squad, but I’m assuming he’s just there for depth at this point.

With Kyle Rudolph undergoing surgery this week, the depth at tight end was down to Rhett Ellison and recent free agent signing MarQueis Gray, so Chase Ford was signed from the practice squad. Ford is a good player and only ended up on the PS due to needs in other areas.

As far as I can tell, the team has placed seven players on the IR list (one of whom took an injury settlement and left the team), plus Kyle Rudolph who may need to go on IR for his recovery period. And that’s on top of losing the best running back in the NFL for some undetermined period that might well be permanent. And it’s only week four of the NFL season.

QotD: Why useless university degrees are created

Filed under: Bureaucracy, Education, Government, Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:01

The typical understanding of a useless degree is of a credential whose market value is close to zero. In that sense this isn’t quite economically useless. There is a market for people wielding this pseudo-intellectual nonsense. It’s not a real market admittedly but it’s a market nonetheless. There is, however, only a single market maker: The Government.

The job prospects go beyond employment directly by the state, they extend into the quasi-government sector, what is sometimes politely referred to as the wider public service. There is a whole eco-system of NGOs, quasi-governmental organizations and ad hoc committees that thrive upon the government teat. Since their work has no objective value, and the criteria for employment is vague at the best of times, hiring managers fall back upon a tried and true screening methodology: A piece of paper issued by a government backed institution.

So for those of you following along at home: A government financed body creates make work. In order to handle that made-up work new workers are hired. Those workers have certificates in make work from government financed educational bodies. This is the great circle of statist BS that spins around our the modern world without beginning or end. There is precious little justice in that.

Richard Anderson, “The Justice Makers”, Gods of the Copybook Headings, 2014-09-19.

Powered by WordPress