[surprise] most read posts on the site

Offhand, what are your most visited posts? There are three older posts viewed more than any others on this site and I have to say they’re a mighty surprise:

1] Barry Humphries and Norman Gunston;
2] Dr. Crippen Part 1 and Part 2;
3] The art of French dressing.

I see this from the ‘entry page ranking’ which doesn't tell us a lot, as our homepage is the most viewed and yet it's indicative. As I do various themes, some idea which ones are read and which are duds helps planning.

What about you?

[connex] now it’s faulty brakes and cancellations

Remember Connex and the wonderful times UK commuters had with them? And how they went downunder to wreak their particular type of vengeance? It’s now even worse:

Connex has endured a horror month of cancellations, forcing even more passengers into already overcrowded carriages. Under mounting pressure to allay public safety fears over the faulty brakes crisis, Connex chairman Bob Annells will meet transport regulators this morning before deciding whether to withdraw the entire fleet..

This precipitated an Age poll:

Should the State Government dump Connex?
Yes - 86%
No - 14%
Total Votes: 6243

Wonderful company. Wonderful.

[peerages] let he who is without sin cast the first stone

When I want a peerage, I shall buy it like an honest man. [Lord Northcliffe, 1974]

Perhaps I’m thick. Perhaps I don’t understand politics. I can’t see, for the life of me, what Blair has done so wrong that every PM before him hasn’t done. Far be it for this blog to defend Tony Blair but what’s with this arrest and charging business? As United Press said:

The entire affair turns on accusations that Blair and his team "sold" honors such as peerages and knighthoods in return for political loans and donations to the Labour Party. The reality is that every British government in history has rewarded its most generous and devoted supporters with the title of Sir this or Lord that. In the old days, Kings handed out such enoblements in return for loyalty in battle, or for acquiescence in the presence of an attractive wife or daughter in the royal bedchamber. These days, the reward is more usually for political and financial loyalty.

Then there is the affair of Jeffrey Archer. The darling of the Tories, suddenly he was in prison and what did he do any more than any other politician? Your answer, in both cases, might be a simple one: “They were caught.” Seems to me the party politics is far outweighing any actual wrongdoing. Ditto in the United States.

[blog evaluation] layout and graphics

The danger in running this post is that it will detract from the one before, which is far more important, especially Gavin Ayling’s observations. However:

I always invite criticism as to how to make this site better and certain bloggers have been helpful this way, inc. Disillusioned and Bored. As you know, I’m forever changing things and I’d like to put a few questions to you, if I might.

The poll below is designed to have multiple variants clicked but you can only 'vote' once:

Would you prefer to see on this site
	My usual green tan maroon motif
	Minima type sparse white with black motif
	Devils Kitchen type red white colours
	Samizdata type blue white grey colours
	Busy design, changeable photo header
	Sparse design, static geometric header
	My usual Papyrus font
	Verdana century gothic, as in this post
	UKDP small news grabs
	Longer, meatier posts on the main page
	Longer posts, only short intro on main page
	Lay off with the depressing posts eg the last
	Make the posts more happy, travelogue type
	Keep the mix of serious and light as it is
pollcode.com free polls

[subversives] political bloggers beware

Hypnosis Comes of Age by G. H. Estabrooks, PH.D. Science Digest April, 1971, pp. 44 - 50

Clinical hypnotists throughout the world jumped on the multiple personality bandwagon as a fascinating frontier. By the 1920's, not only had they learned to apply post-hypnotic suggestion to deal with this weird problem, but also had learned how to split certain complex individuals into multiple personalities like Jeckyl-Hydes.

The potential for military intelligence has been nightmarish. During World War II, I worked this technique with a vulnerable Marine lieutenant I'll call Jones. Under the watchful eye of Marine Intelligence I split his personality into Jones A and Jones B. Jones A, once a "normal" working Marine, became entirely different ….

1975 Senate subcommittee reportage

Dr. Harris Isabel … daily fed his guinea pigs large doses of LSD, mescaline, marijuana, scopolamine and other substances. In exchange for participating in the experiments, the inmates received injections of high quality morphine, sometimes getting 'shot-up' three times a day, depending on their co-operation.

Brought before the Senate subcommittees in 1975, Isabel saw no contradiction in providing hard drugs to the very addicts he was employed to cure. Following public outrage, the CIA announced it had ceased its mind manipulation programmes. Victor Marchetti, a CIA veteran of 14 years who turned 'whistle-blower', exposed this to be untrue.

Excerpt from CIA notes, Jan 1955

To Director of Security Via Deputy Director of Security Via Chief Security Research Staff: Report of Artichoke Operations 20-23 January 1955. Between Thursday 20 January and Sunday 23 January 1955 … Interrogation lasted until 12:25 am when all except the subject left the Operations Room … At 2:36 am the first intravenous infusion began. Slow injections were continued until 2:46 am when recording and transmitting equipment was brought into the Operations Room.

1st fantasy introduced. Results during this phase were good and subject had no control. B. 2nd fantasy introduced… Following the conclusion of the general discussion, all technical apparatus was removed from the premises, and all participating personnel left the area.

Psychiatrist under scrutiny again By William Birnbauer, Melbourne Age, April 18, 2004

The controversial Melbourne child psychiatrist, Dr Selwyn Leeks, faces a second investigation by the Victorian Medical Practitioners Board, as well as possible criminal charges in New Zealand. Dr Leeks is already being investigated by the board following claims that he allowed children to be punished with electric shock treatment and pain-inducing injections while in charge of a psychiatric hospital unit in NZ in the 1970s.

These are just four fragments from a vast body of data, some of it freely available. And you think it’s not in operation and could never be used on the citizenry? Multiple choice question: which of these is the state more likely to distrust? a] the 9 to 5 worker who comes home and watches tele; b] cabinet ministers; c] malcontented bloggers whose identities and whereabouts must first be established and legal cases built against them?

Those words from earlier: “saw no contradiction”. Please click on this link and read this post by a blogger we know and respect. You noticed the name of the Act, of course: R.I.P. This is the type of black humour these people are renowned for. Rest In Peace indeed.

And still a substantial minority of the public approve torture ‘under certain circumstances’. Interesting. Presumably they don’t think it could ever include them, that a case could ever be constructed against them, personally.

[blogfocus tuesday] environmentally friendly edition

Bonus question: This party dude is which of this evening’s bloggers?

1 Very interesting that Deogolwulf should come up with this because I've been thinking the same thing:

“However mean men may be, they dare not appear as enemies of virtue; and when they want to persecute it, they feign to believe that it is false or they credit it with crimes.”

In case you missed that, here it is once again:

“Quelque méchants que soient les hommes, ils n’oseraint paraître ennemis de la vertu, et lorsqu’ils la veulent persécuter, ils feignent de croire qu’elle est fausse ou ils lui supposent des crimes.”

2 The Insomniac ponders the question many of us have faced – anonymity:

When I first started out in Internet discussions I used a pseudonym for a while. Switching to my real name had quite an impact as, without anonymity to hide behind, I felt the need to be more respectful to people – even though most of them lived on the other side of the world and there was no chance I’d ever bump into them. If I’d stuck behind a pseudonym I think this blog would be quite different and, perhaps, even less interesting than it is now.No-one should be forced to give up their anonymity though, as plenty of people don’t reveal their real names for some very good reasons: they might worry about possible consequences, either from fellow bloggers or, perhaps more importantly, their employers.

3 The brand-new-look Devil’s Kitchen has a notice which, I’m very sorry, by my reckoning, might just be a little too late to post on Blogfocus this evening:

While we are about it, can I just say that the new 18DS website is not great? It looks much better though, but I do think that there should be a much clearer signpost to the archives. Not that it helps, since I can't watch the archives; quite simply, nothing loads. Time to get onto their tech department, I think...

Yes, that’s my problem as well – the 18DS technology doesn’t work. They said they’d look into it in November but it must have slipped their mind. Anyway:

In other news, your humble Devil is back on 18DS on Monday night from 9pm until midnight. Do tune in...

Sincerely hope you all did and I would have too, had I been able to access it. How did DK look? Did he acquit himself well?

Eleven other bloggers plus the Mystery Blogger here.