It's Mr Lava Lava (Review: 'Star Trek' 3.22, "The Savage Curtain")

I'd make a "four score" joke, but this is actually episode 77 of 79; TOS not quite reaching the 80 episode mark.

In any event, I got a feeling this was going to be a weird one just from the description on Netflix... 

Israel vs. Iran

It's been rather a long-time coming. I blogged out a playthrough of a game on this scenario that came out in 2010 and I ran an award-winning RP that had it happen in 2015.

In any event, the Israelis have decided that the best way to deal with someone you feel wants to kill you is to kill them first, hence they have launched this massive attack on Iran.

Things though are very different than they were in 2015. Syria is no longer under the reign of Assad. Saudi Arabia was on the brink of normalising relations with Israel before October 7 happened. Hezbollah and Hamas are a shadow of their former selves. While Israel's missile defence system is blunting Houthi attacks. They already damaged a lot of the Iranian air defence capability last year during their previous round.

Iran's options are now limited to trying to wreak havoc on the Straits of Hormuz, something the US and GCC will not stand for, even if Donald Trump is not really keen on major foreign wars - he's more a fan of beating on brown-skinned immigrants who aren't actually doing any real harm.

I feel sorry for the Iranian civilians who are likely to get caught this by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - or related to the wrong people. Also the conscripts who will be killed as a result of this.

Perhaps this could have been avoided, but Netanyahu wants his grand victory. 

Let's hope something better emerges out of all this.

Massive Dynamic Risk Assessment, or a lack thereof (Review: 'Fringe' 1.15, "Inner Child")

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

Frederick Forsyth 1938-2025

Frederick Forsyth is one of the authors that has definitely influenced me in my own writing, with a strong eye for technical detail and the sort of knowledge only gained from actual experience; he did stuff that quite literally risked his life in the name of research. Also, his stuff is a cracking good read; I re-read The Day of the Jackal when the TV series came out and it holds up very well.

(I have strong memories of following the Jackal's journey through a 1982 European road atlas I happen to have access to)

Definitely a legend in his profession - we will not see his like again, I'd say, at least not for a while.

Israel is seeking to ethnically cleanse Gaza

They may not want to kill all the Palestinians there, but they certainly want them to go somewhere else. That is a crime regardless of how many of them supported or support Hamas.

It is past time for targeted economic sanctions and a suspension of arms sales.