Sommeil des mages

Was that it?

So the world did not end.

Or perhaps it did. Not with a bang but a whimper, as T S Eliot, now almost proverbially, said, now almost a century ago.

The computer connects more slowly; the teapot dribbles; the fire gutters in the grate; the milk sours; the car's battery barely turns over the engine; dawn comes late.



Jon : How will it be, this end of which you have spoken, Brother Enim?


Omnes: Yes, how will it be?

Peter : Well, it will be, as 'twere a mighty rending in the sky, you see, and the mountains shall sink, you see, and the valleys shall rise, you see, and great shall be the tumult thereof.

Jon : Will the veil of the temple be rent in twain?

Peter : The veil of the temple will be rent in twain about two minutes before we see the sign of the manifest flying beast-head in the sky.

Alan : And will there be a mighty wind, Brother Enim?

Peter : Certainly there will be a mighty wind, if the word of God is anything to go by...

Dudley : And will this wind be so mighty as to lay low the mountains of the earth?

Peter : No - it will not be quite as mighty as that - that is why we have come up on the mountain, you stupid nit - to be safe from it. Up here on the mountain we shall be safe - safe as houses.

Alan : And what will happen to the houses?

Peter : Well, naturally, the houses will be swept away and the tents of the ungodly with them, and they will all be consuméd by the power of the heavens and on earth - and serve them right!

Alan : And shall we be consumed?

Peter : Con..sum..éd? No, we shall not be consuméd - we shall be up on the mountain here, you see, while millions burn, having a bit of a giggle.

Jon : When will it be, this end of which you have spoken?

Omnes : Aye, when will it be - when will it be?

Peter : In about thirty seconds time, according to the ancient pyramidic scrolls... and my Ingersoll watch.

Jon : Shall we compose ourselves, then?

Peter : Good plan, Brother Pithy. Prepare for the End of the World! Fifteen seconds...

Alan : Have we got the tinned food?

Dudley : Yes.

Peter : Ten seconds...

Jon : And the tin-opener?

Dudley : Yes.

Peter : Five - four - three - two - one - Zero!

Omnes : (Chanting) Now is the end - Perish The World!

A pause



Peter : It was GMT, wasn't it?

Jon : Yes.

Peter : Well, it's not quite the conflagration I'd been banking on. Never mind, lads, same time tomorrow... we must get a winner one day.

Guys with guns

I know nothing about guns, have never touched, let alone fired, one, and never had any desire to. Yet it strikes me, at first sight, as odd that even in a society like the US, for all its history, there are so many guns in private hands - apparently there approaching an average of one for every man, woman, child and old age pensioner. No doubt quite a few people don't possess one - and quite a few people possess several, or even many. No doubt quite a few guns are never fired. No doubt many gun owners, whatever their abstract fears and feelings about their rights, never in practice find themselves threatened by burglars or bears or the storm troopers of oppressive government.

The array, number and variety of guns available to the consumer seems to be vast and the sophistication of some weapons beyond any actual need. It seems to me that they may be a little like smart phones, in that they are things that people actually like to handle, almost compulsively, even if at the time they have no particular need to do anything with them. There is a satisfaction in touching, in running through the features and capabilities of the object, in having the latest version. The more features it has, or could have, the more satisfying it is. The naming of parts. So many guns.

Corrections and clarifications - maybe

no individual - certainly not those in any senior position - is held to serious account in a way that discomforts them

Today it is reported that two former employees of UBS have been charged in the US over Libor manipulation.

The tool bar death of the universe

I am in a position to reveal that the Mayans were right, though not in the way they thought, and that the universe will end tomorrow. It comes about as computer users find they have installed so much additional hardware and and so many programs that the accompanying new toolbars have totally obscured their screens and all they can do is to connect to Facebook and check the weather in multiple ways.

When the market picks up...

Preston bus station

The mark of the idiot

UBS corrupt payments exposed as bank pays £940m to settle Libor claims
...on 18 September 2008 a trader explained to a broker: "If you keep 6s [ie, the six-month Japanese yen Libor rate] unchanged today ... I will fucking do one humongous deal with you ... Like a 50,000 buck deal, whatever ... I need you to keep it as low as possible ... if you do that .... I'll pay you, you know, 50,000 dollars, 100,000 dollars... whatever you want ... I'm a man of my word."

It becomes tedious to highlight reports such as these, it becomes the mark of the idiot who has no place under this amazing panoply of corruption, greed and veniality, where the perpetrators apparently feel no necessity to hide their doings, where they subborn the very language of the ethics they betray, where no individual - certainly not those in any senior position - is held to serious account in a way that discomforts them, where corporations may be 'fined' but are beyond the criminal law, where men of substance and leaders of nations can hardly be unaware of what lies beneath their feet and into which the latter comfortably descend on their retirement from public office.