The UN racism forum

"UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said she was "shocked and deeply disappointed" by the boycotts" of the US, Australia, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada. The UN argument is that countries that refuse to participate in this debate must not take the issue of racism seriously, or are passing up the chance to take on rogue states within the normal UN process.
I disagree with this. There comes a point when UN bodies like the "Human Rights Tribunal" or the "UN racism forum" become such Orwellian caricatures of themselves that the entire body must be abandoned and left to die. Any group that attempts to pass declarations requiring countries to outlaw criticism of religions has lost all relevance or moral claim.
The danger is that this is happening on a much larger and more important scale with the UN security council. With amoral, undemocratic countries wielding their veto pen whenever they feel like it- as China does whenever it's Sudanese clients are threatened with condemnation- the United Nations itself is slowly dying of irrelevance. Ban Ki Moon is right to say that countries should debate these issues, but he is wrong when he thinks only the UN is capable of hosting such a forum.

Plot device for a detective novel

I noticed in the maths lift the other day that on an LED screen a "2" is a mirror reversal of "5." I feel sure this could be be used in a whodunnit thriller of some kind. Perhaps the murder victim took a photo moments before he died in an elevator, the picture seeming to show that he was on level 5, thus granting an alibi to someone (known to be on level 2 somehow) who would otherwise be a suspect. Let's say it was a double murder, with the other victim (not the photographer), partly visible in the shot. Near the end of the book, the strained detective (possibly suspended from the force by his no-nothing lieutenant (or if a private investigator, fired by the victim's newly wealthy heiress(which may or may not be a red herring))), suddenly discovers upon closer inspection that the wedding ring of the other victim is on the wrong hand, and thus, that the entire shot is actually of a mirror opposite to the lift door. I could weave in some subtle hints about mirrors throughout the book, so much so that an avid reader would, upon conclusion of the mystery, grasp her head in her hands and exclaim "Of course, the answer was staring me in the face all along!" But I can't write that novel now. I've just given away the ending in a blog post

In which I watch commercial television

So I was watching an ad the other day from the Queensland government. It told me that I should be eating more vegetables. At the end of the ad it said something like "Queensland (something to do with health) association. Working to ensure that Queenslanders are the healthiest people in Australia." Now maybe this says something about my personality, but surely the easiest way to accomplish this is to simply detonate radioactive dirty bombs in the major cities of all the other states? Or as Chris points out, at least run ad campaigns in the other states encouraging junk food and binge drinking?