Popty Pain

Followers of Pab's excellent blog will no doubt know instantly what a
'popty ping' is, for the less familiar I believe the explanation goes along
the lines of the Welsh for oven being 'popty' and therefore the added
'ping' eludes to a certain, more modern form, of oven equipment.

Of course microwave technology had found uses in industry long before it
became part of the domestic kitchen landscape, as any friend of Nicky Mc
who has been privileged with the answer to "how do you make a Malteser?"
will know*.

As always scientific discoveries are pretty much morally neutral, it's the
uses humankind finds for them that introduces the ethical dimension.

And so for every honeycomb chocolatey good invention I guess we shouldn't
be too surprised to read stories like this about the US militaries
trialing of the Active Denial System.

Not at all worrying. Not even the bit about getting the setting wrong in
the trial.

Yeek!

So I guess if you're planning to riot in Iraq (I believe it's quite the
fashion these days), do be sure to remove all eye-wear, coinage, zips etc
before engaging.

And given Caroline's recent escapades, can I suggest that anyone in her
position is best staying well clear - after all the system works on the
premise that people get themselves out the way as soon as they feel a
burning sensation and therefore avoid any serious damage. I think we can
probably all see the flaw in that theory...even before we start considering
just how much metal there is in those wheels of steel...

*Personally the Malteser factoid is my favourite of the Nicky Mc trio; the
other two being: how long does it take to make a single jelly bean and how
do they make flake chocolate flakey.