There are so many civil servants, these days. What do they spend all our tax money on? The new OGC logo offers some clues as to what 564 of them get up to.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft at 2:55 PM EDT

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One of the stories on Radio 1’s Newsbeat this morning was about a campaign to introduce concealed carry licenses on Virgina Tech campus. It’s also covered on the website story, although you have to scroll down a bit.

It goes without saying I agree with the campaigners that allowing weapons to be carried would make the campus safer.

What I find interesting is that the BBC is introducing to Radio 1 morning show listeners in their teens to 30s the novel (to them) idea that guns have a self defence role. I think this is new.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News, Self Defense at 5:19 PM EDT

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I won on the Grand National at 10:1. This is unprecedented. I never win anything.

I chose the horse because it was the second favourite but still had good odds. I also chose it because it is called “Comply or Die”, which is an excellent name that sums up the choice you have when dealing with governments.

I used a web bookie called Betfair. Their special feature is that they match up individuals to bet against each other, and just take a small commission. So instead of betting against a monolithic bookmaker, you’re betting on a free market.

You can see prices go up and down in real time. In the case of events like football and Formula one, the market stays open during the event, and as things develop you can see the prices change. So when Lewis Hamilton gets off to a slow start, his odds dramatically rise.

I’m not sure if the odds track the actual chance of certain outcome, but they certainly track the aggregate perception of the chance of an outcome. As such, Betfair markets probably have predictive qualities. I think the idea of using markets for predicting outcomes has been tried a couple of times, for example by the CIA to predict terrorist acts, or some such. Antoine Clarke has written about this, too.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection at 6:42 PM EDT

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Further to the story about the Home Office banning an Israeli politician from visiting Britain, Jameel emailed me a story about criminals in Gaza blowing up a British war monument.

It’s unclear exactly who they are or what they did, but why blow up something like that unless you have an axe to grind with the British? Perhaps the Home Office should keep in mind who its friends are, and are not.

Posted by Rob Fisher as News at 6:28 PM EDT

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