Likewise. Apologies to all for delayed responses to email.

I, very weirdly, had a dream last night in which you made an appearance. You were in your mid-twenties and absolutely refused to take off your sunglasses. You were also chucking finance to do a graduate degree in herpetology, down at the Zzyzx desert research station outside Baker, California :D.

I shit you not. I was VERY amused on waking up.

So, now I see why Col is hanging around in the Mid-East.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2008189,00.html

How many pallet loads of $100s did you make away with?

The old herpetology-sunglasses dream! We've all had that one, like the one where you have a final exam and hadn't been to class or studied.

How much would 363 tons of 100-dinar Iraqi currency be worth, I wonder.

"the money ... came from Iraqi oil sales, surplus funds from the UN oil-for-food programme and seized Iraqi assets"

Oh so it's not actually American money. I can see where this is going.

Ahh, trickle-down economics at its finest. Iraq's seized assets are generously given back to its people, starting by doling out pocket money by the metric ton to their elected representatives, in order to let it filter down to party cronies, from there on to local sectarian strongmen, and then, finally, finding its way to the simple, ordinary Joes in the death squads - much needed there, for who can keep up with ammunition prices in Iraq today?

Question: has anyone in the US administration of Iraq been sentenced (or even tried) for corruption or, at least, for economic negligence and ignoring accounting standards? Anyone non-Iraqi, I mean. I suppose that falls under the jurisdiction of US courts, and American prosecutors probably read newspapers too.