(The Royal Mint this summer will release new coins, which, cobbled together, complete a jigsaw image of the shield of the Royal Arms on their reverse side. Image: Core77)

Core77 / design magazine + resource / post
The winning designer is 26-year-old Matthew Dent, originally from Bangor who now lives and works in London as a graphic designer.

His idea divides one image over the six coins of the penny to the penny to the fifty pence. Each coin features part of the design and by arranging each coin in a certain way completes the design, much like a jigsaw.

(Dummy bomb: The US Air Force has a habit of accidentally dropping these babies on civilian sites near its bases. And practice bombs ain’t always for practice, history shows. Photo: GlobalSecurity.org)

“God must love the people at Canyon Creek.”

That’s what a manager of an Oklahoma apartment complex told the Associated Press after the U.S. Air Force bombed the complex last week.

But God must also love the factory workers in Choong-chung, Korea, whose workplace the US bombed in 2006:

1/12/2007 – OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea — The 51st Fighter Wing and the Republic of Korea Air Force have completed an exhaustive and Air Force wide investigation of an inadvertent release of a small non-explosive practice munition on Nov. 29, 2006 by an aircraft stationed at Osan Air Base.

An A/OA-10 aircraft assigned to the 25th Fighter Squadron was returning to Osan from a routine training mission at approximately 12:30 p.m. when an apparent systems problem caused the inadvertent release of a 25 pounds practice munition — a BDU-33. The small, non-explosive training munition then struck a civilian factory in northern Choong-chung province damaging the building but causing no injuries.

… And let’s not forget the farmers near East Yorkshire, England, who were bombed by the US in 2004:

US Air Force drops practice bomb
Alan Marsland, who farms land near to the site the bomb landed, said: “It went through the asphalt on this old airfield which is now owned by Allied Grain. Luckily no-one was around.”

Or the West Texas family whose home was hit by the Air Force in 2002.

In fact, all of these incidents involved the BDU-33, which can carry incendiary materials that produce a flash on impact.

The red phosphorous in one BDU-33 also blew off half of Petty Officer John Love’s face a few years ago.

The list goes on.

On the same day in November 2007, the Air Force dropped a dummy bomb along a busy road in North Carolina, and a Navy jet accidentally dropped one on one of its bases.

Dummy bombs not just for practice

Dummy bombs have played a number of roles over the years. Military leaders have used the practice ordnance to frighten and intimidate populations since World War II.

Even as far back October 1920, the Navy dropped dummy bombs on an old battleship, the Indiana, to trick the American public into believing its battleships could not be sunk.

Note: The secret societies historian Alan Watt says Canadian forces once dropped ordnance down his chimney.

MARK BAARD

NATO, Britain, India and global business leaders will meet at Chatham House next week will discuss the “new (global) economic order,” dominated by the BRIIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia and Indonesia). Journalists at the event must observe the Chatham House Rule, which prohibits them from quoting any participant by name. — mb

Chatham House – Events – Conferences – View Conference Details
Are the rules of the game changing as the balance of the global economy shifts from Europe and the USA to include India, China, Russia and others?

At The New Politics of the Global Economy: a world without rules?, leading thinkers from governments, international organisations and corporates globally will discuss:

* the impact of changes in the global economy on investment, trade, and the environmental framework
* whether new rules will operate across borders
* the global security issues raised by the interdependencies of this new economic order
* the business strategies that will succeed in this new environment.