Battleland

"Exceptional."

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As the father of two long-ago Cub Scouts who would enter the Pinewood Derby every year, we have certificates in our basement lauding them for best paint job or best aerodynamic design — in other words, praise to make up for the fact that their little wooden race cars didn’t win (don’t get me started on the mini-sailboats you had to blow along upside-down gutters filled with water). I’m reminded of this by the press release issued Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. For years, SIPRI has calculated how much the world’s nations are spending on arms, and they’ve just announced 2010’s tally:

I think SIPRI’s use of exceptional is warranted. As I used to tell Geoffrey or Jonathan when they got those Pinewood Derby certificates, it’s always good to be good at something.