4. oktober 2002

Sue the World Frivolious lawsuts cost taxpayers millions of dollars and clog up the court system, says a California grass-roots campaign trying to reform the court system. Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) has succeeded in bringing worldwide attention to the problem by announcing a vote for the most outragous lawsuit of the year. The "winner" will get a "Grand Caesar," of course named after an obese New Yorker who sued the fast food chains that had served him the meals that had made him obese. There are other serious contenders for the prize: A sex offender who lost two toes to frostbite attempting to flee the law, and who now are suing the local Sheriff for finding him too late. A couple suing an airline for $15 million for losing their cat. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  in Arizona are sued over not allowing volunteers to put out water flasks for illegal immigrants trying to enter the US from Mexico. CALA says that in 1998-99, one lawsuit was filed for every 21 Californians. 2:30:51 PM    comment []

This World is not Big Enough for the Both of Us The Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan has suggested that Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush settle their differences with a good old-fashioned duel instead of a war. And we thought Dubya was the cowboy here. 9:36:58 AM    comment []

Slim is Beautiful The success of Agbani Darego in the 2001 Miss World competition has brought about a change in the perception of beauty in Nigeria, The New York Times reports. Earlier, female beauty was generally associated with, eh, voluptuous women in this region of Africa. People did not consider thin, or skinny, to be beautiful. After Miss Nigeria's 2001 triumph, the perceptions of young and trendy Nigerians have changed. This raises the question: how much of what is perceived as beauty is cultural? And why are thin women considered the most beautiful in, say, Europe while their bigger sisters in Africa are the most popular? Surely, one near-universal definition of beauty has to do with symmetrical traits. Also, men's fascination with young women seems to be nearly universal, spanning the most diverse cultures. However, apart form this, one answer is that beauty is associated with health and status. In an tribal society where people live hand to mouth, a fat person was well fed. He or she was also most likely wealthy. A person who was skinny would be considered starving or even sick. In modern society, this is no longer true. People no longer live hand to mouth. A slim, fit body may rather indicate attention to health, and being sufficiently well-off to visit health clubs and gyms. Overweight is perhaps being associated with the poor and the lazy. 5:34:17 AM    comment []

Wished I'd Been There It's fashionable among music journalists to put down old legends who keep playing and making albums. In fact, it cannot even be called fashionable. It seems to be the very foundation of their art. So it really makes me wonder when I see the world press full of ecstatic reviews of David Bowie's latest concert at what used to be the legendary Hammersmith Odeon, London. Bowie played a mix of old and new, even revived Ziggy Stardust who had been gone for 29 years. BBC News says it was "Bowie at his best" which surely says a lot. 5:17:33 AM    comment []

Net Hits a Snag Today UUNet, which handles around half of the world's Internet traffic, is having serious problems today. So if your email is late, or your favourite sites does not respond, that is why. 12:10:42 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2002 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.02; 00:16:23.