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27. oktober 2002
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A Free Lunch?
 MIT has provided a wide selection of their courses on the Net for free. The material available for free includes the syllabus, lecture notes and assignments. You will have to obtain the book(s) for full benefit, though.
This is a great idea, and I wish other great universities followed suit.
11:47:56 PM 
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Gas Killed Almost All
Almost all of the 117 hostages who died in the dramatic end of the Moscow siege, died from the gas used to incapacitate the hostage takers, Russian authorities now admit. It is still not clear what type of gas it was.
9:08:50 PM
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Northern Light Over Norway
 This picture of a beautiful northern light (aurora) ring over Norway was captured by amateur photographer Trygve Lindersen on October 6.
NASA asked Lindersen for permission to use it, and gave it a prominent place as Astronomy picture of the day for October 15 (click for larger version).
Lindersen is also a member of the Norwegian Astronomical Society (Norsk Astronomisk Selskap, NAS). The organisation congratulated its member for having luck in experiencing the beautiful spectacle, and for being very talented in capturing it on camera. Lindersen used a normal digital camera for the shot.
I posted a picture of solar flames, which contributes to the creation of aurora, just a few days ago. I also mentioned my own experience with aurora here in Bergen. I live quite some distance south of the area where the picture above was taken.
From a Norwegian article in Afterposten.
10:25:30 AM
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Rape and Murder: Another Day in Chechnya
The tragic hostage drama in Moscow was a reminder about the unsolved tragedy in Chechnya, but few people in the west get any idea of the horrible atrocities taking place every day at the hands of Russian forces in the rebel republic: mass executions, torture, rape, kidnappings for ransom and plunder.
 Strict press censorship and the fact that the world's attention has been elsewhere since 9/11 last year has given the Russian forces free roam in exercising the worst brutality imaginable, committing horrible atrocities. The Chechen civilians are caught between the hammer and the anvil, as the various armed fractions of Chechen rebels commit the same type and level of cruelty against the population they portray to want to liberate.
After the recent atrocities in Moscow, I doubt people in the west will have more sympathy for the mostly Muslem population of Chechnya. But you do owe it to yourself to read the article "Torture and rape stalk the streets of Chechnya" in Guardian/Observer.
9:43:39 AM
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Headline of the Day
"Dog shoots owner" (CNN)
7:56:13 AM
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Blog Spamming
Some spammers, including porn spammers, have started to spam bloggers' referral logs, according to Wired. The idea is to lure those who check each others referral lists to visit their sites and drown them in advertising.
Another serious threat and annoyance from spammers. Still, I haven't seen any of that in my referral log, but I guess it's just a question of time.
7:38:14 AM
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Israel Blocks Palestinians from Water
"Israeli infrastructure minister Effi Eitam last week banned Palestinians from drilling for water in the West Bank and put a freeze on the issue of permits for future drillings.[...] It also adds insult to an already discriminatory injury. Israelis get between between five and seven times as much water as Palestinians, and they get priority access." (Sunday Herald)
Troubling.
2:00:31 AM
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Why we must invade Iraq RIGHT NOW!
For a good laugh at Dubya's expense, look at this flash animation!
12:25:19 AM
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Remember!
 We change back from daylight saving time tonight. Most of us in the Northern hemisphere do anyway. If you wonder why we have DST, check out this excellent resource.
This means, at least here, that when the time is 3 AM, it becomes 2 AM. The first time!
Glad my computer keeps track of this shit automatically. Before Windows learned to keep track of this, I found myself coming late or early to quite a few Sunday appointments. Heck, some people I knew turned up at the wrong time Monday morning.
PS: Yes, I am sorta violating my own colour coding scheme here. So sue me.
12:01:57 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 03.02.2005; 08:23:19.
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