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15. november 2002
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An Obituary for a Monster 
British Myra Hindley, who was jailed for life in 1966 for her involvement in the brutal and cruel murders of two children, has died at age 60.
She later confessed to three other murders, committed to satisfy the sadistic perversions of her husband, who still is jailed and will remain so to his death.
How do you describe such a monster after her death? Read Peter Stanford's obituary in the Guardian, or BBC News' obituary, to find out.
11:53:13 PM 
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Online Marketing Profitable - Study
An Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) report indicates that increasing the part of a marketing campaign devoted to online sources yields better results. The study investigated the effects of a McDonalds campaign. When presented on an MSN seminar this morning, the British media researcher Rex Briggs recommended that at least 15 % of the marketing budget be used online.
The study did also conclude, to nobody's surprise, that popups tend to annoy users, and that the best branding method was large, animated ads. Briggs also noted that ads should stand on its own feet, and not rely on click-throughs.
As always: consider the source, but the reasoning appears well-founded.
From Norwegian article in Propaganda.
7:30:00 PM
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Norwegian Tanker Collides with US Nuclear Sub
The Norwegian shipping company Leif Hoegh reports that it is likely that the tanker Norman Lady hit an American Los Angeles-class attack submarine in the Gibraltar strait two days ago. The US Navy has reported that the submarine was involved in a crash with an unidentified vessel. Nobody was injured, but both vessels sustained some damage.
The US Navy subs still have some way to go in learning to avoid dumping into ships all the time.
5:26:29 PM
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Linux Download Site Hacked
 Linux enthusiasts making a big fuss about security in Microsoft products may have a reason to step carefully these days. An important Linux tool download site, tcpdump.org, has been hacked. Two important security related tools, tcpdump and libpcap, were infected with a trojan or backdoor. Since mirrors also picked up the infected files, a number of Linux users may have downloaded and installed the infected files.
4:00:00 PM
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FBI Warning: Al Qaeda Strike May Be Imminent
"Sources suggest al Qaeda may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: High symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy and maximum psychological trauma." (FBI alert quoted by CNN)
A lot of warnings about the increase in the electronic "chatter" between Al Quada groups have been issued the past weeks. That is a factor. Also, it is the question about the timing of the sudden appearance of a recent Bin Laden tape. Naturally, that can have been initiated by the threats of war against Iraq, but there is a serious possibility it contained coded messages initiating an attack against western interests.
3:14:24 PM
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Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
 For every new phenomenon among young people, there is a corresponding, opposite reaction among intellectuals.
It goes something like this: A trend starts. New technology, new music, new clothesstyles, whatever. After a while, journalists discover a trend (after all, some of them do procreate and have children). They write about it. They want to get 'expert' opinions about it, so they find sociologists to tell us that it is a reaction against the establishment, psychologists telling us how dangerous it is, and finally teachers, who probably have seen the trend for a while, telling us how confused they are.
For an example of the latter, see this article in Toronto Star.
In this case, the topic is the language of instant messaging creeping into the written school works of students. Teachers are utterly confused when kds are lol about everything just to brb l8er; of course older ppl go wtf; they don't c any trend coming b4 it bites them in the @rse.
To some, like Doug Brent, a professor of communication and culture at the University of Calgary, this is a trend that threatens the very foundation of western civilisation. The hypertext form of the Internet and the abbreviations in IMs and SMSs (mobile Short Messages Service; a massive thing outside the US and Canada) are undermining 3000 years of linear thought.
And I say, like, get real, man!.
For the first 2900 of those years at least, literacy was a privilegue of the few. There are still a substantual amount of people who read books, magazines and newspapers. Remember when the Harry Potter books came? Many of the same intellectuals were going gaga over the return of kids to reading novels! If these allegedly civilization-wrecking trends can change back and forth at the release of a single book, I think these 'experts' need to broaden their horizons.
G2G. BBL!
3:41:16 AM
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Sharks Lose, Sea Horses Win
"A UN body has voted to restrict the international trade of bigleaf mahogany, sea horses and 26 species of sea turtles but failed to pass legislation to protect two species of threatened sharks." (Globe and Mail)
As often happens in environmentalist issues, cute animals get protection, while nasty animals get the shaft.
2:05:50 AM
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Googled: Your Boys Took a Hell of a Beating!
Obviously word has gotten around that a Norwegian sports commentator was chosen for the top sports commentary of all time. Guardian/Observer did the top 10 list, and I wrote about it here. I found it amusing that the name Bjørge Lillelien was made into "Bjorn Minge" in the article, but this has resulted in my blog being hit almost every day by people searching for that name and the immortal words.
1:30:29 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.12.02; 02:50:59.
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