3. desember 2002

Definitately a Boys' Movie Check out the trailer for upcoming sci-fi/action movie Equilibrium (qt). More about the movie here. It describes a grim future in a police state where art and passion is outlawed. Sounds like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 on steroids. For some reason, sci-fi movies tend to agree that in the future swords will enjoy a strong revival as weapons of choice. 7:27:40 PM    comment []

Not a moron. Much more dangerous. There is no lack of commentators pointing out the funny gaffes of President Bush, frequently making the most powerful man in the world looking like a moron. Now, that is dangerous enough. However, Mark Crispin Miller says he found something far more sinister when he set out to analyse Bush transcripts for his book Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder. The Toronto Star quotes Miller explaining:. "He has no trouble speaking off the cuff when he's speaking punitively, when he's talking about violence, when he's talking about revenge. When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine," Miller said. "It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes." It makes little sense that a man who is truly a moron can balance a political life to get elected first to governor in Texas and the President in the United States. Obviously Bush is not as studid as he appears when speaking publicly. But does it make sense that a severely dysfunctional man with anger management problems can get to this position? Why not? I'm afraid Miller may be on to something here. PS: Bush may not be a moron, but it certainly wasn't a mistaken impression he was (and is?) ignorant of world affairs. Look at and listen to this video where Bush and some of his closest associates were fooled by Canadian broadcasting, just before being elected. Now who is prime minister of Canada, again? 4:27:28 PM    comment []

Biking bad for your balls "Austrian researchers who studied a small group of 40 serious bikers found that 90 percent of them had a lower sperm count and less mobile sperm than a group of non-biking controls." (Discovery)  4:04:54 PM    comment []

Letting Abusers Speak A new and controversial programme by a sexual abuse prevention group in Massachusetts let sexual abusers talk about what made them commit their atrocities. The hope is to enable others to know what to look for to prevent abusive behaviour. 3:28:15 PM    comment []

Contraception a key to get out of poverty A UN report says that the largest gap between rich and poor countries are in reproductive health. BBC News summarises: "The report says since 1970 developing countries that have lowered their fertility rates and slowed population growth have registered faster economic growth." Incidentally, just a week ago NYT reported (as fellow blogger Daze Reader made me aware of) the following: "Information on condom use, the relation between abortion and breast cancer and ways to reduce sex among teenagers has been removed from government Web sites, prompting critics to accuse the Department of Health and Human Services of censoring medical information in order to promote a philosophy of sexual abstinence." Medieval moralism and sexophobia obviously takes precedence over fighting poverty in the Bush administration. 9:01:54 AM    comment []

More addictive than cocaine, and female bloggers too Every time one of my favourite bloggers go awol for a few days, it tends to send this blogophile into a frenzy. My consolation this time was that the Raven was scheduled to be the stand-in for Mark today, doing the Salon blogs tour of quality. And a comprehensive tour it is at that, like what Rayne did on Sunday. Some days ago, I made some comments on fellow blogger Lisa Guernsey's NYT article on blogging, which emphasised (groan) gender differences in blogging. Susannah, the reverse cowgirl, makes a few comments of her own, and she saves herself the effort of being too nice. Observe, of course, if you only update your blog once every other menstrual cycle, like Guernsey, you can always just blame men for its lack of popularity. Ouch. Radio Free Blogistan made some comments on the same NYT article, same topic. He don't buy it, either. And he of course points out the obvious omission in Lisa's piece: No mention of Salon Blogs' superstar blogger who happens to be female. But you don't seriously expect a feminist article in the meanstream media to write about a female blogger that is, in Susannah's own words, "just a porn blogger".   Lisa incidentally sort-of responded to some of the criticism today, in her own blog. No links or specifics, though. I think the following statement speaks, sadly, for itself Several people chastised me for "under-researching" my subject (They're right, but my guess is that I'd be guilty of that no matter how many additional hours I put in). No further questions, your honour. The prosecution smugly rests its case. 7:48:27 AM    comment []

Weapons inspectors find something amiss UN weapons inspectors in Iraq report that some dual-use components tagged by previous inspectors at a missile factory has disappeared, and that cameras had been removed. In 1996, during the last round of inspections, some equipment with potential use in missile production had been tagged by numbered labels, and Iraq was prohibited from removing them. Now Iraq seems unable to account for the items. 6:57:25 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.01.03; 03:59:44.