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8. desember 2002
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Venezuela in blogging, and in the news
The conflict in Venezuela is escalating every day. 80 per cent of the oil production is currently stopped by a strike, and protests and demonstrations are getting increasingly violent. President Chavez does not appear to be in control of the situation at all.
Rayne pointed out something interesting: American media is notably silent about the whole episode. Venezuela is an important oil supplier for the United States, and is practically a neighbour. Yet, not a word on CNN's (US edition) front page as of now. Not even on the CNN World homepage is Venezuela mentioned with a word, which finds 3 other news items from Latin America more important (from Cuba, Jamaica and Brazil). You have to dig deep to find it in the NYT. Salon gets its news items from the wires, so it is no surprise it is silent, too.
Here in faraway Norway, all the national online news sources I checked had Venezuela mentioned on the front page, if not prominently. The BBC, of course, gives it prominent coverage (top item for Americas section).
The Salon blog community has its own inside source on the crisis in Venezuela, courtesy of The Devil's Excrement, and reading that really brings home what the American newsmedia has not understood (or, worse, is ignoring): this is a major crisis, and it can end in total disaster.
11:47:16 PM 
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'Compelling' evidence for global warming
 A group of scientists are putting forth what they claim is 'compelling evidence' that the global temperature increase is real. They point to changes in the arctic, where the ice have been shrinking to record levels, and shrubs conquering parts of the tundra that were barren just a short time ago.
The evidence that global warming is real looks very compelling, indeed, even if some questions are left unanswered there, too. The important question, however, is whether it really is man-made, not only natural cycles that our planet has gone through countless times. I am suspicious about how rarely, if ever, news sources point to the fact that we don't have to go further back than the 1100s to see evidence that Europe, at least, had a notable warmer climate than it has now.
Between 1150 and 1460, a notable cooling is documented, and especially between 1560 and 1850 Europe experienced a cooling with so dramatic consequences historians have called it "the little ice age." Obviously, this was not a man-made occurrance, but due to the same natural forces that have given this planet periodic ice ages. Since 1850, there has been a constant increase in temperatures. The increase was more notable in the start of the 20th century than towards the end, something that does not suggest a human cause. From the evidence I have seen, it is very probable that the temperature increase is natural. Does human activity contribute to it? That is certainly possible.
It worries me that environmentalists does not seem to want people to get all the facts about periodic climate changes. Scientists at least certainly must know how weak the case is for arguing a human-made "greenhouse effect." I suspect that they merely fear there is a human cause for the changes, and have a tendency to make the case look stronger than it is to push the public and policy-makers in the "right" direction. Just in case.
9:36:28 PM
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Annals of Science rewritten for a laugh 
Slashdot today reported of heretofore hidden letters from the unknown victorian experimenter Ernest Glitch to the famous scientist Michael Faraday, describing experiments with laser a century before Mainman, crystalisation of C60 150 years before Kroto, and perhaps most astonishing, a jet-driven heavier-than-air flight half a century before the Wright brothers.
Yeah, right.
Apparently, the author on Slashdot took this seriously, but look at the name "Ernest Glitch" one more time, please. And, by all means, do go to the Lateral Science site and read the amazing letters from Glitch, and the stories about his wild experiments. Poor Hodges! This will hardly rewrite the annals of science, but it should have been made into a TV series.
The Young Man's Book of Amusement, apparently a gift from Faraday to Glitch's very gifted son (some parents deserve their children!), certainly requires a reading, too. The artificial volcano is not something you'd like your kids to make in the living room. Not even in the garden. Maybe the neighbour's garden.
7:11:00 PM
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 The hunt for nukes and marmelade
BBC's Ben Brown gives a lucid and witty first-hand report from the pack of journalists who trail the arms inspectors in Iraq, telling us about the Baghdad Wacky Races, a suspicious jar of marmelade, and is pondering if these arms inspectors really know what they are doing.
It is the question everybody asks, isn't it? Given that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, is there really a good chance that the inspectors will find them?
6:25:12 PM
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Cool it! It's just a game!
 The Canadian Hockey Association has found it necessary to launch a campaign to have the parents chill out and not put too much pressure on their children playing ice hockey. Violence on and off the ice has been increasing all over North America, and the objective is to make the parents stop pressuring their children and getting too riled up about the game.
The BBC news item says "It can be shocking to hear a child shout at a mother to stand up for herself" but I think they meant it the other way around.
4:37:55 PM
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Everything you always wanted to know about Broadband, but were afraid to ask...
"'Broadband' is defined as 'any Internet technology that allows you to download pictures of naked broads faster.'" (GameSpy helps us all understand the new technology)
12:28:08 PM
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It's a plane, it's a bird...
No, it's the new edition of The Occoquan Inquirer, so fresh on the newsstand you can smell the just-fried electrons. And with a sampler, sort of a mega-mix, from Secular Blasphemy. You just can't miss this.
12:18:29 PM
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Most Clueless Criminal Award
A Finnish man living in Stavanger, Norway, decided to rob a Bingo place today. He had a loaded handgun which he used to threaten the staff to give him the money. On his way out he managed to shoot himself in the foot, literally, and fell down the stairs, also breaking his leg.
He was later arrested by armed police in a hiding spot nearby. Apparently, he was not in a mood to put up any serious resistance.
From a Norwegian article in Dagbladet.
3:22:45 AM
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Facing the Music
 I am in many ways a person of habit. That manifests itself in many ways, no doubt in my blogging, and certainly in my choice of place when I go out for a few pints. I have my place, where I have been drinking my pints (Guinness, of course) very regularly for around six years now. I don't like dramatic changes to it. Finding it near empty on a Saturday night is a dramatic change, due to another: a substitute DJ who didn't have the faintest clue what music to play in a pub that also advertises "DJ & dancing."
Yes, we are indeed a quite tolerant bunch of regulars, since we're used to consessions made to the tastes of 20ish girls who want to dance. Still, already half way down the first pint we were discussing how to get rid of the DJ's body.
2:51:53 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.01.03; 03:59:58.
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