23. desember 2002

Xmas fun: Throw Santa! A very sick game, with the most annoying music imaginable, but strangely addictive as only stupid games can be. The instructions are in German, so here are my instructions for the language impaired: press the left mouse button to get the catapult started, then press the left button again, hold, and release at the right time to throw Santa as far as possible. 11:07:09 PM    comment []

Snicker As expected, searching google for 'slow blogging' gives quite prominent links to people we know. However, the term is used quite a bit more in blogspace than I expected. Slackers, all of us. 10:09:43 PM    comment []

Shortest day in the year This is as dark as it gets. Here in the far North, sun today rises at 9:45 AM and sets at 3:32 PM. That is less than 6 hours of daylight, and most of that is pretty dodgy anyway. But now it's getting a little bit lighter every day. That is worth a celebration. We'll get it all back in the summertime, when we hardly have anything but daylight. 9:51:17 PM    comment []

Montenegro election invalidated by low turnout Shortly after Serbia's presidential election was declared invalid, for the second time, because of voter turnout under the mandated 50%, the same happens in neighbouring Montenegro. The effect of voter apathy has here been further increased by a serious sex abuse scandal implicating a senior official. A stable Balkan relies on working democracies in the former Yugoslav states. The election scandals are further worsening a situation of cynicism among the electorate, who don't believe the promises made by any of the candidates. 9:15:58 AM    comment []

Whisleblowers honoured 2002 was the year of the whistleblowers, according to Time magazine. The prestigious "persons of the year" award has gone to the FBI agent Coleen Rowley, the Entron executive Sherron Watkins and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom.  The three played important roles in exposing incompetence and fraud. I concur with miss feva in praising Time for this award, giving well deserved praise and recognition for three women who let a sense of honour incur them to set aside loyalties that would have been misplaced. About time this was no longer a "man of the year" award; only five women have previously won in all the years Time has given this award. 2:48:50 AM    comment []

If Bush really believes in it... George Bush jr has, like almost every other leading US politician, many times emphasised the power of prayer. Gary Sloan at infidels.org urges the president to demonstrate he really believes in the central tenet of Christianity, by using prayer, instead of bombs, against Saddam Hussein. Such an article really shows that even the most ardent believer in religious faith knows deep inside that it's about the most ineffective means available. Those who pay lip service to it, nevertheless live in the real world, and knows that at best, prayer may increase the chances of a cancer patient by 0.17% or whatever, and that it would be totally impotent to solve a serious problem. Non-believers know it. Believers may say the opposite in public, but really knows deep inside that at best, it just can't hurt. 1:39:34 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.01.03; 04:00:32.