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24. januar 2003
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Tyre: The city that isn't
 The picture on the right looks like a thriving, busy middle-eastern city. In fact, it purports to be a picture of Tyre in Lebanon. We know this to be a lie and a forgery. It can't possibly be Tyre, because Tyre has not existed for 2,500 years or more.
We know this because God spoke through his prophet Ezekiel, and said to the ancient city of Tyre:
"This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Tyre ... I will make you a bare rock, and you will become a place to spread fishnets. You will never be rebuilt, for I the LORD have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD. ... I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Since we all know that the Bible is God's inerrant word, then Tyre cannot possibly exist. Pictures like the one on the right, and the people who claim to have been there, who live there, and the city's homepages on the net, is all part of a Satanic, atheist conspiracy to prove the Bible wrong.
10:00:55 PM 
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Spain arrests 16 suspected Al Qaeda militants
 Spanish police has launched a major anti-terror operation in Catalonia, arresting 16 suspects and seized a number of explosives, bomb-making equipment (picture) and chemicals. Among the material taken was two barrels, not yet analysed, but media is speculating it may be Ricin, the deadly poison found in London.
Spain's prime minister Jose Maria Aznar says that the police has thwarted a "major terrorist attack." The suspects have connections to Algerian GIA, again linked to Bin Laden's network. The operation was done after extensive cooperation with police in France in Britain.
Alas, it's the one terrorist operation that gets through the net we will remember, not the hundred the security services manage to stop.
9:30:01 PM
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Ivory Coast peace plan signed
The rebels and government in the Ivory Coast has agreed to an extensive peace plan after negotiaions in Paris. The plan tries to preserve national unity by balancing the influence of the groups in the national reconciliation government, hold fair elections, a general amnesty, set up an independent judiciary and also a human rights commission, and disarm all groups except a national army.
8:24:22 PM
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And officer and an imposter
An imposter served for three months as 2nd Lieutenant in a Norwegian tank batallion before being found out. The 27 year old imposter, whose real name is not disclosed, took the identity of a friend, Aksel Bjørvik Johannessen, and played the part perfectly according to his superiours. The imposter and Johannessen had served together in the military earlier, including as peace-keepers in Kosovo. He took the fake identity and served in the army to avoid being arrested by the police, who were seeking him on 19 counts of fraud and forgery.
Make that 20.
8:21:39 AM
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Israeli detentions of Palestinians soar
As it is becoming more and more obvious that the Israeli electorate is scared into supporting the hardline positions of Ariel Sharon, the military gets more and more brutal. Palestinian businesses are ruined, buildings levelled, and an increasing amount of Palestinians are arrested and kept indefinitely under so-called administrative detention, which requires no trial.
4:50:04 AM
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Now that's a review!
I secretly delight in reading a really devastating review, be it of a movie, a CD or a computer game. It is something very primitively satisfying about seeing someone open the doors to verbal hell and be as rude as your mommy told you never to be. In Norwegian, such a review is called a slaughter. A fitting term! See for example this review by Todd Zuniga of a game called Evolution Snowboarding:
Lop your hand off with an ax. Slip on ice and fall on your tailbone. Drop-kick a chainsaw with your bare feet. Join a fight club. Put broken glass in your pillow case. Cut your meat with a butter knife. Eat toast without the benefit of butter or jelly. Listen to Jay-Z on a monotone speaker. Drink unfiltered water. Use a wireless mouse with low batteries. Take a cold shower. Get online using a 14.4K modem. Eat soup with a fork.
Sadists can now add a new option to their perverse torture list: Play Evolution Snowboarding.
I just have to get that game. Not!
2:08:03 AM
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Online bullshit detection kit
It has become a cliche that the Net is full of nonsense. We are bombarded with emails not only trying to sell us bogus products, but also bogus ideas. We have the usual fringe healthcare products, so-called alternative medicine, that surely existed and thrived before the Net. The same is true about other aspects of net.fringes, especially conspiracy theories and their cousins the urban legends. But the net also provides us with some tools for instant verification of questionable claims.
The first thing we need is a built in bullshit detection kit. If we buy any claim raw, we will not even verify it. We need some alarm bell that tells us when to be skeptical, as it is realistically infeasible to require confirmation of every claim we run across.
In his book The Demon Haunted World Carl Sagan listed the ingredients for what he called a Baloney Detection Kit, nicely summarised on a number of websites. It outlined, basically, the fundamentals of scientific inquiry, arguably common sense in a system.
A fundamental principle of bullshit detection, as I prefer to call it, is what is also a slogan for skepticism: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This is really a principle everybody abides with in their daily lives, but alas, some very powerful memes in our culture comes with a preemptive strike against bullshit detection: a justification for credulity (rewritten as having an 'open mind' or 'faith').
What does it mean that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence? A real-life example: Let's say a friend of yours tells you that he was downtown, and met another mutual friend of both of you, and that they had a nice conversation about so-and-so. You have no bad experience with your friend, he is generally trustworthy, and the claim is perfectly ordinary. Thus, there is no reason to require evidence. Your friend's word is good enough for you.
Then, let us assume the same trustworthy friend comes and tells you that he met Elvis Presley downtown. That is a pretty extraordinary claim! As such, common sense dictates that you should require something better than your friend's word to believe it. The claim is extraordinary, thus you'd require some very extraordinary evidence. Your friend's say-so is simply no longer good enough.
Applying this rule to a number of unusual claims goes a long way in helping you avoid falling for hoaxes.
Once you are suspicious, the net provides many tools. Remember, google is always your friend. Let's say you have received a letter telling you that by simply lending some gentlemen in Nigeria your bank account, you can make an insane profit. You suspect it is a fraud, but you are also tempted. Typing "nigeria fraud" into google may save you from a world of pain.
If you hear a fantastic and entertaining story that is portrayed as true, it very often isn't true. It is an urban legend. This is especially the case if it involves sex and revenge. You may become unpopular at parties by constantly exposing good stories as urban legends, but typing the keywords of the story into google followed by the term "urban legend" or "hoax" will at least let you know. You can still chose to shut up about it in polite company.
Even better, go to the Snopes Urban Legends pages and let yourself be entertained and educated at the same time. You get a lot of good stories to tell your friends, and you will also learn to recognise the patterns that characterise an urban legend.
1:30:19 AM
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Fundie withdraws from AIDS panel
Jerry Thacker, the controversial nominee for George Bush's advisory panel on HIV and AIDS, has decided to withdraw his candidacy. Thacker, who himself is HIV positve, is a former Bob Jones University employee who has made a number of statements that has caused controversy.
Thacker, an evangelical Christian, has repeatedly called AIDS a "gay plague," and also described homosexuality as a "deathstyle" instead of a lifestyle. He also argued that Christianity can "convert" gays, and has made the case for abstinence-before-marriage education. Critics argue that such a person has no place on the panel, as it should be concentrating on scientific and medical questions.
12:36:38 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.03; 00:37:19.
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