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27. januar 2003
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Saying what?
— I flamingoed up
— What?
— That is like cocking up, just much larger.
(Red Dwarf 206, Parallel universe)
10:27:51 PM 
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Headlines we don't like to see
How low can the stock market go? (BBC News)
8:10:30 PM
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Arms inspectors report to Security Council
The report from Dr. Hans Blix to the UN Security Council shows Iraq has failed to prove it has no weapons of mass destruction, and that Iraq, while strictly cooperating, fails to work with the arms inspectors. There are also indications that Iraqi denials are not in accordance with the truth.
The report will surely be subject to both a war-spin and a wait-spin in the days to come.
5:18:53 PM
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The right to die
Dignitas, a clinic in Switzerland, has become a popular final destination for Europeans who want to take their own lives. Active euthanasia is illegal all over Europe, but the clinic uses a loophole in Swiss law to offer the service: it is not illegal as long as they have no economic or personal motive for the person's death. Diginitas offers their poison vials for free.
And after a Danish documentary gave the clinic publicity, more than 20 suicidal Danes have contacted them in a week.
The clinic's motto is "Menschenwürdig leben - Menschenwürdig sterben," which can be roughly translated as "a life in human diginity, a death in human dignity."
(from a Danish article in Jyllands-posten)
2:42:28 AM
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Playing with a full deck
 The Fat Cat Issue of Virtual Occoquan is out! Don't miss some frozen highlights from last week's Salon blogs.
Among lots of quality writings from the local blog community, Mark found my bullshit detection kit worthy of inclusion. I would like to start listing my favourite articles here, but then I'd have to list all if it, and Mark already did that in the table of contents.
2:10:10 AM
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No graffiti, please, we're German
When Russian forces overran Berlin in 1945, many Soviet soldiers used the opportunity to scribble their wits and wisdom on the walls of the Reichstag, the Parliamentary building, in Berlin. It is probably to nobody's surprise that many of the writings are very obscene, with sexual references to Hitler and statements that can be best expressed with the German word for glee, Schadenfreude.
The texts have been allowed to remain on the walls to this day, as a monument, also after Berlin was made capital again. Now a number of conservative German politicians are arguing that most of the graffiti should be removed, just keeping a bare minimum, and that symbols of German unity be put in its place. Like anything related to the war, the suggestion has flared up an angry debate in Germany. Russians also mostly oppose having the graffiti removed, even though a number of the most obscene statements have been emberrassing to visitors who could read Russian.
12:56:25 AM
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Order of Battle
You'd be hard pressed these days to find any observer who honestly doesn't think there will be a war against Iraq. Take a look at GlobalSecurity's overview of what forces are already amassed in the Gulf region. It is difficult to imagine that all this hardware will be pulled back now.
12:33:48 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.03; 00:38:23.
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