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18. februar 2003
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Korean death toll at 120
The probable death toll after the fire that burned two subway trains in the Korean city Daegu has now reached 120. The fire was started deliberately by a man lighting inflammable liquid in a milk container. Fellow passengers failed to stop him, but he is now arrested. The suspected arsonist has been treated for mental disease in the past.
11:52:27 PM 
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WHO warns against influenza
Recent outbreaks of influenza in DR Congo and Madagascar has prompted the World Health Organization to issue a warning against the possibility of a global pandemic of influenza. Every year the disease kills up to a million people in the world, and immunization is non-existent in most developing countries.
10:46:24 PM
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Satanic sex abuse
CBC takes a criticial look at a recent child sex abuse scandal in Canada. These media panics, which has happened all over the world, generally follow the same pattern. Rumours and accusations start spreading, the initial investigation by the police and health care authorites is mocked up completely, and from the wrong start the case just explodes and grows into bizarre proportions. Media and police lose all sense of direction, creating a total panic, and nobody actually looks at the basic evidence, or lack thereof.
At some stage, typically during the court trials, the fact appears that there is no evidence for the accusations. At this time, much prestige is attached to the initial accusations, and some people refuse to back down. The original suspects have much of their lives ruined for no good reason, and the overeager officials have their carreers ended. Hopefully.
7:41:49 PM
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Assimilation is good for you
Evan Williams, until very recently CEO of Pyra Labs, writes about the aquisition of his company by Google, and its implications, in his own blog. The question non-Blogger bloggers (ugh!) has asked: will this mean anything bad for google's indexing of us, is answered in the negative. On the contrary, blogger was at any rate planning a directory of blogs that would be inclusive. That part could become exciting, I agree. Google is still categorized among the good guys in my book.
6:59:16 PM
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Ossuary of James "brother of Jesus" revisited
 I have earlier written about the find of a burial box, or ossurary, inscripted with the text "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." A number of scholars, and in particular the journal BAR (picture), jumped to the conclusion that it was the James, giving the first piece of actual archeological evidence that Jesus even existed.
The whole story was more or less ruined when Dr. Rochelle I. Altman issued her well-researched analysis of the writing style on the box, and concluded that the second part ("brother of Jesus") was added by a later scribe. The conclusion wa sthat the box was a forgery and, may I dare add, not a very impressive one. BAR has a bit of egg on their faces.
Biblical archeology is not like 'normal' archeology, as the field has historically been riddled with more or less talented amateurs with an uncountable number of theological axes to grind. This report from the heated discussions at the Toronto sessions about the James ossuary demonstrates pretty clearly it's not out of the woods yet, by a long shot.
Richard Carrier wrote a good, but now outdated, summary of the evidence pro et con its authenticity.
6:37:53 PM
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That about sums up today's news
"Kuwait's alert, Chirac's tirade, Turkey's warning" (CNN headline)
5:30:55 PM
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Have money, need wife
A pretty classic situation: a successful carreer, solid bank account, and looking for love. Rod Barnbett, facing the classic problem, has set up the website 10k4awife.com.
If you mentally decoded that URL correctly, you get the gist: He's paying $10,000 for whoever introduces him to a woman that he proposes to. The rest of the site is mostly an explanation that he's really a normal guy, nothing wrong with him, and defending the idea of offering cash to anyone introducing him to proper wife material.
3:43:31 PM
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The ultimate googleslutting!
This is "googleslutting by proxy." Watch and learn, people! Googling for "sarah kozar nude" leads people to this metablogging entry about the Raven who is, I admit, more innocent than I am.
5:47:46 AM
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Perhaps somebody will elect it president one day?
"New robot has a human face, but faulty software" (Canada.com)
Should be hard to distinguish from quite a few people, then.
4:29:32 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2003; 00:15:08.
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