| |
|
19. februar 2003
|
|
Anti-Bush t-shirt banned from school
"School officials ordered a 16-year-old student to either take off a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "International Terrorist" and a picture of President Bush and or go home" (CNN)
The school yard would look interesting if absolute free speech was extended to apply to t-shirts worn to school.
10:40:40 PM 
|
|
Iraqi WMDs out to sea?
There is growing speculation among intelligence specialists about three large cargo ships, 35-40K tonnes, which left some Arab port just when Hans Blix entered Iraq. The vessels have been maintaining radio silence for longer periods, in violation of international maritime laws, and their cargo is undeclared. Also in maritime circles are people wondering what these ships may be carrying, moving in ever-smaller circles in the Indian ocean.
The allies are believed to be reluctant to board the ships out of fear of an environmental disaster if they are scuttled. On the other hand, if they were boarded and found to carry illegal weapons, it would be all the evidence Blair and Bush would need to sway a war-skeptic home opinion and justofy war.
9:37:27 PM
|
|
History not repeating
Hawks have compared the opponents to war against Iraq with Chamberlain, who tried appeasement with Hitler. War-opponents, on the other hand, have no problems finding historical examples to fit their opinions. These short interviews in the Guardian with a number of historians help us find enough historical parallels, but also explains why they are of limited value to explain today's situation.
9:16:11 PM
|
|
Apparent overkill
Swarms of mosquitoes over Dhaka in Bangledesh have raised concerns, leading the country's prime minister to summon the air force to fight the tiny flying menace. The country's armed forces will set aside a plane or helicopter to spray insecticide over the swarms.
6:51:57 PM
|
|
Has-been company sold at garage sale
 The once-dominant Internet search engine AltaVista has been sold to Overture for $60m in cash and $80m in shares, pocket fluff compared to the $2.4bn paid for it by CMGI in 1998.
The AltaVista search engine, which once held the position Google holds now, was originally developed by DEC to show off its hardware, but through aquisitions, first Compaq, again swallowed by Hewlett-Packard, the showcase value was gradually eroded.
Mostly, the value of the search engine was diminished by sale of prominent placement on searches, making it less and less likely you found what you really were searching for and more likely you just got advertising. In addition it became a cottage industry to advise people on how to boost your rankings on its searches, with elaborate meta tags and a significant number of ever-changing tricks. When google came along, with superiour technology and business ethics, AltaVista was dead in the water.
Overture, who purchased it, is a company specialising in rigging search results on search engines. Say no more.
RIP AltaVista.
3:34:27 PM
|
|
First sentence after 9/11
Mounir al-Motassadek was found guilty by a German court for providing logistical support for the terrorists on 9/11-01 and has been jailed for 15 years, as accessory to more that 3000 murders. He has denied all charges, and lawyers state they will appeal..
3:18:57 PM
|
|
The UK accuses the US and Israeli of stalling the peace plan
Annoyance is growing in the UK government over continued stalling of the peace plan set out by the Quartet (UN, US, EU and Russia), by both the United States and Israel. There was an amount of acceptence that the agreed peace plan, which includes freeze on west bank settlements and other steps to be taken, had to be postponed until after the Israeli election.
Now, however, frustration is growing as the Israelis backed by the US are arguing for further delays: waiting until a new government is formed. This may well take weeks, and the other parties in the quartet are considering this nothing but needless delay. With a possible (probable!) war with Iraq in the near future, a delay can be bad news for the whole peace plan.
4:44:34 AM
|
|
Old joke with addendum
Q: What do you call someone who can speak three languages?
A: Trilingual
Q: What do you call someone who can speak two languages?
A: Bilingual
Q: What do you call someone who can speak one language?
A: English
..and...
Q: What do you call someone who can't even speak that language?
A: American
Yeah, I know it's a bad idea to insult your primary audience, but I just can't help it now. No offense intended.
3:06:36 AM
|
|
XML security standard accepted
OASIS, the standards organisation for XML has adopted XACML, a security standard for exchanging security information over the Internet.
2:08:53 AM
|
|
Extreme ironing
 The Extreme Ironing Bureau (I bet you didn't know such a thing existed. See? Reading blogs can be educational) has invited contestants to submit pictures that demonstrates ironing in extreme, funny, bizarre or unusual places.
The competition allegedly runs until April 31, 2003, which is kind of funny since that date does not exist. Extreme confusion.
Yes, the dude (dudette?) on the picture is supposedly ironing up there. What s/he should do with ironed clothes up there beats me, but then I never was an extreme fashion freak.
This is the first and extremely probably the last entry on ironing in Secular Blasphemy.
I still think that website wasted an opportunity by not going with the times and calling it Xtreme Ironing, though. Or maybe not. That one's for you, Raven.
1:41:29 AM
|
|
Bush to Norway
 After weeks of pretty constant anti-war and anti-Bush propaganda in the Norwegian media, much more one-sided than it usually is, the big news today is... that President George Bush is planning to visit Norway in the end of May. Bush will only be the second US president to visit us, the previous being his predecessor Clinton three years ago. This does indicate a growing importance of NATO's northernmost country, especially as "old Europe" is giving the US administration headaches.
Unlike the Norwegian public, which has been largely anti-Bush, especially on Iraq, the Norwegian centre-right government has been more US friendly than a number of European nations further south.
Like all presidential travel plans, this plan is tentative, but it is confirmed that talks about a visit are ongoing.
(from a Norwegian article in VG)
12:56:40 AM
|
|
Burn in the basement
The Real Live Preacher is delivering a sermon of fire and brimstone. Well, if you know him, the mere idea will surprise you. Unlike most fire and brimstone preachers, though, his anger burns towards those who want to use two small Bible verses to condemn gays while ignoring, he says, the central message of love and compassion.
12:42:20 AM
|
|
Appeasement reappraised
Here is an interesting review of Christopher Priest's novel "The Separation." I have not read the novel, but the idea of alternate reality (aka Fatherland) is fascinating. Priest is a pacifist, and in his novel's alternative reality Churchill is persuaded to accept peace with Hitler, and as a result the Holocaust never happens, and the Soviet Union becomes a short experiment before it fails.
Of course, "what could have been" remains speculative, but it is a fact we do not really know if appeasement could work even with Hitler. However, I am reasonably happy it wasn't attempted. Instead of no holocaust, we could have just as well had a definite holocaust.
12:16:07 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2003; 00:15:11.
|
|
|
