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26. februar 2003
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More on Netanyahu
Tom in Paris points out that the fact that Sharon offered Netanyahu the posts as finance minister tells us a lot about Israel's economy at this time.
The post is to Nenanyahu what the front line was to Uriah, to choose a Biblical theme. He wisely declined, even if that means he may end up in the political wilderness for a while.
10:16:05 PM 
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Weatherpixie!
I stole the idea of a weatherpixie (see right hand side of my blog) from Rayne. A bit cheesy graphic, I think, but of course I had to go with the goth figure.
9:39:24 PM
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New fossil simplifies our family tree
 A new fossil from the Olduvai gorge in Tanzania, designated OH 65, throws new light on the very earliest development of humans. Paleontologists have drawn the line between the Australopithecene and Homo genus roughly where the homonids start making and using tools. The fossil (picture) consists of a portion of the lower face and and upper jaw with all teeth present.
The earliest member of Homo, called habilis for "handy man," was discovered by the Leakeys in the 1960s. As new evidence and different fossils were unearthed in the 80s, it became necessary to designate a different species to some of them, called Homo rudolfensis. However, this new found in many ways bridges the two earlier species. If the researched who published the result, Professor Blumenschine, gets his will, there will be some reshuffling of the two finds, leading to an easier overall picture.
9:14:37 PM
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Student Union bans own newspaper over ad for strip club
The University of East Anglia student newspaper Concrete got into trouble with the union that owns it after printing an ad for a Norwich strip club, including a voucher for a free lap dance. The union has taken steps to prevent the newspaper for being distributed, and spokesman Ned Glasier explained the move:
"We stopped it being distributed in the student union because we think the ad could be construed as being offensive to some of our members. It was sexist, and the voucher was going too far."
Yes, of course. When something "could be construed as being offensive" then it has to be banned. Would not want anybody being offended, good grief!
7:38:04 PM
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Netanyahu fired
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has surprisingly removed his rival Binyamin Netanyahu from the post as foreign minister, replacing him with Finance Minister Silvan Shalom, a Sharon loyalist with no strength in foreign affairs. Netanyahu was offered the post as finance minister, but declined, leaving it likely he will be sidelined in the new cabinet.
Netanyahu challenged Sharon's leadership of the Likud party in December, and this move can be interpreted as Sharon trying to get rid of his hardline arch-competitor. It is not expected to do much to change Israel's foreign policies.
4:41:35 PM
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Headline of the day
"Zorba on Zoloft" (Salon frontpage, leading to this story)
6:30:55 AM
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AIDS vaccine claims accused of being misleading
A number of AIDS treatment activist groups are criticising VaxGen for its statements about the recent results of tests, where the company praised good results among Asians and blacks. In the test, there were nine infections among the 111 blacks that received placebo, while there were only four infections among the 203 blacks who recived the real vaccination. Such a small sample rate may be too much to pin hopes on, some activists say.
More worrying, and less understandable, some activists argue that saying there are racial differences in how the vaccine works may "stir racial divisions."
I can certainly see the methodological criticisms have merit, and VaxGen has all economic interest of pushing this drug through the Food and Drug Administration for use among minorities, where AIDS is currently growing fastest. Caution should be advised, and the result need to be carefully examined by outside experts. On the other hand, I have no sympathy whatsoever for racial paranoia in this life and death question. There are genetic differences between ethnical groups, and virus infections are all about genes. If AIDS targets difference races differently, that is a natural fact we have to accept and adapt to in combatting the disease.
6:01:44 AM
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Food for thought
Bernard Loiseau, one of the absolute master chefs of the world and manager of legendary La Côte d'Or, was found dead on Monday, apparently at his own hands. His top establishment had managed to retain the three stars in the Michelin guide, but was marked down from 19/20 to 17/20 in the competing GaultMillau food guide. He had earlier threatened to kill himself if he lost a star. His collegues are already railing against the tyranny of the critics, blaming them for his death.
4:52:02 AM
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Duct tape this
There is no end of puns on the Bush administration's extreme fondness of duct tape as the foremost lifesaver. There were lots of jokes about Bush having stocks in the duct tape industry. And, of course, somebody had to find the big conspiracy link for real! Quoting Washington Post:
"Turns out that nearly half -- 46 percent to be precise -- of the duct tape sold in this country is manufactured by a company in Avon, Ohio. And the founder of that company, that would be Jack Kahl, gave how much to the Republican National Committee and other GOP committees in the 2000 election cycle? Would that be more than $100,000?"
Not to be outdone, the rest of the blogsphere is already writing about this, e.g. BoingBoing. This can probably keep us entertained for a while. After all, WPs Al Kamen completes the piece asking "Wonder who manufactures all that plastic sheeting."
So there we have it, folks. The evil right wing conspiracy recommended dead-terror-scared Americans to run out to buy duct tape to line the pockets of one of their fat cat contributors.
Sometimes it's a simple world, but I think in this case, somebody's followed the money a few steps too far.
2:57:09 AM
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Pop yourself, matey
How's this for blog introspection: The top popular link at DayPop today is... Daypop's new burst feature.
I am among the guilty. I blogged it earlier, but only because they picked me up first. Thus bringing us full circle in blogland.
2:46:38 AM
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You googled me in vain
It's not unusual that google searches lead to unhelpful blog hits, since a number of different topics follows each other, meaning more or less any constellation of search words can be found somewhere in the blogsphere, but in unrelated articles.
So also with the person who was interested enough in U.N. Weapons inspector T-Shirt to actually browse through a few pages worth of google hits, and twice have a look at my more-evil-twin's sub-blog. I, ahem, he, indeed wrote about both t-shirt and a UN weapon inspector, but not in the same entry.
If anybody actually finds a weapon inspector t-shirt, I'd like to know about it.
1:17:30 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2003; 00:16:51.
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