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11. mars 2003
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Sort nonsense
The recently updated blog list suddenly stopped being sorted. As far as I can see, it is being updated, but the order does not change as it should. As a computer programmer I find it very difficult to understand how this could have happened. But obviously, it has.
Update: and there it's fixed, just as if it wasn't ever there.
11:44:52 PM 
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"Human shields" running home
A significant number of the so-called "human shields" that went to Iraq has left for home, after realising that this was for real.
If newspapers have been telling the truth, there is only one Norwegian left there now. I doubt it's one from the deeper end of the gene pool...
11:37:07 PM
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Status: Out slaying dragons
 The NYT has an article about Instant Messaging, which is catching on faster than email did back then. And unlike email, IM comes into businesses from the bottom up, and many employers react as they usually do to ideas that doesn't come from them: they block it. But many corporations are finding that IM is a great productivity tool.
I always think it's amusing to read about something I've been using for years as if it was a new thing.
PS: the article is wrong in claiming that AOL in any way invented IMing. ICQ was aquired by AOL long after it had pioneered instant messaging.
10:35:38 PM
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Handwriting matters
I lived under the irrational illusion that there was some secret bond between doctors and pharmacists that make the latter understand the obscure handwriting of the former. That seems to not be the case, as misunderstandings based on similar-sounding names of medicines cause a lot of errors to occur every year, some of them lethal.
10:18:33 PM
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Mother of all bombs
The US military has tested the MOAB (officially an acronym for Massive Ordnance Air Blast) at a Florida Air Force base. The bomb carries 18,000 pounds of tritonal explosives, making its use resemble a nuclear explosion. No doubt,t his test is a part of the psychological war against Iraq. Its massive blast will, US experts hope, scare enemies to stop fighting and surrender.
In the case of the Iraqi army, it appears to be overkill.
9:05:32 PM
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Americans turn to European online news
Perhaps disappointed with the one-sided news presented by mainstream US media, a growing number of Americans are turning to European news sources, according to Journalism.co.uk. In particular English sites like BBC News and Guardian Unlimitied report they enjoy an increased number of Americans reading and commenting.
There is in fact a growing trend that people online realise there is no need to limit their news sources to local media.
I suggest one more reason for increased reading of many news sources: Google News, which combines all the world's online English-speaking newspapers into what can be desicribed as one large meta-site.
4:32:27 PM
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It's official!
"Blogging goes mainstream" (CNN headline)
4:15:03 PM
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Cyprus talks have collapsed
The talks between the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus has collapsed entirely, and Kofi Annan says the UN-brokered peace negotiations has reached "the end of the road," as the Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash even refused to continue the discussions.
The Greek part of Cyprus will be joining the European Union alone.
3:58:14 PM
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Futile rebellion against Blair
 A number of news sources report that there is a growing opposition to Tony Blair (picture) within the Labour party over Iraq, and that rebel MPs are planning to call for a party conference to have him removed as leader.
Make no mistake about it: Tony Blair's position within the Labour party remains solid, and in parliament even his major opposition, the Tories, are totally on his side. The rebels in this case are "old" Labour left-wingers who were opposed to Blair's "new Labour" in any case, and just try to cash on on the unpopularity of Blair's stance on Iraq. Blair's history of electoral victories after many years of a Labour in crisis will make him very hard to challenge.
What can threaten Blair, however (like it can threaten his collegue in Washington DC) is the war against Iraq going badly. When the shooting starts, anyone not rallying behind the troops will look incredibly bad to the public, even a public skeptical about the war. However, if civilian casualties are high, and no stockpiles of WMD turns up, Blair may face his first real crisis as a party leader.
Blair is banking on a swift military victory, the allied troops being received as liberating heroes among ordinary Iraqis, and stockpiles of illegal weapons being turned up. If that happens, Blair can say "told you so" and a significant number of people will forget they were opposed to the war.
Any other outcome will lead him into trouble, as it will for President Bush.
3:24:18 PM
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Depleted Uranium, again
After the (first) Gulf war and in particular the Kosovo war, there was quite a bit of media scare about the use of Depleted Uranium (DU) in anti-tank ammunition, and many accusations that there was an increased occurrence of leukemia and other cancers. Medical studies were done on the soldiers that had served both places, but by the time the studies were completed, media's attention had moved elsewhere, so not many people heard that the claims were rejected as totally groundless.
Most of the sites you get if you google for DU are entirely worthless, as any application of a sensible bullshit detection kit will reveal pretty fast.
Pugwash is the nuclear disarmement organisation that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. On their websites they have one article that I have been able to find that discusses DU (in second half of article). It will be very difficult to dismiss Pugwash as being in cohorts with the industrial-military complexTM, and their all-but rejection of DU as particularly dangerous is well worth a note.
Rayne recently posted about DU, which prompted me to dig up some old material from the previous time this scare surfaced.
1:56:29 PM
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Psychologist: Thomas the tank engine can frighten children
 Psychologist Brian Young at Exeter university is worried about the number of train accidents in the children's TV series Thomas the Tank Engine.
He worries that the viewers of the series, the youngest children, may be negatively influenced and scared off trains for life.
TV may well be bad for children, but it seems to be absolutely lethal for the sanity of psychologists.
12:20:46 PM
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US: Blix played down drone
US officials say UN weapons inspectors have found evidence of a pilotless drone aircraft and cluster bombs that could be used to deliver chemical and biological weapons, and mounted criticism on Hans Blix for not including this information in his oral report to the Security Council.
In addition, officials worried that these weapons could be used against troops in the coming conflict.
Hans Blix rebuffed the criticism, saying that "Everyone tries to squeeze us to get as much mileage as they can."
12:11:34 PM
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Diplomatic overdrive
France and the US is working overtime trying to persuade Security Council members to vote against and for the new resolution, respectively. Both countries seem to go to great lengths bribing or threatening countries to support them.
And this is what they call international law? If beacons of humanitarianism like Syria and Angola can be persuaded to support a resolution, then it is suddenly in accordance with "international law," if not it isn't.
1:15:15 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:33:04.
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