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26. mars 2003
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Iraqi forces strike back
Somewhat protected from coalition aircraft by sandstorms, a column of up to 1,000 Iraqi military vehicles is reported to have left Baghdad and heading south towards Naraf, maybe to retake a strategic bridge over Euphrates captured by the coalition forces this week. At the same time, between 70 and 120 armoured vehicles have left Basra and are heading south in an apparently "offensive move."
Allied commanders in the target area are reportedly ill-prepared to deal with an armed column, and have called in airstrikes to slow the advance. Some reports suggest this is units from the elite Republican guard.
11:31:19 PM 
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UN: Health effects from Depleted Uranium 'highly unlikely'
After a number of hysterical newspaper reports and politicians following the use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions in the Yugoslavia conflict, almost all relevant countries set down expert groups to assess the risks.
The expert analysises of a number of countries and the WHO consistently concluded that there was no evidence whatsoever that DU had any relation to negative health effects.
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has just published a report based on a very careful analysis of all available evidence in Bosnia. This could be an interesting apropos to a debate on DU on this blog earlier.
The extremely sensitive equipment used was able to detect residues of DU in drinking water and in the air in two buildings.
The recorded contamination levels, however, are very low and do not present immediate radioactive or toxic risks for the environment or human health.
While including the standard disclaimers and asking for more work, this study was surprisingly strong in dismissing claims from certain quacks:
The existing scientific data on uranium and DU health effects indicate that it is highly unlikely that DU could be associated with any of the reported health problems.
Let's see how far this information is able to penetrate.
11:10:28 PM
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WTO: US steel tariffs illegal
The World Trade Organisation has issued a preliminary ruling that the US decision to impose tariffs on steel imports violated free trade rules. The ruling is now sent to the parties (US and EU) for comments, and we can expect a final comment in a month or so.
Judging by the US attitude to multilateral agreements and bodies lately, they may just tell the WTO to stuff it. The US is in favour of its free trade, not everybody elses.
10:16:45 PM
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Collateral propaganda
 Two coalition missiles (or bombs) hit a market in Baghdad, killing at least 14 people and injuring 30, according to Iraqi sources. The report is corraborated by Reuters reporters who were on the scene shortly afterwards, and in fact indicates the casualities were notably highter.
It is interesting to note that this story currently headlines BBC News, The Guardian and the London Times. and has a top story status on Reuters.
The shameless propaganda outlet Fox News seems to bury the story, if it mentions it at all. I can't find it at the New York Times' website either. It is currently breaking news on CNN (but no details; they are getting slow). The very slow (or missing) American reporting of this item means that the story hasn't made it to the frontpage of Google News yet.
I am hoping this is just caused by the time difference, and not by a deliberate underreporting of civilian casualties in US media.
1:11:19 PM
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Adobe: PC outperforms Mac
 An Adobe webpage demonstrating that a PC running Windows "consistently outperformed the Macintosh machine, at an impressive rate," has Apple seriously riled up.
The tests compares benchmarks on Adobe After Effects, Illustrator and Photoshop, all very computer-intensive software products.
Of course, it is a particularly stinging blow to Apple that this test is published by Adobe, which has a fair share of credit for Apple's popularity among graphics designers, and can't be accused of being biased in favour of the Windows/Intel camp.
The example graph shows the difference between performance in creating an Adobe AfterEffects animation incorporating layered Illustrator and Photoshop files.
10:50:26 AM
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Quacks are patriots, too
Pleasanton veterans wants to help battling terrorists and improve homeland security, and to accomplish that noble goal, they have turned to dowsing.
"Discover how dowsing techniques could be used to support homeland security ... by military, law enforcement, fire prevention, National Guard, mil- Frank said. "My attitude is that in the world of homeland security, you have to be more open-minded in looking for solutions. You can't wait for the FBI and police to come up with solutions when you have the bad guys living among us."
I couldn't say it better myself, Frank. No need to find real solutions when we have fantasies easily at hand. If it doesn't work, what's the danger? Well, read on.
"One thing someone suggested is that if this works, could you identify a potential terrorist while he's in the airport?" Frank said.
Now it gets a bit more scary. Dowsers, who have a proven trackrecord of being exactly as reliable as the toss of a coin, wants to point out random innocents as terrorist suspects. Not only are they going to harass innocents, they will waste security personell's time, too.
However, I have a suggestion for how to make good use of dowsers, and at the same time check out if they really believe their own claims.
Send them down to Iraq and make them search through minefields.
10:35:10 AM
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Al Jazeera in English
I wrote about the immensely popular Arab cable TV network Al Jazeera recently, and many wondered why they don't provide a news service in English. Apparently, they have listened to us, as many in the blogsphere is now reporting they have put up English webpages.
However, either they have grossly underestimated the traffic they would receive, or there is some foul play here, because I've been unable to access those webpages all day, and only very rarely have I been able to get up the Arab-language frontpage.
Update: This temporary site seems to work now.
3:59:25 AM
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Senate again snubs Bush
In a surprise move, a coaltion of moderate republicans and democrats in the US Senate have voted to reduce the size of Bush's proposed tax cut by 50%. This is certainly not the last word on the question, but a major upset for the admonistration's economic plan.
2:54:12 AM
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Mugabe compares himself to Hitler
No doubt assuming that world attention is elsewhere, Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has decided to go all the way to dictature. At a recent state funeral for one of his ministers, he is reported to have said:
I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for.
Shortly afterwards, his armed forces started a violent attack on the opposition in revenge of the opposition-arrenged general strike last week, leaving more than 250 people injured. There are also reports of torture of political prisoners.
While some western nations, in particular the UK and more recently the US, have imposed sanctions against Zimbabwe's government, some other countries, most notably France, are working to undermine these.
2:37:05 AM
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Lying for Columbine?
I was rather impressed with Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine when I watched it some time back. I did observe that it used very speculative tehcniques to make its points, but didn't really believe it told outright lies.
David T. Hardy has written a paper asking if it is Documentary or Fiction, and argues convincingly that it is the latter. Check it out. If the allegations here are correct, and they appear well-documented, then Moore deserves far less respect than I, for one, have given him so far.
2:00:14 AM
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Haliburton awarded Iraq contract
Here is a big fat cookie for the conspiracy-minded: Halliburton Co., where vice-president Cheney was CEO up to 2000, is one of the winners of the early contracts for rebuilding Iraq.
Of course, Haliburton was also rewarded a big fat contract to rebuild Bosnia, at a time when Bill Clinton was president. A possibility that will be overwhelmingly ignored by the leftists is that Haliburton got the contract because they had the best bid, and are well-renowed for doing a good job.
1:15:41 AM
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Uprising in Basra reported
British forces have reported a civilian uprising among the civilian shiah population in Basra. Loyalist forces are firing at civilians with mortars. At the same time, aid organisations report a desperate situation with a lack of water there.
The Iraqi government denies the report. But they would, wouldn't they?
This is likely to force the coaltion to enter the city to engage the loyalist forces. The people in southern Iraq remembers how they were let down by the western powers when they rebelled after GF1.
12:24:30 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2003; 01:34:47.
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