4. april 2003

Britain clamps down on occupied territories exports Britain made it clear they consider the Israeli-occupied West Bank settlements illegal by making clear that exports from the occupied territories would not be liable to the zero tax of Israel proper. Israel does not distinguish between its own territory and occupied territories in declaring its products for exports, and Tony Blair's government makes it clear that goods where the origin is in "reasonable doubt" will face the higher taxes.The European Union will also tighten these controls. 11:27:38 PM    comment []

War - what is it good for? Soul singer Edwin Starr, most famous for his 1970 song "War," died Tuesday of a heart attack at sixty-one in his home in Nottingham, England. He enjoyed success in the 70s as an iconic anti-war singer, giving voice to thousands protesting the Viet Nam war. His hit song "War" was later covered by the quintessential 80s band Frankie Goes to Hollywood and, better known to an American audience, Bruce Springsteen. 10:19:48 PM    comment []

"Second superpower" - how a meme mutates On February 17, Patrick Tyler of the New York Times coined the phrase "the second superpower" to describe the power of the global anti-war protests. In no time at all, anti-war campaigners, NGOs and even UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had picked up and used the phrase. One of the more successful early adapters was James F Moore, who wrote a popular essay and even set up a blog to spread his own version of the phrase, quite different from the original, and the propagation of this mutant was so rapid that it drowned out the original. Andrew Orlowski calls it "googlewashing."   What is Moore's vision, anyway? There is an emerging second superpower, but it is not a nation. Instead, it is a new form of international player, constituted by the “will of the people” in a global social movement. I seem to hear a distant echo of the 60s peace movement of campus radicals. "Give peace a chance," everybody. Let's all hold hands to bring on utopia: we do not have to create a world where differences are resolved by war. It is not our destiny to live in a world of destruction, tedium, and tragedy. We will create a world of peace. The problem, or one of them anyway, is that the peace movement is united only by what it is against. The anti-war protesters comprise people ranging from radical muslims who want to bring sharia law to the world to socialists who still dream about a worker's revolution to overthrow the tyranny of the capitalists. They may be united in burning effigies of George Bush, but give either of them a chance to realise their particular dream world and the citizens of this "second superpower" will be at each others throat in a second. 9:42:41 PM    comment []

Donald the po-8 Who should have believed that in the chest of the hawk of hawks, US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, a poet's heart is pounding? The Situation Things will not be necessarily continuous. The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous Ought not to be characterized as a pause. There will be some things that people will see. There will be some things that people won't see. And life goes on. From the October 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing. 8:05:33 PM    comment []

US armour wipes out Iraqi forces Walter Rodgers of CNN was embedded near the front line where an armoured column from the US Army's 3rd division encountered stiff, if primitive, Iraqi resistance. Iraqi forces in Soviet-era tanks (picture), buses and trucks were no match for US armour (I presume Abrams MBTs and Bradley APCs), which wiped out the opposition practically without losses. As expectations for coaltion success was sky-high before the war, disapointment was inevitable in the first week of war. Now, as expectations are lowered, and the coalition forces have learned to read its inferior foe, war progress seems to be quite remarkable. As the allied momentum increases in force, Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf no longer has any need for the truth, and his besieged regime takes refuge in lies and fantasies. Even as journalists could hear the coaltion armour from the city of Baghdad, he claimed their forces were at least 100 miles away from the city. After the coalition took the airport overnight, he now threatens a counter-attack, and claims the forces there are completely "surrounded." He also threatened "unconventional action", interpreted to mean guerilla or suicide attacks not WMDs, as he read alleged messages from his boss urging the people of Baghdad to resist the invaders. 7:36:19 PM    comment []

Possible chemical weapons found in Iraq It's hardly wise to believe unconfirmed coalition claims, but it is worth noting that US forces claims to have found 'unidentified white powder,' nerve agent antidote and chemical warfare manuals in Arabic at Latifiya outside Baghdad, a large military complex that has been a suspected site for the production of chemical and biological weapons for decades. At a second site nearby, vials with an unidentified liquid and more white powder was found. Saddam's coke factory? Not likely. If the coaltion has any sense, they should bring in credible independent experts pronto to verify the finds, as there will always be suspicion that US forces could have planted chemical weapons to justify the war post-hoc. 7:20:31 PM    comment []

Naked for elephants Australian model Imogen Bailey dressed only in chains to protest the treatment of Thai baby elephants. I have to admit, though, that elephants are very far from my mind when I see that picture. 4:01:34 PM    comment []

Work of the Devil You may remember the 80s, when board games like "Dungeons & Dragons" filled the niche in the Christian fundies' world view previously held by witches, and later by Marilyn Manson. There was no end to the Satanic horrors which befell those who rolled the dice to throw fireball spells at attacking orcs. You just can't miss this very cool flash movie (req. sound). PS: This Jack Chick tract against D&D just looks like a parody. It's actually the real thing. 3:36:35 PM    comment []

Can less information be more? If you wanted to make a robot able to catch a ball, you could make it perform extremely complex calculations of differential equations to calculate its trajectory. Or, you could program it to do like humans and focus on one single variable: focus on the ball and move to keep the angle between the eye and the ball constant. Gerd Gigerenzer gives us some fascinating examples of how it is sometimes better to make our decisions based on less information. The trick is to focus on the right variables. He also emphasises how important it is to understand everyday statistics, and how doctors who fail to understand statistics often gives us bad advice. 12:27:28 PM    comment []

War opponents blocked from $80bn war chest The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved almost $80bn in financing the Iraq war and the start of the reconstruction, but added a controversial amandment: companies from France, Germany, Russia or Syria were prohibited from receiving any of these money. 10:52:07 AM    comment []

RIAA sues students for file sharing Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed suit against two university students who ran local Mpg3 file sharing services on the school networks. According to the federal lawsuit, the students ran the services Phynd, Flatlan and Direct Connect on campus computer networks. Obviously, the RIdiots would rather die than accepting that one prime reason people buy less music is that the music industry prefer pushing copycat crap instead of looking for inventive artists. 10:34:37 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.05.2003; 02:58:54.