2. mai 2003

Iraqi shiite clerics urges Islamic law imposed on all Some shiite clerics in Iraq are calling for strict Islamic law to be introduced in Iraq, demanding that all women should be veiled and alcohol outlawed. One of them, Muqtada Sadr, son of a prominent Ayatollah killed under Saddam Hussein's regime, insists that these laws should also apply to Iraq's half a million Christians: "Alcohol and the display of a woman's body are forbidden for us Muslims, as they are for Christians, upon whom I call to give up these banned things." Just so you know how clueless that guy is about other religions. The US has made it clear that it will not tolerate Iraq turning into a cleric-rule dictature modelled on Iran. 11:50:46 PM    comment []

Sample this, infidels! It just had to happen. Record producers in Britain are planning to sample some of the most famous lines from Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the infamous former Iraqi information minster, and making it into a dance hit. If that guy is still alive, he can get a hell of a lot of royalties. 11:17:23 PM    comment []

Welcome home, Mr President "President Bush on Friday emerged from his flag-waving ship visit to sobering news that U.S. unemployment was up, and he reacted by demanding Congress approve his tax cut and defending deficit spending." (Reuters) There is a German joke about a guy trying to align table legs. "I keep cutting and cutting, but it's still too short." 10:55:19 PM    comment []

Chinese sub accident All 70 crew are reported dead in an accident with a Chinese non-nuclear submarine east of the Neichangshan islands "in recent days." As usual, Chinese military authorities are very sparse with information, for example how all the crew died while the sub itself was salvaged rather quickly. The sub is believed to be of the Ming class, an obsolete design the Soviets took from German WWII vessels. These subs are still being built. China has had no end of troubles with their own submarine programmes. 10:22:34 PM    comment []

Climber cuts off own arm with pocket knife Aron Ralston of Aspen, Colorado, is a very tough guy. That is now established beyond doubt. When he was out climbing, his arm became trapped by a falling boulder. He spent four days trapped until he ran out of water, and realised that there was no way he could be found as the spot was not visible from the air. Drastic action was required. Using his pocketknife, he amputated his arm below the elbow and applied a tourniquet and administered first aid.He then rigged anchors, fixed a rope and rappelled 75 feet to the canyon floor.He hiked downstream and was spotted about 3 p.m. by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter. He is now hospitalised in a serious condition. I always carry my Victorinox pocket knife around. You never know when somebody trapped under a boulder might need to borrow it. 8:16:23 PM    comment []

Down the hole The Memory Hole is an interesting site bringing to light a number of cases that would merit more press coverage than it received. In September 2002, when building a case for war against Iraq, Bush claimed publicly that a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency showed that Saddam Hussein was close to developing nuclear weapons. In fact, the report said no such thing; quite the opposite. The White House were forced to admit the report was misrepresented, but basically stood by its conclusion. More interestingly, MSNBC published a story about this mistake on its front page, but a few hours later, the story disappeared completely. Writing about the incident in a now well-known (among bloggers anyway) New York Times column, Paul Krugman asked: Did the news media feel that it was unpatriotic to question the administration's credibility? The Memory Hole has preserved the original MSNBC article. What happened to all that fuss about a liberal media bias? 7:40:13 PM    comment []

Australian outcry over cleric who covered up child abuse When Australian Governor-General Peter Hollingworth was Archbishop of Brisbane, he allowed a priest to continue in his position even though he knew he was a dangerous pedophile. Now the people are demanding his resignation as Governor-General, a position that makes him the Queen's official representative in Australia. Hollingworth has admitted making a "serious error of judgement" but Australia's prime minister John Howard, perhaps uncharacteristically, preaches forgiveness in this case. Perhaps the post as Governor-General requires a man able to overlook even the gravest crimes. 7:29:28 PM    comment []

Who needs stars anyway? Check out this interesting article by Peter Bart and Peter Guber about the troubled relationship between movie stars and the big studios. Most worrying for me is the trend towards uniform movies that take few risks and just caters to the smallest common denominator. The movies need stars and the stars need movies, but to sustain the financial weight of star casting, a film must be geared to the widest possible audience. It must offer a story accessible to the global market - no subtle character conflicts in the plot, no shadings of irony in the dialogue. Considered purely as "content", the word favoured by the multinationals, the only way a superstar vehicle can justify its cost is if it's predesigned to tap into all revenue streams For the truly remarkable movies, we have to look out for the few surprises with unknown stars that manges to find risk money. But as long as the big movies continue to make the big bucks, what incites the studios to take those risks? 4:17:30 PM    comment []

Japan wary of new mystery cult Members of a strange cult that just ended a standoff with the police is making Japan uneasy. After the 1995 Tokyo subway attack by the militant sect Aum there has been increasing attention to strange sects. This group, calling itself Pana Wave Laboratory, surely qualifies as strange by any criteria. The cult members dress in all-white with surgical gloves and face masks, using mirrors and white sheets as shields (see picture), and move around constantly as they fear being targeted by communists trying to kill them with electromagnetic waves. Yes, that strange. More worrisome, the cult says in a pamphlet that if their leader, an old woman, dies, the members will "exterminate all humankind at once." Reportedly, they believe that the magnetic poles will be reversed on May 15, causing total devastation to the world. Incidentally, and possibly the inspiration of some of these fruitcakes, there are some scientists that speculate that a process is going on in the Earth that will result in a pole reversal, as the magnetic north is moving around somewhat erratically. But this is something that naturally happens every 250,000 years or so, with no proven negative effect on the planet's life. But your compass will be pretty unreliable if this happens in our lifetimes. 2:04:31 PM    comment []

Highest salaries in Europe According to a report from the Federation of European Employers (Fedee), Denmark, Switzerland and Norway have the highest salaries in Europe, in that order. These three countries are described as being in a class of their own. Not surprisingly, countries in eastern Europe are on the bottom of the list. In Belorus and Moldova the salaries are only 1.25 % of what we have in Norway. Interestingly, Norway is the country with the smallest differences in salaries between management and employees. A Norwegian top leader makes "only" 17 times more than a worker in the industry. In Moldova a top manager makes 73 times more (which may not say that much), and in France 25 times more. (From a Norwegian article in VG. I have so far not found the actual press release or report from Feedee) 12:48:15 PM    comment []

Ew, no thanks! Source: HumorShack. 1:30:56 AM    comment []

Rumours that Mexican killings are linked to organ trafficing In the last 10 years more than 300 women have been murdered in the Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez, near the border to Texas, and despite a number of arrests the killings have continued. Now, the attorney general's office are reportedly examining if the killings can be linked to organ traffickers. There has been rumours in Latin America for decades that children were kidnapped and murdered for organs, and those wicked rumours have been proved unfounded. There are a number of similar persistent urban legends about organ trafficking, and innocents have been lynched by angry mobs who believed these tales. While it is not entirely impossible that life my imitate gruesome fiction one day, these stories should be treated with the utmost caution. 12:36:48 AM    comment []

Lese-majesty Jordan's beautiful Queen Noor has written her autobiography, titled Leap of Faith and for some reason Slate's Craig Offman is deeply offended that she as an Arab queen holds a pro-Arab opinion. I have not read the book, and I am not that likely to do so, but Offman has at least failed to convince me that she is "anti-Semmitic", a label thrown too liberally around at anyone criticising the state of Israel. When he has to chide her for using the term "Zionist", which for years was the self-designation of Jews (and others) supported the creation of the Jewish state, you realise he is grasping at straws. Noor blames the political power of Jews in Hollywood, American business and media for the extreme pro-Israel bent of the US opinion (unmatched anywhere in the world, I may add). Perhaps not politically correct enough for Offman, but she's not the first who have made that observation. 12:08:03 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:29:16.