9. mai 2003

Rumsfeld helped supply nuclear reactors to North Korea Three years ago, Donald Rumsfeld sat on the board of Zurich-based ABB when it won a $200m contract to supply the dsign and key components to North Korea's nuclear reactors. The controversial contract was allowed under Clinton's policy of cooperation with the regime. Many conservatives were opposed to the deal, but critics claim that Rumsfeld let desire for profit override any security concerns he may have had. One unnamed ABB board director says that Rumsfeld was actively lobbying his conservative friends on behalf of the company. 11:53:57 PM    comment []

Official: everything is bad for you! "Some vitamin and mineral supplements can be bad for you if you take too many for too long, Britain's food watchdog cautioned Thursday." (Reuters) 10:23:50 PM    comment []

The daddy of all bikes The Dodge Tomahawk is claimed to be the most powerful bike for sale ever. 500bph, 8.3 l V10 Viper engine, price is ~$200K, named after the cruise missile, 0-60mph in 2.5 sec (est!) and top speed is supposedly 300+ mph (est again!). Yeah right. The world record is still 322 mph, and those bikes looks like space rockets for a reason. I doubt anyone could hang on to the bike at even close to that speed. But I can believe it kicks arse. For some reason it made me think about Judge Dredd's 'Lawmaster.' Oh, yeah, do visit the site. The music alone is worth it. 10:31:47 AM    comment []

If you divide by zero, you go to hell! The next time you encounter a math teacher or anyone else who claims that you get infinity when you divide by zero, send them to this web site. The truth of the matter is that division is undefined for zero. You can't do it. It's nonsense. Wrong. Absolutely morally evil and irresponsible. You don't get 'infinite' as an answer, as some say, for a number of reasons, the simplest being that infinite is not a number. So: X / 0 is undefined, and 0 / 0 is indeterminate. 8:37:50 AM    comment []

About gods Steven Den Beste writes a very good article arguing, among other things, that atheism can't be proven. Any such metaphysical debate gets tangled down in definition. For practical purposes, in this part of the world, an atheist is someone who does not believe that the Christian, Jewish or Muslim version of "God" exists. Atheists don't believe in other gods either, but have generally not bothered to argue against the existence of lesser-than-all-powerful gods like Zevs or Odin. When someone is an atheist, it generally means they reject the common belief in God that is prevalent in their societies. 4:51:25 AM    comment []

Celebrated neighbour's death A 63 year old man in Ulrichtstein in Germany has been fined around €2500 for celebrating the death of his gay neighbour with song and fireworks as his body was taken out of the house. The neighbour's partner reported him for the tasteless stunt, and he was fined for insulting the memory of a dead man. (From a Norwegian article in VG) 4:34:51 AM    comment []

Study: Those who download music also buy it A comprehensive study by Nielsen//NetRatings showed that those who download music off the Net are also much more likely to buy music, on and offline, than the average web users. The study showed that 22 % of the Internet universe, nearly 31 million people, downloaded music in the last 30 days. And those who downloaded music was 111 % more likely to have bought rap music (the most popular genre) over the last 3 months than average net users. This flies in the face of claims from the recording industry that file swapping is a threat to their sales. On the other hand, maybe waging a war against their best customers can hurt their bottom line. Will the RIAA ever understand that? I don't think so. The industry will keep cranking out mass-produced crap, ignore real talents with original ideas, and blame file sharing for their continued decline in sales. 4:02:52 AM    comment []

Wal-Mart bans sale of 'lad' magazines The US superstore chain Wal-Mart has given in to pressure from Christian groups and discontinues sale of three British men's magazines, Stuff, Maxim and FHM. The magazines write on men's issues like fast cars, cool gadgets and scantily clad women. Guess which part the fundies object to. This decision, sharply criticised by the publishers and the Magazine Publishers of America, will probably seriously affect the sales of the magazines. The owners of Wal-Mart, and the customers who are offended by the scantily clad women, have no objection to the sale of firearms. Violence is, after all, a good Christian tradition. 3:33:20 AM    comment []

It's a bird, it's a plane... no, it's super-baby! The new born Swedish boy came out of his mommy's womb with his hand clenched to a fist in front of him, and the parents wanted to remember this by naming him 'Stålman,' the Swedish name for Superman. The parents, Johan and Sara Lindenger, wanted to name the boy David Rune Stålman, because he just looked like a flying Superman when he was born. The baby is called "Stålis" in the Swedish press. Swedish authorties have rather lax naming laws, but they refused this name. They argued that the name (a third first name; not that unusual in Sweden) sounded more like a last name (huh?), and besides, it could give the child problems later in life. Sometimes Swedish jokes are redundant. (From a Norwegian article in VG) 12:59:05 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:29:39.