16. mai 2003

Iraqi POWs claim they were tortured A handful of former combattants who were war prisoners with the coaltion claims they were subjected to torture during detention. One man claims to have been subject to electroshocks, and some others claim they were beaten. Amnesty International emphasises it is in the 'very early stages' of the investigation. I have some difficulties believing this. I don't see what could be accomplished by torturing POWs, but I can see a lot being accomplished by spreading such stories. 8:28:12 PM    comment []

Noisy Constitition Day It is not unusual for parents here in Bergen, Norway to obtain drums for their children, and encourage them to hammer away at the torture instruments for hours at end, especially at this time of year. So what is wrong with them, I hear you ask. Masochists? Are they deaf? Not at all. This is a patriotic tradition, and patriotic traditions cover up for a multitude of stupidities. Perhaps more importantly, the little tonedeaf brats don't hammer away at their drums at home, or even in the suburbs where they live, but their parents wisely send them to town to gather in packs for maximum damage. Unfortunately, I live in town. The tradition is called buekorps, "bow corps" or rather "bow bands" and the bow refers to replicas of crossbows or perhaps more often rifles carried by those of the little rascals who are mercifully deprived of drums. They wear military style uniforms, they march sorta military style and they "play" military style "music." Bergen is unique for buekorps. And I am not proud of all our traditions. Luckily, tomorrow is the last day of this year's nightmare. Then it's the 17th of May, our Constitution Day, when almost the entire population dresses up, goes to town, waves flags and, in Bergen, listens to the noise of these atrocities.Some of us celebrate that it should be at least nine or ten months until we start hearing the dreadful arythmic noise of these spoiled brats and their drums again. Hooray for the 17th of May! 7:16:59 PM    comment []

A name for the times A Chinese couple has decided to name their baby son after important events in the year he was born. The parents, from Hubei, has named the son Saddam Deng Sars. Deng is the family name. The rest can't seriously be called his proper name. 5:39:28 PM    comment []

Ex-smokers lost in time Everybody who has quit smoking has noticed that the time starts moving at a crawl. Actually, a study suggests this the brain's feeling of time is seriously affected by a lack of nicotine. Researchers at Penn State University placed 22 nonsmokers and 20 smokers in a chair and asked them, after 45 seconds, how much time had lapsed. Nonsmokers and smokers alike were generally within five seconds of the right answer. The smokers were then deprieved of their cigarettes for a day, and when asked again, they overestimated the time by an average 50 per cent. Some of the test persons even thought 3 minutes had elapsed. I knew it! 4:16:32 PM    comment []

Oops, had me wonder there "John Leslie set to clear his name" (The Guardian headline to this article) No, it's not that John Leslie. Naughty boy! 3:38:18 PM    comment []

Weirdest googling yet Yes, it looks exactly like this. a google search for 'bill gates' biography religion found my blog, but it turned up with his picture and link to a sound file in my referral lists. 13. http://www.google.com/search?q=[img] bio... 1 I suspect some joker has been having fun. The referral lists look a bit weird for a few of us today. PS 1: And in posting it I found out that the jokers seem to be Radio Userland, who has built some 'shortcut' into radio. Writing bill gates in quotation marks give that result. Funny ha ha. Not! PS 2: Seems the picture slowed down my page. In case someone wonders, this image was embedded where it says [img] above. 3:12:50 PM    comment []

Terror warnings all around The authorities in Australia and New Zealand warns its citizens to be extremely cautious in south east Asia. Earlier, the US warned against travel to east Africa and south east Asia, and Britain even cancelled all flights to and from Kenya (Kenyian authorites said this was 'extreme'). In addition, the US said it had received details of specific terror threats against targets in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Last week, Lebanese officials said it had destroyed a terror network planning to kill the US embassador, and more recently they, with the aid of Syrian forces, arrested a number of alleged terrorists about to strike a western embassy. 11:30:39 AM    comment []

Blue screen of car death According to reports, Thailand's Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha recently had to be rescued from his BMW 520 limo when the on-board computer crashed, and he was unable to open doors or windows, and the air conditioning wasn't working. After some time, he managed to get someone to break a car window with a sledgehammer. This car model is powered by Microsoft Windows CE. Sometimes jokes are redundant. 10:21:39 AM    comment []

End of world postponed to next Thursday I guess you, like me, were wondering how the Japanese sect Panawave Laboratory would rationalise the non-coming of the end of the world May 15th. When dealing with such situations, there are only three responses, as Carl Sagan pointed out. Actually, there are four, one being an apology and retraction, but apart from William Miller after the 'Great Disappointent' in 1844, I don't know anyone who actually had that level of self-insight. The first is to say: well, the world didn't end since we prayed very hard. You should thank us for our prophecy being wrong. The second is to say: did we say May 15? Oops! We meant, say, May 22. Apologies for the inconvenience. But this time we got it right! Honest! The third is the Jehovah's Witness method. The sect leaders argued that the world really ended in October 1914, but we're all just too dumb to notice. Panawave Laboratory, obviously one of the weirder cults around, has opted for the second option above. Next Thursday is it. Now you know. Sorry for ruining next week. It will be short. 9:37:07 AM    comment []

Study: passive smoking does no harm A controversial study has been published in the highly regarded British Medical Journal, concluding that passive smoking is not linked to heart disease, lung cancer or mortal diseases generally. Anti-smoking lobbyists are already up in arms about the study, pointing to the fact that the researchers have received funds from the tobacco industry. That, of course, is an ad hominem response. The study has passed the stringent peer review process of the BMJ, published by the British Medical Association which are already protesting the findings. The research is based on an analysis of more than 100,000 Californian adults which were monitored by the American Cancer Society between 1959 and 1998. By focusing on 35,561 non-smokers who lived with spouses who smoked, they found no link to coronary heart disease or lung cancer, no matter how much the spouse smoked. The American Cancer Society alleges its data is being "misused." Certainly not the last word in the issue, but it emphasises that the case against passive smoking is not as clear cut as some politicians would want to make it. When evangelizing zeal takes the front seat, sober examination of the facts can just as well receive its funding from the tobacco industry as the anti-smoking lobby. 8:48:57 AM    comment []

Tax sex, please, we're German Authorities in the German city Cologne (Köln) are considering taxing sex to help pay off the city's debts. So far, not everyone indulging in carnal pleasures will be targeted, only brothels and sex shows, according to city treasurer Peter Michael Soenius.. Brothels are legal in Germany, and in theory subject to taxes. 7:07:38 AM    comment []

More bare breasts please, we're Swazi A visiting Nigerian priest has caused an outrage in Swaziland by condemning women showing bare breasts in public. The priests, who has taken the modest name Apostle Oseadeba Saint Ekho, blamed the spread of HIV and AIDS on bare breasts, and also used the opportunity to ridicule ancestor worship: "How can I ask for any help from my ancestors when they know nothing of this fast-moving technological world we live in today. They would only be confused". Of course, praying to a guy who has been dead for 2000 years is a great improvment in that respect. Swazi senator Masalekhaya Simelane said the cleric is ill-informed about Swazi culture: "Swazi men are attracted by women's naked thighs not their breasts." How about both? 6:33:30 AM    comment []

More public sex please, we're British Britain is revising its sex laws, and about bloody time we'll say. The new Sex Offences Bill replaces two laws from 1824 and 1847, respectively, in the meantime the sexual revolution has come and, arguably, gone. Instead of focusing on 'public decency' and such archaic pseudo-religious moralisms, the law focuses on serious crimes, rape and sexual abuse of children. Based on research, the more likely a person committing a specific act is to also to be a child molestor, the more seriously the new law treats it. So a flasher risks up to two years in prison, while a streaker, typically a man or woman running nude across a football field, is treated as a social nuicance not a criminal. And while there were rumours that the new law would ban outdoor sex altogether, that has proven false. The government says the law is not intended to "criminalise sexual activity that takes place outdoors but in an isolated place where one would reasonably expect not to be observed". If you're not hiding well enough, you are flashing. If you are, they are voyeurs, and risks a two year sentence. Perhaps most importantly, however, the new law finally ends discrimination between gays and straight people in Britain. 6:15:32 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2003; 03:30:02.