9. juni 2003

Iraqi shiite extremist cleric invited to Iran Despite having been warned by the US not to meddle in Iraq's affairs, Iran's religious rulers have invited perhaps the most dangerous extremist in Iraq, the young shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, to Iran to attend a memorial for Ayatollah Khomeini's death. He seems to be an extremist that will be a serious danger to the US presence and the future of democracy in Iraq. His people are now using violence and intimidation to target Christians and more moderate Muslims alike. Any appeasement towards this wannabe Ayatollah may well have the same tragic consequences as Ayatollah Khomeini's return from Paris to Tehran. 8:13:58 PM    comment []

Ten Commandments If you haven't seen this one before, you should. George Carlin cuts the ten commandments down to two, and adds one of his own. Classic! 6:48:52 PM    comment []

Very Important News "McDonald's raises Big Mac prices in China" (Seattle Times) Crucial to know if you live in Seattle and fancy a Big Mac. 4:42:02 PM    comment []

SCO shows "evidence" to select few After spreading rumours for a long time, SCO finally took steps to give evidence that IBM Linux violates its trade secrets by using propriatary code by inviting a number of experts to look at examples of source code. Some lines of code in Linux are the same as those in Unix, which SCO controls, even down to the wording in explanatory comments made by the programmers, according to Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio, who reviewed samples. While different versions of so-called executable code can be very similar, "comment lines are like fingerprints," said DiDio, who added that she believes SCO could make a credible case against IBM. The problem is that SCO did not substantiate that it, and not the open community, originated the source code in the first place. SCO's tactics have angered the open source community, which has problems seeing how anyone besides Microsoft could benefit from the chaos that has resulted. Some even see this as a plot from Richmond. 2:23:31 PM    comment []

The happy hooker on an mpeg near you In what is claimed to be the first study of the porn business, Dr Alan McKee and his team shatters a number of myths. According to his study, porn actresses are well paid, they feel safe, and they love their jobs. "Speaking to porn models and producers, we've found people who enjoy what they do; some do it for money and it's relatively safe work," project boss Dr Alan McKee said. The study also looked at who consumed porn, and the dirty old man stereotype was not confirmed (as anyone can see from search engine statistics). The users consisted of people with all sort of religions, political affiliations, income groups and were reasonably equally distributed between single and married. "Our initial findings reveal pornography consumers are rich and poor, Catholics, Buddhists and Protestants, vote for all different political parties and are married and single," Dr McKee said. In the "do I get paid to do this dept", the researchers also investigated more than 50 top-selling porn videos, and found that most were not demeaning to women as typically claimed by radical feminists. "Women are generally in the driving seat when it comes to plots in modern videos – so much for pornography objectifying females," Dr McKee said. The study of body shapes represented in pornography put mainstream magazines, movies and advertising to shame. "It looks like pornography is one of the more open-minded forms of culture when it comes to sexual attractiveness," he said. Porn films featured actresses with breasts and bodies of all shapes and sizes. Implant-enhanced actresses were found to be rare and unpopular. Of course, anti-porn feminists would never demean themselves by actually investigating the topic before drawing conclusions. Politically convenient myths thrive better if one doesn't allow facts to get in the way. 12:30:49 PM    comment []

Spamming the House of Lords The honourable upper house of the British parliament is trying, with varying degrees of success, to keep up with the times. Recently, there was a debate on spam email in the House of Lords. If you have never experienced to see your mailbox overfilled with promotional garbage suggesting you have your penis enlarged, lose 20 pounds, get a free credit card, and telling you that an inordinate amount of hot young women would like to get to know you at this or that url, you might be forgiven for believing that "spam" refers to something almost edible that you buy in cans (or, to the Brits, tins). Some of the Lords may also have been confused by the fact that the debate on spam was headed by Lord Sainsbury, who in a past life was known as a supermarket baron. At any rate, Lord Renton finally broke the silence and asked: "Will the Minister explain how it is that an inedible tinned food can become an unsolicited email, bearing in mind that some of us wish to be protected from having an email?" Lord Sainsbury had to admit the etymology of the term "spam" as referring to unsolicited email eluded him, maybe he doesn't remember a particular Monty Python sketch, but he still attempted to give a reply: "I am afraid that I have not been able to find out why the term "spam" is used, but that is the meaning it now has," he said. "It is a matter that should be taken very seriously because it not only clutters up computers but involves a great deal of very unpleasant advertising to do with easy credit, pornography and miracle diets. "That is offensive to people, and we should try to reduce it." That is all you need to know, Sir. 10:42:30 AM    comment []

Virtual Occoquan #32 A new edition of the Occoquan Inquirer is out, with some of the best material from last week in Salon blogs. My article on Sex and demons in the sect is placed in the "not visual" category, which I think we are all relieved to hear. 9:34:44 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.07.2003; 00:25:12.