4. juli 2003

Preacher asked for sign, was struck by lightning A guest preacher in the First Baptist Church in Forest, Ohio, got unexpected quick response from above. He was preaching repentance and asked for a sign, and the church was immediately struck by lightning. Ronnie Cheney called the incident "awesome, just awesome!" Cheney said the lightning traveled through the microphone, blew out the sound system and enveloped the preacher, who wasn't hurt. The congregation resumed the services for around 20 minutes before they realised the church was on fire. A few more strategic lightning bolts, Old Man, and I'll reconsider my atheism. 9:25:48 AM    comment []

For my American readers I want to wish you a very happy 4th of July! 7:20:19 AM    comment []

Study rebuts claims of BBC's anti-war bias A detailed study by academics at Cardiff University of BBC television coverage of the Iraq war gives little support to claims of an anti-war bias in the state-owned channel. Over the three weeks of conflict, 11% of the sources quoted by the BBC were of coalition government or military origin, the highest proportion of all the main television broadcasters. The BBC was the least likely to quote official Iraqi sources, and less likely than Sky, ITV or Channel 4 News to use independent (and often sceptical) sources such as the Red Cross. The study found the BBC placed least emphasis on Iraqi casualties, which were mentioned in 22% of its stories about the Iraqi people. Casualties received most prominence on Channel 4 News, figuring in 40% of its reports about Iraqis. The corporation was least likely to report on the unhappiness of Iraqis about the invasion. As a viewer, once you start to perceive a "bias" in reporting, all further information you receive tend to reinforce that view. Therefor, it is not unusual that both sides in a conflict will perceive that media is biased against them. An objective analysis often shows surprising results. However, a mere count of sources used does not reveal the whole picture. There is also a question of how sources are used, what comments are made in each case, the length of each snip, not to mention mood-altering cinematic methods like lighting and music. Journalists know, or should know, that the mere addition of a few subtle words like 'claim,' 'admit' or 'assert' can skew a whole article or presentation. A purely quantitative analysis of sources is not sufficient to draw firm conclusions, even though it gives us significant information. 5:04:50 AM    comment []

Today's misogynous humour Read all about Women's world records: car parking, incorrect driving, biggest group toilet visit, single breath sentence, gossiping and more. 4:11:23 AM    comment []

Online vandalism contest Security experts are discussing whether the coming Saturday's "hacking competition" announced on a web site in Brazil is really anything to worry about. According to the website (which was taken down as soon as the host was made aware of it) the first to vandalise 6,000 servers on Saturday will win the competition. The Web site for the contest has a fluent Portuguese section and a broken-English section, evidence, Nunez said, that points to Brazilian "script kiddies" as the source. Script kiddies are nontechnical vandals that use tools created by other, more knowledgeable hackers to attack systems. The above comment went through an amusing garbling here, as a local radio station announced that a 'Brazilian hacker group called the Script Kiddies' was behind the contest. Of course, the journalist was unaware that 'script kiddie' is an insult thrown at newbies and wannabees, and hardly a name any group would take for themselves. 3:56:17 AM    comment []

Easy come, easy go Jakob Nielsen explains why google makes people leave our blogs faster. The easier it is to find places with good information, the less time users will spend visiting any individual website. This is one of many conclusions that follow from analyzing how people optimize their behavior in online information systems. No doubt true. The easier anyone can find us, the easier they can go and find somebody else. But we wouldn't have them here in the first place without effective search engines. 1:39:57 AM    comment []

For some spiders, sex is suicide If you think human sex is messy and problematic, think about spiders. It is well known that in a number of species, the female has the male for an after-sex-snack. Still, spiders harbour many secrets, and males of the species Argiope aurantia managed to surprise scientists by committing suicide immediately after copulation. Male spiders possess two sexual organs called pedipalps, each of which inflates after inserting into one of a pair of genital openings in the female. In the 55 cases in which a male finished mating by inserting his second pedipalp, the researchers saw that the male immediately became unresponsive and assumed a death posture with legs folded under his body. The male spiders' hearts stopped beating after a few minutes. An example of a rather clueless male committing suicide after putting his second pedipalps into a mealworm carcass trapped in a net demonstrated pretty conclusively that the female in this instance was innocent. Obviously the rather dramatic exit is a tactic to make sure no second male can copulate with the same female. In effect the corpse forms a 'chastity belt' for the female. 12:51:52 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.08.2003; 01:51:28.