5. september 2003

Al-Jazeera journalist detained Al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alouni, who famously interviewed Bin Laden after 9/11-01 and covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been arrested in Spain, wanted for questioning related to al-Qaeda links. The order was authorised by Judge Baltasar Garzon, who tried to have former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet extradicted to Spain. 9:19:24 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraqi milita on the streets US forces now are patrolling potentially volatile Tikrit along with Iraqi militia. The militamen are armed and in full combat gear, they are paid volunteers picked by local tribal leaders and trained by the US. Some are former soldiers or police. "People are surprised to see them," said Staff Sgt. Mark Hill, 36, of Tampa, Fla. "One of them stopped the traffic to let an old lady pass. People would rather see them than us, or even the Iraqi police, who they don't seem to respect much." [...] Walking back to their base, the Iraqis perspired in the heat, but looked satisfied. One developed blisters on his feet. Another wore a slightly oversized pair of sunglasses and said the only words he knew in English: "I'll be back." Ah, that evil cultural imperialsm. 8:27:04 PM    comment []  trackback []

More free ebooks I am a sucker for downloading free ebooks, and was delighted to find Planet PDF, which provides a significant selection of classics available for free download. There is Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Jane Austen and also translations of works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka and others. Like every other site, this one also has a blog. And, for a good bite, there is Bram Stoker's Dracula. 8:00:41 PM    comment []  trackback []

How rich are you? Care International has set up a web page that has gotten quiet a bit of attention lately: Global Rich List. At first, you enter your annual income, and it calculates where you are on a scale from the richest to the poorest. If you're reading this, you are likely to be in the top 5 to 10 % of the world. I did not find the statistics supporting the figures, but I assume it's a good indication. Naturally, any comparison of actual income figures are likely to be seriously skewed against people in the west, at least if it is (as I assume) basing the comparison on monetary value of your income. What tells how rich or poor you are is not how many US$ you have, but what you can buy for it where you live. Which is why, for example, a Norwegian can move to the UK, take a serious cut in his monetary income, but since the prices are comparably lower, he is not worse off. What is the price of a bread in e.g. Zambia? Yet, when the differences are as large as this page indicates, you can argue that this is bitfiddling. An argument I do consider misleading is the following "did you know" box on the page: Three decades ago, the people in well-to-do countries were 30 times better off than those in countries where the poorest 20 percent of the world's people live. By 1998, this gap had widened to 82 times. Now, if we ignore debt (and I think we should) you can't be poorer than zero. Yet, there is for all intents and purposes no real limit to how rich somebody can become. So even if the real income for a family in the third world has increased so it can provide comfortably for itself, the "gap" may have increased many times, since people in the developed world will have become so much richer. It is much more meaningful to discuss how well off people in the developing world are, than comparing them to the rich world. Riches is not a zero-sum game, contrary to the opinion of many. Even if the west becomes filthy rich, it doesn't mean that people in developing countries are really worse off. 6:21:24 PM    comment []  trackback []

Blix glowing for nuclear energy International experts and the nuclear industry are setting up the World Nuclear University to promote peaceful use of atomic energy. For the inauguration they had obtained the support of many famous experts, including environmentalist Professor James Lovelock (famous for the new-agish Gaia hypothesis) and former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, who warned that environmental risks like global warming are a greater risk than nuclear proliferation. "While I would be the last to underestimate the risk of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, I think the environmental risks we face are even greater." The experts said nuclear power will be necessary to cope the growing need for energy in the years to come. No word on how many Iranians and North Koreans attended. 4:14:08 PM    comment []  trackback []

Snoop on your daughter's panties I sincerely hope that TeenScreen is a hoax product, but I fear it's real. It's a 5-minute semen detection kit for home use, so parents can find out from their daughters' used underwear or bedsheets whether she is sexually active. The FAQ explains: Undergarments would be the most probable place to start your investigation. Other common  articles are things like sheets, blankets, car seats, pajamas, clothing and furniture.  So if your father check your used laundry, girls, he might not be a pervert, he might be a ... uh, nevermind. The site is silent what to do if the kit detects something. I suspect whoever would use this product would react hysterically. It claims to be "the only product of it's [sic] kind" and I sincerely hope so. It is marketed to protect teenage girls from pregnancy, but frankly, isn't it a bit late when her underwear is dirty? There is more, of course. There always are. The sibling product CheckMate (groan) from the site InfedilityToday (warning: domain name doesn't keep what it promises) allows men (obviously) to check on their wives using essentially the same product. If you suspect she may have recently engaged in sexual activity, simply obtain the undergarments worn by her during the suspected  episode and do the test. If you have  not had sexual intercourse with her in the last 7 days and you obtain a positive test result, there is absolutely no way out of it, she engaged in sexual relations with someone other than yourself and infidelity has now been proven. Of course, the above would also explain why she's cheating on him! 3:58:30 PM    comment []  trackback []

Berlusconi: Judges 'mentally disturbed' Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi again causes controversy, this time in an interview with British The Spectator, where he says that judges are mentally disturbed. The interview was published today and was given by the Prime Minister to the two British journalists in his villa at Porto Rotondo. Speaking in Certosa, on Wednesday 27 August, Berlusconi replied to the question of whether Andreotti was a Mafioso: "But no, but no... Andreotti is too intelligent. Look, Andreotti is not my friend. He is on the left. It is a lie to show that the Christian Democrats, for years our most important party is not ethical, but is a party close to the criminal world. But it is not true. It is crazy." And, the Prime Minister added, "these judges are doubly mad. Firstly, politically and secondly they are just mad. To to that job you have to be mentally disturbed, you have to have psychological problems. If they do that job it is because they are anthropologically diverse from the rest of the human race." Berlusconi has been subject to a lot of legal investigations, prompting him to have the Italian parliament give him legal immunity while he remains in office. He is also a frequent sufferer of foot-in-mouth syndrome. 1:21:23 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bowling for Truth Somebody has actually made a whole website to debunk and criticise Michael Moore and Bowling for Columbine in particular. Lots of good material. but I think a few issues are overstated here and the criticism gets a bit too extreme, IMO. But it also links the better articles around. 12:17:20 PM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.10.2003; 02:23:59.