8. september 2003

Already a classic "Gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." (Arnold Schwarzenegger is more controversial than he thinks) 10:42:26 PM    comment []  trackback []

Agricultural subsidies The developing countries face a virtually united group of rich countries dead-bent to not reduce its farm subsidies in the upcoming WTO negotiations. Farmer lobby groups have every government shaking in fear, and the result will be no improvement of the market access for poor third world farmers, continued expensive subsidies for the agricultural sector across Europe, and more expensive food for consumers. Norway is one of the worst offenders, as you can see from this graph in the Economist (from a comment in Bjørn Stærk blog). There is a great deal of agreement that better market access to the rich countries for developing countries would do wonders for these countries' economies. Poor farmers are de facto prohibited from exporting to Europe, Japan, Korea and the US, yet we have to pay our farmers subsidies to produce. Fair trade would be far better than aid. Yet, that is the cost that farmers in the richest countries in the world is not willing to let us pay. 10:16:38 PM    comment []  trackback []

New Palestinian prime minister, same old problem Yasser Arafat has chosen Ahmed Korei (picture) to succeed Mahmoud Abbas as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. It is a bit unclear whether he has accepted the difficult job. "Abu Ala (Korei) said that in principle he has no objection but he doesn't want to face the same Israeli obstacles that Abu Mazen (Abbas) has faced," presidential aide Nabil Abu Rdeinah said as Arafat and Korei met in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Korei was instrumental in the now defunct Oslo agreement, and should be an acceptable partner in peace talks for the US and Israel. Supposedly, Korei will require support from the EU and the US and an Israeli end to the targeted killings of militants before he accepts the post. However, the biggest obstacle to Korei lasting more than 100 days is to be found in the PA itself, more precisely on the top.  Abbas faced an impossible situation, as he was just in control of a part of the security forces in the Palestinian territories. Even if he had wanted to, he was in no position to curb militants. Nothing indicates that Arafat is more willing to give up power to Korei than to Abbas, so what precisely can change with a new prime minister? Even if the US can armtwist Sharon to suspend the targeted killings, it is blindingly obvious that the militants in Hamas, al-Aqsa and Islamic Jihad merely see a truce as an opportunity to regroup and catch their breaths before they start blowing up Israeli buses again. The Israelis now have momentum, concluding the only way to deal with the terrorism threat is to decapitate the leadership of the militants and keep them running, so they are too busy to launch murderous attacks. Sharon must see a good argument to halt the attacks, that is, he must see a reason to believe that Korei can do what his predecessor failed to do. 9:36:30 PM    comment []  trackback []

Possible return of Sars A patient in Singapore has tested positive on Sars. WHO just warned about the possible reemergence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The tests are not conclusive, it is just one man, and health authorities say it is "an isolated case." Hope so. 8:08:46 PM    comment []  trackback []

Good quack science It's a popular belief that the quack of a duck does not echo. Acoustic expert Professor Trevor Cox set out to find out if it was true, and it wasn't. Professor Cox said: "A duck quacks rather quietly, so the sound coming back is at a low level and might not be heard. "Also, a quack is a fading sound. It has a gradual decay, so it's hard to tell the difference between the actual quack and the echo." An Ig Nobel nomination is coming your way, Trevor. But thanks for giving journalists and bloggers across the world an excuse for an outragous amount of bad puns (e.g. "Duck theory is quackers", Sky; "Sound science is quackers", BBC; and the winner "It's daffy to believe the quack of a duck doesn't echo," Belfast Telegraph). 4:27:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

Vaccine against addictions A vaccine against addiction is under development. It has shown promising results when used on cocaine addicts, and there is hope it may stop other susbtances like nicotine from working in a way that causes addiction. Dr Campbell Bunce, head of cellular immunology at Xenova Research, the Cambridge-based company developing the vaccine, said: "You can imagine it being used by parents of adolescents, who might want their children to be protected against a drug-taking habit. That is something with ethical considerations that we would have to consider." I don't think too many people will say "no, that violates my right to become an addict." 2:38:03 PM    comment []  trackback []

Put in context Kriselda of different strings has gone through the quotations and references Michael Meacher makes in his Guardian letter. Just the facts. 1:45:18 PM    comment []  trackback []

Ecstacy claim gives scientists egg on face Last September, the prestigious journal Science published a study by a group of scientists lead by George Ricaurte of Johns Hopkins University, which concluded that the drug ecstacy (MDMA) was much more dangerous than previously believed. Just a single dose, they said, was enough to give lasting brain damage, and it could trigger the onset of Parkinson's disease. Today, the scientists have to go to the humiliating step to retract the study completely. The study was based on the fact that laboratory monkeys and baboons had a severe reaction to the drug when it was injected in small doses. But it emerged this weekend that the vials of liquid did not contain ecstasy. Instead, the animals received a dose of methamphetamine, or speed - a drug widely known to affect the body's dopamine system. The tubes had somehow been mislabelled by the supplier. It is no secret that there are lots of people who have serious interests in having drugs appear more dangerous than they are. The war on drugs, after all, is a large industry. And a lot of scientists were very quick to jump on this study, and lawmakers and law enforcement used it to justify (and strengthen) draconian punishments. Ricaurte is being accused of having been politically biased against drugs, and too eager to prove preconceived ideas. Ricaurte has denied political bias. He said yesterday that his laboratory made 'a simple human error', adding: 'We're scientists, not chemists.' Asked why the vials of liquid were not checked before being used on the animals, he replied: 'We're not chemists. We get hundreds of chemicals here - it's not customary to check them.' Last I checked, chemists were scientists, too. If you study how a chemical works, perhaps knowing a bit about chemistry would be a good thing. 1:21:45 PM    comment []  trackback []

A myth for our time One powerful myth in Nazi Germany was the Dolchstoß ("dagger stab") legend, the idea that the Jews had caused the German defeat in World War I by undermining the country. Is the anti-war left in "old Europe" supporting its anti-Americanism with some convenient myths of its own? I have discussed the 9/11 conspiracy theories to great extent here the last two days. Blogger Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine mentions it, too, and he also informed me that the well-respected German journal Der Spiegel currently has the 9/11 conspiracy theories on its cover. I am not sure I agree with him that is a bad thing, that fully depends on exactly how much credibility Der Spiegel gives these theories. 2:08:39 AM    comment []  trackback []

Violent Sweden You may have the impression that the Scandinavian countries are a peaceful oasis in a world of violent crime. That may to some extent still be true about the others, but Sweden has experienced a soaring increase in violent crimes, including murder, in the last few years. According to statistics from Interpol, there was an amazing 892 murders in Sweden in 2001, which with its 9M population gives it a murder rate of 10.01 per 100K population. To compare, England & Wales has less total murders at 850, giving it a rate of 1.63. Norway's murder rate is 2.66, almost a quarter of its neighbour, and the US, which has long been considered the most murderous country in the western world, has a murder rate of 5.61. The increase in murder is not an isolated case, though, as this brief table over violent crimes per 100,000 population shows (Interpol statistics is compiled every two years. All data is from 2001, except Norway which is from 2000):   Sweden Norway Eng/Wal USA Murder: 10.01 2.66 1.63 5.61 Serious assault: 667.42 77.43 30.07 318.55 Rape/sex ass.: 102.84 66.59 71.64 *31.77 There is hardly a single reason for the soaring violent crime rate in Sweden. There is one reason, however, which Swedish authorities will be reluctant to mention. Lasse Wierup, crime journalist in Sweden's largest newspaper Dagens Nyheter, points out that immigrants are grossly over-represented in crime statistics, both as criminals and victims. About half of all murder victims in Sweden were immigrants. He doesn't mention any exact statistics for murderers. Crimenologist Mikael Rying with the Swedish police does not recognise these figures, and says they must be somewhat exaggarated, as many suicides in Sweden have been reported as murder. Yet, he admits even corrected figures look very bad for Sweden. * Statistics for USA seem to list only rape, not other sexual assault, so figures are not comparable. (From a Danish article in Jyllands-Posten) 1:18:12 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.10.2003; 02:24:14.