19. september 2003

Parking vigilante in spandex I have written about alleged British real-life superheroes in the past, and those turned out to be hoaxes. Angle Grinder Man, on the other hand, appears to be the real thing, sort of. He doesn't care about people in distress, though, but cars caught in wheel clamps by parking wardens. He is Britain's self-styled "first wheel-clamp and speed camera vigilante cum subversive superhero philanthropist entertainer type person." That's who. For those not familiar with industrial machine tools, an angle grinder is the saw best suited to cutting through plates of steel, such as, say, the wheel clamps that authorities use to immobilize illegally parked cars in London. And Angle Grinder Man offers his "free clamp-removal service" to "all good, decent law-unabiding people" who would rather fight back than pay to have their cars released. The guy even has a hotline, and of course the media loves it. Sounds like a marketing stunt to me. 10:57:07 PM    comment []  trackback []

Has Swedish police arrested the Lindh murderer? The 35-year old unnamed man who has been arrested for the murder of Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh has been detained for one week by a court today. Speculations are already running high that this means the DNA test done of material found in a cap left at the murder scene did not match the suspect. The DNA test is confirmed finished, but the police and prosecution are extremely tight-lipped about the case. In Sweden, the prosecution can get a suspect detained for no more than one week if the court rules that there is reasonable grounds for suspicion. In such a high-profile case, such an order would not be hard to obtain in the early stages of the investigation. If the court finds that the suspect if "likely" to be guilty, the prosecution can obtain a longer detention, and also extend it. If the DNA test had matched the 35 year old, surely they could have obtained such an order now. On the other hand, the next week should give the police enough time to secure more evidence if this exists. The defence lawyer, Gunnar Falk, were not permitted to say what evidence was put forth in court, but he argued that there was "nothing connecting my client to the crime," strongly indicating no DNA evidence was brought forth. While the police is tight-lipped, the press is blabbering, and the Swedish police is known for its massive leaks. There is a very cozy relationship between Swedish journalists and the police, and all attempts by the prosecutors to keep information under lid invariably fails. The press has also been conducting its own criminal investigations, shamelessly speading its information to get headline-grabbing comments from everyone with even the slightest connection to the 35-year old suspect. While such press statements should be take with a grain of salt, it is noteworthy that a number of people who know the suspect have stated that the suspect does not look like the man from the shopping mall's security photos (pictures). The clothing is also out of character for him, they allege. PS: Ironically, the prosecutor in this case is named Krister Peterson. The person (now dead) who almost certainly murdered Swedish prime minister Oluf Palme in 1986, but whose final conviction the prosecutors were unable to get, was named Christer Petterson. Same name, different spelling. Those who believe in bad omens will take note of this rather peculiar coincidence. The national trauma Sweden suffered after the Palme murder can hardly be overstated. The police will be praying this is not a repeat. 7:42:19 PM    comment []  trackback []

Not evil Magnatune is a record label that advertises "we are not evil." They provide "try before you buy" service for its artists. They have playlists with low-quality music on their site. Worth a look, or rather a listening. 6:42:46 PM    comment []  trackback []

Soldiers: War in Iraq going well American soldiers returning from duty in Iraq does not share the grim visions given to us through the media, at least if we are to believe Alex Cheung, a private first class from the 3rd Infantry Division of the US Army, and Marine Major Michael Callanan with the First Marine Division. Both men said they are glad to be home visiting their families - and feel honored and grateful for all the support they received from the community while they were in the Middle East. Both of them also said things are going well for the U.S. troops in Iraq. "Ninety-nine percent of what is going on over there is a good story," said Callanan. "There were a lot of reporters over there who overlooked the good stories, which may have been the only frustrating part of being there," he said. "From media reports, it may not seem as though things are going well there but they are. There are a lot of changes taking place which will eventually pay big dividends." Cheung agreed that the media reports he read while in Iraq seemed so much different from what he was seeing for himself. One of the things he read that goaded him the most was that the Iraqis did not want the troops over there. "I talked to so many Iraqis - adults and children - and they thanked me, invited me to their house, asked if they can cook a meal for me and offered me everything they have," he said. "Because we were there, they have the freedom we enjoy in this country every day. They waved to us and a lot of times they worked with us." Callanan said the work the troops are doing in Iraq has helped the people tremendously. "After the fighting, we went in and had a unit in each city and town to help set up local governments, utilities and basic running of the communities," he said. "We worked alongside the Iraqis and helped them re-establish their orphanages which only used to take boys and explained that they needed to take girls as well; we tried to find women to serve on the town or city councils." Callanan said there may have been some apprehension on the part of the Iraqis at first, when everything was new to them. "Probably less than one percent of the population is against the coalition," he said. "Now the Iraqis want to stand up on their own and that's the hardest part of the transition but I think we will see a little more improvement each and every day." War proponents may attribute the negative image of Iraq to a 'liberal media' bias. I am not so sure. Newsmedia consistently report bad news far more prominently than good news, also at home. As the saying goes, good news is no news. In Iraq, casualties and misery make headlines, rebuilding a hospital or a bridge doesn't. Media misery bias, liberal or conservative, has created the illusion of massive crime and calamities in our own countries, when such a view is at best exaggarated compared to all the other activities in our neighbourhoods. Our experience with how the media portrays our own town or city should perhaps make us think twice before assuming that Iraq is a hellhole and a quagmire just based on some reports of violence in the media. Via Instapundit. 3:35:45 PM    comment []  trackback []

Nuke that storm? Some people, who are far more generous than I am, say there is no such thing as a stupid question. I disagree, and I propose this as an example: People actually ask hurricane researchers why we don't nuke hurricanes to stop them. Even apart from the disastrous effects of radioactive fallout from a nuclear explosion, the fact is that even a massive nuke is just a puff compared to a real hurricane, like Isabel that currently devastates many eastern US states. Now for a more rigorous scientific explanation of why this would not be an effective hurricane modification technique. The main difficulty with using explosives to modify hurricanes is the amount of energy required. A fully developed hurricane can release heat energy at a rate of 5 to 20x1013 watts and converts less than 10% of the heat into the mechanical energy of the wind. The heat release is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes. According to the 1993 World Almanac, the entire human race used energy at a rate of 1013 watts in 1990, a rate less than 20% of the power of a hurricane. We aren't as powerful as we sometimes think we are. PS: Have a look at this very cool picture, which may or may not be Isabel. 1:18:29 PM    comment []  trackback []

"You pay peanuts, you get grumpy monkeys" Experiments have shown that it's not only humans that have a sense of justice. Monkeys who experienced that they were given lower pay for the same work as their neighbours were likely to strike. The experiments show that notions of justice extend beyond humans, says Sarah Brosnan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. This is probably an innate ability that evolved in our primate ancestor, she believes: "You need a sense of fairness to live in large, complex groups." Brosnan and her colleague Frans de Waal taught brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) to swap plastic tokens for food. Normally, monkeys were happy to exchange a token for some cucumber. But the monkeys took offence if they saw a neighbour getting a grape for a token. In about half of such trials, the short-changed capuchin either refused to hand over its token, or rejected the reward. Some threw the token or cucumber clean out of their cage. Perhaps interesting, the researchers only found this tendency in female monkeys. Primatologist Charles Janson explains the difference: "Males care about sex, and females care about food. The males might not consider the food differences worth worrying about."  12:16:33 PM    comment []  trackback []

Mobiles keep teenagers awake Researchers in Belgium have found that mobile phones cause sleep disruption in young people, as it found that at least half of 16-year olds were at least occasionally woken up by incoming text messages. "These preliminary findings suggest that mobile telephones may be having a major impact on the quality of sleep of a growing number of adolescents. It affected a quarter of the youngest to almost half of the eldest children in the sample," says Jan Van den Bulck of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, who reports the findings in a letter to the journal. The letter continued: "The threat to healthy sleep patterns is potentially more important than the threat posed by entertainment media. The latter mainly appear to influence time to bed, while mobile phones actually seem to lead to interrupted sleep." Hint: On your mobile, there is a "silent" setting. 2:13:23 AM    comment []  trackback []

AOL Time Warner The media giant drops the AOL part from its name. 1:04:00 AM    comment []  trackback []

Bad musical taste causes car crash An Oregon man has explained to police that he crashed his car into a tree because a bee flew into his open mouth while he was singing along to Justin Timberlake's "Rock your body." The man got away from the crash with minor injuries. No word on how the bee fared. 12:47:53 AM    comment []  trackback []

God is big business Check out this interesting article in Forbes about megachurches, increasingly powerful and increasingly rich churches that look more and more like business corporations. Welcome to the megabusiness of megachurches, where pastors often act as chief executives and use business tactics to grow their congregations. This entrepreneurial approach has contributed to the explosive growth of megachurches--defined as non-Catholic churches with at least 2,000 members--in the U.S. Indeed, Lakewood, New Birth, The Potter's House and World Changers, four of the biggest, have all experienced membership gains of late. Of course, growth for them has a higher purpose: to spread their faith to as many people as they can. "In our society growth equals success," says Scott Thumma, faculty associate at the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. "And religious growth not only equals success but also God's blessing on the ministry." In 1970, there were just ten such churches, according to John Vaughn, founder of Church Growth Today, which tracks megachurches. In 1990, 250 fit that description. Today, there are 740. The most common trait that these churches share is their size; average number of worshippers is 3,646, up 4% from last year, according to Vaughn. But they also demonstrate business savvy, with many holding conferences (47%) and using radio (44%) and television (38%), according to a 1999 survey conducted by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research. The average net income of megachurches was estimated at $4.8 million by that same survey. These churches have learned a thing or two about marketing, brand making and profitability from the business world, but then again, churches have always been marketing savvy. They are effectively using technology, having their own TV and radio, massive publishing empires, music production and of course web sites. And they know that people want more than a religious message, they want to be entertained. They bring in huge profits, also because they have a distinct advantage over business corporations. No doubt, churches have learned some valuable lessons from corporations. Now maybe they can teach businesses a thing or two. Companies would certainly appreciate having the armies of nonpaid, loyal volunteers. "The business world would love to have that kind of fellowship," says Vaughn. Famously, the sociologist Max Weber built a very convincing case that capitalism is a result of protestant ethics. Megachurches brings capitalism full circle back to protestant churches, if it ever left them. 12:02:14 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.10.2003; 02:24:58.