14. oktober 2003

Moscow man used petrol in washing machine If you get a hard-to-remove stain on your trousers, petrol (gasoline) is known to be a good detergent. And, of course, in our modern age and time we tend to prefer using washing machines. A clever guy from Moscow got the brilliant idea to combine the two principles, adding a liter of petrol to the rinse chamber before starting the washing machine to clean his trousers. The explosion blew away two walls in his apartment, but he amazingly lived to tell the tale. The fire brigade said it would give the man a few lessons in how to deal with flammable liquids, Itar Tass news agency said. They'll have to speak very loudly, or he wount hear it. 10:22:55 PM    comment []  trackback []

Embryo with three parents Chinese scientists have managed to create an embryo with three parents, using eggs from two women and sperm from one man, a world first.  However, the woman aborted. The controversial IVF technique is developed in the US, but banned there and in many other western countries. Instead of getting into a debate about the ethics of the procedure, I just wonder what to call the third parent. Mom, dad, and ... what? 9:24:09 PM    comment []  trackback []

GateWatch We luckily avoided frequent use of the word "plamegate" for the Plame/Wilson CIA leak affair. However, where the Americans are learning, Europeans are picking up stupid habits. Two observations in the wild just today: The Guardian calls the controversy over British Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith receiving taxpayer money for his wife's secretarial work "betsygate" on the online frontpage. Dutch Prince Johan Friso, second in line to the throne, has renounced the throne to marry the woman he loves, Mabel Wisse Smit, after scandals have emerged about her past affairs. The scandal is widely called "mabelgate." Ugh. 7:38:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

Sorry we ate your dad In 1867 the English missionary Thomas Baker was killed, cooked and eaten by a tribe of Fijian villagers after he broke a cultural taboo by touching the chief's hair. Now the present-day inhabitants in that village want to invite the missionary's descendants over, not for dinner, but to offer a traditional apology for the act. They believe the village has been under a curse since the unfortunate incident. 7:16:14 PM    comment []  trackback []

About time "Executives who are tech dummies seek help" (CNN headline) 7:02:05 PM    comment []  trackback []

France nouveau An article in The Observer reports that a number of intellectuals in France are starting to raise serious doubts about the country's approach, domestically and abroad. Having recently emerged battered from national education strikes and months of street demonstrations over reduced retirement benefits, Jacques Chirac's administration is looking on with dismay at media encouragement for right-wing intellectual claims that France is now the weak man of Europe, mired in hypocrisy nationally and internationally, indifferent to popular needs such as care of the aged, and shaken by the aftershocks of vain defiance of the US-led war in Iraq. In short, that France is going down the pan. If we are to judge by De Villepin's response to the criticism, the introspection has not yet reached the government: 'Abroad,' he writes in his answer to declinists: 'France rests a pole of thought and culture, a major economic, military and political power.' Keep convincing yourself about that. 10:24:35 AM    comment []  trackback []

UN in Kosovo vs UN in Iraq Remember Kosovo? NATO, not under a UN SC mandate since Russia opposed, attacked Serbia and forced it to recede sovereignity, de facto if not de jure, over the small province, also resulting in Milosevic's fall. The UN took over Kosovo, and it is still ruled by the world body and nobody even dares start discussions about autonomy or (shudder) independence. Kosovo remains in a sort of limbo under international law. The security situation is rather grim, after three years, even though it is said to be gradually improving. Any timetable for restoration to normality? Don't ask. In his office in Pristina, Harri Holkeri, the head of the UN mission in Kosovo tells me how he hopes to kick start the economy. "By improving the security in general the investments are more ready to come. The faster society develops towards democratic institutions the easier the investors will come. And no doubt when the final status of Kosovo can be fixed, it helps a lot." But there seems no sign that this is remotely possible in the next decade, I put it to him. He hesitates, then says: "I do not want to speculate on how much time is needed but everybody knows that this issue must be tackled." So why, oh why, is the UN insisting on a ridiculously tight timetable for Iraq? There is a breathtaking double standard when France insists the UN, who has been unable to even come up with even a hint of when the foreign occupation of Kosovo is to end, argues that full control of Iraq should now be given to a provisional authority, never elected, and which has no experience in ruling a large, complex country. It is rather obvious that France (and Germany) would rather see Iraq fail miserably, and that explains that these countries insist on a quick transition of power. A thriving democratic Iraq five or ten years into the future would post facto justify the so-called unilateral attack, and that is a precedent France would do anything to avoid. This also really explains UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's support of the French argument for quick transition. Annan does not fight for democracy or the rights of the people of Iraq, he fights against the threat of irrelevance for his own organisation. Annan obviously wants a central UN role to secure that any success in Iraq can be credited to it. If the UN fails in Iraq (which it surely would, if we judge by its Kosovo 'quagmire'), it could always blame the US for starting the war in the first place. Heads, I win. Tails, you lose. 9:53:40 AM    comment []  trackback []

NY takes aim at religious tax exemption Some New York State senators are planning to put an end to abuse of the tax exempt status of religious organisations and other charities, but the new bills are up for fierce opposition. 12:41:37 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.2003; 03:19:37.