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15. november 2003
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South Africa's government capitulates on AIDS
President Thabo Mbeki's handling of South Africa's AIDS crisis has been appaling, bordering on genocidal. While the country is threatened with collapse by the devastating epidepic, he has been pondering philosophical questions about whether HIV really causes AIDS, a question medical science has solidly established a long time ago.
His Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, is also an interesting character. She has resisted the pressure to provide antiviral treatment to the very end, and has instead touted that AIDS sufferers take an excentric lemon, garlic and olive oil diet that, while nutritional, offers no reprieve for the sick.
Now, long overdue, Mbeki finally announces massive spending increases to tackle the health crisis that has been obvious to everyone else for years. Late is undoubtedly better than never, but for thousands, the about-face is coming too late.
8:17:54 PM 
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Power transition in Iraq by June 2004
The Iraqi Governing Council has said that the US-led coalition will hand over powers to a transitional government by June 2004. This body will then prepare for a fully sovereign Iraqi government by 2005, after a general election.
Transition of power will happen just before the US presidential election, in other words.
Sorry, I think this is a bad idea. Mostly, it is a risky idea. I think the process should be slower. I would hope for local elections in Iraq before the national ones, to let people get used to democracy, to get political parties and alliances working and also to get the election apparatus working.
4:24:35 PM
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Guinness is good for you
 Guinness, the world's best beer, has long been forced to cease using the slogan that "Guinness is good for you" but now an official study has confirmed that it is actually true.
The famous black stout may help preventing heart clots, thus reducing the risk of heart attack, just as well as aspirin.
Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from Wisconsin University told a conference in the US. [...]
The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness - just over a pint - taken at mealtimes.
They believe that "antioxidant compounds" in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.
What is there to say to such good news, except cheers?
2:01:35 PM
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Norwegian newspaper: Iraq war worse than Vietnam
The online frontpage headline from VG, Norway's largest newspaper, tells its readers
Iraq Worse than Vietnam
and the article starts by saying
The American casualties in Iraq is now larger than the number of American soldiers dying during the Vietnam-war's first three years.
I think I can do them better. The Iraq war is also worse than the first years of World War II for the US! The point is, the US didn't join the greatest war ever for two years. Naturally, even the most leftist journalist would realise a comparison with WWII would be absurd, yet, based on the same flimsy logic, they make it about Vietnam.
The Vietnam war was a French war that the US entered slowly and reluctantly, with a gradual escalation. How can a comparison be legitimate when the course of the Iraq war was the exact opposite? This is, as many other articles in the Norwegian press, a misuse of statistics to support the leftist press 'quagmire' mantra. Bjørn Stærk has a lot of articles and examples.
VG continues:
According to the American defense department the Vietnam war started officially December 11, 1961. From the start of the war and past 1964 a total of 392 Americans fell in that war, while the USA had 17,000 soldiers in Indo-China.
Later in the article VG claims:
The Bush administration has refused to draw parallells between Iraq and the Vietnam war. The administration fears that such comparisons may cost Bush the election in 2004.
However, at the end of the article we are given the facts that show the comparison is totally bogus.
But the massive military buildup in Vietnam didn't start before 1965, after the Congress had approved retaliation after an alleged attack against American ships in the Tonkin Bay.[...]
The American losses in Vietnam were 1,926 killed in 1965, and 16,869 killed in the year of the Tet offensive 1968, shows Pentagon's statistics.
In total, 50,000 Americans lost their lives in the Vietnam war. That is an equally high number as the total of Iraqis that until now have been killed in war acts in Iraq.
Right. So the first assertion and the headline was totally absurd. Yet, in the end they make a a backhanded swipe based on numbers they seem to take out of nowhere. Unless, of course, you include the large scale mass murders committed by Saddam Hussein over decades before the war. But we wouldn't want to remind readers about that, would we?
10:03:12 AM
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Putin: no return to past
Putin moved to reassure Russia's billionnaries (and the market), saying there was no "return to the past" with privatization and state control, and seemed to infer that Yukos boss Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky is his only target. The fear was pretty obvious, though, and other business leaders distanced themselves from the imprisoned tycoon.
4:08:09 AM
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Electronic voting problems again
Boone County, Indiana is the latest place to report stunning problems with electronic voting systems. The small county has 19,000 registered voters, and only 5,352 votes were actually cast, but the computer software initially reported 144,000 votes.
A bug in the MicroVote software is assumed, but while the problem was corrected, it seems to be unclear how exactly it happened.
Anyone who has actually worked with computer programming, is not at all surprised.
Pen and paper, anytime.
2:25:26 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.12.2003; 12:12:21.
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This is my blogchalk:
Norway, Bergen, Norwegian, English, Jan, Male, 31-35.
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