20. november 2003

British Consul-General killed in Istanbul blast British Consul-General Roger Short was among the 15 people so far confirmed killed in the attack on Istanbul's consulate. 8:02:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

Study: low self-esteem shrinks brain A rather surprising result: people with low self estreem and a low sense of self-worth are more likely to suffer memory loss and having learning difficulties. Dr Sonia Lupien, of McGill University in Montreal surveyed 92 senior citizens over 15 years and studied their brain scans. She found that the brains of those with low self-worth were up to a fifth smaller than those who felt good about themselves. The upside is that there may be something to do about this: According to Dr Felicia Huppert of Cambridge University - the early signs are that fairly simple techniques can have an enormous impact: "There are interventions which talk about focusing on positive things in everyday life and savouring good moments even at times when life is difficult little tiny things may give you pleasure so there are skills involved in how to derive pleasure from the ordinary things in life". Positive blogging can protect your brain from shrinking! 7:47:03 PM    comment []  trackback []

Protein map revealed After mapping the genome of an organism, comes the vastly complex task of mapping its proteome, how its proteins interact. Genes are essentially templates for producing proteins, which then move into the cell to perform various tasks and form structures with other genes. Now scientists have mapped protein interactions in fruit flies, one of the most widely studied organisms. Scientists, from the US biotech company CuraGen in association with several US Universities, have produced a draft map of 20,405 interactions between 7,048 proteins in the fruit fly. This map is a starting point for what is being called a systems biology modelling of animals including humans, say the researchers in their report. The vast task is expected to provide important insights in the complexities of life. 4:31:32 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraqi Shiite leader softens stance on occupation The young hardline Shiite Imam Moqtada al-Sadr, known for his fierce opposition to the US-led coalition, has made an astonishing about-face. He now says he wants to cooperate with the coalition and its once-maligned governing council, he praised the faster timetable for transition of power, and he was most emphatic that the US is not the enemy; his "only enemy" is Saddam Hussein and the Baathists. Apparantly, al-Sadr is not alone in these sentiments, which are even stronger in more moderate Shiite leaders, who also command a larger following.. No doubt the surge of Baathist terrorism has made some Iraqi critics of the coaltion worried that Saddam could return to power. The terrorism has failed to scare away the coaltion forces, and it has failed to turn the Iraqis against the occupying power. The hardline Shiite is surely being pragmatic and I doubt there is any love lost between his fraction and the US, but if there is anything Iraq needs now, it is pragmatism and a willingness to compromise to reach common goals. 11:30:12 AM    comment []  trackback []

Massive explosions rock Istanbul Turkey has experienced its September 11th, with large simultanous explosions hitting multiple targets across the city of Istanbul. BBC lists two explosions hitting close to the British consulate and the bank HSBC, both causing massive damage. CNN lists three explosions, adding an attack on a popular shopping mall. Reuters also lists three explosions, adding that three are confirmed dead. Fox News says there have been as many as five explosions, and has a preliminary death toll of six. One of the additional explosions hit the Asian side of the city, it says. The explosions hit crowded streets in densely populated areas, and the death toll will undoubtedly rise. It appeared British targets were singled out particularly in this attack. It happens just a few days after two simultanous attacks on Jewish targets hit Istanbul, for which al-Qaeda took responsibility. Update: The official number of bomb explosions is down to two, but a lot of uncertainty remains. And Fox News has massively revised the article I linked to, at least twice. First it backed off the claim about five explosions, reducing it to three. Now it says it was "at least two." Jack Straw also mentioned reports of five explosions, but I would assume the Turkish police would know by now. A HSBC spokesman, on the other hand, said two of its buildings had been hit. The death toll is at 25, and 300 injured. 11:23:52 AM    comment []  trackback []

Letters to the President The Guardian has invited a few celebrities (and a few others) from around the world, including a lot of people with grudges, to write letters to George Bush. In between, there are a few well-written and well-thought letters, in particular those by Frederick Forsyth, Charles Powell, David Aaronovitch and Sebastian Coe, but most of them are total drivel, even those written by professional writers and distinguished intellectuals. They are hateful, spiteful, full of lame cliches, ignorant and is the kind of writing that hardly deserves a high school "C". If you had a chance to write something that would be read by potentially hundreds of thousands worldwide, could you not do better? Would you not do better? There is something about Bush that makes leftists really froth at their mouths, lose their ability to think and talk and express themselves coherently. If for nothing else, Bush deserves credit for whatever quality that is. PS: If you would argue that the Clintons posess the same quality versus conservatives, you would be right. 8:47:28 AM    comment []  trackback []

The Shameful Protests The Telepgraph's David Frum has been out looking at the early crowds of anti-Bush protesters ("I'd seen larger crowds at poetry readings"), and he is not impressed. I agree that context is everything, and the context of this week's events is that many thousands of British people intend to converge on central London to protest against the overthrow of one of the most cruel and murderous dictators of the 20th century - and to wave placards calling the American president who ordered the dictator's overthrow "the world's number one terrorist". It's a deeply shameful context, and though I would not quite endorse the verdict of the taxi driver with the poppy stuck in his dashboard who dropped me off at the demos ("Not many of them traitors out tonight, I see"), he at least saw something that they, with all their apparently abundant education could not: that the two leaders they most scorn are the latest in the long line of Anglo-American statesmen whose willingness to use force to defeat evil secured them their right to make bloody fools of themselves in Lincoln's Inn Fields and through the streets of London to Grosvenor Square. Well said. It will be interesting to see how many line up to make fools of themselves in London today. 7:47:54 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.12.2003; 12:12:34.