2. januar 2004

Review of 2003 in review Sick and tired of best of 2003 and top ten of 2003 lists? No? Can't get enough lists, you say? Well, then look no further than fimoculous, bringing us all a massive metalist for the year 2003. While we're on the subject... The 2003 Year-End Google Zeitgeist is out! What do you think was the most popular Google news search last year? That's a no-brainer. Finally, check out Yahoo! Search's top searches 2003, including the top 5 most common misspellings of Arnold Swar... Schwart...Schwarzenegger. Dang! 2:40:42 PM    comment []  trackback []

Net quote of the day "If you have the ivory tower view that the internet is good only if everything on it is good you are mistaken. The internet is a reflection of our society and that mirror is going to be reflecting what we see. If we do not like what we see in that mirror the problem is not to fix the mirror, we have to fix society." (Vint Cerf, Internet co-creator) 9:47:54 AM    comment []  trackback []

Opinion polls and margin of error How can opinion pollers feel confident that by asking just one thousand Americans what they think about Bush, they get an answer that can be applied to all 200+ million adult Americans with a margin of error of no more than three percentage points? What does 'margin of error' really mean anyway? I have recently added the article Polls and margin of error, a little explainer to my ever growing articles section. 8:10:04 AM    comment []  trackback []

I didn't know it needed saving Wired: 101 Ways to Save the Internet Some good, some fun, and lots of crazy ideas. 5:32:07 AM    comment []  trackback []

Who is the enemy? This rant by the InstaPundit made me cringe. THE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT TRY to play a "neutral arbiter" in the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. We should, in fact, be doing our best to make the Palestinians suffer, because, to put it bluntly, they are our enemies. Now, I most often find myself agreeing with Glenn Reynolds, but this statement is very disturbing. If he had said we (well, they) should make the Hamas or Islamic Jihad or even the Palestinian Authority suffer and consider them enemies, I would agree. Moreover, these armed thugs are really the enemies of normal Palestinians, too. But should anyone really say that "Israelis" or "Palestinians" or "Americans" or any other large group of people unified by geographical or racial or religious boundaries deserve this or that? Does Reynolds mean that all of them, including women and children and normal people just trying to live their lives, deserve to suffer more than they already do? Isn't that the problem to begin with? It surely is the thinking of al-Qaeda or Hamas. To general acclaim from people like Reynolds, in Iraq the coalition took great pains avoiding civilian casualties, even putting its own troops at a greater risk to minimise damage. The enemy was not the Iraqi people, which we wanted to help and liberate, it was Saddam and his armed thugs holding the country hostage. In WWII, the allies did not make such distinctions, mostly because we could not afford to, and technology was not up to the task. Only vast technological and material superiority can afford a nation the luxury of fighting the way the coalition fought in Iraq. It is the same in the war on terror. George Bush went to great pains (the "crusade" gaffe notwithstanding) to emphasise that the west was not at war with Islam or normal muslims. Any rhetoric giving the impression that a whole ethnic group or a nationality is the "enemy" is part of the problem, not the solution, whatever the real solution to the Middle East mess may be. 4:51:05 AM    comment []  trackback []

Iranians ask why their Earthquakes are deadlier Iranians could hardly avoid making the connection between the earthquake in California leaving two people dead and the devastating quake in Iran killing more than 30,000 people and leaving the city of Barn in complete ruins. The earthquakes were of comparable magnitued and depth. So why are third world quakes so devastating, while developed countries like Japan and the US are able to brush off even the most devastating quakes with a minumum of damage? Bahram Akasheh, geophysics professor at Tehran University, noted the California quake on December 22 had almost the same magnitude and depth as the Iranian tremor, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and was centerd 16 km (10 miles) below ground. "The question is why were only two killed in California but so many in Iran?" he said. "The answer is simple. The type of construction is totally different. There are building codes here but they are not followed. The laws are there, but only in theory. No one pays any attention. No authorities control construction." President Mohammad Khatami said there would be an inquiry and anyone who had violated state codes would be punished. Two hospitals, a prison and other state buildings collapsed or were badly damaged. Seems all those evil capitalists in the west are not exploiting people effecively enough after all. 2:58:30 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.02.2004; 11:31:58.