25. februar 2004

Supreme Court decides against theology student The US Supreme Court has decided where the wall between church and state stands, by allowing the state of Washington to deny taxpayer-funded scholarships to a theology student. The former college student, Joshua Davey, had sued when he was denied a scholarship because he decided to study to become a minister. The decision was 7-2, with Antonin Scalia (of course) and Clarence Thomas (woof!) dissenting. The Bush administration had supported the student's case.. 11:02:17 PM    comment []  trackback []

Air traffic controller murdered In July 2002, seventy-two people, mostly Russian school children, were killed in a crash between two planes over southern Germany. The disaster was blamed on Skyguide, the air traffic control company faulted for only a single air traffic controller being in charge at the time, a Danish national. The man experienced a mental breakdown after the disaster. Now the man has been stabbed to death in front of his shocked wife in his own Zurich home, by a man speaking "broken German," possibly an east-European accent. The victims included 52 Russian schoolchildren, most of them sons and daughters of the wealthy elite of the republic of Bashkortostan in the southern Urals region. Hmm. Could be a very nasty development in a tragic story. Update: A man who lost his entire family in the crash has been arrested. 6:21:29 PM    comment []  trackback []

All you wanted to know about Google but were afraid to ask (and then some) As old Google employees are pondering whether they will become stinking filthy rich or just filthy rich, the geeks hope the search company going public will revitalise the ailing tech industry ("please, give us another bubble!"), Wired is publishing the longest article I've seen online in a long time. We'll probably hear the term again: googlemania. 4:40:58 PM    comment []  trackback []

Putin fires prime minister Russian president Vladimir Putin has fired the cabinet, just three weeks before the election where he is expected to win by a landslide. The constitution allows the president to sack the cabinet, and it is widely interpreted as a move to get rid of one man: Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The prime minister was the last man remaining from the Yeltsin era in Putin's government, and he has also been the last government supporter of the so-called oligarchs, who have also fallen out of favour with Putin. In the dismissal note, Putin said he was "on the whole" satisfied with the government's performance, but did this to set a new course after the election. Not sure what to think of this, but it's not exactly a good sign for Russia's troubled democracy. Can we expect Putin to fill the government completely with former secret agent buddies? 3:07:34 PM    comment []  trackback []

On a mission from God If half the information in this Vanity Fair article is true, John Ashcroft is by far the most dangerous fanatic in the US government, and alone worth a vote for the non-Bush candidate. 11:32:26 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.03.2004; 14:42:32.