28. mars 2004

Accent atlas If you are into languages, check out the accent atlas with information about English accents from all around the world, including sound samples. Very cool. The lady from Oslo who speaks somehing resembling the Queen's English doesn't sound like the typical Oslo English speaker, I have to say. Neither does she sound very much like me. I have a much more confused mix of accents in my English. Bad company and all that. PS: I had a chuckle from the Swedish one. Bork bork bork! 9:15:09 PM    comment []  trackback []

Britain introduces gay marriage lite (for now) The British government is to introduce gay civil unions, stopping just short of officially calling it gay marriage. There will not be an officially mandated marriage ceremony, but neither is a formal wedding discouraged. 'It is about equality,' said a Whitehall source. 'It is not about special favours - they will have the right to commit to one another and the responsibilities that brings.' Under the Civil Partnerships Bill to be published on Wednesday, same-sex couples will be able to sign a register held by the register office in a procedure similar to a marriage. Although the Government will insist it is not officially a 'marriage' but rather a contract between two people, the fact that couples will have to announce their intentions beforehand in a similar way to the reading of the banns before a wedding reveals its true effect. And what about the Conservative party? They are scrambling for the gay vote, too, and are likely to attack the bill for not going far enough. There are still some differences related to pension rights, and the Tories seem to aim for criticising the government over these. If anything, the Tories want to be seen as the most progressive party on gay rights, in what can charitably be described as a turnaround from previous years. The Tories hope that disappointment on pensions may give them an opportunity to attack the Bill. 'It may well be that we turn out to be ahead of the Government here,' said Alan Duncan, shadow constitutional affairs Minister and the only openly gay Tory MP. 'We are watching very closely to see if the inheritance tax provisions are fair and match those of a married couple. Duncan will speak out on civil partnerships at tomorrow's Tory summit on gay issues. It will tackle problems from getting health insurance to homophobic bullying in schools. Brian Paddick, the gay Metropolitan Police commander, will discuss homophobic hate crime alongside Steve Norris, Tory candidate for London Mayor and an outspoken advocate of gay-friendly policies. You don't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows on gay rights. 7:48:58 PM    comment []  trackback []

— Bin Laden ordered Heathrow attack Bin Laden, outraged by Tony Blair's support for the United States, ordered al-Qaeda to attack Heathrow airport in London some months after 9/11-01, according to The London Times. Bin Laden, leader of the terrorist network, wanted to punish U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, and considered him his ``principal enemy,'' according to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the former operations chief and planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, the paper said. Mohammed was captured in Pakistan more than one year ago, the Times said. The attack was foiled by the British high level of security and, apparently, some bad performance by the al-Qaeda operatives, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed himself. But the operation never got beyond the planning stages, he reportedly told his interrogators. "There was a lot of confusion," he said. "I would say that my performance at that time was sloppy." Mohammed has also told that the original plan for 9/11 called for ten simultanous attacks against landmarks around the US, also attacking buildings like the Library Tower in LA and the Sears Towers in Chicago. The scale was reduced when Bin Laden found such massive attacks would not be possible to synchronize. 6:23:17 PM    comment []  trackback []

Scramjet breaks records Nasa's experimental scramjet X-43A was a soaring success in its test flight yesterday, reaching the amazing speed of mach 7 (~8 575 kph; 5 328 mph). This is the first flight of a scramjet ever, an extremely promising technology for tomorrow's hypersonic flights and even for placing satellites in low orbit. Dean's World blogged the flight as it happened. 2:20:44 PM    comment []  trackback []

Bush 45, Kerry 46. As if it matters this early. If you're a poll junkie, you want to keep an eye on RasmussenReports' Bush vs Kerry Daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Yes, they keep it going all the time with three day rolling averages. Today's numbers are Bush at 45 and Kerry at 46 (margin of error is 3 percentage points). These people also track key states, confidence on all sorts of issues, approval rating, you name it. Very exciting, huh? In politcal time, there are several geological eras to go before the election in November. It's going to be a bloody long campaign, even for a political junkie like me. 3:25:13 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2004; 02:27:28.