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5. januar 2005
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Government response to disaster left a lot to be desired
Some days after the tsunami disaster, Norwegian authorities and the public feared that a thousand or more of our countrymen were dead. The latest official figure is 12 dead and 82 missing.
The previous number of presumed dead was 16, which is now revealed to be a result of a typo - an error keying in the information!
Earlier, it was revealed that police districts received the missing lists too late to check them before they were made public because of "computer problems." When the list was made public, it had 275 people as missing. Now 82 remains; the rest are all accounted for. Many had not even been abroad at the time.
11:00:32 PM 
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Tape reveals Al Jazeera-Saddam Hussein link
Based on the past coverage alone, one could be tempted to suspect this:
A videotape found in a pile of documents in Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime shows a former manager of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel thanking one of Saddam's sons for his support and telling him that "Al-Jazeera is your channel," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday.
According to Asharq al-Awsat's report, the tape of the March 13, 2000, meeting shows former Al-Jazeera manager Mohammed Jassem al-Ali telling Odai Saddam Hussein, "Al-Jazeera is your channel," and Odai recalls that he proposed "some ideas" in previous meetings that led to "some changes" in political coverage, including the introduction of new hosts on Al-Jazeera programs.
Al-Ali was fired around the time of the US-led invasion in March 2003, and many suspected the reason was he was revealed to have been in Saddam's pay, though al-Jazeera never gave a reason.
In case you wondered about bias, the Boston Globe runs the same AP story, but tones the accusations down considerably. Still, it's not a good day for al-Jazeera.
8:13:56 PM
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Insecurity cam
Googling for inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode=" will find hundreds of unsecured webcam feeds, some apparently real shop security cameras.
As thousands of web users flock out and test this, the ones on the top appears to have been knocked offline. That, hopefully, should inform the owners that they need to secure them a tad bit better.
Via BoingBoing.
4:38:41 AM
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'Flood the zone'
Good grief. CNN chief Jonathan Klein (of "pajamas" fame) made an unfortunate choice of word when he told USAToday that his channel was "able to flood the zone immediately," and Matt Drudge is screaming bloody murder about it.
Get a grip, Drudge!
4:05:23 AM
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Stem cell therapy success on monkeys
Japanese scientists report preliminary success in treating monkeys for Parkinson's disease through a transplant of embryonic stem cells.
The researchers extracted embryonic stem cells capable of releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter, from fertilized eggs of cynomolgus monkeys.
It is a decline in production of dopamine that is believed to trigger Parkinson's disease, in which patients shake uncontrollably.
The embryonic stem cells were then transplanted into six cynomolgus monkeys, which had drug-induced symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease in humans.
Nobuo Hashimoto, a medical doctor at the Department of Neurosurgery at Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, advises caution as the safety of the procedure and long-term effects are evaluated. Only then can the procedure be attempted on humans.
1:55:14 AM
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Beeb sports quotes
The BBC has a collection of great sports quotations for 2004 (part 2).
Here's my favourites:
"It must be a comedy if a British player is winning at Wimbledon!" (Serena Williams about an upcoming movie, endearing herself to her British fans, if she had any)
"It will be difficult to get the player I want because Posh doesn't want to move to Reading!" (Steve Coppell is convinced Mrs Beckham is the only obstacle for David to join 1st div club Reading)
"Don't make me laugh! It's the WBF belt - I heard they are giving them away with five litres of petrol down at Texaco." (Herbie Hide tells the truth about the WBF heavyweight boxing title)
"Right now, everything is going wrong for me - if I fell in a barrel of boobs, I'd come out sucking my thumb!" (Queen's Park Rangers manager Ian Holloway doesn't feel lucky)
"You only score in a brothel" (Welsh fans chanting to Wayne Rooney, referring to earlier indescretions)
Heck, read them all!
Legendary Norwegian sports commentator Bjørge Lillelien still made the greatest sports quotation of all time.
1:35:24 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.02.2005; 02:16:34.
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