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14. februar 2005
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Today's massive timewaster is this highly addictive java-based game: TurboTanks.
8:08:52 PM 
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Large bomb explosion in Beirut. More details to come...
Update: A very powerful car bomb has killed at least nine people and injured many others.
The motorcade of former Prime Mnister Rafik Hariri was in the area at the time of the explosion, Lebanese television reported.
Reuters said some of his bodyguards were among the dead.
Hariri was unharmed, legislator Bassem Yammout told The Associated Press from the scene.
Yammout said he did not speak to Hariri but that another politician had spoken to Hariri afterward.
Hariri, a billionaire businessman who resigned from government last October, has recently joined calls by the opposition for Syria to quit Lebanon in the run-up to general elections in May, Reuters reported.
Let's hope this is not a return to the civil war that raged between 1975-1990.
Update 2: Other sources now say former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is seriously injured or killed.
Update 3: It is now confirmed Hariri was killed in the terrorist attack.
It's too early to point fingers, especially in the fractered political landscape of Lebanon. Hariri has been the most prominent political leader in post-civil war Lebanon, and obviously have many enemies.
Syria's al-Assad has condemned the killing. Some fingers will probably point in that direction...
Update 4: Someone claimed responsibility:
More than 650 pounds of TNT explosives were used in the bombing, security officials said on condition of anonymity. They did not say whether the explosives were placed in a vehicle or on the side of the street.
There were no credible claims of responsibility, although a previously unknown group, calling itself Support and Jihad in Syria and Lebanon, said it had carried out the bombing. It said the attack was a suicide operation and would be followed by more attacks "against infidels, renegades and tyrants." The claim, which could not be authenticated, appeared in a video aired on Al-Jazeera satellite television.
There seems to be some terror group taking responsibility for everything these days, so I'd take this with a grain of salt.
More worrying is that the violence can easily grow when someone is accused.
12:23:03 PM
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Google has offered to host Wikipedia, which has experienced serious bandwidth problems due to its great popularity, for free.
Although exact terms of Google's offer have not be publicly disclosed, Wiki Media's board of directors is considering a deal and plans to meet with Google in March. The foundation did say that Google will not insert its text based advertising on Wikipedia.
"Google has at least tentatively agreed to give us access to a certain number of dual Xeon servers at one or more of their data centers and with unlimited bandwidth," a Wikipedia administrator said.
"I've been told that there are no strings attached, meaning they don't expect us to do anything for then, such as having Google Ads. In short, this is wonderful news."
It sounds like a great deal, boosting both products. I don't think even the substantial bandwidth load of Wikipedia will register as more than a blip on Google's traffic charts.
12:10:45 PM
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The Saudi religious police, the fanatical thugs who like to beat up women, are taking a grim view of Valentine's day, and are busy making sure no flower shops in the puritan kingdom sell red flowers.
The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Saudi Arabia's powerful religious vigilantes, have banned shops from selling any red flowers in the run-up to February 14.
Florists say the move is part of an annual campaign by the committee -- whose members are known as "mutawwaeen" or volunteers -- to prevent Saudis marking a festival they believe flouts their austere doctrine of "Wahhabi" Islam.
"They pass by two or three times a day to check we don't have any red flowers," said a Pakistani florist in Riyadh's smart Sulaimaniya district. "Look, no red. I've taken them all out," he said pointing to a dazzling floral collection covering every color of the rainbow except one.
Can't have any love to distract from all the Wahhabi hate.
PS: Meanwhile, in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's thugs have thrown 53 women in jail for staging a Valentine's Day demonstration
Police arrested the women - including some passers-by - in the second city of Bulawayo, said Jenni Williams, a leader of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise organisation.
She said about 400 demonstrators were handing out red roses and Valentine cards in the western provincial capital on Saturday ahead of Valentine's Day on Monday, when more symbolic protests are planned.
"Our message is the power of love can conquer the love of power," Williams said.
Some of the arrested women, held in police cells, were scheduled to appear in court Monday on minor charges of obstructing streets and sidewalks in Bulawayo.
Oppressive governments seem to share some of the same phobias.
1:47:35 AM
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A Missouri first-grader, 6-year-old Michaela Boyd, received a two day in-school detention after giving a friend a plastic bag with dirt.
After finding the bag much like the one disposable utensils come in, Michaela says she decided to make her friend a bag of goodies, "They said what did you make this out of. and what did you tell them. I said out of dirt. And what else. I made it with rocks, clover and dirt."
Her mom, Michele, says after Michaela put the mixture into the bag, she tied the top with a purple ponytail holder and gave it to her friend saying,"here's a bag of dirt."
After recess was over the student gave the bag of dirt to their teacher.
Michele says after meeting with the teacher and principal, she was told that the bag of dirt, "looked like a bag of weed."
There you go. A kid gave another kid something that with a lot of imagination looked like a bag of marijuana, something she probably had no concept of, and the school reacted hysterically.
At least the girl was not taken away in handcuffs.
1:23:18 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.03.2005; 01:30:25.
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