| |
|
19. september 2005
|
|
The Ladder Theory about the difference between men and women. Or, the dreaded f-word (no, the other one).
Via email.
6:28:10 PM 
|
|
A British couple scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef had a very lucky escape from a real nightmare experience.
Louise Woodger and Gordon Pratley were on holiday scuba diving when the current swept them six miles away from their tour boat.
The pair surfaced to find the boat a mere dot on the horizon.
They had to tread water as they watched large sharks circling beneath them.
It took six hours before the couple was rescued. The sharks, luckily, were just not hungry that day.
5:43:45 PM
|
|
Its credibility bruised by the false intelligence on Iraq's WMD programmes, the US was unable to fully convince its allies that Iran had nuclear ambitions. Luckily, we should almost say, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to the US' aid by making thinly veiled threats to the UN General Assembly.
On Saturday, dozens of international diplomats, including the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, gathered at the United Nations to hear how Ahmadinejad planned to stave off a crisis.
Instead his speech, followed by a confused hour-long news conference, was able to do what weeks of high-level U.S. diplomacy had not: convince skeptical allies that Iran may, in fact, use its nuclear energy program to build atomic bombs.
Ahmadinejad appeared to threaten as much when he warned from the General Assembly podium that in the face of U.S. provocation, "we will reconsider our entire approach to the nuclear issue."
Senior European diplomats said immediately afterward that the speech had been "unhelpful." In fact, the opposite may be true.
Both US and European diplomats said, under cover of the usual annoying anonymity of course, that the Iranian president's statements had been helpful in convincing people Iran indeed had nuclear weapons ambitions.
Ahmadinejad has not really been known for his diplomatic skills. It's not as if he needs them much as a top dog in Iran.
4:31:06 PM
|
|
Reported breakthrough in NK talks.
North Korea has agreed to give up all its nuclear activities and rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Chinese and Korean news agencies say.
At the same time, the US is said to have given an undertaking that it has no intention of attacking North Korea.
If this is true, it is indeed very good news.
Yes, it is uncomfortable that the west has been forced into concessions that could be described as giving in to blackmail. But NK is so entrenched, and the situation is so potentially dangerous, I'd still say getting a deal that results in the country abandoning its nuclear weapons programme was necessary.
Update: Text of joint statement from six-nation talks.
Looks fine as far as it goes, but the big questions are verification and inspection. We're not there yet, by all means.
Check comments for a skeptical view (always prudent when dealing with NK!).
PS: Dan Darling also urges caution, and adds:
Prediction: If this in fact pans out, people who have previously argued that the North Korean diplomacy was a complete failure will now start arguing that this would have happened anyway regardless of what the US did.
I'm not placing any bets against that!
7:19:10 AM
|
|
The makers of the notoriously popular "Girls Gone Wild" videos have decided to donate revenues from the Mardi Gras episodes to help Hurricane Katrina victims.
"Mardi Gras is synonymous with New Orleans and 'Girls Gone Wild' is synonymous with Mardi Gras," Bill Horn of Mantra Films, the southern California company behind "Girls Gone Wild," told AFP.
"We have a personal and profound connection to the city," Horn continued. "We had to do something."
"Girls Gone Wild" crews have roved Mardi Gras annually since the company was founded eight years ago, filming females flashing body parts in exchange for bead necklaces, attention, t-shirts or just for the exposure.
"Girls Gone Wild" will donate to the Red Cross the online purchase prices of each title or package set "that has anything to do with Mardi Gras," including "the very popular 'Girls Gone Wild Doggy Style'," with rapper Snoop Dogg, Horn said.
Nearly a third of the company's 19 titles are linked to Mardi Gras, Horn said.
Via fark.
6:34:13 AM
|
|
The Times is running exclusive extracts from The Mitrokhin Archive II, a book by Christopher Andrew and KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin which contains some until-now undisclosed allegations about KGB infiltrations in various countries.
The latest chapter is about KGB's victory in having its agent Salvador Allende becoming the first democratically elected marxist leader, in Chile in 1970, only to abandon him when he proved unable to hold onto power.
In 1972 Moscow downgraded its assessment of the prospects of the Allende regime. The “truckers’ strike”, allegedly backed by CIA funding, virtually paralysed the economy for three weeks, providing dramatic evidence of the weakness of the Popular Unity Government and the power of its opponents. The mounting evidence of chronic economic mismanagement made Moscow reluctant to provide large-scale support.
Anxious to do what it could to prevent the defeat of the Allende regime, the KGB gave an exaggerated impression of its ability to influence Chilean politics.
After Allende’s Unidad Popular lost its majority in Congress in March 1973, the KGB tried to explain to the Politburo why its “confidential relations” with leading Chilean politicians across the political spectrum had failed to produce the UP victory which it had led the Politburo to expect three months earlier. Preferring as usual to concentrate on its successes, it emphasised instead the President’s willingness to provide further assistance to its operations.
In the KGB’s view, Allende's fundamental error was his unwillingness to use force against his opponents.
A previous chapter alleged the KGB had significantly infiltrated India's Congress Party, were funding it and took advange of its corruption.
Oleg Kalugin, who became head of Foreign Counter-Intelligence in 1973, remembers India as “a model of KGB infiltration of a Third World government”. He recalls one occasion when the KGB turned down an offer from an Indian minister to provide information in return for $50,000 on the grounds that it was already well supplied with material from the Indian foreign and defence ministries: “It seemed like the entire country was for sale; the KGB — and the CIA — had penetrated the Indian government. Neither side entrusted sensitive information to the Indians, realising their enemy would know all about it the next day.” The KGB, in Kalugin’s view, was more successful than the CIA, partly because of its skill in exploiting the corruption that became endemic under Indira Gandhi’s regime. Suitcases full of banknotes were said to be routinely taken to her house and one of her opponents claimed that Mrs Gandhi did not even return the cases.
These allegations have made serious waves in India, now again ruled by the Congress Party, which angrily rejects the accusations.
Be aware that defectors' claims have proven a mixed bag in the past. Hopefully Christopher Andrew has exercised sound source criticism and not gone for pure sensationalism in his forthcoming book.
4:50:38 AM
|
|
Fareed Zakaria is chiding Congress and President Bush for both expanding spending and refusing to raise taxes to pay for the party. Either has its merits, but leaders have to choose one or the other, not both at the same time.
Whatever his other accomplishments, Bush will go down in history as the most fiscally irresponsible chief executive in American history. Since 2001, government spending has gone up from $1.86 trillion to $2.48 trillion, a 33 percent rise in four years! Defense and Homeland Security are not the only culprits. Domestic spending is actually up 36 percent in the same period. These figures come from the libertarian Cato Institute's excellent report "The Grand Old Spending Party," which explains that "throughout the past 40 years, most presidents have cut or restrained lower-priority spending to make room for higher-priority spending. What is driving George W. Bush's budget bloat is a reversal of that trend." To govern is to choose. And Bush has decided not to choose. He wants guns and butter and tax cuts.
If European leftists only knew about this aspect of President Bush, they'd be much more positive towards him.
12:41:57 AM
|
|
Henry Brinton, a Presbyterian pastor, is not at all happy about teaching 'Intelligent Design' in school. He writes an article in the Washington Post about the evolutionary debates that have been raging in his congregation.
It's fine to learn about different schools of thought, as long as we recognize just that -- they're different. Some are religious, and some are scientific. What bothers my church member Jerry Parrott, a professor of psychology at Georgetown University, is that "intelligent design theorists don't scientifically establish divine creation at all -- they merely try to represent scientific problems as evidence of scientific inadequacy." They assume, for instance, that since the human eye is marvelously complex, and since scientists cannot map a complete evolutionary path for it, then it must be a product of an intelligent designer. But the eye actually shows many signs of having evolved, including a number of defects that no intelligent designer would ever include -- light receptors in the back of the eye, for example, behind blood vessels that obstruct the view. "Accusing a God of [designing] such a thing seems rather insulting, actually," says Jerry.
There is always the unitelligent design theory, stating that the world is designed, just not very well. I doubt that would please anyone.
12:35:52 AM
|
|
|
© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2005; 12:24:54.
|
|
|
