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26. september 2005
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People easily see the similarities between languages. Very similar expressions and words exist between languages that are closely related, and have a common origin. The same is true about evolutionary biology.
Just as a spanish speaker can probably understand enough italian to get by, scientists can study the effects of drugs on animals such as lab rats and get a pretty good idea of how it will affects humans, since we share many biological similarities.
Exactly.
7:59:47 PM 
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The press has been largly sympathetic to the Al-Jazeera journalist accused of being a terrorist, but now a court in Spain has found him guilty.
Al-Jazeera's reporter in Spain, Tayseer Alluni has just been sentenced to seven years in jail after a Madrid court found him guilty of joining a terror cell and facilitating money laundry.
This is bad news for Al-jazeera who's been defending and campaigning to protect their reporter and they obviously failed in eluding justice but the question that we must think about is; was Alluni working on his own using his media credentials as a cover or could it be that Al-jazeera itself is involved? | Good question, isn't it? We already know al-Jazeera is the terrorists' favourite channel.
Many others were sentenced in the same large Spanish anti-terror trial. Imad Yarkas, the Syrian-born ringleader, was sentenced to 27 years. This fell way short of what the prosecutors sought, but should still put him away for a while. Some of the men were charged for direct involvment in the 9/11-01 mass murders, but apparently the judge did not find that accusation proven beyond reasonable doubt.
7:52:24 PM
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Fundamentalists on the Dover, Pa. Area School District board has pushed Darwin out of science classes and promoted the teaching of Intelligent Design, and the case now goes to federal court.
The statement on intelligent design approved by the Dover school board was read to ninth-grade science students in January and will be read again this year. It reads in part:
"Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered. The theory is not a fact. Gaps in theory exist for which there is no evidence…. Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin…. With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind."
Several days after the board's 6-3 vote approving the intelligent-design resolution, the three dissenting members resigned in protest.
In November, two opposing slates will vie for seven open seats on the board: one backing the teaching of intelligent design, the other strongly opposed.
U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III at the Harrisburg federal court is the first to tackle an 'intelligent design' case.
Interestingly, the Discovery Institute that has much of the 'credit' for masquerading ID superstition as science, is opposed to school curriculums mandating ID being taught. Obviously, they fear a backlash when it is publicly exposed that ID has no science behind it.
7:09:54 PM
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The media boasted about itself that the Hurricane Katrina was its finest hour. But when it comes to reporting the honest truth, it is now more and more apparent it was just another series of sensationalized lies and exaggerations. You remember the horror stories about anarchy in the New Orleans Superdome? Well, it wasn't, says Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron.
Following days of internationally reported murders, rapes and gang violence inside the stadium, the doctor from FEMA — Beron doesn't remember his name — came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies.
"I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalled the doctor saying.
The real total?
Six, Beron said.
Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his death in an apparent suicide, said Beron, who personally oversaw the handoff of bodies from a Dome freezer, where they lay atop melting bags of ice.
The stories about rampant rapes and cutting of throats inside the Superdome are now being debunked by humanitarian workers on the scene.
As with damn near everything else the press is reporting.
6:54:59 PM
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Today Monday the IRA arms decommissioning body is to announce that the decommissioning of IRA weapons is complete.
General John de Chastelain, head of the body overseeing the disarmament, is then expected to give a news conference with the two independent witnesses.
The churchmen who witnessed the process were Catholic priest Father Alex Reid and ex-Methodist president Harold Good.
It will be interesting to see if the unionists actually accept this. The escalating loyalist violence in Northern Ireland indicates it is not only on the republical side there is reluctance to put violence behind.
5:15:10 AM
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An increasing number of women want to have kids without the inconvenience of sex with men.
Wealthy career women in their 30s and early 40s, some of whom have given up regular sex altogether, are turning to "medicalised conception" - despite being fertile and long before they have exhausted the possibility of a natural conception.
They are prepared to pay thousands of pounds for private IVF treatments - even though they have unpleasant and potentially harmful side effects - because they believe it offers them the best chance of "instant" pregnancy.
Many fertility experts believe that IVF offers women the best chance of pregnancy - a one in three chance of success or better in one cycle if the woman is under 35, whereas natural conception has no better than a one in four chance for a woman of the same age even if a couple have an active sex life.
An active sex life aimed at pregnancy is considered to be unprotected sex at least once every three days.
Each year about 43,000 women receive IVF treatment, most of them privately. The cost of a single treatment - and often several are needed - is at least £2,500 [~$4,460].
Most guys are willing to do it cheaper, though maybe not with them.
12:21:30 AM
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Mark Steyn:
Big-time Republicans tell me Bush's profligacy is doing a great job of neutralizing the Dem advantage in the spending-is-caring stakes. This may have been true initially -- in the same sense as undercover cops neutralize a massive heroin-smuggling operation by infiltrating it. But, if they're still running the heroin operation five years later, it looks less like neutralization and more like a change of management.
Andrew Sullivan:
A few years back, your correspondent noticed something a little odd about George W Bush’s conservatism. If you take Margaret Thatcher’s dictum that a socialist is someone who is very good at spending other people’s money, then President Bush is, er, a socialist.
Sure, he has cut taxes, a not-too-difficult feat when your own party controls both houses of Congress. But spending? You really have to rub your eyes, smack yourself on the forehead and pour yourself a large gin and tonic. The man can’t help himself.
The era of big government is definitely back, as I wrote back in December. The hunt for the median voter leads any two-party state to a situation where only a few closely divisive issues differentiate between the two major parties.
Those who think the solution is a proportional system with many political parties can just forget that, too. You end up with maybe ten parties with somewhat bigger differences, like we have in Norway, which then has to form a coalition government to rule, which will be pretty indistinguishable from the previous coalition from the other side.
That's the good and the bad about democracy. Get used to it.
12:07:26 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.10.2005; 12:26:06.
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