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11. mars 2006
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Twenty-five year old Kevin Nicolle used all his money on his dream car, a very powerful BMW 318. Last Sunday, he unintentionally found out exactly how fast it was, as his accelerator pedal stuck to the floor.
Mr Nicolle called the AA on his hands-free phone. They told him to call the police, who dispatched four fast cars and a helicopter. For a time the brakes held the 125-horsepower engine to 70mph. He then tried to slip the car into neutral. “I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I couldn’t turn off the ignition because it would have disabled the power steering and made it even more dangerous.”
The police officer on the end of the line said that they would attempt a “rolling stop”: boxing in the car with police vehicles to slow it down gradually.
It was too late. The brakes began to burn out and the car started going faster and faster with Mr Nicolle gripping the steering wheel in terror.
“I saw the dial going past 100mph, 115, 120,” he said. “I was praying for the police cars to show up, but they couldn’t catch me. I was reaching 135mph [217 kph]. I honestly thought I was going to die.
The lucky man lived to tell the tale. How he did it you have to read for yourself.
Nicolle says he will never drive again.
5:59:34 PM 
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No civil war in Iraq:
General John Abizaid, the CENTCOM commander, warns of an increase in sectarian violence, but believes the threat of civil war, while still possible, is capable of being contained by Iraqi security forces, "There's no doubt that the sectarian tensions are higher than we've seen. And it is of great concern to all of us. It's my belief that the security situation in the country, while changing in its nature from insurgency toward sectarian violence, is controllable by Iraqi security forces and multi-national forces." It should be remembered that sectarian violence is not civil war, and the Middle East and the greater Islamic world is rife with such violence. Countries such as Nigeria, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, thailand and others suffer from such sectarian strife.
There is a pattern here, indeed.
5:02:36 PM
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The Syrian-American Muslim and psychiatrist Dr. Wafa Sultan has publicly said that Islam is being held hostage by violent extremists. In response, the extremists resort to threats of violence.
In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.
She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence.
Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary Islam are destined to lose.
In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private.
Thanks to brave people like Dr. Wafa Sultan, probably more Muslims who are tired of the self-proclaimed religious and political leaders helding them in the dark ages will dare speak up.
3:21:48 PM
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One result of President Robert Mugabe's racist reforms and insane socialist policies:
Inflation for the 12 months to February soared to an all-time high of 782 percent in Zimbabwe, the Central Statistical Office has announced.
In a broadcast Saturday, state radio said prices rose 27.5 percent during the month of February alone, with an average family of five needing Zimbabwean $9 million, or $90 at the official exchange rate, just to meet basic food needs.
Zimbabwe, once a major success story and food exporter, is now collapsing into a starving police state. If Mugabe is not removed one way or another soon, it will become a failed state, and from that, we have no idea what monster will grow up.
2:23:25 PM
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So far unconfirmed, but the story is that Milosevic was found dead in his cell today:
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has died in The Hague, Belgrade B-92 radio reports.
No indication so far of foul play or suicide. He had ill health.
In April 2004 I predicted "the Serbian dictator to die from old age" during the trial. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, though.
Update: AP gets an unofficial confirmation:
A U.N. war crimes prosecution official in the Dutch capital, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed the report to The Associated Press.
A better fate than he deserved.
Update 2: BBC gets it confirmed:
Steven Kay, Mr Milosevic's lawyer, told BBC News 24 that he had been found dead in his cell on Saturday morning.
Let the conspiracy theories start!
1:40:07 PM
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In the late 1950s and 60s, almost everybody thought about computers as number-crunching tools and nothing else. Hardly anybody considered they could have a role in communications and a host of other tasks. Some very clever people at the US Department of Defence's ARPA (today DARPA) started thinking beyond arithmetic. They developed ARPANET, which is today better known as the Internet. Technical skills and democratic ideas proved a potent and powerful combination.
It's a fascinating story about how thinking outside the box, to use a cliche, can really change the world.
What are computers really about? Helping people be creative, communicate, cooperate and share. That is why the net has been such a massive invention. It is not first and foremost about the wonderful machines and the gadgets, as much as us geeks love them. It is about people.
3:37:04 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.04.2006; 13:22:11.
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