28. mars 2006

Vodka Red Bull makes you more drunk than you believe. Well d'oh. Some of us have already done this study, admittedly not always a very controlled experiment: Mixing alcohol with energy drinks like Red Bull can give revellers the illusion they are more sober than they really are, a new study warns. Listen, eggheads: Those words are not interpreted as "warns" by the target audience. It sounds like good advertising. Anyway, cheers to Maria Lucia Souza-Formigoni of the Federal University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for actually getting paid to conduct that study! It needs a follow-up... 11:22:21 PM    comment []  trackback []

Projections show narrow win for Kadima Kadima appears to have won the Israeli election, but with a smaller representation in the Knesset than it would need for a comfortable win. According to the TV projections, Kadima would win 29-32 seats in the 120-member parliament, Labor 20-22 seats and Likud 11-12 seats. Recent opinion polls showed Kadima winning 34 seats. Likud has made such a bad election it is not even making it into third place, if we are to believe these projections. Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beitenu Party, typically described as "hard-line", looks set for 12-14 seats, and the Pensioners' Party appears to have won 6 to 8. Some experts are warning that exit polls tend to be unreliable in Israel, with all these small parties, so it's obviously a bit too early to draw firm conclusions. But I wonder if Benjamin Netanyahu will survive as Likud leader after such a devastating defeat. 11:14:51 PM    comment []  trackback []

How Scandinavia treats its traitors Today we learned that Sweden's most notorious spy, Stig Wennerström, died a few months shy of his 100th birthday. Wennerström was colonel in the Swedish Air Force when it was discovered that he had given the Soviet Union practically all of his country's military secrets. He spied for the Soviets for 15 years, and was sentenced to life in prison in 1964. He served eleven years. Incidentally, also today, Norway's most notorious spy, Arne Treholt, was sent home to Norway in an ambulance plane. He suffered critical blood poisoning on Cyprus, and is now in Ullevål university hospital. Treholt was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1985 for abusing his high political position to compromise Norway's military and political secrets to the Soviets and to Iraq, but his Labour party friends had him pardoned and released in 1992. Since then, socialists have had a campaign to have the conviction overturned, using the argument that giving secrets to the Soviets didn't really harm Norway's security. Treholt is currently unconscious and in a respirator. So, I think, is our security policies. 6:34:23 PM    comment []  trackback []

Charles Taylor got away Charles Taylor has "disappared." Anybody surprised? Not Douglas Farah. In a stunning display of choreographed incompetence, the Nigerian government of president Obasanjo has let Charles Taylor slip away into the night. Nigeria, Liberia, the Bush administration and United Nations all bear a large dose of responsibility in the fiasco that will haunt the region for generations. So, a man who sold diamonds to al Qaeda, bankrolled weapons dealer Viktor Bout while Bout was selling weapons to the Taliban and wreaked havoc on an entire region, has flown from the gilded cage, where the money he stole from his raped and pillaged country was able to buy him freedom. Despite being indicted on 17 counts of crimes against humanity, he enjoyed almost three years of relatively unfettered freedom in his exile home in Calabar. From his gilded cage in Calabar, where he paid his Nigerian "security guards" to let him continue his deadly meddling unabated, to some undisclosed location where his cash reserves in France, Switzerland and offshore structures will buy him more protection. This is really bad news for the region. 5:31:45 PM    comment []  trackback []

Israel votes Israel is going to the polls today. The new centrist party Kadima is widely expected to win, but not decisively, and Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud appears to be the big loser of this campaign. A record-low voting turnout, however, can lead to surprises. Exit polls will not be released before the poll closes. Both frontrunner Kadima and the Labor Party fear a low voter turnout, particularly in light of the opinion polls published in recent days. According to a Haaretz-Channel 10 survey, one-third (34 percent to be precise) of the country's 5 million eligible voters do not intend to cast a ballot for the 17th Knesset. The expected voter turnout, therefore, is some 66 percent - around 2 percent lower than the rate in the 2003 elections, the lowest turnout in Israeli election history. The prevailing assessment is that low turnout will work to the detriment of Kadima and Labor. "Get out and vote" is one of the sentences most closely identified with Ariel Sharon, and it is also the mantra officials from his party, Kadima, repeated Monday during last-minute campaign visits and speeches. Although Kadima has scored well in the polls - Monday's survey predicted it would win 36 seats - the combination of complacency and undecided votes leave room for Election Day surprises. It looks like Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will become Prime Minister, and will receive a mandate to continue the policy of detachment from the Palestinians and unilaterally setting Israel's permanent borders. 10:01:17 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.04.2006; 13:23:28.