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13. oktober 2006
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet...
If the above line looks somewhat familiar, chances are that you have been involved with typography of some kind, if nothing else as part of web design, DTP or even word processing.
And if you wonder what the text actually means, wonder no more.
10:39:07 PM 
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I have earlier suggested that North Korea's nuclear test was a dud or even maybe a hoax. It is way too early for making conclusions, but this at least points in the direction hoax:
Initial tests of air samples taken by U.S. planes near North Korea found no evidence of radiation, but the United States is not ready to declare that Pyongyang did not detonate a nuclear device, a U.S. government intelligence official said on Friday.
Monday's announcement by the reclusive communist state that it had tested a nuclear bomb sharply escalated world concerns over North Korea's nuclear program. But the United States and other countries have not yet confirmed whether or not an underground nuclear test was conducted, or whether conventional weapons were used.
"The initial test came back negative," the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told Reuters of air sample testing.
The official said further analysis was being conducted, but "I doubt it will differ from the initial one."
If further testing and more samples also come back negative, it is hard to avoid suspecting that North Korea may have set off a large conventional explosion to bluff the world. In that case, they may not have sufficiently advanced technology to make a nuclear device, and even less a viable weapon.
Update: Talking too soon.
6:18:01 PM
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A group of scientists have found a relationship between periodical changes in the Earth's orbit and rodent extinctions in Spain. Earlier attempts to find out if there was a relationship between these so-called Milankovitch oscillations and periodical extinctions have not been conclusive, maybe because they investigated on a global scale, with samples from all over the world over a huge amount of time.
To get around this problem, Jan van Dam of Utrecht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues examined an extensive collection of 80,000 rodent teeth from central Spain. The fossils, collected over 40 years of sifting through soil along riverbanks and construction sites, range from 24.5 to 2.5 million years old.
The team mapped out which species lived in which time periods. With this information, they found evidence for two different cycles of die-offs, each taking up to 30% of the species alive at the time. Every 2.4-2.5 million years there was a small extinction, and on top of this, every 1 million years came a die-off too. These frequencies match up to recently discovered variations in Milankovitch cycles.
One die-off occurred around 14 million years ago, for example. This coincides with a time when Earth's orbit was much more circular than normal, reducing the contrast between seasons. This would have brought cooler summers to higher latitudes, reducing ice melt and leading to a cooler climate — apparently with negative effects for the rodents in Spain.
Scientists warn against drawing general conclusions based on this sample. Periodical rodent extinctions in Spain may not mean there were, say, periodic bird extinctions in China.
It is also worth noting that Milankovitch cycles or oscillations is a quite recently discovered phenomenon. Recently, Danish scientists found evidence suggesting that cosmic rays influence cloud forming on Earth, an important factor in our climate. There is a lot we don't yet know about how all sorts of phenomena influences life here on Earth.
Link via forskning.no.
6:05:21 PM
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I never have high expectations for the Nobel Peace Prize, which tends to be a totally useless or counter-productive political correctness award. Well, it appears this year the prize has gone to a good man and a great cause:
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, it has been announced.
Mr Yunus, a Bangladeshi, founded the bank, which is one of the pioneers of micro-credit lending schemes for the poor in Bangladesh.
The bank is renowned for lending money to the least well off, especially women, so that they can launch their own businesses.
I'm ignoring, in this case, the obvious fact that the winner has very little to do with peace.
A bit of comedy, as the earliest Norwegian press reports obviously were written by journalists wondering who the heck "Graamen Bank" was!
Last year the prize infamously went to Mohamed ElBaradei and the IAEA, which was particularly stupid even by long-low Nobel committee standards. In 2004, the prize went to Kenyan tree planter Wangari Maathai. She had previously argued that HIV/AIDS was a biological weapon created by the west as part of a racist plot to kill black people. The committee, being unaware of this conspiracy nonsense, obviously hadn't even googled her name before awarding her the prize...
11:43:06 AM
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No, the alleged nuclear test didn't really change that much:
China opposes any mention of the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7, which authorizes punishments including economic sanctions, naval blockades and military actions. China and Russia want to see sanctions focus primarily on reining in North Korea's nuclear and weapons programs.
Beijing and Moscow also object to the wide scope of financial sanctions and a provision authorizing the inspection of cargo going in and out of North Korea, council diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are private. There is concern among some diplomats that boarding North Korean ships could lead to a military response from the North.
The measures to which Russia and China object were in an earlier revised U.S. draft resolution. The U.S. circulated the draft late Wednesday, formally introduced it in the Security Council on Thursday. Britain, France, Japan and Slovakia signed on as co-sponsors to the revised draft, a softer version of the original American proposal circulated Monday.
So weak economic sanctions is going to be the only fallout of this supposed nuclear test.
North Korea 1, the so-called world community 0.
I guess economic sanctions with teeth comes down to a "coalition of the willing" again, in this case Europe and Japan. If they don't chicken out...
Remember, Iran is watching very carefully what happens with North Korea.
2:16:21 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Jan Haugland.
Last update: 01.11.2006; 20:04:11.
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