3. mai 2007

What you can't say in my comments No, don't worry. I haven't signed on to any civility pledge or whatever it's called. I'm not always that civil myself, after all. But I just have to remind you (and myself) that the Salon Blogs comment system has implemented a spam filter that I can do nothing about, and it's one of those crude keyword blockers. It's even mentioned in a Wikipedia article on the Scunthorpe problem. Recently it has become impossible to mention the words Socialism or Socialist on the Salon.com message boards or blogs because those words contain the substring Cialis, the brand name for an erectile dysfunction medication commonly advertised in spam. A similar problem can occur involving the word specialist, typically blocking mailed résumés and other material including job descriptions. So it's not because I think socialist is a dirty word (and I more or less do), but just a futile attempt to fight comment spam. Perhaps the funniest example of how an annoying keyword filter can be turned against its creator was this stunt played on a poor Bible bot on the IRC channel #Christian. A classic! Via the comments to an article on a similar problem on WTF. These examples should illustrate very well why keyword filters on "dirty words" are a very bad idea. Add non-English languages crashing with English filters, and the problems increase manyfold. A Swedish employee at a US-owned company wondered why nobody evey acknowledged her emails, where she complained about her stressful life. She had added the words "Jag är helt slut" ("I am completely finished" or, if you will, "exhausted") to her emails, and of course the silly corporate email filter ate every one of them. 9:45:36 PM    comment []  trackback []

Presidential debate: Excusing her French The French press, overwhelmingly socialist as always, tried to spin the presidential debate between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ségolène Royal to a draw at worst, or even a win for a surprisingly aggressive and angry Royal. However, the French public thought Sarkozy came off the winner, with a 53-31 margin.  A poll by the Opinion Way firm showed 53 percent found Sarkozy more convincing against 31 percent who thought the Socialist candidate better, but Royal's camp challenged the reliability of the survey. The socialists blame the pollster: "Who does this poll benefit?" said a statement from Jean-Louis Bianco and Francois Rebsamen, her two campaign directors, who suggested it was biased in favor of Sarkozy. It is interesting to compare these press excerpts from France, via the always left-friendly BBC, with an extensive debate summary by a more Sarkozy-friendly source. 6:57:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

Vatican: Criticism of the Pope equals terrorism Overreaction, anyone? In an unusually strongly worded editorial, L'Osservatore Romano said a presenter of a televised May Day rock concert, which is sponsored by Italy's labor unions, had launched "vile attacks" on Pope Benedict in front of an "excitable crowd." "This, too, is terrorism. It's terrorism to launch attacks on the Church," it said. "It's terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man." You must live in a quite exotic alternate universe to seriously believe the Roman Catholic Church is all about "love." But then, the Vatican's official newspaper, I guess, is of another world in some respects. But what had provoked this quite hysterical reaction? Not much, if reports are to be believed. At the concert, held every year in front of the Saint John in Lateran basilica -- Rome's cathedral where Pope Benedict sits as bishop -- one of the presenters, Andrea Rivera, spoke out against the Pontiff's stand on a number of issues. "The Pope says he doesn't believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved," he said. He also criticized the Church for refusing to give a Catholic funeral to Piergiorgio Welby, a man who campaigned for euthanasia as he lay paralyzed with muscular dystrophy. He died in December after a doctor agreed to unplug his respirator. "I can't stand the fact that the Vatican refused a funeral for Welby but that wasn't the case for (Chilean dictator Augusto) Pinochet or (Spanish dictator Francisco) Franco," he said between musical acts at the open-air concert. I just wonder what the above has to do with comedy. Well, the evolution jab was slightly amusing. Has Europe's Muslim community taught our homegrown Christian extremists that when insulted, you have to hit back by going completely over the top? 6:56:49 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2007; 11:45:21.