Archive for December, 2002

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Short memory Clinton

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

I guess now that he is no longer in office means the Bill Clinton can say pretty much say whatever he wants to say. His article in the IHT talks much about utopian ideals and the future of international relations, and even as far as the future of humanity. How nice. It is a pity he did not hold to such beliefs while in office, but I guess things are put in a different light when you do not have to worry about opinion polls etc.

For example he talks about making a stronger UN, but was not he the one that withheld US contributions to it, amounting to over $1 billion dollars? He may think we are on the right path, but I would disagree, if anything the UN has been ridiculed and made to look out dated by Bush’s september speach, and we will ultimately see a US role of complete power and an inevitable large scale war.

Posted in International Relations | 1 Comment »

Smallpox vaccine will kill more than a few

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

The planned vaccination of millions of US citizens against smallpox will likely lead to death of some according to New Scientist. With so many being innoculated it is thought that some people will have adverse reactions and may die. You can read the story here.

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Office of Strategic Influence – alive or dead?

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

“This raises the logical dilemma of whether an agency which admits to lying can be believed when it says it doesn’t exist. Is the agency’s supposed non-existence the first piece of disinformation?” Does the OSI really exist? I would say so!

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Take it out and zap it

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

A year ago doctors in Italy took out a man’s cancer ridden liver, gave it high doses of radiation, and stuck it back in. This meant that none of his other organs were affected by the damaging radiation, but his liver tumors were successfully cured, and have not come back. They are hoping to start using the same procedure on more patients. Amazing technology.

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Finally the answer to a very interesting question – concerning the menstrual cycle

Wednesday, December 18th, 2002

Why do groups of women living in the same household have synchronous menstrual cycles? At last my question has been answered, and it is as I thought – to do with social groups and our evolutionary past. I speculated that it may be chemicals like pheremones that cause the synchronisation, but I did not know the exact evolutionary reasoning behind it.

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EU worried about global warming; US not

Tuesday, December 17th, 2002

Yes over here on this side of the pond we are worried about global warming. Recent floods in the UK and on the Continent indicate that something is happening to our climate, and they are trying to do something about it. Canada has just ratified the Kyoto protocol, and when Russia passes it soon it will then become a full treaty. But what is the US doing? Well, nothing in particular, just turn on the air-conditioning and let those Europeans drown.

Posted in US-EU Relations | Comments Off

The Bushes that blunder

Tuesday, December 17th, 2002

Is the now inevitable war in Iraq going to be detrimental to the US being liked in the world? I would have guessed it, and so would most people. Matthew Engel is one of them and he writes a good story on it. He argues that rather than combating al-Qaida, the Bush rhetoric on Iraq is actually reinforcing dissent against the US, and may well lead to yet more terrorist attacks.

What has Osama bin Laden’s problem been all along – if anyone actually listened to what he said – his problem is the presence of American troops on the Arabian peninsula, no-fly zones, and the sanctions that are killing a disputed number of people in Iraq. So obviously the solution is to invade Iraq and kill lots of Muslims? Hmm. Unfortunately I think we can expect more September 11-type events.

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Sun Micro in H-1B visa scam?

Tuesday, December 17th, 2002

A guy has decided to take Sun Microsystems to court because they sacked him, but kept on and even hired more immigrant visa workers. Not sure how this one will pan out, but looks like Sun may win it, I can see his point though in relation to undercutting wages.

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Good news for white wine lovers

Tuesday, December 17th, 2002

Yes those scientists are at it again, cooking up things to help make our lives healthier and lazier – and so we can drink more wine. Since red wine has more polyphenols it is thought that its anti-oxidant properties help reduce ageing by getting rid of those nasty free radicals, good for red wine drinkers like myself. So what have they done? Traditionally white wine had less polyphenols but now they have found a way to grow them with three times as much.

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Head of Total Information Awareness is now totally aware

Monday, December 16th, 2002

John Poindexter has been targeted this week by the lads over at Cryptome. He is head of a supposed anti-terrorist government agency in the US. And as his job involves something the privacy lobby and many online activists do not like, they have collected and posted a wide range of information about Mr. Poindexter, and even his neighbours in Washington DC.

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NATO and EU join forces: Joe Fitchett

Monday, December 16th, 2002

A writer for the IHT, Joe Fitchett, has an interesting story about some little known about goings on over at the EU summit in Copenhagen. Yet another step in the integration of NATO assets into an emerging European army. This follows on from previous stories I posted by Javier Solana (Dec 8) and Giles Merritt (Dec 11).

Posted in European Politics | 1 Comment »

Preparing the US public for war (Gavins 4th warning lol)

Monday, December 16th, 2002

An excellently written piece by Brian Whitaker on how the US media is playing its role in the build up to war with Iraq. One of the best articles I have read in recent weeks.

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IDC predict 2003 to be year of Linux, WiFi and yes – lots more spam

Monday, December 16th, 2002

In their annual report IDC have said that 2003 will see Internet commerce pass the $1.5 trillion mark, Linux will increase market share (good!), WiFi will see more growth and this will adversely affect 3G rollout. ZDnet has the story here, Onlineblog has it here and the IDC report is here. (But it costs an arm and a leg)

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My 16x burner seems ancient now

Saturday, December 14th, 2002

They have done it now, just when I thought that 48x would be the fastest they would go, Asus have gone and brought out a 52x burner. That means burning a 700 MB CD in 2 minutes 30 seconds. God that’s awful fast, I am amazed the CD does not melt. HotHardware has the review.

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DOW Chemical to use DMCA to take down parody site

Saturday, December 14th, 2002

Andres Orlowski writes an excellent article for el Reg. The DMCA is an amazing piece of legislation, and how it can be used seems not only unfair, but unjust. I will be posting more DMCA stories in the future. It is designed in favour of corporations, and not of the Internet. (The parody site mentioned also appears do be down).

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