An interesting twist on journalistic use of the web is found at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2768059.stm
“Journalists in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez have set up a website to draw international attention to the unsolved murders of hundreds of women.”
44 years ago today Castro was sworn in as the ‘main man’ in Cuba. Does not seem possible it has been that long.
47 years ago UK Health Minister, RH Turton, has rejected calls for a government campaign against smoking, saying no ill-effects have actually been proven.
The minister stated in the House of Commons that: “Two cancer-causing agents have been identified in tobacco smoke but whether they have a direct role in producing lung cancer and if so what, has not been proved.”
Leading British tobacco firms commented;
“Tobacco is a great boon to many millions of people in this country and throughout the world”
In context:
In 1997, the tobacco industry agreed to pay out $368.5bn over 25 years for the costs of smoking-related disease in 40 US states that had sued.
As well as cancer, smoking also causes heart disease, asthma and premature ageing. Pregnant women who smoke put their unborn children at risk of low birth weight.
According to the Department of Health, more than 120,000 deaths were caused by smoking in the UK in 1995 - that is one in five of all deaths.
.....and I still smoke.
Dolly the sheep, who became famous as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, has died.
The news was confirmed on Friday by the Roslin Institute, the Scottish research centre which created her.
A decision was taken to “euthanase” six-year-old Dolly after a veterinary examination showed that she had a progressive lung disease, the institute said in a statement.
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57676,00.html
Read the complete article..bastards! (or free enterprise?)
...Security firm Symantec withheld information about at least one big cyberthreat for hours after spotting it, possibly harming millions of Internet users.
Symantec claims to have identified the Slammer worm that ravaged the Internet during the last weekend of January hours before anyone else did....
Our friend Steve at Acts of Volition points out that even the Island Web Cam was having difficulty with our record cold temperatures. The only thing that Steve got wrong was the actual wind-chill temps - it was -59C at 1:35 AM on February 14th. For those of you who have not embraced the metric form of temperature display - that is -73F.
[B]A must read[/B]
(snip....)Employers, too, insist they want motivated, out-of-the-box thinkers. Does that seem true where you work? Granted, it’s never a good idea to show-up the boss and only a fool would do so purposely. But if the boss surrounded himself with as many brilliant underlings are he claims to want, wouldn’t he get shown-up by accident on a routine basis, calling his own value into question too often for comfort? Smart, ego-less leadership is ideal, but it’s also damned rare. (snip......)
Dave Barry is halarious
http://davebarry.blogspot.com/
HOMELAND SECURITY UPDATE
We are in a Heightened State of Alert. Our official national-security status has been raised to Level IX, or “Buttpucker.” Everybody needs to be ALERT and HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS. Like, if somebody at the supermarket asks you, “Paper of plastic?”, your correct response is: “Who wants to know?”
Lawyer calls....
Today..A few flurries ending then gradual clearing this morning. Wind west 50 km/h gusting to 70 diminishing. Poor visibility in local blowing snow. Very cold. Temperature steady near minus 17. Wind chill minus 31.
Tonight..Clear. Wind west 30 km/h gusting to 50. Very cold. Low near minus 26. Wind chill minus 36.
Friday..Sunny. Wind west 40 gusting to 60 km/h. Bitterly cold. High near minus 18. Wind chill minus 38 in the morning.