Day: July 25, 2001

Outrageous Lies from Million Mom March Representative

Last week at the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, several groups spoke on behalf of Americans who fear the UN’s treaty on small arms would limit their ability to own guns. After several of them had spoken, it was time for Mary Leigh Blek of the Million Mom March to speak. Blek decided to tell an outright lie.

The gun lobby has been talking for 40 minutes. During that time, 40 people have died from the use of small arms and light weapons in this country. That figure, not the statement of those representatives, is further proof that this country is at war.

Just do the math. If one person dies from a small arm/light weapon in the United States every minute, that translates to 525,600 gun deaths a year. There are only about 2.3 million deaths total in the United States every year — if that claim were true, more than 1 in 5 deaths would be due to gunshots.

In 1997 — the most recent year I could find information for, there were 32,436 gunshot-related deaths. That works out to about 2.5 gunshot deaths every 40 minutes. Blek is only off by about 1600 percent.

All in a days work for gun grabbers.

Source:

Civil Society Groups Highlight Impact Of Firearms Injuries, Gun Ownership Rights In Small Arms Conference Debate.United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, 8th Meeting July 16, 2001.

Is Information “Real”?

Once again the good folks at Blizzard released some changes to Diablo 2 that weren’t properly tested resulting in many people losing items that their characters had accumulated while playing the game. The game uses one data packet for character information and a second packet for items that a character owns, and the bug causes the server to lose the pointer that connects the two packets.

There’s a lot of moaning and whining on Blizzard’s forums up the problem (and rightfully so), but it was a story posted at Slashdot that really caught my eye. Michael posted a description of the problem and then added,

Is it just me, or is it a bit odd to be reporting on the disappearance of items that never existed in the first place?

I was a bit astounded that someone working for a techie site like Slashdot would actually assert that information isn’t a “real” commodity. After all, if my Two-Handed Sword of the Vampire doesn’t really exist, then neither does the story at Slashdot — both are nothing more than entries into a specialized database.

Quite a few people in the ensuing discussion couldn’t understand why anyone would pay real money (and in some cases, hundreds of dollars) for Diablo 2 items on E-Bay. But supply and demand functions just as well with information as it does with physical objects you can hold in your hand. Many items in Diablo 2 are extremely difficult to find since their appearance is controlled by setting the probability that they will appear as very low. If an object is only likely to appear once per 10,000 game hours, it’s going to be worth a lot of money.

U.S. Warning on Famine in Sudan

Speaking in Kenya, U.S. official Andrew Natsios warned that Sudan could face a catastrophic crop failure next year.

Natsios reported that drought in northern parts of Sudan combined with continuing government attacks in southern Sudan were beginning to create hunger in that country and could lead to dramatic crop failures later this year.

If that scenario plays out, Sudan could face catastrophic famine. Natsios compared the possible outcome to Sudan’s catastrophic drought of the 1980s when 250,000 people died from famine-related causes.

Source:

New US warning on Sudan. The BBC, July 23, 2001.

Iceland Plans to Resume Whaling; Voting Rights Revoked

At the International Whaling Commission meeting in London, Iceland’s voting rights were revoked after that country refused to recognize the 15-year old moratorium on commercial whaling. Before the meeting began, Iceland’s whaling commissioner had said that Iceland would resume commercial whaling of minke and fin whales within that country’s coastal waters.

Iceland’s parliament voted to resume whaling as soon as possible in 1999, and a resumption of whaling has wide support on the island nation of 250,000.

Iceland maintains that the IWC lacks the authority to revoke its voting privileges. This could be an extremely important development since many observers believe that Japan and Norway have finally garnered enough support to overturn the moratorium in commercial whaling. Any decision to overturn the moratorium would require approval by 75 percent of IWC members.

Norway objected to the moratorium and is not bound by it — it kills about 500 minke whales every year.

The moratorium on hunting minke and gray whales is almost certainly going to collapse very soon as both species’ populations have recovered to the point where it is becoming increasingly difficult for the IWC to justify the moratorium on scientific grounds.

Sources:

Iceland set to resume whaling. Richard Middleton, Associated Press, July 21, 2001.

Angry split at whaling meeting. The BBC, July 23, 2001.

Bovine Colostrom Could Save Lives

Bovine colostrom, which is produced during the first few days after a cow gives birth, could prove to be a life saving treatment for people with stomach disorders.

Researchers at Hammersmith Hospital and Leicester General hospital in the United Kingdom recently conducted a study using the milk product to treat problems caused by non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). NSAIDS provide amazing anti-inflammatory action, but can attack in the stomach lining and cause it to bleed.

According to The BBC, about 2,000 people in the UK die every year from NSAID-related side effects.

Research is also underway to test colostrom as a possible treatment for ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory disease of the large bowel.

Source:

milk eases stomach injuries. The BBC, July 22, 2001.