Thinking Points

• The News Blog reports on a DailyKos diary where a person asserts that American troops in Iraq don't have clean drinking water. An email from a US Soldier (probably a Marine) seems to indicate this. Part of me worries that this might be a crock.
• Riverbend is finding life in Baghdad increasingly scary - and this from a person who managed to live through the American bombing in 2003.
• Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, has an interesting article about Paul and whether we should listen to such a cranky, old and ignorant person.
• Tom Hinkle gets even angrier at George Bush, if that were possible.
• Interesting postings on Prophecy continuation at Kiwiandanemu. It's a pity that a lengthy comment to this article that I wrote got lost somehow.
• Shyborg, a 22 year old young single Christian woman from Australia, continues to attract unavailable Christian men to her various websites.
• Tom Ascol continues to prove that he's everything that FIDE-O tries to be, without all the problems.
• George Michael is arrested for drug possession. Think of all the young people who will model his actions because he is a famous star. *yawn*
• Glenn McGrath will miss the Australia - South Africa Test series. Bring on Bracken.
• England's Ashes-winning side is in total disarray. Michael Vaughan, Simon Jones, Marcus Thescothick and Ashley Giles have all gone home from India. Freddie Flintoff will be captain.
• Neil Foster's account of his trip to India in 1984-85 seems interesting.
  
• Was the Da Vinci Code plagiarised? Hopefully it was.
• Six new ways to inflict pain on yourself.
• This is interesting - apparently the "little ice age" that gripped the world in the 14th century may have been due to a dip in CO2 levels. What caused this dip? The growth of trees and forests on land formerly used for farms - farms that were no longer needed after millions had died during the black death in Europe. At least there is one solution available to us to counter global warming. I wonder if this thesis could also back the fact that the world was in a minor "cooling" phase in the thirty years from 1945 to 1975 - the period directly following the deaths of millions in the second world war? The black death, though, did not contribute to the Maunder Minimum.
• 31 years ago today was the Moorgate Tube Crash, which killed 43 people. They still don't know why it happened.
• Pretty Astronomy Pictures here and here.
• Turkey is getting a new national flag.
• America's best Winter Olympics in 54 years continues to make Americans unhappy. (New York Times: registration required)