News Can anyone justify this?

[rynnor]

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize for Obama - I meant its possible he could do stuff in the future to deserve one but at the moment he really hasnt achieved anything concrete.

He's still fighting a costly war in Afghanistan, theres still no Palastinian state, North Korea is still the enemy and Iran's still building nukes?

 

[dysfunction]

It does seem a bit premature to be giving him awards.
It kind of cheapens the previous Nobel Peace Prize winners who actually have done something more concrete.

I guess they were a bit stuck this year for anyone worth while...

Don't get me wrong I like Obama but not sure he deserves this award

 

[ECA]

Maybe there were no other good candidates this year?
But yeah I'm sure he's really going to cheapen the awards that they gave to

Yasser Arafat
Shimon Peres
Yitzhak Rabin
David. Trimble


Sarcasm aside, I agree he hasn't exactly done enough to deserve one yet

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

My gut reaction is that they want to strengthen Obama's image abroad to increase his approval rating in other countries, which perhaps might ease efforts for peace. I agree with the BBC news report in that it seems to be based on his intentions rather than acheivements.

Intentions are rather famous for being somwhat unfortunate paving stones.

 

[rynnor]

Maybe there were no other good candidates this year?
But yeah I'm sure he's really going to cheapen the awards that they gave to

Yasser Arafat
Shimon Peres
Yitzhak Rabin
David. Trimble


Sarcasm aside, I agree he hasn't exactly done enough to deserve one yet

Maybe its always been a sarcastic award and we never realised

 

[ECA]

Maybe its always been a sarcastic award and we never realised

Maybe they only gave one to Nelson Mandela because they thought it was funny if a darkie got one?

 

[rynnor]

Maybe they only gave one to Nelson Mandela because they thought it was funny if a darkie got one?

Could be - they apparently gave one to the dalai llama just for being re-incarnated again

I guess a peace prize by the inventor of TNT should have primed us for Irony

 

[Gahn]

Am gonna post some "wannabes" on a web site and get the Peace Nobel Prize also!

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

I guess a peace prize by the inventor of TNT should have primed us for Irony

He didn't win a peace prize. He won a prize for excelling in science.

 

[ramathorn]

David. Trimble

I'm pretty greatful to Mr Trimble for what he did for Northern Ireland, he had a big part to play in the massive turn around in this country has seen. As a man I had no liking for him but he does deserve some credit for his part in the GFA.

As with most others on the Obama topic, definately a very premature award

 

[Ctuchik]

the nobel prize is a political tool ppl. get used to it.

 

[Ctuchik]

I guess a peace prize by the inventor of TNT should have primed us for Irony

well, concidering that that was (iirc) Alfred Nobel himself, it might still be?

 

[rynnor]

I think we should nominate the Rwandan Hutu people for resolving their long struggle with the Tutsi's via genocidal warfare.

Or the Iranian President to thank him for not nuking Israel yet - or the Israelis for abiding by the geneva convention on protecting civilians during a conflict

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Aye Alfie Nobel is the chap whom the prizes are named after. I think the peace prize thing came somewhat after the excelling in science part but I'm not completely sure. By that time the Nobel prize was already well known and the peace prize kinda tagged onto the Foundation's list of things they handed out.

 

[Ctuchik]

yeah but was it him that invented TNT? i cant remember, and i'm swede... :<

 

[rynnor]

yeah but was it him that invented TNT? i cant remember, and i'm swede... :<

Lol - actually he invented Dynamite not TNT - and was much lauded for the way this would make mining a lot safer.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

ICI's explosives division was referred to as Nobel Explosives (I think). Inventor of some of their products that made mining safer was...

...my father.

 

[Raven]

The original dynamite was a disaster, it was very unstable, Nobel's assistant blew himself up with it in an accident. It was only by accident that they made it safer, they were transporting some when one the jars broke and it leaked into the sand that they used to pack the crates so that the jars wouldn't move around too much. Once in its putty form its much safer.

 

[JingleBells]

The original dynamite was a disaster, it was very unstable, Nobel's assistant blew himself up with it in an accident. It was only by accident that they made it safer, they were transporting some when one the jars broke and it leaked into the sand that they used to pack the crates so that the jars wouldn't move around too much. Once in its putty form its much safer.

The original dynamite? Nobel invented Dynamite

It's nitroglycerin that's unstable, dynamite is nitroglycerin soaked in sand/earth/chalk creating the putty used for the sticks.

</pedant>

 

[tierk]

Can anyone justify this?

In a word, NO!!

Well someone obviously feels they can hence the award.

 

[rynnor]

It's nitroglycerin that's unstable, dynamite is nitroglycerin soaked in sand/earth/chalk creating the putty used for the sticks.

Even more pedantically I think they originally used sawdust - soak it in nitro and its a lot safer to use because its less likely to go off due to impacts.

Clever as he was Nobel was no marketing genius - he first sold it as 'Nobel's blasting powder'