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HavenWorks.com/miscellany/archive/2002 |
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CLONING
NEWS
- "Doubts
cast on reporter in cloning verification." ... "As
the alien-worshiping Raelian sect prepared yesterday to assemble proof
that a woman has given birth to the first-ever cloned human baby, some
research scientists raised questions about the impartiality and skills
of the Boston-based freelance journalist handpicked to verify the claim."
... "The journalist, Michael Guillen, a former ABC science reporter, has
maintained a close relationship with the Raelians, as well as other cloning
groups, for more than four years, often winning exclusive interviews while
aggressively popularizing their work, according to a Globe review of his
recent reporting efforts." -By Raja Mishra and Mark
Jurkowitz -Boston/Globe
Desalination
- 
- "Marin
thirsty for desalination: Officials say tapping
bay could solve water woes." ... "... the thorniest obstacle is that reverse
osmosis technology --the process of forcing water through a semi-permeable
membrane that blocks out salt molecules -- is still very expensive." ...
"Pushing water through the membranes takes a huge amount of electricity,
which is why most desalination projects are being built alongside electric
power generation plants." ... "Desalination has been a concept since the
fourth century B.C., when Aristotle made his proposal to condense seawater
vapor. The first crude plant was installed in 1862 in Key West, Fla., to
support military personnel at Fort Zachary Taylor." -By
Peter Fimrite -SFGate.com
CLONING
NEWS
- "Cloning
Claim Draws Fierce Denunciations: Vatican, Leading
Muslim Clerics, Jewish Rabbis Denounce Group's Claim That It's Cloned a
Human." ... "The Vatican joined leading Muslim clerics and Jewish rabbis
in denouncing as immoral, "brutal" and unnatural the claim that a cloned
baby had been born. Political leaders, meanwhile, stepped up calls for
a global ban on human cloning." ... "The reaction Saturday came a day after
a cloning company whose leader believes space aliens launched life on Earth
announced that a baby girl, nicknamed "Eve," had been born as a clone of
her mother." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- 
- CLONING
NEWS
- "Cloning
ban to face debate: Congress could take up
dilemma over experiments." ... "Real or hoax, the claim that the world's
first human clone has been born puts the next step squarely into Congress's
court: Will it ban baby-making via cloning?" ... "The nation has no specific
law against human cloning. But the Food and Drug Administration, which
regulates human experiments, contends that its regulations forbid human
cloning without prior agency permission - permission it has no intention
of giving." -By Lauran Neergaard
-AP via -Boston/Globe
OPINION
- "Jack
Whittaker Caps The Year Of The Scam." ... "... Whitaker,
the West Virginia man who won "$314.9 million" in the Powerball lottery
on Christmas day, is now most known for his participation in a long-running,
ever growing scam: the state lotteries." ... "First, the jackpot is not
$314.9 million--that's what it would be if paid out over 30 years. Whittaker
opted for a single lump sum payment of $170.5 million. That number gets
reported, too, but it seems to get buried." ... "State lotteries are a
sucker bet. They typically return about 55% of the money wagered. That's
much less than a casino or a racetrack. The various lotteries admit it,
but it's reported much less often than stories about winners, a staple
on the local news. No one ever publicizes the millions of losers, but they're
out there. You have to be in it to lose it." -By Dan
Ackman -Forbes
- 
- "Top
Arab TV network to hit US market." ... "Coming to
a screen near you: Al Jazeera in English." ... "The Arabic-language news
network, notorious for broadcasting the statements of Osama bin Laden and
his Al Qaeda colleagues, plans to open an English-language website in early
2003 and begin distributing English-language news programming by satellite
and cable late next year." ... "Although Al Jazeera staffers are proud
of what they have done to cover the other side of the US "war on terrorism,"
Western officials are suspicious of the channel's access. "They've skirted
the line between journalism and colluding with terrorists," says the Doha-based
official." ... ""They are not totally happy with us," says Ali of US officials.
Like any government, he says, "they want the media next to them, not to
tell the truth."" -By Cameron W. Barr
-CSMonitor
- "Yahoo
buys search firm Inktomi for $235M." ... "Yahoo
Inc. has purchased Inktomi Corp.
for about $235 million, the companies announced
today. Yahoo will add Inktomi's Web search technology to its portal sites
in hopes of becoming the premier destination for Web searches, it said."
... "Foster City, Calif.-based Inktomi has deals with Amazon.com Inc.,
eBay Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.com portal, according to its Web site.
Computerworld.com also uses Inktomi search software." -By
Tom Krazit -IDG.net
via -Computerworld
- "Yahoo
Buys Search-Software Maker Inktomi." ... "Internet
media company Yahoo Inc. YHOO.O on Monday said it would pay $235 million
to buy Internet search-software maker Inktomi Corp. INKT.O , strengthening
its position in the growing Web search business." ... "The cash deal of
$1.65 per share valued Inktomi, a high-flyer during the Internet boom,
at a 41 percent premium to Friday's close but at less than a third of its
value at its 1998 initial public offering." -By Ben
Berkowitz -Reuters/Business
- Discussion - "Yahoo
Buying Inktomi."
-Slashdot
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "Federal
database spy site fading away." ... "Call it the
incredibly shrinking government Web site." ... "As controversy grows over
the Defense Department's shadowy Total Information Awareness (TIA) project,
the project's virtual presence is steadily decreasing. If fully implemented,
TIA would link databases from sources such as credit card companies, medical
insurers, and motor vehicle databases for police convenience in hopes of
snaring terrorists." ... "First, biographical information about the TIA
project leaders, including retired Adm. John Poindexter, disappeared from
the Defense Department's site last month. A mirror
that one activist created from Google's cache shows the deleted information
included four resumes listing past work experience but no addresses or
contact information." -By Declan McCullagh-CNET
/News
- "Can
Tribune's FitzSimons Do It Again?" ... "Watch for
dramatic industry changes next year if the Tribune (nyse: TRB
- news
-people)
broadcasting czar, Dennis
J. FitzSimons, has his way. FitzSimons was named chief executive
officer last week, replacing John
W. Madigan as CEO of the No. 2 U.S. newspaper company (estimated
2002 revenue: $5.3 billion) behind Gannett (nyse: GCI
- news
-people).
FitzSimons' fame? The 20-year Tribune veteran, who formerly ran Tribune's
WGN-TV, put print-dominated Tribune on the television map, buying 18 of
Tribune's 24 stations since 1992. TV is now Tribune's fastest growing unit,
accounting for 26% of sales and 35% of operating profit." ... "Under FitzSimons,
TV will get even bigger as soon as he can rally the Federal Communications
Commission to repeal decades-old rules banning ownership of TV stations
in markets where it already owns newspapers or other TV stations." -By
Erin Killian -Forbes
-
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "Bush
Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet."
... "The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet
service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring
of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users." ... "The
proposal is part of a final version of a report, "The National Strategy
to Secure Cyberspace," set for release early next year, according to several
people who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort
to increase national security after the Sept. 11 attacks." ... "The President's
Critical Infrastructure Protection Board is preparing the report, and it
is intended to create public and private cooperation to regulate and defend
the national computer networks, not only from everyday hazards like viruses
but also from terrorist attack. Ultimately the report is intended to provide
an Internet strategy for the new Department of Homeland Security." -By
John Markoff and John Schwartz -NYTimes
via -Google-News
OPINION
-
- 
-
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "Snooping
in All the Wrong Places: Not only would the
Administration's plan to centralize every American's records destroy privacy,
the security payoff would be minimal." ... "The 2002 elections proved one
thing: The promise of security wins votes. The GOP campaigned on a pledge
to make the country safer, and it brought home one of the biggest midterm
victories in decades. That huge win may have emboldened the Bush Administration
to ignore widespread criticism of the Defense Dept.'s $240 million effort
to develop a Total Information Awareness system (TIA)." ... "The outrage
over TIA doesn't seem to have reached the President's ear, but it should.
It's not too late for him to realize the folly of such a plan. Funded by
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the project would
combine every American's bank records, tax filings, driver's license information,
credit-card purchases, medical data, and phone and e-mail records into
one giant centralized database. This would then be combed through for evidence
of suspicious activity." -By Jane Black
-BusinessWeek/Daily
- 
- Christmas
News
-
- "When
a 'Christmas Truce' put war on back burner." ...
"Christmas came to the battlefield in "the Great War to end all wars,"
and that story became the stuff of legend." ... "The History Channel tells
what happened when British and German soldiers laid down their arms to
meet in a No Man's Land strewn with the bodies of their fallen comrades.
Never before --and never again, probably -- was there ever such a celebration
as The Christmas Truce." -By Ann Hodges
-HoustonChronicle.com
Christmas
- "Chain
Stores Take on Christmas Trees." ... "Operating a
roadside Christmas tree stand has never been a huge moneymaker, and now
that the big boys have moved into the market it's even tougher." ... "The
National Christmas Tree Association says 17 percent of the roughly 30 million
Christmas trees sold last year were at large chain stores, such as Wal-Mart,
Home Depot, Lowe's and Target. That's up from 14 percent in 2000 - the
first year the association began tracking sales at chain stores - and came
even as the overall market shrank a bit." -By Clarke
Canfield -AP
via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Christmas
-
- "The
gift of virus: In the spirit of the holiday
season, a tale of one man who clicked too soon but discovered that missent
e-mail can still lead to a wonderful life." ... "This holiday season, when
thoughts turn to family and friends, we are all perhaps a little more trusting,
and maybe a little more gullible. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
That's my one excuse for falling prey to a software virus that disguises
itself as an e-card." -By Nick Altebrando
-Salon
- 
- "C.I.A.
Chief Prospers From Bond With Bush." ... "When George
W. Bush was president-elect, he got some fateful advice about his daily
C.I.A. briefing from a man who would know." ... "Mr. Bush's father, the
only president to have served as C.I.A. director, was in the unique position
of having both given and received the secret morning updates, and often
told friends that his time in the 1970's at the C.I.A. headquarters in
Langley, Va., was one of the best jobs he ever had." ... "He unequivocally
instructed his son, said Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff,
to develop a close relationship with the person who ran the spy organization
and oversaw the other intelligence agencies that make up America's covert
empire." (1, 2)
-By Elisabeth Bumiller
-NYTimes via
-AltaVista-News
- "United
pilots union 'stunned' by wage cut request." ...
"United Airlines' pilots union said on Monday it was "stunned" by a new
wage cut proposal the world's second-largest carrier put forth less than
a week after filing for bankruptcy, signaling possible litigation ahead."
... "United, a unit of UAL Corp. (NYSE:UAL),
late last week presented its labor unions with requests for wage cuts that
were more than double what it was seeking before filing the biggest bankruptcy
case in aviation history." ... "Of United's 83,000 member work force, about
80 percent is unionized. Nearly half of the work force is represented by
the International Association of Machinists." -By
By Kathy Fieweger -Reuters
via -Lycos -Finance
-
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "The
web bites back." ... "Protesters are turning the
tables on government officials and businessmen who they say are making
the web less pleasant to use." ... "The web activists have found the personal
details of the man behind a federal surveillance system [John Poindexter]
and an e-mail spammer [Alan Ralsky] and are giving them a dose of their
own medicine." -BBC/News
- Smallpox
News
- "Smallpox
Vaccine Transmission Raises Liability Issue." ...
"President Bush's decision on Friday to offer smallpox vaccinations to
up to 10 million health care workers, firefighters, police officers and
other emergency workers suddenly makes relevant the question of who pays
the medical costs of illness from accidental infection." ... "Tommy G.
Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, and other federal
experts on smallpox were asked on Saturday who would pay. They said they
expected standard health insurance to pay for such medical care." ... "But
they left unanswered the question of who would pay if the accidentally
infected individual was among the estimated 41 million Americans who had
no health insurance." -By Lawrence K. Altman
-NYTimes via
-AltaVista-News
- Christmas
News
- "Joyless
Christmas in Holy Land." ... "Known as the birthplace
of Jesus Christ, Bethlehem is epicenter for Christians in the holiday season.
But the mood could not be further from the traditional spirit of Christmas.
After more than two years of surging Israeli-Palestinian violence, fear
and despair hang heavy over the West Bank town." ... "Christmas festivities,
which before the 26-month-old Palestinian intifada used to bring in thousands
of pilgrims and tourists a day, as well as tens of millions of dollars
in revenue, have been canceled." ... "Only the midnight Mass at the Church
of the Nativity, which was built in the 4th century A.D. to mark the spot
where tradition holds that Jesus was born, will go ahead as planned. But
few people are expected to attend, given curfew restrictions." -By
Jim Maceda -MS
NBC
- Smallpox
News
- "Smallpox
vaccine costs raise questions." ... "Secretary of
Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, in a press briefing Saturday,
said most states are expected to pay workers' compensation for lost work
time for medical or emergency personnel sickened by the vaccine. Modest
death benefits are also available. Unions, however, say those amounts are
likely to be inadequate." ... "Thompson also said that health care workers
and private citizens who seek the vaccine would need their own health insurance
to pay for any care needed to treat side effects." -By
Julie Appleby -USATODAY
- TIA:
Total Information Awareness
- "Keeping
Track of John Poindexter." ... "The head of the government's
Total Information Awareness project, which aims to root out potential terrorists
by aggregating credit-card, travel, medical, school and other records of
everyone in the United States, has himself become a target of personal
data profiling." ... "Online pranksters, taking their lead from a San Francisco
journalist, are publishing John Poindexter's home phone number, photos
of his house and other personal information to protest the TIA program."
-By Paul Boutin -Wired
-
- "UK
internet shopping 'breaks £1bn mark'." ...
"For the first time, UK consumers have spent more than £1bn ($1.6bn)
in just one month shopping online, according to a survey." ... "Online
sales have risen by 95% over the past year, IMRG said, compared with a
rise of just 6.1% in general retail sales." ... "US figures for the July
to September period this year showed online shopping sales were more than
$11bn, representing 1.3% of total US retail sales, an increase of 34.3%
on the same period last year." ... "In the UK, online sales over the same
July to September period reached £2bn ($3.14bn), representing 4%
of total UK retail sales, up 114.5% on the same period in 2001."-BBC/News
-
- Press Release - "imrg
e-retail sales index - internet shopping bursts £1bn barrier."
- Links to [PDF]:
"Internet
Shopping Bursts £1 Billion Barrier!" ... "Santa
is shopping online this year in a BIG WAY. Monthly internet shopping
soared into ten figures for the first time in November as Britain's 14.3
million online shoppers flooded e-retailers with £1,000 million worth
of orders, according to the IMRG Index." ... "The Index has risen almost
ten fold, from 100 to 993, during the 32 months it has tracked UK e-retail
sales, since April 2000, and the pace of growth it reveals continues to
accelerate. The November Index was based on sales of £218 million
reported by 77 participating e-retailers, which represents 22% of the estimated
market." ... "UK online shopping is growing three times faster than in
the USA, and is three times the proportion of total retail sales.
US retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2002 was just over
$11 billion, representing 1.3% of total US retail according to latest figures
from the US Department of Commerce, an increase of 34.3 percent from Q3
2001. UK e-retail during the same period was worth £2 billion
($3.14 billion), representing 4% of total UK retail, and was 114.5% higher
than Q3 2001." -IMRGorg
Microsoft
News - "Microsoft
reveals 'critical' security flaws." ... "In a security
bulletin published late Wednesday, Microsoft urged Windows users to download
a new version of Microsoft Virtual Machine, which is the part of Windows
that runs Java-language applications. The new version corrects eight vulnerabilities
discovered by Microsoft and outside experts."
-AP via -SiliconValley
- "eBay
hit by credit card scam." ... "The world's largest
online auction site eBay has been targeted by fraudsters using a shadow
site to steal credit card details from its 55 million customers." ... "The
scam involved sending e-mails to customers asking them to log on to a Florida-based
website - ebayupdates.com - and re-submit their financial details." -By
Stefan Armbruster-BBC/News
Microsoft
News - Microsoft.com
Security Bulletin: - "What
You Should Know About Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-071:Security
Update for Microsoft Windows." .... "Why We Are Issuing This Update:
A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise
a computer running Microsoft® Windows® and gain complete control
over it. An attacker would need the ability to log onto the computer to
carry out an attack. You can help protect your computer by installing this
update from Microsoft." ...
- "Jimmy
Carter's Nobel Prize speech [excerpts]." ... "Instead
of entering a millennium of peace, the world is now, in many ways, a more
dangerous place. There is a plethora of civil wars... and recent appalling
acts of terrorism have reminded us that no nations, even superpowers, are
invulnerable." ... "It is clear that global challenges must be met with
an emphasis on peace, in harmony with others, with strong alliances and
international consensus." ... "Imperfect as it may be, there is no doubt
that this can best be done through the United Nations."-BBC/News
-
-
- "Australia
trial could set Web precedent." ... "Australia's
highest court ruled on Tuesday that a defamation case sparked by a story
on a U.S Web site could be heard in Australia, opening a legal minefield
for web publishers over which libel laws they must follow." ... "The
landmark ruling that an article published by Dow Jones & Co was subject
to Australian law -- because it was downloaded in Australia -- is being
watched by media firms as it could set a precedent over where Internet
publication occurs." -Reuters
via -CNN /Sci-Tech
-
- "Soldier
Pleads in Classified Photo Case: Soldier Pleads
Guilty in Attempted Sale of Photos of Top-Secret Military Facility." ...
"A soldier has pleaded guilty to trying to sell a newspaper photographs
of a top-secret bunker where U.S. government leaders would be taken in
a nuclear attack." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- 
-
- "Military’s
use of satellites probed: Investigation launched
amid complaints of unfair advantages." ... "The General Accounting Office
is investigating the Defense Department’s use of commercial satellites,
after competitors complained that Washington-based Intelsat Ltd. has an
unfair advantage in a growing market." ... "Intelsat, incorporated in Bermuda,
is owned by companies and governments in 148 nations, including Iraq and
Iran. Its satellites help the U.S. military communicate with soldiers in
far-flung outposts." ... "The GAO investigation coincides with the Pentagon’s
increasing dependence on commercial satellite providers to provide extra
bandwidth, industry experts say. Government satellite programs have faced
delays and cost overruns even as information has become a key part of battlefield
strategy, they said." -By Renae Merle-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
 |
 |
- Law
Enforcement News - "Two
Van Gogh paintings stolen: Thieves enter Amsterdam
museum by roof; values unknown." ... "Thieves broke into Amsterdam’s Van
Gogh Museum overnight and stole two paintings by the legendary 19th century
Dutch artist, police said Saturday." -AP
via -MSNBC
- 
-
- "Ex-Regents
official: U of Iowa should pay president more." ...
"The University of Iowa president’s salary is “severely limiting the pool
of people that will apply for the job,” former president of the Board of
Regents said." ... "The salary of $281,875, puts Iowa next to last among
public schools in the Big Ten Conference, after the Indiana University
at Bloomington, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac."
... "Mark Yudof, the president of the University of Texas system, was among
the highest-compensated university leaders last year. More than half of
his $787,319 in salary and benefits comes from private sources."
-AP via -QCTimes
- "Bigfoot
backers mourning: But they remain Yeti loyalists
despite family's admission of hoax." ... "Relatives of Ray L. Wallace,
a logger who propelled one of California's earliest publicized claims of
the creature's existence, have stepped forward in the shadow of his passing
to say their patriarch admitted to trickery that fueled one of American
culture's most enduring myths." ... "They say it was Wallace who stoked
a fury in 1958 by slipping into two, carved, 16-inch-long wooden feet,
then stomping around his Humboldt County site logging camp as a gag on
fellow workmen." ... "[H]is son Michael .... said 1967's famous "Patterson-Gimlin
Film" -- a grainy home movie that allegedly captures a startled specimen
fleeing a streambed -- may be only his obliging mother wearing a monkey
suit." -By John M. Hubbell
-SFGate.com
-
- "Pioneering
ABC TV Executive Arledge Dies." ... "ABC News chairman
Roone Arledge was remembered as an industry pioneer who ushered in the
era of primetime sports, mentored top broadcasters and developed new ways
to present the news." ... "Shows from "Monday Night Football" to "Nightline"
owed huge debts to Arledge, who died Thursday in New York of complications
from cancer, the network said. He was 71." ... "In 1961, he created "ABC's
Wide World of Sports," one of the most popular sports series ever, and
coined its tag line – "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.""
... "After disastrous starts, ABC created the newsmagazines "20/20" and
"Prime Time Live" under his watch." -By Tara Burghart
-AP via -WashingtonPost
OPINION
-
-
- "Digital
Robber Barons?" ... "... the wide-open, competitive
world of the dial-up Internet depended on the very government regulation
so many Internet enthusiasts decried. Local phone service is a natural
monopoly, and in an unregulated world local phone monopolies would probably
insist that you use their dial-up service. The reason you have a choice
is that they are required to act as common carriers, allowing independent
service providers to use their lines." ... "Last March the F.C.C. used
linguistic trickery — defining cable Internet access as an "information
service" rather than as telecommunications — to exempt cable companies
from the requirement to act as common carriers. The commission will probably
make a similar ruling on DSL service, which runs over lines owned by your
local phone company. The result will be a system in which most families
and businesses will have no more choice about how to reach cyberspace than
a typical 19th-century farmer had about which railroad would carry his
grain." -By Paul Krugman
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
- "Update:
Bush Creates ".Kids" Domain." ... "President Bush
signed into law on Wednesday a bill that would create a ".kids" domain
name, and certify that the domain was "safe" for minors." ... "The .kids
domain will actually be a subdomain of the ".us" suffix, and so will only
apply to web sites based in the U.S, such as "www.example.kids.us". Since
the domain is under the purview of the U.S. country code, it will be overseen
by the Department of Commerce." -By Mark Hachman
-ExtremeTech
Law
Enforcement News
- "Feds
Raid Software Firm." ... "Federal agents who raided
a Quincy, Mass., software firm Thursday night continue to look for monetary
connections to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, but sources say the firm's
software appears safe." ... "Ptech Inc., a developer of business-process
modeling software, was raided late Thursday night by U.S. Customs Service
agents, according to law enforcement officials. But initial concerns that
the company's technology may have compromised the security of its customers,
which include the FBI, the Department of Energy, the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, the Navy, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration
and the U.S. House of Representatives, now appear unfounded, according
to authorities." (1, 2)
-By Renee Boucher Ferguson, Dennis Fisher and Chris
Gonsalves -eWEEK
- "Firefighters
battle to control Sydney blazes." ... "Sydney firefighters
are hoping to control as many of the 70 fires surrounding the city as possible
over the next 72 hours before weather conditions are expected to deteriorate
again on Monday." ... "More than 4,500 firefighters, supported by around
80 aircraft, are now battling major infernos to the south-west, west and
north of the city." ... "New South Wales Rural Fire Commissioner Phil Koperberg
told media Friday that authorities expected weather conditions to abate
over the weekend but that Monday would be another very bad day with high
temperatures and wind gusts of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) an hour."
-By Grant Holloway -CNN
/World
/Asia
- "Lovable
trickster created a monster with Bigfoot hoax." ...
"Bigfoot is dead. Really." ... "Ray L. Wallace was Bigfoot. The reality
is, Bigfoot just died," said Michael Wallace about his father, who died
of heart failure Nov. 26 in a Centralia [Washington] nursing facility.
He was 84." ... ""The fact is there was no Bigfoot in popular consciousness
before 1958. America got its own monster, its own Abominable Snowman thanks
to Ray Wallace," said Mark Chorvinsky, editor of Strange magazine and one
of the leading proponents of the theory that Mr. Wallace fathered Bigfoot."
... 
"Chorvinsky
believes the Wallace family's admission creates profound doubts about leading
evidence of Bigfoot's existence: the so-called Patterson film, the grainy
celluloid images of an erect apelike creature striding away from the movie
camera of rodeo rider Roger Patterson in 1967. Mr. Wallace said he told
Patterson where to go —near Bluff Creek, Calif. — to spot a Bigfoot, Chorvinsky
said." -By Bob Young -SeattleTimes.NWsource
-
-
- "High schools
give it up for Pentagon: Law requires giving
recruiters access to juniors, seniors." ... "A little-noticed provision
in a new federal education law is requiring high schools to hand over to
military recruiters some key information about their juniors and seniors:
name, address and phone number." ... "The No Child Left Behind law, signed
last January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters
access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000
schools. The law also says that schools must give the military the same
access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy."
... "Students and parents who oppose the law can keep their information
from being turned over to the military, but they must sign and return an
“opt-out” form." -By Ken Maguire
-AP via -MSNBC
- "Buy,
Use, Dispose: A Spike in Disposable Products
Has Environmentalists Worried." ... "Scrub the floor, toss out the rag.
Use up your minutes, toss out the phone. Watch a movie, throw away the
DVD." ... "In a nation that places a high value on convenience, this is
all possible or will soon be possible for consumers willing to pay a little
more for products designed for one-time use. And the list is growing."
... ""The business model of the high-tech industry depends on us to continue
to buy, consume and throw away," he [executive director of Californians
Against Waste, Mark Murray] says. "That's the problem, they're not designing
these things to last, they're designing them to use and throw out."" -By
Amanda Onion -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Ricochet's
Comeback Means Free Wireless Internet Access for Cities:
Municipal governments striking new deals to get free wireless access."
... "Denver-based Ricochet Networks offered Internet access to 51,000 subscribers
in 21 cities until its owner, Metricom, went bankrupt last year." ... "Aerie
Networks has resurrected Ricochet, spending $8.25 million for technology
and equipment that Metricom spent $1.3 billion developing." ... "Technological
Quid Pro Quo." ... "Now, Ricochet is offering cities free service and
giving their public employees modems to use on the job. In return, Ricochet
gets to use transmitters that fell into cities' control after Metricom
went bankrupt." -By Catherine Tsai
-AP via
-GovTech.net/news
-
"Doonesbury's
World: Comic Creator Trudeau Gives Rare Interview."
... "Frank Sinatra once called him "funny as a tumor," but the success
of cartoonist and political satirist Garry Trudeau tells a different story."
... 
"Trudeau's
Pulitzer Prize-winning comic strip Doonesbury, first penned in 1970, is
found in more than 1,400 newspapers worldwide and fills nearly 60 published
collections. Along the way, it inspired ventures into film, Broadway and
television. It gained Trudeau Academy Award and Drama Desk Award nominations,
as well as the Cannes Special Jury Prize." -ABCNEWS.com
TIA:
Total Information Awareness
-
-
- Law
Enforcement News
- "Why
the Pentagon will watch where you shop: New
Total Information Awareness project will sniff company databases for terrorists."
... "Should Uncle Sam know as much about you as MasterCard does?" ... "In
essence, that may be the key question posed by the Pentagon's new Total
Information Awareness (TIA) project." ... "This effort - whose Latin motto
[Scientia Est Potentia] translates as "knowledge is power" - aims to create
huge databases that sift through the purchases, travel, immigration status,
income, and other data of hundreds of millions of Americans. Its purpose:
to sniff out the terrorists among us." ... ""There are three parts to the
TIA project," says Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition,
technology, and logistics." ... "The first part of the technology is voice
recognition, which would include sifting through electronically recorded
transmissions and provide rapid translations of foreign languages." ...
"The second part is to develop a tool that would discover connections between
transactions, such as passports, airline tickets, rental cars, gun or chemical
purchases, as well as arrests and other suspicious activities." ... "And
the third part is collaborative - a mechanism to allow information-and
analysis-sharing among agencies." ... ""If [the testing] proves useful,"
Mr. Aldridge says, "TIA will then be turned over to the intelligence, counterintelligence,
and law enforcement communities as a tool to help them in their battle
against domestic terrorism."" -By Faye Bowers and
Peter Grier
-CSMonitor/buy
Thanksgiving
- "Marines
Celebrate Thanksgiving in Kuwait: Marines Make
Their Own Thanksgiving in the Deserts of Kuwait." ... "As the United States
prepares for a possible war with Iraq, the Marines have established Camp
Commando on the edge of a Kuwaiti military base to act as their command
headquarters. From here, they will be able to control the tens of thousands
of Marines who could arrive in Kuwait." ... "A few weeks ago, the base
was virtually sand." ... "For these soldiers mostly from the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force, based in Camp Pendleton, Calif. it was yet another
Thanksgiving away from home." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
- "Reporters
an early point of contention in Iraq inspections."
... "When the two leaders of the inspection program — Hans Blix and Mohamed
ElBaradei — met with Iraqi officials last week, they said they did not
want journalists tagging along, especially at suspected weapons sites."
... "But Iraq, which maintains one of the most restrictive press policies
in the Mideast, championed free access for journalists — at least as far
as covering the inspections is concerned." ... "U.N. officials appeared
concerned that reporters, lacking the inspectors' technical and scientific
expertise, might be too quick to report that no banned materials had been
before the experts had had time to draw their own conclusions."
-AP via -FreedomForum.org
- "President
signs bill to establish independent Sept. 11 probe, names Kissinger as
its head." ... "The commission has a broad mandate,
building on the limited joint inquiry conducted by the House and Senate
intelligence committees. The independent panel will have 18 months to examine
issues such as aviation security and border problems, along with intelligence."
... "However, Bush did not set as a primary goal for the commission to
uncover mistakes or lapses of the government that could have prevented
the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, he said it should try to help the administration
learn the tactics and motives of the enemy."
-AP via -USATODAY
-
- "Fraud
fears still hamper online sales." ... "The number
of Britons doing Christmas shopping online is expected to soar this year
but the government says fear of fraud is still preventing sales reaching
their potential levels." ... "The government is keen to encourage more
net shopping, with Consumer Minister Melanie Johnson telling shoppers that
online retail can be safe if they follow a few simple rules." ... "She
is advising consumers to use websites they know or that have been recommended,
obtain suppliers' telephone numbers or postal addresses and keep copies
of order forms or e-mails."-BBC/News
-
- "Global
goofs: U.S. youth can't find Iraq: Young Americans
may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find
that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday."
... "The society survey found that only about one in seven -- 13 percent
-- of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military
warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor."
-AP via -CNN
- "Power
of Positive Thinking Extends, It Seems, to Aging."
... "Do happy people live longer? A growing body of evidence suggests they
may. Recent studies have correlated long life with optimism, with positive
thinking, and with a lack of hostility, anxiety and depression." ... "One
thing that remains unclear, however, is whether happiness can actually
cause longevity. Perhaps happy people live longer because they practice
healthy behaviors, or for some other unknown reason." ... "The second open
question is: What, if anything, can unhappy people do about it?" (1, 2)
-By Mary Duenwald -NYTimes
via -Moreover
OPINION
- 
- "New
York Times suggests Tiger Woods skip Augusta." ...
"The Times said that if Augusta National "can brazenly discriminate against
women, that means others can choose not to support Mr. Johnson's golfing
fraternity. That includes more enlightened members of the club, CBS Sports,
which televises the Masters, and the players, especially Tiger Woods.""
... "The editorial said Sanford I. Weill, the chief executive of Citigroup,
and Kenneth Chenault, chairman of American Express, should "lead the way"
for other prominent members and resign from the club."
-SFGate.com
Environment
-FAQs - FindLaw
- Google>Directory
>Groups -
HardinMD
- IPL - LII
- LookSmart -
MiningCo/About
- RDN.ac.uk - RefDesk
- ScoutReport
-VLib - WebRing
- Yahoo.
Accounting
News - "Glossary
of [Accounting] Terms, Acronyms, and Abbreviations."- | A
| B | C
| D | E
| F | G
| H | I
| J | K
| L | M
| N | O
| P | Q
| R | S
| T | U
| V | V
| W | X
| Y | Z
| Quick Ref
| -AICPA.org
- 
-
- "USDA
Orders Prodigene Biocorn Destroyed in Iowa." ...
"A small biotech company experimenting with a corn variety engineered to
produce insulin was ordered to destroy 155 acres of the crop in Iowa because
it may have contaminated nearby fields, the U.S. Agriculture Department
said on Thursday." ... "A growing number of U.S. companies are experimenting
with biotech corn to produce cheaper proteins and compounds for use in
pharmaceuticals. ProdiGene's biotech corn grown for pharmaceutical use
is not federally approved for human or livestock feed." ... "The USDA,
along with the Food and Drug Administration, is trying to determine if
the Texas-based company violated any federal regulations. ProdiGene could
face fines of up to $500,000 for each violation." -By
Randy Fabi -Reuters/Politics
-
-
- "Biotech
Firm Mishandled Corn in Iowa." ... "The biotechnology
company that mishandled gene-altered corn in Nebraska did the same thing
in Iowa, the government disclosed yesterday." ... "The disclosure raised
new questions about the conduct of ProdiGene Inc., a company in College
Station, Tex., that is now under investigation for allegedly violating
government permits in two states. The ProdiGene matter is proving to be
a black eye for the biotech industry, which has been trying to reassure
the public it can be trusted not to contaminate the food supply." -By
Justin Gillis -WashingtonPost
Microsoft
News -
-
- "Briton
Indicted as Hacker: Entry to U.S. Military
Systems Called Biggest Ever Detected." ... "An unemployed British computer
system administrator was indicted yesterday in Alexandria and New Jersey
on eight counts of computer fraud for alleging [sic] penetrating about
100 U.S. government computers, shutting down networks and corrupting data
in what U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty called "the biggest hack of military
computers ever detected."" ... "From February 2001 to March 2002, two federal
grand juries alleged, Gary McKinnon, 36, of London, exploited a known security
problem with Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 to break into 92 computers
at NASA, the Pentagon, and more than a dozen military installations in
14 states." -By Brooke A. Masters-WashingtonPost
>TechNews
- "Spider-Man
creator sues Marvel: Stan Lee says he’s being
cheated out of movie profits." ... "The creative force behind Spider-Man,
the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men filed a $10 million lawsuit Tuesday,
charging his old comic book company is cheating him out of millions of
dollars in movie profits." ... "Marvel has reported millions of dollars
in earnings from the film but has told Lee the company has seen no “profits”
as defined by their contract." -Reuters
via -MSNBC
- Discussion - "Stan
Lee Sues Marvel Comics." -Slashdot
- "Intel's
$10 Billion Gamble: Tech's ailing, yet the
chip king is opening plants and entering new markets. Its bet: that no
competitor can afford to keep up." ... "The labyrinthine vastness of Intel's
nearly completed D1D semiconductor factory in Hillsboro, Ore., is every
bit as breathtaking as the microscopic intricacy of the microprocessors
it will soon start making." ... "By investing heavily during a tech recession,
Intel thinks it can leap a generation ahead in chip know-how and manufacturing
ability." ... However, the piece opines, that "even if Intel widens its
dominant 81% market share for PC microprocessors, it won't generate enough
incremental sales to use all that new capacity, nor will it get back to
growing at its historical double-digit rates." ... "The transistors on
the chips pounded out at D1D will be smaller than 90 nanometers across--so
small that ten of them would fit in the diameter of a human hair--vs. 130
nanometers at the current state of the art." (1, 2,
3,
4)
-By Brent Schlender with associate Noshua Watson
-Fortune
TIA:
Total Information Awareness - -
"Pentagon
Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans."
... "As the director of the effort, Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, has described
the system in Pentagon documents and in speeches, it will provide intelligence
analysts and law enforcement officials with instant access to information
from Internet mail and calling records to credit card and banking transactions
and travel documents, without a search warrant." ... "Historically, military
and intelligence agencies have not been permitted to spy on Americans without
extraordinary legal authorization." ... "In order to deploy such a system,
known as Total Information Awareness, new legislation would be needed,
some of which has been proposed by the Bush administration in the Homeland
Security Act that is now before Congress. That legislation would amend
the Privacy Act of 1974, which was intended to limit what government agencies
could do with private information." (1, 2)
-By John Markoff -NYTimes
via -LawMeme
TIA:
Total Information Awareness -
- Discussion - "Search
Warrant Not Reuired." -LawMeme
- Microsoft
News - "The
Microsoft case: Antitrust overseers are named." ...
"Microsoft yesterday established a committee of directors to make sure
it obeys the law — a move mandated by a federal judge's Nov. 1 ruling in
the company's antitrust case." ... "Meeting a requirement to set up the
compliance committee, Microsoft appointed Harvard Business School professor
James Cash to lead the group, which also includes Merck Chief Executive
Raymond Gilmartin and former U.S. Labor Secretary Ann McLaughlin Korologos."
-By Kim Peterson -SeattleTimes.NWsource