Society & Politics archives

• 29 December 2006
  "Collector Charles Saatchi has launched a Web site for art students and a handful have already sold works online as the Internet begins to change the way the art world works. With prices for contemporary art soaring, collectors say they have less time to travel to galleries and shows to see new works for themselves, while aspiring painters and sculptors find it hard to get noticed amid the pressure to find the next hot young stars. For many, the Internet is the answer, offering low-cost access for thousands of painters, sculptors and buyers and, at the same time, providing a Myspace-style social networking site for artists the world over. Saatchi, one of art's most powerful figures who helped establish such stars as Damien Hirst, has attracted more than 2,000 art students to his new Web site, a follow-up to an earlier venture for artists that boasts 20,000 contributors." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 28 December 2006
  "Polar bears may be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act because of a loss of habitat that jeopardizes their survival, the Interior secretary said Wednesday. 'Polar bears are one of nature's ultimate survivors, able to live and thrive in one of the world's harshest environments,' said Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in a teleconference with reporters. 'But we are concerned the polar bears' habitat may literally be melting,' he said. After a public comment period and additional study, the Department of the Interior will make a final decision on the polar bear's status in 12 months. The announcement by the Bush administration comes in response to a lawsuit filed by three conservation groups, who sued the Department of the Interior in an effort to protect the polar bear from the effects of global warming. '" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 27 December 2006
  "Russia will cooperate with China on space projects, but will not transfer sensitive technologies that could enable Beijing to become a rival in a future space race, the head of the Russia's space agency said Tuesday. Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said that Moscow and Beijing would cooperate with China in robotic missions to the moon. He added, however, that Russia would maintain restrictions on sharing technology. 'The Chinese are still some 30 years behind us, but their space program has been developing very fast,' Perminov said at a news conference. 'They are quickly catching up with us.' Russia sold China the technology that formed the basis of its manned space program, which launched its first astronaut in 2003 and two others in 2005. The Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft closely resembles the Russian Soyuz. The next Chinese manned space flight is due next year. China also wants to send up a space station and land a robot probe on the moon by 2010. Perminov said that Russia would cooperate with China in space exploration strictly within the framework of a bilateral agreement that doesn't envisage exporting Russian space technologies. '" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 26 December 2006
  "Humankind, which has reached other planets and decoded the genetic instructions for life, should not presume it can live without God, Pope Benedict said in his Christmas message on Monday. In an age of unbridled consumerism it was shameful many remained deaf to the 'heart-rending cry' of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism, he said. 'Does a "Saviour" still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium?' he asked in his 'Urbi et Orbi' (to the city and the world) message to the faithful in St Peter's Square, broadcast live to millions in 40 countries. 'Is a "Saviour" still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of nature's secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvelous codes of the human genome?' " Learn more at News.com.

• 22 December 2006
  "Blame the Internet's legacy systems if Jay Glatfelter falls asleep Thursday mornings. Co-host of an online audio show about Lost, Glatfelter must wait about 40 minutes to finish posting his program to the Internet in the hours after ABC's Wednesday night broadcast. If he were downloading it as his listeners do, the same file would take only a few minutes over a cable modem. 'At 3 in the morning, that's really brutal,' said Glatfelter, 21, who lives in Raleigh, N.C. 'It's an extra 40 minutes and you want to go to sleep.' The information superhighway isn't truly equal in both directions. Cable and phone companies typically sell asymmetrical Internet services to households, reserving the bulk of the lanes for downloading movies and other files and leaving the shoulders at most for people to share, or upload, files with others. The imbalance makes less sense as the Internet becomes truly interactive. Users are increasingly becoming contributors and not just consumers, sharing photos, video and in Glatfelter's case, podcasts." Learn more at USA Today.com.

• 21 December 2006
  "Larry Richard is one of the millions to have discovered the world of YouTube, the free website that allows people to post, watch, and share video clips. When he receives a link to the site, usually via e-mail, he spends a few moments to click and watch a clip on his computer screen - sometimes a video of a friend's singing recital, other times a snippet of a foreign commercial or a monologue from late-night TV. 'It's entertaining, it's information, it's a community of people sharing things,' says Mr. Richard, a marketing consultant in Santa Monica, Calif. But is it legal, given that at least some of what he's watching is copyrighted material being disseminated by individuals who clearly do not hold the copyright? The law on this matter is murky, and likely to get murkier before it gets clearer, say experts in intellectual property law." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 20 December 2006
  "'SNAKE!' Hearing this shout, Skip Snow slammed on the brakes. When the off-roader plowed to a halt, he and his partner, Lori Oberhofer, leaped out and took off running toward two snakes, actually -- a pair of 10-foot Burmese pythons lying on a levee, sunning themselves. After slipping, sliding and tumbling down a rocky embankment, Snow, a wildlife biologist, grabbed one of the creatures by the tail. The python, Oberhofer says, did not care much for that. 'It made a sound like Darth Vader breathing,' she says, 'and then its head swung around and I saw this white mouth flying through the air.' Snow saw the mouth, too -- the jaws open 180 degrees, the gums an obscene white, the needle-sharp teeth bared in an almost devilish grin. He let out a shriek, then blinked, and when his eyes opened the python's head was hanging in mid-air, less than a foot from his own. So goes python control in the Everglades, a painstaking, around-the-clock slog against a voracious, foreign snake species that has established a stronghold in this watery wilderness and put native wildlife at risk." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 19 December 2006
  "Religious organizations in Pakistan are using the Internet to help Muslims in Western countries buy and sacrifice animals for an annual festival. Eid al-Adha marks the end of the Haj pilgrimage each year to Mecca and is known as the feast of sacrifice. Muslims who can afford it buy and slaughter animals and distribute the meat among the poor and relatives. Muslims in Western countries unable to perform the ritual can now buy an animal over the Internet and even watch it being slaughtered, before its meat is given away. 'It is not easy for them to buy animals and carry out the sacrifice according to our religious rites in those countries,' said Sohail Ahmed, an official at the Al-Khidmat trust Islamic welfare organization. 'They are turning to the Internet to complete their religious obligations,' said Ahmed, whose organization offers the service." Learn more at News.com.

• 18 December 2006
  "Still need a flu shot? Matthew Stefanak has so many left over he is giving them away by the carload. 'I sent out a blast fax to 700 physicians in the Youngstown area offering to give it away if they just come pick it up,' said Mr. Stefanak, the health commissioner of Mahoning County, Ohio, which includes Youngstown. So far, he said, there have been few takers. Two years ago, the nation was plagued by a severe shortage of flu shots, with huge lines at clinics and many people going without. This year it looks as if there may be a glut. Yet, somewhat perversely, because of distribution delays earlier in the season, this year’s abundant supply has not meant that everyone who wanted a flu shot has received one. The situation underscores the fragile nature of the nation’s supply system for flu vaccine, a risky and volatile business, in which the federal government has a limited role." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 15 December 2006
  "NASA's planned moon base announced last week could pave the way for deeper space exploration to Mars, but one of the biggest beneficiaries may be the terrestrial energy industry. Nestled among the agency's 200-point mission goals is a proposal to mine the moon for fuel used in fusion reactors -- futuristic power plants that have been demonstrated in proof-of-concept but are likely decades away from commercial deployment. Helium-3 is considered a safe, environmentally friendly fuel candidate for these generators, and while it is scarce on Earth it is plentiful on the moon. As a result, scientists have begun to consider the practicality of mining lunar Helium-3 as a replacement for fossil fuels. 'After four-and-half-billion years, there should be large amounts of helium-3 on the moon,' said Gerald Kulcinski, a professor who leads the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison." Learn more in Wired News.

• 14 December 2006
  "Monica Gibson says she is not particularly political, but when she heard about conflict diamonds on an episode of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' last week featuring the cast and director of the new movie 'Blood Diamond,' she looked down at her engagement ring and thought not of love but of wars and violence. Her fiancé gave her the ring last summer, she said, and she may never find out where its 24 diamonds came from. But as the couple now shops for diamond wedding bands, Ms. Gibson said she won’t buy unless the jeweler can vouch not just for the stone’s cut, clarity and color, but also for its origin...The terms 'conflict diamonds' or 'blood diamonds' refer to gems that have been used by rebel groups to pay for wars that have killed and displaced millions of people in Africa, the source of an estimated 65 percent of the world’s diamonds." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 13 December 2006
  "Cows, pigs, sheep and poultry have been awarded the dubious honour of being among the world's greatest environmental threats, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report, entitled Livestock's long shadow, says the livestock industry is degrading land, contributing to the greenhouse effect, polluting water resources, and destroying biodiversity. In summary, the sector is 'one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems at every scale'. The authors say the demand for meat is expected to more than double by 2050 and therefore the environmental impact of production must be halved in order to avoid worsening the harmful impacts of the industry. Perhaps the report's most striking finding is that the livestock sector accounts for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than transport, which emits 13.5%." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 12 December 2006
  "As startling numbers of Americans go without health insurance, more of them see their only hope in fleeing to far-flung nations like India for life-saving medial treatments. The dearth of affordable health insurance has engendered a new breed of what the New England Journal of Medicine classifies as 'medical refugees' -- patients traveling abroad for heart surgery and other crucial procedures -- that has grown sharply in the past two years. In 2005, 46 million Americans -- or about 15 percent of the total population -- lacked health insurance, according to a Census Bureau study. For families who don't qualify for Medicare but can't afford private coverage, a sudden accident or illness could lead to financial disaster. The situation in the United States and other countries where health care is expensive will contribute to tourists spending $2 billion on medical procedures in India by 2012, according to a study by McKinsey and the Confederation of Indian Industry." Learn more in Wired News.

• 11 December 2006
  "The National Geographic Society's multimillion-dollar research project to collect DNA from indigenous groups around the world in the hopes of reconstructing humanity’s ancient migrations has come to a standstill on its home turf in North America. Billed as the “moon shot of anthropology,” the Genographic Project intends to collect 100,000 indigenous DNA samples. But for four months, the project has been on hold here as it scrambles to address questions raised by a group that oversees research involving Alaska natives. At issue is whether scientists who need DNA from aboriginal populations to fashion a window on the past are underselling the risks to present-day donors. Geographic origin stories told by DNA can clash with long-held beliefs, threatening a world view some indigenous leaders see as vital to preserving their culture. They argue that genetic ancestry information could also jeopardize land rights and other benefits that are based on the notion that their people have lived in a place since the beginning of time." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 8 December 2006
  "Two U.S. senators said on Thursday they would introduce legislation that would potentially protect users of popular social networking sites like News Corp's MySpace from registered sex offenders. New York Democrat Charles E. Schumer and Arizona Republican John McCain, in a press release, said they planned to introduce a bill at the beginning of the 110th Congress in January that would require registered sex offenders to submit their active e-mail addresses to law enforcement. The legislation would enable social networking sites like MySpace to cross-check new members against a database of registered sex offenders and ensure that predators are unable to sign up for the service. Under the proposed legislation, any sex offender who submits a fraudulent e-mail could face prison. Earlier this week, MySpace said it would offer in the next 30 days a technology to identify and block convicted sex offenders from the popular online social network." Learn more at News.com.

• 7 December 2006
  "Officials are looking in the wrong place to stop the spread of bird flu to the U.S., a new study suggests. The report predicts that bird flu will likely spread to the Americas through infected poultry. This poultry may then infect local wild birds, which could carry the disease from Latin America or Canada to the United States. The U.S. is currently testing thousands of wild birds in Alaska, because authorities believe the flu is likely to be carried from Asia to the U.S. by migrating waterfowl. The new report, from the New York-based Consortium for Conservation Medicine, studied migration patterns and the bird trade. The study suggests that birds migrating from Siberia to Alaska are unlikely to carry the virus and that few of those birds ultimately fly farther south. 'We share very few migratory birds with Europe and Siberia. There are ducks and geese that winter in Siberia and molt in Alaska, but they don't come down here,' said research scientist A. Marm Kilpatrick, co-author of the study." Learn more in the National Geographic.

• 6 December 2006
  "Humans must colonize planets in other solar systems traveling there using 'Star Trek'-style propulsion or face extinction, renowned British cosmologist Stephen Hawking said on Thursday. Referring to complex theories and the speed of light, Hawking, the wheel-chair bound Cambridge University physicist, told BBC radio that theoretical advances could revolutionize the velocity of space travel and make such colonies possible. 'Sooner or later disasters such as an asteroid collision or a nuclear war could wipe us all out,' said Professor Hawking, who was crippled by a muscle disease at the age of 21 and who speaks through a computerized voice synthesizer. 'But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe,' said Hawking, who was due to receive the world's oldest award for scientific achievement, the Copley medal, from Britain's Royal Society on Thursday." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 5 December 2006
  "Computer scientists all too familiar with code bugginess have long criticized electronic voting machines that rely entirely on successful software performance, but they have failed for now to persuade a federal advisory committee to recommend otherwise. At a periodic public meeting here, the Technical Guidelines Development Committee narrowly rejected on Monday a proposal designed to pave the way for a new requirement that all electronic voting systems be 'software independent' and readily audited. The TGDC was created in 2002 under the umbrella of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to advise the U.S. government on electronic voting machine standards. Voting machines are considered "dependent" on software if an undetected bug or modification in their code can lead to an undetectable change in the election's outcome." Learn more in News.com.

• 4 December 2006
  "Computer users who type in the same username and password for multiple sites--such as online banks, travel agencies and booksellers--are at serious risk from identity thieves, a United Nations agency said on Sunday. The International Telecommunication Union, a Geneva-based U.N. branch, said businesses and regulators need to find a solution to the spread of personal information on the Internet, possibly by developing more streamlined identification methods. At the moment, the ITU said the sheer number of identifiers and passwords required from computer users made it nearly inevitable that they repeat codes. 'This may cause security breaches, and leave them vulnerable to the machinations of identity thieves ever increasing in number and inventiveness,' it said in its 2006 Internet report, released ahead of a major meeting of governments and industry officials in Hong Kong." Learn more in News.com.

• 1 December 2006
  "In the English-language version of Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia, he was a victorious military and political leader who founded China's modern Communist state. But he was also a man whom many saw as a 'mass murderer, holding his leadership accountable for the deaths of tens of millions of innocent Chinese.' Switch to Wikipedia in Chinese, though, and you read about a very different man. There, Mao's reputation is unsullied by mention of any death toll in the great purges of the 1950s and 1960s, like the Great Leap Forward, a mass collectivization and industrialization campaign begun in 1958 that produced what many historians call the greatest famine in human history." Learn more at News.com.

• 30 November 2006
  "When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world’s children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100? Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as 'a really wacky idea.' Ms. Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen’s manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 percent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight. That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 29 November 2006
  "A case set to be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday signals a growing movement in the U.S. to curb greenhouse gases with government mandates that put a price on carbon dioxide. The court will hear arguments in a case to determine whether the Environmental Protection Agency should regulate emissions of carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Rulings aren't expected until next summer. Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping gas that contributes to climate change. As concerns over global climate change build, many experts expect the U.S. federal government to put mechanisms in place to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 'The debate has shifted from whether or not there will be federal regulations, to when it will come,' said Fred Wellington, a senior financial analyst at the think tank World Resources Institute. 'The smart money understands that climate policy is coming.'" Learn more at News.com.

• 28 November 2006
  "A tool has been created capable of circumventing government censorship of the web, according to researchers. The free program has been constructed to let citizens of countries with restricted web access retrieve and display web pages from anywhere. The University of Toronto's Citizen Lab software, called psiphon, will be released on 1 December. Net censorship is a growing issue, and several countries have come under fire for blocking online access. Human rights organisation Reporters Without Borders recently released a list of 13 countries it believed were suppressing freedom of expression on the net, including Syria, China and Vietnam. But the Citizen Lab, which is based at the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto, believes its program will allow surfers to bypass web censorship. Psiphon works through social networks. A net user in an uncensored country can download the program to their computer, which transforms it into an access point." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 27 November 2006
  "Software and hardware makers have long complained that a glut of so-called junk patents threatens to disrupt the way they do business. One key gripe about the patent process is expected to take center stage before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. In their third major patent case this year, the justices are scheduled to hear arguments about what courts should consider when deciding whether an invention is too 'obvious' to warrant protection. The case has its roots in an obscure patent spat about vehicle gas pedal designs involving two companies without mainstream name recognition: the Canadian company KSR International and Limerick, Penn.-based Teleflex. (Teleflex had sued KSR for infringement of its patent on a gas pedal design that KSR contends is no more than an obvious melding of two existing inventions.)" Learn more at News.com.

• 22 November 2006
  "Repeat after me: We humans have screwed up our planet. Feels better, doesn't it? Now that we've accepted this reality, at least we don't have to argue about it anymore. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are at the highest they've been in at least 800,000 years. Greenland's ice sheet is melting fast. Some – probably a lot – of the current warming trend is because of us, and so are the consequent threats to ecosystems, food supplies, coastal cities, and all that other stuff from An Inconvenient Truth. Of course, that means we're responsible for repairing the damage, but stopgaps like carbon sequestration just aren't going to cut it. Luckily, a growing number of scientists are thinking more aggressively, developing incredibly ambitious technical fixes to cool the planet. These efforts to remedy the accidental experiment of climate change with intentional, megascale experimentation are called geoengineering. Thus far, ideas include reflecting sunlight with gazillions of orbiting featherweight mirrors or by saturating the stratosphere with sulfur, or increasing the volume of microbes that eat CO2 by fertilizing the oceans with iron." Learn more in Wired News.

• 21 November 2006
  "The easing of a ban on the popular online encyclopedia in China was short-lived. Barely a week after Wikipedia viewers were able to access the Web site -- after a year-long ban -- they reported Friday that it was blocked again in several parts of China. Chinese Web surfers and free-speech advocates had earlier welcomed the apparent lifting of a ban on the English and Chinese versions of the site that provides free information written and edited by its users, although skeptics had voiced fears the end of the ban would be temporary. 'It was great news for us,' said Yuan Mingli, 33, a software engineer in Shanghai who has contributed articles on computer science and Chinese historical figures to the site. 'China's Internet users are not different from other countries' users. Wikipedia is a very important source of information for us.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 17 November 2006
  "Myanmar — In the balmy waters of the Bay of Bengal, just off the coast, an Asian energy rush is on. Huge pockets of natural gas have been found. China and India are jostling to sign deals. Plans are afoot to spend billions on new ports and pipelines. Yet onshore, in towns like this one, not a light is to be seen — not a street lamp, not a glow in a window — as women crouch by the roadside at dawn, sorting by candlelight the vegetables they will sell for two cents a bunch at the morning market. Paraffin and wood are major sources of light and heat. People receive two hours of electricity a day from a military government that is among the world’s most repressive. But attempts at outside pressure to prod the government to address its people’s needs and curb abuses have faltered, in large part because China’s thirst for resources has undermined nearly a decade of American economic sanctions." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 16 November 2006
  "A lack of toilets is severely jeopardizing the health of 2.6 billion people in the developing world who are forced to discard their excrement in bags, buckets, fields, and ditches, according to a new study. 'The lack of a safe, private, and convenient toilet is a daily source of indignity and undermines health, education, and income generation,' according to Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty, and the Global Water Crisis, a report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Much of Europe and North America built sanitation systems in the 1800s to keep humans and their drinking water away from pathogen-bearing fecal matter that can transmit cholera, diarrhea, typhoid, and parasites. But nearly every other person in the developing world today lacks access to improved sanitation, and 1.1 billion people—one-sixth of the world's population—get their water from sources contaminated by human and animal feces, the report says." Learn more in National Geographic News.

• 15 November 2006
  "Switching a large fraction of US energy to renewable sources by 2025 could involve no increase in cost, says an independent US think thank, as long as current price trends hold firm. Renewable sources currently provide about 6% of the energy used in the US. The new RAND report concludes this could be boosted to a total of 18% by 2025, equivalent to 25% of electricity and motoring fuel, at no extra cost. The provisos are that the price of renewable energy continues its downward trend and that predictions of future oil prices are roughly accurate. The report was commissioned by the Energy Future Coalition in Washington DC, US. In July 2006, this bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives introduced a congressional resolution calling for a new national renewable energy goal: 25% of the nation's energy supply from renewable sources by 2025." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 14 November 2006
  "Last week in Florida's 13th Congressional district, the victory margin was only 386 votes out of 153,000. There'll be a mandatory lawyered-up recount, but it won't include the almost 18,000 votes that seem to have disappeared. The electronic voting machines didn't include them in their final tallies, and there's no backup to use for the recount. The district will pick a winner to send to Washington, but it won't be because they are sure the majority voted for him. Maybe the majority did, and maybe it didn't. There's no way to know. Electronic voting machines represent a grave threat to fair and accurate elections, a threat that every American--Republican, Democrat or independent--should be concerned about. Because they're computer-based, the deliberate or accidental actions of a few can swing an entire election. The solution: Paper ballots, which can be verified by voters and recounted if necessary." Learn more at Forbes.com.

• 13 November 2006
  "Internet censorship is spreading and becoming more sophisticated across the planet, even as users develop savvier ways around it, according to early results in the first-ever comprehensive global survey of internet censorship. The internet watchdog organization OpenNet Initiative is compiling a year's worth of data gathered by nearly 50 cyberlaw, free-speech and network experts across as many countries, whose governments are known internet filterers. The study systematically tested if, when, how and by whom thousands of controversial websites are blocked in each nation. Last week, ONI researchers gathered at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School to begin hashing through their as-yet unpublished -- and in many cases, still incomplete -- findings." Learn more in Wired News.

• 10 November 2006
  "Shoppers are likely to abandon a website if it takes longer than four seconds to load, a survey suggests. The research by Akamai revealed users' dwindling patience with websites that take time to show up. It found 75% of the 1,058 people asked would not return to websites that took longer than four seconds to load. The time it took a site to appear on screen came second to high prices and shipping costs in the list of shoppers' pet-hates, the research revealed. Akamai consulted those who shop regularly online to find out what they like and dislike about e-tailing sites. About half of mature net-shoppers - who have been buying online for more than two years or who spend more than $1,500 a year online - ranked page-loading time as a priority. It found that one-third of those questioned abandon sites that take time to load, are hard to navigate or take too long to handle the checkout process." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 9 November 2006
  "The United Nations and Africa's Nobel laureate, environmentalist Wangari Maathai, launched a project on Wednesday to plant a billion trees worldwide to help fight climate change and poverty. Kenya's Wangari Maathai, who in 2004 became the first African woman and first 'green' activist to win the Nobel Peace Prize, urged people from the United States to Uganda to plant trees to combat global warming and to make a long-term commitment. 'Anybody can dig a hole, anybody can put a tree in that hole and water it. And everybody can make sure that the tree they plant survives,' she said on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting on climate change in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. 'There are 6 billion of us and counting. So even if only one-sixth of us each plant a tree, we will definitely reach the target (next year),' she told reporters. Maathai, 66, became Africa's best known environmentalist after her Green Belt Movement planted about 30 million trees around Africa in a drive to slow deforestation and erosion." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 8 November 2006
  "A shortage of information technology graduates from Western universities is leading companies to call on developing countries to meet research demand, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said on Tuesday. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia's internationally renowned education system became a cheap talent pool for the West. Now dozens of Russian language Web sites offer computer programming jobs in the United States, alongside visa support and language training. 'Worldwide, a lot of the developed countries are not graduating as many IT students as they were in the past, which is kind of ironic as it does mean it does increase the opportunities,' Gates said. Russia loses around 700,000 people each year -- about 0.5 percent of its total population -- to emigration, disease and alcoholism. Many Western firms have also outsourced data management, software development and other high tech operations to lower cost operators in Asia, where education standards are high in some countries but wages are still comparatively low." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 7 November 2006
  "The mistakes you make on the internet can live forever -- unless you hire somebody to clean up after you. A new startup, ReputationDefender, will act on your behalf by contacting data hosting services and requesting the removal of any materials that threaten your good social standing. Any web citizen willing to pay ReputationDefender's modest service fees can ask the company to seek and destroy embarrassing office party photos, blog posts detailing casual drug use or saucy comments on social networking profiles. The company produces monthly reports on its clients' online identities for a cost of $10 to $16 per month, depending on the length of the contract. The client can request the removal of any material on the report for a charge of $30 per instance. Michael Fertik and his partners originally conceived of ReputationDefender as a way for parents to protect their children from potentially damaging postings to social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook." Learn more in Wired News.

• 6 November 2006
  "The people of Africa - the continent least responsible for climate change - are the most vulnerable to its effects and the least prepared, international climate negotiators said on Monday. Some 6000 delegates from more than 100 countries are attending an 11-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, for their latest debates on the climate change convention and the Kyoto Protocol. Top of the agenda is to finish setting up a fund to help poor countries, especially in Africa, to adapt to the droughts and floods ahead. 'Activating the adaptation agenda is critical,' says Yvo de Boer, head of the convention secretariat. A report from de Boer's team on the vulnerability of Africa states that 30% of the continent's coastal infrastructure, including cities like Dar es Salaam, Lagos, and Cape Town, are at risk of flooding from rising sea waters. The continent's two biggest and most valuable wetlands, the Okavango in Botswana and the Sudd on the Nile in Sudan, may dry up, the report says." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 3 November 2006
  "The Internet Society of China has recommended to the government that bloggers be required to use their real names when they register blogs, state media said on Monday, in the latest attempt to regulate free-wheeling Web content. The society, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Information Industry, said no decision had been made but that a 'real name system' was inevitable. 'A real name system will be an unavoidable choice if China wants to standardize and develop its blog industry,' the official Xinhua news agency quoted the Internet Society's secretary general, Huang Chengqing, as saying. 'We suggest, in a recent report submitted to the ministry, that a real name system be implemented in China's blog industry,' Huang said. China has already imposed some controls on Internet chatter about politically sensitive subjects, which often goes far beyond what is permissible in the country's traditional state-run media." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 2 November 2006
  "A Cuba government official told a United Nations summit here that the U.S. government was to blame for the poor Internet access that its citizens endure. Juan Fernandez, a government official in the Cuba's Commission of Electronic Commerce, on Wednesday assailed the U.S. government's economic embargo and argued that, as a result, poorer countries are 'financing' the Internet. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Fernandez to a high-level working group two years ago. Fernandez's only problem was that a longtime Internet engineer and researcher was present and challenged those claims. Bill Woodcock, research director of the nonprofit Packet Clearing House who has set up Internet exchange points in Latin America and other developing nations, replied by saying that the Cuban government's problems stem from its own telecommunications monopoly and its official censorship policies. A report published last month by the Reporters Without Borders advocacy group says 'it is forbidden to buy any computer equipment without express permission from the authorities.'" Learn more in News.com.

• 1 November 2006
  "US technology firms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo have come under fire for allegedly helping China monitor suspected dissidents. The companies were accused of colluding with China at the Internet Governance Forum, a United Nations (UN) meeting held in Athens, Greece, this week. Meanwhile, to scattered boos from other participants, a Chinese delegate who identified himself as a member of his country's mission to the UN said there were 'no restrictions at all' on the flow of information in China. However, the BBC said its websites were indeed being suppressed in several countries, including China and Iran. "[We] are blocked because we refuse to compromise on our reporting," said BBC Global News Director Richard Sambrook, drawing a parallel with the Cold War era, when the BBC had its short-wave radio jammed in Russia and Eastern Europe. Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and Cisco Systems were all criticised at the four-day forum...But the companies struck back, arguing that their operations in China benefit millions of internet users by giving them greater access to information." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 26 October 2006
  "Keys, cards, passports and PINs could soon be a thing of the past as biometric technology makes our bodies the only passwords we need. Biometric systems - which identify a person by their unique physical or behavioural features - are rapidly being designed and applied to many aspects of our everyday lives. The main biometrics are based on features of the face, iris or finger, but other systems use anything from the veins in a hand to the way an individual speaks. The UK is one of 27 countries signed up to the US Visa Waiver Program, which demands that all passports issued after 26 October 2006 must contain a machine readable chip with the passport holder's details and a biometric identifier, such as a digital photograph of the holder. The authorities say this is primarily to beat passport fraud, and a security officer will still compare the digital photo with physical photo and the passport holder. But technology already exists for checks to be automated - a passenger will look into a camera at border control and a computer will check the map of key points on the face with those recorded in the passport chip, confirming their identity." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 25 October 2006
  "Hey, Web 2.0! Election Day is Nov. 7, and your country needs you. At BarCamp, SuperHappyDevHouse, NetSquared and other hacker get-togethers, scores of entrepreneurs and engineers arrive eager to collaborate, make information easier to share and use, and mobilize groups for effective action. Though it may not be obvious, the road marks in this amorphous thing called Web 2.0 are political: grassroots participation, forging new connections, and empowering from the ground up. The ideal democratic process is participatory and the Web 2.0 phenomenon is about democratizing digital technology. There's never been a better time to tap that technological ethic to re-democratize our democracy. Many Americans believe that our political system is broken, and that money is to blame. Legislators are beholden to donations from special interest groups. Regulators pass through a revolving door to take jobs in the very industries they used to regulate...New data-sharing technology can enable citizens to follow the money in comprehensive and compelling ways, and vote accordingly." Learn more in Wired News.

• 24 October 2006
  "Eight years after Congress tried to criminalize material deemed "harmful to children," free speech advocates and website publishers took their challenge of the law to trial Monday. Salon.com, Nerve.com and other plaintiffs backed by the American Civil Liberties Union are suing over the 1998 Child Online Protection Act. They believe the law could restrict legitimate material they publish online -- exposing them to fines or even jail time. The Justice Department argues that it is easier to stop online pornography at the source than to keep children from viewing it. The law, signed by then-President Clinton, requires adults to use some sort of access code, or perhaps a credit-card number, to view material that may be considered 'harmful to children.' It would impose a $50,000 fine and six-month prison term on commercial Web site operators that publish such content, which is to be defined by 'contemporary community standards.' It has yet to be enforced, however." Learn more in Wired News.

• 23 October 2006
  "It's 10 p.m. Does your laptop know where you are? As location-based technology advances, your computer, cell phone, and other mobile devices may soon be able to pinpoint and transmit your exact location as you travel. And developers hope that an emerging network dubbed the geospatial web will tie these devices together to create a unique new user experience. People tapped into this new web will be able to communicate instantly with nearby users, participate in digital community activities, and get advertising for businesses that are literally around the corner. But even in its infancy, the concept of an electronic network that can track and communicate a person's every move is raising a host of questions about user privacy. Can people feel safe in their own backyards when real-time satellite imagery is being collected from overhead? Will improved global positioning systems (GPS) in cell phones make it easier for a criminal to stalk a victim?" Learn more in the National Geographic.

• 20 October 2006
  "US politicians could soon be rubbing shoulders with orcs and night elves in World of Warcraft. The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the US Congress has announced it is investigating the amount of commerce taking place in virtual game worlds. The investigation is unlikely to mean that in-game trading will start to be taxed. Many popular virtual worlds such as Eve Online and Second Life revolve around trade of one sort or another. In a statement announcing the investigation, the Committee said its probe was prompted by the 'dramatic increase in the popularity of online gaming'. It said it was interested solely in the 'universe of transactions' that occur within online worlds such as Second Life. Although an economic value can be put on this trade because in-game currencies do have an equivalent real world value, committee chairman Jim Saxton said its investigation was not being carried out with a view to slapping taxes on this trade." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 19 October 2006
  "The Indian government is drafting a new foreign direct investment (FDI) policy that will, for the first time, include China on a list of countries not limited to Pakistan and Bangladesh that are considered a sensitive for India's national security. New Delhi has long been wary of allowing Chinese to invest in sensitive sectors, such as ports and telecommunications, but the new edict will extend security reviews to all sectors, including such innocuous sectors as household appliances. For the first time China will be officially labeled a 'security risk'. Once the new FDI norms come into effect, it would mean an end to all automatic clearances for Chinese investments under India's supposedly liberalized FDI laws as each an every investment coming from China will have to undergo scrutiny by the Indian security agencies." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 18 October 2006
  "The US could be rife with 'internet addicts' who are as clinically ill as alcoholics, according to psychiatrists involved in a nationwide study. The study, carried out by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, US, indicates that more than one in eight US residents show signs of 'problematic internet use'. The Stanford researchers interviewed 2513 adults in a nationwide survey. Because internet addiction is not a clinically defined medical condition, the questions used were based on analysis of other addiction disorders. Most disturbing, according to the study's lead author Elias Aboujaoude, is the discovery that some people hide their internet surfing, or go online to cure foul moods – behaviour that mirrors the way alcoholics behave." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 17 October 2006
  "As its technology companies soar to the outsourcing skies, India is bumping up against an improbable challenge. In a country once regarded as a bottomless well of low-cost, ready-to-work, English-speaking engineers, a shortage looms. India still produces plenty of engineers, nearly 400,000 a year at last count. But their competence has become the issue. A study commissioned by a trade group, the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, found only one in four engineering graduates to be employable. The rest were deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team or deliver basic oral presentations. The skills gap reflects the narrow availability of high-quality college education in India and the galloping pace of the country’s service-driven economy, which is growing faster than nearly all but China’s. The software and service companies provide technology services to foreign companies, many of them based in the United States. Software exports alone expanded by 33 percent in the last year." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 16 October 2006
  "There's nothing particularly remarkable about the near-empty offices of Image Metrics in downtown Santa Monica, loft-style cubicles with a dartboard at the end of the hallway. A few polite British executives tiptoe about, quietly demonstrating the company’s new technology. What’s up on-screen in the conference room, however, immediately focuses the mind. In one corner of the monitor, an actress is projecting a series of emotions — ecstasy, confusion, relief, boredom, sadness — while in the center of the screen, a computer-drawn woman is mirroring those same emotions. It’s not just that the virtual woman looks happy when the actress looks happy or relieved when the actress looks relieved. It’s that the virtual woman actually seems to have adopted the actress’s personality, resembling her in ways that go beyond pursed lips or knitted brow." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 13 October 2006
  "While most voters are focusing on Iraq, congressional races in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and other states could turn on the stem cell issue. It's a particularly prominent issue this year since President Bush used the first veto of his presidency on a bill that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The move essentially left the issue for individual states to sort out. The state campaigns are numerous and difficult to track. So John Hlinko, the veteran internet grass-roots organizer who spearheaded DraftWesleyClark, has launched a website called StemCellCandidates to highlight -- and facilitate donations for -- the races in which the stem cell issue is most likely to tip the scales. 'If people want to make an impact, we don't want them to donate to those who might not have a chance,' Hlinko said. 'This way they won't be throwing away their donation.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 12 October 2006
  "Electronically tagging passengers at airports could help the fight against terrorism, scientists have said. The prototype technology is to be tested at an airport in Hungary, and could, if successful, become a reality 'in two years'. The work is being carried out at a new research centre, based at University College London, set up to find technological solutions to crime. Other projects include scanners for explosives and dirty bomb radiation. Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag. Dr Paul Brennan, an electrical engineer, is leading the tagging project, known as Optag. He said: 'The basic idea is that airports could be fitted with a network of combined panoramic cameras and RFID (radio frequency ID) tag readers, which would monitor the movements of people around the various terminal buildings.'" Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 11 October 2006
  "In the quest for political office, modern campaigners deal in the currency of the moment, information. Information is power, and campaigns trade fiercely in it, exhaustively researching their opponents' past, scrutinizing the moods of the elusive swing voter and spewing (or leaking) favorable information about their own candidate. Of course, politicians try to harness the power of the internet, but some campaigns look more like they are stumbling than steering through cyberspace. In August, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's campaign accused the office of his opponent, Ned Lamont, of coordinating a human, distributed denial-of-service attack on Lieberman's Joe2006 website. Lamont denied the allegation. Lieberman critics said various error messages suggested the campaign did not buy enough bandwidth to handle normal traffic." Learm more in Wired News.

• 10 October 2006
  "A profitless Web site started by three 20-somethings after a late-night dinner party is sold for more than a billion dollars, instantly turning dozens of its employees into paper millionaires. It sounds like a tale from the late 1990’s dot-com bubble, but it happened yesterday. Google, the online search behemoth, agreed yesterday to pay $1.65 billion in stock for the Web site that came out of that party — YouTube, the video-sharing phenomenon that is the darling of an Internet resurgence known as Web 2.0. YouTube had been coveted by virtually every big media and technology company, as they seek to tap into a generation of consumers who are viewing 100 million short videos on the site every day. Google is expected to try to make money from YouTube by integrating the site with its search technology and search-based advertising program. But the purchase price has also invited comparisons to the mind-boggling valuations that were once given to dozens of Silicon Valley companies a decade ago." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 6 October 2006
  "The European Union and American antiterrorism officials are close to resolving longstanding differences over sharing personal information about airline passengers. An agreement could be reached Friday to clear up a murky situation for European airlines, which risked being in violation of EU laws if they provided passenger data to the United States, and risked being barred from US airports if they refused. 'We have an initial agreement, and we will be negotiating with them today,' Friso Roscam Abbing, a spokesman for the European Commission, said on Thursday. 'We hope that things go well.' The EU, citing privacy concerns, had objected to demands by the US Department of Homeland Security that airlines turn over data that might reveal a passenger's ethnicity or religion. It also balked at the US plan to keep the passenger information indefinitely. The International Air Transport Association says about 105,000 people fly between Europe and the United States each day." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 5 October 2006
  "The fall morning is mercifully fog-free, which puts a spring in the step of Mordy Karsch as he rolls into work. In short order, he fires up the computer, turns on his cellphone and orders breakfast. Though he has toiled on these premises for two years, he doesn't know anyone here well except for Angel Pinto, who brings him his hot coffee. That's because Karsch, 34, works out of The Grove, a bohemian eatery in this city's hip Marina district that caters to a growing army of office-less employees. 'Working from a place like this is less stressful than being in an office, and I find I get a lot more done,' says Karsch, general manager of Spanish Sales Force, a Spanish-language marketing consultancy. 'If you can make this work for you, you'll love it.' An estimated 30 million Americans, or roughly one-fifth of the nation's workforce, are part of the so-called Kinko's generation." Learn more in USA Today.

• 4 October 2006
  "Yahoo startled the fast-growing Internet advertising community last month when it warned that a slump in ads from automotive and financial services companies would hurt upcoming earnings. The question, obvious to many, was: If multibillion-dollar Yahoo was worried about ad sales, should every other Internet company be nervous as well? The answer, however, isn't quite so clear cut. Certainly, other companies that bring in big dollars selling ads for products like cars and home mortgages should share Yahoo's fears. The rest of the online ad market, however, is still doing well, say analysts...But there's a big caveat to that reassurance: Sales of cars and houses tend to be the proverbial canary in the coal mine for the rest of the economy." Learn more at News.com.

• 3 October 2006
  "The costs of policing a new U.S. Internet gambling ban for banks and credit card companies will be determined by regulators in the coming months, industry officials said Monday. Government officials are expected to propose a 'coding and blocking' system that will identify and stop payment to gambling sites, experts said. Many banks and credit card companies already voluntarily block Internet gambling transactions using such a system. The Department of the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board have nine months to draft regulations after the new law, included in a package of port security measures passed by Congress on Friday and expected to be signed into law by President George W. Bush. U.S. banks and credit card companies are optimistic that officials will prepare a workable system." Learn more at News.com.

• 2 October 2006
  "Online gambling firms faced their biggest-ever crisis on Monday after U.S. Congress passed legislation to end Internet gaming there, threatening jobs and wiping 3.5 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) off company values. Britain's PartyGaming Plc, operator of leading Internet poker site PartyPoker.com, and rivals Sportingbet and 888 Plc said they would likely pull out of the United States, their biggest source of revenue. 'This development is a significant setback for our company, our shareholders, our players and our industry,' PartyGaming Chief Executive Mitch Garber said. The House of Representatives and Senate unexpectedly approved a bill early on Saturday that would make it illegal for banks and credit-card companies to make payments to online gambling sites." Learn more in USA Today.

• 29 September 2006
  "Google Inc.'s Michael Jones likes to take pictures with a super high-resolution camera like those used on spy planes during the Cold War. His fascination is not to monitor military camps but to shoot photos so detailed he can spot, from miles away, a cosy Japanese noodle shop to have lunch in. Jones' obsession is mirrored in his work. He is the Chief Technology Officer of Google Earth, a product used by 100 million people that combines satellite images, maps and local data to display geographical information of the world. 'Seeing your home is usually the first thing people do,' Jones told Reuters in an interview in Tokyo. 'As we add more local data, like hotels, there's a second wave of interest from those who want to use this in useful ways, like plan trips.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 28 September 2006
  "For most businesses, the goal is to attract as many customers as possible. But in the fast-changing telephone industry, companies are increasingly trying to get rid of many of theirs. Bill and Ursula Johnson are among the unwanted. These dairy farmers in bucolic northeastern Vermont wake up before dawn not just to milk their cows, but to log on to the Internet, too. Their dial-up connection is so pokey that the only time they can reliably get onto the Web site of the company that handles their payroll is at 4 in the morning, when it is less busy. Mr. Johnson doubles as state representative for the area, and he doesn’t even bother logging on to deal with that. He communicates with colleagues in Montpelier, the capital, by phone and post instead." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 27 September 2006
  "The Bush administration has blocked the release of a report that suggests global warming is contributing to the frequency and strength of hurricanes, the journal Nature reported Tuesday. The possibility that warming conditions may cause storms to become stronger has generated debate among climate and weather experts, particularly in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. In the new case, Nature said weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -- part of the Commerce Department -- in February set up a seven-member panel to prepare a consensus report on the views of agency scientists about global warming and hurricanes. According to Nature, a draft of the statement said that warming may be having an effect." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 26 September 2006
  "The number of blog sites in China reached 34 million last month, a 30-fold increase from four years ago, state media said on Tuesday, despite a series of curbs on media and dissent. China has more than 17 million people writing blogs and more than 75 million people reading them, Xinhua news agency said. Authors of personal blogs choose their own subject and can instantly forward their writings to friends anywhere in China or the world. 'The rapid growth of blog sites in China also brought potential business opportunities to the advertising industry,' Xinhua said. 'Some blogs written by famous people attract millions of daily readers.' The report said that out of the 34 million blog sites, 70 percent were 'dormant,' having remained unchanged for more than a month." Learn more at News.com.

• 25 September 2006
  "A sprawling array of cases challenging the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of American's domestic and international communications may be moved to an obscure secret court in Washington, if a pending bill to alter the nation's surveillance law is voted on before the upcoming recess. Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter's National Security Surveillance Act would allow the Attorney General to move surveillance cases involving state secrets to the little-known Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which has only heard one case in its 28-year history. National security experts and civil liberties advocates assail the idea, saying it would diminish the chance that the government's controversial snooping would face open judicial scrutiny." Learn more in Wired News.

• 22 September 2006
  "American adult users of the Internet in August 2006 spent some time reading about politics or the coming U.S. election, a big increase from November 2004, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The non-partisan think tank said 26 million Americans -- or 19 percent of adult users -- turned to the Internet in August to read political news and information, compared to 21 million in November 2004 when a presidential election was held. The latest figure is noteworthy because August is typically a quiet month in political campaigns due to summer vacations, said John Horrigan, associate director of the Pew project. 'We think that increase is due to more and better content about politics than there was a couple of years ago,' Horrigan said. 'You have more people reading blogs, some of which are political, and there is the "You Tube" phenomenon for viewing political videos, which add up to a more attractive environment,' he added. You Tube is a free Web site that lets users upload and view videos." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 21 September 2006
  "California sued six of the world's largest automakers over global warming on Wednesday, charging that greenhouse gases from their vehicles have caused billions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit is the first of its kind to seek to hold manufacturers liable for the damages caused by their vehicles' emissions, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer said. It comes less than a month after California lawmakers adopted the nation's first global warming law mandating a cut in greenhouse gas emissions. California has also targeted the auto industry with first-in-the-nation rules adopted in 2004 requiring car makers to force cuts in tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 20 September 2006
  "This summer, Matt and Doug Stanbro, two brothers from Chelsea, Ala., traded in their game controllers for M-16 rifles. They're two of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of American teenagers inspired by a 'shoot'em-up' video game to join the Army. On the same day the brothers graduated from basic training last week, the Pentagon released the latest version of 'America's Army,' the combat-style video game. 'I never really thought about the military at all before I started playing this game,' says Pfc. Doug Stanbro in a phone interview from Fort Jackson, S.C. With more than 3,000 US soldier deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11, the use of a video game and incentives such as free iPods to recruit replacements is a strategy that critics call misguided, even abhorrent. But for the Pentagon, 'America's Army' is proving a potent way to communicate military values directly to the messy bedrooms where teens hang out." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 19 September 2006
  "The White House is distributing government-produced, anti-drug videos on YouTube, the trendy Internet service that already features clips of wacky, drug-induced behavior and step-by-step instructions for growing marijuana plants. The decision to distribute public service announcements and other videos over YouTube represents the first concerted effort by the U.S. government to influence customers of the popular service, which shows more than 100 million videos per day. The administration was expected to announce its decision later Tuesday. It said it was not paying any money to load its previously produced videos onto YouTube's service, so the program is effectively free. Already by Tuesday, thousands of YouTube users had watched some of the government's videos. 'If just one teen sees this and decides illegal drug use is not the path for them, it will be a success,' said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 18 September 2006
  "Chinese law enforcement agencies destroyed nearly 13 million pirated compact discs, DVDs and computer software Saturday in the government's latest campaign to curtail rampant theft of intellectual property, state media reported. The destroyed items were confiscated in the first half of an ongoing 100-day nationwide campaign against piracy, the Xinhua News Agency said. Police seized the items in raids that took in the scope of pirated goods networks, from unlicensed factories to street vendors, Xinhua said. Among the seized goods, according to the report, nearly half came from Guangdong, the economically dynamic southern province that abuts Hong Kong. Over the past two years, China has ratcheted up efforts to stamp out the rampant theft of intellectual property, partly in response to pressure from the United States and European Union and partly to protect new Chinese companies that are starting to produce their own competitive goods." Learn more in Wired News.

• 15 September 2006
  "It's a junkyard out there in space and sometimes astronauts accidentally contribute to the litter. In 1965, the first American spacewalker, Ed White, lost a spare glove when he went outside for the first time. From that time on, astronauts have accidentally added some of the more unusual items to the 100,000 pieces of space trash that circle Earth. Last July, spacewalker Piers Sellers sheepishly reported that he lost a spatula. Nicknamed 'spatsat' by space junk watchers, it returns to Earth in a fireball early next month. This week the Atlantis astronauts made their own contributions to the space debris in low orbit: a couple of bolts that escaped from the addition they were connecting to the international space station. To engineers, this isn't funny. Many of those pieces of space junk can kill astronauts, puncture satellites or at the very least scratch up expensive space shuttle windows." Learn more in Wired News.

• 14 September 2006
  "The ambitious founders of Google, the popular search engine company, have set up a philanthropy, giving it seed money of about $1 billion and a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and global warming. But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes. One of its maiden projects reflects the philanthropy’s nontraditional approach. According to people briefed on the program, the organization, called Google.org, plans to develop an ultra-fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid car engine that runs on ethanol, electricity and gasoline. The philanthropy is consulting with hybrid-engine scientists and automakers, and has arranged for the purchase of a small fleet of cars with plans to convert the engines so that their gas mileage exceeds 100 miles per gallon. The goal of the project is to reduce dependence on oil while alleviating the effects of global warming." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 13 September 2006
  "A court in China has used a software program to help decide prison sentences in more than 1,500 criminal cases, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Wednesday. The software, tested for two years in a court in Zibo, a city in the eastern coastal province of Shandong, covered about 100 different crimes, including robbery, rape, murder and state security offenses, the South China Morning Post said, citing the software's developer, Qin Ye. 'The software is aimed at ensuring standardized decisions on prison terms. Our programs set standard terms for any subtle distinctions in different cases of the same crime,' Qin was quoted as saying. A Beijing-based software company had worked with the Zichuan District Court in Zibo since 2003 to develop the program and input mainland criminal law, the paper said. Judges enter details of a case and the system produces a sentence, the paper said." Learn more at News.com.

• 12 September 2006
  "Congressional committee on Monday asked Hewlett-Packard to turn over records related to the company's possibly illegal investigation of media leaks, as the company's board planned to meet again to discuss the fate of embattled Chairwoman Patricia Dunn. The request came as part of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's ongoing investigation into pretexting -- the practice of impersonating a person in order to access their personal information. HP hired private investigators who used Social Security numbers and other personal information to impersonate HP directors and journalists. The impostors then tricked phone companies into turning over detailed logs of their home and cellular phone calls." Learn more in Wired News.

• 11 September 2006
  "When the world changed on Sept. 11, 2001, the web changed with it. While phone networks and big news sites struggled to cope with heavy traffic, many survivors and spectators turned to online journals to share feelings, get information or detail their whereabouts. It was raw, emotional and new -- and many commentators now remember it as a key moment in the birth of the blog. When four planes were hijacked on a sunny fall morning, easy-to-use blogging services were still few and far between. Yet many who witnessed the horror of the attacks firsthand took to the keyboard to talk with the world. Horrified Americans used e-mail, instant messages, any available communication tool. But weblogs meant large audiences, not just friends and family, could read those stories from the scene. 'I have a scrap of paper that flew onto my roof,' wrote New Yorker Anthony Hecht. 'Typewritten and handwritten numbers in the millions. A symbol of our tragedy. It smells like fire.' Many bloggers strayed from their normal writing beats to produce a rolling news service comprising links to materials and tidbits gathered by friends." Learn more in Wired News.

• 7 September 2006
  "Memo to Pentagon brass from the top United States commander in western Iraq: Renewable energy - solar and wind-power generators - urgently needed to help win the fight. Send soon. Calling for more energy in the middle of oil-rich Iraq might sound odd to some. But not to Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, whose deputies on July 25 sent the Pentagon a 'Priority 1' request for 'a self-sustainable energy solution' including 'solar panels and wind turbines.' The memo may be the first time a frontline commander has called for renewable-energy backup in battle. Indeed, it underscores the urgency: Without renewable power, US forces 'will remain unnecessarily exposed' and will 'continue to accrue preventable... serious and grave casualties,' the memo says." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 6 September 2006
  "California's state assembly has passed a bill to require makers of Internet access gear to warn consumers of the risks of using unsecured wireless connections, its backers said on Tuesday. Legislators in both houses of the state legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor or the 'Wi-Fi User Protection Bill' to inform users how to secure networks against 'piggybacking,' or unauthorized sharing of wireless access, said a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who proposed the bill. Most Wi-Fi users ignore security options when setting up wireless gear and thus expose their computer networks to public view. Leaving connections open allows nearby residents or occasional passersby to share this wireless access. One survey by the editor of computer products review site TomsHardware.com in 2004 conducted by flying in airplanes low over the city of Los Angeles found less than one-third of the 4,500 Wi-Fi connections detected to be secured. Learn more in News.com.

• 5 September 2006
  "Students in developing countries are to get free textbooks written using "wiki" technology that lets anyone add to or edit an online document. "The usual business model for textbooks just doesn't work for these countries," says Rick Watson, an expert on the development of opensource software at the University of Georgia, US. "Why not get groups of academics and their students to write them?" Publishers typically halve their prices for the developing world, he explains, but a single book can still cost one-fifth of average yearly income in places like Uganda. Watson has recruited about 80 academics from the US and other countries to his Global Textbook project. It will produce free online textbooks using technology similar to that behind online reference work Wikipedia. Anyone can edit or add to the texts that will gradually take shape on the project's website, Watson explains. It currently relies on donations of time and money from the academic and business worlds, but in the long term will seek corporate sponsorship. Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 1 September 2006
  "Patients should beware of so-called stem cell wonder cures as most have not been properly tested, experts say. Medical charities and the parliamentary group governing stem cell research said stem cell therapy offered promise. But in a letter to the Times they said some foreign clinics had made claims about multiple sclerosis and cosmetic surgery without scientific foundation. Reports have emerged of patients going abroad and paying over £10,000 for treatment not available in the UK. Stem cells are the body's 'master cells' and have the ability to produce all manner of tissues, prompting claims they could be used to replace the failed cells responsible for many conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. But to date only a handful of treatments have been licensed in the UK, principally for treating leukaemia, and eye and skin disorders." Learn more in the BBC.com.

• 31 August 2006
  "The pope is set to host a seminar with his senior clergymen to discuss the Catholic Church's position on evolution. The move follows months of mixed signals from the Church with supporters of Darwin's theory at odds with those giving more credence to Intelligent Design, and other more creationist views. The last pope, John Paul II was pretty clear on the subject. In 1996 he issued a formal statement that evolution was 'more than a hypothesis'. The recently departed head of the Vatican Observatory was also an outspoken supporter of Darwin's theory. Father George Coyne had described creationism as a 'religious movement devoid of all scientific basis'. In an interview with a science magazine, he expressed further support for the theory of evolution when he said: 'God isn't a designer and life is the fruit of billions of attempts'". Learn more in the Register.

• 30 August 2006
  "The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy - promises a guilt-free way to keep our gas tanks full, the reality is that overuse of our agricultural resources could have consequences even more drastic than, say, being deprived of our SUVs. It could leave much of the world hungry. We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources. This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 29 August 2006
  "You have to press 'Qallariy' to begin. Pronounced 'KAH-lyah-ree,' the word replaces 'Start' on Microsoft Windows' familiar taskbar in a new Quechua translation of the program, which gets its Bolivian debut Friday. President Evo Morales, the South American nation's first Indian leader, has found an ally in the U.S. software giant as he promotes the native tongues of his country's indigenous majority. Some 2.6 million Bolivians -- nearly one third of the country -- speak the Incan language, and Morales sees empowering these people as his primary mission. Among the first users of Quechua software will be Indian members of a constituent assembly meeting in this colonial city to rewrite the nation's constitution. First launched in Peru in June and now freely available for download online, the software is a simple patch that translates the familiar Microsoft menus and commands. Microsoft Corp. teamed up with several universities in Peru's Quechua-speaking south to create the translation program, joining 47 other versions of Windows in such languages as Kazakh, Maori and Zulu." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 28 August 2006
  "It began with a worldwide virus outbreak that had cities under quarantine, emergency workers overwhelmed and government agencies unable to cope. It was compounded by a wave of cyberterror attacks that cut off power, phones and Internet access. Such was the crisis that teams from the Pentagon, nongovernmental agencies and several dozen technology companies set out to resolve in a five-day simulation meant to showcase and test a new set of digital tools in responding to disaster. The limitations of even the latest technology were in evidence when an effort to restore communications by setting up ad hoc wireless networks resulted in a three-day data traffic jam. Yet the problems encountered in the training effort, named Strong Angel III, did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the participants, a diverse group of more than 800 'first responders,' military officers and software and wireless network experts." Learn more at News.com.

• 25 August 2006
  "Spam messages that tout stocks and shares can have real effects on the markets, a study suggests. E-mails typically promote penny shares in the hope of convincing people to buy into a company to raise its price. People who respond to the 'pump and dump' scam can lose 8% of their investment in two days. Conversely, the spammers who buy low-priced stock before sending the e-mails, typically see a return of between 4.9% and 6% when they sell. The study recently published on the Social Science Research Network say their conclusions prove the hypothesis that spammers 'buy low and spam high'. The researchers say that approximately 730 million spam e-mails are sent every week, 15% of which tout stocks. Other estimates of spam volumes are far higher." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 24 August 2006
  "When AOL researchers released three months’ worth of users’ query logs to a publicly accessible Web site late last month, Jon Kleinberg, a professor of computer science at Cornell, downloaded the data right away. But when a firestorm over privacy breaches erupted, he decided against using it. 'Now it’s sitting there, in cold storage,' said Professor Kleinberg, who works on algorithms for understanding the structure of the Web and searching it. 'The number of things it reveals about individual people seems much too much. In general, you don’t want to do research on tainted data.' After the data was released for academic researchers like Professor Kleinberg to work with, many were torn, loath to conduct research with it as they balanced a chronic thirst for useful data against concerns over individual privacy." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 23 August 2006
  "The world’s largest project to investigate how genes and lifestyle combine to cause common diseases has received the go-ahead to proceed in full. Organisers of the UK’s 'Biobank' project will now begin recruiting the half a million citizens aged between 40 and 69 they need for the project – about 1% of the UK population. Full approval for the project was given on 22 August by the UK Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, which are funding the £61-million project. It follows the success of a three-month pilot project in Manchester involving 3800 participants, which received glowing reviews from an independent international panel. Each volunteer participating will donate small samples of urine and blood, containing their DNA, for indefinite storage in the 'bank', which will be based in Manchester. They will also respond to detailed questionnaires about their lifestyle, health and environment." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 22 August 2006
  "United States and European authorities, looking for more tools to detect terrorist plots, want to expand the screening of international airline passengers by digging deep into a vast repository of airline itineraries, personal information and payment data. A proposal by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff would allow the United States government not only to look for known terrorists on watch lists, but also to search broadly through the passenger itinerary data to identify people who may be linked to terrorists, he said in a recent interview. Similarly, European leaders are considering seeking access to this same database, which contains not only names and addresses of travelers, but often their credit card information, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and related hotel or car reservations." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 21 August 2006
  "Now Hiring: Wannabe Astronauts. Must weigh between 110 and 209 pounds. Feet must be smaller than 11.6 inches. English proficiency required. Those with criminal records need not apply. These are the simple requirements to become South Korea's first astronaut. No experience or prior training required, apart from being fit enough to run a 3.5K race and a willingness to experiment on kimchi in space. Understandably, the prospect of being the first South Korean in space has generated some excitement. More than 36,000 hopefuls have submitted applications to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, or KARI. The sole goal seems to be the Korean government's desire to join the club of countries that have put one of their own citizens into space." Learn more in Wired News.

• 18 August 2006
  "A national anticrime group on Thursday urged Congress to pass new laws this year targeting the practice of 'cyberbullying,' a growing problem the group says will plague at least 13 million American children during the next school year. Mean, threatening, or embarrassing messages delivered online and via portable devices like cell phones are a 'pernicious threat that awaits our kids when they go back to school," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said at a press conference here hosted by Fight Crime: Invest In Kids, a nonprofit advocacy organization composed of 3,000 police chiefs, prosecutors, law enforcement leaders and crime victims. According to a recent survey of 1,000 youth commissioned by the organization, one in three teenagers ages 12 to 17 and one in six children ages 6 to 11 have found themselves victims of cyberbullying--translating to about 13 million youth nationwide." Learn more at News.com.

• 17 August 2006
  "Last Jan. 1, almost on a whim, 35-year-old IT manager Rickard Falkvinge got into politics. Concerned about the reach of copyright and patent law, Falkvinge erected a web page with a sign-up form for a radical new pro-piracy party to compete in Sweden's parliamentary system. He didn't know if anyone would care, but the next day the national media picked it up, and two days later international media started calling. The site was flooded with new members -- enough for the nascent movement to sail past the requirements for participation in the national election. Falkvinge now faced a decision: stay with his nice job and let the whole thing quietly sink, or quit and become a campaigning politician. He chose to become the leader of Sweden's newest and fastest-growing political party: Piratpartiet, or the Pirate Party." Learn more in Wired News.

• 16 August 2006
  "In a small apartment above Jerusalem's Machne Yehuda market, a group of bloggers debate two subjects relevant to the violence between Israel and Lebanon: the deaths of Lebanese civilians in Qana - and the tastiness of hummus. The grainy chickpea spread is one of the most important things that Lebanese and Israelis have in common, says David Abitbol, one of the founders of Jewlicious.com, a conglomerate website of more than a dozen writers. Lebanese state law forbids its citizens from having contact with Israelis, and anyone with an Israeli stamp on his or her passport - or actual Israelis - cannot enter Lebanon. But in the past few years, Internet "bridges" have sprung up between the two nations - hundreds of blogs, message boards, and chat rooms. Sadly, these virtual bridges, like their actual counterparts, are becoming casualties of the current conflict." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 15 August 2006
  "If you use Yahoo’s Web search engine to learn about hybrid cars, the site will quietly note that you fit into a group of users it calls 'Consciously Cruising.' If you click on ads for moving van companies, you will join the 'Home Hopping' group. Shop for wedding cakes and reception halls and you might be tagged as a future bride or groom. Earlier this year, Yahoo introduced a computer system that uses complex models to analyze records of what each of its 500 million users do on its site: what they search for, what pages they read, what ads they click on. It then tries to show them advertisements that speak directly to their interests and the events in their lives. Yahoo and the many other companies building similar systems say the systems are benign because they typically do not collect personal information like names and addresses. 'We are much more conservative than we need to be' in using information about site visitors, said Usama Fayyad, chief data officer at Yahoo." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 14 August 2006
  "Privacy advocates and search industry watchers have long warned that the vast and valuable stores of data collected by search engine companies could be vulnerable to thieves, rogue employees, mishaps or even government subpoenas. Four major search companies were served with government subpoenas for their search data last year, and now once again, privacy advocates can say, 'We told you so.' AOL’s misstep last week in briefly posting some 19 million Internet search queries made by more than 600,000 of its unwitting customers has reminded many Americans that their private searches — for solutions to debt or bunions or loneliness — are not entirely their own. So, as one privacy group has asserted, is AOL’s blunder likely to be the search industry’s 'Data Valdez,' like the 1989 Exxon oil spill that became the rallying cry for the environmental movement?" Learn more in the New York Times.

• 10 August 2006
  "From the passenger seat of Bill Gutman’s truck, Spaceport America looks more John Ford than Jetsons. No gleaming buildings, no space-age machinery, just a few strips of concrete, two portable office buildings and 27 square miles of scrubby cactus. Locals call the area Jornado del Muerte (Journey of Death) Basin, and its current population consists of one stubborn rancher and his wife. No finished roads run to the site, just 22 miles of bone-jarring rutted dirt track. The closest reference point on the map is Upham, a ghost town. But Gutman’s descriptions of Spaceport America, which is located north of Las Cruces, somehow make its space-faring future seem inescapable. A physicist, part-time pecan farmer and the Spaceport project director, Gutman spells out what's coming, step by step. First, regular cargo launches. Then, expensive space tourism. Next, a cluster of rocket-related cottage industries. Finally, affordable trips to space." Learn more in Wired News.

• 9 August 2006
  "HIV sufferers in sub-Saharan Africa are better at taking their medication than their North American counterparts, researchers report. The findings mean that 'poor adherence' should not be used as an excuse by policymakers for failing to provide essential antiretroviral drugs to people in developing nations, the scientists say. Contrary to popular belief, researchers found that 77% patients in this African region take HIV medicines as directed, compared with an estimated 55% of patients in the US and Canada. The research team reviewed 31 studies from North America, incorporating 18,000 patients, and 27 studies from sub-Saharan Africa, involving 12,000 patients." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 8 August 2006
  "It sounds like something out of science fiction. Researchers at General Electric Co.'s sprawling research center, are creating new "smart video surveillance" systems that can detect explosives by recognizing the electromagnetic waves given off by objects, even under clothing. Scientist Peter Tu and his team are also developing programs that can recognize faces, pinpoint distress in a crowd by honing in on erratic body movements and synthesize the views of several cameras into one bird's eye view, as part of a growing effort to thwart terrorism. 'We're definitely on the cutting edge,' said Tu, 39. 'If you want to reduce risk, video is the way to do it. The threat is always evolving, so our video is always evolving.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 7 August 2006
  "With the nightclub Tao swathed in red and black, music pulsated and go-go dancers gyrated on raised platforms along the wall. Everything from the 'reserved' signs to the billiard table felt to the models' Chinese-style dresses bore the same label: 'bodog.com.' The only thing missing was the online gambling site's flamboyant founder, 45-year-old Canadian Calvin Ayre, who was nowhere to be found. 'He'd have girls all around him and he'd be the life of the party,' said Ronn Torossian, a publicist and acquaintance familiar with Ayre's celebrating ways. The billionaire who graced Forbes magazine's March cover decided to make himself scarce after federal authorities arrested David Carruthers, the head of rival web gambling operator BetOnSports as Carruthers changed planes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on July 16. A federal judge ordered BetOnSports to stop accepting bets placed from the United States, and prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of $4.5 billion, plus several cars, recreational vehicles and computers from Carruthers and 10 other people associated with the Costa Rica-based gambling operation." Learn more in Wired News.

• 4 August 2006
  "In the 1970s, an adult movie theater in Dallas claimed it had the right to show a pirated copy of "Behind the Green Door" because the movie was so lewd it could not legally be copyrighted. The theater lost when a federal appeals court ruled that the film, which featured Marilyn Chambers in a then-novel scene of interracial sex, nevertheless was fully covered by federal copyright law. In an unusual twist, Google recently echoed that argument when defending its reproductions of professional photographs of scantily-clad women through its popular image-search feature. Google claimed the photographs are not 'creative' enough to enjoy copyright law's full protections because they're intended primarily for 'sexual gratification.' A federal court rejected that claim earlier this year. That lawsuit is not an aberration. As Google becomes more deeply interested in books and video, and expands its search domain beyond Web pages, it has found itself increasingly at odds with established copyright industries including book publishers, journalists, and professional photographers." Learn more at News.com.

• 3 August 2006
  "Conservative Republicans who pushed anti-evolution standards back into Kansas schools last year have lost control of the state Board of Education once again. The most closely watched race was in western Kansas, where incumbent conservative Connie Morris lost her GOP primary Tuesday. The former teacher had described evolution as 'an age-old fairy tale' and 'a nice bedtime story' unsupported by science. As a result of Tuesday's vote, board members and candidates who believe evolution is well supported by evidence will have a 6-to-4 majority. Evolution skeptics had entered the election with a 6-to-4 majority. Critics of Kansas's science standards worried that if conservatives retained the board's majority, it would lead to other states copying the Kansas standards. Control of the school board has slipped into, out of, and back into conservative Republicans' hands since 1998, resulting in anti-evolution standards in 1999, evolution-friendly ones in 2001, and anti- evolution ones again last year." Learn more in the Boston Globe.

• 2 August 2006
  "At a recent conference that attracted 15,000 eBay fanatics to Las Vegas, the main sponsor was a big advocate of online shopping: none other than the United States Postal Service. 'I have one message today for the entire eBay community,' said Postmaster General John E. Potter in a speech to the crowd. 'We, the Postal Service, we love you. We love every buyer, every seller, every power seller. Thank you for shipping with the United States Postal Service.' Thank you indeed. As people send e-mail and e-cards instead of handwritten letters and greetings, as they pay more bills online and file tax returns electronically, the Postal Service has started to seem like a drab and tired reminder of the old way of doing things. Yet the Internet is actually injecting new life — and a sorely needed source of revenue — into the Postal Service. And it is happening with packages — millions of them shipped every day, in a journey that starts with a few mouse clicks and ends a day or two or five later at a customer’s door." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 1 August 2006
  "Using a new method to test potential pandemic flu strains, scientists have created a virus that contains genes from human and bird flus and found it lacks what it takes to cause a pandemic. The researchers combined genes from a human flu strain, H3N2, and the H5N1 bird flu strain that emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, which is an earlier version of the deadly strain that is circulating in parts of Asia, Africa and Europe. They found that in animal experiments, the mixed virus lacks 'the key property that predicts pandemic spread.' But experts say other gene combinations or mutations could turn H5N1 into a pandemic strain. 'We are far from out of the woods in H5N1 on a global scale,' Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a briefing on the study, which was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 'These data do not mean that H5N1 cannot convert to be transmissible from one person to another person,' she said. 'They mean that it's probably not a simple process and more than simple genetic exchanges are necessary.'" Learn more in USA Today.

• 31 July 2006
  "Coal-burning utilities are passing the hat for one of the few remaining scientists skeptical of the global warming harm caused by industries that burn fossil fuels. Pat Michaels -- Virginia's state climatologist, a University of Virginia professor and senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute -- told Western business leaders last year that he was running out of money for his analyses of other scientists' global warming research. So last week, a Colorado utility organized a collection campaign to help him out, raising at least $150,000 in donations and pledges. The Intermountain Rural Electric Association, or IREA, of Sedalia, Colorado, gave Michaels $100,000 and started the fund-raising drive, said Stanley Lewandowski, IREA's general manager. He said one company planned to give $50,000 and a third plans to give Michaels money next year. Michaels and Lewandowski are open about the money and see no problem with it. Some top scientists and environmental advocates call it a clear conflict of interest. Others view it as the type of lobbying that goes along with many divisive issues." Learn more in Wired News.

• 28 July 2006
  "Home DNA kits that claim to warn people of their risk of diseases ranging from cancer to osteoporosis offer little real guidance and are often misleading, according to a Congressional report released Thursday. An investigation into 14 companies that sell the tests showed many gave meaningless information, and some then tried to sell consumers expensive "customized" supplements that were little different from grocery store vitamin pills. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said they were investigating the companies and checking to see whether more oversight was needed. 'Clearly consumers are being misled and exploited by this modern-day snake oil, and I am shocked to learn how little the federal government is doing to help consumers make informed decisions about the legitimacy of these tests,' said Gordon Smith, a Republican senator from Oregon." Learn more at News.com.

• 27 July 2006
  "The US has indicated that it may give up some control of net domain names. The US government currently oversees the net's domain name system through the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann). But at a hearing on Wednesday a government official said the US was 'committed' to the transition to private domain name control. However, a policy statement issued last year asserted the US would not give up its oversight domain names like .com. These root domain names include .com, .net and .org. Icann, a California-based not-for profit company, was given the task of coordinating and managing the domain name system in 1998. This includes the allocation of internet protocol numbers, the unique number given to every online device, as well as the assignment of domain names and deciding whether root-level names such as .com, .net or .org, can be added to the internet." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 26 July 2006
  "As the advertising and television industries debate how to measure viewers of shows watched on digital video recorders, the pioneering maker of the recorders, TiVo, is getting into the argument. TiVo is starting a research division to sell data about how its 4.4 million users watch commercials--or, more often, skip them. The service is based on an analysis of the second-by-second viewing patterns of a nightly sample of 20,000 TiVo users, whose recorders report back to TiVo on what was watched and when. On average, TiVo has found that its users spend nearly half of their television time watching programs recorded earlier. And viewers of those recorded shows skip about 70 percent of the commercials, said Todd Juenger, TiVo's vice president for audience research. The new research service, which is intended mainly for advertisers, could help them understand how to get more people to watch recorded commercials." Learn more at News.com.

• 25 July 2006
  "Jealous lovers may soon have an alternative to sniffing for perfume to catch a cheating mate: Just follow their license plate. In recent years, police around the country have started to use powerful infrared cameras to read plates and catch carjackers and ticket scofflaws. But the technology will soon migrate into the private sector, and morph into a tool for tracking individual motorists' movements, says former policeman Andy Bucholz, who's on the board of Virginia-based G2 Tactics, a manufacturer of the technology. Bucholz, who designed some of the first mobile license plate reading, or LPR, equipment, gave a presentation at the 2006 National Institute of Justice conference here last week laying out a vision of the future in which LPR does everything from helping insurance companies find missing cars to letting retail chains chart customer migrations. It could also let a nosy citizen with enough cash find out if the mayor is having an affair, he says." Learn more in Wired News.

• 24 July 2006
  "Just over a decade ago, as another of the world’s great ethnic tinderboxes — the former Yugoslavia — was about to catch fire, 11-year-old Zlata Filipovic of Croatia began keeping a diary. The poignancy of the journal rises in large part from Zlata’s sober acclimation, in latter entries, to life as it was disintegrating around her. From the concerns of a modern middle-class girl in 1991 — school, a new pair of skis, Madonna’s fan club — Zlata’s journal became a diary, too, of bombs and snipers’ bullets zipping through her bedroom, of food shortages and blackouts and death. Her journal was eventually published and she was billed as a latter-day Anne Frank. But as the world’s gaze has turned to another ethnic and religious calamity — this time between Israel and militants in Lebanon — a question that almost immediately arises is just what Zlata Filipovic, or even Anne Frank, might have made of YouTube.com. That’s where Galya Daube, a 15-year-old from Haifa, Israel, uploaded a jittery, first-person video clip last week." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 21 July 2006
  "He dreamed that with the next game, the next jackpot, the next click of his mouse, he would solve all his problems. But as he got sucked deeper into the anonymous world of online gambling, his problems only got worse. 'There was no boundary between me and what was going on inside the computer screen,' said the recovering gambling addict, who asked not to be identified. 'I was ill with a compulsion, even though I was losing $5,000 and $10,000 and $15,000.' Gambling has been around for centuries, from gruff Wild West saloons to glitzy Las Vegas casinos. But the Internet has taken this age-old game of chance to a new plane -- allowing anyone to place bets, anytime, from anywhere. Online, it has become harder both to monitor gamblers (and perhaps, for gamblers to monitor themselves) and gambling firms that operate largely beyond the reach of regulators. The U.S. House of Representatives last week resoundingly approved a measure barring banks and credit card companies from making payments to Internet gambling sites." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 20 July 2006
  "In a rare open-door meeting, the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Wednesday began debating whether to alter a federal law that many legal scholars say requires court approval for the National Security Agency's surveillance program. For some, the answer was clear. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is 'obsolete and needs modernizing,' said Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican. His Democratic co-chairwoman, Rep. Jane Harman of California, wasn't so convinced. 'I think this is a very careful system, and we change it at our peril if we aren't very thoughtful,' she said. 'I think we need (Bush) administration witnesses, and we need to understand what changes are necessary.' Harman, backed by 59 other Democrats, is the chief sponsor of a bill designed to preserve FISA as the sole law governing electronic surveillance." Learn more at News.com.

• 19 July 2006
  "The Senate voted Tuesday after two days of emotional debate to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, sending the measure to President Bush for a promised veto, the first of his presidency. The bill passed 63-37, four votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override Bush's veto. The president left little doubt he would reject the bill despite late appeals on its behalf from fellow Republicans Nancy Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. 'The simple answer is he thinks murder's wrong,' said White House spokesman Tony Snow. 'The president is not going to get on the slippery slope of taking something living and making it dead for the purposes of scientific research.' Senate supporters of the bill likened that logic to opposition suffered by Galileo, Christopher Columbus and others who were rebuked in their time but vindicated later." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 18 July 2006
  "Do you think your high-paid managers really know best? A Dutch sociology professor has doubts. The professor, Chris Snijders of the Eindhoven University of Technology, has been studying the routine decisions that managers make, and is convinced that computer models, by and large, can do a better job of it. He even issued a challenge late last year to any company willing to pit its humans against his algorithms. 'As long as you have some history and some quantifiable data from past experiences,' Mr. Snijders claims, a simple formula will soon outperform a professional’s decision-making skills. 'It’s not just pie in the sky,' he said. 'I have the data to support this.'" Learn more in the New York Times.

• 17 July 2006
  "Congress embarks this week on the weightiest of debates on morality and the march of science, deciding whether to use public money for embryonic stem cell research and, in turn, setting up President Bush's first veto. Neither the House nor Senate has demonstrated enough support for the bill to override a veto, though the House probably will try, just to give Bush a definitive victory in the showdown. Supporters of the research hold out faint hope that Bush, presented with new data and pressured by election-year politics, might reverse course and sign the bill. 'This would be his first veto in six years, on something that the vast majority of the public supports,' said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. 'What would come down on him would be all the scientists, all the Nobel laureates and everyone else who supports it.'" Learn more at CNN.com.

• 14 July 2006
  "Think it rains only on the weekend? Not if you live in the Southeast United States. Summer rainfall in this region of the country appears to mimic the highs and lows of air pollution from weekday commuters, says Thomas Bell of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. At the May meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Baltimore, Maryland, Bell reported that afternoon thundershowers are more frequent and more intense on weekdays than on weekends. Bell limited his study to summer thunderstorms, which, in theory, are most likely affected by changes in air pollution. Meteorologists believe smog contains tiny particles that spur the formation of water droplets, which eventually become raindrops. More smog, therefore, not only means more droplets, but also tinier ones—at least in the initial stages of storm formation." Learn more in the National Geographic.

• 13 July 2006
  "People fear energy policies are threatening the environment and global stability, a BBC poll suggests. The findings from across 19 countries come in the run-up to the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Russia, which will focus on energy security. Carried out for the BBC World Service, the poll of nearly 20,000 people indicates concern that some energy suppliers will withhold oil exports. The study also found wide support for alternative energy strategies. The poll illustrates a perceived triple threat from the way the world produces and uses energy. Some eight out of 10 of those questioned were worried about the threat to the environment. In Australia, Great Britain, Canada and Italy the level of concern topped 90%. The findings back a conclusion by an expert panel recently convened by BBC News that climate change is 'real and dangerous' and that politicians were unlikely to cut emissions to prevent global warming." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 12 July 2006
  "A new sensor being developed can detect bioweapons in sealed packages from a short distance away—calling to mind Star Trek's handheld scanning devices known as tricorders. The bioweapon sensor was co-developed by physicist John Miller, Jr. at the University of Houston, Texas. The futuristic device, conceived after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, is meant to detect life signs in a sealed container without the risk of opening the suspect package. It can detect such signals from a sort distance—about two-fifths of an inch (a centimeter) away. The sensor leverages the fact that biochemical reactions in cells emit electrical signals. These can be detected by scanning cells with oscillating, low-voltage electrical fields." Learn more in the National Geographic.

• 11 July 2006
  "Congress may deliver a blow to gamblers who prefer going online to going to Las Vegas. The House is debating a bill that would clarify existing law by spelling out that Internet gambling is illegal. The legislation would forbid credit cards and other forms of payment from being used to settle online wagers and would allow authorities to work with Internet providers to block access to gambling Web sites. Critics say policing the Internet is impossible and that it would be better to regulate the $12 billion industry and collect taxes on it. The American Gaming Association, the industry's largest lobby, has opposed online gambling in the past but recently backed a study of the feasibility of regulating it. The Internet gambling industry is headquartered almost entirely outside the United States, though about half its customers live in the U.S. The House is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the bill sponsored by Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia., and Jim Leach, R-Iowa. Some of the debate is expected to focus on whether the bill truly amounts to a ban." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 10 July 2006
  "Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime. Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites. 'If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack...there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said. Japan's constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare." Learn more at ABC News.com.

• 7 July 2006
  "Some of the country's most notorious street gangs have gotten Web-savvy, showcasing illegal exploits, making threats, and honoring killed and jailed members on digital turf. Crips, Bloods, MS-13, 18th Street and others have staked claims on various corners of cyberspace. 'Web bangers' are posting potentially incriminating photos of members holding guns, messages taunting other gangs and boasts of illegal exploits on personal Web sites and social networking sites. 'I'm just being real and I ain't got nothing to hide,' said Kristopher 'Kasper' Flowers, 30, a professed member of the 18th Street gang with facial tattoos of '18' and '666.' The main 18th Street gang Web site has a link to 'Kaspers World.'...The tendency for gang members to brag about their exploits on Web pages such as the popular networking site Myspace.com has in some cases helped investigators make arrests." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 6 July 2006
  "In the 1970s, before the PC era, there were computer hobbyists. A group of them formed the Homebrew Computer Club in a Menlo Park garage in 1975 to trade integrated circuits and swap tips on assembling rudimentary computers, like the Altair 8800, a rig with no inputs or outputs and half a megabyte of memory. Among the Club's members were Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. As the tools of biotechnology become accessible (and affordable) to a wider public for the first time, hobbyists are recapturing that collaborative ethos and applying it to tinkering with the building blocks of life. Eugene Thacker is a professor of literature, culture and communications at Georgia Tech and a member of the Biotech Hobbyist collective. Just as the computer hobbyists sought unconventional applications for computer circuitry, the new collective is looking for "non-prescribed uses" of biotechnology, Thacker said. The group has published a set of informal DIY articles, mimicking the form of the newsletters and magazines of the computer hobbyists." Learn more in Wired News.

• 5 July 2006
  "While Internet gamblers lay down big money on World Cup soccer this summer, teams of lobbyists are facing off on Capitol Hill in a contest over whether the United States should choke off the growth of wagering on the Web. Faced with bills to curb online betting, which attracts an estimated $12 billion a year in wagers worldwide, an array of interest groups like casinos here and abroad, as well as sports leagues, antigambling coalitions and even poker players, has dispatched lobbyists to argue what should be legal and what should not...The Justice Department has always considered Internet gambling illegal. But that has not stopped online wagering from flourishing. Gambling opponents are pushing for bills to put teeth into enforcement. In the House, proponents of a crackdown merged two bills. The majority leader, Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, announced a few days ago that the measure would be voted on this summer as part of what the Republicans call their American Values Agenda." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 3 July 2006
  "Scientists who engage in stem cell research using human embryos should be subject to excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church, according to a senior Vatican official. Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, who heads the group that proposes family-related policy for the church, said in an interview with the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana published Thursday that stem cell researchers should be punished in the same way as women who have abortions and doctors who perform them. 'Destroying an embryo is equivalent to abortion,' said the cardinal. 'Excommunication is valid for the women, the doctors and researchers who destroy embryos.' It was unclear if the pope supported the position, and the Vatican did not return calls for comment. But such blunt remarks from a powerful cardinal just a week before the church convenes a meeting to discuss the topic could foreshadow a hardening of Vatican policy on the issue, experts said." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 30 June 2006
  "Last month, the British Ministry of Defence made public a top secret report on UFOs, concluding that three decades of sightings had failed to produce evidence of visiting extraterrestrials. Case closed for alien aficionados? Not so. Far from alleviating UFO buffs' suspicions that governments are concealing what they know, the report has intensified them. 'I just e-mailed the MoD explaining my disgust at their latest UFO report,' an Internet UFO forum member wrote, saying the Ministry was in denial. Instead of alien spacecraft, man-made vehicles and natural phenomena, some of them little known, were behind the UFO sightings, according to the report that runs to almost 500 pages. David Clarke, a journalist and folklorist who used freedom of information laws to gain access to the report, said UFO believers would not accept any explanation for the phenomenon other than the extraterrestrial one. 'They've got the truth, but it's not what they want to hear,' he said, speaking in a cafe near Sheffield Hallam University where he teaches journalism." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 29 June 2006
  "A U.S. Senate panel narrowly rejected strict Net neutrality rules on Wednesday, dealing a grave setback to companies like eBay, Google and Amazon.com that had made enacting them a top political priority this year. By an 11-11 tie, the Senate Commerce Committee failed to approve a Democrat-backed amendment that would have ensured all Internet traffic is treated the same no matter what its 'source' or 'destination' might be. A majority was needed for the amendment to succeed. This vote complicates Internet companies' efforts to convince Congress of the desirability of extensive new regulations, especially after the House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept in a 269-152 vote on June 8. Republican committee members attacked the idea of inserting Net neutrality regulations in a massive telecommunications bill, echoing comments from broadband providers like AT&T and Verizon, which warned the rules were premature and unnecessary." Learn more at News.com.

• 28 June 2006
  "We all know the scene: the departmental coffee room, with the price list for tea and coffee on the wall and the 'honesty box' where you pay for your drinks – or not, because no one is watching. In a finding that will have office managers everywhere scurrying for the photocopier, researchers have discovered that merely a picture of watching eyes nearly trebled the amount of money put in the box. Melissa Bateson and colleagues at Newcastle University, UK, put up new price lists each week in their psychology department coffee room. Prices were unchanged, but each week there was a photocopied picture at the top of the list, measuring 15 by 3 centimetres, of either flowers or the eyes of real faces. The faces varied but the eyes always looked directly at the observer. In weeks with eyes on the list, staff paid 2.76 times as much for their drinks as in weeks with flowers." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 27 June 2006
  "Traffic cameras zoom in enough to capture your dangling cigarette. Crime cameras "see" in the dark. Satellite images show whether your car is in the driveway. Most Americans realize ubiquitous monitoring is the price of living in a high-tech world. These days, surveillance cameras aren't just mounted on buildings and satellites, controlled by government and businesses. Now they're carried by a nation obsessed with its own image. Kids snap cellphone pictures at parties and instantly put them on the Web; fans who nab photos of unsuspecting celebrities share them on celebrity-watch sites. The guy in the car next to you is leaning out of his window, taking a video that he later uploads to a video site where it could be seen by dozens or hundreds of people — maybe even millions. 'Our computers are about to become unblinking paparazzi,' says Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. 'And we're all going to feel a little bit like Brad and Angelina.'" Learn more in USA Today.

• 23 June 2006
  "There may be no such thing as a North Korea playbook for would-be nuclear proliferators. But many Western leaders suspect Iran of trying to emulate North Korea's secretive development of nuclear weapons. And as both nations continue to command international attention for their nuclear programs, it's clear the two countries watch each other for 'how to' lessons in nuclear diplomacy...For each of the besieged regimes, experts say, an underlying goal is to establish a level of international respect, especially in relations with Washington. To help achieve this, these experts say, the powers of Tehran are no doubt studying the more experienced Kim Jong Il for dos and don'ts, and vice versa. 'Not only do they watch each other, but they may indeed compare notes,' says Jonathan Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 22 June 2006
  "Humanity is the verge of an incredible future. Technologies that seem like science fiction are already becoming science fact as researchers develop innovations that will transform the very essence of what it is to be human. 'The pace of change is exponential, not linear,' says inventor, entrepreneur, author, and futurist Ray Kurzweil. 'So things fifty years from now will be very different. That's pretty phenomenal. It took us fifteen years to sequence HIV, we sequenced SARS in 31 days.' Kurzweil argues that the growth of computing power, miniaturization and increased technical prowess will turn the world into an incredible place -- free from the conflicts over resources and wealth that have plagued it and in the last century and almost led to our obliteration in the fires of global thermonuclear war. That is, if you believe one particular school of thought. Other, equally eminent, minds believe we are on the cusp of an incredible disaster -- possibly even our own extinction." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 21 June 2006
  "Author Vicki Courtney in Texas keeps close tabs on her 13-year-old son, Hayden, by monitoring his instant messages (IMs) from a computer in the next room. Sometimes Hayden knows. Sometimes he doesn't. Carolina Aitken, a mom in Santa Rosa, Calif., took her two teenage sons on the Dr. Phil show after she exposed their Internet misuse. She had contacted them via e-mail as 'Candy Sweetness,' a fictitious 16-year-old girl, to see if she could get them to give up their home phone number. One did. Amid hand-wringing over the increasing sophistication of online sexual predators, financial scammers, and other cyber-solicitors, more moms and dads are resolving to become their children's 'Big Brothers'— in both the collegial and the Orwellian sense, but too few parents are doing as much as they should, Internet experts say." Learn more in USA Today.

• 20 June 2006
  "A device that could foil movie pirates who covertly record films in cinemas has been developed in the US. The prototype is able to locate the position of a digital camera, before overwhelming it with white light to render any recorded images useless. The Georgia Institute of Technology team says the invention could also prevent clandestine photography. However, the device is unable to block conventional film or the SLR cameras, preferred by the paparazzi. 'We're at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect,' said Professor Abowd of the Georgia Tech College of Computing. In particular, his team is looking at ways to prevent photography in government buildings or at trade shows, where industrial espionage could be a problem." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 19 June 2006
  "The 25 European Commission member states and nine accession countries have all signed up for a plan that could make accessibility in e-procurement mandatory. The 34 countries all signed an agreement in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday, committing themselves to the "Internet for all" action plan, designed to ensure that the most Web-disadvantaged groups can get online. The EC has now pledged to increase broadband coverage across the continent to 90 percent by 2010. Rural areas are still underserved, according to the Commission, with about 60 percent penetration. Urban areas fare better and are already at the 90 percent mark. The EC has also committed to putting new measures in place to halve exclusion rates in skills and digital literacy by 2010. The question of accessibility for disabled people looms large in the EC's plan for inclusion, too. The Commission is studying the possible introduction of mandatory accessibility standards." Learn more at News.com.

• 16 June 2006
  "Yahoo is stricter than any other search engine in China when enforcing censorship, said a journalism-advocacy group Thursday. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said their tests showed that Yahoo.cn blocked a higher percentage of politically sensitive results than Google.cn or the beta version of msn.cn. The tests were performed using 10 politically-sensitive keywords like 'press freedom' or 'human rights' on the Chinese versions of Yahoo, Google and MSN, as well as a Chinese-based search engine, Baidu. 'We simply found out that Yahoo was even worse than its local competitors,' said Julien Pain, RSF Internet Freedom desk chief. 'Google.cn is censored, but it’s far less than what Yahoo does.' Although Yahoo.cn was sold to and is now operated by the Chinese company Alibaba, Yahoo remains a large shareholder." Learn more in Wired News.

• 15 June 2006
  "It is a new dimension to outsourcing. An increasing number of couples are coming to India in search of cheaper fertility treatments, donor eggs and surrogate mothers. After turning to Indians to answer customer-service calls, the West, it seems, is now turning to them to carry their babies. For couples looking for fertility treatment, India is an attractive destination. They can avail themselves of treatment at a relatively low cost. Besides, it is easier finding a surrogate mother here, and the cost of renting her womb to carry the fertilized egg is a fraction of what it would be back home. In-vitro fertilization treatment involves the fertilization of the egg and sperm in a test tube. Once fertilized, the embryo is transferred into the uterus of the biological mother. In some cases, where the biological mother's medical condition does not permit her to carry the fetus, a surrogate mother does the job. In the United States, a couple would have to fork out about US$15,000 to the surrogate mother and another $30,000 to agencies involved. Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 14 June 2006
  "The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) celebrates its fifth anniversary with a summit of member states' leaders in Shanghai on Thursday. Last year's summit, in Kazakhstan, was notable for a declaration asking members of the 'anti-terrorist coalition' to provide a time frame for the withdrawal of military forces from SCO territory. The SCO comprises China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It was a pointed reference to US military bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Only two weeks later, Uzbekistan evicted the United States from its Karshi-Khanabad air base. This year, the summit will open against a backdrop of reports that Iran, which currently holds observer status in the SCO (along with India, Mongolia and Pakistan), is looking to become a full-fledged member. India has sent its influential oil minister, Murli Deora." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 13 June 2006
  "There must be world citizens by the thousand whose interest in environmental issues started with a childhood spent outdoors in the countryside, fascinated by the ways of nature. Achim Steiner, the man about to take control of the world's most powerful environment agency, is not one of them, despite his rural origins. 'I basically grew up on a farm, my father was a farmer, so I grew up with nature as part of my everyday experience,' he says. 'But what I became interested in was development and poverty - the realisation that for the poorest of the poor, stopping environmental degradation and having the ability to manage it properly is the easiest way for them to work their way out of poverty.' The intimate, destructive relationship between environmental degradation and poverty is at the heart of what the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) is about." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 12 June 2006
  "Studying with diligent friends is fine, says Heidi Lessing, a University of Delaware sophomore. But after a couple of hours, it's time for a break, a little gossip: 'I want to talk about somebody walking by in the library.' One of those friends, however, is working too hard for dish -- way too hard. Instead of joining in the gossip, 'She says, "Be quiet,"' Lessing says, astonishment still registering in her voice. Her friend's attention is laserlike, totally focused on her texts, even after an evening of study. 'We were so bored,' Lessing says. But the friend was still 'really into it. It's annoying.' The reason for the difference: Her pal is fueled with 'smart pills' that increase her concentration, focus, wakefulness and short-term memory. As university students all over the country emerge from final exam hell this month, the number of healthy people using bootleg pharmaceuticals of this sort seems to be soaring." Learn more in the Washington Post.

• 9 June 2006
  "The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, sent political Web sites and blogs into overdrive Thursday. Video clips of the U.S. air strike Wednesday night against al-Zarqawi's safe house 30 miles outside of Baghdad prompted everything from expressions of joy to displays of grief to confessions of mild anxiety--and some political sniping. Under al-Zarqawi's leadership, terrorist groups in Iraq carried out bloody attacks on civilian and military targets, including a number of beheadings and suicide bombings. His influence was felt worldwide. 'Now Zarqawi has met his end, and this violent man will never murder again,' President Bush said in an address from the White House. Still, some readers on news broadcaster CNN's Web site questioned how much effect al-Zarqawi's death will have on the level of terrorism waged in the world. That sort of tempered response rankled a few bloggers on Free Republic, a conservative message board, where one declared that 'liberals are depressed' that al-Zarqawi is dead." Learn more at News.com.

• 8 June 2006
  "Thomas Hiland, a Denver, Colorado, real-estate broker, was diagnosed early this year with a heart condition that required complicated valve-replacement surgery. Given that his ailment would have given him less than a year to live if left untreated, Hiland hardly looked like one who would travel thousands of kilometers to a developing country for surgery. But speaking from his hospital bed in New Delhi, Hiland said that from an American's perspective, 'India is the best place in the world to have heart surgery. I had considered two hospitals in the USA first,' said Hiland, 'but they took three weeks to give me an estimate of about $140,000. Since my health-care insurance had lapsed, I found out that I would have had to wait for a year to get a new insurance carrier pay the cost...That's when Hiland started doing research on the Internet about the possibility of getting treated outside the United States." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 7 June 2006
  "Scientists at Harvard and Children's Hospital Boston announced Tuesday they have the green light to clone human embryos that could generate stem cell lines for specific diseases. The researchers join a small cadre of scientists worldwide attempting to do what a South Korean scientist claimed to have done, only to have his work unravel when it was exposed as a fraud. 'We are convinced that work with embryonic stem cells holds enormous promise,' Harvard's Steven Hyman said. Embryonic stem cells are the precursor cells to almost every tissue in the body; growing them could provide replacement tissues for diseases such as diabetes and cancer. In theory, the body would not reject the tissues from cloned embryos. Cloning requires inserting a cell from a patient into an egg and chemically triggering division of their union. So far, only a team at the U.K.'s University of Newcastle Upon Tyne apparently has created a cloned human embryo." Learn more in USA Today.

• 6 June 2006
  "In this famously fractious country, there is one thing on which almost all Greeks agree: They do not want genetically modified crops grown, sold or eaten here. "All political parties are opposed," said Theodore Koliopanos, a legislator and former deputy environment minister, 'which is odd because we disagree on everything else.' Greece and a few other countries in the European Union that have banned genetically modified organisms are on the front lines of a war over the future of modified food in Europe, the only large swath of the world that does not already grow or buy the crops. Facing international pressure and a lawsuit brought by the United States, Canada and Argentina at the World Trade Organization, the union said this year that all member states must open their doors to genetically engineered crops and prepare practical and legal regulations to ensure safety for health and the environment." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 June 2006
  "Scott Silverman, Chairman of the Board of VeriChip Corporation, has proposed implanting the company's RFID tracking tags in immigrant and guest workers. He made the statement on national television on May 16. Silverman was being interviewed on 'Fox & Friends.' Responding to the Bush administration's call to know 'who is in our country and why they are here,' he proposed using VeriChip RFID implants to register workers at the border, and then verify their identities in the workplace. He added, 'We have talked to many people in Washington about using it....' The VeriChip is a very small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag about the size of a large grain of rice. It can be injected directly into the body; a special coating on the casing helps the VeriChip bond with living tissue and stay in place." Learn more in Live Science.

• 2 June 2006
  "The Bush administration on Thursday ramped up its support for erecting a "virtual" border fence to keep tabs on illicit entries to the country. In separate speeches here, both President Bush and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pledged to create such 'high-tech' fences as part of the government's ongoing attempts to catch foreigners who try to sneak into the country under its radar. Speaking at a Homeland Security event organized by the Brookings Institution, an independent think tank, Chertoff deemed the plan a '21st century proposal' that would "allow us to bind together and leverage these Border Patrol agents." The Bush administration has also announced plans to hire 6,000 more agents by 2008, resulting in a force that has doubled in size since the president first took office." Learn more at News.com.

• 1 June 2006
  "If you want to learn about Indiana Rep. Mike Pence's account of his meeting with Turkish officials or follow Senate debate in real time with the help of Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, their blogs are the place to go. A dozen years after Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., launched the first congressional website, a growing number of federal lawmakers are turning to blogs, podcasts, virtual town hall meetings and electronic newsletters to connect with constituents. Democrat Howard Dean revolutionized the use of the medium during the 2004 presidential campaign, but the interactive use of government websites is a new trend. House Speaker Dennis Hastert 'sees this as the new talk radio,' says spokesman Ron Bonjean of Hastert's blog giving the Republican's take on legislative action. Since 'Denny,' as Hastert is known, began blogging in October, monthly hits on his leadership website have risen fivefold to 50,000." Learn more in USA Today.

• 31 May 2006
  "'Net neutrality' could be the most potent rallying cry for internet regulation in years. It's also something of a surprise. Six months ago, few outside of internet policy wonk circles were aware of the issue. Now, the best-known brands on the net are flexing their lobbying muscles for and against it, and lawmakers have responded with a raft of competing bills. As the debate reaches fever pitch, it seems fair to ask: How neutral is the net right now? Not very, it turns out. 'Net neutrality' has many meanings, but in the broadest sense refers to a cooperative principle whereby everyone on the net is supposed to make the same effort to help deliver everyone else's traffic. In fact, pushing bits through the network-of-networks that makes up the internet is an anarchic business and frequently an ugly one." Learn more in Wired News.

• 30 May 2006
  "India now has the largest number of AIDS infections as the spread of the disease shows no sign of letting up a quarter-century into an epidemic that has claimed 25 million lives, the U.N. reported Tuesday. 'I think we will see a further globalization of the epidemic spreading to every single corner of the planet,' UNAIDS head Dr. Peter Piot told The Associated Press in an interview. The data released by UNAIDS shows that India now has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS. With an estimated 5.7 million infections, it has surpassed South Africa's 5.5 million. But the epidemic still remains at its worst in sub-Saharan Africa, where per capita rates continue to climb in several countries." Read more at the Houston Chronicle.

• 26 May 2006
  "When our economics editor invented the Big Mac index in 1986 as a light-hearted introduction to exchange-rate theory, little did she think that 20 years later she would still be munching her way, a little less sylph-like, around the world. As burgernomics enters its third decade, the Big Mac index is widely used and abused around the globe. It is time to take stock of what burgers do and do not tell you about exchange rates. The Economist's Big Mac index is based on one of the oldest concepts in international economics: the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), which argues that in the long run, exchange rates should move towards levels that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in any two countries. Our 'basket' is a McDonald's Big Mac, produced in around 120 countries." Read more at Britain's Economist.

• 25 May 2006
  "To build, or not to build, a border of walls? The debate in the United States has started some Mexicans thinking it is not such a bad idea. Nationalist outrage and accusations of hypocrisy over the prospect have filled airwaves and front pages in Mexico, as expected, fueled by presidential campaigns in which appeals to national pride are in no short supply. But, surprisingly, another view is gaining traction: that good fences can make good neighbors. The clamorous debate over a border wall has confronted President Vicente Fox of Mexico at every stop during a visit to the United States that began Tuesday. While he did not publicly endorse the idea, he made clear that his government was prepared to live with increased border security as long as it comes with measures that opened legal channels for the migration of Mexican workers. Outside his government, several immigration experts have even begun floating the idea that real walls, not the porous ones that stand today, could be more an opportunity than an attack." Ginger Thompson comments at the New York Times.

• 24 May 2006
  "Women who sleep less than five hours a night are more likely to be become over-weight and obese, according to a study in the United States. Researchers tracked nearly 70,000 middle-aged women involved in the Nurses Health Study for 16 years, recording their weight every two years. Those who slept for about five hours a night were 32 per cent more likely to gain 33lb in weight or more, and 15 per cent more likely to become obese over the course of the study, which was by far the largest of its kind. It had been suggested previously that people who sleep less compensate by eating more, but analysis of the data found that they ate less. The scientists also discounted physical activity as a reason to explain why women who slept less weighed more." Learn more at the Scotsman.

• 23 May 2006
  "It's a familiar story that unfolds across the Indian subcontinent every summer: soaring temperatures, power outages, water shortages, frayed tempers and protests. And a mounting death toll, often blamed on the heat wave. This year has been no different; so far, summer has been a scorcher in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh...Since April, some 50 people have died in the searing heat wave, most of them (25) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh...More than 140 people have died in the heat wave in Pakistan's Punjab province, with temperatures there hovering around 49. The temperature in cities such as Multan and Jacobabad has touched 52 (nearly 126 on the old Fahrenheit scale) this year...So why does India suffer this annual ritual of discomfort and death every summer? The answer lies in poor infrastructure. It is not the heat wave per se that is killing people, but poverty, poor infrastructure and an unresponsive government machinery. People are dying because they lack the means to protect themselves from the searing heat. Most of those who die of sunstroke during India's scorching summers are the poor. Eighty percent of the victims are from families that fall below the poverty line. Many of them are homeless; a majority daily wage-earners." Learn more at Asia Times.

• 22 May 2006
  "For China, it's Paul Revere's ride and Washington crossing the Delaware in one. The Luding Bridge battle is the most famous moment in the Long March, itself the defining legend of modern China. The Red Army is hotly pursued in 1935. Soldiers hoof it 24/7 for 140 miles. They must cross the Dadu River, or be wiped out! But a 300-year-old chain-suspension bridge is closely guarded. So a suicide squad shimmies over the chains, under machine-gun fire, and wipes out the dreaded Nationalist enemy. The Red Army crosses! The China of Mao is saved! Mao told the story to American chronicler Edgar Snow, who apotheosized it in his 1937 .Red Star over China.' Mao's poem about the battle, "Gunfire licked the heavens/ Iron chains rocked," is included in the book and became a Chinese Gettysburg Address, memorized by kids. Just one problem: A 'battle' never quite happened." Learn more at CSMonitor.com.

• 18 May 2006
  "An AT&T attorney indicated in federal court on Wednesday that the Bush administration may have provided legal authorization for the telecommunications company to open its network to the National Security Agency. Federal law may 'authorize and in some cases require telecommunications companies to furnish information' to the executive branch, said Bradford Berenson, who was associate White House counsel when President Bush authorized the NSA surveillance program in late 2001 and is now a partner at the Sidley Austin law firm in Washington, D.C. Far from being complicit in an illegal spying scheme, Berenson said, 'AT&T is essentially an innocent bystander.' AT&T may be referring to an obscure section of federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511, which permits a telecommunications company to provide 'information' and 'facilities' to the federal government as long as the attorney general authorizes it." Learn more at News.com.

• 17 May 2006
  "Carrots and sticks, inducements and force, are the two sides of effective diplomacy. In recent international-relations literature, both popular and academic, these two tools of diplomacy have increasingly been described as "hard" and "soft power". Hard power is the ability of one nation to use its military power and economic strengths to coerce or buy compliance. Soft power, according to Harvard Professor Joseph Nye, who coined the term, 'is the ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals'. Military power alone is no longer sufficient for nations to project their might. Today more than ever, governments also need to use subtle and effective soft power to deal with terrorism and other global challenges... Significantly, the concept of soft-power advocacy has made a strong impression in China, especially after some agitation by at least one Shanghai think-tank." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 16 May 2006
  "Congress agrees on one thing when it comes to the internet sale of private phone records -- stop it. But a turf war over which federal agency will enforce a new law is complicating efforts on Capitol Hill. In a rare show of bipartisan support, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the Telephone Records and Privacy Protection Act of 2006 by a unanimous vote of 409 - 0 on April 25. The House measure and its companion in the Senate (S. 2178) gives the Justice Department enforcement authority to put offenders in jail for up to 10 years, and hit them with a $500,000 fine, if they're convicted of selling phone records. But a second, competing bill sponsored by Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican, (S. 2389) puts the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in charge of enforcement and adds new requirements for the agencies and telecommunication companies. Responding to bi-partisan pressure from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Minority Leader Harry Reid, the Senate is trying to work out its differences and combine the two bills." Learn more in Wired News.

• 15 May 2006
  "Michael Morris and Jeff Lowenstein wouldn't have recognized each other if they'd met on the street, but that didn't stop them from getting into a shouting match. The professors had been working together on a research study when a technical glitch inconvenienced Mr. Lowenstein. He complained in an e-mail, raising Mr. Morris's ire. Tempers flared. 'It became very embarrassing later,' says Morris, when it turned out there had been a miscommunication, 'but we realized that we couldn't blame each other for yelling about it because that's what we were studying.' Morris and Lowenstein are among the scholars studying the benefits and dangers of e-mail and other computer-based interactions. In a world where businesses and friends often depend upon e-mail to communicate, scholars want to know if electronic communications convey ideas clearly. The answer, the professors conclude, is sometimes 'no.' Though e-mail is a powerful and convenient medium, researchers have identified three major problems." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 12 May 2006
  "Take an online map of a city, throw in some information on local house prices or crime levels, and you have the recipe for a 'mashup' website. Mashups, so-called because they are created by merging data from two or more websites, have been steadily growing in popularity thanks to the useful way they present local information. However, the informal manner in which these websites are thrown together means that information displayed on them could be inaccurate or false. Issues such as security and privacy may only be considered as an afterthought, if at all, and there is nothing to prevent people using them to obtain personal information, such as addresses. John Musser, who runs an influential site that chronicles the mashup phenomenon, says privacy is rarely considered. Mashups merge location-based information with other online sources to create an application that amounts to more than the sum of its parts." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 11 May 2006
  "A Newsweek article in January was titled "Predator's Playground?" A Dateline NBC report last month warned that teens using MySpace--now part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and boasting some 80 million users--are not as safe 'as they think.' Now MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are facing a new threat: a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category's most ardent users. 'When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned,' Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview.

• 10 May 2006
  "The White House is getting tough with Russia, concerned with what it perceives as Vladimir Putin's retreat from democracy and a willingness to use petropolitics to reassert regional dominance. President Bush will bring the hardening stance with him when he visits President Putin this summer - even though it may complicate American efforts for international action against Iran over nuclear ambitions. The new US pressure comes as an emboldened Russia tries to balance several goals. It is determined to build stability and order at home, as well as regain lost ground in the Eurasian region. And it wants to enhance its membership in the club of world powers." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 9 May 2006
  "The memory still makes some in the financial community cringe. During the dot-com boom, more than a few Internet start-ups planned to support free Internet services--and theoretically turn a profit--by selling online advertisements. Needless to say, for many it didn't work. Now a new group of companies, ranging from tech giants to the tiniest of Silicon Alley start-ups, are banking on ad sales to support new Net services. Microsoft, for one, is pushing full-on into advertising with its Windows Live platform, which will offer Internet-based services like e-mail, blogging and instant messaging that are supported by ads and some subscriptions. Sounds like the bad old days? Not at all, say industry experts." Learn more at News.com.

• 8 May 2006
  "They will take my remote control away only when they pry it from my cold, dead hands. This thought followed my first reading of a patent application for a new kind of television set and digital video recorder recently filed by a unit of Royal Philips Electronics at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The design appears to threaten the inalienable right to channel-surf during commercials or fast-forward through ads in programs you've taped. A second, calmer reading of the patent application revealed that the proposed design would uphold the right to avoid commercials, but only for those who paid a fee. Those disinclined to pay would be prevented from changing channels during commercials." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 May 2006
  "More people around the world trust the media than trust their governments, according to an international poll. On average 61% said they trusted the media, compared to 52% who believed their government's explanations. The poll also highlights growing use of internet news sources, including blogs, especially among young people. Some 10,230 people in 10 countries were polled for the BBC, Reuters and US think tank The Media Center on the media and issues of trust. Polling organisation Globescan found a strong demand for news and an increasing awareness and use of internet news sources. Almost three-quarters of people (72%) said they followed the news closely every day, with national TV (82%) and national or regional newspapers (75%) the most trusted news outlets, according to the poll." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 4 May 2006
  "Repressive regimes are taking full advantage of the net's ability to censor and stifle reform and debate, reveals a report. Written by the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) pressure group the report highlights the ways governments threaten the freedom of the press. The report has a section dedicated to the internet and the growing roster of nations censoring online life. This censorship is practiced on every continent on Earth, said the report. Although the internet is changing the way the media works as blogs, chat forums and social networking sites turn passive consumers into active critics, it is not just citizens who are taking advantage of its technological power warned the report. Julien Pain - who heads the internet freedom desk at the RSF and was one of the report's authors, noted: 'Everyone's interested in the internet - especially dictators.'" Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 3 May 2006
  "The U.S. financial sector, a powerful force in Washington, may be gearing up to jump into a Capitol Hill fight over the future of the internet and stop an effort it says could add billions in costs just to maintain current offerings. The issue is 'net neutrality' -- a battle so far contained between high-speed internet operators and companies with online product offerings, such as Amazon.com. Broadband providers such as AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon Communications want to expand from flat pricing and also sell tiers of service based on the speed, reliability and security of the bandwidth used. While those providers have said they would not block access to the open internet, companies that sell products or services online want Congress to adopt stricter safeguards to ensure they are not pushed into a slower lane of the internet if they do not pay more for dedicated network service." Learn more in Wired News.

• 2 May 2006
  "The U.S. Senate took the first serious step on Monday toward rewriting the nation's telecommunications laws, a move that raises politically sensitive questions about digital copyright and Net neutrality and that could take years to complete. Ted Stevens, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, released a 135-page draft bill that represents the most sweeping rewrite in a decade of laws dealing with video, satellite and broadband communications. Stevens said in a statement that the legislation grew out of more than a dozen hearings and drew on proposals from other senators as well. Absent from the legislation are any regulations related to 'Net neutrality,' also known as network neutrality, that companies such as Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo, Intel and Microsoft have been lobbying for during the past few months." Learn more at News.com.

• 1 May 2006
  "Symantec received what must have been an unpleasant surprise at tax time this year: A $1 billion bill from the federal government. The security software company revealed last month that the IRS alleged it underpriced intellectual property related to its Veritas acquisition that was licensed to its Irish subsidiary for tax reasons. For its part, Symantec says it paid all appropriate taxes in 2003 and 2004 and plans an appeal. Every individual and business, of course, tries to pay the minimum amount of taxes legally required. But technology companies that try to minimize their tax burden sometimes draw accusations of hypocrisy from liberal advocacy groups and academics--mostly because the same companies want more government spending on education and research." Learn more at News.com.

• 28 April 2006
  "In April, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the advocacy organization for citizens' digital rights, filed evidence to support its class-action lawsuit alleging that telecom giant AT&T gave the National Security Agency (NSA), the ultra-secret U.S. agency that's the world's largest espionage organization, unfettered access to Americans' telephone and Internet communications. The lawsuit is one more episode in the public controversy that erupted in December 2005, when the New York Times revealed that, following September 11, President Bush authorized a far-reaching NSA surveillance program that included warrantless electronic eavesdropping on telephone calls and e-mails of individuals within the United States...Technology behind the Pentagon's controversial data-mining project has been acquired by NSA, and is probably in use." Learn more in the Technology Review.

• 27 April 2006
  "Like many other 23-year-olds, Deborah Lee Walker loved the beach, discovering bands, making new friends and keeping up with old ones, often through the social networking site MySpace.com, where she listed her heroes as 'my family, and anyone serving in the military — thank you!' So only hours after she died in an automobile accident near Valdosta, Ga., early on the morning of Feb. 27, her father, John Walker, logged onto her MySpace page with the intention of alerting her many friends to the news. To his surprise, there were already 20 to 30 comments on the page lamenting his daughter's death. Eight weeks later, the comments are still coming. Just as the Web has changed long-established rituals of romance and socializing, personal Web pages on social networking sites that include MySpace, Xanga.com and Facebook.com are altering the rituals of mourning." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 26 April 2006
  "Increasingly, world diplomacy is linked to energy. Whether it's the proposed US nuclear agreement with India, tension over a natural-gas pipeline from Russia to Europe, or talks between President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao about China's growing ties to oil-rich Iran, world leaders are factoring crucial energy needs into their strategic calculations. Global energy strains have been particularly evident over oil, which topped a record $75 a barrel last Friday. So is it time for an OPIC - an organization of petroleum-importing countries - as a way to build up cooperation among the world's booming and increasingly competitive energy consumers? Such an idea may sound far-fetched. But among analysts, consensus is growing on the need to find new ways to boost international energy security and cooperation." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 25 April 2006
  "For decades, environmentalists have warned of a coming climate crisis. Their alarms went unheeded, and last year we reaped an early harvest: a singularly ferocious hurricane season, record snowfall in New England, the worst-ever wildfires in Alaska, arctic glaciers at their lowest ebb in millennia, catastrophic drought in Brazil, devastating floods in India - portents of global warming's destructive potential. Green-minded activists failed to move the broader public not because they were wrong about the problems, but because the solutions they offered were unappealing to most people. They called for tightening belts and curbing appetites, turning down the thermostat and living lower on the food chain. They rejected technology, business, and prosperity in favor of returning to a simpler way of life. No wonder the movement got so little traction. Asking people in the world's wealthiest, most advanced societies to turn their backs on the very forces that drove such abundance is naive at best." Learn more in Wired News.

• 24 April 2006
  "The national ID system is going to the dogs -- and the pigs, and the sheep and the cows and the chickens. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns this month released a government road map that would see most farmers voluntarily tag their animals with wireless radio chips by 2008 as part of an ambitious electronic disease control system to prevent outbreaks of hoof and mouth disease and avian flu, among other things. The system will not address the spread of "mad cow" disease, as it is transmitted through feed rather than animal commingling. By 2007, the program will ask farms or households that house chickens, ducks, turkeys, cows, pigs, goats or horses to register with a database and obtain a 15-digit identification number and GPS coordinate. Beginning in 2008, animals under the proposal would carry a radio frequency identity, or RFID, tag." Learn more in Wired News.

• 21 April 2006
  "Software that tracks mood swings across the 'blogosphere' and pinpoints the events behind them could provide more insightful ways to search and analyse the web, researchers say. The software, called MoodViews, was created by Gilad Mishne and colleagues at Amsterdam University, The Netherlands. It tracks about 10 million blogs hosted by the US service LiveJournal. 'I noticed that blog posts on LiveJournal have mood labels attached,' Mishne says. 'We started to collect this information and noticed trends in different moods over time.' About 250,000 new LiveJournal posts are created every day and roughly 150,000 of these include a label for one of hundreds of different moods. Moodviews keeps track of these labels and generates a graph, revealing emotions shifts across all LiveJournal blogs over time." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 20 April 2006
  "A media rights group has identified a third dissident that the Chinese government arrested based on information seemingly supplied by a Yahoo subsidiary. On Wednesday, Reporters Without Borders announced that it has obtained a copy of the verdict against cyber-dissident Jiang Lijun, sentenced in November 2003 to four years in prison for his online pro-democracy articles. The verdict notes that Jiang's e-mail account, provided to Chinese authorities by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong), was part of the evidence used to try him for the crime of subversion. Jiang used the Internet and other methods to promote a 'so-called Western-style democracy' and to advocate the overthrow of the Chinese government, the verdict said." Learn more in PC World.

• 19 April 2006
  "Nearly half of U.S. users of the Internet went online for help with major life decisions such as finding a college for their child or looking for a new place to live, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The results show that the Internet is becoming increasingly important to users in their everyday lives, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit group which conducted the survey. Some 45 percent of Internet users, or an estimated 60 million Americans, said the Internet helped them make big decisions or face a major moment in their life during the previous two years, the survey found. That was up from 40 percent of Internet users who answered the same survey questions in 2002." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 18 April 2006
  "As a publicist in New York, Drew Tybus knows the importance of keeping in touch with business contacts. But that need to connect reached an extreme this month when he attended a luncheon for 60 publicists. Scanning the room during a panel discussion, he made a startling observation: 'Nobody was looking at this guy when he was talking,' Mr. Tybus says. 'People were typing away on their BlackBerrys. Others were using the stylus for their Palm Pilots. They were sending e-mails about work at the same time that they were trying to get more information from the people who were speaking.' Some might call this multitasking. Others regard it as just plain rude. Either way, it's a sign of the electronic times, raising questions about workplace behavior in a wired world." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 17 April 2006
  "The United States is taking aim at internet casino ads as tensions build in a high-profile trade fight over the country's largely toothless online gambling ban. Although many website operators insist internet gambling ads are legal, a recent crack down by U.S. authorities has led some website operators to disgorge online casino advertising revenues and spurred others to rethink their advertising policies, jeopardizing millions of dollars in revenues. Shawn Riley, whose Amateur Poker League draws 2.5 million visitors a month, figures his Wichita, Kansas, business has passed up seven figures in revenue by refusing to run ads or affiliate links for gambling sites. 'I would really like the money but I have to avoid the headaches,' he said. 'I feel like I'm doing 55 down the highway and everybody else is doing 80.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 14 April 2006
  "The Chinese government has made a fresh attempt to crack down on software piracy. New regulations state Chinese computer makers must install legally licensed operating software on machines before they leave the factory. The announcement followed trade talks between China and the United States in Washington on Tuesday. In 2004 the rate of software piracy in China was 90%, compared to 27% in the UK and the world average of 35%. The new rule was jointly announced by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), the State Copyright Bureau and the Ministry of Commerce. 'Computers manufactured within the country's borders should have pre-installed authorised operating software systems when they leave the factory,' the statement said." Learn more in the BBC.com.

• 13 April 2006
  "AT&T is seeking the return of technical documents presented in a lawsuit that allegedly detail how the telecom giant helped the government set up a massive internet wiretap operation in its San Francisco facilities. In papers filed late Monday, AT&T argued that confidential technical documents provided by an ex-AT&T technician to the Electronic Frontier Foundation shouldn't be used as evidence in the case and should be returned. The documents, which the EFF filed under a temporary seal last Wednesday, purportedly detail how AT&T diverts internet traffic to the National Security Agency via a secret room in San Francisco and allege that such rooms exist in other AT&T switching centers. The EFF filed the class-action lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Northern California in January, seeking damages from AT&T on behalf of AT&T customers for alleged violation of state and federal laws." Learn more in Wired News.

• 11 April 2006
  "Amazon.com employees have developed a tax figuration system in the event that the company will have to tax online shoppers internationally and at home, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and European Patent Office documents. Patent No. 20060036504 is for a tax figuration system that classifies retail items, automatically and dynamically imports the tax code for that classification of item depending on destination, and then assigns taxation to that item being delivered. While the patent was published Feb. 16, 2006, it was first filed in August of 2004, in accordance with the usual 18-month process for U.S. patents. The U.S. patent can be found on the European Patent Office Web site, along with a series of claims for a European patent." Learn more at News.com.

• 10 April 2006
  "New evidence suggests humans are evolving more rapidly -- and more recently -- than most people thought possible. But for some radical evolutionists, Homo sapiens isn't morphing quickly enough. 'People like to think of modern human biology, and especially mental biology, as being the result of selections that took place 100,000 years ago,' said University of Chicago geneticist Bruce Lahn. 'But our research shows that humans are still under selection, not just for things like disease resistance but for cognitive abilities.' Lahn recently published the results of a study demonstrating that two key genes connected to brain size are currently under rapid selection in populations throughout the globe...Some radical thinkers suggest human evolution needs to move even faster, with a little help from science." Learn more in Wired News.

• 7 April 2006
  "You can count congressional lawmakers among those who want caller ID to mean something again. Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday in the House of Representatives seeks to outlaw the use of caller ID spoofing techniques 'with the intent to deceive the person to whom the call is made.' The bill targets the mostly web-based spoofing services that allow users to make phone calls that appear to be coming from a phone number of the caller's choice. Site operators emphasize that their services are used by private investigators and law enforcement agencies, but spoofing is also popular with fraud artists and pranksters. 'When people look to see who's calling them, they have the right to know that the information they're getting from their telephone is accurate,' said Rep. Eliot Engel (D-New York), author of the bill.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 6 April 2006
  "A decade ago, James Wolfensohn, then the World Bank president, lifted a veil that had long cloaked discussion within the bank on the topic of corruption, describing it as a 'cancer' on the global economy. Before he spoke in October 1996, arguing that it was time to 'put teeth' into the anticorruption fight, the World Bank had forbidden the very use of the word 'corruption' in official documents. At the time, many bank insiders felt like uncorking Champagne to celebrate the end of what they had called the 'prohibition era' - a period when the sensitivities of client and member governments made the subject of corruption virtually taboo. But the reality of fighting corruption in the years since has been a disillusioning experience in most of the developing world, including Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America." Donald Greenlees reports at Paris' International Herald Tribune.

• 3 April 2006
  "First it was China, now it's genetics; Google is in hot water with privacy advocates again. Search giant Google has been accused of being the 'biggest threat to genetic privacy' for its alleged plan to create a searchable database of genetic information. Google was presented with an award as part of the Captain Hook Awards for Biopiracy in Curitiba, Brazil, this week. The organisers allege that Google's collaboration with genomic research institute J. Craig Venter, to create a searchable online database of all the genes on the planet, is a clear example of biopiracy. Biopiracy refers to the 'monopolisation of genetic resources' according to the show's organisers. It is also defined as the unauthorised use of biological resources by organisations such as corporations, universities and governments." Learn more in ZD Net.

• 30 March 2006
  "US Senators Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, traveled to China last week to discuss recently strained US-China trade relations. Allegations by the United States that China has deliberately suppressed the value of its currency, the yuan, to make its exports cheaper and imports more expensive continue to present significant diplomatic hurdles for both countries. Massive US trade deficits with China have become a growing concern for the administration of President George W Bush and the US Congress. In 2005, the US trade deficit with China ballooned to more than US$200 billion, or 27% of the total US trade deficit. US consumers devoured low-cost goods made in China at a record pace, even as the US economy showed mixed overall performance." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 29 March 2006
  "Lynn Perry was living an online shopping nightmare. A hacker had snatched her home address and phone and credit card numbers--even the three-digit security code printed on the back of her credit card--and was offering them to anyone willing to pay the asking price: $5. Perry, a copyright attorney from Mill Valley, Calif., was among 10 people whose personal data was posted last month on a Web site that specializes in the trafficking of stolen information. Even worse, no one bothered to tell her that her credit card information had been compromised. It's likely that no one was required to do so. Much to the chagrin of consumer advocates, the disclosure laws passed by 23 states during the past three years have had little impact when it comes to ensuring consumers are notified about data theft or loss." Learn more at News.com.

• 28 March 2006
  "Regulators brought Internet political advertising under the nation's campaign finance law Monday but declared that all other political activity on the Internet would be untethered by federal rules. The three Republicans and three Democrats on the Federal Election Commission unanimously adopted a rule requiring anyone placing a paid political ad on a website to abide by federal campaign spending and contribution limits. But the rule also updates existing FEC regulations to make it clear that all other Internet political activity, such as blogging, e-mail communications and online publications, is not covered by the campaign law. 'Individual online political activity will be protected from FEC restriction regardless of whether the individual acts alone or as part of a group, and regardless of whether the individual acts in coordination with a candidate or acts independently,' said Commission Chairman Michael E. Toner." Learn more in USA Today.

• 27 March 2006
  "In 1997, Microsoft was so disdainful of federal bureaucrats that it created a Web site specifically to keep regulators at bay. At the time, future CEO Steve Ballmer quipped 'to heck with Janet Reno,' and a press release by co-founder Bill Gates accused the government of 'trying to slow Microsoft down.' Since then, however, the company's approach toward Washington has evolved from confrontation to cooperation: At $46 million over seven years, Microsoft by far outspends any other technology company on lobbyists. And Gates' incendiary press release has since vanished from Microsoft's Web site. What a difference a decade makes. In the last few years, technology firms have not just opened lobbying shops, but they've also begun to use their growing political muscle for offense." Learn more in News.com.

• 24 March 2006
  "New York’s attorney general sued an Internet company Thursday over the selling of e-mail addresses, in what authorities say may be the biggest deliberate breach of Internet privacy ever. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer accused Gratis Internet of selling personal information obtained from millions of consumers despite a promise of confidentiality. The consumers thought they were simply registering to see a Web site offering free iPod music players or DVD movies and video games, Spitzer spokesman Brad Maione said. On sign-up pages, Gratis promised it 'does not ... sell/rent e-mails.' Instead of confidentiality, Spitzer said, Gratis sold access to their e-mail information to three independent e-mail marketers, and hundreds of millions of e-mail solicitations followed." Learn more at MSNBC.com.

• 23 March 2006
  "New legislation in France would force Apple Computer to open the iPod and iTunes to competitors -- and that's a good thing for consumers, in the long run. On Tuesday, the French parliament passed a law that would require digital content bought at any online store to be playable on any hardware. The law would be applicable to all hardware and service providers, but the immediate impact would be on Apple and iTunes, and may prompt the company to withdraw from France. To many, France's move seems patently unfair to Apple. The company created the market for legal music downloads, why shouldn't it dominate it?...But French legislators aren't just looking at Apple. They're looking ahead to a time when most entertainment is online, a shift with profound consequences for consumers and culture in general." Read the rest of this commentary at Wired News.

• 22 March 2006
  "Dozens of smartly dressed Chinese graduates, eyes screwed up in concentration, pack the training room. Up front, the Indian teacher introduces them to a variety of 'life skills' - from effective communication and teamwork to a crash course in Indian work culture. The students are learning in the development center of India's largest software exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou. The TCS logo dominates the glass-and-chrome-studded skyline of Hangzhou's high-tech industrial zone. Inside the center, 350 employees tap away furiously at state-of-the-art work stations spread over three floors. It is a sight that would warm the hearts of believers in the long-talked-about potential for Sino-Indian collaboration in information technology (IT), which if realized would make the neighbors a formidable high-tech global force." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 21 March 2006
  "Could the much-discussed globalization of the high-tech work force mean gloom and doom for historical U.S. dominance in the industry? Economists debated that topic at a panel discussion here on Monday hosted by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI), a not-for-profit think tank. For Harvard University professor Richard Freeman, the answer to the question was an emphatic 'yes.' Salaries in science and engineering fields are growing at a slower rate than those in, for instance, law and medicine, he said. "We are a wealthy country, we have good jobs, we have good pay, and we've had pretty good immigration policies to letting people in," Freeman said. That combination not only makes America attractive for foreign workers but results in lower salaries for native workers, he said. The nation needs to be more nurturing toward younger Americans, he suggested, by bumping up the number and value of scholarships for scientific study." Learn more in News.com.

• 20 March 2006
  "One could almost imagine George Clooney, robed and slippered, taking to the veranda of his Italian lakeside villa and hunkering over a laptop for his maiden voyage into the blogosphere, which appeared in the form of a passionate left-wing call to arms at HuffingtonPost.com last week. 'We can't demand freedom of speech then turn around and say, "But please don't say bad things about us,"' the Oscar-winning actor wrote, But just as the great digital chinwag was taking note of the newcomer, Mr. Clooney dropped a bomb, asserting that although the sentiments in the post were his, they were cobbled together from past interviews with Larry King of CNN and The Guardian. And more important, the blog was not written by him. So was born Clooneygate, which began the week looking like a minor collision between a celebrity's handlers and a celebrity pundit's ambitions for her Web site, and ended amid knotty questions of journalistic integrity and the nature of blogs." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 17 March 2006
  "Internet gambling has become the pastime of choice for many young Americans, but there is often a high price to pay for what can be a very dangerous game. Ryan is a 23-year-old recent graduate from the University of Pennsylvania, one of America's Ivy League universities. He is also a compulsive gambler who ran up $20,000 debt from internet gambling while at college. 'I used to play cards with friends in my social sphere,' Ryan says. 'It was a social activity that was accepted by our parents. They thought "They're under the same roof, we can keep an eye on them".' Gambling has always been part of the social scene for young Americans. But with the explosion in popularity of poker - live and on the internet - more young people are now getting into serious trouble." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 16 March 2006
  "A federal judge said Tuesday he intends to require Google Inc. to turn over some information to the Department of Justice in its quest to revive a law making it harder for children to see online pornography. U.S. District Judge James Ware did not immediately say whether the data will include words that users entered into the Internet's leading search engine. The legal showdown over how much of the Web's vast databases should be shared with the government has pitted the Bush administration against the Mountain View-based company, which resisted a subpoena to turn over any information because of user privacy and trade secret concerns. The Justice Department downplayed Google's concerns, arguing it doesn't want any personal information nor any data that would undermine the company's thriving business." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 15 March 2006
  "For now, the Internet is a superhighway open to all. Information is delivered quickly via phone lines and cable to homes and businesses worldwide. But for online businesses, the express-lane ride may be over. As the Internet matures, new bandwidth-gobbling online television channels and phone services may soon be charged to access the superhighway. That could turn the Internet of tomorrow into a toll road, with those who can't pay a premium shunted into the slow lane. Grass-roots consumer groups and big corporations like Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google, whose businesses are based on a 'free' Internet, say that ideas being floated to make producers of online content pay a premium for fast delivery could ruin the Web. Permitting cable and phone companies to develop 'capacious "broadest-band" toll lanes for some, and narrow dirt access roads for the rest, is contrary to the design and spirit behind the Internet, as well as our national competitive interests,' said Vinton Cerf, a Google vice president and an early architect of the Internet, in testimony before a Senate committee last month." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 14 March 2006
  "Google's attempts to fend off the government's request for millions of search terms will move to a federal court in San Jose, Calif., Tuesday morning. In a closely watched case pitting prosecutors' demands against privacy, U.S. District Judge James Ware will hear arguments about whether the U.S. Justice Department's request is too broad and whether the request is necessary to help defend an antipornography law in court this fall. On Jan. 18, the U.S. Justice Department asked Ware to order Google to comply with a subpoena. It demands a 'random sampling' of 1 million Internet addresses accessible through Google's popular search engine, and a random sampling of 1 million search queries submitted to Google in a one-week period. The outcome will determine whether the Justice Department will be able to use Google search terms in a social science research project that will be used this fall to defend an antipornography law." Learn more in News.com.

• 13 March 2006
  "China's vast supply of cheap labor and India's army of capable engineers have attracted enormous flows of foreign investment to their countries over the past several years. Analysts have dubbed the result the "Asian miracle." But beneath our assumptions about the future of economic growth in these two countries lie important questions about how long these trends can remain quite so miraculous. Between 1978 and the end of 2004, China took in $563.8 billion in foreign direct investment, more than 10 times the total that Japan amassed between 1945 and 2000. India, meanwhile, now accounts for almost two-thirds of all the information-technology work off-shored from the United States, and the resulting revenue is expected to nearly quadruple over the next five years to around $60 billion. The advantages of investment in China are well-known. Less well-understood is a looming demographic challenge that could undermine China's ability to grow rich before its population grows old." Learn more in Slate.

• 10 March 2006
  "DP World's decision yesterday to transfer a handful of American port terminals, rather than chilling interest in investing in the United States, may actually have made it safer for foreigners by relieving some of the political pressure that was building up against them. But as part of a pattern of other antiforeign actions in Washington, fears remain that the United States is becoming a less welcoming place for investment from overseas. 'We need a net inflow of capital of $3 billion a day to keep the economy afloat,' said Clyde V. Prestowitz Jr., a former trade official in the Reagan administration who is president of the Economic Strategy Institute. 'Yet all of the body language here is "go away."' At least initially, those who support increased globalization were relieved that Dubai appears to have backed away from a confrontation with Congress...Foreign companies plowed $38.8 billion worth of direct investment into the United States in the third quarter of last year." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 9 March 2006
  "The U.S. government, bracing for the possibility that migrating birds could carry a deadly strain of bird flu to North America, plans to test nearly eight times as many wild birds this year as have been tested in the past decade. Starting in April, samples from 75,000 to 100,000 birds will be tested for the virus, mainly in Alaska, as part of a joint effort of the departments of Agriculture and Interior, along with state Fish & Wildlife agencies. That's a jump from the 12,000 birds tested since 1996, the USDA's Angela Harless says. The expanded program, which will include birds in the Pacific islands and on the West Coast, reflects growing concern that the virus, highly pathogenic A (H5N1), which has spread across Asia and Europe, could arrive in North America as soon as this spring and be carried into the western continental USA by fall." Learn more in USA Today.

• 8 March 2006
  "The United States is headed for a "day of reckoning" as oil prices and the budget deficit remain high, consumers keep spending and not saving, wages remain stagnant, housing prices rise and the working population ages, warned Robert Reich, former Department of Labor secretary in the Clinton administration. 'The American economy is going to have to inevitably make a structural adjustment (with regard to lack of consumer savings and the budget deficit), or the entire world is going to suffer,' Reich, an economist who is currently a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, said during a keynote at the IDC Directions conference here. While the country is recovering from a recession in 2001 with decent overall economic growth and a return of information technology business, there are three storm clouds on the horizon in the next year or two, he said. They are high oil prices, a $400 billion U.S. budget deficit, and record high levels of consumer spending and record low levels of consumer savings." Learn more at News.com.

• 7 March 2006
  "A decade ago, Woolloomooloo Wharf stood as a derelict eyesore from an earlier era. Now it glitters with a Taj hotel, a top restaurant, and loft-style condominiums popular with actors like Russell Crowe. Indeed, Sydney's waterfront is thriving, boasting amenities such as doggie day care, $10 lattes, and a superyacht marina. For 15 years, Australia has grown at an average 3.7 percent clip without any sign of recession. The stock market is up 37 percent this year, and, last week, registered a record number of trades. The boom has slashed unemployment, doubled the country's wealth, and taken care of all but pocket change on its debt. The success has bolstered the political fortunes of Prime Minister John Howard, who just marked 10 years in power. Yet it goes deeper than one man's stewardship. Few countries have better leveraged globalization than Australia - transforming a once-isolated market into one that's taking full advantage of Asia's, and particularly China's, dynamism." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 6 March 2006
  "China's government is trying to boost public interest in its figurehead parliament and its companion advisory body by setting up web logs for members as they meet this week. Called bo ke in Chinese, blogs are popular with young people despite strict censorship rules. In one posting, National People's Congress delegate Zhou Hongyu wrote that serving in the legislature is a way to 'fulfill my duty and be a better deputy. I hope to collect the wishes of the people, listen to their will and experience the people's lives,' wrote Zhou, a representative from the southern province of Hunan who advocates education reform. The 'Strong Country Blog' is run by the People's Daily, the newspaper of the ruling Communist Party. 'Its open attitude and attention to the expression of opinion reflects the voice of the people,' says a handbook given out by the newspaper." Learn more in Wired News.

• 3 March 2006
  "A military-style surveillance network should be set up in developing countries to identify early signs of a human flu pandemic, US doctors say. The labs should be modeled on ones set up after World War II, they add. The call, by US military doctors, is made in an article published in the journal Nature. In addition, UK scientists are to investigate if there are gaps in the scientific understanding of flu and how it spreads across the world. The doctors want to see a network of rapid-response laboratories set up based on US Naval Medical Research Units (NAMRUs), which were put in place after WWII to protect American service men and women from infectious diseases overseas. The doctors from the US Department of Defence Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System have since been working with countries and the World Health Organization (WHO)." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 2 March 2006
  "Melissa Walker follows a ritual when she opens her daily mail. She goes through all the bills and the boring printed stuff first. Then, if it is one of the lucky days, she takes a deep breath and savors the prize: a handwritten, hand-addressed note from her dear friend in Wisconsin. E-mail may have revolutionized our communication, making it faster, easier, more practical. But that does not mean the handwritten note is dead. Instead, the act of putting pen to paper seems to have gained in currency. Now, it is what you do to say something special, or heartfelt, or really important. It is not a question of being e-mail ignorant. Walker, a history professor in South Carolina, spends lots of time on the Internet. But that's just the point." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 1 March 2006
  "The internet is revolutionising how donors and lenders in the US are connecting with small entrepreneurs in developing countries, be they a farmer in Kenya who wants to invest in new cows or a seamstress in India who wants to open her own shop. For 14 years, Dennis Whittle worked at the World Bank, overseeing big development projects that gave out huge loans. But in 1997, Mr Whittle's boss gave him a new challenge - to fund small projects. After several failed attempts to push these small projects through the World Bank bureaucracy, he decided to call a brainstorming session. 'My colleagues and I went into a room at the World Bank one day, and said, what if we just allowed anybody to come in and just pitch their idea. And what if we made decisions on the same day,' said Mr Whittle. They decided to put the plan into action, and it proved successful. More than 1,000 groups from some 85 countries submitted ideas for small businesses and non-profit projects." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 28 February 2006
  "Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL Internet service are planning to encourage companies to pay for the virtual equivalent of certified mail as part of the effort to fight junk e-mails. Bulk e-mailers who pay for the service would be able to send directly to recipients. Those who decline to pay could continue sending mass messages, but their e-mails would still have to navigate the Internet providers' spam filters, which mistakenly capture nearly a quarter of legitimate commercial e-mails every year. While everyone hates the unsolicited messages that clog inboxes, the plan has spawned a backlash from an unusual coalition of liberal and conservative political groups that rely on bulk e-mails to communicate with members and raise money. 'This represents a threat to an open Internet,' said Adam Green, civic communications director of MoveOn.org Civic Action, a liberal lobbying group." Learn more in the Boston Globe.

• 27 February 2006
  "The U.S. Justice Department has denied requesting anything from Google that could threaten the privacy of the search engine's users, as the company recently contended. And by trying to block the government's efforts to review a week's worth of search terms, Google is holding up efforts to protect children from pornography, according to a brief filed Friday by the Justice Department. The Justice Department was responding to Google's legal filing earlier this month, in which the search giant argued that the government's request for 1 million pages from Google's index, as well as copies of a week's worth of search terms, would harm the company in numerous ways." Learn more at News.com.

• 24 February 2006
  "Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research. Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers Inc., an East Texas, Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products. The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say. 'Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it's slowed everything down, paradoxically,' said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. 'We never concentrate on one task anymore. You take a little chip out of it, and then you're on to the next thing.'" Learn more in Reuters News.

• 23 February 2006
  "The movement of computing work abroad represents an economic and scientific challenge, but the fears of job migration far outweigh the reality so far, according to a new study by the Association for Computing Machinery. The lengthy report, released Thursday, is the result of a yearlong project by the professional organization to assess the impact and implications of the outsourcing of software development and research. The study concluded that dire predictions of job losses from shifting high-technology work to low-wage nations with strong education systems, like India and China, were greatly exaggerated. Though international in perspective, the study group found that the most likely prognosis for the United States would be that 2 percent to 3 percent of the jobs in information technology would go offshore annually over the next decade or so." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 22 February 2006
  "The planet's population is projected to reach 6.5 billion at 7:16 p.m. EST Saturday, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and its World Population Clock. Thomas Malthus, the 18th-century thinker who famously predicted the human population would outrun its food supply, would be astounded. Back in 1798, when Malthus penned his classic An Essay on the Principle of Population, barely a billion Homo sapiens roamed the planet. Today, Earth's population teeters on the brink of a new milestone: 6.5 billion living, breathing humans. 'Malthus would be astonished not only at the numbers of people, but at the real prosperity of about a fifth of them and the average prosperity of most of them,' said demographer Joel Cohen, a professor of populations at Rockefeller and Columbia universities. 'He wouldn't be surprised at the abject poverty of the lowest quarter or third.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 21 February 2006
  "Earlier this week, the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC, held a remarkably interesting conference titled 'Panic Attack: The New Precautionary Culture, the Politics of Fear, and the Risks to Innovation.' It was interesting not only because I was a participant, but because it looked at how many Western countries are losing their cultural nerve, as evidenced by the increasing cultural acceptance of the so-called precautionary principle. The strongest versions of the precautionary principle demand that innovators prove that their inventions will never cause harm before they are allowed to deploy or sell them. In other words, if an action might cause harm, then inaction is preferable. The problem is that all new activities, especially those involving scientific research and technological innovation, always carry some risks. Attempting to avoid all risk is a recipe for technological and economic stagnation." Learn more at Reason Online.

• 20 February 2006
  "Having already impressed the world with the creation of its glittering, international-quality infrastructure, the erstwhile Middle Kingdom has now turned its attention to transforming its universities into world-class institutions. 'Our government realizes the connection between a nation's overall power and the quality of its higher education,' said Dr Weiying Zhang, assistant president of Peking University. In this latest bid to raise the country's global prestige, Chinese universities backed by massive injections of governmental funding are spending billions of dollars to attract top foreign-educated and overseas-born Chinese, building cutting-edge research centers, partnering with the world's best educational institutions, and developing new programs taught in the international lingua franca - English." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 17 February 2006
  "Chinese Communist Party elders and U.S. lawmakers fired shots at China's powerful censors this week, but Li Xinde says muckraking campaigners like himself are undermining the country's barriers to free speech every day. Li is one of just a handful of Internet investigative reporters, exposing corrupt officials and injustice on his China Public Opinion Surveillance Net. Then he spreads his often outrageous, sometimes gruesome stories on some of the 49 blogs he uses to slip past censors. 'They shut down one, so I move to another,' he told Reuters. 'It's what Chairman Mao called sparrow tactics. You stay small and independent, you move around a lot, and you choose when to strike and when to run.' Li, 46, lives in Fuyang, a city of 360,000 in the rural eastern province of Anhui, and he is far from a household name among Chinese readers, even Internet enthusiasts." Learn more at News.com.

• 16 February 2006
  "Nearly every U.S. company with a Web site located in China will have to move it elsewhere or its executives would face prison terms of up to a year, according to proposed legislation expected to be introduced this week in the U.S. Congress. A draft version of the bill reviewed by CNET News.com represents the first serious attempt to rewrite the ground rules controlling how U.S. Internet companies may interact with foreign governments. If enacted, it would dramatically change the business practices of corporations with operations in China, Iran, Vietnam and other nations deemed to be overly 'Internet-restricting.' The highly anticipated proposal, created by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) in response to recent reports about censorship in China by Google, Yahoo and others, also makes it unlawful to filter search results or turn over information about users to certain governments unless the U.S. Justice Department approves." Learn more at News.com.

• 15 February 2006
  "Citizens throughout the Arab world are protesting caricatures of Muhammad first published in Danish newspapers. The conflict would not have occurred without a means of easily transporting information around the globe. The cartoon story is not particularly an internet story, since opponents of the depictions flew copies from Denmark to the Middle East. Yet, the internet is the biggest reason why cultural artifacts are readily available around the world today. Because of the internet, clashes between the sensibilities of different societies will only increase. Offended parties will press publishers to keep offensive communications off the network. However, if people only publish what's acceptable to most everyone in the world, then the internet will be a far less effective tool for social and political change than it might otherwise be." Read an interesting commentary on the internet as a vehicle for social change in Wired News.

• 14 February 2006
  "Wednesday, American companies at the vanguard of the information future are likely to get grilled about practices reminiscent of the 20th century - such as censorship and aiding political repression. A US House of Representatives panel will look into high-profile cases where Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo worked with China to restrict access to material or reveal the identity of users with dissident postings. Cisco is also implicated. But lawmakers eager to end such cooperation may find it hard to do so, at least in Yahoo's case. A deal in October may insulate the Internet giant. Because it gave up a majority stake of its China service to a Chinese company, Yahoo argues that decisions about cooperating with Chinese officials lie with that company, which has obligations to obey Beijing, not Washington. That move has human rights activists fuming, especially after last week, when Paris-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders charged Yahoo with helping authorities in 2003 to capture Li Zhi, an anticorruption reformer." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 13 February 2006
  "'Don't work too hard,' wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I'm probably wrong. According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I've only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time. 'That's how flame wars get started,' says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. 'People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance,' says Epley. 'People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write,' Epley explains." Learn more in Wired News.

• 10 February 2006
  "British Prime Minister Tony Blair has gone on record stating that the fear of soaring energy prices should not deter the international community from imposing comprehensive sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. That is easier said than done, especially when looking at the dire economic and non-economic consequences of the current Iranian crisis for China, Iran's energy partner. In fact, the China-Iran connection transcends energy and covers a whole spectrum of economic activities - dam-building, steel mills, ship-building, transport and dozens of other projects. At present, more than 100 Chinese firms are involved in Iran, also cooperating to develop ports, jetties, airports in six cities, mine-development projects and, of course, oil and gas. Trade between the two countries in 2005 hit a new record of US$9.5 billion, compared with $7.5 billion in 2004." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 8 February 2006
  "The age of e-mail, instant messaging and internet telephony has ended the 150-year-old era of the American telegram. Last week, Western Union - which for a century and a half brought news of joy, sorrow and success in distinctive, hand-delivered, yellow envelopes - quietly ceased its service. It was a difficult decision for a firm that was providing coast-to-coast transmissions as far back as the American Civil War - and which at one time had a fleet of 14,000 couriers operating on bicycle and on foot. But the writing has been on the wall for the telegram for decades. 'The decision was a hard decision because we're fully aware of our heritage,' said Victor Chayet, a spokesman for the company, whose main business is thriving." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 7 February 2006
  "On Thursday, as Iran feverishly tried to mobilize the 17 votes in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that belong to the Third World countries in the current roster of the IAEA's governing body, the nuclear lineups increasingly reflect the larger power struggle on the world scene, between the dominant West, ie, the US and Europe, versus the developing nations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). This is not an imaginary bifurcation, in light of last year's nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference where the NAM countries, including Iran and Egypt, successfully defeated a one-dimensional US-led campaign to rewrite the NPT's non-proliferation rules selectively while leaving the relevant articles on disarmament untouched. The result was a stalemate." Learn more in the Asia Times.

• 6 February 2006
  "Music executives love to blame illegal downloading for their industry's woes. But, based on the results of a new nationwide poll, they might want to look in the mirror. Eighty percent of the respondents consider it stealing to download music for free without the copyright holder's permission, and 92 percent say they've never done it, according to the poll conducted for The Associated Press and Rolling Stone magazine. Meanwhile, three-quarters of music fans say compact discs are too expensive, and 58 percent say music in general is getting worse. The music industry has spent several years in turmoil, as downloading and the popularity of iPods upend its traditional business model. A total of 618.9 million CD albums were sold during 2005, sharply down from the 762.8 million sold in 2001, according to Nielsen Soundscan. At the same time, 352.7 million tracks were sold digitally in 2005, a category that wasn't even measured five years ago. Digital sales of music and ring tones offer new revenue opportunities, but often at the expense of more lucrative CD sales." Learn more in Wired News.

• 3 February 2006
  "Google's recent legal spat with the U.S. Department of Justice highlights not only what information search engines record about us but also the shortcomings in a federal law that's supposed to protect online privacy. It's only a matter of time before other attorneys realize that a person's entire search history is available for the asking, and the subpoenas begin to fly. This could happen in civil lawsuits or criminal prosecutions. That type of fishing expedition is not legally permitted for Web mail providers. But because search engines are not fully shielded by the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act--concocted back in the era of CompuServe and bulletin board systems--their users don't enjoy the same level of privacy. CNET News.com has surveyed Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to find out their privacy practices, and assembled these answers to frequently asked questions," Learn more at News.com.

• 2 February 2006
  "The energy proposals set out on Tuesday by President Bush quickly ran into obstacles on Wednesday, showing how difficult it will be to take even the limited steps he supports to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil. On the day after he declared in his State of the Union address that the United States was "addicted to oil" and had to wean itself from a century-old habit, Mr. Bush drew some support for putting the issue more prominently on the agenda but also skepticism about how achievable his goals really were...Diplomatically, Mr. Bush's ambitious call for the replacement of 75 percent of the United States' Mideast oil imports with ethanol and other energy sources by 2025 upset Saudi Arabia, the main American oil supplier in the Persian Gulf. In an interview on Wednesday, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Turki al-Faisal, said he would have to ask Mr. Bush's office 'what he exactly meant by that.'" Learn more in the New York Times.

• 1 February 2006
  "The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on Tuesday, accusing the telecom company of violating federal laws by collaborating with the government's secret, warrantless wiretapping of American citizens' phone and internet usage. The suit, filed by the civil liberties group in federal court in San Francisco, alleges AT&T secretly gave the National Security Agency access to two massive databases that included both the contents of its subscribers' communications and detailed transaction records, such as numbers dialed and internet addresses visited. 'Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible,' says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. 'They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T.'" Learn more in Wired News.

• 31 January 2006
  "Last month, President Bush signed legislation to establish a national donor bank of umbilical-cord blood to complement the existing bone-marrow registry. The signing was good news to just about everyone but people who run private cord banks. That's because they owe their success to convincing pregnant women not to donate to public cord-blood supplies, but to pay for storage for their own babies' future use. With the new network in place, 90 percent of Americans who need cord-blood or bone-marrow stem cells for conditions like leukemia, lymphomas and sickle-cell disease can find a matching donor in a public bank. The bill is expected to triple the existing supply of cord blood, making it available to anyone who matches a donor's tissue traits. Many private banks have thrived since the stem-cell craze debuted in the late '90s." Learn more in Wired News.

• 30 January 2006
  "A year ago Jacqui Rogers, a retiree in southern Oregon who dabbles in vintage costume jewelry, went on eBay and bought 10 butterfly brooches made by Weiss, a well-known maker of high-quality costume jewelry in the 1950's and 1960's.At first, Ms. Rogers thought she had snagged a great deal. But when the jewelry arrived from a seller in Rhode Island, her well-trained eye told her that all of the pieces were knockoffs. Even though Ms. Rogers received a refund after she confronted the seller, eBay refused to remove hundreds of listings for identical 'Weiss' pieces. It said it had no responsibility for the fakes because it was nothing more than a marketplace that links buyers and sellers. That very stance — the heart of eBay's business model — is now being challenged by eBay users like Ms. Rogers who notify other unsuspecting buyers of fakes on the site. And it is being tested by a jewelry seller with far greater resources than Ms. Rogers: Tiffany & Company, which has sued eBay for facilitating the trade of counterfeit Tiffany items on the site." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 27 January 2006
  "In response to disclosures about phone records being sold on the Internet, politicians want federal regulators to verify that the biggest service providers are adequately protecting their customers' information. According to a letter sent by the chairmen of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, all telecommunications providers must 'certify annually' with the Federal Communications Commission that they are in compliance with the federal rules. The politicians asked the FCC to turn over the latest certifications from the five largest wireless and wireline providers, along with statements from the companies describing "how their internal procedures protect the confidentiality of consumer information." Citing their ongoing investigation about the matter, the legislators imposed a Jan. 30 deadline." Learn more at News.com.

• 26 January 2006
  "The internet has played an important role in the life decisions of 60 million Americans, research shows. Whether it be career advice, helping people through an illness or finding a new house, 45% of Americans turn to the web for help, a survey by US-based Pew Internet think-tank has found. It set out to find out whether the web and e-mail strengthen social ties. The answer seems to be yes, especially in times of crisis when people use it to mobilise their social networks. In the past, it has been suggested that the internet and e-mail could diminish real relationships. But the report, entitled The Strength of Internet Ties, found that e-mail supplements rather than replaces offline communications. 'The larger, the more far-flung, and the more diverse a person's network, the more important e-mail is,' said Jeffrey Boase, one of the report's authors." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 25 January 2006
  "The California firm Google this week announced it is introducing a new search engine especially for China, which blocks out words and phrases the government here deems sensitive. These have usually had to do with such matters as democracy, Taiwan independence, autonomy for Tibet, and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group. The Paris group Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday had a sharp rebuke for Google. It accused the company of hypocrisy for agreeing to deprive Chinese people of the right to information, while espousing what the company says is its 'informal' motto of 'Don't Be Evil.' Law professor John Palfrey at Harvard University's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society says Google has had to strike a deal with itself, balancing moral behavior with its other duty - of answering to its shareholders in the U.S. and around the world." Learn more in the Voice of America News.

• 24 January 2006
  "Nearly six years ago, two French anti-racism groups launched an internet lawsuit that reverberated across the world. They filed suit against net giant Yahoo, seeking a court order to compel the company to block French residents' access to postings displaying Nazi memorabilia. While Yahoo already blocked access to content on its local French site - yahoo.fr - the groups' suit targeted the company's primary site based in the US - yahoo.com. The case attracted immediate interest since it struck at the heart of one of the internet's most challenging issues - how to bring the seemingly borderless net to a world with borders. After court cases in both France and the US, accompanied by multiple appeals, the dispute may finally have reached its conclusion earlier this month when an American appellate court issued a much-anticipated decision, one that left more questions than answers...The long-running legal dispute between Yahoo and the French courts reflects the difficulties of international regulation of the internet, argues law professor Michael Geist." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 23 January 2006
  "What if there was a drug that helped you do your job better, and your boss was pressuring you to take it, even though it could be bad for your health? There are already drugs that can boost memory or alertness, but whose long-term effects are unknown. Or what if scientists could tell what you were thinking or planning to do before you knew it yourself? Brain scans can now do this. Should these drugs and procedures be regulated - or permitted at all? That is the inspiration for the "Meeting of minds" project, a brainchild of Belgian organisation the King Baudouin Foundation. For the past two years, a citizens' panel of 126 Europeans from different age groups and backgrounds has been considering the ethical dilemmas emerging from brain science research. This weekend they are meeting in the Belgian capital, Brussels, to finalise their recommendations before presenting them to the European Parliament on 23 January." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 20 January 2006
  "The international community yesterday promised $1.9bn (€1.6bn, £1.1bn) to fight avian flu in the worst-affected countries, with the largest commitments coming from the US with $334m and the European Union pledging around $260m. The funding, promised at an international conference in Beijing, was well in excess of an initial target set by the World Bank to raise at least $1.2bn - seen by experts as the minimum for what is needed to battle the disease. The amount raised is evidence of the heightened worries surrounding the potential economic fallout of even a regional epidemic of H5N1 - the strain which has killed at least 79 people worldwide. Governments and global health organisations have been trying to come up with a financing plan since November. 'This is not charity. This is not just solidarity. This is self-defence,' said EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou.Of the $1.9bn, about $900m would be in the form of loans, and the rest in grants, he added." Learn more in the Financial Times.

• 19 January 2006
  "Out in the dwindling oil fields around McCamey, Texas, where rattlesnakes outnumber people and black-gold gushers once blew their tops, a new energy geyser is blowing - wind power. More than 860 wind turbines today pinwheel where oil derricks once bloomed, cranking out pollution-free megawatts for wind developers like FPL Energy, a Juno Beach, Fla., utility with the nation's largest wind-power portfolio. In turn, that energy is transmitted to cities like Austin. 'We call our town the wind energy capital of Texas,' says Sherry Phillips, McCamey's wind-centric mayor. With wind farms popping up from New York to Texas to California, wind power is riding high in the saddle again. Explosive growth of more than 40 percent this year - 3,400 megawatts of new generation is expected - could make the United States the world's largest wind-power market, a new report shows." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 18 January 2006
  Internet users can give Web sites a thumbs up or thumbs down in less than the blink of an eye, according to a study by Canadian researchers. In just a brief one-twentieth of a second -- less than half the time it takes to blink -- people make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with an Internet site. The study was published in the latest issue of the Behaviour and Information Technology journal. The author said the findings had powerful implications for the field of Web site design. 'It really is just a physiological response,' Gitte Lindgaard told Reuters on Tuesday. "So Web designers have to make sure they're not offending users visually." Learn more at CNN.com.

• 17 January 2006
  "A UK consumer watchdog has called for new laws to protect users' rights to use digital music and movies. The National Consumer Council (NCC) said anti-piracy efforts were eroding established rights to digital media. The NCC had little faith that industry self-regulation would adequately protect consumers' rights. It made its comments to a parliamentary inquiry into technologies that limit what people can do with CDs, DVDs and downloaded media. In its submission to the inquiry, the NCC said many consumers were regularly running up against the restrictions record companies and film makers put on their products. The consumer group said people were finding that they could not make compilations for their own use or easily move digital copies between different devices." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 16 January 2006
  "Development giants China and India 'hold the world in balance', says a new report by a US environmental think tank. 'The choices these two countries make in the next few years will lead the world either towards growing ecological and political instability – or down a development path based on efficiency and better stewardship of resources,' says a report from the Worldwatch Institute in Washington DC, US. One in every two tonnes of cement poured today will be in China – such is the country’s breakneck pace of economic development. The country also uses one-quarter of all the world’s steel, eats one-third of the world’s rice, and is the world’s largest importer of tropical timber and second largest importer of oil. As well as using ever more resources, the two countries are also creating an increasing proportion of the world’s pollution. China, which gets two-thirds of its energy from coal, is now the second largest source of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, while India is fourth." Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 13 January 2006
  "An anti-terrorism law creating a national standard for all driver's licenses by 2008 isn't upsetting just civil libertarians and immigration rights activists. State motor vehicle officials nationwide who will have to carry out the Real ID Act say its authors grossly underestimated its logistical, technological and financial demands. In a comprehensive survey obtained by The Associated Press and in follow-up interviews, officials cast doubt on the states' ability to comply with the law on time and fretted that it will be a budget buster. 'It is just flat out impossible and unrealistic to meet the prescriptive provisions of this law by 2008,' Betty Serian, a deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said in an interview." Learn more in USA Today.

• 12 January 2006
  "Inside a brightly painted classroom, a circle of kindergarten kids sits facing their teaching assistant, a Filipina. 'So what kind of present do you want from Santa?' she asks in English. 'Do you want a toy? Who likes Barbie?' Some of the girls stick up their hands. 'We also have a Barbie for boys. What's he called?' the teacher continues. Several voices overlap, all speaking in English. 'Ken!' 'I want boy Barbie!' 'I too want, miss!' After the hubbub subsides, the day's lesson begins: The sound made by the letters Q and U. Next door, another group of preschoolers is playing a game. Their profile is identical - under 5, over 90 percent Thai. But the teacher is Taiwanese, the language being spoken is Mandarin, and the classroom décor is Chinese. Welcome to the cutting edge of Thailand's flirtation with Chinese, an ancient language increasingly seen as the new dialect of diplomacy and trade in East Asia." Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 11 January 2006
  "UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says Iran's decision to resume its nuclear activities is likely to result in a referral to the UN Security Council. He said Tehran's move had caused real and serious alarm across the world. Speaking in parliament, Mr Blair said European ministers meeting in Berlin on Thursday would decide how to proceed. The West fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons after it broke seals on a research facility. Tehran says it only wants to produce electricity. Iran's former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has lashed out at foreign condemnation of Iran's nuclear plans, saying it amounted to 'bullying'. On Tuesday, Iran removed UN seals from equipment at the Natanz nuclear facility. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Tehran would start small-scale nuclear enrichment." Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 10 January 2006
  "For the past few months, teams of people in the world’s banks and insurance companies have been working hard to make sure they are prepared for the possibility of a widespread outbreak of avian flu. These institutions hope they will never have to activate their plans, which are detailed and extensive. Even so, urged on by regulators and organisations such as the World Health Organisation, they are trying to make sure they are prepared to deal with an outbreak that could affect a significant proportion of their employees and will test their ability to manage their business when staff are unable to travel and, in some cases, staying away from the office. These preparations are not necessarily different to other industries. But, given the importance of the financial system to the overall functioning of the economy, governments and regulators are taking a close interest in banks and insurers." Learn more in the Financial Times.

• 9 January 2006
  "Microsoft's decision to shut down the site of a well-known Chinese blogger was the latest in a series of measures in which some of the biggest technology companies have cooperated with Beijing to curb dissent or free speech online. Microsoft drew criticism last summer when it was discovered that its blog tool in China was designed to filter words like 'democracy' and 'human rights' from blog titles. The company said this week that it must 'comply with global and local laws.' 'This is a complex and difficult issue,' said Brooke Richardson, a group product manager for MSN in Seattle. 'We think it's better to be there with our services than not be there.'" Learn more in the International Herald Tribune.

• 6 January 2006
  "Iran threw negotiations over its nuclear program into disarray on Thursday, abruptly canceling a high-level meeting with the United Nations' monitoring agency in Vienna. The leader of Iran's negotiating team was said to be returning to Tehran. The unexpected turn of events stunned and frustrated officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency and foreign diplomats, who scrambled to make sense of Iran's decision. The meeting had been scheduled so Iran could explain its decision to restart nuclear research and development on Monday. 'There was no explanation,' said Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the agency. 'We're still seeking clarification.' One possible explanation is that Iran has decided to defy the rest of the world and plunge ahead with nuclear activities, which risk international censure or sanctions and could shatter a 14-month agreement with France, Britain and Germany under which Iran agreed to suspend most of its nuclear work." Learn more in the New York Times.

• 5 January 2006
  "I'm flat on my back in a very loud machine, trying to keep my mind quiet. It's not easy. The inside of an fMRI scanner is narrow and dark, with only a sliver of the world visible in a tilted mirror above my eyes. Despite a set of earplugs, I'm bathed in a dull roar punctuated by a racket like a dryer full of sneakers. Functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI for short - enables researchers to create maps of the brain's networks in action as they process thoughts, sensations, memories, and motor commands. Since its debut in experimental medicine 10 years ago, functional imaging has opened a window onto the cognitive operations behind such complex and subtle behavior as feeling transported by a piece of music or recognizing the face of a loved one in a crowd...Now fMRI is also poised to transform the security industry, the judicial system, and our fundamental notions of privacy. I'm in a lab at Columbia University, where scientists are using the technology to analyze the cognitive differences between truth and lies." Learn more in Wired News.

• 4 January 2006
  "In May 2003, the consumer advocacy group Ban Trans Fat sued Kraft Foods, demanding that the comestibles giant stop selling its Oreo cookies in California. In the suit, the organization claimed that the popular snacks were plugging Californians' arteries with unhealthy fats called trans fats, also known as hydrogenated oils. Soon after the suit was filed, public interest in trans fats peaked. And while most people felt the suit was frivolous, the public and government began to focus intensely on the deleterious health issues associated with these processed fats. During the months before and after the suit was filed, a word-of-mouth marketing research firm called BuzzMetrics tracked more than 2.6 million comments about trans fats in various online forums, discussion groups and blogs from more than 120,000 people. The Ban Trans Fats suit was eventually dropped, but BuzzMetrics' study showed that the damage had been done: Kraft and Oreo were mentioned in 17 percent and 26 percent of the 2.6 million comments about trans fats, respectively." Learn more at News.com.

• 3 January 2006
  "Gazprom, the Russian oil and gas giant which owns 16% of the world's proven natural gas reserves and controls 20% of its global production, has become a decisive geoeconomic actor. This is illustrated by Gazprom's decision on January 1 to reduce supplies of gas to Ukraine, which in turn are delivered to a number of European countries. The ostensive reason was a dispute over pricing of the gas. Following the European Union's decision to give Ukraine the status of a "market economy" last month, the Russian corporation made a distinction between Ukraine and Belarus (with Belarus still being a state-administered economy), claiming that Ukraine must pay for gas supplies as much as international markets indicate. According to Moscow, politically-driven low prices are not relevant when conducting business with market democracies." Learn more in the Asia Times.
  

2005 September-December Society and Politics archives

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