Society & Politics archives: July-August 2004

• 31 August 2004

  "Top British scientists are backing an international campaign to stop the United States obtaining a worldwide ban on all types of human cloning. The Royal Society is among 68 academies urging the UN to ban reproductive but not therapeutic use of the technology. President George Bush's administration wants a complete ban, which the UN could introduce as early as October. Member states would not be compelled to sign up but scientists fear such a treaty could stifle stem cell research. Professor Richard Gardner, chairman of the Royal Society's working group on stem cell research and cloning, said: 'It is clear that if the UN bans all forms of human cloning, the UK, and other countries which currently permit carefully regulated therapeutic cloning, will not sign up to it.'" The U.S. and Great Britain are in a political battle over a potential treaty that would ban human cloning. Read more in the BBC.com.

• 30 August 2004

  "Larry David tools around in one on his HBO series. Cameron Diaz drives one in Los Angeles. So do Leonardo DiCaprio and Rob Reiner. Here in the state capital, top elected officials, including the state treasurer and the leader of the Senate, consider one a must-have environmental credential. Mr. Schwarzenegger does not drive a Prius, still preferring his signature Hummer. But the governor, a Republican, is poised to do something equally unthinkable - and calamitous, some detractors in the American automobile industry insist, because their vehicles do not compete with the fuel efficiency of the Prius. Aides to the governor say he will sign legislation approved on Thursday that could allow up to 75,000 hybrid drivers to use car pool lanes even when taking to the road alone." Legislation aimed to offer incentives to hybrid car owners in California is being met with harsh criticism from American Car Manufacturers. Read more in the New York Times.

• 27 August 2004

  "The beleaguered rain forests of Madagascar are home to thousands of plants found nowhere else—and perhaps new lifesaving drugs. Could the search for medicinal plants help keep the forests of this African island nation intact? A team of scientists hope the answer is yes. 'Madagascar is poor according to human-economy criteria, yet extremely rich in unique and endemic biodiversity,' said Patricia Wright, an anthropologist and conservation at Stony Brook University on Long Island, New York. 'Is it possible to add to the human economy without depleting the biodiversity riches? We are trying our best to do this.'" A team of researchers is hoping that their quest to discover lifesaving drugs could also work to preserve Madagascar's natural forests. Read more in National Geographic News.

• 26 August 2004

  "The fight started at school, when some eighth-grade girls stole a pencil case filled with makeup that belonged to a new classmate, Amanda Marcuson, and she reported them. But it did not end there. As soon as Amanda got home, the instant messages started popping up on her computer screen. She was a tattletale and a liar, they said. Shaken, she typed back, 'You stole my stuff!'...The episode reflects one of many ways that the technology lubricating the social lives of teenagers is amplifying standard adolescent cruelty. No longer confined to school grounds or daytime hours, 'cyberbullies' are pursuing their quarries into their own bedrooms. Tools like e-mail messages and Web logs enable the harassment to be both less obvious to adults and more publicly humiliating, as gossip, put-downs and embarrassing pictures are circulated among a wide audience of peers with a few clicks." New technologies are changing the nature of teenage bullying and allowing "cyberbullies" to be even more cruel. Read more in the New York Times.

• 25 August 2004

  "A prosperous Ohio businessman with a spotty record of turning out to vote buys a roomy sport utility vehicle from a local dealership. A few weeks later, a volunteer for a group seeking to re-elect George W. Bush drops him a line, offering to send literature about why the president's policies will help lower gas prices. If such a scenario sounds far-fetched, it shouldn't. With the presidential election less than three months away, such tactics are gaining momentum, as organizations attempting to influence the election are betting the necessary votes are hidden within consumer databases. Activist groups including MoveOn.org, along with the major political parties, are spending unprecedented amounts of money to find out where you shop before trying to sell you on their candidate." Politicians and political groups are trying to examine patterns in voters' behavior by examining consumer data. Yet, some experts question the reliability of such predictive models. Read more in Wired News.

• 24 August 2004

  "In midwinter, John Magnuson looks out his window across Wisconsin's Lake Mendota, hoping to see a swath of ice several miles long and a foot or more thick. But during several recent winters, all he saw was open water. That's not how Wisconsin winters used to be - at least not according to 150 years of ice-cover data Dr. Magnuson, a university professor, has compiled on this seven-mile-long lake near Madison. But would lake-ice data hold up, or melt, in a court of law? An answer may come as soon as this fall as legions of scientists, possibly including Magnuson, are summoned to appear as expert witnesses in a groundbreaking case that will test the limits of environmental law and the science undergirding climate-change theory." In a landmark case, eight states are suing utility companies for damages that they argue are the result of global warming. The novel case is one of the first attempts to fight global warming through the judicial system. Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 23 August 2004

  "There's not a lot of middle ground on the subject of implanting electronic identification chips in humans. Advocates of technologies like radio frequency identification tags say their potentially life-saving benefits far outweigh any Orwellian concerns about privacy. RFID tags sewn into clothing or even embedded under people's skin could curb identity theft, help identify disaster victims and improve medical care, they say. Critics, however, say such technologies would make it easier for government agencies to track a person's every movement and allow widespread invasion of privacy. Abuse could take countless other forms, including corporations surreptitiously identifying shoppers for relentless sales pitches. Critics also speculate about a day when people's possessions will be tagged--allowing nosy subway riders with the right technology to examine the contents of nearby purses and backpacks." This fascinating article in News.com explores the pros and cons of implanting RFID tags in people.

• 20 August 2004

  "The outsourcing story has so far headed down a one-way street - with Indians and Indian firms accused of eating into jobs in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the latest estimates pegging India's offshore services growth rate at over 40%. But as Indian information-technology (IT) firms reach global scales, a reverse trend is also evolving - Americans and others from the West are finding employment in the overseas operations of Indian firms." Outsourcing can work both ways, as Siddharth Srivastava reports for the Read more at the Asia Times.

• 19 August 2004

  "Human prowess is not supposed to have a reverse gear. Computer chips shrink and become more powerful. Skyscrapers grow taller, and spaceships travel farther. Medicine keeps people alive longer. But for almost a decade, the Summer Olympics have offered a mysterious exception. In some of the most basic ways imaginable - how fast people can run, how high they can jump, how far they can throw - the march of progress has stopped. The track and field athletes competing in Athens Olympic Stadium over the next week and a half may well struggle to match the performances of their predecessors." Is there a limit to human physical performance? Read more at the New York Times.

• 18 August 2004

  "Howard Rheingold is on the hunt again. With his last book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, in 2001, the longtime observer of technology trends made a persuasive case that pervasive mobile communications, combined with always-on Internet connections, will produce new kinds of ad-hoc social groups. Now, he's starting to take the leap beyond smart mobs, trying to weave some threads out of such seemingly disparate developments as Web logs, open-source software development, and Google. At the same time, Rheingold is worried that established companies could quash such nascent innovations as file-sharing -- and potentially put the U.S. at risk of falling behind the rest of the world." Could a new economic system result from the Internet? In an interview, Rheingold suggests it's a possibility. Read more at MSNBC News.

• 17 August 2004

  "A dozen blind students from across the United States are at a summer camp this week working on a project most don't associate with the visually impaired - launching a NASA rocket...on Tuesday the students will also operate a telescope outfitted with a device that makes printouts with raised features that can be felt, said Mark Riccobono, manager of education programs for the NFB's Jernigan Institute." This example of the "blind leading the sighted" can be read at My Way News.

• 16 August 2004

  "Drug use may be the most prominent controversy surrounding this summer's Olympic Games in Athens. But the second burning question concerns an entirely legal approach to getting the winning edge: namely, whether or not form-fitting fast-suits made from high-tech fabrics will decide which athletes bring home a medal. These new garments will be most visible in high profile events such as swimming, but rowers and cyclists are sporting them as well." Clothes can "make" the man or woman if they're Olympians, reports at Scientific American.

• 13 August 2004

  "On a late Friday evening two weeks ago, I sat in a radio studio. I had been invited to take part in a talk show discussing the extreme right. The BBC had put out its programme The Secret Agent in July, in which an undercover reporter exposed criminality within the far-right British National party (BNP). Several party members had been arrested and its main bank accounts closed as a result. Just before we went on air, my mobile phone rang. I left it. When I later checked, a familiar voice (belonging to a long-time BNP member) crackled: 'He, he, hear you're going on the radio? Watch what you say!' At about the same time, mercian_valkyrie posted a message on Stormfront.org, the world's first and probably largest white nationalist website and online community. It read: 'Discussion currently on Talksport.'" In this disturbing essay, author Nick Ryan who has documented hate groups, discusses the innovative ways in which these groups are using the internet. Read the essay published in the Guardian.

• 12 August 2004

  "The fact that July was National Cellphone Courtesy Month was lost on most people. The results of Sprint's recent Wireless Etiquette Survey made that clear: Seventy-seven percent of those polled said they've overheard a cell phone conversation while in a public restroom. Over half say they are made to feel 'unimportant' when someone they're talking to answers a cell phone. But that's what keeps corporate etiquette consultants like Anne Marie Sabath, founder of Cincinnati-based At Ease, in business. As technology proliferates in the office, so too do the courtesy conundrums facing executives everywhere. Sabath earns anywhere between $1,500 and $6,000 a day advising companies such as Merrill Lynch, Procter & Gamble and General Electric on everything from the dangers of business casual to the art of listening. But she says companies ask her more and more to address the misuse of the handhelds and laptops that are supposed to improve employee productivity." Learn more about society's lack of "tech etiquette" in Forbes.com.

• 11 August 2004

  "Britain granted its first license for human cloning Wednesday, more than three years after becoming the first nation to authorize the technique to produce stem cells for medical research. A team of researchers at Newcastle University hope eventually to create insulin-producing cells that could be transplanted into diabetic patients. Britain became the first country to authorize the cloning of human embryos when Parliament voted in 2001 to allow regulators to license the method to scientists investigating the medical promise of stem cells, the master cells of the body. The stem cells are extracted when the embryo is still microscopic. British regulations allow the embryo to develop for no more than 14 days, after which the embryo starts to develop a nervous system." An unprecedented British license is the first ever that will authorize human cloning for medical purposes. Learn more in Yahoo News.

• 10 August 2004

  "In an apparent case of Internet graffiti at an online retailer, the cover of a book critical of John Kerry's war record was altered to appear as if the tract supports the Democratic presidential candidate. The book cover for the anti-Kerry book 'Unfit for Command' was somehow changed Monday on Web bookseller Barnesandnoble.com to read 'Fit for Command'...Pro-Kerry groups have also taken to the Web, including America Coming Together, which has a George W. Bush parody done by Will Ferrell of 'Saturday Night Live' fame. The Internet offers a low-cost avenue for such partisan spots, whose backers may or may not have much in the way of funds for an expensive TV ad push." Months ago pundits predicted that this would be one of the dirtiest campaigns in American history. Yet, the way in which the internet is being used for mud-slinging and attack ads is surprising many. Read more at News.com.

• 9 August 2004

  "The government is increasingly using corporations to do its surveillance work, allowing it to get around restrictions that protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, according to a report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union, an organization that works to protect civil liberties. Data aggregators -- companies that aggregate information from numerous private and public databases -- and private companies that collect information about their customers are increasingly giving or selling data to the government to augment its surveillance capabilities and help it track the activities of people. Because laws that restrict government data collection don't apply to private industry, the government is able to bypass restrictions on domestic surveillance." The ACLU is accusing the government of using corporations to collect information on American citizens. Read more in Wired News.

• 6 August 2004

  "John Miano's career course is the sort of thing to make tech industry leaders wince and worry about their future work force. Miano was a programmer who tried for years to get into computer science doctoral programs. Despite earning a "B" average in college and publishing two technical books, he never was accepted. So he took the law school admission test and promptly won a full scholarship to Seton Hall. The result: one less computer scientist, one more lawyer. Discussion about technology's future in the United States often centers on problems that eighth graders have in algebra. But there also are concerns that the country's universities are churning out fewer tech-related doctorates, and that the numbers may decline further thanks to fewer foreign doctoral degree candidates--who earn a large portion of science and engineering doctorates at U.S. schools." Read more at News.com.

• 5 August 2004

  "Ray Kurzweil plans to live forever. To that end, he carefully chooses what he eats and drinks. On top of that he keeps his weight down, exercises, and takes dietary supplements - about 250 a day. Mr. Kurzweil, a successful inventor, entrepreneur, and futurist, knows even his most rigorous efforts to preserve his body won't by themselves lead to physical immortality. But his plan is to live in good health long enough, perhaps another 30 years, that future scientific advancements can take him the rest of the way. It's a vision with extraordinary appeal. As the nation's 76 million baby boomers march toward retirement many are beginning to cast sidelong glances at what's come to be known as the life-extension movement." As the American population continues to age, many people are placing a religious-like faith in the power of technology to extend and improve their lives. Learn more in the Christian Science Monitor.

• 4 August 2004

  "Many net users seem to be much more vain than you might think. A survey carried out by MSN has revealed that more people have looked themselves up online than have looked up a member of their own family. It found that 39% of those questioned had searched to see how well-known they were online, but only 29% have looked up fellow family members. Over a third of those who responded in the survey, 36%, said they had looked up long lost friends online. While many people 'Google' prospective girlfriends and boyfriends before a date to see if they have any dark secrets, the survey shows that many people are more curious about themselves than they are about anyone else." A recent survey indicates that people spend a surprising amount of time researching themselves online. Read more in the BBC.com.

• 3 August 2004

  "When I taught at a university, I worked with the wireless laptop programs that are replacing computer labs on campuses. Once students began carrying laptops everywhere and using them in class, an interesting dependency developed. There were times in class when I asked a question and students would glance helplessly at the machines, as if to say, 'The answer isn't in my carbon-based brain, but I know I got it right here, on silicon.' Amazingly, the late media theorist Marshall McLuhan saw this coming in the 1960s. Many things he predicted about television did not appear until the appearance of the Internet and portable computers: so-called 'ubiquitous computing.' McLuhan believed our senses become extended outside of our bodies." This fascinating essay examines the ways in which computers are becoming extensions of our physical selves. Read more in CNN.com.

• 2 August 2004

  "Mobile phone users in Africa are being encouraged to send text messages in support of a women's rights petition. Campaign groups are pressing leaders to ratify the African Union (AU) Protocol on the Rights of Women. Oxfam and human rights group Fahamu are among the organisations behind the online petition. A year after being adopted by the AU, just three countries have ratified the protocol. At least 15 signatures are needed for it become legally binding...Africa has considerably more mobile phone users than e-mail users. By targeting them, the campaign groups hope to boost support for their online petition." Activists are conducting an online petition for African women's rights via mobile phone text-messages. Read more about this novel petition drive in the BBC.com.

• 30 July 2004

  "Cars that report your every false move to local law authorities. Huge databases with detailed information on every citizen. Companies that only honor privacy guidelines when it's profitable for them to do so. These were some of the winners of Privacy International's sixth annual U.K. Big Brother Awards, announced Wednesday. The awards are an annual attempt to publicly name and shame the government and private-sector organizations that have done the most to invade personal privacy in Britain...Big Brother Awards are now held as an annual event in 17 countries. Each event typically focuses on privacy violations in the host country. But Privacy International opted to make an exception this year by including in the U.K. awards a U.S. initiative, US-Visit." Read more about the alleged violators of privacy in Wired News.

• 29 July 2004

  "Tighter UK and European regulation over some aspects of nanotechnology -manipulation of molecules - is needed to ensure its long-term safety. A Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering report said that there was no need to ban nanoparticle production. But more formal research of them was 'urgent.' Nanoparticles should also be treated as 'new chemicals,' it said. Welcoming the report, science minister Lord Sainsbury said the government response would come by the end of 2004. Super-fine particles are already being incorporated into a number of cosmetics and composite materials to improve their performance. The products undergo tests by the manufacturers. But Professor Ann Dowling, chair of the working group that produced the report, said it recommended these test results were made more public." A new report is urging closer regulation of nanotechnology. Read more Read more in the BBC.com.

• 28 July 2004

  "A tissue bank that will store genetic material from thousands of endangered animals has been set up in the UK. The Frozen Ark, as it is called, will preserve animal 'life codes' even after their species have become extinct. This will allow future generations of scientists to understand long lost creatures, and may also help with the conservation programmes of tomorrow...Scientists believe animals may be disappearing from our planet at a very high rate. Some even refer to this plunge in biodiversity as the Earth's 'sixth mass extinction'. Over the next 30 years, perhaps a quarter of all known mammals and a tenth of all recorded bird species could die out - as result of rapid climate change and habitat loss." Scientists are collecting the DNA of endangered animals in order to preserve them for a "frozen ark." Read more in the BBC.com.
  

• 27 July 2004

  "Owning a piece of outer space has, until now, been the preserve of only the most fantastical websites. You can have a star named after you for £25 or even follow the lead of Nicole Kidman and Tom Hanks and buy an acre of the moon for an economical £11. But fears have now been raised that space, once the final frontier, could become the new wild west unless new intergalactic property laws are drawn up and agreed. Advocates of space development - who have long fought for clarity on the issue of who owns what - have been buoyed by a recommendation on the subject by the Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond, set up by George Bush. 'Potentially, this uncertainty could strangle a nascent space-based industry in its cradle,' it warned." Although the concept of owning property in space has been considered something of a joke, a recent report advocating property laws was recently issued by the U.S. government. Read more in the News.Scottsman.com.
  

• 26 July 2004
  

  "Amanda Cunningham started her daughter on computers at 2 1/2 with "Reader Rabbit" software and Web sites like Sesame Street. Like any parent, she was proud Madeline could master the mouse so young. But Cunningham soon realized Madeline, now 4, wasn't really learning anything. She just kept clicking, dragging and playing the same games over and over. Now, she's in no rush to get her 1-year-old son, Liam, on computers or the Internet... There's no shortage of sites and software aimed at very young kids and even toddlers. Noggin.com has games and virtual coloring books for preschoolers. A Crayola licensee makes handheld video games, including one where kids race in a crayon-shaped car, for 3 and up. KidzMouse Inc. makes computer mice for small hands. But there's growing debate over whether children should be exposed to technology so early. Some parents and scholars see no benefit, and a handful even warn of a hindrance to child development." Read more at CNN.com.

• 23 July 2004
  

  "Farnborough, England, July 20 - On the 35th anniversary of man's first landing on the moon, NASA came to the international air show here on Tuesday to take one giant leap into the business side of space exploration. Never before has the space agency been a participant at the Farnborough International Air Show, where major global aerospace and military contractors show their wares. But Tuesday, Craig E. Steidle, NASA's associate administrator and the head of a 50-member agency delegation, was out drumming up global business partners to help it pursue new missions to the moon and Mars...The agency's presence here follows a Bush administration initiative announced last January to bring about a greater privatization of NASA." NASA's presence at a recent British air show demonstrates a paradigm shift for the American Space Agency. Read more in the New York Times.

• 22 July 2004
  

  "The controversy over electronic voting machines continues to foment as the November election approaches, and some state officials are putting the brakes on plans to adopt touch-screen machines. Federal legislation that would require machines to produce a paper receipt that voters could see and verify has made little headway. On July 20, Rep. Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) chaired a hearing on such election technologies...About 50 million voters, or 30 percent, are likely to use some type of electronic machine in the 2004 election, Putnam said. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 does not prescribe the type of technologies that election officials must use, but it does set requirements -- for example, that each polling place must have at least one handicapped-accessible voting machine -- that have nudged officials in the direction of electronic machines, he said." As the November election draws closer, electronic voting machines are facing more and more scrutiny. An interesting article in Federal Computer World examines some of the issues being debated.

• 21 July 2004
  

  "Parents are still largely unaware of the risks their children take on the net, even though 75% of teenagers use the net at home, says a report. A London School of Economics study suggested 57% had seen [indecent material] but most stumbled on it accidentally via spam or pop-ups. Only 16% of parents thought their children had seen [indecent material] online. Children are aware of net safety, but parents need help in understanding how to talk through good and bad net experiences and risks, said the report. Many nine to 19-year-olds worried that if they told their parents about negative experiences, their net use would be severely restricted or their parents would overreact." A recent British study indicates that many children are using the internet without any guidance or supervision and that most parents are still unaware of the online material that their children are being exposed to. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 20 July 2004
  

  "Oh Yeon Ho is a lean, intense journalist who came of age during turbulent political unrest in Korea in the mid-'80s—and a media environment in which old-line and often conservative newspapers dominated the national scene.  For a decade, Oh worked as a conventional magazine journalist, but in early 2000 he launched his own news site—just before the bursting of the Internet bubble. But unlike many startups, Oh’s OhmyNews.com not only survived but thrived, based on the simple notion that 'every citizen is a reporter.'  And now Oh’s Internet creation has attracted the attention of media giants around the world who wonder: is this Korean start-up the future of journalism?" With the aid of the internet, a Korean entrepreneur is transforming the world of journalism by empowering every citizen to be a novice journalist. Read more in Newsweek.

• 19 July 2004
  

  "On July 20, 1969 , at 10:56 p.m. ET , Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the 'Eagle' onto the surface of the moon and said, 'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.' Thirty-five years later, Steven Dick, NASA's chief historian at the space agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., said that a thousand years from now, that step may be considered the crowning achievement of the 20th century...The inspiration provided by the goal of sending humans to the moon is credited for laying the groundwork for, and making widely available, a host of technologies that society depends on today. As an example, Dick points to the integrated circuit, commonly referred to as a computer chip." The success of the Apollo moon landing helped launch a host of social and technological innovation, including the development of the internet. Some believe that a new round of space exploration could even trigger global cooperation and world peace. Read more in National Geographic.

• 16 July 2004
  

  "A small company called Acacia Research Corp. went after some of the biggest names in broadcasting last month, suing nine companies for an estimated $100 million for allegedly violating its patent on streaming video. That earned Acacia a spot on what the Electronic Frontier Foundation considers a top 10 list of intellectual property ignominy: patents the online civil liberties group is seeking to strike down as unwarranted and harmful to innovation. 'Good luck,' said Paul Ryan, Acacia's chief executive. 'Their chances are pretty remote.' Part fighting words. Part truth. Only 614 of the nearly 7 million existing patents have been revoked, according to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office." Statistics indicate that patents are very rarely overturned and revoked, which is significant as we become more and more dependent upon patented technologies. Read more at CNN.com.

• 15 July 2004
  

  "What motivates hackers? Are they upright citizens with a Spiderman-style zeal to protect the world's great companies from their own weaknesses? Or are they sad mischief-makers bent on destroying global capitalism before it destroys freedom and squashes their own individual geekiness? The answer is neither, though both traits were on display at the gathering of hackers at the Pennsylvania Hotel in Manhattan over the weekend. Participants of the Hope (Hackers On Planet Earth) meeting were divided between those who seemed to like an intellectual challenge and wished no harm to the target of that challenge, and those who see mischief as the great motivator." Today, people often view hackers as criminals. Yet, many hackers see themselves as concerned citizens who are simply trying to understand the technology that we depend upon. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 14 July 2004
  

  "The government plans to open a 'national bank' to better grow the only embryonic stem cells eligible for government-funded research, holding firm against critics who want Bush administration restrictions on the controversial cells lifted. In addition, the National Institutes of Health plans to spend $18 million over four years to establish three 'centers of excellence' to speed research on the currently available cell lines. 'The president's embryonic stem cell policy holds tremendous and yet-untapped potential,' Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson wrote in a letter to be sent to members of Congress on Wednesday. 'Before anyone can argue that the stem cell policy should be broadened, we must first exhaust the potential' of currently available lines." Amid criticism, the U.S. government is expanding research on available stem cell lines. Read more in Yahoo News.

• 13 July 2004
  

  "Type 'dentist' into Google from New York, and you'll get ads for dentists in the city. Try watching a Cubs baseball game from a computer in Chicago, and you'll be stymied. Pre-existing local TV rights block the webcast. The same technology is also being used by a British casino to keep out the Dutch and by online movie distributors to limit viewing to where it's permitted by license, namely the United States. The World Wide Web experience is becoming less and less worldwide: What you see and what you are allowed to do these days can depend greatly on where and even who you are. As so-called geolocation technology improves, Web sites are increasingly blocking groups of visitors and carving the Web into smaller chunks. To privacy advocates like Jason Catlett, that technology can detect users' whereabouts isn't the most disturbing aspect of this trend. Rather, it's the fear that Web sites will try to mislead visitors." Read more about geolocation technology--and why some oppose its use--at CNN.com.

• 12 July 2004
  

  "Critics of electronic voting are suing Diebold under a whistleblower law, alleging that the company's shoddy balloting equipment exposed California elections to hackers and software bugs. California's attorney general unsealed the lawsuit Friday. It was filed in November but sealed under a provision that keeps such actions secret until the government decides whether to join the plaintiffs. Lawmakers from Maryland to California are expressing doubts about the integrity of paperless voting terminals made by several large manufacturers, which up to 50 million Americans will use in November. The California lawsuit was filed in state court by computer programmer Jim March and activist Bev Harris, who are seeking full reimbursement for Diebold equipment purchased in California." Opponents of electronic voting are suing one of the largest manufacturers of electronic voting equipment. Read more in USA Today.

• 9 July 2004
  

  "You can rub Rogaine into your scalp to try to regain the hairline of your youth. You can inject Botox into your forehead to smooth time's inroads, at least temporarily. And, some scientists predict, you'll eventually be able to pop a pill to freshen up the inside of your head as well. Thanks to recent strides in understanding how the brain works, it's only a matter of time before medications specifically designed to improve mental ability, or cognition, hit the market...Pharmaceuticals are focusing on medications to treat patients whose brains are impaired by disease or injury. But the real market for such drugs might be healthy people who would simply like to be a little quicker on the uptake." Scientists may soon develop drugs that can improve our brainpower. Yet, these promising developments raise a host of social and ethical questions. Read more in USA Today.

• 8 July 2004
  

  "The European Patent Office on Tuesday upheld a Harvard University patent on a mouse genetically altered to develop cancer, but restricted its wording so that it applies only to mice and not to all species of rodents. The pan-European patent, granted in 1992, protects the method of producing the animals. But the ruling, which closes a years-long legal battle with environmental groups, added further qualifications to a 2001 ruling that limited the patent to rodents, rather than mammals in general. The patent office acknowledged concerns about ethical questions and animal rights, but also said the medical uses of the patent must be weighed." One of the world's first patent ruling on genetically modified animals has been handed down by the European Patent Office. Read more at CNN.com.

• 7 July 2004
  

  "It is the holy grail of politicians everywhere - how to win and keep the trust of voters. Now researchers at the University of St Andrew's in Scotland say they may have the answer. They believe politicians could learn a lot from recent advances in science. A growing number of studies have shown that people do judge a book by its cover. Researchers say most of us make instant judgments about a person on the basis of how they look. They say facial features can determine whether we like or trust someone. It may even influence how we vote. Studies suggest that people are less likely to trust those with particularly masculine features, such as a square jaw, small eyes or big nose." A new study suggests that voting patterns may be influenced by the appearances of each candidate. Learn more at the BBC.com.

• 6 July 2004
  

  "When everything is working right, an e-mail message appears to zip instantaneously from the sender to the recipient's inbox. But in reality, most messages make several momentary stops as they are processed by various computers en route to their destination. Those short stops may make no difference to the users, but they make an enormous difference to the privacy that e-mail is accorded under federal law. Last week a federal appeals court in Boston ruled that federal wiretap laws do not apply to e-mail messages if they are stored, even for a millisecond, on the computers of the Internet providers that process them - meaning that it can be legal for the government or others to read such messages without a court order." A recent court ruling could have profound implications for e-mail users' privacy. Read more in the New York Times.

• 5 July 2004
  

  "China is expanding its censorship controls to cover text messages sent using mobile phones. New regulations have been issued to allow mobile phone service providers to police and filter messages for pornographic or fraudulent content. But analysts fear the real targets are political dissidents. China's authorities are gradually tightening control over the spread of electronic information, particularly on the internet...Text messaging has already threatened Beijing's control over information. Last year, the authorities tried to hide the outbreak of the respiratory disease Sars. But millions of text messages were sent, alerting people to the virus and exposing the government cover-up." As new technology moves across China, the government struggles to maintain control over the spread of information. The latest target is text-messaging. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 2 July 2004
  

  "By day, Jeremy Kenney, 33, fixes Web sites and databases for the Republican National Committee. By night, on weekends and in his spare time he dabbles in an emerging form of political marketing: the online game. Part advertisement, part journalism, part cartoon, such games put fun in the service of ideology - with varying sophistication...Mr. Blaser, a Dean adviser, contends that games terrify traditional political operatives. Unfamiliar with the format, he said, they do not have time to take part in the repetitive process of designing a game. He foresees a day when game development will be assigned to agencies, not done in house." In a growing effort to utilize technology, the Bush and Kerry campaigns are using video games to attract supporters. Read more about this unexpected convergence between politics and technology in the New York Times.

• 1 July 2004
  

  "Flat on my back, my eyes shrouded with LED goggles and my ears encased in headphones, I was trundled into the maw of an fMRI machine in a basement lab at the California Institute of Technology. My brain was helping science explain why, despite centuries of progress in economic theory since Adam Smith, actual human beings so often refuse to behave as equations say they should...For all its intellectual power and its empirical success as a creator of wealth, free-market economics rests on a fallacy: the belief that people apply rational calculations to economic decisions, ruling their lives by economic models. The fMRI machine enables researchers in the emerging field of neuroeconomics to investigate the interplay of fear, anger, greed and altruism that are activated each time we touch that most intimate of our possessions, our wallets." New, detailed brain-imaging technology has lead to the new field of "neuroeconomics". Read more in this week's Newsweek.

  
  Back to Society and Politics Archives