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Society & Politics archives: November-December 2003
- 31 December 2003
"Alan Ralsky, according to experts in the field, has long been one of the most prolific senders of junk e-mail messages in
the world. But he has not sent a single message over the Internet in the last few weeks." Unfortunately, he's coming back.
Saul Hansell offers a very frank and compelling view of spamming from spammers in his report to the
New York Times (free registration required).
- 30 December 2003
"[W]e asked a dozen experts in fields that are apt to touch all our lives this year -- privacy, defense, spam, security,
open source, technology development, life online and human rights -- to answer this question: 'What do you wish would happen
in 2004, and what do you think will actually happen?'" An interesting question with some interesting answers from an unusual
selection of responders at
Wired News. We like Suresh Ramasubramanian's
response best, "I wish that spam would just go away in 2004."
- 26 December 2003
"The Test of English as a Foreign Language, or so-called TOEFL exam, appears to be losing its magnetism in China, with a
sharp decline in the number of people taking the test nationally...Officials at the Beijing-headquartered New Oriental
Education Group, an English training centre in China, also witnessed an acute fall of TOEFL applicants in its training
school, around 30 per cent decrease against the previous year." Here's a convergence of terrorism and university education
that few, if any, expected. Read the story at Beijing's
People's Daily.
- 24 December 2003
"President Bush plans to kick off his reelection year by proposing a program that would make it easier for immigrants to
work legally in the United States, in what would constitute the most significant changes to immigration law in 18 years..."
There are a number of converging trends behind this, but one quickly passed over is the use of the Internet as a means of
advertising to Mexican workers. Even five years ago, this would have sounded ridiculous, but today is acceptable. Read the
whole story at the
Washington Post.
- 23 December 2003
"...2003 has been deemed the worst in computer-virus history by security experts...This
year computer worms managed to shut down ATMs, slow airline and train travel by infecting
reservation and signaling systems, clog emergency phone services, and crash networks controlling
critical systems at hospitals and at least one nuclear power plant." And this unpleasant
convergence between technology and society is likely to get worse as virus writers and spammers
are beginning to work together. Michelle Delio explains at
Wired News.
- 22 December 2003
"On the train returning to Armonk, N.Y., from a recent shopping trip in Manhattan with her
friends, Britney Lutz, 15, had the odd sensation that her father was watching her. He very
well could have been. Ms. Lutz's father, Kerry, recently equipped his daughters with cellular
phones that let him see where they are on a computer map at any given moment." A parent
keeping track of a child is one thing, but is a government a "parent"? Are citizens "children"?
Amy Harmon describes electronic surveillance services for the
New York Times
(free registration required).
- 19 December 2003
"From his suburban home in nearby Lee's Summit, Miles J. Jones has written tens of thousands of prescriptions for online
customers...To the stocky 51-year-old pathologist's way of thinking, he is practicing cutting-edge medicine and providing a
safe, convenient service. State regulators across the country take a decidedly different view." The Internet's impact on
society is indisputable, but this is one subject that is especially controversial. Read an excellent example at the
Washington Post.
- 18 December 2003
"Many see India's digital workers as bearers of new prosperity to a deserving nation and vital partners of Corporate
America. Others see them as shock troops in the final assault on good-paying jobs." Today many tech companies like General Electric
are off-shoring research and design facilities to India--a facet of globalization that is good for U.S. companies but
potentially bad for American workers. Find out more about how Bangalore is becoming the new Silicon Valley at
Business Week Online.
- 17 December 2003
"Making computers human is an idea as old as computers themselves, and what was initially a wild science fiction
fantasy is gradually turning into fact...virtual creatures have become part of our collective culture." Already
used in military training, these "virtual creatures" are ready to do a great deal more, reports David Braue for
Australia's
APC magazine.
- 16 December 2003
"Americans logged onto the Internet to learn about the capture of Saddam Hussein because the news broke after most of
the nation's newspapers had 'gone to bed.' Read more about how many major papers relied on the internet to publish
breaking news of Saddam's capture at
CNET.com.
- 15 December 2003
"Picture, if you will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression
of the creative impulse...And this infrastructure is none other than the former paradise of rebels and
free-speechers: the Internet." If the Internet is a tool, nothing prevents it from being used for the wrong
purposes argues Steven Levy at
Newsweek magazine.
- 12 December 2003
"Mountains of e-waste - discarded parts of computers, mobile phones and other consumer electronics equipment - are
quietly creating a new environmental problem in India. Thirty million computers are thrown out every year
in the US alone, and many are dumped in India and China. Now concerns are being raised on the impact the
dumping - particularly evident in India's computer heartland, Delhi - is having on both the country's environment,
and its people." Read more about this growing environmental problem at
BBC News Online.
- 11 December 2003
"Muslim girls in France could be barred from wearing headscarves in schools after an expert commission
recommended a ban on 'conspicuous' religious signs." Global migration, and other related issues, are topics that Future
Brief will focus on in coming weeks. Find out more about the ways in which France is struggling with these problems at
BBC News Online.
- 10 December 2003
"Poorer nations want their share of the information technology pie, and a three-day summit in Geneva is designed to point
the way. But richer nations, conspicuous by their absence, don't appear to give a damn." Read the entire story at
Wired News.
- 9 December 2003
"The human race could have 9 billion people by 2300, Japanese will live to 108, and Africa's population will explode while
Europeans could dwindle, the United Nations predicted on Tuesday...Even small changes could make a huge difference...The 9
billion estimate is based on a two-child family, but one-quarter of a child more per family could boost the population in
2300 to 36.4 billion." An exponential rate of growth can surprise us with its strength, as Evelyn Leopold reports for
Reuters at Yahoo News (link no longer active).
- 8 December 2003
"After a decade of sanctions had left his physics lab a crumbling shell, Raad Mohammed decided it was time to go...He was not
alone. An estimated 2,000 professors fled Iraq's 20 major universities between 1995 and 2000...But now, with Saddam Hussein's ouster,
Mohammed is back." Global migration, an issue Future Brief will focus on in coming weeks, is not a one-way street as this
article demonstrates at Boston's
Christian Science Monitor.
- 4 December 2003
"Leaders from almost 200 countries will convene next week in Geneva to discuss whether an international body such as the
United Nations should be in charge of running the Internet, which would be a dramatic departure from the current system,
managed largely by U.S. interests." Who should "run" the Internet...or should anyone? David McGuire discusses one view
at the
Washington Post.
- 3 December 2003
"Lately, it seems, the European Union can hardly take a step without finding itself entangled in some maddeningly divisive
issue." Europe provides a social "lab experiment" that deserves everyone's attention. Getting beyond the nation-state to a
broader community democratically is no small task. Richard Bernstein brings that point home at the
New York Times.
- 1 December 2003
"At the edge of this tiny western village, where newspapers aren't delivered, 15 Syrians are stuck for two hours on a parked
bus. To their left are brown hills with rows of olive, apple, and date trees. On their right sit a few modest cement homes.
And directly in front of each villager is a sleek wooden desk, a flat screen computer, and an ergonomic mouse." The "Internet
revolution" is far from over. Here's an example from the
Christian Science Monitor.
- 30 November 2003
Global threats bring about domestic policy shifts. Ryan Singel reports on last week's expansion of the Patriot Act that
reduces oversight of the FBI and intelligence agencies at
Wired News.
- 27 November 2003
China is about to start the world's first clinical trials of a vaccine against SARS. But other scientists fear the Chinese
might be moving too fast. Here we have one potential problem from the application of a tech advance to a situation as much
socio-political in nature as technical.
Read the article at Britain's
New Scientist.
- 26 November 2003
Dramatic examples of the convergence of technology (cheap transportation) with socio-political reality
(the need for cheap labor) can be found in Europe. The problems faced by immigrants can be seen through
the eyes of Fatima Yaakoub, 24 years old, born in Morocco, and living in the Netherlands.
Read her story at the
Washington Post.
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