Society & Politics archives: May-June 2004

• 30 June 2004
  

  "A global agreement to protect the planet's precious plant genetic resources has become law. The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources will ensure that an infinite variety of different plant species are preserved. Keeping a rich gene pool will ensure plants varieties and genes are available to respond to global shifts, including climate change and famine. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says the treaty is vital...The treaty, a quarter of a century in the making, will ensure that a vast pool of genetic resources - both in gene banks and in the field - are protected and maintained and available to all for research. Although throughout the history of agriculture farmers have developed over 10,000 plant species for use in food production, currently only 150 crops feed almost the entire global population. Just 12 crops - including rice, wheat, maize (corn) and potato - provide 80% of our energy from plants, according to FAO." An international agreement was recently reached that will pave the way for a massive project to preserve the world's plants. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 29 June 2004
  

  "China's stodgy political world is easing into the digital age, inviting the public to voice opinions via the Web and increasingly relying on high-tech devices to manage such big events as this spring's meeting of the national congress. China now has the second largest number of Internet users in the world, after the United States. But the Communist Party's new willingness to use the Web seems to have done nothing to dispel its ambivalence toward it. The government has tightened controls on Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other online venues used increasingly by the public to vent frustrations and air criticisms...In seeking control, the government is waging a tough battle: In China, the ascent of consumer electronics -- and all the bells and whistles that accompany it, from going online to text messaging by cell phone -- is starting to change even politics." As China adopts more and more technology, the government struggles to find the balance between politics and progress. Read more at CNN.com.

• 28 June 2004
  

  "Among the grand gothic columns of Bangalore's colonial-era urban administration office, a couple dozen village dwellers neatly dressed in cotton shirts, sarongs, and turbans wait their turn at what looks like an automatic teller machine. But this machine isn't dispensing cash. Instead, farmers from nearby villages can use the terminal to see computerized copies of the deeds to the tiny patches of wheat, rice, and vegetables they till for a living...Computerizing land records may not seem like much of an achievement; most developed countries did it years ago. But in rural India, where the majority of people are semi-literate and live in remote communities unconnected by road or phone, it's almost a revolution. 'With equal access to information, a lower-caste person now has the same privileges as an upper-caste person,' says Rajiv Chawla, who oversaw the $3.7 million program." While many people focus on the negative ways that outsourcing affects the U.S., it is also having positive a impact on the lives of India's poorest citizens. Read more in Businessweek.

• 25 June 2004
  

  "Sheila Vreeburg has entrusted her cell phone number to very few people -- her family, close friends and her veterinarian. If she could keep it that way, she would. After all, Vreeburg, an insurance agent and native Californian, has kept her home number unlisted for decades, and directs her mail to a post office box. Her cell phone number is even more sacred. This kind of passion for privacy is prevalent in Western states, and that could signal an uphill battle for proponents of a national cell phone directory. The wireless industry, meantime, has promised it will submit to the 411 directory the mobile phone numbers of only those customers who grant their carriers permission to do so." Phone companies are promising to respect the privacy of users if they compile a cell phone directory. Yet, some see the issue as a conflict of interest, given that carriers have an incentive for users, who pay for calls both made and received, to receive unwanted calls. Read more at CNN.com.

• 24 June 2004
  

  "A copyright bill introduced in the Senate this week is facing criticism from groups including representatives of the telecommunications and electronics industries, who contend it could make computer companies, Internet providers and other technology businesses liable for online piracy. But supporters of the bill, including its bipartisan sponsors, say it would provide a powerful tool to curb illegal copying of music files and other media, and would protect children from the lure of a technology that is intended to help them break the law...[The bill] is aimed primarily at the makers of file sharing software, which is used to trade copies of digital files over the Internet. But critics say that the bill's language is overly broad, and that it amounts to a fundamental unraveling of a 1984 Supreme Court decision that has protected companies developing otherwise legal technologies that could be abused by users." Read more about the latest legislative battle raging over a bill intended to curb copyright infringement, in today's New York Times.

• 23 June 2004
  

  "The champagne was on ice, the music by Puddle of Mudd and Metallica thundering loud and hard. This was America's Party, a live show from Las Vegas on Fox, and it looked like a standard televised New Year's Eve bash. However, this show, like so many others this year, included a new wireless component. A stream of text messages flowed across the bottom of the screen. Tens of thousands of viewers across America were sending these messages from AT&T Wireless cell phones, and waiting anxiously for their jokes, put-downs, or love notes to scroll across. Text messages are key features on Survivor and American Idol, and they're a growing part of a monster-size business. Callers will send an estimated 548 billion text messages this year, according to industry trade group, GSM Assn. That's about 100 for every man, woman, and child on the planet." Text messaging could transform the way that individuals and, in turn, marketers use mobile phones. Read more in Business Week.

• 22 June 2004
  

  "The only way to meet international poverty targets is by a massive switch to renewable energy, such as solar power, a UK think-tank says. The New Economics Foundation (Nef) says the cost of climate change and oil scarcity will otherwise scupper attempts to help the world's poorest. It wants an end to subsidies for fossil fuel projects, and nuclear power. Over the next decade, it says, two billion of the poorest people should be given access to clean energy...The report says a single year's worth of World Bank spending on fossil fuel projects could be spent instead on small-scale solar installations in sub-Saharan Africa, providing electricity for 10 million people." A recent report compiled by a British think-tank, argues that there is an important connection between third-world poverty and the amount of money that developed countries spend on fossil fuels. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 21 June 2004
  

  "A Pentagon effort to persuade Congress to allow military intelligence agents to work undercover in the United States met with resistance in the House Wednesday when the provision was left out of the highly secretive intelligence funding bill. However, the Senate's version of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2005 still includes the provision, which exempts Department of Defense intelligence agents from a portion of the Privacy Act, a 30-year-old law that outlaws secret databases on American citizens and green-card holders. The bill would allow Pentagon intelligence agents to work undercover and question American citizens and legal residents without having to reveal that they are government agents. That exemption currently applies only to law enforcement officials working on criminal cases and to the CIA, which is prohibited from operating in the United States." A new law could give military agents the authority to work undercover within the U.S. Read more in Wired News.

• 18 June 2004
  

  "On the face of it, everyone on the Internet should be rich by now. After all, you've almost surely received e-mail from at least one intriguing stranger in a far-off land offering fabulous riches if only you will help recover some lost fortune. It might be $25 million spirited away during the fall of an obscure African regime. All you, dear friend, need provide is a helping hand (ideally your bank account) and a few small fees, and perhaps a quarter of the money will be yours.Of course, there is no fortune to be had. The only money changing hands will be yours, given to one of the thousands of so-called advance fee fraud artists haunting the Internet...Now, however, an ad hoc militia of self-styled counterscammers on several continents is taking the fight directly to the thieves." A group of pranksters and vigilantes has had so much success fighting one of the internet's most prevalent scams, that authorities are turning to them for help fighting internet fraud. Learn more in the New York Times.

• 17 June 2004
  

  "European neo-Nazis post online pictures of paint-smeared mosques. Web sites of Islamic radicals call for holy war on the West. Aliases like 'Jew Killer' pop up on Internet game sites. International experts met Wednesday in Paris to tackle the tricky task of fighting anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic propaganda on the Internet -- seen as a chief factor in a rise in hate crime. Purveyors of hate have found a potent tool in the Internet, spreading fear with such grisly images as the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. The new technology has proven to be a boon for hatreds of old, many experts say." International officials are meeting to discuss ways to crack down on the hate speech that is spreading over the internet. Yet, they are already running into obstacles--particularly the unfettered rights to free speech in the United States. Read more at CNN.com.

• 16 June 2004
  

  "A government-run 'Do Not Spam' registry would not work because it would only generate more unwanted e-mail from unscrupulous marketers, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday. The FTC declined to endorse a no-spam registry patterned after its tremendously popular Do Not Call list that allows consumers to prevent most telemarketing calls. While telemarketers have largely complied with the no-call list, spammers that already violate deceptive-business laws would be likely to regard a list of off-limits addresses as a valuable tip sheet for sales leads, FTC Chairman Timothy Muris said. Congress directed the FTC to look into a do-not-spam registry when it passed a national anti-spam law last December." The FTC is refusing to endorse a national "Do Not Spam" list, citing concerns that it could actually lead to an increase in spam. Read more in Yahoo News.

• 15 June 2004
  

  "Nearly 2 million Americans have had their checking accounts raided by criminals in the past 12 months, according to a soon-to-be released survey by market research group Gartner. Consumers reported an average loss per incident of $1,200, pushing total losses higher than $2 billion for the year. Gartner researcher Avivah Litan blamed online banking for most of the problem. 'There has been a big increase in the abuse of existing checking accounts,' Litan said. 'What's really scary about it is right now there are no back-end fraud detection solutions for it.' The trend neatly follows a sharp rise in so-called phishing e-mails, which attempt to steal consumers' user names and passwords by imitating e-mail from legitimate financial institutions." A recent study suggests that more and more people are having their personal checking accounts raided--a likely result of online banking and "phishing" scams. Read more at MSNBC.com.

• 14 June 2004
  

  "A few years ago, Mathew Gross, 32, was a free-lance writer living in tiny Moab, Utah. Rob Malda, 28, was an underperforming undergraduate at a small Christian college in Michigan. Denis Dutton, 60, was a professor of philosophy in faraway Christchurch, New Zealand. Today they are some of the most influential media personalities in the world. You can be one too. Gross, Malda and Dutton aren't rich or famous or even conspicuously good-looking. What they have in common is that they all edit blogs: amateur websites that provide news, information and, above all, opinions to rapidly growing and devoted audiences drawn by nothing more than a shared interest or two and the sheer magnetism of the editor's personality." The number of people reading blogs is beginning to rival some major publications--making blogs increasingly significant news sources. Read more in Time Magazine.

• 11 June 2004
  

  "It is a wonder that Margaret Langhorn hasn't become paranoid. When she opens her fridge, a computer is watching. So, too, when she sits in her chair, gets into bed, has a bath, leaves the house, or even goes to the toilet. And what's more, if the computer thinks something is amiss, then it will call a central control room and report her. It sounds like some Orwellian nightmare, but the 73 year old volunteered to be on the scheme. It is called Telecare and is Liverpool Council's latest initiative for the elderly. It aims to give pensioners the freedom to stay at home, while offering the sort of 24/7 monitoring that might previously only have been available within residential care." Recent breakthroughs in surveillance technology could soon give elderly and severely disabled people the opportunity to live alone and remain in their homes. Read more in the Guardian.

• 10 June 2004
  

  "A lot of perfectly respectable small businesses are raking in money from Internet fraud. From identity theft to bogus stock sales to counterfeit prescription drugs, crime is rife on the Web. But what has become the Wild West for cybercriminals has also developed into a major business opportunity for cybersleuths. One of the most well-known is Kroll Ontrack, a technology services provider that Kroll, an international security company based in New York, set up in 1985...'As more and more crime is committed on the Internet, there will be growth of these services,' said Rich Mogull, research director of information security and risk at Gartner Inc., a technology-market research firm in Stamford, Conn. ICG, for example, has grown to 35 employees and revenue of a projected $7 million this year." As cyber-crime becomes more prevalent, a growing industry of private cyber-investigators is responding. Read more in the New York Times.

• 9 June 2004
  

  "Buyers, sellers, brokers and lawyers, even 'specialists in carbon asset creation management,' convene Wednesday on the banks of the Rhine to launch a new business for a worried world. CarbonExpo, in the cavernous congress halls of Cologne, Germany, is a three-day trade fair for those who would deal in carbon dioxide -- buying and selling permits to discharge the waste gas chiefly blamed for global warming. This carbon trading is a Europe-wide effort to use supply-and-demand to control emissions and protect the climate, in the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. But the supply far outstrips demand, Europeans are finding. The climate of this marketplace itself is decidedly cloudy. Advance prices have plunged by half." Europeans are attempting to curb greenhouse emissions by drawing upon economic principles. However, it is unclear is such a strategy can succeed. Read more at CNN.com.

• 8 June 2004
  

  "The European Commission has urged the computer industry to sort out its anti-spam strategy. Lack of co-operation between all those tackling spam was holding back efforts to stem unwanted commercial messages, said EC official Philippe Gerard. At an anti-spam meeting in London, he said it was up to industry to do its part now that laws were in place to prosecute spammers. Junk mail accounts for nearly 70% of e-mails worldwide, say experts...In 2002 the EU passed a directive outlawing many of the practices spammers use to get their unwanted messages in front of e-mail users. Across the EU, spam is thought to make up 54% of all e-mail messages." In an effort to fight the growing scourge of unwanted e-mails, the European Union is encouraging a coordinated effort between corporations and governments to fight SPAM. Read more in the BBC.com.

• 7 June 2004
  

  "In a bland, anonymous tower at an undisclosed address in Docklands, Len Hynds, head of the National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) surveys the East End of London and reflects that nothing much has changed in the murky world of organised crime. Criminals still pursue easy cash through fraud, extortion, and theft, it's just that these days they have much better technology at their disposal. For example, online gangsters looking to extort money use 'distributed denial of service' (DDoS) attacks instead of threats of violence. Using thousands of computers around the world that have been infected with malicious programs, criminals can marshal 'botnet armies' to bombard a website's servers with requests, thereby using up most or all of the available bandwidth." Utilizing computers and the internet, cyber-criminals are engaging in classic mafia protection rackets. Read more in the Guardian.

• 4 June 2004
  

  "Five months from now, President George Bush and Sen. John Kerry will wage their final battle for the White House. The race will ultimately be decided by which candidate (and which party) can mobilize more of its supporters from the time the voting booths open at dawn on the East Coast until they close in Hawaii 19 hours later. And who does this best depends on IT. In this year's presidential election, political operatives are relying more than ever on CRM-type systems to comb voters' histories and demographic data to find those supporters who will vote for and perhaps contribute to their cause. To paraphrase James Carville, 'It's the database, stupid.'" In this year's election, both parties are becoming increasingly reliant on the internet and other forms of IT. Some experts even believe that it will be the candidate who utilizes technology most effectively that will go on to win the election. Read more in CIO.com.

• 3 June 2004
  

  "When Tomm Purnell's uncle, Keith Cochran, died last year, Mr. Purnell's mother received two of Mr. Cochran's computers. One of them, a laptop, is password-protected, and even though Mr. Purnell considers himself somewhat of a computer geek, 'the really obvious passwords,' he said, like the names of Mr. Cochran's cats and combinations of his Social Security number, have failed. While terminally ill, Mr. Cochran, a programmer, left a full list of passwords for his work files with his employer, Mr. Purnell said. But he failed to do the same thing with the personal files, so they are now inaccessible. With home computers largely replacing filing cabinets as the secure storage place for financial records, tax returns and even sentimental pictures, the problem confronting Mr. Purnell may become more common." As people leave more and more personal information on their computers, lawyers and families are struggling with the issue of what to do with a family member's digital property after they die. Read more in the New York Times.

• 2 June 2004
  

  "Top scientists from the United States, South Korea, Australia and Britain pressed the United Nations on Tuesday not to ban stem cell research as part of a global treaty banning human cloning. The scientists said they invited U.N. delegates to a conference on Wednesday to make the case a U.N. treaty in the works since 2001 should ban only the cloning of human beings -- known as 'reproductive cloning' -- while letting researchers pursue 'therapeutic cloning' studies with enormous potential for treating disease and saving lives. The 191-nation U.N. General Assembly is deeply divided over whether to allow such research to continue or adopt a broad cloning ban championed by the Bush administration and Costa Rica with strong backing from the U.S. anti-abortion movement and many predominantly Roman Catholic nations." Scientists are actively lobbying the UN in favor of stem cell research. Read more in Yahoo News.

• 1 June 2004
  

  "As more Web sites demand passwords, scammers are getting more clever about stealing them. Hence the need for such 'passwords-plus' systems. To access her bank account online, Marie Jubran opens a Web browser and types in her Swedish national ID number along with a four-digit password. For additional security, she then pulls out a card that has 50 scratch-off codes. Jubran uses the codes, one by one, each time she logs on or performs a transaction. Her bank, Nordea PLC, automatically sends a new card when she's about to run out. Scandinavian countries are among the leaders as many online businesses abandon static passwords in favor of so-called two-factor authentication." Learn more about the new technologies that are being employed to replace static passwords, at Yahoo News.

• 31 May 2004
  

  "At the Samsung Tower Palace, even the refrigerators are logged onto the Net. The luxury apartment complex here is a showcase for Samsung Electronics' burgeoning digital home business--an idea that once was dismissed as a pie-in-the-sky but now is starting to gain traction. Besides refrigerators, Samsung Tower's $1 million-plus apartments are outfitted with Internet-enabled ovens, security cameras and wall-mounted flat-panel displays. Samsung has sold more than 6,000 networked homes in South Korea, and now it's eager to export its success ...According to Samsung, wiring homes in the United States with the necessary networking gear will cost from $2,000 to $10,000--making adoption relatively affordable." The electronics giant, Samsung, has had a great deal of success marketing high-tech, wired homes in Korea. Soon all of our homes might start to resemble something straight out of science fiction. Read more in CNET.com.

• 28 May 2004
  

  "DVD? China's trying to do it one better -- with a technology called EVD. CDMA? The digital cell phone standard is so 2003, the Chinese say. Give TD-SCDMA a try instead. Intel Corp.'s Centrino and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows? If you're doing business with Beijing, better bone up on WAPI and Red Flag Linux, too. These days, China's dominant message is this: We'll embrace the world -- but on our terms. And nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of high technology, where behind the acronyms is a battle of standards that could have global repercussions." As China's economy grows, more and more Chinese companies are working to develop their own technological standards. If these Chinese companies succeed, they could set new standards for all sorts of technological products. Yet, these companies also run the risk of creating dead-end products akin to the old Betamax video tapes. Read more about this complex issue at CNN.com.

• 27 May 2004
  

  "The impact of e-government is under the spotlight on both sides of the Atlantic as studies question how much citizens interact with government websites. A report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project thinktank found that US citizens prefer to pick up the phone when dealing with officials. In the UK, there are doubts about whether the government's flagship website can attract visitors. E-government is seen as a good way of improving communication with citizens. People are using government websites to find out about issues but 40% would rather use the telephone to pursue inquiries compared to just 18% who would use e-mail, according to the Pew Internet study." As more and more government agencies go online, some question the effectiveness of government websites and e-government. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 26 May 2004
  

  "With identity theft rampant, we need to be cautious with our personal information. But consumer advocates say there's something else we ought to be vigilant about: expensive services for identity theft protection. The prevalence of credit card fraud and other identity-related crimes has given rise to a cottage industry of services aimed at protecting people from falling victim. These products include access to credit reports, e-mail alerts about changes in your credit status, and insurance that can cover expenses you might incur in righting any wrongs." In the wake of increasing threats, more and more companies are offering protection against identity theft. Yet, some specialists question whether these services are really worth the cost. Read more at CNN.com.

• 25 May 2004
  

  "Federal agencies looking at the issue of antibiotics in livestock need to focus their efforts, work faster and back up any recommendations with better research, congressional investigators said on Monday. Antibiotics make livestock such as cattle and chickens grow better and are commonly fed to them at low levels. This effect is above and beyond anything that can be accounted for by preventing disease. But studies have shown the practice can aid the development of drug-resistant 'superbugs' -- especially when antibiotics similar to those used to treat humans are given to animals. The issue is highly controversial and many farmers are resisting efforts to reduce their use of antibiotics." Read about the debate over the effects of giving animals antibiotics in Reuters.

• 24 May 2004
  

  "Search for recipes on Cooking Light's Web site in the coming days and you're likely to find first lady Laura Bush praising her husband's education policies. Check game statistics at Sports Illustrated's site and you may see John Kerry's picture on an ad seeking donations in support of the Democrat. Presidential campaigns and the political parties are venturing into virtual advertising this year like never before, leading some Internet industry analysts to anticipate a banner year for political advertising online. 'Whatever is happening now is more than there's been before,' said Stu Ginsberg, a New York-based Internet advertising consultant." Political candidates are posting an increasing number of ads on the internet. Although it is not entirely clear what effect these ads are having, many believe that internet commercials combine the targeting power of both TV commercials and direct mailings. Read more at CNN.com.

• 21 May 2004
  

  "To protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the federal government may get a privacy czar if two congressional representatives have their way. Reps. Kendrick Meek (D-Florida) and Jim Turner (D-Texas), who are both members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, introduced a bill Thursday that would establish a federal chief privacy officer position, as well as separate positions at every federal department and agency. 'It's important that we take into account the impact on our fundamental freedoms' when considering emerging technologies, Meek said in a phone conference. 'We're trying to be proactive in heading off major privacy violations. We don't have to see a major, major violation of privacy or civil liberties for us to act.'" Many worry that Americans are losing most of their rights to privacy as lawmakers enact laws to deal with emerging technologies and threats to homeland security. In response, two congressmen are working to create a post for a privacy czar. Read more in Wired News.

• 20 May 2004
  

  "With federal legislation pending that will affect matters ranging from DVD copying to spyware dissemination, technology firms are spending heavily on lobbyists to impress their views on influential members of Congress. Overall, the technology and communications industries spent more than $111 million on lobbyists in the second half of 2003, according to data compiled by the campaign finance site PoliticalMoneyLine. The sector's lobbying expenditures were exceeded by only two other industries: health care and financial services." As legal issues like cyber-security and intellectual property rights affect more and more corporations, technology firms are spending an increasingly large amount of money on political lobbying. Read more about the ways in which tech companies are getting involved in politics in today's Wired News.

• 19 May 2004
  

  "The world's first embryonic stem cell bank opened in Britain Wednesday, breaking new ground in one of the most controversial areas of medical research. The bank aims to store and supply stem cell lines -- strings of identical cells -- for research and possible treatment of conditions like diabetes, cancer and Parkinson's. Its store of cell lines is expected to number tens of thousands. But opponents say such research involves the 'wanton creation and destruction of human life' and have condemned the bank as a storage site for dead babies...The bank puts Britain into conflict with pro-life campaigners and with the United States, where President George W Bush issued an executive order in August 2001 limiting federal funds for embryonic stem-cell research." Learn more about the British facility that will become the world's first stem cell bank, in today's Yahoo News.

• 18 May 2004
  

  "The US is to accelerate its approval of new HIV drugs for the world's poor from four years to as little as six weeks. But the US Food and Drug Administration, which will run the scheme, says it will not cut corners on safety to rush drugs through the system. Many will be combinations of medicines that have already been approved, it says. 'We're talking about putting them together in one dose, or selling them in [combined] blister packs,' says an FDA spokesman. 'Companies may have to do some extra studies, but they probably wouldn't take more than a few weeks, perhaps to find if drugs still reach the bloodstream in effective quantities when given in combination.'" The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced an initiative to expedite the delivery of HIV drugs to poor countries. Read more in the New Scientist.

• 17 May 2004
  

  "The United Nations' food agency endorsed biotechnology Monday as a promising way to improve farming around the world, but complained the technology is still not designed to meet the needs of poor countries. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization has said in the past that genetically modified foods on the market are safe to eat and that genetic engineering has potential to help the developing world. The report, released Monday, is the FAO's most comprehensive look at the subject. The FAO expects the world's population to grow to 8 billion by 2030 and said food production must increase by 60% to feed the world. The agency said biotechnology can help meet that demand, but warned it was no panacea for world hunger." Amid intense controversy, a recent UN report endorsing genetically modified food was recently released. Read more in USA Today.

• 14 May 2004
  

  "Saying that the frontiers of medical science should not be hemmed in by politics, Gov. James E. McGreevey signed legislation Wednesday to establish the nation's first state-supported stem cell research facility. Mr. McGreevey said Wednesday that it was up to state elected officials to end the delays and help promote the kind of research that might lead to new treatments for heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, cancer and spinal cord injuries. 'This isn't an abstract academic debate,' said Mr. McGreevey, who was joined by several spinal injury victims and their families as he signed the legislation at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in New Brunswick. 'People are suffering today, and what we offer them is hope.'" Adding more fuel to the debate about stem cell research, New Jersey has recently become the first state to establish a state-sponsored stem cell research facility. Read more in the New York Times.

• 13 May 2004
  

  "Plants and animals living in the oceans could provide new antibiotics, drug treatments and painkillers. But scientists believe these unexplored resources may disappear before we have had the chance to tap their potential. Fishing, climate change and pollution are altering the food chains in the ocean - reducing biodiversity. The decline needs to be stopped before it is too late, delegates to the European Conference on Marine Science and Ocean Technology in Ireland said. 'Life originated in the oceans and has evolved over a much longer time than on land, so the diversity of life is far greater,' Professor Carlo Heip, of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology, said at EurOCEAN 2004. However, marine biodiversity is very poorly known." Scientists believe that ocean-dwelling life forms could hold the keys to many medical breakthroughs, but they are worried that humans are destroying this promising ecosystem. Read more at the BBC.com.

• 12 May 2004
  

  "Monsanto on Monday said it was suspending plans to introduce what would be the world's first biotech wheat, a product that has generated concerns around the world about scientific tinkering with a key food crop. Monsanto, whose shares moved lower Monday morning, said it had reached the decision after 'extensive consultation' with customers in the wheat industry, and would continue to monitor the desire for crop improvements to determine 'if and when' it might be practical to move forward...The company has been under fire from environmentalists, farmer groups and some export trade experts for its plans to introduce a spring wheat variety called Roundup Ready, which is tolerant of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide." Bowing to pressure from environmentalists and international customers, Monsanto has decided not to market a genetically modified variant of wheat. Read more in Wired News.

• 11 May 2004
  

  "Leigh Todd spent four years and $300,000 to have a baby. She saw 10 doctors and sought help at medical clinics in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. And while Ms. Todd says she had no idea what she was in for when she began her quest, it did not take long before she was sucked into a world of tests and treatments, conventional and unconventional, doing whatever it took, paying as much as was asked. "I was driven," recalled Ms. Todd, who lives in Bedford, N.Y. Her story is far from unique...Yet some experts worry that the fertility frenzy has gone too far. Many patients, they say, are vulnerable and desperate, and all too easily convinced that the next test, or the next clinic, might work miracles." While more and more high-tech options are available to couples that are having trouble conceiving, some companies are preying upon hopeful couples by offering false hope or relying on methods that are scientifically or morally questionable. Read more in today's New York Times.

• 10 May 2004
  

  "Microsoft has credited its virus bounty scheme for the arrest of a German computer programmer who is suspected of unleashing the Sasser computer worm. The unnamed 18-year-old student from Rotenburg, a small town in the northern state of Lower Saxony, is reported to have confessed to creating the worm, after being apprehended by police on 7 May. 'Given detailed statements by the student on the viruses that he created, he has been identified without doubt as being behind them,' said a spokesman for Lower Saxony police. The suspect was tracked down after sources contacted Microsoft to ask if it would give them a financial reward for information about the author of the worm...Microsoft says the informants provided source code that showed their lead was authentic. 'We had overwhelming technical evidence in this case provided by the informants and confirmed by our experts,' Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, told The Washington Post. Smith said Microsoft would give the informants $250,000 if there was a successful prosecution." Microsoft recently began paying bounties to helpful informants who help authorities track down cyber-criminals, and they believe that their reward helped lead to the arrest of the German teen responsible for the Sasser worm. Read more in the New Scientist.

• 7 May 2004
  

  "A ruling by a World Trade Organization panel last week might spell the beginning of the end for the enormous subsidies rich countries pay their farmers. That would have profound consequences around the world for agriculture, the environment, food security and the political stability of some countries. Following a complaint brought by Brazil, a panel at the WTO headquarters in Geneva decided that the $2 billion a year the US has been giving its cotton farmers is illegal under world trade rules, because it allows the US to unfairly increase its market share. 'The implications of the case are huge,' says Ben Lilliston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, a US think-tank in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, a decision is pending on another complaint to the WTO from Brazil, this time about the massive sugar subsidies the European Union pays...If the decision on US cotton is upheld, and if the EU loses the sugar case, countries opposing farm subsidies would gain a powerful bargaining chip in the current trade talks. And if the US and EU are forced to end all trade-distorting subsidies, or at least make major cuts, the result would be a huge shift in agricultural production from richer to poorer countries." A recent WTO ruling against the United States could have a profound impact on agricultural production across the globe. Learn more in the New Scientist.

• 6 May 2004
  

  "Over the last two years, Genevieve Bell, an anthropologist employed by Intel Research, has visited 100 households in 19 cities in seven countries in Asia and the Pacific to study how people use technology...Her fieldwork project began four years ago with the insight that Intel might have a misconception about the potential users of its products elsewhere in the world. 'We thought, there's a group of people just like us all over the world who will buy the technology and have it fill the same values in their lives,' Dr. Bell said. 'I was fairly certain that wasn't going to be the case. I'm an anthropologist. Culture matters.' Her project sent her to seven countries: India, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Korea, and Australia. She found that in some places, 'it's harder for some forms of technology to get over the threshold of the home' - not simply for economic reasons but for religious ones as well." Dr. Bell's findings indicate that various cultures approach technology differently. Read more about this fascinating story in today's New York Times.

• 5 May 2004
  

  "Social networking, online community activism and blogs have started a 'revolution of the ants,' and it's spreading beyond the Net. That was the assessment of panelists last week at the University of California at Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, who spoke about the political activism of online communities. The Web has been particularly effective in engaging politically apathetic people and motivating them to take politics back to the grass-roots level...In a traditional campaign, 'you strip out all of the people you can't control -- to keep as many out of the process as possible,' said Moulitsas, who became an Internet-strategy consultant to the Dean campaign after Dean's campaign manager became a fan of Moulitsas' blog. 'We were trying to expand the realm of participation.' The vast majority of people attracted to the Dean campaign had never been politically engaged, he said. The Web gave them a stake in the election. Once emotionally invested, it became easier to organize and raise funds." Among advanced democratic countries, the United States has a remarkably low rate of voter-turnout. But some believe that the internet is allowing politicians and organizations to reach out to groups that have previously been apathetic to the voting process. Read more in Wired News.

• 4 May 2004
  

  "Mike James pocketed $3,000 in 10 days by selling loads of old stuff on eBay. He sold his battered cowboy boots. He unloaded some dust-collecting artwork. He even hooked a buyer for his Eddie Bauer fishing vest...And he did it without turning on his computer. Too busy to fuss with the multiple steps of listing goods on eBay — the online bazaar for regular folks — James, 43, instead dropped it off at the just-opened iSold It store. ISold It sweated all the annoying parts of selling on eBay: It took digital photos of the items, fielded questions from potential bidders, then shipped things to the eBayer with the highest offer. About all James did was wait for the check in the mail. The rub for eBay is that iSold It isn't run by eBay." The value of goods sold on eBay is estimated to be over $24 billion, and many businesses are trying to cash in on a part of the profit. Read more about the ways in which the success of eBay is creating an "eBay economy" in USA Today.

• 3 May 2004
  

  "The United States has started to lose its worldwide dominance in critical areas of science and innovation, according to federal and private experts who point to strong evidence like prizes awarded to Americans and the number of papers in major professional journals. Foreign advances in basic science now often rival or even exceed America's, apparently with little public awareness of the trend or its implications for jobs, industry, national security or the vigor of the nation's intellectual and cultural life...Even analysts worried by the trend concede that an expansion of the world's brain trust, with new approaches, could invigorate the fight against disease, develop new sources of energy and wrestle with knotty environmental problems. But profits from the breakthroughs are likely to stay overseas, and this country will face competition for things like hiring scientific talent and getting space to showcase its work in top journals." There is growing concern that the U.S. is losing its title as the world leader in scientific development. Read more in today's New York Times.

  
  

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