Scott Rahin: Being good

EPA chief Christie Whitman acknowledges global warming as a real phenomenon, and says President Bush is sensitive to the issue. Oh. Well, sensitive is nice, but Bush thinks more research is needed; and he has indicated that the solution to our energy woes is to build more power plants (which generate carbon dioxide). At least it's not totally off their radar.

Pigeons smuggle mobile phones into Turkish jails.

Washington Post: Bush calls for 'courage' as he outlines budget -- Today Bush "released a budget outline that demands a thinner federal bureaucracy, calls for military base closures, proposes redirecting environmental enforcement funds to states, and orders a study of privatizing air traffic control." Separately, the president's top three budget advisers didn't care for questions from the press over whether 43 percent of the tax cut would go to the richest 1 percent of taxpayers; they labeled that as nonsense but would not elaborate.

The temblor has subsequently been revised to magnitude 6.8.

"On the Richter Scale, magnitude is expressed in whole numbers and decimal fractions. For example, a magnitude 5.3 might be computed for a moderate earthquake, and a strong earthquake might be rated as magnitude 6.3. Because of the logarithmic basis of the scale, each whole number increase in magnitude represents a tenfold increase in measured amplitude; as an estimate of energy, each whole number step in the magnitude scale corresponds to the release of about 31 times more energy than the amount associated with the preceding whole number value." [From the USGS National Earthquake Center, emphasis added.]

Reuters: A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Seattle this morning at about 10:55 a.m. PST. More at MSNBC. Zopefish has a personal account.

SF Chronicle: Web loggers bare their souls -- and reading lists -- to the Internet

Feed: Shrub Jr. goes to Congress -- "There's something comforting in thinking that the President you oppose is an idiot, just as it's comforting to think that the moderate President you oppose is a closet radical. But both are fantasies, and the longer you cling to them, the less effective your opposition becomes.... If the Democrats want to ensure that W. doesn't win the next one, they may have to start by taking him seriously for a change."

Camille Paglia: The Bush look -- "While he is visibly gaining confidence with each public appearance, it's still not entirely clear whether Bush's diffident manner is due to thoughtful reserve and steadiness of temper or to the repressed fear of a new recruit promoted too far too fast."

Bush's speech before the joint session of Congress was, well, interesting. Before embarking on his defense of the $1.6 trillion tax cut, he reiterated the campaign mantra of "less government spending." This was almost immediately followed by a list of programs whose budgets will be enormously increased. Relying on a 10-year budget forecast (which is probably as reliable as a 10-year weather forecast), the president attempted to assure Congress that we can slash taxes (extravagantly, in most sane estimations) and still have enormous, magical amounts of money left over, "just in case" something goes haywire. I was reminded of the guys who, a few years ago, claimed to have discovered cold fusion -- the holy grail of cheap, clean, unlimited energy. In this case, the president seems to think that money will fall out of the sky, like some sort of benign cosmic radiation. In the Democrat response, made jointly by Daschle and Gephardt, the message was "the honeymoon is over." They outlined a more sane tax-cut plan and invited the president to meet them in the middle, a not-so-subtle suggestion that Bush's agenda is more than a little extreme.

Peggy Chowning: "If this [the unending Clinton stories] continues much longer, then I'm going to give serious credence to the idea that there is a sinister and serious bait-and-switch tactic being perpetuated on the American public. Is someone trying to distract our attention from examining in detail the tax cut proposal, the upcoming budget and legislative proposals that will alter reproductive rights, environmental policy and the separation between church and state? Or perhaps keep us from discussing the ugly election and making necessary electoral reforms?"

Joe Conason: "The widely and justly criticized pardons of Caspar Weinberger and other Iran-Contra defendants by George Herbert Walker Bush should have been just the beginning of that story. Yet, for reasons best known to the incorruptible watchdogs of the Washington press corps, Poppy's self-interested mercy upon Weinberger instigated no searching examination of the other pardons granted by the departing president. Indeed, the final dozen pardons given by Bush -- including the unexplained release of a Pakistani heroin trafficker -- received virtually no coverage at all."

InternetNews: Earthlink debuts spots highlighting privacy policies -- "We created this ad to further illuminate the growing importance of Internet privacy and to let people know that not all ISPs or online services have the same level of commitment to privacy protection...." Targets of the ad campaign include America Online and free providers such as Juno and NetZero, which track users online and sell these statistics (in aggregate) to third parties.

CNN: 'Titanic battle' brewing over drilling in Alaska -- Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), seeing two former oil executives in the White House, thinks this is a good time to unveil legislation allowing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Former President Jimmy Carter noted: "The legislation introduced by Sen. Murkowski not only opens up this precious and so far unspoiled area of Alaska, but also destroys, to a great degree, the protection that has been built into other legislations concerning air pollution, water pollution and other things." It is estimated that the area may contain enough oil to satisfy U.S. oil needs for only eleven months.

The Register: Napster alternative: hack people's hard drives -- Windows-based PCs connected to the Internet may be vulnerable to snooping if the user has turned on file sharing. A small company has created a sniffer program that searches for exposed computers with all the ease of Napster and posts the vulnerable machines' IP addresses to a Usenet newsgroup. Solution: Turn off file sharing, or configure it to require a password.

Reuters: Poll: Bush with low approval rating of 55 percent -- "...the lowest rating given to a newly elected president since Dwight Eisenhower." (Interestingly, the same poll found "no broad public outrage" over the Clinton pardons.) The president will also address a joint session of Congress this evening, in what he calls a "to the point" speech, covering tax cuts and spending priorities.

NY Times: A global warning to Mr. Bush -- The recent prediction that Mt. Kilimanjaro's massive snow-cap will likely disappear within 15 years "might also inspire President Bush to pay attention to an issue he has lately avoided. Mr. Bush has asked Vice President Dick Cheney and a blue-ribbon team to devise an energy strategy, which will almost certainly recommend a more aggressive search for oil and gas. Yet so far as is known, he has not asked anyone to figure out how the country should deal with the consequences of burning those fuels." In fairness, Bush apparently has some recognition of the potential severity of the greenhouse-gas problem; but some of his key aides think it is poppycock, and an indifferent Congress is not helping. (Free registration required)

Nando Times: Self-taught bear researcher concerns Alaskan animal experts -- Wildlife experts fear that this man will either get killed by the bears or send an inappropriate message to the public that grizzlies are not dangerous.

Reuters: Case against Microsoft criticized by court -- "An appeals court on Monday questioned the logic of the U.S. government's antitrust case against software giant Microsoft, saying the destruction of its monopoly may just lead to another firm dominating the market." Gee, that is fascinating logic.

The Miami Herald reports that apparently Bush really did win the election. Heck, I was getting fond of referring to 'the coronation.' ;-)

President Bush heralds 'new federalism' in a bid to return more power to individual states. And, in a nod to pressure from the health-care industry, Bush has delayed implementing sweeping medical privacy regulations set in motion by former president Clinton. The regulations were to have taken effect today. After whining by the health-care industry over the <sob> cost of protecting patient's privacy, the regulations may not take effect until 2003, if at all.

Joan Walsh: Unpardonable -- The aroma of Clinton's last-minute pardons is becoming fetid.

Salon: Bush's opening night -- Thursday's press conference was apparently a bust. Never mind the pro's or con's of the $1.6 trillion tax cut or bombing Baghdad, Bush didn't answer most of the questions posed by the press; nor did he seem to have any grasp of anything that wasn't on his note cards. Regarding questions by a BBC reporter (concerning Bush and Blair and Britain's proposed "rapid response" force), the unofficial consensus of the press corps was that the president did not even understand what the BBC reporter was talking about. Unbelievable... If we can get Clinton out of the headlines for five minutes, perhaps people will start to realize what the Supreme Court has handed us.

AP: California may buy power grid for $2.7B -- "Gov. Gray Davis said Friday he has agreed on a tentative plan with Southern California Edison to buy the cash-strapped utility's power lines for an estimated $2.7 billion."

However...

Reuters: No. American power grid desperately needs upgrading -- The system of high-voltage lines that criss-cross the US and Canada are suffering from years of neglect. "If a storm or equipment failure knocks out a high-voltage transmission line, it can trigger a cascade of blackouts across several states, creating far more havoc than localized outages on the low-voltage distribution lines that serve neighborhoods." Power generation is less of a problem than power distribution. It is much easier to construct a new power plant (speaking in general), but it is nearly impossible to build new transmission lines, due to strong local opposition and bureaucratic red tape.

CNN: 'Smallest' robot to take world by swarm -- Developed by Sandia Labs, in Albuquerque, the tiny robot is 1/4 cubic inch in size and can be equipped with a camera, microphone and chemical micro-sensor." Eventually fleets of the robots could scamper through pipes looking for chemical releases or patrol buildings in search of prowlers." Or provide some interesting new avenues in surveillance?

Patty Hearst was brainwashed -- It's official.

Nando Times: Russia opens new nuclear plant -- After a post-Chernobyl freeze on reactor construction, things are back in gear. This is the first post-Soviet era reactor, and the Atomic Energy Ministry promises that it will be safe.

ACLU wins $10,000 in damages for high school student in web parody case -- The former Seattle-area student had been suspended for creating a parody of his school's web site, on his own time, using his own computer. "This case sends a message to public school administrators that they do not have the authority to punish students for expressing their opinions outside of school and without the use of any school resources." [ACLU press release]

Reuters: Watch is on for doomsday asteroids, comets -- "This week's issue of the journal Science carries a report suggesting that an asteroid or comet was responsible for the 'mother of all extinctions' -- the Permian event 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of animals and plants on land." If correct, this makes the event that nuked the dinosaurs look like a picnic.

LA Times: Anti-Piracy Laws Rob Consumers of Rights -- "This is a disaster waiting to happen. In its attempt to eradicate piracy, the government is making it impossible for consumers to engage in lawful behavior. It's like arguing that automobiles should be banned because bank robbers use them for getaways."

If the news is thin this week, this is who's been occupying my time. Her name is Sasha, she's two years old, and she's pretty green. Part Quarter Horse, part mustang. She will hopefully be a good trail horse, with a more down-to-earth disposition than the big thoroughbred.

Reuters: High court says suspects can be barred from home -- "Giving the police new powers to search and seize evidence, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that officers can stop suspects from entering their own homes while the officers get a search warrant." Score one for the cops. Justice John Paul Stevens, in the Court's lone dissent, sided with the original Illinois jury who valued the sanctity of one's home over the successful interdiction of a petty offense.

Washington Post: FBI agent held without bond on spy charges -- "A long-time FBI agent has been charged with spying for Moscow since 1985, in what is being characterized as the worst case of espionage in FBI history."

NY Times: Tax-cut news for Mr. Bush -- Republican New Mexico Senator Pete Dominici is one of the growing number of voices in Bush's own party warning that the proposed $1.6-trillion tax cut is not going to fly. Domenici is chairman of the Budget Committee. Several other Republican senators have indicated that they cannot support Bush's plan as it currently exists. Part of the problem involves the budget cuts that will likely be necessary in order to implement the tax cuts and reliance on surpluses that may not materialize. The other part of the problem is that Washington is starting to realize that Bush's gargantuan proposal is essentially payback only to the very wealthy, leaving millions of less-well-off families behind.

The new filly arrived late Monday afternoon and seems to be settling in well. His majesty, the big gelding, is enchanted. I will get some pictures together after the dust has settled a bit. ;-)

AP: Australia shaken by election defeat -- "Australia's conservative government was shaken Sunday by a disastrous defeat in a key state election as many of its supporters flocked to a right-wing, anti-immigrant party....Many conservatives switched to One Nation, a right-wing group headed by Pauline Hanson that advocates limiting everything from immigration to farm regulation."

Former president Clinton defends the pardons in an op-ed piece in the NY Times. (Free registration required)

Washington Post: At the White House, 'Moving On' or Piling On? -- "President Bush and his aides have publicly called for an end to the Clinton-bashing, but privately they may be fanning the flames."

Guardian Unlimited: Blair and Bush defy world fury -- "Britain and America vowed to launch fresh air raids against Iraq yesterday despite facing international isolation after Friday's strikes on radar sites near Baghdad." According to off-the-record Pentagon sources, more strikes are on the way.

Joshua Allen, a former Linux developer who is now at Microsoft, offers some interesting comments regarding the flap over Jim Allchin's recent comments about Linux and the death of intellectual property. If one looks at Linux in terms of the underlying GPL (GNU Public License) and Richard Stallman's anti-intellectual-property philosophy (Stallman authored the GPL), it might indeed be fair to say that Linux "threatens" intellectual property rights.

I wasted some time this evening fooling around with my old Power Mac (6115), with its 28.8k modem, broken CDROM drive, and 256-color display. Geeeeez! That was a couple of computers ago, but I wonder how I ever did anything on it besides e-mail. It is so slow....

We're expecting a new arrival Monday -- a 2-year-old filly in need of a new home. She's mustang/Quarter Horse, still green, but reportedly of good disposition. The big gelding will probably like having some female company, but I suspect there will also be some jealousy and a tantrum or two. ;-) I hope to be able to grab some pictures on the big day.

Microsoft's comments yesterday that open-source software is un-American and threatens to destroy intellectual property rights got some other people's dander up as well. Andrew Leonard, of Salon, writes:

Open-source software is becoming big business these days -- Microsoft's gibbering fear is clear evidence of that. But originally, free software grew out of individual passion. Richard Stallman, who worked on the GNU project, and Linus Torvalds and the thousands of other developers who created Linux, did it not to make a buck, but because they wanted to. They were pursuing their own happiness without regard to revenue generation or market share. What could be more American than that?

I removed yesterday's hot-headed comment about the lease model for operating systems and software -- we don't know yet what sort of annual cost might be involved. However, I'm still not crazy about the idea of subscription software.

Microsoft to Congress: Linux is a threat to the world!

CNET: Microsoft executive says Linux threatens innovation -- "Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating-system chief, Jim Allchin, says that freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat. The result will be the demise of both intellectual property rights and the incentive to spend on research and development, he said yesterday, after the company previewed its latest version of Windows. Microsoft has told U.S. lawmakers of its concern while discussing protection of intellectual property rights."

Linux is apparently Microsoft's Osama bin Laden. Redmond's continued mantra of 'innovation' has already been questioned elsewhere at great length over the years; the general model has been to 'borrow' or buy others' ideas. The allegation that we will see the death of intellectual property rights is hysterical nonsense. The MS collective must be really worried about Linux to make such an idiotic statement. In the trade, this is referred to as spreading 'FUD' (fear, uncertainty and doubt).

Brian Behlendorf, founder of open-source company CollabNet Inc., noted, ''I think Microsoft is trying to paint the open-source community as being fascist; that all software have has to be free, or none of it can be.''

Paul Andrews: New version of Windows introduced -- "'The challenge is, what hardware will it work on?' said Chris LeTocq, research director for the Gartner Group, a leading industry trends tracker. Noting that Windows XP is being aimed at computers sold after January 1999, he said, 'People at home keep systems around a lot longer than two years.'" (NY Times, free registration required)

Wired News: Amazon Loses Patent Suit Round -- Amazon.com thought it had a leg up on the competition a couple of years ago when it patented its popular '1-Click' shopping system. But now, a federal appeals court is casting doubt on whether the patent is as broad as Amazon believed it to be.

Who shall watch the Watchers? An interesting thread at kuro5hin discussing "The Transparent Society" by David Brin. The poster asks, "How about starting a new political party 'The Transparents', where, to be a member, you have to consent to being on 24-hr webcam? If everyone could just tune in to make sure you're not up to anything corrupt, it might make you more honest."

Red Herring: Profile: The Web cubed. 2CE, a startup based in Pennsylvania, has tapped the expertise of architects to come up with a novel way to navigate the Web, using three dimensions. But can its browser, which utilizes a cube metaphor, really deliver a better experience for users?

NY Times: Kansas puts evolution back into public schools -- "Adoption of the standards places evolution squarely back into the state's science curriculum, but not without adding language that may appease Christian conservatives and others who oppose the teaching of evolution in public schools as the origin of man." (Free registration required)

Gold Kist, Inc. has recalled 210 tons of chicken, sold nationally, over a pesticide scare. [Reuters]

AP: Lawyers may oppose 'zero tolerance' -- "Leaders of the 400,000-member American Bar Association probably will come out against such rules at the close of their winter meeting, even though some schools say lawyers were a big part of the reason for adopting zero tolerance policies." These sorts of no-questions blanket rules were originally adopted to protect school districts from lawsuits by parents alleging racial or other bias in disciplinary matters. This has resulted in cases where a student in possession of aspirin may be suspended along with a student in possession of marijuna.

Washtech: Microsoft names new president -- Rick Belluzzo will take the helm from Steve Ballmer, who will "concentrate more on corporate strategy."

Group lobbying to send humans to Mars -- The Mars Society views this as the next great thing after the Moon programs of the sixties and feels that NASA's robot-oriented program is missing the boat.

Thomas L. Friedman: Space Rangers -- "President Bush's foreign policy seems to be focused on only one idea, which, so far, doesn't work -- building a 'Star Wars' missile shield -- against an enemy that, so far, doesn't exist." (NY Times, free registration required)

AP: Terrorism Act Draws Mixed Reviews -- "Anti-terrorist legislation that comes into force next week is hailed by the [British] government as a powerful weapon against international violence. But opponents say the law will stifle dissent, whether on the Internet or in slogans on a T-shirt."

Just saw the "60 Minutes II" interview with the head of the NSA. Fascinating. The tone wasn't particularly hysterical. It sounds as though the NSA is making a concerted effort to adapt to the new world following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. It also sounds like they want more budget money for more infrastructure to keep up with the exponential increase in sig-int volume. I still don't understand why I am supposed to freak out because bin Laden uses e-mail. Do they want to "shut down" the Internet? Good luck.

CNN: Spacecraft may get extra week on asteroid -- "NASA is expected to announce Wednesday that the NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) mission will be extended another week to allow time for the robot ship to collect more readings about the constituent properties of the asteroid...." Fantastic photographs!

Feed: Disappearing Act -- "This concentrates a huge amount of power in the hands of Michael Powell, the FCC's new chief. And if Powell goes through with even half of what he's been promising in his speeches over the last couple of years, the FCC under his tenure will catalyze the greatest change in our media landscape since the Depression."

AP: Bin Laden's Technology Said Better -- "Osama bin Laden, the Saudi exile wanted for allegedly masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, has better communications technology than the United States, according to the director of the National Security Agency." This is weird. The NSA doesn't normally give interviews. Is this more fuel for the "Be afraid, very afraid" propaganda fire, or are we in deep crud?

Be careful the next time you refer to someone as 'pond scum'.

"Those who are looking for forgiveness of responsibility for their own lives in the genetic code will be very disappointed" [Craig Venter, president and chief scientific officer of Celera Genomics, quoted on Reuters]. Celera disdains the 'one gene, one patent, one drug' model that has been so much in the media recently. Competing genetic researchers are not all in agr

InternetNews: Human Rights Watch Focuses Eyes on China Net Trial -- "Human rights group Human Rights Watch Friday urged diplomats in Beijing to send observers to the trial of Chinese Webmaster Huang Qi, calling it a significant test of the limits of free expression."

Forbes: Charlotte's Goat -- The chromosomes of two female Nigerian dwarf goats "have been manipulated to include a gene from the orb weaver, a palm-size spider that spins the world's toughest natural material." The goats' milk "looks and tastes like the real thing, but once its proteins are filtered and purified into a fine white powder, they can be spun into tough thread." The article notes that a woven cable, the thickness of a man's thumb, can support the weight of a jumbo jet. Nexia Biotechnologies, the company behind this seeming breakthrough (which stands to make a lot of money), believes that "animals can mass-produce drugs and highly engineered materials more cheaply and efficiently than vats and machines." Fascinating. What are the ethical implications here?

The Register: US Congress whips up 'cyber menace' again -- "Saxton and Chambliss call for federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to conduct a new study of cyberterrorists, defined as computer-savvy terrorist groups determined to crack American computer networks and sabotage critical infrastructures like banking and finance, energy production and distribution, transportation, and national defence."

Former counter-terrorism Czar Richard Clarke takes a slightly different view, noting: "I don't know what a 'cyberterrorist' is. We have not found a terrorist group engaged in computer attacks on the United States. We haven't even found one preparing for computer attacks on the United States."

We seem to have a national taxpayer-funded industry whose sole mission appears to be scaring the crap out of everyone. Is this self-serving posturing and fear-mongering? As one pundit noted a few days ago, "The smartest terrorist in the world [Osama bin Laden] uses e-mail -- Duh!"

Sunday Times (London): IBM's Guilty Past -- "IBM did not invent Germany's anti-semitism, but when Germany wanted to identify the Jews by name, IBM showed it how. When the Reich wanted to use that information to launch programmes of social expulsion and expropriation, IBM provided the means. When the trains had to run on time between concentration camps, IBM offered the solution. Ultimately, there was no solution that IBM would not devise for a Reich willing to pay for services rendered." [Note: These are allegations contained in a book to be published tomorrow, parts of which are serialized in the Times.]

While the State of Michigan (see yesterday) and other entities are doing their best to stifle anonymous speech, AT&T's Publius project has received an anti-censorship award in Britain.

AP: California companies ignored power cuts -- "Only 62 percent of Southern California Edison's so-called 'interruptible customers' cut power when asked, according to a report by the Public Utilities Commission. Some 90 percent of Pacific Gas & Electric customers did so." These are companies who signed on for reduced rates in exchange for voluntarily cutting power during a crunch. Millions of dollars of fines were assessed, but these may go unpaid.

Washington Post: In Calif., growing rage on energy -- "But even as California's elected leaders call the recovery plan taking shape the state's best hope, they sound wary of the public fury it may soon unleash. Some are bracing for an uprising seismically comparable to the tax rebellion here in the late 1970s that spawned Proposition 13."

AtNewYork: The myths and realities of peer-to-peer networking

ZDNet: Don't be fooled: DCS1000 still a 'Carnivore' at heart -- "A spokesman for the FBI denied that the name change stemmed from worries that the name Carnivore made the system sound like a predatory device made to invade people's privacy." Yeah, right...

Brock N. Meeks: A nation of suspects -- "We are a nation of suspects waiting for a summons. The revelation that this yearís Super Bowl attendees were covertly placed in what amounted to a digital police lineup merely puts a public face on a growing privacy concern: the 24/7 surveillance of the American public." [MSNBC]

Paul Krugman: Slicing the Salami -- "The selling of George W. Bush's tax cut relies heavily on salami tactics -- slicing away opposition a bit at a time." (NY Times, free registration required)

Our latest witch-hunt

Wired: Would pedophile law go too far? -- "Proposed legislation in Michigan designed to help prosecute pedophiles would rip the anonymity out of free Internet service providers nationwide. That would have a deleterious effect on free speech, privacy advocates say."

Wayne County Deputy Chief of Staff Ralph Kinney blames free Internet service providers (such as NetZero) for the fact that three alleged "bad guys" eluded their grasp in the space of over two years (in a county with a population of 2 million). Might we instead blame parents who let their minor children use the Internet without supervision?

An admittedly bad analogy: Parents let their 10-year-old go off alone to a known bad part of town at 11:00 at night, then demand that the authorities shut down half the city because something ill befell their kid.

Guardian Unlimited: Warming could be worst in 10,000 years -- "In one of the ironies of global politics, the scientists issued their report on the day that George Bush - who has said he is not convinced climate change is really happening - took office as the new US president." [From Jan. 23, 2001]    A recent separate British report states that Global warming 'will kill thousands' in UK. Malaria in Britain? On the brighter side, the report notes that winter deaths of the elderly will likely decrease as the temperature rises.

CNET: Gnutella swapping cookies, too -- "One of several file-swapping networks riding the coattails of Napster's success, Gnutella allows people to open the contents of their computers to create a virtual swap meet for MP3s, software, video and text files. A recent casual search of the system revealed scores of files that could compromise the service's users."

AP: EEOC sues to end genetic testing -- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has requested that Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad cease genetic testing of workers who had filed claims related to carpal tunnel syndrome, charging that the testing violates workers' privacy and is in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

National Review: Do fake boobs go to heaven? -- Rod Dreher reviews the lamentable new religious propaganda/rapture flick, 'Left Behind.' (Lest readers think this is merely religion-bashing, Dreher mentions that he is a practicing Catholic. It's just that the movie is apparently really, really bad.)

InternetNews: Congressional group to study web bugs:

"Web bugs" are tiny, often-transparent embedded graphics in Web pages that can report a visitor's IP address, cookie information, and referring URL to the site's owner or a company hosting advertising on the site, like DoubleClick or MatchLogic. Since many e-mail clients can read HTML e-mail, Web bugs can sometimes be inserted in e-mail. That makes it possible for the company that set the Web bug to match up an e-mail address -- considered personally identifiable information -- with a previously-set cookie. Online advertising company DoubleClick raised the ire of privacy advocates by doing just that -- combining previously-anonymous data profiles with personally identifiable information.

Another reason HTML mail and cookies suck . . .

Red Herring: Monosodium glutamate (MSG) has been given a clean bill of health. "Chinese restaurant syndrome . . . has a long and variable list of symptoms, including numbness in the neck, back, and arms, weakness, palpitations, headache, flushing, tingling, heartburn, facial tightness or pressure, chest pain, sweating, and nausea." Controlled, double-blind studies exonerated MSG (which is also found in pasta/tomato sauce dishes), leaving researchers to wonder what does cause Chinese restaurant syndrome.

Computerworld: For your own security, send Valentines the old-fashioned way -- "Whether it is mailboxes overloaded with otherwise harmless Valentines greetings or a malicious, Italian-language variant of the 'I Love You' virus, vendors, analysts and e-mail administrators are reminding users to remember the lessons learned from the Melissa and (English version) 'I Love You' worms."

Environmental News Network: Dirtier power plants may be next episode in power crisis

Washington Post: Patently Ridiculous -- British Telcom has decided that it holds patents covering 'hyptertext,' never mind prior art preceding their patent by at least a decade. Picking up on the recent trend towards patenting 'ideas,' Tim O'Reilly, president of the technology publisher O'Reilly and Associates, noted: "As you start to go down that path, you're turning more and more of human interaction into property."

The NY Times has asked Userland Software to stop reading their XML news feeds. Bummer.

Wired: Feds say Fidel is hacker threat -- "It might seem odd to view a country best known for starving livestock, Elian Gonzalez and acute toilet paper shortages as a looming threat, but the Pentagon seems entirely serious."

Environment News Service: Soot called major cause of global warming -- "A study in the current issue of the journal 'Nature' indicates that soot may be the second biggest contributor to global warming - just behind the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide."

BBC: Chinese webmaster on trial for 'subversion' -- The "trial underscores the Chinese Government's determination not to allow the internet to be used to distribute material that challenges the authorities."

NY Times: The Pardons Look More Sordid. President Clinton's decision to pardon financier Marc Rich was an inexcusable abuse of his absolute clemency power. Congress should reach an expeditious account of the interplay between fund-raising and the pardons. (Free registration required)

The Times (UK): Insurance firm admits using genetic screening. One of Britain's biggest insurance companies admitted yesterday using unapproved genetic tests for potentially fatal diseases when assessing whether to offer life coverage.

NY Times: Cancer Painkillers Are Being Abused. Harried police detectives in dozens of rural areas in Eastern states are combatting what they say is a growing wave of drug abuse involving a potent painkiller prescribed for terminal cancer patients and other people with severe pain.

In Tapping Net, F.B.I. Insists Privacy Is Not a Victim -- "...The F.B.I. is not depending on Carnivore alone for the future of online surveillance. According to budget documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center under a Freedom of Information Act request, the bureau's plans include developing ways to listen in on the growing medium of voice telephone calls conducted over the Internet and to monitor the live online discussion system known as Internet Relay Chat, as well as other network technologies...." (NY Times, free registration required)

Unhappy meals -- "Fast Food Nation," a stomach-churning critique of the health and labor practices of the burger business, argues that Americans should change their dietary habits. Good luck. [Salon]

NY Times: Deconstructing Gale Norton: Despite her polished public-relations performances, Secretary of Interior Gale Norton is heading toward a policy that opens up more of the public lands to oil and gas exploration. (Free registration required)

Wired: Follow Your E-Mail Everywhere. Spammers have been using the trick for years: inserting a 'bug' in their spam that tells them whenever it's been opened, and where. These programs are now available to the public, and privacy advocates are not too happy. Another reason that HTML mail sucks.

NY Times: Five drug makers use material with possible madcow link -- Despite Food and Drug Administration requests, pharmaceutical firms have continued to use materials from cattle raised in countries with a risk of mad cow disease in nine widely used vaccines. (Free registration required)

Dan Gillmor: "Bush will never talk about the fact that the overwhelming majority of the money in this tax reduction plan will go to people who make more than $200,000 a year. Parading middle-class families across a stage won't change that."

Paul Krugman: Bums and Rushes -- "Think of it as a bum's rush ó an attempt to run tax-cut skeptics out of town before they have a chance to make their case. But the attempt itself is a giveaway; it shows why the tax cut Mr. Bush proposes is not what the country needs." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Woman in Canada Ebola-free, unknown virus feared

Global warming - fact or fiction?

BBC: Arctic now adding to global warming -- There is now "emerging evidence that the Arctic permafrost, the soil that used to stay frozen all year round, was now releasing carbon as it thawed."

Humans are not disrupting climate -- In this letter to the editor of the Florida Times-Union, the writer argues that implementing energy taxes and greenhouse-gas reduction policies (the Kyoto treaty) will merely hurt the poor further and cause unemployment. Scientific opinion is divided about the validity of global warming. With rising energy costs, many low-income families are already forced to "choose between heating and eating."

Is the solution to ignore the Kyoto treaty because global warming is inconvenient and costly? The gentleman who wrote the above letter to the newspaper mentions that virtually everything we require to have normal, safe, productive lives requires energy. On the surface, that seems a valid point. But perhaps we are spoiled and over-consumptive. I recall seeing a satellite photo recently of the Earth at night. Guess where all the bright light is coming from. The rest of the planet looks fairly dark.

Scientific American: Is global warming harmful to health? -- "Computer models indicate that many diseases will surge as the earthís atmosphere heats up. Signs of the predicted troubles have begun to appear." [From August, 2000]

The Environmental Protection Agency's [EPA] Global warming site

Reuters: White House reverses, will keep AIDS, race offices -- "White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said [Andy] Card was mistaken when he told USA Today that the offices would be closed."

Maureen Dowd: Taxing My Patience. Washington smells of mothballs -- a tax cut, recession fears, a Star Wars shield, energy woes, abortion curbs, Christian righteousness, a rumor of war in the Middle East, the trio of Bush, Powell and Cheney saber-rattling at Saddam. (NY Times, free registration required)

Wired: Casting a Shadow on Invisible Ink. A report suggesting terrorist groups are using message-scrambling techniques to plot acts of terrorism is frightening, but are the FBI and CIA using it to justify further restricting encryption and steganography programs?

CNN: Court orders supplier to keep power on.

Guardian Unlimited: Israel gives up on peace with Sharon victory -- Israel yielded to the dark fears unleashed by a Palestinian uprising yesterday, voting by a staggering margin to entrust their future to a man famous for making war, Ariel Sharon.

Reuters Health e-line: Study shows no link between cell phone and cancer

Wired: Is Amazon's Honor Plan Honorable?. Amazon's new honor system gives the company new power to track customers. It's saying 'trust us, we won't peek.' Critics smell a fox near the henhouse.

The Register: Verizon hit with another DSL lawsuit

CNN: Woman in Canada may have Ebola

AP: Lawyer to plead guilty in Waco case -- "Former prosecutor Bill Johnston says he will plead guilty to obstructing an investigation into the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco."

Leroy S. Rouner: Civil Religion, Cultural Diversity, And American Civilization -- "I believe that American civil religion has made possible the multicultural ideology of freedom that gave Americans their identity and is a major contribution to contemporary world politics."

Tony Snow: Plain talk about God unnerves Washington -- Bush's "affirmations sting Beltway insiders like ice hurled by the winter winds because they remind the Washington elite that it has little or no connection to the tens of millions of Americans for whom religion not merely is tonic, but is the essence of life and truth." Snow offers some insightful comments about the hubris of governmental activism, "civil religion," and humility.

NY Times: The perils of high-tech voting -- In the aftermath of the Florida ballot mess, there is a great hue and cry for high-tech electronic voting systems. How can these systems be made both anonymous and tamper-proof? (NY Times, free registration required)

BBC: Planet Earth on the move -- "Mankind will soon have the ability to move the Earth into a new orbit, say a team of astronomers. The planetary manoeuvre may more than double the time life can survive on our planet, they believe." The disclaimer, so to speak, at the bottom of the article is a bit unnerving.

Saudi Arabia has arrested three Westerners in connection with a fatal bombing. The trio was shown on state television, apparently admitting guilt (with an Arabic voice-over). Human rights group Amnesty International stated: "Secrecy, torture and unfair trials are the hallmarks of Saudi justice. Guilt or innocence can only be determined during a fair trial and not by parading in front of TV cameras." [AP]

CNN: Privacy group warns of e-mail wiretap -- The vulnerability involves lines of Javascript embedded in an HTML mail message and affects only Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook, Outlook Express or version 6 of Netscape's browser/e-mail client. If sender and recipient have Javascript enabled in their e-mail, it is possible for the sender of the original message to read what the recipient writes if the message is forwarded to another party. The exploit apparently will not work with Qualcomm's Eudora e-mail client, or with web-based e-mail such as HotMail.

Update: The Javascript vulnerability apparently affects only version 5 of Outlook Express, not the later version 5.5. The vulnerability also pertains to replied-to messages, not merely forwarded messages. See E-Mail Vulnerable to Snoopers at ABC; there are links in the article sidebar with instructions on how to disable Javascript in various mail clients.

ABC: Juno wants your brain -- Juno Online Services, one of the few remaining free Internet services, may require users to leave their computers on 24 hours a day and run special software that does other tasks during idle periods. The plan is to sell "unused processing power from subscribers' computers to research institutions and corporations." Richard Smith, of the Privacy Foundation, noted, " I have concerns about how well their customers will be aware of whatís going on."

Philadelphia Inquirer: The economy? No sweat. Watch cloning, arms and global warming -- "...Washington, besotted with bipartisan bonhomie, would rather not deal with these new threats; it's far easier to throw money at old concerns."

AP: Pentagon steps up POW probe -- "...Pentagon investigators are intensifying their search for Cold War-era Russian records that could confirm reports that American servicemen from World War II and the Korean War were held and died in the network of labor camps known as the gulag."

NY Times: An innocent man goes free 33 years after conviction -- "This wasn't a mistake.... This was an intentional abuse by participants in our system of justice." (NY Times, free registration required)

Washington Post: Mr. Bush's Justice Department -- "...If Mr. Ashcroft sticks to the views that marked his political career -- and the Justice Department ceases thereby to play its traditional role as protector of civil rights and civil liberties -- the country will be the loser."

Lance Morrow: The roots of America's culture war -- "The opposing philosophies at work in today's society can be traced back to Tocqueville and Gramsci...."

A new Associated Press poll shows that the majority of Americans oppose oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Reuters: California governor signs energy rescue plan -- "To pay for the power purchases, the state will issue bonds backed by electricity revenues -- an amount that some estimates see hitting $10 billion. And, in one of its most controversial provisions, it authorizes the California Public Utilities Commission to approve rate hikes for consumers who use power in excess of a 'baseline' rate deemed sufficient for running an average home."

L.A. Times: Arctic oil a sham answer -- "Cheney said California built no power plants in the past 10 years because of excessive environmental controls. In fact, it was regulatory uncertainty and economic decisions by utilities and private generating companies that caused the lack of new plants."

Reuters: Divided U.S. Senate confirms Ashcroft 58-42 -- Democrats aimed to send a very strong message to George W. Bush: Don't ever send us another extreme-right candidate.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office needs some serious reform -- a patent for thought itself appears to have just been issued. Thought for today: Orwell was an optimist.

AP: California Assembly rejects power bill -- "The Assembly narrowly rejected a $10 billion plan early Thursday to ease California's electricity crisis by letting the state buy power on behalf of two cash-starved utilities."

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof....

Scott Rosenberg: When did religion turn into 'faith-based' activity? -- "If President Bush wishes to hand taxpayers' money over to religious organizations I would like for him to name them as such, and not veil his plans in the comforting gauze of euphemism."

Bruce Shapiro: Bringing faith to the West Wing -- "John DiIulio, who once spread fear about juvenile 'superpredators,' will now run President Bush's faith-based charity programs -- and build an army from GOP patronage."

Arianna Huffington: The base of poverty -- "What's also missing is the recognition that faith-based initiatives on poverty cannot be pursued in isolation from the rest of Bush's agenda. No church or synagogue is an island, unaffected by other national policies -- especially those that impact our criminal justice system and the war on drugs. The divide that starts with the poverty line has been increasingly ending at the jailhouse wall. Religious leaders will find that it's tough to be your brother's keeper when the warden holds the keys."