Dan Gillmor: Intel backs consumers over Hollywood -- "Today, a senior Intel executive will tell a U.S. Senate committee that the entertainment industry's inflexible stance on digital copy protection threatens technological innovation and wounds the public interest. Intel's stance, given its size and clout, is a significant boost for those who want to preserve consumers' rights in the Digital Age." Go Intel!

Nixon pondered nuking North Vietnam -- Nixon acknowledged this fact in 1985. However, among hundreds of hours of tapes, released Thursday at the National Archives, he reportedly sounds almost cavalier about the idea. [CNN]

Reuters: Democrats Question Expansion of War on Terrorism -- "After months of solid support for President Bush's war on terrorism, the top Senate Democrat on Thursday questioned White House plans to expand the war and said Saudi-born fugitive Osama bin Laden must be found for the effort to succeed."

MSNBC: EPA official quits, rips White House -- "The head of regulatory enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency has stepped down..., claiming in a resignation letter that the EPA is 'fighting a White House that seems determined to weaken the rules we are trying to enforce.'”

Hormone swings affect men too, suggests research -- "The newly recognised condition of irritable male syndrome plays havoc with male animals, temporarily turning confident, chest-beating Tarzans into withdrawn, grumpy wimps. And there's some evidence that irritable male syndrome, which is triggered by a sudden drop in testosterone, affects men as well as animals, says Gerald Lincoln of the Medical Research Council's Human Reproductive Sciences Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland." [New Scientist, via ViewFromTheHeart]

CNET: When a city's cost is bad for business -- "A huge exodus from San Francisco may be under way as high-tech companies pack their bags for cheaper North American cities and regions, according to a study."

Reuters: L.A. airport evacuated after detector not turned on -- "Hundreds of passengers were evacuated from five terminals at Los Angeles International airport and flights were delayed after officials learned a piece of security screening equipment had not been turned on, a spokeswoman for the airport said on Thursday." The story is later corrected to report that the metal detector was malfunctioning, not turned off.

Matthew Engel: Washington broods over X-ray prognosis -- "As the prisoners while away the weeks in their flyblown cages at Camp X-Ray, Washington's government lawyers are in a state of confusion and embarrassment, having so far failed to come up with a coherent plan for the captives' future. . . . Their fate will depend on the outcome of a power struggle in the administration, in which the crucial figure is Alberto Gonzales, the chief counsel to President Bush and among the frontrunners to be the US's next chief justice." [The Guardian]

USA Today: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths -- "The study shows that far more fallout than previously known reached the USA from nuclear tests in the former Soviet Union and on several Pacific islands used for U.S. and British exercises. It also finds that fallout from scores of U.S. trials at the Nevada Test Site spread substantial amounts of radioactivity across broad swaths of the country. When fallout from all tests, domestic and foreign, is taken together, no U.S. resident born after 1951 escaped exposure, the study says."

A nostalgic look at 'Space Wars', the first computer video game, developed in the 60s at MIT. [NY Times]

Pacific Newswire: Hollywood widens slur targets to Arab and Muslim Americans since Sept. 11 -- "Our country's leadership has gone out of its way to distinguish between Islam and terrorism in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Yet, Hollywood has ignored that distinction completely. Major television networks -- including NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS -- have not only gone to great lengths to vilify Arab Muslims since then, but have introduced a very dangerous new equation: Arab Americans and Muslim Americans equals terrorist."

Narrowband

Garret posted a link yesterday to a good overview of the limitations of satellite net access. Yow, this is too true. While I'm not into online gaming, stock-trading, or real-time video networking, upload speed pretty much stinks with Earthlink satellite service in conjunction with Direcway (1000 bps, maybe 3000 bps). This is something that these guys will never tell you up front. Plus, their hook is a hefty cancellation fee for early termination of the one-year contract, so long as the service ''works.'' While download speeds can be awesome, and it's nice to not sit around waiting for a dial-up connection, merely checking e-mail or uploading changed web pages can be an adventure in patience. Bottom line: Definitely not recommended unless all you do is web-surf.

Slate: Why is the president's budget downsizing security at our nuclear weapons labs? -- "POGO [Project on Government Oversight] further alleges that DOE has cut the budget for moving a small nuclear reactor at the Sandia nuclear laboratory in New Mexico to a more secure area underground from $28 million to zero. 'That program was the one positive step the DOE had taken in years,' says Stockton. 'And in next year's budget, they simply axed it.'"

Reuters: Court Tells Energy Dept to Produce Documents -- "A federal judge has ordered the Department of Energy to hand over documents to an environmental group seeking to learn what influence Enron Corp. and other companies had on the administration's energy policy."

The Register: MPAA's Valenti pushes for copy-control PCs -- "While much of the letter is devoted to incoherent ranting about some dastardly cabal of 'professors' who are trying to rip the guts out of Hollywood, and hysterical claims such as 'some 350,000-plus films are being downloaded illegally every day,' we do get an interesting wrap-up where the industry Ass. President alludes to the need for the PC to be transformed into a secure content-distrbution device along the lines of a set-top box."

Hands of 'doomsday clock' reset toward danger -- "It is the closest to midnight that the clock has been positioned since the end of the Cold War, but not as close as the record danger position -- two minutes to midnight -- in 1953 when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb." [Reuters]

Joe Conason: Press falls for lie about Clinton, Enron -- "Fearful about the potential political impact of Enron, members of the Republican propaganda corps quickly realized they should argue that both parties were equally corrupted by the energy firmís money. Simple mathematics belied this assertion, but simple minds might be persuaded anyway." [New York Observer]

NY Times: House Approves Broadband Access Bill -- "The bill would remove requirements in the 1996 Telecommunications Act that the regional Bell companies first open their networks to competitors before being allowed to offer high-speed Internet service nationwide."

Reuters: Greenspan sees moderate economic recovery but warns that the recovery will likely only be moderate.

T. Rex wasn't likely as fast as in the movies. [BBC]

Reuters: Pentagon Closes Short-Lived Information Office -- "The Pentagon on Tuesday shut down its short-lived strategic information office after media reports suggested it might be used to spread disinformation abroad to bolster U.S. defense policy. . . . Rumsfeld said the U.S. military had never lied and would never lie about its actions." Of course, at the beginning of the war on terrorism, Mr. Rumsfeld had made it explicitly clear that the US would lie, if need be. The semantic niggling in recent statements concerns lying to the American public. Ironically, much of the non-spun, unsanitized war news comes from abroad, often providing a more accurate account than provided by the US media.

In the meantime, the Pentagon is running out of money to fight the war on terrorism. "The military bill alone could total $30 billion by October and, with only $17.4 billion approved by Congress to date, funds could begin running out in April or May. . . ." [Reuters]

The London Independent: 2000 people detained since 9/11 are without legal rights -- ". . .Haddad's case is perhaps the most troubling of all because of the sheer severity of his treatment and the shockingly abrupt suspension of his rights to due legal process. Government lawyers have refused to spell out what evidence, if any, they have against him, saying that they do not have to under the Bush administration's stiff new anti-terrorism law passed in late October, the so-called Patriot Act. The US Attorney's office in Chicago refused all comment."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich: A prayer for America -- "We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?" [Counterpunch]

Reuters: U.S. military plane fired on in Pakistan -- "No shots, thought to be from an anti-aircraft gun, hit the aircraft and there was no damage or casualties...."

NY Times: State pulls data from Internet in attempt to thwart terrorists -- "The Pataki administration has quietly ordered state agencies to restrict information available on the Internet and limit its release through New York's Freedom of Information Law to prevent terrorists from using the material, which includes maps of electrical grids and reservoirs as well as building floor plans."

Karen Schneider: The Patriot Act - Last Refuge of a Scoundrel -- "The cold, cynical reality is that the Patriot Act is a bloated hodgepodge of speech-chilling law that lurked in congressional corridors not only before September 11 but in large part before the Bush administration. It was hustled into reality in the post-9/11 environment so quickly, secretively, and undemocratically that our Bill of Rights had been clocked with a one-two punch well before any of us realized it was under attack." [American Libraries]

NY Times: Death of reporter puts focus on Pakistan's intelligence unit -- "Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, has vowed to prosecute everyone involved, an inquiry that could well raise the lid on one of the more unsavory chapters in this country's recent history: the ties between radical Islamic groups and Pakistan's main intelligence service."

NY Times: Bush's hopes for Republican to run California hit a snag -- "Despite Mr. Riordan's lack of devotion to many Republican positions, Mr. Bush's advisers urged him to run, so determined were they to find a candidate with popular appeal in the general election. . . . The Davis camp, which had hoped its advertising assault would cripple Mr. Riordan for the general election, is euphoric that he may not even survive to November."

Norman Solomon: Appetite for Destruction - Thomas Friedman Preaches War On PBS -- "A passage from Friedman's 1999 book The Lexus and the Olive Tree sums up his overarching global perspective: 'The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist. McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the U.S. Air Force F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technologies to flourish is called the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.'" [TOMPAINE.com]

Paul Knox: The Ministry of Truth -- "But now, after hearing U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's pledge to 'tell the American people and the people of the world the truth,' we're positively serene." [The Globe and Mail, via wood s lot]

Chronicle of Higher Education: Colleges fear anti-terrorism law could turn them into Big Brother -- "Opening student computer files without their permission. Reporting on the library books checked out by a graduate student. Collecting data on who on campus is sending e-mail to whom. To many college technology and library officials, these sound like invasions of privacy that are antithetical to the traditions of academe. But these are the sorts of actions that a new law may well permit or in some cases require. And colleges are struggling to understand their obligations and rights under the measure, which is only now attracting their attention and is leaving many campus officials confused or worried."

The Independent: Murdoch firm tried to kill satire on Bush -- "The success of Stupid White Men ... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation by populist film-maker and activist Michael Moore is surely causing red faces at HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch."

China frees Christians detained during Bush visit -- "China has released all 47 Christians detained for 'illegally gathering' during US President George W Bush's visit, a rights group said." [MSN]

NY Times: Bush proposing to shift burden of toxic cleanups to taxpayers -- "Faced with dwindling reserves in the huge account that gave the Superfund waste cleanup program its name, the Bush administration has decided to designate fewer sites for restoration and to shift the bulk of the costs from industry to taxpayers." The original concept of the Superfund was that the polluters pay. (Free registration required)

NY Times: New clues suggest bin Laden is alive on Afghan border

Reuters: Israelis claim slain reporter as their own -- Claims that Pearl was a spy are dismissed as 'rubbish.'

Reuters: Police fire rubber bullets at Olympics rioters

The Observer: Mickey Mouse threatens to block all ideas in future -- The U.S. Congress "has steadily increased the period during which creative works enjoy copyright protection - from the 28 years envisaged by the framers of the American Constitution to the current position of the author's life plus 70 years for individuals and 95 years for works created by corporations." Much of this has been driven by Disney and the recording industry.

US medical chief quits after anthrax criticism -- "Dr Jeffrey Koplan, director of the centres for disease control and prevention, is to step down at the end of March after nearly four years in the job. The decencies were preserved, with Dr Koplan denying that he had been pushed out, but sources close to the agency made it clear that his departure was largely the result of tensions between him and the health secretary, Tommy Thompson." [The Guardian]

Bush says U.S. needs to drill for oil in Alaska -- "Facing tough odds in the U.S. Senate, President Bush on Saturday launched a new campaign to gain approval for oil drilling in a pristine Alaskan wildlife refuge, saying it would create jobs and help wean America from foreign oil." [Reuters]

Chuck Jones, Bugs Bunny animator, dies at 89 (NY Times, free registration required)

Northrop makes bid for TRW -- "Northrop Grumman Corp. made an unsolicited $11.4 billion bid for TRW Inc. yesterday, a move that could make it the nation's largest defense contractor and a major player in almost every area of defense, from beneath the waves to outer space." [Washington Post]

Anthrax suspected at Georgia base -- "Six people underwent decontamination at U.S. Army Reserve headquarters near Atlanta after a suspicious package tested positive for anthrax, defense officials told NBC News late Friday." [MSNBC]

Student says FBI tried to coerce him -- "A federal judge has begun weighing claims that FBI agents threatened and abused a Jordanian student charged with lying to a grand jury about his association with two Sept. 11 hijackers." [MSNBC]

Record companies suing Napster ordered to prove copyright ownership -- "The judge also opened the door to legal discovery on Napster's claims that the labels misused their copyrights to dominate the growing online music distribution industry." [The Nando Times/AP] More at Wired.

I want bigger pipes

On the satellite front, it appears that Direcway (formerly DirecPC) service is solely designed for passive consumption of Net content (surfing web pages) and does no better job (sometimes worse) than a dial-up connection when trying to send content upstream -- upload changed web pages, for example, or send a large e-mail.

In fairness, the company makes no guarantees of any kind relating to data speed, but they do claim that the service is "equivalent to cable." Based on discussions with a friend who has cable Internet access, the upstream speed claims are dubious.

Meantime, Earthlink (who is the affiliate partner in our new service) says they will check this out with their engineering department and let us know.

Reuters: Bush defence budget will revive high-tech economy -- "US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday called on technology industry leaders to support an increased budget for defence and homeland security, saying it could help lead the high-tech sector out of recession." And make some folks very, very rich...

Reuters: GAO files lawsuit against White House -- "The investigative arm of Congress filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the White House on Friday to learn the role Enron Corp. and other energy companies played in developing the Bush administration's energy policy."

Jeffrey Tayler: The Next Threat to NATO -- Don't invite the Baltic states! [the Atlantic online]

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." -- Thomas Edison

Fried brains?

Wired: Radiation Still Hard to Prove -- "The Federal Trade Commission insisted it was simply cracking down on fraud when it recently sued two companies for falsely advertising products that purportedly shielded cell-phone callers from radiation."

Wired: Patents Prove Cell-Phone Dangers? -- "While Suder agreed the FTC should crack down on fraudulent claims, she said the cell-phone industry's reaction to the news showed it had a lot to hide in terms of the health risks associated with its products."

Suddenly my upcoming free week-long national long-distance doesn't sound as appealing.

Reuters: US reporter kidnapped in Pakistan confirmed dead

AP: U.S. copter crashes in Philippines

Group Claims UFOs to Participate in Closing Olympic Ceremony [Cosmiverse]

Pentagon makes 'war on terror' u-turn -- "The Pentagon has scrapped a secret plan to plant lies in the foreign media as part of a campaign to win support for its foreign policy. The plans to spread so-called 'black' propaganda emerged earlier this week after the Pentagon hired an outside agency to help target countries friendly to the US as well as hostile nations." [The Guardian]

Enron's Lay offered board seat to Robert Rubin -- "Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay offered a seat on the company's board in 1999 to Robert Rubin, who was then treasury secretary, and lobbied Rubin and his successor on issues affecting Enron, documents obtained Wednesday show." [CNN]

Smallpox Experiment Goes Well, Expert Says -- "An experiment aimed at stretching out current U.S. supplies of smallpox vaccine is going very well, the head of the government agency sponsoring the tests said on Sunday." [Reuters Wire]

Plague outbreak claims new victim in India [CNN]

Bush loses bid to end China's sales of missile technology -- "President Bush was unable during his visit this week to persuade China to halt sales of missile technology, an issue of rising importance as the United States fights its war on terrorism." [The Nando Times]

PC makers balk at Microsoft licenses -- "Under the new agreements, which Microsoft began putting into place late last year to satisfy the Consent Decree between the company and the government, the top two PC makers will pay $4 more per copy for Windows, according to a deposition by a senior Microsoft executive." [CNET]

The Sky Toilet Horror and Other Urban Legends [ABC]

Washington Post: Afghans live and die with U.S. mistakes -- Interesting that only now is the US mainstream media daring to talk about civilian deaths and mistaken targets, a subject which foreign media (Britain and elsewhere) has pounded on since the beginning of the war.

The Federation of American Scientists has some interesting observations on the identity of the anthrax attack perpetrator. More on this at the Trenton Times. [Via Blowback]

Christian Science Monitor: Bush's tough talk in the land of reticence -- "As President George Bush visits South Korea today, and then China later this week, officials in the region are on the edge of their seats." Nuance? Nah...

John Gittings: Brinksmanship on the 38th parallel -- "Pro-administration commentators portray Bush's line as a tactical shift away from Mr Kim's bright sunshine to a chiaroscuro diplomacy which may be more effective in the long run. It is still a risky game. The north has labelled its inclusion by Mr Bush in the axis of evil as a 'declaration of war.'" [The Guardian]

NY Times: "President Bush said today in Seoul that the United States had no intentions of invading or attacking North Korea and that his goal in the Korean peninsula was peace."

Reuters: "Italian officials squashed fears on Wednesday that Rome had been threatened by a bio-terrorist attack, saying a cyanide compound found in the possession of four Moroccans could not have poisoned the city's water supply. . . . Analysis showed the chemical was a form of potassium ferrocyanide, which is used in gardening."

NY Times op-ed: Managing the news -- "Plans being developed by the Pentagon's Orwellian new Office of Strategic Influence call for planting false stories in the foreign press and running other covert activities to manipulate public opinion. Such a program would undermine rather than reinforce the government's broader efforts to build international support." (Free registration required)

Maureen Dowd: Office of Strategic Mendacity -- "But let's look on the sunny side. At least the Bush administration is trying to disseminate information, even if it's fictional. Usually it's trying to suppress information, even if it's consequential." (NY Times, free registration required)

Washington Post: Pentagon divided over propaganda plan

Reuters: Italy arrests four Moroccans with cyanide, maps -- "Italian police have arrested four Moroccans in possession of large quantities of a cyanide compound which they might have intended to use in a bio-terrorist attack on Rome's water supply and the U.S. embassy, officials said."

Washington Post: President has tough words for N. Korea -- "President Bush said today that the United States would be willing to reopen a dialogue with North Korea but called the regime 'despotic' and said the burden was on Pyongyang to prove that it did not plan to threaten its neighbors with weapons of mass destruction."

Missed this while company was here:

To protect top bureaucrats, New York Times scrubs its own Osama bin Laden warning that it published on 9-9-01. Unfreakingbelievable... [via BookNotes]

Terry Jones: OK, George, make with the friendly bombs [Observer]

John Sutherland: No more Mr. Scrupulous Guy -- "Last Wednesday something strange happened. The American population was instructed to panic. Place themselves, that is, on a state of highest vigilance. Some cataclysmic act of terrorism would happen - within hours. But nothing terrible happened. Something creepy did. On Thursday there was an inconspicuous news item. John M Poindexter had been appointed to head a new agency 'to counter attacks on the US', such as Wednesday's no-show. It is equivalent, in British terms, to Jeffrey Archer being made chancellor of the exchequer."

NY Times: Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad -- "The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries, military officials said."

William Safire: The Great Unwatched -- "Is this the kind of world we want? The promise is greater safety; the tradeoff is government control of individual lives. Personal security may or may not be enhanced by this all-seeing eye and ear, but personal freedom will surely be sharply curtailed." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Cheney takes defense of Bush 'axis' on the road -- "'The president's remarks caused a certain amount of hand wringing in some quarters, but most Americans find it reassuring to have a commander-in-chief who tells the truth and who means exactly what he says,' Cheney said." Right...

1066 days, 19 hours until Inauguration Day 2005...

NY Times: In rural China, mental hospitals await some who rock the boat -- "Instead, for her tenacity in protesting a land dispute with her local government in rural Suileng County of Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, officials have had her forcibly committed to a series of psychiatric hospitals, five times in the last three years."

Reuters: Lay sold Enron shares after warning -- "Former Enron Corp. Chairman Kenneth Lay sold $100 million in company stock last year, including a large portion sold back to Enron after an employee warned him about an accounting debacle, a newspaper reported on Saturday."

So much for taking ''a couple of days off.'' ;-) Heading up to the airport in a bit...

Paul Krugman: Ersatz climate policy -- "...The administration's target for reduction in greenhouse gas intensity might well be achieved without any policy actions -- which is good news, because the administration hasn't really proposed any." (NY Times, free registration required)

I'm taking a couple of days off, since we have company coming from out-of-state this weekend. In addition, the home LAN still won't work via the satellite.

In the meantime, here's something fascinating and twisted (or maybe not so twisted): Milosevic claims U.S. was ally of al-Qaeda in Kosovo . He wants to call Clinton, Blair and Albright (among others) as witnesses. Weird. [Reuters]

CNET: Microsoft plugs six browser holes -- "Microsoft released a collection of software fixes Monday to plug six security problems in its Internet Explorer browser, including one that could be exploited to take over a victim's computer." Go get it here.

The end of the long tale on the satellite setup is that connecting other computers to the main PC (on a local area network) breaks things (DNS lookup failures, incredibly slow download speed). Once the PC is unplugged from the other home machines, download speed is pretty breathtaking.

Rudy Giuliani has been knighted.

Still dinking with the satellite network set-up -- lost a whole day yesterday. Yikes...

I spent some time this evening cleaning up the CSS for these pages, since there are some inconsistencies with box borders between MSIE-Win and MSIE-Mac vs. Mozilla and Opera. If you're running Netscape 4.x, I'm really sorry. Totally hosed; off to watch 'Ally McBeal.' ;-)

Reuters [9:36 PM ET]: FBI warns of possible attack against U.S. Tuesday -- Non-specific, perhaps here, maybe against U.S. interests in Yemen. Geez...

Tomorrow is dish-day. The pole went in this afternoon. I have no doubt they can get the PC set up, but it's up to me to make sure the LAN works. Should be interesting.

Reuters: Health officials probe deadly New Jersey outbreak -- Suspicious for Legionnaire's Disease, or bacterial meningitis.

NY Times: Released Afghans tell of beatings -- Concerning the recent mistaken roundup and deaths of a number of pro-Karzai locals: "'A simple apology will not solve this,' Mr. Irfani said. 'The Americans know who informed them, and that man is an enemy of this government and of this country. He should be handed over to this administration and executed.'" (Free registration required)

John Dean thinks Cheney is hiding something (NY Times, free registration required)

Bob Herbert: The Fatal Flaws -- "Problems with the administration of the death penalty have widespread consequences that are not limited to the danger of executing the innocent. The study said the errors that permeate the system also leave killers at large, exacerbate suffering, waste tax dollars and deprive citizens of the high quality of justice that they expect and deserve/" (NY Times, free registration required)

Washington Post: Bush 'halo' cows Democrats

AP: Israel launches new attack on Gaza

AP: Kenneth Lay to invoke 5th Amendment, on advice from his counsel.

Guardian: Enron executive may face perjury charge -- "Leaders of the congressional investigations into the Enron collapse said flatly last night that they did not believe the sworn testimony of the former Enron chief executive, Jeffrey Skilling, and one congressman suggested that Mr Skilling could face formal accusations of perjury."

Reuters: Firefighters battle brush fire near Los Angeles -- The fire is near the Anaheim hills, not terribly far from our old neck of the woods.

Reuters: Toy makers now cashing in on anti-terror war -- 'Tora Bora Ted'? Good grief...

Ananova: Man makes home in Manhattan cave

Message this evening from a frustrated geek: "I am SO PISSED off I am moments away from trashing a computer." Been there, believe me.

Arianna Huffington: "In the single largest ad buy the federal government has ever made, the White House spent nearly $3.5 million to get these commercials on the Super Bowl -- $3.5 million spent not on treatment but on demonizing America's young people. Our tax dollars at work."

The Observer: "'Ostensibly,' says one European diplomat, 'this is about security. But quite how a massive increase in defence spending is supposed to prevent another terrorist attack remains unclear. Instead this seems to be about repairing the bruised American psyche after 11 September. America's powerlessness in the face of this attack requires big gestures and reassurances, even if they are counter-productive and meaningless.'"

Counterpunch: Criticize Cheney, go to jail -- "...I felt as if this must be akin to the silence that was mandated by the Taliban towards Afghani women. Events such as this will certainly quell the prospect of protest of all official actions." [Via dangerousmeta!]

Reuters: 'Virtual' guards to patrol world's borders -- "In Hungary, for example, border guards in January began using notebook computers with wireless technology from Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3Com Corp -- linking them quickly with nearby computer networks."

NY Times: Poultry industry quietly cuts back on antibiotic use

Thomas Friedman: Blunt question, blunt answer -- "The Arab-Muslim world's view that America or the Jews are behind all their problems is escapism, not analysis." (NY Times, free registration required)

Washington Post: Hard money, strong arms and 'matrix' -- "With each proposed change in federal regulations, lobbyists punched details into a computer, allowing Enron economists in Houston to calculate just how much a rule change would cost. If the final figure was too high, executives used it as the cue to stoke their vast influence machine, mobilizing lobbyists and dialing up politicians who had accepted some of Enron's millions in campaign contributions."

Bill Keller: The Monster in the Dock -- "The fact is, a lot of Americans, and not just Bush Republicans, have misgivings about the prospect that an American could be dragged from under the shelter of our Constitution and tried before an international court." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Britain's Princess Margaret dies after strokes

AP: Ex-Taliban minister surrenders -- "The Taliban's foreign minister turned himself in to authorities in Afghanistan (news - web sites), giving American forces what could be one of the biggest intelligence prizes in the war so far."

Reuters: Nun detained after demonstration near Olympics

Three more days till the beast is installed. I wonder what happens if someone stands in front of it during a 20-meg download? ;-)

NY Times: In shift, Bush says Geneva rules fit Taliban -- "The decision to apply it to the Taliban was urged on the administration by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. After pressure from European allies angered by the administration's original stance, he wanted to send a signal to the world that the United States respects the convention and expects its own captured soldiers to be accorded its protections."

Nicholas D. Kristof: A safe place for a war -- "Mrs. Arroyo has astutely used the new partnership with President Bush to shore up her previously wobbly presidency. And the Bush administration has found a safe place to continue the war on terrorism, even if a closer look suggests that isn't exactly what it is." (NY Times, free registration required)

BBC: The power behind the Olympics -- "Making sure the technology behind Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City runs smoothly is a mammoth task, which has taken three years to set up...."

A new book looks at stories of feral children. [BBC]

The FBI will investigate Global Crossing, whose "Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing followed similar filings by energy trading giant Enron Corp. and retailer Kmart Corp., both of whose accounting practices have been called into question." [Reuters]

Wired: Linking patent goes to court -- BT Groupt Plc claims it holds a patent covering clicking on hyperlinks. "Public critics of BT say the notion of hypertext linking was devised decades before BT developed its own version in the 1970s, for which it was issued the U.S. patent in 1989."

CNET: NY accuses software maker of censorship -- "The New York state attorney general's office is suing security software maker Network Associates over licensing language it says restricts free-speech rights." More at The Register.

Enron takes the term 'denial' to new levels.

Reuters: U.S. seeks to defuse criticism on war captives -- "President Bush, finding his course littered with diplomatic pitfalls after the quick military victory in Afghanistan, sought to defuse one controversy on Thursday by agreeing to apply the Geneva Convention to Taliban prisoners."

NY Times: You can surf, but you can't hide -- "The prospect of information that can reveal a person's availability at a given moment, anywhere in the world strikes many people as both creepy and intriguing."

USA Today: Anxieties over toxins rise at Ground Zero

We got caught up in horse-related stuff, beautiful weather, and ironing out details on the upcoming broadband installation -- not enough hours in the day! ;-)

Reuters: Donor cancels $38 million gift to Smithsonian -- "Faced with criticism over the intrusion of corporate sponsors, a local entrepreneur canceled a $38 million donation to the Smithsonian Institution for a new exhibit of American achievers, the museum said on Tuesday."

NY Times: The Axis-of-Inefficiency Budget -- "...The budget undermines the security of the nation's social safety net and the government's ability to carry out some of its basic responsibilities over the next two decades. It jeopardizes the future of Social Security and Medicare, whose trust funds would be siphoned away to underwrite outmoded military projects and tax reductions favoring the rich. The budget embodies a divisive agenda for which Mr. Bush has no mandate, in spite of his popularity."

Paul Krugman: Bush's aggressive accounting -- "A year later the wrongness of the assumptions behind last year's budget is there for all to see, and in a rational world the administration would be called to account for misleading the American public. But instead the Bush administration has turned to the political equivalent of another increasingly common accounting trick: the 'one-time charge.'" (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: Doctors unveil modern update of Hypocratic Oath -- "Patients today are more knowledgeable about their health problems and are no longer unquestioning recipients of medicine care. Doctors, in turn, are faced with problems in healthcare delivery systems, an explosion in new technology and ethical dilemmas."

Kenneth Lay, former Enron Chairman, has apparently conveniently disappeared. [Reuters]

AP: ABA backs tribunals with conditions -- "The American Bar Association, defying an administration request to keep quiet, voted Monday to recommend that defendants tried before military tribunals be guaranteed traditional legal protections."

Guardian: Beleaguered Iraq extends the hand of friendship -- Don't bomb us, we're really nice folks...

Reuters: One in 10 North Carolina kids given ADHD status -- Either the 3-5% national figure is out of whack, or these kids are being over-diagnosed.

AP: Israel rethinking targeted killings

Interesting comments at Scripting News about yesterday's Super Bowl commercials. Who's next? John Robb: "...I think the group responsible had heard about Afghanistan's opium production (heroin), and thought they finally had a way to tie the war on drugs with the war on terrorism." David Kurt'z piece on this is excellent.

Washington Post: Ex-chairman of Enron cancels Hill testimony

Reuters: Author of Enron report: Company's deception started at top

Bob Herbert: Sneak Attack - Bush administration officials presented a plan as an altruistic attempt to bring more health care benefits to low-income pregnant women. It was actually a guerrilla attack on abortion rights. (NY Times, free registration required)

Every time the phone rings, I think it may be the satellite network installation guys calling to set up an appointment. "Hello...". Long silence, then dial tone. Arrrrgh!

P.M. Carpenter: Stop Bush before he makes Nixon look good [History News Network, from 1/28/02 - via wood s lot]

AP: Bush proposes 'new realities' budget -- "...The [$2.12 trillion] spending plan for the 2003 budget year must face the new realities of a reduced financial situation -- $4 trillion in disappearing surpluses because of the recession and [the Bush] tax cut." Unreal.

Maureen Dowd: "I escaped to my office to read the paper, but tensed at the first headline I spied: 'Back in the Fray, Gore Announces PAC, Gearing Up for Possible '04 Presidential Run.' Advil City." (NY Times, free registration required)

Thomas L. Friedman: The End of NATO? -- "...We are increasingly headed for a military apartheid within NATO: America will be the chef who decides the menu and cooks all the great meals, and the NATO allies will be the busboys who stay around and clean up the mess and keep the peace -- indefinitely." (NY Times, free registration required)

Reuters: U.S., Russia at odds over war on terrorism -- "Russia laid bare its differences with the United States over the war on terrorism on Sunday, challenging President Bush's attack on the 'axis of evil' and accusing the West of double standards."

NY Times: As authorities keep up immigration arrests, detainees ask why they are targets -- "Much news media attention has moved to the detainees taken to Cuba from Afghanistan, but the arrests in the United States continue, with many police officers and other local officials playing an aggressive new role in immigration enforcement." (Free registration required)

Matthew Rothschild: George Bush's Permanent War -- "It's a war that won't risk global annihilation, like World War II or the Cold War did.... But Bush's permanent war will likely will likely sow seeds of discord among our European allies and stir pots of resentment throughout the Islamic world." [The Progressive]

Robert Wright: The axis of incoherence [Slate]

Guardian: George Bush's delusion --

. . .When George Bush, president of the very nation that was targeted, follows suit and begins to exploit and manipulate the September 11 tragedy for political advantage, alarm bells must ring out loud. Yet this is exactly what Mr Bush's first state of the union address unabashedly set out to do. All US policy, both international and domestic, is now framed in terms of last autumn's emergency; all measures, however partisan and divisive, are justified in the name of patriotic unity and solidarity; all misgiving and dissent must be overridden for the sake of America's "just cause". Mr Bush, in his black-and-white way, has clearly convinced himself that in what he calls the "decisive decade in the history of liberty", his duty, mission and calling is to direct the triumph of good over evil at home and abroad. "America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere," he declared. [Via Gordon Coale]

SF Chronicle: Boxer, Feinstein seize on 'smoking gun' note - White House actions mirror Enron ideas

Thanks to Booknotes for the above two...

The Most Advanced City in France -- "Led by its visionary (some say self-promoting) mayor, a city on the outskirts of Paris is dedicating itself to improving life for its residents with the aid of technology." [Wired]

Frank Rich: State of the Enron -- "This is why Enron may be as much a cultural scandal as it is a business and political scandal. It is, as one friend puts it, as if a window had opened and revealed the way it all really works. What we see is a world in which insiders get to play by one set of rules -- entree to Enron side partnerships that could turn minimal investments into millions overnight -- while the unconnected and uninitiated pick up the bill." (NY Times, free registration required)

Took the big plunge and ordered satellite Internet service late last week from Direcway. Now we wait to hear from the installation people.

It's cold and gray today. We quickly forget how much we take for granted sunny days in New Mexico, even if the temp is freezing.

Reuters: White House got candidate names from ex-Enron boss -- "Former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay recommended candidates to fill top government posts including Pat Wood, now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the White House said on Thursday." Just keeps getting better and better.

AP: Jordan's king backs Bush on Iraq, Iran -- "King Abdullah II of Jordan praised President Bush 's campaign to counter terrorism Friday and said other countries 'better make up their minds.'"

Can it be February 1 already? The low last night was about eight degrees (F) -- yow.