NewsScan Daily, 5 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 5 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       New Law Would Provide Free Credit Reports
       Digital Anti-Piracy Measure
       Intel Research Aimed at Stopping Chip Leakage
       Electronic Voting Dispute
       Replacing the Polygraph: What Could They Be Thinking?

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: True West

NEW LAW WOULD PROVIDE FREE CREDIT REPORTS
Proposed new legislation would give Americans the right to receive free
e-mailed credit reports. That same legislation would also prevent states
from setting their own rules on how businesses use, share and report data on
consumers. Senator Richard Shelby (R, AL), says: "This bill reflects a
careful balance between ensuring the efficient operation of our markets and
protecting the rights of consumers." Senator Paul Sarbanes (D, MD), a key
Democrat, essentially agrees with Shelby: "Each of us, if we could write the
bill by ourselves, would probably have somewhat different aspects to the
bill, and there are areas where I would have sought it to do more with
respect to some consumer issues. But I think we sought to craft a balanced
package here." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 4 Nov 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7182378.htm

DIGITAL ANTI-PIRACY MEASURE
In a 5-0 vote, the Federal Communications Commission has approved a
requirement that some personal computers and other consumer electronic
devices be equipped with technology to help block Internet piracy of digital
entertainment. The movie industry is happy with the FCC's decision, but
consumer advocates are worrying that the move will force people to buy new
equipment, will result in new regulation of how computers are designed, and
will hinder the copying of programming that's not entitled to industry
protection (e.g., shows no longer covered by copyright). Under the new
rules, a piece of digital code known as a "broadcast flag" could be embedded
into a piece of program content, which then could only be copied by a
digital recording device equipped with technology that recognizes the flag.
A computer could not copy the file to its hard drive or send it over the
Internet. (Washington Post 4 Nov 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1197-2003Nov4.html

INTEL RESEARCH AIMED AT STOPPING CHIP LEAKAGE
Researchers at Intel Corp. say they've discovered a new material that
prevents the leakage of electrical current from microchips. Computer chips
have come to require more power and run much hotter -- problems deemed
responsible for the delay of Intel's new Prescott chip, the most advanced in
the company's Pentium line. Various independent researchers and competitors,
including IBM, are saying that the Intel announcement is addressed at the
most important research problem in the chip industry. (New York Times 5 Nov
2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/11/05/technology/05chip.html

ELECTRONIC VOTING DISPUTE
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Stanford University's Cyberlaw Clinic
are suing Diebold Inc., a manufacturer of electronic voting machines, to
stop it from issuing threats to groups that publish company documents leaked
by a hacker; the hacker broke into Diebold's servers in March (using an
employee's ID) and copied thousands of company announcements and internal
e-mails. The intruder e-mailed the data to voting activists, some of whom
published stories on their Web logs denouncing Diebold. A California
advisory panel has refused to certify new Diebold voting machines, pending a
determination of whether uncertified software and hardware was used in a
recent election. (AP/Los Angeles Times 4 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/atsap_technology13nov04,1,2312465.story?co
ll=sns-ap-toptechnology

REPLACING THE POLYGRAPH: WHAT COULD THEY BE THINKING?
Will new technology ever be found to replace the polygraph machine as a
(much-criticized) way of catching liars? If not, it won't be for lack of
trying, for there are now scores of research efforts funded by government
agencies to develop just such a machine. One of them is at the University of
Pennsylvania laboratory of Professor Britton Chance, who is using
near-infrared light to examine lies as they form in the brains of student
volunteers. Chance, a biochemist and engineer who helped develop military
radar in World War II, says: "We need something; we have a country under
stress. It might be fixed by finding out what people are thinking about." He
developed the "cognoscope" -- near-infrared light sensors mounted on a
Velcro headband that measured blood and oxygen flow in the subjects' brains
when they tell a lie. Chance says you can "see the thought before it is
articulated." (USA Today 4 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2003-11-04-lie-detect-tech_x.ht
m

*****

FLASH CARD
     "So we beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly.
      And we wept in our grief, as we carried him along.
      For we all loved that cowboy, so brave and so handsome.
      Yes, we loved that young cowboy, although he done wrong."
                  (Thom Stark, 'The Streets of Laredo')

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: TRUE WEST
     Historian Dee Brown writes:
     "The American West as a paradigm for the nation as a whole has become,
in recent years, almost a cliché. Academics debate its myths and realities.
Popular culturists delve into all its aspects. Filmmakers approach and
retreat from its myriad of images. Television documentarians display its
pictorial records with solemn commentaries. At one time or another almost
every American has examined the nation's Western experience, sometimes with
curiosity, sometimes with admiration, awe, incredulity, distaste, or a
mixture of all of these.
     "The Western settlers created what we think of as the American West.
Explorers came and went, soldiers came and went, miners and others came and
went. But the settlers came to stay. It was the nameless settlers who stayed
where they were, who put down roots, who largely contributed to making the
West what it was. Most of them believed in Manifest Destiny. They were
confident that Providence had guided them to their frontier homes. They were
certain they had been brought there to 'civilize the wasteland' of the West.
     "Their descendents view the Old West in a reverse mirror. They see the
exploitation, the depredations, the violence, avarice, and waste -- of which
there was a plentitude. Yet there was also self-reliance, hospitality,
generosity, exuberance, self-confidence, and humor (although sometimes
black).
     "Today it is fashionable to mock the myths and folklore of the American
West. Yet if we trace the origin of almost any myth and tale we will usually
find an actual event, a real setting, or an original conception, a living
human being. Let us be wise enough to learn the true history so that we can
recognize a myth when we see one."
                                                   ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684804417/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Dee Brown's "The American West" -- or look for it in your favorite
library. (We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult
literacy programs.)

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