NewsScan Daily, 25 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 25 November 2003 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Cellphone Switching
       10-Million Transistor Intel Chip
       Warner Music Group Sold to Bronfman
       The Song With a Thousand Voices
       Start Your Handhelds: A,B,C,D, or All of Above

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: Godfathers

CELLPHONE SWITCHING
About a hundred thousand cellphone users changed their wireless service
carriers yesterday, taking advantage of a new federal rule allowing
consumers to switch without penalty. However, the number of people making
the switch was far smaller than what had been predicted, and a Consumers
Union spokesperson said, "Our guess is today people may be taking it kind of
slow." People are now allowed to keep their phone numbers when they switch
wireless carriers or when they convert from fixed-line to wireless phone
service. (San Jose Mercury News 25 Nov 2003)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7345268.htm

10-MILLION TRANSISTOR INTEL CHIP
Intel Corp. has developed a way to shrink the size of wires in chips and
slash costs by packing into each chip twice as many transistors as is
possible using current methods. Beginning in 2005, new Intel chips will
contain 10 million transistors bundled into an area about the size of the
tip of a ballpoint pen. (Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times 25 Nov 2003)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-rup25.4nov25,1,2298302.story?coll=la
-headlines-technology

WARNER MUSIC GROUP SOLD TO BRONFMAN
In a $2.6 billion cash deal, Time Warner is selling its Warner Music Group
to an investor group led by Seagrams heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. Bronfman, who
plans to play an active, day-to-day role in running the company, says he is
optimistic about the industry's future: "We don't believe the music industry
is going away forever. The industry has, and always will, find new means of
distributing its content. Whether that takes a short time, or a long time,
which is what we are planning for, we think we know how to run this
business." The music business has been contracting, and Time Warner's sale
of Warner Music will give media giant enough cash to begin investing in Time
Warner Cable and other divisions that, unlike the music operation, have been
steadily growing. (Washington Post 25 Nov 2003)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11736-2003Nov24.html

THE SONG WITH A THOUSAND VOICES
New software called Vocaloid  will allows users to cast any songs (including
their own in a disembodied but life-like concert-quality voice) such as
Elvis or Madonna or Julie Andrews or anyone. The technology underlying
Vocaloid was developed by Spain's Pompeu Fabra University and financed by
the Yamaha Corporation.  Working like a music synthesizer, a computer
equipped with Vocaloid (cost: about $200) will be able to "sing" whatever
combination of notes and words a user feeds it. Ed Stratton of a British
company that has licensed Vocaloid explains: "You'll buy new fonts and then
any song you write, you can hear it sung a number of ways. You might hear
what it sounds like sung by a soul singer, and then an operatic voice or a
choir boy." (New York Times 23 Nov 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/arts/music/23WERD.html

START YOUR HANDHELDS: A,B,C,D, OR ALL OF ABOVE
Dozens of colleges and high schools nationwide are now using a handheld
device that lets students punch in answers to multiple-choice questions.
Called the Personal Response System, it works like a remote control that
students can use to punch in a number that corresponds to a multiple choice
answer projected on a screen. All of the answers are collected and results
are summarized on bar graphs. Physics teacher Steve Kennedy of Fargo South
High School in North Dakota says: "I use it to see if they understand a
concept. It's like a game show, only nobody gets put on the spot." The
system has been popular in large lecture halls at colleges and universities.
(AP/USA Today 24 Nov 2003)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2003-11-24-quiz-show_x.htm

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any
rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the
skin that won't heal because there's not enough material." (F. Scott
Fitzgerald)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: GODFATHERS
     In his new book on nepotism, Adam Bellow explains that there's more to
mafia godfathers than meets the cliché:
     "Puzo's choice of the term 'godfather' to describe Don Corleone is
hardly accidental. Rather, it reflects his painstaking research into the
cultural traditions of his homeland. Vito Corleone is closely modeled on the
traditional mafia capo, a figure who may still be found today throughout the
impoverished regions of Sicily and southern Italy. The fact that such men
are typically addressed as padrino, or godfather, is not a metaphorical
conceit but an accurate description of their social role.
     "For centuries, southern Italy has suffered chronic poverty, violence,
neglect, and political uncertainty. Famine, conquest, foreign rule, and
exploitation by a rapacious oligarchy have left the region in a notoriously
backward condition. As a result, most southerners are insular and
suspicious, trusting neither church nor state. They don't accept the
government's definition of a crime, and they certainly don't expect the
state to maintain law and order or provide other essential services. Instead
they rely completely on their relatives.
      "This is what sociologists call a 'low trust' society. In a world
where everyone who is not a relative or friend is necessarily an enemy, a
man's word and his personal honor are irreplaceable assets that must be
vigorously defended. The mafia family's "outsider" status and its code of
omerta, or loyalty and silence unto death, are the essence of this
familistic culture.
     "In form, the traditional mafia family is a series of concentric rings
clustered around a dense biological core. American families are small -- the
nuclear unit plus a tight circle of kin -- but the Sicilian family is
embedded in a much wider network of relatives. Honor is a key concept in
Sicilian society. No one must be allowed to challenge or impugn the family's
honor; friends and enemies alike must know that insults will be punished and
retribution will be terrible and swift.
     "The keystone of the structure is the spiritual relation of
godparenthood. Godparents in our society are little more than ornamental
fixtures, nominally charged with the religious education of the child. But
in Italy, godparenthood is a sacred bond considered the equivalent of
parenthood. A typical Italian child acquires two adult sponsors at baptism,
two more at confirmation, and another two at marriage. These adoptive
parents are addressed as comare and compare, literally 'co-mother' and
'co-father.' The bond of compareggio not only links the child and his
godparents but forges an alliance between their families."
                                      ***
See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385493886/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Adam Bellow's "In Praise Of Nepotism: A Natural History" -- or look
for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue from our book
suggestions to adult literacy programs.)

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