NewsScan Daily, 20 February 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 20 February 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Virtually Fearless
       Internet Innovations of the Dean Campaign
       Don't-Bother-Me Lists Have Mixed Success
       You've Got...
       FBI Warning Labels to Appear on CDs, DVDs

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: John Mortimer

VIRTUALLY FEARLESS
     Virtual reality has become a new tool for helping patients overcome
their fears and anxieties. Psychologist Albert Rizzo says: "It's a
therapist's dream. To help people deal with their problems, you must get
them exposed to what they fear most." The fear factor can be revved up, as
for example by increasing the size or decreasing the attentiveness of a
virtual audience a patient is asked to give a speech to -- or by adjusting
the turbulence of a virtual airplane flight. A Georgia company called
Virtually Better has created scenes of a glass elevator and a bridge to
address fear of height, and developed a way to simulate a traveler's
experience of flying through a thunderstorm to diminish the subject's fear
of bad weather. [What's in the pipeline? Fear of the boss?] (New York Times
19 Feb 2004) 
http://partners.nytimes.com/2004/02/19/technology/circuits/19virt.html

INTERNET INNOVATIONS OF THE DEAN CAMPAIGN
     Howard Dean may have ended his hopes to be President, but his
Internet-savvy fundraising campaign's made a strong impression on American
politics, by applying to politics the same kinds of fund-raising pitches
that have been used for years by public TV stations. The Dean campaign is
also credited with introducing the political community to Internet blogs
(Web logs), which helped create a sense of community among far-flung
supporters, and with having discovered the potential of Meetup.com as a
political tool. (Meetup.com is a nonpartisan Web site that helps people
interested in different subjects find one another.) Former Dean campaign
manager Joe Trippi says, "The big question with online stuff was: Okay,
great -- they're online. But can you get people to do anything off-line in
their communities by using the Net? One of the big achievements in Meetup
was showing you could." (Washington Post 19 Feb 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55846-2004Feb19.html

DON'T-BOTHER-ME LISTS HAVE MIXED SUCCESS
     A poll by the Associated Press has found that three-fourths of the
people who signed up for the government's new do-not-call registry received
fewer telemarketing calls, but the same poll found that few people noticed
any difference in the six weeks since a new federal anti-spamming law took
effect. The anti-spam bill encourages the Federal Trade Commission to create
a do-not-spam list of e-mail addresses, but FTC officials are doubtful of
that approach, because of the decentralized and unregulated nature of the
Internet. (San Jose Mercury News 20 Feb 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/7992347.htm

YOU'VE GOT...
     Public health officials in Los Angeles County in California are using
e-mail to notify the partners of people who had been diagnosed with STDs.
The director of programs at the AIDS Project Los Angeles says: "My reaction
is, bravo. I think this is really appropriate, given the role the Internet
seems to play in the transmission of the diseases. I think this is a good
use of technology that the target population uses and understands. This
program was just initiated in San Francisco a couple of months ago. It's
real innovative." (Los Angeles Daily News 20 Feb 2004)
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1966891,00.html

FBI WARNING LABELS TO APPEAR ON CDs, DVDs
     The Federal Bureau of Investigation is giving Hollywood film studios,
music companies and software makers permission to use the FBI's name and
logo on various digital media to deter consumers from making illegal copies.
FBI official Jana Monroe says, "This anti-piracy seal should serve as a
warning to those who contemplate the theft of intellectual property, that
the FBI will actively investigate cyber crimes and will bring the
perpetrators of these criminal acts to justice." Unauthorized copying and
distribution of digital content is punishable by up to five years in prison
and a fine of $250,000. (Los Angeles Times 19 Feb 2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology12feb19,1,1202921.story?c
oll=sns-ap-toptechnology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "No brilliance is required in law, just common sense and relatively
clean fingernails." (John Mortimer)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: JOHN MORTIMER
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the British lawyer John Mortimer (b.
1923), who parlayed his experience as a barrister into world fame as a
writer for stage, television, radio, and motion pictures. He was also the
author of novels and autobiography.
     Mortimer's best known dramatic creation is the amusing barrister Horace
Rumpole. The Rumpole character, as portrayed by the actor Leo McKern, has
probably been bested only by Raymond Burr's portrayal of Perry Mason. In
England Mortimer has been equally well known for the prosperous crusading
law practice he built in the 1960s as a Queen's Counsel for the defense,
mostly in free-speech and civil rights cases.
     Mortimer was born at Hampstead, London, the only son of a barrister who
practiced in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court
in London. Mortimer was educated at Harrow and at Brasenose College, Oxford.
During the World War II years, he worked as a scriptwriter making propaganda
films for the Ministry of Information. He was called to the bar in 1948, but
had begun his writing career even earlier, having completed the novel
"Charade" in 1947. While he drew on his legal experience in his early
fiction, it was not until 1957 that the BBC's radio production of his play,
"The Dock Brief," brought him wide recognition as a writer skilled in
crafting good fictional stories about the law.
     Along with a demanding legal practice, Mortimer kept up a prodigious
literary production schedule, turning out plays for stage and radio
performance, short stories and novels. Among his best writings was the 1970
play, "A Voyage Round My Father," an autobiographical treatment of his
relationship with his father, who went blind but continued to practice law.
In the 1970s and '80s he enjoyed great success with the popular "Rumpole of
the Bailey" television series.
     In 1949 he married British journalist Penelope Ruth Fletcher, who
attained fame in her own right as a novelist noted for her depictions of a
frightening world of neuroses and broken marriages. The Mortimers' own
marriage ended in divorce in 1972. Mortimer continued as a writer after he
retired from the bar. Today he lives with his second wife and their two
daughters in the Buckinghamshire house he inherited from his father.
 
See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/014006768X
/newsscancom/ref=nosim for "A First Rumpole Omnibus" -- or look for it in
your favorite library. [We donate all revenues from our book recommendations
to adult literacy programs.]

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