NewsScan Daily, 2 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 2 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Gateway Closes Some Gates, Opens Others
       Fighting Computer Mischief
       Study Urges Wider Use of DNA to Apprehend Criminals
       EU's Problems Enforcing Anti-Spam Measures
       Jobs, Outsourcing, and Two Kinds of Lies

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Harvey Cushing

GATEWAY CLOSES SOME GATES, OPENS OTHERS
     Gateway (the nation's No. 3 PC maker since its recent acquisition of
eMachines) is closing 188 retail stores and laying off 2,500 employees. The
new plan is to sell products the way eMachines does -- through third-party
retail stores, the company Web site, and over the telephone. Gateway will
benefit from longstanding relationships between eMachines and such major
retailers as Best Buy, Costco, Circuit City, and Wal-Mart. (New York Times 2
Apr 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/02/technology/02gateway.html

FIGHTING COMPUTER MISCHIEF
     An industry task force is advising the federal government to set goals
for reducing hacking, spam, worms, viruses and identity fraud -- though the
group has refrained from offering specific measures. Indicating the need for
the federal government to play a stronger role in computer security issues,
the report calls for increased funding for cyber-security research at
universities; improved university certification programs that stress
security training for engineers; and a Department of Homeland Security
evaluation of software vulnerabilities. Alan Paller of the SANS Institute, a
computer-security research group, is critical of the report: "What we got
was not solutions, but a description of the problem," in which "there's
nothing about the companies that make billions of dollars selling this
broken stuff." Task Force co-chairman Ron Moritz of Computer Associates
insists: "We're far from doneMoritz says executives will have to go back and
tell their programmers: "You've been doing this wrong for the past 25
years." (Washington Post 1 Apr 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43356-2004Apr1.html

STUDY URGES WIDER USE OF DNA TO APPREHEND CRIMINALS
     A study funded by the Justice Department has concluded that at least
150 rapes, murders and other crimes in the past decade could have been
prevented if states had taken DNA samples from burglars and other
non-violent offenders. In one case, four Massachusetts women were found
raped and killed by a man with felony convictions for breaking-and-entering
and for larceny; if Massachusetts had required him to give a DNA sample
after either of those convictions, "a DNA match could have been obtained
after the first rape/murder, thereby preventing the subsequent three."
However, ACLU lawyer Barry Steinhardt warns against a "headlong rush" into
drawing DNA from all felons: "We know that expanding the reach of the
databases increases the number of crimes solved, but at what cost, both
financial and to our liberty? Sooner or later somebody is going to test for
a purpose other than what it is there for." (USA Today 1 Apr 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-04-01-dna-usat_x.htm

EU'S PROBLEMS ENFORCING ANTI-SPAM MEASURES
     The European Union has again ordered eight of its members to enact
privacy legislation governing spam and cookies. Since the initial warning
was sent in November, only Sweden has enacted the legislation, while
Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and
Finland have not. The EU inability to enforce its own regulations makes it
more difficult to get other countries to join the fight against spam and
other undesirable Internet activities. (Los Angeles Times 1 Apr
2004)http://tinyurl.com/2ghuw

JOBS, OUTSOURCING, AND TWO KINDS OF LIES
     The job market -- which is by nature dynamic --has changed throughout
history, and change remains the order of the day, as MIT economist Frank
Levy explains: "If you can describe a job precisely, or write rules for
doing it, it's unlikely to survive. Either we'll program a computer to do
it, or we'll teach a foreigner to do it. Outsourcing accelerates what
technology was already doing. Take call centers. Eight, 10 years down the
line, we could do a lot more with voice-recognition software. But with
outsourcing you can do away with those jobs now... There are two kinds of
lies that politicians tell about outsourcing. One is that we can turn it all
back. But even if you cut off all trade, technology can do the same things
to workers. The other is that education is all that matters. That's true, of
course, but only in the long run." (Wall Street Journal 2 Apr 2004)
http://tinyurl.com/2ejwu (sub req'd)

*****  

FLASH CARD      
     "A poet who knows what it is he wants to say may be sure it's been said
already." (Hugh Kenner) [For poet substitute architect, artist, computer
scientist, engineer, chef, teacher... ]

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: HARVEY CUSHING (1869-1939)
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the multi-talented physician and surgeon
Harvey Cushing (1869-1939), who became famous for his landmark achievements
in neurosurgery and for experimental work on the brain, nervous system, and
pituitary gland. 
     Acknowledged as one of the world's greatest brain surgeons, Cushing
turned neurological surgery into a respected medical subspecialty. Despite
the heavy demands placed on him by his medical practice, Cushing also found
time to become a medical historian and a compulsive bibliophile,
specializing in the collection of ancient medical treatises. Towards the end
of his life he combined his book collection with those of two of his book
collecting friends in a joint contribution that significantly expanded Yale
University's Medical Library collection. In 1926 Cushing was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize in biography for his massive two-volume Life of Sir William
Osler, the legendary Johns Hopkins clinician and medical professor who was
his friend and mentor.
     Cushing was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father, grandfather, and
great grandfather before him were all doctors in general practice. He
attended Yale College and Harvard Medical School before joining the surgical
staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. While at Hopkins, Cushing
toured the medical community of Europe for fourteen months. Thanks to
Osler's connections he was able to study with some of the greatest surgeons
and researchers in Europe at that time. In 1912, he returned to Harvard as a
professor of surgery. He became a pioneer in neurosurgery, developing
improved techniques for diagnosing, localizing and removing brain tumors. He
was also successful in treating spinal column fluid irregularities and
problems arising from surgical shock, blood infections and the
administration of anesthesia. In one instance his pioneering work led to a
diagnosis of a condition since called Cushing's syndrome, in which symptoms
such as fatty deposits in the face, neck, and abdomen, muscular weakness,
and masculinization in women are caused by an overactive pituitary gland.
Many of Cushing's operating procedures and techniques are still basic to the
surgery of the brain, and his work greatly reduced the high mortality rates
that had formerly been associated with brain surgery.
     When Cushing retired from Harvard in 1933, he joined the faculty of
Yale University as a professor of neurology, where he established a brain
tumor registry of his collection of 2000 tumors. He died from a heart attack
in 1939. He is regarded to be the father of modern neurosurgery, and from
1911 to 1932 he trained 22 assistant residents in neurosurgery, all of whom
became full professors or chiefs of major neurosurgical services.

See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671323679/
newsscancom/ref=nosim for J.F. Denzel's "Genius with a Scalpel: Harvey
Cushing" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate all revenue
from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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Copyright 2004. NewsScan Daily (R) is a publication of NewsScan Inc.
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