NewsScan Daily, 1 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 1 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        News Corp. Scraps Satellite Internet Plans
        Detectives Follow the Money Trail to Tackle Spam
        Are Passwords Passé?
        Arrests Over Softbank Extortion
        Online Newspaper Readership Up 350% Over 5 Years
        Chip Foundries Make a Comeback

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Immanuel Velikovsky
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

NEWS CORP. SCRAPS SATELLITE INTERNET PLANS
      News Corp. is dropping plans to deliver broadband Internet access via 
satellite in the U.S. The company says it will still launch at least one 
Spaceway satellite, but will use it for television broadcast, not 
high-speed Internet service. The announcement came as a surprise to News 
Corp. subsidiary DirecTV, which disputed its parent company's statement, 
saying "we have not scrapped plans to use the satellites for broadband 
access. In fact, the satellites are being designed specifically so they can 
be used for video or broadband." (Reuters/CNet 1 Jun 2004)
http://news.com.com/2110-1033-5222524.html

DETECTIVES FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL TO TACKLE SPAM
      It seems like spammers have been working overtime since the federal 
antispam legislation took effect Jan.1, and the government is now turning 
away from technical fixes offered by software engineers in favor of private 
investigators' expertise to boost their efforts to stem the deluge of 
unsolicited e-mail. In an unusual arrangement, the Direct Marketing 
Association has paid $500,000 to hire 15 investigators to work alongside 
the FBI agents and other government officials in a program known as Project 
Slam-Spam. The project has built a case against 50 spammers, mostly by 
following the money trail and relying on informants. "Spammers are more 
than willing to rat each other out," says Microsoft investigator Sterling 
McBride. "The most useful information is who pays for various aspects of 
the spam operation," says attorney David Bateman, who represents Microsoft 
in spam cases. "To spam, you need four or five things -- a hosting service, 
a domain name, mailing software, mailing lists and so on. Each one you have 
to purchase from someone." Microsoft has filed 53 civil cases against 
spammers in the last 15 months, based on the work of its investigation 
team. "The real key is trying to figure out how to connect the virtual 
world" with "someone you can hold responsible for this," says McBride. Once 
you've nailed that down, "you can use all the tools of a normal 
investigation." (New York Times 31 May 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/technology/31spam.html

ARE PASSWORDS PASSÉ?
      Scandinavian countries are at the forefront of a movement to ditch 
conventional passwords in favor of so-called two-factor authentication. 
These "password-plus" systems use things like disposable cards with 
scratch-off codes in conjunction with the usual four-digit PIN for online 
banking and other secure transactions. Each code is used once, and the bank 
replenishes the supply by sending a new card when the customer is running 
low. "A password is a construct of the past that has run out of steam," 
says Identix CEO Joseph Atick. "The human mind-set is not used to dealing 
with so many different passwords and so many different PINs." Other 
"password-plus" options include Vasco Data Security International's 
pocket-sized device that issues a random second code each time you type 
your regular password in. Or MasterCard International's system, which 
requires swiping your "smart" credit card through a special reader and 
entering your PIN to obtain a single-use password good at Office Max, 
British Airways and a dozen other merchants. And while U.S. banks are well 
aware of the perils of password theft, they're "all afraid of making the 
first step," says a Gartner analyst. "They don't want consumers going to 
other banks because it's too hard." (AP/Washington Post 1 Jun 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5693-2004Jun1.html

ARRESTS OVER SOFTBANK EXTORTION
      Police have arrested two additional people on suspicion of trying to 
extort money from Softbank after obtaining personal data on as many as 4 
million subscribers to the Internet company's broadband service. The two -- 
Yutaka Tomiyasu, 24, and Takuya Mori, 35 -- are accused of obtaining 
company passwords to hack into Softbank's database from an Internet cafe in 
Tokyo in January, according to a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman. The 
two allegedly passed the information to members of a right-wing extremist 
group, police said. Four members of the extremist group were arrested in 
February for allegedly threatening to publicly release the information 
unless Softbank paid them ¥1 billion to ¥2 billion ($US13 million to $US26 
million). (The Australian 31 May 2004) rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9700470%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html 


ONLINE NEWSPAPER READERSHIP UP 350% OVER 5 YEARS
      The audience for online versions of newspapers has grown 350% over 
the past five years, according to the World Association of Newspapers, 
which notes that while print circulation figures have declined in mature 
markets like Europe and the U.S., they are sharply up in emerging markets 
like China and India. In Russia, the number of published dailies has nearly 
doubled in two years. WAN attributed the increase in online newspaper 
popularity to the growth of broadband in many countries, noting that in 
those countries where broadband Internet access is more readily available, 
people are watching TV less and surfing the Web more, both for news and for 
entertainment. (BBC News 1 Jun 2004)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3767267.stm

CHIP FOUNDRIES MAKE A COMEBACK
      Asia's chip foundries are making a strong comeback in 2004 after 
three lean years, as demand for electronic products booms and semiconductor 
makers increasingly outsource production, according to a study by Gartner 
Group. The Asian-dominated global foundry market, which generated revenues 
of $US13 billion in 2003, is tipped to grow 41% this year and 37% in 2005. 
"The foundry market has entered a new cycle of growth ... we do see the 
foundry market heating up and utilization rates have been increasing," says 
Gartner principal analyst James Hines. (The Australian 31 May 2004) rec'd 
from John Lamp, Deakin U.
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9700312%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html 


*****

FLASH CARD
      "Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of 
somebody or other." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER:IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the controversial American physician 
and historian Immanuel Velikovsky (1895-1979), whose cosmological theories 
were vigorously opposed and treated with contempt by the scientific world.
      In 1950 Velikovsky published "Worlds in Conflict," in which he 
claimed that a comet collided twice with the earth in approximately 1500 
B.C., causing cataclysmic upheavals. As evidence for his theory, Velikovsky 
appealed to events from mythology and the history of ancient civilizations. 
Velikovsky's book was a popular success, despite the hostile criticism from 
most scientists, who questioned its scientific accuracy. Macmillan was 
Velikovsky's publisher, but two months after publication the book's rights 
were transferred to Doubleday. Macmillan feared that its textbook business 
would suffer from a boycott threatened by the sizeable number of scientists 
who rejected Velikovsky's methodology.
      Velikovsky was born in Vitebsk, Russia and was educated at the 
universities in Edinburgh, Kharkov, and Moscow. He practiced medicine in 
Palestine and then studied psychology in Zürich and Vienna. His studies of 
the legends of the ancient Jews and other eastern Mediterranean peoples led 
him to conclude that some tales described actual occurrences and were not 
mere myths or allegories. Later in the United States he expanded the 
geographic scope the ancient documents he studied, and he hypothesized that 
in historical times an electromagnetic derangement of the solar system 
caused Venus and Mars to approach the Earth closely, disturbing its 
rotation, axis inclination, and magnetic field. According to Velikovsky 
these events and others caused many of the "miraculous" events described in 
the Bible and in other ancient writings and myths.
      Succeeding publications by Velikovsky included: "Ages in Chaos" 
(1952), in which he revised the chronology of the pre-Christian Middle 
East; "Earth in Upheaval" (1955), in which he set forth geologic and 
paleontological evidence for the catastrophes that he believes have 
overwhelmed the Earth; "Oedipus and Akhnaton" (1960), in which he links 
Egyptian history with Greek mythology; and "Peoples of the Sea" (1977), in 
which he identifies Ramses III with Nectanebo, pharaohs previously dated to 
have lived 800 years apart.
      In spite of the scientifically suspect nature of Velikovsky's 
investigations, it should be noted that some of his astronomical 
hypotheses, such as the emission of radio waves from Jupiter and the 
relatively hot temperature for Venus, have been experimentally verified. 
The questions raised in the scientific community about Velikovsky's 
theories have been addressed in a number of publications: "Velikovsky and 
Establishment Science" (1977); "Scientists Confront Scientists Who Confront 
Velikovsky" (1978); "Velikovsky Reconsidered" (1976); and "The Age of 
Velikovsky" (1977).

[See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1413411142/ 
newsscancom/ref=nosim for "Immanuel Velikovsky: The Truth Behind the 
Torment" by Ruth Velikovsky Sharon -- or look for it in your favorite 
library. We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult 
literacy programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

A DATABASE OF DATABASES OF DATABASES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10670
      Soon we are going to need a database just to list all the databases 
that influence what we pay for things. (Glenn K Beer)

OLD CHICAGO
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10670
      I was recently surprised to find sharp color photographs of two 
different Chicago houses I lived in between 1935 and 1958. They were 
provided on the Web by the Cook County Assessor's office in a 
search-by-address database. Any NewsScan readers who want to see their old 
homes in Chicago can start at http://tinyurl.com/26ayw. I don't know if any 
other counties have similar services, but I do wonder how they got all the 
people off the streets when they took the photos. (Bob Schuchman, San Diego)

TURNING OFF IMAGES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10661
      Your readers may provide step-by-step instructions for e-mail 
client-specific handling of the "DidTheyReadIt" type issue that Nahum 
Goldmann asked for. So I just wanted to add one more tidbit that people 
should be aware of -- this is also an issue if you use a Web-based e-mail 
service like Hotmail or Yahoo. You can turn off images in Hotmail (click on 
Options, Mail Display Settings, then click on "Remove images until messages 
are reviewed) and in Yahoo (click on Mail Options, General Preferences, 
"Block HTML graphics in email messages from being downloaded"). You may be 
able to do the same with other services. (Bill Winett)

DIVIDED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE, PART I
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10680
      Thanks so much for publishing Stephen Cobb's letter to Reuters. I 
also read that CNN article the other day, and after puzzling over the 
repeated use of "bayberries" I even went back through the article, looking 
for the first use-explanation, and finding none, decided "bayberries" was 
British slang for "hackers" and moved on to other things. A spell-checker 
substitution never occurred to me. I just tried "cybercrime" out in MS 
Word, which indeed flagged it as a misspelling, but suggested "cyber crime" 
instead. Perhaps spell-checkers take a different approach when dealing with 
things British. (Rita Seplowitz Salz)

DIVIDED BY A COMMON LANGUAGE, PART II
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10632
      Wait a minute -- I object! I'm no bum! Oh, hold on, they're talking 
about my bum not about me. Ah well, never mind. Sure glad we continue to be 
divided by a common language! (John Beck)

DO WHAT YOU CAN DO
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10679
      While I have the utmost respect for John McCain (and dearly wish he 
were our current president), I'd like to point out another set of 
reflections commonly held by many veterans of World War II, including my 
own father. Whenever I asked him about his experiences, he would simply 
say, "I did what I had to do." He didn't want to live in the past and he 
didn't want his life to be defined by his veteran status; fighting the war 
was something expected of all Americans and he was just doing his duty as 
so many others were doing. Some came back, some didn't. As he taught me 
through his own example, you do what you can to make the world as good as 
possible and leave the rest to God. (Eric Brewer)

THE ENGINE OF ECONOMIC GROWTH
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10659
      I read with interest Michael Mandel's comments about the engine of 
economic growth. Americans who believe the government should mind its own 
business and stay out of efforts to advance new technologies would do well 
to bear in mind that all the major new technologies of the last 150 years 
had substantial help from the government. From the land grants and labor 
policies that made the expansion of the railroads possible to the vast road 
construction projects that paved the way for the automobile to the military 
demand for aircraft to the basic research and development that fostered the 
Internet, the government has been an essential collaborator in every 
sweeping technological advance in the United States.
      The Constitution clearly spells this out when it specifies that the 
government is organized to "promote the general Welfare" among other 
things. Unable to directly eliminate the proper activities of the 
government, the right wing in this country has sought to simply starve it 
to death by eliminating the supply of money it needs to function. We stand 
now to pass on to our children both a debt of staggering proportions and a 
government that cannot fulfill its responsibility to foster a prosperous 
economy. (Andrew W. Horner, Qwest Communication)

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION DOES NOT EQUAL ECONOMIC INNOVATION
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10659
      I very much agree with Michael Mandel that "the ability of [North] 
Americans to thrive during the next 10, 20, or even 30 years does not 
depend on the budget deficit or the potential exodus of a few hundred 
thousand jobs to other countries." However, I do disagree with his outlined 
solution that depends on "our [i.e., North American?] ability to come up 
with more technological breakthroughs that equal the Internet in 
magnitude". As a reformed techie myself, I do not see much evidence that in 
the next 10-30 years North American economic innovation will necessarily 
equal technology innovation. Even today, our GDP-related economic 
advancement is mainly driven by the improvements in business profitability 
introduced by trading companies like Wal-Mart rather than by technology R&D 
powerhouses of the last century such as Lucent and IBM. Profitability is 
mainly about improving the logistics, procurement, payments and numerous 
similar hidden business and regulatory processes, most of which have not 
been substantially advanced since the glorious Cobol days of the 1950s and 
'60s.
      Recently we've seen some predictions that by 2020 the most powerful 
silicon chips will cost close to nothing to produce [I assume due to 
Moore's Law]. As well, the programming languages are becoming better 
established, more user friendly and powerful -- which also leads to reduced 
cost of application development. It all implies that the cost of building 
blocks for very advanced information, communication and medical enablers 
would become negligible and that the objective need for customized 
breakthrough development would be quite limited. Although that would 
undoubtedly benefit the world as a whole, the envisioned "exuberant growth" 
of any particular locality such as the North America is highly unlikely to 
occur. Hence, economic differentiation of a particular region, however 
well-established at present, is unlikely to hold for 10-30 years in the 
environment of global technological commodization.
      We will have to compete against the new regions (India, China, 
Russia) that already have many more well-prepared programmers and 
aggressive business leaders than we do and whose average pay even in the 
years to come will still be only a small fraction of that in the North 
America (i.e., see remuneration data in Sept 2003 Baseline magazine).
       The bottom line is as usual the bottom line. Unless the North 
America would specifically target the "exuberant growth" as its highest 
societal priority, it is very unlikely to occur by default or by benign 
neglect.  In short, we will have to earn it hard way. Judging by the scant 
economic visions (?!?) of the election campaigns in both the United Sates 
and Canada, and by the lackluster success of technology-driven business 
advancement in Mexico, it is unlikely to happen even in the next 10 years, 
much less thereafter.  Meanwhile, to cut the fluff, all levels of North 
American governments would better reconsider wasting taxpayer moneys on 
technology R&D grants and credits, so popular in the second half of the 
last century but scarcely working today or tomorrow. (Nahum Goldmann, ARRAY 
Development, Ottawa, Canada, and School of Management, University of Ottawa)

THE BOTTOM LINE ON NEWSSCAN DAILY
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10546
      Just wanted to let you know that the passion and intellectual 
curiosity you evidence in your newsletter is a bright light in my e-mail 
in-box. I read the news, but hurry down the screen to see the quote of the 
day. I change my tag line often, and struggled to find "new" quotations. 
You have so many great ones! Right now, the Goethe quote is on my e-mail 
replies/messages, and so many people have enjoyed it! The people you 
describe help me realize the depth of the minds and hearts of by-gone days. 
You help to put a human face on the challenges of the past -- many of the 
people you so cleverly and fully describe have made our world a better 
place; what I learned about Mendel from you! In the truest sense, the 
bottom of your NewsScan is full of hope (often the only antidote to the top 
part of the newsletter, and most of the rest of my in-box). Thanks! I 
regularly share your NewsScan with colleagues, and hope others do the same! 
(Sharon Cramer, Ph.D., Buffalo State College)

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