NewsScan Daily, 29 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 29 June 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
      Supreme Court Wary of Online Pornography Law
      VoIP Catching On
      Apple Challenges Microsoft on Search Technology
      Videostreaming Service Boosts Science Education
      Mobile Phones Cut Sperm Count

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Klemens von Metternich
        Mailbag: The World As We Find It

SUPREME COURT WARY OF ONLINE PORNOGRAPHY LAW
      The Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-4 decision that a law meant to 
protect children from exposure to online pornography is probably an 
unconstitutional restriction on free speech guaranties of the 
Constitution's First Amendment. The law, which passed in 1998 and was 
signed by then-President Clinton, is now backed by the Bush administration. 
Known as the Child Online Protection Act, the law would have authorized 
fines up to $50,000 for the crime of placing material that is "harmful to 
minors" within the easy reach of children on the Internet. The majority 
opinion, written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, said that "there is a 
potential for extraordinary harm and a serious chill upon protected speech" 
if the law were to take effect. The case has been sent back to a lower 
court for a trial that would allow a discussion of what technology, if any, 
might allow children to be shielded from online pornography but at the same 
time would allow adults to see and buy any material that is not illegal. 
(AP/Washington Post 29 Jun 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14419-2004Jun29.html

VOIP CATCHING ON
       More than 25% of Internet users in the U.S. are aware of VoIP (voice 
over Internet Protocol) telephony, and 13% of those have considered 
switching over to Internet telephony for their residential phone service. 
The new figures from a study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life 
Project and the New Millennium Research Council also show that 11% of 
Internet users (14 million Americans) have actually made some kind of VoIP 
phone call. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that the 'pioneering consumer' 
often faces new technology 'glitches,' but then reaps the benefits and 
enjoys being the first on the block with a new gadget," says Pew senior 
research specialist John Horrigan. The findings suggest that it's not too 
soon for legislators to begin thinking about the implications of this new 
technology, says Allen Hepner, NMRC advisory board member: "This 
'disruptive technology' is coming to all Americans; it is not a question of 
'if,' but 'when.' VoIP also disrupts existing laws and regulations in the 
telecom arena. Legislators and regulators would be wise to reexamine 
existing policy sooner rather than later, so as to minimize regulatory 
uncertainties for business and consumers." (Pew Internet & American Life 
Project News Release 28 Jun 2004)
http://www.pewinternet.org

APPLE CHALLENGES MICROSOFT ON SEARCH TECHNOLOGY
       Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs demoed an upcoming search feature 
called Spotlight, which is based on the search technology used by Apple's 
iTunes online music service. The feature will be incorporated into the next 
version of Mac OS, called Tiger, which is slated for release in the first 
half of 2005. Using technology designed to organize and search through song 
collections, Spotlight can quickly find data stored on a hard drive 
regardless of the type of file it is hidden in, says Jobs: "Search is a 
problem for every personal computer company. It's easier to find a document 
in a million pages on the Web using Google than it is to find a document on 
your hard drive." Apple's intention to introduce roughly 150 new features 
in Tiger indicates that Apple is "clearly going after [Microsoft's] 
Longhorn. They're putting in a lot of features that will be in Longhorn, 
and that's not coming out until 2006 or 2007," says Tim Bajarin, president 
of Creative Strategies. "We think we are years ahead of Longhorn," concurs 
Jobs. "The other guys have been talking about it and we're doing it." (New 
York Times 28 Jun 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/technology/29apple.html

VIDEOSTREAMING SERVICE BOOSTS SCIENCE EDUCATION
      The Discovery Channel's unitedstreaming service offers schools 
subscription-based access to 20,000 video clips on topics ranging from cell 
division to sexually transmitted diseases. The clips are categorized by 
state education standards and are searchable. The service has been a hit 
with educators. "It's so hard to get science videos. It gets so expensive, 
then people lose them or bring them back damaged," says one Maryland 
science teacher. Discovery's new subsidiary, United Learning, also offers 
training and materials such as pre- and post-viewing exercises and 
teachers' guides to go with the videos, reinforcing Discovery's strategy to 
boost its classroom presence and leverage its brand into the home-based 
learning market. "The long-term hope is that as households become better 
wired, we can provide a digital library... Once we deliver in the education 
field, Discovery will be the brand you can trust and bring into the home," 
says Discovery Communications senior VP Donald Baer. And Discovery doesn't 
plan on stopping there -- future customers could include "baby boomers who 
want to study art history or molecular biology but don't want to get a 
degree," adds Discovery Education executive VP Steve Sidel. (Washington 
Post 29 Jun 2004)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13299-2004Jun28.html

MOBILE PHONES CUT SPERM COUNT
      Men who regularly carry a mobile phone could have their sperm count 
reduced by as much as 30% according to a new study by Hungarian 
researchers. Those who place their phone near their groin, on a belt or in 
a pocket, are at greatest risk. The research findings are the first to 
suggest that male fertility could be affected by the radiation emitted by 
mobile phones, also long suspected of causing cancer. The study found the 
sperm that did survive exposure to mobile  phone radiation showed abnormal 
movements, further reducing fertility. But experts are advising men not to 
panic yet. (The Australian 28 Jun 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp, Deakin 
University
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9972717%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E, 
00.html

*****

FLASH CARD
      "The obvious is always least understood." (Klemens von Metternich)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER; KLEMENS VON METTERNICH
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the 19th century Austrian statesman 
Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel Von Metternich (1773-1859), renowned for the 
leading role he played at the Congress of Vienna convened in 1815 to 
re-order post Napoleonic Europe.
      Dubbed the "coachman of Europe," Metternich employed his considerable 
diplomatic skills during the Congress to form an alliance between Austria 
and England to moderate Russian and Prussian demands on the defeated 
French, thereby making possible a long-lasting European peace. He assumed a 
leading role in maintaining a balance of power in Europe, and as a 
political conservative, he sought to suppress popular unrest in the 
Austrian Empire and the other European monarchies.
      Metternich's methods, which came to be called the Metternich System, 
depended on censorship, espionage, and the suppression of revolutionary and 
nationalist movements. Successful as these efforts were in maintaining 
peace and international order, they inevitably disappointed popular 
aspirations and turned Metternich into a symbol of repression. The 1830 
uprisings in Europe weakened his power, and when the 1848 revolution in 
France spread to Austria and the rest of Europe, Metternich was driven from 
office and forced to flee to England. He returned to Austria in 1851, but 
only to live out his years in private retirement.
       Today Metternich is best remembered by what he said of himself 
shortly before his death at the age of eighty-six:" I was a rock of order."
      Metternich was born in Coblenz, where his father was the Austrian 
envoy. He studied philosophy at the University of Strasburg, and law and 
diplomacy at Mainz, after which he completed his education with a visit to 
England. Returning to Vienna, he married the countess Eleonore Kaunitz, 
heiress and granddaughter of the former Austrian state chancellor Wenzel 
Anton, Graf von Kaunitz. Then, in 1801 he began his diplomatic career as 
Austrian ambassador to the Court of Dresden. Two years later he was made 
ambassador to Berlin, and in 1806 he was posted to Napoleon's court in Paris.
      Austria's troubles with Napoleonic France led to Metternich's recall 
to Vienna to begin his lengthy career as Austria's Foreign Minister. For 
his ultimate success in dealing with the many difficulties brought to the 
nations of Europe by the Napoleonic wars, the Emperor Francis I raised 
Metternich to the nobility with the hereditary rank of prince.
      Metternich's handling of the Congress of Vienna must be considered 
the high point of his career. Still worth remembering, perhaps more than 
ever in this day of 24/7 news coverage, is the following Metternich 
observation: "Admirers of the press honour it with the title, 
'representative of public opinion', though everything written in the papers 
is nothing but the expression of those who write. Will the value of being 
the expression of public opinion ever be attributed to the publications of 
a Government, even of a Republican Government? Surely not! Yet every 
obscure journalist claims this value for his own products. What a confusion 
of ideas!"

[See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/2213602670/newsscancom/ref=nosim 
for a biography of Metternich by de Sauvigny -- or look for it in your 
favorite library. Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations 
to adult literacy program.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

DEATH KNELL OF PRIVACY?
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10832
      I read your article about the LocatePLUS system with alarm. Who on 
earth are the 13,000 non-law enforcement subscribers to this system, who 
can access "dossiers" on 205 million people? All 205 million can't have 
police records. When this system is put together with the U.S. Supreme 
Court ruling this week that an individual may not refuse to give his or her 
name to the police when asked (in states with laws that require this), the 
final death knell of privacy may have been rung. (George Needham)

STEP UP AND SHAKE THE HAND OF SOMEONE YOU CAN'T STAND
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10819
      When I read the Sheldon Harnick lyrics I was at once reminded of Tom 
Lehrer's National Brotherhood Week:
Oh, the white folks hate the black folks, And the black folks hate the 
white folks.
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, New 
Yorkers love the Puerto Ricans 'cause it's very chic.
Step up and shake the hand
Of someone you can't stand.
You can tolerate him if you try.
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, And the Catholics hate the 
Protestants, And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
And everybody hates the Jews.
But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week, It's 
National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.
Be nice to people who
Are inferior to you.
It's only for a week, so have no fear.
Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!
(Jacqui Licht)

PERSONAL BEST
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10836
      On Bob Bemer's personal web page (http://www.bobbemer.com), the 
creator of ASCII lists some Goals and Rules for his site, the most salient 
of which is: "We will arouse and admonish the so-called 'computer 
scientists', trying to persuade them that they have a very civic duty to 
mankind, because computer software is now, undeniably, running the world 
for us." A sobering thought: "...running the world for us." In the 19th 
century, when Civil Engineers faced a crisis of confidence because of a 
series of collapsed railroad bridges, that profession embraced the duty to 
build safe structures. Indeed, the entire future of Civil Engineering and 
transportation depended on it, not to mention human lives. Have we in 
Computer Science grasped the same duty systematically? Bob Bemer exhorts us 
to do so. (Alan Dossett)

FILTERING CONUNDRUMS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10664
      I read with interest the many helpful things Roberto 
Garcia  suggested for inclusion in the NewsScan subject line. Your response 
was exactly what I expected. But in light of the many letters you are 
getting with regard to the tracking of e-mail and the strategies for 
handling spam I have to respond for myself. I use a text-based e-mail 
reader and I filter and organize incoming mail for my work and pleasure. I 
also read my mail from a number of different service providers on a single 
machine. I employ a spam filter with Bayesian logic applied to the content 
in order to fling (re-direct) unwanted messages to the far corner of my 
e-mail room. If NewsScan's subject line were to begin promoting the content 
of the message it would immediately be flagged by my "intelligent" software 
as a possible spam. Although it is listed in my "white list" of preferred 
senders and is organized into its very own mailbox to await my reading the 
use of a promotional subject line would likely awaken my "spam tiger".
      The other aspect of Mr. Garcia's suggestions which seems a little 
strange is that I subscribe to NewsScan Daily and it does not appear on my 
virtual doorstep like so much unsolicited e-mail. If I was not already 
interested in what "might" be inside the message then I would not be a 
subscriber. On that side of the equation I would simple have a bookmark to 
the web site (www.newsscan.com) and visit whenever I had a hankering for a 
news summary.
      I have recently been re-evaluating the usefulness of so many of my 
listserv subscriptions and I've been canceling delivery on a number of them 
just in the month of June. NewsScan, of course, is still one of those I value.
      Congratulations (somewhat belated I know) for being there for 10 
years. I'm going to have to consult my backups to see when I first 
subscribed. Just for the bragging rights you understand. (Dave Trautman, 
Edmonton, AB Canada)

TWO NOTES ABOUT THE MAILBAG
      First, please don't send us any mail making partisan political 
points. NewsScan Daily is not the place to argue for or against current 
candidates.
      Second, we received quite a lot of mail in reaction to yesterday's 
"Memo from Maelstrom," and we'll run some of it tomorrow.
               J&S

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