NewsScan Daily, 28 July 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 28 July 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Limited Sharing Allowed by Music Services
       China Wants to Clean Up the Internet
       TiVo and Its Rivals
       Malaysia to Invest Heavily in Broadband
       News Search Service From Micrososft

FEATURES           
       Flash Card
       Worth Thinking About: The Other Economy
       Mailbag: The World As We Find It

LIMITED SHARING ALLOWED BY MUSIC SERVICES
     MusicMatch is the latest online music service to provide a feature that
lets subscribers send e-mail messages with Internet links for songs they
want to share. Although Napster 2.0 and other licensed digital music
services offer similar options, Napster allows nonsubscribers to listen only
to 30-second song snippets, whereas MusicMatch allows songs to be played by
recipients three times before the songs lock. MusicMatch executive Bob
Ohlweiler says, "Record companies like the fact that people can tell their
friends and acquaintances about music. What the labels don't like about
peer-to-peer is that it's free." Media analyst Phil Leigh says of the
limited file-sharing feature: "It will be an incremental feature that could
lead them to be more competitive. You'll probably see other people follow
MusicMatch's lead, particularly if it proves successful, and my guess is
that it will be." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 27 Jul 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/9256679.htm

CHINA WANTS TO CLEAN UP THE INTERNET
     Beijing has blocked 988 overseas Web sites and shut down 67 local ones
as part of a nationwide campaign to weed out pornographic content on the
Internet. The sites shut down during the July 6-21 special operation
included Hong Kong sites, and Google was also inaccessible. So far, the
Chinese capital has arrested 13 people suspected of operating the sites. The
police had received 10,660 tips from the public, and the  majority of those
tips were complaints about inappropriate sexual content on the Internet and
complaints about pornographic mobile phone short messages.  (The Age 26 Jul
2004) Rec'd from John Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693877719.html

TIVO AND ITS RIVALS
     PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that by 2008 more than 20% of all
households will own a TiVo digital video recorder (DRV) -- a percentage up
from just 3% at the end of 2003. Although cable, satellite, computer and
consumer electronics companies will be aggressively marketing affordable
DVRs using their own software and services, TiVo expects to add another 1.5
million TiVo subscriptions this fiscal year to the 1.3 million reported for
this past year -- and is planning to spend an extra $50 million to win new
subscribers during this year's holiday shopping season. Industry analyst
Richard Doherty of The Envisioneering Group is not yet convinced that TiVo
will be able to vanquish its competitors: "TiVo's value to the industry
hasn't been shown yet. This is the last summer they'll be able to make that
case before these other products come in." (USA Today 28 Jul 2004)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-07-28-tivo-cov_x.htm

MALAYSIA TO INVEST HEAVILY IN BROADBAND
     Malaysia will sink 800 million ringgit (about $210 million in U.S.
dollars) in broadband facilities to expand the service to rural areas and
roll out faster access to the Internet. Malyasia's Energy, Communications
and Multimedia Minister says broadband penetration nationwide is currently
very low at only 0.44%, compared with 48% in neighboring Singapore and 60%
in South Korea. (The Age 26 Jul 2004) Rec'd from John Lamp
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/26/1090693877808.html

A NEWS SEARCH SERVICE FROM MICROSOSFT
     Microsoft has launched a test version of a service called Newsbot
which, like Google News, searches for the latest news online. Calling
Newsbot a "personal newsstand" that heeds user preferences, Microsoft says
the new service will examine stories from more than 4,800 English-language
news outlets. Microsoft's longer-term plans include a broader search
technology that would let people search Web sites, messages, and databases.
(Los Angeles Times 28 Jul 2004)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology11jul28,1,346381.story?co
ll=sns-ap-toptechnology

*****

FLASH CARD
     "There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more
easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government."
(Benjamin Franklin)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: THE OTHER ECONOMY
     Muck-raking journalist Eric Strosser writes:
     "In addition to America's famous corporations and brands, the invisible
hand has also produced a largely invisible economy, secretive and well
hidden, with its own labor demand, price structure, and set of commodities.
     "'Black,' 'shadow,' 'irregular,' 'informal,' 'illegal,' 'subterranean,'
'underground' -- a variety of adjectives have been used to describe this
other economy. Although defined in numerous ways, at its simplest the
American underground is where economic activities remain off the books,
where they are unrecorded, unreported, and in violation of the law. These
activities range from the commonplace (an electrician demanding payment in
cash and failing to declare the payment as income) to the criminal (a gang
member selling methamphetamine). They include moonlighting, check kiting,
and fencing stolen goods; street vending and tax evading; employing day
laborers and child laborers; running sweatshops and chop shops; smuggling
cigarettes, guns, and illegal immigrants; selling fake Rolexes, pirating
CDs. 
     "Economists disagree about the actual size of the underground economy
and how to measure it. Some studies look at the discrepancy between the
amount of personal income declared on tax returns and the amount of money
that is actually spent. Other studies examine changes in currency supply,
the velocity of money, levels of electricity usage. Each of these
methodologies has its merits. All have produced conclusions that are
debatable. There is general agreement, however, on two points: America's
underground economy is vast -- and most of its growth occurred in the past
thirty years.
     "Any estimate of illegal economic activity is bound to lack precision,
since it attempts to quantify things that people have carefully tried to
hide. Nevertheless, in 1998, Charles Rossotti, the commissioner of the
Internal Revenue Service, told Congress that during the previous year
Americans had failed to pay about $200 billion of federal taxes that were
owed, an amount larger than the government's annual spending on Medicare.
The IRS estimate did not include undeclared earnings from criminal
activity."
     [See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0618446702/newsscancom/ref=nosim for
Eric Schlosser's "Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the
American Black Market" -- or look for it in your favorite library. Note: We
donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

FUNGI'S LOSS, LITERATURE'S GAIN
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=813
     I was delighted that you made Beatrix Potter an Honorary Subscriber.
Few people know that she actually had a scientific career ahead of her
before she turned to children's literature. She learned mycology, the study
of fungi, as a scientific illustrator, and in 1897 she wrote a paper
detailing her research into the symbiotic nature of lichens, showing how
they were composed of two organisms (a fungus and an alga). This theory had
already been propounded by continental European scientists, whose research
Potter read. However, the idea was unfamiliar to the British scientific
community, so her paper was not accepted. Possibly her status as an amateur
(albeit a learned and well-trained one), and as a woman, contributed to her
lack of success. Her publication of Peter Rabbit came not long after that,
and amidst her literary endeavors she never again found time for science --
so fungi's loss is literature's gain. (See http://tinyurl.com/4tkwr for more
about Potter's scientific work.) Thanks again for NewsScan Daily, one email
I always look forward to! (Lori Schwabenbauer)

WHAT WAS BEATRIX THINKING?
Re: 
http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=813
     Something I've never seen brought up about Beatrix Potter is the
amazing degree of violence in her books and the fact that her animal
characters are continually losing their clothing. Peter Rabbit is chased
with intent to kill, Benjamin Bunny's uncle canes someone senseless, and
poor Squirrel Nutkin is beaten so badly he's left for days in a coma. And
these are just a few examples. Where were the Concerned Parents Leagues of
those days? Don't get the wrong idea -- I'm quite fond of both Potter and
senseless violence, but it makes you wonder what was going on in the back of
her mind.
     As for the clothing, Tom Kitten, the Puddle Ducks, Peter Rabbit and I
forget who all else lose some or all of their garments in their escapades.
Interesting that she stopped writing about such things once she got married.
What say you, Dr. Freud? (Derek Davis)

ABDUCTION STATISTICS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11002
     I was immediately suspicious of the statistic that three of every four
abduction victims are killed within three hours of being taken, since most
abductions are done by family members. I checked the site of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children and found the answer. What you
meant is that three of four abduction victims who are killed are killed
within three hours of being taken. The same web site indicates that in 1999
there were about 262,000 child abductions, and that a 1997 study estimates
about 100 murders of abducted children each year. (Andrew W. Horner)

NEW WORDS ARE NOT NEW REALITIES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=10975
     Just because of a new word for it (³outsourcing²), the phenomenon of
the IT jobs going to other countries does not become something new. The
principle of comparative advantage in costs (including labor) has been
operating for centuries, forming the basis of international economics. The
services and manufacturing will go wherever the comparative costs are lower.
     As for India¹s position in outsourcing of IT jobs, there is rather too
much hype about it. The continuous poaching of each other¹s employees has
substantially increased the costs of Indian firms. With only about one
million jobs in a population of over one billion, IT has not made even a
dent in country¹s unemployment. Meanwhile, other countries are fast catching
up by offering same quality at lower prices. It is a game that many can
play. 
     On the other hand, there is severe political backlash to too much
emphasis on IT in India. In recent elections, the Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh state, widely known as a very enthusiastic promoter of IT, saw his
party get a drubbing. The voters were outraged at the neglect of their
problems while a small number of IT companies profited. (M.A. Hameed,
Lahore, Pakistan, [email protected])

REGARDING THOSE 'SOLVED' MYSTERIES
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11035
     I suspect that the reason we continue to purchase the books and listen
to the authors is that we, quite correctly, believe that science has not
solved these mysteries for us at all. (Tom Frerichs)

COMPUTERS AND KIDS
Re: http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11048
     I read the piece entitled Computer Kids with great interest. My own
daughter attends a K-8 Waldorf school, where not only do they not have any
computers, but the teachers don't use textbooks, nor is there any
standardized testing. Students create their own illustrated notebooks for
each main subject that summarizes their learning. There's no Powerpoint
presentations, or internet cut and paste projects. I believe the children
who are exposed to this educational educational approach demonstrate more
creativity, imagination and love of learning than those inculcated in the
tech-heavy public school system. I'm reminded of what Greek thinker Plutarch
said: "the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited".
      A child is not an adult, so why do we seek to thrust upon them tools
and devices that are inappropriate to their stage of development? We
wouldn't give them a chainsaw or let them drive a car -- why do we insist
they must use an intermediary in place of direct experience of the world
around them? I'll tell you why: so purveyors of technology can sell more
product.  I challenge anyone to prove any measurable benefit to the use of
computers at a young age. While the benefits are nebulous at best I think
the detrimental effects are clear.
     I urge anyone interested in the subject to read a lecture entitled
"Computers in Education" by Eugene Shwartz, available online at:
http://www.millennialchild.com/Computers01.htm
                (Dan Hamilton)

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