NewsScan Daily, 12 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 12 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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appropriate use of information technology. NSD is written by John Gehl and
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Cisco to Build China's Next-Generation Network
       Studying Nanotech Risks
       New Competition in the Online Travel Business
       AOL Winds Down Broadband Service
       Online Bride Scam

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

CISCO TO BUILD CHINA'S NEXT-GENERATION NETWORK
     Cisco Systems has been chosen by China Telecommunications Corp.,
China's biggest telecom company, to build China's next-generation backbone
network. Known as the China Telecom Internet Protocol Next-Generation
Network, it will connect more than 200 cities and allow China's users to
connect to overseas networks through virtual private network (VPN) services.
The next-generation network is part of a plan by China Telecom to become one
of the world's largest providers of Internet protocol services within the
next two decades. (AP/San Jose Mercury News 12 Nov 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10164520.htm>

STUDYING NANOTECH RISKS
     The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $4 million in grants to
a dozen universities to study the biological and medical implications of
nanotechnology, which has already yielded such products as carbon "nanotube"
electrical wires; cages of atoms that can capture pollutants in water and
soil; and catalysts that reduce manufacturers' dependence upon caustic
chemicals. Recognizing that these materials are small enough to enter the
lungs (and perhaps even be absorbed through the skin and travel to the brain
and other organs), EPA official Paul Gilman explained: "This emerging field
has the potential to transform environmental protection, but at the same
time we must understand whether nanomaterials in the environment can have an
adverse impact." Barbara Karn of the EPA's Office of Research and
Development says the projects funded by the new grants will do "infinitely
more" on nanotech safety than has ever been done previously.   (Washington
Post 11 Nov 2004)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43763-2004Nov11.html>

NEW COMPETITION IN THE ONLINE TRAVEL BUSINESS
     America Online has taken a minority stake in Kayak Software, a company
that hopes to take customers away from Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity,
which are the currently dominant online travel services. To differentiate
itself from some other aggregators of travel information, Kayak plans to
allow customers to post ratings and reviews, and its technology has the
ability to remember customers' travel preferences and filter the results of
their searches accordingly. CEO Steve Hafner, who co-founded Orbitz, says:
"Think of Kayak.com as the Google-meets-Amazon of travel search." (AP/USA
Today 12 Nov 2004)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2004-11-12-aol-kayak_x.htm>

AOL WINDS DOWN BROADBAND SERVICE
    Earlier this year America Online stopped signing up new broadband
customers -- and now it's telling existing broadband subscribers in nine
Southern states that they'll need to find a new broadband carrier by
mid-January, or face being moved to dial-up service. Broadband customers
affected by this decision are residents of Florida, Kentucky, Georgia,
Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina and South
Carolina. (AP/Los Angeles Times 12 Nov 2004)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/ats-ap_technology10nov11,1,1067276.story?coll=sns-ap-toptechnology>

ONLINE BRIDE SCAM
     A Russian man who netted $300,000 by faking emails from prospective
brides to unsuspecting foreigners was caught by Moscow police but received
only a one-year suspended sentence. Yury Lazarev, 34, an English translator
from the Urals, employed women to write flowery, romantic messages signed
with real names picked off web dating sites. The photographs of seductive
women that accompanied the text caught the attention of some 3000 men from
New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and other countries. Once
a prospective victim got interested and wanted to meet his potential fiancé,
the fictitious woman would ask for financial help in paying for visas and
airline tickets. (The Age 11 Nov 2004) Rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/11/1100131119740.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are." (George
Santayana)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: EDUCATION
     Asked by whether he would encourage people to enroll in schools of
education, the distinguished author and scholar Mihai Nadin ("The
Civilization of Illiteracy," "Anticipation," et al.) replied:
     "I would not. I would rather they forget studying education as it is a
subject in the modern university today. Education is part of the system of
the institution and every institution is focused on its survival. I have
never heard of an institution which by itself decided to close its doors.
This does not happen. An Ed school is not going to hand over the keys
tomorrow at 12 and say: let's do something else. So, I think I would rather
encourage that they start an alternative form of education.
     "I made very nervous a group of important guys in Germany dedicated to
issues of education when I quoted a metaphor from Thomas Mann. He said the
only important issue for mankind was how does the cocoon become a butterfly?
What this means is that you have free yourself from one condition before you
can get to a new condition. So, my message was, let's blow up the
university. You had the students applauding to the sky and you had the
administrator saying: ok, we lynch him. I received messages from other
academics who said that if I worked for a corporation I would have been
fired; you don't say things like that...
     "I tried to answer about 100-150 e-mails until I stopped because I saw
this repetitive pattern where the e-mail all kept talking about the
retirement they would not give this up even if they knew that what they were
doing was not right.
     "My claim is that the institution of education as we know it is an
extension of the industrial society. Its necessity today is no longer beyond
being questioned. No one would say we have no problem in schools -- everyone
accepts that we have a problem. But, having said that, look at all the
answers given. Let's look at continuity. Let's build on what we have. Let's
improve. There is still a lot to be done. No one is willing to say there is
a need for a totally different form of human interaction that will in turn
be reflected in a different way of disseminating the knowledge society
needs. 
     "Today we are looking at education as we have 10,000 seats empty, if we
fill them we are a very good university. That is not what education is
about. Giving a piece of paper to show someone studied something at some
time? We are talking about people getting involved in practical experiences
at a much younger age than before and we act if nothing has changed. People
get involved in practical experiences completely independent of what they
learn in schools to the point where they ask themselves: why did I waste my
time in school. I didn't do anything with what I learned. So, if we are
honest about it we have to truly look for alternatives. What should that
something else be? We are experiencing a situation where the efficiency of
the university lags behind the rest of society. The university instead of
promoting progress now blocks progress."
     Asked what hope he has, Nadin's answer was:
     "Being the most optimistic person you have ever met I have hope that
those who need education will start to take their education into their own
hands. The new generation has tremendous energy. With every student I meet
there is a determination to make a living because this is difficult. To be
young to day is very challenging. Change is so fast you have to ask why you
need to be educated. They need something else... I think the greatest
challenge we have today is that each of us can be treated as an individual
and not as what we were expected to be. In other words each of us has a
potential and it is the first time in the history of mankind that potential
can be brought to fruition.
     [For more by and about Mihai Nadin, visit http://www.nadin.name/.]
                            ***
[To find a library copy of Mihai Nadin's "The Civilization of Illiteracy,"
visit RLG's RedLightGreen.com:
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=19911275&>
-- or to purchase a copy go to:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/3931828387/newsscancom/ref=nosim>
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

MAILBAG: THE WORLD AS WE FIND IT

'FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON'
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11670>
     I was pleased to see NewsScan recommend Jules Verne's story "From the
Earth to the Moon". I typed the story in 1989 as a donation for Project
Gutenberg. It's available online by searching Google. (Rich Schroeppel)

DISPORPORTIONATE PUNISHMENT FOR SPAMMERS
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11631>
     The end of civilization as we know it is just over the horizon when
spammers get 9-year prison sentences while the average federal sentence for
manslaughter is a mere 5 years. Only the insane penalties for drug
possession (for example, 10 years with no parole for 100 kilos of marijuana)
exceed the sentencing of these spammers! Could it be that the political
clout of AOL was a factor? Spammers need to be punished but with this kind
of retribution it might be kinder just to execute them. (Mark Gibbs)

SLUGGER, CITIZEN, PATRIOT
Re: 
<http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=honorary_subscriber&id=856> 
     Any mention of Ted William's life without mentioning his military
service is unjust. Mr. William's was accomplished fighter pilot in WWII and
Korean. After serving his country with honor during the prime years of his
life, he return to baseball and was still one of the best hitters in the
game. (Bill Baker)

GOOGLE'S INDEX NEARLY DOUBLES
     You might find this news worth publishing ("Google's Index nearly
doubles"), found at http://www.google.com/googleblog/ (Ben White)

IF A VOTE IS CAST IN THE FORREST, WILL ANYONE COUNT IT?
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11640>
     Regarding Chris L. White¹s comment that ³I've used the touchscreen
e-voting machines in Collin County, Texas, for the past two elections with
no issues,² I ask ³how would you know?² If there is no paper trail, a
recount would consist of running the same algorithm against the same data
with no expected change in outcome. Is it conceivable that a dishonest or
sloppy programmer could write code that would misallocate votes from time to
time? The fact that no one complains may only mean that there is no way to
see the problem, not that no problem exists. (Andrew W. Horner)

WHY NOT ASK FOR MONEY FOR EVERY VISIT TO A WEB SITE?
Re: <http://www.newsscan.com/cgi-bin/findit_view?table=newsletter&id=11315>
     The content creators on the Internet must be paid for their time,
energy and money. The easiest way to compensate them is to devise an
international agreement under which the ISPs everywhere are asked to pay for
the time their customers spend on web sites that expect payment. (The sites
that want to remain free for commercial or philanthropic reasons may
continue to do so.)
     There may be a uniform charge for say every 10 or 15 minutes that a
surfer spends on a site. (The uniform rate should be displayed prominently
on the web site and vary according to the income levels of the countries,
with the poorest paying the lowest rate.)
     The ISPs may absorb the payments as a part of their Internet charges or
may send a separate bill to every customer. To make the proposed system easy
to stomach for the users who were hooked on unlimited free use for years,
the uniform rate should be absolutely low in the beginning. As the
resistance decreases, there may be gradual increases.
     There will be many advantages of the proposed system:
     (a)  The desire to make money and the competition will force the web
site owners to produce content of highest quality so that they attract
maximum visitors and keep them hooked as long as possible.
     (b) The quality and scope of content will increase tremendously because
costs will no longer be a restraint.
     (c) The publishers of reference works and other content on CDs will
love the new way of doing it, as it will end the trials and tribulations of
producing and distributing disks.
     (d) The knowledge and information not available at present due to cost
factors will also become available on the Internet.
     (e) The users will use Internet for specific purposes, not to while
away time. Your browsing is much more purposeful and focused in a bookstore
than in a free library!
     The logic is compelling. If I expect compensation for spending time,
money and energy on anything I write or create, there is no reason I should
not pay for what others have written or created. If I am expected to pay for
my paper and electronic media content (newspapers, magazines, books, movies,
ad-free television), there is no reason why I should not pay for the content
of my interest on the Internet ­ however I may dislike it!
     (Muhammad Abd al-Hameed, Lahore, Pakistan)

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