NewsScan Daily, 17 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 17 November 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Satellite Phones Back in Vogue
        Hollywood Sues Internet Film Pirates
        Reach Out and Just Leave a Message
        Heavy Computer Use Linked to Glaucoma
        Bids for Virgin Mary Cheese Sandwich Canceled

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Honorary Subscriber: Anders Celsius

SATELLITE PHONES BACK IN VOGUE
      Workers and travelers in far-flung locations are finding satellite 
phones provide much more reliable service than cell phones, and are 
breathing new life into two companies that sought bankruptcy protection in 
the last few years while struggling to build a market. Iridium Satellite 
and Globalstar both have seen a recent surge in subscriber rates, primarily 
from global travelers and workers in fields such as mining, drilling, 
forestry and engineering. "They cover such a broad area, I can use it 
anywhere," says one Iridium customer who says his satellite phone compares 
favorably with his old cellular handset. "The call may get unclear, but if 
you wait about five or six seconds, it gets better. A cell phone would just 
drop the call." Boosting the appeal are satellite phones' new, smaller size 
(although they're still heftier than your average cell phone) and cheaper 
rates, which can go as low as 17 cents a minute. Proponents note that 
during the string of hurricanes that hit the U.S. last summer, satellite 
phones were often the only reliable means of communication, because they 
use orbiting satellites rather than landlines and cell towers to transmit 
signals. (Wall Street Journal 17 Nov 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110065279449676240,00.html> (sub req'd)

HOLLYWOOD SUES INTERNET FILM PIRATES
      The Motion Picture Association of America has filed an undisclosed 
number of lawsuits against Internet users it suspects of swapping or 
downloading digital copies of films. The group says the civil suits could 
seek damages of up to $30,000 per film. The MPAA move follows a similar 
strategy by the music industry to crack down on illegal downloading, which 
resulted in about 5,000 lawsuits. MPAA Dan Glickman said in a statement: 
"The motion-picture industry must pursue legal proceedings against people 
who are stealing our movies on the Internet. The future of our industry, 
and of the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports, must be protected 
from this kind of outright theft using all available means." (BBC News 17 
Nov 2004)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4018755.stm>

REACH OUT AND JUST LEAVE A MESSAGE
      Did you ever want to leave a message for someone, but were afraid to 
call for fear they'd really pick up? Core Mobility of Palo Alto has 
developed "Voice SMS," which allows the user to leave a voice message in 
someone's e-mail inbox or on their cell phone -- without giving the 
recipient a chance to answer live. The Voice SMS feature will debut on a 
new Samsung handset available in Sprint stores around the country. (San 
Jose Mercury News 17 Nov 2004)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10202645.htm>

HEAVY COMPUTER USE LINKED TO GLAUCOMA
      Researchers at the Toho University School of Medicine in Tokyo have 
found that long hours spent in front of a computer screen may increase the 
risk of glaucoma in near-sighted people. Glaucoma, which is caused by 
damage to the optic nerve, results in blind spots or visual impairments 
that can lead to blindness. The research is based on a study of 10,000 
workers in Japan who were tested for the disease, with results correlated 
to data on how many hours were spent on the computer and also pre-existing 
visual problems, such as myopia. Scientists said they believe the optic 
nerve in myopic people might be more vulnerable to computer-caused stress 
than in normal eyes. "Computer stress is reaching higher levels than have 
ever been experienced before. In the next decade, therefore, it might be 
important for public health professionals to show more concern about myopia 
and visual field abnormalities in heavy computer users," says the report 
published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology. (Reuters/MSNBC 16 Nov 
2004)
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6493299/>

BIDS FOR VIRGIN MARY CHEESE SANDWICH CANCELED
      The folks at eBay were no believers in this cheesy miracle: half of a 
10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich whose owner claimed it bore the image 
of the Virgin Mary. Diana Duyser put the sandwich up for sale last week, 
drawing bids as high as $22,000 before eBay pulled the item on Sunday 
night. The page was viewed nearly 100,000 times before being taken down. An 
e-mail Duyser received from eBay said the sandwich broke its policy, which 
"does not allow listings that are intended as jokes." (The Age 17 Nov 2004) 
Rec'd from J. Lamp
<http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/16/1100574471142.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd have frozen to 
death." (Mark Twain)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: ANDERS CELSIUS
      Today's Honorary Subscriber is the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius 
(1701-44), who invented the Celsius thermometer scale, generally called the 
centigrade scale.
      Celsius was professor of astronomy at the University of Uppsala from 
1730 to 1744, and in 1740 he took charge of the large new observatory 
constructed there. Celsius was the first to measure the magnitude of stars 
by determining the intensity of their light by a device other than the 
human eye. Along with his colleagues he made extensive observations of the 
aurora borealis, which provided the data he needed to associate the 
phenomenon with changes in the earth's magnetic field.
      In the interest of verifying Newton's theory that the Earth is 
relatively flat at the poles, Celsius took part in an expedition to Lapland 
to measure the arc of a meridian in that area of the Earth's surface. He 
recorded his scientific work in two monographs: "A Dissertation on a New 
Method of Determining the Distance of the Sun from the Earth" and the 
"Disquisition on Observations Made in France for Determining the Shape of 
the Earth."
      Celsius belonged to a famous Swedish family of scientists. His father 
and grandfather were mathematicians, and his uncle was a botanist. He spent 
the whole of his life in the city of his birth, Uppsala. Despite his 
outstanding work in astronomy, his reputation today rests mainly on the 
thermometer he first described in a paper read before the Swedish Academy 
Sciences in 1742.

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Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
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