NewsScan Daily, 18 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 18 January 2005 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
       Amazon in Space
       GPS Everywhere
       Technology and the Muslim Experience
       Wild Web Justice
       Verizon & Yahoo Join to Offer Broadband

FEATURES
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Sir Humphry Davy

AMAZON IN SPACE
     The space company Blue Origin, created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos,
has built an aerospace testing and operations center near the little town of
Van Horn, Texas. The company plans to begin flight operations in six to
seven years with a "sub-orbital space vehicle that will take off and land
vertically to take three or more astronauts to the edge of space." Bezos, a
billionaire, chose the Texas location because he spent his summers on his
grandfather's ranch in the area, where he learned about self-reliance and
perseverance. (New York Times 18 Jan 2005)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/science/space/18jeff.html>

GPS EVERYWHERE
    The rules about the use of GPS devices are widely varied: whereas a
federal judge in New York has ruled that police have a right to place
tracking devices on vehicles without a warrant (since the drivers should
have no expectation of privacy on public roads), California has restricted
car rental companies' use of GPS to track customers (a law adopted after a
company fined customers $3,000 because their GPS system indicated the cars
had crossed the state line into Nevada in violation of the rental
agreement). But the fact is that GPS is here to stay: David Gilmore, the
court-appointed transportation administrator for D.C. Public Schools, says
of the use of GPS to monitor school bus drivers in that jurisdiction: "As
uncomfortable as this might make them, they are now being watched by
satellite every minute of their workday, like it or not." (Washington Post
14 Jan 2005)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10788-2005Jan14.html>

TECHNOLOGY AND THE MUSLIM EXPERIENCE
     Dozens of Islamic Web sites now exist -- some chat-based, allowing for
a dialogue about the religion, but many taking a militant stance, promoting
holy war. Pilgrim and cleric Sheik Armiyawo Shaidu of Accra, Ghana, says the
extremists have taken better advantage of technology than moderate Muslims:
"This kind of advancement in communication has provided a very unnecessary
but prominent platform to the extremists who are sending across negative
messages that is not only harming people but also our peaceful religion.
These people (terrorists) have successfully used these tools to confuse the
minds of Muslims who are open to extremist views. I think we need a more
pro-active approach to the problem and plan ahead of time to beat them to
their own game." (AP/San Jose Mercury News 17 Jan 2005)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10665407.htm>

WILD WEB JUSTICE
    Ohio trial court judge James L. Kimbler has set up a personal Sony
digital camcorder in his courtroom and using it to post online video of
people being sentenced for robbery, rape and other crimes. Kimbler says,
"It's all public record anyway. If the general public and law students know
what we do it increases their understanding." Lloyd Snyder, a professor of
legal ethics, predicts: "This is coming. With 'Court TV' available, people
are getting used to having things like this out there, and it's also
entertainment. It is the right of the defendant to be tried in the open.
There is no correlative right for a defendant to have a private trial."
(AP/USA Today 18 Jan 2005)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-01-18-sentenced-online_x.htm>

VERIZON & YAHOO JOIN TO OFFER BROADBAND
    A new deal between content provider Yahoo and phone company Verizon will
give subscribers to Verizon's high-speed Internet services access to
customized and premium content from Yahoo under a multiyear agreement that
combines the companies' offerings into a single brand. Yahoo executive Steve
Boom says that since the service is "all bundled with the DSL price" there
is "no additional cost to the end user." The combined service will be
available in Verizon's territory of 29 states and the District of Columbia.
(AP/18 Jan 2005)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050118/D87M9HBG0.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
     "Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little
things, in which smiles, and kindnesses, and small obligations, given
habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort." (Sir
Humphrey Davy)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: SIR HUMPHRY DAVY
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the English chemist Sir Humphry Davy,
who discovered important chemical compounds and elements (including sodium
and potassium), invented the miner's safety lamp, and became one of the
greatest exponents of the scientific method. He also experimented with the
use of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.
     Davis was the first person to isolate sodium and potassium by passing
an electric current through the fused hydroxides of these elements. Other
elements he was the first to isolate included barium, boron, calcium,
magnesium, and strontium. His miner's safety lamp, now called the Davy lamp,
used a wire mesh to keep the lamp flame from igniting explosive mine gases.
The Davy lamp was first used in British mines in 1816, and its success in
reducing the number of explosions led to his being made a baronet.
     Davy was an especially brilliant speaker, and his chemical lectures and
demonstrations became fashionable social events, attended by many prominent
persons. In 1807 a Davy lecture series earned a prize from Napoleon, which
Davy traveled to Paris to receive in person, even though France and England
were at war. Davy dismissed criticism by saying that the nations were at
war, "but not their scientists."
     Davy was the elder son of middle-class parents and was educated at the
grammar school in nearby Penzance. In 1795, a year after the death of his
father, he was apprenticed to a surgeon and apothecary, with the expectation
of a career in medicine. He also had aspirations to write poetry, but put
them aside in 1798, when he was appointed chemical superintendent of the
Pneumatic Institution at Clifton to investigate the possible therapeutic
uses of various gases. Davy investigated the oxides and acids of nitrogen,
as well as ammonia. He nearly lost his life inhaling water gas, a mixture of
hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
     In 1803 he was made a fellow of the Royal Society and an honorary
member of the Dublin Society. For his researches on voltaic cells, tanning,
and mineral analysis, he received the Copley Medal in 1805, and he was
elected secretary of the Royal Society in 1807.
     Besides creating an amazing list of scientific achievements, Davy also
found time for other pursuits. He was an avid fisherman and in 1928 he wrote
"Salmonia: or Days of Fly Fishing," a work similar to Izaak Walton's that
contained engravings from his own drawings. He never lost his early interest
in poetry, and his friends included the literary scions Coleridge, Southey
and Wordsworth, who unlike modern critics thought well of his poetry.
     Davy's health began to fail rapidly in 1827, and he was forced to
resign the presidency of the Royal Society. In 1829 he settled in Rome,
Italy, calling himself "a ruin amongst ruins." He spent his last months
before dying that year writing a series of dialogues, published posthumously
in 1830 as "Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher."
                               ***
     [To find a library copy of "Consolations in Travel," visit RLG's
RedLightGreen service at: <http://tinyurl.com/4tnhg> -- or to purchase a
copy Davy's published works go to <http://tinyurl.com/6lk82>.
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy
programs.]

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