Saturday, March 30, 2002

U.N. Calls for Israeli Pullout From Palestinian Cities
U.N. envoy Terje Roed Larsen told Reuters Israel had denied him permission to visit Arafat.

The Palestinian president had responded to the assault on his compound with defiant telephone interviews to the media, but these dried up after his telephone lines were cut.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/international/middleeast/30mide-wires.html
American Describes Arafat's Post Under Siege
"I'm inside the main office building on the ground floor. Arafat is upstairs from me. The Israelis are surrounding the building on all sides.

"Everybody here is on the ground, sitting on the floor. There's no electricity. There's very little food, people sitting by candlelight, flicking cigarette lighters. I've been here five hours, and there hasn't been any shooting from inside the building. No one here is firing. The Israelis are still shooting at the building. No one is going to a window. There's no resistance here whatsoever.

"They were just shooting at the building for about 20 minutes. They shot from one side of the building and then from another side. You can hear the heavy machine guns. You can feel when it hits this side of the building. You can feel it hitting the walls and you can hear the bullets flying around.

"There are some policemen here, people who work in the offices, a doctor who is tending to people. He doesn't have much equipment. The hallways are filled with people: Arafat's guards, some regular police just sitting on the floor, people trying to sleep a bit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/international/middleeast/30COMP.html
As Arabs Seethe, Saudi Says Uprising Will Go On
Middle East political analysts noted that Mr. Sharon's offensive had dealt Arab leaders a serious blow.

"It puts them in a very embarrassing situation before their own people, as they now seem very weak, offering peace and the very same night the Israeli response is reoccupation of the Palestinian land and escalation of war," said Wahid Abdel Maguid, an Egyptian political analyst.

On the other hand he noted that Mr. Arafat was gaining in stature by the hour, just months after he could barely get Arab leaders to phone him after Israel first confined him to Ramallah. "Arafat is the winner here," Mr. Maguid said. "He is the hero who is dying defending his people. He is in the front line of the battle."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/international/middleeast/30ARAB.html
In Israel, Press Kits Roll Out With Tanks
Even as the tanks rumbled into Ramallah this morning, Gideon Meir, Israel's deputy foreign minister for public affairs, was setting up a huge government information office in Jerusalem's Convention Center to provide daily briefings for the international press corps pouring in here. It was, he said, part of an emergency plan that had been developed over the last two months.

"We have had the experience of September 2000," Mr. Meir said, referring to the start of this period of conflict and the images of Israeli soldiers shooting at young people throwing rocks. "And we have learned from some of our mistakes."

This is a country obsessed with its image abroad, and public relations is regarded as a vital — and sometimes losing — part of the battle. The Hebrew word is hasbara, which literally means "explanation," but carries the connotation here of something like "information offensive."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/international/middleeast/30ARMY.html
In the Arabs' Struggle Against Israel, There Are Many Players
To most Israelis, and to much of the world, the unremitting series of suicide attacks that have pushed Israel to proclaim Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, an "enemy" and assault his headquarters in Ramallah are the work of Palestinian terrorists, acting sometimes with the tacit approval of Mr. Arafat.

But the terror attacks are in fact the work of distinct and sometimes rival organizations, with different ideologies, allegiances, financing and goals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/international/middleeast/30FACT.html
Fatah Vows Fierce Response if Israel Harms Arafat Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement on Saturday vowed an ''unimaginable'' response if Israel harms its besieged leader.
Fatah said in a statement it had ordered a ``general mobilization'' of its followers and warned that Palestinians would respond to any attempt to harm Arafat in a way that Israel's ``government of killers'' could not imagine.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-fatah.html
Nat'l Academy Press, Unequal Treatment: (2002), Table of Contents
Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care (2002)

Although those categorized as minorities make up more than half the US population, they still receive a lower quality of healthcare than whites even when insurance status and income are compatible. According to the report, sources of this incongruence is rooted in historic and contemporary inequities and involve many participants at several levels. The study committee focused part of its analysis on the patient/system level factor and the clinical encounter factor. For those interested in learning about these healthcare disparities as well as systematic multi-leveled strategies to counteract them, the information is merely a click away.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2002. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
http://www.nap.edu/books/030908265X/html/

Thursday, March 28, 2002

favelets
Say Goodbye to Free Email : evolt.org, News
Both Hotmail and Yahoo have announced this week that people who want to continue to use some of their services will have to pay.
http://evolt.org/article/Say_Goodbye_to_Free_Email/1/22939/index.html
Drug Ruling Worries Some in Public Housing
"I didn't do anything wrong," Mr. Walker said in a wavering voice after he was reached by phone at the one-bedroom apartment he has called home for more than 10 years.

Indeed, no one at the Oakland Housing Authority has said Mr. Walker has done anything but behave like an upstanding citizen. But minding his own business, keeping his apartment in order and doing right by the neighbors may not be enough to keep him in public housing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/national/28HOUS.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all
In Words of Saudi Prince, Peace Requires 'Two Equal Parties'
Peace is a free and voluntary choice made by two equal parties, and it cannot survive if it is based on oppression and humiliation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/international/middleeast/28ATEX.html
News Analysis: After a Dire Day, Trying to See Beyond Revenge
…Palestinians issued an unusually prompt and stern statement about the attack, warning that the Palestinian leadership "will not be lenient towards the parties that claimed responsibility for it, and will take all strictly legal measures to bring the perpetrators to justice."

That suggested that Mr. Arafat might be prepared to take on Hamas, whose military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. But previous promises from the Palestinian leader to curb Hamas have proved short-lived.

Even if he does act, Mr. Arafat appeared unlikely to be able to deter an Israeli retaliation. Most attacks in recent weeks have been carried out not by Hamas, but by the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an offshoot of Mr. Arafat's own Fatah movement. Mr. Sharon has blamed all terror attacks, no matter who carries them out, on Mr. Arafat.

But at least Mr. Arafat now had a pretext to start cracking down on terrorism without appearing to bow to Israeli or American demands. He could argue that Hamas, and other terror groups, were acting also against Arab interests.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/international/middleeast/28ASSE.html

Wednesday, March 27, 2002

New Evidence of Alleged I.B.M. Holocaust Role
Investigative reporter Edwin Black, the author of a book published last year entitled ``IBM and the Holocaust'', puts forward further evidence to support his claims of IBM's knowledge and complicity in Nazi operations in wartime Poland in the paperback version to be published this week.

Historians working as part of Black's research team said that in the paperback they had pieced together the previously fragmented story of IBM's role in supplying the organizational machinery used to transport millions of people to Polish death camps.

Black and his researchers said recently discovered Nazi government documents in the U.S. National Archives and Polish eyewitness testimony link IBM's U.S. operations directly to the operations of the Third Reich in occupied Poland.

``The word has gotten out and a lot of people still alive are supplying information that they didn't have the context to understand before,'' said Robert Wolfe, an expert on Nazi records and former chief of captured German government documents for the U.S. National Archives.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-holocaust-ibm.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Tuesday, March 26, 2002

When a Buyer for Hospitals Has a Stake in Drugs It Buys
Dr. Tom Ferguson was puzzled when a patient on an IV drip of the antibiotic gentamicin suddenly experienced a sharp fall in blood pressure and a racing pulse. Then it happened to a second patient.

When a third patient began to shake uncontrollably just 10 minutes after beginning her gentamicin IV, Dr. Ferguson, an infectious disease specialist in Texas, knew what to do: stop giving the medicine, and find out who made it. In this case, the antibiotic came from American Pharmaceutical Partners.

After other doctors reported that the company's gentamicin had made some patients sick, American Pharmaceutical pulled the drug from the market in 1999.

It would not be the last of American Pharmaceutical's troubles. Yet the company has grown rapidly into one of the nation's leading suppliers of injectable generic drugs. One reason: it has what so many medical-supply companies covet — a national contract with Premier Inc., one of the hospital industry's biggest buying groups, serving more than 1,500 hospitals.

Illustration Works: Artist Submissions
Illustration Works is looking for professional artists and illustrators who have a body of work suitable for our clients' needs. Of course, if you're a skilled artist who is interested in creating a collection, we'd love to talk to you, too. Our dedicated team of art directors is on-hand to guide you through the process, helping you to create a collection that will sell. We've been at this for a while and are pretty familiar with the types of works our clients are looking for. We also strive to provide them with fresh, exciting images from new artists. (That could be you!)
http://www.illustrationworks.com/submissions.php

Monday, March 25, 2002

Anger and Isolation Roil Israeli Arabs
Israeli Arabs have always been restive. Part of their anxiety
is based on the sympathy they feel for Palestinians who live
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, many of whom are blood
relatives. And part of it is based on what everyone agrees is
the unequal treatment they receive in Israel. The standard
of living among Israeli Arabs is about half that of Israeli
Jews. Several recent reports have shown that the schools
are grossly subpar. Most Israeli Arab homes still rely on
septic tanks. Year after year, the government promises to
equalize spending between Arab and Jewish communities, but
the promise still has not been fulfilled.

The turning point, when restiveness became anger and
revolt, occurred on Oct. 1, 2000, two days after a visit to Al
Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem by Ariel Sharon, who was then
Israel's opposition leader.

Thousands of Israeli Arabs demonstrated and then rioted in
protest of the visit. In a response that touched off the
current uprising, Israeli police officers shot and killed 13 of
the Israeli Arab demonstrators, including three from Umm al
Fahm. Mr. Siam's 18-year-old son, Ibrahim, was one of
those. Mr. Siam's living room now is a monument to Ibrahim
and the 12 others, and he offered the view of many Israeli
Arabs when he said: "We didn't expect that Israel, which
claims to be a democracy, would kill its own people. I feel
like a stranger here now."

Mr. Siam said the Israeli government never apologized to him
or the other victims' families. Instead, frightened Jews began pulling away from the Israeli Arabs, who are almost wholly dependent on the Jewish population for their livelihoods.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/25/international/middleeast/25ISRA.html
Law Limiting Internet in Libraries Challenged
They argue that a law passed by Congress in December 2000
requiring schools and libraries to use Internet filtering software
changes the nature of libraries from being places that provide
information to places that unconstitutionally restrict it.

The law that the librarians and their allies are trying to overturn,
the Children's Internet Protection Act, denies federal financing
and technology discounts via the federal e-Rate program to
schools and public libraries if they do not install a "technology
protection measure" like filters to block access to Web sites
deemed harmful to minors.

The coalition of plaintiffs includes the American Library
Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and Jeffrey L.
Pollock, a Republican Congressional candidate who favored
mandatory filtering until he discovered that his own campaign's
Web site was blocked by one of the most popular filtering
programs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/25/national/25LIBR.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Sunday, March 24, 2002

No Mere Terrorist
Real terrorists don't want to kill a lot of people. Rather, they
use limited, but indiscriminate, violence or hijacking to create
noise or fear that draws attention to their cause and
ultimately builds political or diplomatic pressure for a specific
objective.

That's why Osama bin Laden is not a mere terrorist. He has
much larger aspirations. He is a super-empowered angry man
who has all the geopolitical objectives and instincts of a
nation-state. He has employed violence not to grab
headlines but to kill as many Americans as possible to drive
them out of the Islamic world and weaken their society.
That's why the Sept. 11 hijackers never left a list of
demands, as terrorists usually do. Their act was their
demand. Their demand is total victory.

What enabled bin Laden, as a super-empowered angry man,
to challenge a superpower was his ability to invent his own
missile delivery system to rival ours. We have computer-
guided missiles. He had human guided missiles: 19 young,
educated Arab men ready to hijack an airliner and commit
suicide with it against a major target. But always remember
that Sept. 11 could have been worse. One of bin Laden's
human missiles could have carried a nuclear device. The only
reason it didn't happen was because the hijackers couldn't
get one.

Since that is the case, the proper, long-term U.S. strategic
response to Sept. 11 should be twofold: First, we must
understand exactly who these 19 suicide bombers were and
how they were recruited.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/opinion/24FRIE.html
The Monster That's Feasting on Newspapers
Over the last few years, Internet job sites, especially Monster, have eaten away at
newspapers' help-wanted ads, which inch for inch have been their single most profitable
product. In the process, Monster has become one of the biggest dot-com businesses around,
and the most profitable. With $536 million in revenue last year, it had pretax operating income
of $150 million, edging out eBay (news/quote), which had a $140 million operating profit.

This is grim news for newspapers, and no relief is in sight. "Even if the economy recovers, the
newspapers are not ever going to get back to the levels they saw from 1995 to 2000," said
Craig Huber, an analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (news/quote), who estimates that
about 10 percent of the help-wanted market is now online; he expects that to rise to 25
percent within three years.

Newspapers have fought back. Most of them allow companies that place help-wanted ads to
have them listed on the newspaper Web site, too, for an additional fee. Some, like The New
York Times, have adopted some features of stand-alone job sites, like résumé databases.

The Tribune Company (news/quote) and Knight Ridder have gone further, jointly buying two
independent job sites, Careerbuilder.com and Headhunter.net, to create a hybrid — under the
Careerbuilder name — that sells listings along with newspaper ads and has a national sales
force.

The recession has tilted the balance even more toward Monster, as more employers choose to give what little money they have for recruiting to Internet sites because they are cheaper and more efficient.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/24/technology/24MONS.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Saturday, March 23, 2002

Interview with Sunstein, C.: Republic.com.
Probably the more serious risks involve an increase in social fragmentation. I mentioned that as a result of the Internet, and increased specialization, there appears to be an ever-smaller role for general interest newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters. These institutions have been really important to our society and our democracy, and I think we've overlooked that importance. They're important partly because they've exposed people to topics and ideas that people might not have encountered--and so helped create a common culture, which is extremely valuable for a democracy.

If the Internet allows segments of society to fragment into their own separate little communications universes, there's a real problem. We have some evidence that this is happening. To the extent that it does happen, people will have a harder time talking to one another, and helping to solve shared problems. When Democrats and Republicans end up dividing so sharply - "Bush stole the election!," versus, "No, Gore tried to do that"--it's often because people are just talking to people with whom they already agree.
http://www.pup.princeton.edu/releases/m7014.html
Transcript of our Message Forum with Cass Sunstein discussing Republic.com
Professor Sunstein, in _Republic.com_ you make the argument that in addition
to the obvious benefits of the Internet, there is a danger. Specifically,
we can so tailor what we see and read on the Internet that this opportunity
of direct communication with like-minded folk also threatens to isolate us.
If we hear only opinions that echo our own, we run the risk not only of
missing other sides of a debate, but we could actually run the risk of
developing extreme views.

My question is this: aren't you underestimating the majority of Internet
users? More than one third of Americans have Internet access--I believe
that we are now close to 40%. Isn't it safe to assume that the majority of
these aren't extremists and won't become so? And if it is true that we run
the risk of isolating ourselves through careful tailoring of what we see and
read, what would you propose?
http://www.pup.princeton.edu/sunstein/sun_forum.txt
"Of course it is important to have this support from the United States. But we don't want just verbal support. We want action. And now we see that the United States is just following what Israel wants."

Palestinian Group Says It Will Increase Bombings

Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, today condemned the latest suicide bombing by the group, on Thursday in Jerusalem, and called for an end to attacks on civilians. But Mr. Badawi said the Aksa Brigades would ignore that.

"He does not support what we are doing," he said with a shrug, sitting on a sofa in his living room with a large-caliber pistol stuffed between the cushions just to his right. "But we believe this is our national responsibility. We respect our leader, but the decisions to carry out attacks remains with the Aksa Brigades leadership."

The group grew up last summer, starting here in the Balata refugee among members of Fatah, Mr. Arafat's movement, who did not believe that he was acting forcefully enough. Soon it spread throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

Mr. Badawi said, "The Palestinian people can now begin to believe that there is a force that can confront the Israeli force." The group decided to broaden its attacks, he added, because "we reached the conclusion that in Israeli society there are no civilians. We tried to create that separation, but then we see that even 12-year-old Israeli boys are given weapons."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/in

Friday, March 22, 2002

The Middle East's Failed Leaders
No one can condone the loss of a single civilian life on either side, but we need to realize
that the situation has essentially become asymmetric warfare rather than Palestinian
terrorism and Israeli counterterrorism. Each side has escalated the violence using the
methods available to it. For the Palestinians, this is suicide bombing and smuggled arms.
For Israel, it is tanks and attack helicopters. In both cases, civilians die, hatreds grow
and the level and sophistication of the fighting increases.

Facing these realities goes against the grain of American domestic politics and against
an international climate in which the United States takes the side of Israel while Europe
and Arab moderates back the Palestinians. This dynamic has to change if America is to
have an effective role in brokering a peace.

It seems clear now that any move toward a cease-fire and peace settlement will have
to be politically imposed from the outside on two sets of failed leaders and the influential
people who support them at home. The Israel of Mr. Sharon and Mr. Netanyahu is not
the peacemaking Israel of Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. The United States must openly
and constantly condemn every intensification of the conflict by either side when civilians
die.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/22/opinion/22CORD.html
Bush Acts to Drop Core Privacy Rule on Medical Data
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/22/politics/22PRIV.html?todaysheadlines
News: Spam: It's completely out of control
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-865442.html
ZDNet: Story: My Web site came back from the dead! Here's what happened
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2857249,00.html
WebmasterBase - Web Development Process 2 - A Freelancer's Perspective
In Part 1 we considered Web development from a small
business perspective. Here, we look at the approach a
freelancer might take...
http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/677
~cac6982 | 200202 | Daily CSS Fun
~http://www.neuralust.com/~cac6982/200202/
Stop Paying for E-Mail Spam
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2855964,00.html

Thursday, March 21, 2002

Military Tribunals Modified
Here's what's less to the good:

No jury. There is none in a court-martial either, but at least
the Uniform Code of Military Justice allows the accused a say
in the composition of the panel of judges — a buck private,
for example, can demand that an enlisted man be included,
which introduces a peer in judgment. In doing justice,
nothing beats a jury of one's peers.

Hearsay is accepted as evidence. The rules of evidence are
loosened to that with "probative value to a reasonable
person." Because "probative" means "tending to prove," that
means once-removed testimony and documents found in
caves that have been through several hands would be
admissible. Not our usual standard, but understandable.

Here is what is no good at all:

No civilian review. An appeal procedure is only to a panel of
judges appointed to or by the military, which means no truly
independent review. The non-citizen tried by the U.S. outside
the U.S. would have no appeal to our federal courts. Indefinite
detention. Not a word is said in the Pentagon rules
about that contentious issue at all. It is not in the American
system of justice to hold a suspect in jail for long without
trial.

No participation by Congress in the making of what is
undoubtedly law. Bush believes it would dilute the
presidential war power to submit this alternative judicial
system to the usual lawmakers in the House and Senate. But
ours is a government of laws, not of executive fiats.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/opinion/21SAFI.html
Palestinians Reclaim Homes in Battered Neighborhoods
Grieving women sat at the home of Huda Hawaja, 36, a teacher
and mother of five who was killed on March 8 when soldiers blew
open the door of her house.

Her husband, Ismail Hawaja, said he and an army medic tried to
bind her wounds, but she bled to death. Mr. Hawaja said it took
an hour to get approval from the Israelis to allow the ambulance
into the camp. "By then she was cold, and her skin was yellow,"
he said. "In the ambulance she stopped breathing."

The soldiers then stayed in the Hawaja house, confining Mr.
Hawaja and his children to one room, he said. Across the alley,
Mr. Hawaja's brother said he and a dozen family members were
held in a room as soldiers took over the house, allowing them
only pita bread and water during the two days they were there.
At Kheidar Jawarish's house, the living room and bedroom were
a shambles, filled with smashed furniture, two broken television
sets and rubble from two explosions that had left large craters
in the wall.

At other houses, furniture was broken, contents of rifled closets
were strewn on the floor, and walls were painted with black arrows
to point the way through the maze of closely packed dwellings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/20/international/middleeast/20BETH.html

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

Final Whitewater Report Finds Not Enough Evidence for Charges
``The independent counsel determined the evidence was
insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt
that either President Clinton or Mrs. Clinton knowingly
participated in any criminal conduct ... or knew of such
conduct,'' according to the report filed more than a year ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-whitewater.html
Report Says Whites Get Better Health Care
Whether it's a heart bypass, cancer surgery or pain management, minorities do not get as good
health care as whites, the Institute of Medicine concludes.

``We weren't unaware of disparities, but we were surprised at the depth and breadth of the
evidence,'' Dr. Alan Nelson, chairman of the committee that did the study, said Wednesday.

``Disparities in the health care delivered to racial and ethnic minorities are real and are associated
with worse outcomes in many cases, which is unacceptable,'' he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/health/AP-Minority-Health-Care.html
Israelis' Withdrawal Leaves Behind Little Hope
Like everyone here in the Gaza Strip, Mr. Zarga had heard that the Israeli Army ended
its raid into northern Gaza late this morning. And like almost everyone here, he was
singularly unimpressed because, even before the tanks rolled in early this month, Israeli
forces were so omnipresent that the withdrawal seemed like a token gesture at best.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/20/international/middleeast/20GAZA.html
Judge to States: Stay On Track
"I think that some of the areas the plaintiffs (are) starting to go into, there is going to
be a problem," said Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. "You're taking a very broad view of
same or similar conduct." If the states continue in this vein, the judge added, "then
we're in a liability trial, not a remedy."
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=1884&a=24359,00.asp

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

The Place for Public Documents: On File or Online?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/health/policy/19FAC1.html?todaysheadline&pagewanted=all
34 New West Bank Settlements Spotted
A survey published today by the Peace Now movement said that 34 new Israeli
settlement sites had been built in the West Bank since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was
elected more than a year ago.

The survey, based on aerial photographs, said the new sites were spotted at
distances ranging from a few hundred yards to nearly two miles from existing settlements.

Many of the sites are officially described as extensions of the existing communities or
new neighborhoods of those communities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/international/middleeast/19SETT.html
Kofi Annan's Blunt Words Criticizing Israeli Tactics
I am especially dismayed by the I.D.F.'s failure to protect and respect ambulances and
medical personnel. In recent days, several medical relief workers were killed when
Israeli soldiers fired on clearly marked ambulances, including Mr. Kamal Hamdan, an
Unrwa (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) staff member. In addition, Israeli
forces repeatedly declined to grant medical personnel access to conflict areas to treat
and evacuate the wounded, despite formal protests from Unrwa and the International
Committee of the Red Cross.

I am also troubled by the repeated and, to the best of my knowledge, unfounded and
unsubstantiated allegations by Israeli government spokespersons that ambulances
have been used to smuggle Palestinian militants and weapons. These allegations can
only result in further damage to medical workers and further impede their vital mission.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/international/middleeast/19LTEX.html
U.N. Chief Says Israel Has Been Waging Full-Scale War
Secretary General Kofi Annan, employing his bluntest criticism of Israel in the latest
Middle East violence, has told Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israeli forces have been
waging what looks like an all-out conventional war on Palestinian civilians.

In a forceful letter to Mr. Sharon last Tuesday, Mr. Annan said he wanted to call Mr.
Sharon's attention to "disturbing patterns" in the treatment of civilians, including aid
workers, by the military, known officially as the Israeli Defense Forces.

The secretary general said he was "especially dismayed" by the "failure to protect and
respect ambulances and medical personnel."

"Judging by the means and methods employed by the I.D.F. — F-16 fighter bombers,
helicopter and naval gunships, missiles and bombs of heavy tonnage — the fighting has
come to resemble all-out conventional warfare," Mr. Annan wrote Mr. Sharon. "In the
process, hundreds of innocent noncombatant civilians — men, women and children —
have been injured or killed, and many buildings and homes have been damaged or
destroyed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/international/middleeast/19LETT.html
This Time, 'Forgetting' Is Healthy
Most of us can watch jets overhead and walk near ground zero with little anxiety.
That's because forgetting is an effortless hard-wired ability; bad memories not
associated with trauma fade naturally.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/health/psychology/19CASE.html
News: Nokia connects laptops, cell phones
Nokia on Monday will unveil a modem for laptops that can access both
802.11b networks, which laptops use to surf the Net wirelessly, and
cell phone networks.

The credit card-size device would let laptop users roam from an
802.11b network to a cellular network without having to shut down
their computers, insert a new modem, and then adjust the settings.
It also helps save on costs of buying two different wireless modems.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-861896.html

Monday, March 18, 2002

Opposition to Portable Numbers
Wireless carriers are supposed to install technology by late November that will
let customers keep their phone numbers when changing carriers. But the Federal
Communications Commission is considering a petition by Verizon Wireless to drop
that requirement — or at least delay the deadline.

Lobbyists following the issue say the F.C.C. is expected to make a decision as
early as this week. An F.C.C. official acknowledged only that the agency would
release its decision "sometime early this spring."

At issue is whether Verizon and other carriers that have filed documents in
support of its petition deserve more time to move toward "number portability,"
as it is called, or whether, as opponents argue, the carriers have failed to justify
further delays.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/18/technology/ebusiness/18NECO.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all
Atlantic Plans Book-Length Article
…A handful of publications still resist the shrinking attention spans of Americans,
however, and beginning this summer, one of the holdouts — The Atlantic Monthly
— plans to run the longest piece of journalism it has ever published, and one of
the longest in magazine history.

The article, "American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center," by a staff
correspondent, William Langewiesche, will stretch over three consecutive issues,
starting with July/August, and amount to 60,000 words. In October, Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, Mr. Langewiesche's publisher, will release a book of the same name under
its North Point Press imprint.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/18/business/media/18MAG.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Sunday, March 17, 2002

How to Get a Company's Attention on Women's Pay
In a recently released study of the 10 industries that employed the most
women from 1995 to 2000, the General Accounting Office found that the
gap between the salaries of men and women had widened for managers in
seven of those sectors. The largest widening was in entertainment and
recreational services, where female managers were earning just 62 cents
for every dollar made by a male manager in 2000, down from 83 cents in
1995. Only three industries showed improvement for women — albeit slight.
The biggest gain was in educational services, where the figure rose to 91
cents on the dollar, from 86 cents.

The G.A.O. report is supported by other studies, including one conducted
by the Women's Research and Education Institute in Washington showing
that overall managerial salaries for women slipped to 71.3 cents in 2000
from 73 cents in 1995.

An obvious question arises from these findings: Is it is ever ethically
justifiable for executives, men or women, who make compensation decisions
to pay women less than they pay men for doing the exact same job? There's
no gray area here. The answer is no.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/business/yourmoney/17ETHI.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all
Whales Rebound for West Coast Ritual
On the bluffs south of Los Angeles, spotting whales before they slalom
through oil rigs miles off the coast, researchers with telescopes have
counted more than three times as many calves in 2002 as they did all
last year. In the calm lagoons in Mexico, naturalists on motorboats
have documented roughly twice as many calves as they did in each
of the last three years, when the population began tapering off
substantially.

"It's nice to see the species recovering," said Gabriel Arturo Zaragoza,
the census coordinator for the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, where the
whales spend the winter.

Though they are heartened by the surge in births, few scientists
believed that the population was at risk of extinction. After gray whales
came off the endangered species list in 1994, their numbers swelled in
three years to 26,600, perhaps as many as there were before whalers
began decimating the population in the 19th century.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/science/17WHAL.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=all

Saturday, March 16, 2002

Watch Out for Magenta Days
The White House is so happy with its new color-coded rankings for
warnings of terrorist threats — red for severe risk, blue for general risk
and so on — that plans are afoot to expand the system. Why stop at
a few colors — or one kind of risk? Americans need as much information
about potential dangers as they can get. Here's what a more complete
system looks like.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/16/opinion/16MART.html

Friday, March 15, 2002

Legal Rulings On Image Search & Meta Tags
In the right circumstances, image search engines don't violate copyright
and using another company's trademarks in meta tags isn't infringement,
two separate court cases have found.

In the case involving image search engines, the US Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled this month that displaying thumbnail images of pictures found
across the web was fair use. However, it also ruled that it wasn't fair use
to link directly to images or to show them on their own, within a frame.
Instead, links need to be to the page containing the image, rather than the
image itself.
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/02/02-legal.html
SearchDay - AltaVista Offers "Shortcuts" to the Invisible Web - 11 Febuary 2002
AltaVista is making it easier for searchers to delve into reaches of the Invisible
web, providing "shortcuts" that point to high-quality deep web resources that
other search engines typically can't see.

Shortcuts are direct links to web resources that are difficult or impossible for
many search engines to crawl and index. While other engines include similar
links for some types of information -- such as Yahoo! maps, for example -- the
fact that AltaVista is incorporating a variety of links to these types of information
sources is a notable step forward in revealing portions the Invisible web.
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd0211-avshortcuts.html
Business 2.0 - Magazine Article - Printable Version - The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business
In a perfect world, a list like this would not exist. In a perfect world, businesses
would be run with the utmost integrity and competence. But ours is, alas, an imperfect
world, and if we must live in one where Enron, Geraldo Rivera, and Cottonelle
Fresh Rollwipes exist, the least we can do is catalog the absurdities.
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/print/0,1643,38604,00.html
Nat'l Academy Press, Broadband: (2002), Table of Contents
This report is an enjoyably accessible introduction to broadband communications for an era in which the term itself is increasingly pitched as the mark of excellence in high-speed Internet access. Published by the National Academy Press, the publishing house of the National Academy of Science, this work closely follows the history and development of broadband technology from its inception to the present state of the art. Available online or for (hard copy) purchase, the work covers numerous aspects of broadband and other forms of high-speed communications, from the technical and practical to the critical issues of telecommunications regulation and governance. Consumers, students, and technology enthusiasts will all find something worth considering in this thorough study. [WH]
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2002. http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309082730/html/
What's Behind the New Arab Momentum
The actual conflict between Israel and Palestine may or may not be at a turning point. But the ability of Arab states to deal domestically with the intensification of that conflict may indeed be at such a point. Arab League members are now speaking very seriously of normalizing relations with Israel. For the first time in this hundred-year struggle between Arabs and the Jewish state, a consensus exists in the Arab world regarding peace with Israel, based not on the previous land-for-peace formula but on full normalization of cultural, economic and political relations between the protagonists.

Today the Arab establishment, even former hard-liners like Syria and Libya, accepts a settlement that recognizes the existence of Israel and its integration into the regional landscape. The Saudi Arabian peace initiative, anchored within this new vision, has been embraced by pivotal Arab states, including Syria. Although the Syrian regime kept silent at first, President Bashar Assad has since fully endorsed the proposal. Neither the pariah Iraqi regime nor Iran, both of which oppose the current peace process, has criticized the Saudi plan. It is more than likely that the Arab League will ratify this consensus at its meeting later this month.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/opinion/15GERG.html
'What Kind of Nation': Clash of the Titans
Abraham Lincoln once said that America was founded on a proposition (i.e., ''We hold these truths . . .''), and Jefferson wrote it. More accurately, it was founded on an argument about what that proposition means. You could also say it was founded on an argument between 1776 and 1787 as the seminal moments of the American republic. Or you could say that it was founded on a disagreement over whether the term ''United States'' was a singular or plural noun. The beauty of the dialogue between Jefferson and Marshall is that it contained all these renditions. The chief virtue of ''What Kind of Nation,'' no small achievement, is to recover that dialogue in all its messy grandeur.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/books/10ELLIST.html
Israel Begins Partial Withdrawal From West Bank
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-mideast.html
On Both Sides in the Mideast, Fear and Stress Are Building
Dr. Beny Sapir, a veterinarian, kept seeing certain symptoms in dogs and cats who lived on Jerusalem's margins, where the days and nights are pierced by gunfire, explosions and sirens. They would shake or stop eating. Some stopped going outside, even hid under the furniture.

That was when Dr. Sapir began prescribing Valium for the animals. "The family is nervous, so the dog is nervous," he said. "There is a lot — a lot — of stress."

The psychic shakiness of some household pets does not amount to much in a conflict that has lasted more than 17 months and claimed more than 1,400 human lives. But it is a sign of how fear, and coping with it, have become stitched into daily life here.

For those who know what the sounds signify, the effects have been more damaging. In Ramallah, occupied by Israeli forces for three days, families have been sleeping in their basements, ordering their children not to go outside, stretching out groceries to last until the crossfire dies away. Israel said today that its forces would soon begin to withdraw from the city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/middleeast/15MOOD.html
Israel Promises a Pullback as Death Toll Keeps Rising
Standing in the hospital lobby, Muther al-Shariff, the deputy minister of health for the Palestinian Authority, said 5 people had been killed and 17 wounded.

Hours earlier, Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, had ordered a gradual withdrawal of troops from Ramallah.

The prime minister's office said the withdrawal would be phased over time, and even when it was complete, troops and tanks would still ring the city, which is the commercial and political center of the West Bank and home to about 200,000 people.

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben- Eliezer issued a statement in which he said the Ramallah operation was "successful" and had "achieved its ends."

Elsewhere, Israelis and Palestinians inflicted casualties on each other today in the steady violence and death that have become the norm. In Gaza early this morning, a powerful bomb ripped through the floor of an Israeli tank as it was escorting a convoy of settlers. Three soldiers were killed and two more wounded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/middleeast/15ISRA.html
U.S. Says Powell Demanded Pullout by Israeli Forces
As the Bush administration's special envoy arrived, senior officials in Washington said on Thursday that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had delivered a blunt private demand to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from Palestinian-controlled areas to help American efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Mr. Sharon indeed announced on Thursday that his army would begin a staged withdrawal from Ramallah, the unofficial Palestinian capital in the West Bank. Thursday night and early today, there were reports of initial tank movements, but Israel Radio said a withdrawal would take hours.

In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, responded to Mr. Sharon by saying, "We do expect a complete withdrawal from Palestinian-controlled areas, including Ramallah, and the other areas the Israeli Defense Force recently entered."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/middleeast/15MIDE.html
Israel Begins West Bank Pullout, but Stops Short of U.S. Demand
In contrast to the high daily tolls of recent days and weeks, the day's violence seemed tame. The Israeli army said it killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including one who was purportedly trying to lay a bomb. Also in Gaza, a Palestinian mother and her four children were killed when a mine exploded under their donkey cart. The Palestinians blamed Israel, Israel denied anything to do with it.

In Ramallah, the last tanks Israeli tanks withdrew in the morning, ending a 72-hour occupation by a lethal Israeli force of armor and elite infantry that was marked by incessant gunplay. After lying low for three days, residents crowded into the streets to examine flattened cars, smashed-in doorways, tank-scarred streets and other debris of the operation.

Long funeral processions wound through central streets for the last four of the 13 Palestinians killed in the town. Following the flag-draped bodies, gunmen squeezed off long bursts of automatic fire into the air to reaffirm their daring and defiance after the three-day ordeal.

The tanks were nowhere to be seen. But Palestinians said they had only withdrawn to nearby settlements and bases, and could be back in minutes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/15/international/15CND-MIDE.html
ZDNet: Story: $%&*! They've assassinated my Web site!
I WAS ONCE the proud owner of a Web site. In fact, I was a proud owner as recently as this past Tuesday, when I gleefully showed off a newfound coding skill (JavaScript rollovers) to a friend. On Wednesday, when I went to my site, which is hosted by Interland, I got a blank screen enlivened only by an error message. Flummoxed, I FTP'd up to the remote host to see what was going on with my files...only to find that there weren't any. All my directory structures and files were gone. Poof.
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2855127,00.html
Technology Giveth, Technology Taketh Away
Their fear is that the lack of widespread, mandatory DRM (digital rights management) systems will stop content conglomerates from making money each time a new copy of a song or movie springs into existence.

But if the technology and content landscape envisioned in Hollings' proposed Security Systems Standards and Certification Act came to be, corporate film and music titans would control the sorts of computer gear that consumers are allowed to own, and we'd be awash in digital entertainment options. It would be Britney Spears video outtakes on demand, all the Bruce Willis we could ever ask for, and all it'd cost us would be our computers (as we know them) and our fair use rights.
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=702&a=24033,00.asp
Would You Believe Free Tests, Training?
Talk is cheap, but getting it certifications is anything but. Self-study certifications start at $900 and go up to $1,200. If IT professionals feel the need to sit in a class to soak up knowledge, those costs shoot up to between $5,000 and $11,000 per certification. What's a poor, cash-strapped individual or enterprise to do?

If Linux or IBM DB2 certifications are on your agenda, you can rejoice. For a limited time, IBM and Compaq Computer Corp. are offering free exams and training.

Through March 31, free training and testing for Compaq's ProLiant/Linux ASE (Accredited Systems Engineer) is available for systems engineers employed by Compaq channel partners, Compaq customers and employees, and Compaq ASE certification holders who want to acquire the Linux designation.
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=25214&a=23812,00.asp
P3P Yields Answers—And New Questions
With its Platform for Privacy Preferences Project, or P3P, the consortium is beginning to enable computers to automatically read the electronically translated privacy policy of any site. P3P would scan the privacy policies posted on sites and compare the answers to privacy settings in consumers' browsers. If the site collects data in a way consumers do not like, Internet Explorer 6.0 may block cookies based on P3P, and AT&T's Privacy Bird browser enhancement tool will notify users.

But there are catches for Web site operators: If you do not have a P3P-coded privacy policy that a browser can read, your site's functionality or traffic may be impaired.

Also take care in translating your privacy policy to P3P-readable form. The translation of your written guidelines could cause any number of misstatements, and a false statement in a Web site's privacy policy could violate privacy and/or anti-fraud laws. In translating existing privacy policies, you may even confuse your customers depending on how you collect and use information.…
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=706&a=23773,00.asp
Criticism of Flash grows with its popularity - Tech News - CNET.com
The easy-to-use animation tool made by Macromedia has slowly taken over the Internet, aided and abetted by bored designers and advertisers eager to hit consumers with bigger, more eye-catching messages. But Flash now faces a backlash as some Web surfers complain about how it's been used and designers reassess its value.

"About 90 percent of the work is terrible, and 5 (percent) to 10 percent is good," said Alex Pineda, a Web designer at The Retina, who recently developed the NCAA's Final Four Web site using Flash.

Beyond bad design, the Flash debate highlights questions about the benefits of making the Internet more TV-like--a development that is slowly taking shape alongside parallel moves to make television more like the Net. Advertisers and some Internet analysts say such an evolution is necessary to tap the medium's full commercial potential, but others believe otherwise.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-256717.html
ExtremeTech - Print Article
True Web Power: XHTML with CSS2

March 11, 2002
By: John C. Fish

Introduction, Basic Definitions, and History
The goal of this first tutorial on XHTML 1.1 (EXtensible HyperText Markup Language) and CSS2 (Cascading Style Sheets, level 2) is to allow anyone using notepad, or any other text editor, to be able to build a simple web page in XHTML 1.1 that validates according to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Validation Service, http://validator.w3.org, and CSS2 that validates according to the W3C CSS Validation Service, http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator-uri.html. This initial lesson will be split into two parts, published separately, and will provide all the basics.
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3428,a=23853,00.asp
What They Know That You Don't
A patented invention, a great idea, a breakthrough innovation, a secret ingredient—every successful company has something that gives it an edge over its competitors.

But more often than not, that edge comes from a technology or service that any business could use—if they knew it existed. From business intelligence apps that let you spot trends before they happen to free software that will save you a bundle on your back end, getting ahead doesn't have to be rocket science.
http://www.smartbusinessmag.com/article/0,3658,s=103&a=23793,00.asp

Wednesday, March 13, 2002

Unjust Rules for Insanity
In the 1970's, a more realistic standard was adopted by many states, including Texas. Even if the defendant knew the conduct was wrong, he would not be found guilty if he had been "incapable of conforming his conduct" to the requirements of the law. This standard recognized that as a result of mental illness an individual might know he or she is doing wrong but lack the ability to keep from doing it.

Then John Hinckley, trying to murder President Ronald Reagan, shot and wounded the president and three other men in 1981. Mr. Hinckley's acquittal by reason of insanity in 1982 shocked the nation. The next year Texas dropped the element of "conforming conduct" and reverted to a strict "knowledge-based" standard almost like the old M'Naghten rule.

In the case of Andrea Yates, the prosecution focused narrowly on the question of what she knew at the time of the killings. Her call to 911 and her admission to police officers that she expected to be punished by the criminal justice system were pivotal evidence for the prosecutors. The details of her knowledge were important; her mental illness at the time was not.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/13/opinion/13BARD.html
Puzzling Timing: An Onslaught Before Zinni's Arrival
The word from Washington, as most people here suspected, was that the general was carrying nothing beyond the Bush administration's desire to keep the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from interfering with business elsewhere — notably in Iraq.

That situation, analysts said, suited Mr. Sharon at this juncture. His strategy toward the Palestinians was no mystery. As he said himself last week, he hopes to batter them into getting rid of Mr. Arafat and sitting down to talks. That was why he placed restrictions on Mr. Arafat, and why he ordered the huge operation into the West Bank and Gaza.

But as a veteran of many military and political wars, Mr. Sharon has always been aware that he cannot proceed without support from his government, his public and Washington. In recent days it had begun to wane on all fronts.

In this context, General Zinni's mission offered an opportunity, even if there was a risk of an American rebuke. It gave Mr. Sharon time to carry out the military operations in the West Bank and Gaza and declare victory. An eventual withdrawal would appear as a gesture of cooperation with the American peace effort.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/13/international/middleeast/13ASSE.html
Italian Reporter Killed by Israeli Fire
An Italian photographer was killed by machine gun fire from an Israeli tank in Ramallah early Wednesday, Palestinian hospital officials and witnesses said. A French photographer was injured by shrapnel and an Egyptian journalist was shot at, also in the West Bank town.

The environment in Ramallah for journalists has grown increasingly tense since Israeli forces took over the West Bank's commercial and administrative center early Tuesday, enforcing a curfew.

On Tuesday, Ciriello was among about 40 journalists in a Ramallah hotel that came under Israeli tank fire. No one was injured, and the army said it was returning fire from a gunman on the upper floors of the hotel. Journalists in the hotel at the time said there was no gunman.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Mideast-Journalist-Killed.html
U.N. Chief Tells Israel It Must End 'Illegal Occupation'
"To the Israelis I say: you have the right to live in peace and security within secure internationally recognized borders. But you must end the illegal occupation," he said. "More urgently, you must stop the bombing of civilian areas, the assassinations, the unnecessary use of lethal force, the demolitions and the daily humiliation of ordinary Palestinians."

He continued: "To the Palestinians I say: you have the inalienable right to a viable state within secure internationally recognized borders. But you must stop all acts of terror and all suicide bombings. It is doing immense harm to your cause, by weakening international support and making Israelis believe that it is their existence as a state, and not the occupation, that is being opposed."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/13/international/middleeast/13MIDE.html?todaysheadlines&pagewanted=alltion'
News: IM: No longer a haven from spam
IM vulnerable
Spammers have long considered e-mail their preferred medium for a variety of reasons. It costs little or nothing to produce. Its processes are easily automated, and despite a growing array of defenses aimed at shutting it out, delivery is all but guaranteed.

Instant messenger may be just as susceptible to marketing come-ons, according to spam watchers. They say it offers sufficient convenience and vulnerability to raise the specter of a major new front in the spam war.

In addition, the popularity of instant chat has made IM services and their millions of users prime targets. According to research firm Jupiter Media Metrix, Yahoo Messenger had 17.8 million unique U.S. users in January 2002, up 57 percent from the previous year. Other services including MSN Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger also have been growing. ICQ Messenger was the only major service to register a decrease in users, according to Jupiter, falling to 8.4 million users last January from 9 million users in January 2001.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1106-857658.html

Tuesday, March 12, 2002

Money Follows Power in Fund - Raising
``Fund raising is as much about the present as the future. Groups are trying to influence what Congress does now, not just who the voters elect in November,'' Sabato said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congress-Fund-Raising.html
Israeli Army Fires on Journalists
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Israeli forces fired for 10 to 15 minutes from tank-mounted machine guns on a hotel where journalists were photographing armor targeting the al-Amari refugee camp early Tuesday.

No one was injured in the shooting, which sprayed the glass-enclosed stairwell and nearby rooms where about 40 journalists were working. An ABC television camera left running on a tripod when the journalists took cover was hit by seven bullets -- one directly in the lens.

The army said the tanks were returning fire from a gunman located somewhere on the upper floors of the hotel and that they were unaware journalists were working from the building. ``It was dark,'' a spokesperson said. An investigation was continuing, the army said.

The reporters said there were no gunmen in the four-story New City Inn, where about 40 television and photo journalists covering the army assault on al-Amari were working from the upper floor.

``If there is a gunman, I would not stay in the building for one minute,'' said ABC television news producer Nasser Atta, who has 13 years experience covering conflicts in the Middle East.

The journalists, working mostly for U.S. and European media outlets, had chosen the hotel some 300-400 yards from the camp's perimeter because it was well-situated to observe the army assault without being caught in the cross fire, Atta said. All the rooms were occupied by journalists, except for four rented to a Swedish company, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Journalists.html

Sunday, March 10, 2002

Business of National Pastime Is Unpatriotic
By refusing to share, with the rest of the American business community, the secret of their greatest discovery: how to lose millions year after year, stay in business and even double their revenue.

Such selfish secrecy can only be called unpatriotic.

What with the war against international terrorism, our first recession in a decade, rising unemployment, increasing business failures, record bankruptcies (including a giant like Enron), falling stock prices and new pressures on workers and industries from global competition — at a time like this, they have found a unique formula for success through failure, which can be maintained indefinitely.

And they won't tell the rest of us how they do it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/sports/baseball/10KOPP.html

Saturday, March 09, 2002

Will Fingerprinting Stand Up in Court?
\In 1993, when the Supreme Court demanded real scientific standards for expert evidence in federal courts, some critics correctly anticipated that several criminal identification techniques would be attacked in the courts with some success: microscopic hair comparison, bite mark analysis, handwriting comparison. Few, if any, predicted what is happening now: The bedrock forensic identifier of the 20th century, fingerprinting, has started to wobble.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/09/opinion/09SCHE.html
Taking Our Liberties
War without end is likely to have — indeed is already having — profound consequences for the American constitutional system. It tends to produce the very thing that the framers of the Constitution most feared: concentrated, unaccountable political power.

The framers sought in three ways to prevent that concentration. They divided power in the federal government, so that one branch could check another if it grew too mighty. They made government accountable to the people, who, in James Madison's words, had "the censorial power . . . over the government." And, in the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, they guaranteed specific rights like freedom of speech and due process of law.

All three of those constitutional bulwarks against concentrated power are now threatened.

War inevitably produces an exaltation of presidential power. The president is commander in chief of the armed forces — a distinctive feature of the American system — and in wartime people tend to fall in behind the commander. The horror of what happened on Sept. 11 intensifies that instinct.

President Bush's high level of public support is not surprising.
The danger lies in political use of that wartime popularity. Last week the Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, offered a first mild question about President Bush's plans to carry the war around the world. He was rebuked by the Republican leader, Trent Lott.

"How dare Senator Daschle criticize President Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism?" Senator Lott asked. His crude attack showed how hard it will be to maintain the Constitution's premise of accountable government, subject to questioning and criticism, during a war without visible end.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/09/opinion/09LEWI.htmlberties
Going Beyond Mere Facts in the Study of History
History is hard to teach because students will not remember facts without a context, but they cannot comprehend the context without knowing the facts. As Mrs. Cheney suggests, if we all learn common facts, we can have a common conversation. But most of us learn facts only in the process of answering questions we find important. So good instruction draws students into historical controversies that they cannot solve without mastering the details of actors and events.

Sam Wineburg, a professor at the University of Washington, explores this conundrum in "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts" (Temple University Press, 2001), which was called the year's best book by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Dr. Wineburg says the study of history should lead to empathy with historical figures, much as the study of literature explores human dilemmas by weighing the practical pressures that characters experience as well as absolute ethical values.

Dr. Wineburg shows how students can join debates of adult historians about whether Abraham Lincoln had views that would now be considered racist. On some occasions as a candidate and president, Lincoln suggested that slaves, even when freed, should not have full civil rights.

Dr. Wineburg urges the use of original sources — letters and speeches — to help students imagine a world whose moral framework was different from today's. Such inquiry, which can engage students, raises problems that even philosophers cannot solve.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/06/education/06LESS.html
Going Beyond Mere Facts in the Study of History
History is hard to teach because students will not remember facts without a context, but they cannot comprehend the context without knowing the facts. As Mrs. Cheney suggests, if we all learn common facts, we can have a common conversation. But most of us learn facts only in the process of answering questions we find important. So good instruction draws students into historical controversies that they cannot solve without mastering the details of actors and events.

Sam Wineburg, a professor at the University of Washington, explores this conundrum in "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts" (Temple University Press, 2001), which was called the year's best book by the Association of American Colleges and Universities. Dr. Wineburg says the study of history should lead to empathy with historical figures, much as the study of literature explores human dilemmas by weighing the practical pressures that characters experience as well as absolute ethical values.

Dr. Wineburg shows how students can join debates of adult historians about whether Abraham Lincoln had views that would now be considered racist. On some occasions as a candidate and president, Lincoln suggested that slaves, even when freed, should not have full civil rights.

Dr. Wineburg urges the use of original sources — letters and speeches — to help students imagine a world whose moral framework was different from today's. Such inquiry, which can engage students, raises problems that even philosophers cannot solve.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/06/education/06LESS.html

Friday, March 08, 2002

ZDNet: Tech Update: Security / The biggest flaw you never saw
A few days ago, Microsoft announced a security hole in its version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). According to reports at the time, malicious code could be installed into the JVM that could report what Web sites had been visited or what names and passwords you'd entered. The reports were partly wrong.

First of all, the JVM vulnerability wasn't limited to Microsoft; it covered all JVMs, across many operating systems and distributions. The risk was therefore a lot greater than the reports would indicate. Second, by the time you heard about the problem, it was already fixed; Microsoft, Sun, and every other vendor that was distributing JVM code had already received the patches, integrated them, and had made them available to its users.
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2853211,00.html
News: Computer spy methods found in LED lights
By monitoring the flashes of LED lights on electronics equipment and the indirect glow from monitors, scientists in the United States and the United Kingdom have discovered ways to remotely eavesdrop on computer data.

Optical signals from the little flashing LED (light-emitting diode) lights, usually red and dotting everything from modems to keyboards and routers, can be captured with a telescope and processed to reveal all the data passing through the device, Joe Loughry, a computer programmer at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, told Reuters on Wednesday.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-854350.html
Bush Officials End Support of Sharon's Tough Stance
In interviews, officials said the administration decided on Tuesday that it had to respond strongly to Mr. Sharon, lest the Israeli prime minister interpret Washington's silence as implicit permission to intensify the conflict or declare an all-out war.

"We had to make clear to him that there is simply no evidence that approach will succeed," an official involved in the discussion said. "At a minimum, it is a policy that will not work; more likely it will be counterproductive."

That determination led Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to tell a House subcommittee today that the prime minister "has to take a hard look at his policies to see whether they will work."

Then, in a pointed statement that senior Administration officials prepared late Tuesday, Secretary Powell added, "If you declare war against the Palestinians thinking that you can solve the problem by seeing how many Palestinians can be killed, I don't know that that leads us anywhere."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/07/international/middleeast/07DIPL.html

Wednesday, March 06, 2002

Editorial Roundup
Al-Ahram, Cairo, on Israel's war crimes:

At the time when the Palestinian Authority and major Arab countries support the Saudi peace initiative, Israeli occupation forces widen their acts of killing, destruction and terrorism within a military plan that aims to spread chaos in the region and eliminate any hope to positively deal with the Saudi initiative.

The absolute UN silence to what is going on in the Palestinian territories seems very extraneous since these acts are considered by the UN Charter as crimes of an occupier against a nation that struggles to liberate its national soil and decides its destiny.

The big powers that drafted the UN Charter, especially the U.S., have not rejected the occupying state's aggression, yet Washington uses the veto power against providing protection to the Palestinian people or even sending international observers to the occupied territories.

Under such circumstances, the Palestinian people have no choice but to continue the struggle to expel the occupying forces and liberate its land. The big powers and the UN will be solely responsible for what is going on in the Middle East as things seem to be on the verge of explosion.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Editorial-Rdp.html?pagewanted=all&position=top

Tuesday, March 05, 2002

ZDNet: Tech Update: Platforms/OS / Is Microsoft a monopoly? That's the wrong question
There is nothing illegal or improper about monopolies or a lack of competition. The crux of original antitrust law was whether a monopoly or a lack of competition is being used to harm or damage the consumer. In this regard, Microsoft comes out pretty well, as there was no evidence of price gouging, inflated costs, or any other damage to the consumer. However, today the watchword has become competition. Supposedly, the lack of competition is always bad. This is a ridiculous position. Many monopolies have existed, with and without regulation, for decades without any antitrust implications.
a href="http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2851975,00.html">ZDNethttp://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2851975,00.html
Online Kit Lets Even Novices Create Viruses
Security vendors are warning of a new Web site that contains a simple virus-generating kit that would enable even the most inexperienced computer user to create and release a virus.
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=1884&a=23503,00.asp

Saturday, March 02, 2002

In the latest barrage, John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, called the Act the "get out of jail free card for the government."



"It's the bureaucrat's dream in terms of what can be done under it," said Whitehead, a constitutional watchdog and author of "Forfeiting 'Enduring Freedom' for 'Homeland Security,'" an analysis of the Justice Department's anti-terrorism initiatives.


Civil Liberties Groups Challenge USA Patriot Act -- 01/21/2002
Lawmakers passed the Act, an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," immediately after Sept. 11, and before the full text of the proposal was available to lawmakers.

Moreover, lawmakers did not take sufficient time to debate or hear testimony from experts outside of law enforcement in the fields where it makes major changes, analysts said.

"This thing was put together so quickly after 9-11, when there was hysteria and congressmen were afraid to say anything against it," Whitehead said. "There wasn't any debate on this subject."

The act unnecessarily impinges upon Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure violations because it significantly changes how search warrants are executed, Whitehead said. Previously, the government needed a warrant before law enforcement officials could enter a house and search an individual's property and documents.

Now police can delay giving notice when conducting searches in any criminal case, allowing them to search homes and offices when the occupants are not there and telling them about it after the fact.
http://www.cnsnews.com/Nation/archive/200201/NAT20020121a.html

Friday, March 01, 2002

Bill Gives Gov't Greater Access to E-Mail
If a bill approved by the crime panel of the House Judiciary Committee becomes law, any government entity--not just law enforcement agencies--will be able to receive e-mail and other electronic communications without a court order, so long as a service provider believes an emergency requires its disclosure without delay. The measure is part of a larger initiative aimed at reducing computer-related crime.
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=701&a=23326,00.asp
con·cept: March 2002