-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 91 November, 2000
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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Contents:
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--Study: AIDS devastating Africa; 24 million may die
--Drug traffickers exploit the weak
--Wargames: Air Force Space Command's Battle Plans
--Digital Angel unveiled
--Hemisphere's Police Chiefs Go High-Tech
--When It's Clear the 'Word is Not Enough', Reach for Technology
--Spies will face mental health check
--Satellite radio soon to orbit your car
--Athena Technologies flies micro air vehicle
Linked stories:
*Global Cops Crack Down on Top 10 'Dot Cons'
*U.S. Steps Up World Web Policing
*Vote Swapper Swatted Down
*California shuts down vote-trader Web site
*Bookstore fights court order to name customers
*Official secrets' bill awaits president's action
*Investigators say government hiding papers on U.N. peace missions
*Riot Erupts At Dot-Com Refugee Camp [satire]
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Begin stories:
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Study: AIDS devastating Africa; 24 million may die
By HARRY DUNPHY, Associated Press
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2000
An analysis by an environmental research
group shows that the African AIDS epidemic is reducing life expectancy,
raising mortality, lowering fertility, leaving more men alive than women, and
producing millions of orphans.
Worldwatch Institute chairman Lester Brown said that unless a medical
miracle occurs, almost all the 24 million Africans infected with the virus at
the beginning of 2000 will die. Each day 6,000 Africans die from AIDS, and
an additional 11,000 are infected.
Brown said the epidemic is not being given the priority it deserves, either
within countries most affected or in the rich nations and other countries
outside Africa.
Some hope is offered in Uganda, one of the earliest-hit countries, which
has managed to give AIDS a high priority, and Zambia may be turning the
tide in lowering infection rates as well, Brown said in his report, based on
research by Worldwatch and other private and government agencies.
Brown noted that life expectancy, a key indicator of economic growth, is
falling fast in Africa.
In Zimbabwe, without AIDS, life expectancy in 2010 would be 70. With
AIDS, it is expected to fall below 35 years. For South Africa it will fall from
68 to 48, and for Zambia from 60 to 30.
"These life expectancies are more akin to those of the Middle Ages than
the modern age," Brown said.
New research also indicates the virus reduces fertility, Brown said. The
research is limited but indicates that from the time of HIV infection onward
fertility among infected women slowly declines.
The report said that by the time symptoms appear, women are 70 percent
less likely to be pregnant than those who were not infected.
Because African women most often have sexual relations with older men
who are more likely to be infected, the females get the disease earlier and
die before completing their reproductive years, which further reduces
births.
Worldwatch said Africa faces a shortage of women that is unique in the
world.
After wars, countries often face shortages of males, as France did after
World War I and Russia after World War II.
"This epidemic, however, is claiming more females than males in Africa,
promising a future where men will outnumber women 11 to 9. This will leave
many men bachelors or forced to migrate to other countries in search of a
wife," the report said.
The death of many young parents in Africa from AIDS is creating millions of
orphans as well, with 40 million expected by 2010, it said.
"Although Africa's extended family system is highly resilient and capable of
caring for" these children, "it will be staggered by this challenge," the
report
said. "There is a real possibility that millions of orphans will become street
children."
Worldwatch is a nonprofit, independently funded environmental and social
research group.
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Drug traffickers exploit the weak
Bangkok Post - Oct 31. 2000.
Editorial
Congratulations are due to the anti-drug officers involved in last week's
huge haul of heroin in Fiji. They seized more than 300 kilogrammes of the
drug, most of it bound for Australia where it had a street value of around
US$150 million. The shipment had been tracked by authorities of four
nations. It originated in Burma, and two ethnic Chinese couriers were
arrested when the drug payload was seized in Suva on Saturday.
The seizure itself is a success for the men and women who put their lives on
the line against international drug traffickers. Laboratory testing appears
to bear out the claim that the seizure is one of the largest of the year.
The arrests of the two men may yield other agents and smuggling facts back
up the drug line. Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone said the Australian
agents who have been stationed in Burma for the past 10 months were vital to
tracking and seizing the drugs.
But while the drug bust is a commendable accomplishment, it shows once again
the major, uphill struggle faced by civilised nations. The fame of the
Burmese heroin operation has been eclipsed by the methamphetamine
traffickers in recent months.
Reliable sources in the anti-narcotics police have said for more than a year
that Chinese triads have moved into the Burma-based operations. Gang chiefs
have moved some of their operations to Thailand to be close to the action.
The triads now have become part of the heroin operation once controlled more
exclusively by Khun Sa. The heroin warlord is a welcome guest of the Burmese
government. They have made no move to investigate him, arrest him, extradite
him, or close down his opium and heroin operations.
Much of the day to day heroin business inside Burma has been assumed by the
United Wa State Army, which also fully controls the methamphetamine trade.
For the past year, the Wa leaders have been moving their own people into
former Shan areas. They have begun cultivating the vast opium fields of
northern Burma, which yield more drugs per year than in any other country
but Afghanistan.
The Fiji seizure also demonstrates that the drugs trade, too, has become
globalised. Fiji has been a diplomatic basket case since a racist coup
overthrew the democratic government in May. The government is weak, the
nation is unstable and justice is arbitrary.
Drug traffickers saw an opportunity to exploit the weakness and moved
against Fiji. It was their bad luck that they had, in fact, alerted
authorities earlier.
Burma continues to acquiesce in a drug trade which threatens its neighbours
and troubles the world. The military junta's recent claims to have a secret,
15-year plan to eliminate drugs in Burma are not credible.
Also troubling are other weak links in the hoped-for chain of international
responsibility. Officials involved in Saturday's seizure said it was clear
that Fiji was used as a transit point because of the weakness of its
government and police.
Several world leaders have been outspoken in their opinions about Fiji.
Helen Clark, prime minister of New Zealand-Fiji's closest neighbour-has
refused to sit at the same dining table with the new head of the racist
government.
New Zealand was one of the countries involved in the successful effort of
the 300kg heroin shipment, along with the US, Canada and Australia. Other
countries, including Thailand, are both willing and able to help. It is
clear that a major international effort is needed in order to fight the
traffickers. It is sobering to realise that on average, only 10% of smuggled
drugs are intercepted.
Against the likes of Fiji and Burma, only better co-operation across borders
can make that record better.
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Wargames: Air Force Space Command's Battle Plans
<http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_battlelabs_001003.html>
By Frank Sietzen, Jr.
Playing Games in Space
WASHINGTON Sept. 29 — It all began January 21, the day after the presidential
inauguration. The political pressures had been building for months, although
few knew about the crisis. Now, around a table in a secured room, sat the
president of the United States, the vice president, secretary of defense
and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. Behind them sat their staffs and aides. The crisis had
quickly escalated.
The first attack had rendered silent America's constellation of Global
Positioning System (GPS) satellites. The GPS control center in Colorado
Springs
reported it had lost contact with the constellation, first by signal
degradation
— then completely.
Within hours of that crisis, the president received notice of another space
disaster. Several commercial communication satellites used by the military to
route communications and pagers to ships at sea had been disabled; how was not
yet clear. At Cape Canaveral, terrorists had contaminated the fuel storage
facility for the space shuttle fleet.
Without firing a shot, the nation's winged ships were grounded.
And now came the most threatening news of all: NASA Johnson Space Center was
reporting that the International Space Station had been damaged by a wave of
small objects let loose from a ballistic missile.
The president and his staff now faced the most serious decision ever made by a
U.S. chief of state: Did the attack on U.S. space assets constitute a first
strike against the nation? High up in silent space, had World War 3 begun?
If this sounds threatening and frightening, that is the whole idea. For these
scenarios will be facing not the real U.S. president and his Cabinet but a
simulation. Stand-ins for the president, vice president, secretary of defense
and the whole U.S. military leadership will take their places around a table on
January 21, 2001 — the day after the next real U.S. president takes office.
The simulation, the Air Force's first all-space war game, will test how well
U.S. space assets would withstand an attack. The answers might well shape how
the military and civil space programs evolve in the years ahead.
"This will be the first Air Force level space war game, " said Rob Hegstrom,
game director for the Schriever 2001 space war game. The weeklong
simulation of
an air and space attack will be held at the Schriever Air Base in Colorado
Springs next winter, the first of an annual series.
The goal? "We need to learn how to better protect our space assets," Hegstrom
said. "In this way will we be better able to develop our future plans," he
added.
Space war games are not a new exercise. The U.S. Army, as part of its "Army
After Next" effort has held three such simulations. Each produced surprising
results and, according to some, disturbing questions that have yet to be
answered by U.S. national policy.
Questions such as the depth and level of the responsibility of the U.S.
military
to commercial space industry when its systems are used for national defensive
purposes. "We pose questions such as how will these results shape the baseline
[military] force in development," Hegstrom said.
For the week, two separate teams will portray U.S. leaders facing a gradually
escalating crisis. One new scenario will be added each day, and the president
and his staff must plan responses in real-time just as if the simulated events
are happening.
Since the day-to-day game is classified, specific plans are not detailed. But
the scenarios all focus on a U.S. space capability as projected in 2015, with
the rise of a geopolitical 'peer competitor' to the U.S. that has developed a
major space program.
While Hegstrom said that no specific war game plan can be discussed, it was
reasonable to assume that, with a permanent U.S. orbital outpost in 2015,
"terrorist threats to the space station could easily be assumed as a valid
possibility," he said.
Other assumptions about the state of the space program in 15 years include
advanced navigation satellites, military spaceplanes, advanced launch vehicles,
space stations and a capability the Pentagon calls "Launch on Demand" — the
ability to rapidly launch boosters and piloted craft within hours of an order.
Today such a launch takes months and years to prepare.
"Once military leaders 'hot wash' the results from the weeklong play," Hegstrom
said that 'gold nuggets' — major lessons learned from the exercise — will be
passed up the chain of command for consideration.
"The Air Force will be addressing long-range issues, such as denial of
access to
space, terrorist attacks on space installations and jamming of space
communications," Hegstrom suggested, so that programs can be developed now to
counter any potential future threat.
And the final condition of the U.S. space program after the crisis? How will it
evolve in the game? "This is a free-play war game," he said. "Anything can
happen when a world crisis arises."
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Digital Angel unveiled
<http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_exnews/20001101_xex_digital_ange.shtml>
Human-tracking subdermal implant technology makes debut
NOVEMBER 1 2000
A NASDAQ-traded company has finally unveiled its long-touted and highly
controversial "Digital Angel" -- a subdermal microchip implant designed not
merely for keeping tabs on pets, but for widespread, worldwide use in
tracking human beings.
The high-tech device, engineered by Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. had its
debut Monday before an overflow crowd of more than 300 invited guests at
Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City.
The audience included U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta, who
addressed the crowd, as well as other government officials, potential
joint-venture/licensing partners and press representatives.
Richard J. Sullivan, Applied Digital Solutions' chairman and CEO, waxed
eloquent about the market potential of Digital Angel, claiming the company
has "uncovered a total marketplace that is conservatively estimated to
exceed $70 billion."
Randy Geissler, chairman and CEO of Digital Angel.net Inc., a wholly owned
subsidiary, zeroed in on potential applications.
"Our analysis shows that we are well-positioned to move quickly into certain
applications while developing a number of others. Two areas of particular
interest are in the healthcare arena," he said, "monitoring heart disease
and respiratory disease patients." The tracking and monitoring of pets, he
added, is also "right up our alley."
The demonstration, which was conducted by Dr. Peter Zhou and Dr. Keith
Bolton, showed how Digital Angel "can be used to monitor a person's key body
functions -- such as temperature and pulse -- and transmit that data
wirelessly, on a real time basis, along with the accurate location of the
person, to a web-enabled ground station or monitoring facility," according
to a press statement.
The technology consists of a miniature sensor device, designed to be
implanted just under the skin, that captures and wirelessly transmits the
"wearer's" vital body-function data, such as body temperature or pulse, to
an Internet-integrated ground station. In addition, the antenna receives
information regarding the location of the individual from the GPS satellite.
Both sets of data -- medical information and location -- are then wirelessly
transmitted to the ground station and made available on Web-enabled desktop,
laptop or wireless devices.
A more sophisticated version of microchip technologies currently used as
electronic ID tags for pets, Digital Angel is powered electromechanically
through muscle movement, or it can be activated by an outside monitoring
facility.
As WorldNetDaily has reported, in addition to locating missing persons and
monitoring physiological data, Digital Angel will be marketed as a means of
verifying online consumer identity for the burgeoning e-commerce world.
In August, Sullivan told WND, "We are currently talking to a watch maker who
is interested in placing the device on the back of their watches." He added
that "technology is being developed that would allow Digital Angel to
function from the back of a cellular phone, transmitting bio-sensor
information when carried by the user."
And in an interview last March, the chief scientist, Zhou, told
WorldNetDaily he believes the implant will be as popular as cell phones and
vaccines.
Digital Angel "will be a connection from yourself to the electronic world.
It will be your guardian, protector. It will bring good things to you," said
Zhou.
"We will be a hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul," he added.
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Hemisphere's Police Chiefs Go High-Tech
Miami Herald Online (10/26/00); McDaniels, Andrea
Twenty-nine police chiefs from Central, South, and North
America recently had the opportunity to view new
crime-fighting technology at the annual Hemispheric Conference
of Chiefs of Police. Booths displaying the new technology
included one for the Sigssg 3000, a 16-pound, four-foot-long
sniper rifle with a telescopic lens that runs about $6,000;
the rifle will aid in hostage situations. Technology that
resembles a walkie-talkie that locates audio bugs can be
purchased for $700 at the conference. The police chiefs also
attended seminars on such topics as extraterritorial
kidnapping investigations, anti-terrorism countermeasures,
globalization of crime, and solutions to the illegal drug
problem.
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When It's Clear the 'Word is Not Enough,' Reach for Technology
Police (10/00) Vol. 24, No. 10, P. 60; Valdez, Al
Field operations, including surveillance, informant contact,
and undercover work, are common when investigating gangs.
Remotely operated videotapes have become useful in monitoring
gangs, and personally worn equipment is necessary for
undercover cops. New technology like a self-contained button
video color camera, found at Martel Electronics in Yorba
Linda, Calif., helps officers in these situations. Martel
Electronics takes a Sony videotape recorder and attaches an
audio microphone, which is worn in a waist pack. The only
drawback is converting a tape into the correct VHS format for
evidence. Taping a phone conversation is possible through a
small audiotape recorder and a speaker earpiece that is
miniaturized. Using the earpiece to record a telephone call is
easy and can be done anywhere. Electronic photographs are
useful, and available to all agencies through digital cameras
or standard 35 mm cameras; it simply depends on the conditions
of storage and necessary software. Funding to buy these
products can be obtained through federal grants, by either
calling the U.S. Department of Justice Call Response Center,
or visiting a local electronics store and seeing if they have
loan equipment.
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Spies will face mental health check
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-11/spies031100.shtml>
By Fran Abrams,
Westminster Correspondent
3 November 2000
Britain's spies are to face rigorous mental health checks after a series of
embarrassing security breaches culminated in a drunken agent leaving his
laptop in a London taxi.
The incidents left secret agents' bosses wondering if the stresses of the
job were proving too much for some of them. Now the neuroses of secret
service personnel are to be spotlighted by American-style psychometric
testing, a committee of MPs disclosed yesterday.
Concern over leaks deepened in March this year when an officer from MI6, the
Secret Intelligence Service, mislaid his laptop after a night at a tapas bar
near the organisation's Vauxhall offices. The distraught agent was forced to
place an advertisement in the London Evening Standard pleading for the safe
return of his computer, which contained unencrypted information.
That incident came just days after an MI5 officer had hislaptop stolen while
queuing for a ticket at Paddington Station.
More seriously, security procedures had already come under review when David
Shayler, a former MI5 officer, fled to Paris after claiming the running of
the organisation was shambolic.
Tests being developed by MI5, MI6 and the Government's GCHQ listening centre
would be able to identify potential culprits in advance by highlighting
"adverse character traits", the Intelligence and Security Committee said in
its annual report.
The security service accepted there was still "scope for significant
improvement", the committee added.
Annual appraisals on all staff should be supplemented by home visits once
every five years. While there, investigators could check for signs of
unexplained wealth which might betray the sale of secrets.
A seven-point "risk-rating" system already in place at GCHQ provided a
systematic means of identifying some character defects, the committee said,
and should be adopted by MI5 and MI6.
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Satellite radio soon to orbit your car
<http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/11/02/p17s1.htm>
New service likely to cause the biggest change for listeners since FM
By Kim Campbell
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Early next year, you may be browsing for a device that looks like a car
radio but has an extra button - one for the satellite band. That button
and $9.95 a month will beam a different kind of radio to your dashboard.
If successful, it will be the kind that doesn't fade out when you're
driving from Pittsburgh to Denver. The kind with few or no commercials and
dozens of talk, news, sports, and music channels, with hosts like Sting and
Quincy Jones.
It has musicians buzzing and broadcasters creating special satellite
divisions as the industry contemplates the future of digital radio -and if
people are willing to pay for it.
For the price of a movie, companies will deliver to your home or car dozens
of CD-quality channels in genres often missing from radio dials -Blues to
Broadway, children's to classical, Latin to country.
Though there is not a single subscriber yet, some industry analysts are
saying satellite radio could affect listeners and competition the way FM
radio did three decades ago. "Satellite radio may do to FM what FM did to
AM" -force it to change, says consultant Skip Pizzi, a contributing editor
at BE Radio magazine.
Radio's recent consolidations and uniform sound, along with surveys saying
listeners are unhappy with the lack of choice and number of commercials,
have observers saying there is an opening for something different.
"The problem with stations nowadays is they haven't rewritten the creative
playbook in 30 years, and they're running 20 minutes of commercials [an
hour]," says Lee Abrams, a radio veteran and chief programming officer for
XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C.
It could be several years before wireless Internet radio hits cars, where
it may or may not be used for sustained listening. That leaves the field
open for the only approved satellite companies: Sirius Satellite Radio in
New York City, which plans to launch in January, and XM, which expects to
flip the switch before mid-2001.
A niche that covers the nation
"A lot of people feel that with the direction traditional radio is going
... there's going to be an opportunity for satellite radio to appeal to
some people in the niche formats that are not being served," says Paul
Maloney, associate producer of RAIN, the Radio and Internet Newsletter.
By May, radios that receive Sirius channels should be available in shops
like Best Buy and Circuit City, and are planned for a few new cars or as
options from dealers.
Even so, it may take time for pay radio to catch on. Veronis, Suhler &
Associates, a New York investment bank specializing in media, indicated in
its July forecast that satellite radio and another newcomer, low-power
radio, are "not expected to have a meaningful impact on the radio industry
for three to four years."
"We still think there's a market for [satellite radio]," says Leo Kivijarv,
the bank's director of publications. "But it will all be told in how much
the consumer will want to be buying it and how quickly."
Though predictions are difficult before the product is available, research
by the companies and some analysts estimate subscribers could be in the 25
million to 50 million range by 2005.
Meanwhile, broadcasters are preparing for the new format. National Public
Radio has created a new division for satellite programming, NPR2, which
will have two channels on Sirius. "We view our programming on satellite
radio as an incubator," says Margaret Low Smith, vice president of NPR2.
"It's a lot less scary to start programs in this space. Part of the goal is
to create new voices for the future of public radio."
Artists are also intrigued. At Sirius headquarters in Manhattan, performers
like Kenny Loggins stop by unexpectedly to see what the future looks like.
And Alice Cooper and Emmylou Harris come to record music and interviews and
stay to talk about their favorite teams on the Major League Baseball
channel. Sting has signed on to do a daily show. XM is sealing deals with
Quincy Jones, Ted Nugent (who will host a talk show), Tom Petty, and Faith
Hill.
Both companies will offer 100 channels each -roughly a 50-50 split between
music and talk. They are signing up broadcasters like C-SPAN, the BBC,
Black Entertainment Television/Radio One, the Sci-fi channel, and Nascar to
provide content they don't produce themselves. Sirius expects to have no
ads on its music channels, and an average of 4 minutes on some talk
channels; XM anticipates 8 to 12 minutes on its talk channels, and from
none to several minutes on music channels.
Car and truck manufacturers like General Motors (XM) and Ford (Sirius) will
offer FM/AM/Satellite radios in some vehicles in the next two years.
Initially, they will either receive XM or Sirius, but not both. A radio
that can pick up either signal is expected to follow. Meanwhile, Sirius is
concentrating on cars, while XM plans to target auto, in-home, and boombox
units.
But for all this cutting-edge energy,the question remains: Will people pay
for it?
Almost ready for prime time
In July of 1998, Arbitron asked people a few questions about satellite
radio as part of its first survey on Internet listening. It found that 56
percent of the respondents were very or somewhat interested in the concept,
while 41 percent had no interest at all. The test next year will be to see
if interest translates into action.
"This isn't radio as usual," says Joe Capobianco, senior vice president of
content at Sirius. "We agree that people will not pay for what they can get
now. We have to give them something more than, better than, other than they
can get now."
Another factor is how national service will fare. People will always look
to local radio for things like weather, traffic, and news -and the human
touch, some say.
"With satellite radio, it's going to be just like the Internet -it's
impersonal," says Glo Rivera, owner of talk radio station KGLW in San Luis
Obispo, Calif. "If you don't have anybody on the local level, you lose,"
she adds.
XM's Mr. Abrams says it's a myth that satellite radio will be generic. "We
are fully in your face, personality radio. Each channel isn't a channel,
but it's a living, breathing radio station that'll be individually branded.
It won't be 'Channel 8: Rock,' but our rock will be called 'Liquid
Metal'.... We don't want listeners, we want fans."
Sirius plans to do the same - with hosts like Grandmaster Flash and Randy
Travis. "This is a personal product, this is a one-to-one situation, and
that's how we approach it and that's as local as you can get," says Mr.
Capobianco.
For NPR, even with the unknowns, the choice to be involved was easy. "Do I
think we should be there? Absolutely," says NPR2's Smith. "Do I know what's
going to happen and what it means to radio? No. But it's certainly an
opportunity we wouldn't want to miss."
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Athena Technologies flies micro air vehicle
<http://defence-data.com/current/page8934.htm>
1 November 2000
Athena Technologies has successfully completed the first flight test series
of its fully- autonomous
micro air vehicle (MAV).
The MAV being flown by Athena is not a prototype of an operational vehicle,
but rather a
technology development testbed. Its key objective is to develop and
demonstrate use of optical
sensing for vehicle guidance and control. Development of the system is
funded by the US Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under its Small Business
Technology Transfer (STTR)
programme. Athena is teamed with Carnegie Mellon University Robotics
Institute on the project.
MAVs are expected to have a variety of uses in future military and
commercial applications. Athena's Principle Investigator on the project,
Dr. Ben Motazed, says "The technology being developed here can lead both to
very tiny aircraft, as small as six inches in diameter, as well as to
somewhat larger vehicles. The exact size will depend on the specific
application."
Athena's MAV is fully autonomous, meaning that no pilot-in-the-loop is
required for its operation. It
is controlled from a commercial personal digital assistant (PDA) running
custom software developed
by Athena. The PDA communicates with the MAV via a wireless modem. "The
ground operator gives the MAV very simple, high-level instructions," said
Motazed. "Go West, go up, hover, land. It's designed so that anybody can
fly it."
Technology development is scheduled to continue for another year under the
present contract.
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Linked stories:
********************
Global Cops Crack Down on Top 10 'Dot Cons'
<http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001031/ts/scams_dc_1.html>
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer protection agencies
from around the world trumpeted on Tuesday their
combined total of 251 law enforcement actions this
year against what they called the top 10 ``dot con''
scams on the Internet.
See also: <www.ftc.gov/dotcons>
********************
U.S. Steps Up World Web Policing
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39884,00.html?tw=wn20001101>
The Federal Trade Commission is teaming up with its overseas
counterparts to fight shady websites. But enlisting every other
country's cooperation -- and it just takes one holdout to mess things
up -- is pretty tough.
********************
Vote Swapper Swatted Down
<http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39892,00.html?tw=wn20001101>
One of the more prominent websites that offers citizens a way to swap
Nader for Gore votes in a convoluted effort to benefit both candidates
gets shut down by a California politician.
********************
California shuts down vote-trader Web site
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/31/MN119607.DTL>
California election officials shut down a Web site that allowed
supporters of presidential candidates Al Gore and Ralph Nader to
trade votes, so that Naderites could add to their candidate's
vote tally without hurting Gore's prospects. (11/1/00)
********************
Bookstore fights court order to name customers
<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53188-2000Oct31.html>
Ordered by a judge to surrender the name of a shopper who purchased
a book on manufacturing illegal drugs, the owner of the Tattered
Cover Book Store in Denver is digging in her heels and preparing
an appeal. (11/1/00)
********************
'Official secrets' bill awaits president's action
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/10/31/leak.penalties/index.html>
A controversial bill that threatens to imprison whistleblowers
and even journalists is now on the president's desk, awaiting
his signature. News organizations are urging a veto, saying
that the law would essentially create an "official secrets act,"
of the sort that exists in totalitarian countries. (11/1/00)
********************
Investigators say government hiding papers on U.N. peace missions
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/11/02/peace.keeping.study.ap/index.html>
The General Accounting Office accused the Clinton administration
of withholding information on how the United States decided to
get involved in four of the U.N.'s largest peacekeeping operations.
This raises the prospect that established guidelines were
ignored. (11/3/00)
********************
Riot Erupts At Dot-Com Refugee Camp
<http://www.satirewire.com/news/0011/alpha_riot.shtml>
NEAR EMERYVILLE, CAL -- Overcrowded conditions and a controversial visit
from famed venture capitalist John Doerr sparked a riot yesterday at
Dot-Camp Alpha, a refugee camp that houses nearly 18,000 laid-off dot-com
workers. The violence, primarily between rival B2B and B2C factions, left
14 dead, scores injured, and hundreds of startup business plans
discredited.
********************
=====================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
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"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
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