-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 44 - September, 2000
aka "Shit That Matters"
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
RadTimes is now on the web and in audio!
See LUVeR Alternative News <www.luver.org> for details.
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Contents:
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--Why I'm Skipping the Olympics
--Waste and Pollution Increase in Industrialised Nations
--e-marketing to children
--DOJ on 2nd Amendment
--It's Not Just About 'Assault Weapons' Anymore
--Ex-NSA expert warns of concealed backdoors
--Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Promotes Information Sharing
--Mobile Phones for Cops
Linked stories:
*The world is running low on H2O
*The Microsoft Playbook
*U.S. Leads Effort To Lift Surveillance Safeguards
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Begin stories:
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Why I'm Skipping the Olympics
<http://www.commondreams.org/views/091700-103.htm>
by Kaliya Young, 2299 Piedmont #490 Berkeley, CA 94720 (510) 664 2801
I WAS A THREE-TIME All-American at Cal in women's water polo and left
college for a year to prepare for the Olympic Games with the Canadian
National Team. In July, after the Pan-American Games, I had a change of
heart about this decision. I walked away from the opportunity to go to the
Olympics and returned to my studies at the University of California at
Berkeley.
Everyone who knew me asked the same question: "Why?" After all, I had
played for 13 years, and been part of the national team program for six years.
During my last year on the team, I looked deeper into the Olympic movement.
I was deeply troubled by the corporate sellout of the event, by the
hollowness of Olympic environmental claims and by the blatant lie that the
competition served to "bring the world together."
Like all other hopefuls, I gave up a great deal to make the Olympic team. I
moved away from friends and family, lived well below the poverty line for
years and put my education on hold in order to hone my athletic skills. I
made these sacrifices because I loved playing water polo and because I
wanted to compete with the best.
My perspective on the Games gradually shifted. I began to see that my
sacrifices were going to be used by the Olympic Games and their sponsors
for ends that conflicted with my fundamental values. My competitive
performance would not just be a part of a world community gathering to
compete in the spirit of fair play, good will and global unity, but rather
it would be sold to the highest corporate bidder for their own commercial
gain. The profits of this sale would go not go to the performing athletes,
but rather to International Olympic Committee, national Olympic committees
and sponsors.
The spirit of the Games has been diminished by becoming a platform for
multinational companies to promote their unhealthy products to the world,
with the Olympians as their unwitting promoters. Coke is not what athletes
drink, and McDonald's hamburgers are not what they eat. They are not part
of an athlete's healthy diet. I began to question whether I could commit
myself to promoting these kinds of products by per forming under their
logos since, by doing so, I was suggesting that they were "healthy" and
commendable.
The environment became the third pillar of the Olympic movement in 1994,
along with culture and athletics. The IOC also signed an "Earth Pact" with
the U.N. Environmental Program and changed its charter to include
sustainable development as a goal. The goal was to have the Olympic
movement play an active role in helping sustainable development occur
throughout the world. I question the ability of "the movement" to do this
when it does not question the consumption patterns that they are ultimately
promoting via their corporate sponsors.
This pact, called Agenda 21, is rhetorical nature and reflects more
generally the rhetorical shift of the corporate world, which pays for the
staging of the Games to "Green-wash" their images. A deeper look at the
games and the corporate system that supports them is needed. The Olympic
movement is a "light" green movement that has raised some public awareness
of environmental issues and environmentally friendly alternatives. The
Olympic villages use solar water-heating, do water remediation and
recycling. While these initiatives address the technical problems of being
environmentally friendly, they do not address the truly fundamental value
system changes that are needed to prevent global environmental disaster.
The 2000 Games were awarded to Sydney, in part, because of its
environmental platform. Part of the platform was that an independent
monitoring body, Green Games Watch Inc., ensure that they fulfilled the
promises that earned them the Olympic bid. Report cards were issued during
the lead-up to the Games, and it became clear that their own ecological
criteria might not be met. In the fall of 1999, the government funding of
Green Games Watch Inc. was cut off. The detailed environmental platforms of
Sydney's Olympic Games and the criteria set out for all games in the IOC's
Agenda 21 are completely meaningless without independent monitoring.
The Games are supposed to reflect the real world. However, only those with
credentials (elite athletes,
coaches, managers, officials and volunteers who serve the aforementioned)
are allowed in, and then only after a security search. Enormous resources
are required to feed and care for the athletes, officials and media. The
underlying culture is elitist. The Games ironically reinforce nationalist,
ethnocentric feelings, imperialistic attitudes and promulgate a culture of
consumption.
What this world needs is a festival of true cooperation that brings a
diverse mix of rich and poor together, not to compete against each other,
but to find common ground and to work together to imagine a brighter,
fuller future. If this celebration of all that is best in humanity emerges,
I will then seek to be a participant.
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Waste and Pollution Increase in Industrialised Nations
By Danielle Knight
WASHINGTON, Sep 20 (IPS) -
Major industrialised nations have increased
the total amount of wastes and pollutants they emit into the
environment, despite efforts to use natural resources more
efficiently, according to researchers in Europe, Japan and the
United States.
>From 1975 to 1996, the total amount of waste generated in Austria,
Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States remained
steady on a per capita basis, according to a report released here
on Wednesday. The overall amount of pollution emitted into the
air, water and soil, increased by as much as 28 percent, it said.
The resource efficiency gains brought about by the rise of e-
commerce and the shift from heavy industries toward and the service
sector have been more than offset by the tremendous amount of
economic growth that favour lifestyles that are energy and material
intensive, said the report, 'The Weight of Nations.'
The study was carried out by a team of researchers from Austria's
Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies of Austrian Universities,
Germany's Wuppert al Institute, Japan's National Institute for
Environmental Studies, The Netherlands' Centre of Environmental
Science at Leiden University and the World Resources Institute
(WRI) here in Washington.
''As long as continued growth in economic output implies continued
growth in material inputs to and waste outputs from the economy,
there is little hope of limiting the impacts of human activity on
the natural environment,'' said the report.
The key is to separate economic growth from the use of resources
- including fossil fuels, minerals, timber and agricultural
products, they stressed.
''Better government policies and savvy management practices on the
part of industry can help to break the link between economic growth
and resource consumption and waste,'' said Emily Matthews, a
researcher at WRI. The amount of waste flowing into the environment
vary between the countries studied. Japan produced 11 metric tons
per person per year, for example.
While in the United States 25 metric tons per person of waste was
generated annually.
Austria increased its waste and emissions output by 10 percent,
while in the United States pollution increased by 28 percent from
1975 to 1996. In Japan waste outputs grew by 20 percent during
the same period.
But when the researchers included ''hidden waste flows'' - or waste
that included soil erosion and earth moved by mining and construction
- the total annual material outputs to the environment range from
21 metric tons per person in Japan to 86 metric tons per person
in the United States.
The difference between waste coming out of Japan and United States
largely results from whether a nation has a significant mining
sector, according to Matthews.
The extraction and use of fossil fuels - including coal, oil and
petrol - accounts for most of the pollution or waste emissions in
all five countries. When hidden waste flows (like earth moving)
are excluded, carbon dioxide, caused by the burning of fossil
fuels, accounts, on average, for 80 percent by weight of material
outflows in the five study countries.
Carbon dioxide is one of the main heat-trapping greenhouse gas
emissions that most scientists believe cause the warming of the
Earth's climate.
''The atmosphere is by far the biggest dumping ground for industrial
wastes,'' said Matthews.
The researchers did report a positive trend, however. Quantities
of solid wastes sent to landfills have stabilised or declined in
some study countries by 30 percent or more.
''Such reductions have been achieved, in part, through increased
recycling efforts,'' it said.
Part of the reductions in waste going to landfills, though, resulted
from increased incineration, which releases dioxin and other harmful
chemicals into the air, it said.
Most of the countries studied have been successful in regulating
some of the most hazardous pollutants, including lead and sulphur.
But other harmful materials, including arsenic, are increasing.
Arsenic contamination of the air and water is especially on the
rise in the United States where the chemical is used as a wood
preservative.
The study found that all five countries had improved their efficiency
of resources and materials in recent decades, but that did not seem
to have had any effect on overall waste since people are buying
more and using more fuel, it said.
In the United States, more Internet based companies are thriving
and using little resources, but this has been offset by the nation's
compulsion to consume a lot of resources, such as the popularity
of fuel- inefficient suburban utility vehicles despite growing
fuel prices.
Some nations studied are developing policies that encourage a move
away from increased resource consumption, including taxes on
pollution and government subsidies for renewable energies, like
wind and solar energy.
Pollution taxes in the Netherlands, for example, led to a 72-99
percent reduction in heavy metals discharges into waterways between
1976 and the mid-1990s, according to the Worldwatch Institute, an
environmental think-tank based in Washington.
And Austria has adopted policies to encourage the growth of biomass
fuel which led to a reduction in the use of fossil fuels, says
Matthews. Yet, even with these measures, carbon dioxide emissions
have increased by 12 percent since 1988, according to the report.
Some innovative companies are saying that doing more with less
makes good business sense. Interface Inc, a US floor and carpeting
company has won many awards for its creative steps to reducing
waste and using resources more efficiency.
''When we started, we were a typical industrial enterprise, and
typically bad,'' explained Ray Anderson, CEO of the Georgia-based
company.
Now, Anderson says his company saves tens of millions of dollars
because it uses less materials and uses them more efficiently.
Interface leases carpet tiles, taking the products back at the
end of their useful lives for recycling or re-manufacturing.
The materials used by the company thus circulate much longer requiring
a minimum of virgin material and generating a minimum of waste.
Interface also uses a lot of recycled materials such as old plastic
bottles and converts them into fabric.
''Why continue to waste expensive raw materials when becoming more
resource- efficient can increase companies' profit margins and
also protect the environment?'' asked Matthews.
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e-marketing to children
<http://www.sfbg.com/News/34/51/51ogdigi.html>
Dot-com marketers descend on S.F.
By A. Clay Thompson, San Francisco Bay Guardian
If you have children, be afraid. Be very afraid. Internet marketing
gurus are busy cooking up online schemes to drain kids' piggy banks
not to mention their parents' credit cards.
Spending a few hours at "Digital Kids," the two-day e-marketing confab
held in San Francisco Sept. 12 and 13, made that crystal clear.
Sponsored by Jupiter Communications, a leading tech consulting firm, the
forum brought the heavyweights of the dot-coms-for-kids set to the posh
Argent Hotel to talk shop and pitch product.
Surrounded by some 400 new-economy players think young white people in
semi-casual attire punching data into PalmPilots I caught the keynote.
"In simple terms we all know that kids are surfing the Web in record
numbers but translating this traffic into profits is quite a different
matter," offered speaker John Barbour, a Scot who heads ToysRus.com. "I
can see a number of you thinking right now, 'Wow, with all these kids
surfing the Web, there's got to be a lot of cool business
opportunities.' "
But right now minors account for only 1 percent of online toy sales,
Barbour lamented. "Most kids and teens don't have credit cards to make
online purchases," he said.
Luckily for Barbour and colleagues, a host of savvy start-ups like
Rocketcash.com and MainXchange.com are tackling that problem by offering
kiddie e-commerce services. Rocketcash is a debit system mail in a
check or money order and start spending at more than 100 online stores,
including Backstreet Boys Direct and DesignerOutlet.com! The site offers
"RocketFuel Reward Points" for big spenders.
MainXchange boasts auctions, a Wall Street game, and even real
stock-market investing, as well as e-money. To broaden its reach beyond
the home PC, the company is working with schoolteachers to get its
stock-trader game into the classroom. "We're in schools in 44 states,"
marketing vice president Gayle A. Keck told me. "I was surprised at how
interested even younger kids are in the stock market. They really are
like little stockbrokers."
At a panel called "Learning for Profit: The Web and Educational
Content," Tom Kalinske, president of Knowledge Universe, kicked off the
discussion with discouraging statistics: "Only 10 percent of high school
graduates can write a coherent, grammatically correct paragraph." The
silver lining: with parents spending $19 billion annually on learning
products, "the kids business," as Kalinske dubbed it, is booming.
These "sad facts," Kalinske said, "lead up to a huge market opportunity"
for companies such as Knowledge Universe and BigChalk.com. Knowledge
Universe a $1.8 billion outfit bankrolled by junk-bond ex-con Michael
Milken sells a huge array of educational products, many of them
computer-based. BigChalk's site aims for kids, librarians, teachers, and
parents, offering a workable, semi-organized search engine and online
shopping mall.
BigChalk, like many of the dot-coms on display at "Digital Kids," hopes
to fill its coffers with taxpayer loot by selling Web-based teaching
products to school districts. But BigChalk CEO John Lynch complains,
"This is not a market opportunity without its challenges. The school
building is actually viewed as sacred ground not to be defiled by crass
commercialism. And that's not the view just held by the majority of
teachers; that's the view held by the majority of educators and the
majority of parents, too."
The day after Lynch's speech a group of 80 educators and youth
advocates, including professors from UC Berkeley and Stanford, released
a 99-page report arguing that wiring classrooms is a waste of money that
actually hinders learning.
Dan Pelson, CEO of Bolt, a teen chat room destination, said his site had
sculpted chats to provide market research for Ford, a major advertiser.
"When they [young people] get in there and say, 'The Ford Focus sucks,'
that is invaluable to Ford," Pelson told listeners.
While almost all the panelists were highly caffeinated Caucasian alpha
males like Pelson, the company show-and-tell booths upstairs were
staffed by bouncy young women. Virginia Ginsberg, a P.R. flack for Your
Own World, showed me the company's playful, preteen-focused CD-ROM
which promptly crashed. The "interactive environment" features
constantly updated banner ads on nearly every page.
"The advertisements make a lot of parents uncomfortable," Ginsberg told
me. But, she said, Your Own World gives kids an out: click on the
banners, and they mutate into video games or animated movie trailers.
Later, at a panel titled "Targeting Teen Shoppers," another executive
sounded the battle cry: "We are here to suck the money out of their
pockets!"
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DOJ on 2nd Amendment
<http://www.nraila.org/research/20000901-AntiGunGroups-001.shtml>
August 22, 2000
Dear Mr. XXXX:
Thank you for your letter dated August 11, 2000, in which you question
certain statements you understand to have been made by an attorney for the
United States during oral argument before the Fifth Circuit in United States
v. Emerson. Your letter states that the attorney indicated that the United
States believes "that it could 'take guns away from the public', and
'restrict ownership of rifles, pistols and shotguns from all people.'" You
ask whether the response of the attorney for the United States accurately
reflects the position of the Department of Justice and whether it is indeed
the government¹s position 'that the Second Amendment of the Constitution
does not extend to the people as an individual right.'
I was not present at the oral argument you reference, and I have been
informed that the court of appeals will not make the transcript or tape of
the argument available to the public (or to the Department of Justice). I am
informed, however, that counsel for the United States in United States v.
Emerson, Assistant United States Attorney William Mateja, did indeed take
the position that the Second Amendment does not extend an individual right
to keep and bear arms.
That position is consistent with the view of the Amendment taken both by the
federal appellate courts and successive Administrations. More specifically,
the Supreme Court and eight United States Courts of Appeals have considered
the scope of the Second Amendment and have uniformly rejected arguments that
it extends firearms rights to individuals independent of the collective need
to ensure a well-regulated militia. See United States v. Miller, 307 U.S.
174 (1939) (the 'obvious purpose' of the Second Amendment was to effectuate
Congress' power to 'call forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the
Union,' not to provide an individual right to bear arms contrary to federal
law'); Cases v. United States, 131 F.2d 916, 921 (1st Cir. 1942) ('The right
to keep and bear arms is not a right conferred upon the people by the
federal constitution.'); Eckert v. City of Philadelphia, 477 F.2d 610 (3rd
Cir. 1973) ('It must be remembered that the right to keep and bear arms is
not a right given by the United States Constitution.'); United States v.
Johnson, 497 F.2d 548, 550 (4th Cir. 1974); United States v. Warin, 530 F.2d
103, 106-07 (6th Cir. 1976) ('We conclude that the defendant has no private
right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.'); Stevens v. United
States, 440 F.2d 144, 149 (6th Cir. 1971) ('There can be no serious claim to
any express constitutional right of an individual to possess a firearm.');
Ouilici v. Village of Morton Grove, 695 F.2d 261, 270 (7th Cir. 1982) ('The
right to keep and bear handguns is not guaranteed by the second
amendment.'); United States v. Hale, 978 F.2d 1016, 1019 (8th Cir. 1992)
('The rule emerging from Miller is that, absent a showing that the
possession of a certain weapon has some relationship to the preservation or
efficiency of regulated militia, the Second Amendment does not guarantee the
right to possess the weapon.'); United States v. Tomlin, 454 F.2d 176 (9th
Cir. 1972); United States v. Swinton, 521 F.2d 1255, 1259 (10th Cir. 1975)
('There is no absolute constitutional right of an individual to possess a
firearm.').
Thus, rather than holding that the Second Amendment protects individual
firearms rights, these courts have uniformly held that it precludes only
federal attempts to disarm, abolish, or disable the ability to call up the
organized state militia. Similarly, almost three decades ago, the Department
of Justice¹s Office of Legal Counsel explained:
The language of the Second Amendment, when it was first presented to the
Congress, makes it quite clear that it was the right of the States to
maintain a militia that was being preserved, not the rights of an individual
to own a gun [and] [there is no indication that Congress altered its purpose
to protect state militias, not individual gun ownership [upon consideration
of the Amendment] . . . . Courts have viewed the Second Amendment as limited
to the militia and have held that it does not create a personal right to own
or use a gun . . . . In light of the constitutional history, it must be
considered as settled that there is no personal constitutional right, under
the Second Amendment, to own or to use a gun. Letter from Mary C. Lawton,
Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, to George Bush,
Chairman, Republican National Committee (July 19, 1973) (citing, inter alia,
Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886), and United States v. Miller, 307
U.S. 174 (1939)). See also, e.g., Federal Firearms Act, Hearings before the
Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the
Judiciary, United States Senate 41 (1965) (Statement of Attorney General
Katzenbach) ('With respect to the second amendment, the Supreme Court of the
United States long ago made it clear that the amendment did not guarantee to
any individuals the right to bear arms.').
I hope this answers your question. Thank you again for writing.
Yours sincerely,
Seth P. Waxman
Solicitor General
US Department of Justice
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It's Not Just About 'Assault Weapons' Anymore
U.S. v. Emerson
by Mike Dillon in THE BLUE PRESS
[edited.]
The Constitution and Bill of Rights DOES NOT protect your right to own or
possess firearms! The Second Amendment only allows you to use a firearm
while in the National Guard!
That is the publicly stated position of the Clinton-Gore Justice Department.
This position was not whispered in some back-room meeting--it was stated in
open court in a case now before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appellate court is hearing the government's appeal of U.S. v. Emerson, a
Texas case resulting from a divorce action that resulted in Dr. Timothy Joe
Emerson being indicted by a federal grand jury. Emerson was in violation of
the Lautenberg Amendment--the local court had placed a restraining order
against him, making it against federal law for him to possess a firearm.
In April 1999, U.S. District Court Judge Sam Cummings ruled that this law was
an unconstitutional infringement of the "individual right to bear arms."
Cummings set aside the indictment, and in doing so, struck a grievous blow to
the gun prohibitionists. Of course, the government appealed the decision.
Now, if Cummings' decision is upheld on appeal, not only will the Lautenberg
Amendment be invalidated, hundreds of gun laws will be in jeopardy of being
struck down.
We're all holding our breath awaiting the Court of Appeals' ruling,
especially since the most significant bit of information to come out of the
case is the on-record position of "our" government on the Second Amendment.
The following exchange is from the transcript of the oral arguments:
Judge William L. Garwood: "You are saying that the Second Amendment is
consistent with a position that you can take guns away from the public? You
can restrict ownership of rifles, pistols and shotguns from all people? Is
that the position of the United States?"
Assistant US Attorney William B. Mateja: "Yes."
Garwood: "Is it the position of the United States that persons who are not
in the National Guard are afforded no protections under the Second Amendment?"
Mateja: "Exactly."
Mateja then argued that even membership in the National Guard would not
qualify an individual to possess firearms.
Garwood: "Membership in the National Guard isn't enough? What else is
needed?"
Mateja: "The weapon in question must be used IN the National Guard."
That pretty much disqualifies your Model 70, your Model 700, your Marlin 336,
your Perazzi, your Weatherby, your Anshutz, or your Merkel from protection
under the Second Amendment, now doesn't it? And you thought the government
was only after those nasty high-capacity handguns and "assault weapons." But
you didn't have any of those, so you weren't worried. For the terminally
clueless, let me spell it out -- IT'S LONG PAST TIME TO START WORRYING.
IT'S TIME TO ACT!
Your deer rifle and your duck gun are on the same "to-confiscate" list as all
handguns, "assault" rifles and "sniper" rifles. It makes no difference what
your gun looks like, the official position of the Clinton-Gore administration
is that YOU have NO right to own it.
You can continue to hide in your duck or deer blind and pretend that you're
not a target. Keep pretending, right up until that day when the government
looks at the roster of hunting licenses and comes to your house to confiscate
your "thutty-thutty."
Oh, you'll fight? You'll give up your gun when they pry it from your cold,
dead fingers? Bullshit. If you won't fight now, why should I believe that
you'll be willing to spend your BLOOD later?
I don't know about you, but I'd much rather fight to keep them from
taking my rights away at the ballot box instead of trying to get them back by
fighting in the street.
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Ex-NSA expert warns of concealed backdoors
<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/38/ns-18077.html>
[See webpage for embedded hyper-links.]
Mon, 25 Sep 2000
by Will Knight
Ex-spook believes that software backdoors are out there, fueling conspiracy
theories
Former NSA (National Security Agency) analyst and representative of Internet
rights watchdog EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Centre) Wayne Madison
warned privacy groups Friday that a growing number of proprietary commercial
software applications may have backdoors allowing the security services to
carry out surveillance activities.
Speaking to privacy groups as well as cryptography and security experts at
the International Forum on Surveillance by Design at the London School of
Economics, Madison warned that this is an area of growing interest for
security services such as the NSA. "A lot of manufacturers play ball with
the NSA," said Madison. "This is an area that the NSA is moving into a lot
and we have to be really careful about it."
Until recently the US government strictly controlled the strength of
cryptography in software exported to different countries, in order to
protect the government's ability to access and monitor communications data.
The regulations were relaxed after pressure from industry but Madison
believes that this may have driven the NSA to find ways to carry out
surveillance. "They're not going to give in over exporting strong
cryptography without getting something in return," he says.
The NSA carries out the US government's intelligence gathering operations.
It is known to gather information from Internet traffic. It is possible for
programmers to put secret capabilities into the code used to build programs
that are difficult to detect. Software companies including Microsoft have in
the past been accused of colluding with the NSA to provide backdoors into
their applications.
Open source software, which publishes the underlying source code with a
finished application, is by contrast entirely transparent. This has caused
some foreign governments including the French administration to take an
interest in open source solutions.
According to Madison, evidence of the FBI's controversial Carnivore email
surveillance tool shows that NSA technology is finding its way into other
law enforcement departments. He predicts that similar surveillance tools may
be applied to other technologies including biometrics and smart cards and
used track the movements of individuals. "These are new intelligence
targets," he says. Madison warns that government agencies often have a
significant role in the development of standards for new technologies.
The London forum saw presentations from a host of experts on government
surveillance technology including Duncan Campbell, famous for his work on
Echelon, and Tony Bunyan of Statewatch.
See also:
Anti-snooping gurus converge on London
<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/2000/37/ns-17972.html>
Echelon: World under watch
<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/2000/06/echelon/>
Surveillance, a ZDNet News Special
<http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/1999/09/surveillance/>
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Law Enforcement Online (LEO) Promotes Information Sharing
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (08/00) Vol. 69, No. 8, P. 21
Law enforcement officials have an Intranet communication
system, Law Enforcement Online (LEO), that will allow them to
share sensitive information in a secure environment. LEO
currently has some 23,000 users every day who are accessing
the system not only to communicate and obtain mission critical
information but also to familiarize themselves with the latest
law enforcement issues; contact peers, colleagues, or experts
in various fields; and to participate in educational programs
online. The Intranet communication system is also an excellent
way for law enforcement officials to reach special interest
groups for inquiries, research, and to access experts. The
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime and the FBI
Bomb Data Center are just two of the more than 50 special
interest groups that are connected to the online network.
LEO's services are free, easy to use, and can be accessed
anywhere and at any time.
**************************************************************
To learn more about the LEO system, or to request an
application, contact the LEO Program Office at 202-324-8833,
or via e-mail at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
**************************************************************
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Mobile Phones for Cops
Law Enforcement Technology (08/00) Vol. 127, No. 8, P. 68;
Rogers, Donna
Although wireless handsets specifically designed for law
enforcement do not yet exist, there are numerous cell phone
products with features useful to police. The Ericsson Screen
Phone HS210 uses Bluetooth Technology to link together a
touchscreen with virtual keyboard and a base station.
Ericsson's water-proof, dust-proof, and shock-proof R310 has
voice dialing, vibrating call alert, and data/fax features.
The Ericsson R280LX wireless phone can offer unlimited
wireless Internet access with AT&T Digital PocketNet service.
The R280LX also features extensive battery life and memory
capacity, caller ID, a phone lock, keypad lock, emergency
dialing, call mute, and any-key answer. The Ericsson Model
R250d PRO is designed for rough environments and resistant to
abuse. Kyocera Wireless Corporation, which recently acquired
QUALCOMM Incorporated, offers the pdQ smartphone and QCP thin
phone series. The pdQ smartphone can exchange data with a
desktop computer and has vast memory storage, while its
infrared technology enables the device to send messages,
business cards, and the like to Palm III Organizers or other
smartphones. The QCP thin phones possess analog, digital, and
dual-mode features, along with cell and PCS services. The
Motorola CipherTAC 2000 module is used by the U.S. government,
military, and other agencies for surveillance or covert
activities, since the device adds STU-III compatible secure
voice communications to its MicroTAC Elite flip phone. The
phone offers desktop, tactical STU-IIIs, AMPS, NAMPS, and
ETACS cellular infrastructure interoperability. The Motorola
Wings' companion and connectivity solutions are a line of
accessories that can give phones modem capability, fax
connections, and mobile PC data-sharing. Several Motorola
models also use Nextel's Online Two-Way Messaging Service to
receive email. Nokia's 8890 offers voice dialing, predictive
text input, picture messaging, and operates in the Americas,
Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. The 8890 can switch
between bands and time zones automatically, and has an
infrared link like the Kyocera smartphone. A PC suite will be
available for the device in the near future.
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Linked stories:
********************
The world is running low on H2O
<http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho091900.stm>
by Lester R. Brown
Water tables are already falling on every continent, thanks in large part to
powerful pumping technology developed in the last 50 years, which allows
humans to deplete aquifers faster than they can be replenished by
precipitation.
********************
The Microsoft Playbook
<http://commoncause.org/publications/microsoft/>
Computer giant Microsoft, facing scrutiny from the U.S. Department of
Justice and state Attorneys General, turned what was a sleepy Washington
presence into a financial and political powerhouse, spending more than $16
million across a wide spectrum of political activities since 1997,
according to a report released today by Common Cause. The study, The
Microsoft Playbook, details the explosive growth of Microsoft's lobbying,
contributions to candidates and parties, goods and services donated to the
party conventions, and donations to influential trade groups, think tanks,
and foundations.
********************
U.S. Leads Effort To Lift Surveillance Safeguards
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20000921S0007>
Which country snoops the most on computer users? According to the Electronic
Privacy Information Center and Privacy International, the United States leads
efforts to remove legal and technical safeguards that could limit electronic
surveillance.
********************
======================================================
"Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control."
-Jim Dodge
======================================================
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
-Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
======================================================
"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."
-J. Krishnamurti
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