UNDERNEWS
Sam Smith
July 21, 1999
The Progressive Review
1739 Conn. Ave. NW Washington DC 20009
202-232-5544 Fax: 202-234-6222
E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
INDEX: http://prorev.com
RECENT UNDERNEWS: http://prorev.com/indexa.htm
TODAY'S HEADLINE NEWS: http://prorev.com/altnews.htm
THE REVIEW FORUM: http://prorev.com/letters.com
DONATIONS AND ORDER FORM: http://prorev.com/order3.htm
UNSUBSCRIBE: Reply with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.
For a free subscription to our e-mail updates send your postal address with
zip code. Copyright 1999, The Progressive Review. Matter not independently
copyrighted may be reprinted provided TPR is paid your normal reprint fees,
if any, and is given proper credit.
Because of its quantity, TPR's mail is not always answered, but it is always
read. The editor is cheered or remorseful as appropriate and posts some of
the more interesting messages at http://prorev.com/letters.htm
--
WORD
If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what
is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this
remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the
people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no
arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything. -- Confucius
BIBLE QUOTATIONS YOU WON'T HEAR ON CBN
He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall
not enter into the congregation of the Lord. -- Submitted by DC Dave
CULTURE WARS
JFK Jr. Coverage
A Portrait of America survey finds that most Americans think the media
overdid their coverage of the JFK Jr. story. The national telephone survey
found that 67% said that the television networks should have continued with
regular programming and simply provided news updates. Only 23% thought that
the decision to cancel regular network shows was appropriate. Americans over
65 were most likely to say it was appropriate to cancel regular programming.
Still, 57% of America's senior citizens thought that regular programming
should have continued. Americans under 30 were most likely to say that there
was no need to cancel programming. 72% of our nation's youngest adults share
this view.
KIDS AND THE WEB
DECLAN MCCULLAGH, WIRED: New federal legislation will force start-up Web
sites devoted to children to charge for access or go out of business,
entrepreneurs said Tuesday at a Federal Trade Commission hearing. "A small
Web site cannot survive," said Steven Bryan, CEO of children's portal site
zeeks.com He said the liberal groups that champion government
regulation have seriously underestimated the cost of mailing letters to
parents asking for permission to give children accounts on sites -- which is
one proposal the FTC is considering.
"It's a multimillion dollar proposition to do this," Bryan said. "The only
people who can do this are Disney and Nickelodeon." A 1998 children's
privacy law requires the FTC to regulate the data collection practices of
Web businesses with content aimed at children.
WIRED http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20851.html
FROM THE UN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT
-- One fifth of the world's people living in countries with the highest
incomes produce 86 percent of world gross domestic product, 82 percent of
world exports and 68 percent of foreign direct investment and control 74
percent of the world's telephone lines. The bottom fifth, in the poorest
countries, produce about 1 percent in each category.
-- The 200 richest people in the world more than doubled their net worth to
$1 trillion between 1994 and 1998.
-- Rich industrialized countries hold 97 percent of all patents worldwide.
-- The income gap between the richest fifth of the world's people and the
poorest fifth increased from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1997.
-- Tanzania's debt service payments are nine times what it spends on primary
health care and four times what it spends on primary education.
-- Women occupy more than 30 percent of parliamentary seats in only five
countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands.
-- English is used in almost 80 percent of all Web sites although fewer than
one in 10 people world-wide speak the language. The number of computers with
a direct connection to the Internet rose from under 100,000 in 1988 to over
36 million in 1998.
-- Only 33 countries achieved a sustained annual growth rate of at least 3
percent per capita between 1980-96. During that period during, per capita
growth declined in 59 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa and the former
Communist nations in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
-- Organized crime syndicates are estimated to gross $1.5 trillion a year.
The value of the illegal drug trade was estimated at $400 billion in 1995,
about 8 percent of world trade, more than the shares of iron and steel and
motor vehicles, and roughly equivalent to textiles and gas and
