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Today's Topics:
1. Vista prevents users from playing high-def content,
researcher says (Monty Solomon)
2. Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it (Monty Solomon)
3. DVD Formats Square Off for Holidays (George Antunes)
4. Market Spotlight: Satellite TV (George Antunes)
5. Britain begins high-tech ID card procurement process
(George Antunes)
6. Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend (George Antunes)
7. U.S. Icebreaker to Map Arctic Sea Floor (George Antunes)
8. Google to Cease Web Video Rentals, Sales (George Antunes)
9. Renowned scientist faces 16-year prison term (George Antunes)
10. ?Crowd Farms? could offer alternative energy (George Antunes)
11. Comcast, Verizon raising prices for HD DVR service (Monty Solomon)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:02:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Vista prevents users from playing high-def
content, researcher says
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Vista prevents users from playing high-def content, researcher says
Content protection rules said to harm system performance, detract
from security.
By Jon Brodkin, NetworkWorld.com, 08/09/07
Content protection features in Windows Vista are preventing customers
from playing high-quality video and audio and harming system
performance, even as Microsoft neglects security programs that could
protect users, computer researcher Peter Gutmann argued at the USENIX
Security Symposium in Boston Wednesday.
...
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080907-vista-high-def.html
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 12:05:32 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it
By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, 08/08/07
Readers of Google's Custom Search Blog were handed a bit of a
surprise Tuesday when the Web site was temporarily removed from the
blogosphere and hijacked by someone unaffiliated with the company.
The problem? Google had mistakenly identified its own blog as a
spammer's site and handed it over to another person.
...
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/080807-google-mistakes-own-blog-for.html
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:15:03 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] DVD Formats Square Off for Holidays
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
DVD Formats Square Off for Holidays
Aug 10, 2007 11:15 AM (ET)
By GARY GENTILE
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070810/D8QU833O0.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - People who own an HD DVD player can forget about
watching "Spider-Man 3" in high definition when it goes on sale during the
holiday season. The movie from Sony Pictures will only be available in the
Blu-ray DVD format.
Likewise, people with Blu-ray players won't be able to enjoy the
action-thriller "The Bourne Ultimatum," which Universal Pictures will
release only in HD DVD.
These exclusive arrangements, plus aggressive price cuts for high-def DVD
players, are designed to persuade consumers to finally embrace one format
or the other.
But analysts wonder if the moves will anger consumers, just as the studios
and consumer-electronics companies are hoping to boost high-def DVD sales
as growth in standard DVDs stalls.
"The frustration for consumers is not knowing what format is going to win,"
said Chris Roden, an analyst at Parks Associates.
Consumers, many of whom are still smarting from the VCR format battle
between VHS and Betamax, need to know their expensive equipment won't
become obsolete if the competing format wins, said Steven J. Caldero, chief
operating officer of Ken Crane's, specialty electronics chain in Southern
California.
"People are still frustrated there is a format war to begin with," he said.
"The studios are making people choose. What consumers want is something
that will play everything so they don't have to choose."
Until recently, many consumers were able to defer the choice because
players have been so expensive. But prices have been slashed by about half
- Sony Corp. (SNE)'s Blu-ray player now sells for $499 and Toshiba Corp.'s
cheapest HD DVD player sells for $299, with both likely to include as many
as five free movies as an incentive. (Players that read both formats remain
expensive.)
Both sides are also releasing blockbuster titles such as the new "Pirates
of the Caribbean" movie aimed squarely at the demographic most likely to
upgrade to high-def.
The stakes couldn't be higher for Hollywood, which has seen sales of
traditional DVDs, once a reliable profit engine, slow to a trickle. Direct
digital delivery online, while promising, is still years away from
profitability because current Internet capacity simply can't handle the
enormous high-definition files.
Yet consumers remain profoundly confused by the two formats, both of which
deliver crisp, clear pictures and sound but are completely incompatible
with each other and do not play on older DVD players. Many haven't even
heard of either format.
HD DVD, developed by Toshiba and backed by powerful companies like
Microsoft, has the lead in standalone players sold because they are cheaper
and hit the market first.
In the United States, standalone HD DVD players have 61 percent market
share, while Blu-ray players have 36 percent share and the few dual-format
players have a 3 percent share, according to market research company The
NPD Group Inc.
But Blu-ray, backed by Sony and a majority of Hollywood studios, got a big
boost when Sony introduced its PlayStation 3 game console, which comes
standard with a Blu-ray drive. Counting those machines, there are more
Blu-ray players out there.
Although Microsoft's Xbox 360 can play HD DVD movies, the drive has to be
bought separately. Only 160,000 drives have been sold so far, compared with
1.5 million PS3 consoles, according to NPD.
In terms of discs sold, Blu-ray has always had the lead. Time Warner Inc.
(TWX)'s Warner Bros. and Viacom Inc. (VIAB)'s Paramount Pictures release
movies in both formats, and in such cases Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD by
nearly 2-to-1.
Blu-Ray is getting an even bigger boost as Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) announced
it would stock only Blu-ray titles when it expands its high-def DVD
offerings this year. Target Inc., the nation's second-largest retailer,
said it will only sell Blu-ray DVD players in its stores in the fourth quarter.
Sony Pictures, News Corp. (NWS)'s Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney
Co., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are releasing only in Blu-ray. Universal,
owned by General Electric Co. (GE), is the only major studio to back HD DVD
exclusively.
Nonetheless, Warner Bros. believes both formats can coexist and has been
urging Blu-ray backers to begin supporting HD DVD as well. The studio has
developed a dual-format disc and has said it would license the technology
to other studios willing to back both.
"The fourth quarter is critical for the formats to show growth and
momentum," said Steve Nickerson, Warner Home Video's senior vice president
of marketing. "It's more than about winning or losing. If you can continue
to show growth (in both formats), that's a positive in a situation where
standard DVD sales aren't growing."
To counter Blu-ray's recent gains, the HD DVD camp is planning an
advertising campaign touting the interactive elements of the format, which
allow users to connect to the Internet to download special features.
"This is not about a high-def movie on a disc," said Craig Kornblau,
president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "It's about a fully
immersive experience, connected interactivity. That's what is going to
separate these high-def formats."
Kornblau said he isn't worried about Blu-ray's momentum and doesn't believe
there's a need for one to knockout the other.
"To call this market nascent is to a degree to pay it a complement," he
said. "The people who have bought so far aren't early adopters, they are
early, early adopters."
Analysts said even lower prices for players could be the key to determining
a format winner. Some believe that until prices hit the $200 range,
consumers simply won't upgrade from their current machines, many of which
cost less than $100.
Chinese-made HD DVD players selling for $199 are expected to hit store
shelves by December, while Sony is widely expected to cut the cost of its
Blu-ray machine to as low as $299 by year's end.
"When that occurs, the studios and Sony are going to pull out the big
guns," said Phillip Swann, president of the technology-oriented Web site
TVpredictions.com. "They are going to release more titles, big titles, and
really go for the kill this holiday season."
---
On the Net:
HD DVD camp: http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com
Blu-ray camp: http://www.blu-raydisc.com
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:17:02 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Market Spotlight: Satellite TV
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Market Spotlight: Satellite TV
Associated Press
08.09.07, 5:36 PM ET
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/09/ap4006013.html
NEW YORK - At satellite television operators DirecTV Group Inc. and
EchoStar Communications Corp. there is simply no rest for the weary.
After defying broad forecasts of their imminent demise in the face of cable
operators' package of services, the companies continued to post solid
subscriber growth throughout 2006. The trick was still-superior video
service that helped poach subscribers, boosted by a boom in homeownership
in near-captive markets in rural areas neglected by the big cable companies.
But, after bidding the stocks higher earlier in the year, investors are
again abandoning positions in the two satellite competitors. This time,
cable is still seen as a threat, but a new challenger has arisen - phone
giant Verizon Communications Inc.
Verizon's new fiber-optic broadband service, or FiOS, added 203,000
subscribers in the latest quarter for a total of 1.1 million. Of those,
515,000 were also signed up to get TV through the fiber, a tenfold increase
from a year ago.
"With Verizon now beginning to take a non-negligible number of subscribers
onto it FiOS platform for the first time, (satellite) subscriber growth
faces significant headwinds," said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett.
The new threat is not likely to be enough by itself to consign DirecTV and
EchoStar to permanent status as niche players. But combined with the
continuous onslaught from cable, the duopoly is in for tough times.
Satellite television operators have always been credited with having the
best video quality and largest selection of programming. Cable companies,
led by Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Corp., spent
billions in the 1990s to upgrade their systems to deliver broadband
connections that would allow for digital cable, and improved video. But it
also marked a shift in cable's favor, as it enabled the companies to offer
both television and high-speed Internet service.
It also pitted the cable giants against phone companies like Verizon and
AT&T, who had upgraded their wires to copper and could offer another
version of high-speed Internet access, digital subscriber line, or DSL.
Meanwhile, DirecTV and EchoStar, which runs the DISH network, kept adding
subscribers as rural communities grew. They even poached customers from
cable by offering lower prices and unique programming, such as DirecTV's
NFL Sunday Ticket package of professional football games.
Last year, though, cable stormed ahead by offering a third service -
Internet-based telephone. With the so-called "triple play," the cable
giants had the advantage of offering one bill for these three main
household services.
The argument was that cable's bundled services - offered for introductory
rates of about $99 - would lure customers away from phone and satellite
providers who could offer only one or two of the services. Cable numbers
grew in 2006, but satellite didn't lose too much ground. It still offered a
superior quality of video and developed a growing loyalty among its users,
although growth did slow.
A look at DirecTV's numbers shows this is not the first time it has had a
sharp and extended slowdown in growth. New subscribers rose steadily from
1998 to a peak of 527,000 in the fourth quarter of 2000, before skidding
all the way to 181,000 in the second quarter of 2003. The figure rebounded
sharply to 505,000 in the first quarter of 2005. It went as low as 125,000
last year.
The company reported Wednesday that it added 158,000 net subscribers in the
second quarter, in line with analyst expectations.
But cable also had troubles in the quarter. The biggest players reported
not just slower growth, but an actual reduction in basic cable subscribers.
A primary reason, analysts said, was Verizon.
For the first time, Verizon signed up more subscribers to get broadband
Internet service through FiOS than through the copper lines for DSL, or
digital subscriber line.
The rise of Verizon poses a threat especially to the EchoStar and DirecTV
because phone companies had long been thought of as logical partners for
the two. With satellite's superior video and phone's ability to offer voice
and Internet service, the combination would match up with cable's triple
play, analysts say.
EchoStar, in particular, has made some local agreements with small regional
phone companies to offer broadband service. Its stock was boosted by rumors
that AT&T, itself in search of a video product, might try to acquire the
company. Those rumors have been dead for several months now, though.
One of the reasons is that there remain knocks on satellite's video
service. Cable has been able to boost average revenue per subscriber by
offering video on demand and more high-definition stations. Because of
technical limitations, satellite can only send - not receive - signals,
forcing a workaround that limits its VOD service; and copyright problems
are threatening to hamstring EchoStar's offering of local HD stations.
The problems have been reflected in the two companies' share prices. After
a run-up last year, DirecTV has underperformed the market so far through
July. EchoStar is ahead of the S&P 500, considered the most relevant gauge
of the broader market, but recently has fallen back toward par with that index.
Moffett, the analyst, said the two companies remain solid in terms of cash
generation, but there is reason to expect a continued slowdown in growth,
making them less attractive investments.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:19:53 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Britain begins high-tech ID card procurement
process
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Britain begins ID card procurement process
By Reuters
http://news.com.com/Britain+begins+ID+card+procurement+process/2100-7348_3-6201929.html
Story last modified Fri Aug 10 07:45:14 PDT 2007
Britain launched on Thursday the selection process to choose companies to
run its multibillion-dollar national identity card program, the world's
most ambitious biometric project.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government described the move as "another
milestone" toward the controversial compulsory program, which is expected
to cost more than $10 billion over the next decade.
Ministers say the cards carrying fingerprint, iris and face-recognition
technology, are vital to fight terrorism, serious organized crime and
illegal immigration.
The program, due to be rolled out from 2009, would see Britons issued ID
cards for the first time since they were abolished after World War Two.
"This is a groundbreaking project, with the potential for huge benefits for
individuals and for the nation," Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said.
"As the Framework Procurement published today makes clear, we are committed
to introducing the program carefully and securely, minimizing both cost and
risk."
The notice, published in the Official Journal of the European Union,
invites firms to bid for the supply and maintenance of computer systems and
the issuing of the cards themselves.
Media reports said five firms would be chosen for the project with the
largest contracts said to be worth up to $1 billion.
The cards, which will involve one of the world's largest IT programs, have
drawn much criticism, with opponents saying they will infringe civil rights
and be a costly flop.
The opposition Conservative Party warned potential bidders on Thursday that
it would scrap the program if it wins the next election.
"This project will do nothing to improve our security," said David Davis,
the Conservative home affairs spokesman.
"In fact independent experts like Microsoft and the LSE (London School of
Economics) have pointed out that it could well make our security worse
while costing the tax payer 20 billion pounds in the process."
ID cards are used in about a dozen European Union countries but are not
always compulsory and do not carry as much data as those planned for Britain.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:37:01 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Perseid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend
Aug 11, 2007 2:09 AM (ET)
By ALICIA CHANG
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070811/D8QUL5R00.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Summer's annual meteor shower promises to put on a
dazzling show when it peaks this weekend - provided you're far from city
lights. With no moon in sight to interfere with the Perseid meteor shower,
skygazers can expect to spot streaking fireballs late Sunday into dawn
Monday regardless of time zone. Astronomers estimate as many as 60 meteors
per hour could flit across the sky at the shower's peak.
This year's sky show comes with an added bonus: Mars will be visible as a
bright red dot in the northeastern sky.
"We have front-row seats this year," said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of
Sky & Telescope magazine.
Last year's Perseid shower was somewhat of a dud because the moon's glare
washed out many of the faint meteors. This weekend's meteor shower
coincides with a new moon, which means the skies will be dark and perfect
for viewing meteors.
Experts offer some tips to get the most out of nature's fireworks: Since
Perseid meteors can be seen from any direction in the sky, viewers should
pick out a dark patch of sky free of light pollution and wait for the
meteors to appear.
Dim meteors appear as a momentary flash of light while the brighter ones
leave a glowing streak. The number of Perseids zipping across the sky
should increase steadily through the night, peaking just before sunrise.
Although the peak occurs this weekend, the Perseids are visible for several
nights after that.
Unlike other celestial sightings that require a telescope or binoculars,
the best way to watch a meteor shower is with the naked eye.
The Perseids are perhaps the most beloved of all meteor showers because of
their predictability. The August shower gets its name from the
constellation Perseus because the meteors appear to originate there.
The annual Perseid shower occurs when the Earth's orbit crosses the path of
debris thrown off by Comet Swift-Tuttle. As the cosmic junk - many the size
of a grain of sand - enters the atmosphere, it burns up in a flash,
appearing as "shooting stars" across the sky.
In the past, the Perseid showers have produced such spectacular displays
that people swamped radio stations with reports of a mysterious light in
the sky.
---
On the Net:
Sky & Telescope magazine: http://www.skyandtelescope.com
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:42:56 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] U.S. Icebreaker to Map Arctic Sea Floor
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
U.S. Icebreaker to Map Arctic Sea Floor
Aug 10, 2007 9:53 PM (ET)
By DOUG ESSER
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070811/D8QUHE4O0.html
SEATTLE (AP) - A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker is headed to the Arctic to map
the sea floor off Alaska, as Russia, Denmark and Canada assert their claims
in the polar region, which has potential oil and gas reserves.
The lead scientist on the expedition scoffs at the political implications.
"We're basically just doing science," said Larry Mayer, director of the
Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire.
"There's no flag-dropping on this trip," he said in an interview from
Durham, N.H.
The Healy left Puget Sound on Monday and should be in Barrow around Aug.
17, said Russ Tippets, a spokesman at the Coast Guard Pacific area office
in San Francisco. Mayer will meet the Seattle-based icebreaker Healy at
Barrow, Alaska, and head about 500 miles north with a team of about 20
scientists to map an area known as the Chukchi Cap.
Russian media assert that the Healy's mission signals that the United
States, along with Canada, is actively joining the competition for
resources in the Arctic. Melting ice could open water for drilling or
create the long-sought Northwest Passage for shipping. A Russian submarine
dropped that nation's flag Aug. 2 on the floor of the Arctic Ocean under
the North Pole.
Mayer denied the reports. "We've had this trip planned for months, and it
has nothing to do with the Russians planting their flag," he said.
The 7-year-old Healy is the nation's newest icebreaker. It's 420 feet long
and is capable of breaking ice 8 feet thick. Its mission will last a couple
of months, and it is due back in Seattle in early October, said spokesman
Stephen Elliott.
The purpose of the mapping work aboard the Healy is to determine the extent
of the continental shelf north of Alaska, Mayer said. It's not a claim, he
said, but a process of registering boundary information with the U.N.
Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
"In that area, the country would have rights over the resources of the sea
floor and subsurface that would include drilling for oil and gas," he said.
The mapping is conducted with an echo sounder, something that's difficult
to hear when a ship is crunching through the ice, Mayer said. This is the
third such mapping trip. The others were in 2003 and 2004.
There will be about 20 scientists on board the Healy with the crew,
including representatives from the University of New Hampshire, University
of Texas, University of Alaska, the National Ice Center in Suitland, Md.,
Scripps Institution, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and
State Department, he said.
The State Department says its official is a geographer and member of an
extended continental shelf task force.
"While a significant technological achievement, the planting of the Russian
flag on the seabed of the North Pole has no legal effect and did not prompt
the participation of the State Department expert in the Healy cruise," said
spokeswoman Nicole Thompson.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 13:47:10 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Google to Cease Web Video Rentals, Sales
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Google to Stop Web Video Rentals, Sales
Aug 10, 2007 11:43 PM (ET)
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070811/D8QUJ1P80.html
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. is shutting down a service that sold and
rented online video, ending a 19-month experiment doomed by the
proliferation of free clips on other Web sites like the Internet search
leader's YouTube subsidiary.
The decision, confirmed late Friday, underscores Google's intention to
concentrate its financial muscle and brainpower on developing an
advertising format to capitalize on the immense popularity of online video.
YouTube, which Google bought last year for $1.76 billion, is expected to be
the focal point of the company's expansion into video advertising. Google
executives hope to settle on an effective advertising system for video ads
by the end of this year.
Google already makes most of its money from ads, but most of those are
static, text-based messages posted alongside search results and other
written content on the Web.
The video section on Google's Web site will remain open, but will stop
showing paid programming Aug. 15.
Google has been selling the right to watch a wide range of video, including
sports, music and news, since January 2006. Most of the video sold for
anywhere from a couple dollars to $20. Customers could pay less to "rent"
the right to watch a selected video for a day or buy the show so it would
be available to watch indefinitely.
All paid programming had to be watched through a viewer on Google's site.
To compensate customers who will no longer be able to see the videos that
they purchased, Google is providing refunds in the form of credits that can
be used on its online payment service, Checkout. Hundreds of merchants
accept Checkout.
Google spokesman Gabriel Strickler said the refunds won't materially affect
the company, which has $12.5 billion in cash. Strickler declined to reveal
how many people bought video through Google.
"The current change is a reaffirmation of our commitment to building out
our ad-supported...models for video," Strickler said.
The move provides the latest indication that Google has become more willing
to pull the plug on services that aren't gaining traction, something that
its management rarely did until the past year. Last November, Google
abandoned a service that hired researchers to find answers to specific
questions posed by users.
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:42:00 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Renowned scientist faces 16-year prison term
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
Renowned scientist faces 16-year prison term
Marc van Roosmalen blames Brazilian court for 'criminalizing science'
By Michael Astor
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:04 p.m. CT Aug 10, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20219392/
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Dutch scientist Marc van Roosmalen?s success at
combing the Amazon for new monkey species has earned him international
acclaim and recognition as one of the world?s leading biologists. Time
magazine named him one of its ?Heroes for the Planet.?
Now his work has earned him a more troubling distinction: a nearly 16-year
prison sentence. He was jailed in June for nearly two months before a panel
of judges freed him on bail Tuesday while he appeals.
Van Roosmalen was convicted of holding an Internet auction for the naming
rights of two monkey species he discovered. He planned to use the proceeds
to help preserve their habitats. But the court ruled the auction was
illegal because van Roosmalen was working at Brazil?s National Institute
for Amazon Research at the time of the discoveries and said the naming
rights belonged to the government.
Van Roosmalen blames the state?s powerful logging interests and overzealous
environmental regulators for orchestrating his conviction and accuses them
of trying to discourage scientific investigation.
?They are criminalizing science,? van Roosmalen told The Associated Press
in a telephone interview this week from the Amazon city of Manaus.
Scientists have rallied around van Roosmalen, saying the case highlights a
growing conflict between scientific research and Brazil?s efforts to
protect the Amazon with some of the world?s toughest environmental laws.
?Dr. van Roosmalen?s situation is indicative of a trend of governmental
repression of scientists in Brazil,? read a letter signed by nearly 300
international scientists at an Association for Tropical Biology and
Conservation meeting in Mexico.
Some also suggest van Roosmalen ? who sent monkey samples abroad for DNA
analysis ? may be a victim of widespread fears that scientists are
conspiring to patent the valuable genetic information Brazil considers to
be its national heritage.
Van Roosmalen also was convicted of keeping wild animals at his home
without authorization, and selling a scaffolding that had been donated to
the institute.
His lawyer, David Neves, calls the charges baseless and the sentence
disproportionate.
?The sentence was very stiff, it?s not normal,? Neves said.
Prosecutors countered that Roosmalen?s conviction sets an important example.
?Brazil isn?t against science, but there is a code of ethics that exists,?
said an assistant to federal prosecutor Edmilson da Costa Barreiros Jr.
?Science doesn?t justify the seriousness of these crimes.?
Van Roosmalen said he was thrown in jail without warning on June 15, after
a sentencing hearing that neither he nor his lawyer attended.
?I spent six weeks in prison being threatened. I have some very powerful
enemies,? van Roosmalen said, alluding to logging and ranching interests in
Amazonas state that he believes pressed for the charges.
Van Roosmalen did not explain how he made those enemies, but many of his
discoveries were made in a region near the Madeira and Aripuana rivers
where logging is increasing. His discovery of new species and plan to
preserve habitat have the potential to make logging more difficult.
Federal prosecutors said if van Roosmalen believes he is being threatened
or framed, he should file a formal complaint and they would be happy to
investigate.
Many scientists say Brazil?s regulations often hamper legitimate research,
even as loggers and ranchers escape punishment for routinely ignoring
environmental regulations.
At 60, van Roosmalen cuts a maverick figure, with long blond hair and a
penchant for wearing shirts opened to the waist. The scientist, who is a
naturalized Brazilian, has published scientific descriptions of five new
monkey species, a new porcupine and a new peccary species, and says he has
discovered about 20 additional monkey and other animal species.
?I think my father felt that if he followed all the necessary requirements,
he?d never get anything done,? Vasco van Roosmalen, the scientist?s son,
told The Associated Press. ?He had the attitude that if he was doing the
right thing, the rules were not important. That can get you into trouble in
Brazil.?
Van Roosmalen?s lawyer said officials from Brazil?s environmental
protection agency, Ibama, seemed to have no problem with his client keeping
monkeys at home in the past, and even brought him sick or orphaned monkeys.
Henrique Pereira, the Ibama chief of Amazonas state, said officials may
have brought monkeys to van Roosmalen between 1996 and 2001, when his
request to house wild animals was being considered, but stopped once the
permit was denied and van Roosmalen was obliged to remove the monkeys.
Prosecutors also noted that van Roosmalen was fired from a government
research institute for sending genetic material abroad, among other
irregularities.
Congressman Jose Sarney Filho, a former environmental minister who led a
commission investigating bio-piracy, said van Roosmalen was singled out as
an outsider in a region rife with rumors that developed nations want to
control the Amazon and its natural diversity.
?I think he?s being made a scapegoat, but he gave them reason to go after
him,? said Sarney. ?My impression was he was a disorganized scientist. You
could do what he did without meaning any harm.?
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20219392/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 14:59:35 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] ?Crowd Farms? could offer alternative energy
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
[I'm all in favor of exploring alternative sources of energy, but this is
just weird.]
?Crowd Farms? could offer alternative energy
Design could harness power of commuters, shoppers or concertgoers
By Bryn Nelson
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 7:50 p.m. CT Aug 9, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201266/
The band takes center stage, the fans surge forward and the sheer power of
the crowd?s excitement amplifies the sound of their favorite songs ?
providing enough energy, in fact, to move a train.
It could happen in the Crowd Farm, a conceptual design by two graduate
students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that seeks to milk
the mechanical movement of hundreds or thousands of assembled people to
produce electrical power.
In principal, a large-scale version of the setup could harness the
collective energy of commuters bustling toward subway stations, shoppers
marching through mega malls or fans dancing at a rock concert. Already, the
students have shown how the simple act of sitting on a stool can generate
enough power to turn on four LED lights.
James Graham and Thaddeus Jusczyk, graduate students at MIT?s School of
Architecture and Planning in Cambridge, Mass., said they envision their
Crowd Farm more as a learning tool than an efficient energy source, at
least in the near future. Even so, the idea builds upon the emerging
consensus that power generation in the coming decades will need to rely on
sustainable resources, whether water, wind, the sun or our own bodies.
?We engage with the city in a very physical and bodily way, every day, even
though people don?t really think about it like that,? Graham said. ?Our
project tries to make that connection visible through this balance between
capturing and using energy.?
Graham said moving to New York City on the day of the citywide blackout in
2003 and joining in the throng of pedestrians walking over the Williamsburg
Bridge to Brooklyn inspired him to think about capturing the collective
power of crowds.
Pacing in his apartment, he said, wouldn?t generate much power ? each step
would be just enough to light two 60 Watt light bulbs for a split second.
But the aggregate power of 28,527 steps could power a moving passenger
train for the same length of time. And a space shuttle launch? Graham and
Jusczyk figured about 84 million strides should do the trick, leading one
of their project reviewers to quip, ?That?s one small step for man,
eighty-four million, one-hundred sixty-two thousand, two hundred and three
steps for mankind.?
The students? proposal follows a long line of ideas in which human energy
powers everything from bicycle lights to hand-crank radios. Researchers
also have developed a variety of devices and surfaces, composed mainly of
crystals or ceramics, that produce an electric charge when put under
stress, a concept known as piezoelectricity.
The Crowd Farm concept relies on the related principle that mechanical
movement can be converted into electricity, though on a larger scale in
which the mechanics would be supplied by a spongy floor in which embedded
blocks move under the weight of passing pedestrians. The conversion process
itself could be handled by a generator that uses a rotating coil and
electromagnets to produce an electric current from the mechanical movement.
Michael Sorkin, a New York City-based architect and president of Terreform
Inc., a non-profit organization focused on urban and environmental research
and intervention, said the Crowd Farm idea may not be entirely new but fits
within the laudable goal of producing non-polluting energy.
?Even more fundamental,? Sorkin said, ?is to think about the design of
cities from the perspective of using the body as the primary means of
circulation and energy in the first place.? For example, he said, it?s
probably more efficient to design walk-up apartments than to power an
elevator based on other people striding up the sidewalk.
Even so, with billions of people walking around the planet, Sorkin said,
?if there?s a sensible, sustainable way of capturing that energy, it?s a
win-win.?
For architects and urban designers, Graham said another challenge is to
make people aware of their surroundings. Calling upon passersby to help
light their way through a public building might be one way of redefining
how people interact with urban spaces ? and perhaps helping out with the
electric bill.
Graham and Jusczyk generated a buzz last October at the Venice Biennale, a
major contemporary art exhibition, and in January at an Italian
architectural school, where they encouraged passersby to sit on a ?power
stool.? The added weight on the stool turned a flywheel that in turn
powered a generator that lit up four LED lights.
?It was amazing to see how fascinated people were with it,? Graham said.
?I?ve never before seen someone sit down again and again and again. People
actually took pleasure in seeing that it was doing something.?
The students took their concept a few steps farther with a project that
re-imagines a transportation hub and public space within the Italian city
of Torino in the year 2050, where portions of an event area, athletic field
and regional train and subway platforms are imbued with pressure-responsive
units. High-volume sections of the flooring or stairs could be overlaid
with special mats to capture the energy of a crowd, Graham said, or key
areas could be embedded with variously sized electricity-generating boxes
in the sub-flooring.
In April, the conceptual design won top honors in a student competition
sponsored by the Switzerland-based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable
Construction. Graham agrees with Sorkin that transforming the concept into
a cost-effective system on a large scale would require a dramatic ramping
up of current technology.
?We joke that we?re at the level of computers in the ?60s when they were
giants and clunky and took up entire rooms,? Graham said.
Nevertheless, the team takes inspiration from an old anecdote about Thomas
Edison and a simple but effective turnstile. When visitors toured Edison?s
summer property, the inventor allegedly asked them to pass through a
peculiar turnstile. In response to their bemused queries, Edison would tell
them good-naturedly that they had just helped him pump several gallons of
water from his well into his storage tank.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201266/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:13:26 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Comcast, Verizon raising prices for HD DVR
service
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Comcast, Verizon raising prices for HD DVR service
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | August 11, 2007
The price of watching "Top Chef" on your own timetable is going up.
Comcast and Verizon are raising the monthly fees for their
high-definition digital video recorder service, the technology that
allows people to digitally record shows and watch them when they want.
Comcast said this month it would increase its price, from $9.95 to
$12.95. Verizon's monthly price is set to shoot up from $12.99 to
$15.99 -- for new customers only.
The price increases happen even as television networks are finding
new ways to reach people by streaming their shows for free, selling
shows as downloads over iTunes, or even allowing people access to
programs through On Demand service.
Comcast said the $3 price hike was the first since it began offering
DVR service in New England three years ago, and reflected
enhancements, including tweaks to the user guides and new equipment
with more memory.
...
http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/08/11/comcast_verizon_raising_prices_for_hd_dvr_service/
------------------------------
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End of Medianews Digest, Vol 352, Issue 1
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