~e; Electromagnetic News & Views #13

[bc <human@electronetwork.org>]

===================================================
Electromagnetic News & Views -- #13
===================================================

00) Electronetwork.org Commentary (2/7/2003)

01) Top Stories of Electromagnetism
02) Electromagnetic health & medicine
03) Electromagnetic trash & treasure
04) Electromagnetic security & surveillance
05) Electromagnetic power & energy
06) Electromagnetic current & human affairs
07) Electromagnetic transportation & communication
08) Electromagnetic matter & information
09) Electromagnetic trends & inventions
10) Electromagnetic weaponry & warfare
11) Electromagnetic business & economics
12) Electromagnetic art & artifacts

===================================================
00) --commentary--
---------------------------------------------------

No comments. About one-third of this week's links regard
the fuel cell info. If not interested in this topic, there are
several other interesting EM links below the top stories.


===================================================
01) --top stories--
---------------------------------------------------

// irony, anyone???

Congress ends probe of Cheney energy contacts
<http://salon.com/politics/wire/2003/02/07/cheney/>

and

Hydrogen cars fuel U.S. energy debate
<http://salon.com/tech/wire/2003/02/07/hydrogen/>

Bush Hydrogen Initiative Faces Many Obstacles
<http://ens-news.com/ens/feb2003/2003-02-06-10.asp>

"resident George W. Bush promoted his hydrogen fuel initiative today
as critics continue to blast the plan as a smokescreen for the
administration's rejection of environmentally friendly policies."

Hydrogen Cars Remain Decades in the Future Under New Budget
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/politics/05FUEL.html?th>

// this reflects the critical responses that are in
// contradiction to the US government's hydrogen future...
// - not sure if I can summarize it, but it seems that in
// some uses hydrogen makes some limited sense in energy
// planning, but to base a whole society on the new utopia
// of a Hydrogen Economy is said, by experts, to be foolish.

Is Big Energy Hijacking Hydrogen?
<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14959>

"Obviously, the world's dominant energy industries will not happily
go out of business or voluntarily cede market share to renewables,
though there is growing evidence that, at least in the long term,
solar and wind power could be harnessed to produce a decentralized,
completely zero-emission energy loop."

Bush Promotes Hydrogen Fuel Cells 
<http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,57578,00.html>

"First announced in his State of the Union address, Bush promised
"a new national commitment" to take fuel-cell powered cars "from
laboratory to showrooms" within the next 20 years."

Hyping hydrogen // some claim effort to be a "fool cells"...
President Bush says his proposal to fund fuel cell research will
clean up our air and reduce dependence on foreign oil -- in the
future. But right now, he's doing nothing.
<http://salon.com/tech/feature/2003/02/06/freedom_fuel/>

'"It's definitely not enough money," says David Friedman, a senior
analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "If the government was
really serious about getting hydrogen out there as soon as possible,
there would be at least another zero, if not two zeroes, at the end
of their figure."'

// real-time MPG/fuel-consumption dashboard meter...

MY MILEAGE IS BETTER THAN YOUR MILEAGE
An all-American idea for getting Americans
to take gas consumption seriously
<http://www.orionsociety.org/pages/om/03-1om/McKibben.html>


---------------------------------------------------
02-- electromagnetic health & medicine
---------------------------------------------------

Discarded Computer Had Confidential Medical Information
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37585-2003Feb6.html>

"A state computer put up for sale as surplus contained confidential
files naming thousands of people with AIDS and other sexually
transmitted diseases, the state auditor said Thursday."

3-D Images Show How Alzheimer's Engulfs Brain // tragic.
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/02/030207070657.htm>
"In order to track this cell death, the research team scanned
12 Alzheimer's patients and 14 healthy elderly volunteers with
MRI brain scans every three months for two years."


---------------------------------------------------
03-- electromagnetic trash & treasure
---------------------------------------------------

HP launches PC recycling program with $50 incentive
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5119968.htm>


---------------------------------------------------
04-- electromagnetic security & surveillance
---------------------------------------------------

Satellite Tracking Spurs Stalking Fears
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33715-2003Feb6.html>

Cascading Failures Could Crash the Global Internet
Eliminating central nodes -- for instance, backbone routers in the
Internet -- "is likely to cause subsequent failures and generate a
cascade, while eliminating peripheral nodes will have little effect,"
said Columbia University network expert Duncan Watts.
<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20686.html>

"The Internet possesses a highly heterogeneous load distribution
that creates special vulnerability to attacks on key nodes, Motter
and Lai explained. Network nodes are the information equivalent of
airline hubs, where electronic data or electrical power flows in
and out in many directions.
...
"In systems where some nodes are central -- for instance, backbone
routers in the Internet, "eliminating those nodes is likely to cause
subsequent failures and generate a cascade, while eliminating peripheral
nodes will have little effect," Watts said. "In systems where all nodes
have roughly the same importance -- homogeneous systems -- it doesn't
matter much how you pick your targets.""

Future Secure
Quantum cryptography, which uses principles of quantum physics to
encrypt data and track attempts to steal it, is one next-generation
security technology attracting more attention.
<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20707.html>


---------------------------------------------------
05-- electromagnetic power & energy
---------------------------------------------------

ENERGY RESEARCH
Hydrogen Cars Remain Decades in the Future Under New Budget
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/05/politics/05FUEL.html>

How Capacitors Work
<http://www.howstuffworks.com/capacitor.htm>

Nuke Plants Aging Disgracefully 
<http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,57486,00.html>

"Currently, there are 103 commercial nuclear power plants in the
United States, which account for more than 20 percent of the nation's
total electricity energy output. Davis-Besse is among a growing number
of aging plants plagued by corrosion and other defects caused by
decades of intense heat and pressure inside the reactor."

How Hydropower Plants Work
<http://www.howstuffworks.com/hydropower-plant.htm>

Bush, Environmentalists at Odds on Fuel Cell Plan // thanks *
<http://www.reuters.com/ 
newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=3TAZXLUYOFCVKCRBAEZSFFA?type=politicsNews&s 
toryID=2184976>

Sandwich could cut solar-panel costs
Silicon replacement raises hopes of affordable solar power.
<http://www.nature.com/nsu/030203/030203-5.html>


---------------------------------------------------
06-- electromagnetic current & human affairs
---------------------------------------------------

Electrical wires save person thrown from jeep (Photos)
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/lf/ 
012903wiresaved&i=index&e=1&tmpl=sl&nosum=0&large=0&t=1043804507%22,750, 
580);>

Good will bolsters school hit by thefts // consider the take-home
// school laptop-- stealing lunch money nets 800 USD street price...
<http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1726~1161974,00.html>

Over the RGB Rainbow by Are Flagan
A polemic review of _Virtuality Check: Power Relations and Alternative
Strategies in the Information Society_, Francois Fortier (Verso, 2001).
<http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0302/ 
msg00008.html>

Kasparov vs. Deep Junior chess match DRAW (Flash re-enactment)
<http://static.wired.com/news/feature/chess/game.html>

and

Computer Holds Chess Star Kasparov to Match Tie
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=569&ncid=738&e=1&u=/nm/ 
20030208/tc_nm/life_chess_kasparov_dc>

"It was the second time in a few months that a sophisticated software
program has avoided defeat by one of the world's leading grandmasters."


---------------------------------------------------
07-- electromagnetic transportation & communication
---------------------------------------------------

Researchers Announce World's Smallest Switch
<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20697.html>


---------------------------------------------------
08-- electromagnetic matter & information
---------------------------------------------------

Digital data chases converged reality // strategic database-focus...
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/01/31/05apdata_1.html>

"Alignment of once-distinct technology segments -- spanning
CM (content management), KM (knowledge management), database,
messaging, and BI (business intelligence) -- is already under
way. But the eventual goal of convergence and its related
enterprise benefits may still be a long way out."

 From Nanotechnology's Sidelines, One More Warning // nanorisks...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/03NANO.html>

How LCDs Work
<http://www.howstuffworks.com/lcd.htm>

How Virtual Private Networks Work
<http://www.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm>


---------------------------------------------------
09-- electromagnetic trends & inventions
---------------------------------------------------

2003 and Beyond // awaiting the 64-bit chip...
What's next? Smaller hardware, wireless everywhere, and
(at long last) true convergence. Sean Captain
 From the March 2003 issue of PC World magazine
<http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109169,00.asp>

"Using UPnP over either an 802.11 or a Bluetooth connection,
you'll be able to send pictures from a digital camera to a
printer, burn them to CDs and DVDs, and display them on a TV--
without ever touching the PC."

Japanese scientist invents 'invisibility cloak'
<http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_747591.html>


---------------------------------------------------
10-- electromagnetic weaponry & warfare
---------------------------------------------------

French Police Seize Mobile Phone Guns // quite a story...
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=581&ncid=581&e=1&u=/ 
nm/20030207/tc_nm/life_france_guns_dc>

// this story of LAMs, somewhat autonmous loitering weapons, are
// similar to taking UAVs to the next level, as the article states.
// it brings together many threads in new .mil technologies, such
// as using sound, vision, computation, and other means to enhance
// traditional tactics. it seems almost like EM scouting missions,
// or some type of new division. it may not be long into the future
// when the .mil takes a small UAV packed with explosives, or with
// a recoilless automatic firing weapon, and goes on assassination
// missions, or whatnot, a similar tactic having little/no defense.

Military developing 'loitering' and 'sleeping' weapons
<http://pennlive.com/newsflash/topstory/index.ssf?/newsflash/ 
get_story.ssf?/cgi-free/ 
getstory_ssf.cgi?a0652_BC_PatientWeapons&&news&newsflash-topstory>

"Loitering weapons are "the next big step in combat effectiveness,"
said Glenn Buchan, a RAND expert in unmanned aerial vehicles and
satellites. "You hang around an area so you can see the target
before it shoots, and kill it before it hides."

The Lockheed missile, for example, sprouts wings and fins and flies
to a map coordinate. It then can wander above the area for 45 minutes,
using a laser-radar seeker to search the ground for a target to destroy,
said Steve Altman, development manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and
Fire Control in Dallas."

The Onion: North Dakota Found To Be Harboring Nuclear Missiles
<http://www.theonion.com/onion3904/north_dakota.html>

Bush Orders Guidelines for Cyber-Warfare
Rules for Attacking Enemy Computers Prepared as U.S. Weighs Iraq Options
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38110-2003Feb6.html>


---------------------------------------------------
11-- electromagnetic business & economics
---------------------------------------------------

Sony Again Turns to Design to Lift Electronics
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/business/yourmoney/02SONY.html?th>

"Sony could address this [business situation] by abandoning its strategy
of pricing its products higher than the competition's, but that remains
heresy inside the company. Sony says its reputation, which has added
luster to its brand, should be preserved lest it devolve into just
another electronics maker. To do that, Sony executives are convinced
that the company must continue to emphasize styling."

Fine Print in Electronic Arts' Results // online SIMs game...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/technology/03SIMS.html?th>

"To even suggest the Sims Online could fail is a far cry from the
way it has been heralded — by industry analysts and video game
and mainstream news media. For example, it appeared last year
on the cover of Newsweek with the headline: The New World of
Internet Games."

The Myth of the New Economy // it has yet to be established...
The e-commerce-fueled boom can be likened to other periods in
history, including the rise of the railroad and the electrification
of the factory, when new, hot ideas were expected to change businesses'
and consumers' behavior in radical ways.
<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20685.html>

How To Get Hired in the New High-Tech Era
The financial shenanigans performed by many executives in the past
two years have placed new emphasis on worker ethics, according to
John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
<http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/20682.html>

Is Linux on the Desktop Inevitable?
Creator of the alternative OS says it's coming to business desktops--
and he's getting plenty of support.
<http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,109266,00.asp>


---------------------------------------------------
12-- electromagnetic art & artifacts
---------------------------------------------------

Pictures Worth 10,000 Words, at Least // S-M-L-XL EM photographics...
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/arts/design/02WOOD.html?th>

Cyber city in Mauritius // electromagnetic urban planning
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2710319.stm>

For the Smart Dresser, Electric Threads That Cosset You //  
Electrotexiles
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/06/technology/circuits/06next.html>

""The clothing we wear now doesn't contain electronic elements,"
said Dr. Michael S. Shur, a physicist at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute who recently helped organize a symposium on electronics
in unconventional materials, including textiles. "But every type of
clothing will have electronic functions in 10 years," he predicted,
from materials that incorporate global positioning systems and blood
pressure sensors to fabrics that can change their color and pattern."



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