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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
04:44PM
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| Monday, June 9, 2003 |  |
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 09:01
First we fight over oil, now water. How many wars will we fight, and for how long, under the guise of control of natural resource?
From Corporate Watch
Vivendi’s Empire-building
Not to be out-done by the oft-repeated fashion-house phrase ‘blah, blah is the new black’, big business has turned neophiliac too. ‘Water is the new oil’ they say. And they are right. According to the World Bank, the water markets of the world are worth up to $800 billion, which makes them comparable in scale to the fossil fuel markets. And what better way to gain access to these markets than through the world’s increasingly GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services)-friendly governments. This is despite the 2003 World Water Forum’s conclusion that privatisation models haven’t proved their worth and that the debate over them 'has not been resolved'…1 The Forum brought together hundreds of groups concerned about the use of the world’s water reserves – from those who want to conserve them (Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad) to those who want to sell them (World Bank).
February 2003 saw the announcement that French company Vivendi (one of the big three water conglomerates – the other two being Suez and RWE AG) did what Monsieur Tony Blair just last year refused it; namely, increasing its foothold in the UK water industry. Together with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Vivendi has been allowed to acquire a 19.9% stake in Southern Water with the option to increase it to 25%.2 This is in addition to its existing ownership of the Three Valleys, Folkestone and Dover and Tendring Hundred water companies, and gives Vivendi a 10% share of the UK’s £6bn water market. Vivendi’s patchy history makes this an especially worrying development.
Vivendi has been bribing its home country’s government for concessions since the 1980s.3 It now controls 50% of the 80% privatised French water market. In 1985, France’s federal comptroller found that the Paris Mayor’s office had signed a contract with Compagnie Generale des Eaux (Vivendi) that allowed it to indulge in fraudulent accounting to hide enormous profits. Separate judicial enquiries have also alleged that in a 'pact of corruption', Vivendi financed Jacques Chirac’s party through illegal commissions in exchange for public contracts ranging from elevator maintenance to water concessions. One of these inquiries, which opened in June 1997 and is still ongoing, found that the companies colluded with civil servants by paying illegal commissions - primarily to Chirac’s party (the RPR). Between 1989 and 1995, the pact was involved with public contracts worth $3.3 billion with up to $86 million being funnelled to the RPR. Both company officials and party executives have admitted the companies agreed to pay 2% to 3% of the cost of each contract to political parties. Several party executives are awaiting sentancing with Vivendi refusing to comment as the cases are still before the courts.
In 1991, Andre Fougerousse, the mayor of Ostwald, on the outskirts of Strasbourg, and municipal councillor of Strasbourg, resigned from his post after being accused of receiving illegal payments from Vivendi, Suez and Saur. Fougerousse did not deny the allegations but claimed they were normal, arguing that other elected city officials enjoyed similar favours. He wasn’t lying.
In 1996, Vivendi’s deputy director general, Jean-Dominique Deschamps, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $27, 000 after being found guilty of paying illegal commissions to political parties in exchange for obtaining water contracts in approximately 70 French cities. A year later the former mayor of Angouleme, Jean-Michel Boucheron, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $172, 000 for taking a $55, 000 bribe from Vivendi. In return for Boucheron’s approval of a water distribution contract, Vivendi put him on its payroll for a job that did not exist.
Apparently not satisfied with its influence over one ‘democratic’ government, the Vivendi octopus attached a sucker to Italy. In 2001, Italian judges sentenced former Milan city council president, Massimo De Carolis, to nearly three years in jail for taking bribes from a Vivendi subsidiary during 1998 bidding on a $100 million contract. Alain Maetz, the manager who paid the $2 million bribe, got a year and 10 months.
That Vivendi has no qualms about seeking to control governments is not really surprising given that it employs more people than some governments – 295, 000 world-wide. The Vivendi Universal empire is composed of two major divisions, Vivendi Environment and Vivendi Communications. Vivendi Universal created Vivendi Environment in 2000 to consolidate its water, waste (Onyx), energy (Dalkia) and transportation (Connex) units under a single - and presumably large - banner (subsidiaries range from processing Novartis’ waste to ferrying Renault employees to work).
In 2002, the conglomerate barely staved off bankruptcy as it struggled to cope with billions of debt, a collapsing share price, boardroom infighting and no clear strategy. Earnings were hit by hefty depreciation in the value of Vivendi''s assets and led to the sacking of chairman Jean-Marie Messier last July.
Another sacked employee, Anne Brassens, who worked at Vivendi’s finance office during the same period, explained the problem in an April 2003 interview.4 She said that Vivendi had lacked enough cash at the holding company level to fund an acquisition spree by ex-chief executive Jean-Marie Messier. Brassens said Messier had been driven by a ‘logic of Napoleonic expansion’ and accused the former banker of having no idea about the value of assets he was buying as he turned the water company into a media colossus, owning Universal Studios and Universal Music Group. ‘So we found ourselves with 20bn euros of debts and not a single penny in cashflow,’ said Brassens. Asked why in that case Vivendi had continued to pay out dividends, she was reported as saying: ‘To give the market the illusion of good health.’ Vivendi's balance sheet was a ‘facade bearing no relation to reality,’ she said.
Since the introduction of new chief executive, Jean-Rene Fourtou, Vivendi Universal hasn’t done much better. In fact, March 2003 revealed a loss of 23.3 billion euros ($25.6 billion) in 2002, the largest in French corporate history.5 It now looks like Vivendi Communications (which includes the world’s biggest music company, Universal Music Group, as well as Universal film studios, and various Internet and cable networks) will be sold off.
This by no means entails the end of Vivendi Environment. Quite the contrary. Vivendi Environment’s water-related revenue increased from $5 billion in 1990 to $12 billion in 2002, and in January 2000, Vivendi unloaded its entire debt onto its environment division and its lucrative water companies, so that its communications division could go debt free.6 In other words, Vivendi Water holds the key to the empire’s future.
Continue... More >
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 09:01
From Environmental Working Group
In two to five minutes on a conventional stovetop, cookware coated with Teflon and other non-stick surfaces can exceed temperatures at which the coating breaks apart and emits toxic particles and gases linked to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pet bird deaths and an unknown number of human illnesses each year, according to tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG).
In new tests conducted by a university food safety professor, a generic non-stick frying pan preheated on a conventional, electric stovetop burner reached 736°F in three minutes and 20 seconds, with temperatures still rising when the tests were terminated. A Teflon pan reached 721°F in just five minutes under the same test conditions (See Figure 1), as measured by a commercially available infrared thermometer. DuPont studies show that the Teflon offgases toxic particulates at 446°F. At 680°F Teflon pans release at least six toxic gases, including two carcinogens, two global pollutants, and MFA, a chemical lethal to humans at low doses. At temperatures that DuPont scientists claim are reached on stovetop drip pans (1000°F), non-stick coatings break down to a chemical warfare agent known as PFIB, and a chemical analog of the WWII nerve gas phosgene.
For the past fifty years DuPont has claimed that their Teflon coatings do not emit hazardous chemicals through normal use. In a recent press release, DuPont wrote that "significant decomposition of the coating will occur only when temperatures exceed about 660 degrees F (340 degrees C). These temperatures alone are well above the normal cooking range." More >
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 08:39
I got an email from Letecia that our house mate, John Roulac, founder of Nutiva Hemp Foods is also known as Mr.Compost. His book about backyard composting is featured at Green Books and has sold over 20,000 copies. This is a UK site , but it's available online at many US outlets too. Here's the google search I did for it.
Here's short synopsis of the book:
Composting allows you to do something for the part of the Earth you live with day by day: your own back garden. Backyard Composting follows basic values, such as putting things where they belong and not making a mess. Composting at home reduces your personal volume of rubbish, conserves water, increases plant growth, replaces the need for toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and is also fun. While you may not win an 'environmental hero of the year' award, your trees, earthworms, butterflies and other flora and fauna will be grateful for your composting achievements!
Backyard Composting also introduces the various types of composting bins and accessories, explaining the pros and cons of each type, and gives instructions for building one from scrap materials.
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 08:39
Is Google Getting Too Powerful?
Is it time to set up Ofsearch, a regulator of search engines asks technology consultant Bill Thompson
Everyone's favourite search engine now owns the world's most popular blogging tool.
With its purchase of Pyra Labs, Google now runs Blogger and with it the weblogs of hundreds of thousands of opinionated net users.
The story of the buyout was, appropriately enough, broken on a weblog by journalist Dan Gillmor, shortly followed by an 'official' announcement on his personal blog from Prya Labs co-founder Evan Williams.
Then the blogs and technology news sites went wild, making this the net news story of the week, if not the month.
Not journalism
Often blogs are as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion
Bill Thompson
We should not get carried away by all this.
Ridiculous comments, such as Dan Gillmor's claim that "with the advent of weblogging, the readers know more than the journalists" only stoke the fires of hyperbole and do not help us understand this new tool.
Blogging is not journalism.
Often it is as far from journalism as it is possible to get, with unsubstantiated rumour, prejudice and gossip masquerading as informed opinion.
Without editors to correct syntax, tidy up the story structure or check facts, it is generally impossible to rely on anything one finds in a blog without verifying it somewhere else - often the much-maligned mainstream media.
The much-praised reputation mechanism that is supposed to ensure that bloggers remain true, honest and factually-correct is, in fact, just the rule of the mob, where those who shout loudest and get the most links are taken more seriously.
It is the online equivalent of saying that The Sun newspaper always tells the truth because four million people read it, and The Guardian is intrinsically less trustworthy as it only sells half a million.
Google's plan
This is not to deny the significance of blogging, or the value that comes from having the unmediated opinions and experiences of millions of people available online.
Blogging left the geeks behind long ago, and the wide availability of easy to use tools like Blogger, Movable Type and Grey Matter has allowed anyone with an interest and some time to create their own online journal.
I just do not subscribe to the view that this challenges 'proper' journalism, even if it does mean that sloppy reporting and analysis based on incorrect assertions are more likely to be challenged by the online community.
What then of Blogger and Google?
Now that some of the dust has settled it is clear that nobody knows what is going to happen next.
Not even, it seems, Evan Williams himself since he admitted that just because he had negotiated the sale to Google "that doesn't mean I know much. For example, about the question: What happens now?"
Some think that Google was simply helping out a fellow innovator that had fallen on hard times. Others see it as the start of an attempt by this most successful of search engines to own the 'blogosphere', all the world's blogs.
Another theory has it that Google will use the content from the blogs it now owns to fine tune its news service by using the bloggers as an early warning system on breaking stories.
Internet entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash believes it is Google's first mistake, the start of a strategy to turn the search engine into a portal which is doomed to failure.
And the paranoid fringe think that it is just another takeover from a secretive, hyper-competitive company with no respect for the personal privacy of its users.
I think this last group may actually have a point.
Tracking users
Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is
Bill Thompson
Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool.
It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for.
It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038.
This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years.
Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is.
It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes.
And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at.
Yet it so dominates the search engine market that no website can afford to ignore it, and it indexes so much of the web that few users think of using another.
The way it ranks pages is a commercial secret, outside any external supervision or control.
If Google decides it does not like you then you can be dropped from the index.
Continue... More >
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 9 Jun 2003 @ 08:38
This comes from The Burma Mission organization.
Dear Burma-ban campaigners,
As many of you may know, Burma's regime has violently cracked down on the democracy movement over the past week and a half, killing as many as one hundred or more people and imprisoning many more - including democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her "lieutenant" National League for Democracy Vice-Chair U Tin Oo. Both Daw Suu and U Tin Oo are also injured.
Things are moving very rapidly. The Free Burma movement is rapidly pushing for as much international pressure on Burma's regime as possible. In the U.S., this is largely taking the form of legislation that will ban all imports from Burma, as well as ensure that the regime can receive no IMF or World Bank loans and freeze their overseas assets. While this legislation has been in the works for a while, it was only just introduced on Wednesday and is moving *very* quickly because of the ongoing political crisis.
Please post this alert to your lists TODAY, and please act immediately - first by calling your Senators, then by calling your Representatives. The Senate vote will probably occur first, and very soon.
This legislation, if passed as it is, will effectively put an end to our campaigns against "Made in Burma" goods and allow us to turn to other ways of pressuring Burma's regime.
Thanks for your continued support and action,
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Dan Beeton Free Burma Coalition
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URGENT ACTION ALERT: CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND SENATORS TODAY
1) Description of Action
2) Talking Points
3) Text of Legislation
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1) On Wednesday, June 4, both the Senate and House of Representatives introduced legislation to significantly increase pressure against Burma's brutal military regime. It comes just days after a nationwide military crackdown in Burma, during which scores of people were killed and 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi was seriously injured and rearrested. While this latest atrocity adds urgency the situation, the legislation is NOT being introduced in reaction to it. It is being introduced because the military regime refuses to participate in UN-sponsored talks with Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy. This is an important distinction--because then in order to escape the legislation the regime would simply have to release Suu Kyi, and we would be back at square one.
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2) Call your Congressional and Senate offices and ask to speak with the staff member who handles foreign affairs. If you get their voicemail, leave a message explaining that it is very urgent and they need to call you back as soon as possible.
-If you do have a chance to talk to them, let them know what has happened in Burma, including to Aung San Suu Kyi. (You can request recent news from national papers and/or papers in your area from us).
-Ask for them to co-sponsor the Burma Freedom Act, (if they are a Senator, they will co-sponsor the Senate version BILL S1182, if they are a House member, support the House version, HR2330).
-Offer to email them a copy of the legislation. They cannot give you an immediate answer, since they need to ask the Senator/Congressperson. But do ask them when they will be able to tell you what action the Senator or Congressperson is taking. Let them know that the people of your State greatly care about this and that the ongoing crackdown on democracy in Burma makes the situation very urgent.
-Write down exactly what happened with each call you make--send us an email and let us know where things stand. Try to be as detailed as possible about your conversations. That will help us answer any concerns they have.
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"We believe in people power. Without your participation, we can achieve nothing."
- Min Ko Naing, Burmese student leader imprisoned in Burma since 1989
PLEASE CONTINUE READING More >
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| Friday, June 6, 2003 | |
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 6 Jun 2003 @ 10:39
PETITION: STOP THE FLORIDA-TION OF THE 2004 ELECTION
Wednesday May 28, 2003
Today, there is a new and real threat to voters, this time coming from touchscreen voting machines with no paper trails and the computerized purges of voter rolls.
Join SCLC President Martin Luther King III and investigative reporter Greg Palast in a nationwide petition drive through Working Assets, to oppose the "Florida-tion" of the 2004 Presidential election. Sign this petition!
Pass it on!
A complete copy of the petition will be delivered by Working Assets to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Read the full petition and more information on past and potential threats to American democracy
Sign the petition More >
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 6 Jun 2003 @ 10:39
"World's Other Superpower" Plots Its Next Move
- Jakarta Peace Consensus forged - Five delegates arrested by Indonesian police
PDF report HERE
JAKARTA, INDONESIA -- Over a hundred representatives of what the New York Times calls the "world's other superpower" gathered here in Jakarta from May 18-21 to plot the next moves of the global anti-war movement after the United States' invasion of Iraq.
Delegates coming from 24 countries and representing some of the biggest anti-war coalitions and groupings all over the world emerged from intense debates and discussions with a statement of unity and a specific plan of action embodied in a document called the "Jakarta Peace Consensus."
The consensus calls for, among other things, an immediate end to the illegal occupation of Iraq and the withholding of recognition to any regime that will be installed by the US and the United Kingdom. The consensus then sets out a list of demands regarding such issues as the use and control of Iraq's resources, debt cancellation, the United Nations' role and other questions surrounding post-war reconstruction and administration.
On the plight of Iraq, the "Jakarta Peace Consensus" articulates a commitment to hold an international war crimes tribunal for prosecuting the US and its allies, the sending of a series of peace missions and mass delegations to Iraq as well as the establishment of Occupation Watch Centers to monitor the US military and corporations in Iraq.
Noting the strong links between globalization to militarism, the consensus endorses the call for a week of action against the World Trade Organization (WTO) during its coming ministerial in Cancun, Mexico this September. The Consensus also plans to launch a "World Says No to Bush" campaign that will culminate during the Republican Party's national convention in September next year. In addition, the participants have committed to revitalize the worldwide campaign for disarmament as well as to launch a global campaign against the proliferation of US bases around the world.
As to the world's other wars, the consensus lists and supports a number of proposals for responding to the conflicts currently raging in Palestine, Aceh, Mindanao, Chechnya, Congo, and Kashmir among others.
A TRULY GLOBAL MOVEMENT
For all the death and destruction it has caused, the United States' invasion of Iraq has given birth to a truly amazing and historic global anti-war movement. The undeniable significance of this movement was at no point more forcefully demonstrated than with the massive internationally coordinated marches that swept the globe last February 14 to 16.
The hurriedly organized conference in Jakarta was open to all and everyone who was interested was encouraged to attend. Those who attended come from some of the biggest national and regional anti-war coalitions and groupings all over the world.
This includes representatives from the Asian Peace Alliance, a broad network of anti-war organizations from all over Asia; the UK Stop the War Coalition which organized the historic demonstrations in London; United for Peace and Justice, the biggest anti-war coalition in the United States; the Italian Social Forum, key organizers of last year's million strong anti-war march during the European Social Forum; the Istanbul No to War Coordination, which was responsible for the massive actions in Turkey; and Books not Bombs, an Australian high school student movement as well as a host of other national anti-war coalitions.
Also represented were Iraqi democracy activists, some organizers of the coming World Social Forum in India, delegates from the World March of Women, Indonesian trade unions, the South Africa Anti-Privatization Forum, Greenpeace, Focus on the Global South, and Jubilee South. Also slated to attend, but not granted Indonesian visas, were delegates from Pakistan, Palestine, and an Iraqi exile from Japan.
The participants came from the following countries: Afghanistan, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, East Timor, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, the Philippines, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
After three days of intense debates and discussions, the participants hammered together the "Jakarta Peace Consensus," a declaration of unity and a specific plan of action which they have agreed to propose to the global peace and justice movements. The Consensus will be translated to Arabic, French, Spanish, Bahasa Indonesian, Italian, etc. and will be presented to the next international anti-war meeting in Evian this May 31.
A MEETING FOR PEACE AGAINST A BACKDROP OF WAR
The conference was held in Indonesia and in a region that was incidentally increasingly becoming engulfed in war.
The conference proceedings were regularly interrupted with updates about the intensifying conflicts in Aceh and Mindanao, where both the Indonesian and Philippine governments have recently broken peace talks with secessionist movements and have just launched fresh military offensives against them.
On the first day of the conference, martial law was imposed in Aceh. In Mindanao, the government has threatened to categorize the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as a "terrorist" organization and, hence, a legitimate target of US military intervention. US Special Forces are scheduled to be deployed there in the coming weeks. More than 300,000 civilians have been rendered refugees because of a renewed wave of military assaults and bombings.
The conference was held in conjunction with other meetings that have been held by the representatives of the global peace movement after the war. Last May 9, there was a Hemispheric Conference against Militarization held in Chiapas, Mexico that was attended mostly by peace activists from Latin America. Last April 25, mostly European activists gathered in Berlin, Germany.
The next big meeting of the global peace movement is scheduled on May 31, during the G-8 summit to be held in France.
Complete Declaration Here
Read on...... More >
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 6 Jun 2003 @ 10:39
To a 26-Year-Old Mayor, Village Elders Are Many
By Claudia Rowe
New York Times
May 25, 2003
NEW PALTZ, N.Y., May 23
In just a few days, a 26-year-old house painter and puppeteer will become the mayor here, advocating for soybean fuel in village vehicles, reed beds that filter sewage, and college students in village government.
It could be a tough sell. As the first Green Party mayor in New York State, Jason West will succeed a 71-year-old Democrat and veteran of the Korean War who assumed the helm of this historic Hudson Valley community when Mr. West was still in elementary school.
The grumbling around town, however, is less about the newcomer's party than his partisans. Mr. West's surprise victory on May 6 was largely attributed to support from the amply pierced and tie-dye-clad students living on the campus of the State University of New York at New Paltz. One of his running mates was a 23-year-old undergraduate who spent the weeks after Election Day studying for finals.
In a college town where those with permanent homes and 9-to-5 jobs have long looked askance at neo-hippies lounging on front stoops, political power is about to shift from the old guard to a band of idealists who used a man in a chicken suit to get out the vote on campus.
The old guard is not amused.
Peter Savago, the Republican chairman of Ulster County, called the election "a travesty." Robert Feldman, a village trustee who also ran for mayor, is so disgusted that he resigned from the village board, though he had two more years in his term. And the current mayor, Thomas Nyquist, openly bitter about the culmination of his 20 years of public service here, has refused even to discuss the transition with his successor.
Mayor Nyquist called the upset "a student takeover" and predicted that elderly residents would leave New Paltz in droves.
But Mr. West, who takes office on June 1, shrugged off the attacks.
"I've heard their fears of a student takeover, but I'm never quite sure what that means -- if students need money for more shots at the bar, they'll call the village clerk to cut them a check?"
Though Mr. West and his two running mates now control the five-member village board, the young mayor-elect squeaked in with a margin of only 64 votes, and turnout among the population of 6,000 was low. Mr. West estimated that half of the 322 ballots cast for him were from students. In fact, a new board member, Julia Walsh, is a student, and Mr. West and his other running mate, Rebecca Rotzler, 41, are SUNY New Paltz alumni.
Village elders may have seen this coming. Two years ago, they tried to move Election Day from March to June -- when most students are long gone -- though Mayor Nyquist insisted that this was merely an effort to help prospective candidates gather petition signatures in better weather. Mr. West, a regular gadfly at board meetings, fought to get the date moved to May.
All the bitterness and concern leave him somewhat bemused. Mr. West said all he intended to do was to create a more forward-looking village government by controlling sprawl, using solar energy and finding alternative means to handle water treatment -- ideas that resonated with students but left Mayor Nyquist shaking his head.
"I always considered myself an environmentalist, too, but what they're talking about is ridiculous," he said. "We have issues that are much more pressing than putting solar panels on Village Hall."
Foremost among them, according to Mayor Nyquist, is keeping a tight grip on village spending while fixing an aging sewer system. But he is not about to share his wisdom with Mr. West.
"Did you see Bill Clinton meeting with Bush during their transition period?" the mayor asked. "When you're done, you're done. You clean out the office, turn off the light, and shut the door. I paid my dues, and if people decide to run who have no experience, I don't see that it's my position to pull their chestnuts out of the fire."
Actually, President Clinton did meet with President-elect Bush for two hours in the Oval Office, and Mr. West is not a newcomer to politics. He ran twice, unsuccessfully, for the State Legislature as a Green Party candidate and said he decided to enter the mayoral race -- only six weeks before Election Day -- because neither of the mainstream candidates was discussing the long-term effects of New Paltz's booming development.
Mr. West's undergraduate running mate, Ms. Walsh, called the village elders "ungrateful losers."
"I ran because of my belief in democracy," she said. "Students make up over half the population here, yet there's not representation on the board, so I was willing to represent the voice of youth in the village."
To hear older residents tell it, students already make themselves well heard -- cruising the streets every morning at 4 when the bars close and those with more conventional schedules are trying to sleep. Mr. West's campaign pledge to create more student housing in town has only fanned the flames.
"There are people who have ordinary lives who have to sleep at night and get up to go to work in the morning," said Alison Nash, a 15-year resident. "They are just very different lifestyles."
The outcry has grown so vitriolic that the state deputy attorney general, Marty Mack, was moved to leave a congratulations-and-keep-your-chin-up message on Mr. West's answering machine, saying that the same thing happened to him 19 years ago when SUNY Cortland students helped make him mayor of that town at age 31. Naysayers sneered that he would run "a kiddie council," Mr. Mack recalled.
"I wanted to tell Jason not to buy it," he said. "He's as legitimate as any elected mayor, and students are legitimate voters."
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 6 Jun 2003 @ 10:39
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KINSEY REPORT
By Clare Rudebeck
Alfred C Kinsey published Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female in 1953, as the sequel to his study into male sexuality. Kinsey spent 13 years interviewing a total of 18,000 people for his research into their sex lives. The 842-page report was an instant success, selling 270,000 copies in a month. Findings that sent the public running to their nearest bookshop included the revelation that half of all women have sexual relations before marriage, and one in four women commit adultery.
Kinsey was a zoologist who had studied gall wasps for more than 20 years when he was asked to teach a course on marriage. Finding little research into human sexuality, he decided to conduct his own.
The book was banned from libraries of the US Army in Europe, and South African customs officials prohibited bookshops from selling it without permission. Priests in Owensboro, Kentucky implored their parishioners not to read it or its reviews. And doubt was cast over Kinsey's research when it emerged that he had relied almost entirely on volunteers. Were those who wanted to tell the world about their sexual exploits representative of the population as a whole?
Soon after publication, the Rockefeller Foundation cut off Kinsey's funding. Three years later, in 1956, he died.
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HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?
The Independent May 34, 2003
Fifty years ago, Alfred C Kinsey published his groundbreaking report into Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female. Below, five generations of Independent writers report on their experience of sexual behaviour in the human female, and ask how relevant Kinsey is to women's lives today.
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FIFTIES: Virginia Ironside Age 59
Though Alfred Kinsey was heralded as a sexual liberator, I think that you can lay the blame for a lot of sexual misery at this old pervert's door. (And he was an old pervert. He even had sex himself with many of the white, middle-class, gay, sado-masochistic, totally unrepresentative group of Americans that he interviewed.)
The trouble with him was that he approached sex like the biologist he was. He was like a man who tries to understand the thrill of a conjuror's act by revealing how each trick is performed; or convey the pleasure of a great meal with friends by recording how many times each guest masticates each mouthful.
The result is that, ever since his report, sex hasn't been seen as something magical, experienced when two people learn to trust each other, and make love. No, these days, because Kinsey looked at sex in a coldly scientific way, it has now been reduced to a commodity -- something that you go out and "get": a leisure activity.
And though women may have been racked with sexual guilt before Kinsey came along, boy, were we worried after the report came out. It was Kinsey who prompted the endless questions from women, such as, "How many orgasms should I have a night?". Or, if you were a man, "How many minutes, how many inches, and how often?" It was Kinsey who made us believe that if we didn't have good sex, we'd probably die of cancer; that if we didn't have a squillion orgasms a night, we were horribly repressed. He was also surprisingly liberal about underage sex.
His report has spawned thousands of sexual-help clinics, sexual-dysfunction therapists, and dodgy medication. While assuaging some sexual guilt, he unleashed thousands of other demons that thrive on sexual anxiety and expectation. The creepy old doc should have stuck to his gall wasps.
FORTIES: Victoria Summerley Age 46
When I was 14, Alfred Kinsey seemed indistinguishable from Alex Comfort, who had just published The Joy of Sex in 1972. They appeared to be two scientists who, incredibly, earned good money by talking about people's sex lives; they seemed to have discovered the academic equivalent of the G-spot. This, I later discovered, was pretty unfair on poor, earnest Kinsey, who died the year I was born, four years before the Swinging Sixties. Alex Comfort is said to have rather enjoyed researching his book, especially the bits on group sex, but Kinsey was dragged away from a study of gall wasps into a veritable hornet's nest of controversy over masturbation.
Yet it was Kinsey's report that ensured constant female insecurity ever since. Never experienced orgasm while eating cornflakes? Studies show X out of Y women do. Never had sex while cleaning the bathroom? Hey, what are you, some kind of freak? Ironically, when I was at university, if you wanted to talk about sex, you started talking about the Kinsey Report. If the other party showed any enthusiasm for this topic, you could safely bet they were up for it. Well, it was cheap. If you want to get someone of my generation into bed these days, you have to buy dinner at The Ivy.
Those of us in our forties should be forgiven the odd twinge of bitterness about the sexual revolution. We were too young to experience the Sixties, and our sexual awakening took place during the Seventies, when the rest of the nation was more preoccupied with keeping the lights on (thanks to the miners' strike) than turning them down real low. Then, just when we realised that the Seventies were over, the horror stories started. Incurable gonorrhoea, said to have been bred in Vietnam by careless GIs; genital herpes, a ghastly variation on the humble cold sore; Aids, the new killer. We were too full of social conscience to enjoy the Eighties, yet too inhibited by harsh reality to retreat into a carefree hippiedom.
FORTIES: Deborah Orr Age 40
The shocking revelation of the Kinsey Report was essentially that women were just as capable of enjoying sex as men. So it's still weird that this news caused such a furore, because individual experience all over the US must have borne out its truth.
Certainly, the prevailing propaganda was that "nice girls didn't". The attempts to discredit the Kinsey Report confirm that powerful forces wanted that status quo to remain. But presumably, for both women and men, privately having sex that they both liked, there must have been a suspicion that all this was more myth than reality anyway.
One ghastly conclusion of this line of thought is that the vast majority of women, keen for intercourse, familiar with lust, must all have been quietly assuming that they were the exception, with their partners likewise thinking that they'd hit some kind of one-in-a-million virgin-whore jackpot. Which doesn't seem at all healthy.
Whether these women felt guilty or lucky would, I suppose, depend on how much they wanted to conform to prevailing ideas of femininity. One set of social mores that they presumably did stick to, though, was that sexual relations between partners should not be discussed with others, or they might all have learned from their friends what it eventually took scientific research to unveil.
It has become, through the agency of everything from David Lynch movies to daytime chat-shows, a cultural cliché to assume that the most fervid sexual activity is taking place in the most buttoned-up and respectable of suburbs. Likewise, we tend to assume that kerb-crawling in red-light areas or spending night after night in Spearmint Rhino is the preserve of the sexual incontinent.
If you allow yourself to be guided by the major sexual surveys, a theory can be formed that it is the same for entire societies. Kinsey, in 1953, revealed private lives in which women were enjoying sex even though this was not expected of them. The Hite Report, in 1976, well into the sexual revolution, had a rather less upbeat message about women's sexual satisfaction. In 1999, after feminism had taught us that sexual freedom did not have to be another sort of tyranny, another monolithic study, published in the Journal of American Medicine, revealed that about 40 per cent of women were not happy with their sex lives. From this, the assumption can only be that the less we are expected to enjoy sex, the more we do. Or that sexual surveys have no bearing at all on how couples get on in bed.
Read on...other age groups More >
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| Thursday, June 5, 2003 | |
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5 Jun 2003 @ 22:31
The article I posted about Orthodox Jews protesting the Israel Day celebration caused some passionate comments, here and on Bernard's Hodgepodgeblog.
I wrote a lengthy comment and answered some questions Bernard asked of me on his blog.
Here is a copy of what I wrote:
I'm happy to answer the following questions you posed to me and will also give you some insight into my background, which is little known outside of anyone in my immediate family. I have recently delved deeply into my geneaology, much of which I already knew, and unearthed a plethora of documents and photographs about my fathers side of the family. I have many relatives that have lived in Israel since the beginning of it's statehood and before.
My responses to you:
You ask: "By the way I have three questions for you. It sounds like you might be implying that there should be a state of Palestine but no State of Israel--is that Right?"
Not at all I don't believe in ownership of land on any land mass, nor dominion of one people over another. Patriarchy to me is an obsolete concept.
You ask: Are you an Orthodox Jew?"
No. I am "culturally" Jewish, raised in a non-religious household. We did not belong to a temple nor participate in one. I attended the Jewish Community Center and summer camps for several years in my youth.
You ask: "Has your a majority of you family been exterminated...?
I am of Polish and Ukrainian descent. Much of my family was killed either in WWI or II. Most of my fathers brothers and sisters I have never met. Four of ten children survived.
Here is some of my paternal lineage, of which my father recently gave me a book in Hebrew and I found an English translation of it on the web, that has many of my family members in it and tells the story of the the town of Sopotkin, Poland.
Sopotkin was a hub of the Zionist Youth movement, of which my father was a part from the age of 7. The town was also birth to many of the early pioneers, including some of my uncles, who went to Palestine around 1921.
From the aforementioned book:
"Sopotkin was a distinguished, par excellence Zionist town. No other non-Zionist movement found ground in that wonderful town. The first youth movements that blossomed in the Jewish streets of Poland did not leave out Sopotkin. The first youth movement was in the town by the name "Hashomer Trumpeldor" (the guard Trumpeldor).
In the year 1926 the movement of the youth "Hashomer Trumpeldor" merged with the youth movement "Hashomer Hatsair" (the Young Guard). After the merger the movement "Hashomer Hatsair" became the main and central movement in town. This movement concentrated the best and most intelligent young people in Sopotkin.
After a short period of time arose a religious youth movement "Hashomer Hdati" (Religious Guard) and later came to being "Brit Trumpeldor" (Beytar) - Zionists Revisionists.
It seems that the young people did not live here permanently. Their life and stay in the town was on a temporary basis. They waited for the movement to be able to leave for the land of Israel. This was a wonderful youth which grew up on the face of surrounding nature and beauty. The young people in the town grew up on the bosom of the nature, breathed the fresh air of the mountains and forests and felt that they were a part of the fields and rivers. The young people were happy, strong in body and spirit."
This was the town my father grew up in. The birthplace of the Beytar and many, including him, later became part of the Irgun in Palestine prior to and during the 1948 war there. He went to Palestine, sponsored by his older brothers, along with his father and sister, around 1931. They lived in Karkur. My father was in Palestine with Begin (spl?) and others who later became the politcal leaders of Israel. My father immigrated to the U.S. in 1951 when he met and married my mother, who lived in New York. That's another story.
I have been interviewing him as of late to document his early history in Sopotkin and experiences in Palestine. He is one of the few surviving elders of that era.
The article I posted on my soundingcircle.com blog about the Orthodox Jews who protested Israel Day was not a reflection of my own beliefs. To me, it was intriguing journalism and offered a diversity I had not seen before, thus I shared it.
As you are now privy to, my personal history is very tied to Israel on my fathers side. On my mother's, most of her family immmigrated to the states from the Ukraine as early as the late 1800's. The rest were killed in the wars.
I hope this lengthy post has enlightened you a bit about my heritage and my opinions. I am for peaceful co-existence. There is a lot of history about Israel that is rarely spoken of, i.e. the un-honored Balfour Declaration of 1917 wherein Lord Balfour of England promised to give the Eurpean Jews (as if it was his to give) a Holy Land to live in if they helped in WWI, the animosity that was purposely incited between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine by the British etc. It's a complex history that I don't claim to have scholarly knowledge about, however I do have first hand genomic memory that lived through it. Part of my life path is healing the wounds I have inherited from my father that have been left unresolved and unsken of in many instances. It IS a legacy that I cannot forget and that I must learn from. More >
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| Wednesday, June 4, 2003 | |
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 4 Jun 2003 @ 09:39
Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews Demonstrate at so-called Israel Day Parade
June 1, 2003
On Sunday, June 1, 2003 beginning at 11:15 am at 5th Ave. and 59th St. in Manhattan there will be a group of anti-Zionist Jews demonstrating against Zionism and the Zionist State that will be celebrated by marchers in their so-called Israel Day Parade.
The Anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews will proclaim their loyalty to pure Judaism and their opposition to Zionist heresy, which violates every principle of the Jewish religion. These people shall proclaim that the idolatrous Zionist ideology has no role in the life of an Orthodox Jew, and that Jews are obligated by Judaism to live in peace and harmony with every other people throughout the world, including of course, the native Palestinian People.
Pure Judaism proclaims that we are to accept the decree of Exile of G-d and live among the nations in every corner of the Earth, and are not to establish a State and attempt to end the divinely ordained Exile.
Pure Judaism forbids the uprooting of the indigenous people of the Holy Land, it proclaims its principles of humanity and justice that demands the total restoration of all human, civil, economic and political rights of the Palestinians, including the right of return of all Palestinians to their homes in historic Palestine, thereby enabling Palestine to be governed by its original native inhabitants.
These principles are essential ingredients of Judaism, and no amount of Zionism brainwashing of many Jews throughout the world and Zionist media propaganda can ever do away with these eternal principles. We declare to all non-Jews who believe that support for Zionist idolatry and ethnic cleansing demonstrates sympathy for the Jewish People that this is a grave error!!
We beseech all well-meaning non-Jews to understand the truth of what Judaism teaches, and we encourage our fellow Jews to resist the incessant hysterical and paranoia-filled propaganda of the Zionists, their heresy and their xenophobia, and learn the truth of what Judaism is and what Zionism is.
Those of us who oppose Zionism express true compassion for the Jewish People because we address the ROOT CAUSE of the suffering in the Holy Land inasmuch as Zionism is the cause of bloodshed in the Middle East and hatred of Jews throughout the world. More >
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| Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | |
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 23:54
LAWSUIT SEEKS TO BAN SALE OF OREOS TO CHILDREN
NABISCO Taken To Task Over Trans Fat's Effects
By Kim Severson
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, May 12, 2003
Oreo cookies should be banned from sale to children in California, according to a lawsuit filed by a San Francisco attorney who claims that trans fat -- the stuff that makes the chocolate cookies crisp and their filling creamy -- is so dangerous children shouldn't eat it.
Stephen Joseph, who filed the suit against Nabisco last week in Marin County Superior Court, is a public interest lawyer who last battled the city to remove graffiti from traffic signs.
He took up the trans fat battle after reading about the dangerous artificial fat in several stories published by The Chronicle that showed how trans fat is hidden in many of the popular snack foods Americans eat. Joseph also believes his father's death from heart disease was caused in part by a lifelong diet of margarine and other foods made from trans fat.
The suit, the first of its kind in the country, asks for an injunction ordering Kraft Foods to desist from selling Nabisco Oreo Cookies to children in California, because the cookies are made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, also called trans fat.
Partially hydrogenated oil is in about 40 percent of the food on grocery store shelves, including most cookies, crackers and microwave popcorn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But doctors and government researchers believe it is linked to several debilitating diseases and might be one of the worst ingredients in the American diet -- in part because we eat so much of it without knowing.
The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, last summer confirmed that trans fat is directly associated with heart disease and increases in LDL cholesterol, the kind that can clog arteries. Because of that, the institute report said there is no safe amount of trans fat in the diet.
Prompted by those findings, and after being petitioned by health advocates, the Food and Drug Administration decided to force food manufacturers to list trans fat among the other fats and nutrients printed on the side of food packages. But the rule has been challenged by food manufacturers. A final version is pending.
As it stands, U.S. consumers have no idea how much trans fat is in food because it isn't required on nutrition labels. Even products marked "low in cholesterol" or "low in saturated fat" might have high levels of trans fat.
Providing information about trans fat on labels could prevent 7,600 to 17,100 cases of coronary heart disease and 2,500 to 5,600 deaths every year -- not only because people would be able to choose healthier foods but because manufacturers could choose to reduce trans fat amounts rather than list high levels on nutrition panels, the FDA has estimated.
The Oreo lawsuit differs from consumer lawsuits against tobacco, and more recently, fast-food giant McDonald's, Joseph said.
"Tobacco is well known as an unsafe product. Trans fat is not the same thing at all. Very few people know about it," he said.
Joseph said his suit is about the hidden nature of trans fat and the marketing to children.
That's what makes it different from a class-action suit filed earlier this year against McDonald's on behalf of an obese New York man. (That suit was thrown out in February.) Joseph's suit does not focus on obesity or on the choices adults make when they eat, he said.
Legally, Joseph is relying on a provision in California law that says companies aren't liable for a commonly used but unhealthy product if it is well-known in the community that the product is unsafe.
"But this product, trans fat, is not commonly known to be unsafe," he said. "That's why trans fat is a far stronger case than tobacco or McDonald's because people know those are dangerous."
In his suit, Joseph cites the Hanover, N.J., company's Nabiscoworld Web site, with its games for children.
In particular, he mentions a school-based program called the Oreo On-line Project, which involves stacking Oreos as high as possible without toppling the tower. In 2002, more than 326 schools and classes around the country participated, according to the Oreo Web site.
"This is a FUN way to teach your students math, measurement, working as a team and more," the Web site says.
Nabisco officials, who Joseph said will likely be served with the suit this week, weren't immediately available for comment. They will have 30 days from the May 5 filing date to respond.
State Sen. Debra Bowen, a leader in state nutrition-reform legislation, called Joseph's choice of the California product liability law to go after food makers who use trans fat a unique approach.
"Anything that brings people's attention to how dangerous and unhealthy trans fat can be is probably a good idea, because most people who go to the grocery store and see a bag of cookies or chips pitched as 'low fat' probably assume fat is fat," she said. "As the FDA confirmed last year, that's definitely not the case when it comes to trans fat."
Joseph, a former Washington, D.C., lobbyist who has been practicing law since 1980, has worked on several other business issues, including tax credits, aviation and energy and successfully sued ITT. He most recently formed S.F. Graffiti Busters and sued the Department of Parking and Traffic to try to get the agency to remove graffiti from its parking and traffic signs.
In addition to the Oreo suit, he has formed a nonprofit corporation called BanTransFats.com, Inc. and has printed T-shirts that read, "Don't Partially Hydrogenate Me." More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 23:36
Jefferson Was Right
By: Dr. Michael P. Byron - 05/24/03
Most Americans don’t know it but Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison worked assiduously to have an 11th Amendment included into our nation’s original Bill of Rights. This proposed Amendment would have prohibited “monopolies in commerce.” The amendment would have made it illegal for corporations to own other corporations, or to give money to politicians, or to otherwise try to influence elections. Corporations would be chartered by the states for the primary purpose of “serving the public good.” Corporations would possess the legal status not of natural persons but rather of “artificial persons.” This means that they would have only those legal attributes which the state saw fit to grant to them. They would NOT; and indeed could NOT possess the same bundle of rights which actual flesh and blood persons enjoy. Under this proposed amendment neither the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, nor any provision of that document would protect the artificial entities known of as corporations.
Jefferson and Madison were so insistent upon this amendment because the American Revolution was in substantial degree a revolt against the domination of colonial economic and political life by the greatest multinational corporation of its age: the British East India Company. After all who do you think owned the tea which Sam Adams and friends dumped overboard in Boston Harbor? Who was responsible for the taxes on commodities and restrictions on trade by the American colonists? It was the British East India Company, of course. In the end the amendment was not adopted because a majority in the first Congress believed that already existing state laws governing corporations were adequate for constraining corporate power. Jefferson worried about the growing influence of corporate power until his dying day in 1826. Even the more conservative founder John Adams came to harbor deep misgivings about unchecked corporate power.
A few years after Jefferson’s unsuccessful attempt to incorporate this amendment into the Bill of Rights, the fourth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Marshall, unilaterally asserted the Court’s right to judicial review in the seminal case of Marbury v. Madison in 1803. In practice this meant that the Supreme Court would have sole and unchecked power to determine what the Constitution meant. Jefferson was aghast. His fear lay in the knowledge that an unelected branch of government, one which is not subject to the will of the citizens, and is effectively immune from check by the two elected branches of government (Only one Supreme Court Justice has ever been impeached—none have ever been convicted and removed) was now solely responsible for determining the meaning of the Constitution. The meaning of the Constitution, and hence the very nature of our political system, was now in the hands of an un-elected and effectively uncontrollable body. “The Constitution has become a thing of wax to be molded as the Court sees fit” Jefferson lamented.
In 1886 Jefferson’s twin Constitutional nightmares collided in a train wreck which has effectively derailed true democracy in this nation and indeed across the globe as other nations have either copied our unfortunate example, or have fallen under the dominion of our multinational corporations—or both.. The precipitating event was the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. This case is cited to the present day as having conferred the status of “natural” as opposed to “artificial” personhood upon American corporations. In fact the Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue. J.C. Bancroft Davis, the Clerk of the Court, an attorney, who curiously was also a former railroad company PRESIDENT, used his position to simply write this conclusion into the head notes which summarized the case. Ever since this fateful event; this sleight-of-hand rewriting of the Constitution, corporations have had the status of “actual” persons whose rights are fully protected by the Constitution. It was a coup against democracy which succeeded because there were no real external checks and balances on the Court, and because the Court itself chose not to act to repudiate Davis’ rewriting of the Constitution. The thing stood. Precedent was established. Jefferson’s “thing of wax” nightmare had come to pass.
Consider the implications: Actual flesh and blood persons are indeed all roughly equal in overall attributes. But a corporation can possess MILLIONS of times greater resources than does any “natural” person, or even a group of such persons. Neither labor unions, nor any other category of “special interest” group possesses this attribute of personhood and so they too are fundamentally and intrinsically unable to compete against corporate “persons.”
To make a long and sad story short: The concentrated power of corporate persons has overwhelmed our democratic system. The unsound decisions of our unchecked and unbalanced Supreme Court have handed the “keys to the Kingdom” over to our corporate overlords. An analogy with an AIDS infection is instructive: After 1886, our democratic “immune system” resisted Davis’ corporate personhood infection of our national body politic by deploying the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Progressive Movement, the Labor Movement, and the New Deal. All of these bought time. But now, in the era of global mega-corporations, after a long struggle, our “democratic immune system” is finally being overwhelmed. Democracy, rule of, by, and for the people, is dying in America.
Contemporary America is a nation almost wholly under the dominion of plutocratically wealthy, corporate quarterly-profit über alles overlords. A seamless web of corporate power connects our multinational corporations with our mass media—now almost wholly owned by a handful of mega-corporations. This military-industrial-media complex largely determines which politicians will and will not get elected. Thus they control the government. They control access to money as well as determine how a candidate will be presented to the viewers. The very policies that our “elected” officials are “allowed” to espouse are rigorously circumscribed: Remember Clinton’s national healthcare proposals? Our media will never tell us that every other developed nation on Earth has universal health care for their citizens. Arguably, our corporate media has seen to it that the average American is as brainwashed as is say, the average citizen of North Korea. Our primary role in this atrocious system is simply to consume. We are consumers, corporate subjects, not citizens. Under this materialistic system our lives are devoid of deep meaning as we are conditioned to work ever harder and go ever deeper in debt to accumulate ever more useless junk as though if we just piled up enough of this crap we would somehow, magically, become happy.
What is to be done? Let’s open our eyes and admit that the emperor has no clothes. Let’s admit that our democratic, constitutional, system was derailed more than a century ago. Until we return power to the hands of flesh and blood citizens EXCLUSIVELY, until corporations are summarily striped of “personhood”, until this legal obscenity is abolished, we can have no real freedom, democracy cannot flourish. Furthermore, to ensure that the will of the people is respected and reigns supreme, all members of our federal judiciary must face periodic reelection by the citizens—just as is the case for our judiciary here in California. Until and unless these things come to pass we cannot be a free people. Because we are fundamentally NOT a free people, because our ability to act and to build freely upon our inspirations is constrained by corporate forces beyond our present control, we cannot live up to our full potentials as human beings. Once these goals are accomplished there shall be such an explosion of innovation in economic and political and scientific entrepreneurship as to make Periclean Athens seem timid. It’s up to each of us to act NOW. Freedom itself hangs in the balance.
Dr. Mike Byron, a contributing writer for Liberal Slant, teaches Political Science at CSU San Marcos, as well as at Palomar, Mira Costa, and Mesa Colleges. He was the Democratic Party’s write-in candidate for the 49th Congressional District last year. More >
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
RFID Tags: Big Brother in Small Packages
By Declan McCullagh
January 13, 2003, 6:26 AM PT
Could we be constantly tracked through our clothes, shoes or even our cash in the future?
I'm not talking about having a microchip surgically implanted beneath your skin, which is what Applied Digital Systems of Palm Beach, Fla., would like to do. Nor am I talking about John Poindexter's creepy Total Information Awareness spy-veillance system, which I wrote about last week.
Instead, in the future, we could be tracked because we'll be wearing, eating and carrying objects that are carefully designed to do so.
The generic name for this technology is RFID, which stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are miniscule microchips, which already have shrunk to half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
You should become familiar with RFID technology because you'll be hearing much more about it soon. Retailers adore the concept, and CNET News.com's own Alorie Gilbert wrote last week about how Wal-Mart and the U.K.-based grocery chain Tesco are starting to install "smart shelves" with networked RFID readers. In what will become the largest test of the technology, consumer goods giant Gillette recently said it would purchase 500 million RFID tags from Alien Technology of Morgan Hill, Calif.
Alien Technology won't reveal how it charges for each tag, but industry estimates hover around 25 cents. The company does predict that in quantities of 1 billion, RFID tags will approach 10 cents each, and in lots of 10 billion, the industry's holy grail of 5 cents a tag.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags, which typically include a 64-bit unique identifier yielding about 18 thousand trillion possible values. KSW-Microtec, a German company, has invented washable RFID tags designed to be sewn into clothing. And according to EE Times, the European central bank is considering embedding RFID tags into banknotes by 2005.
It becomes unnervingly easy to imagine a scenario where everything you buy that's more expensive than a Snickers will sport RFID tags.
That raises the disquieting possibility of being tracked though our personal possessions. Imagine: The Gap links your sweater's RFID tag with the credit card you used to buy it and recognizes you by name when you return. Grocery stores flash ads on wall-sized screens based on your spending patterns, just like in "Minority Report." Police gain a trendy method of constant, cradle-to-grave surveillance.
You can imagine nightmare legal scenarios that don't involve the cops. Future divorce cases could involve one party seeking a subpoena for RFID logs--to prove that a spouse was in a certain location at a certain time. Future burglars could canvass alleys with RFID detectors, looking for RFID tags on discarded packaging that indicates expensive electronic gear is nearby. In all of these scenarios, the ability to remain anonymous is eroded.
Don't get me wrong. RFID tags are, on the whole, a useful development and a compelling technology. They permit retailers to slim inventory levels and reduce theft, which one industry group estimates at $50 billion a year. With RFID tags providing economic efficiencies for businesses, consumers likely will end up with more choices and lower prices. Besides, wouldn't it be handy to grab a few items from store shelves and simply walk out, with the purchase automatically debited from your (hopefully secure) RFID'd credit card?
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store. That's the scenario that should raise alarms--and currently the RFID industry seems to be giving mixed signals about whether the tags will be disabled or left enabled by default.
In an interview with News.com's Gilbert last week, Gillette Vice President Dick Cantwell said that its RFID tags would be disabled at the cash register only if the consumer chooses to "opt out" and asks for the tags to be turned off. "The protocol for the tag is that it has built in opt-out function for the retailer, manufacturer, consumer," Cantwell said.
Wal-Mart, on the other hand, says that's not the case. When asked if Wal-Mart will disable the RFID tags at checkout, company spokesman Bill Wertz told Gilbert: "My understanding is that we will."
Cantwell asserts that there's no reason to fret. "At this stage of the game, the tag is no good outside the store," he said. "At this point in time, the tag is useless beyond the store shelf. There is no value and no harm in the tag outside the distribution channel. There is no way it can be read or that (the) data would be at all meaningful to anyone." That's true as far as it goes, but it doesn't address what might happen if RFID tags and readers become widespread.
If the tags stay active after they leave the store, the biggest privacy worries depend on the range of the RFID readers. There's a big difference between tags that can be read from an inch away compared to dozens or hundreds of feet away.
The privacy threat comes when RFID tags remain active once you leave a store.
For its part, Alien Technology says its RFID tags can be read up to 15 feet away. "When we talk about the range of these tags being 3 to 5 meters, that's a range in free space," said Tom Pounds, a company vice president. "That's optimally oriented in front of a reader in free space. In fact if you put a tag up against your body or on a metal Rolex watch in free space, the read range drops to zero."
But what about a more powerful RFID reader, created by criminals or police who don't mind violating FCC regulations? Eric Blossom, a veteran radio engineer, said it would not be difficult to build a beefier transmitter and a more sensitive receiver that would make the range far greater. "I don't see any problem building a sensitive receiver," Blossom said. "It's well-known technology, particularly if it's a specialty item where you're willing to spend five times as much."
Privacy worries also depend on the size of the tags. Matrics of Columbia, Md., said it has claimed the record for the smallest RFID tag, a flat square measuring 550 microns a side with an antenna that varies between half an inch long to four inches by four inches, depending on the application. Without an antenna, the RFID tag is about the size of a flake of pepper.
Matrics CEO Piyush Sodha said the RFID industry is still in a state of experimentation. "All of the customers are participating in a phase of extensive field trials," Sodha said. "Then adoption and use in true business practices will happen...Those pilots are only going to start early this year."
To the credit of the people in the nascent RFID industry, these trials are allowing them to think through the privacy concerns. An MIT-affiliated standards group called the Auto-ID Center said in an e-mailed statement to News.com that they have "designed a kill feature to be built into every (RFID) tag. If consumers are concerned, the tags can be easily destroyed with an inexpensive reader. How this will be executed i.e. in the home or at point of sale is still being defined, and will be tested in the third phase of the field test."
If you care about privacy, now's your chance to let the industry know how you feel. (And, no, I'm not calling for new laws or regulations.) Tell them that RFID tags are perfectly acceptable inside stores to track pallets and crates, but that if retailers wish to use them on consumer goods, they should follow four voluntary guidelines.
First, consumers should be notified--a notice on a checkout receipt would work--when RFID tags are present in what they're buying. Second, RFID tags should be disabled by default at the checkout counter. Third, RFID tags should be placed on the product's packaging instead of on the product when possible. Fourth, RFID tags should be readily visible and easily removable.
Given RFID's potential for tracking your every move, is that too much to ask? More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
Veterans For Peace Calls for the Impeachment of George W. Bush
For Immediate Release
For further information contact: Wilson "Woody" Powell, National Administrator World Community Center
438 North Skinker St. Louis MO 63130
(314) 725-6005.
Articles of Impeachment for President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John David Ashcroft.
May 22, 2003. St Louis, MO. Pre-emptive war is a response to ongoing or imminent attacks. Since Iraq neither attacked the United States nor had the capabilities to attack the United States, the war with Iraq was not a pre-emptive attack. The war with Iraq was optional, elective and not in legitimate defense of our country. As this is the case, it represents a criminal misuse of the Armed Forces of the United States. The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war may be more clearly thought of as the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War. The United States by virtue of its superior might claims the right to attack any country that may be a potential challenge to it. The Bush Administration asserts that the United States of America may attack any nation or entity that it claims may someday represent a threat to the United States. Veterans For Peace recognizes both its moral obligation and legal responsibilities to openly speak out against such egregious violations of law and to unequivocally oppose the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War, a doctrine of criminal violence and aggression against the world community.
On February 13, 2003 and March 19, 2003, respectively, Veterans For Peace notified the top 15 generals and admirals in the United States Armed Forces and the United States House of Representatives and Senate of the illegality of this war.
"We believe the war against Iraq that the United States government is planning and preparing for is in violation of the Charter of the United Nations and customary international law. The judgment of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg noted, "Resort to war of aggression is not merely illegal, but is criminal.
"The principle of renunciation of the use or threat of force is now one of the fundamental principles of international law and, as such, is stated with the utmost clarity in Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which imposes definite obligations on states participating in international affairs. States are bound in their international relations to renounce "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
”The United States seeks to justify a pre-emptive strike on Iraq on the basis of self-defense. Article 51 of the United Nations Charter permits the use of force by a state to repel an armed attack or a substantial and immediate threat to the national security of the state until the Security Council exercises jurisdiction. A threat which permits the use of force must be an immediate, specific threat to United States national security and not a general threat to the Gulf region or a possible future threat. The legality of pre-emptive self-defense has been rejected on the basis that use of force to deter future use of force constitutes punitive rather than defensive action. Because the United States has failed to gain Security Council approval for war, the United States is bound by United Nations Article 51 and may not lawfully, unilaterally take military action.
"It is clear that the current massive attack on Iraq is not based upon self-defense. Iraq has not attacked the United States nor does Iraq constitute an immediate and specific threat to United States national security."
As the Bush Administration clearly chose to violate both Constitutional and International law, Veterans for Peace, having sworn once to uphold the Constitution of the United States, hereby calls for the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for their recent commission of high crimes against peace in Iraq and the violation of the US Constitution.
Therefore be it resolved that:
In keeping with our Statement of Purpose, "to abolish war as an instrument of foreign/international policy" and "to restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations", Veterans For Peace, Inc. has found compelling arguments and evidence to support articles of Impeachment for President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John David Ashcroft.
To accomplish these objectives Veterans For Peace National will seek to find responsible representatives within the United States, who have full legal standing and the integrity bestowed upon them by both their office and their personal record of conduct, be fully capable of successfully completing such an undertaking. The Board will determine when and to whom Veterans For Peace will lend support to for the impeachment process.
In the interim Veterans For Peace is resolved to continue its educational program to inform and educate the American public and its representatives within the United States government of the real and criminal violations of this government. Therefore be it resolved that Veterans For Peace is officially and fully resolved to work for the restoration and implementation of Constitutional law and as provided for by constitutional law the impeachment of President George W. Bush and the named members of his administration. More >
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 3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
I am really iirate about this ridiculous concept. Consumerism at it's worst.
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Disney, Send Disposable DVD Idea to the Dump
Contributed by Working Assets
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney's home video division, has just announced a plan to begin marketing disposable, self-destructing rental DVDs this coming August. This illogical, wasteful, environmentally-harmful plan should be halted immediately.
Rental DVDs are currently reusable products that are viewed over and over again by different families, sometimes reused hundreds of times. Instead, Disney would be creating the same product but it would only be viewed by one family and then discarded. To ensure the DVD does not last, Disney is adding a special chemical that causes the DVD to self-destruct 48 hours after the viewer opens a special package containing the DVD.
In 2002, 891.4 million DVDs were rented. If just 10% of those had been disposable, that would have added more than 89 million DVDs to our landfills, in addition to wasting valuable energy resources to create millions more DVDs than are currently manufactured.
We already have enough disposable discs entering our waste stream, thanks to AOL's ubiquitous discs, and services already exist to allow easier return of rental DVDs, like Netflix's U.S. Mail return system. Video-on-demand services are another alternative option that would not generate the waste that this ill-conceived plan would generate.
Online Action Letter
Tell Disney to send their disposable DVD plan to the dump!
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3 Jun 2003 @ 06:46
Comments from a friend
let's see...
1) embed chips in the Euro.
2) tank the American economy (via shell-game economics using shill companies like Enron and MCI to grab pension funds, 401K funds, etc.)
3) brainwash/scare US citizens (and Mexican/Canadian citizens) into adopting a Pan-American currency - the Amero - while devaluating and eventually eliminating the dollar/canadian dollar/peso).
4) embed tracer chips in the colored money (new $20 bill is pink/orange tinted)
5) further develop the cashless society by developing more and more demand/requirements for ATM/debit/credit transactions
6) tank the amero and embed tracer chips in humans (vaccines anyone?) 7) mission accomplished
...oh my silly mind wanders
Radio ID Chips May Track Banknotes
By Winston Chai
Special to CNET News.com
May 22, 2003, 4:40 PM PT
Radio tags the size of a grain of sand could be embedded in the euro note if a reported deal between the European Central Bank (ECB) and Japanese electronics maker Hitachi is signed.
Japanese news agency Kyodo was reportedly told by Hitachi that the ECB has started talks with the company about the use of its radio chip in the banknote.
The ECB is deeply concerned about counterfeiting and money-laundering and is said to be looking at radio-tag technology.
Last year, Greek authorities were confronted with 2,411 counterfeiting cases and seized 4,776 counterfeit banknotes, while authorities in Poland nabbed a gang suspected of making more than a million fake euros and putting them into circulation.
To add to the problem, businesses also find it hard to judge a note's authenticity, as current equipment cannot tell between bogus currency and old notes with worn-out security marks. Among the security features in the current euro are threads visible under ultraviolet light.
"The main objective is to determine the authenticity of money and to stop counterfeits," Frost and Sullivan analyst Prianka Chopra said in a report published in March.
"RFID (radio frequency identification) tags also have the ability of recording information such as details of the transactions the paper note has been involved in. It would, therefore, also prevent money-laundering, make it possible to track illegal transactions and even prevent kidnappers demanding unmarked bills," Chopra said.
RFID tags are microchips half the size of a grain of sand. They listen for a radio query and respond by transmitting their unique ID code. Most RFID tags have no batteries: They use the power from the initial radio signal to transmit their response.
Besides acting as a digital watermark, the use of radio chips could speed up routine bank processes such as counting. With such tags, a stack of notes can be passed through a reader and the sum added in a split second, similar to how inventory is tracked in an RFID-based system.
The euro came into circulation on Jan.1 last year, with 12 countries adopting it as standard currency: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
If the ECB-Hitachi deal comes about, the project could involve the use of tiny radio tags, a feat that Hitachi claims to have already achieved.
In February, the Japanese firm said it had successfully operated the world's smallest noncontact chip, which measured only one-third of a millimeter across.
Hitachi said its "mu-chip" is capable of wirelessly transmitting a 128-bit number when radio signals are beamed at it.
In a euro note, the number could contain a serial code, as well as details such as place of origin and denomination.
Data can only be written on the chip's ROM during production, and not after it is out "in the wild," according to Hitachi.
The minuscule chip has been selected for use in admission tickets for Japan's international expo, which will be held in the country's Aichi Prefecture in 2005.
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:29
Smart Morph
Morph a friend's photo to make funny effects and have fun with it. Morphed pictures can be animated, resized, and cropped. The program works with BMP, WMF, EMF, JPG, PNG, and PCX images, and outputs animated pictures in AVI, BMP, JPG, PNG, and PCX formats. It supports scanners and printers. The help file is small, so those not familiar with graphic formats might have trouble figuring out the program. I created an animation without the help file, but did refer to it for two minor points. The help file shows how to add the animated file to a Web page. I'd show you what I did, but I corrupted the file when I tried an experiment.
Thomas Edison did say, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:25
?Another symptom of a culture afraid of growing old?
Testosterone In A Tube
CBS News
May 19, 2003
Founders of a 3-year-old pharmaceutical company hope that for aging baby boomers, the Fountain of Youth will come in a tube.
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s first product is a gel called Testim, sold in small one-dose tubes and prescribed for men with low testosterone levels.
Patients rub it on their arms and shoulders to restore normal levels of the hormone and combat the sagging sex drive, low energy, depression and dwindling muscle mass and bone density a deficiency can cause.
The market for testosterone replacement therapies is growing fast as the population of older men increases.
"We are fortunate timing-wise, because men have taken a much more active role in the management of their own health," said Gerri Henwood, president and chief executive officer of Auxilium.
That's partly because they're aging, and partly sparked by Pfizer's introduction of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, with its five years of promotions featuring Bob Dole, racecar driver Mark Martin and other celebrities.
"Viagra has had a role in that there are areas that are much more open for discussion between men and their physicians," Henwood said.
Testosterone treatments are in the spotlight, said Dr. Alvin M. Matsumoto, a gerontologist at the University of Washington and the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle.
Testosterone replacement therapy has been done for years using injections, but levels can fluctuate from above normal just after the shot to below normal before the next shot about two weeks later.
Some patients don't feel the roller coaster effect, but others run out of energy before the next injection, Matsumoto said.
Testosterone patches also have been used but tend to result in lower levels of the hormone and sometimes can cause rashes and skin irritation, he said.
Testosterone levels normally decline gradually in men over 30, and researchers are looking at whether testosterone replacement should be used only for those with levels far below normal, who experience severe symptoms, or should be given to counteract the normal decline.
That became a focus since a report last year that hormone replacement therapy frequently prescribed for women actually increased the risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer, leading most doctors to recommend it only for short-term treatment of menopausal symptoms.
Henwood and Jane Hollingsworth, a vice president in a clinical trials company Henwood had previously launched, founded Auxilium shortly after that company was sold in 1998.
"Jane and I started brainstorming about where were there therapeutic opportunities for small companies to enter the market," Henwood said.
They settled on products to help people continue to function normally as they age. Auxilium is Latin for "assistance."
Testim is only the second testosterone gel to get Food and Drug Administration approval.
IMS Health, which tracks prescription drug sales, has said the market for testosterone products in general jumped from $49 million in 1997 to $216 million last year.
The first testosterone gel on the market, Androgel, launched by the Belgian pharmaceutical company Solvay S.A. in 2000, posted about $196 million in U.S. sales last year, a 52 percent jump from 2001. More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 21:07
Earth Probe Plan Would Blast A Path To The Core
National Geographic News
May 14, 2003
A scientist proposes sending a grapefruit-size communication device into the heart of the Earth by blasting a crack in the surface and pouring in a huge quantity of molten iron. The weight of the liquid metal would crack the Earth for more than 1,800 miles (3,000 kilometers), carrying the probe to the planet's core in about a week.
The probe would measure temperature, electrical conductivity, and chemical composition, and would beam back data as encoded sound waves to a surface detector.
David J. Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena outlines the plan in the May 16 issue of the scientific journal Nature.
"Planetary missions have enhanced our understanding of the solar system and how planets work, but no comparable exploratory effort has been directed towards the Earth's interior, where equally fascinating scientific issues are waiting to be investigated," Stevenson said in his paper. "I propose a scheme for a mission to the Earth's core, in which a small communication probe would be conveyed in a huge volume of liquid-iron alloy migrating down to the core along a crack that is propagating under the action of gravity."
The proposal might sound ambitious, but it's modest in comparison with the demands of space exploration, Stevenson said.
"We live on the Earth's surface, which divides what is above from what is below. The part above us, the rest of the universe, is mostly empty, mostly unknownSThe part below is crammed with interesting stuff and is also mostly unknown, despite its much greater proximity to us."
Stevenson calculated that the energy required to create the crack to launch the probe would be equivalent to a few megatons of TNT, an earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, or a nuclear device such as those already possessed by many nations.
It may also be feasible to make use of existing favorable stress environments in the Earth and to avoid the use of nuclear devices, Stevenson said in his paper. "The technological challenge of initiating the crack should be less than that posed by the Manhattan Project," he said, referring to the code name for America's first atomic bomb.
Proven Technologies
According to Stevenson's calculations, it should be possible to send a probe all the way to Earth's core by combining several proven technologies with a few well-grounded scientific assumptions about the workings of the planet.
"We've spent more than [U.S.] $10 billion in unmanned missions to the planets," said Stevenson, who is the Van Osdol Professor of Planetary Science at Caltech. "But we've only been down about ten kilometers [6 miles] into our own planet."
The benefits to science would be significant, Stevenson said, because so little has been directly observed about the inner workings of the Earth. Scientists do not know, for example, the exact composition or even the temperature of the core, and what they do know is based on inferences about seismic data accumulated during earthquakes.
Stevenson said his proposal should be attractive to the scientific community because it is of the same scale, price-wise, as planetary exploration. To date, NASA has flown unmanned missions past all the planets except Pluto, has made a few highly successful soft landings on Mars, has probed the clouds of Jupiter, is getting ready to probe the atmosphere of Titan, and has sent four spacecraft into interstellar space. Sending something into the Earth, Stevenson believes, will have comparable payoffs in the quest for knowledge.
"When we fly to other worlds, we are often surprised by what we find, and I think the same will be the case if we go down."
A Million Tons of Molten Iron
According to Stevenson, the crack that will have to be blasted into the Earth's surface to launch the probe will need to be several hundred meters in depth, and about a foot (30 centimeters) wide, to accommodate a volume of about 100,000 to several million tons of molten iron.
The instant the crack opens, the entire volume of iron will be dropped in, completely filling the open space, he said. Through the sheer force of its weight, the iron will create a continuing crack that will open all the way to the planet's core 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) below. Anything on a smaller scale may not work; anything larger will be even more expensive, so Stevenson thinks a crack of those dimensions is about right.
"Once you set that condition up, the crack is self-perpetuating," Stevenson said. "It's fundamentally different from drilling, where it gets harder and harder -- and eventually futile -- the farther you go down."
The iron will continue to fall due to gravity because it is about twice the density of the surrounding material. Riding along in the mass of liquid iron will be one or more probes made of a material robust enough to withstand the heat and pressure. The probe will perhaps be the size of a grapefruit but definitely small enough to ride easily inside the 12-inch (30-centimeter) crack without getting wedged, Stevenson said.
Inside the probe will be instrumentation for data collection, which will be relayed through low-intensity mechanical waves of some sort. Because radio waves cannot propagate through Earth, this is the only way to get the data transferred, Stevenson said.
Based on the rate the molten iron would fall due to gravity, the ball would move downward into Earth at roughly human running pace (about 10 miles/16 kilometers per hour), Stevenson said.
"Each of the principles involved is based on sound knowledge of crack propagation, fluid dynamics, mechanical-wave propagation, and 'stress states,'" Stevenson said. "If these things didn't already work in nature, we would have no volcanoes and poorly performing bathroom plumbing, but little to fear from a pebble shattering our windshields."
The biggest question should not be the cost, but whether we should pursue the goal of exploring Earth's interior, he said. "That said, I'd suggest we do it if we can keep the cost under [U.S.] $10 billion."
This proposal is modest compared with the space program, Stevenson said, and may seem unrealistic only because so little effort has been devoted to it. "The time has come for action." More >
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:47
Orgoborgs, GEborgs, Cyborgs, Symborgs & Technoborgs
Scientists Consider Posthuman Possibilities and Radical Scenarios for Humanity's Evolution
Better Humans 5-25-03
Popular culture is abuzz with new terminology. Genetic engineering. Cyborgs. Artificial intelligence. Consciousness uploading. Singularity. Posthumanism.
The term " posthuman " in particular seems to be gaining more and more currency with each passing year -- especially in the media and academia, and among the techno-intelligentsia.
Futurists such as Alvin Toffler suggest that the world is moving fast towards a "fourth wave" in which humans will transition themselves into posthumans, thanks to multiple and simultaneous advances of technology. Such a change has been described by some experts as analogous to when apes evolved into humans.
Yet, as futurists make these grand prognostications -- as we casually toss the term "posthuman" back and forth -- do we really know what's in store for Homo sapiens? Just how will we "improve" ourselves? What do we really mean when we refer to the posthuman physical condition? Just what, exactly, is the grand potential for intelligent life? What does advanced intelligence look like?
Speculations On Posthuman Organisms
As we begin to ride the wave into human redesign, the destination is still largely unknown. But despite all the unanswered questions, we have a number of clues that can help us speculate as to what we truly mean by the posthuman organism -- including the striking acknowledgement that in all likelihood not just one type of posthuman awaits us, but several.
We will re-engineer our biological constitutions, and introduce silicon, steel and microchips into ourselves. Some may choose to reside in computers as conscious wave patterns, while others will convert themselves into durable robots and venture out into space.
Simultaneously, we will create entirely new forms of life, including artificial intelligence and perhaps even a global consciousness.
Humanity's monopoly as the only advanced sentient life-form on the planet will soon come to an end, supplemented by a number of posthuman incarnations. Moreover, how we re-engineer ourselves could fundamentally change the ways in which our society functions, and raise crucial questions about our identities and moral status as human beings.
Advancing Technologies, Advancing Possibilities
New developments in science and technology are occurring so fast that some might begin to overwhelm our capacities to adapt to change. Personal computers did not exist 30 years ago, cell phones did not exist 20 years ago and the World Wide Web did not exist 10 years ago.
In the biological sciences, similar achievements have been made since the discovery of DNA's structure in 1953, including new medicines, bioengineering and cloning technologies.
Additionally, in 2002, a living creature -- the polio virus -- was assembled piece by piece with several biochemicals by scientists at New York State University. We built life in the lab.
With the mapping of the human genome, cloning, and the creation of life in a laboratory now crossed off biologists' to-do lists, we are beginning to ponder future possibilities. Today, such things as nanotechnology and cryonics seem more plausible than ever.
The pace of change is not only very fast but it also accelerating. Some experts such as Ray Kurzweil speculate about a coming " singularity ," in which artificial intelligence and artificial life-forms will overtake human intelligence and human life. Slow biological evolution seems to be fast approaching a dead end: Our species will continue changing not through old and slow biological evolution, but through new, fast and directed technological evolution.
Already today many boundaries are blurring. Boundaries between birth and death, between virtual and real, between morality and immorality, between truth and falsity, between inner and outer worlds, between me and "non" me, between life and "non" life, even between natural and "non" natural. What is life? What is death? What is "non" life? What is natural life? What is "non" natural life? What is artificial life?
These are all deep questions for the new and profound world of transhumanism and subsequent posthumanism. The answers are complicated. And they might be as difficult for us to comprehend as many of our current problems might seem to monkeys, or even to ants.
From Transhuman To Posthuman
As the possibility for conscious human redesign has emerged, so too has a philosophical movement that considers the implications. This approach to future-oriented thinking, known as transhumanism, works on the premise that the human species does not represent the end of human evolution but, rather, its beginning. Its proponents believe that what is required to manage the process is an interdisciplinary approach to assist us in understanding and evaluating the possibilities for overcoming biological limitations through scientific progress.
Ultimately, transhumanists hope to see technological opportunities expanded for people, so that they may live longer and healthier lives and enhance their intellectual, physical and emotional capacities.
Transhumanism emphasizes that we have the potential not just to "be" but to "become." Not only can we use rational means to improve the human condition and the external world, but we can also use them to improve ourselves, namely the human organism. And we are not limited only to the methods, such as education, which humanism (its philosophical precursor) normally espouses.
Rather, transhumanists argue, we will have the means that will eventually enable us to move beyond what most would describe as human. Transhumanists believe that, through the accelerating pace of technological development and scientific understanding, we are entering a whole new stage in human history. Advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, bioengineering, cloning, cryonics, nanotechnology, new energies, mind uploading , dietary interventions, "designer babies," cyborgs , molecular chemistry, telecommunications, space exploration, immortality and virtual reality will lead to substantial physical and mental augmentation, possibly converging at a "singularity" point.
Still, the historical human desire to transcend bodily and mental limitations is deeply intertwined with a human fascination with new knowledge, which might be both inspiring and frightening. How these technologies are used could fundamentally change the character of our society, and irrevocably alter the definitions of ourselves and how we have assessed our place in the larger scheme of things.
Emerging Species
If we believe that biological evolution has reached a limit, what will come next?
Finnish engineer Pentti Malaska tried to answer this question in 1997 during a speech in Brisbane, Australia, while he was president of the World Futures Studies Federation. Malaska speculates about several bioengineered nonhuman generations in the pipeline of evolution. Specifically, he describes the emergence of what he calls Bio-orgs, Cyborgs, Silorgs, Symborgs and the Global Brain.
Bio-orgs, namely Homo sapiens, are protein-coded bio-organisms whose earthly infrastructure is their "natural" surrounding. Cyborgs, short for "cybernetic organisms," are biological and mechanical hybrids that in addition to traditional environments use the "near space."
Silicon organisms are also likely to emerge, known as Silorgs. This species, claims Malaska, will be humanlike nonhumans, fashioned by coding artificial DNA onto silicon compounds with ammonium as a solvent and intended basically for living in outer space.
Symborgs, a "symbolic organism," will be self-reflective, self-reproducing, self-conscious, "living programs" living within the Internet as their "natural" infrastructure and using advanced interfaces to function with other species. Also known as avatars, these organisms may essentially reside in supercomputers as uploaded consciousnesses.
Finally, speculated Malaska, there will be the "Grandparent Internet" -- a global mind with superior intelligence and wisdom. Such an intellect could very well be a Quantum Global Brain.
Australian economist Paul Wildman, also an active member of the WFSF and of the Millennium Project (of the American Council for the United Nations University), further talks about alternate Forms Of Life. Wildman uses the concept "borg" in its historical and generic sense to identify a Bionic "ORGanism," and defines five such terrestrial borgs: Orgoborgs, GEborgs, Cyborgs, Symborgs and Technoborgs.
Wildman describes Orgoborgs as organic Forms Of Life, including Humborgs (humans) and new and hybrid bioengineered Bioborgs. GEborgs are genetically engineered organisms, while Cyborgs, Siliborgs, and Symborgs are essentially as Malaska describes them. Wildman also described the Technoborg, a Form Of Life with an external skeleton, much like an insect.
According to Wildman, some of these new life-forms already exist in a technical sense, since 12% of the current USA population could be considered incipient "cyborgs" that use electronic pacemakers, artificial joints, drug implant systems, implanted corneal lenses and artificial skin. All the Forms Of Life are our creations and will be populating our world and remaking us genetically and mechanically and thereby changing our consciousness forever.
Moral Implications
While humanity will undoubtedly express itself in a number of different incarnations, it will subsequently give birth to an entirely new form of life: Artificial intelligence. The future will be populated by several different forms of intelligent life, and humanity is already attempting to reconcile the implications, particularly those in the moral realm.
The word "robot" was created in 1921 by the Czech playwright Karel Capek in his book RUR (Rossum's Universal Robots). It was immortalized in 1950 by Isaac Asimov in his book I, Robot.
Throughout his fiction, Asimov addressed the integration of robots into society. To this end, he developed the famous Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Asimov eventually improved his system and extrapolated the Zeroth Law: A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. He also modified the other Three Laws accordingly.
On a separate front, futurist Phil McNally and Pakistani futurist Sohail Inayatullah wrote "The Rights of Robots" in 1987, and feminist Donna Haraway published "A Cyborg Manifesto" in 1984. Both are important documents that defend robots and cyborgs on their own right.
Robotics expert Hans Moravec authored two books addressing the rise of robots and the resultant implications on the future, Mind Children in 1988 and Robot in 1999. Moravec argues that robots will be our rightful descendants and he explains several ways to "upload" a mind into a robot.
Similarly, Marvin Minsky, one of the fathers of artificial intelligence at MIT, wrote his very famous 1994 article "Will robots inherit the Earth?" in Scientific American. Here, he concludes: "Yes, but they will be our children."
As these authors and thinkers suggest, we need to start preparing ourselves for the coming robot and artificial intelligence realities. To ease the transition into a posthuman condition, we must ready ourselves for the distinct possibility that Earth will be inherited by not one, but several forms of highly intelligent and sentient life-forms.
The Human Seed
The human body is a good beginning, but we can certainly improve it, upgrade it and transcend it.
Evolution through natural selection may be ending, but technological evolution has only started accelerating noticeably very recently. Technology, which started to exhibit some dominance over biological processes for the first time some 100,000 years ago, is finally overtaking biology as the science of life.
As fuzzy logic theorist Bart Kosko has said: "Biology is not destiny. It was never more than tendency. It was just nature's first quick and dirty way to compute with meat. Chips are destiny." (And photo-qubits might come soon after standard silicon-based chips, but even they are only an intermediate means for eternal intelligent life in the universe.)
In the way to becoming permanent rational "demiurge" of space and time, it is vital to be aware that even more important than to create is to not destroy. As US author David Zindell has written: "What is a human being, then? A seed. A seed? An acorn that is unafraid to destroy itself in growing into a tree."
José Cordeiro studied engineering at MIT, economics at Georgetown University and finance at INSEAD in France. He is president of the World Future Society (Venezuela) and cofounder of the Venezuelan Transhumanist Association. He has also worked for NASA and UNIDO, and has written several books about different aspects of the future of Latin America.
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:36
WELL CONNECTED: FCC AND INDUSTRY MAINTAIN COZY RELATIONSHIP ON MANY LEVELS
The Center for Public Integrity
May 22, 2003
WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2003 The three largest local phone companies control 83 percent of home telephone lines. The top two long distance carriers control 67 percent of that market. The four biggest cellular phone companies have 64 percent of the wireless market. The five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide.
Those findings come from the Center for Public Integrity's unprecedented examination of the telecommunications industry, the centerpiece of which is a first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable database containing ownership information on virtually every radio station, television station, cable television system and telephone company in America.
The database reveals that broadcasting and cable behemoths such as Viacom, Clear Channel and Comcast already dominate many of the nation's media markets, even as the Federal Communications Commission moves to further relax media ownership rules at a meeting scheduled for June 2. To illustrate this trend, the Center analyzed current media ownership in the hometowns of the five FCC commissioners -- though any American can get similar information from the database about his or her hometown with a few simple key strokes.
The report also explores the close relationship between the FCC and the interests it regulates. FCC officials have taken more than 2,500 trips paid for by companies and trade groups from the telecommunications and broadcasting industries, and the agency increasingly relies on industry-generated data to justify sweeping deregulation proposals.
This report, entitled "Well-Connected," is the first phase of a three-year investigation of the telecommunications industry. The full report and database can be found on the Center's web site.
Media Concentration
The ownership study uses the hometowns of the five commissioners as examples of how local ownership of the media in the nation has dwindled since 1996 when the FCC most recently loosened its regulations on media ownership.
The ownership study in the five cities reveals:
- Of the 203 commercial radio stations in the five home towns, 48 are owned by four publicly traded, out-of-state radio conglomerates. Twenty-seven of those are owned by radio giant Clear Channel Communications.
- The cable systems in the five communities are controlled by four companies. AOL Time Warner owns systems in Charlotte, N.C., and Milwaukee; Birmingham's system is owned by Advance/Newhouse, which is also programmed by AOL Time Warner; Louisville's system is owned by Insight Communications Co., the nation's ninth-largest cable company. Only the Rapid City system is locally owned.
- Of the 20 network affiliates in the five cities, 15 are owned by out-of-state companies, including two each by News Corp. (Fox Entertainment Group) and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. (a division of Hearst Corp.).
Frequent FCC fliers The Center examined travel records of FCC employees and entered that information into a searchable database, also accessible through the web site.
The report shows that FCC officials have taken 2,500 trips costing nearly $2.8 million over the past eight years, most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the agency regulates. That was in addition to about $2 million a year in official travel funded by taxpayers. Among the other findings:
- FCC commissioners and agency staffers attended hundreds of conventions, conferences and other events in locations all over the world, including Paris, Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro staying in such high-priced hotels as the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
- The top destination was Las Vegas, with 330 trips. Second was New Orleans with 173 trips and third was New York with 102 trips. Fourth on the list was London, which FCC officials visited 98 times. Other popular destinations included Orlando, San Francisco, Miami, Anchorage, Palm Springs, Buenos Aires and Beijing.
- The biggest industry sponsor of the trips was the National Association of Broadcasters, which paid $191,472 to bring 206 FCC officials to its events. NAB, which represents radio and television stations nationwide, has lobbied aggressively in recent months to keep the current FCC rules limiting media ownership in place.
Reliance on industry data
A third report came out of the Center's data gathering efforts, which revealed a disturbing dependence by the FCC on outside information providers.
The report finds that the FCC's reliance on non-government private data is so ingrained that when public interest groups asked for access to data underlying a series of media ownership reports last fall, the FCC relented only after issuing a quasi-judicial "protective order" meant to keep the information secret.
When the Center was constructing its database of media companies, researchers and reporters were repeatedly referred by FCC staff to private companies for basic information on ownership, audience reach and cable subscribers. Getting market share information, which is key when reviewing whether broadcasters are within existing FCC limits, was all but impossible without going outside the agency.
The study was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation, with additional support from the Open Society Institute.
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WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS?
SHOWDOWN AT THE FCC (5/5/2003): [link]
Media Challenge! Action 1 (essential):
+ Go to www.mediareform.net + Click to send your message to your Congressional Representatives and the FCC demanding they retain current media ownership rules. + The automatic message will also demand that Congress direct the FCC to extend its June 2 deadline and to release any proposed rule changes for public debate before acting on them. It will further ask Congress to conduct its own public hearings on any FCC rule changes.
Media Challenge! Action 2
Contact these members of the Senate Commerce Committee (essential, especially McCain):
+ Senator John McCain, Phone: (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862; + Senator Frtiz Hollings, Phone: (202) 224-6121; fax: 202.224.4293; + Senator Barbara Boxer, Phone: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 403-0100; fax: 415.956.6701;
Contact these FCC Commissioners: + Chairman Michael Powell, 202-418-1000, + Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: + Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy:
Sample Letter or Comment to Congress folks and FCC:
Dear ___________(Senator or Commissioner):
Re: Upcoming FCC vote on media deregulation.
Further consolidation of the media in the name of "deregulation" must be halted. The media companies have failed in their public trust to provide unbiased information about most crucial issues, most notably the recent coverage of the war in Iraq. As an American concerned about our democracy, I call on you to challenge the media conglomerates, to open the broadcast spectrum to a diverse range of journalists and opinions, and to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Oppose media deregulation.
Media Challenge! Action 3 (helpful).
+ Call or write network news bosses (see contacts below). + Tell them you want prominent daily coverage of the upcoming FCC vote, the most important media question in a decade. + Challenge them to report on their network's efforts to influence Congress and the FCC via campaign donations.
ABC NEWS CHIEF David Westin. 212.456.6200. fax: 212.456.4292,
ABC NEWS DIRECTOR Mimi Gurbst. 212 456 4050 fax.212 456 2795
ABC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.456-7777. NEWSROOM fax 212.456.2795
MSNBC NEWS CHIEF Mark Effron. 201.583.5101. fax: 201.583.5199, mark.effron@msnbc.com
MSNBC NEWS DIRECTOR Alison Hawley. 201 583 5155, fax. 201 583 5512
MSNBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 201.583.5000, fax: 201.583.5590
NBC NEWS CHIEF Neil Shapiro. 212.664.4773. fax: 212.664.2264, neal.shapiro@nbc.com
NBC NEWS DIRECTOR Thomas Ferraro 201 583 5231 fax 201 583 5222
NBC SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.664.4444. fax: 201.583.5453
CBS NEWS CHIEF Andrew Hayward. 212.975.7825. fax: 212.975.7429. mg3@cbsnews.com
NEWS DIRECTOR Marty Gill 212 975 6121 fax. 212 975 4114
CBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.975.4321 fax: 212.975.1893
CNN NEWS CHIEF Eason Jordan. 404.827.5111. fax: 404.827.4215. eason.jordan@cnn.com
CNN NEWS DIRECTOR Kim Bondy. 404 827 1500. fax. 404 827 1099
CNN NEWSROOM 404.827.1500 . 404.827.1500. cnnfutures@cnn.com,
PBS FACTUAL PROGRAMMING CHIEF Sandy Heberer 703.739.5036
PBS NEWS CHIEF, SANDY SOWERS 703-998-2150 newshour@pbs.org
PBS SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 703.998.2600.
FOX NEWS CHIEF: John Moody. 212.301.8560. fax: 212.398.8726 john.moody@foxnews.com
NEWS DIRECTOR Kathleen Ardleigh 212 3013186 fax. 212-301-5067
FOX SWITCHBOARD (ASK FOR NEWSROOM) 212.575.4670. fax: 212.301.8274
MEDIA CHALLENGE! is co-sponsored by: Projects4Peace, ICUJP (Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace), Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Coalition for World Peace, Global Guardianship Initiative, Code, Pink for Peace, Peace on the Beach, Peace Warriors, LA International A.N.S.W.E.R., Not in Our Name, Global Women1s Strike and Southern Cal. Americans for Democratic Action, Americans Against War With Iraq
For more information about Media Challenge! and what the news networks are not telling you go HERE and click on Media.
Feeling empowered? Wanna do more on this issue? GO HERE
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 1 Jun 2003 @ 20:20
Actual Signs In Non-English Speaking World . . .
(more funny sign photos)
Cocktail lounge, Norway:
LADIES ARE REQUESTED NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN IN THE BAR.
At a Budapest zoo:
PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. IF YOU HAVE ANY SUITABLE FOOD, GIVE IT TO THE GUARD ON DUTY.
Doctors office, Rome:
SPECIALIST IN WOMEN AND OTHER DISEASES.
Hotel, Acapulco:
THE MANAGER HAS PERSONALLY PASSED ALL THE WATER SERVED HERE.
Information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner, Japan:
COOLS AND HEATS: IF YOU WANT JUST CONDITION OF WARM AIR IN YOUR ROOM, PLEASE CONTROL YOURSELF.
Car rental brochure, Tokyo:
WHEN PASSENGER OF FOOT HEAVE IN SIGHT, TOOTLE THE HORN. TRUMPET HIM MELODIOUSLY AT FIRST, BUT IF HE STILL OBSTACLES YOUR PASSAGE THEN TOOTLE HIM WITH VIGOR.
Dry cleaner's, Bangkok:
DROP YOUR TROUSERS HERE FOR THE BEST RESULTS.
In a Nairobi restaurant:
CUSTOMERS WHO FIND OUR WAITRESSES RUDE OUGHT TO SEE THE MANAGER.
On the grounds of a private school:
NO TRESPASSING WITHOUT PERMISSION.
On a Thai highway river crossing:
TAKE NOTICE: WHEN THIS SIGN IS UNDER WATER, THIS ROAD IS IMPASSABLE.
On a poster at Kencom:
ARE YOU AN ADULT THAT CANNOT READ? IF SO, WE CAN HELP.
In a City restaurant:
OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK AND WEEKENDS.
A sign seen on a restroom automatic hand dryer:
DO NOT ACTIVATE WITH WET HANDS.
In a Pumwani maternity ward:
NO CHILDREN ALLOWED.
In a cemetery:
PERSONS ARE PROHIBITED FROM PICKING FLOWERS FROM ANY BUT THEIR OWN GRAVES.
Tokyo hotel's rules and regulations:
GUESTS ARE REQUESTED NOT TO SMOKE OR DO OTHER DISGUSTING BEHAVIORS IN BED.
Hotel notice, Tokyo:
IS FORBIDDEN TO STEAL HOTEL TOWELS PLEASE. IF YOU ARE NOT A PERSON TO DO SUCH A THING IS PLEASE NOT TO HAD NOTICE.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
OUR WINES LEAVE YOU NOTHING TO HOPE FOR.
Hotel room notice, Chiang-Mai, Thailand:
PLEASE DO NOT BRING SOLICITORS INTO YOUR ROOM.
Hotel brochure, Italy:
THIS HOTEL IS RENOWNED FOR ITS PEACE AND SOLITUDE. IN FACT, CROWDS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD FLOCK HERE TO ENJOY ITS SOLITUDE.
Hotel lobby, Bucharest:
THE LIFT IS BEING FIXED FOR THE NEXT DAY. DURING THAT TIME WE REGRET THAT YOU WILL BE UNBEARABLE.
Hotel elevator, Paris:
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE FRONT DESK.
Hotel, Yugoslavia:
THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID.
Hotel, Japan:
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CHAMBERMAID
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox Monastery:
YOU ARE WELCOME TO VISIT THE CEMETERY WHERE FAMOUS RUSSIAN AND SOVIET COMPOSERS, ARTISTS, AND WRITERS ARE BURIED DAILY EXCEPT THURSDAY.
Hotel catering to skiers, Austria:
NOT TO PERAMBULATE THE CORRIDORS IN THE HOURS OF REPOSE IN THE BOOTS OF ASCENSION.
Taken from a menu, Poland:
SALAD A FIRM'S OWN MAKE; LIMPID RED BEET SOUP WITH CHEESY DUMPLINGS IN THE FORM OF A FINGER; ROASTED DUCK LET LOOSE; BEEF RASHERS BEATEN IN THE COUNTRY PEOPLE'S FASHION.
Supermarket, Hong Kong:
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE, WE RECOMMEND COURTEOUS, EFFICIENT SELF-SERVICE.
From the "Soviet Weekly":
THERE WILL BE A MOSCOW EXHIBITION OF ARTS BY 15,000 SOVIETS REPUBLIC PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS. THESE WERE EXECUTED OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS.
In an East African newspaper:
A NEW SWIMMING POOL IS RAPIDLY TAKING SHAPE SINCE THE CONTRACTORS HAVE THROWN IN THE BULK OF THEIR WORKERS.
Hotel, Vienna:
IN CASE OF FIRE, DO YOUR UTMOST TO ALARM THE HOTEL PORTER.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
IT IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN ON OUR BLACK FOREST CAMPING SITE THAT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT SEX, FOR INSTANCE, MEN AND WOMEN, LIVE TOGETHER IN ONE TENT UNLESS THEY ARE MARRIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THIS PURPOSE.
Hotel, Zurich:
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE.
An advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
TEETH EXTRACTED BY THE LATEST METHODISTS.
Tourist agency, Czechoslovakia:
TAKE ONE OF OUR HORSE-DRIVEN CITY TOURS. WE GUARANTEE NO MISCARRIAGES.
Advertisement for donkey rides, Thailand:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS?
In the window on a Swedish furrier:
FUR COATS MADE FOR LADIES FROM THEIR OWN SKIN.
The box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
GUARANTEED TO WORK THROUGHOUT ITS USEFUL LIFE.
In a Swiss mountain inn:
SPECIAL TODAY - NO ICE CREAM.
Airline ticket office, Copenhagen:
WE TAKE YOUR BAGS AND SEND THEM IN ALL DIRECTIONS.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST VISIT TO THE USSR, YOU ARE WELCOME TO IT.
A laundry in Rome:
LADIES, LEAVE YOUR CLOTHES HERE AND SPEND THE AFTERNOON HAVING A GOOD TIME.
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| Friday, May 30, 2003 | |
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 30 May 2003 @ 16:47
Hydrogen's Dirty Secret
President Bush promises that fuel-cell cars will be free of pollution. But if he has his way, the cars of tomorrow will run on hydrogen made from fossil fuels.
By Barry C. Lynn
Mother Jones
When President Bush unveiled his plans for a hydrogen-powered car in his State of the Union address in January, he proposed $1.2 billion in spending to develop a revolutionary automobile that will be "pollution-free." The new vehicle, he declared, will rely on "a simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen" to power a car "producing only water, not exhaust fumes." Within 20 years, the president vowed, fuel-cell cars will "make our air significantly cleaner, and our country much less dependent on foreign sources of oil."
By launching an ambitious program to develop what he calls the "Freedom Car," Bush seemed determined to realize the kind of future that hydrogen-car supporters have envisioned for years. Using existing technology, hydrogen can be easily and cleanly extracted from water. Electricity generated by solar panels and wind turbines is used to split the water's hydrogen atoms from its oxygen atoms. The hydrogen is then recombined with oxygen in fuel cells, where it releases electrons that drive an electric motor in a car. What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels -- in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas. The remaining 10 percent will be cracked from water using nuclear energy.
Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen. Although the fuel-cell cars themselves may emit nothing but water vapor, the process of producing the fuel cells from hydrocarbons will continue America's dependence on fossil fuels and leave behind carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.
Mike Nicklas, chair of the American Solar Energy Society, was one of 224 energy experts invited by the Department of Energy to develop the government's Roadmap last spring. The sessions, environmentalists quickly discovered, were dominated by representatives from the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. "All the emphasis was on how the process would benefit traditional energy industries," recalls Nicklas, who sat on a committee chaired by an executive from ChevronTexaco. "The whole meeting had been staged to get a particular result, which was a plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels and not from renewables." The plan does not call for a single ounce of hydrogen to come from power generated by the sun or the wind, concluding that such technologies "need further development for hydrogen production to be more cost competitive."
But instead of investing in developing those sources, the budget that Bush submitted to Congress pays scant attention to renewable methods of producing hydrogen. More than half of all hydrogen funding is earmarked for automakers and the energy industry. Under the president's plan, more than $22 million of hydrogen research for 2004 will be devoted to coal, nuclear power, and natural gas, compared with $17 million for renewable sources. Overall funding for renewable research and energy conservation, meanwhile, will be slashed by more than $86 million. "Cutting R&D for renewable sources and replacing them with fossil and nuclear doesn't make for a sustainable approach," says Jason Mark, director of the clean vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
The oil and chemical industries already produce 9 million tons of hydrogen each year, most of it from natural gas, and transport it through hundreds of miles of pipelines to fuel the space shuttle and to remove sulfur from petroleum refineries. The administration's plan lays the groundwork to expand that infrastructure -- guaranteeing that oil and gas companies will profit from any transition to hydrogen. Lauren Segal, general manager of hydrogen development for BP, puts it succinctly: "We view hydrogen as a way to really grow our natural-gas business."
To protect its fuel franchise, the energy industry has moved swiftly in recent years to shape government policy toward hydrogen. In 1999, oil companies and automakers began attending the meetings of an obscure group called the National Hydrogen Association. Founded in 1989 by scientists from government labs and universities, the association was a haven for many of the small companies -- fuel-cell designers, electrolyzer makers -- that were dabbling in hydrogen power. The group promoted the use of hydrogen but was careful not to take any position on who would make the fuel or how.
All that changed once the energy industry got involved. "All of a sudden Shell joined our board, and then the interest grew very quickly," says Karen Miller, the association's vice president. "Our chair last year was from BP; this year our chair is from ChevronTexaco." The companies quickly began to use the association as a platform to lobby for more federal funding for research, and to push the government to emphasize fossil fuels in the national energy plan for hydrogen. Along with the big automakers, energy companies also formed a consortium called the International Hydrogen Infrastructure Group to monitor federal officials charged with developing fuel cells. "Basically," says Neil Rossmeissl, a hydrogen standards expert at the Department of Energy, "what they do is look over our shoulder at doe to make sure we are doing what they think is the right thing."
As hydrogen gained momentum, the oil companies rushed to buy up interests in technology companies developing ways to refine and store the new fuel. Texaco has invested $82 million in a firm called Energy Conversion Devices, and Shell now owns half of Hydrogen Source. BP, Chevron-Texaco, ExxonMobil, Ford, and General Electric have also locked up the services of many of America's top energy scientists, devoting more than $270 million to hydrogen research at MIT, Princeton, and Stanford.
Such funding will help ensure that oil and gas producers continue to profit even if automakers manage to put millions of fuel-cell cars on the road. "The major energy companies have several hundred billions of dollars, at the least, invested in their businesses, and there is a real interest in keeping and utilizing that infrastructure in the future," says Frank Ingriselli, former president of Texaco Technology Ventures. "And these companies certainly have the balance sheets and wherewithal to make it happen."
The stakes in the current battle over hydrogen are high. Devoting the bulk of federal research funding to making hydrogen from fossil fuels rather than water will enable oil and gas companies to provide lower-priced hydrogen. That, in turn, means that pipelines built to transport hydrogen will stretch to, say, a BP gas field in Canada, rather than an independent wind farm in North Dakota. Even if the rest of the world switches to hydrogen manufactured from water, says Nicklas, "Americans may end up dependent on fossil fuels for generations."
The administration's plans to manufacture hydrogen from fossil fuels could also contribute to global warming by leaving behind carbon dioxide. Oil and coal companies insist they will be able to "sequester" the carbon permanently by pumping it deep into the ocean or underground. But the doe calls such approaches "very high risk," and no one knows how much that would cost, how much other environmental disruption that might cause, or whether that would actually work. "Which path we take will have a huge effect one way or the other on the total amount of carbon pumped into the atmosphere over the next century," says James MacKenzie, a physicist with the World Resources Institute.
Even if industry manages to safely contain the carbon left behind, the Bush administration's plan to extract hydrogen from fossil fuels will wind up wasting energy. John Heywood, director of MIT's Sloan Automotive Lab, says a system that extracts hydrogen from oil and natural gas and stores it in fuel cells would actually be no more energy efficient than America's present gasoline- based system.
"If the hydrogen does not come from renewable sources," Heywood says, "then it is simply not worth doing, environmentally or economically." More >
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Sounding Circle implies the cycles, spirals and symbols of our thought, our culture, our lineage and our imagination.
A place to share ideas, create community, and give voice to our muse.
"Giving more than we take, taking just what we need."
"The universe is music connecting 10th dimensional hyperspace".
Prof. Michio Kaku, Phd. |
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"It's not what you think, it's what you think about."
- lyric from You Can't Turn Back (But You Can Turn Back On) |
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Sounding Circle
