Hey, I don't remember giving Bush the go ahead to start World War III. Do you?

Will somebody please explain to the President that this "war" is over (in the sense that we have neutralized the threat and reduced the possibility of the same thing happening again) and that we can't just keep blowing up the Middle East until we've found Bin Laden?

Time for Plan B, C or D guys.

I'll give you a hint: Keep on going down the list until the possibility of destroying all life on the planet isn't one of the potential outcomes.

Check out:
Iran honored to be targeted by US - 'most hated Satan',
by Afshin Valinejad (AP) for the Jerusalem Post.

Khamenei was one of several Iranian officials, including the president and foreign minister, who have condemned Bush's characterization of Iran as part of an "axis of evil" during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

The reaction went beyond words. State radio reported that Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi had canceled plans to attend the 32nd annual World Economic Forum in New York, which opens today.

The cancellation, the radio said late last night, was to protest America's stand toward Iran and the "humiliating" attitude of the US State Department in issuing visas for the Iranian delegation. It did not elaborate.

President Mohammad Khatami said Bush "spoke arrogantly, humiliatingly, aggressively and in an interfering way - and worse than anything, it is an insult to the Iranian nation." The president spoke during a Cabinet session last night, according to state-run television and radio.

"We are supporters of peace, a peace based on justice for humanity," Khatami said.

Kharrazi said the accusations were intended to divert world attention from Israeli violence against Palestinians and reveals US global ambitions.

"With these arrogant statements, the American government has further unveiled its true image as a hegemonic power that wants to dominate the whole world through force," Kharrazi told the Islamic Republic News Agency.

AOL doesn't want instant messaging interoperability. Tough luck for them -- it is the future.

Trillian isn't the first of these instant messaging integration programs. To my knowledge, Jabber was the first.

See:
AOL shuts out users in battle over IM,
by Lisa M. Bowman for ZDNet News.

People using the popular Trillian software may lose access to part of AOL Time Warner's instant messaging system.

Firing another salvo in the battle over instant messaging, America Online is blocking people using the Trillian interface from linking to its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) system.

Trillian, which allows people to access multiple instant messaging programs from one screen, has attracted nearly a million people who are hoping to streamline their use of incompatible systems, including AOL's AIM and ICQ, Yahoo's Messenger and Microsoft's MSN Messenger.

But in the past 24 hours, an elaborate game of cat and mouse has developed between AOL and Trillian creator Cerulean Studios--as the start-up has repeatedly released new software designed to get around the block, prompting AOL to rush in and stop people from using it.

Meanwhile, Trillian fans are snared in cross fire.

A new monkey study suggests that playing a more dominant role in one's peer group leads to increased dopamine production and a subsequently a decrease in the desire to seek artificial stimulation.

See the article:
Monkey junkies
by Anjana Ahuja for the Times of London.

Here's a great collection of Bush/Monkey Faces.

Looks like former Enron executive J. Clifford Baxter knew too much. See the CNN article:
Former Enron executive dies in apparent suicide .

J. Clifford Baxter was found dead at 2:23 a.m., said Pat Whitty of the Sugar Land Police. Sugar Land is about six miles southeast of Houston.

"Baxter had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," Whitty said. "He was discovered inside a vehicle ... A suicide note was found at the scene. There was no sign of foul play. Inside his wallet was an ID indicating he was an employee of Enron."

The contents of the suicide note were not disclosed.

During an afternoon news conference, Sgt. Truman Body of the Sugar Land Police said an autopsy has been ordered. Body also said that a revolver had been found inside the car.

Professor Teuvo Kohonen has a new self-organizing feature map (SOM) architecture, WEBSOM, that was developed for what he calls "exploratory textual data mining."

In the largest WEBSOM implemented so far, about seven million documents have been organized in a one-million neuron network.

Kohonen has also written a book about Self-Organizing Maps. (Thanks, John.)

Intel's Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program provides a way to contribute unused CPU cycles to worthy medical research causes.

A great Privacy-related conference is coming up on April 15-16 at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco:
Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies.

It's taking place right before the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference that's going on from April 16-19 in the same hotel. So if you're already planning on attending CFP, come a day or two early and check out some really amazing technology.

This may be old news to some people, but I've sure never heard about it until now: Phenylpropanolamine, a very common cold remedy ingredient, has been "linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in brain) among women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use of medication."

There are some special concerns regarding children's medications that you'll want to pay special attention to (see below).

This letter was passed on to me by a friend. I followed the link to the FDA's Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) Information Page and the story checks out.

This is pretty serious. Spread the word.

All drugs containing Phenylpropanolamine are being recalled. You may want to try calling the 800 number listed on most drug boxes and inquire about a REFUND.

Please read this CAREFULLY, as I know that some of you may USE some of these drugs (Alka Seltzer Plus for one).

Also, please pass this on to everyone you know. STOP TAKING anything containing this ingredient. It has been linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in brain) among women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use of medication. Problems were not found in men, but the FDA recommended that everyone (even children) seek alternative medicine.

The following medications contain Phenylpropanolamine:
Acutrim Diet Gum Appetite Suppressant Plus Dietary Supplements
Acutrim Maximum Strength Appetite Control
Alka-Seltzer Plus Children's Cold Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold medicine (cherry or orange)
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine Original
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Flu Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Sinus Effervescent
Alka Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine Effervescent
BC Allergy Sinus Cold Powder
BC Sinus Cold Powder
Comtrex Deep Chest Cold & Congestion Relief
Comtrex Flu Therapy & Fever Relief
Day & Night Contac 12-Hour Cold Capsules
Contac 12 Hour Caplets
Coricidin D Cold, Flu & Sinus
Dexatrim Caffeine Free
Dexatrim Extended Duration
Dexatrim Gelcaps
Dexatrim Vitamin C/Caffeine Free
Dimetapp Cold & Allergy Chewable Tablets
Dimetapp Cold & Cough Liqui-Gels
Dimetapp DM Cold & Cough Elixir
Dimetapp Elixir
Dimetapp 4 Hour Liquid Gels
Dimetapp 4 Hour Tablets
Dimetapp 12 Hour Extentabs Tablets
Naldecon DX Pediatric Drops
Permathene Mega-16
Robitussin CF
Tavist-D 12 Hour Relief of Sinus & Nasal Congestion
Triaminic DM Cough Relief
Triaminic Expectorant Chest & Head Congestion
Triaminic Syrup Cold & Allergy
Triaminic Triaminicol Cold & Cough

I just found out and called the 800# on the container for Triaminic and they informed me that they are voluntarily recalling the following medicines because of a certain ingredient that is causing strokes and seizures in children:

Orange 3D Cold & Allergy Cherry (Pink)
3D Cold & Cough Berry
3D Cough Relief
Yellow 3D Expectorant

If you know of anyone else with small children, PLEASE PASS THIS ON.

THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF. DO PASS ALONG TO ALL ON YOUR MAILING LIST so people are informed. They can then pass it along to their families.

KaZaa was bought by Australian interests and has resumed its controversial service.

See:
File Sharing Program Kazaa Bought.

An Australian multimedia company has bought and restarted KaZaa, the Internet file-sharing program that's being sued for being the new Napster (news - web sites).

The privately held Sharman Networks Ltd. bought certain assets of KaZaa BV, including the popular KaZaa Media Desktop file-sharing program, Nikki Hemming, Sharman's chief executive officer said Monday.

KaZaa stopped all downloads of the free Media Desktop program last week pending a Dutch judge's ruling in a copyright infringement case filed against the company in the Netherlands.

But Sharman Networks resumed downloads Monday and logged about two new users per second.

Lucas Gonze was nice enough to put together this little collection of self-organizing network links.

This one's just for entertainment value. File it under "political snafu classics".

Question: What's the point of going through all of the trouble to make political allies out of the Hell's Angels if you're just going to insult them a few days later? (Answer: none.)

See:
Lastman 'didn't know' Hells Angels sell drugs,
By James Rusk (with a report from Rheal Seguin).

Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman said yesterday he did not know that the Hells Angels make money from illegal drugs when he shook the hand of a gang member on the weekend.

"These guys are in drugs. This is drug money. Over the weekend when I spoke to them, I didn't know that. Phooey. I had heard the stories, but, yes, the [police] chief has explained it to me. We've gone over it," the mayor told reporters after a morning spent trying to contain the damage from his latest gaffe.

NY Times piece about a book by that builds upon the work of Dr. Noam Chomsky:
Hard-Wired' Grammar Rules Found for All Languages,
by Brenda Fowler.

While most linguists would now agree that language is innate, Dr. Chomsky's ideas about principles and parameters have remained bitterly controversial. Even his supporters could not claim to have tested his theory with the really tough cases, the languages considered most different from those the linguists typically know well.

But in a new book, Dr. Mark C. Baker, a linguist at Rutgers University whose dissertation was supervised by Dr. Chomsky, says he has discerned the parameters for a remarkably diverse set of languages, especially American-Indian and African tongues.

In the book, "The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar" (Basic Books, 2001), Dr. Baker sets forth a hierarchy of parameters that sorts them according to their power to affect and potentially nullify one another.

Just as the periodic table of elements illustrates the discrete units of the physical world, Dr. Baker's hierarchy charts the finite set of discrete factors that create differences in grammars.

That these parameters can be organized in a logical and systematic way, Dr. Baker says, suggests that there may be some deeper theory underlying them, and that the hierarchy may even guide language acquisition in children.

The hierarchy is not the same as a family tree, which illustrates the historical relations among languages — for example, Italian, French, Spanish and their mother tongue, Latin. Nor does it have anything to do with the way words vary from language to language. Instead, Dr. Baker analyzes grammar — the set of principles that describe the order in which words and phrases are strung together, tenses added and questions formed. Dr. Baker, like Dr. Chomsky, believes these instructions are hard-wired into humans' brains.

I guessed wrong. Looked like Kenneth L. Lay and Arthur Andersen will be taking the fall for this one.

See the Time article:
Enron: Who's Accountable?.

Does anyone else know anything about this mention of the U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft's involvement? (below)

The U.S. Justice Department announced last week that it was creating a task force, staffed with experts on complex financial crimes, to pursue a full criminal investigation. But the country was quickly reminded of the pervasive reach of Enron and its executives—the biggest contributors to the Presidential campaign of George W. Bush—when U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the probe because he had received $57,499 in campaign cash from Enron for his failed 2000 Senate re-election bid in Missouri. Then the entire office of the U.S. Attorney in Houston recused itself because too many of its prosecutors had personal ties to Enron executives—or to angry workers who have been fired or have seen their life savings disappear.

Specifically, how does one "recuse" one's self from such a probe? Apparently a person can "recuse himself" but an entire office of people, such as the U.S. Attorney's office in Houston, can also "recuse itself".

Just curious :-)

The title says it all on this one:
Philips says copy-protected CDs have no future,
by Will Knight for New Scientist. (Thanks, John)

Philips, the inventor of the Compact Disc, does not expect controversial attempts by the music industry to introduce CD "copy protection" technologies to last very long, because of consumer complaints.

Philips is opposed to the use of copy protection systems. The technology is designed to stop CDs playing or being copied on personal computers but it can also prevent them from playing on many normal systems.

As inventor of the CD standard and the industry's licensing body, Philips could refuse to license such copy protected discs as genuine CDs, or pursue some other legal obstruction to the practice.

But Gary Wirtz, general manager of the Philips Copyright Office at its headquarters in the Netherlands, believes that copy protection technology will fail all by itself.

Hmmm. How much you wanna bet Thomas E. White gets scapegoated for the whole thing? (see previous posting)

Just thinking outloud :-)

Maybe President Bush fainted after he read this informative piece by Joshua Micah Marshall -- which provides more than a few details about the Enron scandal.

Pardon me Josh for reprinting it here, but stuff like this is too good to keep quiet about.

Wondering how many Bush administration (Senate-confirmed) appointees owned stock in Enron? Or how much they owned? Or what business relationships they had with the company? Well, hey, you came to the right place!

Now it's important to keep in mind that most of these folks listed below just owned stock in the company, which probably only means they got suckered and cleaned out by the company brass like a lot of other people.

But then if some of them cashed in their stock a few months ago (which next year's disclosures will tell us) based on inside information ... well, that would be another matter entirely.

Appointee: Kathleen B. Cooper Title: Undersec. for Economic Affairs Department: Commerce Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,001

Appointee: Thomas C. Dorr Title: Under Sec. for Rural Development Department: USDA Relationship: (1) Enron stock $1,001-$15,001 (MG Dorr IFT), (2) Enron stock $1,001-$15,001 (Roth IRA)

Appointee: Emil H. Frankel Title: Asst. Sec. for Transportation Policy Department: Transportation Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Eugene Hickok Jr. Title: Undersecretary Department: Education Relationship: (1) Spouse Katherine Hickok Rev. Trust: Enron stock $15,001-$50,000 value, $5,001-$15,000 dividends/capital gains; (2) Son Adam Eugene Hickok Trust: Enron stock $15,000-$50,000 value, $5,001-$15,000 dividends/capital gains; (3) Daughter Katherine C. Hickok Trust: Enron stock $15,001-$50,000 value, $5,001-$15,000 dividends/capital gains.

Appointee: Allen F. Johnson Title: Chief Agriculture Negotiator Department: US Trade Rep. Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: John H. Marburger Title: Director Department: Office of Science and Technology Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000 value, $201-$1,000 dividends

Appointee: Alice H. Martin Title: US Attorney, Northern District of Alabama Department: Justice Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Sandra L. Pack Title: Asst. Secretary Department: Army Relationship: Enron stock less than $1,001 value, $5,001-$15,000 capital gains.

Appointee: Robert Zoellick Title: US Trade Rep. Department: USTR Relationship: Enron stock $15,001-$50,000, Enron advisory fees $50,000

Appointee: Hansford T. Johnson Title: Asst. Sec. Department: Navy Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Donald H. Rumsfeld Title: Secretary Department: Defense Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: John E. Robson Title: Chairman/President Department: Export Import Bank Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Thomas Scully Title: Administrator Department: HCFA Relationship: Enron stock $15,001-$50,000

Appointee: Martin J. Silverstein Title: Ambassador to Uruguay Department: State Relationship: Enron stock $15,001-$50,000

Appointee: William Winkenwerder Title: Asst. Sec. Department: Defense Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Thomas E. White Title: Secretary of the Army Department: Defense Relationship: Former Vice-Chairman of Enron Energy Service; Enron Corp-common stock worth $25,000,001-50,000,000 that paid over $5,000,000 in dividends and capital gains; Enron Corp-stock options worth $25,000,001-50,000,000 that paid $100,001-1,000,000 in capital gains; Enron Corp Cash Balance Retirement Acct (Enron Stock will rollover into permissible property) worth $100,001-250,000 that paid less than $201 in dividends; Enron Corp-DLJ Private Equity Partners Fund II that paid $5,516,131.08 in salary; Enron Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Defined Contribution Plan Managed by Enron worth $1,000,001-5,000,000 that paid less than $201 dividends; Enron Phantom Stock Award worth $5,000,000-25,000,000 that paid less than $201 dividends; Enron Retirement Account (Enron Stock) worth less than $1,001 that paid less than $201 dividends; Agreements: Pursuant to provisions of employment agreement and routine practice of Enron Corp, given $1,000,000 in severance pay; The Phantom Stock Award in Enron (approximately 240,000 shares) were accelerated and paid out when he left Enron

Appointee: Mark Weinberger Title: Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) Department: Treasury Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000 value, $201-1,000 dividends

Appointee: Vicky A. Bailey Title: Assistant Secretary, International Affairs & Domestic Policy Department: State Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Alexander Vershbow Title: Ambassador to Russia Department: State Relationship: Enron stock $50,001-$100,000 value, $201-1,000 dividends

Appointee: Marcelle M. Wahba Title: Ambassador to the UAE Department: State Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Steven M. Colloton Title: US Attorney (S.D. Iowa) Department: Justice Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: Richard J. Egan Title: Ambassador to Ireland Department: State Relationship: Enron Partial Sale Value: $250,000-500,000 Dividends: $5,001-15,000 Capital Gains: $100,001-1,000,000

Enron Corporation (SOLD) Value: Less than $1,001 Dividends: $201-1,000

Egan's spouse: The following is owned through his wife's Lawhill Capital fund for the year 2000:

Enron Gas & Oil 15,679 US G/L

Enron Corp. Lost 12,429 US G/L

Appointee: Donald W. Washington Title: US Attorney (W.D. Louisiana) Department: Justice Relationship: Enron stock $1,001-$15,000

Appointee: John Prince Title: Ambassador to Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles Department: State Relationship: Enron stock through four direct/indirect sources: (1) less than $1,000; (2) $15,001-$50,000; (3) $1,001-$15,000; (4) $15,001-$50,000.

Appointee: William Schubert Title: Administrator, Maritime Administration Department: Transportation Relationship: Project Consulting Services for Enron, paid over $5,000

Appointee: Bruce Carnes Title: CFO Department: US Dept of Energy Relationship: Enron Stock $1,000 - $15,000

Appointee: John S. Wolf Title: Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation Department: Dept of State Relationship: Enron Stock $50,000 - $100,000

Appointee: Linnet Deily Title: Deputy Department: Office of the Trade Representative Relationship: Enron Stock $15,000 - $50,000

Appointee: Nils J. Diaz Title: Commissioner Department: US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Relationship: Enron Stock $1,000 - $15,000

Appointee: George L. Argyros Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Spain and Andorra Department: State Relationship: Enron Stock $100,000 - $250,000; $1,000 - $15,000

Appointee: Charlotte L. Beers (Beadleston - married name) Title: Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Department: State Relationship: Enron Stock $100,000 - $250,000

Appointee: Stephen F. Brauer Title: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to Belgium Department: State Relationship: Enron Common Stock $50,000 - $100,000

Maybe reporters covering the relevant departments should ask some questions.

-- Josh Marshall

I'm asking Josh. I'm asking.

A slight mishap involving a president and a pretzel at the white house:
President Faints at White House, by Ron Fournier for the Washington Post.

Here's another good link for Enron ammo:
Oliver Willis' EnronGate. (Thanks, Cory.)

Is there room for the Freedom of Information Act in U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's America?

See: On the Public's Right to Know The day Ashcroft censored Freedom of Information, an SF Gate Editorial Opinion. (Thanks, John)

No one disputes that we must safeguard our national security. All of us want to protect our nation from further acts of terrorism. But we must never allow the public's right to know, enshrined in the Freedom of Information Act, to be suppressed for the sake of official convenience.

Here's another quote from the same piece:

Consider, for example, just a few of the recent revelations -- obtained through FOIA requests -- that newspapers and nonprofit watchdog groups have been able to publicize during the last few months:

• The Washington-based Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization, has been able to publish lists of recipients who have received billions of dollars in federal farm subsidies. Their Web site, www.ewg.org, has not only embarrassed the agricultural industry, but also allowed the public to realize that federal money -- intended to support small family farmers -- has mostly enhanced the profits of large agricultural corporations.

• The Charlotte Observer has been able to reveal how the Duke Power Co., an electric utility, cooked its books so that it avoided exceeding its profit limits. This creative accounting scheme prevented the utility from giving lower rates to 2 million customers in North Carolina and South Carolina.

• USA Today was able to uncover and publicize a widespread pattern of misconduct among the National Guard's upper echelon that has continued for more than a decade. Among the abuses documented in public records are the inflation of troop strength, the misuse of taxpayer money, incidents of sexual harassment and the theft of life-insurance payments intended for the widows and children of Guardsmen.

• The National Security Archive, a private Washington-based research group,

• has been able to obtain records that document an unpublicized event in our history. It turns out that in 1975, President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light to invade East Timor, an incursion that left 200,000 people dead.

• By examining tens of thousands of public records, the Associated Press has been able to substantiate the long-held African American allegation that white people -- through threats of violence, even murder -- cheated them out of their land. In many cases, government officials simply approved the transfer of property deeds. Valued at tens of million of dollars, some 24,000 acres of farm and timber lands, once the property of 406 black families, are now owned by whites or corporations.

These are but a sample of the revelations made possible by recent FOIA requests. None of them endanger the national security. It is important to remember that all classified documents are protected from FOIA requests and unavailable to the public.

Yet these secrets have exposed all kinds of official skullduggery, some of which even violated the law. True, such revelations may disgrace public officials or even result in criminal charges, but that is the consequence -- or shall we say, the punishment -- for violating the public trust.

Looks like the first scandal of President Bush's career is going to be a doozy.

Keep your eyes out for one word in the headlines over the next few months:
drumroll please...
Enron (link goes to CBS Marketwatch page).

See an enlightening editorial on the subject by David Callaway for CBS MarketWatch.com:
Enron is not Bush's Whitewater: It will be worse.

Don't expect to see either Bush or Vice President Cheney directly linked to the financial shenanigans that brought Enron down. They won't be. This is not about finding a smoking gun, as much as some Democrats might wish it were.

What it is about, and what the public will get to hear and read about in wrenching detail over the coming months, is how business gets done down in Texas. How a small group of business leaders exert enormous clout over Bush and his team in getting the rules changed to their benefit.

It will explain why Bush has locked up presidential records, locked out any voices opposed to his pro-business agenda and rammed through an expensive economic plan that wiped out the budget surplus but to date hasn't had any positive effect on the economy.

It will explain what influence Enron Chief Executive Ken Lay and his advisers had with Cheney and his energy task force when they met six times last year while the vice president was putting together the administration's energy policy.

And it will explain why Bush is now thinking about acting on a proposal from that very task force that seeks to roll back a key provision of the Clean Air Act that helps keep factory pollution down by requiring new controls when old plants are upgraded.

There's a long overdue Patent System Reform conference going on at the UC Berkeley Campus March 1-2, 2002.

The conference is hosted by The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and The Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

I'll be there with bells on! Hope to see you all there!

Greetings readers! Many apologies for not blogging for a week! I've been working on my graduate school applications to the School of Information Management and Systems at UC Berkeley and the Department of Communication at Stanford. Wish me luck!

I'm back now and I have a huge backlog of cool stuff! Thanks for checking back!

Peter Wiggin has just published his first O'Reilly Weblog: You'll shoot your iBook out!.

I too, have just bought an iBook (an old one, not even a new hi falootin' one) and I just love it.

Carl S. Kaplan has written a nice piece for the New York Times polling six prominent law experts about cyberlaw in the year 2001: The Year in Internet Law.