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vital signs monitor: archives by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - April 05, 2002 |
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The 43rd President of the United States will be confronting levels of complexity, both at home and abroad, that are of greater intensity and impact than faced by any of the previous inhabitants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Special Note: Check out the in-progress Disinfo Glossary: Specialist Terms page for details of the analytical language and tools mentioned throughout each entry. Check out the Expanded Spiral Dynamicsฎ Bibliography for details of the color codes mentioned throughout each entry, and background/further reading suggestions. Two useful resources for understanding the daily shifts in the 3Gs (geoeconomics, geopolitics and geosecurity) are Foreign Policy Magazine and Stratfor Strategic Forecasting. For profiles of countries and non-governing self-territories, check out the annual CIA World Factbook. For information on global resources, check out the World Watch Institute's annual State of the World report, and the osEarth Resources and Worldometers. For a different view of geostrategic space, check out the Dymaxion Map and Spaceship Earth. Wednesday, 3 April 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: North Korea will resume talks with the US. China frees its longest-serving political prisoner. One hypocrite's crusade against lawsuits. Why are drug firms silent online? Did games trigger a suicide? Bush's influence on debt-limits. Tom Ridge will brief panels on Homeland Security. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The US pursues a quiet agenda with Syria. Shootings in France reveal explosive social tensions. Britain's press on Zimbabwe and imperialist interventions. Diasporas: Israeli troops invade Nablus, the West Bank's largest city. Girl suicide bombers. Blogging from Jerusalem. Wounded in Bethlehem. The pointless proliferation of peace plans. Critics attack Bush on his Mideast policy. The White House discusses a peace deal without a cease-fire. Arafat pleads for help, although Israel connects him with bombing. Egypt scales back their ties with Israel. Journalists attack Israels call for them to leave. Dispatches from Ramallah. Open letter to a Ramallah commander. Flash-Points: A car bomb kills four people in Indonesia. Socialist analysts argue that the judge shows a pro-government bias at John Walker Lindh's trial. A US civil liberties group is challenging closed deportation hearings. Special Forces turn the tide in Afghanistan. The Afghan Army makes its debut. Hanssen spied for money. The ban on medical marijuana is overturned in Washington DC. Cutting-Edges: Technology is altering how future wars are fought. DrinkorDie on piracy. Trying to solve the Turing Test. Digital pens are under development. Robots help hospitals. The Japanese are developing lip-reading cell-phones. Why Janna Levin is the latest star cosmologist. Revisiting the Robert Gallo affair. Clifford Pickover's latest book. Regressions: Andersen staff were at odds with Enron. Media Memetics: Why cigarette smoking is a metaphor for sex. The battle over Web radio. Video objectification. Why video games are sounding like movies. Filtering software is under attack. A Myst mini-series is in development. Phil Donohue gets a show on MSNBC. National Magazine Awards aren't 9/11 related. SouthHighSucks.com site gets teen reporter suspended. Michael Moore tours America. Outspoken media critic Robert McChesney. Why Viacom is a survivor. Eighteen tales of media censorship. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: New York's controversial Nazi art show. Scientologists remember L. Ron Hubbard. What is queer food? A Boston student is caught with $15k worth of marijuana. An introduction to Patti Smith. Personal Mutations Exercise: Get NLP savvy. Monday, 1 April 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: The Democrats are split by infighting. A California case will challenge '3 strikes' laws. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The 1982 Falklands conflict has scarred Argentina. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is confident he would win a referendum. Protests continue at the School of the Americas. Diasporas: Denying the Kurdish genocide. A car bomb rocks Jerusalem. Two suicide bombers kill 17 people. Why the Palestinians won't make a deal. Israel and Washington debate the murder of Arafat. Israel hunts down Arafat's lieutenants and will attack any Palestinian units (view photos). Israeli forces, given a wide latitude by Bush, have moved into Bethlehem. 'Yellow alert' status remains in the US. Islamic nations have moved to address "terrorism" and links with attacks on Israel. Thomas Friedman has called the situation "utterly, utterly, depressing." Palestinian gunmen have confiscated footage and Israel claims that foreign journalists are at risk. Dan Rather has a close call with a bomber. The Pope dwells on the Mideast in his Easter speech. Flash-Points: A veteran British Labour MP challenges the destruction of Lockerbie evidence. Lawyers for Russian hacker Dmitri Sklyarov argue that the judge should throw out the case. Prosecutors have backed away from claiming that John Walker Lindh has killed US citizens (view indictment). The US captures Abu Zubaydah, a key bin Laden aide. Cutting-Edges: A new global copy-protection scheme. Kiwis are using livestock for biotech and cloning research. The end of the Taliban may prove to be a renaissance for Afghan film. Regressions: Japan is rolling from an economic meltdown to a political crisis. Jakarta's flood victims face bureaucratic indifference. Tech firms are still facing quarterly earnings warnings and startups have venture capital hurdles. Xerox will pay a record $10 million SEC fine. Andersen yanked an adviser from Enron. Arthur Andersen is losing more clients. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Debunking Lynxgate." Bob Woodward's 9/11 mythmaking. Former CNN staffer Ed Turner is dead. Upside's new CEO is courting advertisers while his predecessor is compared to Osama bin Laden. Phil Donohue may return to the talk-show wars. Viacom tries out maxipurposing. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: Where are the Mahirs of yesteryear? Naomi Campbell versus the British tabloids. Waterlogged digi-camera art. Jesse Ventura plays an April Fool's joke on reporters. Taming the Internet's data. Death by rabid bat. A bill to ban chemtrails testing disappears. How your mobile phone watches you. Personal Mutations Exercise: Learn about Milton Erickson's clinical hypnosis techniques. Friday, 29 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Colombia's anti-drug plans run into problems. A biology study warns of drilling risks should Bush lift the Arctic ban. Defending the Darth Vadar of campaign finance reform. The US Army releases a friendly-fire report about Operation Anaconda. Bush makes five recess appointments. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The worst ecological disaster of the 20th century. Africa's betrayal of Zimbabwe. The First Amendment's reluctant defender. Bush expands "voluntary interviews" of Middle Eastern immigrants. Bush's "nuclear offensive" endangers the prospects for world peace. Diasporas: The Israeli Army attacks Yassir Arafat's compound and calls up reservists. Arab leaders rally behind Arafat and world leaders criticize the assault. Parallax views of the raid include an eyewitness account, an Israeli spokesman and an Arab diplomat. Two suicide bombers kill four people. Secretary of State Colin Powell calls on Arafat to end the bombings. Israel prepares for a drawn-out campaign. Why this may be Arafat's toughest challenge yet (photos). The US Mideast initiative faces collapse. Did Israelis really shoot a twelve-year-old Palestinian boy? What are the Al-Aqsa martyr brigades? Why the Middle East violence makes some analysts nostalgic for the Cold War. Daniel Pipes on why the Arab Summit was meaningless. Flash-Points: How to punish convicted terrorists. Washington presides over social chaos in Afghanistan. How al Qaeda influenced the Bush Doctrine. The FBI and Pakistan join forces to interview captured al Qaeda agents. Cutting-Edges: Predicting when volcanoes will erupt. Seeking art-loving sperm. Spray-on plastic solar cells are being developed. Harvard University scientists have stopped light altogether. The battle for renewable energy. Regressions: The death toll is rising in the latest Dubai floods. Is housing the next economic bubble?How Enron's team controlled Andersen's audit. Andersen names its transition leaders. Andersen's staff in fight-or-flight mode. Should accountants go to jail? Why Playboy wants an Enron centrefold. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "CLEAR for launch." Has Black America been changed by the Oscars? Director David Fincher gets trapped in the Panic Room. Why Joe Lieberman will like Clockstoppers. Why former GE chairman Jack Welch won't be tarnished by his HBR editor "trophy romance." Four suspects in the Daniel Pearl murder case will face trial on 5 April 2002. If you were a reporter, whatwould you write about? Is there a future for Pacifica? The Left eats its own at KPFK. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: Nine inventions that David Pogue wants to see. How the rich get richer. Feminists who backstab other feminists. Gerhard Richter masquerades as a painter. The rebirth of Marvin Gaye. Probing H.R. Giger's mind. Zappa lives on in Lithuania. Chinese soldiers can't use mobile phones. Personal Mutations Exercise: The physiology of ecstatic states of consciousness. Thursday, 28 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Sri Lanka plans peace talks for May 2002. Venezuela rebutted charges that it was hiding Colombian rebels. Bush signs the finance reform bill and focuses on fundraising. Political parties fight over the US budget. Prescription drug costs continue to rise. Pentagon credit card abuse will be targeted. Bush pushes a welfare plan to include family time. Bush adopts a partisan tone on some issues. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. Rebels lose their edge in Colombia's civil war. Justice a la carte. Denmarks anti-immigration movement is growing. A South Korean delegation will visit North Korea next week. The FBI must release Carnivore information. Diasporas: Israel calls up reserves. Israel forces raid Arafat's compound. Arafat claims to be ready for a cease-fire. Arab leaders approve the Saudi peace plan. Israeli army officers find a suicide bomber's equipment in a Red Crescent society ambulance. Will Mideast turmoil threaten the War on Terrorism? Flash-Points: Would a referendum egitimize Pakistan's leadership? Competing visions for Pakistan's future. Are 9/11 victims more deserving? US troops are trying to keep the peace between warring factions in Afghanistan, while avoiding land-mines. Hundreds of Taliban fighters will be set free. Walter Hewlett sues HP. Cutting-Edges: The US prepares to invade your hard-drive. Turning muscle movementsinto sound. Online privacy finally gets some respect. Filming the seas' great depths. Does the drug Cytotec endanger pregnancies? Regressions: What Dick Cheney's energy panel is still hiding. The White House faces more calls for disclosing energy documents in the Enron debacle. Andersen will sell its non-audit units. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Think Tanks in a Time of Crisis." Billy Wilder dies (characters, huge films and quotes). Harry Shearer on corporate corruption. Milton Berle, TV's original Jew. Michael Fraase on the entertainment industry's war against everyone else. Senator Fritz Hollings' digital copy-protection bill could rendermillions of home networks useless. Kazaa wins a court appeal. Oxford University Press launches Oxford Online. Suspects in the Daniel Pearl trial will be treated to OJ Simpson-style coverage in Pakistan. Censored Russian journalists will found a new television station. A new study has linked television and violence. How the media have colonized our imaginations. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: The cult of Teddy Roosevelt. Remembering Andy Warhol. Why Edward Limonov is Russia's most feared dissident-artist. Personal Mutations Exercise: Read how Pattie Maes is exploring intelligence augmentation. Wednesday, 27 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Detainees will be freed in Kosovo. Run, Al run. The return of bell-bottom economics. David Brock is still lying. Will campaign finance reform heal American democracy? The campaign finance reform bill was quietly signed. Rethinking tolerance. Cheney's energy panel tries to operate behind closed doors. The FCC will refund license money. Apple ousts a young developer. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. Nelson Mandela's reluctant comeback. The Indian government approved anti-terrorist legislation. The Nigerian government is fighting spam. Air travel's communications killer. Slave reparations are unlikely. Demand challenges for new mobile phones. A smallpox vaccine turns up. The Bush family's Whitewater interest. Diasporas: A US delegation spars with Sri Lankan separatists. A suicide bomber kills at least 19 people and wounds over 120. US peace hopes may unravel. The Arab Summit: winners and losers. Is the Saudi proposal the last chance for Mideast peace? Israel blames Arafat for the latest suicide bombing. The Al Jazeera network cancelled an interview with Sharon. Two observers are killed in the West Bank. Kurds are ready to be the next Northern Alliance. Flash-Points: A quake kills over 1200 people in Afghanistan and leaves 100,000 homeless. Russia has ordered a former KGB spymaster now living in Washington DC to return and face charges. Pakistan police released a composite photo of a church attacker. Why do women wed? Sudden impact in space. Unarmed border guards may get guns. Cutting-Edges: Greenhouse and solar panel homes. NASA investigates recycling food. How med-mar became a hot issue. Regressions: Bush's recipe for Latin America. Army Chief Thomas White denies any Enron impropriety. Andersen's CEO got a warning about Enron. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Saudi Editor Admits That Jews Aren't 'Vampires'." Hollywood uncensored. Tom the Dancing Bug. Why don't movie studios advertise during the Oscars? Roger Ebert's scathing critique of music copy-protection schemes. Vanity Fair wants Tina Brown as a diarist. NPR and ABC News receives the Peabody Award for 9/11 reportage. Another alternative paper moves into the San Francisco market. Milton Berle dies at 93. Poets may lead the publishing revolution. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: The Myth of the Paperless Office. A mathematical beauty in space. The creation of psychopharmacology. The silence machine. Personal Mutations Exercise: Read a great Genesis P-Orridge interview. Tuesday, 26 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Campaign reforms and James Carville. The US economy is predicted to be improving. Richard Carmona is the Surgeon General nominee. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. Socialist analysts believe that the danger of war grows on the Korean peninsula. Diasporas: The Arab League Summit falls apart in Beirut. What is the Arab League? Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak bows out of the now-weakened Summit. Arafat won't go to the Summit and blames Sharon. Flash-Points: A quake ravages Afghanistan. The post-9/11 tech boom. Correspondence about the Milosevic trial. Defense alleges a conspiracy in John Walker Lindh trial. Tribal ties bind the Afghan army. Cutting-Edges: The future of virtual worlds. Rodney Brooks on how robots will change us. China launches a third unmanned space vehicle. Can Open Source deliver on privacy? The Gameboy Generation goes mutant. Fourteen people spend three months in bed to simulate weightlessness. Regressions: Bushism of the Day. The Argentine economy is a net loss. A surge in syphilis fuels fears of HIV. Chasing the Shadow government. Must judges have empty heads? Why Starbucks found it was hard not to be Green. Business magazines develop a pit-bull attitude in the post-Enron era. Andersens CEO will resign, the SEC files an accounting suit. Enron complained to UBS PaineWebber to get a broker fired. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Ethiopia Spent $5.6 Million for Lobbying." Will Internet radio survive? Why the government is investigating Clear Channel. Why political consultants despise McCain-Feingold. Who gave the most self-serving speech at the Oscars? Paul McCartney's best disco moves. The mystery of missing text messages. A Federal trial on porn filters reveals that filtering software is often worthless. Damien Jaques was surprised to discover he was part of Noam Chomsky's 9/11 speech. How Maxim manipulated the market-driven media. AOL is generous to its executives. Bush's Bono act. Rap the vote. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: The latest research suggests that the brain has an internal gravitational model. Scientists who doubt the existence of black holes. Get your Jeffrey Dahmer action figures. Bob Mould discovers electronica. Among UFO believers. Personal Mutations Exercise: Learn about different models of the human brain. Monday, 25 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Will Weblogs ruin Google? Assessing the state of dotcom startups. The two Koreas will resume high-level negotiations. China will launch a dummy astronaut. The therapeutic cloning debate is redefining the liberal-conservative divide. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The European Union is stealing the trade momentum from the US. Economic shock therapy for Argentina as the peso tumbles to a new low. Is the Left missing the chance to fight fascism? The EU is silent about US plans for an Iraqi war. Bush lauds democratic progress in El Salvador. Chechnya's warrior tradition. The High Court will rule on state rights to curtail speeches on campaign finance reform. Does Bush respect the non-religious? Education cash credits are Bush's payback to the religious right. Diasporas: Arab leaders will vote on Saudi Arabias land-for-peace deal. Bush prods Sharon to let Arafat go to Mideast summit, which is at a cross-roads. US Special Envoy Anthony Zinni's non-impact on the Mideast peace process. How Sharon has silenced his political opposition. Israel eyes-off a broad assault. Flash-Points: The gulf between Western and Eastern minds. The good news about the War on Terrorism. The judge hearing appeals for the Children's Internet Protection Act has ejected the press and public, citing vendor claims of proprietary information. Two al Qaeda leaders have been spotted. Ex-Afghan leader Mohammad Zaher Shah's homecoming has been complicated by security fears. The US will help to train the Afghan army. The US stations jets near Kabul. Why the Powell Doctrine is out and ground troops are in. Cutting-Edges: Reebok in trouble for funding social activist prizes. Dean Kamen runs his annual bot competition. India lifts its ban on Internet telephony. Rethinking black holes. The Lollapalooza of the Left. Regressions: Cuba bans PC sales to the public. Does America face a youthful obesity crisis? What's causing recent business scandals? What the Enron scandal hasn't accomplished. Is Enron over? Pud releases F'd Companies. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Homefront Confidential." The Oscars play tribute to African-American artists. Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World. Halle Berry's Oscar meltdown. Behind the music that sucks. Napster gets deader. You, too, can be a DVD movie critic. Karen Hughes tries spin control. Marvin Kitman contends that broadcasting is for corporate interests. Latin American journalists ask more questions as conditions get worse. Premium crosswords bring the New York Times about $770,000/year. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: Why do tall people make more money? NASA tries to verify claims of anti-gravity. Why EMDR remains a controversial therapy. Personal Mutations Exercise: Venture into Allen Ginsberg's world. Friday, 22 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Key pharmaceutical firms disagree with the UN on AIDS drugs. Kenneth Starr will fight campaign finance reform. The Democrat National Committee has a new hero: a $7m benefactor from the entertainment economy. How Carly Fiorina sold out Silicon Valley's soul with the HP/Compaq merger. A bipartisan plan will make the INS into two units. The Kansas court will decide on when life beings. The Senate will force energy utilities to move towards renewable energy sources. Campaign finance reform will create new money routes. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The new cold war on embryo adoptions. Peru will tighten security for Bush's visit. China is cracking down in Muslim regions. The UN Millennium Conference chastises the rich. Dormant terror groups are awakening in Peru. Beijing fends off dust storms. Why does the world ignore Madagascar? Diasporas: Israelis are in demand for US security. The US increases pressure for Arafat to stop Palestinian violence. A Jerusalem bombing killed four people and Israel cancels the cease-fire talks. Flash-Points: Google restores Xenu links censored by the Church of Scientology. 38 people are killed in Colombian fighting. Political slayings in Spain have been blamed on Basque separatists. Army and rebel clashes intensify in the Philippines. An offshoot of the Red Brigades has claimed it killed an Italian economist. What would Saddam do if he was on the brink of annihilation? What will happen if Senator Fritz Hollings' anti-copy bill is passed. Al Qaeda forces on the run and parry. Zimbabwe after the elections. The colonialist undercurrents of the Afghanistan war. Peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promises fair tribunals for al Qaeda and Taliban detainees (how evidence will work). Bush touts a 'smart' US-Mexico border. Cutting-Edges: Mormon experts are helping the FBI. Lilith spearheads access for geek girls. Why the Japanese upgrade their Macs. Microsoft is considering images for security access. The Bush team will drop its privacy rule for medical records. The revival of grassroots media. Regressions: Bomb scares in Manila are raising more questions than answers. Were the 1990s the decade of the worker? Will tech rebound in 2002? Paul O'Neill on the Enron clean-up and new accounting rules. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "Anderson Holds 'Spontaneous' PR Stunt." Why the Brits have a monopoly on humorous magazines. The early 1980s and Reagan-era hypocrisy return with the E.T. re-release. Are Australians being arrogant about the Oscars? The Oscars get Napsterized. Five proposals to fix the Oscars (now a subsidiary of the global beauty business). AOL Time Warner staff can now use a non-AOL e-mail system. Media commodities of Europe. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: Frank Miller's return. Blade II revisits the vampire disco. Five critics argue over the best movies of 2001. Personal Mutations Exercise: Visit the award-winning Zen site created by Kodai-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan. Thursday, 21 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Senator John McCain savours the approval of the campaign finance reform bill, thanks to persistence and coalition-building. Inflation rises moderately in February. A House panel reaches agreement on the INS. President Bush announces a US-Mexico border plan. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The US will interview more immigrants. Will the Internet save China? A geopolitical crisis looms between the US and Russia. Muslims fear for their future after riots in India. Diasporas: A Palestinian bomber wounds thirty people in downtown Jerusalem. Diplomatic envoy Anthony Zinni fails to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian truce. On-going talks continue despite the bombings. Are the Kurds trying to trigger a US invasion of Iraq? Flash-Points: The UN Millennium Summit on Poverty opens in Mexico with pledges from the US and Europe. Nine people were killed in a Peru car bombing. The blast occurs outside the American embassy and Bush will still travel to Peru. Afghan refugees return to Kabul (examples: rebuilding a school and the Afghan army). US forces might pursue the Taliban and al Qaeda forces to Pakistan. The Bush administration outlines its rules for military tribunals, closer to court martials. Scientologists use a DMCA threat to delist Xenu.net pages from Google. The US frees Iranian agents. Saddam's al-Qaeda connection. The Pope breaks his silence on a sex scandal. Cutting-Edges: Nanotechnology may be the New New Thing. How e-mail may reform elections. New American and Russian rockets. A newly-discovered fossil of a human skull could change archaeological history. Eyeball squeezing could correct eyesight. Tone therapy could turn tinnitus off. Food for the future. Monterrey plans to turn garbage into electricity. Regressions: A Michigan town wants to jail an anti-spam activist. Andersen employees launch a grassroots counter-attack. The Andersen trial is set for 6 May 2002. Party lines emerge in the Enron debate. Media Memetics: Simpsons-watchers analyze the shows depiction of maths. Surviving the torrents of media images. The Philadelphia Inquirer falls prey to an e-mail prank. Maxim has thirteen different versions of its "Greatest City" issue. Tom the Dancing Bug. Why the Academy will screw scriptwriters at the Oscars. Senator Fritz Hollings introduces a copy protection bill. Putting the party back in politics. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: Nixon's tapes on the Decline of American Civilization. DJs mixing business and music. Why an original Macintosh box is a collector's item. The self-heating can arrives. Cadaver art: Body of Knowledge. Alternative macrohistory: The Year of Rice and Salt. Secrets of artificial brains. Why globalization remains disappointing. Why 411 is a joke. Personal Mutations Exercise: Learn about the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment and the fate of a BBC recreation. Wednesday, 20 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Proxy politics in the Hewlett-Packard and Compaq approved merger: Fiorina won. Transsexuals and conservatives. The FTC budget may be cut by pro-merger advocates. The Federal Reserve may soon shift its policy. The Whitewater probe's final report finds criminal activities but clears the Clintons. Getting out of highway gridlock. The Senate passes measures for campaign finance reform, which President Bush will likely sign-off on. The Federal Government is running a $69b deficit. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. The Antarctic ice-shelf collapses into the sea. A massive dust storm chokes Beijing. The magnetic North Pole is drifting. Brazil combats media-endorsed piracy. Turkey remains wary on EU membership. Reclaiming Kenya's husbands from alcohol addiction. Why Democrats love free trade. The CIA's dirty international war. The FBI unveils reforms after mishandling Timothy McVeigh's records. Why Americans are targets in Pakistan church bombings. US military tribunals are forming. Religion's influence is seen to be fading in America. Diasporas: A bus bomb kills eight people in Israel. Why the US Left has problems attacking Israeli fundamentalists. Cheney proposes to meet Arafat. Israeli Bedouins are turning militant. Flash-Points: Arianna Huffington on homeland security. Denis Halliday on the US invading Iraq. Zimbabwe's Opposition faces treason charges. Unemployed Chinese workers pose a problem for the Opposition. The EU economic summit makes a revealing decision. Britain agrees to send marines to Afghanistan. The DEA fights a war against hemp food products. Cutting-Edges: Tracking atomic matter. The Furrybot arrives. Moore's Law is alive and kicking. Desmond Tutu's renewed calls for peace. Former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz on corporate malfeasance. Is Bono's campaign helping to fight world poverty? Regressions: Losing a child. Japan's youth are selling their bodies for clothes. The dark history of Australia's female convicts. Why Bush is addicted to perpetual war. PBS probes the early 1990s financial swindles. Anderson auditors plead not-guilty to charges (forcing a trial in May) as testimony about Enron's lies continues. Andersen's employees are fighting for survival. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "The Loyal Opposition." The myth of the digital divide (is it a "black thang"?). The film director as DJ. Utah Govrnor Mike Leavitt is being sued for deleting his e-mails. Movie musicals are back . . . MTV style. Soundbite patriots. The Wall Street Journal will publish an anthology of Daniel Pearl's writings. Marianne Pearl appears on Larry King Live. The National Magazine Awards are announced. The World Is Getting More Like Disinformation Dept.: How a Pentagon "background" briefing gets posted on the Internet. What Fox could teach the Pentagon (which is remaining tight-lipped about casualties). England allows a German art exhibition of human cadavers. Universe expansion is increasing. Secrets of the Soviet moon program have been revealed. The town that banned Satan. The mystery of misogyny. Rob Zombie offers advice on music industry careers. Personal Mutations Exercise: Read online excerpts from The Satanic Bible. Tuesday, 19 March 2002 BBC World News summary (audio and video). Grid-Lock: Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, won't be seeking a second term. Vice President Dick Cheney confronts fears during his Middle East tour. Liberals who support anti-cloning. Is US Trade Representative Bob Zoelick a protectionist? The family of accused 9/11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui won't cooperate with investigative authorities. FBI agents have been blamed for the delay of files on Timothy McVeigh. Democrats oppose 'soft' money. During Andrea Yates' sentencing, her family criticized her husband. Did the White House give pharmaceutical companies veto power over FDA appointments? Bush presses for conservative judges. The White House and Senate clash on homeland security. No-one (in the mainstream media) blames Bush for anything. Hot-Spots: Stratfor situation reports. Ismael Zambada eyes-off the US-Mexico coastal drug trade. 25 North Korean defectors have arrived safely in South Korea. Arab fighters in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge are creating regional instability. CBS anchor Dan Rather predicts another terrorist attack on the US. The trouble with Taco Bell. Diasporas: Israel pulled its troops out of Bethlehem and other occupied areas. How Israeli violence creates better soccer. Cheney admits he would meet Arafat. Flash-Points: A stealth asteroid has narrowly missed Earth. Thousands of laid-off Chinese workers confront a major oil company and globalization. US forces kill 16 people in Afghanistan (one US officer is wounded). Britain will send more troops to Afghanistan. Al Qaeda remains a threat. Afghans are eager for their king to fill the leadership void. A hacktivist confronts Slobodan Milosevic. Hewlett-Packard's Carly Fiorina declares her merger a winner. Massive protests at the EU Summit in Barcelona. The US Supreme Court on urine samples and college scams. Did 9/11 snuff the American Left? The Pentagon will reduce air patrols over American cities. 89 people were charged when police uncovered an online porn network. A Cuba analyst admits to spying. 9/11 charity cons are being investigated. Cutting-Edges: Czechs enact an important pollution law. The FCC outlines its wireless plans. Bots battle to take-over your house. New Zealand's kakapo may soon be off the endangered species list. Bush proposes a tax cut for small businesses. Europe's renewed cosmopolitanism. Regressions: Are the WWF's days numbered? ICANN icon sues . . . ICANN. Class war in British Columbia? Murder in a Colombian cathedral. Pakistani authorities are investigating how a church killing may have targeted Americans. Four people were killed during rioting in southern Kyrgyzstan. Media Memetics: The PR Watch Spin of the Day: "MBD's Tobacco Work Exposed." Sonic fusion. Users reject paying for online content. The mogul crunch. Lachlan Murdoch believes that Australians are great journalists. The HBR scandal revisits the firing of past editors, will damage Welch's reputation and has created the image of him as an uber-trophy man. Why charging for Web video may |