ECO-TERRORES
Brazil's leader pledges to build nuclear arsenal: Mr. da Silva, a left-wing populist who campaigned on promises to improve conditions for the country's vast population of poor, promised military leaders he will forego Brazil's adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refocus efforts on building up nuclear weapons.

VITAMEDIAS
Who Counts Most: Readers or Subscribers?
What is the proper measure of a newspaper's audience reach? The traditional answer is paid circulation -- subscribers plus single-copy sales. But there is an alternative, a more "modern metric" its proponents would say, that has been picking up some steam of late: calculating the total readership of an average day's edition.
"That's the right measurement," said Tribune's publishing president, Jack Fuller, "assuming the main thing you want to know is how many people avail themselves of your journalism and see the ads." Consider, too, that among competing media, television and radio measure only audience and audience demographics, while magazines typically measure both circulation and pass-along readership.

ZITE
Dumb Warnings, where you may see the consequences of numerous pointless lawsuits. This site is dedicated to helping companies fight this menace which is plaguing society today.

.DE!
EU Alleges Mob Ties to Tobacco:The European Union accused tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds in a lawsuit Wednesday of selling black-market cigarettes to drug traffickers and mobsters, helping them launder profits from their illegal activities.

.DE!
Inmate Sends Judge Entirely Wrong Message: "Hey Baby, how is my little thing? I have been sweating my ass off. It is a hot one in here. As you know, I have not been sentenced yet, but that is coming up soon. But I do have some good news concerning that subject. Can you believe my father plays golf with (U.S. District Judge David) Sam, the crusty old judge who happens to be mine, not by choice? Ha!

.DE!
Woman Accused of Stripping at Airport: [Eliana] Aguillaume was arrested Monday at Evansville Regional Airport after she allegedly stripped to the waist in an angry response to a security screener's attempt to search her with a metal-detecting wand.

ECO-TERRORES
America's Richest Politicians:
1. Michael R. Bloomberg (R); Mayor, New York ($4.8 billion)
2. Winthrop Rockefeller (R); Lt. Governor, Arkansas (1.2 billion)
3. B. Thomas Golisano (Ind); Gubernatorial candidate, New York (1.1 billion)
4. John Kerry (D); Senator, Massachusetts (550 million)
5. Tony Sanchez (D); Gubernatorial candidate, Texas (500 million)

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Art Futura muestra los trabajos de los artistas que emplean el código para 'pintar' en la Red

Happy Halloween: Mac O'Lanterns Light Up Halloween
CEO Halloween Masks

.DE!
Online, the Dead Do Tell Tales: Morticians can thank the popularity of HBO's Six Feet Under for giving their industry a quirky TV profile, but consumer technology is also redefining the once-staid business by adding a whole new "product" line - the digital memorial.

VITAMEDIAS
SonaeCom: No Público, níveis record de circulação estão a ser alcançados como resultado da campanha de colecção de livros “Mil Folhas”. No terceiro trimestre, a média de circulação diária paga atingiu os 60 milhares de jornais, o que compara com 56 milhares no mesmo período do ano anterior. O aumento de circulação compensou de alguma forma o impacto negativo da recessão no mercado de publicidade nas contas do Público. A Gestão não espera ver uma retoma nas receitas de publicidade num futuro imediato.
Lusomundo: Jornais
O segmento de imprensa diária generalista continua liderado pelo Jornal de Notícias. Nos primeiros nove meses de 2002, a circulação média diária deste jornal ascendeu a 107 mil exemplares, 1,1% abaixo do verificado no período homólogo de 2001. Este decréscimo é explicado pelo impacto positivo que as acções promocionais associadas ao “Porto 2001 – Capital Europeia da Cultura” tiveram nos níveis de circulação do primeiro trimestre de 2001, chegando o Jornal de Notícias a atingir níveis de circulação superiores a 112 mil exemplares.
No terceiro trimestre de 2002 o JN apresenta uma franca expansão dos níveis de circulação média. Em Setembro, a circulação média deste jornal atingiu os 113 mil exemplares, impulsionada pela edição de um suplemento dedicado aos acontecimentos de 11 de Setembro de 2001.
A circulação média do Diário de Notícias registou nos primeiros nove meses de 2002 um decréscimo de 11% em relação a igual período do ano anterior.
Num ano caracterizado por um decréscimo do mercado quando avaliado em termos de circulação (-2,3% no primeiro semestre, segundo dados da APCT), o 24 Horas continua a registar um crescimento assinalável na circulação média diária (18% em termos homólogos). Esta performance do 24 Horas deve-se, fundamentalmente, a uma maior adequação dos seus conteúdos às necessidades e expectativas do seu público alvo.
Cofina: Num contexto de generalizadas dificuldades para a indústria, a área dos media foi aquela que contribuiu de forma mais positiva para os resultados do Grupo, contrariando a tendência do mercado na forte diminuição do investimento publicitário, demonstrando mais uma vez o acerto das decisões estratégicas tomadas pela Cofina.
Impresa: Jornais
O segmento de jornais atingiu, até Setembro de 2002, receitas consolidadas de 37,4 M [de euros], o que corresponde a uma descida de 12,1% relativamente ao mesmo período de 2001. As receitas de publicidade acumuladas até Setembro desceram 17,6%. Para esta descida foi contributo importante o fecho de 5 edições do Jornal da Região. As receitas de vendas de jornais apresentaram, pelo seu lado, um ganho de 4,7% no período. No 3º trimestre estas receitas já subiram 6,9%.
L'actualité profite aux quotidiens généralistes: Les quotidiens nationaux généralistes ont bénéficié de la forte actualité du dernier semestre 2001 (attentats du 11 septembre) et du premier semestre 2002 (élections présidentielle et législatives en France), selon les derniers chiffres rendus publics par Diffusion Contrôle (ex-OJD). En revanche, les quotidiens spécialisés ont souffert durant cette même période.
Lucro da Prisa cresce 32,5% entre Janeiro e Setembro: Apesar do mau desempenho nas operações da América Latina, a Prisa beneficiou de um crédito fiscal de 15 milhões, assim como do forte aumento dos lucros do diário «El Pais». As receitas publicitárias desceram 1%.

CONTAMINANTES
Limit the Big Macs, company's ad warns
In an "advertorial" about obesity in children that appeared in the magazine Femme Actuelle in May, McDonald's France said the number of visits to its outlets should be limited. Forbidding children from eating fast food would be counterproductive, it said. "However, there is no reason to eat excessive amounts of junk food, nor go more than once a week to McDonald's."

VITAMEDIAS
Les chiffres de la publicité sur Internet pour le 1er semestre 2002 sont encourageants: Une étude TNS Media Intelligence souligne qu'Internet est devenu un média à part entière, avec 127 millions d'euros de recettes publicitaires brutes pour le 1er semestre 2002. [...]
Internet est désormais le cinquième média en termes de part de marché, avec 1,6 % des investissements bruts, pour un marché plurimédia global de 7,8 milliards d'euros. Il est donc passé devant le cinéma, dont les recettes publicitaires ne valent que 77 millions d'euros, mais reste derrière les chaînes thématiques du câble et du satellite, fortes de 190 millions d'euros de recettes pour le premier semestre 2002.

.DE!
Taiwan introduces luminescent cakes

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Consumers shun copy-protected CDs: Music companies thinking of distributing copy-protected CDs to protect their content from piracy will likely raise the ire of consumers while lowering their revenue, a new study warns.

VITAMEDIAS
Morgan and Campbell branded 'media whores': Alastair Campbell, Piers Morgan, Jamie Oliver, Max Clifford and the Queen have all been judged arch media manipulators by men's style magazine Arena.
The latest issue of the upmarket men's glossy features a list of the top 50 most accomplished "media whores" in Britain today, compiled, according to the magazine, not from B-list celebrities such as Jordan and Gareth Gates, but from those who know the difference between good and bad publicity.
"We recognise that playing the media at their own game is becoming an increasingly sophisticated business and those that are particularly good at it deserve to be recognised," said the deputy editor of Arena, William Drew. [...]
The overall winner is the Queen, following a highly successful golden jubilee year which culminated in a national holiday, two televised concerts and a huge procession down the Mall.

ECO-TERRORES
Is Big Oil lubricating drive for war with Iraq? By Jeremy Rifkin
So, while most Americans think that we are planning an attack on Iraq to save the world from a madman, most Europeans think that Bush is the madman, with the evil intention of grabbing a foothold in the oil-rich Middle East to extend the "American empire." And the media on both sides of the pond are pandering to the political sensibilities of their respective regions.

ECO-TERRORES
Branding New and Improved Wars: Marketing a war is serious business.

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Light Shows: The Science and Scenes of Near Space

ECO-TERRORES
U.S. military's database of terror suspects prints, faces, voices: The United States is compiling digital dossiers of the irises, fingerprints, faces and voices of terrorism suspects and using the information to track their movements and screen foreigners trying to enter the country.

VITAMEDIAS
Web matching cable for tragedy updates: Traffic spike for news sites as cops nab snipers
The old rule was that during tragedies, Americans turned to cable first, then visited web sites to research details of the event, as they did after 9/11.
That appears to be no longer the case, as we are learning in the aftermath of the DC snipers' arrests.
Viewership of cable news was way up through the weeks-long ordeal, but so was traffic to web news sites, and traffic went up markedly last Thursday as investigator were closing in on the two killers.
MSNBC.com, for example, saw its audience balloon from the typical 4 million per day to roughly 8 to 8.5 million on Thursday.

VITAMEDIAS
Online and looking away on 9/11: Is this the future of news? While the mass media were exclusively focusing on The Anniversary, the readers and writers on Kuro5hin were ignoring it with an almost desperate intensity. What was going on here? [...]
The readers of Kuro5hin may just be an irascible, unrepresentative bunch, but it's clear that they simply want the news media to report the news, without "analysis" and without appeals to emotion. For many of them it seems the backlash is already here, and on at least one day when everyone was betting they couldn't, they looked away.

VITAMEDIAS
Lax media let legislators hide ties: Washington has about 1,900 accredited newspaper and wire-service journalists watching Congress. The typical state has only 10 newspaper reporters keeping their eyes on its legislature. There used to be more.
Charles Layton and Jennifer Dorroh follow this issue for the Project on the State of the American Newspaper. They reported this summer that the 510 newspaper reporters now assigned to the 50 state capitols represent ''the lowest number we have seen and probably the lowest in at least the last quarter century.'' [...]
James Madison, one of the Constitution's authors, was well aware of the important watchdog function when he said, ''Knowledge shall forever govern ignorance.'' But the decline of newspapers is intensifying the problem of unequal distribution of knowledge.
Newspaper influence peaked in the 1920s, when, on a typical day, sales of daily papers equaled 130% of the nation's households. By last year, that number had dropped to 53%.

ECO-TERRORES
What a Difference Four Years Makes: Why U.N. inspectors left Iraq - then and now

VITAMEDIAS
Rooting Around Site With Intent? Both Intentia and Reuters agree the Reuters reporter obtained Intentia's financial statement directly from Intentia's website. [...]
Sources employed by Reuters who requested anonymity speculated the reporter was able to guess the URL from prior knowledge of how Intentia URLs are constructed. Internet-savvy users will often tinker with URLs to quickly get to where they want to be on a website.
At first glance, the URL linking to Intentia's 2002 third-quarter report doesn't appear to be easily guessable, but an Intentia spokesman told reporters the same "protection" was used on previous financial releases. So it is possible that a reporter familiar with Intentia could have made an educated guess.
"I don't see how people are supposed to know what are 'public URLs' vs. 'private URLs' at a website," said security and privacy consultant Richard Smith. "People can't be mind readers."
"It's pretty simple. If Intentia didn't want outsiders to see their quarterly results before a certain time, then they shouldn't post them on their public website or they need a security system in place to protect their private documents." [ver Group accuses Reuters of IT break-in]

VITAMEDIAS
Newspaper Groups Test Special Gen Y Editions: Two major newspaper groups have stuck their toe into the water, to test the potential for specially produced publications aimed at Generation Y. A third promises to follow suit next month. In a pair of Midwest experiments, Tribune and Gannett have launched special editions that could serve as a model for similar projects at sister newspapers around the country.
According to Northwestern University’s Media Management Center, the number of daily newspaper readers between 21 to 25 year olds is half of what it was in the early 1970’s. Then, 45% of young people opened one up. In 2002, just one-in-five reads a newspaper everyday. Separate research by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) found that 64% of teenagers read the paper at least once a week. “There is a misconception about young readers of newspapers,” says Tim Kennedy, VP of strategy and development for Tribune. “Newspapers do a very good job of attracting young readers, we just don’t have the frequency that we would like.”

ECO-TERRORES
Cell phones were rebels’ downfall: During their three-day siege of a Moscow theater, Chechen terrorists allowed hundreds of hostages to use personal cell phones to reassure their family members and relay new demands. What they didn’t know, officials here say, was that Russia’s security services were on the other end listening and gathering information crucial to ending the hostage crisis.
Dial 'H' for Hostage: Mark Rankov, one of 750 hostages held by Chechen extremists inside a theater here last week, had a message for the Russian people while he was a captive: "Your TV is lying."
Rankov, 28, wanted his countrymen to know that it wasn't just his Chechen captors who favored holding a rally on the Moscow streets to end the war in Chechnya, as Russian television had reported. So did a number of the hostages.
Rankov contacted his friend, Olga Brukovsky, on a cell phone while the standoff was in progress. She took down his words and published them online at LiveJournal.com, a website that has become increasingly popular among Russians in recent years.

ECO-TERRORES
The Forrester Guide To Finding The Next Millionaire

VITAMEDIAS
World News Map

ECO-TERRORES
30 Worst Atrocities of the 20th Century

CONTAMINANTES
Top 10 Most Dangerous Jobs: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the top 10 most dangerous jobs are:
1. Timber cutters
2. Airplane pilots
3. Construction laborers
4. Truck drivers
5. Farm occupations
6. Groundskeepers
7. Laborers
8. Police and detectives
9. Carpenters
10. Sales occupations

(actualizado por link desactivo)

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Colors 52: Rolando Trujillo

CULTURAS IN VITRO
The Simpsons in Thailand... when people smoke

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Stereotypes

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Two Towers Protest: home of the organization protesting against the second installment of the J.R.R. Tolkien Lord Of The Rings movie being named "The Two Towers"

ECO-TERRORES
Espionage Against the United States by American Citizens 1947-2001: Americans who began spying during the 1990s have been older, with a median age of 39, and more demographically heterogeneous, with more women and more ethnic minorities

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Not a single cute deer in sight: Like many other art forms, animation has both an official history and a more interesting secret lore. For the standard, sanitized version of animation history, you can turn to any number of authorized biographies and studio brochures celebrating prominent producers such as Walt Disney or William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. But these men were Hollywood big shots who spent so much time negotiating with banks that they were rarely hunched over drawing boards.
If you want to know the real lowdown on 20th-century American animation, told from the perspective of the artists whose physical labour and demented visions actually went into the creation of cartoons, you should ignore the conventional corporate histories and turn to renegade comic-book artist Kim Deitch, who will be speaking at the University of Toronto tonight. Both in his new graphic novel, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Pantheon), and in his frequent public lectures, Deitch offers a refreshingly revisionist take on the history of animated films.

VITAMEDIAS
If You Have Kept Your Media Stock Portfolio Since 1987, It Looks Great Today: Paradox to all of the bad financials since the "dot.com" collapse in late 2000 is that blue-chip media stock prices have still appreciated enormously since October 19, 1987, the infamous "Black Monday"

VITAMEDIAS
The Newseum That Fits: Glass-Fronted Design Reflects Well as Metaphor of a Free Press
The design of the new Newseum, to be unveiled formally at a news conference this morning, is a brash study of contrasts with the august architecture surrounding its prominent Pennsylvania Avenue address.

VITAMEDIAS
Village Voice Shouts Down Namesake From Cape Cod: The Village Voice wants to shut down all other Voices.

VITAMEDIAS
Time sees gold in the soft touch: Time has done well this year with lifestyle, religious and health stories found outside the week's hard-news headlines.

VITAMEDIAS
Ad Model Regains Analysts' Favor: As the 2000-01 recession and advertising downturn set in, subscription and content revenues looked like the smartest hedge to a ad cycle nadir. As the top media conglomerates report third quarter 2002 earnings, the ones most dependent on advertising are now performing the strongest.

VITAMEDIAS
Big Papers See Circulation Gains But It's Flat Elsewhere
Many of the nation's top dailies will show circulation gains in the forthcoming Audit Bureau of Circulations' FAS-FAX. Stronger retention efforts, along with the use of ABC rules allowing them to count bulk sales and deeply discounted subscriptions as paid circ, proved to be big pluses for publishers.
For newspapers generally, though, the continued squeeze on marketing dollars and other factors kept growth modest at best.

CONTAMINANTES
High tax, hot cigs: Tobacco is becoming the smuggler's choice
In fact, crossing state borders to avoid high taxes has helped restart the once dormant cigarette-smuggling business.
As Propostas Socialistas: [...] Aumento do imposto sobre o tabaco

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Mondo Bond: Forty years of 007

CONTAMNINANTES
The New Politics of Pot: Can it go legit? How the people who brought you medical marijuana have set their sights on lifting the ban for everyone

CONTAMINANTES
Allen Read: For much of his long career studying language Allen Read sought the origin of OK, perhaps the most useful expression of universal communication yet devised. [...]
There is an Indian word, okeh, used as an affirmative reply to a question. Mr Read treated such doubting calmly. “Nothing is absolute,” he once wrote, “nothing is forever.”

CULTURAS IN VITRO
What's the best place for new music? TV
Narrow radio playlists force artists to try new media

.DE!
Eminem impersonator causes panic: A chainsaw wielding Eminem impersonator caused panic when he decided to make a dramatic entrance to a fancy dress party - but got the wrong address.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Culture counts as big business: Culture is big business in Denver, pumping more than $1 billion into Denver's economy last year, according to a study.
Denver's arts, historical and scientific organizations reported 9.1 million visitors to cultural events, according to the study compiled by the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA), Deloitte & Touche and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
A Bookworm's Battle: Eric Eldred, Inspired by the Internet, Takes a Copyright Case to the Supreme Court
Eric Eldred is taking on the federal government in a U.S. Supreme Court showdown that pits him, scholars, and library groups against the nation's largest media companies. At issue is whether copyright policy can accommodate both the entertainment industry and consumers, who increasingly seek to gain access to movies, songs, and books over the Internet.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Clouds hang over Bollywood: Bollywood has lost more than $30m since the start of this year, according to a survey.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Music industry spins falsehood: The recording industry says downloading music from the Internet is ruining our business, destroying sales and costing artists such as me money.
Costing me money?
I don't pretend to be an expert on intellectual property law, but I do know one thing: If a record executive says he will make me more money, I'd immediately protect my wallet.

VITAMEDIAS
'E&P' Names 3rd Annual Photos Of the Year: AP's Laura Rauch Wins Grand Prize

VITAMEDIAS
NTV mantém vocação regional: A NTV vai manter a vocação de canal televisivo virado para as questões regionais, afirmou hoje o presidente da Câmara de Gaia, Luís Filipe Menezes, no final de uma reunião com o presidente da RTP. [...]
Menezes salientou que a autarquia não levantará problemas à intenção da RTP de instalar um +média park+ no Monte da Virgem, acrescentando que "não será por aí que haverá violência urbanística".

VITAMEDIAS
Marketing Law provides regularly updated information for brand-owners and marketing professionals, including in-depth analysis of the latest marketing and brand law issues, national and international case reports, previews of up-and-coming legislation affecting marketing, plus legal checklists and template agreements.

VITAMEDIAS
Magazines Push to Raise Revenue: When ads were plentiful, as they were during much of the 1990's, publishers heavily promoted cheap subscriptions. The big circulation gains that resulted allowed them to charge companies more for the privilege of buying ads, and the additional dollars more than made up for the high cost of roping in new readers.
But now that the advertising market has collapsed, publishers are talking about charging their readers more, just as they vowed to do during the last downturn, in 1991. Unfortunately, years of bargains have left readers unwilling to pay more and the promises just as empty as they were the last time around.

VITAMEDIAS
On your day's to-do list, is reading the paper a must? If you think about the 10 or 15 things you absolutely have to do today, and the various decisions you have to make about them, how helpful would you say your daily newspaper is likely to be in any of those endeavors? My guess is you'd say, "Not very" - no matter what paper you read.
"We have become disturbingly disconnected from average Americans," says Martin Baron, editor of the Boston Globe, "from their most basic concerns about getting by day to day, paying the bills, educating the kids, holding together marriages, making it through work."

VITAMEDIAS
New York Times Photographer Staged News Picture: The New York Times acknowledged Friday that one of its staff photographers violated journalism ethics and company policy when he had a child pose for a news photograph that was published last month in some of the paper's editions. [ver também Wire Service Says Reporter It Fired Invented His Sources

VITAMEDIAS
Singleton Urges Newspapers To Embrace Web And Focus On Local News
Urging newspapers to use the Internet and media convergence to grow readership, William Dean Singleton told the Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) meeting here that focusing on local news was the key to newspapers' survival.

VITAMEDIAS
Mags Feature Breast Cancer More Than Heart Disease: Heart disease is a much greater threat to women's health than breast cancer, yet most popular magazines, and women's magazines in particular, devote more space to covering breast cancer, new study findings show.

ECO-TERRORES
Triumph or failure? What at first seemed a triumph for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is fast turning to failure. The way the siege at a Moscow theatre held by Chechen rebels was ended has won him few friends, at home or abroad

ECO-TERRORES
Gore Vidal claims 'Bush junta' complicit in 9/11: America's most controversial writer Gore Vidal has launched the most scathing attack to date on George W Bush's Presidency, calling for an investigation into the events of 9/11 to discover whether the Bush administration deliberately chose not to act on warnings of Al-Qaeda's plans.
Vidal's highly controversial 7000 word polemic titled 'The Enemy Within' - published in the print edition of The Observer today - argues that what he calls a 'Bush junta' used the terrorist attacks as a pretext to enact a pre-existing agenda to invade Afghanistan and crack down on civil liberties at home.
Vidal writes: 'We still don't know by whom we were struck that infamous Tuesday, or for what true purpose. But it is fairly plain to many civil libertarians that 9/11 put paid not only to much of our fragile Bill of Rights but also to our once-envied system of government which had taken a mortal blow the previous year when the Supreme Court did a little dance in 5/4 time and replaced a popularly elected President with the oil and gas Bush-Cheney junta.'

VITAMEDIAS
So who actually reads Metro? All newspapers are painfully aware of their circulation figures - but how many can say they truly know their audience? After organising a panel of 3,000 of its 840,000 readers, [the morning newspaper distributed free in eight British cities] Metro can

.DE!
Bjork's Mom Continues Hunger Strike... against a plan to develop the Icelandic highlands.
[30.10.02] Bjork's mom ends her hunger strike

ECO-TERRORES
Who Will Get $500,000 for Tip Leading To Suspect? A half-million-dollar reward awaits the tipster or tipsters whose information will prove to have led directly to the arrest and indictment of whoever terrorized the Washington area these past three weeks. [...]
If the history of big payouts for crime-solving tips is any guide -- with competing tipsters sometimes winding up in court -- this one could be a mess.

VITAMEDIAS
Group accuses Reuters of IT break-in: Intentia, a Swedish information technology group, will today file criminal charges against Reuters after the UK news agency published the company's third-quarter results before they were officially announced last week.
The Swedish company accused Reuters of breaking into its IT systems without authorisation last Thursday, the day it published the figures.
Reuters also published third-quarter figures from three other Nordic companies last week before the results were officially released [...]
Intentia said an internal investigation showed there was "unauthorised entry" into its IT systems "via an IP address belonging to Reuters".
"The entry took place at 12.51pm on October 24. At approximately 12.57pm Reuters published the first news flash giving information on Intentia's third-quarter result without prior confirmation from the company. Intentia issued its earnings report ahead of schedule at 1.22pm on the same day."

ECO-TERRORES
Hady Hassan Omar's Detention: On Sept. 12, 2001, without being charged, he was put behind bars for 73 days. Now he is suing the government, and his case, the first of its kind, raises difficult questions about the costs of homeland security.
Hady Hassan Omar had made up his mind. He was going to kill himself if he wasn't released by New Year's Eve. [...]
Since his arrest on Sept. 12, 2001, Omar had been fighting a losing battle. No one would believe that he had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He passed polygraph tests, but the F.B.I. still seemed convinced that he was linked to Al Qaeda. The guards in the isolation wing of Pollock maximum-security penitentiary in Louisiana kept telling him that under new antiterror measures, he could sit in jail forever. He wrote the attorney general. He even went on several hunger strikes. But the corrections officers just threatened to strap him to a gurney and force-feed him through a tube up his nose.

CONTAMINANTES
Embouteillage factice en orbite: La spéculation sur les réservations de créneaux satellite brouille la carte du ciel.
A 36 000 kilomètres au-dessus de la Terre, la spéculation se porte bien, merci. Là-haut, sur l'orbite géostationnaire, de vrais satellites transmettent des programmes télé ou relaient des coups de téléphone. A côté d'eux se trouvent un grand nombre de «satellites de papier», de simples places réservées par des Etats dans l'espoir de tirer un bon prix de ce petit bout d'espace limité, donc potentiellement très lucratif. Voire simplement pour ne pas se faire piquer le créneau par le voisin. «C'est un problème très important, estime le Français François Rancy, de l'Agence nationale des fréquences. Car, du coup, il est difficile de savoir si la saturation de l'orbite est réelle.» Autrement dit, un tas de «faux» satellites occupent des places qui pourraient être utilisées pour en mettre de vrais.

ECO-TERRORES
Are snipers terrorists, too? Atomized cells. Leaderless revolutionaries. Soft targets. After Sept. 11, these were the dangers that intelligence officials warned about. The sniper case amplifies them all.

.DE!
Histórias caninas: Minnesota Man Shot by His Dog While Pheasant Hunting
Courtney's lost love: Courtney Love's telling pals she's devastated by the tragic death of her dog! When Courtney had a doc remove her breast implants, she brought them home as "souvenirs"... and the poor pooch ate one and died!
First dog in space died within hours: The dog Laika, the first living creature to orbit the Earth on a one-way trip onboard Sputnik 2 in November 1957, did not live nearly as long as Soviet officials led the world to believe.
Soviet officials had said she died painlessly in orbit about a week after launch, but new information just released says she died from overheating and panic just a few hours after the mission started.

ECO-TERRORES
Making a Killing: The Business of War
At least 90 companies that provide services normally performed by national military forces – but without the same degree of public oversight – have operated in 110 countries worldwide, providing everything from military training, logistics, and even engaging in armed combat. Amid the global military downsizing and the increasing number of small conflicts that followed the end of the Cold War, governments have turned increasingly to these private military companies to intervene on their behalf around the globe, a new investigation by the Center for Public Integrity’s International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found.

VITAMEDIAS
Journalists not exempted from market abuse rules: The European Parliament [...] refused to grant journalists exemption from being prosecuted if they are found to have disseminated insider information concerning financial instruments or suggested investment strategies.

ECO-TERRORES
Walk the Walk: Gait Recognition Technology Could Identify Humans at a Distance and Play Role in Homeland Defense
The characteristics of your walk may not be as distinctive as the swaggering of John Wayne or the sashay of Joan Collins, but your stride may still be unique enough to identify you at a distance -- alone or among a group of people.
ID Them By the Way They Walk

VITAMEDIAS
Não há Internet grátis: O futuro da SIC Online por João Pedro Galveias, Director de Entretenimento Digital; Lourenço Medeiros, Director Editorial; Rui Monteiro, Director-Geral
Como sempre aconteceu, caberá ao público, escolhendo o que quer pagar, decidir da viabilidade dos projectos. [...]
Grande parte deste conteúdo passa a partir de agora a estar acessível, em exclusivo, a partir do SIC Mais.
Em Portugal e em todo o Mundo. [...]
Na SIC Online, acreditamos que os bons conteúdos têm valor.
[Um primeiro problema é que o endereço SIC Mais não está a funcionar; um segundo é que estou sem saber como aceder por banda larga, e um terceiro é que as condições gerais apontam para tudo ser feito pelo sítio Web, o que é um "catch 22" quando não está a funcionar:
6.1 Dada a natureza do serviço (inexistência de identificação do Utilizador e de vínculo contratual entre o Acesso Total Mais e o Utilizador), o Utilizador reconhece que a SIC Mais poderá suspender a prestação do Serviço em qualquer altura, sem qualquer tipo de pré-aviso, desenvolvendo no entanto todos os esforços para manter o Utilizador informado, através do site do Acesso Total Mais, sobre os motivos desse eventual suspensão.
7.1 Qualquer comunicação entre as partes, para efeitos deste Contrato, deverá ser efectuada exclusivamente através de mecanismos disponíveis no site do Acesso Total Mais.]

VITAMEDIAS
Relatório do Grupo de Trabalho sobre o Serviço Público de Televisão
Contrato de Concessão do Serviço Público de Televisão Celebrado Entre o Estado e a RTP em 31 de Dezembro de 1996
SIC: Publicado na íntegra: Relatório do serviço público de televisão

ECO-TERRORES
Chechen Mujahidin Message Translation: We came to the capital of Russia either in order to stop the war or to gain martyrdom in the path of Allah here [questões contaminantes ou, pelo modo de actuação, replicantes, o que também pode suceder com o "sniper" de Washington...]

CONTAMINANTES
A patently absurd invention? Inventors have been registering bright ideas with the UK Patent Office for 150 years. While the flush toilet, computer and aspirin have proved invaluable, the same cannot be said of every innovation.

.DE!
Priceless...

VITAMEDIAS
Blogger hacked: Any of you who use Blogger will want to log in right now (if you can) and delete your server information and passwords. It looks like a hack is in progress that first switched many users' passwords or server information to "hacx0redbyme" or "hax0redbyme" and is now prohibiting lots of users from logging in. Tom pointed the problem out to me, and at that point it was mostly Pro users having problems, although it seems to be everyone now.
Blogger has suffered a security intrusion by a "haX0r.": We have all the data that was changed backed up within a couple hours of the attack, so we can have things pretty much back to normal soon. Of course, we're assessing the situation as thoroughly as possible to make sure it doesn't happen again. Also, if you store your FTP login information in Blogger, it wouldn't hurt to change that on your server—though it is unlikely that information was accessed. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Update: We have found the cause of the vulnerability and have patched it. Everything is back restored and back online with the exception of the API server and bSTATS.
Blogger has been severely hacked

CULTURAS IN VITRO
CIA mind-control trials revealed as secret inspiration behind 'A Clockwork Orange': Anthony Burgess was inspired to write his most famous novel A Clockwork Orange by his real-life involvement in CIA-run mind-control experiments, a new biography claims.
The revelations, published next month, come as the controversial film version gets its first mainstream British television screening.
The new biography claims A Clockwork Orange's central theme – the use of brainwashing to quell evil impulses in the criminal mind – arose from Burgess's involvement with the British secret service and the CIA experiments.

VITAMEDIAS
Loving, making, also critiquing music: Only natural? Or naturally conflict-prone?
Those who can, do.
Those who can't, usually end up writing about it.
But in Philadelphia, those involved in the original-rock scene are increasingly doing both: Several established figures in local media are involved in musical endeavors that are thriving locally and, in some cases, nationally. Their success is raising questions about the once-clear separation between creators and commentators.
When people covering a subculture are involved in it as artists, how do you guard against potential abuses? Does media affiliation benefit a fledgling outfit?
Those are the types of issues few anticipated when they first strapped on a guitar or picked up a notebook, says Joey Sweeney, the acidic Philadelphia Weekly writer who leads The Trouble With Sweeney, an alt-rock band that has earned favorable notices in Spin magazine and elsewhere. "It's not something you think about right away, but it's there, and it's happening more and more. Ethically, it's a field of land mines."

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Uncovering Art in the Ache of Being Spied Upon: An artist sees beauty where others may not. In the case of Arnold Mesches, in his F.B.I. files.
Granted, there was pain: the realization that for 27 years, through the Red Scare of the 1950's, people Mr. Mesches thought to be friends had been spying on him. A lover; a student, who, it would transpire, was photographing him with a tiny camera in his tie; a buddy with whom he attended a funeral; his next-door neighbors, to whom he and his wife had given their stroller and baby clothes.
But there was something besides curiosity that made Mr. Mesches, lifetime leftist activist, request his files.

CONTAMINANTES
Destination Lisbonne [o costume...]

VITAMEDIAS
10 pubs dingues à visionner en ligne [La plus culte: Super Timor (Côte d'Ivoire)...]

VITAMEDIAS
Arts & Letters Daily to Resume Publication After Purchase by The Chronicle

VITAMEDIAS
As BBC Flourishes, U.K. Changes Rest of the Dial: The British government, eager to reinvigorate the country's tired commercial broadcasting sector, plans to give U.S. and other foreign media companies the chance to swallow up the country's private-sector broadcasters.
The government recently introduced new legislation to allow non-European ownership of Britain's commercial TV and radio stations, and it's expected to become law next year. Executives from Viacom Inc., Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc. are already sniffing around.

VITAMEDIAS
The right way to do media: While AOL struggles, McGraw-Hill's boring "old-media" is producing
As the financial world digests the results of media giant AOL Time Warner, parent of CNN/Money, it pays almost no attention to a predictable, reliable, profitable - and, dare I say, boring - competitor: McGraw-Hill.

VITAMEDIAS
Where Net Luminaries Turn For News: If the digerati gathered here [Jaron Lanier, Howard Rheingold, Sherry Turkle, Bob Metcalfe, Henry Jenkins, John Sculley, Buzz Bruggeman, Polly LaBarre] represent the leading edge of the Internet Age, reflecting where our wired society may be headed a few years hence, then online news publications have their work cut out.

VITAMEDIAS
Smaller U.S. newspapers last to get caught in Web: They have embraced the Internet, even though using it loses money for many of them.
Fewer than 100 of the 1,400 U.S. dailies and several hundred community weeklies have resisted setting up news sites on the Internet, or in some cases abandoned ones they started.
But newspapers that publish only with ink and paper are dwindling by the week, with about 2,200 now online.
The recent converts are succumbing to pressure from customers while devising ways to avoid losing money from the start, unlike larger publishers who poured vats of cash into a future that never arrived as planned.
And as often with technology, the laggards have benefited from the trial and error of the pioneers.
Small newspapers that have recently added Web sites have been more aggressive in seeking paid subscriptions for them.
Because of software innovations, papers need little time and scant manpower to reformat news and ad files to accommodate the Internet - a far cry from years ago when media chains added hundreds of electronic employees they later had to let go.

VITAMEDIAS
MIN Magazine Names the People and Magazines 'To Watch' in '03
The Magazines to Watch:
· FHM
· Living Room
· Popular Science
· Fast Company
· Bio-IT World
· Oil & Gas Journal
· Technology Review
· Farm Journal
· Current Psychiatry
The People to Watch:
· Michael Kelly, editor at large, Atlantic Monthly
· Alexandra Kennedy, editorial director, FamilyFun
· Frank Lalli, VP, development, Reader's Digest Association
· Emil Wilbekin, editor-in-chief, Vibe
· Elizabeth Crow, consumer editorial director, Primedia
· Michael Clinton, executive VP/chief marketing officer, Hearst Magazines
· Mary Berner, president/CEO, Fairchild Publications
· Lori Burgess, publisher, Elle
· Paul Mackler, president/CEO, Cygnus Business Media

VITAMEDIAS
Is it adieu to the Trib?: Now it has a single owner the International Herald Tribune looks doomed
With advertising revenue still falling after years of media recession, and with far less money in its coffers than The New York Times, the Post had little choice but to concede defeat on Tuesday and hand over its 50 per cent share, albeit reluctantly.

VITAMEDIAS
Media played key role in sniper hunt: Early in the serial sniper investigation, police unsuccessfully tried to tightly control the media, pleading that they stop reporting information not officially released. Before long, investigators realized they needed the media and began using news outlets to communicate with the killer. And in the end, through aggressive reporting and unusual cooperation with authorities, the media played a significant role in the capture of the two suspects.
'Cable networks have reached a new low': Covering the sniper is akin to covering a war. The press has a responsibility not to reveal tactics and troop movements, or compromise public safety. News channel coverage essentially gave the killers a free education in police procedure, and it was shamefully irresponsible," said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Some beg to differ.
With the Sniper, TV Profilers Missed Their Mark [Fenómeno Maya]
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It wasn't, apparently, the work of al Qaeda operatives. It wasn't an angry young white man working alone. It wasn't someone who lived in Montgomery County.
Almost everything the sniper "profilers" and pundits told the media over the past three weeks turns out to have been off the mark, considering the very real profiles of the two people arrested early yesterday. The men and women who had been described on the air and in print as "forensic psychologists" and "former FBI investigators" took many swings at the who and why of the sniper case - and mostly missed.

CONTAMINANTES
UFOs: Seeking the Truth Through Savvy Marketing
Call it a conspiracy (or savvy marketing), but a new poll released this week says a majority of Americans think the truth about unidentified flying objects (UFOs) is out there, yet the government is concealing it from them.

VITAMEDIAS
Free speech squeezed by copyrights? Rick Sanchez thought the bright folks at Mensa International would agree that his Pets or Food Web site was a joke. [...]
Web publishers have long been targets of zealous copyright and trademark holders, but free speech advocates say intellectual property owners these days are more aggressively training their legal guns on both small one-man-band Web sites and the Internet service providers (ISPs) that host or link to them, hoping to get pages or material removed. [...]
When Sanchez received Mensa's letter, he forwarded it to the Chillingeffects.org site. Launched in February by the Electronic Freedom Foundation and legal clinics at several prominent law schools, the site provides a clearinghouse where people can forward cease-and-desist letters and learn more about copyright and trademark law. [...]
Chillingeffects founder Wendy Seltzer said the project grew out of the sense that many legitimate sites were being shut down by legal threats. People who don't have legal training or lots of money often back down when they receive threatening letters from lawyers, she said. She hopes Chillingeffects, at the very least, will inspire people to analyze such letters to see if they're legally viable rather than just pulling content.
"We want to help people understand their legal rights," Seltzer said.

.DE!
Prostitutes Steal Secret Software from US Army: Prostitutes stole a portable computer with secret software from US Army soldiers currently conducting military exercises in Poland. The computer disappeared when three programmers of the US Army invited prostitutes to dinner and to drink. The men fell asleep rather quickly. However, when they woke up in the morning, they discovered that their computer disappeared

CONTAMINANTES
Unicef comes under attack for Big Mac funding deal: Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund, has come under fire from children's advocates for concluding a fundraising alliance with the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants.
A petition signed by delegates from the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action accuses Unicef of compromising its mission to promote good nutrition by associating with the giant American corporation. [...]
Soraya Bermejo of Unicef in Geneva said: "For several years, we've had a programme in the United States where children collect coins for Unicef in orange boxes at Hallowe'en. This year, McDonald's will help distribute these `trick or treat' boxes, which should enable us to increase the number of boxes used from five million to 20 million. The money raised will go entirely to polio eradication.

VITAMEDIAS
Technology magazine targets black readers: A magazine for Britain's black community is set to launch next month, aiming to bridge the widening "digital divide".
It will be distributed free around the country with leading black newspaper the Voice, which has an estimated readership of 47,000.
The new magazine, Admission, aims to bulldoze the barriers between technology and some quarters of the black community and will focus on four themes: e-government, business, education and leisure, including computer games and mobile phones.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Studios, RIAA warn CEOs on file trading: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and songwriters' associations have drafted a letter expected to be sent Friday to the Fortune 1000 companies, cautioning executives that employees' song- or movie-swapping could put them at legal risk.

CONTAMINANTES
Implantable Chip, On Sale Now

VITAMEDIAS
A steal? Lawsuits claim that the media merger [AOL + Time Warner] of the century was based on fraud
Indeed, several lawsuits claim that AOL was not merely a brilliant deal-maker; it may literally have stolen Time Warner.
To secure its prize, AOL offered a premium of almost $50 for Time Warner's stock, then trading at $65. Nearly three years later, and two years after the deal closed on January 11th 2001, shares of the now combined firms trade for 90% less than at their pre-merger peak. Over a dozen shareholder suits claim that what allowed AOL to support so lavish a price was fraud. The theory in each of the suits is that a series of “materially false and misleading” financial statements resulted in AOL's share price being far higher than would ever have been the case had more accurate data been disclosed. On October 23rd, the firm said it would restate its revenues for the past two years after an internal investigation into AOL's accounts.
No doubt an argument could be made that financial results were irrelevant to the euphoric prices paid for Internet shares. Still, the case poses a huge threat to the former boards of both firms, their accountants, bankers and other advisers.
Levin's Nightmare : Gerald Levin doesn't even work at AOL Time Warner anymore, but AOL's latest restatement could cost him $162.6 million.
Under a provision of the new Sarbanes-Oxley investor protection act, the SEC can force corporate executives to give back bonuses or profits from stock sales or options grants for 12 months after a financial report that is restated - if it finds that executive misconduct led to the revision.
AOL Time Warner said Wednesday it will have to restate earnings going back to the first quarter of 2000.

ECO-TERRORES
Sniper Case Closed?
Gun ballistic match for sniper rifle Here is the kind of comment we have been waiting to hear from law enforcement sources: "The general sentiment is we got our guys." After a night of incredible activity in the sniper case, authorities arrested John Allen Muhammad and his 17-year-old stepson Lee Malvo. The two suspects were arrested at a Maryland rest stop after police had searched a home they once lived in across the country in Washington State.
Ballistics match rifle to sniper attacks: Authorities seem to have already collected a massive amount of evidence against Muhammad and Salvo. A rifle consistent with the weapon used in the sniper attacks was found in their car along with a tripod and a scope. The car had also been altered so that one could shoot through a hole bored in the trunk.
Call to tip line provided break in case: The key tip in the case may have been a call to a police tip line suggesting that authorities take a close look at a robbery and murder that took place in Alabama in September. It looks like that call may have been placed by one of the suspects.
Potential Evidence: After checking into Alabama crime, authorities were able to match a fingerprint with Salvo and learn that the sketch of a suspect in that case was similar to the composite sketch of the sniper.
Sniper's message cites Cherokee tale: The last cryptic message that the sniper suspects told the police to read to the public was: "We have caught the sniper like a duck in a noose." The line comes from an old Cherokee Indian story. In the story, the duck got away.
‘Expert’ Marksman: Some initial background on John Allen Williams who changed his name to John Allen Muhammad after converting to Islam. He is a Gulf War veteran who has been described as physically fit and quiet.
Gun found in suspects' car matched to sniper shootings: So far authorities do not think that Muhammad and Malvo had any connections to an organized group. But both were known to speak sympathetically about those who carried out the 9-11 attacks.
Sniper Ties To Suspicious Ala. Camp?: Muhammad may have trained at an alleged terror camp in rural Alabama. Authorities first became interested in the paramilitary training center after 9-11. The name of the camp: Ground Zero.
Media face criticism in D.C. sniper coverage: Those who were up late enough huddled around television sets as the law closed in on the suspects. During this period, there was an enormous amount of news to report. But the full-time, special logoed, themesonged coverage has been going on for weeks. Did the always-on coverage help the case or hurt it?
Investigation Timeline: Here is a timeline of the major events in the sniper case

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Christina Aguilera is featured on the cover of the November 14, 2002 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Aguilera is expected to release her newest CD titled 'Stripped' on October 29, 2002.

.DE!
Accused Drunken Horse Rider Arrested: Deputies in Carson City, Nev., have arrested welder Manuel Carreon for alleged drunken riding.
A deputy spotted him slouched in the saddle of his horse as he rode on the sidewalk of a city street. The arrest report said Carreon told the deputy he had downed a 12-pack of beer.

CONTAMINANTES
Europeans Eager To Surpass U.S. As Biotechnology Leader: A French biotechnology company survey conducted by Deloitte & Touche gave a current look at the state of the industry in France, and by extension, a peek at European biotechnology overall, since France is a leader. Biotechnology has a slippery global definition, but for Deloitte & Touche, biotechnology means "any technological applications stemming from life sciences that uses biological systems or their cellular compounds, recombined or not, to produce materials or services."
Deloitte & Touche excluded big pharmaceutical and big agricultural companies from its survey, and made the stipulation that included companies have a physical settlement in France and have research and development expenditures in the country.

CONTAMINANTES
Pfizer Sues to Protect Viagra Patent: Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, said it received a broad patent on its impotence drug Viagra, prompting it to file lawsuits against rivals in a bid to fend off competition in a market analysts estimate could hit $4 billion by 2006.
Pfizer, based in New York, said its new patent prevents companies from introducing drugs that block an enzyme known as PDE-5 inhibitor. The enzyme affects blood flow in the body, which is important in treating erectile dysfunction.
Pfizer Claims Lilly, GSK, Bayer, ICOS Violate Viagra Patent: Lilly ICOS said it intends to "vigorously defend itself" against a claim by Pfizer Inc. that its erectile dysfunction candidate, Cialis, infringes on Pfizer's patent that protects the blockbuster drug, Viagra.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Dogs prefer Bach to Britney: The researchers studied the reactions of 50 dogs to different types of music at the National Canine Defence League's Rehoming Centre in Evesham, Worcestershire, UK.
They played either a pop compilation CD (including Britney Spears, Robbie Williams and Bob Marley), a classical CD (including Grieg's Morning, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Beethoven's Ode to Joy), a Metallica album or a recording of human conversation. There was also a silent control.
The dogs made most noise when listening to Metallica. But classical music calmed them down, making them rest more and stand up less. Ironically, Bach (as well as the other classics) had them barking least of all. Pop music made little difference to their behaviour, compared with silence.

VITAMEDIAS
Editors Say 9-11 Changed Journalism: Sept. 11 and its aftermath have forever changed journalism, the managing editor of The New York Times told editors gathered Wednesday for an annual four-day conference.
Gerald Boyd said the war on terrorism means journalists have to become experts in such topics as bioterrorism, and should ask questions about the countries aligning with the United States in its fight against al-Qaida, and about the need to battle Iraq.
"Everything about our daily role has changed," Boyd said as the Associated Press Managing Editors annual meeting began. "We have to understand and explain and put it in context. It means a high responsibility. There's no doubt it's harder to get information. The difference for us is some people are not exorcised over this. They feel it's unpatriotic to raise those issues."
Even on a local level, it is becoming harder to obtain information, said Melanie Sill, executive editor of The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C.

VITAMEDIAS
The Subject On Everyone's Screen: The Internet is abuzz with wild speculation and outrage over the rifle shootings that have killed 10 people and terrorized the Washington area. In a pattern that's becoming familiar when big news breaks, the Internet is where people turn to vent their emotions, share thoughts and drill down for information they might have missed or can't get from TV and newspapers.
Like the sniper, story seems unstoppable: In places such as Fort Wayne, Ind., readers want to see the story on the front page every day. And that sentiment is echoed by a USA Today poll Wednesday that found 57% of people say the media have been acting responsibly.

VITAMEDIAS
'Double dip' fears dent ad market: Fears that major economies will fall back into recession have hit prospects for recovery in the ad market, sector giant WPP has said. [...]
"We think 2002 will be better than 2001 in terms of the industry, and 2003 will be better than 2002," [CEO Martin] Sorrell told news agency Reuters.
"But the differences will be marginal. You will have to wait until 2004 until you see better growth."

VITAMEDIAS
Spending on online content to soar: IDC estimates that spending for online content worldwide will total over USD50 billion in 2002.
The research company predicts that worldwide spending for online content will rise by over USD108 billion through 2006.
According to IDC, the market for online content is being driven by businesses and consumers that are increasingly willing to pay for reliable sources of timely, accurate and complete information.

CONTAMINANTES
Doctors unite to push for tobacco ad ban: Ten million doctors across the world have joined forces to urge governments to ban tobacco advertising and clamp down on "misleading" claims made by cigarette manufacturers.
Medical associations representing doctors in 117 countries want world leaders to agree on a robust international treaty to curb tobacco use.
Activists Say US, Japan, Germany Block Tobacco Pact: Activists accused the United States, Germany and Japan on Thursday of thwarting efforts to reach a tough global pact against smoking and said other countries may need to seek a deal without them.
They said the three powers, home to big cigarette firms, were almost alone in opposing a sweeping ban on tobacco advertising in treaty talks in Geneva.

ECO-TERRORES
Lawsuit to Test USA Patriot Act: Two major organizations are set to sue the Bush administration over possible abuses of privacy related to the controversial bill passed after September 11. [...]
"We're trying to obtain statistical information, just to get a sense of how widely used the new Patriot Act authorities have been within the last year," a source close to the organizations said.
The source said that a secret FBI memo from April 2000 that was obtained by EPIC in an earlier FOIA lawsuit raises concerns about government surveillance practices. The memo is from the bureau's counterterrorism division and centers on surveillance operations conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

VITAMEDIAS
Las narraciones que nacen y se propagan en la Red: El debate sobre la presumida identidad o las diferencias entre bloggers y periodistas sólo interesa a estos últimos. El fenómeno va mucho más allá. Por ejemplo, Steven Jonson, ex director de la desaparecida revista en red Feed, considera que los blogs se convierten en instrumentos esenciales: 'Lo que los hace interesantes es precisamente la forma en que no son periodismo La verdadera revolución no tiene que ver con el periodismo sino con el manejo de información'.

VITAMEDIAS
Microsoft: Online ads "on a monster roll"
Weakness in the online advertising market has been greatly exaggerated, Microsoft said Wednesday, on the eve of a major overhaul of its MSN Internet service.
"We're on a monster roll," said Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president overseeing Microsoft's MSN division. "This is the best-kept secret in the industry, which is that the online ad industry is alive and well and actually kicking butt for a number of companies out there."
For the 2002 fiscal year, which ended June 30, MSN's online ad revenue grew $40 million, he said. Between June 30 and Sept. 30, it jumped 40 percent.

ECO-TERRORES
Got ID? Young Millionaires 2002
What does it take to make the list? Entrepreneurs have to be under 40, own a company that makes more than $1 million in sales and have that something extra that causes them to shine amongst their peers.

VITAMEDIAS
Periodismo digital: Más inmediatez e interacción con la información
El periodismo digital ha cambiado el proceso informativo tradicional, posibilitando una mayor inmediatez en su transmisión y potenciando su contextualización y la interacción con el lector, al que hace partícipe de la noticia, pero siempre fundamentándose en los principios básicos del periodismo convencional.

VITAMEDIAS
Nordic Ombudsmen Launch Attack on Web Ads
The four Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen on Monday launched an attack on several forms of Web advertisements. Ads that cover editorial text for a while (drop-down curtains) and animations that play across the screen are considered especially inappropriate, as they blur the line between editorial content and advertisement. The guidelines are similar to the ones previously agreed to by a large number of Norwegian media companies

VITAMEDIAS
Reporters Without Borders is publishing the first worldwide press freedom index
Top 25: Finland, Iceland, Norway, Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, France, Australia, Belgium, Slovenia, Costa Rica, Switzerland, United States, Hong Kong, Greece, Ecuador, Benin, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Chili, Hungary
The index was drawn up by asking journalists, researchers and legal experts to answer 50 questions about the whole range of press freedom violations (such as murders or arrests of journalists, censorship, pressure, state monopolies in various fields, punishment of press law offences and regulation of the media). The final list includes 139 countries. The others were not included in the absence of reliable information. [dica de Jornalismo e Comunicação]

VITAMEDIAS
All the News that Fits You Personally
Newsseer is both a straightforward news search engine and an adaptive tool that's constantly learning your interests to deliver personalized news tailored to your own needs.

VITAMEDIAS
Learning The Facts Of Life Via The Web: Say you're writing a report and need to double-check a fact or two. Or say you just heard something on TV or the radio and want to make sure it's correct. What do you do?
In the past, you reached for an almanac or encyclopedia or headed to the library. Today, in the Age of the Internet, these facts are as close as your computer screen.

VITAMEDIAS
Times Co. to Take Control of International Herald Tribune: A memo circulated to editors and foreign reporters at The Washington Post said that Times Company executives had accompanied their offer with threats.
The Post memo said that Times Company executives took the position that if they were unable to buy out the Post Company interest, the Times Company would "start its own international edition anyway" to compete with The Herald Tribune, and would block any further subsidy of The Herald Tribune's current deficit.
[mais parece um artigo do Washington Post que sai por engano no New York Times...]

CONTAMINANTES
Japan: The Missing Million
Teenage boys in Japan's cities are turning into modern hermits - never leaving their rooms. Pressure from schools and an inability to talk to their families are suggested causes. Phil Rees visits the country to see what the "hikikomori" condition is all about.
Hikikomori violence: The phenomenon of social withdrawal, or hikikomori was first drawn to the attention of the Japanese public following a series of highly publicised crimes.
Japan's Lost Generation: In a world filled with virtual reality, the country's youth can't deal with the real thing
Hikikomori: Homicidal Teens of Japan

ZITE
Watercyling fun

CONTAMINANTES
Good and Bad Marriage, Boon and Bane to Health: married people tended to live longer than their single, divorced and widowed counterparts.
The so-called marriage benefit persists today, with married people generally less likely to have surgery and to die from all causes, including stroke, pneumonia and accidents. At its widest, the gap is striking, with middle-aged men in most developed countries about twice as likely to die if they are unmarried.
Many have argued that the difference in life expectancy is actually because healthier people are more likely to marry. But an emerging group of marriage advocates has put a spotlight on the medical potential of the institution.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Publisher seeks next 'Godfather' author: Random House is making an offer it hopes a worthy author won't refuse: Resurrecting the "Godfather" characters immortalized by Mario Puzo.

.DE!
Woman shot when gun falls in commode
A Lake City woman was airlifted to Shands Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon, after her gun fell into the commode and shot her in the buttocks [...]
Reports say the woman had just taken classes on firearm safety and she had a fear of being robbed due to past incidents.

VITAMEDIAS
Is This News? Most TV Stations Aren't Covering The Election
The USC Annenberg School of Communications and others analyzed nearly 2,500 local new broadcasts between Sept. 18th and Oct. 4th and found little coverage of candidates running for Congress.

VITAMEDIAS
Results of the first poll show that support for the war is a result of government propaganda
Although the margin of error on individual poll questions ranged from plus or minus 6 to 8%, the relationship between advocacy of war on Iraq and misinformation on basic facts is statistically unlikely to have occurred by chance. This association reveals that what is actually being reported by most major polls is the ability of the Government and the Media to change the public perception by headlining exaggerated or erroneous government-provided information (propaganda). Retro Poll calls on the Corporate Media to carry out their democratic responsibility to bring forth and highlight the truth when government pronouncements are found to lack a firm factual basis.

ECO-TERRORES
E-mail offers Eves Tories' a strategy: Intercepted by Liberals: Advice shows MPPs 'taking orders from anti-Kyoto group'
A misdirected e-mail instructing Conservative MPPs on how to undermine the Kyoto Protocol was intercepted by the Liberals yesterday, causing embarrassment for a government that has yet to take a clear stand on the international plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The e-mail was compiled by National Public Relations, a media consultancy firm, at the request of the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions, an anti-Kyoto group.
The e-mail advises Conservative MPPs on how to deal with constituents' concerns over the controversial accord.

VITAMEDIAS
A regra da excepção
Certo barão de empresas foi, um dia, convencido pelos seus mais directos colaboradores a entrar no mercado virtual: havia que colocar o grupo _ online! Tal barão é habitualmente dado à somiticaria, a uma certa fome de unhas, mas, vá lá saber-se porquê, daquela vez, deu pano para a vela. Bem se esqueceu o brasonado pelo capital de que, na febril corrida ao ouro, os únicos a ganhar foram _ os vendedores de picaretas. [...]
O perito avaliou. E disse: Pagou quatro milhões e meio? A coisa ficava muito bem por três...
...Por três??? Ao barão ia-lhe dando uma coisa. Paguei quatro milhões e meio de contos quando podia só ter gasto três?
Ainda arquejava o grande patrão quando o especialista completou a frase: ...três mil contos. Não lhe fossem os sais logo chegados à base do nariz e ali ficaria o homem a rebentar de mais dores e gases do que as apoplexias que fulminavam os nédios abades de Eça de Queiroz.
Um outro descobridor de brasis em Portugal, conseguiu vender, por milhão e meio de contos, um portal a uma grande empresa de capitais dispersos pelo capitalismo popular. Quando quiseram usar a geringonça, tiveram de deitar todo o recheio fora e guardar só o nome.
[Será que está a falar de Balsemão e da Impresa, de Edson Athayde e do portal.pt?...]

VITAMEDIAS
No Links Please, We're European: To many Internet users, these "deep links" are the very stuff of the Internet; the idea that they might be controversial will come as a surprise. But to those knowledgeable of EU intellectual-property law, the Danish court ruling was no shocker. The Copenhagen jurist based his decision on the EU's directive on the legal protection of databases, which was approved in 1996 and has since been implemented in the legislation of all member countries.

CONTAMINANTES
VC War Chalking: A recent trend has emerged from London known as "War Chalking". Building on a long tradition of hobo chalk marks, War Chalking helps wireless hackers locate good sources of connectivity. With Silicon Valley's network of Venture Capital firms struggling to figure out which companies to salvage and which ones to shut down, we thought there could be a new set of chalk symbols emerging soon...

VITAMEDIAS
[Espanha] Internet, herramienta imprescindible para los periodistas: La inmensa mayoría de los periodistas consideran la Red como una herramienta imprescindible de su trabajo. Así lo revela el Estudio sobre el uso de la Red en los Medios de Comunicación, elaborado por AccesoGroup en colaboración con la firma Deloitte & Touche, que además señala que el 93% de los periodistas encuestados no pueden pasar sin Internet en su profesión.
El informe, que ha encuestado a 616 periodistas de 300 medios de comunicación, revela que estos niveles se alcanzan fundamentalmente en Madrid, Cataluña, Andalucía, País Vasco y Comunidad Valenciana. En el caso concreto de esta última, el porcentaje de periodistas que consideran la Red como imprescindible llega a ser del 100%.

VITAMEDIAS
Alvarenga recomenda "honra e honestidade" a jornalistas na despedida: Questionado pelos jornalistas sobre a sua saída, Alvarenga Sousa Santos limitou-se a desejar-lhes "muitas felicidades" e recomendou que cumpram a sua missão "sempre com muita honra e honestidade". [E porque não especifica o porquê da recomendação?...]

VITAMEDIAS
Parent Companies Weigh Focus Of International Herald Tribune: Since its 1887 birth as the European edition of the New York Herald, the International Herald Tribune has been an institution with American expatriates and travelers wanting to keep up with stateside news. Today, the paper is co-owned by the New York Times Co. and Washington Post Co., and features articles from both publications.
But the two companies have held discussions on changing their 11-year old ownership arrangement, said people familiar with the matter. One of the possibilities being discussed: the New York Times taking over the Washington Post's stake and launching its own international edition. But the joint ownership of the Trib could also continue, these people say.

VITAMEDIAS
Ask I Want Media: Do you have questions about media? Maybe I Want Media can help.

VITAMEDIAS
Wire Service Says Reporter It Fired Invented His Sources: The Associated Press said yesterday that it could not verify the existence of more than 45 people and a dozen organizations cited in news articles written by a reporter who was fired by The A.P. last month.
The reporter, Christopher Newton, was dismissed on Sept. 16, eight days after the publication of an article on criminal justice statistics that quoted two people — "Ralph Myers" of Stanford University and "Bruce Fenmore of the Institute for Crime and Punishment in Chicago" — who could not be found. A.P. editors found no trace of the institute either.

VITAMEDIAS
TV adds to sniper hysteria: The bustling press is determined to wrench a blockbuster story out of the Washington shootings even before there is one.
As entrepreneurs register the names "Beltway sniper" and "Washington shooter" as Web site names, journalists covet a conclusion.

VITAMEDIAS
Original programming smiles on dot-coms again: When the dot-com bubble burst, so did grand plans to turn the Internet into the TV of the future. But three high-profile projects premiering this week suggest a renewed interest in watching original entertainment on PC screens

ECO-TERRORES
A discussão na Assembleia da República do Orçamento de Estado para 2003 inicia-se às 15 horas e 55 minutos. Apesar da desculpa do presidente da Assembleia da República Mota Amaral sobre uma visita oficial, fica o exemplo para a produtividade e o absentismo, tanto mais que "de facto, a evolução da produtividade em Portugal, nos últimos anos, manteve-se em linha com a média europeia, o que impede uma convergência rápida com a UE" [sic].
Alguém me explica o que quer isto dizer num Orçamento de Estado que alerta para a falta de produtividade?

PHOTO-GRAFIA
The poetry of an image [e a sua manipulação digital para efeitos da "poetry"]

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Manuel Álvarez Bravo [1902-2002]: el artista y su tiempo

CULTURAS IN VITRO
The Best Quotes From 'The Simpsons' - Right Wing News (Conservative News and Views)

VITAMEDIAS
Pierce: blogs need to 'provide a freaking service'
"bloggers are missing their windows of opportunity. people have plenty of ways to get to their news and columns from more famous writers who editoralize. what the kids want today are links to things that no one else is linking to. tell them something they dont know."

.DE!
Why did you steal 40,000 hotel coat hangers, knowing that hotel coat hangers are designed to be useless outside hotel wardrobes?

.DE!
Woman, 74, dies during sex with young lover... while her husband was sleeping in the other room.

ECO-TERRORES
Sleuth Without a Badge: Retiree Ed Lake has become obsessed with the anthrax case - and he has a theory about who did it

CULTURAS IN VITRO
A Burning Question: Does Intel want you to steal music? In light of the lingering controversy, it's startling to see a recent Intel commercial featuring a bunch of kids having the time of their lives using their PCs to burn their own CD compilations, all to the tune of a pop song by Moby. Here's a major company that seems to be shrugging at piracy and with a major recording artist involved to boot.

CONTAMINANTES
Inflation threatens EverQuest economyThe company behind the online fantasy game EverQuest has started punishing players who have found a way to bend the game's rules and almost literally make money.
The crackdown has happened because the huge amounts of virtual cash that people were pumping into the game world were threatening to bring the EverQuest economy to its knees.
If left unchecked the influx of cash could have prompted hyperinflation and made it impossible for beginning players to get on in the game world.
An E-Mayor for Virtual L.A. City: Strassman, president of research and consulting company Etopia, has been an evangelist of e-government for 26 years. He believes that putting government online will vastly increase the quality of life in the Valley and serve as an example for other municipalities.
He's so convinced of the power of the Internet that he's basing his entire campaign around his website, Strassman for Mayor. He has no staff or headquarters, and runs his entire campaign from a laptop in his apartment.

VITAMEDIAS
Les quotidiens gratuits font leur nid: Mais «Metro» et «20 Minutes» sont encore loin de l'équilibre financier.
Plus de huit mois après une naissance dans la douleur, faite de fureur du syndicat du Livre CGT et d'angoisse des journaux payants, les gratuits 20 Minutes et Metro se sont installés dans le paysage de la presse quotidienne. Un lectorat adepte du «vite lu», un début de portefeuille d'annonceurs : vont-ils réussir leur pari ? Certes, ils slaloment en marge des contraintes et charges des quotidiens payants en matière de distribution, d'impression ou même de salaires... Mais la route sera longue jusqu'à l'équilibre financier. Chacun s'est donné trois ans pour remporter la partie. Et assure être sur la bonne voie.

VITAMEDIAS
Demand for more ugly people on TV: Lecturer Trond Andresen of the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim accuses the media of discriminating against the ugly and emphasizing beautiful people whenever possible. Andresen wants higher ugly quotas on television.
"Ugly people should be spotlighted in the media in the same way that the media wishes to emphasize persons from ethnic minorities," Andresen, a lecture at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, said to newspaper Bergens Tidende.
Andresen blasts journalists, photographers and TV producers for concentrating on beautiful faces and bodies and accuses the press of choosing attractive interviewees from schools or the workplace, and avoiding others.
Andresen compares the phenomenon with racial discrimination. "Ugly people are as ignored today as dark-skinned people. They are told daily that they are inferior. This isn't done openly, but indirectly, by overlooking them, by focusing on appearance in advertising, TV-series, magazines, schools and in groups," Andresen said.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Booker is 'won' a week early: It was red faces and bad Latin at the Man Booker Prize yesterday afternoon when the award's website inadvertently carried news of a winner well before next week's announcement.
The "winner" of the 2002 Booker is Yann Martel for his novel Life of Pi, which tells the story of the sole human survivor on a lifeboat adrift at sea with a zebra, orangutan and tiger for company: an "extraordinary achievement", according to the Guardian's reviewer.
A Man Booker spokeswoman said the posting must have been an error caused by crossed wires between the prize's development website and the actual site. "The judges haven't met yet. I can guarantee that this isn't the actual result. There are six draft press releases for each of the shortlisted books and this is one of them."

CULTURAS IN VITRO
A nation stuck on one station? "Radio was once regional, as different as every town," [Tom] Petty says. "More and more, the whole country is listening to one station ... music is something that is magical, ultra-magical, and radio was an art form. Now it's something cold and different."

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Echo chambers, artspeak and attitude: This illustration of the two solitudes -- art people and non-art people, each a shadow world of the other -- points out a bizarre contemporary situation. Each group has no idea what the other thinks or doesn't think of them, and neither group seems to care. The small pool of educated people (in fields such as politics, law or media) still has little interest in visual art; the art world has no idea of its irrelevance in the larger world of educated people.

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Lawrence Lessig Blog com irónica ligação para o (interessante) trailer de Treasure Planet baseada na obra de Robert Louis Stevenson

ZITE
Industorious Clock ||| Mono*Crafts 3.0

ECO-TERRORES
Boeing Unveils Bird of Prey Stealth Technology Demonstrator: Boeing today unveiled the "Bird of Prey," a technology demonstrator that pioneered breakthrough low-observable technologies and revolutionized aircraft design, development and production. The once highly classified project ran from 1992 through 1999, and was revealed because the technologies and capabilities developed have become industry standards, and it is no longer necessary to conceal the aircraft's existence.

CONTAMINANTES
Generic drugs get push from Bush: President Bush on Monday proposed new regulations aimed at increasing the availability to lower-cost generic drugs by limiting the ability of drug companies to prolong patent protections. Bush said the change would save consumers $3 billion a year. [Será que ouve o que Durão Barroso lhe diz?...]

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Death row prisoners in the Abu Ghraib jail outside Baghdad shout from their cells as hundreds of Iraqis stormed the jail following the annoucement by Saddam Hussein that most prisoners were going to be freed. Only death row inmates were not released.

CONTAMINANTES
anti-telemarketing EGBG counterscript: Telemarketers make use of a telescript - a guideline for a telephone conversation. This script creates an imbalance in the conversation between the marketer and the consumer. It is this imbalance, most of all, that makes telemarketing successful. The EGBG Counterscript attempts to redress that balance.
Have We Reached the Party To Whom We Are Speaking? Telemarketers Aren't So Bad. Really. Just Ask 'Em.

ECO-TERRORES
Portugal no Financial Times de hoje
Deadlines are looming for forces of resistance: Since Portugal joined the EU in 1986, successive governments, the mainstream political parties and economists have all agreed that the answer to bridging the gap with the rest of Europe lies in what have become known as structural reforms - shorthand for the deep-seated changes required to:
* Modernise the justice, education and health systems;
* Improve the efficiency of the public administrative sector;
* Make the economy more competitive by reducing state intervention and ownership.
Despite this consensus, progress has fallen far below expectations.
For 16 years, vested interest groups have been repeatedly blamed for blocking reforms in defence of their own privileges.
Governments have been regularly berated for not standing up to them.
Spending cuts tighten to avoid EU sanctions on deficit:
"Recent growth in Portugal has been based on domestic consumption and investment resulting in a level of indebtedness that is impossible to maintain," says Ms Ferreira Leite.
"When internal demand contracts, Portuguese companies have always refocused on export markets. As members of the euro, we can no longer devalue our currency to encourage this trend. But export growth of about 6 per cent next year would be a perfectly natural consequence of contracting domestic demand." [...]
The most worrying trend for Portugal is that GDP growth is expected to fall below the forecast EU average of 1.5 per cent this year, interrupting a cycle in which the country has been steadily catching up with the rest of Europe in terms of GDP per capita.
The gap between GDP growth in Portugal and the EU average has been steadily falling since 1998, when Portuguese economic growth of 4.5 per cent was almost two percentage points above the EU average.
Paying a high price for a bloated civil service: Martins da Cruz, Portugal's foreign minister, has advice for the 10 countries preparing to join the European Union. Based on Portugal's experience, he warns them: Don't forget to modernise the public administration.
"This is an important lesson that I hope the candidate countries will learn from us," he says. "We were not successful in reforming our civil service and we are going to pay a high price to do now what we should have done long ago."
Portugal has an army of more than 700,000 state employees, one of the biggest public administrations in Europe in relative terms. The cost of keeping this bureaucratic machine rolling is a strain on the budget deficit and places a heavy burden on taxpayers.
The public sector wage bill amounts to 15 per cent of GDP, the highest level in the EU, where the average is 10 per cent. [...]
In addition, says Manuel Carvalho da Silva, general secretary of the CGTP-Intersindical trade union federation, there is often a stark contradiction between political commitments to streamline the civil service and the actual behaviour of governments.
"The reality is that politicians who talk about cutting back tend to hire thousands more public employees when they come to power," he says.
Politicians clearly have no wish to antagonise public employees, who account for 10 per cent of the electorate, and governments are regularly charged with swelling the ranks of the civil service to win votes.
Shake-up under way to raise output: "Low productivity is not part of the genetic code of Portuguese workers," says António Bagão Félix, labour and social security minister.
"They have proved as emigrants and in well-managed companies in Portugal that they are as hardworking and productive as the best in Europe."
Employers, government, trade unions and foreign investors all agree. "Portuguese workers are willing, hard-working, motivated and unassuming," says Ulrich Ehmes, managing director of the Portuguese operations of Leica, the German camera maker. "You will hear the same story from anyone you speak to."
Given the recognised qualities of workers, efforts to improve Portuguese productivity, by far the lowest in the European Union at about 60 per cent of the average, have to focus on why their hard work is not producing as much wealth as it could.
Manuel Carvalho da Silva, general secretary of the communist-leaning CGTP-Intersindical trade union federation, is sceptical that the official figures for productivity - a measure of output value for hours worked - accurately reflect reality.
"Portugal has a big clandestine economy, estimated at the equivalent of 24 per cent of GDP, which is not reflected in these figures," he says.