29 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Expresso apresenta, em primeira mão ao M&P, as maquetes e o projecto da Única e da Actual: Quase em simultâneo com a apresentação à redacção dos novos projectos editoriais, «realizados com a prata da casa», o director do Expresso procedeu a profundas alterações na organização interna da redacção. [...]
Razões para estas mudanças? «Havia uma tendência para se criarem quintas. Desta forma, cruzando as áreas aumenta o diálogo no seio da direcção», refere o director do Expresso.
CONTAMINANTES
Le véhicule professionnel se féminise: Les clichés sur les femmes au volant ont la vie dure. Les statistiques ont beau montrer qu’elles ont, en moyenne, moins d’accidents que les hommes, il n’en reste pas moins que l’univers de la conduite est encore pour partie associé à un domaine réservé à la gent masculine. Mais que sait-on vraiment de l’opinion des femmes au sujet des véhicules professionnels?
ZITE
Eclipse to be broadcast on Web next month: The CSIRO and Telstra have teamed up to broadcast the total solar eclipse on the Internet on December 4.
ZITE
Devices of Wonder
VITAMEDIAS
The media, war and Iraq: Six ways the next Gulf conflict will be covered differently from ’91
1) Censorship.
2) Closure.
3) Danger.
4) Training.
5) Mouthpiece.
6) Coverage.
Experts predict the war will start with soft troop movements - special ops trained in street fighting. Reporters may see very little.
[Calculating the consequences: Recent studies suggest that even a successful military campaign in Iraq could carry a hefty price tag]
VITAMEDIAS
Have You Read The News? Over the past 12 months, printing and publishing stocks in the S&P 500 have trounced the broader index by 37 points. Despite the runup, some stocks in the sector may still be attractive.
VITAMEDIAS
Germany's first online newspaper shuts forum: The Taz forum has been managed by volunteering editors and journalists of the paper who have in the past, engaged in an ongoing debate about censorship and the protection of others against sexism, racism and other delicate issues.
In a statement on the site, the newspaper explains: "We do not have the staff and assets to guarantee a professional moderation of the forum...Despite a precise definition of such words as defamatory, sexist, racist and so on, there will always be a grey zone. In recent months, unjustified complaints from former and present visitors of the forum have increased to such an amount that we and the directly involved journalists cannot tolerate this any longer."
VITAMEDIAS
Público mantém processo de recuperação de resultados, publicidade deverá cair mais de 20% em 2002

28 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Que futuro para os media em Portugal?: estudo realizado pelo Obercom (Novembro 2002)
CONTAMINANTES
Stem Cell Mixing May Form a Human-Mouse Hybrid: A group of American and Canadian biologists is debating whether to recommend stem cell experiments that would involve creating a human-mouse hybrid.
VITAMEDIAS
Mugabe steps up campaign against journalists: President Robert Mugabe's government has refused to renew the work permit for Agence France-Presse's Zimbabwe bureau chief as it steps up its campaign against independent journalists. [...]
Zimbabwe's information department invoked the Access to Information & Protection of Privacy Act, introduced this year, which bans foreign journalists from working in the country on a permanent basis.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Literary Devices: What happens when the Internet takes over from Shakespeare and Goethe? [Editor's note: With this story, Salon is proud to inaugurate a collaboration with Zoetrope: All-Story, the acclaimed short story magazine published by Francis Ford Coppola]
ECO-TERRORES
Record the Lens That Records You: Ronald Deibert, a University of Toronto associate professor of political science, wants people to grab their cameras and hit the shopping malls Dec. 24 and participate in World Sousveillance Day.
Surveillance means "to view from above." Sousveillance means "to view from below."

27 novembro 2002

ECO-TERRORES
Kissinger Named Head of 9/11 Commission: In an astonishing move that heralds stark limits on the scope of the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush today named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to be head of the congressionally mandated Commission that will conduct the next phase of the investigation.
VITAMEDIAS
Self-regulation is key, says study: Hostile governments clamouring for restrictive media legislation will only be held at bay by a combination of independent press councils and reader support for self-regulation, according to a new study. [...]
The research highlighted the need for independent press councils as a way of pre-empting governments "intent on imposing harsh media laws".
VITAMEDIAS
Hype in Health Reporting: Every day it seems there's a story touting a "promising" new medical product or treatment. Unfortunately, many of those news stories are based on public relations spin machines going into overdrive on behalf of the company that sells the product – whether it's a pharmaceutical company, a chain of diet clinics or a plastic surgery practice selling a new technique.
VITAMEDIAS
WLS Radio hanging up on callers who 'sound old': If you happen to sound like you're older than 54--regardless of what your actual age may be--don't even bother calling in to any of the talk shows on WLS-AM (890). You're not welcome anymore.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Students Learning to Evade Moves to Protect Media Files: As colleges across the country seek to stem the torrent of unauthorized digital media files flowing across their campus computer networks, students are devising increasingly sophisticated countermeasures to protect their free supply of copyrighted entertainment.
CONTAMINANTES
Photography at a Crossroads: In this digital era, the future of historical photos is at stake
In the almost 180 years since Niépce made the world's first photograph, inventors, artists, and photographers have used 150 or so chemical processes to create prints, says Dusan Stulik of the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. For many of these processes, no detailed technical account is available.
This problem is more than just a headache for historians interested in technological minutiae. Such knowledge is critical to the care and display of culturally, artistically, and historically important photographs.
VITAMEDIAS
Zaléa TV enfin sur les ondes: L'antenne de Zaléa TV est en effet ouverte à tous ou du moins aux «ONG, associations, collectifs, mais aussi aux citoyen(ne)s, aux cinéastes/vidéastes amateurs et professionnels et à l'expression-création de tous et toutes»
CONTAMINANTES
Face transplants 'possible within a year': Face transplants will be technically possible within six to nine months - now the public must decide whether the procedure is ethically acceptable, says a leading UK plastic surgeon.
VITAMEDIAS
Aillagon s'empresse d'oublier le rapport Kriegel: La ficelle raffarinienne commence à être usée : on lance un ballon d'essai, on attend les retombées médiatiques et on rectifie le tir. La philosophe Blandine Kriegel vient à son tour d'en faire les frais. De son rapport touffu sur la violence à la télévision, le ministre de la Culture et de la Communication, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, n'a rien retenu ou presque.
ECO-TERRORES
Prestige: une marée d'irresponsables - De la Grèce à la Russie, l'opacité règne autour du pétrolier.

26 novembro 2002

CONTAMINANTES
HUMOUSE tm
A design for creatures that are half man, half animal has raised fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Two critics of biotechnology want the U.S. Patent Office to answer them.
Neither man has any intention of actually making a chimera. Instead, by applying for a patent the pair hopes to prevent anyone else from making one.
ECO-TERRORES
As DNA banks quietly multiply, who is guarding the safe? Proponents of a national databank argue that it would dramatically aid genetic research and crime investigations. It could be managed by an independent body rather than the government or law enforcement. Advocates insist such a databank must come with guarantees that no one be denied employment or insurance based on genetic makeup.
Storing everyone's DNA profile would quell charges of racism over whose DNA is banked. It might also spur the passage of laws to bolster the security and accuracy of the data and provide stringent public oversight. "It would be far fairer and more effective than the current system," says Edward Imwinkelried, a University of California-Davis law professor and an expert on DNA evidence. "At least it's worth a debate."
CONTAMINANTES
The New Age of Service Robots: From Fighting Fires to Serving Beer
CONTAMINANTES
You Better Shop Around - Not! On Friday - the day after American Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year - and throughout the weekend, thousands of anti-consumerism activists worldwide will take to the malls to persuade shoppers not to shop.
CONTAMINANTES
Changing Places/House_n: MIT Home of the Future
ECO-TERRORES
Auto-ID: The worst thing that ever happened to consumer privacy
The European Central Bank is quietly working to embed RFID tags in the fibers of Euro bank notes by 2005. The tag would allow money to carry its own history by recording information about where it has been, thus giving governments and law enforcement agencies a means to literally "follow the money" in every transaction. If and when RFID devices are embedded in banknotes, the anonymity that cash affords in consumer transactions will be eliminated.
VITAMEDIAS
NBC News Creates Investigative Unit [Finalmente, uma tendência diferente?...]
VITAMEDIAS
Hooray, You Can Now Limit Your Google News Search To a Specific Source! For those of you Google News junkies out there, the folks at the Googleplex have turned on advanced limiting option that has previously only been available with the Google web database. You're now able to limit your search to a specific site for stories available via Google News.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
The Censor and the Artist: A Murky Border
Does using software to remove potentially offensive language, sex and violence from R-rated movies constitute censorship? Or, by allowing viewers to tailor films to their tastes, is it a reasonable concession to consumer choice?
This was one of the questions confronted at a conference on free expression and the arts at Columbia University last week that focused on new limits on artistic freedom in a high-tech culture. In this evolving environment, artists seeking access to images and information often find themselves in battle with companies determined to protect their content and trademarks from unauthorized use.

25 novembro 2002

ECO-TERRORES
FBI: Surge in Crimes Against Muslims: Hate crimes surged last year against people of Islamic faith and those of Middle Eastern ethnicity in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, the FBI reported Monday.
Incidents targeting Muslims, previously the least common involving religious bias, increased from just 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001
CONTAMINANTES
The Land Cigarettes Call Home: In Japan, half of all men smoke, and lung cancer is a leading killer. But then, the government owns 67% of the big tobacco seller.
ECO-TERRORES
CIA paying millions in Qaeda hunt: Foreign leaders fear impact on own intelligence
The Central Intelligence Agency, returning to some of its cloak-and-dagger ways to penetrate hostile territory, has handed out tens of millions of dollars in unmarked bills in recent months to foreign intelligence contacts in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda leaders, according to US officials and former CIA members.
ZITE
Did You Bring Bottles? (supermarket history and architecture)
CONTAMINANTES
Back to Human Nature? Andrew Norton talks to Francis Fukuyama
VITAMEDIAS
Don't Trust Daily News: Comedy Central cutup Jon Stewart thinks people should stick to legitimate news sources - instead of going to programs like his "Daily Show," "Daily Show," "The Late Show" and "The Tonight Show" to find out what's going on in the world.
Recent Pew Research Surveys show that about 29 percent of Americans under 30 are likely to cite Jay Leno, David Letterman and even Stewart as news sources.
"But the idea that somehow kids get their news from late-night television comedy is absurd."
VITAMEDIAS
Proposed Rules for Analysts Raise the Ire of Publications: Rules proposed by the New York Stock Exchange that seek to disclose Wall Street analysts' possible conflicts of interest would create a quandary for newspapers and magazines, lawyers and editors said
Under the proposed rules, which require the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission, when analysts talk to journalists about a stock, they would have to disclose whether they own that stock or whether their firms do business for that company. But the rules also say that if a publication did not print this information when citing an analyst in an article, then the analyst would be expected not to speak to that publication again. An analyst who did not comply could be subject to penalties that could include fines or even suspension.
VITAMEDIAS
America Online May Get Content From Time Inc.: America Online and sister magazine publisher Time Inc. are discussing an agreement under which a substantial portion of the content on Time Inc.'s currently free Web sites could be transferred onto America Online's struggling proprietary service, company executives say.
VITAMEDIAS
Study: Simultaneous Media Use Poses Ad Challenge: [A]dvertisers need to adjust their marketing campaigns to take into account the schizophrenic behavior of consumers in a media-saturated age.
VITAMEDIAS
Zapped Ads Are Zapped Sales: Advertising agencies consoled themselves about personal video recorders and their ilk by noting that the rollout of these new machines has been slow, while marketers continue to spend money on television advertising: Prices are at record highs this year.
But a new survey to be released Monday by Forrester Research shows that marketers are less sanguine than ever about the looming danger, and the survey is likely to increase the pressure on Madison Avenue to explore alternate forms of TV advertising such as product placement, sponsorship and content creation.
VITAMEDIAS
Will A Magazine Makeover Move Markets? On Madison Avenue, any change to a major consumer magazine - no matter how slight - is touted as an earth-shattering event. On Wall Street, denizens take a somewhat more skeptical view.
Some of the best-recognized and most durable magazine titles in the nation have been or are in the midst of being tweaked.
VITAMEDIAS
The Times they are a charging: After ploughing millions into their websites, UK newspapers are starting to impose fees for cyber services.
VITAMEDIAS
Publisher Neil Budde To Leave Online Journal: Mr. Budde [...] led the team that launched The Wall Street Journal Online in 1996. The Online Journal had 664,000 subscribers as of Sept. 30.
ECO-TERRORES
Transcript of Pentagon briefing on Poindexter's "TIA" program [ver Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases]
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines [in theaters 07.02.2003]
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Efforts to stop music piracy 'pointless': Record industry attempts to stop the swapping of pop music on online networks such as Kazaa will never work.
So says a research paper prepared by computer scientists working for software giant Microsoft.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
It's All About The Mobile Internet: Will record labels dominate the wireless music world?
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Lou Reed Pays Homage to Poe on New Album: Come January 28th, Sire/Reprise will roll the disc with The Raven, an ambitious new double-album from former Velvet Underground frontman and glorious eccentric Lou Reed that's sure to have fans screaming "nevermore!" Predictably, The Raven is heavily indebted to 19th Century American writer/poet Edgar Allen Poe, with several spoken-word readings of Poe's poetry set to Reed-penned scores. Deriving its title from Poe's most famous and celebrated piece, the opening track "The Raven" features the sultry voice of actor Willem Dafoe, otherwise known as "that weasel-lookin' fuck that got to pour hot wax on Madonna's nude-ass self." Cock.
In addition to Dafoe, Reed has invited a formidable array of actors and musicians to lend their respective talents to The Raven: Steve Buscemi, Amanda Plummer, Elizabeth Ashley, Fisher Stevens, and Kathy Volk will earn their money reading, while the musical cast will feature David Bowie (shock!), Ornette Coleman (okay, that's a shock), Laurie Anderson, Anna & Kate McGarrigle, and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. And lest the "Poe show" become an egotistical indulgence, The Raven will be anchored by Reed's long-time, accomplished bandmates Mike Rathke, Fernado Saunders, and Tony Smith. Hal Wilner, who also produced Reed's last studio album, Ecstasy, is manning the boards.
VITAMEDIAS
Crise, preguiça e descaso com o leitor: O maior risco do jornalismo declaratório é o de tornar os jornais intragáveis. E eles se tornaram, sim. E o de estimular a preguiça dos jornalistas. E os jornalistas se tornaram preguiçosos, sim. Essa é uma das razões que explicam a decadência dos jornais. Os leitores querem ser surpreendidos com a publicação de histórias que desconhecem. Com a explicação de fatos que não entenderam direito. E com a antecipação de notícias que ainda estão sendo paridas. Os jornalistas sabem disso. Os donos de jornais também. Mas pouco fazem para atender a essa justa demanda dos leitores. [...]
Os jornais já apelaram para toda sorte de truques com o objetivo de vender mais exemplares. Todos os truques se esgotam rapidamente porque tudo o que os leitores desejam é um jornalismo de qualidade. E independente acima de tudo. Os jornais apostam pouco na qualidade. Falta-lhes também imaginação, ousadia, atrevimento, coragem para quebrar paradigmas. E quando se vêem apertados financeiramente, cortam páginas, mandam jornalistas embora, empobrecem o conteúdo, aumentam o preço do exemplar – e querem mesmo assim vender mais.
VITAMEDIAS
Quem vigia o “Quarto Poder”? Os Cidadãos, assumindo plenamente a sua cidadania, devem vigiar o “Quarto Poder” [para ele não se tornar o "quarto do poder", diria eu...].
ECO-TERRORES
Fences and Windows: Who are the real globalizers? by Naomi Klein
With copyright now the single-largest U.S. export (more than manufactured goods or arms), international trade law must be understood not only as taking down selective barriers to trade, but more accurately as a process that systematically puts up new barriers—around knowledge, technology and newly privatized resources. These are what prevent farmers from replanting their Monsanto-patented seeds and make it illegal for poor countries to manufacture cheaper generic drugs to get to their needy populations.
VITAMEDIAS
Keep it to yourself: what you have to do to keep a secret really secret
How far, then, do obligations of confidentiality go? If, for example, an aspiring politician is drawn into an illicit private romp, would the signing of a confidentiality agreement by the other party (or parties) before the vital moment give legal protection? In principle, perhaps, yes; indeed the judge in the Flitcroft case held that sexual relationships are, by their nature, confidential, and to be protected. This partly extends the concept of the confidential nature of married life set down in the case of the Duke and Duchess of Argyll in 1964. But if the secrets reveal dishonesty by those in high places or those pretending to be different, public interest seems to demand, and the courts to support, that even express confidentiality should not prevent free expression.
VITAMEDIAS
Murdoch is best of British. Maxwell is 176th: It's official: Rupert Murdoch is Britain's greatest living businessman. In a gesture that one of the media mogul's own tabloid newspapers would struggle to make up, the Australian-born American citizen was voted best of British - by a rival proprietor.
VITAMEDIAS
World Press Freedom Review 2002: The global press freedom situation has once more deteriorated this past year. [...]
40 media professionals have been killed so far in 2002 with Colombia again in the first position (10), Russia again in the second position (4) and Mexico (3) and the Philippines (3) most seriously hit.
At least 119 journalists remained jailed at 1 November, against 111 at the same date last year, with Nepal as the front-runner (24), Eritrea as the runner-up (18) and the three steady jailors, Burma (15), China (11), and Iran (10) just behind.
Up to 1 November, WAN had issued almost 200 protests against serious violations of press freedom in more than 80 countries.
VITAMEDIAS
IHT starts [paid] online service with partners: Inadaily.com
VITAMEDIAS
Berlusconi n'a même pas besoin d'influencer la RAI: Par exemple, le directeur général a supprimé une émission satirique qui s'en prenait à Berlusconi. Mais celui-ci a affirmé qu'il n'était pas au courant de l'affaire et qu'il aurait au contraire beaucoup de plaisir à voir l'émission. Plus que de la censure, le problème à la RAI c'est une très forte autocensure.

22 novembro 2002

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Pencils of Light: Two albums of the Edinburgh Calotype Club, the first photographic club in the world, are among the earliest photograph albums in the world ever assembled.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Star Wars Creator Calls for Attack on Piracy: George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars movie franchise, on Tuesday pleaded with the technology industry to create a partnership with the media sector to stamp out online piracy of content.
"I am begging for co-operation. There are unintended consequences of piracy. If piracy is not stopped, the rainforest of the entertainment business ecosystem will collapse. I am pleading for the creative people in this industry," he said. ["the rainforest of the entertainment business ecosystem will collapse"?!?!?...]
VITAMEDIAS
El futuro de las industrias de medios informativos: Factores de cambio y escenarios posibles para 2005 y después
VITAMEDIAS
The Media-Magnate Subsidy: The owners of the city’s newspapers and television stations - Rupert Murdoch, Mortimer Zuckerman, Sumner Redstone, Ted Turner and the like - are some of the wealthiest men in America. You’d think their companies could afford to pay for work-related parking for their employees. Instead, they’ve stuck the city’s taxpayers with the bill. New York’s politicians, no doubt in an admirable effort to curry favor with the press barons, have seen fit to provide free parking to journalists. In fact, there are 598 spaces in some of the prime spots in the city that are reserved for those with press credentials, according to the city’s transportation department.
VITAMEDIAS
Prices not right for media deals: Nonetheless, prices for media assets have remained surprisingly high despite a serious economic downturn that has thrashed the media industry. "Prices continue to reflect the bullish psychology of 1980s and the 1990s," said veteran media analyst Hal Vogel.
Jim Rutherford, head of investment banking at media banker Veronis Suhler Stevenson, said high prices have played a role in the continued decline of the number of media deals, which have dropped by 16% this year - and 72% from 1999.
"People aren't putting things on the block because they're concerned about getting a good price," he said.
VITAMEDIAS
The Untold Story: How corporate takeovers make the media less curious
CONTAMINANTES
Free Web Research Link Closed Under Pressure From Pay Sites: The Energy Department has shut down a popular Internet site that catalogued government and academic science research, in response to corporate complaints that it competed with similar commercial services.
VITAMEDIAS
Woe is Media: It’s time to save journalism from its saviors.
In short, there have never been better conditions for journalism than in present-day America. Yet there is an influential movement, and an entire publishing mini-genre, dedicated to convincing us that’s not so. These scolds may defy common sense, but they’re still worthy of attention because they represent the consensus among the profession’s elite. At least for now.
VITAMEDIAS
Ziff Davis Media launches GMR mag: A new gaming magazine is coming Jan. 7, 2003 by the company that helped flood the marketplace with periodicals on gaming and gaming culture. [...]
The periodical is part of a combined effort between Ziff and Electronic Boutique, a specialty retailer of electronics games.
CONTAMINANTES
Voicemail: The Latest Front in the E-Discovery Wars
For business managers, information technology professionals and their lawyers, the recent explosion in awareness and use of electronic documents in litigation have presented great challenges. [...]
Voicemail may open a new - and perhaps more difficult - battle in the e-discovery wars.
ECO-TERRORES
Pentagon to Track American Consumer Purchases: A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said
VITAMEDIAS
Economist.com's "Subscriber Sponsorship" Scheme Through Oracle: Start of a New Trend?
ECO-TERRORES
Agency Weighed, but Discarded, Plan Reconfiguring the Internet: The Pentagon research agency that is exploring how to create a vast database of electronic transactions and analyze them for potential terrorist activity considered but rejected another surveillance idea: tagging Internet data with unique personal markers to make anonymous use of some parts of the Internet impossible.
VITAMEDIAS
Freedom of the press and economic development - World Bank: "A vigorous and independent news media sector can boost economic development around the world by promoting good government and empowering citizens." But things may not be quite that simple.
"This is one of the most often repeated and rarely tested folk theories in recent memory," wrote Alan J. Kuperman of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "It is terribly wrong."
ECO-TERRORES
Club 100: Over 100 Americans Gave More Than $100,000 to State Political Parties
ECO-TERRORES
Gerstner to Be Chairman of Carlyle Group: Louis V. Gerstner Jr., who is stepping down as chairman of I.B.M., will become chairman of the Carlyle Group. [...] Yet at Mr. Gerstner's insistence, the Carlyle post will be part time, taking up about 20 percent of his time. [ver Portugal na mira do grupo Carlyle Group]

21 novembro 2002

CULTURAS IN VITRO
Hoax Photo Test
VITAMEDIAS
A tese da meia hora: Estabelecer, como se de uma espécie de dogma se tratasse, que os telejornais da televisão de serviço público não devem ultrapassar os 30 minutos de duração, parece manifestamente um excesso de zelo da comissão nomeada pelo Governo. Que se saiba, a intenção governamental não era propriamente encomendar uma grelha de programação para a RTP.
Mas, do seu relatório, mais do que a definição das grandes linhas para o serviço público, resulta uma verdadeira grelha de programas. O que é manifestamente um excesso. Ora, que se saiba, a RTP ainda tem um director de informação. A não ser que o documento da dita comissão «independente» constitua uma candidatura colectiva ao lugar de José Rodrigues dos Santos. Será?
[ver 25 Recomendações do grupo de trabalho sobre o SPT]
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Top 100 Albums of the 1980s
CONTAMINANTES
New 'Jesus' campaign targets SUVs: Religious, environmental coalition begins campaign as government considers new rules.
What would Jesus drive?
CONTAMINANTES
Software aims to put your life on a disk: Engineers are working on software to load every photo you take, every letter you write - in fact your every memory and experience - into a surrogate brain that never forgets anything, New Scientist can reveal
It is part of a curious venture dubbed the MyLifeBits project, in which engineers at Microsoft's Media Presence lab in San Francisco are aiming to build multimedia databases that chronicle people's life events and make them searchable. "Imagine being able to run a Google-like search on your life," says Gordon Bell, one of the developers.
CONTAMINANTES
Scientists Planning to Make New Form of Life: Scientists in Rockville are to announce this morning that they plan to create a new form of life in a laboratory dish, a project that raises ethical and safety issues but also promises to illuminate the fundamental mechanics of living organisms.
J. Craig Venter, the gene scientist with a history of pulling off unlikely successes, and Hamilton O. Smith, a Nobel laureate, are behind the plan. Their intent is to create a single-celled, partially man-made organism with the minimum number of genes necessary to sustain life. If the experiment works, the microscopic man-made cell will begin feeding and dividing to create a population of cells unlike any previously known to exist.
.DE!
Global goofs: U.S. youth can't find Iraq: Young Americans may soon have to fight a war in Iraq, but most of them can't even find that country on a map, the National Geographic Society said Wednesday.
The society survey found that only about one in seven - 13 percent - of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.
VITAMEDIAS
Conservative journalist delights over Republican domination: "People often ask me if the press is biased, and I often answer with a question: 'Is the Pope Catholic?'"
Novak also defended President Bush against the media's negative portrayals. Although he received degrees from Yale and Harvard universities, Bush has the "smallest vocabulary of any president I've ever seen," Novak said.
ECO-TERRORES
Terror fears boost new security gadgets
What Does the Future Hold for Biometrics? Government usage will spur technology adoption, but the U.S. is lagging behind other countries, panel agrees.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Kodak Banking on Celluloid Having a Lot More Moments: The release of its Vision2 line comes amid rapid encroachment of digital technology, but most cinematographers still prefer to use film.
As digital technology lures television and movie productions away from celluloid, film giant Eastman Kodak Co. released Tuesday a new type of film stock aimed squarely at movie makers in an aggressive bid to protect its $1-billion entertainment business and keep its most critical customers loyal.
CONTAMINANTES
Study details technology's role in boosting productivity: The widespread adoption of technology has made American workers more productive and some businesses larger and more dominant, even during the recent recession, than they otherwise would have been.
That's the conclusion of a detailed study of the role technology has played in transforming the economy since the 1990s. Written by consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the report finds that technology by itself is not ``a silver bullet'' for all industries.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Sony to add download function to music CDs, while still preventing illegal music-copying
VITAMEDIAS
Masterplan for the media: The government's eagerly awaited shake-up of media ownership was finally revealed yesterday after months of consultation with the industry, consumers and regulators.
The communications bill sets out a blueprint for the future of the media sector, which will overseen by a new super-regulator - the office of communications. As an amalgamation of five bodies, Ofcom will have an unprecedented range of powers and be given the task of regulating broadcasting and telephony's three great powers: the BBC, BT and BSkyB.
New model media: The government should be congratulated for accepting more than 80% of the amendments to the communications bill suggested by Lord Puttnam's cross-party committee of MPs and peers. The bill, which merges five existing regulatory bodies covering broadcasting, television and telephony into one new one, Ofcom, now commands quite considerable cross-party support.
On the downside, the government has not overtly accepted the Puttnam committee's opposition to relaxation of the rules restricting foreign ownership of UK media until the new regulator Ofcom had reviewed the issue. The justification for this opposition is not xenophobic, it is simply that there is no reason why we should open our markets to US ownership while the Bush administration blocks reciprocal moves by UK media to buy into America. There is also a legitimate worry that if an American company buys ITV it may use it as a dumping ground for existing US programmes rather than a cradle to nurture our own creative talent.
CONTAMINANTES
Phones more disruptive than PC or Internet - Rheingold
VITAMEDIAS
Incentivos estatais aos órgãos regionais e locais descem 40%: Na totalidade, o executivo atribuiu uma verba de 2,3 milhões de euros ( cerca de 463 mil contos), sendo que deste valor um milhão de euros foi atribuído às empresas de radiodifusão.
CONTAMINANTES
The Prestige oil spill: Almighty mess, almighty row
A massive tanker has sunk off the coast of Spain, sending millions of gallons of heavy fuel oil into the sea and igniting a political row between Britain and Spain. It will not be easy to pin down who is to blame
Oil spill prompts renewed calls for crackdown on aging freighters: They're derided as ''environmental timebombs'' and ''floating garbage dumps.'' Yet more than half the world's 10,000 oil tankers are the old-style, single-hulled variety despite outcries after every disastrous spill, from the 1989 Exxon Valdez in pristine Alaska to this week's sinking of the Prestige off the verdant coast of Spain.
A U.N. treaty banning single-hulled tankers entered into force this year but the phase-in period stretches to 2015.
Until then, European Union officials say their efforts to impose stricter inspections are being subverted by shipowners who steer clear of EU harbors or avoid dropping anchor when they refuel or pick up supplies. Yet oil they spill can wash ashore anyway as the cleanup crews scooping sludge from Spanish beaches Wednesday can attest.
VITAMEDIAS
Antiterrorism: The Risks Of Censorship, The Threats To Privacy
CONTAMINANTES
Le commerce équitable sort de l'anonymat: Dans ses grands principes, le commerce équitable cherche à remplacer les rapports d'aide et d'assistance entre le Nord et le Sud par des relations commerciales "équitables", contournant l'échange économique inégal entre producteurs et consommateurs : un certain nombre d'organismes de commerce équitable se proposent d'acheter les produits du Sud aux prix définis par les coopératives d'artisans elles-mêmes, en fonctions de leurs besoins et de ceux de leur famille, en terme de santé, formation ou protection sociale. Le troisième volet de l'enquête menée par Ipsos pour la Plateforme pour le Commerce Equitable montre que ce type d'échange est de plus en plus connu, et adopté, par les Français.
CONTAMINANTES
Time Best Inventions 2002

20 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Forget the Sex and Violence; Shame Is the Ratings Leader: Viewers have shown an insatiable appetite for the queasy thrill that comes from watching an ordinary person suffer searing public embarrassment in exchange for 15 minutes of fame.
ZITE
The Waypath Project - an attempt to network the weblog community, connecting weblogs that share common themes, ideas, and topics.
VITAMEDIAS
Paper of Record - Building the world's largest searchable archive of historical newspapers.
ZITE
Make Your Own Bush Speech
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Pathe archive goes online [serviço público a sério, embora o motor de pesquisa precise de ser afinado: exemplo com Portugal]
ECO-TERRORES
Homeland security bill has Internet provisions: Internet providers such as America Online could give the government more information about subscribers and police would gain new Internet wiretap powers under legislation creating the new Department of Homeland Security [organigrama].
.DE!
The Odd Truth: Stupid Criminal Edition! (a collection of strange but factual news stories from around the world)
.DE!
Pilot who jumped faced U.S. probe: The body of a man under investigation for stealing a NASA laptop computer was found Tuesday, two days after he fell out of a small plane in what authorities said looked like a suicidal plunge.
ECO-TERRORES
Terrorism - Notes toward a definition.
ECO-TERRORES
The Saddameter, which monitors the chances of a U.S. invasion of Iraq.
ECO-TERRORES
U.S. watch list has 'taken on life of its own,' FBI says: FBI officials said Tuesday they have "lost control" of an agency-created watch list of people wanted for questioning after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Additionally, agency officials acknowledged that the list [será esta?], which has gone through several manifestations, has "taken on a life of its own" and has shown up on several Web sites and contains names of people who have been cleared of any possible connection to last year's attacks.
CONTAMINANTES
The Brain's Funny Bone: Seinfeld, The Simpsons spark same nerve circuits

19 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
NY Times chief talks on business of news: “It’s a circle: It’s quality news, it brings a quality audience, it drives quality advertising and quality readership which we reinvest in the quality of the news,” he said. “But the New York Times newsroom is an expensive place to operate, and our plans are great, but they’re not cheap.”
“Advertising remains the largest segment of our profitability, and yes, it is sometimes a challenge to balance our news and advertising,” he said. “But in the end it’s not that hard - in the end, advertising loses.”
VITAMEDIAS
Scanalog: a magazine cataloging system
CONTAMINANTES
Crippled oil spill tanker sinks
Le «Prestige» coule, le fioul reste
La catástrofe del Prestige
Mario Rodríguez, director de campañas de Greenpeace España, ha charlado con los internautas sobre las terribles consecuencias ecológicas que puede tener el vertido
Le désastre du tanker: chronologie et carte
El "Prestige" se convierte en un problema portugués, tras poner rumbo a sus aguas
Polémique hispano-britannique
Las mareas negras más desastrosas
VITAMEDIAS
The Conservative Corporate Media Lie: Study after study shows that reporters and editors are significantly more liberal than conservative, and that they are more Democrat than Republican. Simply go to the best resource for analyzing media bias at www.mrc.org to see the results of several studies that prove the liberal bias of reporters beyond a doubt.
VITAMEDIAS
Ad Spending Rises in First 3 Quarters: The medium with the largest percentage increase in ad spending for the first nine months was Spanish-language network television, up 25.5 percent, followed by local spot television, up 14.7 percent, and network radio, up 14.3 percent. The medium with the largest percentage decrease in ad spending for the first three quarters was the Internet, down 18.2 percent, followed by business-to-business magazines, down 17.4 percent, and nationally syndicated television programs, down 11.8 percent.
VITAMEDIAS
'Survivor' perks: making it in local news
Two news directors in big markets have gone out on a hiring limb recently, taking on former contestants from CBS’s popular “Survivor” franchise and trying to turn them into television news reporters.
The early verdict: so far, so good.
TVI Esvazia Programa da SIC: Gisela Serrano no Big Brother - Pelo menos, a entrada da nova concorrente na casa da Venda do Pinheiro, tornou o "reality-show" no programa mais visto de domingo, com 17,3 por cento de audiência média e 46,8 por cento de "share".
VITAMEDIAS
'NY Post' Staffers Create Headline Game: Challenge Your Hed-Writing Skills
.DE!
Taunton bank robbery suspect arrested after stopping for a drink: Perhaps if he wasn't so thirsty he would have gotten away with it.
ECO-TERRORES
The Calculator: How Kenneth Feinberg [who holds the title of special master of the 9-11 Victim Compensation Fund] determines the value of three thousand lives.
"The law gives me unbelievable discretion," he says. "It gives me discretion to do whatever I want. So I will."
ECO-TERRORES
Why Can't We Find bin Laden? His taped voice proves to Washington that he's alive and signaling spectacular attacks. An inside look at what the U.S. is doing to nail him - and why the campaign has fizzled so far
CONTAMINANTES
Ray Kurzweil's Plan: Never Die
ZITE
GooglePeople shows that with simple, yet effective, text mining techniques, answers to specific questions can be extracted from the vast Google data repository

18 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
U.S. media: Pervasive or not?
VITAMEDIAS
Whisper of revival for old media: David Herro is buying John Fairfax Holdings and other media stocks that are among the worst-performing of the $1.3 billion he helps manage. His bet: the stocks have rarely been cheaper and global advertising is set to rebound.
VITAMEDIAS
Ralph Lauren Makes Magazine Power Play: Editors Cite Unusual Pressure for Editorial Play [to try to gain editorial coverage for the brand's 35th anniversary]
CULTURAS IN VITRO
bIPlog: Berkeley Intellectual Property Weblog
CULTURAS IN VITRO
The Big Cartoon DataBase: The Internet's Largest Searchable DataBase of Cartoons, Episode Guides and Crew Lists!
CONTAMINANTES
Economics of Information Based (Network) Products: This is a course about the economics of information goods, those goods at the center of the modern economy. You will learn how information goods differ from regular goods, the nature of competition in these markets, how these goods should be priced, problems with copying these goods, and how markets with information goods evolve. We also will apply these and other basic economic concepts to an understanding of how the Internet economy will likely develop, why the dotcoms went belly up, and public policy issues surrounding these goods, such as MP3 downloading (Napster and its successors) the Microsoft case.
ECO-TERRORES
Collateral Damage: the health and environmental costs of war on Iraq
ECO-TERRORES
Human ID at a Distance (HumanID)
The goal of the HumanID program is to develop automated biometric identification technologies to detect, recognize and identify humans at great distances.
ECO-TERRORES
The social wars: In fact, political violence has never been at such a low ebb. Politically motivated insurrections, wars and conflicts have rarely been so few. Surprising though it may seem, and contrary to the media impression, the world is actually a calm and largely pacified place.
.DE!
The Indiscreet Charm of the Bush-Nazi Web Conspiranoids
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Will the real Bill Wyman please tune up? No journalist likes to get a letter threatening legal action, particularly one on creamy watermarked stationery bearing the imprint of a swanky Park Avenue law firm.
"It has come to our and our client's attention..." "...seriously misleading... unauthorized..." "...cease and desist..." "...your course of conduct..." "...the commencement of legal proceedings..."
The author was Howard Siegel, of Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn, of New York City.
As I read Siegel's letter more closely, I was shocked to see that the "cease and desist" part had to do with me using...
My own name?
[19.11.02] I'm the Other Guy No matter how copious my output, distinctive my tone or personal my material, people assume I am the droll, self-effacing 77-year-old two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who retired in 1998 after 36 years as a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page.
Will the real Jeff Stryker please rise: For The Man Who Was Born With a Porn Star's Name, Life Can Feel Like You're Being Stalked by a Preternaturally Endowed Sex God.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Net Culture: Between the Fast Lane and the Slow
Nancy Adajania addresses the aesthetic and political questions thrown up by the emergence, in India, of a culture built around the Internet. This culture, she argues, could radically transform our art experience in the future.
CONTAMINANTES
They're playing our symphony: What better gift could there be than a specially commissioned piece of music? It's cheaper than you think
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Spider-Man Creator Sues Over Film: The creative force behind Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil filed a $10 million lawsuit [...], charging his old comic book company is cheating him out of millions of dollars in movie profits.
Stan Lee, who crafted a menagerie of superpowered heroes with very human flaws, now claims Marvel Entertainment Inc. has tried to shut him out of the "jackpot" success of this summer's "Spider-Man" movie. [...]
"Spider-Man" has been the year's biggest hit, grossing more than $400 million domestically -- but the 80-year-old Lee says he hasn't seen a penny. [...]
Marvel has reported millions of dollars in earnings from the film but has told Lee the company has seen no "profits" as defined by their contract.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Dumber and dumber: We go to concerts to hear singers who lip-sync. We watch movies with actors who can't act. We watch "reality" TV shows that have nothing to do with reality. We read books by people who can't write.
When did everything become so dumb?
ECO-TERRORES
Bush Aides Consider Domestic Spy Agency: President Bush's top national security advisers have begun discussing the creation of a new, domestic intelligence agency that would take over responsibility for counterterrorism spying and analysis from the FBI, according to U.S. government officials and intelligence experts.
ZITE
VirtualFoodFight.com - Throw Food At Your Friends (obrigado, Jorge)
ZITE
Toiletology 101: Lesson Plan for Toilet Repair Course
CONTAMINANTES
Surgical tags plan for sex offenders: Britain is considering a controversial scheme to implant surgically electronic tags in convicted paedophiles amid fears that the extent of the abuse of children has been massively underestimated.
Documents obtained by The Observer reveal the Government could track paedophiles by satellite, with a system similar to that used to locate stolen cars.
The tags can be put beneath the skin under local anaesthetic and would also be able to monitor the heart rate and blood pressure of the abuser, alerting staff to the possibility that another attack was imminent.
VITAMEDIAS
The wrong kind of justice: The judiciary dislikes tabloid stings. It should be grateful for the help
VITAMEDIAS
Italy's ex-PM found guilty of ordering murder: Appeal court jails Andreotti for 24 years for conspiring with mafia in 1979 shooting of journalist
VITAMEDIAS
On Covers of Many Magazines, a Full Racial Palette Is Still Rare: A survey of 471 covers from 31 magazines published in 2002 — an array of men's and women's magazines, entertainment publications and teenagers' magazines — conducted two weeks ago by The New York Times found that about one in five depicted minority members. Five years ago, according to the survey, which examined all the covers of those 31 magazines back through 1998, the figure was only 12.7 percent. And fashion magazines have more than doubled their use of nonwhite cover subjects.
But in a country with a nonwhite population of almost 30 percent, the incremental progress leaves some people unimpressed.
CONTAMINANTES
Yahooligans! Top Ten Toys
VITAMEDIAS
La television publique vue d'ailleurs: l'Italie: L'impossible mission de Mamma Rai: Certains journalistes jugés hostiles à Berlusconi ont été mis à l'écart ou ont dû changer d'horaires dans la grille des programmes.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Speed thrills, say American TV producers: Actors in US sitcoms and drama series are speaking more words a minute than ever before in a bid to make their characters appear more intelligent and appeal to younger viewers.

16 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
[18.11.02] Avaliações polémicas na Lusa: A Comissão de Trabalhadores (CT) da Agência Lusa, reunida sexta-feira passada considera inválido e nulo o processo de avaliação em curso na empresa porque «está a ser efectuado à revelia da lei».
Fernando Trigo, director de informação da Lusa sublinha, no entanto, que a «avaliação solicitada não serve para promover nem para despedir os jornalistas», adiantando que a maioria dos editores já fez a avaliação pretendida pelo conselho de administração.
Confusão total na direcção e na redacção da Agência Lusa
VITAMEDIAS
Europe‘s best Designed Newspaper 2002: The main winners
Prémios europeus para o DN
VITAMEDIAS
Estilos: Eu sou capaz de resistir a enciclopédias e a dicionários, principalmente quando são caros ou quando é óbvio que não terei onde arrumá-los, mas não resisto a um livro de estilo. É certo que a designação me irrita um bocado; acho que deviam chamar-se livros ou manuais de redacção. O estilo é pessoal; se for colectivo (ou falsamente colectivo) é uma linguagem administrativa, desinteressante, baça e burocrática. «Livro de estilo» é expressão pomposa, indica autoritarismo e denota prepotência. Mas essa pretensão reguladora, que faz lembrar a UE quando se põe a determinar a dimensão de uma cana de pesca ou o comprimento ideal de um fósforo, tem aspectos fascinantes.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
700-year-old picture of 'Mickey Mouse' found in Austrian church: The painting, which has been dated back to the early 14th Century, is in the Community Church in Malta, Carinthia. Next to a large sketch of St. Christopher is a clear drawing of the mouse.
Art historian Eduard Mahlknecht believes the similarity to Mickey is pure coincidence.
CONTAMINANTES
Too Much Ventured Nothing Gained: In three years, from 1999 to 2001, venture capitalists raised $204 billion to back young companies in what are now known as Bubble Funds. That's a lot of money, but to appreciate the magnitude, match it against the past: Between 1970 and 1998, VCs attracted a total of $132 billion to finance startups. In other words they raised more money in three manic years than they had during the nearly three decades that preceded them. If you include money from previously raised funds, VCs have $252 billion in capital under management today.
Now consider the pickle in which the industry finds itself. Venture funds run ten years. To earn 18% annual returns for their investors--the low end of historical venture capital returns--the funds would have to create $1.3 trillion in market value by selling or taking public their portfolio companies over the remainder of the decade.
Think about it this way. eBay is one of the few successes to emerge from the dot-com boom. At its peak, eBay had a $16 billion market value, and its venture backer, Benchmark Capital, made more than $4 billion on its investment. So how many eBays would have to be taken public by the end of a decade for venture investors to achieve 18% returns? More than 325. That's roughly one eBay every 10 days between now and 2010.
Obviously that's not going to happen.
ZITE
East West, the urban American online magazine for lifestylers
VITAMEDIAS
Salon Media Repeats 'Going Concern' Doubt: Salon Media Group Inc. (SALNC) reiterated that it has doubts about its ability to stay afloat because it has incurred losses and negative cash flows from operations since inception and has an accumulated deficit of about $79.7 million at Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal second quarter. [...]
Salon Media, San Francisco, is an Internet media company. It produces Internet site Salon.com as well as two subscription-based online communities, the Well and Table Talk. [ver Salon celebrates its seventh birthday]
VITAMEDIAS
Homeland Security Bill Compromises Federal FOI Act: In its first act since the midterm elections, Congress is turning its back on a bipartisan Freedom of Information Act compromise in favor of a sweeping proposal that would hide virtually all information submitted to the government’s new Department of Homeland Security.
The new version of the homeland security bill [A bill to establish the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes] speeding through Congress includes language that blows an enormous hole in the federal Freedom of Information Act. The Society of Professional Journalists, the Radio and Television News Directors Association and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press today called on Congress to replace that language with a more palatable compromise worked out in the Senate over the summer.
VITAMEDIAS
What's Wrong With This Picture? Sometimes I wonder whether if there are two online ad industries: the bright, cheery, smiling Dr. Jekyll business, where everything's going just fine, thank you very much; and the dark, brooding, erratic Mr. Hyde industry, in which people are constantly, quietly, laid off. [...]
Ad sales are up, but employment is down? Hmm. Something's wrong.
Mags Get More $ Per Page, Deliver More Per Buck: Magazine publishers continue to defy the laws of a recession, boosting their advertising costs at near double-digit rates and passing the economic burden onto print advertisers. Still, they’re also delivering marketers greater audience value than ever, according to an MMD analysis of magazine revenue and audience data released in the last couple of days.
VITAMEDIAS
Direitos de Autor: A quem cabem?
Direitos de Autor dos Jornalistas: Impasse na regulamentação
VITAMEDIAS
O valor dos media - Estudo da OMD Research (televisão, rádio, imprensa e Internet)

15 novembro 2002

.DE!
Coroner cites football as reason for brain injury: The English Football Association and the Professional Footballers' Association are conducting a 10 year study into how heading a ball can affect the brain.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Films, video games team up: Last year, movies made about $8.35 billion at the U.S. box office. Video games made $6.35 billion in U.S. software sales alone, more than 2-1/2 times the revenues of 1995. This year, estimates put earnings at between $7 billion and $10 billion.
PHOTO-GRAFIA
The many faces of Michael Jackson
A Photographic History of Michael Jackson's Face - With blithering, yet witty commentary
CONTAMINANTES
A Smarter Way to Sell Ketchup: This is your brain. This is your brain in the marketing department. Any questions?
One example: At the University of Texas at Austin, cognitive science professor Art Markman gave a group of hungry people a few bites of popcorn. Another group got no food. Then he showed his volunteers pictures of products – DVD players, shampoo, cars, French toast. The group whose appetite had been whetted with popcorn had a harder time concentrating on the nonfoods. One obvious implication, Markman says: Food samples may actually hurt nongrocery sales.
CONTAMINANTES
The New Convergence: After centuries of battle, scientists and theologians are finally forging a grand unified theory. Think Eternity = mc²
CONTAMINANTES
French Physicists' Cosmic Theory Creates a Big Bang of Its Own: Consider Drs. Igor and Grichka Bogdanov, French mathematical physicists and twins, who have recently been burning up the physics world with a novel and highly speculative theory about what happened before the Big Bang. Scientists have been debating whether the Bogdanov brothers are really geniuses with a new view of the moment before the universe began or simply earnest scientists who are in over their heads and spouting nonsense.
'Is It Art?' Is Not a Question for Physics
CONTAMINANTES
Layoffs deserve to be handled with decency - Some of the worst:
• A company where many heard about their layoffs from spouses who had received registered letters at home announcing the cuts.
• A company where all employees were told managers would be walking through the office. Any worker tapped on the shoulder by a strolling manager was gone.
• A company that issued a press release announcing the layoff and then started breaking the news to those actually laid off.
If I may summarize Gelatt's advice [Carol Gelatt has been around the Silicon Valley hiring and firing game for 20 years. She has advised laid-off workers and executives preparing to lay off workers.], doing it right is fairly simple: Exhibit some common (or maybe not-so-common) human decency.
ECO-TERRORES
Government Plan May Make Private Up to 850,000 Jobs: The Bush administration said today that it would place as many as 850,000 government jobs — nearly half the federal civilian work force — up for competition from private contractors in coming years.
ECO-TERRORES
War with Iraq - As Predictable as Chess
The invasion of Baghdad (if necessary) will take place on a dark night, moonless or cloud-covered. The army motto (once used exclusively by the U.S. Special Operations Forces) is now “We own the night.” Our forces not only see in the dark, they are trained to fight in the dark.
ECO-TERRORES
Homeland Bill Rider Aids Drugmakers: Measure Would Block Suits Over Vaccines; FBI Powers Also Would Grow
Lawyers for parents of autistic children suing pharmaceutical companies over childhood vaccines charged yesterday that a new section in the homeland bill - passed on Wednesday by the House and now before the Senate - would keep the lawsuits out of state courts, ruling out huge judgments and lengthy litigation. [...]
"The industry has seized the opportunity presented by a Republican House and Senate to immediately pass legislation to get the industry off the hook," said Dallas lawyer Andrew Waters. "To me, it looks like payback for the fact that the industry spent millions bankrolling Republican campaigns."
GOP officials said the provisions are merely aimed at protecting companies working on life-saving products from being dragged into costly litigation by trial lawyers.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Fighting back: EMI’s new online music service is the latest sign that the big record labels, shocked by the speed with which their market is being eroded by piracy and the illegal downloading of songs over the Internet, are determined to fight back
To make its service more appealing, from December 1st the company plans not only to allow music fans in America to “burn” a limited number of songs on to blank CDs; it says it will also let users listen to copyrighted recordings on portable players.
Copyright Cops Target Workplace, Schools: Music industry renews piracy fight with correspondence and courts, while colleges and companies consider their liability.
Expanded MusicNet poised for re-launch in December: MusicNet, the first of the record-label-backed online music services, is poised to re-launch next month with a greatly expanded catalog and features that match its rivals.
PHOTO-GRAFIA
Le PV à puce débarque à Cannes [multa electrónica]
VITAMEDIAS
La censure se profile sur le petit écran: Par spectacle violent, indique le rapport, il faut comprendre la représentation d'une «force déréglée qui porte atteinte à l'intégrité physique ou psychique pour mettre en cause dans un but de domination ou de destruction l'humanité de l'individu».
Le rapport Kriegel très critiqué par les cinéastes: Ils redoutent de voir leurs créations censurées.
Bon sens: Certains diront que cette télévision soupçonnée de développer les instincts agressifs, n'est jamais que le reflet de notre société. D'autres ajouteront que c'est l'actualité, lors des journaux de 20 heures, qui met en scène la sauvagerie humaine.
Sans doute. Mais puisque la télévision a envahi notre vie, autant engager une réflexion sur le fond, pour protéger le jeune public et faire en sorte que la violence n'envahisse plus nos écrans.
[ver La télé censurée au nom de l'enfance]
VITAMEDIAS
O dia das demissões na Lusa: A Lusa vai viver hoje um dia de grande agitação interna, quando terminar o prazo dado pelo director de informação para lhe serem entregues as fichas de avaliação dos jornalistas. Tudo porque um número significativo de editores recusa obedecer ao ultimato dado por Fernando Trigo, que já deixou claro que demitirá quem não cumprir as suas instruções.
Administração garante estar tranquila: A administração da Lusa está tranquila. A garantia foi dada ao DN pelo presidente da Comissão Executiva, Manuel Pedroso Marques, que aproveitou para desmentir qualquer relação entre o processo de avaliações na redacção e eventuais alterações ao Acordo de Empresa ou rescisões de contrato, como tem sido denunciado pelo Sindicato de Jornalistas (SJ). «Houve, é verdade, cinco jornalistas aos quais foi proposto uma rescisão por mútuo acordo. Três recusaram, e dois estão em negociações. O SJ diz que quer queremos despedir 30 jornalistas, e já lhes pedi que me dissessem quem são os outros 25, porque eu não sei quem são», desafiou.
Director da Lusa decidido «à pele»
O momento é fugaz, tão fugaz como o breve halo de um pirilampo e depois... depois surge a resplandecência gravada num leve gesto, um “clic”. E o flash zumbe, sobrepõe-se ao silvar da espada e no limite do instante, zás, o trofeu assume os contornos de uma mancha solar. O florete tocou, a luz reagiu e o juiz registou. É assim, vezes sem conta e o fotógrafo a buscar, incessantemente, o grau zero do ápice para no estreito espaço micrométrico captar o silvo e nele se misturar, roubando-o ao verdadeiro dono: o atleta. É a beleza da fotografia que num instante absorve o retrato irrepetível para depois o reproduzir infinitamente, até que outro refulgir, outro silvar... e zás! (Fernando Trigo - Director de Informação da Agência Lusa)
CONTAMINANTES
Britain says longer pub hours may curb binge drinking: Drinkers raised their glasses to Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday after his government announced plans to let pubs stay open later.
The government hopes the proposed change - part of its crackdown on petty crime and bad behavior - will curb binge drinking and end the noise and brawls that spill onto many streets at 11 p.m., the current closing time every day but Sunday. [!!!]
CULTURAS IN VITRO
How The International Intellectual Property System, Meant To Create Global Harmony, Has Created Conflict Instead
VITAMEDIAS
Gonçalo Reis preside à administração da EBS 2004, a empresa que vai gerir para todo o mundo as transmissões do Euro 2004

14 novembro 2002

PHOTO-GRAFIA
Big Brother Shares Secrets: In a move that has surprised but pleased researchers, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) has released a trove of about 50,000 images snapped during the 1960s, '70s and '80s by two U.S. spy satellites.
U.S. Spy Satellite Images From the Cold War Released
VITAMEDIAS
PBS President Speaks On U.S., World Media: "The power center of America has shifted from the military complex to the media-entertainment centered empire," she said.
Mitchell suggested the marginalization of "hard" news was prompted by the past decade's three biggest news stories, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy Jr. and the O.J. Simpson trial.
Her speech focused on the negatives aspects of this shift and the domination of the media by a handful of multi-national conglomerates, such as Disney, Bertelsmann, Newscorp, GE and AOL Time Warner.
"These corporations are the gatekeeper's for us and the rest of the world, determining what we and they see," Mitchell said.
She did not only blame the media conglomerates though.
She also commented on this summer's success of American Idol, pointing out the fact that more people voted online for their favorite pop idol than those who voted in last week's national elections.
"We didn't spend the last hundred years fighting for freedom of press and freedom of access to merely sell products, so that we can beam to the entire world an image of a bachelor picking a wife," Mitchell said.
.DE!
LSD Being Tested on British Troops
CONTAMINANTES
Experts Say a bin Laden Impostor Could Fool a Lot of People: The government's assessment so far that it cannot be absolutely certain that the audiotape broadcast on Tuesday was recorded by Osama bin Laden does not surprise experts in the field of voice authentication.
The science of using computers and linguists to identify individuals by their speech has improved dramatically in the last several years, but still involves considerable guess work and speculation, the experts say.
PHOTO-GRAFIA
Best ever view of sunspots
CONTAMINANTES
The Scientific American 50 Award: visionaries from the worlds of research, industry and politics whose recent accomplishments point toward a brighter technological future for everyone
ECO-TERRORES
You Are a Suspect: If the Homeland Security Act is not amended before passage, here is what will happen to you:
Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every event you attend - all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database."
Cybersurveillance System Being Built: Defense Department's database-sifting project is overseen by Poindexter, dubbed an enemy of privacy.
VITAMEDIAS
La télé censurée au nom de l'enfance: Violences et pornographies seraient prohibées de 7h00 à 22h30, et la fiction passée au crible d'une censure renforcée, bientôt étendue aux jeux vidéos et à l'Internet
CONTAMINANTES
Privados entram nas prisões: A gestão público-privada das prisões é uma aposta do novo director-geral dos Serviços Prisionais. O anúncio foi feito ontem por Luís Miranda Pereira, durante a sua tomada de posse.
Arguments For And Against Private Prison Contracting
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Primeira condenação: Pela primeira vez em Portugal, um tribunal condenou um réu por violação de direitos de autor na Internet. A decisão foi tomada em Outubro pelo Tribunal de Albergaria-a-Velha, distrito de Aveiro, que condenou um engenheiro informático a três meses de prisão e uma multa de 750 euros pelo uso e divulgação ilícita de música "online".
O caso remonta a 17 de Abril, data em que a Sociedade Portuguesa de Autores (SPA) e oito editoras nacionais (as "majors" BMG, EMI-Valentim de Carvalho, Sony, Universal e Warner e as independentes MCA, Vidisco e Edel) apresentaram uma queixa conjunta nos tribunais contra o responsável pela manutenção do "site" Top 10 MP3, criado em Dezembro de 1999. [...]
A pena foi depois convertida em 1200 euros de multa.
A sentença refere que o "site" em questão teve pelo menos 80 semanas de existência, e que a ele acederam cerca de 60 mil visitantes, tendo o arguido vendido, no mínimo, 100 CD.
[Repare-se na demora da apresentação da queixa, nas "pelo menos 80 semanas de existência" entre Dezembro de 1999 e Abril de 2002, os 60 mil visitantes (nas 80 semanas, mensais, anuais, o quê?...) e a rapidez da decisão judicial...]
VITAMEDIAS
Elpais.es será de pago a partir de la próxima semana: La edición online del diario El País ha anunciado un giro en su estrategia por lo que a partir de la próxima semana sus contenidos serán de pago. Elpais.es es el segundo diario nacional online que se ha arriesgado a pasar del todo gratis al pago después del Elmundo.es.
El precio que Prisacom, responsable de las ediciones digitales de todas las empresas del Grupo Prisa, ha puesto a estos contenidos es de 20 céntimos de euros diarios
VITAMEDIAS
Pages of the Past
ECO-TERRORES
Letter From Iraqi Foreign Minister to the U.N.
Remarks by the President and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in Photo Opportunity
Light in the Tunnel: [W]e learned something surprising this past week - that in the world of a single, dominant superpower, the U.N. Security Council becomes even more important, not less. France, Russia and China discovered that the most effective way to balance America's overwhelming might was not by defying that power outright, but by channeling it through the U.N. And the Bush team discovered that the best way to legitimize its overwhelming might - in a war of choice - was not by simply imposing it, but by channeling it through the U.N.

13 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Jornalistas enfrentam ofensiva sem precedentes em Portugal, caracterizada pelo desrespeito pela lei e pela coacção psicológica, denuncia o Sindicato dos Jornalistas, que elaborou uma lista enumerando a situação em 15 empresas de comunicação social nacionais onde estão em curso processos de despedimentos.
CONTAMINANTES
New Tools a Spying Boss Will Love
VITAMEDIAS
Newspaper Stifles Deep Links to Articles
VITAMEDIAS
Blogging goes wireless: In a few years, millions of people will have mobile phones with high-quality integrated digital cameras. Whenever something happens anywhere in the world, pictures and eyewitness accounts will be up there on the web for everyone to see in no time. Of course, journalists will still rush to the scene to get the scoop - but the scoop will already be long gone, and journalists will almost never be the first on the scene anymore. It might not be good spelling or reporting, and it might not be objective, but it will be diverse, real and full of emotions. That's the new way of spreading the news fast - so welcome the wireless blog, everyone.
VITAMEDIAS
Salon celebrates its seventh birthday And yes, we're as surprised as some of you are that we're still here. It's hard enough to launch a new publication. But doing it on the Web - a new medium with no proven business models - has been even more, uh, challenging, as they say in corporate seminars.
ZITE
George's Vlosich III's Etch-A-Sketch works of art & Michael McNevin Sketch Art
ZITE
Which Pulp Fiction Character Are You?
.DE!
A.R.S.E. [imagem com que se fica sem palavras - mas há mais]
.DE!
Couple hit by quake during simulation tour: Susan and Jerry Wortley decided to visit the Alaska Experience Theatre for a tour of its earthquake simulation auditorium. So when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake shook Alaska on Sunday, they simply marveled at how authentic it felt.
"We got our money's worth," Jerry Wortley said.
PHOTO-GRAFIA
A Green Flash from the Sun
VITAMEDIAS
elmundo.es, líder mundial del diseño periodístico multimedia
VITAMEDIAS
ISP and Content Provider Share Revenue: In a deal that may well be groundbreaking, the largest Danish portal, Jubii, has promised to provide unique services to Web surfers from a specific ISP in return for a revenue-sharing plan. [...]
Thorborg heavily promoted the idea of revenue sharing a year ago. "And I was ridiculed by the public," he remembers. "But a movie-theater owner who charges $10 for access to his theater expects to share his revenue with the people who made the film."
VITAMEDIAS
Las ediciones digitales de los diarios españoles dejarán de ser de libre acceso: La mayoría de los medios optará por fórmulas con contenidos gratuitos y otros de pago
CONTAMINANTES
Her picture became a porn ad: “Don’t put your picture online” was a common warning in the early days of the Internet. Sound paranoid in the era of online dating? Don’t tell that to Laura, who 18 months ago put up an online personals ad for one month. Since then, her photo has been stolen and used in dozens of fake personals ads soliciting hard-core sex and pornography. “You have no control,” she said. “What’s hardest is you have no idea who’s seen it. What if someone really believes those things?”
ECO-TERRORES
This war brought to you by Rendon Group: "Word got around the department that I was a good Arabic translator who did a great Saddam imitation," recalls the Harvard grad student. "Eventually, someone phoned me, asking if I wanted to help change the course of Iraq policy."
So twice a week, for US$3,000 a month, the Iraqi student says, under condition of anonymity, that he took a taxi from his campus apartment to a Boston-area recording studio rented by the Rendon Group, a DC-based public relations firm with close ties to the US government. His job: translate and dub spoofed Saddam Hussein speeches and tongue-in-cheek newscasts for broadcast throughout Iraq.
ECO-TERRORES
How the Bubble Economy burst: Of course, not everyone bought in to the mania. There were warnings that the prices were too high, the underlying assumptions ridiculous, the books cooked. Detractors included respected investors and money managers such as Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, the hedge fund manager Julian Robertson Jr., of Tiger Management, and Bill Miller, who runs the mutual fund Legg Mason Value Trust.
But during bubbles, people pay more attention to profits than to prophets. [...]
The investment surge also coincided with the arrival of the baby boom generation into that period of life when incomes are high and money starts getting saved for retirement. Much of that money ended up in stock mutual funds, which went from taking in about $125 billion in new money in 1995 to $300 billion in the peak year of 2000.
In addition, there was a flood of foreign money from investors burned in the Asian financial meltdown or disillusioned by Europe's slow progress in deregulating its economy and reforming its labor markets. From 1995 to 2000, $1.2 trillion more investment capital flowed into the United States than flowed out. Some of that money went directly into the stock and bond markets; but just as much came in the form of the direct purchase of American companies by foreign corporations.
Both types contributed significantly to the surge in stock prices, in the process lowering the cost of capital for U.S. companies and stoking over-investment in new companies, plants and equipment. The other crucial bubble ingredient was a new and economically transforming technology. [...] In the end, a key segment of society did profit from the bubble. According to J. Bradford DeLong, an economic historian at the University of California at Berkeley, consumers are the big winners. They enjoy the low prices that flow from ruinous competition and reap the benefit of improved products and services that result when companies use new technology to operate more efficiently.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
[14.11.02] Harry Potter film appears online: Illegal copies of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" have already begun appearing on the Internet, days before the film is scheduled to hit theaters.
Warner Bros., the studio that produced and distributes the movie, confirmed Wednesday that pirated copies of the movie have popped up on Internet sites that regularly offer illegal copies of first-run films.
"Potter" pirates fail to copy film to Net: File swappers have apparently tried and failed to use their technical wizardry to copy a pirated version of Warner Bros.' newest "Harry Potter" movie to the Internet before its Friday theatrical release.
Warner Bros., a unit of AOL Time Warner, said Tuesday that it had opened a copy of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" that it discovered in a hard-to-find location on the Internet and found it to be an empty decoy.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Burning mad over copyright law: Firm sues Hollywood to defend its DVD-duping product
After two decades in computer consulting, Robert Moore brainstormed with his son last year about a new idea. What came of it blossomed into 321 Studios, a developer and seller of DVD-copying software. That put Moore on the front lines of one of the digital age's most volatile legal battles: the dispute between consumer rights and copyright protection. Moore's adversary is Hollywood, which apparently believes products such as 321's flout a 1998 federal law that the movie industry contends bars the picking of electronic locks on copyright works.

12 novembro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Media Fueled New Economy, and Vice Versa: Today, many of the new outlets survive - shrunken in most cases, chastened, less ambitious in their reach. The notion that the new media democratized finance and let the masses play the insiders' game has been badly tarnished by revelations that real insiders quietly cashed in, leaving the suckers to ride the market down. Seminars for reporters and editors on how to spot the next Enron are oversubscribed.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Pensar Enlouquece. Pense Nisto. A Rolling Stone pediu ao seu criador, Matt Groening, para que desenhasse paródias de alguns dos mais importantes álbuns da história do rock n'roll.
Rolling Stone Cover Story: The Simpsons
ZITE
Switch
VITAMEDIAS
Weblogs and Journals on World AIDS Day 2002: Participate
ZITE
HTTP 404 Porn Not Found: The porn you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or your cramped, sticky fingers may have typed in the wrong URL.
ZITE
We Come In Peace
VITAMEDIAS
2nd Circuit Revives Attempt to End Comic Copyright: Deciding a case of first impression, the court found that comic creator Joseph H. Simon's settlement agreement with a comic book company, in which he acknowledged he devised the character Captain America while working for hire, does not prevent him from terminating the company's copyright under the act.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Booker winner in war of words: Booker Prize-winner Yann Martel has found himself at the centre of a literary row after a Brazilian author accused him of borrowing heavily from one of his books for the award-winning Life Of Pi. [...]
"I saw a premise that I liked and I told my own story," Martel said, adding: "I don't feel I've done something dishonest."
But Martel also said it was an established tradition in the literary world for writers to draw inspiration from the works of others.
"Is an idea copyrightable? That's certainly not my feeling. What would be wrong is if I said it was my idea," Martel said.
CONTAMINANTES
AOL discs returned to sender: A campaign to collect one million AOL CDs has got off to a good start.
The two Californian men who kicked off the campaign have now gathered more than 80,000 of the promotional discs.
The campaign is intended to tell the company about the damage the discs do to the environment when discarded, and shame it into curbing its zealous promotional efforts.
CONTAMINANTES
Sperm quality differs among U.S. regions: A study has found the quality of semen significantly poorer in men from rural mid-Missouri than in males from urban areas, and its authors believe agricultural chemicals might explain the difference.
CULTURAS IN VITRO
Hollywood reporter: ...To be continued
Why franchises are the future of cinema. [...] These are movies that you have seen before and that you will see again, each time under slightly different titles or, more likely, under different digits.
CONTAMINANTES
An argument about beauty by Susan Sontag