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 Sunday, June 22, 2003
Annalee Newitz has a supportive review of Public L .... Annalee Newitz has a supportive review of Public Library of Science in the June 16 AlterNet. In addition to telling the familiar story, she gives good detail on the motivations of Executive Director Vivian Siegel and co-founder Mike Eisen. Quoting Siegel, who left her position as Editor of Cell to join PLoS: "All the editors at Cell wanted to make our articles open-access, but [parent company] Elsevier didn't want to do it. When I pointed out that our position made me feel like I wasn't working for the benefit of the scientific community, my boss said, 'What? You think you're a scientist?' I realized I couldn't act on my principles and continue at Cell." Quoting Mike Eisen, a Berkeley biologist who wanted to write software giving genome researchers direct access to published literature on any given segment of the genome: "[T[he publishers said, 'No, it's our information.' That's when I recognized that the publishing system doesn't serve the scientific community. We couldn't build on other people's knowledge. It's a perversion of the principles of science....My research is dependent on [PLoS] succeeding." (Thanks to Garrett Eastman.) [FOS News]
This is why Elsevier will not survive unless it changes it business model. Scientists serve the community of scientists. They want that community to get the information. They will publish in journals that serve the community, not in ones that exist only to make money for the investors. There is not a monopoly on information anymore. It is too easy to publish now. The scientists will determine who serves the community. If Elsevier refuses to, they will not be in existance for much longer. [As an afterword, I hardly ever check Cell anymore. It costs way too much to access a single article ($30 for 24 hours) when a subscription to 26 issues costs $149. They have good review articles but I find the science to be less and less relevant.] 9:15:03 PM 
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When is a Confession Not a Confession?. WHEN IS A CONFESSION NOT A CONFESSION?....In the Washington Post today, we learn of a case in which three women were arrested for murder based on the mistaken idea that they had withdrawn money from a bank using the victim's... [CalPundit]
It is stories like this that should make everyone nervous. Improper use of technology led to innocent people being jailed for over 3 weeks. The only reason that they were released was because the father of one of the girls discovered on his own that the video tape was not sychronized to the transaction records. Bad detective work by police does more to harm their reputation than almost anything else. The police were ready to tie these woman to a crime they did not commit, the police apparently lied to get an arrest warrant, and the system did not feel any need to apologize for the inconvenience. They did not even do anything to help transport the innocent people back to Arizona.
The power of authority to intimidate citizens or ruin their lives is why we have such strong safeguards in the Constitution. Lucky for these woman they were not held in secret detention for 3 months. Then they might very well have confessed, which would have looked funny with this evidence. But then, at secret trials, you can make sure that sort of evidence never emerges. We already have a 9/11 arrest that resulted in a coerced confession for a crime that Abdallah Higazy did not commit. The only reason he is not sitting in a cell somewhere is that his arrest and charges were made public. If he had been held alone, without a lawyer for 3 months, they could probably have gotten a plea from him also. I mean they were able to get a confession for a crime that he was innocent of. Who knows what another month or two of interrogation would have gotten? 9:01:30 PM
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Note: Before the Accord. Greg Ip writes that the Federal Reserve now thinks that it cannot effectively peg the ten-year bond rate without moving very very carefully to control expectations about its projected path for short rates:
WSJ.com - Fed's Next Interest-Rate Cut
May Be Smaller Than Expected: ...beyond that next rate cut, the Fed now faces a daunting challenge: How to continue to ward off potential deflation when short-term interest rates are closer to zero than they have been in 45 years.
Several months ago, officials said that in such a near-zero scenario the Fed could keep rates down by buying Treasury bonds, as it did in the 1940s. Such a buying spree would raise bond prices and lower their interest yields, which move in the opposite direction. But after months of study, Fed officials have concluded that today's far-more-complex bond market would frustrate that strategy.
The Fed's key rate already is at 1.25%. After next week's move, cutting it even closer to zero will pose problems. Too low a rate would imperil money-market mutual funds, for instance, because they might no longer clear enough money to cover expenses and pay a return to investors. It would leave the impression the Fed was out of rate-cutting ammunition. And a zero rate could disrupt the market in which Treasury bills, commercial paper and bank deposits trade. Why would a bank borrow in the money market when the Fed is providing ample funds free of charge?
So Fed officials are concluding the best alternative tool for boosting growth is persuading investors -- through careful communication -- about its intentions on short-term rates. It must convince investors that rates will remain low long enough to extinguish fears of deflation and ensure that economic expansion is well entrenched. Deflation is dangerous because falling prices often lead to falling wages, making it hard for companies and households to pay back debts. While the Fed can raise interest rates as high as it wants to fight inflation, it can't cut them below zero to fight deflation...
Clearly I need to read Barry Eichengreen and Peter Garber, "Before the Accord: U.S. Monetary-Financial Policy 1945-51"... [Semi-Daily Journal]
I love the notion that why would anyone borrow money from anyone when the governemnt is giving it away for free? There is just not a lot of wiggle room to get out of this economy. If everything goes perfectly, maybe we will be fine by 2005. If there is any mistep, it could be a lot longer. 2:45:54 PM
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'Pretend You Live in America'. Jimmy Breslin: . I don't know what Faris looks like or sounds like or what he thinks and what he... [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
Here is a link to the Breslin article. If we were reading about the USSR arresting a citizen, holding him incommunicado for 3 months, then detailing how this citizen had pled guilty to crimes, all the time holding him in secret, providing no public charges, providing no lawyer, keeping everything secret, we would rightly say that this was a sham and just a sign that the commuists were the worst sorts of leaders. I am sure many of the Russion people also felt that the government was simply trying to provide national security.
But what sort of America are we living in when a citizen can be treated thusly? Even if he is guilty as sin, the Constitution should not be so easily shredded. Our government can now 'disappear' ANY US citizen, not allow them ANY lawyer and do whatever the government wants to them for as long as it takes to get a confession, a plea or what have you. Simply say he is a terrorist. And our media cheers this on. We are rapidly becoming what we formerly hated. Star chambers are back. Power and intimidation by authority will not make us safer. Exactly the opposite. Simply look at Northern Ireland or the MIddle East.
The administration is on the wrong side of history on this. Fifty years from now, assuming we still have some sort of real representational democracy, these decisions will be viewed the same way the Japanese internments are now. It is similar to the Pope holding Galileo under house arrest until they got him to recant. Simply saying we were afraid is not an acceptable answer. Democracy requires courage. Only dictators provide security. We should be leading the world with the right way to deal with national security, not showing that secret detentions and secret courts are the way to do it. I am certain that these sorts of things will not be allowed to continue. Simply because someone IS guilty does not mean we can do whatever we want to get a plea out of them. 2:27:57 PM
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More Botched NYPD No-Knocks. Here come more reports of botched NYPD No-Knocks... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
With no one taking any responsibility for botched no-knocks (the judges protect the police who protect the informers), more people will respond as mentioned in the article. One raid victim, Orlando Russell, said he 'used to be an upstanding citizen,' but now 'any cop walking in without an invitation better have a body bag.' This will not make the police feel any safer and only ratchet up the emotions. In the long run, no knocks may not make the police any safer. 12:39:19 PM
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FBI Reliance on Unreliable Tipsters Upends Suspect's Lives. the FBI has relied on dubious tipsters for information that has led to the arrests and detention of many immigrants. The problems aren't over for the immigrants when they are released, because their names are still entered in a national crime registry as having been arrested for terrorism, even if they were never charged with a crime, which in turn results in their being denied housing, employment and even airplane tickets. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
What is scary is that simply being arrested can now prevent you from being denied all sorts of important aspects of citizenship. The ability to arrest anyone based on the slimmest of motives and subsequently ruining their life is pretty scary and intimidating. Luckily in one case, someone who really cared worked to help clear this up, but how likely is this to happen again? Here is a nice Catch-22: In Texas, Esshassah Fouad, a student from Morocco, was detained after his former wife accused him of plotting terrorism. She was sentenced to a year in prison for making a false charge. But Mr. Fouad was hit anyway with immigration charges, despite his pleas that he had missed school, violating his visa, because he was in jail. How many people are going to get back at an employer or an enemy by filling a false report with the FBI. If we are going to detain all these people, we need to have a process in place that will accurately remove those who have been cleared. And the aparent use of the terrorism tips by families involved in divorce or child custody proceedings is troubling and would only hamper our search for real terrorists. False tipsters should be hit with as harsh penaltis as we can manage. 12:26:57 PM
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It is well known that the African Plains Ape can be a very dangerous animal. Vacationers need to be very careful when dealing with them. While most are harmless and quite pleasurable to know, there is a distinct possibility of substantial harm from a minority of them. So, be careful on your vacations this summer. 12:04:43 PM
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Needham upgrades Apple to 'buy'. Needham & Co. Inc. analyst Charles Wolf says iPod sales are soaring since Apple launched its iTunes Music Store, according to a BusinessWeek article. The analyst adds that sales should pick up even more steam when the a Windows version of iTunes and the iTunes Music Store is unveiled later this year. He also thinks that Power Mac sales, which have tanked, could rebound from October to December "on the alignment of this key sales driver," BusinessWeek notes. [MacCentral]
Just as Apple led us into the bear market in high tech, maybe it will lead us out. Hope so. I own some Apple stock. 11:52:46 AM
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Technology or Culture?. TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL UNIFICATION: This blog is really transformational for me. Just when I think I have heard all perspectives, I'm awakened to new viewpoints. Case in point... I was with a very respectable customer today. It was clear that these folks get the value of human interaction given the market they are in (PURE knowledge creation and subsequent value generation), but architecture somehow gets in the way.
Halfway through our discussion, a very bright fellow in the crowd offers that "decentralized software disrupts the value that we, as a corporation, bring to the table. These highly valued employees will just leave us, as teams, if we allow edge-based agility. We give them POWER." Sigh... Shrug... Fascinating...
As we slog through the adoption of emergent technologies, it is clear to me that technology isn't the issue. In fact, it is a complete NON-ISSUE. I'm reminded by my anthropology buddies that technology is a mere tool. Until the tribe adapts it's social viewpoint (read: culture, values, memes, networks), technology is nothing but an enabler versus a real change agent.
[Michael Helfrich's Radio Weblog]
Michael is spot on. If you want to see how powerful his insight is there is a gem of a book called "The Dynamics of military revolution" edited by Knox and Murray. They look at many epoch changing technical innovations in the military such as the introduction of longbows, muskets, rifles etc and show that it takes about a generation, or a bad war, to make the social adjustment. IE consider the rifle. At the beginning of the civil war, tactics demanded that men line up facing each other and pour it on. By the end of the war, everyone who could get into trench did so. BUT the Europeans missed the whole point and spent much of the first 6 months on WWI charging into machine gun and rifle fire. In WWII, the French and the Brits had in total more tanks than the Germans but they deployed them as infantry support weapons. The german, by losing the last war, had created an entirely new method - Blitzkrieg. The key is to make the cultural shift and then the doctrine shift. You deploy the new in a new way. if you deploy the new in the old way - 'we keep all the knowldge inside', you fail. [Robert Paterson's Radio Weblog]
Culture always determines how tools are being used. Cultures that are unable to properly use them will fall behind cultures that creatively use new tools. TV was viewed as radio with pictures for years. The internet has been viewed as TV over a network. We are just beginning to get an idea of just how different it is. 11:35:18 AM
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EU May Issue Passports With Embedded Data Chips. According to the International Herald Tribune, "European Union governments may soon issue passports containing computer chips embedded with digital fingerprints or eye scans."
The "biometric" data would allow police officers to verify the authenticity of European passports, which have been counterfeited in significant numbers in recent years, officials said at their summit meeting here.
The chips would also be implanted in visas given to non-EU citizens, making it easier for governments to keep track of foreigners as they travel through borderless Europe.
No date has been fixed for the introduction of these passports, but in order to be in conformity with the U.S. Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, passports with biometric identifiers should be issued no later than October 26, 2004. In addition, the EU members already have allocated 140 million euros ($164 million) for further study of biometric identifiers.
Now, what about our privacy?
"There is a complete lack of any kind of accountability with this," said Trevor Hennings, deputy director of Statewatch, a British organization that researches privacy issues. "There's no way to know what will be on the chip."
Here are a couple of scary quotes from a column from Statewatch dealing with this issue.
The EU Summit has backed the allocation 140 million euros to developing controls at borders and of databases. This includes the Visa Information System (VIS) and the next generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).
The Visa Information System will log all applications for visas to enter the EU, the length of stay, arrival and departure date, and those to be refused entry. The SIS holds list of those to be refused entry (Article 96) and people or vehicles to be placed under surveillance (Article 99). As at 5 March 2003 data was held on a total of 780,992 people under Article 96 and there were 16,016 entries under Article 99. It also holds the names and details on a number of protestors detained over the past two years.
Source: Thomas Fuller, The International Herald Tribune, June 21, 2003 [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
This could be very troubling. There is no biometric approach that really works but we will try to have one anyway. Lots of important data held in governemnt databases. But we will have it anyway. 11:04:17 AM
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Mechanics of the lie.. From the Washington Post, Saturday, June 14: Iraq Museum Regains A Famed Treasure This is how it happens in Iraq... [Electrolite]
What is interesting is that the picture of the vase that accompanied the article was not a picture of the current vase but an archival one. Patrick includes a picture of the vase fragment (a better word for what was returned). While it is nice to get something back, it is only a part of the original vase, something not really mentioned in the newspaper article. Got to make sure we keep our happy face on. 10:18:48 AM
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