Day: March 14, 2001

Indian Government Threatened by Web Site’s Corruption Sting

In the United States it was renegade net journalist Matt Drudge who first made the public aware of the Monica Lewinski scandal, but the Indian web site Tehelka.com went a step further with a sting operation that is currently threatening to bring down the Indian government.

Tehelka sent reporters posing as arms dealers selling hand-held thermal imaging devices (which were completely fictional — the product doesn’t exist). Indian law bars politicians and others from taking bribes as part of the military procurement process, but the Tehelka reporters caught numerous politicians, bureaucrats and army officials on videotape accepting bribes to smooth the way for the purchase of the thermal imaging devices.

On Tuesday, March 13, Tehelka began posting the videotapes on its web site and within 24 hours four army officials had been sacked. The main opposition party in India, the Congress Party, is calling for the resignation of the ruling coalition government given the widespread corruption that Tehelka uncovered.

This isn’t the first corruption investigation by Tehelka, though it’s certainly the most significant. Last year the site sparked an international sports furor with its expose of widespread fixing of cricket matches.

Sources:

Heads roll in India bribery scandal from the BBC

UN suspends aid to Afghans from the BBC

Indian website breaks the mould from the BBC

The Tehelka tapes from the BBC

Pirated Office XP Posted on Usenet

Somebody, probably internally at Microsoft, posted a cracked copy of Office XP to Usenet. Office XP is the soon-to-be-released office suite that has a stringent copy protection scheme built in.

There’s a nice piece of unintentional humor provided by Lisa Gurry, product manager for Office, who said — presumably with a straight face, “Consumers need to be aware this software is not official software and will likely contain problems for them if they choose to install it.”

Will likely contain problems fro users who choose to install it? Doesn’t that describe pretty much every Microsoft product?

Is Jackson on MS Payroll?

I just don’t understand Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s ongoing comments about Microsoft. He has to know that the judges on the federal appeals court which sharply criticized such comments read the newspaper (or surf the web, perhaps). The only explanation I can think of for these outbursts is that Microsoft is slipping him some money under the table to help its appeal.

Flag Worshippers Reintroduce Constitutional Amendment

Members of Congress recently re-introduced a bill calling for a Constitutional amendment to protect the American flag from desecration. The proposed amendment reads, “Congress shall have the power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.”

Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) introduced the bill in the House, while Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.) introduced the bill in the Senate.

Supporters of the flag amendment maintain that protecting a symbol of American freedom is more important than protecting political freedom itself. Murtha told Cybercast News Service,

The flag is a solemn and sacred symbol of the many sacrifices made by our founding fathers and our veterans throughout several wars as they fought to establish and protect the founding principles of our nation. Veterans in particular and many other Americans as well feel deeply insulted when they see our flag being desecrated.

Somebody’s insulted by other people’s actions? Better act quit to outlaw the insult.

But the best line belongs to Cunningham who was deliciously Orwellian, telling CNS,

The American flag is a national treasure. It is the ultimate symbol of freedom, equal opportunity and religious tolerance.

What better way to celebrate freedom, opportunity and tolerance by putting people in jail for desecrating the American flag to make a political statement?

Source:

Flag protection amendment reintroduced in Congress. Jim Burns, Cybercast News Service, March 14, 2001.

OPEC Likely to Cut Oil Production

Ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are scheduled to meet on March 16 and are likely to announce a cutback in production to stem steadily falling oil prices.

After hitting a 10-year high of $35 per barrel in late 2000, the price of oil has fallen closer to $26 in recent months, causing OPEC to be concerned about future prices. OPEC’s target oil price is $25 per barrel.

The BBC reported that OPEC might cut world oil production by up to one million barrels per day in an effort to keep prices from falling too much farther.

How much oil does OPEC have left to sell? It estimates that at current production levels its member countries have proven reserves to last at least 80 years.

Source:

Oil weak ahead of OPEC meeting. The BBC, March 14, 2001.

Researchers Reverse Heart Damage in Rabbits

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center recently reported that they had successfully used a genetically engineered treatment to reverse the damage from congestive heart failure in rabbits. The results were reported in a paper published in Circulation.

The team had previously used a genetically engineered treatment to prevent heart damage to rabbits afflicted with congestive heart failure. In patients suffering from congestive heart failure, whether they be rabbits or human beings, the cells in the heart lose their flexibility and no longer contract and expand properly. As a result, blood doesn’t circulate efficiently and the body floods the heart with an adrenaline compound that forces to pump faster to compensate, which leads to heart failure in the long term.

The Duke team modified the common cold virus to carry a copy of a gene which stops this adrenaline compound from being released and thereby forestalling heart failure. In the experiments with rabbits, a week after suffering heart failure, the cells in the heart were functioning normally.

If this approached works in human beings, it could dramatically extend the life expectancy of those suffering from congestive heart failure. Lead researcher Walter Koch told The BBC,

If our work continues to progress as it has, we anticipate being able to possibly test this approach in a certain group of patients within three years. We would like to try it first on severe heart failure patients in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant to see if we could reverse the dysfunctioning part of the heart.

Source:

Heart failure damage reversed. The BBC, March 6, 2001.