Month: August 2001

Another Pay-Per-Email Fan

David Course, Executive Editor of ZDNET’s Anchor Desk is another advocate of a pay per e-mail charge to reduce spam. Since spam persists because much of the costs of spam is shared by recipients, Course writes,

I’ve thought about this a great deal and the best solution I see is one you aren’t going to like: require e-postage for e-mail. That is, charge people on a per-message basis for the e-mail they send.

This should not be a charge large enough to give people pause, maybe a penny or even a fraction of a cent…just enough to keep people from pushing the button and sending a million “Herbal Viagra” e-mails at a whack. Make the charge high enough and all junk mail and lots of personal/business mail (like all those cc:’s you get in the office) would also go away.

The problem with this proposal is that it doesn’t appear to be serious. Would this really deter businesses from sending 1 million copies of an “Herbal Viagra” e-mail? Considering that 1 million e-mails would only cost $10,000 under this proposal, I doubt it ($10,000 is as good as free to reach 1 million people).

You would need to have a much higher tax to really discourage spamming, but the higher the tax, the more you would also discourage other traffic.

In fact it is hardly surprising that the people who would really benefit from such a system are Course’s employers ZDNET. Course notes that a penny an e-mail tax would cost ZDNET about $75,000/week. That’s a cost that ZDNET might be able to absorb, but it would bring other businesses and web sites to their knees.

Anything that raises the cost of operating on the web simply privileges existing, larger businesses over smaller, newer ones.

New York’s Homeless Family Problem

If you’re a New York Times reporter assigned to do a story about the rising number of homeless families in the Big Apple, it is acceptable to blame the rise on the booming/faltering economy (take your pick), landlord’s unwillingness to rent to families qualifying for Section 8 housing, but of course the one thing that is absolutely out of bounds is to highlight the perverse effects of New York’s bizarre system of rent control which provides a disincentive to create new rental housing and makes it extremely difficult for poor people to compete for existing affordable housing.

Genetically Modified Tomato Grows in Salty Water

The Washington Post reported this week on yet another amazing advance in genetically modifying plants. Researchers at the University of California-Davis managed to genetically modify a tomato so that it will grow in salty water. Creating salt-tolerant crops has been a long-time goal of both traditional plant breeders as well as biotechnology researchers.

The salt-tolerant tomato will grow in water containing up to 50 times as much salt as normal. The genetically modified plant does this by taking the excess sodium up into its leaves and away from the rest of the plant.

The research focused on water made salty through irrigation (which tends to leave behind salt deposits), but the plant should grow just as well in naturally salty water. In this way marginal land and land that has been made salty due to years of irrigation could be reclaimed for agricultural purposes.

As Val Giddings of the Biotechnology Industry Organizations told the Post,

This research has very clear and enormous potential. Water is a huge issue now in agriculture and will be getting bigger, so technology that allows plants to use water more efficiently could have great benefits.

Source:

Scientists develop genetically created tomato. Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, July 30, 2001.

Oops, Frontline Information Service Did It Again

Frontline Information Service is one of those groups that claims not to carry out or engage in acts of terrorism, but provides a ready method for groups such as the Animal Liberation Front to distribute their press releases. Taking a cue from Humane Society of the United States, which a few weeks ago sent out an e-mail bulletin only to have to retract it, the FIS put out a provocative press release from Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, only to issue a partial retraction a few hours latter.

The original message, sent at 7:16 p.m. on July 27, 2001, was titled “Directors in Death” and read,

These are the people who are personally responsible for the horrors behind closed doors at HLS. The animals they torture don’t get to clock out at 5:00 and neither should they! Here are examples of how effective targeting the workers at their home has been, Alan Staple, former president, and Layne Eric Los, former marketing and sales executive, left HLS after the pressure became to [sic] much for them. We have ever [sic] learned that some activists have been sending magazines subscriptions, dolls, gift plates and other “bill me later” gifts to fill up their mailboxes!

The rest of the message is filled with the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of Huntingdon Life Sciences employees, including one Carol Auletta whose position is listed as being “senior scientific staff.” Her home address and phone number are given so that people can harass her.

But the next day, in a message sent out at 5:33 p.m., July 28, 2001, FIS issues a “Directors in Death CORRECTION” which reads,

We have been informed that there is an error in the “Directors in Death” list on shacusa.net and posted to various e-mail lists and feel that it is prudent to correct it immediately.

The HLS employee Carol Auletta, Senior Scientific Staff, does NOT appear to live at [address deleted] as listed. Please cease all communications to that address or the phone number [phone number deleted] unless we confirm otherwise.

You can still reach Carol Auletta at work … But the woman who lives at the address above is a school teacher and spells her name differently.

These morons can’t understand even basic information about animal research, and now they’re sending out e-mails urging activists to harass school teachers. Personally, I hope the woman hires an attorney and sues FIS and SHAC. In fact all of the people mentioned on these harassment lists should get together and hire an attorney and go after these groups. FIS and SHAC aren’t realistically going to be able to pay much of a large damage award, but it’d be nice to see their operations shut down and their assets seized over this obviously illegal activity.

Source:

Directors in Death. Frontline Information Service, Press Release, July 27, 2001.

Directors in Death CORRECTION. Frontline Information Service, Press Release, July 28, 2001.

Bruce Friedrich: Hunters Are Like "Nazi Doctors and Slave Traders"

Animal rights activists are having a fit because the Sierra Club recently published an article by Rick Bass, “Why I Hunt.” Bass’ article fits well in a long line of pro-hunting literature which sees hunting as almost a mystical way to connect with nature. Bass writes of taking up hunting after moving to a remote Montana valley in the 1980s,

Only about 5 percent of the nation and 15 to 20 percent of Montanans are hunters. But in this one valley, almost everyone is a hunter. It is not the peer pressure of the local culture that recruits us into hunting, nor even necessarily the economic boon of a few hundred pounds of meat in a cash-poor society. Rather, it is the terrain itself, and one’s gradual integration into it, that summons the hunter. Nearly everyone who has lived here for any length of time has ended up–sometimes almost against one’s conscious wishes–becoming a hunter. This wild and powerful landscape sculpts us like clay. I don’t find such sculpting an affront to the human spirit, but instead, wonderful testimony to our pliability, our ability to adapt to a place.

In response to Bass’ article, Bruce Friedrich fired off a letter to the editor saying,

I have no doubt that society will one day look back of [sic] Mr. Bass and his ilk with he same revulsion we presently reserve for NAZI doctors and slave traders.

But as Sierra Magazine editor-in-chief Joan Hamilton notes in her response to Friedrich, “Since the mid-19th century, sport hunters have been in the forefront of efforts to create laws to save animals from commercial hunting, poaching, and habitat destruction that threatens the very existence of many species. Also, many landmark environmental achievements have relied heavily on the efforts of hunters and hunting (and fishing) organizations.”

Hamilton crosses over into the worst sort of apostasy in they eyes of the animal rights movement when she writes what is obvious to anyone who seriously studies the issue,

Aside form the environmental contributions of hunters, in some cases, hunting is necessary to keep certain populations at sustainable levels and to maintain ecological balance by preventing some species from destroying others. For example, the deer population is now estimated to be double that which existed before the white conquest of North America. Excess deer will overbrowse forests, seriously harming the flora and thereby depriving other species of food and shelter.

How long before Friedrich is out front of the Sierra Club’s offices streaking to bring attention to the suffering of deer? Only time will tell.

Source:

Why I Hunt: Stalking wild game in a rugged landscape brings one environmentalist closer to nature. Rick Bass, Sierra Magazine, July 2001.

Animal Rights Foundation of Florida Protests at Gunther Gebel-Williams Funeral

Eight members of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida showed up to protest at the funeral of renowned circus performer Gunther Gebel-Williams.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the group was led by Heather Lischin of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and carried signs with slogans such as “Gunther, take your whips and bullhorn with you, RIP.”

Lischin wore black and said, “We’re out here mourning for the animals who’ve died at the hands of Gunther and Ringling Bros.”

A friend of Gebel-Williams wrote a letter to the Herald-Tribune saying,

If you have a problem with animals performing in a circus ring, protest outside the arena, not at the funeral of a man who was not only a performer, but a husband, father, and grandfather as well. Shame on them for not having the decency and common courtesy to let his friends and family celebrate his life and grieve his death without having to endure their negative presence as we left.

Asking common decency from animal rights activists seems to be asking for a lot these days. On the brighter side, perhaps ARFF can now get together with the only other person I have ever heard stoop low enough to protest at a funeral — Fred Phelps of God Hates Fags infamy. Lischin’s sure managed to get her group in with some mighty fine company there.

Source:

Animal-rights supporters picket. By Thomas Becnel, Sarasota Herald Tribune, July 24, 2001.

Animal-rights protest insulting. Shelley Broome, Letter to the editor, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, July 28, 2001.