Month: July 2004

Jury Acquits Man Who Kissed Client

When computer repairman Steven Allen Moyer, 40, was called to the home of Victoria French, the Idaho man apparently decided that French’s love life could used an upgrade. So he kissed her once or twice and then suggested they move on to the bedroom.

According to Moyer, “She said she didn’t have a boyfriend. I asked her if she wanted a boyfriend for 15 minutes.”

She still didn’t want a boyfriend, so Moyer charged French $20 for the visit and left. Police later arrested him and charged him with battery for the nonconsensual kiss.

But at the end of June a five-man, one-woman jury took only 90 minutes to acquit Moyer of the charge, apparently convinced that the state had failed to show that an unwanted kiss constituted battery.

Sources:

Jury decides stealing kiss isn’t a crime. Associated Press, July 1, 2004.

Developing World Going Mobile

Mobile telephone services continues to route around damaged state-run landline systems in the developing world.

In India, only 7 percent of the population has a telephone. But that has increased from 1 percent compared to a decade ago, thanks in large measure to cellular service that is cheaper and easier to obtain than India’s state-run landline system.

The BBC reports that usage costs for mobile phones in India hovers at around 1 cent a minute, making it much more affordable than traditional telephone services, and that as many as 1.5 million Indians sign up for mobile phone service every month.

Meanwhile the BBC reports that Africa has the world’s fastest growing mobile phone market, expanding at an annual rate of 65 percent. About 6 percent of people in Africa use mobile phones and that number is expected to expand to as much as 20 percent by the end of the decade.

Source:

A mobile vision for Africa. The BBC, July 5, 2004.

Mobiles outstrip India landlines. The BBC, July 2, 2004.

China Offers Aid to Parents of Girls In Efforts to Stem Sex Imbalance

One of the major side effects of China’s one-child policy has been the widespread use of sex-selective abortions by couples who want to have male children. As a result, China has one of the most unbalanced sex ratios in the world and in the next couple decades could wind up with tens of millions more adult males than adult females of marrying age.

In an effort to rein in that problem, Knight Ridder reports that China is offering financial aid and support to families who have one or more daughters. Knight Ridder quotes Fujian province official Bai Pian as saying of the incentive plan,

According to tradition, most parents after having two daughters still want to have a boy. But the government wants them to stop. So that’s why it started the ‘Caring for Girls’ action plan.

The plan offers free education all the way through college for girls in such families as well as direct support, such as financial aid to help build a house or seed money to start a business.

Source:

China encouraging parents of girls. Tim Johnson, Knight Ridder Newspapers, July 8, 2004.

Attendant at The National Gallery Stops Woman from Breastfeeding

Earlier this month it was a Texas mall that was in trouble after a guard asked a woman to take her infant into the bathroom if she wanted to breastfeed. A few days later, however, Great Britain’s The National Gallery was hit with a similar controversy after an attendant asked a woman breastfeeding her 11-month-old daughter to move to what the BBC describes as a “mother-and-baby room” if she wanted to continue breastfeeding her daughter.

Of course, as pro-breast feeding advocates were quick to point out, this was a bit odd considering that many of the paintings in The National Gallery depict infants breastfeeding. The woman asked to leave, Catherine Gulati, was quoted by the BBC as noting that,

I thought it was ironic because in another room there was a picture of a bare breast with milk squirting out of it called the Milky Way.

As in the Texas mall incident, The National Gallery blamed the incident on an overzealous attendant and said that breastfeeding is allowed anywhere in the gallery.

Source:

Gallery regrets breastfeeding ban. The BBC, July 9, 2004.

New iPods

I was really hoping Apple would announce a 60gb iPod this week, but like the rest of the world I was disappointed (the price drop on the 40gb iPod tempts me, but my music collection is currently 56.2gb, so I’ll hold out a bit longer).

About a month ago I picked up an iPod mini. I don’t think I could say enough good things about it — this is one piece of kick-ass consumer electronics. I use it mainly to listen to music while weight lifting or audio books while running.

Of course it weighs so little I barely notice it, and the Click Wheel is an amazingly easy-to-use interface for making changes quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

It just works.

Anonymous: Surrender!

USA Today has an interview today with Anonymous, the CIA terrorism expert whose written a book, Imperial Hubris, taking to task the Clinton and Bush administrations for the way the United States has fought Al Qaeda. So what does Anonymous think we should do? Surrender.

Q: So how should we attack it [Al Qaeda]?

A: It’s not a choice between war and peace, its’ a choice between war and endless war. The goal shoudl be to undercut the potential of bin Ladenism to grow, and the only way to do that is to address those policies have have been idnetified in the Muslim world as anti-Muslim or anti-Islamic. Looking out 10, 20, 30 years, it’s only going to get worse if these policies stay in place.

That’s just plain stupid. Look, if a policy is bad or needs to be re-examined, then fine re-examine it or change it. But you can’t go around changing policies simply because they are likely to incite terrorism.

I was reading a report the other day about how violence against abortion clinics has been rising somewhat. Should we alter our abortion laws because anti-abortion extremists 10, 20, 30 years out are going to continue to target abortion clinics and doctors? Hell no.

Al Qaeda representatives have written of their hatred of the United States because it is a secular democracy where everything from homosexuality to pornographic magazines are tolerated. Should we go about further restricting American liberties to appease a bunch of religious nutcases? I don’t think so.

Source:

Q&A with ‘Anonymous.’ USA Today, July 19, 2004.