Ridiculous Spin from Rep. Coble’s Staff

Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC) recently co-sponsored a bill that would provide a safe harbor for media companies to prevent people from distributing files of copyrighted materials such as music and movies.

Some people have claimed the bill would allow the music industry to create viruses, even though that sort of action is specifically rendered illegal by the bill. Rather the bill provides a safe harbor only to the extent that a company’s actions would interdict copyrighted files and only copyrighted files.

Frankly, reading the bill it is difficult to see what copyright holder see in this bill since it essentially says they can prevent file trading but then places so many restrictions and hoops for copyright holders to jump through, that its hard to imagine this having any net effect on file trading. In fact the language is a perfect example of just how difficult it is to selectively prevent copyright violations on the Internet while simultaneously not disrupting other communications.

Anyway, Dave Winer linked to this column which includes some terrific spinning efforts by one of Coble’s aids,

Ed McDonald admits that his 71-year-old boss is no expert on the Internet. “He wouldn’t even know how to turn on the computer,” says McDonald. But McDonald says that Coble turns that ignorance into a virtue. “He doesn’t bring a bias, although he does lean toward the protection of copyright. He is fair to all sides.”

That’s a bit like saying that someone who is illiterate has a unique, objective perspective on the book publishing industry.

Ignorance is not a synonym for fairness.

Source:

Coble wrong about Hollywood hackers . Edward Cone, News & Record (North Carolina), August 4, 2002.

Can Cthulhu Be Far Behind?

A few weeks ago, Australian researchers announced that a giant squid that washed up on an Australian beach might be a new, distinct species of squid. A BBC story on the find had this to say about the 550 pound squid,

Experts found several characteristics which they say they have never encountered before — including long, thin flaps of muscle attached to each of the squid’s eight arms.

The tentacles on this animals were about 50 feet long. Can Cthulhu be far behind? (Lets hope so).

Source:

‘New species’ of giant squid found. The BBC, July 22, 2002.

The Corruption/Famine Chart

Glenn Reynolds has an observation about Swaziland’s purchase of a $55 million jet . . . at the same time the UN is appealing for foreign aid to prevent famine in Swaziland. Here’s a handy chart of countries in Africa currently experiencing “food insecurity” along with a brief highlight of corruption in each country. For the continent as a whole, estimates of money lost annually to corruption in Africa are typically in excess of US $100 billion.

Country

Corruption

Food Insecurity Problems
Angola US $1 billion in 2001 oil revenues “missing”(FAO appeals for $5.2 million
aid) 		1.4 million people need “urgent assistance” (FAO)
Malawi Corrupt government officials sold 160,000 tons of grain last Fall; $8 million
in European Union aid diverted — EU demanded return of the money in July
2002 (FAO appeals for $1.6 million aid)		 168,000 families at risk (FAO)
Swaziland $2 million aid diverted for down payment on $55 million presidential jet (FAO
appeals for $1.4 million aid)		 21,000 families at risk (FAO)
Zambia Ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world by Transparency
International; hundreds of millions stolen in the 1990s (FAO appeals for
$2.6 million aid)		 62,000 families at risk (FAO)
Zimbabwe President orders seizure of white-owned farms, causing food crisis; millions $ US aid money missing (FAO appeals for $16 million
aid)		 600,000 families at risk (FAO)

The First Successful Anti-Cancer Vaccine

Has the world already seen the first successful anti-cancer vaccine? Probably, and all thanks to animal research.

The Daily Telegraph ran an interesting article on a luncheon to honor Prof. Baruch Lumberg. Lumberg was instrumental in the creation of a vaccine to fight Hepatitis B. In fact, Lumberg won the 1976 Nobel Prize for medicine and has recently written a book, Hepatitis B: The Hunt for a Killer Virus, about his efforts to find a vaccine for the disease.

But the Hepatitis B vaccine should be — and apparently is — an anti-cancer vaccine as well. Hepatitis B plays a major role in causing liver cancer. As many as 85 percent of liver cancer cases are believed to be caused by the virus.

So widespread use of the Hepatitis B vaccine should result in declining liver cancer incidence. And in places where Hepatitis B was a major problem, that in fact has happened. In Taiwan, for example, the incidence of liver cancer has declined by half since the introduction of the Hepatitis B vaccine.

Lumberg first isolated the Hepatitis B virus in 1967 with epidemiological studies in human beings, but it was animal research that relied largely on guinea pigs and non-human primates that led to the development and approval of a vaccine for the disease in the early 1980s.

Source:

The world’s first cancer vaccine. Roger Highfield, The Daily Telegraph (London), June 26, 2002.

U.S. Senate Unanimously Approves Bill to Restore Hunting at National Monument

In November 2000, President Bill Clinton expanded the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Land that had been administered by the Bureau of Land Management was taken over by the National Park Service.

Although at the time , the Clinton administration said this would not affect whether or not hunting could occur in the new areas, in fact the National Park Service barred all hunting on the areas that it took over from BLM. Before the change, the Monument had been a popular site for hunting.

On August 2, 2002 the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill that would change the area’s designation from a Monument to a National Preserve and restore hunting to the site.

The bill had previously been approved on a voice vote by the House of Representatives in May 2001, and now heads to the president’s desk.

Source:

Bill would restore Craters hunting rights. Spokesmanreview.Com, August 3, 2002.

PCRM and Noah Wyle Just Keep the Hypocrisy Rolling

Back in October 2000, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine not only criticized a milk ad that featured actor Noah Wyle, they filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission complaining that the ad was deceptive (see PCRM vs. Noah Wyle: Will the Real Physician Please Stand Up?).

So guess who PCRM is now using as a spokesman in an ad campaign — that’s right, Noah Wyle.

And, just by coincidence, PCRM removed from its web site its October 24, 2000 press release, “Physicians lodge complaint over misleading ad starring “ER” actor Noah Wyle.” What’s a little rewriting history between friends?

Wyle, by the way, is endorsing PCRM’s “cruelty-free charities” program and speaking out against animal research. At the same time, of course, he is also actively involved with a charity and a pharmaceutical company, neither of which meets PCRM’s definition of cruelty-free.

Wyle has been a prominent spokesman for the YWCA’s and Pfizer’s outreach efforts to combat post-traumatic stress disorder. A press release announcing the program last year announced, “Actor Noah Wyle Joins Pfizer and the YWCA of the U.S.A. to Launch PTSD Community Outreach Program.”

Why Pfizer? Because one of the common treatments for PTSD sufferers are drugs called serotonin reuptake inhibitors — drugs which were, of course, developed extensively with the sort of animal research that Wyle now says he opposes.

Apparently Wyle thinks that the pain suffered by a rape victim is severe, but not compared to what a mouse or rat in a laboratory has to go through (one has to wonder if Wyle also thinks that animal research used to develop emergency contraception drugs such as RU-486 was also immoral and improper).

Sources:

PCRM releases new PSA on cruelty-free charities. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, August 1, 2002.

Noah Wyle: There’s help for PTSD sufferers. W. Reed Moran, USA Today, August 3, 2002.

Actor Noah Wyle Joins Pfizer and the YWCA of the U.S.A. to Launch PTSD Community Outreach Program. YWCA/Pfizer Press Release, January 8, 2001.