Court Rules U.S. Cable Law Is Constitutional. The FCC does have the right to limit the number of households a cable company may reach, and to force cable companies to share their capacity with others instead of filling it entirely with their own programming. The intention is to prevent consolidation in the cable industry similar to that bedevilling the rest of the public media. Get this — Time Warner Cable had contested the FCC’s authority on the grounds that it was an infringement of free speech rights!

RIP: Jean-Pierre Rampal, 78; Paul Bartel, 61.

“Microsoft has introduced a significant security enhancement for Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000. The Outlook 2000 E-mail Security Update and the Outlook 98

E-mail Security Update provide protection from most viruses, such as the ILOVEYOU and Melissa viruses, as well as other viruses

that spread through e-mail, or worm viruses that can replicate through Outlook. The Outlook 98/2000 E-mail Security Update puts

you back in control of your software. Once you have installed the update, mail is not sent on your behalf without your permission,

and you are protected from accidentally opening attached files that pose a security risk to your computer.

This update limits certain functionality in Outlook to provide a higher level of security; it was not created to address a security

vulnerability within Outlook. The update provides unprecedented security protection for Outlook and Microsoft encourages that all

users of Outlook 2000 and Outlook 98 install this update.”

Researchers from IBM, Compaq and AltaVista collaborated on this paper on the Connectivity of the web: “The study of the web as a graph is not only fascinating in its own right, but also yields valuable insight into web algorithms for crawling,

searching and community discovery, and the sociological phenomena which characterize its evolution. We report on experiments on local and

global properties of the web graph using two Altavista crawls each with over 200M pages and 1.5 billion links. Our study indicates that the

macroscopic structure of the web is considerably more intricate than suggested by earlier experiments on a smaller scale…. One can pass from any node of IN through SCC to any node of OUT.

Hanging off IN and OUT are TENDRILS containing nodes that are reachable from portions of IN, or that can

reach portions of OUT, without passage through SCC. It is possible for a TENDRIL hanging off from IN to

be hooked into a TENDRIL leading into OUT, forming a TUBE — a passage from a portion of IN to a portion

of OUT without touching SCC.” [Is that clear??]

A press release from the Violence Policy Center gives evidence that racism is a core value at the National Rifle Association.

NewsWatch: Mad About Media Criticism. The Center for Media and Public Affairs whines about journalists who whine about media critics.

US magazine issued a prominent retraction of its earlier story (which I blogged below) that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were disenchanted with S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y. “The US about-face reflects an increasingly common problem for

magazine editors in these days of steepening competition for a shrinking list of celebrities

who can actually sell newsstand copies. ‘Cruise obviously has his share of pull,’ says a

journalist who’s experienced the clout of Cruise and PMK. ‘At a magazine like US, they need

to be able to have Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on the cover. You can tell from the size

of the correction that they were interested in keeping him happy and available to the

magazine.'” Cruise’s publicist also warned reporters calling for interviews with the star about his forthcoming M:I-2 that any question they ask about S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y will be the last question they get to ask. I guess S-c-i-e-n-t-o-l-o-g-y’s thugs don’t have to make US an offer it can’t refuse when Cruise’s publicists and attorneys do it for them.

Environmentalist Brower Quits Sierra Club Board. For those who follow environmental politics, the name of David Brower is among the most venerable. He led the Sierra Club in the ’50’s and ’60’s, was removed from its leadership in 1969 because of his contentiousness; remained contentious elsewhere in environmental advocacy through the ’70’s and rejoined the Sierra Club in 1983. Now he’s lambasting the Sierra Club for backing governmental proposals for usage of the Sierras, and for not coming out strongly against increased immigration to the US, which has recently been his bete noir. “I find going to the meetings is, frankly, a total waste of

time,” Brower said in a recent interview. “They practically discuss nothing

about conservation. You just get layers and layers and layers of

bureaucracy.” The Sierra Club shrugs off his criticism and his departure.

Going Cashless As Small Change Dries Up. “A strike by armored van security guards, now in its 11th day, is turning France into a cashless society.

Sales are down in small shops, waiters are losing out on their usual tips and beggars are deprived of the few coins they live off.

With the normal flow of cash between banks and shops cut off, the small change and banknotes normally used for everyday purchases

are becoming ever harder to find. Credit cards and checks are often the only way to pay for purchases.”