Briefs. (1, of 4) Losing Internet Freedom.
The Associated Press reported July 6th (tho I saw this report hilited only today):

Internet users worried about spyware and adware are shunning specific Web sites, avoiding file-sharing networks, even switching browsers.

Many have also stopped opening e-mail attachments without first making sure they are safe, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in a study issued Wednesday.

"People are scaling back on some Internet activities," said Susannah Fox, the study's main author. "People are feeling less adventurous, less free to do whatever they want to do online." * * *

According to Pew, 48 percent of adult Internet users in the United States have stopped visiting specific Web sites that they fear might be harboring unwanted programs.

Twenty-five percent stopped using file-sharing software, which often comes bundled with adware. Rogue programs can also disguise themselves as songs or movie files awaiting download on file-sharing networks.

Eighteen percent of U.S. adult Internet users have started using Mozilla Firefox or another alternative to Internet Explorer.

In addition, 81 percent have become more cautious about e-mail attachments, a common way for spreading viruses, though rare for spyware or adware.

All told, 91 percent have made at least one behavioral change.

Question: Why should individuals have to protect themselves from the slimeballs who infest the Internet? Where is government?
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(2) Battle over the Thermostat. Also on July 6th, hilited today, CNN/Money reported:

As summer temperatures rise and air conditioners get turned on, chilly office temperatures can lead to tiffs in the workplace * * * From bringing flannel pajamas to the office to keeping space heaters running by their desks [!!], workers are finding numerous ways to battle the cool temperatures indoors this summer * * * When office temperatures were turned up from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell 44 percent and overall typing output rose 150 percent .... That translates into about an extra $2 per worker in productivity when temperatures are turned up[.]

Why on Earth are indoor spaces of this country too cold in the summer and too hot in the winter?
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I keep having to complain in my favorite bar that the room is too cold. That place sells primarily very cold beer (the most common drink) and iced mixed drinks, not hot buttered rum, coffee, or tea. Why would management want to keep the room so cold that people can't face the thought of holding a cold drink in their hands?
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(3) Honoring India. The Washington Post reported today that President Bush last nite hosted only his "5th Grand Dinner", a 134-guest state White House affair for India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"This, of course, is the largest democracy on the face of the Earth," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld explained to reporters[.]

Well, yes and no. India is indeed technically a democracy, but it's a damned poor exemplar of a democracy. Its so-called "federal" government regularly takes over state governments that irritate it and imposes federal rule. Our federal government wouldn't dare even to try that.
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And India is not remotely a social democracy, but is wracked by caste discrimination, despite lip-service attempts to "lift" the "backward castes".
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It is, however, good for the U.S. to encourage India to evolve in our direction, and there has been very large growth in our bilateral relationship in the past decade. Alas, increased economic interchange has left Americans holding the short end of the stick (an odd but expressive phrase). India-based software engineers and other high-tech professionals (e.g., call-center tech support people) are displacing Americans in significant numbers, and that trend is almost certain to worsen, since India's per capita income is 1/10 ours.
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India is so large that transfers of wealth from the U.S. to India cannot make a significant dent in India's grotesque poverty. There are still people starving to death in that benighted country. If an Indian gets sick, loses his job, and has no family to fall back on, he is likely to die, because there's no "social safety net".
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Still, it's a good idea to draw India ever closer to our civilization.
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Can you imagine? Dubya is actually doing something right!
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(4) Confirmation. A New York-based Spaniard of my acquaintance agrees that there has been much more attention given in the U.S. to the London subway and bus bombing than there was to the much more deadly Madrid train bombing of March 2004, as I discuss in the entry to this blog immediately below. Maybe we're both wrong. I don't think so.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,769.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 6:20 PM