Terminada a segunda guerra mundial, o Japão, ocupado pelos vencedores norte-americanos, era um país em escombros e onde as forças políticas de esquerda tinham peso e existiam sindicatos combativos. Para reforçar os sindicatos reformistas e evitar o perigo revolucionário instituiu-se o hábito de proceder a negociações anuais entre os sindicatos e as maiores empresas, em [...]

À primeira vista, o incidente do cigarro de Sócrates não merece mais que um título “Se fumar mata, o ridículo também”. Mas vejamos: houve uma denúncia sobre esta prevaricação do primeiro-ministro. Houve alarde em toda a comunicação social. Sócrates fez uma contrição pública. Não serão alarmantes sintomas de que estamos numa sociedade vigiada, hipócrita e moralista? [...]

O Diário de Notícias de hoje, 20 de Maio, dá conta de que 25 novos hospitais privados vão abrir no país até 2009. Na forja está ainda a regulamentação das Casas da Saúde que englobam a prestação de cuidados continuados e que se prevê venham a instalar-se nas capitais de distrito (22 no total). Nesta [...]

Uns jovens interessantes, embora um tanto ou quanto estouvados, erguendo barricadas e lançando pedras à polícia em nome de ideias generosas mas completamente impraticáveis − eis como o Maio de 1968 tem sido frequentemente apresentado na avalanche de artigos e conferências que celebram os quarenta anos passados sobre o acontecimento. Muitos comentadores simpatizam com esse [...]

Há décadas que circulam rumores acerca de laços entre a família presidencial dos EUA e a máquina de guerra nazi. Agora o jornal britânico The Guardian revela como os processos baseados na Lei (estadunidense) dos Negócios com o Inimigo ainda se fazem sentir no presidente actual. O avô de George W. Bush, o antigo senador [...]

Assiste-se na área editorial a uma guerra que tem como base a concentração das editoras em dois grandes grupos: a Leya, liderada pelo empresário Miguel Paes do Amaral; e o Círculo de Leitores, do consórcio alemão DirectGroup Bertelsmann. Os conflitos reflectem-se nas duas associações de livreiros: a União de Editores e Livreiros (UEP) e a [...]

Agências noticiosas dos EUA e britânicas deram grande destaque às declarações do director-geral da Interpol, que teria confirmado a existência de laços secretos entre o presidente venezuelano Hugo Chávez e a guerrilha colombiana (FARC). Mas a Interpol diz exactamente o contrário: o computador com as supostas “provas”, apreendido a um dirigente das FARC, foi manipulado [...]

O grupo Precários Inflexíveis, plataforma de luta contra o trabalho precário, vai juntar-se no café do Cinema São Jorge, em Lisboa, às 21h30 de 4a feira, dia 21 de Maio, para pensar e planear as próximas acções de intervenção. Em convocatória pela Internet faz um convite à participação dos interessados, anunciando “rebeldia e luta contra [...]

Notícias

Ministérios da Saúde e do Desenvolvimento assinam portaria que define parceria de laboratórios públicos de fármacos com produtores privados de matérias-primas para esses produtos

Especiais

Estudo feito na UFSCar comprova que reincidência de infrações e uso de armas de fogo são maiores entre adolescentes que estão fora da escola. Pesquisa foi publicada na revista Cadernos de Pesquisa, da Fundação Carlos Chagas

Especiais

Agência Espacial abre primeira seleção desde 1992 para recrutar candidatos a missões à Estação Espacial Internacional e a futuras viagens à Lua e além

Especiais

Agência Brasileira de Desenvolvimento Industrial estréia novo portal com ferramentas para estimular a cooperação em inovação entre academia, setor privado e governo

Especiais

Objetivo é reunir propostas que subsidiem mudanças na legislação vigente e propiciem a ampliação do montante de recursos destinados pelo governo federal às duas regiões para aplicação em ciência, tecnologia e inovação

Agenda

"Antropologia e arte: como descobrimos as imagens" e "Pensar por imagens: por uma epistemologia do visual" serão temas discutidos de 28 a 30 de maio, no interior paulista

Agenda

Seminário Ciência e Tecnologia para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Amazônia será o principal evento da semana, que ocorrerá de 1º a 5 de junho, em São Paulo

Johnathon Williams says: "The story that Boing Boing previously covered about the Arkansas woman who was left in a holding cell for four days without food or water when a bailiff forgot about her now has a somewhat happy ending. The prosecutor has dropped the charges against her."

Adrianna Torres-Flores, 38, will not face prosecution for unauthorized copying or sale of recordings because prosecutors have verified her alibi, 4th Judicial District deputy prosecutor Mark Booher said Monday.

Torres-Flores said that she agreed to watch a booth for someone else for about 20 minutes on Dec. 1 when police raided Pleasant Street Flea Market in Springdale, Booher said. Springdale police arrested five adults and four juveniles, and seized thousands of pirated compact discs and digital video discs.

Oddly enough, the bailiff responsible for her ordeal has returned to duty. Link

Marilyn Terrell says:

In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal, an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior."

Link

A controversial 90-page internal Cisco document leaked to reporters on the eve of a senate hearing about US technology companies' roles under repressive government regimes once again highlights the double-edged role that Americans' technological ingenuity plays in the rest of the world.

The document is an internal presentation that Cisco engineers and staffers in China mulled over in 2002 as the central government was upgrading its local, state and provincial public safety and security network infrastructure.

The PowerPoint presentation surfaced on Monday just before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the role that US technology companies play when complying with the censorship demands of foreign governments.

The Tuesday hearing was chaired by Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, who said during his opening statement that US companies have a "moral obligation to protect freedom of expression."

The senator's staff is exploring the possibility of introducing legislation that would attempt to tackle the issue, said Max Gleischman, Durbin's press secretary.

In December, the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved HR 275, a related bill. Its sponsor, Republican congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, wants the House to pass the legislation before the Olympics commence this August in Beijing.

Among other things, the proposed law would make it a crime for U.S. companies to turn over their customers' personal information to repressive governments.   

For its part, the 2002 Cisco presentation that surfaced on Monday provides a long list of the Chinese security apparatus' goals. One of the projects outlined was the country's Golden Shield censorship system, which tries to block access to content that Chinese government officials deem too controversial for its citizens.

One of Golden Shield's stated goals in the presentation was to "combat 'Falun Gong' evil religion and other hostiles," a statement that was attributed to Runsen Li, the information technology chief in charge of developing the project.

Mark Chandler, Cisco's senior vice president of legal services, said during the Tuesday hearing that he was "appalled" and "disappointed" when he saw that quote in the presentation.

Nevertheless, the company sold its networking equipment to the Chinese to build its censorship system.

"It is very regrettable that one of our engineers quoted directly from Mr. Runsen Li, the Chinese government's head of IT for the Golden Shield project in this internal presentation," said Terry Alberstein, a senior director of corporate communications at Cisco. "They do not represent Cisco's views, principles or its sales and marketing strategy or approach. They were merely inserted in that presentation to capture the goals of the Chinese government in that specific project, which was one of many discussed in that 2002 presentation."

Cisco went on to market and ultimately sell about $100,000 worth of routers and switches that became part of the Golden Shield project, Alberstein said.

"We sold a very small amount of routers and switches, probably about $100,000 worth," he said. But "we don't modify our routers, we don't customize them. The have the same features and functionality all over the world. We don't aid or abet censorship activities by the Chinese government  -- it’s the network managers that make those decisions."

Human rights advocates have charged that Cisco specifically tailors its equipment to help the Chinese to censor content. One of the pages on the Cisco presentation states that one of the opportunities for Cisco was "security, operational maintenance."

In an interview on Tuesday, Arvind Ganesan, a director at Human Rights Watch, said that Cisco needs to conduct a global audit to see if this kind of marketing behavior happens on a consistent basis within its rank and file.

"If you know ahead of time that a sale could lead to human rights violations, and there's no way of mitigating that, maybe you shouldn't offer it to that entity," he said.

Claire Lui of Print says: "In our Evolution column, we look at decades of covers and ads which have used the 'spread legs' motif, including James Bond and many, many others. Link

The Guardian reports that a 15-year-old boy in the UK was handed a court summons for carrying a placard that called Scientology a dangerous cult.

Writing on an anti-Scientology website, the teenager facing court said: "I brought a sign to the May 10th protest that said: 'Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult.'

"'Within five minutes of arriving I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use that word, and that the final decision would be made by the inspector."

A policewoman later read him section five of the Public Order Act and "strongly advised" him to remove the sign. The section prohibits signs which have representations or words which are threatening, abusive or insulting.

The teenager refused to back down, quoting a 1984 high court ruling from Mr Justice Latey, in which he described the Church of Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous".

After the exchange, a policewoman handed him a court summons and removed his sign.

Link (Thanks, Matt!)