The News - September 21, 2008

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler

Top Picks

Why China Won't Come to the Rescue
This is a very good article and one that I can summarize best as saying that foreign funds and banks are done investing in the US unless it is on their terms with little to no downside risk.  China has been repeatedly burned and has had enough.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1842754,00.html
[Remember, the US runs on debt.  If foreign groups (government and private) stop investing, we will be in a world of hurt.  We live in interesting uncharted times.]

$700 Billion Is Sought for Wall Street in Massive Bailout
“The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed to Congress what could become the largest financial bailout in United States history, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21cong.html?ref=worldbusiness  

Bailout Is Bigger Than Pentagon's Budget
“The Pentagon budget last year was about $600 billion. Over time, Congress has appropriated a total of about $650 billion for the war in Iraq, plus $200 billion for Afghanistan.  The spending for the bailout will add to nearly record projected deficits this year and next. The package made public today asked Congress to raise the federal debt limit from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillionWhat effect that spending will have on the U.S. economy is unclear, although it will almost surely complicate any policy plans the next administration will have, fiscal observers said.“
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092000957.html?nav=rss_business

 IT Audit / Internal Audit / Compliance

U.S. Cybersecurity Is Weak, GAO Says
“The federal government cybersecurity team with primary responsibility for protecting the computer networks of government and private enterprise isn't up to the job, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by BusinessWeek.”
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080915_347282.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech
The report is online at:  http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2008/0916_cyberanalysis_and_warning.pdf  

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

Enterprise Server and Data Center Energy Efficiency Initiatives
“EPA is working with all interested parties to identify ways in which energy efficiency can be measured, documented, and implemented in data centers and the equipment they house, especially servers.”
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=prod_development.server_efficiency#ndceeip

Data center technologies cause concern despite promised benefits
“Separate surveys found that IT executives and high-tech managers are concerned over their ability to both manage virtual operations and maintain the efficiencies virtualization deployments promise to deliver. Research results also showed that while companies seek ways to monitor and reduce power consumption in their data centers, doing so with their current tools is challenging and limited.”
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/091708-data-center-technologies.html

Interop: 'Green computing' is growing pervasive
“Although computer companies were among its earliest adopters, ‘green computing’ is quickly spreading roots into a range of other industries, judging from comments raised today by CIOs at the Interop trade show in New York City.”
http://www.betanews.com/article/Interop_Green_computing_is_growing_pervasive/1221684952

10 Ideas To Power Up Your Green IT Agenda
“Green IT efforts must look past the data center. Yes, that's the right place to start, since virtualizing and consolidating servers can lower costs and also yield green benefits such as lower power use and not having to build a new data center. But companies have bigger ambitions than that. As IT teams try to do their part, here are 10 often overlooked aspects to consider about going green.”
http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/data_centers/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=210602463  

Security and Risk Management

FISMA 2.0 bill will strengthen cybersecurity, experts say
“The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2008, S. 3474, which builds on the original 2002 FISMA legislation, promises to raise the bar for agencies to prove that they are adequately protecting sensitive information as foreign countries and global cyber villains become more sophisticated at attacking government networks.”
http://www.fcw.com/online/news/153855-1.html

Palin E-Mail Hack Shows Webmail's Flaw
“If you needed any more reminders about why it isn't a good idea to use external mail services to conduct critical business, the recent break-in to US Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's gov.palin@yahoo.com Yahoo inbox should be it. Of note is that following the disclosure of the inboxes the compromised address and another address, gov.sarah@yahoo.com, have been suspended.”
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/151317/palin_email_hack_shows_webmails_flaw.html

Anxiety-detecting machines could spot terrorists
“The futuristic machinery works on the same theory as a polygraph, looking for sharp swings in body temperature, pulse and breathing that signal the kind of anxiety exuded by a would-be terrorist or criminal. Unlike a lie-detector test that wires subjects to sensors as they answer questions, the ‘Future Attribute Screening Technology’ (FAST) scans people as they walk by a set of cameras.”
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-18-bioscanner_N.htm

When to shred: Purging data saves money, cuts legal risk
“The average cost companies incur for electronic data discovery ranges from $1 million to $3 million per terabyte of data, according to Glasshouse. While you need to pay attention to retaining data, at the same time, ‘all indications are that you need to be keeping less,’ Merryman says”
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114882&source=rss_topic17

Healthcare / Bio-Informatics / Care Delivery Organizations (CDOs)

Pushing Personalized Medicine
“Both presidential candidates have endorsed the principles of personalized medicine. ‘So that’s a good sign,’ says Abrahams. But much work lies ahead, because without the proper funding and policies in place, personalized medicine will be a long haul.”
http://www.digitalhcp.com/2008/09/16/Pushing-Personalized-Medicine.html

 Hospitals guarded about helping physicians buy EMR systems
“Though a relaxation of the so-called Stark law was expected to spur hospitals to help physicians buy electronic medical records, a new study finds hospitals are moving slowly and cautiously on that score.”
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9999  

GAO: HHS needs to extend health privacy efforts
“In January 2007, GAO called for HHS to define and implement a privacy mechanism for the network, which is under development. The report is intended as an update on privacy safeguards.  As signs of progress, GAO auditors pointed to efforts by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to address key privacy principles and challenges.”
http://www.govhealthit.com/online/news/350579-1.html 

Human Error / Safety / Environment

Arctic Permafrost May Not Hasten Global Warming, Study Says
“Arctic permafrost, the frozen soil that contains carbon deposits beneath polar ice, has withstood periodic temperature swings, indicating it may not contribute to current global warming, Canadian scientists said.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=a1l0y8Jc0Des&refer=canada

Trees Will Save Us From Global Warming? Scratch That
“The researchers collected data over four years (the simulated heat wave occurred in year two), and measured what happened to CO2 uptake. Result: warming decreased the ecosystem’s carbon uptake in both the hot year and the following year.”
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/labnotes/archive/2008/09/18/trees-will-save-us-from-global-warming-scratch-that.aspx

Abrupt Climate Change Focus Of U.S. National Laboratories
“Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn’t received much attention. That’s about to change. Through its Climate Change Prediction Program, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) recently launched IMPACTS – Investigation of the Magnitudes and Probabilities of Abrupt Climate Transitions – a program led by William Collins of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division (ESD) that brings together six national laboratories to attack the problem of abrupt climate change, or ACC.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918192943.htm

Global Warming's Ecosystem Double Whammy
“Plants and soils act like sponges for atmospheric carbon dioxide, but new research finds that one abnormally warm year can suppress the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by some grassland ecosystems for up to two years. The findings, which followed an unprecedented four-year study of sealed, 12-ton containerized grassland plots at DRI is the cover story in this week's issue (September 18) of the journal Nature.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080917145131.htm  

Global News / Business / Economics

China seeks public trust amid milk scandal
“China's leaders scrambled Saturday to contain public dismay over widespread contamination of milk supplies, castigating local officials for negligence while moving to tamp down criticism of the government's response.  Officials promised to keep stores supplied with clean milk and set up medical hot lines nationwide to help people cope with one of the worst product safety scandals in years.”
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iCL58EMBN1tqq6xujZlsaITAFpCQD93AL4LO1

Speculation on North Korean Leader Thrives in Factual Vacuum
“Now reports are saying that Kim Il-sung’s son, Kim Jong-il, the current leader, has had a stroke. Rumors about his condition run rampant. But North Korea, which may be the world’s most secretive nation, has betrayed no signs of unrest so far. Officials and analysts in Seoul, the South Korean capital, say it appears to be business as usual.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/world/asia/20kim.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

In Japan, Financial Crisis Is Just a Ripple
“While European and American financial titans have teetered and collapsed, Japan’s giant banking groups have stood relatively unscathed. The growing global credit crisis, which threatens companies and consumers elsewhere, has yet to appear here, where the problem for years has been that the nation’s banks have too much cash, not too little.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/worldbusiness/20yen.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Japan, China Locked In by Investments
“Japan is a captive of its investment in the United States economy and its central bank has no real alternative other than to hold on to the massive amounts of U.S. Treasury bonds it owns and work hard to help clean up the mess on Wall Street, Hidehiko Sogano, an associate finance director at the Bank of Japan, said Friday.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/19/AR2008091902012.html?nav=rss_business  

US News / Business / Economics

Takeovers of AIG, Fannie and Freddie raise business and political questions
“Uncle Sam is turning into Uncle CEO. But will the new corporate suit be a good fit?  By agreeing to bail out insurance giant American International Group Inc. and mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal government has put itself in the unprecedented position of running huge private companies. In the case of American International Group, or AIG, the government is now the majority shareholder, acquiring 80% of the company in exchange for lending it as much as $85 billion over two years to keep the business out of bankruptcy as it is dismantled.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-newboss21-2008sep21,0,1355734.story

But Will It Work?
“As the federal government steps to the center of the financial crisis, devising plans to take ownership of hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of bad mortgages, a pair of simple questions rise to the fore: Will this intervention finally be enough to restore order? And what will this grand rescue cost taxpayers?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21econ.html?adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1221998638-BoJyt+gCFNLRByUHaVnQlA

Death and Near-Death Experiences on Wall St.
“Early last Monday morning, Richard S. Fuld Jr., the longtime chief executive of Lehman Brothers, put his 158-year-old firm into bankruptcy, burying a company where he had spent his entire career.  Two men left the offices of Lehman Brothers in New York last week. The government refused to bail out the brokerage firm, leading it to file for bankruptcy.  Several hours later, John A. Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, climbed a stage in Manhattan and told his employees, most of whom he had barely gotten to know during his brief tenure, that he was selling the troubled firm to the Bank of America Corporation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21exec.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1221998728-MgE0hNOY/q0k/KC/go+1lA  

Technology & Science

Helium leak forces two-month shutdown at LHC
“The world's largest particle collider has been shut down for at least two months due to a large helium leak stemming from an incident Friday, officials said.”
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10047185-76.html

From Sugar To Gasoline: 'Green Gasoline' Crafted From Sugar And Carbohydrates
“Following independent paths of investigation, two research teams are announcing this month that they have successfully converted sugar-potentially derived from agricultural waste and non-food plants-into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and a range of other valuable chemicals.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080918170827.htm

Why is commissioning a Data Center different from other facilities?
“In summary the commissioning process of a data center is similar to, yet different from other facilities.  The similarities are that the process is intended to verify that the installed systems meet the design intent and basis of design.  The differences are in the focus.”
http://datacenterjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2015

Technology Doesn’t Dumb Us Down. It Frees Our Minds.
“Everyone has been talking about an article in The Atlantic magazine called ‘Is Google Making Us Stupid?’ Some subset of that group has actually read the 4,175-word article, by Nicholas Carr.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/technology/21ping.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1221998923-YvWNGX7b1DDC1O48hu022A
Here’s Carr’s article:  http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google