Business balks at PATRIOT intrusions
WASHINGTON — Some of the nation's most powerful business groups are splitting with the Bush administration over the USA PATRIOT Act, complaining to Congress that it makes government access to confidential business records too easy.
Six business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Association of Realtors have written a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter, R-PA, reports the Boston Globe. "Confidential files — records about our customers or our employees, as well as our trade secrets and other proprietary information — can too easily be obtained and disseminated under investigative powers expanded by the PATRIOT Act. These new powers lack sufficient checks and balances," they wrote.
In the first organized criticism of the act from the business sector, the groups have endorsed amendments that would require investigators to say how the information they seek is linked to individual suspected terrorists or spies, and would allow businesses to challenge the requests in courts and to speak publicly about those requests.
The Globe reports that such business views could make a difference as Congress heads toward a vote on whether to extend some controversial provisions of the act that expire at the end of the year. Bush has asked Congress to make those provisions permanent, but a Senate bill only extends the most controversial ones another four years; the House bill, another 10 years.
The restrictions sought by the groups also have been advocated by a coalition of civil liberties groups and conservative political organizations.
In the letter, the groups also endorse Senate amendments that would provide the first "meaningful right to challenge the (PATRIOT Act court) order when the order is unreasonable, oppressive or seeks privileged information," and the right to challenge the existing permanent gag order covering document demands made under the act.
Although they call the PATRIOT Act "an important tool that has helped keep our country safe," the groups expressed concern over "the expensive and time-consuming burden that compliance with document requests from the government places upon affected businesses."
Syrup swims and penguin poop garner improbable prizes
CAMBRIDGE, MA — How far can penguins poop? And can people swim faster in syrup than water? These are among the heady questions answered by winners of the 2005 Ig Nobel prize, spoof awards organized by the science humor journal, the Annals of Improbable Research, to honor scientific achievements that "make people laugh then think."
University of Minnesota researchers Edward Cussler and Brian Gettelfinger received the chemistry award for resolving whether people can swim faster in syrup than water, according to New Scientist. The question arose as Gettelfinger, a student, wondered how to increase his speed as he trained for Olympic swimming trials.
The two were offered 20 train cars’ worth of corn syrup to mix with water, but the city of Minneapolis derailed that plan by demanding $20,000, since draining the syrup would overload the sewage system. Instead, they stirred 310 kilograms of guar gum powder into one pool, and found 16 volunteers to swim two lengths, showering as they went from the syrupy pool to clean water.
Cussler found that the thicker liquid increased the power of their strokes as much as it increased the drag on their bodies. Conclusion: It made no difference.
"It was fun," he said, but in the end it was "totally useless."
A prize for fluid dynamics was awarded for a theoretical analysis of penguin poop propulsion, conducted by Benno Meyer-Rochow of the International University of Bremen in Germany and Oulu University in Finland, and Jozsef Gal of Lorand Eötvös University in Hungary. When nature calls, brooding Chinstrap and Adélie penguins are reluctant to leave their nests. Instead, they point their rear ends outward, lift their tails and fire. The departing excreta typically reaches distances of about 40 centimeters.
Accounting for the bird's height, anal anatomy and poopal velocity and viscosity, the researchers calculated that the internal pressures reach 10 to 60 kilopascals (0.1 to 0.6 atmospheres), well above the highest pressures humans can put to the task.
The awards were presented at Harvard University's otherwise distinguished Sanders Theatre.
posted October 14, 2005
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