TIME EUROPE
January 15, 2001 VOL. 157 NO. 2
Tech Watch
YAHOO'S NAZI PROBLEM
The Long Arm of the Law
The Internet's chief claim to fame has been its global scope and ability to render political boundaries meaningless. Think again. Last week Yahoo, the U.S.-based Internet portal, was forced to admit that being global does not exempt you from local laws and mores. Yahoo announced it would ban all Nazi- and Ku Klux Klan-related paraphernalia, as well as other items that glorify hatred or violence, from its U.S. auction and shopping sites. The move came weeks before the imposition of a $13,000-a-day fine decreed in November when a court in Paris ruled that in accordance with French antihate laws, Yahoo must block French users' access to auctions of Nazi memorabilia on its sites.
Yahoo maintained that it was technically impossible to block users in France from accessing websites in the U.S. and that the ruling violated the right to free speech guaranteed by the American constitution. But, noting that it wished to maintain "the quality of the consumer experience," the company said it would bar such offensive items and begin monitoring the contents of its commercial sites, using inhouse screening software. Although antihate and human rights activist groups have applauded the development, the battle may be far from over. Yahoo may yet appeal the November ruling, and it has already asked an American court to rule that the French decree cannot be enforced in the U.S.
SITE SEEING
Far Away Is Close at Hand
Armchair adventurers can follow explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen as they attempt to become the first women to ski and wind-sail across Antarctica. Pulling sleds with 115-kg payloads for three months over 3,850 km at temperatures as low as -34°C, Bancroft and Arnesen file daily text and audio bulletins to the website www.yourexpedition.com. The former schoolteachers are using an Apple Powerbook and a satellite uplink to involve students in their experiences. The site features a gps map to follow their progress, photo and video galleries, and interactive lessons.
An Italian sheep farm is putting its flock up for adoption via the Web (www.asca.dimmidove.com). For $170, nature-nostalgic city dwellers get a 12-month contract entitling them to one animal's output, including cheese, wool and droppings to fertilize their window boxes. In the future, a webcam should open a window on the sheepfold, and accommodation for the foster-shepherds may be arranged nearby.
WHAT'S NEXT
Multimedia Car: Keep on Working
Microsoft has collaborated with French carmaker Citroën to develop the first affordable multimedia-equipped car. Billed as a mobile office, the Xsara Windows CE has a phone, gps navigation system, e-mail access and a computer with a small color monitor. Most of the functions are voice-activated. A batch of 500 Xsara Windows CEs sold out at $19,300 and encouraged Citroën to make the multimedia capabilities available this spring in a line called the Auto PC.
System Music: In the Key of Life
What is life? It's thymine, cytosine, adenine and guanine, the components of DNA. These four elements combine in groups of three to make up the amino acids that create proteins. If each letter is given a musical pitch, the resulting strings of code can be fed into software to create biotic symphonies. Visit education.llnl.gov/ msds/music to hear the difference between mouse and human trypsin, or algoart.com to listen to music based on HIV, human sex hormone, the vampire bat or slime mold, as well as human Theta brainwaves.
Web Survey: Breaking Point
If you're bald from tearing out your hair when a Web quest turns up scads of irrelevant results, take comfort — Web rage is fashionable. In a recent survey, 71% of Internet users said they were frustrated by Web searches and 46% found them nerve-racking. British search software company WebTop, which commissioned the poll, claims it has the answer. Its search engine at webtop.com divides the Web into zones like News & Current Events or Home & Garden and allows users to cut and paste an entire document into the search field. That should produce closer matches than just typing in a few key words.
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COVER STORY
Special Report: The Future of Medicine
With the mapping of the human genome the process by which new drugs are developed is being turned upside down. These drugs will also change our lives
Brave New Pharmacy
Using high-speed robots and the secrets of the human genome, scientists are changing forever the way they discover new medicine
The Hunt for Cures
Genetic information could lead to treatments for everything from AIDS to obesity
EUROPE
Prague Winter
When Jiri Hodac was named director of state television, Czech journalists saw a return to government meddling in the media
See Vous in Court
France is the latest nation to join the litigation game
Going up in Smoke
Switzerland, land of luxury watches and bank secrecy, has a new growth industry: marijuana
UNITED STATES
The True Blue Bush Cabinet
Its ethnic and gender balance is correct, but can a divided nation deal with the superconservative bent?
BUSINESS
Transparency has its Price
Executives at many German companies are finding it hard to adjust to the more rigorous financial disclosure required by global investors
On Spreading the Word
When it comes to selling merchandise, word-of-mouth marketing may be a company's best weapon
Essay: Meat Matters
Critics of industrialized farming may be forgetting about world hunger, writes TIME's Rod Usher
THE ARTS
Rebel with a Cause
The real-lifestory of an anti-Mafia activist in Sicily makes for a handsome film with a political message
The Upmarketeer's Tale
Bernard Arnault built his house by selling at deluxe prices and in his book he's still giving nothing away
The Art of Noise
For Europe's freely improvised music, the only rule is no rule
DEPARTMENTS
Techwatch
World Watch
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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