In 1995, Dewayne Hendricks wrote a paper, Spread Spectrum and the Amateur Radio Service (1995), that was very forward looking. In it he reviews a good deal of early history, for example:

Since the Broscius article in 1989, there has been a lot of activity in the commercial sector regarding SS. As a result of the request and feedback of many manufacturer’s of Part 15 devices, the FCC changed the rules in 1990 in order to make it possible to product devices under Part 15 which could operate at higher data rates and to close up some of the holes in the previous version of the regulation that had been issued in 1985.

In January, 1991, Apple Computer filed the now famous Data-PCS petition with the FCC which asked for the allocation of 40 MHz in the 1850-1990 MHz band for a new radio service to be used for high-speed, local area network services. Some important points of the petition include:

* be accessible to users of personal computers without imposition of licensing obligations, network connection fees, or air-time charges;

* be open to any computer manufacturer’s products and any network access and usage scheme that complies with the regulatory requirements.

* be regulated in a manner that assures non-discriminatory access to assigned frequencies by compatible devices for like purposed; and

* Have flexibility built into the initial regulatory scheme to encourage innovation in and the evolution of Data-PCS technologies and services.

How will we fight poverty in America? Senator Edwards is going around the country in his Opportunity Rocks college tour. He is speaking to students about the need to raise people’s awareness of poverty in America so that we can address this problem.

He speaks about how Hurricane Katrina has shown the ugly face of poverty to people who have too long believed that poverty isn’t a problem. He has speaks about the need to keep this in people’s minds, to keep the attention from shifting back to other things.

He spoke about Robert Kennedy’s visit to Appalachia and how that helped get people to focus on poverty. As he spoke about this, I thought about the Freedom Riders. I have been talking about how we need a new generation of Freedom Riders with a new generation of tools.

So, when Senator Edwards invoked the image of Robert Kennedy in Appalachia, my friend excitedly said, “That is exactly what you were talking about.” I wondered if this is what I’ve been hoping for.

Senator Edwards said all the right things, talking about a movement, led by college students to touch the national consciousness and address the growing problem of poverty.

The curiouser and curiouser it gets.

And the more FUD [Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt] is put forward by incumbent vested interests. Recently, at the World Internet Institute’s Digital Cities Convention, the FCC’s Alan Scrime suggested that WiFi, not being a “guaranteed service”, was not good enough for municipalities. He warned that WiFi is not “robust” and using it might expose municipalities to “lawsuits”. To this FUD we can add the usual charges that WiFi is not secure enough, suffers from unacceptable interference, doesn’t scale, and so forth.

Perhaps Scrime’s real problem is actually the unintended, unexpected, and disruptive success of Part 15 less regulated spectrum. It tends to show that The FCC’s pre-radar, pre-Shannon, pre-transistor, pre-solid state computer, pre-internet etc approach to spectrum management, ie a 1930s world view, is actually no longer appropriate. Its substantial inefficiencies and badly inflated value chain are counter to everything a believer in markets would value: efficiency and flat value chains with the least friction. In fact, the FCC itself has known this since the first Spread Spectrum NOI in 1981 [Gen. Docket Number: 81-413].

In today’s world, where long histories of human errors and ignorance compound and amplify the already difficult situations created by natural events, such as hurricanes, earth quakes, mud slides and so forth, what are we to do? Part of the answer is simply that we need a great deal MORE science, not less, if we want to survive and thrive in the 21st century.

Consider also that very many of us today share a yearning for a more satisfying “whole life”. I suspect a majority of us are deeply dissatisfied with the empty life offered by hyper consumerism and celebrity madness required, it appears, by the processes of mass production with its dependence on mass markets. This dissatisfaction takes many forms. It also makes some of us very defensive and leads to lashing out and other regrettable behaviors, greed, looting and even terrorism of many sorts, for example.

Are our current cultural tensions an unavoidable conflict, a sharp dichotomy, between faith-based approaches or a fact-based “scientific” approach? I see this as a truly false and dangerous dichotomy. What we need is an and/both approach that is greater than the sum of the parts. The fact of mystery is ancient and undeniable. Given the ever lasting condition of all of humanity’s imperfect knowledge, mystery is also ever lasting. Science, on the other hand, is an ever more necessary and useful tool. In the face of deteriorating world conditions, we need a lot more of it, but more readily available and comprehensible to much greater numbers of all peoples. We can be confident, however, that science is no threat, and can never be, to the deeper mysteries.

Becky, Ted, and I were to report at the Best Western in Harvey. On the way we saw a more tropical topography, and a lot of damage to trees and homes. When we arrived we were shown “the loft”–-a room at the top of a spiral staircase off the lobby–-where women were sleeping on cots. [...]

Dr. Farooq Hassan

BA (Juris),MA,M. LiTT (OXON);
DCL (Columbia),DIA(Harvard);
Sen.Adv.Sup.Ct. (Pakistan),
Barrister at Law (UK),Attorney at Law(US).

According to women’s rights’ NGOs at least 800 rapes and gang-rapes were recorded in 2004 by the Police in Pakistan. This figure is believed to be merely a fraction of the number of such cases actually taking place. Several recent shockingly alarming incidents of gang rape cases have, however, sadly brought into sharp focus this terrible aspect of the current societal prejudices in this country. In some notorious incidents, there is clear surrounding evidence establishing government’s complicity in these grave and horrendous misfortunes to befall Pakistani women in distress.

There exists, in addition the unbelievable reality, now internationally noted by the media, evidence that from the very top of the governmental edifice there is a dedicated campaign to “hide” the truth from reaching concerned women NGOs and the Western Governments. It is even more painful to realize that factually, in three of the most notorious contemporary cases of this nature, there is governments’ institutional involvement. The victims of the rapes were done this horrendous mischief allegedly by (1) an army officer, (2) at the behest of a tribal jury and (3) in the latest one by serving Police officers of some significance. The three victims of this brutality were Dr. Sazia Kahlid, Mukatharan Mai and one Sonia Naz. At the moment of concluding this analysis yet another gang rape case has come to light pertaining to one Sairah, a 12 year old Christian girl in Islamabad, the nation’s capitol.

And there was a family I became particularly fond of: the Nolands from St. Bernard Parish. Leeane, the mom, was only 6 years younger than me. She chain smoked as she told me stories about her sons and her parents (who were also there at the shelter). The family had created their own “home” in [...]

I had more than a little anxiety when I began this adventure. I received an urgent email from NBCC (National Board for Certified Counselors) saying the American Red Cross was waiving the usual disaster training for mental health volunteers because the need was so urgent. After watching the TV coverage of Katrina and seeing people [...]

Synopsis of Address presented at the Center for Society & Secularism
Professor Dr. FAROOQ HASSAN [1]
Mumbai, India, 2005

It is a privilege to address this distinguished gathering of scholars of Islam, multi-religious culture and historiography. Ideas of such intellectual leadership of both theoreticians and activists of these fields would hopefully advance our understanding of the difficult and highly delicate subject of Islam and extremism. In this analysis the doctrinal aspects of Islam’s theology as found in the basic sources and perspectives of the faith will be briefly examined. It would then be seen whether its fundamental norms are per se in character “extremist”?

The difficulties to which I refer should be properly comprehended. There is no a priori norm in Islamic theology making it “extremist” in its doctrines or approaches with respect to its core beliefs. No inherent predilection exits in the Muslim Faith as such to justify such derogatoriness in especially the Western critiques and commentaries. Such critical descriptions of Islam and Muslims aim to clearly denigrate their religious beliefs and personal characteristics. This matter of Islamic defamations has reached such a proportion that it is being put to routine ridicule by those who politically or publicly matter. It is most regrettable that Islam is being equated with a phenomenon of fear by most non-Muslim societies especially those in the Western world. Consequently every negative implication is now freely being ascribed to Muslims by many Western societies.

The root cause of this defamation is said to be “extremism” through which Muslim groups have acted purportedly with great tenacity of aggression against their targets. According to the proponents of this perspective, it is this horrendous phenomenon that has resulted in wide spread acts of terrorism against many, but, mostly, Western targets. According to the adherents of this view the “avenging” by several Muslim groups through such criminal acts is on the foundation of religious interpretation of their holy scriptures.

Given the widespread anti-Islamism unleashed particularly after 9/11, we now have an intricate conflict at hand in which often for various sets of people, Muslims are looked upon as the “enemy”. From barbaric, fanatic, violent and militant to being inhuman, every negative characteristic is now freely being ascribed to Muslims by those whose own status in the field of civilized conduct has been generally considered to be a role model for others to emulate. 

This attitude, inter alia, is defiling the sanctity of the Islamic faith which inherently supports temperance and is based on justice and equality for all mankind. It was indeed such a message of equal treatment for all that initially led, and continues to provide, new entrants into Islam. In this context, two perspectives asserted by anti-Islamic defamatory rhetoric dealing with the both causation and consequences deserve mention.