Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Safety of Medical Helicopters; NYT coverage

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Jon
on July 5, 2008
in Aviation and Uncategorized
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Barry Meier wrote this excellent overview of the medical helicopter industry, which followed two excellent pieces by John Dougherty. From Meier’s piece:

The fatal collision Sunday between two medical helicopters in Arizona was the sixth crash involving the emergency helicopters since May, making the last two months one of the deadliest periods in the history of the fast-growing industry.Sixteen people have died this year in seven crashes, which involved eight helicopters, according to federal data. Thirteen of the deaths have come since May.

About 750 medical helicopters are operating in this country, about twice the number flying a decade ago. Medical helicopters were once operated mostly by hospitals, but in recent years private companies, including some that are publicly traded, have come to dominate the industry.

The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mark Rosenker, said the agency was greatly concerned about the spate of crashes. The board began to investigate the industry after a rash of accidents in 2004 and 2005.

In a report in 2006, it found that operators had failed to develop comprehensive flight risk programs, and that pilots often did not have adequate information about bad weather they might have encountered or equipment to alert them to dangerous terrain.

The board called for stricter flight rules and improved accident-avoidance equipment, among other recommendations.

The Federal Aviation Administration accepted all of the board’s recommendations, Mr. Rosenker said, but has put only some of them into effect.

“The latest spate of accidents has given the board concern that the F.A.A. may not be moving as quickly as necessary,” Mr. Rosenker said in a telephone interview on Monday evening.

Medical Helicopter Crashes Stir Concern

And links to Mr. Dougherty’s pieces:Crashes of Medical Aircraft Examined , and 6 Killed and 3 Are Injured as Copters Collide. The Times doesn’t hyperlink Mr. Dougherty’s byline; perhaps this is the equivalent of being a “made man” in certain organizations with which we’re familiar.

Con Ed Urged to Improve Its Response to Gas Leaks/P.S.C. gently applies pressure to Con Edison

Published
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Jon
on July 4, 2008
in Con Edison, Firefighting, Regulation and Uncategorized
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Ken Belson of the Times reported in June that state investigators had “suggested … ways that Consolidated Edison and the New York City Fire Department can better coordinate their response to gas leaks.”

After a seven-month investigation, the Public Service Commission is recommending that the utility ask firefighters to remain until safe conditions are restored, improve the way information about gas leaks is shared and set parameters for ordering evacuations.

The Fire Department and Con Edison were criticized for how they handled the deadly explosion, at a house in Sunnyside, on Nov. 21. The Fire Department said it did nothing wrong when it left after checking a report of a gas odor because Con Edison officials had taken control of the situation. The utility said it acted appropriately because it did not have information suggesting that any of the people in the houses in the area were in danger.

A 69-year-old woman, Kunta Oza, who lived at 48-19 41st Street, died a day after being burned in the explosion.

Con Edison, which said it followed its established procedures for dealing with gas leaks on the day of the explosion, has since improved its protocols, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

“We’ve worked closely with the Fire Department with respect to improving procedures for responding to gas complaints, maintaining emergency personnel presence on site and coordinating evacuations when necessary,” said the spokesman, Michael Clendenin.

Con Edison has already implemented some of the “actions to improve safety” that were recommended by the Public Service Commission. On Wednesday, staff investigators discussed their findings from the explosion at a commission meeting in Albany. The investigation is complete, but the report has not yet been released.

But Kenneth P. Thompson, a lawyer who is representing Mrs. Oza’s family in a civil suit against Con Edison, said the investigators’ findings showed that “Con Ed was negligent and caused Mrs. Oza’s death.” The report, he said, includes details about rusted gas pipes.

“Con Ed had a duty to fix that pipe, and that it wasn’t on their priority list shows they were negligent,” Mr. Thompson said. Mrs. Oza’s family is seeking $100 million in damages from Con Edison.

Officials for Con Edison said the utility did not comment on pending lawsuits.

Councilman Eric N. Gioia, who represents Sunnyside, said the commission had ignored the destruction caused by the explosion and should penalize Con Edison. (The commission did not assess penalties as part of the investigation.)

“The Public Service Commission continues to confirm our worst fears that they are little more than a public shield for Con Ed’s behavior instead of being the watchdog they need to be,” Mr. Gioia said. “Whether it’s getting electrocuted, steam pipe explosions or this, at most, the Public Service Commission gives them a slap on the wrist.”

Con Ed Urged to Improve Its Response to Gas Leaks, June 19, 2008.

Interestingly, the Public Service Commission entitled its press release

GAS DISTRIBUTION COMPANIES IMPROVE SAFETY RECORD
-Effort Underway to Further Improve Safety Performance-

On the same day that it expanded the definition of “major” system failure so that it means a system failure for 10% or more of Con Ed’s customers a maximum fine of $10 million, and a maximum of three incidents per year. “PSC Redefines Major Outages for Con Edison.” Have three major incidents - and the fourth, fifth and sixth - and every later one - are on the house. - Con Ed admits to having 3.176 million customers (See Con Ed Fact Sheet here) - so the message here is - try to keep the system failures to 300,000 customers or less - but if things get very bad - you’ll never have to pay more than $30 million in fines.

This doesn’t seem like a particularly effective deterrent.

See also:

Queens Crap Blog coverage of Con Edison issue(s)

New York Sun coverage of Con Ed

Mosquito threat in Wisconsin - Futurismic

Published
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Jon
on July 1, 2008
in Flooding and Uncategorized
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Thanks to Futurismic for their post -

The Mosquitoes Are Coming! reports Futurismic, based in Wisconsin, where

the record rainfalls over the past month have become something of a concern. The biggest water-related concern Southeast Wisconsin - Milwaukee in specific - has had in the last 20 years is the cryptosporidium scare we had in 1993. Now, though, with nearly an entire summer’s worth of rain in just less than a week, we’re in trouble. Why? Mosquitoes.

The biggest hazard with mosquitoes in Wisconsin in the West Nile Virus. With large - and I’m talking football-field-sized - ponds all over the area, it’s prime breeding grounds for large quantities of mosquitoes that carry the virus. The National Health Administration and the CDC have warned of a possible outbreak. It’s one of those concerns that a people don’t really think about, and it carries potentially lethal outcomes.

Many people are rebuilding after the devastating floods, and this will only be an additional burden. It’s one of those times when it’s nice to be advanced enough in medicine to deal with such large-scale problems.

Continue reading ‘Mosquito threat in Wisconsin - Futurismic’

Power outage in Omaha; restoration expected to take a week

Published
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Jon
on June 29, 2008
in Uncategorized
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According to the Associated Press, electricity is out for thousands in Omaha, Nebraska, and restoration of power is expected to take at least a week. Link via nola.com

E.U. countries discuss cross-border disaster relief

Published
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Jon
on June 29, 2008
in Best Practices and Uncategorized
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According to the website Insignia of the German THW of the THW (Technische Hilfswerk, or “Federal Agency for Technical Relief”), a recent conference continued what appears to be an ongoing discussion about cross-border cooperation:

Cooperation among civil protection organisations in the European Union (EU) was one of the key topics at the “Desaster [sic] Management 2008″ symposium in Schweinfurt last weekend. Dr. Manfred Schmidt, Head of the Department for Crisis Management and Protection of the Population at the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Dr. Peter Billing from the EU Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), and THW representatives spoke about the integration of the THW into the EU ‘Community Mechanism’.

Using past intervention missions as examples, Dr. Billing from the Civil Protection Unit at the European Commission illustrated the quality of European cooperation. Dr. Schmidt, who is the departmental head at the Interior Ministry responsible for the THW, went into more detail in his talk about the German contribution to cross-border disaster relief: an important part of this is based on the competencies at the THW. Representatives of the THW management held two lectures on the topics “The THW within the European Community Mechanism” and “Training EU Experts”, explaining the THW’s international work to the congress participants.

Quality of European cooperation, from the THW English-language website.

One doesn’t get the sense that this is a controversial discussion. The THW has assisted other countries, including France, in recent years, and this year has had teams in Cyprus, Myanmar, and China. And it’s only one of a number of German disaster relief organizations.

According to the CIA World Factbook, Germany’s population will be 82.3 million as of July 2008. For that population, Germany has 1,383,730 firefighters, mostly volunteers. The THW - which can be an alternative to compulsory military service, has 800,000 active volunteers, and about 800 in full-time administrative roles. And their organizational scheme is:

The main type of THW unit (about two out of three) is one of two Bergungsgruppe (1st and 2nd Rescue Groups), equipped with heavy tools like hydraulic cutting devices, chain saws, and pneumatic hammers.

The Fachgruppen (Technical Units) include:

* Infrastruktur (Infrastructure),
* Räumen (Debris Clearance),
* Sprengen (Demolition/Blasting),
* Elektroversorgung (Electricity Supply),
* Beleuchtung (Illumination),
* Wasserschaden / Pumpen (Water Damage / Pumps),
* Wassergefahren (Water Hazards),
* Logistik (Logistics),
* Ölschaden (Oil Pollution),
* Trinkwasserversorgung (Water Supply and Treatment),
* Führung und Kommunikation (Command, Control and Communication), and
* Ortung (Search and Detection).

And that’s not all; they’ve got four rapid-deployment (six-hour) SAR teams ready for foreign assignments, and five foreign assignment water-purification teams.

During Katrina, 89 German volunteers came to the United States to assist in levee repair. Loren Cobb of The Quaker Economist published this 2005 piece on the curious lack of attention by United States domestic media.

Toyota promises plugin-hybrid by 2010

Published
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Jon
on June 13, 2008
in Uncategorized
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Toyota promises plugin-hybrid by 2010, according to Chuck Squatriglia on Wired’s Autopia:

It’s no secret Toyota’s been working on a plug-in hybrid to compete against the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, but Wednesday’s announcement sets a firm deadline and makes it clear Toyota has no plans of ceding the green mantle to General Motors. It also underscores how quickly the race to build a viable mass-market electric car is heating up.

The company’s ambitious “low-carbon” agenda includes cranking out 1 million hybrids a year and eventually offering hybrid versions of every model it sells. In the short-term, Toyota says it will produce more fuel efficient gasoline and diesel engines and push alternative fuels like cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel. It’s also pumping big money into lithium-ion batteries. With fuel prices going through the roof and auto sales going through the floor because of it, Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe says the auto industry has no choice but to move beyond petroleum.

“Without focusing on measures to address global warming and energy issues, there can be no future for our auto business,” he told reporters in Tokyo, adding, “Our view is that oil production will peak in the near future. We need to develop power train(s) for alternative energy sources.”

Watanabe’s reference to peak oil echoes that of GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who in explaining the company’s decision to shut down four truck factories said rising fuel prices and mounting demand for efficient cars are “structural, not cyclical.” In other words, the two biggest automakers in the world realize petroleum’s days are numbered.       Continue reading ‘Toyota promises plugin-hybrid by 2010′

Reorganization of Special Forces command likely “unremarkable”

Published
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Jon
on June 12, 2008
in Counterterror, DOD, Special Operations and Uncategorized
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William Arkin, in the Early Warning blog at the Washington Post: “In This Case, Rumsfeld was right”: (I’m quoting at length because Arkin writes better, and I’m not sure how much to pare away without distorting a nuanced point)

If there were a musical about the Pentagon today, the opening number and reprise would be “If Rumsfeld Was for It, We’re Against It.”

Witness the portrayal of the reversal of a “controversial” plan by the former secretary of Defense, first reported in the New York Times last week, to use special operations forces as the lead element in the war against terror.

There is a lot wrong with the way the United States has been “fighting” the war against terror in the past seven years, and there is much wrong with the special operations aesthetic. But any push to reduce their role and turn over counter-terrorism to the conventional military instead is wrong in every way.

I have often criticized special operations for being too secretive and for a lack of basic accountability; for pursuing a “direct action” (read: head-hunting) approach to counter-terrorism that is circular and never-ending; and finally for believing their own P.R. about how great they are. But the “quiet warriors,” as they often call themselves, are just the right element of the military to contribute to counter-terrorism efforts.

If there’s going to be a “war” against terrorism, it needs to be quiet and stress the non-military. This means a small military footprint and fewer bases and a fully coordinated “interagency” and international effort. For all this, the Army and Marines are just too much of a blunt instrument. Haven’t we learned that blundering out there, as we are blundering in Iraq, just confirms our desire for subjugation and empire in the minds of far too many in the Islamic world?

First the news: As reported in the Times, Special Operations Command, which under presidential directive has been given authority to conduct independent counter-terrorism missions, is supposedly backing off of this unilateral role and focusing on working with regional commanders to conduct joint operations. Adm. Eric T. Olson, the new special operations commander, says that he will continue to play the role as counter-terrorism coordinator around the world, a “shift” that the Times suggests means the old Rumsfeld way is dead and that special operations command will not conduct unilateral operations.

In some ways the news is unremarkable.It is simply impractical for special operations forces to do their own thing without coordinating fully with the regional commands and the CIA and the conventional forces, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, where 90 percent of the effort is expended. In fact in Iraq the coordination has become so intimate that a two-star special operations forces general has been deployed there to coordinate at the highest level of the military command, a level of collaboration that has proven more useful and productive.

- snip -

So are special operations forces being spanked getting some comeuppance? I don’t think so. For all the changes, the super-secret “Delta Force” and commando and intelligence teams of the Joint Special Operations Command, the elite of the elite, are going to continue to conduct unilateral operations and go where the conventional military — even the conventional Special Forces — can’t. Of course, to be effective, they have to coordinate with the regional commanders, the CIA and State Department, FBI, etc. Duh.

- snip-

That doesn’t necessarily mean it should be the Pentagon’s job, and it certainly doesn’t mean that Rumsfeld was able to implement a sensible plan through all of his megalomania. But a shift of the conventional military to a global counter-insurgency focus? If this is the plan, both our counter-terrorism efforts and our military needs will be weakened.

William Arkin’s Early Warning blog at the Washington Post is morphing into a weekly column and discussion group. That’s probably good for Arkin - and Arkin’s work once a week is still a lot better than no Arkin at all.

After Gutenberg: IBM claims to have developed most efficient solar cell technology

Published
by
Jon
on June 9, 2008
in Clean Energy, Solar and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

After Gutenberg reports in IBM Concentrator Photo Voltaic Cells that

IBM has managed to squeeze 230W of power on to a centimeter square of solar panel using concentrator photovoltaics. The energy was then converted to 70W of usable electric power, the best power efficiency yet achieved, the company claims.

Relying on a piece in EETimes, After Gutenberg, which routinely spots the details that matter, points out that this is a place where semiconductor and photovoltaic technologies overlap. After Gutenberg further quotes the EEtimes as follows:

The IBM researchers used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept really low.

They suggest that if the silicon can be cooled effectively, concentrated photovoltaics could take over as the cheapest form of solar energy.

However, IBM admits there is much work to be done to move the research project from the lab to the fab.

By using a much lower number of photovoltaic cells in a solar farm and concentrating more light on to each cell using larger lenses, IBM’s system enables a significant cost advantage in terms of a lesser number of total components.

The researchers said that the concentration increases the power of the sun’s rays by a factor of ten, allowing cells that normally generate 20W of power to generate 200W instead.

Their initial results were presented at this week’s 33rd IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists conference , where the researchers showed how their liquid metal cooling interface is able to transfer heat from the solar cell to a copper cooling plate much more efficiently than anything else available today.

“We believe IBM can bring unique skills from our vast experience in semiconductors and nanotechnology to the important field of alternative energy research,” said Dr. Supratik Guha, the scientist leading photovoltaics activities at IBM Research. “This is one of many exploratory research projects incubating in our labs where we can drive big change for an entire industry while advancing the basic underlying science of solar cell technology.”

The researchers developed a system that achieved the “breakthrough” results by coupling a commercial solar cell to an IBM liquid metal thermal cooling system using methods developed for the semiconductor industry.

IBM adds that concentrator-based photovoltaics technologies have the potential to offer the lowest-cost solar electricity for large-scale power generation, “provided the temperature of the cells can be kept low, and cheap and efficient optics can be developed for concentrating the light to very high levels.”

John Walko, “IBM claims major boost in solar cell efficiency,” in EETimes Europe.

Via the increasingly indispensable, and ever mysterious J.C.W. at After Gutenberg.

Bob Coffield - Health Care Law Blog

Published
by
Jon
on May 7, 2008
in Health Care - Access To, Legal Issues and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Bob Coffield, an attorney specializing in health care law, is the proprietor of the Health Care Law Blog. (Those of you paying close attention will notice that between the URL and the name  — the words are reversed. It’s the right address).

This is an excellent blog - but of the posts I’ve read so far, Coffield is a big-picture/systems guy, and very thoughtful. He’s asking good questions about health care policy and risk - and I didn’t see a single post that presupposed any legal knowledge. Haven’t yet had time to go through old posts to see if he’s followed issues of mass casualty incidents/disaster treatment, but I’m subscribing to his feed, and will try to keep an eye out.

VA Lies About Suicides of Veteran

Published
by
Larry
on April 26, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Another Agency of the Executive Branch -

Senator: VA lying about number of veteran suicides

WASHINGTON — The Veterans Administration has lied about the number of veterans who’ve attempted suicide, a senator charged Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year when the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800. “The suicide rate is a red-alarm bell to all of us,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. Murray also said that the VA’s mental health programs are being overwhelmed by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, even as the department tries to downplay the situation.

“We are not your enemy, we are your support team, and unless we get accurate information we can’t be there to do our jobs,” Murray told Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield during the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing. Continue reading ‘VA Lies About Suicides of Veteran’

Light-emitting wallpaper on BuzzFeed

Published
by
Jon
on April 19, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Light-emitting wallpaper on BuzzFeed

» ThemeShaper | sandbox.popularlogistics.com

Published
by
Jon
on March 19, 2008
in Access to Tools, Environmental Issues, Environmental Remediation, Solar and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

howlbox1 JHussman_ID_Dept_FishandGame Kirk Johnson’s piece in today’s Times, “A Bid to Lure Wolves With a Digital Call of the Wild” is about
the Howlbox, a solar-powered, automated device which simulates wolf calls, and records the responses, making it possible to conduct a wolf census.

Under a research project at the University of Montana in Missoula, scientists are betting that the famous call-and-response among wolves can be used to count and keep track of the animals.

Tricked by technology, scientists say, wolves will answer what amounts to a roll call triggered by a remotely placed speaker-recorder system called Howlbox. Howlbox howls, and the wolves howl back. Spectrogram technology then allows analysis that the human ear could never achieve — how many wolves have responded, and which wolves they are.

“With audio software, we’ll be able to identify each wolf on a different frequency, so we can count wolves individually, kind of like a fingerprint,” said David Ausband, a research associate at the University of Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, where Howlbox was developed.

The devices, using off-the-shelf technology, cost about $1,300, including $300 for a solar panel. Audio recordings in the wild are nothing new, of course. Bird and amphibian researchers, in particular, have long used recordings to find or flush out critters. Howlbox’s innovations are the tools of digital analysis and programmed instructions that tell Howlbox when to howl, when to sleep because the wolves are sleeping, and how to store each day’s file on a disk.

The experiment will begin with a pilot project in which four Howlboxes will be placed in remote areas of Idaho in June. That month was chosen because it is when the packs gather with their spring-born pups in what is called a rendezvous. howlbox2 JHussman_ID_Dept_FishandGame
Wolf pups will howl at almost anything, scientists say. But a test here in Montana in January also showed that adult wolves can also be fooled by a good sound system.

Money is a driving force behind the research, much of which is being paid for by the Nez Perce Indian tribe in Idaho, which has deep cultural links to the western gray wolf.

Traditional tracking tools like radio collars and aerial surveillance were used extensively after wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s under the Federal Endangered Species Act. But federal protections will end later this month, and so too will the deep pockets needed for flyovers and catching and collaring.

A spokesman for the Nez Perce tribe, Curt Mack, said Howlbox might be a cost-efficient answer.

Spotted in “Counting Wolves” at Popular Science.

The biodiversity issues aside - we’re eager to take a look at the device - which might be adaptable for other purposes: automated warning systems, locating disaster victims - especially if mounted on a portable platform, like a ‘bot of some sort.

SurvivalReview.com goes online

Published
by
Jon
on March 18, 2008
in Gear and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

SurvivalReview.com is about a month old, and features reviews of survival gear, and so far, it looks good. Its principal author is, we believe, a recent veteran of USAF. SR describes itself this way:

online destination for unbiased reviews on outdoor and survival gear. We put all of the products we review through the POT (”Painfully Obsessive Testing”) procedure to insure that the info you are getting is legit. We will not provide “paid reviews” from vendors or manufacturers. We will strive to have the best photos and videos supporting the evidence we put out there. Hopefully we can build an aware community of survival and outdoor gear lovers. As always if you ever have a product you’ve been thinking about investing in or knowing more about shoot us an email and let us know what it is. We will do our best to put it through the POT. Happy Reading!

We wish them well, more obsession and less pain, and hope to point our readers to SR’s reviews when we can. Here’s an excerpt from a recent review:

The SureFire E1E Executive Flashlight is a high powered flashlight that fits easily in the palm of your hand. I love this little thing. It provides 15 lumens for 1.5 hours according to the specs but our testing has proven to exceed that runtime. The rugged Mil-Spec Type III hard anodized aluminum body has survived everything we’ve thrown at it. The glass at the business end is Tempered Pyrex, which is some tough stuff as well.

The tailcap switch is much more convenient than your typical MagLite. Push for momentary on, or press further to click it to constant-on. This could be very handy for signaling because short bursts on the tailcap switch makes morse easy.

A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks - New York Times

Published
by
Jon
on March 12, 2008
in Uncategorized
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A Heart Device Is Found Vulnerable to Hacker Attacks - New York Times
To the long list of objects vulnerable to attack by computer hackers, add the human heart.

The threat seems largely theoretical. But a team of computer security researchers plans to report Wednesday that it had been able to gain wireless access to a combination heart defibrillator and pacemaker.

They were able to reprogram it to shut down and to deliver jolts of electricity that would potentially be fatal — if the device had been in a person. In this case, the researcher were hacking into a device in a laboratory.

James McKinley in the Times: memory sticks are Samizdat technology in Cuba

Published
by
Jon
on March 9, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

James C. McKinley, Jr.’s  report from Havana last Thursday describes Cuban government attempts to control information flow, including Internet access. Cubans have extremely limited web access, but they use memory stick and flash drives to store and distribute information:

A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress.Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly.

Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana, passed from person to person, and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.

Something similar happened in late January when officials tried to impose a tax on the tips and wages of employees of foreign companies. Workers erupted in jeers and shouts when told about the new tax, a moment caught on a cellphone camera and passed along by memory sticks.

“It passes from flash drive to flash drive,” said Ariel, 33, a computer programmer, who, like almost everyone else interviewed for this article, asked that his last name not be used for fear of political persecution. “This is going to get out of the government’s hands because the technology is moving so rapidly.”

Cuban officials have long limited the public’s access to the Internet and digital videos, tearing down unauthorized satellite dishes and keeping down the number of Internet cafes open to Cubans. Only one Internet cafe remains open in Old Havana, down from three a few years ago.

Hidden in a small room in the depths of the Capitol building, the state-owned cafe charges a third of the average Cuban’s monthly salary - about $5 - to use a computer for an hour. The other two former Internet cafes in central Havana have been converted into “postal services” that let Cubans send e-mail messages over a closed network on the island with no links to the Internet.

 Because Ms. Sánchez, like most Cubans, can get online for only a few minutes at a time, she writes almost all her essays beforehand, then goes to the one Internet cafe, signs on, updates her Web site, copies some key pages that interest her and walks out with everything on a memory stick. Friends copy the information, and it passes from hand to hand. “It’s a solid underground,” she said. “The government cannot control the information.”

It is spread by readers like Ricardo, 28, a philosophy student at the University of Havana who sells memory sticks to other students. European friends buy blank flash drives, and others carry them into Cuba, where the drives available through normal channels are very expensive and scarce.

Like many young Cubans, Ricardo plays a game of cat and mouse with the authorities. He doubts that the government will ever let ordinary citizens have access to the Internet in their homes. “That’s far too dangerous,” he said. “Daddy State doesn’t want you to get informed, so it preventively keeps you from surfing.”

James McKinley, “Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits,” The New York Times, March 6, 2008.

Doesn’t this make a good case for relaxing the United States trade embargo on Cuba? With the limited access to information, the government’s control of information flowing is weakening. An influx of visitors from the United States would probably leadto more phone and data lines - and the more connections there are, the harder they’ll be to control. The more visitors, and the more luggage the bring, the more flash drives will be left behind.

See also: