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NEWS ... GLOBAL NEWS ... EIGHT CORPORATIONS co-editor, with John Cavanagh, of the newly MYSTERY OF MARS ROVER'S CONTROL OVER 70% OF THE released expanded edition of Alternatives to "CAR WASH" WORLD'S MEDIA Economic Globalization: A Better World is | AQTASA's Mars rover Opportunity seems co-editor, with John Cavanagh, of the newly released expanded edition of Alternatives to Economic Globalization: A Better World is Possible, published by Berrett-Koehler.) ASA's Mars rover Opportunity seems to have stumbled into something akin to a car wash that has left its solar panels much cleaner than those of its twin rover, Spirit. A Martian car wash would account for a series of unexpected boosts in the electrical power produced by Opportunity's solar panels. The rovers landed on Mars in January 2004, with solar cells capable of providing more than 900 watt-hours of electricity per day. Spirit's output has dropped to about 400 watt-hours, partly because Martian dust has caked its solar panels. Opportunity's output also declined at first—to around 500 watt-hours—but over the past six months it has regained power. Lately, its solar cells have been delivering just over 900 watt-hours. Rover team leader Jim Erickson at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told New Scientist that a process still not understood has repeatedly removed dust from the solar panels. Whatever the process, it has taken place while Opportunity was parked during the Martian night. On at least four occasions over a six-month period, the rover's power output increased by up to five per cent overnight due to the removal of dust on the solar panels. (Source: New Scientist, issues 2479/80, 25 December 2004-1 January 2005) he single most alarming fact about global media today is how few firms own and operate it. In his book, Rich Media, Poor Democracy, leading media authority Robert McChesney of the University of Illinois presents statistics and analysis on global and US media concen- tration that has ominous implications for the functioning of democracy. As of 1999, says McChesney, only eight giant global corporations owned over 70% of global media—not just television, but newspapers, magazines, radio, satellite systems, cable, book publishing, film pro- duction and distribution, movie theatre chains, major aspects of the Internet, bill- boards and theme parks. These eight cor- porations are already capable of speaking to hundreds of millions of people on every continent on a daily and hourly basis, and they do. The eight largest global giants are: AOL Time Warner, Disney, Fox/News Ltd, Viacom, Seagram, General Electric, Sony and Bertelsmann. The first three on this list own more than 50% of the combined total of the eight companies. And with the exception of Bertelsmann, these same cor- porations also dominate the US media market. Such a degree of media concentration is not readily apparent to casual observers, since most local and even international affiliates continue to operate under other names. CNN, for example, is actually owned by AOL Time Warner, which also owns HBO, Court TV, Warner Brothers and Cinemax films, Time and Fortune magazines, among hundreds of others. Disney owns ABC television and radio networks, and such global cable TV chan- nels as ESPN, Lifetime, A&E, History, and E! Entertainment, among hundreds of other networks and stations and various other media ventures around the world. Fox/News Ltd owns 22 US TV stations, over 130 daily newspapers around the world, 23 magazines, British Sky TV, Asian Star satellite and Latin Sky Broadcasting, among hundreds of other holdings. In the modern world, the media have become the primary basis of public knowledge. As the adage goes, "Who controls the media controls the world". (Source: by Jerry Mander, Common Ground magazine, December 2004. Jerry Mander is STEADY RISE IN SECRECY ORDERS ON INVENTIONS lhe total number of patent secrecy orders imposed on patent applications under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951 rose slightly last year to 4,885. Most origi- nated in previous years. There were 124 new secrecy orders added during the year. The Invention Secrecy Act is one of two laws under which the government asserts a right to restrict the disclosure of privately generated information on national security grounds. (The other law is the Atomic Energy Act.) The constitutionality of this practice has never been tested. While most secret inventions are pro- duced by government contractors or with government funding, some are not. Secrecy orders imposed on private individ - uals or businesses who developed their idea without government sponsorship are termed "John Doe" secrecy orders. Last year, there were 61 new "John Doe" secrecy orders, up from 51 the year before. A tabulation of the latest statistics on invention secrecy, released under the Freedom of Information Act, is here: http://www.fas.org/spg/othergov/ invention/stats.html. (Source: Secrecy News, vol. 2004, issue no. 93, 26 October 2004, http://www.fas.org) io—~, a C= be St fea le mall oa NEXUS +7 "Homeland Security's really coming down hard." FEBRUARY — MARCH 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com