Professor Teuvo Kohonen has a new self-organizing feature map (SOM) architecture, WEBSOM, that was developed for what he calls “exploratory textual data mining.”

In the largest WEBSOM implemented so far, about seven million documents have been organized in a one-million neuron network.

Kohonen has also written a book about Self-Organizing Maps. (Thanks, John.)

Intel’s Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program provides a way to contribute unused CPU cycles to worthy medical research causes.

A great Privacy-related conference is coming up on April 15-16 at the Cathedral Hill Hotel in San Francisco:
Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies.

It’s taking place right before the Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference that’s going on from April 16-19 in the same hotel. So if you’re already planning on attending CFP, come a day or two early and check out some really amazing technology.

This may be old news to some people, but I’ve sure never heard about it until now: Phenylpropanolamine, a very common cold remedy ingredient, has been “linked to increased hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in brain) among women ages 18-49 in the three days after starting use of medication.”

There are some special concerns regarding children’s medications that you’ll want to pay special attention to (see below).

This letter was passed on to me by a friend. I followed the link to the FDA’s Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) Information Page
and the story checks out.

This is pretty serious. Spread the word.

All drugs containing Phenylpropanolamine are being recalled. You may want to
try calling the 800 number listed on most drug boxes and inquire about a
REFUND.

Please read this CAREFULLY, as I know that some of you may USE some of these
drugs (Alka Seltzer Plus for one).

Also, please pass this on to everyone you know. STOP TAKING anything
containing this ingredient. It has been linked to increased hemorrhagic
stroke (bleeding in brain) among women ages 18-49 in the three days after
starting use of medication. Problems were not found in men, but the FDA
recommended that everyone (even children) seek alternative medicine.

The following medications contain Phenylpropanolamine:
Acutrim Diet Gum Appetite Suppressant Plus Dietary Supplements
Acutrim Maximum Strength Appetite Control
Alka-Seltzer Plus Children’s Cold Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold medicine (cherry or orange)
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold Medicine Original
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Cough Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Flu Medicine Effervescent
Alka-Seltzer Plus Cold & Sinus Effervescent
Alka Seltzer Plus Night-Time Cold Medicine Effervescent
BC Allergy Sinus Cold Powder
BC Sinus Cold Powder
Comtrex Deep Chest Cold & Congestion Relief
Comtrex Flu Therapy & Fever Relief
Day & Night Contac 12-Hour Cold Capsules
Contac 12 Hour Caplets
Coricidin D Cold, Flu & Sinus
Dexatrim Caffeine Free
Dexatrim Extended Duration
Dexatrim Gelcaps
Dexatrim Vitamin C/Caffeine Free
Dimetapp Cold & Allergy Chewable Tablets
Dimetapp Cold & Cough Liqui-Gels
Dimetapp DM Cold & Cough Elixir
Dimetapp Elixir
Dimetapp 4 Hour Liquid Gels
Dimetapp 4 Hour Tablets
Dimetapp 12 Hour Extentabs Tablets
Naldecon DX Pediatric Drops
Permathene Mega-16
Robitussin CF
Tavist-D 12 Hour Relief of Sinus & Nasal Congestion
Triaminic DM Cough Relief
Triaminic Expectorant Chest & Head Congestion
Triaminic Syrup Cold & Allergy
Triaminic Triaminicol Cold & Cough

I just found out and called the 800# on the container for Triaminic and they
informed me that they are voluntarily recalling the following medicines
because of a certain ingredient that is causing strokes and seizures in
children:

Orange 3D Cold & Allergy Cherry (Pink)
3D Cold & Cough Berry
3D Cough Relief
Yellow 3D Expectorant

If you know of anyone else with small children, PLEASE PASS THIS ON.

THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF. DO PASS ALONG TO ALL ON YOUR MAILING LIST so people
are informed. They can then pass it along to their families.

KaZaa was bought by Australian interests and has resumed its controversial service.

See:
File Sharing Program Kazaa Bought.

An Australian multimedia company has bought and restarted KaZaa, the Internet file-sharing program that’s being sued for being the new Napster (news – web sites).

The privately held Sharman Networks Ltd. bought certain assets of KaZaa BV, including the popular KaZaa Media Desktop file-sharing program, Nikki Hemming, Sharman’s chief executive officer said Monday.

KaZaa stopped all downloads of the free Media Desktop program last week pending a Dutch judge’s ruling in a copyright infringement case filed against the company in the Netherlands.

But Sharman Networks resumed downloads Monday and logged about two new users per second.

Lucas Gonze was nice enough to put together this little collection of self-organizing network links.

This one’s just for entertainment value. File it under “political snafu classics”.

Question: What’s the point of going through all of the trouble to make political allies out of the Hell’s Angels if you’re just going to insult them a few days later? (Answer: none.)

See:

Lastman ‘didn’t know’ Hells Angels sell drugs,
By James Rusk (with a report from Rheal Seguin).

Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman said yesterday he did not know that the Hells Angels make money from illegal drugs when he shook the hand of a gang member on the weekend.

“These guys are in drugs. This is drug money. Over the weekend when I spoke to them, I didn’t know that. Phooey. I had heard the stories, but, yes, the [police] chief has explained it to me. We’ve gone over it,” the mayor told reporters after a morning spent trying to contain the damage from his latest gaffe.

NY Times piece about a book by that builds upon the work of Dr. Noam Chomsky:
Hard-Wired’ Grammar Rules Found for All
Languages,
by Brenda Fowler.

While most linguists would now agree that language is innate, Dr. Chomsky’s
ideas about principles and parameters have remained bitterly controversial.
Even his supporters could not claim to have tested his theory with the really
tough cases, the languages considered most different from those the linguists
typically know well.

But in a new book, Dr. Mark C. Baker, a linguist at Rutgers University
whose dissertation was supervised by Dr. Chomsky, says he has discerned
the parameters for a remarkably diverse set of languages, especially
American-Indian and African tongues.

In the book, “The Atoms of Language: The Mind’s Hidden Rules of
Grammar” (Basic Books, 2001), Dr. Baker sets forth a hierarchy of
parameters that sorts them according to their power to affect and potentially
nullify one another.

Just as the periodic table of elements illustrates the discrete units of the
physical world, Dr. Baker’s hierarchy charts the finite set of discrete factors
that create differences in grammars.

That these parameters can be organized in a logical and systematic way, Dr.
Baker says, suggests that there may be some deeper theory underlying them,
and that the hierarchy may even guide language acquisition in children.

The hierarchy is not the same as a family tree, which illustrates the historical
relations among languages

I guessed wrong. Looked like Kenneth L. Lay and Arthur Andersen will be taking the fall for this one.

See the Time article:

Enron: Who’s Accountable?.

Does anyone else know anything about this mention of the U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft’s involvement? (below)

The U.S. Justice Department
announced last week that it was creating a task force, staffed with
experts on complex financial crimes, to pursue a full criminal
investigation. But the country was quickly reminded of the
pervasive reach of Enron and its executives