Adam Lewis's blog

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I never really quite understood the rationale for having to switch off all electronic devices during airplane takeoffs and landings. The stated reason for the ban is that the devices could somehow interfere with the plane's operation or ignite a fire after a crash.

But Boeing apparently has some more serious kinks to work out with its newest jet, the 787 Dreamliner, which already has 800 advance orders ahead of its November launch. The Federal Aviation Administration fears that a new feature on the plane that allows passengers to connect their mobile computers to the Internet may allow a terrorist to disrupt the plane's control systems. This is especially worrisome, as we know that many terrorists have advanced engineering degrees and could be familiar with how to carry out just such an operation. The Web sites of jihadist sympathizers are often very professionally done and have sophisticated encryption features.

With airport security bans as stringent as they already are, I wouldn't be surprised if an outright ban on electronic devices in the cabin were instituted in the near future. That ought to boost the approval ratings of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

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Last week, I posted about a British MP who had his Facebook profile suspended because the site's operators thought the page was a fake. And now it seems that a fake Facebook profile of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of the late Benazir Bhutto and the new chairman of her party, tricked journalists around the globe into reporting false information provided on the page. Zardari's father was quick to claim that the fake profile was created by the Pakistani government in an effort to discredit his son, but a cyber prankster later took credit for authoring the page.

If the journalists who reported the false information watched more TV, they might have guessed that the page was a fake. As it turns out, many of the controversial quotes about Islam supposedly posted by Zardari were taken directly from the series "The West Wing."

While most of us took off from work and school to spend time with friends and family for the holidays, the rest of the world didn't come to a standstill. Just in case you weren't able to catch up on the news over the break, here are 10 important stories you might have missed.

Middle East

Turkish warplanes continued to bomb Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Libya assumed the presidency of the U.N. Security Council.

Asia

Beijing said Hong Kong elections will not be possible until 2017, breaking an earlier promise of elections by 2012.

India has ended weapons sales and transfers to the ruling military junta in Burma.

Africa

Opposition political parties in Zimbabwe agreed to form a united front to defeat President Robert Mugabe in the March elections.

Six French aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labor, but were returned to France where they will serve their sentences.

Global Economy

The islands of Malta and Cyprus joined the Eurozone.

Venezuela introduced its new currency, the "strong Bolivar."

Elsewhere

In Colombia, a Venezuelan-backed mission failed to rescue hostages held by FARC rebels.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is trying to find passengers aboard a Chicago-bound flight from New Delhi who may have been exposed to drug-resistant TB.

Reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy is a stated policy goal of the United States. You might think, therefore, that the United States would be eager to take part in an international research effort to harness the energy released by fusion reactions like those that occur in the Sun. But you'd be wrong. Congress just cut the U.S. contribution to the $12 billion International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, a collaboration between the European Union, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.

In theory, fusion technology has the ability to provide massive amounts of energy with less radioactive waste and little pollution. Sounds good, right? Of course, the technology is very experimental and rife with such minor problems as, oh, how to heat atomic nuclei to the 100 million degrees required in a fusion reaction and still generate more energy than was used in the process. It may sound like something from Star Trek, but the rewards that could be gained by investing in such technology are astonishing. The United States might someday be able to retire older nuclear fission plants, reduce coal power emissions, and maybe even end imports of oil from unstable regions of the world.

Too bad the U.S. Congress doesn't feel the same way. Along with slashing technology budgets in other areas of crucial R&D research, Congress couldn't be bothered with funding a $149 million commitment to the ITER project for the upcoming year. The 2008 energy and water bill does provide funding for alternative technologies such as solar power ($200 million), ethanol ($250 million) and hydrogen-cell cars ($235.4 million). Fossil fuels managed to grab the biggest piece of the "alternative energy" pie with $708.8 million in funding.

With all the gains that might someday be realized by fusion technology for such a small investment, it makes you wonder where the United States' priorities really lie.

Facebook has become a popular platform for public figures to reach out to supporters and fans. Presidential candidates, for instance, can use the hugely popular social-networking site to build official profiles and post updates from the campaign trail. The Facebook gods therefore frown on pranksters who attempt to impersonate celebrities by creating a fake profile. They also encourage legitimate users to report alleged impostors in order to maintain the integrity of the site.

The trouble is, it's often difficult to determine whether a celebrity profile is indeed a fake. This is exactly what happened to British MP Steve Webb, who recently discovered that he had been locked out of his own account and had his profile removed from the site. Several e-mails to Facebook were able to convince the company that the 10-year member of the House of Commons was no impostor. (Facebook eventually reinstated his account and issued the MP an official apology for the confusion.)

I'm surprised that this type of thing doesn't happen more often. But Facebook, as far as I can tell, does a pretty decent job weeding out the fake profiles that seem ubiquitous on other social networking sites. They do it so well, in fact, that perhaps the Department of Homeland Security could contract Facebook to run the"No Fly List." I'm sure Ted Kennedy would be happy to sponsor the necessary legislation.

An embryonic movement to promote civil liberties and freedoms may be brewing in China. But it has nothing to do with political prisoners, the Falun Gong, or the upcoming 2008 Olympics. Rather, the release of director Ang Lee's film “Lust, Caution” has spurred an unusual surge of Chinese visitors to Hong Kong. The reason? On the mainland, the movie is heavily censored. The combination of a nuanced portrayal of a World War II-era traitor and explicit sex scenes was apparently too much for Beijing officials to stomach, but not the libertarians in laissez-faire Hong Kong.

With many of China's wealthy elites reportedly shelling out big bucks for flights from the mainland to see the film in Hong Kong, could we be seeing a backlash against Chinese censorship? A revolution sparked by a newfound respect for freedom in the arts? Probably not, at least not in the near future.

The vast bulk of the Chinese public, by and large, is more concerned with pocketbook issues than being able to see racy scenes in a movie by a Taiwanese director. And for those who don't want or can't afford to travel to Hong Kong, pirated copies of the uncensored movie are available from street vendors (as is most every other film, album and book), making official censorship difficult and almost useless. No wonder the few calls by individuals for the movie's unedited release on the mainland have been dismissed by the Chinese government with little public reaction.

That said, if the theory of relative deprivation holds true, China's elite may get jealous of Hong Kong's freedoms and take the lead in pressuring Beijing into greater liberal reforms. Said one Chinese businessman who traveled to Hong Kong:

We could have bought a pirated copy of the movie here, but we were not happy with the control and wanted to support the legal edition of the film.

Sentiments like those from China's wealthy elite undoubtedly irks the Chinese leadership, but the Communist Party has skillfully avoided having to yield to greater democratic reforms. I doubt that a movie is going to be the catalyst that breaks that trend.

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The annual hajj pilgrimage is beginning, and more than 1.6 million people are expected to undertake the trek to Mecca this year. I know that the pilgrims have to eat somewhere, but I really wasn't expecting KFC to be one of their options. Located outside the Grand Mosque, this KFC keeps with custom—there are separate lines for men and women and all the meat is halal (killed in accordance with Islamic law). But if you plan on eating there for this year's hajj, unless you're already in Saudi Arabia, you're out of luck. Rooms at the nearby Mecca Hilton are booked solid through the end of this year.

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Remember all the fuss earlier this year about contaminated food products coming from China? Well fear no more. At least, that's the word from the U.S. government. Earlier this week, U.S. and Chinese officials signed an agreement on food safety that will allow U.S. regulators to inspect Chinese food processing facilities and, they hope, keep unsafe products from reaching U.S. shores.

It sounds deliciously promising. That is, until you look at the plan's details.

As reported, the inspection regime does not cover all food products. The new inspection rules cover preserved foods, pet food, and fish. Increased inspections of meats or other fresh foods is apparently not in the cards. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't have the budget to keep up with such a demanding inspection regime. Currently, only 1 percent of imported food is inspected. Nor is the FDA's budget set to rise drastically: The agency is getting about $100 million next year above its current budget level of $1.5 billion. That increase barely keeps up with rising operational costs and is not nearly enough to cover all the new overseas inspections that need to be performed.

U.S. officials are quick to point out that the inspections are targeted at those products that pose the greatest risk, and the agreement leaves room for expansion in the types of products tested. Well, I feel better already. Now it seems like all I have to worry about is practically everything else labeled "Made in China."