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U. Michigan researchers propose solution to spam e-mail
By Chloe Foster
Michigan Daily (U. Michigan)
06/14/2004

(U-WIRE) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The battle between the common Internet user and spam e-mail drags on — a state of war in which there are no rules and no higher authority to whom one can appeal for justice.

But a research team at the University's School of Information suggests that some level of accord may be in sight.

Doctoral students Thede Loder and Rick Walsh and Assistant Professor Marshall Van Alstyne said their solution for reducing spam is setting a price for spam senders in hopes that sending spam will ultimately become too expensive.

"This mechanism hits spammers where it hurts most — their wallets," Van Alstyne said.

The team's plan is called Attention Bond Mechanism and is unique because it is designed to strike a deal between e-mail senders and the recipients by requiring senders to pay those recipients who do not want their email.

(The purpose of ABM is) "to provide an efficient means for two parties to discover if they have a potentially fruitful relationship (where both might benefit), while forcing senders to think carefully about who is receiving their e-mails so that they do not waste the time, effort and resources of the intended recipient," Loder said.

The ABM software will filter the inbox, noting which senders are not pre-approved by the user, or not on their "whitelist." When a spammer sends an e-mail to someone who has not already agreed to receive the message, ABM will send the spammer a "challenge message."

Loder said the the message will read, "Dear sender of an e-mail, you have attempted to contact a user of ABM, but this user does not have you listed as someone pre-approved for contact. If you still wish to reach this person, please authorize the transfer of 10 cents to his escrow account, then resend the e-mail and reference your proof of payment."

He added, however, that the 10 cents is an arbitrary number. The ABM user decides how much an email sender must risk in order to send the e-mail successfully. Therefore, if an ABM user sets his price at 60 cents per message, senders who are only willing to pay an amount lower than this sum will not have access to the user's inbox.

Once the sender receives the challenge message and decides it is worth risking whatever sum of money the ABM user has posted, the sender authorizes the payment and resends the message. If the user decides not to accept the message or that the message was abhorrent or simply uninteresting, he claims the money.

But will this be forever farewell to "Enlarge your penis" and "Lose 50 pounds in two weeks" e-mails?

"It would certainly reduce the volume of spam because illegitimate senders simply cannot afford to get into anyone's mailbox," said Van Alstyne in a written statement.

"I would like to have access to software like (ABM). Anything that would stop spam because I hate it so much," said LSA senior Dave Mallozzi.

But other students felt that ABM could create problems.

LSA senior Dana Ciccone said that she fears the system may have some unintended effects, such as complicating e-mail communication even further.

"It seems like something that looks good on paper but nothing else," she said.

The next step for the team may be to market their idea, but for now, they said they simply want to provide an impetus for the market and consumers to realize that they can both benefit.

"We're just as tired of spam as anyone else," said Loder, "But if we received 50 cents for each spam, that might be tolerable."

Spam now represents about half of all e-mail traffic on the Internet, according to Brightmail Communications, a company that provides software for secure e-mail exchange.

Copyright ©2004 Michigan Daily via UWire
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Spacecraft to Mercury lifts off
By Chloe Foster
Michigan Daily (U. Michigan)
08/02/2004

(U-WIRE) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — MESSENGER — a spacecraft designed to capture photographs and other data of Mercury — begins its itinerant journey to the planet Monday, making it the first spacecraft to travel there since the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent Mariner 10 in 1973.

MESSENGER, designed to provide scientists with more detailed observations of Mercury, includes an instrument created by University scientists, called Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer.

Engendered to capture photographs and other data from a planet, flyby spacecrafts like MESSENGER encounter a wide variety of tumult and hazard in its lifetime. Faced with strong solar winds, high radiation levels and extreme temperatures, the spacecrafts must be designed specifically to avoid calamity while sending valuable information back to Earth. NASA has sent more than 20 flyby spacecrafts into our solar system.

The Solar Helospheric Research Group, made up of faculty and students from the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences at the University of Michigan, has developed FIPS in part to be a solution to the hostile environment a spacecraft encounters while circling Mercury. Because of its proximity to the sun, the plasma surrounding Mercury is characterized by extremely hot temperatures and high density. FIPS has the capability to counter these harsh conditions while providing scientists with highly accurate measurements of Mercury's atmosphere.

Pat Koehn, assistant resident scientist on the Research Group, said FIPS acts like a camera, recording the mass, direction and speed of particles floating around Mercury's orbit. It will also determine exactly what type of particles exist in its atmosphere.

In NASA's first attempt to glean information from Mercury 30 years ago, the plasma spectromete — Mariner 10's instrument comparable to FIPS, did not work because the door failed to open, Koehn said.

"Mariner 10 only did three flybys of the planet, but MESSENGER will be in orbit for at least one earth year — roughly four Mercury years. This trip to Mercury will be different in every way imaginable," he said.

One of the key goals of MESSENGER is to understand Mercury's surface, said Thomas Zurbuchen, a member of the team and an associate professor in the department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences. His team and NASA expect the spacecraft to return to Earth with high resolution maps and more information on Mercury's magnetic field.

Of the terrestrial planets Earth, Mercury, Mars and Venus, Mercury is the smallest. It also has the oldest surface and the most extreme variability in temperature, ranging from -297 to 800 degrees Farenheit. Because of this severe climate, Mercury has long been a mystery to scientists.

"Mercury still stands out as a fascinating story to tell. MESSENGER should complete the detailed exploration of the inner solar system - our planetary backyard - and help us to understand forces that shaped planets like our own," said Orlando Figueroa, director of Solar System Exploration Division at NASA, in a press release.

For the past 30 years, scientists at the University have been involved in nearly every major space project, Koehn said. Most recently, the University has contributed to CASSINI, a spacecraft that penetrated Saturn's orbit in June 2004 and Galileo, which entered Jupiter's atmosphere in September 2003.

"We here at U of M are specializing in understanding and predicting the space environment of planets, most importantly, the Earth," said Zurbuchen.

MESSENGER is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. during a 13-day period that opens August 2, 2004. A year later, it will return to Earth for a gravity boost, then fly past Venus twice, in October 2006 and June 2007. It will finally reach Mercury in 2011.

Copyright ©2004 Michigan Daily via UWire
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Newdow protests Pledge of Allegiance


Newdow gives a lecture entitled "Upholding the Constitution: One Man's Pledge of Allegiance" at Hutchins Hall yesterday. (SHUBRA OHRI/Daily)

By Chloe Foster and Michael Lacher, Daily Staff Reporters

February 02, 2005

With an acoustic guitar and harmonica, constitutional activist Michael Newdow stood before a crowd of students in Hutchins Hall yesterday afternoon and crooned his song “Pledge of Allegiance Blues.”

Newdow, however, was there not only to entertain, but to talk about his ongoing struggle to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

Newdow, a Law School alum, lectured yesterday about his efforts to uphold the establishment clause, which forbids Congress from making a law that establishes a national religion.

“I don’t consider myself an atheist activist, I consider myself an Establishment Clause activist,” Newdow said.

Last year, in the case of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, Newdow represented himself at the U.S. Supreme Court, and challenged the constitutionality of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, arguing that it was religious indoctrination of his 10-year-old daughter.

Newdow’s case was rejected in an 8-0 decision, on the grounds that he lacked standing, or the right to file suit, because he was not the legal guardian of his daughter.

Three justices, Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O’Connor and William Rehnquist, opined that the phrase has historical significance to the nation and is therefore not unconstitutional.

“Under God” was added to the pledge on Flag Day in 1954 by an act of Congress.

“The pledge is a declaration of belief in allegiance and loyalty to the United States flag and the Republic that it represents. The phrase ‘under God’ is in no sense a prayer, nor an endorsement of any religion,” Rehnquist wrote in the opinion.

Five justices, John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer rejected the case on standing while Justice Antonin Scalia did not hear the case because he publicly denounced the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision, which ruled in favor of Newdow, before the case came to the Supreme Court.

Because the majority of the justices did not rule on the constitutionality of the phrase ‘under God,’ the same case can be brought up again.

“I imagine the court was relieved to find a way to dismiss this case on standing, but they may not be able to avoid the question much longer,” Law School prof. Chris Whitman said.

Newdow expressed his intent to continue fighting the phrase. “I plan on continuing the case in every circuit in the nation,” Newdow said.

Most recently, Newdow challenged the recital of a prayer at the presidential inauguration. He compared the inaugural prayer to prayers before high school football games and at commencement ceremonies, which have been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. His request for an injunction to stop the prayer was rejected, but he said the case is still alive.

Newdow said the Constitution and the intents of the founding fathers’ bolster his case.

“I have the Constitution on my side. When it was written, it was clear the founding fathers wanted the separation of church and state,” he said.

He praised the Constitution, calling it “a phenomenal document.”

“To think our country is based on those 4,500 words is pretty amazing,” Newdow said.

The audience was generally supportive of Newdow’s aims.

“What he’s doing is really important, and his speech was enlightening,” law student Trish Rich said.

She said the argument that tradition or ceremony can defend religious language in state-sponsored activities is invalid.

“This causes non-Christians to be demonized,” she added.

Some students, however, voiced mild concern about Newdow’s activism.

“I think he is before his time. I agree that state and religion should be separate, but he may have polarized too many people,” LSA sophomore Peter Pienkowski said.

Newdow will speak again today at noon about the American family law system in Room 218 of Hutchins Hall.
Newdow protests Pledge of Allegiance