A new report by the National Science Foundation (NSF) finds that “the number of U.S. science and engineering (S&E) articles in major peer-reviewed journals flattened in the 1990s, after more than two decades of growth, but U.S. influence in world science and technology remains strong.  […]  Despite the leveling of articles published, researchers emphasize other evidence that indicates U.S. science and technology capability remains strong. They say the change in U.S. share of the world’s S&E articles is not a surprise in view of growing S&E research capability around the world, nor do they view it as a cause for concern.”

The Register reports that “[l]ax security controls are allowing conmen to host fraudulent websites on servers run by government organisations and private sector firms.”

Ars Technica writes that the Broadband Data Improvement Act, which aims to change the way the FCC collects broadband information, “has just unanimously cleared the Senate Commerce Committee.”

According to Internetnews.com, “[t]he Bush administration sent proposed legislation to Congress today that aims to update and improve federal identity theft laws. The proposal is part of the recommendations of the president’s Identity Theft Task Force.”

CNetNews.com writes that “[s]earch site Ask is launching a new tool that will let people search the Web anonymously, the first major search engine to offer that functionality.  By using the new AskEraser tool, users will be able to set their privacy preferences so the search engine doesn’t retain their Web search history. Users will be able to see what the privacy setting is on the search results pages.”