Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets - Pierce Law Center IP Mall - Training Intellectual Property, Commerce, & Technology Professionals Skills to Meet Marketplace Needs - Industrial, Trade Mark, Branding, Legal, Electronic,

Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets - Pierce Law Center IP Mall - Training Intellectual Property, Commerce, & Technology Professionals Skills to Meet Marketplace Needs - Industrial, Trade Mark, Branding, Legal, Electronic,: "Congressional Research Service
Intellectual property, cyberlaw and electronic commerce CRS Reports"

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A monster of desire at the heart of a nation
Frances Wilson
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 14/01/2007



Frances Wilson reviews London in the 19th Century by Jerry White

According to Dr Johnson, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." For those who can't afford all the life London has to offer, there is Jerry White's encyclopaedic new book instead (at £20, the cost of five Tube tickets) – I guarantee you will never tire of this. London in the 19th Century, like White's previous London in the 20th Century, is as rich as a fruit cake, as layered as an onion, and as complex as the capital itself.

The social history of London in the 19th century can be summarised as "the story of the search for order", and the heart of White's concern with city life is the struggle for authority between the powers and the people: "Just how – and how far – Londoners were brought to heal must be a central strand in any history of London in the 19th century." As such, one fifth of London in the 19th Century is given to the growth of law and order; how the arranged marriage of Church and state evangelised the Georgian mob and spawned a haven of happy homes and hearths.

advertisementBut the story of 19th century London is also the story of the birth of speed, and not only because of the velocity with which a great old city was to become the greatest new city the world had ever seen. It was during this time that daily life itself picked up pace and began to steam ahead. The century oversaw the construction of the main arteries of the metropolis, the railway lines that now shoot out from all sides like tentacles, the roads that spiral from the city's centre into a new suburbia, the sewers and tubes rumbling beneath, the sanitisation of the river and the birth of the embankment.

These arteries belonged to an increasingly Herculean body – and, like all bodies, this one harboured and hid a less civilised life within, which continually threatened to take over. "London," as White puts it, "was a monster of desire." Tales of crime and prostitution in Victorian England are wheeled out to entertain us on a regular basis, and it is to White's credit that when he arrives at that wearisome point where a mention of Jack the Ripper is required, he leaves aside the usual speculation to commemorate instead only the names of the five women who were slain.

At one point mid-century, the police believed that up to 8,000 women were working the streets, while the evangelists put the figure at nearer 80,000. Aas to the demand which produced the industry, "Here London was unique in every way. It was the greatest and richest gathering of men on earth and for much of their daily lives they were without women's company." Hundreds and thousands of men came to London for work, be it in the banks or the fish markets; sailors landed in the port from all over the globe, the railways and steamboats disgorged migrants by the day.

A micro-history of the city is contained in many of her most characterful streets: the New Road, now Oxford Street, down which condemned men would travel to meet their maker at Tyburn; Wentworth Street, the "Jew's market"; Lombard Street, "the golden heart which kept world trade in circulation"; New Cut, the "mercanatile Pandemonium" of South London; Fleet Street, "the street of ink"; Granby Street, "one of the most notorious patches of vice in London"; Flower and Dean Streets, "associated in most people's minds with vice, immorality, and crime in their most hideous shapes"; and Bow Street, "the office celebrated all over the United Kingdom, and it may be said the whole world, for its execution of the police".

It was the best of times and the worst of times. A period of stunning progress, the century saw the construction of most of our museums, galleries, churches, hospitals, schools, theatres, and parks. But there were also staggering failures. White relates a history not of rags to riches but of riches to more riches, during which the rags stayed in roughly the same state. The great stain on the age was its failure to find a solution to the problem of poverty. "Here lay the roots of incivility and brutality and stunted opportunity, persisting among a minority of Londoners, that daily undermined the rhetoric of progress."

Jerry White is to London as Boswell is to Johnson; the strength of this book lies not only in his infectious admiration for his subject but in his combination of modesty with unerring authority. London in the 19th Century should sit on your shelf alongside Debrett's, the Oxford dictionary, and your complete set of Dickens.

[This looks like an excellent item.]

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

Useability

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Alertbox
Jakob's column on Web usability
10 Best Intranets of 2007 (Jan. 15)
This year's winners emphasized an editorial approach to news on the homepage. They also took a pragmatic approach to many hyped "Web 2.0" techniques. While page design is getting more standardized, there's no agreement on CMS or technology platforms for good intranet design.

Lancet Blog

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US cancer deaths have fallen for the second year in a row, according to a report released Jan 17 by the American Cancer Society.

According to the report, from 2003 to 2004, the most recent years for which mortality data were available, the total number of people dying from cancer in the USA fell 3014, from 556 902 to 553 888.

Technical analysis video

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Monday, January 22, 2007

Technical analysis video of individual stock trading ideas for Tuesday January 23, 2007 including; Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:APOG), Sapient Corporation (Public, NASDAQ:SAPE), Dynamic Materials Corporation (Public, NASDAQ:BOOM) and Express Scripts, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ:ESRX) Trend analysis for daytraders and swingtraders of stocks and options. Trading stocks involves risk; this information should not be viewed as trading recommendations.

Austrians pay a premium for native English speakers

By Katie Binns
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 19/01/2007


Here in Austria nobody bats an eyelid when they see I have a degree from a redbrick university that has a good reputation at home and abroad. Nor do they care that I studied languages. Nor does translating my CV and adapting it to the local style seem necessary. If I want prospective employers to look at me twice I reveal my greatest talent – that my mother tongue is English.

Being an English native speaker in Vienna offers job opportunities and a chance to earn money that is quite unbelievable. The education system is one sector where native speakers have an automatic advantage. Austrians love the idea of learning English from a native speaker. Indeed the native speaker is valued and revered above qualified Austrian language teachers to the extent that individuals are happy to pay between 40 and 60 euros at private institutes for the so-called "privilege" of one hour's conversation with someone from somewhere in the English-speaking world.

Language assistant positions in Austria's state schools carry much less responsibility and work than a qualified teacher position yet are paid nearly as well.

So finding English teaching jobs without qualifications is easy. But there are other opportunities, too. Certain university positions such as those assisting academics and editing academic publications come with a nice job title and a pay package, courtesy of the native speaker status.

Similar opportunities exist through various diplomatic missions, the United Nations office or other international organisations based here (such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) if you are a native speaker of English. One acquaintance openly admitted that the largest contributing factor to her getting her current job (at a NGO) was the fact that she was a native English speaker.


The United Nations office in Vienna, where many English speakers work whether or not they can use another language
Another acquaintance who works for the Permanent Mission of Japan to the UN told me being a native speaker was a requirement for her position and that this is the case for many jobs where she works, and in other international organisations in Vienna. The main reason for this is that the language used for meetings and documents is English, so they hire native speakers to take care of these. Other languages are not a requirement, apparently, although of course they always come in "quite handy". So my four years at school and another four years at university dedicated to language learning in all its forms are, in the end, considered to be "quite handy". Great.

It seems the native speaker status is the standard to aspire to. However, this all flies in the face of recent research and the comments by Malcolm Grant, provost of University College London, that European students have better English. I dare not tell this to people here for fear of damaging their preconceptions - and affecting the bank balance of my fellow native speakers in Vienna.

Demand for English language learning is stronger than ever, but why are the least able to teach still held in such high esteem? Why does this demand for untrained native speaker teachers of English persist? Why are natives considered somehow better for dealing with the organisation of documents and meetings in English? It is especially mystifying as the reasons why these people, particularly these teachers, should not be employed are many.

Surely from a moral point of view, educational institutions should be under an obligation to ensure that students are not exposed to unqualified teachers? The requirement in many of these centres of learning that applicants "must like children" is more disconcerting than reassuring.

advertisementAnd there are also practical and pedagogical reasons why untrained native speakers should not be employed to teach. They are often more costly than trained local teachers and are likely to have little, if any, commitment to the institution where they are employed, as many are only in Vienna short term. Many of these untrained teachers are monolingual. Being monolingual is still seen by some as an advantage - the idea is that such teachers can only use English in the classroom and that this will eventually have learners spouting language similar to the Queen's. However, promoting language teachers on the grounds that they can speak just the one language is surely ridiculous. In what other profession would a lack of relevant knowledge and experience be considered an advantage?

Being monolingual is clearly a great disadvantage: teachers are not able to speak the language of their students and therefore are unable to clear up any misunderstandings that may arise. They also do not have the experience of learning a second language and consequently are unable to empathise with their students. They lack personal experience of bilingualism, although their students will be at least bilingual, with many in Vienna living in multilingual and multicultural environments.

Being monolingual often means they are likely to be monocultural. It is not always the case but I have noticed that many of these monocultural beings hang out in the Irish/British pubs and other expat organisations and make sweeping generalisations about their own culture as well as the culture in which they are living.

Maybe one reason why untrained native speakers remain in such demand is the general conviction that they speak some form of Standard English and are thus appropriate linguistic models for their students and colleagues. This is just an idealised norm that Austrians have signed up to and which native speakers, glorying in their regional variety of English, play along with.

I find the situation rather mind-boggling. At present I have been asked to recommend someone who can "sit and play games for an hour" with five youngsters for 40 euros. The person in question wants a native speaker ("a student or teenager who likes children"). Nice work if you can get it. It's more than I earned as a teenager for my Saturday job; an eight-hour day hopping, jumping and skipping after customers who couldn't decide between American maple and beech.

Who am I to question the system? Rather than shatter the dreams of the Austrians and the chance of making a living for my fellow native speakers, I find it best to keep schtum and remain forever bemused.



Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright

BRB's Public Records Blog

BRB's Public Records Blog: "Two Bills Introduced to Help Prevent Identity Theft
Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced the Protecting Consumer Phone Records Act. It would require telephone companies to have a customer's written consent before selling personal information rather than requiring customers to opt-out. It would apply to wireline, wireless and VoIP carriers. All phone companies would be prohibited from selling personal information . . ."

Copycats

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Catching the lovebug...Why beauty is infectious

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 17/01/2007

The first evidence that beauty is infectious is published today by scientists who have shown that when women see a rival smiling at a man, he becomes more attractive as a result.

The rules of attraction
The research, published in a prestigious scientific journal, gives objective credence to a common practice among American men of asking a female friend to be their “lady wingman”, or even hiring a beautiful woman to flirt with them in a bar, party or club to make them appear more attractive to others. . . .

Calendar Collar: "Calendar Collar Trading Strategy"

LawFuel

LawFuel - The Law News Network
Interesting aggregator of law news sorted by region, searchable.

N-TEN Connect: > More folksonomy vs. taxonomy: "> More folksonomy vs. taxonomy
I got a couple of thoughful and smart responses to my last post on the topic. Marnie and Laura had lots of good things to say. I suppose I should clarfiy a little bit....
I think that we haven't addressed scope or audience in this conversation so far. When I apporach the topic of txonomy vs. folksonomy, I'm thinking about me (as average user) looking for information within a closed system - generally a nonprofit "

HighTouch : Weblog: "I‘m thinking we need to embrace chaos from the get-go, and trust that what comes out the other end will be meaningful."

Are ProShares Ultra ETFs Used As Hedging Devices By Money Managers? - SeekingAlpha: "Are ProShares Ultra ETFs Used As Hedging Devices By Money Managers?

Posted on Dec 18th, 2006 with stocks: DDM, DXD, QID, QLD, SDS, SSO

Brett Steenbarger submits: The ProShares Ultra ETFs enable traders and investors to leverage the movements of the major equity indices. For each 1% that an index moves, these ETFs will move 2%. This provides ETF traders with a degree of leverage normally associated with the trading of futures. Note that a pattern daytrader who qualifies for 4x leverage can reach 8x with the Ultra ETFs.

A unique feature of the Ultra ETFs is that they include separate trading instruments for long and short market exposure. By buying an inverse [short] ETF, a trader makes 2% when the underlying index falls by 1%. The non-inverse [long] Ultra ETF, of course, would rise 2% if the market rises by 1%.

Here are the symbols for the three most liquid Ultra ETFs:
NASDAQ 100: (QLD) [2x long]; (QID) [2x short]
S&P 500: (SSO) [2x long]; (SDS) [2x short]
Dow 30: (DDM) [2x long]; (DXD_ [2x short]

My initial idea was to compare volumes for the long vs. short Ultra ETFs to see if they functioned like call volume and put volume among options. In other words,..."

SFGate: Daily Dish : Macpherson Drops Klum Lawsuit

"Macpherson Drops Klum Lawsuit

Elle Macpherson has dropped plans to file a lawsuit against German beauty Heidi Klum, after being inspired by a meeting with Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Macpherson accused fellow supermodel Heidi Klum of stealing her nickname, after the German catwalk queen called herself 'The Body' in a television commercial.
Australian Macpherson has used the moniker since it was used to describe her in a Time magazine cover story in 1986...."

Colled Rolled Network: "Cold Rolled Network
Cold Rolled Forum

Specializing in Murrey Math

Cashing in on the stock market

Having fun

Sharing the wealth



Not your regular Joe.
Home of the richest people on planet earth"

"Free Wi-Fi Access

Forbes.com - Find free wifi hotspots and free wireless news at:
Forbes.com is pleased to provide you with this listing of over 11,000 wireless locations across the world, including coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, and airports. This directory is a collaborative effort by thousands of people who love free wireless internet. These businesses are appealing to consumers by providing free wireless internet. Such locations are commonly referred to as 'free wi-fi hotspots.'

Are we missing a location? Submit a free wi-fi hotspot."

Mises Economics Blog: In Defence of Ebenezer Scrooge: "Scrooge speaks: To hell with writers. They’re all the same. They carry a simple formula in their empty minds; mix one small fact with a headful of dreams and Eureka! A best seller. Give a writer a drop of truth and he’ll make a Thames; thereby providing him a monthly royalty check, good roast beef and pudding. Not to mention a long, beaver fur coat with a deep pocket for a fat wallet. And his pals say, “Hey, Charley Dickens, what a beyuuuutiful coat. Hear your book’s outselling 5-penny mulled cider!”
Nobody says, “Was it true what you wrote about old man Scrooge? Did he really treat Cratchit, the clerk, like a gutter dog?”


One fact, that Dickens fella had only one thing right. Yessir, I do hate Christmas. Always have. Still do. But now I hide it under a hardy ho, ho, ho and an armload full of presents. I hated Christmas because it was only a single day. I hated it like Londoners detest May because they get three glorious days of blazing blue skies and sunshine: then 362 days of fog as gray as a shroud. I hated Christmas like a sick child hates the rare day he feels good enough to "

Mises Economics Blog: Austrian Economics and Libertarian Political Theory

RGE - Financial Blogs Aggregated: "Financial Blogs Aggregated "

RGE - Political Blogs Aggregated: "Political Blogs Aggregated "

Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

What Ho Doth Yon Future Hold?

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With the Dow hitting a new high the week of December 11, it seems to be a good time to revisit Bob Prechter's discussion of stock manias in his business best-seller, Conquer the Crash

See the commentary begining on the Trading Page, link on the right.

ping

Free Services to Inspire Your Cellphone - New York Times: "FREE ‘PINGS’ Pinger is a new way to reach someone: a method that combines the immediacy of a text message with the personality of voice mail. (You can sign up at Pinger.com.) You call one of Pinger’s access numbers, say the name of the person you’re calling, and then speak a message.

Suppose you’ve just pinged your sister. She receives a text message to let her know. With one keystroke, she can hear your message — and with another, send a voice reply. There’s no waiting to roll over to voice mail, no listening to instructions, no outbound greetings.

Because Pinger is much faster and more direct than voice mail, it’s great for sending quick voice notes when you’re driving or walking between meetings. It’s also ideal when you can’t risk being stuck in a 20-minute conversation with no polite way out."

FREE DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE

Free Services to Inspire Your Cellphone - New York Times: "FREE DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE By this time, it’s quite clear that nobody with a “$50 a month” calling plan actually pays only $50 a month. The cellphone companies will do anything to puff up your bill — like charging you $1.50 or $2 every time you dial 411 to find a phone number.

Try 800-FREE-411 (800-373-3411) instead. A computer or human being looks up a number for you at no charge, once you’ve listened to a 20-second ad. It’s a classic time-for-money swap.

Or, for an ad-free option, there is a little-known Google service. Send a text message to 46645 (that’s “Google”; leave off the last E for efficiency). In the body of the message, type what you’re looking for, like “Roger McBride 10025” or “chiropractor dallas tx.” Seconds later, you get a return message from Google, complete with the name, address, and phone number."

Official Google Blog: Adieu to Google Answers: "Adieu to Google Answers
11/28/2006 10:22:00 PM
Posted by Andrew Fikes and Lexi Baugher, Software Engineers

Google is a company fueled by innovation, which to us means trying lots of new things all the time -- and sometimes it means reconsidering our goals for a product. Later this week, we will stop accepting new questions in Google Answers, the very first project we worked on here. The project started with a rough idea from Larry Page, and a small 4-person team turned it into reality in less than 4 months. For two new grads, it was a crash course in building a scalable product, responding to customer requests,"

Free long distance from Google

You can thank me later.

Maps Help: "What is the click to call feature on Google Maps?

We're testing a new feature, click to call, on Google Maps. Click to call gives you a fast and easy way to speak directly with businesses found on our maps. The following are a few frequently asked questions about this feature:
How does it work?

When you click the 'call' link next to a business's phone number, you'll be invited to enter your phone number. Once you select 'Connect For Free,' Google Maps calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you will hear ringing on the other end as Maps connects you to the business. When they answer, you simply talk normally as if you had directly dialed their number on your phone.


Who will get my phone number?

Google uses the phone number you enter just once, to make the automatic connection between you and the business location. We won't use the number to make any other calls to you. In addition, your information will be deleted from our servers after a period reasonably necessary to operate the service. We take your privacy very seriously. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.


Whose caller ID do I see when connected?

The business's phone number appears on your caller ID when Google calls you. This allows you to save the business's number on your phone so you can quickly call the business again at a later time.


Am I charged to connect to the business?

No. Google pays for all calls, both local and long-distance. However, if you give us a mobile phone number, the normal airtime fees or other fees charged by your phone provider may apply.

Google takes fraud and spamming very seriously. We use technical methods to prevent future prank calls from the same user within a reas"

Lookup Contractors

Contractor's license requirements in all 50 states: "Click on a State to See License Requirements
or Find Out if A Contractor is Licensed in That State"

HOMELAND SECURITY

On a Wing and a Prayer

Grievance theater at Minneapolis International Airport.

BY DEBRA BURLINGAME

Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Those are the words that started it all. Six bearded imams are said to have shouted them out while offering evening prayers as they and 141 other passengers waited at the gate for their flight out of Minneapolis International Airport. It was three days before Thanksgiving. Allahu Akbar: God is great.

Initial media reports of the incident did not include the disturbing details about what happened after they boarded US Airways flight 300, but the story quickly went national with provocative headlines: "Six Muslims Ejected from US Air Flight for Praying." Yes, they were praying--but let's be clear about this. The very last human sound on the cockpit voice recorder of United flight 93 before it screamed into the ground at 580 miles per hour is the sound of male voices shouting "Allahu Akbar" in a moment of religious ecstasy.

They, too, were praying. The passengers and crew of flight 93 lost their valiant fight to take back the plane just one hour and 20 minutes after it pushed back from the gate. Until the hijackers stormed the cockpit door, they were just a handful of Middle Eastern-looking men on their way to sunny California. So, yes, let's be exceedingly clear about the whole matter. Some 3,000 men, women and children are dead because the unassuming people on those airplanes did not look at them and see murderers. Or dangerous Arabs. Or fanatical Muslims. They saw a few guys in chinos.

In five years since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. commercial carriers have transported approximately 2.9 billion domestic and international passengers. It is a testament to the flying public, but, most of all, to the flight crews who put those planes into the air and who daily devote themselves to the safety and well-being of their passengers, that they have refused to succumb to ethnic hatred, religious intolerance or irrational fear on those millions of flights. But they have not forgotten the sight of a 200,000-pound aircraft slicing through heavy steel and concrete as easily as a knife through butter. They still remember the voices of men and women in the prime of their lives saying final goodbyes, people who just moments earlier set down their coffee and looked out the window to a beautiful new morning.

Today, when travelers and flight crews arrive at the airport, all the overheated rhetoric of the civil rights absolutists, all the empty claims of government career bureaucrats, all the disingenuous promises of the election-focused politicians just fall away. They have families. They have responsibilities. To them, this is not a game or a cause. This is real life.

Given that Islamic terrorists continue their obsession with turning airplanes into weapons of mass destruction, it is nothing short of obscene that these six religious leaders--fresh from attending a conference of the North American Imams Federation, featuring discussions on "Imams and Politics" and "Imams and the Media"--chose to turn that airport into a stage and that airplane into a prop in the service of their need for grievance theater. The reality is, these passengers endured a frightening 3 1/2-hour ordeal, which included a front-to-back sweep of the aircraft with a bomb-sniffing dog, in order to advance the provocative agenda of these imams in, of all the inappropriate places after 9/11, U.S. airports.

"Allahu Akbar" was just the opening act. After boarding, they did not take their assigned seats but dispersed to seats in the first row of first class, in the midcabin exit rows and in the rear--the exact configuration of the 9/11 execution teams. The head of the group, seated closest to the cockpit, and two others asked for a seatbelt extension, kept on board for obese people. A heavy metal buckle at the end of a long strap, it can easily be used as a lethal weapon. The three men rolled them up and placed them on the floor under their seats. And lest this entire incident be written off as simple cultural ignorance, a frightened Arabic-speaking passenger pulled aside a crew member and translated the imams' suspicious conversations, which included angry denunciations of Americans, furious grumblings about U.S. foreign policy, Osama Bin Laden and "killing Saddam."

Predictably, these imams and their attorneys now suggest that another passenger who penned a frantic note of warning and slipped it to a flight attendant was somehow a hysterical Islamophobe. Let us remember that but for their performance at the gate this passenger might never have noticed these men or their behavior on board, much less have the slightest clue as to their religion or political passions. Of course, that was the point of the shouting. According to the police report, yet another alarmed passenger who frequently travels to the Middle East described a conversation with one of the imams. The 31-year-old Egyptian expressed fundamentalist Muslim views, and stated the he would go to whatever measures necessary to obey all the tenets set out in the Koran.

The activist Muslim American Society (MAS) issued a press release within hours of the incident, demanding an apology and announcing a "pray-in" at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. Standing just a short distance from the Pentagon, where five years ago black plumes of smoke from the crash of American Airlines flight 77 could be seen for miles, the assembled demonstrators complained that African-American Muslims, accustomed to "driving while black," must now cope with the injustice of "flying while Muslim." This brazen two-step is racial politics at its worst; none of the imams are African-American. MAS, which teaches an "Activist Training" program with lessons on "how to talk to the media," must have been thrilled when one cable news outfit, suckered by the rhetoric, compared the imams' conduct to that of civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat in the face of institutional racism. One wonders what the parents of the three 11-year-olds who died on flight 77--all African-American kids on a National Geographic field trip--would make of this stunning comparison.

Today, MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray says his organization wants more than an apology. He wants to "hit [US Airways] where it hurts, the pocketbook," and, joined by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), will seek compensation for the imams, civil and federal monetary sanctions, and new, sweeping legislation that will extract even bigger penalties for airlines that engage in "racial and religious profiling." An investigation by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is under way. Not incidentally, it is the "fatwa department" of MAS that pushed for segregated taxi lines that would permit Muslim cab drivers at the Minneapolis airport to reject passengers carrying alcohol.

Here's what the flying public needs to know about airplanes and civil rights: Once your foot traverses the entranceway of a commercial airliner, you are no longer in a democracy in which everyone gets a vote and minority rights are affirmatively protected in furtherance of fuzzy, ever-shifting social policy. Ultimately, the responsibility for your personal safety and security rests on the shoulders of one person, the pilot in command. His primary job is to safely transport you and your belongings from one place to another. Period.
This is the doctrine of "captain's authority." It has a longstanding history and a statutory mandate, further strengthened after 9/11, which recognizes that flight crews are our last line of defense between the kernel of a terrorist plot and its lethal execution. The day we tell the captain of a commercial airliner that he cannot remove a problem passenger unless he divines beyond question what is in that passenger's head and heart is the day our commercial aviation system begins to crumble. When a passenger's conduct is so disturbing and disruptive that reasonable, ordinary people fear for their lives, the captain must have the discretionary authority to respond without having to consider equal protection or First Amendment standards about which even trained lawyers with the clarity of hindsight might strongly disagree. The pilot in command can't get it wrong. At 35,000 feet, when multiple events are rapidly unfolding in real time, there is no room for error.

We have a new, inviolate aviation standard after 9/11, which requires that the captain cannot take that airplane up so long as there are any unresolved issues with respect to the security of his airplane. At altitude, the cockpit door is barred and crews are instructed not to open them no matter what is happening in the cabin behind them. This is an extremely challenging situation for the men and women who fly those planes, one that those who write federal aviation regulations and the people who agitate for more restrictions on a captain's authority will never have to face themselves.

Likewise, flight attendants are confined in the back of the plane with upwards of 200 people; they must be the eyes and ears, not just for the pilot but for us all. They are not combat specialists, however, and to compel them to ignore all but the most unambiguous cases of suspicious behavior is to further enable terrorists who act in ways meant to defy easy categorization. As the American Airlines flight attendants who literally jumped on "shoe bomber" Richard Reid demonstrated, cabin crews are sharply attuned to unusual or abnormal behavior and they must not be second-guessed, or hamstrung by misguided notions of political correctness.

Ultimately, the most despicable aspect about the imams' behavior is that when they pierced the normally quiet hum of a passenger waiting area with shouts of "Allahu Akbar"and deliberately engaged in terrorist-associated behavior that was sure to trigger suspicion, they exploited the fear that began with the Sept. 11 attacks. The imams, experienced travelers all, counted on the security system established after 9/11 to kick in, and now they plan not only to benefit financially from the proper operation of that system but to substantially weaken it--with help from the Saudi-endowed attorneys at CAIR.

US Airways is right to stand by its flight crew. It will be both dangerous and disgraceful if the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation and, ultimately, our federal courts allow aviation security measures put in place after 9/11 to be cynically manipulated in the name of civil rights.

Ms. Burlingame, a director of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, is the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, which was crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

What is that?

Symptom Checker — Check your symptoms - MayoClinic.com:
"Symptom Checker
What's causing your foot pain? Why does your child's throat hurt? And what should you do about it? Use this guide to discover the most common causes of the most common symptoms. "

Important Business Lesson:

Johnny wanted to have sex with a girl in his office.....but she belonged to someone else.

One day Johnny got so frustrated that he went up to her and said "I'll give you $100 if you let me have sex with you!"

The girl said, "No way!."

Johnny said, " I'll be fast. I'll throw the money on the floor; you bend down, and I'll be finished by the time you pick it up."

She thought for a moment, knowing perfectly well she could really use the money for Christmas Gifts, but said that she would have to consult her boyfriend. She called her boyfriend and told him the story. The boyfriend said, "Ask him for $200. Then pick up the money very fast...as fast as you can...heck, he won't even be able to get his pants down."

She agreed and accepted Johnny's proposal. Half an hour went by and the boyfriend was waiting for his girlfriend to call. Finally after 45 minutes the boyfriend called and asked what happened?

She said, "The bastard used quarters!"

Management Lesson: Always consider a business proposal in its entirety before agreeing to it and getting screwed!

"Stress, depression and the holidays: 12 tips for coping

Stress, depression and the holidays: 12 tips for coping - MayoClinic.com:

For some people, the holidays bring unwelcome guests — stress and depression. And it's no wonder. In an effort to pull off a perfect Hallmark holiday, you might find yourself facing a dizzying array of demands — work, parties, shopping, baking, cleaning, caring for elderly parents or kids on school break, and scores of other chores. So much for peace and joy, right?

Actually, with some practical tips, you can minimize the stress and depression that often accompany the holidays. You may even end up enjoying the holidays more than you thought you would." . . .

People Who Need People

Are the luckiest people in the world. Persons ...
Knowledge-at-work: Social search - KM thinking
Social networking as a tool for enterprise expert/people finding? IBM is experimenting (DopgEar) and who knows who else.

Google and other free marvels

Free Services to Inspire Your Cellphone - New York Times

Free Week offered by Elliot Wave commodities analyst

FreeWeek: Futures Junctures Service - Elliott Wave International: "Elliott Wave International's Futures Junctures helps you tap into the hottest opportunities in commodities in two ways -- by alerting you to the most promising wave patterns we see, and by teaching you how to identify them for yourself.

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StockFetcher Commands

StockFetcher Command Definition: "an up to date list of Stockfetcher commands and associated metadata"

Daily Motion

Forbes.com - Magazine Article: "
Technology
YouTube's Doppelganger
Andy Greenberg 11.29.06, 6:00 AM ET

It's getting tougher and tougher to break copyright law on YouTube these days. The site now performs frequent purges of television shows and other proprietary content uploaded by users. But those forbidden files can still be had. They've largely migrated to DailyMotion.com, another video-uploading site that replicates YouTube's model of user-provided videos. DailyMotion, by contrast, seems to do little if any regulation of copyrighted material, nor does it limit the lengths of clips.

At any given time, DailyMotion hosts hundreds of copyrighted television episodes, allowing users to watch the shows free of charge and without commercials. And try as they might, television networks have had little success in plugging the streaming-video leaks in their intellectual property dam.

DailyMotion, based in Paris, displays no advertisements and has no apparent source of revenue. Its executives couldn't be reached for comment, and its business model remains a mystery. But if the site's goal is to build a large audience before seeking profit, it's starting to succeed. Its market share, though a tiny 0.22% compared to YouTube's 65%, has increased 300% in the past three months, according to researchers at the Web analysis firm Hitwise. DailyMotion recently claimed its millionth registered user, and according to analysts at ComScore Media Metrix, the site had 7.6 million unique visitors in September.

DailyMotion's store of contraband has lately been attracting the attention of a more entrepreneurial set of technorati. The site's fans have created a small industry of 'portals,' amateur pages that catalog entire seasons of television shows and link to those shows "

CRS Congressional Research Service subject list

Penny Hill Press - Congressional Research Service Documents: "Penny Hill Press offers same-day delivery of all publications of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the 739-person, $91.7 million-per-year non-partisan 'think tank' that works exclusively for Members and committees of the United States Congress.
Purchase individual documents or become a subscriber and keep up-to-date with the latest reports released by the CRS. Best of all, subscribers save more than 70% on the cost of obtaining most CRS reports. "

: "Proud to Say, I Have Never...
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 22/11/2006

By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
Your view: tell us what you're proud never to have done
Join our society of rebels and non-conformists
It was Groucho Marx who best summed up that nagging feeling we all periodically suffer from: that we don't really like the rest of mankind.

'I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members,' he said.
Today, The Daily Telegraph, inspired by our readers, launches a new club for people who, like Marx, want to stand out from the crowd and are strongly inclined to go against prevailing fashions.
They do not buy iPods because their neighbours have them, and they certainly do not 'drizzle' truffle oil on their carpaccio because Nigella Lawson tells them to.
It was Bryan Dixon of Winchester, Hants, who started it. Sorely provoked by the wall-to-wall praise from the media for the new West End production of The Sound of Music, he wrote to The Daily Telegraph in clarion tones.
'Now is the time to bring to the attention of music lovers The Society of People Who have Not Seen The Sound of Music and Have No Intention of Doing So. I believe that I am the only member of this society.'
His letter was published last Friday and it quickly became clear that he was not alone at all. The letter was a lodestone and, ever since, readers have deluged our website and letters page.
Not only have they written in about Rodgers and Hammerstein's singing nuns, but to declare their intense dislike of many other modern cultural icons, modes of behaviour or consumer wizardry.
Gathering themselves around the umbrella of what we have deci"

Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant: "Internet Happenings, Events and Sources "

Google logo graphics we will never see (Googleism)

Telegraph | Expat | Unfriendly, Suspicious, Arrogant...:

"Unfriendly, Suspicious, Arrogant...

By Catherine Elsworth and Melissa Whitworth
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 22/11/2006

The land of the free has become the home of the rude thanks to the 'arrogant' and 'unpredictable' immigration officials who police its borders, according to a survey of travellers.
The nation that once welcomed all with its Statue of Liberty and declaration E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) is now considered the world's most unfriendly.

Worst country: experts fear that rudeness is turning away the tourists
Visitors are staying away, costing the country billions of dollars in lost revenue, and the situation threatens America's already battered image, according to the group behind the survey.

The Discover America Partnership, a group of travel industry leaders, found that two thirds of the 2,011 foreign visitors ..."

Orange Book News

Court Strikes Down FDA's Delisting of Drug
When Patentee Has Not Sued Generic Maker

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's policy of delisting a drug from the Orange Book at the request of the patentee when the patentee has not sued the generic drug maker that has challenged the patent through an abbreviated new drug application is inconsistent with the relevant federal statutory provision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Nov. 14 (Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. v. Leavitt, D.C. Cir., No. 06-5154, 11/14/06).

 

 

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The Most Bizarre Prenuptial Clauses
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