Bob Jensen's Tidbits

In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence; the second, listening; the third, remembering; the fourth, practicing; the fifth, teaching others.
Solomon Ibn Gabirol

The terrorists cannot possibly stand up in light to claim their prize
The statement of the Group of Eight leaders on the London explosions, read by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on Thursday before leaving for London: "This is a statement on behalf of the G-8 leaders, but also on behalf of the leaders of the five countries that have joined us at this summit … We condemn utterly these barbaric attacks. We send our profound condolences to the victims and their families. "All of our countries have suffered from the impact of terrorism. Those responsible have no respect for human life. "We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation but on all nations and on civilised people everywhere. "We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values, nor will we allow it to stop the work of this summit. "We will continue our deliberations in the interests of a better world.
"The terrorists will not succeed," Sydney Morning Herald, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/07/08/1120704504657.html
Jensen Comment: In general diseases in a system strengthen the system in the long run even if damage to innocent parts of the system are a tragedy. The British people are tough, resolved, and resilient. The Free World, aside from a few cowardly nations, is tough, resolved, and resilient.

Terrorists can never win because they are afraid of coming out of hiding behind children to claim their prize.

Bypass surgery "should have been relegated to the archives 15 years ago"
There's just one problem with this happy tale of modern medicine: More and more doctors are questioning whether such heart procedures are actually extending patients' lives. One of them, Dr. Nortin M. Hadler, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of The Last Well Person, is urging the U.S. medical establishment to rethink its most basic precepts of cardiovascular care. Bypass surgery in particular, he says, "should have been relegated to the archives 15 years ago."
John Carey and Amy Barrett, "Is Heart Surgery Worth It? Physicians are looking at troubling studies and questioning whether bypasses and angioplasties necessarily prolong patients' lives," Business Week, July 7, 2005 --- http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc2005077_3265_tc024.htm?campaign_id=nws_insdr_jul8&link_position=link13
Shortened to http://snipurl.com/HeartJuly7

Setting the record straight about the true history of computers
In his wonderful new book, What the Dormouse Said..., John Markoff tells these stories. Markoff was born in Oakland, CA, and has been covering Silicon Valley for the New York Times for more than a decade. From a distinctly West Coast perspective, Dormouse chronicles the origins of the personal computer and its place in the Bay Area culture of the 1960s. Having lived, intensely, the later part of this story, I am fascinated by the great back stories of people I came to know and, often, work with. Many of these stories were only vaguely familiar; many more, I'd never heard.
Bill Joy, "The Dream of a Lifetime," MIT's Technology Review, August 2005 --- http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/08/issue/review_dream.asp?trk=nl

Also see http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/08/issue/extra_brown.asp?trk=nl

Fat in Bloodstream Is Linked to Heart Problems
New research gives the first solid evidence that a type of fat in the bloodstream can trigger the earliest steps that lead to clogged blood vessels, the top cause of heart attacks. If further research bears this out, people might someday be tested for this fat, just as they are for cholesterol now, to see if they are in danger of having a heart attack. The study found that levels of the fat strongly correlated with the risk of heart disease, especially in people under age 60.
"Fat in Bloodstream Is Linked to Heart Problems," The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2005, Page D3 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112067317288878585,00.html?mod=todays_us_personal_journal

Sing whenever possible: Secret for reducing snoring
Music teacher Alise Ojay has developed exercises that she claims will help many people stop snoring. The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital is studying her course, which teaches people how to strengthen the throat muscles she says can help reduce snoring.
"Singing Your Way to a Snore Free Night," National Public Radio, July 6, 2005 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4731175

Warnings to Soda Addicts: Dangers in sugar-free as well as sugar-based sodas
Still, soda lovers will testify that it can be awfully hard to give up the fizzy stuff. One reason is that when we consume something sweet, the taste triggers our brains to release chemicals called opioids -- which make us crave more pleasurable tastes, says Politi. So why would anyone want to swear off soft drinks? Experts say that, while soda has few useful nutrients, it is among the many sources of excess calories contributing to the U.S. obesity epidemic. Several recent studies bear out the idea that drinking too many sodas can affect your health . . .
Carol Sorgen, "Help for Soda Lovers: What to do when you're a softie for soft drinks," WebMD, July 1, 2005 --- http://my.webmd.com/content/article/90/100658.htm?z=1727_00000_5024_hv_06

Hiring Pace Picked Up Last Month
The nation's employers stepped up their hiring in June, the government reported yesterday, adding 146,000 jobs to meet the gradually rising demands of a sturdy economy.
Louis Uchitelle, "Hiring Pace Picked Up Last Month," The New York Times, July 9, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/09/business/09jobs.html

Your cell phone records are for sale (Warning: mine are boring)
Cell phone records are far more personal than typical Internet Identity theft
Think your mate is cheating? For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace. Order online, and get results within hours. Carlos F. Anderson, a licensed private investigator in Florida, offers a similar service for $165, for all major telephone carriers. "This report provides all the calls with dates, times, and duration on the billing statement," according to Anderson's Web site, which adds, "Incoming Calls and Call Location are provided if available." Learning who someone talked to on the phone cannot enable the kind of financial fraud made easier when a Social Security or credit card number is purloined. Instead, privacy advocates say, the intrusion is more personal.
Jonathan Kim, "Online Data Gets Personal: Cell Phone Records for Sale," The Washington Post, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701862.html?referrer=email

Bob Jensen's threads on computing and networking privacy are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#SpecialSection

Big Brother might be watching your car's accidents
Washington Post Trivia on July 8, 2005
Automobile crash investigators are increasingly using data from "black box" devices similar to those used in commercial airliners. What percentage of vehicles on U.S. roads are currently equipped with the devices?

A. 5%
B. 10%
C. 15%
D. 20%

U.S. losing share of science and engineering grads
More than half a century of U.S. dominance in science and engineering may be slipping as America's share of graduates in these fields falls relative to Europe and developing nations such as China and India, a study released on Friday says. The study, written by Richard Freeman at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Washington, warned that changes in the global science and engineering job market may require a long period of adjustment for U.S. workers. Moves by international companies to move jobs in information technology, high-tech manufacturing and research and development to low-income developing countries were just "harbingers" of that longer-term adjustment, Freeman said.
"U.S. losing share of science and engineering grads," C|Net, July 9, 2005 --- http://news.com.com/U.S.+losing+share+of+science+and+engineering+grads/2100-7342_3-5780921.html?tag=nefd.top

Cows, chickens, sheep, and fish may become obsolete
A study outlines ways to grow meat in labs. We could engineer it to be healthier, and it would help the environment, since by one estimate 21 percent of human-generated carbon dioxide is produced by animals we use for food. Unmentioned benefit: We would kill fewer animals.
"Burgers from a lab? US study says it's possible," Yahoo News, July 7, 2005 --- http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050707/sc_nm/science_meat_dc;_ylt=Au2GRZBi4fKamLSjQims1eYhANEA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

I shortened this link to http://snipurl.com/CowsGone

Deloitte & Touche under investigation
Deloitte & Touche LLP is under investigation by the nation's accounting regulator over a 2003 audit of Navistar International Corp.'s financial statements, according to a published report. Earlier this year, Warrenville, Ill.-based Navistar restated its financial results for the fiscal years 2002 and 2003, and the first three quarters of fiscal 2004 because of an error in how it accounted for customer truck loans that were packaged into securities for sale to investors. The regulator, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, is looking into whether Deloitte's work at Navistar may have failed to comply with at least five auditing standards, according to Bloomberg News. Those standards cover checking for fraud, performing work in a professional manner and preparing reports on financial statements. The two-page order does not explain what Deloitte may have done wrong, Bloomberg said.
Ameet Sachdev, "Deloitte & Touche under investigation," Herald Today," July 9, 2005 --- http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/business/12092705.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on Deloitte's troubles are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Deloitte

"Google Earth Thrills With Photos, Stunts, But How Practical Is It?" The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2005; Page B1 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,personal_technology,00.html

It's good to have a healthy skepticism about the claims of the hype-driven technology industry. But there are times when even a hardened skeptic has to admit to amazement and delight at the sheer coolness of some of the things you can do on a personal computer today. And one of those "wow" moments happens the first time you run a new program called Google Earth.

The program lets you view satellite and aerial photos of pretty much any spot on the planet. In big metropolitan areas in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe, you can locate, and zoom in on, individual buildings and houses, and see cars and trees. You can overlay streets onto these urban images, as well as markers indicating restaurants, hotels and more. In other places, you can make out only towns and large geographical features, like lakes.

The program rapidly fetches the images from the Internet and visually "flies" you from place to place around the globe. The process is so fluid it feels like a Hollywood stunt. For instance, if you're staring at a bird's-eye view of St. Mark's Square in Venice and you type in your address in Boston, Google Earth will zoom out till you seem high in the sky, then rapidly "fly" you west across the Atlantic into the U.S., and then stop right over your house.

Google first released the program last week at www.earth.google.com . But demand was so high that the company's servers were overwhelmed, so Google is intermittently turning off downloads. You may have to visit the site several times to download the software.

When you first try Google Earth, you'll want to type in all the places you frequent and see how they look from the air. You're also likely to call in family and friends to see how cool the program is, which is exactly what I did. I located my house, my office, my old college dorm and the house where I was raised. I wowed visitors by typing their addresses into the program and "flying" them to aerial views of their houses.

Continued in the article

Bob Jensen's search helpers are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/searchh.htm

Brains are Not Like Computers, Study Finds
As you read this sentence, your brain is processing the letters into words. One popular theory associates this activity with a computer that inputs each bit of data – in this case letters – one after the other. But a new study finds that language comprehension is not broken up into discrete chunks. Indeed, the brain may work in a more continuous, analog fashion – in which the yes-no, on-off, one-zero precision of the digital computer is only gradually achieved. Michael Spivey, a psycholinguist from Cornell University, tracked mouse movements on a computer screen of 42 student volunteers. When the students heard a word, such as “candle," they were instructed to click on one of two images that corresponded to the word.
Michael Schirber, "Brains Not Like Computers, Study Finds," Live Science, July 7, 2005 --- http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050707_brain_computer.html

From the Scout Report on July 7, 2005

Rethinking Schools Online --- http://www.rethinkingschools.org/

The motivating vision behind the Rethinking Schools organization is the notion of "the common school." This vision includes the belief that schools are integral "not only to preparing all children to be full participants in society, but also to be full participants in this country's ever-tenuous experiment in democracy." The organization was founded in Milwaukee in 1986, and has been intimately involved with addressing such educational issues as standardized testing and textbook-dominated curricula. Visitors to the site can learn about the organization's various programs, and more importantly, read a number of articles from its in-house journal, _Rethinking Schools_. One particularly nice feature of the site is the collection of thematic articles organized into such topics as "Bilingual Education" and "Teacher Unions." Finally, the site also has collected a list of selected online resources, such as links to the Global School Network and the American Federation of Teachers.

Woman's Hour http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/

As its website proclaims, the "Woman's Hour" on BBC Radio is designed for the purpose of "celebrating, informing and entertaining women." As part of a larger set of sites dedicated to like-minded resources for women from the BBC's Radio 4, this particular program tackles a number of germane subjects, including relationships, health, politics, and cooking. One of the definitive highlights is the drama section, where visitors can listen to radio versions of plays such as "The Reef" by Edith Wharton. Visitors can listen to the current edition of Woman's Hour, or elect to listen to previous programs from the same week. Guests are also invited to send in their own comments on timely topics and also offer their input on a series of moderated message boards.

Revising Himself : Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/whitman-home.html

An impressive feat of literary collation, the Library of Congress presents this exhibition on Walt Whitman, probably America's first superstar author, and Whitman's book of poetry, _Leaves of Grass_. Initially published in 1855, _Leaves of Grass_ contained 12 poems. Whitman continuously revised it until his death in 1892, when it contained 400 poems. The poet added new poems, renamed older ones, reworded lines, changed punctuation, and regrouped poems (through the 1881 edition), as well as inventing typography, and posing for frontispiece portraits wearing various styles of clothing and props. (front and back views of a cardboard butterfly that Whitman posed with in 1877 are included in the show). The exhibition traces this evolution of _Leaves of Grass_ and Whitman's life, as a poet and a person, from the first appearance of the lines "I am the poet of the body, And I am the poet of the soul" in a notebook dating 1847-1950s, to the final "Deathbed edition" of 1891-1892. A wealth of interesting biographical material on Whitman, his friends and associates, his work as a teacher, tending the wounded during the Civil War, and for the federal government, also appears in the exhibit.

Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.6
http://www.jetico.com/

Unwarranted attacks from unscrupulous hackers are increasingly common, and users concerned with such activities would do well to take a look at the Jetico Personal Firewall. With this application, users will have three levels of protection. The application will effectively filter network packets, application-level network events, and of course, various Trojans that might try to sneak into Internet Explorer or some such browsing application. Jetico Personal Firewall 1.0.1.6 is compatible with Windows 98 or newer.

Bob Jensen's threads on firewalls are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/firewall.htm

Bottom feeding: Equal pay in education versus supply and demand by discipline
Some experts think colleges should resist these trends (salary differentials based upon supply and demand). “Even within a single college, differences are growing, and that creates some difficulties for faculty to see themselves as part of a common profession,” said John Curtis, director of research for the American Association of University Professors. “Higher education really is something for the common good that provides a benefit for society as whole. When you see some of these large differences, it’s easy to slip into a system that emphasizes individual payback instead of payback for society.”
David Epstein, "Pay and Prestige," Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/careers/2005/07/08/pay
Jensen Comment: Some liberal arts colleges succeed with smaller pay differentials that virtually ignore salary differentials outside academe. I can't imagine major universities with highly successful professional schools (medicine, law, engineering, business, etc.) attempting to ignore the marketplace for top talent in faculty. How many highly skilled surgeons, patent attorneys, robotics engineers, and financial experts will ignore market alternatives? For top universities to ignore market differentials would condemn leading professional programs to bottom feed for teachers and researchers. The same may apply to some science disciplines where certain specialties are in great demand and short supply.

Leniency in the Modern Age
Millions of dollars in malicious damage and the German court gives him probation
Sasser exploited a flaw in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems. It caused infected computers to crash and reboot, making it impossible to work on them. The worm snarled hundreds of thousands of computers and caused Internet traffic to slow. German prosecutors estimate that damages ran into the millions of dollars.
Imke Zimmermann, "German Court Convicts Sasser Worm Creator," The Washington Post, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/08/AR2005070800337.html?referrer=email

Portland State University Professor expounds U.S. as an evil empire
Free Republic, July 9, 2005 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1439761/posts

Amanda Byron, Graduate Program in Conflict Resolution

Portland State University (Portland, Ore.) Professor Amanda Byron, a faculty member of the "Conflict Resolution Graduate Program" at PSU.

Among the courses she teaches are the following:

Introduction to Conflict Resolution

Enmification: The Art and Consequence of Enemy Making

Facilitation

Restorative Justice

Of these, the curiously titled course "Enmification" deserves some attention. Here is the course description from her website --- http://www.conflictresolution.pdx.edu/Faculty/Bios/Byron.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on the "Evil Empire" expounding professors are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/hypocrisyEvilEmpire.htm
The Evil Empire is supposedly intent of utterly billions of Jewish-Christian enemies.

Leniency in the Modern Age
Cheating then versus now
What this means in evaluative practice is not only that the opportunities to cheat (just to continue to use this word) are enormously expanded. The nature of cheating itself changes accordingly — to the despair of every teacher, beginning with those who teach freshman composition. The very fact that “plagiarism” must be carefully defined there defers to the absence of what the dean in (the movie) School Ties refers to as a vacuum. (Could cheating even be punished — in his terms — if one has to begin by defining it?) It also testifies to the near-impossibility of judging a paper on SUV’s or gay marriage or God-knows-what that has been cobbled together out of Internet sources whose fugitive presence, sentence by sentence, is almost undetectable. Furthermore, to the student these sources may well be almost unremarkable, with respect to his or her own words. What is this business of one’s “own words” anyway? What if the very notion has been formed by CNN? How not to visit its site (say) when time comes to write? Most students will be unfamiliar with a theoretical orientation that questions the whole idea of originality. But they will not be unaffected with some consequences, no less than they are unaffected by, say, the phenomenon of sampling and remixing as it takes place in popular culture, especially fashion or music. “Plagiarism” has to contend with all sorts of notions of imitation, none of which possess any moral valence. Therefore, plagiarism becomes — first, if not foremost — a matter of interpretive judgment. Cheating, on the other hand, is not interpretive in the same way (and, in the world of (the movie) School Ties, not “interpretive” at all). No wonder, in a sense, that test gradually has had to yield to text. It is almost as if the vacuum could not hold. By the present time, the importance of determining grades (in part if not whole) by means of papers acquires the character of a sort of revenge of popular culture — ranging from cable television to rap music — upon academic culture.
Terry Caesar, "Cheating in a Time of Extenuating Circumstances," Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2005/07/08/caesar
Jensen Comment: The 1992 movie School Ties focuses on cheating brought to light by an honor code that requires students to report seeing other students cheat. It also focuses on education at a time when cheating was more severely punished, usually by expulsion from school. In most colleges today, first-time offenders who get caught are generally placed on some type of probation. At the same time most schools have modified their honor codes in this litigious society such that students are no longer required to report observed cheating of other students. Many instructors view reporting of cheating as becoming too much of a hassle in terms of time and trouble when the student will not be severely punished in any case. This leads to greater risk taking on the part of some students when it comes to cheating. They are less likely to be detected and, if detected for the first time, the punishments are negligible relative to the rewards. Such risk taking continues on when they are tempted to cheat as executives in business/government and the temptations to siphon off millions of dollars are great.

Bob Jensen's threads on cheating are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/plagiarism.htm

You can practice being an investigator of a vicious sex offender, kidnapper, and alleged murderer
Duncan stopped blogging on May 13, two days before the brutal slaying of 40-year-old Brenda Groene, her son Slade and her boyfriend Mark McKenzie, at Groene's home near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. The fugitive turned up last Saturday at a 24-hour diner just a few miles from the murder site. He was in the company of Groene's 8-year-old daughter Shasta, who'd been missing since the attack. Now charged with two counts of kidnapping, police said this week that Duncan is the only suspect in the slayings. Shasta's missing 9-year-old brother Dylan is also believed to be a murder victim.
Kevin Pousen, "Cops Watched Sex Offender's Blog," Wired News, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68136,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
Jensen Comment: Duncan's blog is still active at http://fifthnail.blogspot.com/
You can put yourself in an investigator's pair of shoes in detecting whether Duncan's self-described torment is real or faked. The classic problem with serial rapists, murderers, and pedophiles is they are very skilled and convincing liars about their insanity in an attempt to convince the public and the courts that they would be such bad persons if they weren't mentally ill. The classic example is Kenneth Bianchi who was one of the two infamous Hillside Stranglers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillside_Strangler ). After being arrested, Bianchi concocted an elaborate ploy of faked multiple personalities that pitted experts against experts until some clever ploys by investigators unraveled his entire charade. His skill at deceptions dragged out his murder trial for over two years.

We've seen some interesting trends in using the Internet, and one of these ways may be to fake insanity and/or otherwise justify crime. Terrorists are increasingly using the Internet to justify their acts of terror on totally innocent victims. Do you think Duncan's pre-crime revelations of torment before his crime were intentional as "insurance" in case he got caught after the fact?

Overcharging for overdrafts?
Banks earn a substantial part of their income from fees charged to customers. Personal finance contributor, Michelle Singletary, talks with host Alex Chadwick about whether overdraft fees are reasonable, or just a way banks are taking advantage of their customers.
Michele Singletary, "The Color of Money," National Public Radio, July 5, 2005 --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4730118

Oregon law now requires notification when academic degrees are phony
In Oregon, degrees from unaccredited institutions that are not licensed in the state are about to carry the higher ed version of a scarlet letter. A bill, which would require disclaimers on any résumé bearing suspect degrees, passed through the Oregon legislature last week, and is expected to become law soon. The bill stems from a lawsuit against Oregon that was settled earlier this year. Prior to the lawsuit, the state fined or prosecuted anyone doing business in Oregon who claimed a degree from an unaccredited institution not licensed in Oregon.
David Epstein, "Scarlet Letter," Inside Higher Ed, July 7, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/07/oregon
Jensen Comment: The problem is that diploma mills have already formed phony accreditation agencies such that many diploma mills are dubiously "accredited."

Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill

Pennsylvania state trooper issues both tickets and Berkley college diplomas (even to dogs)
Last year, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office decided to sue an institution its officials called a “diploma mill,” after Colby Nolan, their undercover student, got his master’s degree in business administration. The fact that Colby is a pet cat bolstered their case.In a lawsuit filed Wednesday against another institution the attorney general said is a diploma mill, the office is going for the University of Berkley’s jugular, and it isn’t bothering with pet tricks.The lawsuit, filed in local court in Erie County, where the business is based, charged a former New Mexico state trooper, Dennis Globosky, 50, with selling thousands of fake degrees in the United States and abroad, since the late 1990s, and operating under a bogus accreditation institution. Along with the complaint, the attorney general asked the court to immediately shut down Berkley’s operations. After several hours of review Wednesday morning, the judge granted the request.
David Epstein, "Class Dismissed," Inside Higher Ed, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/08/mill

Bob Jensen's threads on diploma mills are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudReporting.htm#DiplomaMill

A Win for ‘Academic Bill of Rights’
For all the uproar over legislation inspired by the Academic Bill of Rights, very little of it has gone anywhere. There have been hearings — some of them noisy — in many states, but not much more this year.But on Tuesday, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a resolution creating a special committee that is charged with investigating — at public colleges in the state — how faculty members are hired and promoted, whether students are fairly evaluated, and whether students have the right to express their views without fear of being punished for them.The language in the resolution closely follows that of the Academic Bill of Rights, which has been pushed nationwide by David Horowitz, a former 60s radical who is now a conservative activist.Horowitz, writing in Front Page, one of his publications, called the Pennsylvania vote “a tremendous victory for academic freedom.” He said that opposition from faculty groups “was fierce, and their defeat is that much more bitter as a result.”
Scott Jaschik, "A Win for ‘Academic Bill of Rights’," Inside Higher Ed, July 7, 2005 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/07/07/tabor

The Trial Lawyers' Enron
The Justice Department is finally starting to take a hard look at some dubious legal practices, and it isn't a pretty sight. If a recent federal indictment that refers to Milberg Weiss is anything to go by, the trial bar has its Enron. That indictment, delivered up in late June, charges two California attorneys with conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice -- among other felonies. Class-action lawsuit giant Milberg Weiss isn't formally charged, though the firm has admitted it is the "New York Law Firm" cited in the indictment as having made numerous illegal payments to plaintiffs. Justice has also made clear that criminal charges against Milberg Weiss partners, or even the entire firm, are possible.
"The Trial Lawyers' Enron," The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2005; Page A12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112069222061878965,00.html?mod=todays_us_opinion

WSJ Flashback
Many Americanisms now in use sprang from political campaigns, says Mitford M. Mathews, lexicographer at the University of Chicago. Among these are: O.K., 1840; pork barrel, 1801; platform, 1803; campaign, 1809; civil rights, 1874; fence straddler, 1948.
The Wall Street Journal, July 8, 1952

From U.S. News on July 7, 2--5 --- http://www.usnews.com/usnews/home.htm

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Beyond Arabism: Music videos and Lebanese revolution --- http://www.reason.com/0506/cr.cf.beyond.shtml

In Praise of Vulgarity
At the time of this reading, I was engaged in conversations about counterculture and consumerism. In fact, I found myself in a state of rebellion against what seemed to me a kind of neo-puritanical obsession that many countercultural types have with this particular "ism" as a locus of all evil. As a lover of personal choice (kill my fuckin' TV and I'll kill you) and ambiguity, I found this not merely alienating — I found it lame. Here we'd presented a range of philosophies and thinkers from the Socratics to the Sufis to the Surrealists and all anybody wanted to talk about is how Iggy Pop songs were being used to sell cars. So I was particularly receptive to the piece In Praise of Vulgarity: How Commercial Culture Liberates Islam — and the West. I sent the piece around to friends (and I'm sure Iggy would agree) and I started reading Reason magazine more carefully and more enthusiastically.
"Right On! RU Sirius in Conversation with Reason Editor Nick Gillespie" --- http://www.life-enhancement.com/neofiles/default.asp?ID=67

The pursuit of happiness
Let's just agree it's all Thomas Jefferson's fault. The writer of the Declaration of Independence inscribed "the pursuit of happiness" into the very DNA of America by asserting that such a right was every bit as inalienable as those of life and liberty. It's been downhill ever since, as we desperately strive to get too rich and too thin - all while blaming toxic parents, codependent spouses, abusive bosses, and total strangers for every problem, big and small, in our endlessly tortured and continually disappointing lives.
Nick Gillespie, "The Happiness Scam (Book Reviews)," Reason Magazine, July 6, 2005 --- http://www.nysun.com/article/16523

Nigerian political porn scam
Kano: A Nigerian man successfully blackmailed Muslim state governors by threatening to release mocked-up computer images depicting them cavorting with prostitutes, police say. Musa Baffa Bashir, 35, had warned leaders he had been paid by their opponents to create fake nude pictures of them, police in Kano said. He was arrested on Wednesday. He had targeted seven governors from the country's conservative north who had backed the reintroduction of Islamic law, which prescribes the death penalty for adultery, and would have been highly embarrassed if the pictures became public. Four of the seven had already paid Bashir 500,000 naira ($5000) each before the governor of of Kebbi state tipped off security agents, who set up a sting to capture him. "The governor played along by asking the suspect to name a place where someone would meet him with 500,000 naira," said Sadiq Dalhatu, head of the State Security Service in Kano, at a news conference where the suspect was paraded. "He named a hotel in Kano where our men went under the guise of giving him the money." Bashir is said to have told police he had resorted to blackmail after his business failed, but would not say what the business had been.
"Nigerian political porn scam," Sydney Morning Herald, July 8, 2005 --- http://www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/07/08/1120704504739.html

Over $568,000 per square inch
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s recent purchase of an early Renaissance “Madonna and Child” by Duccio di Buoninsegna, for a price said to have been between forty-five and fifty million dollars, has been greeted by most New Yorkers with unruffled calm. Although the acquisition was covered extensively last November, with emphasis on the price and the extreme rarity of works by this Sienese master, the little picture (it measures eleven inches high by just over eight inches wide, and is painted in tempera and gold on a wooden panel) has not attracted the multitudes that would make it difficult to see.
Calvin Tomkins, "The Missing Madonna, " The New Yorker, July 11, 2005 --- http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050711fa_fact

Vatican Sacks Six Pervy Priests for Having Sex With Drunken Teen Boy
The Vatican has defrocked six priests from the Archdiocese of New York — including one who paid for sex with an underage boy and another who was convicted of sodomizing a drunken teen, officials said yesterday. All the men lost their pensions and will not be allowed to perform priestly duties and were stripped of their collars by the Roman Catholic Church following allegations of sexual abuse. A seventh priest, who was also accused of sexual abuse, Rev. Alfred Gallant, of Orange County, was allowed to retain his title of priest and keep his pension, but not allowed to perform sacraments.
Jennifer Fermino, "VATICAN SACKS SIX PERVY N.Y. PRIESTS ," Yahoo News, July 9, 2005 --- http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nypost/20050709/lo_nypost/vaticansackssixpervynypriests

Google Wins 'Typosquatting' Dispute
Internet arbitrator has awarded Google Inc. the rights to several Web site addresses that relied on typographical errors to exploit the online search engine's popularity so computer viruses and other malicious software could be unleashed on unsuspecting visitors.The National Arbitration Forum, a legal alternate to litigating in court, sided with a Google complaint alleging that Sergey Gridasov of St. Petersburg, Russia, had engaged in ''typosquatting'' by operating Web sites named googkle.com, ghoogle.com and gooigle.com.
"Google Wins 'Typosquatting' Dispute," The New York Times, July 10, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Google-Typosquatting.html

Bisexual men allegedly lie about sexual orientation
The study, by a team of psychologists in Chicago and Toronto, lends support to those who have long been skeptical that bisexuality is a distinct and stable sexual orientation. People who claim bisexuality, according to these critics, are usually homosexual, but are ambivalent about their homosexuality or simply closeted. "You're either gay, straight or lying," as some gay men have put it. In the new study, a team of psychologists directly measured genital arousal patterns in response to images of men and women. The psychologists found that men who identified themselves as bisexual were in fact exclusively aroused by either one sex or the other, usually by other men.
Benedict Carey, "Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited," The New York Times, July 5, 2005 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/05/health/05sex.html

Forwarded by Paula

This is a test to see if you are a "Know it All"

This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn't. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. Name the only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball?

5. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

6. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

7. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

8. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

9. Where are the lakes that are referred to in the Los Angeles Lakers?

10. There are 7 ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit. Taking a base on balls (a walk) is one way. Name the other 6.

11. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

12. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."

Answers To Quiz:

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends . . . boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward . . . Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons . . . asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The only sport in which the ball is always in possession of the team on defense, and the offensive team can score without touching the ball . . . baseball.

5. The fruit with its seeds on the outside . . strawberry.

6. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

7. Three English words beginning with dw . dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

8. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar . . . period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

9. The original lakes referred to in Lakers . . . in Minnesota. (The team was originally known as the Minneapolis Lakers, and kept the name when they moved west.)

10. Seven ways a baseball player can legally reach first base without getting a hit . . . taking a base on balls (a walk) . . . batter hit by a pitch, passed ball, catcher interference, catcher drops third strike, fielder's choice, and being designated as a pinch-runner.

11. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh . lettuce.

12. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with "s" . . . shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

The Perks of Being Over 60

01. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to manageable size.

02. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

03. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

04. People call at 9 PM and ask, "Did I wake you?"

05. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

06. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

07. Things you buy now won't wear out.

08. You can eat dinner at 4 P.M.

09. You can live without sex but not without glasses.

10. You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.

11. You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

12. You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it.

13. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

14. You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.

15. You sing along with elevator music.

16. Your eyes won't get much worse.

17. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

18. You can't remember who sent you this list.