,hl=en,siteUrl='http://0ldfox.blogspot.com/',authuser=0,security_token="v_SeT2Tv8vVdKRCcG9CCW-ZdIfQ:1429878696275"/> Old Fox KM Journal : November 2003

Friday, November 28, 2003




Shelley Howells: The secret life of tattooed and bellydancing librarians
28.11.2003
- COMMENT

Librarians rock. That reputation they have involving buns, sensible shoes and shushing people is merely a cunning ruse, developed over centuries, to conceal their real lives as radicals, subversives and providers of extreme helpfulness.

Combine librarians and the net, and in no time they will rule the world.

One example of the potentially powerful web/librarian combo is that Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation might not have been released without big rewrites that the publishers were insisting on in the post-September 11 environment. But a quiet, vitriolic online campaign by librarians apparently forced the publishers the reassess the situation.

Librarians, Moore writes in the book's introduction, are "one terrorist group you don't want to mess with".

He also praises them in a Salon article: "Librarians see themselves as the guardians of the First Amendment. You've got a thousand Mother Joneses at the barricades! I love the librarians, and I am grateful for them."

Absolutely. Not only do they fast-track information searches that would take a civilian many hours, but I've seen them provide Panadol and Band-aids, too.

I've seen kids turn up at library counters empty-handed and facing major homework assignments - and leave with completed work after lots of librarian help, from paper and pens to books, websites and good ideas.

Recently, I've been investigating their secret lives online.

The Bellydancing Librarian spends her days info-seeking but at night, she writes, "our gal trades her Birkenstocks for beads and serves her adoring public's entertainment needs with the music and dance of the Middle East."

Lurking beneath the cardies of the many Modified Librarians are tattoos and piercings galore.

The site provides "a forum for the discussion of body modification in the context of librarianship", and lots of photos and "rants", including one by an expat kiwi.

There are naked librarians, a page created by someone with a fascination for "the juxtaposition of scant clothing and reading material", and anarchist librarians: "The revolution will be catalogued."

The Lipstick Librarian is for the glamorous librarians among us with "the ability to look fabulous while poking around a dot-matrix printer with a bent paperclip". Complete with handy - occasionally dangerous - beauty tips. The web log, or diary, of a library fashionista is a good'un.

Other good librarian web logs (dry humour and useful info-links) include the Laughing Librarian and New Zealand's own Valis (Vast Active Library and Information Science) blog by Simon Chamberlain - "Powered by Prozac, despair, rage and genius. Oh, and lots of coffee."

The Library Weblog has a good collection of other LibBlog links.

The Ska Librarian is a grumpy, gay New York modified music librarian and the Warrior Librarian Weekly calls itself the'zine for librarians who defy classification, and has links to much library humour.

Conan the Librarian reveals some of the bizarre questions he has been asked to find answers for, like How do you milk a cow? What do you call fear of the number 13? What do you call someone who dresses the hair of the dead? What is the magnetic declination of Maracaibo, Venezuela? Did Adolf Hitler wear his pants stuffed into his boots?

Just a taste of the challenges faced fearlessly by librarians everywhere.

A quick click through these websites proves that librarians are a mixed - often funny, sometimes scary - bunch. What they have in common is a passion for information, and the know-how to sort and find it.

Some people say that with screeds of information available on the net, we have less need for librarians. Fact is, we need them more than ever to help us sift through that mountain.

* Email Shelley Howells

Copyright 2003, NZ Herald

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Computer Stupidities: "The following is a large collection of stories and anecdotes about clueless computer users. It's a baffling phenomenon that in today's society an individual, who might in other circumstances be considered smart and wise, can sit down in front of a computer screen and instantly lose every last shred of common sense he ever possessed. Complicate this phenomenon with a case of 'computerphobia,' and you end up with tech support personnel having phone conversations that are funny in retrospect but seem like perfectly valid motives for wild machine gun shooting sprees at the time. You will read stories in this file that will convince you that among the human race are human-shaped artichokes futilely attempting to break the highly regarded social convention that vegetables should not operate electronic equipment. And yet, amidst the vast, surging quantities of stupidity are perfectly excusable technological mishaps -- but that are amusing nonetheless. After all, even the best of us engages in a little brainless folly every once in a while."

Saturday, November 15, 2003

A good quote for librarians.
“Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.” –Clarence Day
Income layers.
Tip# 91

Expertise
Part Two
by D. R. Barton, Jr.

Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.
--Clarence Day, The Crow's Nest

In last week's tip, we discussed the importance of developing expertise as an essential part of the trading well over the long term. The expertise that I mean here is the kind learned by "time at task." This could be an expertise in the application of a certain class of technical indicators, of a price movement discipline like Market Profile or in classical "tape reading".

Two questions spring to mind. The first is this: "Can I succeed with just a good understanding of one or more of these areas?" This question is never even considered in any other field of endeavor, either professional or recreational. No one would consider trying to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or accountant in a month or two. And while you can develop enough skill in a few months to enjoy participating in golf or tennis or playing the guitar or piano, you will by no means be proficient at any of them when just starting out. You don't need to be the Tiger Woods or Mark Knopfler of trading to be successful. But if you want to play golf well, you have to hit buckets of balls on the practice range. If you want to play the guitar beautifully, you have to strum some chords when no one is listening. And if you want to trade well, you need to develop a level of expertise in your chosen market and trading style.

Now for the second question: "Does this mean that a beginner has no chance in the markets?" The answer is both "yes" and "no". The average undercapitalized beginner with no expertise has about a three percent to 20 percent chance of making long-term money in the markets, depending on which studies you believe. BUT, a new trader who is properly capitalized and follows some simple rules including finding or developing a positive expectancy system, controlling risk exposure and managing their trading psychology can put themselves on the path where they manage their initial "marketplace tuition" (also known as draw downs) and move toward trading success.
A Quick Tour of opensecrets.org
Feeling overwhelmed? We can empathize. Campaign finance is a complicated subject, and can be confusing to the uninitiated.

So if you're new to the site, or new to the subject matter, allow us to suggest a few ways to approach opensecrets.org. This virtual tour will help give you an idea of the kinds of information available:

Friday, November 14, 2003

POLL POSITION

Bogus Poll Statistics


By Allan Rivlin
NationalJournal.com
Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003

The past few weeks have given us several good examples of survey results becoming part of the collective political wisdom because they support one side's ideological beliefs -- despite failing to meet the standard of being well-reasoned conclusions from statistically valid surveys.

Perhaps you have read that recent polls have found:

-The Fox News Channel misinforms its viewers, causing them to flunk a test that gets aced by people who turn to public TV or radio for their news.

-Morale is so low among the ground forces in Iraq that as many as half of the troops say they do not expect to re-enlist.

-Iraqis want the United States to stay in their country until an American-style democracy is established.

All of these may be true, but none are proper interpretations of rigorous survey research.
Really they are just three new examples that demonstrate the proven academic theory that people tend to evaluate survey results based on whether they agree with the conclusion first, without ever really asking if the data in fact come from a valid survey. People hold onto poll statistics that support their positions regardless of the quality of the underlying research, or in one case, whether the underlying research actually supports the opposite conclusion.

Fair And Biased?
Left-leaners would love to have proof that the Fox News Channel isn't "fair and balanced," but instead just plain inferior. So naturally, they were interested in the findings from a study that showed people who primarily watch Fox News are significantly more likely to have misperceptions than people who watch other networks -- especially PBS and NPR, whose viewers and listeners held the fewest misperceptions.

The finding comes from a new analysis of a series of surveys administered over the Internet throughout 2003 by Knowledge Networks for the Program on International Policy at the University of Maryland. The report and press release are fairly careful in how they describe the findings, but the further you follow the thread on left-leaning blogs, the more unfair the assertions become.

One typical headline: "It's proven: Fox News Makes You Dumb!" It is safe to guess that the person who wrote that was a little skeptical about the Fox News Channel even before reading the PIPA study.

But there are several reasons why the bloggers should be cautious about throwing these findings in Brit Hume's face.

-The fact that this is an Internet poll does not turn out to be the greatest cause for caution. Knowledge Networks builds its panel using random-digit telephone recruiting, and gives respondents the equipment to access the surveys, answering most of the concerns about Internet surveys.

-However, there is no clear way to know how many of the viewers who say they rely on Fox News ever watch the 24-hour cable network as opposed to watching the local news on their Fox affiliate. They just said they rely on Fox News instead of CBS, ABC, NPR, PBS and NBC (MSNBC, local news, the "Today Show"? We don't know.).

-With just 3 percent (fewer than 50 people) saying they rely on PBS or NPR, we can forget reliable proof of our, er, their superiority.
But the biggest problem is that the survey finds the political right was wrong about what the left considers to be the war's most important facts, and conservatives are more likely to watch Fox News. All of the "misperceptions" they track are correlated with political ideology, with support of the president on the "wrong" side.

It is possible that PBS viewers are less well-informed than the FNC crowd when it comes to facts about Saddam Hussein's torture practices. But if you believe Saddam had ties to al-Qaida, that the United States found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or that world public opinion backed U.S. action, you must be stupid or watching the wrong nightly news.

A secondary finding from this study about news sources caused it to get more attention than its primary findings about misperceptions and the correlation to support for the war. This is because some people are hungry for rigorous proof that FNC is unfair and unbalanced, but this is not that study.

Stars, Bars And Pie Charts
So you're reading the Washington Post and for the first time you can remember, it is giving you the results of a survey conducted by Stars and Stripes. First you read that "half those questioned describe their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist."

It is not until the middle of the third paragraph that you are told the results were not obtained through scientific methods. I am sure you stopped reading the article right away. In truth, if you had stopped you would have missed something of value. A bad survey can nonetheless be very good reporting.

Typically reporters talk to a handful of people to write a story. Stars and Stripes sent three teams of reporters who talked to large numbers of troops and passed out thousands of questionnaires. Nearly 2,000 were returned.

A lede paragraph that was faithful to the facts might have read something like: "Stars and Stripes reporters talked to nearly 1,000 service men and women in Iraq who described their morale as low and their training as inadequate. They also talked to similar numbers who said their training was strong and their morale high..."

Because this is not a scientific poll, the results cannot be projected onto the population, so it is inappropriate to report percentages. It is entirely possible that disgruntled soldiers are more likely to take a questionnaire and return it. Even if we have no basis to say they are in the majority, the sheer numbers of unhappy GIs the reporters met is certainly news that was worth reporting. But...

Cheney's Use Of Zogby Poll Disputed By Zogby
It is one thing to overdraw a survey's conclusions. It is something else to attempt to draw the opposite conclusions than the data suggest. That's what John Zogby says Vice President Dick Cheney has been doing with Zogby's poll of Iraqis.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sept. 14, Cheney said the Zogby International poll had "very positive news in it." He said that given five choices for a government to emulate, "the United States wins hands down." And that "asked how long they want the Americans to stay, over 60 percent say for at least a year."

The pollster had a quite different interpretation of his poll. "It is very difficult to find any good news for the United States in the poll," Zogby said this week, and he started to list the findings Cheney either failed to mention, glossed over or got wrong:

-By a 50 percent to 36 percent margin, Iraqis say the United States will hurt rather than help Iraq over the next five years. Majorities say the Saudis and the United Nations will help.

-By 51 percent to 39 percent, the Iraqis surveyed rejected the statement, "Democracy can work in Iraq," in favor of the statement, "Democracy is a Western way of doing things that will not work here."

-Given a choice of five countries for Iraq to model its government on, 23 percent chose the United States, 17 percent chose Saudi Arabia, followed by Syria (12 percent), Egypt (7 percent) and Iran (3 percent).

Zogby does not agree with Cheney's interpretation of 23 percent saying they think Iraq should emulate the United States. "When the vice president said on 'Meet the Press' 'they chose the United States hands down,' uh-uh." Zogby said. "No, they didn't choose the United States hands down."

Zogby also disputes Cheney's statement that the survey shows more than 60 percent want the United States to stay for at least a year. Here is the poll question and the results:

Given a choice would you like to see the American and British forces leave Iraq in six months (32 percent), one year (34 percent), or two years or more (25 percent). One could interpret these results as a broad mandate to stay one year or more, but it would be a mistaken interpretation.

And it would be hard to square that interpretation with the finding that only 32 percent say America and Britain should help make sure a fair government is set up in Iraq. Sixty percent say they should just let Iraqis work this out for themselves.

What all of these examples have in common is what psychologists call the theory of cognitive dissonance. We are all more welcoming of perceptions that fit our pre-existing views and critical of perceptions that do not. But this final example has consequences that are potentially even tragic.

Remember, President Bush has made it clear that he does not typically read the news but rather relies on advisers to provide him with an "unbiased" account. If this is an example of Cheney's critical reading skills, then America's path into this war becomes a little easier to understand.

Allan Rivlin, a NationalJournal.com contributing editor, is a senior vice president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates, a Democratic polling firm. His e-mail address is arivlin@nationaljournal.com.
HOW TO LOCATE CERTAIN MISTAKES IN CORPORATE SEC FILINGS
by Michael Ravnitzky , mikerav@mindspring.com

Corporate SEC filings frequently contain a shorthand signal or admission
that there was an error in the previous edition corporate document.

This signal is usually one of the following words:

inadvertent
inadvertently

or the misspelled versions

inadvertant (sic)
inadvertantly (sic)

By searching in any major compilation of SEC filings, such as Lexis or
Westlaw SEC filings database, or in 10K Wizard or Edgar or LiveEdgar, you
can locate examples of this phenomenon.

Certain companies exhibit regular and frequent examples of this signal;
others show it only infrequently.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

Greenberg Traurig has added Daniel Walsh to its lobbying team. Walsh joins the firm from Williams Mullen Strategies, where his clients included News Corp., the Interactive Gaming Council and Viacom. Previously, he served as legislative director for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.).
> Great news... "real-time" currentness of Supreme Court Petitions!
> SCT-PETITION is one of the hottest databases on Westlaw with an
> astounding 80% increase in traffic month over month in the last three
> months. Last week we made the content even hotter by loading new
> petitions to Westlaw within 5 days of filing at the U.S. Supreme Court
> (content was previously around 4 months behind filing).
> Benefits: Over 8000 petitions for certiorari are written and filed per
> year, and there is an entire industry of litigants who see the
> "petition-stage" as the first opportunity to influence the Court's
> direction on a particular case. Westlaw offers two main benefits:
> 1) provides a repository of searchable and integrated petitions for review
> and analysis;
> 2) provides nearly real-time notice of new petitions filed.
> Contents: SCT-PETITION contains petitions for writs of certiorari to the
> U.S. Supreme Court and related documents, such as briefs in opposition and
> support of the petitions and amicus briefs. Coverage begins with 1990.
>
Information Today
Cover Story
Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services
by Darlene Fichter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Librarians have had to learn how to do a lot with just a little in order to promote awareness of their programs and services. They have seized the opportunities to market libraries in the real world via traditional media: newspapers, corporate newsletters, radio, and TV. Many libraries produce brochures, pathfinders, and their own newsletters. So it is no surprise to see librarians stepping up to the plate and spreading the word online with blogs. Savvy librarians have identified blogs as another means to market libraries and their services.
Exactly What Is a Blog, Anyway?

If "blog" is a term that's new to you, don't be concerned. You've probably encountered lots of blogs while using the Web for work or recreation. In fact, blogs existed long before the term was coined. NCSA's What's New1 page from back in June 1993 is credited as being one of the earliest blogs. In the library sphere, Jenny Levine's Librarians' Site du Jour2 is considered the original library blog. ...

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Upbeat and Downstairs - Jack in the Box French Fries: "Jack in the Box French Fries
Here's Jack (Nicholson) in his finest performance ever. I can't quite figure out how to embed a Windows Media file in a Web page, so this link will have to suffice.
Jack in the Box Windows Media Player file"

Saturday, November 08, 2003


Germans elect Dracula to council
From AFP
October 28, 2003
Voters in a district southeast of Berlin chose a self-proclaimed descendant of Count Dracula Sunday to represent them in a local council, election officials said Monday.

Ottomar Berbig, known as Ottomar Rodolphe Vlad Dracula Prince Kretzulesco, won 726 votes in the Dahme-Spreewald local elections, standing for the liberal Free Democrats. His name appeared as Vlad Dracula Kretzulesco on the ballot.

Kretzulesco is not a blood relative of the infamous fictional Romanian noble but was adopted by a direct descendant of Transylvania-born Vlad the Impaler in 1987.

Vlad was notorious for impaling Turkish prisoners on wooden stakes and was the inspiration for author Bram Stoker's villain Count Dracula.
...
Score one for the good guys:
The Australian: 'Nigerian fraudster' syndicate smashed [October 31, 2003]: "
'Nigerian fraudster' syndicate smashed
By Ian Gerard
October 31, 2003
It starts with a request for $2000 and the promise of untold wealth, but for many gullible victims it ends with the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In what is thought to be a world first, NSW police have cracked what they allege was a multi-million-dollar international 'Nigerian fraud' syndicate operating out of Sydney. Officers seized nine houses in two countries, five cars, several bank accounts and arrested a 39-year-old man suspected of tricking hundreds of people from Australia and overseas out of millions.
The commander of the NSW police Assets Confiscation Unit, Jennifer Thommeny, said the alleged scam was no different to 'Nigerian' emails, which have been circulated for years. "
LawForKids.org LawToons: "Kirk and Marco are at school. Marco decides to phone in a fake threat against the school just to get out of a test. WHile the students are evacuating the school, the principal finds a knife in Kirk's backpack. Both Kirk and Marco face very harsh penalties for their crimes at school. Did you know that crimes at school carry increased penalties? Read more on LawForKids.org about school offenses and your rights at school..."
Milk High Cross-Dressers Busted In Robberies

Nov 7, 2003 1:30 pm US/Eastern
(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) Five students at Harvey Milk High School were arrested on charges that they dressed up as female prostitutes and then impersonated undercover police officers to rob men in Greenwich Village, authorities said.

The five suspects, Gerald "Kimberly" Howard, Kevin "Keva" Williams, Brian "Whoopi" Gonzalez, Keenan "Chanel" Oliver and Kelvin "Keesha" Howell all attend the special school for gay, lesbian and transgendered students.

Police said the teenagers are implicated in six robberies between Oct. 5 and Nov. 6. They are accused of handcuffing men and taking their wallets, stealing amounts ranging from $85 to $1,200, police said.

In at least one case, the teenagers produced a "police-like badge" before robbing a 33-year-old man, police said.

The five were arrested on Thursday after plainclothes officers with a description of the suspects in the string of robberies saw one of the teenagers and took him into custody.

Police said they were charging the teenagers with robbery and criminal impersonation. An investigation was continuing, said Detective Carolyn Chew, a police spokeswoman.

(© MMIII Infinity Broadcasting Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
I've already checked out the following on www.snopes.com --- they have it
listed as true. If you want to see it for yourself, go to www.snopes.com
and put "Will Ross" (including the quotation marks) on the search line.

******************************************************

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope that you will spare me a few minutes of your time to tell you about
something that I saw on Monday, October 27.

I had been attending a conference in Annapolis and was coming home on
Sunday. As you may recall, Los Angeles International Airport was closed on
Sunday, October 26, because of the fires that affected air traffic control.
Accordingly, my flight, and many others, were canceled and I wound up
spending a night in Baltimore.

My story begins the next day. When I went to check in at the United counter
Monday morning I saw a lot of soldiers home from Iraq. Most were very young
and all had on their desert camouflage uniforms. This was as change from
earlier, when they had to buy civilian clothes in Kuwait to fly home. It was
a visible reminder that we are in a war. It probably was pretty close to
what train terminals were like in World War II.

Many people were stopping the troops to talk to them, asking them questions
in the Starbucks line or just saying "Welcome Home." In addition to all the
flights that had been canceled on Sunday, the weather was terrible in
Baltimore and the flights were backed up. So, there were a lot of unhappy
people in the terminal trying to get home, but nobody that I saw gave the
soldiers a bad time.

By the afternoon, one plane to Denver had been delayed several hours. United
personnel kept asking for volunteers to give up their seats and take another
flight. They weren't getting many takers. Finally, a United spokeswoman got
on the PA and said this, "Folks. As you can see, there are a lot of soldiers
in the waiting area. They only have 14 days of leave and we're trying to get
them where they need to go without spending any more time in an airport then
they have to. We sold them all tickets, knowing we would oversell the
flight. If we can, we want to get them all on this flight. We want all the
soldiers to know that we respect what you're doing, we are here for you and
we love you."

At that, the entire terminal of cranky, tired, travel-weary people, a
cross-section of America, broke into sustained and heart-felt applause. The
soldiers looked surprised and very modest. Most of them just looked at their
boots. Many of us were wiping away tears.

And, yes, people lined up to take the later flight and all the soldiers went
to Denver on that flight.

That little moment made me proud to be an American, and also told me why we
will win this war.

If you want to send my little story on to your friends and family, feel
free. This is not some urban legend. I was there, I was part of it, I saw it
happen.

Will Ross
Administrative Judge
United States Department of Defense

**********************************************
From the Washington Times, November 5th. Please forward this and also send
an email expressing your opinion, whatever that may be, to
president@whitehouse.gov

With the clock ticking toward a scheduled Nov. 10 investigative hearing
for Lt. Col. Allen B. West - on charges of mistreating an Iraqi prisoner in
a successful effort to thwart a guerrilla attack on U.S. troops - it's time
for the military to rethink the ill-considered decision to go forward with
his prosecution.

Col. West said last week that his soldiers faced almost daily attacks as
they worked to impose security near Tikrit, a stronghold of Saddam Hussein
supporters. In August, an informant told soldiers in Col. West's unit that
there was an assassination plot against him and that one of the plotters was
an Iraqi policeman. The policeman was brought in for questioning. Initially,
he failed to provide any information.

That changed after Col. West entered the picture. He took the detainee
outside and fired a 9 mm pistol twice to scare him into talking. The
prisoner then provided the names of two accomplices and told of another
sniper attack planned for the following day. Col. West admits that he made a
mistake by discharging his weapon during an interrogation session. But he
emphasizes that, following the interrogation, there were no more attacks
from that town. In short, his actions very likely saved the lives of many
American soldiers.

Col. West was relieved of his battalion command, effectively ending his
military career. Then a military prosecutor offered him an ultimatum: Resign
immediately and forfeit retirement benefits, or face criminal proceedings
that could lead to a trial and prison term.
Were he to have quit the military before last Saturday, when he became
eligible to retire, Col. West would have lost more than $1 million in pay
and health benefits over his life expectancy. His wife is a cancer survivor,
something which would have made the cost of obtaining medical insurance
prohibitive.
The rules of engagement are proper in times of warfare. But there's also
an important place for prosecutorial discretion in dealing with certain
actions that occur in the heat of combat. Anyone who has talked to their
father or grandfather about service in World War II or World War I at some
length realizes that these conflicts were not waged with strict adherence to
the Marquis of Queensbury rules. It's wrong to send men like Col. West into
battle in a violent place like Iraq, then destroy their lives and humiliate
them for taking action to protect their men. The charges against Col. West
should be dropped, and he should be honorably discharged with full pay and
benefits.
The "Titanic Video" and The "Clinton Video"

Alas, which one to buy???

TITANIC VIDEO: $9.99 on Internet
CLINTON VIDEO: $9.99 on Internet

TITANIC VIDEO: Over 3 hours long
CLINTON VIDEO: Over 3 hours long

TITANIC VIDEO: The story of Jack and Rose, their forbidden love and subsequent catastrophe
CLINTON VIDEO: The story of Bill and Monica, their forbidden love, and subsequent catastrophe

TITANIC VIDEO: Jack is a starving artist
CLINTON VIDEO: Bill is a bullshit artist

TITANIC VIDEO: In one scene, Jack enjoys a good cigar
CLINTON VIDEO: Ditto for Bill

TITANIC VIDEO: During ordeal, Rose's dress gets ruined
CLINTON VIDEO: Ditto for Monica

TITANIC VIDEO: Jack teaches Rose to spit
CLINTON VIDEO: Let's not go there

TITANIC VIDEO: Rose gets to keep her jewelry
CLINTON VIDEO: Monica's forced to return her gifts

TITANIC VIDEO: Rose remembers Jack for the rest of her life
CLINTON VIDEO: Clinton doesn't remember Jack

TITANIC VIDEO: Rose goes down on a vessel full of seamen
CLINTON VIDEO: Monica...uh, never mind

TITANIC VIDEO: Jack surrenders to an icy death
CLINTON VIDEO: Bill goes home to Hillary ... basically the same thing.
|
This album is terrific. The new sound is electro, r&b, dance all rolled
into one. Standout tracks are Still Standing, Secret, Promises, Chocolate -
and a nod to all you IP junkies are the tracks Loving Days and Slo Motion.
Check out the music for yourself at www.kyliebodylanguage.com - full
versions of each song are now online.
Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 1:30 p.m. EST
Ashtrays – the New Contraband

Getting caught with an unregistered gun can get you busted in New York City - and so can possession of a new form of contraband.

Brooklyn video store owner Marty Arno learned that lesson the hard way - he's facing a whopping $6,000 in fines after two of Mayor Bloomberg's anti-smoking goon squad storm troopers caught him harboring one of these deadly items.

Today's New York Post reveals that city inspectors M. Dundas and S. Holloway gave Arno, owner of Brooklyn Heights Video, a ticket last month charging that they had uncovered not explosives, not guns, not knives, but "One (1) ashtray with cigarette butt, and ashes," which was "seen on the counter of the establishment."

For this criminal offense Arno faces a hefty $2,000 fine plus two other similar fines because the -inspectors discovered he did not have "No Smoking" signs and had not put up a sign displaying his store's official nonsmoking policy.

All of these crimes violate the city's politically correct Smoke-Free Air Act, a brainchild of New York's Mayor Bloomberg.

Said a perplexed Arno: "I'm a tiny video store - it's just me and a girl who comes in part-time," he said. "She knows smoking policy: We don't smoke in the store - it's bad for the videos." He explained to the Post that the illegal ashtray is a case of mistaken identity.

"What happened was that a customer came into the store with a cigarette and rather than make her go all the way back outside, I just let her snuff it out in the ashtray," he told the Post.

"How can they take an inanimate object and make it illegal?" he asked. "During Prohibition, alcohol was illegal, but they didn't make the shot glasses illegal. Does anyone even know that this is the law?"

It is the law, said Health Department spokesman Andrew Tucker, who told the Post that the city outlawed ashtrays so that "there is not an invitation to smoke in the establishment."

The law provides that ashtrays "shall not be used or provided for use" and that "No Smoking" signs must be "conspicuously posted so that they are clearly visible." Moreover, "every employer shall establish and/or update a written smoking policy."

And they're serious about enforcing this law, as Arno is learning. The inspectors now have him in their sights. He told the Post that since receiving his initial summonses, the same inspectors have come around snooping twice. Both times, Arno notes, he was in compliance.

"The guy was crawling under the counter looking for the damn ashtray," Arno said. "I said, 'Do you think I'm such a schmuck that I'd leave it out again?'"
covercovercovercovercover
Mayflower 1620 : A New Look at a Pilgrim Voyage
1000 Years for Revenge: International Terrorism and the FBI--the Untold Story
The Man Who Warned America: The Life and Death of John O'Neill, the FBI's Embattled Counterterror Warrior
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
Off with Their Heads : Traitors, Crooks & Obstructionists in American Politics, Media & Business
http://govsolutions.monster.com/

FPDS Contractor Search Shows contacts by vendor for 2002. Still looking for a site that show older and newer contracts.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003



EIU Business Forum


03 Nov 2003

CFO: Flood of corporate data overwhelms business managers
Key points:

- Despite—or perhaps partly because of—a sizable drop in the cost of storing and retrieving information, many corporations are in danger of being swamped by information

-Experts estimate that anywhere from 10% to 30% of the data flowing through corporate systems are bad—inaccurate, inconsistent, formatted incorrectly, entered in the wrong field, out of a value range and so on

-To clean up the problem, some companies have turned to what's known as ETL (extract, transform and load) software

-With Sarbox approaching, finance managers will likely be fielding tough questions about data—particularly from audit committees

A flood of corporate data, intensified by Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, threatens to overwhelm business managers, says CFO

Recently, a major technology vendor sent out questionnaires to senior business managers about data and decision-making. A number of them came back with additional comments, most of them variations on a theme: "Data are buried in a sea of noise." "Swamped in information." "I'm drowning." Despite—or perhaps partly because of—a sizable drop in the cost of storing and retrieving information, many corporations are in danger of being swamped by information. Software applications from ERP to CRM to SCM may generate great efficiencies, but they also generate great floods of data. So great, in fact, that nowadays CIOs speak of petabytes (quadrillions of bytes) of storage rather than mere terabytes (trillions), a trend that must surely worry the branding heads at Dayton-based Teradata, a subsidiary of NCR Corp. But not just the sales heads: in a survey released by the technology company in September, more than half of 158 corporate executives said their businesses have two or three times the amount of information available to them as they had last year.

What's more, a lot of these data are useless, or worse. Experts estimate that anywhere from 10% to 30% of the data flowing through corporate systems are bad—inaccurate, inconsistent, formatted incorrectly, entered in the wrong field, out of a value range and so on. In its most recent study of corporate data integrity, the Seattle-based Data Warehousing Institute found that nearly half the surveyed companies had suffered "losses, problems or costs" due to poor data. The estimated cost of the mistakes? More than US$600bn.
. . .

Monday, November 03, 2003

http://wires.news.com.au/special/mm/030811-hubble.htm
Supreme Court Discussion - Powered by Infopop: "The source for discussions of all aspects of the Supreme Court: the cases, the Justices, retirements, and Supreme Court litigation.

Goldstein & Howe, P.C. Supreme Court Discussion "

Sunday, November 02, 2003

Recruiters, a Taxonomy: "A Taxonomy of Recruiters

Harmful/Nusiance recruiter Species:



Burgerflippingmajorus:
This particular creature can be recognized by its total lack of knowledge in both the technical material they are representing, the fact that they haven't read your resume, and their exceptionally brilliant conversation. They are fond of using 'On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate yourself in each of the following areas.' They can't read, since many of them will ask you to do jobs you have no experience in, even though you have sent them your resume. They are typically from 24-36 years of age, either studied: Physical Education, Sociology, English Lit, or Psychology, and are tired for working for $4.25/hr at McDonalds. Being a recruiter is what can be called the 'later' pupal stage of this creature. Adult specimens are sometimes found on used car lots, trying to sell old Pintos. "
. . . more
The Complete Idiot's Guide to The Kylie Hub: "This guide assumes that you run some version of windows. If you are on a Mac OS, try the clients available at NeoModus site. For Linux clients, look here (middle of the page). I am not to be held responsible for any damage you may cause your computer by following this guide.
If you already know what Direct Connect is, here's the hub address: kyliehub.mine.nu:4012"

Saturday, November 01, 2003

NoodleTools - Smart Tools, Smart Research: "Smart Tools. Smart Research.
NoodleTools is a suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and professionals with their online research. From selecting a search engine and finding some relevant sources, to citing those sources in MLA or APA style, NoodleTools makes online research easier! "
I don't know if Google is God,
but Google is certainly one of the very best way to comminicate with God.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=269669
Kylie's love notes
KYLIE MINOGUE sings a slushy love song she wrote about French lover OLIVIER MARTINEZ on her new album.


The track, called Loving Days, tells how she has fallen head over heels for the handsome Hollywood actor.

The Aussie singer’s lyrics also reveal she treasures time they spend together — often cut short by their hectic work schedules.

It is clear Kylie’s new album — Body Language — is a very personal affair. She uses another track called Someday to blast her love rat ex-boyfriend JAMES GOODING.

The lyrics tell how she was “used and abused” by him when he cheated on her and then told all about their relationship.

But it is the fact that she has opened her heart about Olivier that will surprise fans.

The opening line in Loving Days says: “I have fallen all the way/ Happily there’s no escape/ Surrender to your heart.”

The chorus gets across her deep feelings for Olivier — and how she wishes they could spend more time together.

She sings: “Precious time with you doesn’t end the blues/ We are running all the way/ These are loving days, loving days, with you.” Kylie and Olivier, who is dubbed the French BRAD PITT, have been dating since March after meeting in LA.

At first they appeared inseparable during a string of romantic holidays. But they have been forced to spend a lot of time apart because of their heavy workloads.

But being with Olivier has clearly had an effect on the singer who has chosen not to talk about him publicly.

She learnt the hard way about the benefits of privacy after James spilled the beans on their two-and-a-half-year affair.

And she lets him know exactly what she thinks of him in Someday.

She sings: “Life goes on. You have abused and used me, now I’m going home.

“I want my records back/ To get my heart on track/ You think I can’t be alone/ Well, this woman is here to show you all.”

James showed his true colours when he admitted he had slept with MARTINE McCUTCHEON and SOPHIE DAHL while he was still dating Kylie.

Kylie, whose album is out on November 17, certainly seems to know how to get her own back.

Her single, Slow, is out next Monday.