Blogging:Welcome

Welcome to the Blogging 101 Wikibook. This book (which anybody can edit) is a collection of resources about blogs and blogging. It is divided into several categories. Please add whatever links you think would be useful to people under the appropriate headings. (Off-topic & inappropriate material will of course be edited out.)

101

Dumbing Downe

One would say, just because it is the BBC doesn't mean it isn't as silly as American TV.

We have a history program discussing the 1644 conflict with the King's Royalists and Oliver Cromwell with a loverly sweeping aerial shot of the Clock Tower (Big Ben) representing Cromwell's Parliamentarian forces.

Nevermind that Big Ben was built in 1858.

It's kind of like using the Eiffel Tower to symbolize Napolean or Lincoln Center for the US Civil War.

I Kid You Not

Click picture to see the full size


Early European Vampire Killing Kit VERY UNUSUAL!!!!!

Item # 1102093762 . This is a catalog item.

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Top: Antiques: Antiquities:

Description

Bid Currently 2,100.00 USD First Bid 1,600.00 USD

Quantity 1 # of Bids 4 (bid history)

Time Left 10 days, 21 hours + Location CLT
Warehouse Location GR-SHELF-1

Started 12/02/04 00:00:00 Country USA

Ends 03/10/2005 10:20:00 PM EST (mail this auction to a friend)

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Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item. You should contact the seller to resolve any questions before bidding. Currency is USD (U.S. Dollar) unless otherwise noted.

Description
This case and contents are very typically early European in style and age. A vampire-slaying kit complete with a wooden stake and 10 silver bullets sold for US$12,000 at Sotheby's last year. These types of kits have been assembled since the early 1800’s and sold to tourists who were traveling in little known countries of Eastern Europe. We date this particular kit to the mid 1850’s and believe it to be all original. This kit is infinitely more detailed and has many more contents offered than the kit sold at Sotheby’s. There is a case within a case which locks and has the key. This smaller box has three crucifixes with rosaries in it of various sizes. There is a hand mirror with a stained cross on the back side. There is also a pair of mallets with two different weights to them. The kit contains two very early Bibles one of which is German and the other is in English. There are six hand planed stakes, a bone saw, two crucifixes, one smaller mirror and a cased percussion pistol with five solid silver bullets. The pistol appears to be Belgian and has a carved cross on one side of the grip and “Free the Soul” carved on the right side. There is also a powder horn, plunger and a bone caped percussion tin in the cased gun box. The entire case is leather wrapped and has a working lock and key. There is also a cross on the top of the kit for easy identification in an emergency. This is probably the most unusual piece of history we have ever offered. Don’t Miss Out.

High estimate: 15000
Low estimate: 3000
Condition: Excellent-


Bidding
Early European Vampire Killing Kit VERY UNUSUAL!!!!! (Item #1102093762)

Current Bid 2,100.00 USD
Bid Increment 105.00 USD
Minimum Bid 2,205.00 USD

Vampire slaying kit

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Joslin Diabetes Center Scientists Discover ‘Master Switch’ that Triggers Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes
Salicylate Blocks the Inflammatory Cascade

January 30, 2005 - Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered why excess weight leads to low-grade inflammation, which hampers the body’s ability to use insulin. They found that the “master switch” of this inflammation is activated in the liver by weight gain. And they showed it can be turned off by salicylates, a class of drugs that includes aspirin.

The Joslin study, published in the February edition of Nature Medicine, is a major milestone in understanding why being overweight can lead to a host of health problems, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. An estimated 18 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, including an increasing number of young people. They are two to four times more likely to have cardiovascular disease.

“We zeroed in on a factor called NF-kB,” said principal investigator Steven E. Shoelson, M.D., Ph.D., Helen and Morton Adler Chair and head of the Section on Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Joslin, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medicine School. Other researchers included Dongsheng Cai, M.D., Ph.D., Minsheng Yuan, Daniel F. Frantz, Peter A. Melendez, Lone Hansen and Jongsoon Lee. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

“When we activated this factor in the liver of laboratory animals, it stimulated a cascade of inflammatory responses,” said Dr. Shoelson. “The result was dramatic — including insulin resistance consistent with type 2 diabetes.

“We previously knew that in obesity, the liver becomes fatty and that it accumulates fat faster than other organs and tissues,” Dr. Shoelson continued. “But until now, we didn’t know fat in the liver could orchestrate the entire inflammatory process that results in insulin resistance, both locally and throughout the body.”

The researchers were inspired by previous clinical studies of human patients at Joslin, driving them to seek answers in the laboratory. Those studies had shown that overweight people who have insulin resistance had slightly higher activity levels of NF-kB and other substances normally found in inflammation. Intrigued that fatty tissue may activate a small but measurable level of inflammation, they set out to discover the cellular pathway.

They focused on healthy lean mice — with no weight problems predisposing them to type 2 diabetes. Using genetic techniques, the research team turned on the gene that expresses NF-kB. They then measured the insulin levels in the bloodstream; if higher than normal, it’s a telltale sign of insulin resistance because the body is not using the available insulin. They also measured blood glucose levels to see if they were higher, consistent with diabetes. And they looked for substances produced along the inflammation pathway.

“Unlike in an acute infection, when NF-kB levels shoot up about 50-fold, the inflammation seen in these mice just simmered — only about 3-fold,” said Dr. Shoelson. “But their insulin levels and blood glucose levels were high, what we’d expect in type 2 diabetes. In effect, we had induced diabetes by turning on low-grade inflammation.” Among the markers in the cascade was C-reactive protein, now the focus of considerable interest in cardiovascular research.

The Joslin researchers also found that the NF-kB ”master switch” could be inhibited by the salicylate family of drugs. “These drugs — among the safest drugs known — can do a surprisingly good job of toning down this inflammation,” said Dr. Shoelson.

“But more studies need to be done before we can make recommendations to patients,” he cautions. “For now, the best advice for preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes is to shed those extra pounds, eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly.”

About Joslin Diabetes Center

Joslin Diabetes Center, dedicated to conquering diabetes in all of its forms, is the global leader in diabetes research, care and education. Founded in 1898, Joslin is affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Joslin research is a team of over 300 people at the forefront of discovery aimed at preventing and curing diabetes. Joslin Clinic, affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the nationwide network of Joslin Affiliated Programs, and the hundreds of Joslin educational programs offered each year for clinicians, researchers and patients, enable Joslin to develop, implement and share innovations that immeasurably improve the lives of people with diabetes. As a nonprofit, Joslin benefits from the generosity of donors in advancing its mission. For more information on Joslin, call 1-800-JOSLIN-1 or visit www.joslin.org

Link to a photo of Dr. Shoelson




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Visual Thesaurus Online Edition: "Old Europe

Nearly all languages today have leaky borders: globalization has led to the phenomenon of words - whether for food items, technological developments, or business practices - slipping across borders and naturalizing themselves in another language.

A unique feature of English is that it has always had leaky borders. Unlike its contemporaries in other parts of the world, English has freely incorporated foreign words from the get-go. This largely accounts for the rich vocabulary of English, and the fact that multiple synonyms, often with subtle nuances of meaning, exist for nearly all common English words. The profligate borrowing habits of English also account for the fact that many English words that are related in meaning have roots in different languages - and that's a topic we'll explore this month. Our focus is Old Europe, and we don't mean the one that Donald Rumsfeld recently disparaged: we're going way back, to ancient Greece and Rome, and to the Germanic group of languages, where English finds its closest relatives. "

FatWallet - Forums, Free Coupons, Compare Prices, Cash Back and Shopping Reviews

Good one...

I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.
—Preface to Dictionary (1755)
Samuel Johnson

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

UK Content

Search Engine Optimized for UK Content
"Welcome to Seekport (beta), the new Internet search engine optimised to meet the needs of users in the UK. Proven technology and a British indexing team ensure high-quality searching with much less spam and far fewer hits from the US." [via URL Wire]


Permanent Link Topic(s): Legal Research, Search Engines

BeSpecific

ColabWiki: ExpeditionWorkshop/SemanticConflictMappingandEnablement MakingCommitmentsTogether 2005 02 22: "Collaborative Expedition Workshop #38, February 22, 2005 at NSF (8XT)

Semantic Conflict, Mapping, and Enablement: Making Commitments Together (8RO)

AGENDA (8RP)

Purpose/ Description (8XU)

How can Communities of Practice build the capacity needed for shared understanding and governance around new mission responsibilities for data stewardship and sharing? How can emerging standards-based protocols (RDF, OWL, Topic Maps) improve collaboration around problem-centered, intergovernmental scenarios? In the realm of semantic technologies, conflict and context is the crux of everything. In light of this reality what is the potential for creating Public Information Environments that Strengthen Citizen-Government Relationships? (2IOY)

The reason why semantic technologies exist at all is because of the unavoidable fact of semantic conflict. Software engineers cannot escape it; business leaders pay a hefty price because of it. The only way semantic conflict can be dealt with successfully is by fully understanding the context in which the conflict exists. In fact, context is crucial regardless of whether software engineers program a solution in a popular programming language or model the solution in a scalable data representation modeling language. So, whether Java is used or OWL is used, the engineer and analysts will always have to understand the business context that created a given data conflict. Source: Chapter 5. Semantic Conflict Solution Patterns in 'Adaptive Information ? Improving Business Through Semantic Interoperability, Grid Computing & Enterprise Integration,' Wiley-Interscience by Pollock and Hodgson. Also . . ."

AdWords Learning Center: "Lessons Catalog

Use Google's free training to sharpen your AdWords knowledge and prepare for the Google Advertising Professional Exam [?]. Comprised of concise multimedia lessons, our training program is self-paced to match your individual learning needs. Skip, pause, or end a lesson at any time. In addition, each lesson includes practice exercises and quizzes to ensure you master the concepts."

Blah, blah, blag, blog

PEGGY NOONAN

The Blogs Must Be Crazy

Or maybe the MSM is just suffering from freedom envy.

Thursday, February 17, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

"Salivating morons." "Scalp hunters." "Moon howlers." "Trophy hunters." "Sons of Sen. McCarthy." "Rabid." "Blogswarm." "These pseudo-journalist lynch mob people."

This is excellent invective. It must come from bloggers. But wait, it was the mainstream media and their maidservants in the elite journalism reviews, and they were talking about bloggers!

Those MSMers have gone wild, I tell you! The tendentious language, the low insults. It's the Wild Wild West out there. We may have to consider legislation.

...
OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan: "Someone is going to address the 'bloggers are untrained journalists' question by looking at exactly what 'training,' what education in the art/science/craft/profression of journalism, the reporters and editors of the MSM have had in the past 60 years or so. It has seemed to me the best of them never went to J-school but bumped into journalism along the way--walked into a radio station or newspaper one day and found their calling. Bloggers signify a welcome return to that old style. In journalism you learn by doing, which is what a lot of bloggers are doing."

OpinionJournal - Outside the Box

Socialism's Last Redoubt

Why do Dems oppose Social Security reform? Because they're committed to government control.

BY PETE DU PONT
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

In 1945 Clement Attlee led the British Labour Party to victory over Winston Churchill's Conservative Party. He then proceeded to socialize much of the British economy, for he believed that 'the creation of a society based on social justice . . . could only be attained by bringing under public ownership and control the main factors in the economic system.' Labour's goal was to get rid of the waste and irrationality that, in the socialist view, doomed market economies to failure.

Fast forward six decades, and you hear an Attlee echo--Sen. Hillary Clinton telling a California audience last summer that taxes must rise because 'We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.'

American socialist Noam Chomsky made the same argument concerning Social Security: that allowing people to invest in markets is a bad thing, for 'putting people in charge of their own assets breaks down the solidarity that comes from doing something together, and diminishes the sense that people have responsibility for each other.'

So the 2005 Social Security argument is an old and familiar one: government decisions versus individual ones, government control of assets versus individual ownership. In short, socialism versus individualism."
...

A New Blog

Pepys' Diary: "The Diary of Samuel Pepys"
THE DIARY OF SAMUEL PEPYS M.A. F.R.S.

CLERK OF THE ACTS AND SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY

TRANSCRIBED FROM THE SHORTHAND MANUSCRIPT IN THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY
MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE BY THE REV. MYNORS BRIGHT M.A. LATE FELLOW
AND PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE

(Unabridged)

WITH LORD BRAYBROOKE’S NOTES

EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY

HENRY B. WHEATLEY F.S.A.


LONDON
GEORGE BELL & SONS YORK ST. COVENT GARDEN
CAMBRIDGE DEIGHTON BELL & CO.
1893

Sabrina, the white witch

beSpacific: California ID Theft Case Now Has National Impact

Updates today on news earlier this week, Data Mining Aggregator Reports Widespread ID Theft, disclose that the scope of the ID theft scam may involve half a million individuals around the country, not just the 35,000 in California as initially reported.

Related resources:

[Nigerian!] Defendant In Major ID-Theft Case Found Guilty

Choicepoint Fraud Highlights Need for Stronger ID Theft Safeguards; 11 States Consider Security Freeze Right for Consumers - Two Others Consider Requiring Companies to Notify Customers About Security Breaches

From Consumers Union, a website listing 'state identity theft protection bills that give consumers the right to place a security freezes on their credit files.'

S. 115 - Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act: A bill to require Federal agencies, and persons engaged in interstate commerce, in possession of electronic data containing personal information, to disclose any unauthorized acquisition of such information. Sponsor: Sen Feinstein, Dianne [CA] (introduced 1/24/2005).

Permanent Link Topic(s): Cybercrime, ID Theft, Legislation

DHS Factsheet on Cybersecurity

From the Department of Homeland Security, Fact Sheet: Protecting America's Critical Infrastructure - Cyber Security: 'In February 2003, President George W. Bush issued the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace. Recognizing the increasing danger posed by cyber threats and the devastating disruption that could result because of the interdependent nature of information systems that support our nation's critical infrastructure, the Strategy provides a strategic framework to prevent cyber attacks against America's critical infrastructures; reduce national vulnerability to cyber attacks; and minimize the damage and recovery time from cyber attacks should they occur."

Permanent Link Topic(s): Cybercrime "

Richard Simmons on Whose Line: "Here's a list of sites for when you're feeling bored. Updated constantly, so check back whenever you're bored."

A Source is a Source, of Course, of Course: finale

Judith Miller, go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

How could anyone actually beleive that there was a First Amendment reporter's privilege? It's awfully obvious after you read this.

One judge points out exactly my point that without a government license, there is no class of persons that can be said to have a privilege that every other class of person doesn't have, specifically mentioning bloggers.

The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists is the 100th Livery Company of the City of London, bringing together the centuries old Livery tradition and information technology - the key industry of the new millennium.

Directory listing

THE LIVERY MOVEMENT

The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists is part of a Livery tradition dating back hundreds of years.

Livery Companies or guilds originated in this country before 1066 and were formed by groups of people involved in the same profession. They regulated competition, set professional standards and preserved knowledge and skills for future generations. They also cared for their members in times of hardships. Each Livery Company was based at its own Livery hall or headquarters.

The usual entry to a trade or craft was by apprenticeship. Craftsmen who served their apprenticeship were called Journeymen. Later craftsmen could become Freemen or Liverymen (full members of the company).

The term 'livery' refers to the distinctive badges or clothes which members wore to distinguish themselves.

Older Livery Companies include the Mercers (1394), Merchant Taylors (1327) and Grocers (1428). Newer arrivals include the Insurers (1979), Marketors (1977) and, of course, Information Technologists (1992).

Although ancient in origin, the Livery tradition - of shared values, shared purpose, high standards, innovation and integrity - remain as crucial today as ever.

All Livery companies have close links with the The Corporation of London


The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
39A Bartholomew Close London EC1A 7JN
Telephone 0207 600 1992 Facsimile 0207 600 1991
E-mail: info@wcit.org.uk
© Copyright 2000 The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
Site designed by Marketingnet


39A Bartholomew Close dates back to the mid-18th century (although the boundaries of 'Greate Saynte Bartholomew Close' were set out on land owned by the priory of Saint Bartholomew as long ago as 1544). The building has a colourful history, including a brief period as the "Rose and Crown" public house in the late 19th century.

The area around Bartholomew Close is home to several other Livery Companies - the Butchers, the Haberdashers, the Farmers & Fletchers and the Founders - and is close to many major commercial firms and City institutions.

New Law Librarian blog

I have just started a new blog (in my free time) called AbsTracked. It is a blog of useful, theme-related Web links. Most of the links will relate to law or ready-reference types of materials (but there will be some fun stuff too), so you may want to check it out. Here's the URL: www.bloglines.com/blog/AbbieM. If you have an aggregator, the rss feed is here: www.bloglines.com/blog/AbbieM/rss.

AbsTracked blog

TV Tome - guide to the television shows you love: "TV Tome has over 2,500 complete guides covering almost all the current shows and many of your favorite classics. There's also an additional 3,500+ guides that are partially complete or under development. Use the search box to find your favorite or browse through the list of all shows.

TV Tome features reviews for some of your favorite shows. Look for a reviews link on your the show's main page or check out some recent reviews. If you'd like to volunteer to share your views on the episodes of your favorite show see being a TV Tome writer.

TV Tome is more than just a collection of episode guides. The site also features over 250,000 people associated with TV. Actors, writers, directors and producers can all be found here. With each person is at least a partial list of their credits and many have biographies and additional information.

If you find a guide for a show or person that's not complete and you'd like to help, check out our information about how to become a TV Tome editor.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions check out our about pages or leave feedback. "

Transferring info between formats

This is from an email so there is no URL and I did not put in all the embedded URLs from the item.

Rescuing Old, Outdated Media

In general, my "State of the Art" column in Circuits generates only five or ten pieces of e-mail a week. This e-mail newsletter, on the other hand, routinely generates several hundred responses, both by e-mail and on the Pogue feedback board.

My column in the paper two weeks ago, though, reversed all expectations. It generated about 200 reader e-mail queries. The topic was hybrid VCR-DVD recorders, which you can use to rescue old analog tapes by transferring them to shiny new recordable DVD's.

Big Bunch #1 asked, "Can I edit the resulting DVD's on my computer?"

The answer: Not easily. Video on a DVD is stored in a format designed for playback, not for editing.

Still, if you have a computer and you want to edit the old tapes, you shouldn't be messing around with a VHS-DVD burner at all. Why not just play the old tapes directly into the computer and edit them BEFORE burning to DVD?

You'll find instructions below under "TRANSFERRING VHS (AND OTHER ANALOG) VIDEOS TO DVD."

Big Bunch #2 asked, "But what about all the copy-protected commercial VHS tapes I've bought over the years? Surely I don't have to buy them all over again on DVD?"

Answer: Yes, I'm pretty sure you do. Again, there's probably special software that can strip out the copy protection from a movie on tape. But if I'm not mistaken, that would involve playing the whole movie onto your PC first, then burning it onto a DVD, and the result won't have anything close to the quality of a new store-bought DVD. Frankly, I'd pay the $18 for the movie on DVD and save myself the headache.

But the vast majority of the questions all reflected the same thread of anxiety:

"But how do I rescue my old vinyl records/audio cassettes/VHS-C tapes/8mm film reels?"

That's a terrific question, a very common one, and, fortunately, one that gets answered frequently these days, online and off. Here are some links to just such tutorials, for your Web-browsing pleasure:

TRANSFERRING AUDIO TAPES TO CD:

If you have a Windows PC: http://www.g4techtv.com/callforhelp/features/

If you have a Mac, here are a couple of different approaches: http://www.wap.org/journal/digitizingcassettes/default.html
http://lowendmac.com/lab/03/0814.html

TRANSFERRING VINYL RECORDS TO CD:

Take your pick of free tutorials:

http://www.thelaughingpapillon.com/vinyl2cd.php
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=387506
http://www.cyberwalker.net/columns/feb02/150202.html
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,46164,00.asp

TRANSFERRING VHS (AND OTHER ANALOG) VIDEOS TO DVD:

Here are several sets of instructions, all variations on the theme. They're here for Windows: http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,97624,00.asp
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3000_7-5071953-1.html

. . . and here for the Mac:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=91153
http://www.macworld.com/2004/05/features/fromvhstodvd/index.php

TRANSFERRING OLD FILM TO DVD:

This one's not so easy. There is such a thing as a mirrored apparatus that lets you play your old films from a projector directly into a modern camcorder, but it's a royal pain, it's time-consuming and the resulting quality isn't so great. That's why most experts concede defeat on this one and recommend that you send your reels off to a commercial transfer service.

That's the conclusion by this online columnist, for example, which includes links to several such transfer companies (which I haven't tested): http://channels.lockergnome.com/windows/archives/

And here's a first-person account by Circuits's own Michelle Slatalla:

http://tech2.nytimes.com/mem/technology/techreview.html?res=9C01E4D61431F93BA15751C0A9649C8B63

If you've had good luck with one transfer house or another, would you mind letting us know by posting it on the Pogue feedback boards?

Thanks -- and happy rescuing!

Forum: Discuss David Pogue's Columns .

This week's Pogue's Posts blog.

This week's Pogue's Gallery video.

Visit David Pogue on the Web at DavidPogue.com.

Best Search Tools Chart: "Best Search Tools Chart"

Internet

The Best Internet Innovation In Years

Lisa DiCarlo, 02.07.05, 6:00 AM ET

Let me just come right out and say it. Answers.com is the most useful, smartest, coolest, easiest-to-use Web innovation to come around in years.

Answers.com is a new approach to Internet search, but make no mistake: It is not search. With one click Answers.com delivers instant information, not Web links, laid out cleanly on one page.

For example: Typing in Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) turns up a single page with a brief company history including pictures of the founders, a company profile, annual sales, employees, office phone numbers, executive's names, stock charts and recent news.

"I defy you to go to Intel's own Web site and find all that information within five minutes," says Robert Rosenschein, chief executive of GuruNet (amex: GRU - news - people ), the company behind Answers.com.

He's right. All the information available on Answers.com is out there, somewhere, but it's not aggregated and laid out as cleanly and easily.

What's even cooler is GuruNet's one-click technology. It works like this: After downloading a tiny bit of software, users mouse over any word on any Web page, within any e-mail, within any document, hit the "Alt" key and automatically get an Answers.com page with information described above.

What's better still is its ability to recognize context. If you mouse over the word "Ford" in one paragraph containing three different references to Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ), Harrison Ford and Francis Ford Coppola, the system will process that and deliver information on cars, actors and directors respectively.

Any word on the screen, provided you're online, becomes a simple gateway to more information.

The system, which has been live for about two weeks, is not perfect. It aggregates data from about 100 sources including dictionaries, encyclopedias and covers about one million topics, which sounds like a lot until you consider how many possible topic areas there are. Rosenschein says the company is adding sources and topics all the time.

Answers.com helps you find information but shouldn't be lumped into the search category with Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), Amazon.com (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) or Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ).

In fact, Google's search results page has provided a small link, called "definition" in the upper right hand corner, that takes users to Answers.com. The word "definition" doesn't tell users anything about what's behind it, so there's really no compelling reason to click on it. Rosenschein says he's talking with Google to come up with a better link.

Amazon's new A9 search engine also uses Answer.com for the "reference" section of its site.

The company, based in Wesley Hills, N.Y., hopes advertising will sustain its business. In the past nine months GuruNet reported a $2.4 million loss on $117,000 in revenue.

Rosenschein founded GuruNet in 1999 and raised $28 million from top-shelf investors like Goldman Sachs (nyse: GS - news - people ). But it wrongly tried to sell its technology--enterprise search--to corporations. It retreated from that business and re-emerged in 2004 with Answers.com. Rosenschein says one potential investor was so blown away by the demo that he told him to write down a number on the back of a business card.

The tech industry is full of hype and overblown promises. Rosenschein is a pleasant surprise. He appears to be a humble, aw-shucks kind of guy who may have just unleashed the Internet's next big thing.

Washington Speakers Bureau: "
Hot Topic for February 8, 2005

He's one of the most respected statesmen in U.S. history, a leader, diplomat and soldier. But, more importantly, General Colin Powell is an icon: After serving as the very first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Powell was appointed secretary of state by President George W. Bush - becoming the most powerful African-American ever to hold office. Gen. Powell was tasked with building coalitions, forging alliances and spreading the universal human values of democracy and freedom throughout the globe. His leadership, presence, grace and dignity allowed him to transcend nations, cultures and identities, making him in turn one of the most easily identifiable and revered persons in the world. "

COMPU-WEATHER CASE OF THE WEEK

http://www.compuweather.com/
A once-in-a-lifetime storm event

Plaintiffs comprised of 12 homeowners and three business owners in Brooklyn, NY, claimed property and structural damage due to the flooding of their basements after a heavy rainstorm on July 31, 1996. Defendants, which included the local gas utility and a construction company sub-contracted by the utility, had previously dumped 70 cubic yards of sand in the vicinity of the damaged buildings, which they planned on using in a backfill operation. Plaintiffs claimed that the sand and runoff from the rainstorm, combined with the heavy rain, caused the storm drains to clog up, resulting in the flooded basements. Plaintiffs further contended that the City was negligent in maintaining the storm drains and catch basins.

At trial, defense attorneys called upon COMPU-WEATHER meteorologists to examine the weather and explain to the jury what had occurred. By analyzing the magnitude of the rain which fell on the day of the flooding, and comparing it to historical standards, the COMPU-WEATHER meteorologist concluded that the event was a "50-year 1-hour storm". The amount of rain which poured down during a mere one hour's time could only reasonably be expected to happen in Brooklyn about once every 50 years. Engineers for the City testified that the storm drain system was designed to handle "5-year storms".

Based on the testimony that the storm was an extraordinary occurrence, the jury vote was 6-0 in favor of the defendants.

Did you know that Compu-Weather's Expert Reports help settle 98.5% of all our customers' weather-related cases and claims prior to litigation?

For a no-obligation initial consultation regarding your weather-related case or claim, call us at (800) 825-4445 or click the link below and we'll get back to you shortly !!

UK Land records

Land Register Online - Additional information

Additional information


Why is this information useful to me?
Typically, you...
want to look at the register and/or title plan of a property you own
want to find out who owns a specific property
want to discover the extent of a property
are interested in buying an unoccupied property you have noticed and wish to approach the owner
lease or rent a property and need to contact the landlord
What property details can I obtain?
The Register information will generally include:-
A description of the property
Who owns it
Mortgage Lender (if any)
Price stated (if registered since 1st April 2000)
Rights of way (not public rights of way) or other rights affecting the property
Restrictions or other conditions
The details held by the Land Registry are updated following the receipt of an application at the appropriate local office. For guidance, this can be up to a few months after a property transaction.

You can see a typical example of a Register.

You can also see an example Title Plan. Based on a large-scale Ordnance Survey map, this shows the general extent of the property.

Can anyone view details of any property?
Since 3 December 1990 the public have been able to look at the register of title (this includes title plans) in England and Wales. Prior to that, only registered owners and people with the owner's permission could look at a register of title.

Land Register Online is the first service that has provided this electronically to the public.