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Kylie Minogue announces new tour

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Kylie Minogue announces new tour
Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:08pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Australian pop star Kylie Minogue announced a European tour and promised the show would be "totally different" from previous performances.

The 39-year-old, who released her new album "X" this week, starts in Paris on May 6 and crosses Continental Europe, Scandinavia and Northern Ireland before winding up at London's O2 Arena on July 27.

"The eclectic mix of sounds on 'X' is affording me an opportunity to explore and develop a new live show that will be fresh, exhilarating and innovative," Minogue said on her Web site www.kylie.com.

"After two celebratory tours, 'X' will be . . .

The misguided practice of earnings guidance

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Go to The McKinsey Quarterly home page Visitor Edition 27 November 2007Welcome to the online journal of McKinsey & Company. This article is available to you free as a special bonus. Please register or log in to read this article.


Article at a glance:
The misguided practice of earnings guidance

Many executives believe that providing quarterly earnings guidance helps them to maintain an open channel of communication with investors in their companies and to increase the visibility of those companies while reducing the volatility of share prices and improving share valuations.

Our analysis finds that the practice offers few of the expected benefits and carries its own costs, particularly management time and an overemphasis on short-term performance.

Executives should consider whether providing quarterly earnings guidance is truly necessary—or whether other types of information would better serve the goals of companies and their shareholders.

This article includes the following exhibits:
Exhibit 1: Increasingly, companies are discontinuing guidance.
Exhibit 2: There appears to be no relation between guidance and valuation.
Exhibit 3: Offering guidance does not appear to affect total returns to shareholders.
Exhibit 4: Poor performance affects returns more than discontinuing guidance.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract_visitor.aspx?ar=1752

Justices to Decide on Right to Keep Handgun at Home

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By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: November 21, 2007

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 — The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the “right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

The court accepted a case on the District of Columbia’s 31-year-old prohibition on the ownership of handguns. In adding the case to its calendar, for argument in March with a decision most likely in June, the court not only raised the temperature of its current term but also inevitably injected the issue of gun control into the presidential campaign.

The federal appeals court here, breaking with the great majority of federal courts to have examined the issue over the decades, ruled last March that the Second Amendment right was an individual one, not tied to service in a militia, and that the District of Columbia’s categorical ban on handguns was therefore unconstitutional. . . .

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How the Feminists’ “War against Boys” Paved the Way for Radical Islam

Global Politician: "How the Feminists’ “War against Boys” Paved the Way for Radical Islam Fjordman - 11/12/2007
Some commentators like to point out that many of the most passionate and bravest defenders of the West are women, citing Italian writer Oriana Fallaci and others. But women like Ms. Fallaci, brave as they might be, are not representative of all Western women. If you look closely, you will notice that, on average, Western women are actually more supportive of Multiculturalism and massive immigration than are Western men.

I got many comments on my posts about Muslim anti-female violence in Scandinavia. Several of my readers asked what Scandinavian men are doing about this. What happened to those Vikings, anyway? Did they drink too much mead in Valhalla? Despite the romantic mystique surrounding them today, the Vikings were for the most part savage barbarians. However, I doubt they would have looked the other way while their daughters were harassed by Muslims. In some ways, this makes present-day Scandinavians worse barbarians than the Vikings ever were.

One of the reasons for this lack of response is a deliberate and pervasive censorship in the mainstream media, to conceal the full scale of the problem from the general public. However, I suspect that the most important reason has to do with the extreme anti-masculine strand of feminism that has permeated Scandinavia for decades. The male protective instinct doesn’t take action because Scandinavian women have worked tirelessly to eradicate it, together with everything else that smacks of traditional masculinity. Because of this, feminism has greatly weakened Scandinavia, and perhaps Western civilization as whole."

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It's D-Day For Google's GPhone

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by Laurie Petersen, Monday, Nov 5, 2007 6:00 AM ET

IN THE WAKE OF MOUNTING pre-launch news coverage, Google is expected to go public with its Google Phone plans this morning.

The Wall Street Journal reported that an official announcement will come on Monday about details of the phone. Additional reports say Google intends to make software available for different phone carriers that would open up more application development for mobile devices, including its own.

Sunday's New York Times carried a gushing profile by technology writer John Markoff of Andy Rubin, who is overseeing the Google phone and software efforts as director of mobile platforms. Markoff got extraordinary access to Rubin at home and work.

According to the story, Google plans to give away its software to handset makers and then use the Google Phone's openness for software developers and content distributors to design applications for it.

Rubin was creator of the Sidekick, one of the first smartphones to integrate the Web, instant messaging, mail and other PC applications.

Among the wireless carriers already said to be working with Google are Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless.

Google stock, whose price some analysts suggest may surpass $1,000, was trading at $711 after hours on Friday. Laurie Petersen is executive editor of MediaPost. Email her at laurie@mediapost.com

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Google’s Strong Quarter Widens Gap With Rivals
By MIGUEL HELFT
The search giant’s surging third quarter profits showed that it was growing at twice the speed of the online advertising market, which itself is booming.

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Average Portfolio Manager Pay Tops $450K
Article published on Oct 19, 2007
By Kevin Burke

Equity portfolio managers in the U.S. are earning $456,000 a year on average, ranking them No. 1 among all investment professionals, according to research published on Thursday by the CFA Institute.

Fund shops can use the data as a benchmark when negotiating the contracts of their portfolio managers and putting together pay packages for new employees. “You’re always looking for data so that you know what the market is paying, which allows you to be competitive when hiring staff,” says Peggy Eisen, managing director of CFA’s marketing and communications department.

In the U.S., portfolio managers took in median compensation of $456,000. Investment bankers came in second with $275,000, followed by sell-side research analysts, who hauled in $195,000, according to the CFA’s 2007 Member Compensation Survey, which was conducted along with Harris Interactive and AON Corporation.

Portfolio managers with 10 or more years of experience are commanding an average of $499,000, the survey says. Fund skippers with five or more years of experience running money took in $398,000, while those with less than five years on the job made, on average, $205,000.

Bond fund manager pay came in at a median $250,000, the survey says. Managers with more than 10 years' experience took in $350,000, while those with five to 10 years' experience earned $210,000. Bond managers with less than five years on the job made $126,000, according to the report.

The surveyors polled more than 75,000 investment professionals across the globe — including investment bankers, chief investment officers, portfolio managers, research directors and securities analysts — among the 11 countries with the greatest concentration of CFA members. Within that universe, 13,562 participated, representing an 18% response rate.

Because the data included pay trends across the broader investment business, the survey may not provide the full picture of manager pay at top U.S. firms.

Anecdotally, manager pay is trending upward, consultants say, as firms are fiercely competing for talented personnel. “Portfolio manager compensation is pretty aggressive right now,” says Lawrence Lieberman, an executive recruiter at the Orion Group.

“There’s a high level of compensation being paid to good portfolio managers and firms have to keep pace in order to hold on to their strong talent," he says, adding that it continues to rise commensurately with the growth in mutual fund assets, he says. He also says that it is probably $150,000 higher now than it was three years ago.

Lieberman notes that much of the increase is coming from the bonus portion of their compensation. Fund firms aim to keep fixed costs, such as base salaries, down, he says. “When markets turn south you don’t want to be committed to high salaries,” he says.

Pay among investment professionals in general is on the rise. The CFA found that 72% of respondents in the U.S. saw their total compensation rise from 2005 to 2006.

However, stock fund manager pay comes in slightly lower than the $460,000 the CFA Institute reported for the year 2005. However, the CFA has changed its methodology since the last survey, making it difficult to make a historical comparison.

CFA reports that stock portfolio managers have the highest cash bonuses among investment professionals, with a median of $200,000, with investment bankers raking in $185,000 for 2006. The size of a bonus tends to be tied to both tenure and performance.

“The biggest part of portfolio manager compensation tends to be their bonuses,” says David Kathman, an analyst at Morningstar. “A lot of them have a bonus based on the performance of the fund. It’s fairly common.”

Some portfolio manager bonuses are based on performance whereas others are pegged to a percentage of total assets.

Many portfolio managers make considerably more than the median. Janus, for example, is known for having one of the highest-paid portfolio manager teams in the business. Compensation was as much as 10 times the industry average before its restructuring under Gary Black, according to Morningstar analyst Rachel Barnard.

Janus has since taken a more judicious approach to portfolio manager contracts, tying them to long-term performance track records. They’re also encouraged to “eat their own cooking,” with many of the big fund managers investing more than $1 million in the funds they manage, Kathman says.

Christopher Davis, who runs Davis New York Venture and subadvises the Clipper Fund, gets a portion of his compensation in fund shares.

Still, it’s hard to pin down an exact figure to compare fund shops against their peers because fund firms are not required to disclose their compensation in terms of dollar figures. “It’s all over the block,” Lieberman says.

The CFA numbers include both salary and bonuses, with bonuses accounting for 25% of the total compensation package among investment executives. Some 46% said their bonus is primarily tied to their individual performance, while 27% said overall firm performance is most important. Another 22% said bonus is driven by its individual business unit performance.

Ninety percent of U.S. respondents say they were eligible for a cash bonus in 2006. Less than half, however, were offered long-term incentives, the survey shows.
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Ignites is a copyrighted publication. Ignites has agreed to make available its content for the sole use of the employees of the subscriber company. Accordingly, it is a violation of the copyright law for anyone to duplicate the content of Ignites for the use of any person, other than the employees of the subscriber company. Today's Headlines
Average Portfolio Manager Pay Tops $450K
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A New Testimonial Privilege

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10-15-07 00:00 Age: 15 hrs
Measure To Shield Reporters' Secret Sources Likely To Pass
Category: Lexis Nexis - AC, PG News & Updates, Acc News & Updates, Main AC RSS Feed, AC - Whats New BY: USA TODAY

KATHY KIELY

WASHINGTON -- A House bill that would help reporters protect confidential sources will pass easily this week, supporters say, despite opposition from the Bush administration.

"I believe we'll have a strong bipartisan vote," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the bill's co-author.

The Justice Department sees the proposed reporters' shield law, as it is called, as an obstacle to law enforcement. It could "seriously impede our ability to investigate and prosecute national security matters," spokesman Peter Carr said last week.

Even so, the bill has attracted an unusual right-left coalition.

Liberal Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have joined conservative Republicans, such as Pence, to support the bill. Although no floor vote has yet been scheduled in the Senate, the chamber's Judiciary Committee this month approved its version of the shield bill by a 15-2 vote.

News organizations have been pushing for a federal law to protect reporters' sources since the Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that the First Amendment gives journalists no right to refuse to name them. Backers say the House vote represents a major breakthrough. "It's kind of a 'pinch me' moment," Pence said.

It comes the same week that the Senate opens confirmation hearings for President Bush's nominee to be attorney general, Michael Mukasey. The former federal judge worked as a reporter for United Press International while he was in college and later represented The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News. On the bench, he ruled against forcing a TV reporter to provide outtakes of an interview to a defendant in a civil lawsuit.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, is hopeful Mukasey will soften the administration. "I would not expect him to come out and support this, but I would not see him making an effort to destroy it," she said.

The House bill would prohibit courts and federal prosecutors from forcing journalists to reveal sources except in cases where the information is vital to protecting national security or to prosecuting a crime and is not available by any other means. The bill defines journalists as those "regularly involved in newsgathering" and making "substantial income" from it, said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., the bill's other co-author. He said that would cover some, but not all, bloggers.

Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have enacted similar shield laws. More than 50 news organizations, including Gannett, owner of USA TODAY, support a federal shield law. Sponsors say it will benefit more than the news media.

"The basic reason we're passing this is to protect the public's right to know," Boucher said. He argued that whistle-blowers will be discouraged from talking to reporters if they fear their identities might be disclosed.

Opponents argue that not all leaks involve people risking their jobs to expose wrongdoing. One recent case involved Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was accused of leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame. Libby was convicted of perjury, but Bush commuted his sentence.

"There's got to be accountability so people will think about it before they go out and hurt people," said Brian Sun, a lawyer who represented Wen Ho Lee. Lee, a scientist, won more than $1.6 million in a suit that alleged the government smeared him by leaking information that he was stealing U.S. nuclear secrets for China. The espionage charges against Lee were dropped.

Bush administration officials argue the bill could hurt their fight against terrorism. Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, a deputy director of national intelligence, said a shield law "would make it very difficult to enforce criminal laws involving the unauthorized disclosure of classified information."

The Justice Department argues that the news media have plenty of protection. Federal prosecutors subpoena reporters "very rarely," Carr said. He said the department has sought reporters' confidential sources 19 times since 1991.

That figure does not, however, include subpoenas from special prosecutors and attorneys for private clients. By Dalglish's count, at least 40 reporters have been subpoenaed to turn over confidential information in the past three years, and courts tend to rule against the journalists.

Refusal to comply with the court has resulted in long jail sentences for some journalists. Joshua Wolf, a freelance videographer who refused to turn over tape of a protest to federal authorities, served 226 days.







Copyright 2007 Gannett Company, Inc.
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Beemer

Cyber Criminals Becoming More Professional

[Source: Symantec Corporation]

Cyber crime is turning into a professional business, according to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report. The report, which outlines activity from Jan. 1, 2007 through June 30, 2007, indicates phishing scammers are using more professional attack methods. More attackers are being driven by fortune, the report indicates, instead of fame. Rather than seeking out individual targets, the report indicates today’s cyber criminals are waiting for their victims to come to them with 61 percent of all vulnerabilities disclosed in Web applications. Using business-like practices, credit cards were the most commonly advertised commodity on underground economy servers, comprising 22 percent of all advertisements. In addition, with online gaming one of the most popular Internet activities, malicious code that attempted to steal account information for online games made up 5 percent of the top 50 malicious code samples.

Criticism, Comment?

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Baltimore Business Journal - September 17, 2007

Subpoena Power

Aggressive discovery tactics with e-mail could mark you a 'busy body'
by Matthew A.S. Esworthy

Attorneys are often reminded that the subpoena is a powerful tool that must not be abused.

Yet litigators are also taught to leave no stone unturned. The latter imperative often trumps the former as some attorneys routinely issue broad "scorched earth" subpoenas for fear of missing critical evidence.

Such aggressive discovery tactics are common when the object of discovery is e-mail. A personal or business e-mail account offers a well-organized and voluminous trove of information about the account holder's activities. A diligent attorney may feel that the more e-mail he can access, the better prepared he will be.

In this electronic age, it has become common for attorneys to request that the adverse party produce any and all e-mail correspondence in their care, custody, or control relating to the litigation. Often this request leads to the familiar response that "there are no responsive documents."

So what is one to do? Some have decided to issue a subpoena duces tecum to the third-party custodian of the adverse party's e-mail accounts (i.e., Yahoo! or Google), essentially circumventing the account holder.

From the subpoenaing attorney's perspective, this is bad fortune disguised as good, as a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit illustrates. The case of Theofel v. Farey-Jones is a compelling and little-noticed warning against issuing such subpoenas to third-party e-mail service providers.

The tale of woe arose from actions taken by counsel in a separate lawsuit between Alwyn Farey-Jones and the officers of a company called Integrated Capital Associates Inc. (ICA). During the discovery process, Farey-Jones's attorney subpoenaed the company's Internet service provider, Netgate, requesting all e-mails ever sent or received by anyone at ICA.

After raising an informal objection, Netgate eventually provided access to 339 e-mail messages, the majority of which were private, personal, and unrelated to the litigation.

Farey-Jones and his attorney read the correspondence without notifying opposing counsel. When ICA learned of this, it asked the court to quash the subpoena and sanction Farey-Jones.

The magistrate judge did so, faulting Farey-Jones for issuing a "massively overbroad" and "patently unlawful" subpoena that violated the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which insist that attorneys "take reasonable steps to avoid imposing undue burden or expense" on those they subpoena. The magistrate judge hit Farey-Jones and his attorney with more than $9,000 in sanctions.

The punishment did not end there. The ICA employees whose e-mail had been compromised filed a civil lawsuit against Farey-Jones and his attorney, claiming they had violated three federal statutes: the Stored Communications Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Wiretap Act.

The District Court dismissed the claims, but the Ninth Circuit reversed with regard to the first two of these three laws, paying special attention to the Stored Communications Act.

Why should Farey-Jones and his lawyer be civilly liable for reviewing e-mail produced only after receiving Netgate's permission to do so? The operative word under the Stored Communications Act is authorization, specifically the authorization of the individual who uses the e-mail account, and not that of the third-party custodian.

Theofel considers this question in light of the common law of trespass. Just as a "busy body" who gains access to a house by posing as a meter reader is a trespasser, so too are Farey-Jones and his attorney liable for gaining access to protected e-mail with an improper subpoena.

"The subpoena's falsity transformed the access from a bona fide state-sanctioned inspection into private snooping," the court wrote.

Interestingly, Netgate is protected in this instance by a safe harbor provision in the Stored Communications Act that exempts third-party service providers from liability. An employer that turns over employee correspondence from the company's e-mail system would likewise be protected.

The subpoenaing attorney, however, is fully exposed. Theofel cautions lawyers preparing to subpoena a third-party for an account-holder's e-mail; once you serve the subpoena, you are rolling the dice, not only for yourself, but for your client.

Inasmuch, this particular subpoena is best left unserved.

Matthew A.S. Esworthy, a trial attorney at Shapiro Sher Guinot & Sandler, can be reached at mase@shapirosher.com.

$6000 Reward

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Knowledge Networks pays $300,000 to settle internal copyright complaint
Firm's marketing group distributed press packets to employees containing newspaper and magazine articles under copyright

By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
August 16, 2007

Analyst firm Knowledge Networks has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a complaint that it distributed news articles to its employees without permission of the copyright owners, a trade group announced Thursday.

The Knowledge Networks settlement is the first under the Software & Information Industry Association's Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program, launched in October.

Knowledge Networks' marketing group had been distributing press packets to some employees on a regular basis, the SIIA said. Those packets contained articles under copyright and owned by SIIA members such as the Associated Press, United Press International, and publishing company Reed Elsevier, the trade group said.

SIIA litigation counsel Scott Bain called Knowledge Networks a "reputable company that made a very costly mistake." One of SIIA's goals for the settlement is to deter copyright infringement and educate other companies about the need for compliance programs, he said. . . .

Worker's Permit

Brian Wingfield, 08.28.07, 6:00 AM ET
Most people want to make sure their doctors and lawyers have the proper credentials to work, but should the same be expected of fortune tellers and florists?
Regulators in some states think so. If you want to read palms in Maryland or sell flower arrangements in Louisiana, you'll need a license to do it.

Funny? It would be if it wasn't increasingly commonplace. A new study by the Reason Foundation, a free-market-oriented think-tank based in Los Angeles, finds the range of professions requiring government is exploding. In the 1950s, less than 5% of the workforce needed a license to work. Today, that figure is more than 20%.

"The real motivation behind most occupational licensing regulations is one of special interest, not the public interest," the report says. "By banding together and convincing governments to impose new or stricter licensing laws, existing practitioners (who typically are exempted from the new laws through grandfather clauses) can raise the cost of doing business for potential competitors."

If so, the apiary industry in Maine is doing quite well--beekeepers in that state are required to obtain government licensing, the report says. So do casket sellers in Oklahoma, jai alai players in Rhode Island, reptile catchers in Michigan and rainmakers--yes, tribal rainmakers--in Arizona.

The report, compiled using information from the Labor Department, state agencies, news articles and trade and professional associations, finds that California is the most regulated place to work, requiring licenses in at least 177 occupations. Missouri comes in at the bottom, regulating only 41 professions.

With the exception of California, employment in western states tends to be far less regulated than in the East and the Midwest. But even among adjacent states, licensing requirements tend to be very different. North Carolina regulates 107 professions; South Carolina just 60. In New Jersey, 114 jobs are licensed; in Pennsylvania, only 62.

According to Adam Summers, a policy analyst at the Reason Foundation and the report's author, the reason for the difference in employment regulation from state to state can be attributed to "the success or strength of the business interests in that state."

In fact, Summers' study says that the boom in employment regulation has had several negative effects on business in local communities.

"Less competition for licensees means less pressure to offer higher quality or lower prices to attract business," the report says. "Thus, licensed businesses will be more inclined to pocket more of their profits." Other effects of too much regulation could be the creation of black markets among those who decide not to get licensed, sub-par work created by a lack of competition and an increase in the number of people who don't follow their dreams simply because they can't afford to get licensed.

Summers believes that all licensing laws should be abolished, letting the market create its own certification system, such as the product-review information offered by Consumer Reports, Amazon.com or CNET.

But has the increased licensing of professions really damaged job growth in various states? This doesn't seem to be the case, if the government's employment statistics are to be believed.

The most heavily regulated states--California (where 177 jobs require licenses), Connecticut (155), Maine (134), New Hampshire (130) and Arkansas (128)--have an average unemployment rate of 4.8%, according to the most recent government data.
At the other end of the scale, Missouri, which regulates just 41 jobs, Washington (53), Kansas (56), South Carolina (60) and Idaho (61), have a combined unemployment rate of 5.1%--not much of a difference from those that are heavily regulated.
But within an employment field, these numbers are different, says Morris Kleiner, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota, who is an expert on occupational licensing.

"Within an occupation, the employment growth rate is approximately 20% higher in states that do not require licensing," he says, quoting from his 2006 book Licensing Occupations: Ensuring Quality or Restricting Competition?

According to the Reason Foundation report, at least 17 states license more than 100 job categories, and many states regulate the same type of work. For example, in every state, you need a license to be a barber, a hearing-aid fitter or a pest-control worker. And in most states, you need government permission to be an athletic trainer, a plumber or a mortician. But in only 15 do you need government permission to be a tattoo artist, and in only 13 is a license required to be a cab driver.

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The Tainted Public-Health Model of Gun Control

by Miguel A. Faria, Jr.

Miguel Faria, M.D. (hfaria@mindspring.com), is editor-in-chief of the Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

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. . . But how was an agency like the CDC able to get in the gun-control business? Simply by propounding the erroneous notion that gun violence is a public-health issue and that crime is a disease, an epidemic-rather than a major facet of criminology. The public so deluded and the bureaucrats consequently empowered, public-health and CDC officials arrogated to themselves this new area of alleged expertise and espoused the preposterous but politically lucrative concept of guns and bullets as animated, virulent pathogens needing to be stamped out by limiting gun availability and ultimately confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens. Hard to believe in a constitutional republic with a Bill of Rights and a Second Amendment! Let me cite the following statement by CDC official Dr. Patrick O'Carroll as quoted in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, February 3, 1989): "Bringing about gun control, which itself covers a variety of activities from registration to confiscation was not the specific reason for the [CDC] section's creation. However, the facts themselves tend to make some form of regulation seem desirable. The way we're going to do this is to systematically build a case that owning firearms causes death." . . .

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The Tainted Public-Health Model of Gun Control

Reprinted From Ideas on Liberty --- April 2001

by Miguel A. Faria, Jr.
Miguel Faria, M.D. (hfaria@mindspring.com), is editor-in-chief of the Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?-Juvenal

Early in the 1990s the American Medical Association (AMA) launched a major campaign against domestic violence, which continues to this day. As a concerned physician, neurosurgeon, and then an active member of organized medicine, I joined in what I considered a worthwhile cause.

It was then that I arrived at the unfortunate but inescapable conclusion that the integrity of science and medicine had been violated-and the public interest was not being served by the entrenched medical/public-health establishment-because of political expediency.[1] To my consternation and great disappointment, when it came to the portrayal of firearms and violence, and the gun control "research" promulgated by public-health officials, it was obvious that the medical literature was biased, riddled with serious errors in facts, logic, and methodology, and thus utterly unreliable. Moreover, it had failed to objectively address both sides of this momentous issue, on which important public policy was being debated and formulated. And this was taking place despite the purported safeguards of peer review in the medical journals, the alleged claims of objectivity by medical editors, and the claims of impartiality by government-funded gun researchers in public health, particularly at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Over the next five years, particularly as editor of the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia,[2] I found that on the issue of violence, medical journals skirted sound scholarship and took the easy way out of the melee, presenting only one side of the story and suppressing the other. Those with dissenting views or research were excluded. The establishment was bent on presenting guns as a social ill and promoting draconian gun control at any price.

The most prestigious medical journal, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), which claims openness to contrary views, is not immune to bias in this area. In fact, it is one of the most anti-gun publications in medical journalism. The NEJM routinely excludes articles that dissent from its well-known, strident, and inflexible position of gun-control advocacy. Editors have come and gone, but the governing board has made sure that the anti-gun position remains unaltered.

In "Bad Medicine-Doctors and Guns," Don B. Kates and associates describe a particularly egregious example of editorial bias by the NEJM.[3] In 1988, two studies were independently submitted for publication. Both authors were affiliated with the University of Washington School of Public Health. One study, by Dr. John H. Sloan and others, was a selective two-city comparison of homicide rates between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Seattle, Washington.

The other paper was a comprehensive comparison study between the United States and Canada by Dr. Brandon Centerwall.

Predictably, the editors chose to publish Sloan's article with inferior but favorable data claiming erroneously that severe gun-control policies had reduced Canadian homicides. They rejected Centerwall's superior study showing that such policies had not lowered the rate of homicides in Canada: the Vancouver homicide rate increased 25 percent after implementation of a 1977 Canadian law.[4] Moreover, Sloan and associates glossed over the disparate ethnic compositions of Seattle and Vancouver. When the rates of homicides for whites are compared, in both of these cities, it turns out that the rate of homicide in Seattle is actually lower than in Vancouver. The important fact that blacks and Hispanics, who constitute higher proportions of the population in Seattle, have higher rates of homicides in that city was not mentioned.

Centerwall's paper on the comparative rates of homicides in the United States and Canada was finally published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, but his valuable research, unlike that of Sloan and his group, was not made widely available to the public.[5] In contradistinction to his valuable gun-research data, Centerwall's other research pointing to the effects of TV violence on homicide rates has been made widely available; his data exculpating gun availability from high homicide rates in this country remains a closely guarded secret.[6] . . .

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Cell For Sale

COVER This week's Focus Issue on cell migration features an Editorial Guide, as well as a Perspective, a Review, and a Protocol. The image depicts a cell extending a pseudopod toward a chemoattractant. [Image: Preston Huey, AAAS]

Ireland Learns to Adapt to a Population Growth Spurt

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[Photo omitted] Ross McDonnell for The New York Times
Aidan Punch, a senior census statistician, looked through some of the files in Dublin compiled for Ireland’s most recent census.

By EAMON QUINN
Published: August 19, 2007
DUBLIN — Inside a north Dublin warehouse, 15,000 cardboard boxes containing the documents of Ireland’s most recent census rise on new shelving from the concrete floor. The sight is nondescript, but the collated and computer-scanned documents contain evidence that the Republic of Ireland is the fastest repopulating small country in the world.

Skip to next paragraph

Ross McDonnell for The New York Times
Immigration is swelling Ireland’s population. Pastor Lawrence Eferetin, a Nigerian immigrant, baptized a baby born in Dublin.
Findings from the April 2006 census, which are being published in a series of releases this summer, showed that in the four years since a previous survey, the Irish population swelled by 322,645, roughly split between immigrants and births. That lifted the total population to 4.2 million.

No European Union country has a younger population: statistically, the Irish have been barely aging at all, with the median age staying close to 33. The country will remain young for decades, say the experts, and escape the “graying” fate of the rest of Europe.

Further, demographers now predict that the population could rise to over five million in about a dozen years, and to six million within a generation. With a growing population in Northern Ireland, the island could match its largest population — more than eight million before the devastating 19th-century famine that prompted waves of emigration — by 2032.

Edgar Morgenroth, a member of a panel of experts who predict Irish population growth, said the famine started a diminishing of the population that lasted to the late 1960s. “It was only in the 1990s that our population stabilized and started to grow, rapidly,” he said. The population might reach the 19th-century level, but it will look very different.

The population changes have been uneven geographically. New houses stretch in a wide arc from north Dublin to the west of the city. But the city’s core, despite being replenished by an influx of immigrants, has lost residents to the suburbs and to once unimaginably distant commuting centers in the midlands. In the south, the city of Cork shrank while the county grew.

Some experts think the scale is beyond most citizens’ imaginations: in about half a generation, the population may grow by another Dublin, which has 1.1 million people in its greater metropolitan area.

“The worst is that we find ourselves without growing our services to cope with the numbers,” Mr. Morgenroth said. “The benign outlook is that we have tackled our services and, like Switzerland or Luxembourg, we have great wealth and a great quality of life. The smaller countries can do it right.”

Eunan King, an economist at NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin, has long argued that a rising population — more workers and more consumers — will help sustain Ireland’s remarkable economic renaissance of the past dozen years.

The largest increases in immigration since 2002 have been from Poland, Lithuania and Nigeria. The latest census showed 63,276 Poles living permanently in Ireland, up from 2,124 four years earlier. In some small districts in Dublin, Limerick and Cork, the census showed, 52 percent of residents were non-Irish, said Aidan Punch, a senior census statistician.

Ireland permits all residents, not just Irish citizens, to cast ballots in local elections. That has helped immigrants win seats in local councils. The mayor of the midlands town of Portlaoise, Rotimi Adebari, is from Nigeria.

To encourage assimilation, the government recently named a minister for integration, Conor Lenihan. The department was organized, Mr. Lenihan said in an interview, to show Ireland’s commitment to share and develop its new wealth with new arrivals. “We have chosen a midpoint between the U.S. and Europe in terms of our economic success,” he said. “I think we can choose a midpoint in integration as well.”

Mr. Lenihan said his department would investigate ways to provide extensive language classes for adult immigrants and to increase training for unskilled local Irish workers.

But immigrants’ representatives say the government needs to do more.

“Ireland should be taking a lead in Europe,” said Jean-Pierre Eyanga Ekumeloko, a naturalized Irish citizen from Congo and a co-founder of Integrating Ireland, an independent support group for immigrants.

Mr. Ekumeloko said the Irish prime minister should lay out a plan for welcoming and integrating immigrants. He said many were working jobs for which they were overqualified. “A lot of things have changed in interactions between the Irish community and immigrants,” he said, adding that in the past he had heard racist remarks. “Things have changed very positively. Now Irish people know Africans.”

At a restaurant table in Lucan, in western Dublin, Dulce Huerta, a Mexican, and her husband, an Irishman named Lorcan Donnellan, cradled their 5-week-old child. They talked about the strains population growth was causing in their area, near the district of Lucan Esker, which according to the census numbers is the youngest spot in the country. More children under 4 live there than anywhere else in Ireland.

“The maternity hospital was packed and needed more staff,” Ms. Huerta said.

They fretted about how the huge housing estates under construction would add to local traffic. “The roads cannot cope already,” Mr. Donnellan said. “It’s going to get more choked.”

A new mother at a nearby table, Suzanne Leyden, an actuary, said the authorities seemed to have anticipated the growing needs by opening or expanding primary schools. “Secondary schools will be the next big challenge,” she said.

Derek Keating, a local councilor for the Lucan area, said: “The big picture is that we are playing catch-up all the time. There is a lack of infrastructure, in everything from schools to recreational activities.”

In the northern Dublin suburb of Swords, Gerard Kelly, a teacher for 25 years and now a principal, said his school would struggle to meet the demand for classroom seats when it opened in September. “Back in 2001 we had 21 children,” Mr. Kelly said. “Next September we will have 340. We have children from 40 countries.”

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Shiver me timbers

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Surnames that reveal Pirate ancestry

By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 1:34am BST 17/08/2007

With all that pillaging and looting, it could be one of the bloodiest reunions in history when descendants of six of Britain's famous pirates are invited to a get-together.

People with the surnames Morgan, Rackham, Bonny, Read, Kidd or Teach, are being invited to discover possible connections with the likes of Blackbeard and Calico Jack, in a series of events by English Heritage. Dressing as a sea dog is optional.

Proving your lineage with a real-life buccaneer, however, may prove difficult. Abigail Baker, of the genealogy research organisation Achievements Ltd, said: "What could be more exhilarating than finding you are related to one of Britain's most colourful characters?"

advertisementHowever, said Miss Baker, due to their nefarious backgrounds, pirates rarely kept records of their activities. So proving a link can be tricky.

The six most famous British pirates are:

Sir Henry Morgan (a privateer, or legal pirate), born in 1635 in Glamorgan, Wales, who went on to rule Jamaica.

William Kidd, born around 1645 in Renfrewshire, Scotland, and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean.

Edward "Blackbeard" Teach was thought to be born in Bristol around 1680. He wove slow-burning fuses into his beard to create clouds of smoke around his scowling face. He is said to have had 14 wives and died in battle, his head being cut off and hung from the rigging.

John "Calico Jack" Rackham's was born in 1682, and so named for his penchant for brightly coloured clothing. He is remembered for employing two female pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Rackham was executed in Jamaica in 1720.

Anne Bonny, born around 1698 near Cork, met Rackham in the Bahamas and started an affair with him, before eloping and joining his crew. She was said to be intelligent, attractive, and quick-tempered.

Mary Read, born in 1695 in London. She joined Calico Jack's crew and became one of history's most fearsome female pirates. She spent much of her life dressed as a man, and died in 1721.

The English Heritage events start this weekend at Dover Castle in Kent and continues next weekend at Whitby Abbey, North Yorks.

Anyone who can prove they share the name of one of the six most feared pirates will get in free.

Ten pirate facts

1. The idea of buried treasure is mostly a mythical one which is romantically portrayed in books such as Treasure Island. However, one pirate who was known for burying his treasure was Captain Kidd and it is believed he may have started the myth.

2. The notion that pirates only plundered gold, silver and exotic treasure is unfounded. Records suggest a normal haul was far more mundane and involved stealing linens, cloths, food, anchors, rope and sometimes medical supplies.

3. Pirates were therefore very selective about which boats they targeted, to be certain the booty was worth the risks of battle.

4. Most pirates were extreme squanderers and rarely accumulated enough treasure to bury. Due to the danger and uncertainty of their profession, they were usually determined to live for the present rather than save for the future.

5. The Jolly Roger is the pirates' most famous flag, flown to induce their target to surrender. The history of the terms is the subject of great conjecture, a popular theory being it stemmed from the word “rogue”. “Old Roger” is also the term for the Devil.

6. There is no evidence that pirates ever made their victims walk the plank; there was far too much sport of another kind to be had. A favourite method of dealing with prisoners was to tie them to the mast and then pelt the unfortunate victim with broken bottles.

7. In pirate language, “splice the mainbrace” means to have a drink and “to dance with Jack Ketch” means to go to the hangman.

8. Pirate hooks, a popular addition to any costume, probably stemmed from the story of Peter Pan and his arch enemy Captain Hook, who replaced his hand lost in battle with a hook. However, pirates often lost hands in battle and it was common for them to search the ship for something to use as a replacement.

9. Port Royal, Jamaica, became a safe haven for pirates, a place of great wealth and debauchery known as “the wickedest city on Earth”.

10. Modern day pirates exist, especially in the waters off Indonesia and Somalia. Rather than relying on cannons and swords though, they tend to prefer using AK-47 rifles and speed boats.



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

Spending on Direct-to-Consumer Drug Ads Has More Than Tripled

NEJM

Although physicians remain the primary targets of drug company advertising, spending on direct-to-consumer advertising has increased more than threefold since the FDA first allowed such marketing 10 years ago, reports a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers gathered data from three market-research firms and the FDA to evaluate trends in DTC advertising from 1996 through 2005. Among the findings:

In 2005, drug companies spent a total of $29.9 billion on promotion, of which $4.2 billion went toward DTC advertising.

Spending on DTC advertising increased by about 14% each year from 2002 through 2005.
Of the 20 most heavily advertised drugs, 17 were marketed directly to consumers within 1 year of FDA approval.

During 2003 and 2004, nearly half the agency's promotion-related regulatory letters concerned direct-to-consumer ads.

NEJM

First Cell Phone, Unlisted, and Non-Published Phone Directories

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Intelius is Unveiling One of the Nation's First Cell Phone, Unlisted, and Non-Published Phone Number Directories

Komotv.com reports: The days of unlisted cell phone numbers may be coming to an end, and those who don't want their cell phone privacy invaded must act soon.

A Bellevue-based company named Intelius is unveiling one of the nation's first cell phone directories, which means people could get your number without you knowing.

Intelius created the online directory by searching through dozens of public and available records. Those searching the online database are charged $14.95 per search.

So if your number is not yet on the Do Not Call list, the best way to protect your cell phone privacy is to sign up. full story

Bounder

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Barrister 'beat wedding guest senseless'

By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 2:43am BST 14/08/2007

"Dunn then allegedly began waving his appendage about 'in the belief that it was amusing or causing entertainment.'"

A drunken barrister who was best man at a wedding exposed himself to the bridesmaids before launching a "savage" and "ferocious" attack on a fellow guest after being confronted over his behaviour, a court was told.

Christopher Dunn, 40, who had earlier given a "disgusting" best man’s speech at the country hotel reception so offended the women and children around him that David Baird-Dean felt compelled to drag him away by the scruff of the neck.

Mr Baird-Dean, who inadvertently burst the buttons on his adversary's dress shirt and waistcoat, initially warned the lawyer that his behaviour warranted police being called to the Harewood Hall Hotel, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire.

advertisementBut he relented when Dunn went back to the table and offered his fellow guests an abject apology, a jury at Preston Crown Court was told.

Hours later, when the disturbance appeared to have dissipated, the lawyer allegedly squared up to Mr Baird-Dean, ushered him away to a sun terrace, and then launched a "savage" and "ferocious" attack upon him.

Richard Haworth, prosecuting, said that Dunn initially knocked his victim to the ground with two blows to the head.

He then knelt on his chest, pinned his arms to his sides, and punched him so violently and so frequently in the face that he lost consciousness.

He was trying to land yet more punches on his victim even as fellow guests dragged him away.

Mr Baird-Dean suffered such severe injuries that surgeons had to use metal plates and screws to reattach his upper jaw and both eye sockets to his skull.

The force used was comparable to that suffered in a high-speed car crash or inflicted in an attack with a baseball bat, Mr Haworth said.

The court heard how on July 1 last year Dunn had been invited to be one of two best men at a ceremony to reaffirm the wedding vows of Rosalind and Russell Poole 10 years after they were married.

It was a beautiful summer's day, and as the afternoon buffet wore on he moved to an outside table where most of the bridesmaids were sitting.

The group, many of whom were drinking pink champagne, started to talk about tattoos.

One guest noticed that Dunn had a tattoo which was partly visible through his dress shirt, and asked whether it depicted a white rose.

Mr Haworth told the jury: "The defendant replied 'I’ll show you a white rose'. At which point he unzipped his trousers and pulled out his penis."

Dunn then allegedly began waving his appendage about "in the belief that it was amusing or causing entertainment."

He had misjudged his audience, said Mr Haworth. All the guests who witnessed his performance took offence and Mr Baird-Dean moved in to remonstrate with him.

The 48-year-old mechanic was a few feet away when he heard his wife and two of the adult bridesmaids suddenly complaining that Dunn had exposed himself.

"I turned around and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were children at the table and I thought it was only right that I confront him about it.

"I moved quickly towards him and asked him to put it away. He didn’t react so I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

"I told him he was disgusting and that it was a wedding. I probably said quite a few other things. It just wasn’t something you would expect at a wedding, especially with him supposed to be the best man.

"He apologised to me, saying his child was ill, he'd had too much to drink, and that what he’d done wasn’t in his character.

"He said that because he was a barrister he couldn't bear the police being called.

"He asked whether if he apologised the police would not have to be called."

The guests duly accepted Dunn's apology and he and Mr Baird-Dean shook hands. However, as the evening wore on he began to boast to fellow guests about beating people up and "having scrapes with the law".

He claimed to have served with the SAS and on one occasion bitten a police dog while in Japan.

He became increasingly aggressive towards Mr Baird-Dean, blaming him for the fact that other guests were talking and laughing about him behind his back.

"He said he was going to get me later," Mr Baird-Dean told the jury.

"He said he was going to jump me."

When interviewed by police about the attack, Dunn claimed he had acted in self defence.

He had been "terrified" when Mr Baird-Dean began punching him, and responded by striking his assailant only four times.

Mr Haworth said the lawyer's account bore no resemblance to the Crown's case.

He alleged that he had sought to portray Mr Baird-Dean as the aggressor "because he realised the awful consequences of what he had done."

Dunn, of Morley, Leeds, denies a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

He has similarly pleaded not guilty to an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The trial continues.



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

Bridge collapse in China kills at least 22

The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

BEIJING: A bridge being built as a tourist attraction in central China has collapsed, killing at least 28 people, injuring 22 and leaving dozens missing, China Central Television reported Tuesday, but witnesses expected the death toll to rise substantially.

The official Xinhua press agency said that 86 people were rescued, including the 22 who were injured when the 320-meter, or 1,050-foot, bridge spanning the Tuo River in Hunan Province collapsed Monday. The cause of the collapse was under investigation, it said.

The 43-meter-high bridge in Fenghuang County had four decorative stone arches and was scheduled to open at the end of this month, Xinhua said. It collapsed as workers were removing scaffolding from its facade, it said.

CCTV showed bulldozers plowing through the rubble, overturning chunks of stone and concrete mixed in a tangle of steel reinforcement bars.

Xinhua said the governor of Hunan, Zhou Qiang, was at the scene overseeing rescue efforts. Most of the people working on the bridge were local farmers, the agency said.

"I was riding a bike with my husband, and we had just passed under the bridge and were about 50 meters away when it collapsed," said a witness, who would only gave her surname, Wu.

Another witness, Yang Shunzhong, said: "I saw a lot of bodies lying on the road; some of them were construction workers, and some were passers-by."

Xinhua said 123 workers were at the site of the bridge, which had been scheduled for completion this month. They had been "dismantling steel scaffolding erected during the construction process" at the bridge since mid-July, it added.

Xinhua said the bridge was built by Fengda, a company based in western Hunan, at a cost of 12 million yuan, or $1.58 million. It said the contractor was the provincial Road and Bridge Construction, or RBC.

The RBC construction manager, Xia Youjia, and project supervisor, Jiang Ping, had been detained for questioning, Xinhua reported.

Part of the bridge collapsed across a highway linking Fenghuang County to an airport in the Tongren region of neighboring Guizhou Province, according to a notice posted on the local government Web site on Tuesday.

In its annual report on road safety last year, the Ministry of Communications categorized 6,300 bridges as dangerous because of serious damage to structural components, The China Daily reported Tuesday.

[Taxes must not be high enough to maintain the Chinese infrastructure. That's the ticket!]

Hard Work

Byetta

Best of the Best: Today's Top Investment Ideas
ChangeWave Biotech: 'A love affair with Amylin'
Friday, 10 August 2007

“Right now I'm having a love affair with Amylin (NASDAQ: AMLN); frankly, you should be in love with it, too.” says Michael Shulman, editor of the industry-leading ChangeWave Biotech Investor.

“Not only is it up a whopping 169%+ since I put it on the Buy List, it's also a hidden-value play -- more so than at any time in the past year. Simply put, Amylin is a great pick for patient investor.”

”Amylin no longer appears sexy or hot to some investors. It has a market cap north of $5 billion and its two newest drugs have been on the market for a couple of years, so the story on the stock appears to be over in terms of upside potential, right?

”Wrong. Amylin is going to benefit in the coming months from a string of good news, beginning with the strong earnings it announced two weeks ago. The diabetes marketplace is exploding and Amylin is ‘the’ leading diabetes company.

”Its position is strengthened by the problems GlaxoSmithKline had with Avandia and AstraZeneca's removal of Galida (both diabetes drugs) from the approval process. AMLN's market share is expanding as the market itself is growing just as fast as American and European waistlines.

”Long-lasting Byetta LAR (aka, Exenatide LAR) is the once-a-week (versus twice-a-day) version of the company's blockbuster Byetta. Trial data is due out at the end of this year, and I believe performance and efficacy will be superior to the daily-dosing version of the drug. Injection via pen cartridge will also boost usage of the drug.

”Pramlintide for obesity is the first and only obesity drug that actually demonstrates ongoing weight loss, in trial, without hitting a plateau. It is now undergoing several trials on its own and in combination with other treatments, with data expected out at the end of this year.

”The company has a huge amount of cash -- just shy of $700 million -- and could be cash-flow positive if it didn't choose to pour so much money into research and development. Further, it can burn dough almost forever in support of its growth.

”Amylin not only has the right products, it also has the right marketing partner. Eli Lilly is a leader in the diabetes marketplace, and LLY has done everything right so far and should continue to do so.

”Why do I like AMLN so much, now? Because even though it appears fully valued, it is not, and the pause by investors in buying the stock is a great opportunity for us. I don't believe anything near the full value of Amylin's obesity treatment, pramlintide, is priced into the stock.

“Earnings next quarter and the following quarter will surprise many investors, and those people not in-the-know will be surprised and impressed with the Byetta LAR data that becomes available at year-end.

”The bottom line is: Buy it now and ride it over the bumps and dips. There are few rapid-growers with the kinds of upcoming catalysts that Amylin has, and there is also virtually no risk to AMLN's business.”

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Basic Tenets of the Elliott Wave Principle

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"The Wave Principle" is Ralph Nelson Elliott's discovery that social, or crowd, behavior trends and reverses in recognizable patterns. Using stock market data for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) as his main research tool, Elliott discovered that the ever-changing path of stock market prices reveals a structural design that in turn reflects a basic harmony found in nature. From this discovery, he developed a rational system of market analysis.

Under the Wave Principle, every market decision is both produced by meaningful information and produces meaningful information. Each transaction, while at once an effect, enters the fabric of the market and, by communicating transactional data to investors, joins the chain of causes of others' behavior. This feedback loop is governed by man's social nature, and since he has such a nature, the process generates forms. As the forms are repetitive, they have predictive value.

Elliott isolated thirteen "waves," or patterns of directional movement, that recur in markets and are repetitive in form, but are not necessarily repetitive in time or amplitude. He named, defined and illustrated the patterns. He then described how these structures link together to form larger versions of the same patterns, how those in turn are the building blocks for patterns of the next larger size, and so on. His descriptions constitute a set of empirically derived rules and guidelines for interpreting market action. The patterns that naturally occur under the Wave Principle are described here. . . .

Slow!

Forex Waves

Video: Learn To Deal With Market Corrections
8/10/2007 3:59:09 PM

Elliott Wave International's Chief Currency Strategist, Jim Martens, has just posted his latest weekly video. This one explains the basics of Elliott wave corrective patterns – and more importantly, shows you how to transition from one pattern to the other, if needed.

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