How to Spot a Liar

link

Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006
How to Spot a Liar
THE U.S. IS POURING MILLIONS INTO NEW LIE-DETECTION TECHNOLOGIES, PEERING INTO MINDS IN WAYS THAT COULD MAKE ANYBODY NERVOUS
By JEFFREY KLUGER, COCO MASTERS

Few things are easier than telling a lie, and few things are harder than spotting one when it's told to us. We've been trying to suss out liars ever since Cain fibbed to God about murdering Abel. While God was not fooled--hearing the blood of Abel crying out from the land--the rest of us do not have such divine lie-detection gifts.

But that doesn't mean we're not trying. In the post-9/11 world, where anyone with a boarding pass and a piece of carry-on is a potential menace, the need is greater than ever for law enforcement's most elusive dream: a simple technique that can expose a liar as dependably as a blood test can identify DNA or a Breathalyzer can nail a drunk. Quietly over the past five years, Department of Defense agencies and the Department of Homeland Security have dramatically stepped up the hunt. Though the exact figures are concealed in the classified "black budget," tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars are believed to have been poured into lie-detection techniques as diverse as infrared imagers to study the eyes, scanners to peer into the brain, sensors to spot liars from a distance, and analysts trained to scrutinize the unconscious facial flutters that often accompany a falsehood.

At last they may be getting somewhere. Next month No Lie MRI of San Diego, a beneficiary of some of that federal largesse, will roll out a brain-scan lie-detection service it is marketing to government and industry. Another company, Cephos of Pepperell, Mass., hopes to follow within a few years.

Even as those outfits ramp up, however, civil libertarians are sounding warnings. It's one thing for airport screeners to peek inside your shoes or squeeze your toothpaste tube. It's another when they pull you aside for questioning because you set off alarms on some scanning device whose reliability could be shaky. And who knows what techniques are already . . .

Newspaperindex.com

wow!

The best online newspapers in all countries

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The future of the largest free media database
Using this service is easy but it is not free

I host a lot of traffic and thereby direct people to news sources of high quality. I try to keep this as both a non-profit and a non-bankrupt project.

I believe that a service like this should be easy to use, have a professional design and be hosted on the best conditions possible concerning safety, speed and accessibility. I am going there, but it is expensive.

Please consider donating an amount to keep Newspaperindex.com free, fast and functional. PayPal now accepts all credit cards, and all donors will be listed here with a web link - if you wish. Another thing you can do is to link to newspaperindex, tip your friends or send me som suggestions about how to make this site better. - And take a look at the blog.

Farecast.com

Farecast.com link
using technology developed at the University of Washington to let air travelers know whether fares are going up or down.

KnowledgeManagement Digest

Send KnowledgeManagement mailing list submissions to
knowledgemanagement@lists.kmpro.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit


or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
knowledgemanagement-request@lists.kmpro.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
knowledgemanagement-owner@lists.kmpro.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of KnowledgeManagement digest..."


Today's Topics:

1. KMPro Advisory Board Appointments (Dr. Dan Kirsch)


------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 23:02:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Dr. Dan Kirsch"
Subject: [KnowledgeManagement] KMPro Advisory Board Appointments
To: xxxxx@actkm.org
Message-ID: <50583.72.255.42.200.1156129331.xxxxx@kmpro.org>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1

August 20, 2006
Washington, DC, USA

The Knowledge Management Professional Society (KMPro) has announced the appointment of Hubert Saint -Onge to its Advisory Board.

KMPro is a non-profit international professional society headquartered in the Washington, DC, USA area with members in 88 countries worldwide. KMPro serves the professional needs of the international KM community by promoting KM awareness, support & development of KM best practices, and advancement of KM research and development.

The Advisory Board, which consists of knowledge management gurus, luminaries and thought leaders, is intended to support KMPro's role in serving the professional needs of the international KM community and will allow for KMPro leadership to gain the benefit of their guidance on governance, stewardship and setting the direction for the organization.

KMPro's Advisory Board includes the following KMPro members who have volunteered to serve in this capacity:

- Kurt April
- Nick Bontis
- Tom Davenport
- Leif Edvinsson
- Kent Greenes
- Clyde Holsapple
- David Skyrme
- Amrit Tiwana
- Etienne Wenger
- Michael Zack

KMPro is grateful that these distinguished KM leaders are willing to kindly give of their time and to provide their collective advice on how KMPro can best work to fulfill our mission and vision.

Dr. Dan Kirsch, CPC, CKM, MKMP, CKMI?
KMPro Chief Operating Officer & Board Member
http://KMPro.org
01-757-460-6500
------------------------------
____________________________________
KnowledgeManagement mailing list
KnowledgeManagement@lists.kmpro.org



End of KnowledgeManagement Digest, Vol 13, Issue 2
******************************

Bypass Registration

link

What's this all about then?
BugMeNot.com was created as a mechanism to quickly bypass the login of web sites that require compulsory registration and/or the collection of personal/demographic information (such as the New York Times).

How do I use this thing?
Please read the brief tutorial.

I want to create some fake accounts but I need a valid email account.
That's where the most excellent dodgeit / mailinator / spamgourmet / spambob / wuzup services come in. They'll let you easily provide dummy email addresses that you can still check.

Hands Across the Sea

link

Venice bank reports bogus checks
Tampa Bay Business Journal - 12:28 PM EDT Thursday

Community National Bank of Sarasota County told federal regulators that counterfeit checks issued in the bank's name are being presented for payment in connection with an Internet purchase scam.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the counterfeit items can be identified because the instruments are cream in color, the bank's logo appears faded, the word "No." does not appear in front of the check number, the reverse side of the check contains endorsement instructions, lines for signatures and the words "Federal Reserve Board of Governor Reg. CC."


The checks use correct routing and account numbers and are being presented for payment locally and nationally, the OCC said in a release.

The bank, which is based in Venice, has been informed by law enforcement that the checks are originating out of Ghana, Africa, according to the OCC.

That's not a pretty picture

Information Governance Engagement Area

Data Mining Means Always Having to Say You're Sorry

The rise of Internet databases means expunged records never really go away.

By Julie KayDaily, Business Review

In 1999, a 20-year old college student was arrested for petty theft in Miami-Dade County after stealing a shirt from J.C. Penney.

Like most first-time offenders, the young man completed a pretrial diversionary program, performed community service, paid a fine and got his case dismissed. The record was expunged. He never got into any more trouble with the law.

Seven years later, the man applied for a job and was turned down.

Curious about why, he checked his record on Westlaw, an Eagan, Minn.-based legal database company, and was shocked to find that the supposedly expunged record of his misdemeanor appeared on Westlaw's widely available computerized database. He immediately called his lawyer, Kenneth Hassett of Miami.

Hassett told the client, who did not want to be identified for this article, what he tells many of his clients who have called him with the same complaint -- that the computerized record systems of the Miami-Dade clerk of courts, Florida Department of Corrections and Florida Department of Law Enforcement are "not secure" and that expungement has become meaningless.

"In the electronic and Internet age, sealing or expunging in many cases just doesn't exist," he said.

The Miami-Dade County Enterprise Technology Services Department sells criminal records information to four data mining companies, including Atlanta-based ChoicePoint, the largest provider of data information in the country. The other three are Seisent, Court Venture and First American SafeRent.

The records sold include daily electronic bulletins of jail bookings and a biweekly file of all defendants charged with felonies or misdemeanors, according to Ronald Feingold, a county systems analyst.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Stanford Blake, administrative head of the court's criminal division, said it is inappropriate for the county to sell information about cases that were supposed to be expunged.

Knock Off Knews

Counterfeit Chic

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.
- Oscar Wilde

Knock Off Knews

Counterfeit Chic

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.
- Oscar Wilde

Spherion starts career Web log

South Florida Business Journal - 9:36 AM EDT Wednesday
Spherion Corp. has entered the blogosphere.

The Fort Lauderdale-based staffing company said it has begun a blog for the the career-minded called The Big Time.


Found at www.spherion.com/careerblog, the online journal is aimed at workers looking to advance their careers.

It is to feature regular posts from the Spherion's (NYSE: SFN) network of recruitment professionals and employment experts nationwide.

Content is to include commentary as well as advice from Seymour Jobs, an interactive - but fictional - career adviser.

Visitors are to be able to post questions and comments.

Among the topics The Big Time is to address are achieving work/life balance and geographic career trends.

An ongoing cartoon series is to be called Life in the Cubicle.

"Our goal with The Big Time was to create a central, interactive resource on the Web where job seekers can not only glean career-advancing insights from our various recruiters, but have an opportunity to connect with them and share their ideas and experiences directly," said Roy Krause, Spherion president and chief executive officer.

Krause is to post his own occasional entries to The Big Time.

How to Detect Lies

link



Watching facial expressions in order to determine whether a person is lying might just save you from being a victim of fraud, or it could help you figure out when somebody's being genuine. Jury analysts do this when assisting in jury selection. The police do this during an interrogation. A lie detector of course does this, but is a little heavy to carry with you. Therefore, you have to learn the little facial and body expressions that can help you learn to recognize a lie from the truth.

read more...

support and resistance

link

3/17/2004 12:22:47 PM

We have added a new feature that automatically finds support and resistance lines. This will allow you to search for stocks that have either broken or testing these levels.

A couple examples showing how to use this new feature:


Fetcher[show stocks where high is below support(65,10,1)]



Fetcher[show stocks where close 1 day ago crossed above resistance(45,15,2)
and close is below resistance(45,15,2)
and resistance slope(45,15,2) is below 0]



Fetcher[show stocks where high is less than 0.01% below resistance(65,10)
and resistance(65,10) is above 0]


There are 3 parameters to the support and resistance feature. Below is an explanation of the parameters:


Period - Amount of time to search for support or resistance.

Min Distance - Minimum number of days required between two points making up support or resistance.

Open Period - Number of days at the end of the chart to allow for breaking of support or resistance.

You can also access the support or resistance slope through the phrases support slope or resistance slope. The slope can further refine whether you want an increasing or decreasing line for the support or resistance.

As with all new features, please let us know if you run into any bugs, have any questions, or would like to see any enhancements with this feature.

Thank you,

StockFetcher.com Support

confused

link

Communications and Marketing
Controvery continues on extent of blogs value in communications
Business First of Columbus - August 11, 2006
by Tom Matthews
For Business First

Every day, we're inundated with stories about new media, ranging from blogs and podcasts to social networking sites and wikis. Blogs, which started to take hold in the mid-'90s, continue to be a topic of interest among business executives and communications professionals. But most often, we found ourselves confused about their purpose, influence and their future.

Short for Web logs, these online diaries are everywhere, spanning industries and varying in design and activity. Technorati Inc., a well-known blog search engine, tracks more than 46 million blogs and suggests the number of blogs doubles every six months.

High profile companies, such as General Motors . . .

Apple loses court appeal against online journalists

link
May 26, 2006 5:10 pm ET
MacCentral

By Jim Dalrymple

Apple Computer’s case to obtain communication between unnamed sources that allegedly leaked information to two Internet sites was dealt a blow on Friday. The judge in the State of California Court of Appeal 6th Appellate District agreed with lawyers for PowerPage and AppleInsider who argued that the confidentiality of sources for the online journalists were protected by the First Amendment.

“Today’s decision is a victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl, who argued the case before the appeals court last month. “The court has upheld the strong protections for the free flow of information to the press, and from the press to the public.”

The EFF’s case held that the online journalists have the same right to protect the confidentiality of their sources as offline reporters do. . . .

But see "What Reporter's Privilege" below.

WorldCat Beta

PowerPoints on Trading

link

To view the Online Manual and support materials that corresponds to your Trade Secrets product:
Choose from one of the selection boxes below based on Author or Title
Enter your email address
Click "Go"

Pierced and Tattooooooed

The Modified Librarian
Librarianship and the art of Body Modification [sic]

Welcome to the web page of the Modified Librarian. Here we will discuss the concept and practice of body modification as it relates to librarians as persons and professionals.

On this page we will provide a forum for the discussion of body modification in the context of librarianship. All library professionals and paraprofessionals alike are invited to contribute pictures of their tattoos, piercings and other modifications along with their stories. . . .

And you thought librarians were intelligent people. ed.

CLE compiler

link

ConEd - Continuing Education Tracking System (EverythingRE.com) $7.95
Do you work in a profession that requires continuing education like Real Estate, Accounting, Law, Teaching, etc.? ConEd tracks your continuing education classes and credits/hours. It even keeps track of progress towards your continuing education goals

Not Censorship But Selection

linkBy Lester Asheim

THERE IS AN AMUSING WORD GAME with which many of you are familiar in which the object is to trace an action, a point of view, or a characteristic through the gamut of its connotations from the most to the least acceptable. The point of the game is that the most admirable aspect of the characteristic is always assigned by the speaker to himself, whereas the least attractive aspect is taken to be that which characterizes somebody else. Thus, "I know the value of a dollar; he is miserly." To many, the title of my paper would seem to reflect a similar tendency. I select but he censors. . . .

Texas--gotta love it!!

The owner of a golf course in Lufkin was confused about paying an
invoice, so he decided to ask his secretary for some mathematical
help. He called her into his office and said, "You graduated from
The University of Texas and I need some help. If I were to give
you $20,000, minus 14%, how much would you take off?" The
secretary thought a moment, then replied, "Everything but my
earrings." You gotta love those East Texas women.

***************************************
A group of Tyler friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos
for the day. That night, one of the hunters returned alone,
staggering under the weight of an eight-point buck. "Where's
Henry?" the others asked. "Henry had a stroke of some kind. He's a
couple of miles back up the trail," the successful hunter
replied. "You left Henry laying out there and carried the deer
back?" they inquired. "A tough call," nodded the hunter. "But I
figured no one is going to steal Henry!"

*************************************
A senior at Texas A&M was overheard saying. "When the end of the
world comes, I hope to be in East Texas. When asked why, he
replied he'd rather be in East Texas because everything happens in
East Texas 20 years later than in the rest of the civilized world.

************************************
The young man from Texas A&M came running into the store and said
to his buddy, "Bubba, somebody just stole your pickup truck from
the parking lot!"
Bubba replied, "Did you see who it was?"
The young man answered, "I couldn't tell, but I got the license
number."

***********************************
NEWS FLASH! -Brian/College Station's worst disaster occurred when
a small two-seater Cessna 150 plane, piloted by two Texas A&M
students, crashed into a cemetery earlier today. Search and Rescue
workers have recovered 300 bodies so far and expect the number to
climb as digging continues into the evening. The pilot and copilot
survived! and are helping in the recovery efforts.

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

A Texas State trooper pulled over a pickup on I-20.
The trooper asked, "Got any ID?"
The driver replied, "Bout whut?"

*************************************
A man in Tyler had a flat tire, pulled off on the side of the
road, and proceeded to put a bouquet of flowers in front of the
car and one behind it. Then he got back in the car to wait. A
passerby studied the scene as he drove by and was so curious he
turned around and went back. He asked the fellow what the problem
was. The man replied, "I have a flat tire." The passerby
asked, "But what's with the flowers?" The man responded, "When you
break down they tell you to put flares in the front and flares in
the back! I never did understand it either."

Privacy, schmivacy!

link


August 9, 2006
A Face Is Exposed for AOL Searcher No. 4417749
By MICHAEL BARBARO and TOM ZELLER Jr.

Buried in a list of 20 million Web search queries collected by AOL and recently released on the Internet is user No. 4417749. The number was assigned by the company to protect the searcher’s anonymity, but it was not much of a shield.

No. 4417749 conducted hundreds of searches over a three-month period on topics ranging from “numb fingers” to “60 single men” to “dog that urinates on everything.”

And search by search, click by click, the identity of AOL user No. 4417749 became easier to discern. There are queries for “landscapers in Lilburn, Ga,” several people with the last name Arnold and “homes sold in shadow lake subdivision gwinnett county georgia.”

It did not take much investigating to follow that data trail to Thelma Arnold, a 62-year-old widow who lives in Lilburn, Ga., frequently researches her friends’ medical ailments and loves her three dogs. “Those are my searches,” she said, after a reporter read part of the list to her.

AOL removed the search data from its site over the weekend and apologized for its release, saying it was an unauthorized move by a team that had hoped it would benefit academic researchers.

But the detailed records of searches conducted by Ms. Arnold and 657,000 other Americans, copies of which continue to circulate online, underscore how much people unintentionally reveal about themselves when they use search engines — and how risky it can be for companies like AOL, Google and Yahoo to compile such data.

Those risks have long pitted privacy advocates against online marketers and other Internet companies seeking to profit from the Internet’s unique ability to track the comings and goings of users, allowing for more focused and therefore more lucrative advertising.

But the unintended consequences of all that data being compiled, stored and cross-linked are what Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group in Washington, called “a ticking privacy time bomb.”

Mr. Rotenberg pointed to Google’s own joust earlier this year with the Justice Department over a subpoena for some of its search data. The company successfully fended off the agency’s demand in court, but several other search companies, including AOL, complied. The Justice Department sought the information to help it defend a challenge to a law that is meant to shield children from sexually explicit material.

“We supported Google at the time,” Mr. Rotenberg said, “but we also said that it was a mistake for Google to be saving so much information because it creates a risk.”

Ms. Arnold, who agreed to discuss her searches with a reporter, said she was shocked to hear that AOL had saved and published three months’ worth of them. “My goodness, it’s my whole personal life,” she said. “I had no idea somebody was looking over my shoulder.”

In the privacy of her four-bedroom home, Ms. Arnold searched for the answers to scores of life’s questions, big and small. How could she buy “school supplies for Iraq children”? What is the “safest place to live”? What is “the best season to visit Italy”?

Her searches are a catalog of intentions, curiosity, anxieties and quotidian questions. There was the day in May, for example, when she typed in “termites,” then “tea for good health” then “mature living,” all within a few hours.

Her queries mirror millions of those captured in AOL’s database, which reveal the concerns of expectant mothers, cancer patients, college students and music lovers. User No. 2178 searches for “foods to avoid when breast feeding.” No. 3482401 seeks guidance on “calorie counting.” No. 3483689 searches for the songs “Time After Time” and “Wind Beneath My Wings.”

At times, the searches appear to betray intimate emotions and personal dilemmas. No. 3505202 asks about “depression and medical leave.” No. 7268042 types “fear that spouse contemplating cheating.”

There are also many thousands of sexual queries, along with searches about “child porno” and “how to kill oneself by natural gas” that raise questions about what legal authorities can and should do with such information.

But while these searches can tell the casual observer — or the sociologist or the marketer — much about the person who typed them, they can also prove highly misleading.

At first glace, it might appear that Ms. Arnold fears she is suffering from a wide range of ailments. Her search history includes “hand tremors,” “nicotine effects on the body,” “dry mouth” and “bipolar.” But in an interview, Ms. Arnold said she routinely researched medical conditions for her friends to assuage their anxieties. Explaining her queries about nicotine, for example, she said: “I have a friend who needs to quit smoking and I want to help her do it.”

Asked about Ms. Arnold, an AOL spokesman, Andrew Weinstein, reiterated the company’s position that the data release was a mistake. “We apologize specifically to her,” he said. “There is not a whole lot we can do.”

Mr. Weinstein said he knew of no other cases thus far where users had been identified as a result of the search data, but he was not surprised. “We acknowledged that there was information that could potentially lead to people being identified, which is why we were so angry.”

AOL keeps a record of each user’s search queries for one month, Mr. Weinstein said. This allows users to refer back to previous searches and is also used by AOL to improve the quality of its search technology. The three-month data that was released came from a special system meant for AOL’s internal researchers that does not record the users’ AOL screen names, he said.

Several bloggers claimed yesterday to have identified other AOL users by examining data, while others hunted for particularly entertaining or shocking search histories. Some programmers made this easier by setting up Web sites that let people search the database of searches.

John Battelle, the author of the 2005 book “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture,” said AOL’s misstep, while unfortunate, could have a silver lining if people began to understand just what was at stake. In his book, he says search engines are mining the priceless “database of intentions” formed by the world’s search requests.

“It’s only by these kinds of screw-ups and unintended behind-the-curtain views that we can push this dialogue along,” Mr. Battelle said. “As unhappy as I am to see this data on people leaked, I’m heartened that we will have this conversation as a culture, which is long overdue.”

Ms. Arnold says she loves online research, but the disclosure of her searches has left her disillusioned. In response, she plans to drop her AOL subscription. “We all have a right to privacy,” she said. “Nobody should have found this all out.”

Saul Hansell contributed reporting for this article.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

US celebrities 'sue in Britain for better chance of winning'

liable for libel

By Caroline Davies

(Filed: 09/08/2006)

American celebrities are choosing to sue newspapers for libel in British courts because they have a better chance of winning here than in the US, claim leading lawyers.

Legal experts say libel laws on this side of the Atlantic are much more favourable to claimants as malice does not have to be proved and there is no constitutional right to freedom of expression.

The actress Kate Hudson and pop singer Britney Spears are among the stars who have successfully pursued claims in the United Kingdom, helping to double the number of defamation cases heard in Britain last year . . .

Mr Benaim explained: "It is easier for US-based celebrities to sue for defamation in the English courts than in their own country as our libel laws are much more favourable to claimants. For instance, in the UK you do not have to prove malice as you do in America.

"Also, the right to freedom of expression is enshrined in the US constitution under the First Amendment, whereas here the right is more evenly balanced with the individual's right to their reputation. . . .

Housing slowdown leads to boom in mini-storage units

San Francisco Business Times

2:36 PM PDT Tuesday
by Mark Calvey

Rising interest rates and concerns over the direction of housing prices are prompting more potential home buyers to remain on the sidelines, spurring increased demand not only for apartments but for mini-storage units as well, said Hans Lapping, an attorney with Miller, Starr & Regalia in Walnut Creek.

Rising demand for storage space, in part from people losing their homes to foreclosure, is a key factor in the proliferation of mini-storage operations, Lapping told investors attending a seminar Tuesday on the basics of real estate investing . . .

Avian Flu Policy

link

Pandemic flu like symptoms.

Phishing and Pharming

link

schemes

Huh? What 'Reporter's Privilege'?

Rules of Evidence
U.S. Wins Access to Reporter Phone Records

. . . the government contended that calls from the reporters tipped off the charities to impending raids and asset seizures, the investigation appears . . .

. . . wrote for majority, in an opinion joined by Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse. “We see no danger to a free press in so holding. Learning of imminent law enforcement asset freezes/searches and informing targets of them is not an activity essential, or even common, to journalism.”

We've said this before. The only privileges in the Rules of Evidence belong to the clients of professional counsellors or advisers. The privilege is the client's to waive or defend. In Journalism, who is the client?

"Press Freedom" protects Matt Drudge as much as it protects Dan Rather.

Weekly GPO CONGRESSIONAL SALES PUBLICATIONS

LLSDC GPO CONGRESSIONAL SALES PUBLICATIONS: JULY
31-AUGUST 4, 2006

The following thirty-four publications were announced
by the GPO Congressional Sales Program (202-512-1809)
July 31-August 4, 2006, and transcribed by the Law
Librarians' Society of Washington, D.C. Legislative
Research SIS Volunteers ....

:

HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE Hearing: Public Reporting of
Hospital-Acquired Infection Rates: Empowering
Consumers, Saving Lives. March 29, 2006. Serial No.
109-85. GPO Stock No. 552-070-34505-1. $35.00. GPO
Access
http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/house/house05ch109.html

HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hearing: Democracy in
Venezuela. Serial No. 109-140. GPO Stock No.
552-070-34502-7. $16.00. PDF
http://www.house.gov/international_relations/109/24600.pdf
via Committee only

HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hearing: The Illicit
Drug Transit Zone in Central America. November 9,
2005. Serial No. 109-139. GPO Stock No.
552-070-34494-2. $8.00. PDF
http://www.house.gov/international_relations/109/24517.pdf
via Committee site

HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hearing: Nigeria's
Struggle With Corruption. May 18, 2006. Serial No.
109-172. GPO Stock No. 552-070-34495-1. $9.00. PDF
http://wwwc.house.gov/international_relations/109/27648.PDF
via Committee site

HOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Hearing: United States
Policy Toward the Palestinians in the Aftermath of
Parliamentary Elections. March 2, 2006. Serial No. 109
-166. GPO Stock No. 552-070-34477-2. $6.50. PDF
http://www.house.gov/international_relations/109/26332.pdf
via Committee site only

HOUSE SCIENCE Hearing: Health Care Information
Technology: What are the Opportunities for and
Barriers to Inter-Operable Health Information
Technology Systems? February 23, 2005. Serial No.
109-37. GPO Stock No. 552-070-34486-1. $22.00. GPO
Access
http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house/house14ch109.html

Worth Knowing

link

Subject: FYI: Treaties in Force & U.S. Treaties no longer in print
Cross posted to the listservs GovDoc-L and Law-Lib

A State Department staff member called to inform me that the publication Treaties in Force and the publication Treaties and Other International Agreements Series will no longer be published in print but will only be available on the State Department's website at http://www.state.gov/s/l/treaty/. No word on whether the site will be maintained in perpetuity.

Rick McKinney
Assistant Law Librarian
Federal Reserve Board Law Library

The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America

State of Emergency:

by Pat Buchanan

Civilizations die by suicide, not murder, says Patrick Buchanan, and liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide. Its ideas, pursued to their logical end, will prove fatal. And none of those ideas is as certain to bring our civilization to an unhappy end as the proposition that America's borders must be open to any and all comers, legal and illegal. In State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, Buchanan explains why the very life of our nation is at stake in the immigration debate. If immigration and border controls aren't reintroduced, it will be the end of America as we know it -- and soon.

Buchanan explains why the massive influx of illegal immigrants into America is nothing less than an invasion -- and yet the Bush White House and GOP-controlled Congress appear disinclined to do anything about it. He details how our current policy of "open borders" and nearly unrestricted immigration have brought a stream of criminals and thugs into our nation -- for the benefit only of an entrenched political establishment that couldn't care less about the good of the American people. He explodes myth after myth about illegal immigration -- including President Bush's notorious statement that illegal aliens "do jobs Americans won't do" and the idea that foreigners somehow have a natural right to come to America.

Nor will all this be an easy problem to solve. Buchanan demonstrates that any presidential candidate who speaks out against the Hispanic onslaught in the American Southwest will now lose the electoral votes of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Soon, electoral realities will make it impossible for any serious candidate to speak out against unrestrained immigration. Yet, he points out, if it wanted to, the U.S. Government could secure the Mexican border within weeks -- and details the political reasons why this won't happen, despite the fact that immigration control measures have consistently won large margins of support from American voters.

America, says Buchanan, could soon be facing its last chance to stave off national suicide. In State of Emergency, he provides a comprehensive primer for all politicians, activists, and concerned citizens who want to stop the flood of immigration before it's too late.

How illegal immigration threatens every American:

Fact: our illegal population today is greater than the total number of Irish, Jewish, and British immigrants who ever came to the U.S.

Why the reigning Republicans ignore the law and do little or nothing to stop illegal immigration

How mass immigration inevitably tilts the center of gravity of American politics to the Left

How the numbers of Americans of European descent are rapidly decreasing -- and the political and social implications

Eurabia on the rise: the devastating consequences of unrestricted immigration in Europe

How Los Angeles today provides a glimpse of what all of America will be like in 2050

Why Mexico's President Fox has done nothing to help secure the U.S.-Mexican border -- and has actually abetted the invasion of the U.S. by millions of illegal aliens

Fact: not only are arguments about the economic benefits provided by illegal aliens false, but illegal immigration also constitutes a massive drain on our economy

The Mexican War is not over: its deep impact on contemporary immigration politics

Why it is difficult, if not impossible, for cities to get control of the growing crime menace of immigrants and illegal aliens

Latin elites that are doing everything they can to prevent the assimilation of Mexican immigrants into American culture

Bush's guest worker plan: how it provoked a surge to the border

How, as Republicans dither, some Democrats are beginning to see the potency among voters of the illegal immigration issue

Why so many children of Asian-American and Hispanic immigrants are assimilating into a deadly subculture of gangs and crime

How we must recapture control of immigration policy from politicians paralyzed by fear of ethnic lobbies and cultural contributors, or immobilized by ideology

Why ideology and democracy are not enough to save America -- and what we need most now to trump the call of ethnicity

Six critical steps that must be taken now to secure America's borders and preserve he republic

McM

link

Stock Market
The stock market continued to rise this week, without a lot of help from technical indicators. But we always say that price action is the best technical indicator, so it must be respected. $SPX managed to close above resistance at 1280. There is still some resistance, at the 1290 May top. If it should exceed that, the chart formation would be a rather bullish one, and we would then look for higher prices. However, since the entire 1280-1290 range must be considered a resistance area, we are not looking to get long at this time.

Equity-only put-call ratios remain on sell signals. It is unusual to see them continue to rise as the market itself is rising. When this happens (both the put-call ratio and the underlying price rising in
conjunction), it usually means that the put-call ratio signal is unreliable that there is considerable hedging activity which is distorting the put- call data. In this case, however, we are talking about ALL stock options that trade, so there would have to be a LOT of hedging activity to distort the ratio. Perhaps there is, because put volume has been heavy for several weeks even though the market has generally been rising.

Market breadth (advances minus declines) is positive. Actually, it follows the daily moves with extreme daily readings of its own, because of rather uniform institutional activity.

Finally, volatility indices ($VIX and $VXO) have remained rather subdued for the most part. Their continued downtrend over the last few weeks means that they remain on buy signals.

So, in summary, we see buy signals from $VIX and breadth, but the put-call ratios are negative (although there may be hedging distortion there). Finally, $SPX itself is modestly bullish, and a close above 1290 would be a much more bullish sign.

Potential news items may be complicating things: 1) the unemployment report on Friday is sure to appear bullish to some traders and bearish to others (it's the classic case of 'bad news is good news' if
job growth is sluggish), and 2) many traders are become more and more certain that the Fed will not raise rates at next week's FOMC meeting. If they are right, this might be a classic case of 'buy the rumor, sell the news.' That is, the market might actually decline right after that meeting if a 'pause' is announced. Of course, if rates are raised, that would be even more negative. Consequently, even if $SPX breaks out over 1290, some amount of caution should be used.

Earnings Play

Jerri's system:
1. Quick Straddle Instructions

2. How to...

3. EggsSample

The Knowledge-Model Driven Enterprise

link

Requirements
. . . We argue that a centralized metadata repository offers the best way to bridge this information gap and to provide a consistent, reusable model of the external perspective on an enterprise. What are the principal technical requirements for the repository? . . .

Another potential stumbling block is the challenge of gaining consensus on very basic issues. At our first customer, for example, we were surprised to learn that there was no single, clear answer to the question “What is the structure of the company’s product line?” Project managers should factor in the time and effort required to put issues like these to rest, and should ensure that the right resources (in terms of facilitators, subject matter experts, and executives) are available to guide these efforts.

Reuse is fundamental to obtaining return on metadata projects. After all, a robust metadata model is inherently complex when compared with classic relational database techniques. In many cases, any single element of the metadata model could be represented more simply in standard normalized tables. It is only when models can be reused and integrated with other elements of the data model that the greater complexity of the metadata approach is warranted. Plans to acquire metadata should be made with a view towards the support of multiple applications that will use it.

From a modeling perspective, the basic concepts of the object-oriented paradigm have become familiar and instinctive to most end users. The use of taxonomies to organize and classify objects has also become intuitive, probably through the standard computer file-system interface. We have found that modeling techniques based on these elements are easily learned by non-technical staff. However, more advanced concepts from the world of knowledge representation are not comprehensible to the non-specialist. If non-experts are expected to maintain the metadata model over time, their skill levels and availability must be considered in choosing modeling tools. . . .

Why we must give up flying

link

(Filed: 29/07/2006)Page 1 of 4
The Bishop of London argued this week that we have a moral obligation to be environmentally friendly and that jetting away for a holiday is a sin. The geographer and journalist Nicholas Crane, who chose nearly 10 years ago never to fly again, explains his decision.


A man of courage has spoken. The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, has categorised flying as "a symptom of sin". The pressure on non-essential flying has been building for months. It just needed a public figure to take a stand against it.
. . .

Postage

post card usa .24
post card overseas .75
letter usa .39
letter overseas .84

Paris beach ban rules thongs to be beyond the pale

If there are any young lovelies out there who would like to sunbathe, this blogger will happily cover the 38 euro fine!

link

By Colin Randall in Paris

(Filed: 31/07/2006)

A threat to impose spot fines on women who sunbathe topless or in thongs on Paris Plage, a summer beach on the banks of the Seine, has left the city's mayor struggling to maintain his carefully nurtured image as a modern civic chief.

The penalty for going nude, topless or in a thong is 38 euros (£26). No fines have yet been imposed

In a country where going topless on real beaches is almost de rigueur, incredulity has greeted news that city hall officials and police have been moving among sunbathers, warning them of the ban on "indecent" dress.

What is especially embarrassing for Bertrand Delanoë, Paris's openly homosexual mayor, is that Paris Plage, now in its fifth year, is intended to reproduce the ambience of a Mediterranean beach.

"Sand, sunbeds, parasols," sighed the tabloid daily Le Parisien. "On the beach along the Seine, Bertrand Delanoë has deployed the full panoply of the perfect seaside postcard.

"But beware, it is a beach only in name and those who want sun-bronzed bottoms are unwelcome."

The major proudly describes Paris Plage as an attraction not only for tourists but for Parisians too poor to join the summer exodus to the coast.

The riverside highway is closed to traffic and covered by 2,000 tons of fine sand. The beach stretches for more than two miles and is dotted with palm trees and cafes.

But the order forbidding the exposure of flesh declares: "Behaviour must conform to good morals, tranquillity, safety and public order."

The penalty for going nude, topless or in a thong is 38 euros (£26). No fines have yet been imposed but the beach does not close until Aug 20.

City officials insist that the rule dates from Paris Plage's origins in 2002.

But one assistant mayor, Pascal Cherki, was ridiculed by Le Parisien for suggesting that inappropriate clothing worn so close to a river "could provoke dangerous temptations and behaviour".

Mr Delanoë was already under fire for launching an operation to remove tramps' tents, ostensibly for health reasons but widely seen as an attempt to sweep away signs of poverty and squalor from the chic riverside.

The Mouths of Babes

link

Mother dearest

We've all had moments of mortification caused by our mothers. But what if your mother is one of the most famous women in the world - with a tendency to cavort naked with a riding crop?

It's no surprise to hear that Madonna's nine-year-old daughter, Lourdes, was recently appalled by her mother's day job. "After seeing my video, Hung Up, she remarked: 'Yuk, that's disgusting. Why are you behaving like that?' " says the Queen Mummy of Pop. "She's even asked me if I am gay. She'd seen me kiss Britney Spears [at the MTV awards] and I tried to explain, saying: 'No darling, I kissed her to give her my energy'."

But Lourdes's perceptive reaction showed a maturity beyond her years: "Don't make me laugh," she scoffed.

Five Feet Under

Now you can't cuddle a conger

By Richard Alleyne

(Filed: 29/07/2006)

A charity game in which people try to knock each other over with a 5ft conger eel has been banned after animal rights activists complained that it was "disrespectful" to the dead fish.

Conger cuddling has been staged annually for more than 30 years at the harbour in Lyme Regis, Dorset, as a fund-raising event for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Teams stand on 6in high wooden blocks and others take it in turns to swing a 25lb eel at them. The team with the most people left standing at the end wins.

However, animal activists threatened to film the event and use the footage to start a national campaign against it.

Rob Michael, the chairman of the Lyme Lifeboat Guild, said: "We have been advised by the RNLI headquarters at Poole to abandon the conger cuddling event following a local complaint from animal rights activists.

"The RNLI is not prepared to be involved in an event that may be seen by some to be a barbaric throwback due to its use of a dead animal."

A rubber buoy may be now used instead of an eel.

Ken Whetlor, the mayor of Lyme Regis, said: "The writer of that letter is a gutless troublemaker with nothing better to do than stop people enjoying an innocent event that helps to raise money to save lives. I cannot see how using a dead conger eel landed by a local fisherman is unethical."

Foreign Exchange

You know, as ANTONIS A. DEMOS and CHARLES A. E. GOODHART always like to say:

There is an empirical relationship between volatility, average spread, and number of quotations in the foreign exchange spot market. The estimation procedure involves two steps. In the Þrst one the optimal functional form between these variables is determined through a maximization procedure of the unrestricted VAR, involving the BoxÐCox transformation. The second step uses the two-stage least squares method to estimate the transformed variables in a simultaneous equation system framework. The results indicate that the number of quotations successfully approximates activity in the spot market. Furthermore, the number of quotations and temporal dummies reduce signiÞcantly the conditional heteroskedasticity e¤ect. We also discuss information aspects of the model as well as its implications for Þnancial informational theories. Inter- and intra-day patterns of the three variables are also revealed.

It's true. Who knew?

Selling Keywords for Ads an Infringement

link to the opinion
Oh boy! This has got to be trouble!

Volume 72 Number 1779
Friday, July 28, 2006 Page 348
ISSN 1522-4325
News

Trademarks/Infringement
Search Engine's Sale of Trademark Terms
As Keywords Ruled Commercial Use of Mark


Selling paid-search listings triggered to appear whenever a user queries the plaintiff's trademark is a "use in commerce" of the mark that may be infringing, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled July 17 (800-JR Cigar Inc. v. GoTo.com Inc., D.N.J., No. 00-3179, 7/17/06).
The court adopted the reasoning of Government Employees Insurance Co. v. Google Inc., 330 F. Supp. 2d 700, 73 USPQ2d 1212 (E.D. Va. 2004) (69 PTCJ 186, 12/24/04 ), for the proposition that keyword-based advertising amounts to a use in commerce of a trademark where the mark serves as an invisible trigger to display a competitor's ad. . . .

Sponsored Links

Scotch Tape
Compare Prices, Get Special Deals
& Savings. Shop at AOL® Shopping!
AOLShopping.com

Scotch Tape
Low Prices on Adhesives and Tape.
One Low Flat Shipping Rate - $3.95.
DiscountOfficeSupplies.com

Scotch Tape
Looking for Scotch Tape?
Find exactly what you want today.
www.eBay.com

3M Online Tape Selections
Tapes Specifications: 3M foam, VHB
Single & two sided tape adhesives
www.m-source.com

Buy Scotch Products
Great Selection - Get 5% back
Free shipping with minimum purchase
www.drugstore.com

Scotch Tape at Amazon.com
Low prices on scotch tape.
Qualified orders over $25 ship free
Amazon.com

Scotch Tape
Shop for Office Supplies!
Find, Compare and Buy
www.Shopping.com

All the Scotch Tape
All the Scotch Tape Savings
Find Local Scotch Tape Here!
Scotch.Tape.AlltheIndustrials.com

For the Man who has Everything

click here.

lap dance liner

Sociopath

copyright notice

Technical Tools School

link

A STOCK MARKET CRASH IN 2006?

Four Investment Safe Havens for the Ailing Market
by Dr. Mark Skousen
Chairman, Investment U
June 15, 2006
Originally published June 7, 2006
link

Watch out below! We could well be headed for a Ben Bernanke crash...

This coming crash could hit all sorts of financial assets - stocks, gold, commodities and real estate. In fact, it's already happening... And my recommendation last month to move to "cash" (earning 5%) and prime rate funds (8%) has proven good advice.

The summer of 2006 is eerily similar to 1987, Alan Greenspan's first year as Fed chairman. What happened in October 1987? The stock market fell 23% in a single day. I remember it well, October 19, 1987, my 40th birthday. Fortunately, I warned investors six weeks before to "sell everything," but few followed my advice.

The stock market collapsed in 1987 because the new chairman talked tough about inflation and raised interest rates. The Treasury secretary also said he supported a weaker dollar. It was not what the markets wanted to hear.

Once again, a new chairman has taken over, and on Monday, he gave a speech warning that his new Fed policy-makers would not tolerate current inflationary pressures. "We will be vigilant," he said. . . .

Subject: RESULTS - Newspaper advertisements?

Some recommended sources are:
NewsStand (very cool, and quite affordable)
https://www.newsstand.com/

Library PressDisplay (NewspaperDirect) via ProQuest


Google Image Search
(example result)

I was able to find the Friday-Sunday issues of 2005 of one newspaper I'm looking for in NewsStand, which is sure better than nothing. And $2.75 is a small price to save my eyes from the microfilm reader!

Thanks again to everyone who responded!
Emily
Emily G. Cunningham
Research Specialist

The Option Strategist Weekly Updater

July 14, 2006

To receive the complete commentary plus reccomendations visit here:
http://www.optionstrategist.com/offers/strategist.htm

Stock Market
The bulls had every opportunity to move the market higher over the past couple of weeks, but they were unable to do so. Even before today's global problems surfaced, the bulls were woefully lacking in ability to counteract the bearish trends. As a result, $SPX slipped back below support (1255) and NASDAQ made new lows. It now appears that the bears are in charge again, and it would take a whole new setup of buy signals to generate another rally. Perhaps $SPX will find support near 1240 again, as it did in the second half of June, but it's more likely that it will try to retest the June lows near 1220. We had expected such a retest to take place, although we thought it might be later this year. When a retest takes place, we look for divergences: are the technical indicators in better or worse shape than the first time the averages visited this level? That will be important, and it's something that we'll definitely be keeping an eye on. For example, from Figures 2 & 3, we can see where the put-call ratios were when $SPX bottomed out in June. Will they be higher if $SPX trades down there again? If they are, that's bearish, but if they're lower, that would be a bullish divergence.

Speaking of the equity-only put-call ratios, they have been on buy signals for 2-3 weeks, but they were mostly alone in that stance and hence nothing much ever got going on the upside. They may roll over and start moving higher again. If that happens, they would revert to sell signals. It's possible.

Market breadth has been poor all along, and nothing has occurred to change that. Breadth indicators are bearish at the current time.

Finally, the volatility indices ($VIX and $VXO) had been taking a rather benign view of this decline when it first started about a week ago. However, they are now moving sharply higher, which is bearish while it's ongoing. Eventually another spike peak in $VIX would be bullish, but it's too early to call for that yet.

In summary, $SPX is going to try to find support at 1240 and then 1220. If both give way, this could get very nasty. In the meantime, we will take a somewhat bearish outlook unless new buy signals set up something that doesn't necessarily happen overnight.

.